Feb 3-Leviticus 8-10

Leviticus 8-10

  I had posted the video  on our site from YouTube about the Jews wanting to build the Third Temple. They had just gotten the crown made of pure gold 'with all the latest research as historically accurate as possible'. I was interested in it but I had the nagging feeling I missed something in the reading because I didn't exactly remember it being a gold crown. Then I really looked into it today (we are 'to search the scriptures to see if it is so') and realized it was it was supposed to be a turban with a gold plate, not a gold crown. Ex 28:36-38. That got me to wondering if the linen turban represented the humanity/humility and obviously the gold reprents holiness. I wonder if the linen part got left out gradually or when that came to be. I don't think that I would want to be messing around with God's design!

Nadab and Abihu are struck dead for offering unauthorized fire. It follows right on the heels of the fire of God consuming the burnt offerering on the alter, so it makes you wonder if they weren't like "Dude, that was freaking awesome" let's see it again. And they fill their censer with fire that is not from the alter as commanded, perhaps it is from their own home and the result is not good. Maybe they thought 'fire is fire' but if the fire was not associated with the alter it was not associated with the sin offering. We are given a little hint that maybe alchohol was involved since Lev 10:8-9 now commands not to drink any wine or fermented drink in the Tabernacle (Tent of Meeting). Contrary to Aaron's excuses when the calf 'jumped out of the fire' he "remained silent" Lev 10:3.

I was a little confused by what was meant in Lev 10:19-20 about Aaron and his sons not eating the eating the goat as instructed. The only commentary I could find confirmed my suspision that it was because he was in mourning for his sons. As high priest he was not able to do any of the 'usual' mourning rituals like tearing his clothes but he just could bring himself to eat. The rule about High Priests not tearing their clothes is clearly violated, by the way, during Jesus 'trial' Mark 14:63.

I just can't help but contrast all the 'pomp and circumstance' in mind with Jesus who comes with none of these religious trappings, hangs out with stinky fisherman and is in so many ways so ordinary. Before He came all the worship had to be so perfect and so exact and so prescribed and ritualistic. I can't help but think how beautiful and spontaneous and sincere the acts of worship were in the NT. Like the woman who broke the alabaster box and washed the Lord's feet with her tears. Luke 7:38-49. I am so glad I was born on 'this side' of the cross. But having said that we still need to be careful that we treat God as Holy and worship and pray in the manner that He prescribes. I cringe sometimes when I hear people say things like, "The big man upstairs" or that they can 'worship God in their own way" often saying they worship Him out in nature or on a fishing boat. Although God gives us tremendous amount of freedom we still need to remember to do things HIS way and not ours.

Feb 2 Exodus 39-40

Exodus 39-40
More details again......I certainly would have been tempted to say, "and they made it just like God said" rather than recounted the details over and over. I'm sure there is a reason for it.

Anyway, so they did everything exactly as instructed (yeah!) and Moses inspected it and then blessed them.

Then comes the best part of all- Ex 40:34 the glory of the Lord filled filled the tabernacle. Ancient Rabbis called this the Shekina Glory ( not a term actually used in the Bible but is from two Hebrew words meaning "to dwell" and "tabernacle"). It  (He) manifests itself differently but it is most often seen as a large glowing cloud. One of the most beautiful revelations in scripture is that God desires to dwell with his people. Ever since Adam and Eve's fall, He has desired to restore that fellowship.

What a jaw dropping, weak in the knees experience it must have been to SEE the glory of God.

This got me thinking more about the Shakina Glory. A few instances I could think of (and there are probably many more)

•  the burning bush
•  "pillar of cloud by day and fire by night"
• thick cloud around Mt Sinai (when Moses went up and also when the 70 elders were there)
•  in the Holy of Holies

The MOST interesting thing to me was thinking of Jesus and wondering if He manifested this "Shekina Glory." Well I didn't have to think too hard before I remembered the transfiguration Mat 17:2.

 Then I started thinking of some more interesting instances of the Glory of the Lord in the New Testament (with the help of google)

• Luke 2:9 The shepards saw the glory of the Lord!! The lowest on the social ladder!
• John 1:14 Speaking of Jesus, John states, "The word became flesh and dwelt (tabernacled- is the literal meaning) among us and we beheld His glory...."
• Romans 3:23 When you get a little glimps of this glory, it gives new meaning to this verse about how we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God! We are SO in need of a Saviour!
• John 17:22 Before Jesus leaves the earth He gives believers His glory!!! WOW (I'm guessing this is one of the reasons that art often depicts Jesus and others with those glowing rings around their head. I always have found that annoying but this makes sense) No wonder we are to be the light of the world!

The next time you recite the Lord's Prayer and say 'Thine is the Kingdom and power and the glory forever', you can more fully realize what that glory is when you think about the Shekina Glory.

And there is more glory yet to come. Certainly in heaven, but also in the New Jerusalem after Christ comes back to gather His followers and the rest are sent to eternal punishment and there is a new heaven and a new earth God will permanently dwell with His people and there will be no need of sun or moon because the Glory of the lamb will be the light. Rev 21:22-23

Feb 1, Ex 35:4-39:1

Two depictions of the Mercy Seat (called Atonement Cover in the version we are reading). Study both and see if you realize what is going on in the second picture before you read further.You can click on it to see it larger. A Beth Moore Bible study first cued me into this forshadowing. Check out John 20:12.

The first picture had to be repeated every year.  The priest would have to spinkle blood on the Mercy Seat to atone for the peoples sins. In the second picture, it's once for all finished!

Remember that when Christ died the veil (which was then in the temple, not the temporary tabernacle) in front of the Holy of Holies and the Mercy Seat was ripped from top to bottom (Mark 15:38). The veil was multiple layers thick and reportedly could not have been pulled apart by a team of oxen. The tearing signified that we now have direct access to God. No longer was man limited to once a year access through the High Priest. Our own High Priest, Jesus, was on the new and final Mercy Seat- guarded in the tomb by angels until His ressurection. I just thought this was so beautiful.

I also read something interesting about the ark of the covantent being symbolic of Christ. It was made of wood and covered inside and out with gold. The wood represents Christ's humanity and the gold respresents His divinity.

Picking up on a theme from a couple days ago that these furnishings are copies of what is heaven: Revelation 11:19 Then the temple of God in heaven was opened and the ark of his covenant was visible within his temple. And there were flashes of lightning, roaring, crashes of thunder, an earthquake, and a great hailstorm.

You may or may not know that the tabernacle was eventually replaced by 2 temples. One was destroyed and then another one built. The last one was destroyed in 70AD by the Romans (prophesied by Christ in Matt 24) that not one stone would be left on the other- and now all that is left is the edge of one far wall, popularly called the 'Wailing Wall'.) Where the temple stood is now under Muslim control and the Dome of the Rock is built on it. But the Orthodox Jews now reportedly have everything ready to go for a 3rd Temple-all the furnishings etc except the Ark of the Covenant which has never been found. They are training priests and waiting for the day that they can rebuild the temple and start sacrifices again.  (tragically they don't realize there is no need) Very interesting since the book of Daniel (Daniel 11:31) says that the AntiChrist will put an end to sacrifices (which there are none currently to put an end to) and Jesus says to His disciples in Matt. 24 when they ask what will be the sign of His coming and the end of the age He tells them :“when you see the abomination of desolation spoken about by Daniel the prophet – standing in the holy place (let the reader understand)." There is no Holy Place right now......so could this be getting ready to happen? I don't know. All I know is that we all need to be ready to meet Him whenever He comes.

(techie note: Yeah! My hyperlinked Bible verses work! Put your curser over the verse to see it pop up. I have NO idea how I did it)

Jan 31 Ex 32-34

(The path leading up to modern day Mt. Sinai)

The first thing that struck me in today's reading is that God tells Moses that "Your people" are up to no good. If you are married with children, haven't you often said to your husband or wife, "YOUR son/daughter did such and such". And can't you just FEEL how angry God is? Just leave me alone and let me steam! I'll make a new nation for you. But amazingly Moses intercedes for them.

I had not noticed before about Moses grinding up the calf and making the Israelites drink it. I couldn't find any real information on this but the best I can tell the idea is what we would think of "you made your bed, now lie in it". One guy said the idol was no better or worse coming out the 'other end' than it was in the first place :)  I did just have a thought though...maybe because it (the gold) had been defiled in making an idol, maybe Moses wanted to make sure that it was not used for any other purpose such as making the furniture in the tabernacle. They must have had a LOT of gold with them!!

It is also interesting to me that Aaron is not punished. He went on to be the High Priest. I assume, although we are not told, that Moses probably especially interceded for him. Or perhaps he was one of the first ones in line when Moses asked "who is for the Lord". I assume that he totally repented since, like I said, he went on to become High Priest. I guess that's encouraging to those us (all) who mess up. He certainly did not admit his mistake in the begining when Moses confronted him! I just threw the gold in the fire and this is what popped out!! Sounds logical......

There a some really beautiful parts to this story. God talking to Moses like a friend. Joshua lingering in the tent of meeting (keep your eye on him, he will become great) and Moses begging God to go with them or forget the whole thing. Our life would not be worth going forward with if God did not go with us.

A chapel on the top of Mt Sinia where they believe that God gave Moses the 10 Commandments and in the back of the chapel is where they believe the 'cleft of the rock' is where God hid Moses and let His glory pass by him.

http://labs.bible.org/api/?passage=Exodus+34:6-8

This is not how I wanted the above verses to appear, but I'm working on it :) This tiny bit of "programming" I had to do to get that far convinced me (not that I needed convincing) that I could never be a computer programer! Headache!!

Jan 30 Ex.29-31

God certainly is into details!! Because He is so Holy everything had to be 'just perfect' to approach Him. Thank goodness the price has been paid through Jesus for us to have fellowship with Him at any time.....any where.......in any circumstance!

Like I said yesterday, it is amazing (though admittedly boring) that we have all these details. If they unearthed some 3000 year old document that told down to the last fringe what people wore, how they worshiped etc. historians would be all over it. But since it's 'the Bible' it is largely ignored by secular historians.

Of course redemption and ransom are a frequent theme in the OT. I was smiling to myself thinking what an uproar it would be if in the upcoming census the census taker would come to the door and hold out his hand and ask for ransom money.  In shock you say "What?" (thinking' I didn't see anything on CNN about this!!'). "Yes" the census taker grunts (he's said it 1000 times and is getting annoyed), "God gave you life, your life is His, you have to buy it back". Wait a minute you're thinking....I must have missed that in the fine print. I know I skimmed it...but who reads that stuff? The census taker shifts impatiently. "Come on, half a shekel, I got more houses to go to!!". You scramble for your wallet or purse totally up in your head what you've already given (..a half an ephah of this, a half a hin of that, one of my first born lambs.....) When does it end?!! Happily, it has at Calvary! Paid in full! I love it!

Jan 28 Ex 25-28

I am just facsinated by the Tabernacle. I love to study about all the different items..how each one has meaning and is a picture or symbolism for something. My sister however- it puts her in coma!

So I'll try to share a few thoughts that might interest those of you like my sister how are nearly comatose by now. And for the rest of you weirdo's like me, I put on link to more study our facebook page. Even for me, the contruction details were a little boring but just think how amazing it is that there are such detailed instructions that we can today re-contruct with incredible detail that is almost 3000 years old!!

The most facsinating thing for me is that it seems to be an earthy picture of something that is actually in heaven. Hebrews 9 tells us that these are all COPIES of what is in heaven and that Christ as our new high priest went into the Holy of Holies in heaven and placed His blood there for the forgiveness of sins once and for all on our behalf.
The whole chapter is beautiful (http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Hbr&c=9&v=1&t=NIV#top)
but I especially like these verses
Hbr 9:10 They (the sacrifices etc) are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings-external regulations applying until the time of the new order.
Hbr 9:11 When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here,  he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation.
Hbr 9:12 He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.
Hbr 9:23 It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
Hbr 9:24 For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence

I won't spend time right now on the priest garments, but here is a website that gives all the details.

http://www.bible-history.com/tabernacle/TAB4The_Priestly_Garments.htm

Jan 28 Ex 19-20,23:20- 24:18

Up until today, except for the commentaries, this Bible has not read much different than any other Bible. Today is where I really start loving it! In the actual Bible, the long list of Laws are given fully at least twice and parts of them are reviewed many times. I'm sure that wandering in the Wilderness they needed to hear them over and over (especially since it was 40 years), but what a stroke of brilliance on L. Smiths part to put them all together, catagorize them and just have to read it once. There are things we can learn from the laws and it's important to have them there to refer to so we can understand the NT better, but since many of them don't really apply to us this is where many people reading through the Bible start to lose it. But we are going to hang in there!!

The verses I mentioned before- Ex. 23:20-21 (I am sending an angel ahead....do not rebel against him, he will not forgive your rebellion) has come up already. I said I would tackle that when I got there....but boy it's a tough one. I couldn't find any helpful commentaries or interpretations. This is the best I can figure out, if someone else has more insight, jump in. One translation says 'he won't bear with them', giving the idea not of unforgiveness, but "I'm not putting up with that". Also in a list of 'related verses', it mentions ones about not letting them go into the promised land because of their rebellion. So I am guessing that this has to do more with 'he won't let their sins go unpunished' rather than refusing to forgive them. As always, we have to take scripture as whole and we know that God will forgive us when we are repentant. In reading these related scriptures I noted that we will see more of this 'angel of the Lord' and there is now little doubt in my mind that it is a Christophany (preincarnate Jesus). Remember that the word translated angel actually means messenger and doesn't always mean the being created to serve God in heaven.

It always bothered me that when they finally take over the Promised Land that there has to be so much blood shed. Then I heard a message one time that used this passage to show that was not God's original intent. Here in Ex 23:23-33 (with the 'original' Israelites not the next generation who actually do go into the Promised Land) He tells them He will drive out the inhabitants little by little and he will send 'the hornet' ahead of them. One source I read said that this is a metaphore for 'ills and calamaties". At any rate by the time they finally get there, they have disobeyed so many times that they have to fight for the land. But I'm jumping ahead a little.

Back to the scene at hand- it is interesting that Moses sprinkles them with blood. I had not noticed that before. And they seem so eager to obey, twice the saw 'We will do everything the the Lord has said, we will obey". Hmm......we'll see......

Nabad and Abihu, by the way are Aaron's sons. They will won't be obeying for very long (preview of coming attractions.....)

And what must it have been like to see God's glory?? Wow. The closest we get now is His majestic creation.

• When have you been aware of the Lord’s presence while observing nature?
• Close your eyes and place yourself on Mount Sinai with Moses and friends. Meditate on God’s beauty as he stands on the blue sapphire pavement.
• Now bask in the cool peace of God’s beauty.

Jan 27 Ex 15:22-18:27

And so starts the complaining! Complain, complain, complain. I know I'm guilty too but boy when you read about other people doing it, it's a great reminder to knock it off!

They sound like a bunch of kids! I can almost imagine: "Are we there yet?!" "I'm hungry." " This water tastes icky!" "I'm thirsty!" "Moses- he looked at me!" "Well, he looked at me first" "Nuh uh" For the most part we can see how their complaining is pretty 'normal' and 'human'. But to say they would have been better off having died in Egypt? Now that's pretty drastic. But isn't that just how we are? Especially when we think of Egypt as being reprentative of sin. As soon as it gets hard, we think of our old ways.....and think, "Well it really wasn't that bad".

But despite everything, God supplies all their needs. And they still try to manipulate it so they can save some.

With all that complaining and not following instructions, Moses must have had an awful lot of opportunities to get offended. They were constantly grumbling against him. He would have been tempted many times to get angry, bitter and resentful. Luckily, most of the time he took his complaints to the Lord and stayed on task. I just watched Joyce Meyer this morning and I loved what she said, "Offense is the bait of Satan". It actually comes from the greek word (scandelon) used for the bait hung above a trap. When we get offended we fall into his trap, get bitter and angry and it affects our relationship with the Lord and with others. So we have to remember (I'm talking to myself too!) to take our complaints to the Lord and stay on task and refuse to get offended.

The other great lesson was from Jethro. Moses' father in law. He told Moses he can't do everything, so it's OK to delegate. Like everything, this is all about balance. Some people try to do everything and can't delegate anything and others delegate everything possible. In delegating the things that didn't require his attention he was able to focus on the unique job called him to do. He didn't sit around eating bon-bon's, he still judged the difficult cases and did everything else God called him to do.

Jan 26 Exodus 13:17- 15:21

The Original "I've Got Your Back"

We've read about or seen in movies the parting of the Red Sea for years.

What really interested me was the angel with them. I've always known about 'the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night' but I hadn't really noticed the 'angel of God' was with them. Both the angel and the cloud had been ahead of the Israelites and both went behind them when they crossed the Red Sea(Ex 14:19-20). I got to wondering if this is another ('Where's Waldo') preconfiguration of Christ and therefore the trinity. I'm thinking it is as later in Exodus 23: 20 it says 'my Name is in him' and 'he will not forgive your rebellion'. Only God (Jesus) can forgive sins (not sure why he would not forgive something.....we'll have to tackle that when we get there)

Talk about God's got your back!! "The Lord will fight for you; you need only be still" (Ex 14:14)

Jan 25 Exodus 12-13

Egypt is a word picture for us of sin......and our bondage to it. Remember that the Israelites went voluntarily...things were good for while and then came bondage and oppression.

Many of the plagues were selective- they afflicted the Egyptians and not the Hebrews. But the plague of death (the price for sin) affected everyone's firstborn. HOWEVER, salvation was available in the form of a substitute- a perfect lamb. The blood of a perfect lamb on the wooden cross posts of the door of their home and the Angel of Death would pass by. Only once the blood was applied and price for sin paid could they begin their new journey to the Promised Land. Just like the blood of Jesus saves us and we embark on a new life.

It's just amazing that 3000 years later, the Passover is still celebrated. I would assume that it has to be the longest running traditional celebration in history. In record numbers, our blessed Jewish friends are begining to realize that Jesus is indeed their Messiah, their salvation as well as ours. And the Passover is one the most absolutely beautiful pictures of it.

I could never do this topic justice, but I did find this great video that I hope you will watch. It is very well done and shows us Jesus as the Passover Lamb. A Jewish believer in Jesus explains:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5272606142394767394#