Advertise on podcast: Exodus: Who Is the LORD?

What a wonderful adventure it has been to travel with Israel from Egypt's land to Sinai, and along the way to meet with God. We have been touring this book of the knowledge of God for nearly three years now; I preached the first sermon on Exodus on Sunday, November 22, 2020. We have seen how God brought His people from slavery to worship, how He revealed Himself first at the burning bush, then in the ten plagues, in the passover, in the Exodus, and in His words establishing a covenant with Israel at Sinai. Now we approach the final climax of the book as God's glory moves into the tabernacle to dwell among His people — the very thing for which He brought them out of Egypt. "And they shall know that I am the LORD their God who brought them out of the land of Egypt, that I might dwell among them; I am the LORD their God" (Exodus 29:46). He wanted to dwell with His people — and He is. That, my friends, is where the book closes. But though it's a great stopping place from a literary point of view, it is not the end of the story the Bible tells. God's residence with Israel in a tent was temporary — but His residence among us in Christ is permanent. Meanwhile, the book ends with the word "journey," pointing forward to Numbers and the route to the Promised Land, and reminding us that we are called to journey with Christ, our true tabernacle, toward the Father, deeper into the knowledge of God.

We began looking at this book nearly three years ago, if you can believe it — on Nov. 22, 2020. Since that time, we have seen some incredible truths both doctrinal and moral. We have seen that Exodus is the book of the knowledge of God, symbolized by Pharaoh's opening question, "Who is the LORD?" And we have seen that God brought Israel from slavery to worship by way of the knowledge of Himself. Today, we come right up to the brink of the final climactic revelation in this book. God shows Himself to be faithful, the God who dwells with His people. What we will see is that, in accord with God's promise to dwell with Israel, the tabernacle passed the Mediator's inspection and was assembled —teaching us that the Mediator builds the church, inspects the church, and blesses the church.

Virtually no one has died on a commercial US flight since 2014. Flying is just about the safest thing you can do these days. Why is that? My friends, if there is a single word that explains this near-miracle, it is the word "checklist." Before any plane is allowed to get off the ground, every last system and feature on that plane is meticulously gone over and checked off. Nothing is left to chance in the maintenance, repairs, fueling, piloting, routing, loading, or anything else. It's all written down on a lot of clipboards and checked off piece by piece by the ground crew and pilots. Why do I bring this up? Because we have looked verse-by-verse at the instructions for building the tabernacle. Now, we have this huge section, three chapters long, that describes in numbing detail how every last instruction was carried out. You may find this strange, uncouth, hard to follow — maybe you even skipped to Leviticus, and then on to Numbers, last time you got to this place in reading through the Bible. But here's the thing: worshiping God is important. It's incredibly important. It's so important that it's worth checking to be sure that every element of it is in place. In short, this section of Exodus is the checked-off preflight checklist. Before the tabernacle can be put into service, before God can move into it, the checklist has to be completed. That's what this passage is about. What we'll see in it is that Israel carried out to the letter God's instructions for His dwelling place; how much more will Christ carry out God's will for His dwelling place!

The Tabernacle used one ton of gold, two tons of silver, and three tons of bronze — and it was portable! Now, don't worry. There is no one-to-one correlation between the building campaign and generosity recorded in these chapters and the building campaign and generosity that our church may be called upon to participate in. There is a correlation, of course. But it's different than you are probably thinking. Let me put it negatively first: This passage does not give our church a warrant to ask you to dig deep and contribute time and money for a building. What does it do? Well, as I trust you know by now (this is our 119th sermon on Exodus), the tabernacle was God's dwelling place. He lived there and moved in that tent alongside His people as they lived in tents and moved from place to place in the wilderness. Today, God does not dwell in any tent or temple made with hands. He dwells in His people; we are the temple of the living God. This passage warrants us in asking you to support the church, to build up the dwelling place of God by investing time and money in your fellow saints. Now, a building can be part of that. You can and should invest in your fellow saints by paying for them to have a place to meet. But the tabernacle was not a place for Israel to assemble; it was not big enough inside for more than a few people, for it was a private residence rather than a public building. Anyway, the upshot is that what the OT says about contributing to the temple relates to giving to God's dwelling place, which in our NT context means giving to your fellow saints. Well, we will see that through Israel's generosity, God's tent was built among His people.

After wrestling all night with an angel, Jacob got to see the face of God. The text implies that it was the face of the Man who wrestled with him. In that man's face, Jacob saw the face of God. It is a clear foreshadowing of the coming of the God-man, the man whose face is God's face. Our text this evening contains another clear foreshadowing of the coming of the God-man. The face of Moses was not God's face, and did not become God's face. But it was a face resplendent with the glory of God. God's glory shone in Moses' face. That in itself is really cool, and one sense the truth contained in that statement is plenty enough for us to chew on tonight: God's glory shines in the Mediator's face. But there's even more in this text, for when we read Paul's inspired commentary on it in 2 Cor. 3, we see further that Moses' glory was comparatively puny and short-lived; it was being brought to an end. Yet the glory of Moses glorifies the glory of Christ. The glory that shone on Moses is swallowed up by the glory that shines in the Mediator of the New Covenant. Look at that glory tonight, and see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Jacob saw God's face and lived; in this sermon, you will too.

Our text this evening perfectly captures the dual authorship of God's written word. In this command to write down the words of God, we see an effortless gliding from Moses' writing to God's writing — an ambiguity that perfectly captures Scripture's nature as the divine-human book.

We saw last time the extraordinary promise made to the Mediator that in Him God would do marvelous things, exceedingly marvelous things. The Lord immediately then describes the terms of the covenant once more, in language by and large quoted from ch. 23 or from ch. 13. There is not really anything new in this passage; it is a repetition of material we've already seen. Why? Because God is reiterating the rules that would keep Israel from repeating a golden-calf style incident. The idolatrous outburst revealed what was inside His people's hearts — and clearly, God at least believes that reiterating the law is part of the solution to that problem. The law is not given outside the forgiveness and love that comes through the Mediator; but it is part of the total package. As part of renewing the covenant with Israel, then, God reiterates the law of the covenant so that His people can faithfully keep that covenant.

We have seen throughout these chapters that the relationship between God and Israel is utterly dependent on the relationship between God and Moses. Like it or not (and you should like it), the Almighty's attitude toward Israel is a function of His attitude toward the mediator who stands between Him and Israel. That theme has surfaced in a major way in the previous sections of the golden calf narrative, but it is, if possible, even more prominent in the verses before us. God speaks to Moses and tells him that what God is going to do He is going to do for Moses in particular, on the basis of His grace toward Moses as an individual. God's work for His people is predicated on His grace toward the Mediator.

The name of God is beautiful and rich. Indeed, rather than preaching just one sermon on it, I would love to pause and preach a sermon on every one of the attributes that God lists as belonging to Himself in our text this evening. As valuable as that would be, though, we are going to hasten through these, what the Jews call the "thirteen attributes," in just one sermon this evening. We are going to see that God's glory, which Moses asked to see, is inseparable from His name, and this demands that we listen to Him, fear Him, and obey Him.

Recall with me the original motivation for the golden calf: "Make us gods to go before us," said Israel to Aaron. And he did. But that was no god, not worth worshiping, incapable of leading. Nonetheless, it well expressed the human desire for a visible god. We want to see what we worship! It is astonishing what an outsized role the sense of sight plays in our lives. That is true also in the religious sphere. But I want you to see with me that God addresses that felt need in an absolutely glorious, God-sized display of His glory before Moses. The people had asked for a visible God to go before them; now, in the opening verse of our text, Moses requests the same thing. To be known by God is much. To find grace in the sight of God is much. But to see the glory of God — that is more. That is what we were made for. The craving for a god we can see is expressed in Moses' request to see God's glory — and it is addressed by God's willingness to show His goodness and His back to Moses. Show us the Father, and it is enough for us! That is exactly what happened here, as the Father showed Himself to Moses, and it was enough — not just for Moses, but for all of us as we absorb the glory of the holy one as conveyed to us through the Mediator's account of his vision of God.

We come this evening to an absolutely incredible account of the Mediator's work. What we see is that Moses dares to make his requests of Yahweh on the basis of Yahweh's covenant — as he has before. But then he takes it further, and also appeals on the basis of God's gracious attachment to him, Moses. "Save them because you know me and are gracious to me!" That's the core of the Mediator's appeal. It's jaw-dropping, firstly because knowing Moses seems like such a shaky basis on which to save 2 million people, and secondly because it's not shaky at all. Instead, it's a preview of Christ's own mediatorial intercession. Jesus pleads with His Father to save us, and the argument that He has is "You know me and trust me." Wow. Double wow! Moses is already thinking, acting, and arguing like the ultimate Mediator. He is prepared to go to bat for Israel on the basis that God knows him by name and has shown grace to him. In the process of mediating like this, Moses learns God's ways, and finds even greater favor in His sight.

It is crucial to understand the large-scale narrative arc of these chapters before looking more closely at the details. God reiterates His promise to accompany Israel in His angel, only to have Moses insist twice that Israel won't budge without Him. And so the issue of the "God to go before us" comes to a head: Is Yahweh going to accompany Israel? Moses boldly insists that God come with them, and in response God graciously reveals Himself to Moses and promises to accompany Israel. The passage is stunning in its magnitude. In it, God reveals Himself as one who acts for His people for the Mediator's sake; He shows Himself to be the God who goes with His people despite their sin; He shows Himself to be the God who keeps and renews the covenant even after His people shatter it; and He even shows Himself to be the God whose glory is contagious, making the face of His servant shine. The glory of God is writ so large in the text before us that we are only going to be able to hit the highest points in our sermon this evening. Over the next month or so I hope to discuss most of this passage in more detail. But tonight, we will see the large-scale movement of the passage, which is this: God refuses to travel in Israel's midst, but through Moses' intercession He agrees to do so after all, and condescends to reveal His glory to Moses, renew the covenant with Israel, and even make Moses' face shine with Divine glory.