Day 20: September 24, 2025 – Exodus 26-32

I’m wondering if this was a difficult stretch for you all to get through. We see many, many details of what the tabernacle was supposed to look like and how it was to be built. Remember, the tabernacle was considered the house of God, not the permanent one, that would be the temple and that would come later, but a mobile house of God. You can think about glamping and a really, really nice tent that was designed and built to be moved around as the people of God moved around to make their way to the promised land.

Next we read about the vestments of Aaron and his sons who were the priests of the people, or in the parlance of our day the pastors of the Israelites. The vestments were very important for that day and age and had to be exactly as Scripture said they were to be. Tucked within the commands for the vestments was the ordination ceremony and what had to be done in order to set Aaron and his sons aside to be the priests of the people. There was an actual rite that took place and it wasn’t simply an anointing like what happens with David later on when he becomes king, but there was sacrifice and other actions that took place to ensure that Aaron and his sons were rightly ordained.

All of this was given to Moses while he is up on the mountain with Joshua and a few others with him. Those back down in the base camp were getting restless. We end our reading with what could be one of the most famous scenes in Moses’ life, the creation of the golden calf. I love Aaron’s explanation as to why and how the calf came about. The people were restless, I gathered their gold, I put in the fire, and look at that, a calf came out! The implication was that maybe it was of God because somehow magically, or miraculously a calf was created without even trying. Yeah, that was definitely not of God since after all the few commandments that now exist revolve around the one that states: there is only one God.