The First Five Books of The Bible: Pentateuch [Torah] Part 2: Tim Mackie (The Bible Project)

all right we got ground to cover you guys ready the story is set the conflict is on oh yeah there was one a question and you're right I forgot to clarify but important in telling the story of the city and the tower in Genesis 11 this story is a group of people who come together from all over and they want to build a city that has a tower in it and then the name of the city at the end of the story and our English translations here is almost always called Babel but I didn't say Babel I said that one now if you look at a little footnote here almost all of our English translations will have a footnote say or Babylon the Hebrew word for Babylon is the Hebrew word Baba the word occurs almost 250 times in the Hebrew Bible and 249 times out of this 250 it's translated by its meaning Babylon there's one time where our English translations - simply not to translate the word but just to spell it in English letters and that one occurrence is Genesis chapter 11 the reason they do that is because the word confused is a word play on the word bava bava is the name is the Hebrew word for Babylon and the word for confuses bhalo B ll so b BL b ll takes the two center consonants and swaps them out are you with me it's a wordplay god Bilal Pavel and you're supposed to chuckle okay it's a wordplay but so that's why they choose to translate it as to spell it instead of translated and that's good because you catch the word you get the wordplay but what you miss is this story is about the founding of the city of Babylon the story of humans embracing evil under the influence of the snake and is begins a cascading spiral of stories that ends with the foundation of the city of Babylon and that's going to be crucially significant because the seed of Abraham is called out of the scattering of city of the city of Babylon the city scattered and then you get that genealogy right next to it we're back to the photo mosaic of the seal on the beach placed next to the bat and you're just supposed to ponder the relationship between those two and so Babylon provides the setting for Abraham's family to wander from the land of Babylon and then be called by God and then they're going to be called as we're going to see into the land promised land and the descendants of Abraham can live under God's blessing and goodness in that land as long as they obey the Covenant which we'll talk about in a second but does Abraham's family obey the terms of the Covenant they do not welcome to the long complicated story of Joshua judges Samuel and kings and kings tells the story of Abraham's family getting the boot out of the promised land in exiled and they're carried away to the city of Babylon so the story of Abraham's family retells the story of all humanity in Genesis 3 through 11 just as Abraham's family excuse me just as humanity's given every opportunity and divine instruction to do the right thing they don't they embrace their own destruction by redefining good and evil and it ends in the city of Babylon the family of Abraham is taken out of Babylon and given a new chance in the Promised Land with God's personal instruction called the laws of the Torah and how do they do about as good as Adam and Eve and will end them on a longer cascading spiral into self-destruction that ends them all the way back in the place where they came from Babylon and that's very intentional that the story of Abraham's family begins in Babylon and then N in Babylon and Babylon becomes it's both a literal empire that existed in the ancient Near East but in the biblical story Babylon becomes an image of everything that's wrong with the collective human race and it's why the last book of the Bible uses what name to describe the nations of the world unified in rebellion against God the last book of the Bible is called the revelation and who's the big bad guy the big bad nation in Revelation Babylon yes and this is very intentional because Babylon is the the Torres way of describing when whole societies redefine good and evil and exalt themselves and then they become they become Babylon anyways there we go so that's the thing about Babel and Babylon whoever asked that question I think it was Mary thank you and to clarify okay so but we're at the point where the seed of the woman trace to Abram has been called out of Babylon what God wants to do is through the blessing on the seed of Abram restore the goodness and the wise and the blessing that was forfeited by the human family in Genesis 3 through 11 and this begins the second main narrative movement of the Torah it's a big story part to the big story part one was Genesis 1 through 11 it sets up the ideal and the purpose of this whole thing and what's gone wrong so both the ideal and then the plot conflict and then how is God going to address this conflict the first big part is that he selects the family of Abraham to be the carriers of divine blessing out to the nations of the earth and God not only just says it we watched him say it in Genesis 12 but he wants to restore blessing to the nation he said it in poetry by the way Genesis 12 1 2 3 poetry and it goes into the narrative and you you begin reading the narratives of Abram and his family and a good guy or bad guy Abram what's the first story you're told about him so they went down to Egypt and he says man you're really beautiful it's why I married you but one of the reasons why I married you and man the Egyptians are going to see you and say that's his that's his wife and they're going to kill me and let you live so how about I hang you out to dry to protect myself that's the first story we're told about Abram good guy bad guy he's human he's human yeah and that's what all these characters the family of Abraham is an extremely normal human family meaning they're deeply dysfunctional and sometimes they get it right often they get it wrong and usually when they're getting it right they're also at the same time getting it wrong in some way and that's the the depiction of human families in the first book of the Bible deeply flawed but does the fact that God has committed to working through flawed humans does it God biting his fingernails this human frailty and moral compromise can it ultimately swart God's purposes to bring about goodness and life and blessing for his world answer no he will not let evil and death and curse and be the end of this story not in this God's world but what he will do is partner genuine partnerships with real humans who are going to make a mess of things but sometimes they get it right and the one story of Abraham was two stories they were Abraham getting it right I just want to focus on the first one it's in Genesis 15 and this is work years into the story after God's first promise to him and he still has no kids God says Abraham don't be afraid I'm a shields you your reward is great and Abram says okay you know speaking of rewards let's talk about rewards I still don't have any kids remember that whole thing about bless you a great nation so where's what when's I going to happen and because right now Eliezer of Damascus is the heir of my house now I'm sure Eliezer was a very nice man but he's not Abraham's child so you've given me no seed no offspring there's that word again seed and so this one born into my house Eliezer is my heir the word of the Lord came to him and said no he won't be your heir one coming from your body so now the seed of the woman is now coming through the seed from the body of Abraham that's who will be your heir Abram come outside with me so God took Abram outside and said look up no light pollution okay those cities or anything look up in the skies and count the Stars if you can that's how your seed shall be and for the first time in the narrative Abram hits it out of the ballpark he does exactly the right thing and that you should imitate him on this point and about this point only in any of the stories there's not many things in the story of Abraham you should ever hope to do yourself except this one and what is it good thing unqualified good thing Abram does in the narratives about him he believes any other translations everybody else believes nobody has faced had faced so believe in in Hebrew this word is many of you say it when you finish your prayers yeah that's a Hebrew word that means true trustworthy so when you say a man and in Hebrew - a man someone else means that you consider some one or something trustworthy I prefer just the short English word trust instead of the English word believes mostly because belief and even the English word face has come in the history of English to have a lot of overtones that don't capture the personal relational quality of Hebrew I'm in but Trust has that yeah if I trust you I don't trust that two plus two is for you personally so I believe that it is it's cognitive and I end there for it and the do it and then I know that it is and I don't need to trust that it is so Trust is it is a personal it's a personal move that I make in a relational setting to commit myself to someone even without having full evidence I have reason to consider God trustworthy in this case Abraham has reason to believe God's trustworthy but there's still this realm that remains unknown and unprovable to him and so based on his history so far he ventures out in aa men he trusts he has faced so one of the first in the story so far he's one of the characters who does the first good thing there's no like there's nothing in this moment that you're wondering like well what were his motives or you know like with Sarah who giving his wife away what just this is good and what's the first good thing that somebody does in the story of the Torah they have faith now I'm harping on this point because I feel like we begin with the passage at the beginning of the day where somebody said Old Testament 101 salvation in the Messiah comes by I might be belaboring the point but I'm just what does the Old Testament give you wisdom about salvation through faith where did Paul the Apostle get the idea that the Old Testament teaches salvation through faith what is salvation in this story it's that God is going to through the seed of Abraham restore goodness and life and blessing by the seed of the woman who's going to crush evil at its source while being crushed by it that is salvation the word hasn't been used yet it's going to in this story but that's salvation and who's the first person in the story who becomes a model to us of how to relate to God who's trying to extend salvation to us Abraham and what's his hero moment in the story conquering his enemies so doing nothing activity was just this radical trust that God can do something that right now seems impossible and here it's his family by his body right the God could create life out of the what he considers the the deadness the inability of his body and his wife's body to generate a new human life they're in their late 80s by this point and that's it right there god he considers that God can create life out of nothing now I feel like I've heard a story about that before oh yes page is called page 1 okay so God's creative ability to bring wives out of chances that seem bound for death is what Abraham trusts in and this exactly were what Paul's came in on here in second Timothy three it's as if the Bible is actually unified whole imagine that imagine that okay now one more thing in Genesis 15 before we jump back up and keep zooming God God's response to Abraham's trust is to consider Abram to have a relational status with him and that is a status of righteousness righteousness this is going to be key key in a lot of Paul's other writings face righteousness but righteousness another one of these Bible words that in English it's hard to know what anybody means by it anymore because we only use it only religious people use the word for the most part in Hebrew the word is setec or there's another form sometimes called tzedakah and that is core it means a right relationship it's a it's a relational word that refers to doing right by someone maybe a verbal way to say it is doing right by it's by being a person who's characterized by doing right by others in all of your relationships and so God in the psalms of the Old Testament he is the ultimate righteous one he always does right by people and sometimes God's righteousness means bringing justice on those who are destroying themselves or other people the wicked and other times God's righteousness is to vindicate the oppressed and the suffering like in the story of the exodus but God is the ultimate one who always does right by others and then humans are called to do righteousness and justice or to be righteous which means to do right by God and according to Genesis 15 verse 6 what is the ultimate way to do right by God and be in right relationship God to do anything no you just received you just trust that God does that work to do something that you could never do in and of yourself that's what's happening in the story here salvation by face in the book of Genesis the next thing that God does is he tells Abraham to start cutting all these animals in half and to create this huge bloody mess of animal carcasses on the ground I'm not joking especially what happened to text right he cuts a part a goat a ram and a cow he cuts them in half and arranges the pieces ritual shape on the ground so bizarre and then Abram takes a nap a terrible darkness and sleet falls on Abram and they go through this covenant ceremony we could spend so much time here we don't have time it's an amazing story but what we're told by the end of the story is on that day the Lord made a covenant next key word here covenant add it to the mix covenant I'll use the shorthand covenant covenant is a formal promise relationship where I can tell you hey I'm going to whatever build a shed in your backyard okay shake on it you know a covenant would be we get a piece of paper out that's the piece of paper is the slaughtered animal animals that's the ritual ceremony is our version of signing a contract so we get out a piece of paper item Mackey will by August 15 2017 - this sign you sign sign covenant are you with me god is signing his name and character in to this promise that he's going to bring about goodness and life and blessing to the rebellious Nations through the seed of Abraham that's going to live in this land covenant so now God is not just said that he's going to do it he's signed his own integrity on the fact that he will bring this blessing to all of the nations it's a crucially important moment in the story okay the book of Genesis will just kind of conclude from Abram he has a couple sons the seed the promised lion of the of the woman goes not through all of his sons but just through one son of Abraham was it through Isaac and then Isaac has more than one son but that promise line from the woman goes through one of the sons what's that son's name Jacob and what's the meaning of his name he come with twins he has a twin brother his brother Esau comes out and then Jakob comes out grabbing at his sons his brothers a cave Jakob comes out grabbing a sock Aiden his name means he'll grab her and if like just if you were walking and I were to grab your heel out from under you what am I was I'm tripping you right Jacob's name means somebody who trips up someone else that's the meaning of his name right and what is he going to go on to do for most of his life trip up other people mostly through selfishness and blind ignorance to his faults and flaws and but does God commit to working even through a deeply flawed man whose name is he'll grabber it's got committed to it he signed on the dotted line to bless the nation's even through heel grabbers but he teaches he'll grab her a lesson or two doesn't in the wilderness but that's the story Jacob anyway Jacob goes on to have 12 sons hold on big big family and then the whole last part of the book of Genesis is about how a whole bunch of the brothers kid want to murder but instead of murdering kidnap and Saul into slavery one of their other brothers ah the chosen people of God you know Oh war this family is terribly dysfunctional but what the brothers do is a great evil isn't it the brothers do evil to Joseph just the kidnapped slave but what is God able to do in response to the brothers evil the whole story of Joseph is about God taking Joseph from slavery and elevating him one step by another to become second in command over the Kingdom of Egypt where he was sold into slavery and then irony of ironies Joseph's brothers you probably know the story come down to him in the famine looking for food and who do they find in Egypt that guy they sold into slavery and they reconcile eventually dramatic story you should read it's incredible and eventually a Joseph reveals himself to his brothers and he invites the whole family of Abraham to come down to Egypt and family of Jacob so they all come down and the last paragraph of the book of Genesis is right after Jacob dies so the grandson of Abram Abraham and Joseph's brothers are freaking out because they're all of a sudden saying well maybe Joseph is really still angry at us by that whole kidnapping slavery thing and maybe he's just been waiting for our dad to die and now he's like the most one of the most important men most powerful people around maybe now he's going to bring the hammer of justice on us what is what they say uh-uh I mean yes when Joseph's brother saw their father was dead what if Joseph bears a grudge against us and pays us back in full for the evil the evil that we did to him oh you guys I haven't taught you the Hebrew words for good knieval heaven over Spig oversight good good in Hebrews the word toes don't you say it with me evil in Hebrew rah doesn't it just sound rah rah toes and rah here we go good and evil toes and rock justice brothers saw what their father was dead what if Joseph bears a grudge and pays us back for all of the raw that we did to him so they sent Joseph a message saying you know they make up this false report from their dad you know what Dad said right before he died I think you walked out of the room Joseph dad said please forgive your brothers for their rot for their sin for the raw that they did to you do you remember dad saying that oh you must have been he said it and Joseph went you guys are still you're still you're still doing it you're still doing the same thing Joseph says don't be afraid you guys am i in God's place as for you you meant raw against me but God meant it for toes in order to bring about what's happened literally he says to save life life you guys is the last paragraph of the book of Genesis the book began with the story of God wants a creating out of chaos and disorder tove and life and blessing and what the human embrace raw they want to discern and define toes and raw for themselves and in doing so because they don't have God's wisdom and they're doing it in out of self-preservation and self orientation they introduce into God's world raw and death and curse and then the book of Genesis ends with a long dramatic story about a family brothers and 1 sets of brothers what do they do in their minds it becomes good to do raw to their and so they do all the raw that they could possibly do and what does God bring out of their raw toes toes and life you guys I have a dear friend of mine who's a professor of Hebrew Bible at another school we both became Christians asked in church at the same time and then we nerd it out for far too long on the Bible and both became professors so anyway his phrase that burned itself in my memory now is the authors the biblical authors are literary ninjas and but haven't you got remember that movie Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon epics so it's just this movie about awesome samurai ninja warriors but but the whole thing is there they're almost magical they're almost superhuman in their abilities like they have these sword battles where they're like dancing on top to the cedar treaties and it's incredible and they're quick they're nimble they're subtle every move of every muscle in tendon is intentional as they move throughout the world that's exactly how sophisticated these authors are the beginning and ending of the book of Genesis are stories about humans doing evil and God reversing their evil to bring about toes and the creation of life are you with me the book of Genesis it's about salvation through faith in God who wants to bring about good and the life in the face of evil and death that's what the book of Genesis is about you guys it's precisely what is what's going on here and so that's how you walk away from this first part of the story of Yahweh in the family of Abraham is God's sign on the dotted line which means even when humans do great evil God will find a way to respond to it and bring out of their evil and raw and death to bring out goodness and life and you thought within the context of one family you see it now in the second part of movement - in the next big story which is right here Exodus 1 through 16 and this is the story Exodus 1 through 15 anybody book the book of Exodus and the first half tells the story of the Exodus who's the big bad guy in the story Pharaoh and so the family of Abraham is down in Egypt and look at look at the first words of the book of Exodus they just are so literary ninjas here's the names just to remind you of all the family members Joseph and all that generation died but the sons of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly and multiplied fruit be fruitful and multiply anybody the blessing yeah the blessing so you're watching the blessing that was given to all humanity that humanity forfeited it's now passed on through Abraham's family and now the Covenant that he would become a great nation is happening it's that blessing but so yeah hooray the land is full of them blessing all right dunt dunt dunt done instead of a serpent crawling into the garden who crawls into the story pharaoh king of egypt and did he know joseph he said to his people oh this is realize there's so many and they're more powerful than we are let's deal wisely let's be shrewd here or else they will multiply and in the event of war they could join those who hate us fight against us and leave the land what's the next 15 chapters going to be about of someone fighting against Pharaoh king of Egypt so that the Israelites can to go ahead will leave the land his nightmare is going to come true but not in the way that he anticipates right because who is it that's going to fight Pharaoh the Israelites they're not going to lift a finger they're going to as we're going to see they're going to take the posture of Abraham which is just trust believe and trust the one who is going to fight against them is going to be Yahweh the God of Israel and so begins this story this showdown Egypt becomes the next iteration of the Serpent and the seed of the serpent and those who who give in oh this is cool Genesis three people give in to the serpent it leads on the cascade of terrible stories leading to the foundation of the city of Babylon do you remember the building materials of Babylon what they made the city out of some odd little detail told to you in the story it was we're told that they used brick in the place of stone and tar instead of mortar in other words instead of just stacking rock to build walls and towers they mass-produced bricks you mass-produced these suckers and they're all the same size and you can make tons of them really fast and make your cities faster and stronger than anybody's ever seen before that's the random detail apparently I needed to know that detail yes you did because the literary ninjas are at work because what we're told just a few things once Pharaoh sets himself against the people of a family of Abraham first of all he appoints taskmasters over them slave labor so that they build for Pharaoh storage cities pipaam and roms days but it didn't work it didn't work and so the Egyptians enslaves them even more rigorously and made their lives bitter in the field with what with mortar and brick it's the family of Abraham enslaved to Pharaoh making cities of mortar and brick come now now where are they geographically in the storage where are they located in Egypt but in terms of the narrative what what kind of city are they building in Egypt the building with the materials of Babylon you get it this is how these narratives work they'll use key repeated words like blessing seed all the good evil they repeat key words at strategic connective moments in the stories and the mutton once you begin to track with the key words and themes you begin to make these connections this is what I call a narrative hyperlink like on a web page where you kick them the blue line and you click on it and then it takes you through to another web page that's where you're supposed to go to from there that's what this is when you read mortar and brick if you can do this like go look into concordance there are only two verses in the whole of ancient Hebrew literature where the words mortar and brick are used in the same sentence our USA here's one and the building of Babylon is the other one nothing unintentional here you're in presence of masters as they tell you these as they craft these narratives so Egypt is the new Babylon and Babylon was the sad result of the serpents evil and temptation and so now here's here's a fiat of the serpent on a level we have never met before this guy redefines evil as good so that slaughtering babies becomes the right thing to do be with me that's what's going on in the story here Pharaoh is presented to us as a new level of human raw that's embraced and given in to spiritual evil on a scale that we have not seen in the story of the Bible so far and so when God raises up a deliverer to confront Pharaoh what he says is that says this is Exodus chapter 5 thus says the Lord God of Israel famous line you've seen the movie maybe let my people go that they may celebrate a feast to me in the wilderness and Pharaoh says excuse me huh who who's the God of Israel I don't know him I'm certainly not going to do what the God of Israel says okay I'm Pharaoh I'm Pharaoh so the roots of Pharaoh's evil is that he won't acknowledge the God of Israel the Creator he won't acknowledge this God who brings order and beauty and life out of chaos and darkness he won't humble himself before that God he insists that he is the one who defines good and evil around here it is the Genesis 3 to 11 a story but it's like turnt with the volume turned up past 10 to 11 12 13 off the dot you broke your dial turning it up the evil meter yeah you guys tracking with me here that's the depiction of Pharaoh and so it's you go back and you read Genesis 3 to 11 now and you can see like oh that's what was going on there it didn't it didn't use the vocabulary of I don't acknowledge God but that's exactly what all of these stories were about and now here it is you have the big bad guy so Pharaoh takes off his gloves he's gonna he's ready to fistfight and so what does the God of Israel do God takes off his gloves and for those who insist when the stakes are this high who insist on playing hardball he's never metaphor with God God responds in turn and so begins the story of the of the ten plagues and so here's essentially what's going on in this story is that God wants to bring blessing you have another human who wants to create evil and death and so the whole showdown is once again well how is God going to bring goodness and life and blessing out of this horrible mess that the humans have made and here it was just subverting Jacobs stupidity and reor castrating event so that what Joseph's brothers do reverses on their plans and elevates Joseph to the place of leadership here humans have embraced evil to a degree that there's no work around God just has to end it right here and right now and so the intensity of the Exodus stories the ten please are very intense stories I have found personally in reading them and then in teaching them in many different contexts church and classroom the modern Western readers especially people who live in a more comfortable social situation have a difficult time reading the exodus narratives because it's hard for us to see God like with such aggression but what I've also noticed is when I have students or people around me who have grown up in extremely difficult violent social environments the story of the Exodus is good news for people who have grown up in violent neighborhoods are you with me here so we have to be very careful when we like begin to read a section of the Bible and we find it distasteful to us it probably isn't saying more about us and the blinders that we have on because of how you may have grown up than it does about the stories themselves anyway so that's more of an aside but it's important so we have 10 the 10 plagues here and I'll just look at it on the handout here so first of all the 10 plagues 10 acts of divine justice the cult of the culminating act of justice in the ten plagues the last plague is the death of the firstborn throughout Egypt which is in direct response and measure to Pharaoh slaughtering of the fur of the firstborn of the Israelites so the very thing that pharaoh did to the israelites becomes the thing that will bring pharaoh down ultimately but god provides something that pharaoh never provided the Israelites did Pharaoh ever say you know it may be an Israelite family pays me a hundred bucks nobody dies he never did that what God allows is a way of escape a way to find mercy as God brings his justice on the new Babylon that is Egypt and what is it it's the substitution of the Passover meal yeah Exodus 12 through 13 it's really interesting as you're reading through the ten plagues stories it is gripping it's really the narrative just driving and all these repetitions let my people go I won't do it darkness you know hail plague Pharaohs like no it's just so it's so intense and then you get and then right when the story becomes most exciting and what is going to happen you turn the page to Exodus 12 and it's two long chapters and the narrative just stops to a grinding halt and you feel like you're in the Book of Leviticus all of a sudden it's super detailed ritual legislation about how to throw a Passover meal for you and your neighbors it's Exodus 12 and 13 and the whole logic is that when God brings his justice on Egypt which is the new Babylon he's allows a way of escape he allow the way of escape and that way of escape is through the substitutionary death of the Passover lamb and so the blood of the lamb gets smeared on the doorpost of the house and when God's presence or angel passes over that's where the name comes from it passes over Egypt it will pass over and no raw or death comes to that house that house experiences goodness and life and blessing shielded by the blood of you guys come now right now it's not that I don't think the biblical author is looking into a crystal ball here and and like oh really it's these narratives are teaching us about how it is that God saves the world he saves the world and he's going to bring goodness and life and blessing but sometimes when evil rears its head God doesn't just work around it right or pull a fast one to turn evil into good like what he did with Joseph his brother sometimes evil needs to be destroyed and dealt with ultimately and that's what we're getting with here it's an image of justice and when God does bring the hammer however there's always a means of escape and that means of escape adversity is through the blood of a lamb and this story just fits here from this moment in the story these rituals descriptions in gen Exodus 12 and 13 are a guidebook for how you the reader are to celebrate this meal every single year in other words the moment from this point in the story forward this story wex yep okay I'm sorry I'm getting too excited too many things colliding in my head right now this story first of all I should have shown you this before I went to this story uses yes Exodus 66 this story where God tells Moses he's going to save the Israelites it's the first word this first time the word Redemption is used in the Bible redemption which in Hebrew is the word got all means to purchase freedom for a slave or someone in depth so someone's in slavery and to call them is to provide what's necessary so that they can be liberated into freedom the first time this story defines what biblical redemption is and so we get another word added to our list here key word redeem what God wants to do is provide what's necessary to redeem those who are enslaved to evil and death so that they can experience blessing what is the means of purchasing Redemption it's the passive Passover it's the blood of the Passover lamb it's that God at the same time that he wants to bring justice and so the life of the animal is taken as a symbol that God doesn't want to kill people what he wants to do is save people but if someone like Pharaoh doesn't want to be saved then they will get what they want which is destruction and death and God will give that to them in the form of divine justice but for those who look at the symbol of the lehem and see it as a symbol of God's mercy and redemption for them they are redeemed from evil and death by the blood of the Passover lamb but what else does the story mean that's what the story is trying to tell us and it's giving us all of the vocabulary in images that Jesus and the apostles are going to draw upon as they explain the significance in the story of Jesus so here this one's for free actually this whole morning for free I think reversible you but this just is one an example in 1st Corinthians chapter 5 first I'm going all the way to New Testament here Paul's dealing with a moral a problem a real big moral problem of sexual corruption in the Church of Corinth and what he tells them is you guys he uses the Passover as a metaphor to describe what kind of community they are and he says listen clean out the old leaven you take out the unleavened bread and Passover so that you can become a new lump listen listen this is 101 you guys Jesus is a Passover land right remember we take the bread in the cup every time we gather as a community right we center ourselves on the story of his life his death his resurrection for us and remember what the with the death of Jesus means and he just says the Passover story that's all he has to say and the reason he can just allude to it casually is because Christianity 101 and what appalls charges is spending a good amount of time immersed in the Scriptures learning about how they give you wisdom about salvation through faith in them aside I'm a broken record at this point right but that's clearly what Paul did in his churches because then you can just read through his letters and they're just littered with these little allusions to really profound theology about the atonement or about salvation but he uses the language of the Torah of these narratives in this case Passover am I making any sense right now okay good all right that was just it was a quiet moment so I use either a sinking in the way sunk in for me and blew my mind or you're falling asleep I just can't quite tell the difference so anyway okay back to it so the Passover lamb and then Redemption you get redemption through the blood of the Passover lamb and then you get the first appearance of the word salvation in the Bible after the tenth plague Pharaohs finally compelled to let the Israelites go free and so the Israelites go and they are wandering in the wilderness Pharaoh's heart hardens again towards the people of Israel he chases after them with all of his chariots and Israelites are freaking out they're frightened they cried out to the Lord oh no is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us out here to be killed by Pharaoh seriously Moses right so they're freaking out and you would be too and so what here's what Moses says don't fear pick up your sword we're going to go to war now he says what he says is don't be afraid stand here and do nothing so Joseph you have an army chasing you and you're trapped by a big body of water and your leader says don't do anything great advice okay finish the sentence do nothing because you're going to watch the salvation of the Lord that he will accomplish today the first time the word salvation is used in a narrative that shows you what this word means and what is the meaning of salvation when the embodiment of the Serpent's evil is chasing you down and all you see is the wake of destruction and death and dead babies write that Babylon and Egypt have created in the world what how do God's people resist you stand there and you amen you trust that God has the power to bring life and Toth and blessing even in the worst face of evil and death and curse and this my friends is what salvation means in the Torah salvation do you want to know the Hebrew word for salvation the word for salvation Hebrew is the word Yeshua it's the name of Jesus the name of Jesus Yeshua this will get translated into Greek or trance feld in Greek as a Zeus is Greek and then of course it comes into English as Jesus stand by and see God Yeshua for the Egyptians whom you will see you'll never going to see him again God's going to fight for you you just stand there and say nothing he says what's that oh yeah right here yep yeah so you stand here and do nothing because God's going to bring about salvation oh that's precisely what God does his ah his spirit he sends a spirit or wind to blow over the waters so that dry land can appear have I heard a story where there's waters covering the land and God sends a wind to part the waters the dry land can emerge we didn't talk about the spirit on page 1 of the Bible but remember this whole thing the Spirit of God is there and what happens the waters separate the waters gathered together and dry land appears Exodus 14 what God does is send a whoop sorry here we go stand here God's going to bring salvation used to stand here and do nothing so we're going on in the story Moses stretched out his hand and the Lord swept the sea back by a strong east wind sorry I'm throwing so much Hebrew at you the Hebrew word Ruach is the Hebrew word for wind it's also the Hebrew word for breasts coming in and out of your nostrils and that is the word the biblical authors used for God's Spirit so god's Ruach parts the waters to create land for Humanity to flourish that's what God doing this right here and then when God brings salvation he does it equally mind-blowing impossible feat by means of his spirit he parts the waters so that dry land can appear and instead of he managed instead of the Israelites just living on the dry land it becomes the means by which they pass through towards the promised land so good you guys the Torah so amazing holy cow okay that's that's the story okay good story so far hold man oh man okay all right now something's going to shift here we go so God saves his people redeeming them through the blood of the Lamb rescuing them from evil and death defeating evil and death and therefore providing the way forward into blessing for his people this is what we call the story of the Exodus and it just fits in seamlessly into everything that's been going up to this okay the moment that we leave Egypt something else starts it's going to be blue let's make it bigger it's a group of stories that that we call Exodus chapter 16 through 18 and just watch ah the last line of the story of the salvation story at the end of chapter 14 what's the response of the Israelites when they see God's Yeshua appear they feared the Lord and they did what Abraham did the word believes appears a small handful of times in the Torah and this is the second one you will saw the first one Abraham here's the second one the Israelites response to salvation faith salvation by faith is what just happened here that's a at the the shores of the Seas Exodus 14 so we go to Exodus 16 and they are now wandering out in what part of Egypt not the cities they're in they're in the wilderness the wilderness of scene it's between a leme and Sinai which is where they're on their way to on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure and the whole congregation of the sons of Israel continued to see song sing songs of praise and gratefulness to the God who saved them they grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness Oh oh if only we would have died by the Lord's hand in Egypt at least there we sat by pots of meat and ate bread to the fold well you brought us out here in this wilderness to kill us all with hunger I guess in what slight whiplash right let in the literally sentence ago they were singing the praises of God in Exodus 15 and then they get two weeks into the wilderness and game over they're like we're done with this you want to kill us what okay so this is I'm just going to put a sad face right here because that's chapter 16 and so what God provides for them is bread in the wilderness what's the name of the bread the name of the bread is what is it which in Hebrew is mana what is it what is it so what God provides for them is meat and bread then in Chapter 17 they are thirsty and so the people quarrel with Moses give us water so you get stories about angry grumbling over bread water and meat in the wilderness now let's just pause why is the seal on the beach next to the picture of the polar bear next to the picture of the why what's happening here so that the portrait of the people of Israel here what do you walk away with they're praising in one sentence the next story they're grumbling and quarreling are you so what are you supposed to think about these people do you feel good about them do you feel a little bit better than them you do that's the effect isn't it it's the effect of putting these stories next to each other why why do you feel better than them - the important question yeah you would like to think that if you saw what has happened in Egypt but if you got two weeks in the wilderness and ran out of food that you would continue to have what you would you would like to think that you would continue this pattern of believing and trusting but what we find is a story of people's face running dry metaphorically and literally they don't have any water right so their faith runs dry and you feel better than them because you're certain that you would do differently I'm sure you would do differently right do you see what's happening here very intentional so the the these stories are put next to each other in a way that the turn and the people's hearts is so jarring it's like the narrator wins you over to stand alongside God and Moses and be like these people in Grapes you know I would never behave like that would never never in a million years behave like that and then whatever you that was your morning reading in the Torah and you go on with your day and it was a great morning you know and whatever you do something nice for your roommate or something or your spouse and then just think um but then you know you get to work later in the day and you find out that somebody like didn't meet that deadline and you bark at them you get angry and you're really unkind and then you think about the flow of your day as you're eating dinner we're having your cup of tea and you're like oh oh oh yeah yeah I'd you get it you get what I'm talking about here yeah these narratives are by design try to lure you into thinking that you're morally superior to the characters and then as a story develops or there's its the sneak gut-punch right it's like the narrator put their arm around you and it's like look at these idiots they're so stupid you would never act like that would you no of course not so of course not near like yeah I never act like I said boom and then you do act like two days later and that's it so okay so that's one just on a very personal pastoral level whenever you see biblical characters acting in over-the-top ways of selfishness or ungratefulness and you feel superior to them be careful put on your peeled fat your armor because these narratives are holding up a mirror to you and I because the moment that I think that I'm incapable of this kind of moral whiplash and spiritual whiplash I'm I am I am truly self deceived if I think that I'm above this kind of behavior and so these narratives again they're not just informing us about things that happened a long time ago these narratives are trying to form you they're trying to mess with your mind and your heart and get you to see things about yourself and get you to see things about other people and get you to see things about the kind of world that we're living in and whether there's any hope for our world and whether there's any hope for you and because some days you blow it so so badly your Lexus there might be hope for other people but not for me and then that's a moment where you need to come back to Genesis 15 and be like you you actually in that moment might be poised best to receive salvation by faith that's what these stories are trying to teach you give you wisdom about okay my sermons over for the moment we move on the people wander through the wilderness grumbling the whole way round round round brass then they get to the foot of a very very important mountain what's the name of this mountain Mount Sinai okay so here we go sort of mountain drawing lightning some you know why okay Mount Sinai and this is where if you're reading through the Bible in a year you get here about late February or March and then you stop your you reduce my okay because this is where the laws the laws start you start with the first ten which are the famous ten yeah ten commandment and then come six hundred and three more ancient laws given by God said people of Israel and you're just hanging on for dear life so well what I want to ask the question is how does that huge block of laws out Maya and I fit into the story so far and into the stories that follow and once again it will be just like the photo mosaic once you start to ask that question you see the nose appear and you see the eye and you see the facial shape okay here's what's going to happen the stay at Mount Sinai is going to last one calendar year if you pay attention to the chronology it's going to last one calendar year and it's going to take up Exodus 19 through 40 the whole book of Leviticus and numbers chapters 1 through 10 so in terms of literary space literary real estate in the Torah is precious right expensive and a huge amount of it is invested in developing the people parked at Mount Sinai so whatever the message of the Torah is we know it's about God's purpose is to bring good and life and blessing despite humans embracing evil death and curse it's going to happen through the family of Abraham through the seed of the woman come through the seed of Abraham God signed his name to it on the covenant and he will not only work around evil he will defeat it dead kill it dead but always provide a way of redemption through the blood of the Lamb so that God's people can receive salvation by faith but God's people who are supposed to receive salvation by faith are also usually terribly ungrateful people who the moment they sing songs of praise about the gift of salvation are cursing their neighbor and being ungrateful to God then we get parked at the foot of Mount Sinai and here's the next big moment in the story that we're going to call this big story part 3 big story part 3 Exodus 19 is where they come to the foot of the mountain very important narratives moment here in the third month after the sons of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt on that day they came to the wilderness of Sinai they set out from Rafa deem came to Sinai and they camp in the wilderness there is real camped in front of the mountain Moses went up to God and the Lord called called to him from the mountain saying hey Moses say this to the sons of Israel the house of Jacob you yourself saw what I did to the Egyptian without a back reference to the back reference to the whoop the whooping the can of the can the Barrow p'n that resulted in him yep that that's what you saw what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagle's wings the beautiful metaphor to describe what happened at the Sea parting and now I've brought you to myself now then if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant then you shall be my own possession among all the peoples for all the earth is mine here I'm actually gonna this is crucially important moment and then in story I'm going to even cut and paste this here okay sorry one second right do you see how this sentence is structured here if and usually in census if you have a s following the if which is a condition you have a then and so we get the first then here let's break it down so we have an if we have as n and then we have an and then you shall be this and you shall be which means in terms of sentence structure that the word then isn't there explicitly but it's assumed you see that so it's a if then sentence with two results if this then two results and what's the if two if if you do what obey my voice keep my covenant now does God have a covenant with the family of Abraham so far well it's the one that he made with Abram but with the people standing there not yet it's a preview it's a it's what's about to happen so they're about to enter into a covenant ceremony this is the opening words the invitational words so I'm about to make a covenant with you if you obey and if you keep the terms of the Covenant here's what will result you will be you will show yourself to be my special possession listen all the Earth's is mine I can take anybody here but I'm picking the family of Abraham and picking you so you will show yourself as my unique people called out from among the nations if you obey and if you listen first thing and then so what will what will be the result of them being God's special possess people you will be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation and so here you go you guys this is this is big shebang right here a kingdom of priests what what two priests do what appreciative let's say you have a you have a deity usually priests represent gods or deities and you got priests and what does the priests do they stand between a god and people so who's the god it's Yahweh the God of Israel who is the collective priesthood your light who are the people oh sorry control-z thank goodness all the people's all nations so do you see what's happening here and what's the last thing we know about all the nations Genesis 3 to 11 they've made themselves God's enemies so here's here's where this story is going God wants to bless all of the rebellious Nations through the family of Abraham how we know I have something to do with the seed right at the seed of the woman who's going to crush evil at its source while being struck and crushed by evil in that victory and that's somehow connected to a kingdom of a priestly people who are going to be called to obey the terms of the Covenant and if they obey then they are going to mediate God's character this is the the righteousness the justice the generosity of God to all of the nations and that will be a form of blessing it will be the nations looking on and sin saying oh my gosh look at the way these people live as different kinds of humans look at what Moses says here's another key passage about the law this is in Deuteronomy chapter 4 Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 5 this is later on in the Torah but where he's talking about the same idea here Moses says look you guys I've taught you statutes judgments just as the Lord my God commanded me that you should do all this in the land you're entering to possess keeps the terms of the Covenant the laws do them for this is your wisdom your wisdom this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples your you stand as a unique priestly set apart redeemed same saved people of God and you are called now to respond to your salvation with a new call as a community to end its the 613 laws and there's a whole bunch of them we'll talk very briefly about the different types of laws but they're shaping the Israelites into a contrast an anti Babylon community well anti a counter Babylon better counter Babylon so it's they it's a community that behaves by the values given them by the God of Israel it is the values of the Exodus who looks on the poor and the widow and the immigrant and the slave and these are the people that are especially taken care of in the community of the Israelites out of the 613 laws nearly 80 of them have to do with the care of the immigrant widow and orphan in the midst of Israel you wanted to live in Israel if you were in an orphan in the ancient Near East trust me you would not want to live in Babylon but you would want to live in Israel you'd be taken care of and that's the laws are forming Israel into this counter Babylon so that the nations look on and say now there's some people who know how to discern good and evil there are people who live by the wisdom of God's instruction wisdom with you with me here do you see how this exactly what you need in the story the whole point of the story is for God to exist in partnership with humans ruling the world together but under God's wisdom and God's knowledge of good meeple and that's precisely is precisely what these laws represent it's God giving to ancient Israel what in their context was a new vision of good and evil and a new vision of communal existence to rule the promised land in a way that brings goodness and life and blessing instead of evil and death and curse like it did in Babylon do you see how this all connects together here so here's what we can say we can say this is all about let's use red here coming back to our covenant covenant language we're coming back to the nation's when Moses on a number of separate occasions when he talks about the purpose of all of these laws I'm just going to give you one example this is at the end of the Torah but again we're we're just reflecting on the purpose of all the laws given to Israel Moses says it shall be a few diligently obey remember those the opening words right here if you obey the terms of the Covenant if you diligently obey and be careful to do all these commands I'll set you high above all the nations and what will come upon you blessing and you know what blessings we live desk blessings won't just come upon you blessings will chase you down to overtake you if you obey blessed in the city blessed in the country blessed is your seed of your body blessed is the produce of your ground blessed blessing blessing blessing blessing yeah blessing blessing oh but you guys you guys if you don't if you if you choose to redefine good and evil on your own term if you don't obey if you reject the wisdom of God's instruction in the laws of the Torah what will you bring upon yourself and what will chase you down curse curse curse curse so Israel all of a sudden Israel stands both at Mount Sinai with the same exact choice that humanity did on pages 1 and 2 it's as if God has taken out of Babylon a unique people and is giving them another chance to do what humanity failed to do and they have God's salvation they have God's Redemption they have everything they well use they have everything you think they'll need to succeed and there you go so that's how the story starts is with God's people being given this choice and in Exodus 24 after they get the Ten come and mints here's how the people respond in Exodus 24 Moses came and told the first bit of laws to the people of Israel and the people answered with one voice and say by golly all the words the Lord has spoken we're going to do that we're going to do it and you chuckle to yourself because what are they going to go on to not do any of it any of it you guys in just a few chapters what are the first two commands of the Covenant no other God and no images to represent that God because you don't need images you are the image okay and then we get just a few chapters into the story Mount Sinai and we get a story Exodus 32 when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain the people assembled around Aaron and said you know can you make us a God who will go before us who knows what happened to Moses and Aaron says sure take off your gold ring the ears of your wives your sons your daughters bring it here and what do they make it makes a golden calf all right big sad face big sad face so they camp out at Mount Sinai the sad face after they're saved the sad face after they say yes to the Covenant and pretty much the whole story of them camping out at Mount Sinai is the more they sin God keeps giving them laws he gives them laws about new sacrificial lambs to cover over their sins and they say yes we wanted we need it and then they continue to send more and so the story many people we read the Torah and they see all the hundreds of laws and we think oh this is a law book the Old Testament is a book of law but do you see how that's so not getting what's going on here so the Torah is a story about the law and what it's telling you through the narrative is that the laws aren't changing the people what the people need is to be saved and God graciously does that but when he calls them to become fundamentally different kinds of humans which is what we really need by the Plott conflict here they're unable to do it you guys you guys they leave Mount Sinai at numbers chapter 10 they're here for one calendar year go to the first story for when they leave Mount Sinai remarkable first story they leave Mount Sinai with trumpets yay hooray here we go the cloud goes out before then leaving Mount Sinai we love God God loves us we're going to obey Numbers chapter 11 then the people became like those complaining of adversity before the Lord and the Lord heard it he was so over it so over these people go to chapter 2 verse 4 then the rabble among them had greedy desires and they wept and said all of only we had meat so we go out into the wilderness and what do the people start grumbling and complaining about meat meat we remember the fish that was free in Egypt oh right really I remember hearing about that so what does God provide for them again manna manna look at numbers chapter 12 then Miriam and Aaron speak against Moses now it's in the family the rebellion oh this is really bad bad road trip in the wilderness look at numbers chapter 13 hey let's send the spies into the land of Canaan you know this story they send the spies in and how many bring back a good report two and what tribe who are they Caleb who's from the tribe of Judah and Joshua at the son of Newton and all the other ten bring back a bad report and so here's what the people of Israel say the congregation lifted up their voice they wept and they grumbled oh that we died in Egypt you know what let's just go back to Egypt they reject the exodus itself go to numbers chapter 16 now a group of Levi's Korah Kohath de Phan they rose up together against Moses and begin to speak against Moses are you get it are you tired of this yet this is not over it's not over right numbers chapter 20 all the people of Israel came and they grumbled about water water oh um we had water in the wilderness okay you guys what's happening here the saved people immediately have no faith they receive for a year direct covenant wisdom from God in writing and they go right back out from that experience and what effect has it had on them zero no effect no effect do you see what's happening here in the store what's the story trying to tell you about the law is the law good or bad it's good the law if people follow it have the ability God's wisdom and instructions through the laws of the Torah has the potential if followed to form the counter Babylon to create a new and different kind of community that lives under God's blessing and goodness and life but the human condition is so so trapped in the web of evil and death and curse we actually it apparently is the case that humans are so turned inward on themselves they can't do it and so paradoxically the law that was supposed to bring Tove ends up bringing Raw on this Realty member if you obey the laws you'll experience blessing if you disobey the laws curse and so paradoxically the more law Israel receives the more curse they keep bringing down on themselves and that's how the rest of the Torah plays out through the wilderness stories by way there's seven rebellion grumbling stories right here arranged in a beautiful symmetry called the chiasm unbelievable anyway separate hi guys doing you guys with me okay we're going to make one more move one more move here that's a second excuse me that's the third and we're going to make one more move and to do this we are going to go to Deuteronomy chapter 30 let's actually start in chapter 29 I'm going to look here Deuteronomy 29 sorry once again oh I'm I'm sinking 31 okay no 30 I was right the first time okay Deuteronomy 30 so here's Moses the last book of the Torah Deuteronomy Moses is standing before the people who are about to go into the Promised Land he can't go in because he had his own downfall sitting with one of these stories so he's not going to go in but he's giving words of warning and wisdom to the people of Israel before they go into the land and how to you after 40 years with these people after they rejected the Exodus what do you think Moses's expectation is about how the people are going to do obeying the Covenant Deuteronomy 30 so it shall be when all of these things come upon you the blessing and the curse and you call them to mind in all of the nations where the Lord your God has banished you so they're about to go into what land the land promised Avram alright you're going to go in and we'll end and they're going to go in on the terms of this covenant that they made at Mount Sinai and Moses says you're going to go into the land and once you're booted out of the land and the curses have come up once you had a little time of blessing in the land and then you're going to get the boot from the land and the curses are upon you and by the way where is the place where they're going to be booted out of the Land Babylon yep so the curse is going to be land them Babylon don't forget that Babylon so it shall be when you call to mind however does that mean that Israel's evil and death and curse gets the last word does human evil and death and curse ever get the last word in this God's story no so when you call to mind all of this in in Babylon and when you return when you turn back to the Lord your God and obey Him with all of your heart and soul according to everything I command you today then the Lord will restore you from captivity and have compassion on you and will gather you from all the peoples very scattered you notice pause okay so what does God is there always a chance to turn this story around by what repentance repentance turning back to God but you guys what's the fundamental problem with these people they keep repenting of their repentance all right like that when when you repent and start obeying God with all your heart and soul but that's the problem the problem is that no matter what God does save them or give them written instructions on how to obey they don't do it we're at the paradox here of God's love and blessing means the obstinance and brokenness of the human heart and mind and that's the fundamental paradox something what how is God going to save people who ultimately don't want to be faced what has to happen and so okay you can repent and turn back to God but the problem is that you never laughs if you do it in the first place and Simotas knows this he's quite aware of this you spent 40 years with these people so look what he says even if you're outcast to the ends of the earth the Lord your God is going to bring you back when you obey Him he'll bring you back to this land you'll be fruitful and multiply there's the blessing language again and then here it is moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your seed in order to love the Lord your God with all of your hearts and with all of your soul so that you may live are you tracking with what's happening right here what ultimately is the problem is it just what way you need is better laws around here is that the real problem now what's the real problem all the way back to page three it's humans who don't trust God why Abraham we don't trust right we don't trust that God it's truly wise we don't trust the God's definition of good and evil is actually what's good for us we want to redefine good and evil and something has happened to the human heart and mind so it's as if the narrative shows we're like we're trapped we're unable to respond long-term to God's goodness and salvation and so Moses knows that the only way that that problem is going to get solved is what he calls the circumcision of the heart so that people can love God and obey okay so circumcise your heart that's a creative metaphor isn't it yeah so circumcision was the sign and symbol of the covenant with Abraham back here all the men Israelite men were to have the skin removed from that part of the male anatomy that is connected to being fruitful and multiplying the symbol of God's marking them as a people who are fruitful and multiply in as a result of God's covenant blessing and so Moses takes that removal of skin in their core covenant symbol and he says you know what really needs to be removed is something from the heart something needs to be removed and killed dead from the human heart if people are ever going to obey and experience experience blessing and when you experience blessing what's the result of that life do you see this here life obedience so the opposite of life is death the opposite of obedience is obviously I'm just going to say rebellion so look at where he goes in Deuteronomy 30 okay sorry let's put possible years 34 6 this right here it's in one of the last sections of the Torah it's Moses's view of the law it's Moses view that the law will only fulfill its purpose once you have people who are fundamentally transformed by God's power so that they can obey the law and become that blessing to the nations you see that's how the story works here God's not giving them the law so that they can be saved they were already saved that already happened he gives the law to saved people so that they can fulfill their mission among the nations which is to be the counter Babylon but it turns out the people that he's chosen are fundamentally flawed just like the rest of humanity and so the real root issue that began on page 3 Moses identifies here at the end of the Torah we need we need human hearts and minds that are fundamentally transformed how is that going to happen well Moses has circumcise your heart but I doubt that he means get a heart transplant literally you know how how do you circumcise your heart how does a human circumcise their heart can a human circumcise their heart notice the whole place it has to be something that's done to us from outside ourselves I need some resources to be given to me that I don't have in and of myself to actually love God and follow him that's what Moses is saying here so this is planting the seed of something right here Deuteronomy 30 verse 6 planting a seed that's only going to get developed in the future promises of the prophets let me show you Jeremiah he's watching the family of Israel going to be exile in Babylon and he wonders what God's going to do to ultimately fulfill this promise to circumcise the heart of his people and look at what he says Jeremiah 31:31 days are coming declares the Lord when I'm going to make a new covenant with the house of Judah and Israel it won't be like the Covenant I made with their fathers on the day I took them out of Egypt yeah they broke that covenant they broke that one even though I was like a husband to them here's the covenant I'm going to make with a house of Israel I'm going to put my torah inside them I'm going to write the Torah on their hearts and I'll be their God and there will be my people and when God takes the laws of the Covenant in in emblazoned it into the human heart and mind that when people won't I will be out of a job you won't need anybody to teach you about the Bible anymore because we're all going to be Bible nerds and just love to hear the instruction will of God personally through from God himself and we will do so as forgiving people who are entering the new thing that God has for us that's Jeremiah's vision it's God writing the Torah on the human heart Jeremiah had a buddy who was a prophet who got taken to Babylon his name's Siddiq EO here's how Ezekiel developed Moses is promised moreover I will give you a new heart and I will put a new spirit in you I'll take out your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh I will put my Ruach in you and make you obey the Torah so that you can live in the land and experience blessing and curse and life so this is a fourth is about the new covenant the new what the Old Testament is trying to get us to see is that what human beings need first and foremost is to be saved from the evil and death that we are participate in and are all a part of and contribute to and that what we need is to become new and different kinds of humans who can actually rule the world under God's wisdom the way God always intended and the way that that is going to happen is through the blood of the Passover land the defeat the victorious seed of the woman who's going to crush evil at its source as he himself is crushed just like that lamb that is killed becomes a means of life to others so first let's have salvation happen and then the New Covenant people who can love and obey God with their heart soul mind and strength is going to happen through the work of God's Spirit we haven't even looked at the New Testament yet you guys were you with me so when Jesus comes onto the scene and says when gene comes and he says things like this you guys I didn't come here to say Old Testament bad me good all right I didn't come here to set the old testament scriptures aside I'm here to fulfill them and then what does he go on to do what he goes on to do is offer his his new deeper vision of what a community who is truly transformed by God's wisdom looks like it's not just about murder it's about contempt and anger it's not just about lust it's about over the way that I use other people and objectify them for my personal desires it's not just about using and taking oath it's about the way that I manipulate your perception of me by lying and twisting truth it's not just about being a nice person it's about showing unmerited generosity to the people who hate me that's the kind of humans that mimic the saw are you with me Jesus it's about the Torah written on the heart and that's precisely what's happening then of course in Acts chapter 2 in Pentecost and when the Spirit comes and God comes to inhabit his new covenant people in the movement of Jesus and its friends it spreads out of Jerusalem to the nation and all of a sudden the Jesus Movement becomes a movement of people who find themselves energized the personal presence of the spirit and they're able to follow Jesus and to fulfill the purposes of God's covenant in ways that they in ways that God's people had never been able to up to that point and all of it all of it begin with the moment of the Cross and of the empty tomb the moment that Jesus took into himself the evil and the death of the curse he allowed it to destroy him and then he conquered it through the resurrection life and love and power of God amen you guys the torah's purpose is to give us wisdom for salvation through faith in the Messiah Jesus and Jesus said the Torah and the prophets are about his pointing to the meaning of they explained what his death means what his resurrection means and what the power coming on God's people through the spirit to send them out to the nation's to be a new and different kind of community in the world that's what there you go that's what this is about I've been talking for so long but I wanted to bring it down to a to a close right there ok can I just uh can I just show one bioproject video 5 minutes it's cartoons you're gonna love it not me talking head up here I can show you many videos this is our YouTube channel we've got tons of videos up here I love them all but we make one series called seen videos where we take themes and run them through the whole story of the Bible and there's this one we made on the law that I'm quite happy with and it will bring especially the themes of Mount Sinai and all this stuff together so let's just rock that and then we'll shut it down and they're actually totally glittered in certain familiar with the Ten Commandments in the Bible stuff we generally take a good advice don't don't feel out of your parents the list goes on and Moses is the first ten they're actually a total of 630 commands all given to ancient Israel found in the first five books of the Bible in Hebrew are called the tour now the word Torah is usually translated in English as the law because it has all of these laws in it as you read through them you under my supposed to obey some of these all of these and what's the purpose of the law well that translation is kind of confusing because while the Torah has laws in it the book itself it's fundamentally extorted about how God is creating new kinds of people who are fully able to love God and love up and when Jesus taught about the Torah he said that he was bringing that story to its fulfillment so walk me through the story and how it's fulfilled so the story begins with God creating humanity who rebelled and God chooses Abraham to bless all of the nations through his bank who end up in slavery down in Egypt and so God rescues them then at Mount Sinai God makes a covenant with Israel like an agreement and all of the laws that Moses gives to Israel are the terms of that agreement there like Constitution so some of the laws they're about rituals and customs that set Israel apart from the nation other laws are about social justice or morality and by following these Israel would show the other nations what God is like okay so the rest of the Torah is just a complete list of laws that Moses gives Israel know the rest of the Torah just continues the story and the 613 commands and even these have been broken up and placed at strategic points within the store now pay attention because you'll see a really clear pattern Moses gives the first laws to Israel it don't worship other gods don't make I and then right after that there's a story of Israel breaking those very long if they worship the golden calf and so Moses gives some more laws and then you get more stories of rebellion more laws rebellion against more laws more rebellion and you start to see the point right no matter how many laws they're just going to near to the Bell so the conclusion of the Taurus story Moses gives the final speech to Israel as they prepare to go into their new home and he tells them you guys I know that you're not going to follow all of God's laws you've proven to me that you're incapable and Moses says the problem is that the carts are hard and that they're going to need new transform parts that they're ever going to truly follow the law and he was right I mean the story goes on to recount Israel's total fail to go into the land they break all the law right now the next section of books in the Jewish tradition are the 15 books of the prophets and they reflect back on the story for example Ezekiel he said that his Israel was ever going to obey the law God's Spirit would have to transform their hard hearts into software and Jeremiah says past when obedience to God's command wouldn't feel like a duty but they would be written deep in their heart and Isaiah he promised a future leader Israel's Messiah who will lead all of the people in obedience to the law now in Jewish tradition all of these books together are called the prophets even the historical books because they're continuing the story told from the perspective of the prophets okay so we have the law in the prophets and they're telling one connected story about God's desire to bless the whole world through a people Israel who it turns out needs a new heart yes and Jesus saw himself as continuing that story so he agrees with the law and the prophets when he taught that it's out of the human heart that come the most ugly parts of human nature it's like the default setting of our hearts is opposed to God's law but Jesus also said that he came to solve that problem and in his words to fulfill the law so what does he mean there to fulfill the law well first he says that the demand of all of the laws in the Torah could be fulfilled by what he called the great commence that we are to love God so that seems pretty easy I mean we all want to love what we think we want but Jesus showed how love is far more demanding completely so he quotes the law do not murder and he says yes not killing someone great loving things to do but then he also says that when you treat someone with disrespect would you nurse resentment against them you're also violating God's moral ideal because you're not treating that person's love and so Jesus said true love ought to extend even to our own enemies so even though the command seems very simple Jesus shows how our hearts are not currently equipped to fulfill even basic command of God to love us that's kind of a demo but where Israel failed Jesus brought the story to a system as Israel Mossad he fully loved God and others and he showed all of the nations what God is truly love he did this through his acts of compassion and mercy and ultimately by loving his enemies even unto death and after his resurrection he told his followers that he would send God's Spirit to transform their hearts so the train could follow him and fulfill the purpose of the law to love God and to love their neighbor so this fulfills the story of the law and the prophets or is words would be Apostle Paul the one who loves fulfills the law so there you go I'm just going to close in a word prayer and then I'm happy to hang out and talk alright isn't this amazing dude the Torah is unbelievable and it's not just like our minds but it's like it's reading our mail you know and it's so the only appropriate thing to do is to talk to the author in my opinion father thank you for this incredible gift that you've given us in the scriptures thank you for Jesus thank you for the one who came to do what we cannot do for ourselves thank you for your love your covenant commitment the presence of your spirit that is saving that have saved is saving and ultimately will save us interworld we want to you old to your presence in your spirit we want to become new and different kinds of people who can show other people your true heart the Heart of Jesus Jesus go with us as your disciples today we want to love you and love our neighbor as our minds are full so our hearts we pray in the great name of the Risen Jesus amen a man's privilege to be with you guys go to peace [Applause]

Channel: Tim Mackie Archives

Views: 210,920

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Length: 105min 24sec (6324 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 14 2017