Exodus chapter 40-Leviticus chapter 3

This will be one of the last times that we can simply move from one book to the next without skipping a beat. It's one of those rarities where the next book in line carries over directly from the last book. Studying the books where we can't do this will involve a short study the day the book ends and slightly longer studies for the next few days until we catch up. Rather than making things difficult I move from around 5 pages a day to around 6 pages a day until we catch up.

God’s message to me: God expects my best.

Promises: God appreciates the gifts, tithes and offerings I bring to him.

Commands: Do not eat fat, do not eat blood. Low fat diets are a lovely discovery for modern medicine but God knew the benefits and ordered such a diet thousands of years ago.

Timeless principles: An offering to God should not be out of what’s leftover but given from the best you have and the first fruits.

How can I apply what I’ve learned: First fruits, in terms of money, would be first dollar offerings. This is pre-tax. Tithing should be based on the Gross pay before any money is taken out for taxes, insurance or anything else. If I Earn a $574 paycheck the tithe is not $57.40 I need to look at what I earned before they took out taxes, retirement, insurance and other withholdings and tithe on that amount. In this example it might be more like $1000 gross so that my tithe on that $574 paycheck is actually $100.

more to learn for in-depth study: The tabernacle was a dwelling place for the Lord. As long as the cloud rested on it the Israelites camped and they moved on when it lifted. Moses, their leader and a man God called His friend, could not enter the tabernacle when the cloud was on it. The tabernacle was a holy place meant to be the dwelling of God and tended only by the priests.

The preparation of sacrifices is here and you, once again, see that some of those offerings were meant for maintaining the priest and his family. When grain offerings were brought they were prepared as food, a handful burned to God and the rest given to the priests for food. these offerings, which were made, partly, to feed the priests, were considered most holy. First fruit offerings were not burnt and Grain offerings made as bread were made properly but nit raised since leaven(yeast) was not permitted. All grain offerings included salt. Properly seasoned food was what God called for. This wasn’t junk it was made the same for offerings as it was for the table.

Frankincense was a part of the grain offerings but it was all burned while a portion of the grain offering was burned. Frankincense smells wonderful when burned but, I’m not sure I would want to eat it. Sacrifices, other than sin sacrifices, were partly a burnt sacrifice and partly food. Depending on the type of sacrifice the food portion might be boiled or it might be roasted.

(Fun?) fact?: Some folks don’t realize, probably because they never actually read Dracula, That the vampire practice of eating blood comes from the biblical commands. In Bram Stokers book, Count Dracul begins drinking blood in defiance of God. The blood lust of the real Prince Vlad Dracul was also, in part, a defiance of God because of his feud with the church. Local churches of the time tended to be ruled by politics and they chose to take sides with the invaders rather than Dracul’s army, which was fighting to maintain their independence.

Tomorrows assignment: Leviticus chapter 4-6