SCRIPTURE: Exodus 23
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!’ [Matthew 17:5]
Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promise to send His angel along the way and to bring His people to the place He has prepared.
He is cloud that goes ahead of them, the cloud that protects them from the Egyptians [Exodus 13:21-22, 14:19-20].

The Son of God, or the Word of God, the pre-incarnate Christ, the second person of the trinity, was with Israel in the wilderness [1 Corinthians 5:1-10].
When we speak about Jesus, we are speaking about the incarnation of the eternal Son of God.
Jesus is the ultimate revelation of God to us, the fullness of God in a body.
When we see and hear Jesus, we are seeing God made visible, to help us in our spiritual blindness.

We need to listen to Jesus above all.
He was revealed in shadowy ways prior to His birth.
The laws and the words or the prophets were veiled and limited glimpses into what would made most clear in Jesus.
There are hints in these laws of Moses, but they are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. [Colossians 2:17].

This is why I personally place the gospels at the center of my bible-reading.
Hearing, seeing (with my imagination) Jesus, I see and hear God.
He is the One that God tells me to listen to, above all else. I use His words and His actions to help me understand the rest of the bible (the old testament as well as the new testament).
This is why I have a gospel reading at the beginning of each daily reflection.
If there is an apparent conflict between the two, I lean towards the gospels to make my final interpretation.

When I read Exodus 23, I read it through the lens of Jesus.
The laws of justice and mercy, the Sabbath laws, the annual festivals and the angel leading them – all these become most clear in Jesus.
There are still fuzzy details in these old testament passages, but I try not to get bogged down in technical interpretations – these promote controversies rather than God’s work – which is by faith [1 Timothy 1:4].
So in the end, I echo God’s message in both passages: Listen to Him, to Jesus! [Exodus 23:21, Matthew 17:5].

PRAYER:
Lord, help me to keep my focus on You, and to keep Your words and Your example ever before me, to lead me to the life You have prepared for me.