Leftovers - Exodus 33 & 34

Happy Monday. I'm Pastor Matt.

Pastor Chris, I didn't know if I was injuring myself on that, so

I just, that's why my name came out as a question.

It was a question, you're sure of it though.

I'm yeah, yeah. You know what?

I am. I'm very.

You sure of your title? No, no.

You found a way. You found a way.

I can't believe you did it. You found a way to bring that

back. Second service people are are

questioning what happened because it did it well.

They might have noticed you didn't draw attention to it in

the second service. I thought I I thought I

apologized for it profusely during the second service.

I think I did. Oh, I did because I said I meant

to change that in between services because I felt like a

total dummy during the first service.

Just leaves the title part of the slide reading title.

In title, the title of the sermon is title, right?

So you know, it's not seeking God's glory, it's title.

Title perfect. I'm just, you know, sometimes,

sometimes things happen to me or not they, I, I shouldn't say it

that way because that would be as if I had nothing to do with

it. I, I, I want to take

responsibility. Sometimes I do things or don't

do things and I look at myself and I go, dude, what are you

doing? And then I answer myself and I

go, well, clearly you weren't paying attention.

And I go, why do you do that? And the conversation goes on and

on until I just, you know, whatever.

But. So it's so fun to work with you.

There's always something else. It's madness.

It's madness. I don't know how anybody not

named me does it because I don't know how I would work with me.

Yeah, so week 11 in Exodus, we got one more week, then it's

then it's Advent Christmas preparation season.

And yeah, we're almost to the end here.

So this week we're touching up on Exodus 33 and 34 and next

week we're actually jumping out of Exodus still into into

Deuteronomy, which is still. Still the Moses story, right?

Yeah, So that'll close us out in week 12.

Before we get there, though, it's it's my birthday today.

Thank you for all of you who have who have reached out

conflicted about thanking Kristen for the video she made

for the services yesterday on sure.

Thank you, Kristen, for the video that you made for the

services yesterday. Watching you spin on a chair

looping was actually maybe one of the IT just.

It brought joy to my heart. So glad.

So glad. And, and I like the very end of

the loop where you kind of like lean into the camera a little

bit. And I'm just like, oh, OK,

that's that's even more fun. So fun.

So yeah, birthday, birthday today.

Thank you for all your well wishes and and birthday texts

and messages and things. But you have a somewhat

age-related icebreaker question. I don't even know if it's a

would you rather but icebreaker question.

I do as as I as I thought about you today, obviously in the

context of your, excuse me, 35th birthday.

Yeah, 35. Wow, there you go.

As I thought about that, I was like, OK, like what has been

your favorite age to be so far? You know, you're, you're 35, you

know, and, and we have people who, you know, 6078 years old,

probably listen to the podcast and, and I would wonder their

answer to like, what's your favorite age to be?

A lot of pros and cons I feel like to a lot of the ages.

Right. Because do you go, do you go 10

like? Oh yeah.

When I was 10, had a fair amount of independence, bike around,

bike around the city, get to where I wanted to be.

Wasn't cooking for myself though, wasn't working, but

didn't have like responsibilities other than

whatever school. But that wasn't, I don't know,

school wasn't a big thing for me.

So do you do that? But then you don't have like I

didn't have decision making power over my life or.

Did you, did you even know you wanted that at 9 or 10 years?

Old, I guess, yeah, that somewhat of the oblivion of that

was was nice and that so the other that jumps out to me.

Do I go like super young almost not that I didn't have

responsibility, but really like I didn't have to be an adult.

There's no adulting didn't have to worry about.

That didn't have to have any of that stuff.

Or like the the other, the other age that is in my mind is like

is like 25 because young enough that you're not like I'm I'm 35,

don't hear or not still still young.

I don't quite have the I, I haven't quite experienced the

age where like if I sleep wrong things things hurt.

Like if you sneeze, you throw your back out, right?

Like I'm not, I'm not there yet. And and I know that's somewhere

in the next 10 years for sure is probably going to get to that

point, no. Bifocals or anything?

Well my eyes are terrible already.

Haven't been since I was 10. Legally blind without my that's

madness. My contacts and glasses by the

way. But I always wear contacts so

anyway that's not age-related at all.

I just got my dad's eyes, and his eyes are terrible.

And we're flying together. Yeah.

So like, those are the two that jump out 25, still, like, young

enough to feel and be young, but old enough that you are somewhat

taken seriously as an adult. Like, you can hang out with

adults at 25. I feel like at like 1820, like,

you can hang out with adults, but you're still like, a kid.

You're still. Yeah.

Not a like reliable responsible adult.

My, my 21 year old daughter, and maybe I'll always do this, just

it's a term of endearment. If it's a, it's a term of

endearment. But I say, hey, kiddo, you know,

And at 21, I feel very safe doing that without, you know.

Sure, but you would you wouldn't do that to so like, oh man, I

don't know who do we have recent, recent graduate Annie

Ellison. Like would you call her kiddo

like 20 years old, second year college?

Gosh, maybe. I think that's more because

that's your kid. Right.

Yeah, you're probably right about that.

Like. That's true.

I think most 20 year olds you're probably not just.

Like, no probably, kiddo. But like, either way you were

thinking about at 25 maybe. I see.

I bet you still call your daughter kiddo at 25.

I bet that could. Happen.

Yeah, probably. I'll probably still do when

she's 40, right? Honestly, yeah.

How old would that make you? Oh gosh.

Let's not do the math right now. I don't want to think about it.

I would rather not. I mean, I already have enough

Gray hair for both of us so. So I think I yeah, I'm, I'm

laboring on this question too, too hard.

But I think I think like 25 would be, I don't know are we

are we're just like going back to where we.

Were at at 25. Do we have to keep the?

Head knowledge we have now. And how does this work?

I think. I think.

Like physical age. I just think the physical age

and the just normal responsibilities or lack thereof

for a person that age. So I'm not even saying you have

to go back to your life at that age.

I'm just saying the age itself, at which case I think you make a

strong point for like 9-10 years old.

I think that's where I'm landing because I mean, at 910 years

years old, at least in the 80s when I grew up, man, I could

just ride my bike all day everywhere throughout the Quad

Cities, for example, and just come home.

When it got darker, I got hungry or whatever.

No responsibilities, no anything.

It was just like it to me. As I look back over the 44

years, it was the epitome of human freedom.

Now, obviously, you know, in my particular situation, I had

older brothers and like, you know, all these kinds of things.

But that age in general, like, it was so easy to be me.

It was so easy. I I feel like you just opened

this up to turn this so hard on you.

Oh no. Oh no.

I used the phrase that was the epitome of human freedom.

So what's what's 20 years of marriage feel like, Chris?

It's the best thing I've ever experienced.

Please, please hear that it's the.

Best thing I've ever experienced.

I wouldn't change anything. I love being 44.

Thanks Matt for throwing me under the.

Box again, you said these things just happen.

They don't just happen to you. You bring them.

Dang it. Bring them upon yourself, Dang

it. So that's the only.

I mean, that's and honestly, that's because there are things

at 10 years old that you don't experience or or even can do in

your in your 20s. Like I don't know, I think

that's where I'm at. I think 25 still I old enough to

do the things that I like about being an adult, Young enough to

still feel like physically, I don't feel physically dead, but

like, I don't know, I don't know things.

I still think you can outrun multiple teenagers in our youth

group. I think.

I think you can. I think you can outplay them in

sports if you wanted to. Still got the wheels.

Yeah, it's, it's there. I've seen it.

Yeah. So, but yeah, take take 10 years

off and I think I feel better about that.

So 25, I'm going to go 20. 5 go 25 Well I'm you know what

despite. You're sticking to 10.

I couldn't convince you why. Not why not?

We're just, we're going to hold on to it and well and and.

This is why it keeps happening. I'm presenting logical,

rational, explainable things and you're just like, Nah, I'm good.

I'm just going to do this. Well, it's too late.

We're we're just we're just going to stick to it.

I give up. I give up because otherwise I

will inevitably foot will go into mouth deeper if I keep

talking. So we're just going to stick.

With it, take one mat lifetime off your age and get the end of

time. Let's do.

That Let's do that. Cool.

Oh my gosh. Yep, we're back.

ERC leftovers, Strong and steady as always.

This web page is not loading. I'm going to need that to queue

up. Here we are in Exodus 33

portions, kind of the middle part of that chapter and then

jumped into the beginning of Chapter 34 as well.

We started, you started yesterday at verse 12.

I did kind of kind of halfway through.

What are some things, maybe before that, other contextual

things that you wanted to highlight or or throw in that we

didn't spend a whole lot of time in yesterday?

Yeah, well, I did. It wasn't part of the original

reading, but I did. I did use a couple verses from

the beginning, you know, speaking specifically about

God's going to drive out these people and you can go up to this

land, and this land is pretty fantastic, and it's going to be

yours. I promised you the gift.

So I'm going to, I'm going to fulfill that promise.

But yeah, I don't know if I should go with you that that may

not be a great idea for your life.

And then we see, of course, Moses buck back against that a

little bit and say like, listen, you know, if if you're not with

us, we're not distinct. And I want to be distinct.

And so I think those early verses, I think that's those are

those are important verses. But I think enduring word

commentary when it says I will not go up in your midst.

David Guzik says this God did say he would deny that Israel

his presence, or at least the near sense of his presence.

We might say that God said, I won't stay so close to you

because I might judge you along the way.

But go and take the promised land.

And so I mean, I, I, I look at that and you know, I just, that

feels so bad. It's almost like if, if, if you,

if your parents say, OK, I'm going to, I promise you this

thing when you turn this age or whatever.

And I, and I can, I guess I'm going to fulfill the promise,

but I don't like it and I'm not, I don't feel like I can even

fully endorse this, but I promise.

So I guess I'll do it. And and that feels bad.

And it does feel bad. It sounds harsh if we have the

you are a stiff necked people language here in the in the

first part of this passage in chapter 33 as well.

I think as far as this, I won't stay so close to you because I

might judge you along the way, but go and take the promised

land as far as, as far as that thought.

I actually see a really good picture of like biblical

relational boundary there too, right?

Because we walk this line of, of truthing in love, caring for,

providing for, but not to the point of enabling, right?

Like we, we don't, we don't want to encourage destructive habits

or, or even sinful habits, right?

And, and that's kind of what I hear, hear from God is, Hey, I

still love you, but I can't keep perpetuating this sort of

screwed up rebellion that you keep coming back to me with.

So I need to, I need to distance myself, still want to still

love, care, provide this life for you, but it's not the way

I'd like it to be because, because I'm a little afraid of

getting hurt again. And, and yes, infinite, infinite

grace, infinite love for us, but our sin still hurts God, right?

Like he's, he is grieved by our sin, right?

And I think you point that out very well here.

You know, the the fact that sin isn't just something that God

is. I'm angry because you broke my

law. No, like it, it hurts me to

watch you live this way because I know there's a better way for

you. And so in in talking about the

the character of God here, we see, we see God's heart.

We don't just see God's judgement because if you yeah,

like you just did, if you look just beyond just below the

surface, you're seeing not just an anger of you broke my law.

We're seeing an emotional pain here because you're not living

the the best way you could be. And I know it could be better

for you. I know we could have a better

relationship. You just continuously rebel and

I and I don't understand why you wouldn't want this great thing

and why you would choose the lesser.

Yeah, so I just, I see that in there as as God related to his

people and maybe at times as we relate to people in our lives,

potentially even children, grown grown adult children maybe and

in our lives too, or even just other relationships with people

that keep trying to season it with grace and caring.

And if we we've had questions over the weeks of about

boundaries and about letting this person back in my life or

about has have has this person truly repented?

Have I truly forgiven them? I think all that's present.

God's not saying they're irredeemable or that he doesn't

forgive their wrongdoing, but there is a emotional toll of

sorts that's being extracted from their sin here.

I think during the first service, I don't think I said

this during the second service, but I think during the first

service I mentioned it's like we have, we have this intimate

relationship with this person that we care about and we've

we've cheated on them because that's essentially what idolatry

is. Idolatry is OK, I've got this

Worshipful intimate relationship with God and then I choose

somebody else as my partner to worship.

That's, that's cheating, right? And so, you know, what, what do

we do when, when we've done that to somebody and we've, we've

hurt them and, and we've lost their trust.

Now God is infinitely loving and forgiving and, and he's all

these things that we so need him to be.

But I, I, I have to think, you know, that there is the sense

of, OK, how then do I, how, how do I get better at this

relationship thing with this person?

And you know, in a human relationship, obviously it's, it

takes a lot of repentance, it takes a lot of work and

accountability to build trust back when you've broken it in

such a way. It can take years.

Well, we know with God because of God's word, the Bible tells

us that in repentance, in naming the thing and turning away from

it, God instantaneously forgives us.

And he instantaneously those those sins are on Jesus's

shoulders and then he looks at us with a purely clean slate.

So the great thing about this infinitely loving God is we

don't have to grind and work and do all these things for years on

end feeling bad about ourselves. We don't have to do that for

years. We can go and confess our sins

to him and instantaneously the Bible tells us he has removed

those sins from us. He is.

He's put them where they belong, which is Jesus Christ.

So Yep, he who knew no sin becoming sin for us.

Then we get this interesting picture.

I just I just like this language.

The heading, of course, these aren't these subheadings aren't

in the original language usually.

But the next verse 7 through 11 is called the tent of meeting.

And there's a tent that Moses pitched and went into the tent

conversing with the Lord and verse 10 says whenever the

people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the

tent, this this sort of representative presence of of

God, the Lord would speak to Moses face to face as one speaks

to a friend. We, we see this picture of

devotion that that God has for Moses and, and Moses's

reciprocal faithfulness in that. That's what results in this, in,

in this sort of cherished relationship.

And we get insight into his young, his young age.

Joshua, son of Nun did not leave the tent even even when Moses

did. And this is the, this is the

succession. This is Joshua the the the first

glimpses of Joshua being raised up to lead the people post

Moses, right? Showing, showing a tremendous

amount of leadership and faithfulness to the call itself.

The second thing that you brought up there that I did not

have time to talk about yesterday, which again, it seems

like a contradiction. So you get into the verses that

we talked about and God says no one shall see my face and live.

But then here it says, talk to him as a friend talks to a

friend face to face and you're like, wait a minute.

That seems like a direct contradiction.

Well, what we learn in language in in in this original space is

it's not a physical face to face conversation because again, that

would be showing Moses, a sinful person, the total glory of God.

It'd be seeing God bear, which no human in our current state

can do. And so we understand from the

original language that this is, is it an idiom?

Is that the right language to say or the right phrase to just

say? They were close knit as friends

were right. They had that level of

relationship. But it was still not literally a

face to face conversation between Moses and God.

Because as we learn later on in the chapter and in chapter 34,

Moses as a sinful person would have been completely consumed by

the incompatible nature of him. And as a human and God in all of

his bare glory, it would not have worked.

It is an idiom. Thank you.

Correct. A phrase or expression whose

meaning is figurative. It cannot be understood from the

literal meaning of the individual words, so just the.

Glad I got that right. You did nailed.

It sweet. I didn't know that.

I don't. I don't know grammar things.

I'm just. I was.

I was taking a shot in the dark. That's correct.

Also an idiot. Is that also an idiot?

Shot in the dark. I mean, maybe, I don't know,

it's really yeah, yeah. See, we need, we need the

English police on this, on this podcast to help us out a little

bit. Yeah, that's not, not me as far

as grammar and syntax things go. So, yeah.

So just a little insight into that.

Then we get into your your text in Moses and the Glory of the

Lord. This is another one of those

just eye-catching moments for me in the Old Testament of like,

where did these guys where, where did these old and and I

don't like using the word characters because these were

real people. But these these figures in the

Old Testament that are the foundations of the faith.

This is like a Solomon moment here of of this answer.

Moses asks, show me your glory. And just as both as it is, it's

also it's also a wise thing, right?

It's it's it's the Solomon answer, the one, the one thing I

the wisdom of of the Lord that that's the most useful thing for

my life to have the wisdom of the Lord Moses too here like

this is the thing I've been longing after it.

It is the thing that my heart seeks.

Show me your glory. It's it's just an immensely

intelligent and and passionate answer here or a request of the

Lord just to blows my mind 'cause we, I don't maybe some of

you do think about that. I I don't, I don't always just

like so plainly meditate on that, that that was Moses's

longing of his heart in plain words.

Show me your glory, God. He wants he wants to see the the

aspects, the character, the nature of God that is, it's

overwhelming. It's well, and why would he want

to do that? Why would he want to do that?

Well, and here's the thing that we can learn about Moses here,

which I think is really important and it didn't come out

yesterday. Do I love God for simply who he

is? Like, do I seek after his beauty

and his mercy and his perfect judgment?

Do I seek after those things just because I am enamored by

him himself, right? And so like, this has nothing to

do with the benefits of God. It has nothing to do with he's

going to give us this land flowing with milk and honey.

He's going to kick out our enemies.

Has nothing to do with any of those things.

It's just, I want you for you. And not only do I want you for

you, I want to see all of you again.

I, I, I kind of related yesterday with, you know, a

marriage scenario where it's like, I, no, I, I want to know

all of you, good, bad and ugly. But when you ask that of God, I

want to know all of you, good, good and good.

And, and I think that's that is an amazing ask that shows us the

position, the position of Moses's heart.

And, and the Lord's answer to this and of course, the you

cannot see my face for no one may see me and live you.

You will see my back, but my Facebook must not be seen.

I, I love the answer that he does and how that informs our

understanding of what the glory of God is or, or can be too,

because I, I think we hear that phrase, show me your glory.

And we kind of get we kind of get revelation a little bit

right, little bit resplendent throne room and and the bright

shimmering white purity brightness of of it all.

God kind of I feel like peels back the layers a little bit.

And Moses says, show me your glory in verse 19.

I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you.

I proclaim my name, the Lord in your presence.

I will have mercy. I will have compassion.

The are are those things and not innately the glory of God, like

the the things that we maybe quote, UN quote, take for

granted in in our everyday life, the goodness of God, the

simplicity of his of his presence of time with him.

Like those are the things that make up his glory right there.

He's he's glorified in those things.

And I think, and I think we maybe, yeah, theatricize his

glory more than that when it's really those small moments.

And there's an element of beauty and that I think we can we can

see even in nature itself because nature is what God

created to reflect his glory. So if you think about nature in

its best version, which we don't get its best version, we have a

kind of broken world with thorns and thistles and all these kinds

of things. But if we even consider nature,

so go out on a, on a terribly clear night and look at the

stars and go out and, and, and if you're near a mountain range

or the ocean or any of these things that are, they make you

feel small. They almost make you feel

insignificant because they're there's so much glory, there's

so much beauty to them. All of those are a reflection of

God's glory. But even as we are kind of

sometimes, if we allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by those

glorious things that he created, those are still infinitely dim

compared to his glory. So if we if we think about that,

if if at any time in your life you were ever overwhelmed by

nature or being surrounded by creation itself and it was

overwhelmingly beautiful to you or peaceful or any of these

things, that is still a dim, dim comparison to what the glory of

God is. Yeah, yeah, that's so good.

We get into chapter 34, and we kind of glazed past Moses's

frustrated destruction of the first set of 10 commandments.

But in the first few verses of chapter 34, God instructs him to

chisel out two more stone ones and that God will.

So he tells excuse me Moses to make the tablets and then he

says I will write the Lord will write the words that were on the

first tablets which you broke. So the first few verses of 34 we

are re establishing the the 10 commandments re establishing the

actual tablets of the law of God.

And Moses follows the instruction.

He carries the stone tablets in his in his hand and the Lord

reveals himself to to Moses to the point that Moses is then

proclaiming verse 6 the Lord, the Lord compassionate and

gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and

faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving

wickedness, rebellion and sin. The next part of this verse is

important. Yet he does not leave the guilty

unpunished. He punishes the children and

their children for the sin of their parents to the third and

4th generation. Again, harsh language, their

consequence, but truth in that right?

Like this is how truth is established.

It is God's way. It it is the Lord's way.

And those that are faith that we, we have this generational

inheritance, right, this generational blessing for those

that are following his way, that there's generational fallout,

though, from, from those that are rebelling against the way of

the Lord too, right? Well, and, and I think if we're,

if we're being honest with ourselves, we can see

generational fallout in our own family.

So if you are old enough and mature enough to know not only

who your grandparents were, but the kind of lives they lived,

how they, how they use their money or how they use their,

their, their social and, and, and relational capital with

other people, what that looked like, I think it's, I think you

can see that play out in humanity.

You can see it play out when there was kind of, if there was

kind of a shyster somewhere along your line and they, they

hurt people and they took advantage of people.

Well, there's some, there may still be some, you know,

relational effects from that working its way down through two

or three or even 4 generations. And so I do think we see those

things play out. And of course, like, if you want

to get into a whole new conversation, you can talk about

like, you know, generational wealth or generational poverty.

And we have watched those things play out for more than a century

in the United States alone. But that of course, happens

everywhere. So I mean, I think there is just

the honest reality of like, yeah, there's there's

consequences for future generations of people for the

things that we do. And I think sometimes when we

make decisions in our life, we're so US focused and right

now focused that we don't look at the big picture of how this

may have an impact on my kids or my kids kids and so on and so

forth. And so there's a, there's a very

clear reality to that. But God is God is a perfect

judge, and he's, he's going to judge rightly.

Yep, and Moses once again then appeals verse 8.

He bows down to the ground and worship Lord.

If I found favor in your eyes. Let the Lord go with us.

Although this is a stiff necked people forgive our wickedness

and our sin. Take us as your inheritance.

The Lord once again covenants with his people on making a

covenant with you before all your people are do wonders never

before done in any nation in the world.

The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that

I the Lord will do for you. And then he lists off all the

peoples that that he's going to drive out in the in the promised

land for them. And then verse 12, be careful

not to make treaty with those who live in the land where you

are going, or they will be a snare among you.

This isn't the exact verbiage here, but it's where it's where

the idea in the world, not of it.

Sure. Is is is rooted right They they

are in this land amongst other people of differing religions,

beliefs, gods and God. Simply saying do not become like

minded with them. Don't, don't compromise this

truth, this law my way for the ways of the world, right?

You can be in it, but not of it. Yeah.

And you know in these verses, you know that you mentioned like

12/13/14, you know, 15 what you shall destroy their altars,

break their sacred pillars, cut down their wooden images,

etcetera, etcetera. And you know, in some ways, if

we, gosh, you could read these verses and then a person might

go, you know, what is going to make God really happy?

If I go burn down that temple, you know, modern day, like

honestly, if I go burn down that Buddhist temple or whatever.

And no, no, that's, that's not what he's allowing for here.

I don't believe, you know, he's not allowing for unnecessary

violence against other human beings because that is certainly

not loving our neighbor as ourselves, even though that

neighbor have might have different ideologies.

But there is still a very clear message here of like, I will not

endure amongst my people any other worship of any other gods

or idolatry. I will not allow that among you

and I need you to make sure that that does not exist in this

space. So I, I think maybe practically

speaking within the, within the Christian community, in the

Christian Church, if there is something among us that is

pushing us or encouraging idolatry among us.

And maybe that's a building project and it has to look this

way. And we have to have this color

carpet and we have to do this forget all that stuff like those

you're, you're building in a way you're kind of building altars

to yourself because you're saying this is who we are and

look how great we are almost Tower of Babel style.

And so we do have to be cautious about that.

Yeah, and he and he goes on even to institute some of the

unevenly yoked language that that we see in the New Testament

between believers and non believers.

Verse 16, when you choose some of their daughters as wives for

your sons and his daughters prostitute themselves to their

gods, they will lead your sons to do the same.

We're not again in it not of it. We're not intermingling God.

God is warning against adopting or, or even just kind of

sleepily allowing these, these Pagan practices to inhabit their

lives and, and to take up their, their mental space and physical

space and societal space. Verse 17 do not make any idols.

And then he goes into a whole long list of, of traditions,

including festivals to follow and, and re establishing Sabbath

and, and the first fruits being brought to the Lord and, and

things like this. So the Lord instructs them, Hey,

you're going to be in the world there.

There's still this list of things that is going to keep you

closest to me there. There's still these practices

that are going to set you apart as a holy people, set you apart

as my people when you follow them, right?

Well, and actually let's rewind just a little bit to the

beginning of this chapter. When you know, we we God, God is

the one who takes the new tablets that have been kind of

carved out and he writes on them.

Why does that matter so much that God is the one writing the

word? Well, we see especially I kind

of highlighted a little bit yesterday, but John chapter one

in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and

the word was God. So as we see God writing the law

personally on those tablets, we see God encompassing that word.

He is that word. It's not just the law is the

thing that we're supposed to follow.

No, he is that thing. And so the the word in in modern

day Bibles, it's why we encourage people so often stay

in the word, stay in the word. It's not just for Bible trivia

night. It is because in the Word is

God's character, in the Word is God's truth, in the Word is God

himself. He is encompassed in that.

And so as things are written and recorded so that future

generations can hold on to the Word of God, we have this

incredible anchor. And we say it's a, you might say

on the, on the surface level, it's an anchor for morality,

which is true. But really it's our being

anchored in the character and in the person of God.

And so the word of God itself is so key to being those distinct

people because there are lots of people around the world who will

claim, quote UN quote, to be Christians.

But I'm sorry, like if, if the word itself, which is God, I am

the word, you know, if the word itself is not, if you're not

tuned into that really regularly, then then how can you

then how can you say you're, you're God's people because his

word is himself. So I, I wonder about that.

And that's why that's part of where when I said all in or

nothing, you know, yesterday is kind of the first point of the

sermon. That's that's part of the heart

beside behind saying something that strongly is like it's it's

the word, which is God or what do you what do you want?

If you don't want that? Because if you don't want that,

then you don't want him and don't act like you do.

Yeah, yeah. And again we see this 40 day

period, he was on the mountain for the first time 40 days.

Get in the first tablets verse 28 in chapter 34 here it says

Moses was there at the Lord 40 days and 40 nights without

eating bread or drinking water. He wrote on the tablets the word

of the covenant, the 10 commandments.

Then Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the 2 tablets of the

covenant law. He was not aware that his face

was radiant because he has spoken with the Lord.

We got like shiny Moses happening here, and his face is

shimmering and bright. Verse 30 When Aaron and all the

Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant.

They were afraid to come near him, but Moses called to them.

So Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him

and he spoke to them. Afterward all the Israelites

came near him and he gave him all the commands the Lord had

given to him on Mount Sinai. So this is like 10 commandments

plus this is, hey, my law is still here.

We're still going into the promised land and this is this

is the life I have planned for you, right?

Shiny Moses. Yeah.

Can you imagine? I mean, I'm trying to, you know,

and I'm not, I'm not, I'm not quite old enough to, you know,

the original 10 Commandments movie with what's his face?

I can't remember. Charlton Heston.

Charlton Heston, I'm not quite old enough to be Charlton Heston

10 Commandments, but I know what Charlton Heston looks like.

And it's like you make that guy super shiny and glowy and all of

a sudden, man, I don't know if I don't know if I can be in your

presence. This is really weird.

This is kind of an overwhelming experience.

And so I, I mean, I can, in some ways I can, I can understand

where the people are coming from.

Like this is, this is too much. And I can also understand based

on that, why they needed Moses so badly.

They needed this mediator because they very much

understand, for all their flaws, all their sin, they very much

understand the fear of the Lord. They are actively in the classic

sense of the word, they're actively afraid of the power of

God and what that means for them and what that means in his

presence. And so on that level, you, you

got to give them some credit because there's a very real

sense of awe there that they're activating.

And you know, Moses as God's mediator to these people, he

man, he's reflecting the glory of God.

And that's that's an amazing thing to think about.

Well, and we have a kind of look ahead to Jesus in this moment

too, right? Brings to mind the

transfiguration in Matthew 17. And Jesus made made bright

again, like made made shining. Matthew 17 There he was

transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun and

his clothes became white as the light then just then appeared

before them. Moses and Elijah talking with

Jesus. So we see these parallels in

Moses too, right? He's, he's still the mediator

between God and the people. He's still going to God on the

people's behalf, reminding God of of his mercy of of his of his

plan, of his inheritance in May Make us your remnant, make it

make us your people. Keep us as your people and we

still have parallels here, verse 6 of Matthew 17, after the

disciples here, this is my son whom I love with Him I am well

pleased. Listen to him.

When the disciples heard this, they fell face down on the

ground terrified like that. They have the same fear response

right after God in both places gave this law to Moses, right?

Here's the word, listen to it, follow it.

Here's the law God of Jesus in Matthew 17.

This is my son who I love with him.

I'm well pleased listen to him. Same thing providing the the

instructor, the leader, the chief shepherd for this and and

we see again this kind of pre Jesus parallel from from Moses

to the true shepherd. Well, I'm going back to Moses on

in kind of the the cleft of the mountain.

His reaction to experiencing a partial view of God's goodness

and glory is to fall on his face.

Yeah, and it's, it's, it's amazing and consistent that, you

know, these these two men who have been walking around with

Jesus for probably a couple years now, they have the same

reaction in scene. Again, not God's total glory

laid completely bare, but just just a preview of it.

And they're they're on their faces instantly.

And so I do think that like there's, there's a level of

excitement to that or there should be a level of excitement.

That for anybody who believes in God, that there is going to come

a day when I get to meet and stand in the presence of Father,

Son, Holy Spirit. And I cannot wait to feel so

overwhelmed by joy and awe and reverence and respect and love

that it just makes me fall on my face.

Like I, I need a fall on my face kind of moment.

So, you know, and I think we all in some ways, even those people

who are not terribly emotive, you know, maybe you're not a

hand raiser in church and stuff, you're not an emotive person.

But I think like, if you understand at least human

intellectually who God is, you're craving that fall on my

face moment because you want that so bad.

I want to be so overwhelmed by him and his glory and his

goodness that that is the only reaction I have.

And I don't even have to think about the reaction.

It just happens. Like I want that.

That's awesome. Yeah.

I want amazing to think about. Yeah, this isn't incredibly

deeply theological, but it it, it just popped into my head from

reading this transfiguration passage again.

How did they know that it was Moses and Elijah?

Like, I know Matthew's just recording it, but it's not like

they had Google. They were like, they didn't know

what Moses looked like. Like they, they just see this

random dude and it's just like, oh, that's got to be Moses like.

Context of conversation? I don't know.

That's a great question. Well, that's and that's there

had to have been something, there's just something just not

in the narrative of of the Gospel of Matthew there.

You would think there was some sort of interaction or

explanation or or introduction of sorts.

It's just not recorded in the Gospel.

But he just says it so plainly, like, yeah.

And Moses and Elijah were there, and the disciples just knew

that. Well, well, and actually, you

know what? You just bring up something

really interesting. It begs the question, if that's

true, that they pretty much instantaneously knew who these

people were, who they'd never actually seen in real time.

It begs the question, when a person exits this life and

enters the heavenly realms with God, do you look around at

everybody and you're like, boom, that guy and that guy and that

woman and that one. And I know them because like God

has, God has created a God has formed us in such a way without

sin that we have this perfect intimate knowledge of people and

we don't see any flaws in there because God has completely wiped

those flaws away. And so guess what?

That whole thing of, oh, I'm going to ask him about this.

I'm going to ask that person about that.

No you aren't. You aren't because you already

have this intimate, in depth, loving knowledge of of how God

created that soul and who that person is.

I wonder. Interesting.

Yeah, it's an idea. Yep, then that could maybe that

could be they were in their plainest glorified form.

They were just seen in truth, could be in the spirit that's.

I mean, I wouldn't preach that as gospel truth.

But sure but. It's a theory.

It's a theory, yeah. I don't know.

That'd be cool if that's the way it is.

Yeah. I, I mean, I think there's

something there. I think you, I think you're on

to something. Yeah.

Well, I'm not going to write any books about it anytime soon, OK?

So I don't want any angry emails.

That's we're to the end of 34. There we are.

Yeah, unless you want to spend some more time talking about

Sabbath regulations in in 35 and the materials for the

Tabernacle. The materials for the

Tabernacle, you know, I am not a construction genius.

And God bless those people who are so faithful to do those

things because as you read those chapters about, you know, the

building of the Tabernacle and stuff like that, it's so far

over my head just like, OK. And then there is this purple

garment that was this long and they stitched it together and

they put these ornaments on it. And you know, I do love that the

Bible does that though, because it, it, it embeds us in history.

It embeds us in the particular details of history.

And I love that God is so particular because God doesn't

do anything by accident. So he's not like, well, just

give me a space that's about 12 by 12 or no, no, he's very

particular about this is what's honoring to me.

And so I, yeah, I, I do like those details, but it's a lot to

take in. Yeah, yeah, that's where we're

going to put a pin in it for today, jumping into Deuteronomy

and the end of the Moses story next week.

But yeah, until then, it's been great.

Hanging with you all. Thanks for tuning in for a

little more in depth discussion and conversation around the

context of the message this past week.

This has been ERC leftovers. Have a blessed week, Church.