Shemot (Exodus)
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Meaning
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Day Six
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Haftara
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B'rit Hadashah
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1 Our Father, we receive Your Words and hide Your commandments with us; 2 we incline our ear unto wisdom, and apply our hearts to understanding; 3 We cry after knowledge and lift up our voices for understanding; 4 we seek it as silver; and search for it as for hidden treasures; 5 We declare that we shall understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God. Declaration of Proverbs 2:1-5.
Exodus 40:28-38 (NASB)1
28 Then he set up the veil for the doorway of the tabernacle. 29 He set the altar of burnt offering before the doorway of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting, and offered on it the burnt offering and the meal offering, just as the LORD had commanded Moses. 30 He placed the laver between the tent of meeting and the altar and put water in it for washing. 31 From it Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their feet. 32 When they entered the tent of meeting, and when they approached the altar, they washed, just as the LORD had commanded Moses. 33 He erected the court all around the tabernacle and the altar, and hung up the veil for the gateway of the court. Thus Moses finished the work. 34 Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. 35 Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. 36 Throughout all their journeys whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the sons of Israel would set out; 37 but if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out until the day when it was taken up. 38 For throughout all their journeys, the cloud of the LORD was on the tabernacle by day, and there was fire in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel.
Yanki Tauber, in one of his devotional articles that I read early in our Torah Bite Project, helped me realize that carrying around all of the furnishings and coverings of the entire Tabernacle was no small undertaking! He suggested that this portable building included forty-eight 17-foot-long wall sections, one hundred 150-pound foundation sockets, more than two dozen huge tapestries, and numerous pillars, fasteners, furnishings, and utensils. How many men did it take to dismantle, transport, and reassemble it each time they moved? And yet they did it all each time! The graphic included today is adequate to give us a good idea in our mind's eye of the positions of that brasen altar and the laver that the priests would use to wash their feet and their hands upon entering and exiting the holy place.
You may not believe me, but lives will be changed in Vayikra/Leviticus, as mine was! In this book of Exodus, (or Shemot) Israel started as a huge family. At this end of the book, we see Israel as a national entity. The Torah was given and the Tabernacle was completed. The Torah and the Tabernacle would be the focus of all their spiritual energies. (Well, that was the goal.) It seems that one phase of the plan of God was completed. The message as we leave Exodus and move on to the third book of the five, Vayikra/Leviticus is “He called”. The purpose embodied in the sacrifice was to “draw near”. But we’ll see more about that by and by! Exodus has prepared the physical basis for worship in Israel. When we move into Vayikra, it will explain the nature of the rituals and the protocols involved.
33 And he reared up the court round about the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the hanging of the court gate. So Moses finished the work. Exodus 40:33.
Indeed, Moses finished the work! It may have been one of the more pleasurable parts of that journey as opposed to when he got push-back and stubborn behavior from the people. He was the first to burn the sacrifices on the newly made altar of brass. It appears that he led Aaron and the other priests in the ablutions in the laver made of the mirrors of the women of the camp. Moses was to spearhead the protocol before the priests had their eight-day ordination. Matthew Henry commented on this aspect:
“...the Jewish writers call him the priest of the priests; what he did he did by special warrant and direction from God, rather as a prophet, or law-giver, than as a priest. He set the wheels a going, and then left the work in the hands of the appointed ministry.”
Moses was the one Yah called to "lead the way".
34 Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. 35 And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. 36 And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys: 37 But if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up. 38 For the cloud of the LORD was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys. Exodus 40:34-38.
I often wonder how we would react if we saw such an obvious and amazing sight in our travels—to know beyond any shadow of a doubt that our Father God was with us by day and night! It’s true that what we call ‘nature’ is a testimony all in itself but a pillar of fire and a personal ‘homing’ cloud is amazing! The tabernacle was completed and Yah set His seal of approval on it. The Word tells us that “the glory of the LORD filled the Tabernacle”. His glory descended because in so many instances in its building “Moses did; according to all that the LORD had commanded him, so he did”.
We’re reading here about how important the sacrificial system would be because of the careful building of this portable ‘meeting place’ and yet down the road, a prophet would put the ‘sacrifices’ in their proper place. When King Saul was disobedient in not utterly destroying the Amalekites and taking spoils from them, the prophet Samuel educated him on the importance of obedience:
22 And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king. 1 Samuel 15:22-23.
As important as this ritual of the blood-letting in worship was, obedience was more important in the relationship between men and The I AM. Because obedience was breached in the first place, in the Garden, those animals would not have been killed for their skins ‘to cover’ the man and his wife. Obedience is forever linked with sacrifice and King Saul became ‘puffed up’, comfortable, and ‘high-minded’ in his kingship. It might surprise those believers who have little belief in the Old Testament to realize that sacrifice wasn’t the “be-all and end-all”. It was a device that The Father God worked out for men to be reconciled to Him (to draw near to HIM). Many have been taught to believe that all that ‘ritual and blood-letting stuff” was “just for the Jews”. And yet we see clearly that when you peel it down to the very reason for it in the first place that it wasn’t “just for the Jews” but for all mankind! But it’s easy to see how we were taught that because Messiah died, then the necessity for animal sacrifice was over and so the bulk of the Old Testament was ignored except for all those cute little flannel-graph stories in Protestant Sunday school.
By the time that Messiah came on His mission to earth, Israel was dominated by those scribes and Pharisees who ‘added’ to The Word. The business at the temple was just that: business. It had degraded to a ritual without meaning for so many. Even while they sacrificed, many were disobedient and unbelieving. It was merely tradition they followed and were expected to because they grew up with their parents’ traditions and the teachings of all those scribes and Pharisees. It had ceased to have the component of fellowship and prayer as Yah had designed it and that is why Messiah was enraged at the ‘business’ of the money-changer tables.
15 And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables; 16 And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise. 17 And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. John 2:14-17.
These 'changers of money' had found a ‘market’ for those who wanted to sacrifice but didn’t wish to take the time to provide their own. It was also for those who traveled a fair distance and it may have been inconvenient to bring their own. Take a look around and we see it everywhere today! Convenience is king. Marketing, selling, business, and houses of merchandise are everywhere and exalted! Ads are everywhere: on the sides of buses, taxis, benches, and bus shelters. Go to see a video cam of a nest of eagles and you have to watch a ‘commercial’ for something first! I can't listen to a podcast without being subjected to ads sprinkled throughout the program. Companies ‘market’ into society even more with the introduction of 'smart' appliances and a world of convenience. I left a link below where you can go and get a good idea of where these marketers of merchandise are going.
This ‘making merchandise’ of men was a force even in the temple of Yahweh with those ‘money-changers’. Here is a verse nobody ever focused on in Bible study in my previously organized denominational setting:
17 And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. John 2:17.
Of course, the disciples would know that this was written for they knew their Scriptures from Psalm 69:
7 Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face. 8 I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children. 9 For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me. Psalm 69:7-9.
This word zeal from the original Hebrew indicates a jealousy that is provoked. And so it is that right in the middle of what is supposed to be the worship of the true God, we find greed, the focus on the accumulation of wealth, and the business of marketing! Messiah could see how this marketing business infiltrated into that once cherished place of abode of God on earth. Money and the things it brought to them was their god! Again, we see how the New is connected with the Old. The disciples might have thought, “Yeshua is like King David! He is so obsessed with the things of The God of our fathers!” Adam Clarke said in his commentary:
“The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up - The strong desire to promote thy glory has absorbed all others. All the desires of my body and soul are wrapped up in this. This verse is very properly applied to our Lord, John 2:17, who went about doing good; and gave up his life, not only for the redemption of man, but to "magnify the law, and make it honorable."”
Now this is something to think about as we move on into the seventh day of this week. Messiah magnified the law and made it honorable. Even if we might think it is ‘only for the Jews’ we can still learn about it and respect it for what it is— the instructions of how to live pleasing to God (and differently from all the nations) and the type of the true Messiah who was to come.
You may not believe me, but lives will be changed in Vayikra/Leviticus, as mine was! In this book of Exodus, (or Shemot) Israel started as a huge family. At this end of the book, we see Israel as a national entity. The Torah was given and the Tabernacle was completed. The Torah and the Tabernacle would be the focus of all their spiritual energies. (Well, that was the goal.) It seems that one phase of the plan of God was completed. The message as we leave Exodus and move on to the third book of the five, Vayikra/Leviticus is “He called”. The purpose embodied in the sacrifice was to “draw near”. But we’ll see more about that by and by! Exodus has prepared the physical basis for worship in Israel. When we move into Vayikra, it will explain the nature of the rituals and the protocols involved.
33 And he reared up the court round about the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the hanging of the court gate. So Moses finished the work. Exodus 40:33.
Indeed, Moses finished the work! It may have been one of the more pleasurable parts of that journey as opposed to when he got push-back and stubborn behavior from the people. He was the first to burn the sacrifices on the newly made altar of brass. It appears that he led Aaron and the other priests in the ablutions in the laver made of the mirrors of the women of the camp. Moses was to spearhead the protocol before the priests had their eight-day ordination. Matthew Henry commented on this aspect:
“...the Jewish writers call him the priest of the priests; what he did he did by special warrant and direction from God, rather as a prophet, or law-giver, than as a priest. He set the wheels a going, and then left the work in the hands of the appointed ministry.”
Moses was the one Yah called to "lead the way".
34 Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. 35 And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. 36 And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys: 37 But if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up. 38 For the cloud of the LORD was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys. Exodus 40:34-38.
I often wonder how we would react if we saw such an obvious and amazing sight in our travels—to know beyond any shadow of a doubt that our Father God was with us by day and night! It’s true that what we call ‘nature’ is a testimony all in itself but a pillar of fire and a personal ‘homing’ cloud is amazing! The tabernacle was completed and Yah set His seal of approval on it. The Word tells us that “the glory of the LORD filled the Tabernacle”. His glory descended because in so many instances in its building “Moses did; according to all that the LORD had commanded him, so he did”.
We’re reading here about how important the sacrificial system would be because of the careful building of this portable ‘meeting place’ and yet down the road, a prophet would put the ‘sacrifices’ in their proper place. When King Saul was disobedient in not utterly destroying the Amalekites and taking spoils from them, the prophet Samuel educated him on the importance of obedience:
22 And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king. 1 Samuel 15:22-23.
As important as this ritual of the blood-letting in worship was, obedience was more important in the relationship between men and The I AM. Because obedience was breached in the first place, in the Garden, those animals would not have been killed for their skins ‘to cover’ the man and his wife. Obedience is forever linked with sacrifice and King Saul became ‘puffed up’, comfortable, and ‘high-minded’ in his kingship. It might surprise those believers who have little belief in the Old Testament to realize that sacrifice wasn’t the “be-all and end-all”. It was a device that The Father God worked out for men to be reconciled to Him (to draw near to HIM). Many have been taught to believe that all that ‘ritual and blood-letting stuff” was “just for the Jews”. And yet we see clearly that when you peel it down to the very reason for it in the first place that it wasn’t “just for the Jews” but for all mankind! But it’s easy to see how we were taught that because Messiah died, then the necessity for animal sacrifice was over and so the bulk of the Old Testament was ignored except for all those cute little flannel-graph stories in Protestant Sunday school.
By the time that Messiah came on His mission to earth, Israel was dominated by those scribes and Pharisees who ‘added’ to The Word. The business at the temple was just that: business. It had degraded to a ritual without meaning for so many. Even while they sacrificed, many were disobedient and unbelieving. It was merely tradition they followed and were expected to because they grew up with their parents’ traditions and the teachings of all those scribes and Pharisees. It had ceased to have the component of fellowship and prayer as Yah had designed it and that is why Messiah was enraged at the ‘business’ of the money-changer tables.
15 And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables; 16 And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise. 17 And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. John 2:14-17.
These 'changers of money' had found a ‘market’ for those who wanted to sacrifice but didn’t wish to take the time to provide their own. It was also for those who traveled a fair distance and it may have been inconvenient to bring their own. Take a look around and we see it everywhere today! Convenience is king. Marketing, selling, business, and houses of merchandise are everywhere and exalted! Ads are everywhere: on the sides of buses, taxis, benches, and bus shelters. Go to see a video cam of a nest of eagles and you have to watch a ‘commercial’ for something first! I can't listen to a podcast without being subjected to ads sprinkled throughout the program. Companies ‘market’ into society even more with the introduction of 'smart' appliances and a world of convenience. I left a link below where you can go and get a good idea of where these marketers of merchandise are going.
This ‘making merchandise’ of men was a force even in the temple of Yahweh with those ‘money-changers’. Here is a verse nobody ever focused on in Bible study in my previously organized denominational setting:
17 And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. John 2:17.
Of course, the disciples would know that this was written for they knew their Scriptures from Psalm 69:
7 Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face. 8 I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children. 9 For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me. Psalm 69:7-9.
This word zeal from the original Hebrew indicates a jealousy that is provoked. And so it is that right in the middle of what is supposed to be the worship of the true God, we find greed, the focus on the accumulation of wealth, and the business of marketing! Messiah could see how this marketing business infiltrated into that once cherished place of abode of God on earth. Money and the things it brought to them was their god! Again, we see how the New is connected with the Old. The disciples might have thought, “Yeshua is like King David! He is so obsessed with the things of The God of our fathers!” Adam Clarke said in his commentary:
“The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up - The strong desire to promote thy glory has absorbed all others. All the desires of my body and soul are wrapped up in this. This verse is very properly applied to our Lord, John 2:17, who went about doing good; and gave up his life, not only for the redemption of man, but to "magnify the law, and make it honorable."”
Now this is something to think about as we move on into the seventh day of this week. Messiah magnified the law and made it honorable. Even if we might think it is ‘only for the Jews’ we can still learn about it and respect it for what it is— the instructions of how to live pleasing to God (and differently from all the nations) and the type of the true Messiah who was to come.
1 A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; 2 To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. 3 Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. Psalm 63:1-3.
1 NASB www.lockman.org for daily reading and KJV in commentary unless otherwise specified.
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