Wonder Bread

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Wonder Bread

Often, in order to confirm how thoroughly he knows our situation, God provides exactly what we need. In their book Common Sense Parenting, Kent and Barbara Hughes describe how God provided for their family when their first child was born. At the time Kent was a full-time college student and a full-time factory worker. Times were tight. As Barbara’s due date approached, the Hughes’s calculated that they would have only 160 dollars to pay their medical bills. Unfortunately, the doctor’s fee was 250 dollars, and the hospital bill was another 250 dollars. All they could do was pray. Then, during Barbara’s last checkup, the doctor happened to notice that Kent was planning to go to seminary. Although he was not a churchgoing man, the doctor casually observed that deliveries for clergy were free of charge. This took care of half the bill, but the other half still had to be paid. On the day Barbara and her new baby girl were released from the hospital, Kent walked up to the cashier with only 163 dollars in his pocket. When the cashier handed him the bill, he was shocked. Since Barbara had been admitted in the middle of the night, the hospital had knocked one full day off their charges. The total came to 160 dollars. It only took Kent a few moments to realize what the extra three dollars were for: God had provided just enough money for him to buy Barbara some flowers!

Who is here this morning that God has provided for in some way? He provided just what you needed just when you needed it? This is what God was trying to teach the Israelites. He brought them out of slavery in Egypt. He provided a way through the Red Sea. He provided water when they were thirsty and quail and manna when they were hungry. In fact, in our narrative, God is still providing daily manna for them and will until they enter the Promised Land. God provided them with victory in battle and he provided His presence in the cloud by day and the fire by night. And in the Tabernacle, God will provide His presence in a close and personal way. His presence will dwell among the Israelites, in the center of the covenant community, in the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle, between the cherubim that rest on the top on the ark of the covenant.

This morning, we will learn about the next item of furniture that will go into the Tabernacle. It is called the Table of the Presence. The Lord will instruct Moses about the table and what is to be always kept on it. These items will continue to symbolize how much the God of the universe loves and cares about them, they can always trust the Lord’s presence to be with them in all they do and that they can always trust that he will provide for them as he sustains them and blesses their harvests. These items will also teach them a deeper lesson; the lesson that all they truly need is Him. The table and what is to be kept on it will symbolize that their deepest need is constant fellowship and communion with God.

It’s exciting and honestly a little humbling to realize that the God of the universe loves and cares about us so much that we can trust his presence to always be with us, that he knows exactly what we need and that we can trust him to provide it for us. He uses our times of need to continually teach us and remind us of these things. As he takes care of us over and over again, he is teaching us that we can always trust in Him to provide for us. And by giving us our daily bread or meeting our daily needs, He is teaching us a deeper lesson that he is all we really need. Yes, we need daily provision of the basic necessities of life, but our deepest need is for God himself. Our deepest need is to be in constant communion and fellowship with the Lord. That brings us to our big idea this morning that God desires to provide for His people and to be in full communion and fellowship with them.

Let’s pray: Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for another day to come together with other believers in your house. Thank you for the freedom we have to worship you in this place. You are an awesome God, and I ask that your Holy Spirit fill each heart and mind this morning and that we would be open to what you want us to hear and obey. Psalm 119:103 says, “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” Lord, let us devour your Word today as sweet tasting honey. May we hunger and thirst for righteousness. Would you give us an urgency in our relationship with you? For your honor and glory, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

There are two points this morning. The first point is Pattern found in Exodus 25:23-29. Follow along as I read. This is what God’s Word says, “Make a table of acacia wood—two cubits long, a cubit wide and a cubit and a half high. Overlay it with pure gold and make a gold molding around it. Also make around it a rim a handbreadth wide and put a gold molding on the rim. Make four gold rings for the table and fasten them to the four corners, where the four legs are. The rings are to be close to the rim to hold the poles used in carrying the table. Make the poles of acacia wood, overlay them with gold and carry the table with them. And make its plates and dishes of pure gold, as well as its pitchers and bowls for the pouring out of offerings.”

We have been talking about the Tabernacle (picture). Last week we saw that God showed Moses a pattern for the most important item of furniture in the Tabernacle, the ark of the covenant that resided in the Holy of Holies (picture). The Holy of Holies is on the left. The ark (picture) was a box made from acacia wood and covered in pure gold that would hold the Ten Commandments, the commemorative jar of manna, and Aaron’s budded staff. And on top of the ark was the atonement cover which was made from pure gold. Two cherubim were hammered out of the single piece of gold, and when the Lord came down to meet with Moses, he would do so above the cherubim. As I said last week, the Tabernacle was to reveal the realities of heaven, and the ark of the covenant was the symbol of the throne of God on earth. It was the only item of furniture in the Holy of Holies, and it symbolized the power and the presence of the Lord among His people.

As we open our scriptures this morning, Moses is still on Mt. Sinai with the Lord. And the Lord continues his instructions of the Tabernacle by giving Moses the pattern for the next most important item of furniture. We have moved out of the Holy of Holies into the next chamber, the Holy Place (picture). The Holy Place is on the right. There will be three items of furniture in this chamber. The first is called the Table of the Presence (picture). It is also called “the table of pure gold” or “the ceremonially clean table” or “the golden table on which was the Bread of Presence.” The table is to be made from acacia wood like the ark. It is to be two cubits long, a cubit wide and a cubit and a half high. Last week I used the royal cubit which was well known in Egypt and equaled 20.6 inches. This would make the dimensions of the table about three feet four inches long, one foot eight inches wide and about two and a half feet high. It would have been about the size of a coffee table. The ark and the table would have been the same height, and, like the ark, the table was to be overlaid with pure gold. There was also to be gold molding around the table which may have kept items from falling off it. There was also to be a rim or frame around the table about a “handbreadth” or about four inches wide with gold molding on it. The rim or frame would have also been made with acacia wood and covered with gold and would have made the table sturdier. We don’t know where the rim was located on the table exactly, in fact, the pictures of what people believe the table looked like varies widely.

Like the ark, the table was also to be portable. Four gold rings were to be made for the table and fastened to the four corners where the four legs were. We are also told that the rings were to be close to the rim and would hold the poles used to carry the table. So, if the rim was placed around the middle of the legs the rings would have been either right above or right below the rim. Like the ark, poles of acacia wood overlaid with gold were to be made to carry the table. Like the ark, the table was a holy object. The poles would be used to make sure there was no human contact with it. Now we aren’t told that these poles had to stay attached to the table at all times like with the ark, so it seems that it was not a requirement.

Next, we are told about four different items that were to be made to go with the table. These items were plates, dishes, pitchers and bowls. They were to be made from pure gold as well. The plates were probably used to hold the items that were to be on the table. The dishes were probably used to hold the pure incense used as food offerings as we see in Leviticus 24. The pitchers and the bowls were to be used for pouring out offerings, presumably “drink offerings.” These items were not only symbolic but would be used in worship by the priests and the worshippers. When we stop and think about what the Lord is doing here, we notice that he is setting up a dining room, so to speak, in His presence, with a table, plates, dishes, pitchers and bowls. This symbolized the Lord’s desire to be in fellowship and communion with His people (Big Idea). The tabernacle was his house, and his house or tent would dwell in the center of all the other tents in the covenant community, like a neighborhood. They would be invited to the Lord’s house, some further in than others, and every item in his house would symbolize the Lord’s desire to be in a personal relationship with them. Think about it, where do we spend a lot of time in fellowship and relationship with each other – around the table, whether in our own home or at a restaurant or at a church meal together. Back in Exodus 24, we saw that God sat down to a covenant meal with the leaders and elders of Israel. Every time the priests went into the Holy Place and saw the table and its furnishings, it would remind them of God’s covenant made with them, and they would then remind the people of the covenant they had made with the Lord. It was a picture of continual communion and fellowship with God.

That brings us to our second point, Provision, found in Exodus 25:30. This is what God’s Word says, “Put the bread of the Presence on this table to be before me at all times.”

Now we come to what the table was to be used for. It was where the bread of the Presence would be placed. The bread of the Presence would reside in the Holy Place, before the Lord always. We don’t get a lot of information from this verse, so we need to look at Leviticus 24:5-9, which says, “Then you shall take fine flour and bake twelve cakes with it; two-tenths of an ephah shall be in each cake. And you shall set them in two rows, six to a row, on the pure gold table before the Lord. You shall put pure frankincense on each row so that it may be a memorial portion for the bread, an offering by fire to the Lord. Every Sabbath day he shall set it in order before the Lord continually; it is an everlasting covenant for the sons of Israel. And it shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place; for it is most holy to him from the Lord’s offerings by fire, his portion forever.”

According to Leviticus, twelve cakes of bread were to be made and put on the pure gold table before the Lord. The purity that is talked about is not only the purity of the gold but the ritual purity of the table as it was holy. The bread was probably unleavened and set in two rows, six cakes to each row. It is estimated that each bread cake was 12 inches in diameter and four inches thick. Pure frankincense was to be put by each row as a memorial portion which would represent the bread as a food offering to the Lord. The frankincense would be burnt up on the altar as an offering to God. Every Sabbath day fresh bread would be made to replace the old bread. There was never to be a time where twelve bread cakes were not set before the Lord. The bread was a continual offering to the Lord representing their obedience to the covenant and His intercession for them. It also represented their endless adoration and appreciation for His provision for them.

The bread was not food for God. It was a symbol of His presence with His people, that He was their provider, that atonement had been made for them and that He wanted to be in fellowship and communion with them. The bread showed His providential care for the Israelites in that God provided exactly what He had promised. And God’s total provision for their need would culminate in His son Jesus Christ coming to the earth to dwell among them. The Tabernacle, the ark and the table foreshadowed the incarnation of Jesus that we are celebrating right now.

This was an everlasting covenant for the sons of Israel just like the Sabbath day was. The Sabbath was a gift of rest from God for God’s people. He knew what they needed, and he provided it. These twelve cakes of bread were symbolic of the gift of God’s continual presence, providence and provision from God for God’s people. This providence and provision would be seen in the harvest times each year and celebrated with the different festivals. The old bread was to be eaten by the priests, Aaron and his sons. And had to be eaten in the Tabernacle because the bread was a most holy part of their share of food offerings presented to the Lord. Aaron and his sons represented the twelve tribes of Israel, and their eating of the bread represented God had provided for them.

The table and the presentation of the bread of the Presence was an acknowledgement of all that God had provided to them, especially the daily supply of manna. Psalms 111:5 says, “He (God) provides food for those who fear him; he remembers his covenant forever.” And it reminds us of the Lord’s prayer found in Matthew 6:11 which says, “Give us this day our daily bread.” God knew what they needed exactly when they needed it, and he provided it daily and providentially for them. He provided for every aspect of their lives, and he does the same for us today. He knows what we need exactly when we need it, and he provides for us daily and providentially as His loving gift to us. We can trust in the Lord to provide for us physically, emotionally and spiritually (Big Idea). Let us be people who trust in the Lord to provide for us in all ways. That brings us to our first next step on the back of your communication card which is to Trust the Lord to provide for me in all the ways I need.

Physical bread is only one aspect of what the Lord provides us. The bread of the Presence was also a symbol of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. God was preparing His chosen people for His son who would come to earth to be the Bread of Life. We need physical bread but what we desperately need even more is Jesus. John 6:32–33, 35 says, “Jesus said to them, ‘I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.… I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.’” We need to realize and understand that we need more than just the physical things that Jesus provides for us. We need the spiritual things that only Jesus can provide. Jesus is the only one who can forgive our sins. Jesus is the only who can satisfy our souls. Jesus is the only one who can bring us into a relationship with God. And Jesus is the only one who can give us eternal life.

If we don’t know Jesus, we need Jesus. If we do know Jesus, we need more of Him. The table and the bread are a symbol of our fellowship and communion with Jesus Christ. Let us be people who realize and understand that if we don’t know Jesus, we must first make a decision to know Him, to accept Him as our Lord and Savior. If the Holy Spirit is speaking to you this morning about “knowing” Jesus, please mark the upper right section on the back of your communication card where it says, “send me more info about becoming a follower of Jesus.” And I will be in contact with you.

For those who already have accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior, let us be people who realize and understand that we need more of Jesus daily. We can’t take a day or a week off from being in communion and fellowship with Him. We need more and more of Him and so we must continually feed on the Bread of Life. In fact, as I was reminded this past week, that we do need more of Jesus but also Jesus wants all of us. Jesus wants our whole life and that comes down to being totally surrendered to Him. The question for each of us is are we totally surrendered to Jesus? Is Jesus the center of our lives? Do we go to Him for the answers we need, or do we go to someone or something else? Surrender is not about giving up . . . it’s about giving over, your plans, your will, your trials, your all, to Someone greater than yourself. That brings us to our second next step which is to Realize and understand that I need more of Jesus, and he wants all of me.

So, why did God use a table? Again, around the table is where communion and fellowship with others takes place. And food or the bread we share is the vehicle for that communion and fellowship. Like everything else in the Tabernacle, the table and the bread of the Presence points us to Jesus and our relationship with Him. Jesus is the Bread of Life. He is the only One who can satisfy the longing of our souls, and our souls were created to be in relationship with Him. Our relationship with Jesus must be cultivated if we are going to grow spiritually and become more like Him. Jesus invites us to the table. He invites us to a full table. He invites us into intimate communion and fellowship with Himself. If you remember the bread was to always be on the table before the Lord. This means that Jesus is always available. We can come to the table at any time and in fact we should come all the time. He is our daily bread. We don’t have to make an appointment. We don’t have to stand in line. We don’t have to take a number. He is always present and available.

The question is how often do we take advantage of being in the presence of Jesus? How often do we commune with him? How often do we come to the table and enjoy fellowship with our Lord and Savior? I have used this picture before. Does your table look like this? (full table) Or like this? (empty table). I want to continue to challenge all of us as a body of believers to be people who come regularly, consistently, daily to the table and enjoy communion and fellowship with Jesus. That brings us to our last next step which is to Come daily to the table and enjoy full communion and fellowship with Jesus.

As Gene and Roxey come to lead us in a final song and the ushers prepare to collect the tithes and offerings, let’s pray: Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the provision of your Word, thank you for your financial provision for us and this church, thank you for providing your son, Jesus, as our Savior. Help us to trust in You to provide for us in all the ways we need. Help us to realize and understand that we daily need more of You, and that You daily want more of us. And Lord, give us an urgency to come daily to your table and enjoy full communion and fellowship with You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Opening: Ryken’s Commentary on Exodus

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First Things First

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First Things First

A black Methodist preacher was sent to a formerly all-white church in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was the most magnificent church his daughter had ever seen. It was a Gothic structure with beautiful, polished wood and had a beautiful crystal chandelier. Presidents had worshipped there, and a President had even been married in the sanctuary and the parsonage was so large that every one of his children could have their own room. Under the parsonage was a huge cellar, a dingy, dark place with a couple of dim light bulbs hanging from long wires, and cobwebs and shadows. One day, the pastor’s sons found a hole beside the furnace leading to a tunnel and when the pastor and his sons went over to the church building, they found that beside the furnace there were some old boards. As they removed them, they discovered another hole with other tunnels. They explored those tunnels and that night around the dinner table at the parsonage in Cincinnati, five blocks from the Ohio River their father told the story of the Underground Railroad, a network for helping slaves to escape to freedom. Slaves were hunted and would have been brutally punished if caught and it was against the law to help them, but the Underground Railroad helped slaves get to their freedom in Canada. The father said, “Children, I want you to remember this day as long as you live, for today we have found a station in the Underground Railroad.” He went on to say, “The greatness of this church is not in its gothic architecture, its beautiful furniture, its crystal chandelier, or even its social status. The greatness of this church is below us. We are on hallowed ground…” They were on hallowed ground because the tunnels beneath them represented the gift of freedom. Freedom from slavery.

Last week we started our study of the Hallowed or Holy ground of the Tabernacle of God. The Tabernacle was to be a sanctuary that was “a copy and shadow of what is in heaven.” This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: ‘See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.’” It was holy because it was where the Lord would dwell and “tent” among his covenant people. As I mentioned last week, there are two accounts of the Tabernacle. The first account in chapters 25-31 are the instructions given to Moses by God and the second account in chapters 35-40 will show the actual construction of the Tabernacle. Later, as the Tabernacle is constructed the most holy place will be last but now, first things first, the instructions for the only furnishing that would be in the holy of holies is given by God to Moses. This is because it was the most important furnishing in the entire tabernacle. It was the ark of the covenant, and it was the place where the law of God would be placed. It was the place where God would speak to Moses. It was the place where the sins of the people would be forgiven. It was the place where God’s power and presence would be manifested. That brings us to our big idea this morning that God desires that His power and presence be with His people.

Let’s pray: Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for another day that you have made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. We praise you and give you all glory and honor for who you are and for what you have done. Thank you for creating us and breathing your breath into us. Pour out your Holy Spirit on us as we open your Word. Give us wisdom and insight from it and allow it to grow us spiritually into the people you want us to be. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Our first point this morning is God’s Holiness found in Exodus 25:10-16. Follow along as I read those verses. This is what God’s Word says, “Have them make an ark of acacia wood—two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high. Overlay it with pure gold, both inside and out, and make a gold molding around it. Cast four gold rings for it and fasten them to its four feet, with two rings on one side and two rings on the other. Then make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. Insert the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry it. The poles are to remain in the rings of this ark; they are not to be removed. Then put in the ark the tablets of the covenant law, which I will give you.”

God starts his description of the tabernacle, not with the tabernacle itself, but with the most important item that would be in it, the ark of the covenant. It was described first because it was the symbol of the presence of God with His people. Because God was holy and the Israelites were sinful, God designated a way that He could dwell in their presence without the possibility of them being slain. Because of his love for them and because he wanted to be in a personal relationship with them, he provided a way to be close to them. The word “ark” is an Old English word for “chest” or “box.” It is a different word than the one used for Noah’s ark and for the papyrus basket Moses was put in as a baby but all three were saving arks. There are many names for the “ark.” The ark of the covenant, the ark of the testimony, the ark of the Lord of all the earth, the ark of the Lord God, the holy ark and the ark of Thy strength. God commanded that the ark be made of acacia wood. If you remember from last week this was one of the offerings God asked the people to give for the construction of the Tabernacle. Acacia wood was one of the local sources of wood growing in the Sinai area. It grew to between 15-25 feet high and would have been suitable timber for woodworking. It was also resistant to insects, durable and would not decay.

God also gave specific measurements for the ark. It was to be two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high. A cubit was the distance measured from a person’s elbow to their fingertips. Of course, the distance would vary per person but there were three standard sizes for a cubit in the OT: 17.5 inches, 20.6 inches and 21.85 inches. The 20.6 inches was known as the “royal cubit” in Egypt. This may have been the standard used by the Israelites since they would have been accustomed to it. So, if we go with the royal cubit the ark would have been about 4 ¼ ft. long and 2 ½ ft. wide and 2 ½ ft. high. It doesn’t matter that the size of the ark was. What matters is that Moses followed God’s instructions to the letter.

The ark was not to be left as a wooden chest or box. It was to be overlaid with pure gold, both inside and out with gold molding around it. Mackay says, “Pure gold, as the most valuable metal available, was employed in those parts of the Tabernacle that were closest to the special presence of the LORD.” Pure gold was probably attached to the inside and outside of the wood in some way and the molding probably went around all the corners of the ark to seal it completely with gold. Next, we learn about another feature of the ark. It seems that there were feet attached at each corner to keep the actual chest from resting on the ground. Also, four gold rings were cast and attached to each of the four legs, two on one side and two on the other. These rings would hold what God commanded Moses to make next. God commanded Moses to make poles from acacia wood and overlay them with gold. The rings and the poles were to keep all human hands from touching the ark. Those who transported the ark would only touch the poles as they carried it. The poles were to remain in the rings and were never to be removed from them. This probably signified the readiness of the Lord to move with His people. Lastly, God commanded that Moses put the tablets of the covenant law or the “Testimony” in the ark once they had given to him. In this way, the ark was a box used to store the Ten Commandments as a testimony and witness to the covenant established between God and His people. It was a visible reminder to the Israelites of their covenant obligations and of who God is. They were to be holy as the Lord is holy in their conduct toward him and each other.

That brings us to our second point called God’s Mercy found in Exodus 25:17-22. This is what God’s Word says, “Make an atonement cover of pure gold—two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide. And make two cherubim out of hammered gold at the ends of the cover. Make one cherub on one end and the second cherub on the other; make the cherubim of one piece with the cover, at the two ends. The cherubim are to have their wings spread upward, overshadowing the cover with them. The cherubim are to face each other, looking toward the cover. Place the cover on top of the ark and put in the ark the tablets of the covenant law that I will give you. There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the covenant law, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites.”

At this point the ark was just an open chest that was to hold the tablets of Testimony after God gave them to Moses. But now God commands Moses to make a cover for the ark. The ark of the covenant was actually made of two pieces, the ark and the atonement cover. When the Israelites would come into the Tabernacle to worship the Lord, they would be faced with His Holiness signified by His law, and they would be reminded of how they had fallen short in their obedience to His covenant. Of course, this was one of the purposes of the ark of the Testimony. But there was another important part of the ark and that was its atonement cover. The atonement cover is also called the propitiatory or the mercy seat. Propitiation means to appease. And the mercy seat was not used in the sense of a “chair” but meant the place where mercy was to be found. Atonement means “a process by which estranged parties are “at one” or “made as one” with each other. The Hebrew word means “to cover.” The fact that the atonement cover would “cover” the tablets of the Law made it clear that what was being covered was the penalty for the people’s disobedience to God’s holy commands.

They would not be able to keep His holy law and deserved condemnation, but the atonement cover pointed to the possibility of this death sentence being dealt with in a different way. The atonement cover played an important part on the Day of Atonement when it was sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifices to cleanse the nation of Israel of their sin and appease the wrath of God. Leviticus 16:15-16 says, “He (Aaron) shall then slaughter the goat for the sin offering for the people and take its blood behind the curtain and do with it as he did with the bull’s blood: He shall sprinkle it on the atonement cover and in front of it. In this way he will make atonement for the Most Holy Place because of the uncleanness and rebellion of the Israelites, whatever their sins have been.” It wasn’t the cover that brought a commuted sentence. It was the blood of the sacrifice that was sprinkled on the cover itself. The atonement cover foreshadowed the work of Christ on the cross. He lived a perfect life, obeying God’s Law completely and perfectly and was the perfect lamb of God who willingly, once for all, poured out his blood for the ransom of many. With the atonement cover, the Lord was teaching His people about the coming Messiah who would take away the sins of the world. Guzik says, “It is remarkable that even before God gave Moses the tablets of the Ten Commandments, God made provision for Israel’s failure under the law.”

God commanded Moses to make an atonement cover out of pure gold the same size long and wide as the ark. The intimate connection between the ark and the atonement cover is shown by the use of pure gold in their construction and that they were to be the same size. This would show that the holiness of God and His wrath on sinners symbolized by the Testimony or the Ten Commandments was completely covered by the atonement that was made. God’s holiness and his mercy were equally displayed in his character that he made central to his worship at the tabernacle. Next Moses was commanded to make two cherubim out of hammered gold at each end of the atonement cover. The cover and the cherubim were to be made out of the same piece of pure gold. The cherubim were to have their wings spread upward, overshadowing the atonement cover. And they were to be facing each other with their faces turned down looking toward the cover of the ark.

As I said last week, the tabernacle was to reveal the realities of heaven and cherubim are real creatures that reside in heaven. Ryken says, “They function as guardians of the sacred and throne attendants of the Almighty.” They are the highest among the angelic order of creatures and are mentioned over ninety times in the Bible. The first time was in Genesis 3:24 when they were to guard the tree of life in the Garden of Eden. Their likeness will also be embroidered all over the inner curtain of the Tabernacle. Their wings are outstretched, overshadowing and protecting God’s throne. Their faces were to be turned downward in adoration, reverence and awe that would be appropriate when the presence of the Lord descended upon the ark and was enthroned between the cherubim. Psalms 80:1 says, “Hear us, Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock. You who sit enthroned between the cherubim.” And Psalms 99:1 says, “The Lord reigns, let the nations tremble; he sits enthroned between the cherubim.” These verses emphasize that the ark was considered the throne of God on earth.

The ark was to be finished by putting the atonement cover on top of it and by putting the tablets of the covenant law in it that again God would give to Moses. The ark of the covenant was to be the throne of God on earth, symbolizing His presence with His people. It was also to be the place where His holiness and His mercy resided as symbolized by the Ten Commandments and the atonement cover. We now see another purpose for the ark of the covenant: it was also the place where God would meet with Moses and give all His commands for the Israelites. The word “meet” reflects the name Tent of Meeting given to the Tabernacle. These encounters between Moses and God would not be casual ones but arranged for the definite purpose of meeting together. Moses would continue his special role as covenant mediator between God and the Israelites even after the institution of the priests. It is important that the space above the ark remains empty. One of the Ten Commandments was to not make any graven images of the Lord and so that space had to be empty. It would be where the cloud of God’s presence or the shekinah glory of the Lord would rest when He entered the holy of holies in the Tabernacle.

Another interesting fact that we all probably know is that no evidence of the ark remains. There are many hypotheses about what happened: it may have been lost at the time of the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. Others have argued that it was lost during the invasion of Shishak shortly after Solomon’s death. Some believe that it was probably taken by refugees to Egypt during the time of Manasseh’s oppression, and afterwards brought to Ethiopia. Some believe that it could still be buried someplace below the Temple in Jerusalem. We do not know and we are probably not supposed to know.

How can we apply the ark of the covenant to our everyday lives? As I said, the tabernacle was not permanent; it was made to move. And when the people were commanded by God to move, they would take the ark of covenant with them leading the way. In this way, the presence of God was always with them and always leading them. There are three different places the ark was that reminds us of God’s presence.

The first place the ark reminds us of God’s presence is at the Jordan River as the Israelites were getting ready to enter the Promised Land. The ark at the Jordan shows God’s prevenient or “preparing” presence. The priests carrying the ark were to go ahead of the people and walk into the Jordan River which was at flood stage. Joshua 3:15-16a, 17, says, “Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away. The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stopped in the middle of the Jordan and stood on dry ground, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.” This is a picture of the prevenient presence of the Lord; the Lord going before His people and preparing their way. Do you believe that God’s presence goes before you in your life preparing the way for you? Do you believe that He will be there at every crucial time in your life? We don’t need to worry about something happening that may never happen. We don’t need to worry about going to places where we’ve never been before. F. B. Meyer asks, “Do you ever ask what you will do at the swellings of Jordan? Do you ever fear that heart and strength may fail? There is a presence with us – a divine companionship, the angel of the covenant, the Christ of God. Shall we have the faith to answer, “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou are with me?” The Lord goes before us preveniently, preparing the way, and meeting us at every overflowing Jordan and at every swelling river of our lives. That brings us to our first next step which is to Trust in God’s prevenient presence to go before me at every swelling river of my life.

The second place that the ark reminds us of God’s presence is at Jericho. The ark at Jericho shows God’s powerful presence. The Israelites were to walk around Jericho in a procession of the priests carrying the ark of the covenant followed by seven priests blowing their trumpets and the Israelite fighting men. They were to walk one time around for six days and then seven times on the seventh day. On the seventh time around the priest made a long trumpet blast and all the people shouted, and the walls of the city came tumbling down. What caused the city walls to crumble? Was it the priests? Was it the trumpets? Was it the army? Was it the shouts of the people? No, it was the presence of God signified by the ark of the covenant that brought the walls down. It was the powerful presence of the Lord. God’s presence is power for those who are fearful and discouraged. God’s presence is power for those who are sick and in pain. God’s presence is power for those who are separated from loved ones, lonely and in despair. God’s presence is power for the rest of us as well. We all need to stay alive to God's presence. We all need to cultivate His presence in our lives. Let us be people who make a willful decision to start each day acknowledging God’s powerful presence and allow it to transform our lives. That brings us to our second next step which is to Trust in God’s powerful presence to enable me to overcome any obstacle in my life.

There’s one other place that the ark was that we must study as a warning to us and that is the ark in captivity. This is the passing presence of the Lord. This signifies times when the presence of the Lord is not necessarily in our lives due to our disobedience and sin. After arriving in the Promised Land, the Israelites grievously sinned against God and were unfaithful to Him. The presence of God departed from them and the ark was captured by the Philistines. The point is we make our own decision about God’s presence in our lives. We either cultivate it or we don’t. He is always near but due to our sin and unfaithfulness, His presence is not evident in us. We must continually respond to the Lord and be obedient to Him. The vital presence of God depends upon our obedience, response, receptivity and cultivation of His presence. That brings us to our last next step which is to Cultivate God’s presence in my life by being obedient and responsive to Him. ​​ 

As Roxey comes to lead us in a final song and the ushers collect the tithes and offerings, let’s pray: Lord, thank you for the privilege of learning from your Word and hearing from your Holy Spirit this morning. Thank you for your power and presence in our lives. Thank you for your preparing presence that goes before us in every swelling river of our lives. Thank you for your powerful presence that helps us to overcome any obstacle in our lives. Help us to cultivate your presence in our lives by being obedient and responsive to you and help us to trust in your power and presence every day of our lives. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

 

Opening: Jeff Strite, sermoncentral.com, The Secret of the Hidden Room

Closing: The Communicator’s Commentary, Maxie Dunnam, pgs. 316-321 (selected)

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God With Us

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God With Us

In his book Faith, Hope, and Hilarity, Dick Van Dyke told about a Sunday school teacher who asked her students to talk about how they felt about their church. The students responded in the usual ways: some said something silly to get the rest of the class to laugh, while others tried to be more serious. One of the girls was new to the class, and she felt uncomfortable about entering into class discussions, so she never raised her hand or volunteered an answer. That Sunday, however, she did have an answer for her Sunday school teacher, and it was unforgettable. She said that going to church was “like walking into the heart of God.”

We are about to walk into the heart of God by walking into the study of the tabernacle in Exodus chapters 25–31. For the next several weeks, we are going to examine a blueprint for the tabernacle just as God gave it to Moses on Mount Sinai. Then we will watch the actual building of this masterpiece in chapters 35–40. The fascinating thing about this last section of Exodus, in chapters 25-40, is that God is preparing to give the people what they need even before they realize they need it. God understood what His covenant people needed. They needed a visible representation of God’s presence and power; concrete ways to live out their relationship with Him; to worship Him in a place of beauty, majesty and mystery; a way to be put back in a right relationship with Himself, and an opportunity to feel they had significant contributions to make. In the tabernacle, God would reveal His heart to His people by fulfilling these needs inside of them.

The tabernacle was an actual building not only for the meeting of God with his people but also where the priest would offer sacrifices for the sins of the people to bring about complete fellowship with God. In the first fifteen chapters of Exodus, we have seen God’s leading of Moses and the people of Israel out of captivity in Egypt. The next nine chapters revealed God’s sovereignty in leading His people through the wilderness and right up to the borders of the land they had only dreamed about. Now we are going to learn about the tabernacle where God was to make his holy habitation and speak to man. We learned a couple of Sundays ago that God desires to dwell with His people and that big idea could easily be used again and again in our study of the Tabernacle. But today as we start to study these scriptures, we want to see how God reveals His heart through the Tabernacle and that brings us to our big idea this morning that God desires to reveal His heart to His people. We will see God revealing His heart to us as we look at our three points, Offering, Overview and Obedience.

Let’s pray: Lord, we thank you for the opportunity and privilege to be in your house this morning. We thank you for your desire to reveal your heart to us. Help us to be willing to put our hearts in tune with yours. Pour out your Holy Spirit on us as we learn from your Word today. Open up our hearts and minds to what you want us to glean and share with those we come in contact with this week.

Our first point is Offering found in Exodus 25:1-2. Follow along as I read. This is what God’s Word says, “The Lord said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites to bring me an offering. You are to receive the offering for me from everyone whose heart prompts them to give.”

Before we look at the first two verses I want to give some background about the Tabernacle. One reason for the tabernacle was because the Israelites would not remain at Mt. Sinai forever. God had promised His people an inheritance of the land of Canaan. As God’s covenant people traveled to Canaan, the Lord wanted to dwell among them, and so they would need a visible reminder of His presence with them. This visible reminder was the Tabernacle. Wherever they went, they would know they weren’t alone, because their Lord and God, Yahweh, was dwelling in their midst. The tabernacle would be a portable structure moving from place to place as they wandered in the wilderness. The tabernacle was not only God’s house or palace, but it was also His temple. There would be barriers, and the people would only be allowed to approach God to a certain point. So, the tabernacle was not only a visible reminder of God’s presence with them but a constant reminder that God was holy, and they were sinful people, and it was no simple or trivial matter to approach a holy God.

A study of the tabernacle is vital for our spiritual maturity. More space in the scriptures is given to the account of the tabernacle than any other single object or subject. There are two chapters devoted to God’s creation of the world, people and animals and fifty chapters total devoted to a discussion of the tabernacle. In Exodus alone, thirteen chapters are devoted to this subject and only two are devoted to the Exodus and only two-thirds devoted to the Ten Commandments. This highlights the importance of the presence of God among His people, the importance of His people meeting with God and the importance of worship in the life of the covenant community. God’s presence would bring both reassurance and a holy fear. God's presence would set them apart from all other nations. Almighty God would dwell among them; they would be his people, and he would be their God.

We also see the importance of the tabernacle in that the instructions for it are given twice, once in chapters 25-31 and again in chapters 35-40. First, God gives Moses instructions on how to build it and later on we will see the actual building of it. The only difference between the two accounts is the given order of the items for construction. In the first account the items are described from the innermost chamber, the Holy of Holies, outwards. The place where God’s presence, His shekinah glory, would dwell, would give the structure meaning and significance, and as such, is described first.

The tabernacle revealed God’s heart by the way he chose to dwell with his people. 2 Samuel 7:6 says, “For I have not dwelt in a house since the day I brought up the sons of Israel from Egypt, even to this day; rather, I have been moving about in a tent, that is, in a dwelling place.” The Lord wanted to dwell in a tent just like His people did. He wanted to live in the center of the covenant community. He was committed to the journey with them and for the long haul not just for the mountaintop experiences but the ones in the wilderness as well. Leviticus 26:11-13 says, “I will put my dwelling place among you, and I will not abhor you. I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high.” God promised to be with His people and actually walk among them. And God dwelling in their midst was entirely at his own initiative.

In verse 1, “And the Lord said to Moses” starts an uninterrupted divine speech that goes to chapter 30. This is the longest divine speech in Exodus highlighting the importance of these instructions on the tabernacle. There is no greater event recorded in the OT. Alexander says, “Exodus moves from ‘service’ (slavery) to Pharaoh in Egypt, to the ‘service’ (worship) of Yahweh at Sinai.” This was the reason why Moses was to go to Pharoah in Exodus 4 asking him to let God’s people go. It was so they could worship Him and Him alone.

The first thing God told Moses was to have the Israelites bring Him an offering; an offering from everyone whose heart prompted them to give. God revealed His heart by wanting to reveal the hearts of His people. God is a giving God, and he does so unconditionally, and he wants His people to be giving as well (Big Idea). We can notice a few things here. One, Moses was asking for these items on God’s authority and behalf, not his own. Two, God did not just miraculously supply the materials to construct the tabernacle. It was to be a voluntary, willing offering, not given grudgingly but joyfully. It was to be an act of worship for God’s glory. Giving in this way revealed the hearts of his people. Their giving reflected their gratitude to the Lord for saving them from slavery in Egypt and providing for them in the wilderness. Who God is and what he had done and would do for them would prompt the people to give. Their giving would show their generosity and self-sacrifice and would give them ownership in their ongoing relationship with the Lord. This was accomplished as later on they had to be told to stop giving because they had given so much. The Hebrew for “whose heart prompts them to give” is “whose heart makes him vow” meaning they wouldn’t be able to help themselves; they would have to give. And it would be dedicated to God’s use as a freewill offering. God gave his people an opportunity to contribute to the construction of his tent that would dwell in the midst of his covenant people.

Giving to God is a sign of our commitment to Christ. Our willingness to give back to God a portion of what he has given to us already is a sign of our spiritual health and our relationship with Him. It reveals our hearts. When we dwell on who God is and what he has done for us, individually and as a church, it should prompt us to give voluntarily, willingly and joyfully as an act of worship. It also reveals God’s heart as He is more concerned with the attitude of our giving than the amount of our giving. 2 Corinthians 9:7 says, “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” That brings us to our first next step this morning on the back of your communication card which is to voluntarily, willingly, and joyfully, give my offerings to the Lord as an act of worship.

That brings us to our second point, Overview, found in Exodus 25:3-7. This is what God’s Word says, “And this is the offering which you shall take from them: gold, silver, and bronze; blue, purple, and scarlet thread, fine linen, and goats’ hair; ram skins dyed red, badger skins, and acacia wood; oil for the light, and spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet incense; onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod and in the breastplate.”

We see an overview of the materials that God specifically and precisely commanded Moses to collect from the people as offerings. Nothing was to be left to chance in the construction of the tabernacle. These were valuable materials and are mentioned according to type and costliness. There are metals, fabrics, skins, wood, oil and incense and precious stones. The metals mentioned are gold, silver and bronze or better translated as “copper.” They would be used for covering the wooden framework of the tabernacle structure, the altars and tables inside the tabernacle and the ark. They would also be used in pure form for pieces within the tabernacle such as the lampstand, dishes, bowls, plates, etc. There were mines in the areas of the Dead Sea, Midian and Sinai so these materials would have been close by. Next mentioned are threads or yarns dyed with three different colors: blue, purple and scarlet. These dyes were very costly to make. The blue and purple dyes came from the various shellfish found on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea near Phoenicia and Palestine. It is believed that twelve thousand murex shells needed to be opened, and its liquid extracted to produce 1.4 grams of pure dye. The scarlet or crimson dye was obtained from the eggs and bodies of the cochineal insect or worm. Woolen cloth would be dyed these colors to make the curtains and other hangings for inside the tabernacle.

Next on the list of offerings are fine linen which would have come from Egypt. The Hebrew word for “linen” is an Egyptian word for “twining together many strands of the finest flax.” This material would have been white and would have been a cool fabric making it preferable for the priests in the tabernacle. Next on the list is goat hair. It was considered the least expensive material on the list, but it was a durable fabric that would have repelled rain making it perfect to be used for the outside walls of the tabernacle. The next materials mentioned would have already been prepared for use, ram skins dyed red and leather from badger or sea cow hides, depending on your version. Badger skins are self-explanatory. And sea cows were a seal-like animal found in the coral rocks of the Red Sea. The badger or sea cow hides would have been made into a durable leather and also used for the outside walls of the tabernacle.

The next material listed is acacia wood. This would have been easy to find locally. It reached 15-25 feet in height and would have been sawn and planed into suitable construction materials. It was good for woodworking, supposedly resisted insects and was very durable. Acacia wood would be used for the framework of the tabernacle, the tables and altars, etc. Next we see materials mentioned that also state their purpose. Olive oil would be used for light and spices would be used for anointing oil and fragrant incense. Olive trees were common in the Mediterranean and the oil could be used for light, cooking and lotions. Precious stones, such as onyx, are mentioned next and were to be mounted on the ephod and the breastplate worn by the high priests. These precious stones could be found in the Sinai area.

We may wonder where the Israelites would have gotten some of these materials to give as an offering to the Lord. Some probably came from their forefathers, some were obtained when they “plundered” the Egyptians, some probably came from the spoils of the battle against the Amalekites, some probably came from trading with the caravans they came in contact with in the wilderness and some were local to the wilderness they were traveling through. These materials indicate how costly the tabernacle was. Dewitt says, “In the proportion of the finished tabernacle the present-day value of the materials total more than $13,000,000. Their combined weight would be almost 19,000 lbs. God was going to dwell in a “tent” among the “tents” of His people, but His tent would be different. It would be “glorious, majestic” and costly. It would be the place where God met with His people, their sins would be cleansed and fellowship restored with their God (Big Idea).

God provided everything they would need in order to give back to Him the materials to build His “tent.” These materials were costly and the very best of what they had been given and would be used for his glory and his holy work. The same is also true for us today. We need to give our very best to God, the first fruits of what He has already given to us. We also need to give from the heart because this shows that our hearts align with God’s heart. And lastly, we give to do the Lord’s holy work. In 2 Corinthians 9:8 right after it says the Lord desires a cheerful giver, we see these words, “And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” At Idaville Church we want to be about doing God’s holy work and abound in every good work that he has for us. And we participate in his work by giving tithes and offerings. Our first next step was to voluntarily, willingly, and joyfully, give my offerings to the Lord as an act of worship. This list of materials that were to be given as an offering to the Lord, the costliness and what they were to be used for, I believe offers us an opportunity for another next step that goes along with the first. Which brings us to our second next step to Give my very best, from my heart, for God’s kingdom work.

That brings us to our third point, Obedience, found in Exodus 25:8-9. This is what God’s Word says, “And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. According to all that I show you, that is, the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings, just so you shall make it.”

Interestingly, God doesn’t tell the Israelites what the materials were for before asking for the materials. It didn’t matter what the offering was going to be used for, he wanted them to show Him their hearts. Would they give without knowing what it was to be used for? That’s hard for us, isn’t it? It is also interesting that it wasn’t until he redeemed His people to himself that he came to dwell in their midst on earth. This was proof of God’s grace in wanting to bring them into a relationship with himself, again, revealing the heart of God to His people. Now the Lord reveals the reason for the offerings. It was to construct a sanctuary for Himself so that he could dwell amongst them in the midst of their community. Stuart says, “he (God) desired that the people make a home for him and then locate their houses/tents around his house/tent and join him regularly at his courtyard for covenant meals, confirming their ongoing relationship and receiving the blessings inherent therein.”

The word “sanctuary” is connected with the idea of something being “holy” or set apart for God. This “sanctuary” would be where the Lord would make himself known to His people. The word “dwell” also means “tabernacled.” The dwelling presence of the Lord or the “shekinah” glory of the Lord, the cloud that would come down, would reside amongst His people in the tabernacle. The English word for “dwelling-place” is derived from the Latin word for “tent.” The Lord would literally “tent” among His people showing them his heart in how much He wanted to identify with them and their circumstances. He wanted them to be His people and be their God. The tabernacle would be a constant witness to the Lord’s presence amongst his people.

The word “show” may mean that God’s instructions went beyond spoken details. Moses may have also been given a vision of what the completed tabernacle was to look like. The tabernacle was not an idea or design of Moses or the people. It was not what they thought a proper house for God should be. It was God’s idea and design and the pattern of the Tabernacle, and its furnishings had to be strictly obeyed to the letter. Moses and the builders couldn’t deviate from the instructions given to them by the Lord. Moses is commanded no less than seven times to make the tabernacle after the pattern he is shown on Mt. Sinai. The word “pattern” suggests an architect’s model. The pattern of the earthly tabernacle was a copy of the true dwelling place of God in heaven. Hebrews 8:5 says, “They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown to you on the mountain.” And Hebrews 9:24 says, “For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence.” One of the purposes for being patterned after heaven was to give the people the hope of heaven in their hearts. The tabernacle was to be a symbolic representation of the realities of heaven. God’s heart revealed his desire for his people to live with Him in heaven forever (Big Idea).

You know God’s presence is right here in this place right at this moment. This is a holy place because God is holy, and he is here. And He now tabernacles in us through the Holy Spirit. Do you ever sit back and ponder this reality? God is with us every Sunday that we come together as God’s people in worship. More so God is with us, inside of us, everywhere we go. How would we live differently if we took these realities seriously? How would we worship differently? I hope it would have a profound effect on how we live and worship and so much more. Let us be people who take seriously the fact that God is with us here this morning and every Sunday and that God is with us everywhere we go as Christians. Let us live holy and set apart lives for God’s honor and glory. Let’s live in an awe that God would even want to dwell inside us and be our God. That brings us to our last next step which is to take seriously the presence of God with me in worship and in my everyday living.

What started as “tenting” among His people, in the wilderness, on the way to Canaan, was perpetuated when Jesus came to earth as a baby, dwelled among His people, and died on a cross for their sins and our sins. Today, we still have God with us in the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. This is why He is called Emmanuel meaning “God with us.” God as Jesus again wanted to identify with His people and their circumstances. I think it is so cool that today is the first Sunday of Advent, and the sermon title is “God With Us.” That could only be orchestrated by God himself.

Today, as we start the celebration of Advent, we anticipate that glorious, promised incarnation. During Advent, we celebrate the Messiah coming to earth, we reflect on the Word made flesh and it points us all to the hope we have only in and through Christ. We light candles as a reminder that “the people walking in darkness have seen a great light; a light has dawned on those living in the land of darkness” (Isaiah 9:2). Today we lit the hope candle and in the coming weeks we will light the candles of peace, joy, and love and the Christ candle. Without Jesus we have no hope, without Jesus we have no peace, without Jesus we have no joy and without Jesus we have no love. So, as we approach Christmas, let’s take the opportunity to remember and wait, to celebrate and anticipate. In doing so, we are participating with other believers of old and around the world, with our church family, and in our own hearts and homes, in the hope, peace, joy, and love of our Savior.

As Gene and Roxey lead us in a final hymn and the ushers prepare to collect the tithes and offerings, let’s pray: Heavenly Father, we thank you for your Word. Thank you for showing us your heart. May we truly give our offerings as an act of worship pleasing to you. Help us to give our very best from our hearts for your kingdom work. Lord, give us a sense of awe and seriousness as we come into your presence to worship you and as you dwell in our hearts daily. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

 

 

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Celebration of Thanksgiving

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Celebration of Thanksgiving

God is _____________? How would you fill in that blank this morning?

(Bring down a chair) This is our Thanksgiving Chair. I would like to give an opportunity for anyone who would like to come up, sit in the chair and praise and thank the Lord for what he is doing in your life?

Our God is worthy of our praise and thanksgiving. He deserves it because we are His people, we are His creation and He loves us with an everlasting love. That’s our big idea this morning that God deserves the praise and thanksgiving of His people.

Praising and thanking God is an act of worship to Him. The basis for Israel’s faith and worship was that the Lord was true to his covenant. And the same for us today. The Lord has been faithful, is faithful and will always be faithful to us and that should cause us to want to continually worship Him with our praise and thanksgiving.

Psalms 150 is all about praising our Great God. And we see that the Psalm tells us a few things about praising Him. First, it tells us where the Lord is to be praised. The Lord is to be praised in his sanctuary and in his mighty heavens. What this means is that the Lord is to be praised in heaven and on earth. There is nowhere that the Lord is not to be praised.

Second, the Psalm tells us why the Lord is to be praised. The Lord is to be praised for his mighty acts of power and for his surpassing greatness. God’s qualities of strength and greatness are demonstrated to us as His mighty acts in history. This includes Creation, the Exodus and the Conquest of the Promised Land. Any and all of God’s mighty acts of power show the world and us His surpassing greatness.

Third, the Psalm tells us how the Lord is to be praised. The Lord is to be praised with all kinds of instruments. By piling up a number of instrumental names the author communicates that the whole orchestra is to be involved in praising God. We can also praise God with dancing. Goldingay suggests that these instruments include those ‘that would be played by the priests (the trumpet), by Levites (harp, lyre, cymbals) and laypeople (tambourine, strings, pipe).’ The Lord is to be praised in any and all ways by all people.

Finally, the Psalm tells us who is to praise the Lord. The Lord is to be praised by everything that has breath. The author concludes with the most important instrument of all, the human voice. Longman says, “The Hebrew word for ‘breath’ is used in Genesis 2:7 and reminds us that God gave humans the breath with which they are to praise him. Indeed, there is no more important use of that breath than to worship God.” We are commanded to praise the Lord!!! This is not something we can choose or not choose to do. It would be sinful to not give Him our praise and thanksgiving.

Lastly, I want to say something about the video. I believe the application of the video is that we are to praise the Lord in the good times and in the bad. We are to praise the Lord in the easy times and in the hard times. We are to praise the Lord in the highs and in the lows. We are to praise the Lord at all times and in all circumstances.

So how can we apply this attitude of praise and thanksgiving to our lives? Here are some next steps we all can take this week and each and every week to come. The first next step on the back of your communication card is to Continually praise and thank the Lord for who He is. We should be praising and thanking God for His many attributes, and this should not be a one-time or once a week occurrence but a daily routine in our lives. The second next step is to Continually praise and thank the Lord for what He has done for me. Again, we should be praising and thanking God for what he has done in our lives, and it should be our daily routine. Lastly, our third next step is to Continually praise and thank the Lord for what He has done for Idaville Church. God has been so good to Idaville Church and so we want to praise and thank Him continually, even daily, for how He has provided for us, seen us through the good times and the bad times, the easy times and the hard times and in the highs and the lows. All praise and thanksgiving be to God alone.

Laurin and Bev are going to come and shred the bank loan at this time.

As the praise team comes to lead us in a final dong and the ushers prepare to collect the tithes and offerings, let’s close out time in prayer. Heavenly Father, we worship you this morning with our praise and thanksgiving. You are truly Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides, and we thank you with all of our being. You have provided for us individually and as a congregation in small ways and in big ways and we worship you. Lord, help us to continually remember throughout the year who you are and what you have done for us. Help us to praise and thank you in the good times and the bad times, the easy times and the hard times and in the highs and the lows. Lord God you are deserving of all our praise and thanksgiving, and we stand in awe of your goodness towards us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

 

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Farther Up and Farther In

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Farther Up and Farther In

What makes for a good meeting place? It probably depends on the kind of meeting you’re having. If you’re having a serious work meeting a monster truck rally or speedway is probably not a good place to meet. If you are a counselor your meeting place must be a safe, private and quiet environment. You are probably not meeting at a football game or a loud rock concert. If you are meeting someone for a first date, a restaurant or coffee shop is probably a better meeting place than a library. If you are going out for a romantic dinner, you are probably not going to a fast-food restaurant. And if you want to meet to play basketball with your friends, you are probably not going to a theater. The meeting place needs to match the purpose for your meeting.

This brings us to the question of what makes a good place to meet with God? Where do you go to be in God’s Word to learn more about who He is and what he requires of you? Where do you go to pray to the Lord and seek His face? Now, the answer to this question will vary from person to person. For some it may be a very quiet place in your house. For others it may be outdoors walking through the woods or by a body of water. It may be while you’re listening to music or it could be while driving to work. Hopefully, when we gather here at Idaville Church on a Sunday morning with other believers, this is a place where you are also able to meet with God.

If we are going to meet with God and be in relationship with Him, we must first believe in his son, Jesus Christ, for salvation. If we’ve not accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we won’t want to meet with God and can’t meet with Him. Once we have accepted Jesus, we can draw near to God but our hearts must also be in the right place. Our hearts must be clean, sinless and holy as we come before a holy God confessing our sins. We can then be forgiven and put back into a right relationship with Him. I John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” The only way to meet with God is if we have Jesus Christ in our hearts and life, we are striving for holiness and are becoming more like His son Jesus every day. God wants to meet with His people, but he also desires to dwell with His people in a fuller relationship of communing and fellowshipping with Himself. And this has been his plan from the very beginning of time. That brings us to our big idea this morning that God desires to dwell with His people.

Let’s pray: Holy God, we come into your presence asking for your Holy Spirit to be poured out on us. Give us open hearts and open minds to your Word this morning. May your Word be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path as we walk in this world, serving you and telling others about your son, Jesus. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

There are two points this morning. The first is Moses Ascends, found in Exodus 24:12-14. Follow along as I read. This is what God’s Word says, “The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction.” Then Moses set out with Joshua his aide, and Moses went up on the mountain of God. He said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we come back to you. Aaron and Hur are with you, and anyone involved in a dispute can go to them.”

Last week, in our study of Exodus 14, we saw the leaders of Israel draw near to God as they went up the mountain to eat and drink in a covenant meal together. Those who ate and drank had offered sacrifices and the Lord had accepted them. They had been sprinkled with the blood of the covenant and were allowed to come to a holy, set apart, place to eat and drink with the Lord. It was the Lord who initiated the covenant, and it was the Lord who initiated this intimate meal with His people. As we have studied Exodus, we have talked about how God desires that we draw near to Him but I think it is a greater, more awe-inspiring thing to grasp that the Creator of the Universe, the Most High God, the One, True and Living God wants to draw near to us, he wants to come and meet with us, and he wants to dwell with us. Just think about that. If you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, God through the Holy Spirit is dwelling within you. Let that sink into your hearts and minds. Think about what that means. How should we be living? How should we be treating others? How should we be serving others? How should we be worshiping the Lord?

This morning in our scripture, this picture of eating and drinking and meeting with God is going to be taken a step farther. Moses is going to be summoned farther up the mountain and will enter into more of God’s presence. Moses is going to meet with God on the mountain and stay there for a while. This was not just going to be a meal with God, it was going to be communing with Him, and fellowshipping with Him. And there was a purpose to this meeting. God was going to give Moses tablets of stone with the law and commandments that God himself had written, which would be for the people’s instruction. This was a continuation of teaching the covenant to His people. The Ten Commandments and the instruction of them would show how God required his people to live lives pleasing to Him. There needed to be an official copy of the Law which would be kept in a prominent place to be a reminder to the people that they were bound by the covenant. Normally, covenants were between a king and his people. The king may have said he received it from their god or gods, but it was written and given to the people by the king. But this covenant was unique, in that it was written to the people by their God, himself. In this meeting, God would give Moses the official covenant, the Ten Commandments, that were written by the Lord’s own hand and instructions on where it was to be kept.

Even though it is not explicitly mentioned here, the fact that God wanted to dwell with His people will be seen in what follows in chapters 25-31 Not only will God instruct Moses on how His people can meet with Him, by obedience to the Law, he will instruct Moses on how they were going to worship Him and how he would dwell with them. The place God was going to meet with His people had to be a place that is holy and set apart, because God is holy. It had to be a place where the law would be, because God is the law-giver. It had to be a place where his mercy is seen, because God is merciful. It had to be a place of sacrifice and atonement because the people were sinful. It had to be a place where His people would be cleansed in order to serve Him. But it also had to be a place where God could meet with and dwell with his people while they were on their journey to the Promised Land. Without the presence of God dwelling with them, there would be no point in continuing the journey. Mt. Sinai was important, holy and sacred, because it was the place where God first met with His people. But the Lord didn’t want His people to stay at the mountain. The reason he had brought them out of Egypt was to take them to the Promised Land that he had promised their forefathers. So, the place where God would dwell with His people had to be a place that was portable. The place where God would dwell with his people would be the Tabernacle (Big Idea). The instructions for which Moses would receive during his time with God on the mountain.

We don’t want to get too bogged down in the timeline, but we can see that events are not happening in a linear fashion. Most commentators believe that the leaders of Israel went back down to the base of the mountain after eating and drinking with God. Then in verse 12, God calls Moses to come back up the mountain and meet with him to get the Ten Commandments. Then we probably need to skip to verse 14. Moses, realizing that “to stay here” means to hang out with God a while, makes provisions for the administration of his responsibilities while away. The elders are to wait until Moses and Joshua come back to them. And Aaron and Hur will be with them to settle any disputes that may arise while Moses is gone. He is delegating his responsibilities to Aaron and Hur. This makes sense, since Aaron is his second in command, so to speak, and the one who God will put in charge of the priestly duties later on. We have seen Hur before in Exodus 17, where he was holding up Moses’ arms during the battle with the Amalekites. Hur is probably mentioned here because one of his relatives will be instrumental in building the Tabernacle. Moses is leaving things in what he believes are capable hands.

Then in the timeline we come back to verse 13 where it says that Moses and Joshua set out to go up the mountain. Now where did Joshua all of a sudden come from? We also last saw him in Exodus 17, leading the battle against the Amalekites and defeating them. Maybe Joshua was one of the seventy elders that ate and drank with God, but we don’t know for sure. We are told that he was Moses’ aide. He probably attended to Moses as a younger mentee would with a mentor in that time and setting. Joshua is probably mentioned here because he would be the one to take over and lead the Conquest of the Promised Land once Moses died. So Moses may have been teaching Joshua valuable lessons in leadership and ministry, as an older mentor would a younger mentee. By serving Moses in these practical ways, he would learn the skills he would need later on. Joshua would also learn valuable spiritual lessons as well watching Moses interact with the Lord in various ways.

This is important for us today as well. The church should be the perfect place to either mentor someone in leadership, life and spiritual things or to look for someone who could mentor you in leadership, life and spiritual things. Our commissions and small groups are great places for these relationships to form. So, I want to challenge all of us to think about who can I mentor in these ways and reach out to them. Or be thinking about who can mentor me in these ways and reach out to them. This is how our church can develop the leaders that are needed to lead into the next decade and beyond. And this is how we all can develop spiritually, learning to become more like Jesus from someone who is doing it well. This brings us to our first two next steps on the back of your communication card which is Pray about who I can mentor in leadership and or spiritual things and reach out to them. The second is like the first which is to Pray about who can mentor me in leadership and or spiritual things and reach out to them.  ​​ ​​​​ 

That brings us to our second point, God Descends, found in Exodus 24:15-18. This is what God’s Word says, “When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the Lord called to Moses from within the cloud. To the Israelites the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain. Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.”

When Moses ascended up the mountain, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord settled on Mt. Sinai. The Lord descended as Moses ascended. The cloud should be familiar to us as we have seen it before all the way back to when the Israelites first came out of Egypt into the wilderness. They have been led by the presence of God in the pillar of fire and cloud. The cloud is synonymous with the presence of God with His people. God descended on the mountain, and His glory settled on it. The “Glory of the Lord” is His reputation and majesty, His mysterious and awesome presence alongside His grace and mercy that manifested in the cloud. The word “settled” is the Hebrew verb meaning “dwelt.” It is what is called the “shekinah” glory of the Lord, “an outward manifestation of His presence to men” as Cole says. This word “dwelt” is also the word “tabernacled” used in John 1:14 that says, “The Word (Jesus) became flesh and “dwelt” or “tabernacled” among us.” We see the significance of the Lord dwelling with Moses on Mt. Sinai as he would later dwell with His people in the Tabernacle and dwells within His people through the Holy Spirit, today. (Big Idea)

For six days the cloud covered the mountain as Moses waited on God. Finally, on the seventh day, the Lord called to Moses from within the cloud. This should remind us of seven days of Creation and how God made the seventh day holy by resting on it. The seven days that God dwelt on the mountain made it a holy place where Moses, who had been consecrated and set apart through the covenant ceremony, could meet with the Lord and the Lord could dwell with him. Then we get a glimpse of what the people at the base of the mountain saw. The glory or the presence of the Lord looked like a consuming or a “blazing” fire on top of the mountain. This was the glory of the Lord’s holiness which represented His relationship with Israel on the basis of the Law. It also signified that the place and the event was a holy occurrence. Seeing the glory of the Lord and Moses entering into it would have been another authentication that Moses was God’s chosen mediator and stressed that what God was telling him would be of the utmost importance.

This was another spectacular event. Last week, the leaders of Israel ate and drank with God. Now we see Moses entering into the cloud into God’s presence and dwelling with Him. This was not just eating and drinking with God. Moses was communing and fellowshipping with the Lord, himself. This was living with, breathing with and dwelling with God in a close, personal relationship. Moses, the covenant mediator, spent forty days and forty nights dwelling with the Lord. Now you and I are not Moses but our relationship with the Lord should be continually growing, becoming fuller and fuller. I asked you last week, what the table of your relationship with Jesus looked like. Was it empty? (slide) Or was it full? (Slide). As we grow spiritually, we should be striving for a relationship that becomes fuller and fuller as we become more and more like Jesus.

So what does communing and fellowshipping with the Lord look like? I believe as we look at Exodus 11, communing and fellowshipping with the Lord is a full table all the time. There may be times when our relationship with the Lord wavers between an empty table, a full table or something in between. But what we should want and strive for and what God wants for us is to commune with Him, to be in fellowship with Him and to dwell with Him. Moses’ table is full as for forty days he is communing and fellowshipping in the presence of the Lord. May we be people who strive for a full table all the time. May we be people who strive for full communion and fellowship with God himself. This is what he wants. This is why he sent his son, Jesus, to this earth to die on a cross for our sins and then raised him from the dead. It was so God could dwell with us in full communion and fellowship. That brings us to our third next step which is to Strive to be in full communion and fellowship with the Lord. Now, we should strive for this kind of relationship while we are living on the earth, but I also believe that this picture of Moses communing and fellowshipping with the Lord for forty days and forty nights is a picture of what it will be like in Heaven. Heaven is the place where we will dwell with God and He will dwell with us in perfect relationship, in perfect communion and fellowship for all eternity.

We see this in The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis. The book ends with the old land of Narnia passing away and all true Narnians entering the new Narnia. This is a picture of Heaven, in which the old passes away and all things become new. There is a tremendous sense of excitement as the subjects of that new and glorious kingdom begin to explore. They leap over hills and cascade down waterfalls. Each new thing they encounter is more amazing than anything they have ever seen before. They don’t stop; they keep moving faster and faster. Everyone shouts, “farther up and farther in,” and then they rush off to see more wonders in their new land. This was Moses’ experience on Mount Sinai. He went farther up and farther in. God called him up the mountain. There the prophet saw God’s glory, heard God’s voice, and ate and drank with him. Then he entered into glory. He kept going farther up and farther in until finally he was enveloped by the luminous, radiant presence of God.

This is also the story of our own salvation, which Exodus 24 reveals from beginning to end. First God calls us to worship him, speaking to us by his Word. But we are separated from God by our sin. Therefore, we have to keep our distance until God provides a sacrifice of atonement through the blood of his covenant. God, himself, came to us in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ, to be our Savior and to reveal the glory of God. John 1:14 says “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John’s point was that Jesus reveals the glory of God in his very person. Since he was the divine Son of God, he was the full expression of God’s glory. Like the bright cloud that settled on the mountain, Jesus came down to reveal the glory of God. Once we have accepted Jesus as our Savior, our sins are covered, and we can have fellowship with God. We can sit down to feast at his table. But that is not how the story will end. It ends with our entrance into glory. This is the goal of our salvation: not just to meet with God and to sit down with him but to participate in his glory. What happened to Moses will happen to us: God will come down and lift us up into glory and He will dwell with us forever.

We have been saved for the glory of God. Glory is our destiny as God’s children. I Thessalonians 4:16-17 says, “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.” We will go farther up and farther in. Like Moses, we will be surrounded by the radiance of God’s glory. I Corinthians 2:9-10 says, “However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”—the things God has prepared for those who love him—these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.” Let us be people who live like we know where we are going. Let us be people who worship and serve like we know where we are going. And let us be people who know that God desires to dwell with us for all eternity.

As the praise team comes to lead us in a final song and the ushers prepare to collect the tithes and offerings let’s pray: Heavenly Father, thank you for these moments we have had studying your Word. I thank you for the privilege of your presence and your desire to dwell in us. Let us cultivate that relationship. May it be a fuller and fuller table as we are being sanctified. We look forward to dwelling with you for all eternity in the place that you have prepared for us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Opening: gracefv.com “The Meeting Place”

Conclusion: Ryken Commentary on Exodus

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Signed, Sealed and Delivered

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SIGNED, SEALED AND DELIVERED

On April 16, 1988, I heard some semblance of these words: Marc, do you take Judith to be your lawfully wedded wife from this day forward - to have and to hold, in good times and bad, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health; will you love, honor, and cherish her for as long as you both shall live? And of course, I said “I do.” Then the pastor said: Judy, do you take Marc to be your lawfully wedded husband from this day forward - to have and to hold, in good times and bad, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health; will you love, honor, and cherish him for as long as you both shall live? And of course, Judy said “I do.”

Then I heard words to this effect: The wedding ring is a symbol of eternity. It is an outward sign of an inward and spiritual bond which unites two hearts in endless love. And now as a token of your love and of your deep desire to be forever united in heart and soul, you, Marc, may place a ring on the finger of your bride. Marc, please repeat after me: Judith, I give you this ring as a symbol of my love and faithfulness to you, with this ring, I thee wed and I put her ring on the appropriate finger. Then the pastor said to Judy: By the same token, Judith, you may place a ring on the finger of your groom and say: Marc, I give you this ring as a symbol of my love and faithfulness to you, with this ring, I thee wed and she put my ring on the appropriate finger.

Then after all that we heard these words: Marc, Judith, having proclaimed your love for, and commitment to one another in the sight of Almighty God and these witnesses, it is my pleasure to pronounce you, by the power vested in me by the state of Pennsylvania, husband and wife! You may now kiss the bride! And then the pastor said to the congregation: It is my great pleasure to present to you Mr. and Mrs. Marc Webb!

In our marriage ceremony, there was a Declaration of Intent, a Vow/Ring Exchange and a Pronouncement of legal and binding marriage. There was a signing, sealing and delivering of an intimate, covenantal relationship between Judy and myself that was done before witnesses and is to last for as long as we both shall live. This morning, we are in Exodus 14:1-11 and we will witness the signing, sealing and delivering of another intimate, covenantal relationship. This covenant relationship is between the children of Israel and Yahweh that will last forever. The covenant will be signed as the children of Israel confirm their declaration of intent to obey God’s Words and Laws. The covenant will be sealed as both the parties make vows literally with blood during a solemn ceremony initiated by Yahweh. And the covenant will be delivered as Yahweh makes the pronouncement by inviting the major representatives of the people to a sacred meal in His presence.

This same intimate, covenantal relationship is what God still wants with each one of us today. It is a covenant that is still signed by those who confirm they will follow God by obeying His Words and Laws found in the Bible. It is a covenant that is sealed and initiated by the blood of Jesus Christ shed on the cross once for all and remembered by us during the sacred sacrament of Communion. It is a covenant that is delivered as God invites us into a sanctifying relationship with himself which is a daily feasting on His word, a daily prayer time with Him, and a daily striving to become more like Jesus. All this brings us to our big idea this morning that God desires to be in an intimate, covenantal relationship with His people.

Let’s open in prayer as we dedicate this time to the Lord. Heavenly Father, pour out your Holy Spirit on us this morning and open our hearts and minds to what you want us to learn and share with others. May your Word be a light unto our paths, and it may lead us, guide us, correct us, rebuke us and train us in righteousness. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Our first point is Covenant Confirmed found in Exodus 24:1-3. Please follow along as I read those verses. This is what God’s Word says, “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. You are to worship at a distance, but Moses alone is to approach the Lord; the others must not come near. And the people may not come up with him.” When Moses went and told the people all the Lord’s words and laws, they responded with one voice, “Everything the Lord has said we will do.”

We have finally come to the end of the Book of the Covenant God gave to Moses which started back in Exodus 20:21. God had just given the Ten Words or Commandments to the Israelites, and they were terrified by the holiness of Yahweh and their sinfulness. They told Moses to speak to them and to not let Yahweh speak to them or they felt they would die. Moses tried to convince them not to be afraid but to have a reverent fear of the Lord which would keep them from sinning. Then as God’s mediator between himself and the people, Moses approached the thick darkness where God was on Mt. Sinai. And Moses has been there ever since through chapters 21-23. The Lord told Moses about idols and altars and gave him the Book of the Covenant which were laws that fleshed out the Ten Words. By obeying the Book of the Covenant, the people would be able to live better connected to Yahweh and to each other in the covenant community.

Now that the covenant had been given to Moses, it had to be ratified or adopted by both parties. First, it needed to be confirmed by the people. The Lord is still talking to Moses and instructs him to gather representatives of the Israelite people to “come up” to the Lord. These representatives were Moses, his brother Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Aaron’s sons, and seventy of the elders of Israel. Moses would come up as God’s chosen mediator. Aaron, Nadab and Abihu would come up as the “priestly” representatives, and the seventy elders would come up as representatives of the whole Israelite community.

We see that there are divisions here among the people of Israel that we will also see later in the Tabernacle and the Temple. The Lord is setting them up now for what is to come. He is foreshadowing His intention to come and dwell in the midst of His people and the sacrificial system which must be in place to make that a reality. This is the beginning of the old covenant which will be abolished with the death and resurrection of Jesus as the new covenant is ushered in. This scene will be a worship service where Moses alone is allowed to approach the Lord, and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders, will be allowed to come and worship from a distance. The rest of the Israelite people will have to stay at the base of Mt. Sinai. By setting these boundaries God was teaching his people to honor his holiness.

After the Lord gave the Book of the Covenant and these instructions, Moses came down and told the people what the Lord had said. He recited the Ten Commandments to them again and the Book of the Covenant. The people responded, with one voice, all in one accord, saying, “everything the LORD has said we will do.” This was the second time they had agreed to the Lord’s terms. We saw the first time in Exodus 9:8, where they accepted the terms of the covenant before ever hearing what they were. This time they accepted the terms again after hearing it for themselves. By saying these words, they declared their intent to obey the Words and the Laws of the Lord, confirming the covenant with Him. When we consider our covenant relationship with the Lord, are we determined to obey the word of God? When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are confirming that “We will do and obey everything that the Lord has commanded.” Are we passionately resolved to obey God no matter the circumstances, by His grace, and for His glory? As God’s people we have a responsibility to be obedient to Him and His Words and He will hold us accountable to our covenant relationship with Himself. That brings us to our first next step on the back of your communication card which is to Affirm my obedience to the Lord and His Words and be held accountable to His covenant with me.

That brings us to our second point this morning, Covenant Ceremony, found in Exodus 24:4-8. This is what God’s Word says, “Moses then wrote down everything the Lord had said. He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel. Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord. Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he splashed against the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey.” Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

Once the people had reaffirmed that they would obey the covenant as spelled out by the Lord, Moses wrote it all down. This was the second time we are told that Moses wrote something down. This was a customary part of the covenant. It needed to be written down so it could not be changed and would not be forgotten by future generations. Writing the covenant down finalized it. The next morning Moses prepares for the covenant ceremony to take place. He gets up and builds an altar at the foot of Mt. Sinai. He then sets up twelve stone pillars. The altar would represent the Lord, and the stone pillars would represent the twelve tribes of Israel, in the covenant ceremony. The two parties of the covenant were represented in this way in order to seal the covenant. We can notice the way the Lord is teaching His people. In Exodus 23:24 they were told to tear down the Canaanite pillars used in pagan worship. But not all pillars were unlawful. God directed them to set up twelve pillars that were not to be worshiped but were to represent themselves in the sealing of the covenant. God taught them what was unlawful and then taught them what was lawful.

The first part of the covenant ceremony was the sacrifices. Moses sent young men to offer young bulls as burnt and fellowship offerings on the altar. The importance of the covenant ceremony can be seen in the sacrifice of young bulls as these were of greater value than sheep and goats. These young men would not have been priests because the Lord had not appointed Aaron and his sons to the priestly office yet. They were probably selected for this priestly task because of their strength. It would have taken many strong young men to wrangle and tie what would be a significant number of young bulls up onto the altar to be sacrificed for the people. The burnt offerings were offerings that were completely burnt up and given over to God. These offerings represented full atonement for sin, thanksgiving and a total dedication of themselves to the Lord. The fellowship offerings represented peace and fellowship with God and were served as a meal.

The second part of the covenant ceremony and a significant moment happens next. Moses took half the blood of the bulls and put it in bowls and the other half he sprinkled or splashed on the altar. This application of blood on the altar signified the Lord’s acceptance of the people’s sacrifices, their forgiveness and that He was one of the parties of the covenant. It also showed that this relationship that they were entering into was initiated by God and not by them. The third part of the covenant ceremony started as Moses read the BOC to them a second time. The people then reaffirmed their commitment to the Lord’s covenant a third time. The people affirmed their vows before the Lord who had redeemed them from slavery in Egypt and was bringing them to the Promised Land as he had promised Abraham. This repetition was necessary to teach the people the terms of the covenant and for the people to be fully informed and fully understand what they were entering into with the One, True and Living God. To live in fellowship with God, the people needed to affirm their complete obedience to the covenant terms he set forth. This time when they said “We will do everything the Lord has said” it was an emphatic acknowledgement that they knew that Yahweh was their covenant Lord and that they knew who would enforce the terms of the covenant if they were broken or ignored.

The fourth part of the covenant ceremony began after the people had again pledged their obedience. Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people. The people being the seventy elders who represented the entire covenant community of the Israelites. This symbolized that they were the other party in covenant with the Lord. You can imagine how the blood would be a reminder of the covenant they were making that day. The sacrifices of the bulls and the splashing of the blood would be memorable to the people. The blood would remain on their skin for days and on their clothing maybe for as long as their clothes lasted. Every time they looked at the blood on their skin or clothes, they would be reminded of the formal covenant they had made with Almighty God to which the Lord and themselves were bound to by oath. This reminds me of the wedding rings Judy, and I gave each other during our wedding vows. We wear them to remind us of the sacred covenant we are bound to “till death do us part.”

Then Moses said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.” With these words the covenant was sealed and both parties were swearing in blood that they would keep the covenant. It was a matter of life or death. If the people didn’t keep the covenant their blood or life could be required of them. Sealing this covenant between Himself and the Israelites in blood showed how serious the Lord was in demanding their obedience. We saw this same symbolism in the covenant God made with Abraham in Genesis 15. Both parties walked through a line of severed animals symbolizing if the covenant was broken, they deserved to be severed just like the sacrificed animals.

The Lord knew that the people could not completely obey His covenant so at the same time the blood was a sign of His mercy. It was the way for them to be reconciled to Himself when they sinned. Moses’ words, “This is the blood of the covenant” should cause us to remember Jesus and his sacrifice on the cross. Matthew 26:28 says, (Jesus is talking) “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” It is only by Jesus’s shed blood on the cross that we can enter into an intimate covenantal relationship with God (Big Idea). The only way to be saved, to be forgiven, to have a right relationship with God, and ultimately to get to Heaven, is by the blood of Jesus Christ. His blood must be applied directly to our sins. Hebrews 9:21-22 says that we must be “sprinkled with blood” because without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of sins. And if our sins are not forgiven, we can’t be in relationship with God, we can’t draw near to Him. The only way to be in an intimate, covenantal relationship with the One True and Living God is to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior and then you can enter in. Maybe you have never accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and the Lord God of the universe is speaking to you right now. Maybe in your spirit right now you know that you need a relationship with Jesus. That feeling is so strong that you realize you need to make that decision this morning. That brings us to our second next step which is Accept Jesus as my Savior and enter into an intimate covenantal relationship with Him. ​​ 

That brings us to our third point, Covenant Meal, found in Exodus 24:9-11. This is what God’s Word says, “Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky. But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.”

This has got to be one of the most spectacular scenes in all of God’s Word. We are told twice that the leaders of Israel, “saw” or “beheld” God and lived to tell about it. Currid writes, “The verb translated ‘beheld’ is not the normal Hebrew word meaning ‘to see.’ It is a stronger, more intense term.” These men fixed their gaze upon God. This was God in his grace and mercy giving Israel a glimpse of the intimate relationship they could have if they were obedient. Intimacy always was and is the goal of God’s covenant with His people.

Later in Exodus 33:20, God will tell Moses that “no one can see me and live” so we don’t know exactly what they saw. Moses, again in Exodus 33, was only allowed to see God’s “back” and that was it. Here it seems like they were allowed to see God’s feet because they tried to describe what was underneath. But this picture was not definitive as they saw “something like” pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky. Sapphire, or as Ezekiel 1:26 calls it, “lapis lazuli”, describes the “throne room” of God in Ezekiel’s vision. “Clear as the sky itself” suggests there were no imperfections and “clear” literally means “cleansed.” It is possible that when they “saw” God they were bowed down, prostrate at His feet in worship. It is also possible that they were looking up at God from underneath and could only see his feet and what he was standing on. No matter the perspective, it could not be adequately described by Moses. It was the most spectacular thing any of them had ever seen or for some of them would ever see again. These leaders of God’s people were granted the extraordinary privilege of seeing God’s glory and majesty.

Moses and the elders started at a distance separated from God by their sin. God invited them into a covenant with himself, gave them His Word, atoned for their sin and brought them into His presence where they saw Him. Ryken says, “It was a foretaste of Heaven.” This is also the story of our salvation. We were separated from God by our sin, God atoned for our sin through the blood of his son Jesus Christ, the blood of the covenant and one day we will be welcomed into heaven, into his presence and we will see the Lord face-to-face. We are told a few more things in verse 11. First, God did not “raise His hand against the leaders of the Israelites.” “To raise his hand” meant to bring judgment on them. There would be no judgment meaning death, because God had cleansed and invited these men into His presence. So why did Moses mention this? I think God didn’t want His people to take his presence for granted. This was special permission given by Him for these specific representatives and He didn’t want later Israelites to believe that it was ok to approach without the proper preparation. Just like the covenant, this special presence of the Lord had to be initiated by Him.

Next, we see that these leaders were given another special privilege and one that I do not want us to miss this morning. It says they ate and drank with God. We don’t know what they ate and drank. Maybe it was the “fellowship” offering that was sacrificed earlier. Maybe it was bread and wine. Whatever it was, after the covenant was signed and sealed, they partook of a covenant meal which delivered the covenant to God’s people. It was common for those entering into a covenant together to share a meal. We see this with Isaac and Abimelech in Genesis 26:30 and with Jacob and Laban in Genesis 31:46. The theme of eating and drinking with God runs all the way through Scripture. Abraham welcomed a divine angel into his tent for dinner in Genesis 18. King David said that the Lord prepared a table for him in Psalm 23:5a. We see the covenant meal here in Exodus, in the NT with the Lord’s Supper and in our partaking of Holy Communion and one day we will share in “the wedding supper of the Lamb” as seen in Revelation 19:9. The act of breaking bread is symbolic of friendship and relationship. This eating and drinking with God demonstrated that they had fellowship with and were at peace with Him. It symbolized the intimate covenantal relationship that the Lord wanted with His people. It connected them to one another and was a powerful symbol of belonging. Yahweh was their God, and they were His people. The Bible often describes our relationship with God in terms of sharing a meal and these covenantal meals show us that God wants to be in an intimate covenantal relationship with us (Big Idea).

The power of a meal to bring people together is vividly portrayed in Babette’s Feast, a film set around a dinner table. In the film a master chef living as an exile from Paris in a small Danish fishing village spends her fortune preparing an elaborate feast. Although her guests are generally cantankerous and unkind, the feast forms the context for the restoration of old friendships, the rekindling of old loves, and the reconciliation of old enemies. Doesn’t that describe us? We as human beings are generally unkind and cantankerous at times especially without knowing Jesus and not having the Holy Spirit inside of us. We were enemies of God before we were saved and have been reconciled through the blood of the covenant, the blood of his son Jesus shed on the cross. And now as we are being sanctified, the Lord, Himself, invites us to sit down and eat and drink with him. He offers us this kind of intimate fellowship with himself.

Is this the kind of relationship that you have with God? Do you have such a close friendship with the Lord that it’s like sitting down to eat and drink with Him? As Christians, our relationship with the Lord can vary. It can be shallow going wide but never deep. It can be a relationship we try to manage on our own terms or think it depends on what we do and not on what God had done through Jesus. How tragic it is when God’s people settle for a lower level of relationship than what he wants with us. The God of the Universe is calling us to enter in His presence to eat and drink with Him. James 4:7-8 says this, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Let us be people who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Let us be people who strive to become more like Jesus every day. Let us strive to be holy as the Lord is holy. Let us be people who seek God and His table with our whole hearts and not settle for less of a relationship than He has called us to. That brings us to our third next step this morning which is to Seek the Lord with my whole heart and yearn for a full relationship with Him at His table.

As we wrap up this morning, it is this sitting at the table with Jesus, as a picture of our relationship with him, that excites me. Our relationship with Jesus is the most important relationship in our lives. This relationship takes dedication and work, as with a garden, it needs to be cultivated and tended, so that it will grow. If we only cultivate it on Sundays and Wednesdays, it will not be the full relationship we see in our passage this morning. It must be cultivated daily and it must go deep. It can’t be shallow if we are striving to live holy lives, set apart for God’s work in this world. So, I want you to think about, meditate and pray on your relationship with God this month. Think about the environment of your relationship with Jesus. Think about the table of your relationship. What does it look like? Is it full? Is it deep? Are you seeking after God with your whole heart? And we will come back to this picture in the near future.

As the praise team comes to lead us in a final song and the ushers prepare to collect the tithes and offerings, let’s pray: Dear Heavenly Father, your Word is living and eternal. Your Word says that Heaven and earth will pass away, but your words will not pass away. Lord, help us to be people of your Word. Lord, we want to affirm our obedience to you and your Word and be held accountable to your covenant with us. I pray that those who don’t know you will accept your son, Jesus as their Savior and enter into an intimate covenantal relationship with Him. And Lord I pray that we will all seek you with our whole hearts and yearn for a more intimate relationship with you where we linger with you at your table as you invite us to eat and drink with you. In Jesus’ name, Amen. ​​ 

 

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Hello Darkness, My Old Friend

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Hello Darkness, My Old Friend

A three-year old boy was visiting his aunt overnight and he begged for the hall light to be left on and his bedroom door ajar when he went to bed. His aunt reminded him that he wasn’t afraid of the dark at home and he responded, “Yes, but there it’s my dark.”

How many people have ever been afraid of the dark? I didn’t look this up, but I would suspect that most younger kids, maybe ages ten and below, are afraid of the dark at one time or the other. I remember a time during those ages that I was afraid of the dark. I would get a running start up the stairs or make sure that I turned on certain lights to illuminate the darkest spaces in my house. As a teenager, I became comfortable in the dark, as I worked as a janitor in our church, and it got pretty dark there during the winter evenings. Then after graduating from high school, I worked from 11:00 pm to 7:00 am doing security for office buildings. We would never turn on all the lights, so I became comfortable in the dark. It kind of became my friend and not a place of fear, even when I was working alone. There was also a point where I came to trust the Lord to go before me and protect me from the dark or whatever fears I may have been experiencing.

We all have fears. The world is a dangerous place, and we can be so afraid that it can become debilitating. But the one constant is the presence of the Lord. Without the presence of the Lord in our lives we would not be able to stand up against the fears that Satan would throw against us. Darkness, or any other fear, can’t debilitate us because with the presence of the Lord in our lives, we make them our old friends. Am I still afraid of certain things? Like snakes and flying? Yes, but I know that if I had to fly or came across a snake, that I could turn to the Lord, in those times and my fear would lessen. The presence of the Lord makes the dark my dark and can make the dark your dark as well.

This morning, we are finishing up the Book of the Covenant. God has set before His people a long list of laws that he demands they obey, as their covenant God. He has redeemed them, saved them, and as they are on the precipice of the Promised Land, obedience is key. He gave them His law, now He will give them His presence. In our scripture this morning, God will send His special presence to be with them to guide and protect them, He will bless them as they worship Him and Him alone, and He will establish them in their Promised Place. But they aren’t going to be allowed to just sit back and watch it happen. In order for this to take place, God demanded that the Israelites give him their absolute and undying loyalty and obedience. The same is true for His people today. We are on the same journey as the Israelites. They were saved from slavery to Pharaoh. We have been saved from slavery to sin. They are on the way to their Promised Land. We are on our way to our eternal promised land, heaven. And as we journey on this earth, God has sent His special presence to be with us and to guide and protect us, He blesses us as we worship Him and Him alone and he has established a promised place for us in heaven. And while we are on this earth, in the process of sanctification or becoming more like Jesus, we are also called to an absolute, undying loyalty and obedience in and to the Lord. That brings us to our big idea this morning: God demands absolute, undying loyalty and obedience from His people.

Let’s pray: Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day, your day that you have made. Help us to rejoice and be glad in it. Pour out your Holy Spirit on us as we learn from your Word. Show us what you want each of us to know and share with others. Let our words, actions and thoughts honor and glorify you during this time. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Our first point is, Presence, found in Exodus 23:20-23. This is what God’s Word says, “See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him. If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out.”

After setting all the laws before His people in the past two chapters, we would expect to see the Lord state an expectation of obedience to all the laws he commanded. But he doesn’t. Instead, he states he is going to provide an angel for them, and they would be expected to obey this angel he is sending to them. Before we talk about who the angel is, let’s talk about the angel’s role. The angel is to go ahead of the people to guard them along the way as he brings them to the place he has prepared for them. What is this place God has prepared for them? It is the Promised Land, the land of Canaan, promised to their forefathers.

What else do we learn about the angel from this passage? The angel has authority from God to command them. They are to pay attention to him, listen to what he says. The angel also has authority to forgive or not forgive their sins. They’re not to rebel against him and if they do, the angel will not forgive their rebellion. Also, God’s name is in the angel. God’s name is the very essence of who God is. It includes His character and attributes. They are to listen to what the angel says and do all that God says. This means that the words of the angel are the very words of God. If they are obedient to the commands of the angel, God promises to protect his covenant people from their enemies. The enemies of God’s people will become the enemies of God himself. The last thing we learn here about this angel is that he will wipe out those in the Promised Land that have come under God’s judgment for their sin and rebellion against Him. This angel is a warrior angel who will wipe out all the nations living in the Promised Land. They would no longer be counted among the nations of the earth. The list of six peoples occupying the Promised Land is not exhaustive but means that every nation in the Promised Land will be wiped out to make way for God’s chosen people. ​​ 

Now that we’ve talked about what the angel is going to do, let’s talk about who the angel is. There are five possibilities put forth by the commentators. One, it could be the pillar of cloud and fire that has been leading them ever since they entered the wilderness. Two, it could just be a metaphor for the Lord’s guidance. Three, it could be a human being such as Moses or Joshua. Four, it could be an actual angel like Michael or Gabriel. Lastly, it could be the pre-incarnate Christ. When we take into account all the angel will do and how closely he is connected to God, I believe that the angel is the second person of the Trinity, the pre-incarnate Christ. Christ can forgive or not forgive sins, Christ is the very essence of God, with the same character and attributes. Jesus and the Father are one. The words of Jesus are the very words of God. We have already seen the pre-incarnate Christ at the burning bush. The pre-incarnate Christ was going to be with them, go ahead of them, guide and protect them and would deliver them to the Promised Land. They didn’t need to be afraid of anything along the way because God was with them. God made the dark their dark. They needed to pay attention to the angel, listen to the angel and obey the angel just as they would to God. He demanded absolute, undying loyalty and obedience from His people. (Big Idea).

That leads us to our second point, Promise, found in Exodus 23:24-30. This is what God’s Word says, “Do not bow down before their gods or worship them or follow their practices. You must demolish them and break their sacred stones to pieces. Worship the Lord your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span. “I will send my terror ahead of you and throw into confusion every nation you encounter. I will make all your enemies turn their backs and run. I will send the hornet ahead of you to drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites out of your way. But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land.”

We have seen over and over and over again what God wanted from His people. And we’ve seen that God knew what sin would plague His people in the Promised Land. Last week, I said we can know what is important to God by what he reiterates to His people and what is important to God should be important to us. He again warns them to not bow down before the Canaanite gods, to not worship them or follow their practices. God knew that the gods of the Canaanites would be enticing to the Israelites, so he warned them again. But he commanded them to do more than just abstain from bowing down, worshiping or following their practices. He demanded that they take an active role by demolishing the Canaanite gods and sacred stones. The Canaanites would set up stone monuments to their gods and would worship them and the Israelites were to completely destroy all symbols of pagan worship. This was so the Israelites would not be tempted to worship them. We have the same things in our culture today and even in our own lives that we need to demolish and break into pieces. What are the idols in your heart and in my heart that competes with God for our affections, our hearts, our time, our resources, our attention, and our love? The Lord demands our absolute, undying loyalty and obedience (Big Idea) and that means we must destroy all idols and sacred stones in our lives. That brings us to our first next step on the back of your communication card: Destroy the idols and sacred stones in my life that keep me from worshiping the one true God.

After warning them what not to worship, the Lord tells them who they are to worship. They are to worship Him, the Lord their God. Then he made covenant promises to them. If they would worship Him and Him alone, the Lord promised that His blessing would be on their food and water. He promised to take away sickness from among them. He promised that their women wouldn’t miscarry or be barren. And he promised them a full life span. These were essentially the same promises of blessing that God gave to Abraham in Genesis 12. These were also covenant promises meaning that if the Israelites kept the covenant, the Lord would keep these covenant promises that he just made to them. But if they didn’t keep the covenant, then the covenant promises would be forfeited. The same covenant promises would turn into covenant curses because of the people’s disobedience as we saw in Deuteronomy 28:1-15 that Jackie read for us.

After making covenant promises that affected the people and their well-being, he goes on to make covenant promises that would affect the Promised Land that he was giving to them. The Lord would send His terror and His hornet ahead of them into the Promised Land to confuse the enemy nations they would encounter. Their enemies would “turn their backs and run” and be driven from the land, out of their way. The Lord’s “terror” and “hornet” could be the angel He is sending ahead of them, or it could have been the Lord himself confusing their enemies as he did to the Egyptian army at the Red Sea. “Terror” refers to the dread that would overwhelm the Canaanites when they realized the Lord was fighting for the Israelites. “Hornets” refers to the fear and panic that would ensue. Think about what it would look like to see a group of people being attacked by a hive of angry hornets. That’s the picture.

The phrase “turn their backs and run” could mean that as the Israelites were coming into the Promised Land all they would see are the backs of their enemies running away from them in terror. Or another translation could be that the Israelites have their enemies by the neck meaning their enemies are in total submission to them implying total victory over them. Then the Lord explains to them how he will drive the Canaanites out. It will not happen immediately upon their arrival or even in a single year but little by little. There were a couple of reasons for this. First, if he drove all the Canaanite peoples out immediately upon their arrival the land would be desolate and wild animals would become too numerous for them. The last count we had of the Israelites was somewhere around one to two million people. The land that God was giving to them was about 1.2 million square miles which would be equivalent to the areas of Alaska, Texas and California. In 2010 it was estimated that 63 million people lived in those three states. If all of a sudden, those 63 million people were gone and replaced by 2 million people, it would become a desolate place, and wild animals would be roaming around. So, until the Israelites could grow in population it made perfect sense for God to drive the Canaanite peoples out little by little. This didn’t negate the promise that God had made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, it just made the land more effective for God’s chosen people. The Canaanite people would still be judged and still be driven out, it would just be done so the land promised to them would be healthy when they took full possession of it

That leads us to our third point, Place, found in Exodus 23:31-33. This is what God’s Word says, “I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, and from the desert to the Euphrates River. I will give into your hands the people who live in the land, and you will drive them out before you. Do not make a covenant with them or with their gods. Do not let them live in your land or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you.”

God has promised that his presence would be with His people and go ahead of them. He made covenant promises to them about their bodily health and the health of the land they would be inhabiting, as long as they kept their end of the covenant. Now, the Lord speaks to them about the specific place they would be inhabiting. He begins by spelling out the borders of the Promised Land he was giving them. Their land would stretch from the Red Sea in the south to the Mediterranean Sea in the west and from the desert in the east to the Euphrates River in the north. Then we see again that taking possession of the Promised Land meant taking action on their part. The Lord would give the people into the hands of the Israelites, and they would drive the Canaanites out before them. If they were obedient to the Lord this would be a simple process. If they weren’t obedient, it would be difficult to impossible.

Then the Lord closes the Book of the Covenant commanding them to not do certain things and tells them why they needed to obey these specific commands. First, they were to not make any covenants with the Canaanite peoples or their gods. In Middle Eastern culture when a covenant was made, the names of their gods were invoked as part of ratifying the covenant. If you remember last week, God commanded them to not invoke the names of other gods and to not let them be heard on their lips. We now see the reason why that command was important. If they were tempted to make a covenant with the people in the land, which they were commanded not to do, God had already commanded them against what would take place in making that treaty. God set these laws, these checks and balances before them, so that His people would live holy lives with absolute, undying loyalty and obedience to their covenant King. (Big Idea)

Second, they were not to let them live in their land. In Deuteronomy 20, they were to destroy every man, woman, child and animal as they went into the Promised Land. We may wonder why this was needed. It was because if they didn’t, the temptation to become like them instead of becoming more like their covenant King would be overwhelming and would cause them to sin against the Lord. They would worship the gods of the Canaanites instead of the one true God. God made us with what I call a God-shaped hole in our hearts. He made us to worship Him and if we decide not to worship God, it is guaranteed that we will worship something or someone else. This is why God warned them again and again and again against worshiping other gods. He knew that he made them to worship and by giving them the choice invariably many would choose other gods besides Himself. These other gods would be a snare or trap to God’s people. The Hebrew word for “snare” means not just falling into sin but falling into destruction. God knew that getting caught in the “snare or trap” of these false gods meant their destruction.

This is why our big idea is so important. If we aren’t as jealous for our God as he is for us, we will be tempted to follow after and worship every other god in the world. If we aren’t daily diligently seeking after the Lord, if we aren’t serious about our absolute and undying loyalty and obedience to the Lord, we will not only be tempted but will lose out to that temptation and sin every time. If we are not careful it can lead to our destruction. That brings us to our second next step on the back of your communication card: Not allow the gods of this world to be a snare to me in worshiping the one true God.

If we destroy the idols in our lives and if we don’t allow the gods of this world to ensnare us, we can fulfill our purpose to serve and worship the one true God. But we need to go deeper than that; we must be on guard daily against the attacks of the enemy. We must desperately want complete victory and not be satisfied with a partial victory. God adopted a zero-tolerance policy toward the Canaanites and their gods, and we must do the same with the gods of this world today. We can’t settle for a partial victory that stops short of our absolute, undying loyalty and obedience to Christ. (Big Idea) We may be tempted to think a little exposure to sin won’t harm us. It’s ok to look at a little pornography. Or it’s ok to have premarital sex. Or it’s ok to get a little drunk once in a while. Or it’s ok to cut corners at work sometimes. Or it’s ok to gossip or tell a little white lie when I have to. These little compromises trap us as Christians and before we know it we are indulging in bigger and bigger sins that can lead us to destruction.

When it comes to sin, we must adopt a no compromise and a zero-tolerance policy. We must tear down and destroy all temptation in our lives. That may mean not going to certain places, not being with certain friends, not entertaining certain ideas, conversations or desires. If we claim to follow Jesus Christ, we need to get rid of anything and everything that can become a snare or trap for us. Here are some questions every one of us should ask ourselves: What do I need to get rid of? What temptations do I need to avoid? What is keeping me from total obedience to Christ? If we don’t get rid of these things, we’ll be trapped. We need to remember that as Christians we are on the way to our eternal Promised Land. We are under the watchful care of our Guardian Savior—Jesus Christ—who has won the victory and whose kingdom is advancing little by little. There is no room for compromise. That brings us to our last next step this morning: Not settle for a partial victory that falls short of full obedience to Jesus Christ.

As the praise team comes to lead us in a final song and the ushers prepare to collect the tithes and offerings, let’s pray: Lord God, thank you for this opportunity to be in your Word this morning. I pray that each of us will take something new with us and share it with those we come in contact with this week. Help us by your Holy Spirit to destroy the idols and sacred stones in our lives that keep us from worshiping You. Help us to not allow the gods of this world to be a snare to us in worshiping You. And help us to not settle for a partial victory that falls short of full obedience to Jesus Christ. And Lord, help us to demand absolute, undying loyalty and obedience to you from ourselves. May we strive to be holy people, becoming more like your son, Jesus, every single day. In Jesus’s name, Amen

 

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Getting the First Button Right

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Getting the First Button Right

Jimmy Johnson was a former college football head coach for the University of Miami and in the NFL with the Dallas Cowboys. Johnson divorced his wife of 26 years when he left Miami to become the head coach for the Cowboys. He said he needed a wife while coaching on the college level for social functions and to show families that he would be looking out for their sons. In pro football, however, she was an unnecessary accouterment and a distraction to winning. He said winning football was his number one priority and his two sons second. In contrast to this, Tom Landry, another former head coach of the Dallas Cowboys said, "The thrill of knowing Jesus is the greatest thing that ever happened to me ... I think God has put me in a very special place, and He expects me to use it to His glory in everything I do ... whether coaching football or talking to the press, I'm always a Christian ... Christ is first, family second and football third." How tragic it is when we put ourselves and what we want first instead of the Lord. And how awesome it is when we put Him first before ourselves, others and all things.

“Firsts” are important to God. Remember, in the First Commandment, God said, “You shall have no other gods before Me.” Clearly, He wants to be ahead of everything else in your life. He wants you to put Him before your church, your job, your money, your “things,” even your spouse and children. He wants to be your number one priority. Many people miss out on receiving the blessings God has planned for them simply because they do not put Him first. So, the question before us all this morning is, “What about you and me?” What – or who – is first in our lives? Each of us would do well to honestly ponder that question and do some soul searching to see if we are putting God first in all things or are we putting other things or persons first in our lives. Not putting God first is like buttoning your coat incorrectly: if you get the first button wrong, all the others will be wrong. The good news is when you get the first button right, all the others will line up, too. As you put God first, everything else in your life will begin to line up as well.

In our scripture this morning, we continue in Exodus 23 and the Book of the Covenant, which are the laws that God set forth before the Israelites to help them be more connected to him and to each other in the covenant community. In our scripture this morning God will set forth laws involving their work and their worship. In the middle, he will command them to obey everything he has said to them and will again warn them to not have any other gods before Him. He wants them and us to put him first all things which brings us to our big idea that God demands that His people put Him first.

Let’s Pray: Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for another day where we, as your church, have gathered in praise and worship to the one and only true Sovereign Lord and God. Pour out your Holy Spirit on us as we hear and apply your Word this morning. Lord, help us all to have a hunger and thirst for righteousness and to grow spiritually by being in your Word and obeying it daily. May we take becoming more like Jesus seriously as we pray for revival and spiritual awakening in our community, our church and our lives. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

There are two points this morning, the first is Work, found in Exodus 23:10-13. This is what God’s Word says, “For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops, but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what is left. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove. “Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and so that the slave born in your household and the foreigner living among you may be refreshed. “Be careful to do everything I have said to you. Do not invoke the names of other gods; do not let them be heard on your lips.”

Last week, Bob taught us from Exodus 23:1-9, which involved laws concerning justice and mercy. We learned that God wants his people to tell the truth, to be just and to be compassionate in their dealings with each other. Bob posed some questions that he challenged us to think about; questions which would help us to understand how to live in community with each other and to help us to realize whether or not we are living holy lives and becoming more like Jesus every day. Today, we continue the theme of compassion and holiness as God sets forth laws involving work and worship. By setting forth laws involving these two extremes, God is demanding that his people put him first in everything they do.

First, God sets forth laws which flesh out the fourth commandment – Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. The first law is about what is called the Sabbath year. For six years the Israelites were to sow their fields, vineyards and olive groves and reap their harvests. Then every seventh year they were to let their land go unplowed and unused, meaning they were not to sow and reap but just let the land grow wild. Why did God want them to do this? God wanted them to do this so that the poor people in the community would have plenty to eat. But God not only cared and was concerned with the poor in the community he also cared and was concerned about the wild animals. This was God’s attribute of compassion showing forth to those human beings and animals who were most vulnerable in the covenant community when it came to having enough to eat.

The second law continues the theme of Sabbath and compassion. God reiterates the Sabbath week which he first introduced to the Israelites back in Exodus 16 when God gave his people manna to eat in the wilderness. Exodus 16:29 says, “Bear in mind that the Lord has given you the Sabbath; that is why on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Everyone is to stay where they are on the seventh day; no one is to go out.” He further fleshed it out in the fifth commandment in Exodus 20:8-11 which says, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”

Now, the Lord commands the Sabbath for the third time. When God reiterates something again and again, we need to take notice because it means it is important to God and should also be important to us. The word Sabbath means “to rest.” God modeled this Sabbath rest back at creation when he rested on the seventh day after creating the world in six days. God created our bodies, and he knew that we needed a sabbath rhythm in order to function properly in the world he created for us. But the sabbath day wasn’t just for his chosen people. His compassionate care also extended to their animals, this time their work animals, their oxen and their donkeys. The sabbath day was to be a time that the people and their work animals rested from their labors.

Also, the slaves born in their households and the foreigners living among them were to observe the Sabbath in order to be refreshed, as well. MacKay says, “The word for ‘refreshed’ implies catching one’s breath, as well as regaining strength to go on.” The Israelites would have understood this need for a Sabbath rest after being oppressed in Egypt. Work was to stop on the Sabbath day so that God’s chosen people would take that time to worship Him and become closer connected to Him. Both the Sabbath year and week were to be times of rest and refreshment and included time to worship Him showing God’s compassion to them.

In the middle of our two points, God commands two things which is really the main point of the passage and reminds us of our big idea to put God first. One, they were to be careful to do everything he had said to them, meaning they were to obey every one of the laws in the Book of the Covenant that he was laying before them. Second, they were to have no other gods before him. Again, he has reiterated the second commandment a couple of times. What is important to God should be important to his people. So, we should take heed to have no other gods before him. But God took it even farther as he said they were to not even invoke the names of other gods meaning they were not to “cause other gods to be remembered.” This included speaking their names in everyday living, in worship and taking oaths in a court of law. If they heeded this command to do everything he said, to have no other gods before Him and to not even speak their names, they would be putting him first which is where Almighty God belonged in their lives and in ours (Big Idea). That brings us to our first next step this morning which is to Have no other gods before the Lord and to not even entertain other gods in my life.

That brings us to our second point, Worship, found in Exodus 23:14-19. This is what God’s Word says, “Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival to me. “Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread; for seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Aviv, for in that month you came out of Egypt. “No one is to appear before me empty-handed. “Celebrate the Festival of Harvest with the first fruits of the crops you sow in your field. “Celebrate the Festival of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field. “Three times a year all the men are to appear before the Sovereign Lord. “Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast. “The fat of my festival offerings must not be kept until morning. “Bring the best of the first fruits of your soil to the house of the Lord your God. “Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.

This section deals with worship and the special ways His chosen people were to appear before Him throughout the year. The theme of rhythm is continued in that three times a year they were to celebrate a festival to the Lord. If you remember in Exodus 5, this was the reason why Moses went to Pharaoh to ask him to let the Israelites go. It was so they could worship the Lord their God. Exodus 5:1 says, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says, “Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.” God brought His people out of slavery in Egypt so they could worship him and him alone. God now sets forth laws concerning three festivals. It is important to note that they were non-negotiable. These were laws that as His chosen people they had to obey. By celebrating these festivals, they were acknowledging the Lord as their covenant king and thanking Him for his goodness to them in blessing the land.

The first law concerned the Festival of Unleavened Bread. This festival was commanded by the Lord back in Exodus 12 before God sent the Angel of Death to kill every firstborn of Egypt and before the Israelites were set free from slavery. Exodus 12:14 says, “This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord – a lasting ordinance.” Then God reiterated how they were to celebrate this festival. They were to eat bread made without yeast for seven days, as he had commanded them back in Egypt. This festival was to commemorate their deliverance from Pharoah and to remember the Passover when God brought them out of slavery. God then told them they were to observe or keep this festival at the appointed time in the month of Aviv. Again, we learn from Exodus 12 that they were to celebrate this festival from the evening of the fourteenth to the evening of the twenty-first day of Aviv. They were to celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread as a remembrance every year starting on the exact day of the month that the actual Passover took place. This was a continual reminder to every generation of Jewish persons of what God had done for their ancestors and for them. This festival would have come before any substantial harvest would have been seen so it would have been celebrated in faith that God would provide from the land for His people. But even though they hadn’t seen a substantial harvest they were still not to appear before God empty-handed. They were to appear before the Lord, meaning in His presence, either at the Tabernacle or the Temple, with the appropriate sacrifices.

The second law concerned the Festival of Harvest, which is also called the Festival of Weeks or Pentecost because it was celebrated seven weeks or the fiftieth day from the Sabbath beginning the Passover. It was celebrated in the month of Sivan or our May/June. This was a one-day festival that commemorated the giving of the law at Mt. Sinai and celebrated the harvest of the wheat and spelt. They were to celebrate this festival with the first fruits of their crops that they sowed in their fields. This festival was a celebration in recognition of his gift of the land to them. Again, it was an expression of faith in that it looked forward to a bountiful harvest as God promised to prosper them from the land he was giving to them. Trusting and having faith in the Lord to provide meant that they needed to bring their best to him right off the top.

The third law concerned the Festival of Ingathering which occurred at the end of the growing season when they gathered their crops from the field. This festival would be held in autumn, in the month of Tishri or our September/October, celebrating the harvest that God had provided for them. This festival was also known as the Festival of Tabernacles or Booths. It also lasted for seven days, during which the Israelites lived in booths made from tree branches, to commemorate the way their forefathers lived in the wilderness. So, like the Festival of Unleavened Bread, this festival looked back to God’s saving work in freeing them from slavery in Egypt. At this time their sacrifices came from their harvest of fruit, grapes and olives from their orchards and vineyards.

Then God again repeats the command from the beginning of this section with a slight variation: Three times a year all the men were to appear before their Sovereign Lord. “Sovereign” points to God’s authority as their Lord. This was in overt contrast to the Canaanite god, Baal, which means “master.” The Lord demanded absolute loyalty as the one who saved His people from slavery and provided for His people from the land. Also, these festivals required a serious time commitment from the people. Like the Sabbath, it showed that our lives don’t depend on what we do but on God’s favor toward His people. The Sabbath year and week and the three yearly festivals not only gave the people times of rest and refreshment but gave them opportunities to strengthen their faith in their Sovereign Lord. A stoppage of work every week, every seven years and three other times a year would help them to live in faith and by faith in their covenant God. Today, we don’t have the same stoppages as the Israelites, but we still need to live in and by faith in our Lord every single day. We need to trust in Him for all things. That brings us to our second next step which is to Live in and by faith in my Sovereign Lord.

The final four laws correspond to the three festivals in one way or the other and show us what kind of sacrifice is pleasing to God. It speaks to offering ourselves as living sacrifices to the Lord. The first law was to not offer the blood of a sacrifice to the Lord along with anything containing yeast. Blood represented the Lord’s gift of life and was to be sacrificed to him and him alone. For us, this means we can only come to God based on the blood of Jesus Christ shed on the cross. Also, the Israelites were forbidden to offer a sacrifice with yeast in it. Yeast was symbolic of impurity, corruption and sin, so when they brought their sacrifice, it was to not be corrupted with yeast or leaven. Leviticus 2:11 says, “Every grain offering you bring to the LORD must be made without yeast, for you are not to burn any yeast or honey in an offering made to the LORD by fire.” This law shows us that we must offer ourselves to God righteously or in the right way.

The second law was that the fat of the festival offerings was not to be kept until morning. The fat of the offering was the best of the offering and was only to be sacrificed to the Lord. To keep it overnight meant that it was not given to the Lord properly or wholeheartedly. It was to be given at the time of the offering and no leftovers were to be kept for themselves. We can do the same thing today. We can offer ourselves to the Lord half-heartedly by only giving him our leftovers. We worship Him on Sundays and Wednesdays but serve ourselves the rest of the week. We praise and worship him in church but never speak about our relationship with him to our friends. We try to please him in some areas of our lives but hold back pleasing Him in other areas. Ryken says, “But God says, “Don’t leave any fat on the altar. I want everything you have to offer, all the time.” The third law was that they were to bring the best of the first fruits of their soil to the house of the Lord their God. Again, this was the best of the best they had harvested, and God demanded their best as an offering to Him. God demands the best of our very best. He wants the best of our time and talents, the best of our work and worship, the best of our hearts and minds. This is also what it means to offer ourselves wholeheartedly to the Lord.

Lastly, we have a weird or strange law from the Lord. Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk. This law is repeated in Exodus 34:26 and Deuteronomy 14:21. Again what is repeated is important to God and should be important to us. A couple meanings of this law have been put forth by commentators. The first explanation is that it would be objectionable for the means of life to be used to cause death. The milk of the mother that would help the baby goat to grow is used to kill instead. The second explanation is probably more relevant. This was a Canaanite fertility ritual in which they would then sprinkle the milk on trees, plants, crops etc. thinking it would help them to grow. Of course this reinforces God’s laws against having other gods before him, invoking their names and practicing the pagan religion of the peoples living around them in the Promised Land. God wanted His people to rely on Him alone to provide for them from the land he had promised them and to offer themselves in worship to Him alone and not to other gods. Offering ourselves as living sacrifices means offering ourselves righteously, wholeheartedly and to God alone. That brings us to our third next step which is to Offer myself to the Lord, as a living sacrifice, righteously, wholeheartedly and to Him alone.

One woman who offered herself to God in this way was Betty Stam, a missionary to China who was martyred for her faith in Jesus Christ. Betty was forced to watch as the Communists brutally beheaded her husband, and then she herself was murdered in the same way. Yet God used her life and death to bring many people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. It all started when she was a young woman and offered herself to God as a living sacrifice. Here is her prayer—a prayer for pilgrims who have found God and want to give themselves wholeheartedly to him: “Lord, I give up all my own plans and purposes, all my own desires and hopes, and accept thy will for my life. I give myself, my life, my all utterly to thee, to be thine forever. Fill me and seal me with thy Holy Spirit. Use me as thou wilt. Send me where thou wilt, and work out thy whole will in my life at any cost, now and forever.” Let us be people who are willing to give up everything; to surrender everything to the Lord as living sacrifices to be used solely for his purposes and His will. Let us be people who get the first button right.

As Gene and Roxey come to lead us in a final hymn and the ushers prepare to collect the tithes and offerings, let’s pray: Lord God, thank you again for your Word. Thank you that it tells us about you and what you want from us as we live as your children on this earth. Through your Holy Spirit, help us to have no other gods before you and to not even entertain other gods in our lives. Help us to live every day in and by faith in you our Sovereign Lord. And help us daily offer ourselves to you, as a living sacrifice, righteously, wholeheartedly and to you alone. And finally help us to be people who get the first button right, putting you first in every area of our lives. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

/by

On Our Best Behavior

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On Our Best Behavior

Most book lovers have a favorite spot to do their leisure reading. They like to read while lying on the beach, for example, or sitting at a sidewalk cafe. But almost no one does their leisure reading at a law library—not even lawyers. The shelves are weighed down with massive volumes, richly bound and embossed in gold. Lift one from the shelf, and one finds countless pages of legal regulations and judicial opinions, all printed in small type and carefully indexed. They are books people read when they have to, not because they want to. No doubt a lawyer would protest that the law has a beauty all its own. But an honest lawyer will admit that sometimes the law can be tedious. People often feel this way about the laws in the Bible. As legal codes go, the Old Testament law is relatively brief. The whole law can be bound in a slim paperback. But when most people read through it, they find it hard to concentrate. They get so little out of the law that they wonder whether it’s really worth the trouble.

But there are many good reasons to study the Old Testament law. It teaches us what God expects. It guides us into godliness. It exposes our sin and thus shows us our need for the gospel. But the law does something else that is very exciting: It reveals God’s character. This makes the Old Testament law different from any law code or book of court decisions. The law reveals the Lawgiver. We do not study it to find out what we have to do, but to know our God. And as we study and apply his law to our lives, we are conformed to his character. Also, every law on the list teaches us something about God, and together these laws show us how to live for his glory. That brings us to our big idea this morning which is God desires His people to reflect His character and live for His glory.

Let’s pray: Heavenly Father, thank you for your Word and that we can open it up, read it and study it. Lord, you have given us your Word so that we can learn more about who you are and what you’ve done for us and how much you love us. Your Word also tells us how to live our lives on this earth. So, Lord, pour out your Holy Spirit on us as we read and study your Word this morning in order to know you more as you reveal yourself to us and help us to go out from this place in obedience living out what we have read and studied. In Jesus’ name, Amen. ​​ 

Our first point this morning is Consequences found in Exodus 22:16-20. This is what God’s Word says, “If a man seduces a virgin who is not pledged to be married and sleeps with her, he must pay the bride-price, and she shall be his wife. If her father absolutely refuses to give her to him, he must still pay the bride-price for virgins. “Do not allow a sorceress to live.” ​​ “Anyone who has sexual relations with an animal is to be put to death.” “Whoever sacrifices to any god other than the Lord must be destroyed.”

This first law is a connector between the property laws we studied last week and the social responsibility laws we will study this morning. This is because the consequences have to do with paying restitution. This law is about premarital sex between a man and a virgin girl. It is not a case of rape or the consequences for the male would have been to be put to death. It is a case of consensual sex on the part of the man and the woman. God gave this law to protect the girl and the rights of her father or family. Back then when a couple were to be married, the man would ask the girl’s father for his blessing. This was an important part of the process. The father had the right to refuse but if the man was of honorable character the father would probably give his permission.

They would then settle on the bride-price which was compensation to the father and family for the services of the daughter that would be lost once she was married. When a couple decided to get married it was assumed that both parties were sexually pure which would speak to their reputation and character. Premarital sex in the Israelite covenant community was not to happen. Sex was only to be a part of the marriage covenant. Neither a man nor a woman was to sleep around and have casual sex. If a man seduced a virgin, he had to do the right thing and marry her. In fact, the man didn’t have a choice. He would be required to marry the woman and pay the father the bride-price. This was a powerful incentive for the men to be on their best behavior and not seduce a virgin. But there was an exception to this law: the girl’s father could refuse to give his blessing, but the man would still have to pay the bride-price for her. The reason for this was because if the girl was not a virgin her marriage possibilities were lessened. But not having to pay the bride-price would have been an incentive for other men to ask for the father’s blessing in marrying his daughter. Ryken says, this law was “designed to promote godly patterns of courtship, marriage and sex, in that order. A real man of God could be trusted to preserve his own chastity and to protect the purity of women.” This is in keeping with the character of God. Because He is holy and pure, he wants us to preserve the purity of our sexuality. (Big Idea)

Next, we see three capital crimes in short, quick succession. The consequences for all three were the death penalty because they were an abomination to the Lord and attempted to substitute salvation in Yahweh with something else. Each of them involves false worship and kept the offender from salvation in the one true and living God. The first crime is being a sorceress. This was also true for a man who practiced sorcery as well. A sorcerer or sorceress told fortunes, communicated with the dead and practiced the occult which were absolutely forbidden in the covenant community. The pagan laws also punished sorcery with death, but they made an exception for what they called white magic. In Israel there was no distinction between black magic and white magic. They were both prohibited. When we go to a fortune-teller, visit a spirit shop or call the psychic hotline, we are trying to know our future apart from God’s will or trying to manipulate God’s will by using satanic powers. Doing these things gives Satan an opening to come into our hearts and minds and set up shop in our bodies and souls. When a person is involved in these practices, it keeps them from placing their faith in God alone and wanting to be in a relationship with Him. God wants us to trust in Him alone to know what His will is for each one of us. Leviticus 20:27 says, “A man or woman who is a medium or spiritist among you must be put to death.” A sorcerer or sorceress was not allowed to live. They received the death penalty.

The second crime is so heinous we don’t even want to think about it: bestiality or having sex with an animal. This is deviant behavior and lowers God’s ultimate creation to the same level as the animals. It goes against the natural order of the world as God created it. This law was imposed because it was involved in the false worship of the pagan cultures around them. Their deities were portrayed participating in bestiality, and it was part of ritual pagan worship. Again, these practices substituted a false religion, a sexually based fertility religion, for a saving relationship with God. It was forbidden and the consequence was death. Leviticus 18:24-25 says, “Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you become defiled. Even the land was defiled; so, I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants.” One of the reasons why the Canaanites and other peoples were to be destroyed, and the Promised land given to God’s chosen people, was because of these filthy practices. God did not want His chosen people to be contaminated by the false worship of their gods. This was an open act of rebellion against the authority of the covenant king and the penalty was death.

The third crime is idolatry, the worship and offering of a sacrifice to other gods besides the one true God. This was a direct violation of the first commandment: to have no other gods before the Lord. It was an open act of rebellion or treason for anyone in the covenant community to worship other gods. This crime again kept people from a saving relationship with God and eternal salvation through Him. The penalty for committing this crime was to be destroyed. The word used here for “death” is different from the other words used for death in the Book of the Covenant. Ryken says, “This word means surrendering something to God for the purpose of utter and complete destruction.” This is the same word used in the book of Joshua for the destruction of the men, women, children and animals of the Canaanites as they conquered the land. Anyone and anything potentially hostile to God was to be destroyed. Literally, the guilty person, their family, possessions, etc. were to be a whole burnt offering to God on His altar. This was a serious matter, and we realize why idol worship was Israel’s greatest temptation both in the wilderness and the Promised Land.

The Israelites didn’t stop worshiping the Lord; they just worshiped other gods alongside Him. This syncretism, or the worshiping other gods alongside the one true God, still gets us in trouble today. We try to worship God alongside money, power, other people, other religions, possessions, etc. It comes down to wanting to be our own god and do our own thing without someone else telling us how to behave or act. But as Christ-followers we must reflect the character of God and live for him and his glory not our own (Big Idea). This means not trying to control or manipulate God by using satanic powers, not violating the sanctity of his image in us by acting like animals and it means not worshiping other gods alongside Him. That brings us to our first next step on the back of your communication card this morning which is to worship no other gods alongside the one true God. Let us be people who only worship the one true and living God.

That brings us to our second point this morning, Compassion, found in Exodus 22:21-27. This is what God’s Word says, “Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt. “Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless. If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry. My anger will be aroused, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives will become widows and your children fatherless. “If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not treat it like a business deal; charge no interest. If you take your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge, return it by sunset, because that cloak is the only covering your neighbor has. What else can they sleep in? When they cry out to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.”

What follows is three laws about how God’s people were to behave toward the disadvantaged and defenseless in the covenant community. The first law was a prohibition against mistreating or oppressing a foreigner. The word used for “oppress” literally means “to be squeezed” and can be used for all kinds of physical and psychological oppression. These would have been people who were living among the covenant community but were not natural born Jews. They didn’t have the rights of full citizens, such as ownership of land, or legal and political rights. They also didn’t have any family or clan support, they didn’t know the language, or the laws of the land which made them more likely to be exploited. They had no one to help them and no one to protect their rights.

Now these foreigners would have had to stop worshiping and sacrificing to their foreign gods, and this may be why this law was placed right after the laws prohibiting the practice of false religions around them. God wanted to make the distinction between foreign worship practices and the foreigners who lived among them. Reminds me of hate the sin and not the sinner. God’s covenant law required that His people behave properly toward the foreigners among them because this was the character of God. The Lord loves all people, even the foreigners who live among us, and He provides for them just as he provides for us. The Lord then gives the reason why they were to not mistreat or oppress the foreigner among them. It was because they knew what it was like to be a foreigner in Egypt. They knew what it meant to be in slavery and “squeezed” by physical and psychological oppression. God was reminding them of their time of slavery in Egypt and commanding them to be different when the shoe is on the other foot. But God knew human nature. He knew that when we are hurt by someone, in our humanness, we want to hurt someone else. So, he warned His people against the mistreatment of the foreigner among them. The mistreatment of foreigners was prevalent in pagan society and God demanded that His people be different and behave differently if they were going to be part of His holy, covenant people.

The second law was a prohibition against taking advantage of widows and orphans. These were the weakest and most vulnerable members of society in that day. They had no husbands or fathers to watch over them and to protect them or their welfare. Women could not own property and widows had no legal rights because they were normally represented by their husbands. If they were too old to work, they had no way to support themselves or get enough food to survive. A widow could end up being a slave working for virtually nothing. Orphans were in the same boat. If they had no inheritance, they could be forced to work for whatever someone would pay them. If they could not find work or no one took them into their home, they could starve or freeze to death. So, God made it the responsibility of the entire covenant community to care for the widows and orphans. He said they were not to be taken advantage of meaning they were not to be “abused, humiliated or afflicted” in any way.

Because of the seriousness of the plight of the widow and the orphan, this law came with a warning and a promise of punishment. God will “certainly” hear their cries just as He heard the cries of the Israelites in Egypt. This kind of behavior will not go unnoticed, and the same fate will await the Israelite oppressors that the Egyptian ones received. The Lord’s anger would be aroused, and he would kill them with the sword. These were covenant curses that God would bring against them meaning God would allow Israel’s enemies to attack and exterminate them from the face of the earth if they didn’t fulfill their responsibilities when it came to social justice. Their wives would become widows, and their children would become fatherless. This was divine lex talionis, an eye for an eye. If you oppressed widows and orphans, then you would expect to be punished by death and your wives and children became widows and orphans. This was not considered an individual act in the covenant community. The Lord would consider this injustice a matter of public concern, and the Lord would intervene and impose a punishment on the nation that fit the crime. Mackay says, this is an “impassioned expression of the Lord himself as he seeks to teach the people regarding the sort of conduct he expects from them and the penalties that will follow the disregard of his will.”

The third law commanded proper behavior toward the poor in the covenant community. The term “my people” shows that the Lord identified with all covenant people no matter their wealth or stature within the community. The Lord was teaching His people the correct behavior towards those in their community who have fallen on hard times. They were to be generous toward them and not to take advantage of them in their struggles. The righteous person would be willing to help them without question, being generous toward them and lending to them without charging interest of any kind. This kind of loan was to be given with the sole purpose of helping their neighbor in need. To make money from your neighbor’s needs would be immoral. But in Luke 6:35, Jesus commands His disciples to go even farther. He says, “But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back.” Notice what Jesus is telling them. They are to lend without expecting to get back what they lent. The interest free loan now becomes a gift. If they did this for their enemies how much more should they do for their neighbors in the covenant community.

The next part of this law shows that the Lord was speaking about the poorest of the poor here. A pledge was collateral that the person would pay back the loan. If all the person had for collateral was their cloak, it meant that he was very poor and had to pretty much give everything they had to get the loan. The cloak was an outer garment that a person would have used to keep warm at night. Only someone in extreme poverty would have to stoop to such desperate measures. Normally, the lender could have kept the collateral until the loan was paid back but God commanded that they return the cloak to the person by sunset. This ensured not only that the person would be warm as they slept at night but that their health would not be put at risk. This law would also include any essential item, such as food, job, shelter, a family member, being put up as a pledge. The Lord wanted his people to act not on the letter of the law but in a spirit of concern for the good of their fellow human beings. The reason that we need to treat the poor with respect, kindness and compassion is because God is a compassionate God, and we are to reflect His character for His glory (Big Idea).

The standard and model for our behavior is the Lord. That is why these laws are not just for the judges to rule but for us to follow to become more like Him. A good measure of our moral character and our obedience to the one true and living God is how we treat the foreigner, the widow, the orphan and the poor. There was no welfare system in Israel. The covenant community was to take care of those who were the most in need of help. They were not to discriminate against them like the pagan peoples did but were to treat everyone like family. God’s people are called to a higher standard which reflects his compassionate character for all people. So how should we treat the outsider? How should we treat the one who is alone and unprotected? How should we treat the poor? If we are going to call ourselves Christ-followers, we must take responsibility to provide for those who are different from us, weaker than us and poorer than us. God has done these things for us at one time or the other and we must be willing to do the same for those who are in need. ​​ Ephesians 5:1 says, “Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” We are called to imitate Christ and one way we can do that is to watch out and provide for the ones who are different from us, weaker than us and poorer than us. That brings us to our second next step which is to watch out and provide for those who are different from me, weaker than me and poorer than me.

Our third point is Consecration found in Exodus 22:28-31. This is what God’s Word says, “Do not blaspheme God or curse the ruler of your people. “Do not hold back offerings from your granaries or your vats. “You must give me the firstborn of your sons. Do the same with your cattle and your sheep. Let them stay with their mothers for seven days but give them to me on the eighth day. “You are to be my holy people. So do not eat the meat of an animal torn by wild beasts; throw it to the dogs.

In the last section, God commanded His people how he wanted them to behave toward the less fortunate in the covenant community. In this section he commands them how they were to behave towards those more fortunate or higher than they were in the covenant community. They were to be “holy” people, totally consecrated and set apart for God and to His service. If they were living holy lives, it would be seen in their speech. Proverbs 18:21 says, “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” God cares about how we talk about him and others. In the first law, God addressed how they were to talk towards Him. They were not to “blaspheme” God. The word used here for “blaspheme” is the same word used in Exodus 21:17, talking about cursing father or mother. This was behaving disrespectfully toward the Lord. We owe the Lord honor and glory for who He is. He is sovereign, holy, just and the ruler over all things in heaven, on the earth and below the earth. To “blaspheme” God means making “light” of Him, disparaging Him, insulting Him, treating Him with contempt and refusing to accept His authority. Failing to acknowledge His glory and majesty is a sin against the third commandment “to not take His name in vain.” We owe one another compassion because all people are made in the image of God, and we owe God our total respect and honor because he is our awesome God.

Also, they were not to curse those whom God had put in charge over them. They were His delegates on the earth, and they were to respect them and behave properly toward them in their speech because they were divinely appointed by God himself. The word for “curse” means to usurp the authority given to them by God, and to take it for ourselves. Paul says this in Romans 13:1-2, “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.” Even though no punishment is mentioned here, if you “cursed” any authority in the covenant community you would be judged, and the punishment would probably be death as it was in Exodus 21:17.

What else did they owe God? The Israelites owed God the first fruits of their field and vineyards. They owed the best to their covenant Lord. The second law stated they were not to hold back these offerings from the Lord. We also owe God the first and best of our resources. We owe him the best of what we have because we love Him and want to obey him in all things and in every aspect of our lives. To “hold back” suggests that we should not delay in giving back to Him. Trapp says, “True obedience is prompt and present, ready and speedy, without demurs and consults.” After speaking to the covenant people about not withholding a poor man’s cloak, the Lord now speaks to them about not withholding from Him the first and best of what he has given to them. If it is wrong to withhold a person’s cloak at night, how much worse would it be to withhold the first and the best of our resources from Him? This would be a direct act of covenant defiance against their covenant King.

In the third law, God also required they give Him their firstborn sons and the firstborn of their cattle and sheep. This goes back to God’s commandment to the Israelites in Exodus 13:1-2 which says, “The Lord said to Moses, “Consecrate to me every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me, whether human or animal.” Israel was God’s own possession by right of creation and redemption. As a reminder of what he had done for them, he required his people to consecrate the firstborn of their sons and animals to him. The firstborn male sons were redeemed with a price which substituted for their lives. The firstborn animals were to stay with their mother for seven days before being given or sacrificed to the Lord on the eighth day. This would fatten the newborn animal making it more desirable as a sacrifice to the Lord and lessen the shock to the mother in losing their newborn too early. The “eighth day” was a precise length of time again reminding His people to not delay their offerings to him. It also reminded them of circumcision, which every male was required to have done, marking them as part of the covenant community. We are to be God’s holy people, set apart from the world to do His will in the world, offering ourselves and our resources to Him. Remarkable things happen in congregations and with individuals when there is a consecration of self and resources. That brings us to our third next step on the back of your communication card which is to Consecrate myself and my resources to the Lord to be used for His will.

The fourth law reiterates that the Israelites were to be God’s holy people and so they were not to eat meat of an animal torn apart by “wild beasts.” This was for a couple of reasons. One, it may have had blood still in it, which was forbidden to eat. Two, it could be contaminated by the heat and being left outside for a period of time which would make it a health concern. But these concerns were only part of it. Ryken says, “It was a matter of ritual purity. In order to teach his people how important it was for them to remain separated from sin, God distinguished between clean and unclean animals.” The food regulations were to be a perpetual symbolic reminder of their privileged status not just as individuals but as His covenant community. Meat that had been “torn by wild animals” was not fit to be eaten by His holy and consecrated people. It was only good to be fed to the dogs.

God wanted his people to be holy in every part of their life. He wanted them to have an uncompromising personal devotion to Him. This meant every day and in every aspect of their lives. 1 Peter 1:15-16 says, “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” Romans 12:1 says, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.” Mackay says, “This holiness was not arbitrary but derived from the character of God himself.” We are to become more like God and His son, Jesus. We are to be people whose whole lives are stamped with His character and lived for His glory (Big Idea). Our holiness is seen, by only worshiping the Lord, in our compassion for the foreigner, widow, orphan and the poor, in the way we handle our money with both our neighbors and our God and even in what we consume. God wants uncompromising and comprehensive holiness from us. He wants us to be ​​ holy in every aspect of our lives without exception.

Lord Melbourne, Queen Victoria’s first prime minister, is reported to have said that ‘if religion is going to invade a person’s private life, things have come to a pretty pass’. He was a well-intentioned and a good, even religious, man to the extent of attending church on Sunday, but he wanted his religion safely packed away in a box and kept there. The Book of the Covenant says that this is not an option. Like a dog, religion too is not just for Christmas, it is for life. True religion cannot be confined. The Lord demands entrance into every aspect of the life of his redeemed, and he looks to govern every aspect by his revealed truth. Let us be people who strive to live uncompromising and comprehensive holy lives every single day to the glory of God reflecting his character to the world around us. That brings us to our last next step on the back of your communication card which is to Live every aspect of my life with uncompromising and comprehensive holiness unto the Lord.

As Gene & Roxey come to lead us in a final hymn and the ushers prepare to collect the tithes and offerings, let’s pray: God, you are Holy and Sovereign, you are loving and compassionate and Lord we see your many attributes in Your Word and in your law. Thank you that you reveal your character in the law you gave to the Israelites and to us. Help us to reflect your character in our lives and live to glorify you daily. Lord, help us, through your Holy Spirit, strive to worship no other gods alongside You. Help us to watch out and provide for those who are different, weaker, and poorer than us. Help us to consecrate ourselves and our resources to you to be used for your will. And help to strive to live every aspect of our lives with uncompromising and comprehensive holiness. Thank you that you care enough about us to give us your Word. Go before us, guide us into all truth. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

/by

Making Things Right

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MAKING THINGS RIGHT

In 2001 and 2002 American investors were stunned to watch a series of businesses falter after being exposed for fraudulent criminal activity. They were all major corporations—energy companies, accounting firms, pharmaceutical distributors,​​ and​​ telecommunications companies. These corporations had some of the best reputations in the business. Yet they were all caught breaking the law, and they all suffered the consequences.​​ As federal investigators examined these companies, they discovered they were setting up false accounts, cheating on taxes, inflating their profits, lying​​ about their losses, and generally violating the ethical standards of fair business. In almost every case the corruption went right to the top. The ones guilty of committing the corporate crime turned out to be leading executives. Most Americans took a certain amount of satisfaction from seeing them get what they deserved. In some cases, they had to go to jail​​ and the reputations of these men were destroyed, but was justice really done? Most of their victims never got their money back. In one notorious case, employees who held stock in their own company were denied access to their retirement accounts. By the time they were allowed to sell, it was too late: The company had collapsed, the stock was almost worthless, and their life savings had all but disappeared. Meanwhile, the company’s top executives had been selling off their private holdings of company stock for a huge profit.​​ When something like this happens, what does justice require? How should the victims be compensated? Should the wrongdoers simply be put in jail, or is there something else they should do to make things right?

The more we study the legal cases in Exodus, the clearer it becomes that God’s law is right and good. We would be wise to follow their general principles for justice. Sometimes thieves are thrown in jail, but they don’t always have to pay​​ restitution.​​ Or if they do, the fines are sometimes paid to the state rather than straight to the victim, as the law of Moses required. Corporate fraud is the perfect example. Even when crooked executives are found guilty​​ their victims almost never get back what they’ve lost. But God’s property laws are different. It doesn’t demand jail time at all, but it does require thieves to pay back everything they owe. God’s law also requires restitution when people are negligent.​​ Consider​​ these​​ examples. If your dog digs up your neighbor’s prize begonias, you need to replace them. If you are visiting a friend and knock over an antique vase, you need to pay for it. If you swing late on a fastball and the ball sails through a car window, you need to pay the repair bill. If you borrow a friend’s computer game and accidentally break it, you need to buy a new one.​​ It is not enough to say, “Sorry! It was an accident” and then expect other people to pay for what we’ve done. An apology is a good start, but God’s justice demands that we make things right.​​ It is our responsibility to repair whatever damage we do, whether we meant to do it or not.​​ 

To be in peace and harmony with our fellow human beings we need to be willing to accept responsibility​​ and the consequences​​ for our actions​​ and be willing to make things right.​​ God gave these laws, in the Book of the Covenant, for the express purpose of​​ showing​​ how His people could be in a right relationship with Himself and with others.​​ We might​​ consider​​ these​​ laws​​ mundane​​ and boring,​​ but they were essential for His people to know and obey so they would be right with God and with each other in the covenant community. The same is true for us today. We have the laws of the land that we are supposed to obey and when we​​ do,​​ we can be in a right relationship with our fellow human beings and​​ that​​ goes a long way to being in a right relationship with the Lord which brings us to our big idea this morning that​​ God desires that His people​​ be​​ willing to make things right with others.​​ We can’t be in a right relationship with God if we are not in right relationship with each other. Things are going to happen in life. We may steal​​ property​​ from someone​​ intentionally. We may​​ be negligent and ruin the property of someone​​ else. But peace and harmony can be had among our fellow human beings if we are willing to accept responsibility and the consequences for our actions and go the extra mile to make things right with them. And the added benefit is that we are doing what is pleasing to our holy and just God.​​ 

Before we unpack our scripture this​​ morning, let’s pray:​​ Dear Heavenly Father, we humbly come before you this morning asking that your Holy Spirit speak to us from your Word. We ask that your Word guide us, rebuke us, correct us and show us how to become more like your son, Jesus. We want to honor and glorify you with our thoughts, words and deeds and may your Word lead us to do that daily. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

There are three points this morning. The first point is Property Theft & Damage found in Exodus 22:1-6. This is what God’s Word says, “Whoever steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters it or sells it must pay back five head of cattle for the ox and four sheep for the sheep. “If a thief is caught breaking in at night and is struck a fatal blow, the defender is not guilty of bloodshed; but if it happens after sunrise, the defender is guilty of bloodshed.​​ “Anyone who steals must certainly make restitution, but if they have nothing, they must be sold to pay for their theft. If the stolen animal is found alive in their possession—whether ox or donkey or sheep—they must pay back double. “If anyone grazes their livestock in a field or vineyard and lets them stray and they graze in someone else’s field, the offender must make restitution from the best of their own field or vineyard. “If a fire breaks out and spreads into thornbushes so that it burns shocks of grain or standing grain or the whole field, the one who started the fire must make restitution.

This section begins to flesh out the eighth​​ word or commandment that​​ God​​ spoke to Israel, “You shall not steal.”​​ He wanted to​​ protect the sanctity of possessions.​​ He has​​ given​​ human beings​​ the right to own property and possessions, and no one​​ has​​ the right to take what​​ is​​ someone else’s in​​ secret or by force.​​ Everything belongs​​ to​​ God,​​ and he has entrusted some things to each of us and we need to respect his distribution of all that belongs to him. When we steal from our neighbor, we steal what God has personally provided for someone else and so are actually stealing from God.​​ We must trust that God is going to provide all that we need when we need it and so we don’t need to steal​​ it​​ from others.​​ By keeping this command, the Israelites would have unity with each other within the covenant community. But what if someone broke this command? God put the following laws in place so that​​ the offender could make things right and​​ unity could be restored.

There are two things happening in this section.​​ One​​ is​​ an​​ intentional stealing of someone​​ else’s​​ property.​​ Two, is​​ negligence on the part of someone that causes property loss or damage for someone else.​​ Case number one: someone steals an ox or sheep. The reason these laws were important was because to steal these animals was to take a person’s means of livelihood. It would be like if you were a carpenter, and all your tools were stolen. Now today, we may have insurance to get us back on our feet but back then it wasn’t​​ so​​ easy. They didn’t have​​ insurance,​​ and money wasn’t readily available to go out and buy more tools. So, to take a person’s livelihood had serious ramifications.​​ Next,​​ we​​ see​​ a​​ contingency​​ to the law: the​​ thief has slaughtered or sold the stolen animal. This was considered worse than stealing the animal for your own use or​​ having​​ the animal found in your​​ possession​​ because if it was​​ slaughtered​​ or sold it could not be​​ given​​ back to its rightful owner.​​ It also means that the theft was​​ probably​​ intentional.​​ The consequences for stealing an ox​​ or sheep​​ and slaughtering or selling it was​​ the​​ paying​​ of​​ restitution to the owner. The consequence for​​ the ox was five times what​​ was stolen​​ and the consequence for​​ the​​ sheep was four​​ times​​ what​​ was stolen.​​ The restitution for stealing a sheep was less because​​ it was not​​ necessarily​​ a work​​ animal,​​ and the loss would be less substantial​​ than​​ that of an ox.

Case number two​​ speaks to when the theft took place and what sort​​ of​​ defense​​ of your property you were allowed to take. ​​ If the thief​​ was​​ caught stealing during the night and the owner struck​​ them​​ so​​ they​​ died, the owner​​ wouldn’t be​​ guilty of​​ bloodshed​​ because it​​ was​​ considered self-defense. But if the owner killed​​ the thief in broad daylight, the owner would be guilty of​​ bloodshed. Back then it was very dark at night. You may have had torches or candles burning but it​​ was​​ nothing like our civilization today.​​ So,​​ if you came across a thief at night there​​ was​​ no way to know if he​​ was​​ armed or​​ what his intentions​​ were​​ toward you.​​ You were allowed to defend yourself​​ even using deadly force.​​ But you​​ were​​ not allowed to use deadly force in the daylight for​​ a couple of​​ reasons. In the daylight you could see where​​ the​​ thief​​ was​​ and what he​​ was​​ doing. You could​​ tell if he had​​ a weapon or not, and you could​​ call your neighbors to help you. All of these​​ would have been​​ more difficult at night. Plus, in the daylight you could​​ probably identify​​ the thief. If that was the case,​​ you were to let​​ the​​ justice system take its course and not take things into your own hands.

If the​​ thief​​ was​​ caught stealing but couldn’t pay restitution,​​ they were​​ to be sold into servitude until​​ they​​ could pay for​​ their​​ theft.​​ He may have been sold to the person he stole from or to someone else who would have the means​​ to pay out the restitution. The thief would be in servitude until he paid full restitution or until six years were up.​​ Then we​​ see​​ another contingency to case number one:​​ the stolen animal is found alive in the thief’s possession. The consequence then is two times what​​ was stolen.​​ This is because the animal could be returned to its rightful owner.​​ Their​​ livelihood may have been interrupted but it wasn’t destroyed.​​ Paying two times​​ restitution was the thief’s consequences for his actions.​​ These laws showed that God is good and​​ just,​​ and his laws were more merciful than the laws of the pagan peoples in the land.​​ In the pagan nations you could receive the death penalty for theft or for not being able to pay restitution. Also, the penalty varied depending on the social status of who was stolen from. Restitution could be​​ anywhere​​ from ten to thirty times what was stolen.​​ God’s laws showed that even the life of a thief was​​ important and​​ sacred to God.

Next, the law turns to​​ property damage that comes about by someone’s negligence.​​ Case number one:​​ a person’s livestock strays and grazes in another man’s field eating his grass, etc.​​ This wouldn’t have been uncommon because there were no fences around their fields. A lot of times they would put thorn bushes on their property lines but that didn’t always keep the livestock from wandering. This was not intentional,​​ but as the owner of the livestock,​​ you had an obligation to​​ carefully​​ watch your animals to make sure they didn’t graze in your neighbor’s field. This was considered negligence on your part, and you had to pay restitution to your neighbor. Restitution was one to one meaning if the neighbor lost a bushel of something you had to pay back a bushel of the same thing that was lost but the negligent​​ person had to pay restitution with the best he had of his field and vineyard.​​ 

Case number two:​​ a fire breaks out in a​​ person’s​​ field and spreads to their neighbor’s​​ field,​​ and it damages the shocks of grain (grain​​ already gathered), standing grain (grain​​ not gathered) or​​ the entire field. The person who started the fire is to take responsibility and pay one to one restitution of what was lost. Fires were common back then just as they can be today. Just think about the wildfires in California. Someone may have been burning​​ their land to make it more fertile, or fires were known to break out in the thorn bushes that marked the property lines. No matter, the same​​ consequences as the first case​​ applies here.​​ The person who started the fire or the person whose land the fire originated on would be considered negligent because he wasn’t paying attention to what he was doing, and he had to make things right.​​ (Big Idea). God required his people to be responsible for the indirect consequences of​​ their​​ actions toward their neighbor and their possessions.

This reminds me of a story.​​ One Monday,​​ I was burning stuff in a barrel in the back of our property, and I went inside the house for a few minutes. When I looked outside, a dead tree along our property line was engulfed in flames. I ran out and got the​​ hose,​​ but it wasn’t long enough. Our neighbor came over and brought his hose and helped. It took most of the night until I felt​​ comfortable​​ enough to leave and go back inside. I was negligent and could have paid a​​ much​​ higher​​ price than I did. From what I understand, in Adams County, you are not allowed to burn on Mondays because it​​ is​​ considered wash day. If I​​ had​​ had to call the fire department, I would have been hit with a fine.​​ 

That brings us to our second point, Property Custody, found in Exodus 22:7-13. This is what God’s Word says, “If anyone gives a neighbor silver or goods for safekeeping and they are stolen from the neighbor’s house, the thief, if caught, must pay back double. But if the thief is not found, the owner of the house must appear before the judges, and they must determine whether the owner of the house has laid hands on the other person’s property. In all cases of illegal possession of an ox, a donkey, a sheep, a garment, or any other lost property about which somebody says, ‘This is mine,’ both parties are to bring their cases before the judges. The one whom the judges declare guilty must pay back double to the other. “If anyone gives a donkey, an ox, a sheep or any other animal to their neighbor for safekeeping and it dies or is injured or is taken away while no one is looking, the issue between them will be settled by the taking of an oath before the Lord that the neighbor did not lay hands on the other person’s property. The owner is to accept this, and no restitution is required. But if the animal was stolen from the neighbor, restitution must be made to the owner. If it was torn to pieces by a wild animal, the neighbor shall bring in the remains as evidence and shall not be required to pay for the torn animal.”

Property custody is talking about someone asking​​ someone else to​​ keep their​​ property​​ safe​​ for some reason. They didn’t have banks back then so if you were going away for a period of time you may ask your neighbor to​​ keep your​​ property​​ safe​​ until you returned. The first case is​​ of silver,​​ or goods given to a neighbor for​​ safekeeping​​ that​​ are stolen from​​ the​​ neighbor’s house. If the thief is caught with the stolen goods, he​​ must​​ pay​​ back​​ double, and the possessions​​ are​​ returned to​​ the​​ rightful owner. But if the thief is not found the next likely suspect becomes the neighbor​​ who was​​ given custody of the silver or goods.​​ This person must appear before the judges, take a solemn oath​​ and give​​ his​​ testimony. Based on this testimony, the judges would decide if he was guilty or not.​​ 

Case number two is​​ someone accuses someone else of being​​ in​​ illegal​​ possession of​​ their property.​​ This was considered a willful violation of a covenant obligation.​​ Both parties say that the “possession” is theirs and their dispute​​ goes before the​​ judges. Both parties take solemn oaths,​​ give testimony, and the judges​​ make the final determination. Once the court has​​ ruled, the guilty party​​ is​​ required to pay double restitution to his neighbor.​​ There was no​​ such thing as “finders’​​ keepers” in God’s covenant community.​​ Case number three involves​​ giving custody of an animal to a neighbor for safekeeping​​ and the​​ animal dies,​​ is​​ injured or taken away when no one​​ was​​ looking. The​​ issue​​ would be​​ settled by taking an oath before the Lord. The person in whose custody the animal was​​ in,​​ must “swear”​​ before the Lord​​ that they had nothing criminal to do with what happened to the animal.​​ MacKay says,​​ the oath “uses the LORD, the covenant name of God, and would invoke on the party taking the oath the curse of God if what they claimed were untrue.”​​ The owner would be​​ obligated to accept this oath as proof that​​ the custodian had nothing to do with the killing, injuring or stealing​​ of​​ their​​ animal.​​ And no restitution​​ would be​​ required from the custodian.​​ 

Case number four is​​ an​​ animal​​ is​​ “stolen”​​ from the neighbor whose responsibility it was to watch the animal.​​ The word​​ “stolen” is​​ emphatic meaning it was “certainly” stolen. The difference between this​​ case and the​​ previous one is​​ that​​ here​​ the theft was​​ witnessed​​ by the custodian.​​ The custodian​​ would have been required to do all they could to keep the theft from happening.​​ If​​ the​​ theft still took place,​​ negligence would be​​ assumed,​​ and​​ the custodian would be required to pay restitution.​​ Case number five​​ is​​ an​​ animal​​ in the neighbor’s custody is​​ torn apart by a wild animal. The neighbor was required to bring back as much of the​​ dead​​ animal as possible. This was to prove that the custodian did all that they could to save the​​ neighbor’s​​ property and to also​​ prove that the custodian didn’t steal the animal​​ themselves.​​ If the proof was brought, no payment was required.

These laws showed that God​​ required more from His people. He wanted​​ them​​ to go above and beyond when it came to​​ dealing with their neighbors in the covenant community. This meant that the people of God needed to care more than just about themselves and their own welfare. They needed to care and be concerned for the welfare of their neighbors​​ and for their possessions.​​ If they damaged their neighbor’s property, they​​ needed to be willing to make things right.​​ (Big Idea)​​ They were to treat their neighbors the​​ way they wanted to be treated, and they were to treat their neighbor’s​​ possessions​​ the way they wanted their​​ possessions​​ to be treated.​​ We need to do the same​​ with our neighbors today,​​ which brings us to the first next step on the back of your communication card: My next step is to​​ Treat​​ my​​ neighbor​​ and their​​ possessions​​ the way I want​​ myself​​ and my​​ possessions​​ to be​​ treated.

That brings us to our last point, Property Borrowed, found in Exodus 22:14-15. This is what God’s Word says, “If anyone borrows an animal from their neighbor and it is injured or dies while the owner is not present, they must make restitution. But if the owner is with the animal, the borrower will not have to pay. If the animal was hired, the money paid for the hire covers the loss.”

Case number one is a​​ borrowed​​ animal being injured or dying while its owner is not present.​​ If this is the case the borrower must pay​​ one-to-one​​ restitution,​​ animal for animal.​​ Case number two​​ is if the owner of the animal is present when the​​ borrowed​​ animal is injured or dies. The borrower would not be required to pay restitution​​ because the owner would know if there was any negligence on the part of the borrower or not. In​​ case number one, there would be no way to know for​​ sure,​​ so the borrower​​ had to accept​​ responsibility and the consequences.​​ Case number three​​ is about someone hiring an animal and the animal is injured or dies. In this case, the person who hired the animal out would have been​​ responsible​​ to add in an “insurance” cost for just that contingency. That would cover the loss of the animal and the person who hired the animal would not have to pay any extra. If the person who hired the animal out didn’t include “insurance” in the​​ price,​​ then that was​​ their​​ loss.

The Old Testament property laws​​ are​​ useful for helping us get along with one another. These laws show us the righteous requirements of the law, but what about the grace of the Gospel? How do these property laws help us understand the gospel? Let’s consider the​​ story of Zacchaeus​​ found in Luke 19. Zacchaeus was the chief tax collector in Jericho. He was a thief because he swindled people by overcharging and underreporting on the taxes he collected.​​ As Jesus was passing through Jericho, Zacchaeus wanted to see him. He had heard something about Jesus, his curiosity was aroused, and he was determined to see​​ Jesus for himself. But the crowds were so large, and he was such a​​ short​​ man that he couldn’t get a good look at Jesus.​​ So,​​ he ran ahead and climbed up a sycamore tree.​​ In verse 5, when​​ Jesus saw Zacchaeus up in the tree,​​ he​​ said, ‘Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.’​​ Zacchaeus jumped down and “welcomed” Jesus, receiving him not only into his home, but also into his heart.​​ In verse 10, it says that​​ Jesus,​​ the Son of Man, “came​​ to seek and to save​​ the​​ lost.”​​ This was what Jesus came to earth to do​​ and he​​ invited himself into the sinner, Zaccheaus’ life,​​ and​​ he​​ responded with the obedience of faith. But now that​​ Zacchaeus​​ had accepted Jesus into his heart, he still had some spiritual work to do. He needed to repent of his sin;​​ he needed to​​ turn away from​​ being a​​ thief. For Zacchaeus, turning away from sin meant making things right with all the people he had cheated. And he promised to do this. He confessed his sin​​ in verse 8b,​​ saying, “If I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”​​ Zacchaeus must have known his Bible, because the idea of making restitution comes right out of Exodus 22. Now that he was in a right relationship with God, he needed to make things right with his fellow human beings​​ so he could be​​ in a right relationship with them as well.​​ (Big Idea)

There is something significant about the promise Zacchaeus made. He told Jesus he would pay back four times as much as he had taken, which​​ was​​ more than the law required.​​ Leviticus 6:4-5 says, “when they sin in any of these ways and realize their guilt, they must return what they have stolen or taken by extortion, or what was entrusted to them, or the lost property they found, or whatever it was they swore falsely about. They must make restitution in full, add a fifth of the value to it and give it all to the owner on the day they present their guilt offering.”​​ According to the book of Leviticus, if a man confessed a theft on his own initiative, he only had to give back what he had stolen plus one-fifth of its value. The regulations in Exodus 22 were only for people who got caught stealing, not for people who came forward to confess what they had done. This shows that people who admit their sin should be treated more leniently.​​ Zacchaeus​​ was paying back 400 percent when all he owed was 120 percent. This​​ was much more than the law required. Then Zacchaeus went one step further. He was not content simply to make up for the sins of the past—he wanted to serve God right away, and he wanted to do it with his money—in the one area of​​ his​​ life where he was such a sinner. So he started emptying his pockets and said to Jesus, in Luke 19:8a,​​ “Look, Lord! Here and​​ now,​​ I give half of my possessions to the poor.”​​ 

God sent his Son,​​ Jesus Christ,​​ to be our Savior. Jesus offered his own life for our sins, dying on the cross to save us. If God has done all this for us, then what will we do for him? At the very least, we will give back what we have stolen and restore what we have damaged. But even more, we will give as much as we can to meet the needs of the poor and to spread the gospel around the world. It is good to stop stealing and better to pay back what we owe, but best of all​​ is​​ to give away what is ours for Jesus’ sake. Hopefully, we will never resort to stealing or be negligent in some​​ way,​​ but we can still respond to the Gospel of Jesus like Zacchaeus did. That brings us to our last next step this morning which is to​​ Respond​​ to the​​ Gospel​​ of Jesus​​ by​​ offering​​ everything​​ I am​​ and​​ have​​ for God’s​​ service.

As the praise team comes to lead us in a final song and the ushers prepare to collect the tithes and offering, let’s pray:​​ Gracious God, thank you for being with us this morning as we have gathered to worship and praise you and give you glory for who you are and what you have done for us. Thank you again for your Word. May be dive deep into it daily for it is powerful, inspired by you and authoritative. Lord God, help us to be in a right relationship with you and with our neighbors. Help us to treat​​ our​​ neighbor and their possessions the way​​ we​​ want​​ ourselves​​ and​​ our​​ possessions to be treated.​​ Help us to respond to the Gospel of Jesus by offering everything​​ we are​​ and​​ everything​​ we​​ have for​​ your​​ service.​​ And may all this be done to your honor, your worship, your praise and your glory. In Jesus’ name. Amen.​​ 

Opening: Philip Graham Ryken and R. Kent Hughes, Exodus: Saved for God’s Glory (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2005), 720–721.

Closing: Philip Graham Ryken and R. Kent Hughes, Exodus: Saved for God’s Glory (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2005), 729.

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