This book was much more interesting than I thought it would be, but I think a lot of that has to do with the classes I've taken and the talks I've had with Jeff.
To me, Leviticus can be sumed up in the verse, "Be holy as I am holy." The purpose of the book is to tell the Israelites how to be holy, or rather to show them how far away they are from holiness and that they are in desperate need of help.
What does it look like for me to be holy as He is holy?
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Exodus: The beginning of a long history
Surrounding the story of the Exodus and the giving of the Law I saw two reoccuring themes: 1) the stubborness of the Israelites and 2) the particularness of God.
As to the first one; it seems the Israelites are never satisfied. They're complacent in Egpyt as slaves, but not happy. Then Moses comes along and temporarily makes things worse, which, of course, doesn't help the Israelites attitudes. Then the exodus comes and God miraculously helps them cross the river. The praise God for a few verses and then almost immediately start complaining about not having food.
So God gives them manna everyday from the sky. He tells them to only take enough for that day, so what do they do? They do listen to God or trust that he will provide so they attempt to store manna in their tents for the next day, only to be awoken with rotten manna in their tent and frest manna outside. On Friday, God says, "I'll give you enought manna for two days because the Sabbath day is holy." What do the people do on Saturday? Go out and check for manna. On one hand, I laugh at them, but on the other, I can't look down on them because I'm just as stubborn and untrusting. At one point, after the poeple have broken the covenant, God is so angry with them that he wants to get rid of the Israelites all together. Which leads to the other theme.
God is extremely specific with his Law, especially concerning the building of the tabernacle and everything related to it, like the consecration of Aaron and his sons. To me, this shows just how much sin seperated us from God and how much cleansing we need in order to be in God's presense.
As to the first one; it seems the Israelites are never satisfied. They're complacent in Egpyt as slaves, but not happy. Then Moses comes along and temporarily makes things worse, which, of course, doesn't help the Israelites attitudes. Then the exodus comes and God miraculously helps them cross the river. The praise God for a few verses and then almost immediately start complaining about not having food.
So God gives them manna everyday from the sky. He tells them to only take enough for that day, so what do they do? They do listen to God or trust that he will provide so they attempt to store manna in their tents for the next day, only to be awoken with rotten manna in their tent and frest manna outside. On Friday, God says, "I'll give you enought manna for two days because the Sabbath day is holy." What do the people do on Saturday? Go out and check for manna. On one hand, I laugh at them, but on the other, I can't look down on them because I'm just as stubborn and untrusting. At one point, after the poeple have broken the covenant, God is so angry with them that he wants to get rid of the Israelites all together. Which leads to the other theme.
God is extremely specific with his Law, especially concerning the building of the tabernacle and everything related to it, like the consecration of Aaron and his sons. To me, this shows just how much sin seperated us from God and how much cleansing we need in order to be in God's presense.
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