Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

Speaker 2: 0:20

All right, guys. I know at the end of last week I said it would be Joby this week, but we moved the schedule around a little bit, so I don't know if this is disappointing or exciting, but it's me again. But today we are going to be talking about attributes, and specifically the attributes of God, and it can be kind of hard to describe someone else's attributes. So I don't know if you've ever been asked to describe somebody else, but every now and then you kind of run aground, you don't really know exactly what to say next. And then, if you've ever been asked to describe your own attributes right, you know, think of, like a job interview or, you know, some sort of dating app or something like that. I mean, that can be pretty difficult because at the same time, especially for us guys, you don't want to come off too cocky but you don't want to come off too passive. And this is part of theanic ones like the Enneagram. If you don't know why it's satanic, go check it out on my show. I give you the receipts but I digress. But then when we talk about describing the attributes of God, that can be really difficult because, depending upon if you're flipping through the Bible and you just land on a page, it might be difficult to kind of surmise exactly what attributes we're talking about here. So why don't we let God speak for himself?

Speaker 2: 1:24

So that's what we're going to do this week on the Daily Blade, and we're going to do that by looking at God's word in Exodus 34, verses six and seven. So I got the idea for this batch of episodes from my pastor of my home church, that's Dr Mark Hitchcock of Faith Bible Church in Edmond, oklahoma. He did a sermon on March the 16th of this year entitled Show and Tell. So I would encourage you guys to go check that out. Of this year entitled Show and Tell. So I would encourage you guys to go check that out, google it, find it so you can watch it or listen to it for yourself. Again, march the 16th. It's called Show and Tell, but his sermon got me thinking specifically about the attributes of God and God in his infinite wisdom. He actually gives us a list of his attributes in Exodus 34, verses six and seven. But before we get there, we've got to set the stage today, before we dig into those verses, starting tomorrow, so in Exodus 32, if we go all the way back there while Moses is on Mount Sinai receiving the law from God, right, you know, communing with God.

Speaker 2: 2:11

The Israelites grow impatient and they ask Aaron, his brother, to make them gods right. And so Aaron creates a golden calf and they begin to worship it and they're engaging in basically a gigantic rager around this and they're going all crazy and whatnot. God tells Moses what the people have done and threatens to destroy them, but Moses kind of intercedes on their behalf. Moses descends, he breaks the tablets of the covenant in anger. He kind of goes crazy, destroys the calf, rebukes Aaron, and then he commands the Levites to execute judgment and this results in about 3,000 deaths. And Moses again intercedes for the people, asking God to forgive them and to blot him out of his book. And then God sends a plague on the people for their idolatry. And then, when we get into Exodus 33, god tells Moses to lead the people to the promised land, but he will not go with them personally due to their stiff-necked nature.

Speaker 2: 3:01

Okay, the people mourn this announcement. They remove their ornaments in repentance and then Moses pitches the tabernacle of the congregation outside of the camp where he meets with God. The Lord speaks to Moses and you know it's described as face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend right. And then Moses pleads with God to go with him and asks to see God's glory. Now God agrees to show his goodness and to proclaim his name, but he states that no man could see him and live. So that gets us all the way to Exodus 34.

Speaker 2: 3:28

So I'm going to read the first five verses now out of Exodus 34 from the New American Standard Bible 1995 edition. Now the Lord said to Moses cut out for yourself two stone tablets like the former ones, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets which you shattered. So be ready by morning and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain. No man is to come up with you, nor let any man be seen anywhere on the mountain. Even the flocks and the herds may not graze in front of that mountain. So he cut out two stone tablets like the former ones, and Moses rose up early in the morning and went to Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and he took two stone tablets in his hand. The Lord descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the Lord. So, guys, we're going to get into verses six and seven of Exodus 34, starting tomorrow.

Speaker 2: 4:15

But I wanted to point out something that Dr Hitchcock did, something that he taught me as we march our ways towards, or march our way towards, god's words. In Exodus 34, verses 6 and 7, we see God provide protection from himself to Moses. Okay, dr Mark Hitchcock calls them firewalls or buffers, and there's four of them that we see here in the text. So in Exodus 33, 21, he tells Moses to hide behind the rock. So that's firewall number one. Firewall number two that's Exodus 33, verse 22. He tells Moses that he's going to cover him with his hand. Then we see in firewall number three, exodus 33, 23,.

Speaker 2: 4:52

God is only going to allow Moses the tiniest glimpse of him, right, just the tiniest glimpse. It's basically, you know that stank that you know somebody has when they walk by you and like two or three seconds later you get whether or not they've showered, right? That's all he's going to be able to let him see, right, he's going to let him see his trail. And then, firewall number four, we have Exodus 34, verse five. God hid himself partially behind a cloud to filter his full radiance. So a lesson we can derive from this is that God does indeed want to show us his glory, but this side of heaven, we simply can't handle it. So if you're feeling frustrated because you want God to reveal himself to you and his will for your life, just know that his answer, while it may feel incomplete, is for your protection and benefit. All right, guys, come back here tomorrow, where we will get into God's attributes, according to himself.

Speaker 1: 5:40

Thank you for listening to today's episode Before you go. If you want to help equip other men for the fight, share this podcast around and leave us a five-star rating and review. Stay sharp.