Monday, Sept. 30
Exodus 28:1 – 29:46 Read it here
As we wade into the rules for sacrifices it’s easy to just let our eyes glaze over. In a world where we put cloth on the altar to protect it from even a drop of spilled grape juice (and then often add plastic on top to protect the cloth), the concept of splashing blood and burning animals is pretty foreign.
In fact, this is the first place I’ve pastored where I feel sure that most church members have witnessed an animal being butchered, or even done it themselves.
The gifts we put on the altar are a lot less personal. Most of us have left even germ-laden currency behind for neater checks, or bypass the altar altogether with electronic giving.
But as you read here (and many, many other places) about sacrifices, consider what they really meant to the people who gave them. A goat or lamb or grain or whatever wasn’t something you bought…it was something that cost you a lot of expense and effort to raise, with the promise that it would provide you food or clothing directly, or other things in trade.
Giving it up, even burning it, was an extravagant gift that not only showed your obedience to God, but also your trust that God wouldn’t let you go without as a result of your sacrifice. As with the manna, it required trusting God to provide not only today, but also tomorrow.
We’re also getting into teachings about the priesthood.
Christians, especially Protestants, accept as unquestioned truth that God is accessible to anyone, any place, at any time.
The ancient Israelites didn’t have this view. In their understanding, God’s appearances were limited and, until now, irregular.
In their understanding, the priesthood would give people more regular access to God, not directly, but through divinely chosen individuals.
As God said in 29:42-43, “There I will meet you and speak to you; there also I will meet with the Israelites.”
The Tent of Meeting is consecrated by God as the place, and Aaron and his sons are priests.
In short, the priests are the communicators through whom God speaks to the people, and the people speak to God.
One of the most significant, but often overlooked, events of Good Friday is recorded in three gospels. Mark says, “The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.”
It was the curtain that separated the rest of the temple from the area where priests, and only selected priests in limited circumstances, could meet God to hear God speak.
With the crucifixion, God tears open that veil. Notice it is torn from top to bottom. It is God who reveals himself, not the people who find him.