Then the Lord said to Moses, "Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel." Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments. (Exodus 34:27-28)  Covenant and Law have much to do with the journey of the people through the desert and beyond. God's covenant and law gave both a relational and ethical shape to their life. But it took all 40 of those years to learn to live into these new life shapes. The law was given and sealed by covenant promises in Exodus 19-31 where both God and the people made promises to each other. The people break their end of the covenant almost immediately with a golden calf. So, after some hard conversations, punishment, and mediation, God forgives His people and makes new promises to them. In chapter 34, the covenant is renewed and Moses hikes up the mountain again to get a new set of law tablets. But there's one significant difference. This time, the covenant is based solely on God's promises, not the people's obedience. Already here in Exodus, God knew the people needed the gift of a relationship that didn't rest on their own flaky obedience. And so instead, God rests the relationship solely on the secure foundation of His everlasting love and faithfulness. Covenant is about relationship and through Exodus and beyond, so is the law. The law is given not as a codified set of statutes, but as part of the living narrative and history of the people with God. The law is given as a means of living together well with a holy God and as a community of His people: a way of keeping right relationship with one another and restoring that relationship when it breaks down. The Covenant gave a safe container for learning to live ethically in relationship with God and one another. Because of the covenant promises of God—the people could trust that despite their failures, God's presence would remain. That was important because they would fail a lot.  Yet God continued to journey with them, lead them, love them, and teach them. In the desert through 40 years of repetition, the people learned to live into the relational and ethical shape of the life God called them too. They had lots of practice. What else could they do in the desert but keep the rhythms of God's law? Today, we call this repetitive practice of obedience discipleship.  It is Learning to live into the relational and ethical shape of the life Jesus calls us to: the relationship He has established; the great commandment/great commission calling He has given. How might you join this journey of discipleship more deeply? How might the Spirit already be shaping a relationally and ethically Jesus-shaped life within you? How and with whom might you enter more fully into the repetitive practices of confession and forgiveness, love and mercy?   

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