The birth of a nation
Passover and Exodus out of Egypt
Mt Sinai the cutting of a covenant
Romans 11:15-17
15 For if their rejection and exclusion from the benefits of salvation were [overruled] for the reconciliation of a world to God, what will their acceptance and admission mean? [It will be nothing short of] life from the dead!
16 Now if the first handful of dough offered as the firstfruits [Abraham and the patriarchs] is consecrated (holy), so is the whole mass [the nation of Israel]; and if the root [Abraham] is consecrated (holy), so are the branches.
17 But if some of the branches were broken off, while you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among them to share the richness [of the root and sap] of the olive tree,
Yahweh reaffirms covenant with the Patriarchs and is known by the name of Yahweh the redeemer in Exodus 6
⦁ In this section of scripture God is declaring to Moses that He is Yahweh the God who delivers and it is by this name the Israelites are to come to know Him as such a deliver, One Who is able to deliver from the Egyptians. God did not make Himself known by this name to the Patriarchs for there was no need for Him to reveal Himself in this way.
⦁ The Patriarchs knew Him as El Shaddai the Mighty One and the One who is all sufficient who provides for their every need, however they were not slaves but were free men.
⦁ God allowed their descendants to go down to Egypt to become slaves to the Egyptians so that when the time came to judge the gods of Egypt and to set the captive descendants of Abraham through Jacob free. God was going to make His Name known to all the known world and to the Israelites in a new way.
⦁ He was going to show that He alone is God and that He alone is superior to all the known gods of the then known world which men worshiped and that there is no other God besides Him or like Him.
Exodus 6:2-8
2 And God said to Moses, I am the Lord.
3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty [El-Shaddai], but by My name the Lord [Yahweh--the redemptive name of God] I did not make Myself known to them [in acts and great miracles].
4 I have also established My covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their temporary residence in which they were strangers.
5 I have also heard the groaning of the Israelites whom the Egyptians have enslaved; and I have [earnestly] remembered My covenant [with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob].
6 Accordingly, say to the Israelites, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will free you from their bondage, and I will rescue you with an outstretched arm [with special and vigorous action] and by mighty acts of judgment.
7 And I will take you to Me for a people, and I will be to you a God; and you shall know that it is I, the Lord your God, Who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
8 And I will bring you into the land concerning which I lifted up My hand and swore that I would give it to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and I will give it to you for a heritage. I am the Lord [you have the pledge of My changeless omnipotence and faithfulness].
The Genealogies of Moses and Aaron through the tribe of Levi
⦁ This is important as it will help us to understand who is who in the tribe of Levi.
Especially when it comes to the priests and those who served in the tabernacle and when there was rebellion in the camp from the Korabites for they are Moses’ cousins.
Exodus 6:14 -30
4 These are the heads of their clans. The sons of Reuben, Israel's firstborn: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi; these are the families of Reuben.
15 The sons of Simeon: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman; these are the families of Simeon.
16 These are the names of the sons of Levi according to their births: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari; and Levi lived 137 years.
17 The sons of Gershon: Libni and Shimi, by their families.
18 The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel; and Kohath lived 133 years.
19 The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. These are the families of Levi according to their generations.
20 Amram took Jochebed his father's sister as wife, and she bore him Aaron and Moses; and Amram lived 137 years.
21 The sons of Izhar: Korah, Nepheg, and Zichri.
22 The sons of Uzziel: Mishael, Elzaphan, and Sithri.
23 Aaron took Elisheba, daughter of Amminadab and sister of Nahshon, as wife; she bore him Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.
24 The sons of Korah: Assir, Elkanah, and Abiasaph. These are the families of the Korahites.
25 Eleazar, Aaron's son, took one of the daughters of Putiel as wife; and she bore him Phinehas. These are the heads of the fathers' houses of the Levites by their families.
26 These are the [same] Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said, Bring out the Israelites from the land of Egypt by their hosts,
27 And who spoke to [the] Pharaoh king of Egypt about bringing the Israelites out of Egypt; these are that Moses and Aaron.
28 On the day when the Lord spoke to Moses in Egypt,
29 The Lord said to Moses, I am the Lord; tell Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I say to you.
30 But Moses said to the Lord, Behold, I am of deficient and impeded speech; how then shall Pharaoh listen to me?
First Passover instigated by Yahweh
Exodus 12
1 THE LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,
2 This month shall be to you the beginning of months, the first month of the year to you.
3 Tell all the congregation of Israel, On the tenth day of this month they shall take every man a lamb or kid, according to [the size of] the family of which he is the father, a lamb or kid for each house.
4 And if the household is too small to consume the lamb, let him and his next door neighbor take it according to the number of persons, every man according to what each can eat shall make your count for the lamb.
5 Your lamb or kid shall be without blemish, a male of the first year; you shall take it from the sheep or the goats.
6 And you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month; and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall [each] kill [his] lamb in the evening.
7 They shall take of the blood and put it on the two side posts and on the lintel [above the door space] of the houses in which they shall eat [the Passover lamb].
8 They shall eat the flesh that night roasted; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it.
9 Eat not of it raw nor boiled at all with water, but roasted--its head, its legs, and its inner parts.
10 You shall let nothing of the meat remain until the morning; and the bones and unedible bits which remain of it until morning you shall burn with fire.
11 And you shall eat it thus: [as fully prepared for a journey] your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover.
12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment [proving their helplessness]. I am the Lord.
13 The blood shall be for a token or sign to you upon [the doorposts of] the houses where you are, [that] when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt.
14 And this day shall be to you for a memorial. You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations, keep it as an ordinance forever.
15 [In celebration of the Passover in future years] seven days shall you eat unleavened bread; even the first day you shall put away leaven [symbolic of corruption] out of your houses; for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.
16 On the first day you shall hold a solemn and holy assembly, and on the seventh day there shall be a solemn and holy assembly; no kind of work shall be done in them, save [preparation of] that which every person must eat--that only may be done by you.
17 And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day have I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt; therefore shall you observe this day throughout your generations as an ordinance forever.
18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread [and continue] until the twenty-first day of the month at evening.
19 Seven days no leaven [symbolic of corruption] shall be found in your houses; whoever eats what is leavened shall be excluded from the congregation of Israel, whether a stranger or native-born.
20 You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread [during that week].
21 Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said to them, Go forth, select and take a lamb according to your families and kill the Passover [lamb].
22 And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood in the basin, and touch the lintel above the door and the two side posts with the blood; and none of you shall go out of his house until morning.
23 For the Lord will pass through to slay the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood upon the lintel and the two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to slay you.
24 You shall observe this rite for an ordinance to you and to your sons forever.
25 When you come to the land which the Lord will give you, as He has promised, you shall keep this service.
26 When your children shall say to you, What do you mean by this service?
27 You shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover, for He passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when He slew the Egyptians but spared our houses. And the people bowed their heads and worshiped.
28 The Israelites went and, as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.
29 At midnight the Lord slew every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the prisoner in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock.
30 Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead.
31 He called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise up, get out from among my people, both you and the Israelites; and go, serve the Lord, as you said.
32 Also take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone! And [ask your God to] bless me also.
33 The Egyptians were urgent with the people to depart, that they might send them out of the land in haste; for they said, We are all dead men.
34 The people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls being bound up in their clothes on their shoulders.
35 The Israelites did according to the word of Moses; and they [urgently] asked of the Egyptians jewels of silver and of gold, and clothing.
36 The Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they gave them what they asked. And they stripped the Egyptians [of those things].
37The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about 600,000 men on foot, besides women and children.
38 And a mixed multitude went also with them, and very much livestock, both flocks and herds. (It was probably the mixed group that may have caused the issues among the Israelites when the people murmured against God, Moses and Aaron and caused rebellion in the camp as well of those Israelites who may have been jealous of Moses from within his own family group)
39 They baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought from Egypt; it was not leavened because they were driven from Egypt and could not delay, nor had they prepared for themselves any food.
40 Now the time the Israelites dwelt in Egypt was 430 years.
41 At the end of the 430 years, even that very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out of Egypt. (this was exactly what the Lord showed Abraham that his descendants will live in Egypt for four generations)
42 It was a night of watching unto the Lord and to be much observed for bringing them out of Egypt; this same night of watching unto the Lord is to be observed by all the Israelites throughout their generations.
43The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the Passover: No foreigner shall eat of it;
44 But every man's servant who is bought for money, when you have circumcised him, then may he eat of it.
45 A foreigner or hired servant shall not eat of it.
46 In one house shall it be eaten [by one company]; you shall not carry any of the flesh outside the house; neither shall you break a bone of it.
47 All the congregation of Israel shall keep it.
48 When a stranger sojourning with you wishes to keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one that is born in the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it.
49 There shall be one law for the native-born and for the stranger or foreigner who sojourns among you. (All may now come near and eat of the Lord’s Passover through partaking in the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus the veil in the temple has been torn and we can enter in through the veil of His flesh the body the lord had prepared for Him for this very purpose to save men from sin)
50 Thus did all the Israelites; as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they.
51 And on that very day the Lord brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt by their hosts.
How does this First Passover relate to Jesus who is the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world the Ultimate (last) Passover Lamb?
⦁ As the Passover Lamb had to be without blemish so too Jesus our perfect spotless Lamb of God being the Son of God was without blemish for blemishes represented sin.
⦁ God presented a lamb for Himself to take away the sins of the world
John 1:29
29 The next day John saw Jesus coming to him and said, Look! There is the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world!
⦁ The Lamb of God bore the wrath of God on the cross He was judged in our place.
⦁ The roasting of the Lamb in this Exodus 12 passage represents God’s judgment by fire the Lamb was to be roasted whole and no part was to be broken at all.
⦁ Jesus didn’t have any bones broken as He died before the Roman soldiers came to break the bones of the two thieves who were crucified at the same time. As it was the time of the Passover and Sabbath which was a High Holy Day (First Day of the festival of unleavened bread
⦁ As it was a High Holy Day a special Sabbath the religious leaders didn’t want people on the cross. So in order to hasten the death of those that were being crucified on the cross they asked Pilate to order soldiers to break their bones,
⦁ They did not break the legs of Jesus because they saw that He was already dead.
John 19:31-33
31 Since it was the day of Preparation, in order to prevent the bodies from hanging on the cross on the Sabbath--for that Sabbath was a very solemn and important one--the Jews requested Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken away.
32 So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first one and of the other who had been crucified with Him.
33 But when they came to Jesus and they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs.
⦁ Jesus also fulfilled the Feast of Unleavened bread as He is the Sinless Son of God. He is the manna the bread that came from heaven see also John 6
Luke 22:7-8, 15-16
7 NOW THE Festival of Unleavened Bread was drawing near, which is called the Passover. Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover [lamb] had to be slain.
8 So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare for us the Passover meal, that we may eat it.
Verses 15 -16 which indicate that at His second coming the Passover will be totally fulfilled and He will eat it in His coming Kingdom
15 And He said to them, I have earnestly and intensely desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer;
16 For I say to you, I shall eat it no more until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.
- As the blood of the Passover lamb was put upon the door lintels to protect those within that house from the Angel of Death.
- So too the blood of Jesus has totally atoned for our sins, yet for some reason the sacrifices will be reintroduced in His Millennial Kingdom.
- This feast of Passover is also to be kept in the Millennial Kingdom when Jesus returns to rule on the earth
- Please note it is a bull being offered in the following verses and not a lamb. The reason being Jesus had already offered Himself up as the Lamb of God for sin and there is no need of Him to offer Himself again for sin.
- The bull is being used as an offering for cleansing the sanctuary and possibly this represents the role of Jesus as being King and priest in the millennial kingdom.
- As the bull represents strength ie as in kings having strength.
- One of the creatures around the throne in Revelation 4 was a bull this is part of who God is what He is like He is strong and mighty and a bull is like that strong/ powerful.
- Also the sanctuary had to be cleansed because of the sins of the people and because during the time of the false reign of the false christ (antichrist) the temple sanctuary was polluted with the presence of the Abomination of Desolation.
- God has to cleanse the sanctuary yearly to remove the filth of that act from his Holy Temple precincts.
- Only God knows if I am right in thinking that this could be the case and honestly we won't know this for sure until Jesus returns and sets up His kingdom on the earth. Then all will be made known.
. Ezekiel 45:18-25
18 Thus says the Lord God: In the first [month], on the first [day] of the month, you shall take a young bull without blemish and you shall cleanse the sanctuary.
19 And the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering and put it upon the doorposts of the temple and upon the four corners of the ledge of the altar and upon the posts of the gate of the inner court.
20 You shall do this on the seventh day of the month for everyone who has sinned through error or ignorance and for him who is simple-minded. So shall you make atonement for the temple.
21 In the first month on the fourteenth day of the [month]; you shall have the Passover, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten.
22 Upon that day the prince shall prepare for himself and for all the people of the land a bullock for a sin offering.
23 And for the seven days of the feast he shall prepare a burnt offering to the Lord, seven bullocks and seven rams without blemish daily for the seven days, and a he-goat daily for a sin offering.
24 And he shall prepare as a meal offering to be offered with each bullock an ephah of meal, an ephah for each ram, and a hin of oil for each ephah of meal.
25 In the seventh [month], on the fifteenth day of the month, he shall make the same provision and preparation for the seven days of the feast, for sin offerings, burnt offerings, bloodless or meal offerings, and for the oil. This refers to the Feast of Tabernacles which everyone all nations will celebrate when the Lord returns see also Joel 3 and Zechariah 14, Psalm 24.)
⦁ Note a bullock is used in the Passover feast along with rams for offering on the seven days. A bullock is mentioned in the passage above and not a Lamb as Jesus was once and for the Lamb of God, why a bullock I don’t honestly know but I am sure when He comes it will be made known to us why we will be having the sacrifices again when He is ruling on the earth.
⦁ As I have already mentioned above that the bull could have something to do with Jesus being a king civil power and strength and the blood is to be put on the doorposts of the Temple, the altar and the doorposts of the gate of the inner court.
So the courtyard where the offerings are to be made and the door into the courtyard and the temple doors are to be cleansed.
No mention of the houses having blood put on them. This is to cover for sin whether done in error or ignorance or people who may not be intellectually sound and this offering is to make atonement for the temple.
⦁ The only thing I can think of is that as the sacrifices ordained in the law of Moses to be offered to Yahweh and the establishing of the Tabernacle. This was the looking forward to the coming of Jesus for the atonement for sin at His First coming.
So possibly the sacrifices offered when Jesus comes the second time is to look back at what He done on the cross.
⦁ As mentioned above Luke gives a hint that the Passover will be fully explained when He comes again see Luke 22:16.
⦁ Through the sacrifice of Jesus we have passed from death to life we are no longer under the wrath of God it has passed over us through our faith in His Son and what He has done on the cross for us.
⦁ The epistles of Paul and Hebrews clearly set this out for us to understand.
1 Thessalonians 5:9 -10
9 For God has not appointed us to [incur His] wrath [He did not select us to condemn us], but [that we might] obtain [His] salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah)
10 Who died for us so that whether we are still alive or are dead [at Christ's appearing], we might live together with Him and share His life.
⦁ Oh what a Saviour and what a wonderful God, how marvelous is His works and love that He should send His Son to die for us.
⦁ This was ordained by God from the beginning of time that Jesus was to be the Ultimate Lamb of God who was slain from the foundations of the world.
⦁ That through the first Passover God was dealing with the nation of Israel to show forth His great power and yet at the same time this first Passover was looking forward to the time when His Son Jesus’ atoning death on the tree the cross.
That this act will show forth His mighty power to save humanity from sin and pay the ransom for sin that we may go free by believing in Him alone Praise His name forever more.
⦁ When the Israelites left Egypt after the death of the first born of both men and animals, they plundered the Egyptians as in doing so they were taking from them the wages that were owing to them for the 430 years of slavery that they were under Egyptian oppression.
⦁ Also the gold and silver plus clothing was to be used for the material in the making of the Tabernacle and for the gold and silver work in the Tabernacle
⦁ As the Israelites kept watch on that first Passover night, so too Jesus also kept the Passover night watch when He kept watch in the Garden of Gethsemane.
⦁ He wanted His disciples to keep watch with Him as well
Luke 22:39–46
39 And He came out and went, as was His habit, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples also followed Him.
40 And when He came to the place, He said to them, Pray that you may not [at all] enter into temptation.
41 And He withdrew from them about a stone's throw and knelt down and prayed,
42 Saying, Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but [always] Yours be done.
43 And there appeared to Him an angel from heaven, strengthening Him in spirit.
44 And being in an agony [of mind], He prayed [all the] more earnestly and intently, and His sweat became like great clots of blood dropping down upon the ground.
45 And when He got up from prayer, He came to the disciples and found them sleeping from grief,
46 And He said to them, Why do you sleep? Get up and pray that you may not enter [at all] into temptation.
Matthew 26:36-40
36 Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder.
37 And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy.
38 Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.
39 And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.
40 And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour?
Mark 14:32-37
32 And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane: and he saith to his disciples, Sit ye here, while I shall pray.
33 And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy;
34 And saith unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here, and watch.
35 And he went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him.
36 And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt.
37 And he cometh, and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? couldest not thou watch one hour?
- This is why we must be watching and waiting, alert for His coming and living holy lives worthy of Him. We must be ready for Him for we do not know whether He will come in daylight or night time. Of course He gives us the signs to watch out for and as these signs are coming closer together like the labour pains of a woman about to give birth then we know for sure He is coming and it is soon.
- We are not to fall asleep or get slack but keep watching for our Lord.
33 Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.
34 For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch.
35 Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning:
36 Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.
37 And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.
The final overthrow of the Egyptians by the mighty Hand of Yahweh
⦁ The Israelites left the Egypt after the Lord passed over the houses of the Israelites when He struck all the first born of the Egyptians dead both man and beast.
⦁ The Egyptians then pursued the Israelites when they realized that had set free a great source of free slave labor.
⦁ They wanted them back so they pursued them and cornered the Israelites at the Red Sea but God was fighting for them and He put Himself between the Israelites and the Egyptians by being a cloud by day and fire by night.
⦁ He caused an east wind to come and divide the Red Sea after getting Moses to stretch out his rod over the sea so that the Israelites could pass over the sea dry shod.
⦁ The Egyptians started to follow them but God fought against them so that their chariots got bogged in the sand and their horses became terrified and the Lord caused the sea to close again upon the Egyptians.
⦁ The next day the Israelites saw the dead bodies of the Egyptians and their horses washed up on the sea shore, they never saw these people alive again and thus they sang the victory song of Moses and Miriam, this account is found in Exodus chapters 13:17-15:21.
⦁ I am only giving only a brief over view of this crossing because I am mainly focusing on the covenants made between God and the Israelites and in particular the Passover.
⦁ Moral of the story God is with His people He promised Abraham four hundred years before that He will bring His descendants up from the land of Egypt back to the land of Canaan the land of Promise that is their inheritance through being descendants of Abraham.
⦁ God does make good His promises to His people including those of us who belong to Christ who is The descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to whom the land belongs through being Son of Man and Son of God it is His heritage and ours too through faith in Him,
⦁ We are too grafted into the Olive Tree of Israel by being sons and daughters of Jesus through faith in His finished work on the cross.
⦁ We are Israelites by adoption into the family of Jesus and His Father. Jesus is head over the House of Israel.
He is head firstly as a priest for He is building the temple of His Father. House means temple for the Jews called the temple the house of God and Jesus is the head over His Father's house.
Hebrews 3:1-6
1 Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;
2 Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.
3 For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house.
4 For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God.
5 And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after;
6 But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.
2 Peter 2:4-10
4 To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious,
5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
6 Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
7 Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,
8 And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.
9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;
10 Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
Ephesians 2:20-22
20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
Jesus is waiting in heaven to come to the earth and He will only do this when His people call for Him to come and save them and be their King.
I will put the verses in Luke that refer to Jesus ruling over the House of Jacob which is Israel for Jacob was renamed Israel by God Himself in Genesis 32 and 35.
Luke 1:30-33
30 And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.
31 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus.
32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:
33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
Jesus is head of His house as priest and King and He will build the temple.
Zechariah 6:11-15
11 Then take silver and gold, and make crowns, and set them upon the head of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest;
12 And speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The Branch; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord:
13 Even he shall build the temple of the Lord; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.
14 And the crowns shall be to Helem, and to Tobijah, and to Jedaiah, and to Hen the son of Zephaniah, for a memorial in the temple of the Lord.
15 And they that are far off shall come and build in the temple of the Lord, and ye shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you. And this shall come to pass, if ye will diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God.
Exodus 19:1-25
1 IN THE third month after the Israelites left the land of Egypt, the same day, they came into the Wilderness of Sinai.
2 When they had departed from Rephidim and had come to the Wilderness of Sinai, they encamped there before the mountain.
3 And Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him out of the mountain, Say this to the house of Jacob and tell the Israelites:
4 You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself.
5 Now therefore, if you will obey My voice in truth and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own peculiar possession and treasure from among and above all peoples; for all the earth is Mine.
6 And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation [consecrated, set apart to the worship of God]. These are the words you shall speak to the Israelites.
7 So Moses called for the elders of the people and told them all these words which the Lord commanded him.
8 And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord has spoken we will do. And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord.
9 And the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I come to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you and believe you and remain steadfast forever. Then Moses told the words of the people to the Lord.
10 And the Lord said to Moses, Go and sanctify the people [set them apart for God] today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes
11 And be ready by the third day, for the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai [in the cloud] in the sight of all the people.
12 And you shall set bounds for the people round about, saying, Take heed that you go not up into the mountain or touch the border of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death.
13 No hand shall touch it [or the offender], but he shall surely be stoned or shot [with arrows]; whether beast or man, he shall not live. When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain.
14 So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and sanctified them [set them apart for God], and they washed their clothes.
15 And he said to the people, Be ready by the day after to morrow; do not go near a woman.
16 The third morning there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled.
17 Then Moses brought the people from the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.
18 Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, for the Lord descended upon it in fire; its smoke ascended like that of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.
19 As the trumpet blast grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him with a voice.
20 The Lord came down upon Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain, and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.
21 The Lord said to Moses, Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to the Lord to gaze and many of them perish.
22 And also let the priests, who come near to the Lord, sanctify (set apart) themselves [for God], lest the Lord break forth against them.
23 And Moses said to the Lord, The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for You Yourself charged us, saying, Set bounds about the mountain and sanctify it [set it apart for God].
24 Then the Lord said to him, Go, get down and you shall come up, you and Aaron with you; but let not the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord, lest He break forth against them.
25 So Moses went down to the people and told them.
This is the marriage of God between Himself and the people of Israel this is where they start to become a nation in God.
⦁ Our God is a Holy God and He wanted to reinforce this fact to Moses and the people by telling them that they are not to come up to the Mountain to gaze upon Him lest He break out against the people. He cannot look upon sin, only those who He wants near will He have come near to Him.
⦁ The people were to get themselves ready before God came down in a thick cloud upon the mountain. They were to wash their clothes and not go near a woman.
⦁ This was to be a marriage between God and His people, and this was a marriage contract that God was entering into with His people.
⦁ They were to become solely His people separated and consecrated unto Him only, there were to be no foreign gods to be found among them.
⦁ God wanted them to be a peculiar nation, a holy people a royal priesthood unto Him.
⦁ Yet when the people heard the thundering and saw the lightning along with the thick cloud and heard the trumpet (shofar) blast and the mountain quaking and smoking it was too much for them. They were terrified and told Moses to go up on their behalf and talk to God for them.
⦁ They had a fear of God but they didn’t want to know Him personally they wanted to keep a great distance from Him rather than come near to Him.
⦁ In the end God ended up establishing priesthood through the direct line of Aaron through his sons they were the priests of God, where as originally the whole of Israel would have been priests but it wasn’t to be.
⦁ God wanted Israel to be a people called out unto Him to be a light and an example unto the world of how to follow the living God.
⦁ God gave the people the land of Canaan as His marriage gift and the Shabbat (Sabbath) as a token of marriage between Him and His people Israel.
The Ten Commandments – summation of the Laws the people were to live by in this marriage covenant.
Exodus 20
1 THEN GOD spoke all these words:
2 I am the Lord your God, Who has brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
3 You shall have no other gods before or besides Me.
4 You shall not make yourself any graven image [to worship it] or any likeness of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;
5 You shall not bow down yourself to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me,
6 But showing mercy and steadfast love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.
7 You shall not use or repeat the name of the Lord your God in vain [that is, lightly or frivolously, in false affirmations or profanely]; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
8[ Earnestly] remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy (withdrawn from common employment and dedicated to God).
9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
10 But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, your daughter, your manservant, your maidservant, your domestic animals, or the sojourner within your gates.
11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it [set it apart for His purposes].
12 Regard (treat with honor, due obedience, and courtesy) your father and mother, that your days may be long in the land the Lord your God gives you.
13 You shall not commit murder.
14 You shall not commit [a]adultery.
15 You shall not steal.
16 You shall not witness falsely against your neighbor.
17 You shall not covet your neighbor's house, your neighbor's wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.
18 Now all the people perceived the thunderings and the lightnings and the noise of the trumpet and the smoking mountain, and as [they] looked they trembled with fear and fell back and stood afar off.
19 And they said to Moses, You speak to us and we will listen, but let not God speak to us, lest we die.
20 And Moses said to the people, Fear not; for God has come to prove you, so that the [reverential] fear of Him may be before you, that you may not sin.
21 And the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.
22 And the Lord said to Moses, Thus shall you say to the Israelites, You have seen for yourselves that I have talked with you from heaven.
23 You shall not make [gods to share] with Me [My glory and your worship]; gods of silver or gods of gold you shall not make for yourselves.
24 An altar of earth you shall make to Me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I record My name and cause it to be remembered I will come to you and bless you.
25 And if you will make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone, for if you lift up a tool upon it you have polluted it.
26 Neither shall you go up by steps to My altar, that your nakedness be not exposed upon it.
Footnotes:
Exodus 20:14 Observe here the expansion of the meaning of the seventh commandment in many catechisms to include whoredom in all its forms, as well as unchastity [premarital relations, sexual impurity, and lustful desire under whatever name] (J.P. Lange, A Commentary). Not only is adultery forbidden here, but also fornication and all kinds of mental and sensual uncleanness. All impure books, songs, pictures, etc., which tend to inflame and debauch the mind are against this law (Adam Clarke, The Holy Bible with A Commentary).
Covenant made between Yahweh and the people of Israel
Exodus 24:1-18
1 GOD SAID to Moses, Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu [Aaron's sons], and seventy of Israel's elders, and worship at a distance. (These sons of Aaron mentioned here are the ones who died through offering strange fire before the Lord )
2 Moses alone shall come near the Lord; the others shall not come near, and neither shall the people come up with him.
3 Moses came and told the people all that the Lord had said and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice, All that the Lord has spoken we will do.
4 Moses wrote all the words of the Lord. He rose up early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve pillars representing Israel's twelve tribes.
5 And he sent young Israelite men, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord.
6 And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he dashed against the altar.
7 Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people; and they said, All that the Lord has said we will do, and we will be obedient.
8 And Moses took the [remaining half of the] blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.
9 Then Moses, Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up [the mountainside].
10 And they saw the God of Israel [that is, a convincing manifestation of His presence], and under His feet it was like pavement of bright sapphire stone, like the very heavens in clearness.
11 And upon the nobles of the Israelites He laid not His hand [to conceal Himself from them, to rebuke their daring, or to harm them]; but they saw [the manifestation of the presence of] God, and ate and drank.(This is like what Ezekiel saw under the feet of the Lord in his visions in Ezekiel 1 & 2 the chariot of the Lord, and what John described as the glassy see in Revelation)
12 And the Lord said to Moses, Come up to Me into the mountain and be there, and I will give you tables of stone, with the law and the commandments which I have written that you may teach them.
13 So Moses rose up with Joshua his attendant; and Moses went up into the mountain of God.
14 And he said to the elders, Tarry here for us until we come back to you; remember, Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a cause, let him go to them.
15 Then Moses went up into the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain.
16 The glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day [God] called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud.
17 And the glory of the Lord appeared to the Israelites like devouring fire on the top of the mountain.
18 Moses entered into the midst of the cloud and went up the mountain, and Moses was on the mountain forty days and nights.
Moses the Mediator between God and Israel, Moses the Prophet
⦁ Moses was acting as intermediary between God and the people and he alone could go in before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord when it was made but Aaron and the sons after him could only go in once a year on the Day of Atonement.
⦁ Moses was like a type of Chris a mediator between God and man and at least three times for forty days and nights he had to intercede on the behalf of Aaron his brother for making the golden calf and on behalf of Israel to prevent God wiping them out as a nation, on these times he stood between God’s righteous anger and the people.
⦁ He was a prophet that God spoke to face to face and not in dark sayings he said that God will raise up for Himself another prophet like him. This prophet was to be the man Jesus who is also God and Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy Revelation 19:10.
Christ the one who God raised up like Moses and the True prophets of the last days
⦁ He Christ gave gifts to men in Ephesians 4:11, the prophet is listed as being one of those gifts,
⦁ God is the God of the spirits of the prophets Revelation 22:10.
⦁ So anyone who is called to be a true prophet of God speaks for God they will not be speaking their own words but will be speaking the words that God has given them.
⦁ They will be speaking through the Holy Spirit the words that Jesus Himself will give them to sa. They will not be speaking on their own initiative but what the Lord gives them to say on His authority and not their own.
⦁ It will be Jesus speaking through them as He is the Spirit of prophecy.
⦁ This is only the true prophets that God has called and anointed and made to be raised up as His prophets in these last days who will do this, man cannot make or call prophets only God can.
⦁ These prophets / prophetesses will have circumcised ears to hear what the Lord is saying and to relate it to the church and the world around them; they will be taught of the Lord Himself,
⦁ He will isolate them and teach them His ways and will jealously watch over them so that they will do the task that He gives them to do without being distracted from other outside influences.
⦁ They will speak His words only and He will affirm what they say by signs following as they are speaking His words, and He will hear and answer their prayers with mighty signs to affirm that He has heard their prayers which they have prayed through the Holy Spirit in accordance to His will.
This will be especially true of the two last prophets who will stand before the Lord of both heaven and earth to speak His words and pray/ speak forth His judgments upon the earth.
These two prophets will be based in Jerusalem during the first three and half years of the 70th week of Daniel.
They will be the two olive trees and the two menorahs who stand before the Lord. Who are these prophets? They are the two witnesses of Revelation 11 they will be like a combination of Moses, Elijah and John the Baptist.
They will be proclaiming the coming Day of the Lord the Day of vengeance of God. The day of His wrath coming judgment and the proclaiming the coming of Christ. They will be calling for people to repent from their sins, they will be dressed in sackcloth to emphasis this point that men everywhere should repent before God while it is still time to do so.
Covenant broken by the People Exodus: 32:1-33
⦁ As Moses spent such a long time on the mountain with God, the people began to get anxious and worried that something may have happened to Moses and this is why they asked Aaron to make the golden calf to proclaim it as their god.
⦁ Idolatry followed the people from Egypt and they didn’t know God or how to have a relationship with God, they didn’t trust Him to look after them and they thought that He might have done something to Moses on the mountain.
For they saw Moses go up to the Lord on the Mountain and the glory of God looked like blazing fire. So they probably thought that God had burned Moses up when he went into the cloud of God's glory.
⦁ Even though God did sign after powerful sign in their presence and provided both food and water for them and their livestock to eat and drink. They still didn’t trust the Lord and wanted to go running back to Egypt and put their trust in things that are not gods but demons.
⦁ Not much different from people of today, even in the church and I myself have had to deal with wanting to run back to Australia rather than trust in the Lord to look after me living here in New Zealand.
⦁ It is a matter of growing in the Lord and learning to trust in Him that He will look after me and our family.
⦁ Moses spent forty days and nights up the mountain the first time with the Lord while the Lord wrote on the tablets of stone the law.
⦁ Then there was a sound of revelry in the camp and the Lord told Moses to get down to the people because they had turned away from Him to worship other gods.
⦁ It is interesting the Lord said to Moses that the people were Moses’ people but other times He God calls them His people. Just like a parent when a child behaves well they say that child is theirs but when that child misbehaves they disown the child and the father or mother would say that your child did such and such.
⦁ Moses stood between Yahweh and the people interceding for them he had to go up the mountain again for another forty days and nights after he came down the mountain and sorted the issue out.
⦁ He had to stand and intercede on their behalf or else Yahweh would have wiped the people out totally and started afresh to raise up a people through Moses.
⦁ Moses had to talk God out of that idea or else the Lord’s name would have been profaned amongst the nations it would have become a laughing stock. As the heathens would have said that Yahweh was too weak to save His people that He took them into the wilderness only to slay them.
⦁ Also if Yahweh did slay them it would mean that the demons and the idolaters would have glory over Him and Yahweh will not share His glory with another that means idols or things that are not gods but demons, He will not give His glory to the devil and his ilk.
⦁ Satan has always been out to steal the glory of the Lord from Him and to try and rule in His place and this is what he satan will try and do at the end of the age at the time of Jacob’s Troubles. That is to try and steal the throne of David from the Son of God and Man to whom it rightfully belongs and to try and deceive people into worshiping him and giving him the Glory that rightfully belongs to the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel.
⦁ Moses spent forty days and nights in spending time in the presence of God he didn’t eat or drink in Yahweh’s presence. The presence of the Lord kept him alive he didn’t need food the words the Lord was giving him on the stone tablets was his food and drink.
⦁ He prayed for the people and his prayers stayed the hand of God, he also asked the Lord to relent about not going up with them to the Promised Land as Yahweh said He was going to send His Angel before them.
⦁ He did relent and went up with them but told the Israelites He could not come down amongst them lest He would wipe them out but they were to take their ornaments off in penitence for their sin.
Exodus 32:1-33:6
1 WHEN THE people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, [they] gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, Up, make us gods to go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.
2 So Aaron replied, Take the gold rings from the ears of your wives, your sons, and daughters, and bring them to me.
3 So all the people took the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron.
4 And he received the gold at their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it a molten calf; and they said, These are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt!
5 And when Aaron saw the molten calf, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.
6 And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.
7 The Lord said to Moses, Go down, for your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves;
8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, These are your gods, O Israel, that brought you up out of the land of Egypt!
9 And the Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people;
10 Now therefore let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and that I may destroy them; but I will make of you a great nation.
11 But Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why does Your wrath blaze hot against Your people, whom You have brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?
12 Why should the Egyptians say, For evil He brought them forth, to slay them in the mountains and consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and change Your mind concerning this evil against Your people.
13 [Earnestly] remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self and said to them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give to your seed, and they shall inherit it forever.
14 Then the Lord turned from the evil which He had thought to do to His people.
15 And Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tables of the Testimony in his hand, tables or tablets that were written on both sides.
16 The tables were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.
17 And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp.
18 But Moses said, It is not the sound of shouting for victory, neither is it the sound of the cry of the defeated, but the sound of singing that I hear.
19 And as soon as he came near to the camp he saw the calf and the dancing. And Moses' anger blazed hot and he cast the tables out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain.
20 And he took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire, and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.
21 And Moses said to Aaron, What did this people do to you, that you have brought so great a sin upon them?
22 And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord blaze hot; you know the people, that they are set on evil.
23 For they said to me, Make us gods which shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.
24 I said to them, Those who have any gold, let them take it off. So they gave it to me; then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf.
25 And when Moses saw that the people were unruly and unrestrained (for Aaron had let them get out of control, so that they were a derision and object of shame among their enemies),
26 Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Whoever is on the Lord's side, let him come to me. And all the Levites [the priestly tribe] gathered together to him.
27 And he said to them, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, Every man put his sword on 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 neighbor.
28 And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses; and there fell of the people that day about 3000 men.
29 And Moses said [to the Levites, By your obedience to God's command] you have consecrated yourselves today [as priests] to the Lord, each man [at the cost of being] against his own son and his own brother, that the Lord may restore and bestow His blessing upon you this day.
30 The next day Moses said to the people, You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.
31 So Moses returned to the Lord, and said, Oh, these people have sinned a great sin and have made themselves gods of gold!
32 Yet now, if You will forgive their sin--and if not, blot me, I pray You, out of Your book which You have written!
33 But the Lord said to Moses, Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him [not you] out of My book.
34 But now go, lead the people to the place of which I have told you. Behold, My Angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I punish I will visit their sin upon them!
35 And the Lord sent a plague upon the people because they made the calf which Aaron fashioned for them.
Exodus 33:1-6
1 THE LORD said to Moses, Depart, go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought from the land of Egypt, to the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, To your descendants I will give it.
2 I will send an Angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite, Amorite, Hittite, Perizzite, Hivite, and Jebusite.
3 Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, for you are a stiff-necked people, lest I destroy you on the way.
4 When the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned and no man put on his ornaments.
5 For the Lord had said to Moses, Say to the Israelites, You are a stiff-necked people! If I should come among you for one moment, I would consume and destroy you. Now therefore [penitently] leave off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.
6mAnd the Israelites left off all their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.
Covenant reestablished by God
Exodus 34:9-20
9 And he said, If now I have found favor and loving-kindness in Your sight, O Lord, let the Lord, I pray You, go in the midst of us, although it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for Your inheritance.
10 And the Lord said, Behold, I lay down [afresh the terms of the mutual agreement between Israel and Me] a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels (wonders, miracles) such as have not been wrought or created in all the earth or in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord; for it is a terrible thing [fearful and full of awe] that I will do with you.
11 Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I drive out before you the Amorite, Canaanite, Hittite, Perizzite, Hivite, and Jebusite.
12 Take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant or mutual agreement with the inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it become a snare in the midst of you.
13 But you shall destroy their altars, dash in pieces their pillars (obelisks, images), and cut down their Asherim [symbols of the goddess Asherah];
14 For you shall worship no other god; for the Lord, Whose name is Jealous, is a jealous (impassioned) God,
15 Lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they play the harlot after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and one invites you, you eat of his food sacrificed to idols,
16 And you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters play the harlot after their gods and make your sons play the harlot after their gods.
17 You shall make for yourselves no molten gods.
18 The Feast of Unleavened Bread you shall keep. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, in the time of the month of Abib; for in the month of Abib you came out of Egypt.
19 All the males that first open the womb among your livestock are Mine, whether ox or sheep.
20 But the firstling of a donkey [an unclean beast] you shall redeem with a lamb or kid, and if you do not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem. And none of you shall appear before Me empty-handed.
21 Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest [on the Sabbath].
22 You shall observe the Feast of Weeks, the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year's end.
23 Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel.
24 For I will cast out the nations before you and enlarge your borders; neither shall any man desire [and molest] your land when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year.
25 You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leaven; neither shall the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover be left until morning.
26 The first of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a kid in his mother's milk.
27 And the Lord said to Moses, Write these words, for after the purpose and character of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.
28 Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he ate no bread and drank no water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.
- Here endeth the lessons on Joseph and Moses who are the ones who formed the trunk of the Olive Tree of Israel from the roots which were the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
- Joseph and his brothers with Jacob their father began the sojourn in Egypt.
- The roots went down to Egypt to be tried in the fiery furnace of slavery.
- After 430 years they were to come forth not as a family of 72 persons but they came forth out of the House of bondage as a nation of many thousands. They were led forth by God's chosen man to be their deliverer that is Moses.
- Who acted as God's agent to bring forth the people of Israel from Egypt to Mt Horeb where God cut covenant with the people of Israel to make them His own percular people.
- Now the people of Israel have formed the trunk of the Olive Tree which was to grow but God trimmed it back at different times to prune it and to make it strong. Israel is also likened to a grapevine in different parts of the scriptures and Jesus Himself too likens Himself to a grapevine in John 15 and His Father is the husbandman. So God is still pruning His people today but it is the church He is doing this in.
- For now the church is the vine that fills the whole earth and its head is in heaven and the vine goes from heaven to Jerusalem and throughout the whole earth.
- Israel is still the olive tree but she will become whole and strong at the return of Jesus to His land, city and people. For He will regraft those branches that have fallen off through unbelief back into their tree when they once again turn back to their God through faith in His dearly beloved Son Jesus.
- There are other lessons I have done re Moses such as Christ in the Tabernacle, the Feasts of the Lord and the importance of the Atonement. Some of these things I have touched on briefly in the blog in other posts.
- Others I may put on the blog sometime in the future if it is God's will for me to do so.
- Know this God still loves the people and land of Israel and He still loves the city of Jerusalem. They are still important to Him but they must come to Him on His terms and through the way He made open to Him and that way is through His Son.
- Israel and Jerusalem will play a key role in the return of Christ for Jerusalem will be the seat of His power and authority when Jesus returns. This is what the final battle is about at His coming to deal with His enemies and to establish His kingdom.
- Israel at His return will become the great nation that God told Abraham he will become in Genesis 12 and she will have all of the land God told Abraham He will give to him in Genesis 15.
- Jesus being God will make sure that this will take place at His return and when He dwells in the midst of Israel once more no one will dare make them afraid or insecure for their God will be watching over them. They will become once more His people and nation and He will be their God and Jerusalem His Holy city. ref Ezekiel 36, 37, 38-39, Joel 3, Matthew 25:31-46, Zechariah 14, Zephaniah 3, Psalm 2, Psalm 110, Revelation 19-20, Jeremiah 3:12-19, Jeremiah 30-33 and Hebrews 6-10.
Next post we will have the first Red Alert News Flash for 2019
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