Bible Study Helps: Life and Times of Moses

What I've learned about teaching: 

1. the worst teaching method is the one you use all the time. (Jesus used different ones) 
2. People need to be stretched to learn (trials) 
3. Learning is about connections (your brain, which never stops making those as long as it’s healthy) 
4. Connections come from your own effort and from review/reflection/ repetition 

So, I want to go back and see where we’ve been, try to use some different methods, and stretch you a little.  

Exodus: Moses is redeemed from genocide, essentially. First by midwives, then by his mother and sister, third by Pharoah’s daughter. Women being subversive. Not now.  Moses grows up in privilege, kills a man in anger, doesn’t want to face justice, and flees for 40 years.  

 He is called miraculously to deliver his people as he was delivered. Hebrews 11 says  

³ By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s command. 

²⁴ By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, ²⁵ choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the ^[g]passing pleasures of sin, ²⁶ esteeming the ^[h]reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures ^[i]in Egypt; for he looked to the reward. 

²⁷ By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible. ²⁸ By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them. 

²⁹ By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, whereas the Egyptians, attempting to do so, were drowned. 

Egypt goes through ten plagues before the Israelites leave. With them are a “mixed multitude” (non-Israelites) who want to be part of their nation, but some of them will be a problem later. Moses leads them, and it’s a constant struggle. He even gets trouble from his own brother, who actively leads the peo le back into Idolatry and then lies about it: Exodus 32:8, 32:24. p

 Moses in anger—I get the feeling he represses his anger and then lets it blow, and that’s a problem for him—breaks the commandments and law and has to get them again. The law in Exodus is ethical and has to do with worship. We like the ethical part, the Ten Commandments and how people should relate. We get bogged down in the worship part, the garments, the implements in the tabernacle, the ceremonies.  

 I want to talk about the Ten Commandments, the meaning of Exodus’ symbolism, and worship.  

Part I 

Ten Commandments for us we should see them as a reflection of the character of God, first of all. Each one tells us something about God and that we reflect God’s character when we obey the moral law, which will not get us any merit with God. We follow the law of Christ, which is based in the first two characteristics of God: holiness and love. The Ten  Commandments are a practical reflection of those two character traits of God, but as Christians we know there is more than the surface of the commandments. A person can obey them on the surface or seem to and not love Jesus or even accept Him as savior.  

There is a tree in Utah that is  108 acres big. It’s called the Pando tree, pando meaning "I spread." It looks like a forest but it has one root for all of them. (photos) 

 The ten commandments all have one root and are tied together. That’s why James says that if you break one law you’ve broken them all. The root is the character, person, traits, will of God.  

Holiness:  justice, jealousy, wrath, righteousness, moral purification, demand for atonement.  

 Love: kindness, gentleness, generosity, goodness, grace. These are never in conflict in God.   

When the Israelites made the golden calf, they disobeyed at least 7 of the ten. The question is how do the commandments tell us something about God? 

 Holiness: You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make a graven image (because I’m not a person, images confuse people, and idolatry leads to sexual sin; most of the pagan religions involved sexual imagery and sexual acts in “worship” 

You shall not use my name in vain. This isn’t just cussing. It’s every day reverence for God’s name.  Jews do not use Jehovah. I believe it is also not saying things about God that are untrue. “He will not give you anything you can’t handle.” “God honors gay marriage.” “God made you the way you are so you should just be that.” 

Holiness: Sabbath: respect for the body, rest, made for man not man for Sabbath. We probably disobey this one the most, but in the New Testament they speak of the Lord’s Day as the day to gather and that Christians should not get caught up in Sabbath regulations and thinking it makes them holier than others.  

 Love and Holiness: Stealing, (they used the gold for the wrong purposes), stealing hurts others, if you’ve ever been a victim.  

 Honoring parents - love 

 Murder – violates image of God and is not done from love  

 Lying – usually done for selfish, not loving reasons. (OLD T women vs. New Testament) Aaron lied 

 Adultery – not loving one’s spouse supremely, and violating another’s marriage 

 Coveting – they wanted the worship methods of Egyptians. The American culture is based on coveting, wanting more than you have.  

 Part II.  

There is a great deal of symbolism in the book of Exodus that is referred to in  the New Testament, which is the main reason we have to learn it. And doing so stretches us, because some of it is strange. It is a school teacher to show us Christ. Example: 

 Mount Sinai – the people were to stay at the foot. The priests, who were Aaron’s sons and grandsons, were allowed to go to a certain point higher.  

 

Tabernacle – same. The priests could go into the holy place, but only the High Priests goes into the Holiest of Holy Places in the Tabernacle and later the temple (the temple is the permanent structure for what is described in Exodus, which was a tent encampment that could be constructed in a day.)  That priest offered an animal sacrifice that lasted for a year, symbolically, for the Israelites who believed  

 For us: There is a high Priest who went into the Holiest place and atoned forever for the sins of all mankind. We are priests, meaning the only mediator we need is Jesus. We need no other mediators—Mary, saints, priests, angels, dead relatives, etc. Please don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. I hear things from Christians about these things that make me say, they haven’t been taught. “I know Momma is praying for me in heaven.” No, no, no. 

We’ve studied the tabernacle/temple before and all the symbolism there. Various aspects are mentioned in the New Testament. The veil that was split from top to bottom when Jesus died (not the way a man would do it, plus it was too thick to just tear by hand). The Holy Place with the place of atonement. The candlesticks. The Shewbread (the disciples harvested grain when they were hungry, were accused of working, and Jesus used that as proof that the law was not supposed to work against human need).  Oil in the lamps. Lots of references. IT’s a good study. I did one when I was a teenager and it stuck with me.  

 Worship. Exodus 40:1-15, 34-38. This week’s lesson was about worship. Three points, and they all have to do with preparation for worship, which as Jim Shaddix preached on, is not the music. The music is part of it, not the whole.  

 How do we prepare for worship? 

1. Worship is about God’s holiness. I think we violate this the most. What do we do that focuses on God’s holiness in worship? (Israelites cleansed and anointed themselves and implements. Link https://www.gotquestions.org/anointed.html 

Moses could not enter the tent of meeting; no one could yet. It was a place for God's presence. Later they would do sacrifices to show that death of an animal for sin (sin deserves death) was needed to allow them to enter the tent of meeting.  The presence of God was a thundering voice; later it would be the voice of Jesus to call humans to himself.

 2. To worship we need forgiveness. Aaron and his family needed forgiveness before they could start to lead the worship. They were consecrated in Exodus 40.  Where does that affect us? 

3. Worship centers on God’s presence. Jesus said, if you are gathered in my name, I’m there. We don’t have to ask for it, I don’t think, but that’s me. Maybe we are not gathered in his name. Maybe we are gathered in the name of “I enjoy the music” or “Brainerd Baptist is the best church” or “I want to see my friends” or “I need to be seen for my reputation” or “I need some quiet time” or “this is my habit.”  Are we gathering because we love Jesus and his people? I think we do love Jesus, we just don’t bring that focus and consciousness to the service. We bring our busy agendas and worries and anger and other things.  

 These are three basic truths about worship. So, how do we prepare for worship, which is about holiness, presence, and forgiveness?