The Torah Series - Exodus

So, we began two weeks ago now on our Torah series. And what I wanted to do was look at and I'm going to ask Mr. Zincy to put up on the screen a slide that I made some slides, but I'll start with one at a time. So, I I use this term arc. It's a literary device. Okay. And it provides sort of the narrative flow of a story.

It's the journey that an audience takes from beginning through the various stages or movements or acts of a story to the end. It's that consistent theme that you're looking for as you go through that. So whether you're reading a book or if you're at a play or a ballet or a musical piece or something like that, there's a theme that will run through whatever that is.

Music moves in movements. Uh plays move in acts and so forth. And so what I wanted to try to get us to see is how the Bible consistently presents an arc of the story of God and his desire, what we call the plan of God, to dwell with his creation. It begins in Genesis chapter 1. It ends in Revelation chapter 22. We f you can follow that theme, that arc all the way from beginning to end.

And you can follow the movements along that arc and see how they tie into and help us connect to and see God consistently unfolding that plan. Yes, there's much that goes with that. There's a lot that we learn along with that. But in terms of the story itself, this is the ark that we follow of the plan of God from the beginning to the end.

A God who has created human beings to dwell with them. He calls us sons and daughters when we become converted and called out of this world. And ultimately, we will be his spiritual sons and daughters for eternity. But that doesn't change the the base meaning which is we're dwelling with the God who created us. And that's his desire. We began that journey in the book of Genesis.

So let's have that second slide. You can see here in this first slide how how by the way just so you know I I'm I'm I'm not an artist. So I went on to uh I went on to AI actually that was these are these are generated by Genesis or excuse me by Gemini. Gemini is Google's AI. I did I put all this stuff into a bunch of different AI and said I want some pictures. Here's why.

I've had some people say, "I'm I'm just not familiar with this term arc that you're using, the way you're using it." And that's okay. So, I created these slides to sort of help us to visualize. And I sent them to my wife and she said, "Yes, this actually is helpful." Hopefully, you can read those.

But what I did was just sort of allowed it to create the imagery of this story that's that's that goes from the beginning to the very end, which we saw on the first slide, starts in Genesis and ends in Revelation. Here we went through last week we went through the book of Genesis to follow the movements of of that book in three major pieces, right? It was the creation of all things, the beginning of all things as the first movement all the way up through to chapter 11.

And we get from chapter 11, we get, let's see, what was the first movements? Was it like chapter 11, 1-6, and then 6 through 11? That's what it was. Or 1 through 3, then 3 through 11, something close to that. You'll have to look at this things closer than I can see from here. Is that 1-2 or 1 through 3? 1 and two, then 3 through 11, and then 12-40.

Three big movements that all illustrate the plan of God. How he is doing and accomplishing this plan from the beginning of all things in the first chapters, the creation and the beginning of all things. Second chapter or the second movement in which man sins, there's the fall which leads to judgment in the flood. Coming out of that, we have the third movement which is God selecting a family.

and now focusing a covenant with that family to again advance us along that arc that he wants to dwell with his people. So now today we move into the book of Exodus. Where did we leave off with with Genesis? Well, in terms of big strokes, we we left off with God having called Abraham out of the world. Given him instruction to move from his family into Canaan, which he did, he has a son of promise, Isaac.

The covenant that God gives to Abraham, he thou gives to Isaac. He gives that same covenant to Jacob. We get to the end of the book of of Genesis. And now all of all of God's people, this family are now dwelling in Egypt, having been protected and preserved through the famine that had got God had allowed to move through the land.

He had placed Joseph in the second highest seat in Egypt, the most powerful nation on the planet, perfectly positioned to protect his family. And that's what he does. And it is in Egypt that God preserves this family of Abraham. This is where Exodus begins. A family preserved and protected in Egypt for God's fulfillment of his purpose to dwell with man, executed now through this covenant with this one family.

When the book of Exodus opens, movement number one. Are we on that slide, Mr. Zarbinsky? Exodus has four movements. Yes, we are. So, we have four movements in this book that we're going to go through today. The first movement, redemption from Egypt. This is God looking down on his people, seeing them enslaved.

Now, yes, protected from the world, a place where they could grow, which they absolutely did. Let's turn over to Exodus chapter 1 where we begin today's review of the book of Exodus as we follow the arc of God's plan through this book. Verse 6 of Exodus 1 says, "And Joseph died all his brothers and all that generation, but the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly.

mighty and the land was filled with them. So we see God blessing them as a people, as a as a people growing, a family really growing, all cousins, all related, brothers and sisters, cousins, nephews, nieces, the whole deal, a people growing in protection in Egypt, purposeful on God's part. But then in verse 8, it says, "Now there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph.

Now he said to his people, "Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply. And it will happen in the event of war that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land." Therefore, they set task masters over them to afflict them with their burdens.

And they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Python and Ramsies. But you notice here in verse 12, but the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew, and they were in dread of the children of Israel. This is sort of how this the the book begins to open up. God's people growing. These are still his people identified by God, preserved by God, protected by God, in covenant with God.

Now, my point isn't to walk through each and every element. Neither did we do that with Genesis. It seems like we skipped lots of details, didn't we? Because it's your job, if if I can say it this way, to read these books a new. What I hope to do is that as we lay out these movements that as you then go back and read through these books, just take a just take the time to read through them straight through, keeping in mind the movements and you'll see then where things are in each of these books and why they're there. It begins to make

sense to you and it allows you to organize the book in your mind. I know where that's at. It's roughly right. It's in this portion of that book. And the same thing's going to happen in the book of Exodus. We're going to see these four movements and we're going to see what's generally contained within these movements.

The first movement is the first 15 chapters of Exodus. Chapter 1 through chapter 15. Within this are lots of details, lots of events, but overall we're looking at it as a movement. Now, on this arc that we've been tracing, what is God trying to do? Well, he finds a people that he wants to be his own and he finds them in captivity in Egypt.

He needs to get them out of there to move his plan along. His plan wasn't to to ultimately create a nation within Egypt. It was to create a separate nation and a company of nations. If we go back and remember the promises given to Abraham. And so that nation must be its own nation.

What defines a nation? It has to have its own territory with borders. has to have its own laws. It has to have its own leaders, right? This is the functioning n the nature of of a nation. And so God says, "You're going to be that." So can't leave them in Egypt. Got to take them out of there. What leads to that? Exodus 23, God's watching.

You know, if you read this carelessly, you might feel like it says that God wasn't paying attention. which is not its intent. But it says here in chapter 2 and verse 23, now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died, then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out, and their cry came up to God because of the bondage.

So God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. This is not to say that God was sitting up there sort of like absent-mindedly on his throne, oblivious to the things that are going on until, you know, screams and cries for help come up to him and he's like, "Oh, what's going on down there?" He's watching everything in his time.

He's simply watching and waiting for the right time to advance the plan. Now is the right time to advance the plan. And so where do we go from here? God calls somebody out of the world. Loosely speaking, he calls Moses, a Hebrew who grew up as an Egyptian. We we don't have to we don't have time to go through the details of of the story as each individual component unfolds.

So we have to look at how the story unfolds on the whole. What do we actually see in the first movement? Well, we see God taking this man, Moses, setting him up as a prophet, telling him to go forth and share my message that I want my people to go free. This is essentially the job that Moses has. Moses, as we know, he fights against this, but ultimately he concedes to do the job that God has given him to do.

This is the big rocks of the story. And so, what does he do? He goes to Pharaoh. his brother is given to him as a spokesperson to help him because he says he's weak in speech. God says, "Fine, you have your brother Aaron to help." They go to to to Pharaoh and what do they do? Let my people go. This is the essence of the story.

Let my people go. Why doesn't God let his people go right away? It's kind of an interesting thought. I was contemplating this, but do you know if I'll leave it to you to go back and to reread again these these stories, but note something in particular importance. Have you ever wondered why God kept hardening Pharaoh's heart? There's there's a possible explanation if you read go back and reread all of that section and note something that before anything, God said that he is going to exact a price from Egypt for his firstborn son, Israel.

I am going to require the firstborn of Egypt before the first plague hits. This is what God says is going to happen. When does that plague happen? It's not the first one. It's the 10th one. God is going to take the time, pardon me, God's going to take the time to make sure that all 10 of his plagues of judgment land on Egypt.

Pharaoh will not be able to turn at any time previous to the finishing of that to say, "Okay, I finally give up." God says, "No, there are going to be 10 punishments." Read through it and notice that. It's an interesting caveat to see how God was meticulous to do something important. No nation on the face of the earth worshiped God.

There was no nation on the earth that worshiped God at this time. Who were the gods of Egypt? Well, we know they weren't gods at all. They're the inventions of human beings, worshiped as though they have power. And God's going to take the time with the greatest nation on earth, the most powerful military might on earth at that time.

And he's going to prove to them that there is a God in heaven. And he's going to exact punishment, judgment on them through these 10 plagues. He's going to make sure every single one of them land. And Pharaoh will not be able to get out from underneath that. It isn't to say that he wants to, but it's to ensure that God's plan goes exactly as God intends for it to go.

Now, we get to chapter 8. So, we're going to go through plagues. I don't we're we don't have time today to walk through all of the plagues where we begin with blood, the water turning to blood, and we move from plague to plague to plague. The beginning plagues that God pours out as his punishments on Egypt, those plagues happen to both Egypt and Israel.

The Egyptians and the Israelites suffer the same thing. But God did not leave it that way. He begins even during these plagues to set his people apart. He's going to make it clear that I am here for my people. That's how we see that ark unfolding because that's his intent to dwell with his people. We get to chapter 8.

This is the plague of the flies. And God begins to separate his people beginning right now. Chapter 22 and chapter 8:es 22 and 23. Chapter tw excuse me verse 20 is where it introduces uh it says rise early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh and he comes out to the water then say to him thus says the Lord let my people go and if you won't let them go I will send swarms of flies okay so now verse 22 he says and in that day I will set apart the land of Gan 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 So now God's going to make it very clear to the Egyptian people that there's a difference between you and the Israelites. You gave them the land of Gan and that's where they predominantly live. When you look to the northeast and you see that their land has no flies, what should that tell you? If you're paying attention from this point forward, the disasters that strike Egypt don't strike the Israelites.

So obviously that distinction shows that God is directing the events and preparing to bring his people out of the land. The final plague that strikes Egypt happens on one night. It's not a duration. If you go back and read, many of the other plagues lasted over days. Not this one. One night the death angel is going to pass over.

The firstborn throughout the land are going to die. In this case, God does not distinguish between the Egyptians and the Israelites by simply saying that they are Israelites and therefore they will not suffer consequences. I want you to think about this. What does God do that's different here? Up until now, there's been no instructions to the Israelites on what they're supposed to do.

Where's the obedience for them to be compliant with? Except God says, "Now for this plague, tell the children of Israel to set aside a lamb on the 10th day of the month. And on the 14th at twilight to kill that lamb, to roast it with fire, and to take the blood, and to put it on the doorpost, and on the lentil, and on the house upon which the death angel sees the blood of the lamb, it will pass over.

" This is a plain instruction that the only salvation for a household for its firstborn is obedience. If they don't put that blood on the doorpost and the lentil, the firstborn of that household die. So this is God's instruction and his very first test of this people. He calls his people, "Will you obey? It's going to be the only way that you save your household.

" Obviously, what we know happens here, well, let's just note his instruction here in in Exodus 12 and verse 13 where God says, "Now in Exodus 12:13, he says, "Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

" That night, Pharaoh releases the people to leave Egypt. We know that the firstborn even of his own household died. Now, what happens here? Again, we're just following the big rocks of this movement. We know that during the the next day, the day portion of the 14th, the the people pillage the Egyptians.

God pays them back for all their time in bondage and in slavery. And that night they move north and they flee. We keep that and celebrate that as the night to be much observed, the beginning of the 15th. Ultimately over the next six days, beginning on the 15th, they arrive on the sixth day, the 20th, where at the sea, the Red Sea.

You know, Pharaoh looks and sees a people that he thinks are confused. The land has confused them. The geography has confused them. they are trapped. Let's go get our people back. And so he sends his armies out after them to capture them again. You know, we think about these things, don't we, at this time of year about the spiritual application.

And we know we we know Egypt represents a kind of sin. And so if we can picture this in our heads, sin coming after us, it's like when you're first overcoming, does it just let you go? Any of us that have been in that process? No. It's not that simple. It's it takes time and work to overcome. It doesn't want to let us go.

Neither does Pharaoh want to let go of Israel. It's just beautiful imagery. Helps us to see the spiritual nature of the truth that's revealed here for us. So this is the moment though when the armies of Egypt land at the same shores behind Israel and they are now trapped. It's either the Red Sea or it's the Egyptian army.

So God moves the pillar, fire, and cloud from before where it was leading to behind where it now stands between. And there's only one way this people is going to be rescued. Absolute faith and trust in God. There's no alternative. Either God is going to give them a path out of this or he's not. That's it. That's the choice.

Exodus chapter 14 verses 21 and 22. Well, let's look at I'm I'm going to do what I always do. Verse 19. And the angel of God who went before the camp of Israel moved and went behind them. And the pillar of cloud went from before them and stood between them. That's Israel and the armies of Egypt. So it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel.

Thus it was a cloud and darkness to the one and it gave light by night to the other. So that the one did not come near the other all that night. Then Moses So now we see how long God is preparing his miracle. It says, "Now then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. And the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night and made the sea into dry land, and the waters were divided.

" So the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. Can you imagine this in this scene? And all we could do is try to create this in movies and and I don't think they do an adequate enough job of what it would be in real time to be standing with those massive walls of water on either side of you to walk across that on dry land to not understand the miracle that has been performed.

You're living in the middle of that miracle. There's no explanation for this. You can't just go this was a dream. Might have felt like it though in real time. Very strange to see and witness this incredible miracle. Side side note, did this convert any of the Israelites. Think about that. They still had stiff necks and hard hearts after this.

It's unfortunate, but true. But the crossing of the Red Sea marked more than an escape from Egypt. It marked the moment when the people of God were fully separated from the nation that had enslaved them. The power that had held them bondage is now broken. We look at this spiritually to understand the application for us is the power of sin over us is broken by God through his spirit.

That's what allows us to overcome. It is God breaking it. just as he did here in verse 30 of chapter 14. So the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians. And Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. It's one thing to have walked through that Red Sea with the walls as high as they were and the miracle of that and to just try to process all of that and then to get to the other side to look back when the walls had come back together and destroyed that army and to see the dead on the seashore. Both sides

utterly wiped out. that army that you were so afraid of and God destroyed it. From that point forward, Abraham's descendants stood on the far side of the sea as a free people. God had utterly delivered them from the Egyptians. In Exodus 15 and verse 13, the people understood this. This is the song of Moses.

In verse 13 of chapter 15, it says, 'You in your mercy have led forth the people whom you have redeemed. You have guided them in your strength to your holy habitation. Now, that statement reveals something important about where this story is going. Notice that God did not, as you reread these stories for yourself and validate this, do you notice that God did not bring them to the other side of the Red Sea and then just go, be free.

That would suggest that God didn't have a plan all along. I ju I got you out. Now you're on your own. So, I want you to think of it this way. There's more to the plan than that. God wasn't just taking them out. He was taking them to something, from something to something. And you'll see that as it unfolds here.

Now, the text describes this destination as his holy habitation. That's the place where God would dwell among his people, those he brought out of slavery. So, this first movement of Exodus accomplishes a necessary step in this larger story. God removes the people from the land where they were enslaved. He begins leading them toward the place where his presence is going to dwell among them.

That leads us to movement two, the covenant at Si. This is where God brings this is the point of the second movement. God bringing the people to himself. So the first movement is to find them where they are enslaved and captured to rescue them from that. The second movement is to take them where they need to go where you can dwell with them.

Now the the journey itself quickly revealed how dependent the people were on God for survival. Think about this. Where were the farms? Where were their storehouses of grains and food? Where was their water supply? You know, where where had they been in goan where they had all of these things? And the Nile River was right there sustaining the entire land.

Unfortunately, they had to learn to depend on God to provide what they needed. And God needed to teach the people that they were now living under his care. And so God is a careful caregiver. When the people ran out of food, what did he do? He didn't just leave them to figure it out. We're in Exodus chapter 16 now and verse 4.

Chapter 16 and verse4. says, "Then the Lord said to Moses, behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day that I may test them whether they will walk in my law or not." So now we have another test. I'm going to give you the food that you lack. It's called mana.

And every morning with the dew, it's going to come down on the ground. And for six days, you're to go out and you are to gather that mana. And on the sixth day, you're to gather twice as much to cover the Sabbath day. Will they obey? Well, we know from the story as you read through it that they didn't all obey. Some went out on the Sabbath together.

Some kept their stuff overnight and it turned to worms. And God said, "See you, this is a simple lesson. I It's real simple. It's to teach you that I have instructions and that there are benefits and consequences. It's really s if you think about teaching a three-year-old, how how small do we make the lessons? We make them real small to teach the young mind to connect the dots between law and obedience, disobedience and punishment.

Can we get them to see that these are all related and important? And so here's where God begins to teach those lessons. Now eventually as they travel, again, we can't the point of this isn't to cover every episode that happens from the Red Sea to Sinai. The point is that that this is the movement, God bringing them to himself.

And are there challenges? Oh yes, there are challenges, but they get there. We're now in Exodus chapter 19:es 1 and 2. In the third month after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on the same day they came to the wilderness of Si, for they had departed from Rafidim, had come to the wilderness of Si and camped in the wilderness.

So, Israel camped there before the mountain. One of the things you have to remember, just just kind of a sidebar, but kind of important, Sinai is not in the promised land. It's in the wilderness. This is not the final destination. This is a stopping point. You know, I want you to think about something else, too.

God did not intend for Israel to spend 40 years in the wilderness. That was a punishment. His intent was to take them to the promised land. There's a wedding that's coming up. He wants to take his bride immediately to her new home if she's willing to go. Turns out she's not so willing to go. But he would have taken her immediately if she were willing to go.

I want you to just kind of as we kind of meditate and and this time of year as we go through these books, we think about their meaning and their application, especially spiritually. They're just interesting things we should be thinking about and contemplating. I say repeatedly that what we see unfold in the pages of our Bible is almost certainly not what God originally intended.

It is God dealing with man's choices in real time so that he can keep his plan on track. He will not have his plan undone. It will come about exactly as he said it would. But there are going to be movements within that that he's going to have to deal with. That's the whole point of that because man was given free will, which means free choice.

And we don't always choose to do it God's way. So Mount Si here is the center of the second movement in Exodus because it's here that God speaks directly to the people and he establishes how they're going to live under his rule. Now verse four, God reminds them of what he did for them in chapter 19. He says, "You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself.

" Now he says here in verse 5, "Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people, for all the earth is mine." So on all the face of the earth, God is saying, "I'm going to set you aside to be my people. You and only you will be my people.

" That's a unique relationship. But it explains the purpose of the Exodus. Notice the end of verse four. What did he say? He says, "I bore you on eagle's wings and I brought you to myself. It's where I am because I want to be with you." Now, standing at the base of the mountain, the people faced a new stage in their history.

God was about to give them instructions for how they were to live as his people. You read through Exodus 19, you see God telling the people to prepare themselves, to wash themselves, and to wash their clothes. It would be as if to say that you have to tell the bride, "Go buy yourself a wedding gown and dress yourself up and prepare yourself to be married." Because that's what this is.

Repeatedly God describes this as a marriage covenant and that indeed is what it is and there are terms to that covenant and there's a way in which God unfolded the delivery of this covenant. It begins with the fact that he himself is going to say his part of the vows and he expects Israel to respond in their voice. No intermediary.

I will say my vows. You will say your vows in this relationship. Chapter 19 and verse 9. Verse 9 says, "And the Lord said to Moses, behold, I come to you in the thick cloud that the people may hear when I speak with you and believe you forever." So Moses told the words to of the people to the Lord. Now, the scene that that followed was a powerful and frightening scene.

It's described with thunder and lightning and smoke and the sound of a trumpet. It's terrifying as God's presence descends upon the mountain. I was trying to think of of perhaps you can think of something that you've experienced that was sheer like physically you could feel it and it was terrifying.

As close as I can get to that in my own experience is I as a outside salesperson I was calling on a steel manufacturer in Portland and they had they take in scrap steel from all I mean everywhere. So I'm when I mean scrap I mean all kinds of scrap. So there was scrap cars, vehicles, all that kind of stuff and other kinds of scrap metal.

So they just they would take it all and then they then they would designate it by piles as to what actually that scrap that this pile will give you generally this consist this kind of steel. Okay. And then this pile will give you this kind of steel and so forth. And these will be the properties.

And so when they have an order that comes in for we need so many thousand tons of this kind of particular steel with this grade. Then they go out and they start pulling all of the different piles and pieces and they put them in these big vats and they take them over to this massive huge vat thing that's about as big around as they have probably 25% of this room.

This big thing is they dump all the scraps into this thing. And you know you got junk car parts and all that stuff. It's all going in there. All the metal framing and all that's going in there. You got broken wheels, the whole deal. And then this probe comes down. And it's a massive probe and it's electric.

And when they hit the go switch on that, I was walking the plant the first time we were analyzing taken on a contract and we and we're walking in the plant and the the the guy was talking to us. He's in the tour and he's saying, "Now this is our machine and this is how we melt our steel down.

" And then boom, they hit the go switch and this thing just the the probe turns this massive glowing red yellow and the whole building, the ground, everything starts shaking as this thing is just electrifying this massive steel. You can feel it in the back of your, you know, it throughout your whole body. You can feel this. It's a little terrifying the first time.

And I was thinking to myself, that was a little scary. I remember that. But, you know, we went into this side room. It had insulated doors. Nobody died. So, you know, you watch that long enough, you're like, "Okay, nobody died. That's okay. I feel probably safer than I think." You go into a room, he's talking to us about why it is, how much power it takes. And they're all amazing.

And not not one of that comes even close to this. These people were so terrified, they never wanted to experience it again. I was terrified just enough. I was like the next week I was like, you know, I'd like to I'd like to go back and see that one more time. So, it wasn't really that scary. It was just kind of cool in a in a dude way.

I thought it was awesome. That's not what these people experienced. So, how much worse? I remember the feeling. I How much worse would this have been? Like, it was intense. God demonstrating his power just through his voice, through the sounds, through the smoke, through all these things. He's demonstrating a tiny fraction of his power, but it was potent for those people.

So, he speaks the Ten Commandments himself. We get to Exodus chapter 20. We begin here and and and God's no longer, he doesn't he say, "Hey, Moses, say this for me." Nope. He's speaking his own words to the people. And as we just read, he's he came down upon the mountain so they would hear him. Verse 20, chapter 20, verse one.

And God spoke all these words, saying, I wish I had a really big booming voice. It'd be awesome. I am the Lord 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. I would love to hear him say that power of that and those words. How could you not understand how passionate he feels about the false gods of this world which are not gods of any kind? There's only one God.

Now, obviously, the commands that followed covered how the people were to honor God. That's the first four scriptures, the first four commandments. How do we honor God? What's that called in the New Testament? The great commandment. Love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

And the second great commandment is like it to love your neighbor. And so the last six commandments are how do we love our neighbors? So God gives all of this instruction, the practical rules for how a people should live together that are going to become a nation under God's authority. So they witnessed the thunder, the lightning, and the voice from the mountain, and they were afraid.

Verses 18 and 19 of chapter 20 18 says, "Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightnings, the the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, the mountain smoking, and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood a far off. And they said to Moses, "You speak with us.

" Parenthetically it should say from now on and we will hear you. But let not God speak with us parenthetically anymore, lest we die. That is the fear. Well, that scene obviously made something clear. God had brought the people near to himself and his presence was powerful and holy. With his own voice booming from the mountain, God demonstrated his greatness.

He was not like any invented God. He was power itself. Now, Moses continued to receive instruction. As we move from here through chapter 24, we see God continuing to give instructions on how the Israelites were to dwell together. If your ox gets free and gores someone, what should you do? If somebody's animal gets free and hurts themselves on your property, what should you do? All those kinds of how do you live together as a community? God lays all of that out.

Now once all those instructions were delivered, the people made a formal commitment to obey what God had spoken. God gave his vows. Now it's up to the people to say, "I do." And you get to the end of 24 or excuse me to chapter 24:es 7 and 8. It says, "And he took the book of the covenant, verse 7 of 24, and he read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, "All that the Lord has said, we will do and be obedient.

I do." This is the bride saying, "Yes." She took her vows. all he has said we will do and be obedient. Verse 8, it says, "Then Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, "This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words." This is now a binding covenant, a marriage agreement between God and Israel.

So, they're no longer slaves in Egypt. They're now his people formally in a relationship with God. They'd been brought out of captivity, brought to God's mountain, and given the commandments that are going to govern their lives. Now, something happens that's a little bit remarkable. Let's notice verse 10. Well, that's I'm sorry, verse 9 and 10.

It says, "Then Moses went up also Aaron, Naab, and Abaiu and 70 of the elders of Israel." This is the leadership then. And they go up and it says that they saw him. Verse 11 says, excuse me, let's see. They saw the Okay, verse 10 says, "And they saw the God of Israel and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone and it was like the very heavens in its clarity.

" But the nobles of the children of Israel, he did not lay his hand. They saw they uh the the finishing of this, it says, "So they saw God and they ate and drank." So God did not destroy them. They saw him in whatever way that is. We don't know what that means. We know c certainly it isn't the way that he revealed himself to Moses when he hid him in the cliff of the rock.

So however God allowed them to see him, they knew it was God. There wasn't any question that they had seen God and they ate a meal. Jame and Faucet and Brown's commentary says this. They feasted on the peace offering, on the remnants of the late sacrifices and libations. This feast had a prophetic bearing, imitating God's dwelling with men.

This is that thread that we're chasing in the arc of the story of God's desire to dwell with man. This is the second movement of Exodus. This is the purpose of it. That God brought the people out of bondage to himself to form an official relationship with them. What we call the old covenant.

This leads us to the third movement, instructions for God's dwelling with his people. God gives instructions on creating the place he will dwell with his people. This is the third movement. I rescued my people. I brought them to me. Now I need to dwell with them. How are we going to do that? He's on the mountain. The mountain is in the wilderness.

He needs a place that's d that's that's going to go with them because they're not going to stay there. They're going to go to the promised land. So, how's he going to dwell with them if he stays on the mountain? There has to be a way for him to dwell with them as they go to the promised land. So over in chapter 25 now verses 8 and n God says and let them make me a sanctuary.

Here's the reason. That I may dwell among them. Now according to all that I show you. That is the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings. Just so you shall make it. So this instruction that we just read tells us what the next movement's about. God was is going to prepare a dwelling place that would stand in the middle of the camp.

So wherever the camp was, there would be God's dwelling place. The word sanctuary simply means a place set apart. It would be the location where God's presence would dwell among the people that he had brought out of Egypt. Now, he did not allow the people to design it themselves. The tabernacle is of God's very specific design.

Notice verse 40 of chapter 25. His instructions are clear. and see to it that you make them according to the pattern which was shown to you on the mountain. It isn't your pattern, Moses. It isn't your pattern, Aaron, or any other human being. It is God's pattern given to them. Now, over in Hebrews chapter 8, we have a look back from the New Testament to this very moment. Hebrews chapter 8.

Verse 5 says, "Who serve," verse 5 of chapter 8 of Hebrews, it says, "Who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For he, God said to him, quote, "See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.

" And so this tells us that this pattern comes from God. The pattern is of heavenly things. The sanctuary is God's place set apart on earth. He wants it built off of the pattern of heavenly things. And so this structure that's in the wilderness is going to reflect whatever the arrangement is of God's own heavenly throne room.

Now, at the center of that structure stands an ark. And on top of that ark, I'm going to go over here to Exodus 25 21 and 22. Well, to keep it simple, I'll just I'll read here. He's talking about the ark. In verse 21, he says, "You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark." Now, this is the ark of the covenant.

It says here, "And in the ark, you shall put the testimony that I will give you." Why? Why does it say that? Did he not have some testimony already? So far, it's all been verbal except what Moses wrote down. Remember Moses wrote in a book called the covenant and he read from that book to the people a reminder of their vows and they said all that you have said we will do.

God has something else in mind. God the book the covenant itself is based on what? The law of God. He he hasn't yet written down that law, but he does and he will do that on tables of stone which will go in this ark. The tables of testimony, his testimony. This ark that contained the covenant between God and his people was a chest made of acacia wood that was covered with gold and inside it were placed the stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments were written ultimately.

And on top of that rested a solid gold covering called the mercy seat. Two carob were placed on that covering with their wings stretched over it. This is a physical representation of something spiritual that we cannot see. The throne room of God. God calls the seat that he sits on the mercy seat. I know when I anoint somebody, and I know my other the other elders do probably do the same thing.

I I've heard some of them. I haven't heard everybody do an anointing yet, I don't think. But most of the time, we refer to that seat because it is the seat God himself sits on, and he calls it his mercy seat. And when we ask God for mercy, we're going to the God who defines himself by the very seat he sits on as the place where you go for mercy.

It's such a beautiful illustration of who he is. So the location represents the throne of God. The carob marked the location of God's sanctuary because they their wings outstretch over his throne. Now, you can probably recall that before the flood, God placed caravan to block the entrance to the Garden of Eden because that was his sacred place on earth.

After he created man and Adam sinned, those caravan were placed and left there to defend that place, God's sacred place. It's an interesting connection when you see their wings outstretched over his mercy seat. So the ark was placed in the innermost chamber of the sanctuary, a room known as the most holy place.

Everything in the sanctuary was organized around the most holy place, God's sanctuary. Now we move outward from that inner chamber to a room called the holy place. So at the very center we have the holiest of places, the most holy place. Around that is called the holy place and outside of that is the main temp tabernacle where we find other things.

So in the holy place we're going to find a lampstand, the table that holds the bread, the altar of incense. Now beyond these rooms, that's the outer courtyard. Now that's where the sacrifices were offered where the altar was. So you can see then that we have an outer court, we have a holy place and then we have a most holy place.

At the very center of the tabernacle in the most holy place stood the ark beneath the wings of the carob upon which is the mercy seat, the throne of God. A curtain separated the most holy place from the rest of the sanctuary. That tells us something. Access to God is limited. He is dwelling among his people but direct access is now limited.

You remember in the garden of Eden he walked with Adam and Eve directly in their presence. Now that presence something changed. Now his presence is going to be limited. He's there among his people but direct access is limited. Now who gets to go into that sanctuary? The high priest every day. One day a year, the day of atonement. So by the end of all of the instructions to build this tabernacle, to prepare it, God gives very explicit instructions on how it's to be done.

He sets aside people, gives them his spirit so that all of the workmanship and the craftsmanship will give him exactly what he wants in its design and its production. After all of that, God is ready. His sanctuary, his dwelling place is now ready. That brings us to the fourth movement. What's interesting about the fourth movement, because the fourth movement at its core is simply God coming down and actually taking his dwelling place.

I had thought about about whether or not this is directly connected to the previous, but it's not. And here's why. A foundation has to be laid for the book of Leviticus. It also carries this arc forward of God's plan, the movements within it. There are five movements within the book of Leviticus. What we need to know about the foundation of that is what happens next.

God says,"I have a tabernacle now amongst my people." But even before he could come and take his place, what happens? It's at the beginning, a serious problem happens in Exodus chapter 32. Where is Moses? We're moving through the movements now. The tabernacle's been built. Moses has gone someplace.

Do you remember where he's up on the mountain with God? He was requested by God to bring two tables of stone with him. God was going to write on those tables of stone the law with his very own finger the Ten Commandments. This is where Moses is for 40 days. Moses is up there. The people get restless after 40 days.

You think about what they went through. the thunderings, the smoke, the shaking mountain, the trumpet, all of that. God booming out the commandments out of his own voice, which they hear, there's no denying any of that. 40 days later, we get to 32. Chapter 32. Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, verse one, the people gathered together to Aaron and said to him, "Come, make us gods that shall that shall go before us.

" Where did they learn that? Egypt. They came out of Egypt, but Egypt hadn't come out of them. Come, let us make gods that shall go before us. For as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. Was it Moses that brought him up out of the land of Egypt? Seems to me God kept saying it was him.

And Aaron said to them, "Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, your daughters, and bring them to me." So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. and he received the gold from their hand and he fashioned it with an engraving tool and made a molded calf.

Then they said, "This is your God, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt." What an incredible insult to God 40 days after he brings them out of Egypt and they're creating for themselves a God of Egypt to be their God. Think about that now because God does not withdraw from the temple or from the tabernacle, excuse me.

But it reveals a problem. The question has to be asked and answered. How does God dwell with this disobedient people without destroying them? This is what the book of Leviticus is about. God creating a way in which he can dwell with his people without destroying them for their sins. They begin the relationship immediately after they're married with sin.

God is going to have to deal with that. That's what takes us to the book of Leviticus from here.