Sermon Tone Analysis

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ISRAEL AFFIRMS THE COVENANT
*24:1 *Now He said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar. 2 And Moses alone shall come near the Lord, but they shall not come near; nor shall the people go up with him.”
3 So Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the judgments.
And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words which the Lord has said we will do.”
4 And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord.
And he rose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel.
5 Then he sent young men of the children of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord.
6 And Moses took half the blood and put it in basins, and half the blood he sprinkled on the altar.
7 Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people.
And they said, “All that the Lord has said we will do, and be obedient.”
8 And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words.”
9 Then Moses went up, also Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, 10 and they saw the God of Israel.
And there was under His feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and it was like the very heavens in its clarity.
11 But on the nobles of the children of Israel He did not lay His hand.
So they saw God, and they ate and drank.
12 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and be there; and I will give you tablets of stone, and the law and commandments which I have written, that you may teach them.”
13 So Moses arose with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up to the mountain of God. 14 And he said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we come back to you.
Indeed, Aaron and Hur are with you.
If any man has a difficulty, let him go to them.” 15 Then Moses went up into the mountain, and a cloud covered the mountain.
16 Now the glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days.
And on the seventh day He called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud.
17 The sight of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel.
18 So Moses went into the midst of the cloud and went up into the mountain.
And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
/—Exodus 24:1–18/
Chapter 24 is a kind of transition chapter.
Here is a reaffirmation of the covenant.
The writer to the Hebrews used this scene as the prototype for the new covenant.
When Moses returned to the people and told them all the provisions that God had made for the covenant, they responded with community accord: “/All the words which the Lord has said we will do” /(24:3).
To celebrate that, Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord; then he rose early in the morning and built an altar, and there the children of Israel offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings to the Lord.
Then Moses did a very interesting thing.
He read aloud the words of the covenant as he had recorded those words.
It was a restatement, an etching again upon their minds and hearts the remarkable thing that had taken place there at Sinai.
And again, the people gave their assent.
Then Moses took blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “/This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words” /(v.
8).
The writer to the Hebrews put it, “Therefore not even the first covenant was dedicated without blood” (9:18).
And about Jesus the writer to the Hebrews said: “He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (9:26).
As has been indicated previously, this was a foreshadowing of that new covenant which would be made by the blood of Jesus offered in self-sacrifice on Calvary.
Then God called Moses to come up to the mountain where He would give him the tablets of stone on which the law was written.
Moses took Joshua with him, left Aaron and Hur to settle any issues among the people, and as they journeyed to the mountain, a great cloud covered it.
The glory of the Lord rested on Mt.
Sinai for six days.
On the seventh day, God called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud.
The sight of God’s glory was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel.
Moses left Joshua there and went into the midst of the cloud, up into the mountain, where he communed with God for forty days.
It is there that the Lord spoke to him, and gave him instructions about what was to take place next in the history of this covenant relationship.[1]
THE PEOPLE’S FAITHLESSNESS
*32:1 *Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us Gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”
2 And Aaron said to them, “Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. 4 And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf.
Then they said, “This is your God, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!”
5 So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it.
And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.” 6 Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.
/—Exodus 32:1–6/
The longer Moses stayed on the mountain, the more restless the people became.
Did they believe that something had happened to Moses?
Were they getting weary of his leadership?
Without him present to keep reminding them of God’s presence, did doubt begin to overcome them?
Was it a faith struggle?
Had the message not yet gripped them?
Were they not yet convinced?
When Moses failed to return they went to the next in command and demanded that he make other Gods they could serve.
Of the Ten Commandments they were breaking the second one: making a graven image.
Living animals, not idols, were worshiped in Egypt, so this was not a reversion to the Gods of their slavery.
The bull was often associated with Canaanite Baalism, so it may be that the “golden calf” is a throwback to the bull-image God through common Semitic heritage.
We will focus later in this chapter on this faithlessness of Israel and lessons we may learn, when we look at Moses’ confrontation with Aaron and the people on coming down from the mountain.
Note here, however, that Israel’s faithlessness, her apostasy, was accompanied by immorality connected with their worship.
Look at verse 6. “/And rose up to play” /suggests sexual orgies which accompanied fertility rites, especially in Canaanite Baalism (another indication the golden calf may be a counterpart to the Canaanite bull).
The verb translated “to play” (/sāhaq/) supports this.
This same verb was used in Genesis 26:8: “Abimelech … looked out of a window, and saw … Isaac, fondling Rebekah his wife” (rsv).
This led the king to know that Rebekah was not Isaac’s sister, but his wife.
Though connecting sexual immorality with worship is foreign to us, it still happens.
But the lesson for us is that apostasy leads to irresponsible action and gross immorality.
Even more applicable to us is the fact that faithlessness leads to a diminishing of moral sensitivity.
IT’S TOUGH TO BE GOD
7 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go, get down!
For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves.
8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them.
They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘This is your God, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!’ ” 9 And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people! 10 Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them.
And I will make of you a great nation.”
11 Then Moses pleaded with the Lord his God, and said: “Lord, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, ‘He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’?
Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to Your people.
13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven; and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’
” 14 So the Lord relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people.
/—Exodus 32:7–14/
This is one of the sections of Exodus most rich in meaning.
The richness of it, I believe, is best revealed as we look at God’s response to what was going on.
It’s tough to be God.
Does that thought shock you?
It’s tough to be God.
How do I know?
Well, it’s tough to be a parent.
How tough?
Most of us could tell at least one story that would bring lumps in the throats of the rest of us, and tears to our eyes, as we remember our own sleepless nights, our own painful experiences, seeking to be parents.
And God is our parent, our eternal parent.
That was Jesus’ favorite title for God, “Abba, Father”— “Daddy.”
That’s really what Jesus called God—Daddy.
If you think it’s tough rearing three children, just think about God’s task, God’s responsibility, Godrelationship to His children.
It’s tough to be God.
This thought only got my casual attention now and then throughout the book, but it became intense and demanded reflection when I got to this chapter of Exodus.
It really jerked at my mind and pierced my heart when I came to verses 9 and 10.
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