Today, I am reading and commenting on  Exodus 39-40.

When work was completed on the tabernacle, Moses inspected the work to ensure that all of the pieces had been put together according to the correct specifications.  If you have ever bought something which came in multiple pieces that you had to put together at home you know the importance of knowing what the final product is supposed to look like before you begin putting it together.   Since at this point, Moses was the only person who knew what the tabernacle was supposed to look like, he was the only person who could determine if all of the parts were correct.  Once Moses had determined that the pieces were constructed correctly, God instructed him to set up the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, and place all of its furnishings within it. The passage tells us that Moses set up the tabernacle and its furnishings and as soon as he finished the glory of the Lord filled it.  The New Testament tells us that our bodies are now God’s Temple, so if we have finished preparing ourselves according to His instructions, the Lord’s Presence will fill us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Exodus 36-38.

In yesterday’s passage, Moses repeatedly told the people that offerings of materials for the construction of the tabernacle was to be completely voluntary.  No one was obligated to make such an offering.  Today’s passage begins with those who were actually constructing the tabernacle interrupting their work to ask Moses to get the people to stop bringing more material.  People had brought in so much that more being brought in was interfering with them getting the tabernacle built.  We should approach giving with the same enthusiasm, and with the understanding that not everyone will, or should be, inspired to give.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Exodus 33-35.

My first thought when I read this passage was to wonder if, perhaps, over the years the order of some of this got changed during copying over the years.  However, that brought me to my current thoughts on it: God is all-powerful, therefore the order which we find this in today is the order in which He desires us to read it (or, as likely, reading them in the order which would not make us think they were out of order would not reveal anything about God’s Truth which reading them in this order does not, whether or not they were originally written in that order).  There may be those who read something about our relationship with God from the order these passages are in, but changing the order to the way my brain wants to say was how it was originally written does not currently change anything in my understanding of this passage.

In any case, I will write about what this passage says to me as we have it.  So, when Moses returned to the mountain after restoring order in the camp, God told him to leave the area around Mt. Sinai and lead the people to the Promised Land.  But that He would not go with them, otherwise He might destroy them along the way.  When the Israelites heard these words and were distressed.  As a result, they began removing their ornamentation even before they heard Moses tell them that God had told them to remove their ornamentation.  Then, a little later, Moses asks God who He will send with them when they go.  God tells Moses that His Presence will go with them, and Moses replies that if God’s Presence does not go with them He should not send them out from Mt. Sinai.  Moses then asks God how people will know that He is pleased with Him, if He does not go with them? And, what will distinguish Moses and God’s people from everyone else if God is not with them?

And now I finally get to the meat of what I want to write about this passage.  For me today the heart of this passage comes when Moses says to God, “If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. ”  I seek, and I hope that you seek, to please God so that He will continue to teach me His ways, to teach me how I may please Him more.  However, I also seek to please God so that He will be with me wherever He may send me.  What distinguishes me from others is God’s presence with me.  If God is not with me, I am no different than anyone else.  We are only God’s people inasmuch as God is with us, and anyone can be part of God’s people by seeking to be in His Presence.  I am not better than anyone else because what makes me distinct is God’s Presence.  Therefore what distinguishes me from others is not to my credit.  Rather credit for however I am distinct from others goes to God.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Exodus 30-32.

Moses was on Mt. Sinai for a long time talking with God and receiving God’s commands for the Israelite people.  This led the people to become discontent with sitting there at the base of Mt. Sinai and start to complain about why they weren’t travelling towards the “land of milk and honey” they had been promised.  Some of the people around Aaron told him that he needed to do something to maintain control, and probably suggested that he needed to make an idol to be the god of the Israelites.  So, that is what Aaron did.  It would also explain why Aaron did not lose his position as high priest for this affair.  After Aaron made the idol for the Israelites to follow as their god, they held a festival with sacrifices and other activities to celebrate their new god.  When Moses came down from the mountain the party was still going on, and the people, or, at least some of them, refused to stop partying.  So, Moses rallied the Levites to his side in order to restore order in the camp.  They had to kill 3,000 of the people in the camp before order was restored.

All of this happened because Aaron was not a strong leader.  He was in his position because he was a good public speaker (and Moses’ brother).  While there is much more to be learned from this passage, it illustrates the danger of selecting leadership because they are great orators.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Exodus 28-29.

My first thought when reading this was that the sacred, priestly garments would serve to make the priests stand out from everyone else.  As I thought about that, I struggle with the idea of a priesthood elevated above the “common man”.  I don’t think God desires us to elevate a small group of people as above everyone else, as between the ordinary person and God.  However, when I thought about it a little more I saw a connection with what I wrote on the 24th.  Those of us who follow Christ have been called forth into a holy priesthood.  Perhaps we should seek to dress in ways which make us stand out from those around us so that any who look will know that we strive to serve God.  Of course, if we do that we will also have to make sure that none of our casual utterances or actions bring dishonor to God, the way in which some drivers with a “fish” logo on their car bring dishonor to God by the way in which they drive.  I do not know what such clothing should or would look like, but I do believe the Church would be well served if its members could be visually distinguished from others by the casual observer.

Note: I come from a tradition which used to dress in a distinct manner (and some branches of this tradition still do). I think the reasons given for abandoning that dress were specious, but I also believe that many who wore such outfits thought that doing so made them better than others, without actually exhibiting the godly behavior to which I am referring.

I had not originally planned on writing that much about priestly garments.  Instead, I was going to make the focus of what I write today be on what God says at the end of this passage.  He said that after consecrating the tabernacle and Aaron and his sons, He would dwell among the Israelites and be their God.  They would thus know that He was their God and that He had brought them out of Egypt so that He could dwell among them.  Since creation, God has sought people who would know that He was God among whom He could dwell.  It was for this same reason that He came as Christ and died on the cross; so that we would know that He was God and He could live among us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.