Exodus 23-28 Recap | OT Ep 10

In this episode, Austin and Ashley explore Exodus chapters 23 through 28, discussing the concept of grace preceding law, the covenant confirmation with Moses, and the construction of the tabernacle. They emphasize the importance of understanding these scriptures in the context of God's desire to dwell with His people and the foreshadowing of Jesus as the ultimate fulfillment of these themes.

Virtual Tour:

https://youtu.be/a5jnu61UYaQ?si=AIbMbG7tFEyRCKj-

Building the Tabernacle

https://youtu.be/MMEQ-WlsWsc?si=uA3wGGKhJNDxbtHc

Reading Plan - Old Testament in One Year
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tSmSv3JOd-gCJS6VSFMtu-iv14NZ45_M/view?usp=sharing

Chapters

• 0:00 Grace Before Law
• 2:25 The Greatest Commandments
• 6:40 Covenant Confirmation Ceremony
• 10:32 Mercy Seat
• 12:38 Table for the Bread of the Presence
• 13:48 Lampstand
• 15:55 The Structure and Significance of the Tabernacle
• 17:40 Bronze Altar
• 18:14 High Priests Garments

Transcript

Hey everyone,

My name is Austin. And my name is Ashley. Welcome to the Clean Slate Podcast. Where we're finding Jesus in the Old Testament.

Welcome back friends and thank you for joining us for episode 10 of the podcast. Today we'll be recapping Exodus chapters 23 through 28.

Just as an encouragement, I want to say that Ashley and I have both done a number of Bible studies or Bible in a year type plans

when we get to this particular section in Exodus and Leviticus, people start dropping out early. And I understand, guys, there's a lot of laws that don't make sense to us or things God says that seems kind of, if we're being honest, a little weird.

But we have to remember that Exodus 23 is inspired scripture the same way John 3.16 is.

This is why we've talked so much about having the appropriate lens on when we're reading the Scriptures. And this is why we wanted to do the podcast. We want to help as many people as we can see that even in the giving of the law, there is gospel.

To that point, we have seen in the last couple of episodes that God moved in mighty ways to set His people free. And only at the end of the last episode did to give Moses the law.

This pattern of grace preceding law reflects the gospel itself as we are saved by faith in Christ solely by God's unmerited grace, only after which as a response to that are we then called to obedience in good works.

In Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8, the Bible says, "For by grace you have been saved, through faith. And this is not of your own doing; it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Amen. It has always been grace before law. And speaking of we continue into chapter 23 from chapter 22 with laws about social justice. And I want to just take a moment and lay a foundational thought before we move further. So God has now given the 10 commandments, right? So jump with me to Matthew chapter 22, starting in verse 34.

The Pharisees had gathered and trying to test Jesus, they asked him, Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law? And he said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment, and the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.

If you simply do these two things, love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself, that would cover everything in the Ten Commandments.

So really, all of these laws take that concept and apply them to particular scenarios that the Lord knew Israel could face.

For example, I know that I have absolutely often in fact met my enemy's ox going astray as I'm sure many of you listening have also. Okay, let's pretend it's their dog, okay? But we all know to our core, it would be wrong to just stand there and let it get away. So we bring it back to him.

What are we doing in that scenario? We are loving our neighbor as ourselves. Later, it gets into the Sabbath and the festivals, resting on the seventh day, keeping the feast of unleavened bread, bringing first fruits. What is God asking here? For us to love him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.

So again, the Ten Commandments could be summed up just as Jesus said.

I'd love to end this section with the seemingly random last part of verse 19 that says, you shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk. Us 21st century Christians are like, okay, God, that's fair. A little random, but fair.

Right, but it would have made absolute sense to the Israelites because they were the audience. remember that the Bible was written for us, but not to us.

Exactly. They would not have seen this as random at all. While the reason for this rule is not made totally clear here, boiling a young goat in its mother's milk may have been a pagan ritual practiced by the nations in Canaan as a way to induce fertility.

It could have also been seen as a gross violation of the natural order that a young goat should drink its mother's milk and gain life from it, not be cooked in it.

So we see in the very next verse, God promises the Israelites successful conquest of the land of Canaan. So it makes sense, he would be telling them, my people don't do like they do. God says, I will send quotes here, an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I've prepared. In verse 21, he says something very interesting.

Pay careful attention to him talking about the angel and obey his voice. Do not rebel against him for he will not pardon your transgression for my name is in him. You know, just a regular angel does not have the authority to forgive or condemn sins. Nor does God ever say my name is in him about any other messenger that he sends. Tell me you're the Messiah without telling me you're the Messiah.

So this is obviously the Son of God. This is the same messenger we see in Exodus 3 at the burning bush. He speaks with the full authority of the Father, so far as to pardon sins. So again, we see grace before law.

says, I have prepared a place and will send my son before you. Do not reject him. He also promises that he will drive out the people that have taken over the promised land out of the land little by little.

This chapter ends with God saying, do not make a covenant with them and their gods, your land lest they make you sin against me.

Spoiler alert, we will see later in Joshua that this does not happen completely. The people of Israel are quick to compromise on this command and it ends up being a snare for them. But we'll get there when we get there.

Moving into chapter 24, we see the audience shifts from the Israelite people to Moses.

God invites Moses, Aaron, his sons, Nadab and Abihu, and 70 of the elders of Israel to come up and worship further. So Moses came and told the people all the Lord had told him,

And the people say collectively, all the words the Lord has spoken, we will do.

Moses then writes down all the words of the Lord.

You know, Moses writing down these words is actually really significant because in most ancient cultures, everything was handed down by oral tradition. So for things to be written down, that was really making a statement of how important that piece of information was going to be.

For sure. I mean, Moses can't just go down to the Walmarts and buy a pack of paper either. This would have been a significant task. This would now be known as the Book of the Covenant.

Now we transition into the covenant confirmation ceremony. Moses built an altar at the foot of the mountain and 12 pillars according to the 12 tribes of Israel. So remember back in chapter 20, right after the 10 commandments, God said, do not make images or idols made of silver or gold to represent God. No, we are building an altar of earth. So we have God represented in the altar and the people represented in the pillars.

We see both burnt offerings and peace offerings taking place

Now there is a significant difference here.

During a burnt offering, the body and all parts of the sacrificed animal are placed on the altar and completely consumed. During a peace offering, the blood is sprinkled on the altar, but a portion of the animal is given back to the worshipper so they could cook and eat it as a fellowship meal with others.

So in verse seven, we see Moses take the book of the covenant, reread it to the people, and they again affirm and say, all that the Lord has spoken we will do and we will be obedient.

Then in verse 8, Moses took the blood of the covenant, threw it on the people, and said,

Behold, the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.

The blood links the altar and the people, symbolizing the union of God and Israel in the covenant. Friends, it is also the blood that links God to you, but not on the outside, on the inside.

When Jesus institutes the Lord's Supper, He is trying to show that He is the all-sufficient sacrifice for a peace offering.

He says this in Matthew 26, 26, Jesus took the bread and after blessing it, broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, take, eat, this is my body. And in verse 28, he says, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. The Prince of Peace was a sacrifice for our peace offering. He is the blood sprinkled on the altar and the people to connect us to God.

and He is the portion given back to us to fellowship with other believers as well as our Savior.

So after the covenant ritual was performed, Moses, Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and the 70 elders went up to a certain point and worshiped from afar. Then God calls Moses to come up to him further on the mountain.

So Moses went up and the cloud covered the mountain for six days. The seventh day, God called to Moses and Moses entered the cloud, went up to the mountain and was there for 40 days and 40 nights.

Well, I have talked plenty. Why don't you jump into the tabernacle for us?

You may have been talking for a while, but I enjoy hearing you talk.

So over the next few chapters, we're going to start learning how God gave Moses very precise measurements and types of materials he wanted his people to use in constructing all the things he tells them to construct. And make no mistake, this was a very real set of instructions.

but there's also something or a multitude of things going on symbolically or theologically. I'll only be able to touch on a few things from each chapter, but believe me, we could stay here for really long time and unfold layer after layer of God signaling the ultimate reality that would be Jesus to come.

As we start talking about the furniture that God would have people make for the tabernacle, the furniture is meant to show God dwelling with his people or God's communion with his people. So in looking at the Ark of the Covenant, those that may not be familiar, this would later be what the Ten Commandments are stored inside of. But I also want to focus here on what is really the lid of the Ark itself.

God calls it the mercy seat. has Hebrew ties to being an atonement cover. After everything is built,

It is on this seat where God would meet with Moses and tell Moses his will for the people. On Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, blood from the sacrificial animals would be sprinkled on this seat. When we fast forward to the book of Romans in the New Testament, chapter 3, it's picking up in verse 23, the Apostle Paul says,

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forth as a propitiation by His blood

to be received by faith.

The word Paul uses there for propitiation is the same word used to describe the seat of the ark. So the Father put forward his Son as our atonement cover.

Moving to the table for bread.

What I'd like to point out here requires us to remember back to the last episode where God provided manna for his people. In ancient Near Eastern culture, sharing a meal with someone was a sign of intimacy. So just as God made sure his people had bread inside of their tents, God wants to have a table for bread inside of his tent.

gave instruction that 12 loaves of bread were to be made and placed on his table. This would be his way of showing that A, he provides for all his people with all 12 tribes considered, and B, he wants to spend time with all of his people, even us nerds and weirdos.

A wonderful rendering of the Hebrew, where our English Bibles normally say like, bread of the presence, could also be face bread. to eat the bread of the presence is to be face to face with the one who's provided it for you. This face bread would reach its ultimate conclusion when Jesus says to his disciples, take and eat.

This is my body.

In order to understand the lampstand correctly, we have to understand that the themes of the tabernacle and later the temple is God making a new sanctuary. Not unlike the one that we lost when Adam and Eve were driven out of Eden.

The lamp stand with branches as if from a tree served as a replacement to the tree of life in order that God's new sanctuary may have light. As Ashley and I have mentioned, in all of these things, Jesus is the greater than.

Jesus would tell us that He is the light of the world, and once He came into the world, we could finally see.

It was blind but now I see. So good, so good.

Guys, by the way, passages like these are where it's so important to have a good study Bible in your hands that you can reference as you're reading, just look down and get some cultural and historical context on these things. Austin and I are pretty partial to the ESV study Bible. It's very focused on historical and theological concepts rather than application. Now, an application study Bible is a fine tool.

but in understanding passages like these, I have found more help in these historical and theological study Bibles. In that vein, I have found the coolest resource. There's a video on YouTube that I have linked in the description. There's two actually. One has used the pictures from the ESV study Bible and created a virtual model of the tabernacle and it takes you through a virtual tour. The other video

reads the passage and virtually builds the tabernacle according to those precise standards God was talking about. I am a super visual learner so this was very helpful for me to watch

and see exactly what God was talking about, whether it was the rings or the curtains or the boards. It just really helps solidify things in my brain a bit more. So without further delay, let's get into chapter 26, the tabernacle.

If you read this chapter carefully, one of the things you'll notice is that there are essentially three areas to the tabernacle.

One, you have the court where the Israelites can worship.

You have the holy place where only the priests can go. 3. You have the holy of holies where only one man, the high priest, can go because the glory of God was in that room. If you think back to chapter 24, that is exactly what happened with God at Mount Sinai.

So earlier in Exodus, God invited Israel to come up be a kingdom of priests, but they were afraid, so they stayed at the base of the mountain. So that's essentially they were in the court.

Moses, Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and 70 elders of Israel came up the mountain to a certain point. So they were in the holy place. They're in that second area. And finally, Moses went all the way up into the cloud where God was. Moses went into what is essentially the holy of holies. God knew that he wasn't going to stay on Mount Sinai. So God made a way for himself to go with his people because he's always been a God

that is with his people and never a distant far-off deity. in the Bible, the Word would become flesh. Jesus would pitch his tent or tabernacle among us.

the Gospel of John chapter 1 verse 14 tells us that in Jesus we have seen the glory of God. At Jesus' coming, the glory would no longer be associated with a tent or temple, but with a man, Christ the Lord. He is indeed Emmanuel, who is God with us.

In chapter 27, we see God give instructions for the bronze altar and the courtyard.

I've already mentioned a little bit about the significance of the courtyard,

but the bronze altar isn't really expanded on as much in Scripture. Its purpose is clear, which is to be an altar where the sacrifices were to be burned, but how it relates to the New Testament or the gospel isn't as clear.

sure one day we will understand more clearly some of the intricate details God had his people weave into this altar

As we land the plane on this episode, we come to chapter 28. And in chapter 28,

God gives the specific wardrobe he wants the high priest to be dressed in.

There are several things worthy of comment when we look at the High Priest garb but for our time today, I want to focus on the robe itself.

read a comment on this recently and the comment said the holy garments of the priest were lifted from of the Son of God.

To explain what this author was pointing to, we have to look at Isaiah chapter 6.

Isaiah has a vision of the Lord sitting upon a throne and the train of his robe filled the temple.

same word used in the Hebrew to describe this part of the Lord's robe

is the same word used to describe that part of the high priest robe. The Lord in Isaiah's vision is Jesus Himself. This is corroborated in the Gospel of John, chapter 12, verse 41, which says, Isaiah said these things because he saw his, talking about Jesus' glory, and spoke of Him. In Revelation 1:13

John sees in his vision of the heavenly temple, one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and a golden sash around his chest.

This person is of course Jesus and the priesthood God installs here in Exodus is a type and shadow of Jesus, our Passover lamb, our great high priest, our Lord and our God.

Well friends, that's going do it for today's recap. May His grace abound to you and to me as we study to find Jesus in the Old Testament.