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.