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Here we go

Whats up y’all, it is good to be with you tonight. I hope y’all enjoyed your labor day weekend.

We have been in this series entitled Exiles and we have been looking at what it looks like for us a Christians to live as the people of God in the midst of the in between.

When I say in between I mean this state in which we as humans are always living in. We almost always feel like we are caught in between. And we think if we can just get out of this in between then we will be satisfied, the problem with that is that one in between leads to the next.

Two weeks ago we talked about the manna from heaven, how God provided his people with everything they needed for today and we looked at Jesus words in the new testament which he promises us today and eternity but not tomorrow. But we don’t need to worry about tomorrow because God is here providing everything we need for today and if he does it today and we are blessed with tomorrow he will show up again. So whatever in between we find ourselves in we can find goodness in today because today is a gift and the Lord is in today.

Then last week we talked about the presence of God and how the people of God built a gold calf and worshipped it because their highest value was getting out of the in between, but then we see moses and how he says to God dont even bring me out of this desert if your presence wont go before me. So we see moses highest value is the presence of God. God is doing something in every in between you find yourself in. You don’t need to fall away and fix on your own, build your gold calfs. You can lean into his presence and find his promises there, in the midst of the in between.

Now we have come to our last week in our series on Exodus and it may be the shortest series on Exodus in all of history, and there is so much we could cover but we won’t. You may notice we didn’t address the first 15 chapters, and thats by design, we are specifically looking at the time where they are caught between Egypt and the promise land and this narrative will continue throughout exodus levitivus numbers deutoronotmyinto Joshua, spoiler they are caught in the in between of the desert a long time.

We addressed the manan from heaven and God’s provision in that, we addressed the golf calf and Moses’ obedience in chapters 32 and 33, but there is still a lot of chapters. And a really general summary of the rest of these chapters is God giving the law. 20-31 are god Giving the law, the ten commandments, laws about altars and disagreements among individuals, social justice, sabbath, festivals. God is telling Moses how he wants the people of God to live as the people of God.

There is a lot more going on here though.

See what God is doing here is making a covenant with the people of Israel. Now lets stop there, covenant is a word that ca be used alot and it can seem complicated but really a covenant is simply a deal that God is making with his people.

We see God make several key covenants, or deals with his people throughout the bible. We see him make a covenant with Noah, then with Abraham, and in this text in exodus we will see him make a deal with moses and the people of God, then we see him make a deal with David. These are all covenants, where apart from the covenant with Noah which we won’t get in to that, God is saying I will do these things if you will do these things.

Basically, these covenants are God saying this is what I want you to do and if you will trust me and have faith in me and be obedient to the things I say I will give you land and protection and I will love and care for you.

We see this in Exodus. If we look God lays out all of these laws throughout exodus and then in chapter 23 verses 20-33 God says if you obey the law I have given you and you don’t bow down to idols, etc. I will have you conquest these great nations and I will protect you physically and from sickness, and I will lead you into new prosperous lands.

Then we get to Exodus 24 and we see this.

Exodus 24:3–8 ESV

Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.” And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. And he sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

The problem is, they weren’t obedient. 8 chapters later we see them building the Gold calf. And in fact, what we see in Leviticus numbers, deuterotomy, is that there are more laws and the people keep breaking this laws and being disobedient to God.

And in fact this is not just isolated to this one covenant, Abraham and Noah and Moses and David, every covenant man does not hold up their end of the deal.

Rather than submit to the Lord, time and time again, man chooses to sin against God break the deal, the covenant they made with God.

So what happens when they break that covenent? Well theres punishment and theres death and theres all sorts of not fun things.

Fast forward we see the people of Israel lose the land God have given them and end up in exile.

But see there’s a deeper, sadder, issue.

have you ever heard someone say its a relationship with god, its not a religion its a relationship?

See God is this Holy, set apart, other being, and his covenants, the deals he makes with his people are really these ways in which God is reaching out to have relationship with his people. He is saying I want to love and lead and be with my people and in order for that to happen I need yall to hold up this end of the deal.

But see in the old testament we see they never do, and so theres broken fractured relationship with God.

And so not only are the people of God in exile but they have a fractured relationship with God

It is during this time that the prophets speak of this coming time when God will make a new covenant.

Jeremiah 31:31–34 ESV

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Jesus, fully human, fulfills the covenants that the people of Israel did not.

Jesus carries the weight of the commitment to God that we cannot keep.

In this way Jesus fulfilled all of the requirements for us to have relationship with God.

And this covenant is full of amazing truths, one of those being that Jesus is the high priest of a new, better covenant. We see in exodus and throughout the law God creates this mediator between God and man and that is the priest. And the priest offers sacrifices for their sin and the sin of the people.

And you may be like why don’t we offer sacrifices anymore? Because Jesus now sits at the right hand of the father, as our high priest God himself mediator between God and Man so God can look upon all our sin and Jesus stands between us and says I am the sacrifice for their sin.

Jesus in every way fulfilled every requirement our sinful flesh cannot. He held up our end of the deal. What does this mean?

Hebrews 10:19–25 ESV

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

You can now enter the presence of God, enter into the fullness of relationship with God without having to fear God is mad at you or judging you, but you can enter in knowing you are so loved and forgiven because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

And really this is what we have been talking about for 3 weeks now. Last week the presence of God is the most intimate of relationships with God and the manna from heaven is God inviting you into daily relationship with him promising he will care for every need of yours,

What does it look like to live in the in between, it is to have relationship with God. It is when you can find God in the midst of whatever in between you find yourself if that the in between starts to feel less like a desert and more like the promise land.