Today’s passage: Exodus 33

Helpful thoughts:

• God speaks of sending Israel to the Promised Land without Him.
  • Moses intercedes for the people.  Going anywhere without God is not worth going.  What made Israel special was that God was with them.
• This truth also urged Moses to want to know God more.
  • Miracles are amazing.  Land is great.  Knowing God outweighs them all.
• Grace is unmerited favor (Receiving what we do not deserve, what we have not earned).  When we think we deserve grace, it ceases to be grace.
  • God gives grace and mercy (Not receiving what we do deserve) to whomever He will.

Questions to consider:

1. In what way does this chapter get to the heart of Israel’s (Or just mankind’s) relationship with God?  What is the deeper issue at hand here that undergirds all the desires Moses and we would have to know what God wants us to do in obedience to Him?
2. Is knowing God a greater blessing than all the other blessings we may ask from Him?  How so?
3. What did God provide for us that we might not be consumed and that we could come to know Him?  What all did it take?

Today’s passage: Exodus 32

Helpful thoughts:

• In Exodus 24, when the people were joined together with the Lord as their God under the Old Covenant, they declared, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.”  Then Moses went up to the mountain to receive the word of the Lord.  And before he came back down…they “turned aside quickly.”
• While Moses was receiving instruction from the Lord on how to prepare and consecrate Aaron as High Priest, Aaron was fashioning a golden calf and building an altar to it for the people to worship.
  • There was an effort to syncretize the worship.  Aaron told the people the name of the golden calf was Yahweh!
• In Moses’ appeal to the Lord, he brought before God His promises made to the fathers of Israel and His glory in the earth.
  • Moses’ anger didn’t burn until he saw the false worship (Betrayal against the Lord) with his own eyes.  The Lord (In His omniscience and omnipresence) had already seen it.
  • Moses displayed humility before the Lord.  He had an offer to have a new nation come solely through him.  Moses was more concerned with the glory and integrity of God than with his own fame or power.

Questions to consider:

1. What was Aaron’s lie when questioned by Moses?  How did he try to pass the blame?  What would true repentance have caused him to say?
2. What things do we learn about the hearts of people in this passage?  What should we pursue to ensure our hearts are continually inclined to worship the one true God (2 Corinthians 3:12-18)?
3. What did Moses hope to do when he returned to the mountain and to the Lord (Verse 30)?  What is the only way for our sin to be atoned (Isaiah 53:5)?

Today’s passage: Exodus 31

Helpful thoughts:

• God gave Israel the commands to build and make every aspect of the Tabernacle.  Then, He gave them the ability to do it.
• God gives the Sabbath Day to Israel as a day of rest in order that Israel would know that God had set them apart.  For Israel to keep the Sabbath was for them to acknowledge the Lord was their God (Verse 13).
  • The Sabbath taught Israel other things as well, but this explanation from verse 13 is the most foundational, and quite possibly the reason for God’s requirement for capital punishment should someone refuse to obey.
• The Ten Commandments were written on the stones for Moses to take back to Israel.

Questions to consider:

1. Have you ever felt that a command of God was unreasonable or unattainable?  How might verses 1-11 help us to think rightly about the commands of God?  Does God tells us to do anything He won’t provide what we need to be equipped to do?
2. Have you ever thought the consequences of sin were too high?  How might our evaluation of the severity of sin be tainted/skewed compared to God’s evaluation?  If we disagree with God on what is right or wrong and what should be done about it, who is going to be right every time?
3. What is the significance of God giving these tablets of stone with His written word on them to His people?  What do we have in our Bibles?  How valuable and precious are they?

Today’s passage: Exodus 30

Helpful thoughts:

• The Altar of Incense is the final piece that was to be included in the Holy Place along with the Golden Lampstand and the Table for the Bread of the Presence.  The Altar of Incense stood in front of the veil that separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place.
• The Lord instituted a tax for whenever a census was taken of the nation.
• The Bronze Basin was place outside the Holy Place and was given for the priests to wash themselves before entering the Holy Place to offer sacrifice.  The priests were to be cleansed before the Lord.
• A special recipe is given for oil to be used for anointing and for incense.  God wanted this recipe to kept separate and special for this purpose.  The unique smell was to be kept entirely unique.  Because it was to be used in service for the Lord, it was not to be used for any other purposes.

Questions to consider:

1. In what ways do we see the Lord’s passion for His glory and holiness displayed in this passage?  How did He give instructions to His people in ways to help them see and enjoy Him more?
2. What were the consequences for breaking these laws?  How serious was the Lord about these commands?  If He determines they are important, are we to disagree?  Are there any commands in Scripture you tend to think aren’t very important?  How should you think about them in order to bring yourself under submission to God?
3. When the people ever smelled the oil or the incense, what were they to know was near?  How can certain senses bring you to a pleasant or perhaps even an unpleasant mindset or remembrance?  How would restricting the use of these recipes for oil and incense have enhanced the people’s worship?

Today’s passage: Exodus 29

Helpful thoughts:

• Instructions for the consecration of the priests is given in today’s chapter.
  • Every sacrifice instructed up to verse 28 is part of the initial consecration of Aaron and his sons as priests.
  • Verses 29-37 speak of the passing of the roles from Aaron to his sons and was to be followed thereafter in future generations of Aaron’s descendants.
  • Verse 38 and after are sacrifices which were to go on perpetually.
• Elements of these offerings and practices speak to many aspects of the priests relationship with God and their ability to minister on behalf of the people.

Questions to consider:

1. What pictures do we see in these sacrifices in how they prepared the priests for their service?  What needed to be done to equip them and set them apart?
2. What part of these sacrifices surprised you?  Was intriguing?  And why?
3. How is Jesus’ role as our High Priest different?  Why didn’t He need to be consecrated by the blood of another sacrifice?

Today’s passage: Exodus 28

Helpful thoughts:

• Aaron and his sons are chosen by God to serve as priests.  Instructions are given concerning their official clothing/garments.
• Aaron’s garments were designed by God to symbolize the role of the priest, to bring the people before the Lord and for the Lord to watch over His people.
• It is not entirely clear what the Urim and Thummim were.  But they were used at times through the Old Covenant to seek out the Lord’s choice or decision on certain issues (Numbers 27:21, 1 Samuel 28:6).

Questions to consider:

1. What things can we be learning about God as we read through the details of His commands for Israel as they set up worship in the Tabernacle?  Was there purpose behind the things He commanded?  What purposes could we find?
2. What kind of work did God want done on these items (e.g. verse 3 and 15)?  If they were thrown together, would they have been obediently and worshipfully done?  How does God command us to love Him and glorify Him (Mark 12:30-31, 1 Corinthians 10:31)?  How can these principles feed our desire to pursue excellence in what we do?
3. The priests were to be dressed this way to perform an incredibly important task, to intercede on behalf of the people in making sacrifice for sin.  What was the true “garment” that Christ needed to be our priest and our sacrifice…and then clothe us so that we could be in the presence of God (Isaiah 61:10)?

Today’s passage: Exodus 27

Helpful thoughts:

• Three more elements of the Tabernacle are commanded and explained in today’s chapter:
  • The Bronze Altar
    • This was the altar for burnt sacrifices.
    • When we read in other passages about grabbing the horns of the altar or worshiping at the horns of the altar, this is what the passages are referring to (1 Kings 1:50, Psalm 118:27).
  • The Court
    • This court was an area which enclosed the Tabernacle.
    • Entrance and exit of the court and Tabernacle was always to be to the East.
      • This was true of the Garden of Eden as well (Genesis 3:24).
    • The metals used for each element were less valuable the further away from the Most Holy Place they were.
  • Oil for the Lamp
    • The people were to bring oil for the lamps continually, so that they would never go out.

Questions to consider:

1. What should the command to continually bring oil for the lamps have resulted in?  What would the people have to do to keep those lamps burning?  Is our worship a once-in-a-while occasion?
2. How might Zechariah 14:4 further expound on the importance of entering the Tabernacle from the east?  How is God continuing to undo the consequence of sin which caused man to be removed from fellowship with Him through the eastern gate?

Today’s passage: Exodus 26

Helpful thoughts:

• In this chapter, the Lord gives instruction for the creation and raising of the tent for the Tabernacle.
• According to the ESV Study Bible, the tent’s exterior dimensions would have been 45 feet long, 15 feet wide and 15 feet high.  It was surrounded by a courtyard sectioned off.  The interior of the tent contained the two rooms, the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place.
  • The Most Holy place was a 15 foot cube.
• The Most Holy Place contained the Ark of the Covenant.  The Holy Place contained the Golden Lampstand, the Table for the Bread of the Presence and the Altar of Incense.  These rooms were separated by a veil (Matthew 27:51).

Questions to consider:

1. In giving Israel the instructions and command to build the Tabernacle, what was God giving to Israel?  What would He be providing for them under the Old Covenant (And in the exodus) through the Tabernacle?
2. What structure or statue is not in the Most Holy Place?  Though these items would have been beautiful to look at, what didn’t they represent? (Exodus 20:4-5)
3. Why did the veil tear in two when Christ died for our sin?  What serves as our covering before our Holy Just God?  (Colossians 3:3)

Today’s passage: Exodus 25

Helpful thoughts:

• The Lord gives instruction to collect contributions from the nation to raise up the tabernacle.
  • The people were to give as “every man whose heart moves him.”
• Specifications were also given for the Ark of the Covenant, the Table for the Bread of the Presence, and the Golden Lampstand.
  • The Ark of the Covenant served as a “throne” of God, or the Mercy Seat.
  • The Table for the Bread of the Presence was always to have 12 loaves of bread on it to represent the 12 tribes of Israel.
  • The Golden Lampstand was to be kept lit at all times.  It was a picture of the Tree of Life.
• The Ark of the Covenant was the only “furniture” placed in the Most Holy Place (Or the Holy of Holies) in the Tabernacle.  The Table for the Bread of the Presence and the Golden Lampstand were in the room just outside the Most Holy Place, the room referred to as the Holy Place.

Questions to consider:

1. What appears to be portrayed in these elements of the Tabernacle?  What was God reminding His people of through these symbols?
2. As we begin to read about the Tabernacle, keep in mind Hebrews 8:1-7.  Toward what was the Tabernacle designed to point Israel and us?  What is the Heavenly reality?