February 2, 2007

“PLEASE GO WITH US!”

Exodus 33-34

I want you to think with me, this morning. I want you to imagine that God came to you, and he made you a promise. He promised to give you your own special angel. This angel will go with you wherever you go, and he will guide you and he will protect you and he will fight for you against your enemies. If God came to you and made you this promise, how would you respond? How would you feel?

Great, right? Well, in the opening verses of Exodus 33, God made this exact promise to the nation of Israel. And do you know how they responded? They mourned and wept! They took off all their ornaments and jewelry and cried out before the Lord. And what is more, the Bible makes it very clear that they were absolutely right to respond as they did.

Let’s read these verses together: (Read Exodus 33:1-6)

You say, “What’s going on? Why would the Israelites respond in this way?” As we pick up the story of Exodus in chapter 33, the nation of Israel was in crisis. When we left them last time, Moses had just come down from the mountain after 40 days in the presence of God. He came down carrying the tablets of stone on which God had written the Ten Commandments with his own finger. When he arrived at the foot of the mountain he found the people in total chaos, dancing and worshipping around a gold calf. In fury, Moses threw down the stone tablets, shattering them into pieces, symbolizing the terminating of the covenant agreement between God and the people. After initial disciplinary actions, Moses promised to intercede for the people, but their future hangs in the balance. What does the future hold for them?

Before we look at the future, though, let us remind ourselves of the Cause of the Crisis. The Cause of the Crisis was Sin. When Moses was on the mountain, the people became impatient. They came to Aaron and they asked him to make them gods, visible idols they could see and follow. And Aaron complied and taking the gold earrings from the people, he melted the gold and shaped it into a gold calf.

As we analyze what Aaron and the people did, we get a clear look at the nature of sin. First of all, they broke God’s Law. When God spoke out of the fire from the top of Mount Sinai, he revealed to the people his Ten Commandments, the heart of his moral law. The first law he gave told them to have no other gods beside, or in front of, or in the presence of Yahweh, the one true God. The second law God gave forbade them from making any graven image or idol for worship. The Israelites clearly broke both of those commandments with their actions. Sin is breaking God’s Law.

The second way to describe what they did was they violated God’s covenant. The whole purpose for which God brought the people to Mt. Sinai was to establish his covenant with them, a covenant of special relationship in which he declared himself to be their God and he declared them to be his special people, his nation to bear his name and reflect his glory in the world. At the heart of that covenant were the covenant conditions as spelled out in the Ten Commandments. So, in worshipping the gold calf, they were not only breaking God’s Law, but they were violating the covenant, their special treaty with God. In Jeremiah 31:32, God makes this clear declaration about the nation of Israel: They broke my covenant. Jeremiah makes this as a summary statement of the history of Israel, but the first act of violation was their worship of the gold calf at the foot of Mt. Sinai.

There is a third way to describe what Israel did. They betrayed God’s love. God brought the people to Mt. Sinai and entered into a covenant with them there because he loved them. Remember his words in Exodus 19:4: I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself…out of all the nations you will be my treasured possession. Jeremiah also repeats this theme in Jeremiah 31:32. If we read the rest of that sentence: “They broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares Yahweh. Repeatedly the Old Testament refers to Israel’s sin as a betrayal of God’s love for his people.

The cause of the crisis is clear: they have broken God’s Law, they have violated God’s covenant, and they have betrayed God’s love for them. Now their future hangs in the balance. This is the true meaning of a crisis: a critical moment, a moment of judgment, a moment when all is at risk.

What is the precise nature of their crisis? First of all there was the threat of immediate punishment, of God’s judgment falling on the people then and there. This was God’s first statement of intent back in Exodus 32:10 when he said to Moses: “Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them.” Moses pleaded with God to suspend his judgment and God relented. There were still some immediate repercussions. Near the end of Exodus 32, Moses deputized the Levites to take their swords and strike down those who were still running wild in the camp and 3000 were killed. At the very end of the chapter, there is a brief mention of a plague that struck the people and caused more deaths. But that is now at an end. The immediate threat of judgment has been averted.

But as Exodus 33 begins, the crisis is not yet over. As God says in Exodus 33:5: “I will decide what to do with you.” What is at stake at this stage in the crisis? What is at stake is God’s relationship to his people. Will he go with them or will he separate himself from them? Will the broken relationship be restored or will it remain severed? What about the covenant they had sealed with sacrifices and a covenant meal in Exodus 24 and then broken? What about God’s promise to go with them, to establish his residence among them, to visibly accompany them on their journey to the Promised Land? Is it all permanently lost because of their sin? This seems to be God’s stated intention as the chapter opens. “I will keep my promise to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Because you are their descendants, I will give you the land. I will even send an angel before you to drive out the inhabitants. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way.

This was the announcement that caused such distress among the people. In spite of all their grumbling and doubting the people had come to count on the presence of God with them. In fact, I think that is the point of the next paragraph. It seems out of chronology at first, but the use of a change of tenses in the original text signals that the writer is here giving us some background information and explanation. This is what the NIV translators are signaling by the way they render verse 7: Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp…(Read verses 7-11) This had been their norm. This is what they had come to expect. But this would no longer be so if God refused to go with them. An accompanying angel is a poor substitute for the presence of Yahweh himself.

So this was the crisis the nation faced. Even with the immediate threat of punishment averted, they faced the prospect of continuing on their journey without the accompanying presence of God.

I am glad to say that the story does not end with God’s words in verse 3. In fact the book of Exodus has a happy ending, in spite of the events of Exodus 32. And the question I want to ask is: What turned the tide? Why did God “change his mind” so to speak? As I searched for the answer in the text, I think there were three key factors. First, the people repented. (Read verse 4-6). Their repentance in these verses is clear. First of all, they mourned. They cried, they wept, their sorrow found an outward expression, and apparently it was wide spread, because we are told that “the people began to mourn.” It was a collective act on the part of the nation. What is more, it found concrete expression in their actions. Three times it is repeated that they “removed their ornaments.”

Some commentators believe this was simply a symbolic act of mourning by removing any jewelry or cosmetic ornaments they wore. Others believe there is a deeper significance; that these ornaments may well have had religious significance and may have been some kind of occult articles or represented some form of superstition or pagan worship. In either case, their emotional repentance also brought a change in their behavior.

This response gives me a sense of hope for the Israelites. They are not weeping because of the threat of immediate punishment. It is clear that threat has passed. That cloud has receded. Rather it is the thought of losing the fellowship of God, of no longer having him in their midst that leads them to this act of repentance. They have at least this much spiritual awareness and spiritual appetite. Even they are not willing to settle for an angel when they have known the presence of God.

As I consider the Israelites’ response, it prompts me to ponder a rather uncomfortable question. How many of us would have responded in the same way? Or would we have been willing to settle for the presence of the promised angel? How many of us would gladly settle for God’s material blessings of protection, prosperity and good health, and never even notice that his divine presence has departed? Because that’s what happens when we sin. God’s accompanying presence, his fellowship is withdrawn.  John says it this way in I John 1:6: If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. I wonder how many of us are claiming to have fellowship with God, yet because of our sin, he has withdrawn himself from us? The first thing that has to happen is to acknowledge that fact, and then we must repent of the sin that caused the rift in our relationship.

The second key ingredient is the intercession of a mediator. We saw Moses in his role as mediator in Exodus 32. In that chapter, Moses pleaded with God to turn aside from judgment, to withhold his punishment. But his intercession now continues at this time of crisis. He pleads with God to remain with his people. Let’s look at his words to God.

(Read 33:12-13, 15-16, 34:8-9)

This is Moses at his best. This is Moses in full flower as a leader, interceding for his people. In fact, there is so much going on here between Moses and God that we are going to come back to this passage next week and look at it from the perspective of their relationship. But for now, I just want to emphasize Moses’ role as mediator pleading for his people, pleading for God’s presence to continue to go with them, pleading for God’s forgiveness and for the restoration of the nation to its privileged position.

Once again, I think we can see strong parallels between Moses and Jesus Christ, the “prophet like Moses” who has come into the world. First Jesus is the mediator who pleads with the Father for the threat of judgment, of punishment to be turned away. To do that, he presents his own blood as the payment for the sins of the world. And so God accepts the sacrifice, and turns from his wrath. And by the shed blood of Christ, a new covenant is established with God’s people.

But what happens when we, who have been forgiven by the blood of Christ, fall again into sin? Will God withdraw his presence from us? It is here that Christ’s continued intercession for us is such an important doctrine of the church. As Hebrews 7:24-25 says, Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

The importance of the mediator cannot be overemphasized. Look at what God said to Moses in Exodus 33:17: And Yahweh said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you (singular) , and I know you (singular) by name.” That is powerful. God forgave the people because he was pleased with Moses. We have an even greater mediator and intercessor than Moses, don’t we? Do you remember what the voice from heaven said at Jesus’ baptism? This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. If God forgave the Israelites because he was pleased with Moses, do you think he will forgive and restore us when Jesus intercedes for us?

The third key factor in the story is the character of God. In a passage that we will focus on more next week, God revealed himself to Moses in Exodus 34:6-7. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “Yahweh, Yahweh, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generations.

This text became a central theme in the rest of the Old Testament. On numerous other occasions, the prophets and other leaders of Israel would come back and quote this revelation of God’s character. Without compromising his holiness and righteousness, our God is, by nature, a compassionate and forgiving God.

God always acts consistently with his character and his nature. He is a forgiving God. And so he moved to restore his people to their privileged position and to establish his presence in their midst.

The first thing he did was to reinstate the covenant in Exodus 34:1: Yahweh said to Moses, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablet which you broke.” The covenant conditions are being repeated and the covenant documents are being prepared once again.

Then look at Exodus 34:10: Then Yahweh said: “I am making a covenant with you…” We see this being worked out in the rest of the book of Exodus. If you recall, one of the things God was giving to Moses when he went up on the mountain the first time was the blueprint for the tabernacle, the portable temple that would accompany the people as a visible sign of God’s presence. This is to be distinguished from the temporary “tent of meeting” describe in chapter 33. This was all put at risk in the incident of the gold calf. Will God even allow this place of worship to be built? Well, in the rest of Exodus 35-40 we have the account of the actual constructing and setting up of the tabernacle.

And then I love how the book of Exodus ends in chapter 40. (Read Exodus 40:34-38)

By grace, and in spite of their sin, God forgave them and pitched his tent among them and his visible presence accompanied them on their journeys. God went up with them.

So, where are you this morning? Is the presence of God missing from your life? Has your fellowship with God been broken because of some sin in your life? Remember the three key ingredients that led to the restoration of God’s presence in the midst of the Israelites’ camp, taking them in reverse order.

The character of God: He is compassionate and merciful. It is his nature to want to forgive.

The intercession of a mediator: The divine, eternal Son of God is interceding for you. He is not only interceding for you so that the punishment of God will be withheld, but he is also interceding that God’s presence and fellowship will be restored within you.

That only leaves the first one. The ball is in your court. You must repent of your sins and confess them to God and turn from them, so that the presence of God and the blessings of the covenant may be restored to your life. Don’t settle for a guardian angel when you can know the presence of God himself.