The God We Make: The Presence We Want and the Mediator We Need (Exodus 32)

just a moment.

Um but I want to start by asking a question.

Um and you don't have to answer this question.

I just want you to think about it.

But when you purchase a a piece of furniture or a uh it could be a Lego set.

It could be anything.

Some anything you have to assemble.

I want to ask you what type of person you are.

Are you the type of person who takes all the pieces and you try to put them all together without looking at the instructions?

Like you're you look at it and you're like I I have a pretty good idea of what this is supposed to be.

I think I can do it all on my own.

Or are you the type of person who opens up the instruction booklet or scans the QR code and watches the videos and and tries to follow it meticulously to put it all together?

Or are you the third type of person who's like, you know what, I'm going to call my dad to come and put this together for me because I I I I just don't want to deal with it.

Well we are picking up here in the book of Exodus after having a seven chapter instruction booklet given to us.

If you were in the the class you'll remember that we had a a Lego set that we not actually Lego, uh Bible bricks set of the tabernacle that that we built together and and there were multiple instruction booklets about how to just build a Lego version of the tabernacle let alone a full-on real version of the tabernacle but I just want to submit to you in opening that those instruction booklet the that seven chapter instruction booklet that was given in the book of Exodus was not just the instructions of how to build a structure it wasn't just the instructions of how to make some furniture it wasn't just the instructions of how to decorate clothing but it was actually instructions about how the presence of God could dwell with the people.

And so this morning we're going to jump back into the story of Exodus right after having received this long instruction booklet.

And as I do so we're going to read the text and we're not going to read it all the way through because I want even though this is a super familiar text like let's not let's not make any you know apologies for that.

This is a super familiar text it is the story of the golden calf and the things that come after that.

But I would just tell you that as we look at this text despite the fact that it is super familiar don't be one of those who thinks oh I know how to put it together I'm gonna I'm gonna just do it my way no listen because I would tell you to listen also at what the people of Israel did as they were waiting for Moses.

Did they wait for the instruction booklet or did they take it into their own hands?

Because I'll tell you this when I tend to put things together on my own what I end up missing is those little details like oh this was a top and that was a bottom and I didn't realize it and now all of a sudden the finished side that you're not supposed to or that you are supposed to see is up facing the ceiling and you see the unfinished side and you're like I did it all wrong and now I have to decide do I want to live with it this way or do I want to take it all apart and put it back together again.

So so that that's that's where we're gonna be uh let's pray and and then we'll jump in.

God thank you uh thank you that uh you have given us this this book in the Bible the book of Exodus and and we thank you that that within it we hear the story of of you God yes it is a story of your people and how how they were taken out of Egypt and and delivered and saved and and and and how they responded and it's a story of Moses and it's all of these things.

But first and foremost God this is a story about you and that you are a savior that you are a God who rescues who delivers from slavery.

And so God as we look at this book as we jump back in help us to learn more and more about you and how you work in and of your people God thank you thank you now help us as we look into the word to see more who you are in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen you go ahead and open to the book of Exodus chapter 32 in your Bibles if you have them with you.

Exodus 32 · chapter mention

And like I said we're going to read in four chunks but but but we'll we'll we'll jump in there in just a second.

You know it's been a little while since we've been in the book of Exodus uh we've been making our way through Exodus on and off I know Pastor Ricky said a few years we've been on and off in the book of Exodus for five years.

In like a week it would be the five year anniversary of the first sermon that we had in the book of Exodus raise your hand if you were here five years ago there's a couple of you but but not a whole lot okay so so I get that we're that we're not all here but I think that what we will see here is something deeply helpful for us.

You know uh so going here we are jumping back in we did preach fall of 2024 so more of you were here for that um and then this last summer as we already mentioned um Daniel was leading us through a study of those last seven chapters so if you were here for that you you're a little bit more up to speed um but uh I I just I just want to as we jump in here we're jumping in reflecting on the fact that God has just given the instructions for how the presence of God was going to dwell with his people I want you to remember or learn for the first time where Israel is in this story.

So the first thing I want you to remember is that God had rescued them from Egypt.

He they they were slaves and they had been freed and then he brought them through the sea the Red Sea and he led them through the wilderness to Mount Sinai and at Sinai God entered into a covenant with them.

In chapter 24 Moses reads the words of the covenant to the people and Israel responds after Moses reads these words which includes the Ten Commandments and all these things actually the ten commandments were breathed out spoken by God and they said we don't want to hear directly from God anymore.

Moses we want to hear from you but Moses reads the words of the covenant and the Israel responds in chapter 24 with the words all that the Lord has spoken we will do and we will be obedient spoiler alert they're not the covenant is sealed with blood Moses and the elders go up the mountain and amazingly they have the privilege to eat there in the presence of God then Moses goes further up the mountain and while Moses is there God gives him the instructions of chapters 25 through 31 there are instructions about the ark and the tabernacle the priests the sacrifices furniture clothing all of these things but God makes it abundantly clear what it is all about in one sentence in Exodus 25 verse 8 it says let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst.

Exodus 25:8

God rescued these people because he intends to live among these people and so that makes what happens here in chapter 32 just so odd frankly you look at it and you you you see one side of the story and you kind of see this up and this down imagery Moses up on the mountain and the people down there waiting on God for all of these things but what do we have here is we see a people at the bottom of the mountain God's covenant people who have gotten tired of waiting Moses has been gone for 40 days and they don't know what's happened to him.

So they say to Aaron make us gods who will go before us and I think we can easily understand we can easily misunderstand what's going to happen next they don't go to they don't go to Aaron and say hey we want a new religion we want a new God let's start over from scratch no they don't say forget Yahweh instead what happens is Aaron makes a calf and he builds an altar in front of it and then he proclaims tomorrow shall be a feast to Yahweh they still want in some way Yahweh they want the God who brought them out of Egypt but they just want God's presence on their own terms they want something visible something immediate something manageable that they can grasp something that doesn't require them to keep waiting for Moses something that works in their timing the ultimate tragedy of all of this is that while they are down there trying to manufacture God's presence God is above the mountain at that very moment telling Moses how he intends to dwell among the people they don't need to invent a way to bring God to them God is already making a way and by the end of this chapter the problem is going to become much bigger than just a golden calf because if these are the people God intends to dwell with and this is what these people are like then we have to ask this question how can sinful people possibly live in the presence of a holy God I mean that really ultimately is the question how can sinful people possibly live in the presence of a holy God and Exodus 32 right here this chapter begins to give us an answer and the answer that it's beginning to give us is this and this will be the big idea for today sinful people cannot manufacture God's presence we need the mediator that God provides we can't manufacture God's presence we need the mediator God provides I'm gonna start by reading the first chunk.

The first chunk is verses one through six of Exodus 32 when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain so he's up there getting the instructions they see he's delayed the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him up make us gods who shall go before us they want they want to be led they want they want some image in front of them that they're going to follow behind as they travel just like they had been led to where they are by following the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night there was a presence that they had been following they're like hey Aaron get up make us an image make us something that we're going to follow as for this Moses the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt we do not know what is become of him so Aaron said to them Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives your sons and your daughters and bring them to me side note how tragic it is do you know where they got this gold they got this gold when they plundered the Egyptians on the way out of Egypt as a blessing and then they took that very same gold gave it back to Aaron to do this act so go get all that gold and bring it to me.

Verse three so all the people took off their rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron and he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf and they said these are your gods O Israel who brought you up out of the land of Egypt when Aaron saw this he built an altar before it an altar is a is a table to make sacrifices he built an altar before it and Aaron made a proclamation and said Tomorrow shall be a feast to Yahweh Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord to Yahweh and they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings and the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play look these are not innocent people that don't know better.

They just had a huge ceremony they just heard God speak to them in an audible and powerful and miraculous and amazing and terrifying way and has given them the instructions the first commandment to not have any other gods before him and the second commandment which is the the preeminent commandment here that that you should not give not have any graven images.

And what do they do?

They take the gold and they take a graving tool and they make a graven image to worship the very God who had just told them that's not how you worship me.

I don't care what you saw in Egypt.

I don't care what they do in Canaan I don't care what the rest of the world does to worship their gods that's not how you worship me and Moses goes up and he's on the mountain for 40 days and they're like we don't know what happened to him so let's just do it our own way and they they they they try to manufacture God's presence on their own terms and frankly sometimes that is what we do too we want to manufacture God's presence on our terms you see when you when you when you read this text when you dig into it what you see is you see a people who want God's continued presence they're not just saying hey we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna turn to the the the gods of the land they're gonna do that later but what they're gonna do right here is they're gonna just disregard what they've been told and choose to to kind of do it however they want meanwhile Moses is up there with God getting the instruction booklet about how to do exactly what they want to do because what do they do they create a calf and they build an altar and they offer sacrifices and if you were here for the Bible study and you heard what we what we what we went through or even if you've just read those those seven long chapters of instructions there are very detailed instructions about exactly how to build a tent for God's presence how do you have God's presence when you don't have an idol like every other well you have a a place for God's presence in in in this case a tent and in that tent nobody goes in there except the high priest once a year and and what happens outside of that tent well there's various courts and there's various altars where different kinds of offerings are brought to the Lord the instructions for all of that Moses has and he is about to head down the mountain in in just a moment he's just about there but they can't wait and they take it into their own hands and they don't say we don't want Yahweh anymore.

Instead they say we want a Yahweh we can see that we can manage that we can have without waiting we want God's presence with our method on our time and I think that we look at this and I look at this I'll just speak for myself when I look at this I just think how foolish could they be you know like when you when you when you look at the story of of the rich man and Lazarus in the New Testament and and and he's like well just just someone go tell my my my unbelieving loved ones about what's really coming and and then they'll believe and they say no they've been told through the prophets there is no way that they would believe when I look at at a at a text like this I'm just like okay well if I were a slave in Egypt and I had seen the plagues and I had seen the sea part and I had gone through it and I had followed a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night and I had seen everything that happened on the mountain and I heard God speak the Ten Commandments and I had seen the power that Moses is is allowed to wield I I'd be like whatever Moses says I'll follow it forever I look at this and I'm like what is wrong with these people you know what's wrong with these people they're people they're sinful people like you and me.

And so we can look at this all day long and think this isn't me but it is you this is us naturally this is who we are and we like to remake a God to suit us.

We like to have a God who agrees with us when we when when we think oh you know my politics is this way so God must align with me or or or or the my values are this so God must agree with those values or or this is the timeline.

This is how everything should work out and God's gonna bless that timeline.

But the reality is is we don't remake God God remakes us and so let's let's let's keep going here and and and we're gonna read what happens because the problem with all of this is yes obviously they are they are doing wrong they're breaking the commandments the problem is is they're doing a they're doing wrong against a God who really exists and he is right there on the mountain and they're not going to get away with it and thank God that they don't because it doesn't allow them to face ultimate destruction and we'll see how all of that works out in verses seven through fourteen so let's let's walk through these verses together verses seven through fourteen and see where we're where we land verse seven and the Lord Yahweh said to Moses so God initiates the conversation Moses is up on the mountain God goes to yah goes to Moses and he's about to tell him what he wants to do listen to what God Yahweh says to Moses He says go down so he's up on the mountain he says go down for your people whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt who brought them out of the land of Egypt?

Well God did but who did the people say just a moment ago just a moment ago the people said we don't know what became of this Moses the man who brought us out of Egypt Moses didn't bring anybody out of Egypt.

God brought them out of Egypt.

But God then goes to Moses and he says your people who you brought out of Egypt What does he say about them?

Have corrupted themselves.

They have turned aside quickly, incredibly quickly.

Like it was just in chapter 24, right before the instruction booklet, where they had a whole covenant ceremony and they made the promise that they're going to do whatever God says, that they're going to be obedient, and then they immediately, immediately disobey.

Go down, or uh go down, because those people, your people, they've corrupted themselves.

Verse 8, they have turned, they have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them.

They have made for themselves a golden calf, and have worshipped it and sacrificed to it, and said, These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

And Yahweh said to Moses, I have seen this people, Moses' people.

God's seen them.

And what does he say?

He says, It is a stiff-necked people.

What's a stiff-necked person?

One who doesn't want to be turned.

If you have a horse and you want a horse that has a not a stiff neck, so it will go the way you want it to go.

But he's talking about the people, and he says, They're a stiff-necked people.

Now, therefore, listen to this.

These are scary words.

These are from God speaking to Moses, and he's going to tell Moses, he says, Now, therefore, let me alone that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them in order that I may make a great nation of you.

Moses.

He says, Moses, don't interfere.

Get out of my way, because I have judgment, and I'm going to destroy them.

And I'm going to start over with you, and you're going to be my new Abraham.

And we're going to just start all over from scratch because these people are lousy.

They're stiff-necked.

They don't know where to go.

They don't know what to do.

And as soon as you leave them and walk away from the mountain, 40 days later, they're building a golden calf and they're having this giant party.

And like, what in the world?

These people are lousy.

I'm going to start over with you, Moses.

At least you listen.

Now, I would just say this.

I don't know how, I don't presume to know the mind of God and how all of this works.

But I would submit to you that when God tells Moses, stay out of my way, God is not intending for Moses to stay out of his way.

Because what does Moses do?

Well, he absolutely gets in God's way.

He stands in the breach, he gets in the way.

And if that's disobeying God, I'm pretty sure God could just like be like, okay, you two then.

But no, he gets in the way.

And he stands in the gap and he becomes a mediator for the people.

And so this is what I would say God is doing here.

God is pronouncing what will happen if there is not a mediator to stand in the gap between sinful humanity and ultimate judgment.

And so he is inviting Moses to be who Moses is called to be specifically.

He is inviting Moses to be their mediator.

He is inviting Moses to respond in prayer.

He is inviting Moses to ask for mercy.

He is inviting Moses to do exactly what Moses goes on to do.

Verse 11.

But Moses, but Moses implored the Lord his God and said, Oh Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people?

Not my people.

Moses doesn't claim them, those stiff-necked people.

God, they're your people.

Why are you so angry with them?

Why do you let your wrath burn against them?

Whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt.

With great power and with a mighty hand.

Why should the Egyptians say, with evil intent, did he bring them out to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth?

God, why would you why would you do all that and then let the world see that they you don't even protect your people?

Turn, God, turn.

Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people.

God, change.

Don't do this judgment.

Turn from it.

Verse 13, God, remember, like God needs a reminder.

But you know what?

He's reminding.

God, remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all the land that I have promised, I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.

Remember, God, your own words, your own promises.

And the Lord relented of the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.

Would I want you to see this?

I kind of already said this, but the second point is that we need someone between us and judgment.

Now, Moses, Moses is an imperfect mediator.

And you're going to see that later on in the text when we get to our fourth chunk.

But what we do see right here is that Moses is faithful to be the mediator that God is calling him to be.

And so he prays.

And he prays not based on the people deserve mercy.

He doesn't pray based on they're good people.

God, you're wrong.

They're not stiff-necked.

No, he appeals to that, appeals to God based on the fact that they are God's people, that God's character is what's on trial, that God's actions are what are being judged when those those are the nations around look.

And that God's word matters and what he has promised matters and that he will be faithful to it.

And so what does God do?

Well, after God invites Moses to be the mediator, Moses functions as the mediator, and God relents.

And so that's a good, nice spot.

Like, okay, good.

He relented of the disaster.

All is good, right?

Well, not really.

And this is gonna bring us to our third chunk.

Our third chunk uh starts in verse 15.

And let's work our way through these verses, starting in verse 15.

Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand.

Moses heads down.

He's carrying these two tablets.

These tablets, it says, were written on both sides.

On the front and on the back, they were written.

It's kind of repetitive there.

Why?

It's emphasizing, hey, these things are the complete testimony.

This is the whole thing.

And it says, verse 16, the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets.

These tablets, these mean something.

God is actually the one who has inscribed the words on them.

They're the words that contain the covenants that the people had just agreed to.

Moses is coming down, he comes up to Joshua, who is maybe like halfway up.

It says, verse 17, when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp.

But he said, It is not the sound of shouting for victory, or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear.

And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses' anger burned hot.

Remember, God's anger was burning hot just a moment ago, and he just Moses just stood in the gap and said and prayed that his that his anger would relent, that the judgment would relent.

Now Moses' anger is burning hot.

And what does he do?

He walks down, he sees what's going on, and he takes the tablets and it says, and he threw the tablets out of his hand and broke them at the foot of the mountain.

He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it.

I mean, Moses is hot.

He is really mad.

He just shattered the tablets of the covenant, of the testimony.

That's a big deal, but it's also deeply symbolic.

Because when he shatters those, he is telling the people, you have broken this, you have broken your word, and the blood that was spilled was spilled in vain, because you are a lousy people, you are a stiff-necked people, you are a foolish people, you are a sinful people.

He makes it really clear.

It says in verse 21, and Moses said to Aaron, What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?

And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my Lord burn hot.

You know the people.

So what's going on here?

You kind of have like a whole, this reminds me of the fall, right?

When when when when God uh when God comes to to to Eve and she points to the man and the man goes to the man, and he's like, or sorry, goes to the man, and he's like, Well, the woman that you gave me made me do it.

It's not my fault.

Aaron here, he blames the people.

It says, and Aaron said, Let not the anger of my Lord, that's little Lord, that's Moses, burn hot.

You know the people, you know they're stiff-necked, you know they're lousy, you know all that.

You know the people that they are set on evil.

For they said to me, Make us gods who shall go before us.

And this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what's become of him.

So I, Aaron, said to them, Let any who have gold take it off.

So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.

It's not my fault.

I just they they wanted it.

I'm like, ugh, you know.

I mean, if I throw it in there, you know, spontaneous creation, the fire shoots out a shoots out a calf, a baby bull, just like that.

Like, I mean, I'm what do you want?

What do you want from me?

Who cares about the fact that earlier in this very same chapter, it says that Aaron himself took out a graving and tool and engravened the image?

So, yeah, Aaron's lying, he's covering for himself, he's not innocent in this.

Aaron is guilty, just like everyone is guilty.

And when Moses saw, when Moses saw that the people had broken loose, for Aaron had let them break loose, to the derision of their enemies, then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, Who is on the Lord's side?

Come to me.

And all the sons of Levi gathered around him.

This doesn't mean they were innocent, but they're saying, We're on the Lord's side.

They're gathering with them.

And he said to them, Moses said to them, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, put your sword on your side, each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.

And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses.

And that day about three thousand men of the people fell.

And Moses said, Today you have been ordained for the service of the Lord, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day.

Now those are heavy words.

There's a lot to unpack there.

But I want you to realize what just happened.

I want you to think about the context of what happened in the second portion.

Moses had mediated, he had prayed, and God had relented of the disaster.

He had shown mercy.

But mercy does not make sin harmless.

Mercy does not make sin harmless.

Moses comes down and he smashes the tablets.

He says, You guys are guilty.

You have broken the rules.

And he is furious.

And Aaron tries to make his excuses.

In Deuteronomy, we have a parallel account to this from kind of Moses' perspective.

It tells us that Moses prayed for Aaron specifically, that Aaron would receive mercy.

That's not here in this text specifically.

But what you have here is a statement of Moses to the people that what they did is horrendous.

That what they did is absolute shattering of the covenant, the covenant that they had just made with the God who had delivered them from Egypt, from slavery.

It was no small task.

He had delivered them through the plagues and through the parting of the Red Sea, and he provided manna in the wilderness.

He had done miracle after miracle for them, and they had promised and committed absolutely.

Now, the next day.

Let's look at our our last section.

The next day, Moses said to the people, You have sinned, a great sin.

In case they didn't figure that out the last day, he's telling him again, you have sinned a great sin.

And now I will go up to the Lord.

So he's gonna go back up the mountain.

He's going to go up to the Lord.

And this is what he says.

Perhaps, perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.

Here's the thing.

God was angry, and God had revealed to Moses his wrath and invited Moses to stand in the gap and be that mediator.

And Moses had already prayed.

They still needed atonement.

They still needed reconciliation.

And so Moses is saying, Yeah, what you did, what you did was really, really bad.

It was a great sin.

And maybe, just maybe, I, Moses, can make atonement for you.

Verse 31.

So Moses returned to the Lord and said, So this is what Moses says to God.

He says, Alas, this people has sinned a great sin.

They have made for themselves gods of gold.

But now, if you will forgive their sin, that's a request.

If you will forgive their sin.

But if not, if not, please blot me out of the book that you have written.

Moses is offering himself in their stead.

But Moses is not a worthy sacrifice.

What does God say back to Moses?

It says, But Yahweh said to Moses, Whoever has sinned against me, not you, Moses, whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book.

But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you.

Behold, my angel shall go before you.

Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.

The Lord then the Lord sent a plague on the people because they made the calf the one that Aaron made.

Something that the more I've dug into it, the more I've looked at it, has become clearer and clearer.

Despite Moses' offer to have his name blotted out, Moses was not sufficient.

There was no atonement yet made here.

And frankly, this is not the end of the story.

The next couple chapters are going to provide some in-the-day answers.

But what I want you to see here is what we as people need.

Specifically, we need a mediator better than Moses.

Moses can't stand in our gap.

Our parents can't stand between us and judgment.

Our family can't.

No, we need more.

We need Jesus.

First Timothy two.

First Timothy two, verses five and six.

For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

The man Christ Jesus who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

You see, this this section in Exodus, it's not specifically as I read it, it's not a messianic prophecy.

That's not what I'm that's not what I'm trying to say here.

But this is a statement about the condition of mankind.

Specifically, that if you were to be able to pull Back the blinders and see how mankind behaves to see how you behave.

The way that that we look at the people, these stiff-necked people, these lousy people, and we look at them and they're like, Look, if I had seen all that, there's no way I would do whatever Moses said, and then they do this.

That's you, that's me, that is who we are.

And if it wouldn't be this, it would be another thing.

Because we need someone to stand in that gap for us and bring us to God and deliver us from judgment.

And we know that though this text isn't specifically telling us that there is a perfect mediator coming, we know that that mediator has come, and that mediator is Jesus.

And so I am here this morning to tell you this: that you are not okay.

I am not okay.

We are broken, we are in desperate need.

We have no hope apart from Jesus.

But the good news is that Jesus came and that Jesus made a way in a way that Moses could not, so that we could come before God and call him Father.

And so let's worship God how he calls us to worship him.

Let's come before him and let's pray before him the way Moses was bold to stand before him and pray, because he does indeed answer prayer.

And let's not lose sight of the fact that apart from God, apart specifically from God the Son, our mediator who took our place, we would have no hope.

There's one more text.

I'm not going to turn there.

But one of the things you may have noticed as we read this and we read about their judgment was that about 3,000 people died that day.

I can't help but read that and think of the book of Acts, where 3,000 people were saved that day.

There's debate about how connected these two are, but I don't think that it is simply a coincidence.

I think that what we see in Christ and in the establishment of the church is a way to come to God that is so superior to the way that Moses offered because it's given to us by Christ.

Let's pray.

Father God, thank you.

Thank you this morning that we could look together into this book of Exodus.

I thank you for the example of Moses, who was uh willing to be a mediator for his people.

And God, thank you ultimately that Jesus is willing to be our mediator, to stand in the gap between us and God, deliver us from judgment, and give us relationship to God who can we can call Father.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.