Having completed the 10 Commandments, we prepare to enter into a lengthy section of Exodus set aside for much more obscure laws. Today, the Pastors explain how we can begin to understand the importance of these laws even though they may be so different from our own life experiences.
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Transcript
00:00:00:19 – 00:00:29:51
Clint Loveall
Hey, friends. Welcome back. Mid-week, as we make our way through Exodus, we are getting into a section that is going to be a challenge probably to listen to, but also to teach the next several chapters of Exodus. Our collections of laws that are grouped in various under various subject. I don’t know that we will go through each of these verse by verse, though.
00:00:29:51 – 00:01:08:24
Clint Loveall
We’ll try to be fair to what’s in there. Some of them are going to be fairly difficult, I think tomorrow right away. We get into a tough section today. We’ll start with this section called the Law concerning the Altar. But I think, Michael, before we get there, just some introductory remarks, there are some themes that I think maybe people can look for as we go through this section of Exodus and I’m going to guess that unless you’re a big time Old Testament scholar, this part of exodus we’re coming into is nobody’s favorite.
00:01:08:24 – 00:01:39:46
Clint Loveall
I don’t think anybody says, Oh, that’s my absolute favorite part of the book. Having said that, there are some things we can be on the lookout for, and there’s a certain danger in equating laws with moralism. And there is moral here and there are ethics that are vitally important to God on behalf of the people. But this is these are bigger than just simply personal, right and wrong.
00:01:39:47 – 00:02:05:00
Clint Loveall
This has to do with relationships within the community, and it has to do largely with the relationship between God and the community. And the idea that if Israel is going to be God’s people, they need to function in a way that doesn’t cause God’s wrath to come upon them as as God is unable to tolerate disobedience and sin.
00:02:05:27 – 00:02:29:05
Clint Loveall
There is a kind of don’t upset the apple cart sort of feeling to some of these laws. And I think we’ll see a little bit of that today, Michael, But we we see in these laws more than just do the right thing. It’s do the right thing because I’m your God. And if you don’t do the right thing, I’m going to hold you accountable.
00:02:29:06 – 00:02:39:54
Clint Loveall
And I think, you know, that isn’t generally the way law functions for us in the church. But I think as we read this section, I would argue that it is pretty deeply ingrained.
00:02:40:51 – 00:03:15:25
Michael Gewecke
So one of the things that Christians struggle with as we come to a section of the Scripture like this claim is that we tend to not have as robust of a history understanding the rabbinical tradition, which in many ways is responsible for both preserving these laws and then also for interpreting them. And what you may or may not know is that within the community of the rabbis, throughout time, you have had a very robust conversation about the laws.
00:03:15:25 – 00:03:42:37
Michael Gewecke
In fact, in Jesus’s time there was a substantial practice of debating interpretation of going back and forth and having an interlocutor and finding, in the spirit of the debate the place where the law came to life. The danger of that was that it became obsessed with the jot and tittle of the law, right? It was all about the words themselves and not about the spirit of it, but in the positive frame.
00:03:42:37 – 00:04:18:23
Michael Gewecke
It also gave the law a kind of living spirit. It brought it into the people’s lives and it made that law real. In the midst of community, in debate, in conversation, in people going back and forth from a variety of perspectives and pushing and pulling in the law and seeing where it took them, where we make the mistake as Christians without that in our tradition is we come to read texts like what we’re going to have in the future, and we find them to be very staid, very black and white, very locked down, that this is what it says.
00:04:18:23 – 00:04:46:21
Michael Gewecke
And so therefore this is what it means. And we fail to have the same kind of muscle that built in muscle memory of practicing, reliving, debating, having a spirited conversation about what this looks like in our own time and place, what that did. Well, in the midst of that conversation in between the rabbis and between those who debated the law was it gave them an opportunity to engage with the spirit of the law.
00:04:46:21 – 00:05:24:58
Michael Gewecke
And that is, I think, what hangs over the conversations that we have ahead is are we able to look into these things which are so drastically different from our experience of the world, separated by thousands of years, separated by cultural traditions, separated by salt, in some cases deep, Lee held social and family values and in the midst of it, to see how the spirit of God’s relationship between God’s people and between God, between God’s people and each other, between God, God’s people and their neighbor or their worker or their enemy.
00:05:24:59 – 00:05:46:58
Michael Gewecke
All of these are encompassed by the expanse of the laws. And, you know, to talk about it with that broad overview is easy to talk about. The concrete laws themselves, I think is going to be challenging because they’re specific and in that specificity, I think we get lost and we find it difficult to get a foothold.
00:05:47:20 – 00:06:15:03
Clint Loveall
Yeah, I think there are aspects of this whole conversation that are tough. Michael On one hand, there will be laws that seem clear that makes sense. There will be laws that that clearly speak to ethical, moral behavior, and then there will be laws that seem strange to us, either because they seem harsh, because they seem woefully outdated. In our conversation, for instance, there are we’ll see tomorrow.
00:06:15:03 – 00:06:47:13
Clint Loveall
There are laws concerning slavery, and we should not read that as some sort of condoning of slavery. But we should see it as what God expects of these people in the midst of their community. And one of the fascinating things I think, about this section of law, this is also true of a book like numbers or maybe particularly Leviticus, is it feels haphazard to us to see a a law about murder next to a law about helping a donkey.
00:06:47:31 – 00:07:28:12
Clint Loveall
It it feels like whiplash often to hear these laws that on one hand seem clear and moral and important. And then a law about keeping a festival. What I think is helpful and what I think is actually even inspiring is that for the Israelite community, every aspect of their life is part of their relationship with God, how they use their days, how they treat their neighbors, how they treat their enemies, whether they keep the festival, how they perform, their sacrifices, what they put on the altar, what they make the altar out of.
00:07:28:22 – 00:08:09:40
Clint Loveall
There’s no aspect of their life that they don’t feel is under the lens of their relationship with God. And we often, I think, don’t think that way Christians. I do think in general terms about all of our life is a reflection of our faith. But the idea that there are these huge variations in the kind of laws that we encounter here I think is difficult for us, Michael, But I think one of the things we learn from it is how completely immersed the idea of obedience is in in the life of Israel.
00:08:09:41 – 00:08:16:31
Clint Loveall
They they don’t see any aspect of their life that doesn’t have something to do with their relationship with God.
00:08:17:20 – 00:08:44:45
Michael Gewecke
Yeah, not only does it all connect, but it all has a bearing on their ability to be connected to God and to trust God. That’s maybe some of the winsome character of the Book of Exodus is how honest it is about the people’s struggles. Clint If you’re going to tell a hero’s story about the people of Israel, actually this is a tough telling of that hero’s story.
00:08:44:45 – 00:09:06:05
Michael Gewecke
If it’s all about how they conquered Pharaoh, how the slaves got away and made their own kingdom. This is in the great telling of that story. It is rather a telling of what they believe to be the God who calls them out of Egypt, who demands trust and calls them into a way of life that’s ordered and that is meaningful.
00:09:06:07 – 00:09:34:01
Michael Gewecke
I it’s a reversal of what you would expect if it was about making these folks look good. It does a horrible job of it. If it makes it, it’s about making God look like the one who’s both strong and faithful. It does so with extreme excellence. And I think that as we come now to this section of altar in particular, you got to remember, we’re still in this mountainous moment.
00:09:34:01 – 00:10:00:05
Michael Gewecke
Like literally there’s been this shroud over the mountain. God has been talking to Moses and the people have been over hearing it. They’ve been overwhelmed by it. God’s given the commands that those Ten Commandments and now we’re going to get into the daily life, the stuff that you do as part of your own practice and habits. And this is the way that the people are called to order that life so that it points to God.
00:10:00:30 – 00:10:05:27
Michael Gewecke
And, you know, we’ll see that emphasis upon coming back to God over and over again.
00:10:05:34 – 00:10:37:08
Clint Loveall
Yeah, And one last word. Just because we’ll see it here in this text, we’ll go through quickly. But the other thing I think that helps to keep in mind is that Exodus isn’t particularly interested in explaining these laws. God isn’t particularly interested in giving the people the reasons behind them. There are foods that are acceptable and holy and there are foods that aren’t and God doesn’t have to say why.
00:10:38:00 – 00:11:22:51
Clint Loveall
There is this idea of separation of of keeping the good away from the bad. There is this idea of not profane ing. We’ll see that language in a moment. But but the Israelites live under the reality that the law expresses the goodness of God and stands against what isn’t godly. And it doesn’t feel very compelled to shake that out and make us understand it, only to paint the picture of what it means for the people and so there will be times where we may find ourselves kind of shaking our head and ring our hands and saying, Well, we don’t we don’t understand this law.
00:11:22:51 – 00:11:43:01
Clint Loveall
But they endeavored to live by it. So I think we’ll get a little bit of an example. Let me read a few verses, then we’ll circle back to them. The Lord said to Moses, thus say to the Israelites, You have seen for yourself that I spoke with you from heaven. You shall not make gods of silver alongside me, nor shall you make for yourself gods of gold.
00:11:43:24 – 00:12:04:42
Clint Loveall
You need make for me only an altar of earth and sacrifice on it. Your burnt offerings and your offerings of well-being, your sheep and your oxen and every place where I cause my name to be remembered. I will come to you and bless you. But if you make for me an altar of stone, do not build it of hewn stones.
00:12:05:00 – 00:12:28:40
Clint Loveall
For if you use a chisel upon it, you profane it. You shall not go up by the steps of my altar so that you’re nakedness may not be exposed on it. So here we have, you know, a very interesting place to begin, a place that is at the center of worship. You won’t have idols, don’t make silver images, don’t make gold images.
00:12:28:40 – 00:12:51:03
Clint Loveall
In fact, all I need is an altar of earth, a place for you to leave your sacrifices. And I will honor that. I will honor it in all the places that I make my name known. But then there’s this very interesting line at the end there. If you choose to make a stone altar, don’t put a chisel on the stone because that somehow profaned it.
00:12:51:12 – 00:13:26:36
Clint Loveall
Now we, I think in this time and place don’t perhaps understand why maybe they didn’t either. But there is this idea of natural of whole. Again, it is clear that God need doesn’t need a stone altar, but if the people choose to build one, they should build it in a way that is proper. Why is it proper? Because God says it’s proper, that that’s all they need to know and they should stay off the altar so that their nakedness, their in other words, being exposed, their sinfulness may not be on it.
00:13:26:36 – 00:13:32:40
Clint Loveall
And so, you know, right away, I think we have an example of several aspects of this conversation, Michael.
00:13:33:12 – 00:14:02:34
Michael Gewecke
So a New Testament example here. It’s not a 1 to 1, but there is this inclination within the human heart when one comes to a place that is a mountaintop spiritual experience, when one has a particularly meaningful spiritual experience, it is easy for us to want to make that place the sacred thing. And here this emphasis upon the place of worship should be natural, it should be unadorned.
00:14:03:07 – 00:14:30:36
Michael Gewecke
In fact, don’t be creating a place where you have to be going up steps where where you have these beautiful stone blocks. No God prefers a place in its natural beauty because there’s a sense in which it for closes upon the humans desire to make the place greater. And the New Testament example of that par excellence, of course, is Peter, who wants to build booths at the top of that mount of transfiguration.
00:14:30:36 – 00:14:59:07
Michael Gewecke
This idea, Hey, this has been a beautiful place, Jesus, let’s build a worship ful place here. And Jesus has no part of that. It is in many ways, I think Jesus restating the spirit of what we have here. And there are other parts. This just happens in Old Testament reading and Bible study. You come across things that just strike you as odd and I think verse 26 years, a great example of that, so that your nakedness may not be exposed by it.
00:14:59:07 – 00:15:17:43
Michael Gewecke
And when that happens, you have a few options. One is you just read by it and say that was weird. And other as you dig into it a little bit with the idea of trying to figure out, you know, other scholars point out is happening here. And like you pointed out, I think helpfully, Clint, this idea of exposing our sinfulness, I think it’s right down the right path.
00:15:17:43 – 00:15:49:21
Michael Gewecke
I’d also add to that, you know, we forget that this is being written in a time where Israel has tens, hundreds of people, both inside and outside that circle, foreigners who worship gods in very different ways than what the people of Israel do. And this is not part of our modern experience per se. I think we could find some interesting parallels, but we don’t think of religious practice sexually, not in the common sort of religious experience.
00:15:49:21 – 00:16:10:22
Michael Gewecke
That is not the case in the ancient world, but actually that’s a substantial part of religious observance in a lot of different cultures. What you may just pass by here verse 26, that your nakedness may not be exposed is actually in some ways revolutionary because it says that this is it a place for humans to come to for their own pleasure.
00:16:10:35 – 00:16:35:33
Michael Gewecke
It’s not all about your own sort of goals and your own desires. No, this is a place where you worship God and God alone. That God is the greatest experience, and you come to this place with faith and trust in that God. It makes sense of you understand the oppositional nature of this, that this is against the other gods, but it may not make or make sense to us if we don’t know that.
00:16:36:23 – 00:17:10:12
Clint Loveall
Yeah, and so much of the book of Exodus from this point on is going to be written against the backdrop of the Canaanites, the ones who are in the land that Israel hopes to occupy. And if memory serves me right, Michael, there were instances where the Canaanites did in fact worship naked. And so often when there is an obscure reference like this, it is likely that Israel is looking at the practices of another people and God is telling them, I do not want you to emulate that.
00:17:10:12 – 00:17:30:27
Clint Loveall
I don’t want you to worship like that. I don’t want you to make idols like that. I don’t want you to to practice your faith in that way. The other thing, last thing that I find is interesting about this, Michael, we we think of the laws as permanent and many of them are right. Do not murder. Do you know, we just went through the Ten Commandments.
00:17:30:27 – 00:17:56:02
Clint Loveall
Those have stood the test of time. What is interesting is that we we sometimes struggle with the idea that there are other laws that are seasonal or pertain to a particular moment in Israel’s life. A couple of books down the road from Exodus. We’re going to get extensive records of building the temple. And the temple is not natural and simple.
00:17:56:02 – 00:18:35:34
Clint Loveall
The temple is ornate. It is carved, it is hewn, it is sculpted. And so this isn’t a kind of all time bias against the idea of building something permanent and and chiseling. This is the moment that they are in as wilderness people and not allowing themselves to get pulled astray or to get distracted from the main point, which is worship is and sacrifice is in the honor of God.
00:18:35:34 – 00:18:41:36
Clint Loveall
And so we’ll try to point out those places where that kind of thing happens.
00:18:41:36 – 00:19:03:27
Michael Gewecke
That’s really, really helpful. And my only contribution to that point that you just made, Clint, because I think that is even more important than we have time to flesh out here today is the maybe a theological word that might help us to understand that is the idea of theological accommodation, the idea that God accommodates the fact that we’re human, God understands that we’re just flesh and blood.
00:19:03:46 – 00:19:25:08
Michael Gewecke
And so for these people, when God gives them a command, when God gives them a law, when God gives them boundaries, he does so fully aware of where they are and what they need. And so God accommodates the wilderness people and what you’re going to find later on in the narratives is God is also willing to accommodate them when they call for a king, it’s explicit.
00:19:25:08 – 00:19:48:36
Michael Gewecke
This isn’t a good idea. You shouldn’t do it. But God is willing to recognize the people’s desire, and God is providentially even able to work through that move in history. And so I think that it’s really helpful to remember that as we read these laws, it’s less about trying to go back in time and fully understand everything about the context of these people.
00:19:48:36 – 00:20:13:24
Michael Gewecke
Some of that is irrecoverable. The point here is to understand what is the tenor, what is the kind, what is the nature of the relationship that God wants to establish with his people, and how is that same God at work, establishing that kind of relationship with us? And how is God accommodating our moment and working within our own time to give us our own boundaries that we might live faithfully, as he has in this place?
00:20:13:44 – 00:20:26:04
Michael Gewecke
It is a beautiful dynamic. It’s connected to the text. It also relies upon the community and the voice of the spirit. There’s a lot happening as we interpret this together, and I hope that you’ll join us as we go.
00:20:26:07 – 00:20:56:20
Clint Loveall
Yeah, it’s a good it’s a good word, Michael. Keep in mind, and I think we tried to say this pretty explicitly in the Ten Commandments, that the laws, as important as they may be, are never about the law themselves. They are about the way in which God and the people relate in those areas of life. They are to do with the responsibility of the people, to be God’s people, and therefore act in ways live in ways that honor God.
00:20:56:20 – 00:21:13:55
Clint Loveall
It is not the law itself that matters. It is the relationship that the law points to. And that is a that is a difficult way to read the law. But I think it is the preferred. I think that’s the best way to understand Old Testament law.
00:21:14:15 – 00:21:18:06
Michael Gewecke
Yeah, I think the case for that will be made as we go so many.
00:21:18:07 – 00:21:18:23
Clint Loveall
Many.
00:21:18:23 – 00:21:22:39
Michael Gewecke
Times. Thanks for being with us. We will see you all tomorrow. Thanks for being with us.
00:21:22:39 – 00:21:31:03
Clint Loveall
Thanks, everybody.