When Heaven Meets Earth

Review

Exodus 1-18: From Slavery to Sinai

Joshua forgotten, new Pharoah

Enslaved people blessed by God and oppressed by Pharoah

Moses called to lead Israel out of slavery

The Ten Plagues

Crossing the Reed Sea

Pillar of smoke and fire

God provides manna, water, victory

Jethro’s fatherly advice

Exodus 19-40: Service at Sinai

Arrival at Sinai

The Ten Commandments

The Law(78 more to be given in Exodus) 613 in Jewish Tradition

Moral

Ceremonial

Judicial

The Tabernacle, priestly duties, worship(ch.26-40)

Exodus is one of many books of scripture that has a bifid construction, which just means it is composed of two clearly distinguished halves, which are pretty easy to see from our overview. Normally, in a bifid construction, the main message of the book is given right in the middle of the two halves. If we ignore chapter and verse for just a moment, we are right at the middle point of the text, and the story that lies at the center of Exodus is this covenant that God is making with Israel. This covenant will be spelled out and ratified over the next several chapters, but here, we find the preamble to the covenant.

Exodus 19

v.1-6

God delivers His people out of Egypt and requires nothing of them

God’s covenant with Abraham did not end here, because there are eternal promises that are given, and God has still not given His people the Promised Land.

Rather than replacing the previous covenant, of which, God made many references to in the previous chapters, the covenant made with the people here at Mt. Sinai is both renewing, and adding to the covenant that God made with Abraham.

These promises and blessings are our inheritance

1 Peter 2:5 “you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

v.7-15

God is preparing His people to receive the Ten Commandments, and He is making clear the importance of these 10 by giving clear instruction to all of the people so that they may all receive these laws directly from God.

God’s presence has clearly been with Israel throughout all of Exodus, but He has not dwelt with them. We will see that the place God chooses to dwell is much different from a place where God appears.

Something big is happening and I need you and all of the people to be ready, even to abstain from personal pleasure and focus on what is coming

v.16-25

Theophany- Smoke and fire

Aaron and the elders are to come up later, but right now, all of the people are gathered together, prepared to receive the Ten Commandments

Recognize what we have here. This is different from the pillar of smoke and fire leading the people. God is not leading His people anymore, He is dwelling among them

Because God himself has descended upon the mountaintop to dwell there, He has brought Heaven with him. Remember, Heaven, simply put, is the place where God lives. God has brought Heaven down to meet Earth. If we went to Mt. Sinai right now, in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt, it would look just like any other mountain. It’s not the mountaintop that was special, but the fact that God chose to dwell there.

This speaks to God’s heart, and is exactly the same back in Eden. God made man in His image, and He wants desperately to dwell with him. Because of Adam’s sin, we see how different this dwelling place looks from Eden. God warns the people to stay away lest they perish. We see how our sin separates us from perfect union and communion with God. We saw that the people had to purify themselves, even the Moses, the priests, and the elders. God is making clear that His people will approach Him with a fearful respect

Respect Gravity-Ryder vs. Theo

In God’s grace, He is constantly extending His arms out before Israel, waiting to catch them when they fall. We will see that Israel’s failures will result in some hard falls and natural consequences, but that God builds into this system of laws, a system of ceremonies and sacrifices to be made clean again. The Law is drafted in such a way that it expects Israel’s failures, and makes a way for them to repent and be made right with God again.

We also see some similarities to Eden. Remember, there was the land that was called Eden, within that land was a Garden, then at the center of that Garden was the presence of God in the Tree of Life. Here, we have this outer perimeter of the mountain, where all of Israel can be in proximity to the presence of God, then we have later in ch. 24, the 70 elders ascend partway up the mountain and actually peer into Heaven and see God, then only Moses can actually ascend the rest of the way to the summit, where he alone ascends into the presence of God.

All of this to say, Heaven is where God dwells, and here we see how our sin has fractured our relationship in such a way, that we can no longer be in the presence of God.

But then… A Savior.

When Jesus came, He conquered that sin and ascended into the presence of God for us, then invited us straight into the throne room with Him, where now, we can again enter into the presence of God. If Heaven is where God dwells, I’m going to spend the rest of our time making the case that, just like God brought Heaven to Earth in Eden, at the summit of Mt. Sinai, and He now brings Heaven to Earth through each of us, in whom His Holy Spirit dwells.

The Great Commission

"Heaven and earth, all the emperors, kings, and princes of the world, could not raise a fit dwelling-place for God; yet, in a weak human soul, that keeps His Word, He willingly resides." ~ Martin Luther 1857

The tabernacle was constructed after the things that Moses sees at the summit of Mt. Sinai, and later the Temple. These places where God does come to dwell with his people were never sufficient, in all of their splendor. As beautifully as they were made, full of Eden imagery, God left those places and chose to dwell in the hearts of His people.

Russian Orthodox Church- Kiev

Remember the promise that God made to Abraham, all the way back in Genesis 12. Through you, all of the people of the Earth will be blessed.

Matthew 28:16–20 “Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.””

We, as believers in Jesus, are commanded to go out and make disciples. We are called into our homes, into our communities, into our workplaces to be representatives and mirrors of God.

Marissa is an amazing homemaker. She has such an amazing eye for aesthetic and design. She brought home a vintage mirror. It has character and looks beautiful. I am an vintage mirror.

Though imperfect, God has chosen you to bear His image. He has made you in His likeness. He is not ashamed of you, or your shortcomings, or your flaws, but He embraces them fully. God doesn’t just snap His fingers and make you perfect the moment that you’re indwelt by the Holy Spirit, He teaches you by His word, He refines your through your suffering, He builds you up through community. He is making you perfect, but that isn’t what He expects you to be right now. It’s because of our flaws that He sent Jesus, so that as we fail so miserably to represent such a Holy God, we come before the Almighty, clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

God has chosen us broken mirrors to carry His name into the world, and to make disciples. More than just use us, God has chosen to dwell in us.

2 Corinthians 6:16 “What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

1 Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

We are God’s treasured possession, His kingdom of priests, His holy nation. We are to carry God’s presence into the world and make disciples. As we go into the world, we are the place where people can encounter God, see that He is good, gracious, and merciful. When people experience God through us, they, like Jethro, are given the opportunity to leave behind their false religion, declare that Yahweh is God above all other gods, and through Jesus, that same, Holy God, comes to dwell in them.

"Those in whom the Spirit comes to live are God's new Temple. They are, individually and corporately, places where heaven and earth meet." ~ N. T. Wright

You are the place where Heaven and Earth meets. While we sit here together, we are on holy ground, because God has chosen to dwell in His Church. Take that little piece of Heaven with you and carry proud into your community, that through you, they can experience God, and He may come to dwell in them too.