Exodus: Final Lessons (Part 2)
Notes
Transcript
Last Week
Last Week
Last week we started our first of two sermons wrapping up our time in Exodus. I wanted to just take a few weeks covering some of the key themes from Exodus and as we mentioned last week those primary themes were themes about God because any book of the Bible is first and foremost a book about God.
Last week, we traced the threads through Exodus that shows us Our God is a Deliverer and Our God is Sovereign
This week we turn our attention to two more themes that run through the text and find shadows of these themes in the very last chapter.
Sermon Text
Sermon Text
34 Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 35 And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud 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 people of Israel would set out. 37 But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up. 38 For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.
It’s only fitting that the last word we get from Exodus is about the glory of the Lord covering the tent of meeting and filling the tabernacle.
As we discussed a few weeks ago, the glory of Lord is the perfect and divine communication of all of his other attributes. Not just holy but exceedingly, excellently, and perfectly holy…Not just loving but exceedingly, excellently, and perfectly
However, it is also fitting that this is the last word we receive on Exodus because easily one of the most memorable moments in Exodus is the moment where Moses says “Please show me your glory”
This morning as we close our time in Exodus with another sermon on lessons learned. I want to key in on the lessons that we find in God’s glory since it is His glory that serves as the final picture we have in this book.
English Standard Version Chapter 33
18 Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” 19 And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The LORD.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.
I want to unpack two final lessons from Exodus in this text...
God’s Righteousness
God’s Grace
Our God is Righteous
Our God is Righteous
In describing His glory in Chapter 33, God substitutes Moses appeal for glory with a commitment to show Him His goodness. In other words, part of the display of glory is a display of righteousness perfected...
Throughout our journey through Exodus, we’ve been able to establish that the God of Israel, OUR GOD is a GOD OF Righteousness.
It is probably only a few months after Israel is delivered from Egypt by God to worship God that Israel is given a law by which they are to serve God with.
What are we to make of this? The fact that God gives them a law practically immediately upon their deliverance?
1. It means that He is exceedingly good and does exceedingly good.
His law reflects his own righteousness. His own perfection. His own goodness.
But it also highlights another very important point.
2. God calls His people to walk in righteousness as well.
In Exodus 20 God unveils the Ten to Israel
Later on Jesus, Jesus teaches us that laws are not to be outwardly lived out but inwardly:
If you hate you brother, you’ve already committed murder...
If you lust after a woman, you’ve already committed adultery.
Jesus would also teach us later on that all of the commandments could summarize in two:
Love God with everything
Love Your Neighbor like You Love You
But before we hear any of these laws in Exodus 20, we get this opening statement that is critical to the whole passage: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”
It’s important for us to pay attention to that and understand where God’s giving of the Law begins:
I REIGN SOVEREIGNLY over everything including you.
I DELIVERED YOU out of the house of slavery.
NOW I’m calling you to a new standard of righteousness. I’m calling you to live like you’ve been freed by a sovereign and righteous God...
God in making a people His own does not do so without CALLING that people to His righteousness.
God just doesn’t remove Israel from Egypt. His plan is to also remove Egypt from Israel.
Meaning that FOUNDATIONAL to His delivering of Israel from the bondage of Egypt was His giving Israel a new standard by which to live by.
in Deuteronomy, Israel is preparing to cross the river Jordan and Moses is sharing His final messages with them. One of those messages we receive in Deuteronomy Chapter 10.
English Standard Version (Chapter 10)
12 “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I am commanding you today for your good? 14 Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. 15 Yet the LORD set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. 16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. 17 For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. 18 He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. 19 Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. 20 You shall fear the LORD your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear. 21 He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen. 22 Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons, and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.
Again, you hear that defining of who God is become a sort of call to who we are supposed to be.
Verse 14-16 God is SOVEREIGN in the HEAVENS. He has mercifully set His love on you. THEREFORE CIRCUMCISE YOUR HEART and no longer be stubborn...
Verse 17-18 God is above all other gods; He judges fairly and impartially, and He executes justice for the overlooked in our world: the fatherless, the orphan, the sojourner/immigrant/refugee
THEREFORE, Love the sojourner. FEAR and REVERENCE God, SERVE and HOLD FAST to God.
In other words I want you to look like me…In order that you might be able to reflect me to the world and one of the clearest ways in which you are going to reflect me to the world is by living according to my standards.
ILLUSTRATION: God’s desire for us to reflect His goodness should not be at all shocking to us…Especially if you ever thought about mentoring or parenting.
Any good parent yearns to teach their children some small understanding of what goodness is and to hopefully and prayerfully shape their children with that goodness in order that they may grow up to reflect that goodness in the world.
In fact when you think about it, to pursue true goodness is to also desire to see it reflected in the world around you.
If any parent said to you “Yes I pursue goodness, but I don’t care if my children pursue goodness”, you probably would respond…”I’m not sure you understand the idea of pursuing goodness…because part of doing good is training and calling others to do good.
So it is with God. Because He’s good, He desires for us to do good which is why He so quickly calls Israel to righteousness...
Another thing to remember about God’s standard of righteousness is that it goes beyond personal and individual to a corporate righteousness. In other words, much of the call to do righteousness is a call to do righteousness TOWARDS others.
God’s righteousness is also without question a call to individual and personal righteousness:
For example, you see in numerous places in Scripture a call away from cultural sexual ethics where I am able to define any sexual emotion that I feel is right and good. We see whole sections of Scripture…places like Deuteronomy 22:13-30 and Leviticus 18 that calls us to wrestle with any sexual desires that exist outside of a covenant marriage between a man and woman. That standard is not given to the Christian as a club to beat anyone over the head with and mistreat and/or devalue those who wrestle with desires outside of that covenant or even those who do not agree with our conviction.
But it is given as a reminder that God is DIFFERENT and thus the goodness and righteousness that He calls us to will look different...even different to the point that it cuts against what we desire and how we feel even in our core.
So YES, God’s righteousness is individual and personal.
But notice the ten commandments…more than half of it is dedicated to how we treat others…
Do not bear false witness or don’t lie on others especially when you’ve been given power to effect their livelihood.
Do not kill others
Do not steal from others
And also notice some of God’s greatest judgments against a nation come not just simply after a nation falls short of pursuing God’s righteousness at a individual level…drunkeness, sexual sin, using bad words, but it comes when that nation falls short of pursuing God’s righteousness at a corporate level.
21 How the faithful city has become a whore, she who was full of justice! Righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers. 22 Your silver has become dross, your best wine mixed with water. 23 Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not bring justice to the fatherless, and the widow’s cause does not come to them. 24 Therefore the Lord declares, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel: “Ah, I will get relief from my enemies and avenge myself on my foes. 25 I will turn my hand against you and will smelt away your dross as with lye and remove all your alloy. 26 And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city.”
Your leaders steal and a friends with others who steal.
Bribery and greed is wide spread while the orphan and widow’s needs go neglected.
Therefore, judgment is coming
We see a similar thing in Amos 8:
4 Hear this, you who trample on the needy and bring the poor of the land to an end, 5 saying, “When will the new moon be over, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may offer wheat for sale, that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great and deal deceitfully with false balances, 6 that we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals and sell the chaff of the wheat?” 7 The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: “Surely I will never forget any of their deeds. 8 Shall not the land tremble on this account, and everyone mourn who dwells in it, and all of it rise like the Nile, and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?” 9 “And on that day,” declares the Lord God, “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. 10 I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on every waist and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day.
You trample on the needy and offer no relief.
You look for every opportunity to exploit and capitalize on opportunities for more wealth even when you’re supposed to be ensuring rest for those who have less than you.
You mess with the value of money in order to maximize your profits and in order to keep the poor under your thumb
To that God says I WILL NOT FORGET!!!!
Why because to God the lack of regard for corporate justice among his people is not a trivial matter.
Rather the absence of regard for justice for the least among His people is seen as a lack of righteousness.
This great call to righteousness is not only for OT believers either.
Paul tells Timothy on multiple occasions to PURSUE RIGHTEOUSNESS:
10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. 11 But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.
21 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work. 22 So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
Jesus declared in His sermon on the mount:
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Jesus even tells us in that same chapter:
20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Brothers and Sisters because our God is good, we should pursue goodness.
Because our God is righteous, we should pursue righteousness...
Because our God is holy, we should pursue holiness...
All of these are not popular concepts in our day and culture but we have not been delivered for popularity. We have been delivered for worship.
WE BELONG TO GOD! AND SO WE ARE CALLED TO REFLECT WHO HE IS IN THE WORLD...
BUT BUT BUT
You and I both know we will never do this perfectly. Our reflection is infinitely foggy and wholly insufficient…Even the prophet Isaiah tells us
They are filthy because even on our best days and even with our best deeds our allegiance to God is still tinted with sin.
Paul summarizes our dilemma in Romans 3
English Standard Version Chapter 3
“None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
13 “Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 in their paths are ruin and misery,
17 and the way of peace they have not known.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
So what do we do???
We turn to God’s mercy...
God is Merciful
God is Merciful
Back to our passage on God’s glory…Exodus 33
When Moses asks for glory, God’s says I’m going to show you my goodness...
But also when Moses asks for glory God says this in verse 19
Exodus 33:19 (ESV)
19 …I will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.
In other words, my glory is not only tied to my goodness perfected
My glory is tied to my mercy perfected...
We see this run all throughout Scripture with Israel.
Israel shows themselves over and over again to be unrighteous despite the call to be righteous and God shows himself over and over again to be merciful
One such place in which we see it is in Deuteronomy 9
1 “Hear, O Israel: you are to cross over the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than you, cities great and fortified up to heaven, 2 a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the sons of Anak?’ 3 Know therefore today that he who goes over before you as a consuming fire is the Lord your God. He will destroy them and subdue them before you. So you shall drive them out and make them perish quickly, as the Lord has promised you. 4 “Do not say in your heart, after the Lord your God has thrust them out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,’ whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out before you. 5 Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 6 “Know, therefore, that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people.
Not your righteousness…my righteousnsess...
In fact, God asks for Israel to pursue righteousness again despite their failures...
13 “And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14 he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil.
Pursue Righteousness and at the same time never lose sight that it is not your Righteousness that is getting you through...
It’s not your righteousness that has brought you this far…it is God’s grace and
21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
Now, Christians understand that He primarily does this through Christ Jesus since we ourselves are never able to measure up to the Holy and Righteous standards that He has set.
After all, He is sinless and we are sinful NO matter how much effort we place in pursuing His righteousness.
This is the reason for God sending Christ Jesus, He arrived on Earth perfectly, lived perfectly and then takes our place in judgement by dying on the cross for our sins in order to fulfill the righteousness requirement of that this Righteous and Holy God requires.
In Christ we are given the righteousness that God requires of us and we receive it by believing in Him as Lord and Savior