The Salvation of Slaves to Abide and Adore

Introduction

Very often in a good mystery, the criminal isn’t immediately visible at the beginning of the story. That’s what makes it a good mystery. It requires you to keep reading to figure out who did it. If you’ve ever read anything like Sherlock Holmes or Agatha Christie there’s a series of clues to follow and people to meet that lead beyond the person accused of guilt to the real culprit. It’s often someone unassuming you’d never expect.

As we begin our time in Exodus this morning I’d like us to recognize a similar paradigm in the story. The beginning of the book sets up the good guys (Israel) and the bad guys (Egyptians) who have enslaved Israel. There is clearly a guilty party in view we can expect to receive justice at some point. God will even judge them openly and justly before the eyes of Israel. After God has judged the guilty party, Israel crosses the red sea, everyone is saved, everyone is singing end of story right? No, if we continue on in the story there’s more than one guilty party in the story. It turns out Israel is also guilty before God and deserving of justice, and yet by the end of the story God has made his dwelling place with this sinful people.

I’d like to emphasize this morning as we survey Exodus that this story is more about God and man than Egypt and Israel. It’s a temptation we always face: to think the problem, the bad guy, is out there somewhere. In reality we have our own problems independent of everything Egypt might be doing out there, and yet God in his sovereign grace has provided a sacrifice that even we sinners who were once slaves of sin might worship Him in His presence.

From the very beginning God has made it His plan to save for Himself a people who would abide with him in holiness and adore Him in worship.

What is God’s plan for Israel?

How will God address their sin?

How will God reveal himself as the true God?

The plan:

Salvation of Slaves (Ch. 1-18)

Abiding in Holiness (Ch. 19-34)

Adoration in Worship (Ch. 35-40)

The Salvation of Slaves

When we think of the book of Exodus the most prominent feature of the book is the Exodus. It’s a fantastic story that is referenced throughout Scripture and even in our modern day movies are made about it! Anyone seen Charlton Heston’s The Ten Commandments? Hollywood certainly takes their liberties, but they did a decent job capturing the plot, the conflict, and drama in the story! The story by itself is truly amazing, yet if we step back to view some greater biblical context we can see a bit better God’s purpose underlying the drama.

I don’t want to do an overview of Genesis as well, but we need to recognize briefly that Exodus is building on the ‘prologue’ given to us in Genesis. Genesis in many ways mirrors the narrative progression we see in Exodus.

Genesis begins with God and man perfectly dwelling together in the garden. Man adores God perfectly unhindered by sin.

Exodus ends with God in his glory coming once again to dwell in the presence of his people that they would worship him with adoration in the tabernacle.

The garden in Genesis is followed by man’s sin.

God’s glory in the tabernacle in Exodus is immediately preceded by Israel’s blatant idolatry.

The middle of Genesis is marked by God’s covenants with Abraham and His sons.

The middle of Exodus is marked by man’s covenant with God.

The end of Genesis is God blessing his people by coming into Egypt.

The beginning of Exodus is God blessing his people by coming out of Egypt.

There’s no separating Exodus from Genesis and so when we come to ask the question, what is “God’s plan for Israel?” we can look at the immediate context and say “to save his people from slavery.” That’s absolutely right! But we can also look back to God’s purpose explicitly stated to Abraham.

Genesis 12:2–3 NASB95

2 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; 3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.

Genesis 15:13–16 NASB95

13 God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. 14 “But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions. 15 “As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age. 16 “Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.”

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God’s plan from the beginning has been to bless his people and to make them a blessing to the nations. Furthermore, God is not surprised by Israel’s slavery. God in His sovereignty works out his plans even through the evil ambitions of Israel’s greatest enemies.

We’ll look at this in more depth next week, but chapter one of Exodus takes these promises of God in Genesis and puts them on display as if to say, God’s plan for His people will come to fruition.

Before Israel is enslaved they multiply.

In their slavery and oppressive labor they multiply.

When Pharoah tries to kill the males, they multiply.

Before Moses is even born God is bringing His plans to fruition. Moses plays a prominent role in the narrative certainly, but God is the primary actor.

God will deliver his people from slavery, but more importantly God will bless and multiply His people that they would be a blessing for the nations.

God hears the cry of His people at the end of chapter 2 and in speaking to Moses through the burning bush in chapter 3 God says

Exodus 3:7–8 NASB95

7 The Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings. 8 “So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite.

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God is in the midst of calling Moses, yet in God’s words who is going to be Israel’s deliverer? God says, “I have come down to deliver them...” God will save his people from slavery by His mighty power. God will bring his people into a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey. God takes responsibility for the salvation and blessing of His people, and in so doing He will show Himself to be the true God! Another major theme of the book of Exodus.

How will God reveal himself as the true God?

From chapter 4 through chapter 12 God provides signs to Moses and Israel first to say, “I am God! Listen to my words given to Moses.” and perhaps more memorably, God will show Himself to be the true God in sending plagues against the Egyptians.

Time and again Moses will go before Pharaoh with the plan of God that will come to fruition: “Let my people go!” and when Pharaoh attempts to exert his will as god of the Egyptians, God will reveal to all who the true God is!

After three plagues even the magicians of Pharaoh admit: “This is the finger of God.” in chapter 8.

This struggle between Pharaoh and his gods and the one true God will continue even beyond the death of Pharaoh's firstborn when all of Pharaoh’s army is drowned when God releases the water of the red sea upon them. God in no uncertain terms has proclaimed himself as the one true God. He has made a mockery of the gods of Egypt through the plagues, He’s killed the firstborn of every house of the Egyptians and miraculously delivered Israel across the Red Sea having utterly abolished the army and strength of Egypt. Who is the one true God? The God of Israel!

Through this miraculous deliverance God reveals Himself while also revealing to Israel their sin in the Passover. Amidst this miraculous act of God he does not overlook the sin of Israel. We asked an important question in our advent series in response to the promises given to Abraham in Genesis. God has provided these great promises of blessing to Israel, yet in light of sin, who can be blessed?

God makes something very clear in the sending of the last plague, the angel of death to kill the firstborn: The people of Israel are sinners just like Egypt. Why couldn’t God have just sent the angel of death against the Egyptians just like all the other plagues? God made it clear that a substitute would need to be provided, a sacrificial lamb, for the angel of death to Passover. None are without guilt yet those who put their faith in the sufficiency of the blood of the lamb would be spared and know salvation.

From then on the people of God would celebrate Passover and remember the debt of sin that was due them and the lamb who paid the price. I hope you can see my intentional blurring of the narrative that we may see Christ as our Passover Lamb.

As we go through Exodus, I hope we might come to a greater understanding of those three simple themes found in just the first 18 chapters. God has indeed provided us a great salvation, but it’s not merely a salvation from the world or hardship. It’s a salvation from our own sin!

Furthermore, no matter our circumstances God is not surprised! His good and perfect plan will come to fruition and he is happy to provide for us such that we recognize: He is God! God has shown Himself to be God to us because He has addressed our sin with the perfect and sufficient blood of Christ, and what greater sign could we ask for than the resurrection of Christ? When we celebrate the Lord’s Supper we look back much like Israel did to the lamb which died for us. We too can rejoice as Israel did in Exodus 15 of the great and glorious salvation which Christ has accomplished for us!

Exodus 15:2 NASB95

2 “The Lord is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation; This is my God, and I will praise Him; My father’s God, and I will extol Him.

At the end of the Chapter 15 we catch of glimpse of God’s perfect plan for His people: God has delivered His people for their blessing and in this great deliverance they adore and worship God for what He has accomplished for Israel. Have we arrived? No, there’s quite a long road ahead, and God knows that he cannot continue to accompany this people unless they are set apart and a holy people. He will not make His dwelling among a people who are just like the rest of the idolatrous nations, so God leads them to Sinai that he might give them the law and call them to holiness!

Abiding in Holiness

In the beginning of chapter 19 God states clearly to Moses his plan for Israel

Exodus 19:3–6 (NASB95)

3 Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel:

4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself.

5 ‘Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine;

6 and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.”

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God has saved his people from the bondage of slavery, He’s shown himself to be the true God in magnificent ways, they worship him in adoration, what more is there to be worried about? … We’re still following the story of a sinful people aren’t we? Thus far we’ve been focused on the idolatry of Egypt, but God knows His people. They are not so unlike the people of Egypt, and so to ensure their worship remains devoted to the one true God they are called to holiness as a kingdom of priests.

Over the next couple chapters there’s a bit of a dialogue between God and Israel with Moses acting as intercessor between them. We’ve already seen God initiate His plan for Israel, but soon after Israel will respond.

Exodus 19:8 (NASB95)

8 All the people answered together and said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do!” And Moses brought back the words of the people to the LORD.

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Israel seems very keen on the idea of being a holy priesthood. We perhaps know the story and where this is going, but for those who have never heard the story before, things are going quite well so far.

God has communicated his expectations of holiness and the people readily commit to these expectations.

God responds and descends on the mountain and gives Moses the ten commandments in chapter 20 followed by other laws. The Ten Commandments standalone by themselves, we might be familiar with them, but the ten commandments also serve as a kind of table of contents for the law presented in Exodus and even the law presented in Deuteronomy. In the chapters immediately following God will instruct His people regarding holy living with one another much like the last 6 commandments: Honor your father and mother, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not envy. Again we have a mirrored structure in the text. The last of the ten commandments are the first laws to be expounded on in the following chapters as God continues to instruct them in holiness with one another.

Moses will bring these instructions and laws before the people and again the people respond with hearty devotion.

Exodus 24:3 (NASB95)

3 Then Moses came and recounted to the people all the words of the LORD and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words which the LORD has spoken we will do!”

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Wow! This is going great. No negotiations. No hesitations whatsoever, Israel is all about this holiness idea!

So God continues.

He speaks to Moses and continues to expound on the first four commandments: You shall have no other gods before me, you shall not make for yourself any graven image, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, remember the sabbath day and keep it holy

From chapter 25 through 31 God will instruct Israel in the detail of their Holy priesthood, their worship of Him and Him alone in the tabernacle. It might be easy to get lost in the details, but in every detail and perfection God is communicating something about Himself. This tent will be the tent of God where men will meet with Him. It will be no ordinary tent! It will be perfect, because He is perfect, and His people are holy priests who worship Him alone.

How does Israel respond to these commands to worship God as He has laid out for them? They were very fine with the first half surely they would respond fairly to the rest.

Israel doesn’t get a chance to hear Moses bring God’s instruction.

Chapter 32.

In their impatience the people of Israel resort to the same abominations of idolatry for which Egypt received plague after plague and the death of their firstborn sons. Aaron, the mouthpiece of Moses, caves to the demands of Israel and builds a golden calf for them to worship... How quickly did they forget who the true God was, the true God who delivered them from slavery! It turns out God was right to put in place rules and regulations for their worship because he knew their hearts were sinful.

We now have a dilemma! What is the Holy God going to do with the idolatry of this people whom he has delivered? … He will show Himself to be the one true God.. bringing justice upon those who have rebelled against Him. Three thousand men die that day at the instruction of God for their idolatry. If God is going to deliver a people for Himself, He will not tolerate their worship of false gods and idols. He is the one and only true God, and that reality will be known among His people.

Thus far we’ve seen another facet of God’s plan for His people. We know his plan is that they would be delivered, but also that they would be holy. As we’ll see when we walk through Exodus, God’s will for His people expressed in the law does not have a transformative function. It serves as a means of their preservation until one will come who can fulfill the law and transform their hearts. Until that point God will have to continually remind them, I am the true God and you are still sinners.

For those who recognize God as the true God and adhere to the law that was given them, their sin is addressed in the sacrifices given to God, a substitute and an aroma well-pleasing to God. It’s important we note that these sacrifices did not ultimately satisfy as Christ would, yet those who brought their sins before God in sacrifice were not treated according to their sin. On the other hand, for those who turn from God, the penalty of sin would fall on their own heads.

God will be known as the one true God and one way or another sin will be addressed. In this case Israel denied God, and therein they received the just punishment for their sin upon themselves.

Here we find another point of application that we will find throughout the book of Exodus.

To abide with God in holiness we need more than the law! We need new hearts and the gospel of Christ. Israel was not so unlike Egypt at the end of the day, and as we’ll see not even the law can change their hearts. It may confine their rebellion, but it will not transform them.

As Paul put it in his letter to the Galatians

Galatians 3:23–25 (NASB95)

23 But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed.

24 Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.

25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.

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The law throughout Exodus functions chiefly to ‘maintain custody’ of Israel. It serves as a boundary that ‘confines the detainee’ though for their good.

Furthermore it functions as a tutor. Someone who is expected to discipline, but also teach us something, specifically to teach us about the coming of the perfect lamb.

I hope as we go through Exodus we might see the glory of God in His holiness revealed in the law, yet recognize its intended purpose. We cannot expect to law to do what only the gospel can do. When we approach the end of Exodus we should feel a sense of incompleteness and tension, because the law revealed to Israel did not accomplish the fullness of God’s declared plan for His people. It would accomplish a certain kind of abiding with God for a time, but there is something greater to come!

We today, with clear eyes of faith, see Christ as the one true God as well as the perfect lamb. In Christ our sin has been addressed once and for all and we’ve been given new hearts such that we abide with Christ in love, from the heart, and not out of compulsion.

As we walk through Exodus we’ll take careful note of all that Israel was waiting for, and at the same time recognize all that we have on the other side of Christ’s coming.

As we look to the end of the book: chapters 35 through 40 we’ll see the construction of the tabernacle. God has restored His people to Himself in compassion and grace, reiterated the law to them, but we’ve arrived at the time to put God’s instruction into action. No longer will God reside on the mountain while the people tremble in fear, He will dwell among them in the tabernacle that they might worship Him.

Adoration in Worship

We perhaps don’t always remember or meditate on the end of the book of Exodus because of the detail that’s there.

Exodus 36:9–11 (NASB95)

9 The length of each curtain was twenty-eight cubits and the width of each curtain four cubits; all the curtains had the same measurements.

10 He joined five curtains to one another and the other five curtains he joined to one another.

11 He made loops of blue on the edge of the outermost curtain in the first set; he did likewise on the edge of the curtain that was outermost in the second set.

Not exactly the first thing you go to for your devotional time, or the subject matter of very many hymns, but…

It’s much like a blueprint that if we don’t know what we’re looking at it can be quite confusing. Very often blueprints have a key for reference so that you can understand what you’re looking at and in many ways Genesis and the rest of Exodus serve as our key. If we look at the whole of Exodus for a moment: from the very beginning God has been addressing false gods among His people. Pharaoh in the Egyptian religion considered himself a god, a god among men who would rule over Israel. God puts Pharoah and his pantheon of gods in his place saying, I am the one true God, I am the God of Israel, and I will dwell among them.

Free from the oppression of Pharoah, Israel’s idolatry rears its ugly head and once again God must reiterate: I am the one true God, I am the God of Israel, and I will dwell among them.

The end of the book of Exodus is the culmination of God’s plan for His people to worship Him as the one true God as He dwells among them.

Should we take another step back, God is restoring a kind of fellowship with His people that very much resembles the garden.

The movie doesn’t show Charlton Heston assembling the tabernacle, but it’s arguably one of the most important parts of the story.

Without these last few chapters God remains on the mountain and distant from His people and we’ve made no progress toward restoring fellowship between God and man.

Furthermore, how will the people worship? From the very beginning of the Exodus narrative Moses has been telling Pharoah as spokesman for God,

Exodus 4:23 (NASB95)

23“So I said to you, ‘Let My son go that he may serve Me’; but you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn.” ’ ”

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How are the people to serve their God? The one true God will not accept just any form of worship which the Israelites decide to come up with. There must be a place, a tent of meeting where the people of God will meet with God Himself.

Without the building of the tabernacle there is simply no presence of God with His people and no rightly ordered worship of the one true God.

As God’s plan for Israel’s worship is coming to fruition we’ll see that God continues to address the sin of Israel. In fact it’s a fundamental facet of their worship to address their sin.

In just briefly looking at the the tabernacle itself, God has put in place means by which the people would be continually reminded of their sin and their need for atonement.

If we work from the inside out,

The mercy seat which covers the ark of the covenant literally means atonement seat or ‘propitiatory’.

The veils between the presence of God and the people remind them of the consequence of Adam’s sin and their continued separation from God though He is among them.

The priesthood itself is a reminder. No ordinary person can approach God to make atonement for sin, a priest with particular garments and having been cleansed is necessary to atone for the sins of the people.

Furthermore, the altar that would be daily covered in blood for the sins of the people announces to the people daily of the cost of their sin.

So many facets of Israel’s worship is made understanding their sin before a holy God.

To top it all off chapter 40:2 God ensures the tabernacle is built on the first day of the first month: the month in which they were to celebrate the passover and remember the lamb which spared them the death that was due them.

These are all humbling reminders, but they are not intended to bring the people to hopelessness. God will ensure they know that in spite of their sin, He will show Himself to be the true God by residing in the tabernacle in all His glory. Every other God is fashioned by man’s hands, but Israel would have the comfort and assurance of the visible presence of the one true God among them.

Exodus 40:34–38 (NASB95)

34 Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.

35 Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.

36 Throughout all their journeys whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the sons of Israel would set out;

37 but if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out until the day when it was taken up.

38 For throughout all their journeys, the cloud of the LORD was on the tabernacle by day, and there was fire in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel.

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Exodus begins with, “God saw the sons of Israel, and took notice of them.”

Exodus ends with God residing with His people, “in the sight of all the house of Israel.”

Conclusion

At the end of the day God’s plan for Israel is much like His plan for the church.

He desires that we would be saved to the end.

What about my holiness?

We are not preserved like Israel was under a tutor.

We have seen the Christ, the one to whom the law was pointing and In Him we are preserved from the heart through faith. From a heart of faith in the sufficiency of Christ’s fulfillment of the law and perfect sacrifice as the lamb do we seek the holiness God desires for us.

Through faith God will finish the work He began in us by making us more and more holy as we mature and perfectly holy when we come to be in His presence in the last day.

Furthermore, we are worshippers. The presence of God with us by the Spirit invites us to love Him, to rejoice in Him, to rest in Him with all that we are. We worship here when we gather together, but our entire lives are lived to the glory of God alone and therein we are worshippers... even on a Tuesday.

Let’s Pray.