40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Episode 104 (Exodus 32:30-33:17)

Episode Date: December 1, 2017

Chad and Daniel talk about "the great sin" and how God views idolatry as adultery throughout the Old Testament. God has separated Himself from the people and Moses argues that holiness is at stake. The guys bunny trail for a bit in Revelation before coming back around to the Christ-like work of Moses trying to restore the people's relationship with God. Check it out!

welcome to another episode of 40 minutes in the old testament i'm daniel emery price joined by Chad Bird. My whole life has been kind of crazy the last few days. Between Thanksgiving holidays and travel and had a second grandbaby born yesterday. It's just been a lot of good stuff going on.

Now I've got to come back to reality and go to work this morning. Back to the grindstone. Back to it. A grandparent two times over, huh? I know. I'm just getting older by the day in more ways than one.

but it's all good I think I'm a little ways I better be a little ways away you got a few years to go I definitely hope so two grandsons we had a grandson and we have a second grandson so

lots of good times to come yeah man congratulations so where do we have something super thankful a thankful theme in Exodus today Well, maybe we could make it that. We're kind of in a precarious situation, actually. We've left everybody kind of hanging here for a couple of weeks, because we're in Exodus 32, and we left Israel in a pretty bad situation.

In fact, it's kind of a kind of a masker is where we left him at. In fact, you know, Exodus 32 starts out with the golden calf and then Moses comes down to the mountain, catches him and breaks the tablets of stone and then has this this come to Jesus meeting with Aaron, which which doesn't go so well. And then kind of where we left everything was Moses goes to the edge of the camp and says, whoever is for Yahweh, come to me. And not many people came, only in fact his own family, the sons of Levi, his own tribe, they gathered around him. And he told them to get their swords and to start executing those who had been involved in the worship of the golden calf and who had not come to the Lord. So we end up with a big mess in our hands. Verse 28 says that the Levites did what Moses commanded and about 3,000 men of the people fell that day. And that's where we left things with verses 28 and 29.

So we've got to figure out what happens next. There is going to be something to be thankful for, for sure. But we've got to kind of work our way in that direction before we get there. So here's what happens. Picking up here with Exodus 32, verse 30. So that all happens on one day. And it says on the next day that Moses says to the people, you yourselves have committed a great sin. And now I, that is Moses, and now I am going up to the Lord.

Perhaps I can make atonement for your sins. This is kind of an interesting juncture in the life of Moses in Israel. it's it's kind of fascinating actually when you read through this whole account of 32 and 33 to see the different way that that moses talks to god and then the different way that he talks to israel with god he's he's always begging for compassion and forgiveness and for god to relent concerning his anger but then when he talks to the people he's very different he's he's very much a preacher of the law calling them to calling them to repent tell them about their about you know the sin that they that they committed so we we really see two different sides of moses here

there's moses who is confronting the people with their sins but then he turns around and when he talks to God, he becomes very much a mediator and begging for God to forgive them. So right here, we kind of see both sides of this. When he addresses the people, he says, look, you've committed a great sin, and now I'm going to turn around. I'm going to go back to God, and hopefully we can get things settled. Hopefully there's some kind of atonement that's going to be possible for what you've done it it's fascinating too i i think i promised to talk about this last time i didn't but he says notice the the adjective that's used here you yourselves have committed a great sin now what's uh what's fascinating about that is that in the ancient world

uh in various cultures in fact when the great sin was referred to and it was always that that kind of language, great sin, the sin that was being talked about was actually adultery. That was in the ancient world, in a lot of different cultures, even in kind of legal terminology, adultery was the great sin. Now what we see here, and actually what we see in a couple of other passages in the Torah, is that this language that usually was applied to physical adultery is now being turned around and applied to spiritual adultery. So this great sin that Israel has committed is indeed adultery, but it's not what we usually think of as adultery. This is spiritual adultery. It's idolatry. It's being unfaithful, unfaithful to God.

And this actually begins a very long tradition in the rest of the Old Testament. And maybe you see this in New Testament as well. I just can't think of it off the top of my head, but I know throughout the Old Testament, you have infidelity or adultery as applied to Israel and God as a description of their idolatrous ways. And, of course, you see this, for instance, in the case of Hosea marrying the prostitute Gomer, Hosea representing Yahweh and Gomer representing Israel, that Israel is always going whoring after other gods, right? But here it begins, this analogy or parallel between physical adultery and spiritual adultery. So this great sin that Moses talks about is the golden calf, but what he's doing is employing the cultural language of the day to say that, hey, what you've just done is you've committed adultery against Yahweh. You're his bride. You're his chosen one, Israel, and yet now you've turned around and you've committed idolatry. You've committed adultery with this golden calf.

Yeah, I'm preaching through Lamentations right now, and Lamentations is just full of that language where it talks about infidelity, and this is all based in idolatry. But, I mean, it'll use language like Israel or Judah's sin was in its skirts and stuff like that. And it's not talking about – I mean, it's not that maybe there wasn't some literal – that stuff going on. But what it's talking about is idolatry, and it's in Lamentations where Jeremiah is writing, it's pretty explicit what's going on there. Yeah, it really becomes kind of the dominant image for idolatry in the Old Testament. Can you think off the top of your head, does that occur in the New Testament, or is that just kind of an Old Testament image? Maybe in one of the letters in Revelation to one of the seven churches? Yeah, yeah. I mean, that revelation definitely takes up the bridegroom theme and stuff like that, the whoring and that kind of stuff.

But yeah, no, I don't think in the epistles you see a ton of it. You know, Paul equates covetousness with idolatry a number of times. And I think that maybe part of the reason why is Israel is so specifically sort of like God's nation and his people. And they have these sort of rules of worship and that sort of thing going on throughout the Old Testament. Idolatry is not as – it's sneakier in the New Testament. And I think that's why Paul kind of tweaks the language and starts talking about like, hey, when you're coveting things, you know, you're worshiping them and you're an idolater. Back in the Old Testament, it was like super obvious when you were being idolatrous, like out popped a golden calf and we started worshiping it, you know, or, you know, or these other people are bringing in their God and it's literally carved out of stone or wood and people literally bow down or like, you know, Nebuchadnezzar is, you know, making you get on your face. you know it's it was there wasn't no there wasn't a question of like is this idolatry

like it was pretty blatant yeah and in the new testament and for us like we're not doing that like no one's bringing in like a carved eagle into my living room being like and i'm like oh snap well i guess i'll worship that like that's not a thing but idolatry is no less a thing and so some of the language i think is is less explicit where you can just like look at someone and see what they're doing physically and say, like, well, that's idolatry because you're worshiping that god. And you don't even have any problem. It's a god that you're worshiping.

You don't even have a problem calling a god. Now we call the gods that we worship, we say that they're not gods and that we're not worshiping them. Yeah, so it's even more insidious. Yes. Yeah, because we can very often be worshiping something and we think we're just uh prizing it or uh somehow considering it important or whatever it might be but we're actually attributing kind of a quasi divinity to it by because we we love

and trust and fear it more than we do god yeah yeah so when you see sort of like israel um brought back in its uh you know in the context of the church in revelation yeah that that language though is picked up again for sure uh where well of course i always say that revelation is is john john is playing a song in the key of old testament that's a good way to put it yeah yeah there's really not there's there's hardly a verse in revelation which in some way is not quoting alluding to or built off of the old testament it really is kind of he really has picked up the whole old testament and squeezed it into into one book right yeah yeah when i read revelation i feel like i've played music forever and uh back in the day that you would be with some

guys and we like you would go and they'd say like hey i'm gonna play a blues riff in a and and if you're good enough that you can just do that like so the rest of the musicians that are there like okay and they'll just follow along uh i feel like revelation is john being like i'm going to i'm going to play a prophetic song in the key of old testament yeah yeah saint john the musician yeah that's what key it's in everyone knows it and i think this is actually intentional because if you look at this is totally off that it has nothing to do with anything but uh i think you know if john's right john i think writes this letter so that if you don't know the old the old testament at all you have no idea what he's talking about and i think that that's supposed to be that way

because he doesn't want people to be able—he doesn't want the people who have imprisoned him and other people to be—it's sort of—it's really encrypted in Old Testament language. Yeah, it's very much an in-group kind of writing. It's one of those where if you're not part of that language and culture and history and literature, you're not going to get it. Right. I mean, that's why we have so much trouble with it. In fact, ourselves very often in the church today because we're not immersed in the language and images of the Old Testament.

And so Revelation becomes a book that's easily misunderstood and really manipulated actually to mean something that it never was really meant to mean because it's taken out of that Old Testament context that it came from. Yeah, it becomes this, it's not that people don't, you know, Christians actually love the Old Testament because they love to allegorize the stories and insert themselves in them. But they don't, they don't read, the problem is always this, is that they don't, you don't read the Old Testament looking for Christ. You read the Old Testament looking for you. And you don't read Revelation looking for Christ. You read it looking for you. But it turns out that the Old Testament is about Christ. And John explicitly says at the very beginning of Revelation that that's exactly what Revelation is about.

Yeah, the revelation of Jesus Christ. That's what it's about. Like he says so. He starts that way and we completely ignore that somehow. We're like, what's this about? It's about the end of the world. It's like, it's really not, but okay. Yeah.

So Revelation is where we have this image of the great sin popping up again in the New Testament. So now you know kind of the background of that, anytime you see that referred to in various places in the Old Testament. So kind of getting back here to chapter 32, so he's going to see what he can do, basically, Moses is. And that's what he does. It says he returns to the Lord, so he goes back, and he says, Alas, this people has committed a great sin. There's that language again. They made themselves a god of gold for themselves.

And then we have this remarkable, remarkable verse. But now, if you will, forgive their sin. And it's kind of implied here. Forgive their sin. That would be a fantastic thing if you would. But if not, please blot me out from the book which you have written. that reminds me very much of uh and this may be popped in your mind too a paul statement about if you know if he could he'd give up himself in order to save uh to save his people israel

i believe it's in romans that he says so this is moses basically saying it please forgive israel uh that would be fantastic if you could do that but if not just tell you what just take me blot me out the book which you have written i don't know how to take this uh i mean there's there's various kinds of books, like heavenly books that are referred to in the Old Testament and New Testament. Of course, there's the book of life, which we're all familiar with. We've heard many references to that. But there's also other books that are referred to. In the ancient world, there were also this idea of heavenly books in which everyone who's living, their names were written. So it could be Moses is simply saying, kill me. This is his poetic way of saying,

uh forgive their sin but if not then just take me out so kill me erase my name from the book of the living that that idea or this this could be even a stretch uh that uh we want to want to take even further and he's saying listen just just you know take me out completely condemn me if uh if that's going to be what it takes in order to save israel i don't know how to take that i lean toward the the former just simply saying that Moses is willing to give up his own life in order to save his people. I mean, I think either way you take it, what you do see is the acknowledgement that Moses is the one guy.

I don't think this is Moses saying that he is righteous, but in this context, he is the sole person who did not participate uh in this idolatrous act and so either way whichever book he's talking about he is he is saying um in this regard i'm innocent and so do away with the innocent and save the guilty yeah and and that and this is the kind of what you were talking about how when he goes to god he very much there's a there's a ton of um there's a ton of like christ-likeness and types of christ going on with moses when he's interacting with god because i mean literally what he's what he's asking for then saying like look there's no other way to do

this how about the one person who is innocent in this regard how about how much you take him out that being me uh and then you let the guilty go which is super gospel man i mean it's condemned the guy who didn't do it and let the people that did do it go yeah yeah this is a this is not substitutionary atonement but it's uh but it's in that same it's in that in that same area uh this is this is the innocent basically saying hey yeah take me if that's going to be what it what it uh what it takes in order to get the guilty guilty off so that's his proposition this is moses approaches god in lots of different ways here it's almost like he's he's trying everything he can think of in order to save his people so this is his this is his first try and

it fails uh we see that right away because god responds directly to moses moses says this god says look whoever has sinned against me i will blot him out of my book so god is not is not going to go this route with moses so a uh he he he he basically takes the the rug out from underneath him in this regard and i think that goes on i think you have part of that i mean god like moses is what i think what moses is doing here is admirable uh but the reality is is that Moses can't atone for anyone's sins, you can't do it. And so, ultimately, the answer

to any of us paying for anyone else's sins is no. Yeah, right. It's going to take more than simply an innocent dying for the guilty, right? It's going to take the innocent becoming the guilty. I've never,

I mean, well, other than, you know, in my heart, but maybe that's the problem here. but objectively i've never i've never murdered anybody however like in god's economy just because i haven't physically murdered anyone doesn't mean that i could like be like well murder me and then let all the murderers go because i'm not righteous i don't i i can't i maybe you could uh put their sin on me but i don't have any righteousness to give to them yeah so there can't be uh really a blessed exchange going on here no all you can do is

take on somebody else's sin but you can't give them your righteousness yeah so it's not it's not gonna work uh i mean it might sound good on the on the part of moses and it certainly is admirable but it's not gonna work and god tells him that right away then he goes on he says uh he says this is the end of the chapter but go now lead the people where i told you so he's he is god is telling them that uh they can leave sinai get going and he says i'll look i'll uh my angel shall go before you then nevertheless in the day when i punish i will punish them for their sin and then the the chapter closes with this verse then the lord struck the people because of what they did with the calf which Aaron had made now I don't know

if this was a subsequent striking smiting from heaven or if this was simply kind of a summation of everything that had befallen the people up to this point but what I want to accent here I think this is the significant point the way this chapter ends and we'll see this as the next chapter begins is that God is telling Moses to tell Israel that they need to go. They can leave Sinai, and he's going to send this angel, however you want to define this angel, to go before them, but what we're going to see in just a second, the most significant point here is that God is telling Moses and through Moses Israel that he, that is god will not be going with him that's a significant point uh and that and that that is why the

situation between israel and moses and yahweh is so precarious is because god is threatening basically to withdraw his presence and i think specifically he's saying this whole this whole ordeal this this whole instruction about the tabernacle forget it we're not going to make a tabernacle because i'm not going to be dwelling in your midst because of because of what you've done kind of getting ahead of myself we'll get to some of that as we start chapter chapter 33 so here's how here's how it starts so god said that to moses and then he's not done he goes on it says then the lord spoke to moses and he says depart go up from here you and the people whom you brought up from the land of egypt and go to the land so go to the land that i swore to abraham

Isaac and Jacob, telling them that to their descendants I would give it. And then he repeats the same promise of an angel. He says, I'll send an angel before you, and he's going to drive out all the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, the Amorites, and all the other ones. Now listen to verse three. He says, go up to a land flowing with milk and honey, for I will not go up in your midst because you are an obstinate people lest i destroy you on the way so you you have god this is this whole story is is fascinating you have god on the one hand he punishes the people we have a bunch of uh the the idolaters destroyed by the by the levites he so he there's punishment and then he he relents a little bit because he he's not going to utterly destroy them he's not

going to completely wipe out the whole nation of Israel. He does say to Moses, look, just get moving, go to the land that I promised to the patriarchs, and I'm going to send an angel ahead of you, and he's going to kind of clear the land, and you guys can settle in it, but I'm not going to be going. I will not go up in your midst, because Israel is so obstinate, stubborn, stiff-necked, and if I were to go up in their midst, then somewhere along the way, I would destroy them, and this is where I think, and this is what I mentioned a minute ago. Specifically, I think God is saying that, you know, I was going to have you build the tabernacle. I was going to be living and dwelling right there in the midst of the people of Israel, but now this isn't going to

happen. I'm not going to be in your midst, because if I am, I'm going to end up wiping out the whole nation so there's this fascinating withdrawal of the divine presence he's going to send an angel they'll still have moses they'll still get to holy land but god has created this this kind of dmz between himself and the people lest he destroy them along the way because of their stubbornness so what's going to happen well it says when the people heard this sad word literally it's evil evil word and this was like this was bad news and the people heard this bad news they go in the morning and none of them put on his ornaments and uh because because of what god had because of what god had said and uh and we have a quote here from verse five it

kind of brings to mind what god had said he says you are an obstinate people should i go up in your midst for one moment i would destroy you now therefore put off your ornaments from you that i may know what i will do with you then it says the sons of israel they strip off their ornaments from that point onward so there's there's this back and forth between god and the people so that They committed the sin of idolatry. A number of them were destroyed. God threatens to withdraw his presence. When the people hear this, there's actually signs of repentance.

They take off any kind of ornamentation that they have. This is like an outward expression of their mourning and of their repentance. And God is, as it were, just waiting. He says, take off your ornaments until I know what I will do with you. So there's this forced period of waiting where we're not for sure what's going to happen. And as we'll see as the story goes on, it's going to be up really to Moses to bridge the gap finally and to reconcile God with his people. We'll see that as the story goes on. So this is the first thing that Moses does.

and this is the way the story unfolds beginning with verse 7 and on so this is God is saying I can't be in your midst because you're obstinacy because you're sin the people don't like this they take off their ornaments and there's this threat

I'm arguing there's this threat of they're not being a tabernacle now and so Moses kind of takes matters into his own hands and he takes his own tent and makes it into sort of a uh i don't know like a substitutionary like a proxy kind of temporary tabernacle if you will because verse 7 says moses used to take the tent

just whatever this tent was i'm assuming his own or some special tent this is not the tabernacle by the way the tabernacle has not been built and may not be built at this point but there's his tent that moses takes and he he pitches it outside the camp that's significant not in the camp not certainly not in the middle of the camp it's outside the camp in fact it says a good distance from the camp and he called it the tent of meeting now again later the tabernacles he may call that but this is not the tabernacle this is just a regular tent uh and it says that everyone who sought the lord would go out to this tent which was outside the camp and moses would go out to this tent. And when he did, it says everyone would stand up at the entrance of their own tent

and they'd watch Moses. Moses would go into this tent. And then this pillar of cloud, which we've heard about before in Exodus, this symbol of the divine presence, this outward manifestation of divine presence, the pillar of cloud would descend and it would stand at the entrance of the tent and the Lord would speak with Moses. So people would see this pillar of cloud at the entrance of the tent and they would worship from a distance. And it says in verse 11 that God would speak with Moses there at the tent face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend. And then Moses would return to the camp and Joshua, his servant, would stay there at the tent, i guess i guess to guard it so what's going on this is like this is like moses offering sort of

a temporary solution so you've got the anger of god against the idolatry you have the punishment that follows you have the threat of the withdrawal of the non-presence god saying not not for a moment can i endure to be in the middle of the camp because of the obstinacy of the people and so moses is is like well first of all he offers himself and that that doesn't work and so he's thinking, well, I'm going to set up a tent outside the camp. At least there, I can converse with Yahweh. I can converse with the Lord, just like a man talks to his friend face to face. And I would assume that many of these conversations that took place at this time was Moses pleading, interceding on behalf of Israel, trying to get things worked out so that God would stick with his people,

that the tabernacle would have built and that they would be able to remain with the Lord in their midst. Yeah, I mean, this is a super vivid illustration of how sin

separates you from God. And that's ultimately what happened here. I mean, God in a lot of ways is still merciful. He hasn't utterly destroyed them he's going to give them this land um but even even in that he's still he's still separated from them he's he's outside he's not in their midst he's not uh he's certainly not

emmanuel right yeah that is that is not what's going on here and so uh so yeah that's that's if you're gonna look at this and take something away from it it's that um where there is sin there is need of reconciliation because we know from numerous passages that sin separates God and his creation. And as much as Moses would like to throw himself down and be the bridge and have himself be the atonement for sin, that can't be the case. And so, yeah, you see that this is not just an Israel problem, but this is humanity's problem,

is that they're sinners, and that sin has separated them from a holy God. And you also see, and especially that last section that I covered, how central the the role of moses is to this this this description of him how he talks to god is is is unique you don't see this happening with anybody else in the scriptures where moses speaks to god face to face i mean that that is a one of the most remarkable verses in the old testament to me and there's a in fact there's a there's a verse i believe it's in numbers where

it says he speaks mouth to mouth. So there's this picture here of God and Moses standing, facing one another, just like we would face a friend in a conversation, and they're just talking back and forth. So there's no sense here that God is somehow distant from Moses, or that Moses is talking with his face bowed down to the ground, or anything like that. This is this is a picture of two friends who are speaking one to another so it's a it it's remarkable because of what it says about moses but it's also remarkable because of what it says about god that he is willing to speak with moses in this way to listen to moses in fact it's going to be it's going to be moses pleading with god that finally takes care of everything that's that's

about to that's about to happen and finally bridges the gap between between these two so moses is is once more held up here as uh very much a picture of of the work of what the messiah will do this one who sees god face to face speaks to god face to face who bridges the gap who intercedes and finally brings about reconciliation between god and god and his people so let's see what happens we got that we got a few minutes left it says that uh after the discussion of the tent picking up here with verse 12 it says then moses said to the lord and this is really the speech that finally finally takes care of it he says look you told me to bring up this people but you haven't let me know who it is you're going to send with me so he said this angel but who is

angel. And we don't want an angel. We want you. So you haven't let me know who you're going to sing with me. He said, what's more, you've told me that I know you by name. And you've told me that I have found favor in your sight. In other words, you treated me like you've treated no one else. In fact, that phrase, I have known you by name, is not used of anybody else in the Old Testament except Moses. So this is the most intimate personal knowledge that God has of Moses and relationship and friendship he has with Moses. So Moses has found favor in his sight. God knows in my name. Verse 13, he says, now therefore I pray if I found favor in your sight, let me know your ways that I may know you so that I might find favor in your sight and consider that this nation

is also your people. This is Moses praying in an exemplary way. He's saying, look, I know that we have a friendship. We have our relationship. You know me by name. I found favor in your sight, but let me also remind you, God, that the people, this nation is your people. You have claimed them as your own. And then he goes on. He says, God says, my presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest. And Moses responds, if your presence doesn't go with us, then don't lead us up from here. In other words, if you're not going to go with us, then we don't want to leave. There's no reason for us to go to the Holy Land. There's no reason for us, for you to send an angel ahead of us to clear out the inhabitants we don't want to go anywhere if you don't go if you don't go with

us and then he then he uh he begins to wrap up everything verse 16 he says for how then can it be known that i have found favor in your sight i and your people is it not by you going with us so that we i and your people may be distinguished from all the other peoples who are on the face of the earth so moses says to god look israel is your people you've redeemed them and the only way that we're going to be different from any other people is by you going with us that's what's going to set us apart is your presence in our midst your dwelling in our midst and then this is the resolution verse 17 the lord says to moses okay i will also do this thing of which you have spoken for you have found favor in my sight and i have known you by name so after all of this

this precarious situation this back and forth this praying on behalf of moses he finally gets to the point to where God gives him that which he is requesting. And I love the way that Moses does it because he reminds God basically of who he is. He's saying, listen, you're the God who has mercy. You're the God who knows by name. You're the God who's claimed Israel as your own. And it's only by your acceptance of us and your presence in our midst that we're going to be different from anybody else so you your your presence among us is is absolutely necessary there's no reason for us even to leave the desert if you're not with us because that is going to be what sets us apart from from all other peoples and god god hears and he answers he says all right

i'll do it i'll do what you've said because you found favor in my sight and i've known you by name yeah and what that means is that you know that sin doesn't have to be taken care of oh is that what that means? yeah

this you know as you all of the this is what you have when when Paul talks about God passing over former sins right with the knowledge of what ultimately Israel is going to bring forth, what God is going to bring out of Israel is his own son,

which is the whole reason that God can, I mean, we've seen it before and we'll see it again, that God can pass over sin, that God can, while sin separates God and Israel, that God will then come and dwell in their midst again is because of what is coming. And one of the things I think that's interesting about that text, too, is that Moses knows that if Israel is going to be set apart,

they're going to be holy. They're going to be different. That that holiness has to come from God dwelling with them. There's no just like being holy. Or we'll just be holy and God will be outside the camp. No, you're no different than anyone else. The only thing that makes any people, and this is for Israel or for the church or us as individuals, the only thing that makes you holy is God dwelling with you.

I mean, we've talked about this before, but it is a proximity issue. Absolutely. Yeah, there's no intrinsic holiness that we have within ourselves. There's no way that we can achieve it. It's not some internal quality that we have that we just need to foster, whether we can get some other way. It's entirely God's gift and our proximity to him which bestows that upon us. So we're holied by being in the presence of the Holy One himself,

which for Israel was the only way that they're going to remain the holy people of God, was by God dwelling in their midst and by drawing them to himself around him, they themselves would be a holy people. Yeah, same is true for us. Amen. Amen. And that's it. We are out of time. So, hey, you know what? That is something to be thankful for. that

while you have an example of God not exactly being Emmanuel he does go and dwell in our midst and of course we have the ultimate version of that we have the ultimate reality which is God coming as one of us

to dwell with us and never again to set himself outside the walls of the church or to distance himself from us again yeah so thank god for that amen all right chad well we will see you next week all right man have a good one Thank you.