Loading summary
Transcript27 lines
- [00:00]
A
Hey, Bible nerds. This is Dr. Manny Arango and I'm your host for the Bible department podcast powered by Arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the journey.
- [00:26]
B
To all my fellow pastors, I've got a question for you. Does your city know that your church exists?
- [00:32]
A
Listen, I get it. You're preaching, you're leading, you're discipling, you're doing ministry. We are in the same boat. And let's be honest, social media and marketing, not your strong suit.
- [00:42]
B
Not mine either.
- [00:44]
A
And that's probably the last thing on your mind.
- [00:46]
B
And that's why we chose to partner.
- [00:49]
A
With Church Candy Marketing for our church Plant the garden.
- [00:53]
B
We out here, y'all. They help churches get more actual guests walking through the doors on Sunday without your eye having to stress over ads.
- [01:01]
A
Or algorithms or trying to crack the social media code. Right now, Church Candy is helping nearly 400 churches reach their communities with simple invite ads.
- [01:10]
B
And it works.
- [01:11]
A
It's super effective.
- [01:12]
B
I can tell you from firsthand experience. So if you're tired of being your.
- [01:16]
A
City'S best kept secret, how about you do this? Go to churchcandy.com Manny and book a free consultation book a discovery call. Their team will break it all down.
- [01:28]
B
And show you how to start seeing.
- [01:30]
A
New faces at your church this Sunday.
- [01:33]
B
I'm in the trenches with you trying.
- [01:35]
A
To grow the church. And how about we just start a whole campaign?
- [01:39]
B
No more empty churches.
- [01:40]
A
So let's partner with Church Candy and.
- [01:42]
B
Get our churches full. The glory of Jesus. Let's go. Today we are in Exodus chapters 19 through 22. Like I say, every day, if you haven't done the reading, go do the reading. Stop this recording. Stop the audio. Stop the video. Go do the reading. Okay, now we're getting into the section of the book of Exodus where we're going to get some loss. All right? And so I want to kind of guide us through this section of the book. This is probably where people start to fall off. And so I'm really going to try to guide us through the these chapters to the best of my ability. And honestly, I actually think that you can come away from today's episode with a greater appreciation for these laws because we may not see them as revolutionary because we are comparing these laws to the United States Constitution or we're comparing these laws to modern day laws, but we're actually going to compare the law code that we're going to find starting here in the book of Exodus, we're going to compare that to its contemporaries. And one of those contemporaries is going to be Hammurabi's code. Okay, so if you've never heard of Hammurabi's code, you can just Google that really quick. Hammurabi's code. H A M M U R A B I Hammurabi was a Babylonian king. I think people date Hammurabi to like the 18th century BC. Don't quote me. Let me know in the comments if, if I'm right or wrong. I'm literally like I'm giving the best guesstimate. I don't know for sure, but I think it's like 18th century BC. I could be wrong though. Now, Hammurabi's code and the laws of the Torah have tons of similarities. So we can just start off right there. Our context clue for the day, okay, that's our big context clue, is that we can't take Exodus or any of the laws. We're going to get law codes in Deuteronomy, we're going to get law codes in Leviticus and the law codes are going to start here in the book of Exodus, okay? And so we can't take these laws out of context. We actually have to put these laws into context. And when you put these laws into context, these laws are revolutionary. Let's just start with the biggest contextual idea, which is in the ancient world, there was no God who ever laid out exactly what you needed, a sacrifice. So the reason that child sacrifice became a thing in the Assyrian, Babylonian, Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Canaanite culture is because, you know you need to sacrifice to the gods, but you don't know what's enough. You don't actually know what to sacrifice. And so we may read laws about sacrifices and pigeons for this and a lamb for this and a goat for this. We read stuff like this and it doesn't resonate with us. But you can hear the sigh of relief with an ancient audience who goes, ah, we don't have to guess what the gods want. We don't have to guess what God wants. God is telling us exactly what to sacrifice. So the reason child sacrifice became a thing is because, okay, maybe you sacrifice some pigeons, but then there's still a drought. So you think, ah, we must not have given the rain God enough. So then you sacrifice a goat and it's still, there's still a drought. And you're like, ah, we must not given the rain God enough. So then you sacrifice a bull, right? And you keep giving the Rain God more and more and more things that are more and more valuable. And then finally someone goes, the most valuable thing we can give would actually be our children. Okay? And so the fact that there is no laws about sacrificing children, the fact that there's an outlined prescription like this is exactly what God requires. Nothing more, nothing less. This is revolutionary. Okay, so if we read this with a modern eyes, it's easy to go, ah, so legalistic, so many rules. But that would be reading things out of context. We want to read things in their proper historical and cultural context. Okay, next big thing, Hammurabi. I'm actually going to pull up some notes that I have written down about Hammurabi's code, especially in comparison to the Torah. Okay. There's three big comparisons with Hammurabi's code, and there are tons of similarities. I mean, the similarities are actually really, really clear. Tons of similarities between Hammurabi's code and all the laws that we're going to find throughout the first five books of the Bible. Three main differences. Number one, Hammurabi's code is only consequential law. So if you do X, then Y will happen to you, which we would call kind of like case law. So if this happens, then this. But the Torah, on the other hand, gives moral pronouncements. It's not just if this, then this. There's some of that in the Torah, but a lot of it is, God is holy, therefore you be holy. God rests, therefore you rest. It's not if this happens, then this happens. It's more. No, there's just a moral standard, and you are being commanded to behave a certain way as it reflects the character nature of God. That is not true about Hammurabi's code. There's no place in Hammurabi's code where it's like, hey, you need to reflect the character and the nature of Marduk. We need to reflect the character and the nature of baal. We need to reflect the character, the nature of Asherah. That. That is not found in any secular law codes, but it is found in the law codes of the Torah, which has a lot of bearing on us as believers because it's easy to just say, oh, this is just a bunch of archaic laws. But the reality is this, God is still holy and he still requires his people to act holy. We're gonna define holy a lot throughout our journey together reading the Bible. Second big difference between Hammurabi's code and the Torah is that Hammurabi's code contains no positive obligations towards others. None. No positive commandments. The Torah, on the other hand, is replete with directives of love, kindness, lending, and charity. Okay? So not only is there certain things I'm not supposed to do, Hammurabi's code is really good at telling me what not to do, but it's not good at telling me what I should do. Whereas the Torah is not only going to tell me what not to do, it's also going to tell me what to do. Okay? So that I'm not just playing defense in terms of my relationship with God and others, but I'm playing some offense. Put some points on the board, okay? Third major difference, that Hammurabi's code protects the nobility and landowners as a privileged class. The class of people protected and favored under Hammurabi's code would be the nobility and landowners. This is a privileged class. However, in the Torah, widows, orphans, the poor, and strangers and foreigners are actually the most protected people. It's completely upside down that God's chief concern is not about protecting the privileged or the nobility or the landowners or the wealthy. His main concern is with protecting the most vulnerable in society, which would be widows, orphans, children, women, people that are poor, strangers, foreigners. Okay? So you're going to see those three things come up again and again and again, especially if we navigate through these laws. These are three big differences to really, really, really keep in mind. Last little piece about our context. Okay. I actually want to read Exodus 20:20. Okay. This is right after the Ten Commandments, God is going to start giving laws to his people. And then he says this. Moses said to the people, do not be afraid. God has come to test you so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning. So the fear of the Lord is supposed to keep me from sinning? Actually, John Bevere tells this amazing story. I remember being sitting at Christ for the Nation Institute as John Bevere told the story. He went to go see Jim Bakker. Now, Jim Baker is somebody who I'm pretty sure got imprisoned for embezzling money, lost his ministry, lost his church. I'm pretty sure he got caught in some affairs. There may have been drugs involved. I mean, the man just completely fell apart. This is an anointed, powerfully used man of God. Okay, Jim Baker. You can Google Jim Baker in your own time. I can't remember exactly what he did wrong, but it went up in flames. All right? It was bad, bad, bad. Really, really bad. And so John Levir Goes to visit Jim Baker. He had an opportunity to talk to him. And John Levere just assumed, man, at some point, you stopped loving God. And so John Bevere asked Jim Baker, when did you stop loving the Lord? And Jim Baker, with tears on her down his face, said, I never stopped loving God. Oh, I love the Lord. I never stopped loving God. I stopped fearing God. And it's when I stopped fearing the Lord that I started to compromise morally, that I started to take shortcuts that I know I shouldn't have been taken, that I started to sin against the Lord. I started to cheat on my wife. I started to embezzle money. I started to cut corners. I started to do things that were shady. I started to compromise when it comes to my integrity. Said the whole re. The whole time I was in sin, I loved God. And I remember. I mean, you could hear a pin drop in this auditorium as John Bevere was kind of talking about this. And he said, there's so many of us, we love God, yet we keep on sinning. Because the love for God or the love of God alone isn't the thing that keeps us from sin. It's actually the fear of God that also keeps us from sin. And so in Exodus, chapter 20, verse 20, Moses says to the people, do not be afraid. God has come to test you so that the fear of God will be with you and keep you from sinning. Now, I will sing this song over and over and over and over. I'll be a broken record player that we wrongly assume that the Old Testament is legalistic. However, the Old Testament is just as much a revelation of God's grace as the New Testament. And grace, okay, means that salvation comes first and then law comes second. That's grace, okay? So if anyone tries to teach you that grace doesn't include law, then I'm sorry, they're teaching you something that's not biblical, okay? Jesus says this, if you love me, you'll keep my not suggestions, not. Jesus is not saying, if you love me, just, you know, do what you feel. No, Jesus says, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. You will obey my objective truth. So here's what legalism is, because Jesus, sorry, God, Yahweh, is going to give the people laws, okay? Exodus, chapter 19 is the first one. We're going to get some laws. Here's what legalism would have been if God had had the people of Israel standing in front of the Red Sea with the army of Egypt behind them. And he said, all right, guys, before I Open up this Red Sea for you to walk through on dry ground. Do you solemnly swear to follow these commandments? Okay, everybody, vow in covenant and commit that you are going to follow my commandments. And if you do, if you do, then I'll save you through the waters of the Red Sea. And then I'll kill Pharaoh and his chariots and his army. No, that's not what happens. What happens is that God gives a free gift of salvation. First, he delivers them and saves them from bondage. He delivers them and saves them from the threat of drowning in the Red Sea or being attacked by the armies of Pharaoh. First, that happens first, and then second, once God proves his character that he's a delivering, saving God that can be trusted, that he cares, that he has our best interest at heart, then he commands loyalty through obeying his law. And that is grace. Deliverance first, salvation first. That has to come first. And then after deliverance and after salvation, then there's obedience. When we do it the other way around, that's called legalism. But when we keep it in the right order, that's called grace. Okay, I will harp on that over and over and over and over and over again, because for whatever reason, we've got a bunch of young adults who think that they can call their undisciplined, you know, rebellious lifestyles grace. And that's just not how grace works, like, at all. That there's no way that that is the biblical definition of grace. That may be some human definition of grace, but that is not a biblical definition of grace.
- [15:35]
A
Bible department family, it's Dr. Manny Arango. And first thing I want to say is that I'm proud of you for completing the New Testament.
- [15:43]
B
You did it.
- [15:44]
A
And now that we're in the Old Testament, I hope that looking at Genesis and Exodus from an ancient perspective and worldview has kind of like, opened your eyes. Well, I got news for you. If you've enjoyed some of the interpretations.
- [15:59]
B
That I've brought to the table from.
- [16:01]
A
Genesis, then that's just the tip of the iceberg. This entire book, Crushing Chaos, was written from an ancient hermeneutic. I'm looking at stories like the Flood, Adam and Eve from the perspective of an ancient person. And we've got an event coming up on April 26th where I'll take a lot of the content from this book and I'll turn that content into live lectures. You don't want to miss it. You can actually register for that event right now. The link is, is in the description and more than content, I think what you'll find as we gather together in Nashville are like minded believers and friends in a community of people that you don't just watch content with online, but you can get to know in person. I'd love to see you in Nashville. I'd love to hug you, high five you, and I'd love to nerd out together for one day as we come together in Nashville to learn about how to crush chaos. I'll see you in Nashville.
- [16:59]
B
Peace. That's a lot of context. Okay, let's actually move into our nerdy nugget for the day. Okay. Exodus 19 is the moment that the Jewish people are going to say, this is when we were wedded to Yahweh as groom and bride. This is not just a moment where God comes down and gives them the ten Commandments. No, this is actually a covenant ceremony, a marital ceremony. So from this point on, Exodus 19 is a big, big deal, because from this point onward, idolatry. Idolatry is going to be referred to as adultery. When the people worship other idols, when they worship false gods. Yahweh is not going to use the language of idolatry. He's going to actually use the language of adultery that we were married to one another at Exodus chapter 19. And you've gone against my covenant vows. Right. So there's a little detail. In Exodus chapter 19, there's this repeating phrase called the third day. The third day. The third day. Prepare the people for the third day. Prepare the people for THE third day. Third day, third day. Now, when we get to John, there's going to be a wedding at Cana in Galilee where Jesus is going to turn water into wine. That happens on, you guessed it, the third day. Which means John sees Jesus as the fulfillment of this messianic groom, that he is the one, like God, who is marrying Israel to himself. And what is the true Israel? Those who believe in Jesus as the Messiah. Okay, so this idea of God as husband, that we're in a relationship, that is that marriage ultimately reflects the nature of the relationship between Israel and Yahweh or the Messiah, Jesus and his church. That is rooted in Exodus chapter 19. Okay, so we got our context clue, we got our nerdy nugget, and you know what? Let's get our timeless truth. I want to draw your attention to Exodus chapter 19, verse 4 and 6. There's a couple of words that are used as a covenant promise. God says, if you keep this covenant, you'll be my treasured possession. You'll be special to me. The earth is the Lord's in the fullness thereof. But you'll be my treasured possession. Everything is my possession. But you'll be my treasured possession. Okay? Second, you'll be a holy nation, a nation that is set apart, okay? Not a nation that's perfect, not a nation that doesn't sin, but a nation that is supposed to be a contrast community, that you look different than the world, you are holy, you are set apart. And then third, what I want us to focus on, that you're going to be a kingdom of priests. What do priests do? Priests connect humans with God. That's what priests do. Priests are the bridge that God and humans walk on so that they can be in relationship together. And what's God's vision for the whole nation of Israel? Is that the same with the Levites serve as a bridge between Yahweh and the rest of the tribes. The entire nation of Israel is supposed to serve as a bridge between Yahweh and the nations of the world. And you know what? That doesn't just stop in the Old Testament. You and I are called to be a royal priesthood is what Peter is going to say in the New Testament. He's actually going to pick up on all this language straight out of the Torah, and he's going to apply it to Christians. That my job as a believer is to connect God with people. My job as a Christian is to have empathy and love and to be the hands and the feet, the face and the hands of Jesus. That I represent Jesus to people, that I'm a priest, that I know how to hear people's confession and know how to help absolve them of sin and help them. Help absolve them of guilt and shame and teach them how to live in a way that's wise, practical, that actually leads to the abundant life that God has for them. Deeply pastoral, very shepherding. A priest. Okay, I love the idea of priests, that every Christian's a priest. Martin Luther was big on this. He called this the priesthood of all believers, that every single believer can hear confession. Any believer could baptize you. We don't just need an official priest to do those things, but Christians together could share communion. Christians together could baptize. Christians together. Christians can do that for one another. Because in our brother and sister's face, in our brothers and sisters eyes, in our brothers and sisters homes, in our brothers and sisters hands, we find the healing presence of God Almighty, of Jesus, of the Holy Spirit, because we are all priests, not just a priestly class. Of pastors or ordained ministers, but every believer is a priest and so go out in the world today. Be a priest, connect people to God, and most importantly, if you're on a streak, don't break it. And if you're not on a streak, today's a good day to start. 1. We are on day 102. How about this? Make sure you do day 102 and 103. I'm so proud of you. If you've been rocking with us for over a hundred days now, I'm insanely, insanely proud of you. I hope that the context clue, the nerdy nugget and the timeless truth today, it was helpful and a value add. I'll see you right here tomorrow as we dig into day one. Oh three. Let's go. I love you guys. Proud of you. Peace.
- [23:25]
A
Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department Podcast. You can find us online and learn more about the show@thebibledepartment.com and on Instagram at the Bible department. If you enjoyed this episode and want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses@thebibledepartment.com we'll see you back here tomorrow.