So I lied, I hadn't actually read all of Exodus, I had left off on Exodus 26. So I began there and read to the end of Exodus (yah I'm a slow reader, but there's so much to take in).
After walking over to the nearby park with my Bible, my moleskine, 2 pens and my foldable lounge camp chair, I was ready to go. I had a difficult time getting comfortable and I kept getting distracted looking and picking at the flaws in my skin, thinking about the angle of my face to the sun to ensure the best tanning, and flicking off little bugs which I feared might infest my hat and then later my hair. Okay so after fighting through that I actually learned something.
The major theme of these verses is God's establishing the necessary details of the tabernacle/tent of meeting so that His presence with the Isrealites wouldn't kill them all. Reading this reveals to me how incredible Jesus' work on the cross really was, the gift we have because of Jesus is to come freely to God without first going through all these complicated details, Jesus changed everything.
I found it really interesting that during the "consecration of the priests" (exodus 29:10-14) the priests were supposed to slaughter a bull in the Lord's presence as part of a sin offering. The forshadowing to the necessary slaughtering of Christ for our sins is already present here, the bull had to bare the consquences and the suffering for the priest's sins. They were to do this every day for seven days straight vs. 36.
I also learned that God's intended purpose all along was to be in a relationship with the Isrealites. He says in 29:45 after consecrating the Tent/altar/Aaron and the sons He would then dwell among the Isrealites. God want's to hang out with us, Satan has done everything he can to destroy this from happening, God can't hang out with people who aren't Holy, because He is Holy, He tells Moses you can't see my face and live, the best you can do is see my back (the place where I just was). After Moses has been in God's presence the glory is so overwhelming to the others that he has to put a veil over his face, even God's reflected glory is too Holy for Israelties. But God's intention, His purpose for creating us was to hang with us, and in order to do this we must become Holy. Talking with God, reading about God isn't supposed to be hard, but Satan makes it difficult because it absolutely disgusts him.
I also loved how God allowed himself to be more than an idea to the Isrealites, He made himself a very present, physical, experience oriented being. He made Himself known to all their senses. The sense of smell, the Tent of Meeting was a smelly place as God made up a special aroma for them to splash all over the place. Most perfumes give me a headache, I'm sure this stuff smelled pretty good. The sense of visual was huge, the light of the lamps, the colours involved in the priests garments was extravagant, the gold, the purples.. The sense of touch, the water in the bronze basin, just everything..
I also found it amazing that God gave Bezalel the Spirit of God for the purpose of creating artistic designs, not only this but he also gave him the ability to teach. So God doesn't give the Spirit without a purpose. The prophecy of Joel has come true in that God's Spirit has been poured out on many, no wonder my heart says there is more, it's because the Spirit within me has been given to me for a purpose, I better make sure I know it and seek to accomplish it.
Afterwards I prayed with intention and it was good, however when I finished I felt like it had been a very long time, and I had only prayed for 15 minutes, so I ended up reading aloud some of the Psalms.
I turned to Psalm 24-27. God gave me some really cool and timely verses.
"Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me you paths, guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long"
"One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of teh Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple"
"My heart says of you, "seek his face!" "Your face, Lord, I will seek"
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