Biblically Wired
Hey ALL! Getting older and bolder. Have always taught the Word but after my Mdiv I now teach Genesis to Revelations every year. With all the weekly prep I do I uncover some major Gems by Gods Grace. I can not help but do a podcast. Listener's have used the word "contagious" to describe my teaching. This old bible detective wells up at that word. It is a pure miracle I have this gift and passion. Come join the fun.
Best place to start - People have loved Horses and Donkeys, John 10, and their trip through Genesis.
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Biblically Wired
No Selfies With God On Sinai
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Finishing The Mount Sinai Series
Here we go, guys. Here we go. We are to the end of our series regarding Mount Sinai. So here we are. I love it. I love it. Love it. Because now we can look at this picture and we can cascade and examine this mountain from different angles. So we're in our hot air balloon looking down and thinking to ourselves, okay, God chose this location. God chose this location to fall on. Why? Well, we know that he chose this location because it's in the wilderness. And remember, what happens in the wilderness where there's no owner is for the world. So what is God showing the Israelites about this location? He is showing them that he is after the world, which was clear as day in Genesis 3:15, when we see the seed promise prophesied by God Himself, and we know that Jesus Christ is coming through mere men to save the world, to smite the enemy, to conquer death, which is something we see in the New Testament. So we're walking backwards into Mount Sinai, and we got that in our back pocket, and we know the tribe of Judah is around this mountain in their tents, and that seed will come from the tribe of Judah. So this location thing is pretty riveting as God chooses a mountain to appear on. Why a mountain? Well, we know that in the ancient culture, gods had mountains, temples were on mountains, gods were seen as higher than the average dude. The ziggurat is an example where it wasn't a land mass mountain, but the ziggurat is still visible, you guys. Right now, you can go to Iraq and you could see this ziggurat, this temple of Ur that was around in the time of Abraham. It also was way up high. Where would a god be? A god should be high and exalted and lifted up. Lifted up. So why did God choose a mountain? Because he is clear as day about his intentions, he is not complicated, and he is going to speak to this crowd visually and verbally from a place that they understand. We've got the God of the universe, the creator of all things, the possessor of heaven and earth coming to earth to talk to who he created. And if he was using his own lingo and his own verbiage, we would never understand it. An example I thought of today on my walk was the fact that as an RN in a children's hospital, we often had kids staying overnight without any parents or grandparents. Not all the time, but sometimes. So you come on your shift and you know the parents are leaving, and this child is going to be in the room on their own. They have had a bone marrow transplant, they can't leave the room. What do you do? You communicate to that child in their language. You use simple language. Maybe you kneel by the bed so you can see them eye to eye. Play a game, show interest in something they're interested in, help them feel safe. And this is what God is going to do. God is going to calm down because he's pursuing them as a nation, and he is going to do it in the best way he could do. And also what God will do is demonstrate his royalty, his holiness, and the fact that the mountain is now sacred. Okay, so that's the mountain and why. What about the timing? Well, we know that Abraham was called to this area 400 years prior, and Abraham was also called to the wilderness. So God is just doing something he called all of them to do, and that is to walk with them in
Timing And The Westward Pattern
the wilderness. So we've already seen the patriarchs demonstrate this kind of faith. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they've never owned land. I mean, can you believe it? Genesis 12. God promises Abraham land. He never owns a piece of land other than Sarai's grave. Incredible, incredible man. Alright, so it just gives me pause for us to just sit for a second and think about the size of the crowd. Let's think about some logistics here. God is going to come down on this mountain. I have listened to sermons and read a lot about some of the theories around Mount Sinai. And a lot of people say, well, we don't really know if they surrounded the mountain or if they were on one side of the mountain. But you guys, as my listeners here, we have already figured this out. There is zero doubt in my mind, nada, that God was on the west, that the people were facing west, and people were moving towards the west to go up the mountain. Why? Because that's God's pattern, and he is guaranteed to bring that detail forward here so the people could see Moses going west. We already saw Abraham in obedience go west, Lot go east. We know this stuff. The reader knows this stuff. It's impossible for me to picture that God is on top of Mount Sinai and they're surrounding the mountain because there's no way people would be west of God because God is gonna be that west point. So that's something on our mind also. Moses is gonna be going up and down, up and down. And you probably are gonna be surprised I haven't figured this out. But how many times does Moses go up and down? I've read through this, I've taught through this, and I have these arrows up, down, up, down, but the truth is it's vague in some parts, and it looks like God's attributing Moses to be on that mountain, spending time with God in different seasons through the almost 11 months they are here in Mount Sinai, and it's actually made it hard for me to count, so it must not be a focus of God. But if any of you are curious and you think you can get me that number, I would love it. Alright, so what was going on just prior to Moses coming on Mount Sinai? Well, we know they camped at Rephedim. We know God sent them there because he is the pillar of fire that's going before them. He is fire and cloud, and that is the same scene we get another detail that is a pattern because of the Abrahamic
Water From The Rock At Rephidim
covenant. Now in Rephedim, he they were led there, they were thirsty again. And Moses cracks his staff against this cliff, they call it a rock, but it was clearly much bigger than a rock. An actual river had to pour out of this to bring water, enough water for all 12 tribes and all the animals. It would be really, really neat to see how this actually worked because it's definitely a picture of the provision of God, that extra, that over provision of our good Father, which we see when Jesus feeds the 4,000, the 5,000. He demonstrates that same thing. Now, this Clifford rock is considered to be Christ Himself, according to Apostle Paul in First Corinthians. The early church and rabbis still to this day called this rock the following rock, and they believed that it went with the Israelites as they wandered in the desert for 40 years, coming up later. When we think about the Israelites wandering, that's the same word used for Abraham. It doesn't mean they were picking up all their stuff every day and posting up their tent every night. They were just living in the wilderness, so they were deemed as wanderers or nomads. And that was kind of cool to come to that conclusion because all I pictured them doing was marching, marching, marching. But no, they got to settle. They would set up the tabernacle, they would have holidays, festivals. What we see as punishment, which it was, had I am certain a lot of celebration in those 40 years. So here we have around this mountain the eyewitnesses of the Exodus. Now later we are gonna see there are eyewitnesses to the cross and resurrection. Eyewitnesses are an important part of the story. What are these people thinking? Okay, so let's try to get into their mind. They were living in Egypt, they had many gods that they worshiped, they understood the patriarchs, yet they didn't feel part of their story, it doesn't appear,
The Exile Pattern And God’s Long Game
but they knew there was something coming. I'm sure there were many wise people who understood what was going on and that God was going to come, right? And here they are now after being eyewitnesses to the slavery that they had, to the exile, the Passover, considering the promises and the parting of the Red Sea. These people have been equipped prior to God coming down, which is another one of his patterns. He equips people for this big stuff, these big moments. They were equipped to stand before God, a God that they saw bring all these plagues, and a God that is demonstrating another one of his patterns, which I call the exile pattern. Now, the exile pattern was first done with Abraham and Sarai. When Abraham left all that he knows, left his will and emotions, left his father's house, crossed through the waters into the wilderness, we see that pattern of baptism. And the Red Sea is also called the baptism of Moses. So there is more than one baptism. We know that already. We see Abraham as that foundation where we're going from one God to many gods and this public obedience stance, going out to the wilderness, the land of the unknown, to walk with God. And this is similar to what we do when we're born again. But first, I want to discuss the mini exile that Abraham and Sarai went through when they first got to the land that God showed them after they left the land of Ur. So what happens is there's a famine, and we know famines move people around. So they're doing the shuffle, they're doing the musical chairs, and they go to Egypt so that they could have provision. Sarai is taken by the Pharaoh at that time, and she was brought to his house. Now, Sarai is technically at this point a slave. So we have this exile, we have this slave. Sarah is represented as a person placed into save slavery, although she doesn't appear to be used sexually. We're not positive about that, but uh the scriptures definitely don't go into that. But she is definitely at risk in the Pharaoh's home. And what does God do? He brings plagues on the Pharaoh's house. Pharaoh comes to a point of reasoning and understanding this has to do with Sarai, and she he sends her out, and he even sends all of them out of Egypt, and he gives them many possessions. So this is what we just saw in the exile. We saw them leave with many possessions, and we also get many possessions when we become born again and we cross through the waters. And by this I mean we are born again, we are given a new name, we are called priests in his kingdom, we are considered righteous because of Christ, and we get all these bonuses that we did nothing to obtain. And this is kind of how it goes here in this exile pattern. Well, we know coming up, we will see the exile, the departure, the exodus. The word exodus means departure of Jesus from the cave where he was subjected as a slave to sin and made this payment on the cross, and he will defeat death through this process. The final exile coming up that I can consider is the rapture. And it gives me lots of hope and this really good, cozy feeling that what God says he's gonna do, he's gonna do. Not only because we see God doing this over and over again through the word, but also because it's part of his pattern, this exile pattern that we will eventually be part of. And what will we get when we're exiled through the rapture? We will get that heavenly reward, more bonuses that we don't deserve. So this is just God. This is God being God, and it's it's really, really neat. So we talked about the location, we talked about the people. I want to talk a little bit about how big the rabbis think this crowd was. They believe it was like 12 mile by 12 mile space that the Israelites occupied in front of this mountain. So 12 miles by 12 miles, 12 tribes, lots of animals, the water, the river running through it from the rock, the manna, the meat. There's a lot going on here on the grounds of Mount Sinai, and it's just a beautiful, beautiful scene. Beautiful scene. And look at how God, again, is into this long game. You know, we're all about the short game, but what's crazy to me is God promises this to Abraham. 400 years later, he's delivering this covenant with the people, this conditional covenant, where if you do this, I will do this. And he's bringing them the law, not for salvation. They are saved by faith alone. We saw Abraham is saved by his faith alone. Genesis 15, 6, a verse to memorize for sure. And we know these people are not going to be saved by obeying the commands, but what God is doing is the same thing other nations do. He is going to bring a law, and he is presenting himself as the God, the king, the lawgiver of this nation. So he's going to go into covenant with them, which is something they're familiar with. Now we will see this going into chapter 19, but we have seen and we have known that these ancient cultures also did that. So a little foundation here also for the law is
Why The Law Matters
that the first laws were given to Adam. And you can look this up. This is something that the Israelites would have known. Adam was given six laws. Noah was given seven laws. And the reason he was given that seventh law was they were no longer vegetarians, and they were told not to eat blood when it's alive. And that's where we get a lot of the pickiness of this Passover lamb. All right, so laws are not new. We also know that the priority of the lawgiver in the ancient times was demonstrated in their first many laws. So we're gonna see God's first many laws as the priority, the foundation of his declarations, the foundation of what he deems to be representing him, the foundation of sanctification at this time. Now they don't have the Holy Spirit, so the law is going to be this portion for them where they can be sanctified and become more like God, and their obedience will be seen by God, and they could be blessed as a nation by this obedience. Now we know they do not choose this full obedience, and they don't choose to honor God as their only God. And what we see generations later is that they are exiled from the land. So we get all this goodness, all this stuff, all this foundation right here at Mount Sinai. That's where we see do this, do not do that. Choose this, do not choose that. Remember, love and hate can also be seen as choose and not choose. So very interesting stuff. We know that they were already called to circumcision on the eighth day. That's another foundation that we would have here. And God is going to approach them. Bada bing, bada bang. Now, before we go into chapter 19, chapter 13, after they left Exodus, we see God's intention here. And because the firstborn were preserved or not taken by God because of the Passover blood on their doorposts, God says all the firstborn are now his, and he's going to make the firstborn in every family a priest to that family. So each family will have access to the throne, the throne of God. And what we see in the new covenant is we do have that access. We have access to Jesus on the throne. He is our mediator. We have access to God 24-7. So we see this in the new covenant. And what we see is God finally being able to do what he intended to do for all humanity, and that is to be their God and to be approachable and available in a very hearty, incredible way. And what we see in Exodus 22 and in Numbers 27, we see this firstborn thing. The Israelites were really big on this. God is really big on this. And he means the firstborn of people and the firstborn of animals. And this firstborn gets this big credit because they opened the womb of their mother. They were the ones who did the hard work of getting through that womb the first time. So they are honored as the firstborn. Interestingly enough, you cannot be a firstborn if you were born through circumcision because you did not go through the womb. Also, daughters. God talks about these sons. And so I had to do a big cascading, uh, crazy search for some of the stuff on daughters. We know in Genesis 19, Lot's daughter is referred to as the firstborn. So there are cases where daughters can be firstborn, but mostly it is through the person they marry. So what happens is the daughter gets married. She is considered the firstborn now through the son-in-law who is adopted into the family. So traditionally and definitely scripturally, that firstborn is a man, and we know Jesus is a man also, and he is considered the firstborn. Again, First Corinthians 10, 4. I did write this down. I'm kind of going back about this rock that followed the Israelites through the wilderness. Apostle Paul writes, they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ, who accompanied them. I mean, did that rock just roll around? I mean, we can't picture all of that. So, what's going to happen here is God is coming in to set up the nation just like he promised. And how do we set up a nation? We set up a covenant. And we are going to see this in the first few verses, in the first words that God proclaims to the people. He includes who he is, who they are. It's a very covenantal process that he gets into. And again, it's God's pattern to start with purpose. He doesn't come there and say, Oh my gosh, all of you, I just cherish you, your pure cuteness. Come up here and pinch my cheeks. No, he gives people what they need, and that is purpose. God and his patterns. It just goes on and on. So when I read chapter 19, verses three through eight, we're gonna see the setup of this covenant. Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the sons of Israel, you yourself have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you out on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. So we're gonna stop here in verse three. What is God saying? He's basically listing the many people in the covenant, which is them, the population of the Israelites, the ones who witnessed what God was doing and himself. God says he bore them out on eagle's wings. Why? To bring them to himself there in the wilderness. He wants to meet them there. Wasn't that what Moses kept saying? We want to go out and worship our God in the wilderness. That was not a lie, definitely not a lie. And he goes into this covenantal process in verse five. Now then, if you will, so this is conditional. We can tell it's conditional because it's like, if you, then I, right? If you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel. So Moses came and he said this covenantal statement to the people, and logistically what he did is he spoke to the elders. The elders go out and get the view of their tribes, and they come back, and it is all good. Moses says, Yes, it is all good. They agree, they want to be in this covenant with you, and they will obey what you command. Actually says in verse 8, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do. And Moses brings that word back to the Lord. So this up and down of Moses is interesting because obviously the Lord knows what's going on, you know, in the in the wilderness here amongst the Israelites. He knows everything. Moses goes down, tells them what God said. He goes up, tells God what they said, and it's up and down thing. But what God is doing is he's raising up Moses as the mediator. God already knows when he speaks on that mountain, they are going to be scared. And he knows that they are going to be more than scared, they're going to be terrified. And according to rabbis, when God speaks on that mountain to all of
Consecration And Sacred Boundaries
them, they leave their body and angels have to resuscitate them and they come back into their body. And that's what they say that they literally leave their bodies. And if it wasn't for the angels, they would not be alive. We know God commands the angels, so essentially they're saying without God's command, they would die. All right, so then the Lord says to Moses, Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow and let them wash their garments. So when is this going to take place? This is going to take place on the third day, the same day that Jesus raises from the dead, the same day that Abraham comes to the mountain with Isaac, the third day. Again, this completeness, this theme that they need to set apart two days to consecrate themselves. So they can go to the river, they can wash their clothes. They're also told to avoid sex. Um, not that sex is dirty, but because it takes your focus off God. So it's supposed to be a time of reflection. And I can imagine doing this, and I think a lot of us do do this before Easter every year. We set that time apart to really focus on what Christ accomplished on the cross. Now, also around this mountain, God is placing a border, a holy land, a place that is sacred, a place that no person is allowed into at this time but Moses. So he's gonna set this boundary around the mountain. And if any person or animal crosses that boundary, they will die. God even says, do not even touch a person who does this. So what is God doing here? Well, we know that the Garden of Eden was sacred ground and Adam and Eve had to leave. And we know that the boundary around the burning bush was also holy and sacred. So where God is is holy and sacred. Apparently, and I don't know, in some way, was that mountain prepared even by God? Because that mountain now reflects a very sacred place. And God says, literally, stone the person that crosses this boundary. And the only thing I can think of, well, we know God has a million reasons. So sometimes when I say uh, well, we know this, I don't mean that's the only reason he's doing something, but one thing we know is God is going to talk to a group of people who are idolatrous. God is talking to a group of people that are idolatrous. So what are they used to? They are used to having God, images of their God in their home, around their necks, in their pocket, at their business, in view, in temples, and etc. And God's like, I'm not a trinket. You're not gonna come up and Instagram a great shot with me. This isn't about your enjoyment. I am actually set apart from any other God you have ever known. I am holy, I am the true God, and I'm not going to be disrespected, and you can't just willy-nilly come before me. I find this fascinating because in the millennial reign, Jesus is going to be in a temple, and it says that on the Sabbath, we will walk north and south in front of Jesus. And I see here also, it's not like we're all jumping on his lap, right? He is the king of the world. There is going to be some respect due. There is going to be some raising up of Jesus in our own spirits where we understand we can't just approach the king willy-nilly. And that does not mean that I understand exactly what's going on. I'm not saying that, but there is a precedence set here that God is set apart from mankind. And I believe that about Jesus too. Well, we know Jesus comes, he walks with us as God on earth, and we expect that in heaven. But on this Sabbath, it's just fascinating to me that we seem a little bit set apart from him at that time. So I don't know exactly what's going on, but it seems to be a little bit set up here or rooted here, and we know that everything is rooted in the Torah. So my brain, my brain goes all over the place with all this stuff. Moses will bring the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. So here we are, chapter 19, verse 17. What's banging around their head right now? If we were standing there, if we were standing there, and God is going to declare He wants to be the only God. God is telling them that I'm the one who bore you out on eagle's wings already. So an eagle puts their babies on their wings or on their back so that if they are hit with an arrow, they take the hit. And these babies do nothing to deserve this free ride. So again, faith without works, right? And God is saying, Hey, I did all the work, and here you are. Well, there's something going on that I put into a different podcast because it came about in my research, and I also see this in the Arab world, and that is this intense loyalty to anyone who does something what you consider big for you. And this is why you can get the Israelites out of Egypt, but it's very hard to get Egypt out of them. And that is because they have become loyal to the gods that they worship. They're gonna hold tight to these gods because they believe these gods did something big for them. So why would I just cast them aside? I mean, I have to be loyal. So God comes to them with the same thing. Like, look what I did for you. Look what I did for you, is the first thing he's really proclaiming to them. He is setting up himself apart, not only as sacred, but apart as something they should be loyal to. And he's playing on that ancient way that people were bent towards, and that is loyalty. Loyalty. So the Lord visits Sinai. Here we go. Exodus 19, starting in 18. Let's see him come down. Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire, and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently. So the entire mountain is covered with this smoke, this cloud.
Fire Smoke And The Trumpet Blast
And I always just kind of pictured it just on the tippy top of the mountain, but no, it is surrounding it. And it says there was a sound of a trumpet that grew louder and louder. It was a piercing, piercing sound. And later it talks about a ram horn. And we know the ramhorns are also going to be used to blow upon before they take down the walls of Jericho, and a ram horn is seen as power and authority. Moses spoke, and God answers him with thunder. I mean, can you imagine the sounds, the cracking sounds that are going on? So the Lord comes down on Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain, and the Lord called Moses to the top, and Moses goes up into this cloud to meet with God, and the people are terrified. So the Lord spoke to Moses, go down, warn the people so that they do not break through. And Moses says, Yeah, you already told us this. We have set this up. And he says, No, I want you to go down. They need another warning. Set bounds about the mountain and consecrate it, the mountain. So the Lord said to him, Go down and come up again and bring Aaron with you. And then God now is going to speak. And we are just going to go into this first portion of the Ten Commandments because I do a lot of teaching on these Ten Commandments. So now we get to the purpose. Why are we here? Because God wants to walk with you, and God wants you to be obedient and choose his ways so he can bless you. God is holy, he's set apart. The whole mountain will be consecrated because of this boundary. And God is really big on what he's come to say. What did he come to say? What did he wait 1,500 years to say to a group of people that he is going to claim as his own as a treasured possession? What did he come to say? It's fascinating to me that so many people avoid the Old Testament and they avoid the Torah. And if Johnny B. Good came to town to say something and it was announced that this man has traveled for 40 years to tell your city something, nobody would miss what he had to say. But God, the God of the universe, we can often act like that was not for us. That was for someone else. But no, it is for us. It is for us too. It is for us to know the Father. And this is what God's going to do. And this is the point with God coming down on this mountain where God gave me a vision of him almost like peeking his head around this smoky mountain. And he had this look of pursual, this approachable look to me. And I realized for the first time in my life,
Why Idols Feel So Attractive
God wants humans so bad, but he's holy and he can only do this in a certain way because we are sinners. And that's how he comes through his son later. I just have had this season where I understand God is for me a hundred percent. And when I pray, sometimes I like to picture myself on his shoulder, close to his actual heartbeat, going through that carotid artery. That's actually what I picture. That's how approachable he is, and that's how much he longs to be with me, his daughter, something I never would have dreamed I would ever feel or believe. All right, so we're gonna get into why. Why are all these people so idolatrous? Well, it's just basic truth. It's definitely the bent of human beings to be idolatrous. And Douglas Stewart, uh, my main resource on this teaching in Exodus, he's just written an incredible commentary, but I don't take his word as scripture, right? We take scripture as scripture, but still, Douglas Stewart has done a lot of research, and it is well known that the Israelites will have their own gods going forward. They will have a personal God, they will have a family God, and they will have a national God, and God is the God of their nation. And what we see them doing a lot is blaming God and wanting God to move in all these crazy ways. But they will always, not all of them, but they will always have this idolatrous God that they're also going to. Douglas Stewart, and I'm gonna go through this quickly because I say it in a different teaching, but I never feel like a re a repeat on some of this stuff is boring. This is something I look into and I repeat to myself very often. Douglas Stewart gives reasons why this idol, this personal idol, this family idol was so attractive to the Israelites. And I see this now. What is my personal God? What is my small g? What is a big deal to me? What is something I can't leave behind? And that that is just a fact. We have personal gods. We might have family gods. Maybe we're a family that can't imagine living without these vacations that we do as a family or this sport that we almost worship. And it's just truth. We go there. We go there. So, what did these ancient people think about these gods when they were in Egypt? One thing they believed, the first thing, according to Douglas Stewart, is that they have some sort of guarantee that the presence of this God is in their home because they have their image in their home and they give it food. They set food next to that image and they light candles and they spend time before that image in their own home. And look at what God was trying to do. He is trying to make a priest in every family. They're gonna lose that opportunity with the golden calf, but God's intentions is that there was a priest in that home and they had access to God. Number two, we are selfish. We want what we want. We will go out and find it if we have to. If God's in the long game, we will try to make the game shorter any which way possible. And that is our nature. Next, it was easy. It required a little time and little sacrifice to obey the few rules by these piddly gods that we prioritized. It was convenient, it was right in our house. We didn't have to go to a different land, to a different temple. We didn't have to spend weeks going to festivals as God is going to require. Also, it was normal. And what we see in the world is the world is being blessed. We see Egypt is profitable, we see other communities, Babylon, etc., that seem to have a lot of money and a lot of prowess, and they seem to be doing well. It's it's something that's normal, and we see success all around. So we're attracted to that idolatry. And lastly, it is logical. It is logical that one God would not be handling every problem in humanity, that humanity needs more than one God. It is logical. So what God's gonna do is He's gonna come down and He's gonna make the priority of His laws this first law. All right. So these commandments and laws are called words to God. God emphasizes that it is his word going out that has this power. And our worship of God should be word-based, not image-based. And he makes
The First Words Of The Ten
that very clear. And what he says, the first statement that he says, and he says it out loud, which makes them want to die, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. So he introduces himself as the God who took him out of the land of Egypt. There is so much in these first words. And in a nutshell, what I want to say is there are 613 commands that are foundationally within the ten commands that we memorize in Sunday school. So those 613 seem to be knit into the 10, believed to be solidly knit into the 10. The 10 commandments are believed to be knit into the first two commandments, the second commandment being knit into the first, and the first commandment is knit into the first word. The first word is then knit into the first letter, which is an aleph, which means one. The way rabbis see it, with a few words, God gave the ten words that set up the foundation and the commands. I don't understand how they see it that way, but they do. They see it as something that poured out that was multi-layered. God did not talk long, but the Israelites understood these ten commandments in some way that we don't understand. They also say that God's voice coming out in thunder from this mountain, it never rebounded. So there was no echo because God's word, nothing can stop. Nothing can stop the word of God. So there it was no echo. Also, they say, as I said, they felt like they died and went back into their bodies. This word at the beginning of the Torah, the foundation of the Torah, this first word is a honey, and it's marvelous, and it's crazy, and it's good. A honey is an Egyptian word. It is the closest word that God could have come to to reflect who he is as God, the all-compassing God. God is coming to them, and with one word, he is saying so much to them in what? Their Egyptian language. Craziness, craziness. So the Israelites go on to believe that Hebrew is this godly language. And what happens is Jesus will give the Lord's prayer in Aramaic. Now, Aramaic was not what they pictured Jesus to talk to God to, nor teach as a prayer. Because Hebrew is the holy language. So here should have been a spot they understood, because God uses an Egyptian. Word as the first word of the Torah as the foundation of 613 commands. And it behooves us to think about how uncomplicated, again, God is being. When we're wondering what God is saying, it's probably not complicated, right? Sometimes we seem clear about something God is telling us to do, and it's probably not complicated to us. It's probably something that is equipped into us as God does. So I am the Lord your God. And what does he say? What did he do? He brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, which is so incredible. So rabbis have all this discussion about why he chose to introduce himself as the one who brought them out of the land of Egypt. And what it came down to, nuts and bolts, after a few hours of lecture, is that God is using the most personal thing he did for this crowd. So this crowd is the one who came out of the land of Egypt. What God is doing is he's representing himself as that God, not the God of creation. The God of creation seems long ago. It seems very long ago. Imagine God coming to you and coming to your group of friends and saying, I am the God who brought you out of Egypt. Well, that doesn't seem very personal, right? That doesn't seem like something we did. That's like a long ago God in my mind and in my heart. That doesn't seem like it has something to do for me personally, even though we know it does, and all this pattern and all this blah blah. What I've done that I think is so powerful is I've changed that to something personal. And I think it's important for us to do. So instead of I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the hand of Egypt, out of the land of Egypt, I have changed that to something personal. I am the Lord your God who saved your marriage from divorce. I'm just giving some exam examples, or brought you out of addiction, or brought you adopted children, or opened your womb. So something personal. We got to change that. A honey, a hony, I am that God. Another thing a honey emphasizes is God is available. 247, 365. He is that God. He is that God. So he is presenting himself not only for loyalty, but also to make it personal to the Israelites. That was me. I'm on this mountain now. Don't confuse the issue here. That was me. I'm the one who came to Egypt. I'm the one who sent Moses. I'm the one who brought the plagues. I'm the one who commanded Passover and brought you through the Red Sea. Yeah, that's me. I'm the one who's been working with Moses. Yes, I'm the big kahuna. That's me. Don't have any confusion. I am that one God. So he gives his first command, his biggest priority, you shall have no other gods before me. And another way to say that is besides me, or don't put another God in my face. And the way this is seen, which is incredible, is idolatry is similar to adultery. So imagine you're a husband or a wife right now, and your husband brings home another woman, literally before your face. I mean, imagine. Just can't even imagine the foolishness of doing that. That's what God is saying. That's how serious it is. It is very serious to bring another God before God's face or to say, I need another God, but I can't live without this. And I can't leave this saying we need another God when God clearly covers all the bases, is going against that command. And he goes on to say, you will not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth or beneath or in the water under the earth. That is four places. So there is nothing to be found that you can make a likeness or image of me.
Taking God’s Name In Vain
Nothing, nothing I created can be made, and that would be an image of me. And it says, You shall not worship them or serve them, for I the Lord am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and fourth generations of those who hate me or do not choose me, but showing loving kindness to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments. Wow. Okay. And the second one to show his priorities is do not take the name of your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes his name in vain. So that comes with another promise. First, God says that the iniquity of having false gods is going to fall upon many generations. And we see that naturally. I mean, this is just natural, right? This is in us. We are going to mimic what our parents mentor. And we see this go for generations, and then maybe an awakening happens, and we see this going forward through the book of Kings and Chronicles. We see the kings are faithful, and the next king, their son, is not. And then it goes for a while, and then another king is faithful. So this is something that I think happens naturally. This is the way God has set it up. Also, taking the name of God, what is the punishment? It does not say when we take the name of God in vain. So this is another thing that is based on the heart. It's based on the heart. God sees the heart, He knows the intention. He knows if it's just flippant or we're trying to stop saying it and we keep saying it. He understands repentance and forgives. Therefore, you might avoid punishment other than that guilt that you have. But I think in a real way, the worst way to take God's name in vain is to give false prophecy. And we're going to see this all through the New Testament. If we think God is saying something to us to tell another person, it is not prudent to say God told me this. That is not prudent. Possibly I am sensing God wants me to approach you on this subject. What are you sensing? And will you pray about it and see if I'm correct? I don't want to go to anyone else because I don't want to spread gossip, but I'm sensing that I need to talk to you about this so we can go over this together and pray together. I have heard of parents telling their child, well, God's not going to like that. Well, we'll see what happens when you do that. And they speak for God. They speak for God, not knowing his plans for that child, not understanding the child's heart, not understanding the child's wounds, traumas, the way their brain works, they're going to speak for God. And that I think is foolishness. It is foolishness. Oh wow. So taking his name in vain in a nutshell kind of blows my mind because this is something that is impossible not to do. And that is to step out as a Christian and act out of his character. And we can do that. If I'm on a platform where I'm a Christian and people know I am, and I'm in this space teaching, worshiping, part of a Bible study, etc., where I'm putting it out there and I misrepresent God and it puts a stumbling block in someone else's path. That is taking God's name in vain, also. So doing something where we're representing God in a way that's not God, that's taking his name in vain because his name is his very essence. All right, so that's the first two commands, which are the root of the ten, which are the root of the 613. I guess after all this preparation we did and all that's going on here, it's impossible to capture it all in one teaching. But the main point, I think, is that God is pursuing the world. God is patient with the world. God took his time to bring about the promises to Abraham. God is not going to just toss them into the land and tell them he's gonna bless them. God loves obedience, he still loves obedience, Jesus loves obedience, and it's something that blesses us in the end. He cares enough about us to give us boundaries. And the word of God is a guideline and a mirror. Lastly, hermeneutically, again, we see the first 11 chapters of the word covering 1,500 years. And in this 11 months, it's 57 chapters. So hermeneutically, this is very important, priceless to God. This is important. God reveals this, especially with the tabernacle, which he describes twice. Once he gives all the details about it, and then secondly, he goes through and says every step Moses made. So if you have time to go back to the tabernacle teachings that I have done, it is it's just so super cool. And it's so God. Oh wow, oh wow. I hope this was valuable for you, as it has been for me. It's impossible to capture it all. But it also motivates you and continues to motivate me to dig deeper to find the essence, to try to scratch to the bottom, get to the bottom of it. It's so worth it because it magnifies God and it lifts him up where he deserves to be. I am going to take a break from teaching. I don't know how long, and maybe God's gonna ask me to do it in the next few weeks. I don't know. But summer break is usually a time off and a time to pray about what God wants me to do in the fall, to continue this podcast, to continue teaching. What has he got going on? It's just really fun. It's really fun because if God's not in it, then none of us want anything to do with it, right? So going forward here, I certainly will continue to pray for all of you through the summer. Thank you, thank you. I am so humbled that you spend time with me going through the word. It's beautiful to do it together. And I pray that all of you are finding others to do that with in your community. And this is one way together, we can keep our chin up and keep God a priority going forward. Bless you and keep you this summer. Let's go, God.