Numbers 11-13

Chapter 11
The whole chapter begins with the people complaining.....they have just STARTED their trip, so they begin by ticking off the Lord and the Lord shot out fire....seems to me that the people would learn a little lesson from this but NO......they want MEAT.  My translation said they were  "wailing".   All they could think about was meat and they even annoyed Moses.   The key difference is that the people wailed to each other, but Moses expressed his frustration to the Lord directly.  The Lord provides some help to Moses and gives the Sprit to 70 of their elders....cracks me up that Eldad and Medad got the Spirit, but Joshua says to Moses, "'scuze me, Moses.....those two dudes are doing your job".....Moses was so cool and said, "I wish all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them"........humble, non-jealous Moses.    Note here that prophesying here is not "predicting the future".....it is speaking the Word of the Lord.  If God directs people to prophesy and predict the future, they will as you can see with Moses, but sometimes, he just wants people to speak about Him in the here and now......

Quail came for the people, but because the people were lusting(putting it before everything else) after the meat, the Lord struck the people with a plague.

Chapter 12
OK, let me clarify something.....I thought Moses only had Zipporah as a wife.  After research, scholars feel that he had more than one wife.   Zipporah was the Midianite.....she bore Moses the sons we discussed earlier.   Apparantly, there is a Cushite wife whose name is never mentioned.   Cush is in Ethiopia....Scripture doesn't talk about what Miriam and Aaron had the gripe with specifically, but there are two theories...one is that they couldn't find anything wrong with Moses, so they attacked his wife, and the other is that it was skin color....Ethiopians are black and the Lord struck Miriam with the leprosy that made her skin "white as snow" for a reason, scholars argue.    Quite honestly, this is not a saving issue, the point is that there was sibling squabbles that God took care of.  Miriam and Aaron repented....Miriam was purified for seven days, they packed up the camp and moved on to the Desert of Paran.

Desert of Paran


Do you think that Traveling in this desert would make you cranky?  Would you look only at the desert, or would you think about the fact that you were not a slave in Egypt and that the Lord gave you manna, and that He was leading the camp in a pilar of fire?????


Then here is Kadesh where the Isrealites wait for the Spies report.  The desert oasis will be significant, because Miriam dies here eventually, and this is where you will find out that Moses misbehaves and has some dramatic consequences.




Chapter 13....
Moses sent spies to check out the Promised Land.  These people were so close to the Promised Land, but the spies got scared and didn't trust in the Lord and spread a bad report about the inhabitants of the Land.  Let me point out that I think I am descended from the Anaks who are a race of abnormally large people!!!!!  We are otherwise known as Amazons..LOL.   Calab said that they should take possession of the Land......the fear spread throughout the camp.....the other races were pagans and people that killed just for the sake of killing.....The Isrealites are SO CLOSE to the Promised Land...

Numbers 8-10

The Levites are set apart...they are purified so they can do their work at the Tabernacle...Interesting that the Levites retired at the age of 50...at least it was the heavy lifting part..they could then counsel the younger priests...so there is your training and education for the younger generation.

The second Passover is celebrated...it had been a year since they celebrated the first one and were delivered from Egypt...we have some men who came to Moses because they were ceremoniously unclean because they had been in the house of a dead body....they wanted to present offerings to the Lord because if they were ceremoniously clean and did not celebrate it, they would have been cut off from their people....Moses went to the Lord and asked what to do; the Lord did not adjust the Passover, but he did allow the ceremoniously unclean people to celebrate Passover later.

Can you  imagine being led by a cloud of fire?    When the cloud moved, the people went and followed it...Talk about following the Lord's direction!    No excuses, huh?    The first approach to the Promised Land is coming (note I say the FIRST approach)...the people leave Sinai where they had been camped for quite some time.  Moses invites his father-in-law to travel with them...he is a Midianite
the father of Zippoah. He is not an Isrealite,  History tells us that Zipporah is a black woman...remember that the Isrealites are mid-Eastern people, probably with dark skin themselves.....I'm afraid Jesus didn't look like some of our Sunday School dipictions of an Americanized Jesus....

Numbers 7

Well, that was a rather boring chapter, wasn't it?  I keep thinking of Bonnie's voice saying, Man, I'm ready for a good story".....well, it is coming soon, thank goodness......

The offerings are presented to dedicate the tabernacle.  Where did these desert nomads get that kind of wealth?   Remember when they left Egypt?  What happened then?  God opened the hearts of the Egyptians and they gave the wealth to the Isrealites on the way out.  Each of the heads of the tribes presented the offering.

Another really cool thing is that the audible voice of the Lord spoke in the dwelling place.  Right on that seat cover between the cheribum.....as he promised, the Lord would dwell there.  What does Tabernacle mean?  The dwelling place.....

Leviticus 5-6

There is some reiteration about skin disease, discharge and restitution.....then we have the test for the unfaithful wife...seems cruel as it sits there as law...basically, without trust, there is no possibility for a good marriage.  The major application is that they took it to the priest......now we have counselors that we can choose, but we also have a High Priest in Jesus Christ.....Jesus knows our heart....if we have guilt, he knows it.   Marriage was to be a "mysterious union" like Christ loves the church....just remember that we are reading about a very Patriarchal society and that women could be temple prostitutes in pagan religions.....

The Nazarite is a vow one could take to dedicate himself to the Lord, or parents could do it for the child...Sampson, Samuel and John the Baptist were probably Nazarites.  These were leaders that devoted themselves completely to God.  They had very long hair as an outward sign to their dedication and did not drink wine.

And now I know where the ancient blessing that I heard every Sunday in the Lutheran church growing up is:

The Lord bless you
and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine upon you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.

I love it and bless you!

Numbers 2-3

So...remember the Passover?   The Isrealites dedicated all of its firstborn sons to God (see Exodus 3:40-51)....This was a temporary measure....God chose all the men from the tribe of Levi to replace the firstborn sons from every tribe....God had Moses count them and there were 22,000...this left 273 Isrealites that weren't "bought back" (redeemed)from being firstborn.  To buy ther 273, God required five shekels for each one and that money was given to Aaron and his sons.

The Kohanthites, Gershonites and Meraites were families of Levites who were assigned for special tasks in Isreal's worship....I'm amazed that some of God's things were so holy that the Kohathites could not touch them or they would die.  They couldn't look at some things without covering them first.   God was teaching about being set apart, being holy.....a huge contrast between how to approach God in the Old Testament and how we are permitted now to go boldly to the throne because of Jesus Christ and the ultimate sacrifice he became for us.     The Levites will become an old order of the Priesthood as God's plan progresses.

Numbers 1-2

OK....this chapter is called Numbers because it is all about the very first census ever taken...did you know that?  I didn't....Very cool...all men over the age of 20 that can fight, are counted.  The Tribe of Levi is not, because they will maintain the Tabernacle.  Numbers also comes from the Hebrew word Bamidar  which means 'In the Wilderness'.....you are going to find out that the Hebrews are going to get grumbly and discontented which will lead to rebellion...therefore, the nation is going to be "in the wilderness" for a lot longer than they needed to be......remember,we just finished Leviticus which talked about blessings for obedience.......

Moses is now preparing the nation to pack up and move forward to the Promised Land (Canaan)......

All the numbers shows the organization that Moses is trying do.  The large nation (remember it was a covenant to increase the descendents of Abraham) is organized into tribes....this will help to divide up the Promised Land when they get there....the Hebrews weren't known by last names like we were are today, but by family or tribe.....these detailed geneology records were the only thing to prove membership in God's chosen nation....the people followed the banner  (or flag) of the particular tribe they were in. Can you imagine all this?    That is over 2 million people that Moses had to manage.....wonder if he had any of the problems that we have with a "growing church"  LOL  

Leviticus 26-27

Today you have read the end of Leviticus....of course you know I am proud of you for sticking with this.   I can assure you that God loves you getting to know Him better!

You will notice that God points out rewards for obedience.  He knows we are sinners, but He wants us to know the difference between right and wrong and make the RIGHT choice.   God used sin's consequences to draw them to reptentance, not to get back at them......we are naturally rebellious.....(hard to believe, right!).  Just know that we will be re-reading this scripture as we move forward....God tells the people exactly what they need to do and they will be blessed.  Every bit of this scripture will be revealed...even the part where "you will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters".......then we will come back to this very prophecy and you will be amazed.  God does what He says He will do.    Note that God will never punish without warning first....God has wrath....but he is not a God of Wrath that needs to be appeased just to be nice.    God is a God of love....he has big plans for His people...He will fulfill his covenant...but, this is a two way relationship and the people have to do their part (this includes us)....note He says in 26:6   I WILL GRANT PEACE IN THE LAND and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid........has this happened yet?     You will not that he also says, "If you rmain hostile toward me and refuse to listen to me, I will multiply your afflictions seven times over, as your sins deserve...."Would you consider that it is because the Isrealites are not currently doing what they need to do right now?......the only way to God is through Jesus and the Jews do not believe that Jesus has come yet.  However, Scripture also tells us that God is not through with the Jews.....so....stay tuned to His plan

God has been teaching the people of Isreal for two years.   They have been camped at the base of Mount Sinai....are they ready to break camp and move to the Promised Land?

Leviticus 24-25

We continue on with Oil and Bread set before the Lord....and then all of a sudden a Blasphemer is stoned...this sets out the unpardonable sin......Jesus is accused of being a blasphemer in front of the Jewish people, when he calls himself the son of God.  This is what the Pharisees will use to condemn Jesus.  Exactly what is blasphemy...

blas·phe·my

   /ˈblæsfəmi/ Show Spelled[blas-fuh-mee] Show IPA

–noun, plural -mies.

1.

impious utterance or action concerning god or sacred things.

2.

Judaism .

a.

an act of cursing or reviling God.

b.

pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton (YHVH) in the original, now forbidden manner instead of using a substitute pronunciation such as Adonai.

3.

Theology . the crime of assuming to oneself the rights or qualities of God.

4.

irreverent behavior toward anything held sacred, priceless, etc.: He uttered blasphemies against life itself.

Use blasphemy in a Sentence

See images of blasphemy

Search blasphemy on the Web

---

Origin:
1175–1225; Middle English blasphemie  < Late Latin blasphēmia  < Greek. See blasphemous, -y³

—Related forms

non·blas·phe·my, noun, plural -mies.

—Synonyms 1.  profanity, cursing, swearing; sacrilege, impiety.

This shows how seriously God expects us to take our relationship with him....

 

Year of the Jubilee...this was supposed to be celebrated every 50 years.  It included canceling all debts, freeing all slaves, and returning to its original owners all land that had been sold.  There is no indication in teh Bible that the Year of Jubilee was ever carried out!!!  If Isreal had followed this practice faithfully, they would have been a society without permanent propery...Individual and family responsibility for the poor was crucial since there was no government aid.

 

Note the way 25:55 concludes:

 

for the Isrealites belong to me as servants.  They are my servants, whom I brought out of Egypt.  I am the Lord your God.

 

You read all the references to "redeem"....this means "buy back"......Jesus will ultimately do just that when he hangs on the cross for us, meanwhile God has servants to proclaim him for that time and place........the Isrealites were to know God and they were to serve the Lord (just as we are).  God "owns" us.  We are not our own...this is very counter to our culture today....

Leviticus 22-23

Today I am going to post Patricia's entry from her blog...she does a great job discussing the Feasts...note that Easter came a little earlier in 2010 once she gets to that aspect of her discussion......

Lev 22-23

Posted February 20, 2010 by Patricia in Leviticus. 4 Comments

• Unacceptable Sacrifices
• Seasons and Feasts

Click here for reading
Unacceptable Sacrifices.  One of the first church services I ever attended at my current church the Pastor told a story about a woman who found a Butterball turkey in the back of her freezer frozen.  She was not sure if it was still safe to eat.  She called the “800” number on the package and the company said it was old,  but  indeed safe to eat, BUT probably not worth baking because it would not be tasty.
So she donated it to the church.
What we bring to the Lord  must be our best.  When you think of God, do you think of the leftover…time, money, resources…or do we bring our best?  God gave us His best.  He gave us the most Unblemished Sacrifice.  In the Old Testament,  bringing forward their unblemished male demonstrated true worship and a foreshadow of Jesus as our unblemished male.
Feasts and Seasons:
The Sabbath:23:1-3 We have read about this several times already, after 6 days we rest on the 7th. Perpetually reoccurring.  They were to rest, worship, and a day for them  to remember the finished work of God’s creation (Genesis 2:2)  We too are to rest and worship but we celebrate the finished work of God’s Redemption.

Hebrews 4:9-11  There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.

The Passover and Unleavened Bread.  The Passover was one day a year.  This feast reminded the Israelites of their deliverance from slavery in Egypt.  Following Passover was a the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  They would withhold the yeast from the bread for 2 reasons.  1.  Yeast is a symbol of sin, this would represent moral purity.  2.   If you go back and read Exodus Chapter 12 you will see that they left Egypt so quickly that they did not wait for the dough to rise. This is a reminder of that day.  On the chart I e-mailed out you will see that Jesus is that Bread, and Jesus is the Bread f Life, so it is important to know that He remained Yeastless, Sinless.
The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were being celebrated at the time of the crucifixion.  A true lamb of God. See Mt 26:17-19.  Look at the Chart again, EACH and EVERY FEAST has a prophetic foreshadow of The Christ.  I have 3 words for that…..A MAZE ING!
First Fruits: Giving to the Lord your first harvest of grain, rather than what is left over.  A Festival of Harvested Crops! Today this is of   food, time, money, self…we are to give to the Lord first, as God did for us.  This was a reminder of God’s Provision  for them (and for us).  God Provided His First Fruit for you…
Feast of Weeks:  You will see in verse 16 it says “On the fifteenth Day of the Seventh Month ” Are you paying attention…because it is about to get really cool…..  If Jesus was sacrificed on the Passover, and The Feast of Weeks is to happened 50 days later, what is God preparing for?  Fifty (pente) days after the Harvest (the Passover) is Pentecost.  Jesus was crucified at the time of Passover, resurrected 40 days later and 10 days later the Holy Spirit ascended down to Earth.   Feast of Weeks is Pentecost.   See God had the plan of Redemption through Jesus the entire time.  The timing was always set in motion.  Read Acts 2 Regarding the Pentecost.
Feast of Trumpets:    We know this day on the Calendar as Rosh Hashanah.  New Year’s Day for the Jewish People.  A day for the Lord.  It seems far from now, but it will be here before you know it, when Jesus Returns, (and He will baby) He will not tip toe in.  He will be ushered in with Trumpets!!
Day of Atonement:  We have talked a lot about this (Lev 16) so I am just going to sum it us up a day of Forgiveness and confession.  Confession to the Lord is the first step in fellowship with the Lord.  Once a year the community would come together as a nation and the High Priest would make a large sacrifice and put the blood on the cover of the tabernacle to “cover” our sins for the whole year.  Something we have the privileged of doing each day with God directly through His  High Priest , Jesus.
Feast of the Tabernacle  Also called the Feast of Booths or the Feast of Ingathering.  This feast would be celebrated outdoors in booths.  The entire family would sit and read the scripture as a reminder to living in the wilderness, wandering, relying solely on God.
In conclusion we are coming up to Easter soon.  It will be such an amazing Holiday this year as we are saturating ourselves with the Word of God.  Because of our Easter we no longer have to wander in our own lives.  He gives us a promise land.  HIM.  So as we read about all these Feasts and Holidays they are a great reminder of our Holidays for our days of deliverance and Redemption which were set in motion FROM these holidays.
Advent is a time of anticipating the Birth of the Christ.  Let this Lent season be and anticipation of the Christ’s Sacrifice.

Leviticus 19-21

...and some of these laws seem so strange for this time and place, don't they.....remember that God was setting up a nation.  These people were delivered from Egypt where they had pagan rituals, and they were going to Canaan where there were pagan rituals.  Canaanites practiced incest and it was frequently practiced to maintain royal power in the ruling family (Didn't they realize that they were going to get an inbred product and their kids would be like the ones in "Deliverance" LOL)....we talked about Molech yesterday.....there was also Baal and Astarte...these were fertility deities worshipped to bring good crops on the land.

Here's Baal, who sent rain and was honored in the scattering of the seed.




Here's Astarte, Queen of the Earth


Nice, huh?

God is not a God who needs to be appeased so that he won't wreak havac on nature.

Some other explanations for "odd" stuff that we don't have today:

The prohibition agains intermingling two breeds of animals, two kinds of seed, two different fibers in clothing reflects the constant heartbeat of one...one...one...in everything, beginning with the unity-the oneness-of God the Lord.

Fruit trees are held in special regard in this land.  The young treees are not to be forced to bear fruit; the fruit in their fourth year is brought as an offering to the Lord.  Only in their fifth year are fruit trees regarded as sufficiently mature to produce food ready to eat.

Sorcery and magic were prohibited because they attempted to tell the future.....this stuff could just be fake, or the people could truly be involved with evil spirits which was extremely dangerous.  Only God knows the plan and the future.

They were to take care of the poor and respect the aged (I really have to work on this when the snowbirds drive below the speed limit on Canal Rd.....pray for me....)

And finally we get rules for priests to handle the unclean (dead bodies)...this dealt with close family members of the priests.  The priests weren't to cut (get scars) or tatoos or cut the sides of their hair in rememberence of the dead. (I read a comment on a blog that said if this haircut was a mullet, it should have been outlawed, because a mullet is just WRONG)

You will see that the laws that apply today are reiterated by Jesus in the New Testament.....They can all be summed up by:  Love the Lord your God above all else; and love your neighbor as yourself.

Leviticus 16-18

In the Old Testament, the Day of Atonement was a huge yearly thing.  This is when the High Priest would go behind the veil and make atonement (cover up) all the sins for the year from the people.    Now we no longer need this, because Jesus is our High Priest and thank God we can approach God directly.   Because of Jesus, who was the ultimate sacrifice, the unblemished lamb....we no longer have to do sacrifices.

Sex Ed 101 begins Chapter 18....notice the progression of the culture......Abraham and Sarah could not have married (they had the same father and different mothers remember) note 18:9.....the race then was probably more genetically pure..

Molech was mentioned specifically and will be mentioned again as a pagan God.  Firstborn children were sacrificed to him.


Looks like a cow, huh.....perhaps why the Golden Calf was such a hot button issue for Moses?   MMMM?
He is also a Canaanite idol....and the people were going to the Land of Canaan and God wanted them to be apart from this.

Homosexuality:  verse 22.....Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.....note the word "that"...the sin is detestable, not the person.....you may argue that this is an Old Testament thing....sorry, it is mentioned again in Romans 1....Enough said.

Leviticus 14-15

The fun continues with cleansing....it seems like God is doing the Health 101......remember when you had Health in Middle School and all the uncomfortable giggles when semen and discharge was mentioned?   All this makes us uncomfortable, but the Lord cares for His people and wants them HEALTHY.....they need to be separate from the pagans.    The pagans had temple prostitutes and did a lot of things with sex that the Lord did not want for His people.......sex is not unclean if it is a special relationship between husband and wife.........can you envision the poor little hairless men with no eyebrows?   Wonder if it applied to women, too?  Surely women weren't excluded from skin diseases.

Then we move to mildew, which we can certainly relate, living at the beach......poor things didn't have any Tilex....

Leviticus 11-13

OK, gross.....hairs and pus and boils....ewwww.  You may be tempted to skim, but the basic theme here is that God cares for His people and essentially is teaching them Health in the Desert.    These people are camped for two years at the base of Mt. Sinai...they are desert nomads....there are no doctors.  They have left Egypt where pagan practices were done, and they are headed to Canaan (the Promised Land) which at that time was inhabited by pagans.   The key verse in today's reading is Leviticus 11:44-45

I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy.  Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves about on the ground.   I am the Lord who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God, therefore be holy, because I am holy.

This is the first time God refers to himself this way.  Holy means separate.......he wants to prepare and teach them.  We have the Bible, the people of that time were LIVING it...they had nothing to read (perhaps they didn't even know how to read!).

I love what the NIV study notes say:

In order to worshp,  people need to be prepared.  There were some acts of disobedience, nome natural acts (such as child birth, mentruation, or sex) or some accidents (such as touching a dead or diseased body) that would make a person ceremoially unclean and thus forbidded to participate in worship...so Unclean did not necessarily mean sinul or dirty...in some cases he made a distinction between His worship and the popular worship of gods and godesses.

Also, lots of pagans used animal sacrifices.  The designations clean and unclean were used to define the kind of animals the Isrealites could and could not eat.  There were several reasons for this restricted diet:  1)  to ensure the health of the nation.  The forbidden foods were usually scavenging animals that fed on dead animals; thus disease could be transmitted through them.  2) to visibily distinguish Isreal from other nations.  The pig, for example, was a common sacrifice of pagan religions 3) to avoid objectionable associations.  The creatures that move about on the ground were reminiscent of serpents, which often symbolized sin.......

NOW,
we have Jesus (thank God!!)

Check out Mark 7: 14-23:

Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen to me, everyone, and understand this.  Nothing outside a man can make him "unclean" by going into him.  Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him "unclean".  After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable.  Are you so dull? he asked.  Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him "unclean"?  for it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body.  In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.  He went on What comes out of a man is what makes him unclean.  For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.  All these evils come from inside and make a man unclean.....

So, go on and eat a pig or a soft shelled crab!  But now you set yourself apart with how you follow Christ.......what comes  "out of you"?

Leviticus 8-10

The priests are now ordained according to the details that God has given Moses.  They were to stay at the entrance of the Tent of the meeting for 7 days...one commentary says that this is to remind them of the 7 days of creation.

I love the picture of  how the glory of God appeared to the people and fire came out and comsumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar.....the people shouted for joy and fell facedown.......have you ever done that?   What an expression of joy..........prostrate on the ground.......

We are reading this "written down" Word....Moses was instructed to write all this down so that we can see the ULTIMATE sacrifice in Jesus Christ...this is a progressive revelatation of God's plan, and Jesus is the ultimate revelation......this is BIG!!!! This is God's love for us.......then.....

BOOM.....God strikes down Aaron's sons because they did an unauthorized action....the offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, CONTRARY TO HIS COMMAND.....OK....God is serious about how you approach Him....holiness comes from God, not the man!      Yikes!!!!

Aaron remains silent....he knows what happened......but he grieves....His sons are dead.....Moses must take over leadership and has the bodies taken out of the camp  (the dead bodies are unclean)...at the end of the chapter, Moses goes to Aaron to find out why the younger sons didn't eat any of the sacrifice......when Aaron replies that they weren't being disrespectful, they were just scared about what happened to their brothers, Moses was satisfied.

Leviticus 5-7

Day after day the sacrifices continued.  On the one hand, these are good because they focused the people on sin.  God is setting His people apart from the pagans; He is making them understand Holy.  Different kinds of offering for different kinds of sin.  On the other hand, the sin is simply covered up.....Goat's blood or Ram's blood cannot do what Jesus Christ's blood can do.  The rituals all mean something......have you ever gotten to a point where the ritual is nothing but a ritual?......if you are just going through the motions, this isn't pointing you to Christ.   God never wanted us to be bogged down in the ritual.....He wants a relationship with us.  The Old Testament people were dealing with the consequences of The Fall (Adam and Eve allowing sin to separate them/us from God).  What God is introducing is an awareness of sin that separates us from God and a way to get temporary forgiveness...This is all about how to approach God, and the priests were supposed to do this for the people.

Hebrews 9:22 tells us:  In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.   Jesus will take care of sacrificing once and for all.....

Did you notice that the fat was not to be eaten...it was considered to be the best part and was God's.....don't you know there was no cholesteral issues here????  Consumption of blood was also forbidden......it was life, and it was God's.  God also gives time limits in which the meat can be eaten....He is taking care of the people's health to keep them from disease....and God is teaching how to make restitution to "neighbors" we have wronged.....so:

The Burnt offering showed a person's devotion to God
The Grain offering acknowledged that all we have belongs to God
The Fellowship offering symbolized peace and fellowship with God
The Sin offering restored the sinner to fellowship with God; showed the seriousness of sin
The Guilt offering provided compensation for injured parties.

Human Pondering

......so, if the Priests were working with all that blood, what about their clothes?   Who washed those expensive things?  Did they have to be purified?  HMMMMM.   Not a saving issue, but having just done 149 loads of laundry today, it got me thinking......

Images of the Altar of the Burnt Offering

Leviticus 1-4

These chapters are all about offerings to God.  We begin with a burnt offering.  The priests dealt with this all day....they actually had to butcher very precisely.   All covenant involves blood, and you can be assured that there was lots of blood.  The sacrifice had to be perfect and without defect (this symbolizes Jesus being the perfect human......when he hung on the cross, his legs were not broken you will see).   Note that the priest had to lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering....the whole point here is the SUBSTITUTION.  Something else bore the sin so that someone could be forgiven.  Notice that this was done so that the aroma could be pleasing to the Lord.....if this was being done all day, there would be an aroma in the camp.....what a reminder of sin.....


The grain offering could be presented in three ways...
a)  fine flour with oil and incense
b)  baked cakes or wafers  of fine flour and oil
c)  roasted kernels of grain with oil and incense...

yeast represents sin....even a little yeast spreads when you use it

The offerings were sealed with salt as a reminder of the people's covenant with God.

There was a fellowship (peace) offering...this is an expression of gratitude...and is a way of establishing fellowship with God....

Remember that it is estimated that 2 million people left Egypt....this is a lot of sacrificing and blood in the camp.. the above offerings were all voluntary....the sin offering was not voluntary.  This was for unintentional sin and different animals were sacrificed for different types of sin....

God adapted all this to the people's culture in their day and time, according to His plan.  Animal sacrifices were common in the Middle East at that time.  This was a way that God could give the people an awareness of sin.  God moves them into teaching a whole new way of life. Everything is pointing toward Jesus.....Jesus will be the ultimate sin offering....

overview of Leviticus

The author of this book is Moses.  It takes place at the foot of Mt. Sinai, where they people camped for about two years.

The first word in the book of Leviticus (Lev) is its Hebrew title, translated leterally:  He (the Lord) Called"

The key verse is "Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy"  (19:2).  The Hebrew term for holy appears  more times (152) than in any other book of the Bible. 

This is a whole book dedicated to worship.  We were created to have a relationship with God, but God can't be near sin.  We have to recognize and deal with sin before we can approach God.  The 10 commandments were given to help us recognize sin.  We aren't to be pagan, we are to be set apart (holy) as God's people.

This is all a huge foreshadowing to Jesus, the perfect lamb (sacrifice), the ultimate sacrifice.

God  is teaching His people how to approach Him.

Exodus 39-40

Well, congrats...you have made it through 3 books of the Bible.

Moses inspects the tabernacle and blesses it, because it is exactly the way the Lord commanded it to Moses.   I loved my study notes:

The Isrealites were once Egyptian slaves making bricks without straw.  Here they were following the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire, carrying the tabernacle they had built for God.  Exodus begins in gloom and ends in glory....This parallels our progress through the Christian life.  We begin as slaves to sin, are redeemed by God, and end our pilgrimage living with God forever....see, what was written then is written for US NOW......

You will see a big progression as you read through the Bible in how God wants to be with us.  This tabernacle was the first dwelling place of God on earth....He wanted to be with His people.......in about 500 years, Solomon will build the temple and God dwelled there....God allows it to be destroyed (guess who was rebelling????) and then it is rebuilt in 516BC.......God's glory then comes in Jesus Christ....God's glory is His Holy Presence......when Jesus arose from the dead, God no longer needed a building because the Holy Spirit resides in His people...yep, God's presence resides IN US right now.....the Body of Believers is a Royal Priesthood.....THAT IS US!!!!!  Yes, there is a huge obligation with that....FAITH.....if you have FAITH, the Holy Spirit will guide us so that we don't have to bear that obligation alone....in fact, it doesn't have to be an obligation, but a desire to serve and represent Christ's presence on earth......If this is a lot to absorb, just hang in there because we aren't even to the New Testament yet!!

Exodus 36-38

...and the tabernacle building began.....intricate detailed instructions from God were given.  The Ark was built (not the boat!) out of a hard wood called Acacia wood which was plentiful at the time, and then overlaid with gold....it is pretty cool to me that in 36:6, Moses had to give the order that there should be no more offering for the Sanctuary....they had more than enough!  Can you imagine Pastor Alan telling the congregation, "Don't give anymore, we have enough to do what we need"......

We meet Ithamar, son of Aaron, who supervises the project. 

Key Tabernacle Pieces:

Ark of the Covenant:  symbolized God's covenant with Isreal's people

Atonement Cover:  symbolized the presence of God among his people

Curtain:  Symbolized how the people were separated from God because of sin.

Table:  Didn't symbolize anything but the bread of the Presence was kept on this table

Bread of the Presence:  Symbolize the spiritual nourishment God offers His people

Lampstands and Lamps:  Didn't symbolize, but lit the Holy Place for priests

Altar of Incense:  Used for burning God's special incense and symbolic of acceptable prayer

Annointing Oil:  A sign of being set apart for God

Altar of Burnt Offering:  Symbolized how sacrifice restored one's relationship with God

Basin:  Symbolized the need for spiritual cleansing

Tomorrow, we shall finish up Exodus...can you believe it?  God revealed his law to the Isrealites at Sinai....Through the law, they learned more about what God is like and how He expected His people to live.  The law is still instructional for us, because it exposes our sin and shows us God's standard for living...

Exodus 33-35

I have a little question...what did you all get from the last line of Exodus 32-35......are the people all hanging out with the plague?   The beginning of Chapter 22 surprised me because the Lord is telling them to move on-is this with the plague...what are your thoughts?

The Lord is royally ticked and says that He is not going with the people, because if He goes with them He might destroy them......(have you ever felt this way toward your misbehaving child, perhaps?)

The Tent of Meeting comes into play.....Moses has to go outside the camp because God can't be near the Isrealites at the moment.  God meets with Moses there...can you imagine a pillar of cloud speaking with you AS A FRIEND?   Like no dumb church words, but like regular conversation?  God cares enough to want a relationship...to be a friend....wow!  Moses intercedes again and tells the Lord that if His Presence doesn't go with them to not send them.....the Lord agrees and Moses wants to see God's glory (yikes, the pillar of cloud was not enough?)   Amazing that God's hand pressed Moses into the cleft of the rock (a new meaning of "touched by God"), and we learn that no one can see the Lord's face (but, if you think about it, this means He has a face.....wonder if we will see it when we are resurrected?  God is a supernatural being, but we are created in His image, so we know our bodies will be different when we are resurrected, but that is part of the mystery and faith....we don't know exactly how)

Then God is kind and gives Moses the SECOND set of commandments.  Moses comes down the mountain with a Radiant Face...he put a veil over his face, but removed it when he was in the Lord's Presence.  More detail is then given for the tabernacle...this is where God would dwell, and remember this is in the pattern of what is already set up in Heaven...this is giving us a taste of things to come.  All of the riches that they left Egypt with were to be used in a free will offering.

Exodus 30-32

The plans for the Altar of Incense come from the Lord....can you believe that the Lord gives recipes (for the incense and the oil)???  I just love it.   Those horns intrigued me and I'm glad for the previous picture we saw because I just don't know where the horns should be as they were described, how about you?  Then there is Atonement Money...the rich and poor pay the same......there is no way a rich person can buy off God, and no way the poor can avoid paying.....we all belong to God and at that time they all needed to be redeemed by a sacrifice (as do we, but we have been redeemed by the sacrifice of Jesus)

Did you notice that with the Basin for Washing that Aaron and his sons are to wash their hands and feet SO THEY WILL NOT DIE... I think God was not fooling around, huh?

Now the skilled craftsmen are named:  Bezalel and Oholiab.....these are the first people that Scripture describes as being "filled with the Spirit" that are not prophets or priests.....remember that the Holy Spirit existed, but he didn't indwell the believers yet to guide them.

So Moses has been up on the mountain talking to God for 40 days.  God gave him the stone tablets (can you imagine having something with the handwriting of God on it???)...meanwhile, the people convince Aaron that they need a god to follow since they didn't know what happened to Moses...I CANNOT BELIEVE that Aaron fell for it....the Bible is filled with flawed humans that we can learn from-that is the take-away here.    How easy we can stray....ALL OF US.  Aaron was teamed up with Moses to be a mouthpiece of Moses....he was not a leader on his own...he was a follower. The very skills that make a good team player sometimes make a poor leader.  Thank you God that my sins are not documented in the Bible!!!!  Moses threw the tablets out of his hands breaking them into pieces!!!!!  The Law was broken (get it?) Aaron gave pitiful excuse....The Hebrews were running wild and Aaron had let them get out of control and they became a laughingstock to their enemies (Exodus 32: 25)

Only the Levites respond to Moses when he says, "Whoever is for the Lord, come to me".  Those that were not for the Lord were killed by the Levites....3,000 people died that day.  The Lord then struck the people with a plague.     Remember that Moses interceded for the people.....the could have all been dead with only Moses left to repopulate the earth and move to the Promised Land.  The Lord is actually showing mercy to his misbehaving people that had seriously disobeyed. (ever think we are in need of that same mercy?)

Exodus 28-29

The Priestly Garments



Look at the incredible detail God gives for the Preistly Garments.   Aaron is appointed High Priest by God.  Aaron is from the tribe called Levites.  (A big fat A-ha moment for me is that our next book in the Bible is LEVIticus).  Now Jesus came and He is our High Priest (see Hebrews)...I am so happy that I live in the time that I do....we can approach God ourselves thanks to Jesus.  In the Old Testament, only the High Priest could approach God....once a year he would go to the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle to make an offering for the people to God who dwelled in the Tabernacle.  We'll read more about this once it is built.

Did you notice that God gave special wisdom to the craftsmen making the Priestly Garments?   The breastplate of decision was worn as a continuing memorial before the Lord....the 10 original tribe names were on the precious stones....

The Urim and the Thummim were noted by scholars as being stones, or even little dice that the priests would use.   The priest would shake them and throw them down to get a yes or no decision from God....These names meant "curses" and "perfections"...

Aaron had to wear certain things so that when he was in the presence of God, he would not die...God set up a priesthood....originally God had chosed Isreal to be a kingdom of priests, but their sin prevented this.  Sin cannot be in the presence of God....God begins to prepare the people for the coming of Jesus who will be able to restore people's relationship with God.  Until Jesus came, the priests were the people's representative before God.

Check out all the different kind of offerings in Chapter 29:

sin offerings
burnt offering
wave offering
fellowship offering
grain offering
drink offering

Don't get overwhelmed, there will be a whole lot more on this....God is being very specific as He teaches His people to worship...remember that they were getting ready to go to the Promised Land (Canaan) and they were pagan inhabitants.  He did not want the Hebrews to fall into pagan practices because there is NO ONE LIKE GOD....other gods just can't cut it!

And note that in verses 45-46 that God wants to dwell among His people.  Isn't that cool?  He loves us so much He wants to be with us.  God wants a relationship with His people......Did you ever think that you could have a relationship with a Supernatural Being?  Supernatural in this case is good for you!

Ark of the Covenant

Table of the Showbread and Altar of Incense

Altar of Incense

Exodus 25-27

I was researching Exodus and found a blog where Patricia did a blog last year following our same plan.  She did an especially nice job on three very detailed chapters.  So, I took the liberty of borrowing her explanation for our benefit, and by all means credit her.  The Tabernacle is such a cool thing; as she points out, we could do a study just on that.   I learned in a Beth Moore study that the Tabernacle is a copy of what is in Heaven....God is teaching us, yet again, but this is just a shadow, a glimpse of what is set up in Heaven.  Patricia has posted some great pictures on her blog.....and if they don't copy, I'll try and capture some images on another post.....it really helps to visualize....Carol

Exodus 28-29 »

7 Feb

Exodus 25-27

Tabernacle Instructions

• I Put Tabernacle pictures at the bottom of the blog…scroll down.
• Click this site to print out a handout

http://www.lifeway.com/lwc/files/lwcF_wmn_AWH_Tabernacle.pdf

I felt overwhelmed just reading it, I couldn’t imagine actually getting the instructions.  I am just going to take a deep breath and take this one paragraph at a time.  First, what is the Tabernacle?  And Second, I think I am going to rent the Raiders of the Lost Ark, I just could not help but think of it. 

 By the way, there are some great great studies on the Tabernacle.  The Tabernacle is a symbol of God’s presence in a place where they can go to worship him.  The tabernacle (Dwelling place in Hebrew) was a likeness of heavenly things.  It was a pattern.  By the way,  the pattern was later used to build the  Temple.  The Tabernacle was representative of certain ideas God wanted to impress on us AND a foreshadow of the Christian faith.

All of this is going to be repeated in a few days (not kidding).  So let’s take it in once, and take it deeper next time.  Process it,  and in a few days dig a little deeper.

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Chapter 25:

The Ark:  The Bible describes the Ark first.  This will actually go inside the Tabernacle (Which is a big Tent like Temple).   This is where God would dwell in a cloud above the cherubims (angels).  On this cover, called the “Atonement cover”   the High Priest would make atonement for the sins of all the people once a year.  The day of Atonement.  We will read more about this in Leviticus 16…I am just going to peel off 1 layer at a time.  I want to define the word atonement just in case; it means the reconciliation of God and mankind; making amends for an offense; cleansing.

What is IN the ark you ask?  Four items: the two stone tablets of the 10 commandments, the pot of manna (to show generations to come) we talked about the other day, and Aarons’ staff.  (Read Numbers 17:1-11)

The Table of acacia wood (remember the picture I e-mailed you a few weeks ago with the Thorns, the trunk of the tree is extremely strong wood) was for the Bread of the Presence.  The Priests would put 12 loaves of bread on the table for the 12 tribes of Israel.  The loaves would be replaced every week.    A reminder and gratitude that God is our

provider.  He gives us our manna, our daily bread.

The Lampstand, doesn’t it sound pretty, we know it today as the Menorah (used 75 pounds in gold to make this).  The Light is the Word.  God’s guidance.  A foreshadow of Jesus. (There are a TON of written in red scriptures flowing through my mind right now)    I know we could dive into all this for hours, and I encourage you to!

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 Chapter 26

I am reading Chapter 26  (well sort of skimming) and I get to verse 33 and I hone in.

Hang the curtain from the clasps and place the ark of the Testimony behind the curtain. The curtain will separate the

Holy Place

from the

Most Holy Place

.  Put the atonement cover on the ark of the Testimony in the

Most Holy Place

. Place the table outside the curtain on the north side of the tabernacle and put the lampstand opposite it on the south side.

The Tabernacle was made up of 2 rooms.  First, the

Holy Place

, then the

Most Holy Place

.  The Ark  is placed in the

Most Holy Place

.  The priests entered the Holy place daily to commune with God and to tend to the altar of incense, lampstand,  and the bread on the table.  The MOST Holy place was where God dwelt.  Only once a year, On the Day of Atonement, the priests would go behind that curtain and make an atonement for our sins.  The tabernacle was covered with a large tent made of animal skins.  Israelites could bring their offering into the courtyard, but only the priests and High priests entered the tabernacle.  (We are going to learn all about this this coming week)

IF all of this confuses you,  just get this…They had access to God once a year.  Jesus became OUR High Priest.  When Jesus let himself die on that cross (made atonement for us) we where given the Holy Spirit and that curtain was torn down (from top to bottom….think about that)

  We have become the priests!  We have access to the Lord.  What a privilege! (Read 1 Peter….oh it is soooo good)

With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.   The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”  (Mark 15:37-38)

And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. (Matthew 27:51)

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Chapter 27:  The altar of burnt offering:  This was used to burn the animal sacrifices to remind ourselves that we need forgiveness.  This is where the Israelites could bring an animal as an offering.  We will learn more about this in Leviticus but the alter was to be kept burning all day and night by  the fire from the Lord.

God’s Tabernacle was  large in scale (compared to their camp tents) because God is large.  The tabernacle was the continuous presence and reminder of God so that they people would be obedient and faithful.  We no longer need that tabernacle because IF you have Christ in you,  by the means of the Holy Spirit, He is our presence and our reminder that God is faithful and approachable.

The courtyard. Look below at some of the pictures so you can visualize  this.  If you google the topic you can find tons of diagrams and pictures too.  The courtyard is before the tabernacle.  The courtyard had the altar of burnt offering (Bronze Altar) the bronze basin.  This is where there priests would wash their hands and feet before making a sacrifice or entering the tabernacle.  This symbolized cleanising and purification before the Lord.,

 I leave you with some pictures (my mom needs to see things so I assume others might too)  But  for many this is a busy weekend.  We will be spending more time on this.  This was just 3 Chapters.  If you have some time tonight, grab your Bible (New Testament) and read Hebrew Chapter 10.