Archive for month: January, 2022

Hi GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Exodus 27:1-21.  Let’s go!

Exodus 27:1-4 (NIV)
1  “Build an altar of acacia wood, three cubits high; it is to be square, five cubits long and five cubits wide.
2  Make a horn at each of the four corners, so that the horns and the altar are of one piece, and overlay the altar with bronze.
3  Make all its utensils of bronze–its pots to remove the ashes, and its shovels, sprinkling bowls, meat forks and firepans.
4  Make a grating for it, a bronze network, and make a bronze ring at each of the four corners of the network.

On verses 1-4:  The altar had a bronze grating on it, like a barbeque grill.  That way animals could be sacrificed on it and cooked.  What can we learn from this?  One lesson is that in the house of the LORD, substitutionary sacrifice would play a major role.  In other words, in God’s house, forgiveness would be made possible because one living thing was sacrificed in place of another.  As Hebrews 9:22 would later say, without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.  So the LORD built into the blueprints of His house a way for people to draw near to Him through substitutionary sacrifice.  This would be a picture pointing to what God would later do for us by sacrificing His Son Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins.

Exodus 27:5-8 (NIV)
5  Put it under the ledge of the altar so that it is halfway up the altar.
6  Make poles of acacia wood for the altar and overlay them with bronze.
7  The poles are to be inserted into the rings so they will be on two sides of the altar when it is carried.
8  Make the altar hollow, out of boards. It is to be made just as you were shown on the mountain.

Hi GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Exodus 26:1-37.  Today we’re looking at the making of the tabernacle.  So to give you a picture of what the tabernacle looks like, check out this video showing a life-size replica of the tabernacle described in Exodus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mFGsLEpKKk

Exodus 26:1-37 (NIV)
1  “Make the tabernacle with ten curtains of finely twisted linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, with cherubim worked into them by a skilled craftsman.
2  All the curtains are to be the same size–twenty-eight cubits long and four cubits wide.
3  Join five of the curtains together, and do the same with the other five.
4  Make loops of blue material along the edge of the end curtain in one set, and do the same with the end curtain in the other set.
5  Make fifty loops on one curtain and fifty loops on the end curtain of the other set, with the loops opposite each other…….

On verses 1-37:  Here God goes into great detail when He instructs Moses on how to build the tabernacle.  God didn’t just give Moses a general idea. He gave Moses specifics on everything from measurements to colours to the types of materials to be used and how each part of the tabernacle connected to all the others.  Like a skilled craftsman, God was paying attention to details that most of us would not notice.

Hi GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Exodus 25:1-22.  Let’s go!

Exodus 25:1-22 (NIV)
1  The LORD said to Moses,
2  “Tell the Israelites to bring me an offering. You are to receive the offering for me from each man whose heart prompts him to give.
3  These are the offerings you are to receive from them: gold, silver and bronze;
4  blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen; goat hair;
5  ram skins dyed red and hides of sea cows; acacia wood;…..

We may suppose that when Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and abode there so long, where the holy angels attended the shechinah, or divine Majesty, he saw and heard very glorious things relating to the upper world, but they were things which it was not lawful nor possible to utter; and therefore, in the records he kept of the transactions there, he says nothing to satisfy the curiosity of those who would intrude into the things which they have not seen, but writes that only which he was to speak to the children of Israel. For the scripture is designed to direct us in our duty, not to fill our heads with speculations, nor to please our fancies.

In these verses God tells Moses his intention in general, that the children of Israel should build him a sanctuary, for he designed to dwell among them (v. 8); and some think that, though there were altars and groves used for religious worship before this, yet there never was any house, or temple, built for sacred uses in any nation before this tabernacle was erected by Moses, and that all the temples which were afterwards so much celebrated among the heathen took rise from this and pattern by it.

Hi GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Exodus 24:1-18.  Get ready for some powerful lessons here.  Let’s go!

Exodus 24:1-11 (NIV)
1  Then he said to Moses, “Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. You are to worship at a distance,
2  but Moses alone is to approach the LORD; the others must not come near. And the people may not come up with him.”
3  When Moses went and told the people all the LORD’s words and laws, they responded with one voice, “Everything the LORD has said we will do.”……

On verses 1-11:  Moses has just finished receiving all these words and laws from the LORD for the Israelites on Mount Sinai (Exodus 20:22 to the end of Exodus 23).  Now in Exodus 24 Moses is going to communicate these words and laws to the Israelites and have them enter into a covenant (a formal love-based agreement) with the LORD.  Under this covenant, the Israelites would agree to obey all the words and laws the LORD had given to them through Moses, and the LORD would agree to go before them, lead them and watch over them (Exodus 23:22-33).

Ancient historians tell us that in Moses’ time when two parties would enter into a covenant, they would do two things to make the covenant formal and binding:  (1) they would kill an animal, cut it symmetrically in half, put one half of the animal’s corpse on their left and the other half on their right, and then the two parties would together walk through the halves to signify that their agreement has been sealed with the animal’s blood; (2) they would eat a meal together.