Moses on the Mountain with the Lord
Part 19: Follow the Lord!
Exodus 34:1-33
Sermon by Rick Crandall
McClendon Baptist Church - Nov. 3, 2010
*Moses is certainly one of the greatest heroes of our faith, one of the greatest men of all time and one of the greatest leaders of all time.
*But why was he so great? -- There are many good ways to answer that question, but here’s something we must not miss: Moses was a great leader, because he was a great follower. Moses followed the Lord, and in this story we see why we should follow the Lord.
1. First: Follow the Lord, because He has a vital mission for you
*In vs. 1-4 the Lord had another vital mission for Moses:
1. And the LORD said to Moses, "Cut two tablets of stone like the first ones, and I will write on these tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke.
2. So be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself to Me there on the top of the mountain.
3. And no man shall come up with you, and let no man be seen throughout all the mountain; let neither flocks nor herds feed before that mountain."
4. So he cut two tablets of stone like the first ones. Then Moses rose early in the morning and went up Mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him; and he took in his hand the two tablets of stone.
*God said “be ready in the morning,” and Moses got busy cutting those stones.
-God said, “Come up in the morning,” and Moses didn’t waste a minute. Verse 4 tells us that he “rose early in the morning and went up Mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him.”
*God had a vital mission for Moses, and he was the only one who could complete this mission, for in vs. 3, God had said: “No man shall come up with you, and let no man be seen throughout all the mountain.”
-No one else could do what the Lord wanted Moses to do.
-And there are things in this world that no one else can do for the Lord, but you.
*Because of who you are, and where you live, the people you know and the gifts you have, you may be the only person in the world who can touch that person in your circle of influence. God had a vital mission for Moses, and I want to remind you tonight that God has vital missions for you.
*Follow the Lord, because He has a vital mission for you.
2. And follow the Lord, because He is the true Master for all time.
*God made this clear through the proclamation of His name in vs. 5: “Now the LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.”
*There is so much importance in the name of the LORD! In Hebrew this name was “I AM” or “Jehovah” or “Yahweh.” Marc Kelley tells us that it could be described as God’s most personal name. This great name for God shows up 6,823 times in the Old Testament.
*The exact pronunciation and spelling has been lost, because this name was considered to be so holy that scribes and teachers would not even pronounce it or completely write it out. So instead, in Hebrew letters, the name was written in the English equivalent of YHWH. In many of our English Bibles it shows up as “LORD” written with all capital letters. (1)
*This was the name the Lord used for Himself in Exodus 3:13-15, when He first appeared to Moses in the burning bush:
13. Then Moses said to God, "Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, `The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, `What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?’’
14. And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM.’’ And He said, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, `I AM has sent me to you.’ ’’
15. Moreover God said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: `The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.’
*God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM.’’ And He said, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’’’
*Jerry Shirley asks:
-“Have you ever stopped to think why God did not add to that phrase?
-Why did He just say, ‘I AM THAT I AM?’
-Why didn’t God go ahead and state what He is?
*The reason why is because there is no beginning and no ending to God. There are no boundaries. There are no height or depth limitations. God is without boundary. . .
*God said, ‘I AM THAT I AM.’
-What is He? -- He is whatever good thing you will need.
-If you need a Comforter, He is a comforter.
-If you need a Provider, He is a provider.
-If you need a Savior, He is the Savior.
-There is no limit to what He is.
*‘I AM THAT I AM’: This explains so much!
-That God is self-existent: He has His being in and of Himself.
-That God is eternal and unchangeable, always the same, yesterday, today, and forever.” (2)
*God is the great “I AM!” -- Jennifer Mears writes: “No matter what you are facing, look to great ‘I AM!’
-I need help -- God says ‘I AM.’
-I need hope, peace, and love. -- God says ‘I AM.’
-I need a fresh start. -- God says ‘I AM.’
-I’m not strong enough. -- God says, ‘I AM.’” (3)
*This is the name Jesus rightly claimed for Himself in John’s Gospel, when the Lord said:
-“I am the bread of life.” (John 6:35)
-“I am the light of the world.” (John 8:12)
-“I am the door of the sheep.” (John 10:7)
-“I am the good shepherd.” (John 10:11)
-“I am the resurrection, and the life. (John 11:25)
-“I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6)
-“I am the true vine.” (John 15:1)
-And “Before Abraham was, I am.” (John 8:58)
*Pre-incarnate Jesus Christ is the great “I AM” who met with Moses on top of Mount Sinai. And in Revelation 1:7-8, the Apostle John spoke of Jesus and said:
7. Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn bec of Him. Even so, Amen.
8. "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End," says the Lord, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."
*Follow the Lord, because He is the true Master for all time.
3. Because He is full of gracious mercy.
*The Lord proclaimed His mercy to Moses in vs. 6-7:
6. And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth,
7. keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation."
*When the Lord said that He will “by no means clear the guilty,” He meant by no other means than His own sacrifice on the cross for our sins.
*But for all who will trust in the blood of His sacrifice, John Gill explains that the Lord is “rich and plenteous in mercy, freely giving it, delights in bestowing it, constantly shows it to his people. (His mercy) is manifested and displayed in Christ, the mercy seat; and it lays a foundation for faith and hope, and is the spring of all good things in time, and to eternity. (4)
*And the forgiveness He talks about here is the word picture of lifting something up and taking it away. This is exactly what God did with our sins on the cross of Jesus Christ.
*God spoke these words to Moses 1,400 years before the cross, but He pointed people to the cross through the lambs they had to sacrifice for their sins.
-Notice an example in vs. 19-20, where the Lord said:
19. "All that open the womb are Mine, and every male firstborn among your livestock, whether ox or sheep.
20. But the firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb. And if you will not redeem him, then you shall break his neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem. "And none shall appear before Me empty-handed.
*God’s mercy for us came at the highest price: the sacrifice of His Son on the cross for our sins.
-Follow the Lord, because He is full of gracious mercy.
4. Because He has the infinite power of miracles.
*In vs. 8-10, the Lord promised to display His mighty power:
8. So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped.
9. Then he said, "If now I have found grace in Your sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though we are a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your inheritance."
10. And He said: "Behold, I make a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the LORD. For it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.
*God had already brought ten terrible plagues on Egypt, and parted the Red Sea. But there were many more miracles to come. Just one example was manna from Heaven to eat. Psalm 78 later described manna this way:
23. He had commanded the clouds above, And opened the doors of heaven,
24. Had rained down manna on them to eat, And given them of the bread of heaven.
25. Men ate angels’ food; He sent them food to the full.
*Another display of the Lord‘s miraculous power was when God parted the waters of Jordan River. Joshua 3:15-16 says:
15. and as those who bore the ark came to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks during the whole time of harvest),
16. that the waters which came down from upstream stood still, and rose in a heap very far away at Adam, the city that is beside Zaretan. So the waters that went down into the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, failed, and were cut off; and the people crossed over opposite Jericho.
*Then in Joshua 6, God made the walls of fall down when the Children of Israel shouted and the priests blew the rams’ horns.
*Another amazing miracle took place in Joshua 10:
12. Then Joshua spoke to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel: "Sun, stand still over Gibeon; And Moon, in the Valley of Aijalon."
13. So the sun stood still, And the moon stopped, Till the people had revenge Upon their enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day.
14. And there has been no day like that, before it or after it, that the LORD heeded the voice of a man; for the LORD fought for Israel.
*The same miracle-working God who stopped the sun for Joshua is our God!
-All things are possible with Him!
-So follow the Lord, because of His miraculous power.
5. And follow the Lord, because He wants to manifest His glory through you.
*Over the next verses, God began to explain and expand on what He had already told Moses. For example:
14. (for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),
17. You shall make no molded gods for yourselves.
21. Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest.
*We have talked about many of these things in detail, so tonight I want you to notice something new, and we see it in vs. 28-33:
28. So he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.
29. Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the Testimony were in Moses’ hand when he came down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him.
30. So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.
31. Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him; and Moses talked with them.
32. Afterward all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them as commandments all that the LORD had spoken with him on Mount Sinai.
33. And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face.
*Why did Moses’ face shine? -- Because he had spent so much time with the Lord. Moses had followed the Lord so closely, that his face was reflecting the glory of the Lord.
*The fact is that God wants to manifest His glory in us too. And because of the cross of Jesus Christ, God can better manifest His glory in us.
-The Apostle Paul made this comparison in 2 Corinthians 3.
-He was comparing the condemnation that comes from the Old Testament Law to the freedom we have in Jesus Christ, and the work of His Spirit in believers’ hearts. Here is part of what Paul said:
7. If the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away,
8. how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?
9. For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.
10. For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels.
11. For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious.
12. Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech—
13. unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away.
18. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
*The glory on Moses’ face was so bright that the Children of Israel couldn’t even stand to look at it. So Moses’ face had to be covered for a while. But that glory faded away.
*The glory of God in New Testament believers is far better, because of the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. The closer we get to Jesus, the brighter His glory will shine in us. The more we follow Jesus, the more we will look like Him
*So Joseph Roy described a true Christian as “a living symbol of the cross”, “a person who believes the unbelievable, bears the unbearable, forgives the unforgivable, loves the unlovable, is willing to give up his will, becomes weak to be strong, and finds love by giving it away.” (5)
*Christians, God wants to manifest His glory in us. And the more we follow Jesus, the more He will shine through our lives.
*So be like Moses. Be like the greatest heroes of our faith. Follow the Lord.
1. Adapted from SermonCentral sermon “Jehovah/Yahweh - I AM” by Marc Kelley - Exodus 3:1-15
2. Adapted from SermonCentral sermon “Thou Shalt Call His Name I AM” by Jerry Shirley - Exodus 3:10-15
3. Adapted from SermonCentral sermon “Because I AM” by Jennifer Mears - Exodus 3:14-16
4. Adapted from John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible - Exodus 34:6
5. Joseph Roy, Leadership, Vol. 5, no. 4 (Found in Bible Illustrator for windows - Topic: Cross-Bearing - Index: 893 - Date: 12/1997.1643 - Title: Christian Contradictions)
