2026_10_25_Exodus

God calls Moses up the mountain again. This time he's going to receive a replacement to the tablets of testimony that Moses had broken.

! And I know we've been here, but we're going to review it.! Moses asked God what? Now, show me what?

Your glory. Moses asked him, show me your glory. This would be about verse 18 if you're looking for it.

But God responds to him. What's God going to do for Moses? He's going to make his goodness pass before you.

Okay, I'm going to make my goodness pass before you. I will proclaim the name of the Lord. And here's part of his name.

That is, part of what is contained in God's name, he proclaims right here in this verse. He'll reiterate. But what is it? I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.

So, on whom will God have mercy? Okay. And I will show compassion or gracious, be gracious or show favor to who?

Okay. Whose choice is it? Okay. That's what God's proclaiming. And there's going to be a reason for that.

There's going to be a reason for that. And there's going to be a reason for us and our hope of salvation for exactly that. So, in fact, I'll just give you a hint right now.

And those of you who want to be looking for it can or if you don't have it memorized. But the Apostle Paul is going to reiterate exactly those words.

So, we're going to ask you where does he say that. Now, there's a danger about making my glory pass before you.

What's the danger that God says? Why? Why? Why?

Yeah. You can't see my face or you will be destroyed. You'll die. Now, by my face, I'm taking it, he means you cannot see all of my glory or you'll die.

Later on, the Apostle Paul will say, flesh and blood does not or cannot.

This has to do with the resurrection of the body. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Therefore, we shall not all sleep.

But we, as in Christians, shall all be changed. As the fleshly has the glory of the flesh, so the heavenly will have the glory of the heavenly.

And there will be a day when we will see God's glory. But it won't be because of us. And it won't be in this body.

It'll be in the resurrected or the redeemed body. The glorious body. Yes. So, they couldn't see God so that they would die.

Is that similar to, like, when they were carrying the Ark of the Covenant and they touched it? I think it's similar. Now, there's a reason for that.

And, by the way, be thinking about that. Because I've been struggling about, we're almost at the end of Exodus. And I'm thinking about where we're going. And I know that we sometimes, going into the law gets to be so laborious that people, we fade away.

But there are some things that I think are important to be touched. And that's one of them. As a matter of fact, let's back up a little bit.

And remember, when they had first come to Mount Sinai, and God told Moses to bring Aaron and Aaron's sons and the elders of the tribes.

And they were supposed to go up the mountain. What did they do? Well, the people were to stay away.

But when God said, bring those up, what did they do? They saw a vision of God. They saw a throne.

They saw the, what was the floor? Sapphire? I don't remember. I don't remember. But they saw the floor that was clear as the sky.

And they ate and they drank before the Lord. Now, who was there? Moses and his sons. Moses and his sons. Among those sons were two priests, or going to become two priests.

The priestly tribe is out of Levi. Who is the first high priest? I know we haven't got there yet, but we will. Aaron.

Aaron. Now, Aaron's sons are going to serve as priests of the Lord. Who called them, by the way? Do you remember? If you don't remember, you probably can surmise it by just what we're reading right now.

Who do you think called them? God did, by name. And they were anointed as priests. So, back to the ark comes the altar of incense.

And we haven't got here, I know. But everything within that tabernacle is what? What's the one word?

Holy. What does that mean? It is set apart specifically, in this case, set apart to or for what? For God.

Because it is a representation of how you are going to treat me, says the Lord. So, Abihu and Nadab, one day, in the tabernacle, offered incense that wasn't prescribed incense.

It wasn't built the way God. See, God will, when he's delivering the law, among those are going to be, he's going to give them a specific recipe for the incense that is burnt upon the altar.

And he's going to say, this is, guess what? Holy. And no one is going to make incense like it.

And if they do, they're going to be cut off. Well, they offered incense upon the altar of incense, but it wasn't the prescribed incense.

What did God do? He killed them. Fire went out from the Lord and consumed them. Yeah, it's a lot like that.

Why? Because they had treated God the same way you would treat your peers.

And God's not my peer. And he says, I'm going to be holy, and you're going to treat me that way. Aren't you glad we are in the day of grace?

We are holy to come before God, not because he's the same as me. He is not. We are holy to come before God because of what Jesus Christ did upon the cross.

And his righteousness is applied to us. So we can enter, in the Hebrews, it will say we. That's why I believe it's written to believers.

But Hebrews will say, we have a right to eat of an altar that those who practice the law do not have a right to eat. And it's the altar of salvation by grace through faith.

So our sacrifice isn't on hooves. Our sacrifice is ourselves. Holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasoned or logical service.

Okay, back to our point. Yes, it is. No, no, that's important because God's going, he's just told Moses, you can't really see.

You can't handle the Almighty. So he says, since you can't really see all my glory and live, what's God going to do for Moses?

I know this is a long preliminary. It's already 20 minutes, by the way. What's God going to do for Moses? Moses. He's going to shield him. We sing a song that's based upon this.

Yeah. He hideth my soul in the, and covers me there with his hand. This is a beautiful picture, by the way.

Now, so he says to Moses, I'll tell you what, I'm going to put you in this little declivity. I'm going to cover you, as it were, with my hand, and I will make my glory pass before you, and I will proclaim my name before you.

And then as I'm leaving, I will take my hand away, and you can see as it were my back. You can see just, and that's all we really see.

The apostle Paul will describe it as, now we see as through a glass, darkly or dimly. Right. We don't really see it.

Now, I only think I see it. But I don't really see it. So, now, back up into, because this will become important to us, back up into verse 19, and re-read that.

I will show mercy, upon whom I will show mercy, and I will be gracious, to whom I will be gracious, says the Lord.

That's part of what he displays to Moses. Now, I was going to ask this question, so now we ask it. Where does the apostle Paul quote that?

Yeah. You're not allowed to answer. I know, and you've already been cheating. You haven't been listening. You've been reading ahead.

Yes. Okay. Now, what do you do in the class when your student does? I was, when I went to work for CNC, we had to sit through this little security thing so that you knew how to handle chemicals that you weren't going to ever touch on the job, you know, but you had to do that because OSHA demanded it.

And, and in our seating arrangement, there was this young Chinese woman who was one of the engineers that was trying to get in to the company, and she was sitting there, and I said something about trying to copy off her paper, and she didn't get the joke.

But, anyway. All right. Romans. That closes it in. Anyone else?

What chapter? Nine. Romans nine. What verse?

Go ahead, Sherry. Good. 15. Romans nine. 15.

Now, this comes, see, in chapter one of Romans, Paul says that the wrath of God is displayed against all mankind mankind because man, in general, in unrighteousness, has suppressed the truth.

Right? And then he goes in, and he says, those who try to be moral aren't moral enough.

And he says, Israel, the Jew, who has the law, isn't good enough because they don't keep the law perfectly. And later on, he's going to say because they sought the righteousness by works, not by faith.

But, and, and then he'll go into chapter three and he'll say, so God has put all men under sin.

in order that he may show his grace. See, there is a reason we are saved and it's for God's glory.

He is going to, this is part of God that he's going to display not only before people but before angel, angelic beings.

Yes? I think it means exactly what he says here and we'll see that in a moment.

But, so, I'm not going to try to say that it doesn't say what it what it seems to say.

but, verse 14, what does he say? See, he has shown in verses, in those previous verses, previous to verse 14, he has declared it that, okay, I'm going to give you an example from the Old Testament and he gives a couple of examples from the Old Testament and now in verse 14, he says what?

Romans 9, 14, go ahead, someone please, or I'm going to start calling.

okay, what are we going to say about this? What? Okay, now wait a minute, wait a minute, he doesn't actually define, he just says, look, there's no injustice, God's righteous, go ahead, right, that has yet to be asked and he's going to say God's righteous in everything he does, okay, now verse 15, right, so, this is the quotation that was given to Moses and it's used to the church and then verse 16 gives it, gives the reason, or it begins the reason,

I'm sorry, go ahead, that's the important part, no mercy is mercy, that is, I, if, if I did something wrong as a child, not that I ever did, if I did something wrong as a child, I usually knew what was going to happen, judgment, now, if I did not get the punishment, mercy, that's, mercy is not punishing, punishing, that's not quite the same connotation as what we have and I don't think that's a real good rendition because it implies that, oh,

I feel sorry for him, we're going to see what God says to Moses about that, that's not what he's saying, so, in Romans though, the Apostle Paul will declare this and this is, Romans 9 is a continuation of what we read in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8, it's not just a big parenthesis, it is a continuation because we know in Romans 4, salvation by grace through faith, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right,

I have an inkling that Pharaoh was probably not a saint. Well, what do you mean you have an inkling?

There's nothing in the scripture that says that Pharaoh belonged to Jehovah. Ever. In fact, it says that it was part of the heart. Right. Right. Right.

And so, but it seems like what Paul is saying here is that God shows mercy by raising Pharaoh up.

But I don't think that that particular raising up is necessarily. That's not what he means when he says he raised Pharaoh up.

He means he brought Pharaoh into power. Yeah, I know. Right. But what we're talking about here is that that particular act did not have to do with Pharaoh's salvation.

Right. It had to do with God's sovereign will. That's the point that God's making here. He says, I will. It doesn't depend on him who. Okay.

Salvation or righteousness does not depend upon the one who wills, desires, or.

Right. Or it doesn't depend. Neither does it depend on the one who tries, who works. But upon whom?

God. God. God. That's the whole thing is the doxology belongs to God, not to man. That is, I can be sure that I'm amiss if I'm grateful for me and not for Christ.

That is, if I see myself as being the driving force, I've missed it.

That's not what he's saying here in Romans. He's saying God is. God is. So, and he doesn't stop there.

You're right, because he's going to say that Israel doesn't, did not achieve righteousness because they sought it by works, not by faith. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So, the point that I'm trying to make is that I don't think that it doesn't depend.

Salvation absolutely does depend on God, but God demands faith. And faith is driven by the individual. So, the point that I'm trying to make here is that you cannot include mercy with salvation.

Well, Paul does here. God grant Job mercy when he brought him over to the devil? Well, yeah. He granted himself glory.

And Job's another story, but you're going to have to read it thoroughly. And because God says in Job, when God addresses Job's so-called friends, okay, God says to them, you go to my servant Job because you have not said the truth about me as my servant Job has.

And then, from that perspective, read through Job about everything that happened. It's a big deal. And everything that Job said, it's a big deal.

And so, Job, basically, the book of Job says God has us in his hands. And it hasn't come.

We read in 1 Corinthians, whatever comes into life has not come, except it's passed through, if you will, the hands of my loving Heavenly Father.

There is no trial taken you but such as is common to man, and he will not what? Allow you to be tempted or tried above what you are able to bear, but will with that make a way of escape.

When we read, I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy, and I will show grace to whom I will show grace, that's exactly what God says.

Now, if where the free will of man and the sovereign will of God interact, I'm not smart enough to tell you.

Right. Right. Right.

Right. Right.

God says what he says. And all I'm saying is, God says what he says, and he says it both in the Old Testament here, before the law given to Moses, and he says it in the new, the salvation by grace through faith age, this dispensation, he says it, to the church, and it's reiterated specifically in those passages that deal with righteousness. And I don't want to get too lost in the bush right now, because the study of Romans is a big study in and by itself. I mean a big study. And pertains to, because the Apostle Paul in Romans ties the whole scripture up, if you will. Now, but having gone through that, this is part of what God proclaims to Moses about himself, the Lord himself. And this is part of what his display of glory is.

Because it does not depend upon the man who wills, he says in Romans, or the man who runs, but on God. And the glory goes to God. And that's everything that he's going to deliver in the law, both with their separation from the Gentile nations, and their moral law. It's all going to be about the holiness and righteousness of God. And their obedience to that in terms of the law. As far as the long life, prosperity, and those kinds of things are going to depend upon their adherence to the law.

So, back to chapter, we're in chapter 34 now, beginning with the first verse of Exodus. Now, what does God say to Moses?

Okay, who chiseled the first two? God did. Okay, he says, cut out two tablets and do what? I'm going to write on them. Now, on the first tablets, God not only provided the tablets himself, but he wrote upon it. It was the work of the finger of God, as it were. Here, he's going to say, and I'm going to write on these, but you're going to chisel them out this time, and bring them with you. All right? And be ready in the morning to do what?

Come up the mountain. All right? And what's he say? Right. He said, now, now here, it's, okay, Moses, I'm giving you an order, and this is what I want you to do.

And Moses is going to present himself to God. Not as a peer, but as a servant.

Okay, go ahead. Now, present to me, yourself to me, and this time, you're not going to bring the elders or the priests. What are you going to do?

This time, you come alone, and you're going to do to the mountain basically what you did the first time I called you up. What is it? Don't let the flocks and herds.

Right. Now, I'm going to sanctify the mountain again, and nobody else is coming, only the one that I told to come. So it's only going to be Moses this time.

Now, what did Moses do then? He cut those tablets, and he got up early in the morning, and up the mountain he went.

All right. Now, these mountains, by the way, are 5,000, 6,000 feet. They're not, it's not like climbing Mount Everest.

All right. They're 5,000, 6,000 feet high. So he could make that hike in a day. Now, what did he encounter there?

Okay. God descended, as it were, in a cloud.

That is the manifestation of God. And here, I don't know if this is a theophany or not, but I see the use of the word stood.

So, this is the first time that we've seen him say this to Moses since they've been at Sinai.

And the Lord stood with him there and did what? Okay, he proclaimed the name of the Lord. Now, he didn't just say, hello, my name's Roger.

Or in his case, my name's Jehovah. This is part of proclaiming his, not only his glory, but proclaiming his attributes or what he is.

How can you stand there with him when you had to hide him in the place of the cliff? Right. See, and I think it's the same way, if this is a theophany, it's the same way that God appears veiled, if you will, or obscured.

Like who wrestled with Jacob. Or Hagar, when she's running from Sarah the first time. The Lord appeared to Hagar.

The Lord appeared to Abraham. And Sarah. She was there. No, I didn't really laugh.

Oh, yeah, you did. And you're going to call his name Isaac. He does appear sometimes in a, as a man, if you will.

He appears to Abraham a number of times when he's coming to destroy Sodom. And so, that's the way I see it.

And this won't be the first time we see that. But obviously, it's not his whole glory that Abraham's going to see.

Because he said, you can't see my glory and live through it. Or Moses, I said Abraham. I'm sorry. So, how does he proclaim himself?

Okay. That's worth reading. So, I'm going to pick that up, if you will, please. Verse 4.

And think about how God proclaims himself. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That's going to bear some study, isn't it?

That's going to bear some study because at first glance, if I read that superficially, that's going to appear contradictory and taken out of its context it will.

And that's where those previous verses really will come into play. So have a wonderful week, and God willing, we'll see you next week.