January 16, 2005

Reading through the Bible in one Year:  Genesis 30:25-31:42; Matthew 10:16-42

Weekly Memory Verse: 1 Peter 3:18

Good Morning Brothers and Sisters,

Still catching up!

Exodus 34 (NASB95)
¹ Now the Lord said to Moses, “Cut out for yourself two stone tablets like the former ones, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets which you shattered. ² “So be ready by morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to Me on the top of the mountain. ³ “No man is to come up with you, nor let any man be seen anywhere on the mountain; even the flocks and the herds may not graze in front of that mountain.” ⁴ So he cut out two stone tablets like the former ones, and Moses rose up early in the morning and went up to Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and he took two stone tablets in his hand. ⁵ The Lord descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the Lord. ⁶ Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; ⁷ who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.” ⁸ Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship. ⁹ He said, “If now I have found favor in Your sight, O Lord, I pray, let the Lord go along in our midst, even though the people are so obstinate, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your own possession.” ¹⁰ Then God said, “Behold, I am going to make a covenant. Before all your people I will perform miracles which have not been produced in all the earth nor among any of the nations; and all the people among whom you live will see the working of the Lord, for it is a fearful thing that I am going to perform with you. ¹¹ “Be sure to observe what I am commanding you this day: behold, I am going to drive out the Amorite before you, and the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite. ¹² “Watch yourself that you make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going, or it will become a snare in your midst. ¹³ “But rather, you are to tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and cut down their Asherim ¹⁴ —for you shall not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God— ¹⁵ otherwise you might make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they would play the harlot with their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and someone might invite you to eat of his sacrifice, ¹⁶ and you might take some of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters might play the harlot with their gods and cause your sons also to play the harlot with their gods. ¹⁷ “You shall make for yourself no molten gods. ¹⁸ “You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in the month of Abib you came out of Egypt. ¹⁹ “The first offspring from every womb belongs to Me, and all your male livestock, the first offspring from cattle and sheep. ²⁰ “You shall redeem with a lamb the first offspring from a donkey; and if you do not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. You shall redeem all the firstborn of your sons. None shall appear before Me empty-handed. ²¹ “You shall work six days, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during plowing time and harvest you shall rest. ²² “You shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks, that is, the first fruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year. ²³ “Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel. ²⁴ “For I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your borders, and no man shall covet your land when you go up three times a year to appear before the Lord your God. ²⁵ “You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread, nor is the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover to be left over until morning. ²⁶ “You shall bring the very first of the first fruits of your soil into the house of the Lord your God. “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.” ²⁷ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” ²⁸ So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did not eat bread or drink water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. ²⁹ It came about when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses’ hand as he was coming down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him. ³⁰ So when Aaron and all the sons 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 in the congregation returned to him; and Moses spoke to them. ³² Afterward all the sons of Israel came near, and he commanded them to do everything that the Lord had spoken to him on Mount Sinai. ³³ When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. ³⁴ But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with Him, he would take off the veil until he came out; and whenever he came out and spoke to the sons of Israel what he had been commanded, ³⁵ the sons of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone. So Moses would replace the veil over his face until he went in to speak with Him.

Deuteronomy 10:1-4 (NASB95)
¹ “At that time the Lord said to me, ‘Cut out for yourself two tablets of stone like the former ones, and come up to Me on the mountain, and make an ark of wood for yourself. ² ‘I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets which you shattered, and you shall put them in the ark.’ ³ “So I made an ark of acacia wood and cut out two tablets of stone like the former ones, and went up on the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. ⁴ “He wrote on the tablets, like the former writing, the Ten Commandments which the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly; and the Lord gave them to me. ^[1]

Moses was ordered to chisel out two stones just like the previous ones, these stones were small enough to fit into the Ark of  the Covenant..  Yet the words written on the stones were still written by the hand of God.  Moses did as he was told, chiseled out the two tablets and returned to the mountain.  Again, remember, this was not something that Moses would walk back into his store-room to get.  He had to work to physically cut the stones.  Also consider that God promised to write on the tablets, Moses already demonstrated that he was able to write when he gave the covenant to Israel the first time.  Moses at this time was standing defeated after experiencing a great disappointment from the people, and completely losing it by killing three thousand people that he had already bargained with God over.  Later in this chapter, it sounds as if Moses did the writing the second time, I think that this is a quirk of the English translation.  He clarifies what happened in Deuteronomy.

In this passage, Moses finds out about how complete the forgiveness of God is, and teaches us an important lesson on that forgiveness.  God punished Moses by making him re-make the tablets, which had to be humiliating before the people that he was leading.  Then he was ordered to walk up on the mountain alone, no one was allowed to accompany him. 

Matthew 7:21-23 (NASB95)
²¹ “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. ²² “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ ²³ “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’

Luke 6:45-46 (NASB95)
⁴⁵ “The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart. ⁴⁶ “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? ^[2]

One thing that stood out to me in this passage was the statement "The Lord, the Lord God...”  Moses understood what it meant to call the Lord, Lord.  Jesus made a point of this statement by stating that the words of man are weak compared to the words of God.  Unlike the words of God in this passage, the words of man will be tested to see if he is sincere or not.  Moses was tested, he failed, then he repented and returned to the Lord for forgiveness.  Part of the forgiveness process was when God spoke to him about how that God forgives men.  It is hard to write about because if you stand on either side of this statement, you are considered legalistic, or liberal.  The truth is that man can claim that the Lord is Lord of his life all he wants.  What really counts is whether the Lord is in his heart or not.  If God's forgiveness exists in the heart of man, then he is truly forgiven.  If God's forgiveness does not exist in our hearts and we are living a lie, then the forgiveness is an illusion.  There are a lot of religions that claim to know the Lord, and many cults who claim to have a special relationship with the Lord.  The reality of this truth lies in whether or not a person has experienced God's forgiveness. 

Numbers 14:18 (NASB95)
¹⁸ ‘The Lord is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generations.’

Nehemiah 9:17 (NASB95)
¹⁷ “They refused to listen, And did not remember Your wondrous deeds which You had performed among them; So they became stubborn and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But You are a God of forgiveness, Gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness; And You did not forsake them.

Psalm 86:15 (NASB95)
¹⁵ But You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, Slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness and truth.

Psalm 103:8 (NASB95)
⁸ The Lord is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.

Psalm 145:8 (NASB95)
⁸ The Lord is gracious and merciful; Slow to anger and great in lovingkindness.

Joel 2:13 (NASB95)
¹³ And rend your heart and not your garments.” Now return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness And relenting of evil.

Jonah 4:2 (NASB95)
² He prayed to the Lord and said, “Please Lord, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity. ^[3]

God spoke later about the way that He is righteous, and how that He forgives sin.  The Old Testament looked forward to the day when Jesus died on the cross as a final sacrifice for sin.  The forgiveness of God was for thousands (of generations) as compared to the guilt only hanging around for four generations.  The guilty will be punished, but the righteous will grow in righteousness.  Interesting concept.  As we draw closer to God, we become more like Him.  In the Old Testament times, this was just a concept, in the new Testament times it is reality that we live with on a daily basis.  People are still obstinate and stubborn.  Moses cried out to God to take the obstinate and sinful people and to forgive them, pardoning them and making them God's possession once again. 

The answer to this prayer is recorded from verses 10-28.  God renewed the covenant with Israel, hitting the high points of the original agreement.  It appears that Moses added the Ten Words, or Ten Commandments to the words that God had given to him in the covenant. 

2 Corinthians 3:7-18 (NASB95)
⁷ But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, ⁸ how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? ⁹ For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory. ¹⁰ For indeed what had glory, in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it. ¹¹ For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory. ¹² Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech, ¹³ and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away. ¹⁴ But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. ¹⁵ But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; ¹⁶ but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. ¹⁷ Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 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 from the Lord, the Spirit.^[4]

The intimate time that Moses had with God had an effect on his face.  After spending forty days on the mountain with God, his face shown with the glory of God.  Israel was afraid of that glory that shone from Moses' face.  I wonder why that happened, whether they were afraid of the unknown, or afraid of Moses turning once again toward them in anger.  Either way, God changed Moses' face to where it reflected His glory before men.  Imagine what it was like to stand in the Glory of God and to absorb that glory into your own skin. 

Paul considered the glory of God heavily and the way that it affected Moses.  Symbolically the veil is still over the hearts of men, perhaps that is because they are really afraid of what will happen when God has His way in their lives.  The veil is removed in Christ, meaning that we can stand in the glory of God without being afraid.  Unfortunately many still live as if they have the veil, preferring to live in the darkness rather than explore the light.  We are light bearers of God, yet are we afraid of the glory of the Lord?  I wonder how many of us are willing to allow Him to display His light in our lives.  Moses became a friend of God and was allowed to speak to Him face to face.  We also are friends of God, and as we draw near to Him, do we reflect His glory on our faces?  Paul seemed to think that this was normal for Christians, what seems normal today is that Christians are weaned on pickles.  Their faces are contorted with pain and stress, giving a strict demeanor that communicates agony instead of freedom.  What happened to the freedom, joy and glory of God that Paul discussed?  Each of us should heavily consider this, and consider what would happen if we were to allow God to shine His light in our lives.

Consider the aspect of God being a Jealous God.  We consider jealousy as being one of the cardinal sins.  When it is attributed to God, it has an entirely different meaning.  The idea is that God will not allow any other gods to be before Him.  This was discussed in the Ten Commandments.  Verse 13 goes into depth regarding the destruction of the pillars and Asherim, this is referring directly to the pagan symbols of male and female sexual gods that were worshipped.  God specifically told them that if they were to take part in worship of these gods that they would whore after these gods.  God was jealous in that He demanded to be the only God that Israel worshipped.  He wants to have all the worship and does not wish to share it with any false gods. 

This was to be validated by Israel keeping the festivals that God had put into place, as well as continuing the dedication of the firstborn.  The festivals of the pagans were to be destroyed while the festivals of God were to be honored.  One thing that changed in the second covenant was the emphasis on idolatry, this was not a problem before the golden calf.

One other interesting thought I ran across is that Moses reflected the light of God as a testimony to the people that our God is real.  The golden calf probably reflected the light of the fire and sun, so that it looked full of life.  God demonstrated life and placed a constant reminder in Moses' face that He is God.  There may be a point to this since Aaron was also reminded of the reflection of the calf, and the judgment that followed.  Otherwise why would Aaron be afraid of God since he was considered a prophet, and had been with Moses during some of the times when Moses and God were having discussions?  The unveiled face could have symbolized what it would have been like if the golden calf was never created.  While the veiled face symbolized the way that Israel had chosen to live the life of a lie rather than living the genuine truth. 

There are a lot of ideas on this chapter.  I explored a few of them, if you have a differing opinion, or wish to add to the study, please feel free to write in.

Father, as we consider Your glory, and ponder the meaning of the glory that was revealed through Moses' face, open our eyes and enable us to understand the role that Your glory plays in our lives today.

In Him,

Joe Turner.