Session plan 90 min
- Opening 10 min
- Genesis 1:24–31 — Day 6 20 min
- Exodus 30 — Oil, Basin, Incense 35 min
- The Daily Rhythm: Oil and Incense 15 min
- Closing 10 min
Note: This is a nearly two-hour episode. The guide covers the most formation-rich material.
Where We Are
| Week | Episode | Day | Focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 325 | Day 1 — Light & Darkness | Ark, Table & Menorah · Testimonies, bread, lamp |
| 2 | 326 | Day 2 — Separation of Waters | Curtains & Coverings · The door |
| 3 | 327 | Day 3 — Land & Vegetation | Altar & Courtyard · Community |
| 4 | 328 | Day 4 — Luminaries | Priestly Garments · Orientation |
| 5 | 329 | Day 5 — Birds & Sea Creatures | Ordination & Offerings · Presence |
| 6 | 330 | Day 6 — Humanity | Incense, Oil & Basin · Image & likeness |
| 7 | 331 | Day 7 — Sabbath | Sabbath Commands · Rest |
Last week: Birds are blessed on the earth, not in the sky. The three offerings are a rhythm: humility, transformation, feast. God’s thesis: “I brought them out so that I might dwell among them.”
This week: Tselem (image) is given, secure, uncopied. Demut (likeness) is worked out over time. You hold only half a shekel. Good ruling looks like drawing honey from a comb. God’s face is not your brand.
Opening 10 min
Opening Question: What is one quality of God that you see most clearly not in yourself but in another person — someone whose half-shekel completes yours? Name the person and the quality, if you can.
Genesis 1:24–31 — Day 6 20 min
Read Genesis 1:26–28 aloud.
Q1: In Genesis 1:26, God plans to make humanity in “image” (tselem) and “likeness” (demut). When God actually creates in verse 27, only tselem appears — twice. The demut drops out.1 Josh and Elle read this as the fundamental tension of human existence: the image is given, secured, already there. The likeness is what we grow into, requiring asah (process, shaping) rather than bara (radical, instant creation). How do you respond to the idea that there is a part of what God intends you to be that is not yet there — that God is still working on you, with your participation? Is that invitation or burden?
Q2: The word radah — commonly translated “rule” or “have dominion” — appears elsewhere in Hebrew as drawing honey from a comb or bread from an oven.2 Elle’s application: good ruling draws out what is already present in people rather than imposing a shape from outside. “I see the honey in you. Let me help bring it out.” Think of the people you have authority over — your household, your team, your small group, your friends. Where are you trampling rather than drawing out? What would a drawing-out response look like in one specific situation this week?
Exodus 30 — Oil, Basin, Incense 35 min
Q3: The census in Exodus 30 requires a half-shekel from each person — rich and poor alike.3 No contribution counts for more than another’s. And the half matters: you hold only half. No single person displays the full image of God — it takes everyone together. Looking at the quality you named in the opening: what would be missing from your picture of God if that person were not in your life? And where in your current season are you not accessing anyone’s half-shekel but your own?
Q4: Optional Priests wash at the bronze basin going into the tent and coming out to the altar — both directions.4 Washing in raw community, the people you did not choose. Where in your life are you submitting to that kind of washing? Where are you avoiding it?
Q5: The sacred incense must not be made for personal use. Josh’s summary: “My face isn’t your brand. I’m not your mascot.”5 The incense — God’s likeness we are responsible for keeping holy — is kept “for God,” not deployed for our own platform. Where in your life have you been tempted to use God’s likeness as a brand? What is the difference between genuinely representing God and using God as branding?
The Daily Rhythm: Oil and Incense 15 min
Q6: Josh names two daily rhythms:
- The tamid burnt offering (outer rhythm) — morning-and-evening repentance and transformation.
- The incense at the golden altar (inner rhythm) — tied to the lamps, not to sin; simply being near God so you come to look more like God over time.6
These are not the same rhythm. The tamid is about what you need to change. The incense is about who you are becoming through proximity. Which is more developed in your life? Which is neglected? What would adding the neglected one look like in the next seven days?
Closing 10 min
“Day 6 gives us image and likeness — one given, one worked out. The anointing oil covers everything already. The incense is kept holy for God, not deployed as our brand. Between them: a half-shekel that says you hold only part of God’s image; a bronze basin that asks you to be washed by the community you did not choose; and a rule over creation that looks like drawing honey from the comb. All of it aimed at the same thing: becoming more fully what was always there.”
Closing Question: One sentence —
“The quality of God I most need to grow into — the part of the likeness still in process — is ___.”
Looking Ahead — Week 7: Day 7 and the Sabbath
Ep. 331 — Sanctuary: Resting with the Mishkan (1:47:09) — The final episode of the series.
Day 7 and Exodus 31. The episode asks why Day 7 has no “God saw that it was good” — and answers that God was waiting to see humanity resting with God. That is Shabbat’s partner. Not a day, not a thing: us. The first holiness in Scripture belongs to a day made holy through rest. Bezalel — “in the shadow/image of God, son of light” — is called by name to build the tabernacle. On Shabbat, the work is set down. Josh speaks directly to anyone whose faith feels half-built or half torn down: rest is not the absence of progress. It is what completes the work.
Before Week 7: What is one part of your life — one project, one relationship, one season of growth — that you have not been able to rest in because it doesn’t feel finished? What would it look like to rest in it anyway?
References
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Ep. 330 notes. Tselem and demut; bara ×3 in Genesis 1:27 vs. asah in 1:26. ↩
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Ep. 330 notes. Radah in Judges 14:9; Elle’s drawing-out application to Genesis 1:28. ↩
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Ep. 330 notes. Exodus 30:11–16. The half-shekel census and its equality principle. ↩
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Ep. 330 notes. Exodus 30:17–21. The bronze basin; both directions require washing. ↩
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Ep. 330 notes. Exodus 30:34–38. Josh’s summary of the incense-as-demut reading. ↩
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Ep. 330 notes. Two rhythms: outer tamid (repentance) and inner incense at the golden altar (proximity to God, tied to light). ↩
This discussion guide was developed using these notes and is aligned with the content and approach of the BEMA Discipleship Podcast (opens in a new tab) by Marty Solomon and Brent Billings.