Sunday, April 26, 2009

Exodus Day Seven (7)

Greetings readers;

This is chapter 29 through 40 and it begins by telling the reader how to anoint the priest of God, the sons of Levi, and how to hallow things of the Lord, and also how to offer a burnt offering unto the Lord.  These offerings (of animals) are for Aaron and his sons to do and offer for the sins people and for their free will offerings and the priest also to consume.  The office of the priest work is strictly for Aaron and his sons.

One of Aaron's task was to burn incense and fire continually none stop at the altar.  Also, Aaron must make an atonement once a year for the people and himself, hence the day of Atonement.  If you are above 20 years of age; the Lord expects you to give an offering to the ministry.


One thing is for sure that the priest cannot allow the stranger (non-Israelite) to touch, eat, nor wear any Holy oil or perfume the Lord made for the priest.  Also, since the ingredients were given, no one is to try to make a copy of the perfume for themselves (for a second I was going to try to find those oils and smell like a priest).  Only the apothecary (druggist or pharmacist) can prepare these things and you guessed it; that person had to be a priest.

The Lord had a man named Bezaleel that He gave knowledge and wisdom to construct the Temple, the furniture, the cloths, and Holy Garments.  So the Lord gives knowledge and wisdom for any craft you learn.  We're reminded to keep the Sabbath Day, it is a sign between God and the children of Israel forever (7th day of the week).  The two tables of stone given to Moses from God where the Royal Law were written, were written with the finger of God.  That makes it personal and permanent if it were "written in stone."  Also, I guess these are not Moses' laws as frequently said; but Gods and they are quite serious.

While Moses was receiving these laws, statues, and commandments, the people got restless and asked Aaron to be in charge thinking Moses had forsaken them.  They charged Aaron to make them gods; and Aaron concurred with them and made a golden calf out of the gold earrings the people wore in their ears.  And God saw it and thought to kill the people; but Moses interceded and charged the Lord to have mercy.  Moses was the High Priest, so he was responsible for interceding.  

The Lord clearly knew that the children of Israel were a stiff neck, hard headed people at this point and really wanted to destroy them and start the nation over with Moses.  When Moses came off the mountain and saw the people dancing and worshiping a pagan idol, which they clearly got from the Lord not to do (the second commandment), Moses became very furious.  

Then Moses took vengeance killing at least 3,000 people who were against the Lord.  In the interceding; Moses asked to blot himself out of the book the Lord keeps; yes the Lord keeps a book on each of us.  What's in your book?

At this point the Lord sent an angel to go with them and take them into the land; the Lord no longer was going to dwell in the middle of them because He would kill them in His anger.  The Lord had Moses move the Tent away from the camp like living in the suburbs; so the Lord was the first to move to the suburbs for peace and quite.  And the Lord spoke to Moses face-to-face as a man talks to a friend.

Then Moses asked to see the Lord; and the Lord agreed to show Moses; but wouldn't allow Moses to see the Lord's face.  And the Lord came down in the sight of Moses and the power of God was too much for Moses that He fell on his face.  The Lord came down and profess the name of God!  This looks like in Genesis where there are two Gods in the God family or Godhead.

The Lord then reminds the children of Israel about the Sabbath Day, and the three times a year they are to come up for the feast to the Lord.  The Ten Commandments are the words of the covenant; that Moses wrote down during his second 40 days and 40 nights.  Moses was with the Lord so long that he began to shine as the Lord; that the children of Israel could not look upon him; thus he had to wear a veil over his face.  That happened after 40 days of being in the Lord's presence; we can see why Enoch was changed after he walked for over 300 years.

Then in dressing the Tent, the people were told to bring offerings to dress the Tent; a free will offering.  The people brought so much that they had to make an announcement to stop offering.  They begin construction of the Tent and they use plenty of gold.  They made the Mercy Seat and had cherubims round about the Seat, remember God put cherubims around the Tree of Life, it represents the Lord.

Look at the stones they used in the engraving:

10And they set in it four rows of stones: the first row was a sardius, a topaz, and a carbuncle: this was the first row.

 11And the second row, an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond.
 12And the third row, a ligure, an agate, and an amethyst.
 13And the fourth row, a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper: they were inclosed in ouches of gold in their inclosings.

These are some hefty expensive stones to make the Temple Tent.  When they were finished with the Tent; they had done it according as the Lord had commanded and Moses blessed them.  When the work was finished and they reared up the Tabernacle in the first month, a cloud filled the Tabernacle insomuch that Moses had to get out of there; for the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle.

When the children of Israel journeyed the cloud raised up in the sky; but when they were to lodge, the cloud came down into the Tabernacle; a cloud by day, fire by night.  That is our reading today; and we completed Exodus; next we go into Leviticus.  See you tomorrow.


DD
-- 
Thanks


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