Day 28. Exodus 34-36

Exodus 34-36

Exodus 34

¹And the LORD said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest.

Moses had to carve out the stone tablets, but god was doing the writing.

God comes down to the mountiain, to see moses.

⁶And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,

⁷Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.

That has got to be one of the best entrances ever! You think Shawn Michaels arrived like that? You think Triple H, arrived like that? God sounds like Bret Hart, the best there is, the best there was, the best there ever will be.

His entrance also makes very little sense. If he's forgiving iniquity, then why is he then visiting it upon the children? Is it just of anyone to punish children for the acts of their parents?

God then tells Moses that he's going to drive out the inhabitants of Canaan, and that they are to not make a peace treaty with them.

¹²Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee:

¹³But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves:

¹⁴For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:

Exodus 34:14 says god is jealous. This verse coupled with 1 Corinthians 13:4 and 1 John 4:8 are one of the main parts that KJV-only people will cling to. Here, we see, god is jealous; in 1 john, god is love; in corinthians, it says charity doesn't envy. (All 3 verses here, in KJV)

Let us look at those verses in the NIV (New International Version).

Exodus makes god jealous, great.
John makes god love, awesome.
Corinthians talks about love, and says that love doesn't envy. Envy is jealousy. There is a contradiction, something isn't right. Either he is or he isn't.

People will go to many lengths to not have the bible be wrong. KJV-only people will claim that the NIV is wrong due to that. You can't have god be contradicted.

Back to today's reading.

¹⁶And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods.

God wants them to not marry the inhabitants so that the people don't go following other gods. It's safer to commit genocide than to risk having the people possibly follow a different god.

¹⁷Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.

Hey, this sounds familiar... This is the stuff on the tablets. What are we up to? Number 2?

1. Thou shalt not worship no other god. (verse 14)

2. Thou shalt make thee no molten gods. (verse 17)

¹⁸The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, in the time of the month Abib: for in the month Abib thou camest out from Egypt.

3. The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. (verse 18)
¹⁹All that openeth the matrix is mine; and every firstling among thy cattle, whether ox or sheep, that is male.

4. All firstborn are mine. (verse 19)

²¹Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest.

5. Six days shalt thou work, but on the seventh thou shalt rest. (verse 21)

²²And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year's end.

6. Thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, even of the first fruits of the wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the years end. (verse 22)

²⁵Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover be left unto the morning.

7. Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread. (verse 25)

8. The fat of my feast shall not remain all night until the morning. (verse 25)
²⁶The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.

9. The first of the first fruits of thy ground thou shalt bring unto the house of the Lord thy God. (verse 26)

10. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother's milk. (verse 26)

²⁸And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

Boom, those are the ten commandments. There is no thou shalt not kill. There is nothing like that. The ten commandments that are written on stone, the tablets of testimony include "thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother's milk", not "thou shalt not kill".

²⁹And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him.

This verse means one of a couple of things, he was either radiant. Or Moses grew horns.


During the Renaissance, Moses was often depicted with horns, the most famous is probably the third picture above, done by Michelangelo.

³⁵And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone: and Moses put the vail upon his face again, until he went in to speak with him.

So, horny Moses wore a veil.

Exodus 35

¹And Moses gathered all the congregation of the children of Israel together, and said unto them, These are the words which the LORD hath commanded, that ye should do them.

Oddly, he only told them about the sabbath. Oh, and the punishment is death.

Then he asked for the items to build things. So at this point, the tabernacle hasn't been built yet. Even though in Exodus 33:8, Moses went into the tabernacle.

²¹And they came, every one whose heart stirred him up, and every one whom his spirit made willing, and they brought the LORD's offering to the work of the tabernacle of the congregation, and for all his service, and for the holy garments.

Oddly, people roaming around in the wilderness had enough things that they "borrowed" from Egypt to build the tabernacle.

Then Moses calls out Bezaleel, and Aholiab to do the work.

Exodus 36

¹Then wrought Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every wise hearted man, in whom the LORD put wisdom and understanding to know how to work all manner of work for the service of the sanctuary, according to all that the LORD had commanded.

Moses gives them the offering.

⁵And they spake unto Moses, saying, The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work, which the LORD commanded to make.

Moses then told the people to stop giving. Does this still happen. When you are given a command to build something to exact specifications, but wind up with more money than you need, do you stop asking for money, or do you try to provide something BETTER than what was asked?

The rest of the chapter is about them making the things to the same specifications as were mentioned earlier.

Points to ponder:

1. Did Moses have horns? Him not having horns is a newer concept than him having them.

2. What do you think the ten commandments held in the ark were? Was it the "Thou shalt not kill" set, or the "seethe a kid" version?

3. Does god visit iniquity on the kids, or does he let them make their own mistakes?

4. Is genocide an option?

Day 27. Exodus 31-33

Exodus 31-33

Exodus 31

God talks to Moses:

²See, I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah:

Bezaleel is the master smith. He's good in gold, silver and brass. Which makes you wonder how he got to be that way, when we're just led to believe that the only thing the Hebrews did while they were in Egypt was make bricks.

⁶And I, behold, I have given with him Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan: and in the hearts of all that are wise hearted I have put wisdom, that they may make all that I have commanded thee;

Aholiab is going to be Bezaleel's assistant. Together, they will make the tabernacle, the ark, the furniture, the candlestick and the garments.

God continues... sort of rambling...

¹³Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you.

¹⁴Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.

Then he gives Moses the testimony.

¹⁸And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.

Written with the finger of God.

Exodus 32

¹And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.

Moses is gone for 40 days, the people think he's dead, so they demand something to worship.

²And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me.

So, the people had earrings. The people hadn't started the creation of the tabernacle and the rest of the stuff yet, so they still had some gold available.

⁴And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

Aaron was apparently skilled enough to make a golden calf.

Aaron them makes the next day a feast day. Aaron must be a master engraver. It only took him about a day to do it. Remember, according to Exodus 24:18 Moses was on the mount for 40 days and nights. So on the 39th day, Aaron completed the building of the calf. On the 40th day, was to be the feast.

⁷And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves:

They corrupted themselves. It's not the fault of the god who was talking with only one person giving his law, it's the fault of the people who had time to themselves.

⁸They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

It only took thirty some days for them to realize they wanted a new god.

¹⁰Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.

God tells Moses that he will kill all the Hebrews and he will make him, MOSES, be the father of the people. Instead of being Israel, it will be Moses.

Moses intercedes. There are two great intercessions, they were by Moses and Samuel. There was one intercession that would fail, so god didn't let it happen, and that was by Jeremiah.

Moses basically tells god that he didn't bring the people out of Egypt to kill them in the wilderness.

¹⁴And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.

God wanted to do evil. God repented. Who does god repent to?

¹⁵And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written.

¹⁶And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.

There is a lot of mythology regarding the tablets. That the lettering was the same on both sides. That it wasn't sentences, but only one letter, representing each of the laws.

¹⁹And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount.

Moses comes down, and breaks the first set of commandments.

²⁰And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it.

Moses made goldschlager.

Aaron then says it wasn't his fault.

²⁶Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the LORD's side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him.

Remember, the boy Levi and his brother Simeon were the ones who killed everyone in the city of Shechem, back in Genesis 34.

²⁷And he said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour.

²⁸And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.

God wanted to kill the people, Moses said no, don't do it... I'll do it.

³¹And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold.

³²Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin--; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.

Moses is kind of emo... take me, not them.

³⁵And the LORD plagued the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made.

Funny verse, because they made the calf, which Aaron made. Aaron winds up coming out relatively blameless in the whole ordeal.

Exodus 33

¹And the LORD said unto Moses, Depart, and go up hence, thou and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I sware unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, Unto thy seed will I give it:

The Land of Milk and Honey.

²And I will send an angel before thee; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite:

The people are promised that the current inhabitants will be evacuated.

⁷And Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass, that every one which sought the LORD went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp.

So the tabernacle had already been created. That's weird. The mercy seat was where Moses and Aaron were to minister to the lord. Why did Moses have to go to the mount?

⁹And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses.

Moses put on a show, whenever he'd go talk to the lord, there would be a cloudy pillar that descended. Or, he was so doped up on the anointing oil, that he just assumed that it happened.

¹¹And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle.

Here, Moses talks to god face to face. Remember this...

²⁰And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.

Really? Seriously? You just said they spoke face to face, and now you claim you can't see his face?

²²And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by:

²³And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.

You can't see god's face, but you can see the holy hiney!

Points to ponder:

1. Why did Aaron get away with building the calf? Not only was he the one who pronounced the calf the god who brought the people out of Egypt, but he also set a feast for it. Yet he still maintained the role of chief priest.

2. How good a builder was Aaron? In the desert, with less than 40 days to accomplish the feat, he managed to create a golden calf from earrings.

3. Why is Moses talking to god face to face in one verse, then in that conversation, he's told he can't see god's face?

Day 26. Exodus 28-30

Exodus 28-30

Exodus 28

¹And take thou unto thee Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office, even Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron's sons.

Here we see Moses making his brother be the main priest for all eternity. Nepotism at it's finest. These people are called Kohen, or Cohen, or Kohanim, or Cohanim. They are in direct partilineal descent from Aaron. (Patrilineal means that it follows the father's line). These people still exist today. Common last names for them include Cohen (as in Sacha Baron Cohen; Leonard Cohen), Chaplin (as in Charlie Chaplin), Kohn, Kuhn, Katz... In contemporary Israel, "Moshe Cohen" is the equivalent of "John Smith" (Doctor Who?).

Since the title is passed from father to son, and all originated with Aaron, that means that every male Cohen/Kohanim shares the same Y chromosome. <-- an interesting read. ²And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty.

We're making more things. Garments today.

⁴And these are the garments which they shall make; a breastplate, and an ephod, and a robe, and a broidered coat, a mitre, and a girdle: and they shall make holy garments for Aaron thy brother, and his sons, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office.

The image to the right is from The History of Costume, by Braun & Schneider, 1861-1880. It's a jewish high priest wearing the outfit.

⁹And thou shalt take two onyx stones, and grave on them the names of the children of Israel:

Nobody is exactly sure the order of the names.

¹⁵And thou shalt make the breastplate of judgment with cunning work; after the work of the ephod thou shalt make it; of gold, of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine twined linen, shalt thou make it.

Cunning work. It had better be cunning!

¹⁷And thou shalt set in it settings of stones, even four rows of stones: the first row shall be a sardius, a topaz, and a carbuncle: this shall be the first row.

¹⁸And the second row shall be an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond.

¹⁹And the third row a ligure, an agate, and an amethyst.

²⁰And the fourth row a beryl, and an onyx, and a jasper: they shall be set in gold in their inclosings.

Each stone represented one of the tribes/children of Israel.

Sardius is Carnelian, a reddish brown mineral, that is a semi-precious gemstone.

Topaz is a mineral of aluminum and flourine. It comes in several colors, from colorless to orange, to yellow, pink, pale green, blue, gold and other colors.

Carbuncle is an abscess larger than a boil, it is caused by a bacterial infection, it is filled with fluid, puss and dead tissue... oh wait, this carbuncle is a red cabachon cut gemstone, probably a red garnet.

Emerald is green.

Sapphires are normally blue.

Diamonds are... diamonds.

Ligures are possibly amber. No one is really sure what it is.

Agates are semi-precious, they are a style of quartz. The one used here was probably sky blue.

Amethysts are purple minerals. Supposely amethysts protect people from getting drunk. The name means not intoxicating. That gives new meaning to the Amethyst Initiative.

Beryl, there are several varieties, aquamarine, red, emerald, golden, colorless, and pink. This was probably a white beryl.

Onyx is normally black, at least we think of black onyx most. It can be most any color. It is also a type of quarts, like agate.

Jasper is a spotted or speckled stone, and that's what the name means. It can come in several colors, red, yellow, brown, green, and rarely blue.

No one is exactly sure what most of the gems are. No one is sure what the breastplate actually looked like. No one is sure who was represented by what gem. Most of the precious stones were uncut. Diamond cutting didn't begin until after the 1200's AD. Additionally, they wouldn't have had the ability to cut diamonds. The other harder stones would just be stones as well. The pretty pictures that you see as representations of the Hoshen (breastplate) are idealized artists renderings. If it has cut stones, then it's not even possible that that's what it looked like.

²¹And the stones shall be with the names of the children of Israel, twelve, according to their names, like the engravings of a signet; every one with his name shall they be according to the twelve tribes.

Additionally, you are to believe that a diamond was engraved.

³⁰And thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim; and they shall be upon Aaron's heart, when he goeth in before the LORD: and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the LORD continually.

Urim and Thummim. What are they, why do they get capitalized? Again, no one is exactly sure what they were, let alone what they were made of. These two objects were used for divination. They were placed in a bag, and whichever one was pulled determined the outcome. Thummim was the innocent stone while Urim was the cursed stone. Urim for guilty, Thummim for innocent. You'll note the order, implying the person was guilty until proven innocent. Except that they weren't proven, they were picked, with a 50-50 chance.

Aaron also got some more clothes to wear, as did his children.

Exodus 29

¹And this is the thing that thou shalt do unto them to hallow them, to minister unto me in the priest's office: Take one young bullock, and two rams without blemish,

Oddly, Aaron and his boys don't minister to the congregation, they minister to god.

²And unleavened bread, and cakes unleavened tempered with oil, and wafers unleavened anointed with oil: of wheaten flour shalt thou make them.

Unleavened, because god hates yeast.

Then Aaron and his boys get dressed up in the Exodus 28 outfits. They put their hands on the head of the bullock...

¹¹And thou shalt kill the bullock before the LORD, by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

¹²And thou shalt take of the blood of the bullock, and put it upon the horns of the altar with thy finger, and pour all the blood beside the bottom of the altar.

And kill it.

Then they burn the guts on the altar. They burn the skin and poop outside camp.

¹⁵Thou shalt also take one ram; and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head of the ram.

¹⁶And thou shalt slay the ram, and thou shalt take his blood, and sprinkle it round about upon the altar.

The first ram is cut up, and burned on the altar.

²⁰Then shalt thou kill the ram, and take of his blood, and put it upon the tip of the right ear of Aaron, and upon the tip of the right ear of his sons, and upon the thumb of their right hand, and upon the great toe of their right foot, and sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about.

Then there's a bizarre ritual with putting blood on everyone.

²¹And thou shalt take of the blood that is upon the altar, and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it upon Aaron, and upon his garments, and upon his sons, and upon the garments of his sons with him: and he shall be hallowed, and his garments, and his sons, and his sons' garments with him.

And with that, they are washed in the blood of the ram. They are now able to minister to god.

But what do you do with all that meat? Well, god doesn't eat it, so Aaron and his sons have to.

²⁸And it shall be Aaron's and his sons' by a statute for ever from the children of Israel: for it is an heave offering: and it shall be an heave offering from the children of Israel of the sacrifice of their peace offerings, even their heave offering unto the LORD.

²⁹And the holy garments of Aaron shall be his sons' after him, to be anointed therein, and to be consecrated in them.

From the exodus to ... um... forever, the animals sacrificed wind up being eaten by Aaron and his sons. Which isn't a bad job to be born into.

³²And Aaron and his sons shall eat the flesh of the ram, and the bread that is in the basket by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

³³And they shall eat those things wherewith the atonement was made, to consecrate and to sanctify them: but a stranger shall not eat thereof, because they are holy.

In fact, the food can't be feed to anyone else, it's only for the priests.

³⁸Now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar; two lambs of the first year day by day continually.

³⁹The one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning; and the other lamb thou shalt offer at even:

Every day, Aaron and his sons have to kill animals and eat them. A lamb in the morning and a lamb at night.

⁴⁴And I will sanctify the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar: I will sanctify also both Aaron and his sons, to minister to me in the priest's office.

Why Moses didn't protect his children from ever having to get a real job is beyond me. Why he set up Aaron and his boys for eternity was a nice thing to do for his brother.

Exodus 30

¹And thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon: of shittim wood shalt thou make it.

Now the tabernacle is going to be a restaurant that only serves Aaron's sons, but also, there's going to be incense being burned. So it may not be the best smelling place. Although the incense will probably cover up the smell of all the blood that's spilled everywhere.

¹³This they shall give, every one that passeth among them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary: (a shekel is twenty gerahs:) an half shekel shall be the offering of the LORD.

So, not only do the Kohanim never have to work to get food, now they also get a half a shekel from everyone.

¹⁴Every one that passeth among them that are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering unto the LORD.

Remember, there were 600,000 people who left (Exodus 12:37).

¹⁵The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering unto the LORD, to make an atonement for your souls.

God costs the same regardless of your worth.

²⁵And thou shalt make it an oil of holy ointment, an ointment compound after the art of the apothecary: it shall be an holy anointing oil.

This is the ingredients in the anointing oil: myrrh, sweet cinnamon, sweet calamus, cassia, and olive oil. Sounds good enough.

Myrrh is one of the gifts of the three wise men. It's the dried sap of a tree. It provides an earthy smell.
Sweet cinnamon is cinnamon.
Cassia is is a relative of cinnamon.
Olive oil is olive oil. So what have we left out...

Sweet Calamus is also known as Sweet Flag. It's a tall perennial wetland monocot with scented leaves and more strongly scented rhizomes, which have been used medicinally, for its odor, and as a psychotropic drug. Wait... what??? A psychotropic drug? Currently, calamus is banned in the US because it's a drug. In high doses, it is a hallucinogenic. Why did Moses, Aaron, and his boys see god? They were tripping.

³⁰And thou shalt anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may minister unto me in the priest's office.

So after the boys are anointed in the drugged oil, they now can go minister to god.

³²Upon man's flesh shall it not be poured, neither shall ye make any other like it, after the composition of it: it is holy, and it shall be holy unto you.

It's not only holy, it's a controlled substance.

God then tells Moses to make his favorite perfume. It needed to have stacte, onycha, and galbanum, along with pure frankincense. (Frankincense was one of the other things the wise men brought).

No one knows what stacte was. It's believed to be high quality myrrh. Onycha is apparently crushed up sea snail shells. Galbanum is the gum resin of the plant Ferula Gummosa.

³⁸Whosoever shall make like unto that, to smell thereto, shall even be cut off from his people.

Anyone who makes god's own perfume will be kicked out.

Points to ponder:

1. You'd think after all these years, that the Jewish people would give up on honoring Moses wishes. Especially the part about his brothers kids never having to do any real work.

2. What do you think the priests robes looked like?

3. Do you believe that the diamond was actually cut with someone's name on it?

4. Today, leaders of religions who use drugs normally wind up either in jail, or having killed their entire flock; it's a good thing that Moses didn't lead his people to Jonestown, otherwise we wouldn't have the great moral code that the bible is.

Day 25. Exodus 25-27

Exodus 25-27

Exodus 25

²Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering.

Today's reading is all about building. Exodus 25 is about how to build the Ark of the Covenant.

First though, god needed people to give him things to build everything with: gold, silver, brass, skins, wood, oils, and stones.

¹⁰And they shall make an ark of shittim wood: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof.

Just like the thing in Indiana Jones, in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

¹¹And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, within and without shalt thou overlay it, and shalt make upon it a crown of gold round about.

That's a lot of gold.

¹⁶And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee.

At this point, apparently, they don't have the testimony. Even though in Exodus 16:34, Aaron laid up an omer of Manna next to the testimony.

¹⁷And thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof.

¹⁸And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat.

The mercy seat is the cover.

²²And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.

God, himself, will talk to Moses from the mercy seat.

²³Thou shalt also make a table of shittim wood: two cubits shall be the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof.

Next, make a table, and cover it in gold.

²⁹And thou shalt make the dishes thereof, and spoons thereof, and covers thereof, and bowls thereof, to cover withal: of pure gold shalt thou make them.

God likes to make things color coded. Remember this, if it's gold, it's for god.

³¹And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work shall the candlestick be made: his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be of the same.

God needs a gold nightlight.

³⁸And the tongs thereof, and the snuffdishes thereof, shall be of pure gold.

God even wants his candle accessories to be made of gold.

Exodus 26

¹Moreover thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: with cherubims of cunning work shalt thou make them.

Chapter 25 was the ark and things, chapter 26 is the tabernacle, or as I like to call it, the tentbernacle.

The build instructions for the tentbernacle go through verse 33.

³⁴And thou shalt put the mercy seat upon the ark of the testimony in the most holy place.

God even tells how he would like his gold room laid out.

³⁵And thou shalt set the table without the vail, and the candlestick over against the table on the side of the tabernacle toward the south: and thou shalt put the table on the north side.

God is kind of OCD, he wants things the way he wants them.

Exodus 27

Chapter 27 is about other things god needs built.

¹And thou shalt make an altar of shittim wood, five cubits long, and five cubits broad; the altar shall be foursquare: and the height thereof shall be three cubits.

²And thou shalt make the horns of it upon the four corners thereof: his horns shall be of the same: and thou shalt overlay it with brass.

These items are to be overlaid with brass. God's things are gold, the brass things are for the priests.

⁶And thou shalt make staves for the altar, staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with brass.

Staves are the carrying sticks.

¹⁰And the twenty pillars thereof and their twenty sockets shall be of brass; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets shall be of silver.

Pillars of brass, and fillets of silver.

²¹In the tabernacle of the congregation without the vail, which is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall order it from evening to morning before the LORD: it shall be a statute for ever unto their generations on the behalf of the children of Israel.

Verse 20 talks about keeping a lamp lit. Here we see that Aaron and his sons are the ones to do it.

There really isn't that much else going on in today's readings. I've read this one before, and this is about as exciting as I can make it.

Points to ponder:

1. The people didn't have time to let their bread rise, but they had enough time to gather enough gold to make these items. They had enough time to gather enough fabric to make a huge tent.

2. Gold things for god, brass for the priests. There will be more colors coming up later.

3. The tabernacle was carried with the people from the point they made it in the wilderness through the age of judges, all the way up to the third king. Either the people lacked initiative, or god likes his tents. He actually likes the tents.

Day 24. Exodus 22-24

Exodus 22-24

Exodus 22

¹If a man shall steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or sell it; he shall restore five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep.

More laws, hooray.

²If a thief be found breaking up, and be smitten that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him.

What a great law. If you are being robbed, you can kill the robber.

⁵If a man shall cause a field or vineyard to be eaten, and shall put in his beast, and shall feed in another man's field; of the best of his own field, and of the best of his own vineyard, shall he make restitution.

If you steal or destroy someone crops, you have to repay with the best of yours.

⁶If fire break out, and catch in thorns, so that the stacks of corn, or the standing corn, or the field, be consumed therewith; he that kindled the fire shall surely make restitution.

If you start a fire, you have to repay all the things you burned.

¹⁶And if a man entice a maid that is not betrothed, and lie with her, he shall surely endow her to be his wife.

This is obviously not Dinah's law. If it were Dinah's law, then if she was enticed, and a man lay with her, then you kill the city of the person.

Here, the consequence of taking a girls virginity is that you have to marry her.

¹⁷If her father utterly refuse to give her unto him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins.

If the father doesn't want her married to the guy, he can just charge the man.

This is an example of women as property. Actually, it's not necessarily the woman who is the property, this deals with the price for a woman's virginity. A woman's virgin vagina is owned by one of two men, the father, or the betrothed husband. We'll get more into the ownership of a woman's vagina in a bit.

¹⁸Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.

Kill witches. New age people who like to claim to be witches, say that this verse is wrongly translated, and that it should read "well poisoner". That's crap. This verse means witches.

¹⁹Whosoever lieth with a beast shall surely be put to death.

Bestiality is a crime punishable by death. If you think it's not very common, just do a search for bestiality in google news.

²⁰He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the LORD only, he shall be utterly destroyed.

Worship of any other god is punishable by death. How does this correspond to "Thou shalt not kill". It obviously shows that "kill" means murder.

²⁵If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury.

Usury is a sin. But only between Hebrews. It is not a sin to take excessive fees from strangers.

²⁹Thou shalt not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruits, and of thy liquors: the firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto me.

The best of things is for god. Especially the booze.

Exodus 23

¹Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.

Don't lie in court. This goes back to the commandment of "Thou shalt not bear false witness". That doesn't mean, "don't lie" as it's often represented to be.

⁸And thou shalt take no gift: for the gift blindeth the wise, and perverteth the words of the righteous.

Don't take bribes.

¹⁰And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof:

¹¹But the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie still; that the poor of thy people may eat: and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, and with thy oliveyard.

This is the Shmita. It's supposed to give the land a year to recuperate from farming. This is before farmers discovered that rotating crops would replenish the soil. Shmita is still going on.

¹⁴Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.

¹⁵Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:)

¹⁶And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.

Three feasts, unleavened bread, harvest, and ingathering.

¹⁷Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the LORD God.

How often to go to church? Three times a year.

²⁰Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.

A cloud in the day, and a fire in the night.

²³For mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off.

²⁴Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images.

The only reason those people are there, and not the 600,000 Hebrews is because they stuck around when the Hebrews went down into Egypt.

²⁷I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee.

²⁸And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.

Everyone who occupied Canaan will be driven out. But not quickly, it'll be slow, like a disease taking over.

³²Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.

³³They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me: for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.

Make no peace treaties with the people who are currently occupying your land. If you do, bad things will happen.

Exodus 24

³And Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the LORD hath said will we do.

This won't last very long.

⁴And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel.

This is shortly after god said that the altar was supposed to be earthen. They then sacrificed an ox.

⁹Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel:

¹⁰And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness.

God has feet. At this point 74 people saw god.

¹²And the LORD said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them.

Either this is out of order, or we haven't received the ten commandments on stone yet.

¹⁴And he said unto the elders, Tarry ye here for us, until we come again unto you: and, behold, Aaron and Hur are with you: if any man have any matters to do, let him come unto them.

Remember, Moses was the Chief Justice of the people. While he was gone, he put Aaron and Hur in charge. He was gone for 40 days and 40 nights.

Points to ponder:

1. Women are property. Their vagina's belong to either the father or the husband.

2. People who want to put biblical law back into place want these laws established. They want women to be property. Slavery is also acceptable. There won't be prison overcrowding, since almost all the laws are punishable by death.

3. Can you imagine if modern farmers would not plant crops for a year? Modern Jews get around the 7th year rest by selling their land to people who aren't Jews, and then buying it back the next year. They follow the letter of the law, but not the spirit of it. Do you follow the laws?

Day 23. Exodus 19-21

Exodus 19-21

Exodus 19

¹In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai.

It's only been 3 months. The people were probably wondering how long they would be in the wilderness for.

Next station is the Sinai wilderness.

³And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel;

This place is where a lot of things happened.

⁵Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:

Is this a new covenant? We've had the Noah Covenant, and the Abram Covenant (passed to Isaac), the Jacob Covenant. "If ye will ... keep my covenant". The people didn't really have to do anything at this point to keep the covenant. About the only thing demanded of them from the previous covenants (other than the 7 Noahide laws) was circumcision.

Moses goes and tells the elders what God said, which really wasn't very much.

⁹And the LORD said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee for ever. And Moses told the words of the people unto the LORD.

God said they would hear when he speaks, it didn't say they would be able to understand him.

¹¹And be ready against the third day: for the third day the LORD will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai.

Nobody knows where mount Sinai is.

¹²And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death:

¹³There shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live: when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount.

God actively killed Er and Onan, he now needs people to either stone, or shoot (arrows) people who disobey him.

¹⁶And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.

¹⁷And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount.

Why god needed to showboat with the thunders and lightnings is unknown. He was leading them with the smoke and with the fire. Why did he now need to show off with a big godlike display?

²⁰And the LORD came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the LORD called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up.

At the top, god told Moses that the people weren't supposed to go up to the mountain, and that the priests aren't supposed to either. Then he said for Moses to bring Aaron up.

Exodus 20

²I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

Guess what we've got now... that's right, the 10 commandments.

³Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

The Decalogue is one of my favorite parts of the bible. Exactly why, I'm not sure. I just love the way that it has been manipulated to mean so many different things.

Commandment #1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Oddly, me isn't capitalized.

⁴Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

⁵Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

⁶And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Commandment #2. No graven images.

⁷Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Commandment #3. No taking the name of the LORD in vain. God's name isn't god. This references the YHVH (Jehovah) name. Jews won't even write God, they put G-d, for fear of breaking this commandment.

⁸Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Commandment #4. Remember the sabbath.

¹²Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

Commandment #5. Honor thy father and thy mother.

¹³Thou shalt not kill.

Commandment #6. Thou shalt not kill.

¹⁴Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Commandment #7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

¹⁵Thou shalt not steal.

Commandment #8. Thou shalt not steal.

¹⁶Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

Commandment #9. Thou shalt not bear false witness.

¹⁷Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

Commandment #10. Thou shalt not covet.

The Catholics take out #2, because they really like their graven images. Then they split #10 into two.

What do those mean? The first four commandments deal with worshiping god. The final are laws for living in an organized society. You'll note that most of the laws deal with the "neighbor". Who is the neighbor? The neighbor is someone just like you. To them, it was a fellow Hebrew. Somone who left Egypt with them. People who had gone through the exact same thing.

Commandment #6, is a prohibition against murder. It doesn't mean don't kill anyone ever. How can you know that it doesn't mean don't kill anyone ever? Later we'll see the punishments for breaking these laws, most of them carry the death sentence. If you can't kill, you can't have a death penalty.

²²And the LORD said unto Moses, Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.

Moses makes sure to let the people know that it was god who spoke to him, and that they all saw it.

Exodus 21

Now we get some more laws.

²If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.

A Hebrew slave can only be in your care for 6 years. After that, he is released. If he was married when purchased, then the wife can leave with him. If the master gives him a wife, then the wife and all kids belong to the master.

⁵And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free:

⁶Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever.

If you love your master, you will be nailed to a door. Did they have doors while wandering around in the wilderness?

⁷And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do.

You can sell your daughter. She doesn't count to the 7th year freedom thing.

The master can't sell her to foreigners. (Was this a problem wandering around in the wilderness)? If he bought her for his son, he has to treat her like a daughter. If he has another wife, she can't have less of a role as a wife.

¹²He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death.

If you hit a person to death, you will be killed. Remember the "thou shalt not kill" commandment. If you break it, you get put to death.

¹⁵And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death.

If you hit your father or mother, you will be killed.

¹⁶And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.

Kidnapping is punishable by death.

¹⁷And he that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death.

It's not bad enough to just HIT your parent's if you curse them, you get the death penalty.

If two guys fight, and one gets injured but survives, you only have to pay lost wages.

If a man hits his servant, and it dies, the guy will be punished; however, if he doesn't die, you can beat him all you want.
²¹Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished: for he is his money.

"He is his money". That's an awesome phrase. It means the slave is property. It's not a person, it's property.

²²If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman's husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.

Why is a pregnant woman watching men fight?

²⁴Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

Where have I heard "eye for eye" before? Oh yeah, the Code of Hammurabi. Remember, Hammurabi was probably one of the kings who took Lot. Eye for an eye is Code # 196.

Next is some laws that deal with ox. We don't really need to know those because... I don't have any oxen, and don't know anyone that has some. If you do need to know these because you have had incidents with ox, let me know.

Points to ponder:

1. Why did god make such a big show up on the mountain with thunder and lightning?

2. Why did god have to threaten people with death, why not just actually kill them? What's funny is the people were threatened with being stoned for touching the mount, meanwhile they were threatened with being killed because if they saw god, they would die.

3. Are the ten commandments actually good rules for society? Are these actually the ten commandments that are on the tablets? You'll note, the word tablet wasn't used yet.

4. Are these laws all stolen from the Code of Hammurabi? Was Moses taught these laws while he was being schooled as an Egyptian Noble?

Day 22. Exodus 16-18

Exodus 16-18

Exodus 16

¹And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt.

Each month is 28 days, based on a lunar calendar. They are a whole 43 days into the journey. The people have no idea how long the trip is going to be. According to the Exodus account, this is the next station, the Sin Wilderness.

²And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness:

God is leading them by day in a cloud and by night by fire, and the people STILL are murmuring against the people who led them out.

³And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.

They would rather do work and be full, than be starving in the wilderness.

⁴Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.

⁵And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.

This is manna. No one knows exactly what manna was.

¹²I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak unto them, saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God.

They got bread in the morning and quail in the evening.

¹⁶This is the thing which the LORD hath commanded, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man, according to the number of your persons; take ye every man for them which are in his tents.

An omer is about 3.64 liters.
¹⁸And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating.

It's not an exact measurement. It's about the amount that a person would need to eat in a day. For some, and omer was more, for some it was less.

The people weren't to save any of it.

²⁰Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank: and Moses was wroth with them.

How did the worms get in, unless it was worms... worms just don't appear in things, although they believed it did.
²²And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses.

The people were worried about the Sabbath. Had they celebrated sabbath yet?

²³And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.

This is the first mention of the word sabbath. Sabbath means "to cease". The seventh day of rest hadn't even been invented yet.

²⁴And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein.

²⁵And Moses said, Eat that to day; for to day is a sabbath unto the LORD: to day ye shall not find it in the field.

²⁶Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none.

Manna is already magical stuff that appears on the ground. Now it has the capability of knowing when it's sabbath.

²⁷And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none.

It's so magical that it doesn't even appear on sabbath.

²⁸And the LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?

So far the only laws and commandments are the Noahide laws.

1. no idolatry
2. no murder
3. no theft
4. no promiscuity
5. no blasphemy
6. no eating live animal flesh
7. set up a government.

The sabbath law hadn't even really been formally set up yet. I guess if god says to do something, it's always a formal law.

³¹And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.

It looked like frost, and was about the size of coriander seed. If it tasted like wafers with honey, why wouldn't they just eat it like that, why make bread out of it.

³²And Moses said, This is the thing which the LORD commandeth, Fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations; that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt.

³³And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a pot, and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it up before the LORD, to be kept for your generations.

Here we have an out of time order part of the bible.

³⁴As the LORD commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept.

What is "the Testimony"? It was the ten commandments... Moses didn't have these yet.

³⁵And the children of Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat manna, until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan.

Forty years, that's a long time to eat anything.

Exodus 17

¹And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink.

Rephidim is the next station. This is where the people were thirsty.

³And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?

First they claim Moses brought them out to kill them with hunger, and now to kill them with thirst.

⁵And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go.

⁶Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.

So Moses got water.

⁸Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim.

Is this Amalek who was in the line of Esau?

⁹And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: to morrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand.

Moses magic wand is useful again.

¹⁰So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.

¹¹And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.

The picture to the right is "Victory O Lord!" by John Everett Millais. Aaron is on the right, in red. It was painted in 1871.

¹²But Moses hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.

Why was Aaron (the older brother) stuck holding up his younger brothers hands? Why was Aaron in better condition?

¹³And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.

This is the first of many times that Joshua will kick some ass.

¹⁴And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.

This verse is rather odd in the bible. Yes, the Amalekites have since become extinct. They aren't really mentioned under that name anywhere else than in the bible. In order to "utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek" they would have to be removed from the bible. This poses a problem. In order to actually remove them from remembrance, the bible has to be changed. So, there's a catch 22. Either the bible is right, or it's not... To remove them, it has to be wrong.

Exodus 18

⁵And Jethro, Moses' father in law, came with his sons and his wife unto Moses into the wilderness, where he encamped at the mount of God:

Jethro shows up to the camp, he takes Moses wife and two sons to him.

⁸And Moses told his father in law all that the LORD had done unto Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, and all the travail that had come upon them by the way, and how the LORD delivered them.

⁹And Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which the LORD had done to Israel, whom he had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians.

Goodness... it's all based on perspective. First Moses tells about the plagues, then about killing the Egyptian army in the red sea, and Jethro claims that's the "goodness" of the LORD.

¹²And Jethro, Moses' father in law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God: and Aaron came, and all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses' father in law before God.

I've always believed that Jethro was a worshiper of the "correct" god. Here we see that to be true.

¹³And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses sat to judge the people: and the people stood by Moses from the morning unto the evening.

Moses was in charge. The man has so far spent less than a year living as a Hebrew, and now he's the person who judges them. Surely this upset the elders. Jethro asks Moses why he does it.


¹⁶When they have a matter, they come unto me; and I judge between one and another, and I do make them know the statutes of God, and his laws.

Moses has known God since the burning bush days, and now he's the person who sets out god's statutes and laws. Jethro gives Moses some advice:

¹⁸Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou, and this people that is with thee: for this thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself alone.
...

²¹Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens:

²²And let them judge the people at all seasons: and it shall be, that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge: so shall it be easier for thyself, and they shall bear the burden with thee.

If Moses was actually the spokesman for god, why didn't god tell him to set up district courts?

²⁵And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.

²⁶And they judged the people at all seasons: the hard causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.

So, Moses got him captains, lieutenants and sergeants. This is one of the first examples of delegation.

Points to ponder:

1. What is manna? Will it ever come back?

2. Amalek who? Oh yeah, he's in the bible.

3. Jethro may not be the judge of the people, but he definitely had influence over the guy who did.