Published: October 30, 2025 | Speaker: Chuck Hartman | Series: Biblical Theology 2 - Exodus, Exile, and Eschatology - Part 9 | Scripture: Exodus 19:1-25
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Um, but first I need to correct something uh in your notes that is not correct and that is the order of events in the third complex. I'm surprised nobody caught me up on that. Um, but actually they cross the river and we
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even talked about the fact that um as a military strategy having a river at your back and and enemies at your front, it's not a good time to get everybody circumcised. Um and so that kind of
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stands out in the text that um it was as if God was well certainly putting them in a in a a difficult position almost
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reminiscent I don't know that it is but almost reminiscent of what um Simeon and Levi did to the Shakamites uh when they had them cir get
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circumcised and then slaughtered them. Um, but this time Israel obeyed. And I think that's a major part of that uh that narrative. But that's the third complex, the completion of the overall
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Exodus narrative when Israel goes into the land. And we know it's the completion because we're told in Joshua that at that point the cloud, the pillar
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of fire ceased to go before Israel. Israel is now in the land. That's 40 years. Tonight we come to the foot of Mount Si.
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Mount Si. And I don't know um about you, you're many of you are much younger. Um but you know my I I read this narrative
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with visions of Charlton H. Ten Commandments. Um that's kind of what I grew up on. and the idea of the the two tablets being written with the
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finger of the fire of God and Charlton H trying to get out of the way. Um that's that's my visual and it's amazing how things like that can can really um
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impact the way you think about something. Even as you're reading it, you have an image. I don't know, maybe you don't read pictorially. I I don't read p picture books, don't get me
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wrong, but um you know, I when I read I I do have um you know, kind of a picture in my head of what what I'm reading and and that's still what I get when I read
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Exodus 19 and Israel coming to Sinai in the mountain um burning with with fire and and the thunder and all of that. But
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then after we do that, we do move very quickly to the ten commandments. In fact, Exodus 19
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is really not does not hold our attention. We want to get to Exodus 20, the ten commandments. And then of course we want to ask the question, do they
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still apply to us now? Okay. So, that is the conventional wisdom and how to handle the law, the ten commandments, is you you jump right to them. Um, you you
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execute them and then you say, "Well, they still apply or they're they're eternal or they're they're moral and therefore they're still valid." Um, and then you get into an argument about the
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Sabbath. So, that that seems to be the the pattern of of um evangelical exugesus of this event. But very few people and and certainly
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some, but very few people actually pause at Exodus 19 and kind of soak in the image of what's
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going on. going on. And and yet when you read the narrative, it's incredibly graphic and dramatic, violent almost
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violent almost to the point that God tells Moses twice. First before he comes up to the mountain and then after he has come up to the mountain, he tells them he tells him
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twice to tell the Israelites, "Don't touch the mountain. Don't even let your cattle touch the mountain. I don't know what he said about cats. Who can stop them? But any
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living being that touched the mountain would be and and this is interesting. He would not die, not just drop dead, but would either be stoned to death or run through with a sword, which I think is
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an interesting um turn of events that that God did not immediately smite anybody who touched the mountain. But but Moses goes up the mountain. told them he's consecrated
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them. They've washed. They've done everything. They're He goes up the mountain and it's flaming and it's it's full of smoke and thunder and lightning. And one of the first thing God says is, "Go back down." And Moses like, "I did
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tell him. Go back down. Tell him again." So that repetition of the warning should notify us that something's going
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on here. that again if if if we don't get the gist of the narrative the narrative I think it's unlikely that we're going
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to get the meaning of the law and that's going to come out more next week but the the the principle is that the the narrative
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is interwoven or I should say it the other way around the law is interwoven with the narrative now liberal now liberal theology does This
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this is uh liberal theology 101 very briefly. very briefly. First thing you do is you deny that Moses wrote any of this. It was way too long ago for Moses to have been able to write any of this. This was all written
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either it was either oral traditions that were that were handed down from generation to generation. Finally, there was some written material, primarily Deuteronomic and um
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priestly. And then those editors took the oral traditions and whatever ancient writings might still be handed around and sewed them together into what we call the
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books of Moses. Okay. But the point being is that the law
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exile or later. And it's all a part of the priests trying to reconstitute a nation after the exile. the exile. So they come up with a religious system
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and a law that's going to help them hold things together so that Yahweh does not lose his temper again like he did 70 years before. Again, this is this is
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liberal. Okay, so you have the law. Now being an ancient culture, you need a story. Okay, so the law is what comes first,
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then the story. Okay. So the Torah comes and then the story is written
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around the law. Torah was written by people. In fact, it was not only written by people. It was
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it was developed by the priests. the the modern liberal view that is is totally against the idea that um the decalogue was spoken and written by the finger of
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God. Okay? Although that's what Deuteronomy tells us. Now, keep in mind that the entire law is different than the decalogue, the ten commandments.
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All of the law in Exodus and and in and in Leviticus was given by God to Moses and Moses wrote it down. But the decalogue was spoken from the mountain
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so that the people did hear it. And Moses says to the people in Deuteronomy five, he says, "You you heard the voice but you saw no form." So God spoke the
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law to them or the decalogue, the the first ten commandments. And we're also told in several places that that was written by the finger of God. So, um,
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now this is completely denied by by modern liberal scholars that from the Enlightenment on we we know better than to think that that Moses could have been literate enough to to have done any of
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this. Um, now we're going to see this evening that that there's actually a um an archaeological discovery that that
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pretty much refutes that whole notion that Moses, if he did exist, was some um primitive uh illiterate and and will
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actually show that it that it's really most likely that what we're reading was written somewhere around the 15th century before Christ, which is what we believe, not not the sixth century which
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is the the exile and and post- exilic period. But the point I want to make is that the conventional wisdom is that the law came first and then the story. The the interesting part is that's not how
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the story reads. The the story reads with the story coming first and then the law. And the story of course is the Exodus.
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And so we read in Exodus 19, I am the Lord your God who has brought you out of Egypt, out of bondage, or I have carried you as on eagle's wings and brought you
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to myself. And that's really what introduces most of the law sections in the Pentagon. The story and then even in the law, the story is primary. So for
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example, the legal treatment of sojourners or aliens in Israel is founded on what? What what was the basis of Torah
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concerning the stranger in the land?
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You had been strangers in Egypt. Okay? And much of the law is based on Israel's own experience. The story. So the the truth of the matter is that
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the story first of all matters and second of all it is in fact primary because the story is the continuation of the promise made to Eve that her seed
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would crush the serpent's head. It it's not a standalone story which too many western evangelicals look at Israel even today as if Israel were some sort of
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standalone work of God's redemptive power. It it is it never was a standalone story. It it's a lot of chapters in that story but by no means
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is it a separate book. Okay, these these are the descendants of Abraham and um of course that is the um the covenant of which Jesus is the fulfillment. So when
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we come to Sinai I think we need to stop and pause. In fact I don't really think we need to spend a great deal of time actually in the ten commandments.
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We cannot understand what the ten commandments mean to us if we do not understand what they meant to Israel or what they meant for Israel.
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And it's in chapter 19 that we actually find out what they meant for Israel because it tells us what Israel was meant to be by God.
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And if we see the connection, which hopefully we're we're pretty much convinced of the connection typologically between Israel and the
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church, it seems to me the role of the whole the role of the ten commandments and the law in general in general will resolve itself the more we understand the church's role
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in the world according to God's purpose. Does that make sense? Now, one of the fallacies that is very common, in fact, I think it's so common
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it's subconscious, it's subconscious, is that the law was given as a means of Israel's salvation.
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And then the thought goes that, oh, you know what, Paul realized that that was wrong. And that was his great epiphany that he came to the realization that the law was never given that a man should be justified or
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that a man should earn his salvation by the law. Now this this um this line of thinking owes much to Martin Luther um whose whose day we will be celebrating
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tomorrow, right? And um Luther was wrong and yet and yet he was wrong because he
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He never really bothered to look into either the Old Testament or Paul's writings in terms of the law. Paul said the law was holy and just and
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good, right? He did he did not in any way demean the law. But the idea that a Jew was saved by the
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law was never part of Judaism. That for them would would not only be putting the card in front of the horse, it would be killing the horse and selling it off for glue because it it's
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totally foreign to the Jewish understanding of the law. And the reason is the story. What came first, the law or grace?
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or grace? Did the law come in Egypt? Did God say to them when they were still slaves under Pharaoh living in the land of Gan? Moses comes in from Midian after
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the burning bush. He comes in with two tablets of the law, right? And he says, "Okay, countrymen, you follow these laws and God will deliver you from Pharaoh."
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Nope. The mighty acts of deliverance and of victory over not only Pharaoh but the gods that Pharaoh represented all happened and were completed
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before they arrived at Mount Si. Deliverance came first, not the law. Now Paul is making that
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point in Galatians. The promise to Abraham came 400 years before the law. And he makes the point that when the law came, it did not annull the promise. And
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I think we need to hear what he's saying there, not as some epiphany that Paul came to. Because Judaism was never a works religion. Judaism was always a
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religion of election. God had elected Israel out of all of the nations to be his own. That's that's the foundation of biblical
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Judaism. And there really aren't many examples in Jewish writings of anyone saying that they somehow earned God's favor. No, they could either maintain it
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or lose it. And that's what we're going to talk about in the next couple weeks. What these if then statements mean. All right, let's let's start with Exodus 19 because that's that's the fundamental
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if then conditional statement for the life of this nation Israel that is now really newly formed.
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Go ahead.
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Yeah. Torah. Torah. Yeah. Uh, yes. It's the whole thing.
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No. No. I think that this understanding is evident in the Old Testament itself. In fact, it's evident in the chapters that give us the law. And that is that it is it is gracious.
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Everything that is required of Israel is predicated on what God has already done for Israel. for Israel. So, at no point is Israel's relationship
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to God as God's people contingent upon their obeying the law. Now, there are other things that are
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contingent upon their obedience, but not their status as God's children. Okay? They are the descendants of
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Abraham to whom the promise was given. and God is faithful even when his people are faithless. are faithless. Okay, so we look at these conditional statements and we we usually jump to
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okay if I don't keep the protasis the if statement then the epidosis I lose my salvation. We always jump to that I lose my salvation. And then we come to the
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conclusion that and this this is pretty prevalent in evangelicalism, especially reformed evangelicalism, that because Israel rejected their Messiah, her
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Messiah, they are no longer God's chosen people. But that's misreading the condition statements. And I want to read it because this is really very important. What happened at
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Sinai? Okay, we've already established God did not deliver Israel at Si, right? Is that everybody get that? He had already done that. I brought you to
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myself. He says, you didn't come to me. I brought you as on eagle's wings to
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Now, this is the type of people you will be. Okay? It wasn't the other way around. Okay, you be this type of people and you can come to me. It's not what the
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scripture teaches. We think that's Christianity. No, that's just God. It's in Habach that we read that the just shall walk by faith, right? It's the New Testament
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writers that are quoting the Old Testament when they talk about God's grace. But we can go right back. Any Jew could have gone right back to the passage, and they did. That's my point.
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If you read their own writings, the even the Mishna, the later rabbitic writings, they knew that it was entirely God's grace. Now, they were very proud of
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having gotten God's grace and definitely some of them thought that having gotten God's grace, they now somehow deserved it. But most of them didn't. So the
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whole the whole paradigm of Judaism as a works religion is a false paradigm and therefore it leads to false um
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conclusions for example as to the the life of Saul of Tarsus and we talked about that when we talked about Pauline theology that there's a there's a serious misunderstanding about who Saul
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of Tarsus was and what happened to him on the road to Damascus. What happened to Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus is that he came to the
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realization that all that he believed God had promised for Israel had come true in this man Jesus. Okay, that's what happened on the road.
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He didn't he didn't come to a new religion, a religion of grace instead of works. No, that's reading into the text. It's it's not actually reading out of it. It's not exesus. It's isogesis. So,
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so we don't even get we don't even get to the law yet. Now, I say law. I'm going to try to be more consistent and use Torah. And not because it's the
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Jewish word, but because it doesn't actually mean law. It means instruction. Okay? And I think that's an important point.
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And and actually pretty much every commentary you read when they first talk about Torah, they'll say, you know, the Hebrew word Torah doesn't actually mean
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law. It means instruction. And that's a that's kind of different for us, isn't it? When we think of law, of course, we think in terms of of of either reward or punishment, mostly
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punishment. You know, you either keep the law or you break the law. You're not rewarded if you keep the law. No one pays attention if you do go the speed limit. Well, no, actually everybody pays
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attention, but not in a very kind way. Uh, if you do go the speed limit, but if you if you break the law, then of course you're punished. That's how we think of law. And so by by calling it the law, we're
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not wrong, not wrong, but we're not we're not uh comprehensive in our understanding. Paul says that the law was given as a as a school master to lead us to Christ.
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You see, the law has an instructional element to it that we just kind of overlook, right? We kind of look at it as a as a legal code. Do this, don't do that, or
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else. Okay? Well, that's not what the word means. The word means instruction.
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And that word is much broader and really to some degree is a lot more subjective than the word law. So when you read Torah in the notes, it's not because I'm trying to be cute, you know, and throw
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in um Hebrew words. It's because it it has a different actually has a fundamentally different meaning. And I think that if we if we understand that it's very hard to convince yourself to
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change your thinking to equate law with instruction, right? Our understanding of law doesn't really bring in instruction.
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If we work with that word Torah and realize what it means, then maybe it will help us understand the law better.
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Um, yes, instruction, especially in the ancient world, I mean, it's still it's still supposed to be that way today. But when a when a teacher instructs
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or when a tradesman instructs an apprentice, there is an expectation, right? The expectation is that not only will
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you learn this material, you will do it right. So yes, it's not like muggles maxims or confucious analcts. It's not just pathy sayings. Instruction still
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has I won't say a legal force, but definitely a moral force. And it certainly comes out especially right here in the beginning of Exodus 19 that
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you know God is not just saying okay this is how you should live. He's saying this is how you will live and the expectation is not just to
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acquies or even to agree but to obey. That's why we do tend toward the legal understanding. There's no doubt that the expectation is and the actual condition
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is to obey. Now, we'll spend some time next week talking about the um the then clause diagram do a
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little bit of of of grammar here. the if then.
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This is a very common um structure in pretty much all languages. I don't know many languages, but I do know that this structure is common in Hebrew and Greek, even more so in the Greek than in the Hebrew, but it's very
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common in English as well. It's a conditional statement. And so you have
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and you can you can say if you do this then that will happen or do this or else this will happen. Yeah, there's different ways of framing it, but it's still a conditional statement that what
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what is what comes later called the apidosis that is contingent on the protasis. And clearly that's the case here in um in Exodus 19, but also in Deuteronomy.
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Um if you do this, you will be. But later on, we'll get the flip side of that. If you don't do this, then this is what will happen. That's the else. do this or else. Okay, they're both in
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there, but it's all still same family. Okay, there's still family of things of of um of sentences of grammar. All right, so let's look at
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Exodus 19. Exodus 19. In the third month after the sons of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on the very on that very day when they came into the wilderness of Si,
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when they set out from Refiddam, Refodm, excuse me, they came to the wilderness of Si and they camped in the wilderness and there Israel camped in front of the mountain. And Moses went up to God, and
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the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the sons of Israel, you yourselves have seen what I
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did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself." Now, that is the first statement of what
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becomes the consistent preface to all Torah statements. It's often just simplified, I am the
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Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt. Sometimes it's embellished, brought you out of bondage, you know, or brought you out of slavery. But this this is the preface and this is the
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preface of grace. This is the monergistic act of God that has resulted in Israel
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now sitting at the foot of Mount Si. Okay? And I don't think I can, you know, I may be beating a dead horse, but given much of evangelicalism, I don't think
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so. Um I I think we have we must come to the realization that even the giving of the law that we so have been so convinced was a works salvation even the
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giving of the law was an act of grace. It is that's that's the important thing about the story is that the law did not stand on its own nor was the law the
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purpose for which God brought Israel out of Egypt. of Egypt. The law is simply part of the narrative. God says, "You are now my people. I have
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brought you to myself. Now, this is how you'll live." And he says, "If you will." Okay, here's we go. We go with the uh the conditional
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verse five. Now then, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own or special treasured
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possession. Then you shall Okay, you shall be my treasured possession among all the peoples, nations. I don't really like peoples there. For all the earth is
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mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. All right. This is what is conditioned.
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Their covenant relationship with Yahweh is founded upon God's promise to But their position, their status as a kingdom of priests and a holy
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nation was not. was not. In fact, it's been 400 plus years since Abraham, and they're just now becoming a nation. They have grown into millions of
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people, but at no point during that time had they been constituted a nation. So now they're being constituted. This is actually in a sense Sinai is a
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constitutional convention. constitutional convention. Israel is being given the constitution of her existence. But let's let's look at this in in more
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Let's look at the epidosis. Let's look at the then statement. Because whenever you have an if then Abe to to your comment about or else,
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doesn't every if then imply the negative? Doesn't every if then statement imply the negative? the negative? Well, even with your children, if you
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clean your room, then you can have ice cream after dinner. What does that imply? If you don't,
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you just said something about your children. It implies the negative, right? That if you don't clean your room, there will be no ice cream after dinner. Okay? So when
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we when we read these things um you have to understand that it's presented one way whether positive or negative but it also implies the opposite. Okay.
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Um if if it says thou shalt not steal what does that imply? Well elsewhere we actually read it. Paul says you work with your hands and
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provide for your own needs. Right? So every every negative statement implies its positive counterpart. Every positive statement implies its negative
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counterpart. So the the apidosis is very important because that's what you lose if you don't meet the condition of the
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protasus. Israel does not lose its identity through disobedience. It was still Israel in the exile, was it not? It was also still Israel after AD.70.
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It is still Israel today. That's my belief. I don't think that Israel was ever uh ever was in a conditional relationship
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conditional relationship through Abraham. through Abraham. It was entirely if you look at the covenant of Genesis 15 and we've talked about this before, but where the animals were cut in the in in Abraham's vision
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and they were set opposite each other. Again, the the ancient custom was if two men were making a covenant, they would sacrifice animals and lay the carcasses
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opposite each other and then they would walk in opposite directions between those carcasses. those carcasses. What they were doing very vividly and graphically was they were calling down
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death upon themselves if they should break this covenant. What has happened to these animals will happen to me if I break this covenant. What is incredibly
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significant is in that vision Abraham did not walk between those cut up pieces of animals. Only God did. So God
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essentially said, "I'm putting my life on the line. I will die if this covenant is somehow broken. It's not going to be broken." Okay? In
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in Hebrews, we we read that when to Abraham about Abraham, when God could not swear by anything higher, he swore by himself. So um I want to establish
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early on what is actually happening here at Sinai. I want to establish that it is not the election of Israel that's already happened. Okay? It's already
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happened out of Egypt, but it already happened in Abraham 400 years earlier. So, this is not where Israel was was called into being,
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but something was called into being, and that is a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Okay. So, three things are promised
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really. Um, kind of two things. So, here are uh I don't want to say it that way. Um, now it's confusing.
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How's that? conditional benefits, healthcare, 401k, these these are the con these are the benefits that will acrue to Israel
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if they keep the protasis. The reason I don't want to use the word promise is that Paul uses that word very specifically to refer what God did in and through Abraham. And he doesn't even
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call it covenant. He calls it promise in
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people? Yeah. Well, actually calls them your people. He says to Moses, "I'm going to kill your people." And Moses turns around and says, "You cannot kill your people, not my people, God." He didn't
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say that. He just said, "They're your people, God." Um, yeah, that's that whole exchange is is quite interesting and and people struggle with um how to interpret it. Um, but I think we've
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we've often talked about this this kind of hermeneutical principle that you always have to start with the firm foundation of what God has revealed concerning himself.
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concerning himself. And in scripture, what God has revealed concerning himself is he's not a man like we are. He doesn't change his mind. That his purpose, his will is settled in the heavens. That he straightens and no
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one can bend. He bends and no one can straighten. He knows the end from the beginning. So, I mean, we read the scriptures about God. Now, that has to be our bedrock. When we come to passages
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like, "Move aside. I'm going to destroy them and make a nation out of you." That could never have happened because, as I said last week, God had already
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promised that the Messiah would come through the tribe of Judah. That was way back in Genesis 49 when Jacob was dying. Okay? So that's again roughly 300 some
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years 400 years before these events. Moses mo what Moses does is somewhat like I think it's in
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Isaiah where um the prophet says you who remind the Lord take no rest for yourself. What does the Lord have Alzheimer's?
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And you read that passage you think you who remind the Lord. And why do we have to keep doing it? Well, it's not so much for him as it is for us. I think what
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God was doing in those events was he was he was molding Moses into what Christ would ultimately be. And that is the man who would stand in the gap and he would
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he would um he would lay himself out under the wrath of God for the sake of God's people. Does that make sense? Okay. Uh, it's still a difficult
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passage. Those those passages are difficult. And yet, as I said last week, that did not let that generation off the hook, did it? He still swore in his
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wrath, they shall not enter my rest. And that became a paradigm to which the generation of Jesus directly corresponds.
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directly corresponds. So you have two generations in history that God basically wrote off. Okay, maybe three. Maybe three. Because Jeremiah, he tells Jeremiah at one
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point, don't even pray for these people. I think he says something like if if Daniel and Job and someone else, Ezekiel, who else? You know, even if they were to pray for these people, I
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would not listen. That must that's a hor that's just a horrifying thing to think that God would would say that about a people. Don't even pray for these people. So um but we read these things
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and we understand that God is speaking in in human terms. And so he's he's speaking as in ways that we can understand. And yet we need to be careful that we don't think that he is
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just such a one as we are. You know that he that he changes his mind or that he reacts to circumstances. No, he he had already promised the seed of woman. He
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had already promised that the seed of Abraham would bless all of the u all of the nations. And he had already promised that the scepter would not depart from Judah until Shiloh came, the one to whom
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it is due. Even the Jews recognize that as a messianic prophecy. Okay? So that's all established. God's faithfulness to his promise, which is why I changed the
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word, God's faithfulness to his promise is unconditional. is unconditional. But there's much like the Davidic covenant. Did David have someone on the throne
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Was there a Davidic king on the throne in Jerusalem from the time of David to the time of Jesus? No. And a lot of people struggle with that. But they're not understanding the
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distinction between a promise and a conditional benefit. conditional benefit. Does that make sense? Well, what we're seeing here is a conditional benefit.
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Okay? He says, "You will be a treasured
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This is like the pearl of great price." the the the word um the in the Hebrew doesn't really have an exact um equivalent, but uh it precious, special,
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of great value is is these are all words that are that help describe the what what is said here concerning what God says. If you will keep my commandments,
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you will be a a special treasured possession. And you have to read what he says. Does he say you will be my only
40:42
No. In fact, he says the opposite, doesn't he? doesn't he? He says, "All the world is mine." See, that's another uh uh misapprehension that we get in our minds that Israel was
40:54
God's people. God's people. Well, yeah. So was everyone else. There was no nation on earth, no man on earth that didn't belong to God. He says it right here. All the nations are mine.
41:07
Right? You will be of all that is mine, a treasured possession. Okay? You you will be a special people,
41:17
but all the rest of them are mine, too. They are his to do as he wills. Paul says that when he's at Mars Hill in Acts 17, he says, "All mankind have come from
41:30
one blood and he God has has ordained the boundaries and the times for every nation because they're all his." That's something that we really should kind of
41:43
meditate on. meditate on. But sometimes I think we do think that that we are his people and the rest of the world isn't. No, the rest of the world's his, too. We in Christ are his
41:54
treasured possession. treasured possession. But they are still his. Now, they may be his in terms of judgment, but they're still his. They're
42:05
not the devils. He owns nothing. He usurps what he corrupts, but he owns nothing. Everything is God's. And and that's what it says here. Yeah, you're going to be my treasure possession, but
42:16
you're not going to be my only one because everything else is mine, too. So that's a conditional benefit. It's a conditional benefit that ultimately is lost.
42:28
Is Israel today God's treasured possession among the nations? Now the way I phrase the question, you know the answer is no. But frankly,
42:40
given what many of you have read, many of us have heard, many of what we witness in modern American Christianity, especially, you you'd have to admit that you
42:51
probably have to think a few minutes before you answer the question. There are still a lot of people who think that Israel today is God's treasured possession among all the
43:01
nations, right? nations, right? I mean, we do hear that, don't we? No, they're not. no difference between them and any other nation in the world. Now,
43:12
they're still Abraham's children and they're still the children of that covenant. And I do think God has and is continuing to have a redemptive purpose for them through Jesus Christ.
43:24
But they are not a special nation. They blew that. blew that. That was a conditional benefit that they ultimately in their disobeying
43:36
of Christ, that generation upon whom all the blood of Abel to Zachchariah would be held, that generation in rejecting Christ threw away that conditional
43:49
benefit. The flip side of what we're reading here is AD70, is AD70, the utter destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. the the utter destruction of
44:00
the constituted sovereign nation of Israel. Even though it was a vassal state, it was still they had a king, you know, they they had they they had a political
44:10
entity that was wiped out in AD.70. Its reconstitution in 1948 does not reverse the biblical pattern.
44:21
It's a very interesting thing that they are a state, but you also have to realize that far more Jews live outside of Israel. In fact, I think more live in Florida than do in Israel. Okay?
44:33
Certainly more in New York City. So, the vast majority of Jews live outside of the state of Israel today. So, if Israel is God's people, there's a whole lot of
44:43
people that are out outside the boat. No, they lost that. That that's my point. They lost that. The second one is a is a duel. A kingdom of priests
45:02
were theocracy. They were a theocracy because of this. The theocracy was actually part of this right here. See, we're the we start out with the
45:15
instruction. We're going to move to the theocracy in a moment or not in a moment but what comes after Torah is the tabernacle and that's Exodus. God gives Torah then he gives the
45:27
instructions for the tabernacle and then we have an interim called the book of Leviticus for a year where the tabernacle is built and the theocracy is established. But the
45:40
theocracy is part of this right here. It's it's it's not what constituted them a people. It's how they were to live as a people already constituted by the
45:52
gracious act of God. Um uh we'll be talking about that. Yeah. I
46:02
don't know how soon we'll get into that because the more I I dig into this, the more I've come to realize that um I'm staring down the barrel of a third session that is going to be the kingdom
46:14
of God. I don't see how that concept can be treated in just one evening. It's just too, you know, what happened? Well, God said to Samuel, right? He said,
46:26
"They're not rejecting you, but me as king over them." And and then yet we get Saul, right, who's the people's choice, but not God's choice. So it's a it's
46:37
Yeah. Did they lose the theocracy then? No, they did not. I think they lost the theocracy fully in AD.70. That's when they lost the theocracy. You
46:48
see the kingdom um and we we um we'll talk about that hopefully this evening. This one might go into a two session, but the uh what's that?
47:00
Well, no, you don't have to. I wish you wouldn't because it's bringing up a lot of good discussion points. Um, the kingdom did not impinge upon the theocracy. The king was not over the priest,
47:13
right? And so, the kingdom did not impact the theocracy at all. In fact, the king was supposed to align with the
47:23
theocracy, right? So, yeah. No, it didn't end with David or Saul or even the Riaboam and Jeroboam split. No, the theocracy continued so long as there was a priesthood. That ended in AD.70.
47:37
Now, you might say that it actually didn't end in AD.70. It transferred in AD33 or whenever. Okay? Um because now the true tabernacle
47:49
has been and is being erected and the true priesthood. You know, keep in mind that these statements are used in the New Testament of the
48:00
church. Okay? That that that's why it's so important for us to understand what they meant because they're used of us. Peter uses this in 1 Peter 2. He he
48:11
quotes from Exodus 19. So, this is who we are. That's why I said Israel is a paradigm. Israel was never meant to be an end unto
48:22
itself. That's the error of dispensationalism. It was never meant to be an end unto itself. It was always a means to an end. And it was a paradigm
48:34
that reflected the pattern of a people who walked with God and with whom God walked. We've been looking at that in Levit Leviticus study. That's what this
48:44
is all about. That's why it's so incredibly graphic because an absolutely undiluted holy God has just descended to be in the midst of his people. Don't
48:55
touch the mountain. It's like saying to the whole nation, take off your sandals because the place on which you stand is holy ground. Okay? So that that that
49:07
image is meant to um to be very very vivid. All right? So, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
49:22
Sometimes, some of your English might say a royal priesthood. Uh, that's quite all right. It's one of those phrases that can work both ways. It's either a kingdom of priests or a royal priesthood. Um, but what it means
49:34
is that the Israelites, we talked about this in the Leviticus study, that the Israelites were themselves to be priests. And if you remember the the study, you
49:45
you had you had the tabernacle and God dwelling in the Holy of Holies. Then you had the ironic priesthood that mediated between Yahweh and the
49:58
people. What you don't really have so much in Leviticus, but you're going to get here and in Deuteronomy is that the people then mediated between Yahweh and the
50:14
I I think that is a direct typological parallel to the purpose of the church in the world today that we no longer have a priesthood that mediates God to us.
50:27
We are a priesthood who mediates God to the world. the world. And the very fundamental way you begin any such mediation again Leviticus
50:38
is by holiness. Now people look at that word and say okay it means separated unto God, devoted to his service. Yes it does.
50:51
And that separatedness is manifested by obedience to his commandments. So we we can't simply say that holiness is some objective status that God has
51:02
set these people apart and it has no subjective element to it. No, that that's that's not right. It is first of all an objective status. God has called
51:14
these people to himself, but now they're going to be his witnesses to the nations around. And how are they going to do that? By obeying his commandments.
51:27
Does that make sense? That's the subjective element of holiness without which you can't maintain the objective
51:38
benefit. What happened to Israel when it failed to be a holy nation? Well, eventually it went into exile, didn't it? It lost its status as a holy
51:50
nation. It lost its status as a royal priesthood. It lost its status as God's treasured possession. treasured possession. So they did not lose its they did not
52:02
lose its status as the seed or the descendant of of Abraham because there's still yet hundreds of years before the seed of Abraham would come. Right? And
52:15
so God preserves everything about Israel including the 12 tribes though he does not preserve the Davidic kingdom does he? It becomes the stump of Jesse. Right? That whole dynasty is cut
52:28
off at the ground by the time Jesus is born. Right? His father's a poor carpenter from Nazareth. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Right? So
52:40
that's that's what I'm trying to to to set out here is that there are conditions to the relationship with God, but our salvation isn't one of them. Our
52:51
salvation is holy, graciously by God. by God. Does that make sense?
53:01
But our place and our place in God's purpose, I think, is as it was for
53:12
conditional. Now, I'm not speaking of us as individuals, however, as as God was not speaking to Israel as individual Israelites. He was speaking to them as a
53:24
nation. Can anybody think of a church that was threatened with losing its status if it failed to obey God?
53:43
Ephesus. If you do not do this, I will come and what? Remove your lampstand. That's what I'm saying. Is there a church in Ephesus today?
53:56
I I haven't been there. I don't think so. Rita, have you been there? Okay. Not yet. Okay. Well, maybe someday it'll be safe again. Um I there there
54:07
really is I mean there's certainly no bishop of Ephesus. The church that Paul wrote to, the church that Paul spent so many years, that's not there anymore. The lampstand has been removed. In fact,
54:17
all of the seven churches are gone. So, the status of a congregation, the status of the church is like the status of Israel. It is conditioned on obeying
54:30
God. I think that that should give us some glimmer of light as to the purpose of the law in the life of the church. has nothing to do with our salvation or
54:41
even maintaining our salvation. It has everything to do with maintaining our witness which happens to be our purpose. What were the last words of Jesus to his
54:55
disciples? You shall be my witnesses, right? Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost part of the earth. That's that's what we're what we're
55:06
dealing with here. God calls them to himself. Jesus calls his disciples to himself. If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me. But being drawn also
55:18
brings with it purpose and responsibility. The call of God, Paul says, is without repentance. But the purpose of God that is to be
55:29
fulfilled in each one of us and most importantly corporately together, we can lose that. we could lose our lampstand. And to me, that's a very sobering and
55:41
and what's even more sobering is the realization, you know, as as we travel and I think, for example, of of traveling in Boston, you know, and and going to the North Church
55:53
and and u in the Lake District, we saw some some some churches that obviously have been there for hundreds of years. the buildings have been there, but you read the bulletins and their in their
56:03
foyer and you realize there hasn't been a lampstand here in a long time. You know, that that's very sobering to realize that just about every church that's out there, Spurgeon's tabernacle
56:17
is still there and it is a bastion of liberal unbelief. liberal unbelief. I you can still you can almost I don't know you were in London maybe you could actually hear the body of Spurgeon
56:29
rolling over in his grave. So it's very sobering what happened to Israel and and this brings in the question that you know is any of this ever going to work out? I mean I think that but if you look at what happened to
56:41
Israel you realize that's what's been happening to the church for 20 centuries. That is very well m what may happen to Fellowship Bible Church. I pray not. But
56:53
this is something that if we don't wake up and see what it is that God's doing and how he's doing this and we stop worrying about, have I lost my salvation? You know, all this introspective naval staring
57:04
and realize no, we can't lose that that's been bought by the blood of Jesus Christ. But there is something we can you lose
57:15
and that is our effectiveness, our witness which is essentially saying you're as a church your lampstand because that what does the lampstand do? Gives light. It sheds light, doesn't it?
57:27
Now I think it's very interesting that that's the metaphor that he used, right? The lampstand. The lampstand of course is also the the figurative reference to the Holy Spirit. When we read that in in
57:38
uh Revelation in chapter one to the letter or chap chapter two, chapter two, the letter to Ephesus, he's basically saying, I'm going to withdraw the Holy Spirit. He's not he's not going to be there anymore. Okay? Which means that
57:50
though that though that building and that group may continue together and call themselves Christians, they're not Christs. He's removed his lampstand. And
58:01
that's what God is saying to the people here at Si. If you do these things, then you will be these to me. If you don't do these things, you won't be.
58:15
I think to me that helps explain what Paul says about Israel in Romans 9:10 and 11 and why he says the gift of God, the call of God is without repentance. God has not withdrawn his promise to
58:30
Abraham. Even if we are faithless, we read in Timothy, God is faithful because why? He cannot deny himself. And that's why I think Paul and we should make a distinction between promise
58:42
and conditional benefits. So what we're dealing with here then is I believe conditional benefits. And um
58:52
to me that that is the context in which we must read the ten commandments and Torah in general. As we get into the rest of Exodus, as we
59:03
get into Leviticus, we do essentially read that, yeah, you keep living this way and I'll stay I'll stay among you. And if you remember those of you who've been in the Leviticus study, that's kind
59:14
of the fundamental question. How can a holy God dwell in the midst of an unholy people? And then the flip side is how can an unholy people dwell in the
59:26
presence of a holy God? That that is the fundamental question. Our problem is we don't see ourselves that way anymore for some reason. Maybe because we don't we
59:36
aren't coming as the writer of Hebrews says, we're not coming to a mountain that's burning with fire and blazing with lightning. with lightning. We're coming to a Mount Zion Zion,
59:47
excuse me. Uh let me read that passage because that because that as we've as I've said many times the purpose of biblical theology at least one major purpose is to read the Old
59:57
Testament the way the New Testament writers read the Old Testament. And so when we read in Hebrews 12,
1:00:09
we we need to immediately think when we read verse 18 of Exodus 19 again, we need to think of the story the story and realize that what the writer of
1:00:20
Hebrews is saying is you're not at that part of the story. you've been brought to a different part of the story. And yet that earlier part of the story
1:00:30
still stands as a stern warning and it's used that way in a number of passages in the New Testament. So Hebrews 12, for you have not come to a
1:00:41
mountain that may be touched, but don't do it. And to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind, and to the blast of a trumpet, and the
1:00:51
sound of words, which which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word should be spoken to them. For they could not bear the command, if
1:01:02
even a beast touches the mountain, it will be stoned. And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, "I am full of fear and trembling,
1:01:12
but you have come." When you've read that, I when I read that passage, that passage, again, I'm I guess I'm very visual
1:01:24
reader, but I feel like you need to read the first three verses with urgency and loud.
1:01:38
But as soon as you get to verse 22, and I do this when I read it, my voice drops, you know, you have not come to a mountain that's burning with fire, to a blast of a trumpet, but you have come.
1:01:50
There's such a sense of gracious comfort in verse 22. such a sense of astounding contrast that you realize that as Paul says in
1:02:01
Galatians 4, Mount Si represented something that Mount Zion represents the opposite of.
1:02:11
Mount Si represents a holy God whom we cannot approach. But Mount Zion represents a holy God
1:02:25
into whose throne room we may now boldly go. That that's it's huge. And it's Jesus Christ. But you have come to Mount Zion,
1:02:37
and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge
1:02:47
of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.
1:03:00
Okay. So that that verse that that passage in Hebrews 12 really needs to kind of be uh engraven over Exodus 19 and and follow it. When
1:03:13
we come to Exodus 19, we in Christ need to remember that's that's not our
1:03:26
mountain. In Galatians 4, Paul allegorizes Sinai and says that it is equivalent to Sarah's maidservant Hagar and to her son
1:03:39
Ishmael. And even more importantly, it is equivalent to the Jerusalem that was then living in unbelief. But he says, "Our mother is the Jerusalem from above." And he says, "Our
1:03:52
mother is Zion, not Si." So um Sinai the imagery of Sinai the graphic description of Sinai and the stern and
1:04:04
multiple warnings of God don't touch the mountain that's the story and that story
1:04:19
I mean he God actually commends the Israelites for saying to Moses we cannot hear the voice of God and live, you go up and come back and tell us, and whatever you tell us, we'll do. Now, God
1:04:31
knows they're not going to do what he tells them to do. But he says, "Oh, that my people would have such a heart with them all in them always." What is he
1:04:44
commending? Well, he's commending their fear. He's commending their recognition that they are an unholy people liable to die if they continue to hear this holy
1:04:55
voice. So he commends them. I've often looked at that like why are you commending them? You know they're going to disobey you. In fact, in just a short wire, they're going to be dancing around a golden calf,
1:05:07
right? Not too long after this, they're going to be saying of a golden calf, "Look, the God who brought you out of Egypt." In a few in a few days, you're going to say, "Moses, stand aside. I'm going to destroy this nation. But he he
1:05:19
says, "No. Oh, that they had a heart within them to fear God." Well, that's a very important statement because we read in Deuteronomy 29, God says, remember we
1:05:29
looked at this last week, you do not have a heart to obey the Lord, to fear him, to love him. But then in Deuteronomy 30, we read that I will circumcise your heart so that you might
1:05:41
indeed fear me, love me, serve me. Okay? So that's that's held out to them as a prospective um hope but uh I think we we
1:05:52
realize that they they don't fulfill it. So again just to summarize this is indeed a conditional situation. The law is given to them to obey
1:06:04
to obey and there is the or else. Now I want to talk um we have a little bit of time. I want to talk about how archaeology has pretty much in my opinion and and and
1:06:14
several others including some incredibly liberal uh scholars, archaeology has relocated Moses and the and the Pentatuk back into
1:06:27
the 15th century before Christ. And that is because of an empire long in the in the modern era, long denied to have ever existed,
1:06:38
but then discovered in the late 1800s and early 1900s, that is the Hittite Empire. From the 18th century on through the
1:06:48
19th century, most archaeologists and liberal Bible scholars, Old Testament scholars, treated the Hittite Empire
1:06:58
as we might view the many different peoples we read of in the Book of Mormon. And that is a complete fantasy. These people never existed.
1:07:09
Except then they were discovered. And not only did they exist, they are discovered in in the annals of Assyria and Egypt and were evidently quite a
1:07:20
powerful empire. They were on par with the Egyptian Empire of that time. Their time is the 15th century. Now, there's
1:07:31
no mention of Moses in any of their writings that have been discovered, and there's not likely to be any mention of Moses in any of their writings to be discovered. But there is something that
1:07:42
comes out of their writings and especially their political documents that is so similar to the structure of
1:07:55
Exodus and even more so Deuteronomy that it's fairly hard to deny that this was a way of writing treaties
1:08:06
in that time. Now I think some scholars have made too much of this and I'm going to issue the caveat a little bit later
1:08:16
but this is known as the Suzaranti
1:08:33
The suzarin is referred to in these documents as the great king. great king. He would be the emperor or the more powerful king
1:08:46
powerful king and those with whom he is making the treaty would be his vassels, his client states. Now it may be that he conquered
1:08:57
them. It may be that his grandfather conquered them and they remained a vassal state to the to the larger kingdom. Okay. So we we might look at it
1:09:09
this way. Um England was the great king. Wales was the vassel. So was Scotland at some point but not
1:09:20
always. Um the treaty between them was one of mutual benefit mutual benefit but primarily it was one of obligation.
1:09:34
Well, how do I put this? Obedience on the part of the vassel and responsibility on the part of the great king. And in other words, I will continue to
1:09:46
protect you. I will continue to to bless you if you continue to obey me. And and it's very interesting the way
1:09:57
it's structured it's structured because for example the great king and there's a number of these now in fact there's some that actually come out of Assyria which gives it an even greater provenence that that treaties were
1:10:09
actually written this way in the 15th century before Christ. But some of them say, "You shall have no other kings before me."
1:10:20
before me." Oh, wow. Oh, wow. Okay. I am your king. You will have no other great kings. It It talks about how you relate to the great king's other vassels. You will
1:10:32
support them. You will befriend them. You will not betray them. They are mine. I mean, the the parallels there are those who say, "No, no, no. There's nothing between these, but it's really
1:10:45
uncanny when you when you read the archaeological discoveries and you you think you're reading Exodus or Deuteronomy. Now, this kind of came out in the 19th
1:10:55
century. um century. um three scholars uh one whose name is Russian and I can't pronounce it then
1:11:07
George Mendenhal and then most recently Meredith Klene these three um studied me um the first one he's he's in the notes
1:11:19
so you can look him up the first one was the archaeologist he he was he participated in the discovery of the Hittite empire and of these susaranti treaties. The second one, Mendenhal, is
1:11:32
the one who who summarized them and began to show how similar this covenant from Sinai was to the
1:11:43
Hittite form of treaty. Meredith Klein basically bases his entire commentary on Deuteronomy on it being an example of a suzaranti
1:11:54
treaty. The problem, I'm going to go ahead and give the caveat right away. The problem with this whole thinking is that Israel was never God's vassel. Israel was God's people.
1:12:07
There's a difference between a vassel. The great king had his own people, right? These treaties were written between the great king and his vassel. And it's it's really odd that Menhal and Meredith Klein don't actually point out
1:12:19
the fact that Israel was never God's vassel. Israel was God's people. You might say the rest of the nations were God's vassel, but not Israel. And
1:12:29
nonetheless, the structure is so similar that I think there's definitely an influence. This is how these things were written at
1:12:40
that time. And I again I think it helps put Moses back where I always believed he was and that is in the 15th century, not the sixth century before Christ.
1:12:53
that these things that the similarities are just too uh striking to ignore. And there were six features that I want to put up on the board here. U I would
1:13:03
encourage you if you get the chance to read the notes because there's a lot in there that um I'm not going to be able to cover this evening. Let's see where do I
1:13:14
have them. There they are. 139. There's the guy too, Victor
1:13:25
too, Victor Cororo Sack. Although this S has one of those little things over it that makes it sound different and I don't know what it means. Um, but he's the actual archaeologist that kind of started all
1:13:36
of this with the idea of these treaties. So, six um aspects or characteristics that are common to these treaties. First one is the preamble.
1:14:01
And in your notes, I have examples of these from the the archaeological discoveries. Um, discoveries. Um, I'd like to read some of one of them. Let me see it. Uh, yeah, here it is.
1:14:13
These are the words of son Mercilus, the great king, the king of the hati land or Hittite, the valiant, the favorite of the storm god, the son of
1:14:24
someone. The great king, the king of the hatty land, the valiant. I mean, he kind of keeps going on and on repeating himself. God says, "I am the Lord your God."
1:14:36
That's his preamble. I am the Lord your God. So there is a preamble though and in fact that as I mentioned earlier that preamble is actually a preface of many
1:14:48
of the individual aspects or or sections of Torah. I am the Lord your God. And the preamble essentially identified the great king. That's what it did. It
1:15:02
identifies the great king. Then the next section is the um historical prologue.
1:15:15
historical prologue. Now treaties Now treaties are not written like this throughout history. Th this is a a unique period of time when there was a structure that was
1:15:27
recognizable across several empires of the ancient near east in which Israel was entering into its status as a nation. So you have the
1:15:39
historical prologue.
1:15:51
This establishes the relationship the relationship the historical the historical uh legacy of the relationship between the great king and the vassel.
1:16:01
Again, it's usually very very long and sometimes it goes back in to the generation of the great king's father or even grandfather
1:16:12
even grandfather and their relationship with the vassal king's father or grandfather. And it always speaks of the benevolence
1:16:23
shown by the great king to the vassel. One of them is one of the this is son Mercilus again it's later in the notes
1:16:34
but apparently the vassel king we don't know that he was the firstborn. We know that his father was a vassel to son merciless.
1:16:45
son merciless. And when his father died, son Mercilus established him on his throne. Even though you were weak and sickly, I placed you above your brothers.
1:16:59
What it's basically saying is you owe me one and actually more than one. And it goes back generations to show that the vassel's responsibility to the great
1:17:09
king's dynasty is a historical legacy, not just I just beat up your neighbor. Now you're you know that's that's it's a
1:17:19
it's a relationship that is established. Um so I am the Lord your God. I should put that up here. My friend I'm gonna run out of time.
1:17:45
who I am as great king and what I've done for you. See, these first two sections establish the foundation of the treaty, the very foundation of the relationship.
1:17:58
The third section are the stipulations
1:18:16
and they were usually obligations placed upon the vassel. Okay. on the basis of who I am and what I have done for you. These are your
1:18:28
obligations. It might be things like you will provide a hundred bushel of of wheat into my graineries every month or you will support my armed forces with a levy of
1:18:38
soldiers when I call on them. That that sort of thing. These are the things. Um certainly one of them is you will have no other great kings beside me. Another one as I mentioned is you will respect
1:18:50
the great king's other vassels and you will not make war on them. Okay, so these are the you know the stipulations. Um the fourth one, provision for
1:19:01
deposit. Now this is fascinating to me.
1:19:12
Where to keep them? where to keep the treaty. And this this is fascinating to me. And as I said, I know that there are many scholars who do not see the similarities
1:19:24
between the um the Sinai covenant and the Suzarani treaty, but they're just wrong. And I'm I'm comfortable with that because I read this, I think, this is so
1:19:35
neat. And it's so exciting because um again the vision in my head is two tablets. Okay, they're always shaped the same way
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like the little cutouts upstairs, you know, flat bottom, round top, and what's on one? on one? Uhhuh. What's on the other?
1:20:00
Nope. The same thing was on both. They were copies. Every treaty had a copy. So there's nothing in the Bible that
1:20:10
tells us that one through four were on the first. You know who told us that? Cesile de. Yeah. It makes me think of that passage later
1:20:20
that talks about Moses before he died. He was he was 120 years and the Hebrew says he was still buff like Charlton H. Like we get so much out of pop culture,
1:20:31
but there I there is nothing in there that tells us that one through four is on one and and five through 10 on the other. No. other. No. When when you read about these trees, you realize no, they were both they were
1:20:44
copies. Everything was on one and everything was on the other. That's how it was done. But what happened is the king would keep one of them in his throne room and the
1:20:56
vassel would put one of them his copy in his temple his temple because he would call down his own gods on himself if he broke that treaty.
1:21:09
But you think, wait a minute, both of them went into the ark. That's because the ark was or the co the tabernacle was both the throne room of God and the temple of Israel
1:21:22
and it's because they weren't vassels. They were his people. So they had this they had these two co I mean I'm convinced of it. You don't have to be convinced of it but then you're wrong. Um you know this idea of okay
1:21:34
here's you know here's the the first table of the law here's the second table of the law. I don't think so. First of all, that would have been a horrible waste of stone. If you look at any of
1:21:46
the ancient stone documents, you realize they did not waste any space. Okay? And just to write four commandments on this big slab, that
1:21:57
would have been a real big. So, I mean, can I prove it? No, I can't prove it. But I but also you can't prove that one through four on one and five through and I've got historical evidence that shows
1:22:08
that wasn't how it was done. Wait, just why don't you carry one? Okay, why don't you wait till I get down to the bottom and text me, you know? But yeah,
1:22:26
again, this to me just says, okay, this is what God's doing. He says these two, and this is why I said I don't think the the whole law was on those stone tablets. I I mean all of the commandments and all of the case law and
1:22:39
the provisions and ordinances. No, I don't I don't think so. I think these were this this was the the decalogue and I think it was all written out on one and all written out on the other and they were they were both deposited in
1:22:50
the tabernacle the tabernacle because God's presence was with his people. So they were in a sense a reminder to God, but they were a reminder to the people. So that's why
1:23:01
they're deposited together, not because they're two different two different stones, but because the both copies, God's and the peoples will reside in the tabernacle where God resides in the
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midst of the people. But they don't just stay there. And that's another important thing. Um the provision of the deposit
1:23:22
also spoke of rehearsal. And it it they they didn't just say, "Okay, you'll keep this in your temple."
1:23:33
It also said, "You will on this certain period of time, you will bring it out and read it to your people." Okay? So, not only was it deposited in the temple,
1:23:45
there was a provision for rehearsal, for rehearsal, for reading it again.
1:24:01
do? Every seventh year at the feast of booze, they were to bring out the law and read it in the presence of the people.
1:24:17
And in addition, God says in Deuteronomy that when you have a king, what's the first thing the king's supposed to do? Anybody remember what's the first thing the king's supposed to do? He's supposed to write his own copy of
1:24:28
the law, right? And when they did come back from the exile, what is it that Ezra did? He read the law in the presence of the people.
1:24:41
Josiah would do the same thing when the book of the law was found in the temple. Okay? So this idea again, there was a regular estated period. every seven
1:24:52
years at the feast of booze, you will take them out and you will read them in the presence of the people. Again, yeah, I just don't think these similarities can be coincidence.
1:25:02
They were not just to stay in the ark. They were to be brought out for a regular reading regular reading to the people. Now, you can understand
1:25:13
why the great king would do this. He would want the vassel and the vassel's people to hear again the legacy
1:25:23
the who this king is and what he has done for them and what they are to do in response. He didn't trust it just to their memory. And then um so this is four five. Five is a list of witnesses.
1:25:47
Well, most um mendal for example, he points out there's no need for this. You know, it's it's God. Normally, the witnesses that were called were were deities. The vassel the great king would call to
1:25:59
witness his deities, but he would also call to witness the vassal king's deities. And that's why the vassel king's copy was kept in the temple because the the god of the vassel was
1:26:10
was to bear witness. And so you might say, well, God doesn't need a witness. Well, yes and no. Because in both the Pentatuk and in the prophets, God
1:26:22
himself says, "I call heaven and earth to witness against you." So, it's not as though witnesses aren't called, but they're not deities.
1:26:36
Um, individuals will call witness. Joshua will do that when he says, "Me and my house, for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." But the idea of calling heaven and earth or calling all of
1:26:47
creation as witness to this treaty, to this covenant between Israel and Yahweh. Um, we could also pull in the passage I
1:26:57
referred to earlier from Hebrews that when God could swear by none higher, he swore by himself. So, yeah, there aren't a list of deities. there wouldn't be a list of deities because he's the only god. The Hittite Empire was not
1:27:10
monotheistic. And then finally, the sixth one, and this one, I don't know how anybody can miss this. There's a list of blessings and there's a list of curses.
1:27:32
Now, I always get them backwards. Ebal and Gerazim. I don't I can never remember which one is which. But Moses says, "When you get into the land, half of you will go to Mount Ebal, half of
1:27:44
you will go to Mount Gerizim, and from one will be read the curses, and from one will be read the blessings."
1:27:57
Yeah, I think that's what this was. I I don't think that this was a Hitittite Suzaranti treaty, nor does Mendenhal or Klene. That's not the point. The point is there is a structure to this that
1:28:08
establishes a relationship between a great king and a people. The people though are not vassal yet they are subservient. They are they are they are
1:28:19
brought to the great king on the basis of who he is and what he has done. See that's the that's the bedrock of all of this. Who he is and what he has done.
1:28:32
How shall you then live? That's the point of the decalogue of Torah is not you live this way and then
1:28:42
I will be your God, but I am the Lord your God. Now you will live this way. I think that that cuts to the very heart of the meaning of the law throughout
1:28:54
time. Okay? And so you have that then then this is this is unique obviously these things right here. But we can say, hey, that was that's what Israel did. They
1:29:05
are specifically told in Deuteronomy where to keep the tablets of the law in the ark of the covenant in the tabernacle. Okay? So that that's what they did. They had a place to keep it.
1:29:17
The list of witnesses, again, you can argue that there was no need of any, but then you can also argue that God himself called heaven and earth to witness. So there were witnesses. But this one here,
1:29:28
you can't read Deuteronomy 27 and 28. and not realize that is what this is. That was part of the promugation of the constitution or the charter of the
1:29:39
covenant is God saying again going back to the going back to the protasis and now we get to the epidosis you obey
1:29:50
or else or else let's close in prayer. Father, we do thank you for your word and and for the the great wisdom that it contains. We pray that you would help us
1:30:02
by your spirit to understand and to walk in the light of your word. We pray that you would bless our our travels, keep us safe, and bring us back together to
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worship you this Lord's day. We ask in Jesus name. Amen.