The Kingdom of Heaven Part 1 (October 26, 2014)

Talking Points

This lesson builds upon the prior lesson "God's Ongoing Story of Restoration", where one of the take-aways was to "wear blue well".  Understanding what the Kingdom of Heaven is about, and thereby getting a better idea of what is important to God, will help us to know how to do that.  I'm not an expert on the Kingdom of Heaven, but the understanding I've gained has revolutionized my thinking and my priorities.  I present it as I understand it, some of which has come from Dwight Prior's work on the same subject.

There is nothing Jesus talked about more than the Kingdom of Heaven.

• His preaching proclaimed it -- "Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near"
• His teaching explained it -- the Sermon on the Mount is a good example
• His parables illustrated it -- "The kingdom of heaven is like ..."
• His miracles demonstrated it -- God was powerfully intervening in human lives

The terms Kingdom of Heaven and Kingdom of God are synonymous.  The Hebrews wouldn't pronounce God's covenantal name (YHWH), but would say "Adonai" instead (where typically we see LORD in the biblical Text).  The term "Kingdom of God" was developed in the inter-testamental period (so you won't see it in the Old Testament), but in the same way, when speaking of it, they would say "Kingdom of Heaven" instead.  We make the same sort of substitution today when we say something like "for heaven's sake".

The first reference to the concept of the Kingdom of God in the Bible is in Exodus 15:18, where it says that "God is reigning for ever and ever".  Note that it does not say "God will reign" or even "God reigns".  It is present perfect tense.  It is not future.  And it is active.  This is not about God's static sovereign rule and authority as Creator (as you might think from Genesis), but about his active eternal rule as King.  It is in the context of God acting to deliver his people from slavery in Egypt.

 Rabbinical concepts

Nevertheless, for the rabbis, the concept of the Kingdom of God was abstract, eternal, and static.  God is in heaven.  When we agree to keep his commands and honor his authority, we take on his yoke of kingship.  It's a static/positional sort of thing, maybe like when we, as Christians, are declared right with God -- that "positional righteousness" is not the same thing as "practical righteousness" worked out as we are sanctified.

And even more than we long for the day when our sanctification is complete, Israel longed for the day when God would actively rule over them and over the whole world as King.  That's why the Pharisees of Jesus' day were so legalistic and devout in their own way, because they thought that they could bring about God's active kingship as a result.  God would reign actively over the whole world from Israel when the Messiah came.  This would be on that "Great Day of the Lord", which would follow the Terrible Day of Judgment.

When John the Baptist preached, "Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is near", the people understood that God's rule over Israel and the whole world was going to begin soon, and the End Times were upon them.  The idea of "nearness" was in the context of time; it would happen soon.  It is no wonder that he drew large crowds.  It was part of being Hebrew to be looking for this Kingdom to come.

Jesus' view

Jesus used the term "Kingdom of Heaven" as the name for his "movement".  It was a familiar term because of the teaching of the rabbis, but he defined it differently.  The term itself is

          Malkhut Shamayim means kingdom of heaven
          Malkhut Ha Shamayim means kingdom of the heavens

Shamayim refers to heaven or heavens.  Malkhut means kingdom and derives from the verb malakh meaning "to reign".  The word for "king" is melekh, which also derives from the same verb.  Like so many other Hebrew words, malkhut is a verbal noun, so its emphasis is on activity, not on an abstract state.  For Jesus the Kingdom was practical and dynamic, and it entered into time.  It was the present immediacy of God's power breaking in and taking charge of human lives -- healing, saving, delivering, redeeming.  Jesus brought the Kingdom forward from the rabbinical End Times and made it begin to take effect, or engage on the earth, when he began his ministry.

From the context, we know that when Jesus says, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near", he is not speaking temporally as "in the near future", but he's speaking of physical proximity.  He was the king.  He brought the kingdom.  It was near anyone he was near.

When Jesus speaks of the Kingdom of Heaven, he does not specifically mean heaven, as in our eternal destination.  He is not talking about a place.  In some sense he is talking about realms, as in the realm where the will of the King is done.  Your kingdom is measured by the range of your effective will -- where what you want to have happen, happens.  The Kingdom of Heaven is where God's will and his way happen.  It happens all the time in heaven, but not so much on earth.  Earth is the domain of mankind, and it is a battlefield between our own kingdoms, and between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness.

The phrase in The Lord's Prayer about "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" is not about the coming of the End Times.  That future apocalypse will occur.  No one knows when, but it will be sudden, terrible, and seen by everyone.  But that's not how Jesus describes the Kingdom of Heaven.  He describes not in terms of the apocalypse, but in terms of the present age -- God's kingdom coming and growing on earth.  Think of the many times Jesus spoke in parables about the Kingdom of Heaven:  the tiny mustard seed that grows into a large tree; the little bit of yeast that permeates a large batch of dough; the long-term process of nurturing or fertilizing in order to see some fruit; the different types of soil where some will respond and some won't; the wheat and tares growing together until the harvest; the large net that caught both good fish and bad and they will be sorted out at the end.  The Kingdom started with him, because he brought it to earth, and it is going to grow slowly over time (right alongside evil) until it is consummated in the Great Day of the Lord.

Look further at the phrase "Your kingdom come, your will be done ".  This is an example of Hebrew parallelism -- two ways of saying the same thing.  God's kingdom comes when and where his will is done.  His kingdom grows as his will is done by his subjects.  That's what Jesus is praying about here -- for what happens in heaven to happen on earth.  The Kingdom is God's authority and rule over people who will commit themselves to doing his will.

• In speaking with the rich young ruler, when Jesus says it is hard for the rich to enter the Kingdom, he's talking about their unwillingness to submit to the King because of the hold their riches have on them.  This was an amazing teaching because in the Hebrew mind, riches were a sign of God's blessing, so of course, a rich man would have to be in God's kingdom.  Not so, says Jesus.  This man was unwilling to use his riches to bless the poor, which as we'll see later, is a significant kingdom value, and so he rejected the Kingdom.  Contrast him with the teacher of the Law who said that to "love God with all you heart, mind, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, was better than all burnt offerings and sacrifices".  Jesus said this man was not far from the Kingdom.  He at least understood it.  The rich young ruler did not.
• Jesus said that not everyone who called him "Lord" would enter the Kingdom, but only those who did the will of his Father.  It matters what you do.
• Jesus told the story of the two sons, one of whom said he would obey his father but didn't, and the one who said he would not, but did.  He used that to illustrate to the chief priests and the elders that the tax collectors and prostitutes were entering the Kingdom ahead of them.  Notice that it says "are entering ahead of you", not "will enter ahead of you" or "will enter and you will not".  They were entering now because they were repenting and believing. 

How do we enter?  Jesus said, "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near".  We enter by repenting.  We change from the way we were going and we begin to do the will of the Father.

The Kingdom expands as its subjects submit to the authority of the king and do his will.  Expanding God's Kingdom is what will push out the brokenness in the world and bring about God's shalom.  It is what will restore all of the relationships that were broken in the Fall.  If we relegate the Kingdom to a future event, we don't understand our present responsibility and we minimize the significance of our lives here and now.  We are to "wear blue well" in order to expand God's Kingdom.

That's what God wants us to do.  How do we do it?  We're going to go back to the Old Testament to look at something that is really important to God.

Justice and Righteousness

Khirbet Qeiyafa

We're starting with a rabbit trail here.  Khirbet Qeiyafa means "beautiful ruin".  It was a fortress city in the time of David.  It overlooks the valley of Elah, where David fought Goliath.  It is an interesting city because other than Jerusalem, it is the only city that has been found to have more than one gate.  Gates are the most vulnerable part of a city, so cities mostly had only one.  The word for "gate" is sha'ar, and the word for "gates" is sha'arim.  When David fought Goliath, and Israel prevailed over the Philistines, the Text says that their dead were strewn along the "shaaraim road" (NIV).  Surely that was the road that led to this city.  That's just an interesting factoid.  What is more relevant to the lesson is that the oldest ostracon (broken pottery piece with an inscription on it) in Israel was found in this city.  The consensus of the translation of the inscription is something like this:  "You shall not do it, but worship the Lord.  Judge/support the widow, poor, and stranger."  The entire inscription is in the realm of ethics, pleading for protection for the poor, infant, widow, and slave. 

Old Testament references

The Old Testament is full of references to justice and righteousness as being what God truly wants:

• When God acted to deliver Israel from slavery in Egypt, he says that he had heard the cries of his oppressed people and was going to act to deliver them.  When Moses asked God what he should tell the Israelites when they asked what God's name was, God said, "I am who I am", or perhaps rendered better as "I will be what I will be".  He was effectively telling Moses, "You will know who I am by what I'm about to do; you will see what's important to me because I will be acting on it".  Then God delivered his people from their slavery in Egypt.
• There are numerous verses in the Old Testament saying to defend the cause of the fatherless, the widow, the foreigner, the afflicted, the oppressed, etc. 
• And along with those there are numerous passages indicating that the Lord loves justice and righteousness; that is what he wants his people to be about.
• Whenever the prophets rebuked Israel, it was about worshiping idols, not keeping the Sabbath, and about not upholding justice and righteousness.  Amos, who lived close to En Gedi, which is a year-round flowing stream in an oasis surrounded everywhere by desert, said to "let Justice roll on like a river; Righteousness like a never failing stream". 
• When Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house and many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples, the Pharisees criticized him for that.  Jesus said that it was not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  He told them to go and learn what this means:  "I desire mercy, not sacrifice".  And he said he had not come to call the righteous, but sinners.  Certainly Jesus is exemplifying justice by affirming the value of the tax collectors and sinners by eating with them, but what does his quotation have to do with it?  It comes from Hosea 6.  That passage starts out by the people of Israel saying that they know they have sinned against God, and they plan to return to him on their own terms.  "Surely he will receive us; he won't be mad forever.  He will revive and restore us in a couple of days; it'll be okay."  But God is not interested in those who seek to come to him on their own terms.  He says he does not want their sacrifices, but mercy.  Similarly, Jesus isn't seeking those who think they are righteous on their own, and he's using that passage to tell them that they should instead be showing mercy to the people they are otherwise mistreating.
• Isaiah reflects this again in 1:11-17, where he says he doesn't want to have anything to do with their sacrifices.  What he wants is clearly described in verse 17:  "Learn to do right; seek justice.  Defend the oppressed.  Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the cause of the widow."
  
  If you grew up like me, you kind of skipped over this stuff because it was in the Old Testament and you didn't really have a good grasp of its importance.  But then you come to James 1:27 where it says that pure religion and undefiled before God is to take care of orphans and widows in their distress.  What do you do with that?  It sounds like earning your salvation by your works, and we know that's not possible.  So, perhaps like me, you dismissed this stuff as "social gospel"; what was important was saving the soul.  But that's like the Biblical story begins only in Genesis 3, and all you're concerned about it is getting atonement for sin and eternal life in heaven.  In reality, the story begins in Genesis 1, and not only does sin need to be atoned for, but all of the relationships that existed in the Garden and were broken in the fall need to be restored.

Let's look at some other specific examples where God speaks strongly on the subject.

Sodom

When God was about to destroy Sodom, he had a conversation with himself about whether he should withhold from Abraham what he was about to do, and concluded he should disclose it to him, "because he had chosen him to direct his children and household to keep the ways of the Lord by doing what is right and just".  We are pretty aware of the wickedness that existed in Sodom, but the wickedness that God calls out in Ezekiel and is so angry about is that they were "arrogant, overfed, and unconcerned, not helping the poor and needy".

Amalek

Amalek was Esau's grandson.  Esau's inheritance was east of the Dead Sea in Edom, south of Moab.  The Amalek tribe was warlike and were kicked out of that area.  They became raiders in the southern Negev and Sinai peninsula.  They were desert pirates.

The Amalekites traveled more than 200 miles through jeshimon desert to attack Israel on their journey from Egypt to Sinai.  God was so angry with them that he said he would blot out their name from under heaven.  Why such a strong response?  They preyed on the vulnerable.  They came from behind and picked off the stragglers, those falling behind, those having a hard time keeping up.  God's heart is for the vulnerable, and he would not tolerate this. Nothing seems to make him angrier than when people take advantage of them.  He must rejoice when we take care of them.

After Israel entered the promised land, Saul was charged with the task of destroying the Amalekites.  He was to spare nothing.  Israel was not to benefit in any way from any plunder.  But Saul kept King Agag alive, and spared the best of the livestock.  In fact, it says that they only destroyed what was weak and despised, and that's essentially how the Amalekites treated Israel when they preyed on them.  Saul's disobedience cost him the kingdom, and Samuel had to do Saul's job for him.

That seems like it should be the end of the Amalekites, but evidently Saul had spared others as well, because the Amalekites appear a couple of other times in Scripture.  And finally we get to the story of Esther and we discover that Haman, the enemy of the Jews, is an Agagite, a descendent of Agag.  Mordecai is of the tribe of Benjamin, which was Saul's tribe, and furthermore he is a descendent of Saul's father (Kish).  Interesting that it was members of Saul's family who finally put an end to the Amalekites.  Haman and his family are put to death, and 75,000 of Israel's enemies are killed, and Israel took no plunder.  There is no further mention of the Amalekites after this time.

Israel

In Isaiah, God describes Israel as his vineyard.  It says he looked for good fruit, but only saw a bad crop.  Actually the word there is very strong, not just "bad", but putrid.  The Text goes on to say that God looked for justice (mishpat) but saw bloodshed (mishpak); he looked for righteousness (tzedekah) but heard cries of distress (tze'ekah).  It's a play on words in the Hebrew, which makes the point all that much stronger.  But it is also an example of Hebrew parallelism -- two ways of saying the same thing.  Justice and Righteousness are very much related to each other.

Justice and Righteousness Explained

Mishpat means legal justice or retributive justice.  It is necessary for society.  There must be a system to protect and defend the rights of all people.  This is necessary for all societies, not just Israel.  But God says that Righteousness is what will set his people apart.  Tzedekah is righteousness, and it means social or distributive justice.  It blends together the ideas of justice and charity.  It's what we think of as charity (aid, assistance, money to the poor or to the needy or to worthy causes), but it comes from a motivation of righteousness or justice or fairness.  It is everyone's religious duty to give the poor their due.

Another example of the meaning of "righteousness" comes from Matthew 6:1, where Jesus talks of not doing your "acts of righteousness" in a way to be seen by men.  Earlier translations would refer to that as "giving your alms to the poor", so again we see the meaning of righteousness in this context.

People in need have a legal right to food, clothing, and shelter that must be honored by more fortunate people.  Everyone is entitled to have their basic needs met.  There is more than enough for everyone.  This is not socialism.  God is not against wealth.  But he gives it for a purpose and he cares what you do with it.  Righteousness speaks of good deeds done in partnership with God.  It's all in the context of God restoring everything that was broken in the fall.

It may help to have God's perspective on ownership and possessions. Psalm 24:1 says that the earth is the Lord's, and everything in it.  He owns it all.  We don't own any of it.  We possess it on behalf of the owner.  We are managers or stewards.  The blessings he gives us are not intended for us to keep, but to use to bless others.  Recall the image of the Dead Sea from the first week, where getting bloated with blessings makes you toxic.

How does God see this working out with Israel?  There are a number of passages in Leviticus where God gives instructions regarding the land.  It stayed within the original tribe to which it was allotted.  The most important thing you had was your family and your land.  You would never sell it unless that was the only option.  And then, it had to be bought (redeemed) by your nearest relative who could do that.  And if you were later able to repurchase the land, it had to be sold back to you.  Everything comes back to the original owner in the year of Jubilee, and so land prices reflected the amount of time until the next Jubilee.  So if you bought land, it was kind of like you were renting it.  The land could not be permanently sold; it belonged to God.

When you harvested your fields, you wouldn't harvest close to the corners/edges, and you would not go over the field a second time.  Whatever you didn't get on the first pass was deliberately left for the needy to glean for themselves.  This was not a handout/welfare system -- the poor had to work to reap it.  It gave them dignity and honor.  Judaism says that the highest form of honor is to empower someone else to do something for themselves.  Thoughtless charity can bring shame.  So there's a good lesson here to figure out how to empower the needy.  Micro-financing and micro-lending are good investments that help to move the needy to self-sufficiency.

Along the same lines, Deuteronomy and Exodus describe a 7-year cycle for the land and the tithes from it.  In different years the tithe would go to the temple, or to the Levites, or to the poor.  The land was to rest on the 7th year, and the poor could glean from it whatever grew voluntarily.  Probably none of us are farmers, but the principles still apply:  How can we use what God has given us to bless those in need?

Deuteronomy 8:10-14, 17-18 warn us not to think that our prosperity has come from ourselves, and to become indifferent to the heart of God.  He reminds us that he has given us the ability to produce wealth, so in the end, he still owns it all.  Why do we hang onto it so tightly?  If God owns it, then we're simply stewards of it.  If he gives it to us, we can give it away knowing that if we need it again, he will give it to us again.  Wow, do I ever have a long way to go in being able to actually live that way!

Malachi says we rob God when we don't give the him our tithe and offerings.  He says to bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, "that there may be food in my house", and then to test him and see if he doesn't pour out a blessing on us bigger than we can contain.  Remember, God is working with us to restore the world.

When Israel got it right, God blessed them abundantly.  When the Queen of Sheba came to visit Solomon, her conclusion was that because of God's eternal love for Israel, he had made Solomon king to maintain justice and righteousness.  It comes up over and over again; you can't get away from it.  And look at how much God blessed Israel in those days!

A fitting conclusion comes from Jeremiah 9:23-24:  "This is what the Lord says:  'Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts boast about this:  that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on the earth, for in these I delight', declares the Lord."

One further thought comes from the book When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert.  A passage on pages 43-44 speaks of the 'Great Reversal'.  It refers to the fact that prior to the 20th century, the church was involved in ministering to the physical and spiritual needs of the poor, but at the start of the 20th century evangelicals battled theological liberals over the fundamental tenets of Christianity, and the evangelicals began to distance themselves from the 'social gospel'.  As the church began to stop caring for the poor, the government began to step in to do it, and this gave rise to the welfare state.



This entire lesson speaks directly to me.  I grew up as a product of the "evangelical side" of the house, completely ignoring the other side, dismissing it as "social gospel", attempting to earn your way to heaven, and not something we should be concerned with because what mattered was the salvation of peoples' souls.

My thinking has been radically changed because of the teachings in this lesson, and they are affecting what we are doing with our retirement years, but I still have a long way to go to be able to really live out these principles.


Handouts

Rabbinical concepts
    YHWH
    Adonai
    Exodus 15:18
    Zechariah 9:9
    Zechariah 14:9

Jesus’ view
    Malkhut Ha Shamayim, Malkhut Shamayim
    shamayim
    malkhut
    malakh
    melekh
    Matthew 4:17
    Psalm 115:16
    Matthew 6:10
    Matthew 13:31-32
    Matthew 13:33
    Matthew 13:44-46
    Luke 13:6-9
    2 Peter 3:9
    Matthew 13:18-23
    Matthew 13:24-30
    Matthew 13:47-50
    Luke 18:18-25
    Mark 12:28-33
    Matthew 7:21
    Matthew 21:28-32
 
Khirbet Qeiyafa
    sha’ar, sha’arim
    I Samuel 17:52

Justice and Righteousness introduced
    Exodus 3:9-10
    Exodus 3:13-14
    Deuteronomy 10:17-19
    Psalm 10:16-18
    Psalm 11:7
    Amos 5:21-24
    Matthew 9:10-13
    Hosea 6:1-6
    Isaiah 1:11-17
    James 1:27

Sodom
    Genesis 18:17-21
    Ezekiel 16:49-50

Amalek
    Genesis 36:12
    Exodus 17:8, 14-16
    Deuteronomy 25:17-19
    I Samuel 15:1-3
    I Samuel 15:7-9
    I Samuel 15:26-28
    I Samuel 15:32-33
    I Samuel 16:13-17
    I Chronicles 4:42-43
    Esther 3:1, 10
    Esther 2:4-7

Israel
    Isaiah 5:2-4
    Isaiah 5:7
    mishpat
    mishpak
    tzedekah
    tze’ekah

Justice and Righteousness explained
    Matthew 6:1
    Psalm 24:1
    Leviticus 25:23-24
    Leviticus 25:25-28
    Leviticus 25:8-13
    Leviticus 19:9-10
    Deuteronomy 14:22-23
    Deuteronomy 14:28-29
    Exodus 23:10-11
    Deuteronomy 15:1
    Deuteronomy 8:10-14, 17-18
    Malachi 3:6-12    I Kings 10:9
    Jeremiah 9:23-24

God's Ongoing Story of Restoration (October 19, 2014)

Talking points

In this lesson we look at God's ongoing story of restoration, tracing important elements of it all the way through the Bible, and seeking to get a grasp of what our role is in it.

Creation

Shalom

In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth and everything in them, everything was perfect.  It all worked the way God designed it.  It was shalom, which was introduced in the first lesson as "wholeness".  All aspects of life were working together to accomplish God's purposes.  As a backdrop for this lesson, let's have a quick reminder of what this was like, because we have nothing like it today:

• Initially the earth was formless and void.  The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.  Just like in the Egyptian creation story, the water represents chaos to the Hebrew mind.  God brought order out of the chaos, but he didn't create Ma'at; he created shalom instead.
• God placed man in the choicest spot -- in a garden.  A river flowed through it and became the headwaters of 4 major river systems.  There are trees in the garden, including the Tree of Life.
• God gave Adam a purpose - to work the Garden
• Eve was created from Adam.  They complimented each other; they weren't complete without each other.
• God gave Eve a purpose - to help Adam.  It wasn't an inferior role; Adam needed help.
• Adam and Eve were naked and unashamed.  This is not just about physical nakedness.  They were whole individuals, complete, nothing to hide, open, transparent, uncomplicated.
• God walked with them in the cool of the day.

Sin

There are 4 primary relationships that mankind has, that were all functioning perfectly:  (1) With God, (2) with self, (3) with others, and (4) with Creation.  We can only imagine what this was like, because sin came and ruined it all.  It shattered the shalom of the Garden, broke all of the relationships, and lead to death.

• They realized they were exposed before God and hid from him (God)
• They realized they were naked and now experienced shame (self)
• Adam blames the woman, Eve blames the serpent (others)
• Childbirth will be painful; the ground is cursed, and they will return to dust (Creation)

God drove them from the Garden to keep them from the Tree of Life.  He didn't want them to live forever in that broken state.   Genesis 3:15 contains the first hint that God is going to make things right, when he promises that the Seed of the woman will crush the Serpent's head.

Go back to the story of Creation.  God created for 6 days and then rested the 7th day.  I can't say for sure what these days were like, nor can I say if the 7th day was like the other 6.  We don't hear God say anything about other days afterwards, in the same sense.  But think for a moment -- was there an 8th day?  And if there was, what did God do on that day?  I contend that he started working again.  Jesus said his Father is always at work.  What is he doing?  He is re-creating.  He is not starting over from scratch, but is making the things he already created, new again.  He is restoring everything that was broken.  "I'm going to put the whole world back together again; I'm going to restore everything and bring back the shalom".  He wants to dwell with his people, like he used to walk with Adam and Eve in the Garden.  He starts with Abraham, and he's going to plant him and his descendants into the Promised Land.

Abraham

God tells Abraham to leave his land and family and walk with him.  He promises him a new land and family.  This was much more difficult than we think of, when we think of moving to a new place.  In that culture, your land and family was everything; it was your identity.  This took an incredible amount of faith on Abraham's part.

Covenant

God promises Abraham uncountable descendants and that he will possess the land.  Abraham is not totally convinced of this.  He asks how he can be sure that he will possess it.  God answers him with a bizarre ceremony in Genesis 15. God tells Abraham to get some specific kinds of animals.  The next thing we see is that Abraham, without any further prompting from God, is cutting the animals in half and arranging the pieces to make a blood path between them.  Why did he do this?  How did he even know to do it?  It was a common ceremony of the day.  When two parties wanted to enter a binding agreement, the greater party would spell out the terms, the lesser party would agree, and then they would use this ceremony to seal the deal.  So Abraham recognized that God was initiating a covenant, and he knew what to do.

The Hebrew word for "covenant" is bereth, which comes from the verb bara, which has to do with the shaping or cutting process in order to create something.  You could say that God was creating a covenant, or cutting a covenant.  The image of cut-up animal pieces ties in with this nicely.  And they were arranged to create a blood path between them.  What is this all about?  We actually get an answer from Scripture.  Jeremiah 34:18-20 tells us more about this kind of covenant.  The two parties would walk together in the blood path between the pieces, and that sealed the agreement.  Later, if either party broke the terms of the covenant, the other party was entitled to kill and cut up the offending party like the animals.

Back to Abraham....  Genesis tells us that a thick and dreadful darkness came over him.  That's a way of saying that he's scared out of his mind.  What business does he have entering into a covenant with God?  He knows that if anyone is going to break this covenant, it's not going to be God.  Next, there are some verses where God tells Abraham what is going to happen to his descendants regarding their slavery and eventual occupation of the land.  That's part of the terms of the covenant.  Then you'd expect to see God and Abraham walk the blood path together.  But that's not what happens.  It goes on to see that a smoking pot and a blazing torch appear.  (Some translations say a smoking pot with a 
blazing torch, but that carries the wrong impression.  These are not two things that happen as one; they are two independent items that appear at the same time).  They go through the blood path; Abraham does not.  God walks through the blood path both for himself and in Abraham's place.  He was saying, "Abraham, I'm so committed to giving you this land that I am making this covenant with myself in your place.  If you or your descendents violate the terms of the covenant, I will pay for it with my own blood".   Surely this brings to mind Jesus' words at the Last Supper...  "This is my body which is broken for you....  this is my blood of the new covenant".  Even though Jesus was instituting a new covenant, it wasn't totally new.  It was the fulfillment of something that God had started long before.  It was the culmination and the continuation.

Circumcision

God tells Abraham to circumcise the males in his household, on the 8th day.  It's a continual reminder in their flesh, of the covenant.  But why the 8th day?  We know now that there are medical reasons that this is the best day for it, but more than that, it's another picture of God's commitment to restore and re-create everything.  The 8th day pictures a re-creation.

Israel

Priests

God rescues his people from Egypt after 400 years of slavery there.  He tells Pharaoh, "Let my people go that they may worship me", or it could just as readily be translated, "Let my people go that they may serve me".  The word there is avad, which means both to worship and to serve.  It gives us a picture that worship (like other Hebrew verbs) is not a passive/mental activity; we worship by serving God.

God rescued his people from slavery in Egypt, and planted them in the most trafficked part of the ancient world, so they can represent him, and thereby all of the world will learn of him.  He gave them the Torah so they would know how to live and represent him.  In giving Israel this responsibility, God elevated their status significantly, as explained in the following:

We think of The Ten Commandments, but actually there are 613 commandments (mitzvah, plural is mitzvot) in the Torah.  In Numbers 15:37-41 there are some pretty weird instructions about tying tassels (tsitsit) with a blue cord in them to the hem of your clothes at the corners, as a reminder of the commandments.  How is that going to be a reminder?

1. Recall that the Hebrew language communicates meaning in many ways, including by numeric values associated with letters, words, and phrases (gematria).  What is the gematric value of the word tsitsit?  If you're tracking with this, you might suggest that it would be 613.  This would be a wrong answer, but you'd be on the right track.  The actual value is 600, but then each tassel has 8 cords and 5 knots.  So when the Hebrews would see a tsitsit, they would see "613", and would be reminded of the commandments.
    
2. The tassels were tied to their hems.  In the ancient world, the hem of your garment indicated your status, identity, and authority.  You would press it into clay as your legal signature.  Slaves had no authority.  By taking his people out of slavery in Egypt and telling them to put hems on their clothes, God is continually reminding them of how he has removed them from slavery and elevated their status; they are now his people.  (As a side note, there are several examples in Scripture where we are told that someone did something with someone else's hem, and we think of it as being casual or insignificant, but in reality, it was touching that person's authority).
   
3. One of the cords of the tassel was to be blue.  Blue dye was extremely rare.  It was the color of royalty.  It was the color of the priesthood.  The priests' ephod was to be entirely blue.  This was another reminder of how God had elevated their status.  The blue in the tassel was also a reminder that each one of God's people had a priestly function -- they were to be a kingdom of priests to represent God to the world.  They were to carry God's name.  When Moses told Aaron to give what we call the "Aaronic blessing" to the Israelites in Numbers 6:22-27, he said that in this way he would put God's name on the people.  This was a designated priest conferring priesthood on all the people.  A kingdom of priests, representing God, carrying his name.  The commandment about not taking the Lord's name in vain is not just about swearing; a name represents a person's character, and they carried his name, representing him.  The commandment is about representing him rightly.  We are called to "wear blue well".

Tabernacle

After giving the Torah, God gave elaborate instructions about building the Tabernacle (mishcon, deriving from the verb shacon meaning "to dwell") for him to dwell among his people.  The instructions themselves are formatted as a mirror of the original Creation account:  There are 6 times where it says, "The Lord said to Moses <and it goes on to indicate something about the construction of the tabernacle>".  Then the seventh and final time, it says, "The Lord said to Moses, 'say to the Israelites, "You must observe my Sabbath"'".   It's another picture of the Re-creation.  There are 2 chapters in the Bible dedicated to the creation of the entire universe, and 13 chapters dedicated to the construction of the Tabernacle.  Don't miss the point that God wants to be with his people as part of the restoration process.  It's a partnership, and he is going to live right among his people to do it.  In the first creation, God said to be fruitful and multiply, and they filled with world with brokenness.  In the Re-creation, God says, "Make space for me, and I will fill it with myself and live among you".

Interesting that we find that the Tabernacle was set up on the first day of the first month of their second year.  Why do we need to know that?  Think back to when God took the people out of Egypt.  He said that month was to be their first month.  Fifty days after they left Egypt they arrived at Mount Sinai, and he gave them the Torah.  Moses was on the mountain 40 days for that.  So that's 90 days of that first year.  When he came down from the mountain, they started building the tabernacle.  So how long did it take?  About nine months.  Is that a coincidence?  Or is it God foreshadowing the time when Christ would come as a baby?  Nothing in the Text is random; it's all there for a purpose.  I'm inclined to believe this is another one of those pictures hidden in the Text.

When the tabernacle was completed, God moved in.  He came to live there, and his glory filled the whole tabernacle so that Moses could not even go in.  The rabbis coined the term shekinah to refer to this glory.  As before, the word derives from the verb shacon ("to dwell"), and more specifically from the word sheken, which means "close neighbor".  God, in all his glory, lived right there among the people as their close neighbor.  In fact he instructed them to set up their camp all around the Tabernacle.  We always say that God can't look upon sin, but I'm not so sure; he lived right there among the sinful people.

Temple

When Israel finally entered the Promised Land, some time later Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem.  And the same thing happened there as with the tabernacle.  When the temple was dedicated, God's glory again came down and filled the temple so that the priests could not go in.  God was again living among his people.

Exile

Then Israel lost the plot.  They created more brokenness and chaos.  They did not worship and serve God.  They did not represent him.  They lost the position of influence that God wanted them to have.  Finally God deported them to exile in other lands.  Has God's purpose for Israel failed?  It looks like it has, but no, it can't.  At the right time, Jesus entered the scene, as an Israelite, to accomplish God's purpose.  He came to do what Israel as a nation had failed to do.  He came to restore the shalom and to show the people how to wear the blue well.

Jesus

Jesus, as an Israelite, relives Israel's history, the way it should have been lived.  He, as an individual, is able to do and be what God wanted from the nation.

Birth

We're familiar with the prophecy in Isaiah about the Messiah as being the "Prince of Peace", but the meaning is deeper than that.  The word there in the Hebrew is shalom.  He is the Prince of Shalom.  The Messiah would restore the wholeness that was in the Garden originally.  Isaiah also speaks of "a day acceptable to the Lord", or "the day of the Lord's favor".  This is the term Ratzon La'Adonai, which means "a day of the Lord's divine good will".  In the Hebrew mind, this was a long way off, something that would happen at the end of time.  But when Jesus is born, the angels make the announcement "Peace (shalom) on earth" and "good will toward men".  The part about "good will toward men" is again a reference to Ratzon La'Adonai.  It's a proclamation that the restoration which will be complete at the end of time is actually entering the world now through Jesus.

Baptism

Since Jesus never sinned, nor ever needed to repent, why did he have to be baptized?  His baptism is a picture of Creation all over again.  You've got the water of the Jordan River, and in the Hebrew mind, bodies of water represent chaos.  You've got the Holy Spirit above the waters/chaos, just like in the original Creation story.  Jesus' baptism is about him entering the waters to address the chaos and brokenness.  "I'm going in".  That's our calling too, as his representatives and followers.  Step into the chaos, wear blue well, and move the story of God's restoration forward.  How much do you want to be like your rabbi?

Resurrection

As big as Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection are, they get only a small portion of the gospel narratives, because there is more to the story than that.  Not to minimize them in any way, because they are essential.  Jesus absolutely had to pay for sin, but he also came to bring the Kingdom.  He came to bring the Re-creation.  He came to bring the shalom.  He came not to misinterpret (abolish) the Torah, but to explain what God's heart was in it (fulfill).  He came to teach us what it looks like in flesh and blood to be a priest or ambassador of God.  He came to teach us how to wear blue, and how to bring restoration to the broken world.

Why did Jesus have to rise from the dead?  Even if he had remained dead, couldn't that have paid the penalty for sin?  But that's the point; Jesus absolutely had to pay for sin, but it's not just about paying for sin.  He needed to defeat sin in order to restore everything that was broken in the fall, and because death is a consequence of sin, he couldn't have defeated sin if he hadn't defeated death.

Jesus' resurrection on the first day of the week is the 8th day since the start of Passover week.  It's another picture of Re-creation.  And the fact that Mary confused Jesus with the gardener indicates that Jesus was resurrected in a garden.  There's another picture of the original shalom of the Garden being restored.

So Jesus has absolute victory over everything that was broken in the fall.  The cross has done something for us (salvation), and now it wants to do something in us.  Our reconciliation with God addresses only one of the four relationships that were broken by sin; now God wants to get the brokenness out of our system, and that has every bit to do with our sanctification, and our "working out of our salvation", and our ministry of reconciliation.  By the time you get to the end of the Book, everything has been put back together again.  We are God's agents to move the story forward.

Christ-followers

God's new temple

When Jesus died, the curtain in the temple was torn in two.  This was no insignificant feat:  It was 4-6 inches thick and 68 feet tall.  We often think of this as meaning that through Christ we have access to God directly in the Holy of Holies and no longer need the Levitical priesthood, and that's true.  But in another sense, it also means that God moved out of the temple and was no longer there.  Where did he go?

After Jesus ascended into heaven, his disciples went back to Jerusalem (Jesus told them to wait there for a few days), and the Text says they stayed continually at the temple.  When the day of Pentecost came, it says there was the sound of a rushing wind that filled the whole house where they were sitting.  But as the story goes on, it sounds like all of this took place in a public place.  The "house" where they were sitting was very likely God's House - the temple, where they stayed everyday.  They were very likely on the southern steps leading to the temple.  There are many mikvah (plural is mikvot) there, which are the baths where the people would perform their ritual cleansing on their way into the temple.  Peter preached and 3000 of them were baptized.  Where were they going to baptize these people?  Probably right there on the southern steps in the many mikvot. 

Think back to when God gave the Torah on Mount Sinai.  When Moses was up on the mountain, the people became impatient and demanded that Aaron make gods for them, and the whole golden calf incident occurred.  When Moses came down, he saw what was going on and he told the people that whoever was for the Lord was to come to him, and the Levites came.  Moses told them to go and kill their brothers who were participating in the worship of the calf, and about 3000 of them died.  The giving of the Torah and the giving of the Holy Spirit are parallel events; they are gifts from God to help his people know how to represent him.  It's like God is using Pentecost to "undo" the brokenness and adultery of the golden calf incident.

Throughout this whole story, God has been moving closer to his people.  On the day of Pentecost, he moved into his people via the Holy Spirit.  Now he dwells within us, and we (plural) are his temple, actually his Holy of Holies (naos).  Peter says we are all priests.  We are the vehicle by which people will come to know God.  We stand between him and the world.  We are to declare his praises.  We are his message.  Paul tells us that we are God's ambassadors, to whom he has committed the ministry or reconciliation.  God is going to restore the world through us.  This is what wearing blue is all about.  He lives in us to help us do it.

The Sebasteion

The Sebasteion is a huge monument in stone in the city of Aphrodesia in Turkey.  It is 300 feet long and 45 feet high, on both sides of the entryway to the temple to Caesar Augustus.  It contained 180 5x5 foot reliefs that were carved in stone and told the message of the Greco-Roman world -- its world view, what they wanted you to understand.  It told stories of Greek mythology, the history of Rome's successes, stories of gods and emperors, and the current story of the day.  It went to great lengths to send a message that everything depicted there was true.

Peter says we are the living stones that make up God's temple.  We are his handiwork.  We've been created for a purpose, given a path for us to walk out with our lives (remember halakh and peripateo both mean to live and to walk).  God says, "You are my artwork; my Sebasteion; my message.  You are one of my panels".  What does your panel say?  Does it contribute to the story?  Does it tell a different story?

Who is shaping you?  The Master Artist?  God says, "You are my artwork.  I cut you out of the quarry.  I want to shape you".  Nothing is added to the relief; rather, whatever is not part of the message is cut away or chipped out.  Whoever loves his life will lose it, but whoever loses it for God will find it.  It might be painful.  It's all a part of being the message.  God is sculpting us because we've got work to do.  Salvation is just the beginning.  The world knows we're Christians but they wonder what that means; what God is like.  We need to show them.  We need to wear blue well. 

One relief by itself, though impressive, is not nearly as arresting as 180 of them in one place on display.  This is a call for the community of believers.

The Stadium

The Apostle Paul uses the metaphor of running a race to describe our lives.  Run well, to get the prize.  Don't let yourself be disqualified.  Discipline yourself in training.  It's not a sprint; it's a marathon.  Don't stand before God at the end and say, "I wish I had run harder".  Give it all you have.  Have nothing left in your tank at the end.  The stadium in Aphrodesia provided a good image of this.  In Hebrews, we're told to throw off everything that hinders and run the race with perseverance, mindful of the great cloud of witnesses watching us in the stands.

Revelation

When we get to the book of Revelation, everything has been restored.  It's reminiscent of the Garden.  God is finally dwelling with his people.  There is no longer an sea (chaos).  He says "I'm making everything new.  Write it down; it will happen".  Things that were in the original Garden are there -- the River of Life flowing from the Throne, through the middle of the great street of the city.  The Tree of Life is on each side with its leaves for the healing of the nations.  The curse is gone.  His servants worship/serve (avad) him.

This is ultimately where the story is going.  We are called to live out our part; to wear blue well, and move the story forward.

Handouts

Creation - Shalom & Sin
    shalom
    Ma’at
    Genesis 1:2
    Genesis 2:8-10, 15, 18, 22, 25
    Genesis 3:7-9, 10-11, 12-13, 16-19, 22-24, 15
    John 5:17
Abraham - Covenant & Circumcision
    Genesis 12:1-3
    Genesis 15:7-8, 9-11
    bereth
    bara
    Jeremiah 34:18-20
    Genesis 15:12, 17-18
    Matthew 26:26-28
    Genesis 17:12
Israel - Priests, Tabernacle, Temple
    Exodus 8:1, 9:1
    avad
    Numbers 15:37-41
    mitzvah, mitzvot
    tsitsit
    gematria
    I Samuel 24:1-6, Luke 8:43-44, Ruth 3:9, I Sam 15:27-28, 2 Kings 2:13-14, Malachi 4:2
    Exodus 28:31
    Exodus 19:5-6
    Numbers 6:22-27
    Exodus 20:7
    mishcon
    shacon
    Exodus 25:1-2, 30:11-12, 17-18, 22-23, 34, 31:1-2, 12-13
    Exodus 40:17, 34-35
    shekinah
    sheken
    Numbers 2:1-2
    2 Chronicles 7:1-2
Jesus - Birth, Baptism, Resurrection
    Isaiah 9:6, 58:5
    Ratzon La’Adonai
    Luke 2:10, 14
    Matthew 3:13-17
    John 20:1
    John 20:15
    Philippians 2:12
Christ-Followers
    Matthew 27:51
    Luke 24:53
    Acts 2:1-4, 41
    Exodus 32:28
    mikvah, mikvot
    I Corinthians 3:16
    naos
    1 Peter 2:9
    2 Corinthians 5:17-20
Sebasteion
    Aphrodesia
    I Peter 2:5
    Ephesians 2:10
    halakh, peripateo
    Luke 9:24
Stadium
    Galatians 2:2
    I Corinthians 9:24
    Acts 20:24
    Hebrews 12:1-2
Revelation
    Revelation 21:1-3, 5, 22:1-3

Perspectives on the Sabbath (October 12, 2014)

Talking points

Probably most of us do not have a good handle on what to do with the Sabbath.  It seems important to God, yet we know we're not under the Law, but we're not sure what that looks like.  So we do what we do, or we don't do what we don't do, but are not sure we've got it right.  We don't think we'll ever know for sure, so we dismiss the whole subject and hope for the best.

Martha and I are still working on this ourselves, and we're doing better now that we're retired, but we know the Sabbath is not just for retirees.  So while we're not really qualified to teach about it, we would like to share several perspectives that have been uncovered for us in the Text, and hope they will be helpful to you as you wrestle with this topic.

Origins

The first indication comes from Genesis 2:2-3, where God rested from all his work on the 7th day.  He blessed the 7th day and made it holy because he rested.  What does it mean that the day is blessed and holy?  We'll look at this more through the lesson, but for now let's just say that it is special.  There's something extra good about it.

The next time we see the 7th day concept, it has to do with God supplying manna.  And here the 7th day is actually called Sabbath.  In Exodus 16:21-29, they Israelites are told to gather manna for 6 days, and gather twice as much on the 6th day.  There will be none on the 7th day; it is a holy Sabbath to the Lord.  Nevertheless, some people went out to gather it, and found none.  Moses tells the people, "Bear in mind that the Lord has given you the Sabbath...  Everyone is to stay where they are on the 7th day; no one is to go out".  This special blessed holy day is a good thing; it is a gift from God to his people.  But they didn't see it as any different than the other 6 days and were choosing to ignore it.  They were missing the point that God was giving them something good.

The word for Sabbath in Hebrew is Shabbat.  It comes from the verb shavat, which means, "to cease".  Shabbat means "day of ceasing".  It has more to do with "ceasing" than it does with "resting".  You do something for 6 days; you don't do it on the 7th.

The next time the concept of the Sabbath appears in the Scripture is when God gave the Torah on Mt. Sinai, as described in Exodus 20:8-11.  Remember the Sabbath day.  Keep it holy.  It is clear here, that what is to be ceased from is work.  This is the only command that references another story -- Creation.  Here we get the reason why God wants no work on the 7th day -- he stopped working then.  He blessed the 7th day and made it holy, and somehow he wants his people to experience it as a blessed and holy day.  So, they, too, are to not work on that day.

God goes on to give the entire Torah with the 613 laws (mitzvot).  A lot of them reflect the idea of 7.  Some examples:

• The land is to take a Sabbath rest every 7 years.
• There is a 7-year cycle for how the tithe from the crops are to be handled
• Slaves are set free after 7 years of work
• The year of Jubilee is an extra year thrown in after 7 sets of 7 years
• Several of the feasts are 7 days long, and some follow others by multiples of 7 days.

What is it about the number 7?  In the Hebrew mind, this number represents completeness or wholeness.  It seems that God has applied it to many facets of life, thus reiterating his evaluation during Creation that everything was good.

The 10 Commandments are re-iterated in the Book of Deuteronomy, and the Sabbath comes up here again in 5:12-15.  This time the story related to the command is not Creation, but their deliverance by God from slavery in Egypt. "Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day".  He wants them to remember and celebrate their deliverance from slavery, their freedom, by using that day to honor him and to not work.

Intent/purpose

There are several facets to the Sabbath that give us different pictures of it:

• It is an issue of rhythm.  For the people of Israel, God was reformatting their calendar.  The Egyptian calendar had a 10-day week, including a 2-day weekend.  God's pattern is a 7 day week with 1 day off.  We see this reflected in a couple of different ways:
• God is setting an example to be followed:  "This is the rhythm and cadence I have built into the world.  You are not designed to always be going; you are designed to take a break."  Constantly going is annoying.  The breaks are what makes a rhythm pleasant.
• God is not tired after creating, such that he needs to rest and catch his breath.  The word is more about "ceasing" than "resting".  He stopped to celebrate all the good he had created.  He gave the Sabbath as a gift; you work, then you celebrate.  Work followed by celebration.
• It is an issue of freedom.  God tells Israel, "Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and I brought you out.  Remember what slavery was like; it's not going to be that way with me.  But if you don't take a break, you might as well still be in Egypt".  And if we don't take a break, we might as well be a slave to our work, and we probably are.  And on another level, perhaps we should be using the Sabbath to remember and celebrate our release from slavery to sin.
• It is an issue of identity.  It tells us of the self-image God wants for us.  God's worth and dignity are not defined by his work.  He wasn't any less God on the 7th day.  Your worth does not come from your work either.  Don't let yourself be defined by your work.  Your identity comes from being God's creation, from being his child.  All week long we identify ourselves by what we do.  We need the break.  If you don't take a break, you allow the world to define you, not God.  The Sabbath is a reminder that God made us holy and special in his image.
• It is an issue of trust.  Will God provide for you if you take the Sabbath off to spend time with him?  The lesson from the manna is that he will.  Think about this....  it's not just that God provided manna.  He didn't just turn on some natural force in the earth; it was not on auto-pilot...  He had to do something to make manna 6 days of the week and not on the 7th.  He had to do something to make it last "twice as long" on the 6th day.  He was involved daily in their sustenance.  Doesn't that say we can trust God to be involved in providing for us?
• The rabbis will tell you that the story of the giving of the Law in Exodus 20 is like a Hebrew wedding, and we'll look at that more in a bit.  But the sabbath is the wedding ring.  It is the sign that he made his people holy/special.  The Sabbath is about your relationship with God.  Who do you spend time with?  Not keeping the Sabbath is like taking the wedding ring off.
• It is a gift.  To the Hebrews, it is the highlight of the week.  The week builds in anticipation of the Sabbath.  It's a time of celebration, not just crashing or catching up before starting over the next week.  Will you receive it as a gift to be celebrated?

To me, there's a freshness here, to view the Sabbath as a gift from God.  It takes away some of the legalism we have associated with it, and we can just get down to what pleases God, and get down to pursuing his heart.

Israel's struggle

This was a struggle Israel dealt with continually.  The prophets were continually calling the people back to matters of justice, righteousness, and keeping the Sabbath.  These are the things that seem to matter most to God.  Here are some sample passages from the prophets particularly related to the Sabbath (we'll take up the matters of justice and righteousness in future lessons):

• Jeremiah 17:21-27 speak of blessings for keeping the Sabbath and punishments for not
• Isaiah 56:1-7 speak of blessings even to foreigners and eunuchs who keep the Sabbath
• Isaiah 58:13-14 speak of blessings for keeping the Sabbath and finding delight in it
• Ezekiel 20:12-24 speak of the Sabbath as being a sign between God and Israel so that they would know that he had made them holy.  They should rejoice in it.  But they rejected it.  This is a very interesting passage, because it seems that God is conflicted about it.  He wants to punish them, and threatens them with destroying them in the wilderness, not bringing them in to the land he had given them, and dispersing them among the nations.  But he says that for the sake of his name, he punished them only to the extent he could keep his name from being profaned among the nations that were aware that he had brought them out of Egypt into the Promised Land.  It is amazing to me, how not keeping the Sabbath seems to affect God.  Perhaps it sheds some light on the passage in Exodus 20:5 where He says he is a "jealous God".  As people, we don't have the right to be jealous, because we don't really own anything.  But God owns everything, people are the crown of His creation, and he wants to be in relationship with them and is deeply hurt when that is not returned.
• Amos 8:4-6 speaks of the people being anxious for the Sabbath to be over so they can go back to work, and back to exploiting the poor.

God's heart in the matter is pretty simple:  "Don't work on the Sabbath, so you can spend the day with me".  The Old Testament doesn't give any description of what work is; it just says you're not to work.  You're to rest.  It is a day of joy, it is made for man, a day of rest, recuperation, restoration, and worship.

From the Talmud

It seems there are a couple of ways Israel could have chosen to approach this. They could have chosen to live by the spirit of what God intended, or they could try to put some parameters on it to quantify it.  I don't know who started it (and surely it was with good intentions, and the Pharisees certainly took it to the nth degree), but Israel chose to devise a system to define work, so they could know for sure that they were not working on the Sabbath.  So there were 39 categories of prohibited activities (melakhah or melakhoth):

1.    plowing earth
2.    sowing
3.    reaping
4.    binding sheaves
5.    threshing
6.    winnowing
7.    selecting
8.    grinding
9.    sifting
10.    kneading
11.    baking
12.    shearing wool
13.    washing wool
14.    beating wool
15.    dyeing wool
16.    spinning
17.    weaving
18.    making two loops
19.    weaving two threads
20.    separating two threads
21.    tying
22.    untying
23.    sewing stitches
24.    tearing
25.    trapping
26.    slaughtering
27.    flaying
28.    tanning
29.    scraping hide
30.    marking hide
31.    cutting hide to shape
32.    writing two or more letters
33.    erasing two or more letters
34.    building
35.    demolishing
36.    extinguishing a fire
37.    kindling a fire
38.    putting the finishing touch on an object
39.    transporting an object (between private and public domains, or over 4 cubits within a public domain)

Where did they get these categories?  They are derived from the kinds of work that were necessary for the construction of the Tabernacle.  In a future lesson we're going to see how the instructions that were given for the construction of the Tabernacle parallel God’s 7 days of Creation.  Apparently the ancient Hebrews saw it that way, too, because they equated the work of construction of the Tabernacle with God’s work in Creation, as far as defining what to stop doing on the Sabbath in order to stop working.

Okay, so we’ve got all of these categories of work.  Each of them encompasses many specific work activities which would be prohibited.  For example, while "winnowing" (category 6) usually refers exclusively to the separation of chaff from grain, and "selecting" (category 7) refers exclusively to the separation of debris from grain, they both refer in the Talmudic sense to any separation of intermixed materials which renders something edible that was previously inedible. Thus, filtering undrinkable water to make it drinkable falls under these categories, as does picking small bones from fish.

Here are some other examples from the Talmud.  The Talmud was written after the time of Jesus, but it codified the laws that were in existence before and during his time:

• You couldn't travel more than three thousand feet...some say you can't go more than nineteen hundred and ninety-nine steps, if you take the two thousandth step, you've violated Sabbath.  The only way you can go further than that is if you put some food nineteen hundred and ninety-nine steps away on Friday before Sabbath; then once you get to the food on Sabbath, you get another nineteen hundred and ninety-nine steps. You can either go further or come back.  It's like the food represents an extension to your house.
  
  Wherever there were narrow streets, you could lay a piece of wood or a piece of rope over the entrance to the street between the dwellings on each side and you could make the street like the entrance to a house so you could go another three thousand feet or nineteen hundred and ninety-nine steps beyond that.
  
  Both of these seem to have their origin in Moses’ statement, “No one is to go out”, regarding gathering manna on the 7th day.  But what it became reminds me of a typical video game where if you get to a certain place in a timely manner, you get more life to continue playing.
   
• You could lift something up and put something down, but only from certain places to certain places. You could lift it up in a public place and put it down in a private place, or you could lift it up in a private place and put it down in a public place, or you could lift it up in a wide place and put it in a legally free place and on and on and on.
• No burden could be carried that weighed more than a dried fig, or half a fig carried two times.
• If you put an olive in your mouth and rejected it because it was bad, you couldn't put a whole one in the next time because the palate had tasted the flavor of a whole olive.
• If you threw an object in the air and caught it with the other hand, it was a sin. If you caught it in the same hand, it wasn't.
• If a person was in one place and he reached out his arm for food and the Sabbath overtook him, he would have to drop the food and not return his arm with it, or he would be carrying a burden and that would be sin. 
• A tailor couldn't carry his needle. The scribe couldn't carry his pen. A pupil couldn't carry his books.
• No clothing could be examined lest somehow you find a lice and inadvertently kill it.
• Wool couldn't be dyed.
• Nothing could be sold. Nothing could be bought.
• Nothing could be washed.
• A letter could not be sent even if it was sent via a heathen. 
• No fire could be lit. 
• Cold water could be poured on warm, but warm couldn't be poured on cold. 
• An egg could not be boiled even if all you did was put it in the sand.

Modern Judaism

Here are some thoughts from modern Judaism:

• Electricity:  Orthodox and some Conservative authorities rule that turning electric devices on or off is prohibited as a melakhah; however, authorities are not in agreement about exactly which one(s). One view is that tiny sparks are created in a switch when the circuit is closed, and this would constitute lighting a fire (category 37). If the appliance is purposed for light or heat (such as an incandescent bulb or electric oven), then the lighting or heating elements may be considered as a type of fire that falls under both lighting a fire (category 37) and cooking (i.e., baking, category 11). Turning lights off would be extinguishing a fire (category 36).
  
  Another view is that a device plugged into an electrical outlet of a wall becomes part of the building, but is nonfunctional while the switch is off; turning it on would then constitute building (category 35) and turning it off would be demolishing (category 34). Some schools of thought consider the use of electricity to be forbidden only by rabbinic injunction, rather than because it violates one of the original categories.
  
  Solutions to the problem of electricity:
• The use of preset timers (Shabbat clocks) for electric appliances, to turn them on and off automatically, with no human intervention on Shabbat itself. 
• Shabbat lamps have been developed to allow a light in a room to be turned on or off at will while the electricity remains on. A special mechanism blocks out the light when the off position is desired without violating Shabbat.
• Some Orthodox Jews also hire a "Shabbos goy", a Gentile to perform prohibited tasks (like operating light switches) on Shabbat.
• Some Conservative authorities reject altogether the arguments for prohibiting the use of electricity.
• Automobiles:  Orthodox and many Conservative authorities completely prohibit the use of automobiles on Shabbat as a violation of multiple categories, including lighting a fire, extinguishing a fire, and transferring between domains (category 39). However, the Conservative movement's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards permits driving to a synagogue on Shabbat, as an emergency measure, on the grounds that if Jews lost contact with synagogue life they would become lost to the Jewish people.
  
  A halakhically authorized Shabbat module added to a power-operated mobility scooter may be used on the observance of Shabbat for those with walking limitations, often referred to as a Shabbat scooter. It is intended only for individuals whose limited mobility is dependent on a scooter or automobile consistently throughout the week.
   
• Modifications to work around the prohibitions:
• Seemingly "forbidden" acts may be performed by modifying technology such that no law is actually violated. In Sabbath mode, a "Sabbath elevator" will stop automatically at every floor, allowing people to step on and off without anyone having to press any buttons, which would normally be needed to work. (Dynamic braking is also disabled if it is normally used, i.e., shunting energy collected from downward travel, and thus the gravitational potential energy of passengers, into a resistor network.) However, many rabbinical authorities consider the use of such elevators by those who are otherwise capable as a violation of Shabbat, with such workarounds being for the benefit of the frail and handicapped and not being in the spirit of the day.
• Many observant Jews avoid the prohibition of carrying by use of an eruv.  This is a type of structure, largely schematic, with both public and private entrances, so it nullifies crossing domain boundaries.  Others make their keys into a tie bar, part of a belt buckle, or a brooch, because a legitimate article of clothing or jewelry may be worn rather than carried. An elastic band with clips on both ends, and with keys placed between them as integral links, may be considered a belt.

Even though throughout their history they have had trouble keeping it, for the Jews, Shabbat was and still is the culmination of the week.  The week builds up to a celebration at the end.  It isn't a crash; it isn't about getting ready for the next week.  It is a good day.  It is a special day; a day of celebration.  It is a day to be spent in relationship with God.  Shabbat meal is still a big deal, and everyone makes sure everyone else has a place to go for it, and hotels have unbelievable buffets.


Jesus

The Pharisees’ original intent was to sincerely obey the law so God’s blessings would come to Israel, and so the Messiah would come and free them from their bondage.  But this missed the heart of the matter and  became an end in itself, and just led to self-righteousness. Preventing work on the Sabbath became their number 1 issue.  And in their hypocrisy, they developed all kinds of things that made the Sabbath worse than every other day, because of their unbelievable restraints.

Given what this had evolved to, it’s no wonder that Jesus and the Pharisees tangled over the Sabbath.  Jesus was always doing something good on the Sabbath, and the Pharisees were always after him about it because it was their number 1 issue.

• In the story of the healing of the blind man in John 9:16, keeping the Sabbath was their litmus test for being godly or a sinner, no better than the tax collectors and prostitutes they looked down on.
• In Luke 13:10-21 we have the story of Jesus healing the woman who had been crippled by a spirit for 18 years, on the Sabbath.  The Pharisees would not allow doing more on the Sabbath than keeping someone from dying.  Jesus says they do more than that on the Sabbath for their donkeys.  One of the reasons the Sabbath was given was to remember being set free from slavery in Egypt.  This woman was in bondage from Satan.  So why shouldn’t she be set free on the Sabbath?  What could be more appropriate than that?  His opponents are humiliated, and the people are delighted.  The fact that Jesus goes on to teach about the Kingdom of God in the same context indicates that he was up to something far bigger than just challenging the Pharisees on their turf.  He is demonstrating the Kingdom with this miraculous healing and the good that it did.  He’s bringing the Kingdom right there, and saying that it is going to start small – a healing here and there, religious traditions challenged along the way – and grow over time into something that will pervade everything and bless everyone.
• In Matthew 12:9-14 there's the story of Jesus, on the Sabbath, healing the man with the crippled hand.  Jesus says it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.  He is referencing the hierarchy that existed within the Jewish laws.  It was okay, and required if necessary, to break lesser laws to uphold higher ones.  Jesus says they're already doing that when they rescue a sheep on the Sabbath; how much more valuable is a person than a sheep?  So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.  (As an aside, in the event that a human life is in danger, a Jew is not only allowed, but required to violate any halakhic law that stands in the way of saving that person (excluding murder, idolatry, and forbidden sexual acts)).
• In Matthew 12:1-8, we have the story of the Pharisees accusing the disciples of breaking the Sabbath because they were picking and eating heads of grain as they went through the fields.  Now picking random grain heads to eat while on the road which wanders through someone's field was totally acceptable; you just couldn't do it on a big scale, but grabbing what you could eat as you passed by was fine.  Jesus must have just galled the Pharisees to no end, when he asks, "Haven't you read ....?"  Of course they've read it; they've got it memorized.  Here again, Jesus is addressing the inherent hierarchy within the Jewish laws, to point out to them how misplaced their fanaticism with the Sabbath was:
• The priests, in order to perform their Sabbath duties, actually have to break the law every Sabbath, and that's okay; the temple laws were higher than the Sabbath laws.
• David was allowed to eat the bread that only priests were to eat; preserving life was a higher law than the temple laws.
• Jesus states that he is greater than the temple (and therefore greater than the Sabbath), and backs this up by referring to himself as the Son of Man, picking up on a Messianic reference from Daniel 7:13-14 which also suggests the Messiah would be divine.  As Creator God, he created the Sabbath, so of course, he is Lord of it.
• The statement, "I desire mercy, not sacrifice" comes from Hosea 6:6, where God is berating Israel for their disobedience for not being committed to him from their hearts, and trying to make up for it by their sacrifices.  Jesus is telling the Pharisees that their fanaticism with the Sabbath laws is like Israel in that picture: it's not what God wants; they've missed the heart of it.  If they had understood that, it would never had occurred to them to bring the subject up.
• The same story is recorded in Mark 2:23-28, but Jesus adds that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.  The Sabbath is a gift.  And as the Son of Man, who made the Sabbath, has authority over it.
• Jesus has many scathing condemnations for the Pharisees and the teachers of the law in Matthew 23 and Luke 11.  In Luke 11:46, he says, "Woe to you experts in the law because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them".  Here he is surely talking about the burdens of their Sabbath laws.
• Contrast that with Matthew 11:28-30, where Jesus says his yoke (his interpretation of the Text) is easy, his burden is light, and people will find rest.  He will not burden the people with a complicated system.  He wants the people to know God's heart.  He says this in the context of the Sabbath incidents we just looked at, just preceding them, so they clearly illustrate his meaning here.

Here is a story from the life of Jesus, which is maybe not so much about his view of the Sabbath day as it is about his view of the Sabbath purpose. 

• In Mark 1:21-28 Jesus is teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum (his home town).  Synagogue service was the place to be on Sabbath; it was the town event of the week.  He amazes people with his teaching and his authority.  He casts out a demon from a man.  News about him spreads all over Galilee.  He is on everyone's radar from that point on.
• In Mark 1:29-31, as soon as they leave the synagogue, Jesus goes to Peter's house, and heals his mother-in-law, and then she waits on them.  It's like both of them were "working".
• Mark 1:32-34, that evening after sunset (because they waited for Sabbath to be over), the whole town shows up on Jesus' door, with all their sick and demon-possessed people, and he heals them.  The whole town.  This had to be a very late night.
• Mark 1:35, Jesus is up very early in the morning while it was still dark, and he goes to be alone to pray.  This is Jesus' Sabbath.  He spends it with God.  He's taking a break.  He is a very balanced person.  We ascribe a lot of importance to our busyness.  Jesus has unbelievably important work and limited time to do it, yet he takes breaks.  Our culture worships on the altar of production.  We associate busyness with importance and production.  Even Socrates said, "Beware of the barrenness of a busy life".  Nothing we do is that important that we shouldn't take a break to nurture our relationship with God.
  
  Why does Jesus take a break?  He's got to be tired.  He's exhausted at time, and the gospels aren't ashamed to acknowledge it.  But it was more important for him to spend his Sabbath with the Father.  He prays.  God will speak.  He will gain clarity on what to do next.  He needs to leave the busy space and get to a space where he can breathe, think, pray, and listen to God.
• In Mark 1:36-38 the disciples find him and exclaim that everyone is looking for him.  "People are waiting for you.  Come on!  You've got work to do back there".  But Jesus has been able to gain clarity about what he is to do, because he's been able to focus on his purpose.  "Let's go somewhere else -- to the nearby villages -- so I can preach there also.  That is why I have come".
  
  Doing ministry in Capernaum would have kept him from his mission.  He needs to turn away from the good to do the best.  Saying "yes" to good things doesn't make them right.  Say "no" to good things so you can say "yes" to the best things.  Spending time with God, as his Sabbath, has given him the proper perspective.

So for Jesus, we see him participating in doing good on the Sabbath day, and also extending that day as needed to spend the time alone with the Father.

Application

Here is the Sabbath practice from one of our teachers.  He is a teaching pastor, so he "works" on Sunday.  He takes the Sabbath on Saturday.  It's a day of rest.  He doesn't do the things that define him the other 6 days.  No emails on Saturday.  Sermon preparation ends at 5:30 on Friday, and he doesn't touch it again until Sunday morning.  Sabbath is a day of re-connection with God and within his family.  His wife and kids know that however crazy the week is, they have him full time on Sabbath.  Be creative.  Try to be outside.  Try to have as much fun as you can put into a day.  Sabbath is about being a human being, not a human doing.  Leaving the world of the 6 days gives clarity and focus about how to re-engage it the next week.

Another of our teachers gives a Sabbath lesson in which the giving of the Law on Mt. Sinai is the model for a Jewish wedding.  The Cloud is the tent under which the bride and groom stand.  The 10 Commandments are God's covenant for Israel, like a groom gives to his bride.  And the Sabbath is the wedding ring of Sinai (Ezekiel 20:12 says it is the sign that he made his people holy).  The Sabbath is about spending time with God.  If we "take the ring off", we spend that time with someone or something else.  It's like being unfaithful in marriage.

There are different perspectives that have been presented here, and we're probably all going to apply them differently, but here are some questions we should probably wrestle with:

• Can you see God's heart for the Sabbath?
• Can you receive the Sabbath as a gift from God?
• Can you make it the high point of the week and spend the day with God?
• What do you need to do differently?

Handouts

Origins
    Genesis 2:2-3
    Exodus 16:21-26
    Exodus 16:27-29
    Shabbat
    shavat
    Exodus 20:8-11
    Deuteronomy 5:12-15
   
Intent/purpose

    Rhythm
    Freedom
    Identity
    Trust
    Wedding ring
    Gift

Israel’s struggle
    Jeremiah 17:21-27
    Isaiah 56:1-7
    Isaiah 58:13-14
    Ezekiel 20:12-24
    Amos 8:4-6
   
Talmud
    melakhah, melakhoth

Modern Judaism

Jesus
    John 9:16
    Luke 13:10-21
    Matthew 12:9-14
    Matthew 12:1-8
    Mark 2:23-28
    Luke 11:46
    Matthew 11:28-30
    Mark 1:21-28
    Mark 1:29-31
    Mark 1:32-34
    Mark 1:35
    Mark 1:36-38

Brad

George

Lessons from the Desert (October 5, 2014)

Talking Points

This lesson was built around the metaphor of your life being on a path.  Psalm 23 speaks of "paths of righteousness".  We speak of our "walk with God".  Dr. B. taught us to engage the journey and leave the destination to God.  The Hebrew word halakh means both "to walk" and "to live".  Your life is your walk; your walk is your life.  This image comes up repeatedly in the Old Testament.  In the New Testament, the Greek word peripateo has the same dual meaning.  Most of us are pretty content to walk with God through what we think are "green pastures", but we're not so sure about this when God's path takes us through the desert.  God seems to love the desert, and loves taking us there.

Starting with Israel’s time in Egypt and their journey out of it, we’re going to spend some time  looking at these desert experiences to see what we can learn from them.  I’m a little hesitant to share this because I know there are many people who have gone through much deeper desert experiences than I have, and are more qualified to speak about the desert than I am.  Nevertheless, there are many pictures in the Bible of God’s love and care for us in the desert that I would like to uncover, that I think will be helpful to us all.

Why did God put his people into slavery in Egypt?  Why slavery?  Why Egypt?  I can probably only give a partial answer at best, and we'll give this some time to develop.  We can start first by understanding something of what Egypt was, and to do that we begin with the Egyptian "creation story".

• The "hidden one" called dry land out of water, out of chaos.  The dry land appeared first as a point (or perhaps several points in several places), and grew larger as it grew up. The ground brought forth plants, and from that, man was able to gather food, produce food, develop trade, and build an economy.
• As this gets bigger it becomes more stable and orderly; more predictable.  Egypt went on to be the breadbasket of the world and the world's superpower for centuries into millennia.   This world view of order, dependability, stability, predictable, control is known as Ma'at.  You see it in the sun rising and setting each day; in the Nile river flooding and receding each year; in cycles in the sky, birth and death, etc.  Ma'at is something you pursue at all costs to make your life as orderly and undisturbed as possible.  It's a lot like our world.  People give their lives chasing success and trying to control the forces of the world which impact them. 
• This whole process is symbolized by the pyramids, which represent the point of land rising out of the water/chaos and becoming larger as it does.
• The Egyptians deified Ma'at and worshiped her.  She was one of many gods.  They developed a complex theological system with hundreds of different gods controlling or responsible for different parts of the universe, of the world, and of life in general.  This is probably no different than what we see in every culture around the world -- people imagine/create gods that control the forces they can't, and then feel the need to worship and appease them.

There are many temple remains in Egypt today.  Some of them are huge, and suggest that the god they serve there is really big.  Contrast that with Psalm 24:7, where it says that the gates of the temple are not big enough to allow the Lord God to enter; the heads of the gates have to be lifted up to make room (just a little side-trip).

The temples are built in a style we're familiar with:  An outer court for the people, a middle court for the priests, and an inner court where the priest could only go once a year.  But within that inner court is a representation of the journey to the afterlife, whereas God himself dwelt there in his temple.  Interestingly, this temple style pre-dated Israel's temple and tabernacle.  For some perspective, consider that the great pyramids were 1000 years old when Abraham and Sara went to Egypt for a while to escape the famine.

God put Israel into the very best possible location in Egypt, the land of Goshen.  Israel received the very best that Egypt had to offer.  But over time that turned into slavery and oppression.  Israel grew up in the Ma'at world view, which sucked the life out of them and discarded them.  They did not know God.  He was silent those 400 years.  They knew of their forefathers and of God historically, but at that point he was no different to them than any of the gods of Egypt.  What had started out as "the good life" in Egypt became empty, oppressive, and slavery.  It's a good picture of what the pursuit of Ma'at does to you.  As the oppression increased, the Israelites cried out and their cry went up to God, and that was the point where he began to act to deliver them, and that's where we'll pick up the lesson.

God raised up Moses to deliver the people.  He had spent 40 years in Egypt as a prince.  He killed an Egyptian who was mistreating an Israelite, and when Moses intervened, he had to flee for his life.  He spent the next 40 years tending sheep in the desert, then he was ready to be used by God.  God used the desert to shape him.  He used the desert to shape many people in the Bible, such as Abraham, Jacob, Jesus, Saul/Paul, and the point is that he uses it to shape us as well.

At the burning bush, God called Moses' name twice.  The experience of having your name called twice occurs only 8 times in the Bible, and it is always God calling someone to a different path.  It is a turning point in that person's life.  Look for God to "call your name twice".

• Moses doesn't know God, nor do the Israelites.  He says to God that the people will want to know his name.  This is more than just intellectual knowledge of his name.  In that culture, names indicated character.  (Hebrew babies weren't named until the 8th day, so there was some opportunity for the parents to envision their character and future, name them accordingly, and then raise them up to grow into what was envisioned.)  This is not so much about just knowing his name, but about knowing his character -- who he is.  This has ramifications for the command to not take God's name in vain; it's not just about "swearing", but about how well we represent him; how well we bear his name.
• God says "I am who I am", or "I will be what I will be".  This is where the name YHWH comes from.  It's the name only his covenant people can use.  He's saying to them, "You will know who I am by what you see me do". 
• The Hebrew word for "to know" is yada.  The word for "hand" is yad, which derives from yada and gives us the picture of "hands-on" knowledge.  Knowing is not an intellectual pursuit; its a personal experience.  The people are going to experience God acting, and come to know him through that.  The patriarchs did not know God in this way.  But now the Israelites are going to experience him.  Part of the reason for the plagues in Egypt was so God would show himself mightier than the various Egyptian gods that were responsible for the things God destroyed.

God acts and delivers his people from slavery in Egypt.  In the Hebrew mind, that was when they were born as a nation, actually when they came through the Red (or Reed) Sea.  The plagues in Egypt were the birth pains, the dividing of the waters was like a woman's water breaking before birth, the trip through the sea was like being in the birth canal.  This is part of the Hebrew psyche and identity.

Just a quick side-trip here.  Exodus 15:27 says they came to a place where there were 12 spring and 70 palm trees.  Do we really care how many there were?  Clearly the 12 springs correspond to the 12 tribes, and the 70 palm trees correspond to the 70 people who went into Egypt with Jacob.  So not only does the passage speak of God's provision, but it says "they all came out of Egypt".

But right away God brings them into the desert.  Why is that?

1. The people need to learn to know him.  We have the whole Bible to tell us who he is, but they had nothing.  They had to learn who he was by experience; by watching him act.  Is he any better than the Egyptian gods which only have a limited sphere of influence?  Sure, God delivered them through the Sea, but maybe that's his realm; is he the God of the desert too?  And just like Israel, we sometimes need to see God work in many different kinds of circumstances before we're fully convinced he is God Almighty in every possible situation.
2. The people need to learn to live by faith and to trust God and depend on him.
• The manna experience was intended to test whether the people would obey God or not.  He provided them with something they had no explanation for, or control of, and put them in the position of having to learn to obey him.  This is a picture of what it means to live by faith -- are you going to be obedient to what you know God has commanded, or not?
• The word translated as "faith" is emunah, which really is about faithfulness.  When Moses had to keep his hands up in the battle, and people came alongside him to steady his hands, the word translated "steady" is this word emunah.  Faith is not about what you think you believe or hope for.  It is about what shows up in your actions.  Are you faithful?  Are you obedient?  Even when it is very hard to do so?  With the Greeks comes the concept of "mental assent that doesn't affect my actions".  James 2 addresses this issue, indicating that mental assent is not faith.  Faith requires actions or else it is dead.  We struggle with that today, because we think of faith as being an intellectual exercise, but it is all about our actions.  The rabbis teach that you don't really believe something unless it changes how you live.
• The whole Mt. Sinai experience where they receive the Torah is a wedding experience.  God marries Israel there.  The Torah is God's gift to them.  We think of it as "law", but to them it is about how to live; how to walk their path.  
• The word Torah comes from the verb yahrah, which means "to shoot" (as in archery) or "to teach".  Use the Torah to shoot you down your path; it literally means "shootings" or "teachings".
• The word translated as "sin" is hata, which literally means "to miss the mark" (another archery image).  The Torah is there to shoot you down God's path, but sin takes you off the path.
• The word translated as "repentance" is teshuva which comes from the verb shu which means "to return".  Confession is when you recognize you're off the path.  Repentance is when you get back on and take on some accountability to not get off again.
• The people fail miserably, committing adultery while on their honeymoon, with the golden calf experience.  Why a calf?  They probably wanted to make a cow but didn't have enough gold.  Why a cow?  One of the Egyptian gods responsible for fertility, water, foreign lands, sexual activity, and party, was Hathor, and was represented as a cow.
• God still chose to dwell among his people and had the tabernacle built for him to live in.  He moved into the inner chamber, the Holy of Holies (kadosh kadoshim or naos in Greek). 
• In the New Testament, when Pentecost came, God moved out of the temple and into his people, by his Spirit.  When 1 Corinthians 3:16 says "you are God's temple", the "you" is plural, and the word for temple is naos.  We, as believers, are his Holy of Holies.  In 1 Peter 2:5, it says that God is building his temple out of living stones.  Contrast that with the sterile, uniform, mud-bricks of Ma'at. 
• God wants to be right there with us, to help us live by faith, dependent upon him.  Why does this matter so much?
• Deuteronomy 11:10-12 says that the land God was giving them was not like the land they came from.  It is not watered by their irrigation from the Nile.  It is completely dependent on receiving rain from God.  He says, in effect, "I have taken you out of Egypt.  You no longer live under Ma'at.  The path I have called you to requires walking with me, through the mountains and valleys.  It requires dependence upon me.  My eye is on the path all the time.  You can't walk it with your old Ma'at world view.  It is a path of shalom."
• We think of shalom as "peace", but that's only a small part of it.  It speaks of wholeness.  It speaks of being balanced or centered as you walk through the ups and downs of life that you have no control over.  It speaks of a faithful walk with God on the path he has for us wherever it goes.
3. God brings us into the desert to be near us.
• God knows that the land he is bringing them into is a good land and they will be blessed.  He warns them about getting too comfortable in his blessings and forgetting him.  This is probably a key reason why God put them into slavery in Egypt in the first place: so they would know it is not something they want to go back to.  When it starts to feel like Ma'at, take note that you are no longer on God's path.  You need to get back on God's path, because you know that the Ma'at path leads to slavery.
• God continually reminds the people "remember you were slaves in Egypt and I brought you out".  He knows that the path of shalom is harder to walk than the path of Ma'at, but he knows where each path leads.
• When Israel failed, God said he would lead her back to the desert where he would speak tenderly to her and get her started on the right path again.
• The Alijah experience is an upward struggle to meet God.  Wherever they are in the world, Jews always "go up to Israel", "up to Jerusalem", and "up to the temple".  You go "down to Egypt".  When we don't understand why God is taking us through the desert, we need to understand it is part of God shaping us, drawing us near, taking us uphill to meet him.  As you breathe heavily on the way up, it's almost as if you're saying God's covenant name YHWH as you inhale and exhale.  The struggle makes you stronger.  You're a different person at the top.
• We need our desert experiences.  They're not our choice, but we need to see them for what they are, and for what God wants to work in us through them.  Don't deny people their deserts.  Be compassionate; be there with them.  But we all have to learn to walk God's path wherever it leads.  We can pray for relief.  We can pray for God to "fix it", but we're probably missing the point.  We need instead to pray for "feet for the path" -- feet like those of the ibex which can prance easily along the rocky and treacherous crags.

There are three Hebrew words which get translated into English as "desert" or "wilderness", but they have vastly different meanings, which we miss in English.

1. Midbar is the land of the shepherd.  It is what is translated as "green pastures" in Psalm 23.  These are desert areas, with barely enough to eat (not the lush fields we typically envision).  The shepherd leads his flocks through these areas, knowing where to find food and water.  The sheep follow their own paths as they follow the shepherd, eating a mouthful here, and a mouthful there, moving on.  They leave enough behind for those who follow them.  The rabbis say that "worry is trying to eat tomorrow's grass today"; trust that the shepherd will lead you to more tomorrow.
2. T'sah is the land of the Bedouin.  You can survive here, but only in community.  Bedouins are tent-dwellers, and they move around according to available food and water.  Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were all Bedouins, living mostly in the Negev, the desert in southern Israel.  We'll finish up with a Bedouin picture below.
3. Jeshimon is desert which cannot sustain life.  People just didn't go there until the camel was domesticated.  Much of the Sinai peninsula and some of southern Israel is Jeshimon. You might remember the "fertile crescent" from you history and geography lessons in Israel.  It was where all of the traffic went around to the north of these areas; the reason was that travel through them was not possible.

Israel spent 35-38 of their 40 years of wandering, in Jeshimon desert.  God provided for them in miraculous ways.  He gave them food and water, he kept their clothes and shoes from wearing out.  But what astonishes me is that the Text uses the word midbar to describe their desert.  God's care for his people was so incredible, that he turned their jeshimon into a green pasture experience.  It was green pastures to them because of his provision.  That's a tremendously compelling picture of his love and care for us, when our path takes us through the desert.

I want to close with a t'sah desert picture.  This is the land of the Bedouin.  You only survive there in community.  As a result, hospitality is over the top.  Everyone out there takes care of everyone else.  Today's guest may have to be tomorrow's host.  When you think of Bedouin, you need to think of hospitality.

• Abraham lives in the Negev, which is t'sah desert.  When the 3 visitors come, he wants to make them "a little lunch".  "Servants, prepare the choice calf.  Sara, get 3 seahs of flour and make bread".  3 seahs is about 40 pounds.  That's over-the-top hospitality for 3 guests.
• When you enter a Bedouin settlement, you approach the tent and wait to be given permission to enter.  Once your host takes you under his roof, you will be given extravagant treatment.  You will be given a never-ending meal of bread and drink.  And he will protect you with his life, above his own family.
• Think of Lot protecting the visitors in Sodom at the cost of his own daughters.  I can't comprehend it, but Lot is simply being a protective Bedouin host.
• It's all about being in the tent, under his roof, under his protection.  The tents themselves were made out of goat's hair, tightly wovern, but not airtight, not watertight.  But goat's hair has a unique property of expanding when it gets wet, so when you occasionally have rain, the tent becomes self-waterproofing.  Why do you care about the goat-hair tent? 
• Isaiah says that God stretches out the heavens and spreads out the earth.  He stretches out the heavens like a canopy and spreads them out like a tent to live in.  These words "stretches" and "spreads" are exactly the terms used to describe a Bedouin setting up his goat-hair tent.  Isaiah says God sets up the heavens and the earth like he was setting up his tent.
• When you're inside a goat-hair tent during the day, the little bits of light coming in through the goat-hair gaps look just like the night sky lit up with stars.  So now, when you see the night sky, think of the picture Isaiah paints of God as the ultimate Bedouin host, saying, "You are in my tent.  I will provide for you and protect you, even at the cost of my own Son".

We typically go to Psalm 23 for comfort.  But now I read it differently.  It's not a romantic picture of God making his sheep comfortable in lush fields.  I think it speaks more of God's care for us in the desert.  And when verse 2 says, "He makes me lie down in green pastures", Israel's experience in the jeshimon desert make me think it would read better as "He makes it green pastures where I lie down".

Handouts

halakh, peripateo
Genesis 15:13-14
What is Egypt?
    Ma’at
    Psalm 24:7
Why does God take his people into the desert?
    Exodus 3:4    (Genesis 22:11, 46:2, I Samuel 3:10, Luke 10:41, 22:31, Acts 9:4, Matthew 23:37)
    Exodus 3:13-14
    YHWH
    Exodus 6:2-5
    yada, yad
    Exodus 15:27
    Genesis 46:27
    Exodus 16:1-5
    Exodus 16:11-15, 31
    manna
    Exodus 17:10-13
    emunah
    James 2:26
    Torah, yahrah
    hata
    Teshuva, shu
    Hathor
    kadosh kadoshim, naos
    Ephesians 2:21-22
    I Corinthians 3:16
    I Peter 2:5  
    Deuteronomy 11:10-12
    shalom
    Deuteronomy 8:10-18
    Deuteronomy 24:18
    Hosea 2:14
    alijah
    Psalm 18:33 ibex
Three kinds of desert
    midbar
    t’sah
    jeshimon
    Genesis 13:1
    Genesis 18:1-7
    Genesis 13:12
    Genesis 19:1-8
    Isaiah 44:24
    Isaiah 20:22
    Psalm 23:2