Exodus 34: Renewal

Good evening. Would you all stand? I want to welcome all of you who are watching online. You're live at Calvary Chapel. Would you join me in prayer? Father, we thank you for your love, your grace, your mercy, and your sovereignty, Lord. You're a loving God who's in total control.

Foundations of the world, you chose us. You planned salvation. Your son, Jesus, would come and die on a cross. You raised him from the dead. We thank you, Lord. And you sent the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us, to comfort us, that you wouldn't leave us as orphans. We lift our time to you this evening that we may build ourselves to you, look to you, the author and finisher of our faith, and know that you are in control.

Good evening. If you would, open up in your Bibles to the book of Exodus, chapter 34.

Exodus. Exodus 34. I hope everyone enjoyed having Dennis here last week. I thought he did a great job. That was a lot of fun. I always like when somebody can bring my daughter up here and embarrass her. That's not me. So I think as many people that can do that should. So that was a lot of fun for me. So the last time that we were together, we were looking at the restoration of the nation of Israel.

When we looked at chapter 32 of the book of Exodus, we saw their rebellion. You may remember that their rebellion took place because of a golden calf. Moses had been up on the mountain for 40 days, and as he was up there on the mountain receiving the law and all of the things they needed for the worship of God and for their instructions as the nation of Israel, the children of Israel got a little distracted. They got a little impatient, and so they came to Aaron and they said, Make us a God.

We don't even know what's happened to this Moses guy. We don't know if he's coming back, so make us a God that can lead us. And so Aaron, of course, said, Okay, take off all your gold earrings. He, of course, just put them in the fire and out popped this calf. At least that was his version of the story. And the children of Israel began to worship the calf, and we know that there was great,

not only idolatry, syncretism, but also immorality that took place because of that. So Moses comes down the mountain, the wrath ensues, and then Moses intercedes for the people. Well, then we moved into chapter 33. We saw the restoration of the people. And they were restored because, first of all, they had the distinct understanding of just how sinful their sin actually was.

They began to understand the depth of their sin and the consequences that would go along with that sin. And as they understood the depth of the sin and the consequences that went along with the sin, they began to mourn over their sin. And as they mourned over their sin, they then took action by removing all of their earrings. Not that we should never wear earrings, but it was their way of saying, This is not going to be a stumbling block for us any longer.

And so they took that action. And then Moses once again began to intercede for the people. He interceded on behalf of them as their high priest. And then he interceded on behalf of them that God would go before them, that God would stay with them. Then we saw him intercede on behalf of himself. And he asked God something really interesting. He said, Lord, I want to see your glory.

And in all of the things that Moses had seen of God, he wasn't content with that. He wanted to see more of God. He wanted a greater depth of the understanding of the glory of God. And God, of course, said, When you come up on the mountain, you can hide yourself in the cleft of the rock and I'll cover you with my hand. And as I cover you with my hand, I will allow my glory to pass by.

And then I will remove my hand and you can see the backside of my glory. The afterburners of God's glory, if you will. And so that was where we left in chapter 33. And so now here in chapter 34, we get to see this meeting. And so chapter 34, I was going to call restoration part two. But as I was reading it, there was a word. That kept going through my mind.

And the word that kept going through my mind was renewal. Because really what you see is a renewal, not only of Moses and his relationship with God, a renewal of God's covenant with the people, but a renewal of the people's understanding of the glory of God. And so renewal is what we're going to look at here in chapter 34. And so it starts off with a meeting with God.

Now, the Lord said to Moses, cut out for yourself two stone tablets. Chapter 34, verse one. Cut out for yourself. Two stone. Two stone tablets like the former ones. And I will write on the word. I will write the words that were on the former tablets. And I love how God throws this little caveat in there, which you shattered. So remember the ones you broke. So be ready by morning and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain.

No man's to come up with you, nor let any man be seen anywhere on the mountain. Even the flocks in the herds may not graze in front of that. And so he cut two stone tablets like the former ones. And Moses rose early in the morning and went up to Mount Sinai and as the Lord had commanded him. And he took the two stone tablets in his hand. Now, I wonder if you noticed the same thing that I noticed.

And that's how many times it was referenced. The former things that he did. Basically, God's like, OK, take two. Right. Giving you the law. Take two. We're just going to start this whole process over again. You know, he said, I want you to cut two stone tablets. Just like the other ones. And then I'm going to write the law on them, just like the other ones.

And then you're going to come up on the mountain, just like you did the time before. You're going to come by yourself, just like you did before. Because that's exactly what God's doing. Is God is renewing this covenant. Therefore, he's not going to do anything new. Because why would he need to do something new? God's not the one that broke the law. He's simply going to renew what he gave to Moses in the first place.

Because they had broken what God gave them in the first place. You remember that. You've seen, don't you? As the children of Israel were literally breaking the law down there at the bottom of the mountain, Moses came down and literally broke the tablets of the law to be incredibly symbolic of what was taking place with the children of Israel down at the bottom of the mountain.

And so God tells him, we're going to renew this relationship. We're going to renew this covenant. And so I started thinking about this today. And as I was thinking about it, another word came to my mind. And the word that came to my mind was the word return. Return. He tells him, return to what you did at the first. What did Moses do the first time? Well, the first time he went up on the mountain.

What else did he do the first time? Well, he took two stone tablets with him. What else did he do the first time? Well, he went by himself. What else was true about the first time? Nobody else could go up with him. What else was true about the first time? No animals could come near the mountain. Are you noticing that this is a returning to what he did at the first?

You know what phrase kept going through my mind? It was the one out of the book of Revelation. Where God is speaking to the church in Ephesus. And he says, man, you're doing so many good things. You're doing so many good activities. But I have this one thing against you. You've left your first love. And so I want you to return and do the first works. Return and do what you were doing at the beginning.

I'm curious if either A, you're in this place now. Or you know what I'm talking about when I say. You know what it's like to leave your first love. You know what it's like to leave your first love. You know what it's like to leave your first love. You know what it's like to leave your first love. You know what it's like to leave your first love. I'm not talking about the girl that you loved in the very beginning of high school.

I'm talking about Jesus as your first love. I wonder if you understand or perhaps are experiencing right now. What it is to get kind of distracted from that. And you're going through the day in and the day out aspect of walking with God. But there's no real heart there any longer. Sin has gotten in the way. The world has gotten in the way. Distractions have gotten in the way.

And perhaps God wants to do the same thing in you. He wants to return. He wants to call you to return to those first works that you did. Remember when you first got saved. For some of you it wasn't very long ago. But remember when you first got saved. And you could not wait to spend time in God's word. Because you were just so excited about it. You were so excited because you didn't understand 90% of what you were reading.

But you knew that's where God was. And so that's where you wanted to be. I remember when I first started walking with Jesus at the age of 17. And I started off with the book of Romans. That was a 10-minute walk. I didn't understand anything in the book of Romans until I came to Romans chapter 8. Where it said that nothing can separate me from the love of God.

And I was like, I like that. I like that nothing can separate me from the love of God. Because I've been an idiot for a really long time. And I feel like if anybody should not want to love me right now, it's God. And so I was so excited just to read God's word. And then what happens to our lives? The world starts to become distracting. The things of the world start to pull us away.

And pretty soon. Those sins that we hated so much when we came to know Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Are the sins that all of a sudden become really, really attractive to us. Just like the nation of Israel. Who though they'd been set free from the bondage of Egypt. Were completely willing to return to the bondage of idolatry. And it was time for them to return.

Return and do what you did at the first. But do you know what else I noticed that Moses was supposed to return to? Moses was supposed to return to the word. Think about this. He had to go back and return to what God's word had to say. What was God's word? Well, at this point in time, it was the Ten Commandments that had been given to him. That revelation of the holiness of God.

That revelation of the righteousness of God. That revelation of the standard of God that should automatically point us to a savior. He said, it's time to return to what the word of God has to say. Do you know what I can guarantee every time you've ever fallen into sin? You know what you have ignored when you did? That God's word. You know how I know that? Because the very first sin that was committed was the very first question that Satan asked.

He said, did God say? Because that's what he will always cause us to question. He will always cause us to question God's word. And then you with the second thing that he'll cause us to question is God's character. What happened to the children of Israel down at the bottom of the mountain? They began to question God's word and they began to question God's character.

How do we know Moses is even up there? How do we know this God didn't destroy him? And they began to question what God had to say. Will you obey God completely? Yes, we can. Yes, we will. Hope and change, right? Sorry, that's a terrible joke. Anyway, and that was what they were following. And so what did they do? They got away from God's word. And so what do they have to return to?

They had to return to God's word. I would be interested for you to take note in your life of every time you battle with something in your life. Be it temptation, be it depression, be it anxiety. I would be interested to see. Do you find yourself questioning the truth of God's word? Because I bet you do. You see, as someone who battled anxiety for a really good portion of my life,

I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt, the only cure for anxiety is to return to God's word. Is to return to what God's word has to say. Because anxiety, is a questioning of the truth of God's word. Because it means I'm worrying about something that's completely outside of my control that only God can take care of. Depression is the causing of me to question whether or not

there's really truly joy in the Lord. And every sin that I ever commit is questioning whether or not God really meant it when he said, don't or do. So as God calls Moses back up to the mountain, he calls him to return to God's word. And so Moses does exactly what he's supposed to. Moses obeys. Moses cut out two stone tablets like the former ones. And I always appreciate this about Moses.

In verse four it says, and Moses rose up early in the morning and went up to Mount Sinai. You know, I have to think that there was a certain amount of anticipation inside of Moses right now because what was the very last request he made of God right before God gave him these instructions for this meeting? He said, Lord, show me your glory. He said, Lord, show me your glory.

And what did God say he was going to do? I'll show you as much as you can take. I'll show you as much as your little body can handle. So I think Moses was pretty excited to get up. Rose early in the morning, took those stone tablets, and went up on the mountain. And then as we continue with this meeting, I want you to take note of what it says in verse five.

It says, and the Lord descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness and truth, who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin. Yet he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and the fourth generation. And Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship.

And he said, Now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord. I pray, let the Lord go along in our midst, even though the people are obstinate, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as your own possession. So Moses has followed the instructions. He's made the tablets. He's risen early in the morning, and he goes up on top of the mountain by himself,

doesn't take anybody with him. No animals are coming near the mountain. He's obeyed God. And as Moses goes up on top of the mountain, I want you to take note of how God responds. God responds by the Lord. Descending in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the Lord, as it says in verse five. This cloud, the Shekinah glory of God that came down and dwelt just over top.

I love that it says that the cloud came down and it stood there. That gives us the idea that there was an abiding presence of God. It wasn't a flash in the pan. It wasn't just a quick moment. It wasn't something that if you blinked, you were gonna miss it. God stood there with him in the cloud in all of his glory. As Moses called upon the name of the Lord. I want you to think about this.

God just kept his promise. Moses said, Lord, show me your glory. And he says, I'll give you as much as you can take. And so Moses goes up on the mountain in obedience to God, in anticipation of God showing up. And what does God do? God shows up. I wonder if in our lives, we expect God to show up. I wonder if in our lives, as we cry, Lord, I wanna know more of who you are.

If we actually expect God to answer, we're told in the book of James that we should pray expecting God to answer, expecting God to show up and not to be double-minded, waffling back and forth, but to expect God to be there. Now, I'm not saying that in your own home, the Shekinah glory of God's presence is gonna come down and fill your entire room with a cloud. Could he do that? Sure, I don't see why not.

Is he going to? I mean, I've never seen it, but I'm a little impatient. So maybe if I sat there long enough, it might happen. But I am saying that God's presence through the power of the Holy Spirit is able to be there right with you in the midst of everything that you're doing. Expect God to show up. I remember sharing with my students a few years ago, this was when I made Friday my study day.

And I said, you know, Fridays are one of my favorite days because I go down to the church every Friday and I open up my Bible and I start preparing my Sunday morning message. And every time I start reading, I think, Lord, I have no idea what you want me to say out of this section. And what would happen every single time is that all of a sudden God would show up and he would give me exactly what I was supposed to share. Now that means a lot to me because I was doing an incredible amount at that point in time.

Not that I have stopped doing an incredible amount, but much more at that point in time than I am now because I was also teaching almost full time at Ark City Christian Academy. And I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, that if God didn't show up, I had nothing. I had nothing to give. That was a really, really difficult time in life. And I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt,

Lord, if you don't show up, I've got nothing. And you know what would happen every single time? God would show up. And so you know what I've started expecting every time I study? I expect that God's going to show up. And you know what he does every single time? He shows up. Is it exactly when I want him to? No. Sometimes it's at Sunday morning at 4.30 in the morning.

Right? And God's like, Behold. And I'm like, Could it have come earlier? No. Because that was when I was ready for it. But God always shows up. And he wants to do the exact same thing in your life. And so God shows up there on the mountain in keeping his promise that he made to Abraham. And then it says that the Lord passed by in front of him. And this is what he proclaims.

Now, if you remember from chapter 33, God said that when he passed before him, he would proclaim his name. And it says, I don't remember if we covered this in chapter 33 or not, but when God says he would proclaim his name, it means a whole lot more than God just telling him, this is what my name is. Because a name at this point in time was not just your identification on a social security card or a birth certificate. A name spoke of your character.

It spoke of the very fabric of who you are. And so that's exactly what God is going to do with Moses. Is he is going to declare his name. He is going to tell him this is who I am in my character and in my nature. And so this is what he proclaims to him. He says, as God proclaims to him, notice it's in quotations because this is actually God speaking. He says, the Lord, the Lord God.

So the first thing he says there is Yahweh, Yahweh Elohim. Yahweh, of course, is the very first name that God gave to Moses. Do you remember that? Do you remember when Moses was at the burning bush and who he said, who do I? I say sent me because they're going to be like, who sent you? And if I tell them a burning bush sent me, that's going to look weird. Who do I say sent me?

And he said, tell him I am sent you. Yahweh, the ever becoming one. The one who becomes exactly what we need at this point in time. The all powerful, almighty God. He says the all powerful, almighty God, Yahweh, Yahweh Elohim. And then he begins to describe his character. He starts off with two words, compassionate and gracious. Compassionate and gracious, gracious.

Perhaps some of your translations translate the word compassionate as merciful, but really compassionate is a better translation there because it really carries with it the idea of what God was trying to say. You could also translate that tenderly pitiful. In other words, showing tender pity to those who are in such desperate need. So as God describes his character, the first thing that he says that he is, is he says that he is compassionate.

But the second thing that he says that he is, is gracious. I love what Gail Irwin has to say about this. And I can't say it like Gail Irwin does. Matter of fact, I was going to look up the video of how Gail Irwin says this, and I ran out of time today. But sometime look up, Google Gail Irwin, the name of God. And it's a great video to watch. It's a lot of fun.

But the word gracious here literally means, to bend down or to stoop down low as if to someone that is inferior. Let me paint the picture for what this word really means. And it's in its intent picture, if you will, your your small child ends up getting injured and the tiny person comes up to you crying. And so you bend down on one knee so that you can be there for that little one and you can hear everything that they have to say.

That's the idea behind God. It's saying that he is gracious. It means that he stoops down low to one who is inferior because of the great love that he has for us. Do you picture God in that way? I wonder, I wonder if sometimes we don't end up with a fearful picture of God, partly because there's healthy, there's a healthiness in fearing the Lord. But in fearing the Lord,

we also must understand that he is also the compassionate and gracious one. And that the very first thing that he decides to tell Moses about himself is that he is. Tenderly pitiful towards us and that he stoops down low because he is so tender hearted towards us because that's who he is towards us in his character and his nature. One who stoops down low to care for those who are in such desperate need.

He says, the Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious. And if you were listening to Gail Irwin, he would really drag out this next part slow to anger.

I wish I was a little bit more like this. Some. Sometimes I got kind of mad at something today. I won't tell you what I got bad at. Doesn't matter. But I have found that the older that I get, the shorter my fuse is. I used to have a really long fuse. A problem was once you got to the end of the fuse, right? And that was, that was the bad thing. And now the fuse is a little bit shorter.

I wish the explosion was smaller. It's not. But, but God's incredibly slow to anger. Think about the fact that he hasn't wiped the children of Israel out at this point in time. I bet when God said, slow, slow to anger, Moses was like, I can see that we're all still here. And you know what? I can see that. You know why? Because I'm still here. I don't wipe me out a long time ago,

right? Good 20 some years ago, I'd have been done with me because I'm not worth it anymore. But that's not who God is because the God who is compassionate and who stooped slow to be with me, to be near me to hear what I have to say is also very slow to anger. And then notice what else he refers to himself as he says, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness and truth.

I appreciated what John Corson said. He said that in the Hebrew language, the word abounding literally carries with it the idea of an overflowing cup of water. That's the idea behind God's loving kindness and truth is that he literally is just overflowing with it. Right? It's just, it's flowing from him more than anything that you can imagine. I think I've shared with you before that I had a teacher in Bible college.

His name was Tom Mouch. He looked just like a pinky off pinky in the brain. If you ever used to watch that cartoon. Uh, so no, nevermind. Look, look it up sometime. You're going to love it. It's great. He looked just like that guy, but Tom Mouch overflowed with love. That's who I think of when I think of this, because every time you saw Tom Mouch, he had the biggest smile on his face and he was always so ready.

To give someone a hug or to show some love. He was the most tender guy you would ever been around. And when I think about him, I think in God overflows even more than him. It's just pretty amazing how much God overflows with loving kindness and truth. But notice what he says next. He says, who forgives iniquity and transgression and sin who forgives iniquity,

transgression and sin. I got to thinking, I wonder what those words mean. And, and luckily one of the commentaries that I read defined them for me. I thought this was really neat. Iniquity means to pervert the ways of the Lord, to pervert the ways of the Lord. Transgression is literally rebellion. In other words, you know exactly what you're doing and you do it anyway.

And then sin simply means an offense or to miss the mark. You know, I appreciate that God used all three of those words to, to speak of the things that he is willing to forgive because it means he doesn't leave anything out. There's nothing you can do that will outstretch the forgiveness of God. There's nothing you can do to cause God to be like, that's it.

I'm not going to forgive you this time because to the repentant heart, no matter what you've done, no matter how far you've gone, no matter how ugly it looks, his forgiveness extends to you. Why? Because he is compassionate. And he is gracious. He is slow to anger and he is abounding in loving kindness towards thousands. And he forgives sin and transgression and iniquity.

That's who he is in his character and his nature. Be great if he stopped right there, right?

Yet he will be that by no means leave the guilty unpunished visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and the fourth generations. It's like, shit, did that just cancel out everything that he said before? No, it amplifies everything that he said before. Why? Because it doesn't mean that God is not a just God because God still punishes sin.

God still deals with sin. That's what makes his forgiveness so amazing. That's what makes grace so amazing. You see, up to this point in time, the only way God can forgive sin is if a sacrifice had been made that will appease God's wrath towards sin until the ultimate sacrifice could be made. Which is Jesus Christ himself. But once the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ had been made,

God can righteously and justly forgive sin because he is not just some kind of grandfather in the sky that just kind of says, aw shucks, Sonny, let's just forget that happened. Okay? That's not who God is. God is still the God who punishes sin. And for those who refuse to repent the for those who will step over the grace of God, it step over the crucified body of Jesus Christ,

in order to. walk themselves into hell, there's no other sacrifice that can be made for sin other than Jesus. And so he will deal with sin. But for those who are of that repentant heart, who will come humble and broken to the Lord, he is all of those other things. I've struggled just a little bit with this phrase, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and on the father and on

the grandchildren to the third and the fourth generation. I struggle with it because it violates something else that God's scripture says, which is that the children should not be punished for the sins of the father. It tells us that in the book of Ezekiel. And so what does he mean by this? Well, one commentator that I read gave me what I think is a pretty good understanding of it.

And the understanding that I have is that this is a Hebrew idiom that gives us the idea that God's wrath is king. Continual towards sin, towards those who will not repent of their sin. And that makes absolute sense to me. For me, that appeased my understanding. But do you know what else I have the distinct understanding of? The sins of the fathers, they affect the children. Whether we intend for them

to or not, they're called unintended consequences. I experience it because sometimes when I allow myself to fall into some kind of sin, my daughters get affected by it because they don't want to be affected by it. And so I'm going to tell you a little bit about that. They see me stumble in that way. I let a word come out of my mouth here a few weeks ago. It doesn't happen very often, but I'm still human. And sometimes when I'm not being slow to anger,

unfortunately, my flesh comes out. And do you know what I had to tell my girls? I'm really, really, really sorry that that happened because they heard me say it. And it killed my witness just a little bit. Because now every time we have the discussion about allowing our mouths to only say things that are pure, they can say, but dad, you did it. And I'll have to say, I know. And I'm ashamed

of myself for it. And I'm very sorry. Is there redemption from that? I believe that there is because that's who God is. But unfortunately, those things do pass on to the children. And I think that's part of what he's bringing. When he talks about his character. And so he goes on from there, or he finishes there as God has revealed himself to him. As he passed by, he allowed Moses to know the character of God.

And I want you to notice how Moses responds. And Moses made, Moses, no, there's no T at the end of that. Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship. You see, he did the only thing that we should ever do when God does that. He did the only thing that we should ever do when God does that. The only response that is appropriate when we receive that kind of a message from the Lord is

simply to worship God. You see, I feel like the reason why sometimes our worship lacks power is because we lack the understanding of who God is. We try to worship from a place of feeling and emotion instead of worshiping from a place of obedience and understanding. Because we worship God and we worship God. And we worship God and we worship God. And we worship God and we worship

God not based on how we feel. We worship God based on who he is. And if you find yourself saying, I just don't know if I can really worship right now because I'm just not feeling it, then it's time for you to ask God to reveal more of himself to you. Because that's the only way that heart of worship will be formed within you. And so Moses makes haste to bow low toward the

earth and worship. And he said, verse nine, if now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, I pray that you will not let me down. I pray that you will not let me down. I pray that you will not Let the Lord go along in our midst, even though the people are so obstinate. Pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us as your own possession. He asks him again. He says basically two things.

He asked him. He says, Lord, please go with us. If I have found favor in your sight. And it's clear at this point in time that Moses has found favor in his sight because he just saw God in a way he never even thought possible to see God as God revealed the true nature of his character to him. He said, if I found it, uh, uh, favor in your sight, please go with us. I know we're not good people. I know we struggle with

obedience. He uses a fun word, obstinate. I know we're like a bunch of donkeys, but go with us anyway. And then I love the second request. He says, and take us as your own possession. Make us your possession. It reminds me of that verse in the book of Ephesians when Paul is praying for the people. And as he prays for them, he prays that they would know the treasure that

God finds in them. As a matter of fact, go there with me real quick. I didn't put this on the screen. So go over to the book of Ephesians. And if I remember correctly, this is what I get for not looking this stuff up ahead of time and just flying on the seat of my pants here. I'm pretty sure it's Ephesians chapter one. He says, I pray that the eyes, yes, there it is. I pray that the

eyes, verse 18 of chapter one, pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened. So that you will know what is the hope of his calling. And what are the, pay attention right here, the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. Is that not amazing? Now I want you to understand what he's really saying there. What Paul is saying is that he wants us to have

the distinct understanding that the riches of God's inheritance are in us. We are his own special

people. We are the riches of God's inheritance. Jesus is like, you're my own special people. When I think about what I get, I think about the fact that I get you. You're the inheritance that Jesus is looking forward to. When the church goes home to be with him, that's his great joy. That's his great joy is that the church will be with him. And so when Moses prays, Lord, go with us, even though

we don't deserve it because we're such obstinate people. And Lord, take us as your possession. Allow us to be your inheritance. Allow us to be the riches of your inheritance. And if we jump into the New Testament, we see that God absolutely answers that because that's what Paul says. He says, I pray that they would understand that's who they are. I pray that you would understand that's who you are in his eyes.

See why I call this renewal? And so now it's time for God to renew the covenant. Notice what he says in verse 10. Then God said, behold, I'm going to make a covenant before all your people. I will perform miracles. Which have not been produced in all the earth, nor among any of the nations and all the people among whom you live will see the working of the Lord. For it is a fearful thing that I am going

to perform with you. Be sure to observe what I am commanding you this day. Behold, I'm going to drive out the Amorite before you and the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Watch yourself that you make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going, or it will become a snare in your midst. But rather you are to tear down their altars,

smash their sacred pillars, and cut down their ashram. For you shall not worship any other God. For the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. Otherwise you might make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they would play the harlots, or they would play the harlot with their gods and sacrifice to their gods. And someone might invite you to eat at his sacrifice.

And you might take some of his daughters for your sons. And his daughters might play the harlot with their gods and cause your sons also to play the harlot with their gods. You shall not make for yourself molten gods. And so God first of all starts off with what I would call the preamble to the covenant. In his preamble to the covenant, he says, Behold, I'm going to make a covenant

before all your people. I will perform miracles which have not been produced in all the earth, nor among any people. God says, Okay, we're going to go back and make a covenant again. We're going to start this situation over again. And in this covenant that I'm going to make with you, I'm going to do things that you can't even dream of, miracles that have not even been heard of up to this point in time. One of the things I

really enjoy is to read the book of Joshua and see some of the things that God did in the book of Joshua, like the time that he knocked down the walls of Jericho by them just yelling, right? Listen, I did construction for a while, and when we did demo a couple times, I was like, huh, I wonder if I just shouted right now. Those things fall down? They never have, not yet anyways.

And it was an amazing thing that God did. And then, of course, there were entire armies that came together to come against the nation of Israel, kind of like has happened in modern day times. Entire groups of armies that came against them, and God completely wiped them out. As a matter of fact, one time, when they were defeating the enemy, the sun was about to go down. And Joshua's like, Lord, if that

could not happen, that would be great. And so God caused the sun to stand still while they completely defeated the enemy. I think that's kind of what God was talking about when he said, I will perform miracles that have not even been heard of yet. That's what I'm going to do for you. I love this. This is how God starts off the covenant. God doesn't start off the covenant by saying, this is

what you need to do for me. He says, this is what I'm going to do for you. And as a matter of fact, I'm going to go before you and I'm going to drive out all of the ites, all of the ites that stand before you. I'm going to drive them all out, which by the way, this is God's way of saying, okay, Moses, I'll go with you. I'll go with you in your midst. Because remember what he said last

time? I'll send my angel before you. And this time he says, I will drive out all of the inhabitants of the land because he was saying, I will go with you. He answers his prayer. And so, but after he does that, he gives him a warning. I love the way he starts off with verse 12. I think each one of us at the top of our Bible, every time we open the Bible in our car, at our workplace, above our

computer, perhaps it should be the case on our iPhones. The thing that we see constantly is watch yourself. Watch yourself. I love that that's how God starts this warning. He says, I will drive out all of the ites, all of the ites that stand before you. I'll about idolatry. You know why God started the warning by saying, watch yourself? Because they didn't watch themselves. And what did they do? Build a stinking golden calf. God said, hey,

pay attention. In my Bible study program that I use, I use this one called Olive Tree Bible. And they have a search section over on the side. So I just typed in the words, watch yourself, the English words, watch yourself in the New American Standard search engine. And it was a great thing. And I think it's amazing how many times it showed up. If you started there in all of the

different places in Scripture, you get into Deuteronomy and you run out of ink to write down all the times God says, watch yourself. But then you move into the New Testament, you see the same thing. It's funny because I was just reading this morning in Galatians chapter six. And in Galatians chapter six, Paul says, if you see someone sinning a sin that doesn't lead to death, you who are spiritual, restore such one. However, can you guess what it says? Watch yourself, that you don't fall

into the same sin. I thought, man, that thing is littered all over the Bible. Why on earth does God waste precious space in what he had to say to us to say over and over again, watch yourself? Because we just can't hear it enough. We just can't hear it enough. We can get deceived so easily. Our flesh is so deceptive. You think the deception going on in the world is bad right now?

Wait till your flesh talks to you. And it's just like, seems like a good thing. Good idea, right? No, that's a lie. It doesn't seem like a good idea. Watch yourself because you can make an idol really fast. And idolatry is right around every corner. I don't want us to be like, there's idols everywhere, but there kind of are, right? Like we can do this so easy. Like one

minute we're like, oh, this is the greatest thing in the world. The next minute we're just like, that's all I can think about because we've just turned it into an idol. He says, watch yourself. Why? Because we are so proficient. We are so prone to sin. We are so prone to weakness. We are so prone to give in to all of the things of the world. That's why Paul had to say, you who are spiritual, restore such a one.

But watch yourself. It's interesting. I believe it is at first Corinthians chapter 12. No, it's chapter 10, verse 12, I think, where he says, you who think you stand, take heed. Same word, watch yourself. Watch yourself, lest you fall. Man, we just don't know when it's coming. And if we don't have our spiritual eyes on, if we are not spiritually alert and paying attention to the pitfalls that are

around us all the time, then we'll end up falling into them. He says, watch yourself. What are they supposed to watch themselves about? Make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going, or it will become a snare in your midst. You know how else I could phrase this? Don't give yourself an option. Don't give yourself an option. Don't give yourself an option. Don't give

yourself an option. Don't make a covenant. Don't ever give yourself an option to give in to sin, because I will guarantee, the minute you give yourself an option, you have automatically lost the battle. Once it becomes a question of should I, you're done. It's all over. You've given in to it. Now, if there's still that moment and you're going, should I, run as fast as you can, because

it's probably right around the corner. Don't give yourself an option. Try to give you a biblical verse. The that speaks, this little bit better than don't give yourself an option. The Book of Romans, it says, Make no provision for the flash. In other words, don't make a Covenant. Don't make a Covenant with him instead. What are they supposed to do? That's what it says. In first anything 13, but rather you are to tear down their

altars. Your to smash their sacred pillars. You are to cut down their Asheron, for you shall not worship e! other god for the lord whose name is jealous is a jealous god he says instead you need to start tearing down idols you need to destroy everyone that comes across your path why because god whose name is jealous he's a very jealous god now listen this doesn't mean that god is a jealous boyfriend checking your text messages all the time this means that god either wants all of you or he doesn't want any of you and this is something that the lord keeps bringing up to me over and over again that as the church in the united states of america today we need to understand that god either wants all of us or he doesn't want any of us if you don't

believe me again go back to the book of revelation and read what he says about the church of laodicea pretty much says the same thing he says i wish you were either hot or cold but you're lukewarm and so i have a stomach ache he says uh he's a jealous god verse 15 this is what happens if you make a covenant and don't destroy their idols otherwise you will make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they would play the harlot with their gods and sacrifice to their gods and someone might invite you to eat his sacrifice and you might take his daughters for your sons and his daughters might play the harlot with their gods and cause your sons also to play the harlot

with their gods let me simply say that god is a jealous god and he's a jealous god and he's a jealous god he's actually had Derek eat a eres a hes and he was witnessed that in the vosges so he says don't destroy the idols otherwise if you wanna go to heaven and they're gonna pray they'll destroy you god's Incredible chronicle of grace hell that's something that they wrote you that's a god for the vision to pull out the muscles in your heads except he said when he turning over his head and doing that he's gonna have to commit his feedback to people you ask the version of that sunまぁ don't care you man, watch yourself, because if you don't destroy the idols, the idols will destroy you.

And then he throws in verse 17, you shall make for yourself no molten gods. I think he said that because of the golden calf. He just wanted to make sure there was no question, right? And don't make yourself a molded God, because remember that one time, it was bad. And then he goes on to talk about the feasts, verse 18. He says, you shall observe the feast of, I'm sorry, I'm going to try to move

faster here, because I got a lot I want to cover. He says, you shall observe the feast of unleavened bread. For seven days you're to eat unleavened bread as I commanded you at the appointed time in the month of Abib. For in the month of Abib, you came out of Egypt. The first offspring from every womb belongs to me, and all your male livestock, the first offspring from cattle and

sheep, you shall redeem with a lamb. The first offspring from a donkey, if you do not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. You shall redeem all the firstborn of your sons. None shall appear before me empty-handed. Of course, that, the feast of unleavened bread starts with Passover and moves into that week of unleavened bread. We'll spend more time talking about that when we get into the book of Leviticus. Verse 21, you shall work six

days, but on the seventh day you shall rest, and this really got me, even during plowing time and harvest you shall rest. I underlined it and highlighted it. You know why? Because we can take rest seriously until it's really important, right? You should rest and make sure you take your time for physical rest, unless your schedule is too busy. God says, even if your schedule is busy, take the Sabbath day off. And may

I say, if our lives are too busy for our relationship with Jesus, then our lives are too busy. So he goes on from there to say, you shall celebrate the feast of weeks. We would call that the feast of Pentecost, the first fruits of the wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the turn of the year. we would call that the Feast of Tabernacles. Three times a year, all your males are to appear before the Lord,

the God of Israel. For I will drive out the nations from before you, enlarge your borders, and no man shall covet your land when you go up three times a year to appear before the Lord your God. You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread, nor is the sacrifice of the Feast of Passover to be left over until morning. You shall bring the very first of the firstfruits of your soil into the house of the Lord, and you shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.

The Lord said to Moses, Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and Israel. So he finishes talking about those three feasts that they were supposed to go to and some other laws that go along with that. Again, we'll spend some more time talking about that in Leviticus. It says in verse 28, So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights.

He did not eat bread or drink water, and he wrote, Now I wonder if you noticed the same thing I just noticed right there. Did you notice that the second time Moses went up on the mountain, he didn't shorten the amount of time he went up there? He was up there for another forty days. Now I thought that was kind of interesting because what happened the first time he was up there for forty days?

I don't think he's coming back. And so God sent him up there. He said, Go up there again, just like you did the first time. And I'm going to tell you, I'm going to tell you, I'm going to tell you, I'm going to tell you. I'm not going to make it any shorter this time. Now I thought that this was kind of interesting because God's not like, Hey, I'm going to make sure it's shorter

because I know how impatient they are, so I'm going to cater to the people. This time it'll only be twenty days because I know what happens after forty days. Nope. Nope. They failed the first time, so they had to do it all over again. See, here's the funny thing about God. If at first we don't succeed, He's completely content to let us do it again. He's completely content to make it the exact same amount of time.

God didn't shorten it to cater to the people because God knew they needed that amount of time. And God knew Moses needed that amount of time because what Moses was about to go through over the next year of taking the children of Israel through the wilderness, coming to the edge of the promised land, and not being able to go in, and then to live with them for forty more years. He needed as much strengthening in the Lord over those forty days as He could possibly have. And if they were to be the people that God intended for them to be, they needed to learn to wait on the Lord.

When I went to Johnson County Calvary Chapel this weekend, Pastor Dave Fitzgerald from over in St. Louis gave the message, and he gave the message out of John chapter 11, I believe it was, where Lazarus died. And it's interesting, it's interesting because I had read through that section earlier in the year in my devotions. And if you remember that section, what happened was this.

Lazarus had gotten very sick. Mary and Martha sent for Jesus. They said, Lazarus, whom you love, is sick. And so it says, Jesus waited three more days. Maybe it was two more days. But Jesus waited. And He waited long enough for Lazarus to die. Because God, had something better in mind than healing him while he was alive. He was gonna raise him from the dead.

Well, over in the margin of my Bible, I had written this note. And it was a good little reminder for me on Sunday morning. And the note that I wrote was this. God's delays are out of love. Because if you read what it says next in that section, he says, I waited because I love him. And you're kind of like, come again. Shouldn't you have acted right now if you love?

No. Because God's delays are out of love. You see, we can never become the people God wants us to be apart from a time of waiting. Apart from those waiting times, we'll never become who God intends for us to be. Those are some of the most important times in our lives. And if we're not content to wait the first time, then God's content to allow us to wait the second time.

Because God, and I think this is important for us, and the Western culture to know, God is not in a hurry. We have a hard time believing that in our culture right now because what are we all in right now? We're all in a hurry, right? I remember this cheesy country song coming out in the 90s. I'm in a hurry to get things done, right? I will not do the hip swivel this time like I usually like to do.

If I was in my Bible class, I would. Not appropriate here. I'm in a hurry to get things done. I rush and rush until life's no fun. All I really got to do is, live and die. I'm in a hurry and don't know why. And I think a lot of us live that way. And a lot of us think, I'm in a hurry. Shouldn't God be in a hurry? Lord, if you don't act now, you don't understand what's going to happen.

And God's like, I already know what's going to happen. I'm not in a hurry because I know what's going on. I'm not in a hurry because I'm in control of what's going on. And now it's time for you to not be in a hurry. Instead, it's time for you to wait. And so they have to wait up on the mountain. And I know it's not fun to do, but you have to do it because God's delays are out of love.

And so now as we wrap up this chapter, we see the shining face of Moses. I didn't know what else to call this section because in my Bible it says, Moses's face shines. It made sense to me. It came about when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai. I love this little commentary. And the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses's. Moses's hand as he was coming down from the mountain.

I think Moses, because he wrote this, right? I mean, we know that. Moses was like, and this time I didn't throw the tablets down. Anyway, he says, and the tablets were with him, that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with him. So when Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone and they were afraid to come near,

which I can't blame them. And Moses called to them and Aaron, and all the rulers in the congregation returned to him. And Moses spoke to them. Afterward, all the sons of Israel came near and he commanded them to do everything that the Lord had spoken to him on the mountain. I love that commentary about why Moses's face is glowing. He's coming down the mountain.

What he doesn't realize is, is that he is a glow worm on his way down, right? You guys remember that toy you pressed on the belly of and the little face lit up? Creepiest thing ever in the, why did we like that? It's still awesome in my mind. Anyway, that's exactly what he was doing. His face was just lighting up and they were like, dude, what's wrong, man?

Apparently the word shine here literally means like bolts of light were coming from him. That's the idea behind that Hebrew word. And so this wasn't just like, oh, he needs to get into the sun because he's so pale. It looks like he's glowing. This is like actual light shining off of his face. But why was that light shining off of his face? Notice what it says at the end of verse 26.

Because of his meaning Moses is speaking with him, meaning God. So why was Moses's face shining? It was shining because he was reflecting the presence of God that he had just been in. And may I say, when we are spending time in the presence of God, it does become very apparent to the people that are around us because we are reflecting the truth of who God is.

And so, when Moses calls them all together, he gives them all the rules, but notice how Moses handles things in verse 33. And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. Whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would take off the veil until he came out. And whenever he came out and spoke to the sons of Israel, what he had commanded, the sons of Israel would see the face of Moses at the skin of Moses's face shown.

So he would replace the veil over his face until he went in to speak with him. So essentially for a time, every time Moses was in with the Lord, he would take the veil off of his face, but when he was around the people, he would put the veil back over his face. Now in the book of 2 Corinthians, we're told that there was a reason why he did that. The reason why he did that is because the glory was fading.

Just like the glory of the law fades in the presence of the one that the law was there to reveal. So I got to thinking about this, and I got to thinking, what does this mean? What does this mean for us? Well, I believe that God has intended us to shine forth his presence in the people that are around us. There's a really beautiful picture in nature that's given to us,

and that's with the sun and the moon. The sun produces its own light, but all the moon can do is reflect the light of the sun. And the only way that it can do that is to simply allow the sun, or allow itself to absorb the light that's from the sun. And as it absorbs the light from the sun, it then reflects that light, to those that can see it. Our lives are to be no different.

We have no light in and of ourselves. All we can do is reflect the light of Jesus to the people that are around us. Only here's the question that I have. How can we keep ourselves from fading? How do we keep the light of God's presence from fading in our lives? You see, Moses' face was fading because the glory was not in the law. The glory was in the one whom the law

was to reveal. The glory was in the one with whom he had spent time in his presence, not the law that was given. And so, how do we maintain that same glow? How do we have that presence of God shine from us continually? Well, it's one simple answer. We spend time with the one whom the law reveals. We spend time with the very savior who is our source of light.

And as we do so, his light begins to shine to the people around us. I was thinking about this while I was running today. I always go for a run or something on my lunch time because it allows me to process things because I don't sit still very well. And so, as I was running, I was thinking about this particular passage of scripture. And I was thinking about the fact

that sometimes the light can begin to fade because sometimes we get distracted from spending time in the presence of God. As I was thinking about the past two or three weeks, I have felt like my own light was beginning to fade just a little bit. And I went, Lord, I don't understand what's going on. I feel like I just don't have that same zeal that I've been having.

Well, I've learned a lesson in my life. And one of the lessons that I've learned is that when I spend time with Jesus, I need to be in the right position. Now, that sounds really odd, but that's because you're probably a morning person and I'm not. I spend time with Jesus in the morning. And in my office, I have two things. I have a desk and I have a couch.

Not my office here, but my office at home. And when I am really having good time with the Lord, I sit at the desk. You know why? Because when I'm sitting at the desk, I don't fall asleep. The dogs don't play with me. I have something firm to ride on. And I'm incredibly focused because I'm sitting there for one purpose and one purpose only, and that's to spend time with Jesus.

You know what's happened to me the past two or three weeks? See, I'm really bad with paperwork. I like to let it pile up. If you've ever been in my office here, you shouldn't. If you've ever been in my office here, you know how really good I am at allowing the paperwork to pile up on my desk. Well, in the past two or three weeks, that's what's happened. And every time I'd walk into my office, I'd go,

ah, I'll just sit on the couch. And when I'd sit on the couch, you know what would happen? The dogs are jumping on me and I'm spilling coffee on myself and I got nothing firm to ride on. And quite frankly, I just wanna drift off to sleep because I'm tired and it's first thing in the morning and I haven't gotten very much sleep. And as I did so, I found that my light

was beginning to fade a little bit. Until yesterday afternoon, I went, Lord, I just don't like where I am in my time with you right now. And it's almost like God shined a light on my desk. He was like, boom. And I was like, you're right. It's time to deal with the clutter. So yesterday, I sorted through all my paperwork yesterday afternoon. I didn't throw it all away,

although that's what I wanted to do. But they were bills and I needed to deal with them. So I dealt with all the clutter in my life. And this morning, I sat down at a very clean desk and I just spent some really good time with Jesus. Now, I'm not saying that in order for you to spend time with Jesus, you need to go clean your house. What I am saying is, whatever's cluttering your mind,

whatever clutter is keeping you from spending time with Jesus, whether it's physical clutter, or listen close, whether it's spiritual clutter, maybe God's calling you to clear that out of your life so that you too, can be a part of it. You can spend time in the presence of the sun, soaking up the sun, so that you then can reflect that on the people around you. Because God's great desire is that just like Moses, he wants to speak to you. Whether that's, I've got 10 minutes in the morning that I can hear from Jesus, or whether that's I've got an hour and a half today that I can completely devote to you.

I don't care how much time you have, because it's not about the quantity of time. It's about the amount of time that you have. It's about the quality of your time. The quality of the time that you have to allow yourself to soak up the sun, so that you can reflect it to the people that are around you. And so my prayer for us tonight, is that we will begin to understand more deeply

the character of God, that we will begin to understand more truly the time that he wants us to learn to wait, and that we will become those who soak in the sun, so that we can reflect it to the people that are around us. Father, we come before you, and Lord, I thank you for how good you are to us. Lord, I, man, that's slow to anger. Lord, I am just so thankful for that, how gracious and compassionate you are towards us.

And so Lord, continue to do the work that you see fit in our lives. Father, my great desire for myself, as well as all of these folks that you've given me to minister to, is that we would have a depth of understanding of who you are, that we would clearly understand our purpose in life, to know you, and that we would pursue that purpose with all of our hearts. Lord, I thank you for who you are. I thank you that even in the midst of heavy times of life, you remain unchanging.

Lord, move in our hearts, I pray, in Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.