1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,760 Ben Spence Welcome to the Love and Context Podcast of 2 00:00:03,760 --> 00:00:05,600 Unscripted Conversation with Ben and Spence. 3 00:00:05,600 --> 00:00:10,480 We're so glad that you could join us today, whether that's from your car, office, home, 4 00:00:10,480 --> 00:00:13,180 church or wherever you're at. 5 00:00:13,180 --> 00:00:18,800 If you want to contact us, you can email us at lovingcontext at gmail.com. 6 00:00:18,800 --> 00:00:22,240 Also follow us on Instagram at lovingcontext. 7 00:00:22,240 --> 00:00:26,520 Ben Spence Welcome to the Love and Context Podcast. 8 00:00:26,520 --> 00:00:29,040 We're going to say things again and hopefully you're going to listen. 9 00:00:29,040 --> 00:00:30,040 I'm Ben. 10 00:00:30,040 --> 00:00:31,640 Spence I'm Spence. 11 00:00:31,640 --> 00:00:34,320 Ben Spence And he has a mouthful of sweet potato fries. 12 00:00:34,320 --> 00:00:39,080 So, which, I mean, let's be honest, everybody wants to record eating sweet potato fries, 13 00:00:39,080 --> 00:00:40,080 right? 14 00:00:40,080 --> 00:00:41,080 Spence Oh, yeah. 15 00:00:41,080 --> 00:00:42,080 Oh, yeah. 16 00:00:42,080 --> 00:00:43,080 Ben Spence We've got our great setup. 17 00:00:43,080 --> 00:00:44,760 I mean, we got coffee, sweet potato fries. 18 00:00:44,760 --> 00:00:45,760 I got my laptop set up. 19 00:00:45,760 --> 00:00:47,720 I mean, we're pretty much real podcasters now. 20 00:00:47,720 --> 00:00:49,760 Spence Yeah, pretty much. 21 00:00:49,760 --> 00:00:52,880 We even have chewed up crayons on the floor for my dogs. 22 00:00:52,880 --> 00:00:54,320 Ben Spence If it makes you feel any better. 23 00:00:54,320 --> 00:00:58,960 But Tara texted me and she says, as soon as the Zoom meeting started, my son yelled, Mom, 24 00:00:58,960 --> 00:00:59,960 I pooped my pants. 25 00:00:59,960 --> 00:01:01,880 So, you know, parenthood for you. 26 00:01:01,880 --> 00:01:02,880 Spence Yep. 27 00:01:02,880 --> 00:01:04,480 Yeah, that's kind of how life goes really. 28 00:01:04,480 --> 00:01:07,400 Ben Spence And I was like, Oh, no, I'm not there to help. 29 00:01:07,400 --> 00:01:08,400 Oh, no. 30 00:01:08,400 --> 00:01:12,480 Spence You know, that just means next time your kid poops his pants. 31 00:01:12,480 --> 00:01:16,200 Ben Spence One week Tara had, she had like youth group, young life, and then like one 32 00:01:16,200 --> 00:01:18,940 other thing, like three nights in a row. 33 00:01:18,940 --> 00:01:23,860 Every night she left, like 15 minutes after she left, my youngest would just fill his 34 00:01:23,860 --> 00:01:26,960 diaper with like, yeah. 35 00:01:26,960 --> 00:01:30,400 So it was and it was it was like the difficult kind of clean. 36 00:01:30,400 --> 00:01:34,080 So people listening to this, hopefully, it's parents, but you know, other people just I 37 00:01:34,080 --> 00:01:35,080 mean, that's part of life. 38 00:01:35,080 --> 00:01:36,800 Ben Spence See, they're going to listen to this and 39 00:01:36,800 --> 00:01:40,240 be like, I thought this was about theology, not poopy diapers. 40 00:01:40,240 --> 00:01:43,360 Spence Actually, this is about orthopraxia, not orthodoxy. 41 00:01:43,360 --> 00:01:44,360 Oh, okay. 42 00:01:44,360 --> 00:01:45,360 So it's about living. 43 00:01:45,360 --> 00:01:46,800 Ben Spence And poop in your diapers. 44 00:01:46,800 --> 00:01:49,520 And that's a part of living life is poop in the diaper. 45 00:01:49,520 --> 00:01:50,520 Exactly. 46 00:01:50,520 --> 00:01:53,000 I mean, you do it at the beginning, you do it at the end. 47 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:54,600 It's the great chiasm of life. 48 00:01:54,600 --> 00:01:55,600 Right. 49 00:01:55,600 --> 00:01:57,040 So it's sandwiched in between poop. 50 00:01:57,040 --> 00:01:58,040 Yep, exactly. 51 00:01:58,040 --> 00:01:59,040 Poop. 52 00:01:59,040 --> 00:02:00,040 Yep. 53 00:02:00,040 --> 00:02:01,040 It's sandwiched in poop. 54 00:02:01,040 --> 00:02:04,080 Well, on that note, join us. 55 00:02:04,080 --> 00:02:06,840 We are going to be talking about the golden calf today. 56 00:02:06,840 --> 00:02:09,680 Ben Spence Yeah, we're going to be in largely through 57 00:02:09,680 --> 00:02:13,080 Exodus 24 through the end of Exodus. 58 00:02:13,080 --> 00:02:16,320 So it's good 16 chapters in there. 59 00:02:16,320 --> 00:02:19,800 So just if you haven't read your Bible, or if you haven't checked out that section of 60 00:02:19,800 --> 00:02:25,960 Exodus before, you should stop, pause the podcast, actually, you know, if you're driving, 61 00:02:25,960 --> 00:02:26,960 don't stop. 62 00:02:26,960 --> 00:02:27,960 Like you keep driving, keep driving. 63 00:02:27,960 --> 00:02:31,680 Yeah, but pause the podcast, read those, because we're going to assume that you've read it 64 00:02:31,680 --> 00:02:32,920 once again. 65 00:02:32,920 --> 00:02:35,320 And we're going to talk about some things that happened in there. 66 00:02:35,320 --> 00:02:38,320 Ben Spence And if you haven't read your Bible, and you're 67 00:02:38,320 --> 00:02:40,120 on this podcast, we're glad you're here. 68 00:02:40,120 --> 00:02:42,760 I would encourage you to pause the podcast and go read your Bible, though. 69 00:02:42,760 --> 00:02:43,760 Ben Spence Right. 70 00:02:43,760 --> 00:02:46,640 Definitely don't listen to this podcast in lieu of reading your Bible. 71 00:02:46,640 --> 00:02:47,640 Yes, yes. 72 00:02:47,640 --> 00:02:50,080 Ben Spence Our words do not carry the same weight as 73 00:02:50,080 --> 00:02:53,080 the word of God, not by a long shot. 74 00:02:53,080 --> 00:02:55,240 Spencer would agree more, except he's got a mouthful of sweet potatoes. 75 00:02:55,240 --> 00:02:57,800 Spencer Only two, only two sweet potato fries. 76 00:02:57,800 --> 00:02:58,920 Ben Spence All right. 77 00:02:58,920 --> 00:03:02,840 So the first thing I actually want to talk about in this section here before we actually 78 00:03:02,840 --> 00:03:04,100 get to the golden calf. 79 00:03:04,100 --> 00:03:08,120 And I'm mentioning it this because in a few weeks, we're going to be getting into Leviticus. 80 00:03:08,120 --> 00:03:13,200 And there's a story in Leviticus 10 that correlates to what's happening here in Exodus 24. 81 00:03:13,200 --> 00:03:14,280 Okay. 82 00:03:14,280 --> 00:03:18,640 So in Exodus 24, Moses, that God comes to talk to Moses, he says, Hey, I want you to 83 00:03:18,640 --> 00:03:20,680 come up here on top of the mountain. 84 00:03:20,680 --> 00:03:25,040 You Aaron, Nate, Abed and Abihu, 70 of the elders of Israel, you're going to worship 85 00:03:25,040 --> 00:03:26,400 at a distance. 86 00:03:26,400 --> 00:03:29,240 And Moses alone is going to approach the Lord. 87 00:03:29,240 --> 00:03:32,040 And so they go up on top of this mountain, there are some sacrifices, they're there for 88 00:03:32,040 --> 00:03:35,080 seven days, they see God, whatever that means. 89 00:03:35,080 --> 00:03:37,020 Like there's a ton of debate about what that means. 90 00:03:37,020 --> 00:03:40,700 Because we also know that other places that says you can't see God and not die, but it's 91 00:03:40,700 --> 00:03:42,440 very clear that they see God. 92 00:03:42,440 --> 00:03:43,440 Right. 93 00:03:43,440 --> 00:03:45,400 So we don't exactly understand what that means. 94 00:03:45,400 --> 00:03:50,360 There is a ton of rabbinic conversation on it, but basically say that they see the glory 95 00:03:50,360 --> 00:03:53,460 of God. 96 00:03:53,460 --> 00:03:55,720 And so they're there for seven days. 97 00:03:55,720 --> 00:04:00,040 And then Moses is called up into the cloud and up in the cloud is actually where they're 98 00:04:00,040 --> 00:04:03,880 going to talk about the 10 commandments as we called them, or last week as we talked 99 00:04:03,880 --> 00:04:07,040 about them as the 10 words. 100 00:04:07,040 --> 00:04:12,440 So a couple of the things that I want us to note and just pin in your brain. 101 00:04:12,440 --> 00:04:15,680 And if you want to get ahead of us and go to Leviticus 10, go ahead. 102 00:04:15,680 --> 00:04:18,240 But there's going to be a couple of things that are very distinctive in the story that 103 00:04:18,240 --> 00:04:19,240 we should notice. 104 00:04:19,240 --> 00:04:25,960 One, there is a cloud presence that there are elders, there's Moses and Aaron, Nadab 105 00:04:25,960 --> 00:04:29,080 and Abihu, all named people. 106 00:04:29,080 --> 00:04:32,800 And there's also going to be a period of seven days, there's going to be sacrifices, there's 107 00:04:32,800 --> 00:04:36,660 going to be eating, somebody is going to go enter the presence of God. 108 00:04:36,660 --> 00:04:39,200 That's really important because we're going to talk about that when we get to Leviticus. 109 00:04:39,200 --> 00:04:40,200 Okay. 110 00:04:40,200 --> 00:04:41,200 So just, we're putting a pin in that. 111 00:04:41,200 --> 00:04:44,600 I know a ton of people, like if you're one of those people who can't wait to check it 112 00:04:44,600 --> 00:04:49,880 out, go to chapter 10 of Leviticus, I believe it is, and take a look at it. 113 00:04:49,880 --> 00:04:54,480 So God calls Moses up and he proceeds to give him the commandments. 114 00:04:54,480 --> 00:04:59,680 And it says, when Moses went up into the mountain, this is verse 15 of chapter 24. 115 00:04:59,680 --> 00:05:02,480 When Moses went up into the mountain, the cloud covered it and the glory of the Lord 116 00:05:02,480 --> 00:05:03,600 settled on Mount Sinai. 117 00:05:03,600 --> 00:05:05,400 For six days, the cloud covered the mountain. 118 00:05:05,400 --> 00:05:08,560 And on the seventh day, the Lord called to Moses from within the cloud. 119 00:05:08,560 --> 00:05:12,560 To the Israelites, the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain. 120 00:05:12,560 --> 00:05:16,520 Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up at the mountain and he stayed on the mountain 121 00:05:16,520 --> 00:05:18,800 for 40 days and 40 nights. 122 00:05:18,800 --> 00:05:19,800 Okay. 123 00:05:19,800 --> 00:05:23,960 Now, of course, we've been talking about why it's really important to understand Torah 124 00:05:23,960 --> 00:05:25,800 in this conversation with Jesus, right? 125 00:05:25,800 --> 00:05:26,800 Yeah. 126 00:05:26,800 --> 00:05:29,280 Because immediately 40 days and 40 nights should stick out to us. 127 00:05:29,280 --> 00:05:30,280 It should. 128 00:05:30,280 --> 00:05:31,280 Yeah. 129 00:05:31,280 --> 00:05:34,920 So not only looking forward, but where else might 40 days and 40 nights strike us looking 130 00:05:34,920 --> 00:05:35,920 backwards? 131 00:05:35,920 --> 00:05:37,800 I don't know. 132 00:05:37,800 --> 00:05:41,600 Maybe this giant flood that happened some time ago. 133 00:05:41,600 --> 00:05:42,600 Right. 134 00:05:42,600 --> 00:05:47,000 You know, when Noah was sitting where it rained, sorry, Noah was sitting on the water for a 135 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:48,000 long time. 136 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:49,000 He was sitting on it. 137 00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:50,000 It was made of ice. 138 00:05:50,000 --> 00:05:51,000 It was cool. 139 00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:52,000 Yeah. 140 00:05:52,000 --> 00:05:54,880 You're like, you know, there's going to be people now who are like, there's ice in the 141 00:05:54,880 --> 00:05:55,880 story of the flood? 142 00:05:55,880 --> 00:05:59,040 Well, I mean, there were six months of time, so maybe it was over winter. 143 00:05:59,040 --> 00:06:00,040 I don't know. 144 00:06:00,040 --> 00:06:04,120 But like, you're trying to like justify your slip up here. 145 00:06:04,120 --> 00:06:05,120 Yeah, I know. 146 00:06:05,120 --> 00:06:06,120 Right. 147 00:06:06,120 --> 00:06:08,320 But it rained for 40 days and 40 nights. 148 00:06:08,320 --> 00:06:09,320 Right. 149 00:06:09,320 --> 00:06:12,640 You know, and it's funny because coming into the story, one of the things we're actually 150 00:06:12,640 --> 00:06:18,720 going to talk about is how God begins to tell a recreation narrative at Sinai. 151 00:06:18,720 --> 00:06:19,720 Right. 152 00:06:19,720 --> 00:06:23,400 I'm actually not going to spend a lot of time on this because I'm going to link in the show 153 00:06:23,400 --> 00:06:27,640 notes the episode of Baymaw where Marty Solomon does a really good job of showing how there's 154 00:06:27,640 --> 00:06:30,600 a recreation story going on at Sinai. 155 00:06:30,600 --> 00:06:35,520 But there was a lot of and God said, and God said, and God said, and God said going through 156 00:06:35,520 --> 00:06:37,680 this creation of a temple. 157 00:06:37,680 --> 00:06:38,840 Right. 158 00:06:38,840 --> 00:06:43,160 But one of the things that Marty mentions in that podcast, which I think is a very good 159 00:06:43,160 --> 00:06:50,160 piece for us to settle on is in creation, God creates a space and he asks humanity to 160 00:06:50,160 --> 00:06:53,560 fill it. 161 00:06:53,560 --> 00:06:59,200 Then in the story of Sinai, God has them create a space and then he says he's going to fill 162 00:06:59,200 --> 00:07:00,200 it. 163 00:07:00,200 --> 00:07:01,200 Yeah. 164 00:07:01,200 --> 00:07:04,760 And then we're going to see both of those realities actually intersect in the New Testament 165 00:07:04,760 --> 00:07:10,360 when the new church is opened because we're both going to multiply, go forth and make 166 00:07:10,360 --> 00:07:13,240 disciples and we're also going to be the temple. 167 00:07:13,240 --> 00:07:15,520 We're going to be the space that the Holy Spirit dwells. 168 00:07:15,520 --> 00:07:16,520 Right. 169 00:07:16,520 --> 00:07:20,200 So these stories are connected and it's really important that we start seeing that. 170 00:07:20,200 --> 00:07:21,200 Yeah. 171 00:07:21,200 --> 00:07:22,200 Yeah. 172 00:07:22,200 --> 00:07:25,960 And before we get too much further, we also just need to talk about there is not a lot 173 00:07:25,960 --> 00:07:29,680 of time that passes between the Red Sea in this moment. 174 00:07:29,680 --> 00:07:30,680 Right. 175 00:07:30,680 --> 00:07:34,360 These things happen pretty closely together and we need to make sure before we get to 176 00:07:34,360 --> 00:07:38,520 the golden calf that we were talking about the fact that we had the Red Sea, they went 177 00:07:38,520 --> 00:07:43,440 to the desert, they had manna from heaven, water from a rock. 178 00:07:43,440 --> 00:07:47,560 They had the Lord still leading them with miraculous signs. 179 00:07:47,560 --> 00:07:48,560 Right. 180 00:07:48,560 --> 00:07:53,200 And then they get to Sinai and they now see this mountain covered in fire. 181 00:07:53,200 --> 00:07:57,320 The interesting thing about this is this actually harkens back to the burning bush because this 182 00:07:57,320 --> 00:08:04,480 mountain top, we're not talking like lush mountain tops of Pacific Northwest in America 183 00:08:04,480 --> 00:08:10,080 or the green hills or the green mountain tops in Alaska or some of those places. 184 00:08:10,080 --> 00:08:11,080 We're not talking that. 185 00:08:11,080 --> 00:08:13,160 We're talking a rock. 186 00:08:13,160 --> 00:08:15,380 Maybe had some bushes, maybe had some of that on it. 187 00:08:15,380 --> 00:08:21,920 So to see a top of this mountain engulfed in flame would have been a miraculous sight. 188 00:08:21,920 --> 00:08:23,640 It's not something you would expect. 189 00:08:23,640 --> 00:08:24,640 Right. 190 00:08:24,640 --> 00:08:25,640 Yeah. 191 00:08:25,640 --> 00:08:28,520 It's something that they often use, it's like thunder, thunder on a mountain. 192 00:08:28,520 --> 00:08:32,320 There are really strong connections to what happens here, to what happens in the book 193 00:08:32,320 --> 00:08:35,240 of Acts in chapter two. 194 00:08:35,240 --> 00:08:42,720 From the day of Exodus, which would be the day after the Passover Sabbath, it was 50 195 00:08:42,720 --> 00:08:43,720 days. 196 00:08:43,720 --> 00:08:48,920 They celebrate the celebration of Shavuot or the festival of weeks. 197 00:08:48,920 --> 00:08:52,760 It takes place 50 days later, which by the way, we're just going to go and I'm going 198 00:08:52,760 --> 00:08:55,960 to just go ahead and beat this analogy into you because I think it's really important 199 00:08:55,960 --> 00:08:56,960 that we start to see it. 200 00:08:56,960 --> 00:08:58,640 And we're going to talk more about this next week. 201 00:08:58,640 --> 00:09:05,640 Shavuot is 50 days after the Passover. 202 00:09:05,640 --> 00:09:09,920 Jesus rises from the dead and then he's with them for 40 days. 203 00:09:09,920 --> 00:09:14,520 And then they are in Jerusalem waiting for the presence of the Holy Spirit. 204 00:09:14,520 --> 00:09:20,720 And on the celebration of Shavuot, which is 50 days later, there is thunder on a mountain, 205 00:09:20,720 --> 00:09:24,080 fire descends and a temple is opened. 206 00:09:24,080 --> 00:09:26,000 Luke knows exactly what he's doing. 207 00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:27,560 Yep, he does. 208 00:09:27,560 --> 00:09:30,240 He is drawing a very clear picture. 209 00:09:30,240 --> 00:09:33,400 Like we've been skipping a stone across Exodus. 210 00:09:33,400 --> 00:09:36,680 You got to understand Torah because the rest of the Bible is not going to make a lot of 211 00:09:36,680 --> 00:09:41,500 sense or it's not going to necessarily connect in the way you think it should unless you 212 00:09:41,500 --> 00:09:43,980 understand Torah. 213 00:09:43,980 --> 00:09:51,600 So through chapters 26 to 31, God then gives a bunch of instructions on how to build a 214 00:09:51,600 --> 00:09:56,240 temple, how to do sacrifices, how to build the priestly garb, like a bunch of these different 215 00:09:56,240 --> 00:09:57,640 things that are going to happen. 216 00:09:57,640 --> 00:10:02,720 Essentially he is helping him to build the space that God is going to dwell in and facilitate 217 00:10:02,720 --> 00:10:06,080 relationship between God and Israel. 218 00:10:06,080 --> 00:10:09,160 One of the reasons that we might want to mention that to a Western audience that we're not 219 00:10:09,160 --> 00:10:16,920 going to think about is that God is going to teach them how to tell a story using the 220 00:10:16,920 --> 00:10:20,120 methods that they understand. 221 00:10:20,120 --> 00:10:23,280 Because we have this conversation very frequently, okay, we're going to talk about this in Leviticus, 222 00:10:23,280 --> 00:10:27,360 so I don't want to get too far ahead of myself, but why the sacrificial system? 223 00:10:27,360 --> 00:10:30,220 Because the sacrificial system is something they understand. 224 00:10:30,220 --> 00:10:34,720 And God is going to use the sacrificial system to tell them a different story. 225 00:10:34,720 --> 00:10:37,560 And we say, okay, well, why are the laws structured like this? 226 00:10:37,560 --> 00:10:43,280 Because God is going to use what they are familiar with to tell a different story. 227 00:10:43,280 --> 00:10:45,440 This is the interesting thing about this. 228 00:10:45,440 --> 00:10:47,680 We do this in our conversations with people all the time. 229 00:10:47,680 --> 00:10:51,320 At least I don't know about you, but I do, where it's like I meet them where they're 230 00:10:51,320 --> 00:10:56,320 at and I'm going to try to speak their language a little bit to tell them a story so they 231 00:10:56,320 --> 00:10:57,680 can understand. 232 00:10:57,680 --> 00:10:59,980 We do this all the time. 233 00:10:59,980 --> 00:11:01,840 We did not invent this. 234 00:11:01,840 --> 00:11:03,880 God's the author of this. 235 00:11:03,880 --> 00:11:05,520 We are stealing his idea. 236 00:11:05,520 --> 00:11:09,760 So what God's doing is he's saying, okay, I'm going to speak in a language you know. 237 00:11:09,760 --> 00:11:14,440 Yeah, it reminds me of when in the book of Acts, Paul is touring around. 238 00:11:14,440 --> 00:11:20,000 He gets to one of the Greek cities and he says, I see that you have all these gods. 239 00:11:20,000 --> 00:11:22,520 You're a very religious people. 240 00:11:22,520 --> 00:11:26,240 And you have this idol that's named for the unnamed God. 241 00:11:26,240 --> 00:11:27,480 Let me talk to you about who that is. 242 00:11:27,480 --> 00:11:28,480 He's like, I know him. 243 00:11:28,480 --> 00:11:29,480 Yeah. 244 00:11:29,480 --> 00:11:33,800 And in fact, Paul will frequently quote like, Cretan authors. 245 00:11:33,800 --> 00:11:38,600 He'll quote like, Greek wisdom in an effort to connect with them, to explain to them the 246 00:11:38,600 --> 00:11:39,600 reality of God. 247 00:11:39,600 --> 00:11:42,640 It's not because Paul forgot his Jewish heritage. 248 00:11:42,640 --> 00:11:47,440 No, it's because he knew the audience that he was talking to. 249 00:11:47,440 --> 00:11:50,800 Paul even goes as far as to say, I'll become all things to all people so that a few may 250 00:11:50,800 --> 00:11:52,800 come to know. 251 00:11:52,800 --> 00:11:56,660 I think one of the reasons it's important to bring this up is because we can often go 252 00:11:56,660 --> 00:12:02,680 to where we're like, okay, well, we need to speak this one language in this one tongue. 253 00:12:02,680 --> 00:12:06,720 And it's like, okay, yes, we need to understand the truth of the gospel and we need to proclaim 254 00:12:06,720 --> 00:12:07,720 that. 255 00:12:07,720 --> 00:12:11,600 But we need to proclaim it in a way that resonates with the people around us. 256 00:12:11,600 --> 00:12:12,600 Yeah. 257 00:12:12,600 --> 00:12:13,800 And can we even clarify that a little bit more? 258 00:12:13,800 --> 00:12:17,920 Because I think sometimes when we say truth of the gospel, I think you might think right 259 00:12:17,920 --> 00:12:19,280 theology. 260 00:12:19,280 --> 00:12:23,320 And while I don't disagree with that, we're actually talking about the right heart. 261 00:12:23,320 --> 00:12:27,280 The heart of your intentionality is more important than your theology. 262 00:12:27,280 --> 00:12:29,720 Now, don't misunderstand me. 263 00:12:29,720 --> 00:12:31,720 We're not saying theology is unimportant. 264 00:12:31,720 --> 00:12:35,880 You do actually need to have a firm basis and groundwork of who God is. 265 00:12:35,880 --> 00:12:37,320 Yeah. 266 00:12:37,320 --> 00:12:42,600 But when you read the Bible, it's to understand the heart of who God is and to fulfill his 267 00:12:42,600 --> 00:12:43,880 mission in the world around us. 268 00:12:43,880 --> 00:12:47,100 That is done through proper understanding, a proper base, but it's also done through 269 00:12:47,100 --> 00:12:49,240 understanding the character of who God is. 270 00:12:49,240 --> 00:12:50,240 Yeah. 271 00:12:50,240 --> 00:12:55,800 And when you understand the heart behind something or behind someone, it changes the meaning 272 00:12:55,800 --> 00:12:56,800 of everything. 273 00:12:56,800 --> 00:12:57,800 Right. 274 00:12:57,800 --> 00:12:58,800 Let's use our example. 275 00:12:58,800 --> 00:12:59,800 We've talked about a sacrificial system. 276 00:12:59,800 --> 00:13:03,760 Okay, so if you make an assumption looking at a sacrificial system that the reason God 277 00:13:03,760 --> 00:13:09,080 has people sacrifice animals is because he is not a vegetarian. 278 00:13:09,080 --> 00:13:10,320 Right? 279 00:13:10,320 --> 00:13:11,320 He's a meditarian. 280 00:13:11,320 --> 00:13:12,320 Yeah. 281 00:13:12,320 --> 00:13:15,880 And he likes the smell of animals and it's meant to appease God, then you're going to 282 00:13:15,880 --> 00:13:19,800 come away with the wrong message. 283 00:13:19,800 --> 00:13:23,480 Sacrificial system is not about earning God's forgiveness. 284 00:13:23,480 --> 00:13:27,960 If you think that we're going to dispel that very quickly in the book of Leviticus. 285 00:13:27,960 --> 00:13:30,760 That is not the purpose of the sacrificial system. 286 00:13:30,760 --> 00:13:37,800 The purpose of the sacrificial system is for relationship between man and God to be restored. 287 00:13:37,800 --> 00:13:38,800 It is about relationship. 288 00:13:38,800 --> 00:13:43,480 It is about connection and it is about fathers bringing their sons and daughters home. 289 00:13:43,480 --> 00:13:44,480 Yep. 290 00:13:44,480 --> 00:13:47,800 So with all that being said, now we get to the crux of the story. 291 00:13:47,800 --> 00:13:49,760 I'm going to call it the pivot point. 292 00:13:49,760 --> 00:13:53,160 And this is the place where people talk about Israel's failure. 293 00:13:53,160 --> 00:13:58,520 And we're going to point out a lot of the things that Israel foolishly does here. 294 00:13:58,520 --> 00:14:02,360 But I also want to give you pause because everything that they do that's foolishly, 295 00:14:02,360 --> 00:14:06,440 I don't want you to pretend like people in the church in the modern day haven't done. 296 00:14:06,440 --> 00:14:10,060 We very quickly forget about all that God has done for us. 297 00:14:10,060 --> 00:14:14,980 It says that when the people saw that Moses was so long and coming down from the mountain, 298 00:14:14,980 --> 00:14:19,040 they gathered around Aaron and said, come make us gods who will go before us. 299 00:14:19,040 --> 00:14:22,600 As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened 300 00:14:22,600 --> 00:14:23,600 to him. 301 00:14:23,600 --> 00:14:24,600 Okay. 302 00:14:24,600 --> 00:14:25,600 I need to pause here. 303 00:14:25,600 --> 00:14:28,400 Make us gods who will go before us. 304 00:14:28,400 --> 00:14:30,400 Right? 305 00:14:30,400 --> 00:14:31,400 What did God say? 306 00:14:31,400 --> 00:14:33,680 What's the first of the 10 words that he says? 307 00:14:33,680 --> 00:14:38,120 I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. 308 00:14:38,120 --> 00:14:40,840 You will have no other gods before me. 309 00:14:40,840 --> 00:14:41,880 Yeah. 310 00:14:41,880 --> 00:14:43,720 They have this conversation at the base of the mountain. 311 00:14:43,720 --> 00:14:45,520 They're like, yeah, we're going to agree. 312 00:14:45,520 --> 00:14:46,560 We're going to follow. 313 00:14:46,560 --> 00:14:49,320 But Moses, you got to talk to God because he's scary. 314 00:14:49,320 --> 00:14:50,320 Right? 315 00:14:50,320 --> 00:14:53,160 Actually, funny, funny story that kind of reminds me of James. 316 00:14:53,160 --> 00:14:56,040 He wanted something and I was like, I was like, okay, what do you want? 317 00:14:56,040 --> 00:14:58,960 And he's like, he's like, we need to go ask them because they're scary. 318 00:14:58,960 --> 00:15:01,800 I'm like, well, it's Mr. Spencer. 319 00:15:01,800 --> 00:15:03,640 He's not that scary. 320 00:15:03,640 --> 00:15:06,920 You know, like scary, but not that scary. 321 00:15:06,920 --> 00:15:07,920 Right? 322 00:15:07,920 --> 00:15:11,160 But it's like, it's very much whenever I see something like that in the Bible, I always 323 00:15:11,160 --> 00:15:12,160 like think of James. 324 00:15:12,160 --> 00:15:13,160 Yeah. 325 00:15:13,160 --> 00:15:16,360 To give you guys an idea of how not scary I am. 326 00:15:16,360 --> 00:15:21,000 I'm the one in the relationship between my wife and I and my relationship with my daughter 327 00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:25,360 where Denver comes to me when she's like, oh, I want to be spoiled or I don't want to 328 00:15:25,360 --> 00:15:26,800 be told no. 329 00:15:26,800 --> 00:15:30,680 And then when I'm like, go talk to your mom, she's like, I don't want to. 330 00:15:30,680 --> 00:15:33,000 Like that's kind of what happens. 331 00:15:33,000 --> 00:15:37,160 And so like, yeah, I'm like least intimidating person in the world here. 332 00:15:37,160 --> 00:15:41,060 Incidentally, we can say this with utmost confidence because I saw walking through laughing 333 00:15:41,060 --> 00:15:42,520 at that statement as she went. 334 00:15:42,520 --> 00:15:43,520 Yep. 335 00:15:43,520 --> 00:15:44,520 So we know that it's true. 336 00:15:44,520 --> 00:15:45,520 Yep. 337 00:15:45,520 --> 00:15:48,800 So once again, like let's talk about timeline here. 338 00:15:48,800 --> 00:15:49,800 Yeah. 339 00:15:49,800 --> 00:15:52,800 So it says that Moses was in there for 40 days and 40 nights. 340 00:15:52,800 --> 00:15:56,680 So somewhere in that 40 days, likely towards the end because Moses is about to come back 341 00:15:56,680 --> 00:15:59,360 down, right? 342 00:15:59,360 --> 00:16:03,680 They're like, okay, he's not coming back. 343 00:16:03,680 --> 00:16:04,680 Forty days. 344 00:16:04,680 --> 00:16:10,600 How short of a time is that given everything that they've just gone through? 345 00:16:10,600 --> 00:16:12,160 It's not that long of a time. 346 00:16:12,160 --> 00:16:17,080 Like we do things that we have to wait 30 to 45 days all the time. 347 00:16:17,080 --> 00:16:18,080 Right. 348 00:16:18,080 --> 00:16:19,080 Right. 349 00:16:19,080 --> 00:16:22,240 If you have credit card debt and you pay off all that credit card debt, you have to wait 350 00:16:22,240 --> 00:16:25,760 30 to 45 days before your score bumps back up. 351 00:16:25,760 --> 00:16:28,160 Like it's not an instantaneous thing. 352 00:16:28,160 --> 00:16:30,760 So 40 days is not a long time. 353 00:16:30,760 --> 00:16:32,360 Especially given what they just seen. 354 00:16:32,360 --> 00:16:33,360 Yeah. 355 00:16:33,360 --> 00:16:34,360 It's not a long time. 356 00:16:34,360 --> 00:16:39,000 So like you have to keep in context that they've come from the Red Sea. 357 00:16:39,000 --> 00:16:43,880 The walls of water stood there for days while they crossed. 358 00:16:43,880 --> 00:16:48,320 We were talking, getting hundreds of thousands of people across about a 52, 53 mile span 359 00:16:48,320 --> 00:16:49,320 of water. 360 00:16:49,320 --> 00:16:50,320 Right. 361 00:16:50,320 --> 00:16:52,880 Like this is not a day hike. 362 00:16:52,880 --> 00:16:54,360 Maybe not the way you do it. 363 00:16:54,360 --> 00:16:57,240 I'll IQ any day of the week. 364 00:16:57,240 --> 00:16:58,240 You will. 365 00:16:58,240 --> 00:17:01,240 So this is not a day hike. 366 00:17:01,240 --> 00:17:02,240 Then they get to the other side. 367 00:17:02,240 --> 00:17:04,960 They get manna from heaven, water from a rock. 368 00:17:04,960 --> 00:17:05,960 Egypt is defeated. 369 00:17:05,960 --> 00:17:07,320 Egypt is defeated. 370 00:17:07,320 --> 00:17:11,680 Like their god defeated the powerhouse nation of the world. 371 00:17:11,680 --> 00:17:18,760 They've also seen just a mountain inflamed and like a rocky mountain inflamed, not just 372 00:17:18,760 --> 00:17:20,680 like one that's covered in brush. 373 00:17:20,680 --> 00:17:23,160 They've seen that inflamed and now they get to the golden calf. 374 00:17:23,160 --> 00:17:24,160 Yeah. 375 00:17:24,160 --> 00:17:28,200 What I actually see happening here is you read a statement where it said, come make 376 00:17:28,200 --> 00:17:30,920 us gods that'll go before us. 377 00:17:30,920 --> 00:17:36,560 This actually hearkens back to Egypt where Egypt had multiple gods that went before them. 378 00:17:36,560 --> 00:17:38,560 They're saying, okay, this is what we know. 379 00:17:38,560 --> 00:17:40,000 We've known that for a long time. 380 00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:41,000 Make that happen. 381 00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:42,000 Right. 382 00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:48,760 And God is over here and he's like, no, I already told you put no other gods before me. 383 00:17:48,760 --> 00:17:50,240 So Aaron makes them the golden calf. 384 00:17:50,240 --> 00:17:52,840 If you're asking why a calf, it's Egypt's worship. 385 00:17:52,840 --> 00:17:53,840 Right. 386 00:17:53,840 --> 00:17:57,120 So they're actually creating the gods from where they came from, which I think is I'm 387 00:17:57,120 --> 00:17:58,120 going to steal this from Marty. 388 00:17:58,120 --> 00:17:59,620 And I think it's a great point. 389 00:17:59,620 --> 00:18:03,680 Sometimes even when you're out of Egypt, you still have to get Egypt out of you. 390 00:18:03,680 --> 00:18:09,200 That is a story that we can walk with as a church really firmly. 391 00:18:09,200 --> 00:18:13,920 So God then says to Moses, it's in verse seven here, it says, the Lord said to Moses, go 392 00:18:13,920 --> 00:18:18,620 down because your people whom you brought up out of Egypt have become corrupt. 393 00:18:18,620 --> 00:18:21,500 They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves 394 00:18:21,500 --> 00:18:25,160 an idol cast in the shape of a calf. 395 00:18:25,160 --> 00:18:28,780 They have bound down to it and sacrifice to it and said, these are your gods Israel who 396 00:18:28,780 --> 00:18:31,160 brought you up out of Egypt. 397 00:18:31,160 --> 00:18:35,160 I have seen these people, the Lord said to Moses, and they are a stiff necked people. 398 00:18:35,160 --> 00:18:39,520 Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. 399 00:18:39,520 --> 00:18:41,720 Then I will make you into a great nation. 400 00:18:41,720 --> 00:18:42,720 Okay. 401 00:18:42,720 --> 00:18:45,180 A couple of things I want to point out here. 402 00:18:45,180 --> 00:18:48,840 God is clearly trying to get Moses to engage him. 403 00:18:48,840 --> 00:18:51,520 I've had this conversation with a number of people and they're like, oh, I don't think 404 00:18:51,520 --> 00:18:52,520 so. 405 00:18:52,520 --> 00:18:56,080 And I said, no, here's what, listen to what God actually says. 406 00:18:56,080 --> 00:19:02,680 Go down because your people whom you brought up out of Egypt, right? 407 00:19:02,680 --> 00:19:03,960 Moses knows it wasn't him. 408 00:19:03,960 --> 00:19:05,200 Yeah, Moses knows it wasn't him. 409 00:19:05,200 --> 00:19:06,800 God's made it very clear it wasn't him. 410 00:19:06,800 --> 00:19:11,480 He said, I am the Lord, your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. 411 00:19:11,480 --> 00:19:13,320 You shall have no other gods before me. 412 00:19:13,320 --> 00:19:14,320 So what is God trying to do? 413 00:19:14,320 --> 00:19:18,400 He's trying to engage Moses in a conversation. 414 00:19:18,400 --> 00:19:21,780 And initially he says, you need to go down because they're corrupted. 415 00:19:21,780 --> 00:19:23,920 And then God has to talk a second time. 416 00:19:23,920 --> 00:19:28,680 So we've talked about this before when you have to talk twice, there's nothing in between. 417 00:19:28,680 --> 00:19:30,040 It means that there's a passage of time. 418 00:19:30,040 --> 00:19:35,080 So God says to Moses, the go down and talk to these guys because they're corrupt. 419 00:19:35,080 --> 00:19:36,280 You need to deal with it. 420 00:19:36,280 --> 00:19:47,000 And Moses goes, you know, I mean, he's just, and then God says, okay, I have seen these 421 00:19:47,000 --> 00:19:50,120 people and they are stiff neck people. 422 00:19:50,120 --> 00:19:54,960 Now leave me alone that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. 423 00:19:54,960 --> 00:19:56,920 Then I will make you into a great nation. 424 00:19:56,920 --> 00:20:00,320 And Moses goes, okay, hold on. 425 00:20:00,320 --> 00:20:01,320 Hold on. 426 00:20:01,320 --> 00:20:02,320 Yeah. 427 00:20:02,320 --> 00:20:03,860 I'm thinking a couple of things here. 428 00:20:03,860 --> 00:20:06,620 One is that Moses has been having an identity crisis. 429 00:20:06,620 --> 00:20:09,200 So he's like, can God even make me into a great nation? 430 00:20:09,200 --> 00:20:10,200 Right? 431 00:20:10,200 --> 00:20:13,480 This is me reading into a little bit, right? 432 00:20:13,480 --> 00:20:18,880 But also Moses realized his call as a leader of the people to stand in the gap. 433 00:20:18,880 --> 00:20:27,760 Leaders, it is our job when our church gets off track to stand in the gap between destruction 434 00:20:27,760 --> 00:20:28,760 and restoration. 435 00:20:28,760 --> 00:20:34,120 It is a messy place to be because you're going to deal with messy people. 436 00:20:34,120 --> 00:20:36,400 And that's absolutely the call of ministry. 437 00:20:36,400 --> 00:20:41,640 If you're looking to be a part of a church that is never going to have any issues, then 438 00:20:41,640 --> 00:20:43,640 you're just not going to deal with any redemptive work. 439 00:20:43,640 --> 00:20:45,640 No, you're not. 440 00:20:45,640 --> 00:20:46,640 Redemptive work is messy. 441 00:20:46,640 --> 00:20:47,640 Yeah. 442 00:20:47,640 --> 00:20:52,160 And just to spell that out a little bit more for everyone. 443 00:20:52,160 --> 00:20:57,160 Anyone who's experienced forgiveness and restoration knows the depth of what their sin was. 444 00:20:57,160 --> 00:20:58,160 Uh huh. 445 00:20:58,160 --> 00:20:59,160 Right? 446 00:20:59,160 --> 00:21:01,880 To deal with that sin, you have to confess it. 447 00:21:01,880 --> 00:21:04,620 You have to be vulnerable about it. 448 00:21:04,620 --> 00:21:07,040 You have to bring that up and that's going to be hurtful. 449 00:21:07,040 --> 00:21:08,560 That's going to be painful. 450 00:21:08,560 --> 00:21:13,240 But until you do that, that sin is still going to eat away at you. 451 00:21:13,240 --> 00:21:16,040 You have to bring that up to the Lord. 452 00:21:16,040 --> 00:21:19,280 The idea of forgiveness and restoration is painful. 453 00:21:19,280 --> 00:21:24,240 Well, have you seen that Instagram reel or that goes around where they're like singing 454 00:21:24,240 --> 00:21:28,360 that song where they're like purify me by fire and the people are like, wait a second. 455 00:21:28,360 --> 00:21:29,800 Wait, what are you talking about? 456 00:21:29,800 --> 00:21:30,800 Yeah. 457 00:21:30,800 --> 00:21:31,800 Like when we're talking about- 458 00:21:31,800 --> 00:21:32,800 Hold on a second. 459 00:21:32,800 --> 00:21:33,800 Yeah. 460 00:21:33,800 --> 00:21:35,480 You're talking about like being like a tree and being pruned. 461 00:21:35,480 --> 00:21:36,480 That's a painful process. 462 00:21:36,480 --> 00:21:37,480 Yeah. 463 00:21:37,480 --> 00:21:38,480 But it's good. 464 00:21:38,480 --> 00:21:42,040 If you're talking about being purified by fire, I don't know about you, but last time 465 00:21:42,040 --> 00:21:44,640 I stuck my hand in fire, it didn't feel so good. 466 00:21:44,640 --> 00:21:45,880 Why did you stick your hand in fire? 467 00:21:45,880 --> 00:21:46,880 I was a kid. 468 00:21:46,880 --> 00:21:47,880 Okay. 469 00:21:47,880 --> 00:21:48,880 Yeah. 470 00:21:48,880 --> 00:21:49,880 Okay. 471 00:21:49,880 --> 00:21:52,640 So these processes that make us more like Christ can be painful. 472 00:21:52,640 --> 00:21:53,640 Right. 473 00:21:53,640 --> 00:21:58,840 So we have to acknowledge that, not in our own lives, because oftentimes what I see in 474 00:21:58,840 --> 00:22:01,040 my life, I'm like, okay, I can deal with that. 475 00:22:01,040 --> 00:22:02,440 I'm going to confess that to the Lord. 476 00:22:02,440 --> 00:22:03,440 That's great. 477 00:22:03,440 --> 00:22:06,640 And then when somebody else starts to bring pain up in the church, I'm like, whoa, whoa, 478 00:22:06,640 --> 00:22:08,000 whoa, whoa, whoa, go talk to Ben. 479 00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:09,000 Right? 480 00:22:09,000 --> 00:22:10,200 That's actually what he says about most things. 481 00:22:10,200 --> 00:22:11,200 Go talk to Ben. 482 00:22:11,200 --> 00:22:12,200 Yeah. 483 00:22:12,200 --> 00:22:13,200 Go talk to Ben. 484 00:22:13,200 --> 00:22:15,320 We can often hold this double standard and it's very subtle where it's like, okay, well, 485 00:22:15,320 --> 00:22:19,800 I'm dealing with this on my side of things, but oh, don't you dare bring that mess my 486 00:22:19,800 --> 00:22:20,800 way. 487 00:22:20,800 --> 00:22:25,080 Well, if you're family, you're going to stand in the gap for each other. 488 00:22:25,080 --> 00:22:26,080 Right. 489 00:22:26,080 --> 00:22:30,440 So I want to credit Moses because I'm actually going to do a backwards statement on Moses 490 00:22:30,440 --> 00:22:35,080 here in a second about some stuff that I don't think is really what God intended for him. 491 00:22:35,080 --> 00:22:39,120 I'm going to try to specify this in a way that helps you understand my perspective here. 492 00:22:39,120 --> 00:22:43,740 So Moses says, Hey God, you know, you were the one who brought them out of Egypt. 493 00:22:43,740 --> 00:22:47,580 If you destroy them now, it's going to be your name that is suspect. 494 00:22:47,580 --> 00:22:49,480 You are loving, you're forgiving. 495 00:22:49,480 --> 00:22:51,960 If you have to take somebody out, take me out. 496 00:22:51,960 --> 00:22:53,040 Right. 497 00:22:53,040 --> 00:22:58,200 And God's God says, it says, then he relented and did not bring that his disaster that he 498 00:22:58,200 --> 00:23:00,360 had threatened. 499 00:23:00,360 --> 00:23:03,960 But then Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in his 500 00:23:03,960 --> 00:23:04,960 hand. 501 00:23:04,960 --> 00:23:05,960 Okay. 502 00:23:05,960 --> 00:23:06,960 Come down a little bit further. 503 00:23:06,960 --> 00:23:12,400 He says 19, when Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, they're 504 00:23:12,400 --> 00:23:18,040 probably twerking his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hand, breaking 505 00:23:18,040 --> 00:23:20,440 them into pieces at the foot of the mountain. 506 00:23:20,440 --> 00:23:26,480 So Moses sees what's going on and his anger burns by the way, just like God's does the 507 00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:28,160 same word being used here. 508 00:23:28,160 --> 00:23:32,520 And he throws the tablets, the covenant that Israel is making with God and he breaks it 509 00:23:32,520 --> 00:23:34,000 to pieces at the foot of the mountain. 510 00:23:34,000 --> 00:23:37,480 He takes the calf, the people had made, he burned it in the fire, which I don't understand 511 00:23:37,480 --> 00:23:39,640 how you burn gold, but apparently you can. 512 00:23:39,640 --> 00:23:43,240 Then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink 513 00:23:43,240 --> 00:23:44,720 it. 514 00:23:44,720 --> 00:23:47,760 I don't have time to unpack that for you, but there's actually a reason he does that. 515 00:23:47,760 --> 00:23:49,240 Maybe we'll talk about it in a future episode. 516 00:23:49,240 --> 00:23:53,800 You know, he says to Aaron, what did you do that you led them into such great sin? 517 00:23:53,800 --> 00:23:56,400 And then Aaron gives like the worst answer in the world. 518 00:23:56,400 --> 00:24:00,720 He's like, ah, I just threw some stuff here and then this calf popped out, you know, but 519 00:24:00,720 --> 00:24:02,600 once again, anger is burning. 520 00:24:02,600 --> 00:24:04,080 He's asking questions. 521 00:24:04,080 --> 00:24:06,200 Moses asked questions and Aaron answers. 522 00:24:06,200 --> 00:24:10,360 And it's very similar to what Moses says, he says, do not be angry. 523 00:24:10,360 --> 00:24:18,000 You know how prone these people are to evil, except unlike God, Moses doesn't relent in 524 00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:19,720 his anger. 525 00:24:19,720 --> 00:24:22,360 Instead, he calls the Levites. 526 00:24:22,360 --> 00:24:24,360 He says, whoever is for the Lord, come to me. 527 00:24:24,360 --> 00:24:25,600 And the Levites rallied to him. 528 00:24:25,600 --> 00:24:28,480 Then he said, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel says. 529 00:24:28,480 --> 00:24:32,160 Each man strap a sword to his side, go back and forth to the camp from one end to the 530 00:24:32,160 --> 00:24:34,120 other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor. 531 00:24:34,120 --> 00:24:38,680 The Levites did as Moses commanded and that day about 3000 of the people died. 532 00:24:38,680 --> 00:24:42,200 Then Moses said, you have been set apart for the Lord today for you were against your own 533 00:24:42,200 --> 00:24:45,600 sons and brothers and he has blessed you this day. 534 00:24:45,600 --> 00:24:48,800 The next day, Moses said to the people, you've committed a great sin, but now I will go up 535 00:24:48,800 --> 00:24:49,800 to the Lord. 536 00:24:49,800 --> 00:24:52,440 Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin. 537 00:24:52,440 --> 00:24:54,000 All right. 538 00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:59,160 I've got to talk about this and just, I want to specify, you do not have to agree with 539 00:24:59,160 --> 00:25:03,480 me on this, but I think that there's some hints in the text that talk about a deeper 540 00:25:03,480 --> 00:25:07,160 reality of what's going on here. 541 00:25:07,160 --> 00:25:12,800 The first is this, regardless of whether Moses, what he did is right or wrong. 542 00:25:12,800 --> 00:25:14,480 God doesn't comment on that. 543 00:25:14,480 --> 00:25:20,560 He allows Moses to lead even if he necessarily does the right or wrong thing. 544 00:25:20,560 --> 00:25:22,160 Okay. 545 00:25:22,160 --> 00:25:26,080 You will notice in the text, God doesn't say, Oh, I'm going to forgive you because you killed 546 00:25:26,080 --> 00:25:28,080 3000 of your people. 547 00:25:28,080 --> 00:25:34,000 He also doesn't say anywhere in the text, go and kill 3000 of your people. 548 00:25:34,000 --> 00:25:36,520 None of those things exist in the text. 549 00:25:36,520 --> 00:25:42,060 It's really important that we notice that because we assume things, we assume because 550 00:25:42,060 --> 00:25:46,560 Moses is a chosen leader of God, Moses who was a friend of God and spoke to God face 551 00:25:46,560 --> 00:25:49,360 to face, we assume that everything that he does is perfect. 552 00:25:49,360 --> 00:25:52,600 But the reality is up to this point, we've seen all of our characters and they do some 553 00:25:52,600 --> 00:25:53,840 really questionable things. 554 00:25:53,840 --> 00:25:54,840 Yeah, they do. 555 00:25:54,840 --> 00:25:56,240 Abraham's been questionable. 556 00:25:56,240 --> 00:25:57,240 Yeah. 557 00:25:57,240 --> 00:25:59,320 Isaac, Jacob, especially Jacob. 558 00:25:59,320 --> 00:26:01,520 Yeah, especially Jacob, right? 559 00:26:01,520 --> 00:26:04,120 The little usurper and Moses. 560 00:26:04,120 --> 00:26:07,400 I mean, let's not forget that he killed a couple of people and then he was running from his 561 00:26:07,400 --> 00:26:08,600 responsibility. 562 00:26:08,600 --> 00:26:10,640 He didn't circumcise his kids. 563 00:26:10,640 --> 00:26:14,840 There's been a number of decisions throughout this that have been questionable. 564 00:26:14,840 --> 00:26:17,600 And let's also not forget it's coming up in the future, so we're not going to get too 565 00:26:17,600 --> 00:26:18,600 far ahead of us. 566 00:26:18,600 --> 00:26:20,600 Moses doesn't go into the promised land. 567 00:26:20,600 --> 00:26:21,600 Don't misunderstand me. 568 00:26:21,600 --> 00:26:24,280 I'm not saying that God's favor didn't rest on Moses. 569 00:26:24,280 --> 00:26:29,440 I'm saying let's not pretend like everything Moses did was what God wanted him to do. 570 00:26:29,440 --> 00:26:32,240 God often works in spite of us, not because of us. 571 00:26:32,240 --> 00:26:33,240 Yes. 572 00:26:33,240 --> 00:26:36,140 We need to say that again. 573 00:26:36,140 --> 00:26:41,040 God often works in spite of us, not because of us. 574 00:26:41,040 --> 00:26:47,680 I think in this section of the passage, we have to contrast God's response versus Moses's 575 00:26:47,680 --> 00:26:48,680 response. 576 00:26:48,680 --> 00:26:49,680 Yeah. 577 00:26:49,680 --> 00:26:51,920 God who said, okay, I'm going to relent in my anger. 578 00:26:51,920 --> 00:26:53,960 I'm being grace-filled. 579 00:26:53,960 --> 00:26:58,840 Moses who said, take up arms, let's kill them. 580 00:26:58,840 --> 00:27:01,520 That's the Spencer paraphrase translation right there. 581 00:27:01,520 --> 00:27:04,140 You have to contrast those two responses. 582 00:27:04,140 --> 00:27:07,120 And I'm fairly certain there's a chiasm here. 583 00:27:07,120 --> 00:27:10,140 I'm not good enough with Hebrew to be able to nail it down. 584 00:27:10,140 --> 00:27:12,840 So anybody who's listening, if you're really good with Hebrew, take a look and see if there's 585 00:27:12,840 --> 00:27:15,840 a chiasm here with thoughts and ideas. 586 00:27:15,840 --> 00:27:19,180 But I think that we're starting to see a reality, and this is going to get played out multiple 587 00:27:19,180 --> 00:27:20,580 times throughout Torah. 588 00:27:20,580 --> 00:27:22,960 What does God do and what do people do? 589 00:27:22,960 --> 00:27:28,160 And so we need to just note that contrast because as much as we'd like to say we're 590 00:27:28,160 --> 00:27:30,440 better than that, we're not. 591 00:27:30,440 --> 00:27:37,280 We can often play the role of Moses in this, or we can see God's amazing grace shine on 592 00:27:37,280 --> 00:27:38,280 somebody. 593 00:27:38,280 --> 00:27:43,880 And then we can find somebody who's exactly like that person and show our anger. 594 00:27:43,880 --> 00:27:44,880 Right. 595 00:27:44,880 --> 00:27:45,880 Right? 596 00:27:45,880 --> 00:27:49,400 This is actually not hard for us to do. 597 00:27:49,400 --> 00:27:53,880 But God is actually, he's saying, no, I'm here to show you grace. 598 00:27:53,880 --> 00:27:58,720 And Moses is saying, but their sin, their destruction is too great. 599 00:27:58,720 --> 00:28:01,200 Now I'm just going to let you guys know if you disagree with me on this, it's totally 600 00:28:01,200 --> 00:28:02,200 fine. 601 00:28:02,200 --> 00:28:04,640 I do want to point out a couple more things for you to take a look at. 602 00:28:04,640 --> 00:28:12,000 So if Moses' judgment, the 3,000 people dying, is a result of God's judgment, then why in 603 00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:17,200 verse 35 does God strike them with a plague because of what they did with the calf? 604 00:28:17,200 --> 00:28:19,840 Was the 3,000 the punishment or was the plague the punishment? 605 00:28:19,840 --> 00:28:21,200 Yeah. 606 00:28:21,200 --> 00:28:25,760 Because I don't see God striking them twice for one event. 607 00:28:25,760 --> 00:28:28,440 That's not who God has been up to this point and that's not who he's going to be moving 608 00:28:28,440 --> 00:28:29,440 forward. 609 00:28:29,440 --> 00:28:30,440 Yeah. 610 00:28:30,440 --> 00:28:31,440 Right? 611 00:28:31,440 --> 00:28:34,880 I also think I want to address one more thing here that I've heard a lot of times. 612 00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:35,880 Okay. 613 00:28:35,880 --> 00:28:37,200 So take a look at verse 31. 614 00:28:37,200 --> 00:28:41,000 Moses went back to the Lord and said, oh, what a great sin these people have committed. 615 00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:45,280 They have made themselves gods of gold, but please now please forgive their sin. 616 00:28:45,280 --> 00:28:47,800 But if not, then blot me out of the book you have written. 617 00:28:47,800 --> 00:28:51,440 Once again, I do want to point out that Moses does have the heart to stand in the gap for 618 00:28:51,440 --> 00:28:53,240 his people. 619 00:28:53,240 --> 00:28:57,320 Now that he's had a chance to take a nap- Eat a Snickers. 620 00:28:57,320 --> 00:28:59,640 Eat a Snickers. 621 00:28:59,640 --> 00:29:04,640 Now that he's had a full night's sleep, he comes back and he's back understanding, which 622 00:29:04,640 --> 00:29:09,880 by the way, I think this is not necessarily inherent in the text, but when you're upset, 623 00:29:09,880 --> 00:29:14,440 maybe it's a good time to take a pause, step away and then take a breather and come back. 624 00:29:14,440 --> 00:29:18,760 Now, if you do that, you are going to take the people off. 625 00:29:18,760 --> 00:29:20,280 We're like, we need to deal with this now. 626 00:29:20,280 --> 00:29:22,000 We're trying to deal with it and their anger. 627 00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:23,600 Yeah, but that's okay. 628 00:29:23,600 --> 00:29:25,600 Take them off. 629 00:29:25,600 --> 00:29:29,320 I'm reminded of a passage that says in your anger, do not sin. 630 00:29:29,320 --> 00:29:30,320 Yeah. 631 00:29:30,320 --> 00:29:32,020 You're going to feel anger at some point. 632 00:29:32,020 --> 00:29:37,520 You need to be able to stop, step away, adjust and then come back. 633 00:29:37,520 --> 00:29:38,520 Yeah. 634 00:29:38,520 --> 00:29:39,640 Yeah. 635 00:29:39,640 --> 00:29:43,600 So but here what God says to Moses, he says, whoever has sinned against me, I will blot 636 00:29:43,600 --> 00:29:44,920 out of my book. 637 00:29:44,920 --> 00:29:48,920 Now go lead the people to the place I spoke of and my angel will go before you. 638 00:29:48,920 --> 00:29:54,720 However, when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin. 639 00:29:54,720 --> 00:29:59,640 So here you have God saying, Hey, I'm the one who's going to enact punishment. 640 00:29:59,640 --> 00:30:00,700 Correct. 641 00:30:00,700 --> 00:30:05,160 And if they sin against me, then I will blot out their name. 642 00:30:05,160 --> 00:30:06,160 Yeah. 643 00:30:06,160 --> 00:30:10,560 I want to point that out because I think our assumption is all of the Israelites with the 644 00:30:10,560 --> 00:30:12,640 golden calf sin against God. 645 00:30:12,640 --> 00:30:16,160 And I think to a certain extent, you can say that, but God's only sinned against if he 646 00:30:16,160 --> 00:30:17,160 feels sinned against. 647 00:30:17,160 --> 00:30:19,640 Does that make sense? 648 00:30:19,640 --> 00:30:24,720 God is going to have a lot of pangs with the Israelites coming out of this area. 649 00:30:24,720 --> 00:30:28,240 He's going to have a couple of times though that he gets really fed up with them and he 650 00:30:28,240 --> 00:30:29,360 deals directly with them. 651 00:30:29,360 --> 00:30:32,360 It's like he annex like the discipline right away. 652 00:30:32,360 --> 00:30:33,640 Yeah. 653 00:30:33,640 --> 00:30:35,880 This doesn't seem to be one of those cases. 654 00:30:35,880 --> 00:30:36,880 No. 655 00:30:36,880 --> 00:30:40,080 In one sense, God's actually telling Moses, Hey, you overstepped. 656 00:30:40,080 --> 00:30:41,720 I'm going to deal with it. 657 00:30:41,720 --> 00:30:42,720 In one sense. 658 00:30:42,720 --> 00:30:45,120 Now that's not directly stated in the text. 659 00:30:45,120 --> 00:30:46,120 Okay. 660 00:30:46,120 --> 00:30:50,480 And also if you're just wondering, this is a pretty contested over passage as far as 661 00:30:50,480 --> 00:30:53,160 punishment and stuff like that, but that's a whole nother. 662 00:30:53,160 --> 00:30:54,160 Yeah. 663 00:30:54,160 --> 00:30:55,720 It's contested, but not a lot of people talk about it. 664 00:30:55,720 --> 00:30:56,720 Yeah. 665 00:30:56,720 --> 00:30:59,520 Most of the time when people talk about it, they just talk about the stupidity of the 666 00:30:59,520 --> 00:31:03,420 Israelites and how they made golden calves and how Aaron was trying to cast off judgment. 667 00:31:03,420 --> 00:31:06,880 But they very actually rarely talk about this interaction between God and Moses. 668 00:31:06,880 --> 00:31:07,880 Yeah. 669 00:31:07,880 --> 00:31:11,020 Except that they talk about standing in the gap, but they don't actually talk about what's 670 00:31:11,020 --> 00:31:12,080 actually written in the text. 671 00:31:12,080 --> 00:31:17,600 And one of the things we want you guys to do, just like we do, when we read this text, 672 00:31:17,600 --> 00:31:22,320 we actually want to read it to understand the heart of God. 673 00:31:22,320 --> 00:31:24,040 This is going to be very difficult. 674 00:31:24,040 --> 00:31:28,680 One of the things that Rabbi David Forman talks about, he talks about the Lullaby effect 675 00:31:28,680 --> 00:31:33,440 and how you've heard a story so many times that you start to just hear the ending before 676 00:31:33,440 --> 00:31:35,660 you get there. 677 00:31:35,660 --> 00:31:40,360 When you read the Bible, at least once a year, you need to read it without any preconceived 678 00:31:40,360 --> 00:31:42,480 notions in your mind. 679 00:31:42,480 --> 00:31:49,680 If you read that story, if you read Exodus 32 without preconceived notions, now reading 680 00:31:49,680 --> 00:31:53,600 what came before it, but without your preconceived notions, what do you actually get from the 681 00:31:53,600 --> 00:31:54,800 text at that point? 682 00:31:54,800 --> 00:31:58,720 I'm not saying all those observations are going to be good, but you need to get past 683 00:31:58,720 --> 00:32:02,160 the Lullaby effect of just hearing the words that somebody else spoke to you, including 684 00:32:02,160 --> 00:32:05,180 by the way, the people on this podcast. 685 00:32:05,180 --> 00:32:12,320 You need to be able to pilfer out, filter out our words and be able to hear the text 686 00:32:12,320 --> 00:32:14,720 stand on its own. 687 00:32:14,720 --> 00:32:18,720 I love this next thing that happens in chapter 33 because one of the things that we talk 688 00:32:18,720 --> 00:32:22,120 about in the Golden Calf, we talk about this judgment that's placed on them and all these 689 00:32:22,120 --> 00:32:23,220 different things. 690 00:32:23,220 --> 00:32:27,320 In the back half of the book, there's this interesting thing that happens and it's why 691 00:32:27,320 --> 00:32:33,840 a lot of people get frustrated reading Exodus because it gets really quote unquote boring. 692 00:32:33,840 --> 00:32:39,520 Because everything that happened before the Golden Calf gets repeated again, all over 693 00:32:39,520 --> 00:32:42,600 again. 694 00:32:42,600 --> 00:32:45,360 This is actually really, really important for us to get. 695 00:32:45,360 --> 00:32:49,240 God takes his people and says, all right, let's start over again. 696 00:32:49,240 --> 00:32:55,680 We just got tripped up at the ceremony time, but I still love you. 697 00:32:55,680 --> 00:33:03,320 You're still my people and I'm still going to use you to bless all nations. 698 00:33:03,320 --> 00:33:05,800 Not in the midst of their lowest point, right? 699 00:33:05,800 --> 00:33:08,480 Well one of their lowest points because they're going to have many low points. 700 00:33:08,480 --> 00:33:09,840 I still care. 701 00:33:09,840 --> 00:33:11,800 I'm going to reaffirm my covenant. 702 00:33:11,800 --> 00:33:16,200 I'm going to speak it over you and I'm going to use you to bless all nations still. 703 00:33:16,200 --> 00:33:18,360 Yeah. 704 00:33:18,360 --> 00:33:23,040 I want to point out what happens in chapter 33 because I think it's actually very telling 705 00:33:23,040 --> 00:33:25,640 on how God begins to work through Israel again. 706 00:33:25,640 --> 00:33:29,520 At the beginning of chapter three, God says to Moses, he says, leave this place, you and 707 00:33:29,520 --> 00:33:31,960 your people who brought you up out of Egypt, go to the land I promised you. 708 00:33:31,960 --> 00:33:37,240 He says, but I will not go with you because you are a stiff necked people and I might 709 00:33:37,240 --> 00:33:38,240 destroy you on the way. 710 00:33:38,240 --> 00:33:39,240 Okay. 711 00:33:39,240 --> 00:33:40,240 That's a good reason not to go. 712 00:33:40,240 --> 00:33:43,440 I'm ticked off and I might, I might destroy you on the way. 713 00:33:43,440 --> 00:33:46,080 You go ahead and go, but I'm not going to go with you. 714 00:33:46,080 --> 00:33:51,080 When the people heard these distressing words, they began to mourn and no one put on any 715 00:33:51,080 --> 00:33:52,280 ornaments. 716 00:33:52,280 --> 00:33:54,840 For the Lord had said to Moses, tell the Israelite, your stiff necked people, if I were to go 717 00:33:54,840 --> 00:33:58,400 with you for even a moment, I might destroy you. 718 00:33:58,400 --> 00:34:02,480 Moses said to the Lord, you have been telling me, lead these people, but you have not let 719 00:34:02,480 --> 00:34:04,360 me know whom you will send with me. 720 00:34:04,360 --> 00:34:07,280 You have said, I know you by name and you have found favor with me. 721 00:34:07,280 --> 00:34:10,440 If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so that I may know you and continue to 722 00:34:10,440 --> 00:34:11,440 find favor with you. 723 00:34:11,440 --> 00:34:14,080 Remember that this nation is your people. 724 00:34:14,080 --> 00:34:17,680 The Lord replied, my presence will go with you and I will give you rest. 725 00:34:17,680 --> 00:34:22,840 Then Moses said to him, if your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. 726 00:34:22,840 --> 00:34:25,720 How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and your people unless you go with 727 00:34:25,720 --> 00:34:26,720 us? 728 00:34:26,720 --> 00:34:30,360 You will distinguish me and your people from all other people on the face of the earth. 729 00:34:30,360 --> 00:34:33,580 And the Lord said to Moses, I will do the very thing you have asked because I am pleased 730 00:34:33,580 --> 00:34:37,520 with you and I know you by name. 731 00:34:37,520 --> 00:34:40,760 Holy cow. 732 00:34:40,760 --> 00:34:44,840 That is a massive change in the people because the people here, God say, I'm not going to 733 00:34:44,840 --> 00:34:45,840 go with you. 734 00:34:45,840 --> 00:34:49,620 And they're like, no, he has to go with us. 735 00:34:49,620 --> 00:34:53,120 If he doesn't go with us, everything is worthless. 736 00:34:53,120 --> 00:34:57,360 So I've heard a couple different, there's a couple different interpretations you can 737 00:34:57,360 --> 00:34:58,360 go with on this. 738 00:34:58,360 --> 00:35:02,680 So one interpretation that people often that struggle with in Exodus is they're like, oh, 739 00:35:02,680 --> 00:35:08,360 it seems like humanity is able to change God's mind because you have this conversation between 740 00:35:08,360 --> 00:35:11,600 Moses and God where God's saying, I'm not going to do this. 741 00:35:11,600 --> 00:35:16,280 And Moses is like, hey, actually, you're the one who did all this stuff leading up to this 742 00:35:16,280 --> 00:35:17,280 point. 743 00:35:17,280 --> 00:35:19,400 And then God's like, okay, I'll go with you. 744 00:35:19,400 --> 00:35:24,120 The other interpretation is that God already knows what he's going to say at the end of 745 00:35:24,120 --> 00:35:25,120 this. 746 00:35:25,120 --> 00:35:29,680 And he's trying to draw Moses and the people into relationship with him. 747 00:35:29,680 --> 00:35:34,720 The reality of this is you see God continually trying to draw Moses and his people back into 748 00:35:34,720 --> 00:35:38,840 relationship with him over and over again. 749 00:35:38,840 --> 00:35:43,240 It's a theme you see all the way through Genesis, through Exodus actually continues into Leviticus, 750 00:35:43,240 --> 00:35:45,440 Numbers, Deuteronomy, all that. 751 00:35:45,440 --> 00:35:49,160 God is trying to draw his people back to him. 752 00:35:49,160 --> 00:35:52,040 He's trying to draw them back into relationship with him. 753 00:35:52,040 --> 00:35:56,560 One of the ways he's doing this here is simply just through engaging them in conversation. 754 00:35:56,560 --> 00:35:57,560 Right? 755 00:35:57,560 --> 00:35:59,440 Yeah, there's points where he's frustrated. 756 00:35:59,440 --> 00:36:02,360 There's points where his anger burns. 757 00:36:02,360 --> 00:36:05,520 He's trying to draw his people back to him. 758 00:36:05,520 --> 00:36:10,200 And he's really trying to help them understand a fundamental truth about their relationship. 759 00:36:10,200 --> 00:36:14,040 Israel isn't special for any other reason than God chose them. 760 00:36:14,040 --> 00:36:15,040 Right? 761 00:36:15,040 --> 00:36:16,040 Yeah. 762 00:36:16,040 --> 00:36:20,000 Like, the reason that he chooses them is because they're the least of all the nations. 763 00:36:20,000 --> 00:36:21,160 Right? 764 00:36:21,160 --> 00:36:23,400 So we read that and we think, oh, yeah, yeah. 765 00:36:23,400 --> 00:36:26,200 But no, it's a serious point. 766 00:36:26,200 --> 00:36:33,000 If God goes with you, you take your worthless talents and you add God and suddenly you're 767 00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:35,040 a superstar. 768 00:36:35,040 --> 00:36:40,360 You take your bad attitude and you add God and suddenly you're the most charismatic person 769 00:36:40,360 --> 00:36:42,200 in the world. 770 00:36:42,200 --> 00:36:46,480 You take your failures and you add God and you have a hundred percent success rate. 771 00:36:46,480 --> 00:36:49,440 Like, this is the reality of who God is. 772 00:36:49,440 --> 00:36:53,440 And he wants to dwell with his people, in his people, around his people, through his 773 00:36:53,440 --> 00:36:54,440 people. 774 00:36:54,440 --> 00:36:58,320 And he's told them, I want to make you into an entire nation of priests, a kingdom of 775 00:36:58,320 --> 00:37:03,800 priests, because you are going to be the conduit of heaven to earth. 776 00:37:03,800 --> 00:37:09,360 Israel, because people know you can't do anything on your own. 777 00:37:09,360 --> 00:37:14,880 You're going to be a conduit of blessing and through you, all people are going to be blessed. 778 00:37:14,880 --> 00:37:18,960 So when God engages them on this idea, he says, I'm not going to go with you. 779 00:37:18,960 --> 00:37:21,640 And they go, no, we get it. 780 00:37:21,640 --> 00:37:23,360 You're it. 781 00:37:23,360 --> 00:37:25,900 If you don't go, we can't go. 782 00:37:25,900 --> 00:37:28,960 We need you with us at all times. 783 00:37:28,960 --> 00:37:30,000 Yeah. 784 00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:33,880 And so then you continue this conversation between God and Moses. 785 00:37:33,880 --> 00:37:38,480 And Moses then says in verse 18, he says, show me your glorious presence. 786 00:37:38,480 --> 00:37:45,680 And the Lord replied, I will make all my goodness pass before you and I will call out my name, 787 00:37:45,680 --> 00:37:47,640 Yahweh, before you. 788 00:37:47,640 --> 00:37:53,320 I will show mercy to anyone I choose and I'll show compassion to anyone I choose. 789 00:37:53,320 --> 00:37:57,680 But you may not look directly at my face for no one can see it and lived. 790 00:37:57,680 --> 00:37:58,680 This whole thing happens. 791 00:37:58,680 --> 00:38:03,280 And then there's a spot where the Lord passed in front of Moses, calling out Yahweh, the 792 00:38:03,280 --> 00:38:09,280 Lord, the God of compassion and mercy, I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love 793 00:38:09,280 --> 00:38:10,280 and faithfulness. 794 00:38:10,280 --> 00:38:13,480 I lavish unfailing love on thousands of generations. 795 00:38:13,480 --> 00:38:14,480 We heard that before. 796 00:38:14,480 --> 00:38:15,920 We've talked about that. 797 00:38:15,920 --> 00:38:16,920 Yeah. 798 00:38:16,920 --> 00:38:22,080 I forgive iniquity, rebellion and sin, but I do not excuse the guilty. 799 00:38:22,080 --> 00:38:27,600 I lay the sins of the parents upon the children and grandchildren and the entire family is 800 00:38:27,600 --> 00:38:31,440 affected, even the children's of the third and the fourth generation. 801 00:38:31,440 --> 00:38:34,520 Right. 802 00:38:34,520 --> 00:38:41,880 So you look at this and you have this God who's saying, no, I am a God of compassion, mercy, 803 00:38:41,880 --> 00:38:48,120 unfailing love, slow to anger, but I still take care of business when I need to. 804 00:38:48,120 --> 00:38:49,120 Right. 805 00:38:49,120 --> 00:38:54,760 Well, and specifically he's once again telling Moses, I will take care of the guilty. 806 00:38:54,760 --> 00:38:56,600 You don't need to do this. 807 00:38:56,600 --> 00:39:00,560 I do think it's worth noting, taking a look in verse eight, Moses bowed down to the ground 808 00:39:00,560 --> 00:39:02,000 and worshiped Lord. 809 00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:07,400 He said, if I have found favor in your eyes, then let the Lord go with us. 810 00:39:07,400 --> 00:39:08,640 Now God's already said he's going to go with us. 811 00:39:08,640 --> 00:39:10,400 Moses saying it again. 812 00:39:10,400 --> 00:39:16,840 Although this is a stiff neck people, forgive our wickedness and our sin and take us as 813 00:39:16,840 --> 00:39:18,320 your inheritance. 814 00:39:18,320 --> 00:39:19,680 Yeah. 815 00:39:19,680 --> 00:39:22,800 Then the Lord said, I am making a covenant with you before all your people. 816 00:39:22,800 --> 00:39:26,680 I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. 817 00:39:26,680 --> 00:39:34,880 The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the Lord will do for you. 818 00:39:34,880 --> 00:39:37,160 I'm reminded of something Jesus says in the New Testament. 819 00:39:37,160 --> 00:39:42,800 He says, you, you marvel at these works, but greater works than these will you actually 820 00:39:42,800 --> 00:39:44,720 see. 821 00:39:44,720 --> 00:39:48,000 Greater works. 822 00:39:48,000 --> 00:39:52,000 It's almost like God's the same yesterday, today and forever. 823 00:39:52,000 --> 00:39:55,540 God doing his work in the Old Testament is happening in the New Testament and is now 824 00:39:55,540 --> 00:39:57,280 happening in the modern church today. 825 00:39:57,280 --> 00:40:04,200 If we're going to actually be an image of God, then when people encounter the church, 826 00:40:04,200 --> 00:40:09,480 they should see us as the compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, forgiving wickedness, 827 00:40:09,480 --> 00:40:13,720 abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands. 828 00:40:13,720 --> 00:40:16,800 This is what we should be defined by. 829 00:40:16,800 --> 00:40:19,480 This is who we are. 830 00:40:19,480 --> 00:40:20,480 It's not unlike what Jesus says. 831 00:40:20,480 --> 00:40:23,000 You're going to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and 832 00:40:23,000 --> 00:40:24,440 you're going to love your neighbors yourself. 833 00:40:24,440 --> 00:40:28,440 You are going to be abounding in love and forgiveness. 834 00:40:28,440 --> 00:40:29,440 Abounding is a big word. 835 00:40:29,440 --> 00:40:30,440 Yeah. 836 00:40:30,440 --> 00:40:31,440 Yeah. 837 00:40:31,440 --> 00:40:34,440 Those are some hefty words to live up to. 838 00:40:34,440 --> 00:40:36,280 It's almost like we couldn't do it alone. 839 00:40:36,280 --> 00:40:40,360 And it's harder to love and forgive than it is to maintain hate and bitterness. 840 00:40:40,360 --> 00:40:41,360 Oh, so much easier. 841 00:40:41,360 --> 00:40:42,360 Yeah. 842 00:40:42,360 --> 00:40:44,280 It's so much easier to maintain hate and bitterness. 843 00:40:44,280 --> 00:40:51,400 And so when we go counter the world with love and forgiveness, it is very difficult. 844 00:40:51,400 --> 00:40:55,320 But when we actually step into that and live that out, it changes the whole community around 845 00:40:55,320 --> 00:40:56,320 us. 846 00:40:56,320 --> 00:40:59,600 So last weekend, you and I had a bonfire. 847 00:40:59,600 --> 00:41:03,960 And I had some of those bugs bite me right around the ankles, right around the sock line. 848 00:41:03,960 --> 00:41:06,080 My ankles got real itchy. 849 00:41:06,080 --> 00:41:10,320 The temptation, the easy thing to do is to scratch them. 850 00:41:10,320 --> 00:41:11,320 Yeah. 851 00:41:11,320 --> 00:41:13,280 What's the problem with that? 852 00:41:13,280 --> 00:41:18,720 It gets worse, gets itchier, but it feels so good to scratch that itch. 853 00:41:18,720 --> 00:41:24,720 Yet I know that if I leave that itch alone, I put some gel on it, whatever it is, it'll 854 00:41:24,720 --> 00:41:28,040 go away and my skin will return to normal. 855 00:41:28,040 --> 00:41:29,960 Right? 856 00:41:29,960 --> 00:41:34,120 It's the same way with love and forgiveness versus bitterness and anger. 857 00:41:34,120 --> 00:41:36,920 Are you going to hold on to your bitterness and anger and scratch that itch? 858 00:41:36,920 --> 00:41:37,920 Yeah. 859 00:41:37,920 --> 00:41:38,920 Because it's not going to go away. 860 00:41:38,920 --> 00:41:39,920 It's going to get bigger. 861 00:41:39,920 --> 00:41:42,280 You're like, ah, I'm just going to do this one. 862 00:41:42,280 --> 00:41:44,280 It's going to get bigger. 863 00:41:44,280 --> 00:41:45,280 Yeah. 864 00:41:45,280 --> 00:41:47,000 No, I get it. 865 00:41:47,000 --> 00:41:50,480 I think the last thing that I really want to note from here, because on the back half 866 00:41:50,480 --> 00:41:54,200 of Exodus, and we're going to talk about, do a wrap of Exodus next week, I love that 867 00:41:54,200 --> 00:41:58,880 Noah's has to put a veil over his face because the presence of God is so strong on him that 868 00:41:58,880 --> 00:42:01,680 his face is weird to look at. 869 00:42:01,680 --> 00:42:04,400 It's glowing with the presence of God. 870 00:42:04,400 --> 00:42:07,600 That's kind of funny and hilarious and also cool. 871 00:42:07,600 --> 00:42:08,600 Right? 872 00:42:08,600 --> 00:42:09,600 Yeah. 873 00:42:09,600 --> 00:42:13,240 I don't think it's meant to be funny and hilarious. 874 00:42:13,240 --> 00:42:14,240 It is funny. 875 00:42:14,240 --> 00:42:19,680 It's probably not meant to be funny and hilarious, but they're like, your face is glowing. 876 00:42:19,680 --> 00:42:20,880 This is really disconcerting. 877 00:42:20,880 --> 00:42:22,880 We should put a veil on your face. 878 00:42:22,880 --> 00:42:23,880 Yeah. 879 00:42:23,880 --> 00:42:27,880 The equivalent is, can you imagine being filled with the presence of God today? 880 00:42:27,880 --> 00:42:29,200 And they're like, your face is glowing. 881 00:42:29,200 --> 00:42:30,200 Put a paper bag over that. 882 00:42:30,200 --> 00:42:33,200 Put it in a plastic bag. 883 00:42:33,200 --> 00:42:34,200 Yeah, that's true. 884 00:42:34,200 --> 00:42:35,200 That's true. 885 00:42:35,200 --> 00:42:36,200 You're not wrong. 886 00:42:36,200 --> 00:42:37,200 All right. 887 00:42:37,200 --> 00:42:41,960 So what do we take away from this section of Exodus? 888 00:42:41,960 --> 00:42:46,680 I think, you know, honestly, I think you can actually sum this section of Exodus up pretty 889 00:42:46,680 --> 00:42:54,000 well if you jump down to 34-14, where God is saying, you must worship no other gods 890 00:42:54,000 --> 00:43:00,160 for the Lord whose very name is jealous is a God who is jealous about his relationship 891 00:43:00,160 --> 00:43:01,600 with you. 892 00:43:01,600 --> 00:43:02,600 Right? 893 00:43:02,600 --> 00:43:08,600 Because you see in this passage over and over again, things that are starting to pull them 894 00:43:08,600 --> 00:43:10,360 back into what they know. 895 00:43:10,360 --> 00:43:13,320 Because a lot of the things that they're falling back into are things that they would have 896 00:43:13,320 --> 00:43:14,320 known in Egypt. 897 00:43:14,320 --> 00:43:16,400 Worship being a golden calf. 898 00:43:16,400 --> 00:43:21,880 So they're pulling back into those old ways, which by the way, that's really easy for us 899 00:43:21,880 --> 00:43:22,960 to do. 900 00:43:22,960 --> 00:43:25,880 Really easy for us to be like, okay, I'm uncomfortable with this. 901 00:43:25,880 --> 00:43:27,320 I'm going to pull back into my old ways. 902 00:43:27,320 --> 00:43:30,840 Do you know what the disciples did after Jesus died? 903 00:43:30,840 --> 00:43:32,080 They went back to fishing. 904 00:43:32,080 --> 00:43:33,080 They went back to fishing. 905 00:43:33,080 --> 00:43:34,080 Right? 906 00:43:34,080 --> 00:43:35,320 They went back to their old ways. 907 00:43:35,320 --> 00:43:37,440 So it's a really easy thing for us to do. 908 00:43:37,440 --> 00:43:41,440 And then God say, no, I don't want you to put those things in front of me. 909 00:43:41,440 --> 00:43:43,120 Don't put those things in front of me. 910 00:43:43,120 --> 00:43:44,120 I'm here. 911 00:43:44,120 --> 00:43:46,800 I am the God and I'm jealous about my relationship with you. 912 00:43:46,800 --> 00:43:52,840 And if you're viewing it in the context of a bride groom relationship, right? 913 00:43:52,840 --> 00:43:57,720 When a spouse cheats, do you know what happens to the spouse who is faithful? 914 00:43:57,720 --> 00:43:59,720 They actually become jealous. 915 00:43:59,720 --> 00:44:02,960 There's some anger, there's hatred, there's other things, but there's a jealousy there 916 00:44:02,960 --> 00:44:03,960 too. 917 00:44:03,960 --> 00:44:08,000 So God is saying, essentially God in this passage is saying, hey, don't cheat on me 918 00:44:08,000 --> 00:44:09,480 with other gods. 919 00:44:09,480 --> 00:44:10,480 Right. 920 00:44:10,480 --> 00:44:12,080 Like I'm your one and only. 921 00:44:12,080 --> 00:44:14,880 By the way, some of you might have issues with that imagery. 922 00:44:14,880 --> 00:44:16,880 Go read Hosea. 923 00:44:16,880 --> 00:44:21,720 There is the whole thing with Hosea and Gomer and this whole image of a prostitute that 924 00:44:21,720 --> 00:44:23,960 he keeps bringing back. 925 00:44:23,960 --> 00:44:26,760 I mean, is just the story of God and his people. 926 00:44:26,760 --> 00:44:27,760 Yeah. 927 00:44:27,760 --> 00:44:33,080 Like when we say that God loves recklessly, relentlessly, you need to read the Old Testament 928 00:44:33,080 --> 00:44:39,520 because we as humanity give him every reason not to love us. 929 00:44:39,520 --> 00:44:45,060 But God is abounding in love, gracious, slow to anger. 930 00:44:45,060 --> 00:44:47,200 That's who he is. 931 00:44:47,200 --> 00:44:52,760 He is so overflowing with love that he can't do anything but love people. 932 00:44:52,760 --> 00:44:56,320 And I think one of our biggest takeaways is like, are we going to accept the invitation 933 00:44:56,320 --> 00:45:03,960 to engage God in relationship and be like him or when things get tough or when our leadership 934 00:45:03,960 --> 00:45:09,400 disappears or when we haven't seen a move of God in about 40 days, are we going to essentially 935 00:45:09,400 --> 00:45:11,360 trust in other gods? 936 00:45:11,360 --> 00:45:16,520 The golden calf thing is actually a great story for just the modern church too. 937 00:45:16,520 --> 00:45:17,520 Right. 938 00:45:17,520 --> 00:45:21,720 Because how often you and I even, we have to God do something in our life and then like 939 00:45:21,720 --> 00:45:26,640 three days later we're like, yeah, I'm going to go do this instead. 940 00:45:26,640 --> 00:45:27,720 Right? 941 00:45:27,720 --> 00:45:30,600 You talk about like times of revival where God is moving in a really powerful way. 942 00:45:30,600 --> 00:45:34,440 And then like a week later, people are like, I, yeah, I can't, I don't have time to read 943 00:45:34,440 --> 00:45:35,440 my Bible. 944 00:45:35,440 --> 00:45:38,480 I have time to pray. 945 00:45:38,480 --> 00:45:41,720 When in that moment in the, in the presence of God, you couldn't think of doing anything 946 00:45:41,720 --> 00:45:42,720 else. 947 00:45:42,720 --> 00:45:43,720 Right? 948 00:45:43,720 --> 00:45:44,720 Yeah. 949 00:45:44,720 --> 00:45:50,920 Well, we want to thank you guys for stopping in and listening and hearing us chat, listening 950 00:45:50,920 --> 00:45:54,240 to us eat sweet potatoes, sweet potato fries specifically. 951 00:45:54,240 --> 00:45:55,320 They were delicious. 952 00:45:55,320 --> 00:45:56,320 They were delicious. 953 00:45:56,320 --> 00:45:57,320 Well, I'm assuming they were delicious. 954 00:45:57,320 --> 00:45:58,560 I didn't eat them. 955 00:45:58,560 --> 00:45:59,560 They smelled delicious. 956 00:45:59,560 --> 00:46:02,880 So now everyone's like, wait, Spencer didn't share with Ben. 957 00:46:02,880 --> 00:46:03,880 You are right. 958 00:46:03,880 --> 00:46:04,880 I did not share with them. 959 00:46:04,880 --> 00:46:05,880 Yeah. 960 00:46:05,880 --> 00:46:08,760 To be fair, like sharing with me, I would eat like more than half of them. 961 00:46:08,760 --> 00:46:09,760 Yeah. 962 00:46:09,760 --> 00:46:14,600 If you guys have thoughts or comments, please email us at love and context at gmail.com. 963 00:46:14,600 --> 00:46:18,880 If you have thoughts, questions, anything relating to Torah, we are going to have a Q 964 00:46:18,880 --> 00:46:20,640 and a at the end of Leviticus. 965 00:46:20,640 --> 00:46:24,160 So those thoughts and questions need to get sent soon. 966 00:46:24,160 --> 00:46:28,760 You can also contact us at love and context at gmail.com as well as on Facebook at love 967 00:46:28,760 --> 00:46:29,760 and context. 968 00:46:29,760 --> 00:46:30,760 Yeah. 969 00:46:30,760 --> 00:46:33,280 Well, until next time. 970 00:46:33,280 --> 00:46:35,140 Thank you so much for listening today. 971 00:46:35,140 --> 00:46:40,680 We hope you enjoyed this podcast and we hope that you got something out of it. 972 00:46:40,680 --> 00:46:47,120 If you have any questions, please contact us at love and context at gmail.com. 973 00:46:47,120 --> 00:46:50,960 You can also follow us on Instagram and message us through there. 974 00:46:50,960 --> 00:46:53,800 Instagram is love and context. 975 00:46:53,800 --> 00:46:59,800 Again, love and context at gmail.com or Instagram are the two ways to get ahold of us if you 976 00:46:59,800 --> 00:47:00,800 would like. 977 00:47:00,800 --> 00:47:02,120 Thank you once again. 978 00:47:02,120 --> 00:47:04,360 We really appreciate you being here. 979 00:47:04,360 --> 00:47:05,760 God bless. 980 00:47:05,760 --> 00:47:16,040 Is that, sorry, I'm just realizing that you're keeping your face away because of chewing. 981 00:47:16,040 --> 00:47:18,680 Someone's laughing because I'm still eating my sweet potato fries, but I'm leaning my 982 00:47:18,680 --> 00:47:22,720 face away from the mic while I'm doing that and then leaning back in when I want to talk. 983 00:47:22,720 --> 00:47:27,240 You ever wonder, I mean, I guess they're technically called like yams, but like somebody's like, 984 00:47:27,240 --> 00:47:30,040 all right, name this like potato and then they eat the next one. 985 00:47:30,040 --> 00:47:32,520 They're like, what about this one? 986 00:47:32,520 --> 00:47:33,520 Sweet potato. 987 00:47:33,520 --> 00:47:36,600 It's like first waterfall and second waterfall. 988 00:47:36,600 --> 00:47:37,600 Yeah. 989 00:47:37,600 --> 00:47:39,040 Hey, there's a waterfall. 990 00:47:39,040 --> 00:47:40,040 Oh crap. 991 00:47:40,040 --> 00:47:41,040 We found another one. 992 00:47:41,040 --> 00:47:49,000 We've got a name in second waterfall. 993 00:47:49,000 --> 00:47:55,160 Yeah.