From our Tuesday Morning Bible Study
Moses took the people to the base of Mt. Sinai where they heard God personally speaking and where God established His covenant with them. The terms of the covenant were simple. The people were to obey God in all that He commanded. This they readily agreed to. Their words were unequivocable: "All that the Lord has spoken we will do and we will be obedient." (Ex. 24:7) Why would they not agree to obey God? They had witnessed miracles that no one, in their day or ours, has ever seen. Why would they not serve a God so powerful and yet so gracious?
It is one thing to talk and yet another to follow the words up with action. The Israelites agreed to obey God when the mountain was rumbling and they could see the fire of God. They were willing to submit when Moses was present because they had learned to fear his relationship with God. What would they do when the things that made them afraid went away and when Moses was not present? That would show the true condition of their hearts.
Regardless of what a person's inner desires are, they can be made to do things that they otherwise would not do. A person can be persuaded into something by a persuasive speech. We have seen that in political elections. A person can intimidated or scared into doing something because they fear for their life or they fear a loss of prestige. However, when the persuasion or the fear that is motivating them is removed, they will always gravitate back to the inner desires of their hearts. A thief may not steal because he fears he will get caught but when that fear is removed, he will do what his heart wants to do. He will steal.
When Moses delayed to come down from the mountain where he had gone to receive God's instructions, the people's rebellious hearts once again asserted themselves. They wanted Aaron to build them a golden calf which they then proclaimed as their savior god. They worshipped the idol with extremely sinful practices and dishonored both themselves and God. When Moses returned from the mountain and saw their wickedness, he broke the tablets of the Ten Commandments because they had broken God's law. Moses destroyed the idol and had the perpetrators killed. Three thousand died that day due to their sin. In addition, God brought a plague against the others
who disobeyed Him.
Our hearts must be guarded against a rebellious attitude. God hates rebellion because it is the opposite of faith and trust in Him. Samuel told the Israelites; "Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft." (1 Sam. 15:23) Rebellion against God has its basis in an unbelieving heart. That is why it is so important that we examine our hearts, asking God to show us our sin and to change our hearts.
Whatever is in the heart will eventually come out. Let us make sure that our hearts are filled with God's love and a desire to serve and obey Him.
Tony
Audio from Tuesday Bible Study
New Problems for the New Nation
Handout
From our Tuesday Morning Bible Study:
The initial stage of the Israelites' journey out of Egypt ended at the base of Mt. Sinai. It was there that God would give them His law and would meet with them. When God made His appearance on Sinai, the mountain was covered with smoke and burned with fire. Thunder sounded and lightning flashed. Moses records it as such:
Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. (Ex. 19:18-19)
The people were struck with great fear. They remembered their sin and rebellion against God and feared that this awesome display of power was a sign that God was coming to destroy them. According to the writer of the book of Hebrews, even Moses, the man of God, feared exceedingly.
They feared because of two things; the power of God and the holiness of God. God's omnipotent power coupled with his absolute holiness should cause all sinners...that is, all people...to fear his presence. When God appeared to Daniel, one of the greatest men in the Old Testament, he fell on his face in sheer terror. When Isaiah saw the holiness of God he cried, "Woe is me for I am ruined." As the writer of Hebrews wrote, "For our God is a consuming fire."
Somehow, we have gotten the notion today that it is wrong to "fear" God. Much effort is made by many people, by many churches, to make God appear "non-threatening," thinking somehow that it makes God more "attractive." I guess that's fine if your goal is to generate greater numbers in attendance but it is useless if you want to accurately depict God as He reveals Himself in the Bible.
Let me tell you this, on Mt. Sinai, God was plenty threatening. His holiness and power were on full display. Just because we do not see such displays today many people seem to think that God has somehow changed. He is not the "threatening" God of the Old Testament but is now the gracious God of the New Testament.
God has not changed.
God offers grace to unworthy sinners today just as He did to the rebellious Israelites who were continuously disobedient in Moses' day. God reserves His great wrath for unrepentant sinners today just as He did to the unrepentant Israelites. God's wrath is delayed and his grace displayed because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ but God's power and holiness are undiminished. The same power that was displayed on Mt. Sinai will one day be seen by all when Christ returns "in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus." (2 Thess. 1:8)
We live in a wicked age when many people think nothing of blaspheming the name of God and of despising His Son Jesus Christ. It grieves us greatly to see this but let us not lose heart. Let us not grow weary in well doing because we serve a righteous, holy, and powerful God who will not always to allow his name to be cursed. The Son of God will return in righteous wrath to execute judgment on this sinful world and take His children home to be with Him. These are the days to live for.
Tony
Audio and Handout from Tuesday Bible Study (right-click to download)
A New Nation
Handout
Slide Presentation
From our Tuesday Morning Bible Study:
It is safe to say that no one in history has seen the type of miracles that the Israelites saw as God delivered them from slavery in Egypt. They saw the ten plagues through which God pounded Egypt into submission. They witnessed the miraculous parting of the Red Sea which allowed the Israelites to cross but destroyed Pharaoh's army when the waters returned to normal. One would think that the Children of Israel had all the proof they needed to believe in God.
Alas, such was not the case. Despite the wonders they saw, they continually rebelled against God. They refused to believe that He would take care of them. They continually chafed at Moses' God-ordained leadership and even yearned to go back to Egypt, concocting some fantasy that things were actually good there and refusing to remember how the Egyptians oppressed them with bitter bondage.
This is the nature of unbelief. It exists separately from evidence or proof because unbelief is the product of a sinful, fallen, and God-dishonoring heart. There is no amount of evidence that can be brought forward to "convince" a sin-hardened heart filled with unbelief. If more evidence could have corrected the problem, the Israelites would have believed when they saw God's miracles. As such, they did not believe God because their wicked hearts were set against Him. They wanted their own way. They sought their own immediate comfort. They cared nothing for the great things that God had for them in the Promised Land if they could not have it now.
God knew the type of people He was dealing with. That is why He led them on a path through the wilderness rather than have them take the direct route to Canaan. God knew that as soon as difficulties arose, the true nature of the Israelites would become manifest. They would complain. They would rebel. They would fully demonstrate that they did not believe, or know, God at all. God's continual provision of the Israelites was both a sign of his mercy toward them and His testing of them. They failed the test and forfeited the right to enter the Promised Land. God would allow that unbelieving generation to die in the wilderness with their dreams unfulfilled and would raise up a new generation that would believe Him.
Unbelief is a dreadful and damning sin that refuses to acknowledge God's greatness and will not submit to His will. True Christians can experience times of doubt but unbelief springs from a lost and unregenerate heart, a heart that has not experienced God's grace.
True unbelief will ultimately come forward. It will betray a professed faith in God because it cannot be hidden beneath a religious outer garment.
The writer of Hebrews warned his readers of unbelief using the example of the Israelites in the wilderness.
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. (Hebrews 3:12)
The writer of Hebrews feared that there were professed Christians who were actually unbelievers in the congregation to which He was writing. If that was the case, he knew that they would fall away from their faith in Christ when persecution arose. He wanted to warn them because he did not desire to see any of them be lost.
We need to give heed to the author of Hebrews and pay close attention to the example of the Israelites. Personal examination is necessary. Is our faith truly in God through Christ or do we "serve" God for other reasons, reasons of a selfish and ultimately damning nature?
As Paul wrote:
Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? —unless indeed you fail to meet the test! (2 Cor. 13:5)
Let us not fail the test like the Children of Israel did. Let us go on to the Promised Land holding to a firm faith in the saving power of God through our Savior Jesus Christ.
Tony
Audio from Tuesday's Bible Study (Right-click to save)
The Journey to Sinai
Handout
From our Tuesday Morning Bible Study:
A former Supreme Court Justice once said of the court: "We are not final because we are infallible. We are infallible because we are final." He was speaking of how the Supreme Court's rulings are unimpeachable because the Court has the last say. While theoretically, he was wrong because of the checks and balances of the Constitution; in reality, a U. S. Supreme Court ruling is about inviolable as any decree of man that exists today. In many ways, the Supreme Court has close to absolute power. That should be scary to people.
You may be wondering now how this relates to the Tuesday Bible Study on the Exodus. The connection is this; Pharaoh had absolute power. It is doubtful that anyone has ever dominated a nation as the Pharaohs dominated ancient Egypt. The Pharaohs had such power and self-focus that they would spend a great deal of their reign, not to mention the national budget, building monuments to themselves, many of which still stand today. Not only that, Pharaoh was considered to be a god so his decrees were not just the decrees of a king but of a divine being. The power of modern-day presidents and congressmen pales in comparison to the power of Pharaoh.
Pharaoh's absolute power is probably the reason Paul uses him as the prototype for those who would oppose God's purposes but who must ultimately bend to God's will.
For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” (Romans 9:17)
When Pharaoh refused to release the Israelite slaves, his mighty power was of no concern or consequence to God whose divine purposes do not require the cooperation of man. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, another mighty man who opposed God, realized this when God turned him insane for a period of time. Afterward, He wrote of the Lord God:
I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?” (Daniel 3:34-35)
We need to remember these lessons today. Our hearts grow burdened when we see many in the leadership of our nation promoting ideas and policies that directly and explicitly contradict God's word and His divine law. Though the power of these people cannot be compared to the power of a Pharaoh or a Nebuchadnezzar, they arrogantly presume to change laws and customs that have existed for centuries, if not millennia.
As an example, last week, the Supreme Court of the state of Iowa ruled that marriage must be redefined to extend beyond a man and a woman. Yesterday, the Vermont state legislature did the same thing, overturning thousands of years of law, not to mention explicit commands of God, in establishing homosexual marriage. These judges and legislators claim to be doing good even as they despise God's law.
We also see the increase in government funding for those brutal organizations that profit from the killing of unborn children. All the while, the political leaders who support them speak of the "service" these murderers provide as if it was a virtue. In all of this, the condemnations of Scripture are made more clear:
Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter! (Isaiah 5:20)
Though we may be frustrated and dismayed by much of what we see in our nation today, we need not dispair. We must remember the lesson of the Exodus. As with Pharaoh, God will have the final say. He will not allow His laws to be violated with no consequence. In fact, such evil only exists because God permits it so that He may gain greater glory over its inevitable defeat. Let us remember this and praise God through the difficulties knowing that He still rules the hearts of men and the destinies of nations.
Tony
Audio from Tuesday's Study (right click to save)
An End and a Beginning
Handout
From our Tuesday Morning Bible Study
