Leftovers - Exodus 19

Happy Monday. I'm Pastor Matt.

Pastor Chris, that was. Weirder.

It's so weird. That was that was like a

character and I can't, I can't. It's it's all it's like the guy

in the is it the Allstate commercials or the where he's

he's like fishing and he I got your dollar.

OK, OK. If I can live into that persona,

that's that's actually pretty great.

There's some links that I introduce you and I say Pastor

Chris, but like I feel like whenever you say it, that's now

the voice that you say it in I. Don't know because you said it

weird a number of weeks ago and now, yeah.

And now I just, I get in front of this microphone and I cannot

help myself. It's just what I have the weird

urge to do is to say my own name in a really strange way.

And that's pretty on point for the ERC Leftovers podcast.

Yesterday we had Vision Sunday, the next step in the Exodus

series as well. And I was, I was wildly

encouraged, felt like the room, the gathering, I should say

rooms cause the the atrium was full of people too.

The the sanctuaries packed out, overflowing the atrium.

I felt like people were were compelled, engaged, ready to

step into the things that God has next for us here as we look

to to reach one more and and really continue to grow.

I said it in the service yesterday.

We're not, we're not small church anymore, 'cause we're

not. And, and that's different than

the church that many of you came to.

Many, many of you, some of you maybe even came because we were

a small church. Well, God has God has moved and

the Spirit has stirred and we've grown not only in number, but in

depth. And we're not done through.

If I, I said it yesterday about, well, the, the room is full.

We have more people in here than there are seats.

And we can look at God and say, well, we did it.

But that's not, I don't think that's what we're called to.

I don't think that's what the Great Commission is set up as.

And so I was, I was very encouraged by the response

yesterday of people being willing to see what's next and

dive into that. So.

Well, and I appreciated the way you phrased that actually,

because I do think there's something really kind of

heartwarming and nice about walking in.

And even if I don't know every single person personally, like I

recognize your face if I run into at the grocery store, like

we can definitely exchange pleasantries.

And it's like, oh, we go to the same church and you know, and

that's really cool. But The thing is like you, you

said it well. And it's like, do we put a cap

on God and say, Hey, all right, we've done our part.

We filled this one space And so we're done.

We're good. Let's just maintain what we have

for in perpetuity. And I, I love the fact that

we're not willing to do that. We're willing to say no.

We're we're going to keep reaching, not because we want to

be cool kids club, but because like there's room in heaven for

more and we want to push those boundaries as far as we possibly

can. Yep, yeah, I got a lot of as

much as I could. I would love to say that coming

up on retirement this year. Like that's just not actuality.

That's not that's not real. We're going to keep pushing

here, not dead, not done. I don't that's that's been said

by others, not by me, but yeah, that's kind of the calling of

the the Christian and the Christian life.

There's still more to reach. So no very excited for what's in

store. Thanks for coming out and

celebrating with us and dwelling with us and and expecting with

us and how and how God's going to move.

And there are this is just beginning.

I said yes, it's just the start. There's, there's going to be

amazing things ahead that God has in store for us to walk into

that that he's already working in.

So. I hope as Christians we always

feel like we're, we're just getting started.

I hope that's our attitude in general.

Because if you ever feel like you've quote, UN quote arrived,

then the gospel has probably not dwelt deeply enough in your

soul. Because even as the Bible

reports that angels themselves, they love to peer into the

gospel. And so it never gets old.

We, we're, we're never finished right.

We're always, always reaching for for one more.

Yeah, Yep. So no, very great.

Great day, great week. I lost mine.

I lost my voice halfway through the message that was that was

weird. My throat was just gone and I, I

don't know, there's some mornings, especially this time

of year where I wake up and I know like, oh man, this is just

like tough vocal day. It's gonna, it's gonna be dry a

little little. I didn't have any of that.

Like even singing the first few songs rehearsal that morning and

I got like 10 minutes in and all of a sudden I just, I just so

sorry. The voice is still a little

discussion. Noises coming through your

stereo or wherever you're listening to this are awesome.

Not good. So my voice is still a little

scratchy this morning, but we're going to press on through for

your episode of The Leftovers today we're in Exodus 19,

working through most of that chapter and touching on your

message with Moses and the Israelites yesterday as well.

But before we get there next week, we have an AMA episode Ask

Me Anything, and we've got a lot of questions submitted.

You're still welcome to text those in.

We're till about Wednesday. I think Wednesday noon.

We're going to have a a cut off on that Yesh.

So you're welcome to text those in message on Facebook.

Even comment on this podcast episode is absolutely fine.

If you have asked me anything questions, silly, random,

theological, whatever it is. We'll get to those at the

episode next week because past your Creus is going on vacation

next week. That'll be good.

Yeah, pretty excited. Yeah, pretty excited to actually

exit. I I love Iowa, and I love to

even more than I love Iowa. But it's also nice to leave.

And yeah, I don't know, it's nice to get away.

All right, sweet. So yeah, we're going to pre

record a AMA with with Kristen here too.

We'll have the yeah, all three voices here.

So before we get to that, we have some leftover AM as from

the last time we did this that we're still working through.

And this one is simply please explain Sheol SHEOLA word found

throughout the Old Testament. So pastor curious please explain

she own. So I want to, I think I've maybe

mentioned this resource before, but I want to leave you with

this resource again, it's just a website calledgotquestions.org.

And I would not, I've combed through this website a lot on a

lot of different topics over the years.

And I would not say I agree with 100% of the way that they come

to a conclusion on certain theological points, but for the

vast majority of them, I think it's a great little resource.

So gotquestions.org and I actually love the way that they

phrase this because you can just go on there and ask the question

in the text box and it'll usually pop up an article for

you. So in looking at shield, this is

what they say. In the Hebrew scriptures, the

word used to denote the realm of the dead is Sheol.

It simply means the place of the dead or the place of the

departed souls and spirits. The New Testament Greek

equivalent of Sheol is Hades, which is also a general

reference to the place of the dead Sheol.

Hades is divided into a place of blessing where Lazarus was in

Luke 16, and a place of torment where the rich man was also from

Luke 16. She'll also seems to be a

temporary place where souls are kept as they await final

resurrection. The souls of the righteous at

death go directly to the presence of God, the part of

she'll called heaven, paradise, or Abraham's bosom.

So where do we see? Where do we see hell come out of

this idea? Well, the Greek word gehenna is

the New Testament word for hell. And so there is there is a a

marked difference there in those words.

So, so Sheol is both. Is that we?

Is that what I'm hearing you say?

Well, I mean, it's the general sense of 1 is no longer living

on Earth, you know, it is the place of the dead, both good or

bad. Right so divided into what we

would understand that as heaven and hell absolutely so.

But in in following that lot of the the righteous souls, Sheol

Sheol is heaven immediately departed, departed in God's

presence. There's A and I don't want to.

So like it kind of sounded like you were talking about purgatory

a little bit, but it's but it's not, It's a it's a hellish

state, but like pre Jesus's second return, final judgment

place. Absolutely.

Because when the Bible reports that when Jesus comes back,

there is a separation, there's a parting.

It's a, you know, what we call like a binary parting.

So there's those on his right who will enjoy paradise in his

presence, and there's those on his left who are divided out

into Gehenna. You know, eternal, eternal

damnation, as it were. Yeah, my I'm glad you jumped

into got questions there because the concordance the the original

language software in accordance accordance that I usually use

they simply there's no there's no further definition of it.

It's just Sheol Hebrew word meaning Sheol isn't.

Aren't you not supposed to use the word in the definition?

Right, I think you. Are that's not super helpful.

No, it wasn't it wasn't great. So yeah, that's that's I I feel

like though the general perception of Sheol though,

especially in maybe it just I, I don't, I can't think of a

positive Bible verse actually. Like I feel like in the Old

Testament it's always talking about the bad Sheol.

I mean, beside yeah, yeah, I I actually off the top of my head,

I can't think of a positive outlet for that in the Old

Testament. Of course, what again this

website brings up in Las 16 is a positive version of you are no

longer found in body on earth. Therefore, your spirit is one

place or the other. Man So what was what was that

like for Lazarus? Man, like did was Peter or

Michael or something? I guess Peter was still alive

'cause it was about like Michael or or Gabriel or one of the one

of the angels like Lazarus is just up there like chilling in

the presence of God and he just comes up behind him.

Like dude, we, we got to send you back.

Like what? You know, I wonder that too, you

know. So you're Speaking of the

Lazarus who Jesus raised from the dead after four days, not

the Lazarus in the story in 16 right 'cause we have two

different Lazaruses. In the New Testament, it made me

think of the like Jesus raised him from the dead.

Right. So the the story that we get

from Jesus about Lazarus and the rich man is Lazarus is poor and

he's destitute and he's at the rich man's gate most of his life

and they both die. And the rich man who never cared

about the poor, the oppressed, didn't worship God, only

worshipped his own flesh. You know, he goes down to Sheol

in the negative sense. And Lazarus is up in Sheol in

the most positive sense, in Abraham's bosom, and Abraham is

consoling him there. And so anyway, as the story

goes, you know, there's the the rich man down in Sheol is

begging for Lazarus to be sent down with a drop of water on his

finger to cool his tongue. And then it becomes very obvious

through what Jesus says that one cannot move from one to the

other. Sorry, this is not an option for

you. If you're there, you're there.

Yeah. And that's so that's the kind of

holding pattern picture I guess. I guess we get up that they are

in damnation, but not in a God's final judgement sort of way.

But yet somehow he could like see, he could see the other

half, the good half of Sheol that's.

Which is interesting because Jesus says, or Jesus, you know,

Jesus speaking through speaking for Abraham, you know, there's

this great chasm between US and nobody can move from one side of

the chasm to the other. This is not possible.

Right. It's already.

It's already done. It is an interesting thing,

isn't it, the way he describes that.

So so this isn't related to the question at all, but it did make

me think of so Jesus resurrection of the of Lazarus

where his friend, his friend died and he doesn't rush there,

right? He's he actually, he's told of

his death and he actually stays where he was two more days and

then he goes back. So dude's been in the grave for

a couple days. What was what was that like

then? Yeah, I wonder too.

Wouldn't Lazarus be a little salty?

Like dude, I had it made. But would and and this is but is

OK. So oh man, this is so many

rabbit holes actually. Is heaven without Jesus better

than earth with Jesus slash? Was Jesus also in?

I mean, he's God was his presence was was his presence

there? And like, oh wow, I don't know.

Wow, I suspect perhaps unanswerable questions without

just a sheer guess. Right.

And those are just. I don't know that I don't know

that there are answers specifically, but those are the

semantics of the questions. That's intriguing.

So yeah. And, and I think, yeah, is

heaven without Jesus better than earth with Jesus?

Well, I would suspect. Yeah.

Gosh. Because, like, disappointing,

yeah, but like, also, dude, we need to go back to earth and you

get to chill with Jesus. I don't know, not terrible.

But welcoming yourself back to earth also means that pain,

sickness, disease, heartache, etcetera, etcetera.

Whereas of course, in being in the total presence of God in

paradise is none. Of those, still better.

Yeah, that's. Interesting SO.

All right. I don't know.

My mind ran with that out of the out of the shield discussion.

So I don't know. There we are.

It's good to have questions. I guess.

We don't, I hear often enough that from, you know, I would say

cultural critics who say we don't wonder anymore because

there's we can Google everything, right?

So we never wonder about anything and we never just

imagined. And so I think it's good to have

questions that are potentially unanswerable on this side of

heaven. Yeah, I think I feel like

curiosity is a generally diminishing trait.

Unfortunate, yeah. So all right, we are diving back

into Exodus chapter 19, the nation of Israel camped at Mount

Exodus 19 · chapter mention

Sinai. You worked through again, kind

of the the bookends. We've done this for the past

couple weeks. Actually, I feel like we're, we

kind of take the beginning and the end of the chapter and

that's been the, the large thrust of the sermon.

But you brought up a lot of good stuff yesterday and it actually

it tied in well. It's going to set up next week.

We're in the actual 10 commandments, right?

But you kind of primed the pump, as it were, for the, the

goodness of God's law, the goodness of his precepts, the

necessity for them. And that's what I wind up

talking about yesterday too, kind of the the things that God

has declared or commanded or organized, structured for our

lives for us to pop to follow, disciplines for us to follow,

not just to have rules because because it's what's best for us,

right. So verse, verse one and chapter

19 on the first day of the third month after the Israel's left

Egypt on that very day, they came to the desert of Sinai.

After they set out from Refidim, they entered the desert of Sinai

in Israel, camp there in the desert in front of the mountain.

All right, so we're 60 days plus we're first day of the third

month. So removed from leaving Egypt,

been wandering the desert, getting watered out of rocks and

crossing red seas and being guided by pillar flame, cloud of

cloud, pillar cloud of smoke and and all these things first 3

Then Moses went to God and the Lord called to him from the

mountain and said, this is what you are to say to the

descendants of Jacob, what you're to tell the people of

Israel. This got brought up yesterday.

What's the difference? What's the difference between

the descendants of Jacob and the people of Israel?

Wow, I did not see that. That is a curveball.

The answer is less exciting than you'd think.

They're the same thing. Yeah, I was going to say I'm

going to need a second to process this.

That was, that was, that was a nice pitch.

It's it's just, it's just two different references.

There are, there are some Old Testament scholars that see the

descendants of Jacob as kind of a, a negative rebellious

connotation for the people of Israel and that and then the

actual like the people of Israel, the nation of Israel

being like God's completed promise, his chosen church and

and righteous people. So if, if you take it that way,

there's that there's actually possibly factions here, I guess.

And I, and I think that could maybe speak into why there's

this grumbling, why there's this doubting.

There is this faction of people that just doesn't get it yet.

They're they're they're not, they're not convinced.

And there's maybe this smaller faction that like is no, we,

we're in like, like this is this is Yahweh.

This is the guy who defeated the Egyptians and he sent us to the

promised land and he is going to care for us.

Is I, I think it's, yeah, I think that's potentially

interesting of, of those two different references to the same

group of people, meaning kind of where they are on the faith

meter, if that makes sense. No.

But actually I think you bring up a good point because

certainly within modern Christianity we still see that

kind of thing today. And any, on any given Sunday,

you are going to have a wide spectrum of faith within any

given room and a wide spectrum of maturity within that faith

within any given room. And so it would make sense that

if you have two million plus people who are more or less

engaged spiritually with what's happening, you're going to get

different, yeah, fraction or factions of people with

different levels of trust and belief in what's happening to

them in front of their very faces.

Yeah. So I think I, I think I agree.

I think, and that's maybe I don't know if that has to be

anything, but it was, it is interesting that the groups are

kind of called do two different names, at least for this big

group of people. Yeah, well, and, you know, going

back to, you know, God renames. So many things.

Yeah, well, I mean, he renamed Jacob as Israel.

Yeah. And so I mean, Israel is, is

God's given name for Jacob because Jacob was given his name

at birth because he was hanging on so tightly to Esau's heel.

And it's kind of a kind of a weird joke thing, but like.

Yeah, as God renames him Israel now he's claiming him and every

bit of people in his lineage as these are mine now.

Right, yes. And that that idea is kind of

carried out here. Verse 4 You yourselves have seen

what I did to Egypt, how I carried you on eagle's wings and

brought you to myself. Mine.

There's, there's that my mind language there and the

conditional statement that you brought out.

Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of

all the nations you will be my treasured possession.

Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a

Kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

Yeah, and I think that's really important too, because we don't

want to, we don't want to see that if as if like God's going

to stop loving you or he's going to stop, quote UN quote,

possessing and owning you as his own.

But we do want to say that there is some differentiation here

between, you know, God loving his people as a treasured

possession who are working very diligently at following him

specifically because the whole earth is his.

You know that. OK, so the whole house I live

in, let's say the whole house is mine and every bit of possession

in it. But if there's a fire in my

house and I've got 30 seconds to grab a couple of things before I

go, I'm going to grab my treasured possessions.

So for me, that's probably, I don't know if it's photos or

what that looks like, but certainly in that in those brief

moments of I only have to grab what's dire important to me,

well, that's what it means. When we are in relationship with

God, we are now of dire importance.

And so in the fire, he's going to grab us first.

Yeah. Oh, that's so good.

I wish I would have said it that way yesterday.

Actually, now that I think about it, that's that was a way better

way to say it. Moses went back and summoned the

elders, verse 7, and set before them all the words the Lord had

commanded him to speak. The people all responded

together, all 2 million of them, Right?

We will do everything the Lord has said.

Resounding unison voice again. How they were all singing

together too. So Moses brought their answer

back to the Lord. Look at look at this

declaration. We will do everything the Lord

has said. Liars.

Yep, you know, but The thing is though, like you got it.

I I think on some level you have to, you have to applaud the.

Effort and. The confidence there and you

know, the, the very real hope and expectation that you know

what we have seen this God work. And even if I'm on a different

point of the spectrum of my faith, like I've seen this and

I'm this is, this is how I want to live my life now.

And I'm dedicating myself to that as best as I possibly can.

Yeah, I think, I think, I guess I'd rather have that posture.

Oh yeah, we're, we're chasing this.

We're, we're, we're gonna, God gave us these commands.

We, we, we're gonna obey them knowing full well that we're,

they're gonna fall short. But like, that's the goal,

right? Like that's what we're, that's

what we're chasing. So.

Well, and of course, this is prior to the content

commandments being spoken, so you might almost ask, do they

know what they're signing up? For you know that we're getting

into you do. You know that you're not

supposed to lie anymore. Do you know you're not supposed

to covet your neighbors stuff anymore?

I'm sure you already know you're not supposed to commit adultery

and kill people, but you know, like, do we know that, you know,

do you really know what you're getting into?

And so I think part of the growth of a Christian is

recognizing new everyday month, year, whatever that you maintain

that faith and that you grow into that faith.

Like there's always a deeper level.

And so one of the things that I've heard, what I, which I

think is true and interesting is that as you grow in faith and

maturity, what will happen is, and John MacArthur says this and

I mostly believe it, that as you grow closer to the Lord, you

will probably tend to sin less. But the sins that you still have

that you're recognizing as falling short of God's God's

best design for you, you're going to feel those even more

than when you are more casual about your faith.

You're like, well, it's fine. Whatever God Forgives me.

No, like when I, and I can even say this for myself when I know

I've fallen short when I sin now that feels way heavier on quote

UN quote, A lesser sin. I quote UN quote on purpose

because but anyway, that feels so heavy to me now because I

have disappointed one who I deeply love.

And that's where that really, that's where that comes from is

I don't, I don't want to fall short on somebody that I care

about so deeply, you know? And so then I, I, I feel that a

little bit more, I guess. Verse 10 Then the Lord said to

Moses, go to the people and consecrate them.

Wow. Go to the people and consecrate

them today and tomorrow. Let them wash their clothes, let

them be ready for the third day. Consecrate big Christian

religious rounding word. Right.

Yeah. So sometimes what we see in this

kind of consecration is sometimes it's fasting.

You know, in order to prepare myself for a particular moment,

sometimes I need to fast and just take that day or those days

and just fully rely on the Lord and confessing my sins to Him

and and preparing my heart to meet him.

Think about this. There's almost a level of

consecration that happens before we receive the Lord's Supper.

The Bible tells us that we are to confess our sins, you know,

and so like, what am I doing before I receive the body and

blood of Jesus? Like it's a, it's a form of

consecration. I'm admitting my fault to him.

I'm, I'm running back to the foot of the cross and saying,

Jesus, I need you. And so that is just preparing my

heart for that moment. And this is kind of the same

thing. Yeah.

So I mean consecrate really just to make sacred to to make ready

like like you're saying to ready to approach and God's kind of

laying these boundary lines around the mountain, right?

Like this is this is a holy place.

Have them get ready. I think it's interesting a

little again, a little Jesusy, a little forward illusion to be

ready by the third day, because on that day the Lord will come

down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.

Where else do we see three days that the the tomb obviously, and

what were what were even the women doing the the day before

and the morning of that they were making ready to, to prepare

right to to get ready the body of of Jesus to care for it and

then even on his return. I, I think, I think there's

parallels here too of our readiness.

Are are we living in the three days right now for, for God's,

God's return? Are are we preparing and making

red hot, washing our clothes, becoming sacred, like be holy as

I am holy, right? Those are, those are the words

of, of Jesus. Are we living in the three days,

ready for God to come down the mountain, for Jesus to come

back, as it were? That's an excellent, excellent

thought. I mean, that's that's perfect.

Yeah. Living in the three days.

Wow. One could even make a series out

of. That I suspect.

That's really good. Yeah.

I like that a lot. I'm I want to steal that at some

point. If you don't get to it first, I

might. I think we probably could.

Verse 12 God says put limits for the people around the mountain

and tell them be careful that you do not approach the mountain

or touch the foot of it. Whoever touches the mountain is

to be put to death. Boundaries.

Man boundaries. Big.

These are so big, the, the approachability of God in His

Holiness. It is something we ought to

yeah, we, we walk carefully around that simply because he

is, he is so set apart, so different from us.

He gave us his likeness in his image.

And so therefore we are image bearers of him, but we are not

him. And so I mean to to take that

really seriously is an important thing that we ought to do.

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely severe judgement

verse 13, they are to be stoned or shot with arrows, not a hand

is to be laid on them. So they're kind of they need to

be taken away to their life taken from afar with range

attacks for some some reason, only when the ram's horn sounds

a long blast, they may approach the mountain.

So this was interesting to me too.

Like the people of Israel are still having all these moments

of in between faith and doubt, right, of of what's happening.

And we see this in verse 13 and then even further down in verse

16 that you touched on yesterday, on the morning of the

third day, there was Thunder and lightning with a thick cloud

over the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast.

They're, they're amidst all this faith and doubt who's who was

blowing the ram's horn. Is this just like a trumpet is

just sounding from the sky Like there's, there's crazy unnatural

stuff happening and they're still like.

Not. Sure that this guy has any

power? Like what?

You know, when we also hear about the, of course, we went

through the Revelation, the Book of Revelation not so long ago.

And trumpet blast is a thing that we hear often, you know, as

God is approaching. And I can only imagine,

especially if you think about going back hundreds or thousands

of years, when you're about to go to war, there is a blast of a

trumpet. Something big is about to occur.

Life is going to be taken And, and it's, it's just it, it's

overwhelming, I suspect, to hear that noise and to, to, to all of

a sudden, like, Oh my gosh, I'm, I'm kind of scared out of my

socks right now because what is about to happen?

And I, and I think that's, I think that's a unique thing that

God does that humans have taken on as like, yeah, a war cry of

sorts. And they were scared out of

their socks. Versus 18 Mount Sinai was

covered with smoke because the Lord descended on it in fire.

The smoke billet up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the

whole mountain trembled violently.

Verse 16 it says even the the people, everyone in the camp

trembled. Even the mountain mountain

trembled violently. Is that that a Tarsa Clay song?

Did you did you feel the mountains tremble?

Wow, I. Think that's?

Yeah. Tarsa Clay, maybe.

I don't know. Delirious.

No, it's delirious. Did you feel the mountains

tremble? Yeah.

Sorry. That's.

That's when you were still living in sin.

I'm sorry. I knew.

Pagan. Yeah.

You did not know 90s Christian music, you Pagan.

How dare you. Wow, wow.

No. But OK, So again, we've talked

about this in recent weeks where God is using what we would maybe

call natural phenomena, like in this case an earthquake.

He's using natural phenomena to do something more than what a

natural phenomenon would be. So yes, we experience

earthquakes on earth and all that's true.

But for him to shake the mountain is a much deeper level

of earthquake than I think what any of these people had ever

experienced before. So if you think about, you know,

people who have been in earthquakes, it's a, it's a very

strange thing for them to be a part of because the whole earth,

the one thing that we feel like is solid under our feet, that

all of a sudden is no longer solid.

It's nothing that I can rely upon.

And to have the earth or the mountain shake is to shake us

down to our core of what we think is true.

Man, you had a note in the study guide from this week in your

little fun memory verse Did You know section So Javal Makhla,

thought to be the the modern day name for Mount Sinai, recognized

by its distinct blackened peak, which some say may be the

evidence of God descending on Mount Sinai as a fire.

The rocks at the top of the mountain are only black on the

outside, indicating the rocks had a chemical interaction that

only altered the outside and only occurred at the top of the

peak. I hadn't looked at pictures of

this until now. Oh, it's crazy.

Got to look it up. If you if you're hearing this,

you have to look this, this thing up because it is charred.

And for now, thousands of years, it has maintained its charred,

hardened state. And it's only right at the very

top where the fire was reported to come down.

And scientists can look at this and you can do some more digging

if you want to. But the amount of heat that it

takes to do that to rock is phenomenal.

Man, that's crazy. Isn't it cool?

It's very cool. So we'll link, we'll link the

link. I guess that's what you do with

the link, link, link, link in the in the show notes in the

comments section here. So you can check out because

it's kind of JABALMAQLA Jabal Makla guessing on how you

pronounce that. But no, some of these pictures

like the distinct top part, the top peak of it being bland.

It's a large area of it. It's not just like this little

cap of the mountain. It's it's a big part of it.

Well, and that's the thing, you know, scientists would tell you

that if it's a lightning strike, for example, because some might

argue, well, maybe lightning just struck that part of the

mountain, but that would be such a smaller, refined area.

And that has the potential, you know, over thousands of years to

erode because the heat would not be such that it would hold on

permanently. But this level of heat, this

level of fire, this whatever interaction, which Christians

would say this is God descending on fire that has lasted through

thousands and thousands of years.

Now, not to take us off in a different direction, but like,

think about this. So God as fire at the top of the

mountain just consumes and forever permanently changes the

DNA of the mountain, you might say.

But going backwards, the burning Bush, God even in his fire is

gentle with the Bush. He doesn't consume it.

And. That's crazy to me that it is

both and. Yeah, because we've seen this

power before. That's pretty cool.

Yeah, it's, it's a remarkable thing to to dive into.

And so I would encourage any of you do some digging on this.

This is just the really fun scientific historical facts of

the Bible that you can get really lost in.

But it's great to get lost in this stuff because again and it

it activates our imagination, our wonder, and our awe at who

this God is. Moving on into verse 20 and kind

of the last part of this chapter here, the Lord descended to the

top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the

mountain. So Moses went up and the Lord

said to him, go down and warn the people so they do not force

their way through to see the Lord and have many of them

perish. Even the priest who approached

the Lord must consecrate themselves or the Lord will

break out against them. Really interesting to me the the

process or necessity for approaching God in a holy way,

right? And we don't I, I not that we

cheapen this all the time in our modern Christendom, but because

Jesus is Jesus is our intermediator, right, prophet,

priest and king. He's he is the perfect priest

who's empathized with our weaknesses and and is our

intermediary between between US and God.

But even within that. So like I think in some ways we

almost diminish Jesus because we don't yes, Jesus is between US

and God, but I don't know that we approached, we think about

approaching Jesus in a holy, consecrated, worthy way, right?

Does that make sense? It does.

And This is why the New Testament, I think, is so

interesting. Because God as this holy,

otherworldly, well, God he becomes, he intentionally loses

his glory. So he is approachable.

And in fact, he's approachable to the point where you can hurt

him. That doesn't even make sense.

And this is, and this is where like Islam, for example, they

see Jesus as a prophet of God. And they'll even go so far as to

tell you that, yes, Jesus is coming back a second time.

But the problem that they have with Jesus is that he died, that

he as God, quote UN quote, yeah, you can't be God if you die.

There's no way. And So what they'll do is

they'll make the argument that Jesus never died, that they

actually switched Jesus out and put a different dead person in

the tomb. And so Jesus was never actually

killed on the cross is what they're going to argue.

And so therefore, he did not die at all.

God took him back up to heaven before he ever died.

And so that's their argument for Jesus.

Yes, he's he's a real prophet, but the last prophet that we are

to listen to is Muhammad. And so that's where their

argument comes in. But they absolutely still see

Jesus as this godly prophet, just not the son of God who

died. Interesting.

Right. Yeah.

It is. It is.

It's also a little strange because in some ways in order in

order to carry out God's plan and that's where more of the

differences between Islam and Christianity breakdown to.

Like I I hear how it doesn't make sense that he could die as

being God, but it also he would have to perfectly be God in

order to actually cover all the sins of the whole world too,

right? So.

And that's the major player in, you know, some of those

theological differences. And that's why in Islam, you're

still very much earning your way to paradise because nobody died

for you. Muhammad didn't die for you.

In their view, Jesus didn't die for you.

God can't die. And so therefore you still have

to earn your way into His presence.

Yeah, you're not. He didn't.

You're not covered. You're you're not in.

In their view, if he didn't die, you're not covered.

And therefore, you're still waiting for a savior, waiting

for deliverance. Well, your deliverance comes at

your ability to pray enough to go to Mecca to do.

All of your own savings. Yeah, to to be your own savior.

And that I can't think of a more scary thing than me having to

save myself from eternal damnation because I think I've

already blown it, you know, in my first 44.

I can't. However long I have left on this

earth, there's no way I can make up for the ways that I've blown

it on my own. Not a chance, because I'm still

going to continue to mess up. Quite frankly, even even if I go

to a Buddhist temple and never interact with the rest of the

world again, I'm still a Sinner through and through and thought,

word and deed. Couple points from David Guzik

in his enduring Word commentary because we see this reaction the

Israelites have this earnest surely we will do what the Lord

says. It seems like they're trying to

take it pretty seriously as far as the the boundaries and and

keeping themselves sacred and ready.

He points out the difference between awe and and the

submission of the will being Yeah, OK.

It's one thing to say wow, this is crazy and amazing.

It's another thing to actually do it right, to actually stay

in. That discipline and and the

following of God's amazing leading in that awe is one

thing, Submission of the will is another.

And then he points out in Hebrews 12 that verses 18

through 24 say that under the new covenant we come to a

different mountain. Our salvation relationship with

God is centered at Mount Zion, not Mount Sinai.

So we have these two. We kind of have this mountain

of, of law of, of God's perfection.

And then, then Mount Zion, this, this mountain of God's victory,

right? Sinai is, is fear and, and

terror kind of that. Yeah, the law side of things,

the doomsday side of things. And Zion is of, of love and

forgiveness. Sinai is a dry desert.

Zion is the living God. Sinai is, is fear and earthly

power. Zion is heavenly and spiritual

glory. Wow, really well said on that

commentary. I I suspect you know, but, but

this is the thing and and I brought it up yesterday, like

Jesus breaks all of the norms. And so even talking to the woman

at the well, you know, you don't have to go to a mountain, You

don't have to go to a temple. You will worship the Lord with a

contrite heart, with your spirit, because God is spirit.

And so just hearing him give that level of freedom of

approachability and interaction with God, that is something that

was so radical. And so if you can, if you can

kind of take in the radical nature of Jesus's teachings,

you're going to understand a little bit better or not that

you can justify it, but you're going to understand a little bit

better why the religious people of his day had him killed.

Because he is teaching. He's he's teaching about

approaching God in a personal, heartfelt way.

And the only way that they've ever been able to approach God

is through great fear and trembling.

Yet through Jesus, we get to approach God as children of the

King. And that is, that is a radical,

radical thing to assume after thousands of years of fear and

trembling. Yeah.

That's pretty cool, too. Yeah.

Final thoughts from David goes like just kind of finishing off

the parallels here between Sinai and Zion.

Sinai is all about the law. Zion is all about grace.

Therefore, we shouldn't come to Zion as the Israelites were

coming to Sinai in a similar manner to those at Sinai.

There are things we must do to meet God.

There are requirements set forward.

We must receive God's word. We must be set apart.

We must be cleansed. We can only come after the third

day. That's that's powerful.

That's the readying of Jesus's work in those three days, in the

actual three days, right? Is is what makes us able to come

before a holy God, right? We can only come after the third

day. We must respect God's boundary.

We must restrain the flesh, and we must come to know holy God.

And isn't that so cool? Again, we've talked about this

before, but just the sheer consistency across thousands of

years of interactions and what we would call theology, God is

wholly consistent. So the three days in the

mountain, Jonah, three days in the belly of the fish, and all

these, Oh my gosh, it just, it rings true throughout all 66

books across thousands of years of history that God is wholly

consistent. And he's always had the plan.

It's always been in place. Yeah.

Very cool, yeah. Anything else?

Things you felt like you left out from yesterday or wanted to

speak more on. Actually, one of the things that

I left out because, you know, always end with the Jesus home

run in every sermon. But part of what I missed in the

Jesus home run in yesterday's sermon was, you know, we talked

about the mountain shook. Well, what caused, you know,

besides obviously God himself, what caused this 60 foot tall, 4

inch thick curtain to literally shred itself down the middle?

There was an earthquake. There was a movement of the

earth that shook so hard it just decimated this thing.

And we see that same shaking of the earth here on Mount Sinai.

And I failed to bring that up yesterday, but I just think

again, what an incredibly consistent God we have that He

is working to fulfill His own Word all of the time.

Yeah, same power, same God. That's right.

Very cool. Well, thanks man.

Good work. Yesterday we got a few more

weeks. Four more weeks in Exodus, I

think. And I'm going to be, you know,

I'm always sad. I'm always sad to leave.

At the. Ends I am like we're going to

we're going to leave Moses and that makes me a little sad.

See, sad Chris, I'm going to sad eat with my sad Moses.

Then it's Christmas. Oh yeah, never mind.

We're happy again. It's Christmas.

Moss, Chris. Oh, oh, get even more Chris than

we usually do, apparently. Sorry, that was I'm tired.

It's a tired day. You need a break, man.

Yeah. We're working on it, We're

working on it. Thanks for tuning in church drop

any ask me anything questions in the comments here on on Facebook

or in the show. You can certainly text them into

us as well. We'll record that episode later

this week. Thanks again for for yesterday

and and really what's moving forward.

We want to continue to facilitate and encourage

community here both in in life groups and ministries and

activities. We've got hometown Christmas

coming up in December. Get ready for that as we welcome

our community into our church tours.

That's that's an awesome morning.

First Saturday in September, December once are hard.

And yeah, just just really encouraged and excited for

what's ahead of us here. So grateful for each and

everyone of you as a part of our community.

Have a blessed week.