Omc: Family Chapel

God provides further instructions regarding the priesthood. Through these instructions we learn that Israel's high priest was to make atonement for sins, make known God's will, and make intercession through prayer. Under the new covenant, Jesus ultimately fulfills those priestly roles as our Great High Priest. As such, we can draw near to God with confidence and serve as a royal priesthood.

After confirming covenant with the people, God has Moses come back up Mt. Sinai. For the next 40 days, God provides detailed instructions regarding two very important things for Israel to establish moving forward: the Tabernacle and the priesthood. The Tabernacle was a tent that housed God's presence to dwell among the people. Through the instructions that are given regarding the Tabernacle, we learn some important theological truths: God desires to dwell with His people, God's presence requires holiness, and God's plan is to restore creation. Ultimately, Jesus is the True Tabernacle through whom God dwells with His people, provides holiness for access, and secures redemption for all creation.

God confirms covenant with His people as the book of the covenant is read, the blood of the covenant is sprinkled, and the bread of the covenant is eaten. Through this covenant confirmation ceremony, we see parallels for how we ourselves confirm our covenant with God in Christ. We confirm our covenant as we submit to God's instructions, rest in God's atonement, and enjoy fellowship in God's presence. As such, when we gather together for our Sunday worship services, we are in a very real sense renewing our covenant with God. Week after week, we confirm that He is our God and that we are His people.

After God provides the various case laws and applications, God promises his people the blessings that will come with faithfulness. God promises his people his own presence and guidance, a future home, victory over enemies, and prosperity to thrive. And the wonderful truth is that God provides and promises these things for us under the New Covenant as well but to a greater and more glorious degree. But to truly enjoy and thrive in these promises of God, we must cast off every compromise and idol and remain faithful to God alone.

God provides Israel a series of illustrative case laws to help them pursue justice in the contexts of everyday life. While these regulations are given to Israel under a particular covenant in a particular place during a particular time, we can still draw out some important principles that shed light on how we are to pursue justice in our own contexts. We learn from the "Book of the Covenant" that our pursuit of justice must build on the foundation of God's justice, recognize the dignity of each person, uphold the importance of fair restitution, and show special care and concern for the vulnerable.

This second half of the Ten Commandments can be summarized as a call to love your neighbor. God is pursuing communal formation in providing instructions on how to rightly relate to our horizontal relationships. More than seeking to provide a detailed list of rules to follow, God is aiming to form a people who are marked by humility, forgiveness, purity, generosity, truthfulness, and satisfaction.

God gives his people the 10 commandments and we will look at the first four. These four commandments describe the vertical relationship between God and His people. There must be no other gods than Yahweh, and we must worship and honor him supremely. Our vertical relationship with God then forms the basis and foundation for all our horizontal relationship and with life itself.

The Israelites finally arrive at Mt. Sinai where they meet with God in order to be officially established as a nation. But as God descends on Mt. Sinai to renew covenant with His people, His presence proves to be dangerous. The only way for God's people to draw near to the dangerous God is through a mediator who provides consecration.

Before the Israelites arrive at Mt. Sinai, where they will enter into a covenant with God and be officially inaugurated as a nation, Moses' father-in-law visits Moses. In this seemingly random story, we gain important insights into the mission of God's people. The mission of God’s people is to make God known through the ministries of evangelism and discipleship. We are to make God known as we tell others about God's salvation and as we help others to grow in God's instructions.

As the Israelites continue to make their way through the Wilderness, they are attacked by the Amalekites and for the first time, they have to engage in military battle. As Moses lifts up his hands in prayer, the Israelites defeat the Amalekites because the battle belongs to the Lord. Likewise for us, we too face battles, but our battles are in the realm of spiritual warfare. We can experience victory through God's mighty power as we touch his throne through prayer.

After experiencing God's amazing work of salvation through the crossing of the Red Sea and with pharaoh and Egypt now behind them, the Israelites might have expected a smooth journey to the Promised Land. But God tests His people by bringing them into various challenging situations. However, this testing is not for their salvation, rather it is for their sanctification. God puts His people to the test in order to mature them by growing their knowledge of His character and deepening their experience of His grace.

As the Israelites have been safely delivered across the Red Sea and saw their old masters in the waters behind them, they break out into song and worship. As they have just experienced salvation, we now see them celebrate salvation. Much in the same way it was for the Israelites, song and worship is a pivotal part of the lives of God's people as we declare and remember God's victory and deliverance with awe and joy.

After leading the people out of Egypt, God carries out his final act of deliverance to free the Israelites from Egypt: the parting of the Red Sea. Through this passage, we see the Israelites experience salvation in the face of death as they are pursued by pharaoh, by placing their faith in God, through the help of Moses as a mediator. And likewise for us, we experience salvation when we come to the end of ourselves as we put our trust in God through the mediating ministry of Jesus.

God brings forth the final plague to deliver His people out from Egypt. This exodus is a pivotal event of salvation and it sheds light on what it means for God to save His people. We see that salvation means we are rescued from sin through God's merciful provision of a substitute. Salvation means that we are commissioned to a new beginning and called to turn away from our old way of life. Salvation means we are consecrated to God for a life of faithful service. Ultimately, Exodus points forward to the Gospel with Jesus as our true Passover Lamb who serves as our substitute sacrifice, who leads us into a new way of life, and who calls us to serve His Kingdom.

God will wage war against Pharoah and all the false gods of Egypt and bring judgment so that all may know that he is the sovereign God Yahweh. He is the one who will also fully deliver and bring His people out from Egypt as he had promised. As we navigate through the cycle of plagues and Pharoah's stubborn heart, we will see God deliver his people with a mighty hand and outstretched arm. And His deliverance is absolutely powerful, total, and gracious.

Moses moves forward with the call of God on his life, but instead of seeing immediate results, things seem to backfire. Not only does pharaoh reject Moses' call to let the Israelites go, the Israelites themselves start to turn on Moses as they are faced with harsher working conditions. Oftentimes, carrying out God's call on our lives does not go smoothly. But what appears to be "failure" is actually fruitful action as God works through our faithfulness. If we want to faithfully follow through with God’s call even in the face of failure, we need to turn our face to God.

After receiving his extraordinary call from God to rescue the Israelites out of Egypt, we might imagine Moses to be filled with excitement, but Moses is instead filled with dread and doubt. He lists out multiple objections to God's call on his life. But with each objection, God invites Moses to trust in His provision. And in exercising trust, Moses is invited to move forward in obedience. Trust and obey - that's the appropriate response to God's call on our lives.

During his Midian experience, Moses has an encounter with the living God. God reveals Himself to Moses as "I am who I am". Through this encounter we see the God who is utterly holy draw near with compassion and faithfulness to his people. And when we encounter God, not only do we get a clearer picture as to who God is, but we also get a clearer picture as to who we are and to what God calls us to.

In the face of deep despair, there is a glimmer of hope with the birth of a baby boy. Everything about Moses' birth narrative points to the makings of a great hero. However, Moses seeks to take matters into his own hands and carry out God's work in his own way. He ends up fleeing to the land of Midian, where he receives preparation to rightly carry out God's call on his life. If we want to faithfully carry out God's call on our lives, we need to patiently embrace the Midian Experience - the detours of life that lead us into obscurity and humility that ultimately teach us to carry out God's work in God's way.

For this Sunday, we will look at chapter 1 that sets the context and picks up the story of the Israelites in Egypt after many generations have passed from Genesis. Through the oppression of Egypt, the Israelites face bondage and suffering. God will then initiate his plan to deliver his people and fulfill his promise for them. In similar ways to our own story, through Exodus 1 we will explore the bondage that God calls us out from, the suffering we can confidently face, and the faithfulness we can live out in suffering.