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Series Theme: Studies in Exodus
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Part 7: The Divine Encounter at Sinai

   

Meditations in Exodus: 61. Covenant Commitment

 

Ex 19: 7,8    So Moses went back and summoned the elders of the people and set before them all the words the LORD had commanded him to speak. The people all responded together, "We will do everything the LORD has said." So Moses brought their answer back to the LORD.

And so we now come to a new phase in the life of Israel. They have been delivered out of Egypt and they have traversed the desert, down through the Sinai Peninsular until they have reached that same mountain where the Lord first revealed Himself to Moses at the burning bush. I'd pause at this point and have to ask a question or two. This series is about the Exodus; how far to do we go? We have seen the actual Exodus and their desert travels out of Egypt and down to Sinai. Might we say this is the end of the Exodus?

No, I believe we need to go on and see the big picture that will conclude when they actually go to enter the Land. The Lord 's intent was declared right at the beginning of His encounter with Moses: “I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey--the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.” (Ex 3:8) That was the Lord's goal, the end play, if you like, of the Exodus. Now I am also aware that we are about to plough into large swathes of Law but I am going to restrict our studies to the historical incidents, having dealt with the Law in a completely different set of studies (see ‘Lessons from the Law')

 

So they have arrived at the mountain and, as we saw in the previous study, Moses instinctively(?) goes up on the mountain, perhaps to the place where he had previously met the Lord and the Lord declared His intentions about the future of Israel – a covenant or agreement between Himself and Israel. He would bless them and make them a special people if they will obey Him. It is really that simple. So now we pick up the story.

 

“So Moses went back and summoned the elders of the people and set before them all t he words the LORD had commanded him to speak.” (v.7) Now be very clear about this; Moses conveys to the elders exactly what the Lord had said. There can be no mistaking it, it is very clear. Now observe the response: “The people all responded together, "We will do everything the LORD has said.” (v.8a) The people were very positive, which is excellent, and we will go on to see that a number of times they reiterated their commitment to the Lord. “So Moses brought their answer back to the LORD.” (v.8b)

 

So Moses goes back up the mountain a second time to meet with the Lord. The Lord could have spoken with Moses at the bottom of the mountain in front of the people but by this constant going back up on the mountain there is a sense of the Lord being divided off from the people and we are going to see how that feeling is about to be accentuated. So Moses goes to tell the Lord what has happened (as if the Lord didn't know!!!) but before he can speak, “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.” (v.9a) This is the Lord doing all He can for Moses and his people to make very clear what is going on – this is a close encounter of the divine kind, a real encounter that the people will be able to hear; they will hear God's words spoken out loud.

I believe the Lord only speaks out loud on very special occasions – and this is clearly the most special of occasions. “Then Moses told the LORD what the people had sa id.” (v.9b) Yes, the Lord would have known that the people had said, but there is this expression of personal interactive communication so that Moses is seen as the mediator between God and His people. Some of the things that are going on here almost appear staged so that a point will be made and remembered. If Israel had any doubt before, it should be quite clear now that Moses has a very personal relationship with the Lord.

 

So now the Lord gives Moses some instructions to pass on to the people that are clearly designed to lay down a new understanding about the Lord: “And the LORD said to Moses, "Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes and be ready by the third day, because on that day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. Put limits for the people around the mountain and tell them, `Be careful that you do not go up the mountain or touch the foot of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. He shall surely be stoned or shot with arrows; not a hand is to be laid on him. Whether man or animal, he shall not be permitted to live.' Only when the ram's horn sounds a long blast m ay they go up to the mountain.” (v.10-13 )

 

Now what is going on here? Well, we have just seen the elders of Israel agree to the covenant that the Lord proposes but it almost seems to come too easily. Perhaps it is the same feeling that it seems that many (young) Christians have, that God is ‘their friend' or ‘their buddy', i.e. well, God has made Himself known to us and we are clearly a special people, He's for us, we're for Him and everything is at peace in the world. Now in some senses I believe that is healthier than the opposite extreme that God is a ‘hard man' who is only looking for an excuse to punish us but both extremes are wrong.

 

Yes, we do have an intimate relationship with the Lord but we should never be casual about it and it is that, I would suggest, that is behind these instructions to Israel now. For us today it needs to be more of an attitude than a series of actions as seen here. But what do we see here? First, there is a call to personal preparation to meet God; see the language – ‘consecrate, wash' i.e. cleanse yourself as far as you are able. Do what you can to be in a right attitude when you approach the Lord. Second, there is a warning to keep a respectful distance. This is almighty and all-powerful and all-wise and all-knowing holy God that we are talking about. Never ever reduce Him to buddy status.

 

In respect of God we have no rights, we cannot demand anything, but the truth is that He has initiated the possibility of relationship and so, third, there will be times of intimate closeness but they will be when God decrees. When a divine ‘ram's horn' is blown we may draw close. For us today it is when the Holy Spirit comes. Then is the time to know the wonder of divine intimacy, but not before. Jesus died to bring this possibility about; let's not be casual about it. Reverence and respect, yes, but amazingly the New Testament tells us that we can now call him ‘daddy'. Amazing! Wonderful! Hallelujah!

     

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Meditations in Exodus: 62. Safety Measures

 

Ex 19 : 16,17    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.

   

In the previous study we started to observe the warnings that have come through the Lord's instructions to Israel not to be casual when meeting Him. These are sobering passages. The Lord has delivered Israel out of Egypt and has led them through the desert to Sinai providing for them along the way and now He prepares them to have an encounter that is unique in history. This entire people are going to have an encounter with the Lord. It is something they should pass on to their grand children and to all future generations; this is what makes them a unique people.

  

The Lord has given instructions as to how the people are to prepare themselves and so “After Moses had gone down the mountain to the people, he consecrated them, and they washed their clothes. Then he said to the people, "Prepare yourselves for the third day. Abstain from sexual relations.” (v.14,15) The additional instruction about sexual relations is not because sex is wrong but because in the days to come the law will suggest various ways that you can prepare yourself to be ‘special' if you want a special encounter with the Lord and holding back in this area is a token sign of that.

 

So the third day comes and they are ready. They have done all they can do and now it is for the Lord to make His move. “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. ” (v.16) They are still in their camp a little way off from the foothills of the mountain and suddenly it begins. Thunder, lighting, thick cloud and the divine trumpet call. It is time to come close.

 

“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, the whole mountain trembled violently, and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder.” (v.17-19) I don't know if you have seen such films as ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind, or ‘Independence Day'. There the film makers use clouds and sound to create this awesome sense of ‘the coming'. This wasn't just a cloud but it was smoke, it was like a volcano erupting but with no lava present. As it grew and grew, what made it even more eerie was the sound of the trumpet on the mountain getting louder and louder. But this isn't just theatrical effects, this is a personal encounter: “Then Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.” (v.19b) What follows must indicate what He said: The LORD descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain.” (v.20) It is presumably a voice that all the people can hear and “ So Moses went up ” (v.20b)

 

What now follows seems rather strange: “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.” (v.21,22) It is strange because the Lord has already told Moses to instruct the people like this (see v.10-13) but the Lord adds two things here. First, the people are not to ‘see' God and second there is a reference to priests although so far there is no mention of a priesthood. Let's consider both these things.

 

First, not ‘seeing' the Lord. There are two things that come out of scripture. First, whenever there are heavenly revelations (e.g. Ezek 1, Rev 4,5) what is seen is beyond human understanding and so the most commonly used word is ‘like ' as the observers try to grasp something of what is before them. Second, there is also the suggestion that the glory of the Lord is so bright that it would simply burn up the observer. Thus distance and obscurity are required to protect the human observers.

 

Next, the reference to priests. The only people who are going to get close to the Lord in the chapters that follow are the key leaders and in that they then take on the role of priest, as representing the people to the Lord. The word here, I suggest, speaks of those leaders.

 

So why does the Lord repeat this when He has already instructed Moses? Possibly to add in the two above bits of information but also possibly to see if Moses himself has taken it in, and so we find, “Moses said to the LORD, "The people cannot come up Mount Sinai, because you yourself warned us, `Put limits around the mounta in and set it apart as holy.'” (v.23) i.e. I have told the people. We then find, “The LORD replied, "Go down and brin g 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.” (v.24,25) There again the reference to the ‘priests' but they haven't got any yet, just elders. Sounds like the New Testament church where the Bible calls local leaders ‘elders' but some parts of the church call them ‘priests'. Interesting! Those elders will have their turn but for the moment the ‘leadership encounter' is to be extended from just Moses to include Aaron who, after all, has played a significant part in the Exodus – but no one else. So Moses goes and tells the people.

 

We have already suggested that the limitation on not being able to ‘see' the Lord was given to protect Israel from being destroyed by the incredible glory of God. Moses himself has never ‘seen' the Lord, only heard Him a number of times. Prohibiting the people from coming up on the mountain does the same thing. It is not so much that God is not to be seen as a tourist attraction, but the coming together of the divine and the human is potentially very risky – risky at least from the human side. I suspect that the holiness or glory of God is one of the things we know least about even though the word holy is often used to designate the presence of God (for He alone is holy).

 

The apostle Paul speaks of us seeing through a glass darkly (old versions) or “as in a mirror” (modern versions). Think how people try to observe an eclipse of the sun – either through dark glasses or even using a mirror. Now imagine something a million more times powerful than our sun. The incredible marvel is that somehow the Lord manages to communicate with mankind without destroying us. Later the Lord was to say to Moses, “no one may see me and live.” (Ex 33:20) It's not that the Lord doesn't want us to see Him but that if we did as mere human flesh we would be instantly burnt up by the glory of the Lord. Don't see these instructions as legalistic but expressions of God's mercy and grace. What a miracle of His grace and mercy it is that we make it through even one day! Ponder on that.

    

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Meditations in Exodus: 63. The fear of the Lord

 

Ex 20:18,19 When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, "Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die."

 

My own feeling is that these verses in chapters 19 and now 20, about Israel 's responses to the Lord, are not exactly dramatic or life-bringing and it is difficult to apply lessons apart from the obvious one, but as we ponder on and reflect on what is going on there is something significant here to be noted.

 

At the end of chapter 19 we saw Israel camped near the base of Mount Sinai and they see lightning, clouds and smoke and hear crashes of lightning and the sound of unearthly trumpets. They are called to approach the mountain but not go up on it, on pain of death. As they saw and heard all these things they trembled (19:16)

 

Moving into chapter 20 we find the giving of the Ten Commandments and it is worth noting the opening words: And God spoke all these words: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” (20:1,2) The foundation of all the Law is the Lord who delivered them from Egypt. Every time there is reference to Egypt we are reminded of God's power and authority as He brought to plagues to discipline Egypt. This is the God who is still with them, On one side there is the reminder of the terrible things God did, which must bring with it a sense of awe if not fear, but the big overarching truth is that God did those things to deliver His people and He has led them every since and provided for them. This, surely, should bring comfort and reassurance. Everything God has done He has done for them and yet He has a land ready for them to take after they leave Sinai.

 

The point to be made is that there is with God, always a balance between fear, reverence and respect on one hand (because of His power, greatness and holiness) and grateful thankfulness on the other (because of His wonderful grace and mercy shown to us). The former may be unnerving and be used to keep us in right attitude towards Him, but the latter should bring reassurance and security to us. I say there needs to be a balance because we have a tendency to swing towards one or the other. A weak sense of the fear of the Lord brings a casual, sloppy form of Christianity. An over-strong sense of the fear of the Lord brings a legalistic fear that inhibits growth of relationship. A weak sense of the awareness of God's grace brings uncertainty, doubts and even wrong fear. An over-strong sense of God's grace can bring licentiousness and casualness in moral behaviour. A balance need to be brought in both, and both need to be held in balance.

 

Following the Ten Commandments and before the bulk of the law is given, we have a short description of how Israel are handling this situation. To be fair, it is perhaps understandable that Israel react as they do for this is still early days in their life with the Lord: “When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, "Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.” (v.18,19) The present manifestations are so dramatic that it means they tend to forget all the good God has done for them. Their fear of dying is irrational when you think about it because it means they completely forget all the trouble God has gone to, to bring them here. Indeed, there is going to come a time when Moses is going to have to make that point to the Lord.

 

So, “Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning." The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.” (v.19,20) Any talk of being put to death for going onto the mountain is simply a form of test for Israel and, as we have seen in the past, when God tests us it is simply to prove us, to bring us through into a good place where we know we have done the will of God and overcome.

 

If you read the following chapters you will see we have come to a place where the Lord shares laws with Moses for Israel, to constitute them a nation. The laws will form the basis of the covenant with God, the things they need to obey as their side of it. They are laws for maintaining law and order in the community and in that sense there is nothing onerous about them, they are simply for their well-being. As we said previously, we will not deal with the laws, but with the incidents involving the people.

 

The lessons we need to hold onto as we move more into the Sinai experience must be about how we hold that balance both within and between the fear of the Lord and the grace of the Lord. There will always be a sense where the fear of the Lord is to be part of our lives, simply because of His holiness, His utter difference from us in so many ways, and yet the Lord has gone to great trouble to reassure us and show that it is possible for us to have a loving , intimate relationship with Him.

An illustration: I have known scary preachers, held in awe by their congregations, and yet I have seen them with their small children. Those little children come rushing into the room when he returns home and leap into his arms with no inhibitions. They have no fears of ‘the great man' because all they know is his loving responses to them. May I suggest the more we genuinely know and experience the Lord, the more we will be more overcome by His love rather than His fear. May it be so.

    

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Meditations in Exodus: 64. The Strategy Laid Out

   

Ex 23:23   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.

 

We jump over the chapters of law that constitute the covenant, at the end of which we now find the Lord lays out His explanations and instructions as to what will follow this time at the mountain. First we see the divine provision of a guide: 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. ” (v.20,21) We may think this ‘angel' would better be described as a messenger and even wonder if it might apply to Moses.

 

The same word is used in verse 23 and I would suggest that nothing that follows denies that possibility. The Lord Himself, we will see, retains the power to deal with enemies. This one is simply a guide: “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.” (v.22,23) Note three things about this provision of a guide. First, this messenger-guide will speak to them and they are to obey him. This is exactly what happened with Moses. Second, the intent of this guide will be to take them into Canaan which will be occupied by a number of people groups and, third, it will be the Lord who will deal with them.

 

Next, in the second section, He gives strict warnings about worship in the Land. Those again come with three elements. First, a prohibition: “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.” (v.24) Not only were they to NOT worship those gods, they were also to clear away all signs of that worship. Second, there is a call to worship God: “Worship the LORD your God.” (v.25a) Worship is a recognition and acceptance of the greatness of God. When you stop worshipping you stop recognising His greatness. Their side of their relationship with the Lord is to be characterized by worship. Third, a promise of blessing on obedience: “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.” (v.25b,26) When they had this relationship of worship, they were promised a life of health and well-being and long-life.

 

In the third section of these instructions, we find His strategy for clearing the Land of its present occupants. There are two parts to this. First, there is His intention to scare the occupants out: “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.” (v.27,28) Please make careful note of this very significant strategy because it is contrary to popular opinion that God's intent was to wipe out the occupants – that was only secondary. Yes, He has used that word in v.23 but it is clear His desire was for the present occupants to flee the Land. In my book, ‘The Judgments of a Loving God', I note that there are 31 references to the Canaanites being DRIVEN OUT, 4 references to them being DESTROYED, and 4 to them being WIPED OUT. From the Biblical record it is very clear that God's preference was that the Canaanites flee the Land and yet He recognized that their Sin fuelled by occultic practices would make them resist and so they would fight.

 

But it is not that straight forward because there is a second part: “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.” (v.29,30) The process of clearing the Land will take a while so that as they clear a part, they can get established in it and civilize it. If they moved straight through the land they would leave large parts empty and animals would take up occupation.

 

In the fourth short section of these instructions the Lord delineates the extent of the Land He has for them: “I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the River.” (v.31a) i.e. from the borders of Egypt in the south, the Mediterranean on the west and the Euphrates on the north and east.

 

The fifth and final short section simply reiterates His instructions about taking the Land: “I will hand over to you 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.” (v.31b–33)

 

Now what practical lessons come to mind in these verses? Well we have already put a main focus on worship. We live in an age where in some quarters there is disillusionment with the church (and there are grounds for disquiet) but nevertheless the community of God's people is still the best place to participate in Spirit-led worship. As we said earlier, worship is an expression of recognising God's greatness and if we stop doing that we will find a whole raft of negatives emerging in our lives.

 

The Canaanites were the classic example of people who were not living according to the design of God for His world. Perhaps we might say that they represented wrong behaviour and practices and wrong attitudes, beliefs and outlooks. When we take ‘the Land' the ongoing battle is to drive out all those wrong things and bring our lives in line with God's design for us. Wrong behaviour and practices can exist because of ignorance of God's design as found in the New Testament, and so teaching is a key element of the life of the new (and older) Christian. That will also challenge the wrong attitudes, beliefs and outlooks we may have. To fully inherit God's plans for us, a key aspect is about getting rid of those things that are contrary to His will for us. It is that simple. May we see it clearly and allow His Holy Spirit to work in us to bring that change about.

    

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Meditations in Exodus: 65. A Special Encounter

 

Ex 24:1,2 Then he 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."

  

Chapters 20-23 were largely the Ten Commandments and then the basic Law. Chapters 25 to 27 will be instructions how to build and establish the Tabernacle, and chapters 28 and 29 about establishing the priesthood. In other words, ahead of us are pages of instructions to do with providing a place and a means for worship for the nation in the coming years. But before we pass that by, we have here in chapter 24 two crucial incidents.

 

First of all the Lord calls the leaders to a unique encounter: “Then he 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.” (v.1,2 ) The group chosen are Moses, Aaron and Aaron's two sons and seventy of the elders of Israel. Now note the order of what happens. The Lord gives this instruction to Moses, Moses establishes the covenant and only then do the men go up to meet with God. But this encounter with God is both unique and highly significant so let's see what happened.

 

“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 sapphire, clear as the sky itself. But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.” (v.9-11) Now some may try and explain this away as simply a vision but it is not recorded in those terms. This is a unique encounter where the Lord invites these men into His presence on the mountain and twice it says they ‘saw' Him. Now there are two things that are staggering about this .

 

The first thing is that Moses (assuming he wrote most of Exodus) does not even attempt to describe anything about God. Later God will tell Moses that no one can see Him and live and even Moses himself didn't so this is undoubtedly a unique occasion and you would think we would get a description as appears in Ezek 1 or Rev 4, but we don't.

 

The only way I can explain this is by recounting something that happened to me on my first trip out to Malaysia many years ago. I was part of a small team from the UK that joined with a larger team from New Zealand, I believe it was, and we were all split up into groups of four and sent to different parts of West and East Malaysia. The Pastor of the church that my little group went to, understood I was already a leader and teacher and so kept me back with the church teaching while the other three went into the interior for an evening meeting in a local village. When they came back, the young girl of the group, while recounting how they spoke in a building with a tin roof while the rain poured down noisily, went on to casually note how she had prayed over a blind woman who had been given back her sight. It was the casual way she reported this and when I checked her on it, she was still almost casual about it. I concluded it was almost as if the Lord had used her but anesthetized her so it didn't seem a big issue and she had no problem with pride, having been used in such a way. Was this what the Lord did with Moses and so was that part of the cause that enabled some of these men to be involved in such terrible things subsequently, and was this why Moses gives us no further details?

 

The second staggering thing is that these men saw God and lived. Previously the Lord had given instruction that no one except Moses should go in the mountain and see God, on pain of death and we explained that in terms of God protecting the people from His glory. Now we must assume that somehow or other the form that God took here was limited otherwise these men could not have survived the experience. Nevertheless it was a unique experience and we might ponder, why did God do it?

 

We are not told and are only left to speculate. Was it, I wonder, so that these men at least would have their faith and their trust increased to enable them to stand alongside Moses in leadership and bring stability in this embryonic nation? Was it also that they would then have no excuse for any bad behaviour in the future? We are going to see some of that ‘bad behaviour' in the not too distant future as we follow these studies through and I will remind us when we reach them of this time.

 

Now Jesus taught, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” (Lk 12:48) i.e. the greater the revelation the Lord has given the greater His expectation of us. Living today with easy access to the Bible and recordings of teaching, not to mention an over abundance of TV teaching, I fear many live in a cocoon of information which is not translated into dynamic, faith-filled, action lives. How easy is it to sit, week after week, and hear good teaching and not be transformed by it.

 

Nadab and Abihu, Aaron's sons were part of that group that had that unique revelation and yet their lives were eventually taken for being casual and abusive about their roles in the priesthood. Millennia later, casual and greedy worshippers in Corinth were dying because they were being just that – casual and greedy – in the face of the wonderful revelation they had of salvation and the life and work of the Spirit (see 1 Cor 11:30). Ananias and Sapphira lost their lives for believing they could do their own thing and lie in the face of the Holy Spirit. Living in the day they did, they had witnessed miracles and received the teaching of the original apostles, and yet they missed it and went home prematurely.

 

The more signs of the power and presence of God we experience, the higher the bar of accountability. As I look around the state of the church, especially among the elderly who had experienced the Charismatic movement or the Toronto Blessing or any other move of God in our lifetime, I cannot help but wonder if so much of what I see is the result of poor responses to those wonderful times. I find myself praying, “Lord, please show me things in my life, the Promised Land, that you want me to get rid of, please show me if I am not living up to the revelation you have given me thus far, and please grant me your mercy and grace to do that.” Amen.

   

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Meditations in Exodus: 66. The Covenant Confirmed

 

Ex 24:3,4  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." Moses then wrote down everything the LORD had said.

In the previous meditation we observed the structure of Exodus at this point: chapters 20-23 the Ten Commandments and the basic Law, chapters 25 to 27 instructions how to build and establish the Tabernacle, and chapters 28 and 29 about establishing the priesthood. Sandwiched between the general law and the Tabernacle instructions we noted were two highly significant incidents and we looked at the first one, the encounter of the elders with the Lord. Before that actually happened we have the incident of the affirming the covenant.

 

Remember what has already occurred. The Lord had declared the outline of the covenant: “if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.'” (Ex 19:5,6) i.e. obey me and you will be mine (and implied in that – I will bless you). When Moses told the people this, “The people all responded together, "We will do everything the LORD has said.” (Ex 19:8) Thus the people have already agreed to the outline. Then the Lord shared with Moses His law for the community.

 

“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." Moses then wrote down everything the LORD had said.” (v.3,4) Again, note the order: Moses conveys to the people all the Law that the Lord has imparted to him. Now I don't know what you are like at remembering four chapters worth of Law but it is quite a task, but perhaps it has been such a vivid encounter with the Lord that every moment and every word is firmly etched in his memory. So he tells them what God has said and as one they say, we will do it. He then writes it all down to ensure it can be remembered and passed on to future generations. So twice Israel have affirmed their agreement to this covenant. The first time had been an agreement in principle and the second one had been an agreement in detail. The reality is that when you look at the Law contained in these chapters there is nothing onerous abut them – they are simply wisdom for a peaceful and harmonious community.

 

So far, quite clear. Israel go to bed as a covenant people but covenants in those days in that part of the world were often accompanied by a blood ritual. Remember when the Lord and Abraham did this, sacrifices or animals and birds were cut in two and placed on the ground with a pathway between them so the participants of the covenant would walk the path of death and life (see Gen 15:9-11) – death created a path to be walked to signify a new life together.

 

Moses' blood ritual involves an altar: “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 sprinkled on the altar.” (v.4-6) It is not clear exactly how this was done but the stones clearly represented each tribe, young men were used because it required a lot of energy to bring and sacrifice (twelve) bulls. It is not clear how many bulls but many assume one bull per tribe. The ceremony appeared to have a twofold purpose. The burnt offerings seem to be signs of submission to God or signs of worship, but the bulls indicate fellowship or unity or friendship with God, given to bless Him.

 

The activity involving the blood of the bulls is also unclear. Half of the blood was sprinkled on the altar – presumably representing giving it to God – and the other half was just kept in bowls – presumably representing keeping it for the people, because we subsequently read, “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." (v.8) Animals were killed and their blood, representing lives given, was shared between God and the people. A gory mess but at the end of it there would be a sense of unity with God in this covenant agreement.

 

We should note that this sprinkling of the people did not take place until after Moses, “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.” (v.7) Note this was the third time they had affirmed the covenant. Hence Moses' words we noted above, “This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.” (v.8) The blood sprinkled on the people was like signing a letter in blood except in this case it was a living agreement with living people who were marked by the blood.

 

At the Last Supper we read of Jesus, “Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Mt 26:27,28) The wine figuratively pictured his blood and by drinking it they (and we) demonstrated their unity with the Lord in the covenant. The shedding of his blood, of course, took place on the Cross. With the establishing of this new covenant we enter into a new relationship with the Lord in which we surrender our lives to Him, to live obediently to Him from now on, and because of Jesus' death acting as a substitute for us, we are cleansed and forgiven in God's sight. This is the new covenant.

 

As we go on we will have cause to remember these times of covenant affirmation, first to the general principle, second to the words recounted by Moses and then thirdly when Moses read them from the document he had compiled and their affirmation was accompanied by a blood sealing. There can be no doubt that Israel have entered this covenant with their eyes open and with full understanding. The awful significance of this will be seen as we progress.

 

Perhaps we should remember Solomon's teaching: “When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow. It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it. Do not let your mouth lead you into sin.” (Eccles 5:4-6) Nevertheless I would always add, if you have made a foolish vow that is clearly wrong (such as Jephthah's vow in Jud 11:30,31) it is better to reply on the Cross than add to your folly by further sin. Serious stuff that can have serious consequences. Be careful.

     

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Meditations in Exodus: 67. Mountain Top Stay

 

Ex 24:12 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 commands I have written for their instruction."

    

We now arrive at circumstances that are strange to say the least. Bear in mind that we have read that Moses has written down everything the Lord has said so far, which must include the Ten Commandments and all the Law that followed in chapters 20-23. The Lord 's instruction to Moses seems to indicate a period up on the mountain: “The LORD said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain and stay here.” (v.12a) That ‘stay here' should have indicated to Moses that this was going to be more than a few days.

   

But why is he to go up there? “and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and commands I have written for their instruction.” (v.12b) Now there is some lack of clarity here about exactly what was on these stone tablets. Some following detail would suggest just the Ten Commandments but here the description is “law and commands” suggesting all that Moses has written down. In Ex 31:18 they are called the “two tablets of the Testimony” and in Deut 9:9 they are called “the tablets of the covenant.” However on he Plain previously Moses had said, “He declared to you his covenant, the Ten Commandments, which he commanded you to follow and then wrote them on two stone tablets.” (Deut 4:13) The tablets appear to be just the Ten Commandments or at least, they are all that is mentioned.

 

Now Moses may have a sense of being away a while for, “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.” (v.14) and so we see, “ Moses set out with Joshua his aide, and Moses went up on the mountain of God . ” (v.13) So we see he takes Joshua with him and leaves Aaron and Hur in charge while he is away.

What follows is simply a description of what then happened: “ 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.” (v.15-18) Moses goes up, the cloud comes down and for six days Moses waits with nothing happening except the glory of the Lord was clearly there on the mountain top which, to the onlookers down on the plain, appeared as fire. Then Moses appears to enter the cloud and go further up the mountain, presumably leaving Joshua at a lower level.

   

Now that is all we hear of him until chapter 31. The intervening chapters are about the Tabernacle and establishing the priesthood, all presumably given to Moses in that forty days. Then we read, “When the LORD finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the Testimony, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God.” (Ex 31:18)

 

Now here is my question again: why did the Lord have Moses write down the Law, then take him away for over a month to give it to him on stone tablets when he already had it? Well, in respect of the stone tablets, the intent must have been to give them (the Ten Commandments at least) supreme importance over all other law, having come from the ‘hand of God' Himself. They are laws which can be applied to any nation in the world for they sum up God's intent or design for mankind, to have a relationship with Him and a good relationship with all others summed up by, “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength,” (Deut 6:5) and love your neighbor as yourself.” (Lev 19:18)

 

As to why the Lord kept Moses up on the mountain for over a month we can only speculate. We will go on in the next study to see what terrible things went on back at the camp as the time passed by but we'll wait for the next study for that, but here is the crucial question: when the Lord seems distant or we don't seem to hear anything from Him, how will we react?

   

You see it seems to me as if the Lord was testing Israel and specifically Aaron and the others under Moses, those in charge back at the camp. How will they act in Moses' absence, especially if that absence seems to drag on? Will Aaron, Hur and the other leaders keep Israel in the same attitude towards God that Moses always maintained, one of respect and awe? Will those leaders be faithful and will they keep Israel faithful? How much have they taken in from all that has happened, especially that recent encounter up on the mountain where they ‘saw' the Lord? Will that revelation hold them true and faithful?

 

I ask these questions in the light of what went on here and in the light of what sometimes seems to happen in the Christian life. There are times when the presence of the Lord is obvious it seems, times of great revelation, times of great blessing. In the UK we have ‘Bible Weeks' in the Summer where thousands gather to worship the Lord and learn of Him, times of great blessing. But then there are the times back home when church seems mundane, life appears boring and for some reason or other the Lord seems distant. Now maybe it shouldn't be like that but it is; we all of us suffer times when for a while at least the Lord seems distant. These, I would suggest, are times of testing, times when the Lord wants to check the depth of your commitment, check the reality of your relationship with Him. When there appears a half hour silence in heaven (e.g. Rev 8:1) will we stand still and remain firm, holding to what we are and not being moved by the enemy? When the Lord remains silent will we remain faithful and patiently wait on Him? Israel didn't do very well in this waiting period. Will we?

    

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Meditations in Exodus: 68. The Folly of Sin

 

Ex 32 : 1 When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, "Come, make us gods (or a god) who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him."

We have seen how the Lord called Moses up the mountain and kept him there for forty days. In the light of what we have been seeing in recent meditations, what now follows is horrific: When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, "Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him. (v.1) As I noted in the quote above, ‘gods' could be ‘a god' . The folly of what takes place starts with the people but when it says ‘people' it is probably the tribal leaders who come to Aaron to put pressure on him to do something.

 

What's the problem? Moses has disappeared and there has been no sign or sound of him or of God for well over a month. The people are beginning to wonder, are they suddenly leaderless. Their description of Moses is less than complimentary. But it is their demand for a ‘visible god' that is most stupid. Throughout the Bible the stupidity of worshipping man-made idols is made clear. Why should a metal image have any power?

 

I can only assume this demand for ‘a god' is a demand to have a token image that they can put out front when they travel, that sends a message to other equally superstitious people, “Mess with us and you mess with our god,” but as that ‘god' is merely a metal image it is pure superstition to believe it might help. A dictionary definition of ‘superstition' is “a belief or beliefs justified neither by reason nor evidence nor by any religious canon ”. Nothing about a metal idol suggests it has power to help . Now pile up all the evidence of the experiences they have recently had with God – that God is a Being who is all powerful and all knowing – and you are left wondering how anyone can be so stupid as to opt to a cast image against the Living God.

 

Now at this point Aaron should have done what Isaiah many centuries later said: “To the law and to the testimony”. (Isa 8:20) There was his answer, but perhaps in reverse order. Consider their testimony: they have watched God decimate Egypt and destroy Pharaoh by many miracles. They have followed a pillar of cloud and of fire for over a month. They have water cleansed for them and miraculously provided for them, they have been enabled to defeat the Amalekites, and they are still collecting and eating the miraculous daily provision of manna. Moreover , they have seen the clouds and the fire and heard the trumpets, and seventy of the elders have actually ‘seen' God. The amount of their testimony is staggering. Aaron should have started with this.

 

But then he should have challenged them with the Law that Moses had written down starting with “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them.” (Ex 20:4,5) i.e. we don't do idol worship here! That is what SHOULD have happened!

 

But Aaron doesn't do that. Why not? Some might suggest that he still has too much of Egypt left in him. He hadn't had forty years in the wilderness of Midian or the desert of Sinai learning to be a shep h erd again (remember when Israel first went to Egypt they had been shepherds, which were despised by the Egyptians (Gen 46:31-34) but Israel appear to have been assimilated into Egypt and then made slaves, no doubt taking on board so many of the teachings and beliefs of Egypt).

 

We say this because of what followed: “Aaron answered them, "Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me." So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, "These are your gods, O Israel , who brought you up out of Egypt.” (v. 2-4) It is suggested that the calf was probably similar to representations of the Egyptian bull-god , Apis, which they would have known about when they were back in Egypt . Aaron was giving them something familiar and possibly comforting – even though wrong!

 

It is also possible that Aaron gave way so easily because he i s fearful of the people. Leaders often take the wrong course for this reason, whether secular or spiritual leaders. When you rely for your income (as the enemy tells you) on the people, it is difficult to overcome the fear of upsetting people. Whatever it was Aaron gave way .

 

Whether it was an attempt to keep this in a God-context we are not sure, but “When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, "Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD.” (v.5) Giving him the benefit of the doubt he does appear to be directing them back to “The I AM”. However , he is showing naivety in that he is setting up an opportunity for it to go even more wrong: “So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry. ” (v.6) It may have started off well but it soon degenerated into an orgy.

Before we are to o condemnatory about these people (and they do deserve condemning!) we should remember that we are not immune to getting it wrong. Christians do sin. We shouldn't but sometime we fall. There is a way back through repentance and forgiveness through the Cross , but essentially it was our folly that led us to sin in the first place. If you like , we forgot the law and the testimony. We forgot what we are and what we should be and we forgot all of God 's goodness to us. Unless there is repentance these things will have consequences and that is what we have to look at in the next meditation.

    

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Meditations in Exodus: 69. A Challenging Offer

 

Ex 32 : 9,10 "I have seen these people," the LORD said to Moses, "and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation."

   

We said in the previous study that sin has consequences and the first consequence is that it comes to the attention of the Lord: Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt , have become corrupt. They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, `These are your gods, O Israel , who brought you up out of Egypt.' "I have seen these people," the LORD said to Moses, "and they are a stiff-necked people. ” (v.7-9) There is within us sinful human beings a tendency to believe that God won't see our misdemeanors – but He does, He sees everything. Not only does He see, but He responds emotionally . These words, as we shall shortly see , are words of anger.

 

Now as I have studied the judgments of God I have thought hard and long about anger. Anger is a righteous response to wrong doing. Anger, a dictionary says is ‘passionate displeasure'. God is not pleased by sin, and neither should we be. Unfortunately, we live in a society in the West where ‘toleration' reigns. Tolerations says, ‘we are all the same so don't judge anyone.' Toleration says sin is all right but God says it isn 't! When you see a CCTV video of thugs beating up an old man, or you see vandals going in to an art gallery and carving up wonderful old paintings, your emotional response reveals the sort of person you are. It is right to be angry about such things because anger then acts to punish such things and stop such things degrading society.

 

Now what we do with our anger and what God does with His anger is the big question. Isaiah shows us how God works: “For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back. In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you," says the LORD your Redeemer.” (Isa 54:7,8 )   Anger rises to highlight the wrong but then, I have observed, the Lord looks calmly at the situation and determines what should be the appropriate res ponse. Where He sees hearts that can be turned He brings ‘ disciplinary judgment ' but where He sees that hearts are so hard they cannot be moved He brings what I call ‘terminal judgment' and a life is taken (what I have also called ‘judgments of the last resort' because nothing else will work).

 

Now see the Lord's apparent response to this situation as He expresses it to Moses: Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation. (v.10) i.e. I will wipe them out and start to make a new nation from you. What a challenging offer! If you have never seen this before, realise that sometimes the Lord lays out an apparent pathway to test us to see what our heart response it. It is NOT what He wants to do but He wants to see our response. We see it in His instructing Abraham to sacrifice Isaac (Gen 22:2). He did not want Abraham to do it for He clearly has a substitute at hand, but He wants to provide an opportunity for Abraham to show the level of his obedience.

 

Similarly , here He wants to give Moses an opportunity to show his heart. And he does: “ But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God. "O LORD ," he said, "why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, `It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth'? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel , to whom you swore by your own self: `I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.' ” (v.11-13)

 

What an intercessor! Moses sees the big picture. God has gone to all the trouble of getting Israel out of Egypt – point 1. He had promised the patriarchs He would multiply their descendants – point 2. To destroy Israel now would be to annul those two things, and He won't do that. It is t empting to be considered the father of a new nation but that is all it is, a temptation, and it surely cannot be the will of God. So Moses intercedes with the Lord on behalf of Israel on this basis and “Then the LORD relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.” (v.14) Of course He relented, He never wanted it to happen in the first place. We will see this happen again soon. Moses has passed the test.

 

I have had people say to me, “I have had this opportunity put before me, it must be the Lord's will for me.” Is it really? Is that what you really want and is that what the Lord really wants for you? We need to learn to be a discerning people for the Lord will put before us things to test our hearts. If the Lord lifts off His hand o f restraint over the world to let them do the things their sinful hearts want, by way of disciplinary judgment, H e will from time to time lift His hand of restraint off you as well , to test your heart. In such times we need to ask, what really is God's heart here, what does He really want of me, what will truly bring Him glory? Even then we have to ask, ‘Lord, grant me wisdom to know what to do here.” (Jas 1:5) but even in that we will show the right heart we have. May it be that that is the sort of heart that is revealed in each of us.

    

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Meditations in Exodus: 70. A Terrible Cleansing

 

Ex 32:19, 20   When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. And he took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.

   

What follows here seems quite terrible at first sight, but first sight is often casual and does not think about the awfulness or details of what is happening. Moses leaves the Lord and starts back down the mountain: Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back. The tablets were th e work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.” (v.15,16) It is quite clear, he has two slabs of stone on which are the laws God has imparted, engraved by God Himself. On the way down the mountain he picks up Joshua and as they get lower down the mountain the y hear the sounds of revelry down below (v.17,18) and so, “ When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of t he mountain,” (v.19) Moses is so appalled at what he sees that he flings down the two stones and they are smashed. It is as if in his anger, despite having recently interceded for Israel , he is saying, “these laws are redundant, Israel has broken the covenant, it is all a waste of time! ”

 

But then we see his actions. He does not give up on Israel. In a fury he could have walked off and left them and gone back to looking after sheep again for this people must surely be condemned. To cope with what follows we must really take in the awfulness of what has happened – and it is awful because of the things we emphasized beforehand, that it was so clear who God was, the One who had delivered them miraculously from Egypt, the One who had kept them and provided for them in the desert, the One who ca m e with thunder and lightning and trumpets for all the people to see, and the One who revea led Himself to the elders and leaders on the mountain. In the face of all that, a number at least of Israel grumble and demand gods or a god to be visible and Aaron had gone along with it and made them a golden calf in the image of one of the gods of Egypt and they had then had a celebration of this god, basically an orgy.

 

No wonder Moses is furious. But what to do about it? How can Moses pull this nation back from the brink, because although he has got the Lord to back off from destroying them all, he recognizes that this sin cannot be left and the attitude of the whole nation needs to be dealt with. What will he do?

 

Well, first of all, “he took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.” (v.20) He destroys the calf and grinds it up and then scatters it on the waters in the waddi so the people have to drink it when they come for water supplies. He then challenges Aaron over his part in it , who simply makes a pathetic excuse (v.21-24) . But it is not only past actions it is also the problem of the present shambles because , “Moses saw that th e people were running wild and that Aaron had let them get out of control and so become a laughingstock to their enemies.” (v.25) Yes, and it is not only the shambles they are at the moment, it is also what will be told to the surrounding nations, destroying their testimony; their very future may hang in the balance here.

 

Let's quickly deal with the purging that follows: “So he stood at the entrance to the camp and said , "Whoever is for the LORD , come t o me." And all the Levites rallied to him. Then he sa id to them, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel , says: `Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.' " The Levites did as Moses commanded, and tha t day about three thousand of the people died. Then Moses said, "You have been set apart to the LORD today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and he has blessed you this day." (v.26-29) This sounds absolutely terrible but when we realise that only three thousand out of possibly two million were executed, we realise that actually the ‘party' had only involved a small percentage of Israel and it was only the revelers who were executed, the ones who had grumbled, the ones who rejoiced over their new god. These are the ones who have been removed from Israel . It could have been so much worse. Yes, it is terrible but only as terrible as the actions of these people who had the potential to undermine the entire nation and bring to an end all of God's plan to bless this people and make them a light to the rest of the world.

Moses confronts the whole nation: “The next day Moses said to the people, "You have committed a great sin. But now I will go up to the LORD ; perhaps I can make atonement for your s in." So Moses went back to the LORD and said, "Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold. But now, please forgive their sin--but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written. ” (v.30-32) Here is Moses the intercessor again. The fact that they have sought to cleanse away the rebellious revelers may not have completely satisfied the Lord; He may yet hold the nation guilt y . Moses must go and intercede for them.

 

He acknowledges their sin before the Lord, makes no mention of the cleansing but simply asks for mercy in the form of forgiveness and if that is not possible that his life be forfeited because he has obviously failed. “The LORD replied to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book. Now go, lead the people to the place I spoke of, and my angel will go before you. However, when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin. ” (v.33,34) The Lord's answer is not very clear and may leave us wondering but later in the Bible Ezekiel in particular makes it clear that God only judges the guilty and He knows who are guilty and who are not, so when we read, “the LORD struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made,” (v.35) it is almost certain that that plague only struck some , the guilty ones who had escaped the sword. It is a limited judgment.

 

Throughout the early part of the Bible in particular disciplinary judgments come on Israel as God attempted to pull this nation back from the brink as time and again they allow groups to fester rebellion in their midst which had the potential of wrecking the nation and annulling their role as a light to the nations. If Israel did one thing, it was to show us the depth and stupidity of sin in every one of us, even when God is there working to help us. There is no room for pointing fingers because we all have the same propensity and it is only God's mercy and grace working for us that stops us all from going into oblivion, Praise, thank and worship Him for the wonder of His love which may discipline but always seeks the overall best for His people, the people of the earth!

    

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Meditations in Exodus: 71. Another Day

 

Ex 33: 1,3   Then the LORD said to Moses, "Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the l and I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, `I will give it to your descendants.' ….. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way."

It is another day. Have you ever had a crisis, perhaps a failure, the bottom appears to have fallen out of your world and then you wake up one day and think, “It 's another day. I need to move on.” Well , Israel have just been through a major crisis. God set a test for them and some of them at least failed it. He had kept Moses up the mountain for over a month and during that time some of the people at least had not coped well with his absence. Their sin rose up in the form of grumbling and then making demands and then idolatry and then revelry. A light to the nations they were not – and so they were removed. As horrendous as the judgment was, it was also simple and straight forward – they were removed and the other 99.99 per cent (for that is what it was) lived to face another day. But how would they have felt about what had happened. Well, as it turned out, it wasn't so much what they thought as what the Lord thought.

 

The instruction to move on comes: “Then the LORD said to Moses, "Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, `I will give it to yo ur descendants.' ” (v.1) The comforting truth is that we may get it wrong but the Lord will not be put off working out His purposes. Yes, there has been failure within Israel but Moses and the Lord ha ve dealt with it, so move on. Indeed, He bring encouragement: " I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey ” (v.2,3a) The Lord's angel will go ahead of them preparing the way. Note again what we have said in the past, it is the Lord's intent to drive out the Canaanites not necessarily destroy them.

 

But then c ome s a twofold bit of bad news: “But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way." (v.3b) God won't come with them in the same way He has so far (bad news 1) because it has become patently obvious that they are a stiff-necked bunch with a tenden c y to do their own thing and if He is with them, the next time it may be worse and they will not get off so lightly (bad news 2) . Well actually that second part may be good news but it still leaves them feeling bad about themselves and vulnerable.

 

But it doesn't end there: “ When the people heard these distressing words, they began to mourn and no on e put on any ornaments. For the LORD had said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites, `You are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go with you even for a moment, I might destroy you. Now take off your ornaments and I will decide what to do with you.'" So the Israe lites stripped off their ornaments at Mount Horeb. ” (v.4-6) I believe commentators who say they didn't put on ornaments as a sign of distress, miss the point. The Lord told them not to put on ornaments. Why? Well, perhaps it is twofold . First, you have nothing to celebrate so don't dress up. I want to see a humble attitude in you. But, second, it is maybe a reminder of what has just happened when Aaron took the ornaments of the rebellious group and turned them into an idol. Whatever it is, there is a certain measure of chastening here.

It is an interesting point to be made. Very often we encourage one another when we have got it wrong by reminding ourselves of John's words in his first letter: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgi ve us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 Jn 1:9) Now that is indeed the right approach but there is a danger in it and it is that we make rep entance into a formula which costs nothing. So on the one hand we may have Christians who struggle to realise they can be forgiven, and on the other Christians who are almost casual about it.

There is, I suggest, a balance to be brought here. The truth is you DID get it wrong, you DID make a mistake, you DID blow it. Perhaps we might say you should have known better and it was pure foolishness to do what you did. We are all prone to do it, but YOU did it! Now what point is there in making a meal of this?

 

It is so that we won 't do it again. I look back on various failures in my own history and wondered why the Lord in His mercy, having forgiven and cleansed me, didn't also erase those failures from my memory? The answer, I believe, is that He wants me to remember these things, not to rub my nose in them and make me feel a constant failure, but to remind me how vulnerable I am to failure and how much I need His help to avoid such failures. It also helps me keep a right sense of perspective about my life when, in a time when I am doing OK, I see others who are not doing OK and I may have a temptation to look down on them. At such times I need reminding of my own spectacular little fiascos in my past life. Humility, it is a wonderful thing but sometimes has to come through painful ways!

 

Israel (and Moses) are being confronted by the Lord with their vulnerabilities – like us they have a propensity to stubbornness and stupidity and that could lead them into situations where the Lord would feel impelled to take disciplinary action to save them – and that might get painful. So, He suggests, He will stay at a distance. Is that how you would prefer it, God at a distance? We'll see what Moses thinks about it in the next study.

   

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Meditations in Exodus: 72. A Regular Practice

 

Ex 33 : 7    Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the "tent of meeting." Anyone inquiring of the LORD would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp .

We now observe some thing that went on, and presumably had gone on for some time, in the life of Israel that involved the Lord and Moses. There is no indication of when this practice started or whether the Lord instructed it but we read, “Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the "tent of meeting." Anyone inquiring of the LORD would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp.” (v.7) So Moses had set up this tent outside the camp, indeed at a distance from it, and it was designated the ‘tent of meeting' the place of meeting with God. Its purpose was to allow anyone who wanted to seek and enquire of the Lord to go to the tent for that purpose. Anyone could go. We should distinguish this early ‘tent of meeting' from the Tabernacle which was later constructed and set up with a design that was complex and specific and it was set up in the middle of the camp, whereas this is a simple tent set up outside the camp.

 

Now whether the people generally used it we don 't know but Moses certainly used it: “ And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent.” (v.8) There would seem to be an inference behind this that Moses did this frequently. Now before we move on it is worth noting the change that has come about in terms of relationship between God and man. When the Lord first set up a relationship with an individual, it was with Abram but in his case the Lord came to Abram at certain limited times to comm un icate with him. Certainly he built an altar to the Lord (Gen 12:7, 26:25) but that was the extent of his communication-relationship with the Lord. Now, well over four hundred years later, Moses has an ongoing relationship with the Lord whereby he went out on a regular basis to meet with the Lord.

 

Now we read, “As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the LORD spoke with Moses. Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the e ntrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to his tent.” (v.9,10) Whenever Moses went to the Lord at the tent of meeting , the Lord signified His presence meeting with Moses by bringing the pillar of cloud to stand at the entrance to the tent, so the people would know. This awesome sight stirred them to stand and focus in t he direction of the tent and to worship the Lord outside their tent entrances.

 

Thus, “The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent. ” (v.11) This relationship appears unique in the Old Testament, this ‘face to face' encounter. We see the impact of it later on when Moses comes down the mountain from meeting with the Lord but it also applies to his meetings at the tent of meeting: “When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken wit h the LORD ….. When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. But whenever he entered the LORD's presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the LORD .” (v. 34:29,33-35)

 

The glory on the Lord was reflected on his face and stayed with him after the encounter. Now this may seem a strange thing to us who now take for granted easy access to the Lord wherever we are because His own Holy Spirit now indwells us. Thus we may purpose to have a ‘quiet time', a time involving prayer and waiting on the Lord. For us it requires no specia l place although the wise Christian makes such a time in a place of isolation away from others.

 

Indeed, the apostle Paul uses this example of Moses' face shining when he talks about the work of the Holy Spirit in us: “We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away. But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken aw ay. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all refle ct the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (2 Cor 3:13-18) He makes the point that it seemed like the Israelites were blind to the wonder of what was happening and that same blindness comes like a veil over their minds even today when the Law of Moses is read. It can only be “in Christ” that this blindness can be removed, when someone “turns to the Lord” . Thus when someone does this, that veil or that blindness is removed and we have an openness with the Lord via His Spirit who changes us bit by bit so that His glory is reflected in us.

 

But note the change came about in Moses – and in us – by being in the Lord's presence . Now in one sense we are always in the Lord's presence because He indwells us by His Spirit and we are being changed by Him as a regular part of the sanctification process, but I also believe that when we take time aside (the ‘quiet time' at the very least) we come away changed; we may not be particularly aware of it but I believe it is so.

 

So what do we take from these reflections? It is good to turn aside on a regular basis to meet with the Lord. When we do a change takes place within us. Finally, perhaps we need to purposely give thanks to the Lord for the access we have to Him under the new covenant so that we do not take it for granted and become casual about it.

   

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Meditations in Exodus: 73. The Presence & Glory of the Lord

 

Ex 33:13 If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you . Remember that this nation is your people."

  

We come now to a beautiful interchange between Moses and the Lord. It is a passage that many commentators skim over because it has a number of unclear elements to it. However, t his has to be the greatest interchange recorded in the Old Testament between a man and God. We ha v e just seen that the Lord would speak to Moses face to face, and this is an example of that. Moses has a worry. The Lord has just said, “I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you,” (v.3) and that leaves Moses worrying.

 

He starts out expressing it by telling the Lord that he is aware of his incredibly privileged position: “ Moses said to the LORD , "You have been telling me, `Lead these people,' but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, `I know you by name an d you have found favor with me. ” (v.12) i.e. I know the job you have given me, but it is a big job so who is coming with me to share it. You have shown me that you know me and that I have found your favour and that is good for starters but I need more if I am to succeed in doing this.

 

Then he makes the first of two (or possibly three) requests of the Lord: “If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.” (v.13) i.e. if I am to succeed with this job, I have learnt I need to do it your way and I need to know your way or, to be more precise, your ways. I need to know how you work so that I can work in the same way and be pleasing to you and get it right. These a re your people after all and if I am to care for them and lead them, I really need to have this insight. We seem to have got on all right so far, (implied) but I sense there is much more to come and I need your wisdom.

 

He gets his answer: “The LORD replied, "My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. ” (v.14) It w ould appear that Moses ' recognition of his need makes the Lord backtrack on his original, “I will not go with you.” The Lord's presence had been with them in the pillars of cloud and fire and clearly up on the mountain, but with their greater revelation of Him or greater awareness of His holiness through the mountain experience, there is a fresh awareness of just what it means to have His Presence with them. It cou l d mean their destruction but with Moses' request the Lord responds with, “and I will give you rest.” Now whether that means I will take you to your rest in the Promised Land, or I will take away the burden of leading this people and so by my presence will make it easy for you, or something else, is unclear.

 

Moses doesn't ask for clarification but merely notes that the Lord's absence would make going up to the Promised Land an impossibility: “Then Moses said to him, "If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from he re. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth? ” (v.15,16) i.e. (as a future prophet will say) we are called to be a light to the nations but we can 't be that without your light in our midst, without you we are no one special. Moses is beginning to catch on! And so, “the LORD said to Moses, "I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.” (v.17) The Lord gives two reasons for complying with Moses' request. First, “I am please d with you.” i.e. what you have done so far has been exactly in line with my will and you have lead this people out of Egypt and been my mouthpiece to them, and that has been good! Second, “I know you by name.” i.e. you and I have a face to face relationship, I know you (and by implication) and I enjoy your company and who you are.

 

Moses clear l y feels he is now on a good footing and so asks for something else: “ Then Moses said, "Now show me your glory.” (v.18) i.e. show me more of yourself, don't just hold yourself at a distance, please let me have a greater vision of you. To this we see, “ And the LORD said, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD , in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But," he said, "you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” (v.1 9,20) i.e. you will be able to catch a sense of what I am like – merciful and compassionate full of goodness – but to actually see me is a bridge too far. (for the reasons we mentioned previously) .

 

But the Lord isn't going to leave Moses in a completely frustrated position, He will allow him to have a greater vision than he 's had so far: “Then the LORD said, "There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand unt il I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.” (v.21-23)

 

I don't know if you have the same question mark that I have? Up on the mountain Moses and the elders had ‘seen' the Lord so why d o es Moses ask what he asks and why does the Lord respond like this? We must conclude that the revelation up on the mountain was limited and although they were fully aware of who was before them, somehow it was not a full and clear revelation.

 

Now what does this all say to us? Well the first thing it screams to me is that there are various ways the Lord reveals Himself to us with varying degrees of revelation . I think this accords with my experience; I have had revelation s of who the Lord is that vary in depth of understanding and had various experiences of Him. No, I have never ‘seen' Him (which is why I am still alive). I have seen things about Him as I have read His word inspired by His Spirit. I have sensed His Presence so strongly that it made me tiptoe around the house for the remainder of a day. I have been in a room where lights, His limited glory, flickered around the room for five minutes. I have been in a prayer time where His presence was almost tangible. Yes, there can be many variations of our interaction with the Lord from the cold me speaking words into the air, to some of these more intimate and (as I've used the words) almost tangible presence.

 

But there is another question lurking in the background? How much do I want to ‘know' the Lord – I'll have to be content with that for I cannot ‘see' Him. The Bible challenges me that I can “draw near” to Him, e.g. “let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith.” (Heb 10:22) Will I take time to do that or be content with the cold questioning prayer?

    

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Meditations in Exodus: 74. More on Presence & Glory

 

Ex 33:13 If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people."

I have to confess I came to the end of the last meditation with a sense of dissatisfaction. Yes, we covered the ground and I did note that most commentators skim over this passage because there are many unclear issues, but I left feeling I had done the same, so if you will, we will go over the ground again looking more deeply at what is there and try to make more sense of it.

Moses we said had a worry that God had pointed out they were stiff-necked and He might destroy them. As I ponder on that I realise that there are Christian s who feel the same way. When we considered the fear of the Lord back in study 63 we observed how we go to extremes and one of them is to hold God at a distance because we fear He will always be picking up on our weaknesses, and we forget He comes to us as a loving Father who has sent His Son to die for our weaknesses and failures.

 

The remedy is twofold. First, it is to remember all the good things God has done for you. Several times I have listed all the things the Lord has done for Israel since the burning bush incident. We too, in our lives, need to sit down and make a list of all the good things that come to remembrance, that the Lord has done for us, and thus realise something more of the extent and depth of His love for us. The apostle Paul wrote, “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and hi gh and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (Eph 3:17-19)

 

The second thing to do is do what Moses did, seek to deepen his relationship with the Lord. He did that by first acknowledging how the Lord obviously thought about him, `I know you by name and you have found favor with me.” (v.12) and then asking the Lord to take him deeper into their relationship together: “teach me your ways(v.13) Let's ask ourselves now we have a clearer picture of what was going on, do we have a desire to learn more of the Lord and the way He works? I have recently been reading R.T.Kendall 's book, ‘In Pursuit of His Wisdom ' which is really all about learning to know what is the right way to think and to do, the way that please God. I daily ask to be filled with the Spirit and with His word and with His grace but I now also add, ‘and with your Wisdom'. I want to understand more ‘His ways'.

 

Now the Lord's answer to that request, we saw, was simply, "My Presence will go with you .” (v.14) and there we splashed around in deep waters. As I have pond e red more on that it seems it is like the Lord is saying, “Very well, but it is never very good learning just a list of academic rules about me; the better way is to watch me and learn directly from me , so without devastating you all, I'll allow sufficient of my presence to go with you. Imagine following someone 's shadow. You see where the shadow is going and what it is doing and you follow it and copy it. I have a feeling there is something like that behind all this.

 

And then there was that tricky, “and I will give you rest.” Well I remember Jesus' words: “ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in hear t, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Mt 11:29,30) i.e. take my role on yourself, watch me, come with me, let my Spirit lead you to do the same things I do, and you will realise that I am humble and gentle , not a slave driver , and so you will find doing my work is actually restful, because under this double yoke that two oxen wear, I will be doing all the work, my power will take the strain and bring changes. The only time my burden got heavy was going through the Cross; the rest of the time it was easy serving my Father and blessing people using the power we have from heaven.

 

Moses simply realised the truth of that and unless God was there leading the way , providing as He had been doing so far, they would be in trouble, and quite clearly the onlooking nations would realise the situation and laugh at Israel 's plight. (v.15,16) Is that why, I wonder, the world sometimes laughs at us, because it sees that we, unlike Moses, are happy to travel without the Presence of the Lord and so all we are doing is doing religious things by human effort. Now of course this should not be, because we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, but unless we have learned to discern His moving and prompting we will fail to respond to Him . The more we respond to Him the more His presence becomes manifest and His power becomes obvious and we start talking about being anointed by the Holy Spirit, which is always a power-recognition thing.

 

So the Lord says yes to this and then Moses pushes the boat out further, so to speak and asks, "Now show me your glory.” (v.18) i.e. I want more of you Lord! I want to know more of you, experience more of you, see something more, on a regular basis even, of this incredible glo ry of yours. It is a remarkable request which really goes too far, for the Lord has to tell him, "you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” (v.19,20) As we noted , that raises a question mark over the experience of Moses and the elders up on the mountain but maybe, to use the earlier analogy, they saw the ‘shadow' of the Lord, or the outline of the Lord in a restricted or limited way that still allowed them to live. And then the Lord told him how he would do it – put Moses behind a rock while He passed by so when He had gone, Moses could see that outline or shadow that the Lord calls His ‘back' (v.21-23). This will satisfy Moses and he will live. This takes us to the next meditation and perhaps we are now ready to move on to an even more wonderful revelation.

    

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Meditations in Exodus: 75. What sort of God?

   

Ex 34: 6,7 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, "The LORD , the LORD , the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave th e guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation."

 

We come to what I believe must be one of the most significant revelations of the Old Testament, but first the Lord instructs Moses to "Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the wor ds that were on the first tablets, which you broke.” (v.1) He doesn't chide Moses for breaking them but simply gets on with the process of rewriting them. Moses is to come up the mountain again, on his own (v.2,3). So Moses does this and goes up with the two tablets in the morning. (v.4)

 

“Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD.” (v.5) A cloud surrounds Moses and so he can see nothing but then he hears the Lord's audible voice declaring, “I AM WHO I AM ”, the name he had originally heard at the burning bush. He senses the Lord moving in front of Him and the Lord speaks again beginning with, “I AM, I AM ” and then going on to describe Himself. Now bear in mind that with all the revelations and e xperiences of the Lord that the Patriarchs and then Moses had had, there had never been a time when the Lord described Himself. This is a first! So, He describes Himself as “the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, main taining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.” (v.6,7)

 

We need to note the various elements of this description because certain sill y crusading atheists never seem to have read this description and have said stupid things about God. These verses counter the folly of the grumbling atheist. “Compassionate and gracious”. A God who feels for us and exudes good feelings towards us. Wow! “Slow to anger”. Not capricious, prickly, qui ck to jump down our throats. Wow! “Abounding in love.” Not just loving but abounding in love, full of love, overflowing with love. WoW!

 

The apostle John was to write many centuries later, “God is love.” (1 Jn 4:8,16) IS love, not just has love. As I have pondered this in two books it always hits me: everything God thinks, say or does is an expression of love. Start looking at everything you read in the Old Testament through that lens. Then, to take a snippet from my book, ‘The Judgments of a Loving God', remember that the Bible teaches that God is perfect. My definitio0n of perfect is ‘cannot be improved upon' and so everything that God thinks, says or does cannot be improved upon. Grab hold of the contents of this paragraph and you wil l never be the same again!

 

But He is also “abounding in… faithfulness.” He remains utterly true to Himself, He never changes He will always be love, always be perfect, and this, extended to His people, means He will always be loyal (although I do not like that word), He will remain true to us, there for us.

 

But now see the corporate dimension to this love: “maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.” This is about people groups, about nations and this takes us beyond love for a few individuals, the Patriarchs, this takes us to the nation of Israel and then to the world. In the Ten Commandments we read, “I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, pu nishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (Ex 20:5,6) Our present thousand may therefore be a thousand generations meaning God 's love will be there for as long as humanity exists; it can be utterly relied upon.

 

But that love is always expressed love ( because love is never merely abstract, it is always expressed in practical ways) and God cannot express it to those who turn their back on Him, hence it is love for “those who love me and keep my commandments,” i.e. those who follow the Lord. And therein, there is another side to God, who is also a God of truth and justice. Where there is generational sin (as it often tends to be, one son following his father and so on) the Lord will pursue wickedness down the generations. His word clearly declares He will not judge those who are not guilty, only the guilty (see Ezek 18) but let the guilty be aware, they cannot presume on His love. It is there for them when they turn to Him to receive it, but while they turn away from Him and live in their wickedness, they will find themselves in line for His disciplinary or even terminal judgment.

 

This is a most dynamic revelation. It is both profoundly reassuring – He loves us and is for us as we turn to Him – and a profound warning – wickedness will be dealt with. There is here a revelation of the wonder of God's love and grace as well as His justice. For us the justice of God is satisfied through the death of His Son, Jesus Christ, on the Cross. Having surrendered our lives to Him we can live with the certain knowledge of His abounding love being there for us. Hallelujah!

  

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Meditations in Exodus: 76. Affirming the Future

    

Ex 34:10 Then the LORD said: "I am makin g a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the LORD, will do for you.

  

Moses has just heard the Lord describe himself and so, “ Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped. "O Lord, if I have found favor in your eyes," he said, "then let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as your inheritance." (v.8,9) He has been reassured about the Lord's nature and so he reiterates his request for the Lord to go with them and taking the words the Lord has spoken, he picks up on some of them and requests, “forgive our wickedness and our sin ,” so that the Lord may take them as His inheritance. Unless He forgives them there is no hope for the future .

 

It is possible we take our forgiveness for granted but the basics of the process that leads to our salvation is conviction, repentance, forgiveness, salvation. Whenever there is repentance, forgiveness always follows, of this we can be assured.

 

But then the Lord reiterates what is going on, what all these encounters on the mountain are all about: “Then the LORD said: "I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you li ve among will see how awesome is the work that I, the LORD, will do for you.” (v.10) These words, remember, are accompanied by the rewriting of the two tablets of stone, and it is these tablets therefore that constitute the basic covenant agreement. There are two sides to any agreement. The Lord 's side of it, stated above, is that He will be with them and perform wonders which will result in them taking the Promised Land: “I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.” (v.11b)

 

Their side of the covenant is to “Obey what I command you today. ” (v.11a) and included in that is to “ Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare among you. Break dow n their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles. Do not worship any other god, for the LORD , whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. ” (v.12-14) The Lord will clear the land of people, Israel are to clear the land of all the signs of idol worship of those departing inhabitants.

 

Yet it is to go further than this, because they are to overcome any temptation to enter into agreements with those inhabitants: “Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land; for when t hey prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices. And when you choose some of their daughters as wives for your sons and those daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will lea d your sons to do the same.” (v.15,16) There is always the temptation to want to be like those around you and be liked by them, but the trouble is that t hese inhabitants of Canaan follow some terrible practices including occult worship and sacrificing children to their goods. These horrors must never be part of the people of God.

 

Verses 17 t o 26 that follow on here, are virtually word for word duplicates o f what is found in the earlier laws in 23:14-19 , which are the elements of those earlier laws to do with how they go about living specifically in the new Promised Land as God's people . At the end of them, “the LORD said to Moses, "Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel .” (v.27) This all take place while, “Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant--the Ten Commandments.” (v.28) The ‘he' in this last part, we assume to mean the Lord for earlier He had said he would rewrite them. (34:1)

 

Moses comes back down the mountain with a shining face (v. 29, 30) as we have noted before, and makes contact again with Aaron and the leaders (v.31) and then he reiterates all the commands to the people (v.32). Chapter 35 to 40 are all about establishing the Tabernacle as the place for meeting with God and at the end of chapter 40 we read, “And so Moses finished the work, ” (40:33) and, “Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud had settled upon it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. ” (v.34,35) The book concludes: “In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from a bove the tabernacle, they would set out; but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out--until the day it lifted. So the cloud of the LORD was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel duri ng all their travels.” (v.36-38)

 

I have refrained from making further comments about some of these verses because I would like to sum up by asking, what have all these happenings at Mount Sinai been about?

 

First and foremost they have been about revealing things about God; He is a God who clearly wants contact with human beings, although He is aware that such contact could take the lives of humans who come too close, and so in His love for us, He holds Himself at a Distance and limits our contact.

 

Second, and as an expression of that, there have been all the comings and goings of establishing the covenant, an agreement initiated by God, between God and Israel whereby the Lord promises to be there for Israel and Israel promise to obey Him. To put content to that agreement, the Lord gives them the Ten Commandments and then several chapters of lesser laws to be followed to maintain law and order in the community. Part of that specifically warns about what to do and what not to do when they enter the Promised Land.

 

So there are two things that seem to predominate and crop up again and again in the second half of the book of Exodus (chapters 19 to 40) and they are laws and the presence of God. Both these things make Israel unique and both of these things say to Israel, you have no excuse for bad behaviour – and that is going to become important as we follow Israel northwards to take the Land. So much for them, what about us. Well we have the laws (the Bible ) and we have the presence of God (the indwelling Holy Spirit). More than that, and this makes us even more accountable than Israel , one might say, is that we have all the knowledge of Jesus coming and dying for us. Israel had the testimony of the deliverance from Egypt , and the Passover and our equivalent is the life and ministry of Jesus and the Cross. We have no excuses. Right, get ready, we will next follow Israel as they start out on their journey to the Land.