Several years ago, a national magazine assigned a photographer to take pictures of a forest fire. They told him a small plane would be waiting at the airport to fly him over the fire.
The photographer arrived at the airstrip just an hour before sundown. Sure enough, a small Cessna airplane stood waiting. He jumped in with his equipment and shouted, “Let's go!” The pilot, a tense-looking man, turned the plane into the wind, and soon they were in the air, though flying erratically.
“Fly over the north side of the fire,” said the photographer, “and make several low-level passes.”
“Why?” asked the nervous pilot.
“Because I’m going to take pictures!” yelled the photographer. “I'm a photographer, and photographers take pictures.”
The pilot replied, “You mean you’re not the flight instructor?” (Brett Kays, www.PreachingToday.com)
People in every relationship have expectations of others in that relationship. So, when a person fails to live up to those expectations, the relationship fails. The same is true in our relationship with God. We have expectations of Him, and He has expectations of us.
So, just what are those expectations? If you want a good relationship with God, what can you expect of Him and what does He expect of you? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Exodus 23, Exodus 23, where God lays out those expectations.
Exodus 23:20-22 “Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him. “But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries (ESV).
Under the Old Covenant, God conditioned His blessings on obedience. If you obey, “I will be an enemy to your enemies” (verse 22). But if you disobey, there is no pardon for your transgressions (verse 21).
Exodus 23:23-25 “When my angel goes before you and brings you to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I blot them out, you shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them, nor do as they do, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces. You shall serve the LORD your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from among you (ESV).
There it is again. “You shall serve the Lord your God and He will bless…” God conditions His blessing on obedience under the Old Covenant. If God’s people obey, God will protect them from their adversaries, provide bread and water, and heal their diseases. Furthermore, God says…
Exodus 23:26-31 None shall miscarry or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days. I will send my terror before you and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you. I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you. Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land. And I will set your border from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates, for I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you (ESV).
In response to their obedience, God promises to give them the Promised Land, to drive their enemies out little by little, and to expand their borders all the way to the Euphrates River. Then God warns His people…
Exodus 23:32-33 You shall make no covenant with them and their gods. They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you” (ESV).
God warns His people not to make any alliances with the enemy, not even to let them dwell in the land, and certainly not to serve their gods. God’s blessings were conditioned on the obedience of His people under this, the Old Covenant.
The problem is no one could obey the 613 commands in the Old Covenant. In fact, the history of the nation of Israel records one failure after another until they end up in exile in Babylon as God judges them for their idolatry and sin. Then, even after Israel returns from exile, they still have trouble keeping the terms of the Old Covenant, which invites further judgment. Under the Old Covenant, God conditioned His blessings on obedience, but since no one could obey, God instituted a New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Ezekiel 36:22-29).
Now, under the New Covenant, God blesses the believer unconditionally. Under the Old Covenant, God’s people committed themselves to the Lord, which motivated His commitment to them. In other words, their obedience brought God’s blessing. Now, under the New Covenant, God commits Himself to His people unconditionally, which motivates their commitment to Him. In other words, God’s blessing brings their obedience.
This is the good news of the Gospel! Christ died for your sins and rose again. And because Jesus paid the penalty for all your sins on the cross, God replaces your many sins with Christ’s righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21), and He blesses you “in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:3). All you have to do is put your faith in Christ. Just trust Christ with your life, and God will bless you unconditionally. Dear believer, please, let this truth grip your heart.
GOD IS COMMITTED TO YOU!
Our Lord is loyally devoted to you without conditions. In fact, there is nothing you do that can ever separate you from His love (Romans 8:31-39).
When I married Sandy, my commitment to her was unconditional. There were no qualifiers or disclaimers. I promised to love Sandy for better or worse until death, regardless of her actions or attitude.
Likewise, Sandy promised to have me for richer or poorer, in sickness and health, for life, regardless of how well or poorly I behaved.
No doubt, we both assumed we’d reciprocate in our love for each other. However, our vows said nothing about being loved back. By our words, each of us assumed 100 percent responsibility for the marriage. That’s the nature of the covenant. Each party makes an irrevocable vow (Adapted from Al Janssen, The Marriage Masterpiece; www.PreachingToday.com).
And that’s exactly what God has done for all of you who believe in His Son. He makes an irrevocable vow to love you for better or worse, for all eternity, regardless of your actions or attitude. He makes an irrevocable vow to protect you from your adversary, the devil (Ephesians 6:10-18; 1 Peter 5:8-10), to provide for you according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19), and to heal all your diseases, if not in this life, then certainly in the next (1 Corinthians 15:53-57, Revelation 21:4; 22:2). He makes an irrevocable vow to give you eternal life in the New Jerusalem (John 3:16; 5:24; Revelation 21).
Dear believer, please, let this truth grip your heart: God is committed to you no matter what happens. So…
COMMIT YOURSELF TO GOD.
Give yourself totally and completely to the Lord, without conditions, just like He has given Himself to you. Loyally devote yourself to Him, not to earn His blessing, but because He has already blessed you. That’s what Israel did. Only they did it to earn God’s blessing.
Exodus 24:3-8 Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the LORD has spoken we will do.” And Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. And he sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the LORD. And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words” (ESV).
God made a blood covenant with His people, the most binding of all covenants. He promised to bless them if they obey Him, and that’s what they promised to do. They said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do” (Exodus 24:3, 7). Israel committed themselves to the Lord to earn His blessing.
How much more should we commit ourselves to the Lord, because He has already blessed us.
Romans 12:1 says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service” (NKJV)—or more literally, your logical service.
When God has loved you so much, it is only logical, it is only reasonable to give yourself wholly and completely to Him.
There is an old Christian folk story from South India, which tells of a young boy who loved to play marbles. He regularly walked through his neighborhood with a pocketful of his best marbles, hoping to find opponents to play against. One marble in particular, his special blue marble, had won him many matches.
During one walk he met a young girl who was eating a bag of chocolate candy. Though the boy's first love was marbles, he had a weakness for chocolates. As he stood there talking to the young girl, his salivary glands and the rumbling in his stomach became uncontrollable, and he thought to himself, “I have got to get my hands on those chocolates.”
Concocting a plan, he asked the girl, “How about I give you all these marbles for those chocolates?”
She replied, “Sounds fair to me.”
He put his hand in his pocket, searching for the distinguishing cracks on the surface of the blue marble. Once he identified the blue marble with his fingertip, he carefully pushed it to the bottom of his pocket and pulled out all the other marbles.
As he handed the marbles to the girl in exchange for the chocolate, the boy thought his plan was a success and turned to walk away. As he began to eat the candy, he suddenly turned to the girl and asked, “Hey, did you give me all the chocolates?” (Christopher L. Heuertz, Simple Spirituality, IVP, 2008, pp. 116-117; Samuel T. Kamaleson, “Mangoes and Marbles,” Decision magazine, January 1978; www.PreachingToday.com).
Because he held back on her, he thought she had held back on him.
Sad to say, many believers think God has held back on them. “Hey God, did you give me all the blessings?” they wonder. So they hold back on God. Please, believe that God has held nothing back from you. He gave you His only Son (John 3:16), and He has blessed you with every spiritual blessing (Eph. 1:3).
There is nothing more He can give, so don’t hold back on God! Give your all to Him, because He has given His all to you. Give Him your career, your relationships, even your free time. As Romans 12:1 says, “Present your bodies… to God.”
Jonathan Roumie is the actor who plays Jesus in the popular series The Chosen, which is based on the Gospels. Before landing the role of Jesus, Roumie had surrendered everything but his acting career to God. He had been living in Los Angeles for eight years, and he was nearly broke. Roumie said:
“There was this one day during May of 2018. I woke up. It was a Saturday morning, and I was 100 dollars in overdraft. I had 20 dollars in my pocket. I had enough food to last a day. I had no checks in sight. I had no work in sight. I had maxed out my credit cards. I literally didn’t know how I was going to exist.”
He kneeled and poured out his heart to God, asking him, “What happened?” He had been under the impression that God helps those who help themselves—he later realized that the Lord helps those who rely on him.
For years, my prayer was, “If there’s something else I should be doing, please show me what it is, because this is really hard,” I literally said the words “I surrender. I surrender.” I realized in that moment that in many other areas in my life, I had allowed God in. But when it came to my career, I thought, “I know better. I got this God, I’m the actor here. Don’t worry—it’s Hollywood; I know Hollywood, God.”
Roumie left his apartment and went for a walk to collect himself, buying a breakfast sandwich with the money he had left. Later that day, he found four checks in the mail. Three months later, Dallas Jenkins, the writer/director of The Chosen, called and offered him the role of Jesus (Kelsey Marie Bowse, “Jonathan Roumie: I First Portrayed Jesus in My Long Island Backyard,” Ekstasis Magazine, 12-21; www.PreachingToday.com).
Give up the idea that God helps those who help themselves. That’s Old Covenant thinking. Instead, just rely on the Lord, who blesses you unconditionally. You see, those checks were already in the mail when Roumie surrendered to God. As a believer, God is fully and completely committed to you. Therefore, commit yourself fully and completely to Him. Then commit yourself to those things He cares about.
The Book of the Covenant in Exodus 21 to 23 contains a lot of specific rules and regulations. Now, I don’t want to bore you with the details, but I do want to point out the themes in these chapters that reflect the heart of God. And one of those themes is justice. So, in your commitment to God…
COMMIT YOURSELF ALSO TO JUSTICE.
Give yourself to pursuing what’s right. Devote yourself to the fair and equitable application of the law to everyone, rich or poor, black or white, enemy or friend. Look at Exodus 21:22.
Exodus 21:22-25 “When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman’s husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe (ESV).
This prevents arbitrary punishment, which can be excessive. Rather, the punishment should fit the harm done to the victim. If a man takes the life of another (in this context, “a pregnant woman” or her unborn child), then he forfeits his life. If he knocks out a tooth, he forfeits a tooth. If he wounds another, then the authorities should wound him in the same way.
Notice, the offender “shall pay as the judges determine” (verse 22). So, God is not prescribing personal revenge here. He is prescribing an equitable application of the law, administered by the governing authorities.
Chapter 22 prescribes punishments for stealing an ox, rules for lending and borrowing, and various other regulations, all pointing to a fair and equitable application of the law. Exodus 23:1-3 forbids bearing false witness in a court of law so as to “pervert justice,” favoring either the rich or the poor. Exodus 23:6 says, “You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in his lawsuit.” Exodus 23:9 says, “You shall not oppress a sojourner,” i.e., a foreigner, one not native to your country. You shall treat everyone equally regardless of who they are, rich or poor, citizen or foreigner, enemy or friend. Look at Exodus 23:4
Exodus 23:4-5 “If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall bring it back to him. If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying down under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it; you shall rescue it with him (ESV).
I like what Maxie Dunnam, former president of Asbury Seminary, says about these verses:
“Put yourself in that picture. You are a pious Israelite, one who is trying to follow the way of God. You’re walking down the trail, and you meet an ox, and you discover it’s the ox of a man who has done you wrong. He has brought injury to you. It hits you strongly that your responsibility now is to lead that ox back to the homestead of the owner. You grit your teeth and do that, because it’s the law. As you begin to lead that ox back to its owner, you meet the owner coming in search for him. You’re forced to confront your enemy, and you confront him in the context of doing something good for him.
“The picture can be etched even more clearly than that. You’re walking along a path, and you come upon Eli. Eli is your enemy, a person who hates you, and for whom you have little respect. Eli’s donkey has fallen down under the burden of his load and cannot get up. Eli is struggling to help the donkey to his feet, and you remember the law. You can’t pass them by, saying some derisive word, or reminding Eli of what he’s done to you, how he hates you and how you hate him. The law commands you to stop and help that enemy lift his beast of burden and get him going” (Maxie Dunnam, The Communicators Commentary: Exodus, p.268).
You treat your enemy the same as you would treat your friend. That’s justice, applying the law fairly and equitably to friend or foe.
The WNBA has grown in popularity since Caitlin Clark started playing with the Indiana Fever team in May 2024. However, there is another star, former Minnesota Lynx forward Maya Moore, who has experienced triumph both on and off the court. She won gold on the U.S. Olympic team in 2008 and was recently (2024) named to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. Additionally, she also helped free an innocent man from prison.
The Jefferson City Correctional Facility released Jonathan Irons on Wednesday July 1st, 2020. Irons had served 20 years of a 50-year prison term for burglary and assault charges that he maintains he did not commit. According to his attorneys, there were no corroborating witnesses, fingerprints, DNA, or blood evidence connecting Irons to the crime. As a result, Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green overturned Irons’ sentence. He concluded that prosecutors had suppressed exculpatory evidence that might’ve resulted in his acquittal.
Maya Moore, a Jefferson City native, was instrumental in helping to bring attention to Irons’ case. The two met back in 2007 through some mutual friends and family, and over the years, stayed in contact with one another. Then in 2019, Moore shocked the sports world by putting her basketball career on hold to focus on Christian ministry. One of her ministry goals? To advocate for Irons.
Moore said during an interview on Good Morning America, “People don’t want to watch a fixed game, they want to watch a fair game. That’s all we’re asking for; in our justice system, let’s be fair” (JR Ventura, “Lynx Forward Maya Moor Helps Free Jonathan Irons from Jail,” International Business Times, 7-2-20; www.PreachingToday.com).
Moore used her privilege and platform to advocate for justice when it came to an unjustly convicted, innocent man. She even sacrificed her basketball career! That’s because she is a follower of Christ, who also sacrificed His divine privilege to live, work, and ultimately die for you and me.
God is thoroughly and completely committed to you, so commit yourself to Him. Commit yourself to justice, which is near and dear to His heart. And…
COMMIT YOURSELF TO COMPASSION.
Give yourself to loving your neighbor as yourself. Devote yourself showing kindness especially to those who are less fortunate than you.
Exodus 21 opens with regulations regarding the treatment of slaves. Now, we abhor slavery today, and rightfully so, but you have to realize that slavery was the primary economic model across many civilizations for thousands of years. However, in a culture and society that didn’t know any better, God mandates the humane treatment of slaves. He limits the time of their servitude to six years (Exodus 21:2). And He provides special requirements for a female slave, even mandating that the slaveowner treat her as a daughter (Exodus 21:7-11).
God loves the slave, and He loves the poor and needy. Look at Exodus 22:21.
Exodus 22:21-24 “You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless (ESV).
“You mess with the widow or orphan, and I’ll mess with you,” God says.
Exodus 22:25-27 “If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a moneylender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him. If ever you take your neighbor’s cloak in pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down, for that is his only covering, and it is his cloak for his body; in what else shall he sleep? And if he cries to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate (ESV).
God loves the poor, so treat them with compassion as He does. He hears their cry, and He will deal with their oppressors. You can see God’s love for the poor throughout the Old Covenant, which is echoed in the New Covenant, as well. Jesus said, “But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind” (Luke 14:13). James 1:27 says, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction…” And James 2 condemns giving special treatment to the rich over the poor, declaring, “God has chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom” (James 2:5). If you’re committed to God, you’ll be committed to the poor.
Historian Rodney Stark, in his book The Triumph of Christianity, says that Christianity’s revolutionary emphasis on mercy changed the world. Stark writes:
In the midst of the squalor, misery, illness, and anonymity of ancient cities, Christianity provided an island of mercy and security…
In contrast, in the pagan world, and especially among the philosophers, mercy was regarded as a character defect and pity as a pathological emotion: because mercy involves providing unearned help or relief, it is contrary to justice… [Thus] humans must learn “to curb the impulse [to show mercy]’; “the cry of the undeserving for mercy” must go “unanswered.” “[Showing mercy] was a defect of character unworthy of the wise and excusable only in those who have not yet grown up.”
This was the moral climate in which Christianity taught that… a merciful God requires humans to be merciful (Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity, HarperOne, 2012, page 112; www.PreachingToday.com).
Under the Old Covenant, showing mercy brought God’s mercy. Under the New Covenant, God’s mercy motivates showing mercy.
Maxie Dunnam talks about meeting Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who said:
“If you’re preoccupied with people who are talking about the poor, you scarcely have time to talk to the poor. Some people talk about hunger, but they don’t come and say, ‘Mother, here is five rupees; buy food for those people.’ But they can give a most beautiful lecture on hunger.”
She said, “I had the most extraordinary experience once in Bombay. There was a big conference about hunger. I was supposed to go to that meeting, and I lost the way. Suddenly I came to that place; and where hundreds of people were talking about food and hunger, I found a dying man.
“I took him out and I took him home. He died there. He died of hunger.
“And the people inside were talking about how in fifteen years we’d have so much food, so much this, so much that, and that man died” (Maxie Dunnam, The Communicators Commentary: Exodus, p.270).
There is a big difference between talking and doing, between talking about compassion and actually putting that compassion to work. So don’t be content just to talk about compassion. Show compassion to someone in need this week. Do it, because God has already showed you His compassion.
God is thoroughly and completely committed to you, so commit yourself to Him, commit yourself to justice, and commit yourself to compassion.
The prophet Micah sums it up well when he says, “[God] has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8).
