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I wish I had a nickel for every time that I’ve heard someone in leadership or position of influence say something like, “Don’t make me your role model; I never asked to be a role model.” I suppose it’s normal to want privilege without the correlating responsibility; children want to call the shots as long as they don’t have to work, pay the bills, and live with the negative consequences of what shots they’ve called. But you can’t divorce privilege from responsibility any more than you can divorce action from reaction.

In the reading today there is a great deal of attention given to the details of consecrating and purifying Aaron and his sons for service as priests to the Lord. One may wonder, “Why all the fuss?” First, because God is holy and those that approach and serve Him must do so in holiness and purity. This gives us a little more to think about when we read passages like, “Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension.” 1 Timothy 2:8, NAS95, and consider the principle behind them. Do we dare approach Him with the defilement of unrepented-of sin clinging to our hands, our lips, or our hearts?

Secondly, this purification ritual for Aaron and his sons underscores the necessity for all of God’s leaders to remember to keep pure. Yes, none of us are anything more than human, and none of us “walks on water” or are capable of it. But the responsibility of leadership will always include proper purity of a higher standard than a non-leader. It is the burden of husbands, parents, preachers, elders, deacons, teachers, and government leaders to live the higher standard — “…From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.” Luke 12:48, NAS95; and “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.” James 3:1, NAS95. A really explicit example of this is coming up in Lev. 10. Leaders, especially of God’s people, you don’t live a normal life anymore; the eyes of children are on you, the eyes of the worldly man or woman (maybe to see you stumble, maybe to see whether or not you’re sincere) is on you, the eyes of new Christians are on you, the eyes of teens are on you, the eyes of older Christians being tempted or lured by sin are on you. You can’t afford to leave a poor example, you can’t afford to live like everyone else. Purity and a good example are a must.

See you tomorrow, Lord willing.

Hope your Valentine’s day was a nice one. Relationships are important and it’s a good thing to have a holiday that celebrates it. Now, if we could just extend it a few more days — another 364? — how much nicer could our marriages and families be?

Anyway, today’s reading is a continuation of instructions on the sacrificial system regarding various types and kinds of needs for them: guilt offerings, peace offerings, etc. One of the interesting situations listed for which an offering should be made is when (5:1) authorities adjure the public (make an official and urgent call for anyone with information to come forward with it — putting the public sort of under oath) for a witness to come forward and one decides not to come forward, he is guilty. In the 21st century, we just call it deciding to not get involved and think little of it; God seems to call it sin, perhaps another form of lying.

One of the more subtle — but important — changes that modernity has made to general morality is honor and honesty. Oh, sure, people have always lied and cheated, but I would suggest that modern standards of honor and honesty are among the lowest in the world’s history. We construct rationalizations, spin zones, and framing to very sharply and narrowly define what telling the truth is. But godly standards of the Bible meant, for example, Joshua keeping his word to the Gibeonites, after they had lied to Joshua. The examples could be multiplied. And it ought to cause us reassess our approach to truth, honor, trust, covenants, and honesty.

What do you find in these chapters that gave you pause for thought?

We’re covering four chapters of Exodus today, because it finishes up the book without leaving one chapter out there sort of just all on its own. In essence it is the building and construction of the Tabernacle, its furnishings, its tools, and its priests’ garments.

You probably noticed an almost mind numbing repetition of the blueprints as they were being built or made. But lest we criticize the text for unnecessary redundancy, let’s ask the question of why God might have wanted it repeated. I can at least imagine that it could be, because He wanted to emphasize the importance of following the pattern He had given, and how it was followed to the letter. Why would that be important for 21st century Christians to read and know? I’ll talk about that in just a minute or two.

After all the workmen finished their tasks, the Scripture says (39:43) that Moses did an inspection of all the work. His inspection revealed that the workers had built everything exactly according to the pattern, everything was exactly according to God’s command. And then the verse says that Moses blessed them.

The rest of today’s reading goes on to the official erection of the Tabernacle, and how the Lord showed His approval by filling the Tabernacle with His glory in the form of a cloud by day and a fire by night. That cloud, later, by lifting became the signal that Israel should break camp and follow wherever God led.

Now back to what these things might mean to us: the Lord in the new covenant has given to us a pattern (Romans 6:17; Philippians. 3:17; 2 Tim. 1:13; etc.) for His new Tabernacle (Temple, see 1 Cor. 3:16,17 and Ephesians 2:21,22). The inspector will not be Moses this time, but Christ — our Moses (Savior, Lawgiver, and Prophet — often paralleled in the NT); and if we build it according to the pattern, we will also be blessed. And the church built according to the pattern will also be filled with the glory of God’s presence in His Spirit (Eph. 2:22).

We’re not talking about a physical structure this time; we’re talking about a people for God’s own possession, who not only have come to salvation through His one way (John 14:6; John 3:16; Acts 2:38), but worship Him according to the pattern, follow His pattern for organization and  leadership, and follow the blueprint of real discipleship. Such a “Tabernacle” — such a people — will be blessed and will be the home of God’s real glory here on earth.

See you tomorrow, Lord willing.

Today’s reading covers the God’s giving of the stone tablets to Moses a second time, a series of covenant reminders, a taking of a free-will offering for the construction of the Tabernacle, and the early stages of building it. But the thing that always strikes me as I read through this section is 34:14 in which God says His name is Jealous.

We usually think of jealousy as a bad thing, but its really a two edged thing that is both proper at times and improper at others. Jealousy is the emotion that wells up in us when we’re feeling sort of territorial about things and we see someone with something or someone that we believe really should be ours by rights — “That’s mine; get your hands off of it!” We can be jealous about honors that others receive that we want. We can be jealous of the success of a rival. And, of course, we can certainly be jealous regarding personal relationships.

This last sort of jealousy is sometimes inappropriate, but actually can be quite justifiable and appropriate in, for example, marital situations. When someone is paying a bit too much attention and getting a little too much attention from our spouse, we rightfully begin to feel jealous; and may say or do something about it. Our spouse, after all, does belong to us in covenant; and there are attentions and affections that rightfully belong to exclusively to us.

This is the sense in which God calls Himself Jealous. The context is the covenant that He has made with Israel and that He expects them to avoid friendly associations with the Canaanites, when they enter the land, that could (and did) result in the worship of other so-called gods — unfaithfulness. And by the way, when God expressed Himself this way, “–for you shall not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God–” (Exodus 34:14, NAS95), He’s telling us something important about Himself. God’s personal name is literally YHWH, not Jealous; but there’s intentional meaning behind taking on a “nickname”. I’ve heard people (football players in this example) use similar expressions before, “My middle name is Hungry” — expressing essentially, “Of course, I’m hungry; I’m always hungry and open to an invitation to eat!” Assuming a descriptive as one’s name is to say that it is a major part of one’s personality and nature. And God says that His name is Jealous; it is a self-description of a major feature of our God.

And it is completely justifiable. We are His creatures, living on His planet, in the midst of His universe, sustained by His moment to moment grace and provision. We would have no being without Him; there is no one else in this or any other universe who is owed even the smallest credit for our existence and sustenance — it is YHWH God alone, period. I could go on and on, but this is why paganism, atheism, materialism, humanism, and a legion of other “-isms” are so sinful: God sees it as dalliance, flirting, and “sleeping” with other “gods”. In other Scriptural contexts, God calls it adultery: “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” James 4:4, NAS95.

There’s so much more in these three chapters that could be commented on. What struck you today?

See you tomorrow, Lord willing.

The list of specifics continues on in the reading for today. God certain had some quite detailed instructions for the Tabernacle, the high priest’s garments, and the formulations for the anointing oil and the incense. And sprinkled throughout these instructions are reminders to not stray from the blueprints we can read, and where the exact pattern isn’t documented in detail, God tells Moses to remember what he “saw on the mountain”.

In the midst of all this detail is the description of what the high priest’s garments and regalia would look like, and it is here that I’d like to tarry in thought for a moment. So much of what is described can have interesting parallels to our own high priest, Jesus. For example, on the shoulder of the outermost garment (ephod) golden clasps set with onyx stones were to be placed — their appearance would have been a little like epaulettes — with the names of the Israel engraved on them, so that “Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord on his two shoulders for a memorial.” Similarly, the breastpiece of judgment worn on the front of the ephod (which contained the Urim and Thummim) had gems attached to them also with the names of the tribes engraved on each one, so that “Aaron shall carry the names of the sons of Israel in the breastpiece of judgment over his heart when he enters the holy placed, for a memorial before the Lord continually.” Our high priest, Jesus, bears our names before the Lord, as well, going into the real Holy of Holies as our Advocate to make atonement with His own blood.

The Urim and Thummim themselves are interesting parts of the high priestly dress. They were for communicating God’s specific will about a specific question posed by men. No one knows exactly how they were supposed to work — some say they were a “yes and no” set of stones (either one or the other glowed or you pulled one or the other out for your answer), others have suggested that they might have been like dice that the high priest could interpret. Regardless, they remind us of how Jesus Himself is our Great Prophet (like Moses, Deut 18), speaking to us the Father’s words and judgments.

What else do you see in these garments that remind you of what Jesus Himself is and does for us?

See you again soon, Lord willing.

Today’s reading is one that may be difficult for some folks to follow or to understand why it’s even included in the Bible — detailed specifications for the building of the Tabernacle! If you do, step back for a second and see the bigger picture; there’s a couple of things here that I think we should notice.

First, we ought to notice that the pattern was quite important to God. The importance of this pattern runs contrary to a post-modern mindset, in which anything goes and truth can be a fluid and vague concept. Specific patterns, however, matter to God; and if they matter to God, patterns need to matter to us, too.

• “According to all that I am going to show you, as the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furniture, just so you shall construct it.” Exodus 25:9, NAS95.
• “See that you make them after the pattern for them, which was shown to you on the mountain.” Exodus 25:40, NAS95.
• “Then you shall erect the tabernacle according to its plan which you have been shown in the mountain.” Exodus 26:30, NAS95.
• “You shall make it hollow with planks; as it was shown to you in the mountain, so they shall make it.” Exodus 27:8, NAS95.

The specifics are detailed enough to be blueprint quality, and a number of people over the years have built replicas of it, just from these directions.

“And your point?” you may ask. The point is that the details of worship, holiness, morality, and more could not be simply “close enough”. Nadab and Abihu (Lev. 10:1-3) found out the hard way.

“Yes,” you might say, “but that was in the Old Testament, not in the New Testament. Isn’t God more gracious today than in those days? Doesn’t He allow more wiggle room for us than for them?” Well, the answer is sort of yes and no; let me explain myself.

The commands that we have been given under the new covenant are comparatively much less detailed than the Mosaic covenant. God has cited fewer details about worship, dress, food, etc. There are more generic commands for us than there were for Israel. This comparative wiggle room makes the Lord’s church adaptable to every culture, every continent, and every era. When God has said, for example, assemble on the first day of the week to worship and celebrate the Lord’s Supper; we can meet early in the morning, we can meet late in the evening, we can meet in Jerusalem or Manchester NH or Tibet, we can meet in houses or church buildings, we can have a formal setting or obey the command around a common table — it is generic and has room for different situations. But where God has given detail, we really need to pay attention; because although covenants may change, God’s nature doesn’t. When He gives specific commands about, for example, singing (without instrumental accompaniment), we need to sing a cappella.

So, yes and no. We have some wiggle room, but we need to pay attention to the details, when He gives them. Although we may not always understand the reasons behind God’s details, He is not just being arbitrary or capricious; there are reasons, some of which we may realize as we mature and some of which we may never know this side of Heaven — but then I didn’t understand my parents’ orders, when I was 3 years old, either; their reasons were over my head, but they weren’t just being arbitrary.

And speaking of possible reasons, have you ever given thought to the Tabernacle’s arrangement and furnishings? How interesting it is to come into the Tabernacle courts and be confronted immediately by the altar of sacrifice. Next comes the laver, right in front of the door to the Holy Place, where those entering into the Holy Place must wash and be made clean. Inside the Holy Place is the Table of the Bread of the Presence to the right, the 7-flamed lamp (the Menorah) to the left, and the altar of incense straight ahead, just in front of the veil separating the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place (the throne of God). An interesting progression, don’t you think? Perhaps, there was more behind the details than we knew or know even now.

What do you think? What do you see in the arrangement of the Tabernacle and its furnishings?

See you soon, Lord willing.