Fear No Fear

(All scripture from Lexham English Bible, Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software)

We continue with God talking to Moses and explaining the Ten Commandments, showing what exactly was meant by them. Ignorance was not going to be an excuse here. The laws were primarily meant to motivate people to not break them. Compensation for wrongs was secondary.

The onus was always on the thief. If they stole, they had to pay back more than they stole (4-5 times as much). If they broke in during the night and got killed by the owners of the house, the owners weren’t held responsible – unless the sun was up and the thief could be clearly seen. The thief shouldn’t have been there.

If your animal grazes another man’s field, you need to make restitution. If you gave valuables to someone to keep for you and they were stolen, the thief was responsible. If the thief wasn’t found, the master of the house had to prove before the judges that they weren’t culpable. Again, they were to absorb the idea of personal responsibility for their actions – intentional and especially from negligence or lack of stewardship. If you’re supposed to deliver an animal to a neighbour and it dies or wanders off without anyone seeing it happen, then you had to swear before the Lord you weren’t trying to cheat them. Even if you borrowed something from someone but it got damaged, you were responsible – unless you could prove it was out of your hands or the owner was present. The things we borrow need to be returned in good condition or you need to make it good.

If a man was to entice a virgin into bed, he had to pay her dowry and marry her – unless her father refused the match, in which case he paid the dowry but didn’t get the girl. This enticing is not speaking of rape or any kind of forced scenario. This is speaking of consensual relations. Sex wasn’t recreational. It was a serious, intimate connection and was to be treated as such. Premarital sex was serious business.

Next came a series of things that were valid under the Law. They were a severing to preserve the rest of the nation. They were spiritual conditions caused by the intentional failure of morals and worship, and were to be ‘cut off’ (through death) so they could not infect and influence others to follow suit. This is a judgment we are no longer under because we live after the resurrection – there is a way to change the heart (Jesus – 1 John 2:2). We don’t have to cut people out because God can transform their lives.

What needed cutting off? What was that serious it warranted such severe consequences? Witchcraft (rebellion against God and God’s order), bestiality (rebellion against God and God’s order), and worshipping idols or false gods (rebellion against God and God’s order). Notice the theme? Do things God’s way, with God’s tools, in God’s time. We aren’t to force things to go our way or to step out of how God says things should be.

Don’t treat strangers or foreigners badly. If they are of a different nationality, treat them like they are not.

Widows and orphans should be provided for, cared about, and treated well. If you acted against them, you’d be made like them (loss of family). The Law isn’t playing around. It is all about getting what is deserved. We have been redeemed from the Law by Grace, but the standards of what makes up decent and righteous behaviour hasn’t changed. What God says is proper behaviour is STILL proper behaviour.

If you lend money, don’t charge interest – this was one Israelite to another, not Israelites to Gentiles (they could do that, but still be reasonable and fair). If collateral was taken, it was to be temporary and nothing was ever to impose a hardship on borrowers.

Don’t speak irreverently about God or sacred things. Also don’t curse (talk trash or worse) a leader of the people. Notice they DIDN’T have to LIKE them APPROVE of them or share the same politics. They DID have to be respectful to them.

There was to be no delay in bringing offerings. The first fruits were God’s. Produce, juices, or living (children or beasts). The firstborn were the Lord’s. He claimed that right when the Angel of death went through Egypt and God enabled a way for the Israelites to escape the judgment.

The nation was to be holy, and one evidence of that was not to eat meat that another animal had killed in the wild. First, the blood would not have been drained from it (a requirement of the Noahic Covenant – Genesis 8:20–9:17). Second, it would make them ceremonially unclean. Third, it would be dangerous from a disease point of view.

Don’t make a false report. This isn’t just lying, but also gossip, distorted facts, and anything that wasn’t pure truth. Don’t let financial status be a factor in judgment. You don’t treat poor people differently. You don’t let rich people avoid responsibility. If it is doing something wrong from God’s point of view, don’t follow the crowd and do it too. Be people of conviction. So much so that if you see your enemy’s assets threatened, you step in and help. Don’t kill the innocent. Don’t kill the righteous. Stay away from false things that you know are false. Do not take bribes. Don’t be oppressive to strangers – consideration and hospitality to all, not just ‘your’ people.

Sabbath rest extends to all things, not just ourselves – that’s how universal rest and meditation on God should be. The land itself should rest every seventh year. That means you don’t plough it or plant it and whatever grows up the poor and the animals are welcome to. Your lands, your olive groves, and your vineyards should all be treated this way. When you rest from work on the seventh day, your animals and servants should as well. Make sure not to use the names of other gods for blessings or cursing or to have them in your mind as real entities at all. There is ONE God.

God introduces the feasts. Three annual ones. Unleavened bread (Passover – when Jesus was sacrificed on the cross). Harvest (Pentecost – when Jesus gave the Holy Spirit). And Ingathering (Tabernacles – which is when I personally believe Jesus was born). Everyone had to attend. They would form the yearly cycles to keep the people mindful of God.

God informed them He was sending an Angel BEFORE THEM to bring them into the Land of Promise. They weren’t to provoke him because he would NOT forgive transgressions. According to 1 Corinthians 10:4, Jesus FOLLOWED the Israelites, so the Angel probably wasn’t a Jesus B.C. appearance. They were to obey what God said and the promise was that then God would be an enemy to their enemies. Good deal. And that He would drive out the nations before the Israelites. Pretty good deal. Interestingly, God tells them it won’t happen all at once, but over time so that the land won’t revert to a wilderness that would then need to be reclaimed. God was promising them a decent land that had been broken on – if they were patient and went on His timetable. Excellent deal!

If they totally avoided the culture of the people in the lands – their idols, worship, etc – then God would keep them from disease and sickness. It would simply not be something they experienced. And God doesn’t change (Hebrews 13:8; Malachi 3:6). This is available to us today! In Jesus, we can have the same supernatural divine health. Sickness can be turned off by God. He IS the God who heals (Exodus 15:26). God tells them what their territory should be. And He warns them not to let the people stay in the land that rejected them (Leviticus 18:28) – remember that they had had a minimum of 400 years to repent (Genesis 15:16). He tells them if they let the people stay, their idolatry would become a snare.

“And all the people answered with one voice, and they said, “All the words that Yahweh has spoken we will do.”” (Exodus 24:3b)

Moses came down and told all the people what God had told him. They all agreed to abide by the covenant. So Moses stayed up writing it all down, and in the morning built an altar and set up twelve pillars (one for each tribe). They sacrificed to the Lord and kept the blood from the slaughter. Half was sprinkled on the altar. Moses read out all the words of the book and the people formerly agreed to keep and obey it. Moses sprinkled them with the rest of the blood. This was a covenant ratified in blood. The blood – which cannot cleanse sin – was symbolic of Jesus’ blood – which CAN cleanse sin. Moses exact words are in verse 8: “This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words.”

Moses, Aaron, two of Aaron’s sons, and seventy elders went back up the mountain. There they saw a visible manifestation of God’s glory, and underneath it a pavement of sapphire (blue sapphire like Lapis Lazuli). There they were permitted to eat and drink before the Lord. Quite a privilege.

Then God called Moses further up the mountain to receive tables, and the law and commandments, so that he could teach them. He took his assistant Joshua with him and told the elders to stay put. That if there were any difficulties, Aaron and Hur could attend to them. Moses went on up and a cloud descended on the top of the mountain. For six days the Glory rested there and then God called Moses forward (Joshua stayed there). Note that it takes time to prepare our hearts for God. Perhaps there are less words from Him because we don’t rest and stay still long enough (Psalm 46:10). Back down on the valley floor, the Glory looked like it was consuming fire. A wildfire out of control and ready to devour everything in its path – they were not having the same experience as the elders, Aaron and his sons, Joshua, or Moses.

Then Moses went into the Glory and stayed there forty days and forty nights. There was no food there. There was no water there. This is a completely impossible supernatural sustaining of Moses by God.

Summary

Key Players: Moses, God

Key Themes: Law, Obedience, Covenant, Covering

Key Verse(s): Exodus 24:1-8, 11-18