Sermon Tone Analysis

GEOGRAPHY & CHRONOLOGY

Verse 2 gives us much needed geographical information.

It tells you that they are before Sinai now.

They are parked here in the wilderness of Sinai.

They left the wilderness of Rephidim, they came before Sinai, and they met there with God.

This meeting lasts eleven months.

It's not nearly as long, though as their wanderings in the wilderness.

They will wander in the wilderness for 40 years.

It’s interesting that only a small record is penned of those 40 years.

This information is magnified when you understand that these eleven months (1/40th of their time) at Sinai occupy most all of 59 chapters; through .

Verse 1 gives us a chronological timeline which helps us to set this story within the grand narrative of the Bible.

They are on a lunar calendar which means that their arrival is fifty days after their participation of the Passover meal.

They are on a lunar calendar which means that their arrival is fifty days after their taking the Passover meal.

This connection should not go unnoticed.

Christ died during Passover and the Holy Spirit fell during Pentecost.

In Exodus the Israelite’s are saved through their faith in the Passover lamb then given the Law fifty days later.

The Lord saves them and then gives them a pattern of holy living.

Christ is the Passover Lamb and then gives His Spirit to empower holy living.

The chronology reminds us that the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed and the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed.

GRACIOUS COVENANT

What I’m about say paramount to rightly understanding and applying the 10 Commandments.

Before God gives the Big 10 he instructs Moses to remind the people of His gracious covenant.

God is giving Moses a sermon in verse 3 when he says; “thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel”.

Moses is to remind them of three theological truths.

Divine Damnation

He wants them to remember His judgement on Egypt because that could have been their plight.

The difference between Israel and Egypt was not that Israel was better but that God was merciful.

He was merciful because of His covenant.

Divine Deliverance

His next statement was; “i bore you on eagles wings”.

This was to remind them of divine deliverance.

The Israelities did not form their own army and overthrow the Pharaoh.

The Lord is reminding them that they had nothing to do their deliverance because is was divine.

“I bore you on eagles wings” is a beautiful picture that all of Israel would have understood.

They knew how mother eagles taught their eaglets to fly.

Mother’s would kick their young out of their nest.

If the eaglets did not fly then their mother would swoop down and rescue them before impact.

The people had experienced the watchful and supportive guardianship of one so infinitely stronger and more able than themselves, and now they found that they had been welcomed into his presence and accepted into intimacy with him, not by their own efforts or merits, but because I … brought you to myself.

Divine Drawing

His last sermonic point is that of divine drawing.

He tells them; “i brought you to myself”.

It was the Lord who sent Moses to draw His people out of Egypt.

It was the Lord who had Pharaoh's daughter draw him out of the water.

It was the Lord who drew Moses to himself through a burning bush.

God is saying; I did not wait for you to find your way, I drew you to Myself.

This sermon is a sermon explaining “amazing grace”.

God is reminding Moses of HIs grace and He is to remind His people of His grace.

This is paramount and necessary before His Law can be given.

God is going to spend three books on the law and somebody might start scratching their head and think, “Well, maybe since God spent so much time on the law it means that we're saved by law.

We’re saved by law keeping, we're saved by obedience to the law.”

And before anybody can get that in their mind God says Moses, “Tell the people, remember that I saved you by grace so that they won't forget that when I announce to them my household law.

The law was not the means of their redemption but the goal of their redemption.

There is absolutely no idea of salvation by works in God's covenant with Moses.

You need to understand that there is not the slightest hint of the idea of salvation by works in the covenant of Moses.

It's not that salvation is not by works in the Law of the Old Testament and it's by grace and faith in the New Testament.

That is a false dichotomy and God tried to lay that false dichotomy to rest in , and He did it absolutely clearly, and the fact that we don't understand that means that it's not His fault, it's ours.

Nothing must ever be allowed to upset this order.

Notice, therefore, the past tenses of verse 4 and the contrasting future tenses of verses 5 and 6.

The Lord’s great act of deliverance and salvation has already been done (4), and this is why verse 5 can speak of the Lord’s covenant3 as an existing reality and something to be ‘kept’, that is, preserved and guarded.

It was in pursuance of his covenant promises that the Lord came to his distressed people in Egypt (2:24)—not to make them his ‘sons’ but because Israel was already his ‘firstborn’ (4:22).

The redemption he achieved for them fulfilled the great covenant promise that ‘I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God’ (6:6–7).

It was not, therefore, that they were ordered to obey in order that they might enter the covenant, but that, already being within the covenant, they were called to obey so that they might enjoy the benefits and privileges of God’s people.

What was true of the ‘old’ covenant is true of the ‘new’, and we enter on exactly the same basis of grace and continue in exactly the same obedience of faith.

Nothing must ever be allowed to upset this order.

Notice, therefore, the past tenses of verse 4 and the contrasting future tenses of verses 5 and 6.

The Lord’s great act of deliverance and salvation has already been done (4), and this is why verse 5 can speak of the Lord’s covenant3 as an existing reality and something to be ‘kept’, that is, preserved and guarded.

It was in pursuance of his covenant promises that the Lord came to his distressed people in Egypt

)—not to make them his ‘sons’ but because Israel was already his ‘firstborn’ (4:22).

The redemption he achieved for them fulfilled the great covenant promise that ‘I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God’ (6:6–7).

It was not, therefore, that they were ordered to obey in order that they might enter the covenant, but that, already being within the covenant, they were called to obey so that they might enjoy the benefits and privileges of God’s people.

What was true of the ‘old’ covenant is true of the ‘new’, and we enter on exactly the same basis of grace and continue in exactly the same obedience of faith.

—not to make them his ‘sons’ but because Israel was already his ‘firstborn’

Motyer, A. (2005).

The Message of Exodus: The Days of Our Pilgrimage.

(A.

Motyer & D. Tidball, Eds.) (pp.

196–197).

Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press.

Motyer, A. (2005).

The Message of Exodus: The Days of Our Pilgrimage.

(A.

Motyer & D. Tidball, Eds.) (pp.

196–197).

Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press.

).

The redemption he achieved for them fulfilled the great covenant promise that ‘I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God’ (6:6–7).

It was not, therefore, that they were ordered to obey in order that they might enter the covenant, but that, already being within the covenant, they were called to obey so that they might enjoy the benefits and privileges of God’s people.

What was true of the ‘old’ covenant is true of the ‘new’, and we enter on exactly the same basis of grace and continue in exactly the same obedience of faith.

The redemption he achieved for them fulfilled the great covenant promise that ‘I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God’

).

It was not, therefore, that they were ordered to obey in order that they might enter the covenant, but that, already being within the covenant, they were called to obey so that they might enjoy the benefits and privileges of God’s people.

What was true of the ‘old’ covenant is true of the ‘new’, and we enter on exactly the same basis of grace and continue in exactly the same obedience of faith.

It was not, therefore, that they were ordered to obey in order that they might enter the covenant, but that, already being within the covenant, they were called to obey so that they might enjoy the benefits and privileges of God’s people.

What was true of the ‘old’ covenant is true of the ‘new’, and we enter on exactly the same basis of grace and continue in exactly the same obedience of faith.

GLORIOUS CHOICE

Our final point and our two final verses seem to contradict my second point.

What does Moses mean when he says, ‘If indeed you will obey My voice and keep My covenant, then You shall be My own possession.’”

When he says, if then, does he mean that Israel is not a treasured possession, not a kingdom of priest, and not a holy nation, but if she will obey she will become a treasured possession, a kingdom of priest and a holy nation, or is he saying something else?

Two things need to be kept in mind.

First, every covenant has its responsibilities.

There is no such thing as a relationship with no responsibility.

Every relationship has responsibilities and that is what Moses is going to begin to talk about in this great passage.

So bear that in mind.

Secondly, in God's economy responsibilities are always blessings.