Like Sands Through The Hourglass--Moses

 

Exodus 19:1-8

Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Deuteronomy 7:7-11

Deuteronomy 10:12-22

Deuteronomy 28:1-6, 15-19

Deuteronomy 30:1-10

Matthew 5:17

Matthew 22:36-40

Romans 13:8-10

Galatians 3

Galatians 4:21-31

1 John 5:3

Each day, there have been so many more verses I could've included.  I've questioned each time how to pick and choose which verses to share.  I don't want to cherry pick verses and end up making it seem like the Bible is saying something it's not.  Today is BY FAR the worst!! This will be a flyover view of a covenant so tightly woven into the fabric of the Bible that we couldn't possibly untangle it in a few paragraphs.  Here we go....

 We are backing up to the Mosaic covenant today.  It was actually given in the time between Abraham and David, although we see that both Noah and Abraham knew God's law, at least expectations they learned through relationship with Him.  (Genesis 7:2; Genesis 26:5)  We also know David loved God’s law according to Psalm 19 among others.  In Exodus 19, the very day God led the people out of Egypt, He meets with Moses on Mount Sinai with a message.  He wants to enter into a covenant with the rescued.  This covenant---full of the normal "I Am, I will" covenant language--is conditional.  If you do this and if you do that then I will do this and I will do that.  The people reply, "We will do all that the LORD has spoken." (Spoiler alert--they are dismal covenant partners.  They won't.)  

These laws would be an integral part of the Israelites new life--first in the wilderness, then in the promise land.  They will need to keep cleanliness laws for their own good.  There are laws that tell how to inspect for mold in your house, and how to dispose of poop outside the camp.  (Kids love this story,😂😂)  There are laws on food they can and cannot eat.  One that seems to always get repeated because it seems so weird in our culture is "Don't boil a young goat in its mother's milk."  Easy to mark that one off of my list, I had no intention of ever doing that.  But these statutes and ordinances are  serious to the wanderers.  So serious that God tells them to follow them and to teach others to do the same.  Talk about them and repeat them, take them to heart, bind them on your hand and your forehead.  Yahweh loves them, He wants them to be healthy, He longs for their good, for the glory of His name.  God lays out blessings and curses, consequences of failing to follow His holy law.  Obedience=blessings, disobedience=curses.  This is not prosperity gospel, this is a clear choice between right and wrong, life and death.  The law was given to anchor the people to the Abrahamic covenant.  God intended them to be His nation, but they kept wandering out of the safety of His promises.  So the law He gave them was loving boundaries to hold His people to Himself, all the while giving them the recipe for human flourishing.  

Jesus though....He came to fulfill all the laws.  He takes what is temporary, the law only meant to point out our lack and cause us to long for better, and He anchors it to Himself.  He is Better in all things.  Only He could perfectly fulfill the law required with no lack, and no longing for better.  He spent a huge portion of His ministry arguing these truths out with the religious powers, who kinda liked having a laundry list of laws to use against their people and to hold them under their thumbs.  I heard Jen Wilkin explain it beautifully "The law was over the heads of those in the Old Testament, weighing them down and reminding them of what they could not do.  For those who lived in the New Testament and beyond (that's us!!), the law is under our feet as a path to right living."  (I drew this out multiple times in stick figure form to help me understand what I was hearing.)  That is freedom in Christ.  There are still laws that we need to follow--the ten commandments come to mind. Not because they save us, but because we want to walk wisely, we want to live God's way in God's world to bring glory to Christ.  Our motivation can be summed up this way "Love God, love your neighbor as yourself."  His commands are not burdensome at all.  

I made the sand blue because in Numbers 15, the LORD said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites they are to make tassels for the corners of their garments, and put a blue cord on the tassel at each corner.  These serve as tassels for you to look at, so that you may remember the LORD's commands and obey them and not prostitute yourselves by following your own heart and your own eyes."  A blue reminder to be trustworthy covenant partners.  The sand finds it's target in Jesus (which makes it a little lopsided visual, but we'll be ok.) The law was forever saying "Do this. (You can't) Do this. (You won't)" until Jesus once and for all said "I can and I will do this."   

Moses was also entrusted with building the tabernacle, the wandering nation's mobile place of worship.  The Glory of the LORD would live there and meet with them.  The most holy item was the ark of the covenant--the ten commandments were in there, a jar of manna from the wilderness, the rod of Aaron's  staff that bloomed.  On top of the ark of the covenant was the mercy seat.  It was pure gold, with two cherubim of gold at each end.  God told Moses "I will meet with you there above the mercy seat, between the two cherubim."  In John 20, the promise made to Moses by Yahweh became a promise kept by Jesus to all of us. "But Mary stood outside the tomb, crying.  As she was crying, she stooped to look into the tomb.  She saw two angels in white sitting where Jesus's body had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet."  Jesus, sacrificed perfectly and perfectly victorious, meets us there.  Promise Maker.  Promise Keeper.  Praise Him.