The Pentateuch- Holy God, Holy People, Holy Calling Pentateuch Sermon Series Kenwood Baptist Church Pastor David Palmer November 8, 2020

TEXT: Exodus 20:1-17

This morning we continue in our study of the Pentateuch, the five scrolls. This base story of the Bible builds for us the context of Scripture, the hope of Christian theology, and a confidence in God that rises above all circumstances. I know this is a significant week in our country, and yet the God whom we worship this morning is a God we can trust and who reigns over all the earth. I want you to be at peace this morning, and I want you to know that your fundamental calling as a Christian has not changed from last week to this week. We need to be salt and light. We are going to discover this morning in the text our calling to be a people that belong to God. All that is unchanging, and yet we need deep reminders of that. There is a lot happening, and we need God's Word more than ever, don’t we? This Word is not an idle word. It's a Word that shapes our identity, and we need to be attentive to it. We are on a journey together as a church family, together with this digital resource Bible Journey. This morning we look at the second half of the . The second half of Exodus is the journey after we leave Egypt. It’s the journey to the place of God's presence. We discover that the point of the rescue is that God would bring us to Himself. The point of the rescue isn't just freedom in the abstract. It’s the freedom not only to worship God, but that we will see that God Himself comes to meet us on the mountain and enters into a formal relationship with us. God is not interested in “dating.” He's ready to make a commitment to us and expects that commitment to be reciprocated. Not only does God bring us to the place of His own presence and formalize His relationship with us, He also reveals His divine determination to live among us. This is the great ending of the book of Exodus. Let's look at these movements together.

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Movement 1: God leads us to Himself at . In Exodus 19:1, we read: “On the third new moon after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai.” This is fifty days after the Exodus. Fifty days after Passover, we reach the base of Mount Sinai, and this moment in Israel's history will be remembered as the Feast of Weeks to count these days. In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, this Feast of Weeks is translated as the Feast of Pentecost – fifty days after. Fifty days after we discover that our sins are forgiven by the blood of the Lamb, we are brought to the place where God comes in visible fire and glory and commissions us as His people. We come to the base of the mountain, and God tells in Exodus 19:5 to tell us: “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself.” God's desire is to bring us to where He is.

We were in Genesis not long ago, and this reminds us that part of what's happening here in this great narrative of redemption and deliverance is the restoration of fellowship in the presence of God that we knew in the Garden. God is bringing us to Himself. In Exodus 19:5, the Lord says: “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you shall be My treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine.” Such intimate language – to be a people that belong to Him. He says: “All the earth is mine.” And yet we are called, we are invited to be God's special possession in the world, not by our own merits, not by our own achievements, but as the recipients of His saving action. God says in Exodus 19:6: “You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” Priests are set apart for the service of God. This is our primary identity. You may be in all different types of vocational work, and yet our shared vocation as believers is this consecration to God. It is said of all of us that we are a kingdom of priests set apart for God's use in the world. Priests have special duties; they have things that they're supposed to do. They also have special restrictions that they're not allowed to do. They have special obligations to serve the people, and that's true for all of us. We have the great privilege of being God's people in the world. We go out as His ambassadors.

I had a great kingdom-of-priests moment yesterday. I'm still practicing our summer series of getting to know our neighbors and to love them. As many of you know, we moved five minutes away over the summer, so I have a new map of neighbors that I'm still filling out in my new

Page 2 of 10 neighborhood. We pray for our neighbors, and four of the five houses right around us have new families in them. We heard that the house across from us had sold, and yesterday I saw children playing outside. It was a beautiful day, and I thought, “I'm going for it.” I went right over there, and there were all these kids playing Frisbee in the front yard, and I struck up a conversation with these kids. There were five kids, and I asked their names and they ripped their names off. I tested my pastoral name recollection skills and gave them all back their names. I thought, “Thank you, Lord, for helping me remember this.” I said, “Are your parents here?” Their parents came out, and we started talking together. It turned out that their parents had gone to Kenwood Baptist Church when Pastor Alex was pastor. They were believers, and they had been praying that God would have a sovereign purpose for them in coming to this neighborhood. So here in this moment of meeting my new neighbors, all of a sudden a prayer meeting broke out in the front yard. Their family is a beautiful family. They have a cluster of biological children and a cluster of adopted children. Some of their adopted children, two siblings, were adopted from Xi’an, China, the city where I used to live.

Do we serve a God who is really running the Universe? We’re called to go out as His presence in the world to pray. We have these duties. We also have limiters, things we’re not allowed to do, and an obligation to serve those around us. This calling of a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, is repeated in the New Testament. Peter says in 1 Peter 2:9: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” In Revelation 1:6, we read that Jesus has “made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father.” We have this unchanging vocation.

We come to the base of the mountain in Exodus 19, and God says, “I brought you to Myself,” and then He arrives. In Exodus 19:9, we read that the Lord says to Moses: "Behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you forever." The Lord says, “I am coming.” In the Hebrew text, the “I” is emphatic here. God is saying, “I Myself am really coming, in person, to meet with you. Tell the people to consecrate themselves and then get ready.” And three days later God comes in glory and power. Mount Sinai is wrapped in the smoke and cloud of God's very own presence. He comes down in fire, and His voice is like the sound of a trumpet. His voice is

Page 3 of 10 like the sound of many rushing waters. I always have in my mind the first time as a Christian that was standing next to Niagara Falls. I heard the power of Niagara Falls, and I thought: “That’s what the Lord's voice is like – so strong.” In Exodus 19:20, the Lord comes down onto Mount Sinai. He comes Himself, in person, to the top of the mountain, and we are gathered at the base of the mountain. Moses is at the top, and we're camped at the base. God speaks, and we all hear it. It's not reported speech. We all hear His voice.

I remember when I was doing my doctoral studies at Hebrew Union, I was speaking with a rabbi-in-training, and we were getting to know each other. It was a neat opportunity to talk in an unguarded way. This rabbi-in-training said, “You know, as for me, I don't know if the New Testament is the Word of God. What you call the Old Testament and we call the Torah, I know that's the Word of God.” And I asked, “How do you know that?” We were having a good exchange, and it was not a hostile question. I was thinking there was some philosophical point, some text-critical argument about the transmission of the Bible, or something like is where my mind was going. He just looked at me, and he said, “My ancestors heard God’s voice speak.” I thought, “That’s a really good point.” We heard, and what did God say?

Movement 2: Not only does God bring us to Himself, but the LORD formalizes our relationship with Him in covenant. He speaks. In Exodus 20:1, God speaks all these words. These words are known as the Ten Words in Hebrew. We call them the . When we’re feeling really fancy, we call them the Decalogue, the Ten Words. These words are distinctive in so many ways. There is no known parallel in the ancient world for a God acting to take a people for Himself. There's no known example for that. The Ten Commandments cannot be separated from the narrative context where we find them. The Ten Commandments don't drop down from heaven as a moral code that is in the abstract for everyone. They come like wedding vows at the end of this saving action of God. These words are a reflection of God's will and character and how we are to reflect that. They're all about God, but they are also about us and how we act toward one another.

Finally, I want to point out something that is not clear in the English translation but is very clear in the original text. That is, the form of these statements is in the second person singular, and this is unusual. It's unusual because there are a lot of us here. If the Ten Commandments had been spoken across the Ohio River in Kentucky, we definitely would be in the “y'all” space. It's a group, and yet the text is in the singular. Commentators over the centuries have said that's because every single one of us heard God's voice, and these Ten Words were spoken to you, to me, not just to all of us, but we all hear.

So what does God say? He begins by identifying Himself. In Exodus 20:2, God says:

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“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” God's Words to us of His will, of what He desires from us, begins with His restating what He's done. The earliest Bible commentary that we have is the Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael. It's almost 2000 years old. In my office I have an edition of it that was printed in the 20th century, but the text is 2000 years old. It's a very ancient text, one of the earliest voices that we have reflecting on the Bible. When they get to this passage, the commentators in this anthology ask a question that's really a fantastic question. They say, “Why doesn't the Bible start with the Ten Commandments?” The Ten Commandments are really important, aren't they? If they are so important, why isn’t that Genesis 1? Have you ever wondered that? I never had. The commentators answer that by telling a parable. They said it's as if a king entered the province and said to the people, “May I be your King?” But the people said, “Have you done anything good for us, that you should rule over us? We don't really know you.” What did he do? He built a city wall for them. He brought in the water supply for them. He fought their battles for them and defeated their enemies. Then he said, “May I be your King,” and they said, “Oh, yes.”

The commentators said it was like that. God created the world. He brought us out of Egypt. He divided the sea for us. He brought down for us. He brought up water for us. He provided quail for us. He fought the battle with the Amalekites for us. Then He said, “May I be your King?” And we said, “Oh, yes.” “I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” He gave them Ten Words.

Commandment one: “You shall have no other gods before Me.” An exclusive relationship – God gives us Himself. He does not hold Himself back, and He wants us to do the same.

Commandment two: “You shall not make any carved image.” God in His nature is absolutely transcendent. There is no false worship for the people of God, no manipulation or control, no denying that we are made in His image. We do not make Him in ours.

Commandment three: “You shall not take the name of the Lord in vain.” We don't attach God's name to something that's not worthy of God's name. Sometimes this takes the form of sorcery or spiritual darkness, where God's name is dragged into occult practices or things of that nature. That's why God forbids this of us. Other times this takes place in a more subtle way, when we take God's name, or we take Jesus and try to stuff Him into the back pocket of our particular cause or issue. He doesn't fit. He is Lord of all.

Commandment four: “Remember the Sabbath day. Keep it holy.” The motivation for the Sabbath in Exodus is that we imitate God as our Creator. It is also in Deuteronomy 5. The motivation is to remember that we were slaves in Egypt and never had a day off. The Sabbath

Page 5 of 10 day, the day of rest, the day of enjoying God, means that we take a break from our creative work, our generative labor. We also take a break from requiring others to work on our behalf. We imitate this rhythm of God.

Commandment five: “Honor your father and mother.” We honor those whom God has placed as earthly representatives of His character and name. There is a really high calling for parents implied within that verse to think of whom we represent and how we speak and how we act to reflect God's righteousness and also His grace and mercy.

Commandment six: “You shall not murder.” We are excluded from the anger that pours forth, and we are an angry society. It can be a dangerous place. Sometimes anger churns, and we can move from anger to thinking we need to judge, and then we make the determination to go all the way to taking someone’s life away. God says, “This is not My nature or character. Vengeance is Mine; I will repay.”

Commandment seven: “You shall not commit adultery.” God's people are forbidden to lust after those not entrusted to them. We are forbidden from this unbridled desire that can be so damaging and destructive. We are required to be faithful in our relationships.

Commandment eight: “You shall not steal.” Stealing is an indictment of God's provision in our lives. We trust Him. We are not to be graspers like Jacob, as he started, but we are to be givers.

Commandment nine: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” We are truth tellers, because God tells the truth, and we trust Him enough that we don't have to lie. We trust that the truth will prevail, so we don't have to manipulate the situation or speak in partialities. Sometimes the worst lies are the half-truths, the withholding of information.

Commandment ten: “You shall not covet.” We do not covet our neighbor's house or his wife or any of the people that work for him or his ox or donkey or anything that is our neighbor’s. You know that mode. We can look across at something and think, “That's the condo I really wanted,” or “I wish I had those people working for me.” Or sometimes we may think, “Boy, I want that Prius or that SUV or anything that’s our neighbor’s.” God says, “Don't spend yourself coveting, longing for what I've given to your neighbor.” When we do that, we stop stewarding over what God has cared for and given to us. That's what happens. It can go so far that sometimes parents think, “I wish I had those kids.” As my friend Pastor Timothy used to ask, “Are we together?” Is God's Word piercing our heart? When we start desiring what is given to someone else, we stop caring for what is given to us. God reveals His character, His will.

Movement 3: God intends to dwell among us. The last movement of our text is the last breath of Exodus, which happens over 15 chapters. It is a breathtaking description of God's intention

Page 6 of 10 to live with us. God doesn't invite us into covenant and then leave. He doesn't ask us to take the vows and then leave. He asks us to take the vows of covenant, and then He says, “I want you to make a tent for Me.” In Exodus 25:2, God says: "Speak to the people of Israel, that they take for Me a contribution. From every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution for Me.” There's a great theology of giving in this. No one gives by compulsion. Moses doesn't go out and shake down the . Everyone whose heart moves him contributes. In Exodus 25:8, He says: “And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.” A sanctuary, in Hebrew miqdash, is a holy place. In Exodus 25:9, He continues: “Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the , and of all its furniture, so you shall make it.” The tabernacle is the Latin word tabernaculum, which is the diminutive of taberna, or a hut or tent. He asks the people to make a holy place, a sanctuary (we call it sanctuary, again, because of the influence of Latin). “Make me a tabernacle,” which, again, is Latin for tent. “Make Me a holy place for worship and a tent; make a tent for Me, because I'm coming to live with you.” That's what He’s saying.

My favorite sections of Bible Journey this week were with Tim Laniak on top of Mount Sinai, talking about God’s coming. It’s a great set of segments around that. My second favorite portions this week in Bible Journey were Tim’s talking about Bedouin tents, the structure of the tent, the hospitality of the tent, and what it really means for God to say, “It's a tent for Me, because I'm going to live with you.” The Lord tells Moses in Exodus 25:40: “And see that you make them after the pattern for them, which is being shown you on the mountain.” The pattern that God shows him on the mountain is actually the mountain. When God says, “Make this space, make a tent for Me, like what you see on the mountain,” it's because the mountain is the blueprint for the tabernacle. We see God's presence and glory on the top, the consecrated leader Moses up in God's presence. We see another group of consecrated leaders partially up the mountain, and then we see the people in front of an altar at the base of the mountain. This is the image: If you take Mount Sinai in your mind’s eye and the

Page 7 of 10 imagination of your heart and you just lean it down, this is the blueprint of the tabernacle.

The people are in the outer courts with the altar. Consecrated priests come in part way, and then the consecrated leader comes in to where God is. The tabernacle is God's tent. You move in from the outer courts, past beautiful curtains, and you see an altar, a place for worship. This altar of worship is always going, an offering in the morning and an offering in the evening. You come further into the tent, and you see inside the tent proper that there are two sections: a holy place and the . We see inside the holy place the table of God, the bread of His presence, the lamps of the menorah, and the altar of incense. When you come in closer, you see that those lamps are always burning. In God's house, the lights are always on. He is there, His presence with us. The lamps burn daily, and the Lord instructs the priest to care for those every day. Moving further into the veil that separates the holy place from the holy of holies, we enter further in to the focal point of the sanctuary of the tent. At the center of the tent is an ark – the . God describes in detail to make this ark of acacia wood, to overlay it with gold, inside and out, to fashion cherubim above it, signaling His presence and His throne and this seat of mercy.

The Lord says, “I will meet with you there.” When God finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, He gave to Moses the tablets of the testimony, the sacred agreement, two identical tablets. I know they're usually written as five commandments on one and five on the other, but the convention in antiquity is actually two identical tablets. Usually one is given to the people, and one is given to the god. In Israel both tablets are together. God is the covenant partner and the God of the covenant. Inside the ark, it's like the wedding vows. God says, “I will meet with you there, and I will speak to you.” There is no image of God in the sanctuary. At the center, at

Page 8 of 10 the focal point, we come to God's presence and receive mercy and instruction through His Word.

I can just never get over this, and I never want you to get over it. This tent, this place of worship, is unlike every other place of worship. At every other place of worship, you come inside, and there's an idol. In Israel you come inside, and God's real presence is there. When you come to the God of the Bible, you find a God who is merciful and a God who speaks and is actually talking back. Israel's prophets, whom we will look at next year together, say that the idols of the nations have mouths, but they can't speak. All they can do is echo back what you say. But the God of the Bible speaks. His mercy is abundant.

The description of the tent takes several chapters, and then there are several chapters just describing the tent’s construction. The book of Exodus ends in Exodus 40:17, saying: “In the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, the tabernacle was erected.” Moses put everything together according to the description outlined. He set it all up according to God's design. The climax of the book of Exodus 40:34, is: “Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.” God comes and fills the tent. God moves in.

Let me remind you of these three truths.

Number one: God desires a relationship with you. This is the language that we use, but it's really Exodus language. When we say God desires a real relationship with you, it means that His saving action is not just to showcase His power. His saving action is to act in a way, so that you and I are able to come into His presence. The goal of redemption is a restored relationship with our Heavenly Father, and the right response to this invitation, in case you're wondering, is “Yes.” If God did this, what other relationship would you want? If God did this, how could we possibly think, “Well, why don’t You come back next week? Let me think about that.” God did this and invites us into covenant. The right answer is “Yes.” If you've never received Christ as your Covenant Lord, you can do so right now. Say, “Jesus, I need to be rescued. You rescue people who need to be rescued. I want You.”

Number two: God reveals His Torah, His law, His instruction, to show His character and shape our own. Some of us have a negative association with law, and I even hear this sometimes in the hallways and the byways of our church. We have this division that creeps into our minds

Page 9 of 10 and hearts, and we think the New Testament is about a God of love and the Old Testament is about law. This really isn't how the Bible presents itself. The Ten Commandments aren’t in Genesis 1. They come after God's creation and rescue. And, by the way, Jesus said, “If you love Me, you'll keep My commandments.” His law is given to us as His instruction to reveal His character and to shape our own. We need His Word.

Number three: God really intends to dwell among us, and He grants us the honor of building His tent. Isn’t that remarkable? He didn't really need us to build it. If He could rescue us from Egypt without our doing anything, He could have just said, “Oh, here's My tent.” If He just said, “Let there be light,” and there was light, He certainly could have said, “Here's My tent.” But He made us with the capacity to create culture and build and the Holy Spirit comes on and Oholiab with skill for making things beautiful. The Holy Spirit also works in every heart to contribute. God didn't have to do it this way, but He does it that way here.

In our own small way, we’re in a journey like this now as a church. Exodus speaks directly to the Magnify campaign that we’re in to make a beautiful space for God to be worshiped, for people to gather to learn His Word. That's what the space is used for now and will be used for in the future. I'm thankful for each of you and for the honor of being part of something together that will outlast us all. The people who gave to build the tent enjoyed the tent and God's presence, but the tabernacle served generations and generations. This is a rare privilege for us to be involved with that. Our prayer for today is that we would hear God's Word and enter into relationship with Him, that we would receive His Word as the instruction for our lives, and that we would participate as His spirit moves us in making His tent here. Will you pray with me.

Lord God, we praise You this morning. We thank You for Your work in the world and Your work in our nation. We thank You for Your work in our community. We thank You for Your work at Kenwood Baptist Church. Lord, it's our heartfelt prayer that this church would be about You in every way, in our worship, in our preaching, in our engagement with our neighbors, in our outreach to our community. Lord, we desire to magnify You. We desire for the overwhelming impression of our ministry to be about the greatness of Jesus Christ. We pray this morning that You would continue to speak to hearts, that You would continue to move us, Lord. We pray together that You would bring in the remaining portion that we need toward this goal. Lord, I pray that you would bring us to 100 percent participation, however big, however small. It doesn't really matter. It’s whatever You're asking of each of us. May the Holy Spirit move among us. We give You praise and glory, Lord, for the progress that has been made so far, and we magnify You, Lord Jesus.

Hallelujah! Amen.

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