Yahweh Invasion

Exodus 34-40; Luke 9:28-32

Who Are You? In 60 Words or Less

A month or so ago I had the wonderful opportunity of updating my Resume. This is a ridiculous document. I want you to tell me who you are, where you want to work, highlight all of your skills, while conveying every responsibility and accomplishment you possibly can lay claim too. You need to come across as confident, but not arrogant, skilled but teachable, and experienced in only the right things.

And, if you can, do it in only one page.

But if you had only a few words to describe yourself, what would they be? Not describe your accomplishments so much, describe your character, your self, your person. You want to convey the heart of who you are. In 60 words or less, a very short paragraph, a few sentences.

Whatever you came up with, I would want to read that. Because what you say, what you chose to say given just a few words… that reveals a ton about who you are.

In our primary passage this week… God does exactly that. We are going to lean in and discover… and then respond too, exactly who is this Yahweh?

The Sermon on the Name

Remember, Moses has pressed into the Presence, three times asking for more: God be with us, teach me your ways, I refuse to go without you, show me your GLORY. And God, three times, says yes. I will be with you, and I will show you my glory.

Moses chisels out two new tablets because God is going to re-scribe the Ten Words on each tablet to replace the ones Moses broke.

He brings them up the mountain.

And then God, Yahweh, reveals himself to Moses. Shows him his glory. And I don’t know what Moses saw… I am sure it was absolutely amazing. God put on the first laser light show, firework display, he somehow conveyed his glory visually and it left Moses’ face glowing!

But we do know what Moses heard. God is going to say just a few words, a brief sermon, and this has been called “A Sermon on the Name.” God’s sermon, Yahweh’s sermon, on his own name. This is an incredible revelation on the character of God. If God could say just a few words about who He is, what would He say? This is it.

So it is simply insufficient for us to fly past this. It isn’t enough for me to explain it. I am going to read it twice, then we are going to do what Moses did. We are going to worship in response. I will read it all twice, in two different translations. Then we will respond piece by piece in worship.

As we worship, feel free to sing or not sing, to listen, but fix your eyes, your mind, your heart on the character of God, the aspect of Yahweh that He reveals. Pastor Rod said way back in Chapter 3 of Exodus, when God reveals his name: Yahweh, which means something like “I AM.” It is the beginning of a sentence, but it is open-ended. I AM… what? God says a few words about What and Who He is.

He hides Moses in the cleft of the rock, hand over Him, protecting Him, and He is going to pass in front of Moses:

Exodus 34:5-10

5 Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord. 6 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”

MSG

God descended in the cloud and took up his position there beside him and called out the name, God. God passed in front of him and called out, “God, God, a God of mercy and grace, endlessly patient—so much love, so deeply true—loyal in love for a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. Still, he doesn’t ignore sin. He holds sons and grandsons responsible for a father’s sins to the third and even fourth generation.”

God of mercy and grace

Yahweh, Yahweh… the very first thing… he is compassionate and gracious. God of mercy and grace. The very first thing about God. He doesn’t give us what we deserve: that is mercy. I have made mistakes. The very first thing about God… He has compassion on me. He shows me mercy. And then, beyond sparing me from what I deserve, He gives me more on top of that. Presence and life and forgiveness and love. Grace. Amazing, God of mercy and grace.

Amazing Grace - Music

Endlessly patient

God gives us that mercy and grace… and He gives it again and again and again. He is “endlessly patient”. He is slow to anger. That I may approach Him in my brokenness time after time, year after year. I come with new hurts and same old patterns. But He again, in His endless patience, He meets with that mercy and grace.

You Are For Me – Kari Jobe - Video

Abounding in covenant love

Where does that mercy and grace come from? How can God be so patient. Because He loves me. Because He loves you. He is “abounding in love, loyal in love for a thousand generations.” His love never fails, but goes on and on and on.

One Thing Remains

Forgiving iniquity, rebellion and sin

How does all that apply to me? God of mercy and grace. God of endless patience. God abounding in covenant love. What happens when that meets me and my brokenness, my sin, my failure, my betrayal, my regrets, my mistake?

God answers, out of His character, part of His person, and He puts this one first. He forgives. Yahweh forgives. The I AM says I AM… a forgiver. I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin… the same thing three ways. That isn’t just a New Testament surprise, that was in God’s character all along, out of his covenant love.

Yahweh forgives me.

Forgiveness by Sanctus Real

God of Justice

God forgives… but He doesn’t forget what sin is. Generation after generation, even when culture and society redefines what they think sin is. That, I think, is what it means when God says He visits sins of the Fathers upon the generations. The Fathers pass down their patterns of behavior, and the Sons grow up thinking this is fine, and their sons repeat the habits and patterns… but it never stops being sin. And God, because He is full of grace and mercy, because He is faithful in love, even as He is forgiver: He is God of Justice. Justice in fact, is an outcome, an outpouring of God’s character.

And as we grow in His love, grace and mercy, we reflect His character. And His Justice is the shaping hand of the Potter, teaching us Righteousness.

Sovereign

Moses’ Response

Once again, Moses the broken record, Moses the brilliant disciple of Yahweh, Moses who so desired, ever desired, always desires God’s nearest Presence. He asks again: God move in.

8 Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped. 9 “Lord,” he said, “if I have found favor in your eyes, then let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as your inheritance.”

And God moves in. The moving plans are back on.

10 Then the Lord said: “I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the Lord, will do for you.

The next six chapters are God’s moving in. All the instructions regarding the ark of the covenant, repeated as Bezalel crafts it. All the instructions regarding the Tabernacle, the altar of incense, the lampstand, the table, the altar of burnt offering, the basin for washing, the courtyard, the priestly garments: all done, all detailed just as Yahweh commanded.

And then, officially, like Yahweh put down His deposit on the apartment and got His key. It is official. Yahweh moves in.

Exodus 40:33-38

33 Then Moses set up the courtyard around the tabernacle and altar and put up the curtain at the entrance to the courtyard. And so Moses finished the work.

34 Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 35 Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

36 In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out; 37 but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out—until the day it lifted. 38 So the cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the Israelites during all their travels.

God is with them. God is in their midst. Yahweh invaded.

This is Exodus. God led His people out of Egypt with a purpose. And His purpose? To move in. To covenant with His people, to get closer, to move nearer, to move in.

Isn’t that consistent with His revealed character? His revealed person? God of mercy and grace. God of endless patience. God of covenant love, loyal love. God of forgiveness. God of Justice. Moving ever closer to be with His people.

Moses’ Greatest Vision of Glory

What a privilege to be alive in those moments. But again and again we have said, I have said, that they were only seeing the shadow, and we are living in the fulfillment of so much they only barely glimpsed.

Moses sees God’s glory, the Yahweh Invasion.

Moses hears this beautiful revelation of who God is. Of His person. Of His character. Of His love and grace and forgiveness and all these things. Moses sees something amazing, something barely survivable.

But this is not the greatest revelation of God’s glory that Moses saw.

And He sees Yahweh’s Invasion in the symbols of the Tabernacle and Ark, the Altars, the sacrifices, the Priesthood, all of these…

But these are not the greatest revelation of God’s glory that Moses saw.

Moses pressed into the presence… and we know God liked Moses. God knew Him by name. So God gave Moses a special gift. Even better than passing before Him in glory and telling Him so much about Himself.

There may be other reasons why this next bit happened, but I think at least part of it was to give Moses a fuller answer to His prayer. Teach me your ways, be with me, show me your glory.

God says, I will tell you a bit now.

And then, after Moses lives out His life, God picks Him up across space and time. How God did this exactly is a super interesting question, touching on the state of the dead, and awareness after death and pre-resurrection and all of that.

But this is what happened. God brought Moses and one other guy to see, to meet, Yahweh incarnate.

Luke 9:28-32

28 About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. 29 As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. 30 Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. 31 They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. 32 Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him.

How I wish we had this last bit from Moses’ perspective.

Moses died in sight of the Promised Land. And maybe he closed his eyes, exhausted from a lifetime of serving God to the best of His ability, certainly an exhausting final 40 years herding Israelite cats in the desert. Maybe he thought back on that incredible mountain-top experience 40 years ago on Mount Sinai where He saw the back of God’s glory and heard God’s words.

He closed his eyes. And died.

And then his eyes were open, and he was on a mountain top. In the Promised Land. And He was in glorious splendor, another man beside him, but before him… Yahweh in the flesh. The Son of God. Jesus. Yeshua, Yahweh’s salvation. God’s glory. And Moses spoke with Jesus, spoke with God, face to face, as a friend. They spoke about his departure, what he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem.

I imagine, just maybe, Jesus said something like this.

Moses, I am the word, the revelation of God. So when God spoke on the mountain, that was me, the Logos.

When I said I was mercy and grace, that is what I going to fulfill. When I said I was patient? Now it is time. When I said I would forgive? This is what forgiveness costs. When I said I was Justice? This is what Justice requires.

Invite the Deacons forward

And following that revelation, following the unveiling, the transfiguration of Jesus. In the next week, Jesus sat in a room with his disciples, and he echoed the words of Yahweh on Mount Sinai.

I make a covenant with you.

A new covenant I make with you. And today, we remember that Covenant as we take Communion together. If you have put your faith in Jesus, please celebrate and remember with us.