Passage: Exodus 34:17-28
The Big Idea
God told Moses at the burning bush that the people would “serve God on this mountain” (Exodus 3:12). Now, after their sin has been dealt with by grace, God lists what that service looks like. Surprisingly, it’s mostly feasts, rest, gathering and giving thanks. Serving God isn’t a job; it’s an abiding relationship with Jesus.
Seven Things God Claims
In this passage God claims seven things from His people. At first they seem disconnected. What do they have in common?
Remember, the people’s sin has been dealt with by grace. They’ve been adopted, even married, into God’s family. Now God describes the life He wants His family to live: what it looks like to serve and honor Him.
Serving God doesn’t save you or improve your standing. But it honors Him by reflecting His image into the world. It shows people how beautiful, loving and amazing He is. And it lets us take part in His plan to bring the world back into fellowship with Him.
Why Serve God?
He loves you. He saved you with the blood of His Son. All your sin and rebellion is washed away. So He invites us to spread that message of grace and mercy, to go into the world and invite others in.
Jesus said all authority has been given to Him, so we go and make disciples of all nations, and He is with us always (Matthew 28:18-20). We are ambassadors for Christ, pleading with people to be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:20-21).
What if we don’t?
Jesus told of a nobleman who gave his servants money and told them to put it to work until he returned. Some citizens hated him and refused to have him rule over them. When he returned, two servants had multiplied what he gave them, and he rewarded them. A third had hidden it in a handkerchief, saying he was afraid because the master was harsh. The master judged him by his own words (Luke 19:11-27).
“Do business till I come” means serve God.
If you don’t want God to rule over you at all, that’s a sign of a serious heart problem. Has the heart really been made new?
And look at the third servant’s thinking. He believed his master was harsh and that everything depended on himself. He didn’t trust his master’s character. He didn’t understand grace, so his life was fruitless.
Serving God isn’t how we earn salvation. It’s the natural result of being saved by grace and empowered by grace.
What Serving God Looks Like (Exodus 34:17-26)
When I first started serving God, I thought, “What should I do to add to what Jesus did and make the world better?” Maybe God will give us a to-do list of good deeds. Let’s see.
No molten idols (Exodus 34:17). That’s the foundation. Then:
1. The Feast of Unleavened Bread: remember and celebrate
Keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, remembering the month they came out of Egypt (Exodus 34:18).
The first service God expects is a feast! Redemption isn’t just about forgiveness and freedom. It’s about drawing near to God with joy.
The first lesson about serving God: relationship comes first. One of the greatest ways to serve God is to celebrate a feast in His honor, in His presence. He’s looking for family more than workers.
This feast follows Passover, when Israel was redeemed by the blood of a lamb. Unleavened bread pictures purity, which is what we “eat” when we trust in the blood of the Lamb. Christ our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed, and so we really are unleavened (1 Corinthians 5:7).
Every day can be a celebration that God provided our salvation. Give thanks every morning, amazed at His grace.
Serving God, part 1: Remember and celebrate Jesus and His new life in you, leaving behind the old self that died on the cross.
2. The firstborn: surrender control
Every firstborn belongs to God. Every firstborn son was to be redeemed, and no one was to appear before God empty-handed (Exodus 34:19-20).
The firstborn represented a family’s hope, strength and future. God claims all of it. Everything we might put our hope in belongs to Him.
Nothing you have is really yours. We’re stewards of what God has entrusted to us. He gave you your resources. He gave you your children and relationships. So He decides what’s done with your life.
You can’t hold things back from His control and expect it to help you. Will you save your kids by being super controlling? No. Salvation is from God. We surrender in faith.
Serving God, part 2: Surrender control. Hope only in God and trust His direction.
Redeeming the donkey
A firstborn donkey had to be redeemed with a lamb. If it wasn’t redeemed, its neck was to be broken (Exodus 34:20).
I love this. God associates His people with donkeys! It keeps us humble. Donkeys are famous for being stubborn, turning their own way and refusing to submit. They were ceremonially unclean. And they’re not exactly known for their spiritual insight.
The fact that God provided a lamb to redeem a donkey should produce major thanksgiving in my heart, because I’m a huge donkey.
(What do you call a donkey with one leg? A wonky donkey.)
3. The Sabbath: rest
Work six days, but rest on the seventh, even during plowing and harvest (Exodus 34:21).
You serve God by resting in His faithfulness.
You might think getting things done for God matters more, especially at plowing and harvest time. But God says it’s more important to stop working and trust His finished work.
Serving God, part 3: Never stop resting in the completed work of Jesus.
Horatius Bonar wrote:
Nothing, either great or small,
Nothing, sinner, no;
Jesus did it, did it all,
Long, long ago.Cast your deadly “doing” down,
Down at Jesus’ feet;
Stand in Him, in Him alone,
Gloriously complete.
4 and 5. The Feasts of Weeks and Ingathering: gather with God’s people
They were to keep the Feast of Weeks with the first wheat harvest and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year. Three times a year all the men were to appear before the Lord God of Israel (Exodus 34:22-24).
God wanted His people to gather together before Him regularly. And He promised that while they did, no one would take their land.
Serving God, parts 4 and 5: Keep your relationship with God, together with His people, a top priority.
“I don’t really want to go to church.” Then you’ll miss so much of how God wants to bless and grow you. The church is His body. There’s healing and strength as the body ministers to itself in love (Ephesians 4:16). It’s about God, not about whether you like everyone there. We weren’t created to live in isolation. We need each other.
6. Pure sacrifices: stay pure
No leaven with the blood of the sacrifice, and nothing from the Passover sacrifice left until morning (Exodus 34:25).
Leaven often pictures sin. A servant of God doesn’t mix his worship with sin. Purity honors God.
7. Firstfruits: give thanks
Bring the very first and best of the firstfruits to the house of the Lord (Exodus 34:26).
Give thanks for every bit of fruit and victory God gives. Remember that your life is for His kingdom, not yours.
What They Have in Common
Look at the list again:
- Remember
- Surrender
- Rest
- Gather in relationship
- Stay pure
- Give thanks
Serving God isn’t about being a missionary, a pastor, a soup kitchen volunteer, a mom or a dad. But in all those things, we can serve God. Serving God is about the heart, and about Jesus. Always. Through Jesus is the only way to serve God:
- Remember Jesus.
- Surrender to Jesus.
- Rest in Jesus.
- Walk in relationship with Jesus.
- Stay pure in Jesus.
- Give thanks to Jesus.
I can do a lot of things that will never matter in God’s economy. Or I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13).
It’s never about accomplishing tasks first. It’s always about Jesus. When it stops being about Him, the task stops mattering. You can give your money to good causes, even give your body to be burned, but without love it’s worthless (1 Corinthians 13:3). Good works are only good when they flow from the fountain of God’s love for you in Jesus.
Grace Takeaway
Serving God isn’t a mystery, and it isn’t a job. It’s an abiding relationship with Jesus: receiving His love and responding with humility and faith. Start with a feast, rest in His finished work, gather with His family, and let thanksgiving fill your days.
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