Worship

"Jesus' famous statement in John 4:23 that the Father seeks worshippers is unparalleled, for nowhere in the entire corpus of Holy Scripture do we read of God's seeking anything else from a child of God. God desires worship above all else. . . . A look at the massive emphasis in the Old Testament reveals God's mind on worship's priority. Exodus devotes twenty-five chapters to the construction of the Tabernacle, the locus of divine worship. Leviticus amounts to a twenty-seven chapter liturgical manual. And the Psalms are a spectacular 150-chapter worship hymnal. Divine worship has always been the occupation and sustenance, the priority, of the believing soul" (R. Kent Hughes, Disciplines of a Godly Man, 111).

Snapshot of the Torah

Genesis - Creation

• Genesis 1 - Creation
• 1:28 - Dominion/Cultural Mandate
• Genesis 3 - Fall
• 3:15 - Inception of the Covenant of Grace
• Genesis 6-9 - Flood
• Genesis 10-11 - Nations/Tower of Babel
• Genesis 12-50 - Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph
• 15:6 - Abraham believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness.

Exodus - Redemption/Deliverance

• Exodus 3-4 - Moses Called
• 3:13-15 - I AM WHO I AM
• Exodus 7-11 - Ten Plagues
• Exodus 14 - Red Sea
• Exodus 19-40 - Sinai
• 19-24 - Marriage Ceremony (Israel wed to God)
• 20:1-17 - Ten Commandments (Marriage means new rules)
• 25-31 - House (God gives instructions for Tabernacle)
• Exodus 32 - Idolatry - Golden Calf
• 32-34 - Marriage Ceremony #2 (Covenant renewal after idolatry)
• 35-40 - Build House (Israel builds the Tabernacle)

Leviticus - Holiness

• Leviticus 1-10 - Sacrifices
• Leviticus 11-18 - Purity Regulations
• 17:11 - "For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul."
• Leviticus 19-27 - Holiness Laws
• 19:2 - "Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy."

Numbers - Unfaithful Israel

• Numbers 1-10 - Promise Land/Preparations
• Numbers 11-25 - Promise Land/Rebel - Thus, Wander in Wilderness
• 11 - Israel wants to eat meat - given meat and judgment
• 13 - Twelve spies scout out the land but ten spies provide evil report
• 21 - Rebellion - judgment by fiery serpents/deliverance by bronze snake lifted up
• Numbers 26-36 - Second Generation: Promise Land/Preparations

Deuteronomy - Covenant Renewal/Second Law

• Deuteronomy 1-30 - Moses Speaks to Second Generation
• 4:2 - "Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you."
• 5 - Ten Commandments reviewed
• 6:4-9 - The Shema: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord..."
• 29:29 - "The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law."
• Deuteronomy 31-34 - Epilogue
• 32 - Song of Moses
• 34 - Death of Moses

Bible Q/A: OT - Exodus

Q/A: OT - Exodus

What is the theme of Exodus? The Deliverance and Redemption of the Nation of Israel.

What is the Outline of Exodus? (1) Egypt (2) Wilderness of Sinai (3) Mt. Sinai

What key event occurs in Exodus 3-4? God calls Moses.

What does God tell Moses in Exodus 3:14-15? God reveals his covenant name to Moses: "I AM WHO I AM" -- Moses is told to tell the sons of Israel, "I AM has sent me to you."

What events are narrated in Chapters 7-11? The Plagues the Lord sends against the nation of Egypt are narrated in Chapters 7-11.

What Plagues were sent against the nation of Egypt? (1) Water turned into blood (2) Frogs (3) Gnats/lice (4) Flies (5) Death of livestock (6) Boils (7) Hail/fire (8) Locust (9) Darkness (10) Angel of Death (firstborn die).

What significant event began in Exodus 12? Passover.

What significant event occurred in Exodus 14? The parting of the Red Sea -- the Lord delivers Israel from the armies of Pharaoh.

What instruction does Jethro give Moses in Chapter 18? He instructs Moses to delegate authority.

What command is given in Exodus 19:5-6? Israel is commanded to obey God's voice and keep God's covenant.

What right and privilege is associated with the command given in Exodus 19:5-6? God says they shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

What is listed in Exodus 20? The Ten Commandments.

What are the Ten Commandments? (1) No other gods before the Lord (2) Make not graven images/idols (3) Do not take the name of Lord in vain (4) Remember the Sabbath (5) Honor father and mother (6) Do not murder (7) Do not commit adultery (8) Do not steal (9) Do not bear false witness (10) Do not covet.

What does Chapters 21-23 cover? The Law of the Covenant.

What important event occurred in Exodus 29? The consecration of the priests.

What rebellious event occurred in Chapter 32? Moses went up on the mountain, but rebellious Israel constructed and worshiped a Golden Calf.

Who was Aaron? Aaron was the first High Priest and was the brother of Moses.

Who was Miriam? Miriam was the sister of Moses. (She led the women in worship/song in Exodus 15.)

Who was Zipporah? Zipporah was the daughter of Jethro, the priest of Midian (Exodus 3:1); she was the wife of Moses (Exodus 2:21).

Advent - Biblical Imagery: Angels

Angels are significant and show up all over the Old Testament and the New Testament. However, when they show up in the Gospel narratives, during the events surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ, their presence is especially significant. When Angels show up in the Drama of Redemptive History, it is a cue to the rest of us that what is about to happen is very important. "Seriously dude, pay attention."

To begin, lets hold two ideas in our mind:

1. During the birth of Christ we see that Angels show up a whole lot.
2. The author of Hebrews tells us that the word spoken by Angels was steadfast (Hebrews 2:2). That is, in the Drama of Redemptive History, God oftentimes used Angels as a trusty means by which to communicate revelation.

Now lets put those two ideas together: Angels who are trusty show up a whole lot in the beginning of the Gospel narratives. The effect is rather superlative -- you can really, really, really trust that Jesus Christ "for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man." The birth of Christ isn't just additional divine revelation, it is Divine Revelation. Indeed, it is the Gospel!

Angels Show Up A Whole Lot

1. In the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, an Angel instructs Joseph (who had legitimate concerns about Mary's having become pregnant) to not be afraid to take Mary as his wife.
2. In the second chapter, an Angel instructs Joseph to flee blood-thirsty Herod and take Mary and the baby Jesus to Egypt.
3. After Herod is dead an Angel instructs Joseph that it is safe to return.
4. In the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke, an Angel appears at the right side of the altar of incense before Zacharias; the Angel tells him that he and his wife are going to have a son (John the Baptist), and that this son will "make ready a people prepared for the Lord."
5. Also, later on the angel Gabriel greets Mary and tells her that God's favor is with her and that she will become pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit and that she will bring forth a son, and that his name will be Jesus, which means "Jehovah [in the Old Testament this is the proper name of God] is Salvation".
6. In the second chapter of the Gospel of Luke, after the birth of Jesus the Angels appear before the shepherds in the fields and tell them the good news that "unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."

Trusty Angels Declare Deliverance 

In the Old Testament there are many narratives where Angels show up to declare God's deliverance. In Exodus 3, an angel of the Lord shows up and tells Moses that the Lord is going to use him to deliver Israel from bondage in Egypt. In Judges 6, an angel of the Lord meets with Gideon and tells him the Lord is going to use him to deliver Israel from the Midianites. And later on in Judges, an angel of the Lord tells Samson's parents that their son will deliver Israel from the Philistines.

Since angels were used to reveal, call, and commission deliverers in Israel's history, it should come as no surprise that God uses them again to declare the Chief-Deliverer of the mother promise (see Genesis 3:15).

This Chief-Deliverer is Jesus -- "Jehovah is Salvation" -- Christ the Son of God.

Pro-God = Pro-Reality = Pro-Life

The Church is Pro-God, Pro-Reality, and Pro-Life.

The Church believes in God, in truth, in reality--"We believe in one God . . . maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible"--the Church believes in God and creation. And this belief is the foundation for a Pro-Life ethic. Social Justice for the unborn (life-in-the-womb) must be rooted in this grammar--God is the sovereign creator of heaven and earth, of that which is seen and unseen, and He alone creates and defines this (all) reality.

That being the case, what does the Creator say about in utero? Is He silent about the reality of the life of cells multiplying in a womb? Hardly--See Exodus 21, Psalm 22, 139.

The Lord of Patterns

Quote taken from the fifth chapter of The Answers Book : “The fourth commandment in Ex 20:9 tells us that we are to work six days and rest for one. The justification for this is given in Ex 20:11, "For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it". This is a direct reference to God's creation week in Ge 1:1-31. To be consistent (and we must be), whatever is used as the meaning of the word day in Ge 1:1-31 must also be used here. If you are going to say the word day means a long period of time in Genesis, then it has been already shown that the only way this can be is in the sense that the day is an indefinite or indeterminate period of time--not a definite period of time. Thus, the sense of Ex 20:9-11 would have to be "six indefinite periods shall thou labour, and rest a seventh indefinite period"! This, however, makes no sense at all. By accepting the days as ordinary days, we understand that God is telling us that He worked for six ordinary days and rested for one ordinary day to set a pattern for man--the pattern of our seven-day week, which we still have today! In other words, here in Ex 20:1-26 we learn the reason why God took as long as six days to make everything--He was setting a pattern for us to follow, a pattern we still follow today.”

The Lord created the world in six literal days. He created real, physical things. When He was finished, He rested. In the Book of Exodus the Lord commands Israel to model their week after the original creation week – resting one day and performing dominion work for six days. As noted above, we still follow this pattern today!

Dominion Work: We are caretakers of the real, physical world the Lord created. We work for six days. We sweat and we bleed to make this world beautiful and protect it from satanic powers. The Lord expects us to transform this world from glory to glory, in the same manner that a father expects his son-in-law to protect and increase the beauty of his daughter, which he graciously gave to the young man at the altar of marriage. A bride-to-be is beautiful and full of glory, but a wife who has been protected and cared for by her husband, she is even more beautiful, even more glorious. When a wife is made beautiful by her husband and has brought forth children who call her blessed, she is transformed from glory to glory. So too creation, which the Lord instructed Adam to tend and protect, will be transformed from glory to glory by her husbandman.

Day of Rest: Churches need to be encouraged in both dominion work and rest. Lord’s Day worship ought to provide rest from and prepare Churches for dominion work. It is good for man to rest and feast; it is good for man to work and execute dominion. When men harvest diamonds from the earth and carve them, setting them in rings so they might woo and adorn women (one way to transform women from glory to glory), that is godly, dominion work. When men build rockets, cram inside of them like canned sardines and start to count down, in order that they may explore the outreaches of space, they are performing godly, dominion work. When man gathers every Lord’s Day to sing holy songs and partake of Christ’s flesh and blood, they rest and feast in a manner that is godly.
Sing praise to the Lord of patterns, who has graciously provided a pattern for dominion and rest!