Hearing God’s Word (Reviewing what came before)

This week's title for our Bible study, Wilderness Way, is called Hearing God's Word. And hearing what God has to say about himself, what he has to say about us, what he has to say about the world around us, has been an important part of walking with God ever since the beginning of time when people were seeking God. But for us girls as Christians, it is our greatest privilege is to know God, to understand his plan, and then to live in response to him saving grace in our lives. So after Israel's deliverance, about 50 days in, God did just this. They heard his voice, they heard his words audibly from Mount Sinai. And it was important, in order to fill the vacuum that had been created as they left Egypt, it was important for God to speak to them and to tell them three things. Who he was, how they could now live in response to his deliverance, and how he wanted to relate to them. After our salvation, when God delivers us from sin, the most important thing for us is to fill our minds and our hearts with those same things. Who God is, how we are to live in response to his rescue, and how he wants to relate to us. And those are things that you studied in Exodus chapters 20 to 25. We're going to review them a little bit. God first revealed who he was to them. His first words at Mount Sinai, when he began talking to them. First thing he said, this is in Exodus 20 verse 2,

He revealed who he was and what he had done for them. And guys know that no one else could have delivered them. I suppose maybe another nation could have come in and conquered Egypt and taken the Hebrews, but what would have been their purpose? Only to indenture them then for themselves. No one else could have or would have brought them out for the sake of freedom. And then next, God revealed how they were to live in response to the rescue that he had just done. That's the Ten Commandments. This is how you respond to what I have done to you. And we have studied the Ten Commandments, but I like that the prophet Micah, in my mind, sums it up so well. So I'm going to put it up on the screen for you. Look at this, Micah 6, 8.

And the key there is to walk humbly. Humility is what stops us from creating our own idea of how to live life and actually listening to the Lord, listening to what he wants. So I love that. And Israel's response to that, they said two times to Moses in chapter 24, all the words that the Lord has spoken, we will do. We will obey. Finally, God revealed how he wanted to relate to them. And in Exodus 25, 8, he told Moses,

God wanted to relate to them through the sanctuary that they were to make, that we call the tabernacle, that was prepared for the purpose of his dwelling with them. And this sanctuary was going to mean something bigger, something greater down the road. And so it needed to be made exactly according to the instructions that God said, because there would come a day when God's Messiah would fulfill all the implications and all the shadows that we see in the sanctuary. So there you go. That was Israel's situation when Moses came down the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony. God had delivered them. He clearly expressed to them how to live in response to his deliverance. And then he told them about his desire to dwell with them. And he communicated to Moses the pattern for making that possible. So I want you to turn to Exodus 29. I'm going to read verses 43 to 46, because it is an excellent summary of all things related to this tabernacle that God wanted to dwell in. And it says this, Now, the problem is that Israel grew tired and they lost patience waiting on God, waiting for Moses. And so when we get to Exodus 32, which we're going to spend a little chunk of time in this morning, we find this heartbreaking chapter that chronicles Israel's impatience and their failure. And it's especially difficult for us because as we read through this, we can totally understand the scene up on the mountain and the scene at the base of the mountain at the same time. On the top of the mountain, we read about Moses and God planning for this glorious life together, dwelling together, while at the same time at the base of the mountain, we see the rest of Israel reverting back to the ways of Egypt. Until they completely mimic Egyptian thought and Egyptian actions by telling Moses, make us an idol. Where'd they get that from? Well, that was from Egypt. So now we know, we know that Egypt in the Bible is always a type of the world for us. So when Paul warned the Corinthians, remember I wrote out for you that long passage from 1 Corinthians in our intro, and we're going to go back to it, refer back to it almost every single week. And when Paul warned them that we might not desire evil as they did, he was basically saying this. He was saying, hey, you Corinthians, even people who are delivered read for us saved. Even people who are saved should take heed lest we fall. This is a warning to Christians because the thoughts and the actions of Egypt can have a strong pull. Very magnetizing. But we want to go through what we studied on day three. We want to go through chapter 32, at least hit some of the highlights. So we're in Exodus chapter 32 verse 1. It says,

I have a lot of compassion on Israel now. When I was younger, I was pretty hard on people in the Old Testament. And now I totally get it. Now I see that they represent human nature. They represent me. They saw he was delayed. It was 40 days coming down the mountain. Christmas was 38 days ago. Does that not seem like a long time ago? Christmas was forever ago. So I can feel that. But here's my question. They saw Moses was delayed. According to whom? Whose timetable were they using to identify, oh, he's been delayed coming down? You see, they hadn't yet gotten into the habit of gearing themselves to God's timetable. Or there would have been no delay in their mind. Maybe you can relate to that. Because these things are written down as examples for us. That's what Paul said. 1 Corinthians 10.7 tells us,

And Paul condenses what happened there that we read in Exodus. But it wasn't only the fact that they begged Aaron to craft them that idol. And it wasn't only the sexual immorality. Those were symptoms. The core problem was they forgot who they belonged to. They forgot who they belonged to. And so the cravings of Egypt became what they caved into. And that's why Paul's warning is so important for us. Can we forget who we belong to? Absolutely. Christians can forget who we belong to. And we also can crave and cave into the thoughts of the world. And it is a terrible thing to see happen. To me, I think that unmet expectations are the key in this little passage right here. I feel like many Christians can become disappointed with God very easily. Maybe it's a timing issue. Maybe it is that they think God has neglected them. But our faith... Flash sets up expectations of how we think God should treat us, how and when he should do certain things. And if those expectations are not met, what happens? We revert back to the ways of Egypt, back to the ways of the world. Maybe you've experienced this. Maybe you've been one of them. Maybe you are right now. Maybe you never thought of it until we had this conversation right here this morning. And all of a sudden, it dawns on you, I have unmet expectations. I wonder why I have done that. I hope that you looked at the bottom of page 11 and some of those verses about waiting on God. They were really great verses. And we said, take one of them. Pick your favorite. And write it on a card. And keep it as a bookmark. Because waiting on God is a very important spiritual skill for us to develop. But just last night, I found another verse. I ran across it. I was reading something. I was reading an Andrew Murray book. And here came a verse that put together the words waiting and expectations. And so I had to give it to you. Look at this. It is Psalm 62 5 out of the King James.

You can see why I like that. Wait for God. My expectation is for him only, not what I have developed, and not my expectations. Love that. Well, then there's Aaron. Verse 2, take off the rings of gold that are in your ears and bring them to me, he said. And do you know that these ornaments are sort of symbolic of wedding ornaments, belonging to someone. And so Aaron is basically saying to them, go ahead, just take off all the physical evidence of who you belong to. He complicates matters. And so they did. And verse 4 says,

And Aaron built an altar. And he said, tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord. And after God and Moses conferred together up on the mountain about what happened in verse 15, it says,

You guys, he wrote it with his own hand, the work of God. Moses comes down the mountain with those two tablets. And verse 19 tells us,

And right there, it stabs us in the heart, just like it did in Genesis chapter 3. We see that. And we go, the work of God lies broken. And we feel that result of sin, what sin does to a relationship with God. The covenant had not even yet reached them physically. And they had rejected God. They made a gentleman's agreement with Moses up on the mountain, or with Moses before he went to the mountain, saying, yes, we will obey. But before it came down to them, they were not able to. So this right here, you guys, this is another very important act in the whole screenplay of God's redemptive purpose. Because it teaches us that we have no ability to hold up our end of the agreement. It teaches us that the power of sin will always intrude on our intentions to obey God. The old covenant was broken before it was ever received. Does that make us hopeless? No, because God was setting things in motion for the new covenant, which would not require our obedience in order for it to be enacted. We obey in response to it. But the new covenant could never be broken. That was a matter of believing and receiving. And so are we not grateful that we can see that clearly now and that we live on that side? But the new covenant is centuries in the future. In the meantime, we've got to deal with this. Because disobedience has consequences, doesn't it? So look at verse 20. Here's the consequences. Moses took the idol. He burned it. He ground it to powder. He scattered it on the water. And he made the people drink it. And then he turned to Aaron in verse 21. And he says to Aaron, what did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them? And if it wasn't so tragic, it would be comic. Aaron said in verse 23, well, the people said to me, make us gods who shall go before us. So I said to them, well, let any of you who have gold take it off. So they gave it to me. And I threw it into the fire. And out came this calf. I have had three-year-olds that have come up with a better excuse for disobedience than that. And you have, too, right there. Moses clearly has no imagination and no alibi skills. And we're going to talk about, I said Moses. I meant Aaron. We're going to talk about Aaron in a few chapters to come. And we'll look back on this scene. So we're just going to leave that right there for right now. But now Moses turns to the people in verse 25. It says,

Interesting. And then we have this rather confusing and somewhat disturbing event where the Levites basically go to war against their countrymen and become agents of God's judgment right there. It's hard for us to take in. Moses's command seems harsh. 3,000 men fell that day. But you know what? We don't have all the details. And so I want to say a few things about this. Do you know how it sort of happens frequently now that all of a sudden a video of something shocking goes viral and we all get upset and we say, well, that shouldn't be. Look at what happened. And then it takes about two days. And then more information comes out. And we see other sides of the story. And we go, oh, we didn't have all the information. Sometimes that happens in the Bible, too. We don't have all the information. It may be that those 3,000 men were the ringleaders of this whole rebellion. We don't know. So we rest on what we do know. What do we know about the situation? What we know is mercy in judgment. We've talked about that before. When Moses said, who is on the Lord's side, come to me, who had the opportunity to do that? Everybody had the opportunity. There was an opportunity given for repentance and identification with God. And God does that throughout history. Mercy in judgment. He gives an opportunity for repentance right up to today. There is an opportunity for people to repent and for people to identify with the Lord. And that is one thing that is clear to see in this passage. So after the plague, Moses and God had a series of private conversations, one down in the tent of meeting, which is not yet the wilderness tabernacle, by the way. It hadn't been set up. And then the second followed. Moses goes up another 40 days up to Mount Sinai, and they talk things over. And there's so much information here. If you want more study, go to our website and click on Paul's teaching on Exodus to really get smaller bites of this. But I just want to point out three things so that we can get to numbers next week. The first thing I want to point out is that Moses appealed to God for the future based on the promises he knew had been given in the past. In chapter 33, verse 13, Moses tells God, I want you to consider that this nation is your people. He's pointing back to something God had been saying all along. These are my people. These are my people. And so Moses holds God up to his word. And God responds in the next verse. And he said, all right, my presence will go with you. And I will give you rest. I will lead you to the place. I will lead my people to the place of victory and rest. And then in verse 16, Moses says, OK, because if your presence will not go with me, then do not bring us up from here. Is it not in your going with us? He wanted God's presence that makes us distinct from every other people on the face of the earth. Again, he's appealing to what God has already said. And look how God responds in verse 17. The Lord said, this very thing that you have spoken, I will do, for you have found favor in my sight. And I know you by name. We, too, have the privilege of appealing to God for things in our future based on the promises that he has given us in the past. This is a good strategy in our prayers. Always appeal. to what God has said. And we too have the privilege of being known by God. Look at what 1st Corinthians 8 3 says,

I love that. All right, second point is that Moses is a type of Jesus Christ in his intercession for the sins of the people, and yet he was an imperfect shadow of the perfection to come. Even though God said he knew him by name, he still made Moses stand on the rock and in the cleft of the rock for God to speak to him. Look at verse 21, God says, behold there's a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by, I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Now this isn't the first time that the rock has been important. We had it at Meribah before the covenant, where water, living water, came out of the rock. We will have it again after the covenant, where living water will come out of the rock. But the rock is an important thing for us to see, for us to see that Moses himself, even though he is a type of Christ, in this setting is not the hero of the story. The rock, his foundation, what he is standing on, is what is important. And the term rock of Israel becomes something that David speaks of, Isaiah speaks of, and you know that verse that I just shared with you, Psalm 62, 5 and 6, I want to show it to you again, because this is common for psalmists. You've read this over and over. Look at this,

Do we not read that over and over in the Psalms? And so Paul, Paul is the one that identified it. Back again to 1st Corinthians chapter 10, the Apostle Paul says, for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and he said, and the rock was Christ. So he interpreted for us, the rock was Christ. So that is the hero of our story, and we too have the privilege of taking our stand on the rock. So it's a good image for us to think about and absorb, and when those times of need come, to picture ourselves like Moses, standing upon the rock, hidden in the cleft of the rock. Alright, last thing is that Moses was, as he was positioned on the rock, he also received a greater revelation of God's character, and I want to read Exodus 34, starting in verse 5. I had you guys write this out in day 4. Super important passage, where God declares his character, who he is. It starts this way,

Beautiful exchange, beautiful exchange between Moses and God. I want to bring out one point from verse 7, that verse 7 is not a proof text for generational curses. Quite the opposite, in fact. If anything, it is a proof text for God's long-suffering and his magnanimous nature, because it shows us the contrast between extending his forgiveness and love for thousands of generations, compared to the short amount of discipline that may last for a few generations. If you said to me, I'm going on a vacation, I said, oh how much money do you have, which is nothing I would ever say to you, but, and you said to me $3,000, and I'd say, oh you can probably take a pretty nice vacation, but if you said you're going on a vacation, I said how much money do you have, and you said I have $3, I'd say, oh well I can tell you're going to have a good time for 10 minutes at the Bowery menu at McDonald's, you know. Do you see the contrast? Thousands of generations in a short limited time. God disciplines for a time. Good parents discipline for a time, but they love for a lifetime, and I think that's the heart of what's being said there. So after all of that, Moses comes down the mountain, his face is shining, and he commanded Israel all that the Lord had spoken, and the next chapters are taken up with the task of actually making the tabernacle, following the instructions that God gave. I love how God actually picked out men by name, and said I've designed for him to be a craftsman, and he will lead, and beautiful passages, but what I want to do with this is I want to go on a little side note here, because throughout this journey, I want us to remember that these are real people that really lived, that had real lives, and loves, and disappointments, and feelings, all right. You guys, the way I read it, we got up to 3,000 widows now, right here in this story, because of the judgment that just happened, okay. Some people's lives were altered right there, and that's part of what we go through in this life. We go through seasons of grief, seasons of loss, seasons of how can I go on with what has just happened. They faced it too, just like we do, but sometimes we think we invented that, but people throughout the ages have faced those things. So what I see in here, with those that had faced loss at this point, they couldn't go home. They couldn't just say, well, this is a bad time for me, really, to go through the wilderness, and go to, so I'm just gonna go home. There is no home. This is their home. God is their home. Rest is their home, and so what one choice did they have? Do the next thing. Those of you who loved the writings of Elizabeth Elliot know how she talked about it. Do the next thing. The next thing is build the tabernacle. I gave you the instructions. That's the next thing, and everyone needed to just participate in the next thing, and I don't say that in a real whimsical way, to like, well, I don't care what's going on in your life. That's not the point. I'm just saying that's what the narrative does show us, is that even in seasons of joy, and seasons of loss, and seasons of grief, and seasons of uncertainty, we have one place to go with the Lord, and that's forward. As Peter said, who else has the words of life? And so I hope that inspires us. I look around the room, and I think probably everybody's got something, some level that they can relate to that, and so it's good for us to say to each other, what else are we going to do? We have to do the next thing that the Lord has given us to do. Love the next person. That's what's going on here. Now, why was it so important to build this tabernacle exactly the way God instructed it? You wrote that out, what, half a dozen times, you know, according to the pattern, exactly the way. Why was that so important? Well, remember Moses had asked, would you please go with us, go in the midst of us? God would not and could not go with them and inhabit that tabernacle unless it was made exactly the way that he had said, because everything about the tabernacle needed to point to the Messiah to come, and it needed to be recognizable, and it needed to be something where when Jesus came on the scene, it was easy to see that his sacrifice fulfilled everything. That's why it was so important. And you know, in our lives, very well-meaning people like to sometimes do ministry according to how they think it should be done. We have a way of thinking we know how the world should run, how God should run the world, and so we start doing things, and then we say, Lord, look at what I'm doing, would you bless this, please? But that's not how ministry works, at all. Ministry works when we first seek God, we hear his word, we have to listen to his word, find out what he wants to do and how he wants it to be done, do it according to the pattern he gives us, then he will bless it. Then he will bless ministry. So we're gonna move all the way to Exodus chapter 40. We're gonna close with just the closing of Exodus so we can be in numbers next week. Exodus 40 verse 16 tells us that Moses did according to all that the Lord commanded him. Good job Moses, that was not easy. Kudos, we appreciate that. It says in the first month of the second year, on the first day of the month, the tabernacle was erected. And we'll talk about that time marker, we'll look back on it next week. Okay and then scoot all the way down to verse 34 and I'm just gonna close by reading the closing verses of Exodus chapter 40 starting at verse 34.

Did I have you draw a picture of that? Just think about that. What a glorious ending to this one little chapter until we get ready to move out. Love it. God actually settling. Again you guys, they're real people, real lives that lived in that dispensation of what God was doing at that point. Amazing. Father God, thank you for this quick survey through the end of Exodus and Lord there's so much in there for us to take to heart just like the Apostle Paul said that we should take heed lest we fall. So Lord that's what we ask you. We ask you to help us roll these things over in our hearts that we take heed and that we are obedient, that we love you, we set our minds on you and Lord most of all that we do not forget who we belong to. Pray that you would seal these things in our hearts in Jesus name, amen.