Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 15:28-33

28 But if she be cleansed of her issue, then she shall number to herself seven days, and after that she shall be clean.

29 And on the eighth day she shall take unto her two turtles, or two young pigeons, and bring them unto the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

30 And the priest shall offer the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering; and the priest shall make an atonement for her before the Lord for the issue of her uncleanness.

31 Thus shall ye separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness; that they die not in their uncleanness, when they defile my tabernacle that is among them.

32 This is the law of him that hath an issue, and of him whose seed goeth from him, and is defiled therewith;

33 And of her that is sick of her flowers, and of him that hath an issue, of the man, and of the woman, and of him that lieth with her that is unclean.

Today concludes the case of women who have special conditions that cause perpetual bleeding outside of their regular menstrual cycles. After they were recovered, they would undergo the same ritual that was used for the man with a bodily discharge, and the second half of the rituals for a leper. Seven days of waiting, then on the eighth day taking two birds for a sin and a burnt offering. As mentioned before, this pattern matches that done for a newborn, signifying a rebirth into society.

This brings us to the end of the laws and rituals that govern ritual uncleanness and the return from that state. As we have observed multiple times, uncleanness did not mean sinful. Certainly, one could be unclean and sinful, but the former did not in-and-of-itself imply the latter. Being unclean was unfortunate and to some degree unavoidable. That being said, it was also a fact that those who engaged in unclean living were also likely to have some forms of ritual uncleanness more often. The same is true today, and we see how easy it becomes to judge unclean people as having done something wrong.

As with all things, this requires balance and wisdom. There isn’t anything wrong in noticing patterns and governing oneself with care, but at the same time compassion for the afflicted, whether sinful or not, must have its due, too. Especially since, as already mentioned, we all are unclean at some point. And not only innocently unclean either. We will all be in ugly, compromised, unclean states because of our selfishness, our deceit, and our sin. Obviously, that doesn’t lead us to condone it in others, but we should understand and have patience for it.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 14:12-18

12 And the priest shall take one he lamb, and offer him for a trespass offering, and the log of oil, and wave them for a wave offering before the Lord:

13 And he shall slay the lamb in the place where he shall kill the sin offering and the burnt offering, in the holy place: for as the sin offering is the priest’s, so is the trespass offering: it is most holy:

14 And the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and the priest shall put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot:

15 And the priest shall take some of the log of oil, and pour it into the palm of his own left hand:

16 And the priest shall dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand, and shall sprinkle of the oil with his finger seven times before the Lord:

17 And of the rest of the oil that is in his hand shall the priest put upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot, upon the blood of the trespass offering:

18 And the remnant of the oil that is in the priest’s hand he shall pour upon the head of him that is to be cleansed: and the priest shall make an atonement for him before the Lord.

We are now to phase two of the ritual to induct a former leper back into the Israelite community. This part sounds the most familiar to the other rituals we have heard of. A trespass and a sin offering are a common pairing, so it is no surprise to see them here as well. And of course, this does not mean that the leper was guilty of immoral sins, but that his leprosy had been an embodiment of the fallen world, not of heaven, and he had to be cleansed of that telestial stain.

So far this has been perfectly standard, but then we take a most unexpected turn. In verse 14, 17, and 18 we hear that the priest would take blood and oil, and apply it to the leper’s right ear, right thumb, and right great toe, as well as pouring oil on the leper’s clean-shaven head.

The only other times we have heard of blood being applied to ear, thumb, and toe, and anointing with oil, it was for the priests, to prepare them for their service in the tabernacle. Why would it also be done for a leper, who is certainly not being made into a priest?

When we previous saw the application of blood to the ear, thumb, and toe it seemed to represent consecrating one’s hearing, work, and path to the Lord, and obviously that should also apply to any Israelite who makes restitution with the Lord, yet we don’t see this same act being done for ordinary sin and trespass offerings. Only here for the lepers. So why?

Honestly, I’m probably going to need to think on this for longer, but the first suggestion that came to my mind was because of the sacredness of suffering that the leper had gone through. There is an incredibly sanctifying experience when we pass through deep pain, especially pain that is not due to our own sins. It makes our hearts tender, it makes our souls teachable, and it makes our priorities recalibrate. I have seen and personally experienced how those who suffer, and hold their faith through it, and then return to peaceable living, come back more consecrated than ever before. It is not unlike a priest who is more fully consecrated to the Lord just by his office. I wonder if this ritual was attached to the leper as a mark of respect and appreciation for who he had become by the things that he had suffered.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 14:1-4

1 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

2 This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought unto the priest:

3 And the priest shall go forth out of the camp; and the priest shall look, and, behold, if the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper;

4 Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop:

In the last chapter we heard all about the ways that a priest would diagnose a person with leprosy, and how such a person would have to then live in semi-quarantine, but today we hear what would happen when the leprous person was healed. The term “leprosy” in the Bible seems to cover a broad array of skin infections, and some of them would heal after some time. The leprous person, having been declared ritually unclean, would now need a ritual to be brought back into the fold, returned to full clean status with all his brothers and sisters.

An interesting bit of information comes in verse 3, where we learn that the priest would go out of the camp to where the leper lived. Obviously, this is because the leper needs to be cleansed before he can come into the midst of the people where the tabernacle is.

There is in this an obvious representation of the prodigal son who leaves the fold to embrace his sins, who then has a “come to Jesus” moment and returns to the faith that he had abandoned. And as in that story, the priest/father goes out to meet him while still afar off and brings him the rest of the way home. Even today, we see how a wayward soul trying to return may not immediately feel one with the community of the Lord, and requires some sort of ritual to fully bring him in. He needs something that feels like God coming into his heart, a place of shame and guilt, to claim him. Perhaps this ritualistic God-claiming occurs today when the sinner makes confession to a priest, or takes communion, or some other significant act that represents putting off the unclean sinner and taking on the cleansed disciple.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 9:15-22

15 And he brought the people’s offering, and took the goat, which was the sin offering for the people, and slew it, and offered it for sin, as the first.

16 And he brought the burnt offering, and offered it according to the manner.

17 And he brought the meat offering, and took an handful thereof, and burnt it upon the altar, beside the burnt sacrifice of the morning.

18 He slew also the bullock and the ram for a sacrifice of peace offerings, which was for the people: and Aaron’s sons presented unto him the blood, which he sprinkled upon the altar round about,

19 And the fat of the bullock and of the ram, the rump, and that which covereth the inwards, and the kidneys, and the caul above the liver:

20 And they put the fat upon the breasts, and he burnt the fat upon the altar:

21 And the breasts and the right shoulder Aaron waved for a wave offering before the Lord; as Moses commanded.

22 And Aaron lifted up his hand toward the people, and blessed them, and came down from offering of the sin offering, and the burnt offering, and peace offerings.

In the last section Aaron performed the offerings for himself, with the help of his sons, and next he performed the offerings for the general population of Israel. Once again, his sons assisted by presenting the blood for sprinkling. Now, at last, everyone had been sanctified. Everyone had been committed to the Lord.

Admittedly, Moses was perhaps an outlier in this moment. I suppose he could be considered part of the body of Israel, a subject of this general offering that Aaron just completed. On the other hand, we could definitely say that his sanctification and purification had already transpired during one of his visits to the mountain. He did appear once with a shining face after all, which sounds pretty sanctified! Thus, by one way or another, Moses, Aaron, the priests, and all the Israelites were now one in God.

Aaron commemorated this moment by pronouncing a blessing upon the people. We do not read the words that he said, but this further shows the fatherly relationship he had to the great Israelite family.

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.