Introduction

Background

When we consider our day to day life, we rarely if ever consider it in the light of God’s holiness; His absolute perfection.

God is holy, and as a comparison the sinfulness of sin cannot be underestimated.

The background to the Bible reading today, you heard last week. This week follows on:

Here we see Moses in particular, and the Children of Israel in general, learn the difference between the Holiness of God, and their perception of being good. For indeed they had done quite the opposite – and had substituted their faith in YHWH for faith in a golden calf which cannot see or hear or walk.

They [the idols] have mouths, but do not speak; they have eyes, but do not see; they have ears, but do not hear, nor is there any breath in their mouths. Those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them.  (Psalm 135:16-18)

As Alistair Begg writes: “One great besetting sin of ancient Israel was idolatry, and the church is vexed with a tendency to the same folly.”[1]

It is interesting the Psalmist states the plainly obvious – something made of material cannot see, hear or breathe, and thus does not live and therefore cannot give aid to someone in need of help. But he goes on and states that a person with faith in an innate will become like them – essentially useless. So when we look at this very old passage of an event some 3500 years ago, it very much informs us today of two things:

• God hates idolatry – which is the substitution of Jehovah for something else, and
• God’s great grace providing a means for salvation

Big picture

There is a rich beauty in this passage:

1. God hates sin because He is holy.
2. We learn that God can know a person by name; God is not some authoritarian power in the ether somewhere, but a close personal God whom we can commune with, and whom we call Father, and whom he calls us by our name.

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" (Romans 8:15)

3. We learn that God is YHWH – the Holy God; He speaks through the Holy Spirit in Leviticus and says “I the LORD your God am holy.” (Lev 19:2).
4. To the extent of His holiness we learn that we are so unholy we cannot look upon Him – Moses was only to see the glory of His goodness, whilst hid in small cave in a rock – no man could face God and live, but His presence can be with us.
5. The place we go to meet God is totally separated from all people “outside the camp”, from all religions, and indeed the church:

Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. (Hebrews 13:13)

The Passage

Read the passage

Exodus 33:12-23 

Summary of what is the passage saying

• We see in these passages a rebellious people who have rejected God, and substituted Him for a golden calf. God says (1-3): You are a stiff necked people – I will not go with you to the Promised Land, but rather I will send His angel to lead them to Canaan:

I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people."
(Exodus 33:2-3)

• Moses – first statement (v 12): I don’t know who You will send to bring the people to the Promised Land – but You know my name, and furthermore, I Moses have found grace in God’s eyes. He is essentially saying; ‘why swap out for an angel who does not know Moses or the people?’
• Moses – first request (v 13) – he pleads with God to show the way to the Promised Land, i.e. come with us, and in doing so, I Moses will 1) know God and 2) find God’s grace
• Lesson; we are able to plead with God, and God heard
• Moses – second request (v 15): Consequential on first request being denied - if God does not go with us, don’t send us away from here (Sinai);
• Moses – second statement (16): If God does not go with the children of Israel, how will they know God’s grace? Moses answers his own question; it is only by God going with them – making the Children of Israel a distinct people, that all people will know God’s grace.
• This is speaking about Israel, and the church is not Israel; but the principle of God is clear – those that God has shown grace to, and where they have taken that grace in faith, become a distinct people.
• Christians behave different, they are known to be honest (Matt 5:37; Eph 4:25), hardworking (Col 3:23), content (Heb 13:13), and exercise love of their neighbour to a fault (Matt 5:43, 22:39; Mk 12:31; Luke 10:27; Romans 13:19, 10, Gal 5:14, James 2:8), etc or so they should.
• One could ask – how is this church showing the holiness of God, the love of God and the grace of God in Paracombe?
• God responds – grants the first request (17): God would go with them. Why? Because, Moses the mediator between God and the Chosen People has found grace in His sight, and furthermore, God knows Moses by name.
• Indeed we are told this applies to this age as well – all believers – born again Christians - when we arrive in heaven will be given a new name (Rev 2:17; 3:12) – a name chosen by God.
• Moses – third request (18): Show Moses the glory of God
• God – partially grands the third request (19-23).  Moses and all people learn no-one can see God’s face (23) and live, however, the goodness of God can be revealed, only if Moses is sufficiently protected by rock (22), and God’s glory, as a physical manifestation is passed by Moses.

The big picture: salvation

Three main points

This passage speaks to three topics – and these form the three main points of this sermon, all which deal with salvation; and highlights one essential factor – salvation is all about God and His grace to a rebellious people. This passage provides help in understanding our salvation in that:

And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds (Colossians 1:21)

We see three aspects of God’s plan of salvation.

1. His Holiness – the need for salvation
2. His grace – the means by which salvation can occure
3. His presence – the outcome of salvation

1. His Holiness

We start with His holiness, because it was the substitution of God for a golden calf that started off this event. God is Holy and He cannot tolerate sin – it is a physical impossibility.

Ths is the reality of why we need salvation!

The Children of Israel did not appear to think that substitution was out of the ordinary nor sinful, a trait inherited by Christians – our sin never appears as sinful as it really is – but in reality it put Christ, the Son of the Living God on the cross to suffer shame for us.

We, the 21 century decedents of these humans, consider all this silly – who would worship a golden calf today? And yet we have become very sophisticated in our idolatry. We dote upon sport, or holidays or work or our hobby.

We feel sorry for the cultures that still worship gods of stone, yet in this culture we have substituted God for things of greater folly – health and wealth. Our appearance and the sound of our voice transcends all aspects of the life, epitomized by the so-called influencer which, I dare say, transcends our own lives. Social media can be a blessing but it’s a carriage service for great evil – that of pride, selfishness and arrogance.

Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble. "Scoffer" is the name of the arrogant, haughty man who acts with arrogant pride. (Proverbs 21:23-24)

It’s all very subtle – our comprehension that God is Holy is very poor – and Moses was about to learn how holy He was – so Holy that no man can possible seem Him face to face. We can however, rejoice that we will see Christ, who is God incarnate – God in human form.

So I repeat Alistair Begg: “One great besetting sin of ancient Israel was idolatry, and the church is vexed with a tendency to the same folly.”

2. His Grace

The most astounding thing about Our God is His exercise of grace. He does not act like we would. If we were to desire perfection, and someone had mucked it up, especially as bad as the Children of Israel, we might be very tempted to wipe them out and start again.

But not God – we have certainly mucked up. Indeed before a Christian is born-again he or she is so abhorrent to God that the Bible refers to a great chasm exiting between Him and the sinner.

Indeed, the Scripture states we were once haters of God (Romans 1:30).

To the church at Ephesus Paul writes:

Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh … you were at that time separated from Christ[2], alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. (Ephesians 2:11-12)

No sinner can every enter His presence – only our renewal or re-birth makes us good enough – perfect in fact, a state we will achieve on our entrance to heaven. (This process follows Salvation, and is called Sanctification).

It is only the underserved merit of God that allows a person to approach God. And this is the essence of grace - it’s not our effort, but God’s effort. There is absolutely no way we can approach the Holy God and live – and this is the lesson Moses learnt.

The Children of Israel had grievously sinned. God then proposed to Moses to wipe the slate clean, so-to-speak in the previous chapter, but Moses interceded and the Scripture says God relented[3].

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 of you." (Exodus 32:9-10)

It does not mean God changed His mind because God got it wrong the first time, as humans do; we misinterpret the Hebrew and we know from the Scriptures it’s not in God’s character to get it wrong.

But rather, God can give men propositions to test them;

• God proposed to Moses that because the Children of Israel had sallied themselves with idols, and had abandoned YHWH, He proposes to start again using Moses’ family as the basis (Exodus 32:9, 10).

Moses chose to rely upon the grace of God – the undeserved favour of God and in doing so Moses rejected God’s proposition and God carried on as before with one major difference – God’s presence was no longer in the camp. God cannot mix with sin.

In essence Moses put his entire faith and trust in YHWH that He would lead the people to Canaan.

3. His presence

The passage answers the question; ‘how does one get into God’s presence?’ – and this is the purpose of salvation; to be able to be in the presence of the Lord. The alternative is alienation from God which is consummated with God casting those that hate Him into hell.

They [those that reject Christ] will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might (2 Thessalonians 1:9)

We might rephrase the question as; how is one saved from being cast into Hell (2 Peter 2:4), which is the antithesis of being in God’s presence (1 Thes 4:17)?

And what is His presence – it’s none other than the Holy Spirit that dwells within the hearts of every believer, and in the future, to be with the Lord, but in the future face to face (1 Corinthians 13:12).

In essence, to be in His presence is to be saved; Paul points out we are in Christ, once saved.

The question is how one saved? It’s by grace; and that’s the way ever since Genesis 3. How is the grace assimilated – it’s through faith.

And we see it here – God provides the grace, and Moses exercises faith.

The Bible is mightily consistent – God doesn’t change his mind, or the principles on which He governs the world. He might change His governance method – thus we live in the church age and His government over His people are different today than at the time of Moses, but the principles He uses are the same.

What I’m saying is, salvation has always been based upon the underserved merit or favour of God, whether Adam, or Cain or Abraham or Moses or David or your or I – which is called grace.

Note that grace comes first – It is YHWH in verse 12 that says He will bring up the people. It is the expressed as the faith of Moses that allows him to approach God.

The apostle Paul writes:

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, (Ephesians 2:8)

Acting upon His grace

The human consists of the mind, body and spirit; so what part requires exercising to believe? The Bible in multiple places tells us.

That if you confess [homologeo] with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe [pisteuo] in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

Paul also says

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For "WHOEVER CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD SHALL BE SAVED."  (Romans 10:12-13)

Note that grace comes first – that is the work of God. The human needs to ‘assimilate’ that grace through faith. God does not compel or coerce His grace upon us; we need to accept it – through faith.

(Note that it’s not salvation by faith, but rather salvation by grace).

Grace is not our work – it’s the work wrought by Christ – the gospel message that this and every church in the country needs to be singing from the rafters about.

Moses put his trust in God – and Moses did lead the people to Canaan, with God in front. Grace came first and Moses chose to act upon that grace. We do this in believing requiring those two elements the heart believing the veracity (truthfulness of the evidence) and the mouth stating the fact (in what is your heart trusting).

Grace is God’s work

Believing is our duty -  but it is God the Father that leads us to a point where we can exercise faith and put our trust in God the Father. He affirms the trustworthiness of the gospel message.

Conclusion

A sinful rebellious people

Jehovah had saved the Children of Israel from slavery and was about to implement the covenant, making them a rich and prosperous people; but on the very eve of God’s work, they turn away from him to a deaf and dumb image of a calf.

Moses Response

Moses was dismayed – dismayed at the attitude of the people and then dismayed at being told by God, that they would be left merely with an angel to lead them; so Moses intercedes on behalf of the people.

In some way Moses was in the same boat as the disciples at the end of Jesus’ life – they were also dismayed they would be left alone; but God had another plan. His plan was not only to send the Holy Spirit to be with them, but each and every born-again believer would be indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and thus never be alone.[4]

Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper [Holy Spirit] will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: (John 16:7-8)

The question then becomes – even if God is present, will the Children of Israel follow Him, and even with the Holy Spirit indwelling the true believers among us; do we take any notice of him.

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. (Proverbs 14:12)

We conclude with this: We stand here today because of the Grace of God; it was not our merit that favoured our current position – it was the Faithful God.

Additional thoughts

Background to the passage[5]

• The history of the passage begins in Egypt where 70 souls had travelled in order to get food during 7 years of drought. Joseph, the 11th son of Joseph had saved the day, by being faithful to YHWH.
• Abraham had been promised a land, a great people and to be a blessing to all people (Genesis 12, 13, 15, 17). Jacob, renamed Israel by YHWH, the son of Isaac, was the heir to Abraham.
• They lived in the land of Canaan, where Abraham had established himself.
• As prophesied by God to Abraham (Genesis 15:13), Jacob’s children remained in Egypt for 400 years under repressive masters, who had soon forgot the grace shown them by the Pharaoh at the time of Joseph (Exodus 1:8). [6]

So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves (Exodus 1:13)

• God raises Moses up who becomes their leader, and after the Passover, where God defeats Pharaoh, the Children of Israel cross the Red Sea and enter the Wilderness – Sinai Peninsula on their way to Canaan – the Promised Land.
• They stop at Mt Sinai where God provides Moses with the 613 ordnances as part of the conditional covenant between YHWH and the Children of Israel (Exodus 20 - 23).[7]
• While Moses is away on Mt Sinai (40 days), led by Aaron, the Children of Israel sin; making a substituted for YHWH – an image of a calf made of gold.
• God was so displeased He suggested to Moses that he wipe all the Children of Israel from the face of the earth and leave just Moses. God’s response was:

And the LORD said to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book.  (Exodus 32:33)

• But Moses pleads for their lives, so only the 3000 directly involved in the insurrection are destroyed (Exodus 32:28) and God plagued all the others (Exodus 32:35).
• God states the Children of Israel are a stiff-necked people (Exodus 33:3) – which means a stubborn people (Deut 9:6), ones who are obstinate, disrespectful, cruel etc.

• God also states He will not go with the Children to Canaan, but rather will send an Angel (Exodus 33:2, 3) with them. This is the crux of the passage before us today.

• The Children of Israel repent; they remove the ornaments of idolatry, and Moses sets up a tent to meet God outside the camp. Up to now, God and dwelt with the Children in the camp; but now God meets Moses only outside the camp – outside the defiled people of God.

Meaning of Separation

God cannot be with a people that do not want Him, do not trust Him, and substitute Him for deaf, bind and dumb things. God could not be in the same camp as the children of Israel – Moses set up a tent outside the camp; and those that wanted to find Him had to travel to the tent, situated some distance away. The equation was simple – the Holiness of God will not mix with a sinful people. Furthermore, Moses needed someone to guide him, so YHWH offered an angel.

The writer to the Hebrews takes up a similar theme, warning the Hebrew Christians, that there lot was with God, who is outside the religious multitudes of this world;

Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured.  (Hebrews 13:13)

A similar theme is taken up by the Holy Spirit, who speaking to John in Revelation three says of the Church in Laodicea:

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. (Revelation 3:20)

This church was so corrupt, so disinterested in the holiness of God, there was no place for Him; for sin and holiness cannot mix. The Children of Israel here in the passage before us today were so corrupt, that God excused His presence from Him.

Finding Grace (Exodus 34:9)

We see four times this passage speaks of finding grace, or grace having been found. There is a fifth time, connected to this passage – in Exodus 34:9 which says it all:

And he said, "If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance."  (Exodus 34:9)

• The Israelites had defiled themselves by worshiping other god’s – equivalent to have sex with someone not their spouse (and is the language used by in the Greek – one of defilement). The Bible describes idolatry as a type of adultery.
•  And God had withdrawn His presence from them. Instead of leading them through the Wilderness (Sinai Peninsula to Canaan), He offered to send an angel.
• But the intercession of Moses had led YHWH to relent and go with them up to Canaan – which would serve as a means to show all people, the Israelites were a distinct people (Exodus 33:15).
• Moses pleads with God in Exodus 34:9, that although they are a defiled people – and God has pardoned their sin, that if Moses has found grace (Chen - חֵן) in His sight, that YHWH go with them.