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Redeemer Bible Church
Unreserved Accountability to Christ.
Undeserved Acceptance from Christ
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A Climax of the Exodus
Exodus 24:1-18
Introduction
Not too long ago I had a conversation with Jason Dailey, one of our pastoralcandidates about his rabid distaste for movies. Though he’ll watch them from time totime, his overall feeling is, and I quote, “I can’t stand them.” I, on the other hand, am asucker for a good story. They rope me in every time.Well, even though we do not share a love of films, we do share one thing incommon: we both do not like to watch a movie once it’s started.Maybe you’re one of those people who flip through the channels, find a moviewell underway, and stop to watch it conclude—even if you’ve never seen it before.Now I enjoy movies, but I honestly can’t understand how you can do this.Movies, like all stories, have what’s called an exposition. The exposition of a story isthe beginning, the part that sets up who the characters are, why we should care aboutthem, what they’re doing, and where they’re going. Start a story at the climax, and theclimax, no matter how fantastic, and you’ll miss its force.Well, whenever you preach through a narrative book of the Bible, like the book ofExodus, you run into this problem. For our part, we have spent almost three yearspreaching through a story that can be read by the average reader in a little over twohours. Now we’re at chapter 24 of 40. Picking things up in Chapter 24, therefore, is alot like joining a movie at the climax—you’ll miss its force.So what I’d like to do with you this morning is to reorient you to the narrative ofExodus by retelling the story.
Retelling the Story
Through God’s providence in the ministry of Joseph in Egypt, the descendants ofAbraham, Isaac, and Jacob have become exceedingly numerous, living in the Egyptianland of Goshen.When a new Pharaoh came to power, one who did not care to rememberJoseph’s work to save Egypt and make it prosperous, Israel began to suffer.The new Pharaoh did everything he could to try to exterminate the rabbit-likemultiplication of the children of Abraham. He enslaved them, forcing them to engage in
Exodus 24:1-18: A Climax of the Exodus © 2006 by R W Glenn
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hard labor, and still they multiplied. He tried to convince the Hebrew midwives to kill theinfant sons of their people, but they were too shrewd for him. And Israel continued tomultiply.Finally, the new Pharaoh commanded all his people to drown every Hebrew babyboy in the Nile, and although many died, one particular Hebrew boy survived—a boywhose survival would mean the deliverance of his people. His name was Moses.Ironically, Moses would be reared in Pharaoh’s house and given all the privilegesof Egyptian education and culture. But one day, Moses went out to check on thecondition of his fellow Israelites, only to find them being cruelly treated and oppressed.In fact, he became so enraged that he killed one of the Egyptian taskmasters and buriedhim in the sand, hoping to allay suspicion and cover up the murder.But the matter became known to Pharaoh, and Moses, the Israelite, was forcedto flee for his life.While in hiding, in exile, Moses chased a stray sheep of his father-in-law’s flockto a mountain. There he found a bush that was on fire but was not burned up—it justkept burning and burning. As he moved to inspect it more closely, he heard a voice callhis name from the midst of the bush saying,
“Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for theplace on which you are standing is holy ground.
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…I am the God of your father,the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob….I have surelyseen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to theircry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings. So I havecome down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring themup from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk andhoney, to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and thePerizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite.
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Now, behold, the cry of the sons ofIsrael has come to Me; furthermore, I have seen the oppression with which theEgyptians are oppressing them.
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Therefore, come now, and I will send you toPharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt”(Exodus 3:5-10).
And although Moses was not at first prepared to heed God’s call, he finallysubmitted himself to the Lord’s command and returned to a Pharaoh with the samepolicy toward the Israelites as his predecessor.The Lord sent Moses to Pharaoh with one message: “Thus says the Lord, ‘Letmy people go that they may worship me.’” In fact, Moses repeats this message inessentially the same way some fourteen times!
On behalf of the Lord, Moses tellsPharaoh fourteen times, “Let my people go that they may worship me.”
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Exodus 3:18; 4:23; 5:1, 3; 7:16; 8:1, 20, 26-27, 29; 9:1, 13; 10:3, 9, 25-26.Exodus 24:1-18: A Climax of the Exodus © 2006 by R W Glenn
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Now the worship to which the Lord was referring was worship in the desert atMount Sinai, the very mountain on which the Lord appeared to Moses in the burningbush. In fact, arriving at Sinai to worship the Lord would be one of the signs indicatingto the people that the Lord had selected Moses as his ambassador before the people.In Exodus 3:12 the Lord says, “Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign toyou that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, youshall worship God at this mountain.”Well, after dazzling and terrifying Israel and Egypt with cataclysmic andcatastrophic plagues of judgment on the Egyptians, after parting the Red Sea anddestroying the Egyptian army in its wake, after providing food and water for Israel in thedesert, and after delivering Israel from a marauding band of Amalekites, the peoplefinally arrive at their first significant destination, the destination to which God promisedMoses he would bring his people—Mount Sinai.Turn with me in your Bibles to
Exodus 19
and read the
first two verses
with me.
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In the third month after the sons of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, onthat very day they came into the wilderness of Sinai.
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When they set out from Rephidim,they came to the wilderness of Sinai and camped in the wilderness; and there Israelcamped in front of the mountain.
Notice how many times the wilderness and the mountain are mentioned:
In thethird month after the sons of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that veryday they came into the wilderness of Sinai. When they set out from Rephidim,they came to the wilderness of Sinai and camped in the wilderness; and thereIsrael camped in front of the mountain
.God promised that he would deliver his people from Pharaoh to this mountain inthe wilderness to worship him. Thus the climax of the Exodus from Egypt has nearlyarrived: the people are at the mountain in the desert and they’re about to worship theLord there.Nevertheless, it is not this chapter that records that worship; it’s chapter 24. Andit’s where we find ourselves this morning—at the climax of the narrative.Turn ahead there with me and let’s read the text together.
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Then He said to Moses, "Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab andAbihu and seventy of the elders of Israel, and you shall worship at a distance.
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"Mosesalone, however, shall come near to the LORD, but they shall not come near, nor shallthe people come up with him."
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Then Moses came and recounted to the people all thewords of the LORD and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voiceand said, "All the words which the LORD has spoken we will do!"
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Moses wrote down allthe words of the LORD. Then he arose early in the morning, and built an altar at the footof the mountain with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.
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he sent young men ofthe sons of Israel, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as peace
Exodus 24:1-18: A Climax of the Exodus © 2006 by R W Glenn
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A Climax to Exodus
By: R. W. Glenn
August 20, 2006
Exodus 24:1-18
August 20, 2006
Exodus 24:1-18
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