The earth is the Lords   

 

Exodus

Updated: June 3, 2008


.....the book of redemption........


[C]2000-08 by Richard L Zorek

    Exodus is the book of redemption. Its first word, now, links it onto Genesis. Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy all begin with conjunctions also, making the Pentateuch one single book. Exodus begins with the expression "Now these are the names," for redemption has to do with names--names written by grace into the book of God. The word exodus comes from the Greek and mean "the way out."

  • Ex 1:7: "And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abunduntantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them." God granted great fruitfulness to the Hebrew wives and the nation grew dramatically.

  • Ex 1:8: Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. He had no recognition of past history. The new king never knew Joseph and felt no indebtedness to him or his descendants. This is interesting to note since at one time Joseph was so well known that he was a hero and his body could not even be taken from the land. It is important for all generations to know their history...and an accurate history. Not one rewritten to move some political notion as so often happens today. The essence of Christian faith is not certainty, but trust.

  • Ex 1:10: Come let us deal shrewdly with them" Never mind justice. Dont worry about kindness. Human life isnt the issue. We can only think of our survival. Also, the need to dominate seeems to have grown out of fear.

  • Ex 1:12: "But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel." You cannot break a strong people. Sin isnt reasonable or there'd be an excuse for it...there isnt.

  • Ex 1:14: And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigoour There is s definite relationship between being in bondage and becoming bitter. One who is truly bitter has some kind of bondage to something.
  • Ex 1:15-22: Egypt sought to exterminate all Hebrews, but Israel was required to render justice to all Egyptians in terms of their individual obedience or disobedience to the law. The criterion was not emnity to Israel but the law of God.

    Ex 1: 16: "When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth and observe them on the delivery stool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live." Satanic attempts to cut off the line leading to Christ run all the wat through the Bible from the Old Testament to the New Testament.

  • Ex 1:17: But the midwives feared God and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved their men children alive. God's rule was more important than the King of Egypt.
  • Ex 1:22: And Pharoah charged all his people saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive. If this order had been successfully carried out, Israel would have been exterminated.
  • Ex 2:3: And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of the bulrushes, and daubed it with the same slime and pitch, and put the child therein, and she laid it in the flags by the rivers brink. The Skeptics Bible notates that this sounds suspiciously like that of the birth of Sargon, and Akkadian monarch from the third millenium. And it is quite possible there are others. Setting a child adrift was often a way to to put a child "in the fate of the gods." In the case of Moses, he ended up in the fate of the Living God.
  • Ex 2:10: And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. So she called his name Moses, saying, “Because I drew him out of the water.” The name Moses means "drawer out" and Pharoahs daughter named him this because she had drawn him out of the water.
  • Ex 2:24: God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. Of course, God who knows all, did not forget the covenant, but was waiting for the time when the people actually wanted to see it fulfilled. He was not going to deliver them because they had remained faithful, for they had not. Or because they had obstained from idolatry, for they had not. He was remembering His promise.

  • Ex 2:25: And God looked upon the chilrden of Israel, and God had respect unto them." The word "respect" here means "He began to act." God heard their cry and began taking action on their behalf.

    Ex 11:1: Now the LORD had said to Moses, "I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will let you go from here, and when he does, he will drive you out completely." The Lord knew how much Pharoah could handle, and what his weak point was.

  • Gen 3:3: (The LORD made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and Moses himself was highly regarded in Egypt by Pharaoh's officials and by the people.) It was clear that by the time of the tenth plague, that Moses was esteemed highly by the people and servants of Pharoah. They had seen the truth. The Pharoah, on the other hand seemed only bent on perpetuating the state and could not see past that.

  • Ex 3:6 Then he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. What a great line of descendants Moses came from. By becoming a true Christian you have begun to shape generations still to come.

  • Ex 3:12: And God said, "I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain." God did not give Moses some pumped up answer about how spritual he was or "open" to Him.....His response was just "I will be with you." That is who you are in such an operation.....the one who God is with. No more no less.

  • Ex 3:13-15: "Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?" God said to Moses, "I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.'" God also said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, 'The Lord, the God of your fathers--the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob--has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation." God's name was identified, set apart from all other gods, from all false idols, to be the same from generation to generation. Any confusion about the true and living God, the Creator of the Universe, the One who walked and talked with Adam and Eve and who talked with Moses in the burning bush, was to be straigtened out by identification: His name was the same. "I AM has sent me to you." He exists, He has existed, He will always exist. There is no other. His identity was to be known in just that simple declaration of His name.

  • Ex 3:16: "Go, and gather the elders of Israel together and, and say unto them, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt." God refused to give a rationalistic definition of Himself. He could not be comprehended by reason, experience, or anything else. He is to be known by His self-revelation.

  • ex 6:9: And Moses spake so unto the children of Israel: but they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage They didn't seem to be able to hear because of the pain.
  • Ex 11:10: Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh, but the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let the Israelites go out of his country. Pharoah pushed against the will of the Lord...His heart.....and he himself bcame hardened.
  • Ex 13:17: And it came to pass, when Pharoah had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt. God may not always take you on the quickest route.

  • Ex 14: 11 They said to Moses, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? When things start to get tough, freedom doesnt seem so great. But, the promised land hadn't even been entered, yet. This was just the beginning of the journey towards it.

  • Ex 14:12: "Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness." Instead of crying for help, they develop a pattern of response and attack God's character. If God wanted them to die He could have done that in Egypt. Why lead them out there to destroy them?

    Ex 14:13 Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. If you are on the road you should be on--stand firm! The Lord will be there to help you.

  • Ex:14 14: The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still." One of the worst things that we tend to do is to not stand still. We will fret worry, or strike back in some defensive way. The reaction we often do is not helpful to us in the long run.

  • Ex 14:15 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. Keeping with the Lord's original instructions, which were to move on. He did not waiver in his command. He never said go to the sea and wait. He said move on. The sea was not in God's way.

  • Ex 14: 19-20: Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel's army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all night long.The cloud both veiled and revealed the glory of God. To those who would look to God for leadership and guidance, tho those who would trust in the heanvenly Father, the pillar was a light. To those who refused to recognize God, the pillar was a cloud engulfing in darkness. So Christ is the light of the world to those who will believe and trust Him and the preaching of Christ becomes foolish to those who will not believe.

  • Ex 14:24: "The Lord looked down upon the army and the oncoming Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud, and He troubled the army of the Egyptians" This is what God does for His people. David expresses it beautifully, and accurately, in the immortal words of Psalm 121. The protecting love of God is fierce and tender, rugged and gentle. Blessed are they who put their trust in Him.

  • Ex 14:25 He made the wheels of their chariots come off so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, "Let's get away from the Israelites! The LORD is fighting for them against Egypt." They clearly must have had some sort of conscious recognition of who God was, possibly through living with them as masters all these years. So, when theings started happening, they realized His power may very well be real. But, nonetheless, they knew where it was coming from. Before they died, they were giving God the glory, as God said they would.

  • Ex 14: 31 And when the Israelites saw the great power the LORD displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant. Such an awesome display of God's strength..should have been very sobering and apparently was. Would this reknewed fear last?

  • Ex 16:2 In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. It was actually less then two months before the grumbling started. Is our memory really that short term?

  • 3 The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the LORD's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death."

  • Ex 16:4 Then the LORD said to Moses, "I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. They were to only gather for that day. Not store for the next also.

  • Ex 16:5 On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days." The next day would be the Sabbath.

  • Ex 16:6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, "In the evening you will know that it was the LORD who brought you out of Egypt,

  • 7 and in the morning you will see the glory of the LORD , because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we, that you should grumble against us?"

  • 8 Moses also said, "You will know that it was the LORD when he gives you meat to eat in the evening and all the bread you want in the morning, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we? You are not grumbling against us, but against the LORD ."

  • Ex 16:9 Then Moses told Aaron, "Say to the entire Israelite community, 'Come before the LORD , for he has heard your grumbling.' " God responds to the grumbling.

  • 10 While Aaron was speaking to the whole Israelite community, they looked toward the desert, and there was the glory of the LORD appearing in the cloud.

  • Ex 16:15: "And when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the lord hath given you to eat." Manna, literally, means "what is it?"
  • Ex 16:24 So they saved it until morning, as Moses commanded, and it did not stink or get maggots in it. Anyone not sure they can observe the Sabbath, the Lord will make a way for anyone who wants to honor Him. You just need to trust in Him.

  • Ex 18:21: "Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens:" God makes righteousness the fundamental requirement for holding office. The word for "men" chosen by the Holy Spirit in this text is the Hebrew word for a man, i.e., a male as opposed to a woman.

  • Ex 19:4: 'You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. This was even after their grumbling.

  • Ex 19: 5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine,

    6 you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites."

  • 15 Then he said to the people, "Prepare yourselves for the third day. Abstain from sexual relations." They needed to cocentrate on that which was coming on the third day.

  • Ex 19:16: "On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled". If everyone saw and heard the thunder and trumpet and saw the cloud and lightning and everyone trembled, the difference between the response inwardly and the actions that took place later was the difference between bowing as creature before the Creator and turning away deliberately from Him. No other conclusion can be reached. The inward defiance is a deliberate defiance in spite of the same unfolding of sufficient evidence. It was very clear that God was there with Moses (see Ex 19:17,18). But people in every point of history, convinced of God's existence or not, are mainly concerned with their own immediate comfort or fullfillment and with a removal of anything that annoys or bothers them. People today are the same as those people were at the bottom of Mount Sinai. There are few who truly want to love God and trust Him and who can wait patiently and with expectation for what comes next.

  • Ex 19: 21 and the LORD said to him, "Go down and warn the people so they do not force their way through to see the LORD and many of them perish. The only way to the Lord was the way He made. Every other way leads to death.

  • Ex 19: 22: Even the priests, who approach the LORD , must consecrate themselves, or the LORD will break out against them." No person, no matter how up in the church hierarchy was exempt from entering in the proper way.

  • Ex 19:24: The LORD replied, "Go down and bring Aaron up with you. But the priests and the people must not force their way through to come up to the LORD , or he will break out against them." Even in their zeal and excitment, there was only one way to enter.

  • Exodus 20:1-3: "And God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me" God identifies Himself, first, as the Lord. Second, He reminds Israel that He is their savior, and that their relationship to Him is one of grace. God chose Israel. Israel did not choose God. Third, the law is given to the people of grace. All men are already judged, fallen, and lost; all men are under the wrath of the law. The law is given to the people saved by grace as their way of grace, to set forth the privelege and blessing of the covenant. Fourth, it follows that the first response of grace is "Thou shalt have no other gods before me."

  • Ex 20:4: "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth." Idolatry is banned by the first commandment, whereas the second commandment prohibits worship of such images. Man can only approach God on God's terms and there can be no mediation between God and man except that which is ordered by God. As Rushdoony wrote, The purpose of idols is to convey abstract concepts to simple minds. Whenever man begins to establish his own approach to God, he ends up establishing his own will, his own lusts, and finally himself as God. If man's terms to approach God are defined by man, then the terms of man's life and direction are dictated also by man. The only way to approach God is by His terms.

  • Ex 20:5: "Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;" Bad habits, bad relationships, the fruit of sin, etc, are generally passed to the next generation.

  • Ex 20:6: "And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments."

  • Exodus 20:7: "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain." How many of us today call upon, or preach, or teach the Lord Jesus or Jehovah God and do not really mean it, or have no real idea who or what we are talking about?

  • Ex 20:8-11: "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work..............the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it." God declared the word, "Let there be..." and all things were created. God's rest is grounded in the perfection of His work, redemption, and re-creation. God's rest is thus an expression of His sovereignty and of the absoluteness of His government. Man cannot govern absolutely any aspect of his life or world, but he can rest in the fact that his God and Savior does govern absolutely and rests in His government Only with such a faith and with such a God can man rest. Man may worship without such a faith, but he cannot rest.

  • Ex 20:17: "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors house, thou shalt not covet they neighbors wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbors's" The peculiar nature of this commandment, as compared to the rest, is that it passes below the externals of conduct to the hidden activity of the mind and heart. The sin of covetousness proves that the soul is out of harmony with God, and dissatisfied with Him.

  • Of the Ten Commandments, four center on the family: "Honor thy father and thy mother" (Ex. 20:12; "Thou shalt not commit adultery" (Ex 20:14); "Thou shalt not steal" (Ex 20:15), and "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors house.....wife....or anything that is thy neighbors." (Ex 20:17). Property in the bible is family owned, an inheritance from one's forefathers to be passed on to ones descendants (I Kin 21:3).
    "Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee" (Ex 20:12). God tells us that the promise of life is essentially connected to obedience to this commandment. St Paul reminds us of this fact (Eph 6:1-3) but urges that fathers avoid provoking their children to wrath and "bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." (Eph 6:4).

  • Exodus 20:20: "Moses than told the children of Israel, "God is come to prove you, and that His fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not." Moses is telling us that unless we fear God, we will not serve Him. This is why Satan wants you to serve him, his government church, it enforcement agencies, and his mouth, the majority of media and press, who are propogandists.

  • Exodus 20:14: "Thou shalt not commit adultery" Adultery is the smashing of a rare and mystical thing, a unity, a oneness between two people who have become one because of something which God made them to be capable of having together, which had the original purpose of making two people one.

    Ex 20:16: "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor." This is so close to stealing--stealing your neighbors reputation, stealing your neghbors chance of getting the new job, stealing your neighbors sleep at night, putting such worry and despondency upon that neighbor that the weight of slander or false testimony ends in the stealing of that neighbors life.

  • Exodus 20:17: "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbors wife, nor his manservant, nor his madiservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's." The climax of the Ten Commandments is an entirely inward thing. Coveting is never an outward thing, from the very nature of the case. It is an intriguing factor that this is the last commandment that God gives us in the Ten Commandments and thus the hub of the whole matter. The end of the whole thing is that we arrive at an inward situation and not merely an outward one. Actually we break this last commandment, not to covet, before we break any of the others. Any time that we break one of the other commandments of God, it means that we have already broken this commandment, in coveting. It also means that any time we break one of the others, we break the last commandment as well. So no matter which of the other Ten Commandments you break, you break two: the commandment itself, and this commandment not to covet. This is the hub of the wheel.

  • Ex 20:24: "An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy eace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen: in all places where I record thy name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee." Provision is made in the law for an altar: An altar of natural materials for the pre-tabernacle period, for the interim until its construction. This altar was not to be man's design or making. The altar was not to represent the creature, but to be the place to which God came to receive man into His fellowship there. For this reason the altar was to be made of the same material, which formed the earthly soil for the kingdom of God, either of earth or else of stones.The altar is, of course, of central significance religiously. Sacrifice sets forth the fact of atonement, that God provided a way for sinful man to gain salvation. This is clearly the first and central meaning of the altar. The animals sacrificed on the altar typified Jesus Christ, "the lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world" (John 1:29). The altar signified Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice.
  • Exodus 21:16: "And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death." Old Testament case laws furnish truths (not principles or values) by which the civil magistrates should govern society. Convicted kidnappers should be executed.

  • Exodus 21:17: "And he that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death." There was no place in Gods law-order for juvenile delinquents.

  • Ex 25:8-9: "And let them make me a sanctuary: that I may dwell among them. According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it" This pattern had to be strictly followed without variation. When the ideal or symbolic temple of the future, i.e., the Kingdom of Christ, is portrayed through Ezeiel, again adherence to the pattern is required (Ezek. 43:10). This emphasis on the absoluteness of the pattern is spoken of also in Hebrews 8:5; 9:23.

  • Ex 22:1: "If a man shall steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or sell it; he shall restore five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep."

  • Ex 22:2-3: "If a thief be found breaking up, and be smitten that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him. If the sun has risen on him, there shall be guilt for his bloodshed. He should make full restitution; if he has nothinbg, then he shall be sold for his theft." One conclusion that can be drawn from this is that a threat to our life is to be met with lethal force. After "the sun has risen" seems to refer to a different judgment than the one permitted at night. At night it is more difficult to discern whether the intruder is a theif or a murderer. Furthermore, the nightime makes it more diffcult to defend onseelf and to avoid killing the thief at the same time. During the daytime, it had better be clear that one's life was in danger, other wise, defense becomes vengeance, and that belongs in the hand of the magistrate.

  • The case laws of Exodus 22:5-6 reveal God's will for dealing with our modern day pollution problem: If a man lets a field or vineyard be grazed bare and lets his animal loose so that it grazes in another man's field, he shall make restitution from the best of his own field and the best of his vineyard. If a fire breaks out and spreads to thorn bushes, so that stacked grain or the standing grain or the field itself is consumed, he who started the fire shall surely make restitution."
    Although we dont have a big problem with grazing animals or spreading fires in our society, the principle underlying hese laws is tremendously important: people are to be held individually responsible for their actions and the consequences therof. They cannot pass on the costs of "producing their product" (like raising livestock, or using a fire) to others. If they do so, intentionally or unintentionally, they must make amends; they must render restitution to their victims. The Biblical view is that pollution (whether in the form of an animal grazing, a fire, or smoking factory) is a crime--a legally punishable act. It is to be policed like all other crimes against people and property: the agressor must restore the victim. I must clean up my grass, the factory owner must clean up his smokestacks. If we do not, the civil authority (God's ordained servant to deal with "those who practice evil") must enforce a judgment against us and see to it that restitution is made to the affected parties. Pollution does not pay, under Biblical law.

    the issue today is not justice, but psychology and rehabilitation. For modern jurisprudence, two to fice fold restitution for theft (and penal servitude for those who cannot pay [Ex 22:1-4]) is barbaric, while throwing convicted thieves into prison where they are routinely raped, sodomized, and dehumanized is "rehabilitation." The modern notion that penology is essentially rehabilitative strikes out at the Biblical notion of justice.

  • Ex 23:1: "Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness."

  • Ex 23:14: "Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year." (also, 23:17 and 34:23) It will be objected by some that these three feasts are decribed as "holy" convocations (Le 23:4) and are thus clearly esssentially worship. But is is a serious error to associate holiness with worship; worship in itself is not holy and can be blasphemy; holiness does not refer to worship but to God in all His ways and in all His being. Thus, all godly activity, whether it be in the home, field, court, church, or school, is holy activity. Holiness has reference primarily and essentially to God, and secondarily, to all things done in His name, according to His word, and to His glory. All things were created by God were good, and therefore holy, separated and dedicated to Him. Men, by their fall, have become profane. The goal of redemption is the restoration of the universe to holiness.

  • Ex 28:2: "And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty." While we are in the process of being tranformed day by day, Christ is becoming our real glory and our real beauty, our real clothing for His radiant and glorious expression, just as the old clothing of the Old Testament was for his glory and beauty.

  • A large part of Exodus is devoted to a description of the tabernacle. Actually some fifty chapters in the Bible relate to this important structure. The tabernacle was the focus of the national life of Israel in the wilderness, for the tribes encamped around it in an orderly fashion. The life of the nation was lived in direct relationship to the tabernacle, every part of which Christ spoke, the true gathering center of His redeemed people (Matt 18:20).

    • Every piece of furniture and every arrangement in the Old Testament tabernacle pointed to Jesus. Ifyou want to know about Christ's ministry to us in glory in these last days, study the tabernacle and the high priest. Exodus 30 gives us a wonderful picture of this ministry:
      Between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle was a veil. And just before the entrance to the Holy of Holies stood an altar made of gold, three feet high and eighteen inches square. Incense was placed on this altar and burned at all times.
      As high priest, Aaron was commanded to take care of the lamps and wicks. Every morning when he went into the Holy Place to light them, he put incense on the altar. The altar had to have coals of fire in it always, so the fire would never go out. Even at night Aaron was to go in and put sweet incense "beaten small" on the altar.
      "And Aaron (the high priest) shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning: when he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it. And when Aaron lighteth the lamos at even, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations" (Ex 30:7-8). For years, throughout all of Israels wilderness journeyings, the golden altar filled the Holy Place with a cloud of sweet incense. An incense was constantly rising to heaven.

    • Ex 30:9: Ye shall offer no strange incense thereon, nor burnt sacrifice, nor meat offering; neither shall ye pour drink offering thereon. Nadab and Abihu did not simply do something not commanded, they did something expressly forbidden.

    • Exodus 32:25: And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies)..
    • The Hebrew word used here for naked is para, meaning, "to loosen up, expose, dismiss all restraint." It also infers "a new beginning." The Israelites were saying, "Things are not happening as they should. We're tired of this battle, tired of waiting on God. And now we're going to enjoy ourselves. Out with the old! We want freedom, a new start--and we want it now!"...........Nakedness in the Bible also has to do with not havng one's shield. Every man who didn't have his sheld was considered naked--stripped down and dancing before the golden calf--yet they also had lain down their armor.

    • Ex 34:14 "You shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is jealous, is a jealous God."

    • Ex 33:7: it came to pass, that every one which sought the Lord went out into the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp." In the midst of idolatry, there was still a people of God who took the time and effort to seek the Lord with all their hearts.
    • Ex 34:20: "But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou redeem him not, then shalt thou break his neck." Every firstborn creature must be the Lord’s, but since the ass was unclean, it could not be presented in sacrifice. What then? Should it be allowed to go free from the universal law? By no means. God admits of no exceptions. The ass is his due, but he will not accept it; he will not abate the claim, but yet he cannot be pleased with the victim. No way of escape remained but redemption—the creature must be saved by the substitution of a lamb in its place; or if not redeemed, it must die. My soul, here is a lesson for thee. That unclean animal is thyself; thou art justly the property of the Lord who made thee and preserves thee, but thou art so sinful that God will not, cannot, accept thee; and it has come to this, the Lamb of God must stand in thy stead, or thou must die eternally. Let all the world know of thy gratitude to that spotless Lamb who has already bled for thee, and so redeemed thee from the fatal curse of the law. Must it not sometimes have been a question with the Israelite which should die, the ass or the lamb? Would not the good man pause to estimate and compare? Assuredly there was no comparison between the value of the soul of man and the life of the Lord Jesus, and yet the Lamb dies, and man the ass is spared. My soul, admire the boundless love of God to thee and others of the human race. Worms are bought with the blood of the Son of the Highest! Dust and ashes redeemed with a price far above silver and gold! What a doom had been mine had not plenteous redemption been found! The breaking of the neck of the ass was but a momentary penalty, but who shall measure the wrath to come to which no limit can be imagined? Inestimably dear is the glorious Lamb who has redeemed us from such a doom.

    • Exo 35:30-35 And Moses said to the children of Israel, “See, the LORD has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; and He has filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom and understanding, in knowledge and all manner of workmanship, to design artistic works, to work in gold and silver and bronze, in cutting jewels for setting, in carving wood, and to work in all manner of artistic workmanship. “And He has put in his heart the ability to teach, in him and Aholiab the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. He has filled them with skill to do all manner of work of the engraver and the designer and the tapestry maker, in blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine linen, and of the weaver—those who do every work and those who design artistic works. God had gifted these people with an extraordnary ability to create artwork.

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