No one tried the trivia yesterday?

Which tribe will be placed at the East Gate to enter God’s presence??  Look for #4.

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

The Tribe of Judah will be the entrance to the Gate.  (Yes, we are having Trivia Quizzes next weekend…😁  at school, I am pitting Tiffany against Ramona). Pick a friend to compete with.

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Movin’ on.  Look at the family line of Levi.  This is who we are dressing.

28:1:  “Have Aaron your brother brought to you from among the Israelites, along with his sons Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, so they may serve me as priests.

The tribe of Levi has been carved out to maintain this tabernacle.  They will be the priesthood to serve until Jesus fulfills their role on the Cross.    If you go back and look at 29:29, Aaron’s garments, High Priest,  will be passed to his son.  I point this out because when we get to the time of Jesus, the priesthood is so corrupt that this position can actually be bought at the right price.

Let’s get the full-length mirror picture here:

Exodus: 28:3 The skilled workers were given wisdom from the Lord so there were no mistakes on this important garment.

The ephod and the breast piece go together.  The Ephod was a cloth that fastened to the breastplate.  The Ephod also held the stones on his shoulders that had the names of the tribes of Israel engraved on them-“the way a gem cutter engraves a seal”.

28:12 Aaron was the wear the names on his shoulders as a memorial before the Lord”.

The Breast Piece- Is the plate holding the stones over his heart.

Also, the breastplate would hold the Urim and Thummim over his heart.  I don’t know how these worked exactly because I wasn’t a High Priest, but I think they looked something like this

Think of them as dice that God controlled.  The Lord would use them through the Priesthood to cast lots for decision making.  So in my head, they looked more like the magic 8-ball BUT the Lord actually put what he wanted them to do through the clear screen at the bottom.

At the bottom of the garment, there were bells.  The bells have to do with God’s attention to the High Priest.  The entire worship ritual is mutual communication between the Lord that utilizes the full sensory experience.  In Genesis, he would say “God SAW that is was good”, and the burnt offerings are a pleasing AROMA.  Sound pleases the Lord too and recognizes the rich senses between the Creator and his worshipers.

Spoiler Alert:  I will say that when we get to Leviticus 10 SOMETHING is going to happen and the Levi family is going to turn these bells into an “Urban Legend”.  LOL  I love it!!!

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The Consecration of the Priests (No pictures here…Amen)

Because the priest is the covenant mediator, we start this chapter with the sacrifice of a bull.  It is very very important that we understand that the sacrifice is a true substitute for ourselves that deserves nothing less than death.  In verse 10 Aaron and his sons are to lay their hands on its head.  We are to relate to the animal that will be sacrificed.  Hold their head.  Look them in the eye.  It should hurt our heart that because of our sin, someone innocent must die for us.

So let me ask you, here is the blueprint for the Tabernacle and the dress patterns for the priest.  How long do they have to build and sew?  Think of it this way: God is the Contractor and He will say “I need this done by….”.  What do you think the answer is and WHY.

Superbowl watchers: I have attached 3 optional videos (pick one) that you can watch if you get behind today.  (same length as an SB commercial).

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• 2 Trivia Questions today 😁

It is going to be difficult to visualize what the Lord is describing without a visual.  On Mt. Sinai, the Lord gives Moses 3 things.   The 10 commandments (God will write those on a table for Him), The Book of the Law, and the blueprints of the Tabernacle.

• CLICK here for a short video (3:49)
• Click here for a 3-D Model Video (1:52)
• Click here for a video with an explanation (5:51)

Following the events of Sinai, God will dwell in their presence.  The Tabernacle blueprint is given to build a sanctuary, a Holy place, set apart, for the Lord to dwell among them.  Tabernacle means “dwelling place”.  It is exquisitely constructed, remarkably extravagant, and representative of the beauty and perfection of the Lord as He comes to dwell in the people’s midst.

The entrance to the dwelling begins with an altar of sacrifice.  I know that every detail of this blueprint is a foreshadow of Christ to come, but 2 details stood out to me (well more than 2 but this post can’t be longer than the actual Bible) is the scarlet thread that holds it all together and the acacia wood.

We began talking about the scarlet thread in Genesis 38 when Tamar gave birth to twins.

The acacia wood:

• • This wood is strong and beautiful.
  • It is lightweight to assist in the mobility of this tabernacle to be with his people wherever they go.
  • It is waterproof so this was the SAME wood that was used to make the God’s Ark that Noah was placed (the Gopher wood family) that was used to save lives.
  • It is also indigenous to the area that Abraham was given a substitute when he was with Isaac on the mountain (near Calvary)

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During the Exodus, the Egyptians voluntarily loaded them up with metals, fabric, gold, silver, oils, spices etc.  Chapter 12:

³³ The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country. “For otherwise,” they said, “we will all die!” ³⁴ So the people took their dough before the yeast was added, and carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughs wrapped in clothing. ³⁵ The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. ³⁶ The Lord had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians.

Didn’t these seem odd to anyone that they were fleeing yet carrying such items….I would have grabbed my purse and some food and said “Aint Nobody Got Time For That!!”   God always has a plan even when things don’t make sense.

If you watched a video, you are good to go!  Have a wonderful Sunday.

If not here are some pictures:

The Ark-

Fun Fact-I watched Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark and had NO IDEA this was what they were looking for almost my whole life.

The Ark, made of acacia wood,  will be the sole object in the Most Holy Place.  The Most Holy Place is behind a large thick curtain. Inside the Ark, the tablets from Sinai will be placed (with manna and Aaron’s rod, we will talk about that later)  The Ark symbolizes the footstool of God’s throne and His Sovereignty.    The cover symbolizes “atonement” (we talked about this all the way back in Genesis 3…seems like ages ago!)    The Ark was only approached once a year, on the Day of Atonement.  Well at least until that curtain was torn vertically so that everyone can approach the Lord daily, freely, personally.  The veil will be torn the moment Jesus dies.

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The Table and the Lampstand

The table for the Bread of the Presence and the Lampstand are in the Holy Place.  Twelve loaves of bread are set out before the Lord on behalf of the 12 tribes also representing the manna we discussed earlier.  The lampstand (7) will be kept burning continually.  The pure radiant light of God’s presence driving away the darkness.  We can connect this to the New Testament scriptures if we sit here all day!

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The Tabernacle is built portable to go with them everywhere they go.  It is protected from outside elements by an extra layer of goatskin.  Each detail represents a characteristic of our Holy God.  Inside the Tabernacle, priests would enter the Holy Place and care for the space but only the High Priest would enter the Most Holy Place once a year.

(Trivia:  Whose family will be given the honor of the High Priests?) Comment.

The Altar of sacrifice,  made of acacia wood, is placed in the courtyard.

 

When a person entered the gate (facing East), the first thing they would see was the Brazen Altar.  On the Altar, a  substitute was offered as a sacrifice for their sins.  But why did I mention East??

(Trivia:  What tribe will be placed at the East Gate? Explain.   If you did the 2020 readthrough with me and can’t answer this, then I am a terrible teacher!)

As much as I could sit here and talk about every detail, we are going to read about the Taberbacle a lot over the next few months.  If ALL of that confused you…don’t get discouraged, we will talk about it again….and again….

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• Sorry so late.  I just need the sleep. 😴

We are continuing from yesterday to read the Book of the Covenant that Moses is writing on Mt. Sinai.  So the 10 Commandments were given however there are “codes/laws” (such as the Hammurabi mentioned yesterday) that were already established that they were to follow.  So God clarifies them so that they know exactly what to do.  Here is an example and you know I am going to pick the gross one.  In verse 22:19 “Anyone who has sexual relations with an animal is to be put to death”.   Having relations with animals was something the Canaanites and Mesopotamians attributed to their gods as a way to worship. God states this not as a general rule,  but as a clarification.  See, Near Eastern Laws already had a law on this.  It stated it was punishable by death if you have relations with certain animals.  God was so good to say ALL animals.

These are the civil, social,  and moral applications to the 10 commandments SO THAT as these people enter the Promised Land,  they will be set apart from the world around them.

As you read them you will see that the Lord limits the punishment.  He cares for the needy, he requires restitution and protects the victim as well as the criminal.  You can see it is unlawful to take advantage of situations with ridiculous lawsuits.

Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival to the Lord (23:14)  Remember the Lord set up in advance the actual days on the calendar he will die on a Cross AND give the Holy Spirit freely.  A great way to spread the Gospel is to have both these events occur during a festival when people gather to the Temple from all over the world so that when they go back home they can account and witness what they saw with their own eyes.  So God tells them to gather for the feasts of “Unleavened Bread, (celebrate the Passover events) “Harvest of the First Fruits” (Weeks, Pentecost), and “Ingathering” (Booths, Tabernacles). Women and children would have normally accompanied the males on the tri-yearly pilgrimages. This maintained the national and social unity of the 12 tribes of Israel, as well as their spiritual unity. (Like a family gathering).  However, God is going to plan MANY events to happen around these three festivals throughout the OT.    The bigger the crowd…the bigger His Glory.

Take a moment to reread the end of Chapter 23:  One of the things I want you to notice is the “conditional” aspect of this Covenant.  CIRCLE the “If…Then”.  Pay close attention to the words “I” (The Lord) and “You” (us).

• ²² If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say..
• I will be an enemy to your enemies…
• I will wipe them out…
• You must demolish them and break their sacred stones to pieces…
• I will take away sickness from among you…
• I will send my terror ahead…
• I will make all your enemies turn their backs and run…
• I will send the hornet ahead of you to drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites out of your way….
• I will establish your borders
• I will give into your hands the people who live in the land, and you will drive them out before you.
  • • Do not make a covenant with them or with their gods.
    • Do not let them live in your land or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you.”

Chapter 24

Sounds easy.  We do the small things, God will handle the big things.

³ When Moses went and told the people all the Lord’s words and laws, they responded with one voice, “Everything the Lord has said we will do.”

⁹ Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up ¹⁰ and saw the God of Israel.

Spoiler alert. Moses’ brother Aaron and his 2 sons are given an opportunity to be with the Lord. The priesthood will be established from the laws that are given in tomorrow’s read.  Aaron will be chosen to be the HIGH PRIEST.  When he dies one of his sons will take his place.  It should be either Nadab or Abihu that will be the High priest after Aaron.  (Sadly, neither)

Chapter 12 and 24 are connected here. The Covenant confirmed has given them a direct relationship with the Lord.  They are not simply hearing about the covenant given, but they are partaking in it.  The altar is made for them and blood is poured out on both the altar and the people.  This is the moment they are being confirmed into the covenant.  Recognizing his promises and connecting the 70 from Genesis,  we now see that there is a substitute that is sacrificed and the blood is on them. 

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• The 10 Commandments!

We have talked about Unconditional Covenants.  It is one-sided: God will fulfill without any conditions being met.  We are about to read a Conditional Covenant: “If…Then”. The next covenant given to Moses (Mosaic Covenant) is conditional as well as ‘Ad Interim’.  Ad Interim means temporary.  It will span from Moses to Christ.

Does that mean that the Commandments that are about to be given are NOT to be followed by us?  No, we are to follow them, they are just not a Covenant.    Matthew 22 says:

³⁶ “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

When we read the 10 Commandments you will see that the 1st four commandments=Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind, and the 2nd six commandments=Love your neighbor as yourself.

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Chapter 19: Three months have passed since they left Egypt.  The Lord does not change His covenant but he does add an asterisk to it!

⁵ Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, ⁶ you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”

In short, the people experienced these blessings only partially, because their obedience was partial. Israel’s disobedience to the Mosaic Covenant DID NOT invalidate (is that a word) any of God’s promises to Abraham.  Those promises did not rest on Israel’s obedience, as these did.

In just 3 months they are going from an Egyptian slave to a member of God’s Kingdom.  They are about to be in the presence of the Lord.  Time to physically and mentally prepare.  They are to consecrate themselves so they are “different” than the people around them.  (I know when you read 19:15 Abstain from sexual relations the men said “why??” and the woman said, “yes, I don’t have to shave my legs”.  This was said because surrounding nations incorporated sexual practices with religious observances.  Some of them are pretty gross….I can’t wait to get to Leviticus).

Did anyone notice how many times Moses climbed UP and DOWN this mountain!  (I never noticed that before!)

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Chapter 20.  The 10 commandments.   As stated above they can be put into 2 categories.  Vertically to God.  Horizontally to others.

Did you ever notice by the way that the first 2 commandments are written in 1st person and the rest are 3rd person?  Keep in mind they have been living in Egypt (polytheistic) and they are going to travel in a year to Canaan, a very pagan nation. Keeping these commandments will set them apart from the people around them (something we need to think about?  Do you blend?)

Commandment #1 and #2.  Who to worship and How to worship.

1. “You shall have no other gods before me.  This commandment was a call to have only one God. Three months ago God proved that there are no other gods.
2. “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.  People are easily tempted to attribute power to idols that were fashioned by their own hands.  I grew up in a home where a theology of  “saints” and “statues” was prayed to.  Our faith is in God, and God alone. (This is about Idolatry, not art)
3. “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.  Minimizing God’s name is not acceptable.  His name is Holy because He is Holy.  Misprespresing His name is misusing His name.  Example:  God wants you to be happy…”.  Ummm, no.  He wants you to be Holy.
4. “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.  The word Sabbath is used 90 times in the Old Testament, and 55 times in the New Testament.  It means to “cease”.  Are you busier than God?  Do you take time to rest in Him?  (When we get to the NT you will see keeping the Sabbath has so many rules, it is so much work to try to keep it!) 😢
   

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5. “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. Oh, a “so that” is added to this one.  The Hebrew word for honor is “give weight to”.  As God has instructed parents to teach their children THEN they give weight to their instruction  (So if you read this and thought I am going to tell my children this, please remember your teaching them God’s precepts is the first part).  Ouch!  This is the only commandment that is directly linked to a promise.  Is this an OT commandment or an NT commandment??  It is mentioned 2 times in the OT 6 times in the NT.   So you tell me!
6. “You shall not murder.  What is the value of a life??  What is it’s worth?  The value of something depends on what someone is willing to pay for it, right?  So what is the value of a life?  Jesus paid the highest price possible…with His own life.  
7.  “You shall not commit adultery. Marriage is a covenant.  A symbol of God’s covenant with us. This commandment puts a protective wall on marriage.
8.  “You shall not steal. (does this apply to taking a 20 out of my husband’s wallet?)
9. “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. Lying, defamation, and distortion of the truth.  Listen, no one is more hyperbolic when telling a story than me,  but we need to watch the line of Gossip.  God commanded it.
10. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”  5-9 were “seeable” (is that a word) actions.  # 10 is an emotion,

What follows immediately after this? If you have been around children or teens after stating the rules you restate the one you know they are going to break!!

  “Do not make any gods to be along side me”

You know I don’t talk application.  Each of us will hear from God in our daily read what He wants us to hear.  Please stop and ask yourself what are the things in your life that you put before the Lord in your walk, your time, your money, and your thoughts.

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Chapter 21- This is called the Book Of the Covenant.

This book now is the APPLICATION of the 10 commandments.  Basically, we now take the 10 commandments and put them under a microscope. Let’s glace at one for some clarity so that when faced with an unbeliever, you can defend God:

• Hebrew Servants- go back to Genesis and the famine.  When someone needed help to survive, people could be an indentured servant, meaning you help them get out of their debt by having them work for you, and then you set them free.  A HEBREW servant will be set free on year 7 (it is complete).  NOW if they love their master and decide to stay they willingly make a sign on their body they have CHOSEN to be a BOND SERVANT.
  • • Now think of all the times Paul in the NT starts his letters with: “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—”  ❤️
• The rest of the chapter is “Thou shalt not Murder” under a microscope:  So here we are reading “Though Shalt not Murder” and then in it says “…is to be put to death”.  Murder is not the same as Judicial Execution (the death penalty).  Murder is personal.  Murder is taken into our own hands.  Justice must be done with a fair trial.  (was Jesus given a fair trial?)
• Can we sit here all day and pick these apart?? An Eye for an Eye, a tooth for a tooth.  Now you know where in the Bible we get that!  Remember, the Laws are written so that everyone could understand them.  This lingo…if you do this, then this will happen…. is very familiar to the people already.  They have already been exposed to a “law system” called the Hammurabi Code.  The Hammurabi Code was the law of the land: 282 Laws inscribed on the side of a stone called a “Stele”

 

Extra reading:  Here is a list of 10 scriptures from the words of Jesus.  You should look them up.  Click on them….they will sound familiar after re-reading the 10 commandments.  So, do they still apply to us??

Click on the stuff in blue:

Matthew 4:10,  Luke 16:13,  Matthew 5:34,  Mark 2:27,28, Matthew 10:37 , Mathhew 5:22,  Matthew 5:28,  Matthew 5:40,  Matthew 12:36,  Luke 12:15,

Most of my maps are zoomed in so before we go any further, I wanted you to have a panned out view of the area.

 

 

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Chapter 16: Let’s look at where we are:

1.  We left Goshen
2. Succoth- where the Lord began leading with a cloud by day and fire by night,
3. Pi-Hahiroth-where God parted the Red sea
4. Marah- meaning bitter, this is where God changed the water from bitter.
5. Elim-12 springs and 70 palm trees
6. The wilderness of Sin-God provided their daily needs.

The Lord is leading us the long way to the promised land for a reason.  🙂

Manna- means “what is this”.  I KNOW you can all slip this into your day…when my students hand in a paper today without their name on it I am going to yell MANNA!!

⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. ⁵ On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”

The LORD will give a small commandment and test people to see if they will follow.  (I am not your Holy Spirit, I am just my husband’s,  but I am sure the Lord will speak to you personally in today’s read)

Manna is Israels’ food for their journey.

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³² Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. ³³ For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

³⁴ “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”

³⁵ Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. ³⁶ But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe.

Jesus is the only food for our journey towards our promised rest. (trying to keep this post short for anyone catching up, so moving on…but feel free to dig a little on this)

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Chapter 17-  This is kind of a big chapter for me and you will see why when we get to Numbers 20.   I will explain in Numbers. But the area they are in has an enormous amount of limestone that holds pockets of water.  The Lord gives specific instructions SO THAT the people will recognize that the water being provided is from the Lord, not Moses.  If you have a notepad write down the instructions and tuck them in your Bible for later.

Anyway, look back to your map up top: Rephidim.  Was it just me or were you reading and thinking…did I miss a page?  All of a sudden we went from a picnic with manna and water to someone named Joshua and an attack.

Amalekites: Flip back to Genesis 36:12.  I am sure you did not skim this page at all.  Oh, you did skim?  Ok, I will give you a visual then:

Amalek is the grandson of Esau!

Oh my stars!  The Amalekites will be a thorn in Israel’s side often but eventually, God will wipe them off the map as promised.

Who fought the battle?  The Lord did.  The reason for the this tactic of holding up his arms…letting them fall a little…was to show the Israelites that they had God as a Deliverer, a Provider, and now as his Warrior.

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Joshua.  Suddenly we see this name and we know he must be pretty important if a book is going to be named after him.  Joshua is Moses’ assistant.  God takes this opportunity to show Joshua that without the Lord (represented by the staff), you can do nothing without Him.  Joshua is going to need this lesson because what he does not know yet is he will be the one to bring the Israelites to the promised land.  Only 2 adults live to tell the tale of being in slavery and being an eyewitness to the Promised Land!!   The only battles that will be won in the Bible and in our lives are the ones that Jesus is fighting for us.

I urge you to seek application to your own life.  The battles will be won by the Lord.  We must be dependent on him for our needs (manna and water) as well as, the battles we face. The people in our lives merely support the mission by holding up God (the staff) in front of us.  Did the staff actually strike the enemies down or the trust and faith of it?  When the battle is won an altar was made and named JEHOVAH NISSI “The Lord is my Banner”. Do a little digging today and tell me what that means?

Chapter 18: Back in Chapter 17:14 we see here the first reference to “writing the Bible”.  In 18:20 “Teach them the decrees and instructions and show them the way they are to live and how they are to behave”.  The Lord has begun setting up future events where Judges will be called up for His purpose and Glory.

So if you want to do some extra digging:  What were the tribes of Joshua and Hur (not the same), and why is it significant to the coming of Christ?  What are the Hebrew names for cities?  Where did Jethro reside that made his proclamation to only One God a big deal? What does the name Joshua mean in Hebrew,  and how is he a typology?  My precious husband tells me the blogs are too long so I leave you here.

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Here is a map of the path God led the people on:

He could have led the people North, by way of a well-traveled trading route.  Instead,  he took them to a dead end.  Why? For God’s glory to be shown.  It wasn’t Moses that led them out of Egypt (slavery) it was The LORD.  Are they following and trusting Moses at this point or God?  Let’s take a look.

Chapter 13: This wonderful chapter speaks of the additional elements of the annual celebration his people are to celebrate.  Why?  Their children (and the generations to come) will not have witnessed these events personally so God is putting annual celebrations as an opportunity to teach the events that occurred: Verse 14:

¹⁴ “In days to come, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ say to him, ‘With a mighty hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. ¹⁵ When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed the firstborn of both people and animals in Egypt. This is why I sacrifice to the Lord the first male offspring of every womb and redeem each of my firstborn sons.’ ¹⁶ And it will be like a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead that the Lord brought us out of Egypt with his mighty hand.”

Go back to the LAST scripture in Genesis 50:

²⁴ Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die. But God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” ²⁵ And Joseph made the Israelites swear an oath and said, “God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up from this place.”

²⁶ So Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten. And after they embalmed him, he was placed in a coffin in Egypt.

We can pull together the promises made to Abraham fulfilled in Exodus 13:19.  Moses takes the bones of Joseph to fulfill an oath taken by the sons of Israel.

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Chapter 14- God leads them to a spot near Migdol, opposite Baal Zephon. “Baal” is a root word for a pagan god.  This may have been a place sailors would worship a god of the storm for safe travel.  I picture this as another showdown between The Lord and a god of Egypt.  Storm verse storm!  God verse god.  The Lord creates an east wind with His breath to make a way for final deliverance to show that HE has brought them to redemption.

³¹ And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.

The people feared and put their trust in the Lord, Moses was merely a servant to him.

Reading these scriptures in the Bible is a very personal and amazing read.  When we hear the words Old Testament, this is often the picture in on our mind:

I think this is a scene from the movie 10 Commandments. (not sure I have not seen it)  I like this one

The exodus from Egypt, though a real, historical event, prefigures the saving work of Christ for His people. What God did through Moses was to provide physical salvation from physical slavery. What God does through Christ is provide spiritual salvation from spiritual slavery.

Paul says, “For I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:1–4). Paul is giving the Exodus from Egypt a Christological reading; he is making the connection between the Exodus from Egypt and salvation in Christ.

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Chapter 15: Song of Victory

Moses and his sister Miriam teach the song to the Israelites.  The first part addresses the events that have already occurred, worshiping God as the majestic warrior who defeated the final claims that Pharaoh is a god.  Then in verse 13 there is a transition to future events.

On this journey they WILL encounter obstacles from the Philistines, Edom (remember this name?…look back at your genealogies to see who the Edomites are), Moab (who are the Moabites? gross), and the Canaanites (all the way back to the days of Noah we learned about them).

Today’s read ends with a piece of wood, Hebrew translation is a “tree”, which turns the bitter water into sweet drinkable water that brings life.  Hmmm. Symbolism?

What tree or wood are you thinking of from the Gospel that turned your bitter sin into living water?

God instructs his people to follow his ways (after redemption, so stop throwing stones at the lost people of the world….they are still lost) and the reward will come.  We end today with “They came to Elim, where there were 12 springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water.”  I don’t know why these numbers, but I am reminded of the 12 tribes and the 70 that ended Genesis.   ?

(There were a few really beautiful scriptures in these 3 chapters that I purposely did not talk about so that you can hear it straight from the Lord.  Please share if anything made you smile today)

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The last plagues: Each plague was significantly worse than the last.  When we get to the plague of darkness, this is when Pharaoh was shaking in his sandals.  Each god for the Egyptians was extremely important.  (One day you should spend some time digging into it, or the connection each plague had in the New Testament or End Times).

Anyway, back to the plagues.  Overruling the sun god Ra was HUGE!  See there were lots of gods in a “god hierarchy” but the Lord went straight for the top dog in each one.  I have this scene in my head after each plague was over God yelling….Next!

Chapter 11.  The plague of the firstborn.  Pharaoh was the god that mediated between man and all the gods and was in charge of divine order (obviously it’s a job that gave him a title without actually having to do anything.).  After death,  the pharaoh became divine, identified with Osiris, the father of Horus and god of the dead, and passed on his sacred powers and position to the new pharaoh, his son.

Before the last plague, lots of instructions are given, don’t forget to get all the material, gold, and silver you can carry (that’s odd, I wonder what God is planning to build? If you don’t know you will soon😁) Make this month the first month, Nisan.   So this is what their calendar looks like.

Why do you need to know this?  Because it will be a trivia question.  Just kidding.  As we read each Hebrew Jewish Feast WILL be fulfilled.  The feast is a foreshadow of what WILL come.

On the 10th day get a spotless lamb, bring it in for 4 days to ensure its unblemished state. Then there are specific instructions on what is going to happen and how you are to commemorate it.

Do you realize I worked on this post for 5 hours and have started over or deleted almost everything several times!!.  It is just too much and I don’t know where to focus myself!!!  I will just point out a few I suppose and explode later for not writing about all of them.

Calendar: I need the head to explode emoji here.  When I found out that God put all the commemorative holidays like Good Friday, Easter, (well, not Christmas, humans popped that one on the calendar, but it’s a wonderful day ending the advent of the birth of Christ.)  So God set all his feasts on the calendar in the Old Testament to be FULFILLED on the same calendar day in the New Testament.  Maybe some of you knew that, but I am telling you many don’t and it is awesome to hear it, put your hand out and say “wait, what??” and then marvel at how God’s plan and details are in everything. Here is a visual to help you get your mind around:

Chapter 12.  The Passover.

This entire chapter is the overwhelming foreshadow of the Messiah and the protective blood of Christ, the Passover lamb, that takes on the wrath of God for our sins.

The lamb is sacrificed, and no bone is to be broken, just like Christ on the cross.

Exodus 12:46 “It must be eaten inside the house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones.

John 19:36 These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,”

The blood would be put on the doorpost.  Remember Covenant requires a sacrifice.  Salvation/the way to Heaven has NEVER changed!  Since Genesis Salvation has been the same as it is today.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,

that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

When we believe that Jesus was the unblemished lamb that TOOK on the wrath of God for us so we can exit our slave state to sin and death (Egypt) that’s when death will also PASSOVER us.

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Chapter 12:17 Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread. So if Good Friday is the Passover, then The Festival to follow is the Resurrection 3 days later.  Yeast is symbolic to sin (we will learn about this more later), it also causes decay through the fermentation process (a compelling representation of the result of sin).  This Festival lines up with Easter Sunday.

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John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29)

For Christ, our Passover lamb, has beensacrificed.  (1 Cor 5:7)

They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings—and with him will be his called, chosen and faithfulfollowers.” (Rev 17:14)

The lamb is sacrificed and applied.  Those who are obedient through Faith, they will be spared from death:

¹² “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. ¹³ The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

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The Exodus!

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How long were the Israelites there?? (Trivia!)

⁴⁰ Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years. ⁴¹ At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the Lord’s divisions left Egypt. 

When The LORD was sealing the Abrahamic Covenant in Genesis 15 he said to Abraham:

¹² As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and thick and dreadful darkness came over him. ¹³ Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. ¹⁴ But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward, they will come out with great possessions. 

He says what He means and He means what he says!

 

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Why did God need to bring plagues?

1. To show that their gods were false
2. To show that the LORD is real
3. To show that there is only 1 God (theirs never showed up)

These plagues were miracles for both the Egyptians and the Israelites to see.   The Israelites will be delivered and it is important that they know that Moses is a vessel for God (not a god).   In chapter 6: the Lord says I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. 

It is REALLY important that the people who exit Egypt (Israelites as well as some Egyptians)  are following God, not Moses.

Moses (through God), and Aaron as his prophet performs the staff/snake miracle.  The magicians were able to duplicate it BUT were not able to UNDO God’s work.  The magicians had power (tricks, illusions, sorcery, satan,…)

The Plagues were designed according to the gods that were worshiped in Egypt.  There were over 100 named gods, but they worked “together” in categories, so The LORD is going to hit all 10 categories.

The most important thing in Egypt was the Nile. The Egyptians had a god that would be a guardian over the Nile, Khnun.  A “spirit” of the Nile called Hopi, and a god that gave life in the Nile called Osiris.   I can’t help notice their own imitation of the Trinity.   So God changed the Nile to Blood. (not just red…BLOOD).

The Frogs.  The Bedrooms in the palace were probably 3 stories up, surrounded by palace walls and protection. An interesting verse for me was verse 8..Pharaoh says “Pray to the Lord to take the frogs away from me and my people.  Why didn’t he pray to the god Heqt, the great Frog, who was in charge of resurrection and childbirth?

The gnats and the flies are the next 2 plagues.  Pharaoh now wants to compromise a little.  He says if you take away the flies, I will let you make an offering to the Lord. (the 3-day journey was obedience to the Lord Exodus 3:18.).  Isn’t it weird that the magicians tried to duplicate the plagues, rather than end the plagues.  Couldn’t Pharoah see their lack of power?

The Livestock.  The bull was a chief god called Apris.   Even the cow was a god, Hathor, the mother goddess.  (that reminds me, I have to defrost the burgers for tonight).  We begin to see that The Lord is making a distinction between the Hebrews and the Egyptians.⁴ But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and that of Egypt, so that no animal belonging to the Israelites will die.’”

The Boils,  notice none of this is happening to the Israelites.  But this time, God hardens the heart of Pharaoh, as said he would in 4:21. Yet where is the god of medicine, Imhotep to heal them? Where is he?  He must have taken a sick day.

We end today on Hail.  I am reading this paragraph and I think…This is it…finally! Pharaoh says  “This time I have sinned,” he said to them. “The LORD is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong.  Pray to the LORD, for we have had enough thunder and hail. I will let you go; you don’t have to stay any longer.”

God could stop here, but that would leave gods on the list, as well as the ‘deity’ of Pharaoh.  It is important to show His Sovereignty to the Egyptians, but also to the Israelites so that when they exit slavery it is not a god, Pharaoh, or Moses that will free them.  It is The God.  The ONLY GOD.

 “the Lord says I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.

Listen, I could have made that post 5 times longer.  There is so much info in this chapter we could talk about, but let’s save some for our next Read Through.

In yesterday’s post I touched on the hardening of the heart.  Here it is again.  I don’t want you to read this and think WHY would a loving God ever do that.  He didn’t.  The Hebrew word for ‘harden’ is chazaq.  It means to fortify or strengthen what he was already feeling.

Click here for a cheat sheet I found on-line.  I will pop it into the printable section too. 

Click here for a second option if you didn’t like the other one.

• Click here for Ex 4-6
• Here to Listen

Moses gave 5 excuses why he should not be put on God’s mission. (I usually come up with more than 5).

• Who am I? We never feel smart enough, educated enough, spiritual enough.
• I don’t know enough about Spiritual stuff.  He said “How will I describe you? What do I call you?   We all know what the LORD said…”I AM WHO I AM”. It is not our job to show God’s Glory, we just do what is asked of Him, He will do the rest.
• Nobody will believe me-have you ever tried to share the Gospel to your unbelieving family or friend.  It’s hard.
• I can’t speak.  We are all given Spiritual Gifts at the time of our Salvation.  The gift is from God.  The reason you were given it was to become a vessel or a messenger of God.  So it is important to note that we are all called to “speak” on His behalf, just according to the Gift he has given us.
• Last, but NOT LEAST! “Please send someone else”.  That’s not my thing, I am not good at that….

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In chapter 4 we see a foreshadowing of the first and last plague that will occur.

• 4:9 “the water you take from the river will become blood on the ground
• 4:23 “so I will kill your firstborn son”

So Moses headed to see the Pharoah with his staff in hand, the staff of God in his hand. (vs. 20)

The Lord told Moses he would harden Pharoah’s heart. “²¹ The Lord said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.”

The Hebrew word here is chazaq.  It means to strengthen or to fortify.  (Not change his feeling)

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I know what you are thinking…Zipporah could be a knife salesman on QVC!  I thought the same thing! 😂

²⁴ At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses and was about to kill him. ²⁵ But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it. “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,” she said. ²⁶ So the Lord let him alone.

Circumcision was an important symbol of the Abrahamic Covenant, and the lack of circumcision would mark a person as cut off from God’s people (Genesis 17:9–14). For Moses to neglect to circumcise his son was an affront to God as if he were saying that he and his family did not truly belong to God. How could Moses be an effective leader of God’s people if he were in violation of God’s clear command?

Moses never had his son circumcised. Why would they be? He was raised Egyptian!  So his wife swiftly secured the covenant with a flint knife.  That’s why I carry a pocket knife in case a mom ever needs to borrow it. 😬

I don’t remember if we talked about it (or if I just had the conversation with myself 🤪) Look for the ‘all caps’ LORD in the scriptures throughout the Bible.  When it is all caps it is the Hebrew word YHWH, we translated it to Yahweh or Jehovah.   In theology, YHWH is a tetragrammaton (“a word having four letters”).   Yahweh is the encompassing “I AM”.  The LORD has always been, He is the beginning and the end of time,  He is utterly independent.  God is constant, he is the same yesterday, today, and forever…I could go on!

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Chapter 5-  We are in Egypt and we have these 2 different groups of people.  The Egyptians obviously,  and the Israelites.  Let’s go back to the end of Genesis.  God was so good to put the families in Goshen, away from the city.  They were able to raise up their people away from the influence of polytheism.  The Pharaoh says “Who is the Lord?” The Lord is not one of the gods that is on the list for the Egyptians to worship, BUT Pharaoh’s name is on that list as a god.  So when Moses enters stage left and says “This is what THE LORD says”, it was putting the deity of Pharaoh as a match to a God that Pharaoh has never even heard of!  Oh Stars, that’s not good….but God has a bigger plan than “just” letting his people go.

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Chapter 6- (my favorite of the 3)  Read the first part with authority aloud and emphasize the word “I” or “my”.

So then you get to the end of Chapter 6 and you roll your eyes and say “C’mon! another “family record”, I can skim over this”.  No!

Like all the others it starts with Reuben…Simeon….boring…..and then we get to Levi-Moses’ family. and it stops there.  This partial genealogy of Levi (which must be important if it is the first 4 letters of the next book we will read, Leviticus), establishes the position of Moses and Aaron.  Jochebed’s name means “the Lord is glory”.  She is the first person in the biblical text to have a name incorporated with His divine name.

Ready for the best part?? Not only is God establishing the position of Moses and Aaron’s family but the wife of Aaron is Elisheba.  Elisheba is from the tribe of Judah.  God is uniting the tribe of Levi (the priesthood) and Judah (kingship, royalty) lines:  Jesus is on every page of this Bible.

If that does not make sense to you…IT IS OK!  IT WILL ONE DAY…I PROMISE!