Exodus 19:1-31:18, God Covenants

Introduction

Good morning! It is such a joy to once again open God’s Word together. I invite you to open your Bible with me to Exodus 19. We’ll be covering a lot of ground this morning. We won’t be able to read everything, but we will be jumping through the passage and reading particular portions. So, let’s go to the LORD in prayer together before we get started.

PRAY

The last several weeks we have been working our way through the book of Exodus together. This study has been a part of a much larger intended purpose. One that began earlier this year when we did a similar macrostudy of Genesis. One that will continue in the months and years to come, as the LORD allows, through the rest of the Old Testament. That larger purpose is that we would behold the glory of God as He reveals Himself and His ways through His unfolding plan of redemption.

In the beginning God created all things. The pinnacle of which was human beings made in His image. Intended to have fellowship with Him in His presence and displaying His glory in creation––ruling over it on His behalf; reflecting His character; and filling the earth with more image bearers such that the whole earth would be full of His glory. But, sin entered the world through Adam and Eve and distorted that fellowship. Sinful man would no longer be able to dwell in the presence of a Holy God without God’s gracious provision.

The rest of the Biblical account from that point on is dealing with the answer to that question––how will this infinitely holy God dwell with a sinful people? How will sin and death be conquered such that God’s intended purpose of creation will be fully and finally realized? That is the grand drama that unfolds before us throughout the pages of Scripture.

What we have before us this morning in Exodus 19 through 31 is the latest edition of God’s dealings with His people in covenant relationship following His delivering them from bondage in Egypt. It looks back to what God promised Abraham––that God was going to make Him a great nation and give them a great land in which He would dwell with them. This would follow their deliverance from Egypt. We’ve now seen that happen and it’s time to carry the storyline forward.

In taking a wide angle lens view of this covenant––the covenant at Sinai––we learn a lot about God’s gracious dealings with His people. Not just then, but also now for those of us who are members of the New Covenant in Christ. Having graciously delivered His people from slavery in Egypt, God’s chosen people are to respond in faithful covenant fellowship with Him according to His ways. So it is for us in Christ. Having been freed from bondage to sin and death through the shed blood of Jesus, we live in fellowship with God according to His ways with grateful awe.

Main Point—Live for the glory of God in the blessing of His gracious rule and presence.

God’s covenant relationship with His people brings the blessing of:

God’s Grace

God’s Rule

God’s Presence

God’s Grace

We won’t be able to read the entire passage before us this morning. Nevertheless, we will read particular portions. Let’s first READ EXODUS 19:1-18.

A common misconception about the Old Covenant is that it was one in which the people were to earn God’s favor through works of the law. That is a significant misunderstanding in so many ways. God’s people have never been saved by works of the law. Always by God’s grace. Even the Old Covenant was a merciful provision of God’s grace toward His people. Their adherence to that covenant––their covenant obedience––was to be a response to God’s saving grace and mercy. We see that very plainly in God’s words recorded in Exodus 19:4-6.

There God reminded the people of what He had done to the Egyptians and how He bore them on eagle’s wings and brought them to Himself––a poetic description of His saving work. A saving work they did not earn. Remember, Israel was just as deserving of God’s judgment as Egypt and all other people. They too are descendants of Adam and Eve born in sin. They too had sinned against God. They needed the blood on the doorposts in order for God’s judgment to pass over them.

Israel did nothing to merit God’s favor in delivering them from Egypt. Rather, it was a gracious fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham concerning his descendants. God graciously delivered them from Egypt and is now working to bring them to the promised land. It is from this demonstration of His grace that he then says, verse 5, “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

Loved ones, living for the glory of God is a response to God’s grace demonstrated for us. That’s what was true then and that’s what is true now for those of us who are in Christ. Paul very clearly teaches us in Ephesians 2:8-10 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

This is instructive for us in at least a couple of ways. For one, it is a reminder that our salvation is in no way owing to our own merit. It’s been said before, we contribute absolutely nothing to our salvation except the sin that made it necessary. If you are here this morning hoping you can do enough good to counteract the bad things you’ve done and earn your way to heaven you need to know that is a hopeless endeavour. Our only hope is to cast ourselves through faith upon the mercy of God in Christ.

On the other hand, this warns us against taking God’s grace in vain. Too many professing Christians respond to any call of obedience with the charge of legalism. I’ve experienced this in my own life and ministry. Anytime you suggest any level of growing in conformity to God’s Word there is always someone who will cry foul and say that you’re teaching works based salvation. They might even excuse their sinful life choices with claims to freedom in Christ.

Beloved, God’s grace does not grant us freedom to live however we choose. We are not freed to live in unhindered rebellion against God. Once again Paul speaks against this in Romans 6:1-4:

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

God’s grace sets us free, loved ones, but freedom in Christ is not a freedom to do as we please. It is a freedom from captivity to sin whereby we have been enabled by God’s Spirit to walk in newness of life. Having been raised with Christ, by God’s grace, we are now freed to live God’s way in God’s world for God’s glory. God’s grace produces this obedience through faith in us. That’s important to recognize for the believer. Every act of obedience in your life is ultimately owing to God’s grace and evidence of God’s saving work in you.

We dare not respond to God’s grace flippantly. That much is clear by the awesome display of God’s glory and majesty at Mount Sinai. The people could not just flippantly come before the LORD on that Holy mountain that day. To do so would cause death. They had to be consecrated––set apart as holy––for God’s purposes according to God’s ways. Only then could they come before Him.

God descending on the mountain was an awesome sight––thunder; lightning; thick cloud; loud trumpet blast; the mountain wrapped in smoke and the LORD descending in fire; the mountain trembling. This was to remind them of His great power and glory and holiness. The LORD is not to be trifled with. He is to be feared and reverenced with great awe. He is an all consuming fire. To reject and rebel against Him would bring swift and terrifying justice. It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God. This set the stage for the provision of God’s law to the people.

God’s Rule

God’s covenant brings the provision of God’s rule. That is, the reality that He will rule over His people. We see that in the provision of the law in Exodus 20-24. Let’s READ Exodus 20:1-21.

Exodus 20:3-17 gives us the Decalogue––commonly known as the Ten Commandments. These are the overarching moral absolutes of how God’s people are to live under His rule and in accordance with His character. There’s basically two divisions to the laws given here. Commandments one through four describe how they were to live and worship in relation to God. Commandments five through ten, being rooted in love for and devotion to God, then describe how they were to relate to one another in just ways.

Generally speaking, everything after that through Exodus 23:19 is an application of the Ten Commandments to particular situations that might arise in their day to day lives. We’ll look at just a few for example so that you can see what I mean:

Commandments 1 to 4 - The worship and reverence of God

Exodus 20:22-26 - construction of and conduct pertaining to an altar of worship.

Exodus 23:13-19 - feasts and festivals of worship to God.

Commandment 5 - “Honor your father and mother.”

Exodus 21:15,17 - striking or cursing your mother and father punishable by death.

Commandment 6 - “You shall not murder.”

Exodus 21:12-14, litigating Murder vs. Manslaughter vs. Accidents

Commandment 8 - “You shall not steal.”

Exodus 22:1-15, restitution in cases of theft or damage to personal property.

Commandment 9 - “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”

Exodus 23:1-3, No slander or lies or conspiring against one another in court of law.

There’s a lot more we could look at of course, but time and our purposes this morning will not permit it. If you go back and read through these passages this afternoon or sometime this week you will notice that all of these laws can be traced back to the moral absolutes given in the Ten Commandments in one way or another. They provide more specific application in particular situations that establish precedence for how they were to live under God’s rule as God’s people in that particular time and place of redemptive history.

Looking at all of this through our wide angle lens, what are we to make of it all? What was the purpose of the law in this context? We’ll note just a few general principles. For one, under God’s rule they were to reflect God’s character in their lives. Our God is a just God. There is no injustice in Him. He always acts rightly in perfect justice. So too, he expected His people to reflect His just character in how they dealt with one another. They were to be just people.

Second, the law was intended to set them apart as distinct from the nations around them. This is particularly evident in some of the laws that seem foreign to our own cultural context. This is how we make sense of certain provisions and prohibitions in the law that relate to particular aspects of their own day and time and culture––the laws pertaining to indentured servitude and treating their slaves well and having provisions for their release; prohibitions against certain cultic practices like “not boiling a young goat in its mother’s milk.”

Third, in living according to God’s ways in God’s world, and particularly as God blessed them for doing so, they were declaring to the nations “Come and see!” The goal is that God’s name would be proclaimed in all the earth to all peoples. The nations were to be able to look at Israel living under God’s rule and say, “surely God is among them and He is a great God worthy to be praised!” It is in this way that Israel was to be a light and blessing to the nations for the glory of God.

So what does all of this mean for us today? Are we as Christians under the law? More specifically, the moral absolutes of the ten commandments and how they would apply in our own day? There’s a sense in which the answer to that is both no and yes. Let’s begin with the clear “no” answer. As Christians we are not under the covenant at Sinai, of which the Ten Commandments were a part. We are under the new covenant in Christ. Paul teaches very clearly in Romans 7, among other places that we are released from the law:

Romans 7:4-6, Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

Moreover, in Romans 10:4 he says, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” Christ fulfilled the law and all of its demands––something none of us can do or could ever do––and He did so for us in our place. Such that His righteousness comes to us through faith, not through works of the law. In Christ, the people of God are released from the law to now serve in the new way of the Spirit. Which, ironically enough, brings us to consider the “yes” answer to how the law applies and is lived out in our lives today as Christians.

God’s law reveals God’s righteous character and remains His authoritative revelation. Such that, though we are no longer under the law and, praise be to God, no longer condemned by the law, we nevertheless can and should receive it as a gift and a guide for how we can better reflect God’s character in our life and worship together. In his own life and ministry, the LORD Jesus clearly taught that the law could be summed up in two commands––love the LORD your God will all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. A perfect summation of the law.

More than that, he expounds upon the Ten Commandments and applies it to life under the new covenant in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 through 7. Let me just offer a challenge to you today. If you’re ever tempted to think you’re not so bad I’d just invite you to read through Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Men, think you’ve never committed adultery? Well, have you ever looked with lustful thought or intent at another woman, not your wife? Think that you’ve never murdered anyone? Ever harbored bad thoughts or anger or ill will toward another person?

Loved ones, God’s law reveals every impure way that has ever been in us and even still remains in us this side of eternity as we wrestle against sin, the flesh, and the devil. But, God’s grace through faith in Christ and His Spirit at work in us enables us to progressively grow in conformity to His character as we live according to His ways revealed in His Word. God’s grace enables us to walk according to God’s demands. Paul puts it this way in Romans 8:3-4:

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

We live in the fulfillment of God’s promise of the New Covenant. The rest of the Old Testament bears witness that Israel did not and could not keep God’s law. For God’s people to be truly obedient from the heart, God would have to write His law on their hearts. That is what He promised through the prophets in Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36. That is exactly what He has done in and through the LORD Jesus Christ. He has given us His Spirit so that we would delight in His ways and walk in His ways all to the praise of His glory.

As we continue on through the passage, God reminds the people of His promise of the land that He is bringing them to in Exodus 23:20-33. God is going to bring judgment upon the nations that currently inhabit the land through Israel’s conquest of the land. And there, as they dwell in the land, they will live in covenant fellowship with Him under His rule. All as a response to His gracious and merciful saving work and fulfillment of His covenant promises. Then, the covenant is enacted. Follow along as I READ Exodus 24:1-8.

Moses is called up to the LORD on the mountain, along with Aaron and his two sons––Nadab and Abihu––as well as seventy of the elders of Israel to worship the LORD. Only Moses would be permitted to draw near. The rest had to do so from afar. Sacrifices were offered on the altar––a peace offering to the LORD. Then, with the blood the covenant was ratified with the people as Moses read the Book of the Covenant to the people, throwing some of the blood on them as they pledged their covenant loyalty to the LORD.

While this may seem strange and perhaps even distasteful to our ears, we mustn’t see it that way. In this shedding of blood and it being put on the people we are reminded that fellowship with God comes at a price. A price that must be paid because of our sin against Him. All sin against God merits death. And the only way we can draw near to a holy God is in that provision of a sacrifice and the cleansing of blood. This, along with all the sacrifices of the Old Covenant point forward to the greater and final sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

We no longer draw near to God through the sacrifice of bulls and goats or any other offerings. The way to God has been opened through the shed blood of Jesus. He is the once for all sacrifice who made a way for us to be reconciled and have peace with God. The wonder of this is that in their pledge of loyalty to the LORD, the people are in effect saying, “if I break this covenant let what happened to this animal happen to me.” And in Christ, that is exactly what God did for us, by taking the punishment of death in our place.

Friends here this morning who are still seeking to live life according to your own ways and merit God’s favor, do you see what God has done for you in Christ? You cannot earn God’s favor. Nor do you even have to try. God has made a way for you to be reconciled to Him through the gracious and merciful provision of His Son. He fulfilled the law and all of its demands for you. He bore the punishment for your disobedience in His death on the cross. He rose again from the grave so that you can, by faith in Him, walk in His ways and enjoy God’s presence.

God’s Presence

That brings us to the final point this morning. God’s covenant brings the provision of God’s presence. That’s what we see in Exodus 25-31. The Tabernacle, both in its instructions and later its construction (Exodus 35-40) take up a significant portion of this latter half of Exodus. For good reason! It is where, and how, God will dwell with His people. God’s presence with His people is the greatest pleasure and provision of covenant fellowship with Him. We delight, above all, in the Giver Himself.

Given that we will have the opportunity to look more closely at the Tabernacle in its construction in Exodus 35-40, we won’t spend long on it here. Again, we want to take a wide angle lens view, especially here. We want to become acquainted with the Tabernacle and its main purpose in the life of Israel under the Old Covenant and the great hope it ultimately points forward to. Follow along as I READ Exodus 25:1-8.

God commanded the people through Moses to bring their contributions for building the Tabernacle. These provisions ultimately came from the LORD, who promised Israel that they would leave Egypt with these very materials given to them from the Egyptians. We saw this happen back in Exodus 12 as they were leaving Egypt. They plundered the Egyptians. Now, that provision would be used for the Tabernacle, where God would dwell with them.

This brings us to the main point of the Tabernacle. This is the culminating reality and purpose behind why God delivered Israel from Egypt in the first place––so that He would dwell with them and they would serve and worship Him. The LORD reiterated this again in Exodus 29:43-46––

“There I will meet with the people of Israel, and it shall be sanctified by my glory. I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar. Aaron also and his sons I will consecrate to serve me as priests. I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them. I am the LORD their God.”

Now, as you read through these chapters, the details and repetition can sadly cause many of our eyes to glaze over. We quickly start to just go through the motions––our eyes passing over the words, but registering very little effect on us or our understanding of what is being revealed herein. What do we want to take away this morning from these chapters? Why all the details? Why such specificity?

There’s a lot that could be said to that, but I’ll just point out what is sadly lost on many in our day. Our God cares about the details. He cares about the details, namely because He is Holy. We must realize that all of these instructions and regulations are God’s provision for His people so that His holiness would not break out against them and destroy them. This makes so little sense to many in our day because we do not regard God's holiness highly enough nor the depth of our sinfulness before Him.

Sinful man cannot come into the presence of God on our own. God must make provision for us to come before Him and not be destroyed by His holiness. Under the Old Covenant, the Tabernacle along with all of its associated practices were that provision. Surveying these chapters, you’ll notice there were three layers to the Tabernacle. You had the outer court, accessible by any ritually clean Israelite according to the law. Then, when you entered the Tabernacle there was the Holy Place, where only the priests could enter.

Beyond that, was the Holy of Holies (the most Holy Place) where only the High Priest could enter once a year on the day of Atonement (Leviticus 16). This is where the ark of the covenant was held, upon which was the mercy seat guarded by two cherubim on each side. This was the throne room of God’s presence. You’ll also notice that, as you journey further into the Tabernacle, the closer items are to the Holy of Holies, the more valuable are the metals of which they are made. All of this communicates the immense weight of God’s glory and holiness.

Now, as those living by faith under the New Covenant, we should read these chapters and marvel at the LORD Jesus Christ all the more. When Christ died on the cross, the curtain was torn and the way into the Holy of Holies was opened so that all who believe in Him may enter into the presence of God. Hebrews 9 says even more about this as we learn that all of this regarding the Tabernacle ultimately points forward to the person and work of Christ. Hebrews 9:11-14––

“But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”

Loved ones, God created us so that we would have fellowship with Him. That He would be our God and we would be His people. He created us to give us Himself. That’s what makes Adam and Eve’s sin so grievous.That’s what makes our sin so grievous. Rather than delight in God, trusting in Him and His ways, they went their own way. So it has been for all the human race since Genesis 3. But God, in His great mercy, has been working to bring us back into His presence.

God created us to serve and worship Him in fellowship with Him. He saved Israel so that they would worship and serve Him in covenant fellowship with Him. So too, He has saved us in Christ to bring us to Himself. That we would enjoy covenant fellowship with Him. Worshiping and serving Him forever all to the praise of His glory. It all began with the Garden of Eden. When paradise was lost, God made gracious provision wherein He could dwell with His people in the Tabernacle and then the Temple. All pointing forward to His ultimate provision in Christ.

Through Christ, God is bringing us back to the garden. He is restoring Eden and expanding it to fill the entire cosmos in the new creation. There, all God’s people redeemed by the blood of the Lamb will live to glorify and worship Him for all eternity. This is our great hope. This is the great longing of our souls in Christ. This great hope that we anticipate is also what animates every aspect of our life and ministry together in Christ this side of eternity.

Conclusion

God gave all of these instructions to Moses. In Exodus 31:18 we read, “And he gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.” He reminded them of His grace. He graciously gave them His law so that they would live as His people under His rule. He gave instructions for the Tabernacle that He might graciously dwell in their midst. He provided all of this through Moses, even as the people were already defying Him. That’s where we’ll turn next week.

What we’ll see next week in the golden calf shows us more of the depth of our sin problem, but even more the extent of God’s grace and mercy. We know this all the more as those who have experienced His grace and mercy in Christ. In light of that glorious reality, loved ones, Live for the glory of God in the blessing of His gracious rule and presence.