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Sunday, March 09, 2008

The first thing God told Moses . . .

Exodus 24:18 Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

25:1 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel, that they take for me a contribution. From every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution for me. 3 And this is the contribution that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze, 4 blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, goats' hair, 5 tanned rams' skins, goatskins, acacia wood, 6 oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, 7 onyx stones, and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece. 8 And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst. 9 Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it. (ESV)

I noticed this passage as a consequence of following the ESV on-line Bible reading for a day in February. It struck me that, on this occasion when Moses spent time on Mt. Sinai, in the presence of God, the first thing God told him was to tell the Israelites to prepare to give an offering. Or at least it's the first thing recorded about what God said to Moses. There's probably a sermon in there somewhere.

Thanks for reading!

5 comments:

Keetha Broyles said...

But did God tell Moses ONE THING about forcing all the people to go onto DST???????????

I HATE that our state felt the "urge" after all these WONDERFUL years of NOT changing our clocks - - - ever - - -to cave to peer pressure.

HATE IT.

Martin LaBar said...

Sorry. My wife feels the same way.

Joshua said...

Not to be (too) snarky, but I thought the first thing God told Moses was to take off his sandals:

When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”

And Moses said, “Here I am.”

“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

(From Exodus 3:4-6.)

Joshua said...

Oops. Blame me for not reading carefully enough; I just noticed that you said "On this occasion at Mt. Sinai." Sorry.

Martin LaBar said...

You are right, of course.

No blame!

Thanks for reading, and commenting.