Exodus – Chapter 29

You shall bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tent of meeting and wash them with water.⁵Then 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. Exodus 29:4-5 – We are invited into the process of how the priests who were to serve the Lord within the Tabernacle were to be set apart for the Lord’s work. They were to be washed and clothed to begin the process. Let’s though take in the reality of this process. First, this was all done at the entrance to the tent of meeting, not inside it, meaning all this was done out in the open for the entire congregation to see. The priest would be unclothed and would have someone else wash them, likely a humbling process. Then they wouldn’t even be allowed to dress themselves, but would had someone else do that for them. What all this was to represent was how they played no part in their becoming holy. They didn’t wash themselves clean and they didn’t put on their holy garments, someone else did that for them. In our process of becoming holy, we to have no hand in it, but have someone, named Jesus, doing it all for us. We are stripped bare before Him, every sin to be seen. He then washes us clean, making us white as snow. Then He puts on us His holiness, something we could never do ourselves. When looking at this process for the priests, do you think any of them should have been able to boast about their become holy as something they achieved? Nor should we. It’s not by our hands that we are in right standing with the Father, it’s only though Jesus’ work that we are. Praise the Lord we have a Savior who will work on our behalf and make us holy in the eyes of the Lord. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 3173

Exodus 29 Daily DEVO I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God. Exodus 29:45 – Just reading this verse alone sounds like a typical verse you might see God speak to His people. That He will be with them and be their God. What we need to look at is the 44 verses that came before this one. We see the incredible and continual sacrifices needing to be made in order for the people to be in right standing so verse 45 can be a reality. We must remember the incredible and continual sacrifice that was made for us as well so that God can dwell with us and be our God. If you were overwhelmed by all that had to go into the sacrifices in this chapter, think about all that took place on the cross. God loves you and took care of the sacrifice for you. We’ve been granted holiness freely because of Jesus’ sacrifice. Let’s make sure that the next time we think God hasn’t done anything for us we remember that there is a reason books like Exodus are a part of the history section of the Bible. That’s not the present narrative of our life with God anymore and it’s all because of Jesus. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 823

…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. Exodus 29:20 – Why on earth would God ask them to put blood on these so random of places on their body? At first this seemed just odd to me, but after studying this, I’ve fallen in love with the idea of this verse! This was to show they were giving all they had over to the service of God. Their ears to hear God’s law, their hands to obediently do God’s work, and their feet to always walk in God’s ways. From their head to their toes, all they had was being dedicated to the service and pursuit of God. It also showed they understood without this sacrificial blood they couldn’t serve and pursue God like they were called to. They couldn’t understand God’s law without the blood, the ways they serve with their hands wouldn’t be pleasing to God without the blood, and they wouldn’t be able to pursue God without the blood. Today, we have the blood of Jesus covering us completely, head to toe. We can understand God’s law, serve as God’s desires us to, and can pursue Him endlessly all because of the blood of Jesus. My hope is you are. Give your ears over today to the hearing and study of God’s Word. Give you hands over to the work God has for you today. Give your feet to the path God wants you on today. Give yourself wholly over to the holy pursuit of Jesus. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 1912