Chapter 11: Clean and unclean meat. Great slide. Barnes Bible Charts has a lot of great images you can research.
Why did God forbid eating of unclean meats? That avoided eating scavengers that carried harmful diseases (although rabbits aren’t scavengers, and spanish mackerel, and swordfish don’t have scales and aren’t scavengers but are unclean). I’m not sure what other reasons God might have commanded this. What about Christians eating unclean meats today? Groups like the 7th Day Adventists won’t eat pork. These food laws were given specifically to Israel and not to Gentiles or all mankind. Paul answered this question in 1 Timothy 4:1 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will [a]fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, 3 men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. 4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude;5 for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer.” Christians are under the new covenant, not the old, and can eat anything as long as they give thanks.
Chapter 12: Laws of motherhood.
A “sin” offering after childbirth. AI: “In ancient Israelite law, contact with major bodily fluids and blood made a person ritually unclean for a set time (40 days for a boy, 80 days for a girl). The Hebrew word for “sin offering” (chata’at) is often better translated as a “purification offering.” It restored the mother so she could re-enter the holy sanctuary. The sacrifice did not mean the mother committed a personal crime or moral wrong. It simply removed the ritual barrier caused by the blood of childbirth.” Luke 2:22 “And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought Him (the baby Jesus) to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord.”
Chapter 13: The test for leprosy.
AI: The word for “leprosy” צָרַעַת (tsaraath) designates an array of divinely diagnosed contaminations that could afflict skin, clothing, and even houses. It likely included common issues like psoriasis, eczema, boils, ringworm, and lucoderma. Scripture never confines the term to modern Hansen’s disease; instead, it functions as a covenant marker of uncleanness that calls for priestly discernment and ritual resolution. The word appears about thirty-five times, with its densest concentration in Leviticus 13–14.” Of course it included Hansen’s Disease. White hair in the infection is mentioned as a test for leprosy. tzaraath actually described a broad category of escaling or inflammatory skin conditions. It most likely referred to vitiligo, an autoimmune condition where skin completely loses its pigment and the hairs inside the white patches frequently turn white. As you can see, the priests are the health officers, not doctors. Some of the skin diseases were contagious and the laws of leprosy helped keep them from spreading. God was concerned about the physical and spiritual welfare of Israel (and us also).
Chapter 14: Cleansing a leper or a leprous house.
Under the Law of Moses outlined in Leviticus 14, cleansing a healed person with a skin disease required a careful, multi-day purification ritual conducted by a priest which included several animal sacrifices. It is interesting that the priest offered a guilt offering and placed blood on the tip of the person’s right ear, right thumb, and right big toe. It is also interesting that leprosy could be found in houses, resulting even possibly in tearing down the whole house.
Chapter 15: Laws for bodily fluids and discharges
Leviticus 15 outlines ancient Israelite laws regarding ceremonial uncleanness caused by various bodily fluids and discharges. These laws included bodily discharges of sexually transmitted diseases, normal seman emission, a woman’s menstrual periods, and prolonged or abnormal bleeding outside of the normal menstrual cycle. The woman with the blood issue that Jesus healed would fit into that last category.
Many of these laws were just for ceremonial uncleanness and did not involve moral sins. Many of them were just designed to prevent the spread of disease and for good hygiene. Remember, these laws were given when the priests were serving as the health officers and there were no doctors. Doctors today could use these same methods to detect diseases today, I suppose.
Hang in there! Halfway through your favorite book in the Bible.
Leviticus 16: The Day of Atonement. Yom Kippur, the holies day of the year for Jews. Only the high priest entered the Most Holy Place (Holy of Holies), and only once per year on the Day of Atonement. He enters twice, sprinkling blood on the mercy seat where God dwelt the first trip for his own sins, and then sprinkling blood for the sins of the people for the past year. The sins of the people are put on a goat and the goat is driven off into the wilderness to never come back. That’s where we get “scapegoat” from, an innocent person who takes the blame for a guilty person. Better watched than read:
The typology for the Day of Atonement is found in Hebrews 9:23 Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; 25 nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own. 26 Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 27 And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,” Under the new covenant, Jesus is our High Priest. The tabernacle was a “copy” of the real dwelling place of God in heaven. The blood of animals sprinkled on the mercy seat forgave sins, but only b/c God would use the blood of Jesus to forgive sins in the old covenant. Hebrews 9:15 For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.” The blood of animal sacrifices could not on its own forgive sins. The yearly Day of Atonement could not permanently remove sins. Hebrews 10:1 For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very [z]form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. 2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? 3 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” Jesus entered the real Most Holy Place in heaven where God dwelt, offered his blood, not he blood of animals, for the forgiveness of sins. He only needed to make one trip, not two like the Levitical high priests, since he did not need to offer blood for his own sins. He only needed to enter one time, not every year like the Levitical priests. His offering was “once for all time”. Hebrews 10:11 Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; 12 but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet. 14 For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.”
Chapter 17: Warning about eating blood. Also a command to make all sacrifices at the tabernacle and not outside the camp. Why? Leviticus 17:7 They shall no longer sacrifice their sacrifices to the goat demons (goat-like or satyr-like wilderness deities) with which they play the harlot.” A satyr is a mythical creature portrayed as half-man and half-beast. Commentators note that the Israelites likely picked up these worship practices during their time enslaved in Egypt, where goat idols and gods symbolizing fertility for herds and crops were common in desert regions.
Chapter 18: Warnings against committing sins of the Egyptians or Canaanites. Leviticus 18:3 You shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt where you lived, nor are you to do what is done in the land of Canaan where I am bringing you; you shall not walk in their statutes. That would include sex or marriage with blood relatives or even bestiality. Also a condemnation of homosexuality: Leviticus 18:22: “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination”.
Chapter 19: Various laws.
Rules for holy living, social justice, and personal behavior based on the command, “Be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy”. (19:2)
Core Command
Be Holy: God tells the people of Israel to copy His holiness in their daily lives.
Parents and Sabbaths: Everyone must respect their mother and father and keep the Sabbath holy.
No Idols: People must not turn to false gods or make metal idols.
Helping the Poor and Strangers
Leave Food: Farmers must leave the edges of their fields and fallen grapes for the poor and foreigners.
Fair Pay: Bosses must pay hired workers before the morning comes.
Help the Vulnerable: Do not curse a deaf person or trip a blind person.
Love Foreigners: Treat foreigners living among you like your own people and love them as yourself.
Honesty and Fairness
No Stealing or Lying: Do not steal, lie, or trick your neighbor.
Fair Courts: Judges must be fair. They must not favor the poor or the rich.
No Gossip: Do not spread rumors or gossip about others.
Love Your Neighbor: Do not hold a grudge. Love your neighbor as yourself.
Daily and Purity Rules
No Mixed Items: Do not plant two types of seeds in one field, breed two different kinds of animals, or wear clothes made of mixed threads.
Body Marks: Do not cut your skin or get tattoos for the dead.
Honest Weights: Use honest scales and honest measures for buying and selling.
Leviticus 20: Strict laws and punishments to keep the ancient Israelites holy and separate from neighboring nations.
Idolatry and the Occult
Child sacrifice: Anyone who gave their child to the idol Molech faced death by stoning. It is hard to fathom that King Manasseh of Judah offered his child to Molech but he did.
Spiritualism: Turning to mediums, wizards, or spiritists resulted in being cut off from the community.
Family and Respect
Disrespecting parents: Anyone who cursed their father or mother was put to death.
Sexual Laws and Incest
Bestiality: Having sex with an animal was forbidden, and both the person and the animal were put to death.
Adultery: Having sex with a neighbor’s or another man’s wife resulted in the death penalty for both people.
Incest: Having sex with close relatives, such as a father’s wife, a daughter-in-law, or a sister, was strictly forbidden under punishment of death or being childless.
Marrying a mother and daughter: Marrying both a woman and her mother was considered a depraved act, punished by burning.
Same-sex relations: Men having sex with men as they would with a woman were put to death. Leviticus 20:13 If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Some pro LGBTQ advocates have said that we can’t use these Law of Moses verses to condemn homosexuality today. They say that we say that verses that condemn wearing a shirt of both polyester and cotton don’t apply to us today, but that we say verses condemning homosexuality do apply and that we are inconsistent. Maybe so. But I would argue that a sin against the unnatural sin of homosexuality is an eternal principle but shirts are not. The sin of homosexuality goes back to the very beginning when God joined a man and a woman in marriage and the two would become one flesh (the sex act). I usually just go to Romans 1 where Paul clearly condemns homosexuality. Romans 1:26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.” Those verses in Romans should settle the debate once for all.
Conclusion: As you can see, the book of Leviticus has many commands that apply to us today along with all those commands about animal sacrifices and feast days that don’t apply to us as Gentile Christians.
There are times where you just google it! Leviticus 6-9 is about eating the offerings described in Leviticus 1-5. AI:
Animal offerings in Leviticus were disposed of by burning them on the altar, giving portions to the priests to eat, or sharing them as a meal with the worshipper, depending on the specific type of sacrifice.
Here is how the five primary animal offerings described in Leviticus were handled:
1. Burnt Offering (Olah)
God’s portion: The entire animal (bull, sheep, goat, dove, or pigeon) was completely burned on the altar into smoke.
Disposal: Nothing was eaten by humans; the hide was given to the officiating priest as a fee, and the rest was consumed by fire overnight.
2. Peace Offering (Shelamim)
God’s portion: The fatty portions surrounding the entrails, kidneys, and the long lobe of the liver were burned on the altar.
Priest’s portion: The breast (wave offering) and the right thigh (contribution offering) went to the priests.
Worshipper’s portion: The remaining meat was eaten in a sacred communal meal by the offerer and their family at the sanctuary, usually within one to two days.
3. Sin Offering (Chatat)
For common people/laymen: The fatty parts were burned on the altar, and the remaining cooked meat was eaten by the male priests inside the Temple courtyard.
For the High Priest or the whole congregation: The fat was burned on the altar, but the entire remainder of the animal (skin, flesh, entrails) was carried and burned completely outside the camp or city in a clean place. No human ate it.
4. Guilt or Trespass Offering (Asham)
God’s portion: The fat portions were burned on the altar.
Priest’s portion: The remaining meat was considered holy and was eaten exclusively by the male priests within the sanctuary area, similar to the standard sin offering.
5. Grain Offering (Minchah)
Note: Though usually flour and oil, it accompanied animal drink offerings. A handful of the grain/flour mixture was burned on the altar as a memorial, and the remainder was baked and eaten by the priests.
THE REMAINS OF THE SIN OFFERING BURNED OUTSIDE THE CAMP One point about the remainder of the animal for the sin offering being carried and burned completely outside the camp.This was also the case on the Day of Atonement. Leviticus 16:27 But the bull of the sin offering and the goat of the sin offering, whose blood was brought in (by the high priest into the Most Holy Place and sprinkled on the mercy seat) to make atonement in the holy place, shall be taken outside the camp, and they shall burn their hides, their flesh, and their refuse in the fire. 28 Then the one who burns them shall wash his clothes and bathe his body with water, then afterward he shall come into the camp.” Hebrews 10:10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. 11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside the camp. 12 Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate. 13 So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach.” These verses in Hebrews speak directly to the instructions in Leviticus. The Hebrew writer is writing to Jewish Christians who were leaving the Christian faith and going back to Judaism. The tabernacle and temple had a brazen altar that the sin offerings were burnt on in the courtyard of the tabernacle and temple. “We” Christians in the new covenant have an altar on which Jesus was offered and it is found outside of Judaism and the old covenant. Our altar Jesus was offered on is “outside the gates” of Judaism. Calvary where Jesus was crucified was outside the city gates of Jerusalem. Those leaving the faith have no right to eat from that Christian altar, i.e. eat the body and drink the blood of Jesus (John 6). The Hebrews writer is thus telling the Jewish Christians not to leave the faith and go back to the animal sacrifices of Judaism on the brazen altar of the temple. We must go outside the camp (i.e. Judaism) to find the altar Jesus was offered on. Jesus suffered on the cross at Calvary outside the city gates and we must be ready to suffer like He did. The faithful Jewish Christians being written to in Hebrews suffered much.
THE SIN OF NADAB AND ABIHU, AARON’S PRIESTLY SONS Leviticus 10:1 Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. 2 And fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.” AI: “They likely used ordinary or common fire instead of taking holy coals from the bronze altar of burnt offering where God’s fire burned. They acted on their own accord (“which he had not commanded them”), treating sacred rituals casually rather than with strict obedience. Their actions showed a failure to distinguish between what is holy and what is common, violating God’s standard that those who come near Him must treat Him as holy (Leviticus 10:3). Some biblical scholars suggest they may have acted carelessly or presumptuously under the influence of alcohol, which is linked to subsequent warnings about priests drinking before service (Leviticus 10:).”
This is a sad ending for Aaron’s 2 priest sons, Nadab and Abihu. These 2 sons had been given a special privilege of seeing, eating, and drinking with God at Mt Sinai. Exodus 24:9 Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, 10 and they saw the God of Israel; and under His feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself. 11 Yet He did not stretch out His hand against the nobles of the sons of Israel; and they saw God, and they ate and drank.” In spite of that, they failed to obey God in using the correct fire offering. Can you imagine fire coming down out of heaven, striking them, and burning them to a crisp? Aaron probably watched his sons die in such a horrible way. Aaron was probably proud of his 2 son priests and now they are but ashes on the ground. We might wonder why God was so harsh over what some might call a careless mistake on their part. But God is setting an example of what happens when we disobey God and we Christians today need to take note of that. We are saved by grace so you don’t have to perfectly obey God so don’t’ use the sin of Nadab and Abihu to condemn instrumental music in worship as some have done in the past. But we should try to obey every command of God to the best of our ability. There is a lot of strange fire being offered today by Christians, fire that God did not command. The whole LGBTQ issue is a direct violation of clear commands in both the old and new covenant. The marriage bond between a man and a woman is sacred and holy and yet many are not treating it as holy. They are substituting unholy homosexual relationships and marriages that are strange fire.
THE SIN OF ELIAZAR AND ITHAMAR This is not of major importance but I never understand what Leviticus 10:12-20 was about, so I found this on gotquestions.org
“Due to the disobedience of Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu, the Lord caused those two men to die. Later that day, Aaron and his remaining sons allowed the sin offering to burn up. Moses was angry with Aaron’s other two sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, as a result. This situation is hard to understand until we take a closer look at the context and the Law in general.
For one thing, Moses had just commanded Aaron and his remaining sons to eat the offering (Leviticus 10:12–14). When he discovered they had let it burn up, he was understandably upset.
Also, the chapter opens with the death of two of Aaron’s sons: “Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, contrary to his command. So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord” (Leviticus 10:1–2). Likely due to their grief over the deaths of Nadab and Abihu, Aaron and his sons Eleazar and Ithamar chose to let the sacrifice burn up rather than to eat it. Moses was upset because this was breaking the command God had given the priest to use this offering in part as their food.
Another reason Moses was upset was probably that he feared a fate similar to that of Nadab and Abihu would befall Aaron, Eleazar, and Ithamar. He confronted Aaron, saying, “Why didn’t you eat the sin offering in the sanctuary area? . . . You should have eaten the goat in the sanctuary area, as I commanded” (Leviticus 10:17–18).
Aaron’s response to Moses is full of pathos: “Today my sons presented both their sin offering and their burnt offering to the LORD. And yet this tragedy has happened to me. If I had eaten the people’s sin offering on such a tragic day as this, would the LORD have been pleased?” (Leviticus 10:19, NLT). These words satisfied Moses that Aaron was living in fear and obedience to God (verse 20).”
I’m sure Aaron was very concerned about possibly losing his 2 surviving sons, Eleazar and Ithamar b/c they had not obeyed Moses’ command to eat the priestly portions of the offering. Was God going to burn them up also? But Moses accepted Aaron’s explanation for them not eating the portions and they were not burned. I think this says a lot of motives. Nadab and Abihu had impure motives in what they did, possibly even drinking as they did it. Apparently Elezar and Ithamar just committed a careless but understandable (due to their grief over losing their 2 brothers) act of not obeying and God and Moses overlooked it. So maybe that is a note of hope for us knowing we often commit those sins of “omission and commission”.
You might be wondering what happened to Eleazar and Ithamar after this incident in Leviticus 10. Here’s a summary.
Background and Tragedy
Four sons: Aaron and his wife Elisheba had four sons: Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.
Fatal mistake: Nadab and Abihu offered unauthorized “strange fire” to God, and fire from the Lord consumed them.
No public mourning: God told Aaron, Eleazar, and Ithamar not to mourn the deaths so they would not die themselves.
Eleazar
Next high priest: Eleazar was chosen by God to succeed his father Aaron as the high priest of Israel.
Leadership role: He served as chief over the leaders of the Levites and helped Moses and Joshua manage the camp and divide the Promised Land.
Lineage: Most of the high priests in Israel’s history came from Eleazar’s family line, including Zadok.
Ithamar
Tabernacle manager: Ithamar, the youngest son, was put in charge of the tabernacle’s construction resources, offerings, and inventories.
Levite supervisor: He oversaw the Gershonite and Merarite Levites who carried the heavy parts and curtains of the tent of meeting.
Lineage: Later high priests, including Eli, descended from Ithamar’s family line.
Ok, here’s the book you have been dreading reading! I will see if we can make it interesting. Here is an outline:
Chapters 1-5 cover the burnt offering, grain offering, peace offering, sin offering, and guilt offering. Great slide;
Several times after describing the particular offering it says, “Thus (with the animal sacrifice) the priest shall make atonement for him in regard to his sin which he has committed, and he will be forgiven.” But read Hebrews 10:1 For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. 2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? 3 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” Sounds like a contradiction, doesn’t it? Perhaps this will help clear this up: Hebrews 9:13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” The blood of bulls and goats did “cleanse the flesh” but did not “cleanse the conscience”. Making an offering did forgive a sinner of his sin, but it wasn’t really the blood of animals that did it. Forgiveness was by the grace of God under the Law based on God knowing that He would one day use the blood of Jesus to forgive all sins. Once Jesus died, His blood “flowed backward and forward”. Backward to cover all those sins forgiven by the offerings under the Law. Hebrews 9:15 For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.” David is an example of someone forgiven under the Law of Moses. David said ““Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered.” (Romans 4:7) God forgave him of his sin with Bathsheeba, but it was by the blood of Jesus and the grace of God that he was forgiven. Maybe an example of all this is when you receive things bought with your credit card. You receive the purchased item immediately but the account is only settled at the end of the month when you pay the credit card bill. Sincere repentant sinners were forgiven under the old covenant but “on credit”, the final redemption price being paid with the blood of Jesus.
Hebrews goes on to discuss the old and the new covenants. Hebrews 9:16 For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it. 17 For a covenant is valid only when men are dead, for it is never in force while the one who made it lives. 18 Therefore even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood. 19 For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the Law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, 20 saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded you.” 21 And in the same way he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry with the blood. (Exodus 23). 22 And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” The author goes on to say that the Law was “about to disappear” at the time of writing (about 60 AD). Hebrews 8:13 When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.” The old covenant did “disappear” in 70 AD when the Romans destroyed the temple and Jerusalem. Since 70 AD there have been no animal sacrifices, temple, or priesthood to offer sacrifices.
That’s about it for Leviticus 1-5. I hope this article has been helpful in your study.
In Exodus 25-31 God gave Moses the instructions for building the tabernacle and making the furnishings in it. You may wantt to go back to the blog article on Exodus 26-30 for pictures of the tabernacle, the coverings, the furnishings, and the priestly garments. Exodus 35-40 tells about the actual building of the tabernacle, its furnishings, and the priestly garments. The people volunteered to bring the materials: gold, silver, skins for curtains, linen, etc and they brought so much that they were told to quit bringing any. It has been estimaed that the value of the materials donated was 70-100 million dollars in today’s currency. God gave the Spirit to certain craftsmen to enable them to build with. It took about 6 months to build everything and it was completed about one year from when they left Egypt. Exodus 39:42 So the sons of Israel did all the work according to all that the Lord had commanded Moses. 43 And Moses examined all the work and behold, they had done it; just as the Lord had commanded, this they had done. So Moses blessed them.” In chapter 40 Moses put everything it its proper place and location.
THE GLORY OF THE LORD Exodus 40:34 “Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 35 Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 36 Throughout all their journeys whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the sons of Israel would set out; 37 but if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out until the day when it was taken up. 38 For throughout all their journeys, the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and there was fire in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel.”
The main idea of the tabernacle is that it was a visible place of the dwelling of God among Israel. Exodus 25:8: “And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.” Exodus 29:45-46: “And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God… Shekinah is a Hebrew word meaning “that which dwells” or “the dwelling presence”. While the exact word Shekinah does not appear in the Hebrew Bible, the root verb shakan (meaning “to dwell” or “to pitch a tent”) is used frequently. Rabbis later used Shekinah to describe tangible encounters with God. The tabernacle was later replaced with the temple that Solomon built, and God dwelt in that temple. God’s presence filled Solomon’s Temple as a radiant cloud of glory during its dedication, According to 1 Kings 8 and 2 Chronicles 5, when the priests placed the Ark of the Covenant inside the Most Holy Place, a thick cloud filled the house of the Lord so intensely that the priests could not continue their work. Later in the history of Israel, the glory of the Lord would depart from the temple due to the sins of the people (Ezekiel 10-11) which led to the destruction of the temple in 586 BC by the Babylonians.
Ezekiel predicted that when the Messiah would come: Ezekiel 37:27: “My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Ezekiel predicted that the glory of God would return to the temple in Ezekiel 43:1–5, “coming from the east and entering through the east gate to fill the temple.” There is much debate over what Ezekiel’s temple was in Ezekiel 40-48, but I believe it is fulfilled in church, the temple of God in the New Testament. God came to dwell in His people, the church, a spiritual temple not physical. “The New Testament reveals that this physical tent foreshadowed Jesus coming to “tabernacle” or dwell among us, and later sending the Holy Spirit to live inside believers. John 1:14: “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” The Greek word for “dwelt” is skenoo, which literally means to “tabernacle” or pitch a tent. 2 Corinthians 6:16: “…For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Revelation 21:3: “And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.” Zechariah 6:12 predicted, “‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Behold, a man whose name is Branch, for He will branch out from where He is; and He will build the temple of the Lord.” I believe that temple that Jesus built for God to dwell in is the church. The same Shekinah glory that filled the tabernacle fills the church today where God dwells in His people.
Chapter 31 begins telling how God put His Spirit in different men giving them the wisdom and craftsmanship to make all the intricate designs and details of the construction of the tabernacle and its furnishings.
THE SIGN OF THE SABBATH This is a critical passage when discussing the keeping of the sabbath today. Exodus 31:17 It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed.” The Sabbath was a sign between God and Israel only. The day itself was chosen b/c God rested on that day in the creation week. Genesis 2:3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.” But that verse does not say that God commanded Adam and Eve to observe the Sabbath (which is what the 7th Day Adventists claim). Most scholars believe that Moses wrote Genesis during the 40 years of wilderness wandering, about 2500 years after the creation week. By the time he wrote Genesis, Moses and the Israelites would have been commanded at Mt Sinai to keep the Sabbath, so it is understandable that he includes the verse in Genesis 2:3 telling why God sanctified the Sabbath. But again, it does not say that God commanded all mankind to start keeping the Sabbath from the beginning of time. Nowhere in Genesis do we find Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob observing the Sabbath. The 7DA’s will quote Jesus when He said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” as if Jesus is saying that the Sabbath was a command for all men from the beginning, but that is not what Jesus meant. Jesus was saying that the Sabbath was not a law that overrode common sense situations like healing on the Sabbath (which he was doing) or getting an ox out of the ditch on the Sabbath (which the Pharisees did). But Jesus is not changing to whom the Sabbath was given to: it was given to Israel and not all mankind. Also, in the book of Nehemiah it says, ““Then You came down on Mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven; You gave them just ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments. “So You made known to them Your holy sabbath, and laid down for them commandments, statutes and law through Your servant Moses.” (Nehemiah 9:13-14). He did not make the Sabbath known before Mt Sinai in Exodus 20 in the giving of the 10 commandments. It does say in Exodus 16:22-30 that on the way from the Red Sea to Mt Sinai that the leaders came to ask Moses why they were to gather twice as much on Friday as other days of the week and Moses told them about the Sabbath, and they “rested on the Sabbath day” (Exodus 16:30). But if the Israelites had been keeping the Sabbath all along they would have known why they could not gather manna on the Sabbath. Also, they are in the wilderness of Sin which is very close to Mt Sinai and just a very short time before the giving of the 10 commandments in Exodus 20. Yes, Jesus kept the Sabbath as well as all the Law of Moses b/c He was a Jew and the Law of Moses was still valid when he lives. Yes, Paul and other Jewish Christians kept the Sabbath b/c they were Jews and the Law was binding on all the Jews (Christian or not) until 70 AD when the Hebrew writer said that the Law would “disappear” (Hebrews 8:13). Any Christian, Jew or Gentile, can keep the Sabbath if they so desire. It is actually still a good thing to put away worldly pursuits, pleasure, and business and rest on the Sabbath. Many Gentile Christians do keep the Sabbath, but they should not make it a test of fellowship on other Gentile Christians who do not believe that they are commanded to keep the Sabbath. One final point. Many denominational preachers have said, “we should keep the 10 commandments today, even the 4th “remember the Sabbath to keep it holy”, but they say that “Sunday is the Christian sabbath”. Nowhere does the Bible say that God changed the Sabbath to Sunday. The Sabbath has always been from 6pm Friday to 6pm Sunday. We Christians do not make Sunday a rest day, but most Christians assemble on Sunday b/c that is the day that Jesus arose from the dead. BTW, it is interesting that the 7DA’s agree that Jesus was raised on Sunday. Another thing to point out is the inconsistency of those who claim to keep the Sabbath today. The penalty for breaking the Sabbath was death. Exodus 31:14 Therefore you are to observe the sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. 15 For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death.” I’m always amazed at how Sabbath keepers ignore this penalty. They might try to make the penalty a “ceremonnial” law that was done away with by Jesus, but how can they ignore this passage in Exodus 31 where he is giving the penalty for breaking the Sabbath as a “perpetual” covenant. I hope this discussion of the Sabbath was helpful to you. I tried to cover all baes on this issue. Now you must decide if you wish to observe the Sabbath rest in any way.
THE GOLDEN CALF Chapter 32 begins the incident of the making and worshipping of the golden calf. The unbelief of the Israelites is hard to fathom. They saw the 10 plagues. They saw the Red Sea kill Pharoah’s chariots and believed (Exodus 14:31). It had only been about 3 months since the crossing of the Red Sea. Sure, Moses was up on Mt Sinai a long time (40 days and nights) and they began to wonder what had happened to him. But to get Aaron to make a golden calf and say “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt”? What happened to that belief they had as they watched Pharoah’s army drown? And look at Aaron’s role in this incident. When Moses came down from the mount with the two tablets of stone, he confronted Aaron. Aaron said, “So they gave gold to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.” Moses saw that the people were out of control “b/c Aaron had let them get out of control” (Exodus 32:24). This is God’s newly appointed high priest. Moses had to be greatly disappointed in his brother Aaron’s actions in this incident. Moses’ anger burned against the people, he ground the calf into powder and made them drink it, and called upon the Levites to kill 3,000 of the rebels. Life Lesson: It is difficult at times to believe in a God whom we cannot see. The Israelites wanted to have a god they could see, so they made the calf. You can understand why idolatry is so prevealent in so many non-Christian cultures and religions. I struggle at times to believe in a God whom I can’t see, who fills the universe in some spiritual way. That is hard to believe! I’m thankful for the resurrection of Jesus that assures me that Yahweh truly exists.
MOSES’ INTERCESSION FOR THE ISRAELITES WHO MADE THE GOLDEN CALF While on the mount, God told Moses about the golden calf. Exodus 32:9 The Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, they are an obstinate people. 10 Now then let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation.” What a temptation for Mosses! For God to make of Moses a great nation instead of Abraham! But Moses pleads for God not to destroy the people. He reminds God of his covenant to Abraham and what it would look like to the Egyptians if He destroyed them after after all those plagues to save them. Later in Numbers 13-14 Moses will again intercede for the people when the 12 spies are sent out and God is ready to destroy the people and make the great nation out of Moses, not Abraham. Numbers 12 says that Moses was the “meekest man on earth” and his intercession for the people on several occasions proves that. Moses even told God, Exodus 32:32 But now, if You will, forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out from Your book which You have written!” He takes his role leading the people that seriously! Life Lesson: How is your intercessory prayer life? 1 Timothy 2:1 urges that petitions, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for all people.” I use rhe ACTS prayer model: Adoration (praise), Confession (of sins), Thanksgiving, Supplication (intercession for others). I don’t know exactly how intercessory prayer works to convince God to do things or to not do things. I do know that Moses’ intercessory prayer changed God’s mind about destroying the people. Exodus 32:14 So the Lord changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people.” Some teach that all things are predestined and that God never changes His mind, but several verses show where God planned to do something but intercessory prayer changed His mind. Pray, believing that your prayer might convince God to change His mind about something that looks inevitable.
GOD SPEAKS TO MOSES FACE TO FACE AND HIS FACE SHINES Moses had a temporary tent (the tabernacle had not been built yeet) where God would speak to him “face to face as a man speaks to a friend”. Deuteronomy 34:10 says that Moses was the only one God ever spoke face to face with. Exodus 34:29-35 tells us that Moses’ face would shine after he came from speaking with God in the tent as he told the people what God had to say to them. To keep from diminishing the importance of God’s word to them, he would put a veil on after speaking so they could not see the fading glory in his face. In 2 Corinthians 3:12-13 Paul said that the unbelieving Jews that he was trying to convert were hearing the new covenant teachings with a veil over their minds preventing them from the seeing the fading glory of the old covenant. Life Lesson: People should be able to see a change in our countenance after we spend time speaking with God in prayer. They should be able to see that our personal one on one time with God and in meditation on His word delights us, convicts us, assures us. We should come out of that prayer time with happy and peaceful expressions on our faces. Life lesson: Paul said this in 2 Corinthians 4 after talking about the veil that was keeping the Jews from accepting the fading glory of the old covenant: 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” God has shown us the spiritual light of salvation through Jesus, the Light of the world. John 8:12 “Again Jesus spoke to them, saying,“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” But there is a veil over the minds of unbelievers that keeps them from seeing that Light. It might be their pride, their refusal to give up their sinful lusts, their intellectual arrogance, their bitterness over bad things that have happened to them, their rejection of belief in God b/c of the existence and of pain and suffering, their belief that science and evolution negates the need for belief in God. Do you have a veil that keeps you from seeing the light of the gospel? You read God’s word but it doesn’t change you. You have some veil that keeps you from really seeing the spiritual light that God can give you.
MOSES IS GIVEN A SPECIAL GLIMPSE OF THE GLORY OF GOD Moses was burdened with leading these obstinate Israelites and you can understand why! He told God, “I pray You, if I have found favor in Your sight, let me know Your ways that I may know You” (Exodus 33:13). “I pray You, show me Your glory!” (Exodus 33:18) Exodus 33:21 Then the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock; 22 and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.” Moses did as God said and saw a glimpse of the glory of God that no man has ever seen but him. It gave him the assurance he needed to lead the people. God also gave Moses a summary of His “ways” and His attributes: Exodus 34:6 Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; 7 who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.” 8 Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship.” In Judaism, Exodus 34:6-7 is called the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy Exodus 34:6-7 is mentioned between 15 and 27 times by various biblical authors, including King David (Psalms 86:15, 103:8, 145:8), Joel (Joel 2:13), Jonah (Jonah 4:2), and Numbers 14:18. This makes it the most cross-referenced verse in the old testament, showing its importance. The verses are cited whenever God is about to punish sin, to forgive sin, to be patient with disobedient Israel, etc. Life Lesson: Romans 1:20 says that we can “clearly see the invisible attributes of God” by the things He created, That is called “natural revelation”. But the incredible design of the universe and the human body doesn’t tell us what that Creator is like? It takes special revelation from God’s mouth to tell us what God is like. He gave that special revelation to Moses and He gives it to us in His word. Are you studying the word daily to. know God’s ways and attributes? Life lesson: The “nature” of God is a critical topic. Many struggle with belief in God b/c of the existence of pain, evil, and suffering. How can a loving God allow such? How can a loving God command the Israelites to commit genocide of the Canaanites? How can a loving God allow my little child to die? Why does God often allow the righteous to suffer and the wicked to prosper? Billy Graham’s fellow evangelist preacher, Charles Templeton walked of the campaign trail and became an atheist b/c of the existence of evil in the world and his belief that science and evolution refuted the Bible. He wrote his book, Farewell To God, in 1996 and died an atheist. Do you ever have such doubts about the nature of God and His ways? Find a place where you can ask God to show you His glory and His ways. That place might be an inner room in your house, a church prayer room, a rock by a beautiful lake or mountain. Tell him about your struggles and how much you need a special glimpse of His glory to keep you faith going and to help you with your struggles. He will reveal Himself to you just as He revealed Himself to Moses.
These chapters are the instructions given Moses by God for building the tabernacle. Exodus 25:8 Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them. 9 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.” Of course, God dwells everywhere, so this is a figurative dwelling of God. They were commanded to make the ark of the covenant out of acacia wood and keep the 2 tables of stone on which the 10 commandments were written inside the ark. Acacia is the largest and most durable tree native to the arid Sinai region, making it the only practical timber available of sufficient size along their route. The wood used to cons truct the ark had to be durable since the ark would last for hundreds of years. The mercy seat of pure gold was placed on top of the ark with two cherubim on top of the mercy seat. Exodus 25:21 You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony which I will give to you. 22 There I will meet with you; and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, I will speak to you about all that I will give you in commandment for the sons of Israel.” The ark would be placed in the Most Holy Place in the tabernacle. Later we read that the high priest would go into the Most Holy Place only on the Day of Atonement once each year and sprinkle blood on the mercy seat to “atone” for the sins of the people for the past year.
As you read of the construction of the tabernacle and its furnishings, you will notice a lot of gold, silver, curtain material, etc. These materials would have been the things the Egyptians gave Israel as they were leaving Egypt after the death of the firstborn. It even says that Israel “plundered” Egypt, so there were a lot of materials given to them. Here are some great slides of the tabernacle and its furnishings. These images are all found by a google search and I never use them to make money. I only use them for my Bible classes, for teaching the Bible, and for my blog articles (for which I do not charge a subscription).
Of special note is the ark of the covenant in the Most Holy Place. The two tables of stone of the 10 commandments, a jar of manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded were all kept inside the ark.
Chapter 28 gives the instructions for the garments for Aaron the first high priest and his sons who were priests. The garments were lavish as God wanted to show His glory in the dress of these priests who would be ministering to him in the tabernacle. Notice the golden ephod with its golden breastplate with 12 precious stones and the Uriim and Thumim used to determine God’s will. Animal sacrifices were made for the conssecration of Aaron and his sons and they were anointedd with oil.
The priests were commanded to offer two lambs on the brazen altar (the altar of burnt offerings) each day (one in the morning and one at twilight). Exodus 29:45 I will dwell among the sons of Israel and will be their God. 46 They shall know that I am the Lord their God who brought them out of the land of Egypt, that I might dwell among them; I am the Lord their God. God gave this pattern for building the tabernacle and its furnishings in great detail.” Hebrews 8:4 Now if He were on earth, He would not be a priest at all, since there are those who offer the gifts according to the Law; 5 who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle; for, “See,” He says, “that you make all things according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain.” Exodus 25: Exodus 25:8 Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them. 9 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.”
The typology of the tabernacle and its seven sacred furnishings serves as an earthly shadow and prophetic blueprint pointing directly to the person, work, and mediatorial ministry of Jesus Christ.
The Outer Court The Altar of Burnt Offering: Made of acacia wood covered in bronze, it symbolized divine judgment and Christ as the ultimate, substitutionary sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. The Bronze Laver: A basin of water where priests washed before ministering, typifying daily spiritual cleansing and regeneration through the Word and the Spirit.
The Holy Place The Golden Lampstand (Menorah): A pure gold, seven-branched lamp providing continuous light, prefiguring Christ as the Light of the World and the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit. The Table of Showbread: Held twelve loaves representing the twelve tribes, symbolizing Christ as the Bread of Life who sustains communion between God and His people. The Altar of Incense: Stood before the inner veil, typifying the perpetual intercession and prayers of Christ on behalf of the redeemed.
The Most Holy Place (Holy of Holies) The Veil: A heavy curtain separating humanity from God’s immediate presence, which was torn open at Christ’s crucifixion, granting believers direct access to the Father. The Ark of the Covenant and Mercy Seat: An acacia and gold chest housing the Law beneath the blood-sprinkled mercy seat, representing the throne of grace, atonement, and the dwelling presence of God.
Israel would stay at Mt Sinai for a year so there was plenty of time to build the tabernacle and its furnishings.
Chapters 21-23 are called the “book of the covenant” (Exodus 24:7). Here’s a great AI summary of the book of the covenant. The book contains an ancient set of practical case laws given by God to Israel at Mount Sinai to show how the Ten Commandments apply to everyday life.
Exodus 21: Laws on People and Injury
Servants: Rules for Hebrew and foreign servants, including freedom after six years of service.
Violence: Punishments for murder, accidental manslaughter, and striking parents.
Personal Injury: Rules for physical fights and harm to pregnant women, establishing proportional justice (lex talionis, or “an eye for an eye”).
Animal Liability: Owner responsibility if a dangerous ox gores someone.
Exodus 22: Property, Theft, and Moral Duty
Theft and Restitution: Rules requiring thieves to pay back stolen property, sometimes multiple times.
Property Damage: Responsibility for fires spreading to a neighbor’s field or livestock eating crops.
Social Morality: Laws on not mistreating vulnerable people like widows, orphans, and strangers.
Moral Purity: Strict prohibitions against sorcery, bestiality, and idol worship.
Exodus 23: Justice, Sabbaths, and Feasts
Fair Justice: Warnings against taking bribes, spreading false rumors, or ganging up to pervert justice. Even enemies must receive basic help with their stray animals.
Sabbath Year: Letting farm fields rest every seventh year so the poor and wild animals can eat.
Weekly Sabbath: Commanding a day of rest for workers and animals.
Three Annual Feasts: The Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering, where all males must appear before God.
The Angel’s Role: God promises to send an angel ahead of Israel to guard them on the way and bring them into Canaan.
Call to Obedience: The people must listen to the angel’s voice and not rebel, because God’s name is in him and rebellion will not be pardoned.
Warnings Against Idolatry
Reject False Gods: Israel is strictly commanded not to bow down to, serve, or imitate the religious practices of the local inhabitants (Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites).
Destroy Idols: The Israelites must utterly overthrow these nations and break their sacred pillars in pieces.
Avoid Snares: Foreign nations cannot remain in the land, or they will tempt Israel into idolatry.
Promises of Blessing and Victory
Gradual Conquest: God will drive out the enemy nations “little by little” so the land does not become desolate and overrun by wild animals before Israel’s population grows enough to occupy it.
Provision and Health: Serving the Lord brings divine blessing on their bread and water, freedom from sickness, and fertile land where none are barren. Blessings in the old covenant are pretty much physical in nature.
Moses told the people all these words and twice the people said, ““All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do!” (Exodus 24:3). Of course, they did not obey the Lord’s words in the future. Moses had them offer bulls as a sacrifice to God and then sprinkled half the blood on the altar and half on the people, calling it the “blood of the (old) covenant”. The book of Hebrews tells us that blood of animals was insufficient to provide eternal forgivenss of sins, and that the blood of Jesus was the blood of the new covenant that would forgive sins once for all time.
Then something strange happened. Exodus 24:9 Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, 10 and they saw the God of Israel; and under His feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself. 11 Yet He did not stretch out His hand against the nobles of the sons of Israel; and they saw God, and they ate and drank.” God would later tell Moses, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!” (Exodus 33:20) so it is unusual that these men “saw God” and lived. Then Moses went up on Mt Sinai alone and stayed there 40 days. The people looked on as the glory of the Lord appeeared as a burning fire on top of the mountain. Chapter 25 begins the detailed instructions for building the tabernacle and the furnishings that God gave Moses during those 40 days. So we will hold off on discussing the tabernacle since it is covered in the next day reading. BTW Nadab and Abihu were priests who were killed by God for offering strange fire in Numbers 10.
Hope you are keeping up with the daily reading and blog articles. I am enjoying writing them for you and hope they are helpful.
FROM THE RED SEA TO MT SINAI The The complaining and grumbling of Israel began at Marah (Exodus 15:22-25). Several more things happened between the Red Sea and Mt Sinai in Exodus 16-20. Here is a summary:
1. Marah: This is where the travelers encountered bitter, undrinkable water. Moses miraculously sweetened the water by casting a piece of wood into it.
2. Elim: They camped beside 12 springs of water and 70 date palms.
3.. Wilderness of Sin: Here, the community grumbled about food shortages. In response, God introduced the weekly Sabbath and began providing daily manna and evening quail.
4. Rephidim (Massah and Meribah): Rephidim encompasses multiple events:
Massah & Meribah: These titles mean “testing” and “quarrelling”. They describe the exact spot within Rephidim where the people complained about water, prompting Moses to strike the rock at Horeb to supply them.
The Battle of Rephidim: The location where Joshua led the defense against the attacking Amalekites while Aaron and Hur held up Moses’ arms. Much later God would tell Saul to completely wipe out the Amalekites b/c of this attack. Yahweh-Nissi (The Lord is my Banner).
4.Mount Sinai(Mount Horeb): The sacred mountain where Israel camped, received the Ten Commandments, and constructed the Tabernacle
MANNA AND WATER FROM THE ROCK God gave them manna every day for the 40 years in the wilderness (except on the Sabbath: they would gather twice as much on Friday although some tried to gather on the Sabbath and found none( ) and water fron the rock. They could only gather what they could eat in a day: anything extra would rot at sunset. 1 Corinthians 10:1 For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 3 and all ate the same spiritual food; 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ.” As they crossed the Red Sea, the sea was on both sides of them and the cloud that followed them was above them: thus they were “immersed” (baptized) in the cloud and sea. The rock was Christ: water from the rock is a type of Jesus giving the water of eternal life to believers.
JETHRO COMES TO MOSES Exodus 18: Apparently Moses’ wife and two sons had started his journey back to Egypt but returned to Midian b/c Jethro (Ruel) brought them to meet Moses at Mt Sinai. Jethro saw that Moses was wearing himself out trying to judge every single dispute among the people and advised him to delegate the minor issues to various capable men.
ARRIVAL AT MT SINAI. Exodus 19: The Israelites arrived at Mt Sinai in the 3rd month after they left Egypt. They had traveled about 350 miles. They camped at the foot of Mt Sinai. The terrifying scene at Mount Sinai in Exodus 19 features a violent display of divine presence with heavy thunder, flashes of lightning, a thick dark cloud, and a blaring trumpet that caused the entire Israelite camp to shake with fear. This display of God’s power was designed to strike fear in the people such that they would be afraid to not obey God. Hebrews 12 describes this same scene: 12:18 For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind, 19 and to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them. 20 For they could not bear the command, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it will be stoned.” 21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, “I am full of fear and trembling.” The Hebrew writer would then go on to say that the Hebrew Christians had not come to Mt Sinai but had come to a spiritual Mt Zion and the heavenly Jerusalem, the church and warned them not to leave their faith in Jesus to return to Judaism. I can’t imagine what it was like being at the fout of Mt Sinai seeing and hearing all this. It had to be terrifying.
THE 10 COMMANDMENTS Moses want up on Mt Sinai and God gave him the 10 commandments. Here is a great slide:
ARE THE 10 COMMANDMENTS BINDING ON GENTILE CHRISTIANS UNDER THE NEW COVENANT? 9 of the 10 commandments would apply to Christians under the new covenant also, but “remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy” was a special command given to Israel and not to Gentile Christians under the new covenant. Eodus 31:12 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 13 “But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘You shall surely observe My sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.” Nehemiah 9:13 says that God made known the Sabbath at Mt Sinai. They did not have a command to rest on the Sabbath before Mt Sinai The 7th Day Adventists claim that people were commanded to keep the Sabbath from the very beginning in the Garden of Eden but that is not true. Genesis 2 says that God blessed and sanctified the Sabbath day but it doesn’t say that He commanded Adam and Eve to start resting on the Sabbath. Nowhere in the new covenant are Gentile Christians commanded to keep the Sabbath. Jesus kept the Sabbath but this is b/c he was a Jews still living under the old covenant. Paul and Jewish Christians continued to keep the Sabbath until 70 AD when the old covenant “disappeared” (Hebrews 8:13). Of course, any Christian is free to observe a day or rest on Saturday, but he/she should not bind that on others.
Chapters 11 and 12 tell about the 10th plague, the death of the firstborn of Egypt, including the cattle, at midnight. Can you imagine the horror, the cries and screaming coiming for every house in your neighborhood, all at the same time at the stroke of midnight? Picture that happening all through the land of Egypt to about 3 million Egyptians (according to historians). They awaken to find dead cattle all over the land in mass numbers. No wonder they begged the Israelites to leave Egypt and gave them silver and gold and clothing. That gold, unfortunately, would be used to make a golden calf and worship it at Mt Sinai. The Israelites “plundered” the Egyptians (Exodus 12:36).
THE PASSOVER That night of the death of the firstborn the Israelites were to eat the Passover lamb (chapter 12) with their sandals on, ready to make a hasty departure from Egypt. They were to sprinkle the blood of the lamb on their doorposts and lintels. If they did, the Lord would “pass over” their houses and not allow the “destroyer” (Exodus 12:23, some have called this the “death angel”) to kill their firstborn. They would not have time to let their bread leaven, so they made cakes of unleavened bread for their meal and their journey. God then gave Moses detailed instructions for this Passover Feast and Feast of Unleavened Bread (a 7 day feast) to be an annual ritual for Israel. The Israelites are to use these feasts to teach and remind their children about how God brought Israel out of Egyptian slavery.
Life Lesson: The Passover lamb was a type of Jesus, our Passover lamb who was slain to save us from our sins. 1 Corinthians 5:6 For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.” The Passover lamb was to be “unblemished” and Christ was sinless. John 1:29 John the Baptist proclaims Jesus to be the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” 1 Peter 1:18 you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, 19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. 20 For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world.” You see, even before God created man, God knew that man would sin and that God would send His sinless Son to die to redeem man from sin (for some reason that satisfied God’s wrath against our sins and allowed Him to be both just and the justifier of those who put their faith in Jesus). So, God gave the commands to Israel in Egypt for a Passover Lamb as a type of Christ our Passover Lamb. Gentile Christians don’t celebrate the Passover Feast each year but we celebrate Christ as our Passover Lamb every moment of every day (or at least we should). Do you begin each day thanking God for sending Jesus to save us? Do you begin each day thanking Jesus for dying for us? Jesus ate his last supper with his disciples in the upper room the night before his death with a Passover meal with unleavened bread. During that meal, he instituted the Lord’s Supper with the wine and the unleavened bread, which he said represented his body and blood offered for sin. Early Christians were told to partake of that Lord’s Supper in remembrance of Jesus dying for them. It appears that they ate the Lord’s Supper as part of a meal, the “love feasts” (Jude 1:12, a love meal with the rich and the poor Christians). It’s kinda sad to me that we make the Lord’s Supper just the eating of a little wafer and sip of grape juice instead of part of a love feast meal. I think the early Christians took the Lord’s Supper often, even during the week, as part of their meals together. But whenever, however, and how often you partake of the Lord’s Supper, it should be a sacred reminder of Jesus, the Passover Lamb who was slain to take away the sins of the world. Hebrews 11:28 By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that he who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them.”
THE CONSECRATION OF THE FIRSTBORN God also commanded the people to “consecrate their firstborn” of children and animals as a remembrance of God sparing the firstborn of Israel in Egypt (chapter 13). The first of all their crops was to be given to the Lord. The firstborn of clean animals was to be offered as a sacrifice to God. The firstborn of unclean animals was to be substituted with a lamb sacrifice since unclean animals could not be sacrificed to God. But the firstborn children could be “redeemed” instead of killed by giving 5 shekels of silver to the support of the Levitical priests (Numbers 18:15-16). If you are a firstborn in your family, this ritual has to have some meaning for you even if you are not an Israelites and even if you were not redeemed with money. You are special to God.
THE EXODUS Exodus 12:40 Now the time that the sons of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. 41 And at the end of four hundred and thirty years, to the very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.” If you are one for technicalities, the statement that Israel went our from Egypt after 430 years “to the very day” is interesting. In Genesis 15 God told Abraham that his descendants would come out of slavery in the 4th generation which proved to be true: Levi/Kohath/Amram/Moses. Levi, Kohath, and Amram lived to their 130’s, but those 4 generations overlapped and would not give a total of 430 years in actual slavery. The 430 years in Exodus 12:41 is calculated as the total time of the Abrahamic Sojourn, spanning from the time God made His covenant promise to Abraham in Canaan until the Exodus. Scholars divide the 430-year period into two equal blocks of 215 years based on the chronological data in Genesis. First 215 Years (Canaan): From when Abraham was 75 and received the divine promise (Genesis 12:4) until Isaac was born (25 years), plus the years Isaac and Jacob lived as foreigners in Canaan before descending into Egypt. Second 215 Years (Egypt): From when Jacob and his family moved to Egypt (at age 130) until the final Exodus, covering the 4 generations of Levi/Kohath/Amram/Moses. Genesis 15:13 mentions 400 years of affliction, which begins later (approx. 30 years into the timeline, after Isaac is mocked or Ishmael/afflictions begin) and specifically isolates the time of hardship, while the 430 years marks the complete legal span of the covenant. Joseph was 40 when Jacob moved his family to Egypt and he died at 110 before a new king arose and began the slavery of the Israelites, so that is 70 years of peace and prosperity including the time of Levi, the son of Jacob. If the Israelites were only in Egypt for 215 years, then that only leaves a maximum of 140 years that they were enslaved. How’s that for being technical! It does kinda nullify my teaching in the past that the Israelites were actually in slavery for a full 400 years. Oh well, live and learn.
THE CROSSING OF THE RED SEA Chapter 14 tells how God led 600,000 men (probably over 1 1/2 million total men, women, and children) to the Red Sea instead of going by the well traveled route that passed close by the Mediteranean Sea through Philistine territory (He knew they would see the military of the Philistines and rebel, returning to Egypt). He led them with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night so they “could travel day and night”. They camped by the Red Sea when Pharoah decided to track them down with 600 select chariots. To Pharoah it looked like the Israelites were trapped in the wilderness b/c they could not cross the Red Sea and had nowhere to escape. So he pursued them. Actually this was another part of God’s plan. He would harden Pharoah’s heart one more time (Exodus 14:4,8) into tricking him into thinking that the Israelites were trapped and easy prey to kill. Again, Pharoah made his own choice to pursue Israel. What the Israelites said to Moses when they saw the dust of the approaching Egyptian chariots reveals their lack of faith in God. Exodus 14:10 As Pharaoh drew near, the sons of Israel looked, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they became very frightened; so the sons of Israel cried out to the Lord. 11 Then they said to Moses, “Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt with us in this way, bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Is this not the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” This lack of faith in God would be repeated many times in the wilderness. Moses’ reply to them: Exodus 14:13 But Moses said to the people, “Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever. 14 The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent.” But then it is almost as if the Lord is telling Moses to quit talking and start doing something to save the people. Exodus 14:15 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward. 16 As for you, lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, and the sons of Israel shall go through the midst of the sea on dry land. 17 As for Me, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them; and I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. 18 Then the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord, when I am honored through Pharaoh, through his chariots and his horsemen.” You know what happened next. Moses parted the Red Sea, the Israelites crossed (it took all night while the angel of God kept the Egyptian army at bay), the Egyptians tried to cross and were drowned (was Pharoah drowned also?). Exodus 14:30 Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. 31 When Israel saw the great power which the Lord had used against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in His servant Moses.” They sand the “song of Moses” praising the Lord (Yahweh) for their deliverance (chapter 15). Aaron and Moses’ sister Miriam sang, danced and praised God with timbrels. Hebrews 11:29 By faith they passed through the Red Sea as though they were passing through dry land; and the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned.This would be a superficial, shallow belief in the Lord and Moses that would not last very long. Once they left the Red Sea they would continually complain and show lack of faith in God. After 3 days in the wilderness with no water, they grumbled at Marah when they found bitter water but Moses threw a tree in the waters and made them drinkable. This was just the beginning of their grumbling. They would complain for the next 40 years as God made them wander (Numbers 14).
Here is a map of where I think the crossing of the Red Sea occurred. It places Mt Sina east of the Red Sea (known as the Gulf of Aqaba today) instead of the traditional site west of the Gulf of Aqaba. Moses 40 years later would taked his sheep to Mt Sinai looking for pasture. That would fit the location of Mt Sinai in Midian (now Saudi Arabia) east of the Gulf. I can’t imagine him taking his sheep up to the northern tip of the Gulf of Aqaba and then southwest into the wilderness to the traditional Mt Sinai location in the middle of the wilderness, a journey of about 200 miles!. So I think the map is correct even though we don’t know the exact place of the crossing (although some have claimed to find evidence of the crossing in the Gulf of Aqaba). The Red Sea had to be deep enough to drown an army, so it couldn’t be the shallow “Sea of Reeds” (Yam Suph could refer to a shallow lake of reeds near the Nile) as liberals claim, trying to deny the miracle of the parting of the Red Sea.
Life Lesson: Teach your children the story of the Red Sea crossing and the exodus. This miraculous event is alluded to or mentioned over 20 times in the Old Testament including Psalm 66:6, Psalm 78:13, Psalm 106:9, Psalm 114:3, Psalm 136:13. Isaiah 11:15, Isaiah 51:10, and Isaiah 63:12–13. Psalm 78:13 He divided the sea and caused them to pass through, and He made the waters stand up like a heap. Psalm 106: 6 We have sinned like our fathers, We have committed iniquity, we have behaved wickedly. 7 Our fathers in Egypt did not understand Your wonders; They did not remember Your abundant kindnesses, But rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea. 8 Nevertheless He saved them for the sake of His name, That He might make His power known. 9 Thus He rebuked the Red Sea and it dried up, And He led them through the deeps, as through the wilderness. 10 So He saved them from the hand of the one who hated them, And redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. 11 The waters covered their adversaries; Not one of them was left. 12 Then they believed His words; They sang His praise.” We must teach out children stories about the exodus, the crossing of the Red Sea, etc. These are not fairy tales or myths. They are real stories that show the awesome power of God.
Life Lesson: Have you ever been faced with a desperate situation where you see no escape, a “Red Sea”? Circumstances have become very dificult for you. Maybe cancer, divorce, financial problems, health, children problems. You’v just about given up on a way of escape. 1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.” A “way of escape”, just as God provided a way of escape for Israel from Pharoah’s army at the Red Sea. When you are desperate for a way of escape, “Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which He will accomplish for you today.” God will in some way provide a way of escape, even if death itself might be the way to escape the pain and suffering of thhis life to be able to move on to the eternal joy in heaven (wherever that is). The Israelites panicked when they saw the dust of the approaching chariots of Pharoah. They did not have faith in God. I can’t tell you how many times I have had panic attacks b/c I didn’t have faith in God to rescue me from some desperate situation. I can’t sleep. I worry. I wake up thinking about some bad situation I am facing. I come up “what if’s” that might happen. God must be thinking, “How many times do I have to prove to you that I am with you and will provide and protect you?”
Nicky's Notes 