Read Exodus 32:7-14

Something was rotten at Mount Sinai. After forty days of waiting for Moses to reappear, the hard hearts of Israel had led them into sin, denying the God who had brought them out of Egypt and fashioning their own golden calf as an idol. A deity of their own making and their own tastes, who asked nothing and did nothing as the sinful “good times” rolled.

As the People partied below, Moses and God communed above. But God saw the idolatry and immorality of Israel at the foot of Mount Sinai, and his righteousness demanded a response. While judgement was the just punishment, God established the circumstances for Moses to intercede for Israel on the basis of God’s nature and his covenant love. In the same way, Jesus intercedes for us despite our sinfulness, so we can enjoy forgiveness and fellowship with God.

In the first six verses of chapter 32, God’s People made a golden calf to worship in the place of the true and living God. Without the leadership of Moses among them, they were left to their own sinful devices and embraced sin.

God, who unlike the golden calf can see all things, told Moses in verse seven to “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.” What God saw was so offensive that he does not want to identify himself with Israel in their current state; the people now become Moses’, who Moses brought up from Egypt.

God’s disgust and distancing is because of Israel’s corruption. This shows the seriousness of sin. It is not a minor dislike or an inconvenience, but a corruption of both what is good and our very being. The people disobeyed God and worshiped a golden calf (v.8), corrupting themselves.

But while God is distancing himself from God’s People’s current sinfulness, he does associate Moses with them. God could have sent fire from heaven to consume Israel then and there, but instead he sent down Moses to intervene.

This is clear because in verse nine, God describes Israel as “a stiff-necked people.” This is a reference to animals who refused to accept a farmer’s yoke and discipline, and resisted the farmer’s will. God sees Israel as refusing his command and discipline.

Since God’s People will not listen to God, perhaps it is time to start again. God reveals his anger at sin and the punishment it requires by suggesting Moses leaves him alone so that “my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you” (v.10). At least Moses has developed enough from his earlier distrust and disobedience of God as the ingredients for a new batch of God’s People.

At this point Moses takes the opening provided by God to intervene on behalf of his people, and intercede for the sinful Israelites below. He does so by making three arguments why God should not destroy the Israelites.

Firstly, Moses reminded God that he had chosen the Israelites and “brought [them] out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand” (v.11). God had chosen to love them as a father loves an adopted child, and acted to save them.

Secondly, Moses reminded God that he saved Israel to glorify his name. If he destroyed Israel, Egypt and the nations might question God’s motives for saving Israel from slavery (v.12), which would affect his reputation.

Thirdly, Moses reminded God of his covenant promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to number their offspring like the stars of the heaven (v.13). God’s promises to the Patriarchs could not be abandoned by God, because God always keeps his promises.

Because of Moses’ interceding, God “relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people” (v.14). God heard Moses intercede for his people, and in his grace and covenant love did not destroy them, just as intended.

So if God never intended to destroy Israel, why set up the scene for Moses to intercede? Because this situation taught them and us of our need for a mediator to intercede on our behalf with God for our sins.

Our sin corrupts us and separates us from God. God cannot associate himself with or approve of sin. Someone must stand in the place of sinners and intercede on their behalf, asking God to remember his election, his glory, and his promises.

While Moses interceded effectively in this situation at Sinai, he could not perfectly intercede for all sinners, because he is a sinner too. But Jesus can intercede perfectly, because he is both God and Man, and was sinlessly obedient unto death.

Jesus interceding for us, both in his High Priestly Prayer (John 17) and now at the Father’s Side, effectively reminds God of his election of many to salvation, the glory that comes to God for his salvation, and the covenant promises made and fulfilled in Christ.

Thank God for our glorious mediator, Jesus, who intercedes so effectively for us!

Read Exodus 32:1-6

Earlier this week the children rose from bed before I did and went down to the lounge. As I did not appear and the pangs of hunger were striking, the boys enterprisingly took a pair of scissors to a packet of chocolate biscuits and helped themselves, despite our clear teaching that biscuits are a gift given by adults, not presumed by hungry boys! I heard the activity and intervened, but not before two biscuits were partly eaten.

I tell this not to embarrass my kids but to illustrate a point. In our lives, when it seems like things are not going as we would like, we often take matters into our own hands, usually sinfully. The Golden Calf incident demonstrates exactly this. Left alone for nearly a month, God’s People grew frustrated and restless at Moses’ absence, and created a deity they could worship. The result was sinful idolatry.

From Exodus 24:18 to 31:18, forty days and nights have passed. While Moses has remained busy communing with God and learning of the necessary plans for building God’s dwelling place with his people, the Israelites have been waiting at the foot of Mount Sinai, waiting. And waiting.

With Moses, God’s rightful appointed leader, gone there is a vacuum of leadership in the camp. Waiting for things to happen, getting sick of the view and the sand, the people became restless. Yet still, “the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain” (v.1).

Reflecting their sinful hearts, the people grew impatient with a lack of action by God. He had brought them out of Egypt, but where were the promised blessings? 

Action was needed, so “the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, ‘Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’” (v.1). The picture painted here is one of an impatient, restless crowd confronting Aaron (Moses’ second-in-command) and presenting him with a demand.

Since the God who had rescued them was not working to their timeframe, they ask Aaron to make them an idol. Impatience turns to distrust, disobedience, and idolatry. Even the role of God and his instrument, Moses, is downplayed in their hearts and speech as they casually turn away from God to idols.

Instead, the pure worship of God of which they have already received basic instructions (to be fleshed out later when Moses descended back to them) is distorted and corrupted.

Rather than the only true God who is spirit and has no body like us, the Israelites have Aaron create a golden bull calf (vv.2-4), made from their jewelry. Others would soon follow, given time: the Israelites asked for multiple gods, not just one.

Instead of the only true and all powerful God, the people wanted multiple, ultimately impotent gods to worship, made from their own things. Gods that could not demand anything of them other than what they were willing to give.

And this is exactly what we see happen next. Aaron’s calf-making complete, he declares “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”, makes an altar, and declares a feast the next day (vv.4-5). Whether intended as a face saving gesture or just plain old syncretism, Aaron declares that the golden calf is actually God himself! (v.5).

The next day, the people eagerly gather to complete their sin. They offer corrupt worship. Offerings to an idol, a feast in front of the idol, and then to cap it off “rose up to play” (v.6). Except the play was not a game of cricket, but the immoral worship of the pagan nations – debauchery and immorality (especially the sexual kind).

Does any of this sound familiar? Perhaps not the specific circumstances with golden calves, but the pattern of sin in their lives. Frustration and impatience at progress towards something good (or perceived as good). Taking matters into our own hands. Then distrust of God to deliver, disobedience of his commands, and corruption of the good things God gives into sin.

Sin is impatience, disobedience, distrust, and corruption of the good. And we all do it. We might laugh at the absurdity of a people who literally saw God descend on Mount Sinai in fire and majesty and awe, then made a golden calf. But are we really any different, when we have seen God revealed to us through his Word, through Christ preached, and by the Holy Spirit working in our lives?

Lord save us from our unbelief and sin!

Let us give thanks that while Israel failed their forty days of waiting, and we fail in our times too, Jesus did not fail. Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness did not end in impatience, disobedience, and idolatry, but in reliance upon God (Matthew 4:1-11). In all things, Christ was obedient unto death on the Cross for our sins (Philippians 2:4-11). 

So our sins could be forgiven.

Read Exodus 31:12-18

I need a holiday. If you have talked to me at any length over the last six months, you will know why! There is only so much uninterrupted work you can manage on top of family and other responsibilities before the body burns out and breaks down. If there is one thing I have been very thankful for, it has been a day of rest and worship on Sunday.

We live in a world where taking holidays is sometimes viewed with suspicion (slacker!), and as for taking one day a week to rest and worship God? Not surprisingly, bombarded with the world’s desire for constant go-go-go, we are tempted to view a faithful interpretation of the Sabbath rest as a burden. 

But the Sabbath was made for us, as our passage reminds us. Work, even work for God, needs to be put aside. The Sabbath exists so we can enjoy the privileges of which the tabernacle teaches us: worshiping God and enjoying his presence. While we await Jesus’ return, we still work and rest in the pattern of Creation, but one day soon we will enjoy eternal rest.

This is why after instructing Moses to appoint Oholiab and Bezalel to the task of the tabernacle’s construction, God again reminds Israel of the importance of the Sabbath (vv.12-13). This is now the fourth time the Sabbath has come up (chs. 16, 20, 23).

Israel, and in particular those tasked with building God’s house and furnishings, might have viewed their holy calling with the passion and vigour which overrides all other considerations, even that of the Sabbath. After all, this was holy work right, building God’s house?

Placing this third reminder after these instructions reminds them that no, it is not more important than the Sabbath. Even holy work should cease for rest and worship. It is “a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you” (v.13). Not Works. Even good works. But God who makes us holy.

To ensure Israel understood that God was deadly serious about the Sabbath, he instituted a civil law for Israel. “You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people” (v.14).

God viewed working on the Sabbath as replacing him with work as the means of salvation. So those of Israel who worked on the Sabbath were (literally) put to death. They had six other days to work (v.15), so working on the Sabbath was effectively saying they were more interested in the labours than knowing God. That was a virus which could not infect God’s people, so it was eliminated.

Keeping the Sabbath reminded God’s people they were made and redeemed to be his, not their own. They were to observe it “as a covenant forever” (v.16) because it “is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed” (v.17).

Like God did at Creation, the people should set aside their labours after six days and rest, taking the time to enjoy God’s presence with them in the tabernacle, coming to know God and become more like him.

These commands, like all the instructions that came before, were not the made up ramblings of a man but were “written with the finger of God” on stone tablets, ensuring that God’s people had a copy of the covenant relationship with God to which they were a party (v.18).

Rather than a burden, the Sabbath is a blessing. It is a time, every week, where we can specially put aside the worries of the day and learn more of God and his works for us. Like Martha, we can get so caught up in the chores of each day that we fail to stop like Mary and listen to Jesus’ teaching, and choose “the good portion, which will not be taken away” (Luke 10:42).

The Sabbath not only allows us time to focus ourselves on God, but also to rest. In a 24/7 world, where events are always happening, shops are always open, and people are always working, we can set aside the concerns of today and take a deep breath. We can slow down the pace of life, and put work in perspective. 

We can worship God, fellowship, and do acts of mercy. We can relax; which does not just mean sitting quietly in a corner reading a dense Puritan tome, but things which we enjoy.

This taking time to worship and rest is also a witness to our society. As they run to and fro trying to fit enough “busy” in their lives, we slow down to recharge. We start each week focused on God and looking forward to the Eternal Rest. Perhaps in our example, they too might see their need to find their rest in Christ.

Read Exodus 31:1-11

Art. It brings to mind beautiful paintings and murals, sculptures and tapestries. It also brings to mind the jokes that pass for “art” these days, saying more about the anti-culture urges of our supposed betters than their abilities to wield a paintbrush. Not surprisingly, when the art of today is more “ecce mono” than “ecce homo”, many Christians consign art post-1900 to the bin.

But there is no reason to look down on art and question its usefulness to God, compared to the tithes of a STEM job or public speaking ability. God blesses many of us with artistic ability, as one means in our lives by which we can glorify God. In Exodus, God calls and equips two men to lead the construction efforts for his dwelling-place with Israel, for God’s glory. We too are called and equipped to offer the best we have, artistic or otherwise, to God.

In previous chapters of Exodus, God has described to Moses the various parts of the tabernacle that require building, the clothes the priests were to wear, and the incense they were to burn. But Moses was not left to pull out his saw and sewing needle himself, because God had laid on two men an artistic call.

The first God told Moses he had called was “Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah” whom he had called “by name” (vv.1-2). Secondly, God had “appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan” (v.6).

These men were specifically chosen by God, by name, and explicitly called and appointed to the task of preparing God’s dwelling-place on earth. While God could have created all these items himself from nothing, God chose to use people and already created raw materials to fashion objects designed for his worship and glory.

Their calling was so important that they were artistically equipped to accomplish their calling. For Bezalel (and likely for Oholiab as well), this equipping was spiritually inspired as God “filled him with the Spirit of God” (v.3) to build something never before constructed in that fashion.

Together with the special gifting of the Holy Spirit for this particular task was equipping with skill. Bezalel had “ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship” (v.3). He was not only very able, but very bright, learned, capable of thinking through the best approach, and great at executing what he set out to do.

The equipping was not just in one specific area either, but in all kinds of art. He would need “to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft” (v.4-5). Not just design, but woodwork, stonework, metalwork, and carving were artistic strengths to serve God.

The artistic call and artistic equipping were needed to make art for God’s glory. Bezalel and Oholiab would be busy; they would lead and direct the many other men God had gifted to assist them in a massive construction project (v.6).

These men would construct everything from the tent to the ark of the covenant, the lampstand, the table, the altars, the clothes, and prepare the first batches of incense (vv.7-11).

While God had laid out good plans on how things were to be constructed, Bezalel and Oholiab would still be busy designing what the Cherubim looked like, among other things. Artistic decisions would have to be made, to make sure that the result was beautiful and worthy of God.

But if it was for God’s glory, that artistic expression could only go so far. “According to all that I have commanded you, they shall do” (v.11). They could not decide to change the shape of the table, or substitute silver for gold on the ark’s lid. Nor could they slip a cheeky visual depiction of God into the tabernacle, violating the Second Commandment. Their art served God, but it was not to be their God.

This passage reminds us that art is good – it comes from God! God is the ultimate artist, who made and shaped all things. True art reflects the beauty of Creation and the creativeness he has given us for constructive benefit. 

All types of art are beautiful. Even abstract art (commonly abused today in our anti-culture) is seen here in the symbolic meanings of the tabernacle furniture. The problem with art is not art, but whether that art is building up and glorifying God, or tearing down.

So for those of us with the knack, we can worship God with our artistic abilities. That may mean tapestries for the church hall or a beautifully constructed communion table. It certainly means that whatever our artistic pursuits we recognise that we do it in a way which brings glory to God, through our acknowledgement of God as the art-giver and talent-giver.

Ultimately, our art should glorify God, just like all our acts. Whatever we have, artistic or otherwise, we should give to God as thanks, glory, and worship for his wondrous deeds.

Read Exodus 30:17-33

My childhood church had a poster in its kitchen with the popular phrase “cleanliness is next to godliness”, encouraging us all to wash our hands and our dishes. Implied in the meaning is that clean hands get us closer to God (though most of us do not mean that when we use the phrase). Still, it is not hard to see the similarity between washing dirt off our hands and the washing away of sins needed to draw close to God.

That link is explored in this section of Exodus, where instructions are given on a bronze basin for cleansing, and anointing items with oil. While the priests were symbolically justified by the altar sacrifices, they still had to be cleansed to come into God’s presence. Also, they and the items needed to be anointed as holy for God’s service. Through this, we are reminded of the importance of our continued cleansing from sin and how we are set apart for God’s service.

The pictures of salvation liberally scattered throughout the Mosaic Law continue with the instruction to build a basin for washing. Like everything else outside of the tabernacle (in the courtyard), the basin was made entirely of bronze and placed “between the tent of meeting and the altar” (vv.17-18).

The basin served a particular purpose. They were to put water into it “with which Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet” (vv.18-19). The hands and feet symbolised the whole, as these were the parts of the body used to serve God: the hands for doing things, the feet to take them there.

The location of the basin, like anything involving the tabernacle, mattered. It served as a reminder to the priests to wash as they entered and left the tabernacle. This was required every time they did so, and every time they offered sacrifices on the altar (v.20).

This requirement was more than a moral imperative, it was literally life or death. They were to wash “so that they may not die” (v.20). Verse 21 repeats the ongoing instruction to be crystal clear: “they shall wash their hands and their feet, so that they may not die” (v.21).

Why was this so important? When they were ordained, animal sacrifices cleansed them ritually of sin and made them ritually clean and pure for God’s service. But they still sinned, and sin’s effects still dirtied them. They still needed ongoing cleansing to make them holy and fit for God’s service.

The holiness required was reinforced by the anointing oil described in the last part of chapter 30. Everything set apart for God’s service had to be anointed with a special oil, mixed from a variety of fine spices and olive oil (vv.22-5).

With the anointing oil, Moses was to anoint everything in the tabernacle, from the tent itself to the ark of the covenant, the altars inside and out, the furniture, and all the utensils too (vv.26-8). Only holy equipment was allowed to come into touch with the most holy (v.29).

In addition, the oil was applied to the priests. Moses was to “anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may serve me as priests” (v.30). Because they were holy and anointed, they could touch the holy items and serve in God’s presence.

Because of its significance, the oil use was restricted to the priests, and imitations were not permitted for others (vv.31-33). Nobody else was allowed to use it or wear it, for fear of excommunication or even death. Only those specifically set apart for God’s service.

Both of these pictures teach us about our salvation. Through Christ’s sacrifice, we are forgiven of our sins and declared right with God. But that does not mean that sin and sins’ effects completely disappear immediately (sadly).

Instead, we still do battle every day with sin. And we live in a sinful world, which affects the way we behave, act, and think. All of these things need continual cleansing from our lives, as we turn away from sin and turn towards holiness. All of these things need continual cleansing from our lives each day, as Jesus’ blood washes us clean again when we seek forgiveness of our sins.

The priests needed to be cleansed because their task was important; they came regularly into contact with God and things close to him. The anointing oil, sprinkled over them and the tabernacle items, reinforced the holy realm in which they worked.

We too as believers, justified by God’s grace in Christ and daily washed clean and renewed through the washing of Jesus’ blood, are anointed and set apart by the Holy Spirit for God’s service. So everything we do and everything we have is set apart for God’s service. It does not matter what our role or what our possessions, all are an opportunity to glorify God as we daily come close to him.

Washing your hands will not save you, but Jesus does. And Jesus’ blood continually cleanses us, so we are free to serve God.

Read Exodus 30:11-16

Every few years our government takes a census. It helps with understanding data about our population, and things like possible health needs and projecting where they need to invest in more infrastructure. I suppose it also gives useful data for working out how much extra tax they can collect…

The census was a useful tool in centuries past as well. In this passage, we see an example of a census taken of Israel’s men, and the specific requirements that came with it. The census taught three things – that God was the ultimate source of authority, that God values all people equally, and that atonement is needed for God’s people.

After instructing on the altar of incense, God moves to another aspect of the sanctuary’s upkeep. God instructed Moses on the requirements for every male in Israel when a census was taken.

When a census occurred, “each shall give a ransom for his life to the LORD when you number them, that there be no plague among them when you number them” (v.12). The phrase to number them literally meant to “lift the head” or “do a headcount”.

There were definite military overtones. Censuses were often completed to find out how many men could be called up as soldiers. For instance, in Numbers 1, Moses and Aaron are instructed to count all the males aged 20 and over – those who would fight in Israel’s battles.

A ransom was required when a census was taken. Likely, this was because counting something implies some degree of ownership or authority over it. Everyone who was counted ultimately belonged to God, and so only God had the authority to count his people. When King David demanded a census in 1 Samuel 24, the lack of a ransom and command from God resulted in a terrible plague on Israel.

While the word ransom to us brings to mind images of duffel bags filled with unmarked $100 notes, the ransom was a payment which atoned for their life. Everyone owed their life to God, and the payment of the ransom recognised that God owned their life and destiny, especially as they were counted for war.

When the Israelites were numbered, they were to give “half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as an offering to the LORD” (v.13). Half a shekel was not a lot of money, but a big number of a little amount is still a big number!

The counting and ransom payment process (according to the underlying Hebrew) appears to be that everyone who was counted stood in one group, and passed the counters to another group (the counted). As they passed, they would drop their half shekel in a pile. 

The half shekel was a standardised value, according to a “sanctuary shekel”. That meant that if there was some divergence in currency across Israel over time, there was a common standard against which the currency was weighed.

There were no exceptions to paying the ransom. “Everyone who is numbered in the census, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the LORD’s offering” (v.14). Often laws exclude certain people, like the wealthy and privileged, or at least they feel exempt from the law! But everyone was required to pay.

In the same way, it did not matter what your position of wealth or status was in society. “The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when you give the LORD’s offering to make atonement for your lives” (v.15). You paid, and you paid the same amount, because rich or poor, your life was worth the same to God.

But what happened to the atonement money once it was taken? It was given “for the service of the tent of meeting, that it may bring the people of Israel to remembrance before the LORD, so as to make atonement for your lives” (v.16). The atonement money helped pay for the ongoing expenses of the sanctuary and its continued maintenance.

The Census rules and the ransom payment remind us that God is the ultimate authority over everything. Numbers are not the be all and end all when it comes to the Church. What matters is faithfulness to God, whether 5, 50, or 5,000 people. 

We should not measure success by attendance or giving. What God gives in a time and place is what God chooses to give, because the numbers are under God’s command.

Secondly, the ransom payment reminds us that everyone is valued equally in God’s sight. We have a tendency to value some people over others, for instance rich over poor (or poor over rich); powerful over powerless. But we are all worth the same to God.

And that value comes not from a monetary payment but from a ransom payment. We cannot meet the shekel value for a lifetime of sin, but Christ could, and gave his life as a ransom for many.

Through Christ’s blood, God numbers us among his people, ransomed to serve him.

Read Exodus 30:1-10,34-38

We all have smells that we enjoy. Perhaps it is the smell of a flower, or a wood fire, or a perfume. Maybe you love the smell of freshly mown grass, or of sawdust, or engine oil.

While God does not have a literal nose and sense of smell like us, he does enjoy the fragrant smells of prayer lifted up to him. In Exodus 30, we are introduced to another piece of furniture in God’s House, which the now-ordained priests were to maintain and serve. This altar of incense raised pleasing smells to their Divine King, which accompanied the prayer they offered.

In the previous chapter, Moses ordained the priests and his brother Aaron the High Priest to serve in God’s sanctuary. The priests offered sacrifices on the altar, and kept the lamps on the lampstand burning. They replaced the Bread of the Presence. There was plenty to keep them busy.

In addition to this, God instructed Moses to build a further piece of furniture for the Tabernacle, an altar on which to burn incense (v.1). As with the other furniture items in the Tabernacle, the altar was made of acacia wood and covered in gold, because of its proximity to God’s presence (vv.1, 3). 

Much like the altar for animal sacrifices outside in the sanctuary grounds, the altar had four horns (symbolising strength and power) on it (v.3). It had golden rings with which to carry it on poles of gold-laced acacia wood (vv.4-5).

The altar for burning incense was smaller than the animal altar outside. It was a cubit “square, and two cubits shall be its height” (v.2). This equates to about 890mm high (about my waist height, I built a workbench that high), and about 450mm square. This size would have fit with the dimensions of the tent and the other pieces of furniture within it.

As with the other items in the Tabernacle, the altar had a specific place to sit. They were to put it “in front of the veil that is above the ark of the testimony, in front of the mercy seat that is above the testimony, where I will meet with you” (v.6). This placed it in the Holy Place, as the closest item to the veil in the tent which separated this room from the Most Holy Place, where the Ark of the Covenant sat and God’s presence dwelt. From this location, the incense would flow into the Most Holy Place.

The priests were to burn incense on the altar morning and night, as a regular offering (vv.7-8). This offering was to continue daily as an ongoing routine. At the same time as the daily burnt offerings on the altar, there would be an incense offering offered inside the Tabernacle. 

It was important to keep the altar for its intended purpose. The altar was only for burning incense, and not for any other sort of offering (v.9). The only time in which the altar was to be ritually cleansed from the effects of sin was on the Day of Atonement, when the High Priest would cleanse it with a sprinkling of blood on his way into the Most Holy Place, which he entered but once a year (v.10).

Just as it was important the altar was used correctly, it was also important that the incense offered was as required. Aaron was to take specific spices (some of which we cannot specifically identify) and blend them together in equal proportion, blended with salt (vv.34-5). A measure was then taken and beaten into a fine powder for offering (v.36). None of this incense was for personal use, but belonged exclusively to God with a penalty of death for wrongful use (vv.37-8).

The symbolic importance of the incense is never explicitly stated, but it appears from other parts of the Bible it was associated with prayer. For instance, King David sings “Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!” (Ps. 141:2).

Also, Luke’s Gospel records how an angel appeared to Zechariah the priest as he served in the Temple, offering the incense while praying, with people gathered outside at the same time to pray (Luke 1:8-11). The rising incense symbolised those prayers ascending to God in his heavenly throne room.

The altar of incense then was a symbol of how our prayers ascend to God’s presence. The offerings morning and night show that prayer is meant to be a regular part of our lives, bathing every day, morning and night. 

The exclusivity of the incense reminds of how important it is that our prayer is exclusively to God, and not shared with any other thing, created or imagined. Only God is the rightful hearer of our prayers, not anyone or anything else.

God will hear our prayers because we are cleansed by Christ’s blood. Cleansed and made most holy, our prayers ascend today to God’s heavenly throne, like the sweet fragrance burning on the altar of incense.

Read Exodus 29:22-46

Life is full of little routines: cleaning, brushing teeth, washing dishes. These repetitive tasks remove dirt, grime, germs, and plaque from our bodies and homes. Then they return, for cleansing again.

In our passage this week we see the ongoing requirements that continued the ordination process, and were repeated whenever there was a new High Priest. And we see the repeated sacrifices offered to cleanse the altar of ritual decay, and cleanse God’s People of their sins. All these rituals show the importance of Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice, that continually cleanses us anew.

After sprinkling the ordination ram’s blood on the priests’ garments to cleanse them, the priests still had duties to perform with the remains of the animal. Moses was to take the best and tastiest parts of the ram – the fat, the liver lobe and kidneys, and the right thigh – and along with the assorted breads (cf. v.2), place them in Aaron and his sons’ hands (vv.22-4). 

They were then to wave these food offerings, perhaps up to the sky, or perhaps back and forth to represent the giving from and giving back to God, before casting these on the altar as a burnt offering (vv.24-5).

After this, Moses (acting as a temporary priest) and the newly ordained priests were allowed to take the meat of the breast and thigh (that not currently consumed by fire) as their own provision from God, via the people, for their share of the offerings given to God (vv.26-7). This was not a special one-off, but a perpetual rule that helped ensure the priests were well fed in their service of God and his people (vv.28-9). It was also a “good cut” of the meat, not the best, but not the worst either. On a scale of beaten-up Corolla to Tesla, it was a Leaf or an Outlander.

While these ordination rituals were lavish and extensive, they were also a repeated ritual. When Aaron died, his son as successor was to wear the same High Priestly clothes his father wore, and his sons after him (v.29). This ritual, which lasted seven days, would also last seven days for each successor (v.30).

Following the ordination ceremony, the priests cooked and feasted in their share of the offerings in an ordination meal, which was held in the sanctuary to ensure they remained ritually holy (vv.31-2). They were not to share the food with anyone else, and any leftovers were burnt the next morning, because they were sacred items (vv.33-4).

The ordination ritual extended seven days, and every day Moses was to sacrifice a bull as a sin offering for atonement for their sins, and to purify the altar of the “pollution” of sins effects (vv.35-6). This would set the altar apart as most holy, and anything which touched it (that is, sacrifices) would also be made holy through contact (v.37).

While the sacrifices of the ordination ritual were confined to the ordaining of a new High Priest, the altar was not left untouched. Each day, a lamb would be offered both morning and evening, marking the entire day as belonging to God (vv.38-9). These sacrifices were accompanied by other sacrifices which made the sacrifices resemble a meal (vv.40-41).

The daily sacrifices were to continue every day, as a perpetual reminder of the need to continually cleanse God’s People of their sins to enjoy God’s presence (v.42). All of the sacrifices, and the tabernacle, the altar, the lampstand, the ceremonies were directed towards this purpose. 

When Moses constructed these items, and the priests did their part too, God promised to treat these as holy, and dwell there (vv.43-5). Through this, God’s People would come to know and enjoy the presence of their saviour from slavery in Egypt, their God.

Despite the uniqueness of this first ordination of the priests and High Priests, it was only the first of many more to come, as one High Priest died and a new one took their place. Even that ritual, conducted over seven days, involved repeated sacrifice for sin. And these ceremonies allowed for the daily sacrifices to continue in a way which God accepted, because they were offered in the way he demanded.

This repetition of events, daily and occasionally, reminded Israel that they needed continual cleansing from sin and its effects. We too, though redeemed, cleansed, and forgiven, also need daily forgiveness and cleansing from sin’s guilt and power in our lives.

Ultimately, the daily sacrifices of lambs could not truly cleanse God’s People of their sins. (Heb 10:3-4, Heb 10:11) Nor that of the bull, offered multiple times during the ordination of the High Priest. Only Jesus’ blood, the blood of one perfect human sacrificed in the place of many, can once for all satisfy the blood guilt we all bear because of Adam’s sin, and our sin.

That perfect sacrifice cleanses us anew every morning and evening, as we confess our sins to God. It allows us to enjoy what the tabernacle and priestly garments prefigured: God’s presence with us, his continually cleansed people.

Read Exodus 29:1-21

When people take on a new role, there are sometimes ceremonies involved. Vows are made, sometimes special clothes are worn, and then there is cake. This happens when a new Governor-General is appointed, or in the Church when pastors and elders are installed (except we probably go for sausage rolls rather than cake).

The same ceremonies were needed for Aaron and his sons as they took on the office of Priest for God’s People. Standing as their representatives before God, and serving in holy places, the priests needed to be properly ordained. In this passage we see the materials needed, the ceremony, and the cleansing offerings which were associated with their role. Through this, we see a picture of Christ’s priestly ministry, and our own ministry as priests in the New Covenant.

Firstly God instructed Moses on the materials he would need for the ceremony. Sacrifices were required (v.1), along with “unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers smeared with oil. You shall make them of fine wheat flour” (v.2). 

The animals were in their prime of life, without blemish, and represented the very best of what Israel had to give to God. These animals and the unleavened bread (perhaps referring back to the Exodus, or the “corrupting” effect of leaven) were offerings for God as part of the ordination ritual.

The actual ordination required an elaborate series of steps to separate Aaron and his sons symbolically from their old lives, and prepare them for the new. Firstly, Moses was to take “Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tent of meeting and wash them with water” (v.4). This ritually cleansed them of all unclean things which made them unfit to enter into, and touch, the holy things of God.

Next, they were to put on new clothes in keeping with their office. Moses was to “take the garments, and put on Aaron the coat and the robe of the ephod, and the ephod, and the breastpiece, and gird him with the skillfully woven band of the ephod… [and] set the turban on his head and put the holy crown on the turban” (vv.5-6). These clothes, discussed previously, set Aaron apart as the High Priest.

Then Moses was to “take the anointing oil and pour it on [Aaron’s] head and anoint him” (v.7). The anointing oil was reserved only for Aaron as High Priest because of the special tasks set for him, such as entering into the Most Holy Place once a year.

Following this, Aaron’s sons were clothed with their own priestly robes, and thus they were ordained for the priesthood, as would be their sons after them (vv.8-9).

However, the process did not end there. Three sacrifices were still required to complete the ceremony. 

Firstly, after Aaron and his sons laid hands on it, a bull was sacrificed at the entrance to the Tabernacle (vv.10-11). Moses dabbed  the bull’s blood on the horns of the altar and poured more blood at the base (v.13). The fat and tastiest parts of the bull were burned on the altar as God’s portion, while the remains were burnt outside the Israelite camp (v.14).

This sacrifice was a sin offering, where the sins were transferred through the laying of hands and the beast sacrificed for them. As it burned on the altar, it represented the punishment due to them for their sins.

Next was a ram, which after laying on of hands was killed, with the blood splashed on the altar and the whole animal after being cut up and cleaned was burnt as an offering to God (vv.15-18). This animal served as a sin offering for Aaron and the priests.

Thirdly, the remaining ram was sacrificed (vv.19-20). This time, some of the blood was applied to Aaron and the priests’ right ear, thumb, and toe. Finally, some of the ram’s blood thrown into the altar was mixed with anointing oil and sprinkled on the priestly garments, to ritually purify them all for holy service (v.21). This was the ram of ordination.

These sacrifices ordained Aaron and the priesthood for God’s service. Jesus too was ordained a priest, after the order of Melchizedek (Heb. 7:17). Though sinless, Jesus still submitted to the cleansing ritual of John’s Baptism, anointed by the Holy Spirit descending on him like a dove (Matt. 3:13-17). Through his own blood, he ransomed us from our sins (1 Pet. 1:18-19), once for all and without the need for sacrifices for his own sins first (Heb. 7:27).

Because of Jesus’ High Priestly ministry and sacrifices, God has made all of us as members of the New Covenant administration of Grace his priests (1 Pet. 2:9). He has washed us clean through the washing of regeneration (sacramentally signalled in Baptism), clothed us in new robes of Christ’s righteousness, and cleansed us through Christ’s atoning sacrifices. Established as priests, we are all called to serve God in his Holy Sanctuary, the Church, through offering our lives as a living sacrifice.

Read Exodus 28:31-43

People often wear clothes that are considered appropriate for their roles. Mechanics wear overalls, office workers wear professional attire, surgeons wear scrubs, and road workers wear high visibility gear. Clothed for God’s Service, the priesthood and especially the High Priest wore clothes that set them apart for their roles.

Throughout chapter 28 of Exodus, God has instructed Moses on the proper clothing fit for those serving in his house. In these final verses, further instructions are given on the clothes they wear, including a robe under the High Priest’s ephod, what covered his head, the clothes of his sons (the priests), and even the underclothes they wore! The detailed instructions remind us of the importance of our holiness in God’s presence; a holiness we only have because it has been given to us.

Along with the ephod and the breastpiece which the High Priest wore, God required a “robe of the ephod all of blue” (v.31). This robe was likely worn immediately underneath the ephod. It would have highlighted the beauty of the ephod and breastpiece, and was woven in such a way as it was pulled on over the head, reinforced to avoid tearing (v.32).

The bottom of the robe held decorations of pomegranates and bells, which would have tinkled as the High Priest went about his duties (vv.33-4). The purpose of this tinkling was to announce to God (figuratively, since God is All-Knowing) that it was the High Priest was entering the Holy Place to perform his duties, as otherwise the entrant was an intruder subject to death for entering unworthily into the Holy Place (v.35). 

It also would have practically told the other priests where the High Priest was, and that he was still alive!

The next garment was a turban which the High Priest wore in his duties (vv.36-8). This turban had a gold plate on it, inscribed with “Holy to the LORD” (v.36). Aaron represented Israel in his duties; this reminded everyone of his representative role as the High Priest of a holy nation set apart by God, but also that Aaron was responsible for ensuring the intent of the sacrifices offered was to provide an acceptable sacrifice to God.

In addition, the coat (v.4) under the robe was to be made of fine linen, and a special sash was worn to highlight that the High Priest was an important position (v.39).

The priests also wore coats, sashes, and capes (v.40). They were all to wear these because they were set apart by God for ordination as priests (v.41). Amid a holy people, Aaron and his sons were singled out to serve as representatives of all God’s People in the service of God. They were to make offerings, and wait upon God in the place of his special presence with them.

For this reason, because of their privileged position of access and their representative role, even their underclothes were prescribed by God. Unlike the pagan priests whose clothing would not look that out of place in a modern music video, the priests were to be modestly dressed, in linen undergarments of a nature similar to boxer shorts (v.42). 

Serving God required modesty, not flaunting their bodies. They were to be modestly and appropriately dressed whenever they served God in the Tabernacle grounds or the Holy Place. Not doing so was an offense to God, with the punishment of death (v.43).

While beautiful and elaborate, these instructions are not to provide designs for the pastor’s next outfit, but to point out the seriousness of their role. These men served God and represented God’s People before him; what they did and even what they wore was important because of where and whom they served.

The reality is that the robes did not make them holy. If anything, to the spiritually awake in their midst, it only highlighted just how far short of the standard they fell.

Years ago I preached on Zechariah 3, where the High Priest in Zechariah’s vision is made painfully aware of his sinfulness, represented by dung covered robes (making him ritually unclean, and unfit for God’s presence). But instead of being burnt up, the priest is given new, pure robes by God as a substitute for his unholy garments, making him fit for God’s presence and his service.

The same was true in Moses’ day, and true in ours too. Clothes do not make us holy before God, nor our works. God makes us holy, by clothing us in new and righteous clothes.

Those new and righteous clothes come from Jesus, who became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God…and wear it.

Those new robes make us fit to serve as priests in God’s presence, serving in the Temple of the Holy Spirit which is the Church, where God dwells with his People. The dapper new clothes we wear make us truly what the clothes of the priests figuratively taught: set apart servants of God, dressed up right from top to bottom, holy to the LORD.