God's Covenant With Moses
Exodus 14-24
Message #5
We’re following the chapters of the book Multiply. It’s our hope that you’ll pick up a copy of the book and use these messages together with the book to grow in your understanding of God’s Plan of Redemption: Genesis to Revelation.
Remember, our goal in this series is to survey God’s Plan of Redemption: Genesis to Revelation. There are a lot of things I could dig into today, but the point today. The Most Important Point: is how the Law of Moses fits into God’s Plan of Redemption.
We left the Nation of Israel walking freely out of Egypt after being redeemed by God through the Ten Plagues and ultimately through the Passover, where Israel was saved from God’s judgment by faith in the sacrifice of an innocent Lamb. The Plagues and the Passover were awesome displays of God’s power and of his divine control over creation… and the Egyptians were not the only ones in awe.
We don’t know much about Israel’s faith during four hundred years in Egypt. It seems that they did maintain the faith of the Patriarchs. But, as far as we know, there was no visible move of God on their behalf for four hundred years. And so, Israel was just as “in awe” of this as Egypt was, including in the final event of God’s redemption of Israel that we didn’t even get to last week. And it’s no small event. In fact, it’s one of the most significant events in all of Israel’s history – The Crossing of the Red Sea.
After Israel had freely left Egypt, the Pharaoh changed his mind and sent his army to chase after Israel and bring them back. Israel (in the meantime) had been led by God right up to the edge of the uncrossable Red Sea. While Israel considered what they were going to do, someone pointed to the dust cloud of the Egyptian army storming towards them. And God’s people were in their first impossible situation that only the power of God could deliver them from, and indeed, God parted the Red Sea and all of Israel passed through on dry ground. And then, as Israel watched from the “dry side” when the Pharaoh’s army tried to follow, God brought the water back over them.
And so, after four hundred years of silence from God, Israel is suddenly experiencing some of the greatest miracles recorded in the Bible. And standing on the “dry side” of the Red Sea, watching the Egyptian army float to the surface, the Israelites had to be wondering…
WHO IS this God, Who has done this for us?
WHY HAS HE done this for us?
WHAT IS He going to do FOR (or TO) us next?
Those are the questions God answers in his covenant with Moses at Mt. Sinai.
The last two verses of Exodus 14 summarize how Israel was feeling after coming through the Red Sea.
Exodus 14:30–31 (ESV)
30 Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.
31 Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.
That’s a great start for Israel, isn’t it? And I’d ask you to make a mark right there and a commitment to come back and carefully read through Exodus 15:1-21. This is Israel’s song of victory after they saw the great deliverance of God on their behalf, and this is the same God who goes before us in our battles today. Read it, and ask God how it applies in your own life.
The God that brought Israel through the Red Sea is the same God that is bringing you through your circumstances today. God has not changed. The circumstances have changed – but God has not changed. That song of victory in Exodus 15:1-21 is just as much yours if you belong to God, grafted into the Israelites by faith. It belongs just as much to you as to them at that time.
Unfortunately, the first of many amazing acts of faithlessness on Israel’s part comes just three verses after the great song of victory in Exodus 15. Three days after the Red Sea event, Israel got thirsty, and their knee-jerk reaction was exactly the same as ours. They immediately began complaining and questioning God, which kind of kicked off a “pattern” for Israel.
However, it was right here at the Waters of Marah in Exodus 15:26 that God responded to Israel by revealing himself as “Jehovah Rapha (Rophe)” Yahweh Your Healer I AM Your Healer.
God revealed himself to Israel AS their Healer in response to their complaining and questioning of God (very interesting).
In chapter 16, Israel is on their way to Mt. Sinai, and again we read,
Exodus 16:2 (NLT)
2 There, too, the whole community of Israel complained about Moses and Aaron.
This time it was over food. It’s very interesting that most of the time, Israel complained it was about a fleshly desire. And most of the time, you and I complain to God it’s about a fleshly desire. And so, God brought quail from Heaven, and each morning he left a flaky type of food on the ground. The first morning, the Israelites asked, “What is it?” and in Hebrew, those two words are MAN-NA (and so they called it).
In Exodus Chapter 17, is another wonderful picture of Jesus Christ, as again the people complained they were going to die. And God has Moses STRIKE the ROCK from which life-giving water pours out (as a picture of Christ). Israel also gets into their first battle in Exodus 17 with the famous text of Joshua’s army fighting with Aaron and Hur holding up the arms of Moses, enabling the victory. And it was in that battle in Exodus 17:15 that God reveals himself to Israel as “Jehovah NISSI” “Yahweh Your VICTORY” “I AM your BANNER of VICTORY.” In chapter 18, a style of leading God’s people was put into place by Moses that we still use today in the Church.
And finally, in Exodus 19, we get to our real focus for today. Israel has arrived at Mt. Sinai, and it’s time for them to get to know God a little better. This critical moment begins with God calling Moses up the mountain, and the first thing God does is explain his plan for his people.
Exodus 19:3–6 (ESV)
3 while Moses went up to God. The Lord called to him out of the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel:
4 You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.
5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine;
6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”
This is the beginning of God’s covenant with Moses and through Moses, God’s covenant with the Nation of Israel. In verse 4, God says, you’ve seen the miracles that I have done to redeem you and to bring you to myself. The Passover, the Exodus, the Red Sea – these are the miracles that God’s people became known by. And Israel was to be God’s “treasured possession” (verse 5), and they were to be a “Kingdom of Priests” and a “Holy Nation” (verse 6).
At Mt. Sinai, God wants Israel to know who HE IS, and he wants Israel to KNOW who they are to him. That is, in essence, what God is doing at Mt. Sinai with the Law.
At Mt. Sinai, God was going to “lay down the law” (as it were) for how Israel’s relationship with him was going to work. These are the rules of the game. But, before he could do that, Israel must understand the concept of being “set apart” or consecrated to God.
The terms “holy,” “consecrated,” “set apart” are all similar. They mean to be made ready to be used by God, and that is what God is doing with Israel at Mt. Sinai. God was making Israel ready to be used by him for the world.
Exodus 19:10–11 (ESV)
10 the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments
11 and be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.
The people had to consecrate themselves. They had to “prepare themselves” for an encounter with God, and you and I must do the same thing today! If we desire the power of God to be evident in our lives, we must set ourselves apart – prepared for his use.
And so, after some incredible “consecrating” (preparing) of the people, God began delivering the Law to Moses. He started with an overriding Ten Commandments in Exodus Chapter 20.
Four commands vertical – setting the principles for Israel’s vertical relationship with God.
Exodus 20:3-8 (ESV)
3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image (no idols)…
7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain…
8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy (set apart)
Six commands horizontal – setting the principles for Israel’s horizontal relationships with each other.
Exodus 20:12-17 (ESV)
12 “Honor your father and your mother…
13 “You shall not murder.
14 “You shall not commit adultery.
15 “You shall not steal.
16 “You shall not bear false witness…
17 “You shall not covet…”
After Moses was given the Ten “Big Picture” Commands, he was also given more than one hundred detailed laws, which became known as The Book of the Covenant. These were mostly expansions of the Ten Commandments, and they were never intended to be comprehensive. They were precedent-setting for judicial decisions.
God was providing precedents and guidelines that spelled out his expectations in his covenant relationship with Israel.
God made a promise to the people of Abraham He would be their God and they would be his people. The Law was the tangible guide to what that looked like. Israel would now know what is meant to BE God’s people. The Law spells out God’s civil, religious, and moral expectations for Israel to be God’s people.
Now, in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:17, Jesus said,
Matthew 5:17 (ESV)
17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
Jesus did not do away with the Law; he fulfilled the Law, and because of that…
Romans 6:14 says - We no longer live under the Law Because we now live under God’s Grace
Galatians 5:18 says - if we are led by the Spirit, we are not under the Law
Galatians 3:24 says - the Law was our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith
We are no longer under the Law, but that does not mean we should disregard it. The Law gives us insight into the character of God and insight into his expectations for his people.
AND (listen closely), it was never God’s intention for the Law to save anybody. In fact, the sacrificial system, built into the Law (next week), was proof ahead of time that God knew that the Law alone could never atone for sin. Built right into the Law is God’s plan for a substitutionary sacrifice to “cover over” (atone for) the penalty for sin. The Law was always looking forward to the Cross of Christ as the ultimate and final substitutionary sacrifice for sin.
God’s people have always been saved by God’s grace and through our faith. Salvation has never come any other way. You cannot earn your place with God. You can’t “clean yourself up” with God. I tell people all of the time there’s not enough clean. People say I’ll try harder. I’ll say there’s not enough “try” in you. You can’t try harder. You need Jesus. You need the supernatural, life-transforming, eternal power of the God of Creation living inside you. Nothing else will do.
There is nothing in all the Law that tells Israel they will receive salvation by keeping the Law – nothing.
The Law was about maintaining a relationship with God.
It gave Israel a tangible code of conduct that would allow them to live out their relationship with a Holy God in the midst of an ungodly world.
However, we know from the Law (especially the second reading of the Law in Deuteronomy, which means the “Second Law” – not second as in “different,” but the second giving of the Law) in the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses says let me remind you of Mt. Sinai. Right on the edge of the Promised Land, he reviews the Law. At the end of Deuteronomy in Chapter 28, you realize God is serious about this stuff. That is the blessings and the curses of the Law at Mt. Ebal.
The Law does clearly promise blessing for following it and cursing for rejecting it. God made it very clear. But, that’s not the same as eternal salvation.
And in a relationship sense, it’s the same today. We are blessed when we are walking rightly in our relationship with God, and we suffer the consequences when we reject God and walk down our own path (or the world’s path) of sin.
God built his plan of redemptions over time, but the foundational truths of how God saves us and redeems us have never changed! Abraham was saved by faith in Genesis 15:6, and that did not change when God delivered the Law through Moses.
We’ve been stringing together God’s covenant from Noah to Abraham to Moses.
God Promised Abraham
to make his descendants into a Great Nation
to place them in the Promised Land of Canaan
to bless the entire earth through them in Jesus Christ
After “multiplying in Egypt for 400 years,” it was time for Israel to get on with God’s plan and this phase of God’s plan builds perfectly upon God’s unconditional covenant with Abraham.
And it is always awesome to me to see God’s unconditional and conditional promises work perfectly together.
God’s covenant to Abraham is unconditional, and God is going to bring every part of it to pass. And as God remains faithful to his unconditional covenant with Abraham… he adds a conditional element in the Law of Moses.
Look back at Exodus 19, verses 5-6.
Exodus 19:5–6 (ESV)
5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples . . .
6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation . . .
This condition, If you WILL – THEN I WILL, is repeated all throughout the Law. But it is not changing God’s unconditional promise to Abraham. Listen carefully. God will absolutely bring his unconditional promises to pass fully and completely; however, for you and I to benefit from that, for us to appropriate it to our lives, that is conditional. For these Israelites to receive the benefit of God’s promise, there is a condition of faith and obedience. And at least three times in this section on the Law, the Israelites verbally responded correctly.
Exodus 19:8 (ESV)
8 All the people answered together and said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.” . . .
Exodus 24:3 (ESV)
3 . . . And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.”
Exodus 24:7 (ESV)
7 . . . And they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.”
There was just one problem; they didn’t. They didn’t do what they said they were going to, and all but two of these adults would drop dead in the Wilderness – never seeing the Promised Land. (Hebrews says that their sin was the sin of unbelief.) Israel’s actions didn’t follow their words. And unfortunately, much of the Old Testament records the consequences of Israel’s failure to remain faithful to God’s covenant. However, God’s unconditional promise would still come to pass… ultimately IN Jesus Christ.
And next week, we’ll see how (right within the Law of Moses) God clearly laid the foundation for salvation through faith in a substitutionary sacrifice pointing from the beginning to the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ to pay the full penalty for our sin.
And in a similar way, the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ also has unconditional and conditional elements. Turn over to the most famous verse in the Bible, John Chapter 3, verse 16.
John 3:16 (ESV)
16 “For God so loved the world (unconditional), that he gave his only Son (unconditional), that whoever (the word means each, every, any or all – still unconditional) believes in him (Conditional) should not perish but have eternal life.
The word believe means to “put your full faith and trust in” Jesus Christ, which the Book of James says will lead to evidence in your actions much like God’s unconditional/conditional promises in the Old Testament. God’s promise of salvation in the New Testament is unconditional. It is offered as a free gift to every single person. And it is also conditional, meaning for you to personally benefit from God’s free gift, there is a condition: faith in the Person of Jesus Christ. There is a condition for you to personally benefit from God’s unconditional offer of salvation; you must put your full faith in Jesus Christ to the extent that you begin to follow him as your Lord.
God has made a way to save you from your sin; he has done it all on your behalf. But there is a condition. John 1:12 says you must believe and receive… The word “receive” means “to give run of the house, to make a manager.” You must put your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior, and you must receive him into your life as your Lord.
Nothing has changed since the Law. God says I’m going to do this through Israel, and nothing is going to change it. But for you to receive the benefit, there are conditions. There were for the Israelites. You say, praise God, I’m a New Testament Christian because your condition is to put your full faith and trust in Jesus Christ and to receive him as the Lord of your life, which means you actually obey him. And then God’s unconditional gift of salvation rushes into your life, and he just takes over. And then, as Paul says, I don’t even live anymore. It’s Christ who lives in me. And the life I live now I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. That’s the condition. God unconditionally offers to save you in every way.
But I’m telling you today; talk is cheap. And if you say, I believe in Jesus, I hope you do not mean I just believe he exists because the demons believe that and their eternal circumstances are not changing. It means I trust him with my life, and I’ve made him Lord. If you haven’t done that, do it now.
Remember, our goal in this series is to survey God’s Plan of Redemption: Genesis to Revelation. There are a lot of things I could dig into today, but the point today. The Most Important Point: is how the Law of Moses fits into God’s Plan of Redemption.
We left the Nation of Israel walking freely out of Egypt after being redeemed by God through the Ten Plagues and ultimately through the Passover, where Israel was saved from God’s judgment by faith in the sacrifice of an innocent Lamb. The Plagues and the Passover were awesome displays of God’s power and of his divine control over creation… and the Egyptians were not the only ones in awe.
We don’t know much about Israel’s faith during four hundred years in Egypt. It seems that they did maintain the faith of the Patriarchs. But, as far as we know, there was no visible move of God on their behalf for four hundred years. And so, Israel was just as “in awe” of this as Egypt was, including in the final event of God’s redemption of Israel that we didn’t even get to last week. And it’s no small event. In fact, it’s one of the most significant events in all of Israel’s history – The Crossing of the Red Sea.
After Israel had freely left Egypt, the Pharaoh changed his mind and sent his army to chase after Israel and bring them back. Israel (in the meantime) had been led by God right up to the edge of the uncrossable Red Sea. While Israel considered what they were going to do, someone pointed to the dust cloud of the Egyptian army storming towards them. And God’s people were in their first impossible situation that only the power of God could deliver them from, and indeed, God parted the Red Sea and all of Israel passed through on dry ground. And then, as Israel watched from the “dry side” when the Pharaoh’s army tried to follow, God brought the water back over them.
And so, after four hundred years of silence from God, Israel is suddenly experiencing some of the greatest miracles recorded in the Bible. And standing on the “dry side” of the Red Sea, watching the Egyptian army float to the surface, the Israelites had to be wondering…
WHO IS this God, Who has done this for us?
WHY HAS HE done this for us?
WHAT IS He going to do FOR (or TO) us next?
Those are the questions God answers in his covenant with Moses at Mt. Sinai.
The last two verses of Exodus 14 summarize how Israel was feeling after coming through the Red Sea.
Exodus 14:30–31 (ESV)
30 Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.
31 Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.
That’s a great start for Israel, isn’t it? And I’d ask you to make a mark right there and a commitment to come back and carefully read through Exodus 15:1-21. This is Israel’s song of victory after they saw the great deliverance of God on their behalf, and this is the same God who goes before us in our battles today. Read it, and ask God how it applies in your own life.
The God that brought Israel through the Red Sea is the same God that is bringing you through your circumstances today. God has not changed. The circumstances have changed – but God has not changed. That song of victory in Exodus 15:1-21 is just as much yours if you belong to God, grafted into the Israelites by faith. It belongs just as much to you as to them at that time.
Unfortunately, the first of many amazing acts of faithlessness on Israel’s part comes just three verses after the great song of victory in Exodus 15. Three days after the Red Sea event, Israel got thirsty, and their knee-jerk reaction was exactly the same as ours. They immediately began complaining and questioning God, which kind of kicked off a “pattern” for Israel.
However, it was right here at the Waters of Marah in Exodus 15:26 that God responded to Israel by revealing himself as “Jehovah Rapha (Rophe)” Yahweh Your Healer I AM Your Healer.
God revealed himself to Israel AS their Healer in response to their complaining and questioning of God (very interesting).
In chapter 16, Israel is on their way to Mt. Sinai, and again we read,
Exodus 16:2 (NLT)
2 There, too, the whole community of Israel complained about Moses and Aaron.
This time it was over food. It’s very interesting that most of the time, Israel complained it was about a fleshly desire. And most of the time, you and I complain to God it’s about a fleshly desire. And so, God brought quail from Heaven, and each morning he left a flaky type of food on the ground. The first morning, the Israelites asked, “What is it?” and in Hebrew, those two words are MAN-NA (and so they called it).
In Exodus Chapter 17, is another wonderful picture of Jesus Christ, as again the people complained they were going to die. And God has Moses STRIKE the ROCK from which life-giving water pours out (as a picture of Christ). Israel also gets into their first battle in Exodus 17 with the famous text of Joshua’s army fighting with Aaron and Hur holding up the arms of Moses, enabling the victory. And it was in that battle in Exodus 17:15 that God reveals himself to Israel as “Jehovah NISSI” “Yahweh Your VICTORY” “I AM your BANNER of VICTORY.” In chapter 18, a style of leading God’s people was put into place by Moses that we still use today in the Church.
And finally, in Exodus 19, we get to our real focus for today. Israel has arrived at Mt. Sinai, and it’s time for them to get to know God a little better. This critical moment begins with God calling Moses up the mountain, and the first thing God does is explain his plan for his people.
Exodus 19:3–6 (ESV)
3 while Moses went up to God. The Lord called to him out of the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel:
4 You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.
5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine;
6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”
This is the beginning of God’s covenant with Moses and through Moses, God’s covenant with the Nation of Israel. In verse 4, God says, you’ve seen the miracles that I have done to redeem you and to bring you to myself. The Passover, the Exodus, the Red Sea – these are the miracles that God’s people became known by. And Israel was to be God’s “treasured possession” (verse 5), and they were to be a “Kingdom of Priests” and a “Holy Nation” (verse 6).
At Mt. Sinai, God wants Israel to know who HE IS, and he wants Israel to KNOW who they are to him. That is, in essence, what God is doing at Mt. Sinai with the Law.
At Mt. Sinai, God was going to “lay down the law” (as it were) for how Israel’s relationship with him was going to work. These are the rules of the game. But, before he could do that, Israel must understand the concept of being “set apart” or consecrated to God.
The terms “holy,” “consecrated,” “set apart” are all similar. They mean to be made ready to be used by God, and that is what God is doing with Israel at Mt. Sinai. God was making Israel ready to be used by him for the world.
Exodus 19:10–11 (ESV)
10 the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments
11 and be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.
The people had to consecrate themselves. They had to “prepare themselves” for an encounter with God, and you and I must do the same thing today! If we desire the power of God to be evident in our lives, we must set ourselves apart – prepared for his use.
And so, after some incredible “consecrating” (preparing) of the people, God began delivering the Law to Moses. He started with an overriding Ten Commandments in Exodus Chapter 20.
Four commands vertical – setting the principles for Israel’s vertical relationship with God.
Exodus 20:3-8 (ESV)
3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image (no idols)…
7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain…
8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy (set apart)
Six commands horizontal – setting the principles for Israel’s horizontal relationships with each other.
Exodus 20:12-17 (ESV)
12 “Honor your father and your mother…
13 “You shall not murder.
14 “You shall not commit adultery.
15 “You shall not steal.
16 “You shall not bear false witness…
17 “You shall not covet…”
After Moses was given the Ten “Big Picture” Commands, he was also given more than one hundred detailed laws, which became known as The Book of the Covenant. These were mostly expansions of the Ten Commandments, and they were never intended to be comprehensive. They were precedent-setting for judicial decisions.
God was providing precedents and guidelines that spelled out his expectations in his covenant relationship with Israel.
God made a promise to the people of Abraham He would be their God and they would be his people. The Law was the tangible guide to what that looked like. Israel would now know what is meant to BE God’s people. The Law spells out God’s civil, religious, and moral expectations for Israel to be God’s people.
Now, in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:17, Jesus said,
Matthew 5:17 (ESV)
17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
Jesus did not do away with the Law; he fulfilled the Law, and because of that…
Romans 6:14 says - We no longer live under the Law Because we now live under God’s Grace
Galatians 5:18 says - if we are led by the Spirit, we are not under the Law
Galatians 3:24 says - the Law was our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith
We are no longer under the Law, but that does not mean we should disregard it. The Law gives us insight into the character of God and insight into his expectations for his people.
AND (listen closely), it was never God’s intention for the Law to save anybody. In fact, the sacrificial system, built into the Law (next week), was proof ahead of time that God knew that the Law alone could never atone for sin. Built right into the Law is God’s plan for a substitutionary sacrifice to “cover over” (atone for) the penalty for sin. The Law was always looking forward to the Cross of Christ as the ultimate and final substitutionary sacrifice for sin.
God’s people have always been saved by God’s grace and through our faith. Salvation has never come any other way. You cannot earn your place with God. You can’t “clean yourself up” with God. I tell people all of the time there’s not enough clean. People say I’ll try harder. I’ll say there’s not enough “try” in you. You can’t try harder. You need Jesus. You need the supernatural, life-transforming, eternal power of the God of Creation living inside you. Nothing else will do.
There is nothing in all the Law that tells Israel they will receive salvation by keeping the Law – nothing.
The Law was about maintaining a relationship with God.
It gave Israel a tangible code of conduct that would allow them to live out their relationship with a Holy God in the midst of an ungodly world.
However, we know from the Law (especially the second reading of the Law in Deuteronomy, which means the “Second Law” – not second as in “different,” but the second giving of the Law) in the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses says let me remind you of Mt. Sinai. Right on the edge of the Promised Land, he reviews the Law. At the end of Deuteronomy in Chapter 28, you realize God is serious about this stuff. That is the blessings and the curses of the Law at Mt. Ebal.
The Law does clearly promise blessing for following it and cursing for rejecting it. God made it very clear. But, that’s not the same as eternal salvation.
And in a relationship sense, it’s the same today. We are blessed when we are walking rightly in our relationship with God, and we suffer the consequences when we reject God and walk down our own path (or the world’s path) of sin.
God built his plan of redemptions over time, but the foundational truths of how God saves us and redeems us have never changed! Abraham was saved by faith in Genesis 15:6, and that did not change when God delivered the Law through Moses.
We’ve been stringing together God’s covenant from Noah to Abraham to Moses.
God Promised Abraham
to make his descendants into a Great Nation
to place them in the Promised Land of Canaan
to bless the entire earth through them in Jesus Christ
After “multiplying in Egypt for 400 years,” it was time for Israel to get on with God’s plan and this phase of God’s plan builds perfectly upon God’s unconditional covenant with Abraham.
And it is always awesome to me to see God’s unconditional and conditional promises work perfectly together.
God’s covenant to Abraham is unconditional, and God is going to bring every part of it to pass. And as God remains faithful to his unconditional covenant with Abraham… he adds a conditional element in the Law of Moses.
Look back at Exodus 19, verses 5-6.
Exodus 19:5–6 (ESV)
5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples . . .
6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation . . .
This condition, If you WILL – THEN I WILL, is repeated all throughout the Law. But it is not changing God’s unconditional promise to Abraham. Listen carefully. God will absolutely bring his unconditional promises to pass fully and completely; however, for you and I to benefit from that, for us to appropriate it to our lives, that is conditional. For these Israelites to receive the benefit of God’s promise, there is a condition of faith and obedience. And at least three times in this section on the Law, the Israelites verbally responded correctly.
Exodus 19:8 (ESV)
8 All the people answered together and said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.” . . .
Exodus 24:3 (ESV)
3 . . . And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.”
Exodus 24:7 (ESV)
7 . . . And they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.”
There was just one problem; they didn’t. They didn’t do what they said they were going to, and all but two of these adults would drop dead in the Wilderness – never seeing the Promised Land. (Hebrews says that their sin was the sin of unbelief.) Israel’s actions didn’t follow their words. And unfortunately, much of the Old Testament records the consequences of Israel’s failure to remain faithful to God’s covenant. However, God’s unconditional promise would still come to pass… ultimately IN Jesus Christ.
And next week, we’ll see how (right within the Law of Moses) God clearly laid the foundation for salvation through faith in a substitutionary sacrifice pointing from the beginning to the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ to pay the full penalty for our sin.
And in a similar way, the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ also has unconditional and conditional elements. Turn over to the most famous verse in the Bible, John Chapter 3, verse 16.
John 3:16 (ESV)
16 “For God so loved the world (unconditional), that he gave his only Son (unconditional), that whoever (the word means each, every, any or all – still unconditional) believes in him (Conditional) should not perish but have eternal life.
The word believe means to “put your full faith and trust in” Jesus Christ, which the Book of James says will lead to evidence in your actions much like God’s unconditional/conditional promises in the Old Testament. God’s promise of salvation in the New Testament is unconditional. It is offered as a free gift to every single person. And it is also conditional, meaning for you to personally benefit from God’s free gift, there is a condition: faith in the Person of Jesus Christ. There is a condition for you to personally benefit from God’s unconditional offer of salvation; you must put your full faith in Jesus Christ to the extent that you begin to follow him as your Lord.
God has made a way to save you from your sin; he has done it all on your behalf. But there is a condition. John 1:12 says you must believe and receive… The word “receive” means “to give run of the house, to make a manager.” You must put your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior, and you must receive him into your life as your Lord.
Nothing has changed since the Law. God says I’m going to do this through Israel, and nothing is going to change it. But for you to receive the benefit, there are conditions. There were for the Israelites. You say, praise God, I’m a New Testament Christian because your condition is to put your full faith and trust in Jesus Christ and to receive him as the Lord of your life, which means you actually obey him. And then God’s unconditional gift of salvation rushes into your life, and he just takes over. And then, as Paul says, I don’t even live anymore. It’s Christ who lives in me. And the life I live now I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. That’s the condition. God unconditionally offers to save you in every way.
But I’m telling you today; talk is cheap. And if you say, I believe in Jesus, I hope you do not mean I just believe he exists because the demons believe that and their eternal circumstances are not changing. It means I trust him with my life, and I’ve made him Lord. If you haven’t done that, do it now.