ROUGHLY EDITED COPY CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY EDUCATION NETWORK EXODUS DR. DAVID ADAMS #57 Captioning Provided By: Caption First, Inc. 10 E. 22nd Street Suite 304 Lombard, IL 60148 800-825-5234 *** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. *** >> I was somewhat confused by Moses' request that the presence of God go up to the Promised Land with the people. Wasn't God already present with them in the cloud and the pillar of fire? >> Nick, this question takes us back to the central theme of the second part of the book of Exodus. Namely, what does it mean for Israel to be the people of God? You remember that we saw at the end of Chapter 24 we had a big unanswered question. Namely, what would happen if the people failed to keep the terms of the covenant perfectly as God had demanded of them and as they had themselves promised to do? So what we have in this response in our text here in Chapter 33 and continues into Chapter 34 is the resolution of that unanswered question and also the resolution of the central question of the second half of the book. Namely, what does it mean for Israel to be the people of God? And ultimately, we see that answer here in Chapter 33 and in Chapter 34. So these two chapters together are, theologically speaking, the crucial central theological constructions in the second part of the book of Exodus. So we need to pay very careful attention to what's said here and see what it says for Israel and also what it says for us about what it means to be the people of God. So as you read already in reading the text in Chapters 32 and 33, God's immediate response is to -- he decides to destroy the people. And Moses intercedes on behalf of the people and persuades God not to destroy them this. And so then as a fallback position as it were, God says, "Okay. I won't destroy them. But I'm still going to judge them in some way." And here is the judgement that God pronounces at the beginning of Chapter 33. Let's read this carefully. He says -- "Yahweh says to Moses, 'Get out of here. Get out of this place, you and the people whom you brought up from the land of Egypt'" -- I love that these are now the people that Moses brought. God doesn't have anything to do with them anymore. "'You and the people you brought up from the land of Egypt to the land I swore on oath to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob by saying to your seed, 'I will give it.'" Here's a place where the Old Testament quotes the other parts of the Old Testament. And then God says -- and then we come to the rub of the matter in Verse 2. God says, "I will send a messenger before you. And I will drive out the Canaanites" -- et cetera -- "to a land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go up in your midst because you are a stiff-necked people, lest I consume you on the way." So God's judgement is he will not be present among them because they are a stiff-necked people. If God was present among them, his presence among them would destroy them because he can't have -- he will not tolerate unholiness in his presence. And so in a sense, in a gracious way, God says, "I'm judging you. I'm withdrawing my presence from you. I'm still going to keep the promise that I gave to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I'm still going to give you the land that I promised. But the change is that I'm not going to dwell with you in that land anymore or ever for that matter." And the response is shock on the part of Israel. Because they understand that to have the land but without Yahweh's presence among them is disastrous for them. And Moses immediately intercedes again on behalf of the people to try to convince God not to deny them his presence. And so you can hear almost the pleading tone in Moses' voice. You know, let's pick up again in Chapter -- excuse me, Verse 12 of Chapter 33. "Moses says to Yahweh, 'See, you say to me bring up this people but you haven't let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you said, 'I know you by name and I found favor in your sight.' So if I have found favor in your sight, show me your ways that I may know how to find favor in your sight and consider, too, that this nation is your people.'" So Moses here is pleading with God that God would continue to give Moses access to God's presence, show him his ways so that he would know how to lead the people. And Moses reminds God that "It was at your command that I led these people out of here. And you have said that this is your people. And you've said that I've found favor in your sight." So Moses is saying to God "Remember all the promises that you gave? Remember all the things that you have said?" And "Don't abandon us." And so God says -- God is persuaded by Moses and says, "My presence will go with you and I will give you rest." And Moses at this point doesn't take yes for an answer. He continues to plead. Even though God has agreed to what Moses wants, Moses can't believe it almost. And so he goes on and he repeats it again. He says in Verse 15 "He" -- that is Moses -- "said to him" -- and this is -- it's actually good for us that Moses does say this. Because it helps us to understand something very important theologically here. In Verse 15 Moses says, "If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us so that we are distinctive, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?" And Yahweh said to Moses "This very thing you have spoken I will do." So Moses repeats the plea again, "Please don't abandon us. Go with us. Because it's your presence with us that makes us different from all the other people. And how will we continue to have any existence as a people if you do not go with us?" So now we return to that central question of the second part of the book of Exodus. What is it -- what does it mean for Israel to be the people of Yahweh? What defines Israel as the people of Yahweh? In Jewish tradition it is the fact that the people possess the torah that the -- the law that makes them special, that makes them different among all the peoples of the earth. But is that what the text says here? No. According to this word of God, it's not the possession of the torah that makes Israel special, that defines them as the people of God. What about the covenant? You know, often in materials that we read from evangelical circles, especially sort of heavily Presbyterian ones, we get the impression that it's the fact that God made a covenant with them that makes them special. That sort of makes them -- the covenant defines them as the people of God. But that's not what this text says. That's not -- when they appeal and God answers, it's not on the basis of the fact that they have this contract, this treaty or covenant. But rather, it's the presence of God with his people that defines the Hebrews or Israel as the people of God. As long as God is present with them, they are surely God's people. And they can be confident of him and of their relationship with him because of his dwelling with them. When he removes his presence, they no longer have the confidence that they have any hope of their relationship with God. And so this passage, Verses 15 and 16 of Chapter 33, are crucial theologically -- excuse me; they are crucial to our theological understanding of who Israel was as the people of God and upon who we are as the people of God. So Moses says again "If your presence is not going, don't send us up. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not by your going with us that we are distinguished, I and your people, from all the other people on the face of the earth?" So a critical theological point in Israel's coming to understand what it means for them to be the people of God and also for us to understand what it means for us to be the people of God. Well, before we leave this, we should ask the question: Upon what does God's presence depend? In other words, how can Israel know that God is going to be present within them? And here in Verse 19 we read he said "I will cause my goodness to pass over before you. And I will define the name Yahweh in your presence." And then he says, "I will be gracious upon whom I will be gracious. And I will have compassion upon whom I will have compassion." So God makes it clear in this context that there's nothing that Israel can do to manipulate God's presence. There's nothing that they can do to control God, to sort of guarantee by their actions that God will be there. But rather, it is God's gracious choice that determines his presence with his people. It depends not upon Israel and what they do. But rather, upon God and who he is that assures them of his presence among them. And one last thing before we leave this that we probably should mention, as well. And that is: What is the result of God's presence among them? If we turn back to Verse 14, I think God makes it clear. He says when he's speaking to Moses "My presence will go with you and I will give you rest." Now, this is the first time we've encountered this idea of the people of Israel being given rest. But this is really a very major theological theme. Not so much in the book of Exodus. It is mentioned here. But it's really -- this is one of those themes that is introduced here that develops in a major way in the rest of the Old Testament and also becomes very important in the New Testament. It is connected to the notion of the Sabbath, although a different word is used in Hebrew. But you know, the idea here is that the Sabbath rest is a sort of physical rest from labor. But it is in some way, if we can call it that, a type. It points to a greater rest that God will have for his people. When God restores the relationship that was broken at the fall, then he gives his -- he calls his people into a greater rest, one that -- in which their confidence and their security depends not upon what they do but upon what God himself has done. And so God says, "My presence among you gives you rest. It brings you to the point where you can be at peace in your relationship with me and rest from your labors. Because it depends not upon you and what you do, but upon me and my gracious will toward you." This ultimately points us to Christ in the New Testament. And the book of Hebrews picks this up and expresses it beautifully as we point out in Chapter 3 here. There's a long discussion of this, by the way, in the book of Hebrews in Chapters 3 and 4. And we won't bother to look at in detail here. But let me just quote a couple of things to show you how this develops in the New Testament. So there the author of the book of Hebrews is quoting God. And he says, "As I swore in my wrath they will not enter my rest." In other words, here he's talking not now about this but actually about -- if my memory serves me correctly, about the spies. That God is frustrated with their lack of faith that they won't follow him. So therefore, they won't be able to enter into the rest that they should have because of their lack of faith. And the author of the book of Hebrews picks up on this and develops this theme until we come in Chapter 4 to Verses 8 to 10. And there we read in part "For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever has entered into God's rest has rested from his works as God did from his. Rest for the people of God." So the author of the book of Hebrews makes it clear that this notion of rest that is introduced here is really what in theology we would call a soteriological concept. That is to say it's connected to the doctrine of salvation. That understanding what it means to be saved, what it means to be in that right relationship to God, is to understand that God himself accomplishes all that is necessary, both to bring us into that relationship and to keep us into that relationship by his grace. So that all that is -- all that we do is rest and be at peace in what God has done. And so in the New Testament Jesus can say, "Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest." So this notion of the presence of God is the central theological issue in the second half of the book of Exodus because it defines Israel as the people of God. And it also shows to them that their relationship with God depends not upon them and what they do, but upon God and his gracious disposition toward them. And that's a theological matter that brings us to the heart of the Gospel in the book of Exodus and helps us to appropriate the Exodus account in our preaching and teaching in our day, as well. *** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. ***