A Blessed People

Exodus 24:17-18 ESV

17 Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. 18 Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

Today, we come to the end of this series of sermons wherein we have spoken about the ratification of the covenant that God had made with the people, Israel.

And after writing all of the sermons from this series of messages and preaching them every week, what I think has been so remarkable about the contents found here in the 24th chapter of Exodus is how the divine was pleased to fellowship with man, with a certain elect people, and how the divine had made this people willing and able to fellowship with the divine.

This is a reality that cannot be overstated, that Almighty God had chosen to establish a covenant with a people, to subsequently fellowship with that people, and then to graciously remain among that people, using a God-appointed mediator, one who was one of their own to communicate to them the will of God.

These people, a people unconditionally chosen by God, saw and heard and experienced things that no other people have ever saw or heard or experienced.

These people, God made for such a time as this, that they may be His people, that they may see with their own eyes the glory of God. And these people, they were people like us, chosen by God to experience what they experienced for no other reason than because it pleased Him to do so.

And today, as we conclude this series of sermons from this profound chapter in the Bible, what we see is the culmination, the most spectacular beholding of this particular theophany.

Throughout the two sermons that were preached before this one, what we have seen first, is a cloud which signified the presence of God. But what we have additionally seen is that this cloud which signified the presence of God was used as a cover or a veil of an exceedingly more glorious manifestation of the presence of God.

This more glorious manifestation of the presence of God was identified in our reading from last week, verse sixteen of this 24thchapter as: “the glory of the Lord”.

Therefore, the cloud had covered the glory of the Lord, the glory which had called Moses. Now, in our reading for today we look at the appearance of the glory of the Lord, an appearance which God was pleased to graciously bless this people with.

We see this appearance in verse seven, the first verse of our reading for today, where it says:

Exodus 24:17 ESV

17 Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel.

As we have already said, the cloud had veiled this glory of the Lord, but it would seem as though at this point the cloud had at least been partially removed, for now it comes in much clearer view to Moses, and to this chosen people in general.

We see in our text that the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like fire. Now, it’s important to note here that this appearance was like fire. It was not actual fire, rather, it was like fire, revealing to us that this glory of the Lord took on the appearance of fire.

Now, this appearance of the glory of the Lord being like fire could mean that it indeed looked like flames of fire, or the appearance of the glory of the Lord being like fire could also mean that as fire removes impurities, so is this glory of the Lord pure and holy.

Thus, the description of this glory being like fire could mean that it truly did appear to look like flames of fire, or that the description of fire is indicative of the purity and holiness of the glory of the Lord, or it could, and I believe likely does mean that it is indicative of the purity and holiness of the glory of the Lord and it also looks like flames of fire but is not actually fire.

But this appearance of the glory of the Lord is not just like fire, but indeed, as our reading says, it is like a devouring fire. Thus, this glory of the Lord has a devouring effect to it.

What this effectively reveals is that the holiness and purity of God devours those things which appear before Him who He has not made fit to appear before Him, utterly consuming them.

Furthermore, as our reading says, since this glory of the Lord was atop the mountain of God, it was made visible not only to Moses and the elders, but to all the people of Israel, the entire camp.

Thus, the glory of the Lord consisted of that which appeared as fire that was so pure and holy that it utterly consumes and devours those things which are not pure and holy and yet dare to dwell in His presence.

And because of this we are reminded that God did not appear indiscriminately. No, He appeared atop not just any mountain, but a mountain that He had chosen to sanctify; set apart and make holy. He appeared not before just any people, but Israel, the people He had sanctified and set apart for His own purposes.

Thus, the people, Israel in the wilderness, they are graciously blessed to see this most spectacular and amazing theophany… imagine it, the people sitting content, waiting to hear from Moses, their intermediary, as to what they were to do next, when suddenly, the cloud that has sat atop Mount Sinai suddenly lifts a level of its haze and this fire-like glory appears! That is remarkable and simply amazing!

But what happens in verse 18 is even more amazing. There are at least two amazing aspects found in verse 18 and therefore, we will divide this verse and look carefully at both of the amazing aspects surrounding it.

We see first in the first part of verse 18:

Exodus 24:18a ESV

18a Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain.

Now, in this half of the verse we see the fulfillment of the command given in verse twelve of this chapter when God called Moses to “come up” to Him, as we see here that Moses had obediently “come up” to Him.

But as the haze is lifted from the cloud and the fire-like glory of the Lord appears, a glory that is holy and pure and that devours anything and anyone that attempts to go near it without being made fit by God to go near it. None may justifiably go near this glory unless summoned by God to do so and then graciously admitted to come near.

Just as Uzzah carelessly reached out his hand to steady the Ark of the Covenant and was immediately struck dead for treating the holy as something common, so is it that those who are not made fit by God will be devoured when coming into the presence of God.

But look at what the text says here; Moses entered the cloud! That is absolutely remarkable!

We already said that it was remarkable that God would reveal Himself to the people of Israel in general when He revealed His glory to the people as it sat atop the mountain. It is unspeakably remarkable that God would graciously and lovingly reveal Himself to lowly people in such a way. But look at what is accomplished here!

Not only is Moses allowed to see and behold the glory of God as the rest of Israel is, but he, as the intermediary, the mediator between God and the people, Israel, is bidden to enter the cloud where the glory of the Lord was then dwelling; to come near to God.

I mean, talk about a gracious provision! God graciously chooses Moses to this office as mediator, and now He graciously enables him and causes him to come where no other man may come; directly into the cloud which veiled the glory of God and then up on the mountain that the glory of the Lord was pleased to dwell on and then in the direct presence of God Himself.

Now that is extraordinarily remarkable, is it not? But that’s not it. In the second half of verse 18, we see the other remarkable aspect of this 18th verse, where it says:

Exodus 24:18b ESV

18b And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

Moses was “on the mountain” in the direct presence of the glory of the Lord, in this glorious presence for forty days and forty nights.

This gives us further proof of the extraordinary blessedness of Moses in God being pleased to graciously bless Moses the mediator in causing him to remain in His most blessed presence in this holy sanctuary for such a lengthy period. That God would remove the veil and allow anyone to behold His glory for but a moment is a blessing beyond words! And here, He graciously removes that veil for Moses for an extraordinary forty days and forty nights.

And it also needs to be remembered that during this forty days and forty nights in which Moses was in the cloud and in the presence of the glory of the Lord, he neither ate nor drank.

The reason why this is so remarkable is because if a person consistently goes without food or water, they won’t survive more than a week, and a week is really stretching it. Yet Moses goes forty days and forty nights, almost six weeks without food or water.

Now obviously, this didn’t come to pass because Moses was superhuman or something. No, he’s just as human as you and I. And it’s not like he was just naturally able to withstand his body’s urge to eat and drink by determining within himself that he was push through it and make it out ok. No matter how much “willpower” you have, your body will shut down without sustenance.

Yet Moses survived forty days and forty nights without any food or drink, thus it becomes obvious that Moses was not self-sustained, but divinelysustained; sustained by God Himself.

What we see here, indeed, what we have seen throughout the entirety of this series is that God has been pleased to choose a people and to bless a people.

Remember, there was nothing inherently special about the people, Israel. Still, some may say “But God chose Israel because of their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob”. And indeed, that is the case, but neither was there anything inherently special about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. What made Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses, and the people, Israel special is that God chose to bless them.

They were a people who God was pleased to bless. They were a people who God was pleased to reveal Himself to in a way that He had never made Himself known to any other people. Indeed, God beheld Abraham, and in accordance with His own good pleasure, He chose to bless Abraham and his offspring.

But what many people, even many professing Christians don’t realize is that the people, Israel were not an end to themselves. Physical Israel is not the fulfillment of God’s people. But rather, physical Israel pointed to a more profound reality, a reality that we see being fulfilled this very day. And we see it, because we as the elect people of God, Jew and Gentile are “it”, we are the fulfillment.

We, those whom God has been pleased to save are the true Israel. “Israel” the word itself means, he who strives with God. The name was first given to Jacob, he who had strove with God his entire life but was later conquered and subdued by God. Thus, in the spiritual sense, Israel means, he who strove with God and was subdued by God and made obedient to God.

Beloved, this is the definition of everyone who is saved today. There was a time when we strove with God, when we fought hard against Him, when we rebelled, and wanted nothing to do with Him but to overcome Him. But in the fullness of time, as we were in this state of wandering far from the blessed favor of God, He sought us, He pursued us, He overcame us, and He had us!

And because of that, we are a people blessed by God. We are a people who have nothing inherently special about us. But today there issomething special about us, and what is special about us is not owing to ourselves, but rather, it is owing only to the grace, the love, the good pleasure of God.

Indeed, there are many, many, many, many people today who are perishing, who are stubbornly heading towards damnation. Indeed, there are even many who claim to be believers who are actually apostates.

There are many who claim to be shepherds who are fleecing their flocks and delivering them to wolves because they don’t want to make any waves, because they are worried that if they don’t, they will lose their jobs. And I’ll tell you that I love you, and I love my job, but I love my God more.

Beloved, we are a called people, we are a blessed people, we are a chosen people.

Praise God and be in everlasting awe that it has pleased Him to save you!

Amen?