Sin, Separation and Salvation

Series on Exodus

VII. The Confirmation of God’s People

A. Rules of the Covenant Text: 23:20-33, and 20:8-26

Title: Sin, Separation and Salvation

Introduction

What is it like when you go on a trip? Some people read the map, others drive till they find it, but none of us has ever experienced what the Israelites did in the wilderness. My wife drives and I’m the tryptiker. The AAA gives us these progressive maps spirally bound called tryptiks, so many years ago we began calling the map reader the tryptiker. One time I told my wife to stay on a certain road and we ended up miles into Kentucky instead of Virginia where we wanted to go. I’m generally reliable but far from perfect. Today a trip like the Israelites’ would be computer guided with 100% accuracy, a guarantee of complete physical safety on the trip, and a promise that whatever problems we ran into at our destination would be miraculously solved. I just wanted to give you a picture of what God is doing for the nation Israel in this Scripture, and all they need to do is be faithful to Him. Actually this is a promise from the Lord that He will enable the Israelites to keep the rules of the covenant. They must worship the Lord alone, cast out the inhabitants of the land into which they are going, and avoid relationships with them, and their gods, until they have finished the task. I want us to look at the presupposition of the promise (they are sinners), the prescription of the promise (be separate), and the power of the promise (a Savior).

I The Presupposition of the Promise – Sin

Please notice the warnings God gives. Moses is speaking to the people for God at this point, but it is recorded in the first person. God says in verses 20-22, See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him. If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. God intimates that there is a great danger that they will disobey and expects the possibility of their bowing down to idols in verses 24, 32 and 33, Do not bow down before their gods or worship them or follow their practices. You must demolish them and break their sacred stones to pieces. Do not make a covenant with them or with their gods. Do not let them live in your land, or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you. I want to take you back to a passage which we skipped over in Exodus 20. this is after the ten commandments have been given in verses 18-22, When 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 and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.” Moses 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.” The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was. Then the LORD said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites this: ‘You have seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from heaven: Do not make any gods to be alongside me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold.’” Very clearly their propensity to sin was such that God himself spoke from Sinai to fill them with dread so that they would realize who it was who had saved them, the living God, and would not want to follow idols. This episode is described again in Hebrews 12. Such was their propensity to sin that even though God saved them from Egypt, and fed and clothed them in the wilderness, it was not enough! They need the angel to guide them now because they are sinners. they will turn back, they will turn aside, but they must obey. And, of course, if they follow the instructions then the angel will enable them to do all God has commanded.

II The Prescription of the Promise – Separation

The land into which they are coming is full of evil idolaters, and they must separate themselves as we read above in verses 24,32, and 33. This is especially necessary because the operation cannot be done overnight otherwise the land would be ruined. I take you back again to that passage at the end of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20. Not only were the people filled with fear and reverence because God spoke to them but he told them something important about their worship in verses 24-26, 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 honored, I will come to you and bless you. 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. And do not go up to my altar on steps, lest your nakedness be exposed on it. They were to make altars of sacrifice to Him, and those sacrifices would be a means of grace, a means of confessing their sins and remaining in fellowship with their God. Those sacrifices were to be offered on an altar of stones in which the stones were raw, unsculpted, undressed by human hands. Their worship was different from the worship of idols who were fashioned by men’s hands. They worshiped the true God who is Spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable in his being. Yahweh by name, i am that i am. God would be worshiped, not by man’s imagination but in his own prescribed way. furthermore the altars were to have no steps. because that might expose the worshiper’s nakedness. Was God being prudish? Nakedness in the bible is associated with sin and guilt. Remember Adam and Eve hid themselves after they sinned. “Why are you hiding,” God said. They did not reply “because we disobeyed”, or, ”because we sinned.” They said, “Because we are naked.” Contrast this with idol worship which not only encouraged nakedness but sexual immorality, and lewd and licentious behavior. Here not even a speck of the flesh is to be seen in the presence of a holy God. And yet they went after idols didn’t they? Because they didn’t trust the angel who led them, they failed. You see in that angel was the power because that angel was Yahweh, the “Name.”

III The Power of the Promise – A Savior

The angel was their Savior not just in the sense of being their deliverer but because He was the second person of the trinity, the pre-incarnate Christ. The Hebrew word translated angel also means messenger. I would have preferred that translation. Jesus Christ, the Son, as the eternal Word of God is the messenger of the Covenant Matthew Henry insists that I Corinthians 10 is teaching us that Christ is that angel where Paul says in verse 9 that the Israelites tested the Lord and that we should not test the Lord as they did. “Lord” is Paul’s typical designation for Jesus Christ. They were to understand that the Shekinah, the glory cloud that went before them and surrounded them for protection was the very presence of God as in Deuteronomy 31:15, Then the LORD appeared at the Tent in a pillar of cloud, and the cloud stood over the entrance to the Tent, in the person of His Son as we now understand it. The cloud stood before them, a mass resembling a column in a building. Psalm 105:39 says it was both a covering and a light at night so it was spread out over the camp near its base when they were not traveling. The camp itself was about 12 square miles so the cloud must have been immense. In Exodus 14:19 it is clear that the angel and the cloud go together, Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel’s army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them. This is what God says also in Isaiah 63:8 and 9, speaking of the wilderness experience, He said, “Surely they are my people, sons who will not be false to me”; and so he became their Savior. In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. Finally, with regard to the cloud in Exodus 33:9-11, we understand that when the tabernacle had been erected according to plan the cloud was over the holiest place which was the dwelling of God, As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the LORD spoke with Moses. Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to his tent. The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent. Also note what God says about the angel, “My name is in him” in 23:21. The name stands for God’s revelation of himself. In particular look at Jeremiah 23:5 which is speaking of the messiah. His name is called the lord our righteousness. He is the name. The angel said You will call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. Jesus means Jahweh is salvation. Jehoshua or Jesus is just a form of that name. Dear friends without doubt, in my mind the angel was the Redeemer. The significance of this translates into our experience as follows: the presupposition of our existence is that we are sinners, the prescription for us is separation unto the Lord, the power is found in the Savior who redeemed us at the cross and the applies that redemption to our present lives through His Spirit as we follow Him.