42. Meeting God: The Glory of God at Mt. Sinai

G'. Day. Welcome to Stories of a Faithful God. I'm Dave Whittingham. How forgetful are you?Do you think of memory as one of your strengths, or are you more like me? You count it as a miracle when you actually do remember something. How well do you remember God?Not just now, when listening to a podcast about him, but in the morning when you're tired and possibly a little grumpy. What about when you're stuck in traffic, when someone's rude or hurtful to you? When you're worrying about the future?What about when the temptation is running high and you're so used to that temptation you barely even notice it? What about when people are complimenting and praising you, giving you glory? Or when you wish they'd give you that glory?Humans are really good at forgetting what's not right in front of our faces. That's what happened to the Israelites in the wilderness. They'd seen God do so many amazing things.He'd proven his loving faithfulness to them time and time and time again. But when they ran out of water or food, they forgot and they panicked and they grumbled.And as much as we can look back at them in shock, too often we're in real danger of having that same sort of forgetfulness. So what effect would it have if we were to actually meet God in person, hear his voice, see his glory? What effect would that have on our memory?Because that's what's about to happen for the Israelites as they come to Mount Sinai. Let's join them there at the foot of the mountain as I present to you our next episode of stories of a Faithful God.In the third month, from the very day the Israelites left the land of Egypt, they came to the Sinai wilderness. They traveled from Rephidim, came to the Sinai wilderness, and camped in the wilderness. Israel camped there in front of the mountain.That's Exodus, chapter 19, verses 1 and 2. It's worth reflecting on just how amazing and momentous this arrival is. They've just travelled from Rephidim.At Rephidim, they had no water and they were under attack from the Amalekites. But God saved them. He made water miraculously pour out from a rock, and he powerfully defeated the Amalekites.Those incidents by themselves would be amazing enough. But before Rephidim, they'd come from Egypt. They'd been slaves, without hope and without help, or so they thought.Yahweh, the God of their ancestors, had arrived. When Pharaoh refused to release his people, God ruined everything. Egypt relied on for its power.He made a mockery of their gods, he devastated their agriculture, he killed their next generation of leaders. And finally he destroyed their army. And yet, even before that had all happened, God had decided the outcome.He announced his sovereign power to one scared man who he made a prophet. He called to him on this very mountain. He told Moses his name, he told Moses his plan.And in chapter 3, verse 12, he declared, this will be the sign to you that I am the one who sent you. When you bring the people out of Egypt, you will all worship God at this mountain. That plan that had seemed impossible, God's now fulfilled.Here they are at the mountain, safe from the Egyptians, provided with everything they need, ready to worship their God. While they're camped at the base, Moses goes up the mountain to meet with God. Moses must be one of the fittest prophets in the Old Testament.There are a few.You've got the long distance runners, Jonah, who ran from Jerusalem to Joppa on the coast, and Elijah, who ran from the north of Israel down to Mount Sinai. You've got the endurance beast Ezekiel, who lay on his left side for 390 days. But Moses has to win the mountain climbing award.Over the course of this episode, he's going to be going up and down this mountain a whole bunch of times, which is pretty impressive for an 80 year old. Not nearly as impressive as what God's done though.As he describes what he's done to Moses, he seems to capture both his power and his loving care in a single image.In verse three, Yahweh calls to Moses and says, this is what you must say to the house of Jacob and explain to the Israelites, you have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I carried you on eagles wings and, and brought you to myself. I don't know for sure, but I suspect Tolkien was thinking of this passage when he was writing the Lord of the Rings.Right near the end, the heroes Frodo and Sam are stuck in the land of Mordor, the land of darkness and evil. They're stranded on the side of an erupting volcano. They're without help and without hope. And then the eagles arrive.Giant eagles who bear them with power and care to safety. That's a nice work of fiction, but it reflects the history we read in Exodus. The loving power by which God rescued his people.The Israelites are a saved people. And now God calls them to live as his saved people.In verse 5 he says, now if you will carefully listen to me and keep my covenant, you will be my own Possession out of all the peoples, although the whole earth is mine. And you will be my kingdom of priests and my holy nation. These are the words that you are to say to the Israelites.Notice that it's not like God's forgotten about the rest of the world or given up his claim on the rest of the world. In the Israelites, though, he wants them to be a nation of people who reflect his glory, who mediate their knowledge of God to the world.They'll be priests who lead people to God, and they'll have a special place with him as his prized possession. What a privilege, what an honour. All they have to do is listen to him, obey him, keep his covenant, his agreement with them.Moses goes back down the mountain. He gathers all the elders, the leaders of the people, and he lays out the offer God's put on the table.Their Response in verse 8 is clear and unambiguous. We will do all that the Lord Yahweh has spoken. Fantastic. They want in. They seem to understand the value of what Yahweh's offering them.Moses heads back up the mountain that's climb number two, and reports their answer to God. Notice how Moses is the go between the mediator between the Israelites and God. And God wants the people to know that Moses really is his man.Moses isn't lying or making things up. They can trust that he truthfully reports Yahweh's words.So Yahweh says to Moses in verse nine, I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear when I speak with you and will always believe you. Then he tells Moses to go and consecrate the people. In other words, prepare them for a holy purpose.They have to wash their clothes over the next couple of days, because on the third day they are going to meet their holy God. He will come down on Mount Sinai in front of them all.But even as he does come down, as they experience an amazing closeness with him, they're also going to feel their distance from him. He's a holy God, after all. And they're sinful people, so they can't come too close. If they do, they'll die.In verse 12, he gives this command to put boundaries for the people all around the mountain and say, be careful that you don't go up on the mountain or touch its base. Anyone who touches the mountain must be put to death. No hand may touch him.Instead he'll be stoned or shot with arrows and not live, whether animal or human. When the ram's horn sounds a long blast. They may go up the mountain.This is going to be the theme throughout all of Israel's dealings with the presence of God. Closeness and distance, special relationship. And cut off from God's presence.When they build the special tent, the tabernacle, the tent that symbolizes God's presence with them, they'll have it with them, but they can't go in. It'll be the same when the temple is built in Jerusalem. The close proximity to God, but shut out because of their sin.It's a problem that won't be fixed until the moment Jesus dies on the cross, becoming the sin of his people. So that we can be made holy. And the curtain of the temple will be torn in two, opening the way to God.After that, God will actually come and live inside his people by his holy Spirit. The distance between God and his people is removed. Moses comes down the mountain and consecrates the people. He gets them to wash their clothes.He also tells them not to have sex over the next few days. That's a pretty weird command. We didn't hear it from God, but we did hear that Moses is a trustworthy mouthpiece of God. So it must be what God wants.It isn't that sex is evil in the right context. God actually created it for monogamous male female marriages. This just seems to be a short time when God says, ah, hold off there, guys.Put your energy into preparing to meet me. So the people get prepared. But perhaps nothing could have mentally prepared them for what they're about to see and hear and feel and experience.On the morning of the third day, thunder and lightning. A thick cloud descends on the mountain. The sound of a ram's horn blasts out so loudly everyone in the camp is terrified and trembles.And Moses leads them out of the camp to the base of the mountain. Listen to this description of what they see from verse 18. Think about how terrifying this is.We're told Mount Sinai was completely enveloped in smoke because the Lord came down on it in fire. Its smoke went up like the smoke of a furnace. And the whole mountain shook violently. As the sound of the ram's horn grew louder and louder.Moses spoke and God answered him in the thunder. Imagine seeing a whole mountain shake.The whole mountain covered in the thick smoke you normally see rising from a furnace, fire descending on the mountain. The roar of the horn getting louder and louder. Who could dare to approach this God? Who could dare to speak with him? And yet Moses speaks to him.And the voice of the almighty God responds to this prophet, this mediator. Again he summons Moses up the mountain, only to tell him to go back down with a message. Verse 21.Go down and warn the people not to break through to see the Lord, otherwise many of them will die. Even the priests who come near the Lord must consecrate themselves or the Lord will break out in anger against them.In the previous series on Exodus, we talked about fearing God. We said that when you fear God, you have nothing else to fear. God will look after you. But we shouldn't take away from that word fear.Our sin makes us abhorrent to God, our feeble attempts to replace him in our lives and set our own laws, our own agendas.When the Israelites are standing before this smoking mountain, hearing the thunderous voice of God, knowing that if they approach him, they'll die, surely that's a terrifying sight. God is showing them that they should fear him. Fear rejecting him, fear rebelling against him.Moses tells God that the people already know not to come up. But God still sends him back down in order to bring Aaron, his brother and the future high priest, with him up the mountain. And he labours.The point about everyone else not coming up, he says, go down and come back with Aaron. But the priests and the people must not break through to come up to the Lord, or he will break out in anger against them.God's protecting them even as he's telling them that they're too evil to approach him. He's caring for them and committing himself to them. So Moses goes back down the mountain and reminds the people.God also says some other things, and it isn't entirely clear whether he says them to Moses before he heads back down the mountain, or he announces them to all the people. When Moses is down with them, God says ten commandments, ten instructions on how to live as the saved people of God.He ties them to the fact that he's the God who saved them. As God saved people, their first and foremost priority is Him. In fact, the first three commands are all about their relationship with Him.He says in Exodus 22, I am the Lord, or I am Yahweh, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery. Do not have other gods besides me.Do not make an idol for yourself, whether in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth. Do not bow in worship to them and do not serve them.For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, bringing the consequences of the Father's iniquity on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing faithful love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commands. Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God, because the Lord will not leave anyone unpunished who misuses his name.What a horrible, evil thing it would be to be saved by this God and then treat his name as nothing. Or to flirt with other gods, or to make an image of a created thing, like a bull or a frog, or a river or the sun.Things that came into being at the word of the Creator. How evil to make an image of them and call it the Creator. It would be like committing adultery. And God would be right to be jealous.The next command is explicitly tied back to how God created the earth. He says in verse eight, remember the Sabbath day. To keep it holy, you are to labour six days and do all your work.But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You must not do any work. You, your son or daughter, your male or female servant, your livestock, or the resident alien who is within your city gates.For the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and everything in them in six days. Then he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and declared it holy.After telling them how to treat their Creator and Saviour. He explains how they should treat each other in verse 12.He says, honour your father and your mother so that you may have a long life in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not. Do not give false testimony against your neighbour.Do not covet your neighbour's house, do not covet your neighbor's wife, his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour. As I said, it's a little unclear whether the people get to hear these words directly from God.But one thing's for sure, they don't want to hear directly from God. They've seen the thunder and lightning, the blaring sound of the ram's horn, the smoke covering the mountain, and they are terrified.There's no danger of them going onto the mountain. They don't even want to come close. They're overawed by the power and majesty of God.And possibly for the first time, they're starting to come to terms with just who they're dealing with. They realise they're not able to interact with this holy God. They need a go between an intermediary.They say to Moses in verse 19 you speak to us and we will listen, but don't let God speak to us or we will die. Moses replies, don't be afraid, for God has come to test you so that you will fear him and will not sin. There's that strange idea again.Don't be afraid. God wants you to fear him, so you won't sin.You see, if you do fear God, if you really understand the foolishness of rebelling against him, you won't want to sin and you'll have nothing to fear. That's why God's revealed himself in this way.Would they have been so arrogant to grumble and complain about God as they traveled in the wilderness if they had this picture of God in their head, Would they have been so flippant?And so with the mountain shaking and covered in fire and smoke, with the blast of the ram's horn resounding around the hills with the thunder raging and the lightning flashing, we read this in verse 21, and the people remained standing at a distance as Moses approached the total darkness where God was. In chapters 21 to 23, God gives more laws and commands.We're not going to go into a lot of detail with them, because this podcast is more about the narrative sections. I was wondering though, what's the difference between these commands and the more famous Ten Commandments?Some of them are a simple restatement or expansion of one of the Ten Commandments. For example, chapter 23, verse 1 says, you must not spread a false report. Do not join the wicked to be a malicious witness.You must not follow a crowd in wrongdoing. Do not testify in a lawsuit and go along with a crowd to pervert justice. Do not show favouritism to a poor person in his lawsuit.In a sense, you could have already known all that from the ninth Commandment. Do not give false testimony against your neighbour, but God's emphasizing it and showing some of the detail of what it looks like.Some of the laws don't have an obvious link to the Ten Commandments, but they're much more situational. The Ten Commandments apply all the time to all Israelites. But here's an example of a very situational Commandment in chapter 23, verse 5.If you see the donkey of someone who hates you lying helpless under its load, and you want to refrain from helping it, you must help with it. Now, that's not going to happen every day. But when it does happen, here's what you do.There are also commands that tie back to the first three of the Ten Commandments. About the people's relationship with God and other gods. Like chapter 23, verse 13. God, pay strict attention to everything I have said to you.You must not invoke the names of other gods. They must not be heard on your lips.As I read through the list and think about summarizing them, my mind keeps coming back to what Jesus says are the two most important commandments. When he's asked what the most important commandment is, he replies in Mark 12:29, the most important is listen, Israel, the Lord our God.The Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.The second is love your neighbour as yourself. There is no other command greater than these.Those commands aren't in the 10, they come later in Deuteronomy, and yet they summarize all the law, including the ten commandments. They work really closely together.If you do love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, that's what's going to help you love your neighbour. Just think about that command before about helping the donkey of someone who hates you, even though you don't want to. Why would you do that?Isn't it because you know the God who cares for people who hate him? Isn't that what he's done for Israel? As they've travelled through the wilderness, they've despised him for bringing them out of Egypt.They hated him because they thought he wanted to kill them. And yet he fed them and provided water for them and gave them victory over their enemies.So if you're an Israelite and you love the God who's done that for you, surely you can do the much easier task of helping this guy's donkey even though he hates you.Towards the end of this section, where God's showing people how to live as his saved people, God makes a promise about what's going to happen from here. It's a promise that has its roots in the promise God gave to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob back in Genesis 400 years before.A promise that looks forward to the special land that God will give to his special people. It's a promise of protection and care. But it also comes with a warning.In verse 2023, God says, I am going to send an angel before you to protect you on the way and bring you to the place I have prepared. Be attentive to him and listen to him. Do not defy him, because he will not forgive your acts of rebellion, for My name is in Him.This angel has been mentioned before he. He was there when Moses was called by God. He was protecting the Israelites from the Egyptian army through the night at the sea.Now he'll protect them on the way to Canaan. If. If they obey him. The angel is God's representative, and so they need to respond to his commands as they'd respond to God.We don't ever hear from or see this angel explicitly, except possibly at the start of the Book of Joshua. It could be that when we hear from God, though we're hearing through this angel. Angel just means messenger.The consequences of not listening to him are massive. He will not forgive you. Of course, there are plenty of times when the people rebel and the punishment is restrained.There's some level of grace or forgiveness. The greatest act of rebellion by the Israelites, though, is will come in the Book of Numbers.God will lead them safely to the edge of the promised land. But because they fear the inhabitants more than they fear God, because they still don't trust their God, they refuse to go in.And so they're not forgiven. Every single adult, apart from two, pays the cost of that fateful disobedience. They spend the next 40 years wandering and dying in the wilderness.And it's only their children who get to go in. Of course, the consequences of obedience are massive. The consequences of saying, yes, I'll have no other God but you.My devotion will only be to Yahweh. If they choose that path, well, listen to what will happen.But if you will carefully obey him and do everything I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes. For my angel will go before you and bring you to the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites.And I will wipe them out. Do not bow in worship to their gods and do not serve them. Do not imitate their practices.Instead, demolish them and smash their sacred pillars to pieces. Serve the Lord your God, and he will bless your bread and your water. I will remove illnesses from you.No woman will miscarry or be childless in your land. I will give you the full number of your days.I will cause the people ahead of you to feel terror and will throw into confusion all the nations you come to. I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you in retreat.I will send hornets in front of you, and they will drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites away from you. Safety, protection, freedom, blessing, even no more illness or miscarriage. This is heaven on earth. It's an amazing deal.It shows what people give up when they choose to reject God. It isn't a burden to submit to God and listen to him. It's astoundingly good. God's even careful and thoughtful in the way he'll give them the land.He says in verse 29, I will not drive them out ahead of you in a single year. Otherwise the land would become desolate and wild animals would multiply against you.I will drive them out little by little ahead of you until you have become numerous and take possession of the land. I will set your borders from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea and from the wilderness to the Euphrates River.For I will place the inhabitants of the land under your control and you will drive them out ahead of you. And in case the message hasn't sunk in, he reminds them that they must not turn to the Canaanite gods.In verse 32, he says, you must not make a covenant with them or their gods. They must not remain in your land, or else they will make you sin against me. If you serve their gods, it will be a snare for you.We have to remember that as well as blessing the Israelites, God is also punishing the peoples who live in Canaan for their evil. In fact, he has delayed this invasion until their evil is worthy of it and their evil is intricately tied up with their gods.While Yahweh is telling his people to love even people who hate them, the Canaanites are sacrificing their own children to their gods. Yahweh's not being selfish in telling his people to worship only Him. He's telling them what's best, what's right, what's good.Of course, you don't need a huge amount of Bible history to know that the people never really stick to their agreement with God. They never fully trust him, which means they're never fully safe in the land.Sickness and miscarriage and barrenness is never done away with in the land. In the New Testament, though, we discover a new way to a better land.All who put their trust in Jesus are heading for a land with no more sickness, no more weeping, no more death. God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. This new way to the new land is open to everyone, Jew and Gentile.Sometimes some Christians make the mistake of thinking that the hope for modern Jews is in the modern state of Israel. And although they're well intentioned, it's a great unkindness to the Jews. Their hope isn't in that modern piece of land in the Middle East.Their hope is in Jesus. He'll take them to a far better land for all eternity, if only they trust in him. At Mount Sinai in Exodus, though, all that's in the future.They don't know about it yet. Instead, they're filled with hope and optimism.And because they've agreed to the covenant with God, they have a special ceremony, almost like a marriage ceremony. God sends Moses to get the leaders of Israel.In chapter 24, verse 1, he says, Go up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and 70 of Israel's elders and bow in worship at a distance. Moses alone is to approach the Lord, but the others are not to approach and the people are not to go up with him.Moses still has a special place as mediator, even when other leaders are involved. Moses heads back down the mountain. I think we're up to his fourth descent.And he lays out everything God's commanded him, all the laws and all the promises. And verse three says that all the people respond with a single voice. We will do everything that the Lord has commanded. How wonderful is that?I mean, when you hear what God's offering, you'd be nuts not to sign up. But it's so good that they actually do want in. They're totally unified in their decision. Moses writes down all of Yahweh's words.Then he builds an altar at the base of the mountain with 12 pillars for the 12 tribes of Israel. He gets young men to make two types of sacrifices, burnt offerings and fellowship offerings.Burnt offerings symbolise that sin has been atoned for, paid for. The animal has died in the place of the Israelites.It's taken their guilt on itself and borne the judgment so the people can be forgiven and set aside for God. Fellowship offerings show the people's fellowship with God. Moses takes half the blood from the sacrifices and puts it in bowls.The other half he sprinkles on the altar. Then he reads aloud the covenant scroll, the words of Yahweh.This is like the moment in the wedding when the promises are read out and the bride and groom agree to the promises and agree to be married. Sure, they agreed to be married. Back at the proposal, however, that played out.But this is the moment of truth, and the Israelites don't change their minds or back out when they hear the words. They say in verse seven, we will do and obey all that the Lord has commanded.So Moses takes the blood that he'd set aside and he splatters the people with it. He says this is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you concerning all these words.And you know that moment in a wedding when you know that the deed is done. The couple came in unmarried, but now through the ceremony, they're married. They're husband and wife. This is even more amazing than that.Yahweh, the creator of the universe, has bound himself to these people, his creation. It's a wonderful moment of grace and kindness. And just like at a wedding, it deserves a celebration, a feast even.Moses goes with Aaron and Aaron's two sons, Nadab and Abihu, along with 70 of Israel's elders. And these people are given a remarkable gift. They actually get to see the God of Israel.Verse 10 says, beneath his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as clear as the sky itself. God did not harm the Israelite nobles. They saw him and they ate and drank. What a privilege to eat and drink with God.It specifically mentions that they're not harmed because when sinful people are in God's presence, they would normally die. God would judge them then and there. That's why God told the Israelites not to come up on the mountain.But now their sins have been atoned for and God allows them to join him for a banquet. Then God calls Moses up to him in verse 12.He says, come up to me on the mountain and stay there so that I may give you the stone tablets with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction. So Moses leaves Aaron and Hur in charge and he takes Joshua with him up the mountain.We never really hear what Joshua, the future leader of Israel, gets to see and hear when he is up the mountain and what he doesn't.I think what's really important here though is the fact that he goes up the mountain with Moses and that means he isn't involved in the evil that's about to happen at the base of the mountain. We're told in verse 16, the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai and the cloud covered it for six days.On the seventh day, he called to Moses from the cloud. The appearance of the Lord's glory to the Israelites was like a consuming fire on the mountaintop.Moses entered the cloud as he went up the mountain, and he remained on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights. Over the next 40 days and 40 nights, God gives Moses very detailed instructions on how to construct the tabernacle.As has been said elsewhere, tabernacle is a four syllable word that means tent, a four letter word that I can actually spell. This tent will represent God's dwelling place on earth with his people. It'll contain the Ark of the Covenant, which represents his throne.The Ark will be covered with gold, as will the objects that go inside the tent. God gives detailed descriptions of how these need to be made, as well as along with the special clothes the high priest will wear.God's establishing the place where he'll be worshipped, where the priest will come to seek forgiveness for the sins of the people, where God will live with his people in order to bless them. As he is explaining all this to Moses, though, something terrible is happening at the foot of the mountain. The Israelites are getting itchy feet.They're sick of waiting for Moses. They're worried they won't see him again, especially as he seems to be their chief connection to God.They're afraid of what will happen without some divine help. Bear in mind the cloud is still sitting over Mount Sinai.They should still be very aware of God's presence and the kindness and goodness of this God who saved them. But that doesn't seem to play into their thinking.We're told they gather around Aaron and you can kind of feel the pressure of them coming at him from every side. They ask him to do something that seems astounding. In chapter 32, verse 1, they say, come, make gods for us who will go before us.Because this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we don't know what's happened to him. There's so much wrong with that that it's hard to know where to begin. I mean, make gods for us.What kind of power is a God going to have if you make it, how can it possibly help you as you travel through dangers? Can it give you bread from heaven? Can it make water from a rock? They're abandoning their creator for something of their own creation. How degrading.They've already been told by Yahweh in the first commandment that do not have other gods besides me. And the second commandment said, do not make idols and bow down and worship them. This is like having an affair on your honeymoon.As well as dismissing Yahweh, they're dismissing his representative, Moses. They're too impatient to wait for God to safely return him.Now, you'd hope that Aaron, the man chosen to be the nation's first ever high priest, to be the mediator between God and his people. You'd hope that he'd rebuke them, call them to repentance and faith. Unfortunately, he gives in faster than you can say ten Commandments.He says in verse two, take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters and bring them to me. Remember why they have all those gold rings. It's because as they were leaving Egypt, God made the Egyptians give them all their gold.They plundered the Egyptians because of Yahweh's powerful victory. Now they're willingly handing over that gold to make something Yahweh hates. Aaron melts it down and fashions it into an image of a calf.Then he announces in verse four, israel, these are your gods who brought you up from the land of Egypt.It's weird that he says gods rather than God when there's only one calf, but they did ask for gods plural, so perhaps they're all riding on the back of the calf. Notice though, that he's saying that it or they saved the Israelites from Egypt. And in the next verse, he's going to announce a festival for Yahweh.So. So it seems that in some way he's linking this calf to Yahweh, which is terrible. It's a horrible representation of Yahweh for all sorts of reasons.One key reason is it can't speak. Yahweh made the world by speaking, and he saved Israel by speaking. He said that the Nile would turn to blood or that frogs would come up.And it all happened in obedience to his word. Right now, Yahweh is giving his word to Moses up there on the mountain and writing his word on two stone tablets.He's already spoken his word to the people, and on that basis they agreed to worship him. And yet here they are disobeying his word in order to worship a thing that can't speak any words.At the festival to Yahweh the next day, the people offer burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, exactly the same offerings they'd made to Yahweh in their commitment to obey him and keep his covenant. Now they're making the offerings in disobedience to his covenant. We're told in verse six, the people sat down to eat and drink and got up to party.Meanwhile, up on the mountain, the Lord knows exactly what's happening. He says to Moses in verse seven, go down at once for your people you brought up from the land of Egypt have acted corruptly.They have quickly turned away from the way I commanded them. They have made for themselves an image of a calf.They have bowed down to it, sacrificed to it, and said, israel, these are your gods who Brought you up from the land of Egypt. God will not be mocked. He's given the Israelites life and blessing and now they deserve to have all that taken away.He speaks to Moses again and says, I have seen this people and they are indeed a stiff necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger can burn against them and I can destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.God has every right to do this. It's what the people deserve. And he wouldn't be breaking his promises by doing it. The people have broken the covenant.And God told them what would happen if they broke it. But did you notice how God's actually being merciful? How he's opening the door to save the people.He's established Moses as the mediator between him and the people. He tells Moses to go away. Because if Moses stays, he might mediate on behalf of the people.By telling Moses the plan, he actually makes it more likely that Moses will mediate on their behalf. God even offers a huge blessing to Moses if the people are destroyed. And yet Moses does exactly what God chose him to do.He does what God opened the door for him to do and hinted that he could do. He pleads on behalf of the nation. In verse 11 he says, Lord, why does your anger burn against your people?You brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a strong hand. Why should the Egyptians say he brought them out with an evil intent to kill them in the mountains and eliminate them from the face of the earth.Turn from your fierce anger and relent concerning this disaster planned for your people. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel.You swore to them by yourself and declared, I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky and will give your offspring all this land that I've promised and they will inherit it forever. His plea has nothing to do with anything good or worthwhile in the people. Moses knows that they don't deserve mercy.Instead, Moses plea is based on the honour and faithfulness of God. It would be a terrible thing if the Egyptians misunderstood his actions. If they thought he was evil, when really he was just and fair.And it would be a terrible thing for God to look like he is being unfaithful to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Moses is concerned for the goodness and glory of God. Yahweh accepts his plea and relents from sending disaster.Then Moses turns to the other aspect of his God given role. He heads down the mountain to confront the people.He has with him two stone tablets which God had written the words of the testimony on the Ten Commandments. God's inscribed them front and back. Joshua's with him as he heads back down. And as they get close, they can hear the shouting of the people.Joshua, who led Israel in battle, is worried. He says in verse 17, there is the sound of war in the camp. But Moses knows better.He replies, it's not the sound of a victory cry and not the sound of a cry of defeat. I hear the sound of singing. Singing isn't inherently evil, but there seems to be a suggestion of wild, unrestrained revelry here.They finally turn a corner and see the calf and the dancing. And Moses is filled with rage. He reflects the rage of God at the people's evil. In his rage, he destroys two things.First, he destroys the stone tablets, the work of God's hands, the tablets that God himself had written on. It symbolizes that Israel has broken the covenant. Next, he destroys the calf, the work of their hands.In verse 20, we read, he took the calf they had made, burned it up and ground it to powder. He scattered the powder over the surface of the water and forced the Israelites to drink the water.As evil as the people have been, the guilt of the man who had been left in charge is even worse. Moses turns to Aaron and asks, what did these people do to you that you have led them into such a grave sin?It's a question that comes out of astonishment. What did they do to you? They must have done something, otherwise there's no possible reason why you would have let this happen. Did they torture you?Did they kidnap your family? Did they threaten to kill you? What could it possibly have been, Aaron? Of course, there was nothing like that.Sure, there was a certain amount of verbal pressure, but really, Aaron basically did nothing to resist them. And so, like Saul in our last series, like Adam and Eve, after the first sin, Aaron tries to deflect the blame. He starts by blaming the people.Don't be enraged, my Lord, he replies in verse 22. You yourself know that the people are intent on evil. They said to me, make gods for us who will go before us.Because this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we don't know what's happened to him.Now, Moses does know that the people are intent on evil, but that's exactly why he left Aaron in charge, to lead them back to goodness and truth, to point them back to the covenant they'd made only days before. That's a pretty empty excuse from Aaron.But if that's bad, it's nothing compared to what Aaron says next, he goes for a straight out lie that effectively blames God. He makes it sound like God made this happen. He says, so I said to them, whoever has gold, take it off.And they gave it to me when I threw it into the fire and out came this calf. It was a miracle, Moses, just like all the miracles we've seen in Egypt and all our travels. He's saying, what a ridiculous lie.As if God would miraculously create an object he's expressly forbidden. Moses isn't convinced for a second. He looks around at the people wildly partying and he sees Aaron's let them get completely out of control.He sees that they will be a laughingstock to their enemies. He stands at the entrance to the camp and he says, whoever is for the Lord, come to me. And the Levites come to him.This is one bright moment in a story of darkness. The Levites will serve as priests and will take care of the tabernacle. Even though Aaron failed, there are still leaders who want to honor Yahweh.He gives these men a command. It sounds brutal, but it fits with what they've just committed themselves to.They've said they're for the Lord, and if you're for the Lord, you're against his enemies.And so Moses says to the levites in verse 27, every man fasten his sword to his side, go back and forth through the camp from entrance to entrance, and each of you kill his brother, his friend and his neighbour. And they do. They serve out the consequences of turning against the Lord, the giver of life.We're told that 3,000 men are killed, which suggests that they aren't aiming to hand out the full destruction that was deserved the destruction that Moses pleaded for God not to send. It's a restrained judgment, a limited judgment. Moses commends the Levites for putting God first.He says in verse 29, today you have been dedicated to the Lord since each man went against his son and his brother. Therefore you have brought a blessing on yourselves. Today night comes and things settle down.The next day Moses says to the people in verse 30, you have committed a grave sin. Now I will go up to the Lord. Perhaps I will be able to atone for your sin. It begs the question, how can he atone for the people's sin?Usually it would be through an atonement sacrifice. But we don't read about him taking any animal with him.However it's going to happen, though, we see again here, Moses desire to help the people, knowing full well that they don't deserve it. They're not innocent. They're not basically good people. They deserve to die. And yet, knowing that, Moses prepares to plead for mercy on their behalf.Once again, he climbs the mountain to meet with Yahweh. He says to God in verse 21, oh, these people have committed a grave sin. They have made a God of gold for themselves.Now, if you would only forgive their sin. But if not, please erase me from the book you have written. Just take a moment to reflect on what Moses is saying there.You'd love for God to just forget this whole thing, to forgive the people and move on. If a sacrifice is needed for that to happen, though Moses is willing to offer himself. He's actually willing to give up eternity to save them.It's not like these people have treated Moses well. They couldn't really care less about him. They've made his life painful ever since they left Egypt.And yet Moses is still willing to lay down his life for them. That is astounding love. The Lord doesn't accept his offer, though in verse 33, he replies, Whoever has sinned against me, I will erase from my book.Now go lead the people to the place I told you about. See, my angel will go before you. But on the day I settle accounts, I will hold them accountable for their sin.In other words, each person will receive exactly what they deserve. Justice will be done. And Moses is not able to provide himself as a sacrifice for them. Moses truly is a great man, A man who loves his God.It's worth remembering how he was at the start of Exodus, begging God not to send him to Egypt. Look at how much God's changed him. He's become this wonderful mediator between God and his people. And yet he can't be the ultimate mediator.He can't wipe away their sin and guilt. He isn't worthy enough to give himself as a sacrifice for the people. But God still wants to save people 1400 years later.He'll send a far greater mediator. God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who revealed himself to be God.What Moses couldn't do to bring people to God, God himself did, through Jesus. The one perfectly able not just to plead for his people, but to lay down his life as a guilt offering for his people.In the time of Exodus, though, down in the camp, God sends a plague on the people because of what they'd done with the calf Aaron had made. We're not told what the plague is, but you can't help but think of what happened to the Egyptians when they rejected God.In chapter 15, verse 26, God had said to the Israelites, if you will carefully obey the Lord your God, do what is right in his sight, pay attention to his commands and and keep all his statutes. I will not inflict any illnesses on you that I inflicted on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord who heals you.Instead of living as the holy nation of God, though the people had chosen to become just like the Egyptians and so God treated them like the Egyptians.Then God tells Moses some devastating go up from here, you and the people you brought up from the land of Egypt to the land I promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, I will give it to your offspring. I will send an angel ahead of you and I will drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey, but I will not go up with you because you are a stiff necked people. Otherwise I might destroy you on the way. It all sounds kind of great.They get the land, God's angel will drive out the other people, the place will be flowing with milk and honey, and yet they won't have God. They won't have the one person who makes it all worthwhile.It sounds like a punishment and it kind of is, but it's also merciful God saying, you guys keep sinning, you keep rejecting me. If I go with you, I'm going to have to wipe you out. It's going to be better for you if we just go our separate ways.When the people hear this news, they're devastated. We're told they go into mourning and don't put on their jewelry.That seems like an odd little detail, but it's because God said something else to Moses. He says in chapter 33, verse 5, tell the Israelites you are a stiff necked people. If I went up with you for a single moment, I would destroy you.Now take off your jewellery and I will decide what to do with you. Remember, they had taken off their jewellery just a few days before, donating their rings to make the golden calf.Now they're taking it off in sadness as they prepare to face the consequences of their actions. And yet, just like we saw before, God's actually left a door open for things to change. Take off your jewelry and I will decide what to do with you.Hasn't he already decided? He's told Moses and them what's going to happen. And yet he's giving space for something to change, giving space for someone to Request a change.The story seems to be interrupted by a description of a tent. It isn't the tabernacle, it's called the Tent of Meeting. We're told that Moses would pitch it outside the camp for the meeting with God.But really the description isn't here at this point in the story to tell us about the tent. It's really here to tell us about the relationship between God and Moses. Listen to this amazing description.We're told in verse nine, when Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and remain at the entrance to the tent. And the Lord would speak with Moses.As all the people saw the pillar of cloud remaining at the entrance to the tent, they would stand up, then bow in worship, each one at the door of his tent. The Lord would speak with Moses face to face, just as a man speaks with his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp.The rest of Israel, they have a special relationship with God. He's their God. They're his chosen people. But there's still a distance between them.For Moses, though, Yahweh and Moses speak face to face like friends. That's really important when you consider the conversation we're about to hear.Just before we get there, though, we're told one other small but amazing detail. We're told that Joshua, son of Nun, would not leave the inside of the tent. This is the third time we've heard about Joshua.He led the Israelites in battle, he went with Moses up the mountain, and now he sits in on the conversations between Moses and God. And as before, I think this is establishing his credentials for becoming the next leader of Israel. But what about the people of Israel?God said he won't go with them to the land. They're in mourning because of that. But God's opened himself up to having Moses come and plead their case, which is exactly what he does.And he pleads on the basis, not so much on the basis of the people, but more on the basis of his relationship with God. He says to God in verse 12, look, you have told me, lead this people up, but you have not let me know whom you will send with me.You said, I know you by name and you have also found favour with me. Now, if I have indeed found favor with you, please teach me your ways and I will know you so that I might find favour with you.Now consider that this nation is your people. And God replies, my presence will go with you and I will give you rest. Just like that. It seems like God's changed his mind.But of course, he hasn't changed his mind. He's set things up to work this way to save his people through the mediation of his servant. God's answer is really specific.I will go with you, Moses. Singular. As long as Moses is with the people, God will be there. Moses speaks again, specifically linking himself with the people.Everything God does for him, Moses wants for the people. In verse 15, he says, if your presence does not go, don't make us go up from here.How will it be known that I and your people have found favour with you? Unless you go with us, I and your people will be distinguished by this from all the other people on the face of the earth. I and your people.I and your people. All together, not separated. And God replies, I will do this very thing you have asked for. You have found favour with me and I know you by name.It isn't the people who have found favour in God's eyes. It's Moses. And because of that, God will go with the people. Their unity with Moses means they receive the favour of God.Just like for us, we have eternal life because we've been united with the Lord Jesus Christ. God's relationship with him means we're saved. Moses obviously thinks things are going well. And so he asks something else of God.He asks for an amazing privilege. He asks in verse 18, please let me see your glory. It's kind of a strange request, because hasn't Moses already seen God's glory?God's glory appeared to Israel just before they received the first manna. Moses has eaten with God and Aaron and the 70 elders. He's obviously seen something of God's glory and yet he hasn't seen it all.And what Moses wants more than anything else in the world is to have more of God. Glory's a funny word. Sometimes it seems to be in the Bible a bright, blinding light. The magnificence of God expressed in visible form.But there's far more to what's truly glorious about God than what's truly great about Him. What makes him the greatest in all the universe. And you hear it in God's reply. Moses has asked to see God's glory.And God replies, I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim the name the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. What's most glorious about God? His goodness.When people hear his name, what should they think of his goodness? There is one caveat to what Moses will be allowed to see. God says, you cannot see my face, for humans cannot see me and live. Here is a place near me.You are to stand on the rock, and when my glory passes by, I will put you in the crevice of the rock and and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take my hand away and you will see my back, but my face will not be seen.God also has Moses cut two new stone tablets to replace the ones he broke. God showing that he is continuing with the covenant as before. No one else is to come onto the mountain.So Moses cuts the tablets and carrying them one more time, climbs Mount Sinai in obedience to the Lord. And Yahweh comes down on the mountain and proclaims his name, that name that is above every name.He proclaims the glory of his name, which is his goodness. In verse 6, he passes in front of Moses and proclaims the Lord.The Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth. Maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion and sin. But he will not leave the guilty unpunished.Bringing the consequences of the father's iniquity on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation. What's glorious about God? He's just merciful, loving, faithful, compassionate, filled with truth.We've talked before on the podcast about that last bit. Bringing the consequences of the father's iniquity on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.It can sound a bit like God's punishing innocent people for their guilty parents and grandparents. And some Christians have even misused it that way or misunderstood it. But it isn't that.It's that the crime and the consequences of the crime continue through the generations. And God doesn't forget, even though we do here in Australia.Back in 2007, our Prime Minister apologised to the Aboriginal people, the first nations people whose ancestors were here before white settlement. He apologised on behalf of the nation for what had been done in the past. And lots of people asked, why do that? I didn't do anything wrong.I didn't steal land, I didn't kill the locals, I didn't take away their children. Except we today live with the benefits of it. We accept all the fruits of it, the land, the freedom, the openness.We enjoy what our ancestors have bequeathed to us. And the Aboriginal people still live with the consequences of what was done to them.It's beholden on us now to Reject the evil of the past by repenting and by actively working to bring about a different result. Otherwise we're approving their actions. This is an issue in lots of countries where one group lives off the benefits of the evils of the past.God sees what happens. He sees what happens through the generations, and he brings justice. But of course he prefers mercy. He prefers for people to repent.In episodes three and four of the podcast, we looked at the story of Jonah. God told him to go to Nineveh, tell them he's about to destroy them.But Jonah runs away, not because he's scared, but because he knows that if he warns the Ninevites, they might repent and then God would forgive them. Which is exactly what happens.And in what could be one of the most outrageous hissy fits in all of history, Jonah quotes these words from Exodus in Jonah 4. 2. He says, Please Lord, isn't this what I said while I was still in my own country? That's why I fled towards Tarshish in the first place.I knew that you're a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in faithful love, and one who relents from sending disaster. And now, Lord, take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live. He is so angry that God is gracious and compassionate.Moses is much more sensible than that. When he hears this wonderful proclamation of the goodness of God, he immediately kneels low to the ground and worships.He makes a request that's only worth making because God is a gracious and compassionate God. He asks in verse nine, my Lord, if I have indeed found favour with you.My Lord, please go with us, even though this is a stiff necked people, forgive our iniquity and our sin and accept us as your own possession. Again, he's not pleading because the people are good, but because God is good. And God's response is so good.He replies, look, I am making a covenant in the presence of all your people. I will perform wonders that have never been done in the whole earth or in any nation.All the people you live among will see the Lord's work, for what I am doing with you is all awe inspiring. Observe what I command you. Today I am going to drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.But God still wants to make it clear the people have responsibilities. To be God's people means living as God's people.He continues in verse 12, be careful not to make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land that you are going to enter. Otherwise, they will become a snare among you.Instead, you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, and chop down their Asherah poles. Because the Lord is jealous for his reputation. You are never to bow down to another God. He is a jealous God.Do not make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land. Or else when they prostitute themselves with their gods and sacrifice to their gods, they will invite you, and you will eat their sacrifices.Then you will take some of their daughters as brides for your sons. Their daughters will prostitute themselves with their gods and cause your sons to prostitute themselves with their gods.He goes on to remind them of other things, including not to make idols. And then in verse 27, he tells Moses, write down these words, for I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.And based on these words, Moses was there with the Lord for 40 days and 40 nights. He did not eat food or drink water. He wrote the Ten Commandments, the words of the covenant on the tablets.When I read that, it's hard not to think of Jesus in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights, not eating or drinking. Here in Exodus, the result is that Moses writes down the covenant, the covenant that the Israelites will break time and time and time again.When Jesus is in the wilderness, though, it ends with him being tempted by Satan. And the result is Jesus perfectly keeping the covenant time and time and time again.When Moses comes down from the mountain, a remarkable transformation has taken place, A transformation that he hasn't even noticed. He's walking back to the camp. He's got the two stone tablets in his hands with the Ten Commandments.And as he approaches Aaron and all the Israelites suddenly back away. What Moses hasn't realized is that the skin of his face is shining brightly. He's become a walking lighthouse.He's reflecting the glory that he's been able to catch a glimpse of from God. He has to call the people and convince them to come closer to him. They shuffle forward, and he tells them all the commands God gave to him for them.It's hard to imagine what's going through their minds as they're listening to this. They're hearing the word of God from a man who is definitely not God and yet has come to look a little bit like God.It's a little like the transfiguration of Jesus, who actually is God. When he takes Peter, James, and John up a mountain and his face suddenly shines like the sun. It's like a veil's been lifted away.And the disciples get a glimpse of his true glory. The glory shining from Moses isn't his, it's a reflection of God's. But he realises that he can't just walk around like this.It'll freak everyone out and they won't be able to look at him. And so he puts a veil over his face, covering up the glory. From then on, he'd only take the veil off when he went to speak with God.When he'd come back from that, he'd tell people God's words and they'd see his face is still shining. And then he'd put the veil back on. Moses lived for another 40 years and wore the veil like that for the rest of his life.That veil became a metaphor for the Apostle Paul to use when talking about the difference between the Old and New Covenants. He explains that the Old Testament law that God gave through Moses is good. It comes from the good God. After all, every word of it is perfect.And yet it utterly fails to bring anyone to God. In fact, all it does is make people more likely to sin. You see that in the Ten Commandments.The Israelites hear the Ten Commandments and a couple of weeks later, they're breaking them, worshipping a dead statue instead of the living God who saved them in the Law, instead of seeing the glory of God, their hearts are hardened towards him. It's like there's a veil over their hearts, blinding them to who they truly need. And Paul shows that that continues even to this day.Both his day and ours, he says in 2 Corinthians 3:14. But their minds were hardened. For to this day, at the reading of the old covenant, that same veil remains.It is not lifted because it is set aside only in Christ. Yet still today, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. But whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.Now the Lord is the Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.We all with unveiled faces are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image. From glory to glory. This is from the Lord, who is the Spirit.Paul talks there about both the work of Christ and the work of the Spirit to remove the veil. We're saved by trusting in Christ, but it's God's Holy Spirit who changes our hearts, lifts the veil and leads us to trust in Christ.The reason the law doesn't work in making people be godly is because the Word of God, without the Spirit of God, doesn't Change hearts. So the Israelites received God's perfect law.But it wasn't till Christ came and sent his Spirit to lift the veil that massive numbers, both Jews and Gentiles, put their trust in Christ that people wanted to actually obey God.It's hard to imagine that people who stood at Mount Sinai and saw all that they did were so quick to forget their God, to turn away to idols and evil. But it happened because of this veil over their hearts.For those of us who've had the veil removed, as strange as it may seem, we actually have a better experience than those Israelites did.Because we're in Christ and because Christ is in heaven, then in some amazing way, we actually have a greater experience of God than the Israelites ever did at Mount Sinai. We're closer to God than the Israelites ever were. We talked way back at the start of the episode about our danger of forgetting God in the everyday.The writer of Hebrews draws us back to our reality and experience of God to remind us not to forget, not to abandon God like the Israelites did, because we have so much more than the Israelites. In Hebrews 12:18, he says, for you have not come to what could be touched.Talking about Mount Sinai, to a blazing fire, to darkness, gloom and storm, to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words. Those who heard it begged that not another word be spoken to them, for they could not bear what was commanded.If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned. The appearance was so terrifying that Moses said, I am trembling with fear.Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to myriads of angels, a festive gathering, to the assembly of the firstborn whose names have been written in heaven, to a judge who is God of all, to the spirits of righteous people made perfect. And to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant. And to the sprinkled blood which says better things than the blood of Abel.You may remember from Genesis 4 that the blood of the murdered Abel cried out, jesus, Justice. Justice. But Christ's blood yells out, mercy, mercy. And through that mercy, we have a greater gift.A greater knowledge of God and relationship with God and closeness to God. A greater covenant with God that even Moses got to experience in his time on earth. So do not forget your God. Rejoice in him.Give him thanks and praise and glory and honour. Love him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Every single day. Back at the foot of Mount Sinai, the Israelites build the tabernacle.They give their possessions so it can be made just like they'd given possessions to create the golden calf. This time, obviously, it's for a much better cause.Once the tabernacle's been set apart for God's use and God sent His presence into it, the people of Israel prepare to set out for the Promised Land. But that's a story for another series. Thanks everyone for tuning in and listening. I'd love to hear your feedback.That was the longest episode we've ever done. Was it helpful? Was it unhelpful? What are the questions that you have? I'd love for you to get in contact.You can do that@faithfulgod.net, just hit on the contact form in Stories of a Faithful God and let me know. What do you think about the podcast? If you have been blessed by it, if you've found it helpful, then I'd love for you to become a supporter of mine.You can financially donate a tiny amount or more. You can also sign up to my newsletter and you can do both of Those Things@faithfulgod.net Keep trusting Jesus. Bye for now.