Notes on Exodus 36-38

Posted on by Alex

Exodus 36-38 is the action of constructing the ark of the testimony/ark of the covenant/ark of the Lord/ ark of God/ holy ark/ art of thy strength/ ark of the Lord God (seven names; seven is the number of perfection. Hmm…), the tabernacle, and the various other tools and instruments that were laid out in Exodus 25-27, 30-31.

The skilled craftsmen of the twelve tribes followed God’s instructions perfectly. How often do we?

God has a plan for each of us. He has provided the instruction manual (King James Version) for our lives. If we were to follow it perfectly, we would be as holy as the ark of the Lord God. Unfortunately, we have either lost our Faith in the manual, or in the one who wrote it.

According to a 2014 Pew Research poll, about 70.6% of Americans profess to be Christians (an 8% decline over the past 7 years). 63% of the world’s Christians live in Europe or the Americas, but the number in those nations is declining. The English speaking Western world is seeing a spiritual decline, but it still overwhelmingly “Christian.”

Yet the citizens of these nations are the ones who are legalizing gay marriage, allowing transgender boys to compete in combat sports against girls, have some of the highest murder and incarceration rates, and are allowing their countries to be run by Godless perverts who would rather kill the unborn than pray in our schools.

Clearly Christianity is no longer following the letter of our instruction manual. All the ills of our society are the products of the Church giving its power to the State. We have replaced God with politicians. We have democratized our Faith.

Is it no wonder that the Holy Spirit seems to have left us? All human history would be different if the Israelites had ignored God’s instructions and not built the tabernacle or ark of the testimony. There would be no humanity had Noah ignored God’s instructions when building his ark.

For those of you who try to tell me that “translation doesn’t matter,” imagine if one of those steps had been translated incorrectly by Moses or Noah. Just one jot or tittle may have been the end of humanity.

Those Christians who were reading and living according to the King James Version were killed by the Catholics reading the Latin Vulgate. Now the modern Church has decided to throw out The Book that English speaking Christianity was built on in favor of these perverted translations based on corrupt manuscripts.

What are the results? In a nation where 71% of people are Christian, only 55% pray daily, 53% believe religion is very important, and only 50% attend a service at least once a month, and all these categories are in decline.

A nation of 71% Christians is 80% morally bankrupt. This is a verifiable fact. The more English translations there are, the fewer the number of Christians and the weaker their Faith. The correlation is there, and the relationship is significant.

Christians are no longer following the instructions. We’ve decided to build our house on sand, and a storm unlike any we have ever seen is coming.

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Notes on Exodus 33-35

Posted on by Alex

God is still quite angry at the children of Israel in the beginning of Exodus 33. Moses once again tries to stand in for his people to assuage God’s anger.

Notice that God gets angry. In our modern churches, we often hear only that “God is love,” which is true. God can also be anger, though his anger is only what we would call “righteous anger.” We get mad over trivial things a lot of times. We get angry when our pride is hurt or we feel embarrassed. God gets angry when His laws are violated. When we love someone, we get angriest when they do something that can lead to them being hurt. We get mad at our children for not listening, because we want to protect them from harm. This is the type of anger that God has.

God commands Moses to make two new stone tablets so that he can again copy the Ten Commandments (double inspiration!), only this time Moses requested to physically see God.

The LORD presents another dire warning. When the enemies of Israel are removed by God, the Israelites are to “destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves:” (Ex. 34:13). God wants all traces of false religions and idols to be eradicated. Why? Because “thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:” (verse 14).

Notice again that God gets jealous. Yes, “God is love,” yet here He tells us that his name is Jealous. We find ourselves jealous of someone else’s success, beauty, possessions, and other trivial things. God gets jealous when he is not loved with all our hearts. He loves us so much that for us to love anything else makes him jealous. Like his anger, God’s jealousy is pure. Ours is not.

God half-grants Moses’ request to see him. The LORD passes by so that Moses can only see his back, yet the glory of God is so magnificent that Moses’ face glows. It glows so bright that it scared the children of Israel, so Moses had to put a vail over his face to cover it when addressing them.

This vail is represented by the vail in the Tabernacle and later the Temple that is designed to separate the common areas from the Holy of Holies, where the ark of the testimony and the Mercy Seat of God are found. The Jews were not meant to see God. However, when Christ was crucified, the vail was ripped in half (Matt. 27:51). We have access to God through Jesus Christ. Christ is our way of looking upon the face of God without a vail.

My, how we take this for granted. Because of Christ’s death, we have so many privileges that even God’s chosen people who were freed from Egyptian bondage and supernaturally conquered dozens of powerful armies to come into the land of milk and honey did not have. We have unfettered access to God. We have eternal security in our salvation. We need not be concerned with works, but merely Faith. All we must do is believe in Christ and accept his gift of eternal salvation. It is a process so simple that even a child can do it.

What do we do with this gift? Squander it without caring or horde it to ourselves. Once we become Christians, we sit on our precious gift as if no one else deserves it. Our friends, family, co-workers, and children must go elsewhere to seek salvation, when we could tell them about it ourselves.

This is an amazing phenomenon when you really think about it. It would be like your parents giving you a Porsche and offering to give everyone you know a Porsche as well, but you keep driving your Ford Focus around as to not draw attention to your gift. Meanwhile, your parents are sitting on hundreds of beautiful luxury cars desiring to give them away. All you have to do is let people know where to go, and you all could have the same awesome cars for free, but you keep that a secret.

When we sit on our Christianity, we are ensuring that everyone around us is going to Hell. We could be the seeds of their salvation, but we’d rather them spend eternity in Hell than potentially embarrass ourselves for a few minutes. I am as guilty as anyone of this.

Don’t you think it is time to change that?

Notes on Exodus 28-29

Posted on by Alex

Exodus 28-29 are seemingly monotonous chapters that describe the garments of priests and some rules on sacrificing animals. However, there are some interesting nuggets found within these passages.

1. Suiting up for the priesthood is similar to putting on the “whole armor of God” denoting that the priest was going to spiritual battle just as an army of soldiers would enter into physical battle. There are specific undergarments, a headdress, and a breastplate with shoulder pieces. The breastplate of Aaron was incredibly beautiful. It was made from gold and covered in precious gemstones.

I noticed that the gemstones in the breastplate, according to Exodus 28:17-20 (sardius, topaz, carbuncle, emerald, sapphire, diamond, ligure, agate, amethyst, beryl, onyx, and jasper) resemble the stones covering Satan, the anointed cherub (sardius, topaz, carbuncle, emerald, sapphire, diamond, beryl, onyx, jasper, and gold) in Ezekiel 28. Notice Exodus 28 and Ezekiel 28. Interesting.

2. The priest was to stand out from the crowd. These garments were incredibly ornate, and all the priests had a variation of it, though the HIGH priest’s garment was the most beautiful.

This is something we have lost in our churches. Some may call it “legalistic” to desire a pastor to wear a suit and tie, but there is something refreshing about seeing a pastor wear the nicest possible attire, rather than jeans and a polo shirt. A jacket and tie cannot compare with a golden, gem encrusted ephod, but it would be nice for a pastor to dress like they are entering the house of God, rather than an International House of Pancakes.

3. What in the world is the Urim and Thummim? The Bible is incredibly vague in their origin and use. Notice there is no command to make them, unlike all the other pieces of the priestly garment. They were just…there, and put in the breastplate near the heart. Urim (light) and Thummim (perfection) seems to act as an oracle of sorts and is related to God’s judgment (Exodus 28:30). Numbers 27:21 provides additional evidence for the priest, “who shall ask counsel for him after the judgment of Urim.”

The judgment of Urim? The Urim is not a person, and the greatest judge is God. 1 Samuel 28:6 gives a little more clarity, “And when Saul inquired of the LORD, the LORD answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets.”

It seems that God uses the Urim and Thummim to communicate His judgment. It is sort of like a Ouija board or Magic 8 Ball that only God could communicate to the priests through. I have never in all my life heard a preacher broach the subject of this supernatural device.

4. Consecration of the holy garments using blood. This is a perfect picture of our sanctification through the blood of Christ.

As beautiful and ornate as these priestly garments were, they could not be considered holy until they were covered by the blood of a sacrifice. Even the most moral and wonderful human being cannot be considered holy until covered by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, the ultimate sacrifice.

You can be a “good person” though the Bible says that “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10), but “the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

We must accept Christ’s gift of salvation paid for with his blood upon the cross. This is represented by a seemingly mundane ritual performed by Israelite priests 1400 years before Christ lay down his life.

Notes on Genesis 38-40

Posted on by Alex

Judah (the Messianic line) married a Canaanite woman (Hamitic) and had many sons. The firstborn, who married Tamar, was killed by God for being wicked. The second was killed by God for not being with Tamar. The Messianic line now passed through Pharez, the son of Judah and Tamar.

The messy Messianic line is full of terrible characters. Adam and Eve were the first sinners. Noah got drunk and ended up being sodomized by his own son. Jacob (Israel) was a compulsive liar. Now Israel’s son, Judah, ended up being seduced by his own daughter-in-law (Tamar) pretending to be a prostitute who gave birth to yet another set of twins. We already know that twins seem to be a bit of a problem, and later we will see that Rahab, another prostitute, will be interjected into the line of Christ.

Just when you think your family is jacked up, remember that Christ’s ancestors were drunks, liars, murderers, and prostitutes.

Joseph (the greatest “type” of Christ) gains power and influence in the house of Potiphar. In Genesis 39:5 we see that God will bless the house of unbelievers (Hamitic Egyptians in this case) so long as they treat God’s people well. Sodom could have been saved had they had enough righteous people. The United States right now is being preserved for the same reason. As modern Christians abandon God, we move closer to the removal of our blessing.

Genesis 40 contains more strong references to Jesus Christ in the life of Joseph. He was an innocent man (as Christ was) in prison with two prisoners (like Christ during the crucifixion). One of the prisoners died while the other was restored (on the cross, one cursed God while the other was saved). The baker, who died, was hung on a tree, just like at the crucifixion. The butler, who was restored, returned to his position after three days (the length of time Christ was in the grave).

The “element” in the butler’s dream was wine. The “element” in the baker’s dream was bread. These are the two elements of the last supper.

The probability of these similar events occurring again 1700 years later are infinitesimal. Prophecy at its finest!

Potiphar’s wife decides to seduce Joseph, but he resists. I think that the imagery of Genesis 39:12 is powerful. “And she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me: and he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out.”

How often are we tempted, but stick around too long? Joseph IMMEDIATELY fled the area. He did not even take the time to take his clothes. I know I have been in dangerous situations before, and all it takes is a few extra seconds of staying in that environment to convince us to stay.

Next time you are at a bar and someone offers to buy you a drink, leave. When you are at work and someone who isn’t your spouse says something dirty, leave. When you see an image on social media that makes you lust a little bit, shut it down.

It must be immediate.

Notes on Genesis 32-34

Posted on by Alex

We cannot escape our sin nature. Even after God blesses us and teaches us a strong lesson, we fall back into old habits.

Several years had passed since Jacob lied and essentially stole Esau’s blessing when the two were reunited. We should note that Jacob (Israel) was in total fear of Esau (Rome) when Esau finally caught up to Jacob in Genesis 33. Esau came humbly and respectfully. He seemed to genuinely want to bury the hatchet. However, Jacob once again LIED his way out of this confrontation for fear that it was a ruse (v. 13-15).

Israel, who had just wrestled with and was permanently injured by God (Gen. 32: 24-32), felt the pain in his newly dislocated thigh and STILL sinned against God. He was so quick to fall back to his old nature when the stress of fear was upon him.

We do this every Sunday, don’t we? We go to church and wrestle with God. We often leave aware of our inferiority and feel changed, but the very first time we face a stressful situation, the “old” self comes back. We curse, swear, lie, cheat, and turn to the bottle, needle, or empty embrace of pornography.

Jacob’s sons would grow up learning how to lie and manipulate from their old man. When their sister, Dinah, was raped (Gen. 32: 2), Simeon and Levi devised a devilish plan. They LIED to the father of the rapist, convinced the man to circumcise all his own sons, then the children of Israel entered the city and murdered every man they could find (v. 13-29).

Jacob’s sin became the sin of his children. This again should be an example to us. We often take no consideration for how children view our behavior. We think they don’t see the “bad” side of us, but they do. It almost seems genetic, but it is merely powerful socialization. If we pray out loud, go to church, exhibit unconditional love, and read our Bibles in plain view of our children, they will take notice.

They will notice when we lie, cheat, and steal as well.

None of us our perfect, but our children want us to be. We must work harder to be the person that God wants us to be, the person that we ought to be, and the person we want our children to be.

Notes on Genesis 22-24

Posted on by Alex

Interesting. Genesis 22:8 (KJV) “God will provide himself a lamb” and (MEV) “God will provide for himself the lamb”.

The King James leaves a double meaning; the lamb will be provided for God AND God will become the lamb himself.

Isaac was to be sacrificed, but God decided to provide the lamb that would take his place.

Modern English Version strips away the reference to the sacrifice of God in the form of Jesus Christ as our scapegoat.

The MEV removes the deity of Christ here. This is not the only offense.

John 1:14; 18

Differences: MEV says Only Son (God has many sons; Adam, angels, fallen angels in Gen. 6) vs KJV’s only begotten (Greek: Monogene…also used in John 3:16, where MEV used begotten. Why? More familiar passage? Seems shady.) To removed begotten is to remove Christ’s deity and puts him on the same level as the angels.

The worst offender (that I have found so far) is Philippians 2:6

Differences: MEV: Jesus Christ “did not consider equality with God something to be grasped” (He could not grasp equality with God…HE IS GOD!) vs KJV: “thought it not robbery to be equal with God” (Jesus had no problem with being equal with God…HE IS GOD!) This is opposite. It is contradictory. It is WRONG!

When dealing with the Word of God, we need 100% doctrinal accuracy in our translations. If our “Bible” contradicts doctrine, then it is as valuable as a boat with a hole in it. You may not take on a ton of water at first, but you will still end up drowning.

What is Scripture?

Must be 1. God breathed 2. Written down 3. Preserved

Ex. Christ writing in the sand = Inspired and written, but not preserved.

If the KJV, which has been written and preserved for over 400 years is not Inspired, then it is not Scripture.

If the KJV is not Scripture, then the English speaking peoples have been without the Word of God for centuries!

The first two sins:

Eve removed a Word of God (Gen 3:2; “freely” in Gen 2:16-17)

Eve added to the Word of God (“touch” in Gen 3:3; Gen 2:16-17)

Last warning of the Bible:

Rev 22: 18-19

The MEV removed “begotten” from KJV AND TEXTUS RECEPTUS (and there are many other examples of the same.

How Important is God’s Word?

Ps. 138:2; 119:9, 11, 105

If a “baby Christian” is getting the wrong WORDS, then how can they be a lamp? How can they be hid in a heart?

Can anyone argue the “fruits” of the KJV?

Regardless of which texts were inspired in other languages and throughout history, which is inspired NOW!

Do we have God’s inspired, infallible, preserved Word NOW? If so, what is it?

If my KJV and MEV (or any translation) contradict, then one MUST be more accurate than the other. By removing the deity of Christ in even one single verse (there are several), the MEV violates doctrine. It is corrupt.

Testing the Law of First Mention

Posted on by Alex

I was asked by a sweet lady from church to expand on the Law of First Mention that I talked about earlier this week. She specifically wanted to know about wine. I had not yet looked into this fully, so I was more than happy to put this “law” to the test.

LAW OF FIRST MENTION: WINE

Noah was drunk on wine in Genesis 9:21 leading to being sodomized by his youngest son where he ended up cursing his son, Ham. The first mention of wine shows us the dangers of getting drunk

Lot was drunk and raped (Gen 19),

Leviticus 10:9, Numbers 6:3, Deut 29:6, 32:33, Judges 13:4, 7, 14; 1 Samuel 1:14, Isaiah 5:22, Romans 14:21, Eph 5:18, 1 Tim 3:3 support not drinking wine or strong drink.

Deut 14 links wine with lust

Christ refused to drink it (Mark 15:23) opting instead for vinegar

OTHER CONTEXTS:

Washing garments (Gen. 49:11) and links WINE and BLOOD of grapes (more later)

As a drink offering (Numbers 6 and 28)

There are a lot of mentions of wine just being there or being consumed with no positive or negative connotations, but that does not negate drunken excess warned about in the first mention.

JESUS TURNS WATER INTO WINE (JOHN 2):

Was it alcoholic? Going back to Genesis 49:11, wine is the “blood of grapes.” Wine is a type of blood.

When Mary asked Jesus to make wine, he said “mine hour is not yet come.” This was a reference to Christ spilling his BLOOD.

The “blood of grapes” can be used to clean or purify clothes (Gen 49:11) Christ’s BLOOD was pure of imperfection, thus the water he turned into WINE was also pure. It was non-alcoholic and you could not get drunk from it.

BACK TO THE LAW OF FIRST MENTION:

The original, Old Testament context of wine was that it could make you drunk, leading to sexual perversion, and drinking it in excess was explicitly warned about.

The NEW context in the New Testament was given as Christ shedding his perfect blood to purify us from our sins. This is a fundamental doctrinal shift (allowing consumption of wine), but it STILL has relevance to the first mention. Wine is not to be consumed unless it cannot get you drunk (non-alcoholic). We may still use it for things, particularly in cooking where the alcohol is washed off or for cleaning purposes where it is not being consumed, but we should not drink it.

The FINAL mentions are in Revelation and are linked with the “wine of wrath” (Rev 14:8, 10; 16:19; 18:3) and “wine of fornication” (Rev 14:8, 17:2, 18:3). Therefore, coming full circle. First mention: Noah being drunk and was sexually violated (fornication) leading to his cursing of Ham (wrath).