The Ark of the Covenant, Am I inherently Good or Bad or Both?
The Bible can appear confusing at times. God instructing Moses on how to build a tabernacle and the ark to hold the testimony that he will be giving to Moses. For me it was a flashback to Noah and the ark from Genesis. Did Moses build an ark too? I get confused easily and it usually generates a laugh on my part and frustration to others.
There’s Noah’s Ark. the large boat built by Noah in which he saved himself, his family, and a pair of every kind of creature during the Flood.
And then there is the “ark of the covenant, a chest or box containing the two stone tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments, carried by the Israelites in their wanderings in the desert after the Exodus: the most sacred object of the tabernacle and the Temple in Jerusalem, where it was kept in the holy of holies according to Dictionary.com.
I become clear when I read Scripture and have a conversation with God about the meaning of His Word and the correct application to my life.
“Restore me please oh my God and release me from the excesses of my human nature and natural instincts,”—Andy
Am I inherently good or bad or both?
If you look closely you will realize that the God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New Testament. It is only us that are changed by Jesus and The Holy Spirit coming into us and the world.
God said “If he cry to me, I will hear him, because I am compassionate.”
My God is accepting, loving and compassionate, forgiving, merciful, grace giving and loving and He was in both the Old and New Testaments. And so was I as a sinner before and after I am enlightened by the Good News.
“Thou shalt not molest a stranger, nor afflict him: for yourselves also were strangers in the land of Egypt,” said God.
Basically the Golden Rule reiterated here.
“Thou shalt not receive the voice of a lie: neither shalt thou join thy hand to bear false witness for a wicked person.”
“Six years thou shalt sow thy ground.., but the seventh year thou shalt let it alone, and suffer it to rest.”
“Six days thou shalt work: the seventh day thou shalt cease.”
Like the ground we need to rest to replenish, to be restored, to be renewed by God, Jesus and The Holy Spirit.
Three times every year you shall celebrate feasts to me: feast of the unleavened bread; feast of the harvest of the firstfruits of thy work; and feast at the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in all thy corn out of the field. Thrice a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God.
Rest, be thankful and celebrate our good fate in life and beyond.
With TROML—I try to celebrate Christmas, Easter & Thanksgiving every day of the year! Why wait for the holiday when if you look you will find the evidence of the spirit of these holy—days, these Hol—i—days, every day of your life! Remember the ‘y’ becomes an ‘I.’
“Behold I will send my angel, who shall go before thee, and keep thee in thy journey, and bring thee into the place that I have prepared. I will be an enemy to thy enemies, and will afflict them that afflict thee. I will fill the number of thy days,” says the Lord.
“By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, till thou be increased, and dost possess the land,” was God’s strategy for finding a homeland for the Israelites.
We can apply the same strategy for exorcising the evil from ourselves and our lives.
“We will do all the words of the Lord, which he hath spoken. We will be obedient’” said the descendants of Jacob, as God spoke through Moses to them about the book of the covenant.
They saw the God of Israel. They saw God.
“Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and the law, and the commandments which I have written: that thou mayst teach them. And Moses, entering into the midst of the cloud, went up into the mountain: and he was there forty days, and forty nights.”
And then he built another ark but not like the one Noah built.
Am I inherently good or bad or both?
Day 27: Reading The Bible with a TROML Perspective; The Ark of the Covenant, Am I inherently Good or Bad or Both?
Read and inspired by the Old Testament, The Book of Exodus Chapters 22-27
Bible Notes:
This Book of Exodus is so called from the Greek word exodus, which means going out.
It recounts the persecution of the Jews in Egypt, the call of Moses, the ten plagues, the Jewish departure from Egypt, and the giving of the Mosaic Law on Mount Sinai.
The Book of Exodus closes with the consecration of the Tabernacle.
Exodus Chapter 22: Punishment for theft; Punishment for damage to crops; Laws of trustees; Seduction, wizardry, bestiality, and idolatry; Protection of strangers, widows and orphans; Laws concerning lending;; Law against blasphemy and cursing; Laws of first fruits and first born; Laws of eating flesh.
He shall restore five oxen for one; to make restitution; he shall restore double; he shall restore the best of whatsoever he had; he shall restore double; he shall restore double; to make restitution; he shall not make restitution; borrow; re shall be obliged to make restitution; he shall not make restitution.
If a man seduce a virgin not yet espoused, and lie with her: he shall endow her, and have her to wife.
Wizards thou shalt not suffer to live.
Whosoever copulateth with a beast shall be put to death.
Thou shalt not molest a stranger, nor afflict him: for yourselves also were strangers in the land of Egypt.
If he cry to me, I will hear him, because I am compassionate.
The eighth day thou shalt give it to me.
Exodus Chapter 23: Laws against slander and false witness; Laws of judging; Laws of mercy; Law against bribery; Law concerning strangers; Law of the year of rest; Law of the Sabbath; Law against idolatry; Three feasts; Laws of sacrifice; Promise of an angel; Boundaries of the new land.
Thou shalt not receive the voice of a lie: neither shalt thou join thy hand to bear false witness for a wicked person.
Six years thou shalt sow thy ground.., but the seventh year thou shalt let it alone, and suffer it to rest…
Six days thou shalt work: the seventh day thou shalt cease.
Three times every year you shall celebrate feasts to me: feast of the unleavened bread; feast of the harvest of the firstfruits of thy work; and feast at the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in all thy corn out of the field. Thrice a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God.
Behold I will send my angel, who shall go before thee, and keep thee in thy journey, and bring thee into the place that I have prepared.
I will be an enemy to thy enemies, and will afflict them that afflict thee.
I will fill the number of thy days.
By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, till thou be increased, and dost possess the land.
Exodus Chapter 24: Moses writes the words of the Lord; Moses and the leaders see God; Aaron and Hur placed in command; Moses spends fort days in the mountain.
And He said to Moses: Come up to the Lord, thou, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abiu, and seventy of the ancients of Israel, and you shall adore afar off.
We will do all the words of the Lord, which he hath spoken. We will be obedient.
The book of the covenant.
They saw the God of Israel. They saw God.
Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and the law, and the commandments which I have written: that thou mayst teach them.
And Moses, entering into the midst of the cloud, went up into the mountain: and he was there forty days, and forty nights.
Exodus Chapter 25: Offerings for making the tabernacle; Description of the ark; The propitiatory; Table for loaves of proposition. The golden candlestick.
That they bring firstfruits to me.
And they shall make me a sanctuary, and I will dwell in the midst of them.
Ephod—a richly embroidered, apronlike vestment having two shoulder straps and ornamental attachments for securing the breastplate, worn with a waistband by the high priest. Ex. 28:6, 7, 25 – 28.
Rational—embroidered work.
And thou shalt put in the ark the testimony which I will give thee.
Propitiatory—the mercy seat.
Let one cherub be on one side, and the other on the other.
Look and make it according to the pattern, that was shown thee in the mount.
Exodus Chapter 26: Curtains for the tabernacle; Boards of setim wood for the tabernacle; Bars for the boards of the tabernacle; Veils for the Holy of Holies; Arrangement of furnishings of the tabernacle.
Setim wood
The tabernacle that looketh to the north.
Where did they get the gold and silver? Took from the Egyptians?
And within it thou shalt put the ark of the testimony, and the sanctuary, and the holy of holies shall be divided with it.
And thou shalt set the propitiatory (the mercy seat) upon the ark of the testimony in the holy of holies.
Exodus Chapter 27: The altar; Court of the tabernacle; Oil for the lamp of the tabernacle.
An altar of setim wood.
And a grate of brass in manner of a net…
The purest oil of the olives.
That a lamp may burn always in the tabernacle of the testimony.
That it may give light before the Lord until the morning. It shall be a perpetual observance throughout their successions among the children of Israel.
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