Exodus 19-32We are reading the Exodus journey for Lent, the 40 days before Easter which mirror Jesus’s 40 days spent in the Wilderness tempted by Satan and the 40 years it took the Israelites to travel from Egypt to the Promised Land.
Timeline of the Journey
17/3 - Slavery - Exodus 1-7:7
24/3 - Deliverance - Exodus 7:8 - 13
31/3 - Baptism - Exodus 14 - 15:21
14/4 - Holiness - Exodus 19-32
19/4 - Trials and Perseverance - Exodus 15:21 - 18, 33-40
21/4 - Promised Land / Resurrection Sunday
Today is Palm Sunday when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and the crowd crowned him King, just 5 days away from Good Friday when another crowd gathered shouting to crucify him.
After the events of the last 2 weeks with my brother, I haven’t been able to sit down and prepare in the usual way as I try and process all that happened in the 3 short weeks between his wedding on March 16th and his funeral on April 5th.
Getting back to our Exodus series after the weeks pause, we will now do week 5/6 this Good Friday and the Apostle Paul Shaw get us through to our final destination on Resurrection Sunday 😊
The last time I spoke on the Red Sea and baptism which was the eve of Colin’s accident of April 1st. We paused the story at the moment of victory with the Israelites safely on the other side and the Egyptian army drowned in the sea.
When we first become Christians we are often in awe at all that God is doing in our lives. But as we all know, life happens and it’s not too long before we don’t exactly feel the way we first did. The honeymoon is over.
But today we travel to Mt Sinai, the rather sobering place of the Israelites encounter with the holiness of God.
The Israelis arrived in the Sinai peninsula three months after the night of their departure from Egypt. Exodus 19:1
To put us in the scene, watch this short trailer. If you notice, the top of Mt Sinai is black where the Lord descended in cloud and fire and smoke.
The Lord said to Moses, “I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear me speaking with you and will always put their trust in you.” Then Moses told the Lord what the people had said.
Exodus 19:9
Let this next passage paint the scene for you and see if you can see any parallels with Easter which is on our near horizon.
On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently. As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him. The Lord descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses went up and the Lord said to him, “Go down and warn the people so they do not force their way through to see the Lord and many of them perish. Even the priests, who approach the Lord, must consecrate themselves, or the Lord will break out against them.” Moses said to the Lord, “The people cannot come up Mount Sinai, because you yourself warned us, ‘Put limits around the mountain and set it apart as holy.’” The Lord replied, “Go down and bring Aaron up with you. But the priests and the people must not force their way through to come up to the Lord, or he will break out against them.” So Moses went down to the people and told them.
Exodus 19:16-25
The people had witnessed the miracles of God, they had seen and tasted the manna from Heaven, they had been refreshed with sweet water when they needed it at Elim. God had been patient with them while they complained about the difficult journey and wanting to go back to Egypt. We also still have a lot of the World in us when we first become Christians.
For the first time at Mt. Sinai the Israelites were going to experience for themselves the holiness of God and it would be a terrifying experience !
We don’t get the holiness of God today. It’s rarely preached on, we focus on the grace of God which is comforting. Israel Folau posted on Social Media this week and what a storm it created with him ultimately losing his job with the Australian Rugby team. They weren’t his comments, they were the Apostle Paul’s and they are in the Bible.
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11
The Bible says
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Hebrews 10:31
People don’t believe in sin anymore and they don’t comprehend the scale of the offence when they do something classed as “sin”. They say as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else, it’s ok and none of anybody else’s business. If anyone talks about sin in a personal way, people get angry.
But at least one other 3rd party is effected when we sin.
We had a beautiful crop of plums on our plum tree this summer. Over New Years we were away up North with Mum and Dad, when we came home we found the plum tree stripped of all its fruit - not one plum left. And it wasn’t the birds ! I’m sure that whoever took them justified themselves that the fruit was only going to fall to the ground and go to waste. Such a small thing but I was angry about it.
If you ask me if helping yourself to plums on a neighbours tree is a sin I would say yes. The person who did it has probably justified it to himself even if his conscience told him not to. So how can we define sin.
1
a: an offense against religious or moral law
b: an action that is or is felt to be highly reprehensible it's a sin to waste food
c: an often serious shortcoming : FAULT
2
a: transgression of the law of God
b: a vitiated state of human nature in which the self is estranged from God
Everyday we sin and justify it to ourselves barely giving it a 2nd thought. We can always give a reason why it was ok, generally that involves blaming something or someone else. But at least 2 people are angry about it. The victim and God. The offence can be forgiven but if not the anger remains. The Day of Judgement will be one of anger, the Bible describes the wrath of God, which is anger at the highest level.
Many will arrive at Judgement Day unforgiven and won’t be able to escape the judgement of God.
Judgement is a hard word. Forgiveness is the only escape. Following teaching the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus said;
Your heavenly Father will forgive you if you forgive those who sin against you; but if you refuse to forgive them, he will not forgive you.
Matthew 6:13-14
Jesus advised;
“If you meet your accuser on the way to court, try to settle the matter before it reaches the judge, lest he sentence you to jail; for if that happens, you won’t be free again until the last penny is paid in full.”
Luke 12:58-59
Satan is known as the Accuser.
Sin
Some sins it is clear are destructive - murder, adultery, lying, theft. Other things can be discerned as sin by their health effect. Alcohol, nicotine, drugs, promiscuous sex. Of course there is also pleasure in all these things, that’s why people do them but the long term effect is deadly.
The Bible is telling the truth when it says:
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23
God is holy, he will not allow us to enter Heaven filthy with our sins. If someone says they were born that way, we are all born that way. We are all born sinners. We must all be born again to enter the Kingdom of God.
The Talmud notes that the Hebrew numerical value of the word "Torah" is 611. Combining Moses's 611 commandments with the first two of the Ten Commandments were the only ones heard directly from God, adds up to 613. That’s a lot of laws isn’t it ?!
Many people today say that the law was only for the culture at that time and times have moved on but Jesus said;
For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
Matthew 5:18
Some laws can be assumed to be fulfilled but not invalid. For example, Jesus fulfils the role of High Priest eternally.
But in fact many of the laws in Exodus are dealing with the consequences of a higher commandment being broken and are contemporary. Jesus summarised the 10 commandments into 2.
When a man asked Jesus what the greatest commandment in the law is, Jesus told him and added the 2nd greatest.
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Matthew 22:36-40.
A sin is to miss the mark of loving God and our neighbour. By this standard we are all sinners. Which if we are honest is the real reason there is so much pain in this world.
In other cases, the law is given to prevent injustice and really goes without saying;
“having sexual relations with an animal shall certainly be executed.
Exodus 22:19
At other times, there is more than meets the eye;
“Anyone sacrificing to any other god than Jehovah shall be executed.
Exodus 22:20
In other cases, God is making a concession.
“You must be prompt in giving me the tithe of your crops and your wine, and the redemption payment for your oldest son.
Exodus 22:29
The first born belonged to God, so a redemption payment was a concession.
In regards to any law on food, remember that these were given to the Israelites and that later after Jesus was crucified for our sins, he made all food kosher in Acts 10:9-15.
Some laws were given in regards to a festival so of course they only apply during the festival;
The meat must not be eaten raw or boiled, but roasted, including the head, legs, heart, and liver. Exodus 12:9
So after taking all this into account, before people criticise the law as outdated, and justify modern living, how many verses as a % are truly difficult to understand ? It’s actually very few and they appear to be minor details for example;
- Ex. 23:19 — Not to eat mixtures of milk and meat cooked together
- Lev. 19:19 — Not to plant diverse seeds together
- Lev. 19:27 — Men must not shave the hair off the sides of their head
- Lev. 19:27 — Men must not shave their beards with a razor
- Lev. 21:17 — A Kohen with a physical blemish must not serve
Exodus 32
Are we in the modern church guilty of minimising the importance of the law and behaving like Aaron ?
When Moses didn’t come back down the mountain right away, the people went to Aaron. “Look,” they said, “make us a god to lead us, for this fellow Moses who brought us here from Egypt has disappeared; something must have happened to him.” “Give me your gold earrings,” Aaron replied. So they all did—men and women, boys and girls. Aaron melted the gold, then molded and tooled it into the form of a calf. The people exclaimed, “O Israel, this is the god that brought you out of Egypt!” When Aaron saw how happy the people were about it, he built an altar before the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a feast to Jehovah!” So they were up early the next morning and began offering burnt offerings and peace offerings to the calf idol; afterwards they sat down to feast and drink at a wild party, followed by sexual immorality.
Exodus 32:1-6
What do you think Jesus will do if when he comes down from Heaven like Moses coming down from Mt Sinai, finds his people behaving in a shameful way like the Israelites and the ministers pampering and even encouraging them in their sin just like Aaron ?
- Aaron allowed the people to go astray. What a contrast between the priest meeting the Lord on the mountain and the one who stayed behind - we need a daily encounter with the Lord!
- Don’t lose sight of the promise of the Lord while you are waiting and start getting on with your own way. Remember the promise of the Lord and wait patiently!
- Aaron justified the making of the idol and was happy that the people were happy but what terrible sin he was leading the people into - They were already breaking the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 7th and 9th commandments when Moses arrived back - no wonder he was angry
- The greatest sins were sexual, tied up with worshiping the false god. Verse 25 says that the adultery was of great amusement to their enemies. How the World loves it when the people of God get caught up in sin!
- Joshua was with Moses on the mountain. Being younger, he naively proclaimed the people were preparing for war, but Moses understood the truth of the situation. We need the older generation to speak up in our country !
- Moses stood in the gap, even so 3000 men were killed by the priests that day for their sin, including their own family members . No-one was spared. Would many of us still be alive in that scenario ?
The grace we have received from the Lord is not an excuse to live the way we like without consequences. The World believes in Freedom of Choice but by that they mean the freedom to live in darkness if they want. The same problem that Paul had with the Corinthian Church he warns us about today;
For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.” We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. We should not test Christ, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. And do not grumble, as some of them did —and were killed by the destroying angel. These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.
1 Corinthians 10:1-13
And with Paul’s very sobering words, I finish for this week. On Good Friday we can continue on with the suffering the Israelites went through in rose 40 years in the desert and focus in on Jesus’s suffering for us in Gethsemane and at the Cross.
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