Bible Survey #25 - 2 Samuel

God's Chosen King

The Lord chose Saul to be the anointed king in Israel, but even while Saul was still alive, it became very clear that God had a second, better king that He had chosen, David the son of Jesse. Once Saul died in war, David honored him, and began to consolidate his lawful authority according to the Lord's plan.

Second Samuel gives us the history of this great man, showing us where he went wrong, and how he responded to the Lord's discipline. Most of all, God reveals to us His promise to bring forth a descendant of David who will be an eternal king. This promise has been fulfilled in the great King of God's kingdom, Jesus Christ.

The sufferings of David were substantial. His adultery and murder led to consequences and disorder in his household. These matters are treated in depth in this volume, where we learn about Bathsheba, Tamar, Amnon, and Absolom.

Such losses are presented within a background of David as the man after God's own heart. This king is a great leader of men. He is able to follow God in ways that many of His followers do not understand or appreciate. He loves the worship of the true God. Even His moment of pride at the end of His life leads to the identification of the place where God's temple will be built.

The son of Jesse chosen by the Lord

Must learn true greatness by the hand of God.

Through sin and loss God's mercy still is found

and God will given a Son who will endure.

Exodus 25

Moses and the leaders of Israel have met with God on His holy mountain, the mountain of God's Law. A pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness, was under the Lord's feet in that place. They were near Him who reigns from the heights of heaven, and they were still alive.

God spoke to Moses from this point forward in Exodus about the place where the people of Israel would meet with Him. Before He did this, He instructed Moses to tell the people to make certain contributions for the building of the sanctuary. The people should not have to do this out of compulsion, but willingly. They would give of their own possessions for the building of the place where Israel would worship the Lord.

They would give gold, silver, bronze, colored yarns, linen, animal hides, oil, spices, and precious gems. Where did the Lord's oppressed people get these possessions? Remember that God told them to ask the Egyptians for jewelry and clothing. They were to put it all on their children, and in this way they plundered the Egyptians. Perhaps it was these spoils of God's holy war that were coming back to the Lord now.

Moses was to build the tabernacle and everything connected with the worship of God according to what the Lord showed to Him as a pattern on the mountain of God. This included three holy furnishings that begin the Lord's instructions to Moses regarding this special place.

Ever since man was forced out of the garden, the problem of being in the presence of God has seemed insurmountable. Now God revealed to Moses a way of connection that would allow the Israelites to be with God. As with all of the Old Covenant revelation, it was part of the Word of God to His people prior to the coming of the Messiah, who is our Immanuel, God with us. Through the place of God's presence built after the pattern God showed to Moses on the mountain, the Lord's people would be further prepared for a future solution to their estrangement from God, when we would have bold access to God through Jesus, our King, and when we ourselves would be the temple of the Holy Spirit in Him.

The Old Covenant instruction on the tabernacle space began with the Ark of the Covenant. This was the very center of holiness in the Old Testament system of worship. This box would require special handling because of the danger of contact between sinful people and their holy God.

On top of the ark there would be a covering of pure gold called the “mercy seat.” This throne of God's mercy would have golden angels on each side that would be a part of the golden cover itself. The testimony of the Lord's Word, the Law, would be kept beneath the mercy seat in the ark of the covenant. There in a place that is called “mercy,” a mercy that somehow sits on top of the foundation of God's Law, God would meet with His people. It is fitting for the Lord to start His Word about His sacred place with this one object. The Lord's presence with us in mercy and holiness is what the tabernacle was all about. Everything about being with the true God was frightening for those who still were waiting for His revelation as to how His mercy and His holiness could exist together. If He was merciful to sinners, how could He be true to His own holiness. If He was holy, how could He fulfill His promises of mercy?

The second object for Moses and the people of Israel was the table for the consecrated bread. The Lord was providing bread from heaven, manna, to sustain His people in their life in the wilderness. His Son would come as the Bread of Life. The consecrated bread of Old Covenant worship was to be set out on this holy table to be a ceremonial picture of the life and speech true priests offered up to God. The manna that the people ate was a bread from God. The Lord's bread to us is Christ, and every word that proceeds from His holy mouth. How can we offer up bread to God? Yet we who are now part of the priesthood of the faithful must give back to Him our lives, the true offering of the fruit of lips that confess His Name.

The final object God showed to Moses in this chapter was the golden lampstand. Here was the light of the world. God and the Lamb are the light of heaven, and we who are united to Jesus are to be a lampstand. The church is the Lord's city on a hill. His presence is known to the earth through His covenant people.

These beautiful and holy objects were not explained to the people of God. They were simply displayed to Moses on the mountain in their glory, and He was commanded to make copies of them for the traveling worship house of the Lord in the midst of His people.

Now we see these beautiful treasures in the light of the Redeemer who has come. He is our Ark of the Covenant. In Him justice and mercy have met through the cross. His blood has won for us bold access to God. He is our holy bread. We take, eat, and give ourselves away. He is our perfect lampstand with its fullness of seven lights. In Him we are living out His mercy and justice. We have become a holy offering to the Lord, living letters of His Word. We are the light of the world. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. May we do this as the Lord's pure gold, fleeing from all impurity, and every secret deception of immorality and forsaken promises.

We have more than the pattern shown to Moses on the mountain. We have the greatest gifts of heaven in us right now through the Spirit of Jesus, our earnest of the life to come.

Exodus 24

The Lord gave Israel the general principles of how God's people might walk in relationship with Him in The Ten Commandments. He also provided specifics that instructed Israel concerning what it would be like to live in The Promised Land. God guaranteed His presence and His blessing upon His people if they would listen to Him.

The Lord is not a sinful man that He should make empty promises. He assures Moses concerning the solemnity of His Word by confirming the covenant with Him. He called up the priests and the elders of the people to witness His commitment to them. They would be further away, worshiping from afar, as Moses drew near to the Lord.

For their part, the people made their commitment again to follow the Lord. “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.” Moses wrote down God's Word, and he built a simple altar to the Lord. See Exodus 20:22-26. He also built twelve pillars that stood for the people, the twelve tribes of Israel.

The blood of the sacrifice should not be missed here as we consider this confirmation of the covenant. Even though this is the Law, the blood reminds us that we cannot have fellowship with God without the blood of the sacrifice. That blood is the grace of God, free to us, but requiring the life of the appointed substitute.

The blood of burnt offerings and peace offerings was to be thrown against the simple altar that Moses made. This was not an artistic display. It was a holy symbol that spoke of the need of God's people, a need that the blood of bulls could not finally satisfy.

The book of the covenant contained the Word of the Law. That Law needed to be kept. The blood of the covenant was necessary because of the guilt of disobedience. How did God show the people that they needed the blood of an innocent substitute in order to have fellowship with the Lord? He told Moses to take the blood of the bulls and throw it on the people! What a vivid picture! But Israel has always needed the blood of a law-keeping man for true atonement. The bulls tell a story, but God is not looking for a law-keeping bull. He demands a law-keeping man, a man who is willing to take the punishment that the people deserve.

The people again promised to obey. “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” We do make pledges like that. How can we do anything less? But what will we do for forgiveness when we sin? We look for the grace that will come through the sacrificial blood of a true law-keeper.

We need the blood of the covenant. In the Old Covenant, the covenant of shadows and preparation for the Messiah, a bull would do. But who will be the Man of Light? Who will be worthy to stand before the Lord in His own obedience, with the light of God's perfect justice searching out the depths of His being?

God Himself would have to come, but as the new Man. Man had sinned. Man must obey. And now a perfect Man would shed His blood. This blood was important to God. Even in this day of preparation, notice what God said through His servant Moses: “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

The covenant required this shedding of blood in accordance with the Word of Law in the covenant. To disobey the commandment was death. How can those who have disobeyed live? Only through the blood of the covenant.

The old ritual told the story of God's covenant with Israel. The leaders of the people went up the mountain and “saw” the God of Israel. The ritual was commanded for a few Israelites to see a picture of heaven's glory on earth. They came near to the Holy One of Israel and lived. They beheld God. They ate and drank a meal in His presence.

Theirs was a covenant of Law written on tablets of stone which God gave to Moses. We long for something more. We need more than a record of a Law that is external to us. That Law tells a sinner of his condemnation. We need the effectual shedding of blood that cleanses our hearts. Then we need a new Law to be written upon our hearts by the Spirit of God.

This blessing is ours in the blood of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit. These gifts have covered more than a handful of key leaders. We have been granted a blessing for all the people of the covenant, that we all might have bold fellowship with God.

The Old Covenant solution told a good story, but we have something better than that story. We have the fulfillment of the story in the blood of the Messiah, risen from the dead. Now the whole church can eat and drink with God. All who approached the Lord in faith can enjoy a holy meal preparing us to eat and drink with God in perfect fellowship and peace forever. All who have been covered by the true blood of the covenant can eat the Lord's bread and drink the cup that He provides. The body and blood Christ has been given for us.

Exodus 23

God has put His thumbprint on The Promised Land. In that place that He gave to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He expects that His Law will be followed. That means that it will not be a place of religious pluralism, though sojourners will be cared for. It will not be a land where they will be able to sacrifice to other gods, but it is a place where they can expect to receive help in their various situations of distress.

The Lord's directives for His people in The Land are not just about spiritual practices that are prohibited. There is a public morality, a way of justice and mercy, that God demands. In that land it will never be right to spread a false report in order to defraud a weak individual or a despised minority group of their possessions. The Promised Land is a place of truth.

The Promised Land is also a place where the lost are found. In that land you do what is right even for a man who hates you. You look out for his property, not to secretly steal it, but to return it to him intact.

In Israel, the poor receive a just verdict. You don't have to be able to pay in order get a judge to do the right thing. The God of Israel hates injustice. It is a land where even a foreigner must not be oppressed.

In Israel, time is marked by God's calendar. Living by His time requires faith. You need to enter into His blessing, and let your fields rest in the seventh year.

In God's time, there are also seven days in every week. Six are for work, and the seventh is a day of rest for you and for all who are in your charge, even your animals.

In God's time, there is never a special day for calling upon the name of other gods. There are festivals where all gather in the Name of the Lord. There is a week of Unleavened Bread at the time of the Passover when the Lord brought His people out of Egypt. There is a Feast of Harvest, when you bring forth some of the fruits of your labor to the Lord of the Harvest. At the end of the harvest time there is a great feast of Ingathering where you celebrate before the Lord the great fruitfulness of His provision. These are great feasts for the people of the Land. All the men need to appear before the Lord God on these special days.

There will be other feasts in the nations all around Israel, but the children of God are not to bring the ways of those nations into The Promised Land. They use leaven. That is not for Israel. They let the fat of their offerings remain until the next morning. That is not in accord with the Lord's Law. They keep the first and best of their produce for themselves. Israel must not do this. Israel must have faith in God. Other people undertake all kinds of ceremonies that they imagine to be their safety and help. Israel has a God who has established a different way of worship and life for His people.

God will send an angel, a Messenger from heaven, to protect Israel on their way to The Promised Land. They need to hear His voice. They need to follow Him. Who is this great Messenger of the Lord? Certainly the Lord would send prophets, and the Commander of the Lord's Army would appear to Joshua. But who is the Angel of the Lord, so closely associated with God Himself? We do know that when Jesus came, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” He is the final Messenger of the Lord. Any earlier messenger prepared the way for Him. Any later messengers are His ambassadors.

Israel was to hear the voice of the Messiah in any of those earlier messengers that the Lord granted to them. They needed to carefully obey Him. That was the only way of safety and life in the Lord's covenant community. It was the way of faith; believing in the voice of the Son of God.

When Israel considered what it would be like to be led by the Lord's Messenger into The Promised Land, they needed to resist two powerful temptations. They needed to reject the religion and morality of the people who were in the land before them, and they needed to forget about their own former practices that came from their contact with others, whether the Egyptians to the south, or the Syrians that were their distant ancestors.

There could be no continued presence of Canaanite religion or ethics in Israel. Their holy places needed to be destroyed. The Lord Himself was casting them out of this land. He would not tolerate His people following the practices of foreign worship or imitating their ways of life. Israel was to be different. If they would follow Him in the Land, He committed Himself to great blessings for the nation; blessings of bread and water, future generations and healing, long life and security.

The true Messenger of the Lord has won all of these blessings for us. He has the best and most secure Promised Land reserved for us in the heavens. There we will have food and friendship beyond anything that we experience in our lives now. Our healing of body and soul will be complete, and we will live forever with the Lord and His people in the safety of God's eternal kingdom.

Jesus has placed more than His thumbprint upon His kingdom in heaven. The indelible mark of His wounds have claimed for us the new heavens and earth. All of what Israel could have been here below was only a shadow of what God has now for His chosen people in Christ.

Exodus 22

Not everyone is motivated by the love of God. People who are motivated by the love of Christ for them don't have to be browbeaten into attending worship or into giving to the work of the Lord's kingdom. They want to worship God. They want to give. They want to serve. But some people are simply not moved by the love of God displayed for us in the cross of Christ.

This does not mean that such people are completely without motivating influences. Many get up in the morning and go to work even though they do not love God and do not enjoy their jobs. They are motivated by something else. They need the money. Many people who do not love God still refrain from certain illegal activities that they might love to do. The threat of sanctions constrains their behavior.

This suppression of public evil was one of the purposes of the Law in Israel. The manifold consequences of stealing a neighbor's animal should at least slow down the sensible thief. We need Law, not because it could ever lead us to peace with God, but because, among other reasons, it is necessary for civil order in a broken world where people murder, steal, and commit adultery.

There can be no stability in a community where one man does all the work to maintain a fruitful field, and a second man sends his animals there to feed. If you did that in Israel, God's Law said that the penalty had to come out of your own field. If you started a fire and that fire got out of control and destroyed a neighbor's crops, you had to pay for what the other man lost. If you took responsibility for another man's goods and then claimed that those goods were suddenly stolen, you and the owner might both need to stand before God on that matter, so that the judges could sort it all out.

If people had no evil inclinations, rules like this would be unnecessary. If we were all perfectly motivated by the love of God, we would not need to talk about restitution. But in this world, the real world, even the best people can be overcome by unholy impulses. We do need a system of civil restraints. Even Christians in the New Testament era need to know that civil authorities do not bear the sword in vain. See Romans 13:1-7.

In all cases in Israel, civil order was not only a matter of divine Law. It also included the discernment of those judges who used that Law after hearing the facts of the case from both parties in any suit. Even more, justice was to be lived out in the fear of God. God knew the truth that one man might try to hide from his adversary or from a wise neighbor serving as a judge between the two men. God cannot be fooled, and He is very powerful.

Even the relationship between a young man and woman was not left to the impulses and emotions of the two parties most directly involved. The father was to be a protector of his daughter, and the public had an interest in the protection of the honor of all. This was the way of the Lord for Israel.

The Promised Land was not a place for those who practiced sorcery. It was not a nation where people were allowed to practice bestiality. It was not to be a society that was open to false religion. It was God's country. It was to be a light to all nations. It existed for God's special purposes.

Sojourners were welcomed there, and they were to be treated with respect, but they could not force God's land to tolerate their religion and their moral opinions. They were a minority who should be cared for, just as those who were in need because of the loss of a husband or parents. God promised His people that He would be watching them, and that He cared for the stranger and the weak. Maybe a wicked man might not care about God's feelings on these matters, yet he should pause to consider God's promise to kill with the sword those who made married women widows, and who turned little children into fatherless orphans.

Israel was to be different from all the other nations of the world. It should have been a place where the hearts of the Lord's people went out to the destitute, lending to them without interest, and making sure that even the poor man who had to put up his cloak for a pledge at least received it back at night to keep his body warm. If not, then God would hear the poor man's cries. God is a compassionate being. He expected Israel to be like Him in mercy and love.

These matters of public order and righteousness were requirements for God's chosen people. They needed to honor God and those in authority over them. They were to give to the Lord their first and best out of all that God had given to them. They were to be consecrated to God.

But Israel was not holy. The did not love God with all of their heart, soul, mind, and strength. They did not love their neighbors as themselves. They did not adequately attend to any of his laws. They did not even rightly enforce these ordinances for civil order. Israel failed.

What do you do when Israel fails? You need the provision of a new and successful Israel.

Jesus is the new Israel of God. He is the Son of God who obeys all civil law, all ceremonial law, and even the weightiest matters of mercy and justice. He took upon Himself the curse that fell upon Israel for their disobedience.

God cares about civil order in His church and among the nations of the world. He knows that we will not all be perfectly motivated by love for Him and for one another in the way that we should be. But He has sent the true Israel to live in love, and to die for us because of His amazing love for His people.

Exodus 21

Just because something exists, does not imply that it is God's highest and best desire for His creation. If we want to see the Lord's perfection, we will have to wait for heaven. Here below, God has made accommodations for sin in his laws concerning matters such as poverty, marital unfaithfulness, violent anger, and even out-of-control beasts. None of these sad problems are features of heavenly existence. But the Lord cares about them, and so He addresses such specific realities in His Law that He gave to Israel through Moses. These “cases” help us to see that His concern for righteousness goes beyond the general principles in the Ten Commandments, extending to the details of our relationships with one another.

There is no slavery in heaven, though we may happily refer to ourselves now as bondservants of Jesus Christ. But slavery was an important fact of life in the world of both the Old and New Testaments. If a slave could get his freedom, he was encouraged to do so. See 1 Corinthians 7:21. But freedom from bondage only to die of starvation would not have been the Lord's better blessing upon the enslaved poor. God regulated slavery for the nation of Israel. It was to be a limited institution to help a poor man back to freedom and appropriate self-government. Every seven years the Israelites were to free their Hebrew slaves. If someone desired to stay under the care of a master, there was a way to do this and to preserve family ties according to the free choice of the one who asked to remain with his master. There were important limits on what a master could do with his slaves, yet God takes no pleasure in the buying and selling of human beings under any circumstances, no more than the Lord rejoices in cancer taking the life of a man. In this world of sin and death, a world that feels the touch of the Lord's curse against Adam and his descendants, poverty and illness are real. The Lord insists that there be a way to see that the poorest and weakest are fed and clothed, and that they even retain marital rights that give them a hope for a new generation.

The Lord makes provisions for mercy to those who might take a life accidentally in His Law, but He also insists that someone be put to death in Israel who murders another with malice or who assaults an elderly parent. The Lord will not tolerate those who steal the weak and sell them into bondage. They shall be put to death, and so shall any who knowingly purchase people from those who are kidnappers. The death penalty in these and other cases is not a cause for rejoicing. It is a sad necessity until the day when all sin has been removed from the earth.

Not every offense should result in capital punishment. The Lord knows about the messiness of the anger of men toward one another. Every problem cannot be solved by putting all the parties to death. But people should be careful when they take up arms against a neighbor. If they fight and kill in Israel, there will be a reckoning. Wisdom and discernment will help a judge to weigh the matter well. Some will only have to compensate their victims for the pain they have brought upon them. Others will lose their lives because of their callous disregard for the life of a neighbor.

God is governing His people in the real world, the world of sin. His Law for Israel is not for some perfect world, but for this one, the world where people abuse the weak, and where the powerful employer may suppose that there is no limit to the way that he can use those who are beneath him. God steps into the mess of human relationships and speaks.

The Lord cares for the slave. He has a right interest in the unborn child. He has appointed an orderly system of justice for His nation so that people are not left to their own scheming and power. There will be judges who will hear cases and make determinations according to His Law.

While there are enduring principles in His Law that are so closely connected to who God is that they can never change, much of the case Law in the Torah was given for Israel only, and only for a specific period of time. It was the Lord's provision for life under the sun in that time and place. You hit your slave so hard in the face that he loses his eye, then that slave goes free. That was not because slavery was wonderful, or because the specific sanction would always be the best way of civil justice. It was a powerful Word from God that carried a very serious warning to the rich. They could not do everything that they might want to do.

We are longing for something more than a system of handling the sad disputes that rise up in this world of sin, guilt, and loss. It is good to have some system of justice to address the appropriate care someone should have concerning a violent beast in his charge. But Christ did not die so that we would know what to do with the owner of an ox when that animal is known to be in the habit of goring. Christ died so that one day, even the lion will lie down with the lamb.

We don't ultimately want to know what should be paid if a goring ox kills a man's slave. We want a new world where slaves of God are declared to be His beloved sons in Jesus Christ, and where there is no fear of deranged men or beasts. We are looking for something better than restitution. We desire the full joy and security of eternal life. This is God's highest and best plan. In order to win this for us, the Son of God came into this world of sin and danger, and He redeemed us with His blood.

Exodus 20

God has shown Himself to be the great Deliverer of Israel (Exodus 14-15), and the great Provider for His people in the wilderness (Exodus 16-18). But Israel must know her Redeemer as their Law-Giver. Knowing the fear of the presence of the Lord (Exodus 19), God's chosen ones must now hear the words at the center of the Lord's Covenant with Israel, the Ten Commandments.

This message came from God and was delivered to Moses in the hearing of the people. God said, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.” This is an uncompromising statement of the God of Israel's complete lordship over everyone He has redeemed. Israel was in bondage in Egypt. We were slaves to sin, death, hell, wrath, justice, and even God in His righteous judgment because of our rebellion and the sin of our father Adam. But now we have been redeemed through the shedding of the holy blood of the Son of God. We have been bought with a price. It is our New Covenant responsibility to glorify God with all we are and all we have. See 1 Corinthians 6:20.

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything” in order to “bow down” or to “serve” that image as a god. The Lord presents Himself to the redeemed not only as their Lord, but also as the Husband of Israel, His bride. He is rightly jealous for her. He will not casually stand by while we worship the lifeless objects of our hands. He will not decide it is acceptable for us to claim that we worship Him while we bow down to or serve some object that we have made.

How serious is the Lord's jealous love for us? His wrath against our idolatry will have consequences for future generations among those who hate him. Yet his blessings come to thousands who love Him and keep His commandments; or perhaps, to the thousandth generation of the one who loves Him and obeys Him. There is one Man who has perfectly loved God and obeyed His Law without sin. We need to be adopted into His family circle.

“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.” This is more than just a loose use of the Lord's holy Name, as bad as that is. What Name were you baptized into? Don't take that great Name for an empty nothing that you ignore with your life.

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” God has set one day in seven as a day with His special mark of heavenly rest. Back in the days of Moses, Israel was to work for six days as they awaited the seventh day. Now we begin our week in the perfect rest of Jesus Christ, who worked the works of God for us. We respond to that assurance of our resurrection future with a life today of good works that flow from the blessing of that first day of rest.

“Honor your father and your mother.” Submitting and serving in love within the structures of authority established by the Lord brings with it the promised blessings that flow from obedience. This was the way of life for Israel in the Promised Land, and it is the way for the church to be fruitful upon this earth in the current hour. When the world is too ready to throw off all authority, then lawlessness and death are not far away.

“You shall not murder.”
“You shall not commit adultery.”
“You shall not steal.”
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”

How can any individual, family, or society survive that will not respect the Lord's good provision of life, marriage, property rights, and the honest preservation of a good name? Every motion in our hearts against these good commandments, moves us and others further along the pathway to disorder and death.

The final commandment of the ten helps Israel see that the Lord insists on an obedience that is more than any human court can discern. “You shall not covet.” Who can know the heart a man? But God calls us to obey in our innermost being.

This is the Law. Giving us these words cannot automatically change us so that we will suddenly obey them. Obedience is more than simply knowing the Law.

When the people saw and heard what God did that day, they were greatly afraid. Through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. God came to them in the Spirit of Judgment Day. How would they be able to stand before Him?

Their proposal to Moses was that they not hear the voice of God any more, “lest we die.” Moses could listen to God for them, and they would obey the word their mediator would speak. He encouraged them in the pathway of continued relationship with the Lord Almighty, in the obedience of sincere love.

The way for sinners to pursue a relationship with God required pure and humble sacrifice. Through the blood of offerings, and not through ornate altars and temples, they would testify to God of their guilt, and of His greatness. They would look to Him for a mercy that He would have reveal to them.

We have now come to see the Lord's gracious provision for us through faith in His Son, the one Law-Keeper, the only Lamb who could powerfully give His blood for us at the time appointed by God. Through Him we have been made the descendants of a truly good Man, a Man who fully loved and obeyed God.

Bible Survey #23 and 24 - 1 Samuel

Samuel, Saul, and David

We have been introduced to Saul's town, Gibeah of Benjamin, at the end of Judges, and we have seen David's heritage in Bethlehem from Ruth. It is in First Samuel where we learn how both Saul and David became kings in Israel.

Samuel was the last judge. He was brought up in the home of Eli the priest, and served as one of the great figures of the Old Testament. He was the man God chose to anoint the first two kings of Israel. The people wanted a king other than God, a king like the other nations.

Saul was the first monarch that the Lord provided to Israel. He looked the part and had many remarkable successes. Yet he came to love the praise of men more than the Word of God. Eventually God announced through Samuel that the Lord was taking the kingdom away from Saul and giving it to another man.

That man was David, the great young victor over the Philistine, Goliath. David was a man after God's own heart. Though he was chosen by God to replace Saul, the rest of First Samuel tells the story of the suffering of this David, who had once tended the flock, as the Lord brought him to take Saul's place as the shepherd of Israel. It would be through the line of David that God would one day bring the Messiah King, Jesus Christ.

The people want a king like other lands.

They will not follow God, the Lord of lords.

They see in Saul a man above the throng,

But David and His Son will wear the crown.

Exodus 19

God gave Israel the Law. That Law set them apart from all the nations of the world. This giving of the Law was done in a specific place and time. It was an event that needs to be experienced by every reader, and not merely presented to future generations as words detached from the fact of facing the fear of God in person.

The event of the giving of The Law took place just a few months after Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt. The people camped before the mountain, but Moses, the Mediator of the Covenant, went up to God, and God called out to him.

The Lord reminded Moses of what he had seen with his own eyes, what God did to the Egyptians, and the Lord's tender care for His own people, how He carried them “on eagles' wings.” God brought them, not only out of Egypt, but to Himself. This needed to be spoken again in the hearing of the people. And with this reminder, the Lord's representative needed to insist that the children of Israel obey the Lord's voice and keep His covenant. If they would do this, God promised that they would be His “treasured possession among all peoples.” The Lord insisted that they understand Him to be the God of all the earth, not just the God of The Promised Land. It is in His power and authority to do whatever He pleases. If He chooses Israel above all other peoples, no one can accuse Him of wrongdoing. If He wants them to be a kingdom of priests to Himself, no one has the right to object. He is God. This is what Moses needed to tell the people.

Moses set all of the Lord's words before the elders, and the people responded with a commitment. “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.”

When Moses brought back this word to the Lord, God told Moses that the people would hear Him speak to Moses from out of the glory cloud. The purpose of this great spectacle of eye and ear was to give a witness to the people, a witness of the Word and the appointed messenger, a witness that could not be easily forgotten, a witness that would help them to believe and obey both Word and messenger.

God told Moses to go to the people and to prepare them to see this great revelation by consecrating themselves. They needed to be set apart as holy by washing for two days so that they would be ready for the third day. On the third day, the Lord would come. What could all of this mean? If they were perfectly clean, more than just ceremonially washed, clean in heart and mind as well as in body, then the third day might be a wonderful vindication, a resurrection. But what would the third day mean for those who were still sinners before a holy God?

Sinners would have to be warned not to come near to the Lord, lest they be put to death. This is what God instructed. The people should not even touch the edge of the mountain. If someone touched the mountain, they needed to be stoned or shot, and then no one else could touch their dead bodies.

This experience of sound and sight, this witnessing of Word and power, would begin with the sounding of a trumpet. It would be a Day of the Lord, a moment of final judgment right before their eyes.

When the third day came, it was an experience that was beyond what the people could have anticipated; thunder, lightening, a thick cloud on the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. What will it be like when God comes in judgment on the last day? What will it be like when the birth pains of earthquakes, wars, and plagues reach their fullness, and the trumpet of God sounds? What will it be like to face the fear of God on the final Day of the Lord?

When God came so long ago in the wilderness of Sinai, the people were terrified. “All the people in the camp trembled.” Moses led them out of the camp to meet God. They stood at the foot of the mountain. How would you fare in that experience? Can you stand before Almighty God?

The Lord descended on the mountain in fire. The burning bush was so tame compared to this. Sinai was a burning mountain of God, thick with a cloud of divine judgment with smoke rising up to heaven. The mountain trembled, and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder. Moses spoke and God thundered back with His voice, calling up the mediator of the covenant. Moses did go up, and the Lord issued another warning that the people not come up, lest they perish. Only Aaron was allowed up with Moses, not the priests, and not the people.

If you had two days to cleanse yourself until God called you to witness His Word and to see His holy Messenger, would you be clean enough to appear before the One who knows all things? Would two days be enough time to clean up your life? How would you fare on the third day?

The Jesus who was perfectly clean became an unclean thing for us in order to be our atoning sacrifice. He was unclean only because He took all our filth upon Himself. This Jesus finished His atoning work on the cross, and after sanctifying the grave for us, on the third day, He rose from the dead. When He went up to the mountain of God as the Resurrection Man, it was not Mount Sinai. He defeated that mountain of Law for us on the cross. Jesus ascended the heavenly Mount Zion on a cloud of divine glory, and our names were on His hands.

Now we, in worship, through Him, come not to a frightening mountain that cannot be touched, lest we perish. We are streaming up the holy mountain of God to heaven in Jesus Christ. In Him we have more than peace. We are singing and dancing with joy unspeakable and full of glory before the Lord of Hosts, who rose from the dead on the third day. When He returns we will see Him as He is. He is our Redeemer. He is the Lover of our souls.

Exodus 18

The Lord's provision for His people comes in many different ways. He not only gives them sustenance in the wilderness and grants them victory over enemies that would try to destroy the weak. He also provides them with a system of internal governance.

God cares about good order and justice among His followers. The way that Moses was watching over the Lord's flock was not good. He needed to be corrected, and that redirection came from a surprising source. Moses' father-in-law, Jethro, was a priest of Midian. He heard about God's great acts of deliverance for his son-in-law and the people of Israel, and he came to see Moses in the wilderness.

He brought with him Moses' wife and their two sons. Moses had sent his family back to Midian. Moses was a very busy man, more busy than a man can really be. He had limits, and he was trying to operate beyond what he could reasonably do.

We should not imagine that there was some tension between Moses and Jethro. That would take us beyond what the Scriptures reveal. We cannot really appreciate the culture in which these two men lived, nor can we know what it would have been like for Moses to carry the daily burden that he bore as one who sought to lead all of Israel in obedience to God's commandments. In this reunion we see every indication of mutual love and respect.

In the context of their mutual inquiries, Moses told his father-in-law about all that the Lord had done. They had faced hardships in Egypt and in the wilderness, but God had been their great Help. He had come to their aid and had delivered them from the hands of their enemies. This was a good report, and Jethro was glad to hear it. He was very willing to extol the Lord as the author of all the good that had come upon Israel. He said, “Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods, because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people.” Jethro knew what is still true today, that God opposes the proud. The Egyptian leaders had oppressed Israel in their arrogance, but they could not handle the opposition that came against them from the Lord.

These men enjoyed cordial table fellowship with God and with all the elders of Israel. But it was on the next day, when Moses was back in action, that Jethro saw the problem that needed to be corrected. From morning through evening Moses sat to judge the people. They brought all their problems to him, but it was far more than any one man could handle.

Jethro was blunt in his assessment: “What you are doing is not good.” Moses would exhaust himself and the people in this unrealistic dependance on one man. Jethro said, “You are not able to do it alone.”

He solution was a good one, and his words set a pattern for the governance of God's people, not only in the Old Testament era, but even in the New Testament age. Imagine the power of God, that He can supply a wise solution through a sympathetic voice of experience, the voice of one who was not even a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob!

Jethro spoke as one who has the oracles of God. “Now obey my voice; I will give you advice, and God be with you!” Moses would represent the people before the Lord, but others would help Him to rule according to the teaching that He gave them from God. He would place elders over the people, and the crisis of Moses' limitations as a man would be solved. Not only that, others would be able to serve in accord with their gifting from God.

It is good news that there were some able men who could do their part for justice and order in the Lord's covenant community. God is able to raise up leaders, “men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe.” These men could serve as leaders. Some would provide wise determinations over groups of ten families. Others would lead five other leaders, each of which had ten families in their charge, making the one leader a chief of fifty families. Above such a man would be another who had two of those leaders of fifty, making him a chief of one hundred, and ten such leaders of hundreds would be led by a gifted man who could be a chief of a thousand. These leaders of thousands would be the ones that would come to Moses with cases that they could not solve.

This is a system of what are called “graded” courts, where common matters are dealt with first at the lowest level, and only more difficult issues are brought to higher levels of justice. Jethro was certain that this was the right solution. “If you do this, God will direct you, you will be able to endure, and all this people also will go to their place in peace.” Moses followed Jethro's instruction.

Moses is not our mediator today. We have another Man who represents us before the Father. He does not grow weary in well-doing. He does not need a system of graded courts in order to execute perfect justice. He could just do it all by Himself. But the Lord Jesus, who ascended to His eternal throne through the pathway of sacrificial love, has determined to use His people as part of His system of order and justice in His church. He has given us His Word. We should use that authoritative directive as we seek to serve Him among His people.

The Lord who died to satisfy divine justice still cares about righteousness and order in his church. It is our pleasure to serve in churches and among larger bodies of leaders in the Lord's kingdom. Our Leader is pleased to employ our humble services. He has given some to serve in specific positions of responsibility in the church, and He has given gifts of service to all who are part of His kingdom. But them all, He is King. He never lets His job get in the way of His love for His bride and His children. He is the Son of God.

Exodus 17

We need water to live. To lose a reliable supply of clean water is to be desperate. The people of Israel regularly felt their need for water as the Lord moved them through the wilderness.

The tension of desperation is not an ally in man's fight for self-control. A leader and the congregation or nation that he leads can easily fall into sin at such a time. Here at the beginning of the Lord's account of Israel's wandering through the wilderness, God draws our attention more to His faithfulness than to the sin of the congregation or its leader. Other passages tell us more about sin. For now it is more important for us to see that Israel survived on this journey to The Promised Land by the Lord's miraculous provision of water from the Rock.

The gift of bread from heaven was a sign of Immanuel, who is our spiritual sustenance, the Word that strengthens our hearts in faith. The life-giving water in the desert is a sign of the Immanual Spirit, a Spirit that proceeds forth to us from the Rock of Christ according to the mercy of God.

The story of the sin of God's people is mentioned here. We are reminded that people more easily grumble and quarrel than turn to God with humble and faithful petition. They readily blame the Lord's representatives for all their sorrows and troubles. They also may easily develop a false narrative of the events that have brought them to the present stress. This is what Israel did. They blamed Moses for their desperate situation, and they imagined that their lives as slaves in Egypt were not that bad after all. Moses turned to the Lord, and he told God that the people of Israel were ready to stone him.

In this telling of the story, God does not answer Moses concerning the sins of His people. He declares the word of His provision through His servant, telling Him what to do that the people will be able to live. The Lord told Moses to pass on before the people with the elders to the Rock of Horeb. God connected Himself with that Rock in the past (See Exodus 3), and He would do so again in the giving of the Law (See Deuteronomy 5:2). Here the Lord said these important words to Moses: “I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb.” God would be there, with Moses, on that rock. Moses was instructed to strike the rock, and that the water of life would come out of that rock so that the people could drink.

What a provision for the congregation of Israel! Imagine the eagerness of a thirsty people in great need of what that rock poured forth for them. See them rushing toward the rock seeking water for themselves and for their little ones lest they die.

In the New Testament, in 1 Corinthians 10:4, the Apostle Paul says unequivocally that the Rock was Christ. He suffered for our sake, and He has given to us the living water of the Holy Spirit. Now the church is so closely associated with Him, that out of us flow streams of living water. The church is connected to the Rock.

A place of testing and quarreling became a reminder of the Lord's free provision for His people. The people quarreled. They tested the Lord with their cries of unbelief. They said, “Is the Lord among us or not?” But God, who is rich in mercy, provided life for desperate people.

The wilderness was not only a place where Israel needed great supplies of food and drink from the Lord. They would also need God's hand to protect them from enemies who came out against them. At the end of this chapter we read that the Amalekites fought with Israel and the Lord saved His people.

The way to victory came through the outstretched hands of Moses, the mediator. This visible intercessory prayer told a story that the congregation could see and consider. Moses was a man with limited strength. He ascended to the top of the hill with Aaron and Hur. When Moses' hands were lifted to the Lord, Israel prevailed against Amalek. But when Moses' strength failed, his hands would drop from the posture of entreaty before the Most High God, and Amalek would prevail.

Aaron and Hur had to support the hands of Moses. Moses was too weak to offer continual intercession for the Lord's people. We have a Mediator on high who ever lives to intercede for us. His strength never fails. We lift up one another's hands as a priesthood of believers, but more than anything that we can do for others, our Messiah is our strength.

Meanwhile, on the field of battle, Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword. This was a moment to be remembered. The Lord God, who has the power to give life and to take it away, who raises up nations and peoples for their brief season on this earth and who can bring them down, had made Himself the protective banner over Israel. But He would be a destroyer of Amalek, even “from generation to generation.”

Victory had come from the throne of God, but somehow the hand of a man had been placed “upon the throne of the Lord.” The everlasting arms of our Messiah plead for us in every time of need. He is our Rock and our Redeemer at the right hand of the Father. He gives us water from on high. He will rescue us from trouble that we cannot bear.

Bible Survey #22 - Ruth

So where did David come from?

The end of Judges is full of moral fog and unbelief. In particular, the town of Gibeah in Benjamin, King Saul's hometown, is the site of an episode of extreme depravity. In contrast to this we read in Ruth about Bethlehem in Judah, and the line that produced the great King David.

This brief book begins with the tragedy of Naomi, who loses her husband and her two sons during a lengthy sojourn in Moab. One of her daughters-in-law, Ruth the Moabitess, makes a life and death commitment to Naomi, and returns with her to the town of Bethlehem.

There Ruth is brought into contact with the godly and honorable Boaz, a relative of Naomi who honors the Lord and cares for those around him. He knows of Ruth's faithfulness, and is determined to not only protect her from danger, but also to provide for both women.

Naomi makes plans to put Ruth into contact with Boaz in order to make a secret appeal to him to be their redeemer. The older man is flattered by this bold proposal. Protecting Ruth's reputation, he seeks to marry her in a way that would be appropriate to the law of God and the customs of their time.

From this blessed and holy union of Boaz and Ruth, the Lord grants fruitful increase that leads to King David, and beyond him, to Jesus Christ, our Redeemer.

The world we know below is stung by loss.

The bitterness of death would steal our hope.

But God has kept a Boaz to redeem

A royal bride to bring forth His own Son.

Exodus 16

There were hundreds of thousands of Israelites in the wilderness. God had rescued them out of Egypt. But how would they survive? The Lord would have to provide.

This was not a surprise to God. He had a plan to give bread from heaven. The Lord's decree for each of our lives is not heaven on earth, at least not yet. He is leading us into situations where we feel our need, we cry out to Him, and He grants us gifts according to His will. We are a journeying people, and the Lord is training us up along the way.

That training begins when we leave the place of comfort and provision, when the seventy palm trees and springs of water at Elim are fading on the horizon. Trust is not learned when you have everything that you want. Faith grows when you learn the dependance of asking and gratefully receiving according to the Lord's schedule.

It should not surprise us that the people of Israel did not begin this mission as those who were already perfect in their faith. They had struggled with the events that had taken place in the beginning of their deliverance from Egypt. Yes, they had seen the ability of the Lord to cast horse and rider into the sea. Yet even that devastating display of power could be easily forgotten when fear took hold of their souls.

The people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. They gave into strange and faulty thinking. They openly expressed their rebellion against God's representatives. They claimed that it would have been preferable to die like the firstborn of Egypt rather than to suffer this hunger and thirst in a place with virtually no food or water.

Where do we find our well-being? How do we live in faith. If we look to our circumstances, how can our life of obedience be stable? If we rely on who we are or what we have accomplished, how can we avoid both pride and discouragement? The only way to walk in faith is to find our joy in God and His great works. When all seems lost, remember that God is the great I-AM, and that He has won the battles that make all the difference to our eternal security.

God knew that His people would have to eat in the desert. He announced to Moses the coming provision of bread from heaven. This would be the Lord's miraculous sustenance of His nation throughout their time of travel. Each day God would rain bread for that day. Isn't this consistent with the Lord's good care for us? We want, sometimes even demand, a different level of provision. We look for insurance, not just sustenance, but that is not the way of faith. The Lord has never promised that He would give us all the inventory we could ever ask for. That is the way to feel safe in our own possessions, not the way for us to learn how to trust God.

The people of Israel needed to believe that God would give them their daily bread. Not only that, He asked them to hear His promise that on the sixth day He would provide enough food that they would be well fed on both the sixth and seventh day of every week. He wanted them to keep a day of rest, the seventh day, the Day of the Lord from the time of God's rest over all His works of creation. Observing this Sabbath rest was a special test of faith. Could God be trusted to provide in accord with His Word? Would they learn that man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God?

To embrace a life of faith requires the rejection of those habits of the heart that yield a steady stream of grumbling. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The heart of faith speaks forth earnest petition to God. The soul that is gripped by fear expresses itself in grumbling to people about God and His disappointing representatives.

The Lord knows the difference between prayer and murmuring. God can supply meat for the people if that's what they insist on, but they may not like all that comes with that gift. That is a story for a later chapter in the Bible. In the meantime, the Lord's congregation should not consider the blessing of bread from heaven as a small provision.

Moses did not give the people bread from heaven. The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ gave the Israelites bread from on high. Many centuries later, the true Bread from heaven came in person. The symbols of the Old Covenant were not always explained in former ages. They were to be received as good rituals and acts of mercy from God. Now that we know that the Son of God is the Bread of life, it seems especially insulting that the Lord's people in the wilderness did not think the daily provision of manna was a good enough miracle. Their Lord chose the menu. Who were they to reject it?

Manna was a very good provision, and if they were willing to care for each other, there was enough there for everyone to eat and live. Yet even with such an amazing blessing, the people could not receive it without both complaining and hoarding.

For forty years, until they came to the border of Canaan, God sent a daily gift of bread from heaven. Now the true Bread from heaven has been given to us forever. He is our life. When we remember His atoning death as an act of worship, we still eat bread together. We are united together as one body in the Son of God. He gave His life for us. He is our strength and our joy. He is training us for heaven.

Exodus 15

The destruction of their adversaries was an occasion of great rejoicing for the beleaguered people of God. Whenever we are made aware of a situation of true oppression, or when we see the loss that comes to us or to those we love from the hands of those who are evil, it is not difficult to imagine the singing and dancing that might accompany the destruction of violent enemies by the hand of God.

This praise was a high moment among the people who will soon show themselves to be their own worst nightmare as they go through the wilderness. Their song was not for their own entertainment. It was offered up to the Lord. Through their words we join in this worship of our strong Deliverer.

Have we been delivered from trial? Has God won a great victory for us over sin and death? We should sing to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously. The Israelites did not cast the Egyptian forces into the sea. And we did not defeat hell. God won the victory. He deserves the praise.

He is our strength in the battles of life, and He is also our strength in every act of true worship. He has saved us now, and He will save us forever with a more glorious salvation than we have ever imagined. He is our God. He is the God of all those who have ever called upon the Name of the Lord with a sincere heart. He is a man of war who cannot be stopped. The Lord, the great I-AM, is His Name.

The God of Israel is not only a God who is far above us. He is near to His people in their time of need. He is not someone who would have to be instructed as to what a chariot is, or who is unaware about what it means for the chariots of Pharaoh to be covered with water. He cast those chariots into the sea.

The chosen officers of Pharaoh were surely intimidating men in their brief lives in the service of the king of Egypt. It was very frightening to the Israelites to see them drawing near. But God is not frightened by men. His arm of power is far above the strongest arm of man. He is able to shatter His enemies. Why would anyone imagine that he could fight against God? Yet that is the problem of pride in the heart of mankind.

The miracle that took place at the Red Sea was not the result of impersonal forces that randomly came together at just the right time. The Israelites were not singing and dancing in praise of the wind and the water. They knew that the same God who had displayed Himself in wonders in Egypt had brought about this miracle of tremendous force. The same God who held back the seas for them had brought the waters down upon those who wanted to kill them. His personal fury came against the Egyptians.

The enemy had his own thoughts about what he was doing. He would pursue the Israelites. He would overtake and defeat them. He would take back the plunder that had come out of Egypt. He would show these slaves who they were. He would have his desire. He would kill them if he needed to. But the adversary blindly forgot about Israel's God. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, He blew with His wind, and He covered up this proud foe.

There is no one like the Lord! This display of divine power and faithful love for Israel, the people He redeemed, would be known among the many people groups of that region and beyond. The Philistines, Edomites, Moabites, and Canaanites would hear the word of what had taken place, and they would be in dread of Israel and Israel's God.

One day the Lord of Israel and His redeemed people would pass by in front of all these enemies. If He was powerful enough to overthrow the chariots of Pharaoh, He would not be stopped until He had established His people on the heights of His chosen land. If He loved them this much, surely He would settle them on the mountain where He lived. They would worship Him there in His sanctuary. There the God of Israel will reign forever and ever.

These are the themes that filled the mouths of the people of Israel in the midst of such an amazing display of deliverance. Should we praise God less than they did on that great day? Together with Miriam, the sister of Moses, the women of the congregation sang and danced to the glory of God. Then Israel set out on their journey. They needed water and the Lord provided a way to make bitter water sweet. He promised to be their healer, and He led them to place of plentiful springs of water.

Pharaoh's army was a very formidable force. But the wrath of a righteous God that would have justly come against us is far more frightening. The Lord's deliverance of Israel through the destruction of their adversaries made the chosen people of the Lord sing and dance in heartfelt praise to God. We should give Him nothing less than the greatest devotion and obedience.

We see more clearly now, not only the power of the Lord's hand, but also the costly love that has saved us. All the divine justice that the Lord's enemies deserve has now come upon the mighty Son of God for our sake. This is both power and love. With the clarity of the cross of Christ and the wonder of His resurrection as a present force in our souls, we should worship God and obey His Word every day. Our Lord has granted us eternal healing in Jesus Christ. We will dwell with Him forever. Praise the Lord!

Exodus 14

Even after Pharaoh let the Israelites go, after he thought he was finished with the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, it turned out that God was not finished with Pharaoh. The Lord sent the Israelites into a trap. They were following Him, and He deliberately sent them into a place where they would seem to be stuck between a pursuing enemy and the impassible sea. Pharaoh would hear of it and be unable to resist the opportunity to follow his base impulses. The Lord would show one more time the glory of His judgments against the Egyptians. He would harden Pharaoh's heart, and the angry, mourning king of Egypt would chase after the chosen people of God. The Lord would manifest His own great glory in this contest against an arrogant and brutal man, and the Egyptians would know that the God of the Hebrews was the Lord.

We might think that Pharaoh would not have had it in himself to pursue such a foolish strategy. We might suppose that even if one man continued in this cruel hatred, that he would not be able to convince others to go out with him against the Israelites. But they did go. They saw an opportunity to express their hatred for God and His people, and they could not resist it. Any suggestion that the God who created the heavens and the earth has a chosen people, and that He has the right to give them a land as He chooses, will be an offense against the proud who set themselves above God. It is a message that must be killed. The power of this kind of hatred is a formidable force, but fighting God is a fool's errand.

When the king of Egypt was told that Israel had fled from Egypt, he did change his plans. He came back to his own strange view of reality. He brought his forces together, including 600 chariots, and began a hot pursuit of the people of God. They drew near the thousands of Israel, and Israel saw it.

Then panic overcame the Lord's people. “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?” They forgot their prayers for deliverance. They imagined that life in Egypt had been very tolerable, certainly better than dying in the wilderness.

Moses urged them in the way of faithfulness as he understood it. “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.” Then he panicked.

Yet God had another plan. Deliverance for Israel would not come by them standing still, but through their going forward using the gifts that God had given them. The Lord had worked wonders in Egypt by His Word and the staff of Moses. Moses still heard the Lord's voice, and he still had that staff in His hand. God expected him to hear His direction, and to use what he had for the Lord. This is how God would part the Red Sea so that the Israelites could go through on dry ground, and this is how Pharaoh's forces would be overwhelmed by divine judgment. Israel would be the Lord's bait that the Egyptians could not resist, even to their own destruction. God would get glory over His enemies.

But how could Israel survive the onslaught of forces approaching them at the speed of swift chariots when they were traveling by foot through the wilderness? How could they live long enough to make it through the Red Sea without being overtaken by this force that they saw approaching them? The God who had delivered them through the blood of the lamb would protect them. His angel went in front of them and behind them. He was their hedge. The cloud of the Lord's presence came between the Egyptians and the people of Israel.

Then the Lord used His Word and the hand of Moses to provide a way of salvation. The wind (or “spirit”) prepared the way for them all night, turning the tumultuous waters into a pathway of life. The Israelites walked on that new road through the waters of God's judgment, but when the Egyptians presumed that the wall was anything other than a gift for the chosen of the Lord, they were overwhelmed in waters of divine judgment.

There were signs of disaster toward the end. Their chariot wheels were not able to deal with the Lord's road through the sea. Their great technological advantage over the Lord's people did not prove to be a help to them, but a portent of what would come against them very soon. They knew it before it happened. They wanted to back away, but it was too late. They said, “Let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.”

Then, in a moment, it was all over. Over 400 years in Egypt, and 10 great plagues, and a venomous pursuit by a crazed enemy ended by the Word of God and the hand of His servant, Moses. And they were gone. “Not one of them remained.”

God had rid the earth of the pursuing menace in a shocking display of His power. During the long struggle before the end it had seemed that deliverance would never come. Up to the very end it had seemed that all would be lost. Yet when the end finally came, the speed of the Lord's victory was shocking. Then it was obvious that He could have won this battle in seconds at any moment He chose. But this was the victory He had in mind.

Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians. But a far greater victory came on a different day, and it has become for us a better path of life. When the apostles Peter and John saw a grave with no Jesus inside... what a sudden victory over death suddenly burst forth for the Lord of eternal life! We follow in that pathway as everyone should who believes in the saving power of the blood of the Lamb.

Bible Survey #21 - Judges Part 2

No King

After the death of Gideon the deepest problems in Israel come increasingly from within. The people honor Gideon's request, but that leads to the creation of an idolatrous object. Later Gideon's son, Abimilech, tries to set himself up as a Savior, but he is willing to kill his own people to usurp a position of power that is not rightly his.

The stories of Jephthah and Samson provide us with accounts that seem deliberately ambiguous. Yet beyond the moral fog, the Judge emerges as one who bears the cost of salvation for us. Jephthah's victory costs him his daughter. Even more, Samson wins his greatest battle in a way that costs him his own life.

The epilogue of this book leaves us off at a very different place then where we started. Good moral order has disintegrated. Acts that are seen as pious on one level are also transparently idolatrous or wicked. Unrighteous men rail at the decline of those around them, but seem to think that they are not part of the problem.

Israel has no human king. Everyone does what is right in his own eyes. We end Judges with the bizarre depravity of Gibeon, the place of Saul's people. We then begin the next book in Bethlehem, where we are introduced to the heritage of our true King and Savior.

No Gideon or Samson can defeat

The evil enemy within our hearts.

The Savior of mankind is God's own Son.

Come soon, O great Redeemer from above!

Bible Survey #20 - Judges Part 1

Downward

The Lord led His people forward during the generation of the conquest of The Promised Land. But Israel forgot God over and over again, and worshiped the deities of the Canaanites. They also imitated the practices of the people in the land, and soon found themselves in troubles that were larger than they could handle.

Then they cried out to the Lord, and God provided a judge for that generation who served as a savior of the people. But when each judge died, the people soon returned to their sin, descending downward in their disobedience, and becoming worse than their fathers. They brought against themselves the anger and discipline of the Lord, until they cried out to Him once again.

This downward spiral continued over many years between the days of Joshua and the coming of Samuel, the final judge who anointed first Saul and then David as kings. The gift of judges during those years was evidence of the faithful mercy of the Almighty toward the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The Lord gave leaders like Ehud, Deborah, and Gideon. During the first half of Judges, the enemies were outside oppressors. But as time moved on, it was increasingly obvious that the bigger enemy was within.

Send us a savior. Conquer all our foes.

Return to us, and lead us back to life.

When we turn far from you, we live as slaves.

O God of all the judges, hear our cry!

Exodus 13

If it had not been for the merciful purposes of God, all the Egyptians and all the Israelites would have been destroyed on that first Passover night. All of the descendants of Jacob and all the residents of Egypt could have been justly sentenced by God, not only to immediate death, but to the everlasting destruction of hell. But God, who is rich in mercy, had plans that some would be spared. Because of the mercy of God, life goes on. See Ephesians 2.

One way for the Israelites to be aware of their guilt and the mercy of the Lord toward them through His plan of redemption, was God's claim of His special ownership of the firstborn of the Israelites, spared on account of the blood of the Passover lamb. The Lord said, “The first to open the womb is mine.”

Our response to the Lord's mercy should be the consecration of holy obedience to His Word. The Israelites could remember the rescue from bondage, and they could think about the strength of the Lord's arm in their salvation. Then they could commit themselves to the unleavened way of life, the way of purity and true humility.

This unleavened life could not be learned from the Canaanites. They would be sent forth out of The Promised Land by the Lord's judgment. Following that bad example of sensuality, depravity, and pride could never have been an appropriate response to the mercy of God. Instead the Israelites needed to pass on to their children both the ritual of the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the reason for the ritual. “It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.” Why do New Testament believers seek first the kingdom and care for the least of these? It is because of what the Lord has done for us in the cross of Christ. He brought us back from sin, death, and hell.

This grace of God and the appropriate consecration of holy obedience should be our banner forever. Christ has saved us. We will serve Him.

God has given His own firstborn. Moses was instructed to tell Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord: Israel is my firstborn son.” Who knew that God had a much older firstborn Son from eternity past? This Son of God would die for us as the perfectly consecrated offering to the Father. In light of His dedication, we should offer up our bodies as living sacrifices to God.

Even the firstborn of the animals were the special possession of the Lord. What was the point of this, since the entire earth and all its fullness belongs to the Almighty One? Just as the firstborn of Pharaoh and the Egyptians died when the destroyer came upon the land of Egypt, the firstborn of their flocks and herds were also lost. The animals of the Israelites were spared, but now they belonged to the Lord in a special way. God owns everything by creation, but in His great mercy, He has a special claim of ownership over every man and beast He rescues from certain destruction. Everything that is somehow saved through association with the blood of the Lamb is particularly claimed by the Lord.

This is important for us to know, and it is also critical that our children understand this truth. What God saves, He owns. We have been bought with a price. The Lamb of God gave His blood for our salvation. Why do we think that serving the Lord is optional? By a strong hand the Lord brought us out of slavery. Sin and death did not want to let us go. If it were up to the devil or even our own flesh, we would be subject to our basest impulses forever. But we have been redeemed by Jesus. That redemption did not happen without the death of the Son of God. That is why the Israelites were told that they must dedicate the firstborn to the Lord. It was a responsibility of someone who understood the mercy of Passover. The cross is an even bigger mercy. Dedication to the God of mercy, though freely offered by the redeemed soul, is manditory.

Pharaoh's son was not spared on that horrible night when the destroyer came to Egypt. The king refused to listen to the voice of the Lord. He would not let Israel go until his own son's life had been taken. God did not want His people to forget the plain facts of Old Testament redemption. When we partake of the Lord's Supper in New Testament worship, when we eat the communion bread and drink the cup, we remember, and even proclaim, the Lord's death until He comes.

The Old Testament worshipers had their own special rituals during the time of preparation for the gift of the Messiah. They came with some measure of explanation, especially for those among the young who might inquire. The words of history could be repeated to them. One generation would testify to the next about the power and love of God. But looking back to the first Passover was not the whole story of Old Testament ritual. These ancient ceremonies also prepared the people of God for a present life of consecration lived out with an awareness of the certainty of the Lord's promises concerning the future. We have a present leader who is with us in a way that the cloud and fiery pillar of old only whispered. We do not carry the bones of Joseph through the desert as the Israelites did so long ago. We bear within our hearts the great Immanuel. We have been given the Son of God, now risen from the dead. He leads us onward as our eternal King. We belong to Him.

Exodus 12

These plagues could not continue forever. The Lord had a plan that included more than judgment. Redemption had to come, and the fullness that atonement would bring to the Lord's people. It was finally time for Israel to be brought out of the house of slavery. It was time for the Lord to save.

In creating His nation and bringing them into The Promised Land, the Lord provided the way for His beloved to look at the world around them and to think about the part that their lives played in His glorious decrees. Looking at the world and one's own life well involves understanding the times. For the nation of Israel, it all began with Passover. Therefore it was fitting that, according to the Hebrew Bible, the month of Passover would be the first month of the year for Israel.

God commanded them to perform certain rituals during that first month, not just once, but forever. Those rituals center around the blood of a sacrificial lamb. Think of all the lambs that would be slaughtered in the years that would follow. All were to be without blemish, all slaughtered at twilight on the fourteenth day of that first month. On the first Passover, the blood of the sacrifice would be a sign before the Lord who was coming in vengeance upon the land of Egypt. The blood on the homes of the Israelites was a testimony to their own need for a death that would take away the wrath of God. It spoke a word about universal guilt, but also a second word about particular redemption. The redemption was for all who would believe the Lord's Word about the blood. The only alternative to faith and participation was the wrath of the Lord upon the firstborn. It was redemption through sacrificial blood with God's people or death.

The lamb that would be the source of the atoning blood was not to be thrown away after giving the necessary life for this ritual. It was eaten. The details of the meal underscored the need for haste. No one should linger in the place of judgment.

This was the meal that God instituted as an annual commemoration. It was a statute forever. Connected to this one day of blood that turned away divine wrath was this urgency of moving out of the place of bondage. There would be no time to let bread rise according to the old ways under slavery. The future celebration of this ritual would include getting rid of all leaven. At Passover and during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Lord's nation would need to remember that it was time to move forward in obedience to the Voice of the Lord. To ignore this was as serious as ignoring the ritual of circumcision. The person who treated these commands so lightly that he did not bother to obey them would be cut off from the togetherness of the Lord's household. He would no longer be a part of the congregation of Israel.

Moses instructed the elders of Israel on these important matters, and they in turn brought the message to all the tribes and clans of Jacob. On that first Passover, the people of Israel in their families would be the ones who would kill the lambs and sprinkle the blood on their homes for the protection of ceremonial cleansing. They would stay within their homes only until the danger of the wrath of the Lord was past. The Lord would use His destroyer against the firstborn of Egypt. Israel was not to go out in that dangerous Day of the Lord. But once the wrath of God had passed them by, they were to move out of Egypt in haste.

This day of judgment upon Egypt would be a day of redemption for Israel, a day to be celebrated and taught about in Israelite families for many generations to come. The children would learn about “the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover” from the adults. This defining event of the people of Jacob would be part of the foundational heritage of those who worshiped the Lord.

Finally the moment of redemption came on that first Passover. At midnight “the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt.” Death was everywhere in Egypt, but the people of Israel lived because of the blood of the lamb.

Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron, and this time he urged them to go, asking for their blessing. In haste, the people of Israel went out from Egypt, and they left with the jewelry of the Egyptians according to the Lord's instruction. The wealth of this Gentile nation came into the hands of the Lord's chosen people.

Six hundred thousand men of fighting age went out, and all the women and children with them. They left at the urging of the man who had resisted their freedom through many previous signs of God's power. They had been in Egypt for over four hundred years. It was time to move on. They, and a mixed multitude that associated themselves with them, left the land of Pharaoh that night.

Anyone from the nations who might ever desire to eat of the Passover had to come in to the nation of Israel through the gate of circumcision. Then they too could partake.

But now another door into the Lord's household has been opened wide for us; a better door than the ceremonial Law of God. Through the one Lamb of God who was cut off for our sake, that one true Lamb from heaven who has taken away the sins of the world, we have been grafted into the Lord's saving purposes for Israel. No longer must we be circumcised to have communion with the God of the Jews. Nor do we all need to continue in the ritual of the Passover ceremony. Our consciences have been sprinkled through the blood of the true Lamb of God. We have communion in His flesh and blood with all Jews and Gentiles who receive God's final redemptive Word and believe.