Posted on by Abe Austin

A Foundation Built on God- Ritual and Novelty

Daily Ritual)

With my previous post I acknowledged the reality that many of us live, where we must establish the foundation of our lives in God with only a small portion of our time. We can do this by dedicating one-seventh of our days to God when we observe His Sabbath Day. We can also do this on a daily basis, dedicating some of each waking period to our Maker.

Traditionally, this has been done with morning and evening prayers. Morning, meaning that it is the first thing each day, the foundation of our lives that we’ve been talking about. Evening, meaning that it would finish off each day, a golden cap on the top of the structure.

The repeated pattern of these prayers makes them a ritual. Ritual has both an advantage and a disadvantage in its repetitions. The advantage is that our minds are naturally designed to function from triggers and routine. The ritual can thus become the trigger that tells our minds to go into the sober, focused routine. The disadvantage is that repetition can become boring, causing us to become distracted and gain nothing from the experience. I know that that has certainly been my challenge with daily devotional.

Occasional Novelty)

I believe the greatest value in ritual daily devotional would be using it to reach that place of solemnity where we can then engage in sincere, specific-to-the-day communication. Or, even if we don’t have much to communicate on that particular day, to just allow us to feel our way back into alignment with God’s will, relaxing our grip on personal plans and ambitions, becoming open to things according to His will.

There might not be a meaningful epiphany or transformation every single time we have this daily devotional, but the hope would be that we are open to those moments when they do come because our ritual has brought us to a place of readiness every day.

Personal Goal)

Speaking for myself, this sort of approach is different from how I have tried daily prayer in the past. Previously I have tried too hard to make something meaningful happen every single time. I felt like each experience had to be notable and unique. I felt like I had to repeat rituals over and over until something broke through the monotony.

I want to try this simpler method where things can come as they are. I want to have a simple ritual, maybe reciting a few favorite scriptures or the Lord’s prayer, just to bring me to a place of openness, and then just express whatever there is to be expressed, surrender whatever there is to be surrendered, explore whatever there is to be explored, or be silent when it is right to be silent.

If the whole experience lasts only a few minutes, I won’t be concerned about that. My hope is that that would still be enough to have set my foundation on God, and that the rest of my day may look like one that has put Him first. I guess I’ll just have to try it and see how it goes.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 31:18

18 And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.

It might be easy to forget, all of the last seven chapters has been Moses receiving instructions from the Lord back up in Mount Sinai. He had already gone up once to retrieve the law, brought it back down to the Israelites, and was then called back up. Because the Israelites had accepted the first set of instructions, they were to be rewarded with the second. This was not a quick visit to the mountain either. We were told previously that Moses was in mount for 40 days and 40 nights.

From what we’ve already read it is clear that the Lord showed Moses the appearance of the tabernacle and all of its parts in a vision. It also seems that He verbally gave the dimensions and description of it all. Not only this, but in today’s verses we hear that God wrote the same information on two tables of stone with His very finger. Thus, Moses had received the information in triplicate, to ensure that everything would be done correctly.

Unfortunately, even while Moses was receiving the instructions that would allow God to dwell in harmony amongst the Israelites, they were rapidly diverging from the Lord down at the base of the mountain. We will hear about this in detail in the next chapter’s opening verses. This moment seems to be an allegory for all the world, where people are divided between those up at the summit seeking the spiritual and those down in the earth seeking the carnal. Let us keep that dichotomy in mind when we read what transpires when the two are reunited.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 29:29-30

29 And the holy garments of Aaron shall be his sons’ after him, to be anointed therein, and to be consecrated in them.

30 And that son that is priest in his stead shall put them on seven days, when he cometh into the tabernacle of the congregation to minister in the holy place.

We have a brief parenthetical here, which reiterates that Aaron and his descendants would make up the priest class, the only ones that could be consecrated to stand before the Lord.

What it says about putting the garments on the priests for seven days is explained further in the following verses of this chapter. Apparently, the offering of a bullock, two rams, and the various breads would be repeated over a period of seven days.

Presumably, this sort of repetition would impress the symbolic lessons deeper and deeper in the mind of the priest. It also signifies how we strengthen our commitment to the Lord by degrees, reaching greater and greater levels of discipleship as we go. Finally, there is a special significance to the number seven, suggesting fulfillment and completion. For example, seven days was the full measure of the creation of the Earth, and Naaman was commanded to bathe himself in the river Jordan seven times to be healed. Through a full measure of repeated consecration, the priest would be ready by-and-by to perform his holy duties.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 12:15, 17-20

15 Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.

17 And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever.

18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even.

19 Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land.

20 Ye shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread.

God stressed multiple times the feast was to run for seven days. He said the feast was to run from the 14th day of the month to the 21st, that the bread was to be unleavened on the first day of the feast up through the seventh, and that the whole thing was to run for seven days. By describing His requirements for the duration in multiple ways, there could not be any chance of ambiguity or misunderstanding.

God also made repeatedly clear that the bread of the feast was to be unleavened, and if anyone violated this commandment it would be a grievous offense and they would be cast out of the community. He even instructed them to dispose of all the leaven in their homes, presumably so that no accidental consumption of it occurred.

I find myself wondering whether this example of God requiring the people to throw out the leaven was seen as a justification for the Pharisees to later “build a hedge” around the laws. By the time that Jesus was born, the spiritual leaders of Israel had added all manner of extra requirements around God’s laws, so as to further protect people from breaking the commandments. These “hedge laws” were often treated as if they were as sacred as God’s actual word, resulting in distraction and division from the truth faith, and Jesus had to spend much of his time correcting this matter. There is, of course, quite a difference between a buffer that is dictated by God and a buffer that is required by man.