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Exodus 19-24
19:1 On the third new moon after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. 2 They set out from Rephidim and came into the wilderness of Sinai, and they encamped in the wilderness. There Israel encamped before the mountain, 3 while Moses went up to God. The LORD called to him out of the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: 4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”
7 So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the LORD had commanded him. 8 All the people answered together and said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do.” And Moses reported the words of the people to the LORD. 9 And the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you forever.”
When Moses told the words of the people to the LORD, 10 the LORD said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments 11 and be ready for the third day. For on the third day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. 12 And you shall set limits for the people all around, saying, ‘Take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death. 13 No hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot;1 whether beast or man, he shall not live.’ When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain.” 14 So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people; and they washed their garments. 15 And he said to the people, “Be ready for the third day; do not go near a woman.”
16 On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. 17 Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. 18 Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the LORD had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. 19 And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. 20 The LORD came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. And the LORD called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.
21 And the LORD said to Moses, “Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to the LORD to look and many of them perish. 22 Also let the priests who come near to the LORD consecrate themselves, lest the LORD break out against them.” 23 And Moses said to the LORD, “The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for you yourself warned us, saying, ‘Set limits around the mountain and consecrate it.’” 24 And the LORD said to him, “Go down, and come up bringing Aaron with you. But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the LORD, lest he break out against them.” 25 So Moses went down to the people and told them.
20:1 And God spoke all these words, saying,
2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before2 me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands3 of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7 “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
13 “You shall not murder.4
14 “You shall not commit adultery.
15 “You shall not steal.
16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”
18 Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid5 and trembled, and they stood far off 19 and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” 20 Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.” 21 The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.
22 And the LORD said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the people of Israel: ‘You have seen for yourselves that I have talked with you from heaven. 23 You shall not make gods of silver to be with me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold. 24 An altar of earth you shall make for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you. 25 If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones, for if you wield your tool on it you profane it. 26 And you shall not go up by steps to my altar, that your nakedness be not exposed on it.’
21:1 “Now these are the rules that you shall set before them. 2 When you buy a Hebrew slave,6 he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing. 3 If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. 4 If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out alone. 5 But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’ 6 then his master shall bring him to God, and he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall be his slave forever.
7 “When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do. 8 If she does not please her master, who has designated her7 for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has broken faith with her. 9 If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her as with a daughter. 10 If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, or her marital rights. 11 And if he does not do these three things for her, she shall go out for nothing, without payment of money.
12 “Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death. 13 But if he did not lie in wait for him, but God let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint for you a place to which he may flee. 14 But if a man willfully attacks another to kill him by cunning, you shall take him from my altar, that he may die.
15 “Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death.
16 “Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death.
17 “Whoever curses8 his father or his mother shall be put to death.
18 “When men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist and the man does not die but takes to his bed, 19 then if the man rises again and walks outdoors with his staff, he who struck him shall be clear; only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall have him thoroughly healed.
20 “When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be avenged. 21 But if the slave survives a day or two, he is not to be avenged, for the slave is his money.
22 “When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman’s husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. 23 But if there is harm,9 then you shall pay life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
26 “When a man strikes the eye of his slave, male or female, and destroys it, he shall let the slave go free because of his eye. 27 If he knocks out the tooth of his slave, male or female, he shall let the slave go free because of his tooth.
28 “When an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox shall not be liable. 29 But if the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past, and its owner has been warned but has not kept it in, and it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death. 30 If a ransom is imposed on him, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is imposed on him. 31 If it gores a man’s son or daughter, he shall be dealt with according to this same rule. 32 If the ox gores a slave, male or female, the owner shall give to their master thirty shekels10 of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.
33 “When a man opens a pit, or when a man digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it, 34 the owner of the pit shall make restoration. He shall give money to its owner, and the dead beast shall be his.
35 “When one man’s ox butts another’s, so that it dies, then they shall sell the live ox and share its price, and the dead beast also they shall share. 36 Or if it is known that the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past, and its owner has not kept it in, he shall repay ox for ox, and the dead beast shall be his.
21:37 in Hebrew</note>">1122:1 “If a man steals an ox or a sheep, and kills it or sells it, he shall repay five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep. 2 12 If a thief is found breaking in and is struck so that he dies, there shall be no bloodguilt for him, 3 but if the sun has risen on him, there shall be bloodguilt for him. He13 shall surely pay. If he has nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft. 4 If the stolen beast is found alive in his possession, whether it is an ox or a donkey or a sheep, he shall pay double.
5 “If a man causes a field or vineyard to be grazed over, or lets his beast loose and it feeds in another man’s field, he shall make restitution from the best in his own field and in his own vineyard.
6 “If fire breaks out and catches in thorns so that the stacked grain or the standing grain or the field is consumed, he who started the fire shall make full restitution.
7 “If a man gives to his neighbor money or goods to keep safe, and it is stolen from the man’s house, then, if the thief is found, he shall pay double. 8 If the thief is not found, the owner of the house shall come near to God to show whether or not he has put his hand to his neighbor’s property. 9 For every breach of trust, whether it is for an ox, for a donkey, for a sheep, for a cloak, or for any kind of lost thing, of which one says, ‘This is it,’ the case of both parties shall come before God. The one whom God condemns shall pay double to his neighbor.
10 “If a man gives to his neighbor a donkey or an ox or a sheep or any beast to keep safe, and it dies or is injured or is driven away, without anyone seeing it, 11 an oath by the LORD shall be between them both to see whether or not he has put his hand to his neighbor’s property. The owner shall accept the oath, and he shall not make restitution. 12 But if it is stolen from him, he shall make restitution to its owner. 13 If it is torn by beasts, let him bring it as evidence. He shall not make restitution for what has been torn.
14 “If a man borrows anything of his neighbor, and it is injured or dies, the owner not being with it, he shall make full restitution. 15 If the owner was with it, he shall not make restitution; if it was hired, it came for its hiring fee.14
16 “If a man seduces a virgin15 who is not betrothed and lies with her, he shall give the bride-price16 for her and make her his wife. 17 If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money equal to the bride-price for virgins.
18 “You shall not permit a sorceress to live.
19 “Whoever lies with an animal shall be put to death.
20 “Whoever sacrifices to any god, other than the LORD alone, shall be devoted to destruction.17
21 “You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. 22 You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. 23 If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, 24 and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.
25 “If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a moneylender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him. 26 If ever you take your neighbor’s cloak in pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down, 27 for that is his only covering, and it is his cloak for his body; in what else shall he sleep? And if he cries to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.
28 “You shall not revile God, nor curse a ruler of your people.
29 “You shall not delay to offer from the fullness of your harvest and from the outflow of your presses. The firstborn of your sons you shall give to me. 30 You shall do the same with your oxen and with your sheep: seven days it shall be with its mother; on the eighth day you shall give it to me.
31 “You shall be consecrated to me. Therefore you shall not eat any flesh that is torn by beasts in the field; you shall throw it to the dogs.
23:1 “You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. 2 You shall not fall in with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, siding with the many, so as to pervert justice, 3 nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his lawsuit.
4 “If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall bring it back to him. 5 If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying down under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it; you shall rescue it with him.
6 “You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in his lawsuit. 7 Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked. 8 And you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of those who are in the right.
9 “You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.
10 “For six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield, 11 but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the beasts of the field may eat. You shall do likewise with your vineyard, and with your olive orchard.
12 “Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant woman, and the alien, may be refreshed.
13 “Pay attention to all that I have said to you, and make no mention of the names of other gods, nor let it be heard on your lips.
14 “Three times in the year you shall keep a feast to me. 15 You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. As I commanded you, you shall eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. None shall appear before me empty-handed. 16 You shall keep the Feast of Harvest, of the firstfruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field. You shall keep the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor. 17 Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord GOD.
18 “You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, or let the fat of my feast remain until the morning.
19 “The best of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the LORD your God.
“You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.
20 “Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. 21 Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him.
22 “But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.
23 “When my angel goes before you and brings you to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I blot them out, 24 you shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them, nor do as they do, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces. 25 You shall serve the LORD your God, and he18 will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from among you. 26 None shall miscarry or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days. 27 I will send my terror before you and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. 28 And I will send hornets19 before you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you. 29 I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you. 30 Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land. 31 And I will set your border from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates,20 for I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you. 32 You shall make no covenant with them and their gods. 33 They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”
24:1 Then he said to Moses, “Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar. 2 Moses alone shall come near to the LORD, but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him.”
3 Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD and all the rules.21 And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the LORD has spoken we will do.” 4 And Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 And he sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the LORD. 6 And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. 7 Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” 8 And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.”
9 Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, 10 and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. 11 And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.
12 The LORD said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and wait there, that I may give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” 13 So Moses rose with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. 14 And he said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we return to you. And behold, Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever has a dispute, let him go to them.”
15 Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. 16 The glory of the LORD dwelt on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. 17 Now the appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. 18 Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
[1] 19:13
[2] 20:3
[3] 20:6
[4] 20:13
[5] 20:18
[6] 21:2
[7] 21:8
[8] 21:17
[9] 21:23
[10] 21:32
[11] 21:36
[12] 22:2
[13] 22:3
[14] 22:15
[15] 22:16
[16] 22:16
[17] 22:20
[18] 23:25
[19] 23:28
[20] 23:31
[21] 24:3
(ESV)
Redeemer Community Church is located in the historic Avondale neighborhood of Birmingham, AL. Our church family exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
For more information on who we are, what we believe, or how to join us, please visit our website at rccbirmingham.org.
But you can open your Bibles to Exodus chapter 19. Now earlier this summer, when we were still meeting at our house, we actually looked at this text. And I've debated this week whether or not, we should go over this text again, but it's an important text, and the church has grown a lot since we were in our living room. And so I thought I would teach through it again and maybe look at a few new things as well. So if you're at my house this summer, apparently God wants you to hear these things again.
Joel Brooks:So listen close, maybe we won't have to do it in another 6 months, if you pay attention. For Israel here, the next 11 months, the next 59 chapters are at Mount Sinai. So it's absolutely crucial that you have a good understanding of what is going on right here. Now read with me in the chapter 19. We'll look at the first six verses.
Joel Brooks:On the 3rd new moon after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. They set out from Rephidim and came into the wilderness of Sinai, and they encamped in the wilderness. There Israel encamped before the mountain while Moses went up to God. The Lord called to him out of the mountain saying, thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the people of Israel, you yourselves have seen what I did to the Now therefore, if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.
Joel Brooks:Go to verse 16. On the morning of the 3rd day, there there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, And they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln and the whole mountain trembled greatly.
Joel Brooks:And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him in thunder. The Lord God came down on Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain. And Moses went up. Pray with me.
Joel Brooks:God asked that you would be
Jeffrey Heine:our teacher, Holy Spirit, that you would come. You would
Joel Brooks:write these words on our hearts. You would write these words on our hearts. I pray that we would walk away from this place with a much deeper affection for you. Lord, as we're going through those commandments, just 10, over and over again, I could see how I had failed. Thank you for your grace and mercy.
Joel Brooks:Lord I ask now that in this time my words would fall to the ground and they will blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, let your words remain and may they change us. And I pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Anna Dillard in her book, Pilgrim of Tinker Creek, writes about the sovereignty of God.
Joel Brooks:And listen to this. It says, she says, there's not a guarantee in this world. Oh, your needs are absolutely guaranteed by the plainest words, knock, seek, and ask, and God will give it to you, but you need to read the fine print. Not as the world giveth, give I unto you, and there is the catch. When you ask of God, you will come back transformed, but not in the way you bargained for.
Joel Brooks:For you will come back dribbling and crazed. Your needs are met, but not as the world giveth. And when it finally comes time for you to die, you finally understand that you are dealing with a maniac. Have you ever thought of God as a maniac? A maniac.
Joel Brooks:I mean, when I read that, at first it really rubbed me the wrong way, but then I could see there's a certain element of truth to this. Dillard was was on to something, because the God of the Bible does not always act like a sane man. He certainly cannot be controlled, and and sometimes he he does things that that seem absolutely terrible. And you can see this if you're to look at just one biblical example, the life of Jacob. Jacob was a pretty horrible person.
Joel Brooks:If you if you go through his life, he never really did anything of worth. He was a liar. He was a user. He was a deceiver. You never even get a hint in his life that he's interested in in in in God, or knowing God early on.
Joel Brooks:Then finally in Genesis 32, he prays for the very first time. He lets out this this it's a beautiful prayer. Talking about the sovereignty of God, and how great God is, and all of these things, a beautiful prayer. And this is how God responds. After Jacob finally turns to him, he attacks him in the middle of the night, throws his hip out of joint, and he walks with a limp for the rest of his life.
Joel Brooks:Does that sound sane? Does that sound predictable? That god would do that? I mean, god is he is holy. He is powerful.
Joel Brooks:He is just, He is faithful, but one attribute that we can never use to describe our God is tame. He is certainly not tame. And don't ever call him safe. And here, we get a glimpse of this in the wilderness at Mount Sinai. He comes down in thunder, and in fire, and in earthquakes.
Joel Brooks:And I I left a picture out there from National Geographic this past week that that shows what I I kinda think Mount Sinai probably looked like. And it says volcano shooting up all these ash, all this ash, and within the ash, there is lightning going around everywhere. And this is a terrifying sight. This is where the people were. And they're covering their ears at one point in Exodus, and they're trembling, and they're saying, God don't speak to us anymore.
Joel Brooks:Speak to Moses because if you speak to us, we're going to die. We're gonna die. And if you remember just last week, they were saying, God's not even with us. He's not any among us. Think God shows up, and they're scared out of their minds, and they're like, no, no, no.
Joel Brooks:Leave. And they want to flee. This is not the God that you can put, you know, on a on a calendar, I mean, with maybe the good thought for the day, you know, or a God that would enjoy being reduced to, you know, real kind of pithy statement on a bumper sticker or a t shirt. This is not the God that you can come to and worship and yawn at the same time. It's not a God who is your buddy, or a God as I would hear when I was a director at UCF.
Joel Brooks:I would hear some students actually pray, what up God? That is not the God here. He's not your best friend here. And he is certainly not a predictable god, and he's not a god that you can control. And I would say that this is not the God that the Israelites bargained for.
Joel Brooks:We're gonna look at this next week, but they wanted a much tamer God. Maybe a smaller God, maybe a little one that's made out of gold, something that they could carry around and worship on their own terms. Not this. This is not a God that you want angry with you. It's not a God that you would want to ever disobey.
Joel Brooks:And make no mistake, God wants these people terrified at Sinai. He wants them absolutely terrified before he gives them the law. And so when we come together and we gather to worship, we need to remember that he is awesome. We need to take his word seriously. God is a God of thunder, and he's a God of fire and smoke and earthquake.
Joel Brooks:Now this poses a number of problems for us because this is the kind of God that some of my neighbors point to and and they think, that's why I'm not a Christian. Right there. That's that's why I'm not a Christian, you know. And they just kind of roll their eyes, and to them, the Bible just seems very outdated. It seems archaic, and and and they can't relate to modern culture.
Joel Brooks:And this this idea of this angry God coming down to the top of a mountain with fire and smoke, they just look at that and they say, no thanks. No thanks. And all these laws that we're supposed to live by, you know, why would I ever want that? So what do we do with this this ancient law, this this terrifying god who thunders them down? Well for starters, the first thing we need to do is put the entire law in its proper perspective, in its proper place.
Joel Brooks:If you remember a couple of weeks ago, we looked at God gave the people a test about gathering manna. It was a very simple test. Gather manna, enough for one day. Don't gather it on the Sabbath. Really easy test.
Joel Brooks:They failed. So God's not looking at that thing, well you failed that. Now let me come up with like 59 chapters of law, and see it, you know, see how well you're gonna do here. That's not it. The test isn't about rules that they're gonna have to obey to get in a relationship with Him.
Joel Brooks:That's not it. You don't have to do these things, or God's up there angry and he's gonna smite you. The foundation for the law is found in verse 4, which we just read. Says, you yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles wings and brought you to myself. So although God is a God of thunder, he is also a God of grace.
Joel Brooks:And he reminds the Israelites, you are slaves. You were crying out in your misery, and I swoop down like an eagle, and I put you on my back, and I carried you out of Egypt. I set my affection on you, and it's crucial to understand that God did this before he ever gave them any law. God saved them before he ever told them how to behave, before he ever told them what to do. Their salvation is already secured before they ever get to the law.
Joel Brooks:He doesn't ask that you clean up yourself, that you do this laundry list of things so, you know, we can get together and have a relationship. No. Saved. Redeemed. And then here's the law.
Joel Brooks:So your salvation has absolutely nothing to do with whether you have cleaned up your act. And so this makes us ask a question, well what then is the law for, And there are a lot of reasons, but I'm gonna go with the 2 most immediate that are in the text. Look at verse 5. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples for all the earth is mine and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. The first thing God says is if you obey my law, I will treasure you.
Joel Brooks:I will treasure you. And the language he uses is there of a, it's a special Hebrew term. It's, you know, a king owns everything. He owns the the streets you walk on, really even the house that you live in, but he's saying there are certain things, certain treasured possessions that he keeps in his own bedroom. Things precious to him, and he says, if you obey this law, you become that to me.
Joel Brooks:I will treasure you in in a very personal and intimate way. And you need to think of this, the the best way I can think of this is in terms of a love relationship. You know, some of you are, if you're head over heels in love with somebody, you know, you and you really, you you really want to impress maybe this girl. What you're gonna do is you're gonna go to her Facebook page, you know, and you're gonna you're gonna go through all the lists there, and you're gonna find out what are her interests, what are all the songs, the bands that she likes, you know, is it romantic walks on the beach at night. You know, you're gonna find all of those things, and then you're going to do them.
Joel Brooks:You're gonna try to be that to her. Why? You want her to treasure you. You know what she likes. You know what's in her heart, and so you're gonna do things to impress, to win her heart.
Joel Brooks:And what God is doing here, when he gives us the law that we just went through earlier in our liturgical reading, what he's doing here is he is telling you his heart. This is my heart. This is what I like. I've already saved you, but but this is who I am. He's revealing to us his character, the things he's passionate about.
Joel Brooks:And if you read through chapters 19 through 24, you're gonna find that he is passionate about justice, helping the poor, sexual purity, kindness, and all these things. And and what God says is, now that I rescued you and we are in a relationship, this is what I want. This is what I want for you because this is in my heart. And we don't do these things to get in his heart. We do these things because we already are there, and he wants to treasure us.
Joel Brooks:The other reason for the that we find in this text for the reason of the law is in verse 6. Says, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Now usually when you read through the 10 Commandments, you make them very very personal. They're per they're just about you, but they are given to a community. A very distinct community.
Joel Brooks:And they're given to us and we're to be a a new kingdom within this kingdom here. We're to be a new city within the city of Birmingham. We're we're to be, as Jesus said, a city on a hill, a community. These laws are for a group of people, and this is what it means to to be a holy nation, to be a kingdom of priests. It means you need to be utterly, absolutely distinct.
Joel Brooks:That's what a holy nation is. You're totally distinct. To be a priest means you're a mediator, and you point people to God. So you're to be a distinct people and you're to point people to God as a community. Now let's look at some of these laws.
Joel Brooks:We could go on and on about some of the specifics here, but let's look at what actually in these laws make Israel distinct. What should make us distinct? Now I was watching a PBS special on the law of Moses the other night, and it actually surprised me because it was so liberal. But one of the one of the scholars, he actually came out with a really astute observation, And he said that, you know, in all the other religions up to this time, when you look at their laws, dealing with their God and everything, all of the laws were very vertical. It was how they, the people, should relate to their God.
Joel Brooks:And then you come to the Jewish faith here, and you get to the law of Moses, and it goes horizontal. There's the vertical element. Yes, it is between you and God, but then all of a sudden it gets very horizontal. How do you relate to your neighbor? How do we relate in community with one another?
Joel Brooks:And so that was utterly distinct for its time. There was nothing like that. The Hebrew law tells man how they should treat one another, and God spends a whole lot of time telling the Israelites to treat 4 different groups. He says, I want this is how you're gonna treat the poor, how you're gonna treat the orphan, how you're gonna treat the widow, and how you're gonna treat the immigrant. If you read it over and over, that's where God's heart is.
Joel Brooks:Those 4 groups. And it says that if we are kind, and if we give ourselves to those people, we point the world to Christ. We're a kingdom of priests. There's some pretty radical stuff in here. You know, for instance, in every ancient Near Eastern law at this time, it was only the elite that were protected.
Joel Brooks:The laws were only for the wealthy. If you look at all the other laws at this time. For instance, the Hebrews were commanded to take care of the poor without interest, and that is totally unique. They were to give loans to the poor and not charge any interest. One of the parallels to this is is from the Hammurabi laws at the roughly around the same time, and it says, yes, when he lends to the poor, and he give them grain, charge 33% interest.
Joel Brooks:And then here comes the Hebrews and they say, give to the poor no interest. Another radical law here was adultery. At this point in history, adultery was only a sin that a woman could commit. A man cannot commit adultery, only a woman. In all societies up to this point, men could get married and then they could have whatever sexual relationships they wanted with no consequences, nobody looked down on it, and then this comes here.
Joel Brooks:And God says, it's wrong for both a man and for a woman to have any extramarital affairs. Utterly unique. God also says that the Israelites are set to set aside 10% of their income to give to the poor and to the Levites, unheard of in any society, to set aside that amount amount of money to give to the poor, and actually, every 3rd year you were to give more. If you wanna prorate that to how much you were supposed to give under the law every year, it comes out to 23.3 percent of your income a year is what the Hebrews were required to give away. 23.3%.
Joel Brooks:And that's not counting the year of jubilee, which happens every 50 years, and which is said, everything you own goes back into the collective pot and is redistributed back to the original owners every 50 years. Can you imagine trying to establish that now? What if next year was a year jubilee? The chaos. Everything goes into the collective pot, and we try to figure out who was the original owner and all of that.
Joel Brooks:And and it was a just as big of a mess for them as it was for us, and that's why never once do we have the Hebrews ever recorded keeping the year of jubilee. Ever. How do you keep something like that? That? That's too radical.
Joel Brooks:That's too distinct, God. That's the word I'm looking for is holy. That's right. Utterly distinct from anyone. Holy.
Joel Brooks:We need to be a community like this. The world looks how we use our money, it's one of the main things they look at us. We need to be utterly distinct in how we give with one another, how we share with one another, how we take care with one another, and when we do that, we point people to Christ. Let's take a look at the Ten Commandments themselves. You know, these are the famous ones.
Joel Brooks:God has, I've heard him as he's the great editor. All this huge lawn, he reduces it down to 10 points here. He knows you're on the move, busy man. Here's just 10. Summarizes it all.
Joel Brooks:Look at chapter 20 verse 2. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness, or anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth, you shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.
Joel Brooks:I'm a jealous God. Now this is actually, most people don't realize this, but this is wedding language. And sometimes this is still used in Jewish wedding ceremonies today. That the Jewish people, they they they would say that, you know, I will have no other. I will have no other.
Joel Brooks:I will only be married to you. And in verse 5, God says that the reason he's not gonna tolerate others is because he is a jealous god, just like a husband would say, I'm not gonna tolerate any others because I'm a jealous husband. And so this covenant, seen under that wedding lens, this is a very intimate relationship here. What of marriage? Now really all of these commandments can be summarized in the first, you shall have no other gods before me.
Joel Brooks:No other gods before me. God gives you 2 options. You're gonna either have him as a god, or you're gonna have other gods. Don't ever think he could go through life and try to pick some third option. If there's anything we've seen so far in the book of Exodus is you will always serve someone or something.
Joel Brooks:You will either serve God, or you will serve something else, but you're not gonna go through life not serving. God did not create you to worship, he created you worshiping. Always worshiping. As humans, you cannot help but worship. The only question is, what is the object of your worship?
Joel Brooks:Will it be the Lord, or will it be something else? But you cannot not worship. That's not how God made you. Now, if you really want to understand what an idol is, look at the last commandment. The last commandment and the first commandment are actually wed together.
Joel Brooks:They're very appropriate bookends. You shall not covet. You shall not covet. Coveting is actually the same thing as idolatry. They're really the exact same command.
Joel Brooks:One just makes you look a little deeper in your heart. Colossians 35, Paul says this, put to death what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Coveting is idolatry, Because when you treasure something more than you treasure Christ, it's an idol. That's what coveting is. And notice that when God gives the command to covet, not to covet, he actually gives a lot of specifics.
Joel Brooks:The other commandments, there's no real specifics there. Thou shall not murder. Pretty much done. Nothing. But when when he gets to coveting, he flushes it out.
Joel Brooks:Look at it again. He says, thou shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not cover your neighbor's wife, or those male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that is your neighbor's. And he really flushes this out, and what God is doing is he's listing idols. These are the most common idols that you have right here.
Joel Brooks:How often have you made an idol of your dream house? That house you long to have one time. Thou shall not covet your neighbor's house. You you long for and you make an idol out of the perfect marriage. Whether you're not married, you want to be in that perfect marriage, or whether you are married, and you always look at others thinking, wow, man.
Joel Brooks:I wonder if their marriage is even better, and you're thinking of these things. It's an idol. Or how about the idol of having an easy life? I want people to serve me. I want some man servants.
Joel Brooks:I want some female servants. I want to be served. If life was just easier, then I'd be happy. That's an idol. How about possessions?
Joel Brooks:Oxen and donkeys, these were for the wealthy people, and you think, if I could just have a little bit bit more, then I'd be happy. Idols. These things were idols back then, they're idols back, they're idols today. Anything you treasure more than Christ is idolatry. Coveting is an idol.
Joel Brooks:You know, Lauren and I, we've realized now that we have we've been out of our house now for 4 months, once it got damaged by the tree, and we've been we've been living in, what Caroline calls the gray shady lady, and we wanna get back to Sunnyside, which is our house. And and Lauren and I, we've realized this that we have turned our house into an idol. It doesn't help that it's right across the street, and we get to see the the lack of progress made every day, but but it's an idol to us. We keep we we say things like this, man, you know, once we finally get back to our house, things will settle down. Once we finally get back in there, our children are gonna behave.
Joel Brooks:You know, the only reason they're misbehaving is because, you know, we're in this house and it's chaos. You know, once we get back in the house, we'll probably never argue again because there'll be nothing to argue about. Life will be perfect once we get back in our house, and we keep saying this, and and and there's an element of truth to some of those. And so we Lord and I, we've even acknowledged it's an idol, but but I really think it's true this time. I mean, I I really think once we get back there, and I it just amazed me, we all do that.
Joel Brooks:We always think that one little object of our desire that's gonna make us happy is the exception to this rule. That's it. Now, I know that there's idles out here. I know that, but but really, if I were to get get this, I really think it would be better. Lauren and I are fools.
Joel Brooks:We are fools. One of the reasons the law was given to community is so you guys could point your fingers at us and say, you're fools, because we're blind to it. And we need community to tell us that's an idol in your life. You're obsessed with that. How do we get rid of these idols?
Joel Brooks:We go to Jesus. We got to see that Jesus is ultimately the one that meets our needs. Go to verse chapter 24. The ultimate purpose of the law is to lead us to Jesus. So realize that you can't do this without Him.
Joel Brooks:You know, real quick, if I were to get a sign, and I were to put it in my front yard that says, please do not throw rocks at my house. Now, I have never once had anybody throw a rock at my house, ever. I guarantee you, if I were to put that sign in my yard, as Lauren and I are laying in bed at night, we'd hear, windows would be breaking because there is a part, and it's just what is in man. You see a law, nobody tells me what to do. Nobody.
Joel Brooks:And it actually awakens sin within you. That's what Galatians tells us the the purpose of the law is, is to show what's in you, And this should lead us to Christ because we can't meet the law, but Christ does, and that's who the law points to. Chapter 24 verse 3. Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules, and all the people answered with one voice and said, all the words that the Lord has spoken, we will do. Idiots.
Joel Brooks:That's it's not in there in Hebrew, it should be. And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and 12 pillars according to the 12 tribes of Israel. And he sent young men of the people of Israel who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. And Moses took half of the blood, and he put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar.
Joel Brooks:Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, all that the lord has spoken, we will do and we will be obedient. Fools. And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words. Now this is a pretty astonishing text because God says, here it is, here's the law, I mean, and it is huge. Here's the law, and they said, every word of it, Lord, we will do.
Joel Brooks:They can't obey the first command. They can't even pick up manna like they're supposed to, and here they are cutting animals in half, which is how you made a covenant and said, if we don't obey it, cut us in half just like we cut this animal. Blood's required for a covenant. It's required. And when I read this, I don't know how I would have responded.
Joel Brooks:I don't know how I would respond about it. I I had a feeling they had to know as they were saying all that you've commanded, we will do. They're like, let's hope he's merciful. Let's hope he's gracious. We'll see what happens next.
Joel Brooks:Look at verse 9. It says, and Moses and Aaron and Nabib and Abihu, and 70 of the elders of Israel went up and they saw the God of Israel. Wow. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness, And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel, they beheld God and ate and drank. This is astonishing.
Joel Brooks:They just basically lied to the Lord. All you've commanded, we will do. Do unto us as as as we've done to these animals. Slaughter us if we don't keep your word. And here is god in thunder and in smoke, and in lightning, and the whole the whole mountain is shaking.
Joel Brooks:And then it says they have this incredible vision of God. Then it says they sat down and they ate with Him. They ate with God. God and glory, this God of thunder, this God of majesty says that they ate with him, they beheld him. In the New Testament, we see how this is possible through another meal in which God ate with man.
Joel Brooks:Jesus is having a meal commemorating this event, the Exodus. And then he says, hey, you know, drink the this, this is the blood of the new covenant, Not the covenant you did there because you failed. This is the blood of a new and better covenant. My blood. And the God of thunder, the God of lightning, the God of wrath, that God will judge me.
Joel Brooks:The meal in Exodus points us to Christ who took away this curse so that we can have the blessing. The blood that was thrown over the people, sprinkling them reminds us, as Hebrews says, that our hearts have been sprinkled. Our hearts have been sprinkled clean, sprinkled by the blood of Jesus. Pray with me. Lord, I can't get that line out of my head, the best obedience of my hands.
Joel Brooks:The very best that I can do dares not appear before your throne, But faith can enter thy answer thy demands by pleading what the Lord has done. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You. And I pray that this week that this would move us. It would change us.
Joel Brooks:You have shown us your heart, and you have shown us your sacrificial love. And because of that you have put your spirit inside us which now allows us to truly obey your law. And I pray we would go in the power of your spirit and do that this week. And I pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.