Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Exodus, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
God’s Identity and Power
Redemption and Deliverance
The Covenant
Mediators and the Priesthood
Summary
Analysis
God commands the people to make an altar where they can offer incense. It should be made of acacia wood overlaid with gold, with poles for carrying. The altar of incense should be placed in front of the curtain that will be placed above the ark of the covenant and in front of the mercy seat. Every morning and evening, Aaron must offer incense on the altar. Once a year, Aaron must perform a rite of atonement on the horns of the altar, using the blood of the sin offering.
Like the table for the bread of the presence and the lampstand, the incense altar is one of the golden objects in the tabernacle’s holy place. Along with daily burnt offerings and tending the lampstand, Aaron’s daily duties also include burning incense. This section also mentions the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur, which will be fully explained in Leviticus 16.
Themes
The LORD instructs Moses to collect a half shekel from each Israelite age 20 or older when they are registered in the census. This is “a ransom for their lives” so that no plague will come upon the people. The collected money will be designated for the service of the tent of meeting.
It isn’t explained why a plague must be averted by means of a monetary offering when a census is taken. Perhaps it’s so that the people won’t take pride in their numbers rather than depending on God (a situation that comes up later in Israel’s history, under King David).
Themes
The LORD tells Moses to make a bronze basin and stand for washing. It will go between the tent of meeting and the altar. Whenever Aaron and his sons approach the tent to minister, they must wash their hands and feet in the basin, so that they won’t die.
The bronze basin, to be placed outside the tabernacle, has a very pragmatic function—a place for the priests to wash so that they can approach God as reverently as possible.
Themes
The LORD tells Moses to take the finest spices—myrrh, cinnamon, cane, and cassia—and mix them with olive oil to make a holy anointing oil. He must take this oil and anoint the tent, the ark of the covenant, the table, the lampstand, the altar of incense, and all the utensils. Then the objects will be holy, and whatever touches them will become holy. It will also be used to consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve as priests. The LORD tells Moses to take other sweet spices and beat them into a powder. Part of this incense should be put before the covenant in the tent of meeting. No one else may make or use a perfume from the same ingredients.
Anointing oil and incense will serve important functions in and around the tabernacle, both in the initial consecration of people and objects and in daily worship. This is why such substances must not be made or used for other purposes—these things and individuals are holy to God, so they, too, must be used only for specific tasks.
Themes
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