Deuteronomy 4:23-24

did any people ever hear the voice of a God speaking out of the midst of the fire? as you have heard and lived? Or has any God attempted to go out and take nations by trials, by signs, by wonder, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

This is built on Exodus 20, verse one, where God says, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. This is the jealousy of the Lord for his people. Miracles occurred, peoples were consumed, the laws of nature established by the Creator were altered and used by the Creator for their care. Can you imagine being an Israelite on the other side of the Red Sea? the most powerful army in the world on your heels, and the thunder of the water as it crashes behind you, I probably would have been bearing down with my eyes shut, hoping that even the rebound of the water didn't crush me. It is no wonder that in Exodus 15, as they are singing about their deliverance, they use phrases like,

you shatter the enemy

, or

at the blast of your nostrils, the water's piled up

, or even

you send out your fury, it consumes them like stubble.

No other God competed with them, and he withheld no good thing from them, nor would his promises brudge even an inch. And yet Moses has more for the Israelites to remember. So let's look at the recalling of the command, the law of God towards his people, and then the covenant worship that it exposed. As we look at the second part of verse 23, we see Moses calling to the mind the worship of the people. Notice the transition in the middle of the verse, which he, which is God, made, that is the covenant, with you, and you make a carved image. R.C. Sproul once said that

our theology comes out of our fingertips.

God made a covenant with his people. He made a relationship where there wasn't one, and how we see that relationship affects our bodies and our worship. Our bodies manifest our worship. Think Romans 12 one,

present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

And we see this covenant that our actions and worships are tied to the jealous covenant keeping God. The God who is jealous for the protection and care of his people is also jealous for their worship and love for him. The covenant is to establish relationship between creator and creature. And part of that is the creator bringing good commands to a people who love and worship and honor the creator accordingly. One of those commands was that

you shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or is in the earth beneath.

This is at its foundation, part of what makes the creator distinct from all created things. To break this is to rebel against the relationship. Consider a marriage covenant and its relationship. To commit adultery is to lay an ax to one of the core aspects of what makes that relationship distinct. And we can see a glimpse of this picture with marriage and adultery. We can see and experience either directly or indirectly the jealousy that a spouse has for the other. How much more when we take this experience on a horizontal level and stack it vertically between the creator and the creature? How much more the betrayal and provocation? Yeah, we look back with Moses and there they stood in Exodus 32 with the golden calf that Moses is recalling here. In Exodus 15, they were singing true worship to God for deliverance. And now Exodus 32, they are singing as Moses comes down, and they are singing in false worship to an idol. Moses is said to have had anger that burned hot, and he took the golden calf and burned it with fire. Many were judged and perished. And then God tells Moses to take them to the land that he promised, but to tell the people

You are a stiff-necked people. If for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you.

So how did this covenant worship go sideways? It is introduced in Exodus 32, 1,

when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.

Look at how this maps on. This started by the perceived delay of Moses, and then they describe Moses as the man who brought them out of Egypt. But how does God describe the event in Exodus? I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. So it started with listening to God through the covenant mediator and waiting for God, for his covenant mediator to come back. The jealousy of God was provoked by not listening to his mediator and not waiting on him. It points to the covenant. Does this sound familiar at all? As we conclude, Let's look at the New Testament in Hebrews, which picks up on this as well, but goes a step further or step better. He takes our eye from Mount Sinai with its terrifying sights and trembling fear, and the hearers who begged that no further message be spoken to them, and puts our eyes on Christ, the mediator of a new covenant, who has brought sonship and inheritance and blessing and righteousness and has given it completely free. We receive it by agreeing with God or listening to him, that Jesus is who he says he is. All of God's promises come to us through Christ. And this is our covenant and how we endure. When the struggle with sin is overwhelming, we can remember that in Christ, we have not struggled to the point of shedding blood, but Christ has shed his blood for us so that we can continue in him. When we think that God is wrathful towards us or distance from us, just as some of the Psalms do, we can listen to God who says through our mediator, we are adopted sons and daughters, and that any discipline is tender and out of love. Or when our hearts and consciences speak condemnation to us, God has told us that Christ's blood speaks a better word than that of Abel's. That's worth meditating on. God has told us that the voice of the blood of Christ speaks into his ear. The words of Jesus, our mediator, are that good and that powerful before our God. Let us remember this. When we have wonder if he is ever coming back, and if this is all we have to satisfy us, remember that God has said in Christ that he is coming back and there will be, as Hebrews recalls, innumerable angels and festal gathering, and we will be made perfect and able to enjoy God beyond our current comprehension and abilities. This is how we endure. Circling back, Keith has been talking about the world not being a playground, but a battlefield. And this is not a battlefield with weapons and swords, but of lies and truth, just as our context in the early parts of Deuteronomy. And the truth is in Christ. To think clearly and soberly about the jealousy of God is to think clearly and confidently about Jesus Christ as our Savior. Nothing but his blood will suffice. Outside of Christ, we provoke the jealousy of our God, who is a consuming fire. But because of Christ, we need not live in terror or dread, but with reverence and awe, which is our acceptable worship before our God. Will you pray with me? Father in heaven, you are a jealous God and you keep your covenant. Let us come to you in Christ that we may be sure of your care and give you acceptable worship and reverence and all. And let this be reflected in the way that we care for and love your covenant people. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.