Exodus
19:1
“In
the third month, on the same day of the month that the Israelites had left the
land of Egypt, they entered the Wilderness of Sinai.”
If
you remember from last week, we saw how God reveled Himself to the world and
used Egypt’s oppression of the Israelites as the means to show His nation that
He is God.
God
revealed His name as “I Am that I Am”
God
revealed His power through the devastating plagues and the parting of the sea.
He showed the Israelites that He was God and showed the Egyptians that their
gods did not measure up.
God
revealed His plan. He showed that He wanted to be with us and that the blood of
the lamp would bring salvation. For the Israelites the blood of a lamb protected
them from the dreadful 10th plague and the blood of The Lamb Jesus
Christ has saved all who believe from their sins.
God
wants to be with His people and He has a plan to do just that.
Exodus
19:3-6
“3 Moses went up the mountain to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain: “This is what you must say to the
house of Jacob, and explain to the Israelites: 4 ‘You have seen
what I did to the Egyptians and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought
you to Me. 5 Now if you will listen to Me and carefully keep My
covenant, you will be My own possession out of all the peoples, although all
the earth is Mine, 6 and you will be My kingdom of priests and
My holy nation.’ These are the words that you are to say to the Israelites.”
In
verses 4 and 5 here we see a pattern that God is using with His people, it is a
pattern for doing life together.
God
Initiates, then People respond in Obedience
God
establishes a relationship of faith, then people live as God intended
Exodus
19:4
“4 ‘You
have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I carried you on eagles’ wings
and brought you to Me.”
God
initiated by revealing Himself, His power, and His plan and the people trusted
Him when they spread the lambs blood on the door posts.
Exodus
19:5
“5 Now
if you will listen to Me and carefully keep My covenant, you will be My own
possession out of all the peoples, although all the earth is Mine,”
That
is how God is saying life should be. If you obey what He says, we will be His.
We
cannot work our way to God, it is God who is working His plan to be with us. I
don’t know about you, but I am not capable of reaching God. I need Him to reach
down to little ole me. God is working to be with us, He loves us. Our relationship
with Him is not to be one of fear or guilt but of Love and Grace which is
received by Faith.
One
thing we have seen through our review of The Story so far is that God loves us
and wants to be with us. Basically what we will see this morning is for God to
Live with us, a couple of things must be done.
The
first of these things is the guidelines that God gives us on how we treat God
and how we treat each other, also known as, The Ten Commandments.
Exodus
20:1-17
“20 Then God spoke all these
words:
2 I am the Lord your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery.3 Do not have other gods besides Me.
4 Do not make an idol for yourself, whether in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth. 5 You must not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the fathers’ sin, to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing faithful love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commands.
7 Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God, because the Lord will not leave anyone unpunished who misuses His name.
8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy: 9 You are to labor six days and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You must not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the foreigner who is within your gates. 11 For the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything in them in six days; then He rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and declared it holy.
12 Honor your father and your mother so that you may have a long life in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
13 Do not murder.
14 Do not commit adultery.
15 Do not steal.
16 Do not give false testimony against your neighbor.
17 Do not covet your neighbor’s house. Do not covet your neighbor’s wife, his male or female slave, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
God
wants a community of love that reflects the relationships of the Trinity.
How
many parents have rules for your children, or had when they were younger? I
would say everyone here had rules for their kids especially when they are
young. Don’t play with fire. Did you have that rule in your house? How about
not playing in traffic, whether it is the road or highway. I bet that was a
common one. The question we need to ask about rules is, are they in place so we
can ruin their fun? Or we are on a power trip “I am the parent and I can do and
say as I please.” No, we have those rules because fire can burn and cars can
kill. As parents we have rules out of love for our children.
God
gave us The Ten Commandments out of love. As we want our children to have the
best life possible, He wants us to live the best life possible. The Ten
Commandments shape the community of Love.
Commandments
1 through 4 guide how we are to treat God.
1.
Do
not worship other gods
2.
Do
not make an idol
3.
Do
not misuse the name of God
4.
Keep
the Sabbath holy
These
first four commandments are how we manage our vertical relationship, how we are
to honor our God.
The
other 6 Commandments are to guide how we treat other people. Or how we manage
our horizontal relationships.
5.
Honor
your father and mother
6.
Do
not murder
7.
Do
not commit adultery
8.
Do
not steal
9.
Do
not give false witness or lie
10.
Do
not covet
God
gave us each of these Commandments to help us show our obedience so He could
give us the life that He has promised us. The next couple of chapters are more
and more laws. After receiving the Ten Commandments and all the other laws that
God had for the Israelites, they responded.
Exodus
24:3
“3 Moses came and told the people all the commands of
the Lord and all the ordinances. Then all the people responded with a single
voice, “We will do everything that the Lord has
commanded.”
The
Israelites said “We will do everything that the Lord has commanded.” When you review The Ten Commandments are you
willing to say “I will do everything that the Lord has commanded.”
Will
you have no other god besides our God?
How
about keeping the Sabbath holy?
Honor
your mother and father?
Do
not covet?
Will
you commit this morning to say, “I will do everything that the Lord has
commanded?” It is not easy but that is what God is asking of each of us, to
make the commitment to follow His Commands. Our sin nature resists God’s
guidelines. Even the Israelites a short time after witnessing some of the
greatest miracles since creation had Aaron create a golden calf for them to
worship. Think about that 5 year old I mentioned earlier, she was a great
example for how our sin nature resists God’s Commandments.
Besides
guidelines on how we are to treat God and each other, God desires a place to
live among us. In Exodus 25 we learn about The Tabernacle.
Exodus
25:8-9
“8 They are to make a sanctuary for Me so that I may
dwell among them. 9 You must make it according to all that I
show you—the pattern of the tabernacle as well as the pattern of all its
furnishings.”
God
gave Moses all of the details for building every bit of the tabernacle and
everything that is to be in it over the next couple of chapters. The Ark,
table, lampstand, The Tabernacle itself, the Altar of burnt offering, the
courtyard, the lampstand oil, and then goes on to the details of the priestly
garments.
Some
would question the amount of time, gold, and resources that were used to make
the Tabernacle, all its pieces, and the priestly garments. From what I have
read this was not about God wanting to have the nicest place in town, it was
about seeing if the nation of Israel would trust and obey God. Would they build
this thing exactly as God wished, even if they thought it was excessive?
God
choose to live among the nation of people He created because of Love. He wanted
a relationship with them and wants one with us today.
God
knowing the sin nature of His people, developed a way for them to be forgiven.
A way that was hinted at when Adam and Eve were clothed and sent out of the
Garden of Eden. Blood was needed for the atonement of sin.
Our
sin nature is the main thing that keeps us separated from God. Each one of us
has a sin nature. Our sin must be dealt with, covered, or atoned for. We cannot
do this on our own, so blood must be shed. For the nation of Israel the
sacrifice of animals was established by God as the way to atone for the sin.
The priests were to sacrifice the animals to cleanse the sin so that they could
continue to live in the presence of God.
Thankfully
we have Jesus Christ and with belief in Him as our Lord and Savior, His blood
once and for all wipes away our sin. With Jesus’ blood covering us, we are
forgiven and we be blessed to spend eternity with God. While God had a
Tabernacle to dwell with the nation of Israel, today He dwells in us. We who
are covered in Jesus’ blood are the new Tabernacle.
If
Jesus is your savior, you are covered in His blood, your sins are forgiven, and
the Lord dwells in you, and He is asking “Will you do everything the Lord has
commanded?”
If
you don’t know Jesus and want your sins forgiven, please come forward during
our prayer and final hymn and I would love to pray with you.
Thanks for Reading and God Bless!
Remember you can join us on our journey through the Bible either by joining us on Sunday morning or by picking up your copy of The Story and reading it each week with us.
Blessings,
Robert
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