Leviticus 26: Blessings for obeying God’s laws; Curses for disobeying God’s laws.

Leviticus 26 outlines the conditional covenant between God and Israel, promising profound Blessings and Curses (Lev 26:1-46) — The Fellowship based on their obedience or disobedience to His commandments. [1]

Core Foundation (Verses 1–2)

• Idolatry forbidden: God commands Israel not to make idols, carve images, or set up sacred stones.
• Sabbath observance: They must keep God’s Sabbaths and revere His sanctuary. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Blessings for Obedience (Verses 3–13)

• Abundant harvest: Seasonal rains will yield massive crops, allowing them to thresh grain until the grape harvest and eat safely until full.
• Peace and security: God will grant peace in the land so they can sleep without fear, and hostile armies will flee before them.
• Increase and fertility: The nation will be fruitful and multiply.
• Divine presence: The ultimate reward is God walking among them to be their God while they remain His people.

Curses for Disobedience (Verses 14–39)

• Sickness and distress: God will bring sudden terror, wasting diseases, and burning fevers that consume the eyes and sap life.
• Unfruitful land: Their hard work will be wasted because the soil will yield no crops and the skies will turn to iron.
• Escalating discipline: If disobedience continues, punishment intensifies in four compounding, sevenfold stages—from wild animals robbing them of children to military siege and starvation.
• Exile: The disobedient nation will be scattered among enemy nations and their cities left desolate.

Promise of Restoration (Verses 40–46)

• Repentance: If the exiled people humble themselves and confess their sins, God will remember His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
• Unbroken commitment: Even during severe correction, God promises never to utterly reject or destroy them to the point of breaking His covenant.

Numbers 1-3. The census and arrangement of the camp. These are the chapters you “skim” through. The book of Numbers is called “Numbers” b/c of the two numberings (censuses) of the people: the first at Mt Sinai during the year they are there (Numbers 1; 603,550 fighting men above the age of 20), and the second on the plains of Moab 40 years later after the disobedient generation has all died off in the wilderness (Numbers 26: 601,730 fighting men). The Levites were placed in the middle nearest the tabernacle along with Moses and the priests. The duties of the 3 Levitical families for taking care of and moving of the tabernacle are given. This is the way Israel would camp each time they would stop during the 40 years in the book of Numbers. Just imagine the logistics of this. Over 600,000 fighting men over the age of 20 would mean 1 1/2 to 2 milliion total people. They gather their manna every day. They get water from the rock every day. But I wonder what their daily life was like.

Numbers will contain the story of those 40 years in the wilderness, although 38 of the 40 years is only. told about in 6 of the 36 chapters in Numbers (chapters 15-20). A sad statistic: about 1 1/2 to 2 million Israelites die in the 40 years wandering in the wilderness. That’s about 37,000 per year and 100 per day. That had to be the most depressing time for everyone. Imagine disposing of the bodies (I assume they had to be buried to prevent diseases like cholera but the Bible doesn’t record burying them). Imagine knowing that you, if you were 20 or older, are going to die in this horrible wilderness and nothing can change that. All that for later in your reading in Numbers.

Here’s a great slide showing the contents of the book of Numbers.

Here is the map that we will be using as we study Numbers. Bible.ca is a great source of information. The map correctly (IMO) places Mt Sinai to the east of the Gulf of Aqaba instead of at the traditional site west of that gulf. That means Mt Sinai was in modern day Saudi Arabia. The Israelites spend a whole year at Mt Sinai, so that’s where Numbers begins.

Leviticus 21-22: Laws for priests.

Rules on Mourning and Death (Leviticus 21:1–6)

• General priests: Cannot make themselves ceremonially unclean by touching a dead body, except for immediate family members (mother, father, son, daughter, brother, or dependent unmarried sister). [1, 2]
• Body modifications: Priests are prohibited from shaving their heads, trimming their beards, or cutting their bodies as part of funeral mourning rituals.

Rules on Marriage and Family (Leviticus 21:7–15)

• Marriage restrictions: Ordinary priests cannot marry a prostitute, a woman who has been defiled, or a divorced woman.
• The High Priest: Held to an even higher standard; he must marry only a virgin from his own people and cannot marry a widow, a divorced woman, or a prostitute. He also cannot go near any dead body, even that of his own parents.
• Family discipline: If a priest’s daughter becomes a prostitute, she brings shame upon her father and is to be burned to death.

Physical Requirements for Service (Leviticus 21:16–24)

• No physical blemishes: Any descendant of Aaron with a physical defect or blemish cannot approach the altar to offer food/gifts to God.
• Disqualifying conditions: Included blindness, lameness, a disfigured face, a broken limb, a hunchback, a dwarf, chronic eye/skin diseases, or damaged testicles.
• Allowance: While disqualified from serving at the altar or entering the inner sanctuary, priests with physical defects were still permitted to eat the holy food.

Handling Holy Offerings and Uncleanness (Leviticus 22)

• Partaking in sacrifices: Priests who are ceremonially unclean (due to a bodily discharge, skin disease, or touching something unclean) cannot eat the sacred holy offerings until they are cleansed.
• Who may eat: Only members of the priest’s household (including bought servants or daughters who return home due to widowhood/divorce) may eat the holy food; unauthorized outsiders, guests, or hired workers cannot.
• Unblemished sacrifices: Priests were also responsible for ensuring that any animal brought by the Israelites for sacrifice was completely free of physical defects.

Leviticus 23: The feast days.

Leviticus 24: The lamp and bread of the sanctuary. The priests were commanded to keep the lamps on the lampstand (the menora) burning continuously. There were to change out the bread on the table of shewbread every Sabbath and the priests could eat the old bread. A blasphemer is stoned to death by the entire congregation. “Eye for eye and tooth for tooth” is established as a rule of justice.

Leviticus 25: The Sabbatic year and the year of Jubilee. The laws for redemption.

Leviticus 25 outlines a system of Sabbath and Jubilee years that functioned as a radical agricultural, economic, and social reset for ancient Israel.

The Sabbath Year (Shabbat)

• Timing: Occurred every seventh year.
• Land Rest: Fields and vineyards were left unworked; no sowing, pruning, or harvesting of planned crops.
• Provision: Whatever the land produced naturally could be eaten freely by everyone, including landowners, servants, hired workers, and local animals.
• Trust: It required Israel to trust God for a triple harvest in the sixth year to sustain them through the fallow period.

The Year of Jubilee (Yovel)

• Timing: Occurred every 50th year, following a sequence of seven Sabbath cycles (7 x 7 = 49 years).
• Proclamation: Announced with the blowing of the ram’s horn (shofar) on the Day of Atonement.
• Land Return: Leased, sold, or mortgaged ancestral land reverted to its original family owners.
• Emancipation: Hebrew debt slaves and bonded laborers were set free to return to their clans.
• Agricultural Rest: Like the Sabbath year, the land received a second consecutive year of rest from planting and harvesting.

Theological Purpose

• Divine Ownership: The foundational premise was that “the land is mine [God’s] and you reside in my land as foreigners and strangers” (Lev. 25:23).
• Economic Equity: It prevented permanent generational poverty and the extreme accumulation of land and debt by a wealthy few. Capitalism is better than communism but capitalism breeds greed

In Leviticus 25, the laws of redemption ensured that ancestral land and impoverished Israelites could not be permanently lost or enslaved.

Rules for Redeeming Property (Land)

• Temporary sales: Land was never sold permanently because it ultimately belonged to God; a sale was essentially a lease based on the number of crops until the next Jubilee.
• Self-redemption: The original owner could buy their land back at any time by paying back the value of the crops for the remaining years until the Jubilee.
• Kinsman-Redeemer (Go’el): If a person grew too poor to redeem their land, a nearest relative was obligated to step in and buy it back for them.
• The Jubilee Reset: If neither the owner nor a relative could redeem the land, it automatically reverted to the original family during the 50th Year of Jubilee.

Rules for Redeeming People (Slaves/Servants)

• Poverty-driven servitude: An Israelite who grew impoverished could sell themselves into service to a fellow Israelite or a foreigner.
• Family buyout: A relative could redeem an Israelite sold into servitude to a foreigner at any time by calculating the price based on the years remaining until the Jubilee.
• Release at Jubilee: If they were not redeemed earlier by a family member, indentured Israelites were freed automatically with their children during the Year of Jubilee.

These chapters are hard to read and sort out the detials so I hope that the AI bullet articles help clarify all the laws.

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.

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.