“Why?” you ask.  Well…

My purpose for this blog was to sort of hold myself accountable for daily bible study.  To that end, the blog was pretty distracting.  Instead of focusing on the word — I was always trying to come up with something witty or profound.  On the one hand, this helped me in the “application” phase of the bible study.  On the other hand, I had trouble getting past the fact that people are watching.

The secondary purpose was to show myself un-coward-like when posting comments on other people’s blogs.  It’s aweful comfortable to make (possibly critical) comments at other peoples thoughts — but not provide any thoughts of your own for criticism.

Thanks for reading, thanks for participating!

If anyone has read down this far — thanks.    In case you’re interested, I’ll be keeping the “Rock Log” on Blogger.  I kind of like WordPress a little better — but, oh well.

You know (I’m rambling now), another reason for killing the blog:  Part of me (the bad part of me) wants to get an ego boost out of this.  Sort of like a social suicide, “Will they miss me?  Will they care that I’m gone?  Did they really care what I thought?”  These sort of thoughts are evil — but I’m mega-prone to them (especially when I’m down).  My ego wants to hear people say, “Oh, Gabriel, please don’t stop the bible blog.  You’re so awesome!”  I’ve even been debating about whether or not to disable comments on this post:  allow them (“please, please feed me ego!”) or disallow them (“so long, cruel world!”).  Aaaarrgh!  How do you rid yourself of this sort of self-centered-ness?  Jesus has delivered me from a lot, but he seems to tarry on this one.  *sigh*

Moreover, he made the laver of bronze with its base of bronze, from the mirrors of the serving women who served at the doorway of the tent of meeting.
— Exodus 38:8

I love little passages like this.  There’s not many times that givers are recognized on this project (the tabernacle / tent of meeting).  If you read too fast, you’ll miss this one.  The fact that this gift is singled out means that there is something special about the gift.

Perhaps they were giving sacrificially.  Giving what they had — something dear to them — to glorify God.  Perhaps they did it as an example.  “It was customary for the Egyptian women to carry mirrors with them to the temples.”[1]  Perhaps these ladies set out to break off this tradition (rooted in idolatry) as an example to the other women to do the same.  (We see a lot of this in Exodus.)

Whatever makes this gift special, I always think it’s cool to find stuff like this in the scriptures.  Little memorials of real people, in real situations, really giving of themselves to God.

[1] — Jamieson, Fausset & Brown commentary on Ex 38:8

Moses spoke toa ll the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying, “This is the thing which the LORD has commanded, saying, ‘Take from among you a contribution to the LORD; whoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it as the LORDS’s contribution: gold, silver, and bronze, and blue, purple, and scarlet matriel, fine linen, goats’ hair…. etc”
— Exodus 35:4-6

God didn’t guilt them. He didn’t force them. He said, “If you’re willing, please give.” Mind you, the tithe is not optional for Israel. But this contribution is optional. God says, “I would like to build a tabernacle… would you please donate materials to make it happen… but only if you’re willing. If you’re not, that’s OK.”

A friend once said to me, “The only right motivation for giving is gratitude.” Being thankful to God, and giving to him out of that. You don’t necessarily need to feel thankful. Sometimes we make the choice, “God, I’m not feeling really thankful right now. You know why. But regardless of how I feel, I know that there’s much to be thankful to you for… so here… here’s my tithe. Thanks.”

The David Crowder Band recently put out a limited edition release of their album Remedy. (It has some bonus songs and a bonus DVD.) When Crowder announced it on his blog, not all the fans were excited about this (especially the ones who already had the album). In his defense, he put it like this:

ok, if say, jimmy buffet (universal crowd pleaser example)
released a limited edition of “fruitcakes” i would not buy it. i own most of
jimmy buffet’s cds. they are pleasant to listen to while sitting in sunshine. they
also make you think of sunshine when it is cloudy and you are in a bad mood. i
like his “jimmy buffet” album best. i would say i mildly like jimmy buffet.

if say, “the frames” (band from dublin whose lead singer is
one academy award winner glen hansard) released a limited edition of “the cost”
(“the frames” latest album) and all they added was a sticker of a beaver on the
front i would buy it. if they released different versions of the cover with
different stickers, with like say a duck, a rabbit, an ox and some type of
amphibian, not a salamander, i would totally buy each of the covers so i would
have all of the animals. i would say i really like the frames.

….but this is what i do. when i am deeply moved by an artist i
want to participate fully in all that they are attempting to produce and
distribute. i have been touched and i wish to touch back and this is the means
i have been given to lessen the distance between us.

….now, here’s the punch line: i’m ok with being your “jimmy
buffet”, but i really want to be your “frames”.[1]

God wants to be your “frames.”

[1] – http://weblog.xanga.com/emprise34/654466346/official-band-news-wfavorite-comment-and-other-consequential-nonsense.html

You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk
— Exodus 34:26b

Many of you know that Jews do not mix meat and dairy. It’s because of this one verse. They are so zealous to keep all the commandments, even this one, that they try to make sure that the two don’t even mix in their stomachs. (I believe the rule is that you have to separate eating meat or dairy by 3 to 6 hours.) I’m not going to down this… but I think it’s interesting.

What it speaks to me is about treating animals with consideration and kindness. What if the mother knew that you boiled her first-born baby in her own milk? I remember once hearing of someone who murdered a couple of children. After killing them, he sat down and at their Happy Meals. Somehow, the coldbloodedness of that just makes it worse. …and I think that’s the kind of thing that this verse talks about.

I saw a documentary on feedlots. Cattle belong in fields and pastures, but feedlots take them to a pen, with waaaay too many other cows, and keeps them there from birth until the slaughterhouse. Food is trucked in. The whole thing is just sick. What’s worse is that the cattle are fed corn… which isn’t well suited to their stomachs and makes them prone to disease.

This practice is economically feasible because (a) antibiotics have been able to keep down the disease and (b) energy costs have been low. It’s been cheaper to bring the food to the cows rather than take the cows to the food (pasture). When one (or both) of those changes, feedlots will start to disappear.

So… that’s one thing to be thankful for with rising gas prices.

[Edit] My buddy Steve left a comment with an awesome link to The Meatrix Check it out! – gabe 5/22/08

Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship. He said, “If now I have found favor in Your sight, O Lord, I pray, let the Lord go along in our midst, even though the people are so obstinate, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your own possession.”
— Exodus 34:8-9

Man… Moses isn’t giving this up! God even said, “Yes” (last time), and Moses is still pleading the case to God. He’s not giving it up. Even when God said “Yes,” Moses more or less replies, “Well, you better mean it!“

God’s replies sort of puzzles me:

Then God said, “Behold, I am going to make a covenant. Before all your people I will perform miracles which have not been produced in all the earth nor among any of the nations; and all the people among whom you live will see the working of the LORD, for it is a fearful thing that I am going to perform with you. Be sure to observe what I am commanding you this day: behold, I am going to drive out the Amorites…. etc. etc. etc.”
— Exodus 34:10-11…

So….. yes??

That’s a “yes,” right?

I hate these non sequitur responses. Jesus does them all the time, God does them even more in the OT. It’s like we missed part of the context. (Why? Because when God gets done, Moses doesn’t say, “Huh?”) When we dig in we often find great jewels of insight into God. But when we start out, we’re like the song “God Shuffled His Feet” by Crash Test Dummies. Here’s the lyrics:

After seven days
He was quite tired so God said:
“Let there be a day
Just for picnics, with wine and bread”
He gathered up some people he had made
Created blankets and laid back in the shade

The people sipped their wine
And what with God there, they asked him questions
Like: do you have to eat
Or get your hair cut in heaven?
And if your eye got poked out in this life
Would it be waiting up in heaven with your wife?

God shuffled his feet and glanced around at them;
The people cleared their throats and stared right back at him

So he said:”Once there was a boy
Who woke up with blue hair
To him it was a joy
Until he ran out into the warm air
He thought of how his friends would come to see;
And would they laugh, or had he got some strange disease?

God shuffled his feet and glanced around at them;
The people cleared their throats and stared right back at him

The people sat waiting
Out on their blankets in the garden
But God said nothing
So someone asked him: “I beg your pardon:
I’m not quite clear about what you just spoke
Was that a parable, or a very subtle joke?”

God shuffled his feet and glanced around at them;
The people cleared their throats and stared right back at him

I honestly don’t Get God’s answer (to Moses — not the song) … I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Then Moses said to the LORD, “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people!’ But You Yourself have not let me know whom You will send with me. Moreover, You have said, ‘I have known you by name, and you have also found favor in My sight. Now therefore, I pray You, if I have found favor in Your sight, let me know Your ways that I may know You, so that I may find favor in Your sight. Consider too, that this nation is Your people.

And He said, “My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.”

Then he said to Him, “If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here.”
— Exodus 33:12-16

In a previous post, we see that the people are disheartened because God has just given them a “no confidence” vote. Here, not long after that, Moses goes in to talk with God… and Moses isn’t very happy with God at the moment. The meaning of what Moses is saying is stronger than the words he’s using. He’s either falling all over himself to show respect to God (which is not a bad thing), or his words have been sanitized a little bit for the Holy Scriptures. Moses isn’t happy because God called him to deliver the people… and it’s been a lot of heartache for Moses. The people are like children, constantly whining. And on top of that, Moses is typically having to deliver the people from God. This isn’t the job that he signed on for.

So, Moses is bringing his complaint to God: “Are You with me, or not? You said that you were in this! Things are not going well, and it’s stressing me out. Are You going to do this thing, or not? Are You with me? Are You going to show me where to go and how to do it? Is it going to be like this forever?”

God says, “Yes. I’m with you. I’ll stay with you. It won’t always be like this.”

To which Moses responds, “You better mean it. Because if you don’t, I don’t want any part of it.”

I identify with this exchange. There was a time that I thought, “If I’m with God (or God is with me)… then everything should go smoothly and I’ll always walk in success.” Moving forward, even though I was faithful, things went badly very quickly. I was more than a little ticked at God. And most of the time, I really want to know just one thing: God, are You with me or not? Was it you that I heard, or have I fooled myself? I don’t want to go on unless I know that this is really your thing.

However the exchange goes, you won’t get your answer unless you are regularly going into the Holy Place to worship God.

Now concerning the things about which you wrote, it is good for a man not to touch a woman…. I wish that all men were even as I myself am However, each man has his own gift from God, one in this manner, and another in that…. I want you to be free from concern. One who is unmarried is concerned about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord; but one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife, and his interests are divided. The woman who is unmarried, and the virgin, is concerned about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit; but one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how she may please her husband. This I say for your own benefit; not to put a restraint upon you, but to promote what is appropriate and to secure undistracted devotion to the Lord.
— I Corinthians 7:1, 7, 32-35

When I was young, in love, and considering marriage I was convinced that Paul had really missed the boat on this one. And it’s popular to bash Paul for it. People also are very quick to point out that in 7:40 he declares that this is his opinion, not commandments from the LORD. And we all know that his opinion was wrong.

Before passing judgment, let’s look at what Jesus said (which is actually similar):

He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”

The disciples said to Him, “If the relationship of the man with his wife is like this, it is better not to marry.”

But He said to them, “Not all men can accept this statement, but only those to whom it has been given. For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother’s womb; and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and there are also eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to accept this, let him accept it.”

As a 19-year-old “man,” I couldn’t accept this statement. Why not? Burnin’ love. (That’s all I’m sayin’.) What Jesus and Paul say that if a man can “do without,” then he’s free to focus fully on the works that God has laid out before him. Have you read the book of Acts? Paul travelled, was beaten, imprisoned, hated, etc. And he always went back for more. Have you read the gospels of Jesus? How he, too, was beaten, imprisoned, hated, etc. How would these stories be different if there was a wife and kids at home to support? Peter did get married. How is his story different?

Paul and the disciples describe celibacy as “better.” Jesus says, “Yes, it’s better… but don’t get all dogmatic and judgmental about it. The ability to shun marriage and follow God single-mindedly is actually a gift from God.” (Now, marriage is a gift, too… it’s just a different gift.) Paul, too, points out that it’s a gift (even a different gift).

Now Paul makes it sound dirty: “But… if you can’t control your urge to merge… then you might as well go ahead and get it over with.” (Paraphrase of I Cor. 7:9) Yeah, he’s being negative, but don’t totally dismiss this.

Scientists say that man’s “sexual peak” is at the age of 17. For women, it’s 36. This is the time in their life when they have the most desire (and best performance). I honestly think that God designed man’s sexual peak early so that he would get married. Otherwise, a man has a hard time realizing that he needs the woman (not just sexually… but he really needs her). The desire is just how God stacks the deck to get you to marry… because he wants you to marry. (Just not all of you.)

Let the flame wars begin!

Then the LORD spoke to Moses, “Depart, go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up from the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your descendants I will give it.’ I will send an angel before you and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, because you are an obstinate people, and I might destroy you on the way.”

When the people heard this sad word, they went into mourning, and none of them put on his ornaments.
— Exodus 33:1-4

God gives Israel a no-confidence vote. He even distances himself from the works of the exodus, saying to Moses, “the people whom you have brought up from the land of Egypt.” Usually God doesn’t give up any of the credit for his mighty deeds. It kind of reminds me of what God said before the great flood (Genesis 6:5-8). This is a revelation of a very human God, whose heart is broken because the people just won’t get it. A God is so passionate about a vision for the future (and how he even wants to bless us), that He gets downright angry that we don’t feel the same and can’t see beyond our noses.

But again we see “My angel” as an intermediary. Possibly the same angel as The Angel of the Lord… possibly another way that Christ’s grace protects us from God’s passion.  We also see God’s faithfulness.  In some measure, it’s like He’s given up hope.  But in another way, he maintains His faithfulness to the things that He promised.  He does not waver, and He’ll do what he has to do to make it happen.

The people put away their ornaments.  Partly because God told them to as a sign of solidarity (in the following verses).  But what do you do when you realize that you are being very disappointing to God?  Usually, we’ve tried very hard to see it His way… and we just plain failed.  Try as we may, we just don’t get it. So, for lack of anything else we can think of, we put away distractions and spend a time in humility trying to seek God and please him.

In Israel’s case:  it didn’t work.  Sure, they put away their ornaments for a spell.  But when they came to the promised land (in Numbers), they balked.  God got mad again.  Later on said of them, “They are always going astray in their hearts.”

So… what do you do when you want to get it, but you just can’t seem to get it??

It came about when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses’ hand as he was coming down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him [God]. So when Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone and they were afraid to come near him…. When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. But whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with Him, he would take off the veil until he came out; and whenever he came out and spoke to the sons of Israel what he had been commaned, the sons of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone. So Moses would replace the veil over his face until he went in to speak with Him.
— Exodus 34:29-30,33-35

Have you ever walked up on lovers while they’re caressing each other? (Don’t let your mind wander too far, boys…. focus… focus… stay on task…) It’s kind of cool to see, but it’s also uncomfortable to see. That’s why it’s called “making a scene.” That’s why people call out, “Get a room, you two!” Well, this is actually a form of worship (although you’re not worshiping God). To those involved, it’s comfortable, exciting, and life-giving. To outsiders, it’s obscene.

Worshiping God is like this, too. It’s obscene if you’re really worshipping him. It’s offensive. Raising hands. Crying out. Dancing. Yuck. But if you’re the one doing it (where in your head it’s just you and God), then it’s really cool. We see this in the story of Moses in both a literal and a symbolic way. Moses face was glowing as a direct result of worshiping God. This was freaking people out. So, he covered it up a little. Still a little freaky (in a Darth Vader sort of way)… but not as freaky.

And this is the whole idea behind being “Seeker Sensitive.” We’re not really watering it down, we’re just trying not to weird people out. We hold hands instead of kiss. We sit close instead of cuddle.

IMHO, some of the coolest worship songs are by The Benjamin Gate: “All Over Me,” and “How Long.”

How long can we wait
Will we wait for you to come?
How long can we wait
Will we wait for you to come
And lay ourselves down before You?

Awesome song, but just a little too passionate for most folks.

So, what am I getting at? Just the realization that to non-believers (and some new believers), passionate worship to God is a little icky. They need to be “fed” some of that stuff, but try not to gross them out too much.

Dominion and Kingdom Now Theology teach and believe that the Church must conquer the world before Jesus can return. The central pillars of society (government, economy, etc.) would come under the authority of restored apostles and prophets. War terminology such as “conquer” and “occupy” are often used. Prayer/intercession is used to release power in focused ways. Prophecy is used to communicate strategies. One major strategy is the use of Transformational Thinking: a systematic approach to changing the way that people think without them knowing that it’s happening. (In other words, it’s a way to manipulate people.) It breaks down assumptions that were used to construct your world view so that they can replace it with their more pragmatic world view. For it to work, the people aren’t supposed to know that they’re undergoing the process. Jesus (and his Gospel) is largely absent from the discussion, except as a symbol of power.

The question I’m working on: Is this the way that the Kingdom of God should operate? Is this what Christ wants from His church? Isn’t this some manner of spiritual witchcraft — not seeking God, but rather using God for his power?

I’m leaning toward rejecting these things — but I’d like to have an open dialog about them. Above, click the links for more info on each term. I’ve been floored by just how much I have been influenced by this movement.

Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.  — Exodus 32:1

So, we’ve seen the plagues on Egypt.  We left Egypt with lots of extra cash that the people there gave us.  We walked through the sea.  We saw the army of Pharoh drown when they followed us.  God himself spoke to us in first person on the mountain, and it scared the living daylights out of us.  But, now… well… Moses has been gone for an aweful long time (over a month)… “Aaron!  Conjure up a god for us!”

And when they get cought, what does Aaron have to say for himself?

They said to me, “Make a god for us who will go before us….”  I said to them, “Whoever has any gold, let him tear it off.”  So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”  —  Exodus 32:23-24

“Uh, I don’t know how it happened, mom.”

But before we stand in judgment of this generation, aren’t we prone to the same sort of forgetfulness?  This spiritual ADD?  Ever experienced times of great blessing:  when things were working well, when God was speaking to you, when God was moving and you could see it?  We bask in grace and think, “This is really good.”  Then, God does something unexpected.  Unpleasant.  The car breaks down.  The IRS wants to talk about your filing last year.  You lose your job.  Suddenly, all the good things are forgotten.  We tear our clothes and we cry out, “My God, my God!  Why have you forsaken me??”

But he’s still the same, good God.

When Satan accused Job, he said, “Of course he serves you!  You’ve put a hedge [of protection] around him and blessed everything that he does!  But if you afflict him, then I’ll bet he curses you to his face.” [1]  And usually, in our case, he’s right.

Therefore, in our daily walk, remembering is an important part of discipleship.  And when bad stuff happens, it’s important to go back and remember the things that God has done.  A great many of the Psalms start off in real distress (e.g. Psalm 22 “My God, my God!  Why have you forsaken me?”) and they end by remembering who God is and what he’s done (e.g. Psalm 22).  So, that’s a good goal in your prayers, too.  Start off with what’s on your heart, and meditate on who God is.

[1] That’s my paraphrase

You shall surely observe My sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies ou. Therefore you are to observe the sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, holy to the LORD; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death. So the sons of Israel shall observe the sabbath, to celebrate the sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor; and was refreshed.
— Exodus 31:13b-17

Why does God place so much importance on resting? Why is the penalty death? This isn’t a moral issue. Nobody gets hurt if I go to work for a few hours on the sabbath. Nobody gets defrauded. I only hurt myself, right? If you compare the Ten Commandments (Ex 20), it’s not only bad if you break the sabbath… but it’s bad if you make your employees work on the sabbath.

Instead of looking at the negative… let’s look at the positive. God is doing this as a sign. As a regular, day-to-day reminder of some truth that he wants us to remember. Something important about Him and His relationship to us. “This is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you.” “It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed.”

It’s a sign to show us:

• That God is in control, and it’s He that is making us holy (sanctified), that is: setting us apart.
• It’s a reminder that God is the creator of the world.
• It reminds us of the creation story, that God did it in 6 days and then rested.
• That God actually rested, and was refreshed. (!!)
• It indicates that we are to observe the day so that we, too, may be refreshed.

God is saying that all these things are very important, and they need to be drilled into our heads every week. This is similar to the first symbol of the Tabernacle: that we have to set aside a special time for God (going to the front door). The very fact that we stop everything in our lives to honor God and His commandment… that in itself goes a long way to remind us of most of these.

Are you making time to rest? Are you making time for God (whatever day you choose)? Or are you busy trying to do it all on your own? When we’re busy, we don’t see how much we really need God. We’re distracted from His works because we’re focused on our works.

When we go to “worship God,” it’s not uncommon to think about singing songs.  You come to church.  You worship (sing some songs).  Then, you hear a sermon.  But, that’s not really the point of worship.  The point of worship is to show God that he’s valuable to you.  To give Him something (whether a song, or money, or a cow).  To spend time with Him… talking and listening.  The “goal” is to get yourself into the “Holiest Place” and speak to God face-to-face.

• We start by walking through the front door.  You set aside time.  You intentionally go to God.
• Next, we confess our sins, and offer our thanks.  We get it out of the way.  Sin, by its very nature, separates us from God.  To think of it another way, it’s tough to have an intimate date with your wife if you treated her like crap earlier in the day (and you haven’t owned it, yet).  We also take time to offer God a gift to show our thanks for providing for us.  For being good.  For being who He is.
• Next, we get clean.  We empty ourselves of our desires and wants.  We remind ourselves who God is.  We ask him to give us a new heart.  To fill us with His Spirit.  We read scriptures that teach us the truth (about God, ourselves, and others).
• Now, we are ready to go to the Holy Place.  This is where we go and pray.  We read scriptures.  We wait.  We sing a song.  We wait.
• When the time is right, God makes Himself known.  You might think of it as “God showing up.”  But, he was there all along.  But, he finds a way to show himself to you.  This is the “Holiest Place.”

Often times, we walk through this process with songs.  Songs can be a very effective means of worship.  They can also be really distracting from your worship.

I’m not list this stuff out to be a dogmatic way to worship.  Instead, I’m encouraging you to go beyond music in your worship.  To seek Him in the Holiest Place.  I’ve been there.  It’s an awesome place to be.

Moreover you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twisted linen and blue and purple and scarlet material; you shall make them with cherubim, the work of a skillful workman.
— Exodus 26:1

When reading Exodus 25-31, it’s easy to get lost in all the blueprints. In fact, if they were blueprints, that would be easier to visualize. So, we have to reconstruct the blueprints from the prose found in these writings. But as you read through it and refer to the diagrams it starts to make a little more sense.

The Old Testament Tabernacle is like the Lord’s Prayer. It is God teaching us how to talk to Him. How to worship Him. How to approach Him. Much of the Torah (Gen.-Deut.) deals with what is Holy and what is Profane (i.e. every-day). That’s why there’s all this stuff about what is clean and unclean, because that’s another way to communicate what is Holy and what is not.

You begin with the fence all around the Tabernacle. You can’t see in. You can’t break in. There is only one entrance. You have to go in through the front door-flap. That is, you can’t just be going about your business, and then casually look over and say, “Oh… there’s the Holy alter of God.” You have to intentionally approach it. In addition, it is set apart. It’s different. It’s mysterious. All that is to say: it’s holy.

Once you enter, the first thing you come upon is the alter for burnt offerings. That is to say, the alter for sin offerings. So, the first thing you do when you approach God: you confess your sins. You repent. You make atonement for your wrong. You sacrifice a cow or a goat or something (something valuable to you) as a token of your apology to God. This tells us something else about the holiness of God: He’s really holy, and we’re really not. Like Isaiah, when we encounter the holy God the first thing we notice is that we’re not, and we’re probably in trouble. (See Isaiah 6.)

The next thing we encounter in the Laver (a big thing that holds a lot of water). After you offer up your sin offering (atonement), you still need to get clean. So, you wash yourself with water.

After that is the Holy Place. This is inside the tent. Only priests could go into here. (Again, anther level of separation and holiness.) In here is a perpetual incense offering, the bread of the presence, and some lamps (menorahs). The LORD commanded that there always be an incense offering be given… always. 24-7. Same with the bread of the presence. The priests had to bake bread and put it on a table before the LORD. There it would sit. After a few hours, they had to lay out new bread. When they did this, the priests had to eat the bread from the previous day. It’s no big stretch to think of the incense as being a symbol of prayer. Nobody really knows what God was trying to tell us with the bread (though some will try to give you a way-too-detailed meaning that ties it to Christ). It just seems sort of random to me, and I think the meaning has been lost (or God intended it as a mystery).

After this is the Holiest Place. It is partitioned off from the Holy Place by a thick veil. In here is the ark of the covenant. Inside it is a jar of manna, the tablets of the testimony (written by the finger of God). Only certain priests may enter — and even then: only at certain times. Above the ark, this is where God said, “There I will meet with you… I will speak to you about all that I will give you in commandment for the sons of Israel.” (Exodus 25:22) This is the very presence of God.

In addition there are myriad rules about how to consecrate all the articles… sprinkling them with blood… once a year… etc… etc…

In the day when the LORD brought the Israelites out of Egypt, I’m sure the literacy rate was low. The people also needed some remedial theology to turn them away from idols and superstitions. Instead of giving them a simple prayer (which would not fulfill the need of educating the people), God gave them an interactive scale model to communicate to them what are the basics of God, holiness, and worship. Something that they could see, touch, and walk through.

And I don’t know about you… but some days I need this remedial reminder of what it means to serve a God who is holy.

To practice speed reading, I used the Bible. (Most bibles are in a nice, 2-column format that makes them easy to speed read.)  I made a little chart with all the chapters in the bible (over 1,000) and set out to read the whole thing. I would generally do it in order, but feel free to skip around if I want. In about 6-9 months, I had the bible read. You would be surprised how much info you retain through speed reading.

But, when I got to the New Testament I found that I could not speed read the red letters. (That is, the words that Jesus spoke.) I’d read all (or most) of them before, but somehow they had all become new to me. They spoke very loudly… not because they were red on the page, but because they had behind them the weight of all the Old Testament. They breathed fresh insight and understanding into them. It remains, to me, a proof that Jesus is more than a smart man — but the very God of heaven.

This is what John was getting at when he said, “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.” (John 1:18, emphasis added)

The first real words of Jesus that you read when going through the Bible is the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5ff. He starts with The Beattitudes. These are 9 statements that don’t really teach wisdom, but are statements of reality. They are encouragements and truth. Matt. 5:13-16 starts with “You are the salt of the earth…” Usually, we think of it in terms of Jesus saying this to believers. But in that day and time, he was saying this to Jews. People who begin every Sabbath service with “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might….” (Deut. 6:4-5). People who remember the covenant made on the mountain (as I’ve talked about in previous posts). Who remember when God said, “…you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” (Ex 19:5b-6a)

I can go on and on… but you get the idea.

Furthermore, compare the Wisdom of this sermon with some of that latter prophets that preceeded Jesus. The ones who spent most of their time saying, “God is going to punish you because you do not observe the Sabbaths!! Do not allow anyone to carry a burden on the Sabbath!” Of course, this isn’t all they talked about… but that last few books of the OT are a little depressing because it’s like reading a nagging mother. Here, Jesus comes and transcends that stuff and makes clear to us what the heart of God is.

No ordinary man came up with that stuff.

[Edit:  Added comment about 2-column format of bibles in paragraph 2.  3/29/08]

Then He said to Moses, “Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel, and you shall worship at a distance. Moses alone, however, shall come near to the LORD, but they shall not come near, nor shall the people come up with him.”
— Exodus 24:1-2

I’m a cynic by nature. And when I read stuff like this, I start to think, “Hmmmm. How convenient that God will only speak to Moses, and thus this messenger Moses is someone that we shall not question or oppose. Ever. Is Moses a prophet, or a really good con artist? He’s responsible for the publication of the Torah (Genesis – Deuteronomy). So how do we know that what he says is true. He obviously had a vested interest: to exercise power over a large group of people.

And then you get all this language about people keeping their distance, smoke, loud voices, pillars of fire… etc. My “favorite” is the one where Moses puts his hand in his coat, and it comes out white and leprous… then does it again and it is restored. Come on. That’s a really old parlor trick.

This is the value of having the history intertwined with the theology. If he lies about the theology, he has to lie about the history, too. But here, he’s involving other witnesses. At the ‘sea of reeds’ the people physically walked through the parted waters. In other places, when other leaders were grasping for power (e.g. Numbers 16 and the rebellion of Korah), the issue of Moses “lies” never come up. Same in Joshua (which was not written by Moses). I just don’t see how one man can pull off a hoax of this magnitude… especially since other people were involved.

In addition the non-historical, theological commandments include things like “love your neighbor,” “don’t kill,” “don’t give a false testimony,” and “if an ox gores someone, the owner should not be held liable… but if the ox was in the habit of goring people and the owner has been warned… then he will be held liable.” I just don’t see a power-hungry dictator coming up with this stuff.

And here we have 74 people going to see God. We never hear about anybody breaking rank. Have you ever seen 74 men agree on the infield fly rule, or which football team won the NCAA championship, or how to get from Dallas to St. Louis??  Contrast this to Joseph Smith, who brought with him 3 and 8 men to see the golden plates. Several of them recanted or balked, and the whole the smacks of The Emperor’s New Clothes.

That is to say, when I weigh the circumstances… I believe the scriptures are what they claim to be.  When it says, “Thus  says the LORD…”  I believe that it is actually God talking.

Behold, I am going to send an angel before you to guard you along the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Be on your guard before him and obey his voice; do not be rebellious toward him, for he will not pardon your transgression, since My name is in him. But if you truly obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.
— Exodus 23:20-22 (God speaking)

When dictating laws to Moses, God inserts this as the first of several promises and details about the impending conquest of the land that God had promised to them. He says that he will send “an angel” before them. That they are to obey him. That he exercises the authority of God. Remind you of anyone?

It sounds a lot like Jesus. Could it be Jesus? The so-called Angel of the LORD appears several times in scripture.  (Click the link for an article that lists many of them out.)  The direct fulfillment of this may be Joshua 5:13ff. when a man who came in the authority of the LORD gives Joshua the battle plans for defeating Jericho.  But it’s likely that this is the same as the Angel of the LORD who appeared to Abram before destroying Sodom, that appeared to Hagar, etc.  Moses also said (in Deut. 18:15-22), “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him….”  This is also considered to refer to Christ, and has a similar style of language as the passage above.

God doesn’t always speak to us from a smoky mountain.  Why?  Because it scares the living daylights out of us, that’s why.  The people even said, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen, but let not God speak to us, or we will die.” (Ex 20:19, right after the Ten Commandments)  So He establishes that He will send ministers with His authority and that we are to obey them.  If we do, things will go well.  If not, we’ll get punished.

That’s not to say that we simply follow anyone who claims to be a minister of God.  But when we see someone who has the mark of God on their life and their teaching and their leadership — we need to consider their words (and their example) carefully.  It may be just some old guy.  But it may also be someone sent from the LORD to guard us.

That is to say, there are people in my life who really do hear from and understand God.  From time to time they will say to me something that I disagree with or don’t understand.  But, seeing the mark of God on their life, I’ll often (well… sometimes) listen to them and subject myself to their teaching.  More often than not, they were right.

God makes it clear here and elsewhere (especially through Christ) that if you reject His messenger… then you have rejected Him.  If you disobey the messenger, then you disobey Him.  Who are God’s messengers in your life?

What’s even cooler, is that is a very long stretch of scripture that is not history. Nor commentary. It is not revelation. It’s dictation. God even typed [half of] it up himself:

When He had finished speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, He gave Moses the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written by the finger of God.
— Exodus 31:18

The presentation of the Ten Commandments is also significant. God was literally trying to scare the people. He was trying to evoke awe in them.

The the LORD said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘You have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven [the sky]. You shall not make other gods besides Me; gods of silver or gods of gold, you shall not make for yourselves. You shall make an alter of earth for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause My name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you.

‘If you make an alter of stone for Me, you shall not build it of cut stones, for if you wield your tool on it, you will profane it. And you shall not go up by steps to My alter, so that your nakedness will not be exposed on it.’”
— Exodus 20:22-26

Nice, sleek, polished objects of worship… those are the idols. Raw, earthy, irregular mounds… that is the holy alter of God. Since he spends a lot of time warning against idolatry, at first I thought that he was just opposing the practice. (“Not only do I not want you to make idols, don’t even make my alter look anything like one of those things!”) However, He has the same sort of admonition about doing work on the sabbath… that the sabbath is holy and doing work on the sabbath will profane it (Ex 30:14). (In bible-speak, profane and holy are opposites.) It’s even more odd when you contrast it with the meticulous blueprints that He gave Moses for the tabernacle (Ex 25:40).

I’m inclined to think that He was just contrasting the ornamentation of idols. Sometimes, when ideas and habits are so ingrained into our culture, we have to do a total about-face (throwing out the baby with the bathwater) in order to get ourselves back on track. Ex-smokers become non-smoking Nazi’s. Ex-credit junkies denounce all credit as being evil. Ex-TV addicts (like me) see nothing but filth and sex on the tube. These are all idols in their own way. And in order for us to give them up and follow God, sometimes we have to be a little “unbalanced” in our approach for a spell.

[Edit:  God was only stenographer for a piece of it... after all, this is a lot for two stone tablets.  Moses wrote down a good part of it.  (Ex. 24:4) - gmb 3/13/08]

Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel: You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself. Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.”

So Moses came and called the elders of the people, and set before them all these words which the LORD had commanded him. All the people answered together and said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do!” And Moses brought back the words of the people to the LORD.
— Exodus 19:3-8 (NASB)

A couple days ago, I talked about Remembering. Here, he’s not just giving us comfort for where we are. Instead, God is establishing a credit line with us. He says, “I just did some cool stuff for you. I can be trusted. Will you commit to trusting me and following me?” No caveats. No warnings. Will you step out in the faith that I am good?

And they said yes. No questions asked.  No costs counted.  We know (now) that most of them didn’t mean it (they’ll prove it over and over again in Exodus and Numbers). But for a moment, they were willing to give God a blank check.  And God takes the blank check seriously. Later on, when they say to God, “give us our check back,” he says, “No.  We had an agreement.  And you will go My way whether you like it or not.”
Some of us came to follow Christ this way.  We didn’t know what we were getting in to.  Perhaps we heard a slightly tainted Gospel that promised peace and prosperity and happiness. When times get hard, we say to God… “This is not what I agreed to!!”  And he says, “Yes, it is.”  He does not give up on you.  (But you can make it harder on yourself by resisting.)

Have you come to grips with the fact that you’ve given God a blank check?  That you are now His?  That he’ll take you where He wants, regardless of how you feel?

(For what it’s worth, I’m reading the bible from cover to cover again, so my posts will usually be in bible-order for some time.)

Dead flies make a perfumer’s oil stink,
so a little foolishness is weightier than wisdom and honor.
— Ecclesiastes 10:1

What do dead flies smell like? Really? Have you ever walked into a room and said, “Oh, no! There’s a dead fly in here!” Have you ever been bowled over by the stench of a fly?

I haven’t. I even went out of my way this week to try and find a dead fly to smell. But it’s winter — and there are no flies. Even if they do give off an odor, you have to have quite a few flies before the smell starts to build up.

So, what’s the deal with the perfume? If a dead fly doesn’t really smell… how is it affecting the smell of the perfume?

It doesn’t. But what it does affect is the way that people <i>perceive</i> the perfume.

We associate flies, even dead flies, with dead carcasses. Decomposing matter. Really smelly stuff. Stuff that can make you sick, gives you a sense of evil, and evokes fear in you. It varies whether you hear the flies first, or you smell the smell first. But one usually follows the other. Jesus even referred to this type of association:

Where the body is,
There also the vultures will be gathered.
— Luke 17:37

So, the problem in the proverb isn’t that the smell of the perfume has changed, the problem is that the perfume is perceived differently because of the flies. Think of a really good, but strong perfume like Obsession or Knowing. If you have never smelled it before and you walk into the room to see a beautiful woman… you will think that the perfume smells good (it might even arouse you). But if you walk in and see a trash can with flies around it… you will think that it smells awful. In the perfume business, there’s a fine line between a good smell, and a stink. In fact, there’s certain kinds of B.O. that, if you approach it with a different attitude, can be appealing in the opposite sex. But, we’re conditioned to think that any kind of natural odor means that a person is not clean.

This comes up in business and in relationships all the time. Sometimes, it doesn’t matter that you did a really great job — something in the presentation spoiled it and made it look bad. Maybe you always hit your deadlines, and have few errors in your work… but you’re known to surf the internet during business (or even on your lunch break). Or perhaps you talk on the phone. Or perhaps you act inappropriately, or (like me) just plain have no people skills. It doesn’t matter how good your work is, you will not be taken seriously because people keep seeing all these “dead flies” around you.

Be mindful of your image in relationships, especially your superficial relationships. Do people see dead flies all around you? They won’t notice anything else.

When you enter the land which the LORD will give you, as He has promised, you shall observe this rite. And when your children say to you, “What does this rite mean to you?” youshall say, “It is a Passover sacrifice to the LORD who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians, but spared our homes.” – Exodus 12:25-27

Sometimes I want to give up, and none of it makes sense. I was thinking today about my kids, and how I deal with them. Sometimes, when they don’t take the right path or do something wrong — I’ll take some of that on myself. It’s my responsibility to train them and prompt them to do the right things. I do this by interacting with them, trying to speak to them in terms that they understand. Point out some of their pitfalls.

I get aggravated at God because he doesn’t treat me like this. Yes, we ask and he answers… but he takes his time about it, doesn’t he? Sometimes I miss the answers, and I have to suffer the consequences. Even Jesus, when asked a question, would often give a cryptic answer. The whole thing just doesn’t make sense to me at times. I just feel like it’s a dumb way to forge a relationship.

And in times like these: when it doesn’t make any sense… when everything is drudgery… when things seem hopeless… when I want to give up…. It’s times like these that I have to think back to the days when I could hear him clearly. When he performed wonders around me. When things occurred that have no explanation but God.

In hindsight, God is always shown to be the wise one… and that he called the right shots. He consistently proves that he’s smarter than we are. That’s why he keeps reminding us:

“Remember when…..”

“Don’t forget….”

“Return….”

And he appeals to our experiences with him in the past (the ones that were easy to understand), so that we will trust him for today.