(The History of Ancient Israel)
Once out of Egypt in the Arabian Peninsula, Israel (with God leading the way) were being led to the same mountain Moses first met God and promised to him that they would all worship him there. But despite the massive victory over their enemy, it wasn’t going to be easy from here on in: because as they were heading up The Arabian coast towards the mountain, they went three days in the dry hot desert without finding any water: they were getting very low on water/very dehydrated! And when they thought they had found an oasis with water it turned out to be poisonous:
Exodus 15:22-23
“…Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter (poisonous).”
So, these once happy and respectful Israelites were now getting very frustrated and angry at Moses (and also God indirectly) for letting them thirst to death:
Exodus 15:24
“...So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, ‘What are we to drink?’”
Moses immediately took this problem to God and he showed Moses what to do to purify the Oasis’s water:
Exodus 15:25
“Then Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became fit to drink.”
After Israel had something to drink and became hydrated God told them something very interesting that would set the mood for the rest of the journey:
Exodus 15:25-26
“There the Lord issued a ruling and instruction for them…He said, ‘If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.’ ”
So, God commands Israel from here on out to be very careful to listen to what he says and always do and remember what he says; if they disobeyed him God would curse then just like he cursed their Egyptians overlords!
That is a huge statement for all of Israel! So far God had really only commanded them to be circumcised (commanded to their ancestor Abraham), to celebrate the Passover/festival of unleavened bread yearly along with dedicating their firstborn son. That means they were to always obey by doing and remembering these commands along with any other future commands God would give them. However, if they disobeyed God by not doing these commands and forgetting them God would personally curse them just like he did to their former Egyptian slave masters! That is a massive command that would be very important all along this journey!
So, after that, they journeyed to a much larger oasis and God allowed them to camp there near some fresh water:
Exodus 15:27
“Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water.”
Somewhere around this time, Moses began to help settle disputes in the camp because God talked directly to him, so he could directly ask God about a personal dispute to find the right decision to solve the dispute.
To do this, he would sit in one area all day and listen to disputes and help solve them all day, he then became like a great judge for Israel:
Exodus 18:12
“...Moses…serve[d] as judge for the people, and they stood around him from morning till evening.”
He then began to set out a tent outside of the main camp where he was judging, and he called it "the tent of meeting":
Exodus 33:7
"Now Moses...[took]...a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the 'tent of meeting.' Anyone inquiring of the Lord would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp."
But when Moses began to do this, something amazing would happen: God himself would come to the tent in the cloud and talk with him (most likely concerning the disputes he wanted him to solve). When all of Israel saw God they praised God at their tents:
Exodus 33:8-11
"And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent. As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the Lord spoke with Moses. Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to their tent. The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend."
So things were nice, until God lead them on into a harsh desert known as Sin:
Exodus 15:16
“The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai,…”
After around 13-15 days of walking through mostly deserted desert wastelands the camp was running out of food they had brought from Egypt and nothing was around to hunt or scavenge for: They were beginning to get hungry and with no food in sight they begin to once again blame Moses (and also indirectly God) for bringing them out of their ‘nice’ homes in Egypt into the middle of a desert to starve to death:
Exodus 16:1-3
“...on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, ‘If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.’ ”
With the angry crowd blaming their two leaders God quickly answered their complaints by telling Moses that he personally would provide their food by letting bread rain down from the sky. So this was good news God was once again going to provide for his people basic needs.
Exodus 16:4
“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘I will rain down bread from heaven for you.’”
He also was not doing this out of just kind consideration for his people he knew they were getting angry at Moses (and Aaron) and complaining about how God brought them out into the desert away from their homes. God took this personally; he didn’t like this angry complaining from his people, so he was going to do something about it once and for all:
Exodus 16:11-12
“The Lord said to Moses, ‘I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, ‘At twilight (late evening) you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.’’ ”
Once they got their miraculous meat and bread out of nowhere from God, they would finally respect their God as he wanted them to, he would also keep raining down bread every morning to keep them all fed:
Exodus 16:4-5
“I will rain down bread from heaven for you....The people are to go out each day and gather [it]...”
But it wasn’t going to be all fun and feasting for Israel: this miracle of daily bread from the sky was going to include a test of obedience to him:
Exodus 16:4-5
“The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day… On the sixth day they are to…[gather]… twice as much as they gather on the other days....In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions.”
So God told Moses along with providing food daily he had specific instructions on how to gather the food for that week that was going to test to see if they would truly obey what he commanded them to do or not
So Moses and Aaron gathered the camp together for a meeting
Exodus 16:9
“Then Moses told Aaron, ‘Say to the entire Israelite community, ‘Come before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling.’’ ”
Then they told them God’s response to their complaining:
Exodus 16:6-8
“So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, ‘In the evening you will know that it was the Lord who brought you out of Egypt, and in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we, that you should grumble against us?’ Moses also said, ‘You will know that it was the Lord when he gives you meat to eat in the evening and all the bread you want in the morning, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we? You are not grumbling against us, but against the Lord.’ ”
While he was still speaking, God appeared near the desert horizon in the form of a (most likely) glowing cloud to show this came from him. So that evening, God made a bunch of quail cover the entire area they were camping at to give them some meat:
Exodus 16:10-13
“While Aaron was speaking to the whole Israelite community, they looked toward the desert, and there was the glory of the Lord appearing in the cloud. That evening quail came and covered the camp,…”
So, they ate quail meat that evening, and in the morning, something strange happened: a massive layer of dew covered the entire camping area (something that most likely didn’t happen in the desert) and when the dew evaporated it left thin white flakes all over the ground, all of Israel was wondering what this actually was:
Exodus 16:13-15
“...in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, ‘What is it?’ because they did not know what it was.”
Moses let them know this flakey white stuff was the bread from heaven God promised to give them and they were to now gather the flakes for the whole day to eat:
Exodus 16:15-16
“Moses said to them, ‘It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat.This is what the Lord has commanded: 'Everyone is to gather as much as they need. Take an omer (possibly about 3 pounds or about 1.4 kilograms) for each person you have in your tent (living with you)'’”
So, Israel obeyed Moses (and by extension God) and gathered an omer for everyone in their families/living in their house:
Exodus 16:17-18
“The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. And when they measured it by the omer, the one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little. Everyone had gathered just as much as they needed.”
And after they gathered what they needed, the flaky stuff melted away in the noon heat and disappeared like it was never there:
Exodus 16:21
“…and when the sun grew hot, it melted away.”
The Israelites begin to examine this new bread: it formed into very small white round pellets comparable to a coriander seed or Bdellium:
Exodus 16:31
“... It was white… like coriander seed[s]…”
Numbers 11:7
"The manna was like coriander seed[s] and looked like bdellium."
But when they ate it, it tasted very good! It was very sweet like a wafer made with honey:
Exodus 16:31
“...and tasted like wafers made with honey.”
They passed the obedience test in being fed since they obeyed Moses’s orders, but then Moses told them to throw out any leftovers they had before the next day:
Exodus 16:19
“Then Moses said to them, ‘No one is to keep any of it until morning.’ ”
Sadly, some Isrealites ignored his command and kept the leftovers anyway until the next day:
Exodus 16:20
“However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning,…”
But the next day their leftovers had rotted, and maggots were growing in it! Once Moses found out they had disobeyed his order (and by extension God’s) he got very angry because they failed God’s test:
Exodus 16:20
“…but it was full of maggots and began to smell (rot). So Moses was angry with them.”
After they saw that this bread began to rot the next morning and their was going to be a new fresh supply of this stuff every morning, they learned their lesson and completely obeyed Moses an only gathered what they needed for a day and threw the leftovers out.
Exodus 16:21
“Each morning everyone gathered as much as they needed,…”
However, as commanded on the sixth day, they gathered twice as much, and the leaders reported that the Isrealites obeyed his orders
Exodus 16:22
“On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much—two omers for each person—and the leaders of the community came and reported this to Moses.”
But then Moses told them why the Lord commanded them to gather twice as much today as God revealed to him:
Exodus 16:23
“He said to them, ‘This is what the Lord commanded:‘Tomorrow is to be a day of…rest, a holy sabbath (meaning ‘rest’ in Hebrew [1] ) to the Lord. So bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil. Save whatever is left and keep it until morning.’’”
So God now reveals why he had Israel collect twice as much on the sixth day: because the next day (that is the seventh day) was going to be a holy day of resting for them which God dedicated. There would be no collecting bread or baking tomorrow so they were to do it all today. So they obeyed Moses and did all the baking they wanted to do with the bread this day and saved the other half for the seventh day overnight but this time it did not rot.
Exodus 16:24
“So they saved it until morning, as Moses commanded, and it did not stink or get maggots in it.”
So Moses told them it was okay to eat the bread because today there would be no bread because it was a holy day of rest:
Exodus 16:25
“ ‘Eat it today,’ Moses said, ‘because today is a sabbath [rest] to the Lord. You will not find any of it on the ground today.’ ”
Moses also said this is how it was going to be from now on: for six day after this holy day of rest they were to continue gathering the bread as normal but on the next sixth day they were to gather twice as much like they did the day before because every seventh day was going to be the holy day of rest where no bread would be given:
Exodus 16:26
“Six days you are to gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any.”
Despite Moses’s direct command to not gather any bread on this day, some Israelites still went out to gather some bread by did not find any on the ground today.
Exodus 16:27
“Nevertheless, some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather it, but they found none.”
God saw how these Israelites were disobeying Moses’s (and ultimately his direct command) and was getting tired at some of their disobedience: these people were not doing so well with the obedience test and God let Moses know:
Exodus 16:28
“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘How long will you [all] refuse to keep my commands and my instructions?’”
God reminded Moses that today was supposed to be a day of rest: and that he expected everyone to not go outside their tents to work on that day:
Exodus 16:29
“Bear in mind that the Lord has given you the Sabbath; that is why on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Everyone is to stay where they are on the seventh day; no one is to go out.”
So, Moses (most likely) told all of Israel to not go outside their tents but to rest all day and they obeyed him:
Exodus 16:30
“So the people rested on the seventh day.”
Exodus 16:31
“The people of Israel called the bread ‘manna’(Hebrew for ‘what?’[2])…”
After this week ended, God led them out of this desert as they traveled up the Arabian Peninsula:
Exodus 17:1
“The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded.”
However, when they got to a place called Rephidim they found no more water and were once again getting thirsty and angry with their leader Moses:
Exodus 17:1-2
“They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. So, they quarreled with Moses and said, ‘Give us water to drink.’ ”
Some even dared to question (after all they had been through):
Exodus 17:7
“...they tested the Lord saying, ‘Is the Lord among us or not?’ ”
Moses (and Aaron) seeing how angry these Israelites were getting were both angry at how they were once again complaining against God but also discouraged they were trying to fight with them. By doing this, he told them they were really trying to test God when it should be them that is tested by God:
Exodus 17:2
“Moses replied, ‘Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?’ ”
But they were so thirsty it was driving their anger towards Moses (and also God) for bringing them out into this desert to die of thirst and they were beginning to mob around him:
Exodus 17:3
“But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, ‘Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?’ ”
Moses was getting very frustrated and worried, so he shouted out to God asking him what to do with this angry mob:
Exodus 17:4
“Then Moses cried out to the Lord, ‘What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.’ ”
God immediately answered him back giving him specific instructions on how to get water:
Exodus 17:5-6
“The Lord answered Moses, ‘Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.’ ”
So Moses did what God told him to do; he took some elders to a local rock in Horeb and stuck it with his staff and all of a sudden water came gushing out of it and all of Israel was relieved and begin to get something to drink.
Exodus 17:6
“...So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.”
But Moses was still angry at how Israel had acted through all of this questioning him and God, so he named this place “Quarrel” and “testing” to remind them they did these horrible things in order to get water:
Exodus 17:7
“And he called the place Massah (Hebrew for “testing”) and Meribah (Hebrew for “quarreling”) because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord…”
So, after that event, Israel stayed in Rephidim for a little longer: but they were not alone in this desert place this time; the ancient Arabian nation of Amalek (called Amalekites) found them camping near this place and decided to attack them (and most likely rob from them) for no reason:
Exodus 17:8
“The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim.”
After they attacked them (and most likely stole from them) Moses immediately took action: he most likely first talked to God about what to do and God told him to fight them back and gave specific institutions on how to win against them. He went and got his helper he nicknamed named ‘Joshua’: (An Ephramite [that is a descendant of Ephraim: Joseph’s youngest son] whose real name was Hoshea that had been helping Moses for a while now:
Numbers 13:16
“...Moses gave Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua.”)
and told him to get some men to form an army to fight back against these Edomites the next day:
Exodus 17:9
“Moses said to Joshua, ‘Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites.’”
Then he told him what he would do (and what God most likely told him to do) to go stand on a hill near the battle with his holy staff.
Exodus 17:9
“Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.”
So Joshua rounded up some men and they went out the next day to find the Amalekites and fight them:
Exodus 17:10
“...So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered,…”
And why they fought, Moses when up a nearby hill along with his brother Aaron and another man named Hur to help him:
Exodus 17:10
“…and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill.”
When he got up to the top, he did what God (most likely) commanded him to do: he raised his hands up with his staff: and as long as Moses held his hands up it would give Israel victory:
Exodus 17:11
“As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning,…”
So Joshua and his army were killing the Amalekites but them Moses’s arms got tired and he had to lower them when he did all of a sudden the Amalekites were winning!
Exodus 17:11
“...but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning.”
So, he tried to keep them raised for as long as he could until he was so exhausted he could no longer raise his hands, so Aaron and Hur got a stone so he could sit down and raised his hands for him until sunset when all the Amalekites who had attacked them were killed:
Exodus 17:12-13
“When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword (killed them all).”
After the victory, God told Moses to write this event down to always be recorded and remembered: because for attacking and robbing his holy people the whole nation of Amalek would eventually be killed as a curse for attacking his people:
Exodus 17:14
"Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven.' Moses built an altar and called it ‘The Lord is my Banner’. He said, ‘Because hands were lifted up against the throne of the Lord, the Lord will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation.’ ”
After the battle, God led them out of Rephidim, as God continued to lead them up the Arabian Peninsula; towards the mountain they entered into the Sinai desert where the mountain was located:
Exodus 19:2
“...After they set out from Rephidim, they entered the Desert of Sinai,…”
Shortly after this (possibly even that very day they entered into that desert) the had reached their destination: Mt. Horeb where God promised Moses he would bring them all to worship him.
Ultimately this whole journey from their freedom of Egypt to get to Mt. Horeb took three months exactly:
Exodus 19:1
“On the first day of the third month after the Israelites left Egypt—on that very day—they came to [Mt. Horeb in] the Desert of Sinai.”
Once they reached the mountain they camped near the mountain:
Exodus 19:2
“...Israel camped there in the desert in front of the mountain.”
When they were at the mountain, the also got close to the nation of Midian (the nation where the mountain was closest to).
At this point (if not at an even earlier time; possibly before they even left Egypt) Moses sent his Midianite wife Zipporah and his two sons Gershom and Eliezer away from Israel back to their home country (Midian) and to live with their Midianite family (Reuel) from now on:
Exodus 18:2-3
“Moses had sent away his wife Zipporah, his father-in-law Jethro received her and her two sons.”
So Zipporah and her two sons went back to live with her father, by now Jethro (as most likely all of Midian) had heard all about how Moses had helped free his enslaved people Israel and curse Egypt (the most powerful nation in this region at this time) into ruin.
Exodus 18:1
“Now Jethro, the priest of Midian and father-in-law of Moses, heard of everything God had done for Moses and for his people Israel, and how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt.”
Hearing how Moses and Israel were getting close to Midian he decided to go visit Moses and his people and hear all about what they had went through. He sent a messenger before he went to let Moses (and the rest of Israel know) that he was on his way:
Exodus 18:6
“...Jethro…sent word (through a messenger) to him,…”
when the messenger Got to where Israel was, he repeated what Jethro told him to Moses:
Exodus 18:6
“...‘I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons.’ ”
Eventually Jethro arrived from Midian with Moses’s wife and children and Moses: at this time the camp was settled near the mountain where God meet Moses:
Exodus 18:5
“Jethro,…together with Moses’ sons and wife, came to him in the wilderness, where he was camped near the mountain of God.”
When he came, Moses greeted him and let them go into his tent to tell him everything that had happened to them in full detail:
Exodus 18:7-8
“So Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him. They greeted each other and then went into the tent. Moses told his father-in-law about everything the Lord had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for Israel’s sake and about all the hardships they had met along the way and how the Lord had saved them.”
As Moses told him all his God had done for them, Jethro was amazed at how powerful and personal his God was and then, knew for sure, that this god was truly the most powerful god of all: greater than all of Egypt’s gods (because they could not stop this Hebrew God from cursing them and destroying their people), greater than all of Edom’s gods (because they could not stop him from winning in a war against them and wiping out one of their people’s tribes), and greater than all (maybe even) of Midian’s gods.
Exodus 18:9-11
“Jethro was delighted to hear about all the good things the Lord had done for Israel in rescuing them from the hand of the Egyptians. He said, ‘Praise be to the Lord, who rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and of Pharaoh, and who rescued the people from the hand of the Egyptians. Now I know that the Lord is greater than all other gods, because he did this to those who had treated Israel arrogantly (specifically the Egyptians but also the Edomites).’”
With this sure belief that this God was the greatest god of all, Jethro brought animal sacrifices back from Midian to give to God:
Exodus 18:12
“Then Jethro,…brought a burnt offering and other sacrifices to God,…”
After he acknowledged and honored their god with sacrifices, Moses along with Aaron and all the tribal leaders of Israel had a meal together under the (most likely) manifestation of their god in the cloud to celebrate his acknowledgment and honor of the one true god:
Exodus 18:12
“…Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat a meal with Moses’ father-in-law in the presence of God.”
After the meal, Jethro stayed for the night before returning back to his country Midian, but the next day he spent the day with Moses and he noticed how Moses was tiring himself acting as a judge for all of Israel all day all the time:
Exodus 18:13
“The next day Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood around him from morning till evening.”
Jethro then wondered why he was wearing himself out like this:
Exodus 18:14
“When his father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he said, ‘What is this you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge, while all these people stand around you from morning till evening?’ ”
Moses explained to him he was helping solve disputes because he could ask God directly about them and he would instantly give an answer in return:
Exodus 18:15-16
“Moses answered him, ‘Because the people come to me to seek God’s will. Whenever they have a dispute, it is brought to me, and I decide between the parties and inform them of God’s decrees and instructions.’ ”
But as a professional priest, Jethro knew that Moses was only going to wear himself out doing this for years and years: as one human he could only help so many of them:
Exodus 18:17-18
“Moses’ father-in-law replied, ‘What you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone.’ ”
He told Moses that he was God’s representative and prophet to Israel and ,as such, he had a huge responsibility already but should also listen to their disputes to tell them God’s answer. But he suggested Moses have help with the cases by getting other men of God like him to divide the work up: Get other men to see about the lesser more easier cases while only the harder cases made it to him. This way, the amount of cases would be manageable and Israel would be happy.
Exodus 18:19-23
“Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. You must be the people’s representative before God and bring their disputes to him. Teach them his decrees and instructions, and show them the way they are to live and how they are to behave. But select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you. If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied.”
This plan sounded like a real good idea to Moses, so he got several Godly Israelite men and divided up the work and it was much more manageable:
Exodus 18:24
“Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said. He chose capable men from all Israel and made them leaders of the people, officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. They served as judges for the people at all times. The difficult cases they brought to Moses, but the simple ones they decided themselves.”
After this, Moses had to say goodbye to Jethro: he had really helped him out through his life, but they had to part ways: Jethro had to return to Midian to attend to priestly duties, while Moses had to continue to lead and instruct Israel. So they said goodbye and Jethro (as well as Moses’s wife and two children) returned to Midian; the two never seeming to meet again.
Exodus 18:27
“Then Moses sent his father-in-law on his way, and Jethro returned to his own country.”
After this, Moses saw God (that was most likely manifesting in some form) on Mt. Horeb so he took a solo trip up the mountain to meet with God:
Exodus 19:3
“Then Moses went up to God [on the mountain],…”
When Moses climbed up the Mountain to meet God, God begin speaking to him and gave him a message to tell Israel as (almost) all the descendants of the last holy chosen patriarch, Israel (or Jacob):
Exodus 19:3-6
“…and the Lord called to him from the mountain and said, ‘This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob…: ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings (saved you and cared for you) and brought you to myself (to this mountain). Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant [I am going to make with you all], then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.’”
So God tells Moses why he brought Israel to this Mountain and what he wanted to do with them next: Since God choose their holy ancestor(s) Abraham, Isaac, and ultimately Israel (Jacob) and had been faithful to his descendants (Israelites) to bless them,care for them, and curse their enemies like he promised them he would do, this was no all a one-sided relationship/agreement he also required something from them in return:
For being their personal God blessing them, caring for them, and especially fighting for them against their enemies, God wanted his people in return for all this to fully obey every order he gave them and to especially honor the special covenant he was about to make with them here. If they, as a nation, could do this, then God would continue to bless them as he promised their holy ancestors and treasure their nation they were going to form together in the promise land as a holy nation above all other human nations on the entire planet: Israelites would then be like God’s holy priest/prophets to all other nations.
(This is why God wanted to test Israel to see if they would obey his commands: he was getting them prepared for this special covenant to see how well they would truly obey him and everything he commanded them!)
So Moses went back to the camp and told the tribal leaders (which then told their own tribes) this message:
Exodus 19:7
“So Moses went back and summoned the elders of the people and set before them all the words the Lord had commanded him to speak.”
To this message, all of Israel rightfully agreed together in front of Moses, to obey all of God’s commands as a nation:
Exodus 19:8
“The people all responded together, ‘We will do everything the Lord has said.’ ”
With their final answer, Moses went back up to God:
Exodus 19:8
“...So Moses…[went]…back to the Lord.”
When he got back up, God told him he was going to appear and speak in front of all of Israel: he told him he was going to come in the form of a thick cloud on the mountain and this time all of Israel would hear him speaking (not just Moses, as seems to be the case). In this way, they would see and most importantly hear what Moses had been hearing all along and believe that Moses (and also Aaron) was truly sent by God and trust him for sure.
Exodus 19:9
“The Lord said to Moses, ‘I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear me speaking with you and will always put their trust in you.’”
After God got through speaking, Moses told God Israel's answer to obey everything he commanded them:
Exodus 19:9
“…Then Moses told the Lord what the people had said.”
Since Israel agreed to obey all of God’s orders, God gave specific instructions for how Israel was to prepare to meet their God at this mountain: In three days God would manifest as a cloud on the mountain and speak to all of Israel so all of them could see and hear him for themselves.
But before these three days, all Isrealites were to prepare to meet their God by making themselves holy: this would be done by cleaning their clothes (and possibly themselves) and staying away from any form of sex (and possibly any sinning as well) :
Exodus 19:10-15
“...And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes […and Abstain from sexual relations…[3] ] and be ready by the third day, because on that day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.’ ”
But since God himself would be on top of the mountain and his manifestation of dense clouds, the mountain would be considered holy and therefore no one (not even their animals) would be allowed to come to close or touch Mt. Horeb during this time:
So God warned Moses to tell Israel they needed to keep their distance when God first got on the mountain: if anyone disobeyed and came to close/touched the mountain they were to immediately be killed (and even the person/animal that touched the mountain was to be indirectly killed with a stone or arrow so no one else would touch the person/animal that touched the mountain: this is how seriously sacred this mountain would be with God on it!!!) They could only come closer to/touch the mountain when they heard a long Ram’s horn blast saying it would be okay to now come closer to the mountain:
Exodus 19:12-13
“Put limits for the people around the mountain and tell them, ‘Be careful that you do not approach the mountain or touch the foot of it. Whoever touches the mountain is to be put to death. They are to be stoned or shot with arrows; not a hand is to be laid on them. No person or animal shall be permitted to live.’ Only when the ram’s horn sounds a long blast may they approach the mountain.’”
So Moses went back down to camp and consecrated them and told them what God wanted them to do before he came: So they obeyed and got themselves ready:
Exodus 19:14-15
“After Moses had gone down the mountain to the people, he consecrated them, and they washed their clothes. Then he said to the people, ‘Prepare yourselves for the third day. Abstain from sexual relations.’ ”
So the next day they kept preparing by trying to keep holy (most likely keeping very clean/away from sin as well as not having any romance/sex).
So early the next day (possibly on a stormy day with a lot of thunder/lightening) God came on the mountain and there was a thick cloud all around the mountain:
Exodus 19:16
“On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain,…”
And also there was huge amounts of smoke going up from the mountain like someone lit a huge fire on the mountain, this was because God descended on the mountain in the form of fire:
Exodus 19:18
“...Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace,…”
If that wasn’t enough of a sight the whole mountain was shaking very badly because of all this (possibly like a mini localized earthquake):
Exodus 19:18
“...and the whole mountain trembled violently.”
Despite all this no one in the camp was leaving to see what all the commotion was about (they were most likely afraid of the [possible] bad thunderstorm.) But then a very loud Ram’s horn (commonly called a Shofar[4]) trumpet began to sound out of nowhere:
Exodus 19:16
“..a very loud trumpet blast[ed].”
And was getting louder and louder:
Exodus 19:19
“...the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder,…”
With the loud trumpet, all the Israelites became afraid and were beginning to panic in fear:
Exodus 19:16
“Everyone in the camp trembled (shaked in fear).”
Moses realized this was God trying to summon the camp to come see his manifestation on Mt. Horeb, so he began to call for everyone to come out of hiding/fear and follow him to the mountain to meet their God (which they did):
Exodus 19:17
“Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God,…”
He led them to the limit of where they could not go anymore at the base of the mountain:
Exodus 19:17
“and they stood at the foot of the mountain.”
But as they saw all the lighting and heard the thunder along with the loud trumpet calls as well as seeing the whole mountain shake covered with a massive amount of clouds and constant smoke coming up from it, they were absolutely terrified and backed far away from the mountain:
Exodus 20:18
“When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear…[and]…stayed at a distance…”
But Moses stayed where he was and called out to God: God answered him by telling him to come to the top of the mountain where he was:
Exodus 19:19-20
“Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him…call[ing] Moses to the top of the mountain.”
So Moses obeyed and went into the this darkness of the clouds/smoke as he walked up the mountain as the Israelites continued to just watch in fear.
Exodus 20:21
“The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.”
When he got up to where God was, God immediately told him to go back down to warn the Isrealites not to try to run up the mountain to see God for themselves like Moses was doing: if they tried to do that they would instantly be killed; even their priests who were to serve/represent God could not come up.
Exodus 19:21-22
“So Moses went up and the Lord said to him, ‘Go [back] down and warn the people so they do not force their way through to see the Lord and many of them perish. Even the priests…must consecrate themselves, or the Lord will [kill them]’ ”
But Moses was confused by this command: how could they do this if God had already commanded them to not even get to close to the mountain let alone climb it to see him:
Exodus 19:23
“Moses said to the Lord, ‘The people cannot come up Mount Sinai, because you yourself warned us, ‘Put limits around the mountain and set it apart as holy.’’ ”
But God explained why he was commanding this: he was going to allow only Aaron to come up with him to see him/talk to him: but no one else could come along!
Exodus 19:24
“The Lord replied, ‘Go down and bring Aaron up with you. But the priests and the people must not force their way through to come up to the Lord, or he will…[kill them]’ ”
So Moses went back down to the cowering Isrealites and warned them only Aaron could come up to see God with him if any of them tried to come up they would die:
Exodus 19:25
“So Moses went down to the people and told them.”
Right after Moses told them this, God began to speak audibly so all of Israel could hear him like Moses (and sometimes Aaron) did.
First he introduced himself and let them know it was their God that brought them out of Egypt and slavery/genocide (not just Moses)
Exodus 20:1-2
“...God spoke all these words: ‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.’”
Then he began commanding new laws for them to obey as apart of this new covenant, as they promised to do:
Exodus 20:3-17
“You will have no other gods before me.
You will not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You will not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
You will not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
Once God commanded these ten new commands for all of Israel to hear, he stopped speaking. Israel heard their God speak to them for the first time, and they were even more terrified to hear God’s voice, they were so afraid that they begged Moses to just keep speaking messages to them from God; because God’s voice was too much for them to take!
Exodus 20:18-19
“When the people…[heard God speak]…they trembled with fear.and said to Moses, ‘Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.’ ”
In this way, God got them to trust in Moses through hearing him speak: if their was any doubt they absolutely believed him now.
But Moses didn’t want them to be so afraid they refused to hear their God speak to them. He wanted them to understand God was showing his might and glory to them so they would show respect for him (and proper fear) so they would not sin by disobeying his commands:
Exodus 20:20
“Moses said to the people, ‘Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.’ ”
But they were still afraid of God’s voice and stood in the distance, and still wanted to never hear God’s voice again:
Deuteronomy 18:16
“Let us not hear the voice of the Lord our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.”[3]
So Moses went back to talk to God about it and went back up the mountain (possibly without Aaron which he was suppose to bring but is not mentioned as going along with Moses from possibly being too scared himself).
Exodus 20:21
“The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.”
Moses told him what the Israelites said and God agreed to never directly speak to Israel again and only through Moses, and from now only he would continue to only speak through individual human being to Israel like they wanted:
Deuteronomy 18:17
“The Lord said…’What they say is good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him.’”[3]
So God continued to speak through Moses again telling him what to say: since they all directly heard him speak they knew he was the only God and he reminded them what he just commanded them: do not worship another God along with him:
Exodus 20:22-23
“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Tell the Israelites this: ‘You have seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from heaven: Do not make any gods to be alongside me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold.’”
Then God told Moses to officially seal the new covenant he was making with Israel: to do this he told Moses to build an alter made of dirt in front of the holy mountain:
Exodus 20:24
"Make an altar of earth for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings,...I will come to you and bless you."
the alter would be to begin with peaceful terms between Israel and God, so God could begin to bless them. Moses was also to build twelve pillars of stone around the alter: to symbolize each tribe of the nation of Israel in this covenant.[3]
After sacrificing on the alter, Moses was to then read all the laws God had ordered Israel to obey from a book (or scroll) and ask them if they would agree to obey everything God commanded them:
Exodus 20:21
“[set]…the laws…before them…”[3]
If all of Israel agreed to fully obey all these laws (and anything else God would command them) then Moses was to then take some blood from some of the offerings and sprinkle the blood on all of Israel gathered there; this was the blood of this new covenant making in official: with the sprinkling of this blood this new covenant would officially be complete. [3]
Along with all the laws he has already given to them to obey, he told Moses some more laws he wanted them to follow and to also write them down:
This included new laws for their new nation: such as having slaves, dealing with compensation for injuries, owning property, how to treat others, to let farms and other fruit plants to have a sabbath themselves (after 7 years) from producing food.
(Covered in more detail in Exodus 21, Exodus 22, and Exodus 23:1-19)
So after (and if) this covenant was confirmed, God said he would then lead them back to the old promise land from here that he first promised Moses he would lead Israel to:
Exodus 20:20
“See, I am…bring[ing] you to the place I have prepared…into the land of the…Canaanites…”
This is why God wanted them to come to the mountain before going back to Canaan:
before the Israelites returned to the land God promised them as their inheritance, he wanted to make somethings very clear before they returned to Canaan:
Through this long detour through the desert, he wanted to make clear that if he was going to continue to be their personal God like he was to their chosen ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Israel; then they would need to continue to obey everything he told them to show their loyalty and faithfulness to their God just like their chosen ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Israel did.
This is why God was testing them in the desert; to see if they would do everything he commanded them. He was seeing how obedient they would be to their God compared to their loyal ancestors; so far they had been only partially obeying him; but this new covenant they were about to agree to was officially going to mean all of Israel had to completely obey all of God’s commands from now on for him to continue to be their God and protect and bless them like he had been doing. Only if they agreed as a nation to fully obey their God’s commands would they be allowed to return and live in the promise land.
And if they choose to obey, God would even send one of his angels ahead of the camp to accompany them back to Canaan in order to protect them:
Exodus 20:20-23
“See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared…My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the…Canaanites,…”
However, there was still the question of once they got there, what would be done about the nations that already occupied the promise land?: that is the Canaanites. There were not just a little massive group of people with tents on the outskirts of Canaanite nations like their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Israel (Jacob) had been:
They were now a massive group of thousands (and possibly millions) of people with tons of cattle, servants, and possessions. There would not be enough room now in Canaan for both the native Canaanite nations and the new Israelite nation; so what were they going to do once they got there?
God gives the answer to Moses here: once they were lead back to the land God promised to them as their inheritance God would run them out through several plagues on their nations: eventually the Canaanite nations left in Canaan would be so weak that the Israelites could drive out the rest of them left by a (small and easy) war to completely claim Canaan for good:
this is how God would finally give the promise land to Israel’s descendants:
Exodus 20:23-30
“My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land…Canaanites,…and I will wipe them out.I will send my terror ahead of you and throw into confusion every nation you encounter. I will make all your enemies turn their backs and run (they would run away from their land). I will send the hornet ahead of you to drive the…Canaanites…out of your way. But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the [entire] land [of Canaan].”
But after they drove out all the Canaanites they were to do one more important thing before officially moving in to their inherited homeland:
Destroy all of the statues of their gods and temples dedicated to their gods they left behind. Because they were to continue to keep his orders: they would not worship any of their false Canaanite gods but instead destroy their idols and temples to their false gods when they got there and continue to worship their true God only: not one Canaanite could stay in the promiseland after they conquered it, because if they did, they would eventually tempt them to worship their false gods and sin against their God’s command.
Exodus 20:32-33
“...[then] You must demolish…[their idols]…and break their sacred stones to pieces…Do not bow down before their gods or worship them or follow their practices… Do not make a covenant with them or with their gods. Do not let them live in your land or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you.”
If they continued to do this then God would continue to bless them in the land they inherited with perfect health and a perfect long life:
Exodus 20:24-26
“…Worship the Lord your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span.”
So, with these commands to tell Israel, God told Moses to go back down the mountain to obey what he said, after this new covenant was confirmed with all of Israel God would allow for his brother Aaron (and his sons Nadab and Abihu) And the elders of Israel to come up the mountain to see their God up close, but no one else could come to see him:
Exodus 24:1-2
“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. You are to worship at a distance,…the people may not come up…’ ”
So Moses went back down the mountain to the scared group and told them what God wanted from them: that he wanted them ,as a nation, to completely obey every word he said and if they were willing to do this then they would need to have a special ceremony the next day to make this agreement official with blood sacrifices representing their loyalty to their God and this new covenant between them.
To all this, they completely agreed: they promised to obey everything God wanted them to do:
Exodus 24:3
“When Moses went and told the people all the Lord’s words and laws, they responded with one voice, ‘Everything the Lord has said we will do.’ “
Since they agreed to obey everything God wanted them to do, Moses then started preparing for the official ceremony of the covenant tomorrow:
The rest of the day, he wrote all the commands God wanted Israel to follow down on a scroll that he called “The book of the covenant”:
Exodus 24:3-7
“Moses then wrote down everything the Lord had said…the Book of the Covenant”
This was so he could read all the laws again during this ceremony tomorrow so all of Israel could officially agree that they would obey them and so they would always remember what God had told them to do.
So early in the morning on the next day, Moses begin building the alter out of dirt and set up the twelve stone pillars at the front of Mt.Sinai before their God:
Exodus 24:4
“He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel.”
After setting up the alter and stone pillars he gathered all of Israel together in front of the alter for the ceremony: He first told some young men to get Israel's fellowship sacrifices: which in this case were young bulls and sent them to sacrifice them by stabbing them,make them bleed, them burn them up on the alter of earth to show their God that they wanted to obey him so he would bless them:
Exodus 24:5
“Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord.”
Why the bulls were bleeding, Moses took half of their blood they bleed in bowls and took the other half and splashed it against the alter they were sacrificed on to represent the blood of the covenant:
Exodus 24:6
“Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he splashed against the altar.”
Then he finally took the book of the covenant he wrote and read all the orders they were to obey for God to officially keep being their God and to continue to bring them into the promise land:
after he had officially read it all of Israel promised to obey everything their God told them to do:
Exodus 24:7
“Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, ‘We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey.’ ”
With their official agreement to the new covenant and God, Moses then took the sacrificed bull’s blood in the bowls and sprinkled it one the crowd there to finally confirm Israel officially agreed to this covenant.
Exodus 24:8
“Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, ‘This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.’”
So now, Israel was officially under this new covenant to obey their God. After the ceremony, Moses invited his brother Aaron and two of his sons as well as the elders of Israel to come up the mountain to see their God and worship in his presents:
Exodus 24:9
“...Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up…”
When they got up close to where God was; they saw God appear close to them and seemed to look like a human man standing on bright light-blue pavement: because they agreed to his covenant the leaders of Israel got to see God for themselves without dying and even got to worship and feast while he was appearing to them:
Exodus 24:10-11
“and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky. But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.”
After the miraculous feast with their God, these leading Israelites then returned back down the mountain to the rest of the group, and for six days God just sat on the mountain with no new orders for Moses:
Exodus 24:16
“and the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain,…”
Then after the six days, God called Moses up the mountain again to get stone tables with all the laws written down on them:
Exodus 24:12
“...on the seventh day the Lord called to Moses from within the cloud. The Lord said to Moses, ‘Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction.’ ”
When Moses was called, he went back up the mountain with his helper Joshua, but there was a problem: he didn’t know how long he would be gone, so he would not be around to solve disputes so he put his brother Aaron and Hur in charge of the disputes until he returned and told them to tell the group to stay here until he returned:
Exodus 24:13-14
“Then Moses set out with Joshua his aide, and Moses went up on the mountain of God. He said to the elders, ‘Wait here for us until we come back to you. Aaron and Hur are with you, and anyone involved in a dispute can go to them.’ ”
So, Moses and Joshua went up Mt. Sinai to receive the stone tablets for Israel:
Exodus 24:15
“...Moses went up on the mountain,…[and]…entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. “
His helper Joshua stayed away from God’s direct presence as Moses went further; right into God’s presence. Once he reached the top, God then told him to ask the Israelite families for willing donations to God of certain types of fabrics, wood, olive oil, gemstones and spices:
Exodus 25:1-6
“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Tell the Israelites to bring me an offering. You are to receive the offering for me from everyone whose heart prompts them to give. These are the offerings you are to receive from them: gold, silver and bronze; blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen; goat hair; ram skins dyed red and another type of durable leather; acacia wood; olive oil…; spices…and onyx stones and other gems…’”
God them reveals why he wants such strange donations: it would be supplies to make an official temple for him to permanently live in so he could live with Israel. It would also be a place where his people would worship him and make sacrifices to him, now that they were officially his obedient people: but Moses had to listen closely and make sure the design of the temple was exactly like God wanted it to be:
Exodus 25:8-9
“Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you.”
Along with the temple he also wanted a very special wooden chest overlaid with gold to be made, called an ark: it was to be the place where the tablets with the laws written down on them would be kept and would be stored at and where God would specifically live at after the group moved on from the mountain to further instruct Moses in the future:
Exodus 25:10-22
“Have them make an ark of acacia wood…Overlay it with pure gold, both inside and out, and make a gold molding around it…There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the covenant law, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites.”
To build this new temple, he had chosen two very specific Israelite men (along with many other talented Isrealites) to give construction and artistic knowledge to, so Moses could have someone to help build this temple with all the offerings.
Exodus 31:2-6
“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills— to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of crafts. Moreover, I have appointed Oholiab son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan, to help him. Also I have given ability to all the skilled workers to make everything I have commanded you…’”
After the temple was complete, Moses was to anoint the Tabernacle with a very special anointing oil God gave the recipe for:
Exodus 30:22-26
“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Take the following fine spices: 500 shekels[about 12 1/2 pounds or about 5.8 kilograms] of liquid myrrh, half as much (that is, 250 shekels [about 6 1/4 pounds or about 2.9 kilograms]) of fragrant cinnamon, 250 shekels[about 6 1/4 pounds or about 2.9 kilograms] of fragrant calamus, 24 500 shekels of cassia[about 12 1/2 pounds or about 5.8 kilograms]…and a hin[probably about 1 gallon or about 3.8 liters] of olive oil. Make these into a sacred anointing oil, a fragrant blend, the work of a perfumer. It will be the sacred anointing oil.Then use it to anoint the tent of meeting,…’”
Then he wanted Moses’s brother ,Aaron, and his sons to be his priest and serve him in this new temple: Aaron and his sons would blessed for Aaron’s help in speaking for/supporting Moses’s behalf and for obeying God by getting the honor to serve him in his temple.
Exodus 25:28
“Have Aaron your brother brought to you from among the Israelites, along with his sons Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, so they may serve me as priests.”
To do this, God wanted special priest clothes for them to wear and then for them to have a ceremony to be ordained to serve him:
Exodus 25:2-41
“Make sacred garments for your brother Aaron to give him dignity and honor.[and]…for his consecration, so he may serve me as priest…and his sons, so they may serve me as priests. After you put these clothes on your brother Aaron and his sons, anoint [them with the sacred oil] and ordain them. Consecrate them so they may serve me as priests.”
God then tells Moses how exactly to consecrate them in a specific ceremony:
Exodus 29:1-8
“This is what you are to do to consecrate them, so they may serve me as priests: Take a young bull and two rams without defect. And from the finest wheat flour make round loaves without yeast, thick loaves without yeast and with olive oil mixed in, and thin loaves without yeast and brushed with olive oil. Put them in a basket and present them along with the bull and the two rams. Then bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance to the tent of meeting and wash them with water. Take the garments and dress Aaron with the tunic,… Take the anointing oil and anoint him by pouring it on his head. Bring his sons and dress them in tunics [and anoint them too]…”
Then after concentrating them to serve God as priests, they were then also to be ordained by offering several sacrifices for sin and ordaining them as priests:
Exodus 29:9-26
“Then you shall ordain Aaron and his sons. Bring the bull to the front of the tent of meeting, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on its head. Slaughter it in the Lord’s presence at the entrance to the tent of meeting. Take some of the bull’s blood and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger, and pour out the rest of it at the base of the altar.Then take all the fat on the internal organs, the long lobe of the liver, and both kidneys with the fat on them, and burn them on the altar. But burn the bull’s flesh and its hide and its intestines outside the camp. It is a sin offering. Take one of the rams, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on its head. Slaughter it and take the blood and splash it against the sides of the altar. Cut the ram into pieces and wash the internal organs and the legs, putting them with the head and the other pieces. Then burn the entire ram on the altar. It is a burnt offering to the Lord, a pleasing aroma,…presented to the Lord. Take the other ram, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on its head. Slaughter it, take some of its blood and put it on the lobes of the right ears of Aaron and his sons, on the thumbs of their right hands, and on the big toes of their right feet. Then splash blood against the sides of the altar. And take some blood from the altar and some of the anointing oil and sprinkle it on Aaron and his garments and on his sons and their garments. Then he and his sons and their garments will be consecrated. Take from this ram the fat, the fat tail, the fat on the internal organs, the long lobe of the liver, both kidneys with the fat on them, and the right thigh. (This is the ram for the ordination.) From the basket of bread made without yeast, which is before the Lord, take one round loaf, one thick loaf with olive oil mixed in, and one thin loaf. Put all these in the hands of Aaron and his sons and have them wave them before the Lord as a wave offering. Then take them from their hands and burn them on the altar along with the burnt offering for a pleasing aroma to the Lord, a food offering presented to the Lord. After you take the breast of the ram for Aaron’s ordination, wave it before the Lord as a wave offering, and it will be your share (it would be for Aaron and his sons).”
After having an assembly to consecrate and ordain them to priesthood, Aaron and his sons were to eat the Ram’s breast that they waved and the bread that was left over in the basket that night after the ceremony because it was the sacrifice to God so they could be property ordained they were to symbolically ‘accept it’ by eating it, but once they were full, they had to burn it on the alter because they could not keep any of it for the next day.
Exodus 29:27-34
“Consecrate those parts of the ordination ram that belong to Aaron and his sons: the breast that was waved and the thigh that was presented…Take the ram for the ordination and cook the meat in a sacred place. At the entrance to the tent of meeting, Aaron and his sons are to eat the meat of the ram and the bread that is in the basket. They are to eat these offerings by which atonement was made for their ordination and consecration. But no one else may eat them, because they are sacred. And if any of the meat of the ordination ram or any bread is left over till morning, burn it up. It must not be eaten, because it is sacred.”
Then the next day, they were to stay at the entrance of the new temple seven more days without ever leaving and each day sin sacrifices were to be made for consecrating and ordaining the temple alter:
Exodus 29:35-37
“Do for Aaron and his sons everything I have commanded you, taking seven days to ordain them. Sacrifice a bull each day as a sin offering to make atonement. Purify the altar by making atonement for it, and anoint it to consecrate it. For seven days make atonement for the altar and consecrate it. Then the altar will be most holy, and whatever touches it will be holy.”
Along with a seven day period of daily bull sacrifices for Aaron, his sons and the alter, two young lambs with fine flour mixed with olive oil and some wine were to be continually offered every morning and evening at this new temple every day starting the day after from the original ceremony for Aaron and his sons from now on:
Exodus 29:38-42
“This is what you are to offer on the altar regularly each day: two lambs a year old. Offer one in the morning and the other at twilight….[also]…offer a tenth of an ephah (that’s probably about 3 1/2 pounds or about 1.6 kilograms) of the finest flour mixed with a quarter of a hin (probably about 1 quart or about 1 liter) of oil from pressed olives, and a quarter of a hin of wine as a drink offering. Sacrifice the other lamb at twilight with the same grain offering and its drink offering as in the morning—a pleasing aroma, a food offering presented to the Lord. For the generations to come this burnt offering is to be made regularly at the entrance to the tent of meeting, before the Lord.”
But he told Moses to warn them ,after this ceremony, that they were to always wear these holy garments while at the temple serving him: if they didn’t they would die:
Exodus 25:43
“Aaron and his sons must wear them whenever they enter the tent of meeting or approach the altar to minister in the Holy Place, so that they will not…die.”
And from this point on only Aaron’s son’s descendants could wear these holy priest clothes are were to be anointed in them to also become priest just like Aaron and his sons:
Exodus 29:29
“Aaron’s sacred garments will belong to his descendants so that they can be anointed and ordained in them.”
With Aaron, his sons and even the entire temple dedicated to him, God would finally live at the temple and his presence would be within this temple and be with his people, and this is another reason he brought his people out of Egypt:
Exodus 30:44-46
“So I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar and will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests. Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. They will know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them…”
Because of his obedience to God and Moses, Aaron’s descendants (through his sons) would always be priests serving God at his temple.
Exodus 30:29-20
“Aaron’s sacred garments will belong to his descendants so that they can be anointed and ordained in them. The son who succeeds him as priest and comes to the tent of meeting to minister in the Holy Place is to wear them…”
After he had got through explaining the details of the New Temple, how to make Aaron priest, and a reminder of the Sabbath, God finally gave him the tablets with the words on it written by himself:
Exodus 30:18
“When the Lord finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the covenant law, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God.”
Eventually Moses (and Joshua) had been on the mountain for 40 days (a little over a month) by now:
Exodus 24:18
“...he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.”
So back at the base of the mountain ; Israel ,at this point, assumed either Moses had abandoned them or died on the mountain and their God had forgotten about them and began to panic:
they needed a leader and a God to lead them on from this desert; so they went to Aaron and told him to make them an idol to represent their God that would lead them and not abandon them:
Exodus 32:1
“When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, ‘Come, make us a god who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.’”
After all they had been through with God and Moses they had completely lost faith in them just because they had not seen or heard Moses or their God for 40 days. And worse of all, they were going to break the law they heard God himself say to them (that is not to make an idol to worship) and thus break the covenant they had just made 46 days earlier with God to always obey his orders!
But what would Aaron do?
Sadly, he agreed to make the idol for the demanding Israelites and sin along with the rest of Israel! So he asked for their wives’ gold jewelry and children's gold jewelry they got from Egypt from God to make the idol:
Exodus 32:2-3
“Aaron answered them, ‘Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.’ So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron.”
With all their gold, he did what he could and melted the gold down and then began to engrave the molten gold in the form of a calf (baby cow).
Exodus 32:4
“He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool.”
Once Aaron set up the golden calf, some (possibly leading) Israelites told the rest of Israel that this golden calf was their God that saved them from Egypt and led them to this mountain!
Exodus 32:4
“...Then they said, ‘These are your gods,Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’ ”
When Aaron saw how all of Israel loved and accepted the golden calf as the image of their God, he built the golden calf an alter and told Israel they were going to have a festival to their God by honoring the new golden calf image of him:
Exodus 32:5
“When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, ‘Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord.’”
So not only did he support this idolatry, but he was getting into it as well!
the next morning Israel held a sacred (and wild) festival to their ‘God’
Exodus 32:6
“So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry(wild parting).”
While God was just getting done speaking to Moses, he saw Israel breaking his orders and his brand new covenant they had just made with him!
Exodus 32:7-8
“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’’”
God was furious: and he had had enough of these rebellious and stubborn Israelites: he had done everything for them so far and had forgiven their disobedience to him before the covenant, but once they promised to obey him, he expected complete obedience and in a little over a month they had broken one of his direct order and his brand new covenant:
they decided they were not willing to change to obey their God’s orders, therefore he would kill them all except for Moses (and possibly Joshua) and renew his original plan for a holy nation through Abraham’s descendants through Moses’s obedient children:
Exodus 32:9-10
“‘ I have seen these people, ’the Lord said to Moses, ‘and they are a stiff-necked people(stubborn and rebellious). Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.’”
Oh no!
God was going to destroy most of Israel! (Except for Moses and possibly Joshua [and possibly half of the tribe of Judah: the clan of Zerah would possibly survive since they seem to not be present with the main group of Israel sinning at this time : see ‘The Lost children of Zerah’ for more information]) after all God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and especially Israel and all his 12 sons was at stake:
If God completely destroyed 9 out of the 12 tribes of Israel (the tribe of Levi would continue through Moses and ,if God spared him, the tribe of Ephraim [Joseph] would continue through Joshua [and the tribe of Judah would continue through the missing clan of Zerah; as covered before in ‘The Lost children of Zerah’]) none of the promises (through Israel) for these other tribes would be fulfilled because their descendants would all be dead/nonexistent!
And not only that, after all God did to free Israel and promised to bring them to the promised land (Canaan) he was going to kill them all!
This was terrible!
but what would Moses do? Would he obey God and go down the mountain to watch all his people (including his brother Aaron and his sister Miriam) die?
Fortunately, Moses did not obey God and leave instead be pleaded to God to not destroy all of Israel from breaking his covenant by reminding him of his promise to their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Israel and what their enemies would think if he actually did this:
Exodus 32:11-13
“But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. ‘Lord,’ he said, ‘why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self:
(Paraphrasing what God said to their ancestor Isaac: recorded in Genesis 26:4)
‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’’”
After hearing all this, God immediately changed his mind on destroying all of Israel:
Exodus 32:14
“Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.”
Having changed God’s mind, Moses then obeyed God (that had told him to see what Israel was doing) and headed back down the mountain with the tablets of the law:
Exodus 32:15
“Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands.”
First, he meet up with his helper Joshua still waiting for him near where he was, but when he heard distant shouting from the festival he though their was a war going on:
Exodus 32:17
“When Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, ‘There is the sound of war in the camp.’”
But Moses knew what was really going on: they were singing in the festival to that idol God told him about:
Exodus 32:18
“Moses replied: ‘It is not the sound of victory,it is not the sound of defeat;it is the sound of singing that I hear.’”
So, Joshua went with Moses down the mountain when they got closer they could see through the smoke what was going on:
they saw the golden idol and Israel dancing around it: to see it himself made Moses so angry that he threw the stone tablets down the mountain breaking them.
Exodus 32:19
“When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain.”
So when he finally got back to camp, the celebrating Israelites were (most likely) very shocked to see him again. He angrily went in and toppled the idol and burnt it up in a fire:
Exodus 32:20
“And he took the calf the people had made and burned it in the fire;..”
But that was not all, he then ground the partially melted idol up into a fine golden powder and threw it in their water and told/forced Israel to drink it!
Exodus 32:20
“Then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.”
After he got done destroying this idol and punishing the people for their horrible actions of betrayal, he went to his brother Aaron who was supposed to be in charge and should have stopped this:
Exodus 32:21
“He said to Aaron, ‘What did these people do to you, that you led them into such great sin?’”
Aaron knew he was in trouble with Moses and God for giving into this idol, so he blamed the people for threatening him to make it, and even lied that when he was making it it magically appears!
Exodus 32:22-24
“‘Do not be angry, my lord,’ Aaron answered. ‘You know how prone these people are to evil.They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.’ So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!’”
Moses couldn’t believe Aaron would support the ‘miracle’ of this calf, and he saw even though he had come back and destroyed their golden idol, the Israelites were still partying wildly and their enemies (who might have been gathering near the mountain to look at the scene: like what remained of the Egyptians and the native Canaanite nations) were laughing at them:
Exodus 32:25-26
“Moses saw that the people were running wild and that Aaron had let them get out of control and so become a laughingstock to their enemies.”
So, God told Moses to stand at the front of the camp and say ‘Whoever is for the Lord, come to me’ and whoever came to him he was to tell them God command them to attack their fellow families and Israelites for their wickedness against God as a punishment for their sin and to get them under control again:[3]
Exodus 32:25-26
“So he stood at the entrance to the camp and said, ‘Whoever is for the Lord, come to me.’”
And out of all the Israelites and tribes their were, only the Levites responded to him (most likely also his own brother (Aaron)and sister (Miriam).
Exodus 32:26
“And all the Levites rallied to him.”
Then he told them what to do:
Exodus 32:27
“Then he said to them, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor (fellow Israelites).' ’”
So God was asking them to betray their families, friends, and neighbors to avenge God’s respect and honor for their disobedience:
Would they be willing to do it?
They sure would! they did exactly that; they took a sword and went through the camp stabbing, cutting, and killing their fellow Israelites all across camp until they had killed 30,000 of them!
Exodus 32:28
“The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died.”
After they got through going through the camp killing Israelites, The Lord blessed all the Levites because they were the only ones to stand up for him and be willing to obey him by killing their own families:
Exodus 32:29
“Then Moses said, ‘You have been set apart to the Lord today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and he has blessed you this day.’”
After that, all the Israelites stopped partying and begin to mourn for their dead family members (and hopefully what they had done) and possibly buried them. Then next day, Moses rebuked Israel for breaking God’s covenant they promised to obey and said he was going to try to plead with God to spare them:
Exodus 32:30
“The next day Moses said to the people, ‘You have committed a great sin. But now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.’”
So Moses went back up the mountain to where God was and was ashamed of what Israel did, but begged God to forgive them: if he couldn’t to punish him for their sin (as a sacrifice):
Exodus 32:31-32
“So Moses went back to the Lord and said, ‘Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold. But now, please forgive their sin—but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written (punish me).’”
God would not do it, he was going to punish them himself for betraying him:
Exodus 32:33
“The Lord replied to Moses, ‘Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book…However, when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin.’”
So with that, Moses could plead no more: God was going to punish them for betraying him, and later God did punish them by giving them a disease that spread through their camp:
Exodus 32:35
“And the Lord struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made.”
After God had got through punishing Israel for sinning against him and breaking their covenant (promise to him) He called Moses again up the mountain to tell him what to do next:
he told Moses to tell Israel how horrible they were and how angry God was at them:
so angry he could no longer lead them in the form of a cloud/fire for breaking his covenant. He now had to decide what to do with them as a nation after breaking his covenant: So as a punishment they were to take off all their fine Egyptian jewelry they had gotten from plundering Egypt (and that they also used in making their idol):
Exodus 33:5
“The Lord said to Moses ‘Tell the Israelites, ‘You are a stiff-necked (stubborn and rebellious) people. If I were to go with you even for a moment, I might destroy you. Now take off your ornaments and I will decide what to do with you.’’[3]"
So, he went back down the mountain to tell Israel the bad news: once he told them, they were very ashamed and upset and took off all their jewelry and begin to cry knowing they had messed up bad:
Exodus 33:4
“When the people heard these distressing words, they…stripped off their ornaments…[and] began to mourn…”
They were so horribly upset (as they should have been) and worried of what God would do to them they continued to be sad until God decided what to do and once he did he then called up Moses again to tell him about his new plan for Israel:
he told Moses he decided they should return to Canaan but he himself would not travel with them any longer: because if they sinned even just a little in his holy presence he might kill them all out of anger: he instead would send one of his angels to lead them and run the native Canaanites out:
Exodus 33:1-3
“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying,
(Referring to what he said to their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob recorded in Genesis)
‘I will give it to your descendants.’
I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way.”
Moses was very upset that God was not going with them: if God would not go with them then how would Israel know that God was for them and had not rejected them? And if they were no longer his holy people then what would make them any different than any other race/nation of humans on the planet Earth?
Exodus 33:15-16
“Then Moses said to him, ‘If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?’”
Because he loved his servant/chosen person Moses for completely obeying him and fighting for his commands/respect he would go with Israel:
Exodus 33:17
“And the Lord said to Moses, ‘I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.’”
but not for his holy people’s sake, only because Moses asked!
But Moses wanted more than that; if he was to continue to lead Israel he would need to continue to have a close relationship with God:
Exodus 33:12-13
“Moses said to the Lord, ‘You have been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’…You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favor with me.’ If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you.’ ”
God also requested Moses this by giving his presence inside of him always:
Exodus 33:14
“The Lord replied, ‘My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.’ ”
But then after God had graciously given him all he asked for, Moses asks something very very bold for any human to ask God:
he asked to see God visible form without him being covered by a cloud or fire (like the fire cloud that has seem to have been covering his main form this whole time).
Exodus 33:18
“Then Moses said, ‘Now show me your glory.’”
This was something very bold to be asking at this point, but since God had such great Favor on Moses and choose to have mercy and compassion on him God also was going to grant this request and let his loyal human servant see his unhidden form:
Exodus 33:19-20
“ And the Lord said, ‘I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.’”
While God would reveal what his primary form seemed to have looked like, he also warned Moses their would be a catch here: Moses could not look at God’s face directly because no human could look directly at his face in his uncovered form: if any human did, then they would instantly die from looking at his face!
Exodus 33:20
“’But,’ he said, ‘you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.’”
So how could Moses look at him without dying? God had a plan on how he could:
he would have to stand on a rock near where his uncovered form was when he got there God would come by him and put him in the middle of a split (or cleft) in a rock nearby ( this would mean that he would be surrounded by rock with only one opening crack to get out/look through). After he was in the spit of the rock God would take his hand and cover the only opening of the rock while he passed by Moses so he could not see his face as he passed by, once his face was out of view from the split God would uncover the split so Moses could look out and see the his back and thus see his unhidden glorious form:
Exodus 33:21-23
“Then the Lord said, ‘There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by.Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.’ ”
So God said the early the next day Moses should come up to the mountain and stand on the appointed rock and God would meet him there to show him his glorious unhidden form: but he warned why his unhidden form was exposed on the mountain no one else could be on the mountain besides him why this was happening: not even any of their animals could be at the base of the mountain why this was happening!
Exodus 34:1-3
“The Lord said to Moses, ‘…Be ready in the morning, and then come up on Mount Sinai. Present yourself to me there on top of the mountain. No one is to come with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain; not even the flocks and herds may graze in front of the mountain.’ ”
While he was coming up he also wanted him to remake two stone tablets like he formerly broke so God could write what he formerly commanded for Israel on them again:
Exodus 34:1
“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke…’ ”
So Moses worked on chiseling out new stone tables to replace the first ones:
Exodus 34:4
“So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones…”
Then he went back to camp to warn everyone to stay away from the mountain the next day and stayed there for the night. Then the next day, he got up early and headed back up the mountain with the new tablets and got on the rock where God told him to be:
Exodus 34:4
“…and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning, as the Lord had commanded him; and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands.”
Once he was on the rock, God came down in the original cloud of pillar form he first showed to Israel right after they escaped Egypt:
Exodus 34:5
“Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him…”
but that cloud form seemed to have dissipated when he got down to where Moses was: leaving his uncovered glorious holy original form hidden by the cloud exposed to all at the front of the mountain. He then spoke his name he told Moses when he first spoke to him on this mountain: ‘The Lord or I AM”
Exodus 34:5
“…and proclaimed his name, the Lord.”
He then grabbed Moses and put him in the cleft nearby and covered it with his hand while he walked by it speaking his name again and describing his holy character:
Exodus 34:6-7
“And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, ‘The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.’”
After saying this, face was out of view and he uncovered the cleft so Moses could see his backside as his glorious unhidden form walked away, Moses was not only filled with amazement and humility seeing God’s unhidden form, but was also filled with pain by what his holy people Israel had done to betray him and possibly by what God had just said about punishing their children (descendants) for their sin (which was betraying him and breaking his covenant). So despite God saying earlier that he would still lead them back to Canaan and continue to work with them, Moses wanted to make sure God had completely forgiven Israel and had completely taken them back as his inheritance again: so he immediately bowed and begged God to forgive Israel while he worshiped him:
Exodus 34:8-9
“Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped. ‘Lord,’ he said, ‘if I have found favor in your eyes, then let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as your inheritance.’”
But God said he was going to make a covenant (a promise) with him because of his obedience:
Exodus 34:10-27
“Then the Lord said: ‘I am making a covenant with you…’”
This means he would do what Moses wanted, only because he had mercy on Moses and he pleased him because of his humility, faith, and service to him; so God was once again going to try to make a covenant with Israel only because Moses begged him to forgive them (and possibly because all of Israel was also sad over what they had done too) and take them back into his inheritance like before they broke his covenant:
So he was going to try to reinstate the same covenant they had just broken in this way he was technically going to give them a second chance to obey everything he wanted them too:
Exodus 34:10-27
“Then the Lord said: ‘I am making a covenant with you…and with Israel.’”
And as apart of this covenant with him, he was also going to do more miracles through him to demonstrate his power to the Isrealites that he live/led that had never been seen by any nation to ever exist!
Exodus 34:10-27
“Then the Lord said: ‘I am making a covenant with you…Before all your people (Israel) I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the Lord, will do for you.’”
Then he begin to command Moses (and by extension all of Israel) to obey everything he commanded them to do so he could continue to lead them into Canaan and slowly run out all the Canaanites so they could finally claim that land for their own nation like God wanted to do:
Exodus 34:11
“Obey what I command you today. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.”
But he warned Moses (and by extension all of Israel) when he finally runs out the native Canaanite nations from Canaan and allows Israel to finally settle in this land to not try to make a treaty of peace to any Canaanites left in the land to let them live with them and then later corrupt them with their evil Canaanite religion and tempt them to worship their gods:
Instead he commands them when almost all of the Canaanites have ran away, they are to finish the rest of them off with a small war and show them no mercy by tearing up everything involving their wicked religion and false gods left by their former nations:
Exodus 34:12-13
“Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare among you. Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles.”
This was especially important to God, because he did not want them worshiping any other God ever again because he would become offended (Jealous) and angry for Israel giving their attention they promised for him and decide to punish them/kill them!:
Exodus 34:14
“Do not worship any other god, for the Lord…is a jealous God.”
So, God commanded Moses to rewrite these commands because he was going to remake the covenant Israel has just broken by rewriting the commands, he was telling him:
Exodus 34:27
Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.’ ”
And once again, God told him what the terms and conditions of the reestablished covenant would be (and possibly other information) to write down for him and the Isrealites to remember on the new stone tablets (or at least the primary 10 commandments) for 40 days and nights without leaving to get food or water.
And this time, Israel patiently waited for Moses to come back down again and did not sin against God.
Exodus 34:28
“Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.”
But after the 40 days and nights, he finally was commanded to go back down the mountain to tell Israel about the reinstated covenant God intended to remake with them and to tell the terms and conditions of this covenant.
Exodus 34:29
“...Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands,…”
However, he didn’t realize something dramatic had changed about his body this time: because he had glimpsed at God’s unhidden holy form it was soo holy and powerful that it made his whole face glow bright!
Exodus 34:29
“...he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord.”
So when he finally got back to the camp and they saw him they were terrified at his glowing face and backed away from him approaching them:
Exodus 34:30
“When Aaron and all the Israelites saw…his face was radiant…they were afraid to come near him.”
As Moses saw them acting very afraid of him, he realized his face was now glowing. So he let them know it was okay to come near him, so his brother Aaron and the elders of Israel came near him, and he began to explain what happened:
Exodus 34:31
“...But Moses called to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and he spoke to them.”
After the leaders came to him and he talked to them, the rest of Israel gathered around, and he told them what God had told him:
Exodus 34:32
“Afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the Lord had given him on Mount Sinai.”
When he got through telling them God was reinstating the covenant and the laws and commands, he got someone to bring him a veil to put over his glowing face so he didn’t scare any of the Isrealites.
Exodus 34:33
“When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face.”
When Moses was eventually called back up the mountain to where God was, he took this veil off but when he came back down to tell what God told him the Israelites were still afraid of his glowing face so he put back on his veil, so he didn’t scare them. So he kept putting the veil on and off as a mediator of God’s relationship to Israel:
Exodus 34:34-35
“But whenever he entered the Lord’s presence to speak with him, he removed the veil and when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the Lord.”
Eventually after speaking with God a couple of times and relaying his message to the Israelites about the reinstated covenant, he eventually commanded Moses to do what he desired Israel to do before they broke the covenant: To bring offerings of yarn, wood, precious minerals, spices, and oils to the Lord to be used to build his official temple where his presents would always be and to make the new priests holy clothes:
Exodus 35:4-9
“Moses assembled the whole Israelite community and said to them,…’This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘From what you have, take an offering for the Lord. Everyone who is willing is to bring to the Lord an offering of gold, silver and bronze; blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen; goat hair; ram skins dyed red and another type of durable leather; acacia wood; olive oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; and onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breastpiece.’’”
He also asked for the help of anyone that knew how to build and weave the temple together with the offerings to come and help build the tabernacle and Aaron and his son's holy clothes as God’s chosen priests:
Exodus 35:10-19
“All who are skilled among you are to come and make everything the Lord has commanded: the tabernacle with its tent and its covering, clasps, frames, crossbars, posts and bases; the ark with its poles and the atonement cover and the curtain that shields it;…the woven garments…for Aaron the priest and the garments for his sons when they serve as priests.”
So The Israelites that wanted to give went to their tents and got the items requested and meet Moses back at the tent of meeting outside the camp to give him the material offering’s for God’s temple:
Exodus 35:20-29
“Then the whole Israelite community withdrew from Moses’ presence, and everyone who was willing and whose heart moved them came and brought an offering to the Lord for the work on the tent of meeting, for all its service, and for the sacred garments…men and women alike, came and brought gold jewelry of all kinds: brooches, earrings, rings and ornaments. They all presented their gold as a wave offering to the Lord. Everyone who had blue, purple or scarlet yarn or fine linen, or goat hair, ram skins dyed red or the other durable leather brought them. Those presenting an offering of silver or bronze brought it as an offering to the Lord, and everyone who had acacia wood for any part of the work brought it. Every skilled woman spun with her hands and brought what she had spun—blue, purple or scarlet yarn or fine linen. And all the women who were willing and had the skill spun the goat hair. The leaders brought onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breastpiece. They also brought spices and olive oil for the light and for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense. All the Israelite men and women who were willing brought to the Lord freewill offerings for all the work the Lord through Moses had commanded them to do.”
Once they brought these offerings and other gathered to work on all the offering to build the temple, he then called out The Judahite (a descendant of Judah) Bezalel and The Danite (a descendant of Dan) Oholiab to tell them that God had personally chosen them to lead the artistic designs and decorations of the new temple and also to teach and instruct others to help them make these designs for the temple though God’s spirit filling them with this talent and knowledge:
Exodus 35:30-35
“Then Moses said to the Israelites, ‘See, the Lord has chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills— to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of artistic crafts. And he has given both him and Oholiab son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan, the ability to teach others. He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers—all of them skilled workers and designers.’ ”
So after announcing they were chosen to decorate the temple for God, they were summoned up to work on the temple along with anyone who knew how to build and form metal and Moses gave them the offerings and ordered them on what to build for the temple, so they got to work building it.
Exodus 36:2-3
“Then Moses summoned Bezalel and Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the Lord had given ability and who was willing to come and do the work. They received from Moses all the offerings the Israelites had brought to carry out the work of constructing the sanctuary.”
So they began to work on the temple, but as the days went on other Israelites kept on bringing more and more offerings to God for the temple every morning:
Exodus 36:3
“…the people continued to bring freewill offerings morning after morning.”
they eventually brought soo much that it could not be used on the temple. The workers stopped working and when to report this to Moses:
Exodus 36:4-5
“So all the skilled workers who were doing all the work on the sanctuary left what they were doing and said to Moses, ‘The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the Lord commanded to be done.’ ”
Moses saw this as unnecessary: he understood the people were just trying to please and obey God but that was no longer necessary; They already had the offerings they needed from Israel to build God’s temple so their was no longer any need to bring a freewill offering of goods to build the temple. So Moses told messengers to tell Israel to stop bringing offerings for the temple because they had more than enough to work on the temple:
Exodus 36:6-7
“Then Moses gave an order and they sent this word throughout the camp: ‘No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.’ And so the people were restrained from bringing more, because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work.”
So Bezalel and Oholiab and the rest of the workers got back to building the temple. All this building from all the raw material from the offerings took a very long time to build; many months in fact!
While waiting for God’s temple to be built Moses kept talking with God concerning laws for Israel while also instructing the builders on exactly how to build the temple and what to decorate it with as commanded by God and the builders happily obeyed Moses:
Exodus 39:32
“The Israelites did everything just as the Lord commanded Moses.”
Finally after many months of building they finally finished everything that was going to be the temple, including the ark of the covenant, and Aaron’s and his son’s priestly clothes.
Exodus 39:32
“So all the work on the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, was completed.”
Once through, they brought the whole temple to Moses:
Exodus 39:33-41
“Then they brought the tabernacle to Moses: the tent and all its furnishings,…and the woven garments worn for ministering in the sanctuary,…”
Once they brought it to him, Moses began to inspect everything they built to make sure they obeyed God’s instructions.
Exodus 39:43
“ Moses inspected the work…”
And they had rightfully built everything according to God’s instructions, so he congratulated all of the builders for their hard work and obeying God’s orders through him by giving them a blessing approved of by God:
Exodus 39:43
“...and saw that they had done it just as the Lord had commanded. So Moses blessed them.”
So, after many months (at least 5 months) of constantly building and decorating every item that would make the whole temple according to God’s instructions, it had almost been an entire year since they had left Egypt. So God finally told Moses on the new year coming up soon to fully set up his temple with the newly built items brought to him, and then throw the special anointing perfume on the whole temple set up to symbolically dedicate it to him and make it holy and then set up the alter for burnt offerings to God and burn some animal offerings and grain offerings on it on the first day he set it up (also on the new year):
Exodus 40:1-3
“Then the Lord said to Moses: ‘Set up the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, on the first day of the first month. Place the ark of the covenant law in it and shield the ark with the curtain…Take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle and everything in it; consecrate it and all its furnishings, and it will be holy.[and set up the alter for burnt offerings at the front of the temple and offer burnt offerings and grain offerings on it[3]]’”
Along with setting up and anointing the temple to God, Moses was to then bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the temple and put their new priest clothes on and anoint them too with the special perfume to dedicate them to God to serve him as his official priests in his temple.
Exodus 40:12-15
“Bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance to the tent of meeting and wash them with water. Then dress Aaron in the sacred garments, anoint him and consecrate him so he may serve me as priest. Bring his sons and dress them in tunics. Anoint them just as you anointed their father, so they may serve me as priests.
This symbolic anointing would not only dedicate Aaron to God as the high honor of serving him as a priest for obeying him with helping Moses but would also bless his sons and their descendants forever to have the honor as serving him as priest because of the obedience of their father Aaron:
Exodus 40:15
“...Their anointing will be to a priesthood that will continue throughout their generations.”
So Moses waited until the new year and then began to set up the temple and sacrifice on it:
Exodus 40:17-29
“So the tabernacle was set up on the first day of the first month in the second year…he put the bases in place, erected the frames, inserted the crossbars and set up the posts. Then he spread the tent over the tabernacle and put the covering over the tent,…He took the tablets of the covenant law and placed them in the ark, attached the poles to the ark and put the atonement cover over it. Then he brought the ark into the tabernacle and hung the shielding curtain and shielded the ark of the covenant law, then he put up the curtain at the entrance to the tabernacle. He set the altar of burnt offering near the entrance to the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, and offered on it burnt offerings and grain offerings, as the Lord commanded him.”
Right after completely setting up and sacrificing a burnt sacrifice to God at The temple to God, God came down on the whole temple in the form of the cloud that had been leading them and it filled the whole temple in front of all of Israel: their God had come to be with them forever in his temple:
Exodus 40:34
“Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.”
This glory was so powerful (wherever in brightness or power or in another way) that no one could go inside the new temple: not even Moses:
Exodus 40:35
“Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.”
God then called Moses from in the cloud over the temple to speak to him:
Leviticus 1:1
“The Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent (temple)…”
So Moses came up to the cloud at the temple and God told him to tell Israel about how they were to from now on bring all their sacrifices to this temple for God to recognize it and the other rules and regulation of specific sacrifices and how Aaron and his sons (and their descendants) were to properly sacrifice them.
(Covered in more detail from Levitucus 1 to Levitucus 7)
During speaking about laws and regulations of offerings and sacrifices from now on, God told Moses for Aaron's and his sons to bring a grain offering and a bull sin sacrifice and sacrifice it and offer the grain offering to him in order to be ready to be anointed to be priests to God:
Leviticus 6:19-25
“The Lord also said to Moses, ‘This is the offering Aaron and his sons are to bring to the Lord on the day he is anointed: a tenth of an ephah (probably about 3 1/2 pounds or about 1.6 kilograms) of the finest flour as a regular grain offering, half of it in the morning and half in the evening. It must be prepared with oil on a griddle; bring it well-mixed and present the grain offering broken in pieces as an aroma pleasing to the Lord…’”
Leviticus 4:3-4
“...he must bring to the Lord a young bull without defect as a sin offering…He is to present the bull at the entrance to the tent of meeting before the Lord. He is to lay his hand on its head and slaughter it there before the Lord.”
Leviticus 6:25-26
“These are the regulations for the sin offering: The sin offering is to be slaughtered before the Lord in the place the burnt offering is slaughtered; it is most holy. The priest who offers it shall eat it; it is to be eaten in the sanctuary area, in the courtyard of the tent of meeting.”
And once they burnt the first official sin sacrifice on the temple alter this same fire was to be kept burning constantly to use for all other burnt sacrifices at the temple forever; NO OTHER fire could ever be used for the burnt offerings:
Leviticus 6:8-13
“The Lord said to Moses: ‘Give Aaron and his sons this command: ‘These are the regulations for the burnt offering[s]:….The fire on the altar must be kept burning; it must not go out. Every morning the priest is to add firewood and arrange the burnt offering on the fire and burn the fat of the fellowship offerings on it. The fire must be kept burning on the altar continuously; it must not go out.”
God then finally asked Moses to bring Aaron and his sons up to the entrance of the temple to finally anoint them too, let the give sacrifices to him, and ultimately dedicate them as official priest of his temple and to him:
Leviticus 8:1-3
“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Bring Aaron and his sons, their garments, the anointing oil, the bull for the sin offering, the two rams and the basket containing bread made without yeast, and gather the entire assembly at the entrance to the tent of meeting.’”
So Moses went and summoned Israel to watch:
Leviticus 8:4-9
“Moses did as the Lord commanded him, and the assembly gathered at the entrance to the tent of meeting. Moses said to the assembly, ‘This is what the Lord has commanded to be done.’”
Then Moses brought Aaron and his sons up to the entrance of the temple and began to wash their feet with the temple water basin, then dressed Aaron up in his new priest clothes to serve God in, and then finally anointed the entire temple with holy oil and then Aaron himself to officially dedicate them to God:
Leviticus 8:4-9
“Then Moses brought Aaron and his sons forward and washed them with water. He put the tunic on Aaron, tied the sash around him, clothed him with the robe and put the ephod on him. He also fastened the ephod with a decorative waistband, which he tied around him….Then he placed the turban on Aaron’s head…"
Leviticus 8:10
“...Then Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the tabernacle and everything in it, and so consecrated them.”
Numbers 7:1-2
“When Moses finished setting up the tabernacle, he anointed and consecrated it and all its furnishings.”
After Moses got through putting anointing oil over the new temple anointing it to God, the elders of Israel came up to Moses in the middle of the ritual with very expensive gifts to honor the God’s new temple being anointed for the repairs and sacrifices in the new temple:
they brought 12 oxens and 6 golden carts:
Numbers 7:2-3
“Then the leaders of Israel,…made offerings. They brought as their gifts before the Lord six covered carts and twelve oxen—an ox from each leader and a cart from every two. These they presented before the tabernacle.”
God then told Moses it was okay to accept their offerings and to give them to the serving Levites for their work at the temple:
Numbers 7:4-5
“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Accept these from them, that they may be used in the work at the tent of meeting. Give them to the Levites as each man’s work requires.’ ”
So Moses got the offerings and distibuted them to the Levite tribe:
Numbers 7:6
“So Moses took the carts and oxen and gave them to the Levites.”
After he divided the offerings he went back to the ritual of ordaining the alter and Aaron, but God then told him that each day after he ordained the alter, each elder of Isreal was to bring an offering for the alter for 11 days in a row:
Numbers 7:11
"…the Lord…said to Moses, ‘Each day one leader is to bring his offering for the dedication of the altar.’”
So, Moses most likely told the leaders who were most likely still present to bring their offerings one by one on different days right after he got through anointing the alter with oil and consecrating it with sacrifices.
Leviticus 8:11
“He sprinkled some of the oil on the altar seven times, anointing the altar and all its utensils and the basin with its stand, to consecrate them. He poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron’s head and anointed him to consecrate him.”
Then The leaders of Israel began to bring their offerings for the alter:
Numbers 7:10
"When the altar was anointed, the leaders brought their offerings for its dedication and presented them before the altar."
On that day, the elder leader of the tribe of Judah, named Nahshon, gave the first offering:
Which consisted of gold and silver utensils filled with grain offerings and incense with animal sacrifices for the alter:
Numbers 7:12-17
“The one who brought his offering on the first day was Nahshon…of the tribe of Judah. His offering was one silver plate weighing a hundred and thirty shekels (about 3 1/4 pounds or about 1.5 kilograms) and one silver sprinkling bowl weighing seventy shekels,(about 1 3/4 pounds or about 800 grams) both according to the sanctuary shekel, each filled with the finest flour mixed with olive oil as a grain offering; one gold dish weighing ten shekels,(about 4 ounces or about 115 grams) filled with incense; one young bull, one ram and one male lamb a year old for a burnt offering; one male goat for a sin offering; and two oxen, five rams, five male goats and five male lambs a year old to be sacrificed as a fellowship offering.”
He then brought his sons forward and dressed them up in their new priest clothes to serve God and poured holy oil on them to anoint them too officially to God:
Leviticus 8:13
“Then he brought Aaron’s sons forward, put tunics on them, tied sashes around them and fastened caps on them,…”
Moses then brought the young bull for the sin sacrifice and led them to lay their hands on the bull before killing it:
Leviticus 8:14
“He then presented the bull for the sin offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on its head.”
Then Moses killed the bull and spread the blood on the alter to dedicate it to God:
Leviticus 8:15
“Moses slaughtered the bull and took some of the blood, and with his finger he put it on all the horns of the altar to purify the altar. He poured out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar. So, he consecrated it to make atonement for it.”
And then burned it up on the alter in the way God commanded him
He then got one of the rams and also led Aaron and his sons to lay hands on its head before killing it for a burnt offering to God:
Leviticus 8:18-19
“He then presented the ram for the burnt offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on its head. Then Moses slaughtered the ram and splashed the blood against the sides of the altar…burned the whole ram on the altar.”
The burnt offering pleased God as the smoke from the burning ram rose from the alter:
Leviticus 8:19
“…It was a burnt offering, a pleasing aroma, a food offering presented to the Lord,…”
Moses then got the other ram; this ram would be the sacrifice to officially ordain Aaron and his sons as priests of God. Once again, Aaron and his sons were to lay their hands on this sacrifice’s head while Moses killed it. But this time he took some of the sacrifice’s blood and put it on Aaron’s right ear, his right thumb, and on the right big toe and did the same to his son’s body. Before splashing the rest of the blood on the side of the alter:
Leviticus 8:22-24
“He then presented the other ram, the ram for the ordination, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on its head. Moses slaughtered the ram and took some of its blood and put it on the lobe of Aaron’s right ear, on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot. Moses also brought Aaron’s sons forward and put some of the blood on the lobes of their right ears, on the thumbs of their right hands and on the big toes of their right feet. Then he splashed blood against the sides of the altar.”
After pouring all the blood out he took the fat out of the Ram sacrifice, the lobe on the liver organ, the kidneys, and the entire right thigh of the Ram:
Leviticus 8:25
“After that, he took the fat, the fat tail, all the fat around the internal organs, the long lobe of the liver, both kidneys and their fat and the right thigh.”
Then he went to the basket of bread and pulled out two thick loaves (one with olive oil and one without) and one thin loaf and laid the loaves on the fat and right thigh of the sacrifice:
Leviticus 8:26
“And from the basket of bread made without yeast, which was before the Lord, he took one thick loaf, one thick loaf with olive oil mixed in, and one thin loaf, and he put these on the fat portions and on the right thigh.”
He then took all of this to Aaron and his sons and put a piece of the fat, thigh, and bread in their hands and told them to lift their hands and wave them before God’s sight as another form of offering called a wave offering: and so, they waved them in front of God to offer the wave offering:
Leviticus 8:27
“He put all these in the hands of Aaron and his sons, and they waved them before the Lord as a wave offering.”
After they waved them in front of God, Moses then took the bread and fat from their hands and burnt it on the alter on top of the former Ram burnt offering: the burning fat and bread was the ordination offering to ordain them:
Leviticus 8:28
“Then Moses took them from their hands and burned them on the altar on top of the burnt offering as an ordination offering, a pleasing aroma, a food offering presented to the Lord.”
Moses then took the Ram’s breast out and waved it before God as his wave offering to him:
Leviticus 8:29
“Moses also took the breast, which was his share of the ordination ram, and waved it before the Lord as a wave offering, as the Lord commanded Moses.”
Then Moses took what was left of the anointing oil perfume and some blood leftover from the ordination Ram and sprinkled both on Aaron’s new Priest clothes and his son’s priest clothes as well, this was to officially seal their consecration or dedication to God to serve him in his temple:
Leviticus 8:30
“Then Moses took some of the anointing oil and some of the blood from the altar and sprinkled them on Aaron and his garments and on his sons and their garments. So he consecrated Aaron and his garments and his sons and their garments.”
Then Moses told Aaron and his sons to cook the ram’s breast meat and eat it with the rest of the bread offerings in the basket. Then when they were full to then burn the leftovers up on the alter. And then they were to stay at the entrance of the temple for seven whole days to be officially be completely dedicated to be priests to God and not be punished by death for disobedience:
Leviticus 8:31-35
“Moses then said to Aaron and his sons, ‘Cook the meat at the entrance to the tent of meeting and eat it there with the bread from the basket of ordination offerings, as I was commanded: ‘Aaron and his sons are to eat it.’ Then burn up the rest of the meat and the bread. Do not leave the entrance to the tent of meeting(Temple) for seven days, until the days of your ordination are completed, for your ordination will last seven days. What has been done today was commanded by the Lord to make atonement for you. You must stay at the entrance to the tent of meeting day and night for seven days and do what the Lord requires, so you will not die; for that is what I have been commanded.”
With completing the main dedication ceremony, Aaron obeyed Moses’s commands from God: he and his son’s cooked the Ram’s chest at the front of the temple and ate it with the bread in the basket, after they got full that night, they burnt the rest of the breast and bread on the alter before morning. Then they stayed at the front of the temple for seven whole days and nights without leaving:
Leviticus 8:36
“...So Aaron and his sons did everything the Lord commanded through Moses.”
The next day the next tribal leader presented his offering to the alter: this time the elder of the tribe of Isaccar named Nethanel:
Numbers 7:18
“On the second day Nethanel…, the leader of Issachar, brought his offering.”
Aaron and his sons would have been at the alter at this time where his and Moses accepted the alter offerings
And for the rest of Aaron and his sons stay (that is 5 more days) the leaders of the tribes of Zebulun, Reuben, Simeon, Gad and Ephraim brought their offerings to the alter each of these days.
(Covered in Numbers 7:24-48)
After the 7-day dedication ceremony was complete and Aaron (and his sons) was officially the ordained and holy priests of God and his temple Moses then summoned Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel to discuss what God told him to do next:
Leviticus 9:1-2
“On the eighth day Moses summoned Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel. He said to Aaron, ‘Take a bull calf for your sin offering and a ram for your burnt offering, both without defect, and present them before the Lord.’”
This time Aaron was to sacrifice a Bull calf for his sin offering to God and a Ram for his burnt sacrifice to God.
Then Moses said he was to address all of Israel and ask them to get a goat for a sin offering and a calf and a Ram a year old for burnt offerings and an Ox, a Ram, and fine grain with olive oil mixed in it for fellowship offerings to God:
Leviticus 9:3-4
“Then say to the Israelites: ‘Take a male goat for a sin offering, a calf and a lamb—both a year old and without defect—for a burnt offering, and an ox and a ram for a fellowship offering to sacrifice before the Lord, together with a grain offering mixed with olive oil.’”
He was to then say why God was asking for all these sacrifices to be done: it was because now that his temple and priests were completely ordained, dedicated to God, and made holy to God, that everything was ready for his presents to officially ‘move into’ the temple and would appear before all of Israel at the temple:
Leviticus 9:4
“…For today the Lord will appear to you.”
He was going to do what he first promised Moses when they first came here over a year ago: His new temple would be the place where his presents would live from now on and once he moved into his holy temple served and maintained by his official holy priests (Aaron and his sons) he would live and be with his people Israel here forever.
So this is why all these sacrifices and offerings needed to be made: to officially make Israel right with God (their sins forgiven, and to give God good food offering and offering towards a good fellowship with him) so he could be in good relations with Israel and move into his temple and appear before his people.
So Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel got the animals for the sacrifice and bread for the fellowship offering and called another assembly for Israel at the front of the temple: Moses then addressed Israel and said this is what God commanded so God’s presents/glory could appear before Israel at the temple:
Leviticus 9:5-6
“They took the things Moses commanded to the front of the tent of meeting, and the entire assembly came near and stood before the Lord. Then Moses said, ‘This is what the Lord has commanded you to do, so that the glory of the Lord may appear to you.’ ”
Moses then called for Aaron and his sons up to the alter to sacrifice the sacrifices and offerings to God:
Leviticus 9:7
“Moses said to Aaron, ‘Come to the altar and sacrifice your sin offering and your burnt offering and make atonement for yourself and the people…as the Lord has commanded.’”
Leviticus 9:8-10
“So Aaron came to the altar and slaughtered the calf as a sin offering for himself. His sons brought the blood to him, and he dipped his finger into the blood and put it on the horns of the altar; the rest of the blood he poured out at the base of the altar. On the altar he burned the fat, the kidneys and the long lobe of the liver from the sin offering,…”
Leviticus 9:12-14
“Then he slaughtered the burnt offering. His sons handed him the blood, and he splashed it against the sides of the altar. They handed him the burnt offering piece by piece, including the head, and he burned them on the altar. He washed the internal organs and the legs and burned them on top of the burnt offering on the altar.”
Aaron then got the goat for the offering for Israel’s sin:
Leviticus 9:15
“Aaron then brought the offering that was for the people. He took the goat for the people’s sin offering and slaughtered it and offered it for a sin offering as he did with the first one.”
Then he got the one year old calf and lamb and grain with olive oil for the burnt offering and burned them along with the daily morning sacrifice, which being the morning it was time for:
Leviticus 9:16-17
“He brought the burnt offering and offered it in the prescribed way. He also brought the grain offering, took a handful of it and burned it on the altar in addition to the morning’s burnt offering.”
Finally Aaron sacrificed the Ox and Ram for the fellowship offering of Israel and got the Ram’s breast and right thigh and waved it before God as a wave offering just like Moses told him too:
Leviticus 9:18-21
“He slaughtered the ox and the ram as the fellowship offering for the people. His sons handed him the blood, and he splashed it against the sides of the altar…Aaron waved the breasts and the right thigh before the Lord as a wave offering, as Moses commanded.”
After sacrificing all the offerings God ordered he blessed all of Israel as his right now as priest for obeying God and doing all he ordered in the way he wanted:
Leviticus 9:22
“Then Aaron lifted his hands toward the people and blessed them.”
After blessing Isreal, God called Moses to come inside the temple for the first time since it was set up along with his brother; so, Aaron stepped down from the alter and went inside the temple curtains along with Moses:
Leviticus 9:23
“Moses and Aaron then went into the…[temple]…”
Where God most likely led Moses and Aaron into the core of the temple (called the holy of hollies) where the ark of the covenant was set. There God most likely manifested as the cloud over the mercy seat on the ark to speak to Moses here from now on, and the newly ordained priest Aaron (like he said he would to Moses on Mt. Sinai almost a year ago once his new temple was built and dedicated to him). He most likely spoke about the priest’s new responsibilities; This included the new command to stay away and not touch certain things to stay clean in order to not make God’s temple unclean and defiled : like a new command to not eat or touch the dead bodies of certain animals to avoid becoming defiled by them( Leviticus 11), defining certain skin rashes or bumps as ‘defiling’ and what to do about it as priest, defining certain molds and fungus as ‘defiling’ and what to do about it as priest (Leviticus 13), and finally defining certain bodily discharges as ‘unclean’ and what to do about them (Leviticus 15).
All these new orders concerning defining clean from unclean (or defiling) are revealed by God as a way to keep his newly built temple holy as well as the camp/Israel as a whole holy since God’s presents was permanently moving in to live with Israel from this point on they just could not just touch, eat and, have nasty mold, fungus, or even bodily discharges on them and come before God; God would not tolerate it! something as sacred and holy as his very presents was going to live with them they were to become holy to some rules of decent cleanliness and ceremonial holiness needed to be followed. was living among their camp now and undefiled by forbidding/isolating animals, things, or/and even people access to the temple or even the whole community: If they did become unclean and did not take the right precautions, they would die for making God’s presence defiled with their disobedient defilement!
Leviticus 15:31
“You must keep the Israelites separate from things that make them unclean, so they will not die in their uncleanness for defiling my dwelling place, which is among them.”
Not only that, since he fought for them to be free from their Egyptian overlords so he could peacefully live with them he excepted them to become holy just like their God by following his new regulations for them:
Leviticus 15:43-44
“...Do not defile yourselves…or be made unclean…I am the Lord your God;…, who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.”
He also said before they left to return back outside to the crowd, that anyone who approached his presence here in the temple [especially the new priest Aaron and his sons] he would prove he was holy in a way that all Israel would honor him in respect:
Leviticus 9:10
“Among those who approach me I will be proved holy; in the sight of all the people I will be honored.”
God made it clear that now that his presents was officially at the temple any Israelite that approached his presence there was going to honor him and not defile his place or he would prove he was holy to them!
After God (most likely) got done speaking, Moses and Aaron left the ark of the covenant/holy of holies and came back outside the temple curtain to the crowd; Aaron (and also Moses this time) then blessed Israel once again:
Leviticus 9:23
“…When they came out, they blessed the people;…”
Then the glory of God manifested all over the new temple: and fire came out from the Glory of God on/in the temple and went to the alter where the leftover burnt offering and fat from the sacrifice from earlier was still left and burnt them completely up and the fire from the presence of God kept burning on the alter:
Leviticus 9:23-24
“...and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. Fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar.”
After seeing God’s glory manifested and the fire come from him and completely burn up the rest of the sacrifices, The Israelites were not afraid ,like before when they saw God’s glory manifest on mount Siani, but this time they were excited to see God manifest again and burn up the sacrifices and many shouted in joy celebrating the appearance of their God in the new temple while they bowed down in respect before God’s presents and worshiped him in awe:
Leviticus 9:24
“…all the people…shouted for joy and fell facedown.”
It was a wonderful day! The temple finally finished after many months of construction, Aaron and his sons finally and completely dedicated to God along with the new temple, and finally God himself would live in the temple with his people Israel!
But while all of Israel was worshiping in awe of God’s glory over the temple, Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu wanted to commemorate such a wonderful and holy day and honor their God’s presents as his official Aaronite (That is a descendant of The Levite Aaron) priests by burning incense as an offering in his presents:
So they both got their censers (something to hold fire and burn incense) and put a fire in them and then added good smelling incense in it and both went to the front of the temple where God’s presents was and offered it to God as an incense offering:
Leviticus 10:1
“Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered…[it]…before the Lord,…”
They thought this was a great idea to honor God’s presence, and it would have been, but they made a grave mistake!
they burnt this incense sacrifice with different fire not originating from the original alter fire and violated one of God’s commands for his new priests:
To ONLY use the alter fire for all official sacrifices to God at the temple!
Leviticus 10:1
“...they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, contrary to his command.”
While Nadab and Abihu were most likely told by their father Aaron (or even Moses) to not use any other fire except for the continuously burning alter fire; they should have definitely known but seemed to have forgotten in the excitement! For breaking their priestly rule told to them, fire came out of God’s presents and fell on them burnt up and killed them instantly!!! Leaving only a charred ashy remain of their bodies:
Leviticus 10:2
“So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.”
This shocked everyone and made them terrified; Aaron was horrified that two of his sons (one being his firstborn) had immediately been killed by burnt to a crisp by God. But Moses remembered what God said to them (most likely inside the new temple) and realized this event was the fulfillment of that: so he told Aaron:
Leviticus 10:3
“Moses then said to Aaron, ‘This is what the Lord spoke of when he said: ‘Among those who approach me I will be proved holy; in the sight of all the people I will be honored.’’”
God meant by this statement that from now on Aaron and all Aaronite priests that got the privilege to approach his presence and serve him at his temple as high priests would either be glorified for strictly obeying his commands through Moses (like Aaron and his sons at first were glorified by God’s presence manifesting as fire all over the temple) or horribly punished if they disobeyed any of his orders (either knowingly or out of ignorance) with most likely instant death (like even though Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu meant well by offering incense to God, because they ignorantly disobeyed him by offering forbidden fire they were instantly punished with a horrible fiery death). And through either of these ways God would have high holy respect through his people Israel after seeing or hearing of what he did to his close Aaronite priests ( like Israel was in awe and honoring God’s holy presence as fire all over the temple and how Israel saw Aaron’s sons get killed and burnt up: either one of them made them greatly respect their God!).
But Aaron (most likely soo shocked and horrified his sons had been killed) said and did absolutely nothing in response:
Leviticus 10:3
“Aaron remained silent.”
So, Moses immediately broke the shock of Israel and asked for Aaron’s (and his) realities: their first cousins to come up to the front of the temple:
Leviticus 10:4
“Moses summoned Mishael and Elzaphan, sons of Aaron’s uncle Uzziel,…”
Once Mishael and Elzaphan came to the front of the temple, Moses told them to carry away the burnt bodies from the temple and outside the came and place them in the desert of Sinai:
Leviticus 10:4
“...and said to them, ‘Come here; carry your cousins outside the camp, away from the front of the sanctuary.’”
So, they got the burnt bodies of the Aaronites Nadab and Abihu and carried them out into the desert:
Leviticus 10:5
“So they came and carried them,…outside the camp, as Moses ordered.”
Moses realized Aaron and his remaining two sons (Eleazar and Ithamar) were very sad and most likely wanted to mourn for their killed brothers/sons but Moses said they had work to do as the now new priests of God: this included not letting their hair grow long or unbrushed or tearing their new priestly clothes up (Moses specifically said not to do these two things because in the ancient middle east to express sorrow or mourning many would often tear their clothes and possibly become unkempt in an expression of sorrow) because God wanted his new priest to be holy as he was from now on: this included looking keeping the look and clothes they were ordained in holy anointing oil (that Moses calls God’s anointing oil) preserved as well as not leaving the front of God’s temple until they were dismissed from their duties:
if they did any of these things they too would also be found guilty of breaking the laws they should have known better and be killed like their brothers/sons and this time God would be angry once again with all of Israel and punish them as well!
Leviticus 10:6-7
“Then Moses said to Aaron and his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, ‘Do not let your hair become unkempt and do not tear your clothes, or you will die and the Lord will be angry with the whole community….Do not leave the entrance to the tent of meeting or you will die, because the Lord’s anointing oil is on you.’”
With that being said, Moses said it was okay to otherwise cry and mourn (like have a quick mini funeral) for Nadab and Abihu’s deaths by God before continuing to do what was required of them as the new priests of God:
Leviticus 10:6
“…But your relatives, all the Israelites, may mourn for those the Lord has destroyed by fire. ”
So Aaron and his remaining sons most likely cried very bitterly in shock and horror over the death of their sons/brothers and the rest of the Levites and Israelite tribes joined them at the horror they had seen:
Leviticus 10:7
“So they did as Moses said.”
Then After Aaron got through with much of his mourning, God spoke to him personally and told him he and his sons and their/his descendants were not to drink alcohol (wine/fermented drink) before going into his holy temple to serve him and his people/their relatives, Israel: if they did, he would kill them for disobedient:
Leviticus 10:8-9
“Then the Lord said to Aaron, ‘You and your sons are not to drink wine or other fermented drink whenever you go into the tent of meeting, or you will die. This is a lasting ordinance for the [Aaronite] generations to come,…’”
God says the reason for this command was so he and all his holy high priest Aaronite descendants could properly teach Israel all God commanded them to do in this new covenant with a sober sane mind while serving in his temple and properly distinguish what was holy and not:
Leviticus 10:10-11
“...so that you can distinguish between the holy and the common, between the unclean and the clean, and so you can teach the Israelites all the decrees the Lord has given them through Moses.”
Once God got through speaking to Aaron and all Israel got done with the mini funeral, it was time to finish this holy day of what God required of them:
Now that they were officially the high priests of their God, they were to do their official first ending sacrifices for this special day: they were to take the rest of the grain offerings and waved breast and thigh eat it beside the alter as it was their share of the sacrifices Israel gave God for helping him and Moses:
Leviticus 10:12-15
Moses said to Aaron and his remaining sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, ‘Take the grain offering left over from the food offerings prepared without yeast and presented to the Lord and eat it beside the altar, for it is most holy. Eat it in the sanctuary area, because it is your share and your sons’ share of the food offerings presented to the Lord; for so I have been commanded. But you and your sons and your daughters may eat the breast that was waved and the thigh that was presented. Eat them in a ceremonially clean place; they have been given to you and your children as your share of the Israelites’ fellowship offerings. The thigh that was presented and the breast that was waved must be brought with the fat portions of the food offerings, to be waved before the Lord as a wave offering. This will be the perpetual share for you and your children, as the Lord has commanded.’ ”
So, Aaron and their sons did eat the grain offerings and the waved Ram’s breast and thigh but however burnt the rest of the meat from the Goat sin offering up:
This was a violation to what God commanded: he strictly told them to save the meat from the sin offering because God was giving this to Aaron and all his descendants as pay for their service to him because it was a very sacred animal sacrifice:
Leviticus 6:25-26
“These are the regulations for the sin offering: The sin offering…it is most holy. The priest who offers it shall eat it; it is to be eaten in the sanctuary area, in the courtyard of the tent of meeting.”
Aaron and his sons definitely knew this because Moses had told them, they had willingly broken another of God’s commands for them!
On this wonderful and tragic day, the leader of the tribe of Manasseh named Gamaliel brought his offering to the temple:
Numbers 7:54
“On the eighth day Gamaliel son of Pedahzur, the leader of the people of Manasseh, brought his offering.”
Moses then asked Aaron and his sons if they had done everything God asked them to do:
They said they did everything except they did not eat the rest of the Goat meat: they burnt the rest of the goat sin offering up and Moses was very angry at Aaron’s remaining sons for not obeying his (and thus God’s) orders and making their God once again angry with them:
Leviticus 10:16
“When Moses inquired about the goat of the sin offering and found that it had been burned up, he was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s remaining sons,…”
He asked them in anger why Aaron’s remaining sons, yet again, purposefully disobeyed God’s order for then to eat meat of the goat sin offering:
Leviticus 10:16-18
“...and asked, ‘Why didn’t you eat the sin offering in the sanctuary area? It is most holy; it was given to you to take away the guilt of the community by making atonement for them before the Lord. Since its blood was not taken into the Holy Place, you should have eaten the goat in the sanctuary area, as I commanded.’”
But Aaron explained after his sons had done everything else, they had a very good reason for why they didn’t eat the sin offering today:
Since his dear sons (and his other sons dear brothers) had been killed in such an awful way; would God have really been pleased with them eating this sin offering’s fine meat after what tragedy had happened?
Leviticus 10:19
“Aaron replied to Moses, ‘Today they sacrificed their sin offering and their burnt offering before the Lord, but such things as this have happened to me. Would the Lord have been pleased if I had eaten the sin offering today?’”
Aaron himself (as well as his remaining sons) were most likely still mourning for their killed brothers and also probably did not feel like eating the meat (especially of a sin offering): Moses understood and let it go also seeing God was not angry at them for this either:
Leviticus 10:20
“When Moses heard this, he was satisfied.”
Even though he was going to be the high priest serving in God’s presents at his temple, Aaron from now on was not to go into the holy of holies anytime he wanted, or he would die like his sons!
Leviticus 16:1-2
The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron who died…The Lord said to Moses ‘Tell your brother Aaron that he is not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die.’”
The reason God said this was because after God’s presents officially moved into the temple this day his Prescence in the cloud would manifest from now on within the holy of holies over the atonement cover on the ark of the covenant:
Leviticus 16:2
“...For I will appear in the cloud over the atonement cover.”
Then the holy of holies would be where God’s main presents would live inside his temple at and where the cloud that he appeared in lead them out of Egypt to this mountain would be for now on:
Because of this, God ordered that Aaron nor his descendants could enter the holy of holies whenever they wanted; it was holy and sacred now: they could ,from now on, only enter this holy place one day out of the entire year for specifically offering sin sacrifices to clean God’s people Israel from all their yearly sins and his holy temple from their dirtiness: and this one holy day was to specifically be the tenth day of God's seventh month:
Leviticus 16:3-34
“This is how Aaron is to enter the Most Holy Place:… On the tenth day of the seventh month…once a year for all the sins of the Israelites.”
On this specific day a very sacred festival was to happen as this day was to atone (clean up) as of Israel from all the sins they had done for that year as well as to keep his sacred temple holy from their sin: this festival would be known as the day of atonement:
Leviticus 16:30
“...this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the Lord, you will be clean from all your sins.”
But before entering the holy of holies Aaron would have to do a ceremony before (and after) entering:
Leviticus 16:3-5
“This is how Aaron is to enter the Most Holy Place: He must first bring a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. He is to put on the…sacred garments; so he must bathe himself with water before he puts them on. From the Israelite community he is to [also] take two male goats for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering.”
Aaron was first to take the two goats and cast lots (like rolling dice to make a decision) and the goat that was supposed to be for God would be sacrificed to God as a sin offering for Israel at the alter:
Leviticus 16:7-9
“...Then he is to take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting. He is to cast lots for the two goats—one lot for the Lord and the other for the scapegoat. Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the Lord and sacrifice it for a sin offering.”
He was to then sacrifice the bull for his own sin offering to cleanse him and his family from any sin of that time:
Leviticus 16:11
“Aaron shall bring the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household,…”
Then he was to take some of the coal from the alter and go inside the temple and burn a fire before the holy of holies with fine fragrance:
this was so the smoke from the fragrant fire would hide the atonement cover and thus hide God’s Prescence so Aaron would die by looking at his manifesting cloud over the atonement cover:
Leviticus 16:12
“He is to take a censer full of burning coals from the altar before the Lord and two handfuls of finely ground fragrant incense and take them behind the curtain (in the temple). He is to put the incense on the fire before the Lord, and the smoke of the incense will conceal the atonement cover above the tablets of the covenant law, so that he will not die.”
Once covered by the smoke, Aaron was to finally look and enter the holy of holies where God was and to take some of the bull’s blood and sprinkle it under God on the atonement cover on the ark of the covenant:
Leviticus 16:14
“He is to take some of the bull’s blood and with his finger sprinkle it on the front of the atonement cover; then he shall sprinkle some of it with his finger seven times before the atonement cover.”
After sprinkling the blood from his sin offering, he was to go outside the temple and kill the goat for the sin offering for the rest of Israel and also take this blood and sprinkle it on the alter and the front of the curtain seven times:
Leviticus 16:15
“He shall then slaughter the goat for the sin offering for the people and take its blood behind the curtain and do with it as he did with the bull’s blood: He shall sprinkle it on the atonement cover and in front of it.”
By doing these sacrifices, Aaron and his descendants would cleanse Israel from their sins and clean God’s temple from being dirty from Israel’s sins at that time:
Leviticus 16:16
“...In this way he will make atonement for the Most Holy Place because of the uncleanness and rebellion of the Israelites, whatever their sins have been….which is among them in the midst of their uncleanness.”
While Aaron was allowed to enter the holy of holies that one day of the year, he was the only Israelite that was allowed to enter: all the other Israelites present in the temple were to leave immediately so they would not be there when the holy of holies was entered:
Leviticus 16:17
“No one is to be in the tent of meeting from the time Aaron goes in to make atonement in the Most Holy Place until he comes out, having made atonement for himself, his household and the whole community of Israel.”
Despite the presents of God moved into the temple and all of Israel saw God manifest as fire around the temple; only Aaron could go in and see God’s Prescence. And even then, he could only go in one very holy day of the year for one specific purpose and after doing a sin sacrificial ceremony!
Moses told Aaron what God told him and he agreed to not enter the holy of holies until this day and all of Israel humbly agreed to attend and honor this holy day:
Leviticus 16:34
“And it was done, as the Lord commanded Moses.”
The days after the high priest Aaron and his sons, and God’s new temple were ordained for him to move in, God began to tell more laws to Moses for all of Israel to follow such as possibly the rest of what is recorded in Leviticus such as not eating blood (Leviticus 17), wrongful sexual relationships (Leviticus 18), the punishment of sacrificing children to the false Canaanite god Molek (Leviticus 20) and would call them together to tell them these new laws.
He also was commanded to tell new laws to Aaron and his remaining sons about their new priestly duties:
like possibly punishing those who did not bring their offerings and sacrifices to God’s new temple (Leviticus 17), not making himself, his sons, or their descendants who became the future high priests of God and his temple ceremonially unclean (Leviticus 21)
Once again reminding both the priests and Israelites to obey all these laws and everything else he had commanded them because he was their God:
Leviticus 19:34
“Keep all my decrees and all my laws and follow them. I am the Lord.”
Somewhere during this time, a mixed Israelite-Egyptian man came into the main Israelite came where it seems mostly (if not all) pure Israelites were living. When he began talking to some Israelites in the main camp, one of them got into a fight about an unknown subject with him (possibly about one of God’s laws or even about how he might not have belonged with them as a mixed-race man, but it's unknown for sure):
Leviticus 24:10
“Now the son of an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father went out among the Israelites, and a fight broke out in the camp between him and an Israelite.”
but whatever the argument was about, during this fight this man cursed God himself out of anger!
Leviticus 24:11
“The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name [of God] with a curse;…”
The Israelite fighting with him and the other Israelites looking/listening most likely immediately stopped: they realized he had broken one of the major commands/laws to not take God’s name in vain (that would be the third command of the ten commands):
they heard God say this on Mt. Horeb and Moses command them this: together the Israelites around him captured him and brought him to Moses for breaking one of God’s laws:
Leviticus 24:11-12
“…so, they brought him to Moses….”
Once they told Moses what had happened, Moses most likely ordered this man to be put into custody until he could ask God on what to do for his punishment:
Leviticus 24:12
“They put him in custody until the will of the Lord should be made clear to them.”
So Moses most likely went into the temple’s holy of holies (where God said he would meet with Moses from now on over the ark of the covalent) to ask God what to do:
God answered back telling Moses the man who blasphemed his name and broke his major commandment must be killed for his sin against him:
Specifically, he must be brough outside the main camp and the Israelites who heard him curse God are to lay their hands on him to symbolize they witnessed his evil sin, and all of Israel was to stone him to death (that means pick up sharp/large stones and throw them at him until he died from the injuries):
Leviticus 24:13-14
“Then the Lord said to Moses: ‘Take the blasphemer outside the camp. All those who heard him are to lay their hands on his head, and the entire assembly is to stone him.’”
God then told Moses to tell Israel if anyone cursed him, they would be killed as a punishment for their sin by being stoned by all of Israel; even if they were foreigners living with them that cursed their God!
Leviticus 24:15-16
“Say to the Israelites: ‘Anyone who curses their God will be held responsible; anyone who blasphemes the name of the Lord is to be put to death. The entire assembly must stone them. Whether foreigner or native-born, when they blaspheme the Name they are to be put to death.’”
So, Moses most likely left the temple and then told Israel to never curse God’s name; and if they or any other non-Israelites living with them ever did, they were to be killed for their sin by being stoned by Israel:
Leviticus 24:23
“Then Moses spoke to the Israelites,…”
After he told them this, he told them what God said to do to the man that cursed God: kill him! So, they obeyed Moses and took this man outside of the main camp the Israelites who heard him curse God laid their hands on his head and all of Israel stoned him to death:
Leviticus 24:23
“...and they took the blasphemer outside the camp and stoned him.”
After this mixed man was stoned, all of Israel obeyed God’s command to not curse God’s name:
Leviticus 24:23
“The Israelites did as the Lord commanded Moses.”
After this event, God most likely continued to speak to Moses on new laws for Israel to obey, and Moses told them what God had ordered.
At the beginning of the second month, God once again called Moses to the temple:
Numbers 1:1-3
“The Lord spoke to Moses in the tent of meeting in the Desert of Sinai on the first day of the second month of the second year.”
He then asked for Moses to get his brother Aaron to take a census (a count of how many Israelites there were) of all of Israel by writing down each of their names in their clans and tribes and tallying them up, mainly in order to find out how many Israelite men were over the age of 20 in order to fight in Israel's army:
Numbers 1:1-3
“…He said: ‘Take a census of the whole Israelite community by their clans and families, listing every man by name, one by one. You and Aaron are to count according to their divisions all the men in Israel who are twenty years old or more and able to serve in the army.’”
But God did not want them to do this alone: he wanted the leading elders of each Israelite tribe (except Levi) to help write down and count the men 20 years or older in each of their own tribes to split up the workload:
Numbers 1:4
“One man from each tribe, each of them the head of his family, is to help you. These are the names of the men who are to assist you:
from Reuben, Elizur…from Simeon, Shelumiel…from Judah, Nahshon…from Issachar, Nethanel…from Zebulun, Eliab…from the sons of Joseph: from Ephraim, Elishama… from Manasseh, Gamaliel… from Benjamin, Abidan…from Dan, Ahiezer…from Asher, Pagiel…from Gad, Eliasaph…from Naphtali, Ahira…”
But God excluded the men from tribe of Levi from being counted to be in Israel’s army, because they (and the entire tribe of Levi as well) had been personally set apart by God to help the high priest Aaron and his descendants with tending and caring his new temple, because they were the only Israelite tribe that choose to fight for his honor when Israel sinned:
because of this until they got to Canaan and permanently settled in the land, the four clans of Levi would camp around the new temple in the shape of a square to cover and divide the temple (and God’s presents) from the rest of Israel; if the temple was not covered/divided from the rest of Israel God’s wrath would kill the rest of Israel!
Numbers 1:49-50
“You must not count the tribe of Levi or include them in the census of the other Israelites. Instead, appoint the Levites to be in charge of the tabernacle of the covenant law—over all its furnishings and everything belonging to it.They are to carry the tabernacle and all its furnishings; they are to take care of it and encamp around it.Whenever the tabernacle is to move, the Levites are to take it down, and whenever the tabernacle is to be set up, the Levites shall do it. Anyone else who approaches it is to be put to death….The Levites…are to set up their tents around the tabernacle of the covenant law so that my wrath will not fall on the Israelite community. The Levites are to be responsible for the care of the tabernacle of the covenant law.[3]”
For this reason, the Levite men of fighting age would not be allowed to be in Israel’s army: they were now instead going to be caretakers of God’s holy temple and act as intercessor between other Israelites and the priest/God to help Aaron and his descendants attend to his temple.
So, Moses got Aaron, and they got each of these elders and put them in charge of counting the men of their own tribes, and then they called for all of Israel to gather together and to come up and register by their tribe their clan and their name; so, they begin to come up and write down their clans and names:
Numbers 1:17-19
“Moses and Aaron took these men whose names had been specified, and they called the whole community together on the first day of the second month. The people registered their ancestry by their clans and families, and the men twenty years old or more were listed by name, one by one, as the Lord commanded Moses.”
Once all the Israelite tribes (except Levi) got through registering, the tribal leaders got the tallies together from their own tribes and gave the total to Moses and Aaron and this was the total of fighting men age 20+ available to fight in Israel’s army:
Numbers 1:44
“These were the men counted by Moses and Aaron and the twelve leaders of Israel,…All the Israelites twenty years old or more who were able to serve in Israel’s army were counted…The total number was 603,550.”
That was a lot of men to fight in this army! Despite their former Egyptian overlords trying to kill all of their male babies a little over a year ago for at least 80 years in this slavery of Israel, it seems many Israelite parents were able to hide their male babies from the Egyptians (just like Moses and Aaron’s mother and father did) and thus the Pharoah’s plan greatly failed in the genocide of Israel, and God blessed Israel’s descendants to become a very large group of people just like he promised him to: and it seems at this point (roughly 450 years after Israel only had 70 direct male descendants) he now had over 600,000 male descendants! That is quite a lot of multiplying from just 70 about four centuries ago!
Most likely after counting the army men in the 11 other tribes, Moses was then commanded to count just the males of the tribe of Levi: but instead of 20+ years old he was to count them from a month old+!
Numbers 3:14-15
"The Lord said to Moses...'Count the Levites by their families and clans. Count every male a month old or more.' ”
So, Moses went to counting his own Levite tribe by counting them by the three main clans of Levi (the clans of the tribe of Levi would be the specific descendants of Levi's three sons; Gershon, Kohath, and Merari):
the Gershonite clan, The Kohathite clan, and The Merarite clan
Numbers 3:18
"...the Gershonite clan...The Kohathite clan...The Merarite clan..."
Numbers 3:16
"So, Moses [and Aaron] counted them, as he was commanded by the word of the Lord."
they first counted the males in each of the three clans as a total then they ultimately added them all up as the total number of almost all Levite males (including theirselves):
Numbers 3:39
“The total number of Levites counted at the Lord’s command by Moses and Aaron…every male a month old or more, was 22,000.”
After the census was taken of all Israel's men/boys, Next God ordered the way the tribe of Levi would camp around the temple:
they would camp around it in a square to separate it from the rest of Israel and each of the three clans of Levi were to form one of the four sides of the square which would be pointed in the four cardinal directions on Earth: that is East, South, West, and North:
At the front of the temple, which was faced to the East, the Levite leaders of Israel; Moses, Aaron, Elizar, Ithamar and (most likely) their sister Miriam would make the first side to the east in front of the camp:
Numbers 3:38
“Moses and Aaron and his sons were to camp to the east of the tabernacle…in front of the tent of meeting.”
Then The Kohathite clan would form the next side of the square to the south:
Numbers 3:29
“The Kohathite clans were to camp on the south side of the tabernacle.”
To the west, the Gershonite clan would make the next side behind the temple:
Numbers 3:23
“The Gershonite clans were to camp on the west, behind the tabernacle.”
Lastly to finish the square encasing to the temple, the Merarite clan would form the final side to the north:
Numbers 3:35
“...the Merarite clans…they were to camp on the north side of the tabernacle.”
This made the tribe of Levi completely corralled the temple in a square off from the rest of Israel:
Next God ordered the other 11 Israelite tribes were to set their camps around the Levites camp (The tribe of Levi was to surround the temple of God in the center of the camp) in a very specific order and have their traditional tribal banners set up around their tribal camp with a main tribal camp leading two other tribe’s and their armies:
Numbers 2:1
“The Lord said to Moses and Aaron: ‘The Israelites are to camp around the tent of meeting (Temple) some distance from it, each of them under their standard and holding the banners of their family (tribes).’”
East of the temple, would be the camp of the tribe of Judah; with an army of 74,600 Judahite men led by Nahshon:
Numbers 2:3-4
“On the east, toward the sunrise, the divisions of the camp of Judah are to encamp under their standard. The leader of the people of Judah is Nahshon...His…army….numbers 74,600.”
The tribe of Judah would be a leading tribe: leading the tribes of Issachar and Zebulun and their armies camped behind them:
Numbers 2:5-9
“The tribe of Issachar will camp next to them. The leader of the people of Issachar is Nethanel…His…army….numbers 54,400. The tribe of Zebulun will be next. The leader of the people of Zebulun is Eliab…His…army….numbers 57,400. All the men assigned to the camp of Judah, according to their divisions, number 186,400.”
To the south of the temple would be the area of the camp of the tribe of Reuben; with an army of 46,500 Reubenite men led by Elizur:
Numbers 2:10-11
“On the south will be the divisions of the camp of Reuben under their standard. The leader of the people of Reuben is Elizur…His…army….numbers 46,500."
The tribe of Reuben would be a leading tribe: leading the tribes of Simeon and Gad and their armies camped behind them:
Numbers 2:12-16
“The tribe of Simeon will camp next to them. The leader of the people of Simeon is Shelumiel…His…army….numbers 59,300.The tribe of Gad will be next. The leader of the people of Gad is Eliasaph …His…army….numbers 45,650. All the men assigned to the camp of Reuben, according to their divisions, number 151,450.”
To the west of the temple the tribe of Ephraim would camp with an army of 40,500 Ephraimite (Josephite) men lead by Elishama:
Numbers 2:18-19
“On the west will be the divisions of the camp of Ephraim under their standard. The leader of the people of Ephraim is Elishama…His…Army… numbers 40,500.”
The tribe of Ephraim would be a leading tribe: leading the tribes of Manasseh and Benjamin and their armies camped behind them:
Numbers 2:20
“The tribe of Manasseh will be next to them. The leader of the people of Manasseh is Gamaliel…His division numbers 32,200.The tribe of Benjamin will be next. The leader of the people of Benjamin is Abidan…His division numbers 35,400.All the men assigned to the camp of Ephraim, according to their divisions, number 108,100.”
Finally to the north of the temple the tribe of Dan would camp with an army of 62,700 Dannite men lead by Ahiezer:
Numbers 2:25-26
“On the north will be the divisions of the camp of Dan under their standard. The leader of the people of Dan is Ahiezer….His…Army…numbers 62,700.”
The tribe of Dan would be a leading tribe: leading the tribes of Asher and Naphtali and their armies camped behind them:
Numbers 2:27-31
“The tribe of Asher will camp next to them. The leader of the people of Asher is Pagiel… His…army…numbers 41,500. The tribe of Naphtali will be next. The leader of the people of Naphtali is Ahira…His…army…numbers 53,400. All the men assigned to the camp of Dan number 157,600. They will set out last, under their standards.”
So, with all of Israel in their correct places all around their God and his temple, Israel was now a very organized nation as well as army to be prepared to fight in Israel’s future wars under God:
Numbers 2:32
“These are the Israelites,…”
When God told them to move on from the Siani desert back to Canaan, they were to also keep the formation he put them in and march out in a specific order:
First when it was time to move, the tribe of Levi would help Aaron and his sons dismantle and carry God’s new temple before setting out; once each Levite man got what they were to carry they would stay in formation:
Numbers 2:17
“Then the tent of meeting and the camp of the Levites will set out in the middle of the camps. They will set out in the same order as they encamp, each in their own place…”
The Eastern branch of Judah would march out first:
Numbers 2:9
“All the men assigned to the camp of Judah…will set out first.”
Next the southern branch of Reuben would march behind them
Numbers 2:16
“All the men assigned to the camp of Reuben,… will set out second.”
Next the Western branch of Ephraim would march next
Numbers 2:24
“All the men assigned to the camp of Ephraim…will set out third.”
And finally, the northern branch of Dan would march out last behind all of Israel:
Numbers 2:31
“All the men assigned to the camp of Dan…will set out last,…”
To signal God moving them out, God ordered two silver trumpets be made for Aaron and his sons to blow; The trumpet’s sound would signal Israel to leave or gather together:
Numbers 10:1-7
“The Lord said to Moses: ‘Make two trumpets of hammered silver, and use them for calling the community together and for having the camps set out. When both are sounded, the whole community is to assemble before you at the entrance to the tent of meeting. If only one is sounded, the leaders—the heads of the clans of Israel—are to assemble before you. When a trumpet blast is sounded, the tribes camping...are to set out.’”
So, after making the silver trumpets and giving them to Aaron and his sons, on the 20th day of the second month, God was ready for Israel to finally move on from the Siani desert to their ancestral homeland Canaan:
(God most likely told Moses first he was finally ready for Israel to move on before actually moving)
To signal this for the rest of Israel, the giant column of cloud lifted above the temple it had been sitting on since God’s Prescence moved in:
Numbers 10:11
“On the twentieth day of the second month of the second year, the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle of the covenant law.”
So, when Moses saw God move in the cloud, he instructed the Levites to begin disassembling the new temple and Aaron and his sons Eleazar and Ithamar to blow the new silver trumpets to signal Israel to march out; once they blew both silver trumpets, the Levite clans with the branches of the leading Israelite camps left in The order Moses (and God) commanded them too:
The eastern branch of Judah went first, The southern branch of Reuben went next, then the western branch of Ephraim went third, and the northern branch of Dan went last as the rear guard for the rest of Israel; in the marching orders God desired them to:
Numbers 10:14-25
“The divisions of the camp of Judah went first,…The divisions of the camp of Reuben went next,…The divisions of the camp of Ephraim went next,…Finally, as the rear guard for all the units, the divisions of the camp of Dan set out…”
So, after a little over year of being in the Desert of Siani under the holy mountain of Horeb with God correcting, instructing, forming, and especially making a very special new covenant with the new official nation of Israel:
the nation of Isreal then left the ‘desert detour’ as a very organized powerful nation under their God to continue on to finally inherit Canaan as their own land as promised by God over 400 years ago to their first chosen Ancestor, Abraham:
So with God in the Cloud leading the way for Israel, like before, they marched on straight for three days
Numbers 10:33
“So they set out from the mountain of the Lord (Mt.Horeb/Siani Desert) and traveled for three days.”
After three days of mostly traveling (very likely they had short breaks to rest/sleep) they reached their first temporary spot, then a unknown period of time passed as they might have been commanded to move around a couple of more places as they went through the long vast and deserted wilderness towards the southernmost part of Canaan (specifically the hill country belonging to the Amorite tribe):
In one location in this vast journey through this wilderness to the hill country of southern Canaan, the (so far since they renewed the covenant they broke with their God through Moses) loyal obedient Israelites had finally had enough: why they had been trying to obey everything their God told them to do they also had been uncomfortable this past year since they left their homeland in Egypt: they had been constantly in strange places, always eating the same manna for over a year now, and out in a hot deserted desert with their flock suffering as well having to travel in this wilderness and ect.: to the Israelites they had suffered enough, and so they began to complain again about all the suffering and discomfort this journey God and Moses had put them through and how their homeland in Egypt was soo much better:
Numbers 11:1
“Now the people complained about their hardships…”
But in the middle of the camps in the temple, God heard their complains about him bringing them on this journey and thus disrespected and rejected his will for them to return to their promised ancestral inheritance for them:
Numbers 11:1
“Now the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the Lord,…”
God became very angry at these Israelites once again rebelling against him after they had promised in this renewed covenant to always obey him, but instead choosing to once again complain against his will; so he had enough of these traitorous Israelites and choose to punish them:
So, he sent the fire that killed Aaron’s sons out of the temple/cloud: it came out and began to scorch the camps farthest to the temple and thus began to scorch some Israelite families and all their possessions with them!
Numbers 11:1
“...and when he heard them his anger was aroused. Then fire from the Lord burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp.”
The Israelites that didn’t get burnt to a crisp (yet) were horrified the knew what God’s fire could do to them and immediately screamed for Moses to talk to God to save them:
Numbers 11:2
“...the people cried out to Moses,…”
Moses saw God get angry at Israel and Israelites screaming in horror to him to save them: He immediately began to pray to God to spare Israel, and God responded to his request and the fire went away:
Numbers 11:2
“...he prayed to the Lord and the fire died down.”
So once again, Moses had to intervene between their rebellious nature to their God and God punishing them for it: though most of Israel lived many families most likely were scorched to death and most likely the rest of Israel had to carry them outside their camp/bury them and most likely many were horrified and mourned for their fallen Israelite family members that day. So, on that day they called this area in the wilderness ‘Taberah’ meaning ‘burning’ in Hebrew to as a memorial of how God’s fire burned Israel for their complaining:
Numbers 11:3
“So that place was called Taberah,(Hebrew for ‘burning’) because fire from the Lord had burned among them.”
So, sometime after this punishment, God once again picked up the cloud and they moved on in their marching orders without any more complaining, however, camping in another location sometime later after they had moved on. This time the Israelites had had enough of eating nothing but Manna for over a year; they were especially craving meat and different food like they used to eat in Egypt, and begin to get very upset:
Numbers 11:5-6
“…and again the Israelites started wailing and said, ‘If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!’”
They went outside their tents and began to cry, and others began to beg and shout at Moses to get them some meat; Moses was upset by all of this, and knew God was once again getting angry at Israel for complaining about his Manna he was providing for them to eat:
Numbers 11:10
“Moses heard the people of every family wailing at the entrance to their tents…[they said to him ‘give us meat to eat!’[3]]… The Lord became exceedingly angry, and Moses was troubled.”
Moses had finally had enough of these Israelites: he had done everything for them; he was tired of leading all of them constantly with all the trouble and complaining they were getting into to make their God angry; he was to his breaking point as God was once again angry at them and was most likely going to try to punish them by killing them again. So, he most likely went into the temple in the holy of Holies and told God he had enough of dealing with these millions of angry complaining people all by himself and trying to be the mediator to them like they were his holy people: if this was the way he was going to be treated then he wanted God to kill him right now so he would not be tortured anymore!
Numbers 11:11-15
“He asked the Lord, ‘Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their ancestors? Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. If this is how you are going to treat me, please go ahead and kill me—if I have found favor in your eyes—and do not let me face my own ruin.’”
Why God himself was still angry with these Israelites as well, he would not kill Moses: he realized he as one of the sole human leaders of all of Israel could no longer deal with Israel’s complaints all alone. So, he would get 70 of the main elders of Isael and give them his holy spirit he gave Moses to do his work so they too could help out with these rebellious Israelites so he would not be soo overwhelmed:
Numbers 11:16-17
“The Lord said to Moses: ‘Bring me seventy of Israel’s elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people. Have them come to the tent of meeting, that they may stand there with you. I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the power of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them. They will share the burden of the people with you so that you will not have to carry it alone.’”
As for Israel complaining for some meat and wishing they were still in Egypt; he commanded Moses to tell them they would definitely once again get their meat: but this was not out of compassion this was out of punishment because they rejected God’s will for them to not only leave Egypt to inherit their ancestral land but the food he personally provided for then almost every day: so they would eat so much meat they would constantly eat it for a month until they were sick of it and hated it:
Numbers 11:18-20
“Tell the people: ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The Lord heard you when you wailed, ‘If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!’ Now the Lord will give you meat, and you will eat it. You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it—because you have rejected the Lord, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt?’’ ”
But Moses couldn’t believe this; God had fed all of Israel meat for a day over a year ago but how would he ever get a month’s worth of meat for millions of meat-hungry Israelites in the middle of the wilderness; let alone all the animals they could eat in the entire world?
Numbers 11:21-22
“But Moses said, ‘Here I am among six hundred thousand men on foot, and you say, ‘I will give them meat to eat for a whole month!’ Would they have enough if flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea were caught for them?’”
Numbers 11:23
“The Lord answered Moses, ‘Is the Lord’s arm too short? Now you will see whether or not what I say will come true for you.’ ”
So, Moses believed God somehow was going to give them all that meat and left the holy of holies and got Aaron’s sons to blow the trumpets to summon all of Israel for a meeting to tell them their God had heard their rebellious cries and complaints for meat and was definitely going to give them some like before so they were to get ready for the meat feast by ceremonially making themselves clean as before:
Numbers 11:24
“So Moses went out and told the people what the Lord had said.”
After he told them what God had said, he called 70 of the leading elders of Israel and had a personal assembly with them all of them came except for two and stood around the temple:
Numbers 11:24
“...He brought together seventy of their elders and had them stand around the tent.”
Then the God came down within the column of cloud over the temple and spoke with Moses:
Numbers 11:25
“Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke with him,…”
Then after speaking with Moses, he then took some of his holy spirit he had given to him for him to lead Israel and gave it also to all the 70 elders: and instantly all the elders around the tent began to prophecy as a result of receiving God’s holy spirit through Moses on them:
Numbers 11:25
“...and he took some of the power of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied—but did not do so again.”
Even though they were not present at the temple, God also gave his holy spirit to the two elders who were still in their tribal camps, Eldad and Medad, and they also begin to prophecy:
Numbers 11:26
“However, two men, whose names were Eldad and Medad, had remained in the camp. They were listed among the elders, but did not go out to the tent. Yet the Spirit also rested on them, and they prophesied in the camp.”
When they also began to prophecy the local Israelites in the area saw they were prophesying and were amazed; one young Israelite man ran to the central temple area and told Moses that these elders were also prophesying:
Numbers 11:27
“A young man ran and told Moses, ‘Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.’”
Moses's helper Joshua, standing with him, heard this and was angry: he though for some reason (possibly because they, for some reason, did not come to the temple; even though they were probably summoned) these elders should not have been prophesying like all the other elders so he told Moses he should go and stop them:
Numbers 11:28
“Joshua …spoke up and said, ‘Moses, my lord, stop them!’ ”
But Moses was shocked to hear Joshua say this: This was a great thing for God to give the power of his holy spirit to his people; infact he wished all of Israel were prophets in service to God just so they could be given God’s holy spirit; it was a blessing and high honor to be given his holy spirit and if they were given it, the power just might even change their lives for the better!
Numbers 11:29
“But Moses replied, ‘Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!’”
So, with that Joshua stopped complaining and after they got through prophesying all the elders now also had God’s holy spirit and also would help deal with Israel’s complaints to help Moses’s burden out; so, they left the temple area and went back to their camp:
Numbers 11:30
“Then Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp.”
Then God made a strong wind blow from the sea nearby; and blew millions and millions (if not billions) of flying quail to where Israel was camped; they seemed to have died when they got to where Israel was camped and pilled out almost 3 feet deep for miles and miles all around them: it was like it snowed quail/meat!
Numbers 11:31
“Now a wind went out from the Lord and drove quail in from the sea. It scattered them up to two cubits (about 3 feet or about 90 centimeters) deep all around the camp, as far as a day’s walk in any direction (at least 2 miles in a circle!).”
God had proved what he promised would happen: he miraculously got enough meat for millions of hungry Israelites to feast on meat for a month! He also fulfilled his promise to Moses while renewing the new covenant with Israel; to perform amazing miracles for his behalf because he obeyed him. The Israelites/mixed multitude were amazed at the amazing miracle their God had done for them; meat, like they wanted so bad, pilled everywhere! They immediately got to work gathering the quail from around the camp and all that day through the night and all the next day gathering quail to cook the gatherers got literally tons and tons of quail to cook!:
Numbers 11:32
“All that day and night and all the next day the people went out and gathered quail. No one gathered less than ten homers(that’s possibly about 1 3/4 tons or about 1.6 metric tons!!!).”
That evening they finally began to cook all this quail meat; finally so happy to eat something besides old Manna; and as the meat craving Israelites in the camp began to bite into the savory meat and chewed it, God became angry at these people for complaining about taking them from Egypt and his holy manna to feed them; so those Israelites and of the mixed multitude who were eating the meat were cursed for choosing the meat over their God by God instantly giving them a horrible disease as they ate the meat they wanted so bad, and shortly after they were cursed with the disease a lot of Israelites died from the severe sickness!
Numbers 11:32-33
“Then they spread them out all around the camp. But while the meat was still between their teeth and before it could be consumed, the anger of the Lord burned against the people, and he struck them with a severe plague.”
So, they got their meat they craved allright, but they sure did pay for it; with their lives!
The days after the meat feast those of the mixed multitude and Pure Israel who had eaten the quail meat all died and those of Israel who choose to respect their God (Moses, Joshua, Aaron and his sons, Miriam, and the elders included) and did not eat the meat lived but had to bury all the dead in this place for days and most likely lost family and friends and probably plenty of grieving; so this place was called Kibroth Hattaavah (Hebrew for ‘Graves of craving’) as another memorial of how the people rejected God’s provisions for them in favor of meat and got the curse that was coming to them:
Numbers 11:34
“Therefore the place was named Kibroth Hattaavah (Hebrew for ‘Graves of craving’), because there they buried the people who had craved other food.”
After an unknown amount of time God in the cloud once again arose from the temple to signal for Israel to pack up and move on; so, who was left of Israel packed up the temple and moved on in their marching orders to a place known in the wilderness as Hazeroth:
Numbers 11:35
“From Kibroth Hattaavah the people traveled to Hazeroth and stayed there.”
There the trouble was not over! Surprisingly it was not the average Israelites complaining this time about their hardships, it was the (so far) loyal obedient leaders of Israel and even Moses’s siblings, Miriam and Aaron!
Numbers 12:1-2
“Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses...‘Has the Lord spoken only through Moses?’ they asked. ‘Hasn’t he also spoken through us?’”
Numbers 12:2
“…And the Lord heard this.”
In response, he was going to have a little meeting with all three of them at the front of the temple for talking against his chosen servant Moses:
Numbers 12:4
“At once the Lord said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, ‘Come out to the tent of meeting, all three of you.’”
So, they obeyed God’s orders and headed out to the temple:
Numbers 12:4
“So the three of them went out.”
When they came to the temple, God came down inside the cloud and called Miriam and Aaron to step forward:
Numbers 12:5
“Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud; he stood at the entrance to the tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam.”
He was going to talk to Miriam and Aaron about their attitude towards their brother and leader; Moses was his special obedient loyal prophet he didn’t talk to any other prophet or even human like the way he talked to Moses how dare they even question after all they seen God do through him if God really talked to him and his authority!
Numbers 12:5-8
When the two of them stepped forward, he said, ‘Listen to my words: When there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, reveal myself to them in visions, I speak to them in dreams. But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?’ ”
After telling his displeasure to Aaron and Miriam, he floated up above the entrance of the tent in the cloud in anger:
Numbers 12:9
“The anger of the Lord burned against them, and he left them.”
But before leaving, he Cursed Miriam (who most likely started the argument; with the fact of just being cursed) with a horrible desecrating skin disease that made her skin very pale, that made her unclean as a curse for taking badly against his loyal servant Moses; Aaron looked at Miriam and was shocked when he saw her skin was diseased:
Numbers 12:10
“When the cloud lifted from above the tent, Miriam’s skin was leprous…it became as white as snow. Aaron turned toward her and saw that she had a defiling skin disease,…”
Aaron was horrified and knew they both had made a huge mistake questioning holy Moses when God had done soo much through him. He begged Moses to save their sister from this horrible skin disease and forgive them:
Numbers 12:11-12
“…and he said to Moses, ‘Please, my lord, I ask you not to hold against us the sin we have so foolishly committed. Do not let her be like a stillborn infant coming from its mother’s womb with its flesh half eaten away.’ ”
Moses was also horrified, so he cried out to God asking him to heal her:
Numbers 12:13
“So, Moses cried out to the Lord, ‘Please, God, heal her!’”
But God refused to heal her; he wanted her to be disgraced/punished for the sin she (most likely) caused; just like in this culture if a father spits in his daughters face in an act of disgrace against her disobedience to him and is disgraced for several days; so God (the father) had spit in his daughter’s (Miriam’s) face in disgrace of speaking against his personal handpicked holy prophet that even their patriarchal ancestors: Abraham, Isaac, and Israel did not even get the chance to have with their God. So as punishment, she would be banished outside the main camp to where the other unclean Israelites stayed for seven days like his laws ordered, then he would heal her:
Numbers 12:14
“The Lord replied to Moses, ‘If her father had spit in her face, would she not have been in disgrace for seven days? Confine her outside the camp for seven days; after that she can be brought back.’”
So, in disgrace, Miriam was banished outside of the camp by the high priest Aaron for seven days, but God did not move the camp until Miriam purified herself and returned to camp seven days later:
Numbers 12:15
“So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on till she was brought back.”
After she returned, God then lifted the cloud above the temple to signal Israel to move on so they left in their marching orders to the edge of the wilderness in the Desert of Paran:
Numbers 12:16
“After that, the people left Hazeroth and encamped in [Kadesh Barnea [5] in] the Desert of Paran.”
They now completed their journey to the southernmost boundaries of the promiseland: they were at the boarder of the end of the wilderness right next to the beginning of the hill country of the Amorite people; at long (and painful) last; they had finally arrived at their ancestral land promised to them after almost a year and a half of journeying from Egypt!
When they got there, Moses assembled all of Israel to a meeting, and told them it was now time for them to march in under God’s command in their order and begin to fight these Amorites/other Canaanite nations and kill them/run them out as God supernaturally helped them run them out. so, they would conquer their land to finally claim their ancestral inheritance he first promised to Abraham: from main Cannan next to the Mediterranean all the way to the Euphrates River:
Deuteronomy 1:20-21
“...[then Moses said [3]] ‘You have reached the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us. See, the Lord your God has given you the land. Go up and take possession (fight and conquer) of it as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, told you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.’ ”
But the Israelites were somewhat cautious to go and fight these people; they though it was a good idea to send some spies to first check out the land to see how they could best go about getting it:
Deuteronomy 1:22
[All the Israelites came to Moses and said[3]]…’Let us send men ahead to spy out the land for us and bring back a report about the route we are to take and the towns we will come to.’ ”
So Moses ,most likely, brought this idea to God, and God approved of this idea; he told Moses to send the elders from each tribe as spies to go into the lands they were going to conquer and find out more about it:
Numbers 13:1
“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders.’ ”
So Moses most likely summoned all of Israel and told them God had approved of their idea to send spies to explore Cannan and called out the 12 elders of each tribe that God ordered to be as spies in Canann and Moses told them God (most likely) said for them to go into the southern Negev region first then into the Amorite hill country then they were to look and see what the climate, vegetation, soil and nations were like and since God had said the land was very fertile (a land of milk and honey) they were to get a sample of fruit from the land to get a preview of what they would inherit:
Numbers 13:17-20
‘...Moses…said, ‘Go up through the Negev and on into the hill country. See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many. What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are they unwalled or fortified? How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees in it or not? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land.’”
After this Moses let them go on their way and the 12 elders set off to the Negev:
Numbers 13:3
“So at the Lord’s command Moses sent them out from the Desert of Paran.”
So, for several weeks they traveled though the land seeing the different Canaanite people/nations that lived in these lands.
Numbers 13:21
“So they went up and explored the land…”
They saw that Canaan was truly a very fertile and rich land full of trees and all types of vegetation; the fruit was massive! But while exploring the actual nations and town and city they would bump into/have to fight, they saw something very disturbing: the people there were not only well built very armed nations with tons of high-walled cities and armies; but some of the nations here (especially in the region of Hebron) were literally a nation of humongous Giant humans!
Numbers 13:21-22
“...They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron…[where]…the descendants of Anak (which were also the descendants of the Nephilim: which are described as Giant humans [6]), lived.”
These elders were horrified at these Canaanite nation(s) of giants; they felt like little bugs compared to them and they also might have seen them eat other humans as well which most likely terrified them even more [6]!
On their way back, they saw a valley full of massive Grapes, and choose this spot to gather a sample of fruit to show the camp; so, they got a stick and tied a massive grape vine with a huge grape cluster that took two people to carry its weight and also got some big figs and pomegranates from the fruit trees there:
Numbers 13:23
“...When they reached the Valley… they cut off a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between them, along with some pomegranates and figs.”
And they then eventually came back to the desert after 40 days later
Numbers 13:25
“At the end of forty days they returned from exploring the land.”
Once they returned, the elders went to share what they found out about Canaan with Moses as well as the rest of Israel who were gathered together to all eagerly hear the report as well:
They first said God was right; it really was all it was described as by their God (and possibly by their ancestors stories passed down to them of their ancient homeland) and they proved this by showing Moses and all of Israel the massive fruit they brough back:
Numbers 13:27
“They gave Moses this account: ‘We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit.’"
But that was the only good news about their report; the bad news was all the Canaanite nations were very strong and their cities were practically impenetrable (unconquerable), and that was not even the worst part: some of these Canaanite nations were literally vicious giants of a massive size!
Numbers 13:28
“But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak (Nephilim: Giants [6]) there.”
When Israel heard all this they were rightly discouraged; these were some strong nations with littarly huge giants they were going to have to fight! This was terrifying! And not only that with their much less prepared and smaller army they would surely be conquered!
The people began to panic, but Caleb the elder of the tribe of Judah calmed everyone down; and assured them God would help them just like Moses had said; so what if they were stronger and even had massive man-eating giants? God said he would fight for them and run them off! and he wanted them to win (and he defiantly did if they obeyed) then they would win despite what the situation might have looked like!
Numbers 13:30
“Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, ‘We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.’”
But all the other elders who also went as spies in Canaan (except for Joshua the elder of the tribe of Ephraim) completely disregarded Caleb and Joshua’s hope in their God: there was no way they could fight them and win, they were just too powerful and massive and so giant one giant solder could swash an army of Israelites like bugs!
Numbers 13:31-33
“But the men who had gone up with him said, ‘We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are…The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim (Giants) there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.’”
In responds to the fear almost all their leaders had about the horror of the giant humans in the land, they began to panic and cry in fear and frustration:
Numbers 13:14
“That night all the members of the community raised their voices and wept aloud.”
That night all of Israel gathered around Moses, Aaron, Caleb, and Joshua and shouted and yelled at them asking them why they and their God brought them all this way from Egypt just to be killed in war by these horrible nations and have their wives and children captured as slaves:
If this is what God was going to do to them then it would had been better if they had just been Killed in Egypt or even the wilderness; so they suggested to them that they turn around and head back to their homeland in Egypt before it was too late:
Numbers 13:2-3
“All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, ‘If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this wilderness! Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?’”
Some of them began to talk about electing another leader apart from Moses to guide them back to Egypt:
Numbers 13:4
And they said to each other, ‘We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.’”
After hearing all this rebellious talk against them and God Moses and Aaron were horrified at Israel’s rebellion against God and both Moses and Aaron fell down in sorrow and horror of this rebellion against their God and Joshua and Caleb tore their clothes as a sign of morning and sadness at their rebellion:
Numbers 13:5-6
“Then Moses and Aaron fell facedown in front of the whole Israelite assembly gathered there. Joshua…and Caleb…,…tore their clothes”
God had done soo much for them and put up with all their rebellion after they once again promised to obey him; all to ultimately get them to the land of Canaan and was even going to help them fight these nations: all they had to do was obey their God and not be afraid, despite what the situation looked like ,and try to fight; trusting in him that he would conquer all these nations for them: These giant nations would not squash them or eat them; they would squash them and eat them because God was with them! this was Moses final plea to these hardheaded Israelites: just trust their God and obey him!
Numbers 13:7-9
“and said to the entire Israelite assembly, ‘The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.’”
But no, the Israelites had had it with Moses and Aaron leading them to their doom so they talked about killing them so they could return to live in their homeland of Egypt before these people killed them!
Numbers 13:10
“But the whole assembly talked about stoning them.”
But just then then God’s glory (possibly in the cloud) appeared to all of Israel there before they could do anything, and God spoke to Moses there and said:
Numbers 13:10-11
“Then the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites. The Lord said to Moses, ‘How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs I have performed among them?’”
God lamented in anger and wondered about how long Israel would refuse to obey him like they promised they would do: they broke their promise they had renewed through Moses ten times already; and God had once again had it! He was going to kill them all (except possibly Aaron his sons Joshua and Caleb) from a horrible disease and make Moses’s children a greater nation to inherit all of his promises to Israel:
Numbers 13:12
“I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they.”
Despite the horrible situation happening here and Israel’s anger towards him; Moses begged God once again to not to kill them all and wipe out almost all of the Israelites (by completely wiping out many tribes completely); if he did, the Egyptians would mock them and him and it would bring him no glory but dishonor from their enemies (his enemies) Moses encouraged God instead of killing (almost) all of Israel forever in exchange for only his descendants (Mosesites) to be his holy people; to keep all of Israel as his people as he originally intended too and forgive them of their betrayals just like he forgave them before. Moses also reminded God of what he told him about himself a year ago:
That he was a merciful god slow to get angry and patient to forgive sin and rebellion yet does not leave sin unpunished, so he begged him to do the same for these hardheaded Israelites and spare them from total destruction:
Numbers 13:13-19
“Moses said to the Lord, ‘Then the Egyptians will hear about it! By your power you brought these people up from among them. And they will tell the inhabitants of this land about it. They have already heard that you, Lord, are with these people and that you, Lord, have been seen face to face, that your cloud stays over them, and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. If you put all these people to death, leaving none alive, the nations who have heard this report about you will say, ‘The Lord was not able to bring these people into the land he promised them on oath, so he slaughtered them in the wilderness.’ Now may the Lord’s strength be displayed, just as you have declared:
(quoting what he said to Moses on Mt Horeb a year ago as recorded in Exodus 34:6-7)
‘The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.’
In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now.’”
Because he loved his loyal servant Moses he forgave them: from now on he would never threaten to destroy (almost) all of Israel ever again and they would continue to be a great nation of their main patriarch Israel and all his sons, but all the women and men over 20 years old would never inherit or even get to enter or even see the promised land as punishment for their rebellion towards him (except for Moses, Aaron, Caleb, (possibly Miriam) and Joshua who never rebelled against his will of refusing to go into Canaan). So, they to go back the way they came the next day:
Numbers 13:20-24
“The Lord replied, ‘I have forgiven them, as you asked. Nevertheless, as surely as I live…not one of those who saw my glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times—not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their ancestors. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it. But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to (along with Joshua, Moses, and Aaron),….turn back tomorrow and set out toward the desert along the route to the Red Sea (the way they came from).’”
Then God spoke to Aaron so he could also hear him and told them the punishment they were to tell all of rebellious Israel; since they wished to die/return to Egypt (the nation that was originally trying to kill them) rather than follow their God to conquer the promised land then that’s exactly what would happen: starting the next day they were to return to the wilderness they came from and wander aimlessly for 40 years; a year for each day the elders spent exploring the promised land they later discouraged their people from conquering, until pretty much that entire generation of Israelite adults (both men and women 20 years and older) died and their bodies were buried in the cursed wilderness they hated! as well as their children were going to have to become nomadic shepherds in the wilderness instead of living in a permanent home in Canaan, as well as their cattle to not feed in the wonderful fertile land of Canaan would also be punished for their disobedience to their God: God would no longer help them get to Canaan; he would against them only to let them wander until ever last one of them died. Their children (their boys and girls 19 and under) would now get the honor of conquering the promised land 40 years later and would get to see the promised land for the first time instead of them!
Numbers 13:26-35
“The Lord said to Moses and Aaron: ‘How long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites. So tell them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord, I will do to you the very thing I heard you say: In this wilderness your bodies will fall—every one of you twenty years old or more…who has grumbled against me. Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb…and Joshua…. As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected. But as for you, your bodies will fall in this wilderness. Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness. For forty years—one year for each of the forty days you explored the land—you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you.’ I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will surely do these things to this whole wicked community, which has banded together against me. They will meet their end in this wilderness; here they will die.’”
So after God got through speaking, he told all of Israel assembled there; and when they heard they were doomed to not only never see their promised land but also to wander aimlessly in the despised wilderness until they all died, they realized they had messed up horribly; and began to cry in horror once they came to their sense, they betrayed their God that had been so good to them:
Numbers 13:39
“When Moses reported this to all the Israelites, they mourned bitterly.”
What was meant to be a blessing of a deliverance and trip turned out to be a tragic disaster and curse; This privileged Israelite generations that not only got to see God save and free their new nation from Egypt with all his miracles in the form of plagues but also, we’re personally guided, fed and even saw their God manifested as a column of cloud and on Mt. Horeb and even got the honor of hearing their God speak to them personally and agreeing to a special holy covenant with him, but got to see his first official holy temple, and even got to hear and obey his laws this year and a half; completely ruined this holy moment for them and pretty much lost it all; they would now be punished and suffer for what they had done for forty years!
Sources:
[1]
[A][ Exodus 16:23 Hebrew intelinear by Bible hub
Website:
https://biblehub.com/text/exodus/16-23.htm
[B] Strong’s Hebrew Concordance--7676.”שַׁבָּת” (shab-bawth')--sabbath, by Biblehub
Website:
https://biblehub.com/hebrew/7676.htm
[2]
[A] Exodus 16:15 Hebrew intelinear by Bible hub
Website:
https://biblehub.com/text/exodus/16-15.htm
[B] Exodus 16:31 Hebrew intelinear by Bible hub
Website:
https://biblehub.com/text/exodus/16-31.htm
[C] Strong’s Hebrew concordance --4478. “מָן” (mawn)--manna (a kind of bread), by Biblehub
Website:
https://biblehub.com/hebrew/4478.htm
[3]
(Note:
Technically, it is not written down that God said these exact words here to Moses, this is what Moses said later to Israel:
Exodus 19:15
“...Abstain from sexual relations.”
And what he did later:
Exodus 24:4
“He (Moses)…set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel.”
However, given how Moses usually only commanded Israel or did whatever God told him to command/do, it is very likely that God originally told him to say this. So the author has used some literary creativity to show God did originally command this to Moses.)
[4]
[A] Hebrew interlinear Exodus 19:16 by Biblehub
Website:
https://biblehub.com/text/exodus/19-16.htm
[B] Strong’s Hebrew 7782.--שׁוֹפָר(sho-far')--a horn (for blowing) from Biblehub
Website:
https://biblehub.com/hebrew/7782.htm
[5]
thought the text in Numbers 12:16 does not mention 'Kadesh Barnea' by name, Moses mentions the name of this specific place they camped in the Desert of Paran when retelling this event in Deuteronomy 1:19:
Deuteronomy 1:19
“...as the Lord our God commanded us, we set out from Horeb and went toward the hill country of the Amorites through all that vast and dreadful wilderness that you have seen, and so we reached Kadesh Barnea (that is the desert of Paran)."
[6]
though the text describing exploring Canaan does not directly mention the Anakites (that is the descendants of this man Anak) as being descendants of Nephilim or even man-eating Giants, it becomes clear a little later that this is what these elders saw as they not only later identified as being descended from the Nephilim:
Numbers 13:33
"...We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim)."
And these descendants of the Nephilim in Canaan are further described by these elders as massive man-eating Giants:
Numbers 13:32-33
"The land we explored devours those living in it (the wording here strongly hinting these giants ate other humans). All the people we saw there are of great size.... We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”