Worship: Your future decided
Grant van Boeschoten
September 16, 2007
James Michener, writing in his book, The Source, tells the story of a man named Urbaal, who was a farmer living about 2200 B.C. He worshiped two gods, one a god of death, the other a goddess of fertility.
One day, the temple priests tell Urbaal to bring his young son to the temple for sacrifice—if he wants good crops. Urbaal obeys, and on the appointed day drags his wife and boy to the scene of the boy’s “religious execution” by fire to the god of death.
After the sacrifice of Urbaal’s boy, and several others, the priests announce that one of the fathers will spend next week in the temple, with a new temple prostitute. Urbaal’s wife is stunned as she notices a desire written more intensely across his face than she had seen before, and she is overwhelmed to see him eagerly lunge forward when his name is called.
The ceremony over, she walks out of the temple with her head swimming, concluding that “if he had different gods, he would have been a different man.”
Looking over the history of the nation of Israel in the Bible I can see that who or what they worshiped determined their future.
What they worshipped they gave their time to. What they worshiped they placed as number one in their priorities. What the nation of Israel worshiped was a indicator of where their hearts where at. It was an indicator of their relationship with God.
429 Years
• Jacob moved from Promised Land to Egypt.
• Slavery
• Cry to God for a deliverer
God heard their cries and raised up a man by the name of Moses.
Moses
• Pharaoh’s courts
• Knew who his people were
• Killed Egyptian man
• Ran away to desert, wilderness of Sinai
It was in that desert that Moses’ life was realigned to the plan that God had for his him.
Jethro
Shepherd
Mount Horeb – burning bush
Ex 3:4-6 (NASB)
When the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." 5 Then He said, "Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." 6 He said also, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
God said that he heard the groaning of his people in Egypt. God told Moses that he was to lead the people out of Egypt right back to the spot where they were standing.
Ex 3:12 (NASB)
12 And He said, "Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain."
A lot of times we here the story of the exodus and we think that the climax was entering the Promised Land. But God says, you will come to this mountain and worship. God intended that the pinnacle of the journey would be a worship experience at Mount Sinai.
Do you know that the meeting at Mount Sinai would be the most significant event to happen between Creation and the Cross?
It is more important than
• David and Goliath
• Elijah slaying the prophets of Baal
• Esther saving the lives of the Jews
• Joshua and the conquest of Canaan.
That mountain was the place where God would reveal himself to the Israelites.
• It is the place where he would establish covenant with them.
• It is the place where the Tabernacle would be set up.
• At the base of the mountain the mercy seat would be set up.
This worship meeting at Mount Sinai would be the biggest event that the people of Israel would ever experience in their lives. It is at this mountain that they would experience the awesome majesty of God.
• Moses asks for signs/help
• God sends Aaron as spokesman
Moses and Aaron were taken before Pharaoh and they spoke the words of God, “Let my people go that they might worship.” But Pharaoh had a hard heart. He said, “I don’t know this God that you are talking about. I will not let your people go.”
• Pharaoh takes away straw
• Israelites are treated harshly and complain to Pharaoh
“You ask us to make bricks but you don’t give us straw. How can you be so unjust to your own people?”
• Deceived, thought that they were Pharaoh’s people
When you serve the god’s of this world you set yourself up for disaster. The Israelite’s had become slaves because they had forgotten who God was. They had forgotten God’s plan for there lives.
• Living in Egypt instead of Promised land
• Temporary provision
• Chose to stay out of the will of God for their life.
Pharaoh answered the Israelites harshly, “You are lazy, lazy, lazy; that is why you say, ‘Let us go sacrifice to the Lord.’ Go now, and work; for no straw shall be given you, but you shall still deliver the same number of bricks.”
• Complain to Moses & Aaron
• Moses cries out to God
• God replies
And God says to Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh, by a mighty hand he will let them go, by a mighty hand he will drive them out of his land.”
God also spoke to Moses and said to him: “I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name ‘The Lord’ I did not make myself known to them.”
• Previous revelation: God Almighty
• New revelation: the Lord or Yahweh.
o Saving power
o Deliverance
• New understanding would change their lives
Moses and Aaron went before Pharaoh again with the same demand, “Let my people go that they may worship God.” And Pharaoh, once again, said no. But now God was introducing himself as Yahweh, the God who saves, and he began the miraculous work of saving his people from Egypt.
• Struck Nile –
• Fish died, stinks
• Egyptians had to build new wells
• Pharaoh did not care
After 7 days Moses returned to Pharaoh with this message from God. “Let my people go so that they may worship me. If you refuse to let them go I shall plague your nation with frogs.”
• Frogs everywhere
• Pharaoh makes a deal with Moses
• Frogs die, Pharaoh goes back on deal
• Gnats replace frogs
• Every living being covered with gnats
• Magicians unable to replicate miracles
o This is the finger of God
o Pharaoh would not listen
We need to take a lesson from Pharaoh’s mistake here. His most trusted advisors are telling him that He is up against God, but he refuses to believe it. Pharaoh’s refusal to acknowledge God showed his own arrogance and set his country up for disaster.
When you refuse to acknowledge God you set yourself up for disaster. Some people say that God is real, but they refuse to live their lives by his principles and so they are set up for disaster.
The next morning God sent Moses to Pharaoh again with the same message. “Let my people go that they may worship me. If you don’t then I will send flies over the land of Egypt, except this time I will set my people apart by sparing the land where they live. In the district of Goshen there will be no flies.”
• Flies everwhere
• Pharaoh, “Worship God IN EGYPT”
You see, God had told Moses that the people would worship on the very mountain where God had first shown himself to Moses, on Mount Horeb which is also known as Mount Sinai. Pharaoh was trying to negotiate with Moses. But here is the principle…
When God gives you a plan it is not negotiable. No matter what the deal is, you don’t settle for anything less than what God has in store.
Moses would not negotiate with Pharaoh, and so Pharaoh gave in to Moses demands and agreed to let the Israelites go if Moses would once again pray to God for relief.
• Flies removed
“Let my people go that they might worship me. If you do not I will strike the Egyptian’s livestock with disease but I will not strike down those of the Israelites.”
• 5th plague, disease on livestock
• All farm animals, pets, diseased
• Not one of the Israelites animals
• Pharaoh still would not let the people go.
The next time that Moses and Aaron stood before Moses they had in their hands the soot from a kiln that the pottery was made in. They threw the soot into the air and caused festering boils on humans and animals all throughout the land of Egypt.
• Magicians pain unbearable, could not stand before Pharaoh
• Would not let the people go
Then God told Moses to rise up early in the morning and go present himself to Pharaoh with this message. “Let my people go that they may worship me. For this time I will send all my plagues upon you, yourself, and upon your officials, and upon your people, so that you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth.”
“For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. But this is why I have let you live: to show you my power, and to make my name resound through all the earth. You are still EXALTING YOURSELF against my people, and will not let them go.
You see, it all centers around worship. To worship something is to lift it up, to exalt it. It becomes front and center in your life.
For Pharaoh it was his own self that he was exalting. He was self focused. He believed that he was a god and he promoted himself that way. He called the people his own and he did not acknowledge God.
What do you suppose would have been the case if Pharaoh had been a God honoring man?
A lot of things would have been different.
• He would not have asked for the midwives to murder the baby boys of the Israelites.
• He would not have asked his slave drivers to act in an inhumane fashion towards the people of Israel.
• He would not have had an exalted view of himself.
• He would have been open to what God was saying.
But we know that this was not the case with Pharaoh. What is the case with you this morning? Are you a God honoring person?
• What do you exalt, what has priority in your life?
• Do you respect and honor God by living out his plan for your life?
• Are you open to what God wants to do in your life, or do you have your own idea of purpose apart from God’s.
We need to take a warning from how God dealt with Pharaoh. He had to prove who he was through plagues. He had to demote Pharaoh for his will to be done. Don’t let yourself get in the way of God’s plan like Pharaoh did, but instead be a part of God’s plan by submitting yourself to the will of God.
God sent a 7th plague upon Egypt, Thunder and hail decimated all of the crops and livestock. Whatever was exposed to the elements was desolated, human and animal, the plants in the fields and the trees of the land. Only in the land of Goshen, where the Israelites were, there was no hail.
“This time I have sinned” said Pharaoh, “The Lord is in the right and I and my people are in the wrong. Pray to the Lord. I will let you go, you don’t need to stay any longer.”
All of Egypt has been decimated. If you are living there you’ve got to wonder what’s next. What else could possibly go wrong? Your water source has turned to blood. There have been massive infestations of frogs, flies, gnats. Disease has overtaken the livestock, thunder and hail have rained down and you are left with very little.
Moses prays, the thunder stops and Pharaoh’s heart is hardened yet again.
This time when Moses confronts Pharaoh with the message, “Let my people Go that they may worship me,” Pharaoh’s advisors are echoing the same thing.
“Let them go already. Can’t you see that Egypt is ruined? Look around, we are devastated, let them go.”
Pharaoh calls Moses back and asks, “Just to be clear, who were you planning to bring with you out into the desert to worship? It’s just the men right, that’s all you really need.”
But Moses would not compromise. “We will bring our Men and our women. The young and the old. We will bring our flocks and our herds because we have the Lord’s festival to celebrate. WE ARE ALL GOING TO WORSHIP!”
This isn’t the first time that Pharaoh tried to get Moses to compromise. He tried the same tactic more than once.
This is how it is many times with temptations in life. Sin tries to negotiate with you, tries to convince you to settle for less than God’s best in your life. Sin tries to convince you to settle for less than the standards that God has for you.
But here is the truth, every time that you resist temptation you get a little bit stronger. Every time that you say “No, I’m sold out to God,” you strengthen your resolve and it’s even easier to say no the next time.
Moses had no problem saying NO to Pharaoh. And Pharaoh yelled back at Moses, “I’ll never let your little ones go with you, never.” And Moses and Aaron were driven out from Pharaoh’s sight.
God told Moses to stretch his hand out over Egypt and as he did a plague of locusts descended that ate every last plant that was not already killed by the hail. It looked as if a black blanket had been laid down by God and all the produce of the land was consumed by the locusts.
“This time I have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you. Forgive me this one time and pray that this deadly plague is removed.
And so God sent a strong wind that drove the locusts into the Red Sea, but at the end of the day Pharaoh still would not let the people Go.
The ninth plague was darkness which covered Egypt for 3 days. It was so dark and so dense that you could not see the people around you. And so the Egyptians were immobilized, but in the land of Goshen there was light.
Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron once again. “You and your people may go and worship, but you must leave your livestock behind.”
Moses said, “I’m not leaving a hoof behind. It’s all or nothing. WE’RE GOING TO WORSHIP GOD, every last one of us.”
Pharaoh was outraged. “Get him away from me! I never ever want to see your face again and the day that I do is the day that you die!”
Now put yourself in Moses’ shoes here. How would you feel if the KING, the one who you needed permission from, said that he never wanted to see you again.
A natural human reaction would be to consider it a failure. All your work up in smoke, the future now bleak.
You have a different reaction though when you live a life of Worship. You understand that there is but one God, one Creator, one Savior and one Lord. And no man or woman on earth can stop God Almighty’s plan from going forth.
I said, no man or woman on earth can stop God Almighty’s plan from going forth.
“Just as you say,” Moses said, “I will never see your face again.”
And God warned the people of Israel what he was about to do. That very evening he would strike the first born of each house dead. But God would spare those who followed this simple instruction. Smear the blood of a lamb over the doorposts and the door frame. Then the Angel of Death would pass over.
At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. Pharaoh arose in the night, he and all his officials and all the Egyptians; and there was a loud cry in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.
Then he summoned Moses and Aaron in the night, and said, “Rise up, go away from my people, both you and the Israelites! Go, worship the Lord, as you said. Take your flocks and your herds, as you said, and be gone.”
And that night, exactly 430 years to the day after the Israelites had come to Egypt, they left. Their nation realigned to the plan that God had for them.
As they left the Egyptians begged them to go, giving them gold and silver as they went.
And the Israelites left and started on their journey to the Promised Land, following a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, and God led them to the mountain.
Do you remember what God said to Moses on Mount Horeb at the burning bush?
Ex 3:12 (NASB)
12 And He said, "Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain."
God led the people through the desert and back to the Mountain where Moses journey had first begun. It was there that God would reveal himself to the people that he called his own.
Israel had traveled for 3 months, they journeyed through the wilderness of Sinai and then they camped there at the base of the mountain.
Then Moses went up to God; the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying. “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the Israelites: You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.”
Moses summoned the people and set before them all these words that Lord had commanded him. The people answered as one: “Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do.”
And God said to Moses, tell the people to consecrate themselves today and tomorrow, because on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.
Consecrate means dedicated to a sacred purpose. You set your body, your soul and your heart aside for God. You don’t let anything violate you, you push back sin and you ask for forgiveness for the sin that is in your own life.
And so the whole nation consecrated themselves and certain boundaries were put up around the base of the mountain where the people could not cross. And if any person or animal crossed that line they would be put to death. God’s final instruction was this, “When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they may go up on the mountain.”
This is a part of the story that is easily overlooked, but it might be one of the most important parts. God had a plan for the people to be able to go up onto that mountain and worship. He had a plan that was inclusive, not exclusive to only Moses, but inclusive to all the people. There was a plan, there were rules, there was order, but God’s heart was that all the people would go up that mountain once the trumpet sounded the long blast and worship him.
Ex 19:16-20 (NRSV)
16 On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, as well as a thick cloud on the mountain, and a blast of a trumpet so loud that all the people who were in the camp trembled. 17 Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God. They took their stand at the foot of the mountain. 18 Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the LORD had descended upon it in fire; the smoke went up like the smoke of a kiln, while the whole mountain shook violently. 19 As the blast of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses would speak and God would answer him in thunder. 20 When the LORD descended upon Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain, the LORD summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.
God met Moses on the mountain and made sure that there were no people following, there weren’t, the people were terrified. There wasn’t any body about to go near that line. God said to Moses “Go down, and come up bringing Aaron with you; but do not anybody else come up with you.
So Moses went down to the people and told them.
Exodus 19:25 thru Exodus 20:1
“So Moses went down to the people and told them. Then God spoke all these words.”
I used to think that Moses was up on the mountain all by himself where God gave him the announcements and then Moses came down the mountain and shared with the people. But I cannot find Biblical support for that.
The way that I read it, and I’ve read this many, many times in the last few days, is that Moses went down the Mountain and then God spoke to all the people the 10 commandments. It is a few chapters later that God actually writes them on the tablets for Moses.
God speaks directly to His people and forms his covenant with them. He shares with them His heart, the things that the people can do with their lives to honor God, and to keep themselves Holy.
“When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance, and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die.”
They missed it. They absolutely missed what God wanted to do. He had just revealed his glory, his presence was actually visible to the whole nation, and they missed it.
I’ll remind you of what 19:13 said, “When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they may go up on the mountain.”
The people had an opportunity to go to the mountain where God was and worship. They had a chance to be in the presence of God and have there spirit connect to his spirit. They had a chance to worship in the place where God had said, “"Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain."
And it was the ones who worshipped God on that mountain whose lives were changed. We here the heroics of Joshua, he went up the mountain with Moses. We see God anoint Aaron as the head Priest, he went up the Mountain.
But so many others did not. SO many people never took the opportunity to worship God.
History will tell you that whoever the Israelites worshipped determined their future.
When the Kings and the people feared and worshipped God things were good, when the people worshipped idols their lives fell apart.
You can read story after story in the Bible, Israel’s roller coaster history, and it all centers around who they worshipped.
I could do the same thing with your life this morning. We could do a history of the things you said and the places that you have gone. And it would be evident what you were worshiping.
You would be able to mark out the times when your job had become the object of your greatest energy and thought.
You would be able to identify when a sweetheart had sidetracked you.
The good times and the bad, all of it would come down to the question, “Who do you worship. Who is the object of your greatest affections? Who does your praise go to?”
God created man to worship, in fact all of creation worships God. But just because you were created to worship it doesn’t make it automatic.
You still have to choose. What will you choose today?
Set yourself up for a life with God. Set yourself up for the greatest relationship known to man, the relationship between God the creator and you his creation. Choose today that God will be the object of your worship.
Prayer: God, I will serve no other god but you. You are my first priority. You are my King and I will worship you and you alone.
