DB Today Exodus 30 ++

Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.

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Exodus 30:1-38
The Altar of Incense
1"Make an Altar for burning incense. Construct it from acacia wood, 2one and one-half feet square and three feet high with its horns of one piece with it. 3Cover it with a veneer of pure gold, its top, sides, and horns, and make a gold molding around it 4with two rings of gold beneath the molding. Place the rings on the two opposing sides to serve as holders for poles by which it will be carried. 5Make the poles of acacia wood and cover them with a veneer of gold.
6"Place the Altar in front of the curtain that hides the Chest of The Testimony, in front of the Atonement-Cover that is over The Testimony where I will meet you. 7Aaron will burn fragrant incense on it every morning when he polishes the lamps, 8and again in the evening as he prepares the lamps for lighting, so that there will always be incense burning before GOD, generation after generation. 9But don't burn on this Altar any unholy incense or Whole-Burnt-Offering or Grain-Offering. And don't pour out Drink-Offerings on it. 10Once a year Aaron is to purify the Altar horns. Using the blood of the Absolution-Offering of atonement, he is to make this atonement every year down through the generations. It is most holy to GOD."

The Atonement-Tax
11GOD spoke to Moses: 12"When you take a head count of the Israelites to keep track of them, all must pay an atonement-tax to GOD for their life at the time of being registered so that nothing bad will happen because of the registration. 13Everyone who gets counted is to give a half-shekel (using the standard Sanctuary shekel of a fifth of an ounce to the shekel)-a half-shekel offering to GOD. 14Everyone counted, age twenty and up, is to make the offering to GOD. 15The rich are not to pay more nor the poor less than the half-shekel offering to GOD, the atonement-tax for your lives. 16Take the atonement-tax money from the Israelites and put it to the maintenance of the Tent of Meeting. It will be a memorial fund for the Israelites in honor of GOD, making atonement for your lives."
The Washbasin
17GOD spoke to Moses: 18"Make a bronze Washbasin; make it with a bronze base. Place it between the Tent of Meeting and the Altar. Put water in it. 19Aaron and his sons will wash their hands and feet in it. 20When they enter the Tent of Meeting or approach the Altar to serve there or offer gift offerings to GOD, they are to wash so they will not die. 21They are to wash their hands and their feet so they will not die. This is the rule forever, for Aaron and his sons down through the generations."
Holy Anointing Oil
22GOD spoke to Moses: 23"Take the best spices: twelve and a half pounds of liquid myrrh; half that much, six and a quarter pounds, of fragrant cinnamon; six and a quarter pounds of fragrant cane; 24twelve and a half pounds of cassia--using the standard Sanctuary weight for all of them--and a gallon of olive oil. 25Make these into a holy anointing oil, a perfumer's skillful blend.
26"Use it to anoint the Tent of Meeting, the Chest of The Testimony, 27the Table and all its utensils, the Lampstand and its utensils, the Altar of Incense, 28the Altar of Whole-Burnt-Offerings and all its utensils, and the Washbasin and its base. 29Consecrate them so they'll be soaked in holiness, so that anyone who so much as touches them will become holy.
30"Then anoint Aaron and his sons. Consecrate them as priests to me. 31Tell the Israelites, "This will be my holy anointing oil throughout your generations.' 32Don't pour it on ordinary men. Don't copy this mixture to use for yourselves. It's holy; keep it holy. 33Whoever mixes up anything like it, or puts it on an ordinary person, will be expelled."
Holy Incense
34GOD spoke to Moses: "Take fragrant spices--gum resin, onycha, galbanum--and add pure frankincense. Mix the spices in equal proportions 35to make an aromatic incense, the art of a perfumer, salted and pure--holy. 36Now crush some of it into powder and place some of it before The Testimony in the Tent of Meeting where I will meet with you; it will be for you the holiest of holy places. 37When you make this incense, you are not to copy the mixture for your own use. It's holy to GOD; keep it that way. 38Whoever copies it for personal use will be excommunicated."


Copyright Statement: THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary LanguageThis edition issued by contractual arrangement with NavPress, a division of The Navigators, U.S.A.Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language Copyright © 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.


Daily Repetitive Verses:

Proverbs 27:17-19
17 You use steel to sharpen steel, and one friend sharpens another. 18 If you care for your orchard, you'll enjoy its fruit; if you honor your boss, you'll be honored.
19 Just as water mirrors your face, so your face mirrors your heart.
Psalm 122:1
1 When they said, "Let's go to the house of God," my heart leaped for joy.
~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
What is an altar? We don’t have a whole lot of those in present day USA, so we’re not real familiar with its concept. An altar to us is the platform of the church stage, if there are stairs, it might be considered the stairway or the base of the stairs where we kneel. Why do we kneel there? It’s a place of prayer, right? Who’s kneeling? Us, right?
The altar is for burning incense, What is incense? I’ve looked up some of the words. It just makes me want to study the word more. It amazes me what understanding comes from looking deeper. Incense is the evidence of the burnt offering. It is smoke from the burning, depending on what is burnt is where the scent comes from.
The burning comes from the altar and what is laid there for covenant sacrifice. The word altar means to put to death, and slaughter in judgment. The wood is a symbol of death for punishment. The cross is our altar of judgment, the place of death of self life. Even the type of wood is about scourging, beating out all of the judgments against someone.
The horns are for grabbing a hold of this as a way of life, embracing self sacrifice, and not letting go of it. The wood overlaid with gold, is symbolic of our life mixed with the redemption of His life in us, covers over our mistakes, frailties and shortcomings that led us to judgment. The judgment now upon us is based on what He did for us rather than what we have or have not done correctly.
Cover it all with this priceless treasure, the core is me, a human being who was born in sin and needed covering, the cover is His sacrifice offered for me by His covenant redeeming blood. I go there and make a trade, My life for His, His for mine. I live, but I live out his life through mine. I embrace His free gift of life to me. I’ve come to and go to the cross daily. Every morning I polish my faith in Him by being and finding myself in the word and truth of God.
Taxes are a way of accounting for. Are you accounted for before God? You will be counted worthy or not, not by your own goodness, but by whether you accepted or received the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus. Whether you embraced the cross of Christ or not. This we will all pay our dues to God in. If we give our lives to His word and will daily, we won’t have much to pay in our end!
The basin, a place to examine and wash, forever. Looking in, what do we see, a reflection of Him and His.
Mix up who you are with who God is, mix up who you are with who others are in the faith, set yourselves apart for the holiness of God, for the service of His will daily. Don’t live this life for self fulfillment, be brave and live for someone else. God will protect us from life. He’ll give us new life. We too often depend on self and rely on past experience and it hinders us from receiving the fullness of God found only inside of doing His will. Let’s give our lives to Him to each other and to the world and let God protect His interest, which is us. His is holy and well pleasing, what a fragrance! Wow!
Would it be better to be protected physically now and not eternally covered by His saving blood, or to be vulnerable now and possibly weak or die here yet be eternally protected?