God Values You, And Your Voice (Exodus 32:1-14) Series

Our passage today, I'm hoping, will expand your view of who you are, of how God works, and of what prayer can do. It's not going to start, by talking about any of those things. We will take a bit of a wandering path this morning. But that's where we are going to end up.

Let me start, with something that's going to sound like a rabbit trail:

One of the things I've wrestled with, as we've worked through Exodus, is understanding how this new covenant God makes with Israel, through Moses, relates to the covenant God made with Abraham. I'm pretty sure I've framed it a few different ways, because I haven't been completely settled on it.

Even at the very beginning of the book of Exodus, Israel is already Yahweh's-- God's-- people. And Yahweh has already committed to being Israel's God. Yahweh has made promises to them. He's been faithful to them, through multiple generations. And let's turn to Exodus 2:23-25 (NIV no reason):

23 During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. 24 God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. 25 So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.

It's really clear that Exodus doesn't mark the birth of God's people. It doesn't mark the birth of their relationship.

So what's the difference between the Mosaic covenant, and the Abrahamic covenants? Is God changing the covenant? Updating it? Altering it? Renewing it? In the end, what's different? [And does that difference point us in the right direction, toward understanding how our own covenant, established through Jesus' blood, is different?]

Last night, I read a commentator who helped me, and I'd like to share that with you (J. Gerald Janzen).

When we look at the Abrahamic covenant, and the Mosaic covenant, we see that the heart of these covenants is the same. Yahweh will be Israel's God. He will bless them, and multiply them. He will protect them. He will guide them. He will rescue them.

What's different about these covenants, from God's perspective, is his presence. In Genesis, God (or the Word of God) appears to the patriarchs from time to time. Once in a while, God reveals himself to them. And then He disappears. In contrast, in Exodus, God is planning to come live among his people. He will tabernacle with them, and dwell at their very center.

But how can a holy God live among his people?

The only way this is going to be possible, is if things change. The days of idols (Genesis 31:34) need to be done. The days of broken relationships between brothers (Genesis 4, 32) need to be done. The only way that God can live among his people, is if they live faithfully toward him, and toward each other.

That, in a nutshell, is Exodus 19-24. God is trying to create a people, who have their spiritual imaginations reworked, and who are loyal to Him.

The other thing that God is particular about, if He is going to live with his people, is the tabernacle itself. It takes God six chapters worth of space, to talk how He wants the tabernacle to be built. We maybe aren't sure why these chapters matter-- they don't seem very "useful" (2 Timothy 3:16). And we know that the day has come, when the important thing isn't where you worship, but that you worship God in the Spirit, and in the truth, in Christ.

We struggle.

But what we should realize, is that these chapters teach that God will not live just anywhere. God is particular about who He lives with (this fits really nicely with my sermon on Psalm 15), and what His home looks like (1 Corinthians 6:19).

As we've read through Exodus, we've seen Israel becoming what God wants it to be. This generation of Israel has seen how good Yahweh is to his people. They've seen his victory over the superpower Egypt. They've seen Him faithfully provide them with food and water. They've seen God draw them to himself (John 6:44)-- to his presence, at his holy mountain.

And the people, having seen all of this, respond by wanting the same thing God does. They want God to live among them. So in chapter 24, they accept this covenant. The elders celebrate with a meal, eating and drinking with God, in God's presence.

And it's here, where I really want to start today. Exodus 24:9:

9 Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up 10 and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky. 11 But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.