Latest / Woodlands Church Academy's Podcast / Autumn'26 Bible School- Exploring Exodus- Session 4- Paul Mitchell and Dan Viner

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Autumn'26 Bible School- Exploring Exodus- Session 4- Paul Mitchell and Dan Viner · Woodlands Church Academy's Podcast

0:00
SPEAKER_03: If you want to find uh this one finding previous ones, it is being podcasted now.
0:05
SPEAKER_03: So if you listen to podcasts anyway, if you just kind of put in Woodlands uh Church Academy, uh you'll find a whole range of of teaching stuff if you if you've enjoyed this and think we also do it next week again.
0:17
SPEAKER_03: You could kind of just gather in your own hands and listen to something.
0:22
SPEAKER_03: Um uh so uh yeah.
0:26
SPEAKER_03: Um for those of you who haven't been here, we've kind of this is the the fourth week.
0:30
SPEAKER_03: Um we've looked at uh the kind of the background to the book of Exodus, uh we looked at some of the story, early life of Moses, we looked at some of the things like the Passover, the giving of the law, how you interpret those parts.
0:43
SPEAKER_03: Uh last week uh we took uh some of the things that appeared in Exodus for the first time, and we kind of tracked those through uh through the Bible uh as well and how they point us towards Jesus.
0:54
SPEAKER_03: Um so this evening we're gonna return uh to some narrative again.
0:57
SPEAKER_03: So we're gonna look at some of the kind of what happened in uh the wilderness.
1:01
SPEAKER_03: So um so Paul and Dan are gonna be doing the input uh this evening for us.
1:05
SPEAKER_03: Um but I'm just gonna pray and then uh we'll read uh chunk for tonight.
1:11
SPEAKER_03: Is that okay?
1:12
SPEAKER_03: So let's just pray together.
1:14
SPEAKER_03: Um well, thank you for the chance to be here this evening.
1:17
SPEAKER_03: Thank you for the days that we've had, and that um whether it's been uh yeah good or whether it's been indifferent uh or whether it's been a bit tricky, Lord.
1:26
SPEAKER_03: We know that you've been with us uh throughout it all.
1:28
SPEAKER_03: And we just pray now as we um take a chance to sit and talk together and listen, uh, open your word together.
1:34
SPEAKER_03: I pray that you'd come and you would uh speak to us, you'd inspire us again, you would show us how that your word is living and active.
1:41
SPEAKER_03: It's really profitable to uh to teach us, to rebuke us, correct us, to train us and righteousness.
1:46
SPEAKER_03: And I pray that we'd find that uh again this evening, uh, that your word working on our lives.
1:52
SPEAKER_03: In Jesus' name I pray.
1:54
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
1:56
SPEAKER_03: Okay, so we're going to look at um two narrative parts of Exodus.
2:01
SPEAKER_03: So we're going to do uh chapter 16, 17, and 18.
2:06
SPEAKER_03: Um, so again my request is gonna be for anyone who's um able to read a chapter.
2:13
SPEAKER_03: So uh would anyone be willing to read chapter 16 of Exodus?
2:21
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
2:22
SPEAKER_03: Um anyone read chapter 17?
2:25
SPEAKER_03: Thank you very much.
2:26
SPEAKER_03: Uh chapter 18.
2:32
SPEAKER_03: Thank you, Doctor.
2:35
SPEAKER_03: Thank you so much.
2:36
SPEAKER_03: Um and then we're gonna flip towards near the end and we're gonna do chapters uh 32 and 33.
2:45
SPEAKER_03: So would anyone like to read 32 for us?
2:54
SPEAKER_03: Thank you so much.
3:03
SPEAKER_03: Thank you so much.
3:04
SPEAKER_03: Um okay, so these so just to set the context for these uh two passages, uh one uh the first story is when they've come out of Egypt, uh they've come through the Red Sea and they're starting uh to wander through the wilderness.
3:19
SPEAKER_03: So this is before they reach Mat Sinai.
3:21
SPEAKER_03: So when we looked at the beginning of the law, um that's after Egypt.
3:25
SPEAKER_03: So this is this is when they've first come out of uh of Egypt into the into the wilderness.
3:30
SPEAKER_03: And then the second two chapters we're going to read this is after the law's been given and after Moses has uh come up uh to receive the law once again.
3:38
SPEAKER_03: So um here we go then.
3:40
SPEAKER_02: So chapter chapter Edom cell, which is between Elam and State Sinai, on the 15th day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt.
3:54
SPEAKER_02: In the desert, the whole community crumbled against Moses and Ammon.
3:58
SPEAKER_02: The Israelites said to them, If only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt, then we sat down pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted it.
4:06
SPEAKER_02: But you have brought us out into this desert to starve its entire assembly to death.
4:12
SPEAKER_02: Then the Lord said to Moses, I will bring down bread from heaven for thee.
4:16
SPEAKER_02: The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day.
4:20
SPEAKER_02: In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions.
4:25
SPEAKER_02: On the sixth day, they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.
4:32
SPEAKER_02: So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, In the evening you will know that it was the Lord who brought you up out of Egypt, and in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against him.
4:45
SPEAKER_02: Who are we that you should grumble against us?
4:48
SPEAKER_02: Moses also said, You will know that it is the Lord when he gives you meat to eat in the evening, and all the bread you want in the morning, because he has heard your grumbling against him.
4:58
SPEAKER_02: Who are we?
4:59
SPEAKER_02: You are not grumbling against us, but against the Lord.
5:03
SPEAKER_02: Then Moses told Aaron, say to the entire Israelite community, Come before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling.
5:11
SPEAKER_02: While Aaron was speaking to the whole Israelite community, they looked towards the desert, and there was the glory of the Lord appearing in the cloud.
5:19
SPEAKER_02: The Lord said to Moses, I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites.
5:23
SPEAKER_02: Tell them, at twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread.
5:28
SPEAKER_02: Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.
5:32
SPEAKER_02: That evening pale came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp.
5:38
SPEAKER_02: When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor.
5:43
SPEAKER_02: When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, What is this?
5:48
SPEAKER_02: For they did not know what it was.
5:50
SPEAKER_02: Moses said to them, It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat.
5:54
SPEAKER_02: This is what the Lord has commanded.
5:56
SPEAKER_02: Everyone is to gather as much as they need.
5:58
SPEAKER_02: Take an omer for each person you have in your tent.
6:03
SPEAKER_02: The Israelites did as they were told.
6:05
SPEAKER_02: Some gathered much, some little.
6:07
SPEAKER_02: And when they measured it by the omer, the one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little.
6:15
SPEAKER_02: Everyone had gathered just as much as they needed.
6:19
SPEAKER_02: Then Moses said to them, No one is to keep any of it until morning.
6:24
SPEAKER_02: However, some of them paid no attention to Moses.
6:27
SPEAKER_02: They kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell.
6:32
SPEAKER_02: So Moses was angry with them.
6:35
SPEAKER_02: Each morning everyone gathered as much as they needed, and when the sun grew hot, it melted away.
6:42
SPEAKER_02: On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much, two oars for each person, and the leaders of the community came and reported this to Moses.
6:51
SPEAKER_02: He said to them, This is what the Lord commanded.
6:54
SPEAKER_02: Tomorrow is to be a day of Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord.
6:58
SPEAKER_02: So bake what you want to make and boil what you want to boil.
7:02
SPEAKER_02: Save whatever is left and keep it until morning.
7:06
SPEAKER_02: So they saved it until morning, as Moses commanded, and it did not stink or get maggots in it.
7:12
SPEAKER_02: Eat it today, Moses said, because today is a Sabbath to the Lord.
7:16
SPEAKER_02: You will not find any of it on the ground today.
7:19
SPEAKER_02: Six days you are to gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any.
7:24
SPEAKER_02: Nevertheless, some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather it, but they found none.
7:30
SPEAKER_02: Then the Lord said to Moses, How long will you refuse to keep my commands and my instructions?
7:36
SPEAKER_02: Bear in mind that the Lord has given you the Sabbath.
7:38
SPEAKER_02: That is why on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days.
7:42
SPEAKER_02: Everyone is to stay where they are on the Sabbath day.
7:44
SPEAKER_02: No one is to go out.
7:46
SPEAKER_02: So the people rested on the Sabbath day.
7:50
SPEAKER_02: The people of Israel called the bread manna.
7:52
SPEAKER_02: It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey.
7:57
SPEAKER_02: Moses said, This is what the Lord has commanded.
8:00
SPEAKER_02: Take an omer of manna and keep it for the generations to come, so they can see the bread I gave you to eat in the wilderness when I brought you out of Egypt.
8:10
SPEAKER_02: So Moses said to Aaron, Take a jar and put an omer of manor in it, then place it before the Lord to be kept for the generations to come.
8:19
SPEAKER_02: As the Lord commanded Moses, Aaron put the manor with the tablets of the covenant law that it might be preserved.
8:25
SPEAKER_02: The Israelites ate manor for forty years until they came to a land that was settled.
8:30
SPEAKER_02: They ate manna until they reached the border of Canaan.
8:33
SPEAKER_02: And Omar is one-tenth of an ether.
8:46
SPEAKER_05: They come to Africa, but there was no water for people to drink.
8:50
SPEAKER_05: So the people complained to Moses, give us water to drink.
8:53
SPEAKER_05: Why you complain to the water?
8:56
SPEAKER_05: Why casting the water?
8:58
SPEAKER_05: But the people felt in there for water and all these moses.
9:02
SPEAKER_05: They said, Why did you ever bring us from Egypt to kill us and our children?
9:07
SPEAKER_05: And our lives are all the best.
9:09
unknown: And Moses cried out to the Lord, What should I do with these people?
9:13
unknown: In a little while, they will tell me.
9:16
unknown: The Lord asked to Moses, go on ahead of the people and take some of the elders of Israel with you.
9:21
unknown: Take the staff you struck the barrel with in your hand and go.
9:25
SPEAKER_05: I'm going to stand there in front of you on the rock out of it.
9:29
unknown: When you hit the rock, the water cannot come out of it, and the people would drink.
9:34
SPEAKER_05: Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.
9:36
SPEAKER_05: He named the place of Matter and Nebraska because the Israelites complained and because they tested the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us or not?
9:46
unknown: At Mecca, Amalek came and fought against Israel.
9:50
unknown: Moses said to Joshua, Set some men of us and go and God fight against Amek.
9:56
unknown: So I will stand on the hill top with God's heart in my hand.
10:00
unknown: Joshua did and Moses got to heavy and fought against Amarek.
10:04
SPEAKER_05: While Moses Alan went out to the top of the hill, while Moses on the rail.
10:11
SPEAKER_05: Whenever he put his hand down, Adam.
10:14
SPEAKER_05: When Moses' hand, he took the sun and his under, and he sat down there.
10:19
SPEAKER_05: Then Alan had supposed to be signed, one on one side and one on the other.
10:24
SPEAKER_05: So that is how you may say until the sound died.
10:28
SPEAKER_05: So Joshua defeated Amar and his army with the sword.
10:31
SPEAKER_05: The Lord said the Moses, like the sound of sword and my God.
10:35
SPEAKER_05: I decided to Joshua.
10:37
SPEAKER_05: I will be lost out with every Amalek on the heaven.
10:43
SPEAKER_05: The Lord is my God.
10:44
SPEAKER_05: He said, Indeed, my hand is lifted up toward the Lord's God.
10:49
SPEAKER_05: The Lord will be at war with Amek from generation to generation.
10:55
SPEAKER_09: 18.
10:56
SPEAKER_09: Now Jethro, the priest of Midian and father-in-law of Moses, heard of everything God had done for Moses and for his people Israel, and how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt.
11:07
SPEAKER_09: After Moses had sent away his wife to Torah, his father-in-law Jethro received her and her two sons.
11:15
SPEAKER_09: One son was named Gersham, and Moses said, I have become a foreigner in a foreign land, and the other was named Aliza.
11:24
SPEAKER_09: For he said, My father's God was my helper.
11:28
SPEAKER_09: He saved me from the sword of Pharaoh.
11:30
SPEAKER_09: Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, together with Moses' sons and wife, came to him in the wilderness where he was camped near the mountain of God.
11:39
SPEAKER_09: Jethro had sent word to him, I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons.
11:47
SPEAKER_09: So Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, bowed down and kissed him.
11:52
SPEAKER_09: They greeted each other and then went into the tent.
11:55
SPEAKER_09: Moses told his father-in-law about everything the Lord had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for Israel's sake, and about all the hardships they had met along the way, and how the Lord had saved them.
12:07
SPEAKER_09: Jethro was delighted to hear about all the good things the Lord had done for Israel in rescuing them from the hand of the Egyptians.
12:14
SPEAKER_09: He said, Praise be to the Lord who rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and of Pharaoh, and who rescued the people from the hand of the Egyptians.
12:23
SPEAKER_09: Now I know that the Lord is greater than all of the gods, and he did this to those who had treated Israel arrogantly.
12:30
SPEAKER_09: Then Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and other sacrifices to God, and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat a meal with Moses' father-in-law in the presence of God.
12:43
SPEAKER_09: The next day Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood around him from morning to the evening.
12:50
SPEAKER_09: When his father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he said, What is this you are doing for the people?
12:57
SPEAKER_09: Why do you alone sit as judge while all these people stand around you and mourn to the evening?
13:03
SPEAKER_09: Moses answered him, Because the people come to me to seek God's will.
13:08
SPEAKER_09: Whenever they have a dispute, it is brought to me, and I decide between the parties and inform them of God's decrees and instructions.
13:17
SPEAKER_09: Moses' father in law replied, What you are doing is not good.
13:21
SPEAKER_09: You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out.
13:26
SPEAKER_09: The work is too heavy for you.
13:28
SPEAKER_09: You cannot handle it alone.
13:30
SPEAKER_09: Listen now to me, and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you.
13:35
SPEAKER_09: You must be the people's representative before God, and bring their disputes to him.
13:40
SPEAKER_09: Teach them his decrees and instructions, and show them the way they are to live and how they are to behave.
13:47
SPEAKER_09: But select capable men from all the people, men who fear God, trustworthy men, who hate Israel gain, and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens.
13:58
SPEAKER_09: Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you.
14:04
SPEAKER_09: Simple cases they can decide themselves.
14:08
SPEAKER_09: That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you.
14:12
SPEAKER_09: If you do this, and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied.
14:20
SPEAKER_09: Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said.
14:24
SPEAKER_09: He chose capable men from all Israel and made them leaders of the people, officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens.
14:32
SPEAKER_09: They served as judges for the people at all times.
14:35
SPEAKER_09: The difficult cases they brought to Moses, but the simple ones they decided themselves.
14:41
SPEAKER_09: Then Moses sent his father-in-law on his way, and Jethro returned to his own country.
14:48
SPEAKER_03: So then we kind of flip over.
14:50
SPEAKER_03: So we we have Mount Sinai, the giving of the law, the building of the tabernacle, some things we've looked at.
14:55
SPEAKER_03: And we've now gone across to chapter 32 and 33.
15:02
SPEAKER_01: When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, Come, make us gods who will go before us.
15:10
SPEAKER_01: As for this fellow Moses, who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what's happened to him.
15:14
SPEAKER_01: Aaron answered them, Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons, and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.
15:20
SPEAKER_01: So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron.
15:23
SPEAKER_01: And took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool.
15:29
SPEAKER_01: Then they said, These are your gods, Israel, we brought you up out of Egypt.
15:34
SPEAKER_01: When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord.
15:39
SPEAKER_01: So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings, and presented fellowship offerings.
15:45
SPEAKER_01: Afterward they sat down to eat and drink, and got up to indulge in revelry.
15:50
SPEAKER_01: Then God said to Moses, Go down, because your people whom you brought up out of Egypt have become corrupt.
15:56
SPEAKER_01: They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them, and have made themselves an idol, cast in the shape of a calf.
16:02
SPEAKER_01: They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it, and have said, These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.
16:08
SPEAKER_01: I have seen these people, the Lord said to Moses, and they are a stiff-necked people.
16:14
SPEAKER_01: Now leave me alone, so that my anger may burn against them, and that I may destroy them.
16:18
SPEAKER_01: Then I will make you into a great nation.
16:21
SPEAKER_01: But Moses sought the favour of the Lord his God.
16:24
SPEAKER_01: Lord he said, Why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt, with great power and a mighty hand?
16:30
SPEAKER_01: Why should the Egyptians say, It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth?
16:38
SPEAKER_01: Turn from your fierce anger, relent, and do not bring disaster on your people.
16:43
SPEAKER_01: Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self, I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance for ever.
16:57
SPEAKER_01: Then the Lord relented, and did not bring on his people the disaster he has threatened.
17:02
SPEAKER_01: Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of covenant law in his hands.
17:07
SPEAKER_01: They were inscribed on both sides, front and back.
17:10
SPEAKER_01: The tablets were the work of God, the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.
17:17
SPEAKER_01: When Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, There is the sound of war in the camp.
17:23
SPEAKER_01: Moses replied, It is not the sound of victory, it is not the sound of defeat, it is the sound of singing that I hear.
17:32
SPEAKER_01: When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned, and he threw the tablets out of his hand, breaking them to pieces, and scattering them at the foot of the mountain.
17:43
SPEAKER_01: And he took the calf the people had made, and burned it in the fire.
17:46
SPEAKER_01: Then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water, and made the Israelites drink it.
17:52
SPEAKER_01: He said to Aaron, What did these people do to you that you led them into such great sin?
17:57
SPEAKER_01: Do not be angry, my lord, Aaron answered.
17:59
SPEAKER_01: You know how prone these people are to evil.
18:01
SPEAKER_01: They said to me, Make us gods who will go before us.
18:04
SPEAKER_01: As for this fellow Moses, who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him.
18:09
SPEAKER_01: So I said to them, Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.
18:13
SPEAKER_01: Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.
18:17
SPEAKER_01: Moses saw that the people were running wild, that Aaron had let them get out of control, and so become a laughing stock to their enemies.
18:24
SPEAKER_01: So he stood at the entrance to the camp camp and said, Whoever is for the Lord, come to me, and all the Levites rallied to him.
18:32
SPEAKER_01: Then he said to them, This is what the Lord the God of Israel says.
18:36
SPEAKER_01: Each man strap a sword to his side, go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbour.
18:44
SPEAKER_01: The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died.
18:49
SPEAKER_01: Then Moses said, You have been set apart to the Lord today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and he has blessed you this day.
18:58
SPEAKER_01: The next day Moses said to the people, You have committed a great sin, but now I will go up to the Lord, and perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.
19:07
SPEAKER_01: So Moses went back to the Lord and said, Oh, what a great sin these people have committed.
19:11
SPEAKER_01: They have made themselves gods of gold.
19:14
SPEAKER_01: But now, please forgive their sin, but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.
19:20
SPEAKER_01: The Lord replied to Moses, Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book.
19:26
SPEAKER_01: Now go, lead the people to the place I spoke of, and my angel will go before you.
19:31
SPEAKER_01: However, when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin.
19:36
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord struck the people with a plague, because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made.
19:55
SPEAKER_08: I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizites, the Hiphrites, and the Jebusites.
20:02
SPEAKER_08: Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey, but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.
20:13
SPEAKER_08: When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments.
20:20
SPEAKER_08: For the Lord had said to Moses, say to the people of Israel, you are a stiff-necked people.
20:24
SPEAKER_08: If for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you.
20:28
SPEAKER_08: Now, so take off your ornaments that I may know what to do with you.
20:33
SPEAKER_08: Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments from Mount Horeb onwards.
20:38
SPEAKER_08: Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting.
20:45
SPEAKER_08: And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp.
20:50
SPEAKER_08: Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up, and each would stand at his tent door and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent.
20:58
SPEAKER_08: When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses.
21:06
SPEAKER_08: When all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship each at his tent door.
21:14
SPEAKER_08: That the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend.
21:21
SPEAKER_08: When Moses turned again into the camp, he assisted Joshua, the son of none, a young man would not depart from the tent.
21:29
SPEAKER_08: Moses said to the Lord, Say, you say to me, Bring up this people, but you have not let me know who you will stand with me.
21:39
SPEAKER_08: Yet you have said, I know you by name, and you have also found favour in my site.
21:44
SPEAKER_08: Now, therefore, if I found favour in your site, please show me now your way.
21:48
SPEAKER_08: And I may know you in order to find favour in your side.
21:54
SPEAKER_08: And he said, My preference will go with you, and I will give you rest.
22:00
SPEAKER_08: And he said to him, If your parents will not go with me, do not bring us up from here.
22:04
SPEAKER_08: For how shall it be known that I have found favour in your sight?
22:07
SPEAKER_08: I am your people.
22:09
SPEAKER_08: Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?
22:18
SPEAKER_08: And the Lord said to Moses, This very thing that you have spoken, I will do.
22:23
SPEAKER_08: For you have found favour in my sight, and I know you by name.
22:27
SPEAKER_08: Moses said, Please show me your glory.
22:29
SPEAKER_08: And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you my name, the Lord.
22:36
SPEAKER_08: And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.
22:41
SPEAKER_08: But he said, You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.
22:47
SPEAKER_08: And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock.
22:52
SPEAKER_08: While my glory passes by, I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I pass by.
22:59
SPEAKER_08: Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.
23:08
SPEAKER_03: There we go.
23:09
SPEAKER_03: Two narrative parts of Exodus, which we're going to unpack this evening.
23:14
SPEAKER_03: As you were listening to that, again you might have questions about what you heard.
23:19
SPEAKER_03: And so part of the evening will give the chance for questions as well.
23:23
SPEAKER_03: But I'm going to have it to Paul to do a little intro on these two stories that happened in the wilderness.
23:28
SPEAKER_03: There's a clicky thing here.
23:30
SPEAKER_03: You press that one, that side, and it'll.
23:32
SPEAKER_03: This one, yeah.
23:34
SPEAKER_03: Uh that one.
23:34
SPEAKER_03: That one there.
23:35
SPEAKER_03: That should Do I aim it at anything?
23:37
SPEAKER_03: No, no, just you should just does it work?
23:39
SPEAKER_08: You press it and so why did God's people need to go into the wilderness?
23:47
SPEAKER_08: I mean, after all, couldn't they just have gone straight into the land?
23:51
SPEAKER_08: Um you see, the theme of the wilderness or the desert place is a big one in scripture.
23:59
SPEAKER_03: Oh, it would be if it works.
24:11
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
24:11
SPEAKER_08: Never mind.
24:12
SPEAKER_08: I'll I'll I'll just I have this thing about machine oh machines, you see.
24:18
SPEAKER_08: I w when I left my last school, they gave me a card and and it was of a man smashing a computer on the floor.
24:24
SPEAKER_08: And it's saying Fred has learned how to take his computer off because I've I became notorious at my um inability to control gadgets.
24:33
SPEAKER_08: But is it not?
24:35
SPEAKER_08: It just seems to come.
24:36
SPEAKER_08: If you kind of stand space like just then the screen is uh so the theme of the wilderness or the desert place is a very big one in scripture.
24:46
SPEAKER_08: We find that sometimes God leads people or the spirit drives people into the wilderness.
24:54
SPEAKER_08: And sometimes people go into the wilderness because of other people's sin, sometimes they go into the wilderness because of their own sin, and sometimes they go into the wilderness as a place of refuge, like Elijah in 1 Kings 19 when he's fleeing away from Jezebel.
25:11
SPEAKER_08: And the wilderness place, the desert place, whether it's literal, whether it's metaphorical, whether it's spiritual, is a place of danger, is a place of vulnerability, it's a place in which the ordinary structures of life are taken away from you, and you lose the safety nets that you normally rely on, and you're in a strange place, a dis uh a disorientated state, and life can seem fruitless and barren.
25:37
SPEAKER_08: Well, my um, in fact, my favourite poem is called The Wasteland by T.
25:43
SPEAKER_08: S.
25:43
SPEAKER_08: Eliot.
25:44
SPEAKER_08: He's a bit of culture for you this season.
25:46
SPEAKER_08: Okay, you get your money's worth.
25:47
SPEAKER_08: Right, right, and and T.
25:49
SPEAKER_08: S.
25:49
SPEAKER_08: Eliot's writing after the First World War, and he's describing a physical, spiritual, and cultural wasteland in 1922.
25:57
SPEAKER_08: And he writes, and he's growing towards faith actually because he did actually become a Christian.
26:01
SPEAKER_08: And he writes this: what are the roots that clutch?
26:05
SPEAKER_08: What branches grow out of this stony rubbish?
26:09
SPEAKER_08: Son of man, you cannot say or guess for you.
26:12
SPEAKER_08: No, only a heap of broken images where the sunbeats and the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief, and the dry stone no sound of water.
26:23
SPEAKER_08: Well, let's just look.
26:26
SPEAKER_08: I wanted to do the one before that, actually.
26:28
SPEAKER_08: Yeah, Eden.
26:30
SPEAKER_08: The biblical story tells us that humankind was formed in the wilderness but placed in Eden.
26:36
SPEAKER_08: Eden's the place of abundance, Eden is the place of lavishness, of communion with God, it's a place of delight.
26:42
SPEAKER_08: It's the environment created by God in which we could grow up into maturity in partnership with our Creator God.
26:49
SPEAKER_08: But we chose to disobey.
26:51
SPEAKER_08: And therefore, we had to be sent out into the wilderness, into a hostile, difficult, and inhospitable environment.
26:59
SPEAKER_08: The way to the tree of life was barred by the angel with the sword in Genesis 3 because humankind is not ready to go back into the garden.
27:09
SPEAKER_08: We have to go into the wilderness.
27:12
SPEAKER_08: But the wilderness becomes the place in Scripture where God meets with people with grace and mercy.
27:23
SPEAKER_08: And interestingly, the first example of someone being sent out into the wilderness after Adam and Eve is Hagar in Genesis chapter 21, the Egyptian slave woman by whom Abraham has a son, Ishmael.
27:36
SPEAKER_08: And Sarah, Abraham's wife, instigates her banishment into the wilderness, but God meets with her and her son, and he ministers to her.
27:43
SPEAKER_08: If you read that story, he protects her and he hears the voice of her son.
27:46
SPEAKER_08: So early in the narrative of the Hebrew Bible, the wilderness becomes a place of grace and mercy.
27:54
SPEAKER_08: Oh no, I still got, I still got Moses had to go into the wilderness for 40 years.
28:01
SPEAKER_08: It's a time of preparation and shaping and forming.
28:04
SPEAKER_08: He's fleeing after killing the Egyptian.
28:07
SPEAKER_08: And he spends 40 years here, number 40 is significant in scripture of a time of testing, a time of preparation and transformation.
28:15
SPEAKER_08: So perhaps we could already say that the wilderness is perhaps the worst place to be, but it's also the best place to be, because God always turns up in the wilderness place in Scripture.
28:26
SPEAKER_08: Therefore, it shouldn't really surprise us that God takes Israel into the wilderness.
28:34
SPEAKER_08: And Exodus 13 says this: When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not leave them by the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near.
28:45
SPEAKER_08: For God said, Let the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.
28:50
SPEAKER_08: But God led the people around by way of the wilderness towards the Sea of the Reeds.
28:56
SPEAKER_08: You see, God is aware of the limitations of his people.
28:58
SPEAKER_08: If they'd gone the quick route by the coast, they would have met the Philistines, they probably had to change a part and run all the way back to Egypt.
29:06
SPEAKER_08: God knew they weren't ready to meet the challenge of the Philistines.
29:12
SPEAKER_08: God is working with and accommodating the needs and condition of his people.
29:16
SPEAKER_08: He knows where they're vulnerable and where they cannot protect themselves.
29:19
SPEAKER_08: The people have been formed in slavery, and now they need to be reformed and to go through a period of deconstruction and reconstruction so they have a different mindset that will make them different from other people.
29:33
SPEAKER_08: That's why the ten words, the ten daba, the ten words or commandments are given to help shape and to form and to make them distinctive.
29:43
SPEAKER_08: But there's a second wilderness experience for Israel, because Israel loses the land because of its disobedience, and they go into exile.
29:53
SPEAKER_08: And the Babylonian exile, which for Judah was, I think, around 586 BC, becomes in Hebrew thought a second wilderness.
30:03
SPEAKER_08: Ezekiel chapter 20 says, I will bring you, this is to do with the exile into Babylon, I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, the wilderness of the nations, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face, as I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness.
30:23
SPEAKER_08: And before that, in the 8th century BC, Hosea has already seen a time when God would bring his people again into the wilderness so he could restore his relationship with them, the covenant relationship with his people.
30:39
SPEAKER_08: There's a beautiful, beautiful passage.
30:41
SPEAKER_08: It's actually the passage that if I was to go to a desert island, I had to choose one little bit of the Old Testament.
30:47
SPEAKER_08: I was only enough, but I would take the Hosea too.
30:50
SPEAKER_08: It meant a lot to me personally in my own walk with God.
30:53
SPEAKER_08: And it says, Behold, God talking about Israel, I will seduce her, and I will bring her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her.
31:03
SPEAKER_08: Literally, and speak to her heart.
31:06
SPEAKER_08: And I will give her her vineyards and make the valley of Achor, which means trouble, a door of hope.
31:11
SPEAKER_08: And there she shall sing as in the days of her youth at the time that she came out of the land of Egypt.
31:17
SPEAKER_08: So God wants to take Israel there back into the wilderness so that she can again be wooed by her lover.
31:23
SPEAKER_08: Her lover Yahweh.
31:25
SPEAKER_08: And he does that with us.
31:26
SPEAKER_08: He does that with us, actually.
31:28
SPEAKER_08: I've experienced that in my own war with God.
31:30
SPEAKER_08: So what's this got to do with the New Testament and therefore with us?
31:35
SPEAKER_08: Well, Matthew chapter 3 tells us that John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea.
31:44
SPEAKER_08: Yeah?
31:45
SPEAKER_08: He says, Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand, the king of sorry, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of the skies, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
31:52
SPEAKER_08: For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, The voice of one crying out in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight.
32:03
SPEAKER_08: John was baptizing them in the river Jordan in the wilderness, and they were confessing their sins.
32:08
SPEAKER_08: Now get this, this is really important.
32:10
SPEAKER_08: The Bible sees baptism in water as typified in the Old Testament by the passing through the water of the Red Sea.
32:20
SPEAKER_08: Yeah, that equates to baptism, right?
32:22
SPEAKER_08: Go through the Sea of Reeds or the Red Sea, and that equates to baptism.
32:26
SPEAKER_08: For just as they were cut off from their old life and became part of a new covenant community, so we, when we go through the waters of baptism and become part of a new covenant community, we're baptized into Christ.
32:41
SPEAKER_08: And Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 10 for I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and the sea.
32:54
SPEAKER_08: And water's a sign of purification.
32:55
SPEAKER_08: So what's happening here when John the Baptist turns up in the wilderness?
32:58
SPEAKER_08: He's calling people back into the wilderness to be purified and to be made ready for the coming of the kingdom of heaven, personified by the one who baptizes and the Holy Spirit with fire, preparing them, I suppose, eventually, for re-entry to the garden, the tree of life.
33:18
SPEAKER_08: What have you got at the very end of the Bible, the book of Revelation?
33:21
SPEAKER_08: The Tree of Life turns up again, and that garden is restored.
33:25
SPEAKER_08: And that's the context in which Jesus is baptized by John in the wilderness.
33:32
SPEAKER_08: Now, why was Jesus baptized in the wilderness?
33:35
SPEAKER_08: He didn't need to be.
33:37
SPEAKER_08: He didn't need to be, that he chose to be.
33:40
SPEAKER_08: And Matthew tells us that he is the perfect fulfillment of God's plan and purpose for Israel.
33:49
SPEAKER_08: Jesus completely identifies with Israel in all of its life and experience.
33:56
SPEAKER_08: He is the perfect fulfillment of God's plan and purposes.
33:59
SPEAKER_08: And this is what Matthew in his gospel is wanting to show us, particularly in chapters 1 to 4.
34:04
SPEAKER_08: If you think about it, you have, firstly, you have the Exodus because Jesus goes into Egypt, doesn't he?
34:14
SPEAKER_08: And comes out of Egypt.
34:15
SPEAKER_08: Joseph and Mary and Jesus, they flee to Egypt.
34:19
SPEAKER_08: And Matthew quotes Hosea 11, out of Egypt I have called my son.
34:24
SPEAKER_08: That's the first thing.
34:25
SPEAKER_08: Then he goes through baptism in the wilderness, goes through the Sea of Reeds, the Red Sea, and then he is driven by the Spirit into the wilderness for 40 days.
34:38
SPEAKER_08: Yeah, it's still 40 years, 40 days, a bit shorter, but it's still identification, number 40 again.
34:43
SPEAKER_08: And he's tested.
34:45
SPEAKER_08: But whereas humans failed in the garden, and whereas Israel failed in the wilderness, Jesus succeeds in the wilderness.
34:52
SPEAKER_08: And have you noticed that yeah, sure, if you read the temptation, he he's using quotations actually from the book of Deuteronomy, not from Exodus, but it's from that time in Israel's history.
35:03
SPEAKER_08: He is completely, totally, he is Israel in that sense.
35:07
SPEAKER_08: He completely fulfills everything that Israel was supposed to be.
35:09
SPEAKER_08: Now that is the wilderness in the nutshell.
35:12
SPEAKER_08: Um, I just say one thing, which is that we go through our personal wildernesses.
35:17
SPEAKER_08: I don't know if you have first years.
35:19
SPEAKER_08: I did when I was, I guess I was about 30, 31.
35:22
SPEAKER_08: And I thought I knew it all.
35:23
SPEAKER_08: I had my theology sorted and had my life sorted.
35:26
SPEAKER_08: I saw things in black and white terms very much.
35:28
SPEAKER_08: And I went through a period where I lost everything.
35:32
SPEAKER_08: Uh, I won't go to bore you with details.
35:35
SPEAKER_08: I had to have so much taken away from me because God wanted to get to me and change me and reform me.
35:42
SPEAKER_08: And from that time, I'd say to you and encourage you, when you go through wilderness times in your life, embrace it.
35:49
SPEAKER_08: Yeah, you will meet God, and you'll meet God in a powerful way.
35:53
SPEAKER_08: And embrace it, but make sure you have some friends to be with you.
36:02
unknown: Amazing.
36:03
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
36:04
SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
36:06
SPEAKER_01: Super, super helpful.
36:08
SPEAKER_01: Um, thank you.
36:09
SPEAKER_01: I mean, if it's a theme that we could do a whole you know, four-week series on just the wilderness, there is it it pops up all throughout the Bible, as we were just saying, but it's really helpful to have a little grounding as we come into this kind of second part of Exodus that we're entering into now.
36:25
SPEAKER_01: I mean, first of all, I want to start with a question.
36:27
SPEAKER_01: You know, we we've gone through you know Exodus up to this point.
36:31
SPEAKER_01: You know, if I said to you, you know, a couple of weeks ago, Exodus, you're probably all thinking of the first half.
36:37
SPEAKER_01: You know, the plagues, Moses, burning bush, Red Sea.
36:42
SPEAKER_01: You know, quick, you know, straw poll.
36:44
SPEAKER_01: How does everyone feel about the second half of the book?
36:47
SPEAKER_01: Do we feel positive?
36:48
SPEAKER_01: Do we feel that we know what's going on?
36:50
SPEAKER_01: Feel a bit like there's a lot of lords, and there's a lot of the Valley of Shim and the desert of Sinai, and there's on the third day of the fifth month after the Red Sea, like it's a bit intense and it's a bit repetitive, and it can feel a bit intimidating.
37:08
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I certainly feel that way myself before I you know approach something in the kind of first five books of the Bible.
37:14
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you just need to just take a breath and get ready because there's a lot that's going on.
37:20
SPEAKER_01: But I also want to encourage this that there is a huge amount that we can benefit from as well in this in this section, because this is where, as we've said, God meets with his people in a very, very real way.
37:34
SPEAKER_01: So where else are we?
37:36
SPEAKER_01: You know, we know that we're in the book of Exodus, but I don't know if we know that the book of Exodus is basically split in two.
37:42
SPEAKER_01: Essentially, right where I'm talking about now, around chapter 18, there's a hinge point.
37:48
SPEAKER_01: We have the actual Exodus narrative, you have Moses and his story, the Israelites leaving Egypt, the Exodus process, and then we have the second half, which is about chapter 19 to chapter 40 at the end, which is what we call the Sinai narratives, you know, the the stuff that happens around the mountain of God, where they get the Ten Commandments, they meet with God, and they start the process of committing themselves to become his people.
38:14
SPEAKER_01: But Exodus doesn't sit alone, it doesn't, you know, stand isolated.
38:19
SPEAKER_01: Exodus is part of what we call the Torah or the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible.
38:25
SPEAKER_01: This is you know just a little image to kind of represent that.
38:28
SPEAKER_01: This is from uh from uh something on the Bible project, but essentially the the story of Exodus is only one part of this sort of five-part story, all about Israel and their journey with God before the promised land.
38:43
SPEAKER_01: And we're seeing around this little inflection point, the whole of this five-book series is pointed at this big mountain in the middle, Sinai.
38:55
SPEAKER_01: From Exodus 19 to all of Levissacus to halfway through Numbers, Israel is in one place.
39:01
SPEAKER_01: They are at the mountain of God, meeting with God and you know, being you know, in relationship with Him, he's giving them the law.
39:09
SPEAKER_01: You know, they get the law at the end, you know, Exodus, and then suddenly they build a tabernacle and oh rubbish, we can't go in.
39:15
SPEAKER_01: Moses, it says, you know, God entered the tabernacle, and Moses couldn't go in, and that's all of it.
39:20
SPEAKER_01: We're supposed to meet with God in there, what's going on?
39:21
SPEAKER_01: We can't we can't go in.
39:23
SPEAKER_01: Leviticus is all about purifying them, a little laws to get them to be right with God, and eventually, part way through numbers, they're fine.
39:31
SPEAKER_01: They can meet with God and then they enter into the promised land over here.
39:34
SPEAKER_01: We can see if we don't have to go into this, that this is essentially a narrative frame.
39:38
SPEAKER_01: It's completely identical either side of this middle section.
39:42
SPEAKER_01: There are six campsites, there's two times as no water, they have Quail and Manor again, the angel of Yahweh appears in exactly the same order, in exactly the same position, either side of this middle section, which basically just shows us we don't need to go into detail of each story, but this is just pointing all of these five books right in the middle here.
40:00
SPEAKER_01: The key stuff is right here.
40:02
SPEAKER_01: And all that to say that right now, when we look, we're right here, just before we go up the mountain, something's about to happen.
40:10
SPEAKER_01: And we can expect that the narrative is going to tell us and is going to give us some clues as to what's happening.
40:17
SPEAKER_01: So remember, the Bible as a whole, particularly the Old Testament, is meant to be read and reread and over and over and over again.
40:25
SPEAKER_01: It's not read start to finish.
40:28
SPEAKER_01: The way that we read the Bible is we read it repeatedly, cyclically, in community, like we're doing together.
40:34
SPEAKER_01: So as someone reads this, they know what's coming next, and they're expecting.
40:40
SPEAKER_01: We see that even in some of these stories.
40:42
SPEAKER_01: You know, they talk about Sabbath, but the Sabbath hasn't been given to them yet.
40:46
SPEAKER_01: It's just expected that we know because they're expecting the authors that this has already been read, we know where we're going.
40:53
SPEAKER_01: So we can see that this is clearly a really, really key passage as we prepare to hit the moment where we meet God on the mountain.
41:01
SPEAKER_01: So we need to be on the lookout for narrative signals, you know, pieces of the stories that we're gonna read to tell us what's gonna happen next.
41:09
SPEAKER_01: So I've been a little bit cheeky.
41:10
SPEAKER_01: I've actually gone halfway through chapter 15 um through to about um chap halfway through chapter 17.
41:17
SPEAKER_01: Because what um, you know, I want to dig into is essentially what we see as we're about to hit Sinai, is we have three testing narratives, three stories where God tests his people.
41:31
SPEAKER_01: The word test appears in all of them.
41:32
SPEAKER_01: We have water and food and water again straight away from after um the Red Sea, the Sea of Reed's parting.
41:42
SPEAKER_01: And what that is gonna tell us is it's gonna tell us about the Israelites' character, it's gonna tell us about God's character and what God is trying to do with his people.
41:51
SPEAKER_01: You see, in each of these stories, the word test appears.
41:54
SPEAKER_01: It's just a little symbol to tell us what's going on.
41:58
SPEAKER_01: As we discussed it, the wilderness is a place of encounter and it's a place of proving and growth and development.
42:05
SPEAKER_01: But the wilderness, as we've said in Exodus 13, it's about shaping the Israelites into a people who actually can enter the promised land and be with God there.
42:18
SPEAKER_01: He needs them to be ready for both the place that they're going ultimately, the promised land, but also what's coming next.
42:24
SPEAKER_01: They're going to meet with God on a mountain.
42:28
SPEAKER_01: In that story that we we didn't read this time around, but you know, God says, Come up, come up the mountain, I'm right here, come and meet with me.
42:35
SPEAKER_01: And they're scared, they don't do it.
42:37
SPEAKER_01: They're too afraid of what God might be that they just send Moses on his own.
42:41
SPEAKER_01: And that's how we get to the golden calf story, because he's up there for 40 days and they think, What's going on?
42:47
SPEAKER_01: Let's just make our own God.
42:49
SPEAKER_01: It's interesting, you know, it's it's a brief point, but we touched on numbers before, you know, the number three is really key here as well.
42:56
SPEAKER_01: The Israelites pass through the sea, they have a three-day journey, and then the first test starts.
43:03
SPEAKER_01: We've taught a lot at Bible school, particularly in our Genesis series previously, uh, and and this series as well, that numbers are really, really important in the Bible.
43:12
SPEAKER_01: They mean different things, they have a symbolism attached to them, 40, traditionally associated with a sign of a time of attesting, a time of you know, encounter, you know, 40 days and nights on the ark, 40 years in the wilderness, 40 days in the wilderness for Jesus.
43:31
SPEAKER_01: The number three is always or very often to do with a crisis moment, an encounter with death, you know, a face to face with something that is going to prove really pivotal.
43:43
SPEAKER_01: The Israelites travel three days into the wilderness and they run out of water.
43:47
SPEAKER_01: Jonah is in the belly of the great fish for three days.
43:52
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is in the grave for three days, encountering death, and there's a crisis there.
43:58
SPEAKER_01: So you know.
44:00
SPEAKER_01: Told you that this time, but next time you read a story in the Old Testament, particularly, or in the New Testament, you come across three, you'll know what that means, and you can be on the lookout for something there.
44:11
SPEAKER_01: So before we go any further, you know, I've mentioned the word test a few times that appears in those stories.
44:18
SPEAKER_01: I think it's important to grasp what we mean by that.
44:21
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we can think, is God just trying to trip us up?
44:25
SPEAKER_01: Is God putting things in their path to just try and trick them?
44:28
SPEAKER_01: And we might feel that about ourselves sometimes.
44:30
SPEAKER_01: You know, we come across a tricky thing, we have we have something go wrong for us.
44:36
SPEAKER_01: Is God just trying to trip us up?
44:39
SPEAKER_01: Is God trying to, I don't know, make us fail?
44:43
SPEAKER_01: It's really important that we see this as a test, not a trap.
44:47
SPEAKER_01: You know, if you think of the word how we use it ourselves, you know, in school, your teacher sets you a test so that you can demonstrate what you've learned.
44:55
SPEAKER_01: They're not setting you a test of what you should have learned, you know, like an A-level test when you're in year nine.
45:01
SPEAKER_01: They want you to show what you already know.
45:03
SPEAKER_01: It's a chance for you to demonstrate what you can do.
45:05
SPEAKER_01: It's a chance, in this instance, for God's people to demonstrate that they do understand who he is.
45:12
SPEAKER_01: For them to demonstrate trust in him and for him to shape them through it.
45:18
SPEAKER_01: You know, remember where we are.
45:20
SPEAKER_01: We're three days out from the Red Sea.
45:22
SPEAKER_01: They've just seen him literally open the sea in front of them.
45:26
SPEAKER_01: You know, Pharaoh is there with a whole army of, you know, chariots, they're like tanks in the ancient world, they're terrified.
45:33
SPEAKER_01: God just destroys them, they don't have to do anything at all.
45:37
SPEAKER_01: They should be riding high on their trust in God.
45:40
SPEAKER_01: We have the first hymn in the Bible in Exodus 15.
45:43
SPEAKER_01: They're praising God and his name and his power.
45:45
SPEAKER_01: We we might be expecting that they are in a good place with their relationship with God.
45:50
SPEAKER_01: And as we've said earlier, he's trying to transform them from an enslaved people who for 400 years, again, we've got the 40s that there's in there, they've been in a kind of an exile from their homeland.
46:03
SPEAKER_01: They have been in Egypt enslaved.
46:05
SPEAKER_01: He's trying to get them to be a people who are confident in themselves and confident in the God who is leading them.
46:12
SPEAKER_01: He wants them to be a free people, a people who trust in God and trust in his provision.
46:19
SPEAKER_01: We have a little symmetrical structure to these tests, it's just a little ABA thing.
46:24
SPEAKER_01: Like I said before, it's water, food, and water.
46:27
SPEAKER_01: It's not incredibly important, but it just serves to focus our attention on the middle.
46:32
SPEAKER_01: It's something that the Hebrew Bible does quite a lot.
46:34
SPEAKER_01: It presents, you know, these little kind of symmetrical structures.
46:38
SPEAKER_01: What we often do in Western literature is we have like the end is the key thing.
46:42
SPEAKER_01: Everything builds to a crescendo, and we look at the end.
46:45
SPEAKER_01: That's the key bit.
46:46
SPEAKER_01: In in Hebrew scripture, a lot of the time it's the middle, so it's like there's an even amount either side, and it focuses in on the central story.
46:54
SPEAKER_01: A little bit like I was saying with the mountain earlier.
46:57
SPEAKER_01: There's this whole five-book sequence, but the middle is where we're looking at.
47:01
SPEAKER_01: So the middle of the middle of the middle is the thing where you know they meet with God and they have the encounter there.
47:07
SPEAKER_01: So we have a pattern that develops um throughout this little structure.
47:11
SPEAKER_01: Basically, the failures of Israel just increase.
47:14
SPEAKER_01: There's an escalation, a feeling of mounting concern.
47:18
SPEAKER_01: Oh, they're gonna meet with God, but things are getting worse and worse.
47:22
SPEAKER_01: They are not in the right frame of mind.
47:24
SPEAKER_01: Something is probably gonna go wrong, as we'll we'll hear about later, the golden calf story.
47:30
SPEAKER_01: But essentially, what happens is they face a crisis, which is not an unreasonable thing to happen.
47:33
SPEAKER_01: They're in the desert in the wilderness, we haven't got any food, we haven't got any water.
47:37
SPEAKER_01: That's okay to happen, but it's what they do next.
47:40
SPEAKER_01: They grumble, Moses intercedes, or God speaks, and then God provides, but they don't do it in the right way.
47:48
SPEAKER_01: Is everyone with me?
47:49
SPEAKER_01: There's quite a lot of information there.
47:50
SPEAKER_01: We're following?
47:51
SPEAKER_01: Should we try the first one?
47:53
SPEAKER_01: Okay, we didn't actually read about this, um, but this is uh basically the second half of chapter 15.
47:59
SPEAKER_01: It's quite a short little story, it just kind of almost gets missed sometimes.
48:03
SPEAKER_01: You know, you have Red Sea parts, great big hymn, most of chapter 15, have this little story about water.
48:10
SPEAKER_01: And you know, we'll we'll dig into it quickly.
48:13
SPEAKER_01: Essentially, what happens?
48:14
SPEAKER_01: They're three days out of Egypt, post-deliverance from the Red Sea, riding high, and there's no water.
48:22
SPEAKER_01: What do we do?
48:24
SPEAKER_01: Ah, oh, there's some water here, great, it's bitter, but we can't drink it.
48:28
SPEAKER_01: Moses, what's going on, man?
48:31
SPEAKER_01: We haven't got any water.
48:32
SPEAKER_01: Moses prays to God, God says, Oh, look, put that bit of wood in the water, you'll be fine.
48:38
SPEAKER_01: He does that, they drink it at the end.
48:40
SPEAKER_01: It's very short, it's a little bit weird.
48:42
SPEAKER_01: Why is there a stick?
48:44
SPEAKER_01: Why does that change the water?
48:46
SPEAKER_01: Why not just click your fingers like God can do, etc.
48:50
SPEAKER_01: It's it's basically a very, very densely packed story that is full of Garden of Eden imagery, essentially.
48:59
SPEAKER_01: We talked about the Garden of Eden being a place of safety, of life, of encounter with God in the middle of the wilderness.
49:08
SPEAKER_01: And this is basically an Eden encounter.
49:11
SPEAKER_01: It's not immediately obvious because of our translations, but um, if anyone has got you know um that open in front of them in your Bible, have a flick through.
49:21
SPEAKER_01: There's a bit where it says, God showed Moses a something that he put in the water.
49:28
SPEAKER_01: Does anyone want to read what that word is?
49:32
SPEAKER_01: If you've got it in front of you, it's about yeah, Exodus 15, the second half.
49:36
SPEAKER_01: God shows Moses a piece of wood.
49:39
SPEAKER_01: Does anyone have anything different than piece of wood?
49:42
SPEAKER_07: Is it a snake?
49:44
SPEAKER_07: I don't understand that's snake, but it's a snake in this.
49:47
SPEAKER_01: I'll get to it.
49:47
SPEAKER_01: Oh, sorry if you're not going to do that.
49:48
SPEAKER_01: No, you're good.
49:48
SPEAKER_01: But no, but that's it's it's very it's a very good point because there's no snake in this story.
49:54
SPEAKER_01: But I'll I'll get there.
49:55
SPEAKER_01: It's really valid to raise.
49:57
SPEAKER_01: Anyone got anything other than wood?
50:00
SPEAKER_01: So it's maybe a slightly older or more literal translation that would have something different.
50:04
SPEAKER_01: Tree.
50:06
SPEAKER_01: So the the Hebrew word there is it.
50:09
SPEAKER_01: It's literally etzed, it's and that means both.
50:14
SPEAKER_01: It means both tree and wood, like a piece of wood or a tree.
50:17
SPEAKER_01: So for example, the tree of life is an it.
50:21
SPEAKER_01: You know, that is that's what that means.
50:23
SPEAKER_01: So God shows Moses, like a the the older translation, like a King James or something, says God showed Moses a tree, and Moses put the tree in the water, and the tree makes the water good to drink, it makes it sweet.
50:38
SPEAKER_01: So Israel, when from this reading, are encountering a test in the wilderness in front of a tree that is about nourishment and life.
50:49
SPEAKER_01: Is God gonna provide for us?
50:51
SPEAKER_01: Is God going to do what we want him to do?
50:56
SPEAKER_01: And then the snake, what happens to Moses' stick all throughout the Exodus narrative?
51:02
SPEAKER_01: It turns into a snake.
51:04
SPEAKER_01: It's the first miracle that Moses does in front of Pharaoh.
51:07
SPEAKER_01: His stick becomes a snake, and Moses demonstrates his control over it because the snake, which is the great, you know, boogeyman in the Genesis story in the Eden narrative, Moses just picks it up, becomes his stick instantly.
51:21
SPEAKER_01: He controls it.
51:22
SPEAKER_01: That's you know, a little sort of nod back to the that he will have control over the snake, he'll crush the snake's head thing that we see in Genesis 3 at the fall narrative.
51:32
SPEAKER_01: His s his you know, his snake stick is there as well.
51:35
SPEAKER_01: He uses that, and so we've got a lot of the imagery that is you know present in the Eden narrative here in this little story.
51:44
SPEAKER_01: It just is giving us a nod, it just echoes of that you know, that garden in the wilderness that Garden of Eden was.
51:51
SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
51:52
SPEAKER_01: Maybe maybe something good's gonna happen here.
51:54
SPEAKER_01: They pass the test.
51:55
SPEAKER_01: Moses intercedes for his people, just like we we've been promised in Genesis 3, there's gonna be a seed of the woman who is gonna crush the snake's head, and he's gonna he's gonna bring people back into alignment with God.
52:08
SPEAKER_01: And there's this little detail right at the end.
52:10
SPEAKER_01: They go to Eliam and there are twelve springs and seventy trees.
52:13
SPEAKER_01: Again, it's numbers in the Old Testament.
52:16
SPEAKER_01: The twelve is a symbol of completeness, God's people, you know, obviously twelve tribes of Israel, all that kind of thing.
52:23
SPEAKER_01: That the twelve symbolizes completeness, and the seven as well.
52:26
SPEAKER_01: The seven, seventy is about perfection and is also to do with sort of the nations of the world.
52:32
SPEAKER_01: There's a table of all the nations of the world in Genesis, there are 70, there are 70 sons of you know Israel who come to Egypt with him.
52:39
SPEAKER_01: It basically the 12 and 70 is just saying there's a lot and it's full and complete and enough.
52:46
SPEAKER_01: And so we have they pass a test, and then suddenly they find to a place where it's perfect.
52:50
SPEAKER_01: There's loads of water, there's loads of trees, there's life in the middle of the wilderness.
52:54
SPEAKER_01: So if we trust in God's provision, we pass the test.
52:58
SPEAKER_01: Well, maybe there's a bit of Eden.
53:00
SPEAKER_01: A bit of this fullness of life comes out in the wilderness.
53:03
SPEAKER_01: But then we come to test number two, which is food.
53:06
SPEAKER_01: That's the manor and quail story we saw, that's the long one in the middle.
53:10
SPEAKER_01: It's where our attention is obviously being focused in this little triad.
53:13
SPEAKER_01: It's it's a really famous story.
53:15
SPEAKER_01: We don't need to go into it in lots and lots of detail.
53:17
SPEAKER_01: There is a, you know, it's 30 or 40 verses, there's a lot of content there.
53:21
SPEAKER_01: I just want us to focus on on a couple of little things.
53:24
SPEAKER_01: We see an escalation straight away from the grumbling in part in the first test.
53:31
SPEAKER_01: They say, Oh, we haven't got any food.
53:32
SPEAKER_01: Did you bring us out here to kill us?
53:34
SPEAKER_01: I wish we'd gone back to Egypt.
53:37
SPEAKER_01: God's just gone through all this.
53:39
SPEAKER_01: He's he's defeated all of the kind of the gods of Egypt, he's brought them out of slavery.
53:42
SPEAKER_01: He's he is you know, lots of Egyptians have died to bring them out of Egypt.
53:48
SPEAKER_01: And they're a few days in, and he they say, Oh, do you know what?
53:51
SPEAKER_01: It was great, wasn't it?
53:52
SPEAKER_01: We had meat.
53:53
SPEAKER_01: Yes, you did, but for 400 years you were enslaved, you had no freedom, you couldn't worship, you had all your children, firstborn children, killed by the person who was in charge of you.
54:03
SPEAKER_01: Like it's it's supposed to be hyperbolic.
54:06
SPEAKER_01: They are making a terrible, terrible decision here.
54:08
SPEAKER_01: But just because they're a bit hungry, they're saying Moses is trying to kill them.
54:13
SPEAKER_01: And and why why'd you even get us out of Egypt?
54:16
SPEAKER_01: It's a it's an exaggeration, it's supposed to make you like slap your head and think, guys, what on earth are you doing?
54:21
SPEAKER_01: Yes, they I'm sure the the hunger hunger was real.
54:24
SPEAKER_01: They were in the desert, there was no food, but God has just opened the sea in front of them.
54:29
SPEAKER_01: He has just made a bitter lake drinkable by throwing a tree in it.
54:33
SPEAKER_01: You know, what's going on?
54:36
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, obviously the story progresses, and we basically get this magical sky bread that comes down, manna, you know, God provides that for them.
54:45
SPEAKER_01: It is, you know, another couple of little tests come in there.
54:48
SPEAKER_01: There is a perfect provision for each person.
54:51
SPEAKER_01: Go out, gather enough for your family, and you know, it'll be sufficient.
54:56
SPEAKER_01: Some people gather too much, some people gather too little, but everyone has exactly a jar's worth, basically.
55:01
SPEAKER_01: And that jar doesn't run out until the end of the day.
55:04
SPEAKER_01: You know, no matter how much you need, if you if you've gathered up all you can carry, or you've just you've got out late and you've got a little bit, everyone has enough.
55:12
SPEAKER_01: The provision is perfect, it is just enough for a day.
55:17
SPEAKER_01: The Israelites are getting shown that they can trust God.
55:20
SPEAKER_01: God's gonna give them exactly what they need.
55:23
SPEAKER_01: God knows them, he knows each of their situations.
55:25
SPEAKER_01: It's not just everyone has 10 kilos, it's everyone has exactly what they need.
55:30
SPEAKER_01: This guy with 10 kids over here has enough, this person who's a single mum has enough, this couple have enough.
55:37
SPEAKER_01: Everyone has exactly what they need, and it's showing that God understands their situation.
55:43
SPEAKER_01: And so Moses then says, Do you know what guys?
55:46
SPEAKER_01: There'll be more tomorrow.
55:47
SPEAKER_01: Eat.
55:48
SPEAKER_01: Don't hold any back.
55:49
SPEAKER_01: There's abundance.
55:51
SPEAKER_01: God's got it.
55:53
SPEAKER_01: Eat it all.
55:55
SPEAKER_01: Don't worry about tomorrow.
55:56
SPEAKER_01: God's got it.
55:57
SPEAKER_01: And what do they do?
55:58
SPEAKER_01: Well, they won't fail that test.
56:01
SPEAKER_01: But they're not trusting it, they're not appreciating God's character and his desire to give them what they need.
56:07
SPEAKER_01: So there's a failure there.
56:09
SPEAKER_01: And then at the end of the week, the first week, everyone gets twice as much.
56:14
SPEAKER_01: Everyone gets twice as much as they need for one day.
56:17
SPEAKER_01: Guys, it's okay.
56:18
SPEAKER_01: There's not gonna be any tomorrow, but trust.
56:20
SPEAKER_01: You've seen all week that there's been enough.
56:23
SPEAKER_01: It'll be enough again.
56:24
SPEAKER_01: You've got twice as much, it'll last.
56:26
SPEAKER_01: But do they trust?
56:28
SPEAKER_01: Well, some of them don't.
56:29
SPEAKER_01: And the test has failed again.
56:31
SPEAKER_01: Because they go out, they they go out and they try and collect on that seventh day.
56:37
SPEAKER_01: You know, maybe come a bit of slack.
56:39
SPEAKER_01: Like I said, they've not been given the Sabbath yet, they don't know what that is.
56:43
SPEAKER_01: It's very, very counterintuitive.
56:45
SPEAKER_01: You know, we've all grown up on a two-day weekend.
56:48
SPEAKER_01: Weekend's not a thing if you're a slave.
56:50
SPEAKER_01: They've just come out of that, they've been there for 400 years, they're probably not used to days off.
56:55
SPEAKER_01: You know, a scarcity mindset is maybe, yeah, maybe we can give them a little bit of slack.
56:59
SPEAKER_01: But you know, they didn't trust, they didn't accept God's character in that moment.
57:06
SPEAKER_01: The final test, it we're back to water again.
57:09
SPEAKER_01: First time that they passed, just about, the second time, well, it it doesn't go quite so well.
57:17
SPEAKER_01: There's another escalation this time.
57:19
SPEAKER_01: We have no water, they grumble to Moses, you know, you're bringing out here to kill us.
57:26
SPEAKER_01: But this time, instead of saying what are you gonna do about it, they say, give us water.
57:30
SPEAKER_01: There's a demand.
57:32
SPEAKER_01: There's a there's a lack of awareness that God is going to give them stuff.
57:37
SPEAKER_01: They're saying, give it to us.
57:39
SPEAKER_01: Of course, God's gonna give them what they need.
57:41
SPEAKER_01: They He's provided water, He's provided rescue, He's provided food for them, but still they don't get it.
57:47
SPEAKER_01: And they say that they wish they were back in Egypt again.
57:51
SPEAKER_01: And Moses is like, God, they're gonna kill me.
57:54
SPEAKER_01: This is a really serious escalation.
57:57
SPEAKER_01: The Israelites have not got it, they don't understand God's character.
58:02
SPEAKER_01: The failure is not about there being a lack, about them having a need, about them being in the wilderness.
58:09
SPEAKER_01: God's led them in the wilderness.
58:11
SPEAKER_01: There's no water, there's no food.
58:13
SPEAKER_01: The failure is in how they're approaching that.
58:17
SPEAKER_01: They're not embracing the encounter, they're not trusting in God's provision.
58:22
SPEAKER_01: They're doing it in a way that shows they don't get who God is yet.
58:26
SPEAKER_01: Even after all he's done, they're not there.
58:30
SPEAKER_01: And that sets the stage for people who are gonna arrive at this pivotal mountaintop moment where they're gonna meet with God and they are not there.
58:39
SPEAKER_01: There's gonna be something that goes wrong.
58:43
SPEAKER_01: So that that's a little a little hinge point there.
58:45
SPEAKER_01: We do obviously have the second half of 17 and chapter 18, we don't really have time to go into that, but essentially, those are more kind of nudges towards the fulfillment of the promises that God's made back to Abraham and his people.
59:01
SPEAKER_01: We have two different, kind of like brother, cousin, descendants from from the early lines of the Israelite people.
59:10
SPEAKER_01: Amalek is descended from a line of Esau, that's Jacob's twin, um, who's you know, obviously in the line of Israel before they were a nation.
59:17
SPEAKER_01: He's like, so they're like a cousin people.
59:20
SPEAKER_01: Uh and Jethro is a priest of Midian, who again is like a another line that's not from you know that kind of central um Israelite line.
59:28
SPEAKER_01: And we see two different ways of interacting, you know, Amalek, Amalek, yeah, the Amalekites come in and they try and kill the Israelites.
59:35
SPEAKER_01: There's a fight, the Israelites win because God's on their side, Moses intercedes again.
59:40
SPEAKER_01: Then Jethro is a relative of Moses.
59:43
SPEAKER_01: He comes in, he gives him some good advice.
59:44
SPEAKER_01: He says, Moses, you can't judge all the problems of 150,000 people.
59:50
SPEAKER_01: Get some help, get some trustworthy people, make sure they live up to all these standards, just do all the big stuff.
59:55
SPEAKER_01: And that's really good advice.
59:57
SPEAKER_01: And Moses does everything his father-in-law says, and it works.
1:00:01
SPEAKER_01: So we see that both, you know, there's this blessing that's gonna come from the nations, and there's challenge that's gonna come from the nations that are around Israel, which is echoing back the promises that have been made to Israel from the start.
1:00:14
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna bless the nations through you, and I'm gonna bless you through the nations.
1:00:18
SPEAKER_01: You will be, you know, first among the nations, but I'm gonna be the one who is gonna be glorified through it.
1:00:24
SPEAKER_01: And that's basically what that's saying to us as we go into the sort of the top of the top of Sinai.
1:00:31
SPEAKER_01: So that's those sort of three little chapters.
1:00:33
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna dive into the golden calf narrative.
1:00:36
SPEAKER_01: There will be time for questions as well at the end.
1:00:37
SPEAKER_01: Does anyone have anything that is is a burning question now or something that they want to ask?
1:00:42
SPEAKER_01: Or um, if not, feel free to to ask anything as well at the end.
1:00:49
SPEAKER_01: Great.
1:00:50
SPEAKER_01: I'll uh I'll hand over uh for our second part.
1:00:55
unknown: Thank you.
1:00:59
SPEAKER_08: So we come to the exciting moment of the dreadful sin of the golden cuff, the catastrophe.
1:01:07
SPEAKER_08: And it is a catastrophe, it's a living awful situation.
1:01:11
SPEAKER_08: Um looking at chapters 32, 33, 34, I've I've just put a kind of a diagram up there.
1:01:20
SPEAKER_08: Um chapter 32 of the six, that's when they muck it all up and start worshipping this uh um inanimate object, the golden calf.
1:01:29
SPEAKER_08: And then we have Moses' first dialogue with God.
1:01:32
SPEAKER_08: This whole passage is built around three dialogues with that Moses has with Yahweh, and they are absolutely fascinating and and needs a whole session by itself on them.
1:01:45
SPEAKER_08: Then that's Moses' first intercession, his first dialogue with God.
1:01:49
SPEAKER_08: Then Moses speaks to people, Moses' second dialogue with God with Yahweh, he goes back and does another chat.
1:01:56
SPEAKER_08: Um he's up and down the mountain.
1:01:58
SPEAKER_08: I I do wonder sometimes reading Exodus, he seems to be going up the mountain, and then he goes up again, and then he goes up again, and you think, well, he's already up there, how can he go up again?
1:02:07
SPEAKER_08: And I'm I myself am somewhat confused, so you can perhaps explain to me as you've got the chronology better sorted out than I have.
1:02:14
SPEAKER_08: Um his response.
1:02:18
SPEAKER_08: Then we have this lovely description in the middle of this cataclysmic activity.
1:02:22
SPEAKER_08: Oh, let's have a description of the tent of meeting, which happens there, which is rather nice.
1:02:26
SPEAKER_08: Then we have Moses' third dialogue, and then of course, there's a whole chapter on the renewal of the covenant.
1:02:31
SPEAKER_08: So today we're going to look at the sin of the golden carp and why it was so catastrophic.
1:02:37
SPEAKER_08: And it's it's a chattering story.
1:02:40
SPEAKER_08: I mean, the theological narrative of God's deliverance from slavery, which dominates chapters 1 to 18, satisfied in chapters 19 and 20 with what is in effect a marriage ceremony between God and his people at Sinai.
1:02:57
SPEAKER_08: And there's a covenant.
1:02:59
SPEAKER_08: But it's thrown into terrible jeopardy by this terrible, terrible act of disobedience that plunges Israel into a situation far more deadly and far more ignominious than the bondage that never actually come from.
1:03:13
SPEAKER_08: They're in danger of losing their identity.
1:03:16
SPEAKER_08: God says, you can go and take the land.
1:03:18
SPEAKER_08: I'm not going with you at one point.
1:03:21
SPEAKER_08: They're in danger of losing their identity, becoming a people with no identity at all, a kind of non-people.
1:03:27
SPEAKER_08: And all that's been received is about to be lost.
1:03:30
SPEAKER_08: An Israel without the presence of God, I think, is worse than an Israel that's never known the presence of God.
1:03:37
SPEAKER_08: And of course, we know, uh, because we know the end of the story that Yahweh remained with his people after Moses' intercession.
1:03:43
SPEAKER_08: The shattered covenant is renewed, but there's still a price to pay.
1:03:48
SPEAKER_08: Things can't be the same.
1:03:50
SPEAKER_08: That innocent first love has been spoiled.
1:03:55
SPEAKER_08: So, what are the roots of this catastrophic disobedience?
1:03:59
SPEAKER_08: Why did this happen?
1:04:00
SPEAKER_08: Well, at first it was born out of panic and lack of trust, because they couldn't wait, they couldn't rest in God, they couldn't trust in Yahweh.
1:04:06
SPEAKER_08: Uh it says in 32 verse 1, when the people saw that Moses delayed or he was long overdue, um, John Golding uh in his translation says, shamefully long, which is an interesting way of translating it.
1:04:22
SPEAKER_08: In spite of God's provision for them in the wilderness, in spite of the signs of Yahweh's presence among them, they can't cope with Moses' lengthy disappearance.
1:04:32
SPEAKER_08: And instead of an eager expectation, kind of waiting in faith, there's a frightened impatience in which they're imagining the worst.
1:04:39
SPEAKER_08: We do not know what has become of him.
1:04:42
SPEAKER_08: Uh yeah, actually, I thought this is the opposite of the disciples in the upper room in Pentecost, wasn't it?
1:04:47
SPEAKER_08: Where they're waiting in faith, they they have these ten days of waiting, uh, and and the Holy Spirit is given.
1:04:54
SPEAKER_08: That's a waiting in faith.
1:04:57
SPEAKER_08: And it's actually true that part of the uh wilderness experience is waiting.
1:05:03
SPEAKER_08: It might seem as though absolutely nothing is happening, that God's gone off and left you, and it's then we're tempted to take matters into our own hands.
1:05:11
SPEAKER_08: We want a quick and easy solution to our issues, but it doesn't happen like that.
1:05:16
SPEAKER_08: So, what do they do in this apparent vacuum?
1:05:18
SPEAKER_08: Well, they demand visible gods, and notice the plural, it's gods, is what they ask for, not god, but gods.
1:05:27
SPEAKER_08: It's a plurality of gods, multi-deities, not the single and invisible Yahweh.
1:05:33
SPEAKER_08: They want to be like the other nations who worshipped a multiplicity of gods.
1:05:37
SPEAKER_08: The Canaanites, of course, worship Baal, who was a storm and fertility god, lots of testosterone often invoked for agricultural success, an ashtar, a goddess of fertility and motherhood.
1:05:49
SPEAKER_08: And these multi gods are represented through statues and through images.
1:05:53
SPEAKER_08: And the bull in surrounding uh nations represents sexual prowess, wealth, agricultural success.
1:06:00
SPEAKER_08: So they fail the test of waiting.
1:06:03
SPEAKER_08: Now notice Aaron's response to the pressure put on him.
1:06:07
SPEAKER_08: For the Israelites have actually put a terrible pressure on him.
1:06:10
SPEAKER_08: The Hebrew means they've gathered themselves together against him.
1:06:15
SPEAKER_08: That's what it says.
1:06:16
SPEAKER_08: And they demand action in a very abrupt session, in a very abrupt fashion.
1:06:21
SPEAKER_08: Up! Up! Make us gods! That's what it says.
1:06:26
SPEAKER_08: Get off your fing.
1:06:27
SPEAKER_08: Come on, Aaron.
1:06:28
SPEAKER_08: We're here.
1:06:29
SPEAKER_08: We're gonna do you in if you don't.
1:06:31
SPEAKER_08: I mean, he was threatened.
1:06:33
SPEAKER_08: But notice this: yes, he he makes the golden calf, but he says, very clever, he says, tomorrow is a festival for Yahweh.
1:06:43
SPEAKER_08: So this is not a rejection of Yahweh's name per se, but rather it's Aaron reinterpreting the nature and worship of God of Yahweh.
1:06:52
SPEAKER_08: He's compromising.
1:06:53
SPEAKER_08: He has the clouds baying for his his blood, but he still feels this loyalty to Yahweh as revealed by Moses.
1:07:01
SPEAKER_08: So he creates what we call a syncretic, a mixed syncretic religion, where he's keeping the people happy while honouring Yahweh.
1:07:10
SPEAKER_08: And of course it doesn't work.
1:07:12
SPEAKER_08: And it doesn't work because it's the worship of God by a means that God has already declared unacceptable.
1:07:17
SPEAKER_08: You know, Exodus 20, verse 4.
1:07:20
SPEAKER_08: You know, I'll read it to you again if you've if you forgot it, Second Commandment.
1:07:24
SPEAKER_08: Um, chapter 20, verse 4.
1:07:26
SPEAKER_08: I'm reading it to you actually.
1:07:27
SPEAKER_08: I love John Golding's translation of the Old Testament.
1:07:30
SPEAKER_08: Um, it's in the Bible, Bible for everyone.
1:07:33
SPEAKER_08: Um, and it's very close to the original, and he keeps the rhythm and prose style of the Hebrew text.
1:07:38
SPEAKER_08: Well, you know, it's still readable.
1:07:40
SPEAKER_08: And he says, You shall not make for yourself a sculpture or any shape that's in the heavens above, or that's on the earth below, or that's in the water under the earth.
1:07:48
SPEAKER_08: You will not bow low to them and you will not serve them, because I, Yahweh, your God, am the passionate.
1:07:56
SPEAKER_08: I'm the passionate.
1:07:57
SPEAKER_08: I think jealousy is what we often have.
1:07:58
SPEAKER_08: We had a discussion last week about jealousy.
1:08:00
SPEAKER_08: You can translate the word passionate.
1:08:02
SPEAKER_08: That might solve some of the problem of the of the discussion we had last week.
1:08:05
SPEAKER_08: Uh, a passionate God attending to parents' waywardness in connection with children with thirds and fourths, for children, thirds and fourth generations for people who are hostile to me, but acting commitment towards thousands of people who are loyal to me and who keep my orders.
1:08:22
SPEAKER_08: So Aaron, in a panicked response, transfers this sense of authority and faith from Yahweh, the unseen but present God who's acted in Israel's history, who's intervened and liberated them, who's provided for them, who's nurtured them, made a marriage covenant with them to a golden calf without speech, without the living symbols of God's presence and totally incapable of love.
1:08:43
SPEAKER_08: Instead of Yahweh, who has revealed himself as I am who I am, I am being who I am being, the invisible but present creator God, who is recreating his people, there's a transferring, there's an exchange of loyalty to an inanimate image of a created being.
1:08:59
SPEAKER_08: It's an exchange.
1:09:01
SPEAKER_08: It's an exchange.
1:09:02
SPEAKER_08: And it's deeply, deeply, deeply, deeply painful for God.
1:09:06
SPEAKER_08: It's the equivalent, if you can imagine it, of going on honeymoon with your beloved and seeing them running off as somebody else after the first night.
1:09:13
SPEAKER_08: I mean, I'm not exaggerating.
1:09:15
SPEAKER_08: That's how the Old Testament prophets look back and saw it in terms of marriage and unfaithfulness.
1:09:21
SPEAKER_08: So that's a sense in which they're breaking the first command, no other gods, the second command, no images, the third command, taking the name of the Lord in vain, and also the seventh command, adultery, because they're actually committing adultery with foreign gods.
1:09:34
SPEAKER_08: So, what's the result of this spiritual adultery?
1:09:37
SPEAKER_08: What's so serious about all this is that in rejecting Yahweh and replacing him with a kind of tangible material object, an image of a creature, they break the boundaries of the covenant and they allow for absolute massive societal disorder.
1:09:55
SPEAKER_08: Instead of the ten commandments, the words of Exodus 20 that were given to form and to shape them and to recreate them, there's an exchange of the boundaries that God has given them for chaos.
1:10:07
SPEAKER_08: And the impermissible is now permissible.
1:10:10
SPEAKER_08: And that's why we have that phrase in verse 8.
1:10:13
SPEAKER_08: If you've got Bibles, you can look at it, 32 verse 8, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.
1:10:20
SPEAKER_08: And the connotations are probably sexual, refer to orgeistic behaviour.
1:10:24
SPEAKER_08: At least that's how it's understood by Paul, because Paul comments on this in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, as we'll be seeing, and also in Romans chapter 1.
1:10:32
SPEAKER_08: So, how does this event speak to us today?
1:10:35
SPEAKER_08: Um, and to do that we need to look at the New Testament references to it.
1:10:39
SPEAKER_08: There are two places, actually, there are three places in the New Testament where this incident is referred to.
1:10:44
SPEAKER_08: Stephen mentions it actually in Acts chapter 7, just before his stone to death.
1:10:48
SPEAKER_08: Um, Paul has it in mind in 1 Corinthians 10, uh, but he also has it in mind and refers to it really um in Romans chapter 1.
1:10:58
SPEAKER_08: And I want to read you just a bit of Romans chapter 1.
1:11:01
SPEAKER_08: Because I think it's really interesting hyperlink.
1:11:04
SPEAKER_08: I love, love, love, love, love hyperlinks in scripture.
1:11:07
SPEAKER_08: We we suddenly see where they've got it from.
1:11:08
SPEAKER_08: I just I just glory, I just love these hyperlinks.
1:11:11
SPEAKER_08: I think we have one here.
1:11:12
SPEAKER_08: And this is what it says in Romans 1.
1:11:14
SPEAKER_08: It says, claiming to be wise, they became fools.
1:11:18
SPEAKER_08: He's speaking of the idolatrous stream of humanities, right?
1:11:22
SPEAKER_08: Christians in Rome surrounded by idolatry, all kinds of extraordinary and bad things happening in the in the temples.
1:11:29
SPEAKER_08: And he's saying, claiming to be wise, they became fools, they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images representing or resembling a mortal human being, or birds, or four-footed creatures, well like the golden calf, or reptiles.
1:11:49
SPEAKER_08: Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their heart to impurity, the degrading of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged, there's that word exchange again, the truth about God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator.
1:12:05
SPEAKER_08: Now, where does Paul get this language from?
1:12:07
SPEAKER_08: Where does he get it from?
1:12:09
SPEAKER_08: And how does it refer to the golden calf episode?
1:12:11
SPEAKER_08: Well, he gets it from Psalm 106, which is a wonderful psalm.
1:12:17
SPEAKER_08: If you have a Bible, you might want to look at it.
1:12:19
SPEAKER_08: It's a meditation on the whole story of Israel from Exodus until the exile, from one wilderness to the next.
1:12:27
SPEAKER_08: And the author of this psalm gives us a direct link to the story of the golden calf.
1:12:33
SPEAKER_08: It says in verse 19 of Psalm 106, you might want to look at it.
1:12:37
SPEAKER_08: It's a brilliant psalm.
1:12:39
SPEAKER_08: There's one psalm, you know, you should know this psalm.
1:12:42
SPEAKER_08: They they made a calf at Horeb and worshipped a cast image.
1:12:47
SPEAKER_08: Now, here it is.
1:12:48
SPEAKER_08: Listen, they exchanged the glory of God.
1:12:54
SPEAKER_08: Actually, the Hebrew text says their glory.
1:12:59
SPEAKER_08: Here, your Bibles are using the Greek version of the Old Testament, they're using what's called the Septuagint, which is the Greek version.
1:13:06
SPEAKER_08: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:13:08
SPEAKER_08: Our translations are kind of a mixture of these two things.
1:13:11
SPEAKER_08: And the the Septuagint, the Greek version says the glory of God, the Hebrew text says their glory, the people's glory.
1:13:21
SPEAKER_08: So, which is right.
1:13:21
SPEAKER_08: Well, we'll have a look in a minute.
1:13:23
SPEAKER_08: Interesting textual difference here.
1:13:24
SPEAKER_08: Now, I love this nerdy stuff.
1:13:26
SPEAKER_08: Um, and there is something that is there for a reason.
1:13:29
SPEAKER_08: I think the Holy Spirit gives us these variants, and then in order to teach us something.
1:13:34
SPEAKER_08: So the Hebrew text says they exchange their glory, their splendour, the splendour belonging to them.
1:13:39
SPEAKER_08: That's what what what the it's called the Masoretic text.
1:13:42
SPEAKER_08: That's the received text of the Old Testament in Hebrew.
1:13:45
SPEAKER_08: It's very late.
1:13:46
SPEAKER_08: It's about you know, the earliest copies were almost the Battle of Hastings, it's quite late.
1:13:52
SPEAKER_08: Um, the authoritative Hebrew Bible.
1:13:56
SPEAKER_08: But the Greek version, which most translators seem to follow here, says the glory of God, and that's what Paul uses.
1:14:03
SPEAKER_08: Paul is using the Greek Old Testament, put together about 200 BC.
1:14:10
SPEAKER_08: So, which is right?
1:14:11
SPEAKER_08: Was it their glory that was gone?
1:14:13
SPEAKER_08: Whether it's or was it God's glory that was gone?
1:14:16
SPEAKER_08: And the answer is both are true.
1:14:19
SPEAKER_08: For both are lost when we engage in idolatry, for we are made in his image, and we therefore carry his glory.
1:14:29
SPEAKER_08: We become like the images we worship.
1:14:31
SPEAKER_08: It isn't just God's glory that is lost when we engage in idolatry, it's the glory of humankind.
1:14:37
SPEAKER_08: You worship God, you become more like him, you become more like Jesus.
1:14:41
SPEAKER_08: You engage with Jesus in worship, you and adoration, your heart is touched and changed, there's more love in your heart, you feel the compassion of the Father for the world, you engage with love, not cynicism and hate, you become more like Jesus, you become more fully human.
1:14:56
SPEAKER_08: Yeah, so that's your glory because it's it is the image of God in you.
1:15:01
SPEAKER_08: Yeah, Christians are the real humanists, actually.
1:15:04
SPEAKER_08: You become fully human as you are in a relationship with God in worship.
1:15:09
SPEAKER_08: If you worship an image of an animal, then there's a danger you'll end up like an animal, basically.
1:15:14
SPEAKER_08: And you start behaving like an animal.
1:15:17
SPEAKER_08: You become like the object you worship, you take on its characteristics, and what was happening there was that they were taking on the characteristics of the creatures made in the fifth and sixth day of creation.
1:15:26
SPEAKER_08: But of course, human beings are made to live in the seventh day of creation, perpetually in the Sabbath of God.
1:15:33
SPEAKER_08: That doesn't mean to say we sit around doing nothing.
1:15:35
SPEAKER_08: But you know, we're to live in that place of worship and relationship with God and rest in God throughout our lives.
1:15:43
SPEAKER_08: So the orgeistic behaviour around the sculpture of the golden calf shows a defacing of the image of God in them.
1:15:48
SPEAKER_08: And Paul in Romans 1, with the story of the golden calf in mind, makes a direct parallel with the orgeistic behaviour that was occurring at the various Roman temples of the time.
1:15:58
SPEAKER_08: You know, he's writing to Rome from Corinth, as we know, because we've done this in Bible school recently, probably where there were as many as 10,000 temple prostitutes at one point.
1:16:07
SPEAKER_08: Uh, you went to the temple to sacrifice to the gods and joined in a meal and then had a lot of sex.
1:16:13
SPEAKER_08: And Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10, no, you mustn't do this.
1:16:16
SPEAKER_08: You don't have that kind of meal.
1:16:18
SPEAKER_08: You have the Lord's Supper, you have communion, you have the Eucharist, or whatever you want to call it.
1:16:23
SPEAKER_08: That's the antidote.
1:16:24
SPEAKER_08: I actually think there's something very, very, very, very powerful when we take communion.
1:16:29
SPEAKER_08: It is a statement against idolatry.
1:16:32
SPEAKER_08: And what happens here is we take the body and blood of Christ.
1:16:36
SPEAKER_08: I mean, I'm not a Catholic, don't believe in transantiation, but yeah, as we take the body and blood of Christ into ourselves in that special way, as the Lord is specially present, so we are united with Him and each other in a special way.
1:16:50
SPEAKER_08: If you have the other kind of meal, as they did with the golden calf, yeah, they sat down to eat and had a lot of orgies, yeah.
1:16:58
SPEAKER_08: Or if you were like what's going on in Rome or in Corinth, it's a different kind of binding together, which actually defames and destroys your humanity.
1:17:08
SPEAKER_08: Will it be fully human?
1:17:10
SPEAKER_08: Worship God.
1:17:11
SPEAKER_08: That's the real humanism.
1:17:13
SPEAKER_08: Now it's easy for us to laugh at ancient idolatry.
1:17:17
SPEAKER_08: Um, how quaint they were.
1:17:19
SPEAKER_08: We think how quaint back then to make these nice little kind of carving images of stone and wood and worship them all.
1:17:26
SPEAKER_08: Well, these idols say, We'd go to the British Museum and see them all.
1:17:29
SPEAKER_08: And it's if you're not queuing up for the tapestry and not getting in, you can go and see the all these sweet idols around.
1:17:36
SPEAKER_08: But yeah, modern world, uh the modern western world does the same thing today.
1:17:40
SPEAKER_08: So the question is what are the modern golden calves?
1:17:43
SPEAKER_08: At this point, I think we've all said too much.
1:17:45
SPEAKER_08: So you need to say, have we got time to just yeah?
1:17:49
SPEAKER_08: You know what I think we should do.
1:17:50
SPEAKER_08: I I so I'm gonna ask you this question: modern golden calves.
1:17:54
SPEAKER_08: Oh, I can even press a button.
1:17:56
SPEAKER_08: See if it does anything.
1:17:57
SPEAKER_08: Oh, yeah, sorry, I was gonna if you want to do that, you can follow that through for yourself, can't you?
1:18:01
SPEAKER_08: Yeah, Exodus 32.
1:18:03
SPEAKER_08: Um, commented on in Psalm 106, Paul refers to it in Romans.
1:18:08
SPEAKER_08: Right now, here's the question uh, what are the modern golden calves?
1:18:13
SPEAKER_08: So you can turn to the person next to you.
1:18:15
SPEAKER_08: It's all been sitting around.
1:18:17
SPEAKER_08: Um, and you can discuss that.
1:18:20
SPEAKER_08: What do you think the modern golden calves are?
1:18:22
SPEAKER_08: That's are seductive for the church.
1:18:24
SPEAKER_08: And that I've got a list here, but I'm not going to give it to you.
1:18:26
SPEAKER_08: Let's see what you come up with.
1:18:27
SPEAKER_08: What do you think of the modern golden calves that could do that to us and could could affect you just like the Narthful stuff they did?
1:18:36
SPEAKER_08: If you're not near to any point, you peace and some thoughts on that just for the control.
1:18:40
SPEAKER_08: Right, just give it two or three minutes.
1:18:55
unknown: We got to run.
1:19:44
SPEAKER_10: Yeah, so I'm still going to be able to do it.
1:21:18
unknown: And that's what I was just slightly different as I'm not what we want.
1:21:22
unknown: So we have to use that.
1:21:45
unknown: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:22:09
SPEAKER_08: Right, shall we uh see what you've come up with?
1:22:12
SPEAKER_08: It's really interesting here.
1:22:13
SPEAKER_08: I would have a flip shot, I'd write more down, but I haven't talked that far ahead because this is a bit spontaneous.
1:22:18
SPEAKER_08: Um, anybody like a volunteer reliable for us?
1:22:21
SPEAKER_08: Consumerism, consumerism and materialism.
1:22:24
SPEAKER_05: Mass popularity, sort of everything has to be new, everything has to be big.
1:22:30
SPEAKER_08: Yeah.
1:22:33
SPEAKER_08: I just wonder what adverts do to us.
1:22:35
SPEAKER_08: Yeah.
1:22:36
SPEAKER_08: Apologies if you work in the advertising industry.
1:22:38
SPEAKER_08: But you know, uh next time you're watching Baker for whatever, which is on now, um and you're interrupted by these wretched adverts.
1:22:47
SPEAKER_08: And what is it what's it doing to you?
1:22:50
SPEAKER_08: What's it what's inside you that it's latching on to?
1:22:53
SPEAKER_08: That's making you think, oh, I might do that, I might buy that.
1:22:57
SPEAKER_08: Yeah, the fear of missing out.
1:22:59
SPEAKER_08: Yeah, I think materialism is massive.
1:23:05
SPEAKER_08: Do we really need that?
1:23:07
SPEAKER_08: What kind of culture are we living in?
1:23:09
SPEAKER_08: It is a consumerist culture, isn't it?
1:23:11
SPEAKER_08: It's an inquisitive society, an accumulative society.
1:23:15
SPEAKER_08: Uh so part perhaps in practice, a part of practicing Sabbath is resisting that, actually, I think.
1:23:22
SPEAKER_08: Interesting book by Walter Bruman called um uh uh Sabbath as resistance.
1:23:28
SPEAKER_08: Walter Bruman is a real amazing American theologian called Sabbath as resistance, which is a bringing the book.
1:23:42
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, the end is the is the time after the end is not being around.
1:23:52
SPEAKER_07: It was like control, it was like control.
1:25:07
SPEAKER_05: But in some ways, also like how you I just wanted the the things I wrote down, um, one of them is uh nationalism.
1:25:23
SPEAKER_08: I think the worship of the nation state and the ethnic identity.
1:25:28
SPEAKER_08: I think it's idolatrous, but I think it's really big.
1:25:31
SPEAKER_08: It's really big America and it's increasing.
1:25:35
SPEAKER_08: And it's mindful, and it's mindful of scripture.
1:25:38
SPEAKER_08: Worshiping the nation state and uh Christian nationalism is uh whole inheritance and absolutely sick.
1:25:48
SPEAKER_08: Uh you cannot march with Tommy Robinson on the cross.
1:25:52
SPEAKER_08: That's what I think is confident if you're really taking it very seriously.
1:26:00
SPEAKER_08: Um I noticed as a school teacher, and and and this I think is quite serious really, um, we were having to do assemblies uh quite regularly for our young boys because of the influence of um Tater, Andrew Tate.
1:26:19
SPEAKER_08: Yeah, okay, which is and I it's not idolatry, it's I the idolatry of masculinity in its worst sense, in its misogynistic sense.
1:26:28
SPEAKER_08: I mean, it's appalling if you look at that stuff.
1:26:31
SPEAKER_08: It's appalling.
1:26:32
SPEAKER_08: But young lads uh in our school, 11, 12 year olds, coming out with statements that were absolutely sickening.
1:26:40
SPEAKER_08: And where'd they get it from?
1:26:42
SPEAKER_08: Andrew Tate.
1:26:43
SPEAKER_08: Yeah, and it's an idol, the idol is this false masculinity that is being presented as something that that you need to have in all the worship.
1:26:55
SPEAKER_04: Uh it's a serious thing in schools, actually, for anything.
1:27:27
SPEAKER_08: Yeah.
1:27:28
SPEAKER_08: We worship the individual we in the West we worship the individual, don't we?
1:27:32
SPEAKER_08: Very much so.
1:27:32
SPEAKER_08: We have done for since um since Canada, I suppose, in the etc.
1:27:36
SPEAKER_08: Anyway, we've we've done it for a long time.
1:27:39
SPEAKER_08: Yeah.
1:27:40
SPEAKER_08: Anything else?
1:27:41
SPEAKER_08: I think to be honest, I think we've probably taken in enough this evening.
1:27:45
SPEAKER_08: I think we're probably all naked.
1:27:46
SPEAKER_08: Um yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:27:53
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, there's any questions or anything that in when we were reading the passages that you had in your mind, anything you've heard from Dan or from Paul.
1:28:02
SPEAKER_07: Can I just ask about Erin?
1:28:04
SPEAKER_07: Because I find him, you know, Erin, who he's I can't remember the expression you use, but um it's he seems to me like he's somebody who's a compromiser.
1:28:12
SPEAKER_07: You I've never read about Erin, I thought he's a bit of an idiot, isn't he?
1:28:16
SPEAKER_07: He just gives them what he what they want, and it turns out to be the wrong thing, but he doesn't take the blame for it.
1:28:21
SPEAKER_07: No, like yeah.
1:28:23
SPEAKER_07: I I nobody says Ian, that was a really stupid thing.
1:28:26
SPEAKER_07: And he actually made the part.
1:28:27
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
1:28:28
SPEAKER_07: And then he went, Oh, you're but the light of idiots.
1:28:31
SPEAKER_07: I had to give them what they wanted.
1:28:34
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, but it came out.
1:28:39
SPEAKER_07: Alright, and a little part came out.
1:28:40
SPEAKER_07: He's not actually made that.
1:28:42
SPEAKER_07: But at the same time, that I then thought, I feel a bit sorry for him, really, because he's like politicians.
1:28:47
SPEAKER_07: He gives a chance to get everyone what they want and he forgets his principles.
1:28:50
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
1:28:50
SPEAKER_07: He forgets to say, Alright, if you if you're threatening me with violence, I'm just gonna have to teach it.
1:28:54
SPEAKER_07: He did, oh no, alright, then I will give you an idea.
1:28:57
SPEAKER_07: Oh no, I'm gonna say sorry, Moses, because they need to do it.
1:29:01
SPEAKER_07: But that's in a way, that's like you know, people want leadership, and yet we put our faith in leaders who actually aren't up to it instead of going directly to God or to Moses.
1:29:11
SPEAKER_06: I did think he was a bit of a dragged leader, though.
1:29:14
SPEAKER_06: He was he didn't he wasn't there that wanted to be it, he was dragged in butt in the beginning, and he probably didn't know himself like them how long he was going to be up there, what that happens with.
1:29:25
SPEAKER_06: So we did talk about that, didn't we?
1:29:27
SPEAKER_06: But we did think he was probably a bit reluctant.
1:29:31
SPEAKER_06: Well, I don't know.
1:29:34
SPEAKER_06: So he made the wrong decision.
1:29:36
SPEAKER_01: But you know, there are some consequences for Aaron that you said later on, Exodus.
1:29:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, essentially he's the high priest, but Moses is the one who is the one who's the incessant with God.
1:29:47
SPEAKER_01: Both Aaron and Mary and his sister both have consequences that happen to them later on in the narrative.
1:29:53
SPEAKER_01: But it's not that I wanted them to be single consequences, yeah.
1:29:57
SPEAKER_01: There are there are consequences, it's you know why.
1:30:00
SPEAKER_06: Sorry, sometimes it's just so barbaric, isn't it?
1:30:03
SPEAKER_06: What happened in the old testament?
1:30:05
SPEAKER_07: Yes, that's all I'm gonna say.
1:30:07
SPEAKER_07: 3,000, you know, you're not clever brothers, you walk through and kill 3,000, that's true.
1:30:11
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I mean that that isn't it?
1:30:14
SPEAKER_03: That is the the consequences of disobedience is the wages of sin is death is is the now and I think we talked about this two weeks ago, is that how how is that demonstrated?
1:30:30
SPEAKER_03: And and why is it the the religious tribe, the Levites, that have to do the killing?
1:30:37
SPEAKER_03: Um they're supposed to be the priest that go between God and and humanity, and in some ways they are going between God and humanity, and this time rather than bringing forgiveness, the other ones bringing the judgment.
1:30:48
SPEAKER_03: Um, and so that it's the priest that goes into God and to the people, to the people to God, and sometimes it's bringing through the sacrifice, bringing the forgiveness of God to the people, and sometimes it's bringing the justice of God and the wrath of God to people, and and we don't like that as much, do we?
1:31:13
SPEAKER_03: And you're you've just betrayed it.
1:31:17
SPEAKER_03: I'm mad.
1:31:19
SPEAKER_03: Actually, the the the consequences of this is actually if you go that path, it's death, like this sword, sword, sword, sword, kind of, and then there's a graphic illustration of what sin does, uh the priests that do it.
1:31:35
SPEAKER_03: Now uh we've talked in in our 21st century world that doesn't compute in a Bronze Age community.
1:31:44
SPEAKER_03: That probably does come that does because they they weren't used to justice and the National Health Service and social services.
1:31:51
SPEAKER_03: Actually, they they they lived in a barbaric environment, so it wouldn't have bothered them as much as it bothers us.
1:31:59
SPEAKER_06: Right.
1:32:00
SPEAKER_06: Where is forgiveness in that though?
1:32:01
SPEAKER_06: Because I assume was he not sorry for that.
1:32:04
SPEAKER_01: I would say, in one sense, there isn't mercy in that, and that you know the we don't have exact numbers, maybe it's like 600,000 people roughly, and 3,000 are killed, which for us is feels massive, but actually is disproportionate to the amount of people who are actually involved in the thing.
1:32:22
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's not everything.
1:32:27
SPEAKER_01: I'll start again, but actually, Moses, again, in that kind of messianic person standing between God and everyone, Moses hasn't done anything wrong, but he says, take me instead, and that's the kind of Jesus image that we get.
1:32:40
SPEAKER_01: And actually, through Moses' intercession, yeah, actually God says, all right, okay, fine.
1:32:45
SPEAKER_01: And there's only then a comparatively very small proportion of the impact on the people, which is 3,000, which is a lot, but compared to the number that there are, actually 600,000 men so double it, less kids, etc.
1:33:02
SPEAKER_01: So actually even less impactively, you might be surprised if it's such a small number.
1:33:07
SPEAKER_08: They get the opportunity is um who's on the Lord's side just before that incident, they have the opportunity to actually go stand with Moses, so there's an opportunity to get out of it.
1:33:19
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I was gonna ask on that one.
1:33:22
SPEAKER_05: Like obviously, we can't really get into the fact here right I don't know what it was thinking, but the text says sort of the idea that they wanted like to make gods, but then he says, Okay, there's a festival for the Lord, but then he but then Aaron also says like the gods that brought you out of Egypt.
1:33:39
SPEAKER_05: So I don't understand like because I've also heard of interpretations where it's the idea that oh, they were just making like an actual image of Yahweh God, but it's saying gods means that they knew it wasn't Yahweh.
1:33:53
SPEAKER_05: So I'm just a bit confused as to are are they trying to make an image of like their one and only God, or are they just doing whatever, and then Alan is like, oh, if I just put Yahweh's name on it, yeah.
1:34:06
SPEAKER_03: I think I think it's interesting that it's it's gods with an S on the end.
1:34:09
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, uh so in the plurality of gods, maybe Yahweh was one of them, but actually, there are other gods besides Yahweh that were that were in there, so and and this image represented the gods, of which Yahweh is one of them.
1:34:24
SPEAKER_03: So he he he's he he's able to say it was for Yahweh because he's one of the gods that this ball represented.
1:34:32
SPEAKER_09: Um we're looking at it from our human point of view.
1:34:37
SPEAKER_09: So when we see suffering, we're only looking at it from our point of view, we're not looking at it from God's point of view, and we're sort of we're assuming that death is the end, yeah, and that's not the truth, yeah.
1:34:49
SPEAKER_09: So death is not the end, yeah.
1:34:51
SPEAKER_09: So the bigger like the bigger issue is how God sees it, and we can't we can't see it like that, yeah.
1:35:00
SPEAKER_03: But we do know that death is not the end, yeah, and I think one of the gods that we worship is holding on to life, and so death is the ultimate end, which is which is why sometimes when we talk about violence, we think actually death is the worst thing that could ever happen to anybody, and actually sin is the worst thing that could happen to anybody.
1:35:22
SPEAKER_03: That's that's the the reality is that that living a whole life separated from God and then physically dying with that that's the worst thing that could happen.
1:35:31
SPEAKER_03: And in some of the things that happen here, the the actual physical death of people is to show this is the consequence of sin.
1:35:39
SPEAKER_03: Now, what happens to that individual once they've died?
1:35:42
SPEAKER_03: We do believe that there's life after that those spirits at some point maybe encounter Jesus between his death and resurrection, and those that would have responded to Jesus back then, even though they died.
1:35:55
SPEAKER_03: Actually, there's something in their hearts that I think would say yes to Jesus.
1:35:58
SPEAKER_03: So, post-physical death, we're not quite sure exactly what happens to those people, particularly to the the innocence people.
1:36:07
SPEAKER_03: So there's some people who are there who, like Paul says, you've got the choice.
1:36:11
SPEAKER_03: Are you on our side or you're not on our side?
1:36:13
SPEAKER_03: And you move to the side, okay, you're on that side, three thousand of you.
1:36:19
SPEAKER_03: Uh this is the consequence of choosing this is what it looks like.
1:36:23
SPEAKER_03: It looks like this.
1:37:05
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it it could be it could be the physical injury that that what that kind of when he's holding out his his arms, uh holding up his arms, that's kind of they they win.
1:37:14
SPEAKER_03: And it it could be, yeah, if you sat down, someone's holding his arms up, kind of it might come more out to the side.
1:37:20
SPEAKER_03: It could be and and the cross is victory, it could be a yeah, an image as they look up to the hill and they see Moses with his arms up, um uh prefiguring of Jesus.
1:37:33
SPEAKER_07: Isn't it interesting to that thing you said about him being the messianic?
1:37:36
SPEAKER_07: Um the intercession of somebody, why would God have to have somebody calm down?
1:37:42
SPEAKER_07: Just take me instead, don't get that.
1:37:44
SPEAKER_08: Yeah, I was gonna just think that's in terms of the dialogue.
1:37:51
SPEAKER_07: The idea that God's the one that has to be alright, I'll come down anymore.
1:37:54
SPEAKER_07: I'm really gross.
1:37:54
SPEAKER_08: Yeah, right.
1:37:55
SPEAKER_03: Moses I mean if you read the dialogue, it's it's kind of because uh he he God says to Moses, tell Pharaoh to let my people go.
1:38:07
SPEAKER_03: So and so Pablo says a message from God that my people go.
1:38:10
SPEAKER_03: So it's always my people, my people, my people.
1:38:12
SPEAKER_03: But it's not just it's Moses, you and your people.
1:38:15
SPEAKER_03: God said how they can't see me and my people, it's you and your people.
1:38:22
SPEAKER_07: Trying to provoke him into being you know a good man and saying Tickme instead, and then that was the thing that God done, and he thought, right, I've got a really good man who wants to be the children.
1:38:33
SPEAKER_08: It's a whole point that Moses softened the heart of the old one.
1:38:37
SPEAKER_08: Yeah, isn't that lovely?
1:38:38
SPEAKER_08: Yeah, um, I think prayer this is a fantastic invitation for uh uh to encourage us in terms of prayer and intercession that we can help to shape the future with God, and he uses us with the Holy Spirit as a partner to do that.
1:38:54
SPEAKER_08: Obviously, he's a superior partner, and I think it teaches a lot about the nature of God that God is not up there as some kind of immutable stone pillar, but that he's someone who engages and is actively involved in the life of his creation and wants us on board with that.
1:39:09
SPEAKER_01: So it will be a variety of interpretations of that, like a Calvinist who are like but you know, so some people are much more God's unchanging, God doesn't change his mind.
1:39:19
SPEAKER_01: We can't change the mind of God.
1:39:21
SPEAKER_01: But this is about helping Moses to conform to God's heart, and some people would say that.
1:39:27
SPEAKER_01: Some people would say that there's a backwards and forwards, and God is inviting Moses into a decision making, some people would say God's made up his mind, and he's encouraging Moses to get there as well.
1:39:35
SPEAKER_01: Like, there'd be a number of interpretations, but I think it essentially the key point is that we are encouraged to dialogue with God and that God wants to work with us to work out his will.
1:39:46
SPEAKER_01: And again, we see a bit of that, like Moses is the author of the Bible Jesus basically.
1:39:54
SPEAKER_01: We have this innocent party coming to God and saying, take it, they've all done wrong, but take it.
1:40:02
SPEAKER_01: I'll put myself in between that.
1:40:04
SPEAKER_01: And again, we're missing that all the right.
1:40:29
unknown: I guess dialoguing record.
1:40:33
SPEAKER_02: And also as an interception as well, getting somebody else to dialogue with God as well.
1:40:38
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
1:40:39
SPEAKER_03: And I think I think remember that kind of remember what God's done.
1:40:45
SPEAKER_03: I think that they they like Dan said, you they they should have remembered it's only three days, they should have remembered.
1:40:50
SPEAKER_03: And and I think for us sometimes when we're in wilderness experiences, actually it's it's a challenge.
1:40:54
SPEAKER_03: Actually, can you remember?
1:40:56
SPEAKER_03: Remember when you first encounter God's forgiveness, remember when you've kind of when you did pray by the time you prayed, and and God rackly did answer it, kind of, and and you're in the wilderness now, but you kind of remember, and I think that's part of the the rest of the encounter is that we we choose God and choose his way rather than bemoan our way, and um, and it's it's a painful thing, but it's a space to learn.
1:41:23
SPEAKER_03: Um we've we've gone past got the past, so I'm gonna just pray for us if that's okay, um, as we finish our our our evening together.
1:41:31
SPEAKER_03: But um, thanks very much to Paul.
1:41:32
SPEAKER_03: Thanks to Dan very much for leading us uh this evening to be share.
1:41:39
SPEAKER_03: Um let's pray.
1:41:40
SPEAKER_03: Um Lord, thank you so much that as we read uh your word, there's things that puzzle us, uh, but there's things that challenge us, and where uh this image of being in the wilderness um is not something we would ultimately maybe choose, but in the wilderness you met with people uh you saw um uh Hagar and Ishmael, you you saw Moses from the burning bush, you saw your people uh as they came out of Egypt in the wilderness, you saw John the Baptist and Jesus, and actually you see us.
1:42:20
SPEAKER_03: And uh, for those of us here this evening who maybe feel just in a bit of a wilderness space, want to pray place of encounter, a place where we can meet with you, where we wrestle with uh in the darkness and in the confusion, and we say that we'll hang on to you, and please will you come and meet with us?
1:42:40
SPEAKER_03: Well, where there's the temptation of a of a golden calf when we think things aren't moving along quick enough with you and things ought to change, and we uh take things into our own hand, and uh yeah, we have the golden calves of materialism or or control or manipulation, or um, yeah, I'd pray you would uh um bring the challenge where our hearts need to be challenged, where we're uh we're subverted to worship things rather than you.
1:43:11
SPEAKER_03: Lord, help us to regularly confess and admit when we're wrong and find the forgiveness that you come to cleanse us and bring us again your mercy and your grace.
1:43:19
SPEAKER_03: Thank you in Jesus.
1:43:20
SPEAKER_03: We find that.
1:43:22
SPEAKER_03: Well, thank you for the great exodus that you've brought in our own life.
1:43:25
SPEAKER_03: You delivered us from the power of sin and death and the slavery that we were under to it to our old nature, and uh we've had that freedom in Jesus, and thank you.
1:43:34
SPEAKER_03: This this book uh tells that story, and it's our own personal story, and we thank you for that in Jesus' name.
1:43:40
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
1:43:43
SPEAKER_03: Great.
1:43:44
SPEAKER_03: Thanks so much.
1:43:44
SPEAKER_03: That's the end of there will be a spring Bible school coming up.
1:43:48
SPEAKER_03: Uh but the third Sunday in November, we have Sunday Bible school.
1:43:52
SPEAKER_03: So um uh Jake uh chapters is going to do uh the God of Mission through Scripture, so that's gonna be on the third Sunday in November.
1:44:02
SPEAKER_03: Um I will send them an email around with the audio and with kind of if you've got any feedback, uh we'd love to carry on learning about how we do that.
1:44:11
SPEAKER_03: So if you've got any feedback on the sessions or any uh advice recommendations for the next topic, uh we'd love to hear from you.
1:44:18
SPEAKER_03: Okay, great.
1:44:20
SPEAKER_03: Thank you very much.