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Exodus Chapter 30
Time to Worship
- Exodus 30:1 And thou shalt make
an altar to burn incense upon: of shittim wood shalt thou make
it.
- 2 A cubit shall be
the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof; foursquare
shall it be: and two cubits shall be the height thereof: the
horns thereof shall be of the same.
- 3 And thou shalt
overlay it with pure gold, the top thereof, and the sides
thereof round about, and the horns thereof; and thou shalt make
unto it a crown of gold round about.
- 4 And two golden
rings shalt thou make to it under the crown of it, by the two
corners thereof, upon the two sides of it shalt thou make it;
and they shall be for places for the staves to bear it withal.
- 5 And thou shalt
make the staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold.
- 6 And thou shalt
put it before the veil that is by the ark of the testimony,
before the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will
meet with thee.
- 7 And Aaron shall
burn thereon sweet incense every morning: when he dresseth the
lamps, he shall burn incense upon it.
This altar was smaller in size to the brazen
altar that was for sacrifices. This altar was for burning incense
only. This was produced a fragrance offered to the Lord. It reminds
me of our praise or our prayers when we offer them up to the Lord.
The Lord loves our prayers when they are from our hearts, sincere
and with faith believing God hears us and is receiving our praise
and our worship.
- Exodus 30:8 And when Aaron
lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn incense upon it, a
perpetual incense before the LORD throughout your generations.
- 9 Ye shall offer no
strange incense thereon, nor burnt sacrifice, nor meat offering;
neither shall ye pour drink offering thereon.
All things had to be done according to the
pattern God gave to Moses. Strange incense was forbidden. There is
only one way to God and one way of salvation. There is no other way.
It has to be according to God's plan. God only can provide salvation
from sin so It has to be His way. No religion or religious works can
save the soul. It has to be what God provides. All these things
remind us of the perfect sacrifice that was to come. That perfect
sacrifice was Jesus. There is no other way of salvation just as
there was no other way to seek God in the days of Moses.
We really need to stop and think. Why have
all this ritualism? Why did everything have to be perfect. Why did
the Son of God, Jesus, fulfill all these things with His own death,
resurrection and final sacrifice?
Because sin is serious, it will
destroy the soul and condemn the soul to eternal separation from God
in a burning everlasting hell. God sent Jesus to save us from
all that. When Adam sinned he probably didn't realize what happened
at the time. He ushered in the sin nature that came upon all of us. We all needed a way out, a savior. We needed help.
Blood makes atonement. That is why Jesus had
to die and shed His blood for our sins. Old testament sacrifices
showed this and pointed toward the one to come. All these sacrifices
and offerings shows how we can't save ourselves. We cannot get to
God by our own works. This shows how serious sin was and how holy
God is. I can't emphasize that enough so I have to keep repeating
it. We need to take our salvation seriously. God is a holy righteous
God who demands perfection that only comes from His throne. Sin has
to be stopped eventually. It has to go. One day it will be gone
forever. God wants all of us to escape the final judgment for sin
but He gives us a free will to choose. He doesn't use force. However
if we make the wrong choice, we will not escape when the final
judgment comes. Jesus made the way to God, He made the way for sins
to be forgiving. He made the way for our sins to be cleansed. He
made the way that we will live in the Kingdom to come and have the
kingdom within us now.
- Exodus 30:11 And the LORD
spoke unto Moses, saying,
- 12 When thou takest
the sum of the children of Israel after their number, then shall
they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the LORD, when
thou numberest them; that there be no plague among them, when
thou numberest them.
- 13 This they shall
give, every one that passeth among them that are numbered, half
a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary: (a shekel is twenty
gerahs:) a half shekel shall be the offering of the LORD.
- 14 Every one that passeth among them that are numbered, from twenty years old and
above, shall give an offering unto the LORD.
- 15 The rich shall
not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a
shekel, when they give an offering unto the LORD, to make an
atonement for your souls.
Taking a census was required to figure out
the amount of offering. David was punished by taking an un
authorized census later in the Old Testament. Everything in the time
of the Exodus was done for a reason that I don't understand it in
its entirety but it would seem as if there was a sort of tax
representing a ransom for their soul. Taking a census for our own
benefit as in the case of David, was wrong because he forgot it
wasn't his army or his people but they belonged to the Lord. All
leaders then and now must remember that church members, fellow
believers and the flock that pastors, teachers, and elders have rule
over, belong to God not to the leadership. In the book of Acts there
is a statement that the Lord added to the church daily those that
were saved. We belong to God.
Redeeming with money was fulfilled in Jesus
Christ when He paid for the sins of all who would receive and
believe it. We cannot buy our way into heaven or buy our way out of
sin.
The money collected here was for the service
of the tabernacle. New Testament giving is a freewill offering and
never a commandment or a requirement in order to buy salvation.
After Jesus came, all these things here was
fulfilled and the works of the law was not necessary for salvation.
We still live under the moral law because the Holy Spirit places the
desire not to sin within our hearts. However, the sacrificial laws
and rituals were fulfilled with the death, burial and resurrection
of Jesus. He alone is our salvation. From studying the law that
pointed to Christ we can see a picture of the value of Christ's
sacrifice and it was not to be taken lightly. Just like the plague
that was avoided when they took a census and paid a ransom for their
souls, we see the great need that our souls need ransomed. This is
done through Christ alone.
So dangerous is the modern teaching out now
that there are other ways to God other than Jesus Christ. Exodus
teaches us that there is no other way. They had to do everything in
a set order. No substitutes, no counterfeits and it had to be
perfect and complete. This was a picture of Jesus Christ and no
other. There is no other way of salvation. NONE. It can't be by our
own good works either because there is no way we can be perfect and
complete apart from Christ.
For the church or any other religion to go
back under the law is to put back what Jesus died to fulfill and
take away. We are no longer under the law but under grace.
- Exodus 30:16 And thou shalt
take the atonement money of the children of Israel, and shalt
appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the
congregation; that it may be a memorial unto the children of
Israel before the LORD, to make an atonement for your souls.
- 17 And the LORD
spoke unto Moses, saying,
- 18 Thou shalt also
make a laver of brass, and his foot also of brass, to wash
withal: and thou shalt put it between the tabernacle of the
congregation and the altar, and thou shalt put water therein.
- 19 For Aaron and
his sons shall wash their hands and their feet thereat:
- 20 When they go
into the tabernacle of the congregation, they shall wash with
water, that they die not; or when they come near to the altar to
minister, to burn offering made by fire unto the LORD:
This again shows us the seriousness of coming
before the Lord. He is a holy God and they were not to haphazardly
go before the Lord unclean and without reverence. We can learn a
little from this. Although we are made clean through faith in Jesus,
we still need to respect the place of worship and show reverence to
the place chosen for this whether it be a house or a church
building.
- Exodus 30:21 So they shall
wash their hands and their feet, that they die not: and it shall
be a statute forever to them, even to him and to his seed
throughout their generations.
- 22 Moreover the
LORD spoke unto Moses, saying,
- 23 Take thou also
unto thee principal spices, of pure myrrh five hundred shekels,
and of sweet cinnamon half so much, even two hundred and fifty
shekels, and of sweet calamus two hundred and fifty shekels,
- 24 And of cassia
five hundred shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary, and of
oil olive a hin:
- 25 And thou shalt
make it an oil of holy ointment, an ointment compound after the
art of the apothecary: it shall be a holy anointing oil.
- 26 And thou shalt
anoint the tabernacle of the congregation therewith, and the ark
of the testimony,
- 27 And the table
and all his vessels, and the candlestick and his vessels, and
the altar of incense,
- 28 And the altar of
burnt offering with all his vessels, and the laver and his foot.
- 29 And thou shalt
sanctify them, that they may be most holy: whatsoever toucheth
them shall be holy.
- 30 And thou shalt
anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may
minister unto me in the priest's office.
- 31 And thou shalt
speak unto the children of Israel, saying, This shall be a holy
anointing oil unto me throughout your generations.
- 32 Upon man's flesh
shall it not be poured, neither shall ye make any other like it,
after the composition of it: it is holy, and it shall be holy
unto you.
- 33 Whosoever compoundeth any like it, or whosoever putteth any of it upon a
stranger, shall even be cut off from his people.
Lest we think God is against strangers, we
must remember that all but Israel in that day where heathens who
worshipped false gods and did abominable things which defied them
before the Lord. Strangers could not partake of the altar without
coming God's way and without knowing what they were doing and who
was being worshipped. In a way it shows us why those that are not
saved and are without the knowledge of the Lord cannot partake of
communion. Communion is for believers only. If one does not believe
in Christ as savior, he or she should not take communion unless His
sins are purged and Jesus is Lord of their lives. We must understand
what we are doing when we partake of the Lord's supper.
- Exodus 30:34 And the LORD
said unto Moses, Take unto thee sweet spices, stacte, and onycha,
and galbanum; these sweet spices with pure frankincense: of each
shall there be a like weight:
- 35 And thou shalt
make it a perfume, a confection after the art of the apothecary,
tempered together, pure and holy:
- 36 And thou shalt
beat some of it very small, and put of it before the testimony
in the tabernacle of the congregation, where I will meet with
thee: it shall be unto you most holy.
- 37 And as for the
perfume which thou shalt make, ye shall not make to yourselves
according to the composition thereof: it shall be unto thee holy
for the LORD.
- 38 Whosoever shall
make like unto that, to smell thereto, shall even be cut off
from his people.
They were not allowed to try to
duplicate or substitute anything given by God for the service of the
tabernacle or altar. It had to be only one way. It typifies the "one
way" of salvation that was to come through one person, Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit may be represented by the anointing oil and we must
be very careful to not counterfeit any work of the Holy Spirit or
say something is of the Holy Spirit when it is not. The opposite is
true also. We must be careful not to attribute something that is the
Holy Spirit to be counterfeit. This is why we need to be in constant
fellowship with the Lord through prayer and the study of His written
word asking Him to give us direction and discernment. If we really
mean that and are genuine, He will not fail to give us wisdom and
direction. What I'm saying is we must be "for real" and really
desire to glorify God in all we do and in our worship. Entertainment
and seeking the praise of men is to be avoided no matter what. Let
that be done in the schools and the secular world if it must be done
but when it's time to worship, we must seek to glorify God alone. I
really do not care for talent shows or contests in the church
setting. Let the world do that. Let us seek only to serve our Lord.
DC
Exodus 31
Exodus Index
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