Exodus 34 - 2011 - Skip Heitzig

[Music] welcome to expound our weekly worship and verse by verse study of the Bible our goal is to expand your knowledge of the truth of God by explaining the Word of God in a way that is interactive enjoyable and congregational we call this a textual community let's rejoice and learn God's Word in an interactive and enjoyable new way now let's pray Lord when we think of birthdays we think of time on earth we realize instantly as we're addressing you that we're dealing with the eternal and we're speaking to you to one who dwells in the realm unlike us we who are bound by a time and space continuum you who are not but in the realm of the eternal now the eternal present that one day we're going to shed these mortal bodies and mortality will put on immortality and death will be swallowed up by life and these bodies which are decaying and governed by the laws of nature including entropy and all of the others Lord that one day we're going to be beyond this and Lord until then we want to make the greatest possible impact in our lives in our families in our communities as is possible we believe you're all about instructing us and preparing us to do that you want to do a work within our lives that includes our outlook includes our value system includes our beliefs that will shape and mold our behavior so Lord we place ourselves as living sacrifices as Paul taught us to do and we pray Lord that even through this book of Exodus these chapters these verses that your spirit would be on the move among us in Jesus name Amen well we have studied last week that Moses came down from the mountain after being up there for 40 days in receiving God's words his revelation we discovered that God moved out of town basically or you might say was moved out of town almost forced out of town that by the very nature of the activity going on in the Israelite camp the worship of a golden calf that Moses pitched a tent not the tabernacle the Bible tells us his tent outside of the camp and there outside of the camp away from the people of Israel who had worshipped God in a false manner the camp had become defiled God was moved out of town there Moses met with the Lord and those people who wanted to meet with the Lord could also the scripture tells us though there's no record that they did but there is a record that Moses in that tent outside of the tents of Israel outside the camp met with the Lord whenever he met with the Lord and the Bible says God spoke to him face to face or mouth to mouth literally as a man speaks to his friend that a cloud that symbolized the presence of God descended upon the opening of that tent of Moses and it enveloped the place where Moses was at and this so blew people away that whenever that cloud would come down and the camp of Israel could see Moses going into the tent to speak with the Lord that all of the people of Israel stood to their feet and they looked it's like it's happening God showed up Moses and God are hanging out again God's talking to Moses and Moses is talking to the Lord and so they were having this conversation but it was apart from the camp now God had told Moses what was going on in the camp of Israel when he came down from Mount Sinai and the Lord told Moses Moses I'm not going to be with you in the fullness of my presence because if I were these people couldn't handle it they would be consumed in an instant so I'm gonna send my angel with you lest you be consumed along the way God was evidently angry with the people of Israel in fact offered to let Moses be like Abraham that God would start all over again using Moses and starting a whole new nation in effect wiping out the people of Israel some years ago there was a wedding at a church now this happens all the time after the wedding in the basement of the church and churches then as some still do have basements in their building the reception for the wedding was held now in this basement which doubled as a fellowship hall in a place of congregational meeting throughout the week there were scriptures that were posted on the walls of this basement most of the Scriptures were about God's love like John 3:16 for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son it cetera another verse about the mercy in the grace of God etc etc but there was one verse and it was right over the place where the wedding cake was and the bride and the groom came together and it really wasn't seen till the wedding photographs were developed here's the wedding photographers stood in sight right in front of the cake in got the photograph but right above the wedding cake where the bride and the groom were standing was Matthew chapter 3 verse 7 which reads flee from the wrath that is to come as the couple would look at that picture years later they would be wondering about that perhaps God said Moses in my wrath I could consume this entire nation in a moment but we know what happened Moses was not only the mediator of the Covenant but the intercessor for the Covenant and he prayed God don't do it if you are gonna wipe them out you might as well kill me blot my name out of your book and God was I believe doing all this to draw that response from Moses so that Moses would become an intercessor and would feel toward these people like God had always felt toward these people and so he prayed and the Lord promised that he would go with him in chapter 34 we have take two take two take one was Moses coming down from the mountains seeing the sin breaking the tablets take two is God calls Moses back up to Mount Sinai for another forty days and another forty nights and gives him another copy of the tablets of stone and he is to go back down into the camp of Israel now this is good news in bringing Moses back up he's reestablishing the Covenant that was in jeopardy because of their sin in effect he's saying I accept you Moses I accept your prayer and I will accept these people as my covenant people it's sort of like a boss bringing wunst dismissed employees back on staff they had been dismissed the boss brings them back and he says welcome back to the company now go to work so God brings Moses the representative of the Covenant back up on Mount Sinai now it's an extended period of worship the revelation of God has already been given to Moses previously but you remember something from last study Moses made a request in the midst of all this he said Lord show me your what your glory show me your glory the word glory in Hebrew is the word kavod and it literally means heavy or heaviness weight or weight eNOS and the idea behind the word is someone's weighty reputation or weighty position one translation says Lord I want to see your very self your own person I want an encounter where I can fully experience you that's it Moses you can't see my face no man can see my face and live now I'll work it out we're all passed by I'll hide you and protect you you'll be able to see my back as I pass by my afterglow you might say but you won't see my face and there I will proclaim my name now God said that to him Moses asked for one thing I want to I want to see you basically I want a visual of you I want to see your glory he didn't get that what did he get we'll see in part tonight chapter 34 verse 1 and the Lord said to Moses cut 2 tablets of stone like the first ones and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke this was a question that I was asked last week at our Bible study by a couple I said well if Moses broke the commandments then how did the two Commandments end up eventually in the of the Covenant well this is how they did Moses goes back up again on Mount Sinai the first time God provided the tablets they were hewn out of stone by God himself and then God wrote on them this time Moses has to get a set of stone tablets and God will write on them so Moses is involved in the process he broke the first set he bares a little bit of responsibility in providing the raw materials this time look at this so be ready in the morning and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai and present yourself to me there on top of the mountain I'll tell you where this verse really hit me is when I was on top of Mount Sinai some years ago I climbed up and I had read the previous chapter that he was up on Mount Sinai and came down and then I thought he had to go up again now Mount Sinai is 7,500 feet high roughly it takes about three hours to climb it and that's by a modern-day trail today it's quite a climb so it's like if you were to climb at the base of tramway and go up to Sandia Mountain and come back down and God says come on back oh man again couldn't we have just done all this on one take nope this is take two come back up typically if you go to Mount Sinai they tell you that the best time to climb is wood between you start climbing about 2:00 in the morning or 3:00 in the morning with flashlights it's quite cold even in the summer by the time you get up to this altitude but there's nothing like a sunrise from Mount Sinai now I don't think Moses was about the sunrise he was about getting up there early like God had said because God's gonna reveal more to him verse 3 a different twist is added no man shall come with you remember last time Joshua accompanied Moses partway up and let no man be seen throughout all the mountain let neither flocks nor herds feed before the mountain so he cut two tablets of stone like the first ones then moses rose early in the morning and went up on mount sinai as the Lord had commanded him and he took in his hand the two tablets of stone now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord interesting wording is it not the Lord came and the Lord spoke the name of the Lord and the Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord now in your Bibles you will notice that the word Lord is in all capitals yes anytime you see that in the Old Testament Lord capitalized where all of the letters are capitalized it is the Hebrew tetragrammaton why hw8 we would transliterate that from the hebrew those four consonants those four letters we don't know how it was pronounced it's been lost the Jews to this day will not speak the name of God out of honor to him they will simply call him the name or they will pause if they're writing in English to you and they come to say God they will say G - D they won't spell out the name God so we don't know how it is to be pronounced most think it was pronounced yahweh yahweh is the eternal present one or i am that i am so it's the covenant name of God so God appears to Moses and proclaims his name now if you remember from last study God said Moses no one's gonna see my face and be able to live you couldn't handle my face you couldn't handle looking at me you know Philip asked for didn't he in the upper room let Jesus just show us the Father that'll be enough well might be enough but like a bud getting too close to a bug zapper Philip you die dude you'd be no more God said Moses no one can see my face and live you can't be sustained so I'll let you see the afterglow and God promised I will proclaim my name now watch this the Lord passed before him and proclaimed now what God is going to proclaim will be a description this was interesting God will give a nine-fold ethical description of himself or nine of his attributes will be given to Moses and and what's amazing it's sort of shocking the attributes that God chose to reveal the Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering it's a great word it means God puts up with you a long time aren't you glad for long-suffering I am God has had to put up with some of my attitudes and behavior that's just rank and raunchy for a long time somebody once said the grace of God can live with some people with whom no one else could ever live long-suffering and gracious long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin by no means clearing the guilty visiting the iniquity of the father's upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation a couple things you ought to notice about this 9 fold description first of all Moses didn't really see anything he wanted to see God's glory show me your glory he didn't really get to see God's glory God told him 1 he didn't really get a vision he really didn't get an apparition you know what he got words God spoke to him God said things to him he got words words words that's not what I came for I want to see her glory I don't want a Bible study I don't want a sermon from you God I want to see your glory it's not what Moses wanted it's not what he requested it's what he got Moses knew what he wanted God knew what he needed Paul the Apostle knew what he wanted God knew what he needed Paul said because of the abundance of the revelations that I have received a thorn in the flesh has been given to me a messenger of Satan to buff at me three times I pleaded to the Lord that it would be removed but all God said to me is my grace is enough for you it's not what he wanted he didn't want to hear that he wanted God to say your request has been granted you are physically healed but he got words he got a promise the men on the road to Emmaus got words they got a promise they had the scripture opened up to them you remember the story in Luke chapter 24 they're walking on the road to Emmaus from Jerusalem Jesus walks up next to them they don't recognize him he's incognito and he says hey what are you guys talking about and they say to Jesus I love this conversation so much they say to Jesus are you a stranger in this part of the world don't you know the things that have been happening in these last few days and Jesus said what things classic he knew what things but he wanted them to say it and they talked about Jesus of Nazareth etc and how we hoped in him but then he died and our hopes have been dashed and it's all over now and it says beginning at Moses and all of the prophet he expounded or explained to them all the things in the scripture concerning himself well later on after Jesus left one turned to the other and said this did not our hearts burn within us as he spoke to us along the road and opened to us the scripture Jesus did not perform a miracle for them there wasn't some apparition they did not see the face of Jesus in the clouds or in a tortilla or in some manifestation but they heard they heard words words they didn't see they heard and they heard words words of life words they heard growing up they were raised Jewish they heard those words from the prophets and Moses every week in synagogue but not like that day Jesus opened up the scripture it's like it's like opening the curtains and the light floods in and you see the room and the scripture makes things clear and I get it I get it and it brings that burning of the heart so Moses didn't get a visual as much as he got words from Jesus second thing to notice about this is that God describes his character now he's proclaiming his name to get that the Lord the Lord God and then attributes are given in other words God's name is associated with his character when you pray in the name of Jesus it's not like over and out good buddy in Jesus name Amen it's not some magical incantation it means that you are praying requesting talking to God for things that are in line with his character if you ever see the name rolls-royce stamped on something typically it's most aircraft engines that fly you around the world many of them are either GE or rolls-royce or if you see it on a car when you see that stamped on something there's a reputation behind the name it has a reputation for quality craftsmanship handmade craftsmanship precision and high cost it has a reputation God stamps his name not only on his creation but on his covenant and the Covenant is based upon his character the name the Lord the Lord God and then these attributes were given now here's the third thing to notice I said there was a little bit there was a it's a little bit shocking as to how God revealed himself because I would have figured if I hadn't read this that when God wants to reveal himself to Moses after the children of Israel sinned and God almost said you know I may not be going with you guys but I'm just gonna send my messenger but I'm not gonna really hang out with you guys you might think that God would introduce himself his character by saying the Lord the Lord God omnipotent omniscient strong you know all of those kind of attributes but instead these are attributes that we would call although they're all positive positive attributes of his moral character his love his mercy His grace his long-suffering just to understand how monumental this is I'll give you an example if a man steals something and is found out he will be labeled as a thief even if he makes amends he's gonna live with that stigma for years to come people will always view him as a thief or if a man or a woman Falls morally does something outside of what is proper the bounds of marriage that person will also be labeled probably permanently because that's a trait of mankind we view each other through the lens of the other person's sin God views people through the lens of his love his grace his mercy it actually is amazing to me the way the Lord introduced himself when he proclaimed his name but there's something troubling for some people although we we've looked at it in the past I want to just look at it briefly he says visiting the iniquity of the father's upon the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation some people lead into this something that I is not there I I don't want to say I believe is not there it's not there and it's the idea of a generational curse it's popular in many churches I won't say which ones but the idea of a generational curse I am the way I am because my grandfather did this and and we are we are looking for these days it seems almost a way or a person to blame well I have a temper because I'm Irish or I have a temper because I'm Hispanic or I have a temper because I'm German actually every person on earth has a temper so you could say that with anybody as that's why I don't want to just name one I'll get in trouble if I do but I've heard these excuses I am the way because of my genetic structure that's not what it means let me tell you what it means then I'll give you a scripture and we'll move on it simply means and in the context here is idolatry that was the big sin the children of Israel kept falling into like the last chapter that we read last couple chapters if parents raise children in an atmosphere of idolatry they are setting up that children with that child with the exposure to idolatry to become idolatrous it's going to play out in the natural calm secuence is because of the sin or sins of the parents it doesn't mean that if your grandpa was an alcoholic you have to be one too that's just the way it is generational curse we better pray and expel the demon of the generational curse doesn't mean that it's not a biblical concept now the scripture and I come into you reading the whole chapter just mark this down and chase it down later Ezekiel chapter 18 God speaks to the Prophet and he says Ezekiel I've been hearing a phrase going around in Israel and I'm sick of it I'm tired of it why is it where does this come from this phrase that the children of Israel are always you hear was the phrase here was the axiom here was the statement our fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge in other words because our parents send the children are doing the things because of their parents they can't help it it's a generational curse then God says I'm sick of hearing that you will say it no more in Israel then the Lord says all souls are mine the soul of the father and the soul of the child or the soul of the son is mine all souls are mine and the soul who sins shall surely die I'm gonna hold everybody personally responsible for their own stuff you can't blame your parents or your grandparents anymore stop the blame game stop it don't say that anymore don't live you don't have to live under those shackles anymore so this idea of this generational curse is simply the natural repercussions of false worship or sins committed by parents that would be seen that children would be exposed to and would be played out because of it so Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped I dig this can I say that I dig this I love this I love this because Moses didn't get what he wanted but he worship Moses who could have said ah hold on God nice little speech agate that was good good and I'm into that but I want to see something I want to be moved emotionally I want the tingles I want the tortilla I don't want just words no you know what Moses got it God revealed himself and and his characteristics and Moses saw himself in the light of who God was and it drove him to worship and I think this is true worship because worship isn't about you or about me it's not like I I don't like that worship leader so I really don't like that worship song next it's not about you it's about him and when we enter into the meaning of the purpose of worship the words that are being sung and we bypass what we like or don't like our preferences and we lock in on the lord the lord god he's this he's that we worship because worship is the most selfless act on earth if it's done correctly it's not about us it's about him Moses worshiped the Lord and then he said if now I have found grace in your sight O Lord let my lord I pray go among us even though we are a stiff-necked people and pardon our iniquity in our sin and take us as your inheritance and he said Behold oh by the way this word stiff neck keeps coming up doesn't it God said they're stiff necked and then God said Moses I want you to talk to the people address and this is last week and give them a sermon and your sermon say point one you're a stiff-necked people you had to tell them that now Moses admits freely before the Lord you know God you were right they really are stiff-necked but I'm bringing this up because I want you to see how flawed the Covenant people of God were they were not perfect God is still establishing a covenant with them they were not perfect in fact a great verse to write in the reference side of your Bible is Deuteronomy chapter 7 where God says I didn't choose you because you were more in number or greater than any of the nations on the earth because you weren't you aren't I chose you because I love you in other words I love you just because I love you sort of sounds like a mom didn't matter what her son or daughter does mom will always love that child because I love you God says I love you because I love you not because you're great not because wow I'm impressed with you he says frankly you're a stiff-necked people and Moses said I found that out I agree but God chose them and will work with them and he said behold I make a covenant before all your people I will do Marvel's such as have not been done in all the earth nor in any nation and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord for it is an awesome thing that I do observe what I command this day behold I am driving out from before you the amorite the Canaanite the hittite the perizzite the hivite and the jebusite see I refrain from idle usual lame joke on that one take heed to yourself lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going lest to be a snare in your midst but you will destroy all of their altars and break their sacred pillars and cut down their wooden images what is a wooden image literally in Hebrew it's a surah or asharam translated here wooden image where does that come from well it's a word that describes any and all of the statues were manufactured by the ancient pagan worshippers of that day under the term Asherah or asher Reem but the word itself comes from a goddess called a Shura she was the companion the consort of bale who was the chief god in Canaan and in Mesopotamia you've heard the name Bale it's written in the Bible many times the chief companion or concert of Bale was a Shura now Bale was the storm God he was in charge of nature if it rained it's because Bale blessed us if it didn't rain it's because bale is mad at us so the Canaanites believed that Bale was responsible for the harvest the fruitfulness of the harvest the fruitfulness of the flocks the fruitfulness of our families so the way they worshipped bail because Bale had a consort named Asherah they had a thing going on they had a relationship going on in the god realm they believed that the best way to worship Bale and Asherah was through sexual activity now this will help explain why it became such a temptation to the people of Israel they thought if part of the worship system is having sex a lot of people said I'm down with that I'm all about that it was a constant temptation to the men of Israel there were temples to bail and priestesses that would keep the temples and the men would go pay a fee to the priestess have a sexual activity with a priestess and a prayer was uttered during their sexual activity something like this even as fertility is taking place right now in our bodies may fertility take place with my flocks with my harvest and with my family that's how they worship Bale and Asherah God says you're going into that kind of a land I want you to rip down their altars I want you to rip down those poles and oftentimes an Asscher a pole was placed next to an altar of bail in fact the prime example is gideon remember gideon in the book of Judges the Lord spoke to Gideon and said Gideon your dad is an idol worshiper I want you to go to his stall and take out a couple of his animals and kill them I want you to knock down the altar that he built to bail and the Asherah pole or wooden image that is next to it and worship these animals on an altar that you raise in my honor so what you read here was reiterated and practiced by Gideon later on in the book of Judges verse 14 I pause because I wanted to take this verse singularly for you shall worship no other God for the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God please don't feel like you have to apologize for that statement what do I do with that verse nothing it's there read it I get it God is a jealous God eight times the Bible says God is a jealous God now it's been watered down a little bit I'm a zealous God but jealous is actually a pretty good term very accurate term the word in Hebrew gana means to become red-faced can you picture somebody's a red-faced and and it describes somebody who's so zealous over his property he already owns the property he's zealous over his property it's his it's been stolen it's been defiled or whatever that's the term Ghana or red faced or jealous sometimes translated zealous I say it's a good term because Paul uses it also in the New Testament he says I am jealous over you to the Corinthians 2nd Corinthians 11 I am jealous over you with that godly jealousy for I have espoused you engaged betrothed you to one person that I might present you as a chaste virgin even unto Christ I remember at one time overhearing a woman say I am so proud of my husband he's not a jealous husband and I thought poor woman if he was worth his salt he'd be a jealous husband I love my wife she's my wife I've never shared her with anyone and I would say oh dude I'm open-minded you know whatever I'm not a jealous husband I'd be an idiot there's a covenant relationship you guard that relationship so for God to say unashamedly I'm a jealous God I'm not ashamed of him saying that and I don't feel it takes any like 'wow explanation I get it we're God's people were to unreservedly worship the Lord I am the Lord your God you will have no other gods beside me I get that lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of London now watch this unless you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they play the harlot with their gods and make sacrifice to their gods and one of them invites you and you eat of his sacrifice and you take of his daughters for your sons and his daughters play the harlot with their gods and make your sons play the harlot with their gods this is an intriguing principle sometimes people will investigate religion investigate Christianity investigates spirituality and they will choose upon a spiritual journey based upon an independent and objective investigation of the truth the fact the people who they admire who are doing this thing or whatever and based upon their investigation they will say I choose that spiritual path but typically it doesn't work that way normally rather than investigation there's invitation people invite in in the realm of whatever religious system is present in that culture in that day people invite others come on and be a part of our service of our religious experience and because it's the dominant experience they just go along with it they'll just tolerate it and they'll even indulge in it and convert to it because of the peer pressure not because of an independent investigation God knew that was a principle that men kind do that they they're not always good independent thinkers there is a herd instinct and he knew that his people would be among Canaanites perizzites hivites Jebusites who would be into bail and Asherah etc and invite them there God says ah now he he makes a restriction in that final verse that we read verse 16 that there would be an inner marriage now understand something about this the Bible never forbids intermarriage between races but between religions it's not based upon ethnicity it's based upon spirituality it's not the mixture of races that is a problem it's the mixture of religious value systems spiritual value system that's what this was all about it's not like only you know we have to it was really more about not the race but about the spirituality as she played a harlot with their gods and who did that who who married a bunch of women and got trapped up with their gods and goddesses Solomon Solomon and that's why the Bible in the Torah forbids the king of Israel to multiply wives to himself lest they draw your heart away you shall make verse 17 no mold of gods for yourself now in the next several verses there's a sampling of what has already been given in the revelation the last trip Moses was on Mount Sinai there are 10 things God addresses like the 10 commandments but these are sample Commandments from all of the revelation that God has already given follow sort of summing it up hitting on certain areas you shall make no mold of gods for yourselves the feast of unleavened bread verse 18 you shall keep seven days you will eat unleavened bread has one commanded in the appointed time of the month of Abib that's the first month associated with Passover in the month of Abib you came out of Egypt all that opened the womb our mind and every male firstborn among your livestock whether ox or sheep so God has already said this now he's reiterating what he said the kids are mine the kids are the Lords your children are the Lords he gave them life you're a Stewart but the the very second you have a child born into your house from that moment on there is a process you are learning of letting go you might begin with a dedication service a few months after birth Lord we dedicate this child to you but that's a covenant that you repeat that you keep the children do belong to the Lord like Hannah who dedicated her son Samuel and prayed for a son and then the Lord got her pregnant and she had Samuel and she said I prayed for the to the Lord for this son and the Lord blessed me therefore I will lend him to the Lord as long as he lives the children belong to him and parents have that responsibility and the honor of being a partner with God and shaping the life of a child down to verse 21 six days you shall work on the seventh day you shall rest in plowing time in harvest time you will rest you shall observe the feast of weeks that's Pentecost the firstfruits of the wheat harvest the feast of the in gathering at the year's end three times in the year all your men shall appear before the Lord your God watch this I love this for I will cast out the nations before you and enlarge your borders neither will any man covet your land when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year did you get that they're coming from all over Israel down to the place which will be Jerusalem to celebrate three times a year a feast Passover Pentecost and Tabernacles three times a year they're gonna leave their city leave their herds their flocks in some cases their families and they're gonna go worship now they're gonna be tempted come festival time go no she's not convenient for me to take that 80 hundred mile 2030 mile journey by foot and go worship I've got neighbors they're lousy neighbors they're trying to get my land it's just not really convenient for me to do that that's gonna be their excuse just like a person might say yeah I don't get out to church that off and you know I'm busy and there's a lot going on at work and there's there's a lot going on the neighborhood God knows the propensity now there's a principle I want you to learn I'll just tell it to you and I'll tell you where it's found you can chase it down in the book of First Samuel Chapter two I believe the Lord says the one that honors me I will honor here's another scripture proverbs chapter 16 when a man's ways please the Lord he makes even his enemies be at peace with him you place God number one in your life you place spiritual things and attending these meetings that God had prescribed for his you make that your priority I'll take care of the enemies I'll take care of the problems so God told them that you shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven etc look down to verse 27 because a lot of this is repeated from before then the Lord said to Moses write these words for according to the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel so he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights he neither ate bread get this nor drank water so there was a miraculous sustenance because it's impossible otherwise for a person to survive without hydration for forty days and forty nights and he wrote on the tablets the words of the Covenant the Ten Commandments now it was so when Moses came down from Mount Sinai and two tablets of the testimony were in Moses hand when he came down from the mountain that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him okay well I said Lord willing when we began this study didn't I when I thought we'd get through two chapters but we'll get through one so now we find out Moses coming down and as his face is glowing maybe like the after radiation effects of this afterglow he didn't know it of course he didn't have a mirror up there just walking down so when Aaron and the children of Israel saw Moses behold the skin of his face shone and they were afraid to come near him what's going on here number one God is confirming his choice of Moses Moses is the man Moses is the mediator of the Covenant like he had done back in Egypt he's confirming now for the children of Israel this is the man that I have chosen and it's reinforced by the shining of his face when he comes down so God is confirming his choice number two God is confirming his presence Moses was in the presence of the Lord here's the aftereffect and now Moses comes down his face is shining it's a sign to them that God is again present with us as we make this long arduous journey through the wilderness that confirms God's presence it also confirmed God's greatness because what other worshipper of any other god or goddess Bale asteroth or anyone else ever had their face glow afterwards nobody this is singular this is Moses alone with Yahweh and he comes down and his face is glowing and God is confirming his greatness you'll notice in verse 30 that they were afraid it says to come near him sort of bothered them when they saw this what's up with mow man his face is glowing shining it made them feel uncomfortable I believe they were convicted by their own falling short their own sinfulness they knew what they had done they knew their own propensity Moses comes down he's the only guy with his face shining a broad conviction they didn't like it says they were afraid to come near him so number four got us confirming his power Moses spent time in God's presence he comes back and he's different than when he went out right he's different because he was in God's presence right that's why his face is shining he was in God's presence he's all right so he comes back his life has changed his countenance has changed as visible here's the principle you can't spend real time in the presence of God and not have it change your life if it's God you're meeting with it's quality time in his presence there's going to be a change that's why you never have to announce to people I've been in the presence of God all day I prayed five hour you never ever have to announce that stuff because it'll be evident that you've been in God's presence people will know it they'll get it do you remember in the book of Acts the fourth chapter Peter and John are brought before the Sanhedrin the Sanhedrin saw Peter and John is's saw their boldness and perceived that they were untrained and uneducated men but they realized they had been with Jesus who are these guys why are they so bold what's the deal with them they don't know they haven't been they don't have a PhD like I have but there's something about them they've been with Jesus they've been in his presence education or not they've been with the Lord it was apparent it was obvious Moses called to them an errand and the rulers of the congregation returned to him and Moses talked with him afterward all the children of Israel came near and he gave them Commandments as Commandments all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai and when Moses had finished speaking with them he put a veil on his face but whenever Moses went before the Lord to speak with him he would take the veil off until he came out and he would come out and speak to the children of Israel whatever he had had been commanded and whenever the children of Israel saw the face of Moses that the skin of Moses face shone the Moses would put the veil on his face again until he went in to speak to him this tells us the fifth and final thing about why Moses face was shining and it's the most important one of all but unfortunately I'm looking at says 8:32 and you know that I I have a propensity to have a cliffhanger and you do have children and we want to keep the Covenant the commandment so so as not to be labor it and I know that that the mind cannot retain with the seat cannot endure so I'm gonna be gracious to you and we're gonna pray and we'll pick it up next week and you'll be surprised next week at how much ground we cover father thank you for the ground we have covered we can't but help as we read these verses these stories to realize were unholy ground the Lord talked to Moses the after effect of the words and whatever minimal revelation short of the full glory that he received changed him he was different the man glowed and the children of Israel were afraid because of what they saw not understanding it Lord I pray that you'd help us as we plan our lives as we make decisions make priorities to make the right kinds of choices about our lives about our schedule we're in charge of those things we're in charge of when we're gonna get up and go to bed and what activities we're gonna place in our lives that's within our control we decide and the truth is we are as close to you as we have chosen to be I pray Lord that we would be intentional about spending real time understanding you and and though we say we want something you know what we need and it's the reaffirmation the words of the covenant repeated to us spoken to us that gladdens our heart and brings about true worship so as we close Lord it's only fitting that we - like Moses should bow and worship sing a song of joy and worship before you in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Calvary Church with Skip Heitzig

Views: 6,385

Rating: 4.7600002 out of 5

Keywords: Calvary, Albuquerque, Skip, Heitzig, Jesus, Exodus, Sermon

Id: fq6FQi3ZMzI

Length: 55min 19sec (3319 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 19 2018