Deborah D.’s Journal

This sums up the Beattitudes. We are to live as Christ lived, loving others and doing good to all. Our Heavenly Father is to get the praise and glory. I truly love this verse. It is a challenge from our Lord and Savior!

God desires for us to confess all sins, even some we might not be aware of. Believers have been cleared of all sin, but we still can displease the Lord, and we still can suffer the consequences when we do transgress. The Holy Spirit will speak in that still small voice and convict us of our sin. We should then immediately go to the Lord and confess it and ask His forgiveness. And also repent of that sin.

The entire passage reminds me that when sins are committed, the blood is required as an atonement; and in that, atonement is made for the sin committed, and forgiveness is the result. Rejoicing that Christ was the only sacrifice once and for all that made atonement, so that the blood of goats, bulls, lambs, are no longer necessary. The book of Hebrews 9 comes to mind.

God gave the Israelites certain instructions for sacrificial offerings to Him. I am so glad and rejoicing that Jesus did away with such intricate things one has to do in order to be right with God. Jesus was the Ultimate Sacrifice, the One and Only, Once and for all, the precious and spotless Lamb of God! Thank You, Lord Jesus, for loving me that way and for dying for my sins and for arising from the grave and for sitting at the right hand of the Father, and for planning to return soon. Even so, come Lord Jesus!

Salt is a seasoner, a purifier, a perservative. I think of the passages in the New Testament, where believers are to be the salt in society. We are to be a persevative, a purifier for righteousness. We are also, like salt, a stinging sensation in some areas. This to me would be when we confront sin and stand up for righteousness in a godless generation. I see that the command in this verse is definite: Do not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offerings; add salt to all your offerings. Believers are to live the same way, as salt in our world.

The final verse is further explanation of the order of the sacrifices to the Lord by the Israelites and the priests. "An aroma pleasing to the Lord," is the stand-out phrase for this passage of scripture. May my life always be "an aroma pleasing to the Lord. Amen.

The LORD was always with His people, watching over them day and night. The Israelites were instructed by Moses, who did everything just "as the LORD commanded him." The Israelites, in turn, listened to Moses' instructions and followed them. The result was the tabernacle, designed to perfection by the LORD God. The protection the LORD gave them was fitting: a cloud by day to shield them and a fire by night to alluminate them, and all the Israelites saw it.How magnificent is that?! The main thing I keep going back to is that the people and Moses, as their leader chosen by God, were obedient to do just what the LORD required of them.

God used the various talents of His people to complete the task at hand. He uses people to complete His will on earth. Being the omnipotent Creator, He could just as well and much easier have called it into existence, but He preferred to use people to accomplish it. The intricate work is described in this chapter, as to the care and diligence the people took to be obedient to the Lord in completing the tabernacle. They did just as the Lord had commanded and instructed Moses, and Moses, in turn, blessed them. God blesses His work, always---and those who are involved in it.

This demonstrates the precision and the details that went into the construction of the tabernacle, and that the Israelites were obedient to God throught he direction of Moses. It reminds me of how God is in the details of our lives and that everything He does has a precision and purpose to it.