Exodus

The details included in this chapter for the consecration of the priests are given in greater detail in Leviticus 8. Here, the instructions are for the installation of Aaron and his sons as the High Priest and ministering priests. Sacrifices for this occasion are specifically noted to be without blemish, just as the consecrating sacrifices of the lamb were on the night of the Passover (Ex 12:5) as too, the bread was without yeast that same week, "seven days shall you eat unleavened bread" (Ex 12:15); cf. “The holy garments of Aaron shall be for his sons after him, that in them they may be anointed and ordained. For seven days the one of his sons who is priest in his stead shall put them on" (Ex 29:29-30a). “For seven days you shall make atonement for the altar and set it apart as holy" (Ex 29:37a). The sacrifices of the calf and rams held significance for the purification and consecration. As a sin offering, the sacrificial symbolism is unmistakable. The calf and rams serve a substitutionary remission as Aaron and his sons are commanded to lay their hands on the heads of the animals as they are slaughtered. This becomes the atonement for the sins of the priests and the Israelites. The perfect sacrifice is yet to come, but the picture is intended to be seen from the beginning as the sacrificial system is instituted here. "The one lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the second lamb you shall offer at twilight... The second lamb you shall offer at twilight, and you shall offer with it the same grain offering and the same drink offering as in the morning, for a soothing aroma, an offering by fire to Yahweh... I will meet there with the sons of Israel, and it shall be set apart as holy by My glory." (Ex 29:39, 41, 43). The need for any further sacrifices for the atonement ceases 1,524 years later, when the perfect Lamb is sacrificed, Christ, the Son of God.

One day there will be a new Heaven and a new Earth. Before then, there will be a new Jerusalem, from which Christ will rule (Rev 21). These are the dwelling places of God, crafted by His hand. The Tabernacle is a temporary dwelling Yahweh is establishing for His meeting with His people. The furnishings, even of this temporary dwelling, are necessarily holy and specific. The elements described in this chapter include the Altar of Incense (vv1-10), the Census counting the Israelites and the price paid for their atonement (vv11-16), the Laver where the priests would wash before approaching the altar to minister (vv17-21), the Holy Anointing Oil for every item and every priest of the Tabernacle (vv22-33), and the Incense for the tent of meeting (vv34-38). A cubit is approximately 18 inches, so the Altar of Incense, where the sin offering of atonement would be made once a year, was 1 ½ feet square by 3 feet tall. There was to be incense continually burning on this altar. The price paid for atonement was not a significant burden, and it was paid for each person counted aged 20 years and over (v14). The act of taking a census was later considered a dangerous prospect because it required the assembling together of people in the equivalent of mustering troops (2 Sam 24). This census was under divine protection, however, and these census taxes were used for implements of the Tabernacle (38:27,28). What is very clear, and under penalty of death or exile, is that the things set apart for God, are for God alone (vv20-21,32-33,38).

Bezalel and Oholiab have a special designation as craftsmen in Scripture. Bezalel with wisdom for the designs (v4), and Oholiab with wisdom for the making all that God commanded (v6). As the directions and leadership for the assembly of all that is to be in and of the Tabernacle conclude, Yahweh gives Moses one final reinforcement of His commandments that are to be carefully heeded - the sign that is to be between God and the Israelites throughout the generations (v13) - the sign that is to be kept by the sons of Israel forever (v17): The Sabbath. From verses 12-17, Yahweh delivers to Moses a unique and separate highlight of a portion of the Ten Commandments before He writes them with His own finger and gives them to Moses on two tablets (v18). The natural question to ask here is: Why would this part of the Ten Commandments be highlighted here before God gives Moses the Law in stone? The penalty for failure to obey this command is the most severe of any - profaning the sabbath or working on the Sabbath, both are punishable by death (vv14-15). In Leviticus 25:1-4 God establishes that the land shall have a sabbath to Yahweh (Le 25:2). When the Israelites rejected their obligation to follow the Shmita (the Jewish traditional law of leaving the land fallow in the seventh year), God delivered their punishment through the prophet Ezekiel: 430 years of exile (Ezekiel 4:4-6). When they returned from exile in 537 BC after serving 70 years of this punishment (Jeremiah 25:11), they still failed to return to the Sabbath observance for the land, and God invoked the punishment He declared in Leviticus 26:18 18 ‘If also after these things you do not obey Me, then I will discipline you seven times more for your sins." This meant the Israelites' remaining 360 years of exile were now 2,520 years. That didn't end until 14 May 1948, when Israel once again became a nation.

Shame is the emotional response from this passage if one identifies with the people. Anger and rage if identifying with the righteousness of God in His betrayal by those He has just rescued from slavery. How short of memory are the children of Israel when Moses, gone barely a month on the same mountain where Yahweh had just spoken the law to all the people, that they then require a "new" object to follow. The suggestion is made that Aaron sought to steer the Israelites away from their desire for another god(s) by telling them to pull from their wives and children the gold jewelry he thought they would be remiss to surrender. Yet mistaking their fervor, which later devolves into an outright orgy, Aaron is compelled by the miscalculations of his own suggestion. By the time God makes Moses aware of this idolatry, their sin is fully mature. Aaron's response to the question, "What did the people do to you that made you bring such sin on them?" (v21) is only able to be weakly voiced because Moses has already compelled Yahweh to relent in His anger. Moses has been the leader of the people of God, and he has loved them. That is significant in God choosing Moses to lead them. God tells Moses He will blot out all of the Israelites and begin anew with a line from Moses, but Moses does not seek his own glory; rather, he is obedient to what he knows to be the will and nature of God - faithfulness to His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (v13). But God's wrath is not satisfied simply because Moses asks God to relent. The righteous indignation of God is demonstrated through Moses' own response, ordained by God - and purposed for His glory. See how this testimony endures as Moses intervenes before God because of their sin, just as the coming Messiah will also do - and has done for us:

Exodus 32:28-32
28 So the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses, and about three thousand men of the people fell that day.
29 Then Moses said, “Be ordained today to Yahweh—for every man has been against his son and against his brother—in order that He may bestow a blessing upon you today.”
30 Now it happened on the next day, that Moses said to the people, “You yourselves have committed a great sin; but now I am going up to Yahweh, perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.”
31 Then Moses returned to Yahweh and said, “Alas, this people has committed a great sin, and they have made gods of gold for themselves.
32 “But now, if You will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out from Your book which You have written!”
Acts 2:36-38
38 Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
39 This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away—all who have been called by the Lord our God.”
40 Then Peter continued preaching for a long time, strongly urging all his listeners, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation!”
41 Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all.