I'll read chapter one, but we're
not actually going to go through chapter one. We'll do that next
week. We're going to do an introduction to the book of Exodus. Typically,
when you start a new book, it's good to consider sort of an overview
of the book and look at sort of how it's put together, the
author, and that sort of thing. So I'll read chapter one beginning. There is an echo. Okay, so Exodus chapter 1, beginning
in verse 1. Now these are the names of the
children of Israel who came to Egypt. Each man and his household
came with Jacob. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,
Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.
All those who were descendants of Jacob were 70 persons, for
Joseph was in Egypt already. And Joseph died, all his brothers,
and all that generation. But the children of Israel were
fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly
mighty, and the land was filled with them. Now there arose a
new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said
to his people, Look, the people of the children of Israel are
more and mightier than we. Come, let us deal shrewdly with
them, lest they multiply. And it happened in the event
of war that they also join our enemies and fight against us,
and so go up out of the land. Therefore they set taskmasters
over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built
four pharaohs' supply cities, Pithom and Ramesses. But the
more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew.
and they were in dread of the children of Israel. So the Egyptians
made the children of Israel serve with rigor, and they made their
lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar and brick, and in all
manner of service in the field. All their service in which they
made them serve was with rigor. Then the king of Egypt spoke
to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shifra and
the name of the other, Pua. And he said, when you do the
duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstools,
if it is a son, then you shall kill him. But if it is a daughter,
then she shall live. But the midwives feared God and
did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but save the
male children alive. So the king of Egypt called for
the midwives and said to them, why have you done this thing
and saved the male children alive? And the midwives said to Pharaoh,
because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women,
for they are lively and give birth before the midwives come
to them. Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the
people multiplied and grew very mighty. And so it was, because
the midwives feared God, that He provided households for them.
So Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, Every son who
is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you
shall save alive. As I said, we're going to do
an overview of this book. I want to look first at the title
and author, secondly, the outline of the book, and then thirdly,
the contents of the book of Exodus. We'll just run quickly through
that, noting a few things along the way, and then end with some
theological themes that we find in the book of Exodus. In the
first place, it's called Exodus after the Septuagint, which is
the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. In the Hebrew
canon, the book takes its title from the two Hebrew words. It's
translated with more English words. Now, these are the names. That's the title in the Hebrew,
but with reference to the Greek It is exodus, and that simply
means movement from one geographical area to another, so they move
from Egypt to the land of promise or to Canaan. Departure, path,
or course. As well, it means departure from
among the living, and it refers specifically to death. Now, that's
an interesting use. in the book of Luke, in Luke
chapter 9, at the Mount of Transfiguration, we see that when Moses and Elijah
appear to the Lord Jesus, they are speaking about His exodus.
They are speaking about His departure. In Luke 9.30, it says, And behold,
two men talked with Him, who were Moses and Elijah, who appeared
in glory and spoke of his decease, which he was about to accomplish
at Jerusalem." And then we see the word in Hebrews chapter 11
with reference to Joseph. We read this last week. By faith,
Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the
children of Israel, and gave instructions concerning his bones."
So the central theme of the book is ultimately the movement of
the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt and into the
land of promise as God had promised. Now the first word that we have
in the English Bible is translated in the New King James as now,
probably better translated as and, and that connects us intimately
to what precedes. If you look at chapter 50 and
verse 26 in the book of Genesis, it says, so Joseph died being
110 years old, and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin,
in Egypt. So we see them, the children
of Israel, in the land of Egypt. And now we have the names of
the children of Israel who had come to Egypt. So several hundred
years have transpired, and now we pick up with the people of
God in this strange land. They are dominated by Pharaoh
and by his people, and ultimately they are slaves in this land.
And ultimately that's what the book of Exodus is about, the
deliverance by God. So the statement in Genesis 15,
you'll remember that covenant that God made with Abraham. In
Genesis 15 at verse 13, God said to Abram, know certainly that
your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs
and will serve them and they will afflict them 400 years.
So that was a prophetic statement concerning the children of Israel
that they would in fact end up in bondage. But in verse 14,
God goes on with Abraham to say, and also the nation whom they
serve, I will judge. Afterward, they shall come out
with great possessions. In fact, Joseph says that as
recently as Genesis 50 in verse 24 when he writes or when he
says, but God will surely visit you and bring you out of his
land to the land, or out of this land, to the land of which he
swore to Abraham, Isaac, and to Jacob. So there is a close
and intimate connection between these two books, and ultimately
the first five books of the Bible, we refer to that as the Pentateuch,
and we know that Moses is the author. One man says, the book
itself is not a separate independent work, but a subsection of what
has virtually always been understood as a five-part work, the Pentateuch. So what ends here in Genesis
picks right up in the book of Exodus. When we get to the book
of Exodus, we'll see that it ends with the Shekinah glory
of God manifested in the tabernacle, but the inability of the people
of Israel to enter in. And that's where the book of
Leviticus picks up. God prescribes to the children
of Israel how they may in fact enter into the presence of God,
and that's the purpose for the book of Leviticus. So you see
that there is consistency and continuity between these five
books of Moses. Now secondly, with reference
to the outline, it's a very easy book to outline in large sections. There's only really two sections. From chapters 1 to 18, they are
in Egypt, and then from 19 to the end, they are at Sinai. Now certainly there's other things
that go along with that, but you might look at it as redemption. God redeems His people out of
the land of Egypt, and then covenant. He establishes His covenant with
the nation of Israel there at Sinai, and He has them swear
faithful fidelity to the terms of the covenant in Exodus chapter
24. In terms of a detailed outline,
you have first Israel's Egyptian oppression and God's choice of
a deliverer. We see that with Moses. And then
secondly, Moses' call, commission, and challenge. Then you have
the 10 plagues, the Passover, and the Exodus, the wilderness
journey to Sinai, the law given by God to the nation, and then
rebellion, renewal, and fulfillment of God's instructions for the
tabernacle. So that's sort of a detailed
outline. But a good homiletical outline,
I think a good way for us to just sort of remember the major
emphases in the book is simply three D words. And the first
is deliverance. God delivers His people, and
you see that in chapters 1 to 19. The second D word is demand. God commands His people. He gives
them law. We see that in chapters 20 to
24. And then the final D is dwelling. From chapter 25 all the way to
chapter 40, which is the largest section of the book, it is taken
up with God dwelling in the midst of His people. So the command
with reference to building the tabernacle and the establishment
of the tabernacle is so that God can in fact commune with
His people, His covenant people, that He had indeed redeemed out
of the land of Egypt. So deliverance, demand, and dwelling. Now thirdly, in terms of the
contents of the book, we'll slow down a bit here. Birth and call
of Moses is most important. Moses is certainly typical of
our Lord Jesus Christ. So you have his preparation,
his importance, and then ultimately his role. Moses functions as
a covenant mediator. And as I think I told you when
we're going through the book of Matthew, in Matthew's gospel,
Matthew takes pains to present to us Jesus as the fulfillment
of what Israel should have been. In other words, Jesus is not
only the man that Adam was supposed to be, but Jesus is the man that
Israel was supposed to be. In many respects, Israel was
an Adamic-like figure. They were put into the land,
they were given probation, they were given a covenant of works,
They were called upon by God to function in accordance with
His covenant, and they failed. So Jesus is the last Adam. But
as I said, in the Gospel of Matthew, persons have well seen this parallel
between Moses and Jesus. In the first place, both Exodus
and Matthew begins with genealogy. In the second place, you have
the birth of the Deliverer. Here, Moses in Exodus, and there,
Jesus in Matthew. Thirdly, you have Pharaoh persecuting
Israel. In Matthew's gospel, you have
Herod oppressing the Jews. You have Moses flee from Egypt,
and you have Jesus flee to Egypt. As well, you have Pharaoh kill
the male children, as we saw in this particular section, and
then Herod kills the male children at the time of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Israel goes through the Red Sea. Jesus goes through the waters
of baptism. On the other side of the Red
Sea for the nation of Israel, Israel is tempted in the wilderness
for 40 years. Now when we see Jesus pass through
the waters of baptism, the Spirit leads Him out to the wilderness,
and there He's tested for a period of 40 days. So the parallels
are very strong and very much indicate the reality that Christ
fulfills what Adam failed to do, and Christ fulfills what
Israel failed to do. And then ultimately, we have
the giving of the law at Sinai. And again, when you look back
at Matthew's gospel, you have something very similar in the
Sermon on the Mount. In chapters 5, 5.1 to 7.29, Christ
assumes that position as lawgiver. He's not giving a brand new law.
Rather, he is indeed clarifying and interpreting properly the
law originally given by Moses. When he makes that series of
antitheses, when he says, you have heard that it was said to
those of old, but I say to you, He is not rescinding the Law
of Moses. He is not bettering the Law of
Moses. Rather, he is showing the original
intent of the Law of Moses, because as far as Israel was concerned,
and their Pharisaic and Scribal interpreters were concerned,
as long as you didn't actually stop someone's heart from beating,
you were not guilty of violating the commandment prohibiting murder.
Well, Jesus shows us that the original intention with reference
to the sixth commandment not only governed external, you know,
killing somebody, but that internal disposition, whether it be character
assassination or just a hatred without cause or anything like
that. So there are these great parallels between Moses and Jesus
that we find in the book of Exodus and as well in the book of Matthew. So you have the birth and call
of Moses, which is most important for all that follows in this
particular book, the rest of the Pentateuch as a whole. And
then you have the redemption of Israel, and that covers about
chapter 5, verse 1 to chapter 15 and verse 21. And there you
see the judgment upon Pharaoh, but you also see judgment upon
the gods of Egypt. In fact, if you turn to Exodus
chapter 12 for just a moment, when God announces the Passover,
when God announces that He will indeed strike the firstborn in
Egypt, He demonstrates or underscores one of the reasons behind this.
Again, it was to deliver His people from that bondage, it
was to render judgment upon the Pharaoh who had rose against
His people and subjugated them, but it was also a judgment against
the gods of Egypt. plagues has, as a particular
end, the repudiation of a god associated with those things
in the land of Egypt. So if you look at Exodus 12.12,
for I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and will
strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast,
and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. One man makes
this observation, John Currid. He says, at the center of the
plague narrative is a contest. But it is not primarily a contest
between Moses and Pharaoh, or between Moses and the Egyptian
magicians, or for that matter, between Israel and Egypt. This
is heavenly combat. That is a war between the God
of the Hebrews and the deities of Egypt. The biblical writer
accurately sees that the matter at hand is theological. It is
a question of who is the one true God, who is sovereign over
the operation of the universe, and whose will is going to come
to pass in heaven and on earth. So never forget that as we move
through with reference to the plagues. Yes, it is God's vindication
and deliverance of his people, but it's also the execution against
the gods of Egypt. This man continues on and says,
mockery of Egyptian polytheism is a central focus of the plague
account. And all those things underscore
that the Lord God of Israel is in fact the true and living God. Also, in chapter 12, we have
the Passover and the Exodus. If you look over in chapter 12,
specifically at verse 21, it says, then Moses called for all
the elders of Israel and said to them, pick out and take lambs
for yourselves according to your families and kill the Passover
lamb. And you shall take a bunch of
hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin and strike the
lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the
basin. And none of you shall go out of the door of his house
until morning, for the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians. And when he sees the blood on
the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door
and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike
you. And you shall observe this thing as an ordinance for you
and your sons forever. It will come to pass when you
come to the land which the Lord will give you, just as he promised
that you shall keep this service. And it shall be, when your children
say to you, what do you mean by this service? That you shall
say, it is the Passover sacrifice of the Lord, who passed over
the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when He struck
the Egyptians and delivered our households. So the people bowed
their heads in worship. Then the children of Israel went
away and did so, just as the Lord had commanded Moses and
Aaron. So they did. So there was this sacrificial
animal. The blood is splashed up on the
doorway, so that the angel of the Lord, on the night that he
goes to slay the firstborn in Egypt, sees that blood and passes
over it. Again, that is typical concerning
our Lord Jesus Christ. In 1 Corinthians 5.7, the Apostle
says, for indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for
us. So, of course, God does bring
them out, they are delivered, and that ultimately ends with
this Song of Moses in Exodus chapter 15, where they rejoice
in the goodness and the kindness of God. Think through that threefold
motif or sort of thematic structure that you have in the Heidelberg,
guilt, grace, gratitude, the same sort of thing. They are
in bondage, they are delivered by God, and they express their
gratitude to Him for the great deliverance that He wrought in
their lives. Now after this particular section,
they then journey to Sinai. Now this journey to Sinai is
marked by murmuring and complaining along the way. You have the complaint
at Merah at the end of chapter 15, you have the manna from heaven
in chapter 16, and then water from the rock in chapter 17.
And then that brings us ultimately to the foot of Sinai in Exodus
chapter 19. As I said, you have deliverance,
you have demand, and then you have dwelling. With reference
to demand, we learn a lot about God's law in the book of Exodus. But before we get to chapter
20, look at Exodus 19.6. This is sort of a mission statement
concerning God's purpose with reference to the nation. And
you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
These are the words which you shall speak to the children of
Israel." Again, that was ultimately what Adam was supposed to do.
Adam was a priestly figure. We often look at him as a farmer.
Well, first and foremost, Adam was a priest, and he was charged
with mediating God's blessings to the creation as a whole, and
then offering the creation as a whole back up to God. He was
tasked with expanding that garden sanctuary to encompass the entirety
of the earth. Well, obviously, Adam failed.
The nation of Israel was given this mandate. They were to be
a kingdom of priests. Well, they ultimately failed.
Because of the success of our Lord Jesus Christ, the church
now takes on this particular identification. All that was
purpose for Israel of old now is realized in the new Israel.
You see that in 1 Peter 2. You see that in the book of Revelation.
You see the language of Exodus 19.6 applied to the church of
our Lord Jesus. Another reason why dispensationalism
is wrong. They maintain two peoples of
God. They maintain a Jewish people
and then a Gentile people. There is one people of God made
up of Jews and Gentiles. we have solidarity and unity
in our Lord Jesus. That's Paul's point in Ephesians
2 and as well in the book of Galatians, specifically in chapter
3. And then when at the end in Galatians 6 16, Paul says, and
may peace be upon the Israel of God, he is talking about the
church. just like when he's talking about
true circumcision in Romans chapter 2. It's not outward, it's the
heart. A spiritual or an earthly Gentile
that's a believer in Jesus Christ is called a Jew in Romans chapter
2. A Jew who is physically circumcised,
who is not a believer in Christ, is a Gentile as far as the biblical
data is concerned. And so we see unity in the book
of Exodus when we compare it to New Testament documents to
see the sorts of things that Israel fails Christ achieves,
and in Christ, the church receives those blessings and those benefits. So the mission is reflected in
19.6, and then of course the people are at the foot of Sinai
in chapter 19, and then that brings us to chapter 20, and
this is foundational to God's law. This is called the moral
law, the Ten Commandments. Our confession speaks concerning
the moral law. It says the same law that was
first written in the heart of man, so the confession makes
that link between what Adam received in the garden and what is published
in Sinai in terms of God's Ten Commandments. It's not something
absolutely different. Adam received the law of God,
Israel receives the law of God, and the confession makes that
statement. So the same law that was first
written in the heart of man continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness
after the fall and was delivered by God upon Mount Sinai in Ten
Commandments and written in two tables, the four first containing
our duty towards God and the other six our duty to man. It's
a great summary statement concerning the moral law of God Almighty. So it's given at creation by
God to Adam. It's codified or summarized in
the giving by God at Sinai to the nation of Israel. We see
in the rest of Scripture that that moral law is not done away
with. Yet another reason why dispensationalism
is wrong. because they teach that the moral
law of God is no longer binding on the New Covenant Church. Nothing
can be further from the truth when you compare the documents
written to the New Covenant Church. They always invoke the moral
law of God and treat it as abiding and valid for the people of God
in a New Covenant situation. Now, in terms of the contrast
between the law of Egypt and the law given by God at Sinai,
again, Kurd makes this observation. He says, of all the tens of thousands
of texts that survived from ancient Egypt, there has not been discovered
a single legislative code. Now, that doesn't mean there
aren't legislative codes. The Babylonians had the Code
of Hammurabi, and there was a lot of similarity, or there are a
lot of similarities between that law code and what we find in
the Old Covenant. But in terms of Egypt, all of
these archaeological findings haven't yielded anything that
was legislative in nature. He says, the reality was that
the pharaohs were the definers and executors of justice and
law. I found this to be chilling because
I think we're living in a time like this where objectivity and
where law and statutes have gone out the door and we're basically
at the whims of men and women who, from day to day, decide
sort of new things. Well, that was the way it was
in the time of the pharaohs. So he says the reality was that
the pharaohs were the definers and executors of justice and
law. They enacted new laws and changed old laws by their own
prerogatives. It was the Pharaoh who pronounced,
thus says, and he could change or alter a law capriciously.
That means at will, means arbitrarily, means if he decided to at any
given point. You have to appreciate how bad
of a scenario that is. We do not want lawmakers that
have that capability or that ability to change on a dime.
We want objectivity. We want standards of justice
so that they simply enforce or enact those things. He goes on
to say, thus says, and he could change a law or alter a law capriciously,
which explains why there is no known codified law in ancient
Egypt. He says, the Lord, to the contrary,
is not capricious, but he reveals his law, which stands forever.
He gives it in writing, and specifically with reference to the Decalogue
or the Ten Commandments, it is that aspect of God's law. There
are three divisions or threefold division of the law. We'll look
at the other two in just a moment. But with reference to the Ten
Commandments, God says that he wrote them with his own finger.
Again, we know he spoke to Moses. Moses ultimately was the one
who wrote those things down. But with reference to the Decalogue,
God spoke that, God writes that, and God enshrines that. And when
you look at the Ten Commandments, Most likely all ten were on both
tablets. One copy was the king and one
copy was the subject. And those two were placed in
the Ark of the Covenant for safekeeping. So that's the covenant sort of
establishment between Yahweh and between the nation of Israel.
Now, of course, the people react at the end of chapter 20, and
then we enter into what's called the Book of the Covenant in chapter
21 to 23. And this covers what we call
judicial law. As I said, there is a threefold
division in God's law. You've got moral, judicial, and
then the next is ceremonial. But with reference to judicial,
our confession says this. To them also he gave sundry judicial
laws, which expired together with the state of that people,
not obliging any now by virtue of that institution, their general
equity only being of moral use." Now specifically, these laws,
and they're amplified later in more detail in the book of Deuteronomy,
but it was essentially for this commonwealth, for this body politic,
this was to regulate them for life in the land. But at the
very sum and substance of these laws, of these judicial laws,
was the Ten Commandments. So when you look at a law, for
instance, that penalizes somebody who has a goring ox, if that
ox gets out and gores somebody and kills them, the ultimate
sort of essence of that law is the Sixth Commandment. So, essentially
what you have in the Book of the Covenant, in terms of judicial
law, is how do we take these ten principles, these ten words,
and apply them in concrete, specific application in our civil situation. If you look at 21.1, it says,
now these are the judgments which you shall set before that. Again,
this is an unfolding of the Ten Commandments and how they function
to regulate life in society. Now, our confession says that
the judicial law expired with the state of that people. In
other words, when the theocracy was ultimately judged and shut
down by God, when the nation of Israel entered into the rank
and file of every other nation, those judicial laws binding a
people in a particular land we're no longer binding. But the Confession
highlights this principle of general equity. And general equity
means that we ought to be able to look at these laws and get
wisdom from them on how we should apply God's commandments in our
own scenario. And if anyone has Francis Turretin,
I would encourage you to read him on these subjects because
these men, old reform brethren, thought through these things.
And he starts to get at this idea of general equity or how
we utilize judicial laws that expired with the Commonwealth.
How do we put them into practice today? He says, one, that what
prevails not only among the Jews, but also among the Gentiles,
following the light of right reason, is of common right. In
other words, there might be things that specifically apply to Jews.
So Turretin is going to argue that if it only applies to Jews,
most likely there isn't an application for us. But if it's Jew-Gentile,
then we can see operation in terms of application. He says,
second, what is found to be conformed to the precepts of the Decalogue
and serves to explain and conform it. Again, taking an illustration
from the Decalogue. You were told on a flat roof
you were to have a fence around it so persons wouldn't fall off
and die. Well, I think that's pretty easy
to extrapolate from that. The Sixth Commandment is the
binding principle. How do we apply that in our own
scenario? Well, we should put a fence around our swimming pool
so our neighbor kid doesn't die in it. So there are ways that
we can apply this judicial law of Moses, even though the body
politic expired. And then he says, the things
so repeated in the New Testament that their observance is commended
to Christians. So there are things directly
applied from the judicial law to the people of God in the New
Covenant. Obviously, that is binding. But
back to 21.1. It says, now these are the judgments
which you shall set before them. Again, it's a detailed law code
to govern them when they enter into the land of promise, how
they are to function one toward another. Walt Kaiser says, while
these judgments deal mainly with temporal matters, they nevertheless
are based on one or another expressed commandment in the Decalogue.
It is most appropriate, therefore, that these judicial and political
regulations given by God to Moses when Moses approached the thick
darkness where God was should be set alight alongside the Decalogue. The two belong together in time
as well as in interpretation. So though the Confession says
it expires with that people, it doesn't mean it's meaningless.
It doesn't mean we skip that section. Rather, it means we
move our way through that section, recognizing which of the commandments
is sort of at the core of that, and then how we can apply that
or how we can find the general equity so that we can see God's
law govern us in our own situation. Now, the various laws that are
dealt with in this brief section are laws concerning slaves, laws
concerning homicide, laws concerning bodily injury, laws concerning
property damage, laws concerning society, laws concerning justice
and neighborliness, and then laws concerning feasts. Now,
when we get to feasts, that then starts to tend into what we call
the ceremonial law. So you've got the moral law,
which is the Ten Commandments, always abiding, always applicable
to every believer, every non-believer, whatever covenant sort of transaction
you find yourself in. If you're in the old or you're
in the new, you're under God's law in terms of the Ten Commandments.
The moral law is forever binding. The judicial law for the people
of God in the land at that particular time, it expires with that commonwealth,
but the general equity abides. Ceremonial law does not affect
us as New Covenant Christians. The ceremonial law was fulfilled
by Jesus. And the ceremonial law, by and
large, was typical. It prefigured the various aspects
of the coming of Christ in terms of His person and work. Again,
our confession describes it this way, besides this law, commonly
called moral, God was pleased to give to the people of Israel
ceremonial laws, containing several typical ordinances, partly of
worship, prefiguring Christ, His graces, actions, sufferings,
and benefits, and partly holding forth diverse instructions and
moral duties, all which ceremonial laws being appointed only to
the time of Reformation, not the 16th, century, not the 1500s,
not the, you know, Luther pounding the 95 theses on the wall at
Wittenberg. The time of Reformation, according
to Hebrews 9, is the New Covenant. I almost said dispensation. I could say that, but I don't
want to confuse anybody, but the New Covenant administration
of our Lord Jesus. That's the time of Reformation
in Hebrews 9. goes on to say, all which ceremonial
laws being appointed only to the time of Reformation are by
Jesus Christ the true Messiah and only lawgiver, who was furnished
with power from the Father for that end, abrogated and taken
away. So the various laws governing
Israel in terms of ceremonial, with reference to feasts, with
reference to worship in the tabernacle, and then the temple, with reference
to the sacrificial system, those things prefiguring Christ were
fulfilled by Christ, and therefore are no longer binding on the
people of God. We are not subject to Israel's
religious calendar. We're not subject to the dietary
regulations on Israel's menu. We are not prohibited from mixing
fibers, for instance, or from eating lobster, or shrimp, or
other sorts of things, or bacon. Those were things that were distinctly
for the nation of Israel to separate them from the nations around
them. And again, they were ceremonial, pointing forward ultimately to
the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now go to Exodus chapter
24. You see, at the end of the giving
of the law, there is a ratification ceremony. And essentially the
people are told what they need to do when they go into the land.
And in Exodus chapter 24, verse 3, we read, so Moses came and
told the people all the words of the Lord and all the judgments. And all the people answered with
one voice and said, all the words which the Lord has said, we will
do. So they enter into this covenant
of works very happily, very confident that they're going to be able
to do this. Now it's no accident that we get to chapter 32 and
they're dancing around golden calves. So this is ultimately
what happens when you swear fidelity with reference to a covenant
of works. We are sinners. We have issues. We have big problems. We cannot obey God's law the
way God calls us to. So for them to say all the words
which the Lord has said we will do. They claim that again down
in verse 7. All that the Lord has said we
will do and be obedient. Now notice verse 8. Moses took
the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, this is the
blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according
to all these words. So the covenant is ratified.
The persons swear fidelity to Yahweh. and now we see how they
function. They don't do too well, and it
shows us the futility, ultimately, of a covenant of words. Not because
of the futility of God's just sort of administration of things,
but futility in our inability because of our deadness in Adam
and our lack of ability to comply with the demands of God's law.
Remember, God doesn't call us to try our best. God doesn't
give us participation trophies. God calls us to perpetual, exact,
and entire obedience to His law. Love to God and love to man 24-7. No other thoughts, but love to
God and love to man. Obviously, we are sinners and
we don't do that. That's why we need the Lord Jesus
Christ. Many persons have seen that when
we look at this book, and when we look at the Pentateuch as
a whole, and we look at this covenant that was made with Israel,
some see it as an administration of the covenant of grace. Westminster
Confession of Faith sees it as an administration of the covenant
of grace. Our Baptist brothers did not
put it in that way in their confession. They saw it as a covenant of
works, a republication as to what was given to Adam in the
garden. God does this with Israel. And again, the reasons for this
is to prepare them and to teach them and to show them ultimately
their need for the Lord Jesus Christ. As well, it had the very
utilitarian effect of at least restraining them outwardly so
that they couldn't possibly undo themselves to the point where
there would be no Messiah that comes from that particular nation.
So I take that particular interpretation that the Old Covenant was in
fact a covenant of works, a republication, similar to what God gave to Adam
in the garden, he gives to Israel in their experience they fail. So when Jesus comes, it has been
well said, the covenant of grace was for Jesus a covenant of works,
kept for us. When you look at Jesus, he's
in a covenant relationship with his Father, and it means works,
it means obedience, it means every jot and diddle. So the
covenant of grace for us is the covenant of works kept for us
by our Lord Jesus Christ. That's sort of a theological
connection between what we have here in the book of Exodus and
what will follow later on in New Covenant religion. Now, once
the deliverance has been dealt with and the demand has been
dealt with, as I said, chapters 25 to 40 take up dwelling. God is going to dwell in the
midst of his people. So the tabernacle is, the instructions
are given in chapter 25 to chapter 31. There are instructions given,
detailed instructions for how to build or construct the tabernacle. And then there is this golden
calf situation and covenant renewal, and then the book ends with the
construction of the tabernacle. But going back for just a moment,
so the instructions beginning in chapter 25. Notice the sort
of purpose in verse 8. And let them make me a sanctuary
that I may dwell among them. You see, at the very beginning,
when Adam and Eve were created, God dwells with them. He communes
with them in the cool of the day. When Adam and Eve sin and
transgress against God, they run from God, but God comes after
them. God kills animals and covers
them. God provides atonement, and on
the heels of that, or even prior to killing the animals and atoning
for their sin, God makes the promise concerning His Son, the
seed of the woman that would crush the serpent, the seed of
the woman that would crush the devil, Genesis 3.15. So it's
God who comes after sinners. It's not sinners that go after
God. Sinners typically run from God the way that Adam and Eve
do. Sinners run from God the way that Paul describes in Romans
chapter 3. There is no fear of God before their eyes. There
is none who seeks after you. They all have gone astray. That's
us in Adam. It is God who initiates and God
who comes. Remember back in Genesis chapter
12. God comes to Abram and calls him out of Ur of the Chaldeans
to make him a people, to make him a nation, to make him the
one from whom Messiah will come. and in whom all the families
of the earth will be blessed." There's one thing you ought to
learn from reading your Old Testament. God seeks after us. We are not seeking after Him.
God is seeking after us. God makes covenant. God keeps
us. God protects and God provides. God is full of grace and mercy.
It's very irritating when you meet people and they say, well,
you know, that Old Testament is filled with blood and guts
and war and all that sort of thing. No, it's filled with a
God of love and mercy and kindness and grace. The God of Old and
New Testament is a God who abounds in mercy. I mean, it was the
prophet Micah who highlights that in Micah chapter 7. When
God manifests His glory to Moses, He describes it in terms of compassion
and grace and mercy. We are simply wrong to have this
attitude that the Old Testament depicts sort of this angry, vengeful
God of the Hebrews that was about genocidal mayhem on all those
poor, innocent Canaanites that happened to inhabit the land.
They were wretched, vile, wicked people, and God raises up Israel
to go in and chasten them. When Israel apes them and Israel
becomes like the Canaanites, then God raises up Assyria and
then Babylon to deal with them. Again, His law is not capricious.
He doesn't suspend His justice or righteousness. When His people
act in the same manner, they reap the same consequences or
judgment. But in essence, we have God who
is full of grace, compassion, and kindness, and who wants to
dwell among them. It's a glorious and a wonderful
thing. So these instructions are given,
chapter 25 to 31. We have the golden calf incident
in chapter 32, the meeting of Moses and God in chapter 33,
and then covenant renewal in chapter 34. That's something
else that you will see as you move through the Old Testament.
There are many instances and many times among the children
of Israel that they renew covenant with God. What does that underscore? Well, it certainly underscores
their sin, because if they didn't sin, they wouldn't need to renew
the covenant. But it underscores God's patience. It underscores
his forbearance. It underscores his long-suffering.
Every time there's a covenant renewal ceremony, it preaches
God's patience. He doesn't just decimate them.
He doesn't just destroy them. He doesn't just obliterate them,
but rather he continues to renew covenant with them and keep them
in the land until such time as they fill up the measure of their
guilt, and they are expunged from the land." This, again,
according to his promise, he didn't lie to them. He told them
flat out in Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28, if you go into the land and
you obey, things will be great. If you go into the land and you
disobey, things won't be great. So everything they reaped, they
knew what they were doing. They knew what was published.
They knew what the law code stipulated. They knew what their response
was supposed to be and what they would receive if they broke the
law. So when God does bring judgment upon them, no one can cry foul. No one can cry, well, that's
not fair. Nobody can say, well, that seems capricious or unjust.
He warned them. He pleaded with them through
the prophets. He renews covenant with them
time and time again. And ultimately, because they
fill up the measure of their guilt, He does bring judgment
to bear upon them. He is not only gracious and merciful
and compassionate and loving and kind, but He is just and
He is righteous and He must punish sin. And that's underscored as
well. And so we see that sort of situation
here in Exodus 32. But even then, renewal, and God
is gracious to them. And then they actually construct
the tabernacle. That's from chapters 35 to 40. And if you look at the end in
chapter 40, We have that blessed, beautiful thing. It's realized
what God had called them unto. In verse 34 of chapter 40, then
the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting and the glory of the
Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter
the tabernacle of meeting because the cloud rested above it and
the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. So you see, that's
a problem. The book ends with tension. The
book ends on a note of despair, ultimately. They build the house
for God. God comes to dwell in the house.
But they're so filthy and wretched, they can't go and meet with God.
Not even Moses. And Moses is the holiest one
among them. The text is conspicuous. Verse
35. Moses was not able to enter the
tabernacle of meeting because the cloud rested above it, and
the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. This is resolved
in the book of Leviticus. The first nine chapters deal
at great length with sacrifice. And the way of approach to a
holy God is in the language of Michael Morales, through a bloody
knife and a smoking altar. You don't just wander into the
presence of a holy God when you're a sinner like you and I. There
must be atonement, there must be cleansing, there must be purification,
and that's what was provided by God in the ceremonial law. He raised up a priesthood. He
raised up a place where they would meet for worship. There
was a sacrificial system. There were stipulations given
by which an Israelite could come and meet with God in the house
of God. And again, it's all typical,
pointing forward ultimately to what we have in our Lord Jesus
Christ. The Word became flesh and did
what? He tabernacled among us, literally. He dwelt among us. The language
of tabernacle is conspicuous. We go from tabernacle, which
was a mobile, sort of a temporary place, until the time of Solomon
when he built the temple. But when John tells us in his
prologue concerning the Word becoming flesh, it's so that
the Word becoming flesh could tabernacle among us. In other
words, God in Christ has come to reconcile the world unto himself. William J. Dumbrill says, with
reference to the tabernacle, finally the remaining chapters
of Exodus, 35 to 40, remind us that redemption leads inevitably
to worship. See the movement in the book.
You have deliverance, demand, dwelling. God delivers. Why? So we can do our own thing? No. He delivers so that we can
commune with Him. He delivers in this New Covenant
era for the same reason. Is it so that we can just lay
on our couch and do whatever it is we want? No, we're supposed
to come to the house of God. We're supposed to worship the
true and living God. We're supposed to meet with Him,
because that's the scheme, that's the plan. He redeems us in order
to commune with Him, and I think it's beautiful that much of the
book takes up that theme of God dwelling in the midst of His
people. Again, He's not the one that
we should tell people, oh, you can't go to that God. He's unapproachable. How much more approachable could
God be? He makes the tabernacle, He makes
the temple, and then He comes in the person of His Son to receive
sinners unto Himself. There is no reason we should
ever preach an unapproachable God. Unapproachable in your sin,
unapproachable in your rebellion, unapproachable in your transgression
and filth, but certainly approachable in and through the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ that cleanses us from that filth, from that
rebellion, and from that transgression. The God of Scripture is a seeking
God. The God of Scripture is a glorious
God. The text I quoted on Sunday.
What's Jesus say to those grumblers at the site of the salvation
of Zacchaeus? The Son of Man came to seek and
to save that which was lost. It is a glorious and a beautiful
thing. And remember that Zacchaeus in
that particular instance, he's a rich man, isn't he? It's in
that same chapter just previous to that where Jesus taught the
impossibility or how hard it would be for a rich man to enter
into the kingdom of heaven. It's easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle, and then the disciples are exasperated
and say, who then can be saved? And Jesus says, with men it is
impossible, but with God all things are possible. So you have
that, and then you have Zacchaeus, who is a camel going through
the eye of a needle with God. all things are possible. And
the underlining sort of emphasis by Jesus is that the Son of Man
came in to seek and to save that which was lost. So the book ends
on that note of there is God in the midst of the people, but
the people yet cannot enter in, and that's where the book of
Leviticus answers the question, how does sinful man dwell with
a holy God? That's why Leviticus prescribes
sacrifice, blood and approach in that vein. Now, in terms of
some theological themes, we certainly get the doctrine of God. We get
the doctrine of God as the eternal and immutable God. Exodus 3.14,
I am who I am. As well, we get God as the living
and true God, 1212. If he comes to execute judgment
against the gods of Egypt, what is he showing? By contrast, he
is, in fact, the true and living God. In terms of the doctrine
of salvation, turn to Exodus chapter 6. The doctrine of salvation
is another theme obvious in the book. Perhaps you've heard of
liberation theology. Anybody ever heard of that? Okay,
liberation theology is wrong. They invoke the Book of Exodus,
they try to make their case with the Book of Exodus, but liberation
theology is Marxism. That's not what the Book of Exodus
is about. Please do not get that in your
head, that God is a cosmic Marxist and he wants a bunch of commies
and that's why he orchestrated the Book of Exodus. That's not
it at all. So when you hear that language of liberation theology,
it is to be jettisoned, it is to be rejected, it is to be resisted,
it is a misuse, a political reading, a Marxist political reading of
the book of Exodus. So liberation theology, bad. In terms of liberation, I mean,
I don't even like using that word because it almost sounds
like liberation theology. So we'll call it deliverance
or redemption. That's what God does here in
the book of Exodus. But if you look at Exodus 6,
6-8, you see in the first place that the Lord redeems his people.
Verse 6, I will bring you out. I will rescue you. I will redeem
you. It's like we saw in Ezekiel 36
when we looked at that on Sunday night. Over and over and over
again, God says, I will, I will, I will. We talk about salvation
being monergistic, one working in the matter of salvation. And
the monergistic person or the monergistic being is God. He's the one working in terms
of salvation. It does not depend upon him who
wills or upon him who runs, but on God who shows mercy. Romans
9, 16. So the Lord redeems his people.
Secondly, the Lord God establishes his covenant with his people.
Notice in verse 7, I will take you as my people and I will be
your God. That sort of, I will be your
God, you will be my people, that some have called the Immanuel
principle, right? Immanuel means God with us. And you see that Immanuel principle
running through biblical covenants where God promises that he would
be their God and they would be his people. Thirdly, the Lord
God reveals himself to his people. Notice in 7b, then you shall
know that I am the Lord your God. Again, he doesn't hide himself. He doesn't portray himself as
obscure. I mean, there is a sense on the
one hand he is most approachable. On the other hand, he's unapproachable
in terms of in terms of His beauty and His glory and His majesty
and His holiness, and the way of approach is ultimately through
a mediator. But God reveals Himself to His
people, and He shows that again and again. And then finally,
the Lord God fulfills His promises in verse 8. Isaac and Jacob. So everything
we saw in the book of Genesis comes to fruition. God doesn't
make these promises and renege on them, but rather he carries
them out, he is faithful, and he executes that on behalf of
his people. You've got the doctrine of God,
you've got the doctrine of salvation, you've certainly got the doctrine
of the law, that threefold division, very important for the rest of,
you know, interpreting Bible, theology, ethics, all of that
sort of thing. Persons that are mistaken upon
the law of God typically have big problems theologically. Now
I'm not saying everybody who's right on the law of God is necessarily
a, you know, a John Calvin in terms of theology, but they go
hand in hand. To mess up on the law is to mess
up on a huge aspect of God's holy word. And then ultimately
the promise of Christ. It's not just one passage here
or one passage here. The entirety of the ceremonial
law should be appreciated in the language of our confession
of faith. Everything that we see here in terms of worship,
in terms of approach, in terms of sacrifice, all of that prefigures
our Lord Jesus Christ. So even if Paul didn't say in
1 Corinthians 5.7 that Jesus is our Passover sacrifice, We
know theologically and based on what God's law says that this
ceremonial aspect points us forward ultimately to the Lamb of God
who takes away the sin of the world. So that's where we're
hoping to go in the next few weeks. That's it. I'll pray, and then if there's
any questions, we can entertain that. Father in heaven, we thank
you for the book of Exodus. We thank you for your power in
redeeming your people out of bondage, out of sin, out of misery.
We thank you, Lord, as well for the law that instructs us in
so many glorious and wonderful things. We know we're not saved
by it. We're saved by grace through
faith in our Lord Jesus, but he points us to that moral law
as a pattern for our sanctification. And we rejoice in that. We rejoice
as well in the use of the law to stir up the hearts of sinners
and to show them their need for the Redeemer. And God, I pray
that that use of the law would be proclaimed from many, many
pulpits to call sinners to repentance and faith in our Lord Jesus.
And God, we praise you for that theme of dwelling. We praise
you that you are a God who communes with your people. not just in
the age to come, but even now as we read our Bibles, as we
pray, as we meet together for corporate worship, we know that
you are in the midst of your people, and this encourages us,
and this strengthens us, and we praise you for it. And we
would ask even now, Lord God, that you would give us the mind
of Christ as we think through these things, and help us to
respond in a way that is biblical, in a way that is pleasing to
you. And we ask through Christ our
Lord, amen. Any questions or comments?
