“I am going to implement some rules in ES. Everyone who attends the service must keep to these rules. Here are 10 rules you must abide by…”
• What kind of feelings do you have when you hear that? Good feelings or bad? Positive ones or negative?
• We don’t generally like rules. We had them all our lives, from the home, to the school, to the camps and the society.
Can man lives without rules?
• The psalmist wrote: “Oh how I love your law!” (Ps. 119:97).
• What a strange statement of affection. Why would anyone direct his love toward the law of God?
• The law limits our choices, restricts our freedom, torments our consciences, and pushes us down with this weight that cannot be overcome…
• And yet the psalmist declares his affection for the law in passionate terms. He calls the law sweeter than honey to his mouth (Ps. 119:103).
How do we see the laws of God? I want to address this today.
We have come to the part in Exodus where God meets Moses and gave him a whole list of commandments and rules that the people of Israel are to keep.
• Hence Moses became the Law-giver and the meeting place was on Mount Sinai.
• It starts from Exodus 19. God calls Moses up the mountain and speaks to him. [Read Exodus 19:1-9]
• He is to tell the people what God tells him, because everyone is to obey what God has said.
Moses went up Mount Sinai at least 5 times. Exo 19:3 when God first called him up. He came down to tell the people and went up again in 19:8.
• The Lord instructed him to consecrate the people and set limits around the foot of the mountain so that the people would not come too close.
• They are to draw near enough to see that God is present, in the fire and smoke on top of the mountain.
Moses went down to consecrate the people and returned to meet God (19:20).
• On this 3rd ascent God spoke at length to him, and he related it from chapters 20-23, including the Ten Commandments.
• They were given orally before God craved it on tablets of stone later on.
Exodus 24:1 God called Moses up to the mountain again – his 4th ascent – and this time around he brought Aaron, Aaron’s sons (priests) and 70 elders with him, but they were still kept at a distance, near enough to see the forms of God’s presence.
• Exo 24:9-11 “Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up 10and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself. 11But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.”
Moses wrote down everything the Lord said (24:4) and read it to the people (24:7).
Finally in 24:12 the Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and commands I have written for their instruction.”
• This will be Moses’ 5th ascent and the longest. The Lord asked him to stay here because He is going to give him all the laws and commands for the people.
• Hence Moses stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
The Lord is revealing His will to the people. The law obviously has its purpose and it is important.
• If it is not important and lasting, I doubt God would have carved it out on tablets of stone. They are not all transient (temporary), not written upon the sand.
• We find in the law truths that are eternal in nature. Jesus says He did not come to abolish the Law, but the fulfil it (Matt 5:17).
When Moses was given the detailed instructions to build the tabernacle, God said “make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exacting like the pattern I will show you.” Moses saw it.
• John the Apostle saw something similar in his visions in Revelation – the tabernacle of the Testimony (15:5) and the Ark of the Covenant (11:19) in heaven.
• God is revealing eternal truths through earthly means.
So what’s the purpose of the Law, with all these lengthy rules and regulations?
(1) IT PROCLAIMS THE CHARACTER OF GOD
Don’t play games with God. He is a holy God, righteous, just and perfect.
• No one is to come even near to Him, unprepared and with sin in their lives. He will end their lives right there.
• There are sacrifices for atonement and rituals for cleansings. They are laborious because God is serious with you.
Is this good? If you see it the right way, this is great. We want a God who is perfectly holy, without the slightest tinge of evil.
• No injustice, a Judge who is perfectly fair and righteous. Everyone longs for that in a court of law.
• Anything that is unclean, sinful, unjust, unrighteous, anything that is off-the-mark, cannot stand in His presence.
• It is like a virus-free environment. Everyone who is fighting the Ebola virus will tell you this is heaven. That’s the holiness of God.
• And we got to understand the greatness of it through the laws.
(2) IT PROVIDES THE DEFINITION OF LIFE the way God designs it to be.
How should I live this life? Look at the laws and you will understand.
Two guys drove a truck and came to the slope at our church front and saw the sign saying 2.3m. They got out and measured the truck at the highest point and it was 2.5m. They looked around to determine if any church staff is around. Seeing none, they drove the truck through. It banged on the roof and got stuck.
The law is good. Its intention is good. But they ignored it. BTW the story is fictitious.
The best way to play the game of life is to play by the rules.
• This is exactly how life ought to be lived. Back in the Garden of Eden before the fall, Adam and Eve had only one rule. They should have kept it.
Just imagine driving a car on the road without traffic rules.
• Imagine playing a game of monopoly without rules. You don’t have to start at the corner marked GO. Just put your token anywhere you want.
• Or when you land on a property owned by someone, you can decide not to pay rent. Or decides to pay any amount you want.
• You throw the dice and it shows 4 but you moves 6 squares to PICCADILLY.
Imagine playing soccer with no penalty box. The goalkeeper can use his hands anywhere he wants. You can shift your goal posts, or make it smaller.
• You’ll mess up the game. You spoils it. You just rob it of the fun and excitement it brings. If fact, you can’t play the game at all.
• You don’t need to take away all the rules; even one rule removed messes it up.
That’s what happens when we ignore the rules God has set for life.
• Life becomes less than perfect. Life degenerates since disobedience sets in.
• Look what is happening in Iraq. You can do whatever you want. There is no sense of evil, no sense of morality, no sense of decency. It’s anarchy.
It is law and order makes our nation what it is today.
• We have an environment that is safe, stable, and secure. We are able to thrive because there is good governance based on good laws and order.
• Take these away, Singapore will be very different.
The Law of God keeps the game of life going. These laws are not obstacles to our freedom. They are what makes life ticks. They are the rules of blessings.
• It sets the tone for how life is ought to be lived. It addresses our relationship with God and our relationship with one another, with people.
• It makes life worthwhile and meaningful. It is what Jesus calls the abundant life.
But we have to play by the rules. You play by His rules and you’ll find fulfilment and joy, meaning and purpose to life.
Do we always understand all of these laws and commands? No.
• There are moral laws, ceremonial laws (dealing with Israel’s relationship with God), and also civil laws (social and communal, even hygienic in nature).
• If you have been reading through the chapters in Exodus, some are common sense, simple words of wisdom; but many need more explaining but God gives none. He did not clarify.
• Some baffles us, like “do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.” (23:19). It may be a warning against animal cruelty or not to copy what the pagans are doing in their worship.
We believe God has His purpose. We are like children being told what to do and what not to do, and we listen and obey.
• Sometimes, when parents explain, we understand. At other times, we don’t. Even after many times of clarifying and explaining, we still don’t.
• We just trust and obey. Hymn chorus: “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”
(3) IT PRESENTS MAN’S NEED OF SALVATION
The law exposes our fallenness. We cannot get back to God’s definition of a good life. We can try but we fail.
• Without God’s help, man gravitates towards darkness and evil, because of sin.
• The law paints us our destiny and sets the direction, but that’s all it can do. The law cannot helps us attain it.
• It was never meant to be. The law wasn’t given for that purpose.
Instead, the law seeks to drive us to our helplessness and then to Christ.
• It pushes us to the One who can fulfils its demands and give us that kind of life.
• Jesus Christ came to fulfil the law. He died for our sin and gave us a new life.
• My ASUS laptop keyboard was faulty. Sent to the service centre. I expected to leave it there for a few days. The person when in and took a new keyboard. He replaced it in seconds.
We finally come to know and do that which is good, just and right. We accomplish that this through the One who met this standard, on our behalf – through God’s grace.
• In fact, God’s grace is manifested in the giving of the law, right in Exodus.
Don’t pit grace and law. The law and commands in OT were given in the context of God’s grace.
• When God sets the rules, He had already chosen Israel as His people. He has already treated them as His treasured possession (Exo 19:5). He has given them an inheritance in the Promised Land. He had already made a covenant with Abraham.
• The law was given in the context of grace!
The law was never meant to be a burden to us.
• It serves to drive us to Jesus and bless us with His best.
• This is the grace of God. This is the goodness of God. This is the heart of God for you. Heed His Word and be blessed.
