Exodus … complete with my notes.

Exodus 1 King James Version (KJV) – Sh’mot = Names
* The Deliverance Narrative*

The Hebrew text of the second book of Torah begins with a vav prefix. In the English language one reads this as ‘and’. This hanging conjunction at the forefront of the narrative seems strange and awkward to English readers. IN the Hebraic worldview absolutely everything that happens is connected to that which has gone before- and will connect to everything that follows. In the eyes of a Hebrew one cannot understand any book or revelation without having experienced, understood, and become firmly rooted in that which came before.

Hebrew Bible scholar, Everett Fox, chose a method in which to look at Exodus that involved dividing it into 6 divisions. The “Deliverance Narrative” covers chapters 1 through 15, the second division “Wilderness” starts at the end of 15 and continues through 18. Part 3, Covenant and Law, starts at 19 and goes through 24. Part 4, The Plan of the Wilderness Tabernacle, begins at 25 and continues through 31; the 5th division, Infidelity and Reconciliation, starts in Chapter 32 and concludes with Chapter 34, and finally, The Building of the Tabernacle starts with 35 and runs to the end of Exodus. Between the last verse of Genesis, and the opening verse of Exodus, a period of about 350 years has passed.

1:1 Now these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob. 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, 3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, 4 Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.

Each of these sons would eventually establish their own tribe, their own branch, of Israel; and, of course, each son would be the ruler of that branch….that tribe. These 12 tribes then each produced children who were the next subdivision; and that next subdivision is what the Bible generally refers to as “clans” or “families”. So, Israel was the “nation”, the 12 sons were the 12 tribes that formed that nation. The sons of the 12 tribal leaders each formed their own clan or family. The Bible calls the leader of a household the “head”, leader of each clan is the “chief”, and leader of a Tribe is called a “prince”. So, the order of prince, chief, head, formed a hereditary aristocracy, if you would. Operating in parallel was another class or category of leadership and authority…. a sort of elected or appointed class of leaders called “elders”, “officers” or “scribes”.

5 And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already.

70 is a symbolic number, the number presents problems because it includes 2 of Judah’s sons who died at the hand of God, in Canaan, as well as Joseph and his 2 sons who were born in Egypt. As a symbolic number that indicates totality, or something that is fully comprehensive, that we have to likely view this number of 70 as symbolic that ALL of Israel went to Egypt, with no one left behind.

6 And Joseph died (1775bc), and all his brethren, and all that generation. 7 And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly*, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them.

• Gen. 46:3 “Fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will THERE make of thee a great nation”.
• Isaiah 27:6 “He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.”
• yisharetzu – the Hebrew word is a form of the root word ‘sharatz’ which means to swarm, intermix, or intermingle.
• t’male means to spread out or infiltrate.

8 Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.

Beginning just a few decades before Joseph’s arrival as a slave in Egypt, the so called Hyksos rulers had established their dominance over most of Egypt: primarily Lower Egypt. The Hyksos were from somewhere in the Middle East. They were Semites, cousins of Israel. Regardless of where they were from, they were NOT Egyptians…..they were foreigners, and the Egyptians detested being ruled by these “Shepherd Kings” as they were known. Eventually, an Egyptian general Amosis, in the capital of Upper Egypt, a city called Thebes (now known as Luxor) gathered an army of Egyptian nationals and lead by Amosis defeated the hated Hyksos.

The Israelites would now become the focal point of nearly 2 centuries of bitterness that had built up in the Egyptian people. (1570bc) The previously labeled hero, Joseph, is now despised and as such the people cannot attribute the salvation of Egypt to a Hebrew, thus the people reclaimed the event in changing the history and crediting “Amenhotep” which means “praise the name of Pharaoh”. The same thing has happened to Yeshua with the “white Jesus”. The people you would most likely (by the worlds standards) to have their names remembered have been left intentionally nameless. Although this Pharoah was unquestionably the most powerful man on the earth in this day, note that the Torah will not, even once, speak his name. The point? Believe it or not, great wealth, power or influence among men does not qualify one to have his/her name written in YHVH’s book.

• Revelation 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
• Revelation 13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

9 And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: 10 Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land.

(We should not think of the Egyptians as inherently cruel and uncouth. They were a high-minded people, with deeply ingrained and refined morals and ethics; educated, intelligent, and forward-looking. Besides, what use was a maimed or a dead slave?)

11 Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses.

Pharaoh represents Satan, the taskmasters are demons, the burdens are our trials and tribulations.

• Galatians 4:1-3 “Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world.”
• James 4:4 “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”

12 But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel. (This is a picture of the “church” continuing to grow – waiting to learn Torah.)

13 And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour: 14 And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.

A “stores-city” simply meant it was a regional supply depot and distribution center. In this case, these cities served both the civilian population and the Egyptian military, and were strategically located in Goshen because it was nearest their eastern border and because that was a food-growing region.

15 And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah (means beautiful), and the name of the other Puah:(splendid) 16 And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live.

The plan was that if the infant they assisted into the world was a boy, they were to immediately kill it. Yet, had Pharaoh actually succeeded in this infanticide, he would only have reduced the available work force available for his aggressive construction aspirations.

17 But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive. 18 And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them, Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the men children alive? 19 And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them. 20 Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty. 21 And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses. 22 And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.

(This would have been considered a sacrifice to the river gods of the Egyptians.)

2:1 And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi.

There were probably around 100,000 Levites living in Egypt, so the gene pool was large. The daughter; her name is Jochobed, and his, Amram. Also of interest may be the role the Levites will play in the future as the ones responsible for the sacrifice and the letting of its blood upon the altar. This after their involvement in the killing at Shechem. The Levites were not highly regarded by the others tribes for this reason.

2 And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly (Tov –same title YHWH gave creation) child, she hid him three months. (The number 3 is expressed to example resurrection in many of the Hebrew idioms.)

3 And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river’s brink.

In similar manner as Noah, salvation comes in an ark covered by pitch. “Gen. 6:14 Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.” Water that runs like a river or stream is called “living” water verses a pond or standing water.

4 And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him.

• Hebrews 11: 23 “By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment.”

5 And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river’s side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. 6 And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews’ children.

7 Then said his sister to Pharaoh’s daughter (Bithiah “daughter of god” 1 Chronicles 4:18b “And these are the sons of Bithiah the daughter of Pharaoh, which Mered took.”), Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? 8 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child’s mother. 9 And Pharaoh’s daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the women took the child, and nursed it.

When things looked their worse, YHWH not only supplied the answer to the mother’s prayer, He added to it with the wages.

10 And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.

Pharaoh’s daughter was claiming that the Nile gave her the child, thus continuing the god-man traditions and the fertility god of the Nile would receive the glory. She was preparing the child to be the next god-man and take his place among the pantheon of gods. Nothing is said about Moses’ upbringing, but it’s fairly easy to extrapolate from the vast amount of Egyptian records that have been discovered concerning royal life. While he would have been given all the finest in education, military training, the best food and drink, and made familiar with royal court protocol, it would have been given to him grudgingly.

11 And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren.

• Hebrews 11:24-27 “By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.”

12 And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.

(This is an event Moses must surely have witnessed hundreds of times by now. Moses would not have been fully welcomed in either camp.)

13 And when he went out the second day, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove together: and he said to him that did the wrong, wherefore smitest thou thy fellow? 14 And he said, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian? And Moses feared, and said, Surely this thing is known.

What is now known? Is it the mere fact the he had killed and Egyptian, or is it the fact Moses has changed his opinion of himself and declared his Hebrew identity? Hebrew means “one who has crossed over”. There is a definite structure to the Hebrew family, The Bible calls the leader of a household the “head” (though sometimes he’s referred to as chief). The leader of each clan is the “chief”. The leader of a Tribe is called a “prince”. So, each of the 12 tribes of Israel had a “prince”, as long as there still existed 12 tribes, there were 12 princes. There are in addition to these elders, officers and scribes, a sort of elected or appointed class of leaders.

15 Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian: and he sat down by a well. (Why Midian? Probably because they had no political ties to Egypt. The inhabitants of his new home, Midian, were the descendants of Abraham’s concubine Keturah…..so Moses and the Midianites were relatives.)

16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters: and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. 17 And the shepherds came and drove them away: but Moses stood up* and helped them, and watered their flock.

*H6965 קוּם quwm (koom) v.to rise, resurrect. ** H3467 יָשַׁע yasha(yaw-shah’) v. to rescue or save. [Yeshua] *** H8248 שָׁקָה shaqah (shaw-kaw’) v. giving water, to drink

• John 11:25 “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:” Luke 19:10 “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
• John 7:38 “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”

18 And when they came to Reu’el (title not name) their father, he said, How is it that ye are come so soon to day?

The name, Reu’el, is thought to mean “friend of El”…..El being the name God is called before He announced His actual name.

19 And they said, An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew water enough for us, and watered the flock. 20 And he said unto his daughters, And where is he? why is it that ye have left the man? call him, that he may eat bread. 21 And Moses was content to dwell with the man: and he gave Moses Zipporah (“bird”) his daughter. 22 And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom (refugee): for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land. 23 And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. 24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

The Hebrew used here for “remember” is zakar, it is an action word, which means paying very close attention to someone or something and being involved in the outcome. The covenant was that Abraham’s descendants, in time, refined to mean Jacob and his sons and all their descendants, would be given a land of their own. That El Shaddai would be their God, and that God would protect them and consider them His very own set-apart people; and that through this, eventually the entire world would be blessed.

25 And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.

3:1 Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.

No longer hidden is the given name of Moses’ father-in-law and how he was considered as “the friend of El”. Horeb is the known as The Mountain of YHWH, the place of the ‘burning bush’ and where he would receive the Torah from YHWH, and was NOT on the Sinai Peninsula, but on the Arabian Peninsula. We need to grasp that Mt. Sinai’s location is a Christian tradition, not a Jewish one. It was not until the time of Constantine (4th century A.D.) that his mother, Helena, had a vision and it was in this supposed vision that she decided that the current location of Mt. Sinai was the correct one. Until that time that place had NEVER held any religious significance.

2 And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.

In Hebrew, “malach Yehoveh” or angel of the Lord, was not a run-of-the-mill angel in the burning bush, bringing a message from God, it was God Himself that was about to speak to Moses; of that there is no scriptural doubt. Dictamnus is a genus of flowering plant in the family Rutaceae, an herbaceous perennial, native to warm, open woodland habitats in southern Europe, North Africa and much of Asia. In the summer months, the whole plant is covered with a kind of flammable substance, which is gluey to the touch, and has a very fragrant, lemony aroma; but if it takes fire, it goes off with a flash all over the plant. The name “burning bush” derives from the volatile oils produced by the plant which can catch fire readily in hot weather.

3 And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. 4 And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. 5 And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.

The removing of one’s sandals was, and remains, a standard Middle Eastern sign of respect when entering the presence of a king or a god. The very dirt Moses was standing on was holy because God was near. How come the dirt was holy? Because holiness was transmitted to it from a holy God…..it was physically unavoidable.

6 Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God. 7 And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; 8 And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. (“flowing with milk and honey” is a Hebrew idiom which indicates great fruitfulness and fertility and blessing.)

9 Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt. 11 And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?

• Acts 7:22 “And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.”

2 And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain. 13 And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?

In Egyptian mysteries religion the name of a god denoted that god’s characteristics, and that characteristic was directly associated to some specific part of the natural or spiritual world that he, or she, had control or influence over. So, if one was clever enough to match up the particular matter that was of concern to you with the right god, and then knew that god’s name, you could call out “oh great Electro, god of the TV, please make my picture come in clearer”, and that god had no choice but to do your bidding.

14 And God said unto Moses, I Am That I Am: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you.

God obliged and gave Moses a name: a name that denoted God’s characteristics, and that name was “ehyeh asher ehyeh.” [to bring into existence all that exists] God gave us that “name” for just this reason, His name is not to be compared with anything, or anyone, else.

15 And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations. 16 Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt:

17 And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey. 18 And they shall hearken to thy voice: and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, The Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us: and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.

Israel who is currently blind to the fact didn’t want to change they just wanted their circumstances to be different. They didn’t so much mind being in Egypt and being associated with (and polluted by) Egyptian culture and Egyptian religion. They just didn’t like the slavery part. So, God began by telling Moses that Israel had to separate itself from Egypt, so that He could have them all to Himself that He might show them what proper worship is. The dividing and separating of God’s people from the world is crucial.

19 And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand. 20 And I will stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst thereof: and after that he will let you go.

21 And I will give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians: and it shall come to pass, that, when ye go, ye shall not go empty.

When we act in faith to the will of YHVH there will be humanly unexplainable results.

• Proverbs 3:1-4 “My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments: For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: So shalt thou find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man.”

22 But every woman shall borrow of her neighbour, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: and ye shall put them upon your sons, and upon your daughters; and ye shall spoil the Egyptians.

4:1 And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee. 2 And the Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod. 3 And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it.

It is no coincidence that the serpent the staff was turned in to was the official Egyptian symbol for royal power and authority, both religious and civil. Pharaohs usually wore a golden serpent symbol on their heads; the snake represented the patron cobra-goddess of Lower Egypt.

4 And the Lord said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand:

• Isaiah 11:10-11 “And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.”

5 That they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee. 6 And the Lord said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow. 7 And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again; and plucked it out of his bosom, and, behold, it was turned again as his other flesh.

This sign was as much directly related to Israel, as was the first sign with the staff directly related to Egypt. God’s chosen people began pure, and then God allowed them to become impure. But, God can redeem. He can take the most defiled person, or nation, and purify them.

8 And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign. 9 And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land: and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land.

Since Adam and Eve, God had made it clear that blood was all-important in His divine plan…. This is why blood is the basis of God’s sacrificial system. The Hebrews well understood this. By turning the water of the Nile into blood, God was showing His complete mastery over the Mystery religion system of Egypt. The people would have recognized the death of the baby boys having been thrown in the Nile was now being revealed by YHVH.

10 And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.

What the exact nature of Moses’ speech difficulty isn’t clear; tradition is that he had forgotten how to speak Hebrew well. Others think that perhaps he was concerned that he no longer spoke Egyptian well enough to approach the King of Egypt.

• Acts 7:22 “And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.”

11 And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the Lord? 12 Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say. 13 And he said, O my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send. 14 And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and he said, Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee: and when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart.

It should not go unnoticed that God referred to Aaron as the “Levite”, right here we see God’s intention that the tribe of Levi is going to be set apart as special.

15 And thou shalt speak unto him, and put words in his mouth: and I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do. 16 And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people: and he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God.

God, for His own divine purposes, has decided that whatever Moses speaks shall carry with it the same authority as if God Himself spoke it. Does that sound just a little bit like Yeshua the Messiah? God sure seemed to see Moses as very special, as he was given the power to work miracles, and the position of speaking AS God. What an incredible responsibility. NO wonder he didn’t want the job.

17 And thou shalt take this rod in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs. 18 And Moses went and returned to Jethro his father in law, and said unto him, Let me go, I pray thee, and return unto my brethren which are in Egypt, and see whether they be yet alive. And Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace.

Moses heads for home, and obtains approval from his father-in-law to leave Midian and go to Egypt to fulfill God’s command to confront Pharaoh. This procedure of Moses asking permission of Jethro was simply Middle Eastern courtesy, as Jethro was the head of the house in which Moses lived.

19 And the Lord said unto Moses in Midian, Go, return into Egypt: for all the men are dead which sought thy life.

Jacob meets his bride at a well, then sins and has to flee into exile. YHVH paves the way for the return trip and Jacob asks his father-in-law to return home. Jacob then leads the nation with YHVH’s redemption and guidance. Exactly the way Moses’ life is playing out. This is exampled for us for a reason, to show us faith produces grace which leads to salvation that encourages a life of Torah.

20 And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt: and Moses took the rod of God in his hand.

With the concept presented that Yeshua will be the “rod” from the root of Jesse, coupled with John 1:1 Yeshua is the Word, we can see our journey requires the Word to be in our hands in our journey.

21 And the Lord said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go.

Harden is H2388 חָזַק chazaq – to be obstinate. Pharaoh’s behavior was reactionary to the events YHWH was setting forth and YHWH knew he was going to behave this way. A Pharaoh had been groomed by their father {the previous ruler} that they were actual gods themselves. This would stem from the stories told over time from the original fallen angels mating with mankind and creating the man-gods or Nephilim. In the same way the monarchs of England have kept the blood lines to the King, these Egyptians, held their blood lines in the place of power. In addition to the reigning Pharaoh the ancestors were celebrated as gods. When Moses, a despised Hebrew, comes to make demands it is only natural that Pharaoh would be obstinate. “Who is this mere human to ask anything of me a god-man” has to be forefront in his mind. Then as things progress Pharaoh has to be thinking “why would these Hebrews think their ‘god’ has any power over me in my country and so far from his own country.”

22 And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn: 23 And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn.

The custom of “firstborn” varied a little from society to society in ancient times, but in general, was considered a child of special significance. This is a direct affront to the future of Egypt as well as Pharaoh himself. This would end the royal blood line.

24 And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the Lord met him, and sought to kill him.

Inn — Hebrew, “a halting place for the night.” Next is the issue of obedience to the Abrahamic Covenant. How could YHVH send Moses in as the representative of the Covenant when his house was not ‘in order’. It may well be that this was an oversight on the parents part but YHVH was not going to let there be anything that would detract from the belief of the people living in bondage. When Moses arrives they still will remember him as an Egyptian leader and there will be a vetting process.

25 Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me.

The meaning is: The marriage bond between us is now sealed by blood. By performing the rite, Zipporah had recovered her husband; his life was purchased for her by the blood of her child.

26 So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision.

There is wonderful and prophetic symbolism employed here. The idea of removing the foreskin is that a piece of flesh, part of the corrupted body, must be removed, separated, and die. In fact, the usual Hebrew procedure is that the foreskin must literally be buried in the ground because it is dead. The Targum’s of Jonathan and Jerusalem paraphrase the next verse, “then Zipporah gave praise, and said, how amiable is the blood of circumcision, which hath delivered my husband from the hand of the destroying angel.”

27 And the Lord said to Aaron, Go into the wilderness to meet Moses. And he went, and met him in the mount of God, and kissed him. 28 And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord who had sent him, and all the signs which he had commanded him. 29 And Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel: 30 And Aaron spake all the words which the Lord had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people. 31 And the people believed: and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped.

5:1 And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord God (YHVH Elohim) of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.

God began referring to the Hebrews as His “ammim”……Hebrew for my people. Now, the word ammim, “people”, is not to be taken in the sense of random individuals; nor is it used to refer to an anonymous group of individuals such as a crowd of people. “Ammim” is somewhat synonymous with the word “nation”. Ammi is a group of humans with a common heritage, whether that heritage is natural or adopted. That is, Israel is a separately identifiable “people”, a “nation”. Ammim is not precisely synonymous with “nation”, as the most widely word used for “nation” in the Bible is “goyim”. The word “goyim” is never used to refer to Hebrew people, or to the Hebrew nation, only to those not of the Hebrew nation. To unlock the significance of Jacob’s blessing upon Joseph’s son Ephraim, that Ephraim would in some undefined way become a fullness, or blessing, of goyim, or gentile nations, are central to understanding end times prophecy. Ephraim was both Hebrew and Egyptian, or gentile, and this is a picture of the totality of mankind being assimilated into the Hebrew family and the House of Israel.

2 And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord (YHVH Elohim), that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.

Pharaoh was incredulous that there could have existed a god that had some undefined kind of influence within Egypt, and he didn’t know about that god. Hebrew scholars state that Pharaoh would have had a book of all the ‘gods’ and even after check the book he had no way of knowing who or what YHWH was or stood for. Perhaps most important to Pharaoh, why would he need to be at all concerned with this Yehoveh when he commanded the most powerful gods of Egypt? The Pharaoh himself was considered to be the incarnation of a god and so was divine; for Pharaoh, Yehoveh was an unwanted rival. In ancient times, it was considered common knowledge that not only was there many gods, but they were regional and national gods, and they operated within certain territories. That was a principle of all the Mystery Babylon religions that existed then, and every society ever unearthed and studied generally believed the same way. From time to time, as one nation or people would come up against another, then the gods that represented those nations would also battle amongst themselves. And, it was believed that, according to whichever nation won the battle, the gods of that nation were therefore more powerful and clever than the gods of the vanquished nation. Sometimes, the defeated nation would, naturally, adopt the gods of the victorious nation because it was believed that those gods MUST be stronger than their own gods, so why have not have better gods? So, Israel, with but Yahweh, was considered by other nations, and early in their development by their own estimation, god-poor since they only had ONE god. Note: these other ‘gods’ are actually demons that posed as deity to humans, and the polluted and corrupted human thought to make them believed they were many gods. YHWH has to expose them as what they are……false, frauds, deceivers.

• Romans 9:17-23 “For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,”

3 And they said, The God of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go, we pray thee, three days’ journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the Lord our God; lest he fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword.

Some may say there is an embellishment as there was no previous mention by YHWH himself of the punishment for not complying, yet Moses had just had the near-death encounter with the Angel of the Lord over the circumcision of his son.

4 And the king of Egypt said unto them, Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their works? get you unto your burdens. 5 And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them rest (Shabbat) from their burdens. 6 And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying, 7 Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore: let them go and gather straw for themselves.

The Israelites did NOT build pyramids in Egypt. The pyramid-building era was long over, and now Pharaohs and nobles were being buried in hollowed out and magnificently decorated shafts and caves. The primary construction projects of the Israelites were roads, military forts, and storage facilities.)

8 And the tale of the bricks, which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish ought thereof: for they be idle; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God.

• 1 Corinthians 3:11-14 “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.”
• 2 Corinthians 5:1 “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
• Acts 7:47-48 “Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet, Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest?”
• Isaiah 65:1-5 “I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name. I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts; A people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face; that sacrificeth in gardens, and burneth incense upon altars of brick; Which remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments, which eat swine’s flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels; Which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day.”

It is clear that YHVH is NOT in favor of hewn altars or man-made church buildings!

9 Let there more work be laid upon the men, that they may labour therein; and let them not regard vain words. (Pharaoh sees the worship of ANY other god, othan the one he envisions himself to be, as wasted time. Just like the rulers of today (corporations and governments) don’t want you to have time or energy enough to sit and think about ANYTHING other than the nonsense they spew on TV, radio and the internet. Working harder for less, consumers not citizens, telling us what we desire.)

10 And the taskmasters of the people went out, and their officers, and they spake to the people, saying, Thus saith Pharaoh, I will not give you straw. 11 Go ye, get you straw where ye can find it: yet not ought of your work shall be diminished. 12 So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead of straw. 13 And the taskmasters hasted them, saying, Fulfil your works, your daily tasks, as when there was straw. 14 And the officers of the children of Israel, which Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten, and demanded, Wherefore have ye not fulfilled your task in making brick both yesterday and today, as heretofore? 15 Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried unto Pharaoh, saying, Wherefore dealest thou thus with thy servants? 16 There is no straw given unto thy servants, and they say to us, Make brick: and, behold, thy servants are beaten; but the fault is in thine own people. 17 But he said, Ye are idle, ye are idle: therefore ye say, Let us go and do sacrifice to the Lord. 18 Go therefore now, and work; for there shall no straw be given you, yet shall ye deliver the tale of bricks.

In 1883, and later in 1908, two Egyptologists made a startling discovery; they unearthed some mud brick structures in Pithom in which the bottom courses of bricks were made with the normal content of cut straw, the middle courses were made with straw that had been pulled up by the roots, and the final few courses contained little to NO straw at all; just another of the many proofs of the Exodus account.

19 And the officers of the children of Israel did see that they were in evil case, after it was said, Ye shall not minish ought from your bricks of your daily task. 20 And they met Moses and Aaron, who stood in the way, as they came forth from Pharaoh: 21 And they said unto them, The Lord look upon you, and judge; because ye have made our savour to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to slay us. 22 And Moses returned unto the Lord, and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil entreated this people? why is it that thou hast sent me? 23 For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither hast thou delivered thy people at all.

6:1 Then the Lord said unto Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh: for with a strong hand (force) shall he let them go, and with a strong hand (force) shall he drive them out of his land.

(Ra’ah = And I appear. This is where YHVH shows up in a big way!)

2 And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the Lord (YHVH):

• Isaiah 45:21-23 “Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the Lord? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.”
• Philippians 2:10 “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth”

3 And I appeared (was seen as) unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty (El Shaddai = Highest God of the Mountain), but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them.

“God”, like the word President, is the title of an office: it’s not the name of the person who HOLDS that office. The Creator’s name, the one we are to worship, pray and devote ourselves, is YHVH, not “God”. YHVH is saying that He revealed Himself, made His essence known to the Patriarchs, in a little different way than He is now revealing Himself to Moses. In due time YHVH is making Himself more known, and more personal, and more accessible.

4 And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers. 5 And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant.

The common belief was that a worldly tribe had a god and it was only powerful in the land claimed by the tribe. Once you left your land your god could not help you and you were at the mercy of the god of that area. This is derived from the power established from the Nephilim control 1500 years earlier and their greatness was transformed into the heavenly realms to aid “their people.” This is why we see YHVH described as ‘The King of kings and the Lord of lords’ YHVH is capable to transcend this boundary line power flaw as he is Sovereign over all that exists.

6 Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments:

Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” This is a foretelling of the coming Messiah with outstretched arms on the cross. Likewise of the coming of the Last Days and the judgements of the wicked.

7 And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

As much as the Egypt of Exodus is real and tangible, it is also a ‘type’. Egypt, itself, will be used throughout the rest of the Bible to represent servitude, and a foreign place……a way of life that was NOT meant for God’s people. Egypt is representative of the place where we ALL resided BEFORE we cried out to God to rescue us. The Hebrews were in servitude to Egypt because they were forced to be. We were in servitude because we were born into that condition. This is why we need to be re-born, to start afresh as babes in the covenant. To grow in the ways of YHVH is to read, learn, discover and walk out your faith with YHVH daily. Slips and falls will occur, and yet, He has compassion and mercy and grace for the day. Just like our humanity, when we try something for the first time we do not always get it right, it is through patience, practice and persistency we find maturity of faith. Took Israel 40 years in the desert.

8 And I will bring you in unto the land, concerning that which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage: I am the Lord. 9 And Moses spake so unto the children of Israel: but they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage.

Consumed by their circumstances the people could not fathom a way out under human endeavors. They had to have thought Moses was a waste of time and energy. John 1:11 “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” Talk about stubborn!

10 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 11 Go in, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, that he let the children of Israel go out of his land. 12 And Moses spake before the Lord, saying, Behold, the children of Israel have not hearkened unto me; how then shall Pharaoh hear me, who am of uncircumcised lips?

Projecting an untamed speech, Moses thinks it’s his words, how he phrases them, how he pronounces them, whether or not he appears confident and well prepared as he speaks to people, that is the key for them getting the message of deliverance. God gave Moses Aaron to speak for him even though it was not needed. Moses’ adequacy was never the issue.

13 And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, and gave them a charge unto the children of Israel, and unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt. 14 These be the heads of their fathers’ houses: The sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel; Hanoch, and Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi: these be the families of Reuben. 15 And the sons of Simeon; Jemuel, and Jamin, and Ohad, and Jachin, and Zohar, and Shaul the son of a Canaanitish woman: these are the families of Simeon. 16 And these are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations; Gershon, and Kohath, and Merari: and the years of the life of Levi were an hundred thirty and seven years. 17 The sons of Gershon; Libni, and Shimi, according to their families.

18 And the sons of Kohath; Amram, and Izhar, and Hebron, and Uzziel: and the years of the life of Kohath were an hundred thirty and three years. 19 And the sons of Merari; Mahali and Mushi: these are the families of Levi according to their generations. 20 And Amram took him Jochebed his father’s sister to wife; and she bare him Aaron and Moses: and the years of the life of Amram were an hundred and thirty and seven years. 21 And the sons of Izhar; Korah, and Nepheg, and Zichri. 22 And the sons of Uzziel; Mishael, and Elzaphan, and Zithri. 23 And Aaron took him Elisheba, daughter of Amminadab, sister of Naashon, to wife; and she bare him Nadab, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. 24 And the sons of Korah; Assir, and Elkanah, and Abiasaph: these are the families of the Korhites. 25 And Eleazar Aaron’s son took him one of the daughters of Putiel to wife; and she bare him Phinehas: these are the heads of the fathers of the Levites according to their families. 26 These are that Aaron and Moses, to whom the Lord said, Bring out the children of Israel from the land of Egypt according to their armies.

27 These are they which spake to Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring out the children of Israel from Egypt: these are that Moses and Aaron. 28 And it came to pass on the day when the Lord spake unto Moses in the land of Egypt, 29 That the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, I am the Lord: speak thou unto Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I say unto thee. 30 And Moses said before the Lord, Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips, and how shall Pharaoh hearken unto me? (Repeated and expanded for emphasis)

7:1 And the Lord said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god (Idiomatic: the highest magistrates of the land) to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet*.

(*‘navi’ or the earthly spokesman for the divine. Do we not see that same pattern with Christ? The Father puts Yeshua in the role of the divine God, and there will also be a prophet as a spokesman to pave the way for Yeshua, John the Baptist.)

2 Thou shalt speak all that I command thee: and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh, that he send the children of Israel out of his land.

Egypt had a population of around 10-12 million people at this time. Israel made up something between 2 ½ and 3 million of that number. Which means that Egypt stood to lose 25% of its population, and almost its entire work force, if Israel was to leave.

3 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.

The Hebrew word typically translated as “plague”, is nega. Nega is a generic word indicating being stricken, as in some type of blow upon something or someone, usually with the idea that it is a punishment for an offense.

4 But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth mine armies, and my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments.

YHVH is going to show his power over the Egyptian gods through the plagues. This has a two-fold purpose; to show the Israelites their entire existence is because of His love and to show Egypt their foolishness in believing in gods made by human hands. In the end it will also expose the humanity of Pharaoh. Next, properly speaking, there were only 9 “strokes” or “plagues”, with the tenth actually being “Judgment”. These “strokes” inflicted upon Egypt were 3 sets of 3, all progressive in nature. The first set of three involved the whole land of Egypt and everybody in it: Egyptians, Hebrews, visitors, all were affected. And, they were generally mild in nature, causing little more than discomfort. The next 2 sets of 3 “strokes” were visited only upon the Egyptians; God in this way divided and separated His people from the others in the land of Egypt; He made a distinction between Israel and all others. The 3rd stroke of each group of 3 always came unannounced to Pharaoh.

5 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them.

What separated these 9 devastations from the same types of occurrences which appeared naturally, occasionally, was that they occurred at Moses’ commands, they came at an abnormal time of year, they were greatly more severe than had ever occurred before, and they happened one right after the other. It left no doubt to the Hebrews or the Egyptians that the God of Israel controlled every natural process known to them.

6 And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded them, so did they. 7 And Moses was fourscore years old, and Aaron fourscore and three years old, when they spake unto Pharaoh. 8 And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, 9 When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying, Shew a miracle for you: then thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become a serpent.

H8577 תַּנִּין tanniyn (tan-neen’) n-m. a marine or land monster. Crocodile. Ezekiel 29:3,9 “Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon {tanniyn} that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself. And the land of Egypt shall be desolate and waste; and they shall know that I am the Lord: because he hath said, The river is mine, and I have made it.” The representation of Pharaoh as a ‘god’ is the crocodile headed man image. This was plague pointed specifically and purposefully at Pharaoh.

10 And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the Lord had commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent. 11 Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments. 12 For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods. 13 And he hardened Pharaoh’s heart, that he hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had said. 14 And the Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh’s heart is hardened, he refuseth to let the people go. 15 Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning; lo, he goeth out unto the water; and thou shalt stand by the river’s brink against he come; and the rod which was turned to a serpent shalt thou take in thine hand. 16 And thou shalt say unto him, The Lord God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee, saying, Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness: and, behold, hitherto thou wouldest not hear. 17 Thus saith the Lord, In this thou shalt know that I am the Lord: behold, I will smite with the rod that is in mine hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood.

Every year at the time of the rise of the Nile, silt would color the water a characteristic red, and the rich nutrients contained in the silt spurred the growth of micro-organisms to create an effect that most of us who live near the ocean are familiar with: a Red Tide. This eats up necessary oxygen, thereby killing millions of fish, and causing a terrible stench. The miracle was that Moses caused it to happen upon his command, it happened when the Nile was NOT in the rising season, and it even contaminated already drawn water in the vessels in which the water was being stored. This could be taken as a hint to the 10th plague: When Moses was born the command to throw the male children into the Nile would have been a gruesome sight. The crocodiles would have had a feeding frenzy and would have turned that specific area of the Nile to bloody waters. The combination of death, blood and crocodiles would be repaid upon all of Egypt not just Pharaoh.

• Matthew 10:26 “Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.”

18 And the fish that is in the river shall die, and the river shall stink; and the Egyptians shall lothe to drink of the water of the river. 19 And the Lord spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood; and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone. 20 And Moses and Aaron did so, as the Lord commanded; and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood. 21 And the fish that was in the river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. 22 And the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments: and Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, neither did he hearken unto them; as the Lord had said.

Hapi was the god of the annual flooding of the Nile. He was sometimes called ‘Lord of the Fishes and Birds of the Marshes’ or ‘Lord of the River Bringing Vegetation’. Hapi is typically depicted as an intersex person with a large belly and pendulous breasts, wearing a loincloth and ceremonial false beard and symbolized fertility. According to Donald A. MacKenzie (1922), the “whitish muddy Nile may have been identified with milk”. During the inundation flood, the Egyptians would throw offerings, amulets and other sacrifices into the Nile at certain places, sacred to Hapi. YHWH overcame Hapi by turning the fertile waters supposedly in the god’s control into blood.

23 And Pharaoh turned and went into his house, neither did he set his heart to this also. 24 And all the Egyptians digged round about the river for water to drink; for they could not drink of the water of the river. 25 And seven days were fulfilled, after that the Lord had smitten the river.

Many speculate that from the 1st plague to the final judgment (killing of the firstborns) was approximately 10 months. We know that the judgment upon when God killed all of Egypt’s firstborn and which marks the first Passover, happened on the night of the 14th of Nisan, late winter, early spring. The event began in May-June, based on the development of certain of the field crops, and ended the following March-April. This series of blows against Egypt played out over an extended period of time and Pharaoh and his advisors had ample time to consider what was happening.

8:1 And the Lord spake unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Let my people go, that they may serve me. 2 And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs:

The inundation of frogs is also a naturally occurring phenomenon along the Nile, only in much smaller numbers than we have here. This typically occurs along the Nile in the October/November time frame, so we have a sort of mile marker to watch the progression of the strokes upon Egypt that had begun in summer, and now the latest one, the frogs, was occurring in the Fall. Heket was an Egyptian goddess of life and fertility in the form of a human with a head of a frog. She was associated with the final stages of childbirth. The name is written as ḥqt with the determinative “frog”, or alternatively as ḥqtyt with the “egg” (goddess) determinative. Midwives often called themselves the Servants of Heqet, and that as her priestesses they were trained in midwifery. In this era, in Egypt, killing a frog was forbidden. Here YHWH proved Himself more powerful than Heket. While the frogs overtook even the Egyptians’ beds, they could do nothing, not even sweep them from their homes.

3 And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into thine house, and into thy bedchamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy kneading troughs: 4 And the frogs shall come up both on thee, and upon thy people, and upon all thy servants. 5 And the Lord spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch forth thine hand with thy rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt. 6 And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt. 7 And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt.

Once again, Pharaoh summons his sorcerers, and they imitate what Moses and Aaron have done. It was important to Pharaoh to play down any power that Moses and his god seem to have, because it was certainly irrational to simply add to the already out-of-control frog plague. As in the first plague, Pharaoh’s magicians could imitate to a degree what Moses had commanded, but they couldn’t overturn what God had done. This an important attribute of Satan, who is the source of all power that is not from God, Satan can, to a degree, imitate or counterfeit supernatural occurrences brought about by God. This is attested to all throughout the Scriptures and is demonstrated for us here in Exodus. But, what Satan cannot do, is Undo what God has decided will be.

8 Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, Intreat the Lord, that he may take away the frogs from me, and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may do sacrifice unto the Lord. 9 And Moses said unto Pharaoh, Glory over me: when shall I intreat for thee, and for thy servants, and for thy people, to destroy the frogs from thee and thy houses, that they may remain in the river only?

Moses asks Pharaoh exactly WHEN he’d like the frogs to disappear. Talk about rubbing it in. But, there was a very important point to all this: the act of Moses letting Pharaoh determine the time and place for the frog removal activities, something that neither Pharaoh nor his magicians could do. This served to emphasize the God of the Hebrews’ enormous power.

10 And he said, Tomorrow. And he said, Be it according to thy word: that thou mayest know that there is none like unto the Lord our God. 11 And the frogs shall depart from thee, and from thy houses, and from thy servants, and from thy people; they shall remain in the river only. 12 And Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh: and Moses cried unto the Lord because of the frogs which he had brought against Pharaoh. 13 And the Lord did according to the word of Moses; and the frogs died out of the houses, out of the villages, and out of the fields. 14 And they gathered them together upon heaps: and the land stank. 15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had said.

Opposed to it being God who hardened Pharaoh this time, it was Pharaoh who hardened his own heart this time. The Hebrew word that is translated “relief” or “respite” is “revacha” and, it literally means ‘breathing room’. So, here we are told the whole land stunk from the piles of dead frogs, but, when the Pharaoh finally got some breathing-room, when the stench died down, he changed his mind.

16 And the Lord said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, and smite the dust of the land, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt. (What we don’t see here is Yehoveh telling Moses to go to Pharaoh with a warning, rather, He simply instructs Moses to inflict the plague upon the land.)

17 And they did so; for Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man, and in beast; all the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt. 18 And the magicians did so with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not: so there were lice upon man, and upon beast. 19 Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, This is the finger of God: and Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had said.

The magicians are saying that this was not the work of Moses and Aaron, whom they thought were Hebrew magicians, and up to now, it seemed to be a battle of Egypt’s sorcerers against the Israelite sorcerers. Pharaoh’s sorcerers basically said, “it’s not our fault”; “it wasn’t a fair fight”….. that they didn’t lose to Moses and Aaron; they were defeated DIRECTLY by the Hebrew God.

20 And the Lord said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh; lo, he cometh forth to the water; and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Let my people go, that they may serve me. 21 Else, if thou wilt not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses: and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are.

The destruction of plants, animals and humans came with warble flies. Warble fly is a name given to the genus Hypoderma, large flies which are parasitic on cattle, deer, horses, sheep, goats, and humans. The Egyptian gods were equated with the solar system and considered to have control over creation. Khepri was connected with the scarab beetle (kheprer), because the scarab rolls balls of dung across the ground, an act that the Egyptians saw as a symbol of the forces that move the sun across the sky. Kheper, (or Xeper) is a transcription of an ancient Egyptian word meaning to come into being, to change, to occur, to happen, to exist, to bring about, to create, etc. Thusly in this plague YHWH overtook the god Khepri.

22 And I will sever (set apart) in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there; to the end thou mayest know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth. 23 And I will put a division between my people and thy people: tomorrow shall this sign be.

Make no mistake the Israelites would be hated by the Egyptians immediately for this separation. The “Church” today has become so sensitive to this same type of hatred, that many denominations are going out of their way to say faith in pretty much any spiritual being is a good and valid faith; essentially pronouncing that God makes NO distinction among people or nations. A loud and growing body of “Church” leaders proclaim we are ALL worship the same God whether we call him Allah, Buddha, Hindi or Yehoveh. All of these misguided leaders apparently don’t know that they’re actually worshipping THEIR god and not THE God. The separation and setting a part of a people to the honor and glory of YHVH began with Adam & Eve, continued with Abraham, then Isaac and Jacob, and is being defined again here with Moses.

• Psalm 4:3 “But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself: the Lord will hear when I call unto him.”

24 And the Lord did so; and there came a grievous swarm of flies into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants’ houses, and into all the land of Egypt: the land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies. 25 And Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron, and said, Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land.

The original Hebrew says “Yehoveh”, not Lord, not God, not Adonai. Pharaoh calls the Hebrew God by His personal name. This is quite a concession. There is actually some respect growing here, by Pharaoh, towards Yehoveh.

26 And Moses said, It is not meet so to do; for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God: lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us?

Oxen and cattle, among other animals were divine to the Egyptians. If the Hebrews were to kill and burn up a bull, which they surely would have, in sight of the Egyptians [a bull is one of their MOST divine gods], it would have been a grievous offense and indeed the Egyptians would have sought terrible retribution.

27 We will go three days’ journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the Lord our God, as he shall command us. 28 And Pharaoh said, I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness; only ye shall not go very far away: intreat for me. 29 And Moses said, Behold, I go out from thee, and I will intreat the Lord that the swarms of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people, tomorrow: but let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully any more in not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord. 30 And Moses went out from Pharaoh, and intreated the Lord. 31 And the Lord did according to the word of Moses; and he removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people; there remained not one. 32 And Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also, neither would he let the people go.

9:1 Then the Lord said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh, and tell him, Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. 2 For if thou refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them still, 3 Behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain. 4 And the Lord shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt: and there shall nothing die of all that is the children’s of Israel. 5 And the Lord appointed a set time, saying, Tomorrow the Lord shall do this thing in the land. 6 And the Lord did that thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of Egypt died: but of the cattle of the children of Israel died not one.

This was a humiliating and devastating blow to the Egyptian people as their food supply and their economy was greatly affected. In Egyptian mythology, Apis is a sacred bull worshipped in the Memphis region. Identified as the son of Hathor, a primary deity in the pantheon of Ancient Egypt. Initially, he was assigned a significant role in her worship, being sacrificed and reborn. Later, Apis also served as an intermediary between humans and other powerful deities (originally Ptah, later Osiris, then Atum).

Apis was identified with Serapis of the late Hellenistic period and may well be identical with him. This animal was chosen because it symbolized the courageous heart, great strength, and fighting spirit of the king. Apis came to being considered a manifestation of the king, as bulls were symbols of strength and fertility. [The bull was a representation of Nimrod.] At the temple, Apis was used as an oracle, his movements being interpreted as prophecies. His breath was believed to cure disease and his presence to bless those around with strength. Here YHWH proved himself more powerful than Apis. The pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk uses Apis as its logo.

7 And Pharaoh sent, and, behold, there was not one of the cattle of the Israelites dead. And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go. 8 And the Lord said unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh.

God is a God of order, He is not a God of chaos or serendipity. The Scripture lays down many patterns and types for us, so that in our lives we can reasonably know the general nature of how our God responds to us and to various circumstances. Biblical history would be utterly useless except as a curiosity, something to satisfy our love of knowledge, if it did not show us God’s patterns and principles. If we did not see these patterns constantly repeated then we would have good reason to doubt an important pillar of our faith: God never changes. This is the 3rd plague of the 2nd set of plagues and again we see Pharaoh received no warning. We can be confident that the way God moves, even the last days of the world, will be in the same patterns He has established since the Creation.

9 And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt. 10 And they took ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven; and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast.

Cleanliness being paramount in the Egyptian society, this plague pronounced the people “unclean.” The magicians are unable to perform ceremonially rituals to their Egyptian gods and goddesses in this unclean state. They cannot even stand before Pharaoh and are seen no more in the scriptural account. Revelation 16:1-2 “And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.”

11 And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils; for the boil was upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians. 12 And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had spoken unto Moses. 13 And the Lord said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. 14 For I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart (religious belief system), and upon thy servants, and upon thy people; that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth.

Set, Apis and Ra were the top 3 gods of Egypt and they will be summarily destroyed in the next plagues or strikes

15 For now I will stretch out my hand, that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence; and thou shalt be cut off from the earth. 16 And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth. 17 As yet exaltest thou thyself against my people, that thou wilt not let them go? 18 Behold, to morrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now. 19 Send therefore now, and gather thy cattle, and all that thou hast in the field; for upon every man and beast which shall be found in the field, and shall not be brought home, the hail shall come down upon them, and they shall die. 20 He that feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses: 21 And he that regarded not the word of the Lord left his servants and his cattle in the field.

Set is the god of the desert, storms, disorder, violence and foreigners. Set is portrayed as a beast resembling no known creature, although it could be seen as a composite of an aardvark, a donkey, a jackal or a fennec fox. Set has also been classed as a trickster deity who, as a god of disorder, resorts to deception to achieve bad ends. YHWH proved himself more powerful than Set.

22 And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch forth thine hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon man, and upon beast, and upon every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt. 23 And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. 24 So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.

• Revelation 8:7 “The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.”
• Matthew 24:21 “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.”
• Luke 21:36 “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.”

25 And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field. 26 Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail. 27 And Pharaoh sent, and called for Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, I have sinned this time: the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. 28 Intreat the Lord (for it is enough) that there be no more mighty thunderings and hail; and I will let you go, and ye shall stay no longer. 29 And Moses said unto him, As soon as I am gone out of the city, I will spread abroad my hands unto the Lord; and the thunder shall cease, neither shall there be any more hail; that thou mayest know how that the earth is the Lord’s. 30 But as for thee and thy servants, I know that ye will not yet fear the Lord God. 31 And the flax and the barley was smitten: for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was bolled.

We get a pretty good idea of the time of year this hailstorm occurred, because were told that the barley was in ears or the ripening stage, and the flax was in buds, just behind the development of the barley. But, that the wheat and the rie [black cumin] were not devastated because they were in the early stages of development. So, this would have been about the end of January or the first of February. The famous Greek physician Dioscorides used black cumin seeds to treat headaches and toothaches. These humble seeds have been found superior to almost every other natural remedy when used for autoimmune disorders, they tend to aid digestion and relieve gases in the stomach and intestines, as well as relief from asthma and allergies.

32 But the wheat and the rie were not smitten: for they were not grown up. 33 And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands unto the Lord: and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured upon the earth. 34 And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants. 35 And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, neither would he let the children of Israel go; as the Lord had spoken by Moses.

10:1 And the Lord said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh: for I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his servants, that I might shew these my signs before him: 2 And that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son’s son, what things I have wrought in Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them; that ye may know how that I am the Lord.

This is for a divine purpose: that all these miracles, signs, will occur and they will be seen and remembered among the Hebrews from generation to generation. God’s decisions are intended to achieve His purposes, to the best benefit of His Kingdom, not our personal, individual, earthly well-being. Our happiness, comfort, success, are all entirely secondary to God’s divine purpose of bringing in His Kingdom.

3 And Moses and Aaron came in unto Pharaoh, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me? let my people go, that they may serve me.

• Acts 9:1-4 “And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?”

Pharaoh considered himself to be the son of Ra, the sun-god, and premier deity of Egypt. The word for evil in Hebrew is …. H7451 רַע ra (rah) adj. Pharaoh considered himself to be the most divine and righteous ruler in the world. His pride kept him from following the instructions of YHWH to his demise.

• Revelation 3:17 “Because thou sayest, I am rich {abounding with influence}, and increased with goods {to be wealthy}, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched {enduring trials}, and miserable {to be pitied}, and poor {scared or distressed}, and blind {G5187 conceited}, and naked {without spiritual covering}”

4 Else, if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow will I bring the locusts into thy coast:
5 And they shall cover the face of the earth, that one cannot be able to see the earth: and they shall eat the residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail, and shall eat every tree which groweth for you out of the field:
6 And they shall fill thy houses, and the houses of all thy servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians; which neither thy fathers, nor thy fathers’ fathers have seen, since the day that they were upon the earth unto this day. And he turned himself, and went out from Pharaoh.
7 And Pharaoh’s servants said unto him, How long shall this man be a snare unto us? let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God: knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed?

• Revelation 9:1-6 “And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man. And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.”

8 And Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh: and he said unto them, Go, serve the Lord your God: but who are they that shall go?
9 And Moses said, We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go; for we must hold a feast unto the Lord.
10 And he said unto them, Let the Lord be so with you, as I will let you go, and your little ones: look to it; for evil is before you.
11 Not so: go now ye that are men, and serve the Lord; for that ye did desire. And they were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence.
12 And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up upon the land of Egypt, and eat every herb of the land, even all that the hail hath left.
13 And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts.
14 And the locust went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the coasts of Egypt: very grievous were they; before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such.
15 For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left: and there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt.

The cult of Serapis was introduced during the 3rd century BC by Egypt’s Ptolemy I as a means to unify the Greeks and Egyptians under his rule. The statue depicted a figure resembling Hades or Pluto, both being kings of the Greek underworld, enthroned with the modius, a basket/grain-measure, on his head, since it was a Greek symbol for the land of the dead.

Grains were, and still are, the life source for the majority of people. Serapis was worshipped as the benevolent provider of the harvest in direct association with the people’s worship. While another god Neper was especially associated with the most used types of grain, namely barley and emmer wheat. His name simply means lord of the mouth, a reference to the function of grain as sustenance. And, YHWH judged the god Serapis and found him false. The locusts would drive Egypt into death… through starvation. Serapis is defeated.

16 Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste; and he said, I have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you.
17 Now therefore forgive, I pray thee, my sin only this once, and intreat the Lord your God, that he may take away from me this death only.
18 And he went out from Pharaoh, and intreated the Lord.
19 And the Lord turned a mighty strong west wind, which took away the locusts, and cast them into the Red sea; there remained not one locust in all the coasts of Egypt.
20 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go.
21 And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt.

• Revelation 6:12 “And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood”

22 And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days:
23 They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light {ONLY} in their dwellings.

Ra is the ancient Egyptian sun god. By the Fifth Dynasty in the 25th and 24th centuries B.C.E., he had become a major god in ancient Egyptian religion, identified primarily with the noon sun. He was believed to rule in all parts of the created world: the sky, the earth, and the underworld. He was associated with the falcon or hawk. Ra was worshipped as the Creator god among some ancient Egyptians, specifically followers of his cult at Heliopolis. It was believed that Ra wept, and from his tears came man. Montu was an ancient god, his name meaning nomad, originally a manifestation of the scorching effect of the sun, Ra, resulting in the epithet Montu-Ra. YHWH defeats Ra handily. Darkness that is a foreshadowing of final death, of spiritual death, of evil, which is near. This darkness is not only seen, but is so thick that it is literally felt; a darkness that is far more than merely the absence of light it is the eerie, discomforting and foreboding darkness. What God did here, He also had done at Creation: He separated, He made a distinction, and He divided the darkness from the light. The idea that no one could “move from his spot”, that is, they couldn’t even see to move around, does not reflect a typical nighttime experience. This is a taste of the true malevolence of spiritual darkness “chosek” that renders humanity helpless and hapless. Israel was celebrating joyously for they were experiencing light, they knew the time of deliverance was near. Will the “church” react the same when they are in the midst of the judgments of the tribulation? Or will they too cower in fear because of their lack of knowledge of the scriptures waiting for a “rapture”? Also see the significance of the 3 days of the absence of light coincides ideologically with the 3 days Yeshua was in the grave. Yet, in Heaven, great joyousness was taking place, for deliverance was at hand.

24 And Pharaoh called unto Moses, and said, Go ye, serve the Lord; only let your flocks and your herds be stayed: let your little ones also go with you.
25 And Moses said, Thou must give us also sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice unto the Lord our God.
26 Our cattle also shall go with us; there shall not an hoof be left behind; for thereof must we take to serve the Lord our God; and we know not with what we must serve the Lord, until we come thither.
27 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let them go.
28 And Pharaoh said unto him, Get thee from me, take heed to thyself, see my face no more; for in that day thou seest my face thou shalt die.
29 And Moses said, Thou hast spoken well, I will see thy face again no more.

• Jeremiah 23:7-8 “Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But, The Lord liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.”

11:1 And the LORD said unto Moses, Yet will I bring one plague more upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt; afterwards he will let you go hence: when he shall let you go, he shall surely thrust you out hence altogether.
2 Speak now in the ears of the people, and let every man borrow of his neighbour, and every woman of her neighbour, jewels of silver and jewels of gold.
3 And the LORD gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants, and in the sight of the people.
4 And Moses said, Thus saith the LORD, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt:
5 And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first born of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts.
6 And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more.
7 But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that the LORD doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. (A clearly defined manner, behavior, or way of living which sets apart one group from another.)
8 And all these thy servants shall come down unto me, and bow down themselves unto me, saying, Get thee out, and all the people that follow thee: and after that I will go out. And he went out from Pharaoh in a great anger.
9 And the LORD said unto Moses, Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you; that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.
10 And Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh: and the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go out of his land.

12:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying,
2 This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.

The Egyptian calendar was based on the sun cycles because they worshipped the sun as a deity. We are to follow the calendar of YHWH which based on a lunar cycle. Also the days are numbered not named. Colossians 2:16 “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days” What Paul is telling the converts from paganism is to keep the commands of the Torah and do not worry about how they treated by their former co-partakers in paganism as they will surely make fun or deride them.

3 Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house:
4 And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.
5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:

First, this has to be a MALE lamb. Second, it has to be one year old. In other words, we are not talking about some cute, fuzzy little baby creature taken from its mother; this is not an animal that your kindergartner could carry around. A one-year-old male sheep is called a Ram. They have horns, they’ve developed a certain amount of aggression (for a sheep), and they’re pretty big……50-100 lbs perhaps.

6 And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.
7 And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.
8 And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.
9 Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof.
10 And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire.
11 And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the LORD’s Passover.

Mitzvot is the plural form of the Hebrew noun mitzvah. This noun is, like virtually all Hebrew words, derived from a verb, namely the verb tzavah. Tzavah is made up of the three letters: [tzade] – pictographically representing a man bowing in submission under the Hand of YHVH, [vav] – pictograph of a nail or peg attaching one thing to another, and [hey] is a pictograph of an open window or tent, the nomadic symbol of fresh air [symbolic of refreshing or inspiration] and a perspective of the outside world [symbolic of revelation].

Thus Tzavah pictures a man living in submission to YHVH being connected to true revelation and inspiration. Adding as a prefix to the verb, the letter [mem] – a pictograph of waves in motion – means that the process of this ‘man connected’ is an ongoing and progressive process. Mitzvot, or commandments [Anglican word], are Divine pronouncements designed to be an ongoing interactive process to connect men who are willingly submissive to YHVH with true revelation and inspiration.

The Hebrew concept is NOT that of commanding involvement, moreover, it is a pathway for the connection to the true revelation and inspiration. Submission to the Torah were never intended to be the way to eternal life. To the contrary, when properly understood, Torah submission is, – and always has been, the lifestyle of those that have already received redemption through the appropriation of the spilled blood of the sacrifice. Yeshua became the final sacrifice.

• 1 John 5:2 “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments {mitzvoth}.”
• 1 Peter 1:1-2 “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, the Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.

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: I am the LORD.

Bes is an Ancient Egyptian deity worshipped as a protector of households, and in particular, of mothers and children and childbirth. Bes later came to be regarded as the defender of everything good and the enemy of all that is bad. While Iat is minor goddess of milk and, by association, of nurturing and childbirth. Meskhenet, was also a goddess of childbirth and the creator of each child’s Ka, a part of the soul, which she breathed into them at the moment of birth. She was worshipped from the earliest of times by Egyptians. After YHWH completed his judgment of Egypt’s gods and goddesses, the political powerhouse that was Egypt would never be as great again.

Much like the flood of Noah, these plagues laid bare the ineptitude of Egypt’s false gods and the all-powerful kingship of YHWH who is alone worthy to be worshipped. Yet, the following kingdoms of Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greeks and Romans perpetuated the same worship despite its proven lack of power.

If there is any doubt among people concerning these accounts; in September 2014 a lawsuit was filed by Egyptian academic Amar Ali Hassan, a PHD in political science, demanding that Israel return with interest all the gold and other items they received from the Egyptians at the time of the Exodus. When we look ahead at the end-times scenarios of the Bible, and we are told of these cataclysmic events that will eclipse all of human history, we typically want to convert the visions of God’s prophets describing these events into high-tech and science-gone-mad experiments; fact is, nothing man has invented or is likely to invent has ever approached the power of a single thunderstorm, tsunami or earthquake.

When people look back at these horrible upheavals of nature over the last few years, we tend to completely dismiss the hand of God, saying “this is just nature doing its thing”, usually accompanied by “don’t make it one of these wacko religious judgment pronouncements”.

• Micah 7:15-17 “According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I shew unto him marvelous things. The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might: they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf. They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth: they shall be afraid of the Lord our God, and shall fear because of thee.”

YHVH is ALWAYS trying to get our attention, for our own good, not our personal good, for our spiritual and eternal good.

• Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

13 And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.
14 And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.

The spiritual meaning of Passover in Exodus was only revealed upon Yeshua’s death on the cross. All the Biblical feasts, which we have been taught by the Church to ignore as obsolete and irrelevant because they’re part of the Old Testament (which it regards as abolished), were set up by God as a model for the purpose of teaching and preparing us for their ultimate fulfillment, the Revelation of Messiah or the Second coming. All due to the tradition established by a Roman politician almost 1700 years ago, as a compromise to the pagan Sun worshippers and the anti-Jewish Church Bishops, the “church” today has abandoned the God-ordained remembrances. Believers today should follow God’s divine ordinance for Passover rather than manmade doctrines, built around manmade political and social agendas, especially concerning this unequalled memorial feast. Last time I checked, forever means forever…..not until some Roman Bishop or Emperor decided otherwise.

15 Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.
16 And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you.
17 And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance forever.

Each of these parts of the Passover Ritual had spiritual meaning. The Passover Ram, of course, pointed to the ultimate deliverer from death, Yeshua Ha Mashiach. The bitter herbs signified the Israelites bitter centuries of captivity and hard labor in Egypt. The unleavened bread spoke of sincerity and truth……leaven in the Bible is symbolic of sin and deceit. The bitter herbs eaten together with the sweet unleavened bread signified the bittersweet event that the Passover was: death for those who were the ransom {Egypt}, life to others whom the Lord has set-apart from the rest {the Israelites}. In its ultimate fulfillment it meant death for our ransom, Yeshua, and life for other, Believers. The Ram was to be served whole, complete not a bone of the animal was to be broken. This was a precursor of Christ who did not have a bone broken in His execution {though breaking the leg bones of the victim was customary during a Roman Crucifixion, they did not do so to Yeshua}.The Hyssop branch signified purification which scholars think is a species of what we call Oregano.

18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even.
19 Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land.
20 Ye shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread.
21 Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the passover.
22 And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning.
23 For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.
24 And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons forever.
25 And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the LORD will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service.
26 And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service?
27 That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the LORD’s Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped.
28 And the children of Israel went away, and did as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they.
29 And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle.

God gave Pharaoh and the people nine prior opportunities to adhere to His divine wishes, now unstoppable, unswayable, and unapologetically bringing about terrible judgment from which there was no escape…….EXCEPT……..for Israel and all those joined to Israel, who depended on the blood of the Lamb. Trust God, by trusting in Yeshua, and you have joined the House of Israel or the Ammim {people} of God. Trust Christ, sprinkle His blood on your house, i.e. your spiritual body and you will have life. Don’t, and eternal death is the certain result. There is no in between, there is no alternative, there is no neutrality, and there is no escape.

30 And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry (H6818 צַעֲקָה tsaaqah (tsah-ak-aw’) n-f. a shriek or scream.) in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead. 31 And he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise up, and get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel; and go, serve the LORD, as ye have said. 32 Also take your flocks and your herds, as ye have said, and be gone; and bless me also. 33 And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste; for they said, We be all dead men.

34 And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders. 35 And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: 36 And the LORD gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians. 37 And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth (Sukkot), about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside children.

The Biblical Feast of the Tabernacles, also known in Hebrew as Sukkot [plural], and also referred to as “booths” or “huts”. This fall festival is the grand finale to end the yearly festival cycle. The idea here is of temporary shelter or a temporary stopping place, a place you pass through on your way to somewhere else. A sukkah [singular] is the name of the temporary dwelling in which farmers would live during harvesting, also intended as, a reminiscence of the type of fragile and temporary dwellings in which we live, the human body. Likewise a reminder of our temporary dwelling in this the corrupted world awaiting the perfect world to come. Lastly it is representative of YHWH gathering together His holy people in the end days.

38 And a mixed multitude went up also with them; and flocks, and herds, even very much cattle.

The 600,000 consists of males from about 20 to about 50 years of age. No children of either sex were included. No women were counted and no males older than about 50 were included. If each man had only ONE wife, and some men at that time had MORE than one wife {and of course some had none}, then the 600,000 gets doubled to 1.2 million. If each couple had only 2 children {and we know that the average household had as many children as possible}, then the 1.2 million would double to 2.4 million. Thousands more Israelites lived throughout Egypt and joined the Israelites during their journey. A “mixed multitude” meant Israelites, Egyptians, foreigners of several nationalities and races, of which there were scores of thousands living in Egypt at that time, families that consisted of Israelites who had married Egyptians, perhaps several generations earlier, and had only marginally continued to identify themselves with Israel. The equivalent of the population of the entire state of Oregon was leaving Egypt.

39 And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought forth out of Egypt, for it was not leavened; because they were thrust out of Egypt, and could not tarry, neither had they prepared for themselves any victual. 40 Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years. 41 And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.

Most literally from the original Hebrew, the phrase is “Yehoveh’s forces”. In fact, the Hebrew word used to describe the hosts or divisions or forces is “tsaba”. Tsaba indeed means hosts, or forces, because its sense is normally of a military.

42 It is a night to be much observed unto the LORD for bringing them out from the land of Egypt: this is that night of the LORD to be observed of all the children of Israel in their generations.

When did the Israelites leave Egypt? ON PASSOVER!! On Nisan the 14th. Remember, by the Hebrew way of reckoning, a day is sundown to sundown. They finished their Passover meal during the nighttime, and in the following morning, at sunrise, which was still the same day, they packed up and left. Our personal Passover, our redemption from eternal death, is immediately upon accepting Yeshua and we are also free to leave our bondage to sin. We don’t have to wait for something else to happen in order to leave the worlds servitude and begin serving God.

43 And the LORD said unto Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the Passover: There shall no stranger eat thereof: 44 But every man’s servant that is bought for money, when thou hast circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof. (indicating he has been joined to Israel) 45 A foreigner and an hired servant shall not eat thereof. 46 In one house shall it be eaten; thou shalt not carry forth ought of the flesh abroad out of the house; neither shall ye break a bone thereof. 47 All the congregation of Israel shall keep it. 48 And when a stranger shall sojourn with thee, and will 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: for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof. 49 One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you.

Yeshua is the highest fulfillment of Passover, that HE is the sacrificial Passover Ram for all, that those of us who are born OUTSIDE of the genealogical line of Abraham (gentiles), born OUTSIDE the natural family of Israel, we are grafted into, joined with, the nation of people who ARE of the line of Abraham when we accept Christ from the Spiritual aspect. Summed up by Romans 11:17 where Paul says in his Olive Tree analogy, “But if some of the branches were broken off {the Israelites of the diaspora}, and YOU {converted from gentile [Goyim] to believer [Ammim]} a wild olive were grafted in among them and have become equal sharers in the rich root of the olive tree…..” Israel is symbolized in Scripture as the Olive Tree and Yeshua is the Root.

And, in Romans 11:24 “For if you {Goyim} were cut out of what is by nature a wild olive tree and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated Olive Tree {Israel/Ammim}, how much more will these natural branches {those Israelites that were cut off because of disbelief and worshipping foreign gods} be grafted {after repentance and accepting Yeshua} back into their own Olive Tree”.

From God’s spiritual perspective, a Goyim [not My people] becoming a believer is grafted into the covenants of Israel, the Ammim [My people]. And, it is those covenants that, from a spiritual aspect, makes Israel, Israel, and separates them, and now us, from everyone else. God did NOT give His covenants to Goyim. They went ONLY to Israel. By trusting in Jesus as Lord and Messiah we are grafted into the covenants of Israel. You did not become a “Jew” you were adopted into the House of Israel.

• Ephesians 2:19 “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God {Israel/Ammim}”
• Romans 10:12 “For there is no difference between the Jew {The natural Olive Tree in rebellion} and the Greek {Goyim}: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.”

Yeshua did NOT end this distinction between Israel [Ammim] and the world [Goyim] He simply provided a lasting way for the Goyim to partake of, to be grafted into the covenants promised to the Ammim, by means of His own blood. The ‘New Covenant’ is not a covenant between God and gentiles {Goyim}; it is a covenant with Israel, the Ammim.

• Romans 9:25-26 “As he saith also in Osee {Elah}, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.”
• 1 Corinthians 5:7 “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us”
• Romans 9:6-8 “Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel {Jews}, which are of Israel {Ammim/my people}: Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children {Ammim/my people}: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise {Ammim/my people} are counted for the seed.

Not everyone who is part of physical Israel will belong to spiritual Israel, and not everyone who is part of spiritual Israel will be physical Israelites.

The Gospel is primarily about redemption and redemption is NOT God’s end plan; redemption is NOT the be-all, end-all of the Creator’s divine purposes; redemption is just a step, among many other steps along the way to the final stage of His vision of having a Universe of perfection, full of beings that love Him and commune with Him, for all eternity. People have lost sight of making disciples and have focused on making converts. It is the disciple that knows YHWH intimately and seeks to live according to His plan/Torah.

50 Thus did all the children of Israel; as the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they. 51 And it came to pass the selfsame day, that the LORD did bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies.

Egypt is representative of the world at large…all those NOT joined to Israel. To this very day, and to the end of time, God sees the world as Israel, and then everybody else.

• Ezekiel 20:6-20 “In the day that I lifted up mine hand unto them, to bring them forth of the land of Egypt into a land that I had espied for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands: Then said I unto them, Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. But they rebelled against me, and would not hearken unto me: they did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt: then I said, I will pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt. But I wrought for my name’s sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, among whom they were, in whose sight I made myself known unto them, in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt. Wherefore I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness. And I gave them my statutes, and shewed them my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them. Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them. But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: they walked not in my statutes, and they despised my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; and my Sabbaths they greatly polluted: then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them. But I wrought for my name’s sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, in whose sight I brought them out. Yet also I lifted up my hand unto them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands; Because they despised my judgments, and walked not in my statutes, but polluted my Sabbaths: for their heart went after their idols. Nevertheless mine eye spared them from destroying them, neither did I make an end of them in the wilderness. But I said unto their children in the wilderness, Walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers, neither observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols: I am the Lord your God; walk in my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; And hallow my Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.

• Hebrews 3:17-4:1 “But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.”
• 1 Corinthians 10:11 “Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.”

13:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2 Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast: it is mine. 3 And Moses said unto the people, Remember this day, in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the LORD brought you out from this place: there shall no leavened bread be eaten. 4 This day came ye out in the month Abib. 5 And it shall be when the LORD shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee, a land flowing with milk and honey, that thou shalt keep this service in this month.

The Land of Canaan was NOT a nation with sovereign borders; it was just an area of land given a general name for the sake of identification. It was an area predominately inhabited by descendants of Canaan, who were accursed by God via Noah, as a result of Canaan’s father, Ham. These descendants had formed their own independent people groups, several of them becoming small city-states, each with their own king and usually with their own set of gods.

6 Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, and in the seventh day shall be a feast to the LORD. 7 Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days; and there shall no leavened bread be seen with thee, neither shall there be leaven seen with thee in all thy quarters. 8 And thou shalt shew thy son in that day, saying, This is done because of that which the LORD did unto me when I came forth out of Egypt. 9 And it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand, and for a memorial between thine eyes, that the LORD’s law may be in thy mouth: for with a strong hand hath the LORD brought thee out of Egypt.

Nobody knows exactly when the tradition started, a peculiar practice by Orthodox Jews, of wearing this strange headband with a little black box attached that sits squarely in the middle of their foreheads. And, of these same Jews wrapping a leather strap around their forearm and wrist, also with a little black box attached. These wraps are called Tefillin in Hebrew, and Phylacteries in the Greek. The black boxes contain tiny scrolls with certain prescribed O.T. bible verses and prayers written on them: it is standard that they use Ex.13 verses 1-10 and 11-16; and Deut.6 verses 4-9, and Deut.11 verses13-21. So, they have taken this command to remember to its most literal possible sense.

10 Thou shalt therefore keep this ordinance in his season from year to year. 11 And it shall be when the LORD shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites, as he sware unto thee and to thy fathers, and shall give it thee, 12 That thou shalt set apart unto the LORD all that openeth the matrix, and every firstling that cometh of a beast which thou hast; the males shall be the LORD’s. 13 And every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb; and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break his neck: and all the firstborn of man among thy children shalt thou redeem.

This means it became a practice that within 30 days of the birth of a firstborn son, the father paid through the High Priest (or his representative) a price to redeem his son, the price is substitutionary death. The entire concept of redemption is not just about deliverance, or buying back, it is about SUBSTITUTION. Here the price is monetary, by paying a ransom or “padah”; in Egypt it was a lamb, and for us it is Yeshua.

14 And it shall be when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What is this? that thou shalt say unto him, By strength of hand the LORD brought us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage: 15 And it came to pass, when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that the LORD slew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man, and the firstborn of beast: therefore I sacrifice to the LORD all that openeth the matrix, being males; but all the firstborn of my children I redeem. 16 And it shall be for a token (H226 אוֹת ‘owth (oth) n-f. a signal (literally or figuratively), as a flag, beacon, monument, omen, prodigy, evidence, etc.) upon thine hand (source of power i.e. mind), and for frontlets (go around or bind) between thine eyes (as in perception – what one chooses to see): for by strength of hand the LORD brought us forth out of Egypt.

• Revelation 14:9 “And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,”
• Jeremiah 23:7-8 “Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But, The Lord liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.”
• Luke 21:36 “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.”

We have to be aware that we dont do that which has done all our lives; be forever timid about stepping fully into the new life that God has for us. It seems we are forever trying to keep one foot in our familiar and comfortable old life, and the other, gingerly stepping into the changed and unknown way of walking with God. It’s called faith for a reason.

17 And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines (the primary trade routes), although that was near; for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt:

The Egyptians had fortresses strategically located along this highway, both to monitor and guard Egypt from foreign invasion, and to protect the myriads of merchants and traders that traveled this route from the never-ending bands of robbers that attacked the caravans.

18 But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red sea (H5488 סוּף cuwph (soof) n-m. a reed, especially the papyrus. In the original Hebrew texts, the wording is “Sea of Reeds”.) : and the children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt. 19 And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him: for he had straitly sworn the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you; and ye shall carry up my bones away hence with you. 20 And they took their journey from Succoth, and encamped in Etham, in the edge of the wilderness. 21 And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night: 22 He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.

The Lord was not a tour guide or a scout; Yehoveh was their armed escort; He was guarding, protecting, defending and running interference before them. He was going to tell them when to move, and when to stop; when to take a bit of detour, and when to get back onto the path. Isn’t that a wonderful picture of how the Lord operates in our lives, if we will but follow Him?

14:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2 Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and encamp before Pihahiroth (“mouth of the gorge”), between Migdol (tower) and the sea, over against Baalzephon: before it shall ye encamp by the sea.

Baalzephon: Ba’al means Satan, and in Egyptian Zephon means the destroyer. Talk about being between a rock and a hard place! Unknown to the people, Pharaoh is pushing his way towards them.

3 For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled (lost or wandering) in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in. (from a strategic military point of view, had them trapped) 4 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, that he shall follow after them; and I will be honoured (כָּבֵד kabed (kaw-ɓade’) to be heavy ) upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host; that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD. And they did so.

• 1 Corinthians 12:8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit.

5 And it was told the king of Egypt that the people fled: and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people, and they said, Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us? 6 And he made ready his chariot, and took his people with him: 7 And he took six hundred chosen chariots (hired guns), and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over every one of them.

Until Israel had crossed over the Sinai either onto the Arabian Peninsula to the east or the Land of Canaan to the north, they were still on Egyptian territory, which made them vulnerable. This, of course, is why Pharaoh was free to send his soldiers after Israel; for if the Sinai had been controlled by some other nation, the presence of Egyptian soldiers would have meant war with whichever nation claimed control.

8 And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt (hardened = idiom: Pharaoh had contempt for the Hebrew God grew), and he pursued after the children of Israel: and the children of Israel went out with an high hand. (exaltation)

• Numbers 15:30-31 “But the soul that doeth ought presumptuously, whether he be born in the land, or a stranger, the same reproacheth the Lord; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Because he hath despised the word of the Lord, and hath broken his commandment, that soul shall utterly be cut off; his iniquity shall be upon him.”

9 But the Egyptians pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them encamping by the sea, beside Pihahiroth, before Baalzephon. 10 And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid: and the children of Israel cried out unto the LORD. 11 And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt?

People being people, naturally the first thing they did was to seek someone to blame: Moses. And, they sarcastically confront him wanting to know if the only reason he brought them out here is because there wasn’t a sufficient amount of cemetery space back in Egypt. They were whiners, ungrateful, and of little courage.

12 Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness.

Translation: better to serve the evil that we are familiar with and live the life we’re comfortable with, than to follow God in faith, rather this is to us, uncertainty.

13 And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you today: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more forever. 14 The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace. 15 And the LORD said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward: 16 But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.

17 And I, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them: and I will get me honour upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen. 18 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I have gotten me honour upon Pharaoh, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen. 19 And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them: 20 And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night.

YHVH is consistently placing a hedge of protection around his people. Also we see the separation of the just and the unjust. “chosek”, a very negative word; it denoted a type of blindness, an evil or obstructing force……a spiritual darkness. But for the Israelites came “owr”, which referred to enlightenment, a positive spiritual force; something, which emitted truth and goodness. This is the same terminology as the creation account and the 9th plague. Both spiritual darkness and spiritual light are coming from the same source, simultaneously. From this cloud, this angel of God, this almost impossible to explain presence of God, on the one hand comes darkness for the enemy, and on the other hand light for His people. For those who oppose Him, darkness and death; for those who are His own, light and life.

• Revelation 18:4 “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”

21 And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.

Reminder, the word “east” has significant spiritual implications, and often involves the presence of God or a miracle. All night, the EAST wind blows, and the waters are split. The concept of water or more specifically living water being on both their right and their left shows to us that it is The Living Waters that keeps us on the right path. The sea bottom is dried and made firm and passable for the 3 million fugitives sitting trapped on the beach. Simultaneously YHWH was casting the darkness upon the Egyptians and light to the Israelites. This is not doubt supernatural and would have lasted longer than the typical day and night hours for the season.

• 2 Peter 2:18b “those that were clean {just/righteous} escaped from them who live in error.”

22 And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.

• Isaiah 51:10-11 “Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over? Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.”
• Isaiah 35:8-10 “And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there: And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”

23 And the Egyptians pursued, and went in after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. 24 And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the LORD looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians, 25 And took off their chariot wheels, that they drave them heavily: so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel; for the LORD fighteth for them against the Egyptians. 26 And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.

27 And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it; and the LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. 28 And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them. 29 But the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea; and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.

30 Thus the LORD saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore. 31 And Israel saw that great work which the LORD did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD, and his servant Moses.

Just for a time, it wouldn’t be but a few more days before they lost faith again, and the whining and doubt resurfaced. God’s people haven’t changed a whole lot in 3500 years, have we?

***** In The Wilderness********

15:1 Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the LORD, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.

This is the Song of Moses, sometimes called the Song at the Sea. Vs.1-21, what we have here is a song created by man. That is, the exaggerations and prideful expressions and great joy over the death of thousands of Egyptian soldiers that are contained within this song are not necessarily God’s thoughts: but rather man’s spontaneous response to this great victory at the edge of the sea. We have to be careful when to acknowledge something as written down concerning God’s mind as versus man’s mind. All of our Christian music has been created the same way, we express the best way we can, through lyrics and music, our understanding of Heavenly things. It is our interpretations of what it is we THINK we see God doing, and how we THINK God wants to be praised and honored, using tried and true traditional musical structures and methods of presentation familiar within our culture.

2 The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

• Psalm 118: 14 The Lord is my strength and song, and is become my salvation.

3 The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name. 4 Pharaoh’s chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea: his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red sea. 5 The depths have covered them: they sank into the bottom as a stone. 6 Thy right hand, O LORD, is become glorious in power: thy right hand, O LORD, hath dashed in pieces the enemy. 7 And in the greatness of thine excellency thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee: thou sentest forth thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble. 8 And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea.

9 The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them. 10 Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them: they sank as lead in the mighty waters. 11 Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?

The general way the humans at that time looked at the spiritual world [and Israel was no different] was that not only was it composed of multiple gods, but that these gods were also in a celestial power structure. So, on the one hand while Israel looked to Yehoveh as Israel’s only god, on the other hand they did not see Him as the ONLY god that existed, but as the highest god among many gods…..the chief god….in this case mightier than Egypt’s gods. They left Egypt, their minds and souls thoroughly corrupted and full of false assumptions acquired there during their 400-years of service. Israel now knew they had a God, and they knew His name, and they knew He was more powerful than the gods of Egypt, but, they didn’t know much more than that. Like so many people do when first coming to the Lord, they viewed Yehoveh within the context of their education, culture and life experiences. Yehoveh, was their god…..but other people and other nations had their own gods, too. This kind of thinking would lead them, throughout their history, into idol worship, which eventually resulted in bringing God’s judgments upon them on a number of occasions.

12 Thou stretchedst out thy right hand, the earth swallowed them. 13 Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed: thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation. 14 The people shall hear, and be afraid: sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina. 15 Then the dukes of Edom shall be amazed; the mighty men of Moab, trembling shall take hold upon them; all the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away.

The Hebrew word for ‘mighty men of Moab’ is: H352 אַיִל ‘ayil (ah’-yil) n-m. strength, sturdiness; an oak or other strong, sturdy tree. The roots of this word are: אַיָל ‘ayal (ah-yawl’) a stag, (in the sense of ram); אֵילָם ‘eylam (ay-lawm’) a pillar-space or colonnade; אֵילִם ‘Eylim (ay-leem’) n/l. palm-trees; עוּזuwz (ooz) v. to be strong. Is there any doubt to size and the strength of these men? In 1 Chronicles 11:22 and in 2 Samuel 23:20 we see the account recorded, “Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of Kabzeel, who had done many acts; he slew two lionlike men of Moab: also he went down and slew a lion in a pit in a snowy day.”

These verses could speak not only of their bravery but there too their physical appearance. There is some speculation that the men of Moab were Nephilim. Genesis 6:12 “And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.” Some would argue that the events here and in 2 Samuel are well after the flood, which is true, yet this account in Exodus as well as Genesis was recorded by Moses.

• Genesis 6:4 “There were giants {Nephilim} in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.”

16 Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as a stone; till thy people pass over, O LORD, till the people pass over, which thou hast purchased.

17 Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O LORD, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O LORD, which thy hands have established.

18 The LORD shall reign for ever and ever.

19 For the horse of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and the LORD brought again the waters of the sea upon them; but the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea.

20 And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances.

21 And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.

22 So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water.

23 And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah.

Same as in everyday life, scriptural bitterness means the opposite of sweet, here we see actual water, but has spiritual significance prophetically.

• Revelation 17:15 “And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.” Bitterness comes by means of unbearable pain, usually at the hands of another, suffering with no hope of escape, or oppression. The root word for bitter, which is mara, is even associated with poison. Bitter is the natural condition of all mankind since the fall. We are unable to save ourselves, unable to change ourselves, unable to shuck off our bitter existence, even if we don’t recognize it as bitter.
• Psalm 19:7-11 “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.”
• Psalm 1:1-3 “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”

24 And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?

True, meaningful, and lasting transformation usually only occurs in man during a time of personal wilderness experience. The time that God uses to mature us, we might have once described as normal, familiar, or comfortable existence ceases for us. A time of being betwixt and between; it’s neither where you’ve come from, nor where you’re going. We are no longer to live by our own appetites or our emotions. We must learn to disconnect from the world’s priorities, the world’s definition of success and the world’s values. We begin to structure our lives around and upon YHVH’s instructions for living. Psalm 50:6 “And the heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God is judge himself.” The first thing all of us need is UNLEARN the way of survival that we have developed in the world, which was to always do the things, as well as, spend our time, energy and passions building the things that please men. This is the “feel good” lifestyle. We need secondly and simultaneously to start learning what it is to please YHVH, his likes and dislikes, as our Creator He alone knows what is “bad” and what is “good”. It is there that we see things as they are, according to what YHVH has said is right, proper and just.

• 2 Peter 2:20 “For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.”

25 And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them,

The words translated into laws and rules or (better) law and judgments are the Hebrew words choq and mishpat. Choq means a prescribed task, or a prescribed rule in the same sense of what today we would call a law. Conversely, a mishpat is a judicial ruling. It’s about a judge looking at a case and making a decision, therefore, a mishpat is often the result of a choq being violated. Now comes the Messiah, who is hung onto a piece of wood, His precious blood spilled all over it. The Greek word baptizmo, or baptize, means to immerse; when a cloth has been ‘baptizmo’ into a vat of dye, the cloth takes on the characteristics of that which it was immersed. The cloth is forever changed and so it is with those who are crucified with Yeshua; His wooden cross, immersed into our bitter lives, transforms our lives and makes them sweet and free from the oppression of the power of sin. This is the picture intended at the spring of Mara, out in the wilderness.

26 And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.

Something very important about the covenants of God: each newer covenant was NOT a replacement of an older one. There are several different covenants from Yehoveh and each were made for a different purpose. The Covenant with Abraham was not declared null and void, when God made the Covenant with Moses (the one made on Mt. Sinai). And, the Covenant with Moses, which is often referred to as the LAW, was not declared null and void, because of the Covenant of Yeshua, or what we call (out of a habit from the RCC), the New Covenant. They were each for different purposes, and each remains in effect, none of them replaced or abolished, and intact to this day.

• Matthew 5: 17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish these things but to fulfill them.”

Fulfill in the Greek is G4137 πληρόω pleroo (plee-ro’-ō) v. 1. to fully execute. 2. To fully preach. 3. To completely verify. The root word is “pleres” to make replete {well-supplied with something}.

• 1 John 5:1-3 “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.”

27 And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees: and they encamped there by the waters.

It has been calculated that to sustain 3 million people and all their herds and flocks, more than 10 million gallons of water per DAY would have been necessary. How much is 10 million gallons? The typical municipal water tower in the Indianapolis area holds 2,000,000 US gallons (7,600 m3) of water. So that means they would have to haul 15 of these for a 3 day journey.

• Revelation 22:2 “In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”

16:1 And they took their journey from Elim (elim means “gods”), and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin (pronounced “seen”), which is between Elim and Sinai (pronounced see-nah’-ee, and it means “thorny”.), on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt.
2 And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness:
3 And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh* pots*, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.

H1320 בָּשָׂר basar “body, (fat, lean) flesh(-ed)” this word is rooted in the similar sounding word H1319 בָּשַׂר basar “to announce (glad news)” The only difference in these words is at the vowel point of the middle character. “-“as opposed to “T” …. Yet there is something significant here. Is it the idea that these people were complaining about the food or could they have been complaining about the instructions they were getting from YHWH? Did they want to return to the ease of idol worship which required no changes to their lives? ** H5518 סִיר ciyr (seer) n-m. 1. a pot. 2. (also) a thorn (as springing up rapidly).3. (by implication) a hook.

• Jeremiah 7:8-10 “Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit. Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?”
• Deuteronomy 8:3 “And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.” The 2 verses prior to this one explains it perfectly for our generation as well these exiles.
• Deuteronomy 8:1-2 “All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers. And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.”

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

• 2 Corinthians 13:5 “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?”

5 And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.
6 And Moses and Aaron said unto all the children of Israel, At even (dusk), then ye shall know that the LORD hath brought you out from the land of Egypt:
7 And in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of the LORD; for that he heareth your murmurings against the LORD: and what are we, that ye murmur against us?

The less tactful way to say this: you idiots cant see that YHWH is helping us, leading us and teaching us and I am just following Him and you should be too.

8 And Moses said, This shall be, when the LORD shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full; for that the LORD heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against him: and what are we? your murmurings are not against us, but against the LORD.
9 And Moses spake unto Aaron, Say unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, Come near before the LORD: for he hath heard your murmurings.
10 And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud.

“kevod Yehoveh” this is the same cloud, the expression of the presence of God, that had been leading them and had protected them from Pharaoh’s army. Why did Moses have to tell these people to stop, look up, and come-near to God’s presence? Because, while God’s presence is available to us and we must choose to “come-near” to Him. Following YHWH (Yeshua) is a choice we have to make on a daily basis. He wants our relationship to ‘on purpose’. Many times we hear “believers” say things like “it’s all in Gods timing” and “I am just waiting to hear from God”. Have you ever considered that the Father is doing the same with you? He is waiting to hear from you, He is waiting to see if you put time into His word. John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was fully God.” Notice too, He wants us to have a daily portion not to gorge ourselves on one day and then take six days off.

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

If we do not keep our eyes upon Jesus, who is OUR present day Glory of God, then we will be as these people have become, disheartened and disoriented. Getting ‘comfortable’ with the presence of YHWH? May it never be! We should be in awe and amazement at the wonders He has done, IS doing, and will be doing in the future. God’s presence had never left Israel; the people just quit looking upon it.

13 And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host.
14 And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground.
15 And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat.

The word ‘manna’ {man-hu} is literally a Hebrew question: “what is it?” Taken together with a description in Numbers 11:9 that says: “when the dew fell on the camp at night, the Manna would fall UPON IT…” There would be a fall of dew, then the Manna would flutter down upon it, and then another layer of dew would fall over the Manna keeping the Manna clean and fresh.)

16 This is the thing which the LORD hath commanded, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man, according to the number of your persons; take ye every man for them which are in his tents.
17 And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less.

In God’s economy, His bounty is endless, and equality is not about giving everyone exactly the same, it is about giving to each person fully what they need.

• 2 Corinthians 8:12-15 “For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not. For I mean not that other men be eased, and ye burdened: But by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be equality: As it is written, He that had gathered much had nothing over; and he that had gathered little had no lack.”

18 And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating.
19 And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning.
20 Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank: and Moses was wroth with them.

(Can you see God’s position on obedience, and how blessing can be ruined by man’s rebellion; or worse, by our personal determination of WHICH of God’s commands and ordinances are important and which aren’t.)
21 And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating: and when the sun waxed hot, it melted.
22 And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses.
23 And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, Tomorrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.
24 And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein.
25 And Moses said, Eat that today; for today is a sabbath unto the LORD: today ye shall not find it in the field.
26 Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none.

This is the same day of rest established at creation, confirmed here, as well as, established for us, forever! The Sabbath is to be full of reverence to our Holy God and since has been almost completely obscured by an anti-Jewish, tradition based “church”. The fact is that keeping the Sabbath holy is one of the 10 Commandments that should be enough to convince the “church” to return to it. Nowhere in the Bible has God rescinded the command of the Sabbath.

“Sunday Law”, was ordered and enacted by Constantine, during his 2nd meeting with the council of Church Bishops in Nicea, in 321 AD:
“On the Venerable Day of the Sun (the sacred day of the Sun-god, Sunday) let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country, however, persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits; because it often happens that another day is not so suitable for grain-sowing or for vine-planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost.”

The Catholic Cardinal Monsa claims “Not the Creator of Universe, in Genesis 2:1-3,-but the Catholic Church can claim the honor of having granted man a pause to his work every seven days.” [S. C. Mosna, Storia della Domenica, 1969, pp. 366-367]

• Colossians 2:8 “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.”

The Catholic Church openly admits that there is NO scriptural authority at all for abolishing or moving the Sabbath to Sunday.

27 And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none.
28 And the LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?
29 See, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.
30 So the people rested on the seventh day.
31 And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.
32 And Moses said, This is the thing which the LORD commandeth, Fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations; that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt.
33 And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a pot, and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it up before the LORD, to be kept for your generations.
34 As the LORD commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony (another name for the Law or the Torah), to be kept.

When mankind finds the Ark of the Covenant, they’ll find this jar of Manna, because the Ark contains the stone tablets of the 10 Commandments, Aaron’s budding staff, and the jar of Manna. Moses did NOT personally write all of the 5 books of Torah, because parts of it were written in retrospect after Moses was dead and gone.

35 And the children of Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat manna, until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan.
36 Now an omer (4 pints) is the tenth part of an ephah.

17:1 And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the Lord, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink.

² Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the Lord?

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

There is no indication that the Israelites even thought to approach God about their need for water; rather they griped…..they worried……they doubted and they feared. And, they blamed…..they blamed Moses and unknowingly they were blaming Yehoveh.

⁴ And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me.

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

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

• John 19:34 “But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.”

⁷ And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, (usually translated “testing” and “quarrelling”) because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us, or not?

These are the same people who have followed the cloud, the essence of YHWH, for more than 2 months now!

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

The question in many minds would be, or should be, where did Israel get weapons? It is not likely that the Egyptians would have given them weapons. It is most likely they obtained the weapons from the dead soldiers at the Red Sea.

• Deuteronomy 25:17-19 “Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way, when ye were come forth out of Egypt; How he met thee by the way, and smote the hindmost of thee [attacked the rear of the column], even all that were feeble behind thee [the slower and weaker, elderly], when thou wast faint and weary; and he feared not God.[malicious and intentional] Therefore it shall be, when the Lord thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about, in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it.
• 1 Samuel 15:2-3 “Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.”

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

¹⁰ So Joshua (which means “Yah saves” or “God saves”/ from tribe of Ephraim) did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.

Talmudic tradition is that Hur was Miriam’s husband, Miriam being Moses and Aaron’s sister.

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

• Isaiah 59:1-2 “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.”

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

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

• Revelation 2:16 “Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.”

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

• Genesis 36:12 “And Timna was concubine to Eliphaz Esau’s son; and she bare to Eliphaz Amalek: these were the sons of Adah Esau’s wife.” [Edomites]

¹⁵ And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovahnissi: (Yahweh is my banner)

¹⁶ For he said, Because the Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.

Amalek represents that force which opposes God’s people and God’s plan that is to be worked out through His people.

******* break in chronological order*****

18:1 When Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father in law, heard of all that God had done for Moses, and for Israel his people, and that the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt;

² Then Jethro, Moses’ father in law, took Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her back,

³ And her two sons; of which the name of the one was Gershom; for he said, I have been an alien in a strange land:

⁴ And the name of the other was Eliezer; for the God of my father, said he, was mine help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh:

⁵ And Jethro, Moses’ father in law, came with his sons and his wife unto Moses into the wilderness, where he encamped at the mount of God: (evidence that this story is a little out of order in Exodus, because we don’t even hear of the Exodus refugees moving and encamping at the foot of Mt. Sinai until the next chapter)

⁶ And he said unto Moses, I thy father in law Jethro am come unto thee, and thy wife, and her two sons with her.

⁷ And Moses went out to meet his father in law, and did obeisance, and kissed him; and they asked each other of their welfare; and they came into the tent.

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

⁹ And Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which the Lord had done to Israel, whom he had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians. ¹⁰ And Jethro said, Blessed be the Lord, who hath delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of Pharaoh, who hath delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians.

¹¹ Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods: for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly he was above them.

In that era knowing a god’s name was considered vitally important because the superstition was that if you knew the NAME of the god who lorded over some area of responsibility like the weather, or fertility, or prosperity, or battle, then by invoking that god’s name, that god HAD to do what you requested.

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

This was the standard way of making a covenant, before God, probably declaring his allegiance to Yehoveh, and therefore to Israel. The ‘Olah was a very specific kind of sacrifice, as was the Zevah, which, were only ordained in the Law given at Mt. Sinai.

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

¹⁴ And when Moses’ father in law saw all that he did to the people, he said, What is this thing that thou doest to the people? why sittest thou thyself alone, and all the people stand by thee from morning unto even?

¹⁵ And Moses said unto his father in law, Because the people come unto me to enquire of God:

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

¹⁷ And Moses’ father in law said unto him, The thing that thou doest is not good.

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

¹⁹ Hearken now unto my voice, I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee: Be thou for the people to God-ward, that thou mayest bring the causes unto God:

²⁰ And thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shalt shew them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do.

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

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

²³ If thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so, then thou shalt be able to endure, and all this people shall also go to their place in peace.

²⁴ So Moses hearkened to the voice of his father in law, and did all that he had said.

Jethro was a priest, of unknown religious origin, a man that made a big deal out of sacrificing animals, a man with advice to give to Moses on how to run things. There is no indication that any of this advice was from YHVH and as soon as his advice was accepted the people rushed straight into the sin of the golden calf. Listening to the voice of man instead of YHVH always leads to trouble. Please note there was no-one complaining before this advice by Jethro.

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

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

²⁷ And Moses let his father in law depart; and he went his way into his own land.

**********part 3 Covenant and Law*******

19:1 In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai.

² For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness; and there Israel camped before the mount.

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

⁴ Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.

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

The covenant the Lord was about to make at Mt. Sinai was fundamentally different than the Abrahamic Covenant: the people of Israel had obligations to perform. How God would respond depended on how Israel behaved.

⁶ And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.

• 1 Peter 2:9-10 “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; 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.”

⁷ And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded him.

⁸ And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord.

Do you Hebrews take YHWH as your Lord and Savior? We do. Do you YHWH take these whiny Hebrews as your chosen people? I do.

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

Also, we have seen another important God pattern: First, God makes us aware of His presence, Second, He asks the question: will you listen, obey and follow Me? Third, if we respond yes, then He enters into a relationship with us and begins to acquaint us with His will for our lives.

¹⁰ And the Lord said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes,

This is the equivalent of the modern Baptism – an outward expression of the confession of faith. Also here it is a required act to prepare them for the presence of YHWH. [more than likely this is the beginning of the tradition for the bride to wear white dress]

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

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

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

¹⁴ And Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and sanctified the people; and they washed their clothes.

¹⁵ And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day: come not at your wives.

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

This is the example set for us to recall when the End of Days comes.

• 1 Corinthians 15:52 “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”

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

¹⁸ And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.

¹⁹ And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice.

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

²¹ And the Lord said unto Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest they break through unto the Lord to gaze, and many of them perish.

²² And let the priests also, which come near to the Lord, sanctify themselves, lest the Lord break forth upon them.

²³ And Moses said unto the Lord, The people cannot come up to mount Sinai: for thou chargedst us, saying, Set bounds about the mount, and sanctify it.

²⁴ And the Lord said unto him, Away, get thee down, and thou shalt come up, thou, and Aaron with thee: but let not the priests and the people break through to come up unto the Lord, lest he break forth upon them.

²⁵ So Moses went down unto the people, and spake unto them.

The purpose of Law in showing men what God’s principles and attributes and morals are, and what pleases and displeases Him will go on until at least the Millennial Kingdom, how else will we know what God’s definition of sin is? It’s the same procedure for us with Christ: we’re made aware of His presence, then follows His offer to be our Lord, and IF by our own choice we respond with a “yes”, He enters into relationship with us and guides us according to the Father’s will. The words from here to the end of Deuteronomy are the will of the Father. Why would anyone think that the principle for entering into a relationship with Yehoveh would be different for us today, than it was for Israel, at Mt. Sinai, a mere 3400 years ago? Time is irrelevant to God.

• Romans 3:31 “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.”
• Deuteronomy 32:46-47a “And He said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law. For it is not a vain thing for you; because it is your life: and through this thing ye shall prolong your days in the land.”

20:1 And God spake all these words, saying,

² I am the Lord thy God (H433 אֱלוֹהַּ ‘elowahh [el-o’-ah] Supreme Being, God the Creator, Yahweh by name.), which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house (H1004 בַּיִת bayith [bah’-yith] meaning dungeon) of bondage.

³ Thou shalt have no other gods (H430 אֱלֹהִים ‘elohiym [el-o-heem’] supreme beings) before me. (H6440 פָּנִים paniym (paw-neem’) meaning ‘the face’)

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

⁵ Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity (H5771 עָוֹן `avon [aw-vone’] penalty for depravity) of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate (H8130 שָׂנֵא sane’ [saw-nay’] to be hateful, an enemy or foe) me;

⁶ And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep (H8104 שָׁמַר shamar [shaw-mar’] guard, attend to) my commandments. (H4687 מִצוָה mitsvah [mits-vaw’] command, ordinance, precept, law)

⁷ Thou shalt not take the name (H8034 שֵׁם shem – honor, authority, character) of the Lord thy God in vain (H7723 שָׁוא shav’ – ruin, deception or evil); for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

⁸ Remember the sabbath day (H7676 שַׁבָּת shabbath – the seventh day being the day of rest), to keep it holy. (H6942 קָדַשׁ qadash [kaw-dash’] to make, pronounce or observe as clean both ceremonially and morally.)

⁹ Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:(H4399 מְלָאכָה mla’kah (mel-aw-kaw’) n-f. business, cattle, industrious, occupation)

¹⁰ But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

¹¹ For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

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

In a time where the family name was derived from the character of the person, it was highly regarded and was to be kept by the character of those living in the house. This mirrors the instruction upon keeping the name of YHWH from being obscured, so too, you are not to bring shame on the family name.

¹³ Thou shalt not kill. (murder, execute vigilante)

¹⁴ Thou shalt not commit adultery. (break wedlock)

¹⁵ Thou shalt not steal. (to thieve or deceive)

¹⁶ Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. (fraudulent testimony)

¹⁷ Thou shalt not covet (H2530 חָמַד chamad- to take delight in. reap the pleasure from.) thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.

¹⁸ And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet (H7782 שׁוֹפָר showphar [sho-far’] curved horn [as giving a clear sound], and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed (to waver or scatter), and stood afar off.

¹⁹ And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.

²⁰ And Moses said unto the people, Fear (H3372 יָרֵא yare’ [yaw-ray’] v.frightful) not: for God is come to prove (test) you, and that his fear (H3374 יִראָה yir’ah [yir-aw’] n. reverence) may be before your faces, that ye sin not.

²¹ And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness (H6205 עֲרָפֶל `araphel n-m. low hanging clouds i.e. thunderstorm) where God was.

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

²³ Ye shall not make with me gods of silver (H3701 כֶּסֶף keceph – by implication- money), neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold. (H2091 זָהָב zahab – from an unused root meaning to shimmer, fair weathered)

²⁴ An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen: in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee.

²⁵ And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.

²⁶ Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon.

21 Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them.

• Proverbs 13:13 Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed: but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded.”

This is the wedding contract of YHWH, the shitre erusin of the Kingdom of Heaven. The ancient wedding ceremony YHWH gave to the Israelite people to teach us about the wedding of the Messiah consisted of 12 steps.

   1. The selection of the bride. The bride was usually chosen by the father of the bridegroom. The father would send his trusted servant, known as the agent of the father, to search out the bride. An excellent example of this can be seen in Genesis 24. Abraham wishes to secure a bride for Isaac and sends his servant Eliezer to do this task.

It is the role of the Holy Spirit to convict the world of sin and lead them to YHWH (John 16:8 “And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment”). Just as the bride was usually chosen by the father of the bridegroom, so the believers in the Messiah are chosen by YHWH (John 15:16 “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain”). The bridegroom chose the bride and lavished his love upon her and she returned his love.

This can be seen in Ephesians 5:25, as it is written, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself of it.”

In Genesis 24, Rebekah consented to marry Isaac even before she ever met him. Today, the believers in the Messiah Yeshua consent to become the bride of Messiah even though we have never seen Him.

• 1 Peter 1:8 speaks of this, as it is written, “Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.”

2. A bride price was established. A price would have to be paid for the bride. The agreed upon price was called a mohar in Hebrew. Yeshua, being our bridegroom, paid a very high price for His bride, the body of believers. The price He paid was His life. Our example is Passover.

• 1 Peter 1:18-19 says,”Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”
• 1 Corinthians 6:20 “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

3. The bride and groom are betrothed to each other. This is the first stage of marriage known as kiddushin, this is exampled for us in Shavuot. Betrothal legally binds the bride and the groom together in a marriage contract, except they do not physically live together. Historically, YHWH betrothed Himself to Israel at Mount Sinai (Jeremiah 2:2; Hosea 2:19-20). Whenever you accept the Messiah into your heart and life, you become betrothed to Him while living on the earth.

4. A written document is drawn up, this betrothal contract is called, in Hebrew, a shitre erusin or ketubah. The word ketubah means “that which is written.” The groom promised to work for her, to honor, support, and maintain her in truth, to provide food, clothing, and necessities, and to live together with her as husband and wife. The ketubah was the unalienable right of the bride. The ketubah must be executed and signed prior to the wedding ceremony.

The Bible is the believer’s ketubah. All the promises that God provided for the believers in the Messiah are legally ours, as it is written in 2 Corinthians 1:20, “For all the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him Amen….”

5. The bride must give her consent. the personal application (halacha) to those who desire the Messiah to come into their hearts and lives is to accept His invitation to do so by faith (emunah), as it is written in Romans 10:8-10: “But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we preach), because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and thus has righteousness and with the mouth one confesses and thus has salvation.”

6. Gifts were given to the bride and a cup called the cup of the covenant was shared between the bride and the groom. We know that YHWH is an all-consuming fire, as the Messiah consumed the cup of wrath, that wrath consumed our sin without the price of our soul, and sealed for us the covenant of Salvation. The rite of betrothal (erusin) is completed when the groom gives something of value to the bride and she accepts it.

• Matthew 26:39 “Going a little farther, he threw himself down with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if possible, let this cup pass from me! Yet not what I will, but what you will.”
• Isaiah 51:17 “Wake up! Wake up! Get up, O Jerusalem! You drank from the cup the Lord passed to you, which was full of his anger!”

7. The bride had a mikvah (water immersion), which is a ritual of cleansing. Mikvah is a ceremonial act of purification by the immersion in water. It indicates a separation from a former way to a new way. In the case of marriage, it indicates leaving an old life for a new life with your spouse. Immersing in the mikvah is considered spiritual rebirth.

8. The bridegroom departed, going back to his father’s house to prepare the bridal chamber. At this point, the bridegroom leaves for his father’s house to prepare the bridal chamber for his bride. It was understood to be the man’s duty to go away to be with his father, build a house, and prepare for the eventual wedding. Before he goes, though, he will make a statement to the bride.

“I go to prepare a place for you; if I go, I will return again unto you.” This is the same statement Yeshua made in John 14:1-3.

9. Consecration of the Bride and the acceptance of the bridal chamber. The bride was to wait eagerly for the return of the bridegroom. In the mind of the bride, the bridegroom could come at any time, even in the middle of the night or at midnight. Therefore, she had to be ready at all times. Yeshua referred to this when he told the story of the Ten Virgins in Matthew 25:1-13.

Before the bridegroom could go and get the bride, the groom’s father had to be satisfied that every preparation had been made by the son. Only then could he give permission to the son to go and get the bride. In other words, while the bridegroom was working on the bridal chamber, it was the father who “okayed” the final bridal chamber. The bridegroom did not know when the father would declare the bridal chamber fit and send him to go get the bride.

10. The time of the return of the bridegroom could be at any time even midnight. When the bridegroom came, he came with a shout (Matthew 25:6) and with the blowing of the trumpet (I Thessalonians 4:16-17). The marriage will have a sacred procession. For this reason, the bridegroom will enter the chuppah (marriage canopy) first. When the bridegroom approaches the chuppah, the cantor chants, “Blessed is he who comes.”

• Matthew 23:39 “For I say unto you, You shall not see me henceforth, until you say, Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord.”

11. The bridegroom would return usually in the middle of the night to go to the bridal chamber where the marriage would be consummated. They will stay in that wedding chamber for seven days. At the end of the seven days, the bride and groom will come out from the wedding chamber. When the bride and the groom initially went into the wedding chamber, the friend of the bridegroom stood outside the door. All the assembled guests of the wedding gathered outside waiting on the friend of the bridegroom to announce the consummation of the marriage which was relayed to him by the groom.

• John 3:29 “The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands by and listens for him, rejoices greatly when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. This then is my joy, and it is complete.”

12. The Wedding Supper. This was an incredible feast started at the announcement of the consummated marriage. This too would last for several days, after which the bride and groom would go to their forever home.

Isaiah 2:2 tells us where that home is, “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and all nations shall flow unto it.”

Hebrews 12:22 “But you are come unto the Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels.” Lastly as a third witness we see Revelation 21:9-10 “Then one of the seven angels … saying, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb!” So he took me away in the Spirit to a huge, majestic mountain and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.”

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

³ If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. (if he was married prior to entering the indentured worker agreement)

⁴ If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out by himself.

This appears on the surface as harsh, but, it is missing some detail. Both the Husband and the wife entered the house as indentured servants at differing times. This applies to the rule of redemption and the required repayment. This situation is one where the man has already repaid a portion of his servitude, say 4 years, and the wife has only repaid 1. The husband would then need to leave her there for her remaining years of service once he has completed his, or, pay the redemption price. This is addressed in verses 7 & 8.

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

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

This is a visual example of the covenant of the Passover. The blood from the ear would run down the doorpost. This would also represent the eternal membership into the family and the home, an example of the Kingdom of Heaven. Lastly the ear is the example of “shma” or hearing the word of God. Romans 1:1 “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ…”/Philippians 1:1 “Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ…”/ James 1:1 “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ…”/ 2 Peter 1:1 “Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ…”/ Jude 1:1 “Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ…”

⁷ And if a man sell (H4376 מָכַר makar like a bride with a dowry) his daughter to be a maidservant (concubine/2^nd wife), she shall not go out as the menservants do.

⁸ If she please not her master, who hath betrothed (H3259 יָעַד ya`ad- set a time, engagement) her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed (H6299 פָּדָה padah-ransomed released): to sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her.

⁹ And if he have betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters.

¹⁰ If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish.

¹¹ And if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out free without money.

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

¹³ And if a man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into his hand; then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee. (If this was unintentional then there will a place [sanctuary cities] where he can live in peace)

¹⁴ But if a man come presumptuously (use the laws of God designed to protect those involved in an accident to his benefit when he did it on purpose) upon his neighbour, to slay him with guile (trickery); thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die.

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

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

¹⁷ And he that curseth (behaves vile, brings contempt) his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death.

These adult children that are gluttons and drunkards that dumps his debts and problems upon his parents.

• Deuteronomy 21:20 “And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard.”
• Proverbs 23:21 “For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.”

¹⁸ And if men strive together (get into a fight), and one smite another with a stone, or with his fist, and he die not, but keepeth his bed:

¹⁹ If he rise again, and walk abroad upon his staff, then shall he that smote him be quit:(acquitted) only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed.

²⁰ And if a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand; he shall be surely punished.

²¹ Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished: for he is his money.

This isn’t license to beat someone within an inch of his life, we have to weigh it against the Torah.

• Luke 12:47 “And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.”

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

²³ And if any mischief follow (additional hurt, like her inability to have more children, or the child dies), then thou shalt give life for life,

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

²⁵ Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

• Matthew 5:38-39 we read “Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.”

This almost seems to contradict this passage in Exodus. Jesus is setting down the commands for the judges of the people, while the text in Matthew is for your own personal behavior. We are to act our very best and bravest with people and allow the judges to handle the punishment of the wicked and lawless.

²⁶ And if a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, that it perish; he shall let him go free for his eye’s sake.

²⁷ And if he smite out his manservant’s tooth, or his maidservant’s tooth; he shall let him go free for his tooth’s sake.

²⁸ If an ox gore a man or a woman, that they die: then the ox shall be surely stoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall be quit. (acquitted)

²⁹ But if the ox were wont to push (has been known to gore people) with his horn in time past, and it hath been testified to his owner, and he hath not kept him in, but that he hath killed a man or a woman; the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall be put to death. (if the owner disregards the warnings then they both die)

³⁰ If there be laid on him a sum of money (a penalty price), then he shall give for the ransom of his life whatsoever is laid upon him. (Judge’s Discretion)

³¹ Whether he have gored a son, or have gored a daughter, according to this judgment shall it be done unto him.

³² If the ox shall push (trample, maul) a manservant or a maidservant; he shall give unto their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.

³³ And if a man shall open a pit, or if a man shall dig a pit, and not cover it, and an ox or an ass fall therein;

³⁴ The owner of the pit shall make it good, and give money unto the owner of them; and the dead beast shall be his.

³⁵ And if one man’s ox hurt another’s, that he die; then they shall sell the live ox, and divide the money of it; and the dead ox also they shall divide.

³⁶ Or if it be known that the ox hath used to push in time past, and his owner hath not kept him in; he shall surely pay ox for ox; and the dead shall be his own.

These are issues that have or will occur when you have 3 million plus people living in a nomadic society. Likewise these are instructions to provide equitable outcomes for all parties. If you did not own oxen, have indentured servants, have children and so on, then you would not have been “under” these laws, nor would you be today.

22:1 If a man shall steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or sell it; he shall restore five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep.

² If a thief be found breaking up (caught in the act), and be smitten (beaten) that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him.

³ If the sun be risen upon him (if he fully reckons his crime and repents), there shall be blood shed for him (sacrificial offering); for he should make full restitution; if he have nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft. (Either pay his debt in money or become an indentured servant to repay)

⁴ If the theft be certainly found in his hand alive, whether it be ox, or ass, or sheep; he shall restore double.

⁵ If a man shall cause a field or vineyard to be eaten, and shall put in his beast, and shall feed in another man’s field; of the best of his own field, and of the best of his own vineyard, shall he make restitution. (there by being no way to tell which part of the crop the animal ate, the worst or the best, you be the “bigger man” and give the best of your lot)

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

⁷ If a man shall deliver unto his neighbour money or stuff to keep, and it be stolen out of the man’s house; if the thief be found, let him pay double.

⁸ If the thief be not found, then the master of the house shall be brought unto the judges, to see whether he have put his hand unto his neighbour’s goods.

⁹ For all manner of trespass, whether it be for ox, for ass, for sheep, for raiment, or for any manner of lost thing which another challengeth to be his, the cause of both parties shall come before the judges; and whom the judges shall condemn, he shall pay double unto his neighbour. (your word against theirs)

¹⁰ If a man deliver unto his neighbour an ass, or an ox, or a sheep, or any beast, to keep; and it die, or be hurt, or driven away, no man seeing it:

¹¹ Then shall an oath of the Lord be between them both, that he hath not put his hand unto his neighbour’s goods; and the owner of it shall accept thereof, and he shall not make it good.

¹² And if it be stolen from him, he shall make restitution unto the owner thereof.

¹³ If it be torn in pieces (killed by wild animals), then let him bring it for witness, and he shall not make good that which was torn.

¹⁴ And if a man borrow ought (an associate, worker or thing) of his neighbour, and it be hurt, or die, the owner thereof being not with it, he shall surely make it good. (replace the damaged item)

¹⁵ But if the owner thereof be with it, he shall not make it good: if it be an hired thing, it came for his hire. (as the owner, if your business is to supply things for a rental price, you have to accept the accidental damage as the price of doing business)

¹⁶ And if a man entice (allure, flatter, persuade) a maid that is not betrothed (engaged to be married), and lie (have sexual relations) with her, he shall surely endow (to wed) her to be his wife.

¹⁷ If her father utterly refuse to give her unto him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins. (Reason for dowry: when the bride’s parents give their daughter in marriage, they are actually diminishing the efficiency of their family. Often unmarried daughters would tend the flock of their father (Exodus 2:16), or they would work in the field, or render help in other ways. Thus upon her marriage, a young woman would be thought of as increasing the efficiency of her husband’s family and diminishing that of her parents. Therefore, a young man who expects to get possession of their daughter must be able to offer some sort of adequate compensation. This compensation was the marriage “dowry.”)

¹⁸ Thou shalt not suffer (allow) a witch to live.

• Micah 5:12 “And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thine hand; and thou shalt have no more soothsayers:”
• 2 Chronicles 33:6 “And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom (i.e. Satan): also he observed times, and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger.”

¹⁹ Whosoever lieth (sexual relations) with a beast shall surely be put to death.

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

• Revelation 21:8 “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”

²¹ Thou shalt neither vex (be violent, suppress or mistreat) a stranger, nor oppress him: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.

²² Ye shall not afflict (publicly humiliate) any widow, or fatherless child.

²³ If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry;

²⁴ And my wrath shall wax hot (burn angrily), and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.

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

²⁶ If thou at all take thy neighbour’s raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him by that the sun goeth down:

²⁷ For that is his covering only, it is his raiment for his skin: wherein shall he sleep? and it shall come to pass, when he crieth unto me, that I will hear; for I am gracious.

²⁸ Thou shalt not revile (esteem, give light to) the gods, nor curse the ruler (governor, prince, captain) of thy people. (Up to the point where they keep things in alignment with YHWH)

²⁹ Thou shalt not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruits, and of thy liquors (pressings of the grape, wine): the firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give (ascribe, assign, pledge/ Order of Melchizedek) unto me. (This is the action required, i.e. circumcision for the human males, to fulfill the Abrahamic Covenant.)

³⁰ Likewise shalt thou do with thine oxen, and with thy sheep: seven days it shall be with his dam (mother); on the eighth day thou shalt give it me.

³¹ And ye shall be holy men unto me: neither shall ye eat any flesh that is torn of beasts (herds that have been attacked by predators) in the field; ye shall cast it to the dogs.

23:1 Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.

² Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil (raising a mob or group of “protestors” like the Black Lives Movement); neither shalt thou speak (respond) in a cause (controversy) to decline (pervert, exaggerate) after many (to a larger portion) to wrest judgment: (to bend the judgement to your favor)

³ Neither shalt thou countenance (be high & mighty, make a jest of) a poor man in his cause.

⁴ If thou meet thine enemy’s ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again. (return things to their proper owner)

⁵ If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden, and wouldest forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help with him. (help the animal for the animals sake, don’t avoid it because it belongs to your societal enemy)

⁶ Thou shalt not wrest the judgment (to bend the judgement to your favor) of thy poor in his cause.

⁷ Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked.

• Matthew 5:43-45 “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”

⁸ And thou shalt take no gift: for the gift blindeth the wise, and perverteth the words of the righteous. (Bribery – actually campaign contributions would be considered the same.)

⁹ Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger: for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. (Same as Ex 22:21 “Thou shalt neither vex [be violent, suppress or mistreat] a stranger, nor oppress him: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.”)

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

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

¹² Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed.

¹³ And in all things that I have said unto you be circumspect (to protect, guard, adhere): and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth.

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

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

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

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

¹⁸ Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until the morning.

¹⁹ The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.

²⁰ Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. (John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”)

²¹ Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him. John 3:36 “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”

²² But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries.

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

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

²⁵ And ye shall serve the Lord your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.

²⁶ There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfil.

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

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

• Revelation 9:10 “And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.”

²⁹ I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee.

³⁰ By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.

³¹ And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee.

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

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

24:1 And he said unto Moses, Come up unto the Lord, thou, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship ye afar off.

² And Moses alone shall come near the Lord: but they shall not come nigh; neither shall the people go up with him.

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

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

⁵ And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the Lord.

⁶ And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basons; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.

⁷ And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient.

⁸ And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words.

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

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

• Revelation 4:6 “And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.”

¹¹ And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink.

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

• John 5:46 “For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me.”

³ And Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua: and Moses went up into the mount of God.

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

¹⁵ And Moses went up into the mount, and a cloud covered the mount.

¹⁶ And the glory of the Lord abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud.

¹⁷ And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel.

¹⁸ And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights.

25:1 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

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

³ And this is the offering which ye shall take of them; gold, and silver, and brass,

⁴ And blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats’ hair,

⁵ And rams’ skins dyed red, and badgers’ skins, and shittim wood,

⁶ Oil for the light, spices for anointing oil, and for sweet incense,

⁷ Onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod, and in the breastplate.

These are all the things that YHWH has already given the people in their travels from Egypt to this place in Midian.

⁸ And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.

(The Tabernacle had one primary purpose: a place especially clean and holy so that Yehoveh could dwell amongst His people. Secondarily it was a place where His people, His congregation, could meet with Him. The Tabernacle also had one primary feature: it was visible and it was placed in the center of the encampment of Israel. It was placed there to remind the people of God of His constant presence with them. It was there to remind the people to stay away from other gods, idolatry, and to serve Yehoveh and ONLY Yehoveh. The Israelites’ encampment consisting of hundreds of thousands of tents surrounded the Tabernacle. And the tribes were organized in an exacting order, carefully placed at each of the 4 sides of the Tabernacle. To the East were the 3 tribes of Issachar, Judah, and Zebulun, composed of 186,400 men. To the West were Manasseh, Ephraim, and Benjamin, consisting of 108,100 men. Camped on the North side were Asher, Dan, and Naphtali, and their 157,600 men. And to the South were the 151,400 men who composed the tribes of Simeon, Reuben, and Gad. The Levites were placed closest to the Tabernacle and they were divided up by family and placed on all four sides, as an inner ring BETWEEN the Tabernacle and the 12 tribes, like a buffer zone; the Levites numbered 22,300 men. This is the exacting depiction of the eternal home – Revelation 21:10 “And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates.” The 4 dominant leader tribes, which represented all 12 tribes, each had a symbol: Judah was a Lion, Dan was an Eagle, Ephraim a Bull or Ox, and Reuben was a man. Revelation 4:6-7 “And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.” As Israel rebelled in the days prior to their exile the prophets would warn them, these warnings were delivered by the same beings. Ezekiel 1:4-10 “And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire. Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man. And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings. And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf’s foot: and they sparkled like the colour of burnished brass. And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and they four had their faces and their wings. Their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward. As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle.”)

⁹ According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.

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

The word shittim is derived from the word shotet which means ‘to flog’. They are most picturesque trees with their gnarled trunks, sometimes 2 ft. thick, their twisted, thorny branches, which often give the whole tree an umbrella-like form, and their fine bipinnate leaves with minute leaflets. The curiously twisted pods and the masses of gum arabic which exude in many parts are also peculiar features. The tree appears to be disfigured, to which, the Messiah was disfigured by the Romans guards by a flogging. The thorny branches were used to make the crown of thorns and represent the piercing of the Savior. The branches of the tree typically form an umbrella like covering which represents the Messiahs covering of our sins.

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

The covering of the wood in gold provides a shining or reflection of light. This is the same with the people of Messiah who are to be the reflection of his light.

• John 8:12 “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” John 1:4 “In him was life; and the life was the light of men.”

¹² And thou shalt cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in the four corners thereof; and two rings shall be in the one side of it, and two rings in the other side of it.
(We don’t have to go forward with any amount of skepticism, let’s get an idea of just how EASY it would have been for Israel to have this much precious metal handy: it would have taken LESS than 1/12th of an ounce from each Israelite to accumulate the 8 tons needed.)

¹³ And thou shalt make staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold.

¹⁴ And thou shalt put the staves into the rings by the sides of the ark, that the ark may be borne with them.

¹⁵ The staves shall be in the rings of the ark: they shall not be taken from it.

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

Another word for ‘ark’ is ‘chest’ to whit we are to place the testimony given by YHWH. Testimony also means witness, witnesses provide information and this information is to come from your chest.

• Luke 6:45 “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.”

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

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

¹⁹ And make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end: even of the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubims on the two ends thereof.

²⁰ And the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubims be.

²¹ And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee.

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

In Hebrew this lid is called the “Kapporet”, which means place of atonement. It will also be the place where on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, the High Priest will stand to atone for the sins of all Israel. The reason we call the lid the Mercy Seat is because the Ark is symbolic of God’s throne, the place where the merciful God sits and accepts the yearly atonement for the sin of the people. Even the Ark is not holy and pure enough that Yehoveh’s holiness can come into contact with it, because even though it is God’s design, it is man-made.

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

²⁴ And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, and make thereto a crown of gold round about.

²⁵ And thou shalt make unto it a border of an hand breadth round about, and thou shalt make a golden crown to the border thereof round about.

²⁶ And thou shalt make for it four rings of gold, and put the rings in the four corners that are on the four feet thereof.

²⁷ Over against the border shall the rings be for places of the staves to bear the table.

²⁸ And thou shalt make the staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold, that the table may be borne with them.

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

³⁰ And thou shalt set upon the table shewbread before me alway.

Even though it’s not explicitly stated here, the Showbread was unleavened bread, it had to be because it was a meal offering and it was a requirement of all meal offerings that no leaven, no yeast, be used in it because leavening symbolizes sin. Wine was also placed on the table with the showbread.

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

³² And six branches shall come out of the sides of it; three branches of the candlestick out of the one side, and three branches of the candlestick out of the other side:

The Tabernacle’s Menorah was the sole source of light for the 30-foot long, 15-foot wide, 15-foot high room, the Holy Place, it resided in. The menorah held 7 oil lamps that used a special olive oil as fuel.

³³ Three bowls made like unto almonds, with a knop and a flower in one branch; and three bowls made like almonds in the other branch, with a knop and a flower: so in the six branches that come out of the candlestick.
We will notice the connection to the staff of Aaron, that budded with Almond blossoms, and then produced Almonds. The Jewish sages say that the Almond tree was the first fruit to blossom in the spring. Some also say that because that dead stick that was Aaron’s staff came to life and blossomed and produced fruit, Almonds, that the Almond is symbolic of resurrection. The connection of the Feast of first fruits and resurrection couldn’t be more prophetic and emblematic of Yeshua. Since there has been no Temple for over 1900 years, to light the 7 branched Menorah, to the modern day “Jew”, is irrelevant; no Temple, no need for a Menorah. Most Jewish homes, today, don’t even have a 7-branched Menorah. However, there is the 9-branched Menorah, which was invented in celebration of Chanukah, also called the Feast of Dedication or the Festival of Lights. This is to commemorate the taking back and purifying of the Temple by Judas the Maccabee, who led the Jews in rebellion against Antiochus Epiphanies. Epiphanies, a vicious puppet governor for Rome who ruled over the Holy Land had occupied the Temple, removed many of the valuable items, and desecrated it by putting a statue of himself in the form of Zeus (the sun-god) in the Holy of Holies. He then sacrificed a pig to the statue, boiled the meat and poured its broth all over the Temple Torah Scrolls. When the Jewish rebels finally took the Temple back, because the priests had been killed, there was not a sufficient supply of properly prepared and consecrated olive oil for the Menorah lamps to burn more than one day. But that one-day’s supply that did remain miraculously burned for 8 days, until more could be made according to the Levitical law. Therefore the 8 branches of this special Menorah represent the 8-day miracle, and the 9^th or middle branch is used to light the others.

• Revelation 2:1 “Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks”.

³⁴ And in the candlesticks shall be four bowls made like unto almonds, with their knops and their flowers.

³⁵ And there shall be a knop under two branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same, according to the six branches that proceed out of the candlestick.

³⁶ Their knops and their branches shall be of the same: all it shall be one beaten work of pure gold.

³⁷ And thou shalt make the seven lamps thereof: and they shall light the lamps thereof, that they may give light over against it.

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

³⁹ Of a talent of pure gold shall he make it, with all these vessels.

⁴⁰ And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount.

26:1 Moreover thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: with cherubims of cunning work shalt thou make them.

The sanctuary was 45 feet long, 15 feet wide, and 15 feet high. It was divided into two rooms: the Holy Place was larger of the two rooms, about 30 feet by 15 feet, and the Holy of Holies was a 15 foot by 15 foot cube. Using the significance of numbers in Scripture we can see the tabernacle was a combination of [3x3x5] and [3×5] high. In sacred Scripture the number three represents that which is solid, real, substantial, and something in its completeness.  This number usually indicates something of importance or significance in God’s plan of salvation by identifying an important event in Salvation History.  This number operates as a “sign-post” in Scripture study for the reader to “pay attention” to the significance of the next event. Five is the number of YHWH’s power and Divine grace. The rooms fill the same pattern [5+5×3] by [3×5] and [3×5] by [3×5]!

² The length of one curtain shall be eight and twenty cubits, and the breadth of one curtain four cubits: and every one of the curtains shall have one measure.

³ The five curtains shall be coupled together one to another; and other five curtains shall be coupled one to another.

⁴ And thou shalt make loops of blue upon the edge of the one curtain from the selvedge in the coupling; and likewise shalt thou make in the uttermost edge of another curtain, in the coupling of the second.

⁵ Fifty loops shalt thou make in the one curtain, and fifty loops shalt thou make in the edge of the curtain that is in the coupling of the second; that the loops may take hold one of another.

⁶ And thou shalt make fifty taches of gold, and couple the curtains together with the taches: and it shall be one tabernacle.

⁷ And thou shalt make curtains of goats’ hair to be a covering upon the tabernacle: eleven curtains shalt thou make.

⁸ The length of one curtain shall be thirty cubits, and the breadth of one curtain four cubits: and the eleven curtains shall be all of one measure.

⁹ And thou shalt couple five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves, and shalt double the sixth curtain in the forefront of the tabernacle.

¹⁰ And thou shalt make fifty loops on the edge of the one curtain that is outmost in the coupling, and fifty loops in the edge of the curtain which coupleth the second.

¹¹ And thou shalt make fifty taches of brass, and put the taches into the loops, and couple the tent together, that it may be one.

¹² And the remnant that remaineth of the curtains of the tent, the half curtain that remaineth, shall hang over the backside of the tabernacle.

¹³ And a cubit on the one side, and a cubit on the other side of that which remaineth in the length of the curtains of the tent, it shall hang over the sides of the tabernacle on this side and on that side, to cover it.

¹⁴ And thou shalt make a covering for the tent of rams’ skins dyed red, and a covering above of badgers’ skins.

¹⁵ And thou shalt make boards for the tabernacle of shittim wood standing up.

¹⁶ Ten cubits shall be the length of a board, and a cubit and a half shall be the breadth of one board.

¹⁷ Two tenons shall there be in one board, set in order one against another: thus shalt thou make for all the boards of the tabernacle.

¹⁸ And thou shalt make the boards for the tabernacle, twenty boards on the south side southward.

¹⁹ And thou shalt make forty sockets of silver under the twenty boards; two sockets under one board for his two tenons, and two sockets under another board for his two tenons.

²⁰ And for the second side of the tabernacle on the north side there shall be twenty boards:

²¹ And their forty sockets of silver; two sockets under one board, and two sockets under another board.

²² And for the sides of the tabernacle westward thou shalt make six boards.

²³ And two boards shalt thou make for the corners of the tabernacle in the two sides.

²⁴ And they shall be coupled together beneath, and they shall be coupled together above the head of it unto one ring: thus shall it be for them both; they shall be for the two corners.

²⁵ And they shall be eight boards, and their sockets of silver, sixteen sockets; two sockets under one board, and two sockets under another board.

²⁶ And thou shalt make bars of shittim wood; five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle,

²⁷ And five bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the side of the tabernacle, for the two sides westward.

²⁸ And the middle bar in the midst of the boards shall reach from end to end.

²⁹ And thou shalt overlay the boards with gold, and make their rings of gold for places for the bars: and thou shalt overlay the bars with gold.

³⁰ And thou shalt rear up the tabernacle according to the fashion thereof which was shewed thee in the mount.

³¹ And thou shalt make a vail of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen of cunning work: with cherubims shall it be made:

³² And thou shalt hang it upon four pillars of shittim wood overlaid with gold: their hooks shall be of gold, upon the four sockets of silver.

³³ And thou shalt hang up the vail under the taches, that thou mayest bring in thither within the vail the ark of the testimony: and the vail shall divide unto you between the holy place and the most holy.

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

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

³⁶ And thou shalt make an hanging for the door of the tent, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needlework.

³⁷ And thou shalt make for the hanging five pillars of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold, and their hooks shall be of gold: and thou shalt cast five sockets of brass for them.

27:1 And thou shalt make an altar of shittim wood, five cubits long, and five cubits broad; the altar shall be foursquare: and the height thereof shall be three cubits.

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

³ And thou shalt make his pans to receive his ashes, and his shovels, and his basons, and his fleshhooks, and his firepans: all the vessels thereof thou shalt make of brass.

⁴ And thou shalt make for it a grate of network of brass; and upon the net shalt thou make four brasen rings in the four corners thereof.

⁵ And thou shalt put it under the compass of the altar beneath, that the net may be even to the midst of the altar.

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

⁷ And the staves shall be put into the rings, and the staves shall be upon the two sides of the altar, to bear it.

⁸ Hollow with boards shalt thou make it: as it was shewed thee in the mount, so shall they make it.

⁹ And thou shalt make the court of the tabernacle: for the south side southward there shall be hangings for the court of fine twined linen of an hundred cubits long for one side:

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

¹¹ And likewise for the north side in length there shall be hangings of an hundred cubits long, and his twenty pillars and their twenty sockets of brass; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver.

¹² And for the breadth of the court on the west side shall be hangings of fifty cubits: their pillars ten, and their sockets ten.

¹³ And the breadth of the court on the east side eastward shall be fifty cubits.

¹⁴ The hangings of one side of the gate shall be fifteen cubits: their pillars three, and their sockets three.

¹⁵ And on the other side shall be hangings fifteen cubits: their pillars three, and their sockets three.

¹⁶ And for the gate of the court shall be an hanging of twenty cubits, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needlework: and their pillars shall be four, and their sockets four.

¹⁷ All the pillars round about the court shall be filleted with silver; their hooks shall be of silver, and their sockets of brass.

¹⁸ The length of the court shall be an hundred cubits, and the breadth fifty every where, and the height five cubits of fine twined linen, and their sockets of brass.

¹⁹ All the vessels of the tabernacle in all the service thereof, and all the pins thereof, and all the pins of the court, shall be of brass.

²⁰ And thou shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always.

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

• Romans 11:17 “And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree.” We are the branches of the Olive tree and therefore we are the extension of the root.
• Isaiah 11:1 “And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots”
• Isaiah 11:10 “And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.”
• The branches are to bear fruit as we are told in John 15:8 “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.”
• John 15:4 “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.” So, as we are the fruit of someone else’s branch, we become the branch when the fruit ripens and is picked, the branch grows where fruit once lived, and makes more offshoots. Pure oil means transparency and richness, this comes as the fruit is bruised and crushed. Like a garlic press there is a pressing of the olive to produce the oil. What burns, or produces light in the oil lamp, is the vapors off the oil and not the oil itself.
• Similarly to the fruit in John 15:4, here the light requires the addition of the Spirit, the breath of YHWH to make the light shine in the darkness. It is the heat from the flame that draws the oil up the wick and it is in the heat of being “pressed” that we draw closer to YHWH.
• Hebrews 1:7 “And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.” We are to be in the continual process of bearing fruit, pressing it into service, and filling the lamp with oil for the light to make it useful.
• Matthew 5:15-16 “Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
• Psalm 119:105 “Thy word [which became flesh] is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”
• John 8:12 “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth [walk the same walk, Torah] me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”
• Isaiah 8:20 “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.”

28:1 And take thou unto thee Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel, that he may minister unto me in the priest’s office, even Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s sons.

² And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty.

³ And thou shalt speak unto all that are wise hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they may make Aaron’s garments to consecrate him, that he may minister unto me in the priest’s office.

⁴ And these are the garments which they shall make; a breastplate, and an ephod, and a robe, and a broidered coat, a mitre (diadem or tiara styled crown – not a fish hat!), and a girdle: and they shall make holy garments for Aaron thy brother, and his sons, that he may minister unto me in the priest’s office.

⁵ And they shall take gold, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen.

⁶ And they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue, and of purple, of scarlet, and fine twined linen, with cunning work.

⁷ It shall have the two shoulder pieces thereof joined at the two edges thereof; and so it shall be joined together.

⁸ And the curious girdle of the ephod, which is upon it, shall be of the same, according to the work thereof; even of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen.

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

¹⁰ Six of their names on one stone, and the other six names of the rest on the other stone, according to their birth.

¹¹ With the work of an engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet, shalt thou engrave the two stones with the names of the children of Israel: thou shalt make them to be set in ouches of gold.

¹² And thou shalt put the two stones upon the shoulders of the ephod for stones of memorial unto the children of Israel: and Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord upon his two shoulders for a memorial.

¹³ And thou shalt make ouches of gold;

¹⁴ And two chains of pure gold at the ends; of wreathen work shalt thou make them, and fasten the wreathen chains to the ouches.

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

¹⁶ Foursquare it shall be being doubled; a span shall be the length thereof, and a span shall be the breadth thereof.

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

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

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

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

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

When John describes the Holy City, the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21 he tells us of these stones. “And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolyte; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls: every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.”

²² And thou shalt make upon the breastplate chains at the ends of wreathen work of pure gold.

²³ And thou shalt make upon the breastplate two rings of gold, and shalt put the two rings on the two ends of the breastplate.

²⁴ And thou shalt put the two wreathen chains of gold in the two rings which are on the ends of the breastplate.

²⁵ And the other two ends of the two wreathen chains thou shalt fasten in the two ouches, and put them on the shoulder pieces of the ephod before it.

²⁶ And thou shalt make two rings of gold, and thou shalt put them upon the two ends of the breastplate in the border thereof, which is in the side of the ephod inward.

²⁷ And two other rings of gold thou shalt make, and shalt put them on the two sides of the ephod underneath, toward the forepart thereof, over against the other coupling thereof, above the curious girdle of the ephod.

²⁸ And they shall bind the breastplate by the rings thereof unto the rings of the ephod with a lace of blue, that it may be above the curious girdle of the ephod, and that the breastplate be not loosed from the ephod.

²⁹ And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breastplate of judgment upon his heart, when he goeth in unto the holy place, for a memorial before the Lord continually.

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

³¹ And thou shalt make the robe of the ephod all of blue.

³² And there shall be an hole in the top of it, in the midst thereof: it shall have a binding of woven work round about the hole of it, as it were the hole of an habergeon, that it be not rent.

³³ And beneath upon the hem of it thou shalt make pomegranates of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, round about the hem thereof; and bells of gold between them round about:

³⁴ A golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, upon the hem of the robe round about.

³⁵ And it shall be upon Aaron to minister: and his sound shall be heard when he goeth in unto the holy place before the Lord, and when he cometh out, that he die not.

³⁶ And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and grave upon it, like the engravings of a signet, Holiness To The Lord.

³⁷ And thou shalt put it on a blue lace, that it may be upon the mitre; upon the forefront of the mitre it shall be.

³⁸ And it shall be upon Aaron’s forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things, which the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts; and it shall be always upon his forehead, that they may be accepted before the Lord.

³⁹ And thou shalt embroider the coat of fine linen, and thou shalt make the mitre of fine linen, and thou shalt make the girdle of needlework.

⁴⁰ And for Aaron’s sons thou shalt make coats, and thou shalt make for them girdles, and bonnets shalt thou make for them, for glory and for beauty.

⁴¹ And thou shalt put them upon Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him; and shalt anoint them, and consecrate them, and sanctify them, that they may minister unto me in the priest’s office.

⁴² And thou shalt make them linen breeches to cover their nakedness; from the loins even unto the thighs they shall reach:

⁴³ And they shall be upon Aaron, and upon his sons, when they come in unto the tabernacle of the congregation, or when they come near unto the altar to minister in the holy place; that they bear not iniquity, and die: it shall be a statute forever unto him and his seed after him.

Cohen or Kohen: a member of the Jewish priestly class, descended from Aaron, having sacrificial, ministerial, and other sacred functions. Kahan is to be, or do the office of a, execute the, minister in the priest’s office.

• 1 Peter 2:5 “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.”
• Hosea 4:6-7 “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame.”
• Matthew 22:11-14 “And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen.”

What is the difference between being called and being chosen? One might render it in the same thought to a job interview, they may see several candidates yet they may only hire one or two.

• Revelation 17:13-14 “These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.[the people falling for the beast and the one world religion] These shall make war with the Lamb [Jesus], and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him [Jesus] are called, and chosen, and faithful.
• Revelation 12:17 “And the dragon [Satan] was wroth with the woman [bride of Yeshua], and went to make war with the remnant of her seed [children of the covenant], which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”

29:1 And this is the thing that thou shalt do unto them to hallow them, to minister unto me in the priest’s office: Take one young bullock, and two rams without blemish,

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

³ And thou shalt put them into one basket, and bring them in the basket, with the bullock and the two rams.

⁴ And Aaron and his sons thou shalt bring unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and shalt wash them with water.

⁵ And thou shalt take the garments, and put upon Aaron the coat, and the robe of the ephod, and the ephod, and the breastplate, and gird him with the curious girdle of the ephod:

⁶ And thou shalt put the mitre upon his head, and put the holy crown upon the mitre.

⁷ Then shalt thou take the anointing oil, and pour it upon his head, and anoint him.

⁸ And thou shalt bring his sons, and put coats upon them.

⁹ And thou shalt gird them with girdles, Aaron and his sons, and put the bonnets on them: and the priest’s office shall be theirs for a perpetual statute: and thou shalt consecrate Aaron and his sons.

¹⁰ And thou shalt cause a bullock to be brought before the tabernacle of the congregation: and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head of the bullock.

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

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

¹³ And thou shalt take all the fat that covereth the inwards, and the caul that is above the liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, and burn them upon the altar.

¹⁴ But the flesh of the bullock, and his skin, and his dung, shalt thou burn with fire without the camp: it is a sin offering.

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

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

¹⁷ And thou shalt cut the ram in pieces, and wash the inwards of him, and his legs, and put them unto his pieces, and unto his head.

¹⁸ And thou shalt burn the whole ram upon the altar: it is a burnt offering unto the Lord: it is a sweet savour, an offering made by fire unto the Lord.

¹⁹ And thou shalt take the other ram; and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head of the ram.

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

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

²² Also thou shalt take of the ram the fat and the rump, and the fat that covereth the inwards, and the caul above the liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, and the right shoulder; for it is a ram of consecration:

²³ And one loaf of bread, and one cake of oiled bread, and one wafer out of the basket of the unleavened bread that is before the Lord:

²⁴ And thou shalt put all in the hands of Aaron, and in the hands of his sons; and shalt wave them for a wave offering before the Lord.

²⁵ And thou shalt receive them of their hands, and burn them upon the altar for a burnt offering, for a sweet savour before the Lord: it is an offering made by fire unto the Lord.

²⁶ And thou shalt take the breast of the ram of Aaron’s consecration, and wave it for a wave offering before the Lord: and it shall be thy part.

²⁷ And thou shalt sanctify the breast of the wave offering, and the shoulder of the heave offering, which is waved, and which is heaved up, of the ram of the consecration, even of that which is for Aaron, and of that which is for his sons:

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

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

³⁰ And that son that is priest in his stead shall put them on seven days, when he cometh into the tabernacle of the congregation to minister in the holy place.

³¹ And thou shalt take the ram of the consecration, and seethe his flesh in the holy place.

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

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

³⁴ And if ought of the flesh of the consecrations, or of the bread, remain unto the morning, then thou shalt burn the remainder with fire: it shall not be eaten, because it is holy.

³⁵ And thus shalt thou do unto Aaron, and to his sons, according to all things which I have commanded thee: seven days shalt thou consecrate them.

³⁶ And thou shalt offer every day a bullock for a sin offering for atonement: and thou shalt cleanse the altar, when thou hast made an atonement for it, and thou shalt anoint it, to sanctify it.

³⁷ Seven days thou shalt make an atonement for the altar, and sanctify it; and it shall be an altar most holy: whatsoever toucheth the altar shall be holy.

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

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

⁴⁰ And with the one lamb a tenth deal of flour mingled with the fourth part of an hin of beaten oil; and the fourth part of an hin of wine for a drink offering.

⁴¹ And the other lamb thou shalt offer at even, and shalt do thereto according to the meat offering of the morning, and according to the drink offering thereof, for a sweet savour, an offering made by fire unto the Lord.

⁴² This shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord: where I will meet you, to speak there unto thee.

⁴³ And there I will meet with the children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory.

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

⁴⁵ And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God.

⁴⁶ And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them: I am the Lord their God.

30:1 And thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon: of shittim wood shalt thou make it.

² A cubit shall be the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof; foursquare shall it be: and two cubits shall be the height thereof: the horns thereof shall be of the same.

³ And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, the top thereof, and the sides thereof round about, and the horns thereof; and thou shalt make unto it a crown of gold round about.

⁴ And two golden rings shalt thou make to it under the crown of it, by the two corners thereof, upon the two sides of it shalt thou make it; and they shall be for places for the staves to bear it withal.

⁵ And thou shalt make the staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold.

⁶ And thou shalt put it before the vail that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with thee.

⁷ And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning: when he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it.

⁸ And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations.

⁹ Ye shall offer no strange incense thereon, nor burnt sacrifice, nor meat offering; neither shall ye pour drink offering thereon.

¹⁰ And Aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of it once in a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonements: once in the year shall he make atonement upon it throughout your generations: it is most holy unto the Lord.

¹¹ And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

¹² When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord, when thou numberest them; that there be no plague among them, when thou numberest them.

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

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

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

¹⁶ And thou shalt take the atonement money of the children of Israel, and shalt appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation; that it may be a memorial unto the children of Israel before the Lord, to make an atonement for your souls.

¹⁷ And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

¹⁸ Thou shalt also make a laver (H3595 כִּיוֹר kiyowr – kee-yore’) of brass, and his foot also of brass, to wash withal: and thou shalt put it between the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar, and thou shalt put water therein.

¹⁹ For Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet thereat:

²⁰ When they go into the tabernacle of the congregation, they shall wash with water, that they die not; or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn offering made by fire unto the Lord:

²¹ So they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they die not: and it shall be a statute forever to them, even to him and to his seed throughout their generations.
(H3595 כִּיוֹר kiyowr – kee-yore’1. (properly) something round (as excavated or bored), i.e. a chafing-dish for coals or a caldron for cooking. 2. (from similarity of form) a washbowl.

• Proverbs 17:3 “The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the Lord trieth the hearts.”
• Ephesians 5:25-27 “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.”
• Exodus 38:8 “And he made the laver of brass, and the foot of it of brass, of the looking glasses of the women assembling, which assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.”
• Exodus 29:42 This shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord: where I will meet you, to speak there unto thee.
• James 1:22-24 “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.”

²² Moreover the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

²³ Take thou also unto thee principal spices, of pure myrrh five hundred shekels, and of sweet cinnamon half so much, even two hundred and fifty shekels, and of sweet calamus two hundred and fifty shekels,

²⁴ And of cassia five hundred shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary, and of oil olive an hin:

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

²⁶ And thou shalt anoint the tabernacle of the congregation therewith, and the ark of the testimony,

²⁷ And the table and all his vessels, and the candlestick and his vessels, and the altar of incense,

²⁸ And the altar of burnt offering with all his vessels, and the laver and his foot.

²⁹ And thou shalt sanctify them, that they may be most holy: whatsoever toucheth them shall be holy.

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

³¹ And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, This shall be an holy anointing oil unto me throughout your generations.

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

³³ Whosoever compoundeth any like it, or whosoever putteth any of it upon a stranger, shall even be cut off from his people.

³⁴ And the Lord said unto Moses, Take unto thee sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum; these sweet spices with pure frankincense: of each shall there be a like weight:

³⁵ And thou shalt make it a perfume, a confection after the art of the apothecary, tempered together, pure and holy:

³⁶ And thou shalt beat some of it very small, and put of it before the testimony in the tabernacle of the congregation, where I will meet with thee: it shall be unto you most holy.

³⁷ And as for the perfume which thou shalt make, ye shall not make to yourselves according to the composition thereof: it shall be unto thee holy for the Lord.

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

31 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

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

³ And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship,

⁴ To devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass,

⁵ And in cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of timber, to work in all manner of workmanship.

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

⁷ The tabernacle of the congregation, and the ark of the testimony, and the mercy seat that is thereupon, and all the furniture of the tabernacle,

⁸ And the table and his furniture, and the pure candlestick with all his furniture, and the altar of incense,

⁹ And the altar of burnt offering with all his furniture, and the laver and his foot,

¹⁰ And the cloths of service, and the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons, to minister in the priest’s office,

¹¹ And the anointing oil, and sweet incense for the holy place: according to all that I have commanded thee shall they do.

¹² And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

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

The Sabbath is God’s Law about observing sacred time, just as the Tabernacle is God’s Law about observing sacred space. We live in a universe that consists of space [3 dimensions] and time [1 dimension]; while the first 3 dimensions (space) are very easy to grasp because we can simply look at the room in which we sit, and see its length, width, and height. What is not as easy to grasp is time. We can’t see or touch time, yet, we can observe its effects. God sanctifies the Tabernacle by setting it apart from all other human space and dwelling in it, and He sanctifies the Sabbath by setting it apart from all other blocks of time and declares this specific block of time, Shabbat, as holy. The word “sanctify” is translated from the Hebrew root word “kadash”, which indeed means “holy” or “be holy” or to be set apart. But pay attention to what God seems to be saying here: He says that the purpose for keeping the Sabbath is….what? To make them, and you, holy! That is no small thing and it carries rather large implications.

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

The word used here is “kodesh”; although it is taken from the root word kadash, it has a slightly different meaning. Kodesh means “holi-ness”; Most literally this verse reads “Keep the Sabbath because it is holiness for you”. God is telling us “I want you to keep the Sabbath, because not only did I declare it holy, but the Sabbath clothes YOU in a state of holiness in my eyes when you obey me and observe it.” This is the same premise as when Moses was at the burning bush. Moses was to remove his shoes because the ground was in contact with the holiness of YHWH and that holiness was now transferred supernaturally. This concept really shouldn’t sound strange to us at all. For, we are told that in order for us to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, we must be righteous according to God’s standard. But, it is utterly impossible for a man to attain that state of saving righteousness on our own. So, by faith in Jesus, we are clothed in HIS righteousness. Yeshua’s righteousness is imputed upon us. Yeshua’s righteousness is transmitted to us. This also goes a long way towards helping us to understand what Christ really meant when He said: “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath”. You see, He was saying that it was NOT necessary for the creation of Man in order to bring holiness to the Sabbath, but it WAS necessary that the Sabbath be created in order that holiness might be brought to Man.

¹⁵ Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.

¹⁶ Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual (forever) covenant.

¹⁷ It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.

God says the Sabbath is a sign between He and His people. In Hebrew the word for sign is owth (oth) this word is an affirmation, proof, or a mark of distinction and sets the relationship between God and His people apart from everyone else.

• Psalm 4:3 “But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself: the Lord will hear when I call unto him.”

The Sabbath is a very specific block of time (the 7th day) that is set apart from all other blocks of time to embody the holiness of time as the 4th dimension of God’s Creation. Time is something we can never, ever get back, hence the song “Time in a Bottle” by Jim Croce. Look at what he says about his love… “If I could save time in a bottle, the first thing that I’d like to do. Is to save every day, ‘Til eternity passes away, Just to spend them with you.” Isn’t that what we envision as our Heaven? The Sabbath is not only a ‘shadow of things to come’ it is a drop of water for a thirsty soul. He tells us earlier in Exodus the Sabbath is a blessing and who, in their right mind, would want to miss out on a blessing for YHWH? Why do we insist on following a man-made tradition set about by Sun-god worshipers?

They (Greeks and Romans) named the days in order of the importance of their Sun-gods and lesser deities. Then Constantine forced his tradition upon the church he bought and paid for, manipulating the day and the rituals to conform to his version of paganism.

“Modern Christians who talk of keeping Sunday as a ‘holy’ day, as in the still extant ‘Blue Laws,’ of colonial America, should know that as a ‘holy’ day of rest and cessation from labor and amusements Sunday was unknown to Jesus. It formed no tenant [teaching] of the primitive Church and became ‘sacred’ only in the course of time. Outside the church its observance was legalized for the Roman Empire through a series of decrees starting with the famous one of Constantine in 321, an edict due to his political and social ideas.”—W. W. Hyde, Paganism to Christianity in the Roman Empire, 1946, p. 257.

Referring once again to Jim Croce’s lyrics; what would it look like if we held the Saturday Sabbath as the treasure it really is?  Isn’t it strange that the one commandment that begins with “Remember” has been forgotten? We can no more choose our own definition of the Sabbath than we can choose our own definition of the Messiah.

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

(Meanwhile back at camp…)

32:1 And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.

• Isaiah 25:9 “It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
• Isaiah 40:31 “but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”
• Psalm 37:7 “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices! Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil. For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.”

² And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. (Why did they have need of things having earthly monetary value to execute their version of worship?

³ And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.

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

It would appear that the people were breaking the Mosaic Covenant at the same moment Moses was up on the mountaintop receiving it. The Torah had been in existence since Adam & Eve received it from YHWH himself in the Garden. The people had been in Egypt so long they had forgotten what the instructions were. God sees what Israel did by building that calf, as adultery, and therefore, infidelity. Why adultery? Because they were supposed to be in union with Him, and then they brought another “god” into the picture. Humanity is no different today as it was then, anxious and stressed, so we take matters into our own hands. The people thought they were making a suitable image of the God of Israel, what “things” have we made that we consider suitable?  A Crucifix? A picture? A building? A preacher? We have to ask ourselves honestly who is it that we follow and is it YHWH?

• 1 Corinthians 3:4 “For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?”
• Paul tells his fried Timothy (and all of us) 2 Timothy 1:13 “Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.”

⁵ And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.

We will see Joshua, from the tribe of Ephraim, lead the people into the Promised Land. Years later, after the kingdom splits, the northern kingdom led by Jeroboam, also a member of the tribe of Ephraim, lead people in worship of a “golden calf” or a mixing of Egyptian idol worship with the worship of YHWH. This leads to the people being divorced by YHWH and pushed out of the land. As they left they took with them the things they had been taught by Jeroboam, mixing of religious behaviors, into the lands in which they settled. This is what we see in the churches today. Doing whatever it takes to draw a crowd – not building YHWH’s kingdom but building their own kingdom with the mixing of false gods and idolatry.

⁶ And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.

The Israelites here, as well as, the church today believe that what they are doing is worshipping YHWH in truth, when in actuality, they have dreamed up their own way of doing things. Ignoring the things that YHWH has commanded and devising something of your own accord makes you the authority and ruler usurping the rightful place of YHWH. This makes you your own god.

• Isaiah 5:21, 24 “Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight! Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root will be as rottenness, and their blossom go up like dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.”

⁷ And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest 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 worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

⁹ And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:

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

At the first sign of trouble the instinct of the people was not to believe God, or to trust God, or even to be obedient to God, but rather to behave as they had been conditioned and trained in Egypt. They just went back to what was familiar, and turned their backs on what was right. People haven’t changed much, have we? While the masses follow blindly the traditions and teachings of the world, those that come to faith often feel like they are swimming upstream or going against the flow and they begin to get uncomfortable. YHWH wants us to be peculiar and different so the world can HIS manifestation in your life, that there is a better, more glorious way of life. When you conform to the world the masses cannot see how YHWH has saved you from your own bondage.

¹¹ And Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand? (Moses is asking what purpose this would serve)

• 1 Kings 18:21 “And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.”
• Deuteronomy 5:29 “O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever!”

¹² Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people.

¹³ Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it forever.

¹⁴ And the Lord repented (H5162 נָחַם nacham – to pity, console.) of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.

God constantly reminds us to “fear not” for fear leads to poor judgment and irrational behavior. When they didn’t see what they expected to see, when they expected to see it, they lost faith; the result was their taking control of things that was not in their authority to control. Unskilled and untrained in these matters they did what is only possible in this situation… mess it all up! The tribe of Ephraim is reminded of this by the prophet Ezekiel –

• Ezekiel 20:5-9 “And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; In the day when I chose Israel, and lifted up mine hand unto the seed of the house of Jacob, and made myself known unto them in the land of Egypt, when I lifted up mine hand unto them, saying, I am the Lord your God; In the day that I lifted up mine hand unto them, to bring them forth of the land of Egypt into a land that I had espied for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands: Then said I unto them, Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. But they rebelled against me, and would not hearken unto me: they did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt: then I said, I will pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt. But I wrought for my name’s sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, among whom they were, in whose sight I made myself known unto them, in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt.”

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

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

Modern Christianity uses the phrase “Word of God” constantly while simultaneously denying the validity of Torah. This is why the rest of humanity looks at them with disdain or confusion.

¹⁷ And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp.

¹⁸ And he said, It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome: but the noise of them that sing do I hear.

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

In the Middle East, whenever a covenant was made, written down, and then violated, the clay tablets it was written on were ceremonially thrown down and shattered to signify that the covenant was indeed broken. So, this wasn’t just a moment of rage in which Moses lost it for a second and in doing so threw down the tablets, it was a visual for the people.

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

Deuteronomy 9:21 “And I took your sin, the calf which ye had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, and ground it very small, even until it was as small as dust: and I cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount.” Gold is insoluble in water, however, in a fine powder it assumes a colloidal condition and give the liquid a deep red blood-like color. The result was a suspension which came a visual reckoning of the salvation found in purified blood/water. John 19:34 “But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.”

²¹ And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them?

²² And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord wax hot: thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief.

²³ For they said unto me, Make us gods, which shall go before us: for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.

²⁴ And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it me: then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf. (Blaming the people they actually helped lead astray)

²⁵ And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies:)

This is spiritual nakedness; Jude 23 “And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.”

• Revelation 3:5 “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.”

The key to having a spiritual covering is to overcome the fleshly things of this world and learn to abide in the spirit of YHWH. We see Pauls reminder of this in

• Colossians 2:18 “Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind”

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

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

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

Blood, as we know, is always thicker than water and Moses was a Levite and my means of his current station the head of the Levite tribe. Here is yet another example of the wicked being removed from the earth. YHWH will not have the wicked in the same congregation as the righteous thus they need be removed, permanently. This principle that God divides flies in the face of the typical modern day Church doctrine that God unites. But the “unity at any cost” doctrine simply doesn’t square with Holy Scripture, primarily because it’s too simplistic. God divides and separates in order to achieve unity. God’s unity has nothing to do with consensus or conformance, and most certainly not with compromise. Unity is oneness with His Spirit. You will eventually come to see that killing that which God calls ‘just’ is not murder. But killing outside of what God calls just IS murder. God creates all life. How it ends is entirely His to choose. Looking at the Day of Pentecost we see the opportunity for Israel to return to covenant with YHWH through the blood atonement of YHWH. Again YHWH makes a very visual presentation to the people.

• Acts 2:40-41 “And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.”

²⁹ For Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord, even every man upon his son, and upon his brother; that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day.

³⁰ And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up unto the Lord; peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin.

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

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

What exactly would this mean when Moses uttered it? We have to look at Revelation 20:12, 15 “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” What Moses was exampling was the life of Yeshua in the future…John 15:13 “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

³³ And the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.

³⁴ Therefore now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee: behold, mine Angel shall go before thee: nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them.

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

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

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

³ Unto a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee in the way.

⁴ And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned: and no man did put on him his ornaments.

Jewelry goes hand in hand with joy/frivolousness and considering what has transpired, they should be in a state of mourning for losing the presence and covenant of God because of their actions. Also, this jewelry was stripped from the Egyptians for the express purpose of dressing the Tabernacle.

⁵ For the Lord had said unto Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiffnecked (obstinate & backward) people: I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee: therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee.

⁶ And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the mount Horeb.

In stripping themselves of their ornaments they were removing the things that made them great in their own eyes.

• Matthew 3:8-9 “Therefore produce fruit that proves your repentance and don’t think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones!”

Just as YHVH had told Moses earlier, He could wipe out these people and make a new batch that would be faithful, Matthew warns the people of today. Repentance isn’t just an “I’M sorry”, it is a conscience decision to live in accordance to the scriptures and not ones own imaginations.

• Acts 26:19-20 “Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but I declared to those in Damascus first, and then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds consistent with repentance.” This is TORAH!

⁷ And Moses took the tabernacle (his tent, the actual tabernacle of YHWH had not yet been built), and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass, that every one which sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp.

Spurgeon rewords this accordingly: “They who seek the Lord must go out from the camp and from the congregation; and if they wish to commune with the Most High they cannot do it in the camps of even the religious and professing world.”

⁸ And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the tabernacle.

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

¹⁰ And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door: and all the people rose up and worshipped, every man in his tent door.

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

*H6437 פָּנָה panah (paw-naw’) v. to face, i.e. appear; later, in vs. 20 God says that no one, including Moses, can see God’s face. Moses had a “face to presence” communication with YHWH, very similar to our prayer life, yet this essence of YHWH had a pillar of smoke or cloud surrounding it, while verse 20 is about God’s face that apparently could be visible to human eyes.. A benefit for the people watching. Today, a Believer’s modern-day prayer life, since the day of Pentecost when His Spirit came to dwell in us, allows us to converse “face to face like a friend” because He is near.

• Joshua 1:8 “This book of the law {Torah} shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.”
• Psalm 119:97 “O how I love your law {Torah}! All day long I meditate on it.”

¹² And Moses said unto the Lord, See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people: and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight.

¹³ Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation is thy people.

¹⁴ And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.

¹⁵ And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.

¹⁶ For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.

¹⁷ And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name.

¹⁸ And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.

¹⁹ And YHWH said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.

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

²¹ And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock:

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

²³ And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts (H268 אָחוֹר ‘achowr): but my face shall not be seen.

H268 אָחוֹר ‘achowr means “a time to come” The term used here is a Hebrew idiom meaning “on the heels of” or ‘just after____ then this will happen”. Moses asked to see YHWH’s glory and YHWH is telling Moses that his glory is coming later in the form of Yeshua the Messiah. This fulfills the prophecy of Genesis 3:15 “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” Paul tells us in Hebrews 1:3 “The Son is the radiance of his glory and the representation of his essence, and he sustains all things by his powerful word, and so when he had accomplished cleansing for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” Moses will see this after it is accomplished …

• Matthew 17:1-3 “And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.  And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him.”

34:1 And the Lord said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest.

² And be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount.

³ And no man shall come up with thee, neither let any man be seen throughout all the mount; neither let the flocks nor herds feed before that mount.

⁴ And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone.

Stone H68 אֶבֶן ‘eben from the root H1129 בָּנָה banah the verb is ‘to build’; the noun is ‘son’ – in the pictographic Hebrew – aleph = father, beit = son, nun sofit = continuance. When you combine these – the Son of YHWH is the continuance of the Father; the Father gives the Torah to Adam and the people forget it in Egypt, so He gives it in written form to Moses, then sends his Son as the continuance in the fleshly form so we would not forget the Torah. Matthew 5:18 “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Fulfilled here is the word G1096 γίνομαι ginomai meaning “to cause”, “to make happen” we can see this in the verse prior as well. Matthew 5:17 “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” Fulfil is G4137 πληρόω pleroo “to fill completely”, “to instruct”, “to example completely”. Literally Yeshua came to FULLY EXAMPLE THE TORAH TO GET PEOPLE TO START KEEPING ITS TENANTS PROPERLY.

⁵ And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord.

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

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

Why the 3rd and the 4th generations? Because, in that day of extended families living together from birth to death, the typical family unit contained 3 and 4 generations, so, it is referring to the entire household. In other words, it was typical that the great grandparents, grandparents, parents, and children all remained in one family unit…living and working together.

⁸ And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped.

The fact that our sins have already all been forgiven and paid for due to the finished work of Christ doesn’t change what we’re supposed to do. We are still to go before Yehoveh every day, confess our sins to Him and ask for forgiveness.

⁹ And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance.

¹⁰ And he said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the Lord: for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee.

Yehoveh makes it clear that there are two conditions for Israel to obey if God’s promises to Israel within that covenant would come about; first, as told in vss. 11-16, Israel must not mix themselves with the Canaanites and involve themselves in their idolatry. Second, there are several God-ordained observances, appointed times, (as outlined in vss. 17-26) that they are ALWAYS to keep. The schedule of Yehoveh’s appointed times, which includes the 7 Biblical Feasts, were agriculturally based festivals that were timed to occur in the various seasons and stages of planting, growing, and harvesting. This is evident in the parable of the sower in Matthew where Yeshua is attempting to connect with the people in a way that they would understand. Likewise, Paul tells us in 1^st Corinthians 3:6 “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.” While did the nations outside of Israel did similar things, we need to follow the Lord when He says that the WAY and the DAY and the REASON for celebrating those set apart days and festivals was NEVER to be done in the way that the pagans did they’re celebrating.

¹¹ Observe thou that which I command thee this day: behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite.

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

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

(something akin to Totem Poles, which were idols)

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

¹⁵ Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice;

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

Whenever Israel fell into idolatry it was either the moon-god or the fertility goddess that they began to involve in their worship because this god and goddess were so universally honored. The Hebrews generally didn’t STOP worshipping Yehoveh; they just added another god or two to the mix. Isn’t it interesting that as much as the Church just can’t resist shaming ancient Israel for their idol worship that we Christians have adopted the identical name used in the Bible for this pagan fertility goddess (that God calls an abomination) to use as the name for perhaps our most sacred Holy Day: Easter. That’s right; Easter is just Anglo-Saxon for Ishtar; Easter was the Anglo-Saxon fertility goddess (this is why our modern Easter celebration employs rabbits and Easter eggs because a rabbit was often the symbol for the fertility goddess and eggs, ovum, were the symbols of fertility itself). We should think long and hard about this and how many of our other traditions came about that we hold so dear and above reproach.

¹⁷ Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.

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

¹⁹ All that openeth the matrix is mine; and every firstling among thy cattle, whether ox or sheep, that is male.

²⁰ But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou redeem him not, then shalt thou break his neck. All the firstborn of thy sons thou shalt redeem. And none shall appear before me empty.

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

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

²³ Thrice in the year shall all your menchildren appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel.

²⁴ For I will cast out the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders: neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God thrice in the year.

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

²⁶ The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.

Pentecost is a Greek word that the early Christians used in place of the Hebrew Shavuot. Pentecost is just a Greek word that means 50 days, the 50 days occurs exactly 50 days after the day Christ rose from the dead. A Hebrew word already existed for the 50^th day, that being, jubilee. When the Holy Spirit descended upon man a NEW holiday was NOT created in remembrance of that event. Rather, it was on Shavuot, a Biblical Feast instituted by God, at the time of Moses, is when the Holy Spirit descended upon men.

²⁷ And the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.

If ever there was a call to God’s ‘church’ to be uncompromising, this section of Exodus is it. Yehoveh is NOT a god of religious tolerance. Yehoveh is NOT a god of compromise and consensus. Yehoveh does not honor our sincerity or our earthly definition of love above His commands. God’s people are NOT to be at all tolerant of false gods, or is it to declare what God calls evil to be good, such as homosexuality or abortion; nor are we to bow down to the wishes and customs of pagans, such as joining them in their ‘holy days’ like Halloween, Easter, or Christmas all for the sake of getting along.

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

• Matthew 4:1-3 “Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.”

Moses was higher than Aaron the High Priest of Israel. So too, Jesus is higher than any concept of a High Priest of Israel.

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

³⁰ And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him.

³¹ And Moses called unto them; and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him: and Moses talked with them.

³² And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh: and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him in mount Sinai.

³³ And till Moses had done speaking with them, he put a vail on his face.

³⁴ But when Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he took the vail off, until he came out. And he came out, and spake unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded.

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

• Matthew 17:1-3 “And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.  And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him.”

35:1 And Moses gathered all the congregation of the children of Israel together, and said unto them, These are the words which the Lord hath commanded, that ye should do them.

² Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a sabbath of rest to the Lord: whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death.

Yehoveh told Israel that the way to be holy in His eyes was to observe the Sabbath; the Sabbath would clothe Israel in His holiness. He didn’t give Israel a choice “B” or “C”. With the advent of Christ, the way to be holy in Yehoveh’s eyes is to have faith in Christ….and THAT trust and faith will be our holiness. Our human efforts to be holy, to work our way towards holiness, are as filth to God. They can do nothing but pollute and defile the ONLY means of holiness that He has provided. The Sabbath rest, and Christ’s rest, are one in the same. And the one did not abolish, nor end, the other; nor is one a substitute for the other.

³ Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the sabbath day.

⁴ And Moses spake unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, This is the thing which the Lord commanded, saying,

⁵ Take ye from among you an offering unto the Lord: whosoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it, an offering of the Lord; gold, and silver, and brass,

⁶ And blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats’ hair,

⁷ And rams’ skins dyed red, and badgers’ skins, and shittim wood,

⁸ And oil for the light, and spices for anointing oil, and for the sweet incense,

⁹ And onyx stones, and stones to be set for the ephod, and for the breastplate.

¹⁰ And every wise hearted among you shall come, and make all that the Lord hath commanded;

¹¹ The tabernacle, his tent, and his covering, his taches, and his boards, his bars, his pillars, and his sockets,

¹² The ark, and the staves thereof, with the mercy seat, and the vail of the covering,

¹³ The table, and his staves, and all his vessels, and the shewbread,

¹⁴ The candlestick also for the light, and his furniture, and his lamps, with the oil for the light,

¹⁵ And the incense altar, and his staves, and the anointing oil, and the sweet incense, and the hanging for the door at the entering in of the tabernacle,

¹⁶ The altar of burnt offering, with his brasen grate, his staves, and all his vessels, the laver and his foot,

¹⁷ The hangings of the court, his pillars, and their sockets, and the hanging for the door of the court,

¹⁸ The pins of the tabernacle, and the pins of the court, and their cords,

¹⁹ The cloths of service, to do service in the holy place, the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons, to minister in the priest’s office.

²⁰ And all the congregation of the children of Israel departed from the presence of Moses.

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

²² And they came, both men and women, as many as were willing hearted, and brought bracelets, and earrings, and rings, and tablets, all jewels of gold: and every man that offered offered an offering of gold unto the Lord.

²³ And every man, with whom was found blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats’ hair, and red skins of rams, and badgers’ skins, brought them.

²⁴ Every one that did offer an offering of silver and brass brought the Lord’s offering: and every man, with whom was found shittim wood for any work of the service, brought it.

²⁵ And all the women that were wise hearted did spin with their hands, and brought that which they had spun, both of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine linen.

²⁶ And all the women whose heart stirred them up in wisdom spun goats’ hair.

²⁷ And the rulers brought onyx stones, and stones to be set, for the ephod, and for the breastplate;

²⁸ And spice, and oil for the light, and for the anointing oil, and for the sweet incense.

²⁹ The children of Israel brought a willing offering unto the Lord, every man and woman, whose heart made them willing to bring for all manner of work, which the Lord had commanded to be made by the hand of Moses.

³⁰ And Moses said unto the children of Israel, See, the Lord hath called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah;

³¹ And he hath filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship;

³² And to devise curious works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass,

³³ And in the cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of wood, to make any manner of cunning work.

³⁴ And he hath put in his heart that he may teach, both he, and Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan.

³⁵ Them hath he filled with wisdom of heart, to work all manner of work, of the engraver, and of the cunning workman, and of the embroiderer, in blue, and in purple, in scarlet, and in fine linen, and of the weaver, even of them that do any work, and of those that devise cunning work.

36:1 Then wrought Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every wise hearted man, in whom the Lord put wisdom and understanding to know how to work all manner of work for the service of the sanctuary, according to all that the Lord had commanded.

² And Moses called Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every wise hearted man, in whose heart the Lord had put wisdom, even every one whose heart stirred him up to come unto the work to do it:

³ And they received of Moses all the offering, which the children of Israel had brought for the work of the service of the sanctuary, to make it withal. And they brought yet unto him free offerings every morning.

⁴ And all the wise men, that wrought all the work of the sanctuary, came every man from his work which they made;

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

⁶ And Moses gave commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, Let neither man nor woman make any more work for the offering of the sanctuary. So the people were restrained from bringing.

⁷ For the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it, and too much.

⁸ And every wise hearted man among them that wrought the work of the tabernacle made ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: with cherubims of cunning work made he them.

⁹ The length of one curtain was twenty and eight cubits, and the breadth of one curtain four cubits: the curtains were all of one size.

¹⁰ And he coupled the five curtains one unto another: and the other five curtains he coupled one unto another.

¹¹ And he made loops of blue on the edge of one curtain from the selvedge in the coupling: likewise he made in the uttermost side of another curtain, in the coupling of the second.

¹² Fifty loops made he in one curtain, and fifty loops made he in the edge of the curtain which was in the coupling of the second: the loops held one curtain to another.

¹³ And he made fifty taches of gold, and coupled the curtains one unto another with the taches: so it became one tabernacle.

¹⁴ And he made curtains of goats’ hair for the tent over the tabernacle: eleven curtains he made them.

¹⁵ The length of one curtain was thirty cubits, and four cubits was the breadth of one curtain: the eleven curtains were of one size.

¹⁶ And he coupled five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves.

¹⁷ And he made fifty loops upon the uttermost edge of the curtain in the coupling, and fifty loops made he upon the edge of the curtain which coupleth the second.

¹⁸ And he made fifty taches of brass to couple the tent together, that it might be one.

¹⁹ And he made a covering for the tent of rams’ skins dyed red, and a covering of badgers’ skins above that.

²⁰ And he made boards for the tabernacle of shittim wood, standing up.

²¹ The length of a board was ten cubits, and the breadth of a board one cubit and a half.

²² One board had two tenons, equally distant one from another: thus did he make for all the boards of the tabernacle.

²³ And he made boards for the tabernacle; twenty boards for the south side southward:

²⁴ And forty sockets of silver he made under the twenty boards; two sockets under one board for his two tenons, and two sockets under another board for his two tenons.

²⁵ And for the other side of the tabernacle, which is toward the north corner, he made twenty boards,

²⁶ And their forty sockets of silver; two sockets under one board, and two sockets under another board.

²⁷ And for the sides of the tabernacle westward he made six boards.

²⁸ And two boards made he for the corners of the tabernacle in the two sides.

²⁹ And they were coupled beneath, and coupled together at the head thereof, to one ring: thus he did to both of them in both the corners.

³⁰ And there were eight boards; and their sockets were sixteen sockets of silver, under every board two sockets.

³¹ And he made bars of shittim wood; five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle,

³² And five bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the tabernacle for the sides westward.

³³ And he made the middle bar to shoot through the boards from the one end to the other.

³⁴ And he overlaid the boards with gold, and made their rings of gold to be places for the bars, and overlaid the bars with gold.

³⁵ And he made a vail of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen: with cherubims made he it of cunning work.

³⁶ And he made thereunto four pillars of shittim wood, and overlaid them with gold: their hooks were of gold; and he cast for them four sockets of silver.

³⁷ And he made an hanging for the tabernacle door of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, of needlework;

³⁸ And the five pillars of it with their hooks: and he overlaid their chapiters and their fillets with gold: but their five sockets were of brass.

37:1 And Bezaleel made the ark of shittim wood: two cubits and a half was the length of it, and a cubit and a half the breadth of it, and a cubit and a half the height of it:

² And he overlaid it with pure gold within and without, and made a crown of gold to it round about.

³ And he cast for it four rings of gold, to be set by the four corners of it; even two rings upon the one side of it, and two rings upon the other side of it.

⁴ And he made staves of shittim wood, and overlaid them with gold.

⁵ And he put the staves into the rings by the sides of the ark, to bear the ark.

⁶ And he made the mercy seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half was the length thereof, and one cubit and a half the breadth thereof.

⁷ And he made two cherubims of gold, beaten out of one piece made he them, on the two ends of the mercy seat;

⁸ One cherub on the end on this side, and another cherub on the other end on that side: out of the mercy seat made he the cherubims on the two ends thereof.

⁹ And the cherubims spread out their wings on high, and covered with their wings over the mercy seat, with their faces one to another; even to the mercy seatward were the faces of the cherubims.

¹⁰ And he made the table of shittim wood: two cubits was the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof:

¹¹ And he overlaid it with pure gold, and made thereunto a crown of gold round about.

¹² Also he made thereunto a border of an handbreadth round about; and made a crown of gold for the border thereof round about.

¹³ And he cast for it four rings of gold, and put the rings upon the four corners that were in the four feet thereof.

¹⁴ Over against the border were the rings, the places for the staves to bear the table.

¹⁵ And he made the staves of shittim wood, and overlaid them with gold, to bear the table.

¹⁶ And he made the vessels which were upon the table, his dishes, and his spoons, and his bowls, and his covers to cover withal, of pure gold.

¹⁷ And he made the candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work made he the candlestick; his shaft, and his branch, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, were of the same:

¹⁸ And six branches going out of the sides thereof; three branches of the candlestick out of the one side thereof, and three branches of the candlestick out of the other side thereof:

¹⁹ Three bowls made after the fashion of almonds in one branch, a knop and a flower; and three bowls made like almonds in another branch, a knop and a flower: so throughout the six branches going out of the candlestick.

²⁰ And in the candlestick were four bowls made like almonds, his knops, and his flowers:

²¹ And a knop under two branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same, according to the six branches going out of it.

²² Their knops and their branches were of the same: all of it was one beaten work of pure gold.

²³ And he made his seven lamps, and his snuffers, and his snuffdishes, of pure gold.

²⁴ Of a talent of pure gold made he it, and all the vessels thereof.

²⁵ And he made the incense altar of shittim wood: the length of it was a cubit, and the breadth of it a cubit; it was foursquare; and two cubits was the height of it; the horns thereof were of the same.

²⁶ And he overlaid it with pure gold, both the top of it, and the sides thereof round about, and the horns of it: also he made unto it a crown of gold round about.

²⁷ And he made two rings of gold for it under the crown thereof, by the two corners of it, upon the two sides thereof, to be places for the staves to bear it withal.

²⁸ And he made the staves of shittim wood, and overlaid them with gold.

²⁹ And he made the holy anointing oil, and the pure incense of sweet spices, according to the work of the apothecary.

38:1 And he made the altar of burnt offering of shittim wood: five cubits was the length thereof, and five cubits the breadth thereof; it was foursquare; and three cubits the height thereof.

² And he made the horns thereof on the four corners of it; the horns thereof were of the same: and he overlaid it with brass.

³ And he made all the vessels of the altar, the pots, and the shovels, and the basons, and the fleshhooks, and the firepans: all the vessels thereof made he of brass.

⁴ And he made for the altar a brasen grate of network under the compass thereof beneath unto the midst of it.

⁵ And he cast four rings for the four ends of the grate of brass, to be places for the staves.

⁶ And he made the staves of shittim wood, and overlaid them with brass.

⁷ And he put the staves into the rings on the sides of the altar, to bear it withal; he made the altar hollow with boards.

⁸ And he made the laver of brass, and the foot of it of brass, of the lookingglasses of the women assembling, which assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

⁹ And he made the court: on the south side southward the hangings of the court were of fine twined linen, an hundred cubits:

¹⁰ Their pillars were twenty, and their brasen sockets twenty; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets were of silver.

¹¹ And for the north side the hangings were an hundred cubits, their pillars were twenty, and their sockets of brass twenty; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver.

¹² And for the west side were hangings of fifty cubits, their pillars ten, and their sockets ten; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver.

¹³ And for the east side eastward fifty cubits.

¹⁴ The hangings of the one side of the gate were fifteen cubits; their pillars three, and their sockets three.

¹⁵ And for the other side of the court gate, on this hand and that hand, were hangings of fifteen cubits; their pillars three, and their sockets three.

¹⁶ All the hangings of the court round about were of fine twined linen.

¹⁷ And the sockets for the pillars were of brass; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver; and the overlaying of their chapiters of silver; and all the pillars of the court were filleted with silver.

¹⁸ And the hanging for the gate of the court was needlework, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen: and twenty cubits was the length, and the height in the breadth was five cubits, answerable to the hangings of the court.

¹⁹ And their pillars were four, and their sockets of brass four; their hooks of silver, and the overlaying of their chapiters and their fillets of silver.

²⁰ And all the pins of the tabernacle, and of the court round about, were of brass.

²¹ This is the sum of the tabernacle, even of the tabernacle of testimony, as it was counted, according to the commandment of Moses, for the service of the Levites, by the hand of Ithamar, son to Aaron the priest.

This is more than mere accounting; Ithamar was also the historian. He chronicled the building of the Tabernacle, and very probably was instrumental in assisting Moses in writing down parts of the Torah instructions for the Temple.

²² And Bezaleel the son Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made all that the Lord commanded Moses.

²³ And with him was Aholiab, son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver, and a cunning workman, and an embroiderer in blue, and in purple, and in scarlet, and fine linen.

²⁴ All the gold that was occupied for the work in all the work of the holy place, even the gold of the offering, was twenty and nine talents, and seven hundred and thirty shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary.

²⁵ And the silver of them that were numbered of the congregation was an hundred talents, and a thousand seven hundred and threescore and fifteen shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary:

²⁶ A bekah for every man, that is, half a shekel, after the shekel of the sanctuary, for every one that went to be numbered, from twenty years old and upward, for six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty men.

²⁷ And of the hundred talents of silver were cast the sockets of the sanctuary, and the sockets of the vail; an hundred sockets of the hundred talents, a talent for a socket.

²⁸ And of the thousand seven hundred seventy and five shekels he made hooks for the pillars, and overlaid their chapiters, and filleted them.

²⁹ And the brass of the offering was seventy talents, and two thousand and four hundred shekels.

³⁰ And therewith he made the sockets to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and the brasen altar, and the brasen grate for it, and all the vessels of the altar,

³¹ And the sockets of the court round about, and the sockets of the court gate, and all the pins of the tabernacle, and all the pins of the court round about.

39:1 And of the blue, and purple, and scarlet, they made cloths of service, to do service in the holy place, and made the holy garments for Aaron; as the Lord commanded Moses.

² And he made the ephod of gold, blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen.

³ And they did beat the gold into thin plates, and cut it into wires, to work it in the blue, and in the purple, and in the scarlet, and in the fine linen, with cunning work.

⁴ They made shoulderpieces for it, to couple it together: by the two edges was it coupled together.

⁵ And the curious girdle of his ephod, that was upon it, was of the same, according to the work thereof; of gold, blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen; as the Lord commanded Moses.

⁶ And they wrought onyx stones inclosed in ouches of gold, graven, as signets are graven, with the names of the children of Israel.

⁷ And he put them on the shoulders of the ephod, that they should be stones for a memorial to the children of Israel; as the Lord commanded Moses.

⁸ And he made the breastplate of cunning work, like the work of the ephod; of gold, blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen.

⁹ It was foursquare; they made the breastplate double: a span was the length thereof, and a span the breadth thereof, being doubled.

¹⁰ And they set in it four rows of stones: the first row was a sardius, a topaz, and a carbuncle: this was the first row.

¹¹ And the second row, an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond.

¹² And the third row, a ligure, an agate, and an amethyst.

¹³ And the fourth row, a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper: they were inclosed in ouches of gold in their inclosings.

¹⁴ And the stones were according to the names of the children of Israel, twelve, according to their names, like the engravings of a signet, every one with his name, according to the twelve tribes.

¹⁵ And they made upon the breastplate chains at the ends, of wreathen work of pure gold.

¹⁶ And they made two ouches of gold, and two gold rings; and put the two rings in the two ends of the breastplate.

¹⁷ And they put the two wreathen chains of gold in the two rings on the ends of the breastplate.

¹⁸ And the two ends of the two wreathen chains they fastened in the two ouches, and put them on the shoulderpieces of the ephod, before it.

¹⁹ And they made two rings of gold, and put them on the two ends of the breastplate, upon the border of it, which was on the side of the ephod inward.

²⁰ And they made two other golden rings, and put them on the two sides of the ephod underneath, toward the forepart of it, over against the other coupling thereof, above the curious girdle of the ephod.

²¹ And they did bind the breastplate by his rings unto the rings of the ephod with a lace of blue, that it might be above the curious girdle of the ephod, and that the breastplate might not be loosed from the ephod; as the Lord commanded Moses.

²² And he made the robe of the ephod of woven work, all of blue.

²³ And there was an hole in the midst of the robe, as the hole of an habergeon, with a band round about the hole, that it should not rend.

²⁴ And they made upon the hems of the robe pomegranates of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and twined linen.

²⁵ And they made bells of pure gold, and put the bells between the pomegranates upon the hem of the robe, round about between the pomegranates;

²⁶ A bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate, round about the hem of the robe to minister in; as the Lord commanded Moses.

²⁷ And they made coats of fine linen of woven work for Aaron, and for his sons,

²⁸ And a mitre of fine linen, and goodly bonnets of fine linen, and linen breeches of fine twined linen,

²⁹ And a girdle of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, of needlework; as the Lord commanded Moses.

³⁰ And they made the plate of the holy crown of pure gold, and wrote upon it a writing, like to the engravings of a signet, Holiness To The Lord.

³¹ And they tied unto it a lace of blue, to fasten it on high upon the mitre; as the Lord commanded Moses.

³² Thus was all the work of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation finished: and the children of Israel did according to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so did they.

³³ And they brought the tabernacle unto Moses, the tent, and all his furniture, his taches, his boards, his bars, and his pillars, and his sockets,

³⁴ And the covering of rams’ skins dyed red, and the covering of badgers’ skins, and the vail of the covering,

³⁵ The ark of the testimony, and the staves thereof, and the mercy seat,

³⁶ The table, and all the vessels thereof, and the shewbread,

³⁷ The pure candlestick, with the lamps thereof, even with the lamps to be set in order, and all the vessels thereof, and the oil for light,

³⁸ And the golden altar, and the anointing oil, and the sweet incense, and the hanging for the tabernacle door,

³⁹ The brasen altar, and his grate of brass, his staves, and all his vessels, the laver and his foot,

⁴⁰ The hangings of the court, his pillars, and his sockets, and the hanging for the court gate, his cords, and his pins, and all the vessels of the service of the tabernacle, for the tent of the congregation,

⁴¹ The cloths of service to do service in the holy place, and the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and his sons’ garments, to minister in the priest’s office.

⁴² According to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so the children of Israel made all the work.

⁴³ And Moses did look upon all the work, and, behold, they had done it as the Lord had commanded, even so had they done it: and Moses blessed them.

40:1 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

² On the first day of the first month shalt thou set up the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation.

Now this was the Hebrew religious event calendar year, NOT the Hebrew agricultural calendar year, not the Hebrew civil calendar year, nor the Hebrew Regnal year (a Regnal year is how the length of time a King held office was measured). And, they all existed simultaneously, and each began at different times. This is why when people want to argue about calendars in regards to Biblical events, it is a terribly complex matter that can only be dealt with in an extensive manner. There are no quick and easy way to remember answers to those questions. As an analogy, just look at our American calendar system; we have our standard solar calendar year, that begins with January 1st, but we also have a thing called the Fiscal Year, which a business can use to determine the 12 month cycle of income and expenses for tax purposes. And, a fiscal year can begin any month a person chooses. Besides that we have school years that vary from state to state, even county to county, and have no bearing on calendar years OR fiscal years.

³ And thou shalt put therein the ark of the testimony, and cover the ark with the vail.

⁴ And thou shalt bring in the table, and set in order the things that are to be set in order upon it; and thou shalt bring in the candlestick, and light the lamps thereof.

⁵ And thou shalt set the altar of gold for the incense before the ark of the testimony, and put the hanging of the door to the tabernacle.

⁶ And thou shalt set the altar of the burnt offering before the door of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation.

⁷ And thou shalt set the laver between the tent of the congregation and the altar, and shalt put water therein.

⁸ And thou shalt set up the court round about, and hang up the hanging at the court gate.

⁹ And thou shalt take the anointing oil, and anoint the tabernacle, and all that is therein, and shalt hallow it, and all the vessels thereof: and it shall be holy.

¹⁰ And thou shalt anoint the altar of the burnt offering, and all his vessels, and sanctify the altar: and it shall be an altar most holy.

¹¹ And thou shalt anoint the laver and his foot, and sanctify it.

¹² And thou shalt bring Aaron and his sons unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and wash them with water.

¹³ And thou shalt put upon Aaron the holy garments, and anoint him, and sanctify him; that he may minister unto me in the priest’s office.

¹⁴ And thou shalt bring his sons, and clothe them with coats:

¹⁵ And thou shalt anoint them, as thou didst anoint their father, that they may minister unto me in the priest’s office: for their anointing shall surely be an everlasting priesthood throughout their generations.

¹⁶ Thus did Moses: according to all that the Lord commanded him, so did he.

¹⁷ And it came to pass in the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, that the tabernacle was reared up.

¹⁸ And Moses reared up the tabernacle, and fastened his sockets, and set up the boards thereof, and put in the bars thereof, and reared up his pillars.

¹⁹ And he spread abroad the tent over the tabernacle, and put the covering of the tent above upon it; as the Lord commanded Moses.

²⁰ And he took and put the testimony into the ark, and set the staves on the ark, and put the mercy seat above upon the ark:

²¹ And he brought the ark into the tabernacle, and set up the vail of the covering, and covered the ark of the testimony; as the Lord commanded Moses.

²² And he put the table in the tent of the congregation, upon the side of the tabernacle northward, without the vail.

²³ And he set the bread in order upon it before the Lord; as the Lord had commanded Moses.

²⁴ And he put the candlestick in the tent of the congregation, over against the table, on the side of the tabernacle southward.

²⁵ And he lighted the lamps before the Lord; as the Lord commanded Moses.

²⁶ And he put the golden altar in the tent of the congregation before the vail:

²⁷ And he burnt sweet incense thereon; as the Lord commanded Moses.

²⁸ And he set up the hanging at the door of the tabernacle.

²⁹ And he put the altar of burnt offering by the door of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation, and offered upon it the burnt offering and the meat offering; as the Lord commanded Moses.

³⁰ And he set the laver between the tent of the congregation and the altar, and put water there, to wash withal.

³¹ And Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their feet thereat:

³² When they went into the tent of the congregation, and when they came near unto the altar, they washed; as the Lord commanded Moses.

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.

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.