More on the Settlement

Numbers 35-36

            Today we have a few more details about how the Israelites are to settle the land. First, we are reminded that the Levites will not receive an allotment. They will have towns and cities with adjoining pasture land, but they are to be supported by the offerings the Israelites bring.

            Second, there is a stipulation for cities of refuge. This concept will come back in Deuteronomy and Joshua. The cities of refuge were six cities in which perpetrator of accidental manslaughter could flee to escape the kind of violent retribution that was common in that era and in that society. Those so accused weren’t let off the hook, but at least it provided time to investigate and to determine what the proper penalty was. Once again, consider it an expression of the Lord’s mercy. Perhaps He can’t stamp out all bad practices all at once, but he can give those caught up in them a fighting chance.

            Finally, we have more questions about the inheritance that women may receive. This is a regulation designed to balance the rights of the women and the rights of the tribes.

            We’re almost through the books of Moses! Next Monday (April 3) we start Deuteronomy, a sort of pep talk to the Israelites before they finally take possession of the land the Lord had promised to Abraham some 700 years before. More on that next week!

Getting Ready for the Settlement

Number 32-34

            I am reminded how some events shape us deeply. We saw it yesterday with the events at Beth Peor, and we see it today with the refusal to enter the promised land 40 years earlier. Moses is downright triggered by the requests of the tribes of Gad and Reuben to settle on the east side of the Jordan. However, after they promise to fight in the conquest, Moses grants them permission. Take this as an example of God’s grace: He is willing to give Israel even more land than He had originally promised.

            My son was in Israel recently, and I was reminded when I heard about his trip and when I read about the boundaries of Canaan that we’re not talking about that big of a country. At its longest north to south it was about 170 miles and at its widest east to west it was about 70 miles. The whole thing would fit from the Illinois border to Green Bay and between Milwaukee and Madison.

War on the Midianites

Numbers 31

            Balak was the king of Moab, but the Midianites were his allies in that whole mess with Balaam and the sin at Beth Peor. That mess was a big deal for the Lord. It actually comes up several more times in the Scriptures. Therefore, the Lord orders the destruction of Midian.

            This is the one of several times that we will need to struggle with the practice herem (the ‘h’ make a hard ‘ch’ sound, kind of like you’re clearing your throat). It means that something must be totally dedicated to the Lord, which usually meant killing. In the case of animals, it seems a wasteful practice. When it’s applied to men, as it is here, it seems vicious. When it’s applied to women and children, too, (Joshua 6, for example), it seems just downright appalling to us.

            We have to keep the practice of herem in the context of Israel as the keeper of God’s promise of a Savior. Anything that would threaten the fulfillment of that promise, like, for example, the temptation to idolatry that the Midianites had already shown themselves to be, had to be completely eradicated. Actually, “eradicate” is a good word for it. If we think of Israel as a greenhouse, in which the Lord can maintain the right conditions for His promise to thrive, then eradicating the peoples that would threaten Israel’s faithfulness is like pulling up weeds that might choke out the more delicate plants being cultivated. (To eradicate something means to tear it out by the roots.)

            I can’t make herem more palatable for you. I can ask you to rejoice that the Church doesn’t have the same kind of concerns that Israel did and that we are not called—as the Church—to make war at all. And I can try to place it into a context that at least makes it a little more understandable.

Sacrifices, Again

Numbers 28-30

            Because I am on a mission trip this week, I am writing this ahead of time, and I am going to save some time by saying, “Offerings, again…” I’m not sure what more I have to add. It does strike me that these are corporate offerings. That is, they are offerings offered on behalf of the whole community. They are not individual sacrifices. That would be ton of sacrifices!

A New Census

Numbers 26-27

            I entitled today’s post “A New Census,” but there are two other things to note. So, first, census. The one thing that stood out for me was the general stability of Israel’s population. They’ve only lost about 2,000 people in the wilderness; the Levites actually gain a few people. This speaks to the Lord’s provision over those years, as Deuteronomy 29:5 says, “Yet the Lord says, “During the forty years that I led you through the wilderness, your clothes did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet.”

            Second, one of the things I’ve tried to highlight here and in Bible classes is that in its own historical context the Old Testament is downright progressive, especially in regard to protections for foreigners, the underprivileged, orphans, and women in general. Chapter 27 has just such a case: there is provision for women to inherit land. Sure, it’s not absolute; yes, the land should usually end up with a man. But again, in its context this is a step forward for women!

            Finally, the succession is planned for: Joshua will succeed Moses as leader of Israel. In terms of overall biblical theology, this one is interesting. I’ve mentioned before that Moses was a type of Christ, a foreshadowing, especially in regards to the way he interceded for the people. Moses was the type, the prefiguring, but Jesus is the antitype, the fulfillment, the ultimate savior. Because of his sin, Moses cannot finish the job; Joshua will have to lead them into the promised land. But, do you know what the Greek form of the name Joshua is? Jesus! Jesus can and does finish the job and He leads us into the ultimate promised land, the new creation.

Balaam

Numbers 22-25

            Chronologically, somewhere between the end of chapter 20 and the beginning of chapter 21, we jumped to the end of Israel’s 40 years in the wilderness. They are now approaching their promised land, and the nations that stand in their way are starting to fall. We have read of the fall of Arad, Sihon, and Og, who all occupied territory south and east of what we know as the promised land. In chapters 22-25, we meet Balak, king of Moab. He experiences a reversal of Israel’s attitude 40 years ago. Then, Israel feared the nations; now the nations fear Israel.

            Not wanting to face Israel in battle Balak contracts with Balaam, some sort of practitioner of dark magic. Balaam knows the name of the God of Israel (Lord), but he is no believer. It is telling that the word “God” appears in Numbers a little over 30 times and 20 of them are in these chapters. In contrast, the name “Lord” occurs over 350 times in Numbers, 24 of which are in these chapters. The generic word “God” indicates that Balaam is no monotheist, much less a worshiper of Yahweh of Israel. He is a man who will use any and all religions for his own purposes and gain.

            The Lord confronts him and lets him go about his business, but only if he will speak blessings on Israel. So seven times, despite his best intentions, Balaam blesses Israel instead of cursing them. Finally, Balaam, who really wants this payday, tries a different tactic: he enticed them into adultery and idol worship. (There is a strong connection between sexual immorality and the religions of that region. Many of those cults used shrine prostitutes, so literally immorality led to idolatry.) We don’t find out that the scheme was Balaam’s until much later; his responsibility is clearly stated in Revelation 2:14.

            In the Catechism we speak of God’s enemies as the devil, the world, and our sinful self. In this case, the Lord protected Israel from the devil (represented by Balaam’s magic and divination) and the world (Balak’s hiring of Balaam), but the Israelites’ own base desires led them to sin.

The Bronze Serpent

Numbers 21

            More complaining—do you sense a theme? This time the punishment takes the form of an infestation of venomous serpents. A strange punishment, and even stranger cure: all they had to do was look at a bronze serpent to be healed.

            This story has all sorts of resonances. First, from Genesis 3, where the agent of humanity’s fall is a serpent. In Numbers 21, the Israelites are living in that fall and continuing in their sinful way. The agent of the original fall becomes the agent of the curse of that fall and they die from the bite of a serpent. Second, John 3 explicitly references this incident, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him” (John 3:13-14). There’s a beautiful line in our liturgy that says that our Lord Jesus, “accomplished the salvation of mankind by the tree of the cross that, where death arose, there life also might rise again and that the serpent who overcame by the tree of the garden might likewise by the tree of the cross be overcome.” Third, the healing of the Israelites didn’t take any extraordinary work, just looking on the bronze serpent. Similarly, our faith is no kind of work: faith is simply looking on Jesus and trusting that what He did He did for me.

Removing the Uncleanness of Death/Key Deaths

Numbers 19-20

            The ritual of the red heifer flows out of the previous few chapters, in which there has been plenty of death. Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and their 250 followers died in chapter 16. When the whole community gathered in opposition afterward, a plague struck down 14, 700 of them. With that kind of exposure to dead bodies and the uncleanness that comes from them, the Lord offers a way to purification. A heifer was not a sacrificial animal; it was a work animal. In this rite, it is a work animal that has never worked. The heifer is not sacrificed in the tabernacle but slaughtered outside the camp. It’s as if the animal’s whole possible productive life is snuffed out, just as death ends the productive life of a human. The addition of cedar wood, hyssop and yarn point towards the cleansing properties of the rite. It’s one more instance where death is answered by death.

            A commentator I enjoy reminds that this rite is referenced in Hebrews 9:13-14, “The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!” As all the animal sacrifices, so the red heifer: they are but shadows of the greater thing, namely, the once for all sacrifice of Jesus for the forgiveness of all humanity.

            That God is forgiving is not immediately apparent sometimes. In chapter 20, Miriam dies in verse 1 and Aaron’s death is recounted in verses 22-29. Aaron outside of the promised land because of the incident in the middle of the chapter. The people were once again complaining to Moses: no fruit, no water! The Lord tells Moses to speak to a rock and water will come out. Instead, Moses strikes the rock with his staff instead and water does indeed come out. But the Lord says that Moses and Aaron have failed to honor Him by striking the rock instead of speaking to it. The consequence is that neither one will enter the land of promise.

            Here’s the thing: in Exodus 17, there was a very similar situation and the Lord told Moses to strike the rock. It’s not like Moses’ actions were without precedent! They even named both places the same thing—Meribah. It is difficult to understand what Moses did that was so terrible, yet Aaron dies for it and Moses will die for it.

            Let’s make another Christological point: Moses was Israel’s great intercessor, but who will intercede for Moses? It turns out there is no one. In a similar way, this seeming injustice looks forward to Jesus, for whom, though innocent, “None would intervene to save” (LSB #451, v. 2). It is not that Moses was somehow the Savior of Israel, but his case helps us understand Jesus—more innocent even than Moses and yet killed as a sinner for sinner’s sake.

Once More on God’s Anger

Numbers 16-18

            As I read today’s chapters, I was struck at the familiarity of it all: another rebellion, another punishment. Once again, the Lord wants to go nuclear. “Back away, Moses, and I’ll wipe them all out” (16:21)! Once again, Moses is the one who pleads for the people. It struck me: is the Lord’s vicious anger more apparent than real? Is the Lord purposefully exaggerating His threats as a sort of test to Moses? Here’s what I mean. Moses has certainly had his frustrations with the people he is leading. What if the Lord’s test is, “OK, Moses. I agree these people are awful. I’ll wipe them out and start over.” Suddenly Moses is confronted with the consequences of his own anger and thinks, “Hold on there, Lord! I mean, yeah, they’re awful, but let’s not get hasty!”

            Don’t you think sometimes when we’re angry someone agreeing with us and maybe even going further than we would calls us back to our senses? It can make us see our own lack of mercy.

            Another thing to see in Moses’ pleading for Israel is a foreshadowing of Jesus. Paul says in Romans 8:34, “Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” And John says, “If anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One” (1 John 2:1). Sometimes we think of Moses as the great lawgiver, and we see the parallel with Jesus only in the sermon on the mount (Matthew 5-7). But Moses is Israel’s great intercessor, too, and that is an even better parallel to Jesus—the One who pleads for us that God would be merciful and count His sacrifice toward us.

            Both ideas provide food for thought!

Spying Out the Land

Numbers 13-15

            Moses sends representatives from each of the tribes to spy out the land. They discover that it is everything the Lord had said: a good land that produces good crops, a land flowing with milk and honey. But the inhabitants of the land are strong and they live in strong cities. The Israelites, only a year out of a slavery, are ill-equipped to make war against a better armed foe and the prospect of laying siege to walled cities must have been frightening. (Sieges take a long time.) One can understand why their spirits quailed at the prospect of invading. From a human perspective, they had a good argument. What they failed to account for was that that Lord had promised to give it to them. He had already delivered them from the power of Egypt, and He told them He would deliver this land into their hands, too.

            I think about that a lot. Jesus speaks in Luke 14 about the importance of counting the cost—of building a tower, of going to war, and of discipleship. Jesus seems to be affirming our human judgments. The question becomes, “When are we just supposed to blindly trust the Lord and when are we supposed to apply some sanctified common sense before we engage in a course of action?” Years ago, a church I pastored was involved in a building project, and the first estimates were way more than anticipated. Some argued we should scale back the plans; some argued we just needed to trust God. I’m a planner, so you can imagine what side I was on!

            I do think that we are on safe ground when we put our confidence in God’s final promises, that is, when we think about these things eschatologically. (Eschatology is the study of the last day, and to think about things eschatologically means to think about them with the resurrection and the new creation of the last day in mind.) Romans 8 is a great example of this: in a section about having hope in the midst of suffering and about confidently believing that nothing can separate us from the love of God, Paul cites Psalm 44:22, “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” In our present reality, we suffer and will make judgments that are more and less faith-filled. But we always live with the confidence of the final restoration. We will find ourselves in these quandaries where we don’t know if we should follow our human judgment or take a wild step in the confidence of the Lord. We may find ourselves rejoicing that it all worked out and praising the Lord for it; or we may find ourselves wondering how this all went so wrong. But we keep our eyes focused on the promises of God, that ultimately, because of what Jesus has done, He will work out all things for the good of those who love Him.

            Israel, of course, had a direct command and promise from the Lord, so the Lord was angry at their disobedience and they were sent back into the wilderness for an entire generation.

Troubles on the Way

Numbers 11-12

            Three stories of unrest today. The first is very general, three verses about the people complaining. The next stems from “the rabble,” and the last generates from Aaron and Miriam, the leaders.

            In the first case, we are introduced to a theme we’ll encounter a lot in this part of Numbers, namely, that the Lord is done messing around. They complain and He punishes. Here it is fire, probably lightning that causes a fire among the tents. The Lord is exceedingly patient. Consider His own self-description, “The Lord, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” But like any good parent is patience is not inexhaustible and at some point He will intervene to discipline and set right. The good news is that He always does it from a place of love and His anger does not burn forever (Psalm 103:9).

            The next case bears some consideration, if for no other reason than that it is a much longer story. Notice here that it is “the rabble” that complains. My study Bible argues that these are non-Israelites among them, but I wonder if they’re trying too hard to insulate the Israelites from bad behavior. The word for “rabble” isn’t much help; as far as I can tell, it’s only used here in the Old Testament. (I checked one dictionary that says the rabble are the camp-followers, but again, the word only appears this one time.) There doesn’t seem to be any reason this rabble couldn’t be a malcontent portion of the Israelite population. We certainly know that sin gets the best of us; why couldn’t it get the best of them?

            Moses is frustrated by the constant grumbling. I love the honesty with which he addresses the Lord, how he tells the Lord about the burden of leadership he’s feeling. There is something refreshing about knowing that even the best of leaders feels the pressure. Of course, Moses had the good sense to share his hard feelings with Lord.  One of the pressures of leadership is that you can’t let the people you’re leading know that you’re discouraged.

            The appointment of the 70 is curious, but only because in Exodus 18 we seemed to have had a system for pushing leadership down to lower levels—thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens. I wonder if Jethro’s system never took root or if that was still in place and these 70 were added for another reason. Whatever the case, the Holy Spirit is given to them temporarily as a way of relieving Moses’ burden.

            The final bit that stands out in this story is that the Lord does indeed provide them the meat that they crave, but that the Lord also punishes them for their complaining. Again we see the interplay of God’s anger and mercy. He provides, but He still disciplines.

            The last story we read tells about opposition among the leadership and not just any leadership but Moses’ most intimate helpers, his sister and brother. Why Aaron and Miriam decided to attack Moses because of his Cushite wife at this moment is a question I can’t answer. The Cushite wife in question is most likely Zipporah, the Midianite Moses had married after he fled Egypt. If that’s the case, she had been around for a long time. Were they upset because she wasn’t an Israelite? Was she putting on airs and irritating Aaron and Miriam? If Moses was as humble and unassuming as verse 3 says he was, maybe Zipporah was the one who was always bragging about how special Moses was. That seems likely to me. (Now considering that Moses is the author of Numbers, admittedly under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, I do love the humble brag of verse 3. I mean, he did write those words about himself.)

            That Miriam is punished but Aaron is not stands out. One has to wonder if the story is really about rivalry between Zipporah and Miriam and whether Aaron got caught up in it. That would explain why Miriam is struck with leprosy but Aaron is unscathed.

            The effect of these two chapters is twofold. First, that the Lord will discipline His people, and He will do it in ways that seem harsh to us. Second, that Moses’ leadership is ratified and strengthened.

Setting Out from Sinai

Numbers 9-10

            At long last, the people of Israel are ready to set out from Sinai and head to their promised land. It has been about a year since they arrived at Sinai. They wrap up their time by celebrating the second Passover, a nice reminder of where they had come from, and there’s a reminder and an accommodation so that every Israelite is under obligation to celebrate the Passover. Even a foreigner living among them is to observe it. They are to ever have before them that Lord was the one who brought them out of Egypt, that He is their savior.

            The Lord’s presence figures prominently in our reading, because the cloud is mentioned several times (14 times, by my count!). He will go with them, lead them, and protect them on the way. Considering the Lord’s threats after the incident with the golden calf, they ought not take His going with them for granted (Exodus 33:1-17)!

            Finally, they set out in ordered companies, just as the Lord had said, an army under orders, moving on the signals from the commander. This last bit strikes me as important if for no other reason than tomorrow’s reading. To be continued…

The Longest Chapter

Numbers 7-8

            The claim to fame of Numbers 7 is that it is the longest chapter in the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible, commonly called the books of Moses). It’s claim to infamy is that it repeats the same thing 12 times. I’m not really sure what we are to make of that. I suppose there’s a certain majesty in the procession of tribe after tribe to make their offering before the Lord.

            There is one thing to talk about here. Numbers 7:1 refers to Moses setting up the tabernacle, which according to Exodus 40:17 was on the first day of the first month of the second year. Yet Numbers 1:1 begins on the first day of the second month of the second year. So, chapters 7-9 happen before chapters 1-6. Not a lot hangs on that observation, but it reminds us to be careful with Biblical chronology. For the authors’ own reasons (sometimes discernible; sometimes not) they will often take things out of strict chronological order. Rather than seeing this as a problem, it pays to ask why the author chose this order. I think in this case, the presentation of the offerings, dedication of the Levites, and the celebration of the Passover all build up to the people finally leaving Sinai in 9:11-13.

Infidelity and Nazirites

Numbers 4-6

            Oh, boy. Leviticus 5. Man, do I get questions. My study Bible has this note about the ‘test for unfaithfulness’ (vv. 11-31), “The actions presented here seem severe and harsh.” Really? You think so? This is my fourth or fifth time leading a Today’s Light reading and women are always incensed at this passage. And, honestly, I get it. A jealous husband can accuse his wife, make her stand in front of the whole community, and drink dirty water to see if she’s an adulteress? One commentator poses these questions:

Why, for example, is there a trial only for the suspected wife? What if the woman suspects her husband of unfaithfulness? Does she have any options open to her? Then again, does such a procedure give the husband the right to force his wife through an ordeal any time and every time he entertains illusions about possible escapades by his wife? Must she imbibe this unpalatable ‘mixed drink’ just to satisfy his curiosity (Hamilton, 322-323)?

The whole thing smacks of a Salem witch trial or a purposely false accusation of sexual assault: even if you come out on the good side of things, there’s always the damage to your reputation.

            Our commentator offers three observations: one is suspect, one is patronizing, and one is at least a step in the right direction. First, he assumes (“safely assumes,” he says) that a husband wouldn’t abuse this right. To which I say, “Uh-huh. Sure.” The second is that it’s not really an ordeal. The consequences are all hypothetical To which I say, “Yeah, but the damage to the woman’s reputation remains, even if she comes through the ritual unscathed.” Third, he notes the ritual is actually intended as a protection for the woman. In many ancient societies women lived in a severely disadvantaged social place: in many ancient societies, women could be divorced with little or no reason or recourse. In that context, this ritual is a “prove-it” moment. In this sense, at least, in a world in which women had few, if any, rights, the ritual puts the brakes on rampant injustice perpetuated against her.

            We should note, too, chapter 6, and the Nazirite vow. We should note it if for no other reason than that Samson, Samuel, and John the Baptizer were all lifelong Nazirites. The “Nazirite” appears to come from the Hebrew verb “to separate.” The idea is that an Israelite would uniquely dedicate themselves to the Lord for a time. In that time, they would abstain from anything made with grapes, including wine, abstain from cutting their hair, and do everything in their power to avoid contact with a dead body. Why would they do this? Good question. It may be a little like our practice of Lent in which we attend more services, read more devotions, and sometimes abstain from something in an effort to spend more time reflecting on the Lord and His goodness. But unlike our practice of Lent, in which there are no consequences if you succeed or fail, the Nazirite made significant offerings at the end of his vow. I’m not looking to go back to Moses’ law, but there is something to be said for times of extra dedication to the Lord and to taking those times seriously…

Welcome to Numbers!

Number 1-3

            If you’ve already done today’s reading, you will understand the name of the Bible’s fourth book: it is named after the census in chapter 1 (repeated 40 years later in chapter 26). Let’s start by talking about those numbers: 603,550 men of fighting age, which under the most conservative estimates would make the whole people of Israel—men, women, and children—well over 2 million strong. To some, that seems extraordinarily large. Secular studies of ancient populations, which, incidentally, are very difficult because of the spotty sources, suggest the number is much too high for the era and the circumstances. Therefore, all sorts of theories abound to make it a more “reasonable” number. For example, in some contexts the Hebrew word for “thousand” can be a generic term for a fighting unit, a “company” which might be well under 1,000 men, and some scholars suggest that Judah, for example, had 74 units comprising 600 men or that 74 families provided 600 men. That solution certainly makes the numbers more “reasonable” but it means that the total in 1:46 is a complete misunderstanding of the actual numbers. There’s another solution based on what’s call gematria, or numerology, that makes all the numbers bear some kind of symbolic weight; unfortunately there are almost no literary clues that we should read the text that way. For the Christian who takes the Bible seriously, the best solution remains that the Lord had indeed made Israel a great nation while they were in Egypt and that they were a very large people, which would explain both the Egyptians fear of them and the fear of the countries they will encounter going forward.

            Another interesting thing to note is the setting aside of the Levites apart from the other tribes. It had been the Levites who stood with Moses during the incident of the golden calf (Exodus 32:26), and Aaron and the priests were from the tribe of Levi. There was a pre-existing connection there. Then, there was the consecration of the firstborn to the Lord (Exodus 13), who in Numbers 3:11-13 are replaced by the Levites. This unique, hereditary place for the Levites explains the chapter 3-4 with their extensive census of the Levite clans and the listing of each clan’s responsibility. Because only Levites were authorized to move the tabernacle and assist in its services, their credentials were important, and because the tabernacle was the centerpiece of Israel’s holiness, the careful delineation of their duties matches the special care for the tabernacle we saw throughout Exodus and Leviticus.

Blessings and Curses

Leviticus 26-27

            The blessings and curses in Leviticus 26 must be understood as part of the covenant of Sinai. To understand this, I again direct you to a sermon I preached on Deuteronomy 30 on February 12, 2023. (The full service is here; the sermon itself begins at 29:15 and runs to 46:49.) In short, the covenant of Sinai applies only to the people of Israel, and it applies, as Paul argues in Galatians 3, only until it serves its purpose and the Savior comes.

            We must keep this in mind lest all of the conditional statements in this chapter lead us into a really bad understanding of our Christian faith. In summary, the conditions are: if you do good, the Lord will bless you; if you do bad, the Lord will curse you. That’s just pure works righteousness right there, if we apply it to anything other than Israel under the Sinai covenant.

            Paul (Gal. 3) points out that the Lord’s covenant with Abraham—to bless the nations of the earth through him and which came long before the Sinai covenant—was unconditional. Grace is unconditional. Our salvation is unconditional. It depends on faith, not works. (And faith is not a work; faith is simply the realization that what Christ did, He did for me.)

            The Sinai covenant with all its conditions was intended to keep Israel, as a nation, pure so that the promise of a Savior could come to its fruition among them. Once that Savior, Jesus, arrived, the Sinai covenant had run its course. Which is why Paul, a man who in his youth was incredibly dedicated to the laws of the Sinai covenant, could, after his conversion to Christ, dismiss kosher food laws, Sabbath laws, and circumcision as completely as he did. He understood that in Christ they had fulfilled their purposes and were no longer necessary.

            So, please don’t read Leviticus 26 as if God plays divine games of tit-for-tat! If we suffer losses in this fallen age of the world, it’s not that God is out to get us. His love for us is not bound by the conditions of the Law (Jeremiah 31:3; Romans 8:31-39). And so we accept trouble  without doubting the Lord’s good intentions toward us (Job 2:10), and we do this because we recognize that the Lord has shown his good intentions by giving His Son into death for us.

The Holiness of Time

Leviticus 23-25

            In Psalm 90, Moses prays that the Lord would “teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12). What a great prayer! Time is a precious commodity. Most everyone wishes they had more time—whether in a day or in a lifetime. We stress when we can’t get done what we need to get done day to day and we mourn a life cut short in a different way than we mourn a long life well-lived.

            In Leviticus 23-25, the Lord makes even the passing of time an aspect of Israel’s holiness. Week to week, He commands a rhythm of work and rest, reminding us that we all have the same amount of time, that our time is a gift from Him, and that rest in His presence is important. One of the things I notice about the Sabbath commandment here that I didn’t see in previous iterations is that the Sabbath is to involve a sacred assembly (23:3). That is, it’s not just a day of physical rest (although it is that, too), but a day of spiritual rest, letting the matters that occupy our minds most of the week rest, while we rejoice in the goodness of the Lord. It’s this aspect of the Sabbath that Martin Luther picks up on in his explanation of the 3^rd Commandment.

 

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.

What does this mean?

We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word,

but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.

 

            The year is also sacred to the Lord and Leviticus reiterates the holidays commanded in other places. The Passover in the spring marks the deliverance from Egypt, and the celebration of the barley harvest occurs in the same timeframe. The festival of Weeks, also called Pentecost, in the early summer was originally a celebration of the wheat harvest, but it became associated with the arrival at Sinai and the giving of the Law. The festival of trumpets began a series of fall observations, including the day of atonement and the feast of tabernacles (or booths), in which the Israelites slept in tents for the week to remember that the Lord had brought them through the wilderness to the land of promise. Originally (Exodus 23:16) the feast of booths coincided with the fruit harvest was gathered. I note how the Lord took the ordinary facts of life—planting and harvesting—and gave them sacred significance, a reminder both that He was the provider of the harvest and more importantly the God who saves. I tried to count up how many days off that came to. I was successful, but it was a lot. Every Sabbath was a day of religious significance and maybe about 20 other days through the year were days of rest and sacred assembly. (Just a little reminder that our holy days are coming up; if it hasn’t been your practice to attend all of the Holy Week services—Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter—maybe make this your year. The full effect is quite extraordinary.)

            The holiness of the years—the Sabbath year and the Jubilee year—also reminds of the sacredness of time but also shades over into the holiness of Israel’s whole society. The Sabbath year called for a fallow year for the land, both an agriculturally sound practice and a true test of faith in the God who provides. That Sabbath year also reminds us of the limitation on the enslavement of a fellow Israelite (Exodus 21). In the Jubilee year, property also reverted to its original owner—the tribe and clan whose inheritance it was (see Joshua 13-21 for the details). The Lord specifies that this happens because the land is the Lord’s (25:23), and He grants it to the Israelites for the food it produces. I’m reminded of Psalm 24:1, “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.” So, built into Israel’s marking of time was justice and hope: justice because every 50 years society “reset” and it became impossible for the rich to get continually richer and the poor continually poorer, and hope because your failures didn’t dog you all your life and new beginnings were built into time itself.

More on Sexual Relations, Priests, and Sacrifices

Leviticus 20-22

            Our reading covers the three broad categories in the heading above. We’ve read about prohibited sexual relations already in chapter 18. Here in chapter 20, punishments—usually death—are specified. I commented on Saturday that sex is much more than a matter of biology and it’s much, much more than a matter of pleasure. Only when we realize this do we begin to understand these punishments. Now these commands no longer apply in the New Testament, so we aren’t going all theocratic law here. But there are two interesting bits in 1 Corinthians we should note. First, in 1 Corinthians 5:1, Paul makes this statement, “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife!” That is hardly the extensive list of prohibitions in Leviticus, but it does indicate that there remain some forbidden degrees of sexual contact in the NT. Second, in the next chapter, Paul argues that our bodies are “members,” that is, body parts, of Christ; our physical bodies are part of the mystical body of Christ. He says that sex with a prostitute makes a man one with her. The implication is that uniting yourself in sex with a person who is not your spouse also unites Christ with that person. Then, Paul goes on to say that the church is also the body of Christ, the temple of the Holy Spirit, again connecting loose sexual practice in the New Testament to desecrations that would make a person unclean, unfit for the tabernacle/temple in the Old Testament. Clearly, the significance of sex is much more than our culture is currently willing to assign to it.

            We’ve also read a lot about the priests, but today’s reading clarifies even more how the priests are to be set apart. Again, a New Testament connection. Paul argues in 1 Timothy that the pastoral office is reserved for men; however, in the same chapter, he is clear: not just any man. There are a host of ethical tests that would either qualify or disqualify a man from consideration. This is similar to today’s reading: the priesthood is reserved for Aaron’s sons, but not just because of being Aaron’s son: there are other qualifications (and disqualifications). The men set aside to represent a holy God are to pay attention to their holiness!

            Finally, a word about sacrifices: the Israelites can’t just bring in any, old goat. It has to be goat without blemish—one of the best. God deserves our best—a lesson we could certainly think on! Sometimes we latter day Christians take God’s love for granted and so show up for worship when it’s convenient instead of starting with worship and working the rest of our schedule around it. Similarly, we often make our gifts to the Lord after we have worked out what we need financially for everything else in life. Israel’s laws can remind us that the Lord comes first and gets the best. We work out everything else out around Him. 

The Holiness Code, Part 1

Leviticus 18-19

            Scholars have named Leviticus 17-26 “the holiness code,” largely because over half of the uses of the word “holy” in this book are in these 10 chapters. The principle is enunciated in 19:2, “Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.”

            Notice that in these two chapters, we read, “I am the Lord,” twenty times! Israel’s holiness is a reflection and an extension of the Lord’s own holiness. This quote is from The Bible Project, an online series of videos trying to explain the Bible. I haven’t used it much, but what I’ve seen seems solid.

 

Holiness is about more than being good and morally upstanding. When referring to the holiness of God, the definition takes on a much richer meaning. God's holiness is his defining characteristic. It's a term used in the Bible to describe both his goodness and his power. It is completely unique and utterly all-powerful, radiating from God like an energy. In fact, God's holiness is so overwhelming that it can actually be dangerous to approach (See it here).

 

I like the description of God’s holiness as His complete uniqueness, frankly, His complete otherness. Only God is so devoid of sin; only God is so completely good. But Israel (and the Church!) is called to reflect and live in holiness, to avoid sinfulness, which dishonors both the Lord and our neighbor, and to seek goodness. Israel’s life and Christian lives flow from the Lord and redound back to Him.

            As far as the laws themselves, chapter 18 is filled with laws about sexual conduct and forbidden relations and I think most of us would say, “Well, duh. These prohibitions just make sense.” Of course, in our day, the concern is for consanguinity, that is, the danger of genetic problems when genetically similar people have children. In Leviticus, it’s tied more to dishonor for the Lord and for other people. Perhaps a thing that we moderns could learn is that sex is never merely biological; there are emotional, social, and spiritual elements to it. When we reduce sex to a mere biological impulse, it’s hard to understand why we shouldn’t just do it with whomever we want, but when we see the way that it ties us together emotionally, socially, and spiritually, it becomes a much more complex phenomenon that deserves to be handled with more respect than our society would suggest.

            Other of the laws also make sense. Respect, mutual care, compassion—these don’t seem to need a lot of justification. There’s the occasional weird one: 19:19, for example. What’s wrong with mating two different kinds of animals (that’s where mules come from), or mixing crops (in some gardens that’s considered best practice), or materials in clothing (half of my wardrobe is blends of some sort)? Probably we should see this as a manifestation of Israel’s purity, that she is not to be mixed up in idolatry or with idolatrous people. We might ask the same question about not shaving the side of one’s beard, and it’s probably just best to answer at a generic level and say, “It marked Israel as unique from her pagan neighbors.” One that may bother a lot of contemporary readers is the prohibition on tattoos in 19:28. Chad Bird, an Old Testament scholar with a Lutheran background has an interesting video about this (check it out here). He suggests that it was some sort of pagan ritual to connect the living with the dead. (Honestly, if the verse is really about grieving practices, I can think of a half dozen applications to the modern day, but that would take us down a very deep rabbit hole. I have a series of videos here that document my thoughts on the matter.)

Day of Atonement

Leviticus 16-17

            The Day of Atonement was never listed among the three holidays of Israel. Those three—Passover, Pentecost, and Booths—celebrated the journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur in Hebrew) was of a different character; it was the day on which the priests and the tabernacle were rededicated, maybe reconsecrated is better, to the Lord. The regulations read as if the high priest were to perform the rituals himself. He was to bathe in the basin in the tabernacle courtyard, put on special clothes, sacrifice a bull as a sin offering for himself, and present the blood of that offering in the Most Holy Place. In this way, his sins were forgiven and he was purified to offer sacrifices on behalf of the people.

            When the high priest was about to enter the Most Holy Place, he had to make an offering of incense in the Holy Place. Previously I’ve talked about the purposes of the incense altar as 1) masking the odor of the place and 2) representing the prayers of the people going up before the Lord. I hadn’t notice this before, but in the Yom Kippur regulations, there is a specific note that the high priest’s incense offering will “conceal the atonement cover” (16:13). Very often, the Lord covers His glory in a cloud; this third purpose of the incense is perhaps the most important: it creates a cloud, in a sense concealing the full glory of the Lord.

            An interesting part of the Yom Kippur ritual was the selecting and casting out of a scapegoat, a visual enactment of the sin of Israel being carried away from the camp. The first sin (Genesis 3) caused the banishment of Adam from the garden of God’s presence. In the Day of Atonement, God separates sin from the people and banishes the sin so that the people remain in His presence.

            The New Testament interprets the death of Jesus in light of both the Passover and the Day of Atonement. The book of Hebrews has this to say:

But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:11-12).

So, Jesus is at once high priest and sacrifice. He does not need to atone for His own sins, so His offering of His own blood becomes the perfect and final sacrifice.

Uncleanness

Leviticus 12-15

            What do childbirth, skin disease, mold and mildew, and bodily discharges have in common? They all, in the Israelite mind, have some echo of death. A woman is unclean after childbirth not because of the birth, but because of the loss of blood and bodily fluids that attends that birth. A skin disease and an outbreak of mildew reminds one of rot and decay. A discharge of fluids represents a loss of vitality. Anything that looks of death makes one unclean because the Lord is the God of life. That seems to be the underlying thinking.

            Now, if you want an explanation of the details, I feel like we’re groping in the dark. Why is a woman unclean for 7 days for a bearing a boy, but 14 days for bearing a girl? My study Bible suggests that’s because she has to present the boy for circumcision on the 8^th day. Well and good, but that doesn’t explain why she has to stay away a total of 80 days for a girl and only 40 days for a boy. What’s the deal with the color of hair within an area of blighted skin? On that page in my study Bible there are exactly zero notes. What’s going on with the strange rite for purification from a skin disease? Kill a bird over a pot of water, dip a live bird, some yarn and some leaves in that water, sprinkle the defiled person and set the bird free. That seems weird. (We can probably explain that one a little: the first bird is a form of sacrifice, the cedar wood, hyssop, and yarn make some kind of tool for sprinkling the water, and the live bird flies off, symbolically carrying the uncleanness with them.)

            These are definitely chapters where most readers will be best served by trying to see the forest for the trees, by taking the broad view and seeing that uncleanness often has some association with death, a condition that excludes one from the presence of the God of life.

            Why is it in the Bible? What does it have to do with us? The book of Hebrews mentions that the blood of Jesus is sprinkled on us to cleanse us from a guilty conscience. So, perhaps the take away from Leviticus is as simple as rejoicing in the once for all sacrifice of Jesus that makes us holy and clean and gives us uninterrupted access to the Father.

Be Holy

Leviticus 10-11

            These two chapters are tied together by the notion that Israel is holy to the Lord, set apart from the nations for God’s purposes. Consider, for example, Moses’ rather unfeeling statement to Aaron immediately after the latter’s sons died: “This is what the Lord spoke of when he said: ‘Among those who approach me I will be proved holy.’” Nadab and Abihu, priests for the people, carried the first responsibility of being holy to the Lord. Not only were they Israelites, they were priests. They were doubly holy, doubly set apart. Their carelessness or willful disobedience, whichever it was, dishonored the God who had set them apart. I mentioned this a few days ago, that leaders among God’s people carry an outsized influence on the people. Their sin is not just personal, rather it has a devastating effect on those entrusted to their care. This responsibility in further demonstrated in the way that Aaron and his remaining sons are forbidden from grieving or from taking time off. The work they do on behalf of the Lord and of His people trumps everything else. The Lord is just that important.

            Holiness is also at the heart of chapter 11, the so-called kosher laws. Why are so many animals excluded from Israel’s diet? The short answer is in verses 44-45, “I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy… I am the Lord, who brought you up out of Egypt; therefore be holy, because I am holy.” The cleanness or uncleanness of animals may or may not have some kind of deep rationale, but one thing is absolutely certain: the Lord excluded them. My study Bible notes, “Some hold that certain animal life was considered unclean for health considerations, but it is difficult to substantiate this idea.” No, the Lord simply said, “No.” I’m remined of something Martin Luther once said. Some of his opponents, who did not value the Lord’s Supper were mocking the idea that eating bread and drinking wine could bring the forgiveness of sins and Luther said the if God told us to eat straw, we’d eat straw for no other reason than that God told us to. The point of the kosher laws, then, is that Israel is uniquely dedicated to the Lord and to His commands. Some of the excluded foods are, in a word, delicious. Many of us love bacon or shellfish, for example, but the Lord said, “No.” So, Israel, God’s holy people, where consciously careful about what they put in their mouths.

            Peter says that we Christians are also holy to the Lord. “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9). The old King James version translated this as “a peculiar people.” Maybe it pays considering, as we struggle with seemingly random exclusions for Israel, the ways in which we, too, are called to live “peculiarly” for the Lord. That’s a whole other topic, but if we were to spend some time in the epistles of Paul, for instance, we would that some of our peculiarity, our uniqueness, is to be found in rightly ordered sexual conduct, rightly ordered ways of speaking, a rightly ordered relationship with power, and a rightly ordered relationship with God’s creation. I don’t have time this morning to delve deeper. Let us just ponder that we, too, are called to live a unique life, a life that to the world may or may not make much sense, but for us, it is the life God has called us to. 

The Tabernacle Enters Service

Leviticus 7-9

            In Leviticus 7, we learn the purpose of the fellowship offering. It is offered either in thanksgiving, in fulfillment of a vow, or as a freewill offering, presumably without a specific occasion. It’s larger purpose is to share one’s joy both with the Lord and with others in a holy meal. That is, unlike the other offerings, this offering is eaten by regular people, not just priests and offerers.

            I’m reminded that meals are more than just a moment for fueling the body. They are, at their best, social occasions as well. Sharing a table is a profound act of fellowship. That’s why restaurant remain important social places; it’s why we should reconsider the importance of hospitality in our homes. It touches something deep within our humanity and binds us together in important ways that go beyond food.

            In Leviticus 8-9 we see the tabernacle officially coming into service. Moses, God’s man, offers the first sacrifices on behalf of Aaron and his sons, then, Aaron and his sons begin their ministry on behalf of the people. We’ve seen it already in the instructions about sacrifice, but it stood out for me again today how very bloody the whole thing was. Later on, in Leviticus 17, we’ll read that the life is in the blood of a creature. Animal sacrifice was about blood because it was about life: the wages of sin is death, Paul will say in Romans 6, so something has to die to pay the price of sin. The book of Hebrews will tell us that all of these sacrifices looked forward to the one sacrifice that matters, that endures, that covers all sins, the death of Jesus on the cross. I’m working on a sermon about Jesus’ beating in Pilate’s palace, and I’ve been seeing in my mind’s eye scenes from Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ all week. It’s a horrifying, but accurate, portrayal of the bloody mess that is the cross. The wages of sin is a mess. Thanks be to God, we are freed from enduring that mess for ourselves!

More Sacrifices

Leviticus 4-6

            I have struggled with today’s reading. I’m writing this after an hour’s study. So, let me start by repeating myself: don’t worry if you don’t understand everything in the Bible, and don’t worry if some of these regulations in Leviticus make your head swim. Maybe someday you’ll come back to it and on a second or third or fourth reading, it will make more sense to you.

            Today, I want only to highlight one detail in the so-called sin offering and to reflect on a phenomenon common to the sin and to the guilt offerings.

            The detail? It’s this: the sin offering is conducted differently depending on who it’s for. If it’s a priest or the whole community, some of the blood was sprinkled inside the tabernacle. If it’s for an individual, all the blood remains outside the tabernacle. I think this makes an important point: from a human point of view, not all sin is equal. Some sin is more damaging in its human effects than others. Consider: if a regular, man-in-the-pew Christian commits adultery, that’s bad. He has damaged his marriage, perhaps irreparably, and he has brought dishonor onto the church (1 Corinthians 6:12:20). But if a pastor commits adultery, all that is true and the damage to the faith of his people is extraordinary, so much so that some might even abandon the faith altogether, thinking, “How can a man of God fall so horribly.” I think that’s worth considering, and it’s worth two things: 1) holding our leaders accountable, especially in the church, 2) being aware of the unique temptations that Satan places on them because of the consequences of their fall.

            The other thing I’ve been struggling with this morning is the emphasis in Leviticus 4-5 on unintentional sin. (The word “unintentional” is used six times in these two chapters.) What’s been bothering me is that, at first glance, there doesn’t seem to be any way out for someone who intentionally sins. I suppose part of the point is to demonstrate that sin is an affront to God and that to purposely insult Him is disastrous. But, still, doesn’t God forgive all sins? I have two thoughts. First, when we sin against better knowledge, that poses a terrible risk to faith. Intentional sin is a bit like Pharaoh hardening his heart; it runs the risk of driving out the Holy Spirit and thereby killing one’s faith. Care is needed: there is intentional sin and there are sins of weakness and they sometimes feel similar. I think of a person with an addiction: they don’t want to do it again; they know they shouldn’t; but they do. That’s a little different than just saying, “I don’t care what God says; I want to do this.”

            That leads to my second thought. How can deliberate sin be forgiven? Commentator Victor Hamilton drew my attention to Numbers 5:6-8, about which he notes, “What is novel and crucial in the passage in Numbers is that confession is essential in the case of a deliberate sin. It must succeed conviction and precede restitution. Thus the sin moves into the category of inadvertent sins and may be expiated” (Hamilton, 261). Confession, repentance, contrition—these things are essential. They are essential for any sin we commit, as Luther notes in the Small Catechism, “Before God we should plead guilty of all sins, even those we are not aware of, as we do in the Lord’s Prayer.” They are even more essential in the case of deliberate, faith-endangering sin. If such a sin is like a hardening of one’s heart, repentance is like the breaking of that heart into pieces, following which the Holy Spirit can re-enter that heart and make it alive again. There’s so much to say here, because repentance is also a work of the Holy Spirit. He is the one, working through God’s Word of Law, that convicts us of sin, casts down our faulty foundations. So, we don’t want to leave the impression that we somehow prepare ourselves for salvation through our repentance, yet we have to emphasize the importance of repentance in our restoration.

Introduction to Leviticus

Leviticus 1-3

            Again this week, this post covers both Friday’s and Saturday’s readings. Today we begin reading Leviticus, and we should spend a little bit of time introducing this book, perhaps the book which seems most foreign and maybe even irrelevant in our modern sensibility. The title, Leviticus, comes to us from the Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Old Testament dating from about two centuries before Jesus, a translation which had a huge influence on the New Testament. Leviticus means something along the lines of “concerning the Levites,” because so much of the content of the book concerns the services and regulations of the tabernacle, which the priests and Levites were responsible for. The book divides into five sections: chapters 1-7 detailing sacrifices; chapters 8-10 about the priesthood; chapters 11-16 distinguishing ceremonially clean from unclean and culminating in the Day of Atonement; chapters 17-26, which scholars dub the “holiness code;” and, finally, chapter 27 about vows taken to the Lord. Victor Hamilton notes, “More than any other Old Testament book…Leviticus summons Israel to a holy life” (Hamilton, Handbook on the Pentateuch, 246.) Said another way, Leviticus reminds Israel that she is holy to the Lord and details the many ways in which she lives distinctively among the nations.

            We start with the section on sacrifices, chapters 1-7. Israel has five basic offerings: a whole burnt offering, a grain offering, a fellowship offering (in some translations, a peace offering), a sin offering, and guilt offering. These offerings are further explained in later chapters. The three that occupy us today (whole burnt offering, grain offering, and fellowship offering) are different than the last two in that no specific occasion is given for them. In fact, my study Bible simply calls each of them a “voluntary act of worship.” They are given specifically as a gift to the Lord for His pleasure. Note how the phrase “an aroma pleasing to the Lord is repeated eight times in three chapters.

            The whole burnt offering is an animal sacrifice, and the entire animal is burned up, an act that might seem wasteful to us. Imagine bringing a nice, crisp $100 bill into church and, instead of placing it in the offering plate, you set it on fire. Seems irresponsible. The whole burnt offering can seem like that, but it is offered only to honor the Lord. While whole burnt offerings could be offered by individuals, they were most commonly corporate gifts, the occasions of which are described other places in the Bible.

            The grain offering and the fellowship offering are different in that a portion of both is reserved for human use. A portion of a grain offering was reserved for the priests, and the majority of the fellowship offering (again, an animal sacrifice) was eaten (see chapter 7). We may ask why the fat of the fellowship offering was the portion given to the Lord, and the answer is that the fatty portions were considered the best portions. (In our era, we’ve become really sensitive to the dangers of a high fat diet, but I remember my dad loving a well-marbled, that is, fatty, steak. He judged that the flavor was in the fat.)

            Next week, we’ll look at two sacrifices for specific occasions and read more regulations about all five sacrifices. For today, though, we just have a reminder that one of the purposes of our offerings is simply that they please the Lord, just as anyone of us would be pleased when a loved one brought us a spontaneous gift, motivated simply out of love and for the joy of the recipient. 

Setting Up the Tabernacle

Exodus 39-40

            Finally, the tabernacle is completed to the Lord’s specifications. Moses finds it just as the Lord had commanded and sets it up for the first time. Note the time stamp: the tabernacle is set up two weeks shy of the anniversary of the Passover. Israel has been at Mt. Sinai for almost a year. It took them six weeks to get from Egypt to Sinai. According to 24:18, Moses spent 40 days on the mountain, so the golden calf incident happened about 3 ½ months out from Egypt. If my math is correct, it took the Israelites about eight months to prepare the tabernacle. I don’t know that that information is particularly important, but according to Numbers 10:11 the Israelites spent just short of a year at Mt. Sinai. I think it’s helpful to think of this as the time in which the Lord deprogrammed them from thinking like slaves and helped them learn to think of themselves as a peculiar people, holy to Him. It takes some time to learn to think differently!

            Much more important is the end of chapter 40, in which the cloud settles on tabernacle, an indication that the Lord has taken up residence among His people. The cloud is the means by which the Lord hides His glory so that He can be in the presence of His people without endangering them. (The holiness of God is incompatible with the sinfulness of humans.) Yet, at this moment, even the cloud cannot fully conceal the Lord’s glory. A very similar thing occurs when the temple is dedicated in Solomon’s day (about 500 years after Sinai). 1 Kings 8:11 says, “And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled his temple.”

            Three things: first, we see again the significance of the tabernacle, namely, it was the place where the Lord was graciously present. Not just omnipresently present, but present specifically to bless. Second, in the history of Israel, Solomon’s temple was destroyed in 586 BC. It was rebuilt at the end of Israel’s Babylonian exile in 516 BC, but the Bible never talks about the glory filling that second temple. Third, the overpowering glory of the Lord makes our Christian experience all the more remarkable. Consider Ephesians 2:18, “For through him [that is, Jesus] we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.” Access to the Father—unmediated by priests, unafraid to be in His presence—because Jesus did what the sacrifices of the tabernacle were ultimately looking forward to. What scholars call “temple ideology” is huge in understanding the fullness of Biblical theology.

Tabernacle Furnishings

Exodus 37-38

            Today’s reading details the actual construction of the ark of the covenant, the table of the bread, the lampstand, the incense altar, the altar of burnt offering, and the basin. They are arranged in that order from inside out, but let’s look at them from outside in. The significance of the altar of burnt offering is probably pretty obvious: no one comes into God’s presence without atonement, and atonement is made through blood sacrifice. We will read about the various sacrifices and offerings the people made beginning on Friday. In Christian terms, there is no access to God without the cross of Jesus on which the one sacrifice that counted once for all was made. The basin’s purpose is always obvious: a priest had to clean up somewhere after the messy work of sacrifice. For the Christian, two images come to mind. First, there’s the imagery of “having been washed in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14). On the surface, what a ridiculous notion! Blood is red; washing in it would make you messier not cleaner! But the point is that only by the blood of Jesus’ sacrifice is sin taken away. Second, there’s the image of Baptism, which unites us with Jesus. In Romans 6, Paul says that in Baptism we are united with Jesus in His death and resurrection. The basin in the tabernacle, with its connection to the altar of burnt offering looks forward to that experience.

            Now we come into the Holy Place. The tabernacle was rectangular, three times as long as it was wide. The first two-thirds was called the Holy Place, and only priests were allowed there, typically only twice per day. The last third was called the Most Holy Place. It contained the ark of the covenant, and only the high priest entered there, usually only once per year on the Day of Atonement. In the Holy Place were three pieces of furniture: the table of the bread, the lampstand, the incense altar. On the table of the bread were kept 12 loaves, reminding people that the tribes of Israel were always in the Lord’s presence. Bread, of course, figures prominently in Christian worship through the Lord’s Supper. Now, we typically emphasize the presence of Jesus in the bread, but Paul makes a point about the bread and the church: “Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all share the one loaf” (1 Corinthians 10:17). We also are a people who live in the presence of our God. Functionally, the lampstand provided light in the tabernacle, but light is a common image for God, “who lives in unapproachable light” (1 Timothy 6:16). Jesus famously declares Himself the light of the world (John 8:12). And God’s people are the ones who will be light for the nations (Acts 13:47). Finally, there is an altar for burning incense, the big takeaway of which is that the prayers of God’s people go up before Him like incense (Psalm 141:2, Revelation 5:8).

            Finally, we have the ark of the covenant, placed in the Most Holy Place. The ark was considered the Lord’s throne on earth. He sat between the cherubim. Again, we see the importance of atonement to be in the presence of God, since the lid of the ark was called the atonement cover (in other translations called the mercy seat). We see a similar thing in most churches (at least in liturgical, sacramental traditions) in which the altar is the visual focal point, the place where God still sits among His people.

            So, the tabernacle was arranged to emphasize the holy presence of God among His people. As we consider these arrangements we see that the tabernacle looked forward to the work of Jesus in many ways. This foreshadowing makes the tabernacle well worth our time to understand.