Dedicated to Him
Scripture Reading: Exodus 19:9-17 & 20:18-21
9 And the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I come to you in the thick cloud, that
the people may hear when I speak with you, and believe you forever.”
So Moses told the words of the people to the LORD.
10 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them
today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes. 11 And let them be
ready for the third day. For on the third day the LORD will come down upon
Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. 12 You shall set bounds for the
people all around, saying, ‘Take heed to yourselves that you do not go up to
the mountain or touch its base. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely
be put to death. 13 Not a hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned
or shot with an arrow; whether man or beast, he shall not live.’ When the
trumpet sounds long, they shall come near the mountain.”
14 So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and sanctified the
people, and they washed their clothes. 15 And he said to the people, “Be
ready for the third day; do not come near your wives.”
16 Then it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were
thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain; and the sound
of the trumpet was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp
trembled. 17 And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with
God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.
18 Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the
sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw
it, they trembled and stood afar off. 19 Then they said to Moses, “You speak
with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.”
20 And Moses said to the people, “Do not fear; for God has come to test you,
and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin.” 21 So the
people stood afar off, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God
was.
God wants to come amongst His people so He tells Moses to consecrate them.
Consecrate means to dedicate, to sanctify, to set apart. What I find interesting is that
He tells them to wash their clothes. They must be diligent to be prepared to be in His
presence. And though they may be physically clean and set apart, they still cannot
even touch the mountain that He is on. As we look at this we must recognize that we
must also be dedicated, set apart to YHWH. We too must wash our clothes in the
blood of the Lamb to be able to stand in His presence. When the people there saw
and heard the lightening and thunder and felt the presence of God, they stood afar
off, while Moses drew near. Moses wasn’t any more perfect than the others. He had
murdered a man. He had hit the rock twice. He was flawed like the rest of us. So,
what made him different? He had a desire to be in God’s presence and trusted Him
even though he knew that he himself was not worthy. When God called him from the
burning bush, it was a scary sight but he went. We must also be like Moses and draw
near to God, not like the religious people, who are quite satisfied being near someone
who has been near to God. In this passage, God sanctifies His people. Do you know
what was the first thing God sanctified?
Genesis 2:1-3
1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. 2
And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He
rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God
blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His
work which God had created and made.
The very first thing God did after creation was to sanctify the seventh day. Was the
seventh day in and of itself somehow special? No, it was God Himself who set it apart.
The act of setting apart is not what makes something special. It is that thing’s fulfilled
purpose that makes it special. Let us say you have a pair of bowls, one is brown the
other beige. But for their color they are exactly alike, neither is better than the other.
The beige one you decide to use for your dog’s dish while the brown one you use for
your child’s food. From that point forward you are going to treat those two bowls
differently. One you will put on the floor while the other you place high on a shelf or
up on the table. One you will careful wash everyday while to other you might only
rinse out once a week. Yet both will have a purpose in the household. We spoke last
week about find our purpose and this goes hand in hand with that.
Esther 4:13-14
13 And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: “Do not think in your heart that
you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews. 14 For if
you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for
the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet
who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
Esther was not set apart simply because she was a Jewess. She was not set apart
because she was beautiful or because she was the queen. Though she was all of
those things, and those things served a purpose, she was sanctified for such a time as
this. She was put in her place of honor so she would be able to help save the lives of
her people. We each have our purpose to fulfill. We are sanctified and set apart for
whatever that purpose might be. As we have been going through this Feast of
Dedication I have been really contemplating what that means. Just as Temple in
Jerusalem had been defiled by the army of Antiochus, so our temples, our bodies,
have been defiled by our sin.
Joshua 7:10-13
10 So the LORD said to Joshua: “Get up! Why do you lie thus on your face? 11
Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I
commanded them. For they have even taken some of the accursed things,
and have both stolen and deceived; and they have also put it among their
own stuff. 12 Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their
enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they have
become doomed to destruction. Neither will I be with you anymore, unless
you destroy the accursed from among you. 13 Get up, sanctify the people,
and say, ‘Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, because thus says the LORD God
of Israel: “There is an accursed thing in your midst, O Israel; you cannot stand
before your enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you.”
Just as the Temple in Jerusalem had been defiled, so the people of Israel had been
defiled because this cursed thing had been brought into their midst. They would not
be able to stand before their enemies or before God until that defilement was taken
away and they were sanctified. Hadn’t they been sanctified before? That’s why I
thought it was interesting that God told them to wash their clothes. It’s really an
excellent analogy for the sanctification process. We don’t look at a basket full of dirty
clothes and say, “Well, I washed them last week so they’re okay.” No, each time we
wear them we deposit more of our sweat and dirt in them. As we live and wear these
bodies of flesh it’s the same way. Just as we wouldn’t wear the same unwashed
clothes day after day after day and think we are presentable. Why would we think we
should present ourselves before God without washing our garment each day?
Whether it’s someone wearing clothes that have not been washed after being worn for
one whole day, or it’s a homeless person wearing clothes that have not been washed
after being worn for one month, the bottom line is that both are wearing dirty clothes.
Though man would make a distinct between the two, God does not.
2 Chronicles 30:6-9
6 Then the runners went throughout all Israel and Judah with the letters from
the king and his leaders, and spoke according to the command of the king:
“Children of Israel, return to the LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel;
then He will return to the remnant of you who have escaped from the hand of
the kings of Assyria. 7 And do not be like your fathers and your brethren, who
trespassed against the LORD God of their fathers, so that He gave them up to
desolation, as you see. 8 Now do not be stiff-necked, as your fathers were,
but yield yourselves to the LORD; and enter His sanctuary, which He has
sanctified forever, and serve the LORD your God, that the fierceness of His
wrath may turn away from you. 9 For if you return to the LORD, your brethren
and your children will be treated with compassion by those who lead them
captive, so that they may come back to this land; for the LORD your God is
gracious and merciful, and will not turn His face from you if you return to Him.”
This happens during the reign of Hezekiah. His fathers had turned away from YHWH
so much so that the doors of the Temple were closed and it was filled with rubbish,
scripture tells us. But Hezekiah came into the throne and immediately had a desire to
seek after the God of his fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. He did not want to be
stiff-necked like those who had come before Him but wanted to yield himself to God
and enter into His sanctuary. This is as we all were when we realized that we were
sinners in need of His salvation. This next passage I really think speaks to some of
the details within the Feast of Dedication that we are now celebrating. As I was
reading it as I was preparing my lesson, I was pretty amazed.
2 Chronicles 29:15-17
15 And they gathered their brethren, sanctified themselves, and went
according to the commandment of the king, at the words of the LORD, to
cleanse the house of the LORD. 16 Then the priests went into the inner part
of the house of the LORD to cleanse it, and brought out all the debris that
they found in the temple of the LORD to the court of the house of the LORD.
And the Levites took it out and carried it to the Brook Kidron.
17 Now they began to sanctify on the first day of the first month, and on the
eighth day of the month they came to the vestibule of the LORD. So they
sanctified the house of the LORD in eight days, and on the sixteenth day of
the first month they finished.
It took them eight days to clean all the debris from the temple and another eight days
to sanctify it. Eight days just like the eight days of Chanukah. Just like the eight days
of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Just like the eight days of the Feast of
Tabernacles. Eight being the number of renewal in Hebrew, these eight-day festivals
carry with them so much symbolism. It’s like God’s wash cycle for His people. They
are times when we get together and take heed of the fact that we do need to be
sanctified…again.
John 17:15-17
15 I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You
should keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am
not of the world. 17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.
Yeshua prayed for His disciples that they would be sanctified by the word of truth.
Ephesians 5:25-27
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave
Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of
water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and
without blemish.
Freshly cleaned and pressed.
Psalm 20:4 - May He grant you according to your heart’s desire,
And fulfill all your purpose.
Leviticus 22:1-2
1 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to Aaron and his sons,
that they separate themselves from the holy things of the children of Israel,
and that they do not profane My holy name by what they dedicate to Me: I am
the LORD.
Sermon by: Denise Baxley
Date: December 28, 2008
Scripture Reading: Exodus 19:9-17 & 20:18-21
9 And the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I come to you in the thick cloud, that
the people may hear when I speak with you, and believe you forever.”
So Moses told the words of the people to the LORD.
10 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them
today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes. 11 And let them be
ready for the third day. For on the third day the LORD will come down upon
Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. 12 You shall set bounds for the
people all around, saying, ‘Take heed to yourselves that you do not go up to
the mountain or touch its base. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely
be put to death. 13 Not a hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned
or shot with an arrow; whether man or beast, he shall not live.’ When the
trumpet sounds long, they shall come near the mountain.”
14 So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and sanctified the
people, and they washed their clothes. 15 And he said to the people, “Be
ready for the third day; do not come near your wives.”
16 Then it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were
thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain; and the sound
of the trumpet was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp
trembled. 17 And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with
God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.
18 Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the
sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw
it, they trembled and stood afar off. 19 Then they said to Moses, “You speak
with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.”
20 And Moses said to the people, “Do not fear; for God has come to test you,
and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin.” 21 So the
people stood afar off, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God
was.
God wants to come amongst His people so He tells Moses to consecrate them.
Consecrate means to dedicate, to sanctify, to set apart. What I find interesting is that
He tells them to wash their clothes. They must be diligent to be prepared to be in His
presence. And though they may be physically clean and set apart, they still cannot
even touch the mountain that He is on. As we look at this we must recognize that we
must also be dedicated, set apart to YHWH. We too must wash our clothes in the
blood of the Lamb to be able to stand in His presence. When the people there saw
and heard the lightening and thunder and felt the presence of God, they stood afar
off, while Moses drew near. Moses wasn’t any more perfect than the others. He had
murdered a man. He had hit the rock twice. He was flawed like the rest of us. So,
what made him different? He had a desire to be in God’s presence and trusted Him
even though he knew that he himself was not worthy. When God called him from the
burning bush, it was a scary sight but he went. We must also be like Moses and draw
near to God, not like the religious people, who are quite satisfied being near someone
who has been near to God. In this passage, God sanctifies His people. Do you know
what was the first thing God sanctified?
Genesis 2:1-3
1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. 2
And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He
rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God
blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His
work which God had created and made.
The very first thing God did after creation was to sanctify the seventh day. Was the
seventh day in and of itself somehow special? No, it was God Himself who set it apart.
The act of setting apart is not what makes something special. It is that thing’s fulfilled
purpose that makes it special. Let us say you have a pair of bowls, one is brown the
other beige. But for their color they are exactly alike, neither is better than the other.
The beige one you decide to use for your dog’s dish while the brown one you use for
your child’s food. From that point forward you are going to treat those two bowls
differently. One you will put on the floor while the other you place high on a shelf or
up on the table. One you will careful wash everyday while to other you might only
rinse out once a week. Yet both will have a purpose in the household. We spoke last
week about find our purpose and this goes hand in hand with that.
Esther 4:13-14
13 And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: “Do not think in your heart that
you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews. 14 For if
you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for
the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet
who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
Esther was not set apart simply because she was a Jewess. She was not set apart
because she was beautiful or because she was the queen. Though she was all of
those things, and those things served a purpose, she was sanctified for such a time as
this. She was put in her place of honor so she would be able to help save the lives of
her people. We each have our purpose to fulfill. We are sanctified and set apart for
whatever that purpose might be. As we have been going through this Feast of
Dedication I have been really contemplating what that means. Just as Temple in
Jerusalem had been defiled by the army of Antiochus, so our temples, our bodies,
have been defiled by our sin.
Joshua 7:10-13
10 So the LORD said to Joshua: “Get up! Why do you lie thus on your face? 11
Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I
commanded them. For they have even taken some of the accursed things,
and have both stolen and deceived; and they have also put it among their
own stuff. 12 Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their
enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they have
become doomed to destruction. Neither will I be with you anymore, unless
you destroy the accursed from among you. 13 Get up, sanctify the people,
and say, ‘Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, because thus says the LORD God
of Israel: “There is an accursed thing in your midst, O Israel; you cannot stand
before your enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you.”
Just as the Temple in Jerusalem had been defiled, so the people of Israel had been
defiled because this cursed thing had been brought into their midst. They would not
be able to stand before their enemies or before God until that defilement was taken
away and they were sanctified. Hadn’t they been sanctified before? That’s why I
thought it was interesting that God told them to wash their clothes. It’s really an
excellent analogy for the sanctification process. We don’t look at a basket full of dirty
clothes and say, “Well, I washed them last week so they’re okay.” No, each time we
wear them we deposit more of our sweat and dirt in them. As we live and wear these
bodies of flesh it’s the same way. Just as we wouldn’t wear the same unwashed
clothes day after day after day and think we are presentable. Why would we think we
should present ourselves before God without washing our garment each day?
Whether it’s someone wearing clothes that have not been washed after being worn for
one whole day, or it’s a homeless person wearing clothes that have not been washed
after being worn for one month, the bottom line is that both are wearing dirty clothes.
Though man would make a distinct between the two, God does not.
2 Chronicles 30:6-9
6 Then the runners went throughout all Israel and Judah with the letters from
the king and his leaders, and spoke according to the command of the king:
“Children of Israel, return to the LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel;
then He will return to the remnant of you who have escaped from the hand of
the kings of Assyria. 7 And do not be like your fathers and your brethren, who
trespassed against the LORD God of their fathers, so that He gave them up to
desolation, as you see. 8 Now do not be stiff-necked, as your fathers were,
but yield yourselves to the LORD; and enter His sanctuary, which He has
sanctified forever, and serve the LORD your God, that the fierceness of His
wrath may turn away from you. 9 For if you return to the LORD, your brethren
and your children will be treated with compassion by those who lead them
captive, so that they may come back to this land; for the LORD your God is
gracious and merciful, and will not turn His face from you if you return to Him.”
This happens during the reign of Hezekiah. His fathers had turned away from YHWH
so much so that the doors of the Temple were closed and it was filled with rubbish,
scripture tells us. But Hezekiah came into the throne and immediately had a desire to
seek after the God of his fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. He did not want to be
stiff-necked like those who had come before Him but wanted to yield himself to God
and enter into His sanctuary. This is as we all were when we realized that we were
sinners in need of His salvation. This next passage I really think speaks to some of
the details within the Feast of Dedication that we are now celebrating. As I was
reading it as I was preparing my lesson, I was pretty amazed.
2 Chronicles 29:15-17
15 And they gathered their brethren, sanctified themselves, and went
according to the commandment of the king, at the words of the LORD, to
cleanse the house of the LORD. 16 Then the priests went into the inner part
of the house of the LORD to cleanse it, and brought out all the debris that
they found in the temple of the LORD to the court of the house of the LORD.
And the Levites took it out and carried it to the Brook Kidron.
17 Now they began to sanctify on the first day of the first month, and on the
eighth day of the month they came to the vestibule of the LORD. So they
sanctified the house of the LORD in eight days, and on the sixteenth day of
the first month they finished.
It took them eight days to clean all the debris from the temple and another eight days
to sanctify it. Eight days just like the eight days of Chanukah. Just like the eight days
of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Just like the eight days of the Feast of
Tabernacles. Eight being the number of renewal in Hebrew, these eight-day festivals
carry with them so much symbolism. It’s like God’s wash cycle for His people. They
are times when we get together and take heed of the fact that we do need to be
sanctified…again.
John 17:15-17
15 I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You
should keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am
not of the world. 17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.
Yeshua prayed for His disciples that they would be sanctified by the word of truth.
Ephesians 5:25-27
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave
Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of
water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and
without blemish.
Freshly cleaned and pressed.
Psalm 20:4 - May He grant you according to your heart’s desire,
And fulfill all your purpose.
Leviticus 22:1-2
1 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to Aaron and his sons,
that they separate themselves from the holy things of the children of Israel,
and that they do not profane My holy name by what they dedicate to Me: I am
the LORD.
Sermon by: Denise Baxley
Date: December 28, 2008