January 9, 2021
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in some Exodus? Here’s today’s reading:
Exodus 30 (NIV)
The Altar of Incense
1“Make an altar of acacia wood for burning incense. 2 It is to be square, a cubit long and a cubit wide, and two cubits high—its horns of one piece with it. 3 Overlay the top and all the sides and the horns with pure gold, and make a gold molding around it.......Continue Reading
Again here we see how important not only detail is to God but our preparedness to come before Him. God seems to show in these chapters that He appreciates beauty and the importance of fine detail.
The cost for atonement was not a tithe, not a percentage of wealth or prosperity, but rather a set fee for every person. This was a reminder of the cost of redemption God had paid to free His people.
Exodus 30
Exodus 30
A ransom had to be given for every person.
“And you shall take the atonement money of the children of Israel, and shall [e]appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of meeting, that it may be a memorial for the children of Israel before the Lord, to make atonement for yourselves.”
I was thinking of all the beauty and artistry of the clothing, buildings, tapestries, furniture, etc in the previous chapters, here we have beautiful SMELL. I had to look up some of these spices, some explanations…although not definitive:
Stacte is simply the sap that drips from the tapping of the wood of the balsam tree.
Onycha is the door membrane of a snail-like mollusk found in the Red Sea. (this is beaten very fine….just as explained in the scripture.)
Galbanum is a sticky, brownish-yellow gum resin that comes from plants in the Apiaceae family.
God describes them as sweet-smelling.
Exodus 30,31
Different elements of the tent of meeting are described in this chapter showing that it would not only be a place pleasing to the eye but also to the nose. And God makes it clear that things used here would be holy to the Lord and thereby wholly used for worshipping Him. This makes clear what the word holy actually means which is not something perfect but something dedicated to God. So the opposite of holy is not sin necessarily, but that which is common. Because one could imagine people smelling the incense or touching the oil and wanting to use it in other applications, but God makes clear that was not to be done. And it is fitting that such things would be associated with the worship of God alone.
The tent of meeting would also need finances to operate and do God asks His people to give, but in doing so He teaches a lesson as well. He wants to make a connection to what it took to free them from Egypt and who it is that gives them value in their lives. That’s why plagues are mentioned and why the rich and poor would pay the same because both have the same value to God. God also reenforces here who the source of their lives are and that is God Himself. As they took something valuable to them and gave it to God, it further connected them to Him and revealed that they owed their very existence to Him as well. The same is true for us as well, but we are not expressly given the same requirement….but we certainly should have the same awareness and appreciation….
Exodus 30
17Then the Lord said to Moses, 18“Make a bronze basin, with its bronze stand, for washing. Place it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and put water in it. 19Aaron and his sons are to wash their hands and feet with water from it. 20Whenever they enter the tent of meeting, they shall wash with water so that they will not die. Also, when they approach the altar to minister by presenting a food offering to the Lord, 21they shall wash their hands and feet so that they will not die. This is to be a lasting ordinance for Aaron and his descendants for the generations to come.”