Monday Reading Notes –– Exodus 34:1–35 (February 26)
Exodus 34 – Since Moses had broken the first set of the tablets of testimony (see 32:19 – those tablets contained the 10 commandments and other laws) another set had to be made. Moses went up on Mount Sinai once again, and was miraculously kept alive for 40 days with God, without “eating food or drinking water.” (34:28).
Whether this is a summary of some of the things God had said before, or whether the items mentioned here are the most important is difficult to say. The ten commandments are not mentioned again, although they are in Deuteronomy 5. God does, however, mention the same prologue to the commandments, very similar to Exodus 20:5-6. “Yahweh, Yahweh, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet He does not leave the guilty unpunished; He punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.” (34:6-7)
That hardly seems fair, for children to be punished for the sins of their ancestors. However, it is a natural consequence. People who contract aids due pass it on their children. People who fall into poverty because of laziness or poor decisions affect their children. And those who have a pattern of disobeying God often, unfortunately, pass on that same pattern to their children. How important it is for Christian parents to raise their children to know and love the Lord!
The order of God’s words in verses 6 and 7 reveal God’s heart. He prefers to act in love and grace. But in case that love and grace would be abused as license to do whatever our sinfulness desires, He makes it clear that there is also justice.
Due, at least in part, to Moses’ intercession here and in 33:12-16, God reiterates his covenant with the people and His promise to lead them to their new land. Verses 10-28, commands and regulations repeated from earlier parts of Exodus, make it clear that the Israelites were to be different from the people in the land of Canaan in their behavior and festivals. The festivals all have an heir of putting God first. Obedience to Him was to be the top priority, not a man-centered religion that featured indulgence in too much food, alcohol or sex, as was signature of the Canaanite religions.
When Moses came down from the mountain, due to his encounter with the glory of god (34:5-7), his face shone with the glory of God, a sign to the people that they should listen to him and regard his word as being from God himself.
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Tuesday Reading Notes –– Exodus 35:1 – 36:38 (February 27)
Exodus 35 – The Sabbath was to be a time of rest for all, so not only were those who harvested or worked a trade to take a break, but those who cooked within the house were also to have the day off. Not even a fire was to be lit (for cooking) on the Sabbath day. We can assume that food preparations would have been made before, or breads and raw fruits or vegetables alone would be eaten on the Sabbath.
Preparations for the worship space of Israel became the top priority. The people brought free will offerings for the gold, wood, silver and bronze, leather, hides, and weaving materials for use in the tabernacle. Two people in particular, Bezalel and Oholiab, were commissioned to make the furnishings, and to train others how to do the same. They were filled with the Spirit to be able to do those things, which shows that all abilities humans possess come from God, and that enjoys giving us a variety of gifts – the spiritual ones and the more practical ones as well.
Exodus 36 – When people see how great their God is, they will want to bring offerings to Him. That’s what happened with the people of Israel. Before long, they had to be restrained from bringing more offerings, because there was already more than enough for the work.
I imagine the construction of the tabernacle as an old-fashioned barn-raising. Lots of people joined together for a common task, enjoying the work and the fellowship of working on the project together. It must have been a tremendously unifying time for the people of Israel. When it was completed, many could look at it with a sense of satisfaction and humility that they had been able to work on what would house the very presence of God himself.
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Wednesday Reading Notes –– Exodus 37:1 – 38:30 (February 28)
Exodus 37 and 38 – (Because of the similarity of these chapters, I’ll comment on them together.)
Since we have enjoyed the accumulation of technology, it’s easy for us to believe that since we have computers and I-pods and cars and space shuttles that we must possess greater intelligence than those who lived long ago. That thought, however, is grounded in an evolutionary mindset, and has nothing to do with how God, in reality, created the world, “very good” from the very beginning (Genesis 1:31). How many craftsmen living today would be able to do what these craftsmen could do with their limitations of tools and lack of machinery and other luxuries available to modern day artisans? And remember, it was the Holy Spirit who endowed them with the ability to do these things, just as God had endowed Adam and Eve with supreme intelligence and abilities from the start.
You may wonder why we have such repetition from the instructions Moses received (chapters 25-30) and the carrying out of those instructions in these chapters. It was to show that all God had told Moses was carried out to the letter. They did it exactly as he had commanded, adding their artistic touches where they could but always within the bounds of what He had instructed. God looks for that same “to the letter” obedience from us. It is part of the covenant relationship. “I will be your God,” in terms of grace, help, protection, providing, etc. “You will be my people,” (compare Exodus 6:7) in terms of loving God with all our heart, soul and strength, which shows up in doing what He tells us to do.
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Thursday Reading Notes –– Exodus 39:1 – 40:38 (March 1)
Exodus 39 – Everything was finished for the tabernacle and was brought for Moses’ inspection, to make sure it was made exactly as the Lord had said. It was, and Moses blessed the people who had worked on it for a job well done.
In my reading notes on chapter 28, I think I had said that the pomegranates around the hem of the high priest’s robe were made of gold, but they were actually fashioned of yarn, alternating with gold bells.
Exodus 40 – I think everything about the set up of the tabernacle is pretty clear, except perhaps the relationship between the word tabernacle – mishcan in Hebrew – which means dwelling place – and the tent of meeting – ohel moehd in Hebrew. The NIV translation in verse two and other places says, “the tabernacle, the tent of meeting.” A literal reading of the Hebrew would simply be “tabernacle tent of meeting.” You may remember from Exodus 33:7-11 that there was another “tent of meeting” that Moses pitched outside the camp where he would meet with God. It is my opinion that once this “tabernacle tent of meeting” had been set up, the other tent of meeting was no longer necessary, because in the book of Leviticus “tent of meeting” became the predominant term for the whole worship area of Israel. Tabernacle, in its narrowest sense, referred to that place God had chosen for his dwelling place – the atonement cover, that is, the top of the Ark of the Covenant. That is why the structure that housed it was called the tent of meeting. Readers of English translations think of the tabernacle as the “tent church.” More accurately, the Tent of Meeting was the tent church, and the tabernacle, the dwelling place of God, was inside it, although some times the two terms could be used almost interchangeably.
God dedicated the tabernacle for service himself, putting his glory on it. The presence of the cloud (a fiery one at night) signifying the presence of the Lord was a staple at the Tent of Meeting from then on. When the cloud would lift, the Israelites knew it was time to move on, because the presence of the Lord, not any kind of locality along the way to their destination, was where they would find their home. That’s a good metaphor for our spiritual journey. We should never get attached to a certain church building or even the community or neighborhood in which we live. Our attachment should be to the Lord, with a willingness to follow Him wherever He would lead us until we get to our final Promised Land – eternal life.
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Friday Reading Notes –– Leviticus 1:1–17 (March 2)
Leviticus 1 – Now that the tabernacle had been completed set up, it was time for instruction on what was to happen at the tabernacle in the worship life of Israel. That is the purpose of the book of Leviticus, whose name means “relating to the Levites.” The Levites were the tribe of Israel given the task of ministering to the Lord as priests and caretakers of the tabernacle.
Burnt offerings were frequent in Leviticus, so of the first priority was the proper way to do it. That’s what this chapter is about. In much the same way the priests were consecrated for their tabernacle service, an individual bringing an offering on his behalf and on behalf of his family would be consecrated. It was always a male from the herd or flock, always without defect, that was to be brought, symbolizing the male Son of God without defect, the final sacrifice for sin. If a family was too poor to bring a sheep or bull, they could bring a bird for a burnt offering. All this slaughtering of animals sounds unpleasant to us, but remember that every member of a household had to know how to slaughter an animal in order to eat meat. What we can pick up already packaged at the grocery store, a person had to slaughter for themselves in those days. So such a thing, distasteful to us, was not a big deal to them.
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Saturday Reading Notes –– Leviticus 2:1 – 3:17 (March 3)
Leviticus 2 – At times people would be instructed to bring grain offerings as well as the burnt offerings in chapter 1. These regulations pertained to that. Some observations:
- A portion was always reserved for Aaron and his sons, and was called the “most holy part.” In this way, God made sure the priests were provided for.
- Any bread or cakes that were baked ahead of time were to be made without yeast. Yeast was a symbol of pride and evil, and was never included in any offerings in the tabernacle. Jesus, for example, warned to “beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees,” (Matthew 16:6) referring to their false teachings that could lead a person astray. I have to wonder if there was a health issue involved as well. So many of God’s dietary restrictions had to do with public health issues, I wonder if yeast in some cases could be harmful, and that’s why it was cleaned out once per year (during the time of the feast of the unleavened bread) and was not allowed within the tabernacle.
- Salt was to be included in the grain offerings (v. 13) as it would be included if a person was preparing something for themselves to eat. As with burnt offerings, where people were to bring the best they had and offer it to the Lord, they weren’t supposed to get cheap with their grain offerings either. Salt was often rare and expensive in the ancient world. If it was good enough to include on their own food, it should also be included on that set aside for God and the priests.
Leviticus 3 – Keep in mind, in these early chapters of Leviticus, that we haven’t yet been told on what occasions these types of sacrifices are to be brought – only how they are to be brought. We’ll get to that later. When a fellowship offering was brought, it was shared between God, the bringer of the offering and the priest – thus, the fellowship between them. The Christ-symbolism isn’t hard to see, as he ate his last meal with his disciples, a meal in which we all share every time we receive communion. The fat portions and some of the innards (the kidneys, specifically) were to be offered to the Lord, while other portions were to be shared.
The prohibition against eating fat and blood in v. 17 is not only a symbolic, religious issue, but also a practical health issue, as we now know today that too much animal fat can cause health problems, and eating blood is an opportunity to introduce very harmful bacteria or viruses. into our systems.
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