Colossians 1:24-29

Paul now shifts his focus to his ministry to the church.  Paul rejoices in his sufferings for the Colossians.  It is weird for us to think of rejoicing in our sufferings.  We will see that Paul’s view of suffering for the church is very different than ours.  Just like in everything else, Paul’s focus is on Christ.  He says he is filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is the church.  Does this imply that Christ’s afflictions were lacking?  Definitely not!  I think what Paul is saying is quite profound though.  As Christians, we are the body of Christ.  Christ lived a life of hardship and sacrifice for our sake.  He died a horrible death to bring us to life.  When we as the church become the body of Christ, we inherit His affliction to some degree.  In order to bring the good news of life to the world, the Body of Christ must sacrifice itself like Christ sacrificed His body while on earth.  Paul sees His ministry as being according to the stewardship from God given to him to make the word of God fully known.  This is not Paul’s ministry, it is God’s ministry, a part of which He has entrusted to Paul.  This is huge when it comes to ministry!  We tend to make ministry personal.  When we succeed it is awesome for us and when we fail or hit a rough spot, we are depressed and feel like failures.  If we look at it as God’s ministry and affliction as us sharing in the afflictions of Christ, this should completely change the way ministry works.  Our focus needs to be on God and not ourselves.  Paul then calls the word of God a mystery hidden for ages but now revealed.  Why was the mystery hidden for so long?  I don’t know and may never know, but the bottom line is it has been revealed to us now and that should prompt a response.  Our lives should be focused on explaining this mystery to those who have not heard it yet!  Paul states that God has chosen for the saints to make known how great the glory of this mystery is among the gentiles.  This mystery is Christ in us, the hope of glory.  This really is a mystery.  We had no hope and then Christ came into us and now we have a hope.  This is profound!  Often we take it for granted, but this is a huge truth!  We are to proclaim Christ, teaching everyone with all wisdom.  It is important to use wisdom when sharing the gospel, but that doesn’t mean to be selective.  We are to proclaim Christ to everyone!  Not just our neighbors, not just Americans, not just people in far away countries, we are to proclaim Christ to everyone!  I don’t believe Christians should have the approach of having been called to a particular area.  We are called to proclaim Christ to everyone!  This is obviously impossible on our own, but it is possible for the full body.  This is the ministry for which Paul toils, struggling with all his energy that God powerfully works in him.  Paul is energized by God to be able to minister.  This does not mean he has it easy.  He says he toils, struggling with all his energy.  God apparently gave Paul enough energy for ministry, but not any more than enough.  Even with God’s help, it is an exhausting struggle for him.  This is a little scary, but also really encouraging!  If you are worn out and burnt out, it’s okay!  Even Paul struggled and was worn out.  Instead of looking at how effective you want to be for Christ, compare how effective you are with Christ to how effective you were before Christ.  When you do that, you should see the impact of the energy that God powerfully works within you.

Colossians 1:15-23

 Colossians 1 continues with Paul talking about the preeminence of Christ.  He is the image of the invisible God.  This is huge in my opinion.  There is so much about God we can’t know.  We can’t see Him, we can’t physically touch Him.  Christ was the image of the invisible God.  Who Christ touched, God touched.  What Christ said, God said.  Jesus Christ is our physical example of the character of God.  By Christ, everything was created.  Everything includes things on Earth and in heaven, things visible and things invisible, thrones, dominions, rulers, and authorities.  All things were created through Him and for Him.  This implies that there is a vast spiritual world out there which was also created by Christ.  Sometimes I wonder what this world is like.  Christ is before all things and in Him all things hold together.  He is the head of the church.  He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent.  This passage emphasizes the importance of Christ.  It explains how He was from the beginning and controls everything.  In fact, creation exists because of Christ and for Christ.  I think the name Paul has for Christ, the firstborn from the dead, is interesting.  We think of Christ being the only son of God.  We don’t think of him as being the firstborn from the dead.  This implies that there will be others bon from the dead.  Christ had to be raised from the dead in order for us to be raised from the dead.  Paul says the fullness of God was pleased to dwell in Christ and through Him, to reconcile all things on heaven and earth to Himself.  When I first read this I wonder what in heaven had to be reconciled.  The thought I have on this is that nothing in heaven had to necessarily be wrong.  Creation was unable to reconcile itself with heaven.  Christ came to Earth and was fully man and reconciled us to Him.  He was also fully God and as such heaven was also reconciled to Him.  So through Christ all things were reconciled to Him.  Through Him we have access to God.  Paul continues to say that we who were once alienated are now reconciled in His body through His human body and human death.  We are reconciled so He can present us as holy and beyond reproach.  This comes with a condition though.  We must continue in the faith, stable and steadfast.  We can’t shift from the hope of the gospel, which has been proclaimed in all creation.  Not only does Paul say that the gospel has been proclaimed in all creation, which is significant, he also says we must not shift from that hope.  Does this mean it is possible to lose our reconciliation?  I honestly don’t know.  My personal belief is that we cannot, but passages like this don’t sit quite right with me.  Anyway, these are my thoughts.  Whether they are right or not I don’t know.  I just hope I don’t lead anyone in the wrong direction who reads this!

Colossians Intro

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything!  I fizzled out in Exodus and got busy with wedding planning.  I have been reading Colossians recently though so I’m gonna try to go through Colossians on here now.  We’ll start with Colossians 1:1-14.  My format will be less structured with these.  I’m changing everything up!  Paul identifies himself in the beginning of this book as an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.  His apostleship has nothing to do with who he is or what he has done.  He is an apostle because of the will of God.  Timothy is also writing this letter. 

The recipients of this letter are the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Collosae.  Collosae was the smallest church written to by Paul.  It is located east of Ephesus and was mostly known for its wool trade.  Paul wrote this letter while in prison in Rome.  He probably wrote it about the same time as Ephesians and Philemon.  All three letters were delivered by the same people.  There was a false teaching going around at this time which basically undermined the power and authority of Christ.  Paul was writing this letter partly to set them straight.  The preeminence of Christ is one of the major themes of Colossians. 

Paul finishes his introduction with the greeting, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father”.  He establishes God as our father and attributes both grace and peace to Him.  We are four lines into the book and Paul has already attributed grace, peace, and his apostleship to God. 

Paul begins his letter by praising the Colossian church.  He lists all the reasons he is thankful to God for them.  He is thankful to God because of their faith in Christ and for the love they have for the saints.  He attributes this faith and love to the hope they have laid up for them in heaven.  This is significant for several reasons.  Once again, Paul attributes the Colossians faith and love to the Father.  Secondly, the Colossian church was apparently known for their faith and their love for their brothers.  Their motivation is their hope laid up for them in heaven.  If we ever find it difficult to have faith or love others, we might want to evaluate what our hope is placed in.  Is it placed in affirmation?  Attention from our friends and family?  Do we hope that we won’t feel guilty if we love others?  Or do we love because of the hope we have in Christ.  Is our focus on things of this world or on things of heaven.   The Colossians were placing their hope in heaven and Paul was thanking God for that.  Paul then states that this hope comes through the word of truth, the gospel.  The gospel came to Collosae as it was coming to the whole world.  The gospel was bearing fruit and growing around the world as people were hearing and understanding the grace of God in truth.  When our faith is healthy, we should bear fruit.  Often we look at fruit as only the visible “proof” of our faith.  We ignore the entire purpose of fruit.  Fruit is designed by God to bear seeds and help plants reproduce.  We are to bear fruit to help the gospel spread and grow.  If the church is healthy, it will bear fruit and spread.  Apparently, Epaphras was the man who brought the gospel to Collosae and then reported back to Paul and Timothy.  I find it important that Paul seems to indicate that the gospel didn’t grow in Collosae or around the world until it had been heard and understood.  This underscores to me the importance of discipleship.  Faith comes by hearing, but growth comes through understanding.  It is not enough to just tell people the good news of Christ’s sacrifice for us, we also have to help them understand the grace of God in truth. 

Paul then outlines his prayer for the Colossian church.  He prays that they would be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.  This makes sense; we all want to know God’s will.  But what are our motives?  Paul seems to indicate that our reason for knowing God’s will is to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in knowledge of God.  We should want to know God’s will for our lives not for our benefit, but so that we would please God, bear fruit, and increase our knowledge of Him.  I know I personally feel like often I want to know God’s will so that I can know what my future holds or so I can prepare for the future.  My desire for knowledge of His will is partly for my own benefit.  We should know His will for His benefit.  Paul then asks that the Colossian church would be strengthened with all power according to God’s glorious might.  The purpose for this strengthening is for endurance and patience with joy.  Many times I think we ask God to help us avoid hardship or to give us want we want quickly.  What we need to ask for is strength so that we can endure and be patient with joy.  Along with this strengthening we should give thanks to the Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints.  Once again, it appears that our focus should be on heaven.  It appears that Paul is praying that when hardship and persecution come, the Colossians would have strength to endure by thanking God for their salvation.  Once again, the focus should be on Christ and not the world.  We have been transferred from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of Christ, who has redeemed us.  This is huge!  We need to be careful to remember this and not focus on our earthly problems.  

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 Court of the Tabernacle

Story:  The Court of the Tabernacle

Passage: Exodus 27:9-19

Characters:  God, Moses

Summary:    God gives Moses instructions for the tabernacle court.

  

Notes:  I don’t have a ton to say about the court of the tabernacle.  It was a much larger area than the tabernacle itself.  The pillars around the court were to be made of bronze.  The curtains were to be blue, purple, and scarlet.  Silver was used in the support of the Tabernacle.  Once again, we see gold is not being used.  These items do not represent the Father, Son, or Spirit like the gold ark, table, and lamp stand do.  Of particular interest to me is verse 19.  All the utensils of the Tabernacle were to be made of bronze.  Bronze feels like a very human metal.  Its use in the Bible is linked to sin and sacrifice.  Unlike gold, bronze is not pure.  It is neither precious nor pure.  I feel like this makes it a good representative of humanity.  The fact that the utensils were made of bronze shows us the impurity of our sinful nature.  Unlike the items in the Most Holy Place or the Holy Place, these utensils are tarnished.  We have a need for redemption. 

Questions:  Why is bronze used outside of the Holy of Holies?

Lessons:  We are sinful and impure.  Just like bronze was not found in the Most Holy Place, our impurity cannot mix with the pure holiness of God.  We are sinful and are impure.  In the New Testament, Christ is killed by humans.  The pure and spotless lamb is slaughtered by impure humanity as a sacrifice for our atonement.  The bronze utensils in the Tabernacle are a beautiful foreshadowing of our ultimate redemption through Christ!

The Bronze Altar

Story:  The Bronze Altar

Passage: Exodus 27:1-8

Characters:  God, Moses

Summary:    God gives Moses instructions for the bronze altar. 

  

Notes:  The altar was to be made of acacia wood.  It was not to be overlaid with gold however.  It was to be overlaid with bronze.  This was for practical reasons as well as aesthetic reasons I believe.  Bronze would not be affected by fire and thus it was a good choice to use on the altar.  We also see that bronze was already used for the curtain rings outside of the Holy of Holies.  Bronze seems to be the metal of choice in the Holy Place of the tabernacle.  The altar was to have four horns, one at each corner.  These horns would point all directions and symbolized what the blood of the sacrifice covered.  The atoning blood would be applied to all four horns.  The utensils for the altar were also made of bronze.  There was a bronze screen placed in the altar as well to allow the offerings to fall through the altar.  Basically, it was a hollow box with a screen, completely covered in bronze.  The Hebrew word for altar is derived from the word used to describe the slaughtering of animals for sacrifices or eating.  It was basically a killing place.  In Hebrews 13:10, we are told we have an altar from which those in the tabernacle have no right to eat.  The cross was the killing place where the perfect Lamb was sacrificed. 

Questions:  Why is bronze used outside of the Holy of Holies?

Lessons:  Christ is our sacrifice.  The cross was the altar He was sacrificed on.  Just as the horns of the altar reached out in all directions and showed how the atoning blood of the sacrifice covers us all, the cross also covers us all with the atoning blood of Christ!

The Tabernacle

Story:  The Tabernacle

Passage: Exodus 26

Characters:  God, Moses

Summary:    God gives Moses instructions for the Tabernacle. 

  

Notes:  I have been putting this post off because it is long and confusing and full of details which I was tempted to say are meaningless.  However, these details come straight from God so I am going to dive in and look at them.  God wanted Israel to build a tabernacle.  The previous three items were to be placed in the tabernacle.  I am going to list the things God specifically asked for and then if I have an idea of what they represent, I will try to communicate that.  Most of this is speculation unfortunately.  Here goes, the details of the tabernacle:

Dimensions -  God supplied specific dimensions for the cover, the curtains, and the frame of the tabernacle.  He even had enough detail to instruct what to do with overlap.  I believe He gave them the dimensions so they would know how much material they would need.  His structure is both solid, and portable.  It comes apart fairly easily for when they had to move around.  The basic design was that there was a room made of an elaborate colorful curtain covering a frame.  This was covered by a plain piece of material.  This was then covered by two more coverings made of watertight animal skin. 

Colors – God specified the colors to be used for the curtains.  They were to be blue, purple, and scarlet with images of Cherubim worked into them.  These same colors were used for the veil.  I did some research on the use of colors in the Bible and I may post that sometime.  Basically what I found was that blue represents the law, purple represents royalty, and scarlet represents both sin and cleansing.  I find it fascinating that if you were to be in the Holy of Holies with the Ark, you would be surrounded with gold, blue, purple, and scarlet.  You would be in a place where holiness, royalty, the law, and cleansing are all combined together.  This is a beautiful picture of the plan God had for humanity and it is communicated purely through the colors He specified for His Tabernacle. 

Clasp material – God specified the material of the clasps used to hold the curtains together.  The innermost curtain would have gold clasps and the next curtain would have bronze.  Obviously we see the continuation of gold being the only metal visible in the Holy of Holies.  This purity and holiness is really powerful if you think about it. 

Material of the curtains – The materials used from the inside out are, fine linen, goat hair, rams’ skins, and goatskins. 

Material of frames – The frames of the Tabernacle would also be visible from the inside and thus they were also acacia wood overlaid with gold. 

The veil material – The veil would be the same material as the curtains, but it would serve a different function.  The inside of the Tabernacle would be holy ground, but the Ark would be even holier.  The phrase “even holier” seems redundant.  How can something be more holy?  The point of this distinction is that God is infinitely more holy than we can comprehend!  God has us picture holiness, and then tells us He is even more holy than that.  The Ark which represents the presence and holiness of God is in the Most Holy Place.  This was the least accessible part of the Tabernacle.  A common person could only access God through the High Priest, and even he could only enter the Most Holy place once a year I believe. (We will read more about this later and I will edit this if I am wrong)  The holiness of God keeps us from Him.  We cannot survive being exposed to this Holiness without His mercy!  Because of this, I am fascinated by the positioning of the other pieces of furniture we have read about.

Position of the table and lampstand – If you remember, the lampstand seems to represent the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the table for the Bread of the Presence seems to represent the physical presence of God manifest in Christ.  We now know that the Spirit lives in us as Christians and guides us closer to God.  We also know now that Christ came to Earth and acted as our High priest.  He was the go between us and a Holy God.  As such, the Spirit and the Son are like the intermediaries through whom we can access the Spirit.  Thus the son and the Spirit are uniquely accessible to us in a way the holiness represented by the Father is not.  This is not to say that the Son and the Spirit are not holy, but rather that by God’s perfect design, this is the way He extends His mercy to us and allows us access to a Holy God.  Although these things were not fully understood in Moses’ time, we see that both the Table and the Lampstand are positioned outside of the Most Holy Place and are rather in the Holy Place.  As you can see, this communicates that these two are Holy, but accessible.  The Table is located just outside the veil, and when Christ was crucified, we read in the gospels that the veil was torn in two symbolizing that we now have access to the Father in ways that we never had before.  If you were to enter the temple after the veil was torn, you would see the Ark of the Covenant with the Table of the Bread of the Presence between you and the Ark.  I think this is a powerful picture of God’s plan for restoration of us to Him and it was all symbolized in the tabernacle in Moses’ day.

Questions:  Is this interpretation of the Tabernacle correct? Does it make sense?  What else is symbolized in the design of the tabernacle?

Lessons:  The Tabernacle shows us that from the beginning, God had a plan to restore us to Himself.  Take a moment and just worship the Holy God who loved us enough to restore us to Him even in the middle of our rebellion against Him!  Worship Him for His unchanging mercy and grace!

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.

The Table for Bread

Story:  The Table for Bread

Passage: Exodus 25:23-30

Characters:  God, Moses

Summary:    God gives Moses instructions for the Table for Bread. 

  

Notes:  Moses was to build a table.  Like the ark, the table was to be made from acacia wood.  It was to be overlaid with pure gold and have a gold molding around it.  It would have legs but it would also be carried with poles.  It seems that like the ark, the table was not to be touched.  Everything would be overlaid with gold.  The plates and dishes and bowls for the table were also to be made of gold.  At the end of the passage we see what the table is actually for.  The bread of the Presence is to be on the table regularly.  God was now symbolizing His presence through bread.  This obviously is paralleled when Christ calls Himself the Bread of Life. 

Questions:  Why acacia wood?

Lessons:  The table was to be used to hold the bread of the Presence.  Once again, it is to be overlaid in gold.  Once again, God’s priority for the items of the tabernacle is the items which symbolize His presence.  Today, the Bread of Life lives in us.  God’s is always present.  We may not have a golden table to show it, but we have the Holy Spirit.

The Ark of the Covenant

Story:  The Ark of the Covenant

Passage: Exodus 25:10-22

Characters:  God, Moses

Summary:    God gives Moses instructions for the Ark of the Covenant. 

  

Notes:  The Ark of the Covenant is an interesting article.  It is the first item which God gives directions to build.  The purpose of the Ark is found in verse 22.  “There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak to you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel.”  This was to be where God presided.  The Ark was to be a physical object designed to show God’s presence and His holiness.  The ark was to be made from acacia wood, but overlaid in gold.  The entire thing would be covered in gold.  This would be an incredibly beautiful and precious item!  It appears that God saw gold as the metal which best captures His holiness.  Even though the ark would be made of wood, it would be covered with gold.  It was to be fairly simple.  It was a golden box with a golden lid.  The mercy seat is where we started seeing some intricacy.  There were to be two golden cherubim made of a single piece of gold as the lid of the Ark.  Their wings were to overshadow the Ark and their faces were to face the center.  God said He would meet them from the middle of the mercy seat.  These heavenly worshippers were facing the center and worshipping.  The lid is called the mercy seat.  I don’t know exactly why it is called that, but I suspect it is because mercy has to be involved whenever God directly interacts with humanity.  This was the seat where He would show mercy to Israel.  This is the first indication of how much mercy is an aspect of God’s character!  The first item He wants built for the tabernacle is one which directly represents His presence.  There are three main concepts which He wants portrayed with this Ark: holiness, worship, and mercy.  I find that incredible!  God was going to make Himself present to imperfect Israel and the attributes He wanted portrayed in His presence were holiness, worship, and mercy.  One other aspect of the ark is that Israel was instructed to place their testimony in the Ark.  God wanted this item for His presence to contain proof of His presence.  He would provide testimony of His presence and this belonged in the Ark.  The Ark is referred to as both the Ark of the Covenant, and the Ark of the Testimony.

Questions:  Why was everything overlaid in gold?  Why was the Ark to be carried with poles?

Lessons:  Holiness, worship, and mercy are the focus of the Ark of the Covenant.  Take some time to just think about why God would choose these things to communicate through the Ark of the Testimony.

Contributions for the Sanctuary

Story:  Contributions for the Sanctuary

Passage: Exodus 25:1-9

Characters:  God, Moses

Summary:    God tells Moses to take a collection of materials for the Tabernacle.

  

Notes:  At first glance, we are entering a boring part of the Bible.  Who really cares about all the dimensions and materials of a temple or tabernacle?  In reality, this is a really powerful section of the Bible.  The God of the universe has decided to dwell among humanity.  He can represent this any way He wants and He chose to symbolize His presence with a tabernacle.  Every detail of this tabernacle was laid out by God Himself.  Thus, the design shows us what was important enough to the God of the Universe to include in the symbol of His dwelling among Israel.  I am going to try to dig deep and try to learn about God’s character and plans for humanity based on what He specifically wanted in this sanctuary.  This passage just sets up the design by giving us a list of materials that would be needed for the tabernacle.  This is not a random material list; God has chosen specific colors and materials for His sanctuary.  God warns Moses to make the tabernacle and its furniture exactly like God says.  This is an important deal to God, so it should be to us as well. 

Questions:  The ESV calls for goatskins.  This possibly means dolphin skin or dugong skins.  What type of skin is this?  Why did God want Israel to build a tabernacle?  Why did God choose the materials He asked for?  Why did God choose blue, scarlet, and purple threads?

Lessons:   This is a big deal! Israel just made a covenant with God and God is going to dwell among them in a way that they can physically sense.  He has chosen to show His glory through a tabernacle.  When you think about it for a little bit, you can see how informative and important His description of the tabernacle will be! We need to be careful not to just discount parts of the Bible that don’t appear to pertain to us.  The entire Bible can teach us about the character of God.  

The Covenant Confirmed

Story:  The Covenant Confirmed

Passage: Exodus 24

Characters:  God, Israel, Israel’s leaders

Summary:    God has Moses and Israel’s leaders come close to the mountain and He shows Himself to them.  Moses reads the law to the nation and they commit to follow it.  Moses goes up the mountain into the presence of God. 

  

Notes:  God requested that Moses, Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu along with seventy elders come up to the Lord to worship Him.  This is a pivotal moment in Israel’s history and God wanted to make His covenant with all the leadership of Israel.  These were to be the leaders of Israel over the coming years.  Before they approached the mountain, Moses read the law to the people of Israel.  The people answered in unity that they would do everything the Lord told them to do.  Moses wrote down the law and then set up an altar and twelve pillars.  This represented the twelve tribes of Israel under the leadership of God.  Moses had young men sacrifice oxen to the Lord and half of the blood was poured on the altar.  Blood is hugely significant in the covenant we make with God.  This is because blood represents life.  Our covenant with God is one of sacrificing our life and accepting His life.  Moses once again read the words of the law to the people of Israel and once again they promised to obey.  Moses threw the other half of the blood on the people and declared it the blood of the covenant the Lord made with Israel.  Then Moses and the leaders of Israel went up and saw God standing on a clear sapphire floor.  God spared them and let them see this vision of Him.  The passage says they beheld God, and ate and drank.  This was not a purely spiritual experience; there was a physical aspect to it as well.  Moses was summoned up the mountain by God to receive the stone tablets with the law.  Moses and Joshua approached the mountain.  Apparently, Joshua was allowed to accompany Moses.  This is rthe first we hear of Joshua in the Bible.  Joshua was not one of Israel’s leaders at this point, he was Moses’ assistant.  When Moses left, he put Aaron and Hur in charge.  I don’t know who Hur was, but obviously Moses respected his wisdom and leadership.  Moses entered the mountain and waited.  He waited six days and on the seventh day, God called Him into the cloud.  The glory of the Lord is described as a devouring fire on top of the mountain.  Moses was in the presence of God for forty days and nights. 

Questions:  What did Moses eat for forty days?  Did the people think he had died?  Why was Joshua allowed to accompany Moses?  Why did God require blood for the covenant?

Lessons:   This is a huge moment.  This is possibly Israel’s highest point.  They are given the law and they respond positively.  They make a covenant with God and their leaders see God.  This is a moment where God comes down to Earth and meets His bride, Israel.  His holiness and glory required that His primary interaction with Israel was through a priest.  Today, we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us and sometimes this very personal connection to the God of the universe makes us forget that holiness and power and we take our relationship with God for granted.  We need to remember that God is holy and powerful and we are only able to connect with Him through the blood of the new covenant shed by the perfect Lamb of God.

Conquest of Canaan Promised

Story:  Conquest of Canaan Promised

Passage: Exodus 23:20-33

Characters:  God, Israel

Summary:    God promises that Israel will conquer Canaan and He will greatly bless Israel in the Promised Land as long as they obey Him and stay faithful to Him. 

  

Notes:  God promised several things in this passage.  The main point I see is that the success and blessings of Israel would not be their own doing.  Not only could they not take credit for it, but it gave them no reason to worry or be afraid of the nations in the promised land.  God says He is providing an angel to guard them and lead them.  They are to be careful to obey his voice and not rebel against him because he will pardon transgression.  This is because God’s name is in Him.  I believe this means that this angel is God in some form.  I honestly don’t know exactly what this looks like or means, but it appears God personally guided them and protected them on their journey.  If they were to obey though, He would be an enemy to their enemies.  God doesn’t set a condition for what happens next.  He says that WHEN His angel brings them to the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, and Canaanites and He blots them out, Israel is not to bow down to their gods, but rather they are to completely overthrow them and break down their pillars.  First off, God says He will blot these people out.  It is not an if, but a when.  Second, He reiterates again the importance of not following their gods.  Honestly, it would be utterly stupid to start worshipping the gods whose nation was just destroyed and abandoning the God who destroyed them, but God felt He needed to remind Israel anyway.  If Israel serves God, He will bless their food, keep them healthy, keep them miscarrying, and give them long lives.  God says He will throw their enemies into confusion and they will run from Israel.  God says He will send hornets ahead of Israel to drive out the nations in their path.  I don’t know what this means, but it is obvious that this conquest would be blatantly supernatural.  Israel was going to be protected and fought for by an all powerful God.  Why wouldn’t God just destroy them all at once?  Why take so long if He is able to conquer them completely?  He explains it is so that the land will not be overgrown and wild beasts won’t take over.  God is intentionally moving slowly to protect His people in the future.  We sometimes question why God doesn’t just act all at once.  This passage shows that sometimes God just has the big picture in mind, and the very thing that you want gone right now is actually keeping you safe in the future.  God is infinitely wiser than any of us could ever be.  He will slowly drive them out before Israel until they possess the entire land.  God finishes by once again reiterating that they are not to make a covenant with them or their gods.  They are not to dwell in the land because they could tempt Israel to sin.  God is very very concerned with Israel worshipping the native gods.  God is indeed a jealous God.  He does not want His creation to get the praise and worship that He deserves.  The purpose of His creation is to point us to worship the creator.  We are far too easily sidetracked into worshipping the created.  God knew that was our weakness and He commanded Israel over and over and over again to avoid that at all costs.  We will see how they do.

Questions:  Why was God going to destroy so many people?  Why the emphasis on not serving the foreign gods?  What are the hornets God mentions?  Why couldn’t God just wipe out everyone at once and also keep the animals from overtaking the land?

Lessons: I would say the theme of this passage centers around our dependence on God and the proper reaction to His blessing and protection.  Israel was supposed to take a relatively passive role in the conquest of Canaan.  Most of the driving out would be done by God directly in some form.  Israel was to trust that and not serve the foreign gods they find.  As Christians, we are not of this world.  We are strangers making our way to the Promised Land of a New Heaven and a New Earth.  What are some of the foreign gods which easily ensnare us?  It is vital that we do not worship these gods at all!  

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.

Israel at Mount Sinai

Story:  Israel at Mount Sinai

Passage: Exodus 19

Characters:  Moses, God, Israel

Summary:    Israel came to Mount Sinai.  The people camped out while Moses went up to God.  God came to the mountain in a thick cloud.  There was fire and the ground shook.  The people consecrated themselves and were not allowed to touch the mountain.  Aaron was allowed to go up the mountain with Moses, but no one else could.

  

Notes:  The people had been traveling for three months now.  God called to Moses from the mountain.  This was strangely not a new thing for Moses!  God made a covenant with the people through Moses there.  If they obeyed His voice and kept His covenant, they would be His treasured possession and a kingdom of priests.  The people responded by promising obedience.  I find God’s response funny.  In response to their confidence, He tells Moses that He is coming down there so the people can hear Him and believe Moses.  In other words, yeah I know they said that, but I’m going to make sure they hear me so they won’t forget.  God gave them three days to consecrate themselves.  They had to wash their dirty clothes.  Moses set up limits for the people.  If they were to even touch the mountain, they were to be killed by being stoned or shot with an arrow.  They were not allowed to be touched.  There is something about contact with holiness which is not allowed.  It is almost like by touching the mountain, the person would  become holier by association.  Then if someone else touched that person, they would repeat the process.  I don’t know if that’s what was really going on, but it does look like it.  Moses also told the men to not go near the women.  He didn’t say not to sleep with the women, he said not to go near them.  He knew human nature well enough to know that the only sure way to keep them from defiling themselves was to not even give them the opportunity.  The mountain was surrounded by smoke and covered in fire.  The whole mountain shook.  This was the display of glory that came when God showed up at the mountain.  Interestingly, He wasn’t even displaying His full glory.  If His partial glory can affect the Earth like that, can you imagine His full glory?  There was a trumpet sound and Moses spoke.  God responded with thunder.  His voice was not like thunder, His voice was thunder.  The sheer power and majesty in this passage is intimidating!  Too many times we lock God into the image of a poor helpless lamb who just wants to nuzzle us and frolic around in the grass with us.  That is not what I see here!  I’m not saying that God is not a loving lamb, but He is also a powerful holy God.  When He comes, the mountains shake and are covered in fire and smoke.  His voice is the thunder.  We need to make sure that we do not water God down and ignore this facet of His character.  God then tells Moses to go back down and warn the people to stay back.  He also tells Moses to make sure the priests consecrate themselves.  Moses responds by reminding God that God already told them not to come up.  God responds by telling Moses to go down and remind them.  This is also funny to me.  God basically says to tell the people to stay back and Moses is thinking, “No I don’t want to leave.  I already told them that they don’t need to hear again!”  God felt otherwise.  Apparently Moses has changed from the shepherd who would not obey a burning bush to a man who couldn’t comprehend people not listening to the commands of God!  God knows the people well though and sends Moses down anyway.  Apparently the priests had not consecrated themselves either.  Maybe they felt they did not need it because they were priests.  It is obvious that their status did not make them any cleaner in God’s eyes than the rest of the people.  God wanted Aaron on the mountain as well.  God knew that Aaron would soon be the high priest of Israel and He wanted Aaron up on the mountain with Moses to witness His glory.  Maybe God was trying to keep Aaron’s focus on Him because He knew Aaron’s susceptibility to idols.  Who knows?

Questions:  Were the people really going to try to go up the mountain?  Did they protest to consecrating themselves?  Why did the priests not originally consecrate themselves? 

Lessons:  We need to make sure we remember God’s holiness and power.  We don’t serve a weak God!  We are dirty and without Him washing us clean, we don’t even deserve to be in the presence of Him.  Too often we take for granted the fact that we can pray and He will listen!  We forget the price that it took to gain us this access to God.  We forget how dirty we are compared to His holiness!  We must never forget what it means that He is holy and we are not!