“How to Have a Relationship with God (Exodus 24)” | 6/11/23
Exodus 24 | 6/11/23 | Will DuVal
When I was a junior in high school, I ran into a bit of a problem: I developed a crush on this girl from tennis team, but I had no IDEA how to have a RELATIONSHIP with a girl. So I consulted with my friends. And they advised me that the FIRST thing you’ve gotta do is actually TALK to said girl: “Just stick around after YOUR match to watch HER play. And then afterward, go up to her and tell her, “Nice match”, and see how she reacts.”
So I DID, and she SMILED.
“Great!” they said, “Now PROM is just a month away. So if you REALLY wanna know if she likes you, you’ve gotta ask her out.” And fortunately, my friends were able to confirm with HER friends that she would in fact say, “YES” if I asked, and sure enough, I did… and SHE did.
“NICE!” my friends said, “Now, it’s gonna be SUPER awkward if you just show up at prom together having barely ever spoken to each other, so ask her out AGAIN for this WEEKEND, and while you’re watching the movie, try holding her HAND. And see if she LETS you.”
And little by little my friends taught me how to have a RELATIONSHIP with a girl: Talk to her. Ask her out. Hold her hand.
Of course looking back, I wish they’d have included steps like “Become FRIENDS with her first”, and “Earn the trust of her PARENTS”, but they were just dumb teenage boys like me.
Well, if high school GIRLS are complicated and mysterious and wonderful but also pretty SCARY, and thus, navigating a relationship feels rather intimidating, then how much more so when we’re talking about a relationship with the Creator and Sustainer of the UNIVERSE… GOD!
Fortunately, we’ve got a far better counselor from whom to get our advice - we’ve got God HIMSELF, who has revealed TO us how to have a relationship with Him, in His WORD, the Bible. And particularly, for this morning, in Exodus ch24, if you want to begin turning there.
As you do, let me just remind you: for the past 5 chapters and 5SUNDAYS now, we’ve been examining God’s LAW - the 10 Commandments and the 95 additional laws that help explain them called the “Book of the Covenant” - ALL of which God gave to Israel, most importantly, to show them how to stay in goodRELATIONSHIP with Him. Remember, God called Israel his “firstborn son” (Ex 4:22). And like any good parent, God has certain expectations of his children. Polly and I expect our kids to treat us with RESPECT. To be KIND to one another. God wants the same for HIS children: “Love me, and love one another” - this sums up the whole Law; I want a love RELATIONSHIP with you!”
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And this morning, in Exodus 24, God is going to formalize that love relationship with His people by confirming, or ratifying, His covenant with Israel. A covenant is a promise, a promise of RELATIONSHIP. Those of us who are married - we made a promise to our spouse that we are in this thing for the long haul, come what may. Those of you who are members of West Hills made a similar covenant to this church.
And God had already entered into a covenant relationship with Israel, specifically, with Abram, back in Genesis 12. But as Israel developed and matured, the relationship changed. Such that by Exodus chs19-23, some 500 years later, God now deems them ready to receive the GIFT of His LAW, the “Mosaic covenant”. And ch24 here is really the culminating moment when that covenant is solidified and it goes into effect; this is God’s wedding ceremony with Israel - if you will - where they both stand up at the altar and make their VOWS to one another and the covenant relationship becomes OFFICIAL.
And it teaches us SIX (6) things about how to have a relationship with God. So we’ll begin by reading the chapter together, if you would STAND with me, as you’re able… Exodus ch24:
“Then [God] said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar. 2 Moses alone shall come near to the Lord, but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him.”
3 Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.” 4 And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 And he sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. 6 And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. 7 Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” 8 And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”
9 Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, 10 and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. 11 And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.
12 The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and wait there, that I may give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” 13 So Moses rose with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. 14 And he said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we return to you. And behold, Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever has a dispute, let him go to them.”
15 Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. 16 The glory of the Lord dwelt on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. 17 Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. 18 Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.” This is the word of God…
#1 - The FIRST thing we learn here about how to have a relationship with God is that You must be CALLED. (vv1-2)
In v1, God CALLS Moses, to “come UP to [Himself]”, along with his brother AARON, Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu, and “seventy of the elders of Israel”. Then in v2, God invites Moses specifically, to “come NEAR” to God.
Moses didn’t just wake up one day and say to himself, “I think I’ll start a relationship with GOD today”; rather, GOD had to be the one to make the first move, to reach out to MOSES. Remember, He did so back in ch3, at the burning bush; “God called to [Moses] out of the bush: ‘Moses, Moses’” (v4).
And friends, it happens the same way for EVERYONE who enjoys a relationship with God. In John 6:44, Jesus informs us that “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” The ONLY way that you and I can come to Jesus for our salvation is if God the Father CALLS us to Him. Here’s how the apostle PAUL puts it in the book of Ephesians:
“[God] CHOSE us in [CHRIST] before the foundation of the world… In love [because God wants a LOVE RELATIONSHIP with us…] he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace” (1:4-6a).
Translation: the ONLY way we can be saved is if GOD - in His LOVE, and His undeserved GRACE - if He wills… predestines… chooses… CALLS us to Himself.
Nobody in this room, to the best of my knowledge, could decide that you’re gonna have lunch with the President of the United States today, and simply pick up your phone right now and get him on the line and make it happen. How much LESS so, could you or I hope to be the ones to establish relationship with the Almighty, Sovereign God over everything?! We CAN’T! HE’S got to make the call! The prerogative is HIS and his ALONE. As God will make clear to Moses just a few chapters from now, in ch33, he says “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.” (v19) “I’M calling the shots!”
“And it won’t be in response to YOU, and anything YOU’VE done,” God says. It’s not like God waits to see who will obey Him and who won’t, and then He CHOOSES; NO - “before the foundation of the world”, Ephesians said. As Moses reminds Israel later in Deuteronomy 7 “The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession… It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you” (vv6-8a); there it is again: God’s LOVE. If I asked you, Parents: “Why do you love your kids? - out of ALL the children on the face of the earth, why THESE kids?” - you wouldn’t say, “Because of ALL the kids out there, these are the GREATEST. The smartest. The coolest. The best.” You may THINK that, but that’s not why you LOVE them… at least I HOPE it’s not! That’s not why God loves HIS kids, anyway; he says, “You weren’t the ‘greatest’, numerically speaking, or frankly, in terms of your OBEDIENCE to me either.” “No,” God says, “I LOVE you simply because you are MINE!” Because I CHOSE you.
Consider who God calls here in v1. Moses was an orphaned murderer who had BEGGED God to send someone else to rescue His people. Aaron - later, in ch32 - is gonna lead the Israelites in the most egregious act of idolatry in their entire history, when they construct a golden calf to worship instead of God, while God is busy ratifying the covenant with them! And Aaron’s SONS, Nadab and Abihu, will later be executed for their rebellion against God (Lev 10). These guys aren’t exactly the Mt. Rushmore of fidelity to God! And yet, God chooses them.
2 Timothy 1:9 reiterates this: “[God] saved us and called us… not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us [FREELY, as a GIFT…] in Christ Jesus before the ages [even] BEGAN” - God MADE His choice before He even CREATED us, created ANYTHING, so as to PROVE that His choice wasn’t based on anything IN us - OUR goodness, OUR faithfulness to HIM - but rather, His choice was based solely on everything in HIM - HIS goodness, HIS faithfulness to US.
And friends, that’s really good news, because it means God’s not gonna UN-choose you when you inevitably MESS UP. God won’t UN-call you, any more than He can un-LOVE you; do YOU quit loving YOUR kids every time THEY mess up? Of COURSE not! Then how much more confident can we be that GOD, our PERFECT parent, will continue to love US, choose relationship with US, despite our failings?”
Praise God, for His gracious, unmerited love; for CALLING us into relationship with Him!
#2 - And this is gonna sound at first like an immediate contradiction, but hang with me here: To enjoy GOOD relationship with God, we must be OBEDIENT. (vv3-4a, 7)
Evidently Moses descended Mt. Sinai after receiving the Book of the Covenant from God in chs 20-23, because now God calls him back UP the mountain again. But FIRST, in v3, Moses reports “all the words of the Lord” to “the PEOPLE”. And watch how they respond: “And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will DO.” The 10 Commandments… PLUS the 95 laws on top of that… we will OBEY.
Now, commentators have different TAKES on this. Some say Israel is being RASH here; they’re too HASTY to agree, they should have stopped and counted the COST of obedience. Others say Israel is too self-ASSURED here. They’re overly confident and optimistic about their ability to actually KEEP the Law. And both those assessments may be true.
But I tend to favor a third, more sympathetic reading that simply sees Israel as trying to be FAITHFUL here. Put yourself in their shoes: if YOU saw a mountain shaking and heard a booming voice of thunder coming from the heavens, saying, “These are my commandments,” would YOU respond by saying, “Okay, God; just give us a few days to consider it - you know, read over the fine print, maybe suggest a few revisions to the covenant - and we’ll get BACK to you”?!
NO! Israel isn’t in a position to NEGOTIATE here! When God says, “JUMP”, you don’t even ask “How high?”; you don’t question Him AT ALL! You just JUMP! So Israel simply replies here: “Okay- we’ll DO it!”.
And THEN, v4, “Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord.” Cuz God’s not just calling THIS generation of Israelites to obey Him; these laws are for ALL generations. And then if we skip down to v7, “[Moses] took this Book of the Covenant and he read it in the hearing of the people. And they [REPEATED], “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.””
When I perform weddings, I send the bride and groom a COPY of the entire ceremony, including their vows, before the big day arrives. Cuz before they say “I DO”, I want them to understand exactly what it is they are signing ON for. So Moses recited God’s Law for them in v3, so they would understand the terms and conditions of His covenant; and now in v7 Moses READS it for them, once again, so they can actually AGREE to it. This also stresses the IMPORTANCE of their obedience, cuz remember: the Bible REPEATS itself for EMPHASIS. If we want to stay in good relationship with God, we MUST obey Him.
Jesus said, “If you love me you will keep my commandments” (Jn 14:15).
1 John 5:3 “this is love for God, that we keep his commandments.”
“You want a love relationship with me?” God asks, “then OBEY me.
Perhaps you’re here this morning and you’re not SURE if you have a relationship with the Lord yet or not - you’re in LUCK! God has given us a LITMUS test, for discerning whether or not we truly have a relationship with him: 1 John 2:3 - ““We know that we have come to know him [to know God intimately, a personal relationship with Him] if we [...] keep his commands””.
You say, “Wait a minute, I thought you just told us in point #1 that God calls us into relationship NOT because of our obedience, but simply as a result of His own, free, loving CHOICE?”
That’s true, but this is where we have to remember the CONTEXT of Exodus in redemptive history. A few weeks back I used the analogy of my OWN kids: I love ALL my kids. I think I have great relationships with all THREE of them. But my relationship with Bo, my 6 month old, is very different from my relationship with Elijah, my 3 year old… which is different from my relationship with Ellery, my 7 year old.
Bo has NO RULES; he can pull my hair (...my arm hair)... Bo can pee all over me, and I’m not gonna treat him - RELATE to him - any differently.
Now, if ELIJAH pulls my hair, if HE pees on me, we’re gonna have some ISSUES. And if ELLERY did it… well, I won’t even GO there!
The same is true of GOD - God’s love for His children hasn’t changed since He first made His covenant with Abram 500 years ago. But as Israel has matured, so too has the relationship. And NOW God is telling them: “No more pulling arm hair! It’s time to establish some RULES around here, for what it means to be a part of my FAMILY.” All God’s unconditional LOVE from point #1 is still there; if Elijah pulls my arm hair, I’m STILL gonna LOVE him. But what love LOOKS like CHANGES over time. At a certain stage in a child’s development, love looks like SPANKING. Hebrews 12:6 says “the Lord disciplines the one he loves”. God isn’t loving Israel LESS by giving them rules to follow here, and enforcing them with discipline if they don’t obey; if anything, God loves them MORE! Cuz relationships are (eventually) supposed to be a two-way street, give and take. I may not LOVE Ellery more than my other kids, but I certainly have a deeper RELATIONSHIP with her because there’s more of a give and take now; she’s bringing more of her OWN love into the relationship. God is giving Israel the opportunity here to share in a deeper, more mutual, more mature relationship with Him.
And he offers the same to US this morning, friends. But it means we MUST obey Him. Because He is GOD, and we are not. So the relationship MUST be on HIS terms, not ours. Which makes point #3 all the more important…
#3 - To have a relationship with God, we must be FORGIVEN. (vv4b-6, 8)
Isn’t it telling that the very first thing God instructs Moses to do in v4 after writing down His Law is to build an ALTAR, on which to offer SACRIFICES to God, v5. Philip Ryken explains (782): “Sinners can only worship a holy God on the basis of a sacrifice. People worshiped God long before there was a temple, or even a tabernacle, but they never worshiped him without an altar. When Noah and the patriarchs worshiped God, they always started by building an altar.”
Even BEFORE Noah, how about Cain & Abel - the very first account we have of humanity outside the Garden of Eden, in Genesis 4 - the whole context for the story is SACRIFICE; God approved of Abel’s offering but not Cain’s. And even before that - life INSIDE the Garden; Genesis THREE - Adam and Eve were DELIVERED from the DEATH they rightly deserved for their sin against God, presumably because God himself made a sacrifice TO himself, on their behalf - that’s no doubt where he got the animal hides He clothed them with.
The practice of sacrifice is as old as the practice of SIN, because it’s the ONLY way for GUILTY people to be restored to relationship with a holy God. We must be FORGIVEN, and according to the Bible - Hebrews 9:22 - “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”
Why IS that? Why do we need forgiveness in the first place, and secondly, why must it entail BLOOD?
Well, we need forgiveness because - thinking back to point #2 - God deserves our unfailing obedience. Polly and I gave our kids LIFE, we FEED them, we HOUSE them, we CLOTHE them, we CARE for them, LOVE them, PROVIDE for them, NURTURE them, we SPOIL them! So if I ask my kids to pick up their toys - just pick up after yourself, that’s all - if they respond by asking, “WHY?” - you see what a slap in the FACE that is? How much MORE so, then, when GOD - who is the source of ALL life, the source of ALL love and care and provision; God, who sustains the entire UNIVERSE by the word of His power (Heb 1:3) - when HE asks US to do something, how much MORE obliged are WE to obey Him, without question? God deserves and demands our absolute obedience.
And that ALSO makes it all the more offensive when we DIS-obey Him. Speaking of a “slap in the face”, if someone walked right up to you after church today and just smacked you, I don’t care HOW good of friends you THOUGHT you were, you wouldn’t just say, “Well, THAT hurt… So, where should we meet up for lunch?” Clearly a RIFT has formed between you, that has to get mended before the relationship can continue. That’s what the Bible says SIN does to our relationship with GOD; Isaiah 59:2 warns “your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.” We must be FORGIVEN.
But why BLOOD? TWO reasons: the significance of blood, and its symbolism.
Blood is SIGNIFICANT; what’s more important than BLOOD? What’s more costly, more valuable? NOTHING! (if you’re a mammal). Because as God reminds us in Leviticus 17:11, “the life of [a creature] is in its blood, so I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.”
Which brings us to the SYMBOLISM of blood. Blood represents LIFE. It’s the SOURCE of life; we use the term “lifeblood” to refer to something’s essence, its source of strength and vitality. You lose ENOUGH blood, and life is OVER.
GOD is our lifeblood. He deserves our WHOLE lives - heart, mind, soul and strength - every part of us, completely and freely surrendered to Him, in grateful obedience. But SIN is us refusing to GIVE that to Him; holding back part of our life for OURSELVES - “God: you can have Sunday morning, but I’m holding on to Friday and Saturday nights… God: you can have my relationships, except this ONE, that I’m NOT inviting you to be a part of… You can have my PAST, but I’m not ready to surrender my FUTURE to you just yet… I’ll open my schedule to you - maybe even open my heart, in prayer; open your Bible, in faith; open my hands, in service to you - but God, don’t you ask me to open my WALLET.
In all SORTS of ways, we give God LESS than our whole lives that He deserves. So God “gives it for us on the ALTAR, to make ATONEMENT - to make substitution - for our SOULS” by means of BLOOD; to pay God BACK for the life that we owed Him but failed to offer Him.
And in that way, sacrifice takes on ADDITIONAL meaning, as we look at the dying animal there on the altar - thrashing, gasping for air, bleeding out, all of the LIFE slowly draining from its eyes - and we’re supposed to IDENTIFY with it: “that should have been ME”! But for the grace of God, I’D be the one paying for my sins with my OWN life here on the altar.
And that’s exactly what the sacrifice represented particularly in the context of a COVENANT-making ceremony. The verb used in the Hebrew is karath - to “CUT” a covenant - because the two parties would both bring some animals, and cut them in HALF, and lay them on either side and then walk together down the trail of BLOOD that formed between them, symbolically declaring, “May God do LIKEWISE to me, if ever I should break this covenant”. That was the scene in Genesis 15, when God first forged His covenant with Abram. With one important difference; do you remember? God caused a “deep sleep” to fall over Abram, and then God walked through the blood path ALONE, because God was making a unilateral, unconditional promise to Abram, to be his God irrespective of Abram’s obedience, regardless of whether Abram held up his end of the bargain or not.
Bo can pull all the arm hair he wants, and I’m not going anywhere.
…For NOW. But there will come a day when continuing to pull arm hair will COST Bo. I pray it never COMES to that; that I never have to sit my son down and explain: “Bo, you just can’t continue sleeping under my roof, eating my food, borrowing my CAR… while ALSO pulling my ARM hair.
And look at what Moses does with the blood NOW, in Exodus 24. He takes half of it and he throws it on the altar in v6, to symbolize GOD’S end of the covenant, reminiscent of Genesis 15. But then in v8: “Moses took the [REST of the] blood and threw it on the people.”
Do you see - God’s relationship with His people just became a two-way street. Now if the Israelites continue to sin, they’ve got blood on their hands. If they are disobedient going forward, God will by no means hold them GUILTLESS. The Mosaic covenant is a BI-lateral, CONDITIONAL covenant; what did God promise them, back in ch19? “IF you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, [THEN] you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples” (vv5-6). And last week in ch23? “I’m sending my angel… to bring you into the [Promised Land] - IF you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies.” (v22) God says, “I’ll hold up MY end of the bargain - guide you, guard you, help you, BLESS you - IF… YOU will hold up YOUR end of the bargain, and OBEY me; keep my commands. And as we’ll see, that “IF” is gonna prove to be the biggest little two letter word in the English language.
The blood here is foreshadowing. It’s a reminder that while, yes, we OUGHT to obey God - we MUST obey Him, if we want to stay in good relationship with Him - at the end of the day, we have all FAILED to. We have DIS-obeyed, and we need God’s forgiveness, which only comes by the shedding of blood. And ultimately, we needed a better sacrifice that secured a more LASTING forgiveness for us, an ETERNALLY secure relationship with our holy God.
#4 - (We’ll move quicker on these last 3 points) In order to enjoy relationship with God, we must be HUMBLE. (vv9-10)
V9: “Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel.” They SAW God!
Now, those of you who have read through Exodus before are thinking: “Wait a minute… HOW?!?!” Because in ch33, Moses is gonna ASK to see God - “Please show me your glory” - and God’s reply is “Sorry Moses; you CAN’T”... “for man shall not see me and live”. I’m just too HOLY; I would melt your FACE off!
So how did Moses do it the FIRST time, then, back here in ch24; how’d they see God and survive? Well, if we compare the two passages more carefully, and examine God’s words in ch33 more closely, what God specifically says there is “you cannot see my face… and live”. And if we look back at the description Moses gives us of God, here in ch24- he doesn’t really describe GOD at all, does he? “There was under his feet… a pavement of sapphire, like HEAVEN in purity” - apparently God made even the road He WALKED on so blindingly holy that Moses and the elders couldn’t BEAR to lift their eyes any higher than the soles of God’s feet. They DEFINITELY didn’t see His FACE.
There in the presence of God Himself, these men were suddenly overwhelmed by a sense of their UNWORTHINESS to behold God. Like the prophet Isaiah, when HE was given a vision of the Lord - in his case, it was just the “train of God’s robe” (6:1) - that was all Isaiah could bear, before he cried out: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips”. Cuz when you’re in the presence of that much BEAUTY, purity, perfection, you can’t HELP but recognize your own ugliness, uncleanness… SIN.
A relationship with God - the REAL God, the God of the BIBLE - will necessarily HUMBLE us. And God requires humility FROM us, before He even lets us IN, before He will even give us a GLIMPSE of Him.
Who gets to see God, according to Jesus, in the Beatitudes? ““Blessed are the pure in heart [the HUMBLE] for they shall see God.” (Matt 5:8)
Jesus said, “unless you [HUMBLE yourselves] and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ” (Matt 18:3-4)
In 2 Chronicles 7, God says, “if my people… humble themselves… then I will hear them from heaven”.
Passage after passage, attesting that only the HUMBLE enjoy relationship with the Lord.
#5 - If we want a relationship with God, we must be BEFRIENDED. (v11)
THAT’s how these guys managed to survive seeing God, THAT’s why God “did not lay his hand” on them, v11: because He had BEFRIENDED them. God had invited them into relationship with Him, intimate relationship - they “ate and drank” with God; they shared a MEAL with Him - that’s a pretty intimate thing. Who do you invite to YOUR dining room table? It’s reserved for family, and close friends.
This goes beyond point #1, where we’re “called”; that would be enough - to be CHOSEN by God at ALL, for ANY kind of relationship with Him… to be His SERVANTS. It would be our highest joy and privilege in this life, merely to be God’s SLAVES. But remember what Jesus said to his disciples, when they were all gathered around the dinner table, just before he was crucified? He said, “I CALLED you as my disciples… I CHOSE you to follow me, in humble obedience, as SERVANTS”... but “no longer do I call you servants… NOW I call you friends”. It’s reminiscent, too, of the parable of the prodigal SON. The wayward son, who wishes DEATH on his father by asking for an advance on his inheritance, and then promptly squanders it all, and wakes up face down in a PIG trough, scavenging for food. And thinks to himself, “Maybe I can go back HOME. Maybe my father will forgive me, accept me - obviously not as a SON, but maybe, just maybe, as a SLAVE; I can serve him to pay off my debt, and earn his forgiveness…” And while he was still a long way off on the horizon, head hung, tail tucked, practicing his apology, his father comes RUNNING down the road to embrace him, and welcome him back home. Not as a servant, but as a SON. “Behold what manner of LOVE the Father has given unto us, that we should be called the CHILDREN of God; and so we ARE,” friends.
Lastly, #6 - To STAY in relationship with God, we must ABIDE. (vv12-18)
We won’t reread the whole thing, but just consider all the “abiding” language in these last 7 verses.
V12: God invites Moses to “come up on the mountain and WAIT”.
So, v14: Moses instructs the ELDERS to ““Wait here for us”, while me and Joshua go up.
Most significantly, in v16: the Hebrew word there for what “the glory of the Lord” did on Mt. Sinai - “dwelt” - it literally means to REST or SETTLE DOWN or ABIDE.
So, too, God makes Moses abide - wait - in v16, until the SEVENTH day (the holy day), before he is allowed to enter God’s shekinah glory.
And once Moses DOES, in v18, we hear he remained there for “40 days and 40 nights”. That’s a whole lot of ABIDING!
There’s SO much we could say here, but I’ll leave it at this: in a relationship, there’s just no substitute for ABIDING, is there? For someone who’s been there WITH you, through thick and thin, hours upon hours, YEAR after year - THAT’S the stuff of relationships: ABIDING.
And God desires a relationship with you, friend; here is Jesus’ invitation to you: “Abide in me, and I in you… I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing… If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you… As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love… These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”
Do you want JOY? Psalm 16:11 says “in [God’s] presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” But we’ve got to ABIDE there.
Which sounds nice, but it brings us to a major PROBLEM as we wrap up here, namely, that we DON’T. You and I DON’T “abide” with God; we FAIL to, consistently, every single DAY. We look ELSEWHERE for our joy, and we abide THERE instead. As a matter of fact, we don’t take ANY of these 6 steps toward a relationship with God, do we? Think about it: We can’t accomplish ANY of the six - we are either PASSIVE - we must BE “called”, BE “forgiven”, BE “befriended”, by GOD - OR we’re just plain INSUFFICIENT for the task - you and I not “obedient” enough to stay in God’s good graces, we aren’t nearly as “humble” as we ought to be in light of all of God’s holiness and all of our sinfulness, and you and I FAIL, daily, to “abide” with Him.
But what that SHOWS us, friends, is that our establishing and maintaining a relationship with God must depend totally on HIM! And in giving us his son JESUS, God has secured that relationship for all eternity.
*JESUS calls us to Himself - he says, “I am the Good Shepherd… My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me, and I know them, I give them eternal life”. (Jn 10)
*Jesus empowers us to obey God; the Bible says he “equips [us] with everything good that [we] may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ” - Yet not I, but through Christ IN me (Heb 13:21).
*And when we fall SHORT, Jesus FORGIVES us. He purchased our forgiveness, once and for all, in his sacrificial, atoning death in our place on the cross.
*Jesus HUMBLES us - he humbles the proud, but exalts the humble.
*Jesus BEFRIENDS us - not just servants, but friends; and not even just friends, but brothers and sisters! Jesus makes us children of God.
*And even when we’re prone abide elsewhere, JESUS still abides with US. He promises to never leave or forsake us; “Behold,” he says, “I am with you ALWAYS, to the END of the age.”
Praise God, for bringing us into an ETERNALLY secure relationship with Him, through His son, Jesus Christ.