Gilbert House Fellowship

TAKE TWO at Mount Sinai: Moses goes back up the mountain for another 40 days and nights to get two new tablets to replace the ones he smashed. We discuss the construction of the tabernacle and the willingness of the Israelites to contribute building materials after the unpleasantness following the golden calf incident. We also explain why the famed artist Michelangelo sculpted Moses with horns — i...

IT DIDN’T take long for Israel to rebel against God’s commands. They broke the first two commandments—no other gods and no idols—before Moses even came down from Mount Sinai. We discuss the Israelites’ desire for an idol to give locality to their “god,” and whether the golden calf was supposed to represent Yahweh, the storm-god Baal, the moon-god Sîn (they were at Sinai, after all), or the creator...

THE RULES for consecrating the Aaronic priesthood were very specific, and many of those rules were a repudiation of rituals the pagan neighbors of ancient Israel practices for their gods. We discuss the purposed of the blood shed by the bulls and rams sacrificed during the ritual, the reasons for burning their livers and kidneys, and the restricted use of holy anointing oil. (In other words, we sh...

THE GARMENT worn by the high priest represented the tribes of Israel, who were (symbolically) brought before the Lord when Aaron and his successors entered the Holy Place. We discuss the ephod, probably a tunic or robe worn on the upper body, the breastpiece of judgment that held the twelve gemstones inscribed with the names of the tribes of Israel, and the purpose of the Urim and Thummim — about...

THE ARK OF THE COVENANT is the focus of this week’s study. Contrary to Raiders of the Lost Ark, no, it was not a radio to talk to God. The ark was, in fact, God’s throne. He sat above the mercy seat, between the cherubim—who, by the way, looked more like sphinxes than the effeminate angels typically portrayed by artists. Cherubim, and similar throne guardians such as the lamassu of Assyria and the...

MANY OF US have been taught that it isn’t possible to see God with our natural eyes and live. How do we reconcile that with the account of God personally eating a meal with Moses, Aaron, and the seventy elders of Israel? The scripture verse is clear: And He did not lay His hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank. (Exodus 24:11) This is an appearance by the...

WE DIG into the Law this week, as we discuss God’s commands to Israel on such things as slaves, restitution, and social justice. Slavery, in particular, had a far different meaning in the ancient Near East than it does for us in 21st century America. “Indentured servanthood” is perhaps a better term, since Hebrew slaves were to be released after six years of service. The roles of men and women wer...

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS were the first instructions given to Moses upon Israel’s arrival at Sinai. And the first command was “you shall have no other gods before me.” We discuss the commandments and the reasons God had for emphasizing that directive and the one that followed, a prohibition on carved images to represent Him or any other spirit being in heaven, on earth, or “in the water under the eart...

THE WILDERNESS OF SIN had nothing to do with naughtiness in the desert. It was, in fact, a reference to the moon-god Sîn, which is likely why Moses mentioned the day of the month Israel entered the desert (15th day of the second month, when the moon was full). Likewise, Mount Sinai was probably named for the moon-god. We’ll see further encounters with the moon-god and his followers, the Amorites,...

THE RED SEA crossing is an iconic moment in the Bible, the history of Israel, and in movies (thanks to legendary producer/director Cecil B. DeMille). But it’s way cooler than you might know. We explain why this event was far more than just Israel’s escape from Egypt. For example, have you ever noticed that God directed Moses to turn around and camp—in other words, to stop and wait for the Egyptian...

THE PASSOVER is a milestone in world history. It’s a defining moment in the creation of Israel, and thus, a key event in the natural and spiritual history of the world. We discuss the connection between the Passover and another event of primary importance, the crucifixion of Jesus. We also discuss the cross-pollination of the pantheons of the Amorites (Canaanites) and Egyptians, and why it’s so di...

IT’S A showdown on the Nile between the God of the Hebrews and the gods of Egypt. However, contrary to what we’ve been taught, the gods of Egypt in Moses’ day weren’t all Egyptian gods. We discuss the first seven plagues of the Exodus and why we believe a one-to-one correspondence between the plagues and Egyptian gods doesn’t give us the full picture. Psalm 78:48-49 reveals that the seventh plague...

MOSES RETURNS to Egypt with Aaron as his mouthpiece, a concession by God to Moses’ reluctance to speak to his fellow Hebrews about the Lord’s promise of deliverance. Despite being told by God that Pharaoh’s heart would be hardened, Moses complained when the king of Egypt not only refused to let Israel go, but increased the burden on the Israelites working to make bricks. We also discuss the strang...

ISRAEL SPENT 430 years in Egypt. This is recorded in Exodus 12:40-41 and Galatians 3:17. How do we reconcile that with God’s promise to Abraham that his descendants would return “in the fourth generation” (Gen. 15:16), or the four generations between Levi and Moses (Ex. 6:16-20)? We address that, and Derek admits his timeline of the ancient Hebrews needs to be adjusted accordingly. For the record,...

JACOB WAS buried at the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron. So, why did Joseph and his brothers take his body all the way around the other side of the Dead Sea and mourn for seven days at a threshing floor in the ruined city of Sodom? We discuss the “physicians” of Joseph (ropheim in Hebrew) and the Rephaim of the Transjordan, explain why we believe the threshing floor of Atad was at the site of Sodom, a...

JACOB’S STORY comes to a close this week. He lived for seventeen years in Egypt, long enough to see Joseph use the foreknowledge given by God to concentrate power in the hands of the pharaoh (and the same number of years Joseph lived before he was sold into slavery by his brothers). We discuss Jacob’s blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh, in which we see again an elder brother passed over in favor of...

JOSEPH FINALLY reveals himself to his brothers, unable to continue his deception any longer. His brothers had returned to Egypt to buy more grain, bringing Joseph’s only full brother, Benjamin, with them as he’d ordered. But when Judah pleaded for Joseph to allow Benjamin to return to Jacob, Joseph was overcome with emotion and told them who he was. Jacob and the entire family entourage returned t...

ALL OF us have had a wilderness experience of one kind of another. For Joseph, much of it was spent in prison cells. Two years after interpreting dreams for the baker and cupbearer for the king of Egypt, Joseph is summoned to make sense of a pair of disturbing dreams for the pharaoh. You know the story: God showed the king that seven years of plenty would be followed by seven years of famine. Phar...

IF THE Bible had truly been edited to make the apostles, prophets, and patriarchs look better, chapter 38 of Genesis would have disappeared centuries ago. This week, we discuss the unseemly episode of Judah’s relationship with his daughter-in-law, Tamar, by whom he fathered Perez, an ancestor of Jesus. We also discuss the history of the period to explain the timeline between Abraham and the Exodus...

JOSEPH APPEARS to have been something of a spoiled brat. Either he had no self-awareness at all or his self-image was so inflated that he didn’t care what his brothers thought of him. The story of Joseph’s brothers selling him into slavery is a reminder that even in times of trouble, God has a plan, and He brings His plans to fruition through flawed and imperfect humans. We also discuss the histor...

JACOB WAS not exactly an ideal father. His reaction to the rape of his daughter Dinah by the prince of the city of Shechem is puzzling. Genesis chapter 34 shows that he didn’t say anything when learning of Dinah’s humiliation, or while his sons Simeon and Levi, two of Dinah’s six brothers by their mother Leah, plotted revenge against the city of Shechem, slaughtering the men after deceiving them i...

FEEDING THE dead was an integral part of the world in which Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived. We’ve previously discussed Abraham’s distress at not having an heir to provide for him in the afterlife; this week, we explain why Jacob’s father-in-law, Laban, was so upset about losing his teraphim, the small idols that represented dead ancestors who had to be summoned to a meal every month with a necrom...

PORTALS AND contact with the spirit realm are at the heart of this week’s Bible study. First, we discuss Jacob’s dream during his journey from the Negev to Haran in northern Mesopotamia. We’ve heard the term “Jacob’s ladder,” but the underlying Hebrew word reveals that what he saw was more likely a ziggurat—the ancient Mesopotamian pyramid that represented a stairway to heaven. We explain the conn...

ISAAC IS a transitional character in the Bible, the bridge between Abraham and Jacob. We discuss the stories of Isaac’s adult life—his lie about Rebekah to the king of Gerar and how how Jacob received the blessing that Isaac had planned to give Esau. While it’s hard to reconcile the deception of Rebekah and Jacob, we must remember that Esau thought so little of his birthright that he sold it to Ja...

WE REACH the end of Abraham’s time on earth this week. We discuss the death of Sarah, Abraham’s purchase of the cave of Machpelah, the marriage of Isaac, the birth of Esau and Jacob, and the short-sightedness of Esau in selling off his birthright for a bowl of beans.