Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 310 · November 6
Before the Commands
“I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”
A mountain with smoke going up off the top of it, and a whole nation standing back at the foot, warned not to touch the edge.
The first sentence out of that fire is not a command. I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. A name, and a thing already finished. Everything anyone calls the law follows a rescue that was over before it was read out, and Deuteronomy ties the sabbath to the same fact: remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence.
You brought us out first. We keep the order the wrong way round, God, and we work like people who still live at the old address with the rent due weekly. Say the first sentence over us before you say any of the others. We learned the ten and forgot the name standing in front of them.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 310 is Healed by His Stripes (1 Peter 2:24).