Romans 3 and Exodus | Women's Rightly Divided Bible Study
Romans 2 and Lessons from Exodus
To help summarize the lesson in Romans chapter 2, that law-keeping doesn't save us and that we literally cannot keep the law in the energy of our flesh as religious people try to do, let's look at some examples in the Old Testament.
✝️ Israel pridefully believes that they can keep God's law.
In Exodus 19 God is going to give the Nation of Israel his law. This is not long after they have been delivered out of slavery in Egypt and had witnessed many miraculous things.
Exodus 19: 1-8 in the KJB says,
1 In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai.
2 For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness; and there Israel camped before the mount.
3 And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel;
4 Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself.
5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:
6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
7 And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded him.
8 And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord.
Israel not only promises that they will keep God's law but they actually believe that they could do it! In Genesis 17 when God told Abraham to walk perfectly before Him, Abraham immediately fell on his face! But the people of Israel are self-righteous. To show us how pathetically they "kept the law", it was literally only a very short time later that they broke God's law by worshipping a golden calf!
✝️ Exodus 32
God gives Moses the law and then Moses shares the law with Israel. Keep in mind that the law wasn't just the 10 commandments. The whole law given to Israel contained 613 commandments! And they had promised to keep all of it!
But while Moses was receiving the handwritten tablets from God, it took a little longer than they thought (the flesh is impatient!) and they decided to just create and then worship an idol, specifically a golden calf! (that Golden calf was Satan worship).
Exodus 32
1 And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, [they had learned to worship idols in Egypt; this is made more clear in Acts 7 verses 39-43) which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, [wow! Not even acknowledging that it was God who had delivered them!] we wot not what is become of him.
2 And Aaron [Moses's very own brother!] said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me.
3 And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.
4 And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. [First they said that Moses brought them out of Egypt but now they are saying that these false Egyptian gods had brought them out of Egypt!]
5 And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the Lord. [Instead of worshipping God, they are now officially worshipping Satan!]
6 And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.
7 And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: [God knew right away what they were up to! You can't hide anything from God!]
8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
9 And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:
10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation. [Wow! God was literally ready to utterly destroy the Jewish people, except Moses, and start all over with Moses and his seed!]
11 And Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand?
12 Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people.
13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.
14 And the Lord repented [repent means to change ones mind] of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.
15 And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written.
16 And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.
17 And when Joshua [one of the few who were not participating in the wild worship of the golden calf]
heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp.
18 And he said, It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome: but the noise of them that sing do I hear. [They were having a wild time!]
19 And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: [later on in verse 25 it says that they were naked!] and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount.
✝️ Israel, a short time later on, still has not learned that they cannot keep God's law in the energy of their flesh. After being in the wilderness for awhile they began to complain and were even saying that life was better when they were slaves in Egypt!
Exodus 16
2 And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness:
3 And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.
So God decides to test Israel. He is willing to give them manna (he also provided quail for them to eat) from heaven, but they are to keep one basic law regarding this manna.
Exodus 16:
4 Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.
5 And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.
So basically they were to gather a certain amount daily, but on the 6th day to gather twice as much so that they would rest on the Sabbath. But they didn't do exactly as Moses had explained to them and so it says,
Exodus 16
20 Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank: and Moses was wroth with them.
So, essentially even with ONE LITTLE TINY COMMANDMENT they still could not keep it!
Here is what we should learn from this as well as our recent studies in Romans chapter 2. Religion doesn't save you. Trying to keep the law in the energy of our flesh doesn't save us and we are utterly incapable of keeping the law in our flesh. Israel couldn't do it and neither can we. In Romans chapter 3 we will see and understand this even more clearly.
God is ONLY pleased with our FAITH.
Thank you Father God for showing us the truth in your word rightly divided, that no religious works of the flesh could ever save us. Thank you that through simple faith in Christ's death, burial and resurrection as atonement for our sins, we are saved and given eternal life! In Jesus's name we pray, amen.
