Posted on by Abe Austin

Purpose for Faith

For what purpose do you have your faith?
Those that have found a sincere belief in God must ask themselves what He now expects them to do with it.
With every gift there comes an obligation.

Posted on by Abe Austin · 2 Comments

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 8:14-17

14 And he brought the bullock for the sin offering: and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the bullock for the sin offering.

15 And he slew it; and Moses took the blood, and put it upon the horns of the altar round about with his finger, and purified the altar, and poured the blood at the bottom of the altar, and sanctified it, to make reconciliation upon it.

16 And he took all the fat that was upon the inwards, and the caul above the liver, and the two kidneys, and their fat, and Moses burned it upon the altar.

17 But the bullock, and his hide, his flesh, and his dung, he burnt with fire without the camp; as the Lord commanded Moses.

Now that the priests are washed and anointed, Moses begins a series of sacrifices. Each one of these represents a different aspect, a sequence to make Aaron and his sons ready for their sacred call. The first, unsurprisingly, is the sin offering. As we have seen, this was an atonement for sins committed, a purging of the baser things, a returning to that which was obedient and godly.

Very often we seem to think of atonement for sin as the end of the journey to God, but in fact it is only the beginning. Or perhaps it is both a beginning and an end. It is the end of the journey of sin, but only the beginning of our walk with the Almighty.

As we will seeing in the following verses, the sin offering will be followed by further sacrifices that represent further commitments, covenants, and preparations. So it is meant to be with us. Like Aaron and his sons, our sins are atoned for so that we may then do something with that clean slate. We are forgiven, so that we may become the hands of the Lord. All who accept the cleansing blood of Christ are given a calling. Something that is unique, something that is specially chosen for them by the Lord. To not listen for that calling, or to not answer it, is to deny the true nature of our relationship with God.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 40:20-29

20 And he took and put the testimony into the ark, and set the staves on the ark, and put the mercy seat above upon the ark:

21 And he brought the ark into the tabernacle, and set up the veil of the covering, and covered the ark of the testimony; as the Lord commanded Moses.

22 And he put the table in the tent of the congregation, upon the side of the tabernacle northward, without the veil.

23 And he set the bread in order upon it before the Lord; as the Lord had commanded Moses.

24 And he put the candlestick in the tent of the congregation, over against the table, on the side of the tabernacle southward.

25 And he lighted the lamps before the Lord; as the Lord commanded Moses.

26 And he put the golden altar in the tent of the congregation before the veil:

27 And he burnt sweet incense thereon; as the Lord commanded Moses.

28 And he set up the hanging at the door of the tabernacle.

29 And he put the altar of burnt offering by the door of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation, and offered upon it the burnt offering and the meat offering; as the Lord commanded Moses.

As mentioned recently, this description of the tabernacle’s parts is different from every run-through that we’ve had thus far. This time, in addition to hearing all of the items and their placement, we are also hearing each of their functions being exercised. The Ark of the Covenant is a container, and so the testimony is now placed into it. The table is to hold the shewbread, and so now the bread is baked and placed thereon. The candlestick is to provide light, and so now its lamps are lighted. The golden altar is for offering incense, and so now the incense is burned upon it. The brass altar is for animal sacrifice, so now a meat offering is made.

Everything is fulfilling its purpose, filling the measure of its creation, made complete by being allowed to do the thing that it was made to do. Everything in God’s world has a purpose and a function. Plants and animals, mountains and valleys, fire and water, gravity and buoyancy, soil and sky. None of these are just an adornment, they all are made to serve a necessary function. Their systems combine to make life, complexity, and beauty possible.

And if such is true for the tabernacle and all the earth, surely it is true of us as well. We are made for a purpose. Fulfilling that purpose is the difference between merely existing and truly living. It takes us from saying, “I just am,” to “I am for a reason.”

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 26:4-6

4 And thou shalt make loops of blue upon the edge of the one curtain from the selvedge in the coupling; and likewise shalt thou make in the uttermost edge of another curtain, in the coupling of the second.

5 Fifty loops shalt thou make in the one curtain, and fifty loops shalt thou make in the edge of the curtain that is in the coupling of the second; that the loops may take hold one of another.

6 And thou shalt make fifty taches of gold, and couple the curtains together with the taches: and it shall be one tabernacle.

From yesterday’s verses we heard the design of ten curtains, and how five of them would be joined together along their long edges to make one larger, almost-square curtain, and the same would be done for the other five.

These two halves would now need to be joined together, the manner of which being detailed in today’s verses. First, they would stitch loops of blue along both edges to be united, then there would be taches—which are two sided hooks—that could hold onto a loop from one curtain on one side, and the loop from the other curtain on the other side.

This, of course, this raises the question: if we were going to stitch five curtains together into a half, and five curtains together into another half, why not just stitch all ten together into a whole? Why depend on this less-permanent loop-and-hook system? I can see three reasons.

The first is that the two halves may have been more practical. We know that the Israelites moved many times during their wandering in the wilderness, and the tabernacle had to be disassembled, carried, and reassembled wherever they went. It may well be that rolling/folding and carrying two twenty-cubit by twenty-eight-cubit pieces of cloth was more manageable than a forty-cubit by twenty-eight-cubit piece of cloth.

The second is that there may have been some symbolism in the design. The joining of two in one brings to mind the union of God and man, held together in many places, each hook representing a promise, a covenant, a ritual, or a sacrifice that existed between the two. The visible split between the two also calls to mind the tear that would be made by the spear in Jesus’s side. I’m sure there are other symbolic interpretations that could be thought of as well.

The third comes from verse 33 in this chapter, in which we will hear that these taches were to rest above the inner veil that separated the holy place from the most holy place. Having a physical divide may have allowed for this outer curtain to have a holy portion and a most holy portion, in accordance with the rest of the interior.

Speaking of the placement of this joined curtain, its position in relation to the rest of the tabernacle is not specified in today’s verses. In the following passages we will hear of an almost-identical curtain, though, and that one we are explicitly was laid over the wood-and-gold framework of the tabernacle like a tent covering. It is assumed that it was therefore the same for this first covering, as that seems to be the only thing that its size matches up to.

Note: It can be difficult to visualize some of the structures described in these verses. Here is an excellent and extremely focused series of animations that show the visual form of the temple and its instruments, built up verse-by-verse from the Exodus record: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpjohncRg94EZ55nJrbaKfi-lfeo3MFgl&si=6wm1J9Sdnu7LKYC_

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 Air is Getting Thinner

Just Letting Go)

Sometimes I’m actively, vibrantly living with purpose. I’m trying to identify what my calling is, what God put me here for, what sort of person He wants me to be, and I’m trying to fill that measure day-by-day.

And then at other times, in many times, I just kind of give up on trying and coast. I fill my spare time with mindless media, ignore my personal health, let the house get messy, and don’t really contribute anything to the world.

I feel very disturbed by how low I can go when I just stop trying. I would have hoped that when I tried to coast I would still have a basically meaningful life, but I really don’t feel that way at all. When I stop striving I feel like I drop into a godless world, something vain and artificial and inconsequential. The only options seem to be constant striving or descending into absolute nihilism.

Worldly Decline)

And as I look around at the world, I don’t think I’m the only one this happens to. I think we are experiencing this sharp dichotomy as an entire society. Our world has become more godless and quality everywhere is in decline. Our stories are less creative, our vocabulary is diminishing, our aspirations are waning. We live for Netflix and food delivery and the latest iPhone, leaving behind community, achievement, and virtue.

I believe that we were once a more Godly, more purposeful sort of people. Even if someone tried to let go of God they would still find themselves living a relatively meaningful life because they lived in a cultural atmosphere that was richer and deeper, where the base expectations were higher. Now, though, there is so little standard left to hold you up once you let yourself go. In other words, the air is getting thinner, so you have got to have your own oxygen mask, you can’t rely on breathing what you get from the culture.

Perhaps Jesus saw this when he gave the parable of the 10 wise virgins. In the darkest part of the night we’re just not going to get by with coasting. We have to be intentional about living in connection to God and with purpose, or we will die.