We Need More Than A Tabernacle & A Stone Tablets

[0:00] I've never heard that song before, and I honestly thought the first couple of lines we were going to follow the tune of Caledonia. I was like, we're going for it. Thank you very much.

[0:17] Well, we're having one last bite at the book of Exodus, and we're going to stop after this week for Advent and Christmas. And then after the new year, we're going to go into the Gospel of Mark for a while, maybe up to Easter. And so we're going to be stopping after chapter 32, and it's not a random place that we've stopped. Really, this is a dark part of the book of Exodus, and we're going to see why it's a good thing to stop here and go into the depths of winter and find light in the coming of Christ. And so if you'll open your Bibles to Exodus 32, if you have a Bible, there's Bibles in the pews. It'll be up on the screen as well, and I'll be reading it out. Exodus chapter 32.

[1:32] When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. So Aaron said to them, Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me. So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in the ears and brought them to Aaron. He received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord. And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

[2:41] And the Lord, this is up the mountain now, said to Moses, Go down, for your people whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They've turned aside quickly out of the way that I have commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshipped it and sacrificed to it and said, These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And the Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them in order that I may make a great nation out of you.

[3:24] But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?

[3:35] Why should the Egyptians say, with evil intent did he bring them out to kill them in the mountains and consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self and said to them, I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring and they shall inherit forever. And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people. Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, the tablets that were written on both sides, on the front and on the back. They were written, the tablets were the work of God. And the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets. And he met Joshua. When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, there's a noise of war in the camp. But he said, it's not the sound of shouting for victory or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear.

[4:50] And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses' anger burned hot. And he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain.

[5:03] And he took the calf that they had made and he burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it. And Moses said to Aaron, what did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them? And Aaron said, let not the anger of my Lord burn hot, for you know the people, they are set on evil. For they said to me, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. So I said to them, well, let any of you who have gold take it off. So they gave it to me and I threw it in the fire and out came this calf. When Moses saw that the people had broken loose, for Aaron had let them break loose to the derision of their enemies, then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, who is on the Lord's side? Come to me. And all the sons of Levi gathered around him and he said to them, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, put your sword on your side, each one of you and go to and fro from the gate to gate throughout the camp. And each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor. And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses.

[6:26] And that day about 3000 men of the people fell. And Moses said, today you have been ordained for the service of the Lord, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day. The next day Moses said to the people, you have sinned a great sin, and now I will go up to the Lord. Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin. So Moses returned to the Lord and said, alas, this people have sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. But now, if you will forgive their sin. But if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written. But the Lord said to Moses, whoever sinned against me, I will blot out of my book.

[7:13] But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you. Behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them. Then the Lord sent a plague on the people because they made the calf, the one that Aaron had made. Amen. Now, Lord, we pray that you would help us with this portion of your words. It is your words, and we thank you that we have it. We pray you would bless the reading of it. Amen. I wonder, does anyone happen to know the old motto for Glasgow? Does anyone know it? Let Glasgow flourish.

[8:12] Very, very close. Good, really good. Last bit. Preaching of the words and praising of his name. Let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of the words and the praising of his name. It came from the prayer of St. Mungo, the patron saint of Glasgow, which was then put on the Tron Church bell, and it was later shortened simply to let Glasgow flourish. But would Glasgow flourish without the preaching of the word and the praising of the word of God? Question, do we need God to flourish? And there's a similar question in our passage. Can Israel flourish without God? There's a repeated phrase that is throughout the early chapters of Exodus. I believe it might have been a big theme in one of the films. Can anyone remember the phrase, let my people go? It's not the full phrase, like let Glasgow flourish. Can anyone remember the full phrase? Because that is right. That's what's most remembered, is let my people go.

[9:32] And like with Glasgow's old motto, actually the second half of it is key for the flourishing of the people. And so every single time in Exodus that God tells Pharaoh to let his people go, he actually says a fuller phrase. He tells Pharaoh what they are being let go for. And so let go from something and for something. And so the full phrase, every time God says this to Pharaoh, he says, let my people go that they may serve me in the wilderness. And there are some variations, like the first time he said it in chapter 5, he says, let my people go that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness. Other times he simply says, let my people go that they may serve me. And your translation might be that they may worship me. And so Pharaoh understood what that meant. God wasn't just asking him to release these prisoners, set them free, unburden them. He was asking for them to come out to do something. Pharaoh understood that it meant the Hebrews serving Yahweh rather than serving Pharaoh.

[10:50] He understood that it meant offering sacrifices to Yahweh. And he discusses this at length with Moses in chapter 8. They talk about sacrifices. Well, okay, go and give sacrifices to your God. And Moses says, well, we can't go without the animals because we need them for the sacrifices. And there's this big discussion. So he understood that they weren't just getting let free. They were getting let free to go out to the wilderness and offer sacrifices. Let my people go that they may serve me, that they may worship me, that they may offer sacrifices to me, that they may hold a feast to me. They've not been rescued just to do whatever they want. They've been rescued to serve Yahweh. Now you can see how the first half is more memorable. Most people in our culture would be all for the motto, let my people go. Everyone in our culture would be, yes, we like that. Let them go. Freedom sounds good. I put that motto on an Eventbrite event because it uses AI to summarize what your event is about. So I created this wee event called

[12:02] Let My People Go, just to see what it would think the event was about. And AI suggested that it was an event about breaking free from limitations and celebrating liberation together. But that's not all of what it's about. I changed it to Let My People Go, that they may serve me, and the suggestion was completely different. Because the second half matters. And see, like Glasgow's old motto, it's the second half that offends people by the preaching of His Word and the praising of His name.

[12:36] Really? We don't want that. We just want Glasgow to flourish. Let My People Go. Yes, we want to be free, that they may serve us. Wait a minute. Don't tell us to serve God. You see, people are still swallowing the age-old lie from the Garden of Eden, the lie that God doesn't want you to be free, that He's withholding good from you, the lie that He doesn't want you to enjoy the forbidden fruit, that obeying Him will limit your freedom and fun. But it's a lie. You see, God always gives you a choice, but He will tell you where it will lead. And He never lies. He will always tell you where your choice will lead. Think of it this way. God did not need Pharaoh's permission, and God did not need Moses' involvement. God could have set the people free in a second. From what we know about God, He could have done it in any number of ways. He could have put the whole nation of Israel to sleep. He could have done it a number of ways. He's the one who gives life and breath to all mankind. He could have taken life and breath from all the Egyptians. He could have kept all of the Egyptians in the darkness and the Israelites in the light. That was actually one of the plagues. He could have teleported the Hebrews across the Red Sea, and Pharaoh would not have had a clue. He could have done it any number of ways.

[14:07] But He gave the people a choice. There's a reason that God does things the way that He does. There's a song. It's a Christmas song, a Christian song, and it says this wee line, I absolutely love it. That God could have saved us in a second, but instead He sent a child.

[14:28] It's a thing to ponder on. You see, when God gives us a choice, He always informs us. God isn't trying to trap us. He always gives us a huge road sign pointing to the right choice that will lead to life, but we must choose. And one of the things that we're often mistaken about is what true freedom is. It's like a child who says, maybe you've heard this in school, Murray, a child who says, well, you're not the boss of me. You can't tell me what to do.

[15:02] Well, you have a choice, but when you don't make the right choice, you will very quickly feel your freedom diminish. And so Adam had a free choice, but his free choice to disobey God made him a slave to sin and chained humanity to death forever. We've seen and experienced enough of humanity to know that our own free choices are not as free as we think they are, because we choose to do things that we know are not good for us. And yet they're our choices. We are not coerced, except by our own fallen nature and sinful desire. You see, self-rule and autonomy is not the same thing as freedom, because we lead ourselves into all forms of slavery and idolatry. As John Calvin famously said, the human heart is a perpetual idol factory, always producing idols. And so most people can get behind the motto, let my people go. But when the motto is, let my people go, that they may serve me, humanity shouts back at God, you're not the boss of me. The question is, do we need God in order to flourish? Is freedom actually freedom without God? Is our culture actually much different from the people in this passage over 3,000 years ago? I don't think so. I don't think our culture is much different. I think if God never sent Moses down the mountain and the people continued doing whatever they wanted. They might move to complete autonomy and pride, like Glasgow, like Scotland, like our country.

[16:49] They might have changed their motto, if they kept being allowed to do whatever they wanted, they might have changed their motto to, people make Israel. Yet what are they making it?

[17:01] where they set free to be a people without God, autonomous, doing whatever they please, celebrating their own achievements? Look at where we have come.

[17:17] Look at the people of Israel holding a feast to a golden calf, eating, drinking, and rising up to play. Is that true freedom? If we were there, we don't really see what it was like. If we were there, we would see that it wasn't as innocent as it makes out to be. Yet we're actually not far from it in our culture. What we see in our culture today, the things that are celebrated and flaunted in our culture.

[17:46] We think that as a culture we have freedom, but autonomy and pride are not the same thing as freedom. And we have many golden calves that we are worshiping in our culture. But here's the point.

[18:03] Here's the point. Israel was rescued to serve Yahweh, to hold a feast to Yahweh, to offer sacrifices to Yahweh, to worship Yahweh. Yet their 40 days in the wilderness ended up with them doing all of those things to a golden calf, a God of their own making. Now don't miss that it's 40 days in the wilderness. Does that ring any bells? 40 days. There's numbers. Numbers have a meaning in Scripture.

[18:32] 40 days are a time of testing. And so you know that Jesus replayed this. 40 days in the wilderness being tempted. And yet he passed where Israel failed. Why did he pass where Israel failed?

[18:46] Because he remembered the Word of God. Psalm 119 says, I have stored up your Word in my heart that I might not sin against you. And so what do we do when temptation comes at the end of 40 days?

[19:06] What do we do? You see, the tempter, you maybe have experienced this, the tempter does not strike on day one. Of those 40 days when you're being tempted, the tempter does not strike on day one.

[19:23] He doesn't strike on day two. Maybe not even on day 20. 40 days. On day 40, and Israel throws the towel in. Not only did God repeatedly say that they were being rescued to serve Him, to worship Him, to sacrifice to Him, to hold a feast to Him. They themselves, Israel themselves, promised to do all that God said. They signed a dotted line. It was their vows. Have you ever been to a wedding? Have you ever said vows? This was their vows. One of the things that I've been thinking about recently is how quickly people forget all about the vows they make in marriage. Just humans in general.

[20:04] It's how easy it is for us humans to go back on the things that we promise. But what if we took a Psalm 119 approach and stored up our vows in our hearts so that when the going gets tough or when we're tempted, we remember the vows we've made? And this was the thought that I had.

[20:22] Vows are not just important on the wedding day. They are all the more important when your marriage is struggling. Vows are all the more important when your spouse is unwell. Vows are all the more important when you're being tempted. And yet, they seem to be the time that loads of people forget their vows. And so, back in chapter 24, when Moses told all of God, Israel, all of what God said, all the people answered with one voice and said, all the words that the Lord has spoken, we will do.

[20:58] And again, the next day, just in case they'd forgotten, Moses wrote it all down and he read it out to every single one of them. And once again, they said, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do.

[21:08] And we will be obedient. This is their vows. This is what they are agreeing to. And at the heart of it, chapter 20, the Ten Commandments, at the heart of it is this. I am Yahweh, your God. And the people say, yes, we agree. Yahweh is our God. I brought you out of the land of Egypt. I brought you out of the house of slavery. And the people said, yeah, you alone saved us. No one else. Thank you.

[21:37] God says, you shall have no other gods before me. And the people, well, what have they done for us? They've done nothing for us. You are the only true God. God says, you shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that's in heaven or earth or in the water under the earth.

[21:58] You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I, Yahweh, your God, am a jealous God. And the people, yes, we will not make a carved image of any creature. We won't bow down to it. We won't serve it. You and you alone, Yahweh, we agree. We will do everything that you said to do. We will be obedient.

[22:19] That was right at the heart of the covenant between them. These were the vows that we were making. And Israel with one voice said, I do. Yet, when God was with Moses, when God was actually making preparations to live with them, to dwell with them, and how to serve and worship and offer sacrifices, when God was preparing all of that, they forgot their vows, and in their hearts, they turned to Egypt.

[22:47] That's what Stephen says in Acts 7, in their hearts, they turned to Egypt. In effect, they had an affair on their honeymoon, running off to a hotel to be with their old abuser, while God was given instructions about how to use this gold to make a dwelling place for them. They were down the bottom using the gold to make an idol. But is that not the case for all of our idols and our pet sins? They do nothing but enslave us and abuse us, and we end up using what God has given us to serve them.

[23:29] Now, Moses wasn't away for that long, 40 days. It's not like God went anywhere. They could see fire at the top of the mountain. What is Moses doing up there? You don't think there was some people saying, well, hang on a minute, what is Moses doing? Is Moses ever coming back? Yes. Yes, he's coming back.

[23:52] Will you wait for him? Will you prepare? Will you be found ready? Before God told Moses to go down, Moses would have been really excited to go back. He would have been excited to share everything that God has showed him. Moses was initially going to return with great news, but the sin of the people turned that into bad news. And notice how they say, as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what's become of him. How many times have you seen someone turn back from following Jesus just because of something that some other man did? They are turning their backs on Yahweh because Moses is gone. Firstly, they're waiting for Moses rather than waiting for God. Secondly, they talk like it was Moses who rescued them when it was God. And thirdly, they are saying they don't know what's become of Moses rather than thinking what has become of our God. In every respect, they are looking to the wrong person. They're waiting for the wrong person. They're evaluating the wrong person. They're trusting the wrong person. And let me just say on a side note, please, please, please don't ever do that to me because I am not the good shepherd. Man will always disappoint.

[25:11] We need to make sure we're not looking at the wrong person. You see, we just try and point each other to the true pastor, our shepherd and savior, Jesus. He's the one who rescues us. And so the point is, if you put your hopes in a fallen man, they will always disappoint. And in the end, it will end up becoming an excuse to abandon the only person who will never disappoint, God. You see, these excuses to abandon God are not good excuses. Now, certainly, do you think God grieves? Do you not think God grieves when His adopted children hurt one another? Of course He grieves. Of course He grieves.

[25:55] And He will deal with it, but it doesn't warrant running away from the Father. It doesn't warrant abandoning God's true Son who did the complete opposite of someone who hurt you. God's true Son took all of your crimes to the cross in His own body for you. Worse still, are our feeble excuses for sin.

[26:16] The excuses for sin are so ridiculous. Moses comes down with the stone tablets written with the finger of God, and he meets Joshua who was waiting for him, and they try to figure out what this noise is.

[26:30] And then they see the revelry. And when it says in verse 25 that they had broken loose, sometimes it's translated as they were naked. At least they were unruly and licentious.

[26:44] The idea is that this festival had not only gotten out of hand, but the way that people were behaving was an absolute embarrassment for the people of God, even to their enemies.

[26:55] And this would be a blot on their history, that they so quickly and shamefully turned from their God, and so openly celebrated such sinful and ungodly behavior. This was a complete embarrassment.

[27:09] That's why it says to the derision of his enemies. And so Moses throws down the stone tablets, and he breaks them. And this is supposed to show us that Israel has thrust aside the covenant and broken the covenant with God. And then when Moses sees the golden calf, and he confronts Aaron, look at Aaron's excuse. Oh, Moses, calm down. Don't be so angry. The people, you know what they're like.

[27:43] They're always sinful, this people. And they didn't know what happened to you, so they were asking for God's, and so they brought their gold. And I gathered this gold, and I just threw it in the fire, and out popped this calf. I threw it in the fire, and out came this calf. That's the most ridiculous excuse for sin there's ever been. It's utterly laughable, isn't it? I think we can all read this and laugh at Aaron, the future high priest of the nation trying to pull the wool over Moses' eyes. Moses, a man who speaks face to face with God.

[28:14] Give him a better excuse than that, man. But let me bring it into the present. How many people who are caught in the act in some way say something like, it just happened? Out popped this calf.

[28:31] It's ridiculous, isn't it? The point is, sinners will always make ridiculous excuses for sin.

[28:43] People will often try to remove themselves from any active involvement with sin, play the part of the victim, make a ridiculous excuse, and play the fool. Our sin is not passive. No one's sin is passive. We cannot stand before God and say, we didn't have a choice. We cannot say to God, it just happened.

[29:06] Interestingly, there's this strange dynamic between Moses and God. It's one of the few times in the Bible where it seems like God has absolutely lost his cool. You know, and we've been looking at God's amazing grace, unending patience, and God just loses his cool. And strangely, Moses is relatively calm compared to God. At least, at least while he's up the mountain. It's an interesting point there.

[29:33] While he is up the mountain, Moses is relatively calm compared with God. Yet see, when Moses comes down from the mountain and sees it for himself, you can see it reflected. The same language that Moses' anger burns hot just like God, and Moses throws down the stones and breaks them. When Moses comes down, you see, God knows more than we think, and God feels. He feels more than we think.

[30:05] And I think Moses was calm when God told him, because Moses was just hearing information. But when he came down, he experienced it. He saw the betrayal. He experienced this people that he's been leading. Man, how many times have you seen God be faithful to you? Goodness. And so he feels it.

[30:30] And yet we mustn't think that God does not feel anything. God is the original. He made us to have feelings. He is the original. Yet our feelings are finite, and God is infinite. He feels things on a whole different scale from us. You see, we need to understand just how much God feels this.

[30:51] We need to understand that God really, really feels this. Otherwise, his immense love and grace will mean nothing. And you see, that is the very problem with liberal Christianity, that God's love means nothing if he doesn't care deeply about sin. If he doesn't care about sin, God's love means nothing.

[31:12] And we need to know that God really feels this, because that is what's going to highlight the next chapter. And I would encourage you to read on, because this next chapter that we get into is God's big revelation of his character. The Lord, the Lord, merciful and gracious, abounding in steadfast love. It's a contrast to him feeling such deep disappointment and hurt for the sin.

[31:41] And so, why does Moses have to talk God down? This chapter is actually a real high point for Moses. We see how extraordinary a leader he is. In fact, if we read this passage and think to ourselves, don't be like the people, be more like Moses, then we've probably missed the point of the passage.

[32:02] Because the point of the passage is, we are like the people, and we need someone like Moses. And this is where Stephen's comment in Acts 7 is helpful. They turned in their hearts to Egypt.

[32:15] You see, what Exodus is teaching us is that the external things are not the biggest problem. We don't just need rescued from Pharaoh. We need rescued from our own hearts. And if Pharaoh, in the whole story, if Pharaoh has become like Satan, and Egypt has become like his kingdom of darkness, then what Exodus teaches us is that although he's powerful, he's not the biggest threat.

[32:40] God doesn't need your help to deal with Satan. God has got it under control. But when it comes to our own hearts, we need more than stone tablets. As far as the world is concerned, think about this.

[32:55] Anytime there's a new government, anytime there's a new social reform, as far as the world is concerned, no government or freedom fighter or peace activist or social reform have been able to give us anything more than stone tablets. But stone tablets will not do. So let's not get caught up in thinking that any new policy or reform is going to solve humanity's problems, because the problem is a problem of the human heart. You see, the world is always looking to man-made solutions to get them to the promised land. And that's what Israel is doing, a man-made solution, the golden calf, to get them to the promised land. But there's a shift. There's a shift in the kind of mediator that we need.

[33:43] Back in Genesis, remember, Abraham mediated when God was going to go to Sodom and Gomorrah, and Abraham said, well, hang on a minute, God, maybe there's a few righteous people there.

[33:55] Will you relent if there's 50, 45, 40, 30, 10 righteous people? But there's a shift now, because Abraham mediated on the basis that there might be a few righteous people, whereas Moses mediates on the basis that none are righteous and no one is deserving.

[34:18] You notice that God also said that it was Moses' people and that it was Moses that brought them out of Egypt. Do you notice that? Is this not a strange bit in the passage?

[34:30] This people. Moses' people. Your people.

[34:48] Why does God say that this is Moses' people, and why does God say that it was Moses that brought them up out of Egypt? And why does God say, let me alone that I may consume them?

[35:03] Why would God say this? I think the point is that the people have forgotten who rescued them. The people have forgotten their God, and God is now asking Moses, have you forgotten or do you remember?

[35:18] And if this is a time of testing for the people, Moses, at the end of this 40 days, gets a little test himself. It's actually a really, really big test. I think there's a sense in which, at this point, in the story, Moses is doing better than anyone else. But the question is, will Moses now take all the glory for himself? Because Moses didn't sin throughout this period. He's been with God. He's been their leader. He did everything that God asked him to do. He was the one that stood up against Pharaoh, not them.

[35:56] He has led the stubborn people all the way. He was the one, the only one willing to draw near to God, and now God is offering to make a nation out of Moses. Destroy these people and make a nation out of Moses.

[36:10] And God says, Moses, this is your people. Moses, you brought them up out of the land of Egypt. Wow. Yes, I did. It was all me. Is that how Moses is going to respond?

[36:27] Will anyone remember that it was God? Will Moses take all the glory for himself? Will anyone acknowledge that it was God that brought them up out of Egypt? Will anyone remember the first line of the covenant? The very first line of the covenant. I am Yahweh who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, the house of slavery. Is anyone going to remember it? Yes, Moses remembers it. And Moses appeals to the God on the basis that it's God's people, and it was God who brought them up out of the land of Egypt. And so Moses said, no, these are your people, and you brought them up out of the land of Egypt. And Moses appeals not to anything in the people, but on the basis of God's glory. Notice that he appeals to God's reputation in the world.

[37:23] God, don't let the Egyptians say you took them out to kill them. Come on, remember your promise. And so it appeals to God on the basis of his promise. And if you read John 17, you'll see a very familiar format where Jesus appeals to his Father's glory, that it was his Father's people, and it appeals to his Father's name. And so all the while they struggled to wait in Moses.

[37:48] There is one greater than Moses who has already ascended the true mountain, and we are waiting on him. Let us look to him as we wait. Philippians 3 says, our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so what is Jesus doing? It's been 2,000 years. It's been a little bit longer than 40 days. What is Jesus doing? He's been gone so long. Is he ever coming back?

[38:20] What say you? Is Jesus coming back? Yes, he is. Yes, he's coming back. Will you wait for him? Will you prepare? Will you be found ready? Do you long for his appearing? Are your eyes fixed on him? And what is he doing while he's away? Well, like God has been giving Moses these plans for God to dwell with them, Jesus is preparing a place for us to dwell with him. Like Moses has been interceding for Israel as a faithful servant who pleases God, Jesus is interceding for us as a faithful son who pleases his Father.

[39:02] Like Moses is wondering if he can make an atonement, Jesus has made an atonement by his blood. Like Moses offers his own life for the people, yet it was not sufficient. Jesus' life and blood on the cross alone is sufficient. And he took our sins to the cross for our forgiveness. That's what Jesus is doing. Are you looking to him? Are you watching for his return? You see, it's not simply enough to be forgiven. It's not enough to be taken out of Egypt. They need Egypt taken out of them. And so why does God not take us out of the world right now? Because he needs to take the world out of us right now. And we need to see that it needs more than stone tablets in a tabernacle. It takes more than tablets of stone to walk in God's ways. And we need something better than a tabernacle to follow God. And so although we're pausing this series in Exodus for a little while, I thought this was a good point to stop, because we're going to spend the next month focusing on what God sent down the mountain for us.

[40:09] Not Moses, not tablets of stone, not a tent in the wilderness. He sent down his own son to tabernacle with us, to make atonement for us, to write his law on our hearts, and to prepare a place for us to dwell with him. The incarnation. Boy, are you excited? Jesus is the answer to Exodus 32 that the world needs.

[40:32] Let me pray. Oh, Lord, help us to understand your word and your ways. Help us to see how desperately in need of Jesus we are. Help us to see how terrible sin is, how destructive it is to our souls and our lives in our world, how hurtful, how much you feel it. And in contrast to that, help us see how incredible your love is that you would send your one and only Son for us. Help us to trust in Jesus and to wait for him and hope. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.