Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 24:4-8

4 And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel.

5 And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the Lord.

6 And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basins; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.

7 And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient.

8 And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words.

The Israelites had committed to following God’s law, and this covenant was sealed by making solemn sacrifice. Every tribe had their own altar, and all of them ritually dedicated themselves to following the word that God had given.

Let’s take the time to be specific about exactly what those rituals were, and what their significance was. There are three rituals being described here.

  1. The burnt offering. The formal description of how this offering was to be made is given in Leviticus 1.
    • Performance: The Israelite who was making the sacrifice would give up an entire animal which would be cut into parts, cleaned, and then the entire thing was burned on the altar.
    • Significance: This was a constant and regular sacrifice in the Israelite tradition. The burning of the entire animal obviously represents the giving of the whole self to the Lord, turning one’s entire life to His will. It is therefore a fitting symbol for those who are ready to make penance for past transgressions and willing to commit themselves back to the Lord.
  2. The peace offering. The initial description of this offering can be found in Leviticus 3, though there are some details that are only explained later, such as in Leviticus 19:5-8 and Deuteronomy 27:7.
    • Performance: The Israelite would once again offer up an entire animal. This time, though, only the fat and specific organs would be laid on the altar and burned. The rest would become a meal that the Israelite would eat that day and the next, with any leftovers being burned upon the third day.
    • Significance: This was a sign of fellowship and friendship. The Israelite making the offering would essentially be sharing a meal with the Lord. The Lord’s part of the meal came from what was burned on the altar, the Israelite’s part from eating the remaining flesh. Also of note was that the parts burned on the altar were forbidden for the Israelites to eat anyway (fat and blood), so God was taking the portion that was not right for the Israelites and leaving for them what was good, just as He takes from us our sin and leaves us with a new heart. This sacrifice is a fitting symbol for those who are living in union and harmony with God, sharing a life and a purpose with Him.
  3. The sprinkling of blood. Some of the most thorough details of this ritual are actually the ones given here in these verses. However, there are some additional details of this event included in Hebrews 9:19-22.
    • Performance: This ritual was attached to the other sacrifices. There is no sprinkling of blood without the burnt and peace offerings. The priest would take the blood from the offerings, mix it with water, and divide it in two. Half he would sprinkle over the altar, its instruments, and even the book of the law, and the other half would be sprinkled upon the person(s) making the offering.
    • Significance: The blood was sprinkled over the instruments and word of God, and also upon the people. It covers them both, binds them together, and seals their covenant. In Hebrews 9 the assertion is made that every testament/covenant requires the death of the testator to be in full force. Frankly, that is a logic I don’t understand at this point. I don’t yet know what fundamental, universal truth makes it so that death is necessary to empower a commitment, but apparently there is one, and so that sprinkled blood was the activating agent in the covenant between God and His people.

Taken as a whole, we can see that Israel was sacrificing their old lives and giving themselves wholeheartedly to God by the burnt offering. Then they were recognized as His partners and shared meal with Him via the peace offering. Finally, this new union was sanctified by the sprinkling of the blood.

These were not random rituals, each one served a function and a purpose, with deep spiritual meaning behind them. They were being used to properly initiate God’s people.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 24:3

3 And Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the Lord hath said will we do.

Back in Chapter 19 the Israelites had been informed that God wanted to make a special covenant with them, wherein they would be required to follow His commandments and He in turn would make them His peculiar, chosen people. In response, “all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do.”

This preliminary agreement having been reached, Moses then went up into the mountain, and throughout the previous three chapters we have heard the law that they Lord laid down for the people. Now we reach the other bookend to this event, where Moses delivers the law to the Israelites, and once again, “and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the Lord hath said will we do.”

Thus, first the Israelites agreed to receive God’s law, then they agreed to obey it. And as we will see in the following chapters, Israel’s acceptance of the law here is preliminary to them receiving further instructions, wherein God will give the command for them to build a tabernacle which He will fill with His presence.

We clearly see in this that we come into alignment with the Lord by degrees. First we open ourselves just to hearing His word, then we commit ourselves to actually following it, then we receive the gift of His spirit in our home. He does not ask us to commit to things unknowingly, but instead invites us to hear exactly what we’re committing to, and then we decide whether to move forward or not. He does not invade us with His presence right off, He offers it and we must accept it. What we know of the Lord, and how deep our connection goes with Him, is limited only by our willingness to accept each new commitment He offers us.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 24:1-2

1 And he said unto Moses, Come up unto the Lord, thou, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship ye afar off.

2 And Moses alone shall come near the Lord: but they shall not come nigh; neither shall the people go up with him.

Today’s verses show a hierarchy being created. All of Israel is to worship from afar while Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu will ascend into the mountain with Moses. Those three priests would only come part of the way, though, with Moses alone fully entering into the presence of the Lord. Thus there is a triangular hierarchy with the prophet standing beside God at the top, the priests a step down from there, and the general populace down at the bottom.

Understanding hierarchies like this requires nuance and care. It is all too easy to turn a hierarchy into a competition, to feel ashamed of oneself if you are not high enough in the structure. In my church we often hear over the pulpit that the pastor is no more important than the nursery teacher, that each is performing an equal duty in the eyes of God, but it seems that the parishioners struggle to actually believe that.

Hierarchies are necessary for the management of a large people. If we had many leaders and few followers then there would be a constant change in direction and not enough workers to get things done. By necessity there must be fewer at the top and more at the bottom, but each half needs the other or nothing gets done at all. Every part, rightly balanced, is essential. Neither are expendable.

One other note from these verses is that Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu ascending the mountain with Moses calls to mind Peter, James, and John accompanying Jesus into the Mount of Transfiguration. Interestingly, one of the angels that conversed with Jesus in that mountain was none other than Moses. This same pattern of three accompanying witnesses was repeated again with Peter, James, and John as they followed Jesus into the Garden of Gethsemane at the beginning of his Passion. There seems to be a principle of three witnesses observing the divine moments of the leading prophet, so that they may bear testimony of it afterward.

Posted on by Abe Austin

The Limit to God in Our Lives

What we know of the Lord, and how deep our connection goes with Him, is limited only by our willingness to accept each new commitment He offers us.

Posted on by Abe Austin

No Purpose Without Striving

There are those who try to forever remain in their favorite period of life. Some look backwards, trying to recapture the glory days of High School. Some look forward, trying to hurry themselves into retirement and empty nesting. Their great goal is to reach the most comfortable or most exciting chapter of life and repeat it over and over.

Which means that their life is already over.

If you wish to freeze life at a specific point, then obviously there is nothing more to discover in that life. The story is done, the development is over, the new adventures are ended, and the meaning is already passed.

Life has no purpose without change. Far better that we look for fresh battles to fight, for new improvements to make, for novel achievements to accomplish, for unresolved wrongs to right, and for original healing to give. We should ever be striving to be better than what we are, so that our best self is not already behind us.

It is in striving that we keep our story moving forward, in trying that we find meaning.

Posted on by Abe Austin

The Unknowable Author

Pure Creation)

John 1 tells us that in the beginning was the Word, which Word was apparently an animating and creating figure, by whom all created things were created. Of course, that would mean plants and animals and people, but even more fundamentally, if minerals and atoms and forces of nature are created things, then they were created by this Word also.

Thus, the Word would be neither mineral nor atomic nor natural, but instead an immaterial, uncreated being that has always been. The Word would have created all things, but not been made up of those things itself. It would have made this world, but would not be contained within this world. And the world, by measuring itself, would never find the Word, only clues that it existed somewhere “out there.”

The closest analogue that we have to this sort of creation is when a person composes a story, a song, or some other conceptual thing. The making of something physical like a bridge or a building would not be the same, because that requires using pre-created elements that are composed of the same sort of matter that we are. So, too, the physical book and the ink that forms the notes on the page are not the same, only the idea that is the story or the song itself. These are the things that are pure creations, things that are not made of the same stuff that we are, things that we exist entirely outside of. They are ours, they are of us, but they are also distinct from us.

The Author Becomes a Character)

However, John 1 goes on to tell us, “and the Word was made flesh.” Though the Word was uncreated, existing outside all the material universe, yet it entered into that universe. The author became a character within His own story, meeting and knowing the different protagonists and the antagonists, and influencing them along their way.

We once again have an analogue to this, for we also imbue our conceptual creations with the imprint of our own selves. For example, many authors will conceive of a story by imagining themselves in a particular situation, and then will write their own simulated words and thoughts and feelings within that context. The story itself is an idea, but the author, himself, is an idea within that idea. A love song will draw on the real-world longing and heartbreak of its composer, a conceptual reflection of the heart of the one that sings it. It has often been noted that all art is in some way an expression of its creator, which means the creator is recreated to some degree within it.

The Unknowableness of God)

But who could say that the imprint of the creator is the full creator? The story and the song capture only a single projected dimension of the creator. They do not capture the full person. They cannot. For once again, they are not made of the same stuff that the creator is made of. They cannot have his flesh, his blood, or his evolving states of mind after he first created them.

And so, too, it must be with the Word. For the Word was not a man, but the Word projected a single dimension of itself down into manhood. What we see in Jesus Christ does give us a glimpse at God, but it as flattened and narrow a view of God as the opinions and ideas in a story are a flattened and narrow view of their author.

You are right now receiving my ideas in this post, but think how much separation there is from these ideas to the actual, full me. Think of how much you still do not know about who and what and how I am. How insufficient these words would be to recreate me in the flesh. And then consider that these flat, limited ideas are to me as Jesus Christ is to God.

Thus, if you ever feel that you lack a full conception of God, is it any wonder why? We may know abstractly that He is our creator and that He is good and that He is worthy of our obedience, but none of us can really know Him at all, and we never will in this mortal life. The magnitude of God’s being is beyond incomprehensible. It could not be told in all the space and time of this entire universe because, after all, this entire universe is but an idea within His mind.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 23:31-33

31 And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee.

32 Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.

33 They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me: for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.

Israel had been promised the land of Canaan, but in these verses God defines the exact boundaries of their inheritance. One of the bounds given is the very desert that they now wandered through, so they were not yet in the land that God meant for them, but stood upon its border, in limbo, suspended between the death of their old life and full rebirth.

Other scholars have noted that even after coming into the Promised Land Israel’s borders would not extend out to the places described in these verses for many years, but would eventually be reached during the campaigns of David and Solomon. Afterward, those borders would recede. This was therefore a prophetic foretelling of the limits that Israel would reach at its largest point, not what its borders would be at all times. God had set the maximum borders, and Israel would play within those bounds.

Israel is also told that they are to remain a people apart. They are not to make a covenant with the other people of the land, meaning entering into no alliance or contract, nor open their borders to them. This does not seem to be a ban on immigration as God had already detailed how a foreigner might live among them if he or she was assimilated into the faith, like Ruth famously did, but there were not to be pockets of foreign nationalities within God’s own people.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 23:27-30

27 I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee.

28 And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.

29 I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee.

30 By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.

God continues His promises, now detailing how He will fight Israel’s wars for them, breaking down their enemies before Israel even arrives. Verse 28 promises that the Lord will even send a plague of hornets to drive them out.

As it turns out, we do not hear of the fulfillment of that prophecy in the books of scripture. It may have very well occurred, just no record of it has survived to this day. Other scholars have suggested that “hornets” may not have been meant literally, that the Lord may have just been saying He would send all manner of afflictions and plagues to wear the enemies down and drive them from the land. If this interpretation is correct, then it may be primarily a reference to the Egyptians, who would, in fact, break many of these nations in the campaigns of Ramses III.

Yet in the midst of all this dramatic conquest the Lord also shows a well-thought-out strategy. If all the enemy is driven out in a single year, the land will be ravaged by the destruction and the Israelites would have more fields than they can handle. By driving them slowly, by degrees, there would be less sudden brutality upon the land and the Israelites would be able to gradually take over those places.