Sunday Night, June 24, 2018 PM

Flesh with its life, that is its blood, sure that I will require your life blood from every beast I will require it, and from every man, from every man's brother I will require the life of man. Verse six clarifies what he's saying.

Whoever sheds man's blood by man, his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God, he made man. So we are given this prescription for what we now call capital punishment, and this capital punishment is given as the corrective, the societal corrective, God's way of stemming and punishing the act of murder, the crime, the sin of murder.

Now, if someone were to, if a poor man were to steal a loaf of bread, the sentence is not execution, is it? No, he's to restore fourfold what he took, ultimately, he's to work off that debt, but he's not to be executed, is he?

There's a different type of punishment because of the severity of the crime. Notice that because we're made in the image of God, those who would, a murderer, will then receive capital punishment, and then verse seven says, as for you, be fruitful and multiply, populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it.

Referring back to this original commission from Genesis chapter one, verses 26 to 28, how anti-God is it to murder people when we're made in the image of God and God designed us to be fruitful, multiply, not to be powerful and destroy?

And so this is an egregious crime, and so there's capital punishment. Now, again, other sins, we don't have that same, so we know that there's a difference between some sins and others. What did Jesus say about Tyre and Sidon versus Bethsaida and Chorazin?

Jesus himself walked in Bethsaida and Chorazin. Jesus himself revealed the kingdom, he was doing all these signs and wonders, preaching the gospel, he's the supreme revelation of God, he came to these people, preached the gospel to them, and they rejected him, and Jesus says it'll be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah or for Tyre and Sidon, a couple of different instances, be more tolerable for them in the day of judgment than for those who had received this greater revelation, which they had rejected.

So there's different degrees of punishment, different degrees of punishment in hell. Jesus himself says so. And so we see that there's a difference between some sins and other sins. They're all sinful, but there are some that are worse than others.

And I think that's why we have different terms as well to help clarify what we're talking about in the scriptures. Another way of looking at it, there are different, for instance, there are different Greek terms for sin.

Some of them speak about just failing to hit the mark, failing to be completely holy or completely righteous as we should be, as we're created to be. And others are, such as the Greek word parabasis means that there is a line.

There's a line, there's very clear a line. You know there's a line, and you step over the line. My wife is not here. Right across the street from us live Joanne and Philo. Joanne was a teacher at CHA many moons ago here on this very property, and my wife went to preschool here.

And Joanne Crawford was in charge of her class, and she tells all the preschoolers, including my wife, don't step off the sidewalk. Don't step on the grass. Well, as a little girl, Becca knew exactly what Joanne was saying.

She looked at Joanne, she looked at the grass, and she stepped on it. Corporal punishment was forthcoming. Okay. We clearly understand the rule, but then we intentionally, purposefully rebel and cross.

So we have different terms in the Bible that would intensify and clarify the different kinds of sin. Any other questions or topics? Yes.

Exodus 4 .24, yes. Surprising story.

God has called Moses to be his mouth to Pharaoh. Even telling Moses, you will be God to Pharaoh. You're going to be my representative. You're gonna be my mouth to Pharaoh. To tell him, well, let my people go.

To reveal God to this serpent called Pharaoh who is trying to kill God's people. Casting all the males into the river. Incidentally, what does the ancient Pharaoh wear on his head? Serpent, snake, that's right.

Snake is rearing his head. He wants to kill the seed. God will not have it. So Moses goes down to Egypt and he wants to, Moses doesn't want to, so God rebukes him. He does send Aaron along with him. So now Moses is gonna talk to Aaron, and then Aaron's gonna talk to Pharaoh.

And so Moses departed and verse 18, returned to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him, please let me go that I may return to my brethren who are in Egypt and see if they're still alive. Jethro said to Moses, go in peace.

Now the Lord said to Moses and Midian, go back to Egypt for all the men who were seeking your life are dead. So Moses took his wife and his sons and mounted them on a donkey and returned to the land of Egypt.

Moses also took the staff of God in his hand. This is the staff that he had when he encountered the burning bush, the one that turned into a snake and then back to his staff. The Lord said to Moses, when you go back to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your power, but I will harden his heart so he will not let the people go.

By the way, it is as awful as it sounds. He is gonna harden his heart. Somebody on the radio the other day was trying to explain it away. Read Paul. Paul says it's as awful as it sounds and then lists all the proper objections that we all feel that this is really uncomfortable language.

And then Paul says, well, who are you, oh man, to say to the one who made it? Okay, Job situation, put our hands over our mouth. But it is as bad as it looks. Verse 22, then you shall say to Pharaoh, thus says the Lord, Israel is my son, my firstborn.

So I said to you, let my son go that he may serve me, but you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn. So Moses has a strong message he has to take down to Pharaoh. So away he goes, he has his wife and his kids.

They're heading down to Egypt. This is going to be a very difficult time. And then verse 24 pops out of nowhere. Now it came about at the lodging place on the way that the Lord met him, meaning Moses, and sought to put him to death.

Okay, why? Well, we see it in the following verses. Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin and threw it at Moses' feet. And she said, you are indeed a bridegroom of blood to me. So he let him alone.

At that time, she said, you are a bridegroom of blood because of the circumcision. Now verses 24 through 26, just kind of an odd parentheses here in the story. I mean, if verses 24 through 26 were not there, we would read from 23 to 27 and not even know that something had happened in between.

What a surprising moment. Well, what does Genesis 17 say about circumcision? In Genesis 17, in verse 10, this is God speaking to Abraham. He says, this is my covenant, which you shall keep between me and your descendants before after you, every male among you shall be circumcised.

And you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin. And it shall be the sign of the covenant between me and you. And every male among you who is eight days old shall be circumcised throughout your generations.

We're not exactly told, but I think it's pretty apparent that this boy is not eight days old. He has not been circumcised as he was supposed to have been circumcised. Notice in verse 14 of Genesis 17, but an uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people for he has broken my covenant.

Now, what we have here is Moses who is on the run. He's in the backwoods in the wilderness. He's doing the shepherding job. God calls him to be this leader to bring out his people from Egypt. And Moses doesn't wanna have anything to do with it.

He's a man who constantly tries to find a reason why not to go. And now we discover he's not really especially obedient to the revelation of God. He apparently knows that he should have done this because the solution is quickly accomplished, but he hasn't been obedient.

Now he's gonna go down and lead this nation of Israel up out of Egypt, and he has got to have his household in order. If he's not following the law of God, if he's not following the covenant of God, if he's not following the word of God, how is he supposed to lead a nation of people to follow the Lord?

Now, what a strange thing that God would meet Moses in order to kill him. If you read the whole chapter, how important does Moses seem to God's plan? Like very important, super important. Like everything's hinging on Moses, it looks like.

God called Moses, God gave signs of power to Moses. Moses is God's mouth to the most powerful man on the planet, Pharaoh. Man, Moses is the guy and God doesn't need him. God can get it done without him.

God can kill Moses in judgment as his creator and as his Lord and do so justly and still accomplish his plan without Moses. He doesn't need him. As important as Moses looks, God doesn't need him. Now that he chooses to use him, that's grace.

He doesn't need him. So that's the striking lesson, I think. Um, um, now how important is Israel? How important are these people that God is bringing up out of Israel, out of Egypt? Oh my goodness, how much attention did he give to them?

What great signs of power does he do to deliver them? He humbles Egypt through these 10 plagues. They plunder Egypt and they're on their way out. Wow, what an important people. But what happens when they're disobedient?

Yeah, the whole generation died. He didn't need it. He can do his plan without them, thank you very much. This just reminds us of who God is. None of us are so important that God just has to have us. And that's a lesson that Moses had to learn is a lesson that Israel needed to learn.

Yeah, so he's obviously, he's a lead out by example. Absolutely. Okay, anything else? Yes, Jerry. Okay. This is a great question. So as we look at 1 Chronicles chapter 16, we have the expression other gods.

This is a psalm that David is, David and Asaph are singing. We can read about it in Psalm 105 as well. It is a psalm, they're bringing up the tent, or bringing up the ark in the appropriate way into Jerusalem.

And so it's a time for great praise and honor to the Lord. So part of the psalm said, let's begin in verse 23, okay? Sing to the Lord, all the earth. Now, for those living in David's day, when they understood the earth to be parceled up to all these different people groups who all had their different patron gods or matron goddesses, that is strong language.

Sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to Yahweh, all the earth. Praise the one true God, all the earth. So already we're hearing that everybody in the world is to worship one God. This is the same totalizing language that we have in the New Testament, that there is one mediator between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus, that there is no salvation in anyone else, okay?

So sing to the Lord, all the earth. Proclaim good tidings of his salvation from day to day. Tell of his glory among the nations, his wonderful deeds among all the peoples. Why should we do that? What about these peoples?

What about these nations? Who do they believe in? Back then, they believe in Baal or Ashtoreth, or they believe in Kimosh or Molech, or like Abraham, who worshiped the moon God when he lived in the land of Ur.

I mean, there's all these other gods to worship today. People worship Allah. People worship the Hindu conception of the one, and then also the, good grief, is it 36 million different gods have been identified so far, in the Hindu religion, and so people worship all sorts of things.

So tell the nations, all the peoples, of the glory of the one true God, for great is the Lord, verse 25, and great is he to be praised. He also is to be feared above all gods. Okay, so now we have that expression, gods, lowercase g, the one true God is to be feared and reverenced and worshiped and honored above all the gods.

So put all the gods together. If you lived in Paul's day, Paul could stack all the gods of the Greek and Roman pantheons together, all the gods that were worshiped in Athens, that grieved his heart so, to see all those altars all over the city.

Okay, God is to be feared above all these gods. Put them all together. Why? Verse 26, for all the gods of the peoples are idols. The, does anybody else have a different translation in verse 26? Lifeless idols, okay.

Nothing but statues, okay. I'm trying to remember what it is in the Hebrew. I think there's a word for, there's a word for like, small gods, which is, I think it's enlil, but this is elul. It is a rhyming word and it's a substitute word that literally means little nothings.

Okay, so that's, so they're worshiping the one true God, his throne, the mercy seat above the Ark of the Covenant has ascended into Jerusalem. What a great day of worship and honor. And they take the time to say this, all the gods of the people are little nothings.

There's nothing to it. There's nothing to it. Now, what's the contrast in verse 26 there? What's the next thing that is said? But, but the Lord made the heavens. What are these little nothings ever done?

Nothing.

Yes, yes.

Non-existent things, that's right. But the Lord made the heavens, which means from him all existence has come versus these non-existent things, these little nothings. So in that sense, brother Jerry, when we read about the gods and even in the 10 commandments, you shall have no other gods before me.

And then he immediately, the next commandment says, you shall not make for yourself any graven image. And the reason why is people who, as Moses is talking to them and the spirit has given these commandments, the other gods typically have to have some sort of image.

In fact, they all have to have some kind of image that is created and crafted by man, whether it's in wood or stone or simply in our imagination. And so these other gods are little nothings, non-existent things, because there's something made up by man.

And so that's the thrust of what is being said here. Does anybody know what the Jews and Christians in the first century were called by the Romans as they were being persecuted? And in the second century, as the Roman emperors like Nero and Diocletian and so on were attacking the Christians and the Jews and trying to kill them.

They accused them of being what? Atheists. Atheists. Why? They didn't worship the gods. And when they said, show me your God, oh, you can't see him. Right, they didn't have the catechism, but if they said, God is a spirit, does not have a body like man.

I can't see anything. When Antiochus Epiphanes entered the Holy of Holies, he saw nothing there. There wasn't even Ark of the Covenant because they had lost it long ago. There was nothing there. So they accused them of being atheists.

But of course, it's the exact opposite, isn't it? We believe in the one true God, and he has revealed himself through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time, but the only begotten God who was in the bosom of the Father, he has explained him.

So we know who God is because of who Christ is. Okay, I think we're out of time. Before we dismiss, I wanna remind you, the truth group, we're going to meet. Oh, let's go ahead and meet down in Ms. Jill's classroom.

And then we'll come back here for the meal afterwards. But let's go ahead and close by singing the doxology. Praise God.