Exodus 24 – June 19

Perhaps you have heard the phrase, “Talk is cheap.” It is all too easy to promise that we are going to do something and then fail to follow through. The Shepherding Notes today are simple in terms of complexity, simple to understand, but incredibly challenging to live out. Consider just a few verses.

Verse 3 - Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.”

Verse 7 -  Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.”

Moses has been up and down the mountain on many occasions at this point. He has been given commands regarding how the people of Israel are called to live. In verse 3 we read that Moses verbally “told” every single word and rule given by God. How did they respond? With a hearty promise that they would obey every last one of them 

I am not sure exactly why Moses responded the way that he did. His immediate reaction to hearing their promise to obey was “And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord.” (vs. 4) This was not just to have a form of permanent record (although it certainly was that). It was also to serve as a record of the agreement that was made between God and the nation. What is incredibly interesting to me is that even though the content of the book was identical to the content of his explanation of God’s commands, Moses felt that it was necessary to repeat the process. This time he read the words to the people. Once again, the people voiced their allegiance to God by promising to follow every single word that Moses had written down. I could be off base here, but I get the sense that Moses heard their first promise and had doubts about their level of commitment. Talk is cheap. So, Moses wrote the contract down on vellum or papyrus, read it again, and once again they agreed.

Perhaps you are wondering why I am belaboring this point. There are three reasons:

1. The Israelites probably meant what they said when they made this promise. Sadly, it only lasted until Moses returned to the mountain for 40 days. While he was there, these people who had all agreed to obey the commands began worshiping a golden calf and practicing debauchery. Talk is cheap.

2. It is really easy to look at the flippant response that the Israelites had toward God’s commands and write them off as pathetic failures of the faith. But, don’t be too hasty to overlook the example that you see in the mirror. How often have you read the Bible, closed the book, and immediately forgotten everything you just read from God’s perfect Word? How often have you listened to a sermon or a lesson at church that pointed out specific sin issues in your life, then walked away without repenting? James 1:23-24 says of people like that, “For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.” Talk is cheap. We must be doers of the Word.

3. Consider Jesus. He is the only one who ever carried out every promise without fail. He is the only one that lived a life of perfect moral behavior. He is the only person who ever actually fulfilled the law by practicing what the Jews living under the Mosaic covenant never did. Jesus came and lived the life that even those with the best of intentions and highest aspirations never could. Then, He suffered and died for those who failed to live up to the many broken promises they have made to God. Jesus did more than talk. Through the incarnation, Jesus lived it out before a watching world and never once failed. This is good news.