Online-SUNDAY SCHOOL
Getting to Know the Father 5 July 09
EX 33:1-7 This was not the tabernacle, which was yet to be constructed. Rather, it was a tent for meeting with God that belonged to Moses, which he had set up for the special purpose of communicating. God showed His approval of this arrangement by the "cloud" (v. 9). Verses 7-11 are parenthetical, explaining the manner of Moses' communicating with God. Verse 12 picks up the account from v. 6. Moses felt he could not lead because he was not a communicator. So God appointed Aaron to be his front man. But as the Bible shows, this did not last long. Moses soon was able to speak for himself. However, at first God spoke to both Moses and Aaron. Thus begins the first great concentrated period of biblical miracles. The second period comes in the days of Elijah and Elisha, and the third covers the life of Jesus and His apostles. A miracle is an extraordinary of God, His sign of confirmation that the proclaimed message is truly His revelation. Miracles do not contradict God's created order; they are real events, although they transcend the normal pattern of cause and effect. They are for a specific purpose for a specific situation.
EX 33:8-10 The people knew Moses
had a special relationship with God. They stood outside their tents as a sign
of reverence. They did not worship Moses.
EX 33:11 Prior to written Scripture, God used Moses to be
the mediator of His word. Unlike the later prophets, who would receive that
word in dreams and visions, Moses spoke with God "face to face,"
i.e., directly or immediately. The expression here does not force the meaning
that Moses saw God's face or pure essence (vv. 20, 23). (Num 12:6-8 RSV)
"And he said, "Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the
LORD make myself known to him in a vision, I speak
with him in a dream. {7} Not so with my servant Moses; he is entrusted with all my house. {8} With him I speak
mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in dark speech; and he beholds the form of the
LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant
Moses?"" The point is that God spoke to Moses directly, person to
person, without any intervention or mediation such as visions or dreams. The
term "form" (temunah,
Hebrew) refers to a visual representation of some kind -- i.e., Moses was
unique in that he saw [with his eyes a visual form] Yahweh (the Father) as they
spoke (Ex. 33:11). But he was not the only human to actually see the Father. (Exo
24:9-10 RSV) "Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy
of the elders of
Back to Moses: God spoke to him because there was no Bible or other means to communicate as important of a mission as God tasked Moses to accomplish.
EX 33:12-13 Note that at this time Moses had been close to God for only a short time. He was still learning and he wanted to learn more. That is a key to knowing GOD better. A person never learns unless he/she wants to learn. Moses asked for special Discipleship Training from God.
EX 33:14-15 The covenant was fully
reestablished here in response to Moses' prayer (v. 3; 32:11). But the covenant
did not change from (Exo 19:5-6 RSV) "Now
therefore, if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my own
possession among all peoples; for all the earth is mine, {6} and you shall be
to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you
shall speak to the children of
EX 33:16 Moses raised a most profound question “Is it not in thy going with us, so that we are distinct, I and thy people, from all other people that are upon the face of the earth?” The idea is good but Moses, at this time of his developing knowledge, phrased it wrong. A people are distinct because they “GO WITH GOD.” And “thy people” are God’s people only is that they do (Deu 10:12-13 RSV) ""And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, {13} and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I command you this day for your good?" Note that in 1 Sam they did not want God to be their leader so they could be like everyone else. (1 Sam 8:6-7 RSV) "But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, "Give us a king to govern us." And Samuel prayed to the LORD. {7} And the LORD said to Samuel, "Hearken to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them." (1 Sam 8:19-20 RSV) "But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel; and they said, "No! but we will have a king over us, {20} that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may govern us and go out before us and fight our battles."" God doesn’t want us to be like sinners. If we think this way, as they did, we certainly will not desire to know God better.
EX 33:17 God said he knew Moses “by name.” In that day this
meant in the most intimate manner. Because of this, Moses was allowed to come
closer to God than any other sinful man, though Paul's experience was somewhat
similar (2 Cor. 12:2-4, 7). This communication took place in the tent, but the
actual experience (34:2) was on Sinai. Limits on a close one-on-one personal
relationship were set because of the gulf between the finite and the infinite,
the holy and the unholy. Because the Holy Spirit would not permanently indwell
Moses, Moses was not able to know God to the degree any Christian can today. God's
"back" has been understood to allude to His aftereffects, but a
better idea is a limited encounter. The glory of God that Moses saw was
primarily His compassionate and gracious acts. Moses could appreciate best the
glory of God by observing where He had been (Job 26:14; Ps. 145; Rom.
EX 33:18 The word translated "glory" (kavod, Hebrew) is
from a root meaning "heavy." Its N.T.
counterpart is doxa
(Greek). God's "glory" is essentially the profound, glowing, visible,
confluent expression of the attributes of deity which bears witness to a still
more profound and incomprehensible reality of essence. Moses wanted to see the
essential nature of God, for he understood clearly that there was a distinction
between God's absolute character and His revelation of Himself to man. In His
character and essence, He is "Spirit," and thus normally invisible to
man (John 4:24), but He has made Himself known to man through revelation by His
many titles, by His attributes, by His written Word, and finally by His living
Word, Jesus Christ. In the O.T., God revealed His
"glory" at Sinai (24:16, 17), in the tabernacle (40:34-38), and in
the
EX 33:19-20 The phrase "you cannot see my face; for man shall not see me and live" does not contradict Ex 24:9-10 and other verses above. God told Moses he was not able to experience the full holiness and essence of God while a saved sinner and physically live [without the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit]. It is something like being able to use electricity made by a nuclear reactor but not being able to experience the nuclear reaction that leads to the electricity generation. Here again let us rightly read the Bible.
EX 33:21-23 So like having a water or lead shield around the
nuclear reaction, God shielded Moses physically while he allowed him to come
closer physically than any human up to that time after Adam and Eve, while in
His glory. God knows Christians totally. It is the Christian who is to increase
in equivalent knowledge. (2 Pet
MICAH 6:6-7 Commentators are divided as to whether Micah asked of God or the people asked of God as a challenge to tell them what he expected. The latter best fits the context. Certainly they spoke with sarcasm. Note that they began with approved actions. First one had to “come before the Lord. It was not before Baal or any other god they worshipped. Second one had to bow to the power and deity of God, the “God on high.” But then they went into their standard religious doctrine. It is a clear statement of their pagan thinking. What physical act would it take to appease God? There was no hint of repentance or offer of service. Each act was progressively more costly. What of calves and rams? Isaiah said it best in (Isa 1:10-15 RSV) "Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom! Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah! {11} "What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of he-goats. {12} "When you come to appear before me, who requires of you this trampling of my courts? {13} Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and sabbath and the calling of assemblies -- I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. {14} Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me, I am weary of bearing them. {15} When you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood." “Vain offerings” were offerings without proper intent and repentance. Israel believed God could be controlled with gifts as they believed their pagan gods appeased. It is appalling that they voiced human sacrifice in the same breath as the Law’s calf offerings! Child and human sacrifice was a pagan act that the Law forbid. (Deu 12:31 RSV) "You shall not do so to the LORD your God; for every abominable thing which the LORD hates they have done for their gods; for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods." yet King Ahaz, who reigned in Judah during Micah’s ministry, led Judah into human sacrifice by killing his sons in the Valley of Ben Hinnom. (2 Chr 28:1-4 RSV) "Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the LORD, like his father David, {2} but walked in the ways of the kings of Israel. He even made molten images for the Baals; {3} and he burned incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burned his sons as an offering, according to the abominable practices of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel. {4} And he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree." The people did nothing to rebuke the king and followed after his ways. So the call for human sacrifice was normal for them. How dreadful!
MICAH 6:8 Micah replies that they already know the answers.
“Good” is God’s definition of good and not theirs. See Isaiah 1. The people
looked only to a form of religion that was appearance and ceremony. God,
however, looked at religion as a lifestyle. “Man” here means mankind. Also the
Hebrew for “require” is an active form which means an uninterrupted, continuous
state that never stops or starts but has always been active: thus a lifestyle.
First: Do justly. That is different
from just doing good in the normal sense of the word.
Justice is a more specific. It involves moral judgments. It rights former
wrongs when possible. Second: Love
mercy. The Hebrew means kindness. To practice it with no
thought of reward. Third: Walk
humbly with your God. Living daily recognizing just who
God is and walking exclusively with God. James said nothing different
than Micah. (James 1:27 RSV)
"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is
this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." The Law has always
been just as clear. (Deu 10:12-13 RSV)
""And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to
fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD
your God with all your heart and with all your soul, {13} and to keep the
commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I command you this day for your
good?" As Micah 6:8 is worded, it is a call of revival since “fear the
LORD your God” is not included. This phrase means to come into initial saving
relationship. Certainly, most of Israel was lost people and only a remnant of them
was saved. But a great evangelistic time will not occur until the saved get
revived. Thus it is proper for SBC churches to hold Revival Meetings. The
problem is very few of them are for revival.
They jump this and go directly to evangelism. Micah shows the saved needs revival to offer the best opportunity for
salvation to the lost.
PS 25:8-10 Again "LORD" is Yahweh. Yahweh is good and upright. Because of this he has taken the initiative with Mankind in revealing the Trinity. God teaches. But a teacher cannot force a student to learn. A teacher can teach but only the student will take that teaching and learn form it. Note again the stressing of Deut 10:12-13. Only the saved can "keep his covenant and his testimonies." This is a phrase meaning the Law, not just the Ten Commandments.
PS 119:65-68 Only the saved can learn from God. It is the wise Christian who gets into Bible study in Sunday School, Discipleship Training, and personal Bible study with the intention to learn. The Holy Spirit is ever ready to teach the good. This includes good judgment and good knowledge. Yahweh is good and does only good. Even in the worse of situations God works for the most good from it. (Rom 8:28 RSV) "We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose." A problem arises when a person begins to believe that any other Christian is equal to God in teaching the good of God. Never just take anyone's word for any truth. Always check it out with the Bible and the Holy Spirit first. Pastors are to be the lead teacher in a church, but he/she is still a growing Christian and does not know all the good there is to know.
JOHN 4:21-23 Jesus responded by declaring the argument as being no longer relevant. Jesus clearing declared this is no place to worship! That includes today's church buildings! (John 4:21 RSV) "Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father." Yet most pastors and people call the church building today's equivalent to the temples And say there is an alter when there is none. Jesus discussed this with her. Jesus says the same thing to us. The worship of God is not defined in where one goes to worship. The most Paul talked about was "when you assemble…"
JOHN 4:24 Dr. Herschel H. Hobbs in his book, an exposition of the gospel of JOHN, Baker Book House, 1966, page 95 wrote: "The Bible records an enmity between the Jews and Samaritans." Then on page 108 "Both Jews and Samaritans thought of God as Spirit. But never before had the idea been stated so succinctly." But this statement of Jesus is usually grossly misused and whole doctrines wrongly build from it. For example: people say the Father has no form because he is Spirit. But the Old Testament declares otherwise. (Ezek 1:26-27 KJV) "And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about." Satisfaction cannot be guaranteed based on false doctrine.
3 John 11 The Greek is aroist tense meaning to start and keep on doing. It calls for a lifestyle. "Follow" in the Greek is 3401. mimeomai, mim-eh'-om-ahee; mid. from mimos (a "mimic"); to imitate:--follow. The only one to mimic is Jesus. Jesus was only good. But it is again just like Deut 10:12-13. It is the doing of God that is "of God." Once again (Mat 7:21 RSV) ""Not every one who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven."
We must learn to do the Growth Process in (2 Pet 1:5-9 RSV) "For this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, {6} and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, {7} and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. {8} For if these things are yours and abound, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. {9} For whoever lacks these things is blind and shortsighted and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins."
When we begin to get serious about doing good, then we will see sin and sinful and start a revival in our lives that might never end. Let us bring a revival of ourselves to God and stop blaming God if we don't. Only then will we be ready to learn of the Father and keep the moral absolutes the Father wants to teach us.
Please note that my DMA organization has changed servers. It will take a little time to move all my files to it, but the lesson is current. The new URL is: http://dma.dreamhosters.com/~ganotemd/lesson.htm.
The other remains: http://homepages.udayton.edu/~ganotemd/bible/lesson.htm
Marvin
Ganote, Hobbs Study Class, Adult Teacher. Lesson at: http://dma.dreamhosters.com/~ganotemd/lesson.htm
or http://homepages.udayton.edu/~ganotem/bible/lesson.htm