The Blessing of the Law

How should we respond to God?  How should we approach him?  There seem to be any number of flavours and styles of church nowadays, all with different ways of 'doing church'… different music, different prayer, different attitudes.  Some Christians are so serious, as if they were expecting the Queen to show up, whereas others are so familiar in the way they talk about and to God that it seems almost flippant.  Does God even care how we approach him, or does he pretty much leave it to our preference?  We won't answer all of those questions tonight but this passage in Exodus helps us to establish some firm foundations.

This is the last episode in our series in the middle of the book of Exodus.  Next week we're back for our Easter Music Invitation Service and then after a couple more weeks on Easter themes we'll settle down into ten weeks in the book of Acts.

In this series we re-joined the Israelites on the shore of the Red Sea after their dramatic rescue and we followed as they set off on their journey, following pillars of cloud and of fire towards the Promised Land.  We watched them turn quickly from praising God to grumbling against him, failing to trust him to provide water and food.  But then God did provide for them, miraculously, every day.  We saw them attacked by enemies, we saw Moses struggle to administer justice for them, and then, three months after leaving the Red Sea, we saw them arrive at Mount Sinai, where they agreed to enter into a covenant, a binding commitment, with God.  Over the last two weeks we've been examining the initial terms of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.  They were commanded to worship nothing and no-one but YHWH, and they were instructed how to love each other in this new nation of God.

And as we pick up the story tonight we find them still standing at the foot of Mount Sinai with Moses, with the voice of God echoing around, and we wait to see what their initial reaction is going to be to the revelation of God, his character, his instruction.  We're going to see that the people don't get their response quite right, but mercifully, God tells his people how to respond to his self-revelation.  That's the slightly chunky big idea we're working with tonight: God tells his people how to respond to his self-revelation.  God doesn't just tell us about himself and leave it at that; the Bible teaches not only truth but how we are to respond to that truth.  So we'll see in our passage that the people are to

1)    Respond with right fear

2)    Respond with right worship

Respond with right fear

Read 18-21

     18When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance 19and said to Moses, "Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die."20Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning."21The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.

God has spoken.  God has given ten instructions to his people, instructions that will summarise all the terms of the covenant between them.  And the people are terrified.  The spectacle of the thunder, the lighting and the trumpet blasts, the earthquakes, the fire and the smoke is enough to bring anyone out in a cold sweat, but then there's the sheer goodness, the utter holiness of God's commands.

I mentioned three weeks ago, and you can catch up online, that either side of God's descent onto the mountain to speak the Ten Commandments we see the people swing from saying 'We will do everything the LORD has said.' to 'Do not have God speak to us or we will die.'  Verse 18 says they stayed at a distance, and again in v21, the people remained at a distance.

It's understandable, isn't it?  The last timeIsraelhad experienced thunder and lightning like this was when God sent a plague of hailstones ontoEgypt.  People and animals were killed, crops and buildings ruined.  They have the fear that Isaiah had during his vision of God.  He said, "Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."  The people are right to fear God but they're fearing in the wrong way.  God is not about to kill them.

These physical signs of God's presence are terrifying, but they should remind the Israelites of more positive events than a plague of hail. The people saw the mountain in smoke but they seemed to forget that they've been following pillars of cloud by day and fire by night, guided by their rescuing God. The people are trembling at the trumpet blast, but in chapter 19 that was the signal to approach the mountain: "Only when the ram's horn sounds a long blast may they go up to the mountain," said God to Moses. The word for 'lightning' in v18 better translates as 'flashings'.  That word hasn't been used since Genesis 15 when God appeared to make promises to Abraham, showing grace to him.  These physical signs of God's presence are terrifying, but God has come not to destroy; he has come to bless and to instruct.  They're fearing with the wrong fear. That's why Moses can reply with this really odd phrase, "Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning."  'Do not be afraid, instead keep the fear of God with you.'  God is not there to kill them.  God is testing them so that their life in the Promised Land might be governed by right fear of the Lord.

What does right fear look like?  It's reverence, awe, being mindful of his holiness, teaching children to revere him as well.  We don't have time now, but make note to read Deuteronomy 4, or even 4-6, when you get home or later this week.  That would be a great way to sign-off on this Exodus series.

So they responded with the wrong kind of fear.  However, their fear didn't send them in completely the wrong direction, because it sent them to Moses.  In chapter 19 God had said to Moses, "I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear me speaking with you and will always put their trust in you."

That's not quite what's happening yet.  At this point it's more like the people are saying, 'Okay, we've heard enough of the law to know that we'd better get a lawyer!'  They need a mediator, a go-between, a buffer, a representative, and that is God's role for Moses.  Straight away Moses issues that correction: respond with right fear.  Fear God rightly – revere him – to keep you from sinning.

A decent example of responding with right fear is the way we use electricity.  Electricity is great – where would we be without it?  If we were without it right now we'd probably be gathered around a small bonfire in the car park singing Kum Ba Yah with an acoustic guitar.  We'll save that for the church weekend away…

Electricity is great but it's also powerful and lethal.  But just because electricity is dangerous doesn't mean we should literally run away from it, staying at a distance like the Israelites, living in the dark or whatever.  We need to revere it.  We need to know the limitations and safety procedures, and make sure to keep things maintained.  We turn off the switch before we change a light bulb.  We put the toaster in the kitchen, not beside the bathtub. We revere electricity.  And we teach our children to do the same.  'How many times do I have to tell you to keep Batman's head out of that socket?!'  We don't need to be terrified of electricity, but we need to revere it and keep its power and danger in mind.  We need to access and approach it in the right way.

The Israelites should have been filled, not with terror, but with reverence and awe, realising that this awesome, holy, God was drawing near to them in grace and mercy and love.  They needed the kind of fear that would drive them towards obedience.

And though we enjoy a new and better covenant through Jesus, that Hebrews passage makes the same application to us as God addresses us directly through his word: 25See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth [Moses], how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven [Jesus]?  Respond with right fear.  Our second, and not unrelated point is:

Respond with right worship

Read 22-26

     22Then the LORD said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites this: 'You have seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from heaven: 23Do not make any gods to be alongside me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold.24"'Make an altar of earth for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, your sheep and goats and your cattle. Wherever I cause my name to be honoured, I will come to you and bless you. 25 If you make an altar of stones for me, do not build it with dressed stones, for you will defile it if you use a tool on it. 26 And do not go up to my altar on steps, lest your nakedness be exposed on it.

So the ram's horn had sounded to invite the people to approach, but they stayed back, and only Moses approached the thick darkness, where God was.  You wonder what that was like… the smell of smoke, the heat, the noise of rocks and stones settling down after the quakes, the thunder, the flashings.  A lonely walk for Moses!

And God engages Moses the mediator, telling him all the instruction he is to give the people, which keeps going all the way to the end of Chapter 23.  These verses at the end of chapter 20 belong more to the next few chapters than they do to chapter 20, but the way this dictation begins is helpful to see here, next to the fear of the people.

God begins by summarising what's just happened, echoing the first two commandments.  'I have spoken to you from heaven: do not make any gods to be alongside me, gods of silver or gold.'  I am the true, mighty God, the God of heaven.  I am not a statue.  Statues are never gods – I am God.  Look at what happened when I came down to meet you.  Blazing fire, smoke, earthquakes and storms.  You can't make a god that has any relevance next to me, even if you make them out of the most precious materials you have to work with.  I am the God of heaven.  I will not tolerate you worshipping things you've made out of stuff that I made.  Don't do it.  Instead, worship me.  And here's how to worship me.

And this is an important principle.  God gets to decide how he is to be worshipped, and he does decide how he is to be worshipped.  That's his right, and he exercises it.  Respond with right worship.

Here's how to worship me.  Don't make a statue, make an altar for sacrificing offerings.  What are the offerings?  Two are mentioned: burnt offerings and fellowship offerings.  The burnt offering would be entirely burned up as sacrifice for the sin of those making the sacrifice.  The fellowship offering was different.  Only the best part, the fat, was burned; the rest was cooked and eaten by the people, a meal indicating communion with God.  It's quite something to realise that in making provision for sacrifices, even though he's only just started to give the law to his people, God is already starting to lay out the means for sinful law-breakers to approach him.

And God makes an exciting promise here, at the end of v24: Wherever I cause my name to be honoured, I will come to you and bless you.  God's presence isn't going to stay at Sinai, and the people aren't staying at Sinai either.  They're going to build a mobile temple, the tabernacle, to carry with them to the Promised Land.  Later they worship at theTemple, where God dwells in a sense.  Later still God's presence comes in his son, Jesus, who fulfils the whole Temple-based sacrificial system.  And now God's presence is in every believer by his Holy Spirit.  And where his name is honoured he brings blessing.

That's a helpful reminder to us in the context of God's law.  We're inclined to think of God's law as an outdated, prejudiced code that curbs enjoyment and freedom and progress.  You don't have to read much of the current debate on gay marriage to get that feeling.

But God's law and blessing go hand in hand.  Blessing is even promised in the law itself.  I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of … the land of slavery.  I show love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commands.  Trust me and rest on the seventh day.  Honour your parents so that you may live long in the land I am giving you.

Not to mention that a society that follows this law, the aim of which is love for God and each other, is going to be blessed just by following it.  The law is good.  The society that follows God's law is one you'd want to be part of.  Rebelliousness, murder, adultery, theft, lying and envy are dreadful, destructive things.  The Israelites had suffered hundreds of years of brutal slavery in Egypt– they could see how good it would be to live in a society that followed this law.  And they sign up to it in chapter 24.  Everything the Lord has said we will do.

What else does God say here?  Make an altar out of earth and sacrifice offerings on it.  If you use stones, use plain ones.  I won't tolerate you worshipping man-made altars any more than I'll tolerate you worshipping man-made gods.  Use the stones as you find them.  Use them as I provide them.  Don't make steps.  You don't need steps – it is not the height of the altar that will impress me.  Stay on the ground so that with your loose tunics you don't end up exposing yourselves.

Incidentally, trousers or something similar were introduced later for the priests.  Pagan idol worship of the time is thought to have often involved high, elaborate altars, with carvings and steps, where nakedness and perhaps even ritual prostitution formed part of the worship process.  Not for God's people.  They were to be God's kingdom of priests and a holy nation – set apart, distinct from the pagans.

Respond with right worship.  Worship in the way God wants.  Now we could spend the rest of the night into tomorrow morning talking about worship theology.  We could talk about styles of music and singing and how we pray and how we do church and whole-life worship like in Romans 12 – offer your bodies as living sacrifices; this is your spiritual act of worship.  It could be good and worthwhile to talk about those things.

We could even talk about the command that those making sacrifices don't expose themselves on the altar and discuss whether that has implications for the way we expect each other to dress in church or the need for sexual purity in our leaders.  We could discuss whether the command not to dress the stones of an altar has any bearing on the décor of church buildings and furnishings.

But there's only one application I really want to make from this point.  Right worship is worship through Jesus.  Right worship is worship through Jesus.  If that's not the starting point for all other discussions, then we're in big trouble.  Let me illustrate by quoting from a blog I read sometimes on a website about worship.  This was written by a musician with undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Systematic Theology.

Worship is an act of God, that we cooperate with, in order to offer sacrifice to Him; so that we may know Him, love Him, and serve Him more fully.  [The alarm bells are ringing already…]  Worship is something that man, made in the image and likeness of God, was made to do. Through sin, however, our ability to worship and our ability to worship God as the proper end goal of this activity, has been disordered.  That's where music ministry comes in – pastoral musicians are one of the instruments God wants to use to help focus others on rediscovering the heart of worship.

Two degrees in systematic theology and this guy's answer to sin is an acoustic guitar and a tingly feeling that starts in his flip-flops.  Praise God it's not true.  Last term we did a series in Modern Idols, and one of them was religion, but I wonder sometimes if we should have had a specific extra slot devoted to the idol of worship.  Right worship is worship through Jesus.

Where is Jesus in Exodus 20.18-26?  What is there in these verses that we now see as being fulfilled by Jesus?  Well there's Moses' role of mediator, go-between, representative.  What else?  How about the offerings?  The burnt offering to atone for sin.  The fellowship offering to restore fellowship.   Atonement is made and fellowship is restored through Jesus, the once-for-all perfect sacrifice.

Hebrews is a great commentary on this stuff. It says, "Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith,"  But how can we draw near to this God with any assurance?!  "We have confidence to enter the Most Holy Placeby the blood of Jesus…"

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How should we respond to God?  Like the Israelites, with right fear, that is, reverence and awe, and with right worship, that is worship through Jesus, our mediator, our atonement, our fellowship, trusting him, loving him, serving him, through the enabling work of his Spirit in us, as we wait for his return.  The last verse of the Hebrews reading to finish:

    28Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29for "our God is a consuming fire.