Will you please turn to Exodus, Chapter 3?
We begin with Exodus 3:2-10.
And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush:
and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
And Moses said, I will turn aside now, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.
And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses.
And he said, Here am I.
And He said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.
Moreover He said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.
And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of My people that are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows.
And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
And now, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto Me: moreover I have seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them.
Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.
The same book, Exodus 15, beginning with Verse 13.
Thou in Thy lovingkindness hast led the people that Thou hast redeemed:
Thou hast guided them in Thy strength to Thy holy habitation.
The peoples have heard, they tremble:
Pangs have taken hold on the inhabitants of Philistia.
Then were the chiefs of Edom amazed;
The mighty men of Moab, trembling taketh hold upon them:
All the inhabitants of Canaan are melted away.
Terror and dread falleth upon them;
By the greatness of Thine arm they are as still as a stone;
Till Thy people pass over, O Lord,
Till the people pass over which Thou hast purchased.
Thou wilt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance,
The place, O Lord, which Thou hast made for Thee to dwell in,
The sanctuary, O Lord, which Thy hands have established.
The Lord shall reign for ever and ever.
Now Exodus 19:1-6.
In the third month after the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai.
And when they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the wilderness of Sinai, they encamped in the wilderness; and there Israel encamped before the mount.
And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel:
Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto Myself.
Now therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be Mine own possession from among all peoples: for all the earth is Mine:
and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
And finally, Exodus 40:34-35.
Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of meeting, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
Shall we pray?
Dear heavenly Father, we do commit Thy Word into Thy hands and ask Thee to break it, to bless it, and to give it to us. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
Exodus is the volume of Moses’ Pentateuch. In Genesis, we see the will of God—how His will is centered upon man: the man after His own heart, the corporate man, Christ and His church.
Exodus, the second book, tells us of the works of God. What God has promised by His Word, He is to accomplish by His own work.
Exodus follows very closely after Genesis. If you read the end of Genesis, you find that Joseph passed away when he was one hundred and ten years old. He was embalmed and put in a coffin in Egypt.
Then, when you open Exodus, you find it said in the beginning that these are the people who went down to Egypt; and Joseph died, and his brethren, and that whole generation. So immediately you see the connection between Genesis and Exodus. As a matter of fact, Exodus is a continuation of the history that begins in Genesis.
Now, this book of Exodus—the word exodus means “way out,” or “departure.” In this book, you see how the children of Israel, who were in Egypt as slaves, were delivered. They came out of Egypt, and God led them on until finally they arrived at the promised land.
This history, written in the Word of God, is definitely for our admonition. You remember Romans 15:4. It is said that the things written in the Scriptures were written for our instruction, that through patience and through comfort of the Scriptures we might have hope.
Again, in 1 Corinthians 10:11, we find that these things happened as types for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come. So, dear brothers and sisters, let us remember that we are not just studying history. It is history, but this history is in the Bible, in the Word of God, because it serves as a type for us today.
In the deliverance of the children of Israel out of Egypt, we see how God delivers us out of sin, death, Satan, and the world. So it should be something personal to us. We should not approach the Book of Exodus just as history, but we should see in that history our story. That is the purpose of this book of Exodus.
Exodus can be roughly divided into three parts.
The first part is from Chapter 1 through Chapter 5. On the one hand, it is bondage; yet on the other hand, we see the redeemer.
The second part is from Chapter 6 through Chapter 18. This is the story of deliverance, and it tells us of redemption.
Then, from Chapter 19 through Chapter 40, we have revelation. Through this revelation, we see the redeemed people. So, roughly, this is what you find in the Book of Exodus.
In the first part, you find the children of Israel in Egypt. We remember in Genesis how Jacob, with his family, went to Egypt to be preserved from the famine. At that time, Joseph was the prime minister in Egypt, and they had a very good time there.
But the Bible tells us that after Joseph died, and his brethren and that generation, a new king came to the throne. The Jewish historian Josephus tells us that it was a new dynasty. So the new king did not know Joseph or what Joseph had done for Egypt.
During that period, God blessed the children of Israel in Egypt. It is really interesting to see. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob sojourned in the promised land, and during their sojourning God blessed them. But so far as population was concerned, after all those years of sojourning, when they entered Egypt, there were only seventy-five persons—not many.
They lived in peace and prosperity, yet the population was very, very limited: only seventy-five people. But after they entered Egypt, God began to multiply them. During those years in Egypt, especially when they were under persecution and oppression, the number grew so much that when they came out of Egypt, the men numbered six hundred thousand.
If you include the children, the women, and the mixed multitude that came out with them, they probably amounted to two million or two and a half million. So you do see how the Lord worked. The promise of the Lord is true. Even in such great persecution, God quickly multiplied the people from a family into a nation.
But when they were in Egypt, as they multiplied under the blessing of God, the new king was alarmed because he saw that they were getting stronger and stronger. So he began to adopt measures to oppress them. He put them into hard labor to build cities, canals, and things like that.
Even so, the people continued to multiply. So he ordered that every male child born must be thrown into the River Nile. It was genocide, intended to terminate the race of the children of Israel. But it did not succeed. The people continued to multiply.
Nevertheless, the children of Israel were under great pressure, and they cried unto God because of their afflictions. Unknown to them, God was preparing a savior in the person of Moses.
We are all familiar with the story of Moses: how he was born into a Levite family; how his parents, out of the fear of God, kept their child for three months; and then, when they could not do it any longer, they made an ark, put the child in it, and placed it in the River Nile.
Pharaoh’s daughter came to bathe, saw the basket, and asked her maid to take it. When the basket was opened, the baby cried, and it touched the heart of this woman. So she adopted Moses as her son.
Josephus, the Jewish historian, tells us that the name of Pharaoh’s daughter was Thermuthis, and that the king during whose reign Moses was raised was Rameses II. So Moses lived in the palace.
Only when he was very little was his mother nursing him, and yet during that short period somehow the mother was able to share with this little child about God and God’s purpose. So when he grew up in the palace, he learned all the learning of Egypt. He was mighty in words and in deeds.
But when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to go out and visit his brethren. He saw how an Egyptian was beating a Hebrew, so he beat that Egyptian to death and buried him in the sand.
The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews quarrelling with each other. He tried to use his eloquence to bring in peace, but he was rejected by his own people. The news spread abroad, and he fled for his life.
He failed in his first attempt. God allowed him to fail because he was doing it in his own strength.
Then you remember how forty years he was in the wilderness, shepherding sheep. There he unlearned all he had learned in Egypt, and he learned directly from God.
When he was eighty years old—the year that he himself said is the end of life, because in Psalm 90 he said that the lifespan of a person is seventy years, and if by reason of strength, eighty years—Moses was eighty years old. He thought that was the end of his life.
He gave up every hope of being used by God to deliver his people. But when he was at his end, God had His beginning. So God apprehended him. God revealed Himself to him in a burning bush—the bush was burning, but it was not consumed, because God was there. God called Moses and sent him to Egypt to deliver His own people.
Now, dear brothers and sisters, here we see an analogy of God’s love for us today. Before we knew the Lord Jesus, we were in this world under the control and domination of the prince of this world.
Who is the prince of this world, the god of this age? The adversary, Satan. All who are born into this world are under the tyranny of this god of the world, the prince of this world, Satan.
He is so cruel. He puts us all into hard labor. Brothers and sisters, life is very hard. We work hard in order to make a living, and he takes up all our time so that we have no strength to think of spiritual things, no strength even to think of our souls.
That is the trick of the enemy. He makes us so occupied with making a living, a hard living, that we are not able even to think of God or think of our souls. And not only that, his purpose is to put us to death.
He knows that he is destined for hell, and he wants company. He wants to get as many as he can to be his company in hell. Remember, hell was not created for man. God did not make hell for man. Hell was made for Satan, but Satan tries to get as many as possible to be with him.
That is what is happening. The Bible says that we were dead in sins and transgressions. That was our condition. We were helpless and hopeless.
But, dear brothers and sisters, without our knowledge God was preparing our Savior. In the fullness of time, He sent His Son into this world, born of a woman, born under the law, that He might deliver us out of the curse of the law, that we might receive sonship.
So we thank God that He prepared the Savior for us. Christ has come into this world.
This is the story we find in the first part: the redeemer. Now, brothers and sisters, of course we know that our Lord Jesus is greater than Moses. Moses was the savior of the children of Israel, but our Lord Jesus is the Savior of the world.
In Moses’ life, he failed once. But in the life of our Lord Jesus, He never fails. Our Lord Jesus once died for us, and eternal redemption was accomplished. How we thank God for our Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior.
In the second part of Exodus, we find deliverance. It is from Chapter 6 through Chapter 18. God sent Moses to Egypt to deliver the people.
So Moses went to Pharaoh and said, “God says, ‘Let My people go, that they may serve Me.’” But Pharaoh would not think of that. He would not let the people go.
So God used plague after plague—altogether ten plagues—in order to force Pharaoh to let God’s people go. Through these ten plagues, God destroyed not only Egypt, but also the gods of Egypt. Every plague had something to do with the deities, the idols, that the Egyptians worshipped.
Pharaoh would not yield until finally the last plague: the slaying of the firstborn. On that night, the angel of God passed through the whole land of Egypt and slew all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh to the firstborn of the slaves, and all the firstborn of the cattle and the flocks.
But God prepared a way for the children of Israel. We all know it was the Passover lamb. God told the children of Israel that every family must prepare a lamb on the tenth day of the first month. It must be a spotless lamb, and they were to keep the lamb for four days.
Then, on the fourteenth day, between the two evenings, every family was to gather in the house. They were to kill the lamb, and the blood of the lamb was to be put on the lintel and the doorposts. The whole family was to remain within the house, roast the lamb, and eat its flesh.
When the angel passed through the land that night, whenever he saw blood on the door, he passed over. If there was no blood on the door, he would go in and slay the firstborn.
This is Passover. All the children of Israel, in obedience to God’s Word, gathered together in the house. They put the blood on the doorpost and the lintel, and all the firstborn of the children of Israel were preserved. It was by that blood that God saved them.
But not only the blood—they had to eat the flesh of the lamb. Why? Because they were ready to march out of Egypt. The meat gave them strength. They ate it in haste because God was going to bring them out. They ate the meat, and they came out of Egypt.
Now, brothers and sisters, again we find an analogy between their deliverance and our deliverance. How are we delivered?
We are delivered not by corruptible things, silver or gold, as Peter says, but we are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb without spot and without blemish, even the blood of Christ—1 Peter 1:18-19.
We are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. All other methods are of no avail. Only by the blood of the Lamb are we passed over.
Brothers and sisters, let us remember: there is only one way. If destruction and death are to pass over us, there is only one way, and it is by the blood of the Lamb.
Thank God, the Lamb was slain two thousand years ago. When our Lord Jesus was crucified on Calvary’s cross, He shed His blood there. His blood has already been shed. But the question is: Have we applied that blood to our hearts?
The children of Israel could have killed the lamb, but if they forgot to put the blood on the doorpost, the angel would still go in and slay the firstborn. The redemption of our Lord Jesus is sufficient for all the world. His blood is more than sufficient for the remission of the sins of the whole world.
But why is it that some people’s sins are forgiven and other people’s sins are not forgiven? It is not because of the insufficiency of the blood of the Lord Jesus. It is because some people have applied that blood to their hearts, and other people refuse to do that.
Have you sprinkled the blood upon the conscience of your heart? Only the blood of our Lord Jesus is able to cleanse our conscience from our sins. Only the blood of the Lord Jesus satisfies the righteousness of God, and only the blood of Jesus shuts up the mouth of the accuser, Satan.
How precious is the blood of our Lord Jesus. We are saved; our sins are forgiven by the blood of our Lord Jesus. But that is not all.
It is the will of God in redemption that we not only have the blood of the Lord Jesus; we also have the meat. The Lord Jesus said, “Drink My blood, and eat My flesh, and you will have eternal life in you; and in the last day, I will raise you from the dead.”
So, brothers and sisters, not only has the blood of the Lord Jesus washed and cleansed us, satisfied God’s demand, and shut Satan’s mouth, but the life of the Lord Jesus, represented by His flesh, is now in us.
By faith, we have received the Lord Jesus. He is now our life. He is now our strength, and by His life we are able to walk out of the world and walk into heaven. Remember this: we have the life of the Lord Jesus in us, and it is only by that life that we are able to go through this world until finally we arrive at our home.
You will remember that when Moses was trying to get the people out, Pharaoh would not let them go. When pressure began to come upon Pharaoh, he tried to bargain and negotiate.
Again and again, when a plague came and he could not stand it any longer, he said, “I am wrong. Take the plague away, and I will let you go.” But when the plague was removed, he would again refuse to let them go.
Then another plague came, and Pharaoh was under pressure. He said, “All right, if you want to serve God, serve Him here. Serve Him here. Do not go, but serve Him here.”
Moses said, “No. We cannot keep the feast of the Lord here in Egypt, because we may sacrifice things that are an abomination to the Egyptians, and we will be stoned. We cannot serve God here. We must go three days’ journey in order to keep the feast of the Lord.”
Then Pharaoh said, “All right, if you must go, then do not go too far away. Just stay close by.” Moses said, “No, we have to go three days’ journey.”
Then Pharaoh asked, “Who are going?” Moses said, “We, the men and the women, the old and the young, our daughters and our sons, our flocks and our herds—all will go.”
Pharaoh said, “No, no, no. You men want to serve God? All right, you go, but leave the family here.” Moses said, “No, it cannot be done.” Then Pharaoh said, “All right, you go with your sons and your daughters, but leave your herds and flocks here.” Moses said, “No, not even a hoof. Everything must go.”
Finally, on that night of the Passover, Pharaoh said, “All right, you go. Go quickly, go quickly.” So they all went.
Is this not a lesson for us today? You find how Satan tries to hold on to us.
Dear brothers and sisters, why are we saved? Why does God save us in the first place? God does not save us merely that we may be free. Yes, we are free, but God does not save us simply that we may be free to live in the way we want to live.
No. “Let My people go, that they may serve Me.” Once we served Satan and the world, but now God says, “Let My people go, that they may serve Me.” No one in bondage can serve God.
God needs free people. Only when we are set free are we able to serve God. The purpose of life is to serve God and to worship Him. That is the purpose of life.
But how can we serve if we are not free? How can we serve in the world if we are still in Egypt? There is no way to serve, because the Egyptians will interfere with our service. They say, “No, not this way. This is a better way to do it.”
Unfortunately, Christianity today is in the world, trying to serve God in the world. No wonder all these worldly things, all these worldly methods, and the ingenuity of men have dominated the service of Christianity. You cannot serve God in the world. You have to be separated.
Now, who is going to serve God? Dear brothers and sisters, God’s salvation is household salvation. In other words, the Passover lamb was one lamb for one house. If that household was too small, other people could join them to make up that house; but it was a lamb for a house.
That is the salvation of God. God’s salvation is not only for the man, not only for the woman, not only for the old, but also for the young; not only for the parents, but also for the sons and daughters; and not only that, even the herds and flocks.
In other words, in the redemption of God, He has redeemed us completely: the whole house, with all that God has blessed us with.
Dear brothers and sisters, it is the will of God that not only we men serve God, and not only the women serve God, but that our children serve God too. Not only are our children to serve God, but we are to serve God with all the blessings, all the things, that God has blessed us with. They are His by right.
We need to present all—ourselves, our family, our children, and our things—to God and let Him be served. That is the way we keep the feast of the Lord. Thank God, you find that everybody and everything left.
The children of Israel not only had that Passover so that they were not dead, but they ate the flesh, with their staffs ready. Immediately they started their journey and went out of Egypt.
God took them by a way through the Red Sea. Actually, there was a land route by which they could go to Canaan, but God did not lead them that way. It was the way of the Philistines, but God did not lead the children of Israel that way. He led them through the Red Sea.
Why? Because God said that if they went by land and met opposition, they might repent and want to go back. So God led them through the Red Sea so that they could not go back any more.
They came to the Red Sea with Pharaoh and his army chasing after them. God opened the sea, and the children of Israel went through on dry ground. After they had gone through, the sea came back, and all the chariots and men of Pharaoh were drowned.
Brothers and sisters, the children of Israel finally got out of Egypt. The same is true with us.
The Red Sea is a type of baptism. Some people say, “Well, I believe in the Lord Jesus, but I do not need to be baptized. Why should I be baptized? Water does not cleanse me from my sins. It is the blood that cleanses me from my sins, and is that not enough?”
It is true: water baptism never cleanses your sins. It does not. But baptism marks a separation. You are now separated forever from the world.
Before the Red Sea, the children of Israel served Pharaoh because they belonged to Pharaoh. Now God delivered them, and they passed through the Red Sea.
In 1 Corinthians 10, we find that the children of Israel went through the Red Sea under the cloud, with the waters standing on both sides, and the Bible says they were baptized unto Moses.
In other words, brothers and sisters, what is baptism? Baptism is this: once we belonged to Pharaoh, to Satan, to the kingdom of darkness. Now, in baptism, we no longer belong to that kingdom. We are out of that kingdom.
God has delivered us out of the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. So by baptism, we are baptized unto Christ.
By baptism, we declare that we belong to Christ. We do not belong to the world any more. We do not belong to Pharaoh or Satan any more. We belong to Christ. We do not even belong to ourselves. We belong to Christ.
That is a declaration, that is a testimony, and that is a separation. With that declaration and that testimony, we are separated from the world forever. We belong to Christ.
So baptism is very important. If you know what baptism is, and if you are baptized, you will find that it registers something in your spiritual life. It gives you strength to declare and to stand on the ground of separation—that you belong to no one but Christ, and Christ alone.
After they got out through the Red Sea, you find in Chapter 15 that song of victory. In the song of victory, for the first time, God revealed to the children of Israel the purpose of deliverance. Why did God deliver them out?
It is true that God heard their cry. God was touched by their affliction. God wanted to deliver them. But why? Why?
There, in Exodus 15, you find: “Thou in Thy mercy hast led forth the people that Thou hast redeemed; Thou hast guided them by Thy strength unto Thy holy habitation. Thou shalt bring them in and plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance, the place, O Lord, which Thou hast made for Thee to dwell in, the sanctuary, O Lord, which Thy hands have established. The Lord shall reign for ever and ever.”
In other words, the purpose of deliverance is not just out; it is in. God delivered them out in order to bring them in—out of Egypt into Canaan, out of bondage into a land flowing with milk and honey, out of the fiery furnace into a dwelling place.
In other words, God wants to deliver the people unto Himself and make His people His dwelling place. He wants to dwell among His people, and He wants to be King over His own people. That is the purpose of redemption.
Then we come to the last part. The last part is from Chapter 19 through Chapter 40. This is revelation.
The children of Israel were delivered. They came out of Egypt, and God brought them as on eagles’ wings into Sinai. They were now at Mount Sinai. It took them three months to get there.
During those three months, you find that the way God dealt with them was all of grace. By grace God delivered them out of Egypt. By grace God opened the Red Sea. By grace God showered manna to be their food. By grace God opened the rock and gave water out of the rock. By grace God led them up to Mount Sinai.
After they were there, God began to announce His purpose. He said, “Now I have brought you unto Myself. If you will hearken to My voice and keep My covenant, I will make you My people, a people of My possession out of all the nations. I will make you a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.”
God’s purpose in saving us is not merely that we may come out, that we may be saved from sin, that we may come out of the world, or that we may just be free. No. God saves us in order that He may bring us in.
He wants to bring us into the promised land. What is the promised land? Thank God, our promised land is Christ.
In other words, He has delivered us out of the world, and He is putting us in Christ, that we may know all the riches that are in Christ. That is God’s purpose.
Knowing the riches of Christ, we may be given the same character as His character, that we may become a dwelling place for God and God may dwell among us. He can reign over us, and we can be a nation of priests serving Him. That is God’s purpose.
Thank God, we have come out. But have we entered in experientially? Do we know the fullness that is in Christ?
The more we know the riches of Christ, the more we are transformed and conformed to His image. Only in that way is God able to dwell among us. God cannot dwell in a foreign environment. God can only dwell in a place agreeable to Him, a place that is one with Him.
That is the reason why we have to be transformed. Transformation simply means that we have to come out of ourselves and enter more into Christ. As Christ is gradually formed in us, the building of God begins to come into being. God is able to dwell in our midst and to be served by us. We ought to be a kingdom of priests.
Here you find a revelation: God reveals His mind to His people. In order to facilitate this revelation, this purpose of God, God gave them two things.
Number one, God gave them the law: Chapters 20 through 24. Number two, God gave them the tabernacle: Chapters 25 through 40. With these two things, the law and the tabernacle, God was to fulfill His purpose among His people.
What is the law? The gist of the law is the Ten Commandments. God gave the children of Israel two tables of stone.
On the first table of stone there were four commandments, and on the second table there were six commandments. The first table speaks of man’s relationship with God.
We are created by God, and there is a duty, a responsibility, a relationship with our Creator, our Maker, our God. The first four commandments regulate our relationship with God.
Aside from Him, you shall have no other god. You shall not make any images and worship them. You shall not take the name of the Lord in vain. You shall keep the Sabbath. It is all in relation to God.
Then the six commandments on the second table regulate the relationship between man and man. We are created by God as fellow men. So how should we deal with one another? Honor your parents; do not murder; and so on and so forth.
These laws regulate our relationships. Life is basically relationship, and the law regulates these relationships. If they keep the law, they shall live and become God’s people. Why? Because they will take upon themselves the character of God.
God’s law, in a sense, reveals His character. Our God is just. Our God is holy. Our God alone is unique. Our God is love. It reveals the character of God. If they keep the commandments, then they can become God’s people.
When God gave them the commandments, what did they do? Again and again, three times, they said, “All that God has told us, we will do.” Good—dead.
They did not know themselves. They were presumptuous. They thought they were able to keep the laws of God, not knowing that they could not do it. If they could not do it, why did God give it to them?
You have to go to the New Testament to find out the reason why. You find that the law is good.
Paul, in Romans 7, says that the law is good. The commandments are holy, just, and right. There is nothing wrong with them. If you keep them, you live. If you keep them, you become God’s people. There is nothing wrong with them.
What is wrong is with us. In us—that is, in our flesh—there is no good. But the children of Israel did not know that flesh. It took them forty years in the wilderness to find out their flesh.
But thank God, God gave them the law. The law is something added. It is not opposite to the promise of God. God has His promise, but the law is not opposite to God’s promise.
On the contrary, the law shuts everybody up under sin, that it may lead us as our tutor to Christ.
If you know the right way of using the law, nothing is better than that. The law is added because of transgressions, that we may know our sins, that we may be shut up unto Christ, that we may look to Christ, and that we may have Christ. If the law can serve that purpose, is that not wonderful?
Unfortunately, the children of Israel did not realize that. They thought they could do it. But when Moses was on the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments, before the law reached their hands, they had already broken the law. They worshipped the golden calf.
Remember this: during the first three months, from Egypt to Mount Sinai, the children of Israel were under grace. But from Chapter 19, or Chapter 20, God gave them the law, so they were under the law.
But by Chapter 34, they had already broken the law. So through the mediatorship of Moses, God continued His covenant with them, but also with grace. From Chapter 34 onward, it is law mixed with grace. That is the way God dealt with the children of Israel.
On the one hand, God gave them the law to reveal the holiness of God. On the other hand, God commanded them to build Him a tabernacle.
We do not have time to go into the details of the tabernacle, but thank God for the tabernacle. As a matter of fact, probably all we remember is what Moses received on Mount Sinai: the law. But actually, the law is only a few chapters, Chapters 20 through 24.
From Chapter 25 onward, you find the tabernacle. In other words, the tabernacle is God’s purpose; the law is a means to lead us into the tabernacle.
The tabernacle primarily speaks of Christ.
If you read the New Testament, in John 1:14, “The Word became flesh, and tabernacled among men, full of grace and truth.” When our Lord Jesus was on earth, He was the tabernacle, full of grace and truth.
This is what the tabernacle is. The tabernacle is full of beauty and glory. Everything in the tabernacle speaks of the Lord Jesus.
It speaks of the Lord Jesus as our sacrifice, as the brazen altar where sacrifices are offered. In other words, through the blood of our Lord Jesus, our sins are forgiven.
Our Lord Jesus is the brazen laver. It is through our Lord Jesus that we are washed day by day—not only washed once, but washed day by day—that we may be fit to serve Him.
He is our light. He is our worship, represented by the golden candlestick, the golden table of showbread, and the golden altar of incense. He is, of course, the ark and the mercy seat.
Everything in the tabernacle speaks of the Lord Jesus—what He is and what He has done for us. Because of that, God has provided a way for us unto Himself.
It is through the finished work of Christ that we are able to approach the throne of grace. In Hebrews, it is said that today we have boldness to enter into the holiest of all, to enter into the very presence of God, by the blood of the Lord Jesus.
It is by a new and living way that He has opened for us through the veil, that is, His flesh. We have the great High Priest living and interceding for us. So let us go.
In other words, God is calling us to draw near to Him. Brothers and sisters, we who were once dead in sins and transgressions are now redeemed, and we are called to draw near to God, to worship Him, to serve Him, and to be a house of God for God to dwell in by His Spirit.
This is redemption. The whole Book of Exodus tells us of redemption—what redemption is.
We have a wonderful Redeemer. The work of redemption is complete, and thank God, we are the redeemed. Let the redeemed of the Lord praise His name.
Shall we pray?
Dear heavenly Father, we do praise and thank Thee for Thy great love toward us. Thou hast sent Thy beloved Son, our Lord Jesus, into this world to be our Redeemer. What a wonderful Redeemer He is.
What has He done? Oh, how comprehensive, how complete, how perfect is His work of redemption. We do praise and thank Thee that we today, by faith and by Thy grace, are now the redeemed of the Lord.
As the redeemed of the Lord, we do not want merely to go out free. We want to serve Thee in Thy house forever and ever. May Thy name be glorified. We pray in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.