Unauthorized זוּר

We are in chapter thirty of Exodus with our word for today. זוּר strange, different, heterogeneous, illicit, unauthorized, prohibited, other. It is used 70 times in the Old Testament, twice in our chapter. It is used in the sense of other or someone else. Proverbs 27:2 Let זָ֣רsomeone else praise you, and not your own mouth; an outsider, and not your own lips. Proverbs 14:10 Each heart knows its own bitterness, and no זָֽרone else can share its joy. We also see our word used in the sense of a stranger or foreigner. Proverbs 11:15 Whoever puts up security for a זָ֑ר stranger will surely suffer, but whoever refuses to shake hands in pledge is safe. Jeremiah 3:13 Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the Lord your God and scattered your favors among לַזָּרִ֗ים foreigners under every green tree, and that you have not obeyed my voice, declares the Lord. Ezekiel 16:32 Adulterous wife, who receives זָרִֽים strangers instead of her husband! Lamentations 5:2 Our inheritance has been turned over לְזָרִ֔ים to strangers, our homes to foreigners. Our word is used as outsider in the sense that they are not a priest or Levite in that they are not authorized. Numbers 1:51 When the tabernacle is to set out, the Levites shall take it down, and when the tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up. And if any וְהַזָּ֥ר outsider comes near, he shall be put to death. Numbers 16:40 to be a reminder to the people of Israel, so that no זָ֗ר outsider, who is not of the descendants of Aaron, should draw near to burn incense before the Lord, lest he become like Korah and his company—as the Lord said to him through Moses. This idea of unauthorized is how our word is used in our chapter today. Exodus 30:1, 7-9, 31-33 You shall make an altar on which to burn incense … And Aaron shall burn fragrant incense on it. Every morning when he dresses the lamps he shall burn it, and when Aaron sets up the lamps at twilight, he shall burn it, a regular incense offering before the Lord throughout your generations. You shall not offer זָרָ֖ה unauthorized incense on it, or a burnt offering, or a grain offering, and you shall not pour a drink offering on it … And you shall say to the people of Israel, ‘This shall be my holy anointing oil throughout your generations. It shall not be poured on the body of an ordinary person, and you shall make no other like it in composition. It is holy, and it shall be holy to you. Whoever compounds any like it or whoever puts any of it on an זָ֑ר outsider shall be cut off from his people. Both uses in our chapter point to this unauthorized idea in that both the incense and the anointing oil are to be respected as holy, set apart for the use God instructed and no other. This reminds us that now as believers the New Testament instructs us that our own bodies are God’s dwelling place to be used for his glory and purposes. 1 Corinthians 6:15-20 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. I’ll close with this great reminder. 2 Timothy 1:14 By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.