Exodus 30 Devotional Bible Study

Exodus 30 Chapter Summary

There was also to be an Altar of Incense, on which the priest was to burn incense every morning and evening.

The Israelites were then to pay a set offering as a ransom for their lives, and God promised that no plague would come one them. The money was to be used for the Tent of Meeting.

 

The Basin for Washing was to stand between the Altar of Burning Offering and the Tent of Meeting for the priests to wash their hands before making sacrifices and before entering the Tent.

 

Moses was to make the Anointing Oil with a blend of specific ingredients and use it to anoint the Tent of Meeting and its furnishings and the priests.

 

Moses was to also make a special blend of incense. Anyone who made incense like it for personal use was to be put to death.

 

Holy to the Lord

The altar, the anointing oil, and the incense we read about in Exodus 30 were all to be holy. They were to be used for one purpose, and if anyone used the same items or the same blend for anything other than worshiping the Lord, they were to be put to death. Also included in this chapter is the command for the priests to wash their hands before they minister or touch any of the holy items, or else they would die.

What in your life is to be set apart as holy, used only for the Lord? We know that our entire lives are to be lived in service to the Lord, but let’s get specific. Do you have a certain prayer time set apart for the Lord, or a time designated to read your Bible? Do you set aside a certain portion of your money to be used only on the Lord’s work? Ask the Lord what He wants you to treat as holy today.

 

Each One

Exodus 30:11-16

Then the Lord said to Moses, “When you take a census of the Israelites to count them, each one must pay the Lord a ransom for his life at the time he is counted. Then no plague will come on them when you number them. Each one who crosses over to those already counted is to give a half shekel, according to the sanctuary shekel, which weighs twenty gerahs. This half shekel is an offering to the Lord. All who cross over, those twenty years old or more, are to give an offering to the Lord. The rich are not to give more than a half shekel and the poor are not to give less when you make the offering to the Lord to atone for your lives. Receive the atonement money from the Israelites and use it for the service of the tent of meeting. It will be a memorial for the Israelites before the Lord, making atonement for your lives.”

I love how everyone is valued the same. The ransom you pay is the same ransom I pay. The ransom the rich pays is the same ransom the poor pays. The ransom the women pay is the same as the man is the same as the child.

You know that you’ve been ransomed, right? You were spiritually bankrupt, in debt beyond ever being able to pay what you owed, captive to sin and a slave to the devil. But Jesus paid your ransom by taking your place on the cross and in Hell. And the price He paid was the same for every single person. He valued each one of us equally. He paid the same high price for you as He did for me.

Jesus gave His life as an offering for you. What can you offer to Him today?