After four hundred years, the descendants of Israel have been in brought out of the bondage in Egypt.

Now the process begins of bringing the nation into the Promised Land.

The journey in the wilderness begins.

It also includes a people coming to know what God's standards are like.

NIV - "Do not spread false reports"

Showing favoritism to a poor man, just because he's poor.

We think that favoritism against rich people is wrong, but favoritism to pervert justice in any case is wrong.

We're to do what's right, whether we like the person or not.

Don't be putting innocent people to death.

The idea is a "bribe".

The sabbath year - letting the field rest.

One of the reasons for Israel's captivity, to allow the land to rest for it's missed sabbath's. (Lev.26:34-35)

Reason for sabbath year - to feed the needy.

A feast that was tied to the Passover.

Occurred Nisan (Abib) 14-21, roughly our March-April.

For us this year, Passover started last Monday evening, we're still in the feast of Unleavened Bread.

They were to celebrate at the beginning of the harvest.

Also called Feast of First Fruits, and also Pentecost, because it took place roughly 50 days (pente) after Passover. Also called the Feast of Weeks, taking place a week of weeks plus a day (7x7+1).

Sivan 6th, in our May-June

Also called the feast of Tabernacles or Booths.

Also used to celebrate the fact that the people lived in tents (tabernacles) in the wilderness.

Took place 15-22 of Tishri, our September-October.

These were three special feasts where all Jewish males were to come and worship God.

There was something built in here I believe.

The sacrifices were to be very specific, following God's instructions.

They were to teach us principles in worship.

Here, the idea is:

Don’t boil a baby goat in it's own mother's milk.

Some say this is the reason behind the Jewish law against mixing diary and meat products.

I believe this is Jesus Himself.

From here, we see the blessings of obedience.

God wasn't going to give them an overnight victory over their enemies, because they wouldn't be able to take care of all the land all at once.

God and the people are going to set up a "covenant", a "treaty" between God and the nation of Israel.

He takes the time to write down everything we've read from Exodus 20-23.

The people promise that they're going to obey God's laws.

Yeah, right.

According to ancient traditions, treaties like this had to have the shedding of blood involved.

The writer to Hebrews tells us that this was the ratifying of the agreement between God and Israel:

In contrast, we are now under a new "covenant" or "new testament".

They didn't actually see Him up close and personal, but only seeing His glory from a distance.

Later on, God will tell Moses:

(Exo 24:10 NIV) and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself.

Instead of seeing God and dying, they were able to see God, live, and eat and drink in God's presence, because of the blood on the altar that Moses had already sprinkled.

It was kind of like a grand state dinner with the Ambassadors of Israel dining with the King of the Universe.

Moses is going to get a little closer to God, to get a little more further instructions.

Moses is going to leave the people with Aaron and Hur in charge.

Oops.

What courage.

Would you have gone?

Moses is going to spend all this time with God, receiving all the things written down from chapters 25-31.

Sorry, it had nothing to do with the point, but it sure was funny!

God is now going to give a "materials list", a list of things needed to build the tabernacle.

I don't think it's wrong to let people know what the needs are.

Moses is going to be overseeing the construction of a portable "worship center" where God will be meeting with His people.

This whole project is what we call the "tabernacle", meaning, "the tent".

God is going to give Moses a glimpse of something special while on the mountain, and Moses is going to be asked to make a copy of it in the building of the tabernacle.

Moses was going to build a model of heaven.

Here's the very center piece of the tabernacle.

An "ark" is just another fancy name for a box, a box made out of "acacia" wood, and covered with gold.

It was a box that would be built to contain the two stone tablets that God was going to write the ten commandments upon with His finger.

It would be placed in the inner room of the tabernacle, the second room, known as the "holy of holies". It was the only thing in the inner room.

A cubit was roughly 1 1/2 feet, the distance from your elbow to the tip of your fingers.

This was how the ark was designed to be carried.

Meaning the stone tablets with the ten commandments on them.

This was essentially the lid to the box, but if formed a kind of chair, a throne for God.

I believe this is what the writer to Hebrews is talking about:

These two angelic beings would be made to be attached to the mercy seat.

These are the same as the four "beasts" or "living beings" mentioned in Revelation 4-5, the ones with four faces, six wings, covered with eyes, and which hover around God's throne calling out "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, which was, which is, and which is to come".

The cherubim would be looking downward at the mercy seat, facing God's throne.

This is where God would meet with Moses, at the ark, from the mercy seat.

This is the very picture we see in Revelation 4-5, Isaiah 6, and Ezekiel 1, the throne of God.

This gold covered table would be one of the articles placed in the "holy place", inside the first room of the tabernacle.

Or, "the bread of the presence"

Upon this special gold covered table, there were to be twelve loaves of unleavened bread, baked fresh weekly, and placed in rows on the table.

Each week the old bread was taken out of the tabernacle, replaced by fresh bread, and the old bread was eaten by the priests.

There are different ways of looking at this table -

I like to see it as a picture of our fellowship with God.

This seven branched lamp was to be cleaned out every day, the wicks trimmed, and the lamp refilled with fresh oil, and then lit every evening, to burn all night long, giving light during the night.

About 75 pounds of gold.

Concerning Face and Hands

Various Other Laws, Statutes, and Ordinances

Complaints and Lamentations

O my children, you are disobedient. For when I tell you what you must do, you argue and dispute hotly even to the littlest detail; and when I do not accede, you cry out, and hit and kick. Yes, and even sometime do you spit, and shout "stupid-head" and other blasphemies, and hit and kick the wall and the molding thereof when you are sent to the corner. And though the law teaches that no one shall be sent to the corner for more minutes than he has years of age, yet I would leave you there all day, so mighty am I in anger. But upon being sent to the corner you ask straight-away, "Can I come out?" and I reply, "No, you may not come out." And again you ask, and again I give the same reply. But when you ask again a third time, then you may come out. Hear me, O my children, for the bills they kill me. I pay and pay again, even to the twelfth time in a year, and yet again they mount higher than before. For our health, that we may be covered, I give six hundred and twenty talents twelve times in a year; but even this covers not the fifteen hundred deductible for each member of the family within a calendar year. And yet for ordinary visits we still are not covered, nor for many medicines, nor for the teeth within our mouths. Guess not at what rage is in my mind, for surely you cannot know. For I will come to you at the first of the month and at the fifteenth of the month with the bills and a great whining and moan. And when the month of taxes comes, I will decry the wrong and unfairness of it, and mourn with wine and ashtrays, and rend my receipts. And you shall remember that I am that I am: before, after, and until you are twenty-one. Hear me then, and avoid me in my wrath, O children of me.