Chapters 35-40 are a repetition, sometimes virtually verbatim, of material from chapters 25-31. In those earlier chapters the plan for the construction of the tabernacle and the manufacture of its furnishings was given to Moses. In thes…
We have considered the two narrative sections that surround the encounter between Yahweh and Moses – each of which emphasized the Lord’s drawing back from Israel because of her unbelief and disobedience – and, last Lord’s Day, the encounter itself as…
Last Lord’s Day evening we considered the narrative sections that surround our text for this evening. Both before it and after it we have sections that describe Yahweh’s stepping back from his people Israel, putting distance between himself and…
We are taking the beginning and the end of what remains of historical narrative in Exodus. You will see, as we read them, that they belong together. In fact they form an inclusio, surrounding the revelation of Yahweh’s glory to Moses. We …
We considered the first 14 verses of chapter 32 last Lord’s Day evening and drew from them the lesson of the primacy of faith in salvation and life. Israel did not have faith – she did not know or trust in the Lord, Yahweh, her God – and her wa…
We said, back at 24:11, at the conclusion of the covenant
renewal ceremony narrated in the first 11 verses of chapter 24,
that apart from one major exception the book of Exodus ended
there. The division of the Pentateuch into five books has …
We have completed the lengthy section of liturgical
regulations, instructions for the manufacture of the tabernacle
and its furnishings as well as some instructions for the divine
worship to be carried on there, a section that began immediat…
We continue with the regulations God gave Moses for the
sanctuary, its furniture, the priests and the sacrifices they
would offer.
Text Comment
v.1
The incense altar is first mentioned here, even though
…
Download sermon Exodus 29:1-46 Review We are in the lengthy account of the liturgical regulations, or regulations for Israel’s worship that God gave to Moses on the top of Mt. Sinai. After the regulations concerning the manufacture of the sanctuary furniture and the construction of the tabernacle itself together with its altar, we have come […]
We are in the midst of the elaborate liturgical instructions
(that is, instructions regarding Israel’s worship of
Yahweh) the Lord delivered to Moses during the latter’s
sojourn on the top of Mt. Sinai. We have considered so far …
Review
It has been some time since we were last in Exodus: more than a month ago, to be precise. So let’s review our recent progress through the book and, in this way, place tonight’s reading in its larger context. Wha…
As you may remember, it can be argued that the book of Exodus properly ends at 24:11. There are three more chapters of historical narrative in 32-34, but almost all the remainder of the book consists of liturgical regulations such as continu…
The “Book of the Covenant” is now complete. It is, of course, not the entire covenant. There is a great deal more to be revealed. But these chapters – 20-23 – with the opening summary (the “Ten Words…
Text Comment
We have reached the end of this section of laws or covenantal stipulations, what is often referred to as the “Book of the Covenant.” Our paragraph tonight is the conclusion to the Book of the Covenant. It …
We are still reading the stipulations of the covenant that God made with Israel at Sinai. We have considered a body of personal injury laws, a body of laws concerning the loss of property, and an assorted body of laws that concern especiall…
Remember now, we are in the midst of the covenantal stipulations – most in the form of case laws (that is, rules to follow in various situations) – that followed the Ten Commandments or Ten Words, which served as a summary or epitome o…
We are in the midst of examining the body of covenantal stipulations that follow the Ten Commandments, which we said serve as a summary or epitome of the covenant. The stipulations are mostly in the form of case laws and we considered the bo…
Review
After considering the “Ten Words,” which we have said are a summary or epitome of the covenant that God made with Israel at Sinai, we have descended into the specific stipulations of the covenant. These are not given in…
Remember, we are in the midst of the covenant making ceremony that began in chapter 19. The Lord has spoken the Ten Commandments to Israel from the mountain. We said last time that they amount to a summary or an epitome of the entire c…
We come this evening to the ten commandments. Some years ago now, I preached a series of sermons on the ten commandments and this past week wondered briefly if I should pause and, once again, take each of the commandments in turn. But I…
Text Comment
Here in chapter 19 is the beginning of the covenant ceremony that will take us to the end of Exodus chapter 24. We would do well to remember that this event was not only the great event of the book of Exodus – the point…
The following episode is reported again by Moses in Deut. 1:9-18, a much shorter account that omits mention of the role played by Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro.
v.1 Jethro is the name of Moses’ fat…
Review
The second section of Exodus, which began in 15:22, is a symphony with an often repeated theme, viz. God’s faithful provision for his people, a provision to be obtained through the exercise of faith in the Lord. The Lord pro…
Text Comment
v.1 Once again Moses is charting the route that Israel took by giving specific geographical locations, locations no doubt well known to his contemporaries. Unfortunately, they are not kno…
Israel has begun her passage through the wilderness. It is a large company of people and animals and an obvious question that would have occurred to everyone was where in the desert was food to be found for so many.
Text Comment
v.1 &…
The chapter division between Exodus 15 and 16 is one of those, of which there are many in our Bibles, that are inept. Remember, the chapter divisions were added a thousand years after Christ and are not part of the original text of Holy Scri…
In some important ways the book of Exodus is like the book of Acts. In each book the church makes a new beginning, enters into a new chapter of her life, and in each book the author gives us an account of what we might call “representa…
After a lengthy excursus on the regulations for the annual commemoration of the Passover we return now to the history of the exodus itself, picking up the account from 12:42.
Text Comment
13:18 The most natural and direct way to…
Text Comment
v.2 That is, those who had been personally rescued from death by the blood of the Passover were to be consecrated to God. It is interesting that this suggests that the firstborn killed in…
We considered the burden of this text last time: both the Passover history itself and the commemoration of that history in an annual feast. But there is an issue hidden here in this text that has recently surfaced in Reformed and Presbyteria…
We have before us this evening one of the pivotal texts in all of Holy Scripture. It is so for at least two reasons. First the Passover, as an historical event – the deliverance of Israel from the divine wrath that was that nigh…
We left the narrative, several Lord’s Day evenings back with Moses and Aaron having had their second interview with Pharaoh. They performed a miracle – turning Aaron’s staff into a snake – but the Egyptian magicians di…
Now begins the new contest between Moses and Aaron, speaking on God’s behalf, on the one hand, and Pharaoh on the other. Moses approached this conference, as we learned in 6:30, with trepidation. But the Lord had told him what would trans…
Review
To say the least, Moses and Aaron were unenthusiastic about returning to court for another interview with Pharaoh. The first had gone badly, had backfired, or so it seemed, and they felt no more confident that the next would go any be…
Review
Moses and Aaron’s first interview with the Egyptian king, the Pharaoh, had gone badly. He had not only refused to accede to Moses’ request that he allow Israel to take a three day journey into the desert, but had, in response, punishe…
Review
Moses and Aaron have returned to Egypt with a commission from God. We know what they are to say and we know, in a very general way, what is going to happen because in 3:19-20 the Lord has already told Moses that Pharaoh is going to be…
Review
We have completed the momentous conversation that the Lord had with Moses at the burning bush. The stage has been set for Moses’ encounter with the Egyptian court.
Text Comment
v.18
Remember, Jethro is another name for …
Review
We are still in the midst of the conversation that Moses had with the Lord at the burning bush. We have so far considered the encounter between Moses and the Lord as a paradigm of all such encounters between believers and the Lord.&nb…
Review
Last time we considered Moses’ encounter with the Lord at the burning bush and that encounter as a paradigm of every believer’s encounters with the Lord. We broke off our consideration in the middle of the conversation that God had wi…
Review
Remember, chapters 1 and 2 have set the stage for the account of the deliverance of Israel from Egypt that follows. In chapter 1 we read of the oppression of the Israelites under the rule of an Egyptian dynasty that had no loyalty to …
Review
In chapter 1 we were given an introduction to the material that follows, a setting of the stage. A new Egyptian dynasty, uncaring of the blessing that Joseph had been to Egypt, both fears Israel’s growing strength as a minority within…
Tonight we begin a new series of Lord’s Day evening studies in the Book of Exodus. In some ways, you will understand, it is an artifice to call Exodus a “book.” To call it a book suggests that Exodus is a document by itself, that it circu…