We had a full weekend. One of those where I was gone from home most of Saturday and Sunday both. 

Which means I have a full page of things I want to accomplish today and I also want to move slowly because I am a bit tuckered…and that is my excuse for a late posting time today! 

I know last week I posted a two part thought gleaned from the last chapters of Exodus, but as my family will tell you…there is almost always an addendum or P.S. or one more thing comment in conversations with me. 

So today I am sharing one final thought (for now) on Exodus because this morning I moved right on in to Leviticus. Woot!

Going back to Exodus 30, we read about the blending of both the Anointing Oil and the Sacred Incense that would be used in the Tabernacle and on the priests. 

A specific recipe was given for both of these and clear instructions about how they were to be used and applied, but there is also a warning attached to these concoctions. 

In verses 31-33 and 37-38, God commands that no one make a copy of these two blends for personal or other use. 

I am sharing the verses so we can be clear about His wording:

For the oil: 

Tell the Israelites: This will be [My] holy anointing oil throughout your generation. It must not be used for ordinary anointing on a person’s body, and you must not make anything like it using its formula. It is holy and it must be holy to you. Anyone who blends something like it or puts some of it on an unauthorized person must be cut off from his people.

Exodus 30: 31-33 CSB with my capitalization added. 

For the incense:

As for the incense you are to making, you must not take any for yourselves using its formula. It is to be regarded by you as holy – belonging to the LORD. Anyone who makes something like it to smell its fragrance must be cut off from his people.

Exodus 30: 37-38 CSB

I can spend some time meditating on the various aspects of God being holy and set apart and not like us that this passage spells out, but I also have to recognize the unchanging nature of humanity and how very much we can relate to this ancient people and how relevant God’s Word remains in addressing humanity. 

We understand this so well, you and I.

I will just use myself in some examples and if you can’t relate to any of these I pray God will show you today how you are really a lot like me and the Israelites and all the sons and daughters of mankind. 

I hug a friend at church and immediately ask what perfume she is wearing. I love it and I think about it and I either go purchase it or ask for it as a gift. 

I walk past the coffee shop as they are grinding beans or the bakery as the fresh loaves come out of the oven and I go in and buy the drink…or the food.

My friend knits a sweet baby blanket or hat and I want to make one. 

Someone posts a picture of a graphic t-shirt under a flannel top and I am googling Amazon because I have the flannel shirt, but I need the rest of the look.

God knows us. 

We want what we want when we want it. 

The incense and anointing oil for the purpose of honoring Him were going to be good. 

Very good. 

Good to senses…good for the body…and just out of reach. 

Sound familiar?

As I add a small smear of an oil called Blue Tansy to my night cream before bed, I inhale it deeply. There is something about the scent of it that I just love. 

Imagine if God told me that He had set that particular oil aside for only His Holy use and asked me to refrain from using it to help ease my dry areas and plump my sad little wrinkles? 

I would have a bit of a challenge wouldn’t I? 

I would have to intentionally choose to forego something I love just because God asked me to set it apart for Himself. 

And what if the whole reason He was doing this wasn’t because He is selfish and wants all the good stuff for Himself, but rather…He is the best stuff and He is so far above me that I have no idea how wonderful He is and He wants me to want Him more than the shiny things of this world. 

Interesting to think about, isn’t it?

Bless you today as you ponder what God might be revealing to you about Himself and about us in His Word <3

I have in mind something I want to send out tomorrow but it is churning in my brain so much, I decided to break it into two parts. 

As you know if you stop by here fairly regularly, I am committed to reading through the Bible this  year.

Since I know me, and I have looked at our calendar for the next few months, and reading through the bible isn’t my first “rodeo”… I am reading ahead right now because I will be facing some weeks in February and March where I might need to have some slack built in. 

That being said, I am in Exodus 30-33 today and if you are reading through with me and are behind that, DO NOT…I repeat DO NOT… get discouraged or feel you are behind.

Take a breath. You are fine…carry on with your plan and just humor me with my musings for where I am currently reading.

I have some observations after having spent the last few days on Mt Sinai with Moses and in no particular order, here they are:

<3 God gives extremely detailed directions on every single aspect of design and engineering of the building of the Tabernacle.

Every time I read through this section, my head spins. I am one of those people who has multiple learning style dysfunction. 

I need to see it, hear it and do it before I get it. 

I am thankful to live in the age of YouTube tutorials if you get my drift. 

Many times I have to pull up a knitting video as I hold my needles in exactly the same position as the hands on the screen and I hit repeat frequently until my own brain can execute the stitch. When I come to that same stitch a few rows later in the pattern…back we go to YouTube, because retention is also a problem I have. 

So as I read the various directions God gives, my mind is trying to make pictures of fabric and gold rings and beaten metal laid over cherubim and then I have to step away. Because have mercy…they were refugees on the lam out in the desert!!!!

<3 Side note. I constantly want to ask God what Moses wrote the directions down on.

We know the Ten Commandments were on stone tablets, but did Moses have to remember all those details and then come down and speak them to the craftsman or did God provide some kind of writing material? (Perhaps we can see why I need extra time built into my reading plan since my mind tends to ask a LOT of questions…)

And can we just stop for a minute and think about how much intelligence God gave Moses for all of this? 

It’s amazing to me. Simply amazing. 

And we know it is true because there were a whole lot of witnesses to the whole giving of the information and making of the Tabernacle and I doubt you could get that many people to all go along with a hoax or fake news. Things went as is written and it truly is incredibly interesting and powerful.

If you have ever even sewn a simple smock in Home Ec or learned to sew on a button, built a bird house from a kit or tried to follow any kind of pattern…I think you can appreciate the amount of skill and workmanship that went into all of this.

<3 Every time I read about the beautiful gold altar and the fine linen and deep blue garments of Aaron and his sons and then picture them splashing animal blood all over everything I have to stop and really take that image in. 

Think about the labor and creativity and skill that would go into all of these objects.

These were embroidered and polished and made of the absolute best and finest of materials…out in the desert, as we mentioned…and then all of this pinnacle of human effort is sprinkled with animal blood. 

And as I read that I thought of me, dressed in my Sunday best, sitting amongst my family and friends who I love so dearly also in their Sunday best, quietly and reverently praying as we pass the communion trays while a gifted and talented praise team leads us in perfect pitch with skillfully made instruments of the most sophisticated kind on a stage that someone has worked to make dramatic and well-appointed….and as we lift that little wafer off the silver plate and toss back the thimble full of grape juice we are basically saying that without the covering of the sacrificial blood of Jesus Christ we don’t amount to anything more than the ash we will return to. 

Our best and most beautiful and finest efforts are nothing unless they are covered by the Blood of Jesus. 

So there’s my thoughts today. 

You are so precious to Him. 

You were worth leaving heaven for and dying for and you are covered when you receive Him as your price paid. 

Bless you as you mull that over today <3