Exodus 24-27
Notes
Transcript
Review
Review
Last week we saw, in 20:1-21, God’s “Law Words” The Decalogue or 10 Commandments delivered to Moses at Sinai. We learned a holy and righteous God has holy and righteous standards. Those who love God will constantly endeavor to live as He requires, enabled by the Holy Spirit. Most importantly that the Law proposes life and righteousness as the end to be attained by keeping it, but proves at the outset that man is in a state of death (Rom. 5:20; 7:7, 13; 3:20). Life and righteousness cannot come by that which only curses, but only through the grace of God in Christ.
Ex 20:20-26 “20 And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not. 21 And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was. 22 And the LORD said unto Moses, Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. 23 Ye shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold. 24 An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen: in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee. 25 And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it. 26 Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon.”
We see that God came to Israel not to make them afraid but so they would not sin. They have heard God and agreed to keep God’s covenant with them. We are beginning to see how specific God is about how Moses and the people of Israel come to Him. What is required for them to do so.
Exodus 21
Exodus 21
Ex 21:1 “1 Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them.”
judgement=mishpat (mish-pawt´)
Remainder of 21 goes on to give laws concerning servants. Injuries to the person.
The great God of heaven stoops to take interest in the detail affairs between man and man and makes regulations even as to the loss of a tooth. God who gives and maintains life, by His law would protect it.
Exodus 22
Exodus 22
Gives judgments on rights of property; crimes against humanity.
It’s conclusion: Man’s attitude to his fellow man will be based on his attitude to God and His law. One is struck by the number of things we are told NOT to do. These negative commands reveal human nature to itself. All is changed in the New Testament through Christ’s sacrifice.
Exodus 23
Exodus 23
Gives judgments on the national feasts. Instructions concerning the conquest of Canaan.
It’s conclusion: God’s angels will keep the believer in the way, though it lay through the enemy’s country and will bring him into the place God has prepared. A precept of obedience goes with every promise. Familiarity with idolators is forbidden (32, 33). The believer by familiar converse with false worshippers, is often drawn into worship with them and his detestation of sin wears off.
Exodus 24
Exodus 24
1 And he said unto Moses, Come up unto the LORD, thou, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship ye afar off. 2 And Moses alone shall come near the LORD: but they shall not come nigh; neither shall the people go up with him. 3 And Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the LORD hath said will we do.
Nadab and Abihu were sons of Aaron; maybe seventy elders were those Moses picked on the counsel of Jethro when Moses was trying to do it all
Moses was the only one to go to the top. The people at the foot of Sinai, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy elders a little farther up, and Moses at the summit
4 And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel.
God offered the covenant, the people accepted it, and Moses recorded it.
altar…pillars: The 12 pillars or ‘standing stones’ are symbols of the twelve tribes of Israel, while the altar clearly symbolizes YHWH himself in the ceremony that follows.
Exodus 20:24-26 “24 An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen: in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee. 25 And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it. 26 Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon.”
The altar was provided for and made by God, not touched by man’s hands. God is providing the only place where the only sacrifice able to meet His demands could be sacrificed.
5 And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the LORD. 6 And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basons; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. 7 And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient. 8 And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words.
A stone altar was built to represent the Lord surrounded by the twelve tribes of his people who had been brought out of Egypt, protected from his judgmental wrath by the blood of the lamb, and who were now immoveably established around him.
6: Sprinkled on the altar: The blood is first for God, as Moses sprinkled half of it on the altar (6). God must be satisfied, our greatest danger is not the devil or the world. If you are not saved, your greatest danger is the just and holy wrath of God. In mercy, he has appointed that by substitutionary death—here in and symbolized by the shed blood—those endangered by his wrath are accepted into his presence and fellowship.
7: The people though, have to affirm they really meant what their burnt offerings symbolized. Are they really committed to God’s way, holding nothing back, as the total consumption of the burnt offering on the altar depicts. The law of God is read to the people and they all say “All will we do, and be obedient.”
8: Moses immediately throws the other half of the blood on the people. The covenant has officially be cut between God and Israel. A covenant then was basically the 2 parties agreeing that if they didn’t hold up their end, they agreed to be torn apart. Drawn and quartered. The blood though, is mercy. God knew with them and with us that they would soon and constantly break their part and made a way for them to be brought back into fellowship with Him. A blood of sacrifice to be at the ready to cater for each and every lapse from his revealed way.
9 Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel: 10 And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness. 11 And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink.
A picture of the power, size, and holiness of God
12 And the LORD said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them. 13 And Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua: and Moses went up into the mount of God. 14 And he said unto the elders, Tarry ye here for us, until we come again unto you: and, behold, Aaron and Hur are with you: if any man have any matters to do, let him come unto them. 15 And Moses went up into the mount, and a cloud covered the mount. 16 And the glory of the LORD abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud. 17 And the sight of the glory of the LORD was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. 18 And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights.
Vs 12: law=torah AND commandments=mitzvah law and instructions
Vs 13: We first met Joshua in chapter 17 in the defeat of Amalek. He shows up again here foreshadowing his increasing importance in the story of what God is doing in the world through Israel
Forty days and forty nights may be literal or figurative for a long time. Either way, we see a foreshadow of Jesus in Matthew fasting in the wilderness and how Jesus was to become the “better and complete Moses” that will deliver God’s people
Exodus 25
Exodus 25
The Lord’s Tent
The Lord’s Tent
1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2 Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering. 3 And this is the offering which ye shall take of them; gold, and silver, and brass, 4 And blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats’ hair, 5 And rams’ skins dyed red, and badgers’ skins, and shittim wood, 6 Oil for the light, spices for anointing oil, and for sweet incense, 7 Onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod, and in the breastplate. 8 And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. 9 According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it. 10 And they shall make an ark of shittim wood: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof.
What God did on Sinai, He will do with the people of Israel from then on. He would go with them wherever He sent them. The tabernacle, or tent, was God telling them to make Mt. Sinai “portable”
8: “Even though miqdāš (miqdash)(‘sanctuary’) is found only once in the chapters dealing with the tabernacle, its importance is immense. In common English usage a sanctuary is a place to run to for safety. This is not what the word means in the Old Testament. Rooted in the verb qādēš (‘to be holy’), the noun means ‘a place where holiness is’, and it specifies the tabernacle as the place where the Lord in his holiness, in the full reality of the glory of his holy nature, would come to settle among his people.” We’ll see this more in Chapter 29
When we speak, popularly, of our church buildings as ‘the Lord’s house’, we mean a place where we go to be with him; in the Bible, the tabernacle—and, later, the temple or ‘house’—is where the Lord comes to be with us.
17 And thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof.
A mercy seat: this is an interpretation, not a translation, of Hebrew kappōret. It could mean either ‘lid’ or ‘cover’ in the literal sense (though this meaning is not found elsewhere in the Old Testament) or ‘that which propitiates’ or covers. Kappōret is ‘the atoning/making atonement’, the active expression of what happens. The ark contained the law of the Lord; the kappōret was a precise ‘covering’, and when identified with the atoning blood—the price paid in respect of sin—there was an exact covering/payment/atonement.
21 And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee.
The Testimony (21, ʽēdût) is that which testifies to God and his requirements and is used of the Law as the Lord’s ‘testimony’ to himself. It comes from a Hebrew word, meaning ‘to attest, bear witness to/against’. The ark, its cover and the Testimony are one thing. The throne of the Lord rests on the foundation of the exact matching and mutuality of law and atonement. This is where God meets his people and speaks.
23 Thou shalt also make a table of shittim wood: two cubits shall be the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof.
The table was ‘a special symbol of Yahweh present with his people … his giving nearness.
29 And thou shalt make the dishes thereof, and spoons thereof, and covers thereof, and bowls thereof, to cover withal: of pure gold shalt thou make them. 30 And thou shalt set upon the table shewbread before me alway. 31 And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work shall the candlestick be made: his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be of the same.
Any idea of food being provided for Yahweh is as removed from this provision as from the offering of sacrifices … No such thought in Israel.’ The bread was for the priests. Given to the Lord in sacrifice, provided by The Lord for the nourishment of his priestly people. ‘He is here, and here as one who gives sustenance.’
Exodus 26
Exodus 26
Ex 26:31-35 “31 And thou shalt make a vail of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen of cunning work: with cherubims shall it be made: 32 And thou shalt hang it upon four pillars of shittim wood overlaid with gold: their hooks shall be of gold, upon the four sockets of silver. 33 And thou shalt hang up the vail under the taches, that thou mayest bring in thither within the vail the ark of the testimony: and the vail shall divide unto you between the holy place and the most holy. 34 And thou shalt put the mercy seat upon the ark of the testimony in the most holy place. 35 And thou shalt set the table without the vail, and the candlestick over against the table on the side of the tabernacle toward the south: and thou shalt put the table on the north side.”
The tent was small (say 45 feet by 15 feet) compared with any modern church. It was also airless and dark, apart from the light from the golden lampstand and any accidental light that appeared temporarily when the flap over the door was raised to permit the entrance of priests. This lampstand was in the ‘holy place’: the ‘most holy place’ beyond the curtain or veil was always in pitch darkness. But the darkness and coolness inside would be great relief after the blinding heat of the desert outside (note how often YHWH’s ‘shadow’ is mentioned as a symbol of refreshment and salvation, e.g. Ps. 17:8) and the very blackness itself, from the time of Sinai onwards, was a fitting symbol of God (1 Kgs 8:12).
The small size was not a disadvantage, since only priests entered the main portion of the tent, while the innermost shrine, always in total darkness, was entered by the high priest only once a year, on the day of atonement (Heb. 9:7). Herein was the significance of the tearing of the great temple curtain at the time of Christ’s death (Mark 15:38). The congregation normally worshipped in their tent doors, looking towards God’s tent (Exod. 33:8), as a Muslim today turns towards Mecca to pray. If they came near at all, they only watched from outside what the priest did inside the ‘courtyard’ or great enclosure that surrounded the actual tent. The various materials detailed here as to be used in making the tent have already been mentioned in the list of offerings (Exod. 25:1–7).
Exodus 27
Exodus 27
Ex 27:1 “1 And thou shalt make an altar of shittim wood, five cubits long, and five cubits broad; the altar shall be foursquare: and the height thereof shall be three cubits.”
The altar of acacia wood. To allow it mobility, it is made of acacia planks sheathed in copper plates. It is a square of 7½ feet approximately, much smaller than the copper altar later built by Solomon, 30 feet square and 15 feet high (2 Chr. 4:1). Probably the ‘earth’ or ‘unhewn stone’ altars previously enjoined (Exod. 20:24, 25) were for local use only, unless, with some editors, we assume that the space inside this framework of wood and copper was filled with earth or uncut stones, to the appropriate height, so that the altar would still be preserving the rules of the book of the covenant.
You shall make horns: hornlike projections at the four top corners, like most other ancient altars. These may have once represented the actual ‘horns’ of the beasts offered in sacrifice. Later they served the useful purpose of projections to which the bodies of the sacrificial animals might be bound (Psa 118:27 God is the LORD, which hath shewed us light: bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar. ) or supplicants might cling. Since the altar was a ‘sanctuary’, a miniature ‘city of refuge’, the suppliant would grasp these horns in his hands, making himself a living sacrifice, devoted to YHWH, and so under his protection.
Conclusion
Conclusion
The question that people seem to be asking is: “If this God is real, what can He do for me?”
The real question people are not asking today is “How can we see God, How can we ever be in God’s presence and not die?”
The answer the Bible gives is you can’t!
You cannot be in God’s presence, let alone make demands of God presuming you know more or better than He does. You cannot stand even far off in the presence of His infinite power and holiness without the sacrifice precisely required by God, provided by God, sacrificed by and to God on God’s altar to which the blood of that sacrifice was offered first to God and then applied by God to you. This is the ONLY way you have ANY hope of being spared from the wrath of God, by the mercy of God and given fellowship with God both now and for eternity!
An uncovered person shouldn’t be asking what God can do for them, but rather begging for mercy from what God will do to them.
That mercy is offered in the perfect, sinless sacrifice that was, is, and will be Jesus Christ.
“The only way for God and man to meet is in the precise way and place which He has appointed. (Vs. 22)”
“When a righteous God and a ruined sinner meet on a bloodsprinkled platform, all is well.”
1 Pet 1:18-21 “18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, 21 Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.”