Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] So this series that we're looking at, meeting the Lord up close and personal.
[00:00:05] When that word L O R D in capitals appears in the Scriptures, it's translating this word, Yahweh, the name of the Lord.
[00:00:16] In a moment, I'm going to pray.
[00:00:19] When I was younger, I was taught prayer is talking to God.
[00:00:25] But I learned a few months ago someone said prayer is actually more specifically reply or responding to God.
[00:00:35] God always initiates.
[00:00:38] He speaks and he acts first and we simply respond.
[00:00:45] But even more fundamental to what he says or what he does is who he is.
[00:00:51] And we're going to explore that a little bit today.
[00:00:55] This is your first Hebrew word for today, and we're going to learn another five, so stay alert.
[00:01:04] Now we're in week three of this series, meeting the Lord up close and personal.
[00:01:09] You may remember some time ago, we looked at Adam and Eve in the garden, and we looked at the theme of the Lord, who is our Creator, and He gives us our purpose.
[00:01:22] We breathe in his life, and then we live for his glory.
[00:01:29] Talk 2. We looked at Abraham on the journey, and we got to see the Lord, who is generous in his promises.
[00:01:39] Leave and believe, Trust and obey.
[00:01:42] Worship the Lord, follow His way.
[00:01:47] And now we get to meet Moses on the mountain.
[00:01:52] Now, this photo was taken by Linda and I. We visited the Sinai Peninsula and we walked up what is known as Jebel Musa, the Mountain of Moses.
[00:02:07] It's thought to be the place where all of these stories actually occurred.
[00:02:13] It's rough, it's remote, it's dry, it's rocky.
[00:02:19] But this is the place that the Lord came down to meet with Moses.
[00:02:26] And the scene that we've just read inspired me for this whole series.
[00:02:31] Here is Moses meeting the Lord up close and personal and being transformed in the process.
[00:02:41] Listen to what Exodus 34:29 says.
[00:02:46] When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord.
[00:03:00] You see, time with this God visibly changes people, and that's still true today.
[00:03:11] Can you imagine if each time we met or gathered with other believers, we saw faces radiant and souls at peace and hearts on fire, simply because we spent time with this Lord so regularly that it changed us.
[00:03:38] Ordinary people like you and me, spending time with an extraordinary God and visibly changing as a result.
[00:03:49] So let's pray. And then, with eager expectation, let's see what the Lord wants to show us today.
[00:03:56] Let's pray.
[00:04:00] Our Father, we thank youk that we can gather, and we thank youk that yout like to reveal what yout Are like to Us.
[00:04:10] We pray that through this story and these precious words and this encounter that Moses had with you, that by your spirit you would open our eyes and open our hearts that we might see you and that you would change us in exactly those areas that we most need this morning.
[00:04:31] Amen.
[00:04:34] Now, I'm not sure what your favourite musical is.
[00:04:37] Perhaps Phantom of the Opera or Les Mis or Hamilton or High School Musical.
[00:04:44] A well designed musical has a recurring melody that ends up integrating the whole story.
[00:04:54] And there's one particular verse in Exodus 34 that functions like this in the storyline of the Bible.
[00:05:03] If the Bible was a musical, Exodus 34:6 would be that recurring melody and this verse and the words and the phrases in it, you will start seeing them popping up everywhere in the Scriptures.
[00:05:22] This verse contains such good news, for it tells us what God is like.
[00:05:29] It reveals the personality of Yahweh, the Lord. The Lord, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loyal love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness and rebellion and sin.
[00:05:53] This verse describes the great I am as he actually is.
[00:05:58] In this verse we see his glory.
[00:06:04] But imagine for a moment if these words were not true of the Creator of the world.
[00:06:11] Imagine for a moment if he was a different personality, a God who was perhaps aloof and unkind, easily triggered, fickle and unpredictable.
[00:06:27] Imagine if that sort of God was in charge of the universe.
[00:06:34] So what is God actually like?
[00:06:37] We'll explore this story through four headings.
[00:06:41] We'll set the scene with the mood on the mountain.
[00:06:45] We'll reflect on the name of the Lord.
[00:06:49] We will look at the glory of Jesus, and then we'll explore some ways to respond.
[00:06:58] So, first up, the mood on the mountain.
[00:07:01] In Exodus 3, we hear the Lord speaking to Moses on this mountain, remote in the desert.
[00:07:10] And Yahweh says, I have heard the cry of my people.
[00:07:14] I've come down to rescue them.
[00:07:17] And this will be a sign to you that I have done what I have promised.
[00:07:23] You will worship me on this mountain.
[00:07:28] Now, in our story today, we find Moses again, six months later on that very same mountain. And a lot has happened in those six months.
[00:07:39] A mighty act of the Lord has rescued the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt.
[00:07:47] They are now gathered at the base of this mountain.
[00:07:51] The Lord has given them the Ten Commandments, outlining to them how they're to live as his people.
[00:08:00] Moses had already spent a first period of 40 days and nights on top of this mountain.
[00:08:07] And during this time The Lord gave instructions about a special tent, a tabernacle, to be a symbol of God's presence amongst his people.
[00:08:20] But while Moses was up there with the Lord, things were getting out of hand. At the base of the mountain, the people broke the first two commandments.
[00:08:32] They rejected the Lord as their one true God.
[00:08:36] And they began to worship an idol that they had made with their hands.
[00:08:42] And they even bowed down to thank this golden calf for rescuing them from Egypt.
[00:08:53] Now, this is an absolute slap in the face for Yahweh.
[00:08:59] After everything that Yahweh had done in rescuing his people, in order to live amongst them and teach them the way of life, how quickly they go astray and turn away.
[00:09:15] And at the start of chapter 34, the Lord commands Moses to climb to the top of the mountain again.
[00:09:24] He will have a second period of 40 days and nights alone with the Lord.
[00:09:30] The mood is ominous.
[00:09:34] What will the Lord do?
[00:09:36] How will he respond?
[00:09:39] How does this particular God react when faced with that level of rebellion?
[00:09:48] Now, Moses knew that Yahweh was in his rights to walk away and wash his hands of this people.
[00:09:57] The people had broken the agreement in such a defiant way.
[00:10:04] So verses 5 and 6 come as genuinely good news.
[00:10:10] The Lord came down in the cloud, and he stood there with Moses and proclaimed his name. The Lord.
[00:10:20] He passed in front of Moses, proclaiming the Lord, the Lord, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in love and faithfulness.
[00:10:36] We hear this phrase again. The Lord came down, you might remember, at the Tower of Babel, the Lord came down to put a stop to the evil and to scatter the people at the burning bush.
[00:10:51] When Moses was called to it, the Lord came down in order to say, I will rescue my people.
[00:11:01] And here at Mount Sinai, the Lord comes down again, this time to show his glory and to proclaim his name and to reveal what he is like at the core of his being.
[00:11:15] So it's time to take a closer look at verse six, where we hear the Lord describing his personality in his own words.
[00:11:26] He uses five Hebrew phrases to tell us what he is like at the core of his being.
[00:11:34] So we're going to take a deep dive and learn some of these Hebrew words together.
[00:11:41] The first one, rach um, have a go. Saying it needs to be said from the back of the throat. Rak um.
[00:11:51] This Hebrew word, rak um is usually translated compassionate or deeply moved.
[00:11:59] Rakum. And the words related to it are used 99 times in the Hebrew Bible.
[00:12:06] And these words are based on the other word Rechem, which means womb.
[00:12:14] This is a picture of the tender care of an infant when it is most vulnerable.
[00:12:21] Rahum describes an intensely emotional womb like love.
[00:12:30] Now, have you noticed how a mother is so deeply connected to the cry of her baby?
[00:12:38] She has the capacity to ignore the cries of 99 other babies in the room and tune into the one for whom she has a womb like love.
[00:12:52] And this womb like love moves her to do whatever is necessary for the well being of her baby.
[00:13:01] The love of a mother for her baby is one of the most intense and powerful expressions of human love.
[00:13:10] But listen to how Isaiah uses this imagery to speak of how the Lord is even more rakoum than this.
[00:13:22] Isaiah 49:15.
[00:13:25] Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
[00:13:34] Though she may forget, I will not forget you.
[00:13:42] Fathers can also have rakoum for their children.
[00:13:46] Psalm 103, verse 13. As a father has compassion on his children, so Yahweh has compassion on all those who fear him.
[00:13:58] This word rakoum is not just an emotion.
[00:14:03] Yes, this person is deeply moved, but it's an emotion that becomes visible through action, most commonly acts of forgiveness or acts of deliverance for those in need.
[00:14:19] Isaiah 49:13 Shout for joy, you heavens, burst into song, you mountains. For the Lord comforts his people.
[00:14:30] He has compassion, rakum on his afflicted ones.
[00:14:37] You see, Yahweh is not detached or impassive.
[00:14:42] He is rakoum.
[00:14:44] He is deeply moved by the cries and the suffering of his people.
[00:14:51] He is filled with a womb like love that moves him to rescue and save and heal and protect.
[00:15:01] What a wonderful God. This is our second word, hanun.
[00:15:11] Now, this word chanun is an adjective meaning gracious hanun, and the words related to it are used almost 200 times in the Hebrew Bible.
[00:15:24] They're derived from the noun hence, which means favour or kindness.
[00:15:31] Khanun is often used in a relational sense, where one person, usually of higher status, shows favour to another.
[00:15:42] The favour is given generously and freely, without any sense of obligation.
[00:15:48] And often it's given to those who deserve the opposite.
[00:15:54] Now, when we lived in South Sudan, we served there for five years as a family, and we experienced this idea when we would meet the Zolkabeer.
[00:16:07] Now, zol kebir is Arabic for big man, the village chief, the governor, or simply the guy with the biggest gun.
[00:16:20] Now, as a little person with no rights, you would go to the Zolkabeer and you would hope that he would show kindness and grant favour to your request.
[00:16:34] If you met a Zoll kabir who was kind, you could use this Hebrew word to describe him.
[00:16:42] This big man is hanun.
[00:16:48] Now, because Yahweh is rakum, compassionate womb like compassion.
[00:16:54] He is also hanun, granting favour and kindness.
[00:17:00] He gives freely and generously to the lowly and the vulnerable and the undeserving.
[00:17:08] Now this is foundational for all of Yahweh's future interactions with humanity and it also motivates many of the prayers of the Psalms.
[00:17:21] As you read through them, you will see these words popping out again and again.
[00:17:26] The psalmist cries out to the Lord for him to be hanun to him to them, knowing that Yahweh delights to be so.
[00:17:38] Listen to Psalm 25:16.
[00:17:42] Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted.
[00:17:49] Relieve the troubles of my heart and free me from my anguish.
[00:17:55] What a wonderful invitation to come and pray to this Zolkabeer.
[00:18:02] What a wonderful God he is.
[00:18:07] Now we're skipping over to word number four.
[00:18:11] We will come back to slow to anger in a moment.
[00:18:15] Hesed.
[00:18:17] This is a noun meaning loyal love.
[00:18:21] It appears 245 times in the Hebrew Bible. These are commonly repeated words and this one always occurs in the context of a relationship of commitment, marriage, family, deep friendship.
[00:18:41] Now one of my friends engraved the word hesed in Hebrew onto his wedding ring.
[00:18:48] He wanted to promise his hesed to his bride.
[00:18:55] Hesed refers to actions that demonstrate loyalty in the relationship, actions that preserve it, protect it, actions that make it flourish.
[00:19:09] It's a posture of loyal, loving, steadfast commitment that promotes life and well being.
[00:19:18] Now the Lord abounds in hesed towards us.
[00:19:24] Listen to these verses. Psalm 118:1.
[00:19:29] Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
[00:19:32] His chesed endures forever.
[00:19:37] Psalm 103:11 for as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his chesed for those who fear him.
[00:19:49] And notice in Psalm 51:1 how all of these three ideas come together.
[00:19:57] Show me favour, show favour to me, O God, according to your unfailing love.
[00:20:06] Hesed according to your great compassion.
[00:20:11] Rahum Blot out my transgressions.
[00:20:18] Because Yahweh is like this, people like you and me can come to him.
[00:20:26] What a wonderful God this is.
[00:20:32] Emet A little bit easier for us to say. This is a noun meaning faithfulness or truth.
[00:20:40] 329 times in the Hebrew Bible Emet describes a personal quality of faithfulness and reliability.
[00:20:52] A person whose character is true one in whom you can put your trust.
[00:21:00] And this is particularly true of Yahweh, because he abounds in Emetz.
[00:21:08] Psalm 19:7.
[00:21:11] The words of Yahweh are trustworthy, and they make wise the simple.
[00:21:21] Deuteronomy 32. 4. He is the rock.
[00:21:25] His work is perfect.
[00:21:28] All his ways are just.
[00:21:30] He is a God of faithfulness who does no wrong.
[00:21:37] Upright and just is he.
[00:21:42] See, Yahweh is stable, trustworthy, reliable.
[00:21:47] He does not change because he's abounding in Emma.
[00:21:52] All of these other attributes, his womb like compassion, his generous favour, his loyal love, all of these attributes are constant and enduring.
[00:22:06] Listen to Lamentations 3. Right at the centre of this book.
[00:22:12] Because of the Lord's great hesed, we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.
[00:22:22] He is rakum.
[00:22:25] They are new every morning.
[00:22:27] Great is your Emet.
[00:22:32] Whenever you come to the Lord, you can be confident he is who he is and he always will be.
[00:22:41] What a wonderful God this is.
[00:22:45] Now we've considered four attributes of the Lord.
[00:22:49] It's now time to consider the one at the centre.
[00:22:54] This complex topic of anger as applied to Yahweh.
[00:23:00] Remember the context of the story, the idolatry of the golden calf episode.
[00:23:08] How does the Lord, with his particular personality, how does the Lord respond to sin and evil?
[00:23:20] Now, are you ready for this one?
[00:23:22] Erech Apayim, it means long of nostrils.
[00:23:31] Now you might think, what does this have to do with anger?
[00:23:36] And that's a good question.
[00:23:39] Now, in Hebrew, a common phrase for becoming angry was, his nose became hot.
[00:23:49] So if clay gets out for a duck in cricket, his nose becomes hot.
[00:23:56] Would that be right? Mo Several times. Never happened before.
[00:24:03] In some ways, this makes sense even to us as English speakers.
[00:24:09] We know an angry person often because they've got a flushed red face.
[00:24:15] And we have slang relating heat to anger. Steam was coming out of her ears. He reached the boiling point.
[00:24:25] So for a Hebrew to be long of nostrils, it was a way of expressing patience and long suffering.
[00:24:34] Someone who is not easily angered.
[00:24:39] For a Hebrew to be long of nostrils was the opposite of having a short fuse.
[00:24:49] How reassuring is this?
[00:24:53] The Lord is not easily triggered.
[00:24:57] He never flies off the handle.
[00:25:01] He never blows his stack.
[00:25:04] He is slow to anger.
[00:25:07] He is Erech Apayim.
[00:25:10] He is the God who is long of nostrils.
[00:25:16] Now, he's not indifferent to sin.
[00:25:19] When faced with evil, he will not turn a blind eye.
[00:25:25] He will intervene rightly, appropriately, justly.
[00:25:32] His anger at sin is controlled.
[00:25:36] It's measured.
[00:25:38] It's proportionate.
[00:25:41] Our default mode as humans is to be quick to anger and slow to love.
[00:25:49] But the Lord is not like us.
[00:25:53] His default is to be slow to anger and abound in love.
[00:26:02] Now, in Exodus 34, we're given a numerical contrast.
[00:26:07] To help us understand this quality of the Lord, we're asked to compare a thousand with three or four.
[00:26:17] Look at verse seven.
[00:26:19] Yahweh maintains love to thousands of generations, forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.
[00:26:29] But he does not leave the guilty unpunished.
[00:26:34] He punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.
[00:26:43] Now this verse may have raised a really troubling question for you.
[00:26:50] Does Yahweh punish children and grandchildren for sins of previous generations?
[00:26:58] In Deuteronomy 5, this verse is told again, but with a really helpful clarifying phrase.
[00:27:08] To the third and fourth generation of those who hate me.
[00:27:14] The children and grandchildren in the third and fourth generation are continuing in the sinful ways of the ancestors.
[00:27:24] The Lord does not judge wrongly or unjustly.
[00:27:30] Let's get back to the comparison. Try visualising 3cm tall and 10,000cm tall.
[00:27:43] This big compared to 100 metres high.
[00:27:48] You see, the Lord overflows with grace and compassion and loyal love and faithfulness to a thousand generations.
[00:27:59] He judges sin and evil appropriately and proportionately, but he delights to forgive and heal and transform so that life and love and blessing would flow from now and into all eternity.
[00:28:19] Now, this was incredibly good news for Moses.
[00:28:25] Not even the blatant rebellion of the golden calf incident would be able to block the Lord's love for his people.
[00:28:34] Yahweh says Moses, this is who I am.
[00:28:39] This is what I am like compassionate and gracious. Rahum and Khanun overflowing with loyal love and faithfulness.
[00:28:50] Chesed and Amet, and therefore I am Erech Apayim.
[00:28:57] It's no wonder that Moses responded as he did. In verse eight, Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped.
[00:29:10] Do you feel like joining him?
[00:29:13] Do you feel like worshipping this unique and wonderful God?
[00:29:20] It's no wonder that this verse became the recurring melody of the storyline of the Bible.
[00:29:28] You will see these phrases bouncing off the page again and again.
[00:29:35] But this melody, like a good musical, was also building to a climax, preparing us for the glory of the Lord Jesus.
[00:29:49] Where does this melody show up in the New Testament?
[00:29:54] One particular place is John 1, verse 14 to 18.
[00:29:59] You'll notice many links to this story. In Exodus, the apostle John writes, the word Jesus became flesh and made his dwelling amongst us, tabernacled amongst us.
[00:30:17] We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
[00:30:29] The law was given through Moses.
[00:30:33] Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
[00:30:37] No one has ever seen God but the One and Only, who is himself God and is one with the Father.
[00:30:46] He has come and made him known.
[00:30:52] The Lord came down and tabernacled amongst us.
[00:30:56] The disciples were able to see his glory fully revealed in the Lord Jesus and notice the words that are used to describe the character of Jesus.
[00:31:09] He is full of grace and truth.
[00:31:12] He abounds in them.
[00:31:16] It's shorthand for these five Hebrew words that we've been exploring today.
[00:31:22] Later in Ephesians, we hear Paul singing from the same songshi as he described the work of Jesus in Ephesians 2:4 5.
[00:31:36] Because of his great love for us.
[00:31:40] God, who is rich in grace and mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.
[00:31:51] It is by grace that you have been saved.
[00:31:58] So how should we respond?
[00:32:02] Or to put it another way, if Exodus 34:6 is the recurring melody line of the Bible, do you hear the music?
[00:32:15] Has it resonated with your heart?
[00:32:19] And are you singing along?
[00:32:23] Let me suggest two ways for us to respond.
[00:32:26] Firstly, worship the Lord.
[00:32:30] We could join with Moses and join with the disciples and simply worship the Lord with wonder and gratitude and joy.
[00:32:43] We can praise him that he is not aloof, unkind, easily triggered, fickle and unpredictable.
[00:32:54] We can praise him because he is gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in loyal love and faithfulness.
[00:33:07] This week, begin each day with Yahweh in worship.
[00:33:16] Can I suggest Psalm 86 as a place to start?
[00:33:21] Read it seven days this week and let it do its thing.
[00:33:29] Read it, pray it.
[00:33:31] You might want to memorize Exodus 34:6 and take it to heart.
[00:33:37] Be amazed, be thankful, be full of joy that this is who God is.
[00:33:45] A second way to respond is to walk in his ways.
[00:33:49] The true evidence of worship is that we become like the one that we worship.
[00:33:58] Our sporting heroes tend to bring this out of us, don't they?
[00:34:03] A whole lot of Aussie kids watching the Winter Olympics and trying to emulate all these incredible athletes.
[00:34:12] We become like the ones that we worship.
[00:34:16] Genesis 1 taught us that we've been made in God's image, something of his character. His glory is actually written on our hearts.
[00:34:27] And as saved people, he's doing a work of grace within us so that we will be changed, transformed into his image, so that we can walk in his good ways.
[00:34:44] So, some probing questions to reflect on.
[00:34:49] How would people describe your character? My character or your personality?
[00:34:58] Would they describe you as aloof and unkind?
[00:35:05] Or might they describe you as compassionate and gracious, one who shows favor and kindness to the poor, the helpless, the undeserving?
[00:35:21] Would they describe you as fickle and unpredictable?
[00:35:26] Or perhaps a person who honours their word, who is steadfast, reliable, trustworthy, who overflows with loyal love?
[00:35:42] Would they describe you as irritable, quick to anger?
[00:35:48] Or would they think of you as someone with long nostrils, someone who is patient, long suffering, persevering?
[00:36:01] Imagine if you are known as that type of person, a person who reflected God's personality.
[00:36:12] Imagine if you were known like that in your workplace, your soccer team, your family, your friendships.
[00:36:22] I want to finish with a story.
[00:36:25] You may have heard of Hudson Taylor, famous missionary to China.
[00:36:31] You may not have heard of William Burns.
[00:36:36] Both of them were missionaries to China, taking the gospel to the great interior, where the name of Jesus was not yet known.
[00:36:46] William Burns served there for 21 years.
[00:36:50] He lived simply, dressed like the locals.
[00:36:55] He learned eight languages.
[00:36:58] He shared the gospel with thousands.
[00:37:02] He walked with the Lord, it was said of him. Prayer was his life, an extension of who he was.
[00:37:14] Now. This was back in the day before Internet phones, even before radio, to hear about other places in the world.
[00:37:23] Travellers would arrange meetings and share stories about their travels.
[00:37:30] At one event in the uk, a return traveller from China was asked, sir, in all of your travels in China, have you come across a man called W.C. burns?
[00:37:46] And the traveler paused, looked at the crowd of 2,000 and said, all of China knows this man.
[00:37:56] He is the holiest man alive.
[00:38:01] Now, William Burns would be shocked at that description.
[00:38:06] In his mind, he was simply an ordinary man with a humble devotion to an extraordinary God.
[00:38:18] But walking so closely with the Lord, he became radiant and the people around him saw the glory of God.
[00:38:33] Now we are invited to do the same.
[00:38:38] We're invited to look to the Lord and worship the perfection that we see.
[00:38:45] As we worship him, we are slowly changed, to become like him, almost without us not even noticing.
[00:38:54] And then we will sense a growing compulsion from him, an impulse of the spirit to go and serve, to scatter and spread out so we can radiate the glory of the Lord for all the world to see.
[00:39:17] This is what we are called to, to worship the Lord and walk in his ways, to glow with his glory for all of our days.
[00:39:31] Now we'll close with a prayer, Psalm 86 will help us.
[00:39:37] The words come from that psalm. Let's pray.
[00:39:46] Among the gods there is none like you, Lord.
[00:39:51] No deeds can compare with yours.
[00:39:55] All the nations you have made will come and worship before you.
[00:40:00] They will bring glory to your name.
[00:40:04] For you are great and you do marvelous deeds.
[00:40:08] You alone are God.
[00:40:11] Teach us your way, Lord, that we may rely on your faithfulness.
[00:40:18] Give us undivided hearts that we may honour your name.
[00:40:25] We will praise you, Lord, with our whole hearts.
[00:40:29] We will glorify your name forever.
[00:40:33] For great is your chesed towards us.
[00:40:37] Amen.
