March 1, 2022 Leviticus 7:37-38 This is the law of the burnt offering, the grain offering, the sin offering, the trespass offering, the consecrations, and the sacrifice of the peace offering, which the Lord commanded Moses on Mount Sinai, on the day when He commanded the children of Israel to offer their offerings to the Lord in the Wilderness of Sinai. It occurs to me that, in midst […]
FEBRUARY 28, 2022 Leviticus 6:25-26 This is the law of the sin offering: In the place where the burnt offering is killed, the sin offering shall be killed before the Lord. It is most holy. The priest who offers it for sin shall eat it. In a holy place it shall be eaten, in the court of the tabernacle of meeting. The […]
A sudden shout rose up through the assembly and all eyes turned to the mountain. The cloud, which had covered the top of the mountain those many days, began to descend, rolling and cascading down the mountainside like a sudden avalanche of vapor, mist, and smoke.
A panic spread through the people; a holy terror seized every heart. As if choreographed in advance, all Israel—every man, woman, and child—fell prostrate to the ground. A brilliant light emanated from the cloud as it dropped from the top of Mount Sinai. The peak of the mountain emerged visible, gleaming in the sun, for the first time in nine months. Without the towering cloud hovering over it, the mountain seemed small, humble, and insignificant after all. The LORD had left Sinai.
The cloud of glory settled onto the tent of meeting and the glory of the Most High filled the Sanctuary. Moses tried to enter, but he found he could not bear the weight of the glory. He was not able to enter the tent of meeting. God had come to dwell with His people; the Tabernacle was a success, but a fundamental problem with the entire Tabernacle concept emerged immediately.
Even if God can dwell among His people in a holy place, that does not mean that His people can draw near to him to enjoy communion or interaction with Him. God had taken up residence in the Tabernacle, but He appeared unapproachable. Even Moses, who was accustomed to standing upon Mount Sinai and basking in the glory of the presence of the LORD, could not enter.
The book of Exodus ends with the problem unresolved. The problem illustrates the classic theological paradox between the immanence of God and the transcendence of God. God is remote and inaccessible, and yet, at the same time, He is ever close and personal. The Tabernacle illustrated the paradox. On the one hand, the LORD moved into the midst of the camp of Israel, but on the other hand, no one could enter His presence.
The paradox between immanence and transcendence is also obvious in our sorry attempts to form a Christology to explain the divine nature of Messiah. Some explanations seem to be more theologically consistent than others, but aAny attempt at explaining how the infinite can occupy the finite necessarily involves an inversion in logic. The mystery of the Tabernacle is not less baffling than the mystery of God taking up residence within the Messiah.
The book of Exodus ends with a cliffhanger. It leaves the reader with the question, “How are the people supposed to approach God? How will they to come near to Him?”
Pekudei : פקודי – “Accounts” Torah : Exodus 38:21-40:38 Haftarah : I Kings 7:51-8:21 Gospel : John 6:1-71
FEBRUARY 27, 2022 Leviticus 6:8-9 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Command Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘This is the law of the burnt offering: The burnt offering shall be on the hearth upon the altar all night until morning, and the fire of the altar shall be kept burning on it.” As I alluded to in the previous devotion, the […]
FEBRUARY 26, 2022 Leviticus 6:8-9 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Command Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘This is the law of the burnt offering: The burnt offering shall be on the hearth upon the altar all night until morning, and the fire of the altar shall be kept burning on it.” In Judaism, this part of the Scripture is in […]
FEBRUARY 25, 2022 Leviticus 6:2-4 If a person sins and commits a trespass against the Lord by lying to his neighbor about what was delivered to him for safekeeping … or if he has found what was lost and lies concerning it, and swears falsely … then it shall be, because he has sinned and is guilty, that he shall restore what he has stolen, or […]
FEBRUARY 24, 2022 Leviticus 5:5-6 And it shall be, when he is guilty in any of these matters, that he shall confess that he has sinned in that thing; and he shall bring his trespass offering to the Lord for his sin which he has committed. As I have said before, these offerings were engineered to reveal the heart of […]
FEBRUARY 23, 2022 Leviticus 5:2 If a person touches any unclean thing, whether it is the carcass of an unclean beast, or the carcass of unclean livestock, or the carcass of unclean creeping things, and he is unaware of it, he also shall be unclean and guilty. As I shared in the previous devotion, God described certain situations […]
FEBRUARY 22, 2022 Leviticus 5:1 If a person sins in hearing the utterance of an oath, and is a witness, whether he has seen or known of the matter—if he does not tell it, he bears guilt. As chapter five begins, the Scripture discusses the scenarios whereby someone would be expected to bring a “trespass offering,” or in Hebrew, the asham. This […]
