Renewal of the Covenant

Sermon 85 in Series

Exodus 34:10-28
[10] And he said, “Behold, I am making a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation. And all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the LORD, for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.

[11] “Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. [12] Take care, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it become a snare in your midst. [13] You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim [14] (for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), [15] 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, [16] and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods.

[17] “You shall not make for yourself any gods of cast metal.

[18] “You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Abib, for in the month Abib you came out from Egypt.

[19] All that open the womb are mine, all your male livestock, the firstborn of cow and sheep. [20] The firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem. And none shall appear before me empty-handed.

[21] “Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest. [22] You shall observe the Feast of Weeks, the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year’s end. [23] Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the LORD God, the God of Israel. [24] For I will cast out nations before you and enlarge your borders; no one shall covet your land, when you go up to appear before the LORD your God three times in the year.

[25] “You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, or let the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover remain until the morning. [26] The best of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring to the house of the LORD your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.”

[27] And the LORD said to Moses, “Write these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” [28] So he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.

DEEP SHEET: Sermon Study Questions
1.   How has God shown you his glory in this section of Exodus? In what ways have you come to a deeper understanding of his name?
2.   How does God magnify his grace in renewing the covenant with Israel? Why should this encourage us in prayer?
3.   What does God call Israel to look forward to? As Christians, how do we practically look forward while not forgetting the past?
4.   What does it mean to be in the world but not of the world (John 17:15-16)? How does this passage put us on guard against the false worship that we see all around us?
5.   How do idleness and neglect of the good act as a gateway for the bad? Stated positively, how does being preoccupied with serving God protect us from sin?
6.   As we think about Israel’s need to constantly remember, how has God used corporate worship and the Lord’s Supper for remembrance in your life?

References: Matthew 4:2; 9:33; Exodus 23:10-33; John 17:15-16; James 1:27; 1 John 2:15; 2 Corinthians 6:17; 7:1; Hebrews 10:25; 1 Corinthians 11:24, 25.