Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Friendship with God | Torah | Exodus 24

Episode Date: July 11, 2022

What should your relationship with God look like? How would you describe fellowship with God? What is your view of God? In today's episode, Keith looks at Exodus 24 to describe how God calls us to friendship with him. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Exodus 24

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. My name is Keith Simon, and right now we're going through the Book of Exodus. H.G. Wells was a British author who was writing in the early 1900s, and Wells wrote some really good books, but he wasn't a fan of the church or Christianity. In the New Yorker magazine, Wells told a story about an Episcopalian clergyman, but don't get stuck on the denomination. It really doesn't matter in the story. But in the story, the Episcopalian bishop was the kind of man who always said pious things to people. When people with troubles came to him, he would just ask them,

Have you prayed about this? The bishop himself didn't pray much. He had life wrapped up in a neat little package. But one day, his life fell in on him, and he found himself overwhelmed. It occurred to the bishop that maybe he should take some of his own advice. So one Saturday afternoon, he entered the cathedral, went to the front, and knelt on the crimson rug. Then he folded his hands before the altar.

Then he began to pray. He said, Oh, God. And suddenly there was a voice. It was a crisp, business-like voice that said, well, what is it? The next day when the worshippers came to Sunday service, they found the bishop sprawled face down on the crimson carpet.

When they turned him over, they discovered that he was dead. Lines of horror were etched upon his face. What H.G. Wells was saying in this story is simply this. There are people who talk a lot about God who would be scared to death if they ever saw God face to face. Exodus 24, 9 to 11. Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abahou. Now, Nadab and Abahou are Aaron's son.

So in Moses, you have the prophet. And then in Aaron, Nadab and Abahou, you have the priests. Okay, so Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abahou, and the 70 elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. under his feet was something like pavement made of Vlapsus Luzuli, as bright blue as the sky. But God did not raise his hands against these leaders of Israelites. They saw God and they ate and drank. Can you imagine what it might be like to see God and eat and drink with Him to have a meal with God?

Sometimes I think we talk about God in a way that shows that we don't hold Him in much reverence. We sound a little chummy in the way we talk about God. God is our friend, but he's unlike any other friend we have. Even though he's our friend, he's still holy, holy, holy, like the angels saying about him in Isaiah 6. He's still a consuming fire. He's still full of beauty and glory. In Exodus 24, we have one of the most surprising stories in the whole Bible. It's surprising because looking at God, seeing God was supposed to be fatal.

Later, God says to Moses, no one may see. me and live. In 1 Timothy, Paul writes, God, the blessed and only ruler, the king of kings and the Lord of Lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen. Yet here we are told in this chapter that the leaders of Israel saw God and live to tell about it. This makes some Bible scholars is uncomfortable. And there's a long history of trying to kind of fix these verses to make them say something different than what they actually say. The problem with trying to evade what the Bible says is that the text is perfectly clear. These men fix their gaze upon God. The Bible is well aware

of the difficulties this raise because it adds that sentence, God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites. The raising of God's hands implies divine judgment through some disastrous display of supernatural power. By saying that this didn't happen, the Bible implies that it certainly could have happened and would have happened under normal circumstances. Israel's leaders were in real danger. A visual encounter with Almighty God put them in jeopardy of sudden death. Yet the Bible says, almost with a sense of surprise, that they did not die. By acknowledging the danger, the Bible confirms that these men really did see God. What exactly did they see? Well, strangely, enough, the Bible does not describe their vision of God at all. Nothing is said about his divine appearance.

Why? Well, it's hard to explain what God is like. How do you explain the infinite to the finite? How would you explain the internet to someone who lived in the 8th century? It would be impossible, wouldn't it? Where would you even start? I'm sure that's how they felt. They saw God and now they're responsible to tell other people what they saw? Well, that's an impossible task. How do you describe a God that is more beautiful than a sunset, that is pure than snow, more delightful than the best of foods, more faithful than the perfect mother, more awesome than all the forces of nature, more mesmerizing than the stars? The only thing the Bible specifically mentions is what was under God's feet.

And even this was hard to put into words. Moses said it was something like a pavement made of Lapis lazuli. Lapis lazuli is a brilliant blue stone that is usually opaque, but on this occasion was as clear as the blue sky. Maybe they don't say more about God's appearance because they never looked much higher than the bottom of God's feet. They seem to have become most intimately acquainted with the floor, which suggests that they fell on their faces to worship him. They took one look at God and immediately they lowered their gaze. This is the posture we should have every time we come into God's presence. He is a great God and we bow before him in humble adoration.

Moses and the elders of Israel were given some direct apprehension of the divine being in visible form. More than this the Bible does not say, so we should be careful not to speculate. Now this is the opposite of what the ancient pagans tried to do. People like the Canaanites and the Egyptians were always making images of God to look at. They would reduce God to some form of man or beast. Sadly, in just a few short weeks, the Israelites are going to do the exact same thing, fashioning a God into the form of a golden calf. So Moses and Aaron and Aaron's sons and the 70 elders went up and they saw God.

It was the most glorious thing they had ever seen or ever would see. To catch even a single glimpse of God is to behold the beauty that is dazzling beyond all imagination. Therefore, seeing God was all that these men. men could ever want. However, they were given a further privilege. They saw God and they ate and drank. The Bible does not indicate what Israel's leaders ate and drank that day, just like it doesn't tell us what they saw. But whatever they ate and drank, it was a meal of covenant fellowship. In those days, it was not in common for people making a covenant or an agreement to sit down and share a meal together afterward. For example, when Isaac made a covenant with King Abimelech in his army, he made a feast and they ate and drank together.

Jacob and Laban shared the same kind of meal when they were reconciled after Jacob's escape. Breaking bread with one another was a symbolic act of friendship. So Israel leaders eating and drinking on the mountain showed that they had fellowship with God. Few things establish a greater sense of fellowship than sharing a meal together. There is something about eating and drinking with other people that fosters friendship. Any gathering is more intimate when people share food and drink.

That's why it's so important for families to eat dinner together. It's why Thanksgiving dinner holds such prominent place in our culture, sharing a meal as a powerful symbol of belonging. Consider how significant it is, therefore, that the prophet, the priests, and the elders of Israel ate and drank with God, and that this happened in the context of worship. Remember, Exodus 24 is a worship service, and the service includes a sacramental meal, the sharing of food and drink that symbolized communion with God. The Bible often describes our relationship with God in terms of sharing a meal. The earliest example is Abraham, who welcomed a divine angel into his tent for dinner. That's found in Genesis 18. In Psalm 23, King David writes, You prepare a table before me.

Isaiah promised that one day God would sit down with his people at a great banquet. Here's what Isaiah 256 says. On this mountain, the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine, the best meats, and the finest wines. This was about God's coming kingdom when people from every nation would find a place at God's table. Then Jesus came as God's king, and he described his kingdom in terms of God's kingdom. of eating and drinking. Jesus says, Many will come from the east and the west,

and they will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus is inviting everyone to his table. He is not only the king of Israel. He's the king of the whole world. God is always busy handing out invitations to his feast. Every time Jesus is preached, people are invited to eat and drink with God. God is getting ready to throw the last and longest banquet of all.

That's found in Revelation 19, and it's called the Wedding Supper of the Lamb. The way to RSVP for that great banquet is to believe in Jesus Christ, to become one of his followers. Because one day, God will welcome everyone who trusts in Jesus to sit down at the feast that will never end. Until that day, until that moment that we sit at the table of Jesus, God has given us a meal to remember him, and that meal is the Lord's Supper. That's what we do in our worship service when we share in communion. We look forward to that heavenly feast, that wedding supper of the Lamb. What all the covenant feasts show us is that God wants to have a relationship with us.

He invites us to sit down with him and share a meal. He offers the kind of intimate fellowship we have with our closest family and friends. when we sit down together at the dinner table. Is this the kind of relationship that you have with God? Do you have such a close friendship that it's like sitting down to eat and drink with God? The way to have that kind of relationship with God is simply by becoming a follower of Jesus. Jesus said in Revelation 320, Here I am.

I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me. Jesus is ready. He's waiting to sit down and eat a meal with us. All we have to do is invite him into our life. All we have to do is surrender our life to him. Hey, thanks for listening. If you want to go deeper, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talk newsletter. You'll get a short email once a week. It'll challenge you to grow in your faith, give you interesting background on today's passage, and a lot, lot more. Just click the link in the show notes to sign up. It'll help you deepen your journey with Jesus. Thank you.