Hither by Thy Help I've Come

Exodus 24:12-14 ESV

12 The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and wait there, that I may give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” 13 So Moses rose with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. 14 And he said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we return to you. And behold, Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever has a dispute, let him go to them.”

As a result of much mention of him in my sermons, my Bible studies, and our book studies on Monday nights many of you, I’m sure are aware that I have gleaned much insight from and have been heavily influenced by an early to mid-twentieth century theologian named Arthur W. Pink.

And one particular quote of Arthur Pink that I believe has caused me to examine and reflect and to confess the uncontested truth of are the very last words that he had spoken this side of heaven, when lying upon his deathbed, he muttered his last words: “The Scriptures explain themselves”.

This may be the simplest statement that A.W. Pink had ever made, but it also may be the most profound statement that he had ever made.

And how true have I personally found this statement to be over and over again. We find the meaning and the interpretation of the scriptures, not from a source outside of the scriptures, but from the scriptures themselves.

The great theological works that have been written are but expositions of the Bible. And these expositions that come about, come about from interpreting one portion of scripture with another portion of scripture.

Indeed, every sermon that I preach is a work that has come about as a result of me explaining the text that I am preaching from as a result of interpreting it through the lens of the rest of the scriptures.

And today, the text that we will be working through is yet another beautiful text, but the explanation of the text, the interpretation of it through the lens of the rest of the scriptures is what makes this text even more lovely.

We will see this all the more as we finish the explanation of what happens in our reading, come near the end of this sermon, and see how what takes place here is fulfilled in a strikingly beautiful manner in the New Testament.

This 24th chapter of the book of Exodus, as I have said before, has been a harder series of sermons for me to write because of the deep, deep theology that is found in it, but it also has been rewarding for me personally in sticking it out so to speak and finding the golden nuggets that are hidden in the text as I write these sermons.

And as we have said several times in this series, what we have seen throughout the exposition of this chapter is the ratification of the covenant that God had made with the people, Israel in Exodus, chapter 19.

The people have by this point already ratified the covenant and were thus not only spiritually but also now legally set apart by God.

The stipulations were that God would make the people, Israel a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, if they would obey the voice of God and keep His covenant.

And if either party failed to fulfill their end of the covenant, the consequence would be that they would cease to be.

Thus, God effectively declares that if He does not bless the people, Israel as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation upon their obedience to His commands, He will then cease to be God.

And what Israel was declaring was that if she would not be faithful to her God and obey His commands, they will cease to be a people set apart by God who experience His favor.

Now, God of course knows fully well what is expected of Him, and furthermore, He obviously knows how to fulfill what He has sworn to fulfill in His end of the covenant. But Israel, on the other hand, needed some instruction.

It is for this reason that we read the words of verse 12, which tell us:

Exodus 24:12 ESV

12 The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and wait there, that I may give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.”

Now, an aspect that we need to keep in mind for the rest of this sermon and really, for the rest of this series for that matter is that Moses was appointed by God to serve as an intermediary, or a mediator between God and the people, Israel. He was their go-between so to speak.

He was permitted to come before God on behalf of the people, and Moses would also deliver the Word of God to the people. Thus, as Moses stood before God, he represented the people, Israel, and whenever God sought to reveal His will to the people, He would speak to Moses who would then relay what God had said.

And what God seeks to do in this verse is relay something to the people, Israel. It is for this reason that God summons Moses to “come up” to Him on the mountain; that Moses may act as the people’s representative and so that God may reveal His will to the people.

God tells Moses that when he comes up to Him on the mountain, he is to “wait there” so that He may give to Moses the tablets of stone with the law and the commandment.

Now, there have been many throughout the centuries who have speculated on what exactly “the law and the commandment” were, but from what we see in later chapters, it is apparent that “the law and the commandment” which God had written on these tablets of stone are what we know as “The Ten Commandments”.

But what we also see in this verse is the reason why God was writing these commands and giving them to Moses when we see God say to Moses, “Come up that I may give you the tablets of stone with law and the commandment on them, which I have written for their instruction”.

What this reveals to us is that these tablets of stone which God was going to give to Moses were given as an educational tool for the people so that they may be careful to follow the Lord their God and keep all of His commands.

As was said, the people needed some instruction if they were to keep their end of the covenant, therefore there were to be instructions written for them.

But back in verse four of this chapter, we read of how Moses had written down “all the words of the Lord”, which obviously included the Ten Commandments, thus, they already had a written record of the law and the commandment. So, why is God now engraving it on stone if they already have a written record?

And I believe that the answer to that question is because while Moses had written “all the words of the Lord” in verse four, it still had not been written directly by God.

Now, I’m not saying that what Moses wrote in verse four is different than what God is going to write here, but as we see later in this book, in chapter 31, verse 18, what is written here on the stone tablets, is written with “the finger of God”.

Thus, when the people see the tablets of stone with the law and the commandment written upon them, they recognize that what they see has literally been written by God, with His very hand! Of course, this is going to certainly affect the reverence that the people held for what God was commanding them through Moses!

But having received his orders from God, Moses begins to ready himself for his sojourn to the meeting place where he will commune with God.

We see this as we jump ahead to verse fourteen of our reading, where it says:

Exodus 24:14 ESV

14 And he said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we return to you. And behold, Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever has a dispute, let him go to them.”

Now, keep in mind that what takes place in our reading for today takes place right after Moses, Aaron and his sons, and the seventy elders of Israel had partaken of the covenant meal with God. Therefore, after this had taken place, Moses tells the elders, who were then obviously present and assembled to “wait here”.

Thus, he tells them to return to the base of the mountain where the rest of the people were assembled and to not resume their travels until he returns.

He tells them also that if there is a dispute that the elders can’t solve, they then must go to Aaron the high priest, or to Hur, who had previously helped hold up the arms of Moses while Israel had gone to battle with Amalek, and that they would give a satisfactory judgment.

Now, for the attentive student of the Bible, you will know that this was the very advice that Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses had given to him back in chapter 18 of this book when he told him to have the elders decide minor judgments and to have the judgments that they cannot decide to be brought to him. Moses is instructing that process to take place here, except for the judgments to be brought to Aaron and Hur during his absence.

Having made all the preparations, we look back now to verse thirteen which tells us:

Exodus 24:13 ESV

13 So Moses rose with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God.

What this reveals to us is that because God had commanded Moses to ascend the mountain, Moses “rose up” to do just that, ascending the mountain with Joshua, revealing his willingness to obey and to fulfill his role at mediator.

And after hearing all of this, we may think that this is just a really neat historical account. Like, you know, that’s really neat and interesting that all of that happened, but so what? What does any of that have to do with me?

Well, as we said at the beginning of this sermon, “the Scriptures explain themselves”. And when we interpret what is declared to us in our text for today through the lens of scripture, we see exactly how what is written here applies to us as the elect people of God today.

I know that I have in the past spoken of how the Law ultimately always points to Christ, as the Law was but a foreshadowing of the coming Christ Who would fulfill the Law. And when we interpret our text for today through the lens of what the scriptures tell us of what Christ has accomplished and is accomplishing on behalf of His elect people, we can clearly see how it foreshadowed the coming Christ.

As Moses was the mediator for the people, Israel, so is Christ Jesus the Mediator between God the Father and His elect people. He stands before God in our place, representing us as the perfect Representative.

And as Moses was summoned to “come up” to God on the mountain after offering the blood of the sacrifice and making atonement for the people, so was Christ Jesus, Who after making atonement for His elect people with His very own blood and having been resurrected was He summoned to the presence of God the Father.

And as Moses was to deliver to the people the tablets of the law and the commandment, so in John 15:26 do we see God the Father and God the Son delivering the ultimate Testimony to His elect people, where we read Jesus saying:

John 15:26 ESV

26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.

Jesus speaks here of the Helper, with a capital H. This Helper is God the Holy Spirit. Jesus says that when He goes to His Father, He will send the Holy Spirit to the elect, and that He, the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and Himself. And as the tablets of stone written with the finger of God bear witness to the law and the commandment, so does Jesus say that the Holy Spirit bears witness that He is the Christ.

Thus, our Mediator goes to the Father on our behalf and the Father is pleased to have His Son send His Spirit to His elect people that He may cause His people to reverence and worship His Son.

But it’s not just that, for as the tablets of the law and commandment were to be an educational tool for the Israelite, so does Jesus tell us in John 16:13 that the Holy Spirit He has sent will guide the believer into all truth.

Beloved, on our behalf, full salvation is graciously accomplished for us! God the Father elects and predestines those whom He chooses to save, God the Son manifests salvation through His death and resurrection, and God the Spirit applies this salvation to the elect in a time and manner which best pleases God.

Beloved, we today are the covenant people of God! God has been pleased to enter into an eternal covenant with us, undeserving sinners. It is by His help, His good pleasure that we have come this far, and it is by His help, His good pleasure that He will bring us home!

Amen?