Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

EX19.1-8

I don’t know if many of us would take a job without knowing what our job actually was.

That’s precisely what Kevin Lynch did in early 2013.

Back in 2015, Wired magazine wrote an article about Lynch and the job offer he accepted from Apple.

Apple’s secrecy is so intense that all Lynch had was a vague description of his job title, vice president of technology.

Prior to working for Apple, Lynch spent eight years as the chief technology officer for Adobe.

He was best known as the only person dumb enough to publicly fight Steve Jobs over the iPhone’s lack of support for Flash videos.

So, it was a double shock that they were willing to hire a man who had been publicly critical of the company’s founder, and that he accepted the job without knowing what he’d be doing.

His first day on the job, he found out that the project he’d been hired to run was already behind schedule.

He was told that there was a design review in two days with the Apple brass, and he’d better be ready.

How’s that for pressure?

To add to the pressure, there was no working prototypes of the design, there was no software, there were only experiments.

In spite of the schedule issues and the lack of a prototype, management’s expectations were clear.

Lynch was to oversee the creation of a revolutionary device that could be worn on the wrist.

That’s right.

He was hired to bring the idea of the Apple watch to fruition.

Wired’s article points out that Apple decided to make a watch, and then set out to discover what it might be good for besides telling time.

The title of Wired’s article is, The Secret History of the Apple Watch.

Along the way, Lynch and his team came up Apple Watch’s reason for being.

It came down to this, “Your phone is ruining your life.

We’re all subject to the tyranny of the buzz―the constant checking, the long list of nagging notifications.”

Lynch said, “People want that level of engagement, but how do we provide it in a way that’s a little more human, a little more in the moment when you’re with somebody?”

The fact that some of us in here have the watch on our wrist is proof that Lynch got the job done.

Either that, or you’re a part of the experiment to see whether or not they’ve achieved their goal.

It’s all well and good that they found a purpose for their product, but Lynch knew none of this going in.

The responsibilities were immense.

The requirements to be a part of this process were serious.

How many of us would be willing to take the risk of committing to a new responsibility like this with high demands but no description of it ahead of time?

Or, to put it another way, what made Apple so worthy of trust that Kevin Lynch said, “I’m down with the cause even though I don’t know what I’m supposed be doing?

I don’t really know what I’m committing myself to?”

Maybe for Kevin Lynch there was excitement in not knowing.

Maybe dollar signs were flashed in front of him to make it worth his while.

Maybe he was ready to leave his old job and move on.

The article doesn’t really give us that answer.

What would it be for you?

What would make you say, “I don’t know what the requirements are, but I’ll do it?”

What does someone have to do to be worthy of that kind of trust?

For at least this moment in time in our text, the children of Israel are willing to make that leap.

In v. 5 the Lord tells Moses to say to the people, “If you will surely listen to my voice, and keep my covenant, you will be my treasured possession among all the peoples.

For the whole earth belongs to me.”

Then, the people say to Moses in v. 8, “Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do.”

They don’t even know what it means to keep his covenant yet.

They say, “we’re down with the cause,” but they don’t know the details yet.

In fact, the details of what it means to keep the covenant are going to start to be laid out in ch.

20.

And those details will continue not only through the rest of Exodus, but all the way through the book of Leviticus.

Right now they’re saying, “My God, in you we trust.”

“You can give us the details later, but we’re down for the cause.”

This chapter is a transition in the book of Exodus to the section that is focused on the law.

And it gives us some insight into what it means to be down with Jesus Christ and his cause.

Being down for the cause means being down with the Poet, and understanding what it means to be the People.

The Poet

Ch. 19 marks a decisive shift in the book of Exodus.

If we were reading the Hebrew text, that would be clear to us in the first verse.

Up to this point every chapter begins in a way that clearly links it to the previous section.

That literary marker is absent here.

Its absence lets us know that the writer is making an intentional break with what’s been written to this point.

So when v. 1 tells us that, “In the third month after the children of Israel went out from the land of Egypt, on this day they came to the wilderness of Sinai,” we’re basically being given a heading for the rest of the book.

Things slow way way down.

In fact, they’ll be right here at Mount Sinai not only for the rest of Exodus, but also for the entire book of Leviticus.

They don’t leave Sinai until .

I’ve mentioned to you before that Exodus can be divided into three main headings, salvation, law, and worship―the Lord delivering his people from slavery, the Lord giving them his law, and instructing them about worship.

All three of those elements of the book are contained here in Ch. 19.

The Lord brings the children of Israel here to Sinai, and he calls Moses up to the mountain in order to reestablish his covenant with them.

The first part of being down with the cause is understanding the covenant.

Here’s how covenants would work in the ancient world.

A king would make a treaty with a nation, typically after defeating them in battle.

The treaty would declare who the king is, what he’s done for the people, what he requires of the people, and what he promises to do for the people in the future as long as they keep the covenant.

All of that is literally here in the first six verses of this chapter.

The Lord declares what he’s done for the people in v. 4, “You’ve seen what I did to the Egyptians.”

He declares what’s required of them in v. 5, “obey my voice and keep my covenant.”

Then he makes a promise, “you shall be my treasured possession, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

Here they are, encamped in the wilderness of Sinai before the mountain, and Moses climbs the mountain.

You may remember that isn’t the first time that Moses has been up this mountain.

This is where he was tending his father-in-law, Jethro’s, flock when the Lord met him in the burning bush back in Ch. 3, and told Moses that he was sending him back to Egypt to deliver the people from slavery.

If you remember what happened, Moses wasn’t all too excited about the idea of going back to Egypt to deliver anybody, especially since he had fled from Egypt.

But the Lord said to him in 3:12, “I will be with you.

And this will be the sign for you that I have sent you.

When you bring the people out from Egypt, you all will worship God on this mountain.”

Now, the sign has been fulfilled.

The Lord did what he said he was going to do.

Here’s the deal.

God is a poet.

He could say to them, “I did what I said I was going to do.

So here’s how things are going to work between us.”

But what we have here is more like a marriage than a business contract.

You all have been to weddings.

A lot of times the groom and the bride write their own vows.

They want to express their hearts.

No groom makes up his own vow saying something like, “I’m glad we have the opportunity to formalize the relationship and make it permanent.

Let’s get this thing done.”

No. He’s going to wax poetic.

He’s going to talk about the stars and the sky and the ocean and the flowers and his love.

He’s going to get all descriptive and beautiful.

Why are your vows more poetic than matter-of-fact?

Because you’re pouring out your heart.

Poetry as a means of communication is more fitting when I want to express the depth of my love.

That’s exactly what the Lord does when he speaks to Moses in vv.

3-4.

He calls to Moses out of the mountain, and says, “This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob, and declare to the children of Israel, ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, how I lifted you on the wings of eagles and brought you to myself.’”

The Lord is talking about how he saved them, and he doesn’t use dry, matter-of-fact language.