August 16, 2023 • 33 mins
Would you be willing to intercede for someone who's committed a grave sin? Today, we explore the fascinating narrative of Moses, who did exactly that for the people of Israel, following their idol worship. We dive into Moses' righteous indignation, his plea for forgiveness on behalf of the nation, and how this narrative ties to Jesus, our ultimate intercessor.
Have you ever wondered about God's promises and how they persist regardless of disobedience? Despite Israel's rebellion, God continues to uphold His unconditional promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, a promise reiterated throughout the Old Testament. We discuss the sobering repercussions of Israel's defiance and how God warned Moses that He might end up destroying them if He were to accompany them. It's a profound reminder of our unique privilege to join God on His mission. Tune in for an invigorating exploration of Biblical history and how it shapes our faith today.
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May God Bless you!! - Glenn and Steve
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Whenever we find ourselves in the midst of a
people that have committed agreat sin, then we may be
tempted to back away from that,but today we're going to meet a
man who steps right in themiddle in between them and God
and does an intercessory prayerappealing for their forgiveness,
and even puts himself on theline to try to appease a
(00:36):
wrathful God.
Hi, my name is Glenn and thisis Steve, and we are reasoning
through the Bible.
The person we're talking aboutis Moses.
Today we're going to see hisintercessory prayer for the
people of Israel who havecommitted the great sin of
worshiping an idol.
And, steve, that is a great sinand it created a tension in
between God and the people ofIsrael, and today we're going to
(00:58):
see that tension and we'regoing to see how Moses tries to
resolve that.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
It's an issue that we continue to see all throughout
the rest of the Old Testamentand even into the New Testament
idol worship going after othergods.
It's just something thatcontinues to haunt Israel.
As we go through the otherbooks and we see that it's still
here.
They're still thinking aboutthings that are happening back
in Egypt by the fact thatthey've created this golden calf
(01:25):
, which is a representation ofone of the gods from there.
It's just something reallyamazing to think about.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
So, if you have your Bibles, you might want to turn
to Exodus, chapter 32.
Today we're going to bestarting in verse 30.
And again, moses has justgotten quite angry and he has
broken the stone tablets thatGod wrote the Ten Commandments
on.
And he destroyed the idol,ground it to powder, burned it,
poured the ashes on water andmade them drink it.
(01:54):
A very bitter response fromMoses, and a very strong one,
and it needed to be strongbecause the sin was very strong.
And today we're going to seehow Moses steps in between God
and the people of Israel andappeals to God for their
forgiveness.
Let's go ahead and step in andstart reading it.
Steve, if you could read inExodus, starting at chapter 32,
(02:17):
verse 30, and read down to verse35.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
On the next day, moses said to the people you
yourselves have committed agreat sin and now I'm going up
to the Lord.
Perhaps I can make atonementfor your sin.
Then Moses returned to the Lordand said Alas, this people has
committed a great sin and theyhave made a God of gold for
themselves.
But now, if you will forgivetheir sin, and if not, please
(02:40):
blot me out from your book whichyou have written.
The Lord said to Moses Whoeverhas sinned against me, I will
blot him out of my book, but gonow, lead the people where I
told you.
Behold, my angel shall gobefore you.
Nevertheless, in the day when Ipunish, I will punish them for
their sin.
Then the Lord smote the peoplebecause of what they did with
(03:01):
the calf which Aaron had made.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
So Moses goes in and prays to God and asks God to
forgive Israel.
Moses seems determined tointercede for Israel, which I
find amazing because, again theprevious chapter, moses had
gotten quite angry and quitefull of righteous indignation at
the sin of these people.
So is it possible for a personto, on one hand, show very
(03:28):
strong righteous indignation ata great, great sin and then, in
the very next breath, intercedebetween them and God and say,
god, please forgive them andplease have compassion on these
people?
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Well, it's the character of Moses for him to do
that, and this won't be thefirst time that we see him put
in an intercessory prayer forthe people.
He's actually already done it afew verses before this.
He does it now and he's goingto do it in the next chapter
also.
Having the righteous anger issomething that comes up, but
(04:02):
more than often we as people wereally don't have the righteous
anger.
We end up having the wrong typeof anger.
But we see here Moses, we seehis compassion for the people
themselves.
He loves the people.
He loves what God has done forthem and what God is going to do
for them, and I think that'swhy we see him pleading for the
(04:23):
people on behalf of the people,and when he does it he also
invokes God's character andreputation, and we'll see that
in a little bit in chapter 34.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
And Steve, you brought up a great point.
Too often with us, we on onehand do something good, but then
, on the other hand, dosomething wrong.
The good part would be weshould have a righteous
indignation at great sin.
If there's us or somebodyaround us that has committed a
great evil, then we need to berepulsed by that and we should
(04:55):
have a righteous anger at that,especially if it's a great sin.
We should be emotional aboutthat.
We shouldn't take it lightly.
Great sin should be condemnedcategorically, categorically,
but at the same time, I think wedo things that are not good,
which is we take, then, thatrighteous anger and hold on to
it and condemn these peopleforever, even if they repent.
(05:18):
Or here we don't know exactlyhow much the people of Israel
had repented, because the textjust doesn't tell us, but
nevertheless we have in oneverse, moses breaking the stone
tablets and destroying the idol,but then in the next passages,
interceding for them and prayingto God please forgive these
people and include me in there,and I think that that is a great
(05:43):
, great lesson for us.
Who, over in the New Testament,is our great example of
interceding on behalf of sinfulpeople that oftentimes didn't
deserve it?
Who is our great example?
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Well, we see Jesus do it, and probably the most
ultimate example of whether heis on the cross.
And he said forgive them, Lord,for they know not what they do.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Right.
So Jesus is our greatintercessor and praise God that
he does.
Is it possible for us tointercede for people around us
to go to, like Moses did here,which was to God please forgive
them and please show your, yourkindness on them?
Can we do that to people aroundus that have even had great sin
(06:28):
?
Speaker 2 (06:29):
We can, and it's also a thing to note that Moses is
interceding directly to God.
We have the ability to do thatnow through Jesus Christ and his
sacrifice and resurrection.
We are told that we can nowboldly go before God.
The veil has been torn andtaken down so we can approach
(06:49):
him.
We don't need to go through anyother type of person or any
other type of saint.
We can go and intercededirectly to God ourselves.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
And again, it's just an appeal to God and we can.
We can appeal and make requestsof God.
God will deal with themaccording to their heart.
But we do have a compassion ofGod and, as we see here, moses
prayer is a factual and we'regoing to see even more
intercessory prayers.
We continue going through thesechapters Moving on here.
In verse 32, moses says thatGod will not.
(07:23):
If God will not forgive Israel,then quote, blot me out of your
book.
That's what it says in verse 32.
And then God responds by sayingwhoever has sinned against me,
I will blot him out of my book.
That just sort of brings somequestions, steve.
What is this book and what doyou have to do to get blotted
(07:43):
out of it?
Is this speaking to ourrelationship with God of all
people?
Or what exactly does this meanand how can we apply it?
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Well, first let's talk about this word sin.
The word sin here mainly meansmissing the mark.
It means that you're notfulfilling what God would want
you to do.
You've missed the mark, you'vefallen short this book here that
Moses has mentioned, andthere's several different books
that are mentioned in scripturealtogether.
(08:14):
So in this I don't think Mosesis speaking and talking about
his soul.
He's interceding on behalf ofthe people of Israel.
It's all in the same vein ofthat.
I think he's saying don't takeme out of whatever you're going
to do with Israel.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
So when he says, just make sure we're clear here.
When Moses says, don't blot meout of your book, and then God
responds with whoever sins, Iwill blot them out of my book,
does this mean that there arepeople that are in his book and,
when that would mean a rightrelationship with God, that when
(08:49):
they sin they now becomeseparated from God and lose
their salvation, so to speak?
So would this say that peoplein the Old Testament or new can
be saved and then lose theirsalvation?
Is that what this is saying?
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Well, to answer that, you'd have to know which book
that he's talking about.
And I don't think this is abook of life.
That talks about a book of lifeover in Revelation.
It talks about the land's bookof life that's not referenced
here.
It's just referenced as my bookand the context here is all in
relation to Israel going intothe Promised Land.
I don't think this is talkingabout salvation in this instance
(09:31):
here and I don't thinkScripture supports in other
places that you can lose yoursalvation.
There's other parts ofScripture that talks about that
once you're in God's hand, thatyou're there and he'll protect
you forever, and I don't thinkthat you can be blotted out of a
book once you have salvation.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
So I would agree.
I would say a few things aboutthat passage.
First of all, I don't I seenothing in this chapter that's
talking about personal salvation.
It's just not the context ofthe verse.
And what we don't do is take averse that's a little bit
questionable and then apply itto a doctrine when we're not
(10:14):
even really sure.
Things like again, which bookis this really?
And etc.
Etc.
So I think it's a grave mistaketo take a passage like this and
place it in the midst of sometheological point, when the
passage doesn't clearly say thatwe don't take the, the unclear
(10:35):
passages and try to apply amajor doctrine to it.
That's the first point.
Is there's nothing in thecontext of the chapter that's
talking about salvation.
Next, it very well as you justsaid, steve, very well could be
and appears to be, talking aboutGod's plan for Israel as a
(10:56):
country, as a nation, not aindividual person who is in a in
a relationship with God or not,and by that I would support
that this way.
You mentioned that there aremore than one book mentioned in
the Bible, specifically Malachi,chapter three, verse 16
(11:18):
mentions a book of remembrance.
A book of remembrance, not abook of salvation, it's just a
book of things that Godremembers.
It could be that this meansthat book again, we're not sure
but it could be that this meansthat book where, okay, I'm going
to account for this or I'm notgoing to account for that, and
(11:39):
it could be that God is merelysaying he ascends, I'm going to
take him out of my book ofremembering righteousness.
It's just not really clearexactly what book it is and what
it means when it says blot themout of my book.
As far as the whole question oflosing your salvation, we'll
get into that at some point, butI'll just throw out first.
(12:00):
John 5 specifically talks aboutI have written these things so
that you may know that you haveeternal life.
If it's eternal and you canknow that you have it, then you
can't lose it.
That's a whole nother doctrinefor a whole nother day, but I
just wanted to bring it up herebecause it says blot me out of
(12:21):
its book.
The passage seems to be talkingmore about what's going on in
the chapter in the book.
He's moving Israel out of thisnation of Egypt and moving them
to the land of flowing with milkand honey.
He's merely saying God, don'ttake me out of your plan and
I've prayed that.
I had no qualms that I wasgoing to lose my salvation, but
(12:45):
I had prayed to God and say, god, don't leave me out of your
plan.
You're doing this great workhere.
I want to be part of that.
Don't leave me out of that.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
And I think that's what he's talking about the last
thing on this, as well, as whenyou look at the verse itself,
it's very clear verse 32,.
But now, if you will forgivetheir sin, the there is the
nation of Israel, and if youdon't forgive their sin, please
block me out from your book.
So this is very clearly talkingabout the nation.
(13:16):
The plea is hey, forgive thenation's sin of what they've
done, and if you don't, thentreat me it as a substitute for
the nation.
So again, there's nothing there, an individual in this part
other than Moses sayingsubstitute me for the nation.
I just don't see anythinghaving to do with individual
(13:38):
salvation one way or anotherhere.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Correct.
Correct and I would agree 100%.
So, moving on, at the end ofverse 34 says in the day when I
punish, I will punish them fortheir sin.
That's what it says at the endof 34.
We can know some things here.
It means that there will be aday when God punishes sinners I
(14:00):
mean that's a surety and whenthere will be a day when God
punishes sinners and if we sin?
Here's a question if we sin andGod does not immediately punish
us in this lifetime, does thatmean that you never will?
That I've gotten away with it.
You know there's people runningaround the countryside that sin
every day and, okay, I don'tsee God, you know, dropping an
(14:24):
anvil on me or anything likethat.
Have they gotten away with it?
Speaker 2 (14:27):
No, I mean, besides this verse here that we're
talking about, when God says inthe day I'll punish them, there
is going to be some part ofpunishment or judgment on there
for this, with the land thatthey're going into.
Whenever the promise was givento Abraham, he said your
generation is going to go offand be in slave for 400 years
because the iniquities of theAmorite have not come to
(14:50):
fulfillment.
For 400 years God has beenpatient, letting the people,
giving them a chance to come tohim.
So in that case just that oneinstance there's a 400 year wait
, but yet it did come to themand God used the nation of
Israel as part of their judgmentto drive them out from the land
(15:11):
.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
If you look at the end of verse 34, he says in the
day when I punish, I will punishthem for their sins.
What he doesn't say there iswhen that day is or how much
time he's going to give us torepent, but what is sure is that
day is coming.
There will be a day when peoplehave to account for their sin,
(15:35):
and that's a day that we don'twant to face.
There's good news, though.
What's the good news Over theNew Testament?
There's a guy who took our sinfor us, and that God is gracious
.
And if we will, then, but askGod and appeal to God to have
Jesus pay for our sins andforgive us of ours, then he will
, because he's a gracious God.
(15:55):
He is, at the same time, a Godthat will not forget sin and
will not leave sin unpunished,but, at the same time, is
provided a way out, and that'sthe good news.
So, moving on, in chapter 33,we then have the next part,
where the people end up havingto go back to dealing with God.
(16:15):
So let's go ahead and read that.
Steve.
If you could read chapter 33,the first six verses.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Then the Lord spoke to Moses depart, go up from here
, you and the people whom youhave brought from the land of
Egypt to the land of which Iswore to Abraham, isaac and
Jacob, saying to yourdescendants I will give it, I
will send an angel before youand I will drive out the
Canaanite, the Amorite, theHittite, the Praerite, the
Hivite and the Jebusite.
(16:42):
Go up to a land flowing withmilk and honey, for I will not
go up in your midst because youare an obstinate people and I
might destroy you on the way.
When the people heard this sadword, they went into mourning
and none of them put on hisornaments.
For the Lord had said to MosesSay to the sons of Israel you
(17:02):
are an obstinate people.
Should I go up in your midstfor one moment, I would destroy
you Now.
Therefore, put off yourornaments from you, that I may
know what I shall do with you.
For the sons of Israel strippedthemselves of their ornaments
from Mount Horib onward.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
So we have this session here where God is again
dealing with the people ofIsrael and in verse one God
tells them Now depart and go upfrom here.
So God is now sending them tothe promised land and he repeats
again this is the land flowingwith milk and honey.
He repeats a promise in versesone and two.
(17:40):
What is the promise?
If we look at verse one and two, he's very specific.
What's Steve?
What's the promise that he isrepeating here?
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Well, he's repeating to them that to go into the land
that he promised and swore toAbraham Isaac and Jacob.
So he reconfirms that onceagain here in this section, and
he's always very specific it'sAbraham Isaac and Jacob, Jacob
being Israel, it's always thatline that this land was promised
to look again at the end ofverse one the land which I swore
(18:12):
to Abraham Isaac and Jacob, toyour descendants I will give it.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
So he's God is is repeating this promise and
saying I'm sending you now tothat land that I promised
hundreds of years ago to yourforefathers.
Now I'm fulfilling this, andthis is a promise that is
repeated many times.
We had a separate session onthe Abrahamic covenant where we
(18:40):
listed off many of them, but itgoes on throughout the Old
Testament.
The people of Israel willforever be associated with that
land and the promise here againis it's an unconditional promise
God saying the land that Iswore to give to them, we hold
(19:01):
that.
This is still in place.
And again, where is this in thebook?
What just happened in theprevious chapter?
That was a major mistake onIsrael's part.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Well as God puts it.
They went off and played theharlot.
They went off and worshipedanother God.
And not only did they went offand worship another God, but
they created an idol and theyattributed to that idol, that
God that they're worshiping,that there was that God that
brought them out of the land ofEgypt.
It's, it's, like insult on topof insult.
(19:35):
It's like the pinnacle of theworst thing that they could do
to show their thanks andappreciation to God.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
So if the Abrahamic covenant, the land promise and
the Abrahamic covenant wasdependent on Israel's obedience,
they just disobeyed.
In fact, we're hard pressed tofind too many places where they
ever did obey.
I mean, throughout thescriptures we have Israel
disobeying time after time aftertime.
(20:02):
And what does he say here Again, in verse one the land which I
swore to give to Abraham, isaacand Jacob.
So he is fulfilling hisunconditional promise to the
forefathers of the nation ofIsrael.
And the reason we point thisout is just because scripture
mentions it so many times.
(20:23):
How many people make thismistake that there was a
conditional promise to Abraham?
And no, it was not dependent onIsrael's obedience, or here he
would have taken it away.
He's saying, ok, go, I swore togive you this land and I'm
going to do it.
But that's what he's sayinghere.
What did Israel just do?
They disobeyed and worship theidol.
And there's systems of theologythat teach us, steve, that God
(20:48):
is finished with Israel.
And they say that because ofIsrael's disobedience they
rejected God.
Here they rejected the Messiah,at least as a nation.
But yet is there anywhere whereGod says that the Abrahamic
covenant is conditioned onIsrael's faith and obedience?
Speaker 2 (21:08):
No, nowhere, and it's also used the word several
times forever.
Part of the theology that youmentioned says that the well,
the church was a mystery.
Part of that mystery of thechurch is that now the church,
the believers in Jesus Christ inthis age, has replaced Israel,
(21:28):
and there's nowhere in scripturethat it ever says that.
And forever means forever.
So it doesn't make logicalsense just on the surface to say
that, oh, because the churchwas a mystery and not
particularly mentioned in theOld Testament they're.
Therefore the mystery isincludes the church becoming
(21:50):
Israel or fulfilling thepromises of Israel is just, is
just wrong in my opinion.
Forever means forever, forever.
And we also have otherscriptures in the New Testament
as well that confirms that thereis going to be a gathering
together of Israel, that they'regoing to come back into the
land that God has promised withthem and Jesus is going to rule
(22:14):
on David's kingdom or David'sthrone for 1000 years.
And I know that that goesagainst the grain of this
theology, but that's whatscripture says and it's very
clear that that's what scripturesays.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Now just to remind our listeners of the sequence
Abraham lived way back inGenesis, starting at verse 12,
and God made this promise toAbraham way back there.
Hundreds of years go by andthen Moses lives.
So there was a covenant withAbraham way back in Genesis, and
way up here in Exodus is theMosaic covenant.
(22:49):
The Mosaic covenant was indeedconditional and there were some
benefits if they obeyed and somepunishments if they disobeyed.
But Paul makes a very clearpoint over in Galatians, chapter
three, verse 17.
He says, quote the law whichcame 430 years later, law of
(23:12):
Moses, does not invalidate acovenant previously ratified by
God so as to nullify the promise.
So what he's saying there isthat the law came 430 years
after the covenant with Abrahamthat God ratified.
He's saying the law didn'tnullify the previous one that
(23:32):
came earlier.
And over in Romans, chapterfour, paul makes a strong point.
Most of the whole chapter ofRomans four says our faith is
built upon the Abrahamiccovenant, not the Mosaic
covenant.
It's Abraham that believe God.
So we always mention thissimply because there's so many
people that miss it.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
One other point of clarification is is that it's
also misrepresented because of aview that we have that Israel
has still going to have all ofthese promises, that the
misrepresentation is.
Oh well, then you believe thatthere's two ways of salvation,
that Israel has their own way ofsalvation and that the church
has their own way of salvation.
That's not what we hold to.
(24:12):
We've mentioned that before.
There is only one way ofsalvation, which is through
Jesus Christ.
That's how everybody hassalvation, and eternal life is
through him.
Just because Israel's landpromises are, we feel they're
still going to be fulfilled,doesn't mean that they have a
different type of salvation.
It's all still comes throughJesus Christ in his death,
(24:37):
burial and resurrection.
So how many ways of salvation?
Speaker 1 (24:40):
is there One, only one, only one.
We have to keep saying that.
We have to keep saying only oneway of salvation by grace,
through faith.
So, moving on at the now, whatwe do see here in this passage
is that there's now thisstrained relationship.
God is using language here thatshows he's a little bit
(25:02):
distance now from Israel.
He's still fulfilling hiscovenant, his promise that he
made.
But look at the end of, or atleast the middle of, verse one.
He says God still tells Mosesthe people that you brought up
from the land of Egypt.
And he's saying the people, notmy people and which you brought
(25:23):
, not that I brought.
Again, many times in here Godmade a specific point to saying
I, these are my people that Ibrought out of Egypt.
And now he's saying to Mosesthe people that you brought.
So the language here is showingthis strained relationship.
I submit, steve, we don't loseour salvation.
(25:44):
We don't even have a doubt thatGod's ever going to fulfill his
covenant.
But what we can do is have aplace where, ok, god's people
have now out of fellowship withthem and there's some benefits
and some blessings that they'renot going to get.
That's what we see, wouldn'tyou agree?
Speaker 2 (26:02):
If God is going to break this covenant that he made
with Abraham, then what?
What confidence do we have inthe new covenant?
So it just again continues toconfirm and reconfirm what we,
what we're talking about.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
So now in verse two, god again says that he will send
out the Canaanites from theland.
This is the third time in thebook of Exodus that God has told
Israel he will send out theCanaanites and drive them from
the land.
So this is the third time.
Do you think that's enough towhere Israel should have gotten
(26:37):
the point that they could trustGod to send out the Canaanites?
Should they have trusted Godlater when they doubted God?
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Yes, they should have , and while God many times talks
about them being an obstinateor stiff neck people, I think he
should also include on it ashort memory people that they
have a very short memory,because that's what it takes as
this continual repetition ofwhat God's going to do, and the
people still fall short of that,and that's with us as well.
(27:10):
We see multiple times throughscripture that talks about how
faithful God is, differentsituations, and yet we tend to
forget ourselves.
Comes back to being humannature.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Now look at the end of verse three.
What does God say would happenif he were with them as they
went on the way?
They're talking here, Moses andGod is talking about whether or
not God's going to be with themon the way while they're going
to the promiscene.
What does God say at the end ofverse three might happen if God
were there, present with themon the way.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Well, what he's talking about is that he might
destroy them.
He mentions that there are sucha stiff neck people that they
will stir his anger to the pointwhere he will destroy them.
Therefore, he's going to sendan angel, but he's not going to
be present with them, like hehas been with the pillar of fire
and smoke, as they go into thepromised land.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
The message here is very clear God is holy, he's
pure, he's all powerful.
He will not, cannot toleratesin in his presence.
And he calls them obstinate, orsome of the translations say
stiff neck.
These are people that will notyield.
They're people that God didn'tpick them because of
(28:27):
foreknowledge of their faith andbelief, because all they did
was disobey and unbelief.
What he's saying here is thatif I were with you, all of your
sin I would be forced to judgeyou.
He says so I'm going todistance myself.
That's why God is not herebefore us is because we're in
the same boat.
We're such an obstinate, sinfulpeople that's the message of
(28:49):
scripture is that God is so holy, he's so pure, he's so all
powerful that he cannot be near.
He separates himself from sin.
The reason why we can't reachout and touch God on a physical
level is because he is holy andmore sinful.
Now, in verse four and five, hementions taking off their
(29:11):
ornaments or their jewelry.
What's the point there withthat, steve?
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Well, he gives that to him as an indication on where
they stand with God.
If you're sad and mourningbecause I'm not going to go with
you, as a symbol of that, takeoff your jewelry that you have.
This is the jewelry that theyhad that they have been given
when they came out of the landof Egypt.
Some of that jewelry they willgive to make the tabernacle and
(29:36):
the instruments, but it was asymbol.
I'm willing to take off thisjewelry that I'm wearing in a
way to show you where I stand.
We want you to go with us.
We're disappointed that you'renot going to go with us here.
I'm taking off my jewelry andornaments in order to show you
how we feel.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
So this was jewelry, If you remember.
What did they use to make thegolden calf with?
Speaker 2 (30:01):
the same type of jewelry and ornaments.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
Right.
Remember Aaron said take offyour earrings and things.
So these earrings were thingsin.
This jewelry came out of Egyptand it very well may have had
pagan symbols on it and they hadjust used it to create this
idol.
So God says get rid of all ofthat what it calls ornaments, or
these jewelry and these thingsyou'd put on your clothes and
(30:24):
things like that.
So God is saying remove all ofthat from you.
This jewelry could have verypossibly had pagan symbols on it
.
Taking this off what it callsornaments not only shows a
separation from these paganthings and not using it to bless
God with, but it also shows asymbol of sadness and mourning,
(30:45):
not having a reason to be joyfulIf you think about it, if you
take off ornaments.
Ornaments are there fordecoration, to make things look
beautiful, and God is sayingtake away all the beauty because
this is ugly.
Now there's no reason to dressup nice because there's been so
much sin and ugliness that we'regoing to take that away and
(31:07):
you're going to be in mourning.
Now.
God takes sin very seriously.
God takes sin very, veryseriously.
Any last comments about that,steve, before we go?
Speaker 2 (31:14):
I do want to mention that when God says I'm not going
to go with you lest I end updestroying you, it's also where,
just before God had said thatto Moses, they have committed
such a great sin, I'm going towipe them out.
I'm going to start over withyou.
We saw that Moses intercededfor them, but there's other ways
in order to destroy them.
(31:35):
Later we see that they falterin going into the new land.
And how does he destroy them?
He destroys a whole generationby just having them wander for
40 years until they die off.
This thought here of destroyingthem can happen in several
different ways.
That's one way that God chosewandering for 40 years till that
(31:55):
generation died off, so thatthe younger generation actually
received the benefits of goinginto the land.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
And we should take lessons like this very seriously
because, just like way backthen, god says I don't
necessarily have to have you tofulfill my promise.
Same as us, god doesn'tnecessarily have to have me and
he doesn't necessarily have tohave you to fulfill his promise.
He is sovereign and allpowerful and we should want to
(32:25):
be part of God's program becausewe love him and it's a blessing
to be part of that, but weshould never get the idea that
God has to have me.
No, sorry, but we get theprivilege of going with him.
So we're going to tie that up.
For today we are at a goodstopping point and next time
(32:45):
we're going to still bereasoning through the Bible when
we get to more of Moses and hisintercession for the people of
Israel, and we trust that you'llbe back here with us to do that
.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Thank you for watching and listening and may
God bless you.
Whenever we find ourselves in the midst of a
people that have committed agreat sin, then we may be
tempted to back away from that,but today we're going to meet a
man who steps right in themiddle in between them and God
and does an intercessory prayerappealing for their forgiveness,
and even puts himself on theline to try to appease a
(00:36):
wrathful God.
Hi, my name is Glenn and thisis Steve, and we are reasoning
through the Bible.
The person we're talking aboutis Moses.
Today we're going to see hisintercessory prayer for the
people of Israel who havecommitted the great sin of
worshiping an idol.
And, steve, that is a great sinand it created a tension in
between God and the people ofIsrael, and today we're going to
(00:58):
see that tension and we'regoing to see how Moses tries to
resolve that.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
It's an issue that we continue to see all throughout
the rest of the Old Testamentand even into the New Testament
idol worship going after othergods.
It's just something thatcontinues to haunt Israel.
As we go through the otherbooks and we see that it's still
here.
They're still thinking aboutthings that are happening back
in Egypt by the fact thatthey've created this golden calf
(01:25):
, which is a representation ofone of the gods from there.
It's just something reallyamazing to think about.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
So, if you have your Bibles, you might want to turn
to Exodus, chapter 32.
Today we're going to bestarting in verse 30.
And again, moses has justgotten quite angry and he has
broken the stone tablets thatGod wrote the Ten Commandments
on.
And he destroyed the idol,ground it to powder, burned it,
poured the ashes on water andmade them drink it.
(01:54):
A very bitter response fromMoses, and a very strong one,
and it needed to be strongbecause the sin was very strong.
And today we're going to seehow Moses steps in between God
and the people of Israel andappeals to God for their
forgiveness.
Let's go ahead and step in andstart reading it.
Steve, if you could read inExodus, starting at chapter 32,
(02:17):
verse 30, and read down to verse35.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
On the next day, moses said to the people you
yourselves have committed agreat sin and now I'm going up
to the Lord.
Perhaps I can make atonementfor your sin.
Then Moses returned to the Lordand said Alas, this people has
committed a great sin and theyhave made a God of gold for
themselves.
But now, if you will forgivetheir sin, and if not, please
(02:40):
blot me out from your book whichyou have written.
The Lord said to Moses Whoeverhas sinned against me, I will
blot him out of my book, but gonow, lead the people where I
told you.
Behold, my angel shall gobefore you.
Nevertheless, in the day when Ipunish, I will punish them for
their sin.
Then the Lord smote the peoplebecause of what they did with
(03:01):
the calf which Aaron had made.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
So Moses goes in and prays to God and asks God to
forgive Israel.
Moses seems determined tointercede for Israel, which I
find amazing because, again theprevious chapter, moses had
gotten quite angry and quitefull of righteous indignation at
the sin of these people.
So is it possible for a personto, on one hand, show very
(03:28):
strong righteous indignation ata great, great sin and then, in
the very next breath, intercedebetween them and God and say,
god, please forgive them andplease have compassion on these
people?
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Well, it's the character of Moses for him to do
that, and this won't be thefirst time that we see him put
in an intercessory prayer forthe people.
He's actually already done it afew verses before this.
He does it now and he's goingto do it in the next chapter
also.
Having the righteous anger issomething that comes up, but
(04:02):
more than often we as people wereally don't have the righteous
anger.
We end up having the wrong typeof anger.
But we see here Moses, we seehis compassion for the people
themselves.
He loves the people.
He loves what God has done forthem and what God is going to do
for them, and I think that'swhy we see him pleading for the
(04:23):
people on behalf of the people,and when he does it he also
invokes God's character andreputation, and we'll see that
in a little bit in chapter 34.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
And Steve, you brought up a great point.
Too often with us, we on onehand do something good, but then
, on the other hand, dosomething wrong.
The good part would be weshould have a righteous
indignation at great sin.
If there's us or somebodyaround us that has committed a
great evil, then we need to berepulsed by that and we should
(04:55):
have a righteous anger at that,especially if it's a great sin.
We should be emotional aboutthat.
We shouldn't take it lightly.
Great sin should be condemnedcategorically, categorically,
but at the same time, I think wedo things that are not good,
which is we take, then, thatrighteous anger and hold on to
it and condemn these peopleforever, even if they repent.
(05:18):
Or here we don't know exactlyhow much the people of Israel
had repented, because the textjust doesn't tell us, but
nevertheless we have in oneverse, moses breaking the stone
tablets and destroying the idol,but then in the next passages,
interceding for them and prayingto God please forgive these
people and include me in there,and I think that that is a great
(05:43):
, great lesson for us.
Who, over in the New Testament,is our great example of
interceding on behalf of sinfulpeople that oftentimes didn't
deserve it?
Who is our great example?
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Well, we see Jesus do it, and probably the most
ultimate example of whether heis on the cross.
And he said forgive them, Lord,for they know not what they do.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Right.
So Jesus is our greatintercessor and praise God that
he does.
Is it possible for us tointercede for people around us
to go to, like Moses did here,which was to God please forgive
them and please show your, yourkindness on them?
Can we do that to people aroundus that have even had great sin
(06:28):
?
Speaker 2 (06:29):
We can, and it's also a thing to note that Moses is
interceding directly to God.
We have the ability to do thatnow through Jesus Christ and his
sacrifice and resurrection.
We are told that we can nowboldly go before God.
The veil has been torn andtaken down so we can approach
(06:49):
him.
We don't need to go through anyother type of person or any
other type of saint.
We can go and intercededirectly to God ourselves.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
And again, it's just an appeal to God and we can.
We can appeal and make requestsof God.
God will deal with themaccording to their heart.
But we do have a compassion ofGod and, as we see here, moses
prayer is a factual and we'regoing to see even more
intercessory prayers.
We continue going through thesechapters Moving on here.
In verse 32, moses says thatGod will not.
(07:23):
If God will not forgive Israel,then quote, blot me out of your
book.
That's what it says in verse 32.
And then God responds by sayingwhoever has sinned against me,
I will blot him out of my book.
That just sort of brings somequestions, steve.
What is this book and what doyou have to do to get blotted
(07:43):
out of it?
Is this speaking to ourrelationship with God of all
people?
Or what exactly does this meanand how can we apply it?
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Well, first let's talk about this word sin.
The word sin here mainly meansmissing the mark.
It means that you're notfulfilling what God would want
you to do.
You've missed the mark, you'vefallen short this book here that
Moses has mentioned, andthere's several different books
that are mentioned in scripturealtogether.
(08:14):
So in this I don't think Mosesis speaking and talking about
his soul.
He's interceding on behalf ofthe people of Israel.
It's all in the same vein ofthat.
I think he's saying don't takeme out of whatever you're going
to do with Israel.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
So when he says, just make sure we're clear here.
When Moses says, don't blot meout of your book, and then God
responds with whoever sins, Iwill blot them out of my book,
does this mean that there arepeople that are in his book and,
when that would mean a rightrelationship with God, that when
(08:49):
they sin they now becomeseparated from God and lose
their salvation, so to speak?
So would this say that peoplein the Old Testament or new can
be saved and then lose theirsalvation?
Is that what this is saying?
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Well, to answer that, you'd have to know which book
that he's talking about.
And I don't think this is abook of life.
That talks about a book of lifeover in Revelation.
It talks about the land's bookof life that's not referenced
here.
It's just referenced as my bookand the context here is all in
relation to Israel going intothe Promised Land.
I don't think this is talkingabout salvation in this instance
(09:31):
here and I don't thinkScripture supports in other
places that you can lose yoursalvation.
There's other parts ofScripture that talks about that
once you're in God's hand, thatyou're there and he'll protect
you forever, and I don't thinkthat you can be blotted out of a
book once you have salvation.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
So I would agree.
I would say a few things aboutthat passage.
First of all, I don't I seenothing in this chapter that's
talking about personal salvation.
It's just not the context ofthe verse.
And what we don't do is take averse that's a little bit
questionable and then apply itto a doctrine when we're not
(10:14):
even really sure.
Things like again, which bookis this really?
And etc.
Etc.
So I think it's a grave mistaketo take a passage like this and
place it in the midst of sometheological point, when the
passage doesn't clearly say thatwe don't take the, the unclear
(10:35):
passages and try to apply amajor doctrine to it.
That's the first point.
Is there's nothing in thecontext of the chapter that's
talking about salvation.
Next, it very well as you justsaid, steve, very well could be
and appears to be, talking aboutGod's plan for Israel as a
(10:56):
country, as a nation, not aindividual person who is in a in
a relationship with God or not,and by that I would support
that this way.
You mentioned that there aremore than one book mentioned in
the Bible, specifically Malachi,chapter three, verse 16
(11:18):
mentions a book of remembrance.
A book of remembrance, not abook of salvation, it's just a
book of things that Godremembers.
It could be that this meansthat book again, we're not sure
but it could be that this meansthat book where, okay, I'm going
to account for this or I'm notgoing to account for that, and
(11:39):
it could be that God is merelysaying he ascends, I'm going to
take him out of my book ofremembering righteousness.
It's just not really clearexactly what book it is and what
it means when it says blot themout of my book.
As far as the whole question oflosing your salvation, we'll
get into that at some point, butI'll just throw out first.
(12:00):
John 5 specifically talks aboutI have written these things so
that you may know that you haveeternal life.
If it's eternal and you canknow that you have it, then you
can't lose it.
That's a whole nother doctrinefor a whole nother day, but I
just wanted to bring it up herebecause it says blot me out of
(12:21):
its book.
The passage seems to be talkingmore about what's going on in
the chapter in the book.
He's moving Israel out of thisnation of Egypt and moving them
to the land of flowing with milkand honey.
He's merely saying God, don'ttake me out of your plan and
I've prayed that.
I had no qualms that I wasgoing to lose my salvation, but
(12:45):
I had prayed to God and say, god, don't leave me out of your
plan.
You're doing this great workhere.
I want to be part of that.
Don't leave me out of that.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
And I think that's what he's talking about the last
thing on this, as well, as whenyou look at the verse itself,
it's very clear verse 32,.
But now, if you will forgivetheir sin, the there is the
nation of Israel, and if youdon't forgive their sin, please
block me out from your book.
So this is very clearly talkingabout the nation.
(13:16):
The plea is hey, forgive thenation's sin of what they've
done, and if you don't, thentreat me it as a substitute for
the nation.
So again, there's nothing there, an individual in this part
other than Moses sayingsubstitute me for the nation.
I just don't see anythinghaving to do with individual
(13:38):
salvation one way or anotherhere.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Correct.
Correct and I would agree 100%.
So, moving on, at the end ofverse 34 says in the day when I
punish, I will punish them fortheir sin.
That's what it says at the endof 34.
We can know some things here.
It means that there will be aday when God punishes sinners I
(14:00):
mean that's a surety and whenthere will be a day when God
punishes sinners and if we sin?
Here's a question if we sin andGod does not immediately punish
us in this lifetime, does thatmean that you never will?
That I've gotten away with it.
You know there's people runningaround the countryside that sin
every day and, okay, I don'tsee God, you know, dropping an
(14:24):
anvil on me or anything likethat.
Have they gotten away with it?
Speaker 2 (14:27):
No, I mean, besides this verse here that we're
talking about, when God says inthe day I'll punish them, there
is going to be some part ofpunishment or judgment on there
for this, with the land thatthey're going into.
Whenever the promise was givento Abraham, he said your
generation is going to go offand be in slave for 400 years
because the iniquities of theAmorite have not come to
(14:50):
fulfillment.
For 400 years God has beenpatient, letting the people,
giving them a chance to come tohim.
So in that case just that oneinstance there's a 400 year wait
, but yet it did come to themand God used the nation of
Israel as part of their judgmentto drive them out from the land
(15:11):
.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
If you look at the end of verse 34, he says in the
day when I punish, I will punishthem for their sins.
What he doesn't say there iswhen that day is or how much
time he's going to give us torepent, but what is sure is that
day is coming.
There will be a day when peoplehave to account for their sin,
(15:35):
and that's a day that we don'twant to face.
There's good news, though.
What's the good news Over theNew Testament?
There's a guy who took our sinfor us, and that God is gracious
.
And if we will, then, but askGod and appeal to God to have
Jesus pay for our sins andforgive us of ours, then he will
, because he's a gracious God.
(15:55):
He is, at the same time, a Godthat will not forget sin and
will not leave sin unpunished,but, at the same time, is
provided a way out, and that'sthe good news.
So, moving on, in chapter 33,we then have the next part,
where the people end up havingto go back to dealing with God.
(16:15):
So let's go ahead and read that.
Steve.
If you could read chapter 33,the first six verses.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Then the Lord spoke to Moses depart, go up from here
, you and the people whom youhave brought from the land of
Egypt to the land of which Iswore to Abraham, isaac and
Jacob, saying to yourdescendants I will give it, I
will send an angel before youand I will drive out the
Canaanite, the Amorite, theHittite, the Praerite, the
Hivite and the Jebusite.
(16:42):
Go up to a land flowing withmilk and honey, for I will not
go up in your midst because youare an obstinate people and I
might destroy you on the way.
When the people heard this sadword, they went into mourning
and none of them put on hisornaments.
For the Lord had said to MosesSay to the sons of Israel you
(17:02):
are an obstinate people.
Should I go up in your midstfor one moment, I would destroy
you Now.
Therefore, put off yourornaments from you, that I may
know what I shall do with you.
For the sons of Israel strippedthemselves of their ornaments
from Mount Horib onward.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
So we have this session here where God is again
dealing with the people ofIsrael and in verse one God
tells them Now depart and go upfrom here.
So God is now sending them tothe promised land and he repeats
again this is the land flowingwith milk and honey.
He repeats a promise in versesone and two.
(17:40):
What is the promise?
If we look at verse one and two, he's very specific.
What's Steve?
What's the promise that he isrepeating here?
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Well, he's repeating to them that to go into the land
that he promised and swore toAbraham Isaac and Jacob.
So he reconfirms that onceagain here in this section, and
he's always very specific it'sAbraham Isaac and Jacob, Jacob
being Israel, it's always thatline that this land was promised
to look again at the end ofverse one the land which I swore
(18:12):
to Abraham Isaac and Jacob, toyour descendants I will give it.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
So he's God is is repeating this promise and
saying I'm sending you now tothat land that I promised
hundreds of years ago to yourforefathers.
Now I'm fulfilling this, andthis is a promise that is
repeated many times.
We had a separate session onthe Abrahamic covenant where we
(18:40):
listed off many of them, but itgoes on throughout the Old
Testament.
The people of Israel willforever be associated with that
land and the promise here againis it's an unconditional promise
God saying the land that Iswore to give to them, we hold
(19:01):
that.
This is still in place.
And again, where is this in thebook?
What just happened in theprevious chapter?
That was a major mistake onIsrael's part.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Well as God puts it.
They went off and played theharlot.
They went off and worshipedanother God.
And not only did they went offand worship another God, but
they created an idol and theyattributed to that idol, that
God that they're worshiping,that there was that God that
brought them out of the land ofEgypt.
It's, it's, like insult on topof insult.
(19:35):
It's like the pinnacle of theworst thing that they could do
to show their thanks andappreciation to God.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
So if the Abrahamic covenant, the land promise and
the Abrahamic covenant wasdependent on Israel's obedience,
they just disobeyed.
In fact, we're hard pressed tofind too many places where they
ever did obey.
I mean, throughout thescriptures we have Israel
disobeying time after time aftertime.
(20:02):
And what does he say here Again, in verse one the land which I
swore to give to Abraham, isaacand Jacob.
So he is fulfilling hisunconditional promise to the
forefathers of the nation ofIsrael.
And the reason we point thisout is just because scripture
mentions it so many times.
(20:23):
How many people make thismistake that there was a
conditional promise to Abraham?
And no, it was not dependent onIsrael's obedience, or here he
would have taken it away.
He's saying, ok, go, I swore togive you this land and I'm
going to do it.
But that's what he's sayinghere.
What did Israel just do?
They disobeyed and worship theidol.
And there's systems of theologythat teach us, steve, that God
(20:48):
is finished with Israel.
And they say that because ofIsrael's disobedience they
rejected God.
Here they rejected the Messiah,at least as a nation.
But yet is there anywhere whereGod says that the Abrahamic
covenant is conditioned onIsrael's faith and obedience?
Speaker 2 (21:08):
No, nowhere, and it's also used the word several
times forever.
Part of the theology that youmentioned says that the well,
the church was a mystery.
Part of that mystery of thechurch is that now the church,
the believers in Jesus Christ inthis age, has replaced Israel,
(21:28):
and there's nowhere in scripturethat it ever says that.
And forever means forever.
So it doesn't make logicalsense just on the surface to say
that, oh, because the churchwas a mystery and not
particularly mentioned in theOld Testament they're.
Therefore the mystery isincludes the church becoming
(21:50):
Israel or fulfilling thepromises of Israel is just, is
just wrong in my opinion.
Forever means forever, forever.
And we also have otherscriptures in the New Testament
as well that confirms that thereis going to be a gathering
together of Israel, that they'regoing to come back into the
land that God has promised withthem and Jesus is going to rule
(22:14):
on David's kingdom or David'sthrone for 1000 years.
And I know that that goesagainst the grain of this
theology, but that's whatscripture says and it's very
clear that that's what scripturesays.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Now just to remind our listeners of the sequence
Abraham lived way back inGenesis, starting at verse 12,
and God made this promise toAbraham way back there.
Hundreds of years go by andthen Moses lives.
So there was a covenant withAbraham way back in Genesis, and
way up here in Exodus is theMosaic covenant.
(22:49):
The Mosaic covenant was indeedconditional and there were some
benefits if they obeyed and somepunishments if they disobeyed.
But Paul makes a very clearpoint over in Galatians, chapter
three, verse 17.
He says, quote the law whichcame 430 years later, law of
(23:12):
Moses, does not invalidate acovenant previously ratified by
God so as to nullify the promise.
So what he's saying there isthat the law came 430 years
after the covenant with Abrahamthat God ratified.
He's saying the law didn'tnullify the previous one that
(23:32):
came earlier.
And over in Romans, chapterfour, paul makes a strong point.
Most of the whole chapter ofRomans four says our faith is
built upon the Abrahamiccovenant, not the Mosaic
covenant.
It's Abraham that believe God.
So we always mention thissimply because there's so many
people that miss it.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
One other point of clarification is is that it's
also misrepresented because of aview that we have that Israel
has still going to have all ofthese promises, that the
misrepresentation is.
Oh well, then you believe thatthere's two ways of salvation,
that Israel has their own way ofsalvation and that the church
has their own way of salvation.
That's not what we hold to.
(24:12):
We've mentioned that before.
There is only one way ofsalvation, which is through
Jesus Christ.
That's how everybody hassalvation, and eternal life is
through him.
Just because Israel's landpromises are, we feel they're
still going to be fulfilled,doesn't mean that they have a
different type of salvation.
It's all still comes throughJesus Christ in his death,
(24:37):
burial and resurrection.
So how many ways of salvation?
Speaker 1 (24:40):
is there One, only one, only one.
We have to keep saying that.
We have to keep saying only oneway of salvation by grace,
through faith.
So, moving on at the now, whatwe do see here in this passage
is that there's now thisstrained relationship.
God is using language here thatshows he's a little bit
(25:02):
distance now from Israel.
He's still fulfilling hiscovenant, his promise that he
made.
But look at the end of, or atleast the middle of, verse one.
He says God still tells Mosesthe people that you brought up
from the land of Egypt.
And he's saying the people, notmy people and which you brought
(25:23):
, not that I brought.
Again, many times in here Godmade a specific point to saying
I, these are my people that Ibrought out of Egypt.
And now he's saying to Mosesthe people that you brought.
So the language here is showingthis strained relationship.
I submit, steve, we don't loseour salvation.
(25:44):
We don't even have a doubt thatGod's ever going to fulfill his
covenant.
But what we can do is have aplace where, ok, god's people
have now out of fellowship withthem and there's some benefits
and some blessings that they'renot going to get.
That's what we see, wouldn'tyou agree?
Speaker 2 (26:02):
If God is going to break this covenant that he made
with Abraham, then what?
What confidence do we have inthe new covenant?
So it just again continues toconfirm and reconfirm what we,
what we're talking about.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
So now in verse two, god again says that he will send
out the Canaanites from theland.
This is the third time in thebook of Exodus that God has told
Israel he will send out theCanaanites and drive them from
the land.
So this is the third time.
Do you think that's enough towhere Israel should have gotten
(26:37):
the point that they could trustGod to send out the Canaanites?
Should they have trusted Godlater when they doubted God?
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Yes, they should have , and while God many times talks
about them being an obstinateor stiff neck people, I think he
should also include on it ashort memory people that they
have a very short memory,because that's what it takes as
this continual repetition ofwhat God's going to do, and the
people still fall short of that,and that's with us as well.
(27:10):
We see multiple times throughscripture that talks about how
faithful God is, differentsituations, and yet we tend to
forget ourselves.
Comes back to being humannature.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Now look at the end of verse three.
What does God say would happenif he were with them as they
went on the way?
They're talking here, Moses andGod is talking about whether or
not God's going to be with themon the way while they're going
to the promiscene.
What does God say at the end ofverse three might happen if God
were there, present with themon the way.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Well, what he's talking about is that he might
destroy them.
He mentions that there are sucha stiff neck people that they
will stir his anger to the pointwhere he will destroy them.
Therefore, he's going to sendan angel, but he's not going to
be present with them, like hehas been with the pillar of fire
and smoke, as they go into thepromised land.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
The message here is very clear God is holy, he's
pure, he's all powerful.
He will not, cannot toleratesin in his presence.
And he calls them obstinate, orsome of the translations say
stiff neck.
These are people that will notyield.
They're people that God didn'tpick them because of
(28:27):
foreknowledge of their faith andbelief, because all they did
was disobey and unbelief.
What he's saying here is thatif I were with you, all of your
sin I would be forced to judgeyou.
He says so I'm going todistance myself.
That's why God is not herebefore us is because we're in
the same boat.
We're such an obstinate, sinfulpeople that's the message of
(28:49):
scripture is that God is so holy, he's so pure, he's so all
powerful that he cannot be near.
He separates himself from sin.
The reason why we can't reachout and touch God on a physical
level is because he is holy andmore sinful.
Now, in verse four and five, hementions taking off their
(29:11):
ornaments or their jewelry.
What's the point there withthat, steve?
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Well, he gives that to him as an indication on where
they stand with God.
If you're sad and mourningbecause I'm not going to go with
you, as a symbol of that, takeoff your jewelry that you have.
This is the jewelry that theyhad that they have been given
when they came out of the landof Egypt.
Some of that jewelry they willgive to make the tabernacle and
(29:36):
the instruments, but it was asymbol.
I'm willing to take off thisjewelry that I'm wearing in a
way to show you where I stand.
We want you to go with us.
We're disappointed that you'renot going to go with us here.
I'm taking off my jewelry andornaments in order to show you
how we feel.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
So this was jewelry, If you remember.
What did they use to make thegolden calf with?
Speaker 2 (30:01):
the same type of jewelry and ornaments.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
Right.
Remember Aaron said take offyour earrings and things.
So these earrings were thingsin.
This jewelry came out of Egyptand it very well may have had
pagan symbols on it and they hadjust used it to create this
idol.
So God says get rid of all ofthat what it calls ornaments, or
these jewelry and these thingsyou'd put on your clothes and
(30:24):
things like that.
So God is saying remove all ofthat from you.
This jewelry could have verypossibly had pagan symbols on it
.
Taking this off what it callsornaments not only shows a
separation from these paganthings and not using it to bless
God with, but it also shows asymbol of sadness and mourning,
(30:45):
not having a reason to be joyfulIf you think about it, if you
take off ornaments.
Ornaments are there fordecoration, to make things look
beautiful, and God is sayingtake away all the beauty because
this is ugly.
Now there's no reason to dressup nice because there's been so
much sin and ugliness that we'regoing to take that away and
(31:07):
you're going to be in mourning.
Now.
God takes sin very seriously.
God takes sin very, veryseriously.
Any last comments about that,steve, before we go?
Speaker 2 (31:14):
I do want to mention that when God says I'm not going
to go with you lest I end updestroying you, it's also where,
just before God had said thatto Moses, they have committed
such a great sin, I'm going towipe them out.
I'm going to start over withyou.
We saw that Moses intercededfor them, but there's other ways
in order to destroy them.
(31:35):
Later we see that they falterin going into the new land.
And how does he destroy them?
He destroys a whole generationby just having them wander for
40 years until they die off.
This thought here of destroyingthem can happen in several
different ways.
That's one way that God chosewandering for 40 years till that
(31:55):
generation died off, so thatthe younger generation actually
received the benefits of goinginto the land.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
And we should take lessons like this very seriously
because, just like way backthen, god says I don't
necessarily have to have you tofulfill my promise.
Same as us, god doesn'tnecessarily have to have me and
he doesn't necessarily have tohave you to fulfill his promise.
He is sovereign and allpowerful and we should want to
(32:25):
be part of God's program becausewe love him and it's a blessing
to be part of that, but weshould never get the idea that
God has to have me.
No, sorry, but we get theprivilege of going with him.
So we're going to tie that up.
For today we are at a goodstopping point and next time
(32:45):
we're going to still bereasoning through the Bible when
we get to more of Moses and hisintercession for the people of
Israel, and we trust that you'llbe back here with us to do that
.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Thank you for watching and listening and may
God bless you.
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