Today’s Scripture Reading (August 2,
2015): Exodus 28
Last week
North Korea decided to use the sixty-second anniversary of the Korean War Cease
fire to take a shot (figuratively) at the United States. The nation has now
been at war with their Southern counterparts for over sixty-five years,
although the actual fighting was terminated with a cease-fire on July 27, 1953
after a little more than three years of fighting (the T.V. series M*A*S*H
actually lasted almost four times longer than the actual conflict that it
described.) Officially, the war is considered to be a stalemate with all
attempts at invasion by the enemy fighters being repelled, but on the
anniversary of the cease-fire North Korea chose to put a different spin on the
war. They won it and set in motion the beginning of the downfall of the United
States, and if the United States dared to ever set its military feet on Korean
soil again, North Korea will finish it. And while President Kim Jong Un hinted
at North Korea’s new nuclear weapons aimed at the south, General Pak Yong Sik
commented that if the United States wanted to resume the fighting, North Korea
would make sure that there was not one American left alive on the Korean Peninsula
to sign a peace treaty.
No doubt the
words stung some sensitive American army officials, and behind the scenes there
have probably been exaggerated discussions about removing North Korea from the
face of the earth – something that we all know the United States would never
commit to – but the reality is that these are just words that lack substance. There
is no work behind them. These are words intended to boost the confidence of
what we believe is an extremely poor nation. Nothing in the North Korean
speeches are real, they are rhetoric designed to impress the ignorant. A
renewed war in Korea would be difficult on both sides – just as the first one
was. The United States has no interest in going back, although they do probably
wish that North Korea would play nice.
God begins
to give Moses detailed instructions on the clothes that the priest are to wear.
And on the shoulders the High Priest was to wear two onyx stones which have
been engraved with the names of sons or the tribes of Israel. Six names would
have been written on each stone. But what is interesting is the placement of
the stones. The stones are not to be placed on some sort of a hat or headband
to be worn on the head indicating that the tribes would be forever in his
thoughts. And the stones are not be placed on a vest that would keep them on
the heart of the High Priest indicating that at the core of his being he would
bear the concerns of the nation before God. The stones are to be placed on the
shoulders. Shoulders are the place that we bear our burdens. With our shoulders,
we work.
The High
Priest’s first duty was always to God, but the stones on his shoulders reminded
him of who he worked on behalf of – Israel. The things spoken by the High
Priest were never to be idle rhetoric. The High Priest was never to engage in ungodly
conversation. While he wore his ephod with the names of the tribes on his
shoulders, he worked hard before God and on behalf of Israel. Nothing could be
more important to the High Priest than the work that he was to do. And by this
he would set the example of godly behavior before the people.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus
29
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