Reading: God’s Covenant with Moses
Francis - I love the picture in, in this session where Moses is at the foot of this mountain. And as he's about to approach God, God just explained, look to, you don't just come into my presence and keep the people away. Like there's just a sense of, I'm approaching someone who is holy and their word holy and make sure they understand that means set apart, it means distinct, it means he's, he's beyond us. He's not like us, a lot of times, we have this picture of God, and we treat him like calm and like, God, let me tell you what, you know, it's like, talking to God isn't like talking to you. We're talking about a different being. And so it's a good time to get into that with your diciple.
David - That's so key, because there's this tendency, and it's even based on scripture, in some ways, like, we're friends of God. And so, but that doesn't mean we talk with God, like we do our friends. Yeah. And so even as you're praying with the people, you're discipling, and talking about God, like, permeate and teach them model for them. What it means to just not lose sight of the holiness of God was to not get into a routine where prayer even becomes casual and rote, and okay, oh, dear God, this is no, like really satisfying things I really appreciate about you that you've even helped me. And just, when we when we pray together, it's a we're talking to the Holy God universe, who years ago, people stayed far away from that God is by His grace and made a way for us to come to him. But that doesn't diminish us.
Francis - I mean, he wants us to come with confidence in Hebrews tells us that throne with confidence, that doesn't mean arrogance, and we're approaching the most holy place, it says, you know, you're still going into that Holy of Holies. So it isn't just as casual I mean, I cringe when people, Hey, big guy. You know, and I mean, I understand friendship, relationships, intimate, it's beautiful. That's what we're created for. But that doesn't, that's not separate from reverence, and holiness and going, Okay. I'm proud of our Father who art in heaven, hallowed holy be your name. That's how Jesus taught us.
David - That's good. You know, the other key thing in this lesson is tying this picture of priesthood in the Old Testament with disciple making. And so the priests responsibility was to represent the kind of need to go between, in a sense between a holy God and sinful people. And so he would, he would represent sinful people before a holy God, and then, in a sense, represent that Holy God before sinful people. And there's, there's a picture there that's really rich, that I would encourage you to help think through with the person or people you're dicipling for him to think through, all right, like we're a kingdom of priests. So on one level, we have access to God. So that's amazing in and of itself. But then we are His representatives, in the world around us. And God has commissioned us to show what his life looks like in action. Again, we're not
gonna be perfect in that, but we are His ambassadors in a sinful world. And at the same time, just like Moses, we see him in different places, standing in the gap on behalf of the Israelites, we're standing in the gap for people who don't
know Christ, we're praying, God, reveal your grace and Your glory to them, draw them yourself, okay, that leads us to go and tell them about about Christ and what he's done and are pleading for their salvation. There's a there's a powerful picture there.
Francis - Because Moses had that interaction with God. And he understood what God wanted in his commands. And then he brought it to the people. And so you've got to get your disciple to understand okay, you see that your your your that priest now, like you are starting to understand the commands of God. So your job now is to go to the people as the priest. The people in your life who don't know God yet don't know his law don't and have a relationship with Him. Moses comes down from the mountain because I spoke to God, as we says, We got to do I've got a relationship with God and you know, the New Testament, you know, John this would make my joy complete as you can have fellowship with us too. It's that good, that attitude in their mind. So it's like, Okay, now that I've been teaching you, you've got to do that with your friends. You got to pass on this relationship. You've got to stand in that gap. And this is why you're making disciples