BibleProject - Exodus 19-40: Q + R

Episode Date: April 5, 2017

This summer we are re-releasing a Q+R series we did on Youtube. Tim and Jon discuss questions in front of a live Youtube stream about different books in the Old Testament. In this episode the guys discuss stories in the second half of the book of Exodus. Thank you to all our supporters! You are so meaningful to us! Q's and Timestamps: What is the relationship between the Sinai Covenant and the rest of the Bible? (3:27) Is there any symbolism in the tabernacle that’s recognizable? (9:10) Why do the ten commandments appear more than once in the Torah? (13:50) Did other cultures adopt Hebrew laws? And what is the relation between Hebrew laws and other ancient laws like the code of Hammurabi? (24:34) and (26:15) Did God change his mind about destroying Israel? (27:15) What is manna in the Old Testament? (38:28) Did God actually expect Israel to follow all the laws in the Old Testament? (42:20) Links: Original video conversation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNpTha80yyE&t=5s Exodus videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0GhR-2kPKI Music Credits: Defender Instrumental by Rosasharn Music

Hey, this is Cooper at Bible Project. I produce the podcast in Classroom. We've been exploring a theme called the City, and it's a pretty big theme. So we decided to do two separate Q and R episodes about it. We're currently taking questions for the second Q and R and we'd love to hear from you. Just record your question by July 21st

and send it to us at infoatbiboproject.com. Let us know your name and where you're from, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds and please transcribe your question when you email it in, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds, and please transcribe your question when you email it. That's a huge help to our team. We're excited to hear from you. Here's the episode.

Hey, this is John at the Bible Project. In this episode of the podcast, we're going to look at the second part of our conversation on our YouTube live stream that we did over a year ago. It was a question and response episode with fellow YouTubers on the Book of Exodus. This is Exodus 19 through 40. If you've been listening to these Q and R's this summer on our podcast, you'll know the audio isn't as good as it normally is, and so we apologize for that. Today we're gonna get into questions like,

did God actually expect Israel to follow all the laws and the Old Testament? And is there anything symbolic that we should care about in the Old Testament, Tabornakl? Thanks for listening, here we go. Hey guys, How you doing? Welcome to the Bible Project live stream Q and R time.

Q and R. Not Q and A. That's right. Question and response. Today we're going to go through Exodus 19 through 40. We've done two different videos on it, one in the Torah series, which is the fully animated one that came out a couple years ago. Then the read scripture series came out earlier this year, and it walks through this poster here.

I don't know if you can see it. Oh, yeah, you can't see it. We already have a bunch of questions coming in. It's great. Keep asking your questions here on the live feed. What we do is we mark them on a spreadsheet, and then we can look at them and keep up on them. So the more the merrier, this is Exodus.

And just as a quick little summary, just so we're all on the same page, this is like the Exodus story that you're familiar with, where Moses and the 10 plagues and getting out of Egypt. Yep. And then 19 through 40 is coming to Mount Sinai, getting the covenant. And we'll maybe talk about that.

The Ten Commandments, all these other laws, building the Tabernacle as a big part of this. Yeah, yeah. Blue Prince. This is the part in the story of the Torah where through Genesis, it's like Achenpack, Exodus story, just the narratives flowing, exciting, and then at chapter 19, the story just grinds to a screeching halt almost. And the stories come in snippets,

and in between the snippets of stories are huge blocks of laws. So something really radical changes. And what's interesting, most people are familiar with the Exodus story, but once people get them out Sinai, most people actually stop reading the Bible. Yeah, it's kind of where it gets really tough. Yeah, so a lot of people drop out of the story, but these are crucial, crucial parts of the Bible story. Yeah, so excited about that. You read through the Blueprints of the Tabernacle once. Right. You feel like a hero.

Yeah. And then you got to read through again. Read through again. You're like, why am I doing this? Yeah. And then the Golden Caff incident, which you're probably familiar with as a story, and then Moses pleading with God.

And at the very end, you can't enter this beautiful tabernacle that they made. So that's the outline of the story. We have a bunch of questions. Keep sending them in and when we'll jump in. Yes. Actually, a kick-puncher asked a great question overall, broad here, about how... What happens once we get to chapter 19? Kick-puncher, you asked, how does the Sinai covenant fit into the overall story? One, which is great question. So yeah, Israelites come out of their slavery in Egypt and then through the wilderness here and Moses leads them to the foot of Mount Sinai, which was pointed to actually all

the way back here in chapter 3 that they would come here. And so what God enters into is a covenant, which isn't the first time that you've heard that word in the story line of the Torah. Did you hear it with Abraham first? Yeah, it's connected with Abraham, a covenant with Abraham, a covenant with Noah and all creation in chapter nine. So covenants is actually one of the main ways the author of the Pentateuch has brought coherence and unity to the storyline.

So the Covenant with Noah was to make the world a secure place where God would carry out the drama of what he was going to do to rescue humanity. And then the covenant with Abraham, and the family of Abraham, was his commitment to bring blessing, restore his blessing to all humanity and the rebellious nations. The word covenant itself is not a word we use a lot.

I remember we were making the covenant video, we talked about it, but we use the word in marriage. The covenant of marriage. Yes, yes, yes. That's right. And so, what does that mean to them, that it's a covenant? Yeah, it means partnership.

It's like an official signing, a formalized partnership between two people to accomplish some goal together. So, what's interesting? Sort of kings made covenants with each other back then. Kings made covenants. If you do this, give me your crops and this percentage and all that you use this land. And if you ever cross the boundary lines, I'll cut your head off. Something like that. That's the kind of... I mean, that's the kind of thing.

Yeah, that's how they work. It's like, you do this and this will happen. You don't do this and this will happen. Here's the consequence. So, it's interesting. The biblical story tells the story of the creator God who when he wants to redeem and rescue his world, he does it by entering into partnerships with humans. So that's interesting, you know, that's, if we might just think God ought to parachute little relief packets of salvation to everybody like UN helicopters. Or just come in and just be like, let me fix this.

Yes. I'm going to me fix this. Yeah. I'm redewing myself. Yeah. But get out of my way. Yeah, but the biblical story is about a God who wants to engage humans in the fullness of their dignity and responsibility and work through them. So the story of this real is God's commitment to somehow,

you don't know yet how exactly in the story, bring his blessing to all the nations through this family. And so the covenant that he makes with the nation of Israel here at Mount Sinai is kind of focusing in on the covenant with Abraham. And right here the opening words of chapter 19 when they come to Sinai, they're crucial, crucial. God says that he is asking the whole nation to obey the terms of the covenant, which are going to be revealed in the Ten Commandments and the laws that follow. And God says, if you obey the terms of the covenant, he uses two phrases. He says,

he says, you'll be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. And so priests are like mediators go between between a deity and a group of people. And so here you have a people group Israel who's going to be a go between the God of Israel and then the nations. Well it doesn't say it the foot of the mountain. Who their priests to you have to infer it. Right. But as a foot of the mountain. Who there priests to, you have to infer it. But as a reader of the story, they're going to have a whole kingdom full of priests. That's right. Yeah, one whole nation. Because normally a priest is going to serve the kingdom.

That's right. And now you've got people group there. And now you've got everyone's a priest. That's right. So that's all. Why would you have everyone be a priest? It's like everyone being a wood's worker. Yeah, it's a way of thinking about how many people.

Ancient Israel's vocation and purpose in the story that God chose one family or nation among all the other nations, and He's going to do something to them that makes them mediators of God to the nation. So that when other nations look at ancient Israel, obeying the terms of the covenant, they say, oh my gosh, these are unique people, we want to be like them. So just to land the plane, well, that question, it's a huge step forward in the storyline of the Torah because you realize now that it's going to be through this family of people

being faithful to the terms of the covenant. That's how the blessing, the divine blessing of Abraham's going to go out to all the nations. And so all these laws that they get are all like the terms of the agreement? Yep. Well, yeah, they're the author selecting from Israel's custody. Because we don't have the whole concept. Yeah, we don't have the whole body of laws that was revealed to Israel or that would form their constitution.

But the author of the Torah has selected 613 of them and placed them strategically within the story to give us a robust understanding of what it was like for them to live by that covenant with God. So that's how it fits in the storyline. Kick puncher, great question. Great question. And part of the covenant is the tabernacle as well then, because God's going to be there with them and that's what God's going to do all of it. So that's how it's all fits together. Yeah, actually, somebody had a question about the symbolism in the tabernacle.

Oh yeah. It was kind of cool. Oh yeah, Scott, Scott Noise right here. You asked, is there any cool symbolism in the detailed design of the tabernacle that modern readers wouldn't recognize? Oh, you betcha. Yeah, so here's what's interesting. We built it into the poster in the video in both versions of the video. We have two versions of the second half of Exodus.

That every part of the tabernacle design is loaded with Garden of Eden symbolism, or heaven and earth symbolism, which is actually all connected together. So the point is that the tabernacle, God's going to commission to people to be his priests, and then he's going to plant his Garden of Eden Presence, right, in the middle of it, in this tabernacle or temple where heaven and earth overlap. And so, yeah, all of the curtains have fruit trees, pomegranates, there's angelic creatures connected to those caravine creatures in the garden. So all of it is this recreation of Eden. It's a portable Eden.

This is what I call it. A portable Eden. A portable Eden. And it was a way of, which itself is just simple, that what Israel is is a people who embody what God wants for the whole world, which is for God's divine presence to flood. To be everywhere.

The whole creation and all of the nations. And even in Genesis, right, when we learn how God creates the world, there's a lot of, well, there's people who say that there's tabernacle language in there. Yes. That there's, or the... Oh, in Genesis 1, in Genesis 2. Yeah, with the days or... Correct. Yeah, in Genesis 1, in Genesis 1. Yeah, with the days or. Correct.

Yeah, that's right. There's lots of temple ideas and imagery going on in Genesis 1. So, what helps me is to remember that if you lived back at this time and you would be very familiar with temples and you would know this is a place where the God of that city dwells. And I go there to worship that God. And it's a sacred place. And when God creates the world, he kind of talks about the whole world being.

Just as that kind of place. That kind of place. And we learn later in the biblical narrative, that's the whole world is where God reigns. That's right. Yep, and so the biblical story ends in the new creation described in terms of a new Jerusalem or a new temple, but it's a place which is a temple therefore there doesn't need to be a temple.

Right. Because the presence of God and of the Lamb are there in the city, Garden of Eden. So at this point in the story though, God accommodates kind of what's going on. That's right. And says, I will live with you and dwell among you and so build me this. Yeah, Tabernacle. Yeah. So there's lots of, there's actually a lot of symbols in the tabernacle, really detailed ones, that we don't have access to what their ancient cultural meaning would have been. Like the length of the polls at the priesthood to carry or why are there so many layers of curtains

over the holy space. But then some are more clear because they've are mentioned elsewhere in the Bible about the angelic creatures, the gold and precious jewels as an image of sacred uniqueness, that kind of thing. So as you're reading through, there's all kinds of details that are strange, but there's all kinds of details that should trigger echoes of the garden and all that kind of thing. This could turn into a big conversation about the tabernacle.

Someone just asked, how's that connected to Jesus? Because there's the time where Jesus is in front of the temple, and he's like tear down this temple and I'll rebuild it, and he's referring to himself. So he's saying, like, I am actually the tabernacle. I'm the temple. Yes. John refers to him as the tabernacle.

John refers to Jesus as God's tabernacle presence in a human. So this is a very rich, there's so much there that could be talked about. Yeah, the temple theme here is one of the main red threads that holds the storyline of the whole Bible. All the way to the very end of the Bible when there is no temple anymore. So we traced it in the Heaven and Earth's video. That was a place where we did that, but there's much more. We could do a whole other video. We could do a temple video that would be really cool.

That would be cool. Yeah, so good questions. Yeah, thanks guys. Let's see, somebody asked something about the 10 Commandments I saw. Ooh, I don't know how to say your name. I think it's an abbreviation. Aglopic. Aglopic 1.

No, a glow pick. A glow pick. Maybe that's a glow pick 1. Who are you? Tell us about that name, a glow pick. 1. So you ask a question about the 10 commandments, but something that most people don't often think about.

And that's the fact that they appear more than one time in the Torah. There's a set of commandments. The Ten Commandments are given right here. It's the first terms of the covenant right after the setup in Chapter 19. 19, then they appear in Chapter 20. The Ten Commandments appear again in Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy, chapter

5. And then also there's a repetition of commands in the first block that get repeated again in chapter 34, which we mention, we don't quite mention in the poster right here, but you're exactly right. So here's something really significant where in the storyline of what happens at Sinai is that God gives the Ten Commandments and another block of commands. And all as we put in the poster here. All that is your life, you're like, yes, we are so down for this.

Right, that's chapter 24. Then what comes immediately after that is the block of Tabernacle Blueprints. So we're like, this thing's rolling for relationship setup. Make it a sweet pad for God to hang out in. That's right. But the narratives on pause, you're just getting the laws and the blueprints.

The last thing you heard out of the people's mouth is sinus up for it. The next moment in the narrative is right here at Chapter 32, where Moses has been up on the mountain for a while, and the people immediately, with the absence of Moses as their leader, they look up at the glory cloud, and what they immediately want to do is reduce

the significance of their God, and rescue them down to a physical shape that they have categories for. So they make the golden cat. They start taking off their jewelry. Yeah, I love how Aaron's like, yeah, we just started throwing stuff in the fire and then outpump this cat.

It's right, I don't know how it happened. Yeah, here we go. He's sorry, Moses. Such a blamesh if you're out there. So the narratives trying to say something very significant. First of all, the human tendency is to reduce the divine down to categories that we can handle and make sense of, and that we're fickle and inconsistent creatures, humans are. And so, the moment, one moment, they have hearts full of devotion, and the next moment,

I mean, in making the Golden Calf, they're violating the first terms of the covenant that they just said yes. The very number one term. Which for readers, is you read the story, you're like, what, these idiots, these people? But that's how the story works. That's because it's making you,

as the reader, kind of feel a little bit superior to them. And that's often true in biblical narratives. They depict the characters as idiots. So you think you're better than them until you realize that you are them and that the narrator has been getting you to smile about punching you in the gut at the same time. So that's how the story works, is saying that God's people

from the start have been an unfaithful, unreliable bunch. So, this started because there's two versions of the Ten Commandments. Yes, yeah, that's right. You're getting there. I'm getting there. So, what God does, and there are some questions about this that we'll talk about, God wants to call off the covenant, that's what he feels like.

He says, I'm over these people. Yeah, which people want to talk about? Yeah, too. And then Moses intercedes on behalf of the people and reminds God that he's signed on the dotted line. And God says, oh, yeah, I did that. So then what he does is he repeats a whole block of the commands again.

From here, he repeats them here as a way of reestablishing and healing the covenant relationship. So that's why the repetition of the commands there. So it's just important to recognize that the laws aren't there. The laws are not there to make the first five books of the Bible into a constitution. The laws are there because they help you to make sense of the flow of the story. The story is the thing. And that's what most modern readers, because there's so many, we always flow of the story. The story is the thing. And that's what most modern readers,

because there's so many, we always track of the story. And we think that somehow these books are all about the law. Which is the story of the Covenant. It's a good thing to bring up because a lot of people are asking about that. So like how are we supposed to view observe the Sabbath day? That's from Nidahe, Fide, sorry, that's bad pronunciation. Someone else I just saw in the livestream asked how are Christians supposed to obey these laws. So just in general, what I have heard you say before when we worked on the law video, which we have a whole video on the law, which is a helpful starter.

But we did a long podcast discussion about answering both of those questions in detail. So that would be more detail, but just briefly, what I remember is that even in this story, kind of what you just said, we don't get the full constitution, we don't get every single law. So the point obviously isn't to try to give you a complete set of rules to live by. Right. So that's just as a thesis statement. The purpose of the first five books of the Bible

is not to give you the reader the terms of the covenant precisely that you, the reader, are supposed to relate to God by. Even if you are an Israelite reading this, you wouldn't give you that. Oh, right. Well, sure, because like an Asian Israelite is living in... Right. They have, they have the covenant otherwise.

They are people existing in that covenant relationship. So if I'm in Israel, I say like in second temple time. Yeah. And I'm reading the Torah. Yes. I'm not, even as an Israelite, who wants to follow the covenant to a T. Mm-hmm. I'm not using this as my complete.

Well, that gets more into the history of Judaism, because that's what the Torah became. Okay. It became the Constitution. Okay. And it's actually even become that by the time period of Ezra and I and the temple. But to make the Torah work as a law code,

you need more than the 613 laws that are in it, which is why in Jewish tradition, the Mishnah and the Talmud come along and provide thousands of more commands to actually make it workable. So that's the first thing. Is that, alone tells us that, oh, if this is meant to be a law book, it's not a very good one. Not very complete. That's right. And they could have alphabetized it or something. Yeah, that's not a very good one. Right, not very complete. That's right.

And they could have alphabetized it or something. Yeah, that's right, given us an index. So what that tells us is that the purpose of these laws is to help us understand the story. And the story is about these are the terms of the covenant relationship between God and ancient Israel by which they were to be a kingdom of priests to the nations. In the earliest Jesus communities, this became a huge point of contention because the resurrected Jesus is king of all the nations

and he commissions them to go out to all the nations, his disciples who were all Jewish. And so very quickly, there's this debate going, if I'm gonna be a follower of Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, do I need to become an Israelite? And especially things like Sabbath, circumcision of males, men. Because these are really obvious outwardly signs. Like you know when someone's obeying the Sabbath or not really clearly.

That's correct. It's hang out with them for a week. That's correct. Or we can't. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, totally. totally, yeah, exactly right. And you'll get it. And so this is what the Book of Acts and what we discover in the letters of Paul and Hebrews is that the early Jewish leaders of the Jesus movement discerned, they believed by the leading of the Spirit, that non-Jewish followers of Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, did not have to relate to God by those covenant terms.

Because Jesus, through his death and resurrection, reshaped the whole covenant story around himself. And Jesus himself actually summarized the purpose of all the laws in the Torah to love God and love neighbor. And so what we see is, yeah, non-Jewish converts weren't asked to also adhere to the Sabbath or the kosher food diet. They can if they want to. And those laws also look, well, that's the third part.

So that's where the Jesus movement landed, is that it was a multi-ethnic movement, not just for Jewish people, therefore the terms of covenant change. But as you read through these laws, and we'll get to more of them in Leviticus, and we'll do that, and more in numbers, but as you read through these laws, you don't dismiss them though, it's just like, okay, this is for the ancient Israelites. Right, right, right, right, right. Because doesn't Paul say there's a lot of wisdom, God gave his wisdom.

Oh, yeah, immense. Yeah, so, Samoza says in Deuteronomy chapter 4 that if Israel lives by these laws, the nations will look on and say who are wise and understanding people who live by these righteous laws that their God gave them. So the laws are contextualized to iron age, agricultural, rural communities for the most part. So they're not dropped out of heaven for everybody everywhere. They're very specific to where Israel was as a nation, but they're a step forward in terms of economics and justice and they really are. They're hard for us as modern readers because we

compare the laws to Western law that has been shaped by the ethic of biblical law in history. So we look at them as backwards in where they occur in history. They're really at the cutting edge. And I know I've had this conversation so many times with people like, really? Like you read some of the laws and they seem brutal. And you're like, well, if you live in nature Babylon, you would much prefer to live in nature in Israel in comparison. It's a big step forward. Yeah.

So, for us as modern readers, I think that's where we go to these laws to discern wisdom. And we see Paul the apostle himself who says, yeah, we don't live by the terms of the sign I covenant, but he will quote laws about what you do with your ox. And then he used it to provide guidance for Christians at Corinth. It's the first Corinthians chapter nine. So he still uses the laws as a source of guidance and wisdom

as, but for wisdom, not as the terms by which he relates to God. Cindy just, Cindy Thelon just asked, did other ancient cultures adopt any of the Jewish laws? Oh, that's interesting, you know. In the ancient world, like second temple period, we know that the Jewish way of life was really attractive to many Greeks and Romans. The Roman world was similar in many ways to the modern West because of the road system, super mobile, disconnected, you know families were as you know in coherent as most modern

Western families. And so the Jewish way of life, super family center, traditional, a very clear world view, moral, it was attractive. And so, even now, I have a lot of friends who are not Jewish, who like to keep Jewish festivals and the Sabbath, because of those reasons. Very family-oriented, it's a beautiful way to live. And so, there's wisdom in that. Absolutely, there's wisdom. Yeah, so, I mean, I'm a pastor.

So, I'm a huge advocate and I've taught, I've challenged my whole church to adopt a Sabbath practice. I do it myself. It's not the terms by which I relate to Jesus. I don't think that he smiles on me more. If I do this, but I think I'm a stupid human, if I don't learn the wisdom of Sabbath. So I think that's how these laws,

these laws are guiding us in a way to be wise humans. So there's wisdom in creating a sacred rhythm to our years and remembering our foundation stories as families and as Christians and building that into our calendar. So that's all stuff you pick up from the laws. Ava Shink just asked, Humrabi's code is that? Similar to the Ten Commandments? Yeah, it's really interesting. If you... the Wikipedia in Google it, the ancient code of Humrabi, which was a Babylonian king, predates ancient Israel by a few centuries. And what you find, there's numerous laws in this

block of laws right here, especially in chapters 22 and 23 of Exodus, that are almost verbatim to laws from the code of homerope. So what it shows is that the way God is even instituting justice in Israel, it's situated in ancient and Eastern culture. It's not dropped out of heaven. God is working with Israel where they are at and then pushing them forward. So yeah, the code of homerabi stuff, there's about a dozen laws that are nearly verbatim. It's really cool. Interesting. That's really interesting. Yeah, totally. Okay, should we tackle, interesting. Yeah, totally. Okay, should we tackle, there's a really tough question about did God change his mind? Yes, yes, yes. So maybe I bet a lot of people want to hear about that. Yes, totally. So, oh, that's Ava again. Yeah, Ava, you were the first one. Ava, good

question. Good question. But I see other people have asked about it too. Here's how Ava said it. If Moses could convince God to change his mind about the strung Israelites, what does this indicate about God's sovereignty and being all knowing? Will he change his mind about our lives too? I think that's a very practical question. But I think another way to kind of talk about this is why discuss it and talk about it as God changing his mind.

It seems such a weird thing for us to say. So part of it, there's a narrative moment right here at the Golden Calf. Yeah, set it up, bro. And then what happens is the challenge here is there's a moment in this narrative of the Golden Calf where God says he's going to do something, and then he doesn't do it. And what we want to do is abstract that moment out of the Golden Calf where God says he's going to do something and then he doesn't do it.

And what we want to do is abstract that moment out of the story. So we just said podcast mode, so I just was smiling about that. We're in podcast mode. We want to talk about a philosophical question about God's changeability or something. And that's interesting, but the story is not trying to answer that speculative question about whether God can change his mind or not. That's interesting, but the story is not trying to answer that speculative question. About whether God can change his mind or not. The point of the story, the point is how committed is God to his covenant promises, even when

his covenant partners completely fail and are unfaithful to him. So what God says is, He says He's angry at Israel for violating the terms of the covenant. I mean this would be like if you sign a contract with a business partner and then they go out from the meeting. Right. And go like, well it's like you get married and you like have the covenant. Yeah. And then as soon as you say I do, you sneak away. The husband sneaks out on the honeymoon. Right. On the honeymoon. And goes to sleeping around. Yeah. Like that's what that's how bad it is. That sneaks out on the honeymoon. Right, on the honeymoon. And goes to sleeping around. Yeah. Like that's how bad it is.

That's the gravity of the story. And so God sitting here going, really guys? Yeah. Like I'm over this. So he says, first of all, that he's angry. And then he tells Moses, he says, leave me alone. I'm going to destroy them. Now, if you've ever had somebody break your heart, that's how you feel.

So, you're definitely going to have you feel. Now, I don't know if you have problems with the fact that God apparently feels deep, deep emotions, and will express them verbally, but that's precisely what the narrative's depicting, that God feels emotion, especially God feels pain of broken relationships on a deep level, and that He verbalizes them before he acts on them. Which is good news for us. So, and then what's interesting is who does he tell that to? He verbalizes it to Moses.

Now, I don't know if you've ever had this moment in a relationship where things are tense, and where you say to somebody like leave me alone, but it's actually the last thing in the world you want them to do is to leave you alone. And so what Moses does immediately is respond by saying no, he won't leave this matter alone. And what happens is essentially that God in this argument ends up inviting Moses in to a role of partner in how the covenant gets preserved. And Moses has no, for two reasons, bad PR, bad public relations. That's the second reason, right? That's the second reason.

Let's hear one second. I think it's actually the first. Okay, that's fine. Yeah, the first one, this is bad PR with the Egyptians. Right. You're not going to look at these people and now you're going to destroy them. So first of all, it's not good on your name. And then second of all, remember the covenant you swore Abraham, Ison Jacob, you're going

to bless all the nations through these people. But the covenant specifically will say if you do these things. So he's appealing to a covenant that they broke. So God could walk away from the covenant specifically will say, if you do these things. So he's appealing to a covenant that they broke. So God could walk away from the covenant, right? Yes, but what God is reminding God, what Moses is reminding God about is a covenant that they Abraham had no conditions. He says, remember Abraham Isaac and Jacob?

Yeah, I'm gonna, yeah, that's it. Yeah, okay. Because that covenant didn't have conditions, which I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna to, yeah, it's like, yeah, okay. Because that covenant didn't have conditions, which I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. So essentially what this story is actually to entertain is there is a deep conflict within God's own heart about the human story.

That he's committed to partnering with humans and that the future of the universe won't take place apart from humans. But he also has signed up knowingly with humans who are unfaithful and who are going to betray him which makes him really broken-hearted. And so what does God do? He doesn't bail. He also doesn't act on his emotions before... He also doesn't act in through. He also doesn't act on his emotions before...

He also doesn't act in through. He also doesn't act like a robot and pretend he doesn't care. And he's like, well, I'm going to do it anyways, because I promised. Yeah, and he also just doesn't dismiss it. Like, oh, no big deal. Yeah. You know, his relight will be his relight. You know, he's like, they're evil and idolatry is real and it's destructive.

And so the story is setting up this tension within God's own being that is going to get resolved later on in the story because who's going to be the faithful covenant partner that God's looking for, the Israel right from the beginning is not. And that's where the incarnation becomes such a powerful moment in the story of Jesus. Where Jesus becomes the faithful Israelite covenant partner that the nation was called to be but never failed to be. So God has to become his own human covenant partner.

Yeah. He shakes his own hand. Yeah. So in terms of changing his mind, what God does not do is change his mind with regard to his long-term covenant purposes. But he might not actually go through with this specific deal with Israel. So it's interesting, there's multiple times where God warns somebody about judgment

or says I'm going to judge, and either there's an intercessor or the people repent. And those are the moments where we hear God relented or changed his disposition. God never changes his mind that word is never used to describe God. Whether he's going to be faithful to his own promises. Correct. It's always with regard to judgment. Interesting. I'm going to judge somebody, somebody repents or somebody intercedes, then God changes his mind. So God will change his mind about judging people. So God will change his mind about judging people.

He'll never change his mind about blessing people. That's the, that's the, that's interesting. That's the line of the vinyl. So does that then, should we take away from that, that we should intercede a lot, like for God to not, for justice, not to cling to it? Well, I think before we go to do that,

we just say Moses becomes this model, prophetic intercessor there. Yeah. And what the story sets you up is that, boy, what God's people really need, where would God's people be without somebody to stand in that place in the role of intercessor? And what it sets you up for is for the role of Israel's prophets in the story, as these go between, but ultimately for the Messianic prophet King,

who will covenant with David and that God will appoint a King to play this very role on behalf of the people. Namely Jesus. And then that merges into the suffering servant. So I think this is creating a, it's almost like a help wanted sign, it's Moses as well of saying, dear reader, if this story is going to move forward, we better have a Moses-type person and wanted, inquire within, Moses-like intercessor. Scott said, I'm going to admit, when it comes to interceding against judgment, I'm a lot more like Jonah than Moses.

Yeah. Yeah, I don't. Just like, yeah, how do you think Moses felt? Yeah. He was pretty bummed too. Yeah. That's a very honest reaction. Yeah.

These chapters are so, and they reveal something so powerful about, oh, and that's why, right after God forgives, well, he brings judgment, actually, we can talk about that, but he forgives, then he restates the covenant, repeats the bunches of the laws, and then we get the most re-quoted line throughout the whole Old Testament stated in God describes himself after the Golden Caff incident in Exodus 34 verses 6 and 7, which is the Lord is gracious and compassionate. He's slow to anger. He's the bounding and

covenant faithfulness. He forgives. He loves to forgive, but he won't let... Co-Trend right here, yeah. Those... Oh yeah, there it is. Yeah, he won't leave the wicked unpunished. So this becomes the summary statement that we learn about God's character, and there's way, way more covenant, compassion, and forgiveness language than there is anything else. So what we walk away from Mount Sinai learning is that God has signed up for a whole long story of getting wounded and hurt by unfaithful people, but that's worth it to God and he'll put up with it to

accomplish his plan in the long run. And so this moment with Moses interceding is setting up this need for an intercessor. Correct. Which then points to Jesus. It's awesome. Yes, it is awesome. The Bible is awesome. It's one so profound. It's one unified story that leads to Jesus.

That's right. Okay. We got 15 more minutes. Yeah. What else should we have? I picked out some other questions. Okay. And one of them was that I read something in Hebrew.

Oh. So I thought I'll read the God's description of himself in Exodus chapter 34. Because, and this is for any of you geeks, Exodus 34 verses 6 through 7 is the most reused and re-quoted line within the Old Testament. It's quoted about a dozen more times in the Psalms and Protestant books. So anyway, so here you go. Yeah? To do it.

Great. I don't feel like I'm a character in Lord of the Rings or something right now. I just read an Elvish. That sounds like Elvish or something. Not Seabrew, not Elvish. Yeah, so beautiful. Yeah. Cool. Okay, let's see, Jonathan O, you had a question about the mana, the famous mana that the

Israelites ate in the wilderness is mentioned here in the wilderness for the first time. What is it? We talked about it actually in the video on numbers because it plays a big role in the stories there. But, well, yeah, what is it? Because it's good. He's got bachelors in Bible of theology. John, what is the Hebrew meaning of the word manah? What is it?

That's the question right. So yeah, the manah occurs right here. He leads, it is realites. They have a, they grumble about being thirsty. They grumble about not having meat. They say, oh, that we were back in Egypt sitting by pots of meat. A pot of meat. I like that one.

And leeks and onions. And now they got this stuff that you're just like, what's that? What God provides is, yeah, mana. And it's not described in Exodus. It's described in a little bit more detailed in numbers as some kind of sticky, yellowish, resin-like substance. So yeah, that doesn't sound very appetizing. And it would appear like do, like the morning dew would evaporate and it would be this

resin crust on the ground. So you know, what's going on there. Yeah, it was such a confusing and I guess not appetizing thing that the name forever was just, what is that? Ryan Wilson says instant mashed potatoes from heaven with no water. Yeah. Add milk, says David. So yes, so first of all, it's a whatever the Israelites experience in the wilderness, they didn't have even language for it. So we just need to let that be what it is. But obviously in the story, it becomes the fact that Israel's existence as a nation comes

as just the daily provision of God's grace as he carries them through the wilderness. And so Moses will pick up the significance of the manna in the book of Deuteronomy as that Israel doesn't live just by bread alone, and then he recalls the manna story, but rather they exist by the word of God. So Israel lived hand to mouth in the wilderness and that's a really significant part of their story. That's why they were called to such extreme generosity with the laws, because they know what it's like to live hand to mouth. And Jesus, I think actually Jesus in the Lord's Prayer, alludes to the manna with the daily bread.

You think so? Yeah, absolutely. Oh, cool. Yeah. Yeah. What he's saying is a follower of Jesus is someone who treats each day his life and food as a gift. You don't take it for granted. And so you intentionally live as if you live hand to mouth. Even if you don't, you say this daily prayer gives today our daily bread to recognize that's the reality. Even if I pretend like I'm okay and everything's stable, the reality is I live like the Israelites and wilderness. For sure that's what he's alluding to. Yeah, which is such a crazy way to try to live. I mean that's how hard that's hard. It is hard. It's super hard. That's like very yeah so much faith. So yeah yeah there's realites in the wilderness as a huge theme that gets picked

up all throughout the rest of the Bible, prophets, the Psalms and New Testament. Yeah anyway good question Jonathan. That was good. That was good stuff. Yeah, what else we have? Someone asked a good question about Greg, lesbian, loose bee. This comment following back to the laws, but our conversation earlier, but yes, did God expect the Israelites

to actually follow and obey all of the covenant laws? Wait, so it, was that quite like, did God just give them the laws knowing, this is gonna be too much for you, but this is something to shoot for. Is that like what you're saying? Yeah, what's interesting is that, yeah, modern, especially modern readers of the laws,

they're so foreign to us culturally and there's so many of them all in one spot in the Torah that yeah we do it seems ridiculous to try to tell you and there's one layer of that that that's just kind of like a bit of a closed-minded cultural arrogance right because there are many cultures that live by really really different traditions and practices yeah and here's here's one right here in the Bible. But for some reason, we're kind of like, and I'm not saying Greg that this was the intent of your question, but it made me think of multiple times where I've been teaching or something

and people are like, I'm sure glad I don't have to live under those laws. And it's like, well, I understand that, but at the same time, they're really remarkable. And given their point in history, these laws would have felt like a shelter if you had been living in Egypt. The way it protects women more than other cultures and orphans and widows and the justice involved. Yeah. So, yeah, life in Asia-Israel was way better than life in ancient Egypt because of these laws.

So yes, I think God gives the laws with a full expectation that the Israelites will live by them. And there's one sense in which it was attainable. Like Israel, for the most part, oh, sorry, throughout their biblical history, in the first temple period, they did not. Second temple period. They locked it down. Yeah, many. I mean, Paul, the apostle. Even after being a follower of Jesus, he said, listen, when I was a Pharisee, I was blameless with regard to following the laws. But even he can recognize that even

though he can say that in print, he was blameless in his heart And spirit. He knew that he was an idolater along with the rest. And that was Jesus' point. Totally. Yeah. So he did expect him to live by the laws, but that they didn't, wasn't a surprise. That's part of the point of this work. And if you live by the laws, which was the expectation,

it doesn't mean your perfect person because underneath of that, you could still be an idolatry. Correct, an idolatry. Yeah, that's what Romans chapter 2 and 3 is all about. Cool. Yeah. So yes, Israel is supposed to follow the laws. Yes, they were.

And they were held accountable for not doing it. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Bible Project podcast. You can find all of our videos on our YouTube channel, youtube.com slash the Bible Project, and you can find lots of free resources like study guides, full resolution posters, at thebibelproject.com. Thanks for being a part of this with us. you