Lining up with reality

I have been doing some study of the ten commandments lately.

One point I've seen is this: that the first "table" (commandments 1-4) are in part about lining up with reality.

If I said to you, "You shall have no other gods before me" or "Do not take my name lightly on your lips, or you will be guilty", you'd justifiably take me for a raging egomaniac. I'd be asking you to live out a lie. I have no worthiness, either inherently or through my inglorious actions, to receive such treatment from you.

But when God gives such commandments, there is no fault in him. He is calling us to reality - to recognise the true order of the universe. He is calling us to live according to how things really are.

In the first commandment, he calls us to have no other gods before him: because he is the one true living God. We are summoned to worship him, because worship of our Maker, Sustainer, Saviour and Judge is the foundation for a right view of all reality. There is no other like him: therefore we should not give any that place either.

In the second commandment, he tells us to avoid use of our imaginations in worship, and to worship him strictly according to his revealed will; and in particular, not to imagine that he is adequately represented by any part of the material creation. He is far more glorious and exalted than we can conceive. His excellence cannot be captured in any created thing. Our lives should reflect this wonderful truth and testify to it.

In the third, he tells us that his name is highly exalted and should be rightly hallowed. There is nothing common about him; everything to do with him is holy. In all of worship (and thus in all of life), he must be given unique and unceasing honour - and not to do so is a serious error. He deserves a dignified, awe-filled approach to life in his world from us, because of his awesomeness.

I have not moved on to my study of the fourth yet, but it is easy to see how it carries out - I will leave that to you! But the point is this: the "first table" of the law lays down, amongst other things, the true order of reality. Unless your life reflects it, you are not simply sinning, or breaking a command that's hard to keep, but you are living in God's world in an unreal way; you are living a delusion, a lie. God does not call us to worship him because of some emptiness or need in himself; he calls us to build on the one true foundation for life - the only route to true joy. He tells us of the foundations that he built our world upon: his own glory. A man who thinks his wife is a tree or that his cat is his son is hardly likely to enjoy the true joys of marriage or family. Neither can a person who neglects the ten commandments.

And when we see this depth in the commandment, we face a fact: how far short we must have fallen, and how gracious the Lord Jesus Christ must be. How he must have suffered to bring us back to God in the face of our neglecting of these holy requirements!

Exodus 3-15 in 1200 words!

Here's my summary (for my students) of Exodus chapters 3 to 15 - the great account of the Exodus from the calling of Moses at the burning bush, until he had led Israel over the Red Sea. In just 1237 words!

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1) Meeting God at the burning bush, 3:1-4:17

Before God sent Moses, God met Moses. He met him at Mount Sinai, also called “Mount Horeb” or “the mountain of God” (see 3:1, 31:18-32:2, Psalm 106:19, Deuteronomy 5:2). Moses met with the “angel (messenger) of the LORD” - but in verses 3 and 6 we can see clearly that it was the LORD himself. With our New Testament knowledge, we conclude that this was actually an appearance of Christ (a “Christophany”), the second person of the Trinity, the Word of God, the Son of God. There are many examples of this in the Old Testament – the same messenger appears in Judges 2:1-4. In Psalm 45:6-7, there is God – but he also relates to another called God; and yet we know there is only one God! The truth of the Trinity is in the Old Testament, even if it is not clear like in the New Testament.

When God spoke, he spoke as the God of the covenant. God only, ever, deals with men through covenants. Notice that he speaks about “my people”, and calls himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. This is all covenant language. He speaks about his promises – the covenant promises. Salvation today comes through a covenant that God gave – the New Covenant in the blood of Christ (Hebrews 8).

He also revealed his name - “I AM” or “I AM WHO I AM”. This name reveals God as sovereign – the one who depends only on himself. God's sovereignty is a major theme of Exodus: he is God over everything, even over Egypt, even over Pharaoh. This is what Moses and Israel needed to know to trust him.

Moses did not trust God like he should have done. In fact, he made five protests:

1) 3v11 - “Who am I?”. God's answer is, “I will be with you” - that is all we need.
2) 3v13, “They will ask your name!” Names are important in the Bible. God then revealed his name.
3) 4v1, “What if they don't listen?” God gave Moses 3 signs. Signs always accompany something new. These signs were not nice; they were all signs of judgment – because God was going to judge Egypt.
4) 4v10, “I cannot speak well”. God himself made the mouth, so he can easily give Moses what he needed!
5) 4v13, “Please send someone else”; though God sent Aaron too, he was angry; after his 40 years in the wilderness, Moses was unbelieving. This shows us that though Moses was great, he was not Jesus!

2) Moses' return to Egypt and meeting the elders of Israel, 4:18-31

Moses did not tell Jethro the full reason for why he was returning to Egypt – I wonder why not? (What do you think?) Verses 24-26 are very mysterious indeed – do study the commentaries; probably there is a link with verses 22-23 with their message about the firstborn. Not even Moses could escape God's judgment if he ignored the covenant sign. Moses was a saviour – but not the great Saviour who was still future.

The people of Israel believed (v31). We know that later, they grumbled and their faith failed (5:21, 6:9). These are the first signs that Israel would be a half-hearted, double-minded people – and when Christ came he would not only be far greater than Moses, but need to create a new people too.

3) Meeting with Pharaoh and the results, 5:1-6:13 (and then the genealogy of Moses, 6:14-27)

These chapters, until the end of chapter 15, are all about the contest between Pharaoh and Jehovah. The great question is – who is God? In Egypt, Pharaoh was the recognised lord. So in verse 2 Pharaoh says – who is Jehovah? Who is the God of the (weak, enslaved) Hebrews? Why should I care about him? This is all preparing us for the great competition that is now beginning. Whose word will stand? (Compare verse 1, “Thus says the LORD, God of Israel” with verse 10, “thus says Pharaoh”). As the contest begins, life gets harder for Israel. They now must make their bricks with no straw – and they are beaten. Sometimes there is peace because Satan is not being challenged – but here in Egypt, he is now!

4) The plagues, climaxing in the death of the first-born, 6:28-11:10

The great purpose of the plagues was not only to judge Egypt, but supremely to display the great power and sovereignty of Jehovah. They show his sovereignty everywhere – over the River Nile (the source of life in Egypt), the air, in people's houses, in their fields, over their crops and animals – even over light and dark and over the lives of the first-born, even Pharaoh's son and heir. There are no limits on God. God's people should not fear; nobody can resist the LORD. Slowly we see the magicians of Egypt failing, and being defeated. (Notice too that when they were competing, they did not remove the plagues – they only made them worse! That is what Satan does). Through all the plagues, Pharaoh hardened his heart. He brought his own ruin, refusing to submit. This is what sinners who hate God do; this is what the devil does. Instead of stopping and repenting, they carry on – even if it will completely destroy them!

5) The Passover and the Exodus itself, 12:1-13:16

The Exodus comes about with an important festival: The Passover. This is a great type of Christ and his death at Calvary (as we have seen in the gospel of John, where John presents everything around Christ's death as a New Passover for a new people). In Israel there was a perfect lamb, who died in the place of the firstborn, to redeem the family. The blood was painted on the door as an act of faith. The substitution price was paid, and God purchased his people for himself. There was no leaven (yeast) in the bread, because there was no time to waste; showing that salvation is no small or easy thing, but costly as we are rescued at a great price from the flames.

Whilst there was a lamb who died for each family in Israel, there was no substitute in Egypt, and the firstborn died as the judgment on every family. When God comes to save his people, he also comes to judge his enemies. When Jesus died on the cross, Satan was cast out (John 12:31). When he will return for us in glory, the wicked will meet their final doom (Revelation 21:1-8).

6) The fall of the Egyptian army, 13:17-14:31

Egypt was totally ruined – crops, animals and people. In every family from the highest to the lowest, the firstborn had died. You might think Pharaoh would stop now – but he did not. As a hardened sinner, he pressed forward, to his complete ruin. He sent out his army for their final defeat in the Red Sea. Like many Christians, I believe that the Bible teaches that at the end of time there will be one final great rebellion of Satan (Revelation 20:7-10) which will finish with his final, complete ruin in the lake of fire.

7) The song of victory, 15:1-21

When God had saved his people, they worshipped him with the song of Moses. Redeemed people become worshippers, and before service comes thanks and praise.

A brief summary of the book of Exodus

On the resources page of my website I've just added (with permission) an 8-page summary of the teaching of the book of Exodus, written by Martin Bussey (a Bible college lecturer in Africa) using Vern Polythress's "The Shadow of Christ in the Law of Moses". Here.

It's more than that

I've been using a certain commentary on Exodus with my Bible college students this term. It's OK; I don't think any commentary I know of really suits their needs, but we're doing the best we can.

I keep reading things like this "Just as the children of Israel .... so we also". Just as they did this, so we do that. Just as God did this with them, so he now does this to us through Jesus.

Well, yes. But at least some times, I'd be glad if the author spelt out that the relationship between "them" and "us" was more than just correspondence - more than a handy similarity of appearance and form useful for illustration Christian principles with. The link is vastly deeper than that. The Exodus is a type of the gospel, planned in great detail. We are a covenanted people, redeemed by blood and living under the rule of our Saviour-King, travelling towards the promised inheritance. Jesus was active at the Exodus, teaching people about himself and filling out more of the content of the promises he'd given before that time. Redemption is progressing, as God had planned. As Oliver Cromwell cried out on his death-bed, "the two covenants are one!" Do we evangelicals today really have this grasp of history, as one coherent story moving forward perfectly as planned? Is the Old Testament just a book of neat illustrations for Christian doctrine, or is the multi-faceted jewel of the gospel being shown to us from all kinds of angels, and the growing people of God developing from infancy to their full maturity in Christ?

The Greater Exodus

I'm not sure the below really makes good blog material. But I don't think it'll do any harm to anyone! It's a handout for my students, in the Exodus course. It's too complicated for them but it's the best I could do under present constraints. You might get an idea from it of how thrilling I find it to open up the Scriptures each week with a class of students. To see open eyes as people understand the meaning of the Bible where they hadn't seen it before makes the exhausting task of teaching for 5 hours each Thursday the best job in the world. "Ah, so that's what it's really about!"

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Exodus (Teacher: David Anderson) – Week 4 Handout

The Exodus

God has brought salvation to us through human history. A lot of the Bible is history. Some people think that history is less important than theology (doctrine). But this is a mistake – God has put the two together. He acts in history, and explains what it is that he is doing so that we can understand it. Therefore, if we are going to understand what the Exodus means, we must first study the history.

The Exodus itself (from the time Moses met God at the burning bush until Israel had crossed the Red Sea) is recorded in chapters 3-15:

1. Meeting God at the burning bush, 3:1-4:17

2. Moses' return to Egypt and meeting the elders of Israel, 4:18-31

3. Meeting with Pharaoh and the results, 5:1-21

4. The plagues, climaxing in the death of the firstborn, 5:22-11:10

5. The Passover and the Exodus itself, 12:1-13:16

6. The fall of the Egyptian army, 13:17-14:31

7. The song of victory, 15:1-21

It is difficult to summarise this in a few words! It will be best for you to study Bentley. But do notice that the book of Exodus itself makes it clear that something important is happening. God could, if he wanted, have removed Israel from Egypt in a different way – without any plagues, or a festival (the Passover). It is clear that God was doing something with greater significance than just the exit itself. This was a crucial time for Israel. Before, they had lived under Egypt's laws and were not a nation themselves. Now they became one, and they received the Old Covenant which governed them until the time of Christ.

The Significance Of The Exodus For Christians

Here, we are asking what the Exodus means for us today. That is different to asking what it meant for Jews in Old Testament times. We are not asking what it meant to live under the Old Covenant – we will ask that another week. We are asking what it means for us living under the New Covenant.

If you read Exodus 19:4-6, followed by Colossians 1:12-15 and 1 Peter 2:9-11 you will see that the apostles Paul and Peter taught the Gentiles to understand the gospel using the Exodus. In the Exodus, a people were redeemed by blood from the power of darkness and given a wonderful inheritance. They became a new people belonging to the holy God as his own chosen possession. They were saved through the death of a lamb, when in Egypt the firstborn perished.

The apostles taught that this really is what has happened in the gospel. The church is a new nation, living under a new covenant. We were in slavery to Satan and sin in darkness. But at the cross, there has been a great judgment on those powers and they have been defeated and God's people have gone free. The gospel is the true Exodus, and Christ is both the firstborn who died under God's judgment and the lamb of God who substituted in the place of his people to save them. We have now become a holy people who belong to God and have been given his laws to live under.

How did Paul learn the meaning of the gospel so quickly, without going to a Bible college? The answer is simple. He had spent years studying the Old Testament Scriptures before he became a Christian. These Scriptures taught him about all the ideas that he would need to teach about as an apostle. They taught about a redemption that pointed forwards to the true redemption that Jesus would achieve at the cross. Paul did not need to forget all his Old Testament learning to learn something new. Instead, he simply needed to understand that the Old Testament was not complete in itself, but that it was preparing people to understand a greater reality that would happen when Jesus died at Calvary. People were often crucified by the Romans in Israel in the 1^st century. How would anybody know that Jesus' death had any greater meaning? The answer is that God had been preparing for it for thousands of years. The Exodus was a model prepared in advance to explain the gospel.

It is very important to use the Old Testament rightly. We must read it remembering that it is there to lead the way to Christ and the New Testament. We use it wrongly if we start teaching that God wants us to have a large land or free us from political oppression like Israel. The earthly redemption of the Exodus is a model leading to the redemption from sin in the New Testament. It is true that sin is the cause of many problems in the world. But the solution does not come to us through a new earthly Exodus, but through the death of Christ and our obedience to him.

Now study Hebrews 3:1-4:8 and 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Here we are taught that the Jews were not a different people. Paul tells the non-Jewish Corinthians that the Jews were their ancestors! The church is the fulfilment and climax of God's promises to Israel. Because we are God's people who continue the story of the Jews, that means that we can learn from them and their experiences. In these verses, we learn that Christians are like Israel travelling through the wilderness. We have been redeemed from slavery to sin, but the promised inheritance is still ahead of us. The Israelites grumbled because they did not trust God. As a result, God was angry with them and they fell in the wilderness. We face the same danger. God can supply all our needs, but we need to trust him and not fall into grumbling or unbelief. The apostles used the Exodus to teach Christians how to live today. 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 is another important example, where Gentile Christians are taught using the Exodus. 1 Corinthians 10:11 says that all those things were written for us, who live under the gospel. Christ's death is much more than a new Passover and a new Exodus bringing a new Covenant and a new people. It is also a new Day of Atonement with a new High Priest; he is a new temple, a new King David, a new Son of David/Prince of Peace, a new Elisha, a new Adam and much more. But whilst he is more, he is not less! Christ is the true subject of the book of Exodus.

Preaching The Exodus

How should we teach or preach from Exodus today? John 5:44-46 and Acts 26:22-23 tells us that Moses taught about Christ. Therefore we know we can preach from it!

1. We must preach about Christ – because it is about him.
   
   

2. We must use it to explain the gospel – Exodus is given to explain the gospel!
   
   

3. We must use it to explain the position of Christians today, like Paul in 1 Corinthians 10.
   
   

4. We must use it to explain the duties of Christians today, like Paul in 1 Corinthians 5.

If you think about those four points, then there is nothing very special to Exodus about them. That is what we should do with every book in the Bible. There are no books that are just “for the Jews” or for people who live in some future time. It is all for the Christian church, “on whom the climax of the ages has come”, 1 Corinthians 10:11.

• Don't use it just to teach stories with moral lessons. It is about redemption, not just giving us stories to illustrate other principles.

• Don't use it just to teach morals – don't do this, do that; be like Moses, not like Aaron with the golden calf, etc. We must first go from Exodus to Christ, and only then to our duties.

Sermon on Exodus 7-10

I had cause to upload a sermon I preached on Exodus 7-10 (the first nine plagues on Egypt) 3 years ago. It can be downloaded here: http://david.dw-perspective.org.uk/sermons/Exodus7-10_48kbps.mp3