Day #21
Scripture Reading: Exodus 29 - 32 ...
Imagine having the power
to create the universe, and the power to destroy the universe. Then imagine watching mankind worshiping
false gods, disobeying your every command, crucifying your Son and rejecting
your offer of forgiveness and life.
How does God do it?
How does He withhold His anger and judgment from a people who are so
deserving of His wrath? And I'm not just talking about Israel!! As
we come to Chapter 29, God is revealing to Moses the details of the tabernacle
and the consecration of the priests who will serve there ... Aaron and his
sons. While He is doing so, the people are convincing Aaron to build a
golden calf: "Make us gods who will go before us" (32:1).
God had just brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand and led them
across the Red Sea on dry land. And now Aaron announced, "These
are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt" (32:4).
With good reason God said to Moses, "I have
seen these people and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone
so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then
I will make YOU into a great nation" (32:9-10). But Moses
interceded for Israel and asked God to spare them for the sake of HIS Name and
His promises to Abraham, Isaac and Israel (Jacob). God had promised to
make their descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and to give them the
land of Canaan as an inheritance. If He now destroyed them it would look
as if He could not keep His promise. The
nations and peoples of the world would think the God of Israel was NOT
almighty!
Moses was sincerely concerned for the honor and
glory of God. As he acts as a mediator he is a picture of Jesus Christ,
interceding for us and giving His life in our place. Through all of this
it was God Himself who called and appointed Moses and it was God who sent His
own Son to be our Redeemer. God IS almighty; His power is unlimited. It was only God's patience and God's mercy
that spared Israel then and that spares us now. Moses even offered to
take their place: "Now, please forgive their sin - but if not,
then blot me out of the book you have written" (32:32:). But
Moses could not take the place of the people of Israel. One greater than
he would come to redeem God's people, to bear God’s wrath and to bring God’s forgiveness.
All of this is a grand picture of God's purpose for
His people, then and now. Not all of the people of Israel believed in
God. Paul writes in I Corinthians 10:5 that God was not pleased with most
of them and their bodies would lie scattered over the desert as they wandered
for forty years in the wilderness. God had a remnant, a chosen few whom
He knew and who believed in Him. God has a remnant today whom He has
chosen and called to serve Him. We who believe today are part of a
special group of people ... special not because of who we are or anything we
have done, but because of the calling we have received from the Lord. Few
people seem to really understand the connection between the picture God presents
in Exodus and the reality in our day.
The whole idea of the priesthood presents a picture
of the offering that Jesus made, that only He could give, and then the calling
to believers, to those who are united to Jesus Christ by faith through the work
of His Spirit within us, expressed so beautifully in Revelation 1:5-6: "To
Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood, and has made US
to be a kingdom and priests to serve His God and Father - to Him be glory and
power forever and ever! Amen." As the priests needed to be
consecrated with the blood of the offerings, so we who believe are consecrated
by the blood of Jesus, the perfect sacrifice, and set apart to serve God not
only in this life but FOREVER!!!
What was a picture then will become a reality when
Jesus returns. As the altar and everything around it needed to be
cleansed by a sin offering to make atonement (payment) ... (29:36), so that God
would declare it to be HOLY ... and as Aaron needed to make an offering once a
year to atone for sin in order to be "holy to the Lord" (30:10)
... so you and I need to meet the Lord and be consecrated and anointed in order
to be declared holy in His sight and to serve as priests before Him. All
the articles of the tabernacle needed to be consecrated, set apart, purified.
"You shall consecrate them so they will be most holy, and
whatever touches them will be holy. Anoint Aaron and his sons and
consecrate them so they may serve me as priests" (30:29-20).
Praise God, Jesus is our sin offering and through
His death He is made the atonement, the payment, for our sins. As the
writer of Hebrews explains: "And by that will (GOD's will), WE
have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for
all. ... When this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He
sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time He waits for His enemies
to be made His footstool, because by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever
those who are being made holy" (Hebrews 10:10, 12-14). What an amazing statement!! Though we are not holy YET, God already sees
us as “holy” IN CHRIST!
We who believe today have access to the Most Holy
Place (Hebrews 10:19) by the blood of Jesus. We are called to serve as
priests, offering our lives as living sacrifices to the King of kings and the
Lord of lords, to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to the Almighty
God, our Creator!! Live life to the
fullest! Serve the Lord with zeal and give thanks to God for His patience
toward you and the gift of His Son and of His Spirit. Rejoice in God's
amazing grace and live as one who has been declared holy in the sight of God
... until that day when you see Him face to face and are made like Him, in
perfect righteousness and holiness. That will be more than a picture -
that will be reality!!
"My Father and my God, I thank You for Your
patience, Your love and Your grace in Christ Jesus. While people clamor
for wealth and position and pleasure in this world, all who know You and who
have been made holy by the blood of Christ find our greatest joy in being Your
servants. Help me to rejoice in You and to find my greatest pleasure in
living for You. In Jesus' name, Amen"
Amen.
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