Chuck Smith discusses the profound interaction between God and Moses in Exodus 33-34, emphasizing the tension between God's holiness and the people's sinfulness. God expresses His reluctance to dwell among the stiff-necked Israelites, highlighting His grace in not consuming them due to their rebellion. Moses intercedes for the people, seeking God's presence and glory, which leads to a deeper understanding of God's character as merciful and gracious. The sermon illustrates the importance of seeking God's presence and the transformative power of His glory in our lives. Ultimately, it calls believers to recognize their value as God's inheritance and the necessity of His presence in their journey.

Chapter 33, that we might continue our study through the Word of God. And the Lord said unto Moses, Depart, and go up from here, you and the people which you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I swore unto Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, saying, Unto thy seed will I give it. Now, at this point Moses and the Lord are having an argument on who these people really are. Neither of them want to claim them. When God was speaking with Moses there on Mount Sinai, in the previous chapter, the Lord said unto Moses, verse 7, Go, get thee down, for thy people which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. Then in verse 11, as Moses responds, Moses besought the Lord his God and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people which you have brought forth out of the land of Egypt? And so, neither one wishing to claim them at this point, and no wonder. They are forsaking the law and the ways of God. And they had made the golden calf, they were worshiping it, they were violating the commandments of God. And so, God had more or less disowned them and said, they're your people. And Moses disowned them and said, God, you're your people. You're the one that brought them out of Egypt and all. So, the Lord, in the beginning of chapter 33, this little thing continues with Moses and the Lord. The Lord said unto Moses, depart and go up from here, thou and the people which thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt. So, God's handing them back to Moses at this place. And unto the land which I swear unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, unto thy seed will I give it. And I will send an angel before thee. And I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Unto the land that is flowing with milk and honey, for I will not go up in the midst of thee. God said, alright, now you take the people you go, I'm going to send an angel because I'm not going to go up in the midst of thee. Now, in reality, people misunderstand God so often they read this as a harshness on God's part. As God being very hard on Moses and on the people. But, in reality, it's a sign of God's grace as we read the reason for God not going up or not desiring to go up. For thou art a stiff-necked people, lest I consume thee in the way. In other words, because of the fact that they are so stiff-necked. Because of the fact that they are so rebellious and so prone towards sin. God said, I'm not going to go up in the midst of thee, lest actually by that very holiness of God, the people be consumed for their sinfulness. And so, rather than being a thing of judgment on God's part, it was a thing of grace. And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned. And no man put on his ornaments, they left their jewelry off, they were mourning before God. For the Lord had said unto Moses, say unto the children of Israel, you are a stiff-necked people. I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment and consume thee. Therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee. And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the Mount Horeb. And Moses took the tabernacle, now this is not the tabernacle that was to be built. This is prior to the actual building of the tabernacle. So the word means the place of meeting. And it was that place where they had met God prior to the building of the tabernacle, which we'll find in a few chapters. And he pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass that everyone which sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp. So they took the place of meeting, the place where the people met God. And from the midst, now the people were, before this, sort of all circled around this place of the meeting of God. The tribes in each order all around it. And now they remove it. And they put it completely outside of the camp. Meaning that the people have to now come outside of the camp in order to meet God. Now there is a interesting spiritual sequel in this. In that Jesus, crucified outside of the city of Jerusalem. People have to come out of Judaism to meet with God through Jesus Christ. They can no longer meet with God through the system of Judaism, but outside of Judaism. Now a new covenant that God established. The covenant that was established with Israel being disannulled because of the people's failure to abide by that covenant. So having abolished the old covenant, God has now established a new covenant which is outside of the Judaism itself. And so to meet with God, it is necessary to come out. For the Jew, it is necessary for him to come out from Judaism and to meet God outside of a national kind of a relationship. Now the relationship to God is available to every man. There is no difference. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And we must all come to God now through Jesus Christ. And that is outside of the camp really. Of Israel itself. And so it came to pass when Moses went out onto the tabernacle that all the people rose up and stood every man at his tent door. And looked at Moses until he was gone into the tabernacle. And it came to pass as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle. And the Lord talked with Moses. And all the people saw the cloudy pillar standing at the tabernacle door. And all the people rose up and worshipped every man in his tent door. And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp. But his servant Joshua the son of Nun a young man departed not out of the tabernacle. So Moses pitched the tabernacle outside of the camp. God said I'll not dwell in the midst of you lest I consume you. So he took the place of meeting outside of the camp. Moses went outside and entered into this tabernacle. And when he did the people standing in their tent doors and watching saw this pillar. That had been leading them descend to the door of that tabernacle. The presence of God symbolic really of God's presence with them. And as they saw this phenomenon. They all began to worship God there in their own tent doors. Now of course Moses was there making intercession once again for the people. And Moses said unto the Lord see that thou sayest unto me. Oh let's deal with this thing when he talked to the Lord face to face. I want to jump over that. Because we read down just a little bit further as Moses said I beseech thee show me thy glory. Verse 18. And he said I will make all my goodness to pass before thee. I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee. And will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. And I will show mercy upon whom I will show mercy. And he said thou canst not see my face. For there shall no man see me unless. So when Moses talked to God face to face. It doesn't mean that he was looking at God face to face. But there was just such a complete and total communication. Between God and Moses. It was just like a dialogue rather than a monologue. I mean he would talk to God. God would speak right back to him. But he did not actually see the face of God. In the New Testament Jesus tells us that no man has seen God. At any time. But the only begotten son which is in the bosom of the father. He has manifested him. So in comparing scripture with scripture. We realize that Moses did not actually look upon the face of God. Because here in the very chapter it says. No man can see God's face and live. It is interesting that in every vision that men had of God. The brilliance of God was such that it was just like looking at a sun. So in looking at the brightness of that outshining glory of God. There could not actually be any form that could be described. Or drawn. Just in seeing God there was just that brightness of his glory. That's all they could see. No form at all. But Moses had such communication with God. That it was just a conversation with the Lord. Now in this I am envious. I wish that I had a clear communication. I wish he had a clear communication with me. I think my communication with him is fairly clear. But I often times have difficulty understanding. The voice of God as he speaks to me. Sometimes I think God has spoken and he hasn't. It was just something out of my own mind. It was just something that I had thought. You say well how do you know that? Because it worked out so miserably. And then there were other times when I didn't know if it was the Lord or not that was speaking to me. And then as it turned out I found out it was. And I wish that I had followed up on the impulse. Or I wish I would have said something about it. I wish I would have said you know what the Lord has shown me. And I wish I would have shared it with someone. So they would know that man I really was tuned in for once. And so many times it is only after the fact. That I realize that oh that was God speaking to me. I have never had the experience of God speaking to me in an audible voice. I have had the experience of the Lord speaking to me in such a definite positive way. That I knew immediately it was God. There was no doubt about it. And I just knew it. I was aware of it. I was conscious of it. There was no question. But so many times there is sort of a question about it. I don't know. There are strange things that happen. I can't explain them. Impressions that you get. And you don't know the origin. I was sitting at a Rose Bowl game a few years ago. And we were down in the area of the end zone. And SC was down in our territory. Going the other direction. And I said to the friend that I was with. And of course my voice carries. My wife always tells me to talk softer because my voice does carry. And I said watch this next play. Anthony Davis is going all the way in one play around left end. The next play they gave the ball to Anthony Davis. He went around left end and all the way for a touchdown. And everybody around me turned and looked at me you know. And then they started saying tell us something else. Now I just had an impression. I just saw it in my mind. I just had an impression and said it. How is it that it followed? I don't know. Was it just coincidence? Perhaps. Because surely God wouldn't be interested in a Rose Bowl game. Or would he? It would be interesting to have that kind of power and go to the racetrack. I don't advocate it. You're liable to lose everything. Find out God isn't talking to you. But God speaking with man. God has spoken to man. God who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake unto our fathers by the prophets. Different ways. Different times. God has spoken to man. It's always exciting to realize that God has spoken to man. God has spoken to us. But he has in these last days spoken unto us by his own dear son. Now God has spoken to each of us by Jesus Christ. The clearest revelation that any of us can receive of God is by Jesus Christ. He has spoken unto us by his own dear son. And that is why I do not feel that God speaking to me by an angel would be so important or really meaningful in that he has already spoken to me by his own dear son. It is interesting that nowhere in the New Testament do I read after the resurrection of Jesus Christ that angels came to really communicate the revelation of God to man. That came to us through Jesus Christ. Now the angel did come to Paul on the ship and instructed him concerning things that were going to take place. The shipwreck and so forth. But no revelation of doctrine. So Moses had this experience of speaking to God in a very direct way. And God answering him. A conversational way. And this has been unparalleled. No other man has had this experience of being on such a conversational basis with God. God speaks of it later on as sort of an exclusive thing. With no other man has there been that conversational basis in such a complete clear way as it was with Moses. So Moses said unto the Lord, See thou sayest unto me, bring up this people and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name. And thou hast also found grace in my sight. Now Moses said, look you said you're going to send an angel but you've never even introduced me to him. Someone I don't even know. Now you tell me that you know me by my name. You tell me that I have found grace in your sight. Now you're trying to pass off an angel on me. When I have this kind of a relationship with you I don't want an angel. Why settle for second best? Why settle for something less than God himself? You say you know me by my name. You say I've found grace. Alright, then don't send the angel. Now therefore I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight show me now thy way that I may know thee. That I may find grace in thy sight and consider that this nation is thy people. Quit trying to put them off on me. And God said, my presence shall go with thee and I will give thee rest. So that which Moses was looking for the presence of God for he recognized the need of the presence of God. He knew what God could do. He wasn't sure what the angels could do. And knowing the power of the presence of God he didn't want to accept any substitutes. And Moses said unto God, if thy presence go not with me carry us not from here. In other words, if your presence doesn't go with me Lord, I don't want to go. I don't want to leave here. I don't want to leave without your presence. And that is perhaps about the wisest thing that Moses could ever do is just stick right where he was unless he had God's presence going with him. You're foolish to venture anywhere apart from the presence of God. You're foolish to venture out in your own, on your own. We need the presence of God wherever we go. So, if your presence doesn't go with me then Lord, don't send me from here. For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? Is it not that in you go with us? How are you going to prove that we found grace? Only by your presence with us actually. So shall we be separated, I and thy people from all the people that are upon the face of the earth. And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken. For you have found grace in my sight and I do know you by name. And he said, I beseech thee. Moses has things going for him. God's agreed to a couple issues so Moses is going to press it now. And he said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee and will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. The Lord said, thou canst not see my face for there shall no man see me and live. So Moses desire his prayer, show me thy glory. Oh, that that would be the prayer of our own hearts. Oh God, show me thy glory. That we might really get a glimpse of the glory of God. We get so earthbound. We get so bound in the things of man, the things of man's creation, the work of our own hands. Oh, that we might see the glory of God. Lord, show me thy glory. Paul got a glimpse of the glory of God. The glory of God's dwelling place. As did John. Paul's glimpse revolutionized his life. Changed him completely. It created a continual dissatisfaction with earthly things from then on. How could you be happy in this mess when God has such a glorious place prepared for us? Lord, just let me see your glory. I pray for each one of you that God will somehow allow you to see his glory. That it will create that dissatisfaction with earthly things. That I can never settle down in the old routine again. I can never be happy again with just the old mundane material world around me. But there will be that longing to enter into that glory, into the presence of God. Oh Lord, show me your glory. Demonstrate your glory before your people. Interesting prayer. I wonder why people don't pray it more. Why don't we just really seek to see the glory of God? Lord, show us thy glory. And so God promised that first of all he would let his goodness pass before him. And then God said, and I will proclaim the name. Now, this name, God is going to proclaim it to Moses. It is a name that was highly revered by the Jews. So highly revered that they would not even attempt to pronounce it. And so the name of God became non-pronounceable. When the scribes would come to the name of God in their texts, before they would write the consonants, they would not put in the vowels. Only the consonants, Y-H-V-H. Now try and pronounce Y-H-V-H. It's impronounceable. You can't pronounce just the consonants. You need the vowels for pronunciation. We don't know what the vowels are. That is why we don't know the name of God is Yahweh or Jehovah. We don't know what it is. We guess at what the vowels might be, but we don't know because the name of God was not pronounced by them. God said, I'm going to proclaim my name before thee. But the scribes, when they would come to these consonants, before they would write them in the text, they would go in and take a bath, put on fresh clothes, wash their pen completely, dip it in fresh ink, and then write the consonants. Now can you imagine how many baths you'd have to take in some of these passages where the Lord's name is mentioned several times. And yet that is the kind of reverence in which they held the name of God. Feeling that it was such a holy name that it should never pass the lips of man. And thus it was never to be pronounced by man. And so in reading the text, when the readers would come to the name, rather than attempting to pronounce the name, they would bow their head in reverence and they would just whisper the name. It was an unpronounceable name. And they'd just say the name. But they held that name in such high respect. Now, there's probably nothing that was held in higher respect than the name of God. And yet God declared, I will honor my word above my name. So the honor that God places upon His word. Now, when God places such honor upon His word, believe me, I don't want to tamper with it and I can't understand men who tamper with the word of God. I would be absolutely frightened to tamper with the word of God when God holds His word in such high honor. I will honor my word above my name. I can't understand tampering with it. Now, I know a lot of you that are in love with the Living Bible and I love the way He has translated many passages. And yet there's a passage in Zechariah that He has translated, I feel, in a blasphemous way. And that is in the, what is it, the 14th chapter where they send to Him, what are the meaning of the wounds in your hands? And He said, these are the wounds that I received in the house of my friends. Chapter 13, verse 6. Living Bible translates that something like this. What are the meaning of those marks on your back? These are what I got in a brawl in my friend's house. Because He said the context is not speaking of Christ. But what does He mean? For read on the next verse, Awake, O sword, against my shepherd and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts. Smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered. In the New Testament, that passage is quoted when Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane and the disciples fled from Him. It said that the Scripture might be fulfilled, smite the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. So the context does refer to the Messiah and for the author of the Living Bible that takes such liberty to translate that thing that way. I wouldn't have the nerve to tamper with God's Word. Because God honors His Word above His name. And yet God says, I'm going to pronounce my name before you. They say that the only one who really knew how to pronounce the name of God was the high priest. And he would only pronounce it once a year on the Day of Atonement, which incidentally started at sundown. We are now in Yom Kippur. And on the Day of Atonement, when all the trumpets were blaring and the people were shouting their praises to God because the word had come back that the goat had disappeared in the wilderness. During that moment of high celebration, with all of the shouts of the people rising, the priest amongst the shouts of the people would pronounce the name. But there was so much shouting, nobody could hear it. And so nobody knows how to pronounce the name. But God declared, I'll proclaim my name. God gives great honor to His name. But even greater honor to His Word. And then the Lord declares His graciousness and His mercy unto Moses. And so the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by Me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock. And it shall come to pass while My glory passes by. Lord, show Me Thy glory. While My glory passes by, that I will put Thee in a cliff of the rock and will cover Thee with My hand while I pass by. And I will take away My hand and thou shalt see My back parts are actually sort of the afterglow, the hinder part, just that glow that is left from God having passed by. But My face shall not be seen. Moses' prayer, show Me Thy glory. And God promises to pass by His glory, pass Moses, that He might see just the afterglow of it. And so the Lord said unto Moses, Cut out two tables of stone, hew them out like the first. And I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables which you broke. And be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto Mount Sinai, and present thyself there to Me in the top of the mount. And no man shall come up with thee, neither let any man be seen throughout all the mount, neither let the flocks nor herds feed before the mount. And so Moses hewed out the two tables of stone like the first, and Moses rose up early in the morning and went up into Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone. And the Lord descended in the cloud and stood upon him there, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by. Now the Jehovah Witnesses think the name is Jehovah, but other evidence seems to point to Yahweh. The Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the children's children of the third and the fourth generation. Now, there are people who try to say that there is a God of the Old Testament and a God of the New Testament, and that the God of the Old Testament is a God of wrath and judgment and all, but I love the God of the New Testament who is forgiving and gracious and kind and all, and they see actually two gods. The God of the Old Testament, the God of the New. But in the Old Testament you will find very much concerning the character of God as far as His graciousness, as far as His mercy, and here we find God declaring Himself to Moses as merciful, gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, keeping the mercy for thousands and forgiving the iniquities and transgressions. And so surely tremendous declarations of God's grace, God's mercy, God's forgiveness, God's goodness, God's truth. People who seem to think that the God of the New Testament is all love and forgiveness and the abrogating of the capital punishment and all of this, had better read the book of Revelation and they'll find out that He is also a God of judgment and a God of wrath that shall come and be visited. Grace and truth were demonstrated in Jesus Christ, but to those who reject that grace and truth, as Hebrews tells us, there remains then a fearful looking for the fiery indignation of the wrath of God that will devour His adversaries for they who despise Moses' law were put to death in the mouth of two or three witnesses of how much sore punishment. Suppose ye he to be thought worthy who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God and who hath counted the blood of His covenant wherewith He was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done disfight to the Spirit of grace for it is a fearful thing to fall in the hands of a living God. That wasn't the prophet Isaiah thundering out. That was the writer of the book of Hebrews declaring the judgment of God that shall come upon those who have rejected His grace and His mercy through Jesus Christ. And so in the Old Testament, we have a God of grace and mercy and longsuffering and forgiveness revealed to us. In the New Testament, we have a God of judgment and wrath revealed to us. They are one and the same God. There isn't a God of the Old Testament and a different God of the New. People only read in it what they want to read, but in reality, He is revealed in both Testaments as gracious and loving and kind and merciful and forgiving. And in both Testaments, as a God of judgment and wrath. By no means clearing the guilty, that is, without there being repentance. God doesn't just say to a person, well, that's alright, you're forgiven. Jesus emphasized over and over, unless you repent, you will likewise perish. People are troubled with the fact that He declares visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children to the third and the fourth generation. That is clarified a little bit more in the commandments that God gave. For it there adds to those that continue in them. Now, it is sad that the sins of the parents are visited upon the children. We see this demonstrated all the time. It is tragic indeed that really the real victims of divorce are the children. I can go into the classrooms here at Maranatha Academy and sit and observe in one day and at the end of the day I can tell you each child that comes from a broken home just by watching the characteristics within the child. Children become the innocent victims because their parents aren't able to soften their hearts before God and each other enough to make the marriage work. It's tragic, but there are so much pressure, so many pressures being placed upon the home today. Divorce has become such an easy thing and there are all kinds of pressures that have been placed upon the home and love has been made out to be something that it really isn't. And I get so tired of hearing them say, well, I just don't love them anymore and an unwillingness, a hardness of the heart and an unwillingness to see that the marriage goes. The children have to suffer because of the sins of the parent. There are even worse cases of children suffering for the sins of the parent for there are parents that are mothers who are addicted to drugs and when the child is born, it is born with an addiction to drugs. Many children go into withdrawals after birth because of the mother having been hooked on particular drugs and there are the sins of the parents being visited upon the children. Taking it from a sociological standpoint and a psychological standpoint, there are people today who are having a hard time making it in life because their parents were so totally messed up. So many young girls having extreme emotional difficulties because their stupid fathers were abusing them sexually. Surely the Scripture describes the days in which we live when it refers to unnatural affections. For any father to make any kind of a sexual advance towards his daughter, something's got to be sick, sick, sick because what he is doing is psychologically destroying that daughter of his. There are so many of the young girls who come in with tremendous problems of adjusting to life because of the stupidity of their dads. Not just... I can't... In my wildest imagination, I cannot imagine a father abusing his own daughter or even being attracted to his own daughter in a sexual way. That is so absolutely sick, I can't even think of it. And yet, what perhaps... Well, it's not even any worse, but fathers that abuse their own sons. It's just plain sick. And you cannot do that to a child without marking the child, without damaging the child psychologically, putting psychic scars on that child's mind that's going to be with him the rest of his life. Thank God for the power of the blood of Jesus Christ. It's the only thing that I know that can straighten up the mess that people's minds are in because of some of the stupid things their parents did. If it weren't for the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the world would be in a much greater mess than it is today because people are doing such absolutely foolish things in destroying their own children. Oh, how glorious it is that we can come to Jesus Christ and receive that beautiful work of His Holy Spirit and He can absolutely cleanse and clear. And if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature and the old things are passed away and everything becomes new and you can enter into a totally new, beautiful life in Christ. And only He can erase the psychic scars that so damaged some of you from your childhood and the things that you experienced in childhood. There are many young adults today that cannot even remember years of their childhood because their minds have blocked them out. The relationship with the parents was just so off the wall that their minds just block out years of their childhood and they can't even tell you about areas of their childhood because the psychic wounds are so great that they've had to build a wall and they just blocked it out and it's just hid and it's suppressed and lying dormant underneath there. And so it is true, it is tragically true that often the sins of the parents are visited upon the children that they become the innocent victims of their parents' folly. But thank God there's always a way out, there's always, God has provided the way out through the blood of Jesus Christ that can wash and cleanse. But if it isn't there, then it'll go on and it passes on from generation to generation to generation. And you'll find that in your psychology and in your sociological studies that a person gets his role for parenthood from his parents and so if their dads were guilty of doing a stupid thing, they'll usually follow that because that's the role model that they had. Unless Jesus Christ comes into their life, unless there comes that change through the power of the Gospel, they follow the role model and it goes down from generation to generation to generation. And we see the degraded society around us today that is in such desperate need of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ to deliver us out of the cesspool and the pits and to raise us up. Oh, how I thank God for the godly home in which I was raised. How I thank God that both of my parents were committed Christians on the list of blessings that God has given to me. I'll tell you, near the top of the list, that godly home that I had. How I thank God for it. More and more, especially as I see people who my heart goes out to them, they've never had a chance to know what a real loving home is all about, a real godly home is all about. Moses made haste and he bowed his head toward the earth and he worshipped. God passed by, declared his name, declared his glory and Moses' man just got down on his face and began to worship God. And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance. Now that's asking God an awful lot. Now, Lord, I've seen your glory and you've passed by me, you've declared your name. Now, Lord, go ahead and pass among the people, pardon their sin, and take us for your inheritance. Now, that's the part that I have. Here, God, you can have me for your inheritance. Take this stiff-necked people for your inheritance. And yet, the Bible declares, Paul the Apostle prayed for the Ephesians that they might know what are the riches of his inheritance in the saints. What he is saying is, if you only knew how much God valued you. Now, Moses is just saying that, Lord, take these people, put the value on them as your inheritance. If you only knew the high value God placed upon you, you'd be amazed if you knew how highly God prized you. He prized you so highly that he sent his son to die for your sins so that he could have you as his own. That's how highly God prizes you. He delivered up his own son for you because he prizes you that much. I cannot understand it. Don't ask me to explain it. Here is the place where I, as a devout Jew, though I'm not a Jew, but as a devout Jew who just comes to that place where he bows his head and says nothing. When I think of how God has placed such a high value on my life, all I can do is just bow my head in worship in wonder and in awe that God should love me and care for me and place value in me so much that he would give his son for my redemption. Oh, how I thank God and praise God for the value that He's placed upon my life. And so the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I make a covenant before all thy people. I will do marvels such as have not been done in all the earth nor in any nation. And in all the people among whom thou art shall see the work of the Lord, for it is an awesome... The word terrible is an old English word. It should be translated awesome thing that I will do with thee. Observe thou that which I command thee this day. Now, God is saying observe it, not just see it. There's a difference between seeing and observing. God isn't saying see the things that I command you, but observe, that is, see and live in harmony with it. Behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee. But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, cut down their groves, for thou shalt worship no other god for the Lord whose name is Jealous is a jealous God. Now, there are people that have difficulty with God demanding the extermination of the people within the land. No covenant was to be made with them. No peace treaties. Go in and utterly wipe them out. And with this, people have a great difficulty with God because of His orders to wipe them out, to exterminate them. And God is oftentimes faulted as people are arguing about God. God is faulted for the order of the extermination and not making covenants with these people. God ordered their idols to be destroyed, their groves to be cut down. What were they doing in their groves? What were they doing at the high places? How were they worshiping their gods? If you go into the Museum of Natural History in Jerusalem and you go downstairs in one area, you will find diggings from the archaeologists of the pre-Israel culture from the Canaanite period. And in one of the cases, you will see many of the little gods that were representing Baal. And as you see these little gods that were representations to the people of Baal, you'll see that Baal's arms are always folded in the hands in an upright position like this. And they are made of iron. They are made of stone. And they would place these in the fire and heat them until the iron became red hot. And then they would take their babies and place them in the arms of Baal and allow them to be burned to death as a sacrifice unto this little idol. Human sacrifice was commonly practiced as well as all kinds of licentious practices. Now, by the very nature of their worship, they would soon destroy themselves. They could not exist. No society can exist that is that corrupted. And so, they are going to destroy themselves. But, if they are allowed to make a covenant and live among the people, they will infect God's people with this same deadly corruption. So, God is ordering their extermination in order to keep His own people protected from their madness. If we were to hire you here as a lunchtime monitor for the school, and as you were out there watching these beautiful little children that we have here at our academy, and you were watching them playing out there in the yard and skipping and chasing around and all, and there were to come upon the yard a dog foaming at the mouth, running around and snapping at the children, would you be justified in going over and grabbing that dog and killing it? You bet your life you would. And I love dogs. But the dog has rabies. Because it has rabies, it's going to die. The rabies are going to kill the dog. But if I don't kill it, that mad dog can actually kill a lot of these beautiful, innocent little children. If I do nothing to stop it, if I do nothing to hinder it, that little dog could actually kill a lot of the children on the playground. Infect them so that they also would die. So, I would be thoroughly justified in killing that dog so that it would not infect the innocent children and destroy them. And no one would really fault me for it, because they know a rabid dog is going to die anyhow. You've got the same thing, only it isn't a dog, it's people. And they've got a deadly infection in their whole religious system. And God ordering their extermination, they're going to die anyhow. They're going to destroy themselves. He's only protecting the innocent children that He's bringing in to inherit the land, His children. He's only watching over them. And thus God has given the order of extermination to protect His own innocent children. They're not to make any covenant, because, verse 15, if you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a-whoring after their gods and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one calls to you to eat of his sacrifice, and you take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a-whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a-whoring after their gods, thou shalt make thee no molten images. Now, there are all kinds of molten images in the land of Canaan. Thou shalt make thee no molten gods. Now, God lays out the various feasts that they were to have, the three feasts. The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. This is the feast of Passover for seven days. You are to eat unleavened bread as I commanded you. Verse 19, All that openeth the matrix is mine. So the firstborn of everything belongs to God of your cattle, ox, sheep, all of the firstborn males. But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb, and if you do not redeem him, then you shall break his neck. All the firstborn of thy sons thou shalt redeem, and none shall appear before me empty. Now, your firstborn son, you had to redeem from God. He belonged to God automatically. You see, the firstborn son used to always be the priest of the house. He belonged to God. Now that God has a priesthood through the tribe of Levi, if you want to keep your firstborn son, then you had to redeem him from God. Six days shalt thou work, but the seventh day shall be a day of rest, even in the harvest time and in the earing time. Thou shalt observe the Feast of Weeks, that is the first fruits of the wheat harvest in June, 50 days after Passover. After seven weeks, after Passover, then the next day began. Seven weeks would be 49 days. The next day, the 50th day, would begin the Passover, which was the first fruits, the winter wheat harvest as they began to harvest it there in Israel in the first part of June. Then there was sort of a Thanksgiving and the Feast of Engathering at the year's end. So that's sort of the equivalent to our Thanksgiving in the fall time of the year. Now three times in the year shall all your men children appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel. You know, it would be such a glorious thing if you had a religious nation. You know, a nation who was really committed unto God, it would be a glorious thing that three times a year all the men in the nation would have to come and stand before God in this time of worship and so forth. That would be absolutely glorious. And so three times a year they were to appear before God, the God of Israel. For I will cast out the nations before thee, enlarge your borders, neither shall any man desire thy land when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God thrice in a year. Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven. Leaven is a type of sin. Neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the Passover be left unto mourning. The first of the firstfruits of the land. Notice the first of the firstfruits is what God demands from you. Not the leftovers. Well, we'll see if we have enough for ourselves. Then if we have anything left, we'll give it to God. No way. The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not see the kid in his mother's milk. It was a part of the practice of the land to increase fertility, they thought. And the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words, for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel. And he was there with the Lord for forty days and forty nights, and he did neither eat bread nor drink water. And he wrote upon the table the words of the Ten Commandments. You say, well, that's impossible. You can't go forty days and forty nights without food or water. That is very true. It is impossible. If you're only dealing with natural things. But how big is your God? And God was able to sustain him without food, without water. And thus, though physically it is an impossibility, we are dealing with a God of miraculous power and God who can set aside certain laws of nature. Now, I don't recommend that you try to go forty days and forty nights without water or food. You can't go more than nine days without water. You'll dehydrate and die. And yet, Moses was able to only by the sustaining hand and power of God. It's a miracle that he could do it. I believe that it happened because the Bible declares that it happened. And I have no problem with a God who is able to work miracles. I would have problems with any God that couldn't work miracles. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. And it came to pass when Moses came down from the Mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the Mount, that Moses knew not that the skin of his face was shining while he talked with him. And when Aaron and all of the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face was shining and they were afraid to come near him. And Moses called unto them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation and returned unto him. And Moses talked with them. And afterward, all the children of Israel came near. And he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. Until Moses had done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. But when Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he took the veil off until he came out. And when he would come out and speak with the children of Israel, that which was commanded, the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, the skin of Moses' face was shining. And Moses put the veil upon his face again until he went to speak with the Lord. So, he would veil his face when he would come out and talk to the children of Israel because he would have this shining on his face. When he would go before the Lord, he would take the veil off. Now, twice in the New Testament, this veil is mentioned, or in a couple of different ways. Number one, why the veil over the face of Moses? Because it was hard to look at his shining face? No. In Corinthians, we are told that the reason for the veil over his face is so that they would not see the shining go away. Fading. But the fact that the shine was fading away from his face was indicating the fact that the law that God was given was to fade away when God established the new covenant with man through Jesus Christ. So that they would not see the fading away of the old covenant, his face was veiled. But Paul goes on to say, but even today, their faces are still veiled when it comes to the Word of God. They can't see the truth of God in Jesus Christ. They still have that veil over their face as God seeks to speak to them today and they cannot see that Jesus Christ is indeed the Messiah that God had promised to the nation Israel. And so the veil is still over their eyes, not being able to behold the truth of Jesus Christ.