Oil for the Lamp

Story:  Oil for the Lamp

Passage: Exodus 27:20-12

Characters:  God, Moses

Summary:    God gives Moses instructions for the oil for the lamo.

  

Notes:  This is a very short passage about the oil to be used in the lamp.  However, since God thought it was important enough to specify, we will examine it.  The main thing specified here is that the oil is to be pure pressed olive oil.  Also, the lamp was supposed to always be burning.  The two things Aaron and his sons would have to do to keep the lamp burning were refill the oil and trim the wick.  I feel like this applies to our lives as well.  We are supposed to be the light in a dark world, and we are continuously trimmed and filled by God to do that!  I also think it is cool that the oil comes from pressed olives.  The olives are pressed and the result is they can burn bright.  I think this could be analogous to our maturing and growing through times when we are pressed.  In 2 Corinthians 4:8, the Greek word for pressed or troubled, depending on your translation, is the word used to describe pressed grapes.  We are also pressed and the result is we shine. 

Questions:  Why olive oil?  Why was it to be specifically pressed? 

Lessons:  It is encouraging to know that the moments we are pressed are intended for the glory of God.  It is when we are pressed that we shine brightest for Him.

The Golden Lampstand

Story:  The Golden Lampstand

Passage: Exodus 25:31-40

Characters:  God, Moses

Summary:    God gives Moses instructions for the Golden Lampstand. 

  

Notes:  Moses was supposed to make a lampstand of pure gold.  It was to be hammered gold.  It would have six branches, three on each side of the center.  These branches would look like almond blossoms complete with petals and sepals.  The whole thing was to be a single piece of hammered gold.  There were to be seven lamps placed in the stand, designed to project the light forward.  Even the utensils for the lamp would be made of pure gold.  The almond blossoms are significant because almond trees were the first trees to bloom in the Spring.  Almonds represent life and rebirth.  In scripture, there are many references to God being the light of the world.  The word is a lamp to our feet according to David.  Light is important because it allows us to see what is truly around us.  It gives us the perspective we need to function.  Without light, obstacles are still in our path, we just don’t have the ability to work around them.  When light is added, we are able to avoid obstacles in our path and make observations of the world around us.  The lampstand is intended to symbolize this aspect of God.  He is the light of the world.  His word is a lamp to our feet.  That is why the lampstand was designed to cast light forward.  His light is intended to guide us.  While the light can represent Christ, I believe the lampstand is actually meant to represent the Spirit.  In Revelation 4:5, we read that there are seven lamps burning before God in His throne room.  These lamps are the sevenfold Spirit of God.  The Ark, Table, and Lampstand represent the trinity.  The ark represents the holiness of God, the table holds the bread of the presence, representing Christ, and the lampstand represents the Spirit.  One of the functions of the Spirit is to guide us.  The first thing God wanted to represent in the Tabernacle is His presence and the presence of the trinity.  Notice that these three items are made of pure gold or overlaid with pure gold.  The next few items we will read about are not made of gold.  This also demonstrates that these three items are designed to symbolize God and His character.

Questions:  Why did God choose almond blossoms?

Lessons:  It is important to realize that when God gave directions for the tabernacle, He did not start with the structure of the tent, He began with the items which represented Himself and His character.  I feel like a lot of times we ignore the character of God and focus instead on the structure and the logic of God and the lifestyle laid out in the Bible.  Before we get into the structure, we need to focus and learn about the person of God.  We need to meditate on His holiness, His presence, His guidance, etc.

Laws About the Sabbath and Festivals

Story:  Laws About the Sabbath and Festivals

Passage: Exodus 23:10-19

Characters:  God, Israel

Summary:    God gave Moses a set of laws about the Sabbath and feasts.  These will be outlined in the notes below.

  

Notes:  I don’t have as much as I want on this one right now.  I might have to add to it later if I think of more.  The first rule God gave Israel in this passage is the Sabbath year.  Every seventh year, they were to not sow or reap.  The fields were to grow whatever would grow naturally and the food would be for the poor and the beasts.  Basically, every seventh year, there was more food for the poor than those with fields.  God again sets the rule of resting on the Sabbath.  The purpose was that on the seventh day, servants, animals, and aliens would be refreshed.  This concept of rest is foreign to our western culture.  We go go go until the job is done.  If we’re resting we’re not being productive and thus we are failing.  God seems to promote a lifestyle of hard work at a slow pace.  It is okay and even necessary to rest every week.  Yes, you had to work hard to survive, but you also had to allow yourself to rest.  We may not work on Sunday in America, but we sure tend to fill our weekends up with activities which keep our weekends from being restful.  The idea is not so much to not work as it is to rest and relax and be refreshed.  God tells them to pay attention to Him and to not even mention other gods.  It wasn’t enough to not worship them; He didn’t even want them discussed.  That is how much He is jealous for the worship He deserves.  There were three feasts God mentioned in this passage.  The first is the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  We already have learned about this one.  This was to commemorate their deliverance from their bondage in Egypt and ultimately, it was also foreshadowing our deliverance from the bondage of sin.  The next feast is the Feast of the Harvest.  This was to be a feast of the first fruits of the harvest.  The final feast is the Feast of Ingathering.  This was at the end of the harvest.  I believe that these also have significance in the New Covenant as well.  Most feasts in the law were foreshadowing something in the future.  The harvest is compared to a lot of things throughout scripture.  Sharing the gospel is compared to sowing seed.  There is a sense of you reaping what you sow when it comes to your actions.  The most significant and applicable passage I can think of though is Matthew 9:37, “"The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.”  People’s souls are the harvest.  The Feast of the Harvest could well be foreshadowing this future harvest of souls and the Feast of Ingathering could be foreshadowing the end of this harvest.  I need to do a little more research on those feasts, but those are my initial thoughts.  God finishes by commanding that nothing leavened is to be included with His sacrifice.  The fat of the feast was not to be left until morning.  There is a sense that sacrifices are to be special and set apart  and there is also a sense of urgency about them.  Sacrifices are to be from the best of the first fruits.  It is significant when you give the best and first of the results of your hard work to God.  It shows humility and shows an awareness that though work was put into this harvest, it is God, and not our own work which caused this harvest.  A goat shall not be boiled in its mother’s milk.  I don’t know the point of this law, but I will add to this later if I think of it.

Questions:  Why the goat law?  What is the New Covenant significance of the Feast of the Harvest and the Feast of Ingathering?

Lessons:  I think we as a culture need to learn to rest.  It seems completely contrary to productivity.  Our culture looks at rest as waste.  This is obviously not how God viewed rest though.  I know for me, rest can help my work be more productive.  It was important to God that His people not be caught up with work.  If they became so busy they forgot God, that would be an issue.  I feel like many Christians in the West today have this very issue.  We need to make a definite effort to slow down and allow ourselves a regular period of rest.  

Laws About Social Justice

Story:  Laws About Social Justice

Passage: Exodus 22:16-23:9

Characters:  God, Israel

Summary:    God gave Moses a set of laws about social justice.  These will be outlined in the notes below.

  

Notes:  These are a variety of rules dealing with justice.  First, if a man seduces a woman of marriage age, he must marry her and pay the bride price.  If the father adamantly refuses to allow the marriage, he must still pay the price.  Sorceresses were not allowed to live.  It was forbidden to sleep with an animal.  Anyone who sacrifices to another god was to be set apart for destruction.  They were not to oppress a sojourner since they themselves were sojourners in Egypt.  We see this theme throughout the bible.  Don’t mistreat someone for a condition you once had too.  If you have been forgiven, you must be forgiving as well is an example we see in the New Testament.  Widows and orphans were not to be mistreated or God would kill you and leave your wife a widow and your child an orphan.  God obviously holds needy dependent people in high regard.  I am thankful for this since I am so dependent on Him that I am only alive because He cares for the needy like me!  If you lend money to the poor, you are not to charge interest.  If you take an item as a pledge from someone who has little, you are to return it before sundown.  In this passage God tells us something about Himself.  He says, “For I am compassionate”.  Here we have the “Old Testament God of wrath” telling us that he is compassionate.  Does that add up?  Yes it does!  He is compassionate to those who need Him and strict with those who try to make much of themselves!  He judges them at the standard they try to give themselves.  If they think they are as big as God, He will judge them at that standard, and they will fail.  If we humble ourselves and recognize our utter need for God, He will show us compassion and love.  The loving/wrathful paradox of God can be explained by His justice.  If we really want to act like we are as amazing as we so often think we are, we need to be willing to let Him judge us by our perfection.  We are not to revile God or curse a ruler over us.  God told Israel that with the full knowledge of the evil kings and dictators they would be under eventually, yet He still commands them to not curse a ruler.  This is an important lesson for us especially with our presidential elections coming up.  No matter how bad our president might seem, we are not to curse him.  God has given him authority over us and we need to respect that!  We are to offer the fullness of our harvest.  Actually, we are not just to offer it, but we are to not delay from offering it.  We are supposed to give freely and joyfully!  After all, our giving is just an outward way to acknowledge God’s hand in our possessions and blessings by giving it back to Him and trusting Him to provide.  The firstborn of animals and people was to be consecrated to God.  Flesh torn by wild animals was not to be eaten.  False reports were forbidden.  You were to be honest in court.  There is a sense in this passage of not going with the flow and standing alone if you have to when it comes to matters of justice.  If no one else backs you up, you are still to give an honest account.  You are to help your enemy.  If you find his livestock going astray or suffering under a burden, you are to step in and help.  Do not kill the innocent.  Take no bribes for it subverts the cause of the innocent.  These rules emphasize honesty, justice, and caring for the poor.  They show that you are not to judge someone for something you once did yourself.  It also introduces the concept of loving your enemy.  By the time Jesus lived, this concept had been all but forgotten.  However, it was in the law the whole time!  From these passages, it looks like God was a God of the poor, oppresses, and needy!  I honestly think it can be summed up as our God is a God of the humble. 

Questions:  This passage is honestly fairly straightforward.

Lessons:  We see in this passage that God cares about justice.  We are not to take advantage of the needy, we are not to convict the innocent, and we are not to oppress those who have little.  These passages after the Ten Commandments focused on worship, the value of life, responsibility, and now justice.  I would say that this is a good look into the qualities and virtues that God finds extremely important!  We could learn a lot by striving to live lives focused on worship and justice while taking full responsibility for our actions and holding life incredibly valuable.  

Laws About Restitution

Story:  Laws About Restitution

Passage: Exodus 21:33-22:15

Characters:  God, Israel

Summary:    God gave Moses a set of laws about restitution.  These will be outlined in the notes below.

  

Notes:  The rules continue with rules designed towards how to pay someone back for loss of property.  First, if an animal falls into a pit, the owner of the pit pays for the animal and the dead animal is his responsibility.  If someone’s ox kills another ox, the two parties sell the live ox and split both the profits, and the dead ox.  If the live ox was known to be prone to violence and it’s owner did not keep it away from other animals, it’s owner replaces the dead animal.  If an ox or a sheep is stolen and sold or killed, the thief owes the owner of the stolen animal four sheep or five oxen depending on what was stolen.  If a thief is caught breaking in and is killed, there is no bloodguilt on the killer.  The passage then says if the sun has risen on the thief, then there is bloodguilt.  All I can figure from this and from reading other translations is that if the thief is caught at night, he can be killed.  But if he is caught in the daytime, there is no reason to kill him.  If nothing else, this probably discouraged nighttime theft and discouraged theft in general.  A thief was to pay for what he stole and if he could not, he was to be sold.  He was to pay double what was stolen.  If a man lets his animals feed in another man’s field, he is to pay back what was eaten from the best of his fields.  If a fire inadvertently is started which burns grain, the man who started the fire pays for everything burned.  If money or goods are given to a neighbor to keep safe and they are stolen and the thief is found, he is to pay back double.  If the thief is not caught, the owner comes before God to find out if it was stolen because of his negligence.  If there is a breach of trust resulting in a dispute of ownership of an item, the case was to be brought before God and the person found to be wrong was to pay double to his neighbor.  This would discourage any dishonesty because if you were the one lying, you ended up losing more than you would gain by lying.  If an animal dies in a neighbor’s care, God allowed an oath to be made in His name that the neighbor was innocent.  The owner was to accept that oath.  If the animal is stolen, the neighbor was to pay for the stolen animal.  If it is killed by beasts, he has to make no restitution.  If a borrowed animal dies in the neighbor’s presence, there is to be no restitution.  I guess this is because it would be known that he was not responsible and tried to save the animal.  If the animal was hired, its death is covered by the fee to hire the animal.  This is the first recorded example of insurance!  These laws can be summed up with one sentence.  If you are responsible for someone else’s loss of property, you are responsible to replace either the property, or the value of the property.  The only other law sandwiched in here which is unusual is the law allowing thieves to be killed at night.  I find it interesting that dishonesty and thievery results in a greater payment than the value of what was lost.  This really discourages stealing and dishonesty by making it riskier to steal or lie.

Questions:  Why were thieves not to be killed in the daytime?  Were there easy ways to utilize loopholes in this system?  Did the culture have enough accountability that these loopholes would not be taken advantage of?

Lessons:  We see the importance of responsibility and fairness.  Even if the loss of property was an accident, it is to be repaid in full.  If you were responsible in any way, you did not have to have had any ill intent to get the punishment.  In the same way, we may not have intentionally intended to rebel against God, but we did, and thus we deserve the full punishment for sinners.  Thanks to His grace, He bore that punishment for us!

Laws About Slaves

Story:  Laws About Slaves

Passage: Exodus 21:1-32

Characters:  God, Israel

Summary:    God gave Moses a set of laws about slaves.  These will be outlined in the notes below.

  

Notes:  This is an interesting passage.  Does God condone slavery?  Is the Bible at odds with our view of human rights?  This is an issue that is beyond my knowledge.  What I can tell you from this passage is that the slavery mentioned here is very different from what we think of when we think of slavery.  The first rule was that you could only have a slave for 6 years and then you had to let him go free.  He must leave the same way he entered slavery whether it is married or single.  This seems cruel to me if he got married when he was a slave then he has to leave his family behind.  If a slave decides he loves his master and wants to continue serving him, his master would pierce his ear with an awl and he would become his slave forever.  This concept of a bondservant is used in the New Testament to describe our relationship with God.  We are slaves to the Spirit by our own choice.  We are no bound to Him forever.  I could see these laws being abused if a master forced his slave to marry for the purpose of hoping he would not leave when he was freed.  The fact that a provision was made for a slave to choose to serve his master forever shows you that these slaves were not necessarily mistreated.  The rules were different for female slaves.  Female slaves were basically wives to their masters.  If the master was not pleased with her, he could not sell her because he had broken faith with her.  It is his fault not hers.  If she is for his son, he must treat her as a daughter.  If he marries another wife while he still has her as a slave, he is not allowed to diminish her food, clothing, or marital rights.  A female slave had equal footing legally to a wife.  If the master does not keep these rules she is to be freed without compensation.  If a man kills another man on accident, he is allowed to flee and take refuge.  If it is intentional though, he is to die.  Not even an attempt to take refuge at the altar would save him.  Striking your parents was punished by death.  This obvious importance of the parent child relationship is partially because that is one of the relationship dynamics we have with God, our father.  You were also not allowed to curse your parents.  Stealing a man and selling him earned the death penalty.  This in and of itself distinguishes slavery in this passage from the African slave trade.  If a man injures another in a fight, the man who is responsible must compensate the victim for his time until he is healed.  If a man strikes his slave, male or female, and they die, he is to be avenged.  The passage does state that his slave is his money.  A slave seems to be considered property, but property to be respected and treated well.  If a pregnant woman is struck, the responsible person shall pay what the husband decides.  If there is harm, the payment must be equal to the damage.  If a man strikes his slave and causes permanent damage, the slave is allowed to go free.  If an ox gores a man, the ox is killed and not eaten.  The owner is safe unless he knew his ox was a danger and did nothing about it.  This irresponsibility was a huge deal.  In this passage we see that life and parents are held in high esteem.  Disrespecting either was a huge offense and usually resulted in the death penalty.  We also see that slavery was very different from the slavery we once had in America.  Slaves were property, but were not to be abused.  They were to be treated in such a way that they may voluntarily remain serving their masters for life.  A slave was not to be kidnapped and sold and could not serve more than 6 years involuntarily. 

Questions:  Why were people allowed to be property?  Was God okay with the concept of female slaves?

Lessons:  We see in this passage how valuable life is and the parent child relationship is to God.  We need to examine our hearts and make sure that we respect and honor our parents the way we are told to in the Bible.  You may not agree with your parents always, but their position of authority over you was given to them by god whether they know it or not and that position alone deserves your respect and honor.  

Laws About Altars

Story:  Laws About Altars

Passage: Exodus 20:22-26

Characters:  God, Israel

Summary:    God gave Moses a set of laws about altars.  First He repeated that they should never have any idols.  Then he said altars should be made of earth.  If it is made of stone, it must not be hewn, and there must not be stairs leading up to it. 

  

Notes:  God begins by reminding the people that they have heard His voice and seen His presence.  He uses this to remind them to not make idols.  His logic is basically that they had seen His power and majesty and heard His voice.  They know He is alive, so they should not worship something that is not alive.  We will see how they utterly fail at this later.  God specifies He wants an altar made of earth.  He wants a simple looking altar.  The glorious thing about an altar of God is not the altar itself, but the God who the altar is for.  Ultimately, the greatest sacrifice was made on an altar of two pieces of wood.  God promises in the middle of this passage to bless the people wherever they go.  If the altar is made of stone, it must not be cut stone.  The glory and praise for the altar should not go to anyone but God.  Rather that the material being crafted by a human, it is to be natural stone crafted by God.  There were to be no steps leading up to the altar so that their nakedness would not be exposed.  Going up stairs would reveal flesh.  It is hard to keep your legs covered going up stairs.  I believe this is symbolic of the fact that our flesh is in perfect conflict with His holiness.  Our flesh has no place at the altar. 

Questions:  Why could there be no stairs?  Why did God not want altars made of other materials?

Lessons:  We see in this passage that God is really emphasizing that He does not want us to worship idols.  This is a big deal to God.  In fact, our attitude towards worship in general is a big deal and it dominates a good portion of the law.  It is important that our worship and praise goes where it deserves.  We need to worship the creator and not His creation.

The Ten Commandments

Story:  The Ten Commandments

Passage: Exodus 20:1-21

Characters:  Moses, God

Summary:    God gave Moses a list of commandments to follow.  The Israelites freaked out when they saw the mountain smoking and heard the thunder that was God’s voice.  They wanted to draw back and wanted Moses to speak to them instead of God.  The people drew away while Moses drew closer.

  

Notes:  The Ten Commandments.  This is one of the most known passages in the Bible.  When some people think of Christians this is what they think of.  God begins by stating who He is.  He is the Lord our God, who brought them out of Egypt, out of slavery.  Some might think that it is odd that God reminds them that He had just freed them from slavery and now He was going to give them a bunch of different rules and laws to follow.  The difference is that a slave does not legitimately owe anything to his master.  We do legitimately owe something to God.  He has freed us and allows us to live.  His holiness demands our holiness.  We obviously fall short, but these rules are a way for us to attempt to show our submission to the only one who deserves total authority over us.  The first four commands can be summarized as loving God.  He is to be our only God, we are to have no idols, we are to not take His name in vain, and we are to keep the Sabbath holy.  The next six are about loving others.  Honor your parents, don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t bear false witness, and don’t covet.  In a lot of ways, these all actually have to do with honoring God.  I am going to try to break down each commandment, but first I want you to prepare yourself.  Christians tend to get all excited about sins that they don’t commit and overlook the ones which they do commit.  We tend to look at murder as much worse than pride.  I will submit that each of these ten commandments is equal in magnitude and I will try to explain why I think that.  Each commandment is intended to ensure we keep God in His rightful place and don’t lower Him.  We need to make sure we equalize sin in our lives.  All sin separates us from a holy God and is all serious.  Just because you haven’t killed someone does not make you a better person than a murderer.  Anyway, moving on, the first commandment is to have no other God’s besides the one true God.  This is pretty straightforward.  If we worship another God, we are lowering God and elevating something false.  Next we are to have no idols.  The commandment seems to talk about physical idols.  God is a jealous God.  He is not jealous of us, He is jealous of our attention.  He wants our love and worship and He hates it when we turn that towards something that does not deserve it.  An idol is just an object that we worship and give our attention instead of God.  Today, this could be money, property, a celebrity, sports, etc.  If we evaluate where our attention lies, it is either on God, or on something that does not deserve our worship.  God says that worshipping idols will result in punishment even to future generations.  However, God’s love will also reach to future generations of those who love Him.  Next we are told to not take God’s name in vain.  This is a big deal that we tend to brush over.  Think of one of the most important people in the world.  Their name commands respect.  You wouldn’t just throw their name around in a conversation without some sense of respect.  For example, I am not a huge fan of our current president, but when I think about or talk about Obama, I have respect for him and for his position.  I try my best to not disrespect him even if I disagree with him.  God commands an infinite amount of respect.  We throw God’s name around like He’s just a concept that we use to get what we want.  If we truly grasped His holiness and majesty, I suspect we would be cautious to even talk about Him out of fear that we might misrepresent Him or disrespect Him.  This commandment is about so much more than using His name as a curse word!  It has to do with using His name as any normal name.  The next command has to do with the Sabbath day.  God’s reasoning is that He rested on the seventh day of creation, so we should rest too.  It is interesting that He has designed us to need rest.  Especially in today’s culture, it is hard to slow down and just rest, but God wanted that for us so much He put it into the law!  The Sabbath was to be a holy day of rest.  Now come the commands dealing with other people.  We are to honor our father and mother.  This comes with the promise that if you honor your parents, you will live long.  Ultimately, by dishonoring your parents, you are dishonoring God.  Not only did He choose who your parents would be, but He is ultimately our father and by showing a lack of respect for parental authority we show a lack of respect for His relationship to us. Next is the command to not murder.  This word includes taking a human life out of carelessness or recklessness.  It does not have to be intentional.  Taking a life if huge!  You are destroying someone made in the image of God.  Next is the command to not commit adultery.  A lack of faithfulness is a lack of commitment.  God requires commitment from us and if we cannot commit to our wives how can we commit to Him?  In fact, many times humanity is described as an adulterous woman when we sin.  We are told to not steal.  Stealing displays a lack of contentment as well as a lack of respect for someone else’s property.  Not bearing false witness is important because God is truth.  Anytime we speak something other than the truth, we are not following the God of truth.  The final command is to not covet.  This is sort of the source of the commands to not steal or commit adultery.  When we covet, we are blatantly expressing jealousy and a lack of contentment for what we have.  Coveting also tends to elevate physical things to a higher place than they deserve.  If you are truly satisfied in Christ, you have no reason to be dissatisfied with what He has given you.  Every one of these sins has a lack of respect or honor for God at it’s heart.  Thus both coveting and murder are equally wrong on a spiritual level.  One obviously has larger consequences in the physical world however.

 The final part of this passage describes the peoples’ reaction to God giving the commandments to Moses.  They were terrified by the noise.  They stood as far as they could and asked Moses to speak to them instead of God because they were afraid they would die.  When they encountered the holiness of God, they realized their own nakedness and they feared for their lives.  Throughout the Bible, whenever someone truly encounters God, they fear they will die.  When our imperfection is exposed to His perfection we see our true frailty and we are overcome with awe and fear of the Holy One.  Have you ever wondered how every knee could bow when Christ returns?  It is because there is no other response available to imperfect humans in the presence of a holy God.  Moses told the people that God had come to give them a fear of Him to keep them from sin.  We will see how that plays out in future posts.  I think the final verse of this passage is telling.  The people stood far off while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.  The Israelites shrunk back from God while Moses drew close.  Moses had the same fear they had when he first encountered God in the burning bush, but now that he ahd submitted to God’s authority, He wanted nothing more than to be in His presence.  I feel like this is summed up in James 4:8, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”  When we allow God to take the highest place in our lives, we have nothing to fear.  But when we try to occupy that highest place ourselves, we have every reason to be terrified of God as the people were.

Questions:  Was Aaron with Moses when these commands were given?  What was his reaction to this?  Was everybody else afraid to be anywhere near the mountain?  Why did God design us to need rest?

Lessons:  There are a lot of lessons in this passage and many of them I have covered in the notes section.  This is a significant passage because it shows how important it is to God that we keep Him where He belongs and remain humble ourselves.  Many times we judge people who cannot keep these specific laws when we are just as guilty of lowering God and raising ourselves.  The point of these commandments is not for us to condemn those who cannot keep them, but rather they are for us to see the standard we are supposed to hold to and to see how we fail and need the blood of Christ to save us.  We need to be careful to use this passage as a tool to lead us to the cross instead of a tool to make us feel like we don’t need the cross compared to others.