Day 7 ~ Stiff-necked people

I slept in this morning, and while I ate my breakfast, I mean brunch, I turned on the TV. The show that was on was about Moses in the wilderness of Sinai. No kidding. I didn't change the channel to it, it was on when I turned the set on. I spent the day baking cookies for the business blast servant evangelism challenge. I only ate three. Jeff and Grace took a bikeride at Forest Park. Tonight's observances:

• Six years cultivating, then a year fallow. Is that next spring for our garden?
• Why can't you boil a young goat in it's mother's milk?
• Any troops would feel a bit more confident if they had an angel, confusion among the enemy and hornets going before them to battle. IF they keep the covenants.
• 24:9 - Moses, Aaron, Nadab and Abihu + 70 more SEE GOD. Don't underestimate what this would be like. What part of God they see, I'm not sure, as later God will say no one will see His face and live, and Moses wouldn't be able to take it if he saw all of God's glory.
• Moses waits on the mountain 6 days with Joshua, then ascends to the Lord for a whole lot of instructions and visuals of what needed to happen. It's not clear if Joshua went up with Moses, but it would have been nice to have a secretary and sketch artist around.
• All the plunder from the Egyptians would be coming in handy.
• 25:16 - what is the "testimony" - the term was used in reference to the sample of manna before.
• God will now dwell among His people and communicate from his mercy seat. He provides detailed instructions to Moses for ark, table, curtains, altars, priests' clothing, oil, washstand, and incense, among other things. The expression goes "the devil is in the details." I think this shows that God is in the details.
• I need to look up birthstones and see if they are the same as the stones in the breastplate, just for curiosity.
• 28:30 - what are urim and thummim?
• Details again, remember how God didn't want to see up the skirts of the priests as they go up the altar steps? He gives instructions for trousers.
• 29:20 - I don't remember this odd detail (and many others): blood on the right ear, thumb and big toe.
• There are lots of types of offerings: burnt, wave, heave, drink, grain, incense...
• Okay, now all this detailed stuff - this is to be done every day. I don't know if the tribe of Levi considered themselves lucky or unlucky. 29:35. There are multiple layering of actions: daily, weekly, during festivals, annually, every seven years, every 50 years.
• Okay, Moses, you are the contestant designer on ________ (pick a home improvement show: trading spaces, design star, while you were out...). How will you ever pull off the plan God has given you? You get some very well-equipped help from the tribes of Judah and Dan (they come equipped with killer skills as well as the filling of the Holy Spirit!)
• How many signs of the covenant between God and the Hebrews are we up to now? Circumcision, law, sacrifices, keep the sabbath...
• WHAT IS AARON THINKING!!! He saw God! Maybe the tribe of Levi is not such a great choice to make to fulfill all the detailed rules.
• God basically tells Moses that he's had it, and will start over with his nation with Moses, but Moses tells God He will get more glory if the stiff-necked people live. The Lord relents.
• Joshua is again described with Moses. Was he at base camp up in the clouds this whole time?
• Moses then experiences some of the hot anger that God expressed, and destroys the tablets. He inquires of Aaron what terrible threat the people made against Aaron to make the idol. Aaron's answer is very weak. Some people are immediately singled out as evil and killed.
• Just wait until your father gets home! Isn't that much worse than the actual swift punishment. God tells the Hebrews the same thing - your punishment is coming, now move on to Horeb, and I'm leading with an angel this time, otherwise I might just consume you if I get too close!
• Moses wants assurance from God that He won't abandon His nation, since they are the group that is really going to stick out, and God assures Moses that He's got Moses' back.
• Moses and God are pretty tight - like good friends. They meet in Moses' tent outside the camp. God shows him a glimpse of His glory. I don't know how that is different that seeing God at the beginning of this passage, but it must be. That is a whole 'nutha topic.