Latest / Woodlands Church Academy's Podcast / Autumn'26 Bible School- Exploring Exodus- Session 2- Jonny Warke and Tim Dobson

Transcript

Autumn'26 Bible School- Exploring Exodus- Session 2- Jonny Warke and Tim Dobson · Woodlands Church Academy's Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope that's a very true.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Oh great, thank you.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm part of Woodland Central, if you don't know me, and um, as Tim said, work for UCCF.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I support students in Christian unions, um, particularly here in Bristol.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um so their kind of aim is to share Jesus on their campus.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I'm helping them do that.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, uh and uh we're gonna look we're gonna start with Passover.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um so if you've got your Bible in front of you again, if you can go back to Exodus 12, um it would be really helpful to have that in front of you as we as we look at this.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: And um this is the the first Passover, maybe that's obvious, but um actually for Israel and for Jews still today, Passover is still a thing that Passover is still a thing that happens, and it's still celebrated, but it's this moment that they're celebrating.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um and it's the the Feast of Unleavened Bread or Passover is is sometimes um used interchangeably.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's used interchangeably in the Gospels.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: So when we get um Feast of Unleavened Bread or Passover, um that should be screaming at us.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Back to Exodus 12.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: What happened in Exodus 12?
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um and as Tim said, if you were there last week and and even and today as well, a bit of context for that, and he kind of brought us up to that point that is uh God's people have been in Egypt for about uh 400 years.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: And we read, you probably noticed um in Exodus 12, verse 40, said very specifically it's 430 years, and lots of that has been in slavery.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: So this moment that we get up to in Exodus 12, they've been crying out to God.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh they've been worked and worked and worked by Pharaoh.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, their uh children, their their boys that have been born to them have been killed.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then we get this Exodus 12 moment, and God is going to set them free.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's so significant because it's we get it through scripture again and again, looking back to Exodus, uh, but not just Exodus to the Passover.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um so this Passover, I think, is maybe one of the greatest examples in Scripture, in this in my opinion, um, of where we get like a typology or a looking forward or almost like a blueprint of something that's to come.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we'll look at how that points us uh to Jesus.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um but uh first, if you've got it uh up in front of you, we're not gonna read it again, but um as a kind of quick run-through of the days of what are Israel doing, what are God's people to do in this time?
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: And they were told to choose a one-year-old unblemished, perfect meal lamb, to bring it into their homes.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: This was on the tenth day, and then they were to kind of keep it in their homes.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we think like a period of sort of like just checking that it is perfect, uh, it is unblemished for those days, until the 14th day, when twilight comes, they're to sacrifice that lamb, uh, take its blood from a basin, which um people much smaller than me reckon that uh it that's just referring to a kind of a bit at the bottom of their doorway where the blood would have pulled into.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so, kind of from that basin, you can imagine the hyssop branch, and they just are then applying that on the frames of the doorway.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then they remain inside the rest of the night.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: They're not to go outside of that door, and they're to roast the entire lamb, to eat it quickly, in haste, with, as we said, the unleavened bread with no yeast in it, and bitter herbs, and then burn whatever else remains.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: And if they do this, then their firstborn son is not going to die.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I kind of relate to what what Julia was saying there.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a first is anyone else a firstborn?
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a firstborn son.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I think the story hits a bit different, you know.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um I can imagine, I'm just thinking I've been I was thinking about this this week.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: If I was there, I would be like watching my parents like a hawk, being like, do not mess this up, guys.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like, we can't get this wrong.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um and like obviously they've seen God at this point say there's been nine plagues before this, they've seen God say, There's a plague coming, it's come, there's a plague coming, it's happened.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so they're getting to this point, and we know in the next morning there's either gonna be a dead lamb or a dead child in each of these homes.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I I think it is worth acknowledging.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'd like us to think about um that question of why.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Why would God do this?
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think this obviously is a question we have when we come to this, and we're not gonna be able to cover the full, uh Tim touched on it last week, not gonna be able to cover the full kind of question of God and suffering and evil right now.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um but personally, I have found uh a couple helpful things in this passage that just help me to think a little bit more about the justice of what God is doing here.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: So, firstly, if we think about the situation and that Moses was born into, um, right back in Exodus 1, we read that Pharaoh had commanded not just that every firstborn male was to be killed, but every male child born into an Egyptian family or an Israelite family was to be killed.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and Tim mentioned last week again, I think, that um God also commands Moses to tell Pharaoh this kind of strange line, that Israel is my firstborn son, as if this is God speaking.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I told you, let my son go, that he may worship me, but you refuse to let him go, so I will kill your firstborn son.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: I think we we have to have this context and see that Israel is in the depths of oppression, their children are being killed, they are uh being worked ruthlessly cut down, and God himself is saying, My child, Israel, it is being oppressed.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so when God's final plague on the Egyptians is this this death of firstborn sons, I think we can say um it might be shocking, but it's not random.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's definitely not unproportional, and it's not out of nowhere.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: And Pharaoh was warned, and this is a very specific justice that God is carrying out here.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um one other thing I've find helpful to distinguish is uh, and there is, I mean, I this is a confusing verse, and there is lots of debate over this, and but who is doing the killing?
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: If we look at Exodus 12, verse 23.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and the sides of the door frame, and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I I used to, you know, I have read this story in the past as if it's like a flip of a coin, like God's going through and he's just like, oh, there's blood on that doorpost, fine, there's none there, they're in trouble.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um but I don't I don't think this is what we're getting from this passage.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it reads to me like there's two characters here.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and on one hand it's very clear the Lord Yahweh goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: We can't get away from that as much as we might want to, but I think it it is uh a good thing he's bringing justice, and it is him that is doing it.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have a God who ignores sin.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: And yet, seemingly it's not Yahweh that's entering the homes to bring this death.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: He will not permit the destroyer to enter your homes and strike you down.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um I do not have a perfect explanation of what's going on here.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'd love you to discuss it later.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I think something that we need to remember is um the Israelites weren't perfect themselves, and God doesn't uh arbitrarily administer justice kind of here and not there.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: If he's going through the land and saying death will come to those who deserve it, then what about those Israelite homes who are clearly not perfect themselves?
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: We don't get it explicitly telling us that you know the Israelites have sinned and therefore we need this Lamb.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: But I wonder implicitly, is there something here about how can God bring justice and mercy together?
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: The only thing that's stopping death from visiting a home, it seems, is that the Lord will pass over the doorway and not permit the destroyer to enter in.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: The only thing permitting the death is that there is a sacrifice that has already been made.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so he's made a way through the Passover for justice and mercy to occur at the same time.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's where this story uh screams at us, it's Jesus.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um if you keep Exodus 12 open in front of you, and very quickly, too quickly, probably, we're gonna look at John's Gospel particularly, but a bit of the New Testament, and I think there's no question about it.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: The Passover is all about Jesus.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: Immediately when we meet Jesus in John's Gospel, we get this from uh John the Baptist.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: He he sees Jesus and he shouts, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um with no context, that's a pretty weird thing to say, I think.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: But but we have context, and we are very lucky to have uh all of this context.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: He has it spot on.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um Paul goes even further.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, Lamb of God is a name for Jesus that is kind of common, particularly in Revelation, is a common uh kind of name for him.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: But Paul goes even further and says, our Passover lamb.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: He almost feels like he's saying this in passing in the passage, which is um interesting, but he leaves us no doubts.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um and John's Gospel, um, John particularly loves the Passover.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: He describes it three times, and Jesus kind of taking part in it three times, maybe not in detail every time, but he mentions it in three separate parts.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: And John's Gospel is all about who is Jesus.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: We've got the I am sayings, I am the bread of life, I am the door.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: We've got these kind of who is Jesus coming at us again and again, and I don't think it's an accident that he's including so much of the Passover.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's something in this, we say, the identity of Jesus.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: We can find something about that in the Passover.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: Every gospel, including John's Gospel, begins the run-up to Jesus' death with this, with a phrase something like, and it was before or around or the beginning of the Feast of Unleavened Bread at the Passover.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think we're left in no doubt when Jesus was on the cross, when he died on the cross, it was during a feast of Passover that they were celebrating.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: But there is even more specifics than that.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um again in John's Gospel, what we get is like a fixation on signs.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see, he he mentions again and again Jesus, and this was Jesus' first sign, and this was his second sign, and so on.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: If we look back in Exodus, what happened before the Passover?
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: We've got Moses being God's mouthpiece, doing signs before Pharaoh turning his staff into a snake, uh, the leprosy uh on his hand being healed, and then these plagues up until we get the final sign that brings the freedom, the Passover lamb.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then in the in the Gospels we get in John's Gospel, we get Jesus performing signs again and again and again.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: Miracles which people do see and believe.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: Pharaoh didn't believe, some people did believe, until we get this greatest sign of his death and resurrection.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: And then we'll not go into this um loads because again, there's lots of debate over timelines in John's Gospel, and some people come down on different different parts, different ways.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um quite confusing because of the way the Hebrew days work as well.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: But one reading of the timeline, which I think is uh is brilliant, is this that we do get in John 12, verse 1, it's six days before Passover.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and if Passover, which is part of the question around this, is what does he mean when he says Passover?
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's a festival, it also could be a specific meal he's talking about.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um lots of people uh think that it would be the Sabbath meal, which would be the Saturday, the the day after Jesus has has died.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so six days before that uh we have Nisan is the month, the Hebrew month, Nisan 9, Jesus in Bethany, meaning that the day after that would be Nisan 10, Jesus entering Jerusalem.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: And if you've still got Exodus in front of you, uh Exodus 12, in verse 3, we get day 10.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: It says, on the tenth day of this month, each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: On the tenth day of the month, the chosen lamb is presented to be prepared for sacrifice.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: On the tenth day of this Passover Nisan month, Jesus enters Jerusalem triumphantly as the king, presenting himself as the sacrificial lamb.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: And in Exodus 12 we read, then the Israelites spend the next four days with that lamb, checking it is spotless, is it without blemish?
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: The next four days Jesus spends in Jerusalem.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: And Matthew's gospel really outlines this more, and that the Jewish authorities test him again and again.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: But again, in all of the gospels, we get this trial of Jesus, where he's put on trial, but he's found that there is no basis for a charge against him.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: He is found spotless and without blemish.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: So he's presented, he's found without blemish, and the 14th day, of course, is the day that Jesus is crucified.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so on this day, uh when the Passover lamb is to be slaughtered, Good Friday, Jesus hangs upon the cross and bleeds and dies for us.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: And uh just as the Israelites, just even to another one that you may have seen before, but just as the Israelites were strangely commanded at the end of that Exodus 12 passage to not break one bone of the Passover Lamb.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: Not one of Jesus' bones were broken on the cross, and I mean that would have been what they normally do is break the legs to ensure that the crucified person is dead.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: So Jesus, the perfect sacrificial lamb.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: I recognize that's a lot um quite quickly, uh, but what are we to understand from this?
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm gonna leave that over to you.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I think there is lots in here to unpack.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, three things I'd love you to think about is um atonement.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: So, what happened on the cross?
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: What does the Passover Lamb, that what the Passover Lamb is doing for the Israelites in that moment, what does that tell us about what Jesus is doing on the cross?
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, what does Exodus 12 teach us about the role of faith in salvation?
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: What did the people have to do?
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and and and yeah, what what is the role of faith in that?
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um and how does the Passover feast relate to communion?
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: Haven't touched on it at all, but it's a massive topic.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'd love to hear your thoughts on that.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I wonder um five minutes or so, or maybe slightly less now, if you guys kind of want to discuss some of these questions, you probably won't get uh through them all, or even one of them, maybe.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, anything there that we can take practically for us um about Jesus from that.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um the Passover conjures up and um uh what we're gonna do next is we is we're gonna look at um the give you the law.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: Here's something for you to do.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: And it's interesting that the Passover was the only plague where you had to do something.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: When we read about the plagues, kind of read through the plagues, in all the other plagues, the plague seemed to hit Egypt, but Goshan, where the Israelites were, they were immune from it.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: And and they didn't drive anything, just the hail didn't come there, the locusts didn't come there, kind of uh the darkness didn't come there, it was just here.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, this was the only plague where you've got to do something.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: Kind of there's something you need to do to this time to be rescued.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and in some ways, uh what is there to do?
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, how how could now that we're freed as God's people, how are we gonna live as God's people?
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, what kind of what does God require us to do?
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: So there was something to do on the Passover that that was the kind of the release uh from death, and there was the release from Egypt.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: Now they're going to the wilderness, and and and they started off just with um was it 50 something people that went into Egypt, and there's now 600,000 men plus probably 600,000 women plus kids, kind of um that was kind of almost two million probably kind of people that might have come out of Egypt, including the children.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um and what kind of people they're gonna be now that God's set them free, how how are they gonna live?
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: And so they um come through the wilderness to Mount Sinai.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: Mount Sinai, um the same place, kind of Mount Horeb, where um God spoke to Moses with a burning bush.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: It was a place where he was used to a God encounter.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, God said to come and worship him at that mountain.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: That was part of the kind of thing that they said to Pharaoh, release my people, so you go and worship God, and um as a sign that I'm gonna do it, you will come to worship God at this mountain.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: So this mountain, Mount Sinai, Mount Horeb is another name for it, seemed to be a significant place.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: And so they go through the wilderness and they arrive here.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: Moses knows this place.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: Moses knows that this is holy ground, this is where God spoke to him.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: So he's anticipating God's speaking.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but the other people they they've had this pillar of cloud and this pillar of fire during the night, they kind of know that God's presence is there.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: They've come through the Red Sea, it's parted for them, they've walked through and it's kind of drowned the uh Egyptians.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: And again, freedom going through water, again, Jesus kind of coming uh from uh sorry, as the people of God uh under Joshua go through um the River Jordan, again it parts and they go in from the wilderness, they go into the promised land.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Jesus with his baptism goes into the river Jordan again, and then into the wilderness.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um actually there's something about wilderness and baptism and water uh and separation that is all part of the deal.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: So they go and then God has says, actually, you I I want you to be my special people.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, I always promised that, I promised that to Abraham, I promised that to uh to Isaac, I promised that to Jacob.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, I promised that you would be my people, and I promised that there would be a special land that would be your kind of land, and and and and now you've come out from 400 years of slavery.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um uh 430 years.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: Uh now 430 years ago for us would have been 1590.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: Now I'm not I'm not a historian.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, what will happen in 1500?
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: But if someone said in 1590, kind of when I when I die, take my bones with you, um, and somebody actually remembered.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: Somebody remembered, oh yeah, we're going.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: We've got to take these back of bones.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: Joseph's had told us to do it.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's incredible, isn't it?
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: Four and thirty years, they take the bones.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um they go, they that they they go and um the promise to the generations.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: Now God meets with them, now God says, actually, I want you to be my people.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to look at what covenant means uh if we have time towards the end.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but he he he gives them the the law.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um uh and in giving the law uh it's kind of summed up in what we call the Ten Commandments.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but we have a few chapters of laws here, but when you hit uh Leviticus, you have a whole stack of these laws.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: Kind of, I want you to be a nation that's my nation, I want you to be my kind of people, I want you to be a royal priesthood.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, here's some of the things that it looks like within this culture, kind of mid, maybe late Bronze Age, kind of within this culture, here's how I want you to reflect my character, my nature.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so within the book of Exodus, we have, and we didn't read them this evening, but they are they read the Ten Commandments, but it goes on with all kinds of laws, and as you go to Leviticus, all kinds of other laws, you think, how do we read those?
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: How do we interpret those?
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: Do we do we take them literally for today?
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: Do we say, all those laws is God's word, we're gonna take them totally literally?
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna eat prawns, I'm not gonna eat kind of uh screech owls, I'm not gonna uh I'm not gonna kind of uh mix my fibres or eat a uh uh goat cooked in this mother's milk.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, those things are definitely out for me.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um or or do you have to try and interpret the law that God gave to his people to be the people of God in a different way?
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: So I would say that when in giving the law, God had probably at least four different purposes.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: There's four different things they wanted to communicate, and in some ways that's the puzzle for us to solve.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: Which of these laws was, well, the first one was health laws.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, God cared about them and he cared about their physical well being.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: He cared about the he cared about them medically.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, some of the laws that are there are actually their health laws.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: If you touch a dead body, then there's some ritual cleaning that needs to happen.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: Now, again, way before the spread of bacteria and microbes and things, actually, that was just a really Sensible thing.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: If you touch a decaying body in the Middle East in the heat of the sun, actually washing and cleansing is that is super sensible for stopping kind of diseases being transmitted.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: And God said that because he knew that how biology worked, because he's wise, he created biology.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: He said that actually don't eat prawns, because if you're in the desert, if you eat a prawn, it's probably come from the sea.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: And there's no refrigerated Tesco lorries that bring them frozen from the sea to your desert.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, it's going to take a week, maybe a month to get the prawns from the sea to your desert.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, you're going to get food poisoning.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: Tell you what, don't eat prawns.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: Because that's not going to do.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: And if you eat, if there's an animal that preys on dead animals, so owls or vultures or whatever, actually, it's probably not a good idea to eat them because they've been eating decaying things, and when you eat them, if you don't cook it properly, how how about you don't eat eat vultures or screech owls?
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: And if you go through the laws, try and work out which one of them is God saying, I love you.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_01: I love you so much.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, I care about all of you.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_01: I care about your body.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: I care about how it works.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: Now, God was showing his care for them there and then.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: Now, we do now have antibiotics.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_01: We do now have refrigerated lorries.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, now kind of we we can eat prawns because they're not going to be, they're not going to poison us.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, we probably don't still don't eat screech owls or vultures, kind of, um, but maybe we eat pork.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and and and there's things that were to do with health laws that um, and so how do we interpret a health law?
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_01: We say, well, for that culture, it was showing God's knowledge and understanding and wisdom about how the human body works and his love for people.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: Isn't that wonderful that you serve a God who cares about our physical bodies?
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: Full stop.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: We can dis and we can dismiss all that kind of thing.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's just that's the point of those.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_01: There's some laws that are uh are social laws.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, there's some laws, as you read, they're laws of of um compensation.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: That if your your bull breaks out of your farm and and galls uh a neighbour's slave um uh uh so he can't work anymore, actually, you should pay some compensation, and that's a whole lot of compensation laws.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, uh manslaughter, manslaughter is uh the first time it's ever mentioned in any legal document anywhere in civilization, is the Old Testament.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: And there was laws for manslaughter.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: If you killed somebody deliberately, it was eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, kind of life for a life, but actually, if you killed somebody accidentally, you could flee to one of these cities of refuge, and actually you it was kind of it was manslaughter, and you were treated in a different way.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_01: You could you could live until the day the high priest died, and and and there was again some laws that actually, and those laws we've taken, and and they are still our in fact, our society's laws here in the UK are based significantly on the Old Testament revelation.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_01: People took the laws of uh that were revealed, the society laws here, and have become very much part of our statute in this country.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: Don't kill, don't murder, don't, don't, don't bear false witness, don't perjure yourself.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_01: All those things are part of our legal system.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: So we can look at those laws and say, okay, they're they're great examples of how uh humanity, how civilization should function well and function properly, how we should treat people who are uh uh immigrants and foreigners and strangers, and and how we should leave kind of the gleanie on the fields, and uh and there's all kinds of great things there about social laws.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: So, how do we read those laws?
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we say, okay, what of these do we see happening?
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: Where do we see God's wisdom being even held by society to say, actually, we think this is probably the best way to live?
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_01: And it was God's idea.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_01: So, social laws.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: Some laws we look at that as spiritual laws.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, there are laws about how to sacrifice animals, what uh a thank offering is, what a wave offering is, what a kind of when you sacrifice a bull, when you sacrifice a pigeon, when you kind of and there's all these kind of sacrificial laws, and and there's laws to do with how you worship, and and who is able to be the person that can uh officiate at those ceremonies and and what kind of clothes they have to wear and how they're to cleanse themselves.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_01: And there's all kinds of laws that are to do with spiritual laws, they're about our access to God and and how we can have sin covered and how we can bring appropriate thanks to an awesome, wonderful God.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_01: And in some ways, those spiritual laws, again, significantly they're fulfilled in Jesus.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_01: So we when we read a law that's about an animal being sacrificed, we say, Thank you, Jesus, that we don't have to sacrifice animals anymore because when you died, it was once for all.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't every day, every day, every every year, time and time again.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: No, once for all you died for our sins.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_01: So we we see some of the spiritual laws and the laws concerning the the priests and how the priests work, and Jesus is our great high priest, and and again we interpret some of those laws as spiritual laws and they're fulfilled in Jesus.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_01: So we kind of we we look at a law, is it a health law, is it a society law, is it a spiritual law, or or is it a um do we do we have a I missed I missed the moral law?
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_01: Is it a moral law?
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so is it a law that that is like like the Ten Commandments?
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_01: So the Ten Commandments have four commandments that are about God, towards God, and six commandments that are about other people.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: So when Jesus is asked kind of which is the greatest commandments, how do you sum it up?
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_01: Love the Lord of God with all your heart and love your neighbours as yourself.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: There are four commandments for God, six commandments for how you relate uh to uh to one another.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um and within those commandments there are moral laws.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, there are moral laws that you you you can't um put to one side.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_01: You can't say, oh well, I I know it says in the law that you can't eat prawns, and we do it eat prawns, so we can ignore that.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe we could ignore the one that says committing adultery.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe we could ignore the one that says about stealing.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_01: So I know it's a different kind of law.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and we and we treat uh health law, uh society law, a spiritual law, and a moral law slightly different.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: And and and and the clue is look at the laws round about you.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_01: Uh what are the laws saying?
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: Are they health laws?
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_01: Are they moral laws?
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: Are they social laws?
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: Are they spiritual laws?
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and um you interpret them like that.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_01: So does that make sense?
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not just the law, kind of we'll interpret it all the same way.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um I know there's again there's many different kinds of ideas, and I I know sometimes I listen to a uh uh a Radio 5 phoning.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um and and and occasionally there'll be ones that talk about um same-sexual attraction.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um and there's always people that say, Oh, kind of we have we can ignore the old testament because the old testament says that you can eat uh kind of you can't eat prawns, and we all eat prawns, so you're hypocritical if you say anything against whatever.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I think, ah, I listened to it, I think, well no, you kind of need to see where that law is positioned within the the kind of law is to, and uh again, I just with some of the moral stuff that we have and some of the things we have to navigate in the complexity of the world that we live in.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um, how does some of the Old Testament scripture, how do we understand that?
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_01: Was it just for the time or was it something that's eternal?
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_01: Which of these laws was societal and was uh health and was cultural, which ones are eternal?
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_01: And and that's a real wrestle, and that's why different people apply to script approach scripture and come with different answers because they have different ways.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um so um uh yeah, the Ten Commandments uh I suppose are the summation of all these kinds of laws.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_01: Here's how you're taught to love God.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: There's four things to do about God, don't take his name in vain, don't have kind of other other idols.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um uh don't kind of keep keep Sabbath.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um uh to uh it's a Sabbath uh to the Lord.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and then the uh the uh other things, yeah.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_01: Don't uh um worship the Lord only, have no other gods, don't take the Lord's name in vain, remember the Sabbath, uh the four uh towards God, and then on your father and mother, don't murder, don't steal, cut yourself, don't steal, don't give false testimony and don't covet other ways in which we relate uh to one another.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um we were gonna have a little discussion a bit now, but but maybe for time, any any questions or comments on uh on the law giving that happened on Mount Sinai?
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_03: Could you say that all the economics are moral laws or is it just a portion of it?
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_01: So so in some ways the the the the six that's uh at the end that the how we how we live a moral life, I would say those six are to do with our morality, that we're not gonna steal, we're not gonna murder, we're not gonna commit adultery, we're not going to cover, we're not going to lie and bear false witness.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_01: Kind of, and I think that those are the moral tone of how God hopes a society will thrive and work its best.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_01: Those first four are how do we kind of relate to God?
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_01: We have no other gods but him, we don't have any false idols, we don't work take his name in vain, and we have a day that's specially set aside for him a Sabbath to the Lord.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, those are the kind of the four things that are a God.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_03: And like spiritual laws are different.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_01: So so the the the the Ten Commandments were part of um the covenant contract, in some ways, kind of here here's the essence of what we want to say.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_01: Now, in order to be God's people, here's all kinds of other things.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_01: So why Leviticus is just packed full with all kinds of other kinds of laws, is that God had opinions and thoughts about all kinds of things.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_01: But if you wanted to sum it up to it's about loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, it's about loving your neighbour as yourself, and that's what those ten uh are trying to try to do.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_01: Anything else on law?
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_01: So we're going to take the command about Sabbath because it's quite a unique uh command compared to other cultures of the day, and um uh over to you, Johnny, again.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Tim.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, that's really helpful coming into Sabbath.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um so, like Tim said, the the fourth command um of the ten commandments, but it's also uh lettered throughout Exodus.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, we're gonna look at a few different bits throughout Exodus where we where we get Sabbath.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and uh it's clearly quite important to God because often when we get that and we hear this this warning that if you do not adhere to Sabbath um you'll be put to death if you if you do not follow this law, um like some of the other laws.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's also given out of the Ten Commandments, given the most airtime in terms of words.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if that's important, probably not, but um I think we get through Exodus there is something important about Sabbath, something about Sabbath that that sets God's people apart.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we're gonna kind of look at four reasons for that, four reasons for Sabbath, I think, that we get, um, is that it's freedom from the way of the world, it's a sign of and for God's people, and it's a reminder of their dependency on God, uh, and it's a blessing.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: And these four things I think we find in pretty much all the Exodus passages, or most of them, so they're not these passages are not you know the only time you get that.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think it's just helpful to see a range of where we see Sabbath talked about in Exodus.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: So, Exodus 20, the one we've just been talking about, uh the Ten Commandments.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um these commandments, I think it's always helpful just to add to Tim that they're not arbitrary.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: They're as Tim's saying, they're there for a reason.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um that, for example, the reason behind murder, it's not just God's decided randomly, you know what, don't murder each other.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, obviously it's rooted in humanity is inherently valuable to God, it's his creation, we are his creation, therefore you must not take human life.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so, what about the principle of Sabbath?
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: What does that tell us about humanity?
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if we flick uh back to Exodus uh five, do I have it there?
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe not.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um well if you looked at Exodus five, we don't need to actually, and we can probably remember um or think that what it was like for the Israelites under Pharaoh, it was extreme work.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: It was work harder and harder to the fact that actually Pharaoh said you can't have straw to make the bricks anymore, and you only use you can only use the stubble, and so it's going to take you far longer.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: And they were working seven days a week, 24-7, and to the point where their lives were about production.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: Their identity was we are we are slaves, we are working for our this person who's over us.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: And their relationship to Pharaoh, their ruler, was based on what they could do.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I wonder for us as we kind of reflect on this too, sometimes how do we slip into that?
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: How much are our lives uh based on what we do, what we can produce for the person we work for or for our for our family?
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um has our identity got anything to do with that?
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think that can be a difficulty for us too.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: But God brings the Israelites out of Egypt and He gives them a new identity, His people, this is how you should live.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's so important that He's that before we get the Exodus laws, um, we get uh, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: Before you do anything, I have brought you out, I have freed you, and now this is how you should live.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: He could have said when they were in slavery, here's the Ten Commandments, do these perfectly, and then I'll get you out.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: But that's not the God he is.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: And God is not Pharaoh, and our relationship with him is not based on what we can do.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so Sabbath, I think Sabbath is so important for us to remember that it's about how we relate to God in these first four commandments, and we relate to him not as our workforce driver, uh, but as he's our God and we're his holy people, or Israel is his holy people, and the relationship is about worship, not work.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um so one way is freedom from the way of Pharaoh, or freedom from the way of the world.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: We also have uh Sabbath as a sign for God's people.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's really clear, and this this is kind of the last uh time that Sabbath talked about in Exodus and chronologically, and in the run-up to this bit, and we've just had all the laws about how they should build the tabernacle.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: God's just said all these specific things you need to do to build this place for me to meet with you while you're on the move.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I I read this and I think, when was the last time Israel had to build things for the person that was asking them to build stuff?
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think it's great that God finishes that time, those instructions, with a reminder of you must have Sabbath rest, you must observe this seventh day of rest, and because this is a sign for you of who you are.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um freedom from the way of the world, um, a sign that you're God's people, you're not worldly people.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um and as you we can probably imagine, what other nation would ever be taking a day of rest?
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um Egypt were a great example of that, of working them 24-7.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_00: If your work is providing you your food on the table each day, which what it would have been in the ancient Near East, who's taking a day off?
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard for us to imagine when all the shops close on a Sunday, um, or not all of them now, but uh when we're we've kind of grown up in that culture.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um but this is a clear sign they are different.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_00: We also have a reminder of dependency.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um again, this is um not in chronological order the way we're looking at it.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: So this is the first time they kind of hear about Sabbath, other than maybe knowing of this the Genesis narrative.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so you've probably you've probably heard this story at this point.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: They're wandering in the wilderness.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_00: I think maybe Tim's gonna cover this next week or another time, and but they've discovered there's not much food in the desert.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_00: What do we do about this?
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: They grumble to God's, and God provides the quail and the manor, and they have to go out and collect it each day.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, except the sixth day when they're collect there to collect for two days, so that on the seventh day they don't need to go out.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I just love to imagine the amazement of the people when every day we read in in this kind of passage that some of them do try and go out and get more than enough for the other days, and they find the next morning it's stinking with maggots in it.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_00: I can just imagine their amazement when week after week, on the seventh day, that doesn't happen.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's still fresh, and they can eat it.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_00: And this is just, I think, what a picture of God's provision and of how they need to and can be dependent on God.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and again, it's no different for us.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_00: I think in the West, we particularly can fall into this kind of thinking of we tend to have more, and we tend to have more than we need, and and and that's not always the same all the time for everybody, but lots of people um have lots of things in this country, and when that happens, I think we can slip into this idea that we've earned it, and that we kind of worked for this and we got it.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: But the Israelites had to learn that it came from God, uh, especially the ones, as we read at the end there, the ones that went out in the seventh day to gather it and there was none, the ones that thought, well, I'll go out and get it from myself every day and there was none.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_00: If we don't trust that it's God who's providing, if our temptation will be to neglect rest in order to work, like the Israelites who did that, then uh well, it's not a picture of God's people, but it's also, I think, as we're gonna see, uh, the opposite of blessing for us.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because Sabbath is not just an arbitrary rule, it really brings blessing.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: And there's something in here that I just love as a geography teacher because it's not just blessing to people.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I I was a geography teacher, sorry, before.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's blessing to animals and the land.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um the here we get in in Exodus 23, during the seventh year, not just seventh day, seventh year let the land lie unplowed.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um we now call this uh fallowing, and farmers are told to do it, or or if if anyone's in farming, they're recommended to do it because um for many reasons, but it's good for the climate, it's good for animals uh to be able to graze, it's good for natural nutrients to return to the soil.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um and again I think we see that God knows his creation, he knows what his creation needs.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and it's almost as if Sabbath is built into the fabric of creation.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_00: We need rest, and the land needs rest, and the animals need rest.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and it's blessing to us to do this.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um as a side note, I talked about kind of they'd be working for their food every day.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um there is archaeological research that suggests the average Israelite family would make a shortfall of about 60 days of food per year.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so if we think about that, you know, 300 days you're gonna have to ration to be able to cover those other 60.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so they're not an abundance of food, and then to think on the seventh year, as they're trying to store up their food and ration even more to keep some for that year, that then they're gonna not plough the land, and what happens the year after?
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_00: We're really gonna need a bumper crop that year.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_00: What sort of dependency does that create on God?
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_00: But it's it's the God who we can depend on.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and and I think it would be great for us to learn some of this as well.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, great for me, certainly.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, I should have said earlier, this picture's a bit random.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_00: This is how what I think my perfect Sabbath uh looks like, a coffee and a book.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh, but yeah, anyway.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_00: So um Tim's really helpfully said, laws don't all apply specifically to us and in the same way, we're in a different time and place, but Sabbath is in the Ten Commandments, so there's clearly something important there.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, what can we take from this?
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_00: I I think uh, firstly, uh always in the Old Testament want to see how does what does Jesus have to say about this, and how does Jesus maybe fulfill some of this?
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_00: And ultimately, I think each of these things that we get in Sabbath, something about our identity, freedom, a blessing, rest, we we find it in Jesus.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_00: He says, you will find rest for your souls.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so as we if you practice Sabbath each week, as you look towards that that rest at the end of your week, we can also look towards that rest at the end of our lives in eternity with him.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's beautiful.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then I guess the last question is if I said if you practice Sabbath every week, should we practice Sabbath every week?
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and again, um I'm gonna turn the hard questions over to you, um, but I'm gonna leave you with some.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, we might not have time for you to discuss that, but I'll leave you with um some of these passages I think are helpful.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus talks quite a lot about Sabbath.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_00: The the Pharisees get really angry about how uh Jesus acts on Sabbath.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's certainly not uh a law to be enforced.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think we can take That from the New Testament.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_00: But it's certainly also not something to be ignored.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if we have time to discuss, or are you going on to copy?
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to try and finish by 9.15.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_01: So if we have five minutes to discuss, lens of questions.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_01: Lots of questions.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_01: Well, pick one.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_02: Is Sunday the first day of the week or the last day of the week?
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_01: Well, so yeah.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_01: So it seems for God, it seems to be the last day of the week, but for Adam and Eve, it's the first day of the week.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_01: So on the sixth day God did his work, and on the seventh day he rested.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_01: Now, did he rest because he was super exhausted?
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_01: Do you know what?
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_01: Creating all those elephants and that rainforest was just such hard work.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_01: I need to have a rest.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_01: And did God rest from his work because he'd exhausted himself?
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_01: Actually he rested from his work because on day six he created Adam and Eve, and he wanted to make sure he spent time with Adam and Eve on that first day.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_01: Let's stop all this stuff because actually the main point of all this stuff, all this work, is that I need to connect with you.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_01: Which is why the first day of the week is Sabbath for us, because actually we need to connect with God.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_01: Sabbath is a Sabbath to the Lord, it's not a Sabbath to you.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's not, you've worked jolly hard six days, you deserve a day on the sofa with Netflix and a kind of a nice cup of tea.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's not the Sabbath isn't for you.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's Sabbath to the Lord.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_01: Now, when you give a day to the Lord, of course, you get blessed.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's the things that Tron's been saying.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_01: But the focus, so it's the last day of God's week, but it's the first day of our week.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_01: And it's it's it's because God wants to encounter us and we need to encounter God.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_01: So if you work all seven days and you don't have time for God, well, you might as well die.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_01: You might as well, if anyone breaks the Sabbath, stone them to death.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's kind of it's like a sign, because that's the day to encounter God.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_01: That's what you were made for to create to encounter God.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're committing yourself just to physical work and you don't have space and time for God, well, you've missed the whole point, you might as well end it now.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but it's really important we stop our work so that, again, the dependency, the blessing, the kind of things that have been said, we have a space not to indulge ourselves, but to encounter it's a Sabbath to the Lord.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_02: Is that we were saying, how literally do you take that though?
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_02: Because if it is the Sunday meant to be the day of our education, well, we're also encouraged to invite people back.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_01: And that comes in all the practical stuff, right?
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, the kitchen make all happen.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_02: How literally does he take it?
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so so does it mean that you don't do anything?
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_01: So so some of the that's what the Pharisees said to Jesus.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_01: They said to Jesus, look at your disciples.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_01: They were wandering through a cornfield and they were kind of rubbing the corn and eating some grain because they were hungry.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_01: And the Pharisees said, Ah, that's harvesting, that's work, that's agricultural labour.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_01: You shouldn't be doing that on the Sabbath.
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_01: And he's saying, Uh, we're just having a nice afternoon walk and we just feel a bit hungry.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_01: Kind of uh they're spending time with Jesus, God, a day to the Lord.
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, when Jesus heals on the Sabbath, it looks like, oh, you're a healing person, that's your daytime job, and you're healing on the Sabbath.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_01: You shouldn't do that.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_01: Kind of, who told you, you lame person, who told you to carry your mat?
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_01: That's work.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_01: You shouldn't carry your mat on a Sabbath.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_01: And they turned what was a day for the Lord into a day of regulations and rules that restricted human activity.
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not the Sabbath doesn't have human activity that I'm cooking a meal, I'm doing the washing up, I'm having some friends around, but that it's a sense of it's it's a community of God's people, we're family together, we're celebrating something about the Lord together.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, kind of um, yeah, I I don't regard coming to church on Sunday as as work because although I'm one of the church leaders, I regard it as it's Sabbath kind of, and although it looks like I'm busy, actually I'm it's for the Lord, kind of so so it's a day for the Lord.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_01: And and if it's a day for the Lord, of course it's a day for the Lord's people as well.
• 48:10
  SPEAKER_01: So of course I'll turn up here on a Sunday because I I love to meet with the Lord's people, because in some ways when I meet with you, I see the Lord in in you, in your words that encourage me, speak to me, and and as we worship together, kind of it's for the Lord.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_01: So, in some ways, even my activity on a Sunday, which might be preaching or welcoming or sorting out stuff, actually, I think that's part of my Sabbath routine because it's to the Lord.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_02: So is it something also to do with our uh corporate life of the church in terms of Sabbath as active resistance to consumerism, the accumulative society, the constant barrage of advertising we have on us and the relentless wearing down of our capitalist world?
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and there's something about the church's witness in living differently from that, yeah.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_02: Trusting God uh and resisting the infiltration.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and and I think that's that bit that you put up there, Johnny, uh I thought it was just really helpful.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_01: This is what it looks like, kind of hard labor, fulfill your quota, kind of all those kind of things that were there.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_01: I think actually, yeah, that's what that's what the world does to you.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_01: And and Sabbath is a blessing uh to you.
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um any other questions or comments or thoughts that that you had?
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_03: And you should not be right jealousy or happy, but yes, I'm just curious about like being jealousy is still a bad like emotion to feel.
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um I th I think jealousy that makes you mean spirited, oh it's not fair, they've got that, and I want that, kind of uh they don't deserve it, I do deserve it.
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_01: All those kind of things I think are are selfish and uh and therefore contribute to something that's wrong.
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_01: If if there's something that God's given to you and and it's precious and it's valuable and you treasure it, if it if it was you were to lose it, in some ways you're jealous to keep it, not because it's to do with your resenting other people, but it's it's you're you you don't want it to be damaged or or solid or kind of ah so so that's why in a a marriage relationship you should be jealous for your husband's or wife's uh attention and and and you don't want that to be given somewhere else because you want that relationship to really work and to really be precious and really to be unique.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think yeah, I think jealousy when it's selfish and self-centered and resentful of others, I think is a negative thing.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_01: When it's when there's something that's God given that's precious that you need to value, in some ways to be jealous and protective of that rather than desiring of that.
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_01: So it's a protective thing rather than a desiring thing.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_01: So which I think helps kind of folks, it's quarter pass.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_01: So is that okay if I say a prayer for us?
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_01: And um uh we'll be here next week and we're going to look at some of the themes that we see next exodus.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna just work them through scriptures.
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_01: So uh we're gonna do we were gonna do covenant tonight, but we'll we'll do start off with covenant next week and say how does this covenant work out through scripture?
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_01: But um let's just just pray, Lord.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for this evening, thank you for your word, thank you for just some of the amazing uh imagery that we have.
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_01: And although some of it is confusing, we realise that uh Passover, this picture of deliverance, of freedom from an enemy that was like a tyrant in our life, is when we find you, Jesus, and your death on the cross, we're we're freed from the tyranny of this this world, the power of sin, the power of darkness uh that was uh used to oppress us and used to lead us into addictive behaviours and actions.
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_01: And yet we find in you, Jesus, a freedom and a life that uh it's our own personal exodus.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_01: We leave an old life and we come into a new life that's encountering you, encountering your presence, encountering your ways, encountering your love.
• 52:21
  SPEAKER_01: And we say, Lord, will you help us, I pray, to really know that freedom in Jesus, to live as that holy priesthood, as that royal nation that that you intended us to be.
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_01: In his name we pray.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_01: Great.
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much, folks.
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_01: If you're signed up, I'll I'll send you the audio link and the notes if you like the notes.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um if you haven't signed up, then you can on the QR code.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_01: That is