Exodus Pt 10

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After a Misunderstanding or Two, 

Life Goes On and 

the Tabernacle Gets Built

A couple-three weeks ago, on a lark, I responded to the messages Google kept sending me about joining their happy family of Ad-Sense bloggers and Making Money with my blog. I'm not doing this as a commercial venture, it's more of an intellectual exercise and long put-off goal I decided to make public, mostly to give me a bit of a nudge whenever I'm inclined to abandon it. But I figured what the heck, let's apply and see what happens. Well, what happened is that the nice Ad-Sense folks determined that "Book by Book" does not have the necessary qualities that would make it a good candidate for advertising. They included some links that are supposed to help point me in the right direction if I want to make the needed corrections, but I don't think I'll be bothering. For one thing I didn't understand a damned thing they were talking about, like "thin content" and "alignment of navigational elements." 

We're going to keep this little venture ad-free.

Did you see what the Louisiana State Legislature and Governor have just done? They went and made it a law that all public school classrooms must have a copy of The Ten Commandments posted on the wall. Not a copy of The Constitution and its Amendments, or The Declaration of Independence, or The Top Ten Shakespearean Insults, but The Ten Commandments. Social media is all abuzz about this, with those in favor saying things like "It's about damn time!" and "What's the fuss? It's just everyday rules for good behavior." and those opposed losing their minds over the complete disregard for what everyone likes to call "Separation of Church and State", which is kinda sorta but not actually referred to in the First Amendment**.

My two cents about the whole thing is that no, The Ten Commandments are not simply everyday rules for good behavior. Just so you don't have to backtrack to find them, here they are again.

1. You shall have no other gods before me.
2. You shall not make for yourself an idol.
3. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord.
4. Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy.
5. Honor your father and mother
6. You shall not murder
7. You shall not commit adultery
8. You shall not steal
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor
10. You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

Anyone can see that the first four of them are pretty darned specifically religious in nature. The next five are, I grant you, pretty good guidelines for how to behave but by no means are they comprehensive; for instance there is no "You shall not change lanes without signaling" or "Honor your HOA landscaping guidelines", both of which could go a long way in making this a safer and more attractive world. Number Ten is a bit iffy mostly because it tries to be specific and in doing so it leaves out a whole heck of a lot, like is it okay to covet your neighbor's husband, or the car your neighbor is leasing, or your neighbor's cat, because we all know cats don't belong to anybody.

Back to Exodus. I reviewed the last nine chapters and I think we can reasonably buzz through them all in the time and space we have today.

    Right after we learn that the Covenant between God and the Israelites has been made official by being put down on a couple of stone tablets by the finger of God, we're told in Chapter 32 that those same Israelites had gotten antsy about the fact that Moses seemed to be taking his everlovin' time up on the mountain talking with God. They wanted some action and they wanted a god they could see and touch and admire up close. So they go to Aaron, you know, the fellow who has been picked out to be Head Priest only I guess he doesn't know that yet, and they say, "Come, make gods for us." Really, that's what they said. Aaron didn't need much persuasion, and he didn't need a lot of time to come up with a plan to satisfy the congregation. He had everyone in possession of gold earrings bring them to him and he "cast an image of a calf" and everyone thought it was a more than satisfactory god.

    But the Lord gets wind of what's going on and he tells Moses he is going to "consume" the calf worshipping Israelites and start the nation building all over again with Moses. My guess is that Moses isn't too interested in raising a whole new extended family at his age, because he implores God to reconsider. He reminds God about the promises he made to Abraham, Isaac, and Israel (Jacob), and wouldn't you know it, 14) "And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people."

    Happy to have saved his people from Consumption by God, Moses takes the tablets down the mountain. As he and trusty Joshua get close to the base, Joshua makes a comment about what he hears coming from the encampment, which he thinks is a noise of war. But Moses knows it is the sound of revelry, and when they turn the corner and see the people dancing around the golden calf he loses it. He throws the tablets on the ground, busting them all to bits, then he takes the calf, melts it down, grinds it up, and puts the powder in water and makes everyone drink it. Must have been a big calf and a reservoir of water as, once again, I would remind us that we're talking about several hundred thousand people here.

    And he's not finished. He gathers a bunch of Levites who, now anyway, are claiming to be "on the Lord's side", and tells them to grab their swords and go kill "your brother, your friend, and your neighbor", because a sharp clap of his hands and a stern look don't seem to be quieting the crowd. Three thousand dead Israelites later he thanks the Levites for their service and tells them they have brought a blessing on themselves.

    The next day, Moses asks God to forgive the people, but instead God says anyone who sinned against him will be blotted out of his book and they can look forward to an unspecified punishment at some later date. 

    And then he sends a plague. We are not told what form the plague takes, how many people die, just that he sent a plague because the people asked Aaron to make a calf and he did.

    Let's pick up the pace.

    In Chapter 33 God once again repeats his promise to drive the Canaanites, et al out of the Land of Milk and Honey. He also calls the Israelites "a stiff necked people."

    Moses sets up his tent outside camp so he can talk with God without being bothered by the stiff neck rabble.

    God tells Moses he doesn't want anyone to see his face, so whenever they meet from here on out Moses will need to stand in the cleft of a rock, let God put his hand over Moses' eyes as he passes, and not see anything until God has passed and all that is visible is God's backside.

    Chapter 34 solves the broken tablets issue when Moses fashions a couple of new stones ready to be taken to the printer.

    God promises to hold a grudge by 7) "visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children and the children's children, to the third and fourth generation."

    In a section titled "The Covenant Renewed" God brags about how he is going to "perform marvels" and how "it is an awesome thing that I will do for you." He also confides that one of his names is Jealous.

    In verse 26 we are reminded not to boil a kid in its mother's milk.

    Moses spends another 40 days and 40 nights with God and ends up writing everything down on the tablets himself, supposedly because God wasn't showing any inclination to do a repeat performance of the finger writing.

    Moses goes back to the people and everyone comments on his "Been With God" shiny face. He buys a veil.

    We get a quick reminder not to work on the sabbath at the beginning of Chapter 35. The penalty is still death.

    Moses puts out the call for the materials needed to build the tabernacle and related accessories. He also informs Bezalel that he has the winning bid to be general contractor and that he needs to bring Oholiab on board as his top assistant in charge of engraving, design, and embroidery.

    In Chapter 36 the tabernacle is made. Everything God specified is once again spelled out. In detail. In over thirty-one verses.

    Bezalel is super busy in Chapter 37 making the Ark, the Table, the Lampstand, the Altar of Incense, and the Anointing Oil and Incense.

    The following chapter, number 38, is devoted to assuring us that the Altar of Burnt Offerings and the Court of the Tabernacle were completed in a satisfactory manner. It also provides us with an accounting of just how much the entire project cost.

• Gold: Twenty-nine talents and seven hundred thirty shekels
• Silver: One hundred talents and one thousand seven hundred seventy-five shekels
• There is a lot more, breaking it down by what was used for the pillars, hooks, bases, utensils and other items. You can look it up in Chapter 38, verses 27-31.

    They perform a census of the men over twenty years of age and the count is six hundred three thousand, five hundred fifty, or about eighty four thousand more than my home town of Mesa, Arizona. Figure in the women and children and we're talking, what do you think, somewhere around two million?

    The vestments for Aaron and Sons get sewn and embellished with lots of pretty gemstones in Chapter 39. The last part of the chapter gives us a recap and tells us that Moses likes what he sees.

    In the final chapter of Exodus God gives Moses instructions on how to organize all of the pieces and we learn that all of this is coming together on the first day of the first month of the second year of their Egypt to Milk and Honey Adventure. Only thirty-eight years and eleven months to go!

    They will be proceeding only on the days when the Cloud of God is not hovering around the Tabernacle. If the cloud is there (at night it will be fire) they're staying put.

    Next up: Leviticus. I can't wait.

*A pretty Northern Cardinal of the Non-Catholic variety.

**Amendment One: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.