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Chapter 1: What offerings and sacrifices are discussed in Exodus 30-32?
Hey Bible Readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap. You may have noticed that we're starting to get into some mentions of offerings and sacrifices, and it may be confusing. Don't worry about figuring everything out. Thank God we don't have to do these anymore because Jesus was the final sacrifice. However, what's important for us to do is think about what all this means.
Chapter 2: How can we understand God's requirements for sacrifices?
So if you come away from your reading going, I didn't get anything out of this today, try asking yourself some different questions. ask yourself, what does this reveal about God? So maybe you think, okay, God's ordering lots of very specific sacrifices. What does that tell me about God? It might tell you a few things. First, that he's talking to humans at all, which is kind of huge.
He wants a relationship. Second, it might reveal that our sins need to be atoned for, and God has a plan to accomplish that. So today when we start out, Moses and Joshua are still up on Mount Sinai, the mountain of God, where Moses is hearing from God for 40 days. They've been up there since chapter 24.
Chapter 3: What is the significance of the incense altar and census tax?
God starts out talking about the incense altar, and we saw that even God's incense is holy and set apart. It can't be used for anything else. It's a special blend. Later, we'll see this about the anointing oil as well. This reminds me of a friend I had who refused to tell anyone what kind of perfume she wore so that no one else could buy it.
Except God is God, she's a human, and her perfume is in mass production, so that's entirely different. God also requires a one-time census tax from the people, half a shekel, which in today's money is about $3 to $6, according to my research. One of the hard things about a census is that people sometimes get puffed up and arrogant about their numbers. Cities love to boast that they're the largest.
Every religion wants to be the fastest growing. McDonald's advertises their sales number on their signs. So God attaches a reminder to this tax. This census isn't about you or making your numbers larger. This is an offering to the Lord to remind themselves that they owe Yahweh their lives. And by the way, we see that all their lives are worth the same amount, whether rich or poor.
He's pointing their eyes off themselves and onto his goodness in sparing their lives and pardoning their sins and providing them a place to meet with him. My God shot almost came from this section on the bronze basin, but I decided on something else. I'll share it with you, though.
Chapter 4: Why is cleanliness important in approaching God?
It occurred to me as I was reading this section that the priests have to go to great lengths to make sure they're clean. They have to wash their hands and feet in this basin to make sure they're presentable so they won't die. Cleanliness is about purity, and purity is a big deal when it comes to drawing near to a set-apart God.
The phrase cleanliness is next to godliness is not in the Bible, but if it were, it would probably be in Exodus 30. Okay, so here's what I loved about the Bronze Basin and all their necessary hygiene rituals. It took me forward 1,500 years to a time when Jesus knelt down and washed the feet of his disciples, even his betrayer.
Chapter 5: Who are Bezalel and Oholiab, and what is their role?
There's a point when we realize, no matter how much cleaning up we try to do, we can't clean ourselves up. It'll never be enough. We still need him to wash us clean so that we won't die. No more bronze basins and fear of death. Jesus is enough. But also, wash your hands. Next, God points out two guys to Moses, Oholiab and Bezalel. God says he has filled Bezalel with his spirit.
And we know that was a big deal back then because this was when God the Spirit did a lot of traveling around. God says he gave Bezalel ability, intelligence, knowledge, and craftsmanship. And he says those things are to be used for his glory, to build the things he wants in his tabernacle complex. Whatever God commands of us, He equips us to obey. He gives us whatever we need for the assignment.
He initiates and sustains His plans for us and for His glory through the work of His Spirit. In addition to initiating work, God also initiates rest. He reminds Moses again how important the Sabbath is. He calls it a sign between them. And this statement about it being a sign elevates the Sabbath to the level of circumcision, like in God's covenant with Abraham.
Chapter 6: What is the importance of the Sabbath in the Sinai covenant?
In fact, this conversation with Moses is called the Sinai covenant. God says the Sabbath is holy to the Lord and he calls them to honor it each week. This is a much higher bar than having your son circumcised when he's barely a week old. This is a regularly recurring reminder of who God is to them. There is a lot to say about the Sabbath, but we don't have time for it today.
But at some point this year, I'll be covering it in a bonus episode for the Recaptains who are at our bonus content tier or higher. Next, we move on to a scene many of you are familiar with. Moses has been up on the mountain for almost six weeks. The people grow restless and impatient, maybe even wondering if he's died up there. He's old. They appeal to Aaron to make them a god.
Chapter 7: What happens when Moses is on the mountain for six weeks?
In verse 1, we see that they perceive this to be a delay. They don't recognize it as God's timing. They were too steeped in their unbelief to acknowledge God's plan. They wanted their own. Then Aaron, who had just seen God eight chapters ago, complies. Not just building the calf, but building an altar in front of it too. Maybe he's jealous of Moses and wants to usurp his leadership.
Maybe he wants the people to like him. Who knows? Then he ordains a feast unto the Lord. That's weird. This sounds like the monolatry we talked about on day 37, where people would mingle their worship of God with other things. And remember, this is Aaron, the guy who helped perform miracles in front of Pharaoh, the guy God appointed as high priest.
And here he is melting down earrings to make a calf out of gold, the same material that was to be used for the holiest places where he would serve God in his tabernacle. And then the people attribute their deliverance from Egypt a few months ago to this thing that moments earlier was in their ears and on their fingers.
I don't know what bothers me more, the fact that it's idolatrous or the fact that it's irrational, but I do know what should bother me more. Meanwhile, up on the mountain, God lets Moses in on what's happening down there. God is angry, and he says he wants to destroy the people and start over with just Moses.
But Moses appealed to God based on God's promises, which are irrevocable, and based on God's character, which is unchangeable. And God relents. Do I think God really planned to kill them? No, I don't. I think this was a test for Moses, an opportunity for him to be reminded of God's promises and character, because he's going to need it in the days and weeks and years ahead.
When Moses and Joshua go down the mountain with the two tablets, the ones God has carved and written the testimony on with his own hand, Moses sees what has happened and he throws the tablets and breaks them in a rage. These were the people he had just defended to God. He destroys the calf and rebukes the people. Meanwhile, Aaron acts dodgy.
He shifts the blame and lies and evades responsibility, and this chapter does not end pretty. Moses asks the people where their hearts are. Are their hearts with God or not? This is their chance to repent of breaking at least the second commandment and possibly the first as well, a covenant they all agreed to abide by.
The Levites are all in, but for the ones who aren't, Moses commanded their death. Only 3,000 died, which compared to the approximately 3 million who were all about the calf, that's a small number who were unrepentant and who died. Those who repented lived.
This may seem harsh, but remember, these were to be a set-apart people, the people of the covenant, the people the Messiah would be born through, and now 3,000 of them were worshiping their jewelry instead of Yahweh. It was merciful of God that the other 2,997,000 lived. So what was your God shot today? I was struck by God's timing.
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