exodus 24 and 25

Read Exodus 24 and 25 at Bible Gateway.

Hebrew paragraph divisions:

Exo 24:1-11 {s} Moses ratified the covenant between God and His people
Exo 24:12-18 {p} Moses went into the cloud to receive the Torah
Exo 25:1-9 {s} The offering commanded to build the Tabernacle
Exo 25:10-22 {p} The pattern for the ark of the covenant
Exo 25:23-30 {p} The pattern for the table of showbread
Exo 25:31-40 {s} The pattern for the golden lampstand

Picking up the thread of the strong themes:

Exo 22:25-23:19 {sx5+p}

Exo 22:25-27 {s} Not coveting interest or collateral from your neighbor
Exo 22:28-31 {s} Not coveting what belongs to God
Exo 23:1-3 {s} Not bearing false witness
Exo 23:4 {s} Return your enemy’s ox or donkey
Exo 23:5 {s} Relieve your enemy’s donkey’s burden
Exo 23:6-19 {p} Not perverting justice + oppressing strangers + Sabbath rest + not naming other gods + harvest feasts

The common theme tying all these together, is to not injure your neighbor, strangers, the poor, or God. Yes, not to even injure your enemy (Exo 23:4-5)!

Exo 23, in explaining what ‘Honor the Sabbath day’ commandment means, teaches that there is also a Sabbath year. Every seventh year, the land shall rest, and the owners of the fields will not plant or harvest what grows, but the poor, widows, and strangers will harvest what grows.

The next two strong themes become clear when we look at them both together:

Exo 23:20-25 {s} The Angel of YHVH will go before them in the way to Canaan
Exo 23:26-33 {p} What YHVH will do to bring them in

and

Exo 24:1-11 {s} Moses ratified the covenant between God and His people
Exo 24:12-18 {p} Moses went into the cloud to receive the Torah

Their strong themes seem to be:

Exo 23:20-33 {s+p} Israel shall make no covenant with the Canaanites or their gods to learn their ways
Exo 24:1-18 {s+p} Israel made a covenant with YHVH to walk in His ways

We can add what we have learned onto the chiastic structure from yesterday, and when we do, we get these two matching bookends:

Exo 21:1-11 {s+s} When Hebrew slaves go out free;
Exo 24:1-18 {s+p} Israel made a covenant with YHVH to walk in His ways.

The Hebrew slaves of the Egyptians went out free so they could enter into covenant with YHVH and walk in His ways! This is a prophetic type for our own relationship with God through the blood of our Passover Lamb, Jesus Christ! His ways include all that He has been teaching them through Moses: to show Him love in the way that means love to Him; to love ourselves (Sabbath rest), to love our neighbor, even to love our enemy; to not injure God, ourselves, or others; to make restitution when necessary. Yes, even to not make restitution when necessary, because letting some evils exist unopposed is not an act of love. His way is the way of love, and His Law is the Law of Love!

The next strong theme is Exo 25:1-22 {s+p} The place of God’s presence is on the Mercy Seat, in the Most Holy Place.

For further reading:

The Law of Love by Christine Miller
Israel’s Feasts and Their Fullness by Batya Wootten