Month: November 2022

Exodus 33:4, 6 And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned, and no man did put on him his ornaments. And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the mount Horeb.

The people heard the bad news: God said He would not go up with them; He would send an angel before them instead. Their response: they mourned. They were saddened by this news. The God who had been with them could not be with them for the stiff-necked people would be consumed. They mourned in repentance as they realized that it was their unbelief that caused a separation: they could not go up without God. Separation is death; death is a separation. How could they go on without God?

Then they did not put on their ornaments. God said He would come in their midst and consume them, so they put off their ornaments. Putting off ornaments was an outward sign of inward repentance. The people instinctively knew that without God they were as good as dead. They responded by doing what God said and symbolically getting rid of anything getting between them and God.

We, too, need to fear that our sins would prevent the presence of the Lord from dwelling with us. We follow up repentance with tangible fruit, and because of Christ God will be with us. When the Lord threatens to withdraw His presence, His life, His peace, His protection, and His joy from us we repent, believe, and live. We respond to bad news by repenting and to good news by believing. Jesus is our Immanuel, God with us.

Exodus 32:11 And Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, Why doth thy wrath wax hot against Thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand?

After the Lord told Moses about the Golden Calf incident, He told him that He would consume them and make a great nation out of Moses. Moses interceded and prayed to the Lord to withhold His wrath and not destroy His people. In response to Moses’ intercession God repented of the evil which he thought to do.

Amazing! God listened to Moses’ intercessory prayer and changed His mind! Sure, maybe God never really intended destruction for He knew Moses would pray. Nevertheless, we must take God’s threats of wrath and eternal death seriously. He’s not kidding. Israel would have ceased being His people if Moses had not intervened.

Moses acted as High Priest, coming between God and humanity pleading mercy. In this way, Jesus is our High Priest interceding for us by His substitutionary death. God is pleased with the sacrifice of His Son, and for His sake forgives us and saves us from His deserved wrath and eternal damnation. And not only did Jesus intercede for us once and for all at the the cross, but He also continues to intercede for us daily, pleading mercy on account of His own shed blood. We are daily and richly forgiven and cleansed.

Now, once we have received Christ as our Priest and Savior, we become intercessors, pleading the blood of Christ for our family, friends and neighbors. Beseeching the Lord is our response to the saving intercession of Christ on our behalf.

God’s holy wrath is real, but His love is stronger. And when we see that God has changed his mind toward us, we change our minds, that is, repent and believe the Gospel.

Exodus 32:7-8 And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou brought east out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped and sacrificed there unto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

The Lord tells Moses His view of what the people are doing: they have responded to My words of Law and deeds of Gospel by making and worshipping another god; in doing so they have corrupted themselves and turned aside from Me, My way, and My will. He interprets their blatant disobedience of the First Commandment as corruption. They have made themselves to be filthy, foul-smelling, and ugly. They didn’t even know what their disbelieving disregard and disobedient response did to them, how corrupt they made themselves.

We sinners also don’t realize how corrupt we make ourselves and how disgusting we appear to God every time we sin, every time we distrust, and every time we disobey. If we could see, smell, taste and experience how corrupt we are when we sin we probably wouldn’t do it again. He must reveal to us how awful sin, pride and unbelief make us look, so He holds up the mirror of the Law. We repent and receive by faith the cleansing flood of the blood of Jesus. His Gospel refreshes, restores, renews us. And we promise once again to not disappoint God or corrupt ourselves again.

Exodus 32:1 And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt we know not what has become of him.

Moses delayed in returning to the people from Mt. Sinai. Thus the people were getting impatient and restless, and they desired a god they could see. Immediately after receiving the First Commandment, and after committing themselves to obey, they made another god for themselves, a false idol god that they could see. The golden calf represented a demon. The devil always seeks worship for himself.

The devil and the demons always come to us in many different disguises, seeking to draw our worship and trust and love away from the one true God. There are many idols that we make for ourselves, like money, pleasure, power, reputation, to name only a few. A god is whatever we look to for our good, our happiness, or wellbeing. it is all the better if it is something we can see or feel. We can see a golden calf.

Idolatry, or misplaced trust, may be triggered by what appears to be delay, while trust in God believes that God’s timing, His way, and His will are always best. We pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” The Word and the Spirit gives us faith to trust in God above all things. Trust is surrender.

Exodus 31:16 Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.

God commanded Israel to Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it Holy. No work is to be done; it is to be a Day of Rest. Since God rested on the seventh day of Creation, human creatures are to remember in faith their Creator God. And rest. Setting apart the seventh day is a response of the people of faith. Most of the Jews were faithful in keeping that day apart from the other days of the week.

The principle of the week is still embedded in human culture as a measure of time. It is interesting, because every other measure of time and season (day, month, year, even hours, minutes and seconds) is based upon the sun and the moon, created nature. The week is not; it is based on only one thing: God’s Creation and God’s Word. The unbelieving world unknowingly acknowledges God by taking Sunday off, though atheists would not admit that.

Since the New Testament, The Day is no longer to be observed, because it is a shadow of things to come: it foreshadows Christ and the Eternal Rest He brings. God Himself abrogated this Commandment. Christ causes the shadow. Now that the real thing has come we no longer worship the shadow, but we worship the substance to which the shadow points. To continue to keep the Sabbath is a denial that Jesus has come and fulfilled the foreshadowing prophecy. “Keeping Sabbath” trusts works instead of Grace in Christ. It says, “Jesus is not the promised Messiah.” Jesus says, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

Early Christians determined that the believing response to the Creation’s Principle is to set aside the eighth day as the day for pausing from regular work, in order to make time for the public proclamation of the Word and celebration of the Sacrament. And it is a regular reminder of the Resurrection. Therefore, Believers respond to the Gospel with weekly worship on the Lord’s Day, Sunday.

Exodus 25:2 Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering.

Every person of God’s people was asked by the Lord to bring an offering for the building of the Tabernacle, a sanctuary where He may dwell among them. This they did, giving generously and willingly. They gave an abundance of gold and cloth and supplies for the tabernacle and its furnishings. Israel had plundered the Egyptians, who gladly gave them much goods, when they left Egypt. They redeemed worldly wealth by offering it in service to the Lord.

All this generous giving was their response to the Lord for His amazing gift of grace and salvation. And it is recorded that they offered it willingly. It was not a tax or a tribute, which is forced or coerced, but it was freely given out of good and grateful hearts. Worshipful and thankful hearts gladly give in response to God’s giving. Offerings given out of faith and joy far exceed forced taxation parted with grudgingly. And “God loves a cheerful giver.” Willing offering makes everyone happy.

The amount of our offerings to the Lord’s service corresponds to the depth of our faith in Jesus and the quality of our love of God. Giving and offering is a response to God’s giving and offering Himself to us. Our church offering does not gain favor or blessing from God, for we cannot improve upon His already abundant grace. Our offering is an expression of our reception of His grace and favor. God gets the glory for our giving and for our good works of service, not us. We just respond.

Exodus 24:7 And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient.

Moses took and read for the people the Book of the Covenant, Exodus 20-23. This included the Ten Words and much casuistry (“if that happens, then you do this”). The people responded to the reading of the Covenant with good and sincere intention: we will do what God says and we will be obedient. After God’s terrifying presence on the Mount (the Law) and God’s great salvation and miraculous deliverance (the Gospel), they responded with a resounding Amen, Yes, and a sincere promise to do and obey. They would fear and love God that they might….

The problem, of course, is that beings sinners they would never be able to do what God said nor keep their promise. They would fail, like all people, to keep their part of the covenant, thereby releasing God from the obligation to keep His Blessing part of the covenant. But One Man would enter and keep the covenant perfectly for all people, in our place, thereby obligating God to keep His Blessing for us.

We do well to make a promise to do and obey; however, we make a grave mistake if we think we will actually do it. The sinner cannot keep his promises, but thank God, Jesus can, and does, for us. Thus, the right response is faith in God’s conviction of sin and failure, and faith in God’s loving provision of forgiveness and salvation in Christ. Jesus keeps the promise. Jesus never fails.

Exodus 20:19, 21 And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die…And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.

The supernatural manifestation of the Presence of God at Mt. Sinai was terrifying and awesome. The people saw the thunderings, the lightenings, the trumpet, and the smoking, and they stood afar off. The all-powerful presence of the Holy God is much too terrifying for sinful man to abide, for fear of death, since sin is the cause of death. If Almighty God should come and speak directly with us we know that we would be consumed. So we fear. And rightly so.

Job pleaded for 38 chapters to have God speak with him so he could defend his innocence. And when God did finally speak to him, he was bowled over and overwhelmed by the awareness of his sinfulness. His only response was to repent in dust and ashes. So he did and was restored. Job learned terror and was saved.

The people who were stricken with fear by the magnificence of God begged Moses to speak with them instead of God directly. They wanted Moses to mediate, come between, God and sinners. So Moses, as priest and prophet, went into the thick darkness where God was and received the Ten Words. Later he would speak with God face to face, and when he came out of the tent even the secondary reflected glory on his face was overwhelming.

God granted their prayer and Moses became the Mediator between Man the Sinful and God the Holy. God has to mediate His thoughts, mitigate His words, soften His majestic power, and filter His strong love through means. The means of grace for us are Word and Sacraments. It looks and sounds earthly, normal, natural, and nothing spectacular, but behind it is the awesome power and overwhelming love of God. Plain human beings mediate the Gospel to us, so it doesn’t feel as powerful as it is. And also, humans crucified the Son of God for he mediated God and looked human.

We should not denigrate the human instruments and natural elements through which God comes to us, since we asked for a mediator.

Exodus 20:8-17 Remember the sabbath…Honor parents…Thou shalt not kill…commit adultery…steal…lie…covet.

The Ten Commandments are given by God as the stipulations of the covenant. Your part of My Covenant in response to My act of salvation (v. 2) is to keep these commandments. “I did that for you, now you will do this for Me; because I saved you, therefore you will obey these stipulations.” Thou shalt is a good way of rendering these commands, as a future assertion as well as an imperative. Thou shalt = you will.

Living this way is the faithful, loving, and obedient way to live. You will live this way in believing response to God’s free gift of forgiveness, life, and salvation. And you will find a good life and great blessings when you do so. It is the Gospel that gives us the motivation, the desire, and the power to actually keep these commands and live accordingly. It is not by our own mind, will, or emotions that we are able to live this way. We fail. But Jesus did it for us. Faith in that Gospel Word changes our lives.

Life on earth is, always has been, and always will be, messed up and miserable because of our disobedience to the Law. Therefore, we repent and believe the gospel. The fruit of faith in the gospel is a life that lives this way. This life-changing work is a slow process, but it is a process.

Exodus 20:7 Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh the name in vain.

The word for ”take” can be translated receive. We receive the name of the Lord upon us when we are baptized ”in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit [Matthew 28:19].” We receive the name of the Lord upon us when we hear the Aaronic benediction, ”the Lord bless…the Lord make…the Lord lift….” “So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them [Numbers 6:27].” We receive the name of the Lord upon us when we come to believe in Jesus [John 1:12].

Now that we have received the name, we respond by bearing and wearing it into our daily life in a manner befitting the God who is in us. We take the name with us wherever we go, as we pray, ”May your name be holy among us.” We use the name for a purpose when we pray, praise, and give thanks. We do not receive the name in vain by speaking it in frivolous matters, in surprise, in anger, or in hateful speech.

The Name is holy and precious to God, and it is holy and dear to us; it is always on us, in us, and near to us. We respond to His constant presence by living up to the holy name we have received, speaking it only in positive and worshipful ways.