Survey of Biblical Theology - Lesson 5

So we're continuing our story of the Old Testament by picking up in the book of Exodus. And what happens when we reopen the book? They're having lots of children, right? And there's the multiplication of offspring. There's the fulfillment of the promise that's taking to Israel. 

Remember the elements of the covenant with Abraham, land, offspring, blessing. Well, here come the offspring. But then what happens next? Pharaoh wants to kill them, right? So Pharaoh is the seed of the serpent. 

He's the offspring of the serpent. The offspring of the serpent always wants to kill the seed of the woman. Think back to when Jesus was born. 

What does Herod want to do? He wants to put them to death. Here it is a new Pharaoh. Pharaoh is the seed of the serpent, the offspring of the serpent. 

It's like Cain and Abel. So these themes recur over and over again. However, instead of Israel being destroyed, Israel is liberated from Egypt through Moses, Exodus 3-14. 

So we have that great... What's the word that's used? Redemption. Israel is redeemed. That's picked up in the New Testament, isn't it? The redemption that is ours through Christ. 

It's the great Exodus. What we see here is an example of God's grace, because we have every indication that the people of Israel are actually in sin. And yet God redeems them and liberates them. 

I like the word liberation. What is redemption? People don't talk about redemption much anymore. Redemption means that you're bought back, you're ransomed, you're freed, you're liberated. 

So Israel's being liberated. And where are they going? They're going into the land. So that's second promise.

They have the offspring. The liberation means they're going to receive the land. And we see God fulfilling his covenant promises. 

We see Yahweh as Lord. Israel is established as his people. And then what does the Lord do? He gives them his law and the Mosaic covenant is established. 

So we've seen the covenant with Adam. The covenant with Noah. The covenant with Abraham. 

Now the covenant with Israel or the Sinai covenant. What's the context in which the law is given? This is very important. The context is grace.

Let's read a few verses here just to see that. Exodus 19, 4. You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now, if you will carefully listen to me and keep my covenant, you will be my own possession out of all the peoples, although the whole earth is mine. 

First, God frees his people, liberates them, redeems them. Then their obedience to the law is a response to his grace. Have you noticed that in the Ten Commandments? Exodus 20. 

I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery. First, redemption, liberation, grace. Then come the commands.

The obedience of the commands is a response to God's grace. And then a very remarkable passage. Deuteronomy 7. Why did God choose Israel? Have you ever heard the little rhyme, how odd of God to choose the Jews? Have you heard that rhyme? It is odd, right? But then how odd of God to choose anyone, right? If you say, why did God choose the Jews? Well, why would he choose anyone? He had to, not he had to, but if he chose a people, he had to choose some people and it was the Jews.

Well, why did he choose the Jews? Here's one answer that's given. The Lord had his heart set on you and chose you. Okay. 

Why? Not because you were more numerous than all the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. So why did he choose the Jews? Because they were low, not because they were high. Verse eight, I think is one of the most remarkable verses in the Bible.

But because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors, he brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you. So why did the Lord love you? Because he loved you. That's the answer. 

Why did the Lord choose you and love you? Because he loved you. There is no other answer. If you say, why did God choose one person rather than another? All we can say is it's the sovereignty of God. 

It's God's will. We can't get to a deeper answer, but God choosing the Jews, God giving them affection, it's all due to his grace. So then in chapters 20 through 23, we see the stipulations of the covenant are specified, the 10 commandments, and then many other commands are mentioned. 

But there's also a covenant ceremony with the blood of sacrifices in Exodus 24, where the covenant is initiated. You may remember there that Israel says, everything the Lord has said, we will do. Interestingly, the Schofield Reference Bible, which is the book for classical dispensationalism, the first edition, the notes said that Israel, when God asked them whether they'd keep the law, the Schofield Reference Bible said that Israel should have said no.

I think that's a really bad reading. They did take it out of the second edition because God expects his people to keep covenant with him, and I think he would have been angry if he'd said, okay, I've redeemed you. Here's the covenant stipulations. 

And they said, no, we can't do these. No, Israel was right to say that they would be faithful to the covenant. And of course that covenant was inaugurated with bloody sacrifices, anticipating the sacrifice of Christ. 

The covenant sign, a lot of covenants have signs, right? The Noahic covenant, the rainbow, and in the Mosaic covenant, the sign of the covenant is the Sabbath. So we'll say more about the Sabbath as we go, but that's clearly the sign of the covenant. It's really one of the longest commandments, maybe the longest. 

I think it is the longest of all commandments. Israel is to be a kingdom of priests, Exodus 19. So remember what we said, Adam in the garden was a king and a priest. 

Now, Israel in the land, Adam in the garden, a king and a priest, Israel in the land is to be a kingdom and priests, and there to be a blessing to the world. Now, I think there's a difference between the old covenant and the new covenant, and the difference is this. In the new covenant, we are commanded to go and tell

Now, some disagree with this, but I think in the old covenant, it was not go and tell, but come and see. So we don't have that explicit command for Israel to go and proclaim the gospel to all the nations. Instead, Israel as a holy people was to stand out and people were to come and see what the Lord had done. 

This covenant with Israel is conditional. They must fulfill the covenant obligations to remain as God's people. If they violate those covenant obligations, they will be punished and they will be cast out of the land, more on that in a second.

What's the fundamental requirement of the covenant? You shall have no other gods before me. The fundamental requirement of the covenant is God is to be your covenant Lord. So I think we'd all agree that's still a requirement for us today. 

The fundamental command is God is to be first. God is to be all in our lives, but the 10th commandment, I would argue, and I think Paul indicates this, the 10th commandment is another way of stating the first commandment. You shall not covet because whatever you covet is your God, right? If you desire something that's forbidden, you're desiring that more than God. 

And actually Luther read this very well, by the way. All the commandments should be interpreted through the first and 10th commandment. So, right? If you're stealing, you're worshiping another God. 

If you're stealing, you're coveting something clearly, but it's true for murder as well. So forth and so on. So here's another thing.

I don't know if you've ever heard this, but I've heard this often. People have said to me, you know, the 10 commandments are only about external actions, not the heart. And I always say the 10th commandment says don't covet. 

That's a hard issue. There is something about the heart and the 10th commandments. They're not just about external obedience. 

They're about, as I have in my notes, the supremacy of God in everything. God is to be supreme in our lives. The law God gives is a gift and a delight. 

The law is not something bad. There's a lot of chapter verses. I mean on Deuteronomy 4, what other people has received such a law as this? And we're to meditate on the law, Psalm 1, 2, day and night. 

Or Psalm 19, the law of the Lord is perfect. So forth and so on. Psalm the law is a gift of God. 

The law is something good. The law represents God's will. However, the Mosaic covenant does not demand perfection, does it? Because when we come to Leviticus, there are sacrifices. 

There's atonement for those who sin. So how do you maintain your relationship with God? You maintain it through offering the sacrifices God has required. So the Mosaic covenant, contrary to what some say, does not teach a different way of salvation.

The Mosaic covenant doesn't teach you can earn your salvation. No, the Mosaic covenant is a covenant of grace. I would not describe the covenant per se, as some theologians do, as a covenant of works. 

But there are some qualifications. These qualifications are very, very important. So the Mosaic covenant is a good covenant. 

It's a covenant of grace. And yet there are some, what word should I use? Maybe deficiencies in the covenant, liabilities. Here's the first one. 

Most of Israel, even though they're redeemed physically, are not saved. That's huge, right? They're physically redeemed, but they don't really belong to the Lord. I point to 1 Corinthians 10, Hebrews 3. Remember that first generation never entered the promised land because they didn't trust in or obey the Lord. 

So, well, yeah. Oh, no, I had the verses coming up. So I was going to turn to it, but I see it's here in my note. 

So there's physical deliverance without spiritual redemption. So that's very, very important. That is very different from the new covenant. 

The typological difference is crucial in understanding election and perseverance. So here, it depends. If I can use systematic theology, it depends here if you're Reformed or So because I'm Reformed, I believe all those who are elected persevere to the end. 

That none of those who are elect will be lost. All of those who are elect will make it until the end. But then if you believe that, what do you do with Israel? It appears that those whom God has redeemed didn't make it into the land. 

I mean, every indication is that they weren't saved. Well, the argument is, and I think this is right, election functions differently in the two covenants. Israel was elected as a theocracy, as a church state, so to speak, together. 

The church of Jesus Christ is not a theocracy, right? No particular nation is God's nation. God's nation is in the United States or England or France or the Congo or China or Russia, whatever country you want to think of. Argentina. 

There's no nation, not even Israel, right? We could talk about that more at some point. We will talk about that more, I should say. So the election does not necessarily signal salvation. 

Therefore, you have some who are within the elect ambit of the nation who aren't saved, if that makes sense. So the law is perfect, but the law without the spirit kills. Isn't that what Paul teaches us? We could turn to a text in Paul, the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. 

Actually, Paul talks about, maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, but I'll just say it now. He describes the covenant with Moses as a ministry that brought death. He describes the ministry as a ministry that brought condemnation versus seven and nine of second Corinthians three. 

So this is quite remarkable, isn't it? That here we have a covenant that kills. The law is good, but the law without the spirit doesn't bring life. Deuteronomy 9.6 says about Israel, you're a stubborn people.

These are the people God has redeemed. Or look at Deuteronomy 29.4. This is an amazing verse. The Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear. 

Did you see that? Did you meditate on that verse? The Lord hasn't given you the new covenant promise. You don't have, he says to the nation, you don't have a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear. Now, I don't think he's talking about every person. 

There are exceptions, right? I think he's talking about the nation as a whole. Now you might read that and think, well, then that's the Lord's fault. No, no, he's not. 

He's not exempting the people. Remember what I said earlier about divine sovereignty. God's sovereignty does not cancel out human choices and the authenticity of our choices. 

They're both true. The Lord hasn't given you a heart to hear or understand, and you should understand, and you don't, and it's your fault that you don't. So this is a very interesting thing. 

It's a gracious covenant. God has liberated his people. He's redeemed them. 

He's freed them, and yet they're not changed inside. Exodus 32 through 34, what's that passage about? If you think of those chapters, God, okay, let's review Exodus really quickly, right? That people are multiplying. Chapters 3 through 14, God liberates them. 

15 through 18, they go out of Egypt, right? Exodus, well, that's in 14 and 12 through 14 too. Then the covenant, 19 through 24. Then the law, we've seen that. 

The tabernacles, 25 through 31 and 32 through 40, right? You have the tabernacle twice. We'll see that in a minute. What's in the middle? The golden calf, right? So what's the significance of that passage? The ink on the covenant or the chiseling on the covenant is hardly dry.

Moses goes up on the mountain and Israel immediately violates the covenant, doesn't it? Moses comes down with the tablets, right, and breaks them. That's not a fit of temper. I heard preachers say Moses really lost his temper and he shouldn't have done that. 

No, no, that's not what's going on. Moses shatters the tablets because the covenant is broken. Israel, by making the golden calf, has violated the first commandment. 

Not only that, they violated it so quickly. So, you know, if you read Jewish literature, the rabbis, they talked about this a lot. The covenant, you know, the covenant is established and they immediately violate it. 

That's just quite remarkable. So what do we see from that? Now the covenant is renewed. The covenant is renewed. 

God is gracious, but Israel is not transformed eternally. So what's the problem with the old covenant? The problem is the people are not regenerated mainly. There's exceptions. 

Surely Moses was regenerated and Joshua and others. There's a remnant, but the nation as a whole, the nation as a whole doesn't know God. So the new covenant promises an end time and eschatological intervention. 

Remember what Paul said, the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. We need a different covenant. Galatians 3.17, Paul says, the law, that's the covenant we're talking about here, which came formed at 30 years afterward, after the covenant with Abraham, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God so as to make the promise void. 

So the covenant with Moses is an interim covenant. It's a temporary covenant. It's a covenant that wasn't meant to be in force forever. 

So this covenant is very important for biblical theology. And actually, if you think about it today, dispensationalism, covenant theology, progressive covenantalism, if you're familiar with those different systematic schemas, they all play off on how you understand the law and the covenant made with Israel. However, we must hurry on. 

We talked about the tabernacle, right? There's instructions, how to build it, chapters 25 through 31, and then the actual building, 35 through 40. What's the tabernacle about? Well, it's about God's presence with his people. Let's look at a verse, Exodus 25a, they are to make a sanctuary for me. 

When you have so many chapters, so many regulations, you want to find those verses that tell you what it's all about. Here's one, they're to make a sanctuary for me, so that I may dwell among them. What's the tabernacle about? It's about God's presence, isn't it? Exodus 40, 34, the cloud covered the tent of meeting, that's the tabernacle, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 

There is God's presence, God's presence with his people. That's what the tabernacle is about. That's what our lives are about, right? Our lives are to be, were to be the tabernacles, so to speak, place where God dwells by his spirit.

So the divine presence in the tabernacle echoes, Greg Beals says this, I mentioned him to you before, it echoes that lost glory of the garden of Eden. It's the restoration. We talked about some of these things before, the cherubim guard the entrance of Eden, now the cherubim atop the ark mark the place of God's special presence, guarding God's presence, so to speak.

God appeared to the patriarchs here and there in a sporadic way, but now God dwells with his people in the tabernacle in a more regular and permanent way. However, this is, however, the whole structure of the tabernacle emphasizes that God's presence cannot and must not be entered casually. This is very important, isn't it? It isn't like, hey God, how are you? Right? The different compartments you have to go through to enter God's presence show his infinite holiness and his otherness from us.

The Lord is accessible, but he's partially inaccessible because of human sin. In fact, into the holy of holies, only the high priest can go and only once a year. So, the very inner sanctum is not available to everyone and it's actually only available even to the priest, the high priest, only once a year. 

So, I already talked about the golden calf episode. Just a couple other things to notice about it. What's the problem with Israel? I like the Hebrew is literally they have a stiff neck. 

That's a great way of describing the stubbornness of the human heart, right? The neck won't turn. They're resistant to God. So, God threatens to destroy the people and start over with Moses. 

God knows what his plan is going to be, but I think God wants Moses and intends for Moses and ordained for Moses to appeal to God on the basis of the Abrahamic promise. So, Moses functions anticipating Christ as a meteor for Israel. God relents, but will not accompany them. 

He says to the land because they're so sinful, but Moses prays again and God promises to go with them and the covenant is renewed. So, since we're talking about the tabernacle, we're just going to pick up on it a little bit to go through the canon. The tabernacle turns into the temple. 

You all know that the tabernacle was a movable sanctuary, but the temple is in one place in Jerusalem. You all know there's no temple in Israel today. You know, some Jews today will call some of their synagogues temples, but they're not speaking technically. 

In Judaism, there can only be one temple and it has to be in Jerusalem. You know, if you know anything, it's where the Dome of the Rock is now. So, sometimes people talk about people blowing up that temple and starting over, but if that happened, there would definitely be World War III.

I mean, I'm not a prophet. The Jews are not going to do that. They have enough going on right now.

But the temple under Solomon, that one place has succeeded the tabernacle. However, when Israel went into exile in 586 BC, that temple was destroyed. By Babylon, it was burned to the ground. 

But then the hope of Israel, and we read about this, and Ezekiel is focused on a new temple in Ezekiel 40-48, which are very difficult and involved, detailed chapters. I agree with those who say when you read Ezekiel 40-48, that it was not the intention to actually build a literal temple, but that's very debated. So, we go to the New Testament. 

The temple is Jesus himself, John 2. Destroy this temple. Jesus says that in three days, I'll raise it. The disciples didn't know what he was talking about, but he says the temple is his body. 

So, the tabernacle and the temple and the Ezekielian temple all point to Jesus as the temple. Again, Greg Beals has written a whole book on this, The Temple and the Church's Mission. But this makes perfect sense, doesn't it? Because the temple, the tabernacle represents God's presence among us, but God's presence among his people is fundamentally through Jesus. 

So, you know this verse very well, John 1.14. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. But the word there in Greek is skenao. He tabernacled among us. 

He templed among us. So, there you see, again, this whole idea of Jesus being the temple. He's the tabernacle. 

He's the temple. He's where God dwells. Because the church, by faith, is united to Christ, the church can be described as the new temple. 

And we see that in 1 Corinthians 3, Ephesians 2, and 1 Peter 2. Yes, our bodies, 1 Corinthians 6.19, don't have this verse down here. Our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit. But actually, what the New Testament emphasizes is the church corporately is the new temple, the dwelling place of God.

So, when you're gathered together corporately as a church, we remember we're God's dwelling place, both the local churches and I think the universal church. So, like I said, I'm going way ahead here. We'll talk about this again. 

But the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21 and 22, Revelation chapter 21, verse 22, the New Jerusalem has no temple. God and the Lamb are the temple. So, that's very interesting. 

Because in Revelation 21 and 22, there are many allusions, echoes of Ezekiel 40-48. Remember, those are the chapters where Ezekiel describes the building of the temple. So, if you read Revelation 21 and 22 very carefully, you will see these allusions to Ezekiel 40-48. 

But Ezekiel 40-48 talks about the building of a temple. I take it from the way Revelation uses this temple theme, I take it that the fulfillment of the Ezekielian prophecy of a new temple is fulfilled in the new creation. But in the new creation, the whole world is God's temple. 

So, there's no literal temple. The temple is God and the Lamb. Here's another very interesting thing. 

I'll talk about this again at the end of the course. But the dimensions of the New Jerusalem are a cube, which is like the Holy of Holies. Let me read those verses.

The city is laid out as a square. Its length and width are the same. He measured the city. 

So, there it is. It's like a cube, right? He measured the city with a rod at 12,000 stadia. Its length, width, and height are equal. 

Here's the most holy place. The interior of the sanctuary was 30 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 30 feet high. So, it's very similar, right? The holy city is like a new temple. 

It's like the Holy of Holies. It's where God dwells. So, the theme of God's presence ties all together from Eden to the New Jerusalem. 

So, I went off to see what I did on that theme. If you think of biblical theology, I interpreted that temple theme intertextually and canonically, like Brevard Childs would do, right? We brought it all together and we see a typological fulfillment in the New Testament. When you have typology, you have a pattern or a correspondence.

But, when you get to the New Testament, you have escalation, right? It's not just a level pattern or correspondence. You have an escalation from the Old Testament to the New. The New Temple is better, right? We receive finally in Jesus and in the New Jerusalem. 

So, in the end, the whole universe is God's temple. Can I ask you a question? Yeah, absolutely. Back on the Garden of Eden, I think you used the word sanctuary. 

I hear some people refer to the Garden of Eden as a temple as well. Do you think that's right and would that be like the initiation of the temple theme that runs through the whole Bible? Yes, yes. I'm using sanctuary and temple as synonyms. 

Yeah, not a literal temple, but a sanctuary in the sense of God's presence is with his people in the Garden. So, Beal argues this in his book that what you see in the Garden of Eden anticipates finally what we see in the new creation. Yeah, so I think that's right. 

Okay. Sacrifices. So, what are the sacrifices? What are they for? How can God dwell in the midst of a simple people? Not without sacrifices, not without atonement. 

We see that in the Old Covenant. The New Covenant is also instituted with the blood, with the blood of Jesus. So, again, actually there's typology again. 

We're used to this typology, right? Animal sacrifices, but we have typological escalation. The blood of Jesus is better than the blood of animals and brings forgiveness. Why the meticulous detail on presenting the sacrifices? Leviticus 1 through 7, some people when they get to those chapters, right, it stops their Bible reading, right? It's very detailed and can be, you know, we're not offering those sacrifices today, like what do we do with that? Well, the point is we don't enter God's holy presence lightly.

Right? God specifies how we enter his presence. You know, if I can make a suggestion here, like how should we preach Leviticus today? I suggest something like this. Do it in big chunks.

Do Leviticus 1 through 7. You know, I mean, maybe it'll work for you, but typically you don't want to do 50 sermons on Leviticus. Do Leviticus 1 through 7 as one sermon. Give them the theology of sacrifices. 

Chapters 8 through 10 on the priesthood as a second sermon on the priesthood. Maybe do 11 through 15 on cleanliness as a third sermon. So, you know, you're far through the book.

Chapter 16 is the day of atonement. Do that as a fourth sermon. Then there's a lot of regulations in 17 through 27, a lot of more detailed laws. 

Maybe do three to five sermons on that. Your people will understand Leviticus better, but you haven't spent so long on it that they get lost in the details. And you want to point them as you preach on it to the fulfillment that there is in Christ. 

Well, that's just a suggestion. So the reason for sacrifices, Leviticus 17, 11 is a very important verse. For the life of the flesh is in the blood and I have given it, what's it? The blood, right? I've given the blood for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls.

For it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. So now what does this mean? I think it means, so there's really two different views. One is that blood is somehow has almost a mystical quality to it. 

But I think by blood, blood stands for death here. In the ancient world, in a way, it depends on where you live, right? But in many parts of the world today, we don't see people die in front of our eyes or even animals die in front of our eyes, but they saw many die, blood is shed, there's death. So with death, when blood is shed, there's death. 

And how is life gained? Life is gained through the shedding of blood, through sacrifice. In other words, life comes by death. And finally, of course, that points to the death of Christ. 

Gordon Wenham, actually there's, you don't need to know this, but there's a John Wenham was the father. He wrote a lot of good books, Christ and the Bible. That's a very good book still to read. 

If you can get a hold of that, I love that book. David Wenham, the son, is a New Testament scholar. And Gordon Wenham, who I'm quoting here, is an Old Testament scholar.

So this family has done a lot in biblical scholarship. Gordon Wenham, the Old Testament scholar, says about the sacrifices, they all presuppose that the animal victim is a substitute for the worshiper, makes atonement for him, and thereby restores him to favor with God. Then Wenham goes on to say what he, the worshiper, does to the animal, he does symbolically to himself. 

That is, puts himself to death, so to speak, right? The death of the animal portrays the death of himself. So the animal is a substitute of the worshiper. Its death makes atonement for the worshiper. 

Its immolation, it's burning up on the altars, quietens, we don't usually use that word, appeases, satisfies, makes quiet God's anger at human sin. So I think those are very important sentences on what are the sacrifices doing. They symbolize the death of the person. 

Sacrifices are substitutionary, and they satisfy God's wrath at sin. So the sacrifices have a representative and substitutionary function. And we see that especially the Day of Atonement. 

By the way, students, you should all know Leviticus 16. That's a key chapter in the Old Testament, because that's the chapter on the Day of Atonement. And especially the book of Hebrews picks up on this. 

So that's a key chapter once a year. We call it Yom Kippur, right? The Jews call it Yom Kippur, which means Day of Atonement. So the Jews still celebrate it to this day, but of course, the Jews today, they can't offer these sacrifices because there's no temple.

By the way, just parenthetically, after the temple was destroyed in AD 70, the Jews had to decide how they could be forgiven of their sins. And they decided, well, repentance is good enough without sacrifices. And you can read that in the various sources. 

I mean, they had to come up with something, right? But as a Christian, I can't help but think God removed any means, right, for sacrifice and atonement. The only sacrifice and atonement that is available is Jesus. And then they said, so the Jews say, well, we can't, there is no atonement anymore. 

I guess repentance will do, but of course, Scripture doesn't ever say that, does it? We need atonement to be forgiven. We read many places in the Old Testament, the mechanically offering sacrifices does not forgive sins. So, you know, you could think, so I was raised as a Catholic.

When I was a Catholic, when I was young, I'd go to confession, I'd go to church, but I always did it mechanically. I never thought of what I was doing. It was rather superstitious for me as I went through the rituals. 

Well, that's the danger with the sacrifices as well, isn't it? And you know, it can happen to Protestants as well, in different ways. Somebody might say, well, I went forward once, but just mechanically moving your body forward doesn't mean you're saved, right? So there's a warning. Don't just think offering these sacrifices, but your heart's not in it. 

There's a lot of verses that say this. Don't think that'll save you. In fact, in Isaiah, God says, I hate your sacrifices because your heart's not in it.

So even the Old Testament points to the recognition that animal sacrifices point beyond themselves. Hebrews points out that the sacrifices of animals can't finally cleanse us. I mean, I think that makes sense. 

Animals don't even know what's being done to them, right? They have no consciousness of what's going on. I mean, maybe they have some recognition they're being put to death, but they don't know why. And they're not willing sacrifices, are they? Christ is a human being and his sacrifice is voluntary, isn't it? And chosen. 

And furthermore, Hebrews points out the animal sacrifices are repeated over and over and over again. That repetition of the sacrifices points to their ineffectiveness because Hebrews says that they were effective. They wouldn't need to be repeated. 

Christ offered one definitive, final sacrifice for sin. Animals are not able to take away the sin of a human. And we think ahead to Isaiah 53, where we have that great chapter on atonement coming through the servant of the Lord. 

So, you know, we've been talking here about the Old Covenant, right? Just to kind of review and summarize what have we seen, right? We've seen God fulfilling His covenant promise that people are multiplying numbers, right? So that's very significant. They're liberated from Egypt. They're about to be headed to the land. 

That's the second element. The promise, God enacts a covenant with them. He gives them His law. 

His deliverance of them is a grace. The law is a good gift, but most of Israel is not redeemed. However, God does give sacrifices to His people for forgiveness of sin. 

And the tabernacle is established so He can dwell among His people. And so, yeah, we're only through the book of Exodus. But we're going to start going a lot faster. 

But that's where we are in the story so far.