Sermon Tone Analysis

My Mum

Today, I will have to make do with just a phone call from my mum.

That’s because my parents have driven off into the sunset, caravan in tow, and doing whatever it is that grey nomads do!

As I reflect on my mum however, I recognise that a lot of who I am, is a result of who she is.

Many, if not most, of her values rubbed off on me over the years.

It’s a natural thing that happens with most mother-child relationships.

It not that mum’s sit down and explain the values, although at times this will happen.

But more often it is the sometimes subtle, sometimes not-so-subtle correcting of behaviour.

Of course, father’s have a huge role to play in this regard as well, but generally speaking, mothers have a nurturing role, which while not more important than the fathers role, but yet has a distinct place.

From my own childhood, I remember those times when the world was just too confusing, and when everything seemed to fall in a hole and I was reduced to tears, it was my mother who would put her arms around me and just be with me.

Somehow, even with not many words, the world seemed to become less confusing.

Through her nurture, I started to see the world through her eyes.

Now, I probably paint this picture through rose-coloured glasses - there were certainly times we didn’t see things eye-to-eye.

But certainly my mother was very influential in shaping who I am today.

Seeing God through parents

Now I recognise that not all of you had the privilege of having nurturing parents.

All too often, sin gets in the way and spoils the special relationship that God has given us.

And I believe that God has designed parents in this way.

You see, the parent - child relationship, imperfect as it is, reflects the relationship between God and us.

And so by looking at that inbuilt love a parent has for a child, we can begin to see God’s love for us.

If I just briefly go off on a small tangent and look at the ten commandments.

What you find is that the first four commandments relate to our relationship to God.

The last five relate to our relationship with other people.

But in the middle of it all - the fifth commandment is to honour your father and mother.

I’m not going to get into detail of it now, other than to suggest that I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the fifth commandment sits in the middle.

It is our parents that are to be the bridge of how we understand God and how we relate to others.

And so today, my plan is to take that idea of finding your identity in your mother, (or more broadly your parents), and see how in the same sort of way, we find our identity with God.

Actually, this is the beautiful thing.

You see, even if your experience with your parents was a bad one, in the Bible, you are still know what a good father is.

In fact, you’ll find a parent that far and away exceeds the best of our parents!

Exodus 19

Well, if you were here last week, I took you on a very quick tour of the entire Bible.

I never stopped anywhere for long, but rather my intention was to show God’s heart and his subsequent mission that flows throughout the entire book.

Today, I still want us to keep that whole flow of scripture in mind, but my intention is to narrow in on a particular part of scripture that I will explore while seeing how it fits into the whole thing.

So let’s look at this particular passage.

The context

Well, let’s first get the context of the passage.

Some of the detail of the context is going to come out as we explore the passage, but to place you in the right place, we find Moses arriving with the nation of Israel at the foot of Mount Sinai, where Moses is very shortly to receive the Ten Commandments.

This is a very significant point in time, because it is at this point that God most clearly articulates what he expects from his people.

But let’s take a step back and see where this fits in the bigger picture.

Last week I spoke about the importance of Abraham in whom God makes a very special promise - a promise that will ultimately affect all people from all nations.

This promise comes after sin has made a good mess of God’s good creation.

It was a promise that essentially has God saying - despite the humanity turning their backs on God, he will nevertheless bless them again.

It was a blessing they didn’t deserve, but a blessing he wanted to make, and in the process revealed how his heart for the world never changed from the day he first created it.

Now while this process has an end point, there is a long journey that takes place - a journey that helps forms the people he has chosen.

And so, while the promise started with Abraham, it was a few generations later that many of the things promised started to take shape.

I won’t track the whole thing, because I did that last week, but eventually his descendants became a nation, but they found themselves as slaves in Egypt before they were freed in very dramatic circumstances.

These circumstances will be referenced in our passage for this morning.

But with this freedom, they needed formation, and so we see various ways in which God forms this nation to be his chosen people.

Part of this formation involved facing some tough times where they had to rely solely on God for their provisions.

But

But then we come to chapter 19 where this formation takes on a new dimension.

The past perspective

Now as we dig into this passage now, what I want to show you is a special way God works.

He does three things, each leading onto the next.

First, he shows us what He has already done (that is, the past).

Then he shows us what He is going to do (that is, the future).

And only after that, does he lay out his expectation for us.

It is verse 4 that God directly talks about what has just happened, but even in verse 3 when he frames what he is about to say, he is already reminding us of the promise.

You see, he frames his words by saying: “This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob”

You see, right there, God is reminding them of that original promise made to Abraham and then repeated through Jacob.

You see, the very fact they are a nation at all is only because of the goodness of God.

But God continues, saying in verse 4: “You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles wings and brought you to myself”.

This is a direct reference to what they have just been through.

You see, going back to when they were still slaves in Egypt, God had created the 10 plagues - perfectly timed to show Pharaoh who was in control.

He then led them with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

He had led them to the Red Sea, which at first seemed like a stupid thing, but in God’s wisdom it was perfect, because as they miraculously crossed the parted water, they also managed to trap the incoming Egyptian army.

God had then provided for them when they had no water by drawing water from a rock.

He provided for them when they had no food by providing Manna from heaven.

And when they wanted meat, he provided Quail.

God saves first

Now there is something really important to note in all of this.

You see, last week I alluded to the poor interpretation that somehow considers the Old Testament as God’s plan A which failed and hence why plan B was needed.

I talked last week about why that was a poor interpretation.

But wrapped up in that interpretation is the understanding that the Old Testament was all works based.

That is, God would only bless them if they did the right thing.

The reality couldn’t be further from the truth.

And we can see that right here.

You see, coming out of Egypt was them being saved, and this happened before they were given the law.

This happens time and time again in the Old Testament.

God saves his people, and only then does he say: right, this is now how I want you to behave.

Now don’t get me wrong.

You will find times in the Old Testament where they spell out rewards for good behaviour and punishment for bad behaviour.

That is true, but even though this exists, it is still clear that the reason God wants them to act the way they do is based purely on what God has done first.

If I bring this back to the child - parent relationship, we see a similar thing.

You see, though there are clear consequences for good or bad behaviour, the reality is, (at least in very general terms) a childs overall behaviour will actually correspond to their parents behaviour.

A child will be kind to others if they see their parents being kind to others.

Future perspective

So we have God first instructing Moses to remind them of the saving work God has already done - but he also gives them a glimpse of where this is headed.

We see this in the second half of verse 5.

They are promised that they will be a treasured possession - that of course written in the future tense.

You could say in one regard that they already were God’s treasured possession, but God is suggesting that there is more to come - something which I suspect they didn’t quite fully appreciate at this point.

In fact, to be honest, I don’t think anyone fully appreciated this until Jesus comes and truly shows what it means to be made God’s treasured possession.

God may have already done something really special for them, but there is more to come.

Present task

Now earlier I spoke about the poor interpretations of the Old Testament we have, speaking of the error of thinking that God introduced a works based system.

But another error we often make is to think that in this Old Testament time, God only cared about the Israelites.

But then between understanding the past work of God in their lives and having a glimpse of what is to come, God outlines the expectation of what they are to be.

Now in one sense, this passage almost seems to confirm such a position, after all, it even explicitly states that out of all the nations, they are to be the treasured possession.

Interestingly, what I want to show is that this expectation is actually tied to God’s mission.