Sermon Notes: Exodus 6:14-27 – A Genealogy profitable for training in righteousness and every good work

Exodus 6:14-27 A genealogy profitable for training in righteousness and every good work

2 Timothy 3:16-17 (ESV) 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Today, we have the most dreaded of verses in the Bible. A genealogy.

Genealogies are important. David Jones at SEBTS identifies five reasons why they are important. I adapted #2, #3, and #4 with my own addition marked by a *.

Genealogies show God is working in history.
Genealogies show God works through imperfect people for his glory *in positive and negative examples that show us how to act and how not to act.
Genealogies show God’s grace *because he powerfully works through imperfect people for his glory and their joy or necessary judgment.
Genealogies show God cares about families *and works in and through families.
Genealogies show that God fulfills his promises.

Typically a genealogy is at the beginning of a work, and there is a genealogical list of Jacob’s sons in Exodus 1:1-5.

Remember: Moses is writing this on the cusp of them entering the promised land, and his writing is looking back at the work of the Lord FOR the people to remember the covenant the Lord has made with them. Moses is writing so they know how to walk in the blessing of the Lord (See Deuteronomy 28:1-14), and it also serves to show them how not to live in a way that invites the curses of the covenant to be poured out on them (See Deuteronomy 28:15-68).

This genealogy has a very specific intent. It gives us the three oldest boys of Jacob: Reuben, Simeon, and Levi. It stops at Levi and then focuses on Levi. Then it focuses on Aaron as the great-grandson of Levi. Then Moses focuses on Aaron’s descendants. Moses even mentions Aaron first in verse 26.

Of course, Moses mentions himself, but he’s already been introduced in the account.

Right before the Lord brings the first plague, Moses introduces us to key people whose examples will do just what Paul said they would do. They serve to correct behavior contrary to the covenant as well as instruct in behavior that lines up with the covenant and brings the Lord’s blessing.

I would argue this genealogy prepares them and us to hear Moses’ words from Deuteronomy 30:11-15.

Deuteronomy 30:11-15 (ESV) 11 “For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. 12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 14 But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it. 15 “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil.

So, Moses sets before them examples of life and good as well as death and evil so they know how to act. Aaron’s descendant’s lives are profitable to teach us today.

Let’s read Exodus 6:14-27 together.

What training in righteousness and equipping can we learn from Aaron’s descendants?

The Lord has worked and is working in history and the Bible’s record of the Lord’s work in history is true and reliable.

Genealogies scream historical reality.
1. Moses leaves no doubt about the historical nature of his writing by leaving witness to his and Aaron’s work for the Lord in history. V. 26-27.
2. Genealogies are how people and nations locate evidence of their existence.
  1. Often, in the missions world, you’ll hear stories of how tribes will be exposed to the Bible’s genealogies and then understand the story is no “myth”, but rather history, and will believe the gospel.
3. The Bible asserts that it is true history intended to record for posterity and convince readers that YHWH, revealed in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit is the unique and holy God of all and that he chose a people to represent him to the nations in order to save people from all nations that He would be glorified and sin abolished forever.
One criticism people hurl at the Bible is that it is just mythological fiction and not history.
1. The Bible’s authors assert that they are writing a historical account about a God who is personal and relational and loves and that their account is history.
  1. What is amazing to me is that people will criticize the Bible and never turn a critical eye to other historical narratives about events in history like they aren’t written by the biased winners of conflict whether good or evil.
  2. I would argue such biased criticism is active unbelief and rebellion against God that is fueled by the teaching ministry of the forces of evil in the heavenly places.
    1. The Bible’s inspired authors are brutally honest about their failures.
      1. It’s not a PR piece to lift up the people who are presented inside of it.
      2. It is presented as the words of the God revealed inside, and intended to present him so hearers of his word can be saved.
2. Here are a few encouragements about your Bible that I’ll share more about in December’s “First Sunday” regarding the historical nature of the Bible, and ultimately, its reliability.
  1. Transmission of the text.
    1. Your Bible has been written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and accurately copied hundreds and in some cases thousands of times over short periods.
      1. “Even though the two copies of Isaiah discovered in Qumran cave 1 near the Dead Sea in 1947 were a thousand years earlier than the oldest manuscript previously known (AD 980), they proved to be word for word identical with our standard Hebrew Bible in more than 95% of the text. The 5% of variation consisted chiefly of obvious slips of the pen and variations in spelling.” – Archer Gleason, A Survey of Old Testament Introduction, 19.
  2. Archaeology.
    1. The more digging that happens academically in the places the Bible records, the more evidence of it’s truthful contents are found.
      1. Scholars used to throw rocks at the Bible’s record of the Hittite people at the time of Abraham.
        
        Archaeology has proven that there was a Hittite civilization that lasted 1,200 years, and you can now get a doctorate in Hittite studies at the University of Chicago.
        
        https://isac.uchicago.edu/research/projects/hit/studying-hittite-university-chicago-0
  3. Fulfilled prophecies.
    1. The Bible has more than 2,000 prophecies that the Bible records as being fulfilled.
Genealogies remind us we are reading history, and it is reliable.

The Levites are examples of faithful service.

1 Chronicles 9:14-32; 23:28-32
Descended from Gershon, Kohath, and Merari, the sons of Levi, and thus the lineage of Levi known as the Levites, are a host of faithful servants who are mostly unknown and are absolutely vital in the worship of the Lord and service to the people.
1. Gershon
  1. The Gershonite’s duty was to guard and carry the hangings which comprised the Tabernacle, the outer coverings and the hangings of the court, with their cords, the altar, and accessories (Numbers 3:25–26; 4:24–26; cf. 10:17).
    1. In guarding and transporting these items, they were assigned two carts and four oxen, as required for their service (Numbers 7:7).
2. Kohath
  1. The “Kohathites were assigned a position on the southern side of the tabernacle (Numbers 3:29). When the tabernacle was moved, they were to carry the ark and other sacred things on their shoulders (Numbers 7:9).” – Walter A. Elwell and Barry J. Beitzel, “Kohath, Kohathites,” in Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1988), 1293.
    1. These Levites were in charge of guarding and transporting all the furnishings and utensils inside the Tabernacle.
3. Merari
  1. The Merarites had the task of maintaining and carrying from place to place the pillars, bases, frames, pegs, and cords that created the structure of the tent of meeting. Since the Israelites were often on the move, the tent of meeting often had to be taken up and moved, and these men did this hard work.
These hard-working Levites are the people who work behind the scenes to make sure that what is seen is done well and can continue to happen. Their work requires a boatload of unseen and unglamorous labor.
1. These Levites are the greeters, the soundboard people, and the just get things done effectively people that most of us take for granted.
2. These are the people who provide order, structure, and supplies so that what people take for granted actually happens.
3. These are the people who pick up trash others leave behind. They unlock and lock doors.
4. These are the RK workers who keep on serving even though they don’t have kids in the ministry anymore or have never had kids in the ministry. They are the ones that are kid whisperers in RK’s.
Lesson from the Levites: Don’t seek out positions that come with being seen. Be content to do work people may never see.
1. Some of the Levites will seek out positions that are more glamorous, and it will cost them their lives. We’ll see them in a minute.
2. Seek to do the work no one will see, knowing that the Lord sees.
  1. Let the Lord do the lifting up if he so desires.
  2. Psalms 75:6-7 (ESV) For not from the east or from the west and not from the wilderness comes lifting up, 7 but it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another.
3. Humans are narcissistic in our fallen nature, and are not content with the Lord getting the glory.
  1. We want to make sure we get seen too, and so we use the Lord as a means of getting likes, clicks, or some kind of advancement.
  2. Matthew 20:25-28 (ESV) 25 But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 26 It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, 28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Nadab and Abihu are examples of rebellion in attempting to manipulate the LORD and the unseen world using worship.

Leviticus 10 tells us the account of Nadab and Abihu, Aaron’s oldest boys, offering “unauthorized” or “strange” fire before the Lord in some weird attempt to either manipulate some response from the Lord or in some attempt to use occultic practices they are aware of before the Lord.
1. Nadab and Abihu are reminders that one does not enter the kingdom of God by family descent.
  1. Family name is not a guarantee that one will fear the Lord and walk in his ways.
  2. These two were sons of Aaron, the oldest of the priestly line that the Levitical Kohathies were jealous of, and rather than walk in the boundaries set by the Lord, they wanted to experiment, and it cost them their lives.
  3. The boundaries were clear. God had made himself clear.
    1. Aaron had made himself clear, and yet they ignored the Lord and perhaps leaned on their Aaronic role as an excuse to do what they wanted.
2. Nadab and Abihu are reminders that all of life is an act of worship, and we dare not live in rebellion against God’s instructions (found in his word) nor play with manipulating the unseen world that belongs to the Lord.
  1. Rather than obey the Lord, they decided they’d see what they could get away with.
    1. They decided to rebel by not doing what they were supposed to do.
      1. They had work that was prescribed.
        
        They chose to NOT do that and do something else instead.
    2. Also, it’s likely these men wanted to experiment with the unseen world and manipulate some response from the Lord or the unseen world that was so evident around them and in the practices of the nations around them.
      1. The offering of “unauthorized” or “strange” fire implies they were incorporating some absorbed practices from the practices of other nations around them in order to see what would happen.
    3. IMPORTANT: I would argue that their rebellion against the Lord’s instructions and seeking to manipulate the unseen world are overlapping sins.
      1. 1 Samuel 15:23 (ESV) 23 For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king.”
      2. Nadab and Abihu, in disobedience and offering strange fire, are playing with power that will cost them.
      3. Obedience to the Lord’s word and his worship are of utmost importance, and we are to offer lives as living sacrifices NOT use our lives as vehicles of rebellion and dabbling in the spiritual world for our entertainment.
        
        The cost of their experiment was summary execution.
We have to be careful to not live in rebellion against good and holy boundaries and then turn to use worship for spiritual manipulation and entertainment.
1. Rebellion against good and holy boundaries is evident. We have God’s word. There is no excuse for not knowing what is holy and what is rotten.
  1. Obey truth and godly authority over us.
2. Using worship for spiritual manipulation and personal entertainment is the height of sin.
  1. Don’t worship thinking that you can use that offering to manipulate God and get something from God.
  2. Don’t use God’s prescribed means of engaging with him, like prayer, to communicate with or elicit responses from other forces in the unseen realm of the spiritual world.
3. When we live like this, we invite dark forces into our lives and we invite the active and even passive wrath of God.
  1. Active: See Nadab and Abihu.
  2. Passive: See Romans 1 and being handed over to our own devices until we completely ruin ourselves and find ourselves alone and dying with no one to help us anymore.
  3. When we play with God’s means of worship to do things opposite of worshiping him, we enter into places that most of us material naturalists don’t actually believe exist, and we invite dark forces to come and infest our existence.
    1. Luke 11:24-26 (ESV) 24 “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and finding none it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ 25 And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order. 26 Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that person is worse than the first.”
    2. Don’t pretend this world does not exist, and don’t invite it in by taking the Lord’s means of worship and using them to manipulate the Lord or even engage in other dark activities.
Don’t use worship as a transaction between you and the Lord.
1. Worship is because the Lord is worthy alone NOT an exchange of services.
  1. We don’t offer the Lord worship hoping he’ll do something for us in exchange.
    1. That’s witchcraft and what worship looks like offered to fallen dark forces of the rebellion against the Lord.
  2. We don’t do that as Bible-believing Christians.
    1. We offer the Lord our lives as living sacrifices and thus a multitude of biblical offerings that are appropriate simply because he is worthy with no expectation of anything in return.

Korah reminds us to not bring false charges of malpractice (or any false charges) nor to seek self-appointed leadership…out of jealousy.

Numbers 16 recounts for us Korah’s costly rebellion against Moses and Aaron.
1. Korah is the son of Izhar, who is the son of Kohath who is the grandfather of Aaron.
2. These Levites Make false accusations with sinful intent, and in this instance, it it out of a sinful jealousy of Aaron’s son’s role.
  1. “You have gone too far.”
  2. “Why do you exalt yourselves above the assembly?”
  3. “All the congregation is holy.”
    1. The Levites want to be priests (Numbers 16:10) and have become unsatisfied with the role the Lord appointed to them.
      1. They are jealous of Aaron’s other son’s role as priests and are not satisfied with what they have been assigned to do.
    2. From their dissatisfaction with their role, the Levites bring false charges against their appointed leadership (Moses and Aaron), and they mobilize some of Reuben’s people to stand with them against Moses and Aaron.
      1. The Levites are jealous of Aaron’s sons, so they rebel against Moses and Aaron.
      2. They have taken their sin of sinful jealousy manifested as dissatisfaction and spread it to another tribe, and now they have caused a camp-wide stir against Moses and Aaron.
        
        The Lord is not going to let this sinful spreading of false accusations stand.
3. The Lord instructs Moses and Aaron to have their accusers come before him to offer worship with their censors full of incense, and let the Lord judge, and judge he does.
  1. The Lord opens up the earth and swallows the accusers up.
    1. The lesson gets learned, because some of Korah’s relatives survive and pen my favorite Psalm. Psalm 84.
      1. Verse 10 of Psalm 84 makes much more sense not in light of knowing what we learned today.
        
        Psalms 84:10 (ESV) 10 For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
We should be careful to not let sinful jealousy manifest in dissatisfaction with where the Lord has us and bring accusations and strife to the people of God.
1. If we live like this the Lord will discipline this sin out of us.

Phineas: Jealous for God’s glory.

Numbers 25:10-13
1. The Israelites have been enticed into some bad stuff with Midianite women, the Lord is disciplining them hard, as they deserve, and while they are weeping at the entrance of the tent of meeting over the harshness of the discipline, one dude brings his lady Midianite lady friend to the place of worship to engage in their sin in the sight of the whole congregation, and everyone sees what is going on.
  1. Blatant. For all to see. Active rebellion against the Lord.
2. Our guy, Phineas, was not going to have it.
3. The Lord’s judgment has already begun on the people, and folks are dying.
4. Phineas follows them to where they are doing “the thing”, and with his spear, pens them both to the ground, and the judgment of the Lord stops.
  1. Up to that point, the Lord has killed 24k people over this issue.
  2. Phineas was zealous for the Lord’s glory among the people of the Lord, and the Lord honored him by counting his zealous act of stopping the sinful activity as atonement for the rest of the people
    1. Phineas received the perpetual role of a priest because of his zeal for the Lord.
Phineas was living for the eyes of the Lord.
1. (ESV) 9 For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.
  1. Phineas was operating in the truth that the Lord sees his life and the lives of others, and he had a responsibility to uphold the ethical standard of the Lord, and he is not concerned with what people think of him.
  2. Phineas’ primary concern is the Lord’s fame, and these people were dragging the name of the Lord through the mud, and Phineas said, “negative”.
2. We can also get a glimpse of the atoning work of the cross in his judgment of sin that atones for the people.
  1. One man’s sin affects the whole.
  2. One man’s act of atoning for sin affects the whole.

Application

What training in righteousness and good work do we see out of Aaron’s family line?

I’m going to let Paul’s summary of the Exodus that this genealogy instructs us about give us the application today.

1 Corinthians 10:1-14 (ESV) 1 For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. 6 Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” 8 We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9 We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, 10 nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. 11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. 12 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. 13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. 14 Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

To participate in spiritual activity and not live a life consistent with it is evidence of unbelief and will result in judgment. V. 1-5
Don’t desire evil and live as idolaters under the banner of the Lord Jesus. V. 6-7
Be careful with issues of sexuality as it strikes at the heart of created intent. V. 8
Don’t put the Lord to the test. V. 9
1. Don’t let the grace of the cross cause you to believe the Lord doesn’t care about how his people live.
2. The Lord disciplines those who take on his name and he will not let his name be drug through the mud.
Don’t grumble over anything as the people of God. V. 10
Don’t be arrogant in grace. Rather, humble yourself under the Lord’s hand. V. 12
We can win over temptation. God has given us the ability to win over it, but we have to take the escape the Lord always provides when we are being tempted. V. 13
Flee idolatry. V. 14
1. Idolatry is good things we turn into God things that make them bad things.

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