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From Mt.
Sinai to Mt. Sion—Day 49
Fred R. Coulter—June 7,
2008
Now, we’ve been going
through a series of sermons covering some objections by some ministers and
other organizations concerning that they do not believe or accept that the
first resurrection then is pictured by Pentecost. And so, while we may
repeat some things, we need to go through and show exactly what the Bible
teaches and shows concerning the Feast of Pentecost.
Now let’s also
understand something that is true, which is this—Passover, Unleavened Bread
and Pentecost: Now, you take those three Holy Days: the Passover, which is
not a Holy Day, but the two Holy days during Unleavened Bread and
Pentecost—so you actually have four days of observance; because there are
eight Feasts, but there are seven Holy Days, because the Passover is a
Feast, but it’s not a Holy Day. Of all of them, the most confusion comes
with the Passover—and that’s understandable, because Jesus Christ was the
Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world. And look at all the
variations concerning how to take the Passover—even within the Churches of
God.
And then you look in
the world, where they have the Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist or the Mass—and
they take it anytime they want to. So Satan has totally confused the whole
issue concerning it, and the meaning of it. And that’s what Satan wants to
do. If he can move you off the mark, then he can begin introducing some
things which sound plausible, but then are the first steps away toward those
things which lead to apostasy. And we’ve seen this through the Church over
and over again.
There’s also confusion
as to which day of the month, and which day of the week that Jesus was
crucified; how long He was in the tomb; when He was resurrected. So if you
can confuse the whole thing like that, as Satan has done, well then, you
hold people in chains of darkness.
Now then, same way with
the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Some do not reckon the Passover day as a
separate day of Unleavened Bread, so they shorten everything by one day and
start with the 14th as the first day of Unleavened Bread and end
up with the end of the 20th as being the seventh day of
Unleavened Bread—and cut it short. The Jews, on the other hand, what they
do: they have a 15th Passover and so they keep a Feast of eight
days, which ends on the 22nd.
Now then, there are
some who miscount Pentecost when Passover’s on the Sabbath and they count it
from the Sabbath after the Days of Unleavened Bread—and that
creates confusion. And the Jews count from the day after the first Holy
Day—so that causes confusion.
So, Satan does not want
the knowledge of the Passover, Unleavened Bread and Pentecost as shown and
taught in the Bible for people to really understand it—because these are
things which teach us about:
-
why we’re here
-
why we’re called
-
how we can change
-
how we can repent
-
how we have our sins forgiven
-
how we can grow in grace and knowledge
-
how God develops, with His Spirit within
us, His mind and so forth
And so that’s why there’s
so much confusion.
Now, we also have seen
in this series that we have gone through, that there are parallels from the
Old Testament—or types—which then parallel things in the New Testament,
which are anti-types.
So let’s begin in
Deuteronomy 16. Let’s also understand this—and never get it out of our
minds: Whenever it talks about a week in reference to counting
Pentecost, it means a full week—from day one through day
seven; and including day one. And it’s interesting that the word from
also includes. So let’s read it here: Deuteronomy 16:10: “And you shall keep
the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God according to the sufficiency of a
freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give according as the LORD
your God has blessed you…. [And always count that promise. God says He’s
going to provide sufficiency for you.] …And
you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you, and your son, and your
daughter, and your male servant, and your female servant, and the Levite
inside your gates… [Now that’s the retired Levite] …and the stranger, and
the fatherless, and the widow, those among you, in the place which the LORD
your God has chosen to place His name there. And you shall
remember that you were a slave in Egypt. And you shall be careful to
do these statutes” (vs 10-12).
Now, it’s very
interesting that here in the Old Testament, we are to remember, as the
children of Israel, that they were slaves in Egypt. Now let’s also
understand that the New Testament teaches this: That whoever sins is a
servant of sin—and Egypt is a type of sin. So, the spiritual lesson
for us here, out of Deuteronomy 16, is that God brought us out of
spiritual Egypt to bring us into His
presence, to understand His way and become like
Him.
Let’s go back to Exodus
15 and let’s see the journey of the children of Israel after God rescued
them from the last throws of Satan the devil at the Red Sea; and of course,
Pharaoh was inspired by Satan the devil—was a type of Satan the devil—and
the armies that came after the children of Israel were types of Satan’s
legions of demons that go after the people of God to try and destroy them.
So they all drowned. God destroyed every one of them in the Red Sea, when He
closed up the Red Sea after the children of Israel went on dry ground. And
the children of Israel were all happy and thankful and praised God. They
sang songs to Him. The women danced, and it was a joyous occasion. Well,
that soon changed; and so we’re going to see some parallels of our lives
walking toward the goal of the Kingdom of God, which is Mt. Sion—as we will see a little
later. And the parallel of the children of Israel leaving Egypt and coming
through the wilderness to Mt. Sinai where then they received the Ten
Commandments. And we will see, a little later, that the parallel is made by
Paul when he writes in the book of Hebrews.
So let’s see what
happened here. Exodus 15:22: “And Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and
they went out into the wilderness of Shur. And they went three days in the
wilderness and found no water.” Well now, let’s also understand something
else: The climate, at that time, in Egypt and North Africa and the Sinai
Peninsula was entirely different from what it is today. It is called the
wilderness because very few people lived there. And there are parts of
it that were desert, but also it had an awful lot of grasslands. That’s how
they were able to sustain their animals. And don’t forget that across North
Africa, where there is the Sahara Desert today, that was mostly grasslands
and it was the breadbasket for Rome, producing wheat. So if we keep that in
mind then we can understand it’s not quite the barren harshness that we see
today.
But nevertheless, there
wasn’t any water. “And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the
waters of Marah because it was bitter. Therefore the name of it was
called Marah [which means bitter]. And the people murmured against Moses,
saying, ‘What shall we drink?’” (vs 23-24).
So here again, here
again showing the parallel where we have to have faith and trust in God and
believe Him and rely on those promises—and just like we
learned from the last day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, we’re not to
gripe and cry unto God and become negative and just accuse God just because
things happen to be going a little differently than we expected—or, in this
case—considerably different. And just like the children of Israel could have
looked at Pharaoh coming with his armies and said, ‘Lord, we trust You!
Fight for us! We saw what You did to the Egyptians in Egypt and what are
they?’ Now, that would have been an entirely different story. But it gives
us a lesson in faith and belief and trust in God. So likewise here. Instead
of complaining to God because you don’t have something, take it to God in
prayer and ask Him to provide. After all, He’s the God of heaven and earth;
Creator of heaven and earth; made everything that there is; and He can give
whatever He desires.
And if we make our
request known to God, and we love God and are obeying Him, God will grant to
us, according to His will, in a miraculous way. Now, this is what He did for
the children of Israel, even though they complained. So they came to Moses
and said, ‘What shall we drink?’ Probably held up their canteens—not metal
canteens like we know today, but the skins of animals where they filled them
with water. ‘What shall we drink?’
“And he [Moses] cried
to the LORD. And the LORD showed him a tree. And when he had cast it into
the waters, the waters were made sweet. There He made a decree and a law for
them, and there He proved them” (v 25). Great point in understanding; and
what we need to understand which is this: God is going to test us and
try us and prove us.
-
Do we love Him?
-
Do we believe Him?
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Are we faithful to Him?
At all times, under
all circumstances.
And so, this is what happened here.
Now, here’s the
covenant that He made with them; here’s the decree for a law. “And he said,
‘If you will diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD your God… [Key
thing in the Bible, always. We’re going to see this again today. Obey
the voice of God! And today we have all the Word of God; and today
we can obey His voice; and today we have the Holy Spirit in us to lead us!]
…and will do that which is right in His sight, and will give ear to His
commandments… [That is to harken, pay attention to] …and keep all His laws,
I will put none of these diseases upon you, which I have brought upon the
Egyptians; for I am the LORD Who heals you’…. [When
we’re sick we need to go to God and ask for healing. And He is the one Who
heals.] (then it says): …And they came to Elim, where there were
twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees. And they camped there by the
waters” (vs 26-27).
Then Exodus 16
shows—we’ve covered this before so we won’t go into it in detail—but this is
a key, let’s read v 1: “And they took their journey from Elim, and all the
congregation of the children of Israel came into the wilderness of Sin,
which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second
month…” Now the 15th day of the second month was a seventh day,
weekly Sabbath. So we have a chart, along with the series From the Red
Sea to Mt. Sinai, and this shows that you can go back, right from here,
if you have a fixed day of the week in the month, then you can go back and
you will find that the Passover in Egypt was in the middle of the week; and
you will find the sequence counting to Pentecost there and the time that
they got to Mt. Sinai. So we’ll cover that a little bit later.
And here’s where they,
again, complain to God: ‘All we have is this, we don’t have any food, we
want some flesh.’ So God gave it to them. And the key thing that is
important here, in a technical sense, is that this is the only chapter in
the entirety of the Old Testament where God Himself uses, in a chronological
setting, the two Hebrew words related to evening:
-
ba erev—which
shows sunset
-
ben ha arayim—which
he uses after ‘ba erev’
So here is proof in the
Bible, absolute ironclad, that ‘ba erev’ sunset takes place and then
‘ben ha arayim’ follows. And isn’t it interesting how many times people get
between the two evenings mixed up: From noon to sunset; from three to
sunset; from one sunset to another sunset. And when God shows that it’s the
time right after sunset.
Exodus 16 and 17 and 18, then we come to chapter 19 when they arrive at
Mt. Sinai. So let’s come here to
Exodus 19:1—and let’s see how similar this is when we come to [the]
understanding of God’s way. We finally realize that the religions of the
world are wrong. We finally understand that perhaps the Church, if you were
a person who went to church, the church you were going to, really wasn’t
following the Bible; although they use certain parts of the Bible and it
sounded very good, because anyone who starts attending any church has no
knowledge of the Bible whatsoever. And so it sounds good. Just like I got a
letter from a man the other day, he went from pillar to post and church to
church, and even in the Churches of God. And finally has found our website
and his expression was: “Hooray! The Truth at last!” Because he’s tried all
those things, and found out all the difficult problems and interpretations
that different ministers have concerning different things.
Now let’s begin right
here, Exodus 19:1: “In the third month when the children of Israel had gone
forth out of the land of Egypt, on the same day… [Now, this is very
interesting because this Hebrew word means on the same day of the week.
Not the same day of the month. But in the third month on the same day of the
week—which then is a Thursday] …they came to the wilderness of Sinai;
For they had journeyed from Rephidim, and came to the
desert of Sinai, and had pitched
in the wilderness. And Israel camped there in front of the mount” (vs 1-2).
Now, this becomes a historical, singular moment in time that is dramatic and
profound and meaningful for the children of
Israel and their relationship
with God.
Verse 3: “And Moses
went up to God, and the LORD called to him out of the mountain, saying,
‘Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel,
“You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on
eagles’ wings… [Now ‘eagles’ wings’ are a sign of protection. They did not
fly there, but they walked there under God’s protection.] …and brought you
unto Myself”’” (vs 3-4). Now that’s a pretty spectacular thing, isn’t it? To
be brought to God! And that’s what repentance is all about.
And that’s why God draws you. And that’s why you can only come to God the
Father through Jesus Christ. God has to do it! Just like here
He had to rescue the children of Israel out of Egypt and bring them to Sinai, where then He was going to make the covenant
with them and make them His people.
Now let’s read it here:
“‘Now therefore, if you will obey My voice indeed…’” (v 5). We need to
understand the parallel in the New Testament where Jesus said, “The one who
hears My words and practices them, I will liken him to a wise man who built
his house upon a rock.” So likewise the New Testament entails obeying the
voice of the Lord, as well, because it’s of the words of Jesus Christ and of
the inspired writings of the apostles that we have salvation. And we know
that we must use the New and the Old Testaments. And the things in the Old
Testament are given to us as lessons and examples so that we can learn and
not do the things that the children of Israel did. So here’s a spectacular
event that’s going to take place. And He required a very simple thing:
“Obey My voice.” Now, that does not give any limitations as to
what God is going to say. Whatever God says is what they were to obey.
And He says: “Now
therefore, if you will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant… [So now
here is a little add-on: ‘keep My covenant.’] …then you shall be a special
treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine…. [So now
the 12 tribes of Israel were to have a special relationship with God, which
went back to the promises given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And God is
fulfilling them.] …And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy
nation’…” (vs 5-6). So here’s the stated purpose. Here is the beginning of
what you would say, a constitution. Now you can take the United States
Constitution, it starts out concerning God and then God has made all men
equal. And then it continues on: ‘We the people…’ So here is the
Constitution or covenant that God has given to the children of Israel, and
it starts out with God, and obedience and commandment-keeping and then
physical blessings above all the nations of the whole earth, where God
‘created the earth and the fullness thereof.’ God says “The earth is Mine;
the sea is Mine; the gold and silver is Mine; all the human beings on it are
Mine; and all the beasts of the field are Mine; and all the flowers
thereof.” They all belong to God because He made them! So here’s a special
relationship that God was offering to the children of Israel.
“And Moses came and
called for the elders of the people, and laid before them all these words
which the LORD commanded him. And all the people answered together… [Now, we
also will see in just a little bit, that this covenant arrangement was
likened to a marriage arrangement. God would be compared to the husband, and
the children of Israel would be compared to the wife.] (So we have here):
…And all the people answered together and said, ‘All that the LORD has
spoken we will do’…. [So you look at what the marriage ceremony says and
it’s very similar.] …And Moses returned the words of the people to the LORD”
(vs 7-8).
And then He said, ‘Okay
you get ready the third day’ (v 11 paraphrased)—which then would
be, and commonly understood to be, Pentecost. And in the series, From the
Red Sea to Sinai and the accompanying chart, I go through and show that
that is exactly true. So then God gave them His Ten Commandments. You know
them, I won’t go through all of them. And the children of Israel couldn’t
stand to hear His voice, so they said, ‘Moses, you speak to God and you tell
us and we will do it’ (Ex 20:19 paraphrased). So here the
children of Israel could not bear a direct relationship with God. They had
to have a man in between—and that man was Moses. But also it gave them, in
their own carnal minds, someone they could accuse if something went
wrong—which they always did. And you can study the rest of that there.
Now let’s come over to
Exodus 24, and let’s see after God gave the Ten Commandments, the statutes
and the judgments—and remember this: All the statutes and judgments and
ordinances of God are subdivisions of His Ten Commandments. They all get
their authority from the greater law of the Ten Commandments—every single
one of them. And so, if you study the laws and ordinances of God, and want
to do a more intent Bible study, lay out all the Ten Commandments and then
write the subdivision of the statutes and ordinances, which show how to
apply the Ten Commandments in different situations.
Now let’s come over to
Exodus 24 because this becomes the important part of coming to Mt. Sinai.
Verse 1: “And He said to Moses, ‘Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab,
and Abihu… [So you have Aaron and his two sons] …and seventy of the elders
of Israel, and worship afar off.” Now just like in any wedding ceremony, any
covenant, there has to be a witness. And so, these were to be the witnesses
to help lead the people, to help them know and understand that, yes, it was
God Who was on Mt. Sinai; and it was He Who spoke to us; and we did see Him
and enter into this covenant, which then is a marriage arrangement.
God continues, v 2:
“‘And Moses alone shall come near the LORD, but they shall not come near.
Neither shall the people go up with him.’ And Moses came and told the people
all the words of the LORD, and all the judgments…” (v 3). God has full
disclosure. He wants them in covenant, but:
-
He wants them to know what they are to
do.
-
He wants them to know what He will do.
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He wants them to understand that He will
bless them.
-
He wants them to understand that He will
correct them when they disobey.
-
He wants them to understand that just as
there are blessings for obedience and loving God, there are curses for
sinning and going against Him.
-
And we also need to understand, today,
that these laws are living laws, just like the law of gravity—and they
are in effect all of the time.
So, let’s continue on
here: “And Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD, and all
the judgments. And all the people answered with one voice and said, ‘All
the words which the LORD has said, we will do’ (v 3).
Now, hold your place
here because we’ll come back, and let’s come to John, the twelfth chapter.
Let’s see the parallel in the New Testament. Because as we have already
shown, God operates in similar ways, Old Testament and New Testament,
although the difference being in the New Testament is eternal life. And
eternal life, rather than physical life; spiritual blessings now, but great
and awesome spiritual blessings in the resurrection.
Now, let’s pick it up
here: John 12:42—now this becomes something important for us to understand.
We’ll see the same thing here, only the stakes are higher. It’s
eternal life or eternal death for us. For them it was physical life or
physical death—physical blessings or physical cursings. And for us it is
spiritual blessings or spiritual cursings. And the ultimate of spiritual
cursing is being cast into the lake of fire and you’re dead forever.
Now notice the
similarity here—John 12:42: “But even so, many among the rulers believed in
Him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, so that
they would not be put out of the synagogue… [quite a bit of politics
going on here] …For they loved the glory of men more than the glory of God.
Then Jesus called out and said, ‘The one who believes in Me does not believe
in Me, but in Him Who sent Me. And the one who sees Me sees Him Who sent Me.
I have come as a light into the world so that everyone who believes
in Me may not remain in darkness…. [And of course, the ruler of darkness of
this world is Satan the devil.] …But if anyone hears My words and does not
believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to
save the world…. [Now we’re going to see a little bit later what’s going to
judge the individual.] …The one who rejects Me and does not receive My words
has one who judges him; the word which I have spoken, that shall judge him
in the last day…. [So you see the parallels between the Old Testament and
between the New Testament.] …For I have not spoken from Myself; but the
Father, Who sent Me, gave Me commandment Himself, what I should say and what
I should speak. And I know that His commandment is eternal life. Therefore,
whatever I speak, I speak exactly as the Father has told Me’” (vs 42-50).
Now let’s come back and
look at this again, here in Exodus 24:3: “…all the people answered with one
voice and said, ‘All the words which the LORD has said, we will do.’” Now
likewise, when we are baptized we need to understand that we are saying to
God, ‘Yes! I’m entering into a covenant with You. And I’m dying this
symbolic death in the watery grave of baptism so that I can rise out of it
and walk in newness of life and walk in Your way, with Your Spirit to
lead us, and to obey Your voice and to love You with all my heart and mind
and soul and being.’
Now, back here to
Exodus 24:4: “And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early
in the morning, and built an altar at the base of the mountain and twelve
pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel. And he sent young men of
the children of Israel who offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of bullocks
to the LORD. And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basins,
and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. And he took the book of the
covenant, and read in the ears of the people. And they said, ‘All that the
LORD has said we will do, and be obedient.’ And Moses took the blood and
sprinkled it on the people, and said, ‘Behold the blood of the
covenant, which the LORD has made with you concerning all these words’” (vs
4-8). Now, same way with us. Our sins are forgiven through the blood of
Jesus Christ. And that’s why it talks about the sprinkling of the blood that
speaks of better things than that of Abel—which we’ll see a little later.
So what happened after
this? “And Moses went up, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the
elders of Israel. And they saw the God of Israel. And there was under
His feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone…” (vs 9-10). So they
were looking through that. They saw the similitude of God. God wanted these
men to be there: Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, as well as Moses, and the 70 elders of
Israel to be confirming
witnesses of this covenant between God and the people. That yes, the people
were here and yes, God was up there on Mt. Sinai, and yes, we did see Him.
Now, let’s look at
something very, very important here, because this relates to the Sea of
Glass as we have already covered, but I just want to emphasized it here. “…a
paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the heavens in clearness….
[That is a sea of glass. And God put it there. He walked on it. They could
see Him, so that there would be no doubt that it was God!] …And upon the
nobles of the children of Israel He did not lay his hands. Also they saw
God, and ate and drank” (vs 10-11). Now since this is a marriage covenant,
which took place shortly after receiving the Ten Commandments—which were
given on Pentecost. Here we have a parallel between the covenant with
God—which was a marriage covenant; and a spiritual fulfillment—which we’ll
see later in the New Testament—having to do with the marriage of the Lamb
and His bride. And there is a ‘wedding supper.’ So this was a type. The
marriage of the Lamb and the Church is the anti-type.
So this is what is
exciting about the Bible. What is in the Old Testament is amplified in the
New. What is the letter of the law in the Old Testament is now the spirit of
the law in the New Testament. But it all gets down to the same basic
premise: “If you will, indeed, obey My voice.” Exactly the
same thing.
Now let’s continue on:
After they had wandered 40 years in the wilderness because of the sins that
they had. We won’t review any of those, I’ll let you do all of that reading.
But that is really a good example for us, that we don’t sin after the way
that they sinned. And all of them have to do, as we’ll see a little bit
later, that some of the very same sins that happened in the Churches of God.
All right, let’s come
to Deuteronomy 4:10—So Moses is saying that he wants them: “‘To
remember the day that you stood before the LORD your God in Horeb, when the
LORD said to me, “Gather the people to Me, and I will make them hear My
words so that they may learn to fear Me all the days that they shall live
upon the earth, and they may teach their children.” And you came near and
stood at the bottom of the mountain. And the mountain burned with fire up to
the midst of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness. And
the LORD spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the voice of
the words, but saw no likeness, only a voice. And He declared to you His
covenant which He commanded you to perform, even the ten
commandments…. [Now, this verifies what I explained earlier: all the
statutes and judgments and ordinances and lesser laws come from the Ten
Commandments and are subdivisions of it.] … And He wrote them on two tablets
of stone” (vs 10-13).
Now, let’s come down
here to v 32—let’s see what God encouraged them to do. Let’s see how
fantastic this was for the children of Israel. And with it I want you draw
another parallel: that if this was so awesome and fantastic with them, what
God has done with us to draw us near Him; and what God has done with us to
give us His Spirit so that He can dwell in us. So let’s look at it,
beginning in v 32: “For ask now of the days past which were before you,
since the day that God created man upon the earth, and from the one end of
the heavens to the other end of the heavens, where there has been any thing
as great as this… [coming to Mt. Sinai and hearing God speak!] …or has been
heard any thing like it. Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking
out of the midst of the fire as you have heard and live? Or has any god
attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another
nation by trials, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty
hand, and by a outstretched arm, and by great awe-inspiring terrors,
according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your
eyes?” (vs 32-34).
Now let’s also
understand something, too. Let’s look at the parallels which are going to
happen at the end. All of the same signs and wonders that God used to
display to the children of Israel in preparing them to bring them out of the
land of Egypt, God is going to bring upon this world so that the world can
see and so that we can see and know that God is doing awesome things, and is
bringing the first resurrection and we’re going to be a part of it!
And that’s why we are to love God and have a passion and have a zeal for
God! It’s greater than this.
Now, v 35: “It was
shown to you so that you might know that the LORD is God, and
there is none other beside Him. He made you hear His voice out of
heaven so that He might teach you. And He showed you His great fire upon the
earth. And you heard His words out of the midst of the fire. And because He
loved your fathers… [Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And isn’t that the same thing
upon which the New Covenant promises are based? To Abraham, Isaac and to
Jacob? Yes, indeed!] …because He loved your fathers, therefore He
chose their seed after them, and brought you out in His sight with His
great power out of Egypt…” (vs 35-37). So that’s really quite
something!
Let’s come over here to
Deuteronomy, the fifth chapter. He reiterates again, the Ten Commandments.
And he also reiterates the same thing: how great it was that God talked with
them. Now, Deuteronomy 5:28—Now today, if we will hear His voice—that’s what
Paul wrote: Today if we will hear His voice, harden not your heart—as
they did in the wilderness. “And the LORD heard the voice of your words when
you spoke to me. And the LORD said to me, ‘I have heard the voice of the
words of this people, which they have spoken to you. They have well said
all that they have spoken…. [They were well-intentioned.] …Oh, that there
were such a heart in them that they would fear Me and keep all My
commandments always, so that it might be well with them and with their
children forever!” (vs 28-29). See, today we have the heart to love and obey
God, because of the New Covenant. They never had that opportunity—never had
it at all.
Let’s come here to
Deuteronomy 7:7—and here’s what we need to do: “The LORD did not set His
love upon you nor choose you because you were more in number than any
people, for you were the fewest of all people.” [Likewise with us.
God didn’t call us because we’re great, mucky-mucks in the world. He didn’t
call us because we have talents and abilities. Why would He depend upon
talents and abilities that we may think we have when God can make stones
speak, jackasses talk, and Balaam—who was paid to curse to bless? So we need
to understand that. God hasn’t called us because we have some great inherent
thing that God Himself needed!
No, God has called us,
v 8: “But because the LORD loved you and because He would keep
the oath which He had sworn to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out
with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondage from the
hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Therefore, know that the LORD your God,
He is God, the faithful God Who keeps covenant and mercy
with them that love Him and keep His commandments, to a thousand
generations…. [And if a generation is 25 years, that’s 25,000 years! That’s
well beyond the history of the world, as we know it today, right? Yes!]
…And he repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will
not be slow to repay him who hates Him. He will repay him to his face. You
shall therefore keep the commandments and the statutes and the judgments
which I command you today to do them. And it shall come to pass, if
you hearken to these judgments to keep and practice them, then the
LORD your God shall keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore
to your fathers” (vs 8-12). Compare that with the New Covenant.
“And He will love you
and bless you and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb,
and the fruit of your land, your grain, and your wine, and your oil, the
increase of your cattle and the flocks of your sheep, in the land which He
swore to your fathers to give you. You shall be blessed above all
people” (vs 13-14). That’s something!
Now, we’re going to see
what this means spiritually with the New Covenant. We’re going to do a
little more history, and then we’re going to go to the New Testament.
(go
to the next track)
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