Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Word in the Wild is a one year Bible adventure with friends. Join from anywhere and enjoy a fun, rewarding, and doable 12-month journey through the Bible where you read it from cover to cover and understand it. It’s not a devotional or recap. It’s a guide by your side through God’s Word. With support from a weekly podcast and an online community of fellow travelers, this is the year when you finally explore the Bible in its own words and on its own terms for yourself.
INTRO
This is Word and the Wild...a one year Bible adventure with friends. My name is Owen. I'm your host and your guide, and together we are on a 12 month journey as a podcast plus community...where we read the Bible for ourselves, but not by ourselves.
This is WEEK SEVEN... we are on a roll!
This week... Moses and the Israelites are hard at work putting together that Tabernacle in the wilderness to create a space to meet with God... and God embeds some dramatic tension deep into our story...
So... hello and welcome in. And, a special welcome to our Word and the Wild PLUS community members. Their support of this non-profit endeavor is making space for all of us on this Bible reading adventure... and their contributions inside our dedicated online community are making it fun! Just some of the conversation we got into last week in our livestream Q&A included:
Why does God in Exodus seem different from God in the New Testament and what I know about Jesus?
What does it mean to misuse God's name?
Why does God seem to condone adultery and mistreatment of slaves in Exodus?
If you'd like to jump into those conversations as well as enjoy other member benefits like our daily reading tracker, nerdy background articles, and other bonus content, then the Word and the Wild PLUS community might be your jam. Learn more in the show notes or over at wordandthewild.com
After the epic action scenes of the Exodus, we're now in a part of the movie where tension and mystery slowly heat up to a simmer in the desert. Moses and the Israelites find themselves in some close encounters with the God who shakes the mountain... Let's jump in with a look back at what we saw in the movie this week...
WHAT DID WE SEE FROM GOD THIS WEEK?
In a word, it's complexity. In the world of storytelling, there are three kinds of characters. You have extras, you have simple characters, and you have complex characters.
Extras are people milling around in the background. They fill coffee shops and sidewalks. If they weren't there, the set would feel empty. But, as an individual, they don't add anything to the story other than filling up the space.
Then you have simple characters. These are two dimensional role-players in the story. Their motivations are simple. Their emotions are simple. It's the fun-seeking roommate who loves to party. It's the slacker co-worker character. The jealous spouse character. Whenever they show up in a scene, they always bring the same energy and desires. If they're funny, they are always funny. If they are creepy, they are always creepy. If they are angry, they are always angry. They never surprise you.
And then, there are the complex characters. They keep things interesting. They have a range of emotions. They often appear contradictory at times and they present conflict and tension in the story. They have goals, hopes, dreams, and desires. In fact, without at least one complex character in the movie, you don't have a movie at all. They are the characters who have a story arc. They move through a beginning of hope, a journey of obstacles, and an ending with an outcome... comedy or tragedy.
Like it or not, God is a complex character in the story of the Bible. And that complexity introduces tension into the story. That's just how it is.
No where is that tension more clear than at the end of what we read last week. In the aftermath of the infamous "Golden Calf" incident, where the Israelites broke their covenant promise to God, Aaron thew a bunch of gold into a fire an idol magically popped out (hashtag, sarcasm), and Moses smashed up the stone tablets on which God had written...
In the aftermath of all that, God invited Moses to once again encounter him on the mountain. And, in this encounter, God introduces massive tension into the story.
Exodus 34 shows what happened:
“Then the LORD came down in a cloud and stood there with him; and he called out his own name, Yahweh.
The LORD passed in front of Moses, calling out,
“Yahweh! The LORD! The God of compassion and mercy! I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.
I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But I do not excuse the guilty. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren; the entire family is affected— even children in the third and fourth generations.”
Moses immediately threw himself to the ground and worshiped.”
(Exodus 34:5–8 NLT)
You can feel the tension in the scene. To Moses and a people who have just broken the first two points in their covenant relationship with Him, God does something we have not seen him do before... he brings his physical presence next to Moses. And, as he does, God not only shows us a peek at his physical presence... he reveals something deep and mysterious about himself that plants a grinding tension right in the very middle of our story.
Because it's a tension embedded in the very middle of God's personality itself.
It's the tension between compassion and accountability.
Here, in just a few dozen words, God shows us himself. He is Yahweh. The God of compassion and mercy...slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. He "lavishes" love and forgiveness with a force that reverberates through generations and millennia. WOW!
And yet... and yet! Pair that with the fact that he also does not ignore or excuse guilt. His justice in the face of sin extends downstream to the third and fourth generations.
It's clear that God leads with compassion. It's the very first word he uses to describe himself and his motivations. He is "the compassionate and gracious God." And the love he shows echos down for a thousand generations.
But, he holds everyone accountable, too. That accountability isn't as fierce as his compassion. The accountability hits down only for a few generations. But, that tension is there. In many ways, these two sides of God's justice are the electromagnet that spins to provide energy to this whole story.
This tension is real and it's here to stay. And, that might bother you.
When you don't let God be the main character of the story, then His complexity can get under your skin. You can find yourself wanting to figure him out instead of just enjoying the ride.
You find yourself asking questions like, "What does God want? How do I make him happy? How do I get him on my side?"
Instead of asking questions like, "Who is God? What is he like? What does he want to see happen? Where is he taking us?"
And those questions are much more helpful.
Because God is a complex character and this is his story.
HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO ME?
As we look ahead in the story this week, we're going to continue to see Moses and the people carrying out God's very detailed instructions for building the Tabernacle. Back in Exodus 25:8, God explains that the reason for this portable sacred space he says, "Have the people of Israel build me a holy sanctuary so I can live among them."
As we watch the people get to work this week, we can allow ourselves some time to marvel at the detail, lavishness, and quality of this very unique construction project. Creating a place to meet with God is not small feat.
But, we can also take a some time to feel a sense of awe about what it all means... Not only for the Israelites... but for us, too.
Which is the question, right? It's the question of how does all this relate to us? What are we supposed to do with all this information?
Well, it really all goes back to the 10 commandments that we saw in Exodus 20... and the backstory for those commandments that we saw in Exodus 19. In Exodus 19, God explains why he brought the Israelites out of Egypt in the first place...and what he wants for their future.
You'll remember that, after a two-month long trek out of Egypt, God led the people to Mount Sinai. At Mount Sinai, this is the very first thing God said:
“Then Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain and said, “This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all 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.’”
(Exodus 19:3–6)
Bottom line: God has brought the people to Sinai to enter into a covenant with them -- a binding, lateral agreement between the two parties. Why? Because God wants the Israelites to have a special relationship with him. And that special relationship involves them being a "kingdom of priests" for God among all the people of the earth.
When you think "priests" don't think people dressed in black with the white collars. Think more of Aaron and his descendants. Aaron's role as a priest is to provide the way to establish and maintain a relationship with God. To help the people know who God is, to understand how to establish a friendship with God, and to live life with God.
God's heart is for the Israelites to be an entire nation of people who collectively form the access point to God for the world. The Israelites are to be established in the land promised to Abraham and help the world know God, establish friendship with God, and to live life with God.
What do the people of Israel need to do to hold up their end of the deal and represent God to the world?
That's where those 10 Commandments come in.
So far, we have read a LOT of directions and instructions from God. And, hate to break it to you, but we are going to see many more. By some counts, there are more than 600 commands from God in the Old Testament.
But, these first 10 are special. First, because these are the only commands that God himself speaks to the people from the mountain with his own voice. The rest of the commands in Exodus and beyond come with Moses acting as a mediator between God and the people.
Not only that, but the grammar in these commandments is interesting and kind of intense. Each the "You must not..." statements that make up the 10 commandments... they are second person singular. In other words, each command is not spoken to the group they are spoken to every individual member of the Israelite community. It's not "Y'all must not lie..." It's "Owen. Do not lie." Intense.
But another reason I think these commandments are key is because, in many ways, these commandments form what we could call "Guidelines for the Good Life." They set out in stark, simple detail the kind of life that God has created all human beings to live. The kind of life that was created for humanity back in Eden before the Adam and Eve ate the fruit.
That was life the way God designed it. And here, with the Israelites, he outlines exactly what that life looks like. The first four commandments all have to do with maintaining a good life with God. The last six all have to do with living a good life with others.
And the other 600 commandments that follow? In many ways they either give more guidance on how to live out those 10 commandments... or show the path back to the good life with God and the community if someone finds themself in a sticky situation where they have missed the mark on following those 10 ten.
So... where does that leave us in relation to those 10 commandments? For the Israelites, keeping these commandments as a community was foundational to maintaining their covenant relationship with God. What about us?
Not to spoil the story too much... but there's a little something that's going happen in our story. It's going to take us a while to get there, but eventually we will be introduced to Jesus. And, Jesus changes so much about how we as people establish and maintain a relationship with God.
It's worth ripping a page out of a much later chapter in our story to explain. In the very last month of Bible adventure, we are going to come across a book in the New Testament called Hebrews. All the work you're putting in now with the Old Testament will pay off in Hebrews because you will understand it. The book of Hebrews is all about connecting the Old Testament and the New. It explains for us today our relationship between the covenant between God and the people of Israel and how it relates to us now.
I'm going to read a section of that book of Hebrews to you here. It's not long. And, it perfectly answers the question, how does all this stuff about the Tabernacle, and the sacrifices, and the commandments all relate to us right now....
Heb. 8:1-13:
“Here is the main point: We have a High Priest who sat down in the place of honor beside the throne of the majestic God in heaven. There he ministers in the heavenly Tabernacle, the true place of worship that was built by the Lord and not by human hands.
And since every high priest is required to offer gifts and sacrifices, our High Priest must make an offering, too. If he were here on earth, he would not even be a priest, since there already are priests who offer the gifts required by the law. They serve in a system of worship that is only a copy, a shadow of the real one in heaven. For when Moses was getting ready to build the Tabernacle, God gave him this warning: “Be sure that you make everything according to the pattern I have shown you here on the mountain.”
But now Jesus, our High Priest, has been given a ministry that is far superior to the old priesthood, for he is the one who mediates for us a far better covenant with God, based on better promises.
If the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need for a second covenant to replace it.
But when God found fault with the people, he said:
“The day is coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah.
This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of the land of Egypt. They did not remain faithful to my covenant, so I turned my back on them, says the LORD.
But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day, says the LORD: I will put my laws in their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the LORD.’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already.
And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.”
When God speaks of a “new” covenant, it means he has made the first one obsolete. It is now out of date and will soon disappear.”
(Hebrews 8:1–13)
A copy... A shadow. That's what we see as we watch the Israelites construct that Tabernacle in the wilderness.
But a copy can show you something of the original. And a shadow can still reveal the shape of the original. So, it matters and means something.
But don't hang to tightly to this old covenant. There's a day coming in our story when it will be made obsolete by the new.
The 10 commandments are still on the table. Jesus didn't come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. The Guildelines for the Good Life are still on the table... but everyone who establishes a relationship with God through Jesus is not on the hook for them.
They are a shadow of things to come....
WRAP & OUTRO
Word and the Wild is a one year Bible adventure with friends.
All your Word and the Wild PLUS community members, I'll be seeing you in THE WILD... our private online community space. Everyone else, don't be a stranger. Subscribe to this podcast and follow Word and the Wild on Facebook for some interaction there.
Word and the Wild is a LineHouse Community. It's part of the LineHouse Community Network, a nonprofit organization with a mission to bring neighbors together to promote awareness, appreciation, and understanding of the Bible.
Because friendship and God's Word change lives and change cities.
And... presented by the LumaVoz podcast network.
And with that, we're out. I'm Owen, I'm your host and your guide. Until next time, I'll see you out there on the trail in the Word and the Wild.