Is He Wholly Holy To Me?

Scripture: 

Exodus 28:42 "... when [Aaron and his sons] come into the tabernacle of meeting, or when they come  near the alter to minister in the holy place, that they do not incur iniquity (or guilt) and die... "

Exodus 29:1 "And this is what you shall do to them to hallow them for ministering to Me as priests...."

Observation: The emphasis on God's holiness throughout the O.T. is unmistakeable. God made it clear that we are unqualified to be near him. The only reason given for this prohibition is God's holiness. Am I even able to grasp God's holiness? I almost want to say "that level of holiness", but I suppose there aren't levels of holiness, and aside from actually encountering God, I suppose I'll never understand exactly how high, how supreme, how pure, how unattainable, how excellent, how inhuman, and how flawless holiness actually is.

Application: I must define holiness, which is the foundation of all relationships to him, by its revelation in Scripture. The more that I pursue a clearer grasp of holiness, the more all other aspects of my existence and salvation will become valuable and precious. I miss the importance of holiness because Jesus' sacrifice has shielded me from much of the O.T. law, but that also leaves me constantly in danger of trampling his grace, scorning his mercy, and belittling his holiness. If I malign these, I also scorn my savior, who is the express image of the Father.

Prayer: I am pretty speechless this morning. Forgive me. I am full of evil. You are so beyond me. May I see you and worship you rightly. You deserve my love and full devotion. Amen.

I've Found a Fortune!

Scripture: Exodus 25:11, 24, 29 "And you shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and out you shall overlay it, and shall make on it a molding of gold all around." ... "And you shall overlay it with pure gold, and make a molding of gold all around." ... "You shall make its dishes, its pans, its pitchers, and its bowls for pouring. You shall make them of pure gold."

Observation: So much of the tabernacle was made of gold or silver, or was covered in them. When the temple was built later there was gold all over it!

Application: People have rejected Christianity because they are turned off by the idea of having to give money. The first thing that comes to my mind is that there were poor people among the Jews at the time that God spoke these words and yet he still commanded much gold be used.

Answers:
1. Money and riches are the great revealer of the state of my soul. Jesus' words "for where your treasure is, there your heart is" were nothing to sneeze at. At the root of this rejection is materialism. Love God more than money.

2. Interestingly, this has very sharp parallelism with Jesus' response to Judas over the rejection of Mary pouring expensive oil or perfume on Jesus. Jesus called out the greed in Judas' heart and corrected anyone that thought that Jesus was not worth the thousands of dollars worth of oil. Love God more than money.

3. God promised to provide for their needs if they would put him and his commands first. He said two chapters earlier that they would lack nothing (Ex. 23:25-26). Love God more than money.

4. Ultimately, the question to asked is, is God worthy of all my gold? Is his value the highest value of all things? Should my worship of him be of the highest and purest quality? Do I think God is worthy of my best? Do I love God more than money?

When I am willing to give God nothing less than my richest, strongest, purest, and highest praise and worship, then is my understanding of God's worth correct. Then, also, will I be fully and truly satisfied, by that which alone is capable of fully and truly satisfactory in this world. All my good deeds are rubbish compared to his holiness and all my gifts are feeble compared to his glory, yet I will bring my absolute best because that is what he is worth.

Prayer: Change my heart, O God. Let me see you as your are. Let me know and praise your great worth! May I treasure you. May you be my portion and my reward forever! I love you. Amen.

Laws, Laws, Laws - Part I

Scripture: Exodus Chapters 21-24, The Beginning of the Law

Observation: There are few laws in these chapters that don't make much sense to me. By that I mean, I don't understand the "why" of them or I don't get how they are righteous... how do they line up with God's righteous and holy character?

Here they are:
21:7 - A father can sell his daughter as a slave. The verse says more than that, and in actuality, it doesn't prescribe the selling of children; it just provides for protections of them if it does happen.

21:32 - If an ox causes the death of another person's servant, the repayment for the servant was about $200 in today's valuation of silver. In the previous few verses God says the the same animal could cause the death of a son or daughter or any other person and the consequence is death (capital punishment was only commanded in the case where the owner knew that his ox had a history of being violent and aggressive, so the owner's death was punishment for his irresponsible negligence). Why the difference in consequence?

23:19 - "You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk" I don't get this, but it's also not that difficult to obey (for me anyway).

Application: So, that's the totality of the laws that I don't understand in these 4 chapters
. I can't really apply these three, but the rest of them (and there are a bunch) make perfect sense to me. The laws are really just describing how to love God, love people, take responsibility for my actions and inactions, and how to rightly recuperate the loss of other people's property if I bear the responsibility for the losses.

Prayer: Lord, I know that a people need a law in order to survive and to have a peaceful and happy life. Please help me to obey our nation's laws and to love others. And please help me to understand why these three laws meet with Your righteous character and what the application from them is for my life. I love You. Amen.