Sermon Tone Analysis

We are continuing our survey of the Old Testament this morning, as we look at the overview of what took place after God revealed Himself to the people of Israel at Mt. Sinai.

Each week, we have been asking two main questions.

What do we learn about God?

What do we learn about mankind, or ourselves?

Over the last two weeks in our overview of Exodus, we have learned something about God, and something about ourselves.

Two weeks ago we saw God’s great desire.

What does God desire?

You will be my people, and I will be your God

A people to be his own possession, and that He would be their God

That they would know and Fear Him.

Then last week we saw through the law, that God is Holy and Righteous, and that we are not.

God gave us The Law to better know Him and ourselves.

The Law shows us our sin, and the Sacrifice shows us how God will make us His own people

Just as the people of Israel repeatedly swore that they would obey the Lord and then very quickly rebelled against His commands, so too, we often swear or say that we will follow the Lord, and then we rebel against Him seeking our own way.

The law helps us to rightly fear Him.

It shows us that we are not worthy of being his people.

It shows us our failings and that we deserve his wrath.

Fear of the Lord’s wrath.

The Law also helps us to fear the Lord in that it provides the means to approach Him in light of our sin: Sacrifice.

God showed the Israelites through the sacrifices that the wages of sin is death.

He also showed that He would provide the sacrifice to cover sin.

This leads to the fear of the Lord as we are in awe of His gracious provision of salvation.

The law and the sacrifice are meant to lead us to know and fear the Lord, fulfilling His desire to have us for his people, and His desire that we would have him as our God.

I will be their God

Actually, that latter part, Having Him for our God is what the rest of the history in the Old Testament is about.

You see, God want to have us for His people.

So, He gave us the law to show us why we are not His, and then the sacrifice to make us His people.

God does all of the work when it comes to our salvation, and making us His own.

Then comes our part.

We are to have Him as our God, as our King.

We are to have Him as the One we will follow daily.

Then, as we worship this great God, it leads to the final aspect of fearing him, obedience from the heart.

Walking with him daily.

God knows that we need Him.

We need him not just for salvation, but to lead us every day.

Otherwise we are quick to forget and forsake our God.

This is the lesson we learn from the rest of the Old Testament as we see the Lord working with Israel.

God showed them his desire.

God showed them the law and their sin.

God showed them how he would provide for their sin.

They needed to remember him, and walk daily with him.

We need Him as our leader, our King on a daily basis.

But would they remember?

No. Would they follow him as their king?

No.

The reality we see from the rest of the Old Testament is that we are followers.

We will follow someone.

The question is, who will we follow?

Who will we have as our God and King?

Let’s walk through the history of the Old Testament and see this great theme of having Him as our God and King.

After Israel spent a year at Mt. Sinai, they moved out.

God led them daily with a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire at night.

When the cloud moved out, so did they.

When it stayed over the tabernacle, they stayed put.

They had to follow him, and they did… but did they?

At the end of Numbers 10, they finally set out and God was going before them to show them the good places to rest and camp.

What happens right away?

They after they cried out to Moses and Moses prayed to the Lord…

God is their God and King, but will they have Him?

Right away, though the Lord is leading and providing for them, they do not like what He is providing.

They are not satisfied with Him as their God and King.

Then, Numbers 12. Aaron and Miriam complain about Moses being the leader.

They are not satisfied with the leader God has chosen.

Numbers 13.

They arrive at the promised land, and send out 12 spies, 10 of whom say we can’t go up there.

They are giants.

Numbers 14, the people wail and want to go back to Egypt.

They do not like where God is taking them.

So, God says they have to wander the desert until that generation dies.

They don’t like what God has said, and try to attack the land on their own and die.

Numbers 16.

More men rebel and want to be the leaders instead of Moses and Aaron.

God opens the ground to swallow the leaders and their families alive, and then burns up the other 250 of their followers.

The next day, the whole nation opposes Moses and Aaron for this, and God sends a plague, but Moses and Aaron intervene, and God stops the plague.

They needed someone to lead them daily to help them remember and follow their God.

They needed the king.

Numbers 20, they are needing water again.

But instead of remembering how God had provided before, they complain.

Numbers 21, they complain again about having to wander through the desert, and the Lord sends venomous snakes.

This is when God makes a provision of the serpent on the pole, so that if anyone just looks, they do not have to die.

Numbers 25 we have the people engaging in sexual immorality as they worshiped the god of the Midianites, Baal of Peor.

Does this sound like a people who have taken Him as their God, as their King that they want to follow daily?

Deuteronomy 10:12-13 (NIV)

Deuteronomy is Moses making his final plea for the people to have God as their God.

To love Him, and to walk with Him daily.

Joshua is the story of conquest.

God takes Israel into the land, and drives out their enemies before them.

But not without issues.

The very first city is Jericho, and it is to be dedicated to the Lord.

Nothing is to be taken from it for themselves.

But, one man, Achan takes some of the loot for himself.

Then, the people quickly forget seeking the Lord.

They just go on to the next city on their own without consulting the Lord, and they lose badly.

They quickly forget to walk with God as the leader, as their king.

God does give them the land as promised but there is something interesting at the end of Joshua.

Why did they have to throw away other gods if they were already walking with the Lord as their God?

Because they had not been.

They quickly left the Lord, and did not have Him as their God.

Samuel…

Kings - Saul, David, Solomon, Divided kingdom