02 The King Claims His People

Krisan Marotta: Good morning. This is Krisan Marotta, welcoming you to Wednesday in the Word, my podcast about what the Bible means and how we know. Today we'll be listening to a talk given by Dr. Erica Moore titled The King Claims His People. Dr. Moore is a professor of Old Testament and Hebrew at Trinity School for Ministry. This is the second in a series of three talks that she gave at the Women in the Word 2013 workshop, which is a Ministry of World Reform Fellowship, and I'll put a link to their website in my lecture notes. I'm grateful to republish Dr. Moore's talk here. She is one of my favorite teachers on the Old Testament, especially if she's speaking on Ezekiel. I have a link to more of her work on my website, wednesdayintheword.com, and you can also find her on TSM, that's Trinity School of Ministry, TSM.edu. Thanks for listening. Speaker 1: Thinking for a few minutes about what we talked about in the first session today. So when we read the Pentateuch, we're reading our history, and we're reading a narrative that can enable us to interpret both history, our present, and the future. So then we talked a little about, well, what is the Pentateuch? And we said that the Pentateuch is a word used to talk about those first five books of the Bible. And we said that it was a gift. And we said it was a gift that is profitable for doctrine, for rebuking, for correction, and training in righteousness, because it's the opnustos, it's God breathe, according to 2 Timothy 3, 16. And then we unpack that gift a little. We said it was prophetic, that it pointed to something greater than itself. We looked at the end of each book, that there's this sustained movement in the Pentateuch, that this anticipation of something more. And at the end of the Pentateuch, at the end of Deuteronomy, Moses dies, and there's this note that since Moses, no prophet has arisen in Israel like Moses, who did the things he did and who talked with God as he did. So the book ends on, the whole five-volume book ends on this note of anticipation. We said that the Pentateuch, in addition to being prophetic, was covenantal. It's about God's relationship with his people. So there's God's relationship, there's his faithfulness, the people's unfaithfulness, there's blessing, there's curses. We said that the Pentateuch was historical. And we talked a little about that, and we're going to talk about that again in a few moments. And we have talked about the issue of genre and why it's important to identify the type of literature you're reading when you're reading a text of scripture so that we read it correctly. And again, that's something we do every day, but when we come to scripture, we're going to bump up against some types of literature that we're not familiar with. So we need to develop a reading strategy. And we concede nothing to those folks who are critical of Scripture when we read a passage the way it's meant to be read. So we looked a little how that sustained movement in the Pentateuch from Genesis with God. We said the book, the Bible opens with God is king, he's creator, and Eden is his kingdom. But Adam and Eve seek to be autonomous, and then the rest of Scripture is God re-establishing his kingdom, where the seed of the woman will defeat the seed of the serpent. And we talked about how that there's that same word in both parts of that passage that indicates that in the triumph of the kingdom of God, it will come by suffering. And then we looked, we said we jumped over to Exodus because that's what we're going to do this evening. We talked about Leviticus being about the Israelites are in God is in their midst. Well, how do you live in the midst of a holy God? Leviticus is the answer. And we said the book of Numbers, the Israelites start out strong, first ten chapters, the army of God is on the move. Just like in the ancient Near East, the king's tent is in the middle, and we blow the trumpets, we're ready to go, and then unfortunately there's chapter 11. And this great army of God has been reduced to a sniveling mob of complaining people. And then the rest of Numbers is basically about the 40-year wanderings. Where does the book of Numbers end? Again, this sustainment, this movement towards something that's anticipated. Numbers ends with the second generation, plus Joshua and Caleb, perched on the plains of Moab, about to enter the land of promise. And then Deuteronomy, Moses' swan song, three talks, three sermons of Moses, in which he's preparing that second generation for entering into the land. So there's that constant reflane. Keep these commandments when you're in the land, when you're in the land. We talked about the theme. If you needed to distill the theme of the Pentateuch into one word, I think promise is as good as any. But with the idea of promise, there's that incompleteness that we noted. And then we talked about the purpose or function of the Pentateuch, to teach us a life of faith, a life of dependence on God. So today we want to kind of, or this evening, come down from our bird's eye view and dip in more to the book of Exodus. So please turn with me to Exodus chapter 1. Exodus chapter 1. Now, it's interesting, and I noted this on your outline, Exodus 1.1 begins with these are the names, and that's the title of the book in Hebrew, of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family. And verse 5 tells us that there were 70 in all. Well, what's interesting is, remember I said it's best to talk about the Pentateuch as a five-fold book rather than five books that have nothing to do with each other. Exodus doesn't pick up exactly where Genesis left off, but the narrative tape is rewound. Go back to Exodus chapter 46, and I'm reading at verse 8. These are the names of the sons of Israel, Jacob and his descendants, who went into Egypt. Same thing that we just read in Exodus 1.1. And then if you look at verse 27 of Genesis 46, it tells us once again that the number was 70 in all. So Exodus is taking us back to that family of 70 that is in Egypt, okay, where the Israelites go down. You know the story that how Joseph becomes second in charge, and they enjoy privilege as being part of Joseph's family. But when Exodus opens, we have these 70 people and they've grown to this great, great, great multitude. But something's happened in these about 400 years of silence. Their sojourn has become captivity, and their privilege has become enslavement because there's a Pharaoh who didn't know about Joseph. I don't think it means he got a C in Egyptian history. I think it means that he chose not to acknowledge all that Joseph had done in previous times. And notice we talked about how in the ancient Near East, one of the jobs of a king is to create order out of chaos. Okay? And we said God does that at creation. Well, there's some creation language here in Exodus chapter 1. I'm looking at verse 6. Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, but the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied and became exceedingly numerous so that the land was filled with them. Now there's a lot of repetition there, okay? They were fruitful. If you don't know what that means, it means they multiplied greatly. If you're still a little dense, they became exceedingly numerous. The land was filled with them. What the Lord repeats, he does for emphasis. There's a reason for it. And what was the command given to Adam and Eve? Be fruitful and multiply, fill the whole earth. There's also some echoes of that great covenant that God made with Abraham in Genesis chapter 12. Remember, I'm going to make you a great family and a great nation, and out of you all the nations of the earth will be blessed. Listen to a couple passages that I'm going to read. The first is Genesis 13, verse 16. I will make your offspring, and the Lord's talking to Abram here, I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. Again, God talking to Abram in verse chapter 15, verse 5. He took him outside and said, Look up at the heavens and count the stars. If indeed you can count them, so shall your offspring be. As we mentioned this afternoon, Rich Mullen's song. And when I think of Abraham, how one of those stars that God was pointing out to him was lit for me. It's an amazing picture there. And 17, chapter chapter 17, verse 2 of Genesis, I will confirm my covenant between me and you, and will greatly increase your numbers. So here at the beginning of Exodus, that family of 70 that was in Egypt has grown to this great vast multitude. We see God is going to create out of Abram's family this nation. And we see God being faithful to his covenant promises. You remember we talked about some of the problems facing the covenant promises in Genesis. And we said one was infertility, right? Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel. Well, what's the problem now? It's super fertility, right? The Israelites have become this vast multitude, and Pharaoh is not at all happy with this. Okay? Now I've given you a broad outline there of the book of Exodus. I've given you two outlines. One way to think about the book is the first 13 and a half chapters talk about Israel and Egypt. Then the second half of chapter 13 through the end of 18 is Israel's wilderness journey. Now that's not the 40-year wilderness wandering. That's just the three-month journey from escaping Egypt till they get to Mount Sinai. And then chapter 19 to all the way to the end of chapter 40, Israel is at Sinai. And we said earlier today, they're at Sinai from Exodus 19 till the end of 40. They're in Sinai all through the book of Leviticus, and they're at Sinai all the way till Numbers 10, verses 11 and 12. 59 chapters of Scripture devoted to the Israelites' stay at Sinai. So that's one way to understand where you're at when you're reading a passage in Exodus, or an alternative outline that focuses more on the content is the first 18 chapters. Yahweh saves Israel from Egyptian bondage. The king rescues his people. Then 19 till the end of 24, the king gives his law to his people. How are you going to live in God's kingdom? Well, he tells the Israelites how. And then Exodus 25 to the end of chapter 40, he commands Israel to build the tabernacle. A lot of chapters there, 25 to 31, and then 35 to 40, all focused on the tabernacle. Our Lord takes worship seriously, and he doesn't leave it to the whim of the Israelites or to them patterning worship around what they've seen in Egypt. He will tell them exactly how they are to worship. And the the why did what what about chapters 32 to 34? The golden calf incident. We know what happens when worship is left up to Israel themselves. Now, before we get into the book, I want to talk about an interpretive principle. I'd like you to just take 10, 15 seconds, skim over Exodus 1, and who can tell me who is the name of this Pharaoh who doesn't know who Joseph is? So just skim through chapter one. Anybody? We don't know. We don't know who the great Pharaoh is who was in charge when God redeemed Israel. Can anybody tell me whose names we do know? Whose? The midwives. Right? You look at verse 15. The king of Egypt, whoever he is, said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shipra and Puah. What's the point? We talked earlier today that the Pentateuch is history. And we said that a lot of people are offended as to what gets included in the history of the Bible and what gets excluded. We don't know the name of the Pharaoh. Is it Tut III? Is it Ramses II? Well, we could spend a midnight talking about that. We don't know who the Pharaoh was, but we know the names of the midwives. What we have here is history, but it's theologically informed history, okay, which is very important to remember. We don't need to know the name of the Pharaoh, okay? The seed of the woman will destroy the seed of the serpent, and all we need to know is that Pharaoh is of the seed of the serpent. His name isn't important to us. But we have the names of Shipra and Pua. And we don't have their names, but we read of three other women, along with these two faithful wit midwives, who defeat the mighty Pharaoh of Egypt, Moses' mother. What does she do? She puts him in a basket and sends him down the Nile. And what was the Nile for Pharaoh? Well, look at verse 22. Pharaoh gave this order to all his people every boy that's born, you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live. So the very means that Pharaoh meant for destruction is used by God to save Moses, the leader who will lead his people out of Israel. The seed of the woman will defeat the seed of the serpent. So when you're reading scripture, there said there may be a lot of things that we'd like to know. Who is this, who's that? But we want to remember the Bible we have is the Bible that God wants us to have. Okay? And we may have curious questions, but we'll need to just leave them aside and deal with what the Lord has given us. So we've mentioned three main parts of Exodus that we want to talk about in relationship to kingship salvation and redemption. God redeems his people from Egypt, the covenant and the establishment of the law at Mount Sinai, and thirdly, worship in the tabernacle. So let's look at the plagues first. We all know the story. Moses' mother puts Moses in a basket, Pharaoh's daughter finds him. So Moses ends up getting one of the finest educations in Egypt. But he has to leave Egypt, right, because he kills an Egyptian who he sees mistreating a Hebrew slave. He goes to Midian and spends quite a bit of time there tending sheep. The Lord comes to him while he's tending sheep. And Moses would rather not do what the Lord has called him to do. He gives all these sorts of excuses. Okay? It's very interesting. Let's look at 3, verse 11. The Lord comes to Moses in the bush that's not burning and tells him that I want you to deliver my people. And in verse 11, Moses says to God, Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? Moses is not asking for information there. He's giving the Lord a little information. I am not the one to go. And notice what the Lord doesn't say. The Lord doesn't say, Well, why do you think I gave you the finest education in Egypt? Why do you think X, Y, and Z? What's the answer? God said, I will be with you. Okay? And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you. When you've brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain. Well, what mountain is this? It's Mount Sinai. Where are they going to be in a couple chapters? Right? We have a faithful king. unknown: Okay. Speaker 1: So Moses goes, we know the story. And we get to the various plagues in Exodus. What's the function of these plagues? We'll turn over to Exodus 5, verse 2. And we'll start at verse 1. Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh and say, This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says, let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the desert. Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go. Okay? So one of the functions of the plagues is to emphasize who the Lord is. Okay? Look at look at seven, or let's look at seven verse five. Why are the plagues? The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it. So one of the purposes is so that all may know that the Lord is God, that they will acquire true knowledge of Israel's king. I think the plagues also serve as a polemic against the gods of Egypt. Okay? Look at chapter 12, verse 12. On that same night, I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn, both men and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. So it function the plagues function as a polemic against Pharaoh, who in his arrogance asks, Who is this Lord? And they also function as a polemic against the various gods that the Egyptians had worshipped. For example, the Nile was worshipped by the Egyptians. Well, how powerful is it if the Lord can turn it to blood? The plague on the livestock. Well, the Egyptians worshiped the bull gods Apis, Nemes, and Khnum. In Egyptian religion, the frog was the symbol of the goddess Hecte, who was depicted as a woman with a frog's head. Now, this woman with a frog's head, it shows the Lord has a sense of humor, was a fertility goddess. And so the reference to this frog swarming into the bedrooms in Exodus 8.3 may be an allusion to her accustomed role, but sadly achieving quite the opposite results. Where was Ra, the sun god? None of the Egyptian deities was able to stop the calamities that were announced by Moses. Pharaoh himself was considered a god. We see his vulnerability in the last plague, okay, when God kills the firstborn. And why? Well, you go back to chapter 4, verse 22. The Lord said to Moses, When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I've given you the power to do. I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. Then say to Pharaoh, This is what the Lord says Israel is my firstborn son. And I told you, let my son go, so he may worship me. But you refuse to let him go, so I will kill your firstborn son. Remember the promise to Abraham I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who curse you. So these plagues in Egyptian culture, the Pharaoh was the one who made sure that Ma'at, justice, and order were sustained throughout the society. And here, what did the plagues do? Well, they act as a decreation. Everything becomes unraveled and undone because he's not the real king. We know that before the tenth plague, the Passover takes place, and I've given you a little information there. The tenth plague, the horrible plague happens, the Israelites are spared, and the Israelites are able to leave Egypt. A very interesting account. I'm at chapter 13 when they're crossing the Red Sea. So Pharaoh lets the people go at chapter 13, verse 17. But God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. Instead, God said, If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt. So he leads them around by the desert road toward the sea. The Israelites went up out of Egypt, armed for battle. They take the bones of Joseph. Remember the end of Genesis? What did Joseph's brothers promise him? That they would take his bones with them back to the land of promise. The way the Lord leads them, it's not the trade route way, it's not the short way, it's not the easy way. In fact, as Graham Goldsworthy says, the way that God leads them is like running into a blind alley with walls on all sides. Okay? And it's interesting. Okay, what happens then is Pharaoh thinks, oh, they're confused, he changes his mind and he uh follows the Israelites, thinking that with his superior army and technology he will recapture them and enslave them once more. And isn't it paradoxical that Israel's walk with God appears very confused and perplexing to others, but it's part of their continual march to their inheritance. Isn't that true of us in the church too, sometimes? The way that God has us go appears very perplexing, not just to others, but to ourselves, and yet it's part of our march to our inheritance. Then we know the story of the crossing of the Red Sea, and Moses's chapter 14 is the prosaic account, and chapter 15 the poetic account, the song of Moses and Miriam. And it escalates so you get to verse 18 of chapter 15. The Lord will reign forever and ever. So once again, we see the king here freeing his people, delivering them from bondage in Egypt. And what's very interesting is that throughout the rest of Scripture, and we talk about tracing themes, biblical theology, how God unfolds his plan of redemption throughout history, this exodus, this deliverance of God, becomes the paradigmatic salvation event in the Old Testament. And it demonstrates that God was with his people and he did care for them. And it's amazing how often the rest of Scripture refers back to this Exodus event. For example, turn to Joshua chapter 4. Now we're only going to look at one verse due to our time constraints, but the next time you're reading the first four chapters of Joshua, note all the echoes back to the deliverance. There's more. I'm just going to bring out one for us here today. In Joshua, of course, Moses dies at the end of Deuteronomy. Joshua is raised up to lead the people to conquer the land of promise. And what happens is once again, water is parted so that the people can move through. Okay? The Jordan is parted. And look at how this is described at the end of verse 21 of chapter 4. He said to the Israelites, In the future, when your descendants asked their fathers, what do these stones mean? Tell them, Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground. For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you'd crossed it. The Lord your God did to the Jordan just what he had done at the Red Sea or the Sea of Reeds, when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. He did it so all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful, and so that you might always fear the Lord your God. So do you see what this does by reenacting the Exodus? What a powerful statement that God is with this generation also. Turn to Psalm 77 for a moment. What is the mood of the psalmist here? Psalm 77. He's distressed, okay? He's crying out to the Lord for help. He's crying out to God to hear him. He's full of distress, okay? He's groaning. Okay? And what's he doing in his distress and his groaning? Well, I look at verse 11. I'll remember the deeds of the Lord. I'll remember your miracles of long ago. I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds. Your ways, O God, are holy. What God is so great as our God? You are the God who performs miracles. You display your power among the peoples. With your mighty arm, you redeemed your people, the descendants of Jacob and Joseph. And he goes to talk about the waters. And then verse 20 and 19, your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, through your footprints, though your footprints were not seen. You led your people like a flock by the hands of Moses and Aaron. It's not just an interesting tidbit of biblical theology that the Exodus narrative is referred to over and over again in subsequent salvation history. I think it is also an important reminder to us to make sure that we're memorizing Scripture. Because when you're going through a time of groaning and distress, that's not the best time to memorize Scripture. But if we've squirreled it up, like a squirrel saves up nuts for winter, then when difficult times come, and we all know that they will come, okay, what's the tendency of each one of us when difficult times come? Isn't it to go inward? And do you see how if our if our souls are anchored in Scripture, that that can be one of the means that the Lord uses to draw us out of ourselves and to remind ourselves who it is we serve? So I just encourage you, if if scripture memorization is not a part of your uh your daily pattern, your weekly pattern, I encourage you to do set that. Store up scripture like a squirrel stores up nuts for winter, so that when the difficult times come, God can use his mighty powerful word to uh speak to you and to heal you. How many of the hundreds and hundreds of promises of God do we know? So again, these are more than just niceties of biblical theology. The prophets later reflect on the exit events. What happens to Israel? They they go into the land of promise and they don't do what they're supposed to do. God keeps his part of the covenant, but Israel doesn't. And instead of going into Canaan and being this light to the nations, the Israelites themselves become Canaanized. They come just like the people they were to have replaced. So they God has to expel them from the land just as he expelled the Canaanites. They go into exile. The northern kingdom is taken away by the Assyrians, and the southern kingdom is taken away by the Babylonians. When the prophets talk about Israel going back into the land after exile, they cast it in terms of the exodus. Now, because of our time constraints, we're not going to look at these verses. I've given them to you on your outline. But the exodus from Egypt is held up by the prophets as a pattern that's going to be replayed as God brings his people back from exile. And then in the New Testament, I've given you some passages also. So we see this theme of kingship in the Exodus. God draws his people out, he saves them from Egyptian bondage, and establishes himself as the mighty king over the unnamed Pharaoh. The second theme in Exodus is Mount Sinai. So please turn to chapter 19 of Exodus. Exodus 19. And we're, first one, in the third month after the Israelites left Egypt, on the very day they come to the desert of Sinai. Okay? So they come to Sinai three months out of leaving Egypt. And they're going to stay here at Sinai, Exodus 19, all the way through Exodus, all the way through Leviticus, all the way through Numbers chapter 10, they stay at Sinai. And what do we have here? Well, God has redeemed his people. Now the king will give instructions on how his people are to act. And I mentioned at the end of last hour that the whole book of Deuteronomy is structured in very similar ways to these vassal, suzerain vassal treaties of the second millennium B.C. When a king conquered a people, he entered into agreement with them. And it's just amazing the parallels between the whole book of Deuteronomy and these treaties and chapters 19 to 24 of Exodus and these treaties. The conquering king will now tell people how he wants them to live in his kingdom. Because they're to be a holy nation, they're to be a light to the nations around them. So God will now tell them how they are to live. And it's important when we're here now at the Ten Commandments that these aren't a set of laws given in the abstract, which sometimes we get the impression of when they're just stuck somewhere out there in the world, okay? What they are is God's laws, God's statements for a people who have been already redeemed. They don't get saved by keeping the Ten Commandments. God has just saved them. And this is what a saved people look like. Krisan Marotta: Okay? Speaker 1: And that's important to remember. Why would God, in our seminary right now, we have a lot going on with this law-grace debate, and it's like, why would God draw the Israelites, free them from bondage, just to put them in another bondage? This isn't bondage. This shows us what the heart of God is like. The perfect righteousness of Jesus is what we see here in the Ten Commandments. Okay? This isn't bondage. This is this is life. This is true life. So the Lord says, uh, verse 2, God says to Moses, This is what you're to say to the house of Jacob, and what you're to tell the people of Israel. You yourselves have seen what I did in Egypt, how I carried you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. Now, if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all the nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites. unknown: Okay? Speaker 1: So the Lord has freed Israel. They're to be a holy nation, a kingdom of priests. And I want to spend a minute or two on this term treasured possession. Can somebody tell me, in the old sense of the word, what mad money is? It's money to spend freely, okay? Now I am the bargain queen, okay? Like I would, I I couldn't enjoy Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia ice cream if I ever paid full price for it, because I just don't. I I shop, buy one, get one free, coupons. I'm just the bargain queen. But one week of the year, last week in July, first week in August, we uh go to Kate May. In 31 years of marriage, we've only missed one year. Okay, Kate May is our week of vacation. And our son Philip's favorite thing in the world is milkshakes. Okay. When we go to Cape May, Philip can have all the milkshakes he wants. They were $4.50 a milkshake this year, okay? But I delight, okay, all year I have a big jar in my closet, and you know, my spare money goes in there, and that's my Cape May money, okay? I said I would never buy Ben and Jerry's, not on sale, but Philip can have all the milkshakes he wants. It's my mad money, and I delight in spending it on my son. Well, this word here in Hebrew, segola, is I think very, very close to mad money, okay? Turn with me to 1 Chronicles chapter 29. Now, at 1 Chronicles 29, my NIV says, gifts for building the temple. Okay? So just track with me here. King David said to the whole assembly, because you remember, David can't build the temple, his son Solomon has to. And why can't David build the temple? Because he's a man of blood. And that's not a statement, it's not an ethical evaluation, it's a redemptive historical one. He was the conquest completer. Now his son Solomon will be the temple builder. So David says to the whole assembly, My son Solomon, the one whom God has chosen, is young and inexperienced. The task is great because this palatial structure is not for man but for the Lord God. With all my resources I have provided for the temple of my God: gold for the gold work, silver for the silver, bronze for the bronze, iron for the iron, wood for the wood, as well as onyx for the settings, turquoise, stones of various colors, and all kinds of fine stone and marble, all of these in large quantities. So David's king, okay? He's gotten the wood for the woodwork, the stone for the stonework. That's what the king does. That's his job. Look at verse 3. Besides in my devotion to the temple of my God, I now give my segola, my personal treasures of gold and silver for the temple of my God. Over and above everything I've provided for this holy temple. So you see, in this word in Hebrew refers to the king's private fortune. The king owns everything. He's given the wood, the stone, but he has this special private fortune, his mad money that he delights in using. And so back in Exodus 19, what Moses is to tell the people from God is that he says, the whole earth is mine, but you're my mad money. Okay? The whole world is God's budget, but Israel is his mad money. But now, what does that do for us? Well, let's turn over to 1 Peter chapter 2. 1 Peter chapter 2. You see here, Peter is reflecting on Exodus 19, and he's talking to believers, and he says, But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthead, a holy nation, a people belonging to God. Well, where is he getting that from? The passage we just read, okay? That you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you're the people of God. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. So again, the whole earth is God's budget, and we, by virtue of our union with Christ, are his mad money. Isn't that a beautiful picture? unknown: Okay. Speaker 1: So here we are in Exodus 19, okay? And we have God giving to the Israelites how it is they are to work how it is they are to live in the kingdom. And we go on and we get the Ten Commandments, and then we get something called the Book of the Covenant that fleshes out in particular ways for the nation of Israel how they are to live. And again, this idea in all these commandments of social cohesion. You don't murder, you don't steal, you don't commit adultery. Okay? And this isn't just so that the Israels are a bunch, the Israelites are a bunch of nice people, it's so that they reflect the glory of God to the surrounding nations. Because remember, Genesis 12, he God said to Abraham, I will make you a great nation, and out of you all the nations of the world will be blessed. The nations were to see this way of living and flock to Jerusalem. But unfortunately, as we know in subsequent history, the Israelites don't keep their part of the bargain. They don't deal with all the mopping up operations that had to be done, and they start intermarrying. And so they become Canaanized themselves, and they themselves have to be expelled from the land. But so here we see in Exodus, God the King redeems his people. God the King brings them to Sinai and tells them how they are to live in his kingdom. And then finally the tabernacle. And then 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, and 40. All these chapters devoted to the tabernacle. The first part basically says, I want the tabernacle built like this. The second part says the Israelites build the tabernacle just the way the Lord wanted them to. It's a lot of space devoted to God's mobile home. Okay? And again, the Israelites are not left on their own to design worship. Okay? They will worship the way God tells them. And it must conform to a given pattern, otherwise their hearts will create something which reflects not the character of God, but the evil inclinations of their hearts. And why the tabernacle? Well, turn to 25. And in verse 6, verse 8, excuse me, have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you. Okay? Turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 5. Excuse me, Hebrews chapter 8, I'm sorry. Hebrews chapter 8. And the burden of the book of Hebrews, we're not sure who was the author, is to show the superiority of Christ to especially the old form of worship. And uh here in Hebrews chapter 8, we'll start in verse 3. Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. And so it was necessary for this one also to have something to offer. If he were on earth, he would not be a priest, for there are already men who offer the gifts prescribed by the law. They serve at a sanctuary, and of course, it's here talking about the temple. They serve as a at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle. See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain. But the ministry of Jesus, but the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator, a superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises. What we see here is just a confirmation of what we just read in Exodus. The tabernacle that Moses was to build, the temple that Solomon was to build, the second temple that the returns built under the tutelage of Haggai and finished in 516 BC, all those buildings are copies and shadows of a prior reality. So now we can turn back to Exodus 25, and we'll look at the verse that the author of Hebrews. Hebrews was quoting here in verse 40. The beginning of the chapter. Make this tabernacle exactly like the pattern I will show you. And then look at 2540. See that you make them according to the pattern shown you on the mountain. Okay? And this is important. And this isn't necessarily something we'll bump up with against tomorrow, but sometimes when we're trying to figure out how the New Testament and Old Testament relate to one another, sometimes we get a little sloppy when we talk about the fulfillment in the New Testament, that Christ comes in the church, and we kind of poof spiritualize away everything in the Old Covenant. And our dispensationalist brothers and sisters rightly charge back that that seems to be a very casual way to handle Scripture. When Jesus comes, it's not poof, everything gets spiritualized. It's that we've been told, both in Exodus and Hebrews, that the tabernacle and the temples, they were just copies and shadows to begin with. Well, if if the tabernacle is a shadow, what does that tell us? It's a shadow of something that exists. And so the prior reality is the is Jesus in the heavenlies. So when Jesus comes and fulfills everything in the Old Testament, what's going on is he's not poof spiritualizing everything away. It's that the reality has come, so we don't need the copies and the shadows anymore. unknown: Okay? Speaker 1: So we have the tabernacle, and I see we're we're just about uh running out of time. Uh the tabernacle, all these chapters, how God wants to be worshipped in the tabernacle. The golden calf incident, which shows us Israel left to themselves how they will worship, okay? Idolatry. Then the rest of the book of Exodus indeed shows us that the Israelites build the tabernacle. And as we close this evening, turn to the last chapter of Exodus. And you know, why a tabernacle? Well, the Israelites are on the move, right? They're going to, well, after their 59 chapters at Sinai, they will be on the move. And so it's appropriate that God is in a mobile house that moves with them. When the Israelites are finally settled in the land, and David has, for all intents and purposes, conquered their enemies and they're settled, well, then it's not appropriate for God to be in a mobile sanctuary anymore. So the temple is built. Just like before the tabernacle, if you could trace how did the Israelites meet with God, well, they built altars, little mounds of earth where they would often sacrifice. We see Abraham doing that when he moves throughout the land of promise. He he sets up altars. But that was fine when Abraham was just the patriarch of a family, but now that Israel is a nation in covenant with God, you need more than an altar. So we get God's mobile home. And then when Israel is stationed in the land, we get the temple. So the book of Exodus ends. The tabernacle is built, and we'll look at verse 34. Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled upon it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out. But if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out until the day it lifted. 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 house of Israel during all their travels. So here in the book of Exodus, the king redeems his people from Egypt. At Mount Sinai, he tells them, I've redeemed you, you're my people, this is what my people look like. Family resemblance. Okay? You want to resemble being in God's family, these are the ways, this is the way it's done. Okay? And by the way, the Ten Commandments there, you shall not, you shall not. The Hebrew there, in Hebrew, you can distinguish between masculine, excuse me, plural and singular you, like you and you's, the incorrect English. All those you's in the Ten Commandments are singular. So my apologies to Charlton Heston, but it's not thou shalt not, it's you and you and you. Those are you singulars. What the Ten Commandments show us is the heart of God. Okay? And we as his kingdom people want to reflect the splendor and majesty of our God. Krisan Marotta: Thank you for listening to Wednesday in the Word, the podcast that explains not only what a passage means, but also shows you how to figure it out. I hope this podcast has blessed you. If it's inspired you to learn more, I invite you to visit my website, wednesdayintheword.com, and explore the free, ad-free, spam-free Bible study resources I have there. Our theme music is graciously provided by Reggie Coates. You can find more of his music on heartfeltmusic.org. Thank you so much for listening today. I'm Krisan Marotta, and I'll see you next week at Wednesday in the Word.