Grace for Stiff-Necks
Exodus 34:8-11 (p. 141) June 11, 2017
Moses bowed to the ground and worshiped.
“O Lord, if I have found favor in your eyes,” he said,
“then let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people,
forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as your inheritance.”
Exodus 34:8-9
Covenant living begins . . . .
“The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God . . . .”
Exodus 34:6-7
- God reveals his CHARACTER — ours is a promise making God
- I REST in his presence (covenant keeping has always put the priority on love over law!)
. . . when God does begins to work
“The people around you will see how awesome is the work that I, the Lord, will do for you.”
Exodus 34:10
- Salvation lesson: JESUS’ righteousness matters
- Theology lesson: WORSHIP makes us peculiar
- Prayer lesson: Waiting (40 MORE days!!) is how covenant works
- Following God lesson: The veil is gone! à 2 Corinthians 3:12 (p. 1797)
— legalism = “the ministry that brought death” à because it is fading away, “condemnation”
— gospel brings righteousness à we are being transformed with ever increasing glory
More good teaching on Exodus 34:
Bob Deffinbaugh’s Exodus sermon “A New Beginning” at
https://bible.org/seriespage/new-beginning-exodus-3410-35
Ligon Duncan’s messages on Exodus at http://www.fpcjackson.org/resource-library/series-index/exodus
Tim Keller’s “How to Talk About Sin” at https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/how-to-talk-sin-in-postmodern-age and “When Sin Is Grievous and Grace Is Stunning” at https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/when-sin-is-grievous-and-grace-is-stunning
Eugene Peterson on “waiting in prayer”
Prayer trains the soul to singleness of focus: for God alone my soul waits. Another will is greater, wiser and more intelligent than my own. So I wait. Waiting means that there is another whom I trust and from whom I receive. My will, important and essential as it is, finds a will that is more important, more essential… In prayer we are aware that God is in action and that when the circumstances are ready, when others are in the right place and when my heart is prepared, I will be called into action. Waiting in prayer is a disciplined refusal to act before God acts. Waiting is our participation in the process that results in the “time fulfilled”.
~ from EARTH AND ALTAR by Eugene H. Peterson
http://www.friendsofsilence.net/quote/author/eugene-h-peterson