Covenantal Glory

A while back, I preached to the congregation at First Baptist Church Hot Springs. Regardless of the outcome of the sermon, I knew that there were at least going to be a handful of congratulatory and thankful messages from those who attended. Thankfully, there were, and the warm community the people of FBC Hot Springs gave me on a cold, Monday morning was second to none.

I thought it would nice to present the manuscript of that sermon. So, read it and weep. As a precursor, it would be good to either have Exodus 24 handy, or read it ahead of time. 

On a cold, autumn night at War Memorial Stadium, a young quarterback was on the cusp of completing an outstanding season. With his teammates lined up, his coaches looking on, and the crowd in a frenzy, the young quarterback knew that this moment would forever live on in his mind. His team’s name would reside in the school’s record books. The trophy would sit nicely in the trophy case. It was only one drive left until glory. 

You all might be wondering where you were on that cold evening, who was next to you, either in the stands or on the couch. I can tell you that none of you were in attendance. The team was not the Arkansas Razorbacks. The quarterback was not Matt Jones, or Clint Stoerner, or Ryan Mallett. The prize was not the golden boot. The team was the Arkansas Baptist Elementary Football Eagles. The prize was the private school league championship, and the quarterback was me, yet you all know the feeling or have witnessed the moments where people have fought for the end goal that takes shape in trophies, special jackets, or bronze busts of our heads—glory.  

Glory has been tethered into the inner works and fabric of the human mind. Regardless of your upbringing or context, glory is the end goal. We all know glory. We all strive for glory. 

But what we long for is personal glory, what we can attain for ourselves and ourselves only. We reach for personal honor and achievement because of things we have done, and at the podium we say, “To God be the Glory.” And yet, every time we receive the glory and honor, we long for, it does not last, and the glory shifts to the next thing, one area of our lives to the next as if we’re checking boxes. 

It leaves us doing and doing and doing, pushing for more glory that never satisfies our heart, and like my sixth-grade championship, never lasts longer than fifteen minutes. Our glory has been tainted with pride, greed, and self-absorption. Our hearts are full of longing for fame, false glory, while our great and mighty God is full of honor, splendor, and goodness, true glory.

The Bible’s concept of glory is vastly different from the glory our culture offers. The biblical story begins in glory, as God creates a beautiful world that was previously dark and void. Man falls from glory after Adam sinned in the garden. Moses pleas with the Lord to show him his glory in Exodus 33. David writes of our Heavenly Father in Psalm 24, “Who is he, this King of glory? The Lord of Armies, he is the King of glory.” 

God reveals himself in his call to his prophet Isaiah who considers himself unworthy of such glory. God’s word is full of examples of true glory. This morning in Exodus 24, we are invited into a meeting that reveals attributes of God’s glory. 

At this point in the Exodus narrative, Moses has led Israel through the Red Sea and fled Egypt. The land of Pharaoh is behind them, and the Land of Promise is before them. They have sung the Song of Moses, manna and quail have come down from the sky, water has flowed from the rock, and Moses has been given the Ten Commandments. The Lord taking the form of a pillar of cloud in the day and fire at night has steered Israel toward Sinai on their path to promise, but there was still much left to do.

In the beginning verses of chapter 24, Moses, as Israel’s mediator, walks the elders as Israel’s representatives through the terms of covenant ceremony, transforming Israel into the covenant people of God. Moses explains the covenant proceedings and laws to which Israel agrees. After the covenant ceremony, Moses is invited alone to the glory filled mountaintop to receive the law. Covenant and glory are the main themes of the passage, and this morning, there are three central points about God’s glory through the covenant process on Mt. Sinai. 

The relational glory of God drives his people to worship. 

When I say relational glory, I consider the glory that we build our relationship upon. In any covenant, two parties are brought together as one, in union, built upon a promise. Marriage is a covenant. Church membership is a covenant. Some business contracts can be deemed temporary covenants. When God promised to his people, “I will be your God, and you will be my people,” throughout the Old Testament this did not mean that Israel was an advertisement or the customer service line for God. No, this promise built relationship between God and Israel. 

The presence of God at Mt. Sinai represented at the altar in verses 4 at the confirmation of the covenant bound the two parties, God and Israel, together through the blood of the sacrifice shed in verse 5 on their behalf. The blood poured in basins in verse 6 and thrown on the people in verse 8 bound God and Israel together in both life and death. Israel’s ancient attitude toward blood had a connected meaning of life, not death. Blood brought the covenant to life, bringing Israel to worship and celebration. God came together with Israel, establishing a permanent union and relationship through the blood of the covenant just as we are unified with the blood of Christ at the cross. 

He bore our pain, suffered our weakness, trialed through turmoil on our behalf so that we would be reconciled to God and achieve union. The blood of Jesus, the final and saving sacrifice gives us life. Every spiritual blessing Christ attained; the Church would receive as well. We are unified with the relational glory through the saving covenant.

On Sinai, the covenant establishment was the new beginning of the promise God gave to Abraham in Genesis 12. The ceremony was a solemn moment to unite the two covenant parties, but it was a worship moment, a worship experience. Throughout the bible, the providence of God in ceremonies, festivals, feasts, building of tabernacles and temples, were not times for the people of God to exalt themselves placing them on the throne. In the same way, our gatherings as the church of God on Sunday mornings are not times to showcase ourselves, prove our worthiness. 

No, the people of God are undeserving of every spiritual blessing bestowed upon them. The church does not deserve the mercies of Christ, yet we still receive them. The undeserving reality between God and man that our LORD willingly breaks to establish covenant relationship should drive our hearts to worship like Israel did. Israel did this through agreeing to the covenant terms, participation in the covenant, and obeying all that God required, which follows them for their entire lives. Even when we fall, as Israel did and we do, all this should drive us to worship the king.  

The sovereign glory of God requires our absolute allegiance. 

The glory of God rules over every aspect of our lives. His supreme presence, knowledge, and power reigns over all creation. This point comes from a deeper dive into the covenant process, specifically on verses three and seven where the Israelites declared to Moses, “We will do everything that the Lord has commanded,” and “We will do and obey all that the Lord has commanded.” 

Why is this important? This is important because one, this is the only acceptable response within a covenant. Short cuts and half-hearted effort are not allowed. As Moses read what commentators believe to be the Ten Commandments and the Book of the Covenant, the text of chapters 20 through 23, any point of refusal would violate and void the entire covenant. 

Secondly, their acceptance binds them to God forever. The construct of the covenant agreement followed Israel generation after generation. When we follow Christ, we make this same pledge of allegiance as members of his covenant bride, the church. We cannot and will not claim to follow Christ after a walk of the aisle or a summer camp decision. Allegiance follows the people of God for our entire lives.

Growing up in Christian school, I went to chapel once a week, and in elementary school specifically, we had three pledges at the beginning of every chapel service, one to the American Flag, the Christian Flag, and then the Bible. No disrespect to the pledges to the American Flag and the Bible, but the pledge to the Christian Flag was my favorite because we would sing “Onward Christian Soldiers” after the pledge. 

We would stomp our feet to the beat of the song as if we were on the battlefield marching to the beat of our King Jesus. We would rise to our feet, place our hands in front of our hearts, and recite the pledges. Week after week, year after year, the little kindergarteners grew to big, strong sixth graders who would later on win Private School League Football Championships. 

We said our pledges with some people not paying the slightest bit attention, and others like myself shouting the pledges as loud as possible. Growing up, the only thing that came to my mind when I heard the word allegiance were those pledges.

If Christ is our king, and we are subjects of his kingdom, we must live lives of allegiance, not because good works unlock the gates of heaven, but because true life in Christ, a life walking in the spirit would produce a life of allegiance. We must march to the beat of Christ’s drum. We must do and obey “everything that has been commanded” This means that everything we do, like Paul writes in Colossians, whether word or deed, everything is done for our King. 

When we declare that Christ is our Lord, we declare allegiance, and if we live “do as I say and not as I do,” we are fools, not disciples.  We disregard our inheritance. We deny God’s Lordship. We, like the prodigal, go our own way, trust the path of destruction instead the Father of enduring grace, mercy, and love. As we have seen time and time again in scripture in the lives of God’s people is the inability to come through in lifelong worship and allegiance in our own strength, which leads us to our final point.

The merciful glory of God ushers in total transformation. 

Just as the Israelites were not worthy of God’s relational presence and glory, the very surface of Sinai was not worthy of his presence and glory. So, what happened? God transformed it. Verse 10 it says that the very pavement they walked on was made like something of lapis lazuli, clear as the sky itself. I don’t know if any of you have dealt with lapis lazuli, but it is absolutely breath-taking. I didn’t bring a picture with me but all you have to do is search lapis lazuli and there will be a $13,000 coffee table and you will be hooked. This metaphor about the sky highlights the absolute transformation from dust to beauty. God wants nothing but perfection because that is what his glory deserves. 

God wants perfection. God wants allegiance. God wants worship. As Israel so rightly shows in the event that follows, they cannot deliver! In the same way, we do not and cannot worship in our own strength. We are not and cannot become allegiant in our own intellectual assent. We are incapable. We are unwilling to produce what God requires of us. In verse 11, the elders of Israel see the glory of God, they see the glory of God. 

Our Lord had every right to strike them down dead at that moment, but God showed mercy. It says that he did not harm them. God shows mercy to incapable people, people unworthy of approaching the throne. God did not need to show mercy on them. God did not need to make covenant with Israel. God did not need to make a promise Abraham. God continually has showed mercy to his people that they did not deserve. It is this mercy that brings total transformation.

In Romans 12 Paul writes that we are transformed by the renewal of our minds, not conforming to the world. As we grow in grace orchestrated by the mercies of God that are new morning by morning, our souls are rejuvenated, and our minds are transfixed. But the merciful glory does not just show us how we are transformed but also who we are transforming into. 

At the beginning of this post, I gave several examples of God’s glory, but you may have noticed that I left some out. There are some important passages that did not receive their proper recognition, especially considering the certain kind of trees that are behind me (I said this with a slight arm motion to the plethora of Christmas trees that were behind me). 

We have seen that God’s glory showed mercy by refraining to place his hand on the elders to destroy them, but we see with the coming of Christ by the mercy of God that glory came down in the form of a baby. Moses asked to see the fullness of glory and God said no because he would die. But Christ came to us, the fulness of God in the flesh of man so that we might live. It was by this life; the glory of God came to us to which we celebrate during this advent season. Christ left glory to live, die, and rise again so that we may join him in glory. 

This, brothers and sisters, is our transformation. Paul tells the Church of Rome that we as God’s chosen people conform into the image of Jesus Christ, we change into the image of his son, we transform. We transform, not into better versions of ourselves, not into somewhat good versions of what we’re supposed to be. No, we are transformed into the image of Christ. It is on Christ we become worshipers of the King. It is by Christ we live lives of allegiance. It is on Christ we go through transformation. It is Christ who is our life, our rock, our redeemer, our savior, our man on the cross, our risen lamb, our baby in the manger, our King of relational, sovereign, and merciful glory. Glory, glory, hallelujah.