90. Simply the Best: The Goodness of a Faithful God

G' day and welcome to Stories of a Faithful God for Kids.

Dave here.

Before we start, I want to remind everyone that there are now free colouring sheets on the kids section of the website faithfulgod.net they match the pictures that go with the episode.

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Four videos I made about Jesus and Christmas.

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And a little apology to all my lovely American listeners.

In Australia, we spell colour with a U after the O. I know you don't.

Two things to one, I haven't spelled it incorrectly.

It's just the way we do it here.

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In your spelling test, your teacher will say you're wrong.

Unless you're in Australia or Great Britain or Canada.

Mmm.

Maybe you should just ask the closest grown up how your country spells it.

Now, on with the show.

One of our biggest problems as people is we struggle to realise just how good God is.

We can say we know God is good, we can say we know he's the best, but we often treat other things or people as better.

You might think God's good, but when someone says chocolate ice cream, your brain goes wild.

You might think God's the best, but if your favourite sports star or author came into the room, you'd drop everything for them.

We find it really easy to be more excited or more interested in other people or things.

The Israelites at Mount Sinai, they had been pretty impressed by God.

But when they weren't sure where Moses was the person who connected them to God, they just made a new God as though it didn't even matter.

As though they weren't really losing anything by doing that.

They're about to discover that having God is the best thing in the world.

And losing Him.

Disaster.

Get ready for our next episode of Stories of a Faithful God for Kids.

At the end of our last episode, the Israelites had messed up big time.

They'd worshiped a statue instead of the true and living God.

Moses had stopped them and now he's going to ask God to forgive them.

And he's going to ask in quite an amazing way, he's going to ask that if God can't forgive them, then let him die instead of them.

He says to the lord in Exodus 32, 31, how terrible it is.

These people have sinned horribly.

They have made for themselves gods from gold.

Now forgive them of this sin.

If you will not, then erase my name.

Erase it from the book in which you have written the names of your people.

That's a pretty amazing offer for Moses to make.

But God says no.

Moses is not able to die in their place.

In verse 33, he replies to Moses, I will erase from my book the names of the people who sin against me.

So now go lead the people where I have told you.

My angel will lead you.

When the time comes to punish, I will punish them for their sin.

And we're told in verse 35, so the Lord caused terrible things to happen to the people.

He did this because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made.

It would be great to have someone die in your place, take your punishment.

But this time the people get what they deserve.

Then God says something that starts wonderfully but becomes terribly Sad.

In chapter 33, verse 1, he says to Moses, you and the people you brought out of Egypt must leave this place.

Go to the land that I promised, with an oath to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

I said, I will give that land to your descendants.

I will send an angel to lead you, and I will force these people out of the land.

The Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites go up to the land where much food grows.

But I will not go with you.

This is because I might destroy you on the way.

You are such a stubborn people.

Did you hear the sadness?

God will keep his promise.

He'll give them the new land.

He'll send the angel with them.

It'll still be a really awesome land.

But they won't have God.

And God is what makes it all worth it.

God is the best, and he makes everything else better.

He's actually being really kind to them.

He knows how sinful the people are.

He knows that if he comes with them, they'll be so evil he'll have to destroy them.

He wants to keep them alive.

So the best way is to just not be with them.

It's so sad that that has to be the solution.

And the people are sad.

They get that this is a massive problem.

But just like in the last episode, God's actually made it possible for things to change.

He's still leaving a way open for him to go with them.

He says to Moses in verse 5, Tell the Israelites, you are a stubborn people.

If I were to go with you, even for a moment, I would destroy you.

So take off all your jewellery, then I will decide what to do with you.

Hang on, hasn't he already said what he's going to do?

Well, yes, but really he loves being kind so much.

He wants to make a way for that to change.

And the way for it to change, the way for it to get better, is through Moses.

God wants us to know that Moses is pretty jolly special.

He describes a tent called the Tent of Meeting that Moses set up outside the camp.

It isn't the tabernacle tent.

They're going to build that in a few weeks time.

For now though, if anyone wants to find something out from God, they can go to this Tent of Meeting.

They're not allowed to go inside.

Only Moses gets to go inside as well as his assistant Joshua.

And verse 11 tells us something pretty amazing that happens inside the tent.

It says, the Lord spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks with his friend.

Far out, Brussels sprout.

That is amazing.

Remember when people saw God come down on Mount Sinai in the cloud?

They were so terrified they were too scared to even hear his voice.

Moses has a super special relationship with God.

And now as he talks with God, he's going to ask God to change what he said he would do.

He also tells God that what he really wants more of is God.

He wants to know God, understand God, live for God.

Moses knows that there's nothing better in the whole wide world than knowing God.

So he says to him in verse 12, you've told me to lead this people, but you did not say whom you would send with me.

You have said to me, I know you very well.

I am pleased with you.

If I have truly pleased you show me your plans, then I may know you and continue to please you.

Remember that this nation is your people.

And God doesn't say, no way.

I've already said I won't come with you.

He wanted Moses to ask this.

He replies, I myself will go with you and I will give you victory.

Just to be really clear, Moses asks again.

He knows that what makes Israel so special isn't the people.

It's their God.

Without him, they're nothing.

So he says in verse 15, if you yourself don't go with us, then don't send us away from this place.

If you don't go with us, no one will know that you are pleased with me and your people.

These people and I would be no different from any other people on earth.

And the Lord replies, I will do what you ask.

This is because I know you very well and I am pleased with you.

Now isn't that interesting?

It isn't that God's pleased with all the people.

He's pleased with Moses and all the other people get to have God.

Because of God's friendship with Moses.

Moses obviously thinks things are going well.

So he asks God one last question.

He asks God in verse 18, now, please show me your greatness.

Another word for greatness is glory.

The thing that makes someone great a part of God's glory is huge, shining brightness that comes out of him.

But that's only a part of it.

Because what's also great about God is how good he is, what he's like, his character.

When you hear God's name, you should think of all the good things about him.

So God says to Moses, I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you.

I will announce my name, the Lord, so you can hear it.

I will show kindness to anyone.

I want to show kindness.

I will show mercy to anyone.

I want to show mercy.

But you cannot see my face.

No one can see me and stay alive.

There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock.

My greatness will pass that place.

I will put you in a large crack in that rock and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by.

Then I will take away my hand and you will see my back.

But my face must not be seen.

This is a huge privilege for Moses.

God gets him to cut two flat pieces of stone to replace the ones Moses broke before the ones with the ten Commandments on them.

And then come up on the mountain just like before.

No one else can come up on the mountain.

It's just Moses.

Once he's up there, God comes down in a cloud and announces his name.

Thankfully, we get to listen in and hear all the things that are great and glorious about God.

In verse five, we read, then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with Moses.

And the Lord called out his name.

The Lord the Lord passed in front of Moses and said, I am the Lord.

The Lord is a God who shows mercy and is kind.

The Lord doesn't become angry quickly.

The Lord has great love and faithfulness.

The Lord is kind to thousands of people.

The Lord forgives people for wrong and sin and turning against him.

But the Lord does not forget to punish guilty people.

He also says the punishment will extend to their children, their grandchildren, their great grandchildren, and their great great grandchildren.

So what's really good about God?

His fairness, his kindness, his love, his willingness to forgive.

God really is so good.

He really is so great.

And because God is like that, Moses asks him to forgive the people.

In verse nine, he says, lord, if you are pleased with me, please go with us.

I know that these are stubborn people, but forgive our evil and our sin.

Take us as your own people.

And God says he will come.

He will look after the people.

He will give them the land.

But he also reminds Moses of everything the people have to do.

How they should serve God, how they should get rid of all the other gods.

God will always be good.

And he calls his people to be good as well.

When Moses comes down from the mountain, something remarkable has happened.

His face now shines really brightly.

It's actually got some of God's glory still in it.

His face is so bright, people are really afraid to come near him.

He has to put a veil over his face.

And it stayed like that for the rest of his life.

You know what's sad, though?

As great as Moses is, even though he now shines out God's glory, he still doesn't have God's power.

There's actually nothing Moses can do to make the people want to follow God.

He can't change their hearts.

He can't change what they want to do.

And so, even though Moses is a really great leader, a leader with such a special relationship with the wonderful God, he's just not powerful enough to stop the people sinning.

And as we heard before, he isn't good enough to swap himself for the people to be punished for them, so that they wouldn't have to be punished.

The Israelites need someone better.

They need someone stronger.

But given how good Moses is, who could possibly be better?

The answer, of course, is God.

Because no one is better than God.

Back at the very first Christmas, God the Son became a human.

He came to lead us.

He came to save us.

Moses got to see and hear about God's glory.

Jesus actually has God's glory.

Moses wanted to save the people of God by taking their punishment.

Jesus actually did save the people of God by taking their punishment.

On the cross, Moses told the people God's word.

Jesus actually changes people to want to obey God's word.

Because Jesus is God.

God the Son.

He has all the power of God.

He has all the kindness and goodness of God.

Don't miss out on having the absolute best.

Don't miss out on Jesus.

Back at Mount Sinai, Moses stays on the mountain getting laws from God for 40 days and 40 nights.

When he finally comes down, the people get ready to move.

They're going to the promised land, the land God promised to give them.

God is going with them.

But that's a story for another series.

Thanks everyone for listening.

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Bye for now.