The Character of God

Today's lesson is our last segment in this study that we've had where the people of Israel are finally getting to Mount Sinai to hear from God for themselves. And do you remember the old school roadmaps that we had that folded up about 15 times and we put them in the glove box, remember? And you'd maybe unfold it and try and find a way to refold it so that you just had a little portion that showed you right where you were traveling, right? And it was always kind of a thrill to when you got to the end of it and it's like, okay, now I've got to open it up and refold it again. Well, I've realized that's kind of what God is helping us do. What we've been doing in Women of the Word when we go to an Old Testament study is it's really been an Old Testament survey. And so our first one was divine design and we surveyed from Eden to Egypt. And then we have been studying divine deliverance where we have been serving the land from Egypt to Sinai. And maybe now we should go from Sinai to the Jordan next time. I don't know what we'd call it, divine direction. I don't know. We'll just see what happens. But part of what we do here is we want to look at just that little sliver of our map. But by the time we get to the end, we want to unfold it and see the whole thing. That's God's unfolding story of redemption. Maybe you are one of the people who have shied away from studying the Old Testament. One of the gals from the Veil study admitted this to me that when she saw we were doing Exodus, she's like, I just don't care how God is. I don't care for how God is in the Old Testament. And if you're that way, I wonder if this part of the roadmap has changed your perspective because what have we seen of God in this lesson? It's incredible, you know, his mercy to them in the light of their grumbling and his provision when they were reluctant to trust and his protection and his guidance all the way have been over the top gracious. And so I think once we actually look at the Old Testament, any preconceived conceptions we have are just eliminated. Let's remember why God was bringing these people out of Egypt. Number one, to honor his promise to Abraham that he had given to him in Genesis, that he would indeed bring his descendants out of Egypt and out of their bondage. Number two was to honor his promise to Abraham that he would indeed bring his descendants into the land that he promised to give to Abraham and they are on their way doing that. But then also we see as we're going to read in the first verses, we see another reason because God is telling them to make you a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. You see, God had a special purpose for these people. He wanted to set them apart. That's what holy means, set apart, to be God's witnesses to the nations, okay? So let's start reading in Exodus 19 verse 1,

So stop right there. Sometimes we will say a phrase and talking about the people of Israel, we will say they're wanderings in the wilderness, okay? That's a phrase that we use. But at this point in the story, on the roadmap, they were not wandering at all. This was a purposeful guidance. They were being led and God had a plan for the proper beginning and ending of this. The beginning was the land of Goshen in Egypt and the ending was right here at the base of Sinai. God had a plan for the exact number of days. Maybe you looked at that in your study, 50 days from the day that they left Egypt until they got here, which is going to mean something. They left on the 15th day of the first month. They got through the second month and when it says here on the third new moon, that means on that day, on that very day, on the first day. And then of course we're going to have three days of preparation, a day for Moses to go up. There's 50 days and then God will tell them later in Exodus, that we haven't studied yet, to commemorate this and to call this a feast. It's the feast of ingathering or also called the feast of first fruits. By the time it gets to the New Testament, it had been renamed Pentecost, Penta, five, 50. Okay, so for today, I'm going to call it Pentecost. I'll go by the New Testament name, okay? And God had planned for the proper number and placement of their trials and tribulations in the last 50 days. He planned that for them. Remember last week when we had our little chart that showed for, it was sandwiched between his, their enemies, Pharaoh and Amalek, and God allowed the enemies to disturb them, to chase them, and then gave them victory. And then as our chart narrowed, we had their lack or their need for water, their thirst. God allowed them to have a thirst and he provided for them. And then that middle, that sandwich in between was when God allowed them to hunger for bread and he provided for them bread at no labor and no cost, right? And so for 50 days, God has been cultivating exactly the right amount of trials and the placement. I wanted to just, as a little aside here, I was talking with one of my kids this week and I asked about someone that we knew in common and I said, how is she doing? Well, she's kind of been wandering through life. And I thought about that phrase, it captured my attention, wandering through life, because a lot of people wander through life. And I thought about that. The presence or the absence of trials and tribulations in your life do not dictate whether you are wandering through life or purposefully going to where God wants you to go. And I felt like I needed to say that for someone, because sometimes we measure our purposefulness based on, is it all going well? If it's going well, then God must be in it. Is that what we saw with the people of Israel? No, we did not at all. So if that's something that resonates with you, you can be purposefully going through life, doing what God has called you to do, and still face these same types of trials and tribulations. We read in Acts chapter 14, through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God. So there certainly are people who are wandering through life, but our trials and our tribulations are not a marker of if that is the case with us. That's a different topic. All right, verse two, we'll never get through if we go that long. We see that Israel encamped before the mountain, and while Moses went up to God, the Lord called to him out of the mountain, saying, Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel. Okay, three things that God wants to tell them, and I'll just tell you, I'll give you some bullet points here. God wants to tell them what he has done, he wants to tell them what he requires, and he wants to tell them what he promises. That is what this is about. Verse four,

What does God require now?

And what does he promise?

Look at the order, particularly of those first two. God reached out and redeemed them first, and then he said to them, you shall obey my voice. He doesn't look at people and say, if you obey my voice, then I will come and deliver you and bring you into the same thing in New Testament. For New Testament Christians, God reaches out by his grace, brings us out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. But then he wants us to listen to his voice and to obey him. It is the consistent order here. A little secret, I often go read the Jesus Storybook Bible for whatever we're studying. I love it so much, and so I want to put an excerpt from the Jesus Storybook Bible, which we have in our bookstore, by the way. It's a great Easter gift if you have little people in your life. This is what it says right here. The whole earth belongs to me, but I've chosen you. You're my special family, and I want you to live in a way that shows everyone else what I'm like so they can know me too. Isn't that sweet? I love that. See, they were to be God's witnesses, and in order to be God's witnesses, they needed to know him. They needed to know his character. What was he like? And that's why I called this section, The Character of God. So we realize here that God chose one nation of all the nations of the earth to be his agent of salvation to the world, because he promised Abraham back in Genesis 18 and 18, he said, through you will all... All the nations of the earth be blessed. It is why, as Christians, we have a deep love for the people of Israel. We have a deep love for the Jewish nation. Even though they fumbled and messed up some of the things, God was faithful through them and did indeed bring his Messiah through that people group. And so we respect God's choice, we honor God's choice, and we love them because they are God's choice. All right, in verse 10, they're to prepare to hear God's voice, and it said the people were to consecrate themselves, wash their garments, and be ready for the third day because it's not an everyday thing that you get to hear from God. And so probably three days of preparation helped them to get their mind set, their heart set in what was about to happen. So what was the third day like? Drop down to verse 16.

Verse 18,

You read those instructions that were given to them. And I wonder right here this morning, I'll assume it was a morning, if Moses just stood and just looked at what was going on, two million people, babies and teenagers and grandmas and grandpas, all standing there collected at the base of the mountain because what had happened earlier in our study, there was a time he stood alone at that spot, him and God and the bush that wouldn't stop burning. And God told him, this will be a sign to you. You will come right here. This will be a sign that what I've spoken to you is true. Look what was happening. There they were, all gathered, all the descendants of Abraham gathered at the base of the mountain. And I wonder if Israel was remembering during this morning all the times that they had cried out and say, the Lord brought us out here to kill us. Because all the way, they didn't know God very well. They said those things because they didn't know God very well yet, but he brought them purposefully to this point so that they would know him, so that they would know him better. God had chosen them to represent him and to be his witnesses. So we get to chapter 20, verse one tells us,

Now note, remember, everybody is hearing this. This isn't just God talking to Moses or Moses and Aaron. They're all hearing the voice of God. And so when we start reading here now, what we call the 10 commandments, some people call it the 10 words, when we start reading it for this time through, I want you to just set aside every Sunday school lesson that you have taught. I want you to set aside every time you've read through it in your Bible reading, or you have seen an image like Paul was talking about Sunday, a little yard cutout sign or something like that. Just put that out of your mind. And for this particular time through, I want you to only think about Israel, all the people standing at the base of the mountain and what it meant to them in that moment as God was beginning to share his covenant with them. Because just 50 days ago, they were slaves in Egypt with barely a thread of national identity. And now here they were separated out from all the peoples of the earth in the wilderness. And they'd just been delivered. God had given them now, he gave them the Passover, told them to remember it. He gave them the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because at the time he wanted to get them out of Egypt and get Egypt out of them. And so he told them, remember that he had given them manna and he gave them the Sabbath. So God had given them miracles, God had given them instructions. But right now, there was no more miracles and no more instructions. It was God himself coming down and descending and talking to them. This was something different. So let's start. God uses 10 bullet points when he talks to them. And the first four relate, are about how he wants them to relate to him himself. And the next six are about how he wants them to relate to other people. So let's look at the first four. First commandment,

Well, this is self-evident, isn't it? He had gone through great lengths all the way back in Egypt to declare himself, I am Jehovah, there are no other gods. I am predominant over all fake gods. And this is just self-evident. So here you are, you shall have no other gods before me. You shall love me and worship me first and only. Makes sense, doesn't it? And the next three commandments sort of support that.

because that was something that they knew about from their former life, to bow down or serve.

And so this gives a little more clarity to worship me first and only. And the third commandment is

In other words, don't use my name as if it is disconnected from my person or from my presence or from my power. It is very connected. My name is part of me. It is connected to me. So don't use it in a way that is disconnected. And then the fourth one,

Now they had already been given the Sabbath really just a little bit ago, hasn't been long at all. Within the last 15 days they were given the Sabbath. But God is stressing here what I told you when I gave you the manna. I want you to keep that. It's important to me because it's going to help you remember the link. I'm not just your deliverer. I'm not just your redeemer. I'm your creator. And it will help with that link being your creator God and recognizing that there comes a time for you to rest and that I am the provision in that rest. I am your rest. And then we go on to the six ways that God said they wanted them to relate to other people now. And so we have the fifth commandment.

And so in this relational section here, the people were to see the nature of God, the character of God, and they were to adopt that character. How had God dealt with them? How does he deal with people? They are to be like him in that because they are to be a witness to the world of what God is like. So we see through those commandments God speaks truth. He doesn't lie. He doesn't say what is false. So he says, I want you not to bear false witness. Be my witness in this. God honors life. He is the creator of life. And so they were as well to honor life, do not murder. And as challenging as it may be to honor life, you are to be like me in this. God honors covenants and vows. And so he expected them to honor their marriage vows and to love first and only in that commitment. And they said yes. They said yes before they heard this. But back in 1905 when Moses came down and said, God said, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you'll be my treasured possession. And three verses later, they said, absolutely, we will do that. Everything that God says, we will do, which is a wonderful response. I mean, you wouldn't have wanted them to say, no, I don't think so. But we probably know forward a little bit into what. but we're not studying at this point, that the test of the wilderness to come proved that they couldn't love God and worship him first and only. And it proved to them that they couldn't honor people and relate to each other in a way that was in agreement with God's character. They would fail to obey the covenant. And because they were to be God's witnesses to the world, but they would seem powerless to do that. And it wasn't just a failure on Israel, it is a failure of all mankind. Man cannot obey God's law in his own power because of the sin that's in our hearts. There was only one person who went into the wilderness and fully obeyed God. Because when Jesus came on the scene, his father sent him into the wilderness for 40 days before he started his earthly ministry. Isn't that interesting that he went into the wilderness? And during that time, he had the trials and temptations of the enemy, and yet he emerged obedient and victorious in that wilderness experience. Israel, not. The rest of mankind, not. But Jesus did something that no one else could do. Hold on to that, and we'll finish these last verses. Verse 18,

and said to Moses, you speak to us and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us lest we die. And Moses said to the people,

Verse 21,

And that's actually the final verse of our entire study, which is a very strange place to end a study, but we did. But I want you to notice there, two times we see that phrase, they stood far off. And that might sum up for us this first covenant. I'll call it the first Pentecost, using a New Testament word, the first Pentecost after the first Passover could be summed up with distance. God had set limits, he said, stay back, and the people wanted to stay back as he declared to them what he was like, who he was, and gave what we now call to them the law. And you know there's more coming, but we're stopping our study right here. This law was external, there was distance, it was eventually written on tablets of stone. But like we've studied so many times in this study, there was something better to come. And I thought it was great on Sunday, Paul used this same passage, Jeremiah 31. I'm gonna go ahead and put it up here as we read it. Jeremiah 31, 31, and I'm condensing this a little bit, so if you see some things missing, it's just to make it a little abbreviated. Behold, the days are coming when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. That is what we are studying, that's where our roadmap is folded right now, but there's something else as we unfold. And it goes on to say, for this is the covenant, I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts. All right, so we are reminded now, okay, let's take our little paper roadmap, let's unfold it all the way so that we can see the whole big picture, okay? And now we look at 50 days after the first Passover, we're here on the base of Sinai and we have this covenant that we call the law. And even though Israel was to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, his witnesses, the nature of this covenant is distance. The law was never intended to remedy the distance between God and man. That wasn't its intention. In fact, if it had any purpose, it was to show the distance between God and man. Paul said in Galatians chapter three, it was our guardian until Christ came. It was meant to turn their attention to something else on the roadmap. Look further, 50 days after the real Passover, when the real Passover lamb, Jesus, was slain for our sins, we have another experience with God, another Pentecost, and this time God came near and God wrote his law upon their hearts. Jesus had told his disciples in Acts chapter one, stay right here, stay in Jerusalem, and you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses. Oh, witnesses, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the outer parts of the world. And so we read that both, we read about this in Acts chapter two, but we realize that both of these Pentecost experiences had fire. The first one, we had the fire on the mountain, right? Smoke and the people stood back. And the second one in Acts chapter two, it tells us tongues as of fire appeared to rest on each one of them and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. And so we see in the real Pentecost after the real Passover that God had a completely different experience with them. He came near and brought the fire of his Holy Spirit on them, upon them, in them, to give them power now to do what the first Pentecost was powerless to do, to be his witnesses. So the important thing for us as we close this lesson is to ask ourselves, we look at those 10 commandments, we look at God's character, we would like to love God first and only. We would like to have our relationships with people ordered by God's character. Where does the power come from? So do you, have you reached out, asked for again on a regular basis the filling of the Holy Spirit that is available to us to be empowered, to be his witnesses. Sometimes as I've read through that, I thought, oh, so that's power to be an evangelist. No, it's power to do the 10 commandments. It is power to be his witnesses, to relate to people in agreement with God's character. And so we end our lesson with this understanding. If I've gotten lazy in coming to God and saying, Lord, fill me fresh, fill me with your Holy Spirit, then I should get back to that. In the morning, I should say, Lord, empower me by your Holy Spirit to be your witness today, to act in agreement with your character. So I'm just gonna close with this excerpt from Hebrews chapter 12 that you read, and think about this before we read it. Hebrews, who was Hebrews written to? The Hebrews, it was written to the Jews, it was written to these people, the same people who now believed in Jesus Christ as their Messiah. And so as the writer is kind of doing his closing arguments, look what he tells them. He said, for you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. We know what he's talking about today, don't we? We just studied it. They knew what he was talking about. He said, that's not what you've come to to get power in your life. But you have come to Mount Zion and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant. Oh, look at these words. See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. Beautiful, strong words. It's a good message for us. See that you do not refuse him who is speaking for our God is a consuming fire. Lord, thank you for this study. Lord, we read those words that you are a consuming fire and Lord, we just feel like we have to stop and ask you, Lord God, to consume everything in our life that is not of you. I think we have a song that we sing that way, Lord. And we invite you, Lord, to consume the things that stop us, Lord, from displaying your character, from being your witnesses. And Lord, we just pause and ask you, Lord, would you fill us fresh with your Holy Spirit to love you first and only. Lord, we cannot love you first and only. you giving us the power to do that. So we pause right here and we just ask for your power. We ask that you fill us. And at the same time, Lord, we offer up all the chaff and ask that you would consume it and burn it away. Burn away what's not of you, Lord, so that we can be your witnesses. Lord, thank you for this study. Thank you that you guide us through your unfolding plan of redemption, Lord. And I just pray, Lord, as we discuss this now at our tables, that you would give us further clarity, further insights. And Lord, thank you for this season of Bible study. And we just give it all to you in Jesus' name, amen.