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Printer Friendly VersionDarrell Griffen is the pastor of the Oakdale Covenant Church
on Vincennse Avenue on the south side of Chicago. If you ever heard him preach,
you’d want to go back again. Darrell grew up in Wisconsin, did his Master’s
work at Harvard and then took a ministry position in the Manhattan Borough
of New York City, in a neighborhood called Harlem. While he was living in
New York, his parents came to visit him and one of the things Darrell wanted
to do was take them to Long Island. When Darrell mentioned his plan, his mother
protested vehemently, “Oh no, I’m not going there! If we go there
we may never make it back. No way!” Darrell’s mother who had come
to see him in Harlem, had never been to Long Island. But she had some preconceived
ideas about what Long Island was like. She was certain, totally convinced
it was a dangerous place. She had heard stories in the news about gangs all
over Long Island, about how someone on Long Island had committed murder and
buried the victim in their back yard. Women all over the island were getting
breast cancer and there had recently been a massacre on a metro train. Everything
she’d seen, heard, or read convinced her Long Island was dangerous and
she didn’t want to go there.
The Israelites had a similar idea of what it would be like if
they ever went into the presence of God. They felt about seeing God like Darrell’s
mom felt about seeing Long Island. You don’t want to go there. It’s
too dangerous. Everything they’d ever read said, “You can’t
see Him and live.” No one could survive seeing God. The presence of
God is a dangerous place. You don’t want to go there because if you
do, you may never come back. And that was what they though about seeing God.
Touching Him was totally out of the question.
I think some people today have the same idea that going where
God is can be scary. It’s dangerous. He knows all about me. I can’t
hide anything from Him. I’ve heard the fear in some people who mask
it with jokes like, “The roof might fall in if I show up there.”
But behind all that is an expectation about what it’s like when you
get in the presence of God. You don’t want to go there. You might come
out with a sour face or a long list of things you’re not allowed to
do anymore. If you go into the presence of God you might see a bunch of people
acting crazy or be asked to be or do something you don’t want to be
or do. It’s dangerous to go into the presence of God. You don’t
want to go there because you might not ever make it back.
When Darrell’s parents arrived in Harlem he had his work
cut out for him convincing them to go to Long Island, but he kept after it
and finally they gave in. They made the drive through the Lincoln Tunnel and
onto the island. When they arrived, his mother was shocked as she stared with
wide-eyed wonder, like a 5-year-old seeing the cotton candy vendor at a ball
game. She said, “I can’t believe it. This not what I expected
at all. It’s really pretty nice.” And this woman who had been
terrified of going there ended up enjoying a whole day on Long Island and
leaving with a desire to go back.
In Exodus 24, Moses, Aaron, Abihu, Nadab, and 70 other Israelites
followed obediently when God sent them up Mt. Sinai. Moses had just returned,
having received the Ten Commandments and the other guidelines God had given
for how the Israelites were to live if they were going to be the people of
God. When Moses came down from the mountain and told the people what God had
said to him, everybody said, “We’ll do it. We’ll live the
way God wants us to” (v. 3). Then God himself wrote down the covenant
code of conduct and Moses didn’t recite it, but read it all to the Israelites
so they heard it all a second time. Their response was the same: “Whatever
you say, we will obey” (v. 7). After God said, “This is what I
expect from you, and here’s what you can expect from me,” the
people said, “Count us in,” and a covenant relationship was established
between God and Israel.
It might appear to be a little bizarre how it was solidified,
but we see how it happened in verses 3-8. Animals were sacrificed in an act
of worship. (The narrator makes sure we know the young people were involved,
included, and given major roles to play in this ritual of worship—see
v. 5.) But Moses did something else. He took all the blood, put half of it
into bowls, and poured the other half on the altar. The blood Moses put into
bowls he then sprinkled on the people in a ceremonial act of ratifying the
covenant between God and Israel.
That’s when Moses, Aaron, Abihu, Nadam and the 70 were
told to go back up the mountain. When they did, the unthinkable happened.
God showed up and they were in His presence—they were also able to see
Him. The first thing they thought was, “We’re dead! We can’t
see God and live. No one sees God and lives to tell about it.” But then
again, I don’t think they saw a whole lot of God. They described seeing
what was under His feet. It seems to me that a glimpse of the glory is often
what we see of God today. We see His feet, or His hand at work. I can say
I’ve seen God this week. I heard His voice when I listened to Gary Brennan
at our early morning prayer interceding for a co-worker who doesn’t
know Jesus. I saw His handwriting in a card I received from Pauline Shore.
Sometimes all we need is a glimpse of God’s hands or feet as all the
evidence we need that God really is here.
When this group of Israelites who had ascended Mt. Sinai saw
God, they didn’t get what they expected. Not only did they live to tell
about it, they got an invitation to sit down with God for a meal on the mountain.
It was a Supper on Sinai where they got to fellowship with this God who had
just invited them into a covenant relationship and sealed it with blood. We
can see their expectation (fear) in verse 11, “But God did not raise
his hand against these leaders.” That’s Hebrew for God didn’t
do them in like they thought He would.
Can you imagine what they must have felt when they saw God and
instead of being struck down they were invited to sit down and have something
to eat? (Probably a lot more surprised than Darrell’s mom when she saw
that Long Island wasn’t full of gang members and murderers who buried
people in their back yards.) I think God wanted them to know this covenant,
though it was full of expectations for Israel’s behavior, wasn’t
only about keeping commandments and obeying rules. It was also about times
like this where they would eat and drink, and discover the God who had given
the tablets was also a God who invited them to a table. Apparently the covenant
they had just entered into wasn’t only about tablets inscribed with
Commandments. It was also about tables filled with fellowship. It was about
a God who was accessible.
One of the reasons I think there’s really something to
this whole eating and drinking on the mountain is because in the very next
chapter, after Moses returns from another 40 days on the mountain, he comes
down with a blueprint for a worship space and all the furnishings. It’s
called a tabernacle, and among other things, this tabernacle (dwelling place)
was furnished with a table. With specific instructions God told Moses, “Build
a table and put 12 loaves of bread on it.” The bread is called the Bread
of the Presence and it was among the items God said to put in the Tabernacle,
along with the Ark of the Covenant that housed the stone tablets upon which
were written the Ten Commandments. A table in the Tabernacle? Fresh bread
on the table? Why? I think God wanted His people to remember the covenant
was more than rules on tablets. It was about relationships established and
grown, born and raised at tables.
I can almost hear Darrell’s mom now, wanting to go back
again. “Long Island? It’s not like that at all! It’s not
a dangerous place. You’ve got to go there yourself. You’ll see.
Let me tell you all about it.”
I can almost hear the 70 leading the way to worship when the
Tabernacle was completed, directing others to the table. “You’ve
got to go to the Tabernacle where God dwells; I’m telling you, you can
experience God’s presence in ways you never imagined or expected, and
when you do you’ll want to go back again and again. Believe me. I’ve
experienced a God who not only writes commands on tablets, He invites people
to tables.”
The Israelites didn’t expect to see God and live to tell
about it. They certainly didn’t expect to encounter God at a table on
Mt. Sinai, but they did. Maybe today you didn’t expect to encounter
God at a table, but you could. On the night He was betrayed Jesus gathered
His closest followers around a table and told them about a new covenant He
was establishing. A covenant about to be ratified not by the blood of an animal
poured on an altar and sprinkled on the people, but by His blood, which would
be poured out on a cross and sprinkled on the hearts of those who would believe
in Him. That’s what the writer to the Hebrews was talking about (see
10:19-25). Come near to God, have your hearts sprinkled. Command and invitation.
Rules to follow and a relationship to enjoy. Tablets and tables.
God is always exploding our expectations, broadening our understanding
of who God is. That’s what He did to Moses and the 70. It’s what
God did most dramatically in the Incarnation. The God above and beyond became
the God who moved in next door. He became flesh. Dwelt among us. Not far away
but up close and personal. Approachable. Relational. Accessible. Touchable.
Christmas is about a God who didn’t love us from a distance. He came
to us desiring intimacy and fellowship. And He still comes to us like that
today. In a world where so-called valuable things are often labeled, “Do
Not Touch,” the most valuable, eternal, and meaningful One there is
invites us to touch and be touched by Him.
What do you say we go to Long Island? Follow Moses up Mt. Sinai?
Head to the Tabernacle. Check out the table where God-made-flesh joins us.
Once we’ve met God there, I’m pretty sure we’ll find ourselves
wanting to go back again and again.
Communion
Benediction: 2 Corinthians 13:14, “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”