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Good Sunday morning to you dear friends, don’t you love Sundays?
May I ask us all a question?
What is it about Sundays that are so special?
What is it about Sundays that are so special?
Is it gathering with Christian friends? Is it the worship experience at your church that you love? Is it the powerful message from God’s Word you anticipate? Is it the change of pace, the Sabbath rest day you long for? What is it about Sunday that makes it so special?
OR… is Sunday just another day for you?
Today we are reading Exodus 29, one of those chapters that will take some effort to read every verse. Moses was up with God on Mount Sinai, we remember, receiving instructions from God about the worship He wanted from His people whom He delivered out of Egyptian bondage, how it was different from any other religious worship on earth. Exodus 29 has some remarkable detail, but in truth it won’t take you long to feel like a 2 year old kid asking the famous one word question “WHY?”…over and over.
This chapter explains the process God described, for the consecration of Aaron and his sons to the role of Priest. They were to be the Spiritual Leaders of the people. But they had been slaves just like everyone else. They’d not gone to any special school, they’d not received any special anointing from God…they had simply been selected by God and now, needed to be set apart for this ‘high and holy calling’ of being the mediators between the people and God, just as the people had requested (Ex. 20:18-20).
So what if God had asked you, to design a ceremony, which would take 5 normal guys… Aaron and his four sons…and set them apart to serve as Spiritual priests, for the rest of their lives? What would your ceremony include, and how long would it last, if you designed it? How would Aaron and his sons feel differently, when it was all over? What would cause us to revere and respect Aaron, and his sons, as we watched the ceremony you designed?
You’ll notice Exodus 29 includes washing these 5 men with water, giving them specially designed priestly garments to wear, placing their hands on the heads of live, specially chosen animals, and then slaying those animals as sacrifices, and offering those slain animals as burn offerings, in special ways. But… WHY?
You’ll see they were instructed to collect of some of the blood of those sacrificed animals, and anoint the horns of the altar, the altar, their priestly garments, and even Aaron and his sons. But…WHY?
Note in vs. 21 after all this, God said… “Then Aaron and his sons and their garments will be consecrated.”
Somehow in this very unusual and admittedly bloody process, Aaron and his sons were becoming consecrated men. But ‘consecrated’ to what, you might ask? Consecrated to Holy God, for His holy use, as the spiritual leaders of this huge refugee city of 2 million people!
Vs. 35 says this consecration process couldn’t happen in an hour or two. God said… “Do for Aaron and his sons everything I have commanded you, taking seven days to ordain them. Sacrifice a bull each day as a sin offering to make atonement.”
What? A seven day consecration process? Yes my friends! But…WHY?
I wonder if part of the answer is found in verses 42-46 of this 29th chapter. I invite you look closely with me…
“For generations to come this burnt offering is to be made regularly at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting before the LORD. There I will meet you and I will speak to you; there also I will meet with the Israelites, and the place will be consecrated by My glory.“
May I ask you…what do you see in those words God spoke to Moses? It’s shocking actually! Almighty, Holy God, the Creator of the Universe, was promising HE would come down from heaven and meet with human beings, at one particular spot on the face of this planet. . . “the entrance to the Tent of Meeting”.
Can we wrap our minds and hearts around that? We remember how terrifying the Exodus 19 encounter was for these people with God at the shaking, smoking Mount Sinai…and now God was telling Moses He would come even closer? Not just to the cloud covered top of the mountain, but all the way down into the middle of the camp to meet with Moses, Aaron and his sons!!! And not just once, but ‘regularly’ God said!
So again let me ask you…since it’s Sunday morning today. With what sense of anticipation are you going to church today? Are you expecting an encounter with the Almighty, Holy, Creator of the Universe God at your church today? Will He come down and meet with you at your “Tent of Meeting”? What will that be like for you? What has it been like in the past?
You see my dear friends…both then with Moses and the people, and now for most of us, our gatherings for worship, or whatever the reason that you gather in your church building…is truthfully quite uneventful, non-spectacular.
In fact when we ask the millennial generation and others who used to be church attenders, why they aren’t any longer, one of the main reasons they tell us is…“because there’s nothing that happens which seems to be a real, authentic, encounter with God.” Here in Exodus 29, God is telling Moses that He wants to have life transforming, mountain shaking, encounters with His people…like nothing any people on this planet have known in their religions…regularly!
Did you see God said “…and the place will be consecrated by My glory!” Oh my! We know what it’s like for 100,000 cheering, wild & crazy people to gather in a stadium for a football game, or at one of the huge race tracks in America for a NASCAR race or thousands gather for a concert. . .and those can be remarkable experiences. But when it’s over, we go home from that weary, having had a great time, but when the stadium or race track or concert hall is empty and dark… the Adrenalin rush is over. But what about an encounter with God that would be so dramatic, so powerful, so life changing…that a person would be changed for the rest of their life, and the place of encounter would be consecrated by the Glory of God for years to come? That’s what God was talking to Moses about.
Now remember, it was on this same mountain that Moses had first met God at the burning bush. And what happened that day so much changed Moses that any chance he had, he hiked up that mountain to meet with God, to be in that cloud, experiencing the Glory of God. And now, God was promising Moses that He wanted that same experience to be available to Aaron and his four sons, so they could then serve the people as spiritual men. So I have to ask… do you hunger for that my friends?
Look deep inside yourself. Do you have a hunger for such encounters with God that He transforms you into a godly man or woman, and the rest of your life is defined by the holy relationship you have with God?
And may I show you one more thing? Look at vs. 45,46 “Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. They will know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them out of Egypt SO THAT I might dwell among them. I am the LORD their God.” !!!!!!
May I be honest with you…. my hands are trembling as I type this on my computer?!
Do you see what Almighty, Holy God is saying to Moses. He is NOT satisfied to be the Almighty, holding the whole Universe together and creating new babies everyday, but not worshiped, not pursued by the human race He has created in His image.
He designed us, all of us, each of us, with a deep inner thirst that can only be quenched in an authentic relationship with the God who conceived and birthed and is sustaining each of us. He deeply loves us and wants us to know and love Him. He wants to dwell here on earth WITH us. He wants us to know Him as He is…LORD “YHWH”, the Almighty, Holy, Creator God. But in relationship…that’s what the phrase “I am the LORD their God” means.
What kind of relationship? A treasured possession relationship, remember Exodus 19:5,6? A relationship in which God sustains your life every moment, embraces you with His love, protects you from attacks of the enemy the devil, guides you in the journey of your life, provides what He knows you need. . .of course all that is possible ONLY in a relationship with Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord, and the indwelling, empowering Holy Spirit of God!
Now neither Moses nor Aaron nor anyone in that refugee camp would have understood what I just said, would they. The name Jesus meant nothing to them. They had never heard of a Holy Spirit. They were only beginning to understand God in all His Majesty. But do you see Exodus 29 is a forward looking picture?
Remember I’ve said that before about this Mount Sinai experience? What’s the picture here? Well, God said “I will come and dwell among the Israelites”…and isn’t that what happened when Jesus came, was born in a stable in Bethlehem, and lived among us?
God said, “They will know that I am the LORD their God…” Isn’t that what Jesus taught and offered through His life, His teachings, His atonement death and His resurrection, to any and all who would trust Him?
God said, “I am the LORD their God who brought them out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them.” Isn’t that what God does when HE rescues us from our bondage to our sin and saves us and fills us with His Holy Spirit, so HE lives IN us, here on earth?
Yes my friends, Yes… this is God’s offer to you and me in 2019. Not with animal sacrifices but through Jesus our Savior and the powerful indwelling Holy Spirit. And today, this Sunday, God is inviting you and me to come to worship Him, with a profound sense of expectation and respect for His glory, His holiness, and the consecrated life He invites us to live in relationship with Him!
Is that your desire?
By the way, if you’re wondering if what is described to Moses in Exodus 29 ever happened…oh YES…you’ll find it in Leviticus 8 & 9, the last verse of which says “And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell facedown!”
Oh God. . .I praise you for this powerful section of Your Word, and the invitation YOU are extending to each of us this Sunday. . . .
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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