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- When God gave Moses His ten commandments, He also commanded Moses to build something for Him.What was it?
-God commanded Moses to build a tent for Him.
- Does God need a house to live in?
-No.
- Why does God not need a house to live in?
-Because God is Spirit.
-Because God is everywhere at all times.
- What was the agreement that God made with the Israelites?
-If the Israelites obeyed all of His commandments, then God would bless them, but if the Israelites did not obey all of His commandments, then God would punish them.
- Were the Israelites able to obey all of God’s commandments?
-No.
- Did God know that the Israelites were not able to obey all of His commandments?
-Yes.
- What is God’s punishment for breaking even just one of His commandments?
-Death in the Lake of Eternal Fire.
- What was the way of escape God provided for the Israelites?
-When the Israelites sinned and broke one of God’s commandments, the Israelites would go to the tent and bring the blood of animals.
- What would God do when He would see the blood of the animals?
-When God would see the blood of animals, He would withhold punishing the Israelites until a better payment for sin would be made.
- How did God want Moses and the Israelites to build the tent?
-Exactly according to what God said.
- What were the names of the two rooms which God commanded Moses to make in the tent?
-The Holy Room and the Most Holy Room.
- What was the name of the special box which God commanded Moses to make and put in the Most Holy Room?
-The Ark of the Covenant.
- What was the meaning of the curtain to divide the Most Holy Room and the Holy Room?
-The curtain was to teach the Israelites that they were separated from God because of sin.
- Why did God command the Israelites to put their hand on the head of the animal they would slaughter?
-The Israelite would put his hand on the head of the animal to admit to God that he had sinned and should die, but that God would accept the death of the animal and not his death.
- Was the blood of animals able to pay for the sins of the Israelites?
-No.
- Then why was God asking the Israelites to slaughter an animal for their sins?
-God was teaching the Israelites that the punishment for sin is death.
- What would God do when He would see the blood of the animals?
-When God would see the blood of the animals, He would withhold punishing the Israelites until a better payment of blood would be made.
- When the day arrived that God chose for Aaron to enter the Most Holy Room, what did God command Aaron to take with him?
-God commanded Aaron to take the blood of an animal into the Most Holy Room.
- If Aaron obeyed God, and sprinkled the blood on the Ark of the Covenant, then what would God do?
-God would withhold His punishment of the sins of the Israelites for one more year until a better payment for sin would be made.
-While Moses was up on Mount Sinai talking with God, what were the Israelites doing at the bottom of the mountain?
Let’s read Exodus 32:1-6
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 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.”
2-Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons, and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.”
3-So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron.
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. Then they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”
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.”
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.
-What were the Israelites doing at the bottom of the mountain?
-The Israelites had made a calf out of gold, and they were worshipping it.
-What was the first commandment that God gave to the Israelites?
-That God alone is to be the God of all people.
-Were the Israelites putting something else before God?
-Yes.
-What was the second commandment that God gave to the Israelites?
-That no one should make any image nor to worship it.
-Did the Israelites make an image and worship it?
-Yes.
-Just a few days ago, the Israelites said that they would obey all of God’s commandments.
-But now, the Israelites were breaking the first two commandments that God gave them.
-The Israelites had seen God send ten plagues on Pharaoh and the Egyptians.
-The Israelites had seen God separate the Red Sea so that they were able to go through the sea.
-The Israelites had seen God destroy Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea.
-The Israelites had seen God send quail and manna from heaven.
-The Israelites had seen God give them water from a rock.
-Now, the Israelites were worshipping a golden calf, and saying that it was the golden calf who had led them out of Egypt.
-Did God know that the Israelites were worshipping a golden calf?
Let’s read Exodus 32:7-8
7-Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt.
8-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, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’”
-Did God know that the Israelites were worshipping a golden calf?
-Yes.
-God saw the Israelites worshipping a golden calf.
-God sees everything.
-God saw Adam and Eve eat the fruit that He had commanded them not to eat.
-God saw Cain kill Abel.
-God saw the sin of the wicked people of Sodom and Gomorrah.
-God saw Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery to Egypt.
-God sees all sin, and He hates all sin.
-Was God angry with the Israelites?
Let’s read Exodus 32:9-10
9-“I have seen these people,” the LORD said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people.
10-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.”
-God was very angry with the Israelites.
-God was so angry with the Israelites that He wanted to destroy them.
-What did Moses then say to God?
Let’s read Exodus 32:11-14
11-But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God. “O LORD,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?
12-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.
13-Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘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.’”
14-Then the LORD relented and did not bring on His people the disaster He had threatened.
-Why did God not destroy all of the Israelites?
-Because Moses prayed to God not to destroy them.
-What did Moses say to convince God not to destroy the Israelites?
-Moses said that if God were to destroy the Israelites, then the Egyptians would say that God had led them out of Egypt to kill them.
-Moses also said that God would keep His promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that they would have many descendants who would become a great people.
-Because Moses prayed to God, God did not destroy the Israelites.
-Then, Moses went back down Mount Sinai.
-What did Moses do when he reached the bottom of Mount Sinai?
Let’s read Exodus 32:15-19
15-Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back.
16-The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.
17-When Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, “There is the sound of war in the camp.”
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.”
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.
-Moses was so angry with the Israelites that he threw down the two tablets of stone of God’s commandments and broke them.
-Then, what did Moses do?
Let’s read Exodus 32:20
20-And Moses took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.
-Moses destroyed the golden calf, ground the gold into powder, scattered the powder on water, and forced the Israelites to drink it.
-Because Moses broke the two stone tablets on which God had written the ten commandments, what did God tell Moses to do?
Let’s read Exodus 34:1-2
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.
2-Be ready in the morning, and then come up on Mount Sinai. Present yourself to me there on top of the mountain.”
-God told Moses to carve two new tablets, and take them up to the mountain where God wrote once more His ten commandments.
-On Mount Sinai, God wrote once more His ten commandments on the new stone tablets.
-Do you remember that God had told Moses that the Israelites were to build a tent for Him?
-After a time, the Israelites built the tent exactly as God had told Moses.
Let’s read Exodus 39:42-43 & 40:17
42-The Israelites had done all the work just as the LORD had commanded Moses.
43-Moses inspected the work and saw that they had done it just as the LORD had commanded. So Moses blessed them.
17-So the tabernacle was set up on the first day of the first month in the second year.
-Because the Israelites built the tent exactly as God had told them, the glory of God entered the tent.
Let’s read Exodus 40:34-35
34-Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.
35-Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud had settled upon it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.
-If the Israelites had not built the tent exactly as God had told them, would the glory of God have entered the tent?
-No.
-Because the Israelites built the tent exactly as God had told them, the glory of God entered the tent.
-Were the Israelites to approach God their own way?
-No.
-What was the only way that the Israelites were to approach God?
-God’s way.
-How can we know the way of God?
-Through God’s Book, the Bible.