Israel’s priests are the mediators between the holy God and a sinful people, representing God to the people and the people to God. They were to stand before the Lord for the people: offering gifts and sacrifices for sins, helping those who are ignorant or astray, teaching the people, and interceding in prayer. In their consecration, the priest put the blood of a ram on their earlobes, thumbs, and big toes. This represent the priests becoming hearers of the word and mediators of God, giving an example to the people of how to walk. Yet, all these men died but we know a high priest who lives forever. He did what those high priests could not do, and was what they could not have become: God’s true and perfect son. Jesus perfectly represents God to us, because he is God, and he perfectly atones for our sin by offering himself to God in our place, dying our death for sin, and living forever to make intercession on our behalf.

City on a Hill: Brisbane

Consecration of Priests

The tabernacle is the sanctuary of God’s holiness, the place of his absolute morality, perfection, glory, and goodness. As such, because of sin, no one could enter his presence without specific boundaries and rules in place. Even the outer sanctuary was designed to separate the people from God. The sanctuary of our king is full of blue (like the sea and heavens) and purple (a rare colour used by royalty), representing God’s dwelling place and kingship. Jesus was given a purple robe as he was beaten by the Romans. The word that was with God in eternity, the reason which formed the world, became flesh for us and we have seen his glory. When he died, he tore the veil for, top to bottom, making a way for us to live with God, and God to live with us. The tabernacle was the sanctuary and home of God, but now God makes our hearts his tabernacle. Pitch the tent of your life around God, with him at the centre of our life. Don’t fall for a false Jesus. We want a Jesus of acceptance, but not o...

Instruction for Worship

We are always ready to accept the terms and conditions for any company we use, but whenever we hear about God’s terms and conditions we become hesitant. Making the terms and conditions a religion is a problem, but wanting a relationship with God without accepting the terms and conditions is like telling your loved one you love them but don’t want to put in any effort to maintain that relationship. Yet, the law is a covenant of grace that pointed to God’s promise: that those under the blood of Christ, through grace, will one day see his face. Neither the elders nor Moses on Sinai could see God’s face, in fact, no one has seen God’s face in all his glory. Yet, as on the mountain God feasted with a few chosen people, so did Jesus feast with a few chosen people at his last supper. Through his death, he has drawn all people to himself so that through obedience by grace many from every nation will feast with the lamb in heaven.

The Covenant Confirmed

When we read the Bible, we must remember we are travelling to a foreign country and be good travellers. We must understand the context of the time (the ancient near-east 3500 years ago), and then we can see that God was indeed showing mercy to the vulnerable and oppressed. By Exodus 20, the Israelites were rescued from their slavery in Egypt and given the law to help them reflect God’s character amongst themselves and to the nations around them. The law embraces the vulnerable. People weren’t allowed to be abducted, slaves (which worked more as interns) were only obligated to work for seven years and then given a choice of freedom. Furthermore, runaway slaves had to be protected on the basis that they ran away from an abusive master. God’s laws are not oppressive. They work in the dark reality of our world, and provide mercy and grace amidst the darkness. Now we live in light of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Let us live in light of the kingdom, and live to see bondages released an...

Other Laws

Salvation is more than what we’ve been saved from, but what we’ve been saved to. In Jesus, we are loved and adored by God. Yet we are also called to be holy as God is holy. Clearing our debt is not God’s highest aim, it is to make us like Jesus. Before the foundation of the world, God predestined us to be conformed into the image of his son. Lastly, God has saved us from wandering to worship. In Jesus, we are all a kingdom of priests.

Meeting God at Sinai

When the Israelites grumbled, God heard them and answered their cries, but later on they forgot his grace and grumbled again. How often have you complained the moment things don’t go your way, even after God has revealed his faithfulness and grace? Such is our capricious and grumbling nature. When you are anxious, look at the past and remember God’s faithfulness and grace. Whenever we grumble, we question God’s character, judging him of not doing his work. God has the power to turn what is bitter into something sweet. We have had our Exodus from slavery, but we are not at the promised land yet. We have to go through the wilderness of sin. Here, he wants us to listen to his voice and to do what is right in his eyes, as an opportunity for us to grow and develop our character. Let us not be a grumbling people, but a grateful people, trusting God’s character, power, and faithfulness. Let us look to Jesus as the rock that God strikes and from whom salvation and blessing flows....

God's Provision

After years in the Midian desert, decades from failed attempts at delivering his Hebrew brethren from injustice, Moses is being called by God to become an instrument of deliverance. Moses rightly notes his own inadequacy for the mission, his concerns mounting up to doubting the very Lord commissioning him. Here we are reminded afresh of God’s exceedingly holy and uncreated nature, independent from any need for sustenance or help. Wonderfully, this lofty and un-coercible God set loving promises on his people, and continues to be faithful to keep these promises throughout the generations. This chapter leads us to consider our own identity. While the world tells us we can find our identity through our associations, achievements, or in what we assert ourselves to be, God’s word reminds us our identity is one received: we are creation, redeemed and adopted children. We are also given a destiny; like Israel, we are freed to serve and worship God. We are delivered from our former evil mas...

Moses Encounters God

Down by the river, a baby boy is placed in a basket to escape genocide mandated by the Egyptian Pharaoh of the time. Yet Pharaoh's daughter snatches this baby from the jaw of death and adopts him into the royal family, naming him Moses. An adult Moses stands up for Hebrew slaves by killing the Egyptian, consequently having to flee from Pharaoh to Midian where he saves the priest's daughters from shepherds. Moses' acts are at times villainous and others heroic and benevolent; we are reminded that God uses complex, sinful people for his good purposes.Chapter 2 of Exodus ends with a revelation of God's response to his people's groaning under slavery. He hears, sees, remembers, and knows. God is invested in his people, and even if he allows them to suffer for a while he will rescue and redeem them according to his faithfulness. We see, too, that we now have a greater exodus and greater Moses through Jesus the Christ. When the clouds overhead are thick and dark, remember the baby boy who...

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City on a Hill: Brisbane

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