Palm Sunday: 40 Days of Exoduses Summary

Posted on March 24, 2013 by Alastair Roberts

I am quite some way behind schedule at this point and it is unlikely that I will post more than a couple more this coming week. However, be assured that the series will be finished. We have passed the halfway mark!

Day 19: A Portable Mountain and Competing Calves

Moses and the Israelites as head and body – Two sets of Gentiles – Meeting YHWH at the Mountain – Tabernacle, sacrifice, and the mountain – The forming of the covenant – The Fall of Israel – Moses as mediator and intercessor – The transfiguration of Moses

Day 20: The Testing of the Throne-Bearers

Timeframe and setting – Tabernacle as new creation – Israel as the bearers of the divine throne chariot – A second exodus – Tests and rebellions in the wilderness – Further rebellion – The failure of Moses and the death of the old generation – Balaam and the wickedness with Baal of Peor – Ready to cross the Jordan

Day 21: A Successor, a Harlot, and an Invasion

The republication of the covenant – Provision for succession – Exodus and entry into the land as bookends – Rahab and her Passover – Crossing of the Jordan – Circumcision – The Passover – Meeting the Commander of the Army of YHWH – Destruction of Jericho

Posted in Bible, Deuteronomy, Exodus, Joshua, Lent, Leviticus, OT, OT Theology, Theological, Theology | 1 Comment

A Successor, a Harlot, and an Invasion – 40 Days of Exoduses (21)

Posted on March 24, 2013 by Alastair Roberts

The Republication of the Covenant

Our previous study led us to the wilderness side of the Jordan, with the children of Israel preparing to enter into the land. It is at this point that the book of Deuteronomy fits in. The book of Deuteronomy consists of a series of sermons in which Moses declares the covenant to the children of Israel, just before they are to enter into the Promised Land. The generation that was brought up out of Egypt has perished in the wilderness, leaving a young nation poised to enter and to take possession of the land.

In chapters 1 and 2, Moses recounts the story of Israel since Sinai. He speaks of the breakdown of the covenant at Kadesh Barnea, where the spies brought back an evil report and the people refused to enter into the land. The consequence of this was thirty-eight more years of wandering in the wilderness (2:14). In Deuteronomy 2, we see that Israel was expressly forbidden from meddling with certain peoples or taking their land, as YHWH had granted it to them (vv.4-5, 9, 19). Once again, we can see that YHWH is concerned with nations beyond Israel and that Israel is not the only actor in the sacred drama.

Moses warns the Israelites about idolatry, reminding them that YHWH is a jealous god. The Sinai covenant is reissued in a fuller form in the book of Deuteronomy. The Ten Words of the covenant are repeated in Deuteronomy 5:5-21. Much of the rest of the book of Deuteronomy unpacks the details of the covenant, encapsulated in the Ten Words, in more detail. There is a good case to be made that the order of the material in the book is loosely classified under the headings of the Ten Words. The book of Deuteronomy articulates the spirit of the Ten Words of the covenant, relating the commands to moral themes (John Walton).

The broader implications and applications of the commands are articulated, in a manner that reveals that the covenant is not about legalistic law-keeping, but about a spirit that must suffuse all of Israel’s actions. In such a manner, the scope of the covenant law is revealed to be very expansive. So, for instance, the command to honour one’s parents is shown to have wider application to the way that authority figures in general are treated, the need to obey and to provide for them (Deuteronomy 16:18—18:22). This is the point at which Moses prophesies concerning a Prophet like him who is yet to come (18:15-19). The purpose of the covenant was to form a faithful people, a people who would be perfectly responsive to the Spirit of YHWH. The law, however, failed in this respect.

When Moses’ declaration of the republished covenant had been completed witnesses, blessings and curses, and provision for succession were established. On Mount Ebal the Israelites were to set up an altar of stones, with all of the words of the Law written upon them clearly. This altar would serve as a memorial of the covenant to YHWH and to the people. From Mount Gerizim, all of the blessings of the Law were to be declared over the land and the people by the tribes of Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph (Ephraim and Manasseh), and Benjamin. From Mount Ebal, all of the curses of the Law were to be declared by the tribes of Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. The curses particularly related to sins committed in secret. Chapter 28 details the blessings and curses of the covenant.

In the chapters that follow, the covenant is renewed with the next generation, who speak on behalf of generations yet to come. Moses prophesies concerning the future of Israel. When the blessings and the curses have come upon Israel, Israel will be driven out and scattered among all of the nations (30:1). If they return to YHWH at that point with their whole hearts, YHWH will restore them to himself, have compassion upon them, and bring them back to the land. He will circumcise their hearts and those of their descendants to follow him and they will enjoy life in fellowship with him (v.6). He declares that the Law is not hard to keep, nor some Herculean task and quest for an epic hero to pursue and accomplish, but that it is very near to them, in their mouths and hearts, to do it (vv.11-14). Moses sets before them life and death, blessings and curses, and heaven and earth are summoned as witnesses against them (v.19) and calls them to choose life.

Succession

Moses then establishes ways in which the covenant order will be passed on. Joshua is appointed as the new leader of the people (31:18). A ceremony to read the entire Law in the presence of the people is instituted for every seventh year, the year of release, at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles (vv.9-13). In this way, the whole body of the people would be reminded of the covenant document, of YHWH’s acts towards them, their standing before him, and of their duties to YHWH. Finally, he gives them a memorial song, like the earlier Song of the Sea. The Israelites were to learn the words of this song and it would serve as a divine witness against them in the future (v.19). The Song begins by speaking of the name and character of YHWH (32:3-4), before outlining the history of the covenant and the rebellion of Israel. The Song then details the judgments of YHWH that follow after rebellion. The Song ends on a positive note, as YHWH promises to avenge the blood of his servants, to provide atonement for his land and people, and that the Gentiles will be blessed with the Israelites at this point (v.43).

The book of Deuteronomy concludes with Moses’ last will and testament, as he prophetically blesses each of the tribes of Israel, much as Jacob had in Genesis 49. In chapter 34, Moses is brought up to the top of Mount Nebo, from which he is shown the expanse of the Promised Land by YHWH, much as YHWH had shown Abram the land promised to his descendants in Genesis 13:14-15, after Lot had separated from him. Moses then died and his body was not to be found, but was buried by YHWH in a valley in the land of Moab (34:6). Moses dies at the age of 120, his life split into three periods of forty years each: forty years of youth in Egypt, forty years as a stranger in Midian, and forty years of Exodus and wilderness wanderings.

Like Jacob, Moses is a new patriarch, the father of the nation, in whom the entire people find their origins. As the great mediator of the covenant, he blesses his successors and gives the covenant over to their administration. Joshua is like Moses’ firstborn son. In Numbers 13:16, we see that it was Moses who first named Joshua: Joshua’s name had formerly been Hoshea. Perhaps, just as Moses was appointed to be as God to Aaron (Exodus 4:16), so he is as YHWH was to the patriarchs Abram and Jacob, giving them new names.

Joshua, who had been Moses’ deacon throughout the Exodus period (cf. Exodus 24:13; 32:17; 33:11) inherits the Spirit of Moses, the firstborn portion, a greater measure than that of the seventy elders of Numbers 11. Joshua, along with Caleb, was the only person who had been an adult witness to all of the events of the Exodus, as all of the rest of those who originally left Egypt had been eighteen or younger at the time or had since perished. Also, as Moses’ assistant, Joshua had seen things that no other person save Moses had seen and been privy to information and events that few others had.

The fact that Joshua’s succession from Moses occurs on the far side of the Jordan and is demonstrated in a water crossing – as we shall soon see – is one that is significant, especially when viewed in the light of later biblical narratives. Elisha succeeds Elijah and Jesus succeeds John the Baptist in the same place and a similar manner. Both receive the Spirit at that place and have a miraculous water crossing (I have commented on this pattern elsewhere).

Bookends

The beginning of the story of the book of Joshua serves as the counterpart to the earlier story of the Exodus and the events involved should be closely related. The Red Sea crossing and the crossing of the River Jordan are very similar events. We have already remarked on the parallels between the wilderness experience prior to the crossing of the Red Sea and the wilderness experience prior to the crossing of the Jordan. In many respects, they should be understood as two stages of a single movement and unsurprisingly, we find them spoken of in extremely close relation elsewhere in Scripture. Isaiah 63:11-14 speaks of the Red Sea crossing as if as of an event that comprehends the entire wilderness experience: leading Israel through the ‘deep’ is directly related to leading them through the ‘wilderness’. Psalm 114 also holds the two events together in a parallelism, the two crossing bracketing the entire transitional period of the wilderness wanderings. Psalm 74:13-15 is a further example of such a close relationship.

James Nohrnberg writes:

The wilderness period itself is an expanded threshold between two spaces, a threshold that has widened to become itself a space, with two thresholds of its own. These are the thresholds marked by one generation’s going out (out to the wilderness), and another generation’s going in (out of the wilderness into the promised land). The momentum across such a threshold space might constitute a single momentum, as the parallelism of Psalm 106:9 allows: “He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it was dried up: so he led them through the depths, as through the wilderness.” This condenses the buffer space into an abridgment of chaos. Instead, the narrative offers various objections to such an advance, whether these are generated by considerations of military strategy, or by hesitations upon the threshold which are punished by wandering or abiding there. In some way Israel was qualified for the promised land by the wilderness, either penally, or through probation and trial, or by preliminary service to God.

The close relationship between the departure from Egypt and the entry into the land at the beginning of the book of Joshua can further be seen in the way that all of the major themes of the earlier Exodus period are repeated or resolved there.

The Jordan crossing completes the movement begun by the Red Sea crossing. The manna provided after the Red Sea crossing (Exodus 16) ceases when they first eat of the fruits of the land (Joshua 5:12). The memorial stones of Joshua 4 may correspond to the pillar of cloud and fire placed between the Israelites and the Egyptians. In Joshua 5 the Israelites are circumcised and celebrate the Passover, as in Exodus 12. Finally, in 5:13-15, Joshua meets the Commander of the army of YHWH and has to remove the sandals from his feet, corresponding to Moses’s first encounter with the Angel of YHWH in Exodus 3:2-5 or in the later coming of the Angel to judge Egypt. Just as the Angel of YHWH had plagued Egypt with Moses and Aaron in Exodus before the crossing of the Red Sea, so Israel, now formed into the host of YHWH and the bearers of his battle chariot, would plague the Canaanites, after the crossing of the Jordan.

Peter Leithart writes:

[I]t is not surprising that the events of Joshua 1-6 closely parallel Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. Since the conquest completes the exodus (cf. Exodus 15:14-18), it is fitting that the entry into the land is larded over with Passover-Exodus allusions. In chapter 3, the Jordan parts and Israel crosses on dry ground; then the Israelite men are circumcised and they celebrate Passover, which is immediately followed by the destruction of the city and the deliverance of Rahab’s house. The exodus followed this pattern: Destruction of Egypt, Passover, Water crossing. Now the entry into the land chiastically reverses the sequence: Water crossing, Passover, Destruction of Jericho. (The two spies who enter a house in a doomed city also reminds us of the two angels visiting Sodom and delivering Lot’s house; Jericho is both Sodom and Egypt, cf. Rev. 11:8. Closer to home, they parallel Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh.)

In this way, the two accounts are bound together as an integral whole, inseparable stages of a single unified movement. We shall now look at some of the exodus themes that occur at the beginning of Joshua in more detail.

Rahab the Harlot

Joshua sends out two men to spy out the land and especially the city of Jericho (Joshua 2:1). The fact that we encounter the story of Rahab at the beginning of the book of Joshua and the conquest of Canaan isn’t accidental. If we have been paying attention to this point, we should notice a number of exodus themes that should be very familiar to us.

The book of Exodus begins, not with the great Exodus, but with the deliverance and exodus of the young Moses. In that story, it is courageous and faithful women who occupy centre stage. The Hebrew midwives deceive Pharaoh and deliver the Hebrew infant boys. Jochebed makes an ark for Moses and hides him among the reeds. Miriam looks from a distance to see what will happen. The daughter of Pharaoh knowingly adopts a baby Hebrew boy, even though her father wishes to destroy them all. In the first stage of his story, the vulnerable Moses is protected by courageous and cunning women who are prepared to deceive the tyrant Pharaoh to guard his life.

Rahab repeats this pattern of behaviour at the start of the Conquest. She uses plants to hide the vulnerable spies, much as Jochebed hides the infant Moses and then constructs an ark of bulrushes, which she places among the reeds. Like the Hebrew midwives, Rahab lies to the king and men of Jericho, a new Eve deceiving the serpent. Like Pharaoh’s daughter, she is a faithful Gentile who protects the people of YHWH, against the commands of her rulers. The spies finally flee, as Moses did from Egypt, ending up at the mountain. They later return and, at their second visitation, bring destruction to the city.

Rahab’s house functions as a place of refuge, much as the house of Lot did in Sodom, or the houses of the Israelites did at the Passover. There are a number of further parallels with the story of Lot and Sodom. Two messengers come to inspect both of the condemned cities of Sodom and Jericho (Genesis 19:1; Joshua 2:1), in preparation for the great judgment that will come after them. Both are threatened by the people of the city and are hidden and protected in a house of refuge. Both Lot and Rahab are told to get all of the people of their households together, so that they may all be saved (Genesis 19:12; Joshua 2:18). In both of the stories there is an instruction given to flee to the mountain (Genesis 19:17; Joshua 2:16). In both of the stories, one person and all those who joined themselves to them are saved, while the city is utterly destroyed.

I have already commented on the Passover themes in the story of Sodom. We find a similar collection of Passover themes in the story of Rahab. The gathering of the household together within a safe house and the stress upon the themes of the door and blood (Joshua 2:19) are both present. Rahab is instructed to place a scarlet cord in the window of her house (v.18), a cord that relates to the rope by which the spies escaped in their ‘exodus’ from the city to the mountain. This scarlet cord relates to the blood on the doorposts of the houses at Passover and is connected with blood and bloodguiltiness (vv.18-19). When the Israelites – YHWH’s angels of death – saw this, they would pass over Rahab’s house and all within it. Leithart observes some further parallels here.

In the story of Rahab we see a Gentile declaring her fear of and faith in YHWH. An oath is sworn to her and she is yet another Gentile who is blessed as she blesses the seed of Abraham. She identifies with the people of YHWH and so is delivered from the judgment to come. This serves to make clear that it was possible for Canaanites to convert and join Israel and thus to be saved from the condemnation that they were under. In this exodus experience, Rahab is conformed to the people that she was to become one of.

The Jordan Crossing

In chapter 3, Israel crosses the Jordan. The children of Israel are prepared for the crossing in a manner reminiscent of the preparation for the Sinai theophany, with a period of sanctification before YHWH does his wonders among them. While the Red Sea crossing involved Moses stretching out his rod and a wind dividing the sea, here Joshua gives the instructions and the people were led through the waters by the Ark of the Covenant. Twelve men representing the tribes are also given a task. The water is cut off upstream and stands in a heap (v.13). A ‘membering’ of Moses’s authority might be occurring here, as the officers and the priests play a key role, rather than all taking place through the solitary agency of the rod-bearing Moses.

The Ark of the Covenant represents YHWH’s throne chariot, borne on the backs of the living creatures, the Kohathites (the Levites charged with carrying the furniture of the tabernacle) and the priests. It is a tabernacle in miniature, covered with the veil and with a further covering of badgers’ skin, like the tabernacle itself (Numbers 4:5-6; cf. Exodus 36:19). The chariots of Pharaoh were unable to pass through the Red Sea, but were drowned in its depths. However, they, as the chariot of YHWH, pass through the Jordan to conquer the land.

Twelve men, one from each of the tribes, are then instructed to take stones from the middle of the Jordan River, which are formed into a memorial at Gilgal (4:20). Just as the Red Sea crossing is memorialized in the Song of the Sea, so the Jordan crossing is memorialized in the establishment of this cairn. A further twelve stones are set up in the midst of the Jordan, where the priests who bore the Ark stood (v.9).

Through this crossing, Joshua was marked out as Moses’s true successor (v.14). Joshua is a leader like Moses, a fact from which his leadership derives much of its legitimacy. YHWH’s magnification of Joshua in the sight of Israel at this point parallels his magnification of Moses in the sight of Israel at the Red Sea (Exodus 14:31).

Circumcision, Passover, and the Angel

Entering into the land, the people are instructed to circumcise themselves again, as they hadn’t been circumcised in the wilderness (Joshua 5:2-9). This recalls the circumcision of Gershom in Exodus 4:24-26, who had not been circumcised in the land of Midian. Circumcision is required at this point because the wrath of YHWH is about to come upon the land and all flesh is about to be cut off (a connection that I have discussed before). Circumcision is a pre-emptive cutting off of the flesh, to save you from the great cutting off of the flesh to come. Abraham had to circumcise his family before the judgment on Sodom; Moses’ son had to be circumcised before the return to Egypt; circumcision was a prerequisite for the Passover deliverance in Egypt.

At Gilgal, on the plains of Jericho, Israel celebrates the Passover for the first time in the land (5:10). After Passover, they finally eat the produce of the land (v.11) and the manna ceases the next day. The cutting off of the old food and principle of life, here the manna, during the feast of Unleavened Bread is significant.

Having crossed over the River Jordan into the land, Joshua encounters a Man, who identifies himself as the Commander of the Army of YHWH (vv.13-15) and is revealed to be the theophanic Angel. This encounter is like Jacob’s wrestling with the Angel after crossing the Jabbok, a tributary of the Jordan. YHWH promised that his Angel would go before them into the land (Exodus 23:23; 32:34). While the Glory-Presence accompanied the children of Israel in their journey, the Angel was the vanguard, who went on ahead and brought YHWH’s fear. Joshua’s encounter with the Angel is also akin to Moses’ encounter with the Angel of YHWH as he returned to Egypt from Midian. The Angel waits at the borders of the land to visit it with destruction.

Joshua’s encounter with the Angel of YHWH assures him that the commander-in-chief of YHWH’s forces is personally present to lead them in the conquest of the land. This isn’t a battle that they are fighting on their own behalf or on their own initiative, but under his command and rule. It is YHWH’s war, not theirs. They are the messengers of death under the leadership of the great Messenger of the Covenant.

The conquest then begins with the complete destruction of Jericho. The city’s walls are destroyed through a sort of liturgy, which underlines the fact that it is YHWH who is the Great Warrior in their midst and that the battle is his. It is as they memorialize the covenant with trumpet blasts leading the Ark of the Covenant that Jericho is destroyed. Rahab and her household experience a Passover, but the rest of the population is put to the sword, dedicated to YHWH like the cities of the plain, its smoke sent up as an ascension to him. A further Passover theme might be present in the warning of the death of the firstborn of the man who seeks to rebuild the city (6:26).

Summary

In Deuteronomy and the beginning of Joshua, we find a great transition as a new generation is prepared on the banks of the Jordan. The covenant is republished and the people made aware of its deeper character. The foundation is laid for the future, as the worship cycles of Israel are appointed, covenant witnesses are established, Moses appoints a successor, and the later covenant history of Israel is foretold.

In the story of Rahab, the Jordan crossing, the Passover that follows, the encounter with the Commander of the Army of YHWH, and the destruction of Jericho several Exodus themes reappear and a new series of exodus-like events occur. The way that YHWH will bring Israel into the land of Canaan will be similar to the way that he brought them out of the land of Egypt. Just as he worked wonders in the land of the Egyptians, so he will give them victory over their enemies in Canaan.

Posted in Bible, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Lent, OT, OT Theology, Theological, Theology | 2 Comments

The Testing of the Throne-Bearers – 40 Days of Exoduses (20)

Posted on March 24, 2013 by Alastair Roberts

Timeframe and Setting

Within this post, I hope to cover the entirety of the book of Numbers. I will, however, begin with some comments on the construction of the tabernacle in Exodus, the book of Leviticus, and general time frames. As usual, James Jordan’s material on the book has been especially helpful in my thinking. I have already alluded to the purpose and meaning of the sacrificial system and its rites on a number of occasions in previous posts, most notably in the one prior to this. I made the observation that the tabernacle served as a moveable Sinai, fashioned according to the pattern that Moses received on the mountain, but also fashioned according to the pattern of the mountain itself. The various sacrifices and rites of the sacrificial system were designed for the ordering of life in fellowship with YHWH.

The tabernacle is finally erected and filled at the end of the book of Exodus. The laws concerning the sacrifices that we find in Leviticus 1-7 are given at this time as well and the installation of the priests begins. One by one, the leaders of the tribes offer their offerings (Numbers 7) for the dedication of the tabernacle and its worship. The items that they give mean that each one of the tribes is represented in the dedication of the tabernacle and also in its continuing worship. For instance, we may presume that the silver bowls and platters would have related in some way to the gold versions on the table of showbread, so that each of the tribes was continually memorialized before YHWH (Exodus 25:23-30; Leviticus 24:5-9).

The tabernacle was established on the first day of the first month of the second year, about a year since leaving Egypt (Exodus 40:17). The book of Leviticus fits in at this point, some of its events overlapping with events recorded in the book of Numbers. Leviticus sets out the patterns of life and the ‘times and seasons’ that will occur within the new creation of Israel and its worship. It establishes life in fellowship with a holy God and the operations of the purity system. Through the sacrifices, relationship with YHWH can be maintained and people can enjoy fellowship with him.

The book of Numbers begins on the first day of the second month of the second year (Numbers 1:1), although a number of its events belong to the month that preceded, with the establishment of the tabernacle and the investiture of the priests. The events at the start of the book of Numbers all occur while Israel is still in the Wilderness of Sinai. They don’t leave there until Numbers 10:11.

Tabernacle as New Creation

We have already seen echoes of new creation at various points in Israel’s experience to this point and I have remarked upon the relationship between Eden and the tabernacle. The tabernacle’s construction is also ordered according to a creation-like pattern in Exodus 25-30. In Genesis 1:1—2:4, we see that the creation has two stages. On the first three days the order of the creation is formed by the division between darkness and light, waters above and waters below, and land and sea. On the second three days, each of these realms is filled and distributed to ordained rulers, day 4 corresponding to day 1, day 5 to day 2, and day 6 to day 3. In Exodus 25-30 we see two sets of phrases dividing the construction of the tabernacle: ‘pattern’ phrases and ‘ordinance/generation’ phrases. The pattern phrases, which occur in the first half (25:9, 40; 26:30; 27:8), refer to the ‘forming’ stage of the new creation. The ‘ordinance/generation’ phrases (27:21; 28:43; 29:9; 30:10) refer to the ‘filling’ stage, where the newly formed order is filled and apportioned to rulers.

The following comments follow Joel Garver’s reflections on the pattern of the tabernacle very closely. The ‘first day’ (25:1-40) begins with the formless raw materials assembled for the construction of the tabernacle (vv.1-9). The ark, table, and lampstand are formed on the first day. They are covered with gold and represent the radiance of YHWH’s glory presence. The ark represents God’s heavenly throne, the table is the earth beneath, and the lampstand is the light of the first day. The ‘second day’ (26:1-37) is the day when the tabernacle is created, the firmament between heaven and earth. The blue and purple veil with woven cherubim (v.31) represents the firmament dividing the heavens above from all beneath. The ‘third day’ (27:1-19) involves the establishment of the brazen altar and the tabernacle court. The altar, which would have turned green over time, akin to the grass of the third day of creation, represents Israel and also the mountain of YHWH. The establishment of the court, dividing it from the land beyond is like the formation of the land from out of the sea, setting the boundaries for the sea so that it should not pass.

The ‘fourth day’ (27:20-21) involves the oil for the lampstand, which corresponds to the great lights created on the fourth day of the original creation. On the ‘fifth day’ (28:1-43), the garments of the priesthood were created. These relate to the forming of the tabernacle on the ‘second day’. The clothed high priest is like a walking tabernacle in some regards and his clothes represent the great divisions of the creation itself. The clothes of the high priest are like his ‘wings’, enabling him to fly across the face of the firmament of YHWH, set to minister in the holy place. The ‘sixth day’ (29:1-9) is the formation of Aaron and his sons, the day in which man was created as the image of God within the creation, charged with exercising stewardship over it. The priests are anointed, just as the Spirit of life was breathed into Adam at his creation. The ‘seventh day’ (29:10—30:10) is the consecration of Aaron and his sons and the establishment of the ‘Sabbath’ worship of the tabernacle. There is an evening and morning pattern established and the lasting rest of the ascending worship of Israel to YHWH (29:38—30:10). The tabernacle is like Jacob’s ladder, a connection between heaven and earth, with the priests like angels ascending and descending with the praises of Israel.

The tabernacle is also like the Garden of Eden and Aaron is like Adam. G.K. Beale writes of Adam:

Genesis 2:15 says God placed Adam in the Garden ‘to cultivate [i.e. work] it and to keep it’. The two Hebrew words for ‘cultivate and keep’ are usually translated ‘serve and guard [or keep]’ elsewhere in the Old Testament. It is true that the Hebrew word usually translated ‘cultivate’ can refer to an agricultural task when used by itself (e.g., 2:5; 3:23). When, however, these two words … occur together in the Old Testament (within an approximately 15-word range), they refer either to Israelites ‘serving’ God and ‘guarding [keeping]’ God’s word (approximately 10 times) or to priests who ‘keep’ the ‘service’ (or ‘charge’) of the tabernacle (see Num. 3:7-8; 8:25-26; 18:5-6; 1 Chr. 23:32; Ezek. 44:14).

In Genesis 2, Adam is given the priestly task of guarding and keeping the garden (v.15) and upholding and teaching the law (vv.16-17 – a careful reading of what follows makes clear that Eve was not personally given the law, which is why the serpent was able to deceive her). Eve is then brought to Adam as a helper in the task that he has been given (vv.21-22). Aaron is the Adam in the new Garden of Eden. In Numbers 3:5-13, the tribe of Levi are brought to Aaron as the assistants in his task, much as Eve was brought to Adam as the assistant in his.

The Throne Chariot and Army of YHWH

The book of Numbers sets up the camp and army of Israel. The army of Israel will be a means that YHWH will use to execute his judgments within the world. However, much of the book of Numbers involves that army suffering judgments for its disobedience and its lack of discipline.

The tabernacle is placed in the centre of the camp and the tribes are ordered around it. The Levites are divided into four groups – the sons of Aaron are the priests, while the sons of Merari, the sons of Gershon, and the sons of Kohath are the Levites who serve the tabernacle in other ways. The Levites camp around the tabernacle, which is in the centre of the camp of Israel. The rest of Israel camps at a greater distance from the tabernacle (cf. Joshua 3:4), on all four sides. On the east of the camp, towards the rising sun, Judah is the chief tribe, accompanied by Issachar and Zebulun (2:3-9). On the south side, Reuben is the chief tribe, accompanied by Gad and Simeon (vv.10-16). On the west side, Ephraim is the chief tribe, accompanied by Benjamin and Manasseh (vv.18-24). Finally, on the north side, Dan is accompanied by Asher and Naphtali (vv.25-31).

Jordan writes:

It is a fact, however, that the four faces of the cherubim in Ezekiel and Revelation correspond to the four central constellations in the zodiac, and to the four tribes of Israel that were positioned north, south, east, and west of the Tabernacle in the wilderness (Numbers 2:1-34). The Lion is Leo, Judah (Genesis 49:9). The Bull is Taurus, Ephraim (Deuteronomy 33:17). The Man is Aquarius, Reuben, “unstable as water” (Genesis 49:4). The Eagle is Scorpio, Dan. (This last identification is more difficult until we understand two things. First, Scorpio was also drawn as an Eagle in the ancient world, according to R. H. Allen. Second, the scorpion is linked with the serpent, and Dan is the serpent [Genesis 49:17; Luke 10:17 -19].)

The order here corresponds to that of the living creatures in Ezekiel 1:10, with the face of the lion on the right side and the face of the ox on the left, just as Judah is on the east side of the camp and Ephraim on the west. The significance of this should be plain. The living creatures in Ezekiel are guided by the Spirit and go wherever it goes (1:20). Above the living creatures is a firmament (vv.22-25), above which is the likeness of a throne, upon which a ‘likeness with the appearance of a man’ sat (vv.26-28), presumably the Angel of YHWH clothed in glory. In Numbers we see that the nation of Israel becomes like the living creatures that bear the throne chariot of YHWH. The throne of YHWH is the Ark of the Covenant, the tabernacle the firmament above Israel’s heads.

This ordering of the tribes shows that Israel is YHWH’s heavenly people, like the stars in the heavens. Also, as Israel adopts this military structure, they are marked out as the bearers of YHWH’s throne chariot of judgment, led wherever the Spirit wishes to go (Exodus 40:34-38). As we see on many occasions throughout the narratives of the Exodus and the conquest of the land, the worship of Israel has a military character to it. Through Israel, YHWH will exercise his rule and battle with all of his enemies.

This is an important point to understand when dealing with the troubling theme of Holy War in Joshua and elsewhere. The conquest of the land was a matter of YHWH crushing his enemies and exercising justice upon the earth. YHWH didn’t just permit Israel to destroy the Canaanites for their own sake. Rather, Israel was commanded to destroy the Canaanites as the army of YHWH and the bearers of his battle chariot. As they fulfilled their task as YHWH’s army, enacting his just judgment upon the land, he would graciously give them rest within it as his servants. YHWH was the one who waged Holy War and the Israelites were his servants, called to do whatever he required of them.

Among the Israelites, the Levites were the elite troops of YHWH, his Praetorian Guard. They were like the cherubim with flaming swords, called to guard the Garden. They had proved themselves faithful at the rebellion at Sinai and took the place of the firstborn sons. They guarded the holiness of the nation, preventing the people from trespassing upon YHWH’s territory and enacted YHWH’s jealousy in judgment, as we shall later see.

The Levites had the task of transporting the tabernacle. The sons of Kohath carried the items from within the tabernacle, which were first covered and then removed from the tabernacle by the priests (4:1-20), the sons of Gershon carried all of the items made of cloth (vv.21-28), and the sons of Merari the wooden and metal supports of the tabernacle structure (vv.29-33).

The army camp had to be kept ceremonially clean, so lepers, those defiled by corpses, and those with discharges had to be removed until they were cleansed. At this point in Numbers we also see a few miscellaneous commandments, which might seem incongruous. The jealousy ritual (5:11-31) and the law of the Nazirite (6:1-21) appear much as intrusions upon the narrative. However, it seems to me that they are theologically significant in their context. I have commented at length on the ritual of jealousy elsewhere, so do not mean to repeat myself here. The point of the ritual in its context, I believe, principally relates to Israel as the bride of YHWH, who is subject to YHWH’s rituals of jealousy at various points in the Pentateuch.

The Nazirite vow relates to Israel as the holy warrior. While in the wilderness, Israel did not drink wine (Deuteronomy 29:6). They only drank wine when they entered into the rest of the land. The heads of the Nazirites were dedicated to YHWH for the duration of a special task. We see Nazirite figures in Samson, Samuel, and John the Baptist. Warriors also appeared to take the Nazirite vow or other vows of separation at times of battle (cf. Judges 5:2; 2 Samuel 11:11). This relates to the military themes in the book.

The trumpets of 10:1-10 also relate to the military theme. When YHWH’s Glory Chariot first arrived at Sinai, it came with the sound of a trumpet (Exodus 19:16, 19; 20:18). The silver trumpets that YHWH calls Moses to make audibly represent the Glory Chariot, memorializing Israel to YHWH.

A Second Exodus

There are a couple of exodus sequences in the book of Numbers. In chapter 9, the Passover is celebrated for the first time since the original celebration in Egypt. An alternative Passover celebration is also provided for those who were ceremonially impure at the time of the first celebration (vv.9-14). After the Feast of Unleavened Bread of the alternative Passover was finished, Israel was led out from Sinai by the cloud of YHWH’s Glory-Presence (10:11). Then, led by the cloud, they journey for three days, a journey corresponding to the original journey that they were to make from Egypt (v.33; cf. Exodus 3:18).

After first leaving Egypt, Israel had tested YHWH on several occasions. When pursued by Pharaoh they had shown unbelief. They had then murmured against Moses at Marah, failing YHWH’s test of them. Although Israel failed the jealousy test, YHWH turned the bitter waters sweet for them (Exodus 15:22-26). In Exodus 16, Israel is tested again and fails again in three different ways (vv.1-3, 19-20, 27-30). However, YHWH graciously provides manna for them in the wilderness, feeding his new ‘heavenly host’ with bread from heaven. Yet again, at Rephidim, the people contend with Moses and murmur against him. Once again, YHWH provides for them (Exodus 17:1-7). The great apostasy occurs at Sinai, with the Golden Calf, where Israel then suffers and fails YHWH’s jealousy test (Exodus 32).

Just as the original journey from Egypt was followed by several occasions when Israel tested YHWH, most notably in the Golden Calf incident at Sinai, so this second exodus is followed by a series of rebellions. However, on these occasions, YHWH punishes his people in a way that he hadn’t before. The first rebellion occurs at Taberah, when the fire of YHWH consumes some of the people (11:1-3). The second rebellion occurs at Kibroth Hattaavah, where the mixed multitude craves meat and complains about the manna. YHWH brings quail, but strikes them with a plague (11:4-35). Like the manna incident, it is a failed food test and involves a doubting of YHWH’s word. YHWH gives them what they want, but with it comes a feeling of sickness and a plague (vv.18-20, 33).

At Kibroth Hattaavah, Moses tells YHWH that he cannot bear the people alone, but needs help. This relates closely with the events of Exodus 18, where Jethro helps Moses to establish the elders as judges with Moses over the people. However, Moses’ problem at this point is not judicial rule, but spiritual leadership. To address this problem, there is a Pentecost-type event, which corresponds to the events of Sinai. The cloud of YHWH descends and YHWH takes of the Spirit that is on Moses and distributes it to seventy elders who have been set apart. I have commented on this event elsewhere:

There are a number of echoes of the theophany at Sinai in the account of Numbers 11, including: (1) the granting of a new vocation to a body of people (Exodus 19:5-6; Numbers 11:16-17); (2) the command for the people to sanctify themselves for the coming day when YHWH will act decisively (Number 11:18; cf. Exodus 19:10); (3) the gathering of the people around a particular location, Mt Sinai in the Exodus account and the tabernacle in that of Numbers (Numbers 11:24); (4) a theophany in which God comes down in the cloud and speaks with Moses (Exodus 19:9; Numbers 11:25).

After this event, which corresponds to the theophany and giving of the Law at Sinai, Aaron and Miriam speak against Moses for marrying an Ethiopian woman (Numbers 12:1-16). The insubordination of Aaron relates to Aaron’s insubordination at Sinai in the Golden Calf incident. Just as in Exodus 32 we saw the pattern of the Fall, with Aaron as Adam and Israel as Eve, in Numbers 12 we see Adam and Eve again in Aaron and Miriam. While it may seem unfair that the bride figure is judged once again, while Aaron left unpunished, it should be recognized that, if Aaron suffered the same fate, the priesthood of Israel would be extinguished and they would lose their sacrificial access to YHWH. While Aaron deserves to be cut off, YHWH graciously preserves him for the sake of his people. The Hebrew Miriam, who complains against the Cushite wife, is excluded from the camp for some time, in a manner that reverses some of the themes of Genesis 16, where the Hebrew Sarai complains against the Egyptian wife and temporarily drives her out. Once again, the rightful place of Gentiles among YHWH’s people is affirmed.

The second great apostasy of the people, corresponding to the first great apostasy at Sinai with the Golden Calf, occurs after the spies sent out to explore the land return with a bad report. They returned with a huge cluster of grapes (13:23), a foretaste of the wine of kingdom to come. The land was good, but the inhabitants were fearsome. The people wished that they had died in Egypt or in the wilderness (14:2).

Once again, YHWH declares his desire to destroy and disinherit Israel and make a mighty nation of Moses (14:11-12; cf. Exodus 32:9-10) and, once again, Moses intercedes for them (vv.13-19). He recalls YHWH’s earlier declaration of his identity in Exodus 34:6-7 (vv.17-19). YHWH pardons the people, just as he did in Exodus. He declares that Israel have put him to the test ten times. There would seem to be a correspondence to the plagues of Egypt here. Israel is plagued a number of times in the book of Exodus and Numbers. As at the Exodus, the wicked and stubborn are steadily hardened and destroyed, while the righteous are prepared for deliverance. Much of Israel has become as Egypt, but out of Israel YHWH will form a faithful people for himself.

As at Sinai, the sin relates to the events that occur at the end of a forty day period of absence (Leithart comments on further possible parallels here). In Exodus it is Moses’ absence from the people while on the mountain (24:18). In Numbers it is the period that the spies spend exploring the land (13:25). As a result of their sin, all of the people who were numbered, save Caleb and Joshua, will die in the wilderness, just as they wished earlier (14:28-35; cf. v.2). Israel is condemned to forty years of wandering in the wilderness, one year for every day spent spying out the land. The false witnesses are also killed with the plague (vv.36-37), just as judgment and plague followed the events at Sinai (Exodus 32:32-35).

Numbers 15 is once again a restoration of a fallen Israel, much as occurred in Exodus 34, as it reiterates the promise that they will in fact enter the land, giving ordinances that will only come into effect when they enter in thirty-eight years’ time (15:2). Wine (v.5, 7, 10) and new leaven (vv.19-21) are both mentioned, indicating the new life principle and rest of the land (the fact that wine will not be offered to YHWH before they settle in the land also suggests that YHWH himself has taken something akin to a Nazirite vow). The tasselled garments in vv.37-39 also show the authority and privilege of Israel being marked out. The threads are made of wool, more associated with priestly garments. The fact that they are blue might represent the river flowing out from Eden in four directions. Just as the high priest is attired as a tabernacle in miniature, so out of the individual Israelite will flow symbolic rivers of water as they adhere to the covenant.

Further Rebellion

There are another set of three rebellions here, against the leadership of Moses and Aaron. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram rebel against Moses and Aaron, claiming that, as all of the people of YHWH are holy, Moses and Aaron have no right to exalt themselves over them. Korah, of the sons of Kohath, wants to be like Aaron (cf. 16:11), while Dathan and Abiram, want to be like Moses. There is both a priestly and civil rebellion.

YHWH calls the people to separate from the rebels (v.24). It seems that, while Dathan and Abiram’s entire families remain with them, Korah’s family wisely separate from him (cf. 26:11). As elsewhere in Scripture, YHWH judges and delivers people in solidarities. Those who belong to believing households are saved with those households, unless they rebel. Those who do not separate themselves from people like Korah will die with them. The fact that YHWH does not deal primarily with detached individuals, but with solidarities, can be seen most powerfully in the inclusion of infants in the deliverance or judgment of their parents. All of the households of Dathan and Abiram are swallowed up by the earth, with their women and children, along with Korah and the men who decided to remain with him. Aaron’s authority as priest was reaffirmed as the two hundred and fifty men who offered incense in challenge to his authority were consumed (v.35), like Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus 10:1-7.

A further rebellion occurs when the people murmur against Moses and Aaron following this event. Aaron has to save Israel from the plague, taking a censer and running to the congregation to make atonement for them. Aaron’s religious leadership is affirmed yet again as YHWH gets each of the leaders of the tribes to bring a rod with their name written on it, with Aaron’s name on the rod of Levi. Placed before YHWH, it is Aaron’s rod that buds, produces blossoms, and has ripe almonds (17:8). This rod is then placed before the Testimony, as a continual memorial of YHWH’s choice of Aaron and a warning to any who would oppose him. In chapter 18, the true order of Israel is stated.

Death and Resurrection

Numbers 20 marks the death of the old generation, as Moses is disqualified from entering the land and both Miriam and Aaron die. The death of Miriam begins the chapter (v.1), after which the congregation gather against Moses and Aaron as there is no water. After praying to YHWH, Moses is instructed to take the rod with Aaron from before YHWH. This is Aaron’s, not Moses rod (v.9; cf. 17:10): Moses’ rod struck the rock in Exodus 17:5, but here Aaron’s rod must be spoken to (I previously commented on the distinction between the two rods here).

Moses disobeys YHWH, striking the rock twice with the rod, rather than speaking to it, as YHWH had commanded him to do. As a result, both Moses and Aaron were disqualified from entering into the land (v.12). It is worth observing that, even after his involvement in previous great acts of rebellion (with the Golden Calf and in Numbers 12), it is only now that Aaron is disqualified from entering the land. As Aaron came directly under Moses’ mediation, it was not until Moses was disqualified that Aaron would be disqualified (cf. v.24).

Aaron dies at the end of the chapter (vv.22-29), dying on the top of a mountain, just as Moses will later do (Deuteronomy 34:1-5). His high priestly leadership is passed on to Eleazar, his son. As he is the high priest, the death of Aaron is highly significant. In Numbers 35:25 we see that it is the death of the high priest that cleanses the land from the defilement of blood. The death of Aaron, as the death of the symbolic firstborn of Israel, is a sort of Passover event and the start of a new exodus sequence. Once Aaron dies, the tide of the story turns and Israel immediately wins a battle at a place where they were formerly defeated (21:1-3; cf. 14:45). Here we see the first cities of the Canaanites that are burned up to YHWH, suffering a fate similar to the cities of the plain in Genesis. Israel, as the army of YHWH, have been appointed to execute Sodom and Gomorrah style judgments upon the cities of the Canaanites.

Once again, we see the judgment of YHWH’s fire come upon a disobedient people, this time in the form of fiery serpents (21:6). Unlike most previous incidents, however, the people are repentant and ask Moses to pray for them (v.7). The song of the well in verses 17-18 recalls Moses’ Song of the Sea in Exodus 15. At the end of chapter 21, with the defeat of King Sihon and King Og (like the defeat of the Amalekites in Exodus 17), we finally see Israel entering into some of the possession of the land of the Canaanites (vv.31, 35).

There is one great incident of apostasy following this new exodus sequence, once again akin to the Golden Calf incident. This event begins with the mercenary prophet Balaam being hired by Balak, the king of the Moabites, to curse the people of Israel for him. Balaam has three encounters with God. At the first encounter he is forbidden to go and to curse the Israelites, as they are blessed (22:12). After a more promising offer is made to Balaam, he enquires of God again and this time he is permitted to go, but only to declare the words that God permits him to (v.20). The third encounter occurs on the road, as the Angel of YHWH stands in the way of him and his ass (vv.21-35).

As Jordan observes, the ass symbolizes Balaam himself and Balaam plays the part of Balak. The evil prophet Balaam is akin to the unclean ass, who Balak is trying to employ to serve his will. Just as the ass goes against Balaam’s will three times, going out of the way, crushing his foot, and then lying down in the road (vv.23, 25, 27), so the unclean Balaam prophecies three times against the angry Balak’s wishes, an unclean prophet speaking God’s blessing on Israel in an event that parallels God speaking through Balaam’s ass. Just as Balaam’s ass reminds him that he has never previously gone against Balaam’s will, indicating that Balaam should recognize that something remarkable is occurring, so Balak should recognize in the uncooperative mercenary prophet Balaam the fact that God is doing something remarkable. After delivering his four prophecies of blessing on Israel, Balaam prophesies the later history of Israel, from its defeat of Moab, Edom, the Amalekites, to the later exile and subsequent empires (24:15-25).

It is after the failure of this plan that the evil Balaam comes up with an alternative scheme. If he cannot curse Israel directly, he will cause Israel to bring a curse upon themselves. In 31:16, we see that it was Balaam’s advice that led to the Moabite women being used to tempt the Israelites to another great act of spiritual adultery. The Moabite women encouraged Israel to worship their false god, Baal of Peor. As a result, the judges of Israel have to kill all of the men who were joined to Baal of Peor in the sacrificial celebration and through sexual relations with the Moabite women (25:5).

This event corresponds to the Golden Calf incident in several respects. The jealousy of YHWH is provoked through an act of spiritual adultery and implied sexual sin (Exodus 32:20, 25; Numbers 25:11). A Levite stands up and executes YHWH’s jealous vengeance upon the wrongdoers (Exodus 32:26-28; Numbers 25:7-8). The Levite is rewarded with a new role as an appointed servant of YHWH (Exodus 32:29; Numbers 25:10-13). There is a plague upon the people (Exodus 32:34-35; Numbers 25:9).

After the apostasy at Acacia Grove, Israel is restored once more. This is the last of the rebellions in the wilderness. The old generation has perished and a new generation is raised up to enter into the land. They are numbered in chapter 26. Lines of inheritance are established in chapter 27, both for the daughters of Zelophehad, but also as Joshua is appointed as Moses’ successor. The offerings for particular periods of time and feast days are appointed in chapters 28-29. Once the people have been set to rights as the faithful army of YHWH, they can finally plan ahead to life in the land. After exercising vengeance on the Midianites in chapter 31, much of the rest of the book is taken up with recounting the journey to that point and planning the details of the invasion to come.

Conclusion

This study has been by far the longest to this point, covering a huge amount of material and almost forty years. The book of Numbers presents us with the establishment of the army of YHWH and the gradual and painful process of its training. In rebellion after rebellion, vast numbers die until an entire unfaithful generation has perished. YHWH’s testing of his people in the wilderness prepares them for the challenge of conquest that lies ahead. It is a gradual process of refinement, through a couple of great exodus sequences, following after the original exodus sequence that led up to the apostasy at Sinai.

The great censuses of the book, along with the lists of the tribes, trace the work that YHWH is doing in preparing his people. If, as Leithart suggests, these lists of the tribes also follow a seven day creation pattern, we see a prominent theme of the book – YHWH’s creation of his new host through ordering, testing, and judgment – powerfully underlined.

After forty bitter years of wilderness wandering, and at the halfway point of this series, we now stand in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, just across from Jericho (36:13). In our next study, we will finally cross over.

Posted in Bible, Exodus, Lent, Leviticus, Numbers, OT, OT Theology, Theological, Theology | 12 Comments

A Portable Mountain and Competing Calves – 40 Days of Exoduses (19)

Posted on March 23, 2013 by Alastair Roberts

Head and Body

Having crossed the Red Sea, we enter into a new phase of Israel’s story. We have already observed the presence of the theme of the journey to the mountain in a number of previous studies and now we see it in the great Exodus event from Egypt, as Israel journeys towards Mount Sinai. As in some previous accounts, the mountain is the site where a new covenant is forged. Within this study, the relationship that exists between Moses and the people of Israel will be seen to be especially important. Moses’ earlier experience of exodus becomes the experience of Israel as a whole.

In Exodus 2, Moses fled from Egypt to Midian. Arriving at a well in Midian, he had to drive away some shepherds and water a flock (2:15-17). He then encountered Jethro and later met with YHWH at Mount Sinai. In chapters 16-20, Israel is included in this experience. Moses provides the flock of Israel with water from the rock in 17:1-7 and gains victory over the Amalekites with them in 17:8-16. In chapter 18, they meet with Jethro. In the chapters that follow, they meet with YHWH at Sinai.

As the story develops, the importance of this relationship that Moses bears to Israel will become more apparent, as Moses increasingly assumes the role of mediator for the people. Moses sums up the nation in himself, first as the one who ‘pre-capitulates’ the nation’s history, then as the deliverer, the head, and later also the great mediator of the nation.

The Gentiles

In chapters 17 and 18 we encounter two sets of Gentiles. The first, the Amalekites, descended from one of the grandsons of Esau (Genesis 36:12). Like Esau came to meet Jacob with four hundred men after he had crossed the Jabbok, so his descendants come out to meet Israel for battle after Israel crossed the Red Sea. Just as Jacob was tested by YHWH through the challenge of his approaching brother, so Israel is tested by YHWH through Amalek.

In contrast to YHWH’s victory over Pharaoh’s army at the Red Sea, when facing Amalek, although aided by YHWH, Israel must fight themselves. If they were fearful fleeing slaves a few chapters ago, here we see them as a people with military might of their own. In the next chapter, they will be set up with more of a political structure. As Israel overcomes the challenge of Amalek, they will be established as a nation. In 1 Samuel 15, we see King Saul facing the same challenge of overcoming the Amalekites, but failing through disobedience, leading to the kingdom being taken from him.

When one leaves the childhood of the garden or slavery, one must be trained to exercise authority and power in the world under YHWH. In the state of childhood, the parent fights for and protects the child. However, as the child ventures out into the wider world, they must learn how to fight battles themselves.

The significance of the attention given to Israel’s relationship with two Gentile groups – the Amalekites and the Kenites – in chapters 17 and 18 should become more apparent when we appreciate that the calling of Israel was related to the wider nations from the very outside. Abram was first called in the wake of Babel and the formation of the seventy nations of Genesis 10. All of the families of the earth were to be blessed through him. As we studied Genesis, we saw the blessing and curse of Abraham spreading to other people groups, before the story reached its climax in Egypt, with the ministry of Joseph. A similar broadening of influence over other nations in the world will be seen as we trace the story of Israel through the prophets.

If Amalek is a wicked enemy of Israel, Jethro the Kenite (cf. Judges 4:11) is a wise counsellor. Like Melchizedek (Genesis 14; cf. Hebrews 7:1-10), Jethro is a Gentile priest who meets with the people of YHWH after their military victory, blesses them and gives food (Exodus 18:12). In both cases, we see a Gentile recognizing that the Most High God is on the side of Abram and his seed (18:10-11; Genesis 14:19-20). Significantly, in both cases it is the Gentile who takes the lead and Abram and his sons who submit themselves. As YHWH trains his people for the world, he uses other nations to do so, not merely as enemies, but also as guardians and wise guides.

Such involvement of powerful and wise Gentiles in establishing the people of God – a pattern that recurs throughout the Scripture – reveals that the boundaries of Israel never marked the limits of YHWH’s concern or activity. YHWH was going to establish his worldwide kingdom through Israel and he would use the strength of humble nations to help him to do so. As that kingdom was established, they too would be blessed.

With our focus upon the principal instruments that YHWH uses, we typically forget to pay attention to the support staff and the people whom YHWH uses ‘behind the scenes’ of Israel to help to establish her. As I pointed out in a previous study, characters like Hagar and Ishmael were never simply rejected: Ishmael’s calling was not to stand in the spotlight of the divine drama, but he had a huge task to perform in the wings. We can easily be fooled into thinking that the only people YHWH uses in his drama are those who appear on the centre stage.

Similar points can be made about Jethro, the good father-in-law, the man that Laban failed to be. Jethro’s people, the Midianites, were descended from Abraham and Keturah, the wife whom he took after the death of Sarah (Genesis 25:1-2). We have also seen the association of Ishmael with the other sons of Abraham. The other sons of Abraham were the ones who trained and equipped Isaac for the fulfilment of his calling. The wilderness period is the period of time when Israel is backstage, in the land of the other sons of Abraham, being readied for his grand appearance on the stage of the Promised Land. Only Israel can play the role that he has been called to, but without others to prompt him on his lines, set up the scenes, give him stage directions, and dispel nerves, he won’t be able to do it. Paying attention to characters like Jethro we should be reminded that YHWH’s work is not all about what occurs in the spotlight.

Later on, we see that Hobab, Moses’ brother-in-law, and the son of Jethro comes along with the Israelites as their guide in the wilderness (Numbers 10:29-32). Jethro’s descendants come to ally themselves with Israel and to live among them (Judges 1:16). Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, is one of the great women of faith who penetrates the head of Sisera with a tent peg (Judges 4:11-22; 5:24-27). The Amalekites and the Kenites appear together on a couple of other occasions in the Old Testament: in Numbers 24:20-22 and also in 1 Samuel 15, where Saul warns the Kenites of his impending military action against the Amalekites so that they can flee (v.6).

Meeting YHWH at the Mountain

It is important that we pay attention to the chronology of the Exodus, perhaps at this point more than at most others. Israel’s encounter with YHWH and forming of the covenant at Sinai occurs around the time of Pentecost. Many of the key events of the Exodus seem to correlate to the feasts that we find in Leviticus 23 and elsewhere. For instance, the Red Sea crossing probably relates to the First of Firstfruits and the forming of the covenant at Sinai to the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost.

If we are paying attention, we should also see that Mount Sinai is a prototype for the tabernacle. Like the tabernacle, Mount Sinai has a dark covering over it, but contains YHWH’s glory within. There are different degrees of access permitted. The people have to maintain a perimeter around the mountain and are not permitted to touch it (19:12-13). The elders of Israel eat directly beneath the firmament (24:9-11), the veil of which is opened so that they behold YHWH. However, Moses goes into the very midst of the cloud where YHWH is (24:12-18).

These different regions correspond to the different parts of the tabernacle. Israel, camped before the mountain, is in the court of the tabernacle, where the altar and laver are found. The elders went into the Holy Place, where they ate at the equivalent of the table of showbread, before the veil of the Holy of Holies. Moses, however, passed through that veil and went into the very presence of YHWH in his throne room, where the tablets of the covenant were given.

If Mount Sinai was the prototype for the tabernacle, we should also see the tabernacle as a movable Sinai. In the tabernacle, the covenant Mountain follows the people. Like the Mountain, the tabernacle is a site of burning and ascending smoke and fire. It is a site where things are taken up into the presence of YHWH. Even though they are all on ground level, the different areas of the tabernacle should also be seen as levels of ascent.

Mount Sinai is also a new Eden. Eden was situated on a mountain (cf. Ezekiel 28:13-14), a site from which a river flowed out to water the garden and the lands around (2:10-14). We see the same thing at Sinai. In Exodus 17:5-6, Moses strikes the rock at Mount Sinai and enough water comes out to flow some distance from the mountain to the camp of Israel, and to satisfy the thirst of many thousands of people. I think that there is good reason to believe that this rock (‘the rock’) is the same one in whose cleft Moses is sheltered in 33:22. Later in Scripture we shall see the temple being spoken of as the place from which water flows out into the world to bring life and healing (Ezekiel 47; Revelation 22:1-2), just as water flows out from Christ and from those who believe in him (John 7:37-38; 19:34-35), as both Christ and those who are his are dwelling places of God also.

The sacrificial system is also closely related to the pattern of Sinai. As we have seen that the tabernacle is a moveable Sinai, this shouldn’t be a surprise to us. Each ‘level’ of the tabernacle corresponds to a different level of Sinai and to a different level of Israel’s structure as a kingdom of priests. This can be seen in the different areas that needed to be purified as a result of different people’s sins (e.g. Leviticus 4:1-35) and also in the different degrees of access that different persons had. Only the high priest was permitted to ascend into the very Holy of Holies and only once every year, other priests were permitted to enter and serve in the Holy Place, while those who weren’t priests were not to enter. Peter Leithart writes:

Israel’s initial covenant-making involved sacrifice, and every sacrifice that Israel offered repeated and recapitulated the initial covenant-making event. We can see this by looking at the ritual of the “ascension” offering in Leviticus 1. (“Ascension” is a better translation of the Hebrew name for this offering, olah, which comes from a verb that means “to go up, to ascend.”)

Notice the sequence of this offering:

-The worshiper brings an animal to the door of the tabernacle (v. 3).
-The worship leans his hand on the head of the animal, designating the animal as his representative and substitute (v. 4). This corresponds to the setting aside of the Passover lamb (Exodus 12:3-6).
-The worshiper slays the animal (v. 5). This corresponds to the slaughter of the Passover lamb (Exodus 12:6).
-The priest splashes blood on the altar (v. 5). This corresponds to putting the blood of the Passover lamb on the doorposts of the house (Exodus 12:7).
-The priest stokes up the fire on the altar (v. 7). By this, the altar becomes a small-scale representation of Sinai, which was crowned with a flaming cloud (Exodus 19:16).
-The worshiper washes portions of the animal (v. 9). This corresponds to Israel’s passage through the water. It is a baptism.
-Then the priest puts the washed portions of the animal onto the altar fire, which turns the animal to smoke (v. 9). This corresponds to Moses’ ascent into the cloud as a representative of Israel.

Thus, whenever an Israelite offered an animal offering, he was recapitulating the history of Israel’s exodus and covenant-making at Sinai. Through this, he renewed covenant with Yahweh.

Once again, we see that the pattern of Exodus is constantly recapitulated in the later life of Israel, not only in the larger patterns of their history, their yearly festal calendar, their songs of worship, but also in their regular sacrifices.

The Forming of Covenant

Israel gathers before YHWH at Mount Sinai, where YHWH declares that he will set Israel apart as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (19:6), his special treasure on the earth. The whole story of Sinai is a marriage ceremony between YHWH and his people. As Ezekiel 16:8 declares: ‘I spread my wing over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you, and you became mine.’ The covenant binds Israel to YHWH, Israel giving the ‘I do’ to the vow that YHWH presents them with (v.8). The story culminates in a wedding feast in 24:9-11. After this, instructions for the building of the tabernacle are given, so that YHWH can travel with and take up residence in the midst of his people.

The content of the covenant is given in chapters 20-23. If the later instructions for the tabernacle serve as the model for the new Edenic ‘mountain sanctuary’, the ‘image of the heavens’, the ten words of the covenant provide the pattern for Israel to be the new Adamic image of God and the priest of the new sanctuary, just as Adam was the priest of Eden. As Israel abides by the covenant, all of the rest of the world should seek to learn from them. The Ten Words of the covenant are a new creation event: God created the world with ten commands in Genesis 1 and God creates a new covenant people for himself with ten covenant words in Exodus 20.

The Ten Words of Exodus 20 are not merely commands, but also contain a historical preamble (v.2), facts about God (vv.2, 5), threats and promises (vv.5-7, 12), and explanations (v.11). The Ten Words are followed by a few chapters of case law. These case laws are far from a complete legal system. Rather, they serve to highlight the way that YHWH’s justice works in practice. The case laws here and elsewhere demonstrate the relationship between general principle and particular application within YHWH’s justice, ensuring that the covenant justice was not something that would be applied in an impressionistic fashion.

The covenant was founded upon YHWH’s act of redeeming Israel for himself. As we saw in the study before this, through his deliverance of Israel from Pharaoh, Israel were YHWH’s servants, redeemed by him to build and serve in his house. It was YHWH’s gracious prerogative upon which all else was founded (20:2). Israel’s primary and all-encompassing duty was one of complete and undivided commitment to YHWH, above all other masters (v.3). The covenant law was founded upon and in service of this relationship. Provision was made for access to YHWH when laws were broken, but the fundamental breaking of the covenant was a different matter.

The Fall of Israel

While YHWH was giving Moses the pattern for the sanctuary, its furniture, divisions, and servants, the children of Israel, under the leadership of Aaron, denied knowledge of Moses (32:1) and made a golden calf. We shall later see this pattern recur. Peter, the Aaron figure, who had ascended the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-9), where he saw a vision akin to that of Aaron and the elders of Israel in Exodus 24, later denies his Lord in the high priest’s courtyard when he is taken away from him (Matthew 26:69-75 – thanks to James Jordan for this insight).

The choice of the calf is not accidental. Leithart writes:

Exodus 32:1 indicates that the people suggested that Aaron construct an image because Moses was delayed in returning from the mountain. This suggests that they understood the golden calf image as being in some sense a replacement for Moses, who had “brought them out of Egypt.” Fittingly, Moses will later return from the mountain with a “horned” face, shining with the glory of Yahweh, the glory that had led Israel through the wilderness to Sinai. Moses is thus the true image of Yahweh, the true calf. In Leviticus 8-9, however, there is a transfer to a new image. Aaron is decked in glory-garments, his head is crowned with glorious gold, and he is now allowed to ascend to the altar-mountain and beyond the screen into the house. As his first act of ministry, Aaron, the new image of Yahweh, the new “golden calf,” offers an `egel for purification and a calf of ascension for the people.

Without Moses, the people of Israel lost all restraint and broke the covenant. Moses interceded with YHWH to prevent him from destroying the people and starting again with Moses alone. Then he descended the mountain, broke the tablets at the foot of the mountain, ground the calf to powder, and performed a ritual of jealousy upon YHWH’s unfaithful bride.

We should recognize this passage as a Fall scene, much as a number of others that we have seen in our studies to this point. The law that was given to Aaron and the new Adamic people under his priestly rule was broken. Moses, who was appointed to be as God to Aaron (Exodus 4:16), inquires of Aaron for an explanation. Aaron, like Adam, blames the bride for tempting him (32:1, 21-24; cf. Genesis 3:9-12). Moses sees that the people are naked (‘unrestrained’ v.25) and that they have rendered themselves shameful before their enemies (cf. Genesis 3:9-11).

Moses then did what God did in Genesis 3. When Adam, the priestly guardian of the sanctuary of Eden, fell, God drove him from the Garden and established sword-wielding guardians to take his place (Genesis 3:24). In Exodus 32, Moses calls those on YHWH’s side to rally to him. The Levites join him. On account of Israel’s sin, they will go on to replace the firstborn of Israel as YHWH’s priestly guardians (Exodus 32:25-29; cf. Numbers 3:40-51). They are established as the sword-wielding avenging angels of the covenant. In verse 27 we see the slaying of Israelites at their entrances. It is a reversal of Passover, with the Levites playing the part of the destroying Angel of YHWH, killing the ‘firstborn’ (God’s judgments of Israel usually have a grim poetic justice to them – Israel gets, but suffers the full consequences of, what it asks for). Three thousand people are killed (a fact to bear in mind when we read that three thousand are ‘cut to the heart’ at Pentecost in Acts 2). The Levites take the place of the cherubim in Genesis 3, guarding the sanctuary and being men of sword and flame.

The result of the Fall of Israel is that YHWH cannot dwell in their midst. Instead of driving Israel out from the camp like Adam and Eve from the Garden, however, YHWH left the camp (33:7-11). Moses moved his tent, pitched it outside of the camp and called it the tabernacle of meeting (not the same as the real tabernacle, which hadn’t been constructed yet). YHWH then met with Moses there and anyone who wanted to seek YHWH had to leave the camp in order to do so.

Moses the Mediator

The relationship between Moses and the people shifts during this period. At the outset, in Exodus 19, all of Israel was called before YHWH and YHWH was dealing with the nation more as a whole. The nation asked Moses to speak with God on their behalf (20:18-21), but their relationship with God was a clear one. However, the calf incident threw all of that into question.

The logic of the covenant has now changed. No longer are the people just represented by Moses in their relationship with YHWH. Rather, it is only through Moses’ mediation, through his refusal to give them up, that they continue to have a relationship with YHWH at all.

It is important that we recognize the play of personal pronouns. While Moses has interceded for the people so that they are not destroyed, YHWH no longer seems to recognize any relationship to them. Rather, he deals only with Moses. He promises to send his Presence with Moses and to give Moses rest, but not the people in general (33:14). Moses persists and YHWH relents, promising to accompany the people and to establish his Presence among them again.

Throughout this account, we see Moses play a role akin to that of Abraham interceding for Sodom. He is a true and faithful prophet, participating in the Divine Council. Directly following his intercession for Israel, Moses asks to see YHWH’s glory (33:18). To understand exactly what is going on here, we should cast our minds back to a couple of studies ago, where I discussed the difference and relationship between the Spirit-Glory-Presence of YHWH and the Angel of YHWH (Meredith Kline is extremely helpful here). In Exodus 23:20-33, YHWH had promised to send his Angel before Israel and then had given instructions for his Presence to accompany them also in the tabernacle.

After Israel’s sin with the calf, YHWH reiterated his promise to send his Angel before them (32:34). However, there was not the same assurance that the Presence would accompany them. The absence of the Presence meant a reversion back to a form of the covenant where God was less present to and with the people. Moses desired both the Angel and the Presence to accompany them, as they had been with them at the Red Sea. Were the Glory-Presence withdrawn, the status of the people in YHWH’s eyes and Moses’ role as mediator would both be thrown into question. This is why the theophany in 33:18-23 is so significant: the passing of YHWH’s glorybefore Moses, unveiled by the cloud, is the sign and assurance that YHWH would indeed restore his relationship to his people and be visibly present among them once again.

At this point YHWH renews the covenant with Moses and with Israel, taking back his people to himself. As Moses intercedes, the sin of Israel is pardoned, the covenant is declared again, and the people restored. However, in the renewed covenant, Moses plays the role of mediator, more than just the role of representative. The covenant is made with the people who ally themselves with Moses, not with the people as a general group. For this reason, it is very appropriate to speak of this as the Mosaic covenant: outside of allegiance to Moses there was no ordinary hope of covenant membership.

The Transfiguration of Moses

When Moses descended from Sinai and declares the covenant to the people, his face was transfigured, shining with glory (34:29). As already mentioned, the fact that the word for shining is related to the word for having ‘horns’ is probably significant. As the bright and glorious horned leader of Israel, Moses is the true golden calf: the image of God that YHWH has created for himself, not the image that others have created of him.

It is possible that in seeing the transfigured Moses, the Israelites were supposed to see something of what they had forfeited through their disobedience, and the fact that they couldn’t relate to YHWH as closely as they once had the opportunity to. However, as I shall now argue, it was also a prophetic demonstration of the telos of God’s dealings with humanity, a telos yet to be fully achieved.

The people could not stand to look at Moses’ unveiled face for long, so he veiled it when he was not speaking with YHWH (vv.30-35). As Paul makes clear in 2 Corinthians 3:7-18, in Moses’ face the end of the old covenant, which was itself of limited duration, was to be seen. The goal of the covenant was always the transfiguration and glorification of humanity, the perfecting of the Image of God. In Christ, the veil that shielded the people from the glory of God on the face of Moses is removed and we see the glory of the Lord in the reading of Moses. We also become like Moses ourselves as we remove the veil to turn to (speak with) the Lord. The Glory-Presence of the risen Christ, his Spirit, transforms us into his image.

Conclusion

The remaining chapters of Exodus record the building of the tabernacle, the setting up of its furniture, the creation of the priestly garments, and finally the installation of the priests and the coming of the Glory cloud upon the tabernacle (40:34-38). Here we see the fulfilment of YHWH’s promise to send his Presence with the people. We see the restoration of the covenant and the establishment of the portable Sinai/Garden of Eden.

Within this single post treatment of over half of the book of Exodus we have encountered numerous themes that will recur in later exodus events. The encounter with YHWH at the mountain is a theme of crucial importance, as is the relationship between exodus and the sacrificial system and Sinai and the tabernacle. The importance of the themes of Pentecost, the Fall of Israel, and Moses’ role as covenant intercessor, mediator, and transfigured man should also be recognized. Within the next post, we will move to study Israel’s experience in the wilderness.

Posted in Bible, Exodus, Lent, OT, Theological, Theology | 4 Comments

Christianity Today Article on Our Changing Relationships with Our Texts

Posted on March 21, 2013 by Alastair Roberts

Christianity Today has just published an article of mine, which follows up certain themes from my earlier post ‘A Lament for Google Reader’.

Both the passing of the hard-bound Encyclopædia Britannica and of Google Reader represent milestones in the digital age. They remind us that reading and our engagement with texts aren’t static realities, but quite changeable. New technologies make possible new ways of reading, but also call for discernment. While new contexts, media, and gadgets can powerfully serve both reader and text, there are many occasions when our reading can benefit from limits.

Today’s web pushes us to read more, click more, share more, and comment more, but there’s something comforting about less. As readers, we may also seek out a form that’s slower, quieter, simpler, and less distracting. Neither nostalgic resistance to new technologies nor wholesale and uncritical adoption of them is the answer, but rather a prudent and discerning understanding of the nature of our particular texts, our appropriate relationships to them, and the tools that facilitate those relationships.

Read the whole piece here.

Posted in Bible, Culture, My Reading, On the web, Scripture, Theological, Theology | 2 Comments

The God of Handicrafts

Posted on March 17, 2013 by Alastair Roberts

Last night I picked up my knitting again after a long break. I have been knitting on and off since I was eight years old. While I have also enjoyed such things as sketching and card design, and have attempted several other crafts over the years, knitting has always been my preferred craft and I frequently find myself returning to it. I knit while chatting on Skype, while watching DVDs, while listening to MP3 lectures, and sometimes as a way to keep my hands occupied while I think. While I have never reflected upon knitting and other crafts themselves for any extended period of time, I have always found crafting to be an incredibly worthwhile and enriching activity and have suspected that, if one were to reflect upon it from a theological perspective, one would find much to reward such exploration. The following are some rough initial thoughts.

I suspect that God shares my passion for handicrafts. God is first introduced to us as the Creator, the one who brings into being something new and expressive of his glory, who moulds and fashions, who finds delight in his work and who rests from it, who teaches skills to others, and creates the human race to be his assistants in crafting a world and filling it with beautiful things.

The first time in Scripture we read of someone being filled with the Spirit and gifted for a particular task it is for the task of embroidery, weaving, and tailoring (Exodus 28:2ff.). God gifted the craftsmen in order that they would create clothes of glory and beauty for the High Priest, clothes that would be meaningful, beautiful, and functional. He later gifted Bezaleel and the artisans who served under him for the task of creating the tabernacle and furniture for which Moses had received the blueprints (Exodus 31:1-11; 35:30-35). The name of the wise master builder and his chief assistant are given to us and we are told of the others who worked with them, such as the gifted women in Exodus 35:25-26.

The work these gifted craftspeople created was intricate and beautiful. It wasn’t merely an expression of human skill but was also a gift and manifestation of the work of the Spirit. God desires his house to be a place of skilled workmanship, a place that exceeds the merely functional and exhibits beauty. This pattern continues in the New Testament, where we see that Paul is another ‘wise master builder’, who builds according to the plans given to him by Christ (1 Corinthians 3:10), the tentmaker serving the one who trained as a carpenter.

One of the things that has always struck me when thinking about such biblical descriptions of the construction, filling, and decoration of God’s house, whether tabernacle, temple, or Church, is the attention given to particular persons. The work of construction and decoration is not anonymous, with everyone’s contributions interchangeable, but each person contributes something unique and expressive of themselves and the gifts and roles with which God has blessed them. And God’s delight in his house is founded on this fact above all others. 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 expresses this truth clearly: ‘…each one’s work will become manifest’ – not just the quality of the construction but also the identity of the hands involved in its construction.

The fact that God so values the connection between persons and their work is significant. In an age of massive construction projects, employing huge machinery, and often large labour forces, within which most workers are interchangeable and anonymous, we can start to consider Christ’s building of his Church according to a similar model. In reality, God’s building project is the externalization of the hearts of a willing people. It is a labour of love in which spiritually gifted artisans produce a building together, a building within which everyone leaves their unique mark.

This has always been an important theme in N.T. Wright’s work on this subject. He writes:

The point of the resurrection…is that the present bodily life is not valueless just because it will die. God will raise it to new life… What you do in the present—by painting, preaching, singing, sewing, praying, teaching, building hospitals, digging wells, campaigning for justice, writing poems, caring for the needy, loving your neighbor as yourself—will last into God’s future. These activities are not simply ways of making the present life a little less beastly, a little more bearable, until the day when we leave it behind altogether (as the hymn so mistakenly puts it…). They are part of what we may call building for God’s kingdom… That is the logic of the mission of God. God’s re-creation of this wonderful world, which began with the resurrection of Jesus and continues mysteriously as God’s people live in the risen Christ and in the power of his Spirit, means that what we do in Christ and by the Spirit in the present is not wasted. It will last all the way into God’s new world. In fact, it will be enhanced there.

God delights in our labours, not just for their own sake, but also because they are ours. Just as the parent will treasure their young child’s macaroni art, irrespective of its intrinsic artistic merit, so God delights in work expressive of loving hearts: we can be assured that it will still be stuck to the divine fridge after the resurrection.

While we can never completely separate a person from their work, the connection between the two is especially pronounced in crafts. The craftsperson always has a strong relationship with the things that they produce, something of their individuality and care being expressed and externalized within each of their creations. I suspect that this is just one way in which a deeper engagement in the world of crafts may help us to see the world a little bit more like God sees it.

Craft is particularizing. Through a person’s craft, they distinguish themselves from everyone else, creating in a way that is uniquely expressive of themselves. This is especially the case in light of the relationship between craft and the body. The discipline of craft is also an act of self-creation as we develop and master skills and abilities, skills and abilities that are uniquely ours. The craftsperson also creates things that are unique and particular. We have innumerable mass-produced items in our world, but every item that one handcrafts is distinct from any other, set apart by virtue of its relationship to and expression of its creator.

Craft also particularizes the creation. Craft takes materials from the natural world and fashions them into objects that are meaningful, useful, and beautiful. Left unused, the raw materials would have little value, character, or significance. However, through the activity of the craftsperson, the creation can be elevated to new levels of meaning, beauty, and use.

One of the most marked characteristics of the craftsperson is care and a close relationship with materials. In contrast to those who operate upon the world with machinery, craftspeople primarily work with their bodies and with simple tools that serve to extend their body’s capabilities. The craftsperson needs to develop an intimate acquaintance with the materials that they are working with, with their potentials and limitations. The craftsperson ‘elevates’ their materials from their raw form to something that is unique. However, the process of crafting preserves and develops a close and personal connection between the creator and the material order upon which they are operating. Crafting can bring us closer to the created order and teaches us the virtues of care and attentiveness in relation to it. It reminds us of our basic human task as the interior decorators of God’s cosmos. Without stigmatizing those who work with machines, the perspective of the craftsperson has a particular importance, especially in a society where our relationship to the creation is increasingly attenuated by intervening media and technologies.

Crafting forms relationships. It is a way in which we refashion and relate to the creation, transforming it, bringing it under our care, control, and incorporating it into our lives. The craftsperson fashions the creation into something expressive of their skill, desire, and vision. Perhaps the thing that has proved most valuable to me in crafting has been appreciating the rich forms of ownership and gift that it can render possible. The relationship that I form with a knitting project upon which I have worked for a couple of months is unlike the relationship that I can have with any mere possession. I have become invested in it and it expresses something of me.

When you have invested yourself in the creation or use of a particular object it becomes an extension of you. Thinking in terms of this sort of connection between person and object comes naturally to us and is also found in the Scriptures. Even when removed from their original owners, physical objects with which they formed a connection still bear something of their identity (e.g. Aaron’s rod or Elijah’s mantle).

Perhaps the thing that I most appreciate about crafting is that it enables you to give something of yourself to someone else. The very best gifts are those which are thoughtful and creative explorations of the unique character and potential of the particular relationship between two persons and which can serve to externalize and symbolize that bond. For me, there are few better ways to accomplish this than in the creation of a particular handmade gift for a person. Such an item can be deeply expressive of yourself and your extension of friendship to the other person in a way that few other things can. It is a particularized object in a way that shop-bought items seldom can be.

It has been through crafting that I have come to understand the meaning and the value of gift, more than in anything else. The handcrafted item always bears the unique mark of its creator and can never be completely alienated from them. When it is given to someone else, it doesn’t so much pass from one person’s possession to another as form a symbolic bond between the two persons who are invested in and related to that object, a bond which it continually recalls and expresses. Even when it is sold, one is aware of the gifted pair of hands that were involved in its creation. Through our work of craft we can receive and give the creation as gift. The material world can become the expression of relationship, both of our relationship to ourselves and to others.

I have pondered how to distinguish between Art (more in the modern sense of the fine arts) and craft before. Perhaps one of the areas where a difference can be found is in craft’s embeddedness in a world. While Art typically stands apart from a world in the site of the ‘sublime’, craft is deeply embedded within it.

Craft arises from within a world and offers itself to a world. Craft serves the world, rather than standing outside of it as an end in itself. Craft forms and strengthens relationships, beautifies, and creates objects that are useful. It quietly fills and glorifies the world in which we live. Craft, as the externalization of love and care, is particularly associated with the domestic sphere. Craft typifies those activities of quiet concern whereby love externalizes itself in the tasks of place-making and filling.

Perhaps there is a sort of modesty to it in this respect: it doesn’t reckon itself above being useful and is willing to go unrecognized. While the fine artist may seek to stand apart and have his name recognized by the multitudes, the creator of the handcrafted item is almost universally unknown and unacknowledged. The value and meaning of the item is known only by a few people. Rather than the recognition of the masses, the crafter seeks the recognition of particular persons, whose recognition they value so highly that they are prepared to go unnoticed by all others. This recognition is not the recognition of a public reputation but the recognition of oneself as a person, of one’s love, character, care, skill, and devotion externalized in an object or place.

There is always a risk of a lack of true recognition. The secret act of love and concern often goes unacknowledged by its recipient, or its true value is unrecognized. However, to have one’s craft truly recognized – not only the skill involved, but also the care and love invested in it – means a great deal.

Matthew 6:1-4 is a passage that warns us against being good works ‘artists’. Rather, we must learn to practice the anonymity of the craftsperson, forgoing public reputation, seeking personal recognition from God alone. For God sees the craftsperson who works in secret. He sees the love and care driving them and he delights in what they produce.

Craft is both a way and a metaphor for other ways in which we perform the task of filling and beautifying God’s world. In craft, personhood is externalized and expressed. Craft fashions the natural world into a site of communion. Craft brings us closer to the material order and to each other. Through the love and care of craft, houses become homes. Through craft we can render the creation an extension of ourselves and communicate and give ourselves to others. Through the secret habits of the craftsperson we can seek a form of recognition that is deeply personalizing. As we create things with love and care, we can be assured that we serve a God who truly recognizes and takes pleasure in our work.

Posted in Christian Experience, Culture, Theological, Theology | 8 Comments

Plans for Future 40 Days of Exoduses Posts

Posted on March 16, 2013 by Alastair Roberts

I wasn’t planning to blog much if at all this last week. As you can see, that plan wasn’t exactly successful. Whim, creative procrastination, unforeseen topical issues, and live discussions got the better of good intentions. I ended up writing three guest posts, one on the body in the book of Leviticus and a further two debating the use of natural law with Peter Leithart. A Twitter discussion gave rise to a post on Christian children’s clubs and the abuse of trust. A night where I struggled to get to sleep led to me writing a post on Rob Bell and Don Draper instead, which today became my most visited post ever. Finally, I felt compelled to comment on the closure of Google Reader, another post that proved unexpectedly popular.

There have been no further 40 Days of Exoduses posts this week. Fear not, the series hasn’t been abandoned and, Lord-willing, it will return this coming week. It won’t be finished before Easter: that was always going to be a tall order, especially with the other work currently on my plate. However, I intend to complete it, even if it takes a few more weeks.

So, what is there to look forward in the series? The following is a quick teaser.

From a study of the events at Sinai, we will move on to the wilderness trials. Surrounding Joshua’s entrance into the land we will find several exodus themes surfacing, not least in the story of Rahab. First Samuel presents us with a number of highly developed exodus stories. The opening chapters of the book will be shown to follow the pattern, along with a number of key episodes in the life of David. We will then look at First and Second Kings, especially the stories of Elijah and Elisha. Within the Psalms and prophets we will see the story of Exodus retold, reappropriated and related to the promise of a greater Exodus to come. We will see that there is an exodus into exile in Babylon, followed by an exodus back into the land.

Within the gospels exodus themes proliferate, from the infancy stories, to the baptism of John, to the various movements of the ministry of Christ. These themes all culminate in the ‘exodus’ that Jesus accomplishes at Jerusalem, the climax and telos of all exoduses to that point.

In the book of Acts we see the life and story of the Church being conformed to that of its Lord in several different events. These exoduses lead up to another exodus event in AD70. The book of Revelation presents us with further patterns of exodus, informing the life, expectation, and worship of the Church.

Having explored the theme of exodus in biblical narrative, I will address it from a more synthetic theological perspective, drawing together the themes observed to this point. We will see the importance of exodus as a theme for understanding salvation, the way that the story of the exoduses of Scripture are addressed to us in the epistles, the way that we are incorporated into exodus within the life and worship of the Church and how this relates to our existence in Christ. Finally, we will conclude by looking at what it means to live out exodus as our story here and now.

I would love to hear people’s thoughts on what has been written so far and on the series as it develops. There are links to previous posts here, here, here, and here.

Posted in Public Service Announcement | 2 Comments

More on Natural Law Arguments

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Alastair Roberts

Peter Leithart has kindly responded to my earlier post on the subject of natural law arguments in the same-sex marriage debate. This is a discussion with far broader implications than the current question of same-sex marriage, so I thought that it would be worthwhile to articulate the nature and ground of natural law arguments in more detail. The Calvinist International have kindly hosted a piece in which I address some of the issues raised by Dr Leithart’s position and the debate more generally.

‘Creational order’ is indeed a theological notion, but what it names is a shared reality: it is this reality that lies at the heart of the case that I present. As it is a fact, not an argument, this reality isn’t up for vote or debate. As the ‘creational order’ of which I speak is an order that is present and operative within us as persons and societies and not solely outside of us, it will naturally tend to produce consistent patterns of behaviour. That a dyadic male-female form is a constant feature of marriage in societies throughout history and across cultures – even polygamous ones, which merely allow for men to enter into many such pairings – is a product of this reality, not a conclusion that was reached at the end of a debate or line of reasoning.

As natural law can operate perfectly well without the interventions of our understanding, a case founded upon it is not congruent in form to those of same-sex marriage proponents, for whom constructivist presuppositions prevail and, in most respects, arguments must stand on their own. The persuasive character of the established practice of marriage does not depend primarily upon our arguments but, as natural law is experienced as a proprioceptive conatus (to borrow one of Peter Escalante’s felicitous expressions), arises principally from an instinctive apprehension of the natural order of things, of the ‘grain of the universe’ as we move with it. The appeal to a unified marriage tradition is more than just an appeal to tradition as such, but serves as a testimony to this creational order.

Consequently, we are not thrown back upon ‘imaginations formed by Scripture’. That our culture has been rendered dizzy from sitting too long on the merry-go-round of the sexual revolution does not mean that our disoriented reeling is the natural human condition, or to be remedied solely by appeal to Scripture. If we would just step off for a moment and recollect our senses, we might discover otherwise.

Read the entire article here.

Posted in Controversies, Culture, Ethics, Sex and Sexuality, Theological, Theology | 10 Comments

A Lament for Google Reader

Posted on March 14, 2013 by Alastair Roberts

After seven years, Google Reader will be closed on July 1, 2013. Perhaps Google thought tonight was a good night to bury bad news.

This isn’t the end of the road for web feed users. Services such as NewsBlur and The Old Reader still exist and there are ways to move your information across. Some have even suggested that this is a positive development, ending Google Reader’s dominance of the web feed aggregator field, and allowing a new wave of innovation and competition to occur.

My assessment of the situation is rather less sanguine. Whether or not new services rise up to replace Google Reader or not, the closure of Reader is a troubling straw in the wind, highlighting ongoing changes in the way that we read things online.

As this blog is typically devoted to the discussion of theological matters, it may surprise people that I am commenting on such an issue. I have discussed issues relating to social media from a theological perspective in the past, although this post is far more specific in its focus. As someone who believes that the forms of our reading, writing, and discourse are of great importance, and that the integrity of our thought and communication, especially on matters relating to Christian faith and thought, can be compromised by inappropriate forms, my interest in and concern with such developments goes beyond my longstanding appreciation of Google Reader’s service.

So, before proceeding, what exactly is the purpose of a service such as Google Reader? The principal purpose is that of enabling you to gather all of your major web reading together in a single place, without the need to visit sites individually. Once you have subscribed to a web feed for one of the sites that you read on Google Reader, you no longer need to visit it, unless you want to leave a comment. Doing this, one can easily follow dozens of blogs and websites simultaneously, without having to take the time to visit each blog or site: instead, everything comes to you. The amount of time that this saves is considerable.

I originally used Bloglines, but even before that closed, I had switched over completely to Google Reader. At one time I was following almost 500 blogs simultaneously, something that would have been absolutely impossible prior to the web feed aggregator, when visiting each site individually was so costly in time that one could seldom follow more than a dozen sites closely at a time. Nowadays, being busier, I only follow about one hundred blogs and websites, but the great benefits remain the same.

Given the effectiveness of Google Reader, why is it closing? Robert Scoble makes the following remarks:

What killed this? Flipboard and Facebook for me. Prismatic too. The trend line was there: we are moving our reading behavior onto the social web. Normal people didn’t take to subscribing to RSS feeds. Heck, it’s hard enough to get them to subscribe to tweet feeds.

But this is sad. Particularly shows the open web continues to be under attack. We have to come into the walled gardens of Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn to read and share. Here’s a problem: a few of my friends have deleted their Facebook accounts. Dave Winer and Ryan Block, to name two famous examples.

So they will never see my words here. The open web is going away and this is another example of how.

In short, services like Google Reader increasingly belong to a past age of the Internet. The social web is the future and the place where we now ‘consume’ our information. While the gap that Google Reader leaves may well be plugged by other services, the departure of Google Reader from this area is a sign of a steady shift in Internet culture away the sort of relationship with information that such a web feed aggregator represents.

And what is this particular relationship with information? A non-social, private, and individual one. My lament for the slow passing of this relationship with information arises from my conviction that this is often a much healthier relationship with information than the typical alternatives. The larger quantity of material that Google Reader enables me to read may be its primary purpose, but it is only one of its benefits and perhaps not even its greatest. It is the way that Google Reader allows me to read that I most appreciate.

When I want to read offline, I seek out a private, quiet place, where I can be alone, where signals of the passing of time are muted, and where my mind can be clear. Google Reader is my equivalent place online. On Google Reader I can take my time over reading. I can order feeds where those that require slow and reflective reading – the equivalent of a main course of a meal – are placed in particular folders, while other fast-moving feeds that are for occasional snacking and grazing are placed in others. I can leave things unread and return to them at a later point, sometimes days later.

No one sees what I read on Google Reader, so I can read incredibly widely, without fear of anyone presuming that this implies agreement. I just like to read smart people who disagree with me. No one is looking over my shoulder, so I am free to come to my own opinions, in my own time. Or not to come to opinions on some things at all. On Google Reader I am more anonymous and my reading habits will not be tracked by anyone in the same way. Google Reader has a very simple layout, without the distracting ‘noise’ of the colourful, ad-ridden, and distraction-filled social networks. This makes it easier to think.

On Google Reader, I can read things without the clamouring reactions of other readers asphyxiating the texts. One of the problems with the social web is that texts are almost always embedded in or surrounded by shallow reactions to them and often push readers for such reactions. I don’t ‘like’, ‘+1’, ‘up-vote’, or ‘down-vote’ anything on Google Reader. I don’t perform my reading for an audience. Nor does my reading conclude with an invitation to cast a cheap and fairly mindless vote of approbation or disapprobation. Instead, I can chew things over, reflect upon their ideas, interpret them critically, and arrive at a nuanced and multifaceted judgment that does not have to be distilled into the binary form of an impressionistic reaction.

On Google Reader, I don’t see other people’s comments and know nothing of the reaction of other readers, which makes it much easier to arrive at a thoughtful and balanced assessment of my own, one which is unswayed by and independent of other readers. On Google Reader, the texts that I read are not embedded in social relationships in the same way. I do not see my friends’ recommendations, shares, or ‘likes’, relieving a lot of the peer pressure that surrounds our thinking and reading online. On Google Reader it is much easier to read and to think at my own pace, without being driven by the onward flow of my Twitter, Google+, or Facebook timeline, stream, or newsfeed.

Reading patterns on the social web are especially determined by popularity, by levels of likes and shares. However, levels of likes and shares are powerfully determined by the material’s ability to evoke an elevated emotional response. The material that dominates in the social web is material that makes a strong emotional impression, whether one of outrage, excitement, ‘squee’, shock, inspiration, etc. Unfortunately, writing that demands careful and thoughtful engagement will typically struggle to operate in such a reading environment, whereas non-social reading environments produce very different dynamics. I have consistently observed this pattern with my own blog: anything controversial or creating an emotional impression has a good chance of being widely shared, but if I post a much more thoughtful post on an issue that doesn’t provoke an emotional response, the sharing is minimal. I’ll let you into a secret: the committed readers who don’t just read the posts leaving an emotional impression get the best of me.

The social web can also tend towards creating an echo chamber for our reading. Material that challenges our preconceptions and which forces us to think unpopular thoughts will be suppressed on the social web, as sharing such things doesn’t win you friends. Even when not suppressed, it will be surrounded by such a maelstrom of outrage that its voice of challenge will no longer be heard. Peer pressure becomes more integral to our thinking and reading processes.

On Google Reader, my reading is not primarily determined by whatever is making an emotional impression in the social web right now (although that will come through in certain of the feeds that I follow). Rather, I have the more difficult task of discovering and committing myself to certain reliable and thoughtful sources, sources that I will read consistently over the course of a number of years, whether they are posting material that produces a strong emotional reaction or not. Such a form of reading forces you to choose your interlocutors and sources carefully, to invest over a long period of time in the most worthy and rewarding of conversations, to get to know certain voices very well, and not to be too distracted by the latest wildfire of controversy. It encourages you to read the sort of thoughtful and challenging material that forms deep understanding, even though it may provoke little in the way of an emotional reaction.

My lament is for the loss of private and silent reading.

Private reading encourages independent thought. When you are surrounded by other people who are forming assessments about why you are reading certain things, what you think – or, more typically, feel – about them, in contexts where you are exposed to lots of external time pressures, and where your reading is powerfully determined by considerations of popularity and is embedded in personal relationships, it can prove very hard to think carefully, slowly, with concentration, and for yourself.

This blog is written for the sort of people who read privately, who think patiently, and who respond thoughtfully. For many such people, Google Reader has proved a secluded and peaceful reading room on the web for several years. I am sure that they will join me in mourning its passing and the ailing of the habits of reading that it represents.

UPDATE: Christianity Today has published a piece of mine in which I develop some of the themes raised in this post. Read it here.

Posted in Ethics, In the News, My Reading, On the web, The Blogosphere | 48 Comments

Guest Post on the Body in Leviticus

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Alastair Roberts

I have guest posted over on The Big Bible Project, on the subject of lessons that we can learn from the significance given to the body in the book of Leviticus:

The book of Leviticus has been the death of countless millions of well-meaning Bible reading resolutions. If the second half of the book of Exodus drags, with its detailed descriptions of the furniture of the tabernacle, the book of Leviticus is the sequel that bombs, a volume devoted to arcane minutiae about the sacrifice of animals, cleansing after sexual discharges and ancient skin diseases, agricultural feasts, and ceremonies for installing priests into office. Much of the book is given over to details about sacrifices that seem totally irrelevant to us:What animal should be offered? What sex must it be? What age? Who should offer it? When? In what manner? How should it be cut up and divided? How should the pieces be arranged? What shall be done with the blood? How should it be cooked? Who shall eat it? Where shall they eat it? Within what period of time should it be eaten?

When you actually start to get to grips with the symbolism of Leviticus all of these details slowly begin to make more sense, and Leviticus can even become a profoundly fascinating book. However, before we do so, there are still some very broad and incredibly important lessons to draw from it. Perhaps one of the greatest of all of these is that God is a god for whom the body is important.

Read the whole thing here!

Posted in Bible, Christian Experience, Guest Post, Leviticus, On the web, OT, OT Theology, Sacramental Theology, The Blogosphere, The Sacraments, Theological, Theology | 4 Comments