The People Prepare to Meet God

Life audio The Bible Study podcast episode nine hundred and seventy eight Today, the Bible Study podcast continues a study of the book of Exodus. with chapter nineteen. Welcome to the Bible Study podcast. I'm your host, Chris Christensen We're going to continue on with chapter nineteen, which begins a very, very large section of the book about Mount Sciai. But first a word from the sponsor Let's be honest, Ever read a passage and wondered what it really means in its original context? True Bible study isn't just casual reading, it's about connecting historical background, cross references and themes. If you've ever felt like navigating all of this is too difficult, you need to check out Logos. Logos is a game changing platform that equips you to explore hard questions with absolute confidence. knownowing you're drawing from reliable, well respected academic resources. Whether you're at your desk or on the go, Logos helps you follow that path of discovery naturally. With their new AI tools, you can ask Logos any biblical question and get trusted answers from a biblical library to help you dive into the layers of meaning in the word Logos is offering my listeners an exclusive free sixty day trial. Just go to logos d. com slash deep. That's LgOos dot com slash deep to claim your free sixty day trial. So stop guessing and start going deeper together. So I mentioned that this is a very large portion of the book talking about Mont Sinai. There are forty chapters in the book of Exodus We're almost at the halfway point so far. All the rest of this book in this at the foot of Mount Sinai So there are twenty one different chapters in the book of Exodus that have nothing to do with moving around the Sinai. And that may come as a surprise to you. It actually comes as a surprise to me, even though I've read this book before, just to look at it that way And really This book and then the book of Leviticus all happen here at Mount Sinai It's not until we get to numbers that we finally move on from this location. So this is a very Critical time here as God is taking this people that he's brought out of Egypt and trying to turn them into Israelites trying to turn them into his people Mount Sinai, chapter nineteen On the first day of the third month after the Israelites left Egypt, on that very day they came to the desert of Sinai After they set out from Rifidim, they entered the desert of Sinai and Israel camped there in the desert in front of the mountain. Then Moses went up to God and the Lord called to him from the mountain and said, This is what you were to say to the descendants of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt and how I carried you on Eagles' wings and brought you to myself Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then 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 These are the words you were to speak to the Israelites So Moses went back and summoned the elders of the people and set before them all the words the Lord had commanded him to speak The people all responded together. We will do everything the Lord has said So Moses brought their answer back to the Lord The Lord said to Moses, I'm going to come to you in a dense cloud so that the people will hear me speaking with you and will always put their trust in you Then Moses told the Lord what the people had said And the Lord said to Moses, Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow haveave them wash their clothes and be ready by the third day because on that day The Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people Put limits for the people around the mountain and tell them, be careful that you do not approach the mountain or touch the foot of it. whoever touches the mountain is to be put to death They are to be stoned or shot with arrows, not a hand is to be laid on them No person or animal should be permitted to live Only when the Ram's horn sounds, a long blast may they approach the mountain After Moses had gone down the mountain to the people He consecrated them And they washed their clothes, thenen he said to the people, Prepare yourselves for the third day, abstain from sexual relations On the morning of the third day, there was thunder and lightning with a thick cloud over the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast Everyone in the camp trembled, Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God. and they stood at the foot of the mountain Mount Sinai was covered with smoke because the Lord descended on it in fire The smoke billed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him The Lord descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain So Moses went up and the Lord said to him, Go down and warn the peoples, so they do not force their way through to see the Lord and many of them perish Even the priests who approach the Lord must consecrate themselves or the Lord will break out against them Moses said to the Lord, The people cannot come up Mount Sinai because you yourself warned us, putut limits around the mountain, set it apart as holy. The Lord replied Go down and bring Aaron up with you, but the priests and the people must not force their way through to come up to the Lord or he will break out against them So Moses went down to the people and told them So there's a lot of Moses going up and down the mountain here. Now Moses is an old man here. I don't know how long it takes him to get up to the top of the mountain And it's not that God lives here at the top of the mountain. God is the God of the whole earth, but God has descended, it says to the top of Mount Sinai from the heavens And Moses goes up to the top of Mount Sanai to meet with God. and to hear God and to hear what He has to say. So there's a number of different things that are going on here and there are a number of things we're going to try and accomplish before the people leave Mount Sinai But the first thing that we get is Why people. I'm going to take you and make you My people, my treasured possession out of all the nations if you If you T What I said, if you obey me fully and keep my covenant Now, they're not even going to wait until they leave Mount Sinai to disobey So we're going to have some problems with this the whole way along, and that's still true for us as well. I don't know about you, but I am not perfect. I do not obey even the things that I know that God wants one hundred percent I am flawed I am in need of grace And so were these people Yet Even knowing that God is calling them to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation in the same way that God is calling us, even though He knows that we are flawed even though he knows that we need grace and that we need forgiveness So he sends Moses down with that word. He comes and summons the elders And they say, we're going to do everything. We're going to do everything God says Well, we'll see how well that goes That's their cururrent thought is we're going do everything so they say prepare yourself Don't have sex, wash your clothes, getet ready as if you were Getting ready to meet the king, right? Get ready as if you were going to meet someone very, very, very important And that is God in this case. and don't Touch the mountain gather around when you hear the ramamp horren sound, when you get a signal, come and approach the mountain And everybody gets ready They consecrate themselves. They make themselves Holy P put aside those things that are not holy And then there's thunder and lightning, thick cloud. The mountain is trembling And that is how the people come to Sinai The whole mountain is trembling violently. Can you imagine how this would be to you If you were standing here at the base of sign upp, You've already seen the power of God in Egypt You saw all the different plagues God Unleashed on the Egyptians, but not on you. including finally that plague of the death of the firstborns You saw God, save you at the waters of the Red Sea parts of the waters that wasn't something you expected. It wasn't something you knew could happen. And now you're standing here at the mountain of God Again, not that God lives here on this mountain But you're standing here because God has called you to this place to meet him to be his people And there is smoke and there is thunder and there is lightning and there are earthquakes and you have got to be Scared And when we say that God is awesome, God's awesome power It is power that makes us that should make us in awe And that's what these people are, Ae and fear And there's again go down and warn the people not to force their way up becausecause they might do that. No, don't worry. we told them put the limits around it. We'll go get Aaron. but again, tell the priest not to come up. And so Moses goes down again, Don't come up, don't touch the mountain, or you will die