Exodus chapters 31-33

Somehow, I managed to lose the application portion of the study notes in my last several posts. It has returned in this one and should remain. For clarity and spelling I write these studies on a word processor then paste them to the website. The format for the study is in the word processor and I forgot the “apply what I’ve learned” portion before. Now it’s there so it should remain.

God’s message to me: God is always with me. I need only picture Him resting in the pillar of fire and smoke somewhere nearby to understand that He is always looking over me. This should be my comfort because He is there to protect me. It should be my fear because He will not fail to notice when I sin.

Promises: God does not forget His promises. The children of Israel did an incredibly stupid thing just a few dozen feet from where they could see God was sitting. Despite the fact that they deserved death God spared them to fulfill his promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In truth, God didn’t need Moses to remind Him of that promise but, the principle of prayer is set here. God does know our need and His own promises but that doesn’t mean we have no need to pray for them to be fulfilled. It maintains a rapport with God.

Commands: Keep the Sabbath. The first chapter of this study is completely about the Sabbath. In fact the Sabbath keeps coming up. God created the world in 6 days and on the seventh day he rested. He made that day a Holy day of rest. He maintained his creation, He designed the livestock so that farmers would still have to milk the cows and collect the eggs, but the serious work, planting fields, building shelters etc. , this work He commanded should cease on the Sabbath that the day be a day of rest.

Timeless principles: 2 points. 1) A day of rest is vital to the body for the purpose of stress relief. By giving ourselves a time to decompress we extend our lifespan. 2) There are 7 days in a week. Each day is 24 hours. That gives us 168 hours in a week. We sleep 7-8 hours a day that leaves 16-17 hours available to work. Giving up that 16-17 hours is giving a tithe of the hours in the week to God.

How can I apply what I’ve learned: FIRST, keep the Sabbath. Second act as if God is nest to me all the time, because He is.

more to learn for in-depth study: SABBATH=Saturday or Sunday? The Sabbath is the last day of the week. The Jewish week begins and ends the same as everyone else’s so the Sabbath is Saturday. The Jewish day begins at Twilight and ends at the next Twilight so the Sabbath begins around 6pm Friday and ends about 6pm Saturday. The Apostles and disciples of Christ began to change the day of worship to Sunday in memory of the resurrection. Matthew 28 “In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week... And the angel answered and said unto the women ’Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. he is not here: for He is risen, as He said...”

Some would argue that it is improper to worship on Sunday when the Sabbath is Saturday. For those who cannot reconcile the idea I would argue that it makes a good case for the two day weekend. Resting on the Sabbath and worshiping on the first day, or on both days. Shouldn’t worship be an everyday habit? Remember that the key is God set an example from the beginning of the world. Showing that a day of rest is necessary and commanding us to take one as well. Consider that the priests of Israel and pastors of our churches work on Saturday or Sunday, depending on our religion. The Levites replaced the city guard and military units on the Sabbath so that they could take a day of rest. For these ministers of God, the day of rest had to come at another time so that they could do God’s work on His Holy day.

How Stupid Can People Get: The children of Israel watched as the Lord sent plagues against Egypt. They Were led by God in the form of a pillar of fire and smoke. They watched as He drowned the Egyptian army in the sea. They followed Him, in the form of the pillar, to the mountain where He gave Moses the law. God rested on the mountain so that the mountain appeared to be engulfed in fire and smoke. He spoke to the nation from the mountain so that the entire nation was made afraid and begged Moses to speak with Him and relay the message because they were afraid to hear God. Moses went into the smoke to receive the message of God and while the Fire and Smoke that marked God’s position rested on the mountain and the Light of God’s glory shone within that fire and smoke the Children of Israel decided to make an Idol.

God is with us everywhere and all the time. Nothing we do is hidden from Him, ever. This particular case was especially ridiculous. The Israelites knew God was there. They had heard Him speak and the entire mountain shook at the sound of His voice. They had seen the wonders and miracles. They watched as the Pillar became a smoky cloud for shade in the day and returned to being fire for light and warmth at night. This happened every single day. There was not a reason in the world that they would think anything other than that God was on that mountain looking over them.

Standing at the feet of God(for all intents and purposes), they demanded that Aaron take over(because Moses was gone), that he make them an idol to worship, and that he lead them in worshiping the idol. Then they not only worshiped and had a feast for and sacrificed to a false god and idol but, in the obvious presence of the Almighty God that had delivered them from so much they gave the idol credit for their salvation. No wonder God wanted to kill them all. He settled for having the Levites kill about 3000 of them.

The first copy of the law was written on stone tablets by the hand of God and, having encouraged God not to destroy the Israelites in anger, Moses threw a fit and broke the tablets. The second set of tablets were carved by Moses. In both cases it was a WRITTEN RECORD. Just a reminder that we are not dealing with things that were written hundreds of years after they happened.l.,,,,,,,,