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#990 - Exodus 34 – New Stone Tablets · The Bible Study Podcast

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  Speaker 1: Life Audio. The Bible Study Podcast, Episode 990. Today, the
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  Speaker 1: Bible Study Podcast continues the study of the book of
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  Speaker 1: Exodus with Chapter 34. Welcome to the Bible Study Podcast.
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  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Chris Christensen. We're going to continue on
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  Speaker 1: with Chapter 34, the New Stone Tablets and the Radiant
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  Speaker 1: Face of Moses, but first a word from this sponsor.
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  Speaker 1: Chapter 34, the new stone tablets. The Lord said to Moses,
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  Speaker 1: chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and
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  Speaker 1: I will write on them the words that were on
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  Speaker 1: the first tablets, which you broke. Be ready in the
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  Speaker 1: morning and then come up on Mount Sinai. Present yourself
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  Speaker 1: to me there on top of the mountain. No one
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  Speaker 1: is to come up with you or be seen anywhere
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  Speaker 1: on the mountain. Not even the flocks and herds may
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  Speaker 1: graze in front of the mountains. So Moses chiseled out
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  Speaker 1: two stone tablets like the first ones and went up
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  Speaker 1: Mount Sinai early in the morning as the Lord had
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  Speaker 1: commanded him. And he carried the two stone tablets in
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  Speaker 1: his hands. Then the Lord came down in the cloud
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  Speaker 1: and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord.
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  Speaker 1: And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming the Lord,
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  Speaker 1: the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger,
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  Speaker 1: abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and
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  Speaker 1: forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin. Yet he does not leave
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  Speaker 1: the guilty unpunished. He punishes the children and their children
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  Speaker 1: for the sin of the parents to the third and
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  Speaker 1: fourth generation. Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped. Lord,
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  Speaker 1: he said, if I have found favor in your eyes,
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  Speaker 1: then let the Lord go with us. Although this is
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  Speaker 1: a stiff-necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin and
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  Speaker 1: take us as your inheritance. Then the Lord said, I
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  Speaker 1: am making a covenant with you before all your people.
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  Speaker 1: I will do wonders and Never before done in any
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  Speaker 1: nation in all the world. The people you live among
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  Speaker 1: will see how awesome is the work that I, the Lord,
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  Speaker 1: will do for you. Obey what I command you today.
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  Speaker 1: I will drive up before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Pezarites, Hivites,
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  Speaker 1: and Jebusites. Be careful not to make a treaty with
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  Speaker 1: those who live in the land where you are going,
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  Speaker 1: or they will be a snare among you. Break down
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  Speaker 1: their altars, smash their sacred stones. And cut down their
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  Speaker 1: Asherah poles. Do not worship any other god. For the Lord,
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  Speaker 1: whose name is Jealous, is a jealous god. Be careful
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  Speaker 1: not to make a treaty with those who live in
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  Speaker 1: the land. For when they prostitute themselves to their gods
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  Speaker 1: and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you
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  Speaker 1: will eat their sacrifices. And when you choose some of
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  Speaker 1: their daughters as wives for your sons and those daughters
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  Speaker 1: prostitute themselves to their gods, they will lead your sons
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  Speaker 1: to do the same. Do not make any idols. Celebrate
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  Speaker 1: the festival of unleavened bread for seven days. Eat bread
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  Speaker 1: made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at
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  Speaker 1: the appointed time in the month of Aviv, for in
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  Speaker 1: that month you came out of Egypt. The first offspring
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  Speaker 1: of every womb belongs to me, including all the firstborn
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  Speaker 1: males of your livestock, whether from herd or flock. Redeem
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  Speaker 1: the firstborn donkey with a lamb, but if you do
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  Speaker 1: not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem all your firstborn sons.
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  Speaker 1: No one is to appear before me empty-handed. Six days
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  Speaker 1: you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest.
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  Speaker 1: Even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.
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  Speaker 1: Celebrate the Feast of Weeks with the first fruits of
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  Speaker 1: the wheat harvest and the festival of ingathering at the
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  Speaker 1: turn of the year. Three times a year all your
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  Speaker 1: men are to appear before the Sovereign Lord, the God
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  Speaker 1: of Israel. I will drive out nations before you and
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  Speaker 1: enlarge your territory. No one will covet your land when
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  Speaker 1: you go up three times each year to appear before
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  Speaker 1: the Lord your God. Do not offer the blood of
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  Speaker 1: a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast, and
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  Speaker 1: do not let any of the sacrifice from the Passover
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  Speaker 1: festival remain until morning. Bring the best of the firstfruits
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  Speaker 1: of your soil to the house of the Lord your God.
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  Speaker 1: Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk.
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  Speaker 1: Then the Lord said to Moses, Write down these words,
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  Speaker 1: for in accordance with these words I have made a
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  Speaker 1: covenant with you and with Israel. Moses was there with
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  Speaker 1: the Lord forty days and forty nights without eating bread
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  Speaker 1: or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets concerning
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  Speaker 1: the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. So this
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  Speaker 1: is almost a do over here, right? We've got new
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  Speaker 1: stone tablets, Moses going up again, again for 40 days
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  Speaker 1: and 40 nights. We remember what happened last time. Fortunately,
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  Speaker 1: this time, the people don't make an idol while he's
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  Speaker 1: up there. Now, maybe they know he's going to be
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  Speaker 1: gone 40 days and 40 nights this time, or at
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  Speaker 1: least they know how long he was gone last time
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  Speaker 1: and that he came back, or they remember how God
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  Speaker 1: was so angry afterwards. But at least this time, nothing
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  Speaker 1: happens while he's there. Nothing bad happens. And so that's
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  Speaker 1: good news. But this whole thing reads like a second try.
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  Speaker 1: We get the two stone tablets. They're blank when Moses
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  Speaker 1: carries them up the mountain. I never really thought about
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  Speaker 1: Moses carrying stone tablets, how heavy that would be. to
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  Speaker 1: carry him up a mountain, and he's already an old man.
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  Speaker 1: And so he brings them up. Nobody else can be
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  Speaker 1: around the mountain at the time. No one can even
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  Speaker 1: graze their sheep up there. And then we hear about
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  Speaker 1: God in passes in front of Moses proclaiming, the Lord,
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  Speaker 1: the Lord, the compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding
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  Speaker 1: in love and faithfulness. We sometimes think of the God
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  Speaker 1: of the Old Testament as being a vindictive God, but
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  Speaker 1: that is not how God describes himself here. And remember
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  Speaker 1: that the people who are down the mountain, who he's
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  Speaker 1: about to take to the promised land, the people who
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  Speaker 1: he is still promising to drive out all those other
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  Speaker 1: people in front of them have already been disobedient. So
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  Speaker 1: he could, at this point, just be done with them.
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  Speaker 1: But he is, in fact, compassionate and gracious, slow to
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  Speaker 1: anger and abounding in love and faithfulness. maintaining love to
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  Speaker 1: thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin. And it's a
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  Speaker 1: good thing he is. It's a good thing for these people,
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  Speaker 1: but it's a good thing for our people as well,
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  Speaker 1: for us, for me, for you. Now, he doesn't leave
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  Speaker 1: the guilty unpunished. Now, sometimes we wish he'd be a
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  Speaker 1: little more quick with that. And then we get this,
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  Speaker 1: he punishes the children and their children of the sins
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  Speaker 1: of the third and fourth generation. I remember reading a
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  Speaker 1: book by Catherine Marshall, the late great Catherine Marshall, and
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  Speaker 1: she wondered if the sins being punished to the second
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  Speaker 1: and third generation, if some of that was not necessarily
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  Speaker 1: the punishment of God, but just true. If you think
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  Speaker 1: of things like child abuse, that it carries on from
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  Speaker 1: generation to generation, a lot of things, the way that
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  Speaker 1: we treat our children, because we were treated that way
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  Speaker 1: by our parents, A lot of those sins carry on
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  Speaker 1: from generation to generation, not necessarily as a direct act
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  Speaker 1: of God, although that's sort of the way that this
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  Speaker 1: reads right here. And then Moses bows himself to the
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  Speaker 1: ground and says, come with us. I know we're a
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  Speaker 1: stiff-necked people. Forgive our wickedness and sin and take us
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  Speaker 1: into the promised land. And so God says, yeah, I'm
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  Speaker 1: going to do that. I'm going to drive out all
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  Speaker 1: these people before you. But let's think about this. I'm
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  Speaker 1: driving out all these people because they have displeased me.
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  Speaker 1: Their worship of these other gods, especially Baal and Asherah,
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  Speaker 1: have been detestable to God. Not just because they're other gods,
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  Speaker 1: but also it doesn't mention it here, but they sacrifice
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  Speaker 1: children to their gods, which is particularly abhorrent to this God.
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  Speaker 1: And so he says, don't make treaties with them. Don't
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  Speaker 1: marry them. You're going to marry them, then you're going
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  Speaker 1: to be ensnared by their religion. Don't make sacrifices to
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  Speaker 1: their gods. Tear down their altars. Tear down their Asherah poles. Basically,
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  Speaker 1: leave no trace of the religion of these people, which
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  Speaker 1: is the reason that I'm going to destroy them. Again,
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  Speaker 1: we've said all this before, and we'll say it all again,
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  Speaker 1: but this is, again, like a second try at this
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  Speaker 1: with a new set of tablets. written down the Ten
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  Speaker 1: Commandments again. So we're hearing some of these things again.
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  Speaker 1: Don't make idols. Remember these Feast of the Unleavened Bread.
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  Speaker 1: Don't appear before me empty-handed that we're going to have sacrifices.
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  Speaker 1: Don't forget to redeem your firstborn sons, as we learned
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  Speaker 1: again during the time of the Passover. Again, the Sabbath,
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  Speaker 1: celebrate the Sabbath, even during harvest and plowing seasons, even
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  Speaker 1: when you're really, really, really busy, which would be harvest
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  Speaker 1: and plowing seasons. Even then, you need rest. And this
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  Speaker 1: is true for us too. We need that rest that
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  Speaker 1: God desires for us even when we're really busy, maybe
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  Speaker 1: especially when we're really busy. Celebrate the festival of weeks.
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  Speaker 1: Don't offer blood of sacrifice to me with anything containing yeast.
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  Speaker 1: Best remember the first fruits. I don't know why in
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  Speaker 1: this short summary of the law, do not cook a
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  Speaker 1: young goat in its mother's milk shows up there because
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  Speaker 1: it seems like one of those really weird things that
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  Speaker 1: I've never thought about doing, but it's one of the
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  Speaker 1: reasons why people who keep kosher don't mix meat and dairy.
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  Speaker 1: And then write these all down. Write these all down again.
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  Speaker 1: We're going to write down the Ten Commandments again, and
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  Speaker 1: Moses is up there again for 40 days and 40
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  Speaker 1: nights doing all this. Continuing on, this last section here,
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  Speaker 1: the radiant face of Moses. When Moses came down from
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  Speaker 1: Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law
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  Speaker 1: in his hands, he was not aware that his face
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  Speaker 1: was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord. When
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  Speaker 1: Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant.
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  Speaker 1: and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses
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  Speaker 1: called to them, so Aaron and all the leaders of
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  Speaker 1: the community came back to him, and he spoke to them. Afterward,
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  Speaker 1: all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them
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  Speaker 1: all the commands the Lord had given him on Mount Sinai.
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  Speaker 1: When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil
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  Speaker 1: over his face. But whenever he entered the Lord's presence
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  Speaker 1: to speak with him, he removed the veil until he
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  Speaker 1: came out. And when he came out and told the
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  Speaker 1: Israelites what he had been commanded, They saw his face
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  Speaker 1: was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over
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  Speaker 1: his face until he went to speak with the Lord.
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  Speaker 1: And again, this is the thing I was talking about
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  Speaker 1: last week, that we are changed by spending time with God.
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  Speaker 1: Time in community, time in prayer, time in worship, time
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  Speaker 1: in study, time in fellowship. We are changed as Moses
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  Speaker 1: was changed and we reflect the glory of God. The
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  Speaker 1: Hebrew word for that, I understand, is called Shekinah, which
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  Speaker 1: is the glowing presence of God. And when we got
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  Speaker 1: to our church where I've been going to since 1984,
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  Speaker 1: Bethel Lutheran Church in Cupertino, they had a room over
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  Speaker 1: by the youth room that was the Shekinah room. And
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  Speaker 1: I didn't know what the word meant, and so I asked.
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  Speaker 1: And it is this face, this glowing face of Moses
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  Speaker 1: that we're talking about here, this I've been changed because
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  Speaker 1: I've been in the presence of God, is what that
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  Speaker 1: word means. And may you be changed by God's presence
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  Speaker 1: in your life this week. And with that, we're going
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  Speaker 1: to end this episode of the Bible Study Podcast. If
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  Speaker 1: you have any questions, send an email to chris2x at gmail.com,
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  Speaker 1: or better yet, leave a comment on this episode at thebiblestudypodcast.com.
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  Speaker 1: And as always, thanks so much for listening. I want
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  Speaker 1: to take just a second to thank the team at
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  Speaker 1: Life Audio for their partnership with us on this podcast.
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  Speaker 1: If you go to lifeaudio.com, you'll find dozens of other
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