April 12, 2023

"I will dwell among the people."

Exodus 29

Luis Caceres
Wednesday's Devo

April 12, 2023

Wednesday's Devo

April 12, 2023

Big Idea

God reveals the way and His will through His Word.

Key Verse | Exodus 29:45

"I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God."

Exodus 29

Consecration of the Priests

Now this is what you shall do to them to consecrate them, that they may serve me as priests. Take one bull of the herd and two rams without blemish, and unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers smeared with oil. You shall make them of fine wheat flour. You shall put them in one basket and bring them in the basket, and bring the bull and the two rams. You shall bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tent of meeting and wash them with water. Then you shall take the garments, and put on Aaron the coat and the robe of the ephod, and the ephod, and the breastpiece, and gird him with the skillfully woven band of the ephod. And you shall set the turban on his head and put the holy crown on the turban. You shall take the anointing oil and pour it on his head and anoint him. Then you shall bring his sons and put coats on them, and you shall gird Aaron and his sons with sashes and bind caps on them. And the priesthood shall be theirs by a statute forever. Thus you shall ordain Aaron and his sons.

10 Then you shall bring the bull before the tent of meeting. Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the bull. 11 Then you shall kill the bull before the LORD at the entrance of the tent of meeting, 12 and shall take part of the blood of the bull and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger, and the rest of 1 29:12 Hebrew all the blood you shall pour out at the base of the altar. 13 And you shall take all the fat that covers the entrails, and the long lobe of the liver, and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them, and burn them on the altar. 14 But the flesh of the bull and its skin and its dung you shall burn with fire outside the camp; it is a sin offering.

15 Then you shall take one of the rams, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the ram, 16 and you shall kill the ram and shall take its blood and throw it against the sides of the altar. 17 Then you shall cut the ram into pieces, and wash its entrails and its legs, and put them with its pieces and its head, 18 and burn the whole ram on the altar. It is a burnt offering to the LORD. It is a pleasing aroma, a food offering 2 29:18 Or an offering by fire; also verses 25, 41 to the LORD.

19 You shall take the other ram, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the ram, 20 and you shall kill the ram and take part of its blood and put it on the tip of the right ear of Aaron and on the tips of the right ears of his sons, and on the thumbs of their right hands and on the great toes of their right feet, and throw the rest of the blood against the sides of the altar. 21 Then you shall take part of the blood that is on the altar, and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it on Aaron and his garments, and on his sons and his sons' garments with him. He and his garments shall be holy, and his sons and his sons' garments with him.

22 You shall also take the fat from the ram and the fat tail and the fat that covers the entrails, and the long lobe of the liver and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them, and the right thigh (for it is a ram of ordination), 23 and one loaf of bread and one cake of bread made with oil, and one wafer out of the basket of unleavened bread that is before the LORD. 24 You shall put all these on the palms of Aaron and on the palms of his sons, and wave them for a wave offering before the LORD. 25 Then you shall take them from their hands and burn them on the altar on top of the burnt offering, as a pleasing aroma before the LORD. It is a food offering to the LORD.

26 You shall take the breast of the ram of Aaron's ordination and wave it for a wave offering before the LORD, and it shall be your portion. 27 And you shall consecrate the breast of the wave offering that is waved and the thigh of the priests' portion that is contributed from the ram of ordination, from what was Aaron's and his sons'. 28 It shall be for Aaron and his sons as a perpetual due from the people of Israel, for it is a contribution. It shall be a contribution from the people of Israel from their peace offerings, their contribution to the LORD.

29 The holy garments of Aaron shall be for his sons after him; they shall be anointed in them and ordained in them. 30 The son who succeeds him as priest, who comes into the tent of meeting to minister in the Holy Place, shall wear them seven days.

31 You shall take the ram of ordination and boil its flesh in a holy place. 32 And Aaron and his sons shall eat the flesh of the ram and the bread that is in the basket in the entrance of the tent of meeting. 33 They shall eat those things with which atonement was made at their ordination and consecration, but an outsider shall not eat of them, because they are holy. 34 And if any of the flesh for the ordination or of the bread remain until the morning, then you shall burn the remainder with fire. It shall not be eaten, because it is holy.

35 Thus you shall do to Aaron and to his sons, according to all that I have commanded you. Through seven days shall you ordain them, 36 and every day you shall offer a bull as a sin offering for atonement. Also you shall purify the altar, when you make atonement for it, and shall anoint it to consecrate it. 37 Seven days you shall make atonement for the altar and consecrate it, and the altar shall be most holy. Whatever touches the altar shall become holy.

38 Now this is what you shall offer on the altar: two lambs a year old day by day regularly. 39 One lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight. 40 And with the first lamb a tenth measure 3 29:40 Possibly an ephah (about 3/5 bushel or 22 liters) of fine flour mingled with a fourth of a hin 4 29:40 A hin was about 4 quarts or 3.5 liters of beaten oil, and a fourth of a hin of wine for a drink offering. 41 The other lamb you shall offer at twilight, and shall offer with it a grain offering and its drink offering, as in the morning, for a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the LORD. 42 It shall be a regular burnt offering throughout your generations at the entrance of the tent of meeting before the LORD, where I will meet with you, to speak to you there. 43 There I will meet with the people of Israel, and it shall be sanctified by my glory. 44 I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar. Aaron also and his sons I will consecrate to serve me as priests. 45 I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God. 46 And they shall know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them. I am the LORD their God.

Footnotes

[1] 29:12 Hebrew all
[2] 29:18 Or an offering by fire; also verses 25, 41
[3] 29:40 Possibly an ephah (about 3/5 bushel or 22 liters)
[4] 29:40 A hin was about 4 quarts or 3.5 liters

S2:068 Exodus 29

Listen Now

Dive Deeper | Exodus 29

As we get ready to celebrate Watermark en Español's two-year anniversary, I am reminded that God's promise to "dwell among the people" still stands today . . . even if we speak different languages. 

In this passage, God makes to His people promises that still remain today:

  • God will manifest Himself to His people permanently (Exodus 29:42-43). We may not need the tent of meeting or to sacrifice a lamb, but we still need to meet with God daily. And if we prepare our hearts, He will also speak to us through His Spirit and His Word.
  • God desires to be with His people and protect them (Exodus 29:45). God's action in bringing the Israelites out of Egypt showed His great desire to be with them and protect them. Similarly, God wants to live among us, even in our hearts! Don't exclude Him from your life. Allow Him to be your God, obey His Word and communicate with Him through prayer. 
  • God is real, and He is in the business of transforming lives (Exodus 29:46). What a great privilege for the Israelites—especially considering that they were a nation of slaves who had escaped from Egypt. Like the Israelites, I was once a slave to pride, anger, and pornography. God rescued me and set me free, but I need continuous reminders of how far He has brought me out of the desert.

As believers, we are greatly blessed by God. He wants to reveal Himself daily in our lives. He is faithful to us, even if we are unfaithful to Him. He is ready to meet with us, speak to us, and change our lives. All He is asking is for us to come with hearts of reverence and repentance.

This month's memory verse

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand;

– Philippians 4:4-5

Discussion Questions

1. How are you preparing your heart to meet with God daily? 

2. What sin struggles has God freed you from? Whom can you share this with today?

3. Is there a sin you are still a slave to? Whom can you confess this to and ask for prayer?

As we gear up to release even more features for Join The Journey in 2025, our staff team, unfortunately, no longer has the margin to continue to support the comment functionality. We have big things in store for Join The Journey 2025. Stay tuned!

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Hugh Stephenson

GM Luis! Love your focus on those three huge promises. I need endless reminders of who He is and how much He loves us. Q1. Structure is the key for me. With dogs walked and coffee made…in order- journaling, prayer list, Oswald Chambers, (utmost.org), The Journey & podcast. Q2. A “HAHA” question. Answer: All of them. No longer a slave to sin but still subject to it. Plenty of temptations but I know where to go for help. Q3. Lots of temptations. Pride and gluttony are the toughest. I never met a bread pudding I didn’t like.
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Hugh Stephenson

Back to the “who am I?” Question. Thinking a lot lately about consecration. From Strong’s, (partially)- "make, pronounce or observe as clean (ceremonially or morally); appoint, prepare, purify, sanctify, dedicate, be hallowed, be holy, be set apart." https://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-consecration.html https://www.gotquestions.org/anointed-priest.html How about bond-servant? That’s what Paul calls himself. https://www.gotquestions.org/bondservant.html How about a “mensch”? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mensch In college I learned about being a True Gentleman https://sites.google.com/site/provincegamma/resources/the-true-gentleman More specifically, what does God say being a good shepherd look like? 1 Peter 5:1-5, 1 Timothy 3:1-16
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Hugh Stephenson

.Do all these words define/describe me? Is this the identity to which God calls me? Am I really “set apart” and a “sent one”? Could I dare to think about myself in these ways? To the degree I am faithful it is only because of the Holy Spirit and the work done to purify me and burn off all my dross- Zechariah 13:9, 1 Peter 1:6-7, Malachi 3:3 If you saw the hundreds of lines in my re:gen inventory and knew the difficulty of continuing struggles, you’d likely doubt. There are times I doubt myself, (Romans 3:23, 6:23, 5:8). Just a few more steps on the “road” and I get to Romans 10:9-10 and Ephesians 2:8-9. THIS is the center of my identity in the cross and resurrection, (Galatians 2:20). God says this in Exodus 6:7, 19:6. Also that His Spirit indwells me, https://www.gotquestions.org/indwelling-of-the-Holy-Spirit.html
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Hugh Stephenson

-So then, if that’s who I am, to what role does God call me? The key is “God calls me”. In faithfulness, God calls me to use my gifts for His glory, not mine. That means I don’t choose what my calling is or how I live it out? He does. If I step in fronton Him he’ll step back and let me reap the harvest of my selfishness and disobedience, (Galatians 6:7, Hosea 8:7). Oswald conveys great wisdom on this- https://utmost.org/how-could-someone-be-so-ignorant/ More faithfully, my prayer is to live out His call to me to proclaim, witness, and teach, (Psalm 71:18, Acts 1:8, Matthew 28:19-20).
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Michael Sisson

Re: Ex 29:9 Ex 29:9 (NASB) “You shall gird them with sashes, Aaron and his sons, and bind caps on them, and >>>they shall have the priesthood by a perpetual statute.<<< So you shall ordain Aaron and his sons.” See Jer 33:17-18 Re: Ex 29:45-46 A fulfillment of Ex 6:7.
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Chris Landry

Hi Luis! Give Oscar a hug for me. Love what y'all are doing with WM en Español! The summarization is worth meditating on (found in last few verses. Same one Luis' Devo was written about today): -- God meets with us. (Exodus 29:43) -- God dwells with us. (Exodus 29:45) -- He is our Rescuer. (Exodus 29:46) "Rescuer" is the word that is most often used to describe Jesus in my kids Story Book Bible. I'm grateful for God's presence and rescuing.
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Sue Bohlin

Super devo, Luis, and bless you for your ministry at Watermark en Espanol! I cringed when reading God's command to sprinkle blood on the altar and even moreso on the priestly garments. All that beauty and glory, befouled with a layer of gruesomeness--except that the bloodied garments pointed forward to the bloodied body of our Messiah to come. Some of the sacrifices that pleased God were bloody sacrifices because blood is precious; it embodies and represents life. And it signals how we are redeemed by the "lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ," as Peter writes. As I'm thinking about the bloodiness of the altar and the garments, which makes me think of Christ's blood poured out for me, I am reminded of what Jesus said to Thomas after His resurrection: "See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." No mention of blood in His resurrected body--it had been poured out for us! Thank You, Jesus, for the blood applied! (Lyrics of a great worship song co-written by CityBridge's worship pastor, David Gentiles) https://youtu.be/nbCnh5Q2o1Y
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Amy Lowther

1. I am preparing my heart on a daily basis for the time I will meet God. I do this by giving my days to God every morning when I wake up, giving consideration to where I will need to use God’s values and where I will need to help someone else share God’s values. I also read in the Bible (book or on my phone) to know God better, to increase my value of Him, to know Jesus better and to increase my value of Him. 2. Recently sin struggles for me have been zero. In previous years, God has helped me with sin struggles in shopping, working, education, and eating disorders. I share how God has helped me in these areas whenever needed with anyone who has similar struggles so they increase their chances of success without my mistakes. 3. It is easy to relapse in any sin but if you study God’s word and practice His values a little bit each day, relapses can be avoided. Prayer: God, thank you for being a rock, for being solid for each and everyone. Thank you for your love and for your help to know being loved is good. Your belief in each of us and what we do helps us know that we do not need to be anyone’s slave or anything”s slave either. We thank you and we love you. Amen.
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Michael Scaman

Consecrating the priests by putting a little blood on the ear, thumb and tie reminds us to be careful how we listen, do and walk.