Moses Part 18 (Exodus 25:1-9)

    Sorry for the long delay but this last week has been hectic. But I'm back and hopefully will be back to at least two updates a week. No promises as I have a very busy schedule but that's my goal.

    Anyway, where we last left off, Israel had confirmed the covenant and eaten in the presence of Yahveh to seal the deal. Then Moses disappeared into the cloud on the mountain with Yahveh. Now we go into what happened on the mountain.

    A lot happens on the mountain, much of it we won't go into because that, like the 10 Commandments, is a topic in and of themselves. So instead we are going to discuss the epicness of the first 9 verses of chapter 25.

    Moses gets to the top of Mount Sinai and immediately Yahveh tells him to take up a collection of valuable items from the Israelites. Why this sudden tax? So that they can use those items to build Yahveh a tabernacle.

    This raises all sorts of questions, chiefly, what is a tabernacle? The word tabernacle, or sanctuary in some cases, comes from the word mishkan, which literally means "dwelling place." The word mishkan itself is a participle of the verb shakan, which means "to dwell or reside." Yahveh is asking the Israelites to provide him a dwelling place so that he may dwell among them.

    Just stop and think about that for a moment: Yahveh, the almighty creator and sustainer of the universe, wants to live with the people of Israel. He wants them to make him a tent so that he can be close to them without obliterating them. That is huge.

    But it also begs the question why? Why would the lord of the universe want to connect with pitiful, rebellious mortals like us? Wouldn't he want to keep his distance? Apparently not, but why?

    The answer is in the title of this blog: God likes us, meaning he actually enjoys our company. We know that Yahveh loves us; the Bible says so often enough, but we often don't realize that Yahveh actually likes us.

    Now you may be wondering what the difference between love and like is and let me assure you, there is a difference. That difference is outlined in another blog post titled "Love versus Like" and we don't really have the space or time to go into that here. To put it simply, love and like are two separate things: love is a relationship we have with another person, one that goes one way where we would do anything to secure another's well-being. Like is an attitude we have towards something: things we like bring us pleasure and joy, things we don't do not.

    With that in mind, there is apparently something about our company and presence that brings Yahveh joy and pleasure. He wants something from us that makes him happy. That something is our friendship.

    This is a theme that is repeated again and again throughout the Bible, from Adam and Eve to Abraham to the Israelites to the Disciples to the end of time. I could go on and on about this, but that too has been covered in another post. The point is that Yahveh wants our friendship. He wants to be with us.

    Many of our discussions through this Moses study have hit on the awesomeness, power, and sovereignty of Yahveh. Of course there is a lot of truth to that: Yahveh is awesome and powerful and sovereign. But that is not all he is and it is important for us to keep the whole picture in mind when it comes to Yahveh.

    There is a side to Yahveh that longs for friendship and communion with his creations. That is why he wanted them to build him a dwelling place, so that he could be with his people. The same phrase is used in John to describe the Incarnation: the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. Again in Revelation, at the end of this age and beginning of the next, the Bible says that "now the dwelling of God is with men."

    We are Yahveh's servants, his subordinates, no doubt. There is a difference between us and him. Yet with all of that, we are still to be more than just his servants: we are to be his friends too. This is not an either/or but a both/and. We are his servants and his friends.

    Will you be more than just a servant of Yahveh? Will you take the time and effort to let him dwell with you? Will you accept his offered hand of friendship? Will you like him back?

Moses Part 17 (Exodus 24)

    As you've undoubtedly noticed, we're skipping a few chapters here. This is because what we are doing is a character study on Moses through the events of his life rather than on the book of Exodus. The intervening chapters are a bunch of laws regulating Israelite behavior, which are an interesting study in their own right but not of particular interest here.

    Chapter 24 is titled in my Bible "The Covenant Confirmed" which is a bit of an interesting title. What happens in chapter 24 is even more interesting.

    Moses has been up on the mountain conversing with Yahveh and receiving the law of Israel. He has now come back down and relayed the law to the Israelites. The Israelites respond by saying that they will do everything Yahveh has said, which Moses then writes down.

    So far, fairly normal and what we would expect. But now is when things start getting weird, at least from our point of view. Moses sets up an altar at the foot of the mountain and surrounds it with twelve pillars, representing the twelve tribes of Israel. He then sacrifices a bunch of young bulls as fellowship offerings to Yahveh. Half of the blood he sprinkles on the altar and the other half he puts in bowls.

    Again Moses reads the laws from the book he just wrote, called the Book of the Covenant and again the people declare that they will obey. Then Moses takes the blood from the bowls and throws it on everyone, saying, "This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words." Promptly thereafter, Moses, Aaron and his sons, and the 70 elders all sit down and have a meal in the presence of Yahveh, who they see.

    From our 21^st century, western point of view, this whole thing is very weird. What is going on here? What is up with the blood and then having a meal in the presence of Yahveh?

    To understand what is going on, we must first understand what a covenant is. A covenant is basically a contract between two entities. It could be a simple as a work contract between two people or as grand as an alliance between two world powers.

    Although there are records of "covenants" between individuals in the ancient Near East, most often it is used in the sense of two nations reaching an agreement. The most poignant examples of this are various Hittite treaties from the early 2^nd millennium BC between the Hittite Empire and vassal states, which neatly parallel the covenant between Yahveh and the Israelites.

    In the Hittite examples, a book of the covenant was written which essentially outlined the treaty between the Hittite overlord and whichever vassal state was surrendering. Now these books followed a set formula, where the overlord was introduced with titles, then came a historical recapping of what brought everyone to that point, then came the stipulations or what was expected of the vassal state, followed by a preservation of the text, then a signing of witnesses, and finally there was a section of blessings and curses; blessings for following the covenant and curses for breaking it. The book of Deuteronomy (which we will touch on later) essentially follows this exact pattern. It is the book of the covenant.

    So essentially what we have here is a treaty that establishes Yahveh as the overlord of the people of Israel, who become his vassal state. Now when one nation becomes the vassal state of another, there is a special ceremony that accompanies the sealing of the treaty. That we understand; most of us have seen treaty signings for various things on TV after all.

    However, the ancient Near East did treaty signings slightly different than we do. They often killed animals as sacrifices to seal a treaty (examples of this are at Mari and Alalakh). The Hebrew word for covenant, "berı̂yth" comes from the Hebrew word for cutting, like bisecting. In Genesis, when Yahveh establishes his covenant with Abraham, he has Abraham cut several animals in half and then they walk through them. The idea is that if I break this agreement, I will become like one of those animals. Admittedly a bit hyperbolic, but I suppose it gets the point across.

    In this case, they simply sacrifice bulls and sprinkle the blood on the people. Covenants were sealed with blood. Then, after all of this, they ate a meal in the presence of Yahveh. This too carries great significance in the ancient Near East.

    To us, meals are something rather innocuous. We enjoy food no doubt (our obesity rate speaks to that) but we don't take meals seriously. In our microwave society, we want our food quick and easy so that we can move on to the next part of our schedule.

    But even today in the Middle East (the ancient Near East), meals are of central significance. Mealtime is where friendships are established and family ties are confirmed. If you eat with someone, you are family to them in that culture. Sharing a meal is a symbol of close friendship.

    This is the significance of the meal between the elders of Israel and Yahveh. In that act, they were declaring themselves part of Yahveh's family, under his leadership and wing.

    When you understand Exodus 24 in its cultural context, it is huge. Yahveh is taking a people and making them essentially citizens of heaven. He is bringing them under his care and his rule. Through Israel, Yahveh is trying to bring a piece of heaven to earth.

    What does this mean for us? Most of us aren't Jewish and even if we were, that Israel no longer exists. So how do we relate to what happened at a desert mountain 3500 years ago?

    What happened in Exodus 24 sounds an awful lot like Paul's description of salvation in Romans 10, where he defines being saved as confessing with our mouths that "Jesus is Lord" and believing in our hearts that God raised him from the dead. This is how we become a part of Yahveh's kingdom.

    We are offered the chance to join the kingdom of heaven by accepting Christ as our overlord, much like Israel did. What that means is that we learn to live, as Israel was to, by the code of heaven. We adopt heaven's mindset and culture and live by her laws. This is not salvation by works, but rather works by salvation. We obey Christ because being saved means accepting him as our lord. Remember heaven is not a democracy.

    This new covenant with Christ has been sealed with blood, but not the blood of a bull, but Jesus's own blood on the cross shed for you and me. We don't have to do anything but simply say, as Israel did, "We will do everything Christ has said; we will obey." And then we can eat in the presence of Yahveh.

    This is significance of communion, something that has probably been lost as our cultures have changed. It is the reaffirmation of our relationship with Yahveh by sharing a meal essentially with him. We are confirming our service and fealty to him while receiving the blessing of his salvation anew.

    Israel didn't have to accept the covenant and neither do you. It's your choice to serve Yahveh as a vassal. But contrary to what Satan said, it is better to serve in heaven than rule in hell. So I urge you to claim Christ as your lord and then raise your glass to the Maker of the Universe.

(Source note: My information on covenants and treaties from the ancient Near East is from Richard Hess's Israelite Religion's, 2007. If you are interested in more information on the topic, I highly recommend his work which has fascinating information on Israelite religion. Always give credit where do.)

Moses Part 16 (Exodus 20)

    We have at last come to the famous 10 Commandments, one of the most important passages in all the Bible. These 10 rules lay down the basic principles for morality and righteous living and are so widely regarded that they are still prominently displayed at courthouses around the United States. Many still hold them in high esteem.

    Despite their importance, in fact because of it, I'm not going to spend a great deal of time on them. An entire series could be spent (and might be in the future) dissecting each of the commandments for their deeper meaning. But because that is not the purpose of this series, I will not focus on them for fear of shortchanging them.

    This series is about people, specifically Moses and his relationship with Yahveh although much of Israel's relationship with Yahveh has been discussed. So instead of focusing with the commandments themselves, we're going to talk about the giving of the commandments.

    Where we left of last time was Moses leading the Israelites to the foot of Mount Sinai where they are going to meet with Yahveh. The mountain is going nuts and the people are freaking out. Yahveh gives Moses some last minute instructions and Moses goes back down to the people.

    Exodus 20 opens with these words: "And God spoke all of these words:"

    Think about that for a second. Who is Yahveh talking to? It's not Moses; Moses is back with the people. Is Yahveh talking to himself? Unlikely. So who is he talking to?

    Verse 2 goes on, "I am the LORD your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery."

    Again, who is Yahveh talking to? Well, who did he bring out of Egypt? Moses? Again, no. Yahveh sent Moses to Egypt.

    No, Yahveh is talking to the Israelites, all of them. Think about that for a minute. Yahveh was talking, audibly, to the entire assembly of Israel. The god of the universe personally addresses a group of people and we have what is simply one of the most amazing events in history.

    None of us have ever experienced this. At least I haven't ever gone to church and literally heard Yahveh give the sermon. Now we talk about how Yahveh spoke to us through the preacher or the music or the prayer or something like that, but this is wasn't what the Israelites experienced. They didn't hear Yahveh metaphorically; they literally heard the voice of God.

    That must have been a tremendous experience. It was certainly a terrifying one. The Israelites, who were already on edge from the thunder and lightning earlier, were now in full panic mode. After Yahveh had finished giving the commandments, they told Moses to speak to Yahveh for them but not to have Yahveh speak to them directly, otherwise they believed they would die (the fact that they'd just listen to Yahveh and were still alive apparently didn't occur to them).

    Moses internal reaction had to be something along the lines of, "Gee, thanks guys. Just offer me up as your sacrificial lamb." Instead he told them to chill out, that Yahveh was testing them so that they wouldn't break the 10 Commandments (which they did, but that's another story). And then the story ends with Moses walking into the thick darkness where Yahveh was while the people stood behind, watching in fear.

    This begs a question for me: what was the difference between Moses and the Israelites? How was it that they were peeing their freshly washed pants while Moses seemed so calm about meeting Yahveh face to face? Was he an idiot? Did he just not understand how terrifying Yahveh is?

    The answer is quite the opposite. Moses understood far better than the Israelites exactly who he was dealing with and that is why he wasn't afraid.

    This seems to be contradictory to the previous post about how Yahveh is this all-powerful untamed entity that could wipe out the universe with a single thought. But now we see the flipside of that.

    Consider how Yahveh begins his delivery of the 10 Commandments: "I am the LORD your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery."

    Now there are a million ways Yahveh could've begun that. He could've said, "I am the God who hammered Egypt into the desert." Or he could've said, "I'm the guy who drowned the entirety of Pharaoh's army." Or he simply could've said, "See all this thunder and lightning? Yeah, I'm that guy." But no, he says, "I am the God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery." Why that opening?

    He did it to remind them that he is the god who rescued them from the land of oppression and misery; to remind them that he loves them.

    You see Yahveh went through all of this production to show the people who he is. He is power on an infinite scale yes, but he is also love. Yahveh opens his commandments, which are a declaration of his character (that is a long discussion), with a statement of love and care. This is who Yahveh is.

    It is easy to read these stories and get a picture of a powerful and vengeful god who doesn't hesitate to bring the smack down on people who step out of line. We see the plagues raining down on Egypt, the Red Sea massacre, and sound and light show at Sinai. These are the events we focus on because they're epic and memorable.

    But what we miss is the manna in the desert, the water from the rock, and the rescue from Egypt. We miss a Yahveh who tracked down Moses tending sheep in the desert so that his people would have a deliver. These are not the acts of a vengeful god, but rather a god of love and kindness. This is who Yahveh is. That is what he wanted his people to remember. It is in that context that he framed the 10 Commandments: love and compassion.

    This is not to deny the just side of Yahveh's character; we've expounded at length on that. Rather this is to more fully round out his character. It is easy to focus, like the Israelites, on frightening parts of who Yahveh is and miss the love and goodness that is our God.

    And that is the difference between Moses and the Israelites. The Israelites couldn't see past the smoke and thunder and lightning. But Moses knew Yahveh. It wasn't that he didn't see Yahveh's power; he had seen Yahveh's power in ways that even the Israelites couldn't comprehend.

    Rather it was that Moses saw all of Yahveh's character. He saw the goodness that defines Yahveh (or rather, the goodness that is defined by Yahveh). He knew, as we have said time and time again, that while Yahveh isn't safe, he is good. And because of that goodness, Moses boldly walked into the presence of Yahveh.

    Last time, we talked about how reverence is knowing where we stand in relation to Yahveh. This is the next part of that. Moses knew that he was accepted by Yahveh, failures and all. He trusted (faith again) that acceptance and so could stand calmly in the presence of Yahveh.

    This is where faith and reverence meet. Reverence is understanding who we are in relation to Yahveh. Faith is trusting the word of Yahveh as being true and sure. The next step is to come into Yahveh's presence knowing who he is and trusting his promise to accept us as we are. This point is where a real, genuine relationship with Yahveh happens.

    Often people live their lives away from this point. Either they live like the Israelites did, quivering in fear and not daring to trust Yahveh's acceptance to get close to him or they live like Pharaoh did: arrogant and cocky, believing themselves to be on the same level as Yahveh.

    Moses lived his life at the point where faith and reverence meet. That is why his relationship with Yahveh was so honest, so deep, and so genuine. As we continue to explore the interactions between these two, the realness of their relationship will continue to inspire and astound me. I hope it will you. It is because Moses lived where reverence and faith meet.

    You may be asking how to find this point. That is a good question. How did Moses find it? He spent time with Yahveh. He took the leap to get to know him for who he is on his own terms. That is my challenge to you. Take the leap and get to know Yahveh on his terms for who he is.