Tag: Understanding the Old Testament

Morning Musing: Exodus 32:2-6

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“Aaron replied to them, ‘Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters and bring them to me.’ So all the people took off the gold rings that were on their ears and brought them to Aaon. He took the gold from them, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it into an image of a calf. Then they said, ‘Israel, these are your gods, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!’ When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of it and made an announcement: ‘There will be a festival to the Lord tomorrow.’ Early the next morning they arose, offered burnt offerings, and presented fellowship offerings. The people sat down to eat and drink, and got up to party.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever been given a set of instructions you didn’t properly understand? The result is often that you do the wrong thing without realizing it. Maybe you do something that falls more in line with a previous understanding than the one you didn’t quite get this time. Either at, your doing the wrong thing is the result. While Moses was up on the mountain, after the people had agreed to play by God’s rules, the first thing they did was the wrong thing. Worse yet, they were led into it. Let’s talk about what’s going on here, and making sure we understand God properly.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 32:1

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‘When the people saw that Moses delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said to him, “Come, make gods for us who will go before us because this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt — we don’t know what has happened to him!” (CSB – Read the chapter)

We recently purchased a new (to us) vehicle. It was an owner-to-owner purchase. As a result, I got to go make a pilgrimage to the state licensing bureau. It’s basically the DMV, but privatized…sort of. Actually, I got to go there three times. In two days. It was awesome. Actually, the people who helped us were all delightful. But it did mean standing in line. A lot. With one person helping customers while the other three employees seemed to be standing around doing nothing. That was fun. We hate to wait. We especially hate to wait when we want something. Waiting leads to impatience, which regularly leads to bad decisions. If we were watching a TV series about our journey through Exodus, the next part we are starting today would be introduced with something like, “Meanwhile, back at the base of the mountain…” We’ve been on the mountain with Moses for several weeks now. Back down at the base of the mountain, though, the people were waiting with growing impatience for him to return. And they were about to make a really bad decision. Let’s talk about it.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 31:18

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“When he finished speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the testimony, stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

In one of the funnier scenes from Mel Brooks’ History of the World Part 1, Moses (played by Brooks himself) comes down the mountain with the holy tablet of the Law. Except, unlike in the Exodus story, he is carrying three tablets instead of two. He announces that he has brought the people these fifteen commandments from the Lord. Then he drops and breaks one of the three tablets. Thinking on his feet, he quickly corrects himself to announce that he has brought the people these ten commandments from the Lord. Everybody knows about the law tablets that Moses brought with him down the mountain. Here is where we first learn about them. Let’s talk about what’s going on here.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 31:12-17

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“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Tell the Israelites: You must observe my Sabbaths, for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, so that you will know that I am the Lord who consecrates you. Observe the Sabbath, for it is holy to you. Whoever profanes it must be put to death. If anyone does work on it, that person must be cut off from his people. Work may be done for six days, but on the seventh day there must be a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord. Anyone who does work on the Sabbath day must be put to death. The Israelites must observe the Sabbath, celebrating it throughout their generations as a permanent covenant. It is a sign forever between me and the Israelites, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, but on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever gotten so focused on doing something that you forgot why you were doing it in the first place? I am a pretty task-oriented person. When I take on a project, the only thing I want to do is to finish that project and to finish it well. I can easily lose sight of just about everything else except the project resulting in no small amount of completely understandable frustration for the people around me. God had finished giving Moses all the instructions Israel needed to build the tabernacle. It was time for them to get to work on it. Before they got started on it, though, He took a second to remind Moses not to let the people lose sight of what mattered most. Keep that in mind as we walk through this challenging passage.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 31:1-11

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“The Lord also spoke to Moses: ‘Look, I have appointed by name Bezalel son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. I have filled him with God’s Spirit, with wisdom, understanding, and ability in every craft to design artistic works in gold, silver, and bronze, to cut gemstones for mounting, and to carve wood for work in every craft. I have also selected Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, to be with him. I have put wisdom in the heart of every skilled artisan in order to make all that I have commanded you: the tent of meeting, the ark of the testimony, the mercy seat that is on top of it, and all the other furnishings of the tent – the table with its utensils, the pure gold lampstand with all its utensils, the altar of incense, the altar of burnt offerings with all its utensils, the basin with its stand – the specially woven garments, both the holy garments for the priest Asson and the garments for his sons to serve as priests, the anointing oil, and the fragrant incense for the sanctuary. They must make them according to all that I have commanded you.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever known someone who was an idea person? Whenever something needed to be done, she had an idea for how to do it. Even if nothing needed to be done, she still had ideas. Let’s do this. Let’s try that. These kinds of folks can be inspiring. They can often easily wrap the people around them up in a really compelling vision of a future filled with all kinds of ideas. Having an idea and actually bringing that idea into reality, though, are two very different things. As we start in on the final chapter of the description of the tabernacle (before pretty much the whole thing will get repeated as the ISraelites actually build all of it…we won’t treat the sequel with quite as much depth or detail as we have given this part), we are going to start with a look at the folks who were actually going to make all of the ideas for the tabernacle happen. Check this out with me.

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