Thursday Night Bible Study

Exodus34:10-35 (Click title for audio access)

"The Other Side Of The Coin"  •  7.14.11  •  Calvary Christian Fellowship, Thursday Night Bible Study

Intro

- Often, we are limited in our ability to look at these passages because we don't have the time to cover every detail or see behind every corner. That makes studying God's Word a challenge.

- Chapter 34, if one goes to fast, will give you the wrong impression about God and it can stumble you in a great way. This is why we are taking our time.

- I want to begin where we last left off, with a statement that we exegeted last time.

- God was offering to show Moses all of the glory that Moses could stand, which included a proclamation from God regarding His name, which reflected His character.

•  Exodus 34:6,7  :  "And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, 'The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.'"

- We learned from this passage that God is a merciful, gracious, longsuffering God. He is also just, giving people chance upon chance to turn from their iniquity.

- He will visit the Fathers and allow them to know Him as the loving gracious one, or the just one. When that Father dies, God will visit the children with the same desire and so on!

- God never gives up and He never treats anyone a certain way because of their heritage.

- When we last left things, Moses had asked God to take Israel as His inheritance, to treat them as His own not on the basis of their behavior, but on the basis of His grace.

- This week, we have the other side of the coin and it's a fearful thing to consider it.

Text

•  Exodus 34:10,11  :  "And He said: 'Behold, I make a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord. For it is an awesome thing that I will do with you. Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I am driving out from before you the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite."  : God tells His inheritance that He will make a covenant with them. This is a promise or an oath.

- In the sight of the people, God promises to 'do marvels' in front of them. These are extraordinary works. Miracles that would be unique to their history.

- What God is about to do for them was unprecedented. It was God's wonderful work that was done on their behalf.

- God calls what He will do an awesome thing. This is best understood as something awe-inspiring. Fearful. Terrible. Powerful. He would do that on their behalf, for them, on their account.

- What He was about to do only He could do. Bringing the children of Israel into the Promised Land, Canaan, would literally take an act of God.

- They were to observe His command to them that day. Keep watch over this word. Guard it. Make sure to listen. God is going to drive out these Canaanite people groups.

- These groups were to be expelled, thrust out of the land. They are the famous "Ites."

- God had decreed to the people of Israel that this was their land and that He would take care of removing it's inhabitants.

- God was giving favor to Israel and determining judgment upon these "ites." As we go on, we'll determine why that is the case.

- Suffice it to say, this is not the same thing as genocide or ethnic cleansing, both of which are motivated purely by hatred of a given race. This is judgment from God and for very good reason.

•  Exodus 34:12-17  :  " Take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be a snare in your midst. But you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images (for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they play the harlot with their gods and make sacrifice to their gods, and one of them invites you and you eat of his sacrifice, and you take of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters play the harlot with their gods and make your sons play the harlot with their gods. ^'You shall make no molded gods for yourselves."  :  Take heed. Beware. Understand that you will be tempted in this area with regard to these people. What were they to "beware" of?

- They were be careful of making a covenant with these people. They were not to come into an agreement as a people with another people. This could only be a trap to them.

- They did not have the strength spiritually to influence. They could only be influenced!

- God knows that unequally yoked partnerships end one way: With the believer tainted!

- Account for their stiff necked condition, their observance of Egyptian religion and their willingness to leave the true worship of the true God, and one can see their vulnerability was great.

- What were they vulnerable to? They were vulnerable to the perverted worship system, which included altars, sacred pillars and wooden images.

- They were not to tolerate these things. They were to break or tear them down. They were not to be momuments in the land or symbols of a past culture. They were to be removed entirely.

- Like the true worship of God, the Canaanites had altars, killing places where animals and other living things even human beings were sacrificed to Canaanite gods.

- The words "sacred pillars" refer to statues erected to symbols associated with the gods, many of which were phallic in nature, gross and perverted.

- The words "wooden images" are better understood as "groves" or later, as "high places."

- They were to do this to cut off the possibility of worshipping another god. God's name is jealous! He fervently resists any rival to His throne in our hearts! He alone wants to rule our hearts!

- Before long, there was danger of fellowship, intermarriage and idol worship that would plummet them into idolatry and lead them to destruction as well.

•  Exodus 34:18-23  :  "The Feast of Unleavened Bread you shall keep. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, in the appointed time of the month of Abib; for in the month of Abib you came out from Egypt. All that open the womb are Mine, and every male firstborn among your livestock, whether ox or sheep. But the firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb. And if you will not redeem him, then you shall break his neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem. And none shall appear before Me empty-handed. Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest. And you shall observe the Feast of Weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year’s end. Three times in the year all your men shall appear before the Lord, the Lord God of Israel."  :  God here repeats information that He has already communicated to the people of Israel.

- The instruction for the Feast Of Unleavened Bread has been considered in chapter 12:15-20, 13:4-7 and 23:15. It was a week that commemorated the Exodus and His work to deliver them.

- The leaven was a type of the flesh and the world that could not be allowed to pervert the work of God in their lives. Nothing from the old flesh life was to come in.

- Additionally, the law of the firstborn was also a repeat from Exodus 13:2 and 12. Redemption is the work that they were to celebrate, buying back from the Lord that which belongs to Him.

- The Sabbath day has been spoken of in chapter 20:9-11, as part of the Decalogue and was repeated again in chapter 23:12.

- They were to rest, even in the busiest seasons, in plowing and in harvest time. There was never to be a suspension of their rest.

- Finally, in this section, there is a repeat of the information found in Exodus 23:14-19, regarding the three Jewish feasts that were to be held yearly to the Lord.

- They are, in order the Feast of Weeks, Pentecost and Tabernacles, which happen in March, April and late September/early October.

- Why is there a repitition? Did God forget that He had already said this? Not at all.

- The land that God was bringing them into was obviously filled with idolators, whose practices could not be added to the practices of God's people, thus the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

- The gods of the Canaanites required that children be sacrificed to them. God says, "You will redeem your children and consecrate them to me alive, that they may serve my purposes."

- The gods of the Canaanites were built around the concept of fertility. The land was to consistently be fertile for them. This is where their "worship" came into play.

- Upon the High Places, the groves, there were statues that represented male and female symbols of fertility.

- In order to get the gods to fertilize the soil, which their sexual act produced, they implored them by involving themselves in sexual acts with temple prostitutes.

- As they "worshipped," Canaan's gods brought fertility to the land. Now, God is telling them that they are to rest, to appear before Him, so as to show that He is the One that brings produce.

- They could not do anything to force Him to act. They could not involve themselves in degrading practices and think that He, their God, would respond.

- They were to rest in Him and relate themselves to Him, both as a testimony and a direct slap in the face of Canaanite theology.

- God repeats this information, not just because it was their identity as they left Egypt, but it was their safety as they would enter Canaan!

- Peter the Apostle, in his epistle, tells the people that it's good for him to remind them of the truth that they were established in.

•  Exodus 34:24-28  :  "For I will cast out the nations before you and enlarge your borders; neither will any man covet your land when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year. You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leaven, nor shall the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover be left until morning. The first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.' Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Write these words, for according to the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.' So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments." - This is how completely God wants to clear out the land. He wants it to be so clear that they can take off and their land would be thoroughly safe.

- The Lord reminds them that they are not to leave anything left from the Passover for morning. They were to consume it all the night before.

- Remember that Jesus was not left on the cross overnight. He was removed and buried.

- They were not to boil a young goat in its mother's milk. The womb was to be a place of safety, unlike that which was practiced by the Canaanites, who cruelly did such things.

- Moses, when all was said and done, had been with the Lord for 40 days and nights, without eating or drinking. How is that possible? It's not, except for the sustaining power of God.

- A man does not need to eat or drink when He is physically in the very presence of the sustaining Creator of the Universe!

- It's interesting that Moses, Elijah and Jesus all had identical fast periods in scripture. When Moses came down he had a second pair of tablets for the people.

- Before we move onto the final section, I want you to understand that this judgment had taken a very long time to come to.

- God had told Abraham 600 years in advance, that the Amorites sin would be judged. Even before that, Noah had prophecied that his grandson Canaan would be judged for his sin.

- Sexual degenerancy in the form of heterosexuality, homosexuality, incestuous relationships and bestiality were all practiced in the land of Canaan. Why? This was how their gods acted.

- El had been married to Asherah, who bore him a son named Baal. After some time, Asherah and her son Baal became partners in an incestuous relationship.

- No wonder the people thought that this was ok! "Good enough for the gods..." They had had years to repent, but had refused. In that way, they were like the Sodomites, who were also judged.

- But never forget that the Lord also spared the Ninevites, who repented from their sin.

- I say all of this to say that God gave them as much of a chance to see Him as gracious, loving and merciful, but they chose to see His perfect justice, which He would show, but not delight in.

•  Exodus 34:29,30  :  "Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the Testimony were in Moses’ hand when he came down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him. So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him."  :  Moses came down the mountain, having been in the very presence of God and something physically attended him. His skin shone while he talked with God.

- Literally, his face sent out beams of radiated light! His face was was glowing! He was unaware of this phenomena.

- Moses is walking down the mountain, excited that he had been in the very presence of God, ready to lead in the Word of God.

- He gets back into camp and the people are avoiding eye contact. That's odd. He comes into his tent, looks in the mirror and sees what they have been seeing! Now he was afraid!

- The people saw this and they feared him. Why? Because of the holiness of God that was now shining out from him!

- It's not noticeable to you either, when having been with the Lord, but you radiate His joy and kindness to the world around you! Your face should shine as well!

•  Exodus 34:31,32  :  "Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him; and Moses talked with them. Afterward all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them as commandments all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai."  :  Moses brought the Word of God to the people of Israel. He gave them God's commandments.

- He transmitted to them that which he recieved from the Lord. That's what Pastors are supposed to do today! This is what God has given me. Receive it as a commandment from Him.

- That authority has to be understood. When the Word of God is opened, if you are a follower of Christ, the principles and commands that we observe each week, are binding commands.

- Don't be fooled by our humble environment and size: We are holding God's Word in our hands and are thus, living in light of that revelation.

- Mt. Sinai and the wilderness of Sin might as well be Gonzalez Center, room 2!

•  Exodus 34:32-35  :  "And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with Him, he would take the veil off until he came out; and he would come out and speak to the children of Israel whatever he had been commanded. And whenever the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone, then Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with Him." : After Moses finished speaking, he put a veil on his face. This was a covering of some sort.

- When came to speak with the Lord, he would take the veil off. He would speak to the Lord unveiled, open before him, then transmit what was said to the people of God.

- This was his repeated practice, moving around with a veil while outside the presence of God.

- What does all of this mean? Thankfully, Paul comments on this in 2 Corinthians 3.

- Paul is talking with the Corinthians about the reality of their walks with God and that the Spirit was the proof of what God had worked in them. In fact, the Spirit was increasing in them.

- That led him to the thought that closes our section:

•  II Corinthians 3:4-18  :  "And we have such trust through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels. For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious. Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech— unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord."

- Even in the very beginning of the work of Moses and the covenant that was being made between God and man, even then, that was faded glory, destined not to last or grow.

- God had a much bigger idea to promote and He wanted to do that for His people, through His people, unto all peoples for all time.

Conclusion

- Understanding the difficulty of God's judgment is one thing. Forgetting that His judgment is tempored by His longsuffering and His love is another thing.

- God has done everything for His people, so that other people around the world might avoid the pain of His judgment.

- He wants to take the veil off of their face and allow that shining to increase by invading hearts. He wants to transform people into His image. That's His goal and desire. Let it be ours too!