February 8 - Exodus 28-29: Aaron is Set Apart for Diplomatic Relations with God

Today’s Reading: Exodus 28-29

The Message

English Standard Version

This is the last day of a group of technical laws for that specific generation. Today's reading is about the High Priest's clothes and the consecration sacrifice. So use today to catch up (read yesterday's and today's in one day) or review some of the other posts from the past month. Type the link like this (or copy and paste): grahambates.blogspot.com/2013/mm/dd.html.

I will have shorter post today. It is not objectionable to scan through these chapters, but make sure you aren't breezing too quickly—there are some good gems here.

Thought to Guide Your Reading

God is making Aaron prepared to meet Him. Aaron must be dressed differently and ritually clean to stand out from the others.

Summary in 100 Words or Less

It was time for God to prepare Aaron and his sons to become his representatives to the Israelites. God gave specific instructions on making beautiful and glorious clothes for Aaron to wear. These clothes would represent the twelve tribes coming before God.
Aaron and his sons needed to be ritually clean. So God provided a way for them to be clean.
When these were finished, God would inhabit the tabernacle and the people would know that God was the one who took them out of Egypt.

How Today’s Reading Contributes to the Gospel: God is Setting All Things Right

The Sanctuary and the Chest were to remind the people that God, their god, lived among them.

Repeated from yesterday's comments.
Although God would never "live" there as other gods were thought to live in their temples, this sanctuary would be the place where God would come down and speak to Moses from time to time and would be his "home" while the Israelites lived in the wilderness. But the most important reason for this to be built was what it represented. The Tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant were to remind the people that God resided among them. God came to them. They did not need to trek to far-away regions to speak to their God. He would be with them.

Aaron's clothes were to symbolize glory and beauty.

This is an interesting choice for God. Aaron's robes would symbolize the God that they served. God is beautiful and worthy of glory.

A note on sacrifice.

Before we look aslant at this "violent" culture that killed animals for their "bloodthirsty" God, we must remember that the ability to eat meat without killing it yourself is a dramatically new phenomenon. No matter what type of humane way it came to you, at one point the animal died and was processed, most likely by a human. Because we have removed ourselves from this process does not make it barbaric to kill an animal.

Are you a designer? Did you catch some interesting tidbits about God's plan reading this passage? Leave a comment in the section below or on the Sonoma Mountain Parkway Church of Christ Facebook page. My design ability is woefully inadequate for proper comments.
If you missed a reading or want to go to a specific date, type the link as follows:
http://grahambates.blogspot.com/2013/mm/dd.html
That will take you to the reading for that day. Enjoy!