“Then Moses spoke to the Israelites, and they took the blasphemer outside the camp and stoned him. The Israelites did as the LORD commanded Moses.”
~ Leviticus 24:23
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you like to have a light left on in your room when you go to bed at night? When God met with Moses on the top of Mount Sinai, God instructed Moses to make sure that the lamps that were to be placed on the pure gold lampstand that was to be located outside the curtain that separated the Testimony – or the Holy of Holies, from the rest of the items in the Tent of Meeting were kept burning all night. Why do you think that God instructed Moses when He met with him on the top of Mount Sinai that he was to make sure that the lamps that were to be located in the Tent of Meeting were to be kept burning all night? One commentator believes that keeping the lamps burning all night symbolized God’s perpetual giving of life and light to His specially chosen guys and gals. God also instructed Moses when He met with him on the top of Mount Sinai to make sure that twelve loaves of bread – that were to be made using fine flour, were baked each week and that the twelve loaves be placed in two rows – six loaves to a row, on the pure gold table that was to be located outside the curtain that separated the Testimony – or the Holy of Holies, from the rest of the items in the Tent of Meeting. The twelve loaves of bread were to be for Aaron and his sons to eat in the Tent of Meeting. The twelve loaves of bread were to be representative of a gift from the twelve Israelite people groups tribal clans for God having sustained them as they meandered about for forty years in an arid desert. The bread was known as the ‘bread of the Presence’ or bread from God.
Do you think that you should be stoned with rocks until you are dead because you denigrated God by debasing His name? Do you think that you should be given a pass for saying a word that blasphemes God’s name? Do you think that you should be stoned with rocks until you are dead because you killed another guy? Why do you think that God instructed Moses when He met with him on the top of Mount Sinai to make sure that a guy who blasphemes Him by using His name in a way that shows a complete lack of respect for His role as the Divine Creator of all things be stoned with rocks until he is dead? Why do you think that God expected Moses to obey literally through doing all the things that He – as God the Spirit, breathed on him to record in Leviticus 24? God gave His specially chosen guys and gals a number of strict laws that He expected them to live by. Verse 23 says, “Then Moses spoke to the Israelites, and they took the blasphemer outside the camp and stoned him. The Israelites did as the LORD commanded Moses.” God expected absolute obedience from His specially chosen guys and gals and from the guys and gals who became integrated in one way or another into the twelve Israelite people groups tribal clans that made up His specially chosen guys and gals. Do you think that God’s specially elected guys and gals should live by the same laws that God expected His specially chosen guys and gals to obey day after day? God knew before He gave His specially chosen guys and gals laws to obey that these laws would not be kept. God knew before He gave His specially chosen guys and gals laws to obey that He would one day replace the laws with Himself – as God the Son. Your grandpaa believes that laws are vital to a society as they illuminate the line between what is right and wrong and good and evil. Your grandpaa believes that there are guys and gals who will not have God – as God the Spirit, embedding Himself in their lives – as they are guys and gals who God – as God the Father, did not include in the list of souls who He especially elected for Himself before He created the cosmos in which planet Earth is a player.
The Tent of Meeting over 3450 years ago was where the Ark of the Covenant was kept. God maintained His presence on planet Earth in the Ark of the Covenant. God’s specially chosen guys and gals had the privilege to live near God’s presence. Because God represents what is right and good, it makes sense to your grandpaa that God would expect who He chose to be His specially chosen guys and gals that they would always live lives that are right and good and that they would always only do things that are right and good to do. It makes sense to your grandpaa today that God would expect that the guys, gals and kids who He specially elected to always live right and good lives and to always only do things that are right and good to do. God – as God the Spirit, is giving His specially elected guys, gals and kids the light of truth 24/7 to live and walk by. Light is necessary for a guy or gal to know where he or she is going in the dark. When your grandmaa and grandpaa were the administrators of the rural resident leadership training center in Concepción, Ñuflo de Chávez – in Bolivia, your grandpaa would schedule the teachers for the different two week class modules. A teacher would teach three hours each morning Monday through Friday. A missionary couple who your grandpaa would always ask to teach a module was Ross and Graciela Buckner. The teachers who taught class modules would stay in a small room that had been built on the Centro de Capacitación property. Your grandmaa and grandpaa lived in the manse that is attached to the back of the church that is located on the Centro de Capacitación property. Because a bathroom with a toilet and shower is in the manse, the teachers would use that bathroom. After Graciela went to that bathroom one evening and as she was walking back to the room where she and Ross were staying, Graciela almost stepped on a yopi. Because she had her flashlight lit as she was walking back to the room where she and Ross were staying, Graciela saw the yopi just as she about to step on it. A yopi is a sidewinder. A sidewinder is a very venomous snake. The presence of God – as God the Spirit, is the ‘light’ Who always alerts God’s specially elected guys, gals and kids to the ‘snake’ who always wants to harm them.
Leviticus 24 (573)