Tag: set apart for God

Set Apart

*Old Testament: Numbers 7 & 8

Poetry: Job 7

New Testament: Acts 21

During the building of the tabernacle, the tools and utensils were not holy. Everything was normal cloth or gold material until they were consecrated. Once Moses anointed and consecrated the tabernacle and the things that went in it, they were no longer normal objects.  Instead, they were objects of God. If God can turn a simple lamp stand into a holy object, then what can He do with us? We can be made holy and set apart by God to serve a great purpose. As we have said many times, through the book of Numbers God seeks holiness for Himself and His people. This desire didn’t disappear when Jesus came into the world. God desires for us to be holy. Although we sin, God can redeem us just like He did with the tabernacle in Numbers 7.

There is a moment after the tabernacle is consecrated that the people of Israel begin to bring sacrifices and gifts.  Among the gifts are six carts and 12 oxen that are going to be given to the Levites. Carts and oxen make moving things easier.  This would be a pretty handy gift during the time of the wilderness as they move everything they have across the desert by hand! In verse 9, we see the sons of Kohath weren’t given any of the oxen and carts – what kind of rotten deal is that? Why didn’t any of the carts go to the sons of Kohath? The sons of Kohath were in charge of carrying the holy objects on their shoulders. Each heavy object in the tabernacle, including the Ark of the Covenant, was built with places for poles to slide into so that they could be carried by pole on the shoulders of the sons of Kohath. You may remember the story of Uzzah in 2 Samuel 6 when the Ark was going to be moved back into the city of Jerusalem after being gone for a long time. Notice in 2 Samuel 6:3 they placed the Ark, “on a new cart”. This was a big no-no. The Ark was not supposed to be put on a cart, but instead carried on poles like we see in the law. Then what happens? The Ark begins to fall off the cart on the way into the city and Uzzah, who was just trying to help by catching the Ark, died right as he touched it. God’s holiness can’t be infringed upon. Albeit easier, you don’t put the Ark on a cart. This is why no carts where given to the sons of Kohath. They didn’t need carts to assist in the moving of the holy objects of the tabernacle. Isn’t it interesting how the Bible connects in such unique places? Who knew that around 400 years after God gave the command to not move the holy objects on carts that Uzzah would learn the severity of breaking the command.

The rest of chapter 7 sound maybe like Pete and Repeat wrote it. These aren’t particularly exciting verses and the gifts of each tribe are the same. Between verse 10 and 83, the tribes, their gifts and their offerings are listed. After 12 days of offerings the total was: 12 silver dishes, 12 silver bowls (a total of 2,400 shekels of silver), 12 gold pans (a total of 120 shekels of gold), 12 bulls, 12 rams, 12 male lambs 1year old, 12 grain offerings, 12 male goats, 24 bulls for peace offerings, 60 rams, & 60 male goats for peace offerings (a total of 192 animals). The Israelites would have given a total of around $16,000 in silver and around $71,500 in gold. What a great out pouring from the sons of Israel to God in celebration and honor of the new tabernacle.

After the anointing of the tabernacle and 12 days of offerings, one of the coolest things I can imagine happened to Moses in verse 89. God spoke to Moses from above the Ark of the Covenant. Finally, after all the effort that has gone into getting the Israelites out of Egypt, God now has a place to dwell with His people. The time has come when God speaks to Moses from among His people. No longer does Moses have to travel to the top of a mountain to speak to God. God has moved even closer to His people today. We don’t have to travel to a temple in Jerusalem to be with God because, as we see in the New Testament, we are God’s temple (1 Corinthians 6:19). God can now dwell among us in a more personal way; He has moved into the hearts of His people. We have been anointed and sanctified by the blood of Jesus to become the new temple that God dwells in. We see an ever moving forward march by God to be closer to His people. It started with the tabernacle, then into the hearts of men in the time of the New Testament and now. In the future, we have the hope of God dwelling with us in person in the kingdom! He is with us now in the power of the Spirit that moves among us but, at the time of the restoration of all things, God is going to be with us like it was in the garden of Eden. Revelation 21 says that God is going to dwell among men. There is no part of the Bible without significance. All of it is connected because all of it is the word of God. God’s desires don’t change and He desires to be with us. The creator of the universe, the creator of the estimated 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars wants to be with you. To me, the realization of this fact is humbling and inspiring.  Thank you, God!

Josiah Cain

(originally posted for SeekGrowLove on February 26, 2020)

Reflection Questions

  1. How does God set you apart and use you for His glory, and how can you better respond to His purpose for you?
  2. How does God dwelling within you impact your life and how can you further develop a closer relationship with God?
  3. How do you see the Bible as all working together as the word of God?
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You Forgot Your Membership Dues

Ecclesiastes 3 & 4 and Galatians 2

What we know as Christianity started as a movement within Judaism. The first Christians were Jews who became part of this new movement that Jesus started. They recognized not only that Jesus was a great guy with revolutionary ideas, but that he was also the son of God and the messiah, and that his death and resurrection shifted the course of history.

The Jews had certain traditions and customs to stay right with God and set themselves apart. They followed the law of Moses as closely as they could and worshiped at the temple. The males were also set apart physically by one particular practice called circumcision. Within a different age and culture where public nudity wasn’t that rare, you might be able to tell if a guy was Jewish by catching a glance. It sounds completely strange to us now, but it was an important marker that set them apart. Over time, the idea of circumcision didn’t just mean cutting off some skin, but started to symbolize all the things the Jews did to set themselves apart as belonging to God.

Through Jesus, the grace and promises of God that belonged exclusively to the Jewish tribe for millenia were suddenly being extended to the entire world of uncircumcised gentiles. Imagine how scandalous this would have seemed to the Jews. The gentiles didn’t have their penises cut a certain way (literally uncircumcised), but also, they hadn’t done anything else that a Jew is supposed to do to live out being the image of YHWH (metaphorically uncircumcised). It doesn’t seem fair because it isn’t.

Naturally, this caused some conflicts and disagreements in the early church. Some thought that in order for them to be truly justified, the gentiles would need to be circumcised and follow the law. You might say they would need to become Jews. Others, like Paul, thought that the gentiles didn’t need to do this. Paul had already shared the gospel with the churches in Galatia and told those gentiles that they were just fine not becoming Jews. Then others came along to them saying that they were doing it wrong and that they had to become Jews to be in the club.

When Paul heard about this, he knew he had to write this letter to the Galatians. You can almost feel his frustration bleeding through the pages. Paul says in chapter 1 that if anyone (even an angel) comes around preaching a different gospel than what he originally shared, they should be “accursed.” Those are strong words.

Paul mentions in chapter 2 that he had a big argument with Cephas about this issue. Cephas was hanging out with the gentiles until he came under pressure from the people who insisted the gentiles needed to be circumcised. So he separated himself from the gentiles to avoid criticism. Paul was rightfully disgusted by this two-facedness.

According to Paul in Gal 2:16, we aren’t justified by following the law, but by faith in Jesus (or by the faith or faithfulness of Jesus, some interpreters suggest). Jesus loves us and gave himself for us. That is how we received that grace. If we are made right with God by following the law and being circumcised, then what did Jesus die for? We can’t earn grace by jumping through hoops. It has already been given to us. The gentiles had already received the grace through Christ and were walking in the spirit. Paul was not going to let someone come along and say what they had was not real and try to heave them back to square one.

There was a lot hanging in the balance. What if Paul and others had not intervened, and the gentiles had been convinced they should become Jewish for all intents and purposes? Would Christianity among the gentiles have died away, leaving just a sect of Judaism? The message may not have spread like it did. Maybe everyone who believed Jesus was the messiah would have quietly died out and we never would have even heard the good news today. All we’d read about is some first century Jewish insurrectionist being executed by the Roman government and his strange but brief cult following.

No wonder Paul was frustrated. He knew that having the gospel twisted in such a way could have been the demise of the church. Thank God that Paul channeled his anger and pain in this matter to write an important letter of correction and encouragement. And thank God that it has been preserved and passed down so that we are able to read it today.

-Jay Laurent

Read or listen to today’s Bible reading passages on BibleGateway here – Ecclesiastes 3-4 and Galatians 2

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