Gospel of the Kingdom

Study written by 3Crosses Church

Week 4 3Crosses Church Week 4 3Crosses Church

Checkpoint #2

Checkpoint #2

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Kingdom Project

Just like Israel does in Deuteronomy, we would like to invite you and your group to intentionally pause in your study and reflect on what you have learned so far!

REMEMBER THIS PAUSE IS OPTIONAL

If you do choose to pause with your group, use the next week to catch up on any readings you may have missed. In addition, use the next group meeting as an extended time of prayer where you can express gratitude to God for His blessings of the gospel of the kingdom.

Allow God to use the first 5 books of the Bible to speak truth and encouragement into your life as we wait to see how God will fulfill all of His promises!

Psalm 1:1-2 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. 

KINGDOM PROJECT - DUE IN 4 WEEKS!

Have you chosen one Old Testament book to read through in its entirety?

We encourage you to pick an Old Testament book that remains unfamiliar to you. The Torah is a great selection to choose from, however, we have a long way to go! 

As you are reading the book of your choosing, pay attention to our 3-fold Kingdom Definition.

How does the book contribute to the story of God’s People?
How does the book contribute to the story of God’s Place?
How does the book contribute to the story of God’s Rule?

In 4 weeks time, each person in your group will be encouraged to briefly share their findings based on the following 5 questions.

  1. How did the book contribute to the Kingdom of God story (People, Place, Rule)?

  2. What excited/challenged you the most as you were reading the book?

  3. In what ways did you feel like the book was pointing to Jesus?

  4. What are some of the ways the book might speak into the members of your group? 

  5. What questions do you still have about the book?

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5. Share the Gospel + Life Group Discussion Questions

Week 4 • Day 5

Week 4 • Day 5

This week, we have just concluded the Torah (Pentateuch). So often, this is where people lose track of the Bible as they start from page one and move forward. Our encouragement is that you would use this study guide and other resources to remember that through all of the laws, God is crafting a story that points to Jesus.

This week, we have decided to share some videos with you that will help you understand all of the confusing laws that are found scattered throughout the Old Testament. If you are interested in learning more, be sure to check out How Not to Read the Bible by Dan Kimball!

Share the Gospel Video:

 

Week 4 Life Group Discussion Questions

Icebreaker: Share a moment in your life where you have seen God’s faithfulness?

Question: What observations / reflections / prayers stood out to you about this week?

Exodus: Even in the bleakest of circumstances, God remains on the throne! Out of Israel’s situation in Egypt, God was able to reestablish His supreme kingdom authority in the hearts and minds of His people by crushing the rule of Pharaoh, by rescuing His kingdom people as they ran for their lives across the Red Sea, and by making the sojourning Israelite camp His kingdom place via the portable tabernacle. 

Question: In what areas of your life do you still feel like you belong to the kingdom of the serpent and long to experience the Lord’s salvation? How might God be using this area of brokenness to shape your role in His kingdom? 

Leviticus:  Leviticus foreshadows the means by which our savior – the long awaited serpent-crusher – would rescue God’s people from the serpent’s rule, return them to the kingdom place of YHWH, restore His image-beares to rule in a way that loves God and loves others, and reestablish His powerful kingdom rule over all things once and for all! Leviticus is all about bringing humanity out from under the kingdom of the serpent and back into the kingdom of God through the eternally spotless sacrifice that is to come.   

Question: Describe what it felt like when you first realized that your sinfulness alienated you from God but that God had made provision for you to have access to Him! Is there anyone in your life who is experiencing the brokenness of the world through their sin or the sins of others toward them that needs to be introduced to God’s love and forgiveness?  Will you pray for them now and ask God for an opportunity to tell them about God making a way for them to come to Him?

Numbers: Despite our failures and evil’s best attempts, God will continually be faithful to the gospel of the kingdom. He will rescue His people from the enemy, He will return them to the promised place, He will restore their image-bearing rule to love God and love others! Yet, it still seems like in order for all of this to work, God needs to reestablish His own rule and destroy this pesky serpent. Will we ever meet someone qualified to crush the head of the serpent once and for all?

Question: Where do you find yourself prone to complain? What are the implications in your life that God responds with discipline and the hope of His blessing and kingdom restoration during these moments? 

Deuteronomy: Moses knew something was wrong. God was going to be faithful to the gospel of the kingdom. He was going to rescue His people from all foreign enemies and return them back into the promised land. The question that remained was how God would restore His image-bearing family to follow His laws as His image-bearers were designed to do? Moses anticipates that the gospel of the kingdom revolved around the destruction of the serpent so that God might reestablish His rule and restore the deepest heart issues of His people.

Question: Using one word or a short phrase, write down the blessings God has given you! Write out in abbreviated form, the challenges you are currently facing and any specific promise God has given you in order to endure! What are some of the ways that you can remember what God has done for you (part 1) in the midst of the challenges you face (part 2)? 

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4. Pause and Remember

Week 4 • Day 4

Week 4 • Day 4

At the end of 40 years, Moses finds himself explaining God’s law to an entirely new generation of people about to enter the promised land who hadn’t experienced the Exodus of the previous generation. Now, on the precipice of entering the promised place, Moses delivers a series of final messages to bring this new generation up to speed as to God’s rule which blesses obedience and punishes disobedience. The book of Deuteronomy is all about reminding these chosen image-beares how to use their delegated rule to love God, love others, to listen and obey God’s law. 

Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land that the LORD promised on oath to your forefathers.  Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands … Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. - Deuteronomy 8:1-3; 11

This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.  Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him.  For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. - Deuteronomy 30:19-20

With all the instructions offered in the book of Deuteronomy, perhaps the important lesson for us is to pause and reflect over what God has revealed to us—and to assess whether we are engaged sincerely in the life He offers or if we are forgetting all He has done for us.

OUR RESPONSE: PAUSE AND REMEMBER

It’s easy to forget some of the most important and memorable events in our lives.  A parent of a teenager in a moment of disappointment or frustration, might easily forget the incredible blessing of their child’s birth and the sense of gratitude that came when welcoming a new life into the world. A spouse may have forgotten that his vows offered in the presence of a pastor, family, friends and more importantly God, were meant for a lifetime instead of trading it all in for an illicit affair. The job you always wanted and which allowed you to wake up daily, eager to make a difference in the company has now become a drudgery—you find yourself anxiously looking for something different to do with your life. Life is full of experiences that were once powerful and seemingly unforgettable, but over time have somehow lost their sense of significance. 

Sometimes things fade because we make unhealthy choices. Other times, experiences fade because we don’t renew their significance in our lives. Celebrating one’s wedding anniversary is one way a married couple pauses to remember their past. Birthdays are also a subtle and intentional reminder of the value and blessing someone is in our lives. There are various celebrations and ceremonial events that are intended to bring us back—to cause us to remember and value something in our past. When we take time to remember, we set ourselves up for improving things in the present while ensuring a more promising future.

This is the lesson of Deuteronomy. God is telling a new generation to not forget what He has said and done. 

In what’s known as the Shema (which means “to listen”), God reminds his people:

Hear, O Israel:  The LORD our God, the LORD is one.  Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  These commands that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  Impress them on your children.  Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. - Deuteronomy 6:4-9 

God reminds Israel to do this otherwise it’s likely that they, along with their children, may one day forget the Lord. God doesn’t want us to forget where we’ve come from and the work He has done in our lives either. But if we are not careful, very important things we once held precious can be relegated to those spaces in our memories that don’t mean as much as they once did.  We can drift into new ways of living and dealing with life’s challenges. In short, if we aren’t careful, we can lose our way and forget about God or live as those who have.

REMEMBER THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM

The name Deuteronomy literally means, “second law.” In this collection of messages given by Moses under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Moses explains God’s work beginning with their departure from Mt. Sinai. He details the rebellions of the people throughout their wanderings in the desert and how even he had disqualified himself from entering due to his sin. Moses also refreshes this younger generation on the terms of God’s rule of law in terms of becoming a nation of image-bearing people, His rule of law concerning the moral and ceremonial cleanliness caused by the effects of sin on our delegated rule, and the rule of law concerning feasts God had called His people to celebrate in order to remember His faithfulness. Finally, Moses instructs on God’s rule for the priests and Levites in carrying out duties of worship in God’s dwelling place. With great detail, Moses reviews the many of God’s rules that had been given to His people to remain “separate” and “holy” from the nations of the world.  And finally, at the end of these detailed sermons, he reminds this generation that if they trust and obey the LORD and His rule, blessings will follow.  But if they rebel and disobey, they can expect God to send his wrath on them.

See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil.  If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. - Deuteronomy 30:15-18

Moses concludes by urging them toward the right path and to remain true to it. Moses announces his successor, Joshua and then, as with most sermons, a song that Moses has written is introduced to be taught to the people. The song of Moses as recorded in chapter 32 is a beautiful and emotional recitation of God’s salvation work in his Covenant people.  But it was also a prophetic word to warn Israel of their propensity to sin and disobey the Lord. It’s as if God wants to teach them this song so that they will be reminded in times of disobedience that God, even though knowing of this beforehand, would also remain faithful to them. 

Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations; ask your father, and he will show you, your elders, and they will tell you. When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind [think Tower of Babel], he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. But the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage. 

“He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions, the Lord alone guided him, no foreign god was with him. He made him ride on the high places of the land, and he ate the produce of the field, and he suckled him with honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock. Curds from the herd, and milk from the flock, with fat of lambs, rams of Bashan and goats, with the very finest of the wheat— and you drank foaming wine made from the blood of the grape. 

“But Jeshurun [Hebrew for “Upright One”; a common poetic reference to Israel] grew fat, and kicked; you grew fat, stout, and sleek; then he forsook God who made him and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation. They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations they provoked him to anger. They sacrificed to demons that were no gods, to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded. You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth. - Deuteronomy 32:7–18

Moses knew something was wrong. God was going to be faithful to the gospel of the kingdom. He was going to rescue His people from all foreign enemies and return them back into the promised land. The question that remained was how God would restore His image-bearing family to faithfully follow His laws when everyone up to this point has bent their knee to the serpent and his kingdom? Moses anticipates that the gospel of the kingdom would necessarily revolve around this long-awaited “serpent-crusher” and the serpent’s destruction so that God might reestablish His rule and restore the deepest heart issues of His people.

​​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, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good? Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. - Deuteronomy 10:12–16

He will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you [rescue]…. And the Lord your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it [return]. And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live [restore]. And the Lord your God will put all these curses on your foes and enemies who persecuted you [reestablish]. And you shall again obey the voice of the Lord and keep all his commandments that I command you today. Deuteronomy 30:3, 5–8

For I know how rebellious and stubborn you are. Behold, even today while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against the Lord. How much more after my death! - Deuteronomy 31:27

The first five books of the Old Testament closes on a minor key. Good days are ahead for God’s people—but also many more serpent-like rebellions. 

What will happen now that the great Moses has died on Mt. Nebo overlooking the promised land? Will God prove to be faithful to all that He has promised? Will this next generation prove to be faithful to God’s rule of law? Would there ever be another Moses-like figure who would lead God’s people to salvation from the kingdom of the serpent into God’s kingdom in the promised land? We continue to read as Joshua and the next generation prepare to enter the promised land!

And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, none like him for all the signs and the wonders that the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, and for all the mighty power and all the great deeds of terror that Moses did in the sight of all Israel. - Deuteronomy 34:10-12

Share the Gospel: Moses knew something was wrong. God was going to be faithful to the gospel of the kingdom. He was going to rescue His people from all foreign enemies and return them back into the promised land. The question that remained was how God would restore His image-bearing family to follow His laws as His image-bearers were designed to do? Moses anticipates that the gospel of the kingdom revolved around the destruction of the serpent so that God might reestablish His rule and restore the deepest heart issues of His people.

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3. Israel’s Road Trip

Week 4 • Day 3

Week 4 • Day 3

Have you ever been on a road trip? I remember taking the 5-hour drive to Disneyland as a kid and being excited beyond comparison to reach the “happiest place on earth”! However, I also remember not being too thrilled about the process of actually having to wait so long to get there. “How much longer?” “This sucks!” “Are we there yet?” “I’m so bored!” “I’m hungry! Can we stop for some food?” I knew that by the end of the day, we would arrive at this thrilling destination! Yet the excruciating 5-hour drive jam-packed in a car made me want to give it all up. 

I wonder if the same thing can be said about the “road trip” of life. We are thrilled that God is leading us towards a future destination that is good! Yet many of us fight every step of the hours, days, weeks, years, or decades-long “road trip” it takes to actually arrive. “How much longer?” “This sucks!” “Are we there yet?” “I’m so bored!” “Can we stop so that I can meet this or that need?” We love the thought of our destination, but our disappointment and dissatisfaction “on the road” is so strong that we are tempted to give it all up for a small dose of comfort.

 In the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth day of the month, the cloud lifted from over the tabernacle of the testimony, and the people of Israel set out by stages from the wilderness of Sinai. And the cloud settled down in the wilderness of Paran. They set out for the first time at the command of the Lord by Moses…. So they set out from the mount of the Lord three days’ journey. And the ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them three days’ journey, to seek out a resting place for them. And the cloud of the Lord was over them by day, whenever they set out from the camp.  - Numbers 10:11–13, 33-34 

Today, we look at the return “family road trip” of Israel! The exciting destination is the place of Canaan that YHWH had promised to Abraham. God is in the driver's seat after setting up His place in the midst of His people in the portable tabernacle! Surely, nothing could go wrong!

THE SERPENT KINGDOM: 7 REBELLIONS

The book of Numbers opens with Israel “packing up” to end their one year stay at Mount Sinai and begin their journey toward the promised place of Canaan. The kingdom family of Israel are counted by number (hence the name of the book) and are arranged according to their tribe with the presence of YHWH in the tabernacle driver’s seat. Along the way, YHWH continues to provide additional clarifications  to His law to help His people continue to rule according to His holy standard of shalom as new gray area situations emerge. With the roll call completed, everyone in their assigned seats, and YHWH at the driver’s seat, their much anticipated return road trip begins! Unfortunately, once Israel leaves Mount Sinai to go towards the promised land, their obedience and dependence on God starts to unravel.

(Rebellion #1) Now the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the Lord, and when he heard them his anger was aroused… 

(Rebellion #2) The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!’ - Numbers 11:1, 4-6

This family road trip is not off to a good start! The general population of Israel had convinced themselves that there was more security in the foreign place of Egypt as opposed to God’s kingdom place that was now moving through the wilderness. Their traveling situation was so bleak that they had completely lost sight of how God had rescued them from the land of Egypt, was returning them to a better destination, and would restore them into a kingdom of priestly image-bearers under His reestablished rule.

Before long, the Israelites would eventually arrive in the desert of Paran, which was halfway to the land of Canaan promised to Abraham. There was still time to change their ways!

(Rebellion #3) Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman. And they said, “Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?” - Numbers 12:1–2.

(Rebellion #4) The Lord said to Moses, “Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders.”  So at the Lord’s command Moses sent them out from the Desert of Paran. All of them were leaders of the Israelites…  

They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit.  But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there…

 …“We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are” And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. - Numbers 13:1-3, 27-28, 31-32;

That night all the members of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, “If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this wilderness!  Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?” And they said to each other, “We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.” - Numbers 14:1-4 

After a rocky start on this trip, a full family fight ensues! What should’ve been a joyous and bonding moment of laying eyes on the promised place turns into chaos and divisiveness. Miriam and Aaron, the 12 appointed leaders, and “all the members of the community” grew discontent with the way God ruled in the wilderness. 

What was supposed to be an 11 day “road-trip” would turn into 40 years because of their lack of trust. YHWH responds to this lack of trust by forbidding this wandering generation from entering the promised place. 

And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.’ I, the Lord, have spoken. Surely this will I do to all this wicked congregation who are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die. - Numbers 14: 33-35

Now, with no exciting destination in sight, the road trip inevitably devolves. The next rebellions escalated to the men of Dathan and Korah who played important roles in the community of Israel as workers in the tabernacle. 

(Rebellion #5) Now Korah the son of Izhar, son of Kohath, son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men. And they rose up before Moses, with a number of the people of Israel, 250 chiefs of the congregation, chosen from the assembly, well-known men. They assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?” - Numbers 16:1–3

Finally, the rebellion culminates with Moses himself - God’s chosen servant - confirming our suspicions once and for all that Moses was not the serpent crusher we had been hoping for. 

(Rebellion #6) And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.” 

Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.” - Numbers 20:2–12.

The entire camp of Israel, including the great Moses, had symbolically bent their knee to the kingdom of the serpent. If there was ever a people who deserved to be destroyed by God’s judgment, these were the people! Instead, in the midst of their complete 7-fold rebellion, God’s mercy would break through. His healing power would take the symbolic form of idolatry (bronze) and sin (serpent) hung on a tree (pole). All who would merely look upon this image of sin hung on a tree would live.

(Rebellion #7) And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. 

And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. - Numbers 21:4–9.

GOD’S RESPONSE: THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM

Despite their blatant disobedience, God remains perfectly balanced between being merciful to His family of people and being faithfully just to His righteous rule! By no means does God let Israel “off the hook” for disobeying God. 

 

However, throughout the rebellions, Moses routinely pleads with the Lord to be merciful to His people for His name’s sake. 

And now, please let the power of the Lord be great as you have promised, saying, ‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.’ Please pardon the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt until now. - Numbers 14:17-19 

As Israel moves into the land of Moab -  a stone’s throw away from the promised place of Canaan - the Moabite King Balak sees these foreigners as a growing threat. Balak hires a pagan sorcerer named Balaam to pronounce curses on them. After having a rather interesting encounter with a talking donkey (see Num. 22), Balaam is instructed by the Angel of the Lord to relay His words regarding Israel.

Then Balaam spoke his message: “Balak brought me from Aram, the king of Moab from the eastern mountains. ‘Come,’ he said, ‘curse Jacob for me; come, denounce Israel.’ How can I curse those whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce those whom the Lord has not denounced?” 

Then he spoke his message: “Arise, Balak, and listen hear me, son of Zippor.  God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?  I have received a command to bless; he has blessed, and I cannot change it.  “No misfortune is seen in Jacob, no misery observed in Israel. The Lord their God is with them; the shout of the King is among them.” - Numbers 23:7-8, 18-21 

No misfortune seen in Jacob? How can that be based on what we just read about Israel’s putrid family trip? Amidst rebellion after rebellion within the camp of Israel, the descendants of Jacob are totally unaware that up in the hills not far away God is looking down upon His people protecting and blessing them as they struggle their way back into the promised place. 

Despite our failures and evil’s best attempts, God will continually be faithful to the gospel of the kingdom. He will rescue His people from the enemy, He will return them to the promised place, He will restore their image-bearing rule to love God and love others! Yet, it still seems like in order for all of this to work, God needs to reestablish His own rule and destroy this pesky serpent. Will we ever meet someone qualified to crush the head of the serpent once and for all? THERE IS HOPE! Balaam seems to see some type of king that would come from Israel! 

Water shall flow from his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters; his king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted….I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel; it shall crush the forehead of Moab… A ruler will come out of Jacob and destroy the survivors of the city. - Numbers 24: 7, 17,19

The book of Numbers ends the same way it begins, a new generation of people in Israel “packing-up” to get ready for their own road trip into the promised land! God remains in the driver’s seat and continues to provide clarifications to His law while Moses prepares to turn over his leadership to Joshua, who along with Caleb was one of the leaders who urged Israel to take the promised land in the power of YHWH. We are left to wait and see if this would be the group of people who would witness the serpent-crushing event and fully bring forth God’s kingdom! Could Joshua (whose name means “YHWH is Salvation” in Hebrew) be the serpent-crusher?

These were those listed by Moses and Eleazar the priest, who listed the people of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho. But among these there was not one of those listed by Moses and Aaron the priest, who had listed the people of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai. For the Lord had said of them, “They shall die in the wilderness.” Not one of them was left, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. -Numbers 26:63–65

Share the Gospel: Despite our failures and evil’s best attempts, God will continually be faithful to the gospel of the kingdom. He will rescue His people from the enemy, He will return them to the promised place, He will restore their image-bearing rule to love God and love others! Yet, it still seems like in order for all of this to work, God needs to reestablish His own rule and destroy this pesky serpent. Will we ever meet someone qualified to crush the head of the serpent once and for all?

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2. Who Shall Ascend to the Lord?

Week 4 • Day 2

Week 4 • Day 2

Then Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them, and he came down from offering the sin offering and the burnt offering and the peace offerings. And Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting, and when they came out they blessed the people, and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people.  And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar, and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces. - Leviticus 9:22-24

As we have seen, YHWH desires to be in a loving relationship with His kingdom people! Israel’s rebel allegiance to the rule of the serpent kingdom, however, sets forth the fundamental problem of all humanity: sin separates us from God. At the end of Exodus, we discover that the portable tabernacle place that gave YHWH’s people access to Him is now off limits to both Moses and the Israelites until certain conditions can be met. How could sinful humans ever return back into the presence of God’s holy kingdom place? 

The book of Leviticus sets forth the path for how undeserving serpent-like sinners can experience a relationship with God and live daily in His dwelling place.

Have you recognized a pattern that God’s people are spared when a substitute is offered as a sacrifice (i.e. animal skins, ram in the thicket, passover lamb, Moses’ life)? It is no coincidence, then, that Leviticus opens by documenting a series of sacrificial offerings that allow for Israel’s priests to make atonement (or “cover”) for the people of Israel. Today, we often miss the simple, yet profound lessons of the sacrificial system in Leviticus. We get bogged down in trying to understand and apply the unfamiliar rituals of sacrifice that Israel had to learn if they were to gain access to God. Between their rituals, requirements, and the intricate details of how these sacrifices were to be carried out, it’s easy for the modern reader to miss the point. This is the point: God’s holiness demands that provision be made for our sins or there is simply NO access to God’s place.  

For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. - Leviticus 17:11

The lifeblood of the sacrificial animals was quite literally covering the death we should have experienced because of our sin.

As we saw in Genesis, sin and death did not only have an internal heart impact, but it also had an external life impact on our relationships with creation, with each other, and ultimately with God. Therefore, God calls His people to be externally holy in 3 primary ways: ceremonial cleanliness in the kingdom place, living as a people under God’s kingdom ethic of shalom, and always acknowledging God’s kingdom rule. Once again, it is easy for modern readers to miss the point in these chapters as we try to make sense of many culturally specific commandments. This is the point: God’s holiness demands a “set-apart” kingdom lifestyle free from the intentional and unintentional effects of sin and death or there is simply NO access to God’s place.

CLEANLINESS IN GOD’S PLACE 

You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy. This is the law about beast and bird and every living creature that moves through the waters and every creature that swarms on the ground,  to make a distinction between the unclean and the clean and between the living creature that may be eaten and the living creature that may not be eaten. - Leviticus 11:45b-47

SHALOM WITH GOD AND HIS PEOPLE 

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,  “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, I am the Lord your God.  You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord. - Leviticus 18:1-5 

You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord. - Leviticus 19:18

REMEMBERING GOD’S RULE

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying,  “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, These are the appointed feasts of the Lord that you shall proclaim as holy convocations; they are my appointed feasts. - Leviticus 23:1

 

At the center of the book of Leviticus is God’s instruction about the Day of Atonement. Ceremonial cleansing and individual sacrifices could only take the Old Testament people of God so far. A greater sacrifice was necessary that would cover everything within the camp of Israel that had been marked by the kingdom of the serpent, including the tabernacle building itself. On the Day of Atonement (see Leviticus 16), the high priest would finally be allowed to enter the Holy of Holies to make a sacrifice first for himself, and then for the sins of the entire Israelite camp. After completing the sacrifice for his own sins, the priest was instructed to choose two goats for the atonement for the sins of the community. One goat would be sacrificed and the other (the Scapegoat) sent into the wilderness to demonstrate that the sins of the people would be removed from them forever. In this way, the Israelites would remember that not only were their sins forgiven but also removed completely from God’s place. Through this one special annual act of worship, God’s people could rest in the assurance of knowing both the forgiveness and removal of sin so that God could make the camp of Israel His place. 

No one is to be in the Tent of Meeting from the time Aaron goes in to make atonement in the Most Holy Place until he comes out, having made atonement for himself, his household and the whole community of Israel…because on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you.  Then, before the LORD, you will be clean from all your sins. - Leviticus 16:17, 30

But keep in mind, this provision needed to be repeated every single year to maintain the holiness of God’s place. What about today? Do we still need this kind of sacrifice?

This question requires a, “Yes, but….keep reading,” response.

Yes, as long as the serpent continues to roam free, we do need some sort of sacrifice to cover our sins and spare our lives before a holy God. The proof of our allegiance to the serpent kingdom’s rule is everywhere. Nations at war, disease, death, violent crime, injustice, and poverty are just a few of the disharmonious signs that something has gone terribly wrong with humanity. And the troubling part is that our hearts contain the darkness that we see manifest in our world.  

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? - Jeremiah 19:7 

Before we can address our own brokenness or even our broken world, we must first address our broken relationship with God and His kingdom. The truth is, our sinfulness has created a vast chasm between ourselves and God.  

But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.  - Isaiah 59:2 

There is simply no getting around the fact that our sinfulness is our undoing and we all - as descendants of Adam and Eve - have bent our knee to the serpent. Perhaps today you are experiencing the deep pain of brokenness in your life because of the serpent’s rule in your life, the sins that other people have committed against you, or the brokenness of the place that has been cursed and brings death as a result of sin?

The gospel of the kingdom found breaking through the book of Leviticus is that God outlines a way for sinful and undeserving sinners to experience a rich and fulfilling relationship with Him. That’s why a proper understanding of the book of Leviticus is so important. It offers its reader confidence that the condition of being separated from God can be changed.  

The Levitical code (the laws, rituals, sacrifice and priesthood) was the means God chose for His people to have this kind of access to His place; access He wanted to provide and they needed.  

But...wouldn’t it be amazing if God provided an eternal cleansing from the rule of sin in our lives? Wouldn’t it be incredible if God swung the doors wide open for sinners of every era to have full access to God’s place and to live in a deep relationship with Him? Wouldn’t it be good news to know that we are no longer bound by a constant cycle of gory sacrifices because there was a way to experience complete and never-ending access to our King? 

This, then, is the timeless lesson that Leviticus provides in the big picture of God’s revelation. Leviticus foreshadows the means by which our savior – the long awaited serpent-crusher – would rescue God’s people from the serpent’s rule, return them to the kingdom place of YHWH, restore His image-beares to rule in a way that loves God and loves others, and reestablish His powerful kingdom rule over the serpent and all things once and for all! Leviticus is all about bringing humanity out from under the kingdom of the serpent and back into the kingdom of God. 

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. - Psalm 103:11-12 

Leviticus leaves us wondering what kind of sacrifice would be able to permanently cleanse us of our sin so that we might be cleansed and brought into God’s kingdom space? Is it even possible to possess a permanently spotless lifeblood that would allow God to permanently pass over our sins? 

What sacrifice could offer this eternally perfect and permanent solution?

Share the Gospel: Leviticus foreshadows the means by which our savior – the long awaited serpent-crusher – would rescue God’s people from the serpent’s rule, return them to the kingdom place of YHWH, restore His image-beares to rule in a way that loves God and loves others, and reestablish His powerful kingdom rule over all things once and for all! Leviticus is all about bringing humanity out from under the kingdom of the serpent and back into the kingdom of God.  

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1. Salvation for God’s People

Week 4 • Day 1

Week 4 • Day 1

One of the most challenging moments in my life was when I saw the door close on my dream career. All the blood, sweat, and tears that I had put into this particular pursuit felt like it had been all for nothing. In the season of life that followed, I was forced to wrestle with whether or not I believed that, “God is good” and “He is in control”. These phrases sound so cliche, right?

There are many situations we face that make us doubt that God is good and He still rules over all things. In the moments where it seems like everything is going against us, we doubt that God will remain faithful toward us as His kingdom people. It is hard to find hope that we will one day return to God’s good kingdom place when the world seems like it is crashing all around us. In these dark moments, have you ever cried out, “God! Where are you? Are you still there?”

I’d imagine these same sentiments were strong in the hearts of Abraham’s descendants during their time in Egypt.

The book of Exodus continues right where the Genesis story ends: God’s family of people are located in a foreign kingdom place under the foreign rule of Pharaoh.

 

Under the faithful God-centered rule of Joseph, Egypt blossoms into a place of blessing that provides for God’s image-bearing people across the world during a global famine. Through Joseph’s faithfulness, the gospel of the kingdom breaks through and turns the desert land of Egypt into a nation which taps into the Garden river of life that was always designed to flow out from Eden to the nations! It’s no coincidence, then, that Exodus opens by showing how Israel was fruitful, multiplied, filled this foreign land, and grew to become “exceedingly strong”.

But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them. - Exodus 1:7

It wasn’t until a new Pharaoh rose to power in Egypt that God’s blessings suddenly morphed into the reason for Israel’s oppression. Now, under the unfaithful serpent-centered rule of this new Pharaoh, Egypt turns into the next anti-Eden place that would oppress God’s people treating them as slaves rather than dignified image-bearers who rule on God’s behalf.

Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burden.

So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.

Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.” - Exodus 1:8-11, 13-14, 22

 

Imagine the kind of questions the Israelites would have had over the next 400 years of oppression. Does God still rule and care about His people? If He does, why are we enslaved? Did He lead us into a foreign place simply to suffer? Is the kingdom place that was once promised to our father Abraham now out of reach? Were we entirely wrong about this God? It’s at the peak of these doubts where we meet the central character of the next 4 books of the Bible: Moses.

GOD’S RESPONSE: THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM

Moses’ life begins by highlighting God’s rule. Amidst the orders of Pharaoh to kill all boys born to the Israelites, Moses’ mother manages to hide her newborn son in a basket (or “tebat” the same Hebrew word for “ark”). This “ark-like” basket floats down a river and just so happens to reach Pharaoh’s daughter who just so happens to raise up Moses as her own. God continues to orchestrate events to lift up Moses who just so happens to rise to a position of power within the ranks of Pharaoh. 

Here is the million-dollar question: could Moses be the serpent-crusher? 

Later on, when Moses eventually learns of his own Hebrew origins, he withdraws from his position in Pharaoh’s household to associate himself with the Hebrew people. Here, Moses comes face-to-face with the brutal oppression of his people and acts in his rage by killing an Egyptian slave master. We aren’t explicitly told that Moses’ defensive actions are wicked or serpent-like, but at the very least this scene forces us to speculate about Moses’ candidacy as the faithful serpent-crusher. 

Now, as a fugitive of the Egyptian authorities, Moses flees to Midian. In the middle of this chaos, Moses sees something strange atop Mount Horeb (tier 3), amidst a bush (tier 2), in a flame of fire (tier 1). Moses is called to take off his sandals as he approaches this holy 3-tiered garden-like place where the Lord has appeared to him! The Lord says:

“I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.

… God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ” - Exodus 3:7-10, 14

 

After 400 years of slavery, God chooses Moses to become the next representative of the gospel of the kingdom. God was going to rescue His people from slavery, return them to the place flowing with milk and honey, and restore the dignity and rule of His image-bearers. Once more, we wonder if Moses is the serpent-crushing descendant of Eve who would finally reestablish “I AM”’s rule over the serpent kingdom? Let’s watch how Moses responds to YHWH’s (“I AM” in Hebrew) calling.

But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” - Exodus 3:11 

Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”- Exodus 3:13

Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’ ” - Exodus 4:1 

But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” - Exodus 4:10

But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.”  Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses and he said, “Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. - Exodus 4:13-14

Although the text does not explicitly attribute these doubts to the kingdom of the serpent, our suspicions about Moses continue to mount. One would expect that the great serpent crusher would have a “faith-no-matter-what” attitude in all things similar to the test of Abraham and Isaac. Yet despite this excuse-filled killer, YHWH chooses to bring the Israelites out from Egypt into His promised kingdom! 

EXODUS (PT. 1): REESTABLISH AND RESCUE

In a story you may be familiar with, YHWH rains down a series of 10 plagues to crush the Egyptians. YHWH reestablishes that He has always been the one true ruler over all things, including the gods of the Egyptians.

 

This sequence culminates at the infamous 10th plague in which God kills the firstborn sons of all those in the land of Egypt (in response to Osiris - judge of the dead and patron deity of Pharaoh). Thankfully, in the same way YHWH provided a sacrificial ram to be a substitute for Isaac, YHWH instructed His people to sacrifice a substitutionary lamb and paint its blood on their doorposts so that the destroyer of the firstborn (see Ex. 12:23) would “pass over” the Israelites. 

Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats,  and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight….“Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.” -  Exodus 12:5-7, 13

The gospel of the kingdom breaks through once more as YHWH reestablishes His rule by crushing Pharaoh and his gods through the plagues. Then YHWH completes His rescue mission for His people even when the Red Sea and the Egyptian army stood in their way! In a song of thanks, Moses recounts: 

For when the horses of Pharaoh with his chariots and his horsemen went into the sea, the Lord brought back the waters of the sea upon them, but the people of Israel walked on dry ground in the midst of the sea. -  Exodus 15:19

EXODUS (PT.2): RETURN AND RESTORE

The rest of Exodus continues to show how God would return His wandering people back into the promised land place and restore His image-bearers so they would rule in a way that loves God, loves others, and obeys the boundaries of YHWH. Pay attention to this very similar garden-like choice facing Moses’ generation.

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.” So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him.  All the people answered together and said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.” And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord. - Exodus 19:5-8

Just like God had placed certain boundaries in the Garden of Eden, Israel’s end of the bargain was to listen and obey the Lord’s commands as they developed into a larger nation. 613 commandments were given to Israel (including the famous first 10 commandments) that talk about the ways in which the people of Israel would use their delegated rule to love God (no other gods before me, keep the sabbath, Lord’s name in vain, etc.) and love their neighbors (murder, adultery, covetousness, etc.)! Once again, here is how Israel responds to YHWH’s law they had just received…

Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they [Israel] said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.” - Exodus 24:7-8

The next set of instructions shows God’s desire to dwell with His family during their return journey since they weren’t in the promised land quite yet. Moses is given instructions to create the portable 3-tiered, garden-like tabernacle on earth (Courtyard, Holy Place, Holy of Holies) so that God’s place - guarded by the veil of cherubim - could be in the midst of His people wherever they went!

And you shall make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen. It shall be made with cherubim skillfully worked into it…And the veil shall separate for you the Holy Place from the Most Holy. - Exodus 26:31, 33

There I will meet with the people of Israel, and it shall be sanctified by my glory.  I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar. Aaron also and his sons I will consecrate to serve me as priests.  I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God. - Exodus 29:43-45 

YHWH has reestablished His kingdom rule over Pharoah, rescued His people from a serpent-like regime. He is now actively returning them to the promised place. His people were committed to use their delegated rule to love God, love others, and obey YHWH’s commandments in the law. Could this be the end of the serpent era?

GOD’S RESPONSE: THE SERPENT CRUSHER?

Unfortunately, it did not take long for the Israelites to disobey and bend their knee to the serpent. While Moses had ventured up to the top of Mount Sinai (tier 1) to meet with the Lord, the rest of the elders of Israel remained halfway up the mountain (tier 2) and the camp stayed put at the base of the mountain (tier 3). Aaron along with a significant portion of the community at the bottom of the mountain did not want to wait for Moses to return from his 40-day trip into the Lord’s presence. Instead, these image-bearers determined that it was “good” to build an image they could comprehend; a calf that represented the Egyptian god Apis (see plague 5).

Although Moses’ actions up to this point have been cause for concern, the next scene offers a “serpent-crusher” type of response that resembles the sacrificial faith of Abraham and Isaac.  

The next day Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.”  So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold.  But now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.” - Exodus 32:30-32 

Once again, our kingdom narrative oscillates between the serpent-like actions of mankind and the faithfulness of YHWH enacted through one faithful servant. On the one hand, God decides to justly handle the sinful actions within the camp the way He sees fit. On the other hand, God continues to be slow to anger and merciful towards the descendants of Abraham due to Moses’ intercession.

“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

Even in the bleakest of circumstances, God remains on the throne! Out of Israel’s situation in Egypt, God was able to reestablish His supreme kingdom authority in the hearts and minds of His people by crushing the rule of Pharaoh and instituting His rule of law, by rescuing His kingdom people as they ran for their lives across the Red Sea, and by making the sojourning Israelite camp His kingdom place via the portable tabernacle. God was faithful to the promises that He had made!

I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord.’ ” - Exodus 6:7-8

Yet the story is far from over. All of the events of Exodus take place at the foot of Mt. Sinai. God was preparing to lead His people back to the promised kingdom place - the land of Canaan that was promised to Abraham. God was still molding His beloved family of people into a kingdom of priests who use their delegated rule to love God, love others, obey God’s laws, and spread His glory throughout the world!

Would the gospel of the kingdom fully break through and be successful? Interestingly, after a whole book in which Moses is able to approach the Lord (i.e. the burning bush, Mt. Sinai, the tent of meeting, God passing by), we are told that Moses is now unable to enter the tent of meeting to speak with God.

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.  And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.  Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out.  But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up.  For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys. - Exodus 40:34-38

The fangs of the serpent and his kingdom remained embedded deep within the hearts of Israel. Exodus leaves us wondering how would Israel ever find a way to enter into God’s presence again without being utterly destroyed because of their allegiance to the kingdom of the serpent? Could YHWH still work through Moses to make him the serpent crusher? For now, Exodus leaves us anticipating that this same YHWH would one day orchestrate the same type of Exodus for His family of people. This time, it would need to be an Exodus from the kingdom of the serpent! 

Share the Gospel: Even in the bleakest of circumstances, God remains on the throne! Out of Israel’s situation in Egypt, God was able to reestablish His supreme kingdom authority in the hearts and minds of His people by crushing the rule of Pharaoh, by rescuing His kingdom people as they ran for their lives across the Red Sea, and by making the sojourning Israelite camp His kingdom place via the portable tabernacle.

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