61: The Story of Scripture – Exodus 26-33

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In this episode of the Story of Scripture, Ted Ryskoski, Lance Lawson, and Rachel Chester discuss the significance of the detailed descriptions and instructions concerning the Tabernacle and the priesthood.

The covenant has been ratified, the dwelling place for God and his priesthood has been commissioned, but the newly created people of God don’t even make it 40 days before the fall into the familiar pattern of rebellion and rejection of God.

So how does God respond?

60: The Story of Scripture – Exodus 18-25

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In this episode of The Story of Scripture, Ted, Lance, and Rachel discuss what it means to be the “treasured possession” of Yahweh.

How should we think about the 10 Commandments? Is the law good, bad, or outdated?

These well-known passages are far-reaching, not just for courtrooms or as a failed “plan A” of God, but for how we understand our identity and mission as God’s people today.

Blueprints of Eden

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The beginning of a new year and a new Bible reading plan can bring much excitement and hope as Christians gear up to read through the Bible. The first couple of months, the reader gets to take in some interesting stories through the books of Genesis and into Exodus—famous stories that even those unfamiliar with the Bible would know. It’s captivating reading (outside of a few genealogies). Then comes some ancient laws in the middle of Exodus when the people of Israel reach Mount Sinai. The reader thinks, “Okay, I can get through this.” But out of nowhere, the reader’s hit with Exodus chapter 25. Of the next sixteen chapters, thirteen contain blueprint designs for a tent along with uniform clothing patterns. Not exactly text that the typical reader will find intriguing.

As a summary, chapters 25-31 of Exodus contain the plans to build the Tabernacle as well as the design of the uniform for the priest. Chapters 35-40 repeat the blueprint plans as the Israelites follow through with building the tent. Even though the tent itself is highly important to the people of Israel as this is where God would dwell in their midst, it seems kind of redundant (and boring) to go into that much detail. So, what’s the point of having thirteen chapters of plans dedicated to this tent structure?

It is helpful to go back to the beginning. Genesis starts with a seven-day creation story and narrows down to the land of Eden. There are some details in these two chapters to take note of:

  • God dwells with Humanity in Eden
  • Trees are prominent in the garden
  • Fruit is in the garden
  • There is a three-tiered element to the garden land (the land, region of Eden, garden in Eden)
  • Adam and Eve will work the garden1
  • Rivers flow out of the garden
  • Beautiful stones are found in the garden
  • After Adam and Eve disobey, they are exiled to the east2
  • Cherubim with a flaming sword protect the entrance to the garden

With these details in mind, elements of Exodus 25-31 may start to stand out. It is as if God is having them build a little replica of Eden in the middle of his people. The tabernacle is also a three-tiered space, guarded by a flaming altar with cherubim on the doors of the holy space, facing east.3 Within that space are items made from precious stones and wood.4 Depictions of trees and fruit are hung on the walls and made into ceremonial elements, with a basin of water, too. Add to that a seven-day ceremony that was held to dedicate the tabernacle and priest.5

God did not give Moses random blueprints to build the tabernacle. He was modeling the Garden of Eden where God and humanity dwelt together in a full and complete relationship. The relationship Adam and Eve had with God in the garden before Genesis chapter 3 was an experience God wanted to provide to his people once again through this tent. Of course, there were some stringent regulations about how that played out, but God was committed to bringing his space and humanity’s space back together in totality. The tabernacle was a constant reminder of God’s presence among the Israelites and his covenant with them.

The tabernacle was the portable version of the temple King Solomon would later build in Jerusalem. If you read the description of the temple blueprints in 1 Kings 6, many of the same garden imagery is used once again. It is another depiction of God’s commitment to restoring his creation as it was in the garden.

The role of the priest of the tabernacle was also significant. Israel was called to be a nation of priests to all the word.6The priest worked in the tabernacle and, later, temple as a mediator between God and humanity. Israel was called to do the same to the world around them. Unfortunately, Israel continually rejected God’s covenant, so the temple itself did not serve its ultimate purpose, nor did the priest or the nation of Israel.

When John starts his Gospel, there is an instructive verse in chapter 1: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”7 The “Word” is a reference to Jesus, and the word “dwelt” is the Greek word for “tabernacled.” From the very start of his narrative, John claimed Jesus was the space where God and humanity are in full relationship, just as they were in the garden and as the tabernacle/temple represented. A few chapters later while Jesus taught at the Jerusalem temple, he pronounced he would destroy the temple and in three days raise it up. His audience was very confused. The narrator then jumps in and tells the reader Jesus was talking about himself.8 Jesus saw himself as both the temple and priest—the place God dwelt and the mediating priest between God and humans.9

When Jesus ascended into the heavens, he told his followers to wait for the Holy Spirit so that God’s presence would fill a new kind of temple, Jesus’ followers, both corporately and as individuals.10  This has major implications. Now instead of one tent or one temple or even one Jesus on the earth, God’s dwelling presence is now within followers of Christ—followers collectively known as the body of Christ that will spread out and proclaim the good news of Jesus all over the world. Christians, with the same vocation as the priest mediating in the tabernacle, are to be walking around as little Eden spaces in the world.11

Exodus chapters 18-25 may seem redundant, overly detailed, and boring, but they point both backward and forward to God’s redeeming of creation and humanity through Jesus. And it is Jesus who empowers his “body” to be the images of God though his indwelling Spirit, proclaiming, modeling, and calling all creation into a new Eden.

Footnotes

  1. Genesis 2:15 and Numbers 3:7-8 use the same Hebrew word for the priest’s work
  2. Genesis 3:24
  3. Outer court, Holy Place, Holy of Holies
  4. The Hebrew word ‘ʿēṣ’ is used for trees and wood
  5. Leviticus 8:33
  6. Exodus 19:6
  7. John 1:14
  8. John 2:21-22
  9. Hebrews 4:14
  10. Luke 24:49, Acts 1:8
  11. 1 Peter 2:5

59: The Story of Scripture – Exodus 11-17

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The final, devastating plague that forces Pharoah’s hand: the death of every firstborn son in Egypt. The Passover ritual and reality that defines and orients the people of Israel even to this day. God’s presence with the Israelites in pillars of cloud and fire. Bread provided from heaven.

In this episode of The Story of Scripture, Ted Ryskoski, Lance Lawson, and Rachel Chester discuss the protection, presence, and provision of God in this epic story and how each moment intentionally points to Jesus.

58: The Story of Scripture – Exodus 4-10

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Why did God almost kill Moses on his way to Egypt? What is the significance of a staff and the snake? Was it really Pharoah’s fault, if God was hardening his heart?

In this episode of the Story of Scripture, Ted Ryskoski, Lance Lawson, and Rachel Chester discuss the well-known epic story of Moses’s plea to “Let my people go,” Pharoah’s refusal, and the resulting ten plagues on Egypt, along with lesser known stories along the way.

57: The Story of Scripture – Genesis 48-Exodus 3

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The foundation of the Story of Scripture has ended.

In this episode of the Bible Reading Recap, Ted Ryskoski, Lance Lawson, and Rachel Chester discuss the “pattern” of God’s kingdom, the depth of brokenness seen in mankind rebellion, and the promises of God to restore all things.

God’s has made a covenant with the Israelites, who are flourishing in Egypt at the end of Genesis, but then oppressed and persecuted when we turn the page to Exodus.

56: The Story of Scripture – Genesis 41-47

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Despite the suffering in his life, Jospeh continues to trust in God. He is finally set free. When he is finally reunited with the brothers who rejected and betrayed them, he shows mercy and grace and saves them from death.

In this episode of the Bible Reading Podcast, Ted Ryskoski, Lance Lawson, and Rachel Chester discuss the climax of Joseph’s story that will take us into the next chapter for God’s chosen people.

55: The Story of Scripture – Genesis 33-40

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In this episode of the Bible Reading Recap, Ted Ryskoski, Lance Lawson, and Rachel Chester discuss the return of Jacob to his home and are introduced to one of his sons, Joseph.

Jospeh’s story is one of the most well-known in Scripture, but how does it point back to the Garden and forward to Jesus?

54: The Story of Scripture – Genesis 27-32

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In this episode of the Bible Reading Recap, we get to the heart of Jacob’s story.

God’s chosen brother, is deceived, deceives again, and eventually has to wrestle with God.

Will Jacob ever change? How can this uneven man be the one to continue God’s plan of redemption for the world?

A Mark of Justice and Mercy

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Many people assume the Bible is a boring read, of course if one starts with Genesis, that assumption is quickly dismissed. There are some fascinating (if not weird) stories right at the start! Cain and Abel is a well known story that has elicited many question from readers for thousands of years. For instance, what is the “mark” of Cain?

The God of the Bible is presented as both just and merciful, and the “mark of Cain” is an example of that justice and mercy. After Cain kills his brother out of jealousy, he becomes a fugitive and is afraid for his life, but God “puts a mark” on Cain that will protect him from those trying to take vengeance in their own hands2. But what is the “mark”? Scripture doesn’t say, and that ambiguity is on purpose to set a pattern moving forward.

The first few chapters of Genesis set up many narrative patterns that are repeated in the rest of the Scriptures. One of the patterns is the narrative use of the Hebrew word ʾôt , typically translated “mark” or “sign” for English translations. And when a reader comes upon a story that contains a ʾôt (mark/sign), it is most often a result of both God’s justice and His mercy.

Shortly after the story of Cain and Abel is the story of Noah. The earth is filled with violence, God is grieved and uses the waters to reset creation, except for Noah’s family and the mini-Eden boat that is protected during the flood. After the waters subside, God gives another ʾôt to humanity (namely Noah’s family) and the creatures of the boat, the sign of the “bow in the clouds”3. Water, which just acted as an instrument of justice on a corrupt and violent humanity is now given to Noah as a sign of mercy that never again will the earth be destroyed in a deluge. The “bow in the clouds” is a sign in the sky that God is both just and merciful.

Chapter 12 becomes a hinge point for the book of Genesis, narrowing down on a descendant of Noah, the man Abram. Abram is asked to leave all he has known and trust God’s promise of a land and family that shall bless “all the families of the earth”.4 Within the narrative about Abram is a ʾôt that will mark a people for hundreds of generations after. But why another “sign/mark”?

There is one problem with Abram and his wife Sarai, they are both old and no longer of childbearing age. Will they trust God and his promise, even if it sounds crazy, or they will try their own way? Abram and Sarai seem to be set on trying their own way instead of trusting in God’s promise. Along the way there are some bright spots, but for much, it’s distrust, unfaithfulness and consequences.

At one point in the story, Sarai decides to take matters into her own hands, and offer up her Egyptian slave, Hagar, to Abram, in order to produce the promised child. Hagar does become pregnant and even though this was the idea of Sarai, she resents the child, and Abram gives approval for her to “deal harshly” with Hagar. Now instead of a flourishing family provided by God’s provision to Abram and Sarai because they trusted in His promise, there is an abused, pregnant, immigrant7 slave alone in the wilderness.[1] Abram and Sarai certainly do not trust God, and in their distrust, harm those they were called to bless.

And so God will be just and merciful, again with a ʾôt. The very next narrative is the story of the “sign/mark” of circumcision. God must be just for the actions against Hagar and thus he tells Abram he must circumcise that which was misused in an attempt to produce offspring on their own terms. This marks the descendants of Abraham (God changes his name along with the sign9) for generations. A constant reminder of what Abram and Sarai did to Hagar because they didn’t trust God’s promise and that what God meant for good can be taken and used in humanity’s own devices as evil. God is just.

And mercy? It’s like the “bow in the clouds”. That which was used as a judgment can also serve as a sign of God’s enduring mercy. It is still through that which was misused and now marked, that the promised offspring for Abraham and Sarah10 comes to fruition. The barren Sarah becomes pregnant with the promised offspring Isaac.

The ambiguous mark of Cain sets a pattern moving forward throughout the story of Scripture that points to God as both just and merciful11. Fast forward in the story and Jesus fulfills this pattern in his crucifixion. He takes on the righteous justice of God in place of corrupt and sinful humanity, the consequences of all of humanity’s distrust and disobedience, death. God is just. Yet, through the same act of the crucifixion, God in humanity’s place, is the offer of life from death. God is merciful. The pattern continues for those who are in Christ Jesus, also marked with his crucifixion, through baptism. A mark of those in God’s Kingdom, participating in Jesus’ death and participating in new life through his resurrection.

A ʾôt of both justice and mercy. May we never forget the justice and mercy of God in our own story, and would our lives display the justice and mercy of God to the world.  

1Genesis Ch. 3

2Genesis Ch. 4

3Genesis 9:13

4Genesis 12:3

5Genesis Ch. 15

6Genesis 15:6

7The root of Hagar name means “to flee” as an immigrant

8Genesis 16:13

9Genesis 17:5

10Sarai’s name is also changed to Sarah, Genesis 18:15

11Exodus 10:2, Exodus 12:13, Numbers 21:8/John 3:14

[1] Abram and Sarai are harsh and unfaithful, but God is merciful and just to all people. He sees and hears the oppressed, he rescues Ishmael and promises her that, although despised and discarded by Sarai, her son will also father a multitude.