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

When I read through this the first time my thought was that the cloud of the glory of Lord covering the tabernacle would be my focus.  As I reread the passage to get my thoughts in order, I read the description of what the skilled craftsmen had created and thought it was mostly a repeat of the description God had given Moses of what they were to do.  And that is definitely true.  I also thought about the description of Moses putting the tabernacle up for the first time.  Once again, I thought about the fact that he would have needed a lot of help to do so.  I have written about that before, but in light of how much the gold, silver, and bronze weighed this year I realized just how big that task was.  Then, once Moses was satisfied that the tabernacle and its furnishings had been set up correctly, the passage tells us that “the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.”  Until today I always thought the “tent of meeting” in that sentence was the tabernacle.  It occurred to me today that, while in the passages following this “tent of meeting” referred to the tabernacle, in this sentence tent of meeting may refer to the tent of meeting which Moses used before the tabernacle was built.  Moses could no longer enter the old tent of meeting because the cloud settled over it, but the glory of the Lord was no longer there.  Moses no loner met with God at the temporary, cobbled-together, tent of meeting which he had designed and put up outside of camp for that purpose.  He now met with God in the tabernacle, which had been designed by God and was put up in the middle of the camp.  This foreshadows the change which happens when Christ died and rose from the dead.  Under the Old Covenant, we met God in a structure outside of ourselves.  In the New Covenant, we meet God inside our hearts.

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.

I am not sure how I am going to tie my thoughts about today’s together.  I know I often write that.  At the beginning of this passage the workers who were putting the materials together came to Moses asking him to get the people to stop bringing more materials because they had more than enough already.  As I read this, the Israelites were donating so much more than was needed for the work that it was starting to get in the way.  The Israelites wanted to take part in the construction of the tabernacle so much that they contributed more to its construction then could be used, and they had to be told to stop.  I think sometimes we don’t really comprehend just how much they contributed.  Part of that is because we do not use the units of measure which are used in this passage (or in any of the Biblical passages for that matter).  The translators’ notes gives us some reasonable approximations.  The tabernacle and its furnishings used over 1 ton of gold, 2 3/4 tons of silver, and 2 1/2 tons of bronze.  This does not count how much wood, fabric, yarn, thread, and precious stones were used.  And that is just how much was used!  The passage tells us that the Israelites gave even more than that for the work.  Further, we need to remember that this was a people who had left Egypt in a hurry, pursued by the Egyptian army, and almost constantly on the move since then.  Finally, I want to note that the Israelites transported the tabernacle around the wilderness for a little over 40 years.  Most of it was carried, which puts a whole different light on the later accounts when Moses divided up the duties of transporting the tabernacle and its furnishings.

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.

After Moses had destroyed the golden calf and restored order in the Israelite camp, God told Moses to lead the Israelites on to the Promised Land, but that He would not go with them, because if He did He might destroy them on the way.  In response Moses said something which tells us a lot about our relationship with God.  As part of requesting God to go with them Moses said, “f you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you…”  God taught Moses His ways because He was pleased with him.  Also, Moses did not please God because he followed His ways.  If that were the case, Moses would not have needed God to teach him His ways.   In the same way, God is not pleased with us because we follow His ways.  Rather, He is pleased with us because we recognize that we need Him, and because of that He teaches us His ways.  It was important that Moses realize that he needed to be taught God’s ways.  It is just as important that we recognize that we need to be taught His ways.

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.

When we read and talk about the Israelites making and worshiping the golden calf while Moses was on Mt Sinai we tend to either look at how God got angry and Moses argued against God destroying them, or we look at how Moses got so angry that he destroyed the stone tablets which God had inscribed.  I have never heard or read anyone who looked at the contrast between Moses’ reaction when God told him about it and his reaction when he witnessed it for himself.  When God proposed destroying the Israelites and building a people to fulfill His promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob from Moses’ descendants, Moses argues against doing so.  Then on the way down the mountain, when they first heard the sounds of the festival which Aaron had the people put on in worship of the calf, Joshua thought it sounded like the aftermath of a battle.  However, Moses immediately realized that it did not sound either like the celebration of a victory, nor did it sound like the grieving after a loss.  Then when Moses realized what was actually going on, he was furious.  It seems to me that perhaps God suggested to Moses that He would wipe out the Israelites so that Moses would come to their defense, which would temper his anger when he saw what they were actually doing a short time later.  It is worth noting that when Moses sent the Levites through the camp to kill, they only killed about three thousand men.

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