Exodus 19-40
Review
-if you’ve been reading your book acc to our schedule, then this past week, in chapter 5, you have read a huge portion of Exodus…selections from chapter 19 all the way to the end of the book, chapter 40…
-and you will remember that God has now started His rescue mission by building a nation…forming a special group of people set apart for Him to belong to Him and be loved by Him and make Him known on the earth…the nation of Israel…and ultimately to bring the Savior thru this lineage…
And this part of the story in Exodus chronicles about a one year period in which the people of Israel camped at the foot of Mt. Sanai, God’s holy mountain in the wilderness…the place where God met Moses and gave him the 10 commandments…
The people were just out of slavery in Egypt…and God’s intention for this year in the wilderness, was to deeply form His specially loved and chosen people…to really set them apart as belonging to Him and living for Him and being distinguished from all the other nations on the earth…to prepare them to take possession of the Promised land under Moses’ leadership…
God was ready to deliver on His promise He made many years earlier to Abraham that He would give His people the promised land as their inheritance (Gen 26:3-5).
So to get them ready, God did three things from an upper story perspective:
I Gave them commandments which would set them apart as holy to the Lord - Ex. 20:1-17
The ten commandments are one of the most recognized parts of the Bible among the average person…many people, even in this biblically illiterate culture, have heard about the 10 commandments and that they come from the Bible…even if they couldn’t tell you more than one of them…
eg. video interview at the Fringe Festival several years ago…
“don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t murder”…one big biker guy – don’t kill!…one young girl’s version of “do not commit adultery”, was “do not admit adultery”…
The 10 commandments divide into two parts:
Commandments Addressing Relationship with God 1. No other gods 2. No idols 3. God’s name 4. Keep sabbath holy Commandments Addressing Relationship with Others 5. Honor parents 6. Do not murder 7. Do not commit adultery 8. Do not steal 9. Do not give false testimony 10. Do not covet
Now, from a lower story perspective, many people see the 10 commandments as simply a set of rules that are given by an angry God who waits for us to break one of them so He can pounce on us and punish us…or impossible standards of behavior that make us feel bad about ourselves…reinforcing the myth that Christianity is all about a list of do’s and don’ts…
But from an upper story perspective, the 10 commandments were given by God for at least three purposes:
1. to provide behavioral guidelines that distinguish God’s people from all other nations
That was one of God’s main reasons for the 10 commandments: to call His people to be different, distinct from the ungodly nations around them…to be marked by a different set of values and behaviors and actions that point to the holy God to whom they belong… Lev. 20:23-24 You must not live according to the customs of the nations I am going to drive out before you. I am the Lord your God, who has set you apart from the nations.
-it’s exactly the same for us today…did you know our greatest evangelistic message is how we live differently than the ungodly culture around us? …and then we learn later in the NT: 2. To reveal sin "I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, 'Do not covet.'" (Romans 7:7)
One of the purposes of the 10 commandments is to show us our problem, that we are law-breakers; it is meant to point out sin in our lives…and to prove to us that we cannot be the solution to our sin problem, since we are unable to be perfect law-keepers.
So, what this means for us today is that when we read the 10 commandments we should realize that we can never keep these commandments perfectly. We will fall short of one or all of them in some way or another. We are fallen, sinful people who cannot save ourselves…we need help with this sin problem…
The 10 commandments weren’t given to challenge us to give it a try to see how good we can make ourselves…they were meant to expose us as sinful law-breakers…they were given to prove the point that we can’t live a perfectly holy life because we’ve got a major sin problem going on… eg. “I don’t treat the Sabbath as holy, I don’t honor my parents perfectly well, I do have murder in my heart, I do have adultery in my heart, I do covet my neighbors things…”
Law-keeping even today, still finds fertile ground especially in well-meaning Christians, those of us who have a keen sense of serving and doing, of pleasing God…many of us who come from a background of hard-work and responsibility in which we have to be doing something, be productive, prove our value by what we achieve…we try to be good people by keeping all the rules… -but that is fertile ground for bondage to law-keeping and being held prisoner to another form of works-righteousness…it’s easy to drift into legalism, legalistic righteousness… -so one reason the law was given was to point out our sin… But the third reason the law was given was: 3. to be a guardian to lead us to faith in Christ Gal. 3:24-25 (Message) The law was like those Greek tutors…who escort children to school and protect them from danger or distraction, making sure the children will really get to the place they set out for. But now you have arrived at your destination: By faith in Christ you are in direct relationship with God.
God meant the OT Law to be a preparation, training ground in His ways, until the coming of JC…who would bring full and final salvation from sin and freedom from the bondage of the Law…the law was given to point us to faith in Christ…
Obey the 10 Commandments Today?
By the way, are we expected to obey the 10 commandments today? The answer is: absolutely yes!
The 10 commandments are in the Bible for a reason and we are commanded to obey them.
But why? Why is the question! If we are obeying them to gain a right standing with God or to prove something to Him or others, or to be a good Xn, or to avoid punishment or to get our prayers answered, etc. etc. etc…
-then we are missing the point and locking ourselves back up under the guardianship of the law…under legalism…
But if we are reaching the point in our Xn maturity, where we are approaching the 10 commandments and saying, “God this is how you want me to live…and I know that living life the way you meant it to be lived will be just plain good for me…and God, I know I can’t do this perfectly…thank you that my righteous standing with You does not depend on my ability to keep these perfectly…and while I strive to live in a way that honors You, I know I will fall short because I still struggle with sin and I still fail…
…but Lord, I love you and I want to live in such a way that you are honored and glorified…thank You that it’s Jesus’ perfect righteousness that makes my life honoring to You…
-so instead of fearful obedience, instead of obedience for my sake (to get a reward), now its about obedience to Your law out of sheer love for You and a response to what You’ve done for me…”
When we live like that, we are discovering how the gospel of grace is so much greater than the law… Let the OT law do its intended work of keeping us continually humble, contrite in heart, repentant and dependent on God for His righteousness…let it do its work of pointing us to the all-sufficient One, Jesus Christ…
Second thing God did to prepare His people for the Promised Land, from an upper story perspective:
II Came down to be with His people in the Tabernacle
Ex 25:8 “Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. The word tabernacle means “tent” or “place of dwelling”. It was the place where God would meet with His people Israel. God gave detailed and elaborate instructions on how to build this portable tent, which represented the place where He lived among His people.
One of the most captivating things about the tabernacle is described in Ex.40:36-38:
Whenever the cloud lifted from The Dwelling, the people of Israel set out on their travels, but if the cloud did not lift, they wouldn’t set out until it did lift. The cloud of God was over the Dwelling during the day and the fire was in it at night, visible to all the Israelites in all their travels.
I mean, how wonderful is that! God’s presence was gloriously visible to all the people through the cloud and the fire…imagine the kind of awe and fear and comfort and security this provided…to know God, the one true God, the mighty God, was right there among His chosen and loved people…
-this is another way God was at work to form and prepare His people as a holy nation, belonging to Him…getting them ready for the Promised Land…
Just makes your mind fast forward to the arrival of Jesus in the NT…Jn 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
The major part of God’s rescue plan was to come Himself in the form of the Savior, Jesus Christ, to set up His earlthy tent in human form…to become one of us…to be with us so that He could speak to us and save us and bring us back to Himself…
And then the third thing God did to prepare His people for the Promised Land from an upper story perspective was:
III Developed a system by which sinful people could reconnect with a holy God
-we’re talking about the OT sacrificial system…the killing of innocent animals as sacrifices for sin so the people could be forgiven and find atonement for their sin, and be brought back to God, even though the system was temporary…
Ex 29:36 Sacrifice a bull each day as a sin offering to make atonement. Purify the altar by making atonement for it, and anoint it to consecrate it.
But again, this whole sacrificial system was meant to point to the one final and complete sacrifice…of the coming sinless Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, Who would one day give His life as the Perfect Substitute and final payment for our sin…
Heb 9:26 But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.
As Randy Frazee says in The Heart of the Story:
From our lower story perspective, “the idea of animal sacrifices seem primitive and cruel. But (from an upper story perspective) for the Israelites it was their only way to bridge the gap between themselves and God, and the symbolism was humbling and meaningful.
A pure, innocent animal of great value in essence took their punishment. Instead of the sinful person being struck down for his sins, the lamb accepted the punishment so that the person could live and enjoy a relationship with the Holy God. Unfair? That’s exactly the point God was making. Yes, it is unfair that an innocent animal gets what you deserve.
But it’s the only way because you cannot get rid of the sin problem by yourself. But because (God says) I want so much to be with you, I am providing a way for you to pay for your sins.” pp. 64-65
Conclusion
-Well, next week we’re going to learn that this one year of wilderness preparation turned into forty…because of the unwillingness of the people to follow God faithfully…because of hearts that were hard and stubborn and disobedient and defiant of God’s commands and direction…
How is God forming you these days? How is He at work to fashion you into the image of His Son Jesus Christ?
In whatever way He is doing that, my appeal to you today would be…do not resist God…do not remain defiant of Him…do not say no to the ways He wants to melt you and mold you and make you and change you in new ways…
1. Let His word transform you…His commands, His teaching, His principles from the Bible…
2. Let His presence in His tabernacle today be the place you are drawn to…and where is His tabernacle today? You are His tabernacle today. For those of you who are in Christ, God lives in you by His Spirit…you are His living tabernacle in the world today…
-so meet with Him freely in your heart and spirit…draw close to Him…be His friend…
* and remember that you take God’s presence with you as a mobile tent wherever you go in this world…God will instruct you where to set up your tent…He wants to use you to bring His presence into the dark places and to the lost people and to those who really need to know Him…
3. finally, if you haven’t yet recognized Jesus Christ as the final and complete sacrifice for your sin…the One and Only way to be forgiven and saved and accepted by God…they you are invited to make that choice…
What a great story!!
Prayer…