Month: May 2018

May 21, 2018: Day 37 – Exodus 37

Now that is a lot of gold that went into making the ark of the covenant.   Remember, we have already covered what went into the ark, but one of the primary contents of the tabernacle was the Word of God, the covenant that God had established with his people.  For the Israelites that was the embodiment of God, the actual stone tablets.  Even if their prophets came later and said that one day there will be a covenant that is made on your hearts and not on stone tablets.

The presence of the covenant was so important to the people of Israel.  But it was static.  It did not have life.  It was actually that which took life, and didn’t give it.  Paul speaks about this how the law was for the sake of basically telling us what we were doing wrong, not how to have a living relationship with the Creator God.  

That has always been my approach in preaching.  What is it that God does which gives us life?  Well…, everything!  It is about life, it is about being able to see Him in a way that is transformative, and not in a way that is limiting or which creates fear.  I heard something today that I know I will be sharing in the pulpit.  God despises fear.  He chews out his disciples every time that they are afraid.  But he can put up with people who don’t have faith, even those with little faith.  What an amazing God we serve who wants us to live our life in freedom, without fear, and if we have doubts along the way, that’s okay, He can deal with that.

May 20, 2018: Day 36 – Exodus 36

Did you read what is happening in these first 7 verses?  It reminds me so much of First Presbyterian.  Moses had to command the people to stop bringing in offerings to the Lord for the work of these master craftsmen because they were bringing in too much.  They were being too generous!  What a great verse and what a great problem to have!  “So the people were restrained from bringing; for what they had already brought was more than enough to do all the work.”  Can you imagine if in the middle of the service I said something like…”I know that we are only halfway down the aisles for the offering, but ushers, you can stop right there, you don’t need to go to the back, we have enough.”  That would be different.

You don’t want to get lost in the details in this chapter, but you do need to notice the amount of material that was needed to make this tabernacle work.  The amount that was needed is mind-boggling.  And yet, the people were able to bring in more  than what was needed.  First Presbyterian is blessed with a generosity that is, well, what it should be.  It is normal to want to give to the work of the Lord.  In this Scripture it lays it out without any big proclamations.  It seems as if it is normal to be in overabundance of what the Lord requires.  It seems to be normal to go beyond what the Lord wants us to do.  

My desire is that all of us would see as normal our blessings to the work of the Lord, and not as a drudgery.  If we are giving of our time, our material gifts, our skills to the church and we are not pleased about it, or we see it as unrecognized, then maybe we are in it for the wrong reason.  

May 19, 2018: Day 35 – Exodus 35

We find that after the Lord commands Moses to get things done in a certain way, that he actually finds the people to do it in that way.  The details that we have had in the past chapters of what the tabernacle and what the vestments and what the decorations and accouterments ought to be is only matched by the people being willing to produce them in this chapter.  There is an underlying theme in this chapter where we read repeatedly: “all who were of a willing heart”.  These things took place not because the Lord demanded it, but because the people were willing to bring them to him.  

If you look at vs.29 you will see the following quote: “All the Israelite men and women whose hearts made them willing to bring anything for the work that the Lord had commanded by Moses to be done, brought it as a freewill offering to the Lord.”  This sense of a freewill offering is emphasized because it is supposed to show a willingness, maybe a change of heart, in the people as they carry out His wishes.  

We see Bezalel mentioned again as the superstar craftsman.  Nothing more than his name and the attributes which he had is mentioned.  Often we think that if we aren’t like the Bezalels of the world then we really don’t have much to offer.  But you see so many unnamed people in this chapter just bringing what they had freely and without compulsion.  We will have some Bezalels, but not all of us are called to be that.

May 18, 2018: Day 34 – Exodus 34

 

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This is the depiction of Moses in St. Peters which refers directly to this Scripture in Exodus in chapter 34.  In the Hebrew the word which describes this radiant light which is emanating from Moses’ face can also be translated as “grew horns”.  In fact, in the Vulgate it was translated as such, that would be the Latin.  So throughout art history you see Moses with the tablets and two prominent horns protruding from his head.  I’m pretty sure the author of Exodus meant “radiated light”.  Isn’t it interesting how interpretations of Scripture tend to shift and change as we learn more and more about the languages and settings in which they were written.

But we do see God giving the people of Israel a second chance.  We see God self-described as merciful and slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.  That is the God that I know and love, that is the God to whom I have given my life.  It is interesting how God wants his people to be completely separate from the culture around them.  What a difference from today, where we want culture to be like us and where we are more than happy to be like culture as long as culture is willing somewhat to shift in our direction.  I’m wondering if God wouldn’t be more pleased if we were more separate and different than what we currently are.

May 17, 2018: Day 33 – Exodus 33

This is an incredibly anthropomorphized passage.  Okay,  now that you have looked that up you will notice that God has taken on the form of a human, at least in the way that He is talking to Moses and as he is describing how he is going to walk beside Moses and cover Moses with his hand.  Who knew that God had a hand to cover or legs upon which to walk?  We find something similar in Genesis when we see that the Lord walked in the garden with Adam and Eve.  I like the image of God taking on the form of something that is familiar to me and something that I can envision.  But it is not about us being able to understand God, it is about God being able to offer His life in His son Jesus Christ.  It is an amazing Scripture.

Moses tries to understand what is going to happen next.  In vs.17 you get the sense that Moses has talked God into doing something that God wasn’t really planning on doing.  “I will do the very thing that you have asked.”  Moses requested to see God’s glory and requested that the people he was leading would be able to see that Moses had God’s glory upon him.  And he does.  This sets the stage for the people of Israel to get one final confirmation that God is on their side, but not even that is enough to keep them faithful.  We are so much like them…

May 16, 2018: Day 32 – Exodus 32

This is not a great chapter in the history of the people of Israel.  Moses was up on the mountain getting the ten commandments which had been written by the finger of God when the people of Israel, led by Aaron, are up to no good.  Notice the personal touch, literally, of the commandments handed down to Moses.  Remember that Joshua is with Moses up on that mountain.  

While they are up on the mountain they become restless and Aaron leads them into making a golden calf that they could worship.  Below you will see a golden calf that was worshiped in Egypt, and so would have felt very familiar to the Israelites who had just left Egypt.

golden-calf

God tells Moses what the people are doing even while Moses is up on the mountain.  He tells Moses that he is going to destroy the people of Israel and just raise up a branch from him.  But Moses pleads to him to save the people,  and actually God “changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people”.  This is not the only time that we see God “change his mind”.  If you look at Jonah 3:10 you read: “God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.”  

Some feel threatened that God can actually change his mind.  You have Hebrews 13:8 that tells us: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”  This makes us think that God cannot change his mind.  God can do anything that God wants.  The implication of a mind change is that a mistake has been made or that somehow the Providence of God is limited.  No, the change is always for our good.  You never see God changing his mind from saving the people to destroying the people.  Thank God for that!  It is always God changes His mind from destruction to redemption.  That is just a part of God’s nature, that He wants the best for us.  

May 15, 2018: Day 31 – Exodus 31

No one should ever think that only those up on the pulpit area are called by God to do God’s work.  Did you notice in this chapter how the Lord spoke to Moses and drew out Bezalel and filled him with the Holy Spirit in order to increase his ability, intelligence and knowledge so that he would be the best there could be in making those things that have been mentioned earlier?  As Presbyterians we believe that everyone is called to the work that they have.  There is no higher calling.  There are callings, and all of these callings have been instituted by God for the sake of the kingdom of God.   This certainly is being played out here in this chapter.

There is a transition then from the gifts and the skills of the people of Israel to create that which God has commanded them to create in order to worship Him appropriately, to singling out the Sabbath Day as a commandments that not only has to be respected, but has to be followed to the letter of the law.  A few times we read that those who do not follow the Sabbath shall be put to death.  I’m not sure you heard that, but I know I was given a hard time early on when I first moved here and I mowed my lawn on a Sunday.  So much for a hard time, Exodus says the person who does not obey the Sabbath should be put to death.  

At the end of this chapter we see God handing over to Moses the tablets of stone upon which God Himself had written with his finger.  That’s pretty descriptive, and you can almost see the hand of God writing those commandments upon those stone tablets.  

May 14, 2018: Day 30 – Exodus 30

What do we today to provide the same kind of detail to our worship of God?  I would say nothing even comes close to what we read in Exodus.  We celebrate our Savior Jesus Christ, but the time and the effort that it took to make sure that the priests had what they needed to make appropriate offerings was way beyond what is prepared today.  We spend time preparing for Sunday, we pray over the Scripture and ask for guidance in the other elements of worship, but the details which are provided here are off the chain.  They are simply exaggerated, but it was what was required.  

Notice that there is a church tax.  Not so long ago in Germany there was a church tax for the German Unified Church which the state collected.  If you were on the rolls of the German Church then a tax was collected from you which went to the church.  That hasn’t been around for a few decades now, but it is recent history.  In Italy there is a certain amount of government money that goes to charitable organizations and when you vote you can designated to whom they will go, and the churches are included in those organizations.  The funds have to be used for social ministries, but I like that.  That seems to make more sense than the German model.  

May 13, 2018: Day 29 – Exodus 29

So this is the ordination service of Aaron and his children, but primarily Aaron.  I’ll never forget my ordination, I know, it isn’t about me, but it is interesting how different ordination services are today as opposed to how they were back then.  I can safely say that no animals were sacrificed at my ordination.  But there was laying on of hands, just as there is here in Exodus.  It is important to note how important the priesthood was seen in the Hebrew community.  I would argue that when you find yourself in a theocracy that the priest is the most important player in the community.  

It is interesting that the role of pastor has diminished in society these days.  The pastor used to be the first person who was approached for counsel for any issues that society may have faced, that families may have faced, that businesses may have faced.   There was a sense that when you needed a disinterested voice, then the pastor was the person you wanted to contact.  That simply is not the case anymore.  I rejoice when I am called and asked for insight, but even in my 20+ years I am noticing that it is happening less and less.  That makes me a bit sad.

May 12, 2018: Day 28 – Exodus 28

We need to define some terms here.  First of all, notice how Aaron as the priest is given vestments to wear.   These vestments were to set him apart.  I like the bells that he had on his vestments which were on his robe so that he would not die.  Remember Zecharia, the father of John the Baptist, who was in the temple and the people were wondering why he was taking so long?  They may not have heard the bells ringing which signified that he was wandering around in the areas where only he could go.  If you were to see the face of God you were supposed to die, so the bells might warn God that you were on your way.  Yeah, that’s probably not it.

I actually prefer to wear a robe in worship.  I remember trying to wear jeans for our second service and it just didn’t sit right.  I still don’t like the suit as much as the robe.  It doesn’t go back to Exodus for me, but it does go to the place where when I wear the robe it hides me, because it simply is not about me.  For Exodus in this Scripture it was a matter of setting Aaron apart and his role as priest.  That isn’t what I’m interested in, but I am interested in people not seeing me but rather the Lord coming through what I say and what I do.  A robe could limit distractions.

Now some definitions.  The ephod is a sleeveless vest which was decorated and adorned with all sorts of jewels and other distinguishing features which were very valuable.  The Urim and the Thummim are thought to be objects that were used to understand what the will of the Lord might be.  For example, even today some churches use lots to understand what God’s will might be.  So they could be lots, they could be other instruments of discerning God’s will as well.  

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