aeration. Yeah, we covered. Dave and I were talking about that because I was like we took seven or eight weeks to cover all of the stuff that y'all covered last week. So that's where, but that's on purpose because we're trying to do a really aerial picture so we can see how all of this is weaving through Scripture. So I just wanted to do a quick check any questions, any lingering concerns thoughts about last week, the call the calling out a visit okay. So, if when we look at the book of Exodus, we're going to cover Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy. That's it tonight, right? The whole all of the Torah, yes, finish out the Torah, which are the first five books of the Bible y'all know that are the Pentateuch. As it's sometimes referred to minute meaning five. First of
all, we're not reading all of it for this class, but you will for Bible recap. We'll cover all of that.
So we're gonna spend probably a good chunk of our time tonight, mostly in Exodus. Just because it's a it's a really cool story, but we'll we'll talk about some of this as Deuteronomy moves us into the expansion of both the law and Leviticus is like setting up all of the codes and like, how they're going to do the household codes and all of that stuff. And this may seem like when you come to this part, where this is the little especially in Bible recap, like it's gonna get meaty. All of the names and all of the setting up the tabernacle, y'all just did. They spent quite what, how many? Is it 15 chapters, it was like, you have the first chunk and then it's broken up. And then you have the second chunk of like them setting up the tabernacle. And we didn't cover that in our reading, but I want us to talk about that. I know that the Bible recap classes, both men and women, for sure we're having some conversation about tabernacle. And Dave and I were just thinking because it ties into the big story in such a big way. We are going to take a little time tonight to talk a little bit about that. We won't talk as much as we probably could. But we'll we'll touch our toes in there any other thoughts or questions that you guys had from this week's reading anything that stuck out to you about the commandments? Suggestions. Well, that's interesting. What do you what do you mean? By that? What do you mean by that?
Yeah, yep, yep.
Whatever you want to play, the first four were how to treat God. And the next six were how to treat each other.
Didn't really, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that cool. And then that helps us like how Jesus synthesized it, right? Like it really he's like, it's just two things. Love God love others. And so yeah, the commandments. So like, there's really basics for that. What else did y'all see? Good insight. Anybody else?
I just gonna say that. About Deuteronomy. Yeah. On page 42. It talks about the type of Deuteronomy means Yeah,
yeah. Yeah,
it's really not the second night we're gonna go back over the first straight.
A few more in here. That's right. That's right. Because they had it and they broke it sorely. And then they were prevented from going in to the promised land. And so it's like, Okay, guys, like we need to make sure that this generation gets it that Josh was gonna lean him in, and then they didn't need or they started out they tried. So yeah, yeah. We and we will talk about that for sure. I think that's very interesting. Nope, you're good. No, you're good. Go ahead.
We're all learning.
In Deuteronomy, he talked about moving into the promised land and everything. And I just kind of took that as the Promised Land is basically the new garden. Garden.
Absolutely.
How, you know, the promised land being your garden, unfortunately.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So no, that's very insightful, and we're definitely going to talk about that tonight, too, because we've talked about how we have this uncreation that has happened here in this first part of Exodus, like, like creation has been thrown into chaos. The lights go out, it's pitch black for three days. Their animals are running amok, that man has no control over the very thing that God when He created, it said you will have dominion over the earth and everything in it. And Pharaoh, the greatest of all people at that time was you know, supposedly he had no control over it. So it's this. Everything was going back in to chaos and there it was uncreated their walk, they've walked through the water. So again, they cried out, not to God. God answered them heard their cry, he saved them. And so their blessing comes when they figure out how to walk in holiness and have him in their presence, but they their salvation came without them doing anything it had nothing to do you know, with him, it was a we didn't have time to talk about this. But you know, in the Hebrew there's did or did we talk about the one that covenant that can do we talk about that in this class about the covenant like, it can be a one sided or two sided covenant and it was a one sided covenant He got he passed through, but the people nobody else like Moses, or nobody else crossed over. So God was the one that that covenant was dependent upon, because the people couldn't hold up their end of the bargain. So yeah. Good thoughts. Good thoughts. All right.
Yeah, I did. Yeah, McKinsey has written a book on covenant right now, too. So I said, Hey, how's that going? And she goes, Oh, it's good, because I was gonna ask you and because she said in it, there's some debate on If Abraham had any stipulations, you know, like it was he was there a call to obedience or any obligations and I'm like, I know but it's a one sided covenant. So God's gonna want to pass through but but he's told go to the land I will show you and it says, Abraham went, you know, so you could kind of skew that to be like, well, he obediently followed God. And that's the fate that he showed, you know, which is true if you read the book of Hebrews, but I think in terms of the Covenant it was all God obligated, obligated himself and that was it. Now, tonight, yeah, it's changed.
Well, it's again, we see that divine and human getting intertangled with each other and they're still relationship. So I think the going is him being in relationship with like, he has a relationship with God, even though God the covenant is dependent upon God, and that's where it gets really, you know, in the areas where scholars can, you know, do get out and we can just say, I don't really understand it, but I know that we still play an active part. It's not that we, that there's nothing that we need to do. It's how it's I think, how we come to God, how we see God, and how we view the commandments. And that's what we're going to talk about tonight. So the alternative page, we have a little diagram again from Dr. ons there. We steal a lot of stuff from Carmen from Old Testament. She's she's really one of the she's just impressive, but it's really interesting. So the in within this Sinai, so as they're going up the mountain, you see this climax of them coming up and bear in Exodus for those who Bible recap. You guys read this where God was hovering over the mountain and Moses came up, he didn't see his face, he saw his feet right. And so he talked about that there was the root Blue Sapphire. So you just this beauty and this or that he didn't Behold God, he was just in His presence and the people were down even lower on the mountain, at the foot of the mountain, and they were beholding God. And so you see this, this going up to prepare for it and then you see them coming back down through their desert travels. And so she goes through here, and she has all these different key terms that y'all can see through there that lay out this Didn't you want to say something here? You have a thought?
What was your thought your so with the Torah or the Pentateuch, first five books of the Bible, at there's some structure, some literary techniques, where there's wilderness wanderings before he's willing and wanting wilderness wanderings after mana even though we know it's every day, it's only mentioned twice before sign on after Saina. The water from the rock before Sana after saw the grumbling and complaining before Sana episode. So there's all these parallel connections on both sides of the story, which in a sense kind of all points to Sinai being the center of Torah, namely, Leviticus. If you go into Leviticus, Leviticus has a structure to where the center of Leviticus is Leviticus 18 which is going to be Day of Atonement. So if the center of Torah is is Leviticus, from the structure in the sinner lip, the Leviticus is the Day of Atonement where sins are taken care of, so to speak, you know, so it's just kind of important for us to see that the Sinai what we know of is the 10 commandments and you know, that kind of is, is the center part of this first part of the story here, you know, and then, you know, God, kind of dealing with sin. And so I'm said, so whereas Leviticus is often people's least favorite book of the Bible, it's actually good news because this is where human rebellion is dealt with, through Day of Atonement, so it's just kind of a cool literary technique, where the, the middle of it is usually kind of the climax or the turning point of the whole, this whole section of Scripture, so I thought that it was super cool. And I spent even more time today, watching two different combinations of videos on YouTube and I've gotten multiple other pages of notes for myself on Leviticus and I got a whole day of atonement and out that y'all didn't get because anytime I quit making handouts No, I did this today. So this was, but I was geeking out pretty, pretty hard on I was like, This is so cool. So
that's all okay. And those key terms are just something y'all can refer to. We don't have to go through all of those on the next page. I wanted to talk about this a little bit. Those that were in our Exodus class, we spent a lot of time talking about this, that this idea that God's people are his treasured possession. And this gets into this idea of idols and representing and I wish we had time to really talk about that. Growing up, I always heard the commandment You know, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. To be not to curse like not to use God's name flippantly right. Is that what most of you guys all heard and understood? And as I've gotten older and studied it's like that's really not what that means. And I was like, crush it because it always I was like, Why is God care about cussing so much? Because it's followed by another like it's it doesn't just say don't do it like it says, You shall shall not kill Thou shall not commit adultery like it's just like one and like boom, like a command stop. But with this one, it said, You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain for the Lord will not leave him on punished who takes His name in vain so it's like gods like I'm gonna get yet like, You're so weird, but like understanding that we are made in God's image we are hit like his like that, and we'll get into that a little bit later, but like, why God doesn't need idols and doesn't want us to have idols because he's our worship and we reflect Him so we in essence are the idol like the image that to focus on. Again, not that we focus on people, y'all know what I'm saying, but that we are God's image bearers. And if we align ourselves, so back then if you had an idol or an image and you said that that was your God and you put it over your house or up there to represent that you were connected to that God, then you couldn't bring dishonor to that God in what you know, like if it was the god of the river or something like that. And you trashed the river. He did something like that, that you would bring shame to the God because you were saying that you had allegiance with that God. And it's the same thing with with your way. He's saying, if you bear my name, if you say you are my people, and you you walk with me, then you have to reflect what I'm about and be what I'm about where we get the Commandments from. And so they are, it's this idea of to lift up God's name or to bear it on you. And you see there, there's a Hebrew word, so Gula Segula Segula. That's right. I'm sure I'm still butchering it, but that's closer Segula and we see this word used in the Old Testament, and then we see it again in the New Testament. And it's a really interesting word because again, like every other Hebrew word, it's tricky because they use it in different ways to understand that they are most times and where Dr. EIMs really lands and I think that she's so spot on with this is that a person and it would be almost like a politician or someone that held office would be a segulah for a people like they would represent the people and they would bear like so they would, you know, represent them like if you went into the United Nations, like they didn't have anything quite that structure, but you know what I'm saying something like that, like you would be there. Segula like you would represent that your country or you would represent in this instance, your God, the representative for it. And so for God to say that you are my treasured possession, that's where that commandment comes in. If you shall not take the Lord your God in vain, that God's name is to be honored and respected. So this is maybe not the greatest example but I think it kind of connects more to us right now today is we were at a church and they had like, all kinds of like, you know, T shirts and bumper stickers, like like car things or whatever. And I remember the pastor, he said this multiple times from a pulpit. He was preaching he was kind of a funny guy, but he was like, Don't be putting that on your car if you're gonna go out there and drive like a jerk. Because we don't want to you represent misrepresenting our church. It's kind of same way like when people wear crosses, are you saying I'm a Christian and then you carry on like a fool like that. That angers God more than if you don't say you're a Christian and you act a fool like that, to say that I'm gods and then we don't bear his name in a respectful way. We aren't uplifting it that ticks Scott off and so he's not okay with that. So it's better that we just don't say anything. Right. So I just think that's really interesting. It kind of goes through there. And I think the really cool thing that we can't really get into but we see it used again in Molokai where it talks about as like in the middle of the page there. And is a different phrase, but then we see again, Peter, and he's talking to both Greeks and Jews, that they would be the Segula until we see this kind of coming back full circle to be this representative of Christ. And there wasn't any attachment to it. It wasn't a you're a Jew, you're born into it. It wasn't like this chosen God's people. It's like, by covenant you have are in covenant with God in this relationship, and then you get bound up in that. So again, I wish we could talk about that more if y'all have questions. We don't have to hurry on that. There's a lot more we could say about that. But it's kind of just mind boggling. I think when we started thinking about the Commandments were written and they still have relevance today. God fulfilled the law. We aren't under the law. We aren't under its thumb. We don't have to sacrifice we don't have to be cleansed and go to in order to go to the temple and make atonement in the same way that we're going to see tabernacles still happens. It's just within us within the spirit and it's so cool. How you see all of these loops, and God doesn't leave anything and done he's so intentional and purposeful in everything he does. But any thoughts?
It's like God, last week he Moses like so if I'm gonna go up in here and tell Pharaoh the most powerful person in the world that oh, yeah, by the way, you're not the most powerful person in the world. To get these people out here who Who am I going to tell them sent me like you tell them I am. Who I Am. And so the name of God's revealed to us Jaqui this personal name of God. Well, then, throughout the rest of the book, you know, we get the 10 commandments, we get, you know, we're gonna in the law, but it's like, in that there's this idea of like, oh, by the way, you are my treasured possession that gets carried over malecha is a Greek translation and that same Greek words in First Peter, where it's like you are God's special possession. So it's like, by us by him revealing his name to us. We become the image and or the name bearers. To take that name and represent Him as we go, you know. So that's kind of
So, think about don't take the Lord's name in vain and a different way, right. That's a little pressure on us. All right. No other thoughts? Y'all are so quiet tonight. All right.
More chocolate.
Wake y'all up. Okay. Roger mentioned this and that's why I was kind of pressing you Roger, because it was interesting. How do you guys feel about the 10 commandments like does it feel obsolete? Does it feel burdensome? Like What are y'all doing? Are you think about it like what are Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. You see how you get good society because God was like trying to make it impossible for them. To even have slaves like he was basically don't have that was their environment. They were slaves coming out of it. And he's like, you're not going to turn around and enslave another people like you. You actually told them not to do that. But that was also the only we think of slaves in a very different way. They had slaves that had to pay off like even a like again wouldn't be they had their kind of doctors I guess of the time but like those people even might get in a situation where they have to pay off a debt and they have to go work for somebody and now farmer even to pay off their debt because they didn't have monetary like exchange just like we do today. So but he was like, if you do it, and it was so specific about how to be fair and just and like if somebody's injured, then you have to, you know, compensate them and compensate their family and release them like from their debt. If they can no longer work because they got hurt on your like helping you so you really see a loving God I think I think they get Miss misconstrued or whatever. As this very negative like, Oh, nobody wants to read that. Here's all the thing like to be a Christian you have to like follow all these rules and yeah, it's interesting. So well, somebody want to read I know it's really small. If you want to look in your own Bible, it's Deuteronomy four, five through eight. Let's talk about how the Israelites felt about these commandments that God had Moses come down the mountain not once, but twice. Yeah, page four. See,
I have taught you decrees and laws as the Lord my God commanded me so that you might follow them in the land you're entering should take possession of it. absorb them carefully, but this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations who will hear about all these decrees and say, surely this great nation is a wise understanding people. What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the white the Lord, our God is near us whenever we pray to Him, and what other nation is so great as to have such Rochus decrees and laws as this body of laws? I am settling before you setting before you today.
You did great awesome. Thank you Joyce. So what do you guys think that the Israelites felt about the laws?
I'm honored to know. That's nice, huh? Yeah.
Well, it gave them something to follow up. For one. You know, you guys.
Yeah. Who doesn't want to be admired and seen as wise among all the nations? Yes, ma'am. No, you go ahead.
This is sort of what Russia said about us a while back. They said that because we were so close to God, we were blessed. And then when we turned away from God, you can see, but they were saying what nation would turn away from the God that has blessed him so? So it's almost like this what's being said about the US? Yeah, at some point,
yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I've heard that lots of people talking about even though it's not perfect. You have so many praying people here and God's hearing that he prayers of, you know, like, even if it might be pocket sometimes, and we might be getting smaller. God still hears the cries of his people for sure. And I think we might have touched on this a little bit last week, but they they were excited to get the the 10 commandments and really, the golden calf came out as a result of them, like not being patient to wait for those instructions, because they were just trying to do something. And I'm like, guilty that's me. It's like just sit here and wait and I'm like, Okay. Not not one of my guests. For Yeah, for 40 days, like sit here and wait at the base of this mountain. Like you're right. Like you can't get somebody to wait a day you know, we're we are not patient like creatures as humans.
supposed to go up though. There were I thought they were all supposed to go out.
Well, the the leaders went Oh, yeah, they, well, he said God wants to come be in your presence to talk to you and they were scared. They're like, can't you do it? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Because because it's gone and they're like, We know we're bad.
Moses just journey all the way to Egypt. And now.
They're like, they're like you go talk to you go talk to your way.
Today like me, 40 days to get this mountain
so they they were excited because no other God told their people how to what they needed to do to please them they were always trying to figure it out. Like that's where you get rain dances, and all that kind of stuff. I mean, for we'll like that's where they come from. They're like, they're like, our God is angry. We need to do something to make him happy. So we'll make an offering and they would do human sacrifice child sacrifices. They do all kinds of crazy things that seem crazy to us. But they were like, they were just trying literally standing on their head spinning around. What do we have to do to please our God? And you always said I'm going to tell you what you need to do to please me and to prepare a space so that I can compete among you. Because they already screwed it up with with the Tower of Babel, right? Like they tried to do it on their terms and said, God, you're gonna come down and who are you talking to? What do you think you're saying? So they're doing this, but then we know that they're even saying we're going to be, you know, just esteemed in all of the other nations and seen as wise and good people. Because exactly what you pointed out like, this is where we get even today all these 1000s of years later. You see like, if you really read through all those laws, you see our laws in there, and some of them are pretty spot on today. Like we've gotten into some minutiae, but if you just look at the base of like, obviously not murdering and that like like, right, yeah, and I mean, even when you look at like malpractice or that kind of stuff, if you look, it's all in there and God set that up for him. So if we wonder how did people get so civilized this because God taught us how to be civil Yeah, like Yeah, we all figured this out. You know, they're they're over here trying to kill each other but he's
you literally take your word for word what the Bible says.
All right. I want us to read through so let's read somebody read the textual unity of Exodus there it's runner, the one Joyce just read, it's Exodus 20, chapters two through six.
Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of the slaves, you do not have for yourself other gods before me. Do not make for yourself a statute of any figure that is in the heavens above. That is on the earth beneath or stand the waters underneath the Earth. Do not bow down to them and do not serve them because I am your wife, your God. Okay, l comma. Is that how you say that impassioned God, who attends to the iniquities of the fathers upon the children, even upon the third and upon the fourth generation of those hating me, and acts in covenant faithfulness to 1000s who love me and obey my commands?
Saying I'm a jealous god yeah, I meant jealous God. So that's pretty clear, right? Like that's right out of the gate. Number one, you shall have no other gods before me and you shall not worship them. You shall not make any idols or images. And so it's really good. There's, um, do you remember what his last name is? Tim? That she's quoting here? Yeah, he has. He has a Bible project. I've only watched little snippets of him. Carmen Dr. Arm she likes him a lot. But he makes this connection about that the temple God's temple doesn't have any images in it, because the people are again we've talked about are the image of God and that when we show allegiance to anything other than God, we not only rob God of the praising deserves, we also diminish ourselves as those two who were made to represent God. So it's really an insult to ourselves into God, if we create idols and images, because
with that, cross they always have a big cross somewhere in the church, and they're like, placing prayers in front of it and stuff. Yeah, I told them, I don't think that you should probably.
Yeah, I mean, that's, you know, that's a hard thing. Like because a lot of churches do like icons, like the Anglican Church, really is celebrates icons and how to do that. Yeah, I mean, that's that's a hard thing because it it comes back to intent. Like if you are knowing that you're praying to God and you're not doing that, that you like that as a you know, I think it's it's gets into a gray area for sure. But that's a great point. Yeah.
Even now, though,
what is it what's the Western Wall? eating fruit? Yeah. They literally just stare at the
wall on. Yeah, yeah, because it's like sacred and put it into the wall. Yeah. Yeah. It's sacred space. Absolutely. To me. I
feel like that's almost what the Cross would be.
Their temple wall. What they have left of it? Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's one of those things that you know, we say that the church is a sacred holy space, but just because we've, like, call this like, this is our gathering place. We want to come and we want to keep it pure and holy, and there's reverence for it. But really, there's nothing special about the church. We've just like, yeah, we've set it aside. And so I think that's kind of like you just, it's not an easy to say, we can't have any images of that. But and maybe some people do like is it's getting into the How would you how would you answer that?
I mean, I think the Church throughout history has had different symbols that all have different meanings attached to it. I mean, the cross we look to it because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross dying for us in our place. So we see it as a as you know, it's not like we're worshipping the cross, but it's a symbol that can then take our hearts and minds and allow us to worship the Lord. I think that's why churches have stained glass windows and different art and different things like that is is these things that have meaning to us, that cause us to worship God and Him alone. You know,
yeah, remembrance beautiful
beauty of the artwork. It's one thing to create a beautiful place. I don't know if anyone's ever been to St. Peter's Basilica. It is once master for one, but when you walk in there, it is the perfect picture. Of it's got statues of everybody and very little about Jesus. You know, their worship. Mary is a big deal. There's people who stopped at the statue of Mary Yeah, the statue of Jesus. I mean, there's statue of all the apostles. It's a very much a, it kind of washes over you when you walk in it to realize, oh, there are just a lot of images here. And they're not all about Jesus. Mm hmm. Is a little overwhelming to see that. Always think about that. When I think about this age with the graven images, how quickly something can become your idol.
Yeah, yeah, it's it's it's dangerous.
The way you approach God,
Jesus, and like, he's prepping us to go on the promised land and Canaanites have hundreds of 1000s of gods and symbols and I like statues and idols, you know? And so I think that's the warning is that there's you're about to go into a land that has a ton, you know, but you're not to make any for me, you know, kind of thing so yeah,
well, that's interesting. That's that's a good one to I mean, your way was very clear, right? Like we there's no greatness here. Like you're not to have any other gods before me and like they say, and he knows that they are about to go into the lion's den. You know, it's it's going to be full of all kinds of things that is, and it's going to remind them of comfort in a way because it's their culture and it's what they were like in Egypt. Egypt was the same like there. Was idols in in symbols everywhere. And that's why they fell so fast and so quick with the golden calf is because they just did what was comfortable. And really, they weren't worshiping the calf. We'll get to that here in a second. I want to jump ahead but we'll talk about that. Okay. Again, you all turn the page, we're not going to go through all the commandments, but I did want to touch on this one again. Again, sorry for those in Exodus because that was that class because we talked a lot. I think we spent a whole class on Sabbath because it's so good. But again, if you look at the commandments, and you see you get these one line, verses about, You shall have no other gods before Me, you shall not worship them. You shall not steal, you shall not commit adultery, You shall not covet your name, like like they're just quick, right? But when he gets right here, and he says, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, write it for six days you shall labor and do all your work and on the seventh day, you should rest for it as the Sabbath unto the Lord your God. So it goes on to say For six why for six days, in four and six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them and then he rested on the seventh day therefore the Lord bless the Sabbath day and made it holy, for versus y'all. four verses on the Sabbath. And this is something that I you know, just kind of like crystal was talking about with icons of this is something that I can't tell you exactly. How I land on it. I just think for the last few years, God's really been mulling it over in my heart. I've been convicted about it. I've made changes in my life. I've seen blessing from making those changes. But I think there's something to it because like Roger mentioned, God is giving them this recipe for how to live like this is how you do it. The Commandments are still relevant and good for us today. And so how do we get again, it's that fine line of like, we're not under the law. So we don't want to get legalistic. And I think you know, I'm old enough to even remember where you know most towns like shut down on Sundays like no restaurants were open. You had to get everything that y'all remember and yeah, we had to get I'm sure it was the same in Arkansas. It was in Oklahoma, to get everything done on Saturday. Nothing was open you absolutely even even if the convenience store was open. They still didn't sell liquor on Sundays. Like nobody could buy liquor on Sundays anywhere the bars were shut like everything was the stores were closed. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But you know, and so I don't know that that's right or not, you know, it's, it's the and that's the part where I'm still trying to flesh out like, how do I be in covenant with Christ and that he's washed this away. But yet he even when his life talked about resting and getting away and Sabbath things still has purpose. So how do we Sabbath today?
Yeah, I've seen in particular, for generations back four decades back, I guess, for generations that are not that far, but where they did not do they did do this on this. They didn't do anything on seven. And I've seen it kind of brought about to me in a way that I might be not I might not should be done.
So I'm wondering Yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, same. Yeah. He's
just kind of convicted me. Yeah. Yeah. Myself. So just kind of
okay, I'm getting it.
Yeah. Trying to figure out well in days Wait, and I wait a few years ago like sent well, because especially here because he has to do a lot more on Sundays than he had to do at our old church. Like we just got in the habit of like, it's just so much on like, you're tired from the weekend, you're getting ready to start. So we go out to eat on Sundays. Like it's part of our budget. We always go out to eat. It's just a good way for us to relax. But you know, it's one of those things like if I'm going out to eat then I'm requiring somebody else to be working and so that's why I'm saying it's messy. Because, you know, if I'm trying to do that, and it's like, well, we could easily and that they were so intentional about how they did their work for six days so that they could rest and how they did it. And Dr. Ives tells the story. I won't tell the whole big long story, but she was in Israel and she wasn't sure how it was gonna go with Sabbath. And she she said it changed her entire perspective of the law. Because she's like, at first it was annoying because they couldn't use the elevator because like they were in this hotel and like it used this operator that caused a fire and that was like one of the laws that you couldn't like start with fire so that so how to take the stairs. So we had these little hiccups. But then she said we got out onto the street and they're walking and there was nobody around. But she said as we were walking, you could hear like this joyous sounds of people just laughing and talking in their homes and singing and she was like, it hit me that they look forward to Fabin and they just rest in each other's presence and like our family and together and she's like it was very powerful. And so I think that's, you know, how do we figure out how to Sabbath where we are getting holy rest, but we're also just enjoying, like, what God's put us with whatever, whether that be family or church or time with him or wherever we are in our season or stage of life. How do we do that? And it might look a little different for all of us, but I think there would probably be a common thread of like we aren't burdening somebody else to work and we're not working ourselves like yeah, cutting chores out. Not grocery shopping on Sundays. That a good way to put yourself in a bad mood for the week. Why is all the food God and why are all these people in my way? You know, because everybody shopping you know, get ready for the week. So I you guys can look on this your own. I don't want to take too much time on this. But really quickly. It's interesting that when you look at the Sabbath, that it was for white when they lay it out, it says You shall not do any labor, your sons, your daughters, your male and female servant and your cattle. I mean it was for everybody and your Sojourner. So even the foreigner that stays with you, they are like you are not supposed to let anybody do anything. Everything stops hard stop, rest, then we go back and work again. So anyway, y'all can chew on that on your own. It's
just so hard with all of us. Every commandment is given. There's a good purpose for that the moment it becomes your standard by which you judge your spirituality. Yes, right. Yes. Its purpose. Yeah. It has now become a legalistic rule. And that's on every one of them with that going into elevated because it was caused a fire Yeah, supposed to cause fires and suddenly it's it's lost its purpose of rest and worship and it's become your measure of someone's spirituality. As someone got it,
right, right.
That's where it evolves to. Yeah. Humans cannot handle the laws that are meant to be good for us for valuable life. Somehow, we ended up taking them and twisting them.
We make them a measuring stick like you said. Yep. Yep. Leave it to humans. We always mess it up. All right, y'all. Um, how are we doing on time? Oh, yeah, we're good. Okay. Um, we didn't really cover it. He talked about it a little bit right in the book tabernacle, like the worship and stuff. He touched on it briefly. So we wanted to take a little bit of time and talk through tabernacle again. We see these creation echoes, just like we were talking about at the beginning of class, right? It's really cool guy you were talking about this, you know, this idea of this creation like, we see again, that as we're looking at this story creation, that God wanted to be in present it be present and be like in relationship communion with his people to walk in the garden to be with them. That was always the plan. That's going to be the plan again. So whenever they messed it up by sinning, they got kicked out of the garden, and then their offspring killed each other. Like one of them killed the other one. And, you know, and they they didn't scatter like again and again, you see them messing it up. And to this point that you see the Abrahamic where their blessing their curse and their there's just the saga going on until now. They've been in slavery and been released from that. And we have this recreation with Exodus like this it's literally they push the restart button, because all of the Jewish calendars and everything starts over after the they walked through the water like after they had been saved from it. It's very similar. It's again, it's so cool if you line up all the Exodus with what happens with Jesus on the cross and this idea of like, this is reset the calendar and everything all of life resets and starts over. So this is their reset. And they're aligning all of this stuff. And like they said, like there's this like this energy and everything moving up to the mountain up being up to tabernacle to being with God in His presence, because that's again, this covenant that he's saying, I will be your God, you will be my people and I will be with you. No other gods saying that but to be present with that. And so we see that here. As the tabernacle is laid out all these different things, and she has all these references you can look at. And again, we see the tabernacle is so intentional and purpose. I love reading that I don't know if y'all get excited just because I love art. I'm a creative I like creative things. I like things to be pretty. And I know that God does like God is a creator and like he made all of us as creative beings, and we celebrate beauty even if you say Oh, I'm not creative, you are like you like in some way you are creating and you appreciate beauty is whether it's outdoors or indoors or something that somebody has created in some form of art. We all value art and beauty. And there's a reason why we want our homes to look nice, even if they're not fancy. We still want them to be pretty and like a pleasant place to be because God made us to appreciate beauty because he appreciates beauty He created that in us and for us, and he does that in the tabernacle so that we can be with him in beauty and in this creation and it's really cool. Because you're talking about this with your thought about tabernacle,
yeah. So when people sin in the garden and they get kicked out, and there's an angel at the entranceway and they are kicked out to the east. When God gives them directions on building the tabernacle, that's why it's we know which way north is. It's, it's now we're able to enter back into God's presence westward. So we're going it's almost it's we're going back into the garden, the you know, the, so it's kind of just a neat, and again, 710 chapters of all these details of the tabernacle but the point is, this is how a whole I'm a holy God, and I'm gonna be able to be with my people is and you can kind of get back into that relationship with me. So I think the creation echoes, again are intentional. This is not a mistake like if this is a new garden sort of speak. So yeah, and it's portable, you know, they're able to pick it, you know, which
is cool, which is kind of a foreshadowing, right? Because they got, the spirit will indwell you so that we do is so cool. I mean that just gives me chills bombshell. That's really cool.
Precise. Yeah, I mean, everything I mean, he is down to to everything down to what they have to wear. Yeah, go into. Yeah. The color. Yes. Yeah. Amazing. Yeah.
Okay, Kevin's he didn't have that because you know, we were fighting over the color. So true.
So true. Mount a red thread. Yeah, that's why that's why in this diagram, it's got the little X's in it so you can see exactly like everything had a precise placement like right in the middle. And then right here you know, and so this really, really cool
can you know, for some of us that are not good rule followers, and like, I like detail when it comes to design but not in life. Like if like all of this keeping like that just makes my brain go wrong. God loves order and beauty comes from that and all of us even if we aren't like geared that way, we still appreciate it. And I think I like high church like those churches where they have in go to that I know some people are like, oh, it just becomes ritualistic and you lose the relationship and the realness but only it has to be that way. And I think if we see it as they thought, it was this reverence, and this all like God has saved us and we're so thankful and we come in His presence. And as we do these methodical things in just a certain way, it stills our our being and our minds. And it gives clarity, and peace. If you've ever been in a service like that, that's very, you know, yeah, it steals your spirit. And I feel like you can enter in. Sometimes I have to get into practice of coming in coming in and sitting in church and just sitting and being still and praying for a minute because I as an extrovert love just buzzing around and talking to everybody and then you're like, oh, and like your brain is like and then you sit down and it's like how can you focus on worship on God? If you've just had social you know, half hour or whatever. So I think it's good but just like Rhonda said, we have to there's it's a cautionary thing that you know, and that's how we got to where we are as Baptists, like if the autonomy of the church
and the sermon are, you know, very traditional, yeah.
Yeah, we have, we have a liturgy, you know,
you know, a prayer together, reading, you know, more important scripture. So, it Yeah, so one thing that bothers
me it's a cell specific about everything and then about what Aaron has to do in his family. They're supposed to get through. They doesn't say anywhere about who cleans it up. Oh, they're just really well
trained, and that's probably probably, he's
got a he's got to take those garments off and put his normal clothes in it, because it's like, you know, he just threw them on the floor, right? He didn't fold them up and place them real night.
Well, you know, and that's because I talk a lot about say for sure. Yeah, any of the things that are on the altars. Yeah, they have to somebody had to clean it up for sure. The high priest rush Yeah, yeah. Yeah, for sure.
In New Testament when they say that they were sacrificing and blending it with the sacrifice is
it a bloody mess? Absolutely. Absolutely. Nasty. The prophets
had some stuff to say about this too. So.
Chaos? Yeah, yeah, we
don't like to admit that. The structure that he gives us is for our own good parents, you know, when a child does do what they want to, because with no boundaries, they become almost mentally ill because they have no boundaries. And it's the same thing with us. But we don't we don't like to accept that. Look around the world and see the chaos. Yeah, and have to say this is the result of sin.
Yeah, yeah. And we miss it. The freedom comes in this freedom
is in the structure it is. Yeah, I think it's in doing whatever we want to do. But it just repeats itself.
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
I don't know about that. All right. Um, if you all turn the page. Again, I just because I don't know. We just thought this was kind of cool to throw it in here. They didn't talk a lot about this either. But I think this is one of the most famous stories from the golden calf that probably that one of the most famous stories that in the party of the Red Sea have on maybe the burning bush, two from Exodus that people talk about. But we want to show you so there was images everywhere, like all these gods like they would show their god riding this big, like steer or steed like, Is that the right word? See, now is that is that a horse? So the horse for now, but not a state of a bull whatever, like an ox or a bullet like that's just a steer? That's not the right word here
we're talking to a bunch of farmers here.
I know I was like, I was like surely there's some country folk in here to correct me. I grew up in the sticks of Oklahoma but I was still lived in town so I was a city girl in our state. Yeah, no, so not a horse like it's a steer. That's what our stringer is a cow being written. Well, yeah, it's just Well, no, a steer is a male. It's a male, male,
male. We're waiting
a steer is a bull
visit wicker player
tonight what do you hope bed is gonna be like for me, it's a steer. I
would be so nervous. Yeah,
actually, Moses is up on the mountain get into the ocean down below get
go it's like oh my gosh, you know? But we there's a lot of different theories. So I am not presenting this as the theory but I think it makes the most sense. Because you see, like, they've dug up all kinds of archives of other like people groups that that lived during that time and their idols. They would have and you have a picture of it in your notes there. It would be card and that's their god that's like a pharaoh or another god if something I don't know if it says which God it is.
That would be pale. Is that veil strip the arrows Oh,
yeah, cuz he's got the thing on him. But yeah, so he Bale is on but he wasn't the only one lots of gods were were depicted this way where they were, and they would ride in on this mighty steer and like, like have their arms out and all that. So it's really interesting. So one thought is that they were trying to worship God again in the ways that they culturally knew from what they had been exposed to. And so they made a golden calf. Because they were saying that God came in and rescue them from from salvation. And so they were trying and he said, Don't make any idols. So like we won't make an idol of him. We'll just do the steer that he wrote on. So and this is why Aaron's like, okay, okay, okay, okay, you know, trying to give him something and again, that's that we kind of tweak what God said a little bit, and even a little bit wrong. God said, No, you will not he specifically told them this. But they're like, but it wasn't like we weren't worshipping the cow. We were just like, but that's where the golden cow come from. So I just wanted to share that with you because I think it's a really interesting thought, because sometimes we read that and it's so shocking to us because they're like God just saved you. What are you doing? And I think that they met well, and I feel like that makes the most sense, because they were on this high this the sea had been parted. God had wiped out Pharaoh and all of his mighty army. And so and then Moses leaves he's like, What do we do? What do we do? You told us what to do? And he's like, I told you to wait, but they didn't write they got impatient. So they made a cow out of their their stuff that they had looted their plunder, they took the rest of the used Taberna Yeah, which it is later, but yeah, they Yeah,
it has to be beaten down.
Yeah, always you always see that even with a mana right? Because remember, like when we were talking about that was like Mary's dominating the man, you know? Because there's something like there people would go out and they were trying to hoard it, you know, or like eat it like on the staff ate when God told them I'm going to give you enough on Saturday or actually Friday for them and then they would eat it. On Saturday, so they didn't have to collect it. And you still had people sorry, Mary. Like I was just using it because that was a common actually Miriam was a common name like we're like Miriam. Quite Horton that may
take them to realize that God will punish everybody for years. Yeah, yeah. They were like, Let's wipe out Benjamin for this one. Yeah, yeah.
When they're doing this, God's like, Alright, I'm just gonna wipe them out. For you. Moses was like, wait. Yeah, I'll start with you. And your, your my new Moa? No.
It he's like whoa.
We've seen that through the whole story. There's like these glimpses of some sort of redemption or salvation or just God doing some amazing stuff and then you got the people just building towers building Cavs grumbling, complaining, hey, the food was better in Egypt. Like, they're like, yeah, it's just like, you know, yeah. Stiff neck. Yeah.
Yeah. So Exodus ends with this glorious conclusion, because it seems like after the calf, Moses comes down, he's ticked God's anger. He tells Moses, Moses goes down and Moses was now it probably matters. Like literally. Yeah. And he's like, why did you do and so, Moses, I mean, this is almost a little mean. I mean, no, it's a lot me like he not only he smashes the tablets that they've been waiting for. Right? And then what does he do with the calf? Water oh my gosh, that sounds like my upbringing. Like oh my god, that was so like
I don't think parents do that anymore. But yeah, I definitely I definitely had that happen to me once I didn't do it again. But that the purpose was, you know, like, you're like, This is Moses was so angry and he's like, this is what I think of what you did like I'm gonna turn it into excrement. You're like, that is how trivial what you were trying to do and you're so far, you know, and Moses you know, it talks about how he's glowing like he has like the afterglow of all afterglows like he's been in the presence of God and he's like, freaking the people out. Yeah, he's all shiny and glowing. He's probably like, what what some people might say, you know, but he goes back up for another 40 days and brings the commandments down and the people finally get it. They're like, okay, tell us what to do. And so the last, you know, 2035 to 40, those last five, six chapters of Exodus. Again, we get to super, in some ways detail. It's interesting like you get hyper details, and then none or very little, so we don't actually know what the tabernacle look like and exactly how all of that happened. And I don't know it could be on intention that the narrator was like, That's not important. But I do think that the people that got listed the artisans that God called out that like gave them that special like isn't going to be cool to meet those people and having some day and be like, how cool that you were like some of the first artisans in the whole world and the craftsmen and that kind of celebrated that, that it had purpose that it wasn't frivolous or not, you know, making beautiful things is important. And sometimes we think we brush off trades like that, like they don't matter. Okay, so we get God's present with them because they're in the story. It did not look good. Like they have made a golden calf Moses is broken. The tablets were like great like the commandment can't like the cabinet's done, but God's like, Alright, give me a chance. So it goes back up and they make the same commandments again, the stone tablets, and they're the it's not that there's five on one and five on the other. There's there's two complete ones, so they can have a copy or I mean, that was just common practice to be like, you know, like this covenant agreement. And then we see that his tabernacle in presence among them and their observations of the sub Sabbath as the sign of that relationship. So now, like this Sabbath became such a central part of Torah and the Pentateuch, here, were this coming before God, like Dave was saying, like, they come, they tabernacle, they worship, this is the pinnacle of everything. And they do that on the Sabbath, and it's so important. And we start seeing that we see that in Leviticus, as we start seeing all of these things. laid out like how to prepare yourself for the tabernacle and when you can go in and when you can and what's allowed and what's not. What you need to do in your homes to be clean and what's unclean, and they start laying this out. Is there anything you want to say about this right here?
No. Not not quickly. So I think we've got time we've got the, you know, Noah and his covenant, we have the rainbow, like I'll put a bow in the sky. We have circumcision with Abraham as a sign of the covenant. So it's like, the covenant is the relationship and then there's always some kind of sign to help us remember, put a ring on your finger, and remember that you're married, you know, and I had, I just pulled up the document because I'd written some stuff on covenant, just a cheat sheet. And I had sign of the, of the covenant with Moses was Sabbath, you know, Remember the Sabbath, keep it holy, but what Christopher right here and the reason that we have that quote is it's like yes, but it's it's His tabernacle in presence is the sign and so we've got the fire by night the cloud by day you get the cloud coming down when Moses meeting with him, you know, so you have this god tabernacle laying with his people, as a sign of the covenant. And then you also have remember the Sabbath, which is kind of a reminds us of the 10 commandments, you know, so I think for us similar what Ron is saying is, if we just tried to do law, without presence, we're missing it. You know, you know, if we try to do you know, the obligation without the relationship, then we're missing it, you know, so these are, these are things to help us remember. What's really important, you know, so, yeah, that's as short as I can say,
that's perfect. Well, somebody read that you always self read Revelation that that passage and then the paragraph under it, the paragraph in those two paragraphs, I guess.
Alright, thanks. Can you pass in front of Moses proclaiming the Lord the Lord, a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to 1000s and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin, yet he does not leave the guilty and punished. He punishes the children and their children for the sound of the parents of the third and fourth generation.
The next paragraph, yeah, go read read the rest of that page.
This is arguably the most important passage in the Hebrew Bible. The passage most often quoted or alluded to acknowledge scripture, when we might think of compassion and judgment as opposites that Yahweh, Yahweh his character is holding us and noncontradictory God's patience and justice are held in tension. If we neglect any of these attributes, we end up with a God we've made in our institute.
Yeah. It's just it's both and it's yeah.
All right. And you know, when you hear people when you hear preachers and sermons, that kind of stuff, you notice they're going to emphasize one or the other. Yeah, you know, so we don't do this. Well, we don't hold these both intention. So yeah, but yeah, that's, yep, we're not Parmenides has like four pages on just that pass. Yeah, you know, it's a lot
written well, because so many people like even the disciples were quoting like, you see this in the new Tet like this chapter is or not the chapter that birth is so important, and it comes at such a strategic time because right there, golden calf has just happened. And it's like, not hope is not lost. Because we're gonna mess it up. Like even after Christ did it in like, sealed it and it's done. We still get it wrong. And it's not that it's okay, but God makes away and that's where that tension that like He's holy God, and he is going to see that they're like to do he's going to bring justice to a point, but he's also going to also protect his people. And he decides when to do that or when to not there's times that we absolutely deserve consequences that we do not receive because of His mercy. And we don't know that and we don't like that. And sometimes when we see other people get mercy and it really ticks us off because we don't think they deserve it. We're like of all people who Why would you give them mercy and it's not for us because God's working out a bigger plan. That's a generational, that's hundreds and 1000s of years in the making. And I think it's going to be really cool on the other side of heaven for us to appreciate the beauty that he's that he's creating your masterpiece, and we're only seeing little snippets of it. And sometimes those dark lines of people's mistakes and wrongdoing. They hurt and we think they look ugly, and they messed it up. But there's nothing like it. He's the ultimate Bob Ross. Just make it a happy tree. God can do that with our lives. I mean, for real, he does that. He's just draw some lovely clouds over here. We don't have time to talk about participation. This is still talking about tabernacle. We gave y'all some more stuff again, y'all may not care about all of this. We just heard lots of people talking and asking questions and Bible recap about this. And we wanted to give you guys some resources. If y'all have more questions on this one, you can ask me or Dave, I might have some resources because I'm more of the Old Testament guru than he is. He's a he's a New Testament guy. He's that's what he's all he's got plenty. He's got plenty.
Exodus experts. That's true. Yes, that's true. Other interests.
Okay. And then we got more on the next page. Where it's just again, you see creation echoes, we've already talked about that in the tabernacle. Exodus creation story. Yep, we already talked about that. So I feel like we're gonna talk about something else, but maybe that's it. We didn't really talk about Leviticus and Deuteronomy.
Well, we did Leviticus. Yeah, yeah. numbers you get more wilderness wandering. Yeah. Deuteronomy, you get Moses kind of like last sermons before they go into the Promised Land, you know, so numbers
gets a bad rap. I think that we did a disservice because in the Hebrew, it's actually called the wilderness. Because it's all about that. It's not called numbers. They call it that because of all the senses. Because Moses takes a census, I think twice in there. And so I you know how that goes shorthand, right? People started saying, oh, you know, the, the book of Numbers and so that's what people call it, I think, oh, no, that's how my name came. But that's why it was called there. But
this is a census. Yeah, yeah.
It's it's really I love numbers. Numbers is also one of my favorite books. It's really powerful because you see, God's people like, get it wrong, but you see people rise up out of that like Jacob and Caleb, Caleb and no, I messed that up. Caleb and Joshua Tosh. Yeah. That, you know, like you get that Minority Report, and that all that stuff that goes down there in numbers 1314 15. And that sets the stage for what will happen that we'll talk about next week, which day wants talk about that, but yeah, we're on
page 11. You got another practice sheet, because we keep adding bits to the story. So there will be a time well, we will be calling on random people. Story. So practice it with somebody. I may next time I see you go Hey, tell me the story. That lets you do it you know, and be like, you know, you ain't going to church do you finished? So here's what we're gonna. Yes, yeah, I have to. So with next week, here's what we're going to try to do. So we're gonna try to make up our snow day. We're gonna meet an hour earlier and stay an hour late, no, wrong. We're gonna bank some time. No. So on your homework, you'll see the next chapter which is conquest. The reading for the chapter. So what I'm gonna try to do is we're gonna try to cover two chapters, but I'm also going to try to make sure if anyone's behind. Here's your ketchup. So what we're going to do is, if you would like to read chapter five, it is now optional. So on your homework on the left column, optional chapter five. I'm going to send you Danny Hayes's video teaching through chapter five. Because he's amazing with judges, he's, I mean, he wrote this book, he's, he's phenomenal teacher, and it's gonna be a lot shorter. So I'll send you a link to that. You can watch it so you do have the readings that go along with that with chapter are you then your readings on the right column are going to be chapter six. So next week we'll do 25% of our class will be conquest 75% of the class will be creation of the kingdom or what I call the crown, because we get to King David. So we're gonna zip into the promised land, and we're gonna have Saul, David Solomon, and then we're gonna get all the way up to 722 BC. But what I'm also going to do is I'm going to send you the Danny Hays video for chapter seven. Also, Chapter Six also fine. So I'll give you the videos for both of those so you can have them if this is just too much or too fast or too slow or whatever, you've got the video. You can watch it on your own time. So but we're going to try to focus on chapter six, creation of the kingdom next week. So that'll get us back on our schedule. Properly. Are you in the EU? Are you in our church app? Then I'll post it there. But every week I've been posting the transcript and the audio and the notes in our church app reading group. Emails just kind of hard for me. I don't I don't know how to do that very well. I think I'm funny. If I remember I will try to email it to our little distribution list. And I don't think we've added there's two or three new folks that we haven't sent an email out so but but yes, keep doing that. Share it with people and you're gonna need to
really start with this.
Yeah, yes. Yes. So the ones on the right are your homework. The ones on the left are your optional homework, which will be chapter five on the left chapter six on the right. But you do need to watch the Danny Hays video that's why I put it on the right
because that will always catch you up. For what we're skipping sort of skipping. Yep. All right.
She does have a video for every chapter. So
yep. Does somebody want to pray us out? Y'all keep Sheila she wasn't here tonight. She's doing good but just recovering and she had a little procedure and
