2004-05-21
Good Morning Cherished Ones,
There are many subjects that are so important that they are worthy of our spending time returning to them. Such is the case with the Covenant of the Law. This time it is in the context of the larger view of God’s great task in civilizing mankind. I often wonder what we would have been like had the original sin not occurred and we hadn’t been born into sin. But anything said on that would be pure conjecture on my part. The fact is that God knew before He created the earth that we would need to be redeemed from slavery to sin, how He would do that through His only begotten Son, and that He would be kept pretty busy with the task of transforming our hearts into hearts that would please Him. Last week we took a look at the experiential preparations that Moses needed to go through before he could be ready to carry out the task that God had set before him. I refer here not only to leading the Hebrew people out of Egypt, but also to bringing the God-given Law to them. That Law was God’s next step in civilizing his human creation.
Just as Moses initially had responded to God’s call by saying, “No, Lord, do not send me. I have never been a good speaker, and I haven’t become one since You began to speak to me,” [EX 4: 10], so the people of Israel were hardly of a mind to receive the Law when Moses first came down from Mt. Sinai with the stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments. What was happening was known to God, which is why He sent Moses down the mountain when He did. You’ll remember that the people had left Egypt with a wealth in gold jewelry and the like that was given to them. Moses’ brother, Aaron, was the high priest. EX 32: 4-7, “Aaron took the earrings, melted them down, poured the gold into a mold, and made a golden calf. The people said, ‘Israel, this is our god, who led us out of Egypt!’ Then Aaron built an altar in front of the golden calf and announced, ‘Tomorrow there will be a festival to honor the Lord,’ Early the next morning they brought some animals to burn as sacrifices and others to eat as fellowship offerings. The people sat down to a feast, which turned into an orgy of drinking and sex. The Lord said to Moses, ‘Hurry and go back down, because your people, whom you led out of Egypt, have sinned and rejected Me.” If we look into what went into this sin, we can’t help but see a total misunderstanding of the liberation from 430 years Egyptian slavery, impatience and mistrust of Moses’ leadership, and more importantly, total blindness to the blessings or the motives of our loving Abba. And, that doesn’t even mention the drunkenness and sexual immorality that was going on! Our wise God knew something had to be done about this fast!
I remember taking a class a few years ago in which the instructor made the point that these sinning people couldn’t really be held responsible for what they were doing. The point was that they had no way to know what pleases God and what doesn’t. That is a key point. Moses, who loved God and was obedient to Him, came down the mountain to this disgusting scene and reacted to it with righteous anger. But we must remember that at this point, he alone knew the Law of God. EX 32: 15-16, 19, “Moses went back down the mountain, carrying the two stone tablets with the commandments written on both sides. God Himself had made the tablets and had engraved the commandments on them...When Moses came close enough to the camp to see the calf and to see the people dancing, he became furious. There at the foot of the mountain, he thew down the tablets he was carrying and broke them.” And yes, there were consequences for these sinful people to suffer. Those who were on the Lord’s side were told to put on their swords and go through the camp from a particular gate and to kill their brothers and friends. That day, the Levites obeyed and killed 3000 men [EX 32: 27-28]. Of course that seems harsh to us in this day and age, but that is approximately the same number of people as came to faith and were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ after hearing Peter’s message in AC 2: 41. Is this a coincidence? I don’t think so. Remember that God’s time is not the same as ours [2 PET 3: 8-9], nor is His justice, which is always perfect.
In today’s message, we saw graphically how very much in need of the Law God’s people really were. I don’t mean to leave us with the idea that once the Law was given, the problem God is having in civilizing mankind was over-not by a long shot! However, by taking a look at these past events, we are being allowed to examine our own culture and values today against the idea that God has set before us. Mankind is still sinful, ashamedly so. However, today we are blessed enough to have the choice to take the time to look at our own society and question what is wrong with it. Next week, we’ll look at the Covenant of the Law to see what it does and how mankind reacted to it. Moreover, we will get more of God’s perspective from the Scriptures, so that we can understand His will for us and take action on it.
PRAYER: O Lord, throughout our history, we have been Your sinful enemies. We have rejected You, acted like impatient fools, and have gone on sinning. And yet, You continue to love us and to take steps through the Holy Spirit to bring as many of us as will listen and believe to faith. You sent Your Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer and die on the cross for us, opening the way to salvation for those who believe. Although many of Your chosen people, the Jews, continue to reject Christ’s deity today, You have not abandoned them and have promised that a remnant of them will have the veil lifted from their eyes and will come to know Christ as the Messiah [RO 11: 25]. Lord God, I do not know why You allow so much disobedience of Your chosen people to go on, but I do know that Your lofty perspective is greater than ours and that Your motives are always righteous. In MT 10: 34-39, You told us, through Your Son, that He did not come to make peace, that families will become divided against each other. Then, Your will became clear in verses 38-39. “Whoever does not take up his cross and follow in My steps is not fit to be My disciple. Whoever tries to gain his own life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will gain it.” My own family is divided this way, so I know that You are telling the truth and always do. However, You challenge us to look back at the history of the Jews and the giving of Your Law, so that we can come closer to Your perspective and to full appreciation of the task You are doing in transforming hearts. Of course, Your chosen people are no longer only Jews. That changed with Paul’s ministry and the opening of access to Your teaching to Gentiles [RO 1: 16]. When they come to faith, they are “in-grafted into the cultured olive tree” and take on both the blessings and the responsibilities You gave to believing Jews [RO 11: 17]. Dearest Abba, You want us to know You and to know Your will for us. You have given us the Scriptures and prayer for this purpose. We can examine our lives against Your standard and correct them to conform with it. For this and so much more, we acknowledge Your faithfulness and constant love. We offer ourselves to You by dedicating ourselves to living according to Your standard, and we offer You our utmost praise and thanks in Christ’s holy name. Amen.
As mentioned above, we’ll take a good look at the giving of the Law and the initial reaction to it next week. This week, I’ve been thinking about God’s patience and compassion toward mankind. We can certainly see it in EX 32, because God gave Moses a forgiving heart, one which made him pray in intercession on behalf of his fellow Jews for God to give them the Law a second time. EX 32: 32, “Please forgive their sin; but if You will not, then remove my name from the book in which You have written the names of Your people.” Wow, now that’s bold! It says something about the closeness of Moses’ relationship with God. You all know that in EPH 3: 12, we been told, “In union with Christ and through our faith in Him we have the boldness to go into God’s presence with all confidence.” Imagine, Moses knew this in 1250 BC without ever meeting Christ! Our loving God heard his prayer and answered it by giving the Law to him for the people a second time [EX 34: 1, 6-7]. This is the same awesome God Who challenges us to look at our lives and who, through our faith in Christ, not only forgives our confessed sin, but forgets it [HE 8: 12]. Yes, Dear Ones, we are truly a blessed people!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn