Exodus 25-40

Um, hello! How long has it been?! I actually finished these chapters back in July, but I'm only just now deciding to discuss them. I've now completed three books in the Bible, and I've decided that I like taking a few days after finishing a book to not continue reading but to relax and give myself time to reflect on the message before moving on. (And it also gives me time to catch up on blogging in case I've gotten behind.) So that's exactly what I did. But a few days turned into a few weeks, and now here we are nearly two months later. Awkward...

But I've kinda put off blogging about these chapters for one reason, and that reason is.... these chapters, all in all, are pretty darn boring. I hate saying that about the Bible, but like, it's true. I'm just being honest. The vast majority of these chapters are simply God giving instructions to Moses about building the Tabernacle and how to make Aaron and his sons priests. And then it's all repeated when Moses (and a bunch of other people) actually follow through with God's instructions.

One thing I want to sit on for a second is the whole golden calf thing in Exodus 32. That whole chapter all I could think was, "HOW ARE ALL OF YOU SO STUPID?!" Like, the Israelites had been led out of Egypt. They have witnessed first-hand God's power. They've seen miracles that are almost impossible to fathom. Yet they still worship some false idol! I just don't get it, y'all. I just don't get it.

In the commentary I keep up with, the historical significance of bulls and calves in ancient Egyptian times is briefly explained, so I do understand a little bit why the Israelites did this, but still... God has made it very clear that He is the only God and to only worship Him and that worship to any other idol is strictly prohibited. In my eyes, this is a clear sign that the cows mean nothing. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Point B, that I want to mention briefly...
These chapters are so detailed. That's one of the reasons these chapters are so boring. The detail is so precise and deliberate. With so much detail given, how can people say the Bible didn't happen? That it's not real? That makes absolutely no sense. There is a ton of detail given in Genesis when Noah built the ark, and again, piles of details are given in Exodus about how to build this Tabernacle and how to make Aaron and his sons priests. Fake things just don't have this kind of detail.

But moving on...

I remember when I was reading these chapters back in the middle of summer, I started to realize why, perhaps, the Mosaic law was in a sense "done away with" later on in the New Testament. Again, I haven't read the New Testament yet, so I can't speak on it just yet; but supposedly, this is what happens. And I kinda see why it happens. We have to remember that the Bible was written for us, yes. But it was not written to us. The book of Exodus was written to the Israelites - the ones that were enslaved for hundreds of years and had finally been led out only to find themselves experiencing out of this world phenomena and trying to figure how to govern themselves.

Today, we are not in this same situation. We have governments and laws and a way of life so to speak. And the time of the Israelites was like, a million years ago. They didn't even have Twitter, y'all. How, with good sense, can we apply everything God told the Israelites to do, in the exact same fashion, to our lives today? The answer: we can't, and we shouldn't.

I'm really eager to get to the New Testament even though, realistically, I might not be reading it for another year or more. I'm just interested to learn about what happened once Jesus came into the picture. Like, technically right now, I'm learning about Judaism, right? The first five books of the Bible are the Jewish Torah, right? Well, I'm not Jewish, so again, I'm excited to see how the story of the Bible progresses and where it leads me.

[Also, interestingly enough, I'm about to start Leviticus. And with everything that's been happening lately with homosexuality, I'm ready to learn from this book but with the mindset that these rules I'll be reading, will one day not apply - or at least not in the same manner. Apparently, a lot anti-gay people quote from Leviticus, so this book is pretty controversial at the moment. And I do love a good controversy, so here's to me getting my own opinion.]