Could We Be Guilty of Idolatry and Sabbath-Breaking?

[Mr. Shabi]: Well, we’re here in the Days of Unleavened Bread. In a few weeks we’ll gather together for Passover. We’ll gather together for the Night to be Much Observed. We’ll gather today for the Days of Unleavened Bread and observe those days that have such rich meaning to us. As we prepare for the Days of Unleavened Bread and for Passover, Jesus Christ, we know, is the ultimate in everything we should be focusing on – what He did for us, how He lived His life, the sacrifice that He made for us. Hollywood dubbed it the greatest story ever told, and indeed, it is the greatest story ever told. But beyond that, it’s more than just a story. It’s a call to us to yield our lives to Him, to commit our lives to Him, to allow Him to change us and to put in our minds His Holy Spirit, as we repent and as we’re baptized, and that we would change and become like Him, because we learn that literally everything we have in life – everything – I mean literally everything – we owe to Jesus Christ and God the Father.

So, it is our reasonable service – just as Paul says in Romans 12:1-2 – that it is our reasonable service – to offer our lives as a living sacrifice to Him. And as you continue to study and prepare for the upcoming Holy Days, I know you’ll be thinking about Jesus Christ. You’ll be reading about the time. And certainly, between now and then, we’ll be talking more about Jesus Christ and what He has done. And it is a monumental thing – Jesus Christ. I mean, what He did – His life. Whether people believe in Him or not, He literally changed the world. He literally changed the world, and all of us can be thankful for that and thankful for His sacrifice. But as we study, there’s another story in the Old Testament – the quintessential story that’s back there – that we should pay attention to, because even though it happened in Old Testament times, there are lessons – real lessons – for us today that we can learn from.

Let’s look at Hebrews 3, and verse 1. The author here of Hebrews writes:

Hebrews 3:1-7 – “Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to God the Father who appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all his house. For this one has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses.” And the Jews of that time – the Hebrews of that time – they looked to Moses. They looked to Moses – and Abraham as he rose – and, indeed, they were worthy of being looked to because they followed God. Jesus Christ was “faithful to Him who appointed Him as Moses was faithful in all his house. For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God. And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.”

We owe it to Jesus Christ, but Moses in the Old Testament, and Moses, as he worked with the people of Israel – God’s nation at that time – His people – was noteworthy and something that we should not neglect looking at, studying and reviewing between now and the time of the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread, because there are some very real lessons back there that we need to know.

Egypt – we know a lot about Egypt – and we can kind of think of Egypt as this ancient kingdom and nothing that they did is in our world today. We know there was the Pharaoh, and Pharaoh himself, he was a picture of pride. He thought that everything was about him. He was the king at that time and he wanted the whole world to worship him. He was the dictator. He was the one who told people exactly what they were going to do, and he was one of the many gods that Egypt had. We can kind of snicker sometimes about Egypt and think, “How silly was it that they had gods of the Nile, and gods of the sun, and gods of the moon, and gods of the agriculture, and gods that had heads like frogs, and heads like cows.” And we think, “How silly was that!” Yet in that society – that Israel was part of for hundreds of years – those were very real gods to them. They sacrificed to those gods. They believed in gods. And even Pharaoh believed in those gods, as silly as it may seem to us. And Israel was part of that whole society. And as they were living in that society, even though they may have known who the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was, it still rubbed off on them. There were things they had to learn about the idolatry of Egypt, because it was steeped in idolatry. Egypt then wasn’t so different than the Egypt we live in today.

Let’s go back to Exodus 12, because in Exodus 12, we find the culmination of God’s interaction and intervention in the affairs of Israel and Egypt. He looked down on His people, and He saw the misery that they lived in, and it was His mission to deliver them as He promised Abraham that He would, and that He would bring them into the land that He promised that He would give them. They had been for hundreds of years in Egypt, they’d lost their way, they lost their freedom. There was no hope. There was no way for them out of Egypt if it wasn’t for God’s intervention. In Exodus 12, we find the culmination of a number of events that led up to this Passover night. Exodus 12, verse 1 – it says:

Exodus 12:1-3 – “The Eternal spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying, ‘This month shall be your beginning of months. It will be the first month of the year to you.’” And indeed, we’re in that same period of time. In fact, next Sabbath will be the first of Abib, as God has His calendar. And on the fifteenth of Abib – two weeks later – we’ll be gathered together here for the first day of Unleavened Bread, exactly as it says, in Leviticus 23. It was the beginning for Israel, because they were going to be brought out of Egypt, and they were going to leave Egypt behind, and it was going to be a new beginning and a new life for them – leaving behind the ways of Egypt, and then learning the ways of God, and then following Him. So, the Eternal speaks to Moses – in verse 3 it says: “Speak to the congregation of Israel saying, ‘On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household.’” And so, they did that on the tenth of the month. If we drop to verse 6, He says:

Exodus 12:6-11 – “Now you shall keep that lamb until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel will kill it at twilight” – in between the evenings – bar ereb, as it says in the Hebrew. You shall kill that lamb at the same time. You will all gather that lamb at the time I tell you to do it. You will keep it until the fourteenth and at the twilight – at the time in between the evenings – you kill that lamb. “And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it. Then they shall eat the flesh on that night – roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.” He puts the menu together, He didn’t say, “You come up with the diet. You come up with the menu. He tells them exactly what they should do. He tells them exactly how they should prepare it. “Don’t eat it raw, don’t eat it boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire, its head with its legs and its entrails. You shall let none of it remain until morning and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire.” Here’s what’s going to happen on that fourteenth. “And thus you shall eat it, with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste. It is the Eternal’s Passover.”

So, He gives them specific instructions on what to do that night. He didn’t leave anything to question. He gave the detail. “This is what you will do.” Now remember, as they came to that Passover night, there was a whole period of time that led up to that tenth plague that was going to occur on the Passover. If there hadn’t been the nine plagues before that, the Passover might not have been as meaningful for Israel as it would have been. Passover might not have been as meaningful for Egypt either, even though Egypt was looking at things that were going on in a different way than Israel did. It was going to culminate on that night. The preparation for Passover didn’t begin on that morning. Preparation for Passover began with God and Israel long before that when the plagues began. Just as our preparation for Passover... if we wait until the morning of Passover, and then think, “Oh, I need to pray, or I need to fast the day before, and I need to examine myself.” We’re missing crucial, crucial time. We can’t appreciate the Passover – we don’t get as much out of it, if we just don’t do the preparation ahead of time, just like the Passover would have been meaningless – I won’t say meaningless – less meaningful to Israel if they hadn’t gone through what they did before.

So, as I said in my letter yesterday, don’t let this time pass by. Don’t think, “Well, I’ve got three weeks, I’ve got two weeks, I’ve got one week.” Use the time to prepare for the Passover. God wants us to do that and be ready when the time comes. In verse 13, it says:

Exodus 12:13 – “The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I’ll pass over you and the plague will not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.” God was going to finish, for that period anyway, what His mission with the Egyptians were. And He tells what that mission for the Egyptians were in Verse 12:

Exodus 12:12 – “Against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgments, I am the Eternal.”

Egypt was going to learn an awfully lot about the God of Abraham and Isaac on that night. They had already learned through the first nine plagues about the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – the God of Israel. What they learned, they didn’t like. What they learned, they rejected. What they learned, they closed their mind to. And Pharaoh, who was the chief among them, simply was refusing... “Okay, even my magicians can’t really tell me that we can match this miracle. We can’t do this. There are things I can’t explain. But you know what? Even though I know that this God of Israel is mightier than our other gods, I’m not going to bow down to Him. I’m simply not going to do it,” was Pharaoh’s attitude. “No matter what the advice is, no matter what the evidence is, I simply will not bow down to Him.” And that’s an attitude that’s not unlike what we see in the world today. There are many who learn about God, who learn about the Sabbath day, who see the Bible, and they simply say, “I don’t want it. I don’t want to do that. I want to keep doing things the way I always have. I reject the Sabbath. I reject the fact that I shouldn’t be keeping these holidays of the world that have pagan origins. I reject that. I want to do my way over what I know to be true.” Even when you can show them in the Bible and they will acknowledge the seventh day is the Sabbath of God – “Yes, we should be keeping that and I know that’s a pagan originated holiday” – they do it anyway.

Pharaoh did the same thing.

It’s an attitude that’s not unlike what we’ll see at the end-time, if you remember, in Revelation, when God begins working the plagues at that time on the people. In Revelation 6, I think it says people are going to know this is of God. “We can’t explain this by natural phenomena. This is something we never thought would happen.” And people will say - kings of the earth who recognize what’s going on – “Just let the rocks fall on us. Just let us die, because the day of God has come. It has come upon us” (Revelation 6:16). But they don’t repent. They don’t turn to God. They simply go on their same way. Revelation 9:20, says, “The rest of mankind, when they saw these plagues, they didn’t repent.” They just kept doing their same thing, because without God’s Spirit, we don’t yield to Him. It’s a picture of human nature and how evil and how vile it is. When Romans 8:7 says, “The carnal nature” – the nature of man apart from God’s Holy Spirit – “is enmity against God,” it means exactly what it says. Without God’s Holy Spirit, you and I are the same way. We can be very thankful for God’s Holy Spirit, because without it, we would be no different than the Egyptians – no different than the people around us who God hasn’t yet decided to open their minds to.

So, when we see this going on in Egypt, we see God did exact judgment on it. Pharaoh knew – he knew who God was. He couldn’t deny it. I’m not going to talk about the gods of Egypt. If you have read the recent Beyond Today magazine, there’s a very fine article in there about the gods of Egypt. You can see all the gods that they had – what Egypt was steeped in – that Israel was part of, as they lived in that society. But that was what God did with Egypt. And the tenth plague, of course, didn’t finish it all. Pharaoh relented, and he said, “Yeah, go ahead Israel. Leave! Get out! Take everything you want. Just go.” But then he changed his mind again, because he, in his mind, he was still proud. He was still god and he wasn’t going to let some god dictate to him what to do. He said, “We’re going to go march after Israel. We’re going to get them – get them back. And in that pride, he lost literally everything. Egypt had been decimated and then, when the army was drowned in the Red Sea, he lost the rest of it – a beaten man. But even then, he didn’t repent. Even then, he didn’t turn to God.

But God did what He accomplished with Egypt. He said He would exact judgment on them and He did. And He said, in Exodus 7:5, “and Egypt will know that I am God.” Egypt knew. But there was Israel that was part of all this as well – God’s people. And they were looking at things, perhaps, from a different way than the Egyptians did. They had to learn about the God of their fathers. They had to learn about this God, who says, “I am going to bring you out of this land. I’m going to take you to a Promised Land. I’m going to give you what I covenanted with your forefathers.”

Let’s go to Exodus 6 – a few chapters back. Exodus 6, and verse 1:

Exodus 6:1-7 – “The Eternal said to Moses, ‘Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand he will let them go, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.’ And God spoke to Moses and said to him” – as He says many times – “‘I am the Eternal.’” I am your God. “‘I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but My name, YHWH, I wasn’t known to them.’” There’s a different name they knew Me by, not that name, but I am the same God. “‘I’ve established My covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage in which they were strangers. And I have heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage and I have remembered My covenant. Therefore say to the children of Israel, I am the Eternal. I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians’” – and notice the words – “‘I will rescue you from their bondage and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.’”

Same thing that Jesus Christ did to us. He rescued us from a world of futility, rescued us from a life that was going nowhere. While we were in bondage with no way out, no power to escape it, Jesus Christ is our Redeemer, our Redeemer and Savior, just as He was to the people of Israel back then. “I will take you as My people…” the same thing He says to us… “and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the Eternal, your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians and I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I will give it to you as a heritage. I am the Eternal.” What I say, I will do. I will do.

He made promises to them and He kept them. He makes promises to us and He will keep them, but we have to do our part. Israel, as they were going through the plagues, they saw it from a different angle than the Egyptians did. And God was teaching them about Himself as they went through the trials of those times, and the things that were part of their life, and the trials that they went through after they left Egypt, after Pharaoh was drowned in the sea – not Pharaoh drowned in the sea – after his armies were drowned in the sea. They kept learning about God as He was teaching them about Him. They will be His people. He will be their God. And just as there were responsibilities that people in Egypt had to their gods, there are responsibilities that Israel would have to their God.

And so Israel, as they went through the first few plagues – the first three plagues, they had to suffer right along with the Egyptians. Plague one, plague two, plague three came. Israel suffered right there with the Egyptians. They had been part of that society. They were going to have to see and suffer along with the Egyptians during those plagues. But after the third plague, the next six, God did something miraculous. He exempted Israel. He exempted Israel from those plagues that the Egyptians had. They didn’t suffer during that time. God set them apart. The Egyptians had to go through plagues four through nine and suffer them, but Israel didn’t. Don’t think they didn’t take note of that. Don’t think Egypt didn’t take note of that. Over in Exodus 8, and verse 19. The magicians of Pharaoh, they were beginning to realize, this God of Israel, we can’t match Him – no one of our gods, or no combination of our gods.

Exodus 8:19 – “The magicians said to Pharaoh, ‘This is the finger of God.’ But Pharaoh’s heart grew hard and he didn’t listen to them, just as the Eternal had said.” There was too much pride to listen to what God had to say. “And the Eternal said to Moses, ‘Rise early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh as he comes out to the water. Say to him, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let My people go, that they may serve Me. Or else, if you will not let My people go behold I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants, on your people and into your houses. The houses of the Egyptians will be full of swarms of flies and also the ground on which they stand. And in that day, I will set apart the land of Goshen in which My people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there, in order that you may know that I am the LORD in the midst of the land. I will make a difference between My people and your people. Tomorrow this sign shall be.’”’” I will make a marked difference between My people and your people, Pharaoh.

And today, God makes a difference. There’s a distinction between the people of God and the people of the world. We live under God’s grace, He watches what we’re doing. He knows the trials that we go through. He sees every moaning and every trouble that we go through. He sees the successes that we have. He is interested in one thing, that you and I will be His people. Through trials, through tribulations, through good times and bad times – bad times as humans may define them – that He will mold us into who He wants us to be, so that we can be part of the house that He is building. Indeed, we are part of the house that Christ is building.

He was going to mold Israel and hoped and wanted them to become a model nation for all nations, just as He wants you and I to learn, to apply, to take the knowledge – as we discussed at some of the home Bible studies – to take that knowledge and turn it into understanding by applying it into our lives, by learning as we go, and gaining the wisdom to know what’s going on in life, and to be able to answer and to make decisions in our lives. That is what He hoped for Israel – same thing He wants for you and me. He makes a distinction between us and them. And we can be very thankful for that. The difference is, God – His purpose – wasn’t to call Egypt at that time, just as His purpose isn’t to open the eyes of everyone at that time.

So there is a distinction – through the first nine plagues, you know how much Israel did? Nothing, nothing. They sat back and they watched God work all those plagues. He didn’t ask them to do anything. They just had to believe. They were learning. You know, Jesus Christ – we did nothing – Jesus Christ did it all for us, He’s the One who died that our sins could be forgiven. But the Israelites were going to learn that they had their part. Salvation is a gift from God, but they weren’t going to, for all of their lives, sit back and just watch God do everything. They had their part in it as well. The first nine plagues, God did it all. But when the tenth plague came, they learned, “We have to do some things as well, and we have to step out on faith.” God said, “Choose the lamb on the tenth day.” God said, “Kill it on the fourteenth day.” God said, “Eat a meal, and this is the menu for that meal.” God said, “Don’t leave any of it until morning.” God said, “Take the blood and paint it over your doorposts. And only if you do those things, will you be delivered from the plague that’s going to come upon the Egyptians. Only if you do those things.”

If Israel had decided, “You know what? God has done it all. We don’t have to do anything. He’s going to save us. We can just kind of play at it – maybe we’ll kill the lamb, maybe we would rather have it boiled than roasted in fire. Maybe we don’t like bitter herbs. We’re going to have some other vegetable with it. You know, really does God need to have the blood over the doorpost? He knows who we are!” If they had taken that attitude, they would have suffered the plague just along with the Egyptians. They had to follow God explicitly and directly. And if they hadn’t, they would have suffered the same fate as the Egyptians.

So, you and I, as God offers us the gift of salvation, as He offers us repentance – the gift of repentance – as He offers us the knowledge and the promises that He does, we have our part to play. Because He is our God and when we accept God, there are responsibilities we have to Him that we need to follow along with it. We need to learn our part in salvation, because it is given by God. He will give it to us, but if we don’t do what He says, we will perish – just as the Israelites, in that tenth plague, would have perished had they not done what God said – if they had just taken it for granted and thought, “He’s done it all through nine plagues. He can do it in the tenth plague as well.”

Well, to Israel’s credit, they believed! They did it exactly the way that God said. And the next morning they did leave Egypt with a high hand. And they were faced with another trial that was going to build their faith as they watched Pharaoh come upon them, and their backs were against the sea, and they had no way out. There was nowhere to look except God. And they panicked as human beings would – as you and I would, if we were in that situation. They saw that God can supersede any thoughts. No one there that day thought, “You know what? God will just open the Red Sea and we’ll march through it.” But that’s exactly what they did, and they learned our God – not the gods of Egypt – our God, He can do it all. He transcends our thoughts. There’s things we can’t even think of that He can deliver us through the times that we’re in. And as they came through the Red Sea, in Exodus 15, we see the exhilaration that was in them as they saw God give them the final victory over Egypt, and they were free. They were free from Egypt. Let’s look at Exodus 15 – Exodus 15, and verse 1. After they crossed the Red Sea, you can see the exhilaration, the motivation – everything that comes from following God, trusting Him, relying on Him.

Exodus 15:1-5 – “Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the Eternal, and spoke, saying, ‘I will sing to the Eternal. He has triumphed gloriously. The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea. The LORD is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise Him, my father’s God, and I will exalt Him. He is a Man of war. The LORD is His name. Pharaoh’s chariots and his army He has cast into the sea. His chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea. The depths have covered them. They sank to the bottom like a stone.’” Unbelievable – the things that God did for that people! Drop down to verse 9.

Exodus 15:9 – “The enemy said” – they had an enemy then. We have an enemy with us today. “The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil. My desire will be satisfied on them.’” Pharaoh wanted them dead. The enemy – the adversary of God – wanted Israel dead – nothing less. He didn’t want to bring them back to Egypt. He just wanted them dead – just as our adversary wants nothing more than to see us die. Exodus 15:10: “You blew with Your wind. The sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters. Who is like You, O Eternal, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? You stretched out Your right hand, the earth swallowed them. You, in your mercy, have led forth the people whom You have redeemed.” You, in your mercy, have led forth the people whom You have redeemed. “You guided them in your strength to your holy habitation.”

What Israel could sing, we could sing the very words today, because God is doing the very same thing with us. He’s redeemed us. He will lead us, if we let him, to His holy habitation. Down in verse 16:

Exodus 15:16 – “Fear and dread” – speaking of the people who would oppose them. “Fear and dread shall fall upon them. By the greatness of your arm they shall be still as a stone, until your people pass over” – until the people pass over – “whom You have purchased.” Israel realized, “It’s God who has redeemed us. It’s God who purchased us.” We should realize, and never forget, we’re redeemed. We’ve been purchased. We owe it all to God and to Jesus Christ for what They’ve done for us.

So, through the Red Sea, what had Israel learned by that point? If they were going to step back through the experiences they had – through ten plagues, through their backs against the Red Sea, through the drowning of Pharaoh’s army – what did they learn during that time? The Egyptians learned – remember – this God of Israel is superior to all of our gods, but they weren’t going to yield to Him. Israel learned the same thing. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – the God we worship – is superior to every other god on earth. We need no other god. We don’t have to have any other gods. If we rely on another god, then we are remiss in our faith. They only needed God, no matter what occurred in their lives. God proved to them there is one God, and that’s the only God you need – the only God you need.

Egypt was a land steeped in idols. Israel saw all those idols as they lived there – gods of the Nile, gods of the sun, gods of the moon, gods of the agriculture, gods of whatever it was. They had them all – hundreds of them. Israel learned that they were meaningless. None of them – none of them – matched up to their God, who could do it all. They didn’t need multiple gods. They didn’t need to have a god of every single aspect of life. They needed one God, who is supreme over all. They learned that. They saw His hand through plagues. They saw His hand through deliverance. They saw His hand in a situation through the Red Sea that never imagined! And they learned, as they sang in Exodus 15, “His is the God of our salvation! Without Him, we were lost. Without Him, we had no future. Without Him, nothing – nothing – else can happen to us. And so, they learned idols of stone, idols of wood are meaningless.

If we turn over to Exodus 16, God wasn’t through training them yet. They should have learned those things through what they had already been through, but He wasn’t through with them yet. As they came out of Egypt, as they came through the Red Sea, and the begin to wander in the wilderness for forty years, God isn’t through teaching them yet. They were to be His people. If we look at Exodus 15, down in verse 25 – as the people come upon some bitter waters, they haven’t learned yet. God can make everything right. He can even turn these bitter waters into sweet. And God does that. In verse 25:

Exodus 15:25 – “Moses cried out to the Eternal, and God showed him a tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet.” He’s even the God of the physical universe. He can give us what we need. “There He made a statute and an ordinance for them, and there He tested them, and said, ‘If you diligently’” – always pay attention to that word diligently. When you see the word diligently, it means put your effort into it. And the other word you see often with the commandments is carefully. Carefully. Know the detail. Pay attention to the detail. Search out the scriptures to what the detail is. “If you diligently heed the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His sight, if you give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I’ll put none of these diseases upon you, which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Eternal who heals you.” Israel, you saw all these things that the Egyptians went through. You saw how they lived their lives. You know, science, as they look at the DNA of mummies, they see the diseases of Egypt were very similar to the diseases we have today. They had high blood sugar. They had cardiac disease. They had hardening of the arteries. They had cancer. We can go down a list today and see they had the same thing. God said, “Don’t do things the way the Egyptians did – the way they lived their lives. Look at the diseases they had. Follow the principles that I have and I won’t put any of those diseases on you. I’m the God of physical, as well as the God of spiritual. Diligently heed what I say. Diligently pay attention to what I say. Know I’m God and know I can do everything and anything.” And so, they should have learned that.

As you get into chapter 16, they’re worried about what they’re going to eat. God gives them manna to eat – a miracle. They’re in the desert and this manna appears every morning to them. And God gave them instructions on how to deal with the manna. Don’t take enough for two days. Every morning go out and just get what you need. Don’t save it for morning, because, if you do, it’s going to be inedible anyway. Some of them listened. Some of them didn’t, just said, “Well, you know what? I’m just going to do it.” And they learned you’ve got to do it the way God says. Just follow what He says.

He also taught them something else with the manna. Let’s drop down to verse 22.

Exodus 16:22-26 – “On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one. And all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said to them, ‘This is what the Eternal has said: Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest – a holy Sabbath to the LORD. Bake what you will bake today and boil what you will boil. And lay up for yourselves all that remains to be kept until morning.’” Now this was different. The sixth day was different. Every other day, if they kept it till morning, it spoiled. But, on the seventh – on the Sabbath day – if they kept it until that day, it didn’t spoil. “So they laid it up till morning, as Moses commanded. And it didn’t stink, nor were there any worms in it. And Moses said, ‘Eat that today. For today is a Sabbath to the Eternal. Today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, in it there shall be none.’” God was teaching them how we worship Him. And there was one day of the week that God set aside and told Israel, “You’re not going to do work on that day. The things you do the other six days of the week, don’t do it on that day. That day is a day set aside for Me,” God says. “That’s the day, Israel, as you follow Me, that’s what you are to do as part of your worship to Me.”

Now, there were some that didn’t pay attention, and thought, “Oh, whatever.”

Exodus 16:27 – “Now it happened that some of the people went out on the Sabbath day to gather, but they found none. And God said to Moses, ‘How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws?’” Same thing that God might say to us today, as He might look at us and see how we might worship Him. He makes it pretty clear how He wants to be worshipped. And, if He is our God and we are His people, then our responsibility is to honor Him the way He wants to be honored. God might look at us and say, “How long will you refuse to keep My law? How long will you take upon and use your own opinions on what you want – just like some of the people there did? How long, My people? He might say. See – Exodus 16:29 – “the LORD has given you the Sabbath. Therefore, He gives you the bread of two days on the sixth day. Let every man remain in his place.” Don’t go out that morning like every other day. That day is set apart – just like you are set apart from all the other people of the rest of the world. That day is set apart. “Let not any one go out of his place on the seventh day.” And further, in Leviticus 23, He says, “And on that day” – like all the annual holy days – there is a commanded assembly. That’s what we do on the seventh day, if we are diligently following God, if we are heeding what He has to say – if He is our God, and we are paying attention to what He has to say.

So, as He brought Israel out – before He ever gave them the Ten Commandments – He was teaching them how to worship Him. “You don’t need any other gods beside Me, Israel. I’ve proven to you, you need one God – for everything that will ever come your way, only one God. And Israel, the seventh day is special to Me. Don’t do on it the things you do the other six days of the week. It’s special and it’s set aside for Me.”

And so, Israel should have learned those things before they ever came to Mount Sinai. And they probably did learn those things. They may not have been focusing on them, but as they came to Mount Sinai, in Exodus 19 and 20, God was gathering them together and there He was going to give them His Ten Commandments. And really, none of them should have come as a surprise to them, as He thundered out, as they felt God’s voice, as they felt His majesty, as they trembled in fear – as we should as we read God’s word. As we read in Isaiah 66:2, “To this man will I look – to him who is a contrite spirit and who trembles at My word” – that when he reads it, he pays attention. He does it. And he takes it to heart and he makes it part of him.  

So here in Exodus 20, we have the commandments that God gave – the commandments that are still in effect today, as Jesus Christ clearly said in Matthew 5. In chapter 20, verse 1:

Exodus 20:1-3 – “God spoke all these words saying, ‘I am the LORD your God’” – something that they heard Moses say to them over and over and over – I am the Eternal your God – “‘who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me’” – none other besides Me. Verse 4 – He taught them:

Exodus 20:4-6 – “You shall not make for yourselves a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in the heavens above, or the earth beneath, or that is in the water under earth. You shall not bow down to them, nor serve them, for I, the Eternal your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers to the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands of those who love Me” – of those who love Me – “and keep My commandments” – who heed what I say, who diligently learn what they are, who carefully observe them. That commandment shouldn’t have come as a surprise to the Israelites. They’d already seen it. God had already taught them that. “You don’t need these other gods. There’s one God that you serve.”

Exodus 20:7 – “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that takes His name in vain.” He put His name on Israel. In Numbers 6, when Moses was giving the blessing – when Aaron was giving the blessing – He put his name on them, just like God puts His name on us when we’re baptized. Don’t take that in vain. Don’t take it lightly. Don’t enter into that relationship thinking, “I’m there. I’ve done all I need to do. I’m good” – like the world would want you to believe. There is work to be done between the time you’re baptized and the rest of your life. There’s change that has to happen. There has to be careful attention to what we do. The Israelites, as they went over into Egypt – or as they went into the Promised Land – they continued to look back. When we’re baptized, we tell God we are done. We are putting to death our former life. It’s dead. We’re going forward. We’re not looking back. The Israelites would have said the same thing, but they looked back every time there was a trial. I hope we learn that lesson that Israel should have learned. Don’t look back. Look forward. Remember what you have done. In verse 8 – shouldn’t come as a surprise – they already knew this:

Exodus 20:8-11 – “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” Set it apart. It’s not a day like every other day. It’s a day reserved for God to be observed as He said – as a delight, if we keep it the way that He said. “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath to the LORD you God. In it you will do no work – you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For, in six days, the Eternal made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and He rested the seventh day. Therefore, He blessed the seventh day and hallowed it.” It’s a command. But Israel had already learned that, as God was teaching them how to follow Him.

He went on and He gave them the rest of the Ten Commandments. But those first four are how we honor God. Jesus Christ said, in Matthew 22:37-39 – I think it was – the first commandment is, “Love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul. This is the first great commandment, and the second is like unto it – love your neighbor as yourself.” How do we love God? By yielding, and day-by-day, year-by-year adhering to those first four commandments. And, of course, observing the rest of them as well – all of His law, all of His statutes, all the things that He teaches us. If we love Him, Jesus Christ said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15) Don’t compromise with them. Don’t define them the way the world does. Don’t put your own meaning on them. Listen and carefully observe what I tell you to do.

As Israel stood there and heard what God said, they said, “All that God – all that the LORD says – says, we will do” – the same thing you and I said when we were baptized. “Everything that God says, I’ve counted the cost – no matter what trial, no matter what tribulation, no matter what comes up, I will do what God says. I will choose Him first.” But with Israel, it didn’t last long. It didn’t last long at all. You know the story of Israel. Moses was called up to get the written – written with God’s own finger – Ten Commandments. And in just the forty days that Moses was gone, Israel didn’t know what to do. Here was a trial they didn’t expect. Moses – Moses, who has been talking to us all along, he’s gone! What do we do? And what did they do? It defies the imagination! They turned back to the gods of Egypt. They went back and they built a golden calf. It’s hard to imagine that the human mind could even do that, but they did.

That should be a lesson to all of us. When we have a trial – whether it be financial, whether it be health, whether it be whatever it is – do we, when we panic, when something happens that we didn’t expect, do we keep our faith in God? Or, do we look back to the world, and say, “What I would have done back then? I’m going to that. I’m going to take matters into my own hands.” And we forget that God can do everything. He can resolve every situation. He can correct everything that goes on in our lives. He can heal any illness. But He says He won’t, if we don’t look to Him first – if we have other gods that we look back to and say, “Well, this is the way I used to do it. I’ll do it this way.” Or, “That’s what I’ll do. That’s what I’ve learned in this Egypt, Babylon, Laodicea – whatever we want to call the society we live in. Do we look at those gods around us, and say, “I’ll do it their way?” Do we forget that God is all powerful and that what He wants is for us to have only one God – only one God? Do we forget? When we look at the world the way they keep Sunday, and it’s like, “Oh, if I go to church, that’s enough on Sunday.” And, “I can do whatever I want, as long as I’m not working,” some people might say on Sunday, “I’m doing what God’s will is.” And we might have that attitude sometimes in the church. “As long as I’m not working, I’m doing God’s will. Are we? It’s not what I read in the Bible. When we try to define the Sabbath with us in mind – what can we do on the Sabbath, how can we do it and how can we fill this time? – rather than doing it the way God says, are we keeping the Sabbath holy? Or, are we kind of looking at it and saying, “As long as I’m not working. I mean, hey, I need a little extra rest. Who cares if God says, ‘…commanded assembly.’ I’m a little tired today. I need to sleep in.” Is that what God would say? Did He give Israel excuses and say, “If you’re too tired on that day, forget the commanded assembly. Just rest?”

There’s an article – also in the latest United News – that talks about the Sabbath day and what rest really means. We might want to review those things. And as we head towards Passover and we look at our lives, we might want to look at some of the things that we do and say, “What is it? What is it that we’re doing? Are we doing the things that God wants us to do?” Or, have we deceived ourselves a little bit, thinking, “As long as we do this and that that we’re good enough?” Let’s go back to Ezekiel – Ezekiel 20. Israel – God did bring them into the Promised Land. He trained them for forty years. They saw His hand for forty years, as He fed them, as He watered them, as He taught them, and then He brought them into the Promised Land. But they didn’t remember. They didn’t remember God. Psalm 106 – if you read through that, you see that they forgot. They forgot God. In Ezekiel 20, and verse 2 – remember that Israel had already gone into captivity at this time when Ezekiel writes this – so this is something that we pay attention to today – the people of God – because it’s written for the people that Ezekiel was talking to, but us well.

Ezekiel 20:2-7 – “The word of the Eternal came to me saying, ‘Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel and say to them, “Thus says the LORD God: ‘Have you come to inquire of Me?’”’” Are you looking to Me? “‘As I live,’ says the LORD God, ‘I will not be inquired of by you.’” Tough words. “Will you judge them, son of man, will you judge them? Cause them to know the abominations of their fathers. Say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD God: “On the day when I chose Israel, and raised My hand in an oath to the descendants of the house of Jacob, and made Myself known to them in the land of Egypt, I raised My hand in an oath to them, saying, “I am the LORD your God.” On that day I raised My hand in oath to them to bring them out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had searched out for them, flowing with milk and honey – the glory of all lands. And I said to them, “Each of you, throw away the abominations which are before his eyes, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.”’” If there’s a legacy that Israel had, one of them was, they never could rid themselves of the idols that they had.

And, as God speaks to us today – and I look at my life – I have to ask, “Are there idols in my life? Is there something that I would rely on more than God? Is there something or someone that I would put before God? Am I compromising? Am I using my own definitions on what it means to do this?” Because, if we use our own definitions, we can be an idol to ourselves. “I think I understand that and God is okay with what I determined I can do on this and that regarding that. Even though I may see clearly what the Bible says, I’ve determined, “You know what? God’s okay with it if I just do it a little bit my way.” That’s not the Bible I read. It’s not the Bible that says, “Carefully – carefully – examine, diligently heed, specifically follow, know the scriptures, study the scriptures, follow the scriptures, apply the scriptures.”

So, we might ask ourselves, “Are there idols?” Because we’ve talked about idols before. But today we don’t have idols of wood and stone. We don’t have a temple on every corner, but believe me, idols are alive and dominant in America today. And in some of our lives, idols are still there – in all our lives. I don’t exempt myself from this. There’s a command, that as we go through each year, we rid ourselves of those things that we would put between us and God, and say, “You know what? God’s okay with that.” And, if we seek Him, He’ll show us where those idols are, because He wants us to obey Him the way that He said. Verse 8:

Ezekiel 20:8 – I told them what to do, “but they rebelled against Me and would not listen to Me. They did not cast away the abominations before their eyes, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt.” They kept looking back – just like we may be looking back, and saying, “Well, the rest of the world does this, and that seems to be okay, and that what we need to do. We need to look there, and we need to look there, and whatever, and maybe that’s what God wants us do.” Where, in the Bible, does it ever say God would have us look to another idol and follow it? Never. “Then I said, ‘I’ll pour My fury on them to fulfill My anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt.’”

Ezekiel 20:11-13 – “I gave them My statutes. I showed them My judgments, which if a man does, he’ll live.” Just like makes known to us today. He’s not secretively making up this as He goes along. He tells us exactly what He wants us to, and He gives us His Holy Spirit that we can do it. “Moreover, I gave them My sabbaths to be a sign between them and Me, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them. Yet, the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness. They didn’t walk in My statutes. They despised My judgments, which if a man does, he will live. And they greatly defiled My sabbaths. And I said I would pour out My fury on them in the wilderness to consume them.” Idolatry. Sabbaths. Two things that we might look at, because Israel failed miserably. And when Ezekiel writes, he’s not writing to a nation that was already in captivity. It was too late for that people. Not too late for you and me. Verse 18:

Ezekiel 20:18 – “I said to their children in the wilderness, ‘Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers. Do not observe their judgments. Do not defile yourselves with their idols. I am the LORD your God. Walk in My statutes. Keep My judgments and do them. Hallow My sabbaths. And they will be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am the LORD your God.’”

So, the many things that we can be thinking about – examining ourselves, asking God, fasting about, “Am I doing what You say? Are there idols in my life? Am I keeping Your Sabbath – a sign between me and You – in the way that You said to do it? Or have I defined it in a way that benefits me, rather than what You say?” These are real questions that we can ask. And God will give us the answers. The answers are there. The answers are there in the Bible. And God says, “Don’t look to the world. Don’t look back. Look to Me. Look to the words that are here.” You only need the Bible to know what you need to do. You only need the Bible to know what you need to do.

To a group of people at the end time – you and me – God says this back in Revelation 2. There’s a church in Ephesus, as Jesus Christ speaks to each of the seven churches. And as you read through those, you see there are attitudes that can be with each one of us. In Revelation 2, you can see He speaks to the first church.

In verse 2, He speaks to the church at Ephesus, Revelation 2:2-3 – “I know your works.” The church had works. “I know your labor.” They worked. “I know your patience” – a good virtue to have. “And I know you cannot bear those who are evil.” They knew how to discern good from evil, right from wrong, and truth from error. “And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars.” All those things are good things for a church to be able to do. “And you’ve persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary.” Another good trait. But God says, “That’s all good. Do it. But it’s not enough.”

Revelation 2:3-5 - “Nevertheless, I have this against you – that you have left your first love. Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen. Repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly, and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent.” You’re doing all these good things. Kudos to you, but you’re not the same people that you were when you first followed Me. You no longer have the zeal. You no longer have the glee like the Israelites did – or the joy that the Israelites had in Exodus 15 – the joy that marked your life – the diligent searching of the scriptures to please God and do what He wanted us to do when you first came. You’ve lost that. You’re still doing things. That’s all good. Continue to do that. But get that first love back. Get that first love back, because, if you don’t,” He’s says, “I’m going to come and I’m going to take away even what you have.”

Over in 1 Thessalonians 1 – I’m sorry 2 Thessalonians 1, and verse 3. As Paul writes to a group here in Thessalonica, they’ve got that first love. They’re coming in and they’re joyous for the understanding that they have that God has called them. They’re walking in newness of life. And Paul says this to them – and it’s a key into what happens when we have the first love. 2 Thessalonians 1, and verse 3:

2 Thessalonians 1:3 – “We are bound” – Paul writes – “to thank God always for you brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly” – your faith in God. Your reliance on God grows exceedingly. By contrast, Jesus Christ says, “When I return, will I find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). That’s a question for you and me. Would God say today, “I look at you, Church of God, and I see your faith is growing exceedingly?” That a question for you and me, as well, as we look at ourselves. “…because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you – ahh – abounds toward each other.” I see the fruit of the Spirit. I see the love. I see the agape. I see the binding of you with each other. Those of you who have the Holy Spirit, you love each other. You’re looking out for the needs of each other. You’re doing the things that I want to say – when Jesus Christ said, “People will look at you and they’ll know you’re the Church of God because of the love you have for one another” – just as people would look at that early church in Acts 2, and say, “I want to be part of that group. They’re different. They’re different than everyone else.”

Would God say that of us today? Do we know each other? Do we enjoy our time with one another? Do we take the opportunity to be with one another? Or, do we think, “One day a week is enough. One day a week is enough. I’m not doing anything more than the bare minimum. God says, ‘Commanded assembly on the seventh.’ Forget the rest of this stuff that goes on. I’m too busy. I’ve got better things to do. I just don’t want to be there.” Is that the attitude that we have? If we still have that first love, we would still be doing the things that we did when we first came in. Whatever God said, whatever opportunity that we had to be together, we would. Do we still feel that way?

We could look at ourselves in many different things, but let’s close. Remember that God wants us. He wants us in His Kingdom. He’s patient with us. But He advises us before the Passover, “Examine yourself – examine yourself – honestly, through the eyes of the Bible, through the eyes of the Holy Spirit, and be willing to make the changes that you need to make. Don’t make excuses. Don’t harden your heart and say, “I just don’t want to do that.” Maybe it takes some time to adjust to some of the things we need to do.

We began in Hebrews 6 – Hebrews 3 is where we want to be. As we began, we talked about Jesus Christ, who we look to during this time, but we can look to the examples and the lessons we learned from Egypt and Israel. Let’s continue in verse 7 of Hebrews 3:

Hebrews 3:7-10 – “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says” – as we hear these things, as God opens our minds. “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today if you will hear My voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works forty years. Therefore, I was angry with that generation, and said, “They always go astray in their heart”’” – their hearts aren’t where they need to be. Their hearts aren’t with Me. Are our hearts with God?

Hebrews 3:11-14 - “So, I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter into My rest.’ Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.” But look out for one another. Love one another. Want everyone else to be in the Kingdom. “But exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ” – we will all be there. That’s what He wants. That’s what we said we would do. “For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end.”