Why do we need this?

[Seanette]

I'm quite sure there IS a reason the Scriptures include stuff like the minutia of the construction of the portable Tabernacle (I'm listening to Exodus today), but I'm at a loss as to why we need that information (likewise the censuses in Numbers) in our time.

Any ideas?

[Raven21633]

Any genealogist can answer your second question

[Seanette]

Any genealogist can answer your second question

Except for the all the lost info from several different periods of Jewish history. :)

[Blackmarch]

I'm quite sure there IS a reason the Scriptures include stuff like the minutia of the construction of the portable Tabernacle (I'm listening to Exodus today), but I'm at a loss as to why we need that information (likewise the censuses in Numbers) in our time.

Any ideas?

It was from God. While the actual dimensions may not mean much for us now, everything given in the law of moses from God is symbolic of something- including the dimensions and materials of the tabernacle.

[FunkyTown]

I'm quite sure there IS a reason the Scriptures include stuff like the minutia of the construction of the portable Tabernacle (I'm listening to Exodus today), but I'm at a loss as to why we need that information (likewise the censuses in Numbers) in our time.

Any ideas?

There is no such thing as minutiae in the bible.

In the old testament, there are more references to the sacrifice of a perfect bull being a pleasing scent to God than there is references to Moses speaking to Pharoah.

This suggests that God thought it was important for us to know this. Either God really loves barbecue, or this was a foreshadowing to the Saviour, that something perfect must be sacrificed to atone for our sins.

The same goes for lineages. God established something radical with the bible - Something unique to him. He wasn't the God of grain, like Dagon. He wasn't the God of wine, like Dionysus. He wasn't the head of a pantheon, like Odin. He was the God of everything - The creator and beginner of everything. He was the Alpha and the Omega.

The lineages reach back to show that God is responsible for everyone and not just for the Jews. The Old Testament could have started at the very first commandment given by God and talked of how He saved the Jews from Pharoah. It doesn't because God is not just the God of Abraham and Isaac. He is the God of everything.

Even the exact dimensions of the Temple are important, if you contemplate them and pray and try to understand why God wanted us to know them.

[gabelpa]

This suggests that God thought it was important for us to know this. Either God really loves barbecue, or this was a foreshadowing to the Saviour, that something perfect must be sacrificed to atone for our sins.

I think it's both. Who doesn't love a good barbecue?

[mordorbund]

I'm quite sure there IS a reason the Scriptures include stuff like the minutia of the construction of the portable Tabernacle (I'm listening to Exodus today), but I'm at a loss as to why we need that information (likewise the censuses in Numbers) in our time.

Any ideas?

The principle that I get from the tabernacle section is revelation. The Egyptians had temples. They even had arks which bore their gods among the common folk. Images of Isis have a striking resemblence to cherubim on a veil. But Moses wasn't building a temple to an Egyptian god. He was building the Lord's tabernacle. He was building the Lord's ark. And so the Lord specified exactly what that tabernacle and ark should be.

In our day, we see something similar. We have canonized the dimensions of the Kirtland Temple. The important thing (that I see) is that the revelation wasn't just "build me a temple." The revelation was "this is the temple I want you to build."

[hordak]

I think it is in there because the bible wasn't written for us. (ala this will help Seanette in 2010) but a compilation of writings, many made for the people in the day. IIRC, don't get into it that much, D&C has a few scriptures of so and so being called to do something like a mission.

The census or the making of a portable tabernacle has as much relevance today as treating a bruise with tobacco but would have been useful during the time it was written.

That's not to say the scriptures are useful to us obviously but that not everything in the scripture was meant for or is applicable to us.

[Mahonri]

The Old Testament covers the history of the Earth.

Exodus and Numbers were written for the peoples of that time, but we can still learn how the Lord dealt with His people anciently.

Parts of Isaiah were written for our time and for the very end times.

As I said, the Old Testament covers from Adam until the end of the Millennium.

[tubaloth]

but I'm at a loss as to why we need that information (likewise the censuses in Numbers) in our time.

Scripture is more then just for us right now. Its for all time. Just because we don't need a reason for it doesn't mean somebody else didn't. I'm sure there would be a lot of uses for that information in the New Testatment time. Even more we can use that information to better how big of nation there was the time. Knoweledge is power.!