40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Episode 90 (Exodus 23:21-24:8)

Episode Date: July 26, 2017

Plagues of hornets, building altars, establishing the offices of priest and prophet and the book of the covenant. Chad Bird and Daniel Emery Price talk about all these things before getting to the main point at the end... and it's bloody and glorious. Check it out!

welcome to another episode of 40 minutes in the old testament i'm daniel emery price joined by chad bird chad one and only here we are the one and only are you the one and only are you sure actually no there's other chad are there other chad birds yeah there are other chad birds out there unfortunately i have to share my name with uh with other people that's why i use my middle name but i don't know if i know this is shocking to you but there are other daniel prices in the world is that right yeah there's you know what there's only there is only one chad birdalicious though that is true yeah i do i do have that singularity so at least i have one thing going for me yeah i stand apart in one way yeah i used to but when i was growing up i i actually never

used to tell people my middle name uh they would say what my middle you know people ask like what's your middle name and i would never say because i was super embarrassed of it because i thought it was a girl's name oh really yeah which technically it is uh it was uh my great grandmother's name and so it's funny i never i never associated as a yeah as a female name always always thought of it as masculine yeah so uh and uh so it's interesting that growing up i was always like never ever told anyone and now i use it on everything but yeah because i realized because i realized that my uh My name was just way too common. If you Google my name, I'm sure you'll come up with hundreds of Chad birds.

I don't know how many Chad Lewis birds there are out there, but I'm sure there's a few of those as well. But only one Chad bird-alicious. That's right. That's right. One and only. That's it. Chad, are we ready to dive in? Yeah, yeah.

We finished most of chapter 23 last time of Exodus, and we will wrap that up rather quickly and then get into chapter 24, which is an incredible chapter. It's where we will have the covenant ceremony complete with sacrifice and blood and ultra building and a meal in which the Israelites actually see God. A good stuff coming up. So that's where we'll spend most of our time. But before we get to chapter 24, we do have a little bit more to say about chapter 23. So that's where we will start. If you listened last time, at the very end, maybe the last five minutes of the podcast, we talked about this angel that is discussed beginning in chapter 23, verse 20.

So just to kind of remind you of that, God speaking here says that he's going to send an angel. Israelites, he's going to guard them and bring them to the place that God's prepared for them to listen to his voice, not to rebel against him. And it has this most important phrase at the end of verse 21, because my name is in him, God says. This angel is really a messenger, which is what the Hebrew malach means. It's like the Greek angelos, which we usually translate as angel. It just means messenger, so it's someone sent with a word to speak. Except this messenger is none other than the one who bears the divine name, the one who speaks with all the full authority of the Father.

Not just the one who bears the word, but who is the word of the Father. So this is the Son of God who is being spoken of here as a messenger, as he is described many times in the Old Testament. beginning back in genesis uh we saw this in exodus 3 as well how he appears to moses in the burning bush he acts as yahweh he speaks as yahweh he is identified as god so you have all of these divine authorities divine actions that are associated with this messenger and yet there's a distinction made that's that's the uh that's the significant thing here so i'll weigh and then there's talk of his messenger where there's talking of god or his his angel so there is a distinction

that's being made here and yet there's a unity as well why this is the the old testament background to what uh what we refer to as as the trinity so this this angel this messenger this one who is sent by by yahweh and speaks on yahweh's behalf is is the one we call jesus so he uh leads israelites into the problem he will lead the israelites to the promised land he uh has the the full authority of of the father behind him and he's going to go ahead of the israelites to bring them into the land of the amorites and the hittites and the parasites and all the other native inhabitants of that of that country so that's how this section starts out then it goes on some kinds of warnings that we have seen before uh but that are reiterated throughout

the scriptures god says things such as you shall not worship their gods or serve them and then he has promises that are attached to the fidelity of his people how he will take care of them how he will give them a long life how he will destroy their enemies and in language such as that uh it's kind of a a unique or somewhat unique uh description of one of the ways in which god is going to prepare the way for his people to enter the promised land this occurs a couple of other times one time in deuteronomy and one time in joshua but here's what the verse says in exodus god again speaking says i will send hornets ahead of you that they may drive out the Hivites the Canaanites and the Hittites now if you read any kind of commentary scholars will

debate as to whether this is to be taken literally or figuratively and I'm a little bit torn myself I lean toward taking this literally that God in some way is going to prepare by sending some sort of plague ahead of them to frustrate the lives of the inhabitants I mean we've seen him do that in spades with uh with the egyptians uh 10 plagues to be exact and so i i think this is really some sort of actual plague some plague of hornets or wasp or whatever kind of stinging creatures these were that were sent ahead of the israelites to kind of like a john the baptist right to prepare the way for for the israelites so that's uh that's one of the promises that's that's made here as well that this isn't going to happen all at once so it's not like the

israelites going to arrive in the promised land and lo and behold it's like completely vacant and everything is just waiting for them to come and take possession he says he will drive out the inhabitants little by little so it's it's going to take a while and as we read later in joshua and then in judges it took a long while and in fact of the Israelites, it never happened fully. They were always a little bit too willing to make a treaty or to just settle for letting some of the inhabitants remain. What God had forewarned actually came true, that these people became a snare to the Israelites. You had these Israelite teenage boys hanging out over there with the Hivite girls or the Jebusite girls or

whoever and and they're hooking up and they're getting married and before you know it the israelite boys are attending with these girls and you have the uh you you have all kinds of problems resulting from those and the children uh who are who are brought up in these sort of a sort of a syncretistic sort of way you know part israeli part jebusite or part canaanite way of way of thinking so that's that's the end story of course we don't know that at this point in exodus but that's eventually what happens just to the chapter angel promises you have the warnings you have the promises then you have uh this uh this divine plan laid out where little by little he's going to clear the land before them yeah when you talk about taking this kind of stuff uh

literally or uh you know symbolically or metaphorically or whatever the way you want to take it um you know it's it's uh i get it you're like really like hornets uh is that what's gonna happen is that what that means uh but uh when you're when you are talking about god i mean a plague of hornets is not by any stretch the weirdest thing we believe uh so i mean yeah it's not much of a stretch at all given what we've seen in exodus already right yeah i mean unless we think all the plagues were you know metaphorical but like pharaoh's response doesn't seem very seem pretty literal yeah yeah yeah these were real insects real real blood real darkness uh metaphorical plagues don't really seem to have much of an impact on people right literal plagues

they do yeah so uh that's that's all i got on chapter 23 i mean we could talk about more but i think that i think that pretty much sums it sums it up so uh chapter 24 here we go for as i mentioned uh at the beginning is uh revolving around the ceremony that takes place in which there is is altar building and promises and divine appearances and all sorts of phenomena not just because of what happens but more importantly because of the theology that is communicated in these and we're going to do a lot of kind of jumping back and forth here between here and some some new testament material especially in the book of hebrews where there's a quite a bit that is reflected in hebrews about this particular section so uh we'll just jump

in here and uh and jump back and forth between here and hebrews as we go along there's a little bit of a of a hiddenness that you can't see in translation here but one of the things that uh is communicated here in the hebrew is that there's a most of your translations begin chapter 24 with this then he said to moses that is then god said to moses but in hebrew the order is is reversed there it's then to moses hebrews way of making an emphasis so moses becomes the addressee at the beginning of this chapter so all this other stuff that we heard chapter 23 that's addressed to everybody now god is speaking directly to moses moses he said come up to the lord you and erin nadab and abihu and 70 elders of israel and you shall worship at a distance moses alone however

shall come near to the lord but they shall not come near nor shall the people come up so right away at the beginning of this chapter we've got these kind of divisions between various groups of people that we're going to see we have already seen to some extent but there were we're going to see with it with increasing frequency throughout exodus as well as really as well as the rest of the the old testament i guess you could think of concentric circles within within the people of israel as to which people have access to the presence of god like i say we've seen a little bit of this already but beginning at this point and then through the rest of exodus and spelled out more in leviticus we're going to see this uh made very clear so you you've got you you always

have no matter where an israelite is he has access to the presence of god let me say that uh at the beginning so it's not like you you have to go to some place in order to talk to god i mean if you're out in your field and you're plowing you can stop and and pray to god or caught in the wilderness like david was oftentimes you can pray there so it's not like you can only pray at a specific place because that's the only place that god is god is is omnipresent he's present everywhere and so he's present always with his people no matter where they are so you've got kind of this general presence we might call it but there is a flip side to that throughout the old testament god does intensify his presence in specific places i think that's that's one way we

we can think of this he intensifies his presence like mount sinai or in places like the tabernacle and later than the permanent structure known as the temple so it's at these places that he promises to be specifically a present for his people that becomes his dwelling place where he hangs out where he is accessible uh most directly by his people the reason i say that first is because the people that have access to that is in connection with that that immediate presence so if the presence is at mount sinai at the peak of mount sinai there's only certain people that can come really close to that or if the presence is intensified at the tabernacle there's only certain people that can come really close to that so you have these groupings of people

and at this point moses is the only one who is allowed into that most intense which at this stage in the history is on the peak of mount sinai then the others like aaron and nadab and abihu and and some other they can come a little closer but then the rest of the people kind of the outer part of this concentric circle the rest of the israelites they can only come so close so you've got these these spatial limitations as to how close people can come to to the presence of God. And that's why at the beginning of this chapter, you already have laid out here these various groups. Moses is on top. He's the one who has access to this intensified presence of God. Then after that, you have Aaron and his sons, Nadab and Abihu, which we haven't heard about

to this point, but we'll hear more about them later. So Nadab and Abihu are the two oldest sons of Aaron, who will become, at least for a very short term, priest in the future. Then you've got the elders of Israel, 70 in number, that represent the people. And then the outer group are the rest of the Israelites. And then it goes on from there to say that most— As part of this, sorry, so as you're separating these groups, you obviously have the elders, the people that—these guys that are sort of leaders in the Jewish community. You've got the Jewish community.

then you've got the the priesthood which um uh go is closer to good he gets to go closer to god and they're going to be the ones that end up doing this doing this you know administering this the sacrifices and this sort of thing uh but then you have moses who who's obviously unique and is the one who is conversing directly with god so god's not talking to aaron or his sons uh he's talking to moses right uh right and in a lot of ways moses is the is the i mean you might say you might say no uh but noah seemed like it was sort of temporary this kind of thing but uh and there wasn't an israel so it's a little bit different but moses is sort of the the first prophet as as a like as a official mouthpiece for god type prophet i mean so we'll see from this

point on that god having a prophet among the people is very common and is that so do you think that's sort of what is also being set up here that there'll be there'll be one prophet sort of at a time that speaks for god and with god directly uh i mean you know it's interesting like even when you see things like with david um later sound like david has all these conversations with god so like god and david are just like chatting one-on-one all the time or something like that like that samuel's doing that um and so i mean david's a king uh so he's certainly different than everyone else but uh but samuel's the the you know capital t prophet and it's just do you think that in some ways this is sort of establishing also that order yeah yeah it

definitely is uh moses in the old testament anyway moses is is the premier prophet and so he becomes kind of the the template for all the other prophets now he's set apart from them because as we'll uh later not i can't i can't uh remember the exact chapter and verse of this but later in the torah it says that uh you know with other prophets that god speaks through dreams and visions and things like that but it's different with moses because with him he speaks face to face and so there is kind of elevation of moses as the the prophet of prophets if you will he becomes the exemplar the template for all the other ones after him so this is setting up this prophetic office which we'll see that's the old testament uh ending then with with uh with john

but yeah and throughout throughout israel's history you had god beginning with with moses really so god gives his words to the prophet and then the prophet speaks them speaks him to the people so he becomes the mouthpiece mouthpiece for god which which i think is significant that's that establishes the way that god works god is putting his words into the mouth of somebody else i mean this really is still the same today you know i got i don't know about most of you but i don't have conversations with god face to face he doesn't you know go from me and talk with me in the morning. Instead, I hear, but I hear God. I hear his voice. I hear it in the mouth of those that speak God's word. So he's, they are, they are the mouthpieces of God. That's the way,

that's the way that God works. Bonhoeffer said once that, that the word in the mouth of a brother is stronger than the word that I speak in my own heart. And I find that certainly to be the case. I can tell myself something over and over and over, but if I hear it from the mouth of a brother or sister, that makes all the difference. And that is the way that God works. He puts his words on the lips of other people so that they might relay them to us. And he did this in a grand way and in kind of an established and formal way in the Old Testament through his prophets. They were the ones that God specifically called in order that what they said might be what God said. So like jesus says of his own disciples he who hears you hears hears me yeah i mean also you have this

sort of establishing of of then in this prophet and then priests and then later on though later on there'll be uh kings will be established um and that these are three different things and that you can't be both so the the priests aren't prophets and the prophets aren't prophets aren't priests and the prophets aren't kings and the priests aren't kings these are separate which is one of the things that's super unique about christ right is that christ comes and is prophet priest and king which is he's the only one that does that does all of it yeah yeah exactly yeah you have you have these different callings or offices are set up in the old testament the only the only the only one in the old testament who bears both the office of priest

is Melchizedek that we met way back in Genesis 14, but besides him, that's it. So in Israelite itself, there was a very clear division. In fact, you have a few instances of kings who overstepped and actually one in particular who went into the temple in order to offer incense in the holy place. And it didn't go well before the priests could pull him out of there because they knew he was trespassing he was overcome with leprosy as a as a punishment for for what he did so he was king but he had zero authority as a priest so god would appoint kings he would appoint priests he would appoint prophets uh but uh these were these were distinct offices until the coming of the messiah who as you say he bore all of these in his own in his own person i mean he's the son of david

so he's the king uh he is the priest according to the order of melchizedek he is the the prophet that moses himself prophesied would would come in in deuteronomy yeah yeah pretty cool stuff yeah yeah good stuff so we got all these groups of people in the beginning of the chapter and uh then it goes on to say that moses people and he tells them everything that god said as as his mouthpiece as god's mouthpiece and the people answered with one voice so this is one united exclamation on their part all the words which the lord has spoken oh the enthusiasm of the people yeah everything god said we're gonna do uh that is until you know moses disappears and they start making the golden calf but we don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves

at this point anyway they're gung-ho everything god said we are fully on board with that i mean yeah we're good to go we agree with that's what we're gonna do so uh moses writes down afterward moses writes down all of god's words and uh which is significant because anytime i mean this was an oral culture for the most part as were most of the ancient cultures so anytime something was written down it was significant and this was a there's kind of a formalizing i guess you could say of everything that god had had said and the promises that were made as well as the commands that were that were given all these words were written i guess you could say the the the foundation of the scriptures themselves and scriptures aren't just oral i mean we we have the written word and

this is kind of the beginning of that where you have this action of actually recording something on a physical object putting words on the physical object so that there is a permanence to them so they're not just oral stories which are passed from generation to generation but there's a a fleshing out of that word on parchment or stone or whatever, whatever it might be. I mean, it's God himself who like sets this precedent by writing the 10 commandments with his finger and stone.

Right. So God sets the precedent that he wants his words recorded in text. Yeah. Yeah. And then that, that becomes a hallmark of Israelite people that they have these recorded, these recorded books and the stories are that are written down over time. I mean, the histories that are recorded and the recording of Psalms and Proverbs, everything else that was part of society.

I mean, they were very much of a literary culture, an oral culture, of course, as were, like I said, all of these cultures of the ancient world. But they were also a written culture, a literary culture in which books were important. Scrolls were important in order that the exact words of God might be recorded for subsequent generations. Yeah, and there's other instances where God reminds them to write things down, even commands them to write things down. I think of Habakkuk, and when he's talking to him, and one of the things he says is, write this down in stone. Yeah. It tells him to. Like, all right, I'm about to say something.

like get out your pen or get out your chisel because uh i want you to write this down in stone because this is this is going to happen yeah yeah yeah it's a idea of uh a permanence of the assurance that what is what is written down what is chiseled in stone is as we say it's chiseled in stone is written in stone it's gonna there's there's nothing your backspace and and easily delete these words they are they are recorded in a in a permanent faithful sort of way all right so uh he writes out all the words and then uh i'm sort of in the middle of verse four we transition to this great ceremony that's going to take place so after after all this happens moses gets up early the next day and uh he builds an altar at the foot of mount sinai and not only does he build an altar

but he takes these 12 they're called pillars here we tend to think of pillars as these like you know massive 10 feet tall pillars but these would have been stones and he takes a dozen of them

for the 12 tribes of Israel and he puts them by the altar we're not sure exactly how he arranged them maybe the altar was on one side and 12 pillars that were on the other side or maybe the 12 pillars are around the altar however it happened there was altar and then there were the 12 pillars now this is some great stuff here because

if you remember a few chapters before flip back there now so in chapter 20 right after the giving of the 10 commandments god had told moses you shall not make other gods like gods of silver gods of gold make an altar of earth now when we talked about that section we talked about the fact that you're not going to have these idols, these images that somehow represent God. I don't want you to build that. Instead, what I want you to build is an altar. So the altar becomes sort of the icon of God, if you will.

It's the visible place where God is active to work and to give gifts to his people. So Moses builds this altar at the foot of Mount Sinai. It's everything about God. so connect god with that altar and then you've got these 12 pillars and of course the 12 pillars stand for the 12 tribes of israel so you've got god represented people represented then it says that moses sent young men of the sons of israel they offered vice young bulls as peace offerings to the lord so you got a couple of different kinds of sacrifices taking place burnt offerings

are what are called uh the hebrew there is ola a burnt offering is an ola peace offering is is actually the root of peace offering is from shalom it's like a well-being offering or uh it's an offering which communicates well-being to those who partake of it now these are different because burnt offerings are completely consumed at the altar the blood is placed in the altar the body is completely consumed so in a peace offering the blood is sprinkled on the altar but a portion of the animal is given back to this through the worshiper in order that he or she might cook it and eat it as a fellowship meal with others we'll talk more about peace offerings in the future but keep in mind that difference so burnt offerings are completely consumed

peace offerings blood is put on the altar but then the the the body of the animal is given back for basically a sacred barbecue with your with your family or with your with your community so we've got these two offerings that are made but we're not done yet because it says moses took and he put it in basins and then the other half of this blood he put on the altar these sacrificial victims their blood is drained and half of it's put against the altar and then what's it gonna do with the other half we'll find out in just a minute before it happens it says moses took the book of the covenant so whatever was in this book of the covenant presumably the laws and the promises of god and he reads it in front of the people and again they say all that the lord has

spoken we will do and we will be obedient moses took the blood the blood that had been in the basins and he sprinkles it on the people and said behold the blood of the covenant which the lord has made with you in accordance with all these words now this is some amazing stuff here you've got half of the blood altar which is connected with god and the other half is placed upon the people is sprinkled or or splashed upon them there's a lot of things we've talked about here i don't know how much time we have but let me let me point out a couple of them first of all Notice that this sacrificial blood first touches God. That is the altar.

It touches that which represents God, his place of action. So the blood goes on the altar before it goes on the people. And the fact that the blood is placed upon the people after it's placed upon the altar means that this blood has been connected with God himself. this blood is is full of life this blood is full of divine blessing this blood is full of every everything that god desires to give to his people and so when it when it's placed upon them sprinkled or splashed upon them it might seem gross to us being splashed with blood but what's what's being given here of god in a very unforgettable and tangible sort of way so god doesn't just speak his promises on the people he actually puts the blood of the promises on the

people and in so doing he sanctifies them he makes them holy he gives to them the blessings of the covenant and this is the blood of the covenant now that's got to remind us of something else right indeed at least in uh church uh we celebrate the lord's supper every every sunday and uh so i hear the the words that jesus spoke in the upper room to his disciples every every sunday and when i hear about the the blood of the covenant my mind goes back to exodus 24 because that is that is the parallel to this because you've got the blood of the covenant sprinkled on the people in the old testament making them god's own conveying his blessings to them in a tangible way and then here we are gathered around a different altar but from this altar god does still the same thing that

But the God who was splashed with his own blood now gives that blood to us in order that we might drink of the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has made with us. And when God was, he's he's giving us he's giving us sanctification. He's making us holy. He's giving us justification. He's giving us all the blessings that that Christ has acquired for us by his bloody death on the altar of the cross. I love how everything gets ramped up to when when Jesus comes along, because so you you might be like sprinkled with some blood and, you know, declared God's own or forgiven or whatever. uh jesus comes along and instead of just you know sprinkling his blood on you puts his blood in you uh because what we know is true is that we're way dirtier inside than outside right uh

and uh it's it's so that this there's this thing about the lord's supper and and everything that the sacrificial system then is going to ultimately point to which of course is is christ uh dying for the sins of the world but then giving you and applying that blood to you there's there's a union there that isn't the same i can get something on me but it's not the same as getting something in me right and uh and so when jesus comes along and institutes the lord's supper it becomes this this this union that happens where it's like this is me for you and i'm going to put it in you uh and i'm going to be in you and you're going to be in me and we are going to be united and one in an

inseparable way. It's sort of like when there's blood mingled together there's no you can't separate it out. You can't get it out. It's all together now and that's how you and Christ are as opposed to

this thing with the old covenant where this is happening and it's obviously we have the writers of the New Testament say the blood of bulls and rams never actually had the power

to forgive sins I don't think that this is nothing I don't think that it's a fake forgiveness of any kind but that it is speaking to an ultimate forgiveness

that will come I think that the blood of the bulls and rams or goats or whatever of themselves don't possess any power but uh when god knows that christ is coming he uh he uh he those things are efficacious because of the efficacious blood of christ that is coming and so we all we get the ultimate reality of that and uh and we get to and we partake of it differently because of that yeah absolutely i i like to think of the blood of the sacrifice to the old testament as

as the physical element that contained within it these promises of god which would be given and finally in the in the blood of of christ so it's like the blood of christ was within that within that blood so the blood of animals in and of itself had no power but the promises connected with it did and uh like you said everything was ramped up in the new testament we have this over and over expressed in the book of hebrews you know so much better so much better is what we have now than what they had in the old testament there's there's this move from the inferior to the superior from the lesser to the greater have that uh expressed most clearly in connection with what we just read in hebrews chapter 10 the author of hebrews has been talking about how

Christ is the fulfillment of the tabernacle and the sacrificial system and the priesthood and everything else. And here's how he kind of put that together in application to us. He says, this is Hebrews 10, 19. He says, since therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he inaugurated for us through the veil that is his flesh, great priest over the house of god so he's kind of pulled everything together we've got the holy place entered by the blood of jesus his flesh is the veil he's the priest over the house of god because all of that is true let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of

faith having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water hey all i all i know is uh your heart is on the inside it's the only one way you're going to get blood to your heart yeah so i mean that's that that's that beautiful pulling together here so our bodies are washed with pure water this this baptismal cleansing we have and our hearts are sprinkled clean but of jesus inside us as we consume that in the supper and because of that We can enter this house of God We can enter to the Father's presence In full

As we are washed clean Our hearts are sprinkled by the blood of Jesus We are inseparably Bound to the one who has Prepared the way for us Amen, and we're out of time That's a good way to end it though I like it

Hey guys, real quick Here We Still Stand conference, October 19-21 Podcast listeners only If you want to go to that conference, and you do want to go, if for some reason you think, do I want to go? Let me assure you, the answer is yes. Yes, you do want to go. And if you want to go and you want to get 10% off those ticket prices,

as many tickets as you want to buy, you can go to the checkout at herewestillstand.org, get your ticket, and then there's a code box, and you can type in 40OT, 40 minutes in the OT, and you can get 10% off those ticket prices. So me and Chad will be there doing one of these podcasts live from the event. We'd love to meet you and hang out with you. Hopefully you can go over there and check out the lineup of speakers. It's incredible.

It's going to be in San Diego. The whole thing is just going to be a ridiculous thing to miss, so don't do it. Be there. Hang out with us. Chad, we will see you next week, man. All right, man. See you then. ¶¶