11-9-09

Monday, November 9, 2009

Exodus

Dr. D

1. God’s Jealous Name in Exodus
1. HYH “to be”
1. 3:14- HYH = I am
2. 3:15 YHWH = “He causes to be”
3. Pronunciation of YHWH
4. The Meaning of “Yahweh”
1. Nowhere else int he Bible is the verb “to be” used with the causative stem
2. God alone causes all things to be that are
3. Yahweh is God’s memorial name, never to be forgotten.
4. He is the causer, there is more to him than what we know, but we can know truly this God.
5. Never becoming like he is in every way, but eternally pursuing being like him and we will never reach being like him. More and more of our likeness to him will be developing.
2. Two Foundational Texts
3. “You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim (for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice, and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods.” (Exodus 34:13–16 ESV)
1. Connect jealousy factor and the name of God.
2. God’s passion to make known his name in exodus
1. Moses’ struglle with speech Exodus 4:11
1. “Then the LORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?” (Exodus 4:11 ESV)
1. We don’t get a name for pharaoh, this is part of the theology of exodus. To show that it is the name of God that matters and no one else.
2. The hardening of Pharaoh’s heart Ex. 4:21
1. “And the LORD said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.” (Exodus 4:21 ESV)
3. Before the Plagues Exodus 7;3-5
1. “But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment. The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.”” (Exodus 7:3–5 ESV)
1. There were battles of the gods in Egypt.
2. Spiritual warfare is real, let’s go to deut 13:1-4
1. They have some power, they have signs
2. if a prophet should come in and do massive signs of wonders, God is in charge of it and he is testing you.
3. YHWH is testing you to see what you will do.
4. This is a literary foil, God will come in and trump these magicians in order to show his ultimate authority.
4. Before the 7th plague Ex. 9:15-16
5. “For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.” Exodus 9:15–16 ESV)
6. Before 8th plauge Exod. 10:2
7. Before the 10th plague Exodus 11:9
8. COncerning the crossing of the sea Ex. 14:17-18
3. Israel and other’ response;
1. Before the Reed Sea: Exod. 14:13-14
2. After Egypt’s Destruction Ex. 15:3, 11, 18
3. Jethro’s response: gentile: Exod 18:10-11
4. The significance of God’s Disclosure
1. God alone is the causer of all
2. The God who causes all things to be is working for Israel
1. Opening Mouths Ex 4
2. Destroying enemies Ex 7-14
3. Providing food and water ex 16-18
4. Revealing his will Ex 19-24
5. Forgiving his people
5. Exodus 33:18-19; 34:6-7
1. “Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The LORD.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.” (Exodus 33:18–19 ESV)
2. “The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands,forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”” (Exodus 34:6–7 ESV)
1. We need this God just as they needed this GOd.
6. The significance of God’s disclosure
1. God alone is the causer of all
2. The God who causes all things to be is workin for Israel
3. Because God is good, he is jealous: ex 34:14
4. “(for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),” (Exodus 34:14 ESV)
5. Because God is loving, he is jealous
1. Deut 4:32-35 ““For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of. Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live? Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD is God; there is no other besides him.” (Deuteronomy 4:32–35 ESV)
2. Ps. 16:11 “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalms 16:11 ESV)
1. in difficulty, we try to trust the promises of God.
1. God’s passion for his own glory is his greatest love for us, and he holds tomorrow in his hands so don’t worry
2. There must be something to God leading you through this dessert so that you become more and more dependent on Jesus which is the most glorious and satisfying thing of all. For eternity you will look back and bring great glory to Jesus. Doesn’t take us out of the world so we can bring God the glory
3. 2 cor. pressed to the point where i thought that i was going to die, so that i wouldn’t trust in myself, but rather in God.
1. God was clearing me of my self-reliance through forcing me sooo sooo low, to be ultimately dependent.
2. the jealousy of God is all about his love for his people.
3. One Evangelical Response: Lessen the theological dilemma (walter kaiser jr.)
1. There are 10 places where it is said “God” hardened pharaoh’s heart (4:21, 7:3, 9:12, 10:1, 20, 27; 11:10; 14:4, 8, 17)
2. There are also 10 passages where it states either that pharaohs heart was hard (7:13, 14, 22; 8:19; 9:7, 35; 13:15) or that he hardened his heart (8:15, 32; 9:34).
3. God and pharaoh are both active agents.
4. He concludes: “thus the hardening is as much pharaoh’s own act as it is the work of God. Even more significant is the fact that Pharaoh aloe is the agent of the hardening in the first sign and tin the first five plagues. Not until the sixth plague.. is it stated that God actually moves in and hardens Pharaoh’s heart (9:12)”
1. At any point are we able to choose A or B b/c our hearts are bound by our greatest motivation, the state of our heart.
2. Is this the right conclusion?
1. HANDOUT 1/2 Sheet: Exodus 7:13 ““Still Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said.” (Exodus 7:13 ESV)
3. Evaluation of Kaiser’s view:
1. True: egypt’s hostility against israel early in the oook ex 1 demands God’s punisment Gen 12:3
2. True: not until the 6th plague do we get an explicit statement that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart
3. However the narrator suggests immediat response to God’s earlier promises
1. Exod 4:21. >5:2, 7:2-5 “as Yahweh had said”
2. Comparable fulfillments statements: exod 7:22, 8:15, 19; 9:12, 35
3. God’s active hardening: 10:20, 27; 11:10; 14:4, 8, 17.
4. The hardening purposeful: 9:16, 11:9; 14:4, 17-18
4. Kaiser makes no comment on this phrase in his commentary!!!
4. Romans 9: b/c of election? how is that just of God, so he answers, no injustice with God, “ex 33” depends not on human will or exertion.
1. Ex 9:16 that I might show my power in you
2. name might be proclaimed in all the earth
3. mercy on whom he wills, hardens whom he wills.
4. How can God hold me or pharaoh responsible for the hardening? That is what Paul is responding to. You will say to me then, who can resist his will?
1. Responds, who are you oh man to answer back to God?
2. God has the right, won’t arrive there unless we’re tracking like we are tracking. Don’t ever consider God as one who doesn’t cause everything.
3. rather the question is: how can i have responsibility and he be the causer of all? This is the question, NOT, is he the causer of all. God I NEED YOU TO WORK IN MY HEART, I can’t move forward otherwise. We must consider his jealousy every day.
4. when God holds back his positive influence, sin will necessarily and naturally come to pass. Sin is not the positive result of anything God does, but rather when God withholds his influence. Curses and death are products of God’s withholding of his influence. Adam would not have been sustained unless God was sustaining him positively.
7. Sacred Space and the Gradations
1. HANDOUT!!!
2. Righteousness: He seemed to sweep sin under the rug.
1. Coming of Christ showed God as the justifier! His justice was in question, and it was fulfilled through Christ! None of us could stand in for each other. This passing over, was the sins of the remnant, Daniel and Ezekiel and so on.
8. Yahweh, the ONe who Provides a Penal Substitute
1. Atonement Defined
1. The process by which God purifies and re-consecrates his contaminated and desecrated Tabernacle and people by turning his wrath away from the sinner onto a substitute, thus restoring the relationship and right order.
2. Atonement is the saving act of God which according to Scripture makes possible, and in a sense constitutes, his redeeming and resotring work. It is the means by which his righteousness is re-established in a cosmic order marred temporally by rebellion against its Creator and King” (Yarbrough, “atonement” NDBT, 388)
1. Atonement is not just people and God but also human/God relationship in context, so land is included.
2. TWO MORE HANDOUTS
3. Two sides of Atonement
1. One view:::
2. Purification “was away and ransom”: shift in condition from unclean to clean
1. Does away with guilt of sin (expiation)
2. Satisfies an angry deity by giving payment for sin (propitiation)
3. Consecration: shift in status from common to holy - we owe everything to God; tribute