God blessed the nation of Israel, not because of anything they had done but because they belonged to Him. The Bible says that anyone that has the faith of Abraham (the father of the nation of Israel) is also given the right to be called His children. So when we accept the sacrifice that Jesus made on our behalf, we are adopted into the family of God. As His children, we house His Holy Spirit. God says that He freed the Israelites from the slavery of the Egyptians so that He could live with them. He frees us from the slavery of our sin also so that He can come live with us. He put His name on the Israelites, and as His children, we too bear His name and we should desire to bring honor to that name. We want to walk worthy of the price that Jesus paid for us.

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Belonging to God

The Israelites learn about redemption when God takes the Levites in place of their firstborn sons. He is pointing them to the future redemption that will be offered through Jesus for all mankind. Through the Israelites, we learn what redemption looks like which gives us a fuller appreciation of the price that Jesus paid for our lives. The Israelites also take their first census, & since they are about to begin their journey to the Promised Land, they get their camping and travel arrangements. The Levites are also given their specific duties regarding the Tabernacle. We too have been redeemed for His service. Because of His redemption, we have a desire to live for Him.

Redemption

Nationality, assimilation, on the job training, retirement, full or part time ministry, and dedicating ourselves to God. A year after the Exodus, the Israelites celebrated the second Passover to remind themselves of how the Lord spared their firstborn sons. God told them to dedicate their firstborn to Him from that moment on. But after the building of the Tabernacle, God took the Levites as His in place of their firstborn. So the Levites were set aside to the Lord for service to in the Tabernacle in a cleansing ceremony. God then gave the guidelines for their service and further instructions for the Passover. Along with the mandatory dedication of the Priests and Levites, God also gave rules for common people if they wanted to set themselves apart for Him. These people were called Nazarites. We too can set ourselves apart for the Lord.

Holy to the Lord

God gave Israel the sacrifices and the priests as a picture of Him and Jesus. The sacrifices had to look perfect because they represented our Perfect Savior. The priests also had to look perfect, honorable, & pure because they represented God to the people. That is why there were strict rules for the sacrifices and the priests. The high priests met with God and continuously served Him, so they had even stricter guidelines than the other priests. The pure couldn't associate or be joined with the impure, the holy with unholy, the honorable with the dishonorable, the perfect with the imperfect. When we accept Jesus as our pure and perfect sacrifice, we become God's representatives to the world so we also have to look pure, perfect, and honorable. As sinful humans we cannot do that by ourselves. But when the Holy Spirit dwells in us, then He produces God's character in us as we spend time with Him and feed ourselves with His Word.

Pure, Holy, & Honorable

A king has the right to dictate who, when, & how to enter his presence. Before Jesus, only the high priest could approach God once a year & only then with a sacrifice. But our High Priest entered the Presence of God, offering Himself as the perfect sacrifice for all our sins. This torn down the wall of separation allowing us all to follow Jesus into God's Presence. Now we can approach God in prayer & see glimpses of Him on this earth. All of us who approach God with the blood of Jesus as the offering for our sins, can also follow Him into the Throne Room of Heaven for eternity.

Entering His Presence

God is a Holy God & He expects to be treated as such. Two of the priests disregarded God's instructions, did things their own way, & were killed because of it. Serving God is an important job & should be taken seriously. We are servants today in God's kingdom & like the priests, it is our job to know God's Word and His Character and teach others. Our minds need to be clear and we need to be diligent as workers in God's Kingdom.

A Serious Job

Because of the sacrifice of Jesus, we have been reconciled to God. Our sin separated us from God & deserves death. But Jesus suffered that death for us in order to bring peace between us & God. Now we can fellowship with God on earth & even more fully in eternity. The Israelites offered peace & grain offerings along with daily & restitution offerings. The grain offerings could not have yeast or honey because it represented how sin makes things bigger than they should be. Instead all grain offerings were seasoned with salt representing the purification from sin, the healing of the relationship with God, & the preservation of the covenant. Restitution for sin in relationships was made by not only paying a consequence & restoring what was taken but by going above & beyond to make things right in that relationship.

Peace & Restitution

God asked the people to make sacrifices to Him. Sometimes they were offerings out of their abundance other times they were sacrifices for sin. Everything they gave had to be from their best. God wants our best too. He is worthy of the most valuable things in our lives. He is also entitled to all that He has freely given to us so He expected more out of those that had more. He also expected a greater sacrifice for sin from those that were had greater religious responsibility. The sins of a leader required greater sacrifice because their sin cost the nation more. Leaders are held to higher standards. When the people brought a sin offering, they had to kill the animal themselves, taking full responsibility for the price of their sin. The fire on the altar burned continuously to show that God was always ready to accept the people's sacrifices. We too must confess & take full responsibility when we sin. God is always ready to accept the offering made for us, our perfect Sacrifice, Jesus.

What Will You Sacrifice

Moses anointed Aaron as high priest, the one that would offer sacrifices for the atonement of Israel's sins. God anointed Jesus as the Messiah that offered Himself as the Sacrifice for us, once for all. The Levitical priesthood pointed to Jesus. Because He lives forever, His intercession for His people never ends. Since His Sacrifice was perfect, there was no need for animal sacrifices anymore. On the cross Jesus said "it is finished" because as the Anointed Son of God, He finished what the High Priests started. He accomplished completely what they could only accomplish temporarily. Jesus is the Anointed High Priest, Messiah, & Ultimate Sacrifice.

God's Anointed

The building of God's House is complete & He fills it with His Glory! Then with His Glory Cloud He leads His people. This is His visible Presence with His people. At night, there is fire in the cloud, reassuring the Israelites of His Presence. What a comfort to know that God is always with His people. In Jesus, His Presence dwelt with the people. Christians are Christ followers. But how do we follow Jesus when we can't see Him? After Jesus's death, God again sent His Spirit to dwell with His people, not in a house but within each of us. We house His Spirit & He leads us & shows us the Lord's will.

Filled with Glory

When people look at you, do they know that you are a child of God? Do you look any different than the rest of the world? Can others look at you & say “Holy to the Lord”? When God appointed the priests, He made sure that not only their actions but also their appearance set them apart for Him. When Israel looked at the high priest, they saw an honorable man that carried them on his shoulders & they knew that they were always on his heart when he entered the Presence of the Lord. It was his life’s-work to speak to God & minister on their behalf. What a comfort to know that someone is ministering on your behalf continuously! Thankfully, don't need anyone to minister on our behalf because we have that in Jesus! He is sitting at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens ministering in the sanctuary built by God and not man. We also have the Holy Spirit to give us “perfect revelation” from God so, we don't have to go to any man for that either. The priestly ministry pointed us to Jesus & his clothes remind us that we need to look like His followers.

Dress the Part

Because of Jesus, we can be intimately close to God. Unlike the Israelites who could only go into the courtyard, or even the priests that ministered in the Holy Place but could not go behind the veil into the Most Holy Place where God's Spirit dwelt, we can enter His Presence without fear. As a matter of fact, He welcomes us at any time. The High Priest, who was the only one that could go behind the veil, only entered once a year & only then to ask forgiveness for the sins the people committed in the past year. We can ask God to forgive us the moment we realize our sin and we can go to Him to talk about anything else that we want to. We no longer need a priest to speak to God on our behalf. When we ask for forgiveness, God accepts the sacrifice that Jesus made on our behalf and grants us mercy. Through the Holy Spirit, because of the sacrifice of Jesus, we can have a relationship with the Holy God.

Closer & Closer to God

The house that God told Moses to build for Him was BEAUTIFUL! It was a portable building, but this was no ordinary tent. Its frame was overlaid in gold. Its entrance had golden pillars with bronze bases & a beautifully embroidered curtain. Inside, the walls were made of linen curtains with angels woven into them & so was the roof. When in the Holy Place, you would feel as if you were surrounded by angels. The room was lit with 22 candles on a golden lampstand. Their light bounced off the other 2 golden pieces of furniture in the room. The golden table held the bread that reminded them of God's provision & the altar of incense burned the sweetest perfume. The lights never went out & the incense burned continuously. In the back was the Most Holy Place, separated by 4 golden pillars, with silver bases, & a veil with angels woven into it. Behind this curtain sat the ark of the covenant, the golden chest which held the 10 commandments. There the Lord met with the High Priest between the 2 cherubim of hammered gold that were attached to its seat. God's house was beautiful & costly because God is beautiful & valuable beyond measure.

Beautiful & Costly

God wants His Spirit to dwell in the midst of His people, so He commands Moses to build a tabernacle. While the people are traveling to the Promised Land, God meets with them in this portable tent made specifically for Him. Later, Solomon built the Temple & God's Spirit dwelt with them there. When Jesus came, He was called Immanuel, God with us. Those that worshipped in the Temple rejected Jesus, so now His Spirit dwells within each one of us. We are His Temple! Also in this episode, tithing, the donations are abundant & God equips His people to serve Him. How generous are you with your possessions & gifts? Trust God to equip you to serve Him.

Where God's Spirit Dwells

We can learn a lot about the Christian walk by looking at the journey of the Israelites after they escaped Egypt & became their own sovereign nation. So before we move on from Mount Sanai, we summarize their journey and look for similarities in our own Christian walk. We also look at Paul's description of his walk with the Lord and how we can relate. We ultimately will see that the victory is in Jesus and not in our own power. God's desire for us is to grow closer to Him & stronger in our faith.

Our Walk with God

An interesting teaching of Bible passages and how they apply to our everyday lives. They are detailed but also very easy to understand & follow no matter what your level of Bible knowledge is. By studying the Bible we gain knowledge of God, Satan, ourselves, others, & the world. It is through that knowledge that we begin to really love the Lord & learn how to live more through His enabling than through our own strength.

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