Today we get an answer to the question of what happens when we sin so
deeply and so profoundly that we wonder if God will ever speak to us
again. I don't know how many of us have had the experience of guilt
that is so encompassing we think that God will never ever, ever look
at us or speak to us or give heed to our prayer ever again.
It is at this place the Israelites are grieving and mourning their
sin. They are devastated by the fallout of their incredibly stupid
apostasy and idolatry we read about last week. Where we left them was
in this scene of remorse, removing any sign of festivity or celebration.
They are in deep mourning. They are full of remorse now that they
finally see what they have done.
But the jury is still out. God is at a point of decision about what
he will do with these people, and they know full well that he may say
it's over. They are on the edge of disaster. God is deciding what to
do with them. They have experienced the highs and lows of life-saving
miracle and devastating debacle and are in a pit of despair. The
people have come face-to-face, not only with the presence of God, but
now with his absence, and they are terrified.
Moses comes before God to plead the case of the Israelites. The first
paragraph of this passage describes in wonderful poignant detail the
fact that Moses had an ongoing intimate conversational relationship
with Yahweh God. It is in that context that Moses goes before the One
who is familiar to him, and the one who knows him by name, and says,
"Lord, Lord, do not leave us. We are your people. We have
nowhere else to go, no one else to claim us. We are who we are
because of your presence. Do not abandon us now." It reminds me
of the apostle Peter, when challenged to think about the alternatives
to Jesus, "Would any of these other rabbis, would any of these
other teachers have any appeal to you, Peter?" And Peter says,
"Lord, where would we go? No one else offers the words of
eternal life like you do" (John 6:68). So Moses here is pleading
before God, saying, "If you do not go with us, we have nothing.
We have lost our very identity."
And so God says very simply-without fireworks this time, or
earthquake or fire-"I will do what you ask. I will do the very
thing that you ask because I'm pleased with you Moses, and I know
your name." It is because of Moses' plea and because of their
intimate friendship, that God says "Okay. We'll work on this
together. You will be the leader of the people, but I am your God. I
will go with you, and I will give you rest."
At this point, three points of unfinished business are addressed.
1) God's presence assured. If it is true now that God's
presence has been promised, then the people need to know again that
God's presence is assured. And so at Chapter 33:18 through 34:9, we
have this interesting, complex, wonderful account of God's presence
reassuring the people so that they can go forward on their journey.
It starts with Moses, who was told at the burning bush, "You're
going to lead the people out of Egypt." And Moses said to God,
"But who shall I tell them sent me to them, and who shall I tell
them is behind all this? Show me something. Give me evidence that
what you say is true." So God revealed to Moses his name,
Yahweh. "I Am that I Am. I Am is with you."
Now several months later we have Moses longing to see the glory of
the Lord again, the glory he had seen at the burning bush, the glory
he had seen as the pillar of cloud guided the people through the
wilderness thus far, certainly the glory that he saw on the top of
Mount Sinai, again with the cloud descending on the top of the
mountain. He said, "I'll know that your presence is with us if
you will show me again your glory." In this reassuring
encounter, God reveals himself not only by name but by his nature;
not only by what he will do ("I will go with you, and I will
give you rest"), but now, by who he is..
After preparation, Moses approaches again the top of the mountain,
the holy ground, and there God presents him with the stone tablets to
replace the ones that had been broken before. God stands in a
cloud there, not showing his face (he will never show his face; it's
too much for a human being to bear), but he will display his goodness
and glory in a way that there will be no doubt for Moses that God is
backing up his promise with his presence. So God stands there and
says what needs to be said. "Yahweh. Yahweh," (to add
emphasis). "I Am that I Am that I Am," that I am
really with you. He says, "And what I am is this. I am
compassionate and gracious!" Yes, in the last chapter he was
angry, but look at how he has forgiven the people. He says, "I
will forgive you." Forgiveness is the only thing he can
do. Nothing else will resolve this situation. He says, "I am
slow to anger." Yes, we saw his anger last week, but look at how
the people had been grumbling and complaining, practically from the
day they left Egypt. Three days after they left Egypt, we have the
first account of their grumbling and complaining, and God kept his
cool for a long time, but it was the golden calf, it was putting a
counterfeit God in their faces and bowing down to a false god that
was what provoked God to show the anger. He says, "I am
abounding in love and faithfulness and forgiveness." He, in
fact, has been the one to protect them, to give them life, water,
food and forgiveness. He has proven that over and over again. And he
says he is holy and just. Forgiveness does not negate holiness. He
says, "Sin will not go unpunished." But punishment for sin
comes alongside forgiveness for sin. God says, "Sin has
consequences, but I will forgive you." That is the kind of God
we are encountering here on Sinai. When Moses received that
declaration, "At that very moment, he went flat on his face in
worship" before that holy, compassionate, forgiving God. At that
moment, we sense the resolve, and we sense the reconciliation, we
sense the promise that God will fulfill, that he will not leave his
people. His presence will go with them.
2) God's covenant restored. We move on then to Chapter
34 starting at Verse 10: the stone tablets have been broken and the
relationship is strained and God is keeping his distance. The
covenant needs to be renewed. And so there we have God saying simply,
"I will make a covenant with you." Again, declaring its
existence, not waiting for any negotiation or any sort of
give-and-take here, "I am making a covenant with you. You will
be mine. I will do things that will astound the world and astound
you. I will do awesome things, and I want you to obey what I
command." Remember on the recurring cycle, God would make
provision, but he would add to that provision a test so that the
people would give their allegiance to the giver, not just live for
the gift. God does it again. He reiterates and renews the covenant,
and rehearses again the stipulations of that covenant. The Ten
Commandments are renewed, and they are expanded. God restates the law
with special emphasis now on those areas where the Israelites have
proven to be weak. The golden calf was a direct disobedience of the
2nd Commandment. So we see here an expansion on that whole idea of
allegiance to God and God alone. We see it in a declaration of
national priorities. Do not make treaties with pagans; worship Yahweh
alone. Do not intermarry with people who do not bow to Yahweh. And
then he give them worship priorities, to celebrate the annual feasts,
to dedicate their firstborn to the Lord, to observe the Sabbath. Do
not adopt Canaanite practices.
[Verse 26 is
an odd one. "Do not cook a young goat in its mother's
milk. We're not exactly sure what that means, but obviously it is in
a context here that would suggest a pagan practice, possibly a
Canaanite pagan practice, If you do as the Canaanites do, you're
identifying with the pagans around you. So don't do that! Don't do
the things that look like you're adopting the gods of the people
around you.]
The covenant was renewed, and a test immediately followed. In
this second mountain encounter, Moses stayed up on Mt. Sinai for how
long? Forty days and forty nights! This is a replay of the setup just
before the golden calf. The people had turned impatient-remember?-and
thought, "Whoa! What happened to Moses? He's of here." So
now Moses is gone again for forty days. The Lord tests them all, and
they seem to have learned their lesson this time: Nothing bad
happens while Moses is gone. We rejoice! But that brings us then to
the third issue that needs resolution.
3) Moses' authority reasserted. The last time Moses was
gone forty days and forty night the people said, "Aww, he's
gone. He has abandoned us. He's no good. He's a fake. We've got to
take matters into our own hands."
Moses' authority and leadership had been challenged. I believe God
recognized that it was important for the people to see the authority
that Moses had in their midst. And so, unbeknownst to Moses, God
somehow did something distinctive to Moses' face. The Hebrew says,
"Something happened to his skin to make it glow." It's not
light, it's not shining, blinding light, but it's the quality of his
skin that changed to show radiance and glow. When Moses walked down
to the people, they backed away in fear. They thought, "Oh my
gosh, what is this?" It was so holy-looking that they recognized
again-just like hearing the voice of God for too long; they couldn't
do that-a holy terror. So Moses delivered the word and the people
received it as having come from God. This visual reminder remained
until he was finished talking for God, and then the Scripture says,
"He put a veil over his face until the next time he went to the
Tent of Meeting and spoke with God." It would be hard to carry
on ordinary day-to-day communication, glowing like that, so he
covered his face. But when he met with God, he removed the veil. The
radiance was renewed and visible again to the people, giving Moses
the visible mark of authority for what he was there to do.
God recognizes the moment in our lives when the relationship between
us and him is so strained that a major renewal needs to take place.
If you are in that position today where you know that you have sinned
badly, deeply, profoundly, be assured from this Scripture and from
the gospel of Jesus Christ that a new beginning is possible! A new
beginning means a changed life. It means things are going to be
different. It means that we mourn and repent of our sin. We do not
want to go back to that place of rebellion. We acknowledge the pain
that it has caused and the offense that it has been to God. We won't
go back there. Lent is a season for reflection upon our fallen nature
and the bounty of God's mercy in Jesus Christ. But at that place of
remorse and repentance, God meets us just as he met Israel.
God meets us with his presence. God meets us with a reassurance that
though we stray, God does not go anywhere. God is here in Jesus
Christ and by his Spirit who dwells within us. The apostle Paul said,
"Do you not remember that the power that raised Jesus from the
dead dwells in your hearts and gives life to your mortal bodies?"
That is the presence of God that is ours as Christians. God
reassures us of that presence of Christ.
In Christ and by the power of his Holy Spirit, we have the ability to
walk into that commitment, that covenant, that God has made with us.
That is, a covenant that is demonstrated by changed behavior. It is a
covenant that says, "Look like my people." "Show that
you have received the forgiveness I offer," God says, "with
a lifestyle change, and with choices that demonstrate that Christ is,
in fact, Lord of your life." By doing so, we enter into this
covenant God has declared and God has sealed by his Holy Spirit in
our lives.
And then, just as the people of Israel had to again be reminded of
Moses' authority in their life, we also acknowledge before God, and
as part of the church family, that God has, in fact, put other
Christians in our lives to keep us on track. You are not alone to fix
it all by yourself. God has given you the gift of the church, given
you the gift of the Body of Christ to encourage you and to hold you
accountable for the changes you want to make in your life. Those are
the people who will pray with you, invoking God's power and blessing,
so that you can in fact do what you want to do. You have the body of
Christ to give you encouragement and love.
That is why we celebrate around the table today that the covenant God
made with Israel was sealed and solidified and made permanent in
Jesus Christ, based not on what we do, but on what God is and what he
has done in Jesus Christ. And so here today, as we come to the
table, the invitation is given by God himself to those who seek the
presence of God in their lives, who want not God's absence but God's
presence. It is for those who recognize the distance between
themselves and God and who want to talk to God as friends again.
It is for those who need help on the spiritual journey towards new
life in Christ. There aren't any other requirements. You don't have
to be Presbyterian. This isn't my table; it's the Lord's table, and
he says, "If you recognize your sin and your need for God, you
will find life in me, Jesus Christ," then come to the table.
Let's pray. Lord Jesus, how thankful we are for this invitation that
the covenant that you established with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and now
Moses is extended to us also in Jesus Christ. A covenant of
friendship, of intimate communion, a covenant of new life and victory
over sin. Lord Jesus, we know we can't go through the next day, much
less our whole lives, without your presence with us. And so Lord, we
thank you for showing yourself in Christ and nourishing us
spiritually by means of this holy meal meant to strengthen us until
you come again. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
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