“He is not safe, but He is good”

Exodus 32-34

January 29, 2006

Dr. Jerry Nelson

 

When you think of God, what do you think about him?

Is he distant, holy and just; a righteous God commanding righteousness?

Or is he near, loving and forgiving; a compassionate God providing for us even in our failings?

Or is he both and more?

 

With the release of the latest film version of C.S. Lewis’ “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” I thought it appropriate to borrow from one of its well-known lines to describe the God I see in our text for today – “He is not safe, but he is good.”

 

Consider these biblical references to our God:

 

From the Old Testament: Deuteronomy 4:23-24 “Do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the LORD your God has forbidden. For the LORD your God is a consuming fire...

 

The same idea is virtually unchanged in the New Testament: Hebrews 12:28-29 “Worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our ‘God is a consuming fire.’"

 

But also hear: Exodus 34:6-7 “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished…”

 

In keeping with his promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob 500 years earlier, God raised up Moses to lead his people, the descendents of Jacob called Israel, out of Egyptian slavery and to a land of their own – the Promised Land.

 

In our study of that Exodus from slavery, in the book by that name, we have followed the people of Israel out of Egypt, miraculously across the Red Sea, and to the Mountain of God also called Mt Horeb or Mt Sinai.

 

There in the hearing of the people, God gave the law – summarized in the 10 Commandments in chapter 20 and then spelled out in more detail in chapters 21-23.

 

Then God called Moses to come up on the mountain again and God would give him the Commandments on tablets of stone.

 

Exodus 24:12-18

“The LORD said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and commands I have written for their instruction."

13Then Moses set out with Joshua his aide, and Moses went up on the mountain of God. 14 He said to the elders, "Wait here for us until we come back to you. Aaron and Hur are with you, and anyone involved in a dispute can go to them."

15 When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, 16 and the glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the LORD called to Moses from within the cloud. 17 To the Israelites the glory of the LORD looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain. 18 Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.”

 

There, Moses not only received the Law but was also given detailed instruction on worship in chapters 25-31.

 

But what happens next, in chapter 32, is startling and tragic for these people who say they belong to God.

 

Let me tell you the story with comment while you read it in your Bible.

 

Exodus 32:1-6 “When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, "Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him."

    EX 32:2 Aaron answered them, "Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me." 3 So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt."

    EX 32:5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, "Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD." 6 So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.

 

It had probably been a month since Moses left and here the people were in the middle of nowhere with no idea of what to do next except wait.

Well they had waited and it was becoming increasingly obvious that Moses had either deserted them or something had happened to him.

 

What we see next is that the people may have been taken out of Egypt but clearly Egypt had not been taken out of them. (Larsson, Bound for Freedom, 253)

 

They wanted to go back. Acts 7:39-41

They had heard God’s promises but ultimately they didn’t trust God.

So the people went to Aaron, who had been left in charge, and they demanded (maybe even threatened?) him to give them gods they could follow.

 

Moses was gone and the God they had before they couldn’t see.

That God asked them to obey and move ahead by faith.

Furthermore that God had laid out his holy instruction regarding their conduct and even their attitudes toward him and each other.

 

They’d prefer their own god, one they could manage.

So they took the gold that God had given them when they left Egypt and they shaped it into an image of a young bull calf – a common symbol of virility and strength.

 

They don’t think they are totally rejecting the one true God; they are just remaking him to their liking.

Rejecting all the rationale of the 2nd commandment about not reducing God to something created, they do exactly that.

 

They want a religion that is more hospitable to their perception of reality.

They can see they have no visible means of support but they can’t see God, or even Moses.

So they will change things just a little.

 

They think they are still worshipping the one true God.

They build an altar and sacrifice the offerings they had sacrificed before (Exodus 24).

 

If they were in our context, it is as if they still go to church, they still take the Lord’s Supper, they are baptized, and they do the things of their religion but they changed it at its root – they aren’t following God, they have made up their own idea of God and they are following it.

 

R.C. Sproul captures it when he writes, “The (bull calf) gave no law and demanded no obedience. It had no wrath or justice or holiness to be feared. It was deaf, dumb and impotent. (And thus) it would not intrude on their fun and call them to judgment. This was a religion designed by men, practiced by men, and ultimately useless for men.” (Sproul in Ryken, 977 chapter 85 footnote 17)

 

The Psalmist put it this way:

Psalm 106:19-20 “At Horeb they made a calf

    and worshiped an idol cast from metal.

They exchanged their Glory

    for an image of a bull, which eats grass.”

 

Meaning, they went from experiencing the very presence of God himself to the mere presence of the lifeless likeness of a bull.

What a terrible trade!

But it felt good at the time.

 

After doing their religious duty they “got up to indulge in revelry.”

 

When, earlier, they had made their offerings to God it says they responded very differently:

Exodus 24:7 “Then (Moses) took the Book of the Covenant   and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey.”  

 

This time, after making God they way they wanted him to be they got up, as the New Testament says it, to indulge in pagan revelry.  (1 Corinthians 10:7)

This wasn’t God-centered celebration; this was man-centered self-indulgence. 

And it seems that that often leads even to perversion.

 

With echoes of Psalm 106, Paul writes in Romans 1:22-24 “Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity…”

 

Later we learn: Exodus 32:25 “Moses saw that the people were running wild and that Aaron had let them get out of control.” (See also 32:18; the “singing” is “haphazard singing of wild debauch.”)

 

They got the god they wanted, they worshipped the way they wanted, and they lived the way they wanted.

What they didn’t realize was that they had given away the farm.

What WERE they thinking? 

That God wouldn’t mind? That a little religion is enough?  That “close” is good enough for God?

 

Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.”

 

What they didn’t think about was that when they stopped trusting and following God they were on their own. 

God didn’t move away from them, they moved away from God.

 

Meanwhile back on the mountain in verses 7-10.

Exodus 32:7-10 “Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. 8 They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, `These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.' 9 "I have seen these people," the LORD said to Moses, "and they are a stiff-necked people. 10 Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation."

 

Moses is not privy to what is taking place below, but God is.

And God in his anger apparently disowns Israel.

God won’t even call them his own saying, “Moses YOUR people have become corrupt” and “THESE people… are stiff-necked (hard-headed).”

 

The people don’t see it this way but so quickly have then turned, so great is their offense, and so complete is their rejection of God that God says he plans to destroy them and start over with Moses alone.

What we are seeing is the holiness and justice of God.

When you think of God, what do you think about him?

 

 

 

Exodus 32:11-14 “But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God. "O LORD," he said, "why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, `It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth'? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. 13 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: `I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.' " 14 Then the LORD relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.

 

But Moses doesn’t take the offer as we see in verses 11-14.

Like the mediator God has called him to be, Moses pleads with the Lord to stay the execution.

·       He appeals to all the effort God has already put into these people.

·       He appeals to God’s honor – the Egyptians will ridicule you.

·       He appeals to God’s earlier promises.

 

God had said, “Moses, YOUR people have become corrupt.”

Moses dares to say, “Lord, why should your anger burn against YOUR people.”

 

At that, the Lord “relented”; he said he wouldn’t bring the disaster on the people that he had threatened.

Are we now seeing a different side of God?

 

Does Moses actually talk God out of something?

Does God actually change his mind?

 

Not in the way we might think.

Through the centuries, the rabbis said, “God speaks the language of man.” 

He condescends to our level and understanding.

God speaks as we would speak in order to lead us to understanding.

God is leading Moses and us step by step through the event to teach us about himself.

 

What are we to think of God; does he judge sin or does he overlook it? 

 

We might be tempted to think the crisis is over until we see what happens next in verses 19-20.

 

Exodus 32:19-24 “When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. 20 And he took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it. 21 He said to Aaron, "What did these people do to you, that you led them into such great sin?"

 

When Moses actually saw the golden calf and the wild activity of the people, he joined God in his appraisal of the situation and Moses  burned with anger.

It was only after seeing it for himself that Moses understood the seriousness of the sin of the people in the face of the holiness of God?

 

And in Moses’ righteous anger, he shattered the tablets of the law, and whether he meant it this way or not it was certainly symbolic of the shattered relationship between Israel and God.

It was those very instructions about living in relationship with God that the people had so flagrantly violated.

 

Like Jesus, centuries later overthrowing tables in the Temple, you can see Moses striding into the midst of that debauchery masquerading as religion and pushing over the golden calf and then with some instrument smashing it to smithereens.

 

Why have then drink the pulverized idol?

The only clue we have is in Number 5:11ff where someone suspected of adultery is required to drink water mixed with dust from the Temple floor.

From Moses’ point of view, the people have committed adultery against God. 

 

Exodus 32:21-24

“He said to Aaron, "What did these people do to you, that you led them into such great sin?"

"Do not be angry, my lord," Aaron answered. "You know how prone these people are to evil. 23 They said to me, `Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him.' 24 So I told them, `Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.' Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!"

 

 

Then we see in verses 21-24, it is probably when his initial anger cools just a little that Moses turns to Aaron, the man he left in charge, and asks, “What did they do to you that you led them into this great sin?”

 

I think that is very gracious of Moses to think Aaron was coerced.

 

But the little “weasel,” Aaron, takes advantage of the suggestion and blames the people – after all, Moses, you know how prone these people are to evil.

And furthermore if you hadn’t been gone so long this might not have happened.

And then silliest of all is his excuse that all he did was throw the gold into the fire and “what do you know,” out came this calf.

The people are to blame, you, Moses, are to blame, and fate is to blame, but not me.

 

Exodus 32:25-28 “Moses saw that the people were running wild and that Aaron had let them get out of control and so become a laughingstock to their enemies. 26 So he stood at the entrance to the camp and said, "Whoever is for the LORD, come to me." And all the Levites rallied to him.

    EX 32:27 Then he said to them, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: `Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.' " 28 The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died.  

 

For reasons we are not told, in verses 25-28, Moses lets Aaron off the hook but turns his attention to the people commanding that whoever is on the Lord’s side should stand by him.

Then reminiscent of Jesus’ statement that ‘if a man does not love Jesus even more than close relatives, he cannot be Jesus’ disciple’, Moses commands those who claim allegiance to the one true God to exercise judgment on their own relatives and neighbors.

 

Exodus 32:30-35 “The next day Moses said to the people, "You have committed a great sin. But now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin."    EX 32:31 So Moses went back to the LORD and said, "Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold. 32 But now, please forgive their sin--but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written."    EX 32:33 The LORD replied to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book. 34 Now go, lead the people to the place I spoke of, and my angel will go before you. However, when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin."    EX 32:35 And the LORD struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made.”

 

Was Moses attempting to appease the anger of God by carrying out some of the judgment himself?

It appears that way when, in verses 30-35, Moses tells the people that he is planning to go back to God and attempt to make atonement for the sin of the people.

 

Moses does go back to God and agrees with God about the sin of the people.

But now Moses uses a new tack with God, he offers himself as a substitute for the people.

But God rejects the offer for reasons he doesn’t say.

We now know, of course that Moses wasn’t a sufficient substitute; only the PERFECT Son of God (Jesus) could be that.

 

But while God has relented of instantly and totally destroying the people on the spot, the people will still experience a tragic consequence of their sin.

 

Exodus 33:1-4 “Exodus 33:1-6 “Then the LORD said to Moses, "Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, `I will give it to your descendants.' 2 I will send an angel before you … Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way. When the people heard these distressing words, they began to mourn and no one put on any ornaments.”

 

In chapter 33 the Lord said to Moses, Leave here and go to the land that I promised your forefathers.

I will send my angel to lead you but (and here is the tragic consequence of their sin) I will not go with you because if I did I would probably destroy you.

 

Israel, I won’t kill you all, and in fact you will experience the common grace I shower on all people but you will not have the special relationship we enjoyed before.

They had rejected God and wanted to go on their own terms with their own idea of god and so God is letting them go.

God is holy and he commands the allegiance of his people.

When you think of God, what do you think about him?

 

Next is a major turning point in the story.

When the people hear this they begin to grieve and we must wonder if they began to understand the gravity of their sin and the futility of their choices.

While the text doesn’t call it such, I have to wonder if this is the true repentance that God has been waiting for.

“When the people heard these distressing words, they began to mourn and no one put on any ornaments.”

 

Exodus 33:12-17 “Moses said to the LORD, "You have been telling me, `Lead these people,' but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, `I know you by name and you have found favor with me.' 13 If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people."

    EX 33:14 The LORD replied, "My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."

 

At that, in verses 12-17, Moses once again goes before the Lord pleading for mercy.

And this time the Lord responds, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."

 

I would think that Moses would jump for joy at this news but it is almost as if the rightness of God’s judgment is so evident and the certainty of it so immanent that Moses doesn’t even hear the good news.

 

For Moses says in verses 15-17 “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?" And the LORD said to Moses, "I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name."

 

Again, the Lord assures Moses, but again it is as if Moses’ own faith is now in crisis and he pleads for reassurance.

And what follows is that great passage when God shows Moses God’s glory.

Pastor Rich will be speaking much more to this part of the story next week.

 

But in the midst of that experience God writes again on stone tablets renewing his covenant with his people.

Exodus 34:1-7The LORD said to Moses, "Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.

 

And what follows in the next verses and the rest of the book of Exodus is nearly a repeat of everything that happened before the people’s rejection of God in the making of the golden calf.

God again gives the commandments on stone tablets.

Moses again comes down from the mountain and reads them to the people in the remainder of chapter 34.

God again gives instructions about the worship in chapters 35-40. 

Repeating it all over again, emphasizes that they are starting again by God’s grace.

 

But in the midst of that marvelous passage where God shows himself to Moses, this is what God says of himself.

And it is this, which I find to be the point of the retelling of the whole event.

 

Exodus 34:6-7 The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished…”

 

God points out two measures of his character –

compassionate mercy and righteous judgment.

 

And in the story just retold, God dramatically demonstrates both.

 

When I say, “dramatically demonstrates both,” I mean when the people sin, God clearly indicates the potential disaster of such sin against a holy God – God is to be feared.

At the same time he slowly reveals an understanding of his great mercy – God is compassionate.

 

There are those who teach the law and severity of God to the end that many sensitive believers are only fearful of God.

But there are more who teach the love of God to the end that many believers live presuming on the grace of God. 

 

The story in Exodus goes on for some time; I think very intentionally the outcome is left hanging to the very end.

Is God a God of judgment or a God of mercy?

When you think of God, what do you think about him?

 

 

We see that the people have abandoned a real faith in God; that they have substituted their own god for the real God of their lives.

We are left wondering if God will destroy his own people because of their sin.

We want to believe, for our own sake, that God will forgive them but we understand that he is under no obligation to do so.

He would be right, just and fair to judge them.

And even when he forgives them it doesn’t mean there are no consequences for their sin.

 

But we also see a God, who for reasons found only in his compassion, shows mercy to those who deserve judgment.

We see a God who forgives when there is no reason in the forgiven for God to do so.

We see him promise to be with them and bless them when they have given him every reason to do otherwise.

 

In fact it is this very incident that the Apostle Paul has in mind when he writes in 1 Corinthians 10:6-7 “These things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: "The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry."

 

It is some understanding of both the compassionate mercy of God and the righteous judgment of God that keeps us turning away from sin and turning to God.  

 

When I was in those early years of life, probably between about 3 and 11, when a father is omnipotent and his word is law, I feared my father but it was a healthy fear.

I also knew beyond any doubt that my father loved me and would do nothing that would truly harm me (Hurt? Yes! But not harm).

Even when I did wrong the judgment was tempered with mercy.

 

That’s what I see in Exodus 32-34.

I am left with a holy fear of God, a respect that he is not to be trifled with nor presumed upon.

I am also left with a trust that God will always temper his judgment with mercy because his love for me will never fail.

 

My God is holy and righteous and he calls me to that same righteousness in my relationship with him and others.

And as the Bible says, “It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

 

But where else can I go when I sin, but to him?

Everything in me wants to flee from his holy presence but I know that only in him can be found the mercy and grace I so desperately need.

And so in fear and trust I cling to him for his blessing.

When you think of God, what do you think about him?

 

In my study I came across a poem written 1000 years ago.

It captures something of this fear of God’s judgment and love of God’s compassion that I think we should hold in proper tension all our lives.

 

Lord, if my sin is great – too great to bear –

How wilt Thou shield thine own yet greater name

From Obloquy (abuse)? And if I may not dare

Hope for thy mercies, on whom have I claim

For pity, save on Thee? Nay, then, I say,

E’en though Thou shouldst slay

Natheless my hope on Thee should still abide;

And if my sin Thou searchest, then away

From Thee I flee – to Thee, myself to hide

In thy shade from thy broiling wrath, and cling

Fast to thine apron-string

Of mercy, till Thou bidst thy mercy hold

Me firm, nor will I let Thee go, unless

Like Jacob’s angel Thou does deign to bless.”

Solomon Ibn Gabirol in Goran Larsson Bound for Freedom, 250-1)

 

I have watched that in my own children. 

They intentionally break the rules, they are caught and discipline follows.

At first their demeanor is rebellion, but as punishment comes and they realize the hopelessness of their position, and hopefully the wrongness of their sin, they yield.

You can see them abandon the rebellion and melt into submission, falling on mercy and love. 

 

My God is holy in righteousness, consuming in his wrath against sin, and at the same time he is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.

 

It is that God I fear and love!  I commend him to you!

He is not safe but he is good!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other notes:

“It is precisely the attempt to worship Yahweh by means he has already declared totally unacceptable that makes the sin of the golden calf so destructive, far more so than a simple shift of allegiance to ‘other’ or ‘foreign’ gods.” (Durham, Exodus, 421)

 

“It is an account of the transfer of the center of authority of faith in Yahweh from Moses and the laws and symbols he has announced to a golden calf without laws and without any symbols beyond itself. Moses is the representative of a God invisible in mystery. The calf is to be the representative of that same God, whose invisibility and mystery is compromised by an image he has forbidden. The terrible irony of the foolish, impulsive action of Israel is incisively summed up in the trenchant summary of Psalm 106:20 “They swapped their Presence for a likeness of a grass-eating bull.”  (Durham, 421-2)

 

Nehemiah 9: 16-19 God’s mercy throughout history

“"But they, our forefathers, became arrogant and stiff-necked, and did not obey your commands. 17 They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them, 18 even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, `This is your god, who brought you up out of Egypt,' or when they committed awful blasphemies.

    NE 9:19 "Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the desert

 

Acts 7:39-42

Stephen to the Sanhedrin:

   AC 7:39 "But our fathers refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt. 40 They told Aaron, `Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt--we don't know what has happened to him!' 41 That was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it and held a celebration in honor of what their hands had made. 42 But God turned away and gave them over to the worship of the heavenly bodies.

 

Other illustrations were also given, then:

 

Acts 7:51 "You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit!

 

 

 

Hebrews 3:12-4:2 “See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. 14 We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. 15 As has just been said:

  "Today, if you hear his voice,

    do not harden your hearts

  as you did in the rebellion."

    HEB 3:16 Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? 17 And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? 18 And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? 19 So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.

HEB 4:1 Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. 2 For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith.

 

Hebrews 6:4-6 “It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, 6 if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.

 

Hebrews 10:26-31 “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," and again, "The Lord will judge his people." 31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

 

 

“It is not that God is being forced to adopt a new course of conduct because of some flawed decision of the past or because of some unforeseen circumstance having arisen. It was the Lord himself who opened up the way for the threat against his people to be removed by the appropriate action of the covenant mediator (Moses).” John Mackay in Ryken, 989 – chapter 85 footnote 9)

 

Mount Horeb and Mount Sinai are the same mountain with two names.  They are used interchangeably even in Exodus (Cf. Horeb 3:1; 33:6. Sinai 19:11; 34:2)