Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Now, I'm curious if I were to ask you. I'm going to ask you this question. What is the most referenced event in the Scriptures, both Old and New Testament?
[00:00:15] What would it be?
[00:00:18] Exodus.
[00:00:20] It is the Exodus.
[00:00:23] The Exodus is referenced over 120 times throughout the Jewish Scriptures, the Old Testament and the New Testament, through the law, through the prophets, through the Psalms, through the New Testament writings. The Exodus is the event that seems to be mentioned over and over and over again.
[00:00:48] Jesus is referred to or thought of by many as a new Moses.
[00:00:53] And his ministry has been likened to that of a new Exodus, as in a journey to lead his people to freedom and liberation.
[00:01:03] In fact, there is a Canadian literary critic, his name is Northrop Fry, which, like every. I just enjoy saying that, if I'm honest. He once said that Exodus is the only thing that happens in the Bible.
[00:01:21] And what he means by that is that it is the archetype, it is the foundational pattern for what you see time and time and time again through the Scriptures. You see this pattern that God has of delivering his people out of oppression, out of slavery, into freedom, that this seems to be the image that is thought of multiple times throughout the narrative of the Scriptures. And you will see many, many themes. And one of the themes that comes out of Exodus is one that we want to talk to about today as we unpack, continue unpacking this series called the Mission of God, where we're looking at what does it mean to partner and participate with Jesus in what he is doing on earth so that we may see more, more of heaven come down?
[00:02:22] This dynamic kind of first appear, kind of grabbed a hold of it years and years ago. So I have a practice. I don't know if anyone else I try to read the Bible through in a year. Anyone who has read the Bible through in a year, I try to make it a practice. It's been one that I've kind of regularly done for the last 10 to 15 years.
[00:02:46] But it was really hard going at the start.
[00:02:51] I don't know if anyone's found it difficult to kind of read the Bible from the beginning to the end. It took me about three or four attempts at it before I finally even made it past a particular point. It always felt like I was setting off on a new adventure.
[00:03:10] I was like, okay, I'm looking. I wonder what is going to come out of the Scriptures this time? As I would read through and we would start at Genesis. And Genesis is just a great book. There's so much in it. I mean, it starts with firstly, the creation of the world, which there's a whole lot of things you can wrestle with and kind of think about and ponder on as you reflect on God and what he is doing, how he is creating the world, and then he creates humanity. And just to see kind of the image of God placed into this, and then you see kind of the fall and how that comes undone. And then there's some weird stories from there of just like, what on earth is happening? And then you get to kind of top five children's Bible story, I think, like, if you go to Coorong and look, there are countless Noah's ark stories in there, and you kind of can wrestle through that. And then you start to get to some of the stories of the patriarchs, that is kind of the father figures of the Jewish faith. And when you read through those stories that, I mean, we just love hearing someone's story, don't we? The accounts, the ups, the downs. And so you go from Abraham and then right through to Joseph. And that kind of takes you to the end of the book of Genesis. And then once you get to the end of Genesis, you then launch into Exodus.
[00:04:45] And Exodus, I mean, it starts with such a fire. Like you've got the most wicked human ruler that has existed on the pages of scripture up to this point in Pharaoh. I mean, this guy is an incredibly manipulative leader. He turns the situation of the growing number of Israelites into an excuse to commit a genocide. It's absolutely horrific. And yet standing in the way is this group of women who rebel against him, which is profound. I mean, I don't know if you've ever noticed that, but if you've read the book of Exodus, we never learn Pharaoh's name.
[00:05:28] He's just Pharaoh, king of Egypt. But we know the names of the Hebrew midwives.
[00:05:36] That detail is recorded to us.
[00:05:40] Just their absolute faithfulness and courage to stand firm against this evil tyrant. And then it. Then you've got Moses. We're introduced to him. He's saved by his mother and Pharaoh's daughter, grows up in that household, sees the oppression of his people, tries to fix it himself, and in the end murders an Egyptian guard.
[00:06:05] He's seen to be doing that and flees into exile. Then we get this little moment where the people of Israel are crying out to their God, and God hears them.
[00:06:20] Has anyone seen the movie Lion?
[00:06:24] It is a great movie. It's based on a true story.
[00:06:27] There's a guy named Saroo Briley. He's written a book called Long Way Home. And in it, through a whole deal of series of events, Saroo is estranged from his family. And not just for a little bit, that a whole series of events happen. And he is on a decommissioned train that travels thousands of kilometers in the other direction from his little village. He's about eight or so when this happens.
[00:06:55] And there's this moment in the movie where the decommissioned train is, like, traveling for days and days and days through to Calcutta. And it stops at this station and it says, no one board this train. It's a decommissioned train. And so it's just sitting there and Saroo looks out the window and there are some people just kind of sitting on the side of the tracks and they see him.
[00:07:19] He's clearly not supposed to be here.
[00:07:23] And he starts to yell, save me.
[00:07:26] Save me, Rez, help me. Please help me.
[00:07:31] And people just sit idly by. I don't know what they would do, but they just sit and they look. And as the train heads off, he just gives up and stops yelling out for his rescue.
[00:07:48] And I'm just so thankful that we follow a God that when we cry out, rescues and has the power to deliver us.
[00:07:59] And in this story of Exodus, we see that the people who are crying out through hundreds of years, slavery, it's answered. I love these words that Tyler Staten, pastor of Bridgetown Church, says that injustice makes a noise that God hears, that when people are being treated unjustly and they cry out that our God of justice, as Stu made allusion to in communion, he responds, he moves towards.
[00:08:35] And I think Exodus, one of the reasons it's the most quoted or most referenced book throughout the entire Scriptures is Exodus is the first book where we really see, okay, God's name, his character, and what he's like that is revealed to us through the pages of Exodus. And then we have Moses encountering this God at the burning bush, which is an incredible story.
[00:09:03] And God kind of uses this encounter to kind of prepare Moses for this call to go back. He's been in Midian, ran away, fleed Egypt to get away from it. Now he's being called to go back and with God's help, deliver the people of Israel out of Egypt.
[00:09:25] And that comes in the form of the 10 plagues, which is kind of like a massive showdown. Like, if you're reading this the first time, there's a whole lot of action that's going on and happening. And then there's the Passover where God comes and just the plague of the firstborn takes place in kind of justice for what Pharaoh had done to the Israelites.
[00:09:51] And then Pharaoh tells them to go, and they flee. And then there is the parting of the Red Sea, this iconic moment in scripture. And they come out on the other side and move through the wilderness towards Sinai. And you've got these stories that you can't quite believe that the people of Israel would complain after everything that they have been brought through. They're left complaining still and kind of wishing they were back there.
[00:10:22] And then you get to Mount Sinai, and that's at chapter 18.
[00:10:29] And then we move into the next part of Exodus, Exodus 19:40.
[00:10:36] And every time I got to this point when trying to read through the Bible, I would start to lose momentum.
[00:10:47] I would start to stagger home or try to, because suddenly now we're being introduced to the Jewish law and all of these things that the Israelites now have to do, which I always found I struggled with. Like, what is this about? So you'd kind of. The wheels would start to fall off as I would read through Exodus 19:40. And then you'd get to the 11 chapters about how they built a tent.
[00:11:18] And in fact, it's like six chapters on, this is what you're going to need to build the tent. This is what it's going to look like, or the tabernacle. And then later on you get another five chapters of, you know, all that stuff that you needed to build the tent. Well, this is us building the tent. And it gets to the point that you make your way through Exodus. And at this point, I was struggling.
[00:11:42] And then we get to Leviticus, and Leviticus ended it all for me.
[00:11:50] That happened so many times in a row.
[00:11:57] And every time I would ask myself these questions, like, why do I need to know about this Jewish law?
[00:12:04] I loved all the stuff that happened in the first 18. Why do I need to know about this Jewish law? Why do I need so much detail on the tabernacle?
[00:12:16] I don't fully understand that.
[00:12:18] I think it's important, like, to understand at this point that the Bible is written for us. It's not written to us that it was rooted in a context, it was in a historical context. And so it is being written for a particular purpose. So for us now, it's incredibly valuable. But it wasn't written to us.
[00:12:40] So we've got to do a whole lot of work as to why this matters and why this is incredibly important. But the fact of the matter remains, there are more chapters in Exodus devoted to the law and the Tabernacle than there are to Israel's Journey out of Egypt.
[00:13:02] I don't know if you've ever thought about that.
[00:13:06] And the reality is that all scripture is God breathed and inspired.
[00:13:14] So this isn't just some random accident.
[00:13:17] This wasn't the writer of Exodus going, oh, I actually just really got into the flow, and I did way too many chapters on the tabernacle that I expected I was going to do.
[00:13:29] Well, I don't want to edit it. We'll just leave it in.
[00:13:33] There was a purpose to it. The Bible is a book of human origin and divine origin.
[00:13:40] Every word that's there is meant to be there. Which leads to the question, what's going on here?
[00:13:52] Why do I need to know this? And Exodus, chapter 19, the words that Colleen read for us, give us that insight as to why so much detail is given. And it's a dynamic that is incredibly important for us today. If you've got a Bible with you or got a device, you can turn to Exodus, chapter 19.
[00:14:16] And we read that it's been two months since they left Egypt.
[00:14:23] So two months since they set out from Egypt. So all of that complaining, all of the whingeing and everything that came about as they left, that's been two months of that.
[00:14:35] Which I don't know if you have someone in your life that just has this instinct, ability to find the complaint in every good time, but it can be a bit much sometimes. And yet this has been the people of Israel as they have journeyed through to the desert of Sinai.
[00:14:57] And then once they make camp, they're making camp in the front of the mountain, and Moses is about to ascend this mountain, and this is mountains. I don't know if you've noticed that there are so many moments throughout the scripture narrative that something profound happens on a mountain.
[00:15:19] There's something significant that takes place. And so if you're a Jewish reader unpacking this, the fact that they've camped by the mountain and Moses is about to ascend it should be giving us this vibe of what is about to happen. Something significant is about to happen here.
[00:15:40] Tim Mackey from the Bible Project says that in ancient Israel's imagination, the mountain is where the heavenly realm in the skies or the place where God dwells meets human realm on land.
[00:15:53] And in these places, people can access God's wisdom, power, and his very presence.
[00:16:04] And so what happens in this moment is that Moses ascends and God speaks to him out of the mountain or out of the cloud. Sorry, Exodus, chapter 19, verse 3. Moses climbed the mountain to appear before God. The Lord called to him from the mountain and said, give these instructions to the family of Jacob. Announce it to the descendants of Israel.
[00:16:34] You have seen what I did to the Egyptians. You know how I carried you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself.
[00:16:47] This is detailing all that has happened as he has brought Israel down out of Egypt, that He has rescued them from slavery, has rescued them from oppression. He has rescued them from this dominion, this kingdom of darkness, and the rule of a cruel and tyrannical king. God has saved them from.
[00:17:14] God has saved them from. And this is one of the realities that we see time and time again throughout the Scriptures. God. God delivers his people from.
[00:17:24] God delivers his people from oppression, from slavery.
[00:17:30] In the book of Judges alone, you see this continual pattern where his people commit idolatry, his people trust in other gods apart from him, and then they are overrun by another nation. Someone cries out, and then God sends a judge, fills them with his spirit to lead them to deliver the people of Israel. This dynamic that God saves from is something that we're very familiar with. We see it time and time again throughout in the ministry of Jesus, that when we take communion and Jesus dying on the cross, one of the things that we often focus on is that he has rescued us from. From sin.
[00:18:19] That is this state that we are bent towards things other than God, that we're turned in on ourselves, that Stu said that we are saved from God's wrath, this heartbreak and heartache and kind of anger at the evil and injustice of the world that we as people contribute to, that we are brought out and rescued from these.
[00:18:48] In Ephesians 2:1:9, Paul gives this incredible explanation that we were once dead in our sins, in our transgressions, in our failures, but because of the great love of God, we were rescued.
[00:19:08] We were saved from this through grace.
[00:19:13] Titus chapter three paints a similar picture. That once we were foolish, we were stuck in our own desires, but because of the great love and mercy of God, that we had been cleansed, we had been made new through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, that this is an idea that we are saved from something, that we are rescued out of something.
[00:19:43] And that God, because of his faithfulness to his promises and to his people, he works on their behalf.
[00:19:52] He delivered Israel out of Egypt, he delivered the people of Israel out from oppression, from many different kings, and he delivers. And Jesus rescues us from the ways that we fall short.
[00:20:06] But if we stop there and just simply focus on that Jesus has rescued us from, we can miss that his faithfulness and rescue does not end there.
[00:20:24] And that this is why there is so much focus on the law and the tabernacle in Exodus. The rescue is not and is not finished.
[00:20:37] And that we see that in the last part of verse four.
[00:20:41] You have seen what I did to the Egyptian and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself.
[00:20:53] There was a moment at Norwood Primary last year when I was just waiting for kids pick up and a couple of kids ran over to me and frantically saying that their friend was stuck on the monkey bars and that they. They didn't know how to get them down. And so they are. They were like, we need an adult to help. And so I went over and this person was like, well and truly wedged into the monkey bars, managed to help them down and she was very thankful. And then she ran off and continued just living the rest of her life.
[00:21:27] We haven't talked, we haven't interacted again since then. It was just a moment where I was able to come along, help, and that was it.
[00:21:35] The Exodus was not one of these moments.
[00:21:38] The Exodus was not a moment where God delivered his people out of Egypt. And then once they got out, he's like, okay, if you ever get in a bind again, just shoot out. And they go off in their different ways.
[00:21:51] The purpose of God bringing his people out to rescue them was to bring them to himself.
[00:22:01] But time and time again you see the call to Pharaoh, let my people go so that they may come and worship me.
[00:22:15] That the saved from is not the end of the story. It's a key chapter.
[00:22:21] It's incredibly pivotal because we can go wonky really quick if we think that actually we're not rescued from by grace alone.
[00:22:31] But it's not the end of the story. In fact, out of that comes a new identity, a new call for this people who have been brought out of Egypt.
[00:22:45] God continues on in Exodus 19. If you obey me fully and keep my covenant, this arrangement that they're about to get into, what this means of what this relationship engagement of I am choosing you to be my people.
[00:23:02] And this is what this means, I. E.
[00:23:06] Everything that happens next from chapter 20 onwards in Exodus to the end, it says it will keep my covenant. Out of all nations, you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. But there's a new call, a new identity that has come out of the rescue from slavery into a whole. They are now saved, for they have been saved from.
[00:23:43] They are now Saved for a new purpose.
[00:23:49] That the reason why Exodus 19:40 is so important, this part that I would get to and just fall short in my Bible readings every time because I didn't understand it and I didn't get it.
[00:24:02] The reason why that's so important is it's developing the promises. An arrangement that was made with Abraham way back in Genesis in regards to he was to be a blessing to the nations, that God would bless him and then he would bless the world that Israel were chosen and rescued to become his people.
[00:24:28] A new people that were marked by worship, justice, service and mission to the world around them.
[00:24:40] That the whole initiation of moving into the world came from the rescue that he had done from Egypt.
[00:24:49] This is a passage that really dives into this idea of the theological doctrine of election.
[00:24:58] And that doesn't mean the place where you go and have a democracy sausage, but the fact that God has chosen a people out of the world.
[00:25:10] And look, we could dive down rabbit holes on that all morning. It would probably be better to be done in some kind of conversation. But at the heart of this idea is that God, through His gracious, compassionate, loyal love, chooses to redeem and form a people for himself, for his glory, his honor and renown, to bless the world around them. The people of Israel were taken out of slavery in Egypt and given a whole new identity and calling in the world formed into his people.
[00:25:54] And those passages of Ephesians 2 and Titus 3 that we looked at, Ephesians 2 ends this remarkable statement of how we have been saved from all these things through grace. It ends with a reminder that we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works that God prepared in advance for us to do that. The logical flow on from being rescued from sin and death through the grace of Jesus is to give our lives to following him, mark the new identity and new life that is blessing the world and doing the good deeds that he's called us to do.
[00:26:40] The Titus 3 passage ends with how the saying I might just read that one right through Titus, chapter three, verses three says, once we too were foolish and disobedient. We were misled and became slaves to many lusts and pleasures. Our lives were full of evil and envy, and we hated each other.
[00:27:06] But when God our Savior, revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, rescued us not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.
[00:27:20] He washed away our sins, the ways we fall short, giving us a new birth, a new life. Through the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Saviour. And because of his grace, he declares us righteous or in right relationship with him and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life.
[00:27:49] Verse 8.
[00:27:50] This is a trustworthy saying and I want you to insist on these teachings so that all who trust in God will devote themselves to doing good.
[00:28:05] These teachings are good and beneficial for everyone.
[00:28:10] See what Titus gives this incredible explanation of the goodness and grace of what Jesus had done in rescuing us from these things. And he says it's a trustworthy saying. You should say these things so that they may become the foundation for doing good deeds. You're not just saved from you are saved for a new purpose, a new identity, a new calling as well.
[00:28:38] This is why Exodus 19:40 matters so much.
[00:28:44] Because the law shows Israel how they are to live as this new people with a new identity lives infused with justice and thinking of the oppressed and the widow and the orphan.
[00:28:58] And what does it mean to be pure amongst a whole lot of people who don't live the same way? And the Tabernacle. The reason why 11 chapters are devoted to it is because that is the engine of how they live that life through worship and the presence of God among them.
[00:29:18] We can't do this without the example of Jesus and the Holy Spirit filling us to empower us and lead us through as we wrap up. I'm reading a book by Tyler Staten at the moment called the Familiar Stranger. It's the tagline is it's a reintroduction to the person of the Holy Spirit. It's a really good book that kind of breaks down who the Holy Spirit is, what the Holy Spirit does, and how we can walk and keep in step with the Spirit. But he makes this comment that I thought was really helpful. He says, biblically, this idea of salvation is about what Jesus has done for us and it's also about what Jesus is doing and will do for us. I love this next line. Salvation is a life, not just a rescue.
[00:30:19] It's not just that moment where we came to know Jesus for the very first time and placed our trust in Him. That is a beautiful moment and we should celebrate it and we should mark it. And I think we should enter the waters of baptism as a response to that, but doesn't end there.
[00:30:42] That God calls us into a new way of being, a new way of living, a new way of seeing ourselves and that we are called to continue on and make known that love that we have experienced to others as well.
[00:31:01] Seeing them get a taste, seeing them enter into this new life.
[00:31:09] At the end of the day, we love others because God has loved us first.
[00:31:14] That we enter into God's work of mission because we have been rescued by Jesus.
[00:31:23] And that is transforming us into. Has transformed us into new people with a new identity and a new calling.
[00:31:33] One that is revolved in mission and justice and reaching out and blessing beyond ourselves.
[00:31:42] So just some questions to close to ponder on.
[00:31:47] How do you respond to this idea that we've talked about today?
[00:31:52] Maybe this is an idea that you thought about and you're like, yeah, absolutely, this is great. I'm on board. And maybe you're like, never heard it before. And I don't know where I sit with it.
[00:32:03] What's behind that reaction?
[00:32:06] One of the things that I didn't get to talk about much is that that how we have been, what we have been saved from can sometimes shape what we're saved for.
[00:32:18] That God uses the moments of our past.
[00:32:23] And so for me, for example, I had an adolescence where I just, there was a whole lot of stuff going on. I had no idea who to reach out to, didn't feel like I had any support through it, and then came to know Jesus and started encountering teenagers. And all I wanted to do was be a support for like, I didn't have.
[00:32:46] It's incredible how he used the stuff from the past. And I heard it last week with Tenet and Claire as they shared that things that had happened in their past as God had rescued them and redeemed them and making them new, they're now stepping in saying, actually feel equipped to share in this area through his grace.
[00:33:10] How might what you have been saved from or the experiences of your past shape the good works that God might want to do in and through you?
[00:33:22] To read the passage that we've just read, Exodus 19:1 6, and then read that alongside 1 Peter 2:9 to 10, which is a call of the identity of the people of God that Jesus is doing.
[00:33:37] What are the similarities?
[00:33:38] What are the differences?
[00:33:41] And then if you had a friend who was not a follower of Jesus and they for some reason, I'm not sure God's doing so, like said, you went to church and said, what's that about?
[00:33:52] How would you explain what we've talked about today to someone who's not a follower of Jesus? And that's just a way of helping us to really grapple it and wrestle it down.
