We did a survey in short order of worship in the world before Mt. Sinai. I want to add one thought, concerning a priest named Melchizedek. He was “the priest of God Most High” (Gen. 14:18). In other words, he/He (some think Melchizedek was a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ) only worshiped and offered sacrifices to the true God. This is what Jethro came to see and believe in Ex. 18. YAHWEH, the God of Israel, is also known in the Bible as “God Most High.” Jethro said, “Now I know that YAHWEH is greater than all gods” (18:11). Therefore, on the spot, he did what he did as an occupation: he conducted a worship service attended by “Aaron … with all the elders of Israel” (18:12).
After Exodus 28:1, what Jethro did would have been false worship. “Now take Aaron your brother, and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel, that he may minister to Me as priest.” The old way was: every man was a priest for his own household. The new way was: the only priests in the worship of YAHWEH were Aaron and his descendants. Furthermore, the old way was: when you want to worship YAHWEH, build an altar somewhere. But effective Exodus 40, when the tabernacle was put together, the new way was: YAHWEH will dwell over the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle; so the only altar for sacrifice is the one just outside the door of the tabernacle.
All this makes sense out of the first two of the Ten Commandments: “You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image” (Ex. 20:3-4). Every nation had their gods. But God, the Creator and the God who promised to provide an adequate atonement for sin, had determined to attach Himself to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac AND Jacob. Worship was now exclusive. All other gods and altars and religions were idolatrous.
Wow! What a change. But we started this discussion talking about “transition.” So, in case you missed it, there was a transition from the old to the new at Mt. Sinai, even as there was after the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2). Did you know that Moses served as “priest” for the people of Israel after they left Egypt? He chose some young men of Israel to do the hard work (what would become the work of the Levites), and then Moses sprinkled “the blood of the covenant” on the altar of sacrifice that would eventually be used by Aaron (Ex. 24:5-8). And there’s more. Moses also put his own tent at the outskirts of the camp of Israel and called it “the tabernacle of meeting” and that was where he met with God (Ex. 33:7-11). These were “transitional” but were not permanent because God had another plan.
Now, think about the golden calf (Ex. 32:1-6). What happened? The people, and apparently even Aaron, began to question God, and reverted to the old way. They designated a god and offered sacrifices. And there’s no time to go into this, but if you read about Jeroboam establishing the religion of the Northern Kingdom, he did the same thing: he reverted to the gold calves and even established a feast to rival the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem (1 Kings 12:25-33).
There is a simple principle here having to do with interpretation of Scripture. We learn doctrine from passages that teach doctrine, not from passages that tell stories. It really is simple. Just because something happened, and seemed to have God’s blessing (young men serving as priests and Moses meeting with God in his own tent; some, but not all believers, receiving the Spirit by the laying on of hands, speaking in tongues, etc.), does not make it the norm for God’s people. The “norm” is laid out clearly by Moses who met with God on the Mountain in the Old Testament and the Apostles of Christ in the New Testament. “Be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior” (2 Peter 3:2).
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