The Wesley Study Bible tells us that the book of Exodus “narrates the fundamental act of salvation for God’s people in the Old Testament – the deliverance of Israel from oppression and bondage in Egypt. The exodus freed the people of God to serve the missional purposes of God for all humanity. The Book of Exodus focuses on what it means to live as the redeemed people of God.”

Exodus starts with the people in slavery in Egypt. We watch Moses grow up, the suffering of the people. We get the story of the burning bush, the 10 plagues, Passover, the parting of the red sea, bread from heaven, water from a rock, the giving of the Ten Commandments and the Book of the Covenant, the golden calf, Moses’ face shines, they create the tabernacle, and so much more.

One of the reasons I love the book of Exodus is that so much of what we read here helps us to understand what goes on later in scripture.  Exodus is where we get the Passover and the commandment to take Sabbath rest. We get to see God’s provision and care through manna, quail, and water from a rock.  We get to see people being human and messing up and making mistakes.  They think about things only from their own perspective, they find change and transition uncomfortable, they complain and cry out.

Walter Brueggemann identifies four major themes in Exodus – Liberation, Law, Covenant, and Presence.  As you read or listen, make a note of where you see these themes come up.

Chapter 1 starts with God’s people in Egypt. How did they get there? In Genesis 12 God makes a covenant with Abram and Sarai (later called Abraham and Sarah). Skipping over a lot of details, the two of them have a son named Isaac.  He and his wife Rebekah have two sons, Esau and Jacob.  Jacob has four wives and 12 sons.  Jacob wrestles with God and afterward is also called Israel. One of Jacob/Israel’s younger sons is named Joseph. You can read about him in Genesis 37. Skipping over even more details, Joseph ends up in Egypt where he becomes the Pharaoh’s most trusted advisor. At that time, there’s a famine where Jacob/Israel and his other sons and their families are living. They go to Egypt.  Skipping over even MORE details, all of Jacob/Israel’s family settles in Egypt in an area called Goshen.

Exodus begins with remembering.  The story of Jacob/Israel and his family is condensed into 7 verses. The Egyptians and Pharoah see the people as nameless slaves, but the opening verses of Exodus remind the people they are not nameless, they have a history, they are rooted in their family story, in the story of God.
 
Back in Genesis, God made a covenant with Abram and Sarai that included three things: numerous descendants, land (the Promised Land), and that all the families of the earth would be blessed through them. We see that part of the covenant is fulfilled already, as there are so many Israelites.

The king of Egypt so despised the Israelites that he decides to carry out genocide on the Israelite male babies. He instructs the midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, to kill male babies immediately after birth.

Shiphrah and Puah quietly rebel and let them live. Brueggemann writes that Pharoah and the Egyptians have a “deep fear of the outcasts [that] has evoked a policy of systematic murder of precisely the babies who might be the most productive workers in the state system. The new policy is indeed irrational, suggesting that fear and rage have produced a deep insanity in imperial policy.”

Why are the Israelites also called Hebrews?
Brueggemann gives us the background on the word Hebrews:

“It is of peculiar importance that in this entire unit [about the genocide of male children], ‘the Israelites’ are not at all mentioned (unlike 1:9, 1:13). Now it is all ‘Hebrews.’ This term, with its cognates known all over the ancient Near East, refers to any group of marginal people who have no social standing, own no land, and who endlessly disrupt ordered society. They may function variously as mercenaries, as state slaves, or as terrorists, depending on governmental policies and the state of the economy. They are ‘low-class folks’ who are feared, excluded, and despised. It is the common assumption of scholars that the biblical ‘Hebrews’ are a part of this lower social class of hapiru who are known in nonbiblical texts.”

Chapter 1 gave us the big picture, and now we zoom in in Chapter 2 to the story of a particular family descended from Jacob/Israel’s son Levi. A baby boy was born and hidden for his first three months of life.  We’re not sure how much time elapses between verses 9 and 10.  When the nameless child grows up, he is returned to the Pharoah’s daughter.  He is named Moses, not by his Israelite parents, but by Pharoah’s daughter.

It seems Moses is very justice minded.  He intervenes in the beating of a Hebrew slave, the fighting of two Hebrews, and he helps women shepherds in Midian.

Brueggemann writes, “The narratives uses the same word, for kill, naka, that was used for the actions of the Egyptian against the Hebrew, ‘beat.’ The Egyptians is killing the Hebrew slave, and Moses inverts the power relation and does to the Egyptian what he is doing to the slave.”

In chapter 2:23-25 we have the pivotal marker in the story –the people groan, they cry out, and God hears. Note: the people are referred to here as Israelites. It doesn’t say the people cry out to God, only that they cry out, and that God hears their cries.

The narrative toggles between the people in general and the specific story of Moses. In Chapter 3 we’re back with Moses, an adult, husband, and father, living in Midian, being a shepherd.  We find him on Horeb, the mountain of God, where he sees a bush burning, but not consumed by fire.

God calls to Moses and explains how God has heard the cry of the people, how God knows their suffering. God tells Moses the plan- to deliver them from the Egyptians, to bring them to the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey. God says, “So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites out of Egypt.”

God calls each of us, some are called to certain professions, to certain ways of life, to speak up, to serve, to preach, to pray, to make art, to care and nurture, to heal and protect.  Our callings are as unique as our personalities. Often our personalities, our talents, our gifts, help us fulfill our calling. You may find you have various callings that work together, different callings during various seasons of life. When you’re in the process of discerning a calling, you might wish for or pray for direct communication from God.  “Just tell me what to do!” we might pray.  “Please tell me the plan, exactly.” This is what God does with Moses. How does that go?

Moses gives five excuses why he cannot do what God is calling him to.  Can you identify all five? Can you identify with those excuses?

What’s up with Chapter 4:24-26?
In short, we’re not sure. Brueggemann writes that these verses are “among the most enigmatic verses in the entire book of Exodus. The episode is not framed in time or space, nor does it seem to be related to its context… Yahweh is set loose for the sake of Israel, but Yahweh is also set loose by the narrator in savage ways against Pharaoh and (here at least) in savage ways against Moses.”

Aaron
Before I closely read chapter 2, I figured Moses and Aaron didn’t really know each other.  But after reading that Moses was returned to Pharaoh’s daughter after he grew up it is clear that Moses and Aaron have a preexisting relationship. In Chapter 7 we learn that Aaron is just three years older than Moses.

The end of chapter 4 juxtaposes God and Pharoah. Brueggemann writes, “Yahweh is the God who has seen, known, heard, remembered, and come down. This God is so unlike the king of Egypt, who has noticed nothing of the suffering, who has heard nothing of the protest, who has known nothing of their anguish, who has remembered nothing of old promises, and who has never come down to relieve.”

Moses and Aaron request that Pharoah lets the people go, just for a time, so they can go into the wilderness to worship God. They are then accused of laziness. Over and over again in this chapter the people are called lazy.

When God begins to do a new thing the people’s experience gets worse.  Now they are not given straw, but must find it themselves, all while making the same number of bricks. Moses cries out to God, “O LORD, why have your mistreated this people? Why did you ever send me?” Even though God is working it feels hopeless. We’ll see in the narrative the liberation of the Israelites is not as fast or easy as Moses or the people wish it was.

God tells Moses to speak a word of hope to the Israelites in Exodus 6:6-8. What do you make of the people’s response in verse 9? – “Moses told this to the Israelites; but they would not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and their cruel slavery.” How do you think you’d respond to a word of hope if you were an enslaved Israelite?

In Chapter 7 God reiterates the plan. Part of the plan is for God to harden Pharaoh’s heart.  I’ve never really understood why God would want to harden anyone’s heart. It’s important to remember that Exodus is written by the people, explaining how and why the events took place.  It’s the story of their understanding. It’s the words they used to make sense of what happened. These words that had been handed down for generations, were told aloud, and then finally compiled and written down.

About the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart Brueggemann writes, “On the one hand, Yahweh will ‘harden’ Pharaoh. On the other hand, Yahweh will do ‘signs and wonder,’ gestures of dazzling, inscrutable power. The fact that Yahweh both hardens and does signs appears to be simply a literary device for intensification, but there is a quality of political realism in the escalation. That is, action for liberation leads to greater repression, and greater repression produces more intense resolve for liberation. In that process, it is never known who will be first to lose nerve. Moreover, the very sign itself becomes the means whereby the hardening is accomplished, as the very gesture toward liberation is what evokes more repression—i.e. hardening.”

Exodus 7:8-13 is the first of the ‘plagues.’ Listen to this: “the translation ‘snake’ is far too innocuous and bland. What Moses and Aaron conjure is not a garden-variety snake. Rather, the term in most of its uses (and surely here) is a great sea ‘monster,’ bespeaking God’s unleashing of chaos in the midst of Pharaoh’s well-ordered realm. The production of the ‘monster’ thus may announce in the empire that God is unleashing powerful disorder and elemental destabilization, which are the outcome of brutal oppression.” -Brueggemann

Plague – Blood. Moses is directed to tell Pharoah to let the people go. Why are they going? To worship God. In Chapter 5:1 God says through Moses and Aaron, “Let my people go, so that they may celebrate a festival to me in the wilderness.” Not even to go away forever, just to celebrate a festival, just to worship God.

Plague – Frogs “Let my people go, so that they may worship me.” The reason for release remains the same – to worship God. Pharoah asks Moses and Aaron to pray for the frogs to leave.  They do and the frogs all die. But instead of relenting Pharaoh’s heart is hardened again. Just like Brueggemann said in the notes for chapter 7 about signs and hardened hearts – “…the very sign itself becomes the means whereby the hardening is accomplished, as the very gesture toward liberation is what evokes more repression—i.e. hardening.” It’s a catch 22. The signs don’t soften Pharoah’s heart, they do the opposite.

Have you ever experienced something similar in your life? Or seen it happen in another’s life?

Then we have the Plague of Gnats and the Plague of Flies. The flies don’t come over Goshen were the Israelites live. Then the Plague on the livestock of the Egyptians, the Plague of Boils, the Plague of Hail. The hail is the last straw and Pharaoh tells them they can go, but once the hail stops he changes his mind.

Next is the Plague of Locusts. During this scene Yahweh is called “The God of the Hebrews.”  Knowing what Hebrews means (see note on chapters 1-4) , how does that change the meaning of that name for God?   Now Pharoah’s officials are begging Pharaoh to let the people go. Pharaoh says only the men can go, but Moses says, “nope. We’re bringing everybody.” Pharaoh does not agree.

What do you think of what Pharoah says when he asks Moses and Aaron to pray to remove the plagues? – “I have sinned against the Lord your God and you. Do forgive my sin…”

The plague of Darkness is next- it lasts three days. Pharaoh says Moses can take all the people, old and young, but no livestock. Moses says, “no deal.”

Chapter 11 is a warning about the final plague. The Israelites are instructed to ask their Egyptian neighbors for silver and gold. That way they have valuables when Pharaoh “drives them away” after the last plague.

Chapter 12 includes instructions for how to observe the first Passover. The people are to eat the meal with girded loins, sandals on feet, staff in hand. (Gird your loins means to make your tunic into a makeshift pair of shorts by lifting the hem up between the legs and tucking it into a belt around the waist.) The instructions for eating the meal are not just for the first time, not just for the actual night of the Plague of the First Born, this is how they are to celebrate the Passover meal year after year. Ready. Prepared. You get the sense that they are going to jump up at any moment and go. They are nimble. They aren’t even to put down their staffs.

Chapter 12 goes on to talk about eating unleavened bread during the Passover. It says, “whoever eats what is leavened shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel.” They left Egypt in a hurry. No time to wait for loaves to rise. They eat unleavened bread every year to remember that “leaving Egypt is a dangerous, anxiety-ridden business.” Walter Brueggemann writes, “Anybody who has leavened bread is not ‘hurrying’ – i.e. is not participating in the urgency and anxiety of the memory.”

Now that the Plague of the First Born is complete the Egyptians want the Israelites out as soon as possible. Pharoah tells them to go and take their old and young, their herds and flocks. They end up plundering the Egyptians because when they asked their neighbors for silver and gold they gave it to them. So they leave Egypt with treasures.

Chapter 13 is more instruction for celebrating the Passover year after year.  It’s not a one time event, but a yearly celebration to remember what Yahweh did for the people.

The presence of God is always visible – a pillar of cloud at day and a pillar of fire at night. Why do you think this was important?

Pharoah was very happy to see the Israelites vacate Egypt, but not anymore. Pharoah quickly forgets the plagues and wonders what they’ll do without the free labor. He sends chariots to pursue the people.

This is the first time the Israelites believe that they will die and that it would have been better to stay enslaved.  It seems like these crises create memory loss for everyone. Read Chapter 14:11-13.  How would you respond to the people?

Put yourself in the Israelite’s shoes.  How do you receive Moses’ words from verse 14? – “The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to keep still.”

Last month’s reading from Mark taught us that large bodies of water represented chaos for the ancients. When Jesus walked on the water it showed that Jesus was God – the only one able to control the chaos of the sea.  Here God is more than able to control the chaos of the sea – by splitting it in two so the people could walk through on dry ground.

When the waters close over the Egyptians it symbolizes the defeat of evil, the victory of God over oppression, enslavement, cruelty, and injustice.

We end our reading today with songs of victory, a longer song lead by Moses and a short chorus sung by Miriam.

Brueggemann writes,  “The Song of Moses is commonly recognized as one of the oldest, most radical, and most important poems in the Old Testament… the poem holds together a distinctive articulation of the story of liberation, with Israel moving from the world of Pharaoh’s oppression to the safe land of promise and the undercurrent thematic of a creation liturgy, which portrays and enacts God’s victory over the powers of chaos and the forming of the earth as a safe, ordered place for life.”

With these two joyous songs the story of the people’s enslavement and rescue is concluded. Now we move into the wilderness.

The first obstacle the Israelites face in the wilderness is being without water. This feels very foreign to us. We are so privileged to have clean water almost everywhere we go – water fountains, tap water, some refrigerators have ice and cold-water dispensers.  The Israelites leave Egypt as God directs them. They may have brought water with them, but that will only last so long.  Remember, they have all ages of Israelites plus their herds and flocks.  They’re a big, cumbersome group and there is no clean water to drink.

The people complain against Moses – get used to that phrase as we’re reading! – and Moses cries out to God. The problem is easily solved by following God’s directions.

Then, in verse 26, God sounds like a parent pleading with their child to simply “do as I say!”

In Chapter 16, the Israelites complain against Moses again. They are hungry. They wish they were back in Egypt sitting by the fleshpots.  A fleshpot is sort of like a crockpot – a place to slow cook meat to get it tender. They catastrophize and claim that Moses has brought them into the wilderness, not to free them from slavery, but to kill them with hunger.

The notes in the Wesley Study Bible say, “The people openly wish to have died in Egypt instead of being brought out into the desert to suffer the same fate. Longing for the past is a continuous threat to God’s people; it proves easier to get the people out of Egypt than it is to get Egypt out of the people.”

Once again, the problem they face is easily solved by following God’s directions.
 
In verses 7 and 8, Moses and Aaron remind the Israelites twice in two verses that their complaints are against God, not them.

In verse 11 God says, “I have heard their complaining.” The people complain about not having good water to drink or food to eat.  They require these basic necessities for living. God hears them express their needs and fulfills those needs.

What strikes you about the instructions for gathering the manna and quail? Why do you think they weren’t supposed to store it up?

The instructions for gathering food from heaven also include Sabbath rest.  This is the first mention of the Sabbath since one of the stories of creation in Genesis 2:1-4. In only providing food for six days, and letting the food last on the seventh day, God is forming the people as people who honor rest. They have no option but to rest, to honor the Sabbath.

Do you have any routines that remind you to rest, that require you to rest, beyond sleep at night? Do you enjoy rest or do you resist it?  Here, Sabbath is framed as a gift from God to humanity – “See! The LORD has given you the sabbath…” (Exodus 16:29).

Again, there is a wilderness challenge- no water. It’s interesting that the first response of the people is to fight – “they quarreled with Moses.” Instead of asking God for help they get mad at Moses. Why do you think that was their first response? What is your first response when you encounter a challenge or a threat?

Once again, the problem they face is easily solved by following God’s directions.
 
Moses named that place Massah (Test) and Meribah (Quarrel).

Why do you think the people ask, “is the Lord among us or not?”

We’ve dealt with the challenge of not having clean water or food. Now the Israelites face the challenge of a military threat. They are attacked by the Amalekites. God’s presence is embodied in the raised staff of Moses.

The Wesley Study Bible notes say about verse 14, “Israel is to serve as God’s agent of blessing to the nations [in accordance with the covenant God made with Abraham and Sarah]. Any threat to that mission sets itself in direct conflict with the Lord.”

Moses needs help to hold the staff.  Hur and Aaron stand on either side and help to shoulder the burden.  What does that tell you about living in community? About being vulnerable?  If Moses hid the fact that he was unable to hold up the staff the whole time, unwilling to be vulnerable, then the Israelites would have been defeated.


Walter Brueggemann writes about the Amalekites being singled out.  He says, “When we try to understand this statement, we are reduced to bewildered, awkward silence. We know of nothing from any other text why Amalek is singled out in this way… it is as though in an unguarded, undisciplined moment the tradition (or the God of the tradition) has given vent to a deep, irrational hunger to have a permanent enemy.”

What do you make of Brueggemann’s understanding of this passage? I think of sports rivalries which from the outside looking in appears to be a “deep, irrational hunger to have a permanent enemy.” Sports rivalries are the fun version of this. But it happens all the time between groups, states, countries, nationalities, etc.

In Chapter 18 we have Jethro’s advice to Moses.

Walter Brueggemann writes, “Jethro sees immediately that Moses is committed to an unworkable practice. Moses cannot handle the heavy docket. We do not know whether Moses is so concerned with control that he wants to handle all the cases himself, or if he is unreflective and has never thought about a more workable, practical system… Jethro’s solution is that Moses must learn to delegate.”
 
Why do you think Moses carries on with this one-man system? Have you ever found yourself in a similar situation?

Have you ever had a mentor or someone you looked up to give you good advice? What was it? What do you think of Jethro’s advice in Exodus 18:18? Jethro’s suggested system has other folks bearing the burden with Moses, which results in Moses being able to endure and not burn out.  Do you share your burden with others? Do you delegate? Do you ask for help? Do you let people help you?

We’re really getting to the good stuff today! The people come to the wilderness of Sinai and camp at the foot of the mountain.

Moses goes up the mountain, God tells him what to say to the people, Moses comes down the mountain and tells the elders of the people.

“The people all answered as one: ‘Everything that the LORD has spoken we will do.’” (Exodus 19:8).

God tells Moses to have the people consecrate themselves – they are to wash their clothes and on the third day God will come upon Mount Sinai. God sets up some boundaries - the people aren’t allowed to touch the mountain until a trumpet sounds a loud blast.

Halfway through chapter 19 we have a theophany – or an appearance of God, usually characterized by smoke, flashes of light, loud sounds, thunder, etc.

Take a moment to imagine what it must have been like for the people to stand at the foot of that mountain with the thunder, lightning, thick cloud, smoke, trumpet blasts, violent shaking – it would overwhelm the senses.

Brueggemann writes, “The coming of the holy one is unutterable. There are no adequate words, yet all we have left from the meeting is a text. The narrator wants us to see so much. In that hidden holiness, however, as words fail to utter, so vision fails to show, and all that is given is fire, smoke, violent movement, and a trumpet louder and louder. Yahweh is an alien presence, a foreboding, threatening, and de-stabilizing otherness. The narrator wants to take us up in awe and terror, in the presence of the holy one who is beyond all portrayal.”

The Ten Commandments “serve as authoritative instruction for shaping God’s people so that they may be a witness to the world about the God who delivered them from bondage.”

As they enter freedom God gives the people guidelines for how to live together. Brueggemann writes, “These commands might be taken not as a series of rules, but as a proclamation in God’s own mouth of who God is and how God shall be ‘practiced’ by this community of liberated slaves.”

As you read the commandments, take time to wonder about why they are included. What characteristic or value of God’s is transmitted to the people through each commandment?

For example, the command to observe the sabbath. Why? Brueggemann answers in this way, “How is it that a covenantal work stoppage bears witness to this self-disclosing God? The answer is given in the motivational clause: Israel rests because God rests. This God is not a workaholic; Yahweh has no need to be more secure, more sufficient, more in control, or more noticed. It is ordained in the very fabric of creation that the world is not a place of endless productivity, ambition or anxiety.”

God speaks the Ten Commandments directly to the people. They don’t like it and ask Moses to be the mediator.

Moses is now mediator. He goes back up the mountain.  We ended yesterday with 20:17, “Then the people stood at a distance, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.” While on the mountain with God, Moses hears more laws, called the Book of the Covenant.

As you read these laws get curious – what was the goal for the law? Was it to keep someone safe? To provide for someone? To keep things fair? What are most of the laws about? Because we do not share the same cultural worldview as the ancient Israelites we can sometimes have a hard time understanding the why of certain laws.

Which of these laws do you practice today? Which are organizing or controlling practices we no longer abide- such as slavery, the killing of children, or less harsh laws such as when we plant or festivals we no longer celebrate?

The Book of the Covenant comes to an end with our reading from yesterday. Today we started reading with the promise of God to give land, blessing, and well-being.  The Israelites uphold their end of this covenant by worshiping Yahweh alone.

Meanwhile the people living in the land will be driven out.

Remember the origin of the word “Hebrews” we discussed in chapter 1? The Israelites are called Hebrews.  Hebrews derives from a word referring to any group of marginal people who have no social standing, own no land, and who endlessly disrupt ordered society. They are ‘low-class folks’ who are feared, excluded, and despised.

When you are part of that type of people the news that the established and privileged people will be driven out for you to enjoy stability is interpreted as good news.

Brueggemann writes, “This sort of text is problematic because it is so savagely hostile and intolerant of other peoples. We are rightly nervous about any such ideology/dream of displacement… the displacement proposed is not of one ethnic community by another but of a hated class of exploiters by those who are too long abused.
The Israelite system of covenant is totally incompatible with Canaanite modes of exploitative power, and the rhetoric of the text serves the revolutionary cause by making the contrast unbridgeable. It is inevitable, then, that the program of Moses is not only uncompromising, but intolerant. Such a view of Israel’s faith may be unpalatable to affluent, established believers who themselves have compromised with dominant power.
This is not to excuse the intolerance, but to suggest that our own social location matters enormously in our assessment of this tradition and its rhetoric.”

This reminds me of when Jesus says in Mark 10:23-27- “Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” They were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?”  Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”

You receive these words very differently if you are living in poverty or living in affluence.

Chapter 24 concludes the covenant-making process at Sinai.

To seal the covenant there is a ceremony. He reads the Book of the Covenant to the people and they agree to it. They say, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient” (Exodus 24:7).

Read verses 9-11 again. What do you make of that?!? A. Henton Davies describes these verses as “some of the most astonishing and inexplicable verses in the Old Testament.” Walter Brueggeman writes, “The narrative intends to leave us stunned, bewildered, and awestruck. And it does! We do not know what happened, for here earth entered into face-to-face contact with the Holy One around the most elemental activity of eating.”

Moses is again called up the mountain.  He stays on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights.

Put yourself in the shoes of an Israelite.  What would you make of Moses being on the mountain for so long? What would you assume was happening up there?

We’ll find out in two weeks what those Israelites were doing during the 40 days!

But first, instructions for the Tabernacle.

This week is all about the tabernacle. God gives Moses instructions about how to build a place in which Yahweh will dwell in the midst of Israel. The noun tabernacle (miskan in Hebrew) is derived from the verb “to dwell” or “to sojourn” (sakan in Hebrew).

Brueggemann writes that the tabernacle “can be seen as a theological statement about God’s willingness to be present in the midst of the community of Israel.”

Sometimes we come up against the narrative that a holy God cannot be with people.

Meredith Miller addressed this false narrative in a recent article.  She writes, “importantly, holy means unique and distinct. (Not ‘perfect’, as is sometimes said.) A person can be holy, set aside for a purpose (like a prophet). An object can be holy for its unique function in worship (like an altar). A place can be holy for its distinct role in God’s activity (like Sinai).

As we keep that in mind, it can help us see how it’s precisely God’s uniqueness–God’s incomparable combination of power, love and wisdom, justice, grace and compassion—that anchors the claim God isn’t far. Who God is means nothing can stand in God’s way.

God’s holiness is why God can be in the presence of sin. It’s why we’re not separated from the God who draws near.

What’s more, the distinct character of God is why sin doesn’t stain, damage, or injure God. All the while, God still can hold immense tenderness, sorrow, and righteous anger for the oppression and suffering we experience from sin’s effects.

God’s holiness is the very reason God can be in the presence of sin. It’s why we’re not separated from the God who draws near.”

 The tabernacle is literally a beautiful symbol of the mystery of God’s presence with the people. It’s a reliable symbol the people can point to and say, “God is here with us.”

While Moses is in the cloud with God for 40 days God gives seven speeches. The first one is what’ll we’ll read today, Tuesday, and Wednesday.  We’re breaking it up, but it’s one long speech.

The instructions for the tabernacle start with generosity.  The generosity of the people enables the construction of the tabernacle and all its elements.

So too generosity enables our church to do the work of ministry.  What is your relationship with generosity? Does it come easily to you or is it something that requires intention for you to practice?

What are cherubim?
Cherubim is the plural of cherub. Brueggemann tells us, “The cherubim are members of the court of the holy God who function to signify the presence, sovereignty, and protection of God.” They are winged creatures and are part of the mercy seat, the lid of the ark of the covenant.

The purpose of the ark and mercy seat is to be a place to meet God, a place where God will issue commandments.

The dimensions and details of the furniture for the tabernacle are meticulously described.  What’s interesting are the details that are left out.  We get a full picture of the table for the Bread of Presence, but no information about what this bread was or its function. We assume the bread is sacramental in some way, but that is not explicitly explained.

Same with the lamp stand, we’re not sure of its precise function, but we can assume it’s to provide light.

In Chapter 26 we get more instructions for the tabernacle.  Brueggemann writes, “Two dimensions are clear. First, there is care and precision in detail, so that its builders will have no misgivings about what is to be done or how the parts relate to each other… Second, the design intends that the tabernacle should embody the wealth, treasure, and luxury of the community.”

Something we forget about, or overlook, when it comes to Exodus, is God’s commitment to beauty and loveliness. When you think about this book you may think about slavery in Egypt, God saving the people, the 10 Commandments, the other laws, but do you think about God’s commitment to creating a space of beauty?

What is your gut reaction when reading about the luxurious finery that God commands the people create?  Does it feel extreme and wasteful? Natural and good? Something in the middle?  Thinking this through, I’m reminded of the scene in Mark chapter 14 before Jesus’ arrest, crucifixion, and death when a woman pours an entire bottle of very expensive perfume on Jesus’ head.

Mark writes, “some were there who said to one another in anger, “Why was the ointment wasted in this way? For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor.” And they scolded her. But Jesus said, “Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me. For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish, but you will not always have me. 8 She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.”

Does that story from Mark influence your reading or interpretation of this section of Exodus?

The first of the seven speeches God makes to Moses on the mountain continues today with instruction for creating an altar, a court for the tabernacle, and a lamp which will be kept burning for all time. Then in chapter 28 we have instructions for the priests' vestments.

The Altar
Later in chapter 30 two altars are described – the altar of burnt offering and the altar of incense.  The altar described here seems to be the altar of burnt offering- it has all the equipment necessary.  We as modern people need more information than these chapters provide to totally understand the function of the pieces.  The original hearers of these stories would already have background knowledge (that we are lacking) that would inform their understanding of these furnishings.

In the previous chapters the items are covered in gold.  This altar is covered in bronze.  What do you think is the reasoning for that?  Would bronze be better suited for burnt offerings? Is this altar not as important as the ark and lampstand  (which are overlaid in gold)?

Court of the Tabernacle
Once again, we get specifics on the structure and design but not the function. Why do you imagine that is?

The Light
We move away from description of design to prescribed action – Aaron and his sons are given the task of tending to the light throughout the generations. This is the first time “Aaron and his sons,” basically a priestly class, are mentioned.

The light must burn constantly (tamid in Hebrew). Brueggemann writes, “it is clear that this light is more than functional. Its symbolism is to provide a safe, reliable place in a world filled with ominous threat… the perpetual light signifies the order, safely, and well-being of creation. The tabernacle is the ‘dry land’ in the flood of chaos.”

Priests 
Chapter 28 is a long chapter about priests, but like the tabernacle, we get a description of their appearance rather than a description of their proper function.

Biblical scholarship has worked to identify different sources for the material which was compiled to create the Torah, the first five books of the Bible.  They call each source by a letter – there’s the J or Jahwist/Yahwist source, the P or Priestly Source, the D Source or Deuteronomist, and the E source or Elohist. The priorities and worries of each source shine through in their writing.

Brueggemann takes these sources into consideration as he writes about chapter 28, “Taken critically, this text appears to be a self-serving method of enhancing priestly prestige, wealth, and power.  Taken theologically, the priest is the one who shall enter into the holy presence of God, an awesome and dreadful undertaking.”

God tells Moses that Aaron and his sons are called to “serve me.”  The priests are called to serve God primarily, not the people.

The quality and beauty of priestly adornment is highly valued.

The Ephod- nobody knows what an ephod is- “the specificity of the apparel is known only from biblical texts that are notoriously unclear and often contradictory.”

As we go through these vestments the theme continues – we know all about their design and ornate embellishment, but not much about function.

Urim and Thummim- Brueggemann writes, “While the meaning of Urim and Thummim is enigmatic, it probably refers to lots (dice) that are used to determine the will of God… this priesthood has enormous power, because it is entrusted to make known the will of God, discerned precisely through this priestly mechanism… the breastplate, filled with all the names, brings the purpose of God fully into the company of Israel.”

The Tent of Meeting- at the end of the chapter we learn that Aaron and his sons wear linen undergarments to the tent of meeting and near the altar in the holy place. The “Tent of Meeting” is not the tabernacle, but an older tradition which was a tent where an actual face-to-face meeting would occur with God.  God would come and go from this tent- it wasn’t a symbol of abiding presence, but a symbol of God’s freedom and sovereignty.

Chapter 29 is a sort of technical manual for the ordination, consecration, and authorization of priests. Once again, we are given descriptions but not meaning or significance. Brueggemann writes, “matters of significance are perhaps passed on orally, or taken for granted in that small community of privilege and expertise.”

Holiness- in verses 38-42 we are given instructions for a daily offering. Brueggemann writes that this “is the process whereby holiness is created in the community, holiness that authorized and qualifies a few, select persons to go to the very core of God’s holiness on behalf of the people. Thus, the text refers regularly to the ‘tent of meeting.’

In the tabernacle God ‘dwells.’ In the ‘tent of meeting,’ God comes for specific engagements… That meeting with the holy God is wrought through rams and bulls and blood and kidney and liver and flour and wafers! The transcendent holy is mediated in and through the stuff of daily life. Moreover, the accent is on the physical practice and not on thoughts or ideas or ‘knowledge.’ Holiness is made by proper doing.”

This reminds me of our recent exploration of Holy Communion in worship. It’s the doing of it, the receiving of it, that communicates God’s grace to us, not what we think or how we feel in that moment.

The first 10 verses of chapter 30 are how the first speech to Moses ends. These verses are about that incense altar, very different than the altar described in chapter 27. This one is overlaid in gold, not bronze. Incense is offered every day, twice a day.

Get curious. Spend a few minutes wondering about why many of these offerings happened daily.
 
I’m reminded of something C.S. Lewis wrote in Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer, “Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had yet been done.”

Today we have the middle five speeches God makes to Moses.

Atonement Money – the work of the priests costs money.  They are to collect a set payment for everyone who is registered as part of the community. When you give your money, it serves as a reminder that you were ransomed/set free by God.

The Basin for Washing- we do get the function of this object and less about its dimensions and design.  The purpose is for the priests to be cleansed so they can be clean as they enter the zone of holiness.

Anointing Oil and Incense- these are the fourth and fifth speeches. They deal with the creation of perfume for anointing the furnishings of the tabernacle and tent of meeting. It is special and should only be used for the intended purpose, not used willy-nilly.

Bezalel and Oholiab- the sixth speech is about two skilled artisans who will create everything God has stipulated for the tabernacle.  

Bezalel and Oholiab are called to use their skill in the service of God. How are you called to use your skill, your gifts, your passions for God, to aid the inbreaking Kingdom of God?

We end this week’s reading with the seventh speech of God to Moses and it’s about the sabbath.  How fitting!  The sabbath is the seventh day of the week; the restful end to a week of work. One thing is sure in reading Exodus – God wants the people to observe the sabbath.  It is brought up again and again.
 
The people are to keep the sabbath as a sign “given in order that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you.”

How does rest sanctify us? Sanctify means to set apart as holy.

Working on the sabbath results in being put to death.  Why such a severe punishment? Brueggemann explains, “violation of the sabbath is not as innocuous as it seems. This text is still powerfully infused by the exodus narrative. The kingdom of Pharaoh still represents the quintessence of a life lived for productivity. This text evidences anxiety that any violation of sabbath as obedient work stoppage means being seduced by the production values and rewards of Pharaoh, which will predictably end in slavery. Thus ‘profaning’ the sabbath means jeopardizing all that is most precious and definitional about Israel’s existence in the world and its loyalty to Yahweh.”

Sabbath is holy to the Lord- it is an act of trust, a reliance on God for joy, well-being and security.  Not to rest on the sabbath is taking joy, well-being, and security for yourself, a self-sufficiency that inhibits trust and reliance on God alone.

Do you rest? Are you comfortable resting? Do you feel guilt or shame or something else when you are intentionally unproductive?

How would establishing a pattern of rest enhance your trust of God?  What small step can you take this week to incorporate more rest into your weekly rhythm? Start small and see where God leads!

We end this week with the end of God’s speeches to Moses on the mountain. These speeches are ended with God writing the commandments from chapter 20, the Ten Commandments, on two tablets of stone.

What is written on the tablets is not the instructions for the tabernacle or the laws in the Book of the Covenant, but what is primary, most important--the Ten Commandments.

What will become of these tablets? We’ll find out next week as Moses comes down the mountain!

Our focus shifts now from all that Moses heard up on the mountain to what is happening at the foot of the mountain.  Moses was up there for a looong time – 40 days and nights. If you were an Israelite, recently brought out of Egypt, out of everything you’d ever known, to the wilderness, where God speaks to you from a smoking, trembling mountain and then the main leader goes up a mountain and stays there for 40 DAYS how do you think you’d react?

It's easy for us to judge those Israelites, demanding Aaron make them an idol, when most of the first part of the ten commandments is about not having idols- “you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them.” God spoke those words directly to the people, and yet…
 
It seems to me that a lot of the reason people love idols is because people are the creators of idols, people have power and control over the idol.  Whereas, our living God made us and has power and control over us which can be feel uncomfortable.  The people were terrified when God spoke directly to them, they’d rather have something small and human-made than something big, scary, unfathomable, and untamable. What are you more comfortable with? Feeling in control or practicing trust while not having control?

The Wesley Study Bible commentary says, “chapters 32-34 signify one of the most tragic ironies in the Bible. The people rashly strive to create with their own hands that which God intends to give them anyway. But that is the tragedy of all human sin.”

It’s funny how Aaron tells the story of what happened. He sounds like a little kid who colored on the wall. In verse 24 he says, “I threw [the gold] into the fire and out came this calf!”

God wants to start over with Moses and shift the Abrahamic Covenant to him.  Moses stands in the gap and God relents.

Remember that this story is the people’s interpretation of what happened, the story they tell themselves and their children and grandchildren, the story they’ve heard from their grandparents and great-grandparents.  To our modern ears the way God responds is harsh and severe, but to the ancient people God’s response is marked by love and mercy (mercy is not getting what you deserve).

There are a lot of punishments in this chapter- the people have to drink the water with the ground-up golden calf, three thousand of them are killed by the sword, there is a plague. Why do you think the tellers of this story included these harsh punishments?  As a way to discourage the people from doing something similar in the future?

Yahweh is SO mad.  Think of the time you were the maddest you’ve ever been. How were you able to overcome your anger? How long did your anger last?

The Wesley Study Bible commentary says, “For the original readers of Exodus [and the hearers of the oral tradition] the surprising element was not that God would destroy God’s people, but that God would choose instead to forgive them.”

God’s anger at the “stiff-necked” people continues in chapter 33. Brueggemann writes, “Yahweh’s will for the relationship is characteristically qualified by the awareness that Israel has betrayed Yahweh. That is an irreversible reality that will endlessly haunt both parties.”

Moses once again stands in the breach convincing God to stick with the people.

Chapter 33:11, “thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend.”  And then in verse 20, after Moses asks God to show him God’s glory, God says, “you cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live.” Hm! This is also interesting in light of what we read in chapter 24 about the elders of Israel eating dinner with God and “gazing upon God.”

Brueggemann writes, “In his request, Moses has reached the limit of what even he may ask in his venturesome courage. Yahweh takes Moses’ petition seriously [to show him God’s glory] but will not grant the request. God will not let even Moses crowd into the hidden core of God’s own life.”

It’s clear that God has a living, active relationship with the people and with Moses.  God doesn’t create hard and fast rules in these chapters, but lives with the people, allowing somethings to happen sometimes, not allowing things to happen at other times. Just like any relationship. We come to scripture to continue that relationship with God, not to look for dos and don’ts, not to create rules.  
 
What do you make of this statement: we don’t come to scripture to answer questions, but to start conversation, to spark more questions.

This chapter repeats many of the laws and regulations spelled out in previous chapters.

If you’re reading from your Bible, you can see that verses 6 and 7 are different from the rest of the chapter.  Bible translators use formatting to clue us in when the text switches from prose to poetry.  There are deeper margins and more space for poetry.

Brueggemann writes, “the speech of verses 6-7 is Yahweh’s self-disclosure, revealing to Moses the fullness of God’s character and intentionality. Nowhere before this speech has anyone been privileged to hear directly a disclosure of what is most powerful and definitional for God’s own life.”

This speech has seven elements that show God’s generosity and forgiveness. God is merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love (that Hebrew word hesed which we like to translate lovingkindness), faithful, keeping steadfast love (hesed), and forgiving.

The speech ends with a big contradiction.  God forgives iniquity and transgression and sin but also punishes iniquity. Brueggemann writes, “God does deal with violators of covenant in two very different ways that cannot be logically or in practice harmonized. Moreover, the formula itself gives no hint of how to work out this contradiction.

“It is inadmissible to resolve the tension programmatically or systematically. Israel has discerned that there is in the very core existence of Yahweh a profound and durable incongruity: God inclines to be utterly for the other, and God characteristically is for God’s own self. That twofold inclination most marks the God of the Bible, over against more lyrical, more benign, more romantic, and more domesticated gods.

“That contradiction makes the God of the Bible interesting, credible, and dangerous. This God is interesting, because one does not know ahead of time who God will be or how God will act. This God is credible, because this contradiction corresponds fully to the way we find our own life with others being enacted. This God is dangerous, because just when almost ‘deciphered’ and made predictable, this God surprises us and keeps us off balance. Serious biblical faith requires a readiness to live precisely with and in the midst of this terrible, double-minded danger, which leaves God’s partners always exposed and at risk.”

Off balance is a great way to describe how God makes us feel in these chapters. We don’t know what to expect and we realize we do not get to control God. Very similar to how the Israelites must have felt at the foot of the mountain when they decided to create a god/idol they themselves could control.  You always know what you’ll get from a statue, but that is not true of the living God.

God is described as jealous.  Envy is longing for something you don’t have.  Jealously is the fear of losing something you have – status or a relationship. What do you think about referring to God as jealous?

The covenant is renewed between God and the stiff-necked people.

Moses comes down the mountain again, with new tablets, and finds a very different situation than the last time. Moses now wears a veil over his face, because it shines (due to his conversations with God).

Fun fact- the verb translated “shines” (qaran in Hebrew) also means “horn.”  This is why in the famous statue by Michelangelo Moses is depicted with horns. It may have meant “shines with a shaft of light”, similar to a horn.  

Up on the mountain God gave Moses instruction for how to construct the tabernacle.  This is the actual offering where everyone whose heart was stirred and everyone whose spirit was willing brings offerings to be made into the tabernacle and the furniture.

Everyone who gives offerings and time, skill, and talent does so freely.  “Everyone whose heart was stirred” are the ones to do the work and give the necessary material.  The offering goes so well there is more than enough, and they have to tell the Israelites to stop bringing gifts. The Wesley Study Bible commentary says, “these verses portray the potential and power of the people of God when led by the spirit to deploy fully their gifts and talents for the mission of God.”

Bezalel and Oholiab are the ones God appointed to do the work, but they don’t do it alone. Men and women come and give their time, skill, and talents to complete the job. When you are given a task, do you involve others or do it all on your own? Do you feel comfortable asking for help?

Everything is created as God directed.

The people completed more work on the tabernacle, its furnishings, and the priestly vestments. Especially in chapter 39 we hear over and over again, “as the LORD commanded Moses.” Why do you think this is emphasized repeatedly?

The work is completed just as the LORD had commanded Moses.  Moses sees all the work is finished and blesses them.

If you were an Israelite, what would you make of this stoppage in the journey to create the tabernacle?  
I wonder if I would be so preoccupied with getting to the land that God is going to give us, I don’t know that I would welcome this period of time, staying in this one place, while the artisans and craftspeople go to work. I think it would make me feel antsy and impatient. I’d worry we weren’t being efficient, that there must be another way to do this.
How do you think you’d feel?

Have you ever been so focused on your plans, your goals, your destination that you miss out on something that God wanted for you?
When you’re in a liminal season, do you welcome it, do you remain open? Or do you spend it anxious and frustrated? Maybe a little of both?

Everything is done as the LORD commanded Moses.

Verse 33b is, “So Moses finished the work.”  This is an allusion to Genesis 2:2a when it says, “God finished the work.” The Wesley Study Bible commentary says, “this allusion is intentional and emphasizes the completeness of the creation of a people who will serve God in the work of redeeming the world.”

This chapter and the book of Exodus ends with God’s presence in the tabernacle.  Even Moses can’t go in because the glory of the LORD filled it. The cloud shows when the people should get up and go and when they should stay put.

“For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, before the eyes of all the house of Israel at each stage of their journey.” So God leads and guides the people and God’s presence is seen by all.