Leviticus 3-5: Admission of Sin

In these first few chapters of Leviticus we learn of the many different types of offerings that could be made at the tabernacle through the priests -- burnt offerings, peace offerings, and offerings for sin. There really isn't a whole lot revealed to us here, mainly just straightforward instruction on the exact procedure for sacrificing a victim. I did find it interesting, however, when it came to the how and why of atonement for sin. What we see, essentially, in the ancient Book of Leviticus is a precedent for the sacrament of penance. In Exodus we are given the Law -- the list of rules to live by. But what if we should break one of those rules? We begin to see the answer to that question in Leviticus. The Law, as handed down to Moses from God, requires a lot from the transgressor. It's not enough for the sinner to think to himself, "I'm sorry," and move on. He or she must procure a sacrificial victim, must approach the altar of the tabernacle, must tell his or her sin to the priest, and then must cooperate in the sin offering ritual, to be fully expiated and reconciled with God. Leviticus 5:5 says, "Let him do penance for his sin." It is only by implication from the text in Leviticus that we know a full confession had to be made by the sinner. For it is written, "He shall offer of the flocks a ram without blemish to the priest, according to the measure, and estimation of the sin; and the priest shall pray for him, because he did it ignorantly: and it shall be forgiven him" (Leviticus 5:18). Therefore, the sacrificial victim depended on the nature of the sin, and there was no way for the priest to know what type of victim was necessary unless a confession had been made. Further clarification, though, is made once and for all in Numbers, when it is said of the children of Israel: "When a man or woman shall have committed any of all the sins that men are wont to commit .... they shall confess their sin" (Numbers 5:6-7). And thus we see the spirit of this Levitical Law still enacted today in our God-given gift of the sacrament of penance.

Leviticus 1-2: On the Nature of Sacrifice

After reading the first two chapters of Leviticus, a couple of questions came to mind. The main one is what, in the end, is the significance of the Levitical priesthood? And the other question actually concerns an enigmatic figure from Genesis, Melchisedech the priest.

Concerning the Levitical Law my commentary notes: "The laws which [God] enacts, are such as suited the Jewish people: they were not able to rise all at once to perfection; but these laws guide them, as it were, on the road." From this quote I gather that the detailed Law we read of in Exodus and Leviticus and the rest of the Pentateuch is really only relevant to the ancient Jews. That it was an imperfect law that was meant to be temporary until Christ brought the new and fulfilled Law. But is this completely true? I wonder why these books of Levitical Law have remained part of the canon of Scripture, then, if they no longer hold relevance. Well, the obvious answer must be that they do still hold relevance, and my quest now is to understand how they do. For starters, my commentary further notes that "if we confine ourselves to the letter, we may say these precepts are not good, and carnal (Hebrews 7:16), but if we consider the spirit, we shall confess that they are excellent, and spiritual (Romans 7:14; 2 Corinthians 3:6)." That distinction between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law, I think, is going to go a long way in explaining many things I am about to read in the Book of Leviticus. And I think the confusion that arises in distinguishing what is the letter and what is the spirit leads to many problems of interpretation that we hear of today.

The other question, regarding Melchisedech, is something that I will probably return to many times while reading Leviticus (and throughout the Bible as a whole, probably). It appears that there are two significant priesthoods contained in the Old Testament -- that of the Levites and that of Melchisedech. We are obviously given a large amount of information concerning the Levitical priesthood, but we are told nearly nothing about the order of Melchisedech. And yet, as we've been told, the Levitical priesthood was imperfect and temporary. And the order of Melchisedech seems to be more aligned with the perfect and eternal priesthood ushered in by Christ. We are told in the Epistle to the Hebrews that "if then perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law) what further need was there that another priest should rise, according to the order of Melchisedech and not be called according to the order of Aaron?" (Hebrews 7:11). At this point, I'm simply bringing the topic up, and I plan to return to it as I progress through Scripture. I just find the person of Melchisedech, who sacrificed using bread and wine rather than a bloody animal, truly interesting and captivating.

Concluding Thoughts On Exodus

The second book of the Bible was quite illuminating. I had never known that so much of the Mosaic Law could still be found in trace elements within Christian tradition. For me, and possibly for others, there had been an assumption that the Old Testament was full of foreign things that had little to do with Christianity today. What I failed to see was the big picture. The Old Testament and the New are part of a larger whole. They must be viewed together as part of the same Divine plan. Concerning the events described in Exodus, my biblical commentary mentions that "the laws prescribed by God to His people, the sacrifices, tabernacle, etc., were all intended to prefigure the Christian dispensation." Biblical scholar Bernard O'Reilly further says that "the law ... given to Israel on Mount Sinai, together with the detailed legislation concerning the chosen people's religion and government, all foreshadowed the more perfect Law to be given by Christ to His church and for the benefit of the whole world. Equally typical and prophetic of the sacraments and graces of the New Law were the manna, the water from the rock, the brazen serpent, and, indeed, all the incidents of the people's life during the forty years' wandering in the wilderness. / The whole of Exodus must be read in the light of Christian revelation to be understood and appreciated."

To throw even more light on this issue, I feel I must include some passages from Scott Hahn's book Reasons to Believe. I must credit Hahn for being the first to truly show me that the Bible as a whole contains a Divine plan of epic proportions the likes of which the average Christian is completely unaware, and it all hinges on the covenantal relationship between God and man. And one cannot even begin to understand God's covenants without studying the Old Testament. Therefore, concerning the Book of Exodus, this is what Scott Hahn has to say:

"Exodus, ... the biblical narrative describing Israel's liberation, everywhere echoes the Genesis narrative of creation. Israel is delivered through water as a new creation. The cloud of divine presence covers Mount Sinai for six days before God calls Moses, on the seventh day, to enter the cloud and receive the blueprint for God's dwelling (Exodus 24). God's instructions appear in sevens, again like His work of creation, and His seven commands conclude with ordinances for observance of the seventh day, the Sabbath. The making of the priestly vestments and the building of the tabernacle recall the creation narrative. In both, the work proceeds through seven stages (which, in Exodus, conclude with 'as the Lord commanded Moses'). Moses beholds his handiwork, as God did in Genesis, and blesses it (Exodus 39:43). As God 'finished His work,' so Moses 'finished the work' (Genesis 2:1-2; Exodus 40:34). And as God rested on the seventh day, blessing and hallowing it, so when Moses finished his work, the divine presence filled the tabernacle (Exodus 40:34).
With the Exodus, God restored a royal priesthood, a priestly kingship. He declared Israel to be His 'peculiar possession above all people ... a priestly kingdom and a holy nation' (Exodus 19:5-6).
Nevertheless, just as the Israelites received Adam's vocation, they also perpetrated an Adam-like fall from grace. And just as the original fall had resulted in exile and de-consecration of the royal-priestly figure, so too did Israel's idolatrous worship of the golden calf. God disinherited His people, pointedly telling Moses that they are 'thy people, which thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt' (Exodus 32:7). In defiling itself through ritual rebellion, Israel, like Adam, had become unfit for the divine vocation. And never again does the Old Testament use the royal-priestly title of Exodus 19:6 to describe the people of Israel.
Still, on the strength of His covenant with their father Abraham (see Exodus 32:13), God spared Israel and permitted the tribes, eventually, to enter the promised land. So God's people experienced, again, a partial restoration."

I move on now to the Book of Leviticus. I'm wading now waist-deep in the Law and moving into even deeper waters. Leviticus is going to prove even more challenging, especially in light of the fact that many detractors today love to quote from its pages regulations which to the modern mind sound outrageous. I'm looking forward to this next stage of the journey.

Exodus 39-40

Exodus is finished, and before I post my final thoughts I figured I'd comment one last time on my impressions of the tabernacle and ancient Jewish worship. Essentially Exodus is a book split in two. The first half of the book is very storylike and sequential (meaning that it reads like an epic poem or a fast-paced narrative). But the second half of Exodus suddenly grinds to a halt and we are met with a barrage of rules, instructions, and regulations. The second half of Exodus is essentially an inside look at a very important conversation that took place between God and His prophet Moses. The action-packed events of the first half culminate in a mass of people alone in the desert waiting for something to do next. And this is when Moses's real purpose comes into play. Of course leading his people out from slavery and into freedom was an extremely significant accomplishment. But the events of the first half of Exodus in and of themselves don't tell us much. We see God's wonders, which is awe-inspiring, but in the second half we see God's plans, which is what pertains to us today. So now that the Hebrews are free and in the desert, what's next? What's next is precisely how they should live their lives if they are to remain in God's favor. How they are to worship, how they are to behave, how they are to approach their Lord. Many people, especially today, like to pretend that these things don't really matter; that anyone should be able to behave any way he or she likes; that anyone should be able to approach the Lord in any way, shape, or form. If there is anything I've learned from the Book of Exodus, it's that God is a meticulous God. He prefers one way to another way. And though the particular details of worship may have changed with the coming of the New Law, God Himself does not change.

Exodus 35-38

Not much to report at this point. Chapters 35, 36, 37, and 38 almost exclusively deal with the construction of the tabernacle, and therefore each detail is basically a repetition of the instructions given back in Chapters 25-30. In fact, my commentary notes that these last chapters of Exodus may be summed up by the simple declaration: "The workmen did all according to God's prescription."

The one thing I did find new and interesting, though, was in Chapter 38 when Moses mentions certain "women that watched at the door of the tabernacle" (Exodus 38:8). I referred to my commentary for clarification, and it appears that it was a custom for very pious and devout women to simply "watch" or pray and adore at the entrance to the tabernacle, thus worshipping God over and above what was required of them. We see evidence of this custom in the New Testament when the child Jesus is presented at the Temple and Luke tells us of a woman named Anna who "was a widow until fourscore and four years: who departed not from the temple, by fastings and prayers serving night and day" (Luke 2:37). Thus a tradition which established itself very early on (almost immediately upon the construction of the tabernacle) and continued with the construction of the Temple, even today can be seen in the practice of Eucharistic adoration. Anna is described as "serving night and day," just as men and women during adoration can spend entire nights with the Divine Presence of our Lord. These women mentioned in Exodus are excellent examples for us of faithful and passionate followers of God, giving their all for Him by simply offering their presence at His dwelling place.

Exodus 34 - Broken Laws and Horns of Light

Many theories have been put forth as to why the tablets of the Law had to be destroyed and re-made. There is the surface reason, of course, that Moses destroyed the first tablets in a fit of anger over the people's fall into idolatry. But usually the Bible operates on many levels, and it seems a strange case that there had to be a "do over" when it came to God's written Commandments. One theory is that the second tablet wasn't as sacred as the first. The reason for this theory is that in Exodus it appears that God Himself writes the Commands on the first stone, while Moses writes it on the second, thus making the latter imperfect. Since the people blew it concerning the first tablet, they get a lesser version for the second. Another theory is that the breaking of the first Law symbolizes the coming of the Messiah and the fulfillment of the Old Law in favor of the New. This does make sense symbolically. God gave Moses a written covenant, a certain way for the people to act, they disobeyed, and so a new covenant had to be made. The exact same thing can be said for the need for Jesus Christ to come and give us the New Law. There is another theory, however, that I had never heard of and which I find the most interesting. It speaks of God's Mercy and how much we are in need of it based on how frequently we break His covenant with us. The first tablets God gives to Moses contain the pure Covenant, written by the finger of God, to provide the people of God a brand new start, a new beginning for a chance to walk with the Lord -- this is our baptism. When we are baptized we are given a Law to follow of which we had before been ignorant. We are new and pure and given a glorious opportunity to walk with the Lord. But, who can remain pure? We are human, thus we are fallen, and we will, at some point or another, break God's covenant by sinning, just as the Israelites broke the Law by worshiping the golden calf. The Law is destroyed, the covenant shattered, just as Moses shattered it upon the ground. What now? Are we forever doomed and cursed to remain barred from God's Law? By the Mercy of God, no! God, in His infinite compassion for us, re-writes the Law and allows us to return into it. The stone tablets are reconstructed, the Law is re-written upon it, and the Covenant is made new again. After we are baptized and we sin, thus damaging our pure souls, God gives us the sacrament of Penance, which allows us to re-purify our souls back to the baptized state. In essence, when we sin we smash the stone commandments upon the ground, and when we confess our sins with true repentance, God re-constructs the stone commandments which we willfully destroyed and lets us try once again to walk with Him. And that is why His Mercy is perfect and infinite.

One last note about Exodus 34. In this chapter we read of Moses's transformation; how he came down from Mount Sinai after spending forty days and forty nights in prayer and fast, conversing with the Lord, with a new appearance. There has been some confusion over the centuries over what exactly this new appearance of Moses looked like. The verse in my translation reads: "And when Moses came down from the Mount Sinai, he held the two tables of the testimony, and he knew not that his face was horned from the conversation of the Lord" (Exodus 34:29). Some other translations read as follows:

"When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord." (New International Version)

"When Moses came down from Mount Sinai carrying the two Tablets of The Testimony, he didn't know that the skin of his face glowed because he had been speaking with God." (The Message)

"When Moses went down from Mount Sinai carrying the Ten Commandments, his face was shining because he had been speaking with the Lord." (Good News Translation)

It seems clear when looking at other translations that what is meant by this verse is that Moses's face was illuminated somehow ("radiant," "glowed," "shining"). The word "horned" must be then a very literal translation, and it is commonly believed that what is meant is that his face was sending forth rays of light like horns. Whatever the specific translation may be, the fact remains that Moses's conversation with the Lord was so special and so enlightening that it literally transfigured him.

Exodus 33 - Moses the Prophet

The conclusion of Exodus is rapidly approaching, and I'd like to make sure I mention, before I'm through, how I've been made aware what a special place Moses holds among the Old Testament prophets. I knew, of course, that Moses is one of the most dominant figures of the Old Testament, but until I really closely read the Chapters dealing with his communications with God atop Mount Sinai, I didn't quite grasp the gravity of it. In Exodus 33 we see Moses and God in intimate conversation. It is written in Exodus 33:11, "And the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man is wont to speak to his friend." Amazing! What a privilege was granted to Moses! The next few verses seem to deal with this theme of "the face of God." It's an interesting subject to ponder. My commentary makes sure to mention that Moses didn't actually see the true face of God, as it is written in Exodus 33:20, "Thou canst not see my face: for man shall not see me, and live." And St. Paul tells us "that eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9). And we know that in heaven God has prepared for us the beatific vision, and so it is not something a man here on earth can experience. But in saying that God spoke to Moses "face to face," it is supposed that He spoke familiarly with him, in a more personal way than He has ever spoken with a mere man.

Exodus 32 - Prayers of Mediation

Exodus 32 is of course one of the most famous chapters in this book. It is full of intense emotion and suspenseful action. The people fall back into idolatry; Aaron aids them in their sin; Moses comes down to find this abomination; God is furious; the Commandments are destroyed; Moses shatters the golden calf; God wants them all killed; Moses pleads on the people's behalf; many are killed anyway; Moses asks pardon on behalf of the people. It is clear that the worship of the golden calf, the specific event described in Chapter 32, is no light matter. It is a heinous violation so offensive to God that He nearly calls for the extermination of His people. In fact, upon first reading this chapter, I found a lot of its content hard to take. Why was God's fury so great? Why does He want everyone (save Moses) killed? And then, after Moses successfully pleads for God's mercy, why does He sanction the killing of 23,000 of the guilty? These are perplexing questions. It may be enough to say that simply reading a synopsis of this troubling event as captured in Exodus does not do enough to allow us to see the utter grievousness of the situation. The people forgot God. And what makes it worse, they forgot Him after He had saved them from the Egyptians, rescued them from slavery, kept them alive in the desert with manna, and gave them water from a rock to drink. But what's more, this allows us to see the sheer power of a mediator's prayers. Moses throws himself before the Lord and pleads for God's mercy so that the people may be spared. And God listens. This is the essential lesson of Exodus 32. Think of how much each of us has probably offended God every time we forget Him. God has given us His only Son (our Manna, our Water from the Rock), and we constantly slip into an idolatry of materialism and worldliness, utterly neglecting our Lord. Who mediates for us? Well of course Jesus Christ is the Great Mediator, and Mary and the saints especially pray for us, but there are men and women here on earth who pray for us incessantly, night and day, every day. Those who have devoted their entire lives to praying for mankind. Monks, nuns, friars, ascetics, hermits, postulants, and any religious who have and are praying that we may be saved, that God will not enact His rigid Justice, that He will act only with sparing Mercy. We must honor these men and women and think of them often and pray for them. (Sadly, some Christians and non-Christians think that the people who devote themselves to the religious life are a waste on society, that they contribute nothing. How little then is understood of their purpose!) God reveals to us in Exodus 32 that He listens to prayer, that He will relent on behalf of an earnest plea for mercy. Moses fell prostrate before God and devoted himself to prayer so that the general people would be saved; and, again, in monasteries, abbeys, cloisters, friaries, and priories across the world, men and women are lying prostrate before God in quiet prayer and contemplation so that we may be saved. The thought of it is awe-inspiring and humbling.

Exodus 31 - A Sabbath Reminder

In this brief Chapter of Exodus, God finishes His lengthy list of instructions to Moses and gives the command to put into action all that He has said. And I think the central issue in Exodus 31 is that, after appointing a specific person to oversee the construction of the tabernacle, God reminds His people of the commandment to "keep holy the sabbath day." Obviously the building of the tabernacle, along with the construction of the ark, the altars and tables, the vessels, and the making of the vestments, is going to be a time-consuming, laborious, toil-inducing job. So God, in His infinite Mercy, makes sure to remind everyone that, even though they are about to be hard at work with this project, they are not to forget about the sabbath -- in other words, they are not to forget about God. And this led me down a train of thought.

In a previous post I had written about the Third Commandment, and how I feel that today we are in violation of it due to our obsessive work "ethic" and our lack of observance of the Lord's Day, a day to rest and contemplate our God. Exodus 31 demonstrated to me the immense importance of this command. God wants a specific day devoted to Him! If we blow right through the week without giving Him that, we violate His Command!

This may be a topic I've discussed to death, but I truly feel that our modern work-obsessed culture is completely counter to what God wants from us. We've developed a societal mindset that industriousness and busy-ness are the pinnacle of human goodness. Where did we come up with this?! I recently read a great article by Edwin Faust called "The Day I Retired," which is all about this screwed-up, work-first mindset. Faust brought to my attention an essential fact of human existence that puts "hard work" in its proper perspective. At the outset of human life on earth, as captured in the Book of Genesis, God uses work and labor as a punishment for Original Sin! God says to Adam, "Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee, that thou shouldst not eat, cursed is the earth in thy work: with labour and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life" (Genesis 3:17) [italics added]. And further: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth out of which thou wast taken" (Genesis 3:19) [italics added]. There are two things we can take from this: 1) that we are forced to labor and toil as punishment for the fall of man, and 2) that God's original plan must not have included all this labor and toil. In a perfect world, as God envisioned it, we would be freed from the bondage of work and we would be able to contemplate our Maker and enjoy His Goodness and Mercy all the days of our lives. That is what ought to be held in high regard; not the backwards-thinking mindset of today.

I'm not trying to argue that we ought not to ever work or work hard. I know that we must provide for our families and ourselves. Work is necessary. But is it necessarily a virtue to let it take over our lives? Is it such a good thing to work sixty hours a week, weekends included, and therefore leave little to no time for Divine contemplation? If so, where is the Biblical evidence for this? So far, all I've read in the Bible stresses the necessity of a day of rest to forget about work, for work is simply a punishment for our fallen nature. In the Faust article, in order to show the hopelessness that work-obsession leads to, he makes mention of one of my most favorite Henry David Thoreau lines: "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation." Faust elaborates: "Recall that desperation comes from despair, which is the loss of hope. Hope in what? In God. Men cannot be sustained by a hope that is not theological." Faust also quotes Shakespeare: "There is a memorable line in Shakespeare's Othello in which the villain Iago describes his duplicity by saying: 'I am not what I am.' How many of us might say the same?" In our society we are defined by what we do for work. How nonsensical! If work is our punishment, why should we be proud to define ourselves by it? For most of us, when defining ourselves by our jobs, we may accurately reply, "I am not what I am." I am a teacher, but teaching does not define me. What defines me is that I am a creature of God, and I don't teach for a living, but my living consists of making my way back to God in heaven. I must teach for the time being because our fallen nature has necessitated it, but it's not what I live for. If we live for our work, where does that put God?

Exodus 29-30: Sacred Incense

Truly one of the most enlightening things about reading Exodus so far has been the discovery of all the similarities between worship then and worship now. This is exactly the kind of thing I was hoping to gain from reading the Word in its entirety: a more adequate understanding of God and His dealings with man. Based on the total meticulousness of the descriptions of the tabernacle, the ark, the priests' vestments, and the form of worship, it is clear that God wanted something particular from His people. This cannot be glossed over. The essence of worship is to adore God, then and now. And of course the fundamental difference with our worship today is that Jesus Christ has taken the place of the sacrificial lamb; but, there are many facets of the old worship that are still used today because God has revealed them to be good. In Chapters 29 and 30 we learn of some of these things, in particular the burning of incense. Anyone who has been to a High Mass knows that incense plays a big role in Christian worship (just as it did for the ancient Israelites). Simply put, the burning of incense symbolizes our prayers ascending to God. There are some beautiful Biblical passages to illustrate this. Psalm 140:2 says, "Let my prayer be directed as incense in thy sight; the lifting up of my hands as evening sacrifice." And Apocalypse 8:4 says, "And the smoke of the incense of the prayers of the saints ascended up before God, from the hand of the Angel." Incense provides a beautiful symbol for the prayers offered during Mass. During the Offertory prayers of the Mass, the Holy Spirit is invoked, and the blessing of the bread and wine includes this prayer: "Incensum istud a te benedictum, ascendat ad te, Domine: et descendat super nos misericordia tua" (May this incense blessed by You, arise before You, O Lord, and may Your mercy come down upon us).

Exodus 28 - "For Glory and for Beauty"

And so the parallels continue. Exodus 28 describes the appearance of the vestments to be worn by Aaron and subsequent priests. The level of detail is daunting, but, again, whilst reading through this chapter I couldn't help but think of the beautiful and ornate vestments still worn today by priests and bishops. The continuity remains; the Old Law illuminates the New. Among the reasons for God's requirement for so elaborate a vestment was this succinct declaration: "For glory and for beauty" (Exodus 28:2). Why should priests wear such lavish and showy vestments? For glory and for beauty! This is the worship of God we're dealing with here. My commentary mentions that "these prescriptions of God, which seem to us so minute, had a more sublime and mysterious meaning." It's easy to brush off things such as what a minister of God ought to wear -- it may seem, on the surface, as an unimportant issue. But in Wisdom 18:24 it is written, "For in the priestly robe which he wore, was the whole world: and in the four rows of the stones, the glory of the fathers was graven, and thy Majesty was written upon the diadem of his head" [italics added]. I loved the fact that the priest needed to have the words Doctrine and Truth inscribed on the rational before he could enter the sanctuary to worship. How gloriously symbolic! Doctrine and Truth: Urim and Thummim: Illumination and Perfection. These are the things necessary, even today, to piously approach the Lord.

Exodus 27 - "The Light of Men"

"That a lamp may burn always,
In the tabernacle of the testimony, without the veil that hangs before the testimony." (Exodus 27:20-21)

Here is yet another parallel between the appurtenances of the Old Covenant's altar and that of the New. In the previous chapter Moses speaks of the tabernacle and the veil and the Holy of Holies, all things found still on today's altars. And now it is revealed that a lamp of eternal light must always remain lit to signify the Divine Presence of our Lord. And so it is today, on every altar around the world, a sanctuary lamp (colored red) hangs eternally lit to make known the Divine Presence in the Eucharist. And of course light itself plays a significant role in the Word. Paul tells us to "cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armour of light" (Romans 13:12). St. John, in his beautiful opening to his Gospel, speaks of Jesus as "the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it," (John 1:4-5) and that He "was the true light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world" (John 1:9).

Exodus 26

"And the veil shall be hanged on with rings, and within it thou shalt put the ark of the testimony, and the sanctuary and the holy of the holies shall be divided with it." (Exodus 26:33)

I haven't much to comment on concerning this chapter, as it was entirely made up of straightforward instructions on the building of the tabernacle. But all throughout, the only thing I could think of was how alike the descriptions are to our modern-day tabernacles on our altars. And so the revelation I received upon this reading was in the complexity of the interconnectedness between Old Covenant and New. Jesus didn't come and wipe the slate clean; He came to fulfill, or complete, the Law. He didn't come to declare the Ten Commandments void (for example); He came and said, "If you love me, keep my commandments" (John 14:15). He came to set us straight. And so it is only fitting that His Divine Presence be surrounded by the same appurtenances that housed Him in the Old Covenant. Our tabernacle today, therefore, has a veil separating us from the Holy of Holies, just as described in Exodus. Altars often have figures of angels on either side of the tabernacle, much like the cherubim of the Ark. Above you can see the tabernacle in the lower center portion of the picture, veiled and reverently housing the Divine Presence of God. For remember, concerning His people, God Himself said, "Make me a sanctuary, and I will dwell in the midst of them" (Exodus 25:8). By His Mercy, He still does today.

Exodus 25 - Graven Cherubs

I remember well the first time I read Exodus how endless the reading became once I reached the instructions on the building of the Ark of the Covenant. But now I'm seeing it differently. The length and detail of the instructions given to Moses should tell us something -- the information was of the utmost importance. Every item, every direction, had a purpose. It was symbolic and yet real. Everything was geared toward complete reverence. The color of the linen, the dimensions of the table, the number of candles, etc. God knows (of course) that we are physical beings as well as spiritual ones, and so he specifically caters to both our aspects. The ceremonial aspect of worship is much needed, as we are moved by our senses, not just our minds. Our soul is satiated by the spiritual nature of adoring God, but our body is satiated by the ritualistic nature of worship -- thus the meticulous attention to detail when describing how the Ark of the Covenant ought to appear and function. For this was the sanctuary that was to house the Divine Presence of God; its physical image mattered a great deal.

And one other issue of note: in Exodus 25, part of God's instructions on how to build the Ark contained this demand: "Thou shalt make also two cherubims of beaten gold, on the two sides of the oracle" (Exodus 25:18). Cherubims are angelic beings, and so this required crafting figures of gold to be part of the adornments used during worship. In essence, God was calling for graven images. Yet, God had just finished telling Moses that the people are forbidden to create graven likenesses, right? Well, I think Exodus 25 shows us that God's command against graven images was not a condemnation of all images. Keeping within the context of the First Commandment (as I had previously written about), God forbids us to create likenesses of strange gods for the purpose of worshipping them. Clearly God doesn't intend for these golden angels on the Ark to be worshipped; He requires them because of their symbolic power. Statues of saints and angels today still hold this symbolic power. The golden Cherubim were meant to support the presence of God and turn the eyes of the Israelites upwards to heaven. Pictures, sculptures, and images of Mary and the saints are meant to serve the same purpose.

Exodus 24 - By His Blood

"And taking the chalice he gave thanks: and gave to them, saying: Drink ye all of this.
For this is my blood of the new testament which shall be shed for many, for the remission of sins." (Matthew 26:27-28)

"And having taken the chalice, giving thanks, he gave to them, and they all drank of it.
And he said to them: This is my blood of the New Testament, which shall be shed for many." (Mark 14:23-24)

"In like manner, the chalice also, after he had supped, saying: This is the chalice, the new testament in my blood, which shall be shed for you." (Luke 22:20)

"Then Moses took half of the blood, and put it into bowls; and the rest he poured upon the altar.
And taking the book of the covenant, he read it in the hearing of the people: and they said: All things that the Lord hath spoken, we will do, we will be obedient.
And he took the blood and sprinkled it upon the people, and he said: This is the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words." (Exodus 24:6-8)

I've long been well aware of the significance of the Blood of Christ, but until now I had not known that Jesus, when consecrating His Blood at the Last Supper, was deliberately referencing the ancient words of Moses in Exodus 24. And putting these things together makes everything clearer. It makes perfect sense: Moses (in Exodus 24) is pronouncing God's new covenant with His people, which they promise to obey (and they of course eventually break that promise), and he does so using the blood of the sacrificial victim; and Jesus, using His own blood (for He is the new and everlasting sacrificial victim), pronounces the new covenant with His people, and therefore He alludes to the old covenant to demonstrate to us God's Divine Plan, and the eternal (and historical) workings of the Father. Learning more about God's covenants with His people has been one of the most rewarding aspects of reading Scripture. I'm realizing more and more how pivotal these testaments are. They are the foundation of our Faith.

Exodus 23 - Tradition

In Exodus 23, one verse in particular stood out to me. It's a verse that seems to speak in opposition to much of what has happened to Christianity in modern times. It's a verse that decries softening, diluting, and diminishing the Truth in the name of "political correctness." Surely, there's nothing political about the Truth! It is what it is. It cannot be changed. We must conform to it, it cannot conform to us. That verse is Exodus 23:2, and it reads:

"Thou shalt not follow the multitude to do evil: neither shalt thou yield in judgment, to the opinion of the most part, to stray from the truth."

What eternal and righteous words! And yet we are so guilty of violating this command. How many times have we heard of a Christian, or a group of Christians, "changing" God's Law to fit some sort of modern practice or lifestyle. Things such as divorce, birth control, and usury (to name a few), all once out-and-out condemned, are now sanctioned by many Christians. Why? Could it be they are following "the multitude," yielding "in judgment, to the opinion of the most part"? Those things just mentioned are clearly not permissible based on what Scripture says. But it is the scourge of Modernism contaminating the minds of many Christians today. We are clearly straying from the Truth. God, Who exists in all times and places, has denounced the bending of rules, the changing of rules, and the "altering" of principles, even in our own day. We've allowed our modern culture to determine which of God's Laws we will follow and which we'll disregard. The result is moral chaos. We've strayed so far from Truth we've lost sight of it.

Exodus 22 - Is Usury Lawful?

No! It is not. So says Scripture. Once again we have an instance of a God-given Law being conveniently ignored. Throughout much of history usury has existed and even flourished, but nothing compares to the excessiveness of usury in our own day. Usury has become (especially in America) not just tolerable, but downright celebrated! We've somehow gotten to a point where usurers, or people able to profit from lending, are seen as savvy and industrious citizens. They are champions of the business world. They write books and talk on TV shows. Yet, they are blatantly violating God's Law, and no one seems to care. Exodus 22:25 says, "If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor, that dwelleth with thee, thou shalt not be hard upon them as an extortioner, nor oppress them with usuries." And to paraphrase that famous Roman Cato: "What is usury but to kill a man." It's an unnatural thing. Usury is an abuse that perverts civil law the same way murder does natural law. It is clearly condemned by God, and Jesus Christ reiterates and reaffirms this most basic principle when He says, "Do good, and lend, hoping for nothing thereby: and your reward shall be great" (Luke 6:35). In other words, "Lend, hoping to gain nothing by it." Instead of trying to flimsily justify our modern practice of lending with (exorbitant) interest, why don't we live by Jesus's simple words? It comes down to avarice, pride, and materialism. These are sins that afflicted mankind then and even more so now. Lending money has become such an unfeeling business that there is no charity involved in the exchange whatsoever. A person or a company does not lend to someone in need because it is the charitable thing to do; they lend to increase their own profits, and thus they deny themselves the great reward that Christ promises.

And to all those who criticize the Mercy of God, Exodus 22 provides some great verses on His kindness and empathy. I've always heard that the Old Testament depicts a vengeful God who deals harshly with His people (and in some instances this is true), but I've come across several verses so far that display God's Mercy, the same Mercy that will eventually become Incarnate in the Person of Jesus Christ. For instance, God says:

"You shall not hurt a widow or an orphan.
If you hurt them, they will cry out to me, and I will hear their cry:
And my rage shall be enkindled, and I will strike you with the sword, and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless." (Exodus 22:22-24)

Obviously in this passage we also see an example of God's Justice in dealing with those who harm the less fortunate, but the very fact that God reserves a place in His Law for the protection of those less fortunate indicates a merciful God. And it is stated further:

"If thou take of thy neighbor a garment in pledge, thou shalt give it him again before sun-set.
For that same is the only thing, wherewith he is covered, the clothing of his body, neither hath he any other to sleep in: if he cry to me, I will hear him, because I am compassionate." (Exodus 22:26-27)

"Because I am compassionate"! God Himself tells us of His Mercy. Need we second-guess Him?

Exodus 21 - "Eye for Eye"

Exodus 20, in the form of the Ten Commandments, covers "the sum of all the natural law" (Haydock). And the Ten Commandments can be even further summarized by the words of Christ: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind" and "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (Matthew 22:37,39). Now, moving on to Exodus 21, we see God shifting His focus to "laws directing the civil conduct of the Israelites" (from Haydock's notes). What order the Lord uses to instruct us! He moves so gracefully from laws applicable to all men of all times to laws more narrowly directed toward the people of Moses's time.

The long list of civil laws listed in Exodus 21 may seem quite harsh to the modern reader, but like many other things found in the Bible, a contextual analysis is needed to avoid confusion. There is a lot of mention of crimes punishable by death, which, again, may seem harsh. But we must remember that all ancient societies used capital punishment rather freely. What's more interesting actually is in the rather respectable treatment of slaves. I found it interesting that slave-owners were quite restricted in how they could deal with their slaves, especially considering the fact that most ancient societies allowed harsh treatment (even murder) of slaves by their masters. Moses makes it clear that God's Law does not allow such a thing. Instead, even a slave must be treated equal under the Law (Job 31 gives a great example of the virtuous man's mindset of this time concerning equality). The famous saying, "Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot" (Exodus 21:24), may as well seem like a severe way of handling transgression, but viewed in the context of history, it was a practical way to lessen lawlessness -- life was often tumultuous and rife with peril, and the laws therefore had to deal harshly with anarchic tendencies among certain people in an attempt to bring order to society. Thankfully, as we begin to move closer to a fuller understanding of God and His Laws, we are able to move away from such brutally rigid rules. We will never see God's Perfect Order here on earth, but we can get closer to it as we get closer to Him.

Exodus 20:12-26 - Gerizim or Hebal?

The next seven commandments don't quite call for in-depth analysis, as they are forthright and plainly spoken:

"Honour thy father and thy mother, that thou mayst be long-lived upon the land which the Lord thy God will give thee.
Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house; neither shalt thou desire his wife, nor his servant, nor his hand-maid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is his." (Exodus 20:12-17)

Yet, even though these commandments seem clear enough, there has nonetheless arisen confusion over the Ninth and Tenth Commands particularly. Apparently, by the time of Christ most Jews chose to ignore or misinterpret the last two commandments, believing that an evil thought was not sinful until it was put into action. But this seems simply nonsensical. Why would God forbid us to "covet" and "desire," and include these as part of His Law, if the thoughts, in and of themselves, were harmless? And if He has already declared that we are not to "steal" or "commit adultery," why would He tell us we are not to "covet thy neighbor's house" nor "desire his wife," if these latter two commands were essentially the same as the former two? It seems clear to me that Commandment Six and Seven are completely different from Commandment Nine and Ten. Six and Seven are laws against external action, while Nine and Ten are laws against internal thoughts. And Christ Himself even clarifies this for us when He declares, "that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matthew 5:28).

The last thing I'll mention about Exodus 20 is that an interesting disparity was brought to my attention of which I had heretofore been unaware. Apparently, after the Tenth Commandment (verse 17), in some ancient copies of the Bible, including the Samaritan, Arabic, and Syriac versions, there exists five verses which instruct the people to write the Ten Commandments on stone and erect an altar to God on Mount Gerizim. Many Bible scholars, including Benjamin Kennicott, conclude that the Jews possibly could have deleted these verses because of their dislike of the Samaritans and the fact that Mt. Gerizim is a holy site for Samaritans. Though other scholars, such as Antoine Augustin Calmet, believe that it was the Samaritans who doctored the text and inserted Gerizim into Exodus 20. The five "missing" verses in Exodus 20 can actually be found in Deuteronomy 27, where instead of Mount Gerizim, the people are instructed to house the Law and build an altar on Mount Hebal. Kennicott, and others, say that Hebal could have been inserted in place of Gerizim. Obviously, this is something we can probably never truly get to the bottom of (and I am certainly not any sort of authority on
Bible history to be able to cast my opinion in the mix). It's simply an intriguing issue to ponder, and ultimately it doesn't affect the meaning of the Word nor our salvation.

Exodus 20:7-11 - The Day of the Lord

Here we have the Second and Third Commandments. On the Lord's Second Command, I would just like to share a great quote I read by Philo the Jew: "Those who swear often, diminish their credit among the wise." It should be obvious why taking the Lord's name in vain is sinful, but, as Philo states, it doesn't make one look too wise, either.

The Third Command is one to which we modern Christians, for the most part, have turned a blind eye. It is clearly stated to us, "On the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: thou shalt do no work on it..." (Exodus 20:10). Yet, the idea of Sunday (the Christian sabbath) as a rest day is becoming more and more foreign to us. It's only been a generation or two since stores were actually closed on Sundays, and now such a thing is nearly unheard of. We've allowed our "Americanism," that is, our role as consumer, supersede our role as follower of Christ. Writer and professor Michael Foley has said that "man is meant for something far higher than being a mere consumer or producer." And Sunday allows us to see just that. The Catechism states that the Sabbath "is a day of protest against the servitude of work and the worship of money." Even if we ourselves don't perform any servile work on Sunday, how many of us still contribute to the excessive commerce that occurs on the Lord's Day? But for whatever reason we tend to think ignoring this particular Commandment is acceptable. Foley, who has written a great article about the sacredness of Sunday, says that "a proper observance of the Lord's holy day ... is a life-transforming experience that gives new meaning to our existence." Another great commentator on the importance of Sunday is the brilliant philosopher Josef Pieper. Foley, referencing Pieper, notes, "the modern doctrine of 'total work' has left little room for a genuine celebration of Sunday." Pieper's book Leisure: the Basis of Culture is evidently one of the best treatises on the significance of taking a break from the "rat race" (I haven't read it yet, but I have just ordered my copy and I can't wait to dig into it!). We should be viewing our sabbath as a gift from God, a chance to give all our time and thoughts to Him, instead of the world. All week long it's easy to keep so busy that we hardly spend a few minutes contemplating God (some people keep busy specifically to avoid thinking of such things!), but on Sunday we are given an entire day to do nothing but contemplate God. We should be overjoyed at such a gift! And, to wrap it all up, we must stop treating the Sunday obligation as a thing we do if we have the time. It is the Third Commandment. If God felt so nonchalant about His day, He wouldn't have instituted it as a command etched in stone for the duration of mankind's existence on earth! Yet we sure are nonchalant about it.

Exodus 20:1-6 - The First Command

For the first time I'll be breaking up a chapter into verses, out of necessity. I've reached the Ten Commandments, and they require a more thorough analysis. Studying the First Commandment, which is often condensed to "I am the Lord thy God; thou shalt not have strange gods before Me," was enlightening. It has been the source of much confusion over the centuries, but, after reading about it and contemplating it, in the end it appears to be a pretty straightforward, unequivocal commandment. It can be broken down into three steps: 1) Don't reject Me for other gods; 2) Don't create likenesses of these other gods; and 3) Don't worship these likenesses of other gods. Somehow or another, over the centuries, these steps have been muddled and misconstrued so that now some Christians think that the First Commandment forbids creating likenesses of, not strange gods, but the true God! But that is never even hinted at in the First Command! From the outset it is clear that the issue at hand is the people's constant tendency to resort to idolatry, which is the worship of physical things. And if you look at the historical context, idols almost always came in the form of animals, whether it be birds, mammals, or sea creatures. Thus, we have God's direct condemnation in Exodus 20:4: "Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth." It is important to note that this command comes directly after the proclamation, "Thou shalt not have strange gods before me" (Exodus 20:3). That verse sums up the First Commandment, and then God gets more specific, citing the crafting of idols and the worship of them. All of this is directed toward and in reference to strange gods. Therefore, in Exodus 20:5, God specifies, "Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them." What is "them"? The idols (Exodus 20:4). What idols? The idols of strange gods (Exodus 20:3). This may be over-analyzing to a degree, but I feel the need to stress the simplicity of this command. I can't fathom that some Christians stretch this issue so far as to condemn the creation of any likeness or image, whether it be a sculpture or a painting or some other benign representation of a saint, Mary, an angel, or Jesus Himself. Granted, many Christians don't necessarily condemn the simple creation of these things but what they perceive to happen with these things, that is, the worship of them. But if this truly is what some Christians think, then they are plainly misinformed. Further, the Christian who thinks an image of, say, a saint is worshipped, must logically conclude that up until the 16th century, all Christians were idolaters! It's a viewpoint way off the mark, and it has no solid basis in Exodus 20:1-6, which is the direct denouncement of worshipping strange gods. Christian art, whether an ornate painting or a simple statue, is made to remind us of our ultimate duty to God, and I can personally testify that it does a good job of that. Some may say that we shouldn't need reminders to keep us focused, but they are forgetting the fallen nature of man. Look at how frequently, in these early books of the Bible, the people of God fell away and began to worship false gods. Moses gives to us a once-and-for-all condemnation of that practice. And we've since created beautiful and moving works of art to keep us on the right track, lest we fall away yet again. (As an end note, modern Christians may not fear falling into the sin of adoring and serving, say, a golden cow, but we surely should fear falling into the sin of adoring and serving the physical things of this modern world -- materialism is the new idolatry. We revere the television and cars and houses and clothes, etc., the way our ancestors revered the golden calf: we've put these superficial things on a higher pedestal than God Himself.)

Exodus 19

I'm at the point where Moses has been summoned to the top of Mount Sinai. Chapter 19 is very much a scene-setting chapter -- it dramatically paves the way for the famous chapters following which cover the Ten Commandments. I am anxious to reach this upcoming section of Exodus, for I'm sure an in-depth look at the Commands of God will reveal powerful truths. But, all the same, Chapter 19 had some great revelations. For one, it continues to emphasize the role of Moses as mediator. It also begins to clarify the role of the priests in the social order that is quickly forming among the Hebrew tribes. The Lord says that Israel shall be a "priestly kingdom" (Exodus 19:6), and that the "priests also that come to the Lord, let them be sanctified" (Exodus 19:22). It is clear that Moses stands apart from his people as God's chosen intermediary, but next in line are the priests (an ancient model of the Church should at this point be apparent). A hierarchy is forming, being guided by the direct voice of God. And up next will be one of the most specific and focused set of rules ever given to a people -- a revolutionary example of order and law. Up next are the Ten Commandments.

Exodus 17-18

In these verses we are given a powerfully symbolic image: that of Moses, hands outstretched (prefiguring the image of a cross), intermediating on behalf of his people to God above. Moses's gesture, hands apart and raised, therefore is extremely ancient, and still used today to express our reverence and adoration of God, to pray, to worship Him.

I found it quite interesting in Exodus 18 how Jethro basically laid out a complete political structure for the people of Israel. Again, we see a progressive, slow-and-steady shift from a tribal, nomadic people to a hierarchical, law-abiding (of course not always), ordered people. And this gradual shift is taking place just as the people's understanding of God is likewise progressing. Jethro lays out a political, social structure that we still see today: the national-regional-local system of control. He therefore makes it possible for Moses to concentrate on more pressing issues, to focus on the laws of God and administering them to the people; while lesser disputes and concerns can be handled by the appropriate magistrate. It's a system that may seem so simple and obvious to us, but someone had to think of it for the first time. From here on out the social structure of the people of Israel will be much more complex; and yet the revelations from God will likewise begin to grow in complexity. The age of the Prophets is not too far off.

Exodus 16 - Manna and the Bread of Life

"This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat." (Exodus 16:15)

"Our fathers did eat manna in the desert, as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen, I say unto you: Moses gave you not bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is that which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life to the world.
Then they said to him: Lord, give us always this bread.
And Jesus said to them: I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me, shall not hunger." (John 6:31-35)

And so we have, in Exodus 16, an overt precedent for the establishment of the Eucharist, the Lord's Supper, the Body of Christ as the Bread of Life. As the Lord fed and sustained the children of Israel during their sojourn through the desert with manna, so He has done the same for us -- only the desert now is life, and He knows we need something to sustain us spiritually as we sojourn through this desert, which has hardships at every turn. And so He has given us Himself! "I am the bread of life" (John 6:35). The Body of Christ is our manna.

Previously I had written about the fact that God has gradually revealed Himself to His people. He has also gradually given them a more precise code of conduct. Not only do we begin to see the establishment of rules and guidelines, feasts and memorials, but we now have this idea of needing constant nourishment from God Himself. The rules help to keep us reminded of God's presence, but this nourishment (symbolically represented by manna) keeps us connected to God. The manna kept the Hebrews focused on their goals of reaching the promised land of Chanaan. Being continuously nourished by the Body of Christ keeps us focused on reaching the Promised Land of heaven.

Exodus 13-15: Ancient Poetry

After the breathtaking events captured in Exodus 14 (it's obviously the parting of the Red Sea I speak of), we are suddenly met with a burst of song: The Canticle of Moses. After experiencing the total awe-inspiring power of God, the children of Israel are compelled (rightly so) to triumphantly sing God's praises. The whole Canticle is so full of glorious praise, it's hard not to feel the unbridled jubilation of the Hebrew people while reading it.

According to Origen the Canticle of Moses is the most ancient piece of poetry! And what is so fascinating is that this song, this vibrant poem, is still today triumphantly sung! Churchmen the world over (monks, priests, bishops, missionaries, etc.) sing the Canticle of Moses (among other Old Testament canticles) weekly during Lauds.

Here is a sampling:

"Who is like to thee, among the strong, O Lord? who is like to thee, glorious in holiness, terrible and praise-worthy, doing wonders?
Thou stretchedst forth thy hand, and the earth swallowed them.
In thy mercy thou hast been a leader to the people which thou hast redeemed: and in thy strength thou hast carried them to thy holy habitation." (Exodus 15:11-13)

Exodus 7-12: Agnus Dei

As fascinating as it was reading about each of the ten plagues that God unleashed on Egypt, it was Exodus 12 and the explanation of the Paschal Lamb that really caught me. The paschal lamb as a symbol for Christ is obviously as old as the hills, but digging deeper into this sacred symbolism reveals an amazing depth to the comparison. In Scripture, the Jews are so instructed: "On the tenth day of this month let every man take a lamb by their families and houses" (Exodus 12:3). "And you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; and the whole multitude of the children of Israel shall sacrifice it in the evening" (Exodus 12:6). The "month" spoken of in Scripture is the Hebrew month of Nisan, which coincides with our March-April period. And as my commentary states, "[Christ] came to Jerusalem on the 10th day of Nisan, on Sunday. He gave himself to his disciples on the evening of the 14th." The comparison continues when the Hebrew people are instructed to take the blood of the sacrificed lamb "and put it upon both the side-posts, and on the upper door-posts of the houses, wherein they shall eat it" (Exodus 12:7). The blood of the lamb shall be their salvation, as the Blood of Christ is ours. So much more could be said about this fascinating association of the paschal lamb and Jesus Christ, but I just wanted to at least make mention of it here.

Exodus 6 - Mysteries of the Name

"And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: I am the Lord
That appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, by the name of God Almighty: and my name ADONAI I did not show them." (Exodus 6:2-3)

Instead of posting my musings as usual, I'm going to quote verbatim my commentary on Exodus 6:3, the famous verse in which God reveals His name to Moses. In a previous entry on Genesis 32, I had commented on the fact that God apparently had withheld His name from the ancient Patriarchs, and that He seemingly reveals Himself only gradually. Still, His actual "name" (I'm sure the term name is quite limiting in that we're dealing with the Supreme Being here, Who doesn't need a "name" in the sense that you and I do) is forever lost to us due to reasons revealed in the following passage from my Biblical commentary:

"The name which is in the Hebrew text, is that most proper name of God, which signifies his eternal self-existing being, which the Jews, out of reverence, never pronounce; but instead of it, whenever it occurs in the Bible, they read Adonai, which signifies the Lord: and therefore they put the points or vowels, which belong to the name Adonai, to the four letters of that other ineffable name Jod, He, Vau, He. Hence some moderns have framed the name Jehovah: unknown to all the ancients, whether Jews or Christians: for the true pronunciation of the name, which is in the Hebrew text, by long disuse, is now quite lost. This name was first clearly revealed to Moses, that he might have confidence in his special protection and love. To know one by his name, is to treat him with familiarity and distinction. The pronunciation of the name of God might be known to Abraham, etc. but it was not so fully explained, nor the power and excellence of it declared in such a stupendous manner, as it was to Moses. Or perhaps Moses made use of this name in the history of the patriarchs, because he wrote his account of them after this revelation. The Septuagint always put Kurios, "the Lord," instead of the ineffable name; and our Savior and his apostles , citing texts where it occurs, follow their example. Philo informs us, that it was death to pronounce it out of the temple; and since that was destroyed, it has never been heard. Galatinus, who wrote in 1518, is supposed to have invented the word Jehovah, the year after the pretended reformation began. St. Jerome explains the ten names of God, but never reads Jehovah."

Obviously this doesn't even begin to answer all the questions. But I think it adds to the discussion, and hopefully creates questions worth pursuing.

Exodus 3-5

"And you shall lay upon them the task of bricks, which they did before; neither shall you diminish any thing thereof, for they are idle, and therefore they cry, saying: Let us go and sacrifice to our God.
Let them be oppressed with works, and let them fulfil them; that they may not regard lying words." (Exodus 5:8-9)

Thus speaketh the Pharaoh after learning that the Hebrews want to be set free. In these chapters of Exodus (3-5) the central event is obviously God speaking to Moses via the burning bush. But I just want to quickly focus on a parallel I noticed between our society today and the Pharaoh's words above. For when Moses (through Aaron) requests that the Hebrew people be released so that they may properly sacrifice to their God, the Pharaoh decides that the Hebrews obviously are too idle, that they don't have enough work to do, since they're sitting around thinking of crazy things like leaving Egypt so they may sacrifice to their God. In a much more conniving way, our culture today doesn't take kindly to idle-ness. We are a culture of work work work. And surprisingly enough, by working ourselves to death we've left little to no time for properly sacrificing to God. In fact, we work so much we've left no time to even think about Godly matters: the meaning of things, the broad questions, the ponderings of life. There's a reason the Church prescribes holy days: we need time to dwell on spiritual things. Holy days are a chance to put aside everyday work and focus on God. But today even secular "holy days" (i.e., vacations) are limited to practically nothing (Americans take the fewest amount of vacation days compared to every other country in the world; in one study, Americans took on average 13 days of vacation per year, compared to 42 taken by Italians!). The point? If we are only ever working, when do we have a chance to think? And if we're never thinking, how are we contemplating God? The Pharaoh knew exactly what he was doing -- shut them up by making them work more! Well, I'd say today we are effectively shut up, for I don't see anyone complaining that we don't have enough time to give to God.

Exodus 1-2

And so begins the saga of Moses. Right away, learning of the meaning behind Moses's name was enlightening for me. I never knew that it literally signifies "saved out of the water." Quite interesting; and quite symbolic of the institution of baptism.

It's kind of crazy that Moses kills an Egyptian, but I suppose (as many commentators say) that God allowed that act to occur to show that Moses was to be the one to save his people from their afflictions at the hand of the Egyptians, because no one else was stepping up: "And when he had looked about this way and that way, and saw no one there, he slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand" (Exodus 2:12). He looked about for help as the Hebrew slave was being beaten by the Egyptian (as all the Hebrews were being oppressed by the Egyptians), and when he saw no one he realized that he needed to take it upon himself to help this man (as he helps all the Hebrews by delivering them). We also must remember that this killing of the Egyptian was done earlier in Moses's life, and therefore he had yet to hear God's voice instructing him to deliver the Hebrews.

Concluding Thoughts On Genesis

Genesis is completed! It took a while, but I'm glad I spent so much time with it, for even though it is my third or fourth reading of Genesis, it's been by far the most illuminating. I discovered so much more in this Book than I ever knew was there. I dwelt much more on the later chapters, whereas before I tended to focus on the early chapters and skim through everything else. Adam and Eve still captured my attention, but Jacob and Joseph enthralled me like never before.

I came to understand something more about Genesis -- its place amongst the other Books of the Bible. Obviously it is most famous for its Creation account, but it goes so far beyond that. It lays the foundation. It is where the "desire of the everlasting hills" is first revealed to us! "Genesis, from the end of the third chapter to its close, is but the history of [the] immortal Hope, and the other books of the Pentateuch do but describe the national institutions, political and religious, by and through which this Hope was to be preserved undimmed among the universal darkness of Heathendom, till the Star of Bethlehem warned Israel that the Light of the World was come."*

The people we meet in Genesis, with all their failings and worries, their weaknesses and mutinies, might otherwise give in to despair had they not been given a Hope. For imagine a world in which Adam falls and no Hope is given afterwards! Such a world would be one of constant gloom and unhappiness. But God in His Eternal Mercy gives the world a glorious Hope in the figure of His Son. And this Hope guides the chapters of Genesis. All eyes point toward the Promised Light. Many men lose sight of this ultimate Hope (as today they still do), but we have holy men to thank (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob) for keeping that Hope alive.

And now I embark on the rest of the Pentateuch, which sometimes reads like a rulebook. Though I now understand better why so many rules needed to be established. For, doubtless, men feared that future generations may lose sight of the Hope Who was revealed to the people written of in the Book of Genesis. Men, most notably Moses, realized that our fallen nature makes it too easy to drift away from the Truth, and therefore we need guidance and direction in the form of Rules to ensure we stay the course. But first, there are the extraordinary events captured in the Book of Exodus, which I turn to next.


*Bernard O'Reilly

Genesis 49 - "The Desire of the Everlasting Hills"

I have a feeling this could get a bit lengthy. :)

It's almost as if the entire Book of Genesis is building to a great crescendo, and in Chapter 49 it all culminates in a climactic explosion of revelation and prophecy. I speak of Jacob's blessings of his twelve sons. So much is revealed in this chapter. It almost takes several readings to truly grasp it all. And of all the prophecies told throughout Genesis, this one is by far the most revealing. We are given not only a more unambiguous announcement of the coming of the Messiah, but we are even told when, and under what circumstances, He will come! I was in a state of amazement while reading Jacob's prophecies, for it is so clearly Jesus Christ he speaks of.

I will begin with a brief statement on Ruben, Jacob's eldest. I found the treatment of Ruben saddening (though Jacob's reasons obviously were valid). Ruben virtually is denied a blessing at all from his father, and he is essentially told that he is a great disappointment and left to go his way. Ruben's progeny will be slight and unassuming.

Simeon and Levi are addressed next, and what Jacob has to say only hints at the great revelations to come. Jacob is clearly angry at these two sons "because in their fury they slew a man" (Genesis 49:6). Now what is interesting is that Simeon and Levi will be the forebears of the Jewish scribes and priests, and it was via the councils of those high and mighty scribes and priests that Jesus Christ was condemned to death.

And next we have Juda. Here Jacob gives his lengthiest blessing, for it is through Juda's line that famously great things will happen. Jacob begins by revealing the prosperity that Juda's posterity will enjoy, that they will be great kings (e.g., David and Solomon). Essentially, it is said that Juda's line will rule over the lines of all the other sons, and this does in fact happen. But then, interestingly, Jacob says that "the sceptre shall not be taken away from Juda, nor a ruler from his thigh, till he come that is to be sent, and he shall be the expectation of nations" (Genesis 49:10). This verse ought to make anyone stop in his tracks! Suddenly Jacob is speaking of a person who is to be sent? and this person is the "expectation of nations"? These are loaded statements. But what is most revealing (and what should be most troubling to Jews) is that Juda's sceptre has been taken away! The tribe of Juda has long since lost power in the Land of Israel, and the losing of that power can be traced back precisely to the time of Christ, just as the prophecy revealed. In fact, it was Jacob's prophecy (among others, of course) that led people living in the years just before Christ's coming to be expecting His appearance! This is verified not only by St. John, but by the gentile historians Suetonius and Tacitus. I find this all quite fascinating, and I would be curious to know how Judaism reconciles Jacob's prophecy.

Verses eleven and twelve must be quoted in full:
"Tying his foal to the vineyard, and his ass, O my son, to the vine. He shall wash his robe in wine, and his garment in the blood of the grape.
His eyes are more beautiful than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk."

Through His Body and through His Blood, the Jew and the Gentile shall be united. To whom else but Christ could these verses allude?

After running through more blessings, Jacob comes to Joseph, his most special son. Though not given as lengthy a blessing as Juda, Joseph's blessing does go on for several verses. And once more does Jacob allude to a Figure Who is to come. And this time he utters a poetic phrase that has become renowned through the ages: "The desire of the everlasting hills" (Genesis 49:26). I've heard this epithet for Christ before, but I've never really pondered it in its context. It's such a beautiful expression. What I hadn't known is that the prophets and patriarchs of the Old Testament were known, in a spiritual sense, as the everlasting hills. This of course gives the epithet a whole new, and more important, meaning.

All of Genesis 49 reads like a poem. Each son is given a powerful message, beautifully uttered by the dying Jacob. For the sake of brevity I focused mainly on the blessings of Juda and Joseph, but there can be a treasure trove of truths found in almost every verse of this profound chapter. For example, even young Benjamin's brief blessing can be seen as a prefiguring of the apostle Paul, who belonged to the tribe of Benjamin.

But I better stop there. :)

Genesis 48 - The Younger Shall Prevail

In Genesis 48 we see yet another example of a younger sibling being favored over the older. I don't mean to harp on this theme, but I can't help but find it significant. It would be one thing if such an event happened only once in Scripture and later scholars tried to make more out of it than they should. But in Genesis alone this favoring of the younger one seems to happen over and over and over. It happened with Abel, with Isaac, with Jacob, and with Rachel. And now in Genesis 48 we see Ephraim, the younger, earning Jacob's favor over Manasses, the older. Something is trying to be said. A message is being symbolically conveyed. It seems to me more than a coincidence that the later Church of Christ can be likened to a younger sibling of the more ancient Jewish faith. Obviously the Jews of the time before Christ could not have seen it this way, but Someone Who can see All Time would be more than able to plant the seed of an idea, to foreshadow the significant events ahead, ages before mankind could understand those ideas more fully. We can now see that God was foretelling the blessing He would bestow on His Son's Church, as opposed to the older synagogue. I also don't think it a light matter that Jacob emblematically forms a cross with his arms as he blesses Ephraim and Manasses.

Genesis 46-47

Well, it's been quite a while since my last entry. June was such an eventful month that I never had a free moment to post anything. I'm slowly creeping towards the close of Genesis; and I'm hoping to pick up the pace now that things are starting to settle down.

Just one quick observation after reading Genesis 47: as the people of Egypt are selling their possessions, and ultimately their freedom, to the king in exchange for protection against the famine, I couldn't help but have in mind our current American economic situation. In Genesis 47 we see that the people's loss of liberty is a gradual process. First they must exchange their sheep, ox, cattle, etc. for food. Then they must sell their land. And ultimately they must sell themselves in order to eat and feed their families. This process took years, and some may say they had no choice. I see today the gradual selling off of our liberties to our increasingly powerful government as a striking reenactment of what happened in Egypt thousands of years ago. Jacob's progeny became slaves of the state, eventually prompting them to flee the region altogether. As we, today, become slaves of the American state, what exactly will our Exodus be like?

Genesis 45

Wow. The foreshadowing comes on thick in this chapter. There have already been subtle clues that Joseph prefigures Christ, but it was all laid out when he reveals himself to his brothers. Seeing their shock and grief, he tells them, "Be not afraid, and let it not seem to you a hard case that you sold me into these countries: for God sent me before you into Egypt for your preservation" (Genesis 45:5). Could not this exact statement be applied to what Christ did for us?! We may be inclined to lament and torment ourselves over the scourging and crucifixion of Christ caused by our sins, but Jesus Himself would say to us, "let it not seem to you a hard case... for God sent me before you... for your preservation." And Joseph says further, "God sent me before, that you may be preserved upon the earth, and may have food to live" (Genesis 45:7). Is not Christ Himself food for us to live?! According to Him, He is! These connections and portents never fail to astound me -- they don't pop up haphazardly here and there, they maintain a continuous presence throughout the narrative of the Old Testament until they are fully realized in the New. In Joseph's account, he was sent by God to preserve his people from the earthly famine then plaguing the land; and on a much larger scale, Jesus was sent by God to preserve all of humankind from the even greater plague of a spiritual famine then and even now sweeping the land.

Genesis 44 - The Expiation of Juda

I had written previously about how, especially in Genesis 38, Juda comes off as a sinful, wayward figure. Well, he has quite redeemed himself now in Genesis 44. After Joseph's contrivance to bring his brothers back to Egypt and specifically to keep Benjamin there with him, Juda delivers an impassioned plea to allow Benjamin to return to Jacob in Canaan. I found his speech powerful and full of remorse. It is yet another example that the way to approach God is through humility. Juda openly admits that he has sinned in the past, yet pleads for mercy from Joseph:

"What shall we answer my lord? or what shall we say, or be able justly to allege? God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants: behold, we are all bondmen to our lord, both we, and he with whom the cup was found." (Genesis 44:16)

Nowadays, the general attitude is "what did I do to deserve this?!" or "why is God punishing me?!" When we ought to be saying "I completely deserve this and more" and "God has every right to punish me." Juda understood this, and for it he was rewarded.

Genesis 40-43

Time to get back on track. I left off in the middle of the Joseph story. Genesis is drawing to a close and I'm very anxious for Exodus.

As I stated when I began reading about Joseph's travails, this section of Genesis is set apart by its appeal to the emotions, its very human element. There are of course some moving, emotional moments in Genesis prior to Joseph entering the scene, but its usually more subtle. We are taken along on Joseph's long sufferings, his rises and falls. He is persecuted for his gift, ridiculed by his brothers, victimized by devious people, elevated to lordship, but also thrown in the dungeon. He evokes raw pathos from the reader. When Joseph first encounters his brothers after more than twenty years of estrangement, they don't recognize him, though he does them, and in the middle of speaking with them "he turned himself away a little while, and wept: and returning, he spoke to them" (Genesis 42:24). One can feel how the plethora of emotions must have been churning in Joseph's stomach as he faced the brethren he loved and who betrayed him. Again, later when his brothers bring Benjamin to Joseph, he sees his youngest, dearest brother and must flee the room "because his heart was moved upon his brother, and tears gushed out: and going into his chamber, he wept" (Genesis 43:30).

For these reasons, many Biblical scholars readily note that the story of Joseph marks a shift in the narrative of Genesis. The story of Exodus has already begun.

An Intermission: What's Going On in Genesis 6?!

I'd like to take a brief break from Joseph and backtrack to Genesis 6. I came across a strange observation recently concerning a couple of seemingly perplexing verses. Here they are:

"The sons of God seeing the daughters of men, that they were fair, took to themselves wives of all which they chose." (Genesis 6:2)

"Now giants were upon the earth in those days. For after the sons of God went in to the daughters of men, and they brought forth children, these are the mighty men of old, men of renown." (Genesis 6:4)

The interpretation I read recently (which is an age-old interpretation apparently) is that the "sons of God" were not men of the earth, but were creatures of a supernatural nature, possibly angels. And these angels came down to earth to mate with the human "daughters of men." And that they produced a frightening hybrid offspring called the Nephilim. Many Bibles translate Nephilim to the slightly more generic "giants." Well, I found this interpretation to be pretty over the top. It seems to be an example of hyper-literalism. It does have some textual basis, since apparently some copies of the Septuagint use words indicating not "sons of God" but "angels of God," leading some people to believe that actual angels descended to earth to mate with women (and most interpreters say these were actually fallen angels). The problem is that these interpretations seem to be derived from the pagan myths in which gods commonly mate with mortals to create hybrid beings. It is not Biblical in any sense. For starters, angels don't possess the bodily means to take it upon themselves to accomplish such an act. Angels don't have bodies the way men do. And furthermore, the giants, or Nephilim, alluded to aren't necessarily monsters or other such chimerical creatures like some interpreters assume. The Nephilim seem to have grown in legend as time has gone on, so that they are now thought of as quite fearsome, mythical beings.

What most level-headed interpretors believe is that the "sons of God" were the descendants of the pious Seth, while the "daughters of men" were the descendants of the impious Cain. Seth's heirs, originally at least, were close to God and lived in accordance with Him, while Cain's heirs, being exiled, were worldly and prone to evil ways. Eventually the heirs of Seth lost their ways and began to marry whomever they liked, which led to mingling with the heirs of Cain and producing an offspring that was now prone to paganism. The "giants" alluded to do not necessarily imply hulking ogres twenty feet tall. It could simply be a references to a race of men maybe a foot or two taller than the average human at the time. These things, of course, cannot be known completely. But what's most important is to take the passage in its proper context. The purpose of Genesis 6 is to set up the scene for the Flood, which is coming in the very next chapter. Therefore it was important to state how far mankind had strayed from God. The antediluvian period was filled with men who did whatever they pleased. Evil men roamed the earth. Almost no one lived in any sort of pious, obedient manner. The situation was so dire that something as catastrophic as the Flood was needed. And therefore we have the "strange" language of Genesis 6: "sons of God," "daughters of men," "giants," "Nephilim." It was a crazy world before the Flood.