Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 6:12-13

12 And the fire upon the altar shall be burning in it; it shall not be put out: and the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and lay the burnt offering in order upon it; and he shall burn thereon the fat of the peace offerings.

13 The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out.

Once again, we are reminded that this is meant to be a perpetual flame to the Lord, it’s light should always shine bright for all of Israel to see, probably flickering and diffused through the linen courtyard walls like a heavenly glow. Obviously, this perpetual flame is symbolic, but to properly appreciate its meanings, I think we have to acknowledge that this was not the flame of the Lord, this was the flame for the Lord.

The pillar of fire that would guide Israel in their journeys was the flame of the Lord, created and maintained by His own divine power. This fire upon the altar was created and maintained by the priests as an offering for the Lord. Thus, I would say it is not limited to representing God’s shining presence, there were other symbols for that. Arguably, it better represented our perpetual effort to reach and reconcile with God. It represented our need to make continual sacrifice to keep our fervor burning brightly. It represented the fact that our faith will go out without constant fuel.

Knowing that God will always be there for us is essential but knowing that we will always strive for Him is the next level of spiritual surety.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 6:10-11

10 And the priest shall put on his linen garment, and his linen breeches shall he put upon his flesh, and take up the ashes which the fire hath consumed with the burnt offering on the altar, and he shall put them beside the altar.

11 And he shall put off his garments, and put on other garments, and carry forth the ashes without the camp unto a clean place.

The priest was to arise in the morning, put on the clothing of his office, and collect the ashes off the altar. Then he had to change his clothes and carry the ashes out of the camp and dispose of them. This seems unusual. Why two different sets of clothes for the same chore? The general understanding is that the priest could not interact with the holy altar without wearing the official clothes of his office, but also he could not leave the tabernacle while wearing those holy garments. Thus, he wore the holy garments for the part that involved the altar and then had to wear his everyday clothes for carrying the ashes out of the camp.

This, of course, is not to say that we are meant to be two-faced disciples, faithful and religious in church, then carnal and sinful when we leave. But there is a special gravity when we commune with the Almighty, which is absent in our other business. We should have a seriousness in our sacred works, and a levity in our mortal labor. The two parts are connected, and each affects how we show up for the other, but they are also distinct.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 6:8-9

8 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

9 Command Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the law of the burnt offering: It is the burnt offering, because of the burning upon the altar all night unto the morning, and the fire of the altar shall be burning in it.

Today begins a new section of ritual instructions. This part is related to the perpetual burnt offering that the priests were to offer through the whole night. At the close of the day, after the needs of the common Israelite had been seen to, the priests would make one more overnight burnt offering.

This is presumably a repeat of the command we already read in Exodus, in which a lamb was to be offered each night, and another lamb each morning. There are multiple meanings and symbols to be found in this practice. In my previous post on the subject, I noted how the perpetual offering can be seen as representing the path of the disciple, largely defined by its daily, quiet surrender to the Lord.

Another symbol is that even when the world would go dark, the perpetual flame of the Lord’s altar would still be burning, still providing a mark and a guide to God’s people. So, too, when the world becomes confused and apostate, the Spirit of the Lord can still guide us through the dark.

A third symbol is the sacrifice of a lamb closing one period of time and also ushering in the beginning of a new one. This seems to echo the change from the Old Testament to the New, where John the Baptist, the last Old Testament prophet, was slain at the close of one era, and Jesus was slain to usher in the next.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 2:13

13 And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt.

Previously we heard how leaven was forbidden from the offerings, and how it could be a symbol for corruption or worldly secularization. Today, we learn how salt, on the other hand, was an essential component. For each type of offering, it had to be seasoned with the salt. So, if leaven symbolized corruption, what did salt represent?

Well, salt fulfills two functions when applied to food. One is to add flavor to the dish, and the other is to serve as a preservative. Thus, salt can represent our spiritual flavor, and the preservation of God within us. Like leaven, a little bit of salt can affect the entire whole, but it does not mutate and bloat it like leaven does. Once salt is mixed into a dish, you can’t even see it, but when you taste it, you can tell that it is there. So it is with the Spirit in our hearts. You can’t see it, and we are still very much our own selves, but our actions are savory, and they preserve God’s kingdom on the earth.

SacrificeEligible oblationStepsExplanation
Meat OfferingFlour, oil, frankincenseGiving gratitude for blessings
Firstfruits from the fieldBlessings of raw potential
Separate ingredients burned on altarBody, spirit, and prayer uniting in gratitude
Ingredients baked into unleavened cakesDevotion to God’s law, unsullied by pagan practices
All offering types seasoned with saltSpiritual action and preservation
Portion given to priestsGod’s treasures shared with us

Full table.

Posted on by Abe Austin

The Richness of Scriptural Symbolism- The Final Symbol

Infinitely One)

Here at the end of this series I must acknowledge that I haven’t even scratched the surface of symbols in the Bible. There are so many different symbols, found in the parables, in the actions of everyday people, in the dreams, in the prophecies, in the patterns, and in the static images. I’ve known all along that this study would never be complete, that I could not cover all of the relevant material, that at some point I would just have to call it good enough and bring it to an end. It would be impossible to ever make a full assessment of what all the symbols are and what they stand for.

Yet for all this infinite variety of symbolism, it is at the same time entirely singular as well. Every basic symbol points to something higher, and every higher symbol points to something higher still. Together they form a great upward rising column, narrowing and converging as they ascend, until they point to the one: God, Himself. All of the symbolism in the Bible is meant to funnel our attention to Him.

As another book of scripture states:

The scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator.
-Alma 30:44

Throughout this series I have been trying to identify the key qualities of good symbols in the scriptures. I have mentioned that they connect to something fundamental in the human experience, that they repeated play out in our collective lives, and that they can stand for multiple things at once, even polar opposites. All of these are good hallmarks, but the most important of them all is this quality that was identified just above: that they point us upwards, ultimately leading us back to the Creator. We know that we are recognizing a good symbol when it is bringing us to our Father.

One Last Symbol)

Now I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge one final great trick in all this symbolism. Remember what I said: that all of these infinite symbols point upward, ascending together as a column, combining in one that is God. Thus, God is the INFINITE…ONE. And once we start talking cosmic paradoxes like that, we should immediately realize that we are talking, once again, about a symbol.

God is Himself…a symbol.

He is the condensed, singular representation of the infinity that is also Him. He is the circle that is one, finite line, which circumscribes infinite angles. He is the recursive loop that is both self-terminating and also never-ending. He is the word that is used to define all other words and thus requires all other words to define itself.

It is God who shows us symbols, and those symbols are there to show us God, and that cyclical pattern is itself a symbol that God is showing us and that is also showing us God.

Symbols are much, much more than amusing, little mysteries. They are nuggets of eternity. They are part of a system that defies our capability to fully comprehend. We may extract from them what we can, and as we do, they in turn extract from us our spiritual transcendence.

Posted on by Abe Austin

The Richness of Scriptural Symbolism- Static Images

Throughout this series we have looked at symbols in their most complex forms and gradually introduced simpler and simpler forms. We started with lived-out moments that reenact something bigger, then moved on to carefully constructed parables, and most recently we looked at brief dream sequences which stripped away context and story to provide concentrated symbolic scenes.

There is, of course, an even simpler form of symbols and it is probably the first form that comes to mind when we heard the word. It is symbols as single, static images. These are things like the Christian Cross, the Star of David, or the Scales of Justice.

An argument could certainly be made that the more fundamental a symbol is, the more applications and representations it will hold. This would mean that these single static images will often have the most interpretations of all.

In today’s post we will take a look at two examples of this type of symbol and consider the sorts of things that they might stand for. I should first note, though, that while both of these symbols are religious, neither is divinely established in any religious text. There is no scripture that says that these specific symbols should be part of the iconography of the Jewish or Christian people, so let us not assume that these symbols are necessarily under God’s authorship.

The Star of David)

The first symbol we will consider is the Star of David. This six-pointed star has long been a symbol of the Jewish faith and is even the central element in the flag of Israel. Perhaps the first representation that we see in it is the fact that it is a star, or a sun, thus something that provides light and guidance, or which can be a marker to guide us along our way.

We also notice that there is one large hexagon in the middle, surrounded by six small triangles that extend from its sides. This could be seen as God in the center, with all other creations gathered in observation of Him. It even brings to mind Joseph’s dream of standing in the midst of his brethren as they bowed to him.

Of course, one can also see the shapes of two equilateral triangles, one upright and one inverted, offset and overlapping. With this view in mind, we can see one triangle as God descending downward and the other as mankind extending upward, the overlap being where the two come into union with one another. To the Jew, that place of union could be seen as the Law or the temple, while to the Christian it would be Christ.

The Christian Cross)

The Christian Cross must be one of the simplest symbols ever made: two lines crossing at right angles. Of course, it immediately invokes memories of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. When considering that application, it becomes simultaneously a symbol of man’s greatest cruelty and God’s greatest mercy, an interesting paradox.

The vertical line of the cross can also be seen to stand for God, while the horizontal line stands for the earth, or the horizon. The point of juncture in the middle then has a similar meaning to the overlapping triangles in the Star of David: the place where heaven meets earth, meaning the church or Jesus.

With our modern system of world coordination, the crossing lines can also be seen as a longitude and a latitude, suggesting the ability to pinpoint where we stand spiritually, or suggesting a guided destination for where we need to go.

Summary)

We could go on quite a bit lot longer in our analysis of each symbol. Hopefully this has been enough to establish that their simplicity does not make their applications few. Rather, it is the inverse. Because they are such a basic representation of something so fundamental, their applications are virtually infinite. They are literal signs, pointing the way to much, much more

Posted on by Abe Austin

The Richness of Scriptural Symbolism- Symbols Within Symbols

Yesterday we looked at the story of Joseph interpreting the Pharaoh’s dream, in which seven sickly and evil cattle consumed seven that were fat and good. We discussed how this was a symbol for the many times that evil has sucked the life out of that which was once virtuous and worthy, until its beauty and sweetness can no longer be remembered.

I also mentioned that there was another, larger symbol at play, but that before I could examine it, we needed to consider another story that strongly echoed that of Joseph and the Pharaoh. Today we will look at that story, and as we do, take note of how familiar it feels.

The Man of Many Parts)

This example comes from Daniel 2, which once again begins with a ruler, this time Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. And, once again, this ruler had a strange dream, and none of his wise men could help him understand it, but again there was a foreign youth named Daniel who had the power to both describe and interpret his dream.

In the king’s dream, he saw a statue with a golden head, a silver torso, brass thighs, iron legs, and feet made of iron mingled in clay. Then, a great stone came and smashed the statue into pieces.

This was the symbol, and Daniel gave the king the interpretation of it: each segment of the statue represented a great kingdom that would rule supreme over the earth. Babylon was the first one of gold, but it would be superseded by another, then another, then another. With the benefit of hindsight, we can now identify all the four kingdoms as Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. But all of these mighty kingdoms would eventually be broken apart by the stone, which was the kingdom of heaven.

So, there we have the immediate interpretation of it, but is there any more general reading possible? I think so. I see a broad symbol here of how mankind’s creation and power will be upended by the touch of God. Yes, it has happened in God’s kingdom expanding while all the nations that Daniel foresaw have toppled, but it also happened much earlier when God confounded the language of the people building the Tower of Babel, turning their great enterprise into chaos. It also happened when Egypt, the greatest kingdom of its time, was brought to its knees by the plagues of Moses. It happened when all the civilization in Noah’s age was drowned in the flood. I have a suspicion that it is also a foreshadowing of something yet to come, a time when our highly vaunted technology and science will be greatly frustrated by the touch of God in some way.

The Bigger Picture)

But all of this is just the inner symbol. As I have already illustrated, this story of Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar is practically a remake of Joseph and the Pharaoh. In both cases a ruler had a vision that he could not understand, but the youthful foreigner who knew God was able to make it clear. That seems to be a pattern of meaning, a representation of the righteous youth being a refresher for the old and mighty. It speaks to change and transition.

And notice, too, how Joseph foresaw a time of good being supplanted by one of evil, while Daniel saw the inverse: kingdoms of fallen man being supplanted by one of the divine. Also consider the timing of each one in the larger Israelite narrative. One vision came shortly before a time of slavery, the other just after coming into a new time of imprisonment. One came just before the birth of nation, the other just after its death.

Both of these young seers foresaw a pattern of evil and good overtaking one another. Together they saw the two halves of a cycle, a repeating dance that defined their people, and also the broader world. Good prevails, then wanes, then evil surges, then good prevails. It is the story of us all, and it is symbolized in the story of these stories.

Posted on by Abe Austin

The Richness of Scriptural Symbolism- The Pharaoh’s Dream

Thus far we have looked at symbols that were lived experiences (Jacob and Esau, Barabbas) or that were parables (the Prodigal Son, the poor man and his sheep). Today we now consider a symbol that was an image in a dream.

Seven Fat and Sickly Cattle)

This example comes from Genesis 41, in which we learn that the Pharaoh of Egypt received a strange dream that greatly troubled him. He sought an interpretation from all of his wise men, but none of them could explain it. Finally, his butler told him about Joseph, a foreign youth that he had met in jail, who possessed great interpretive powers from God. Joseph was summoned, and the Pharaoh recounted his dream to him.

In the dream, seven fat cattle emerged from the river and fed in the meadow. After them came seven more that were sickly and unpleasant, and they ate all of the fat cattle. But even though they ate such a fat meal, the seven remained just as scrawny and sickly as before.

This was the symbol, and Joseph gave the Pharaoh the interpretation of it: the seven fat cattle were seven good years with a bounteous crop and the seven sickly cattle were seven years of famine that would follow. The seven years of famine would so thoroughly eradicate the abundance of the good years, that it would be as if the abundance had never even occurred.

So, there we have the specific interpretation of it, but are there any other possible interpretations? I think so. I see in this a general concept of evil overtaking good and leaving none of it behind. This pattern can be seen in many specific instances in our lives. We see this in the addict who does shameful actions in secret and tries to cover them with an overabundance of external good deeds. The good on the surface is hollow, and does him no benefit, because he does them all with a guilty heart, so he remains as guilty and shameful as he always was. We see any time a wealthy man leaves an inheritance to a foolish and wasteful son, who then squanders all the riches until none of it is left, and he remains as foolish and wasteful as he always was.

I believe that this symbol has many universal applications, in addition to the specific one that Joseph gave to Pharaoh.

As it turns out, there is another symbol at play here, but before I can explain it, we need to consider another story that follows this exact same pattern. The similarities between that story and this one are uncanny, which speaks to the fact that they are cut from the same symbolic cloth. We will dive into that other story, and the shared theme between it and this one, tomorrow.

Posted on by Abe Austin

The Richness of Scriptural Symbolism- Barabbas

Earlier in this study I noted that every good symbol has constant reenactments following it. Every symbol that connects with the human core is seen again and again and again.

Today I want to illustrate that symbols are not only deep, though, they can also be broad. Some of them not only have multiple meanings over time, but also multiple meanings in the very first moment. I will illustrate that today with the example of Barabbas.

The Story of Barabbas)

Barabbas was a prisoner in Israel at the time of Jesus. He had quite the list of offenses. From John 18:40 we hear that he was a robber, and from Mark 15:7 we learn that he was also a seditionist and a murderer. It is most likely that he was condemned to death, waiting for his execution to be carried out when fate intervened to set him free.

His turn of fortune came as a result of Pilate seeking to spare Jesus, who he could sense was innocent any crime. It was the Passover, when it was customary for one prisoner to be released, so Pilate tried to save Jesus by stacking his freedom against that of deplorable Barabbas. If the Israelites really wanted to condemn Jesus, they would have to instead free a person who might literally kill them! Shockingly, that is exactly the choice that they made, and Pilate had to release the murderer. Jesus, of course, did go on to be killed that very same day.

Two Symbols of Barabbas)

The freeing of Barabbas is a powerful symbol, one with two immediate meanings. First of all, the release of Barabbas is symbolic of the mission of Jesus Christ and its effect upon all mankind. We are each of us Barabbas, sinners worthy of death, set free because Jesus was condemned instead. As the prophet Isaiah foretold, “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”

Here we have a bright and hopeful symbol in the release of Barabbas, but there is also a dark foreshadowing in it as well. For just as much as it stands for the liberation of all us sinners, it also stood for the impending decimation of the Israelite people.

Within just forty years of Israel choosing Barabbas over Jesus, the entire nation would be devastated, with an estimated hundreds of thousands of Jews being slaughtered, maybe more, and the survivors scattered to the winds. But wasn’t this what they had chosen? They had had the choice between the literal Prince of Peace and a man of violence, and they had selected the latter! Hear their words as recorded in Luke 23:18, “And they cried out all at once, saying, Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas.” Release unto us the killer…and that was just what they received.

Split Symbolism)

Barabbas’s release isn’t just a symbol with two different interpretations, it is a symbol with polar opposite interpretations! One of restored life, and one of consignment to death. It may seem remarkable that it can have both of these connotations, but it turns out that this is actually fairly regular in the scriptures. The cross is simultaneously a symbol of man’s greatest cruelty and God’s greatest love. Also, the serpent is used as a symbol of the Devil in the Garden of Eden, and of Christ when Moses raised the healing bronze serpent on the stick. The rainbow both stands as a reminder of God’s flooding the world, and His promise that He won’t do so again.

I believe that part of the reason for polar opposite symbols is because many of the deepest spiritual notions are also two-sided in profound ways. Is justice a principle of punishment for the wicked, or of exoneration for the innocent? Does God’s glory purify us or condemn us? Is the work of man creation or destruction? The answer to all of these is both. Good symbols recognize that there is a good side and a bad side to our reality, and they manage to represent both at the same time.

Posted on by Abe Austin

The Richness of Scriptural Symbolism- The Natural Order

I have shared about the symbol at the core of Jacob receiving Esau’s blessing and I have shared about another symbol at the core of the Good Samaritan. Both of these examples show how good symbols reflect real life and today’s story is yet another example of that, but also of another principle that I wish to illustrate.

David’s Sin)

The story of David in the Old Testament is at times triumphant and at times tragic. Everything turns upon one pivotal moment, where he betrays his own conscience and destroys an innocent man. The story begins, of course, with him seeing Bathsheba bathing from the roof of his palace, then bringing her to him and committing adultery. When she became pregnant from the encounter he tried to obfuscate the parentage of the child, and when that failed, he ordered her husband to be placed at the forefront of a battle where he would likely be killed, which was exactly what happened.

But what David did in secret was fully known to God, and the Lord sent His prophet, Nathan, to tell him a symbolic story. In 2 Samuel 12:1-4 we read that story:

There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor. The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds: But the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up: and it grew up together with him, and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter.

And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him; but took the poor man’s lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him.

The story is, of course, a symbol for David. He is the rich man that had everything yet took from the poor man who had so very little. Not only this, but it is a symbol for all injustices in which the rich have further extended themselves by crushing those beneath them. This type of injustice is, unfortunately, fundamental to the human condition, and Nathan condenses it expertly into this one, short story.

The End of the Symbol)

Because Nathan’s story is so direct and so fundamental, it is only natural to feel a powerful emotional reaction to it. David certainly did, and the account in 2 Samuel records that response:

And David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die!

Obviously, David had not realized that he, himself, was the subject of the story. His was the own head that he was proclaiming death upon!

This dramatic example illustrates one of the other hallmarks of good symbols: they make plain to us the natural order and summon from us the correct resolution to any unnatural situation.

The fact is, each one of us is imbued at birth with basic morals and truths. Deep at our core, we understand justice even before we can put words to the notion. It is ingrained in us, and a good symbol can help us cut through all of the bias and distraction, seeing plainly what the natural order is, how it has been twisted, and what must be done to set it right.

If David had known that he was the real subject of the story, he may well have squirmed and tried to justify his actions. But since he was absorbed in the fundamental violation of the natural order described in the story, he could not help but exclaim the harsh penalty that was necessary to set things right. By recognizing the answer to the fundamental, he had also found the answer to the specific. Such is the power of a truly good symbol.