Exodus 33:1-6

Transcript

00:00:00:37 – 00:00:28:08
Clint Loveall
Hey, friends, welcome. Thanks for being back with us. We’re grateful to have you continue through Exodus with us. We move today into the third chapter of, you know, a little bit of transition, a little bit of a bridge passage today. And I think you’ll be able to see how it both looks backwards and forwards. I’ll read it for you.

00:00:28:28 – 00:00:50:13
Clint Loveall
Then we’ll try to unpack some of it. The Lord said to Moses, Go, leave this place. You and the people whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt go to the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob saying to your descendants, I will give it. I will send an angel before you. I will drive out the Canaanites, the Emirates, the Hittites, the parasites, the house sites and the Jeb sites.

00:00:50:38 – 00:01:12:46
Clint Loveall
Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey, but I will not go among you or I would consume you on the way. For you are a stiff necked people. When the people heard the harsh words, they mourned and no one put on ornaments for the Lord had said to Moses, say to the Israelites, You are a stiff neck.

00:01:12:46 – 00:01:50:54
Clint Loveall
People. If for a single moment I go up among you, I would consume you. Now take off your ornaments and I will decide what to do to you. Therefore, the Israelites stripped themselves of their ornaments from Mt. Horeb onward. So just a really interesting text. God calls the people to move forward, to continue their journey. But I think as we as we said in closing yesterday, Michael, this is they now carry a new identity.

00:01:50:54 – 00:02:23:33
Clint Loveall
They are no longer just the rescued people of Egypt. They are the rescued people of Egypt who have turned their back on God, who have been disobedient, who have been unfaithful. And and they are going to bear that reality now for a while. And, God, it is always dangerous when we paint God with a human type brush. But the text gives us the impression that God is not over.

00:02:23:33 – 00:02:52:04
Clint Loveall
This God is not past this. God is continues to be displeased with them. And we have this very interesting first of a promise go. I’m going to drive out the people. I’m going to give you the land. I’ve said that I would do it. I’m going to do it. But then that’s followed with this really interesting warning. If I go with you, I’m going to destroy you.

00:02:52:30 – 00:03:15:14
Clint Loveall
If if I know that if I’m around you, you’re going to anger me and that anger is going to lash out at you. I think I don’t know what the appropriate illustration here is. Maybe that day when you’re a parent that you just tell your child, look, we need or maybe you’ve had that moment with your spouse. We’re just we can’t be in the same room right now.

00:03:16:19 – 00:03:36:32
Clint Loveall
I’m not sure I don’t know what’s like this, but God in God’s self-awareness and holiness is seems legitimately worried that the people will break the last straw and God will lash out at them, I think is a fascinating passage.

00:03:36:52 – 00:04:07:55
Michael Gewecke
It’s one of those texts where the repetition, which is likely related to some of the textual sources and we could dive into some of that. But the repetition here of the stiff necked people is purposely emphasized for the sake of the reader. It’s clear that we are discovering here this ongoing relationship with God that is moving. And I think when we read and study Scripture, we maybe make a mistake being so far ahead in history.

00:04:08:07 – 00:04:30:30
Michael Gewecke
We look back on texts like this. We imagine ourself in the midst of a story like this one, and we find ourselves in a position where we, the reader, thinks, you know, it’s all flat, that there’s no character development, so that the story is essentially the same people and the same God and just different stuff happened. Sort of like a human pinball machine.

00:04:30:30 – 00:04:53:40
Michael Gewecke
That’s not the case. This text makes that clear. This is a living relationship between God and God’s people. And here we are. We’re engaging with this reality where the people have committed a sin. And it’s not the sin itself. It’s not as if they, you know, took one more piece of candy from a candy jar than they should have.

00:04:53:40 – 00:05:13:13
Michael Gewecke
It’s the infraction of the holy relationship. It’s the fact that God gave them this meaningful relationship. God rescued them from their oppressors. God said, you can trust me and hold me. And then when the people broke that, then all of this has been thrown up into the air and it’s being reformed and refashioned on the other side of it.

00:05:13:13 – 00:05:41:13
Michael Gewecke
And it’s striking to me the very ornamentation which should have represented their rescue from Egypt now comes off as a representation of the sackcloth and ashes of those who have defied the God, who saved them, who have defied the one who carried them out of Egypt and gave them that ornamentation in the front. And by the way, the same thing that they threw into the fire and out popped the golden idol to use the joke.

00:05:41:13 – 00:05:56:22
Michael Gewecke
So I think that here we see a relationship clean and it’s in a real meaningful way, a relationship between God and God’s people. And it’s, you know, it’s not as simple or very even pleasant image in some ways.

00:05:56:25 – 00:06:17:13
Clint Loveall
You don’t want to give the people a little bit of credit. And Michael, they seem to realize that, you know, if you’ve ever had the moment where you’ve let somebody down, you know, that terrible moment where your mom or dad or someone you respect tells you I’m very disappointed in you. Well versed for here. When the people heard the harsh words, they mourned.

00:06:17:20 – 00:06:44:00
Clint Loveall
They were grieved. You know, it is not sometimes it’s not anger that is the the most painful part of getting something wrong. It’s that knowing that you’ve disappointed somebody, it’s knowing that you’ve let somebody down and that and that they now they your actions have caused them pain. And so the people mourn. And then the very interesting thing here, no one put on ornaments.

00:06:44:00 – 00:07:13:03
Clint Loveall
In fact, they took their ornaments off. If you’ve been with us from the beginning, hopefully this rings a couple of bells. Remember that the idea of ornaments, we first saw when the people were leaving Egypt and they took with them the Egyptians jewelry. So those those very things were a sign of God’s victory, a sign of this promise, a sign of God’s work among the people.

00:07:13:26 – 00:08:02:23
Clint Loveall
And then very much closer to this story, the last time we saw something like ornaments mentioned, the people were taking off their earrings to allow Aaron to build the golden calf, to cast the calf. And so here you have literally a kind of stripping of the reminders, a kind of. Yeah, that idea of mourning, the idea that they they take off all of the stuff, all of the facade and they spend some time with the truth, the heart of the matter that they’ve been unfaithful and that God, at least for the meantime, is putting some space between them and himself, though the promise still stands that that’s clear from the front.

00:08:02:23 – 00:08:15:05
Clint Loveall
And I think there’s a reason that comes first in the text. But I do think there’s a sense here in which maybe the people continue to have to live with the consequences of their actions.

00:08:15:07 – 00:08:54:25
Michael Gewecke
Yeah. Let’s take for just a moment here a closer look at verse two. I just think it’s worth noting that while there can tends to be difficult language here for the people, let us remember this promise that God’s going to send an angel. These opponents, these people, if you remember just recently, they were actually celebrating and mocking the Israelites because of the disarray of the camp, because of the wanton behavior here, the Canaanites, Emirates, Hittites, have all of these are going to be driven out, God says, and then the people will go into a land flowing with milk of milk and honey.

00:08:54:48 – 00:09:20:29
Michael Gewecke
And then this image, which I just think is very interesting in its scope within the biblical context, but within the biblical witness, this idea that God says in verse three, I will not go up among you is really interesting because think of even the story of Genesis and the Garden and the fact that God is with Adam and Eve.

00:09:20:43 – 00:09:48:23
Michael Gewecke
This this idea that we’ve seen before in the Old Testament Scripture, that God is with God’s people, that God desires to have real connected, even on the ground kind of relationship. And so here part of the wedge that’s been divided, may I remind you again of the garden image? What happens at the end of sin? Well, there’s a blockade put there’s a flaming sword so that you can’t get in to the garden anymore.

00:09:48:23 – 00:10:15:37
Michael Gewecke
Here there’s this reality that God says that the people would be consumed if He would be in their midst. I just think that there’s a there’s a story being told here about the Israelites, but there’s a larger biblical story being told about the cost of human sinfulness. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen humans in this condition, and it’s not the first time the biblical story has told this story.

00:10:15:37 – 00:10:24:27
Michael Gewecke
And that is significant. I think that this story has many layers of meaning and you’re going to find something to connect with every layer.

00:10:24:41 – 00:10:46:55
Clint Loveall
I don’t want to sound in you know, I don’t want to sound overly confident here, but this is the kind of thing I do think it could easily be missed in a casual reading of this text. It it could easily sound like God is punishing them. Like like God is saying, Well, I’m not going with you. God has made provision.

00:10:46:57 – 00:11:19:28
Clint Loveall
The angel is going, Moses is there. The promise is is intact. I will give you this land Notice that it’s not punishment, it’s actually protection. God says, if I was with you, I think that we’re not there. In other words, that you are not ready for me in your presence yet. Your sinfulness, your disobedience, your waywardness. I can’t be close to you in that way.

00:11:19:28 – 00:11:47:24
Clint Loveall
It is dangerous for you. And I think, you know, we could read this as if it’s saying God abandoned the people. But I don’t I don’t think that’s I don’t think that’s the message here at all. I think God is saying our relationship is not at a place yet where you can be in my presence safely. Your actions have brought danger to the community.

00:11:47:45 – 00:12:11:18
Clint Loveall
If I’m that close to you. And so I’m going to keep my distance so that you’re not consumed. It’s actually, in some strange way, a measure of protection for the people that God is stepping back and giving them some time, giving them some space. But but it’s not abandonment. They’re not just off in the wilderness on their own.

00:12:11:34 – 00:12:27:54
Clint Loveall
There’s an angel before them. The promise. God says, I’m going to drive the people out. Nothing about that has changed. But there is this new there is this new, painful and difficult wrinkle in the relationship between God and Israel.

00:12:28:13 – 00:12:55:24
Michael Gewecke
So, Clint, I think for just a moment it may be worth and this is this is a little bit more of a sermon than it is a interpretation of the text. But I think that there’s something deeply meaningful in this language of the stiff necked people. And the older I get and the longer I have the privilege of working with people, you know, there’s a way in which when you work with people, you get to learn something of yourself as well.

00:12:55:24 – 00:13:24:05
Michael Gewecke
And, you know, I certainly see this in greater measure in myself, is part of the human condition is being stiff necked. There’s something to that determination that this is the way it’s going to be, that that stubbornness that, you know, may be at its best. It’s a form of perseverance and long suffering, but often times are stiff neck ness helped us for some period of time until it doesn’t.

00:13:24:19 – 00:13:57:43
Michael Gewecke
And then it becomes one of our greatest adversaries, people who are unwilling to do something new or to accept a change in life, maybe even a change that, you know, they don’t get to choose. I mean, there’s just many moments in life in which God asks something of us, and because of our own stalwart, determined persistence to continue on our own path, we find ourselves feeling as here the people are described as being God, forsaking God having provided, but forsaking them of His presence.

00:13:57:43 – 00:14:07:19
Michael Gewecke
I mean, I just think there’s something deeply spiritually insightful about this text. And that’s, like I said, that’s more sermon than it is interpretation.

00:14:07:19 – 00:14:58:46
Clint Loveall
Well, yeah, but I do think that’s in the text, Michael. And imagine that from a almost literal perspective. What can stiff necked people not do? They can’t bow, right? They can’t, they won’t lower themselves, they won’t humble themselves. They, they refuse to bow down before God and to accept God’s wishes and God’s will. So I think that’s a very it’s just it’s a very illustrative it’s a very interesting illustration, one that you can almost paint literally, which is not we don’t think in our culture, in our day and age, you know, we would use stubborn, we would use pigheaded, we might you, but literally in this case to be stiff necked means they have refused

00:14:59:22 – 00:15:09:45
Clint Loveall
to bow in worship and humility before God. I mean, that’s almost a verbatim, literal assessment of their condition that it’s really good.

00:15:10:13 – 00:15:39:23
Michael Gewecke
Well, and you know, what’s interesting about that is they are stiff neck does relates to the God who rescues them from Egypt. But they’re more than willing to bow for the calf that gets fashioned out of gold. I it’s it’s amazing how the human mind can self justify what’s worthy of worship and how often that justification is not the God who’s been faithful, but is rather whatever the shiny promising thing of the day is.

00:15:39:23 – 00:16:03:39
Michael Gewecke
And there’s really no more contemporary reflection upon the human experience we’re doing that today. It’s happening in our own hearts, in our own communities. I mean, that that is the function of sin in the human condition. And so we as the people of God, continue to seek to try to learn how to do that, bowing to the right God as opposed to the gods that would vie for our attention.

00:16:04:04 – 00:16:17:16
Clint Loveall
Yeah. So we will continue a little bit of change of pace. We sort of start in some new directions as of tomorrow and hope you can be with us and appreciate your time today and and grateful.

00:16:17:43 – 00:16:27:09
Michael Gewecke
Thanks, everybody. We’ll see you tomorrow.