Read Exodus
31-33 & Matthew
22:23-46
To discover:
As you read note the grounds on which Moses pray to God.
To ponder:
We can be so fickle of faith. Just as the creation was
completed by God’s Spirit and ended in Sabbath, God finishes speaking to Moses
on the mountain (31v18) stating who he will equip by his Spirit to construct
the tabernacle, and reaffirming the Sabbath. It is a perfect covenant “sign” because
its pattern ensures weekly remembrance that Israel’s
God is the true Creator, who has effectively promised to restore Eden.
God equips us with his Spirit for building the church. And in Christ we daily
experience something of the everlasting Sabbath “rest” to come (Matt 11v28).
Finally, Moses is given the tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments by the
very “finger of God.” This affirms their importance.
What of Israel
during this 40 day “test”? They break the first commandment they actually heard
God speak to them (20v1)! The irrationality of unbelief is seen in the request
to “make” gods. It seems they want something tangible to worship like the
nations. Aaron fashions the calf out of the very things God gave Israel
from the Egyptians, but in an attempt to maintain the worship of God, proclaims
“a festival to the LORD.” We may confess true faith, but it dishonours God
unless conducted according to his word. The people’s hearts are revealed in
their “revelry.”
The impact
is immediate: God now refers to Israel
as Moses’ people, not his, threatening to destroy them and form a people
through Moses’ offspring. Moses appeals first to God’s reputation before the
nations and then to his promises, and God relents. When our prayers reflect a
similar concern for his glory and word we can be confident her hears us.
In anger
Moses shatters the tablets and forces Israel
to drink the crushed up calf. Aaron’s excuse echoes Adam blaming Eve: They made
me do it! I put the gold in the fire and “out came this calf.” No such excuses
wash with God. The Levites side with him. Their actions are hard to stomach,
but display the seriousness of idolatry for the nation God dwells with so
intimately. “The wages of sin is death” (Rom 6v23).
As so often, Moses’ prayer that
God would forgive patterns Christ’s later work – from the cross and now from
heaven. His sincere concern for the people also echoes Paul’s (Rom 9v1ff), in
which he would lose his own salvation if God’s people could be saved. It’s a
model to all Christian leaders.
God shows restraint in promising
his angel will lead Israel
into the land. But he will not go himself in order to protect Israel
from his wrath (33v3, 5). His attitude to Moses is different. We’re told how
God would speak with Moses “face to face” at a “tent of meeting” outside the
camp (when constructed, the tabernacle will later be called the “tent of
meeting” – 27v21). Moses asks for God to teach and favour him if “pleased” with
him, and God promises his presence to Moses. This is the relationship Israel
needs, and so Moses pleads for God’s presence with the nation knowing it will
be futile to leave without it. Only this will set the nation apart. We can be
reassured. Christ promises to be with us “even to the end of the age” (Matt
28v20).
Praying it home:
Praise God for his promise in Christ to be with and in us
forever. Pray that he would teach and set you apart by his Holy Spirit.
Thinking further:
Christians differ on the extent to which the Sabbath should
be kept today. However, as it was a “sign” only for the Mosaic covenant they
generally agree it shouldn’t be kept in the rigid sense in which it was in Israel.
Some argue the NT texts abrogating the Sabbath refer to festivals other than
the weekly Sabbath (Col 2v16-17,
Gal 4v9-11). They therefore apply most of its principles now to Sunday, ceasing
from all work or normal leisure activities to devote the day to meeting with
God’s people, deepening faith and doing good deeds. Others take the NT texts to
do away with the idea of a weekly Sabbath and hold Sunday no different from any
other day, stressing the call to live our whole lives in worship and service.
Still others agree the Sabbath ‘law’ no longer applies, but teach the Sabbath ‘pattern’
of creation stands (Gen 2v2) and that a concern for Sabbath time is now written
on the heart. So whilst not requiring absolute rest from work, where possible they
seek to take a day a week for rest, corporate worship and enjoying the
creation, whilst attempting to find regular time for these things throughout
the week too. Whatever our view, Paul urges us to be gracious with those of different
convictions (Rom 14v5-6).
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