Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 8:25-29

25 And he took the fat, and the rump, and all the fat that was upon the inwards, and the caul above the liver, and the two kidneys, and their fat, and the right shoulder:

26 And out of the basket of unleavened bread, that was before the Lord, he took one unleavened cake, and a cake of oiled bread, and one wafer, and put them on the fat, and upon the right shoulder:

27 And he put all upon Aaron’s hands, and upon his sons’ hands, and waved them for a wave offering before the Lord.

28 And Moses took them from off their hands, and burnt them on the altar upon the burnt offering: they were consecrations for a sweet savour: it is an offering made by fire unto the Lord.

29 And Moses took the breast, and waved it for a wave offering before the Lord: for of the ram of consecration it was Moses’ part; as the Lord commanded Moses.

Once again, we see how in this initiation of Aaron and his sons, Moses is the officiator of the offering. They are not picking up the bread and the meat themselves; Moses is placing those into their hands. They are not the ones receiving the priestly portion of the food, Moses is. In tomorrow’s verses we will hear how Aaron and his sons partook of the food as well, but that will not be the priest’s portion, it will be the same part that was given to the common Israelite when they made their offering. There was the priest’s part, but there was also the common part, and that was the common part that was meant for Aaron this time around.

Having Aaron and his sons go through all these rituals from the perspective of the common Israelite demonstrates an important pattern. Now, whenever Aaron and his sons performed such rituals for the common Israelite, he would only be repeating what Moses had previously done for him. Thus, it is a pattern of those who have been helped in their journey, then helping the next person in theirs.

All true proselyting efforts are conducted by sinners who themselves found redemption, now showing other sinners that the same is possible for them also. Christ begins the pattern by redeems us, then invites us to join him on his side and help him initiate the next generation in the same process. It is a beautiful chain of being served and serving, where we all depend on and support one another.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 7:35-38

35 This is the portion of the anointing of Aaron, and of the anointing of his sons, out of the offerings of the Lord made by fire, in the day when he presented them to minister unto the Lord in the priest’s office;

36 Which the Lord commanded to be given them of the children of Israel, in the day that he anointed them, by a statute for ever throughout their generations.

37 This is the law of the burnt offering, of the meat offering, and of the sin offering, and of the trespass offering, and of the consecrations, and of the sacrifice of the peace offerings;

38 Which the Lord commanded Moses in mount Sinai, in the day that he commanded the children of Israel to offer their oblations unto the Lord, in the wilderness of Sinai.

Verse 38 informs us that these details were part of the instructions given to Moses in Mount Sinai. We heard about that event back in Exodus, including a brief explanation of these offerings, but apparently that was just an abbreviated form of what Moses was actually told. Here we are getting the fuller picture. The previous account was more concerned with the larger narrative of Moses and the Israelite exodus, so it merely mentioned that Moses received those laws, but it was not a 1-for-1 transcript of what he was told.

This makes sense from a narrative perspective, but now that we are delving into the particulars of the law we get the richer details. Interestingly, these particulars do end up shedding some new light on the narrative as well. As we have seen, God was instructing Moses on rituals that would teach the Israelites to put their sins and desires upon the altar, to consecrate their hearts and lives to the Lord, and to recognize God as the benefactor behind every overflowing blessing. And at this same time, at least some of the Israelites were showing the absence of these qualities as they gave themselves to a strange god instead, the golden calf. The Lord, Jehovah was not the object of their attention and desire, they were not sacrificing their sinful tendencies to better follow Him, and they were not in a spirit of gratitude for the rich blessings He had already given to them.

The message here is clear. The principles that God was delivering to Moses were not only generally correct for man to live by but were also exactly what the Israelites needed in that specific moment. The rituals were tailored to help them overcome their exact failings, to grow them in the way that they needed. It was going to take time, repetition, and sacrifice to make these lessons settle into the heart, and that’s exactly what God was setting up for them. It was, as Paul declared, the schoolmaster to make them ready for Christ.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 7:16-18

16 But if the sacrifice of his offering be a vow, or a voluntary offering, it shall be eaten the same day that he offereth his sacrifice: and on the morrow also the remainder of it shall be eaten:

17 But the remainder of the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day shall be burnt with fire.

18 And if any of the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings be eaten at all on the third day, it shall not be accepted, neither shall it be imputed unto him that offereth it: it shall be an abomination, and the soul that eateth of it shall bear his iniquity.

Yesterday’s verses emphasized the necessity of the priest needing to eat his portion of sacrifices on the same day that the offering was made, but as we see today, there were special exceptions to that rule. If the offering was part of a vow, for example, it could be eaten on the same day, and an on the following day, but not any later than that.

Perhaps this is because a vow is forward-looking, whereas most other offering are looking backward. It specifies an action that you will do, not atonement for something you have already done. And that forward-looking element is represented in the priest being able to eat some of the food “tomorrow.” But this couldn’t be drawn out for too long, the ritual still needed to be coupled to the actual moment of the sacrifice, and so anything remaining on the third day had to be burned.

Respect for the ritual was very important, so much so that verse 18 warns that eating anything on the third day or after would not only be of no value to the offeror, but would be abominable and qualify as iniquity! We cannot have more good than what God gives to us, for then it ceases to be good.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Ascend, Decline, or Plateau- Quiet Times

Heated then Cooled)

Thus far I have shared from my story how I appeared to be on a spiritual plateau to any outside onlooker, but that in reality I was in a sharp moral decline with a secret addiction, how this came to an abrupt end when I had a truly redemptive experience which made making spiritual changes and progression natural and full of joy. However, that isn’t the end of my journey either.

After the time of spiritual awakening and rapid improvement, I must confess that the passion waned within me. I truly wanted to keep that passion alive, and did many things to try and prolong it, but it was like trying to hold water in my hands, and in the end it trickled away.

That isn’t to say that I went back to a place of steep moral decline, however. Nor is it to say that I never experienced spiritual passion again afterwards. Rather, I entered a cycle of occasional bursts of passion, followed by long periods of quiet ritual.

Bursts of Passion)

The bursts of passion most often seem to come when I have some sort of breakthrough, a key paradigm shift that alters my entire view of life and myself. As it turns out, there are a number of misconceptions and misalignments that I have held, most often learned subliminally from my culture, which have had to be corrected one-at-a-time to unlock higher levels of connection with God.

One example of this has been correcting my views on marriage. Even though I always knew that the world’s view of marriage was improper and disparaging, even though I always knew that the union was truly sacred, I was still being skewed in my heart by the deluge of worldly messages that marriage was transactional, that the concerns of the individual were superior to those of the marriage itself, and that the bond was flimsier than those to a child or even a friend.

When I recognized these flawed paradigms within me, and by the help of God corrected them, my connection and commitment to the Lord surged forward again, and ever since I have realized that identifying and correcting these misalignments is one of the surest ways to natural improvement. Finding and fixing them is one of the greatest quests of my life now, perhaps the greatest of them all.

Quiet Ritual)

It must be acknowledged that epiphanies are rare, though. Would that every day could have a new one, but that has not been my experience. I wonder if it is not according to God’s plan that we both have the capacity for moments of spiritual epiphany and also the tendency to fall back into complacency. Perhaps he meant for us to learn how to make the best use of both.

The best way to use moments of passion and epiphany, so far as I can tell, is to establish lasting changes and begin good habits. The best way to handle the longer stretches of cooler temperament, so far as I can tell, is to turn those habits into daily ritual, leaning on them to keep us consistent with the truths we learned in our passion.

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 25:29-30

29 And thou shalt make the dishes thereof, and spoons thereof, and covers thereof, and bowls thereof, to cover withal: of pure gold shalt thou make them.

30 And thou shalt set upon the table shewbread before me alway.

As with the Ark of the Covenant, after hearing the dimensions and materials of the table, we are then given its purpose, which is to hold the shewbred and all of the dishes related to it. We do not hear much of the shewbread in these verses, but the full details of how it was used is given in Leviticus 34:5-9:

And thou shalt take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes thereof: two tenth deals shall be in one cake. And thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a row, upon the pure table before the Lord. And thou shalt put pure frankincense upon each row, that it may be on the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire unto the Lord.

Every sabbath he shall set it in order before the Lord continually, being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant. And it shall be Aaron’s and his sons’; and they shall eat it in the holy place: for it is most holy unto him of the offerings of the Lord made by fire by a perpetual statute.

The twelve loaves of bread is clearly a symbol of the twelve tribes of Israel, each of which would have access to the rites and rituals of the tabernacle, which was where the table of shewbread was kept. The shewbread was also made without leaven, calling to mind the haste with which Israel departed Egypt, and also symbolizes a state of purity and incorruption. The bread would be accented with frankincense, which was a sweet-smelling resin, sometimes burned as incense. Every sabbath the bread would be replaced with fresh loaves, and all of it was to be consumed by the priests, part of their nourishment by the hand of providence.

There are many overlapping symbols and images in all of this. The bread is the Israelite people. They are to remain unleavened, meaning uncorrupted by foreign philosophies and idolatry. They are to be refreshed regularly, upon every sabbath day. They are also to provide for the priests nourishment, so that the priests can provide for their spiritual refreshing. Also, they are to bring up a sweet fragrance to the Lord, which is the doing of good works and the words of sincere prayer. Finally, they are to rest upon a solid foundation, symbolized by the table, which is the ethical and moral bedrock defined by the commandments of Almighty God.

From these symbols we see the basis, the practice, and the outcome of living the Hebrew gospel. It is an amazing wealth of symbolism contained within a simple, repetitive practice.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 12:14, 17

14 And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.

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.

Verse 14 shifts back to detailing the observances that are to be held by the Israelites each year at the Passover. The first thing that stands out to is that God tells the people that they are to observe this ritual “by an ordinance for ever.” Then He repeats that detail a second time in verse 17.

Of course, in my Christian faith I don’t keep the Passover as one of my religious observations, because I am not Jewish. Any Israelite blood that has entered my family line is probably very minimal, and I do not claim the captive Hebrews as my ancestors. On the other hand, today’s practicing Jews do still observe the Passover. The sacrificing of the lamb does not occur anymore, as there is no temple for them to perform those offerings, but they are still quite meticulous about meeting God’s directions on what types of food to eat, the absence of leaven, and the dates to be observed.

Of course there are some rituals, beliefs, and observations that have been continuous from the Jewish people to the Christians. For example, both groups have a form of baptism and both believe that we are God’s children. Others, however, seem to have been specific to the Israelite people and their direct descendants today, such as the Passover and the law of circumcision. Thus there are two types of religious observation, the specific and the universal. Each are sacred and have their place, but it is good for us to understand the distinction between them. Just because something is sacred and mandated by God does not necessarily mean it is mandated for everyone. Some of them are and some of them are not, and it is expected that we will each make ourselves aware of which category we fall within, and what is expected of us.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Personal Commitment: Month 11

March’s Review

For March my intention was to have a resurgence in saying a prayer and then doing the first good thing that came to mind, all to invite God’s spirit into my life. I also set a reminder on my phone, just to be sure that I didn’t forget what goal I was actually supposed to be working on.

And I did remember my goal, and I did try to implement it throughout the month, but if I’m being completely honest I was pretty halfhearted in my efforts. I believe that when the initial excitement of a new ritual fades, if I haven’t established a regular routine to carry me through the doldrums, it then becomes a monotony to keep carrying forward. That’s exactly what happened here.

In other words, I struggle in the department of making small, lasting changes to my life. And while I know I must continue to rely on grace for my heart to be truly changed, I also believe that a person is capable of carrying out one small improvement after another until they have become something greater than what they once were.

To be sure, I have been able to make some real, lasting changes in the past. This whole blog is one of those changes, and through it I have had the most regular scripture study of my life. But where that particular change was a success, many others have fallen to the wayside, including this one of a pray-and-do-something-good ritual.

April’s Commitment)

So I stopped to consider where the weak link is in that pray-and-do-something-good ritual, and I realized it was in the very first step. The fact is I have had some heartfelt, meaningful prayers in my life, but never as a regular practice. I am too often distracted, or self-conscious, or anxious about getting on to other things in my day.

There’s no need to reinvent the wheel here. One of the foundational pillars of spiritual practice has always been prayer, and that is one area that I have been consistently lacking. So I will make this month’s commitment very simple: to pursue deep, meaningful prayer on a consistent basis. I still like the idea of my pray-and-do-something-good ritual, but I need to exercise myself in its first half before the whole thing can be complete.

Now in order to have more meaningful prayers there are two specific aspects of prayer that I will be working on. The first is praying out loud. Whenever I pray out loud I am more able to connect to the moment. I am very self-conscious about it, though, and so that it means taking the time to find a private place where I am unlikely to be overheard. This will be easier in some places than in others. While I am at work will be particularly tricky, and I’m going to have to spend some time figuring out a solution there.

The other aspect I will be focusing on is to remove the temptation to finish my prayers quickly so that I can get on to the rest of my day. I am in such a rush to take care of all my errands and hobbies that I forget that they will be performed better if I have taken the time to set my foundation first. I want to get into the habit of putting the rest of the world on hold when it is time to be with God, not the other way around.

On May 1st I’ll let you know how this journey is going. I will let you know how I did at finding secret closets to pray aloud, I will let you know how I did at setting aside the to-do lists that distract me from the moment, and I will let you know how my prayers are shaping up as a result.

Thank you.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Personal Commitment: Month 10

February’s Review

Well…I’m feeling very embarrassed as I write this review for last month’s commitment. There were a few times this month that I realized I had slipped from my commitment and tried to refresh it. But I did so from my memory of what that commitment was, and just now as I sat down to write this review I realized that I had been remembering it incorrectly!

I was remembering January’s commitment: doubling down on two-hour check-ins to ground myself to the moment. Which is still a great practice, and one that I do want to continue with, but that’s just not the commitment I actually made for February!

For February I had wanted to establish a ritual of prayer and then doing the first good thing I could think of. The intention was to pair my faith with action, and thus invite God’s spirit into my life. I had wanted to do this every morning, every time I changed my setting, and whenever I had felt like I had slipped from my spiritual connection.

But given that I didn’t even remember this commitment, I really didn’t follow it.

March’s Commitment)

Well, I’ll just try it again. I knew this practice would take some time to become regular habit. Missteps on the path of improvement were to be expected. The proper way forward is to pick myself up, dust myself off, and continue as before.

So for March I will be renewing my commitment for February. I am going to pair it with a new reminder, though. I have set an alarm on my phone that will go off every Monday and instruct me to go and read my commitment, just to be sure that I am remembering the plan correctly and acting on it.

On April 1st I’ll let you know how I did at actually remembering the commitment, how I did at performing it, and what I saw as a result of doing so.

Thank you.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Solemnity and Joy- Numbers 10:10, Hosea 2:11

Also in the day of your gladness, and in your solemn days, and in the beginnings of your months, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; that they may be to you for a memorial before your God: I am the Lord your God.

I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts.

COMMENTARY

Also in the day of your gladness, and in your solemn days ye shall blow with the trumpets
Her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts
When we talk about solemn occasions what first comes to mind might be a sad event, such as a funeral or a departure. And certainly those moments do call for solemnness, but they are not the only ones.
These verses make mention of Israel’s “solemn days,” and how they were part of their feasts, festivals, annual observations, and even celebrations. One of their “solemn days” was Yom Kippur, or Day of Atonement. On this day two goats were brought to the priest. One of them was set free, while the other had the sins of the people placed upon it. Then the scapegoat was sacrificed, making an atonement was made for the peoples’ wrongs.
Obviously this was all symbolic of Christ’s future sacrifice, which is certainly a good and a glad thing for all of us…but also something that we hold in reverent respect due to the great price he paid.
Thus we see, there is nothing paradoxical about the idea of a good solemnity. Yes, solemn can mean a type of sadness, but it can also mean being respectful, reverential, and in awe.