Alastair's Adversaria - The Cosmos in a Tent

Episode Date: January 8, 2025

The following was first published over on my Substack: https://argosy.substack.com/p/5-the-cosmos-in-a-tent. Follow my Substack, the Anchored Argosy at https://argosy.substack.com/. See my latest podcasts at https://adversariapodcast.com/. If you have enjoyed my videos and podcasts, please tell your friends. If you are interested in supporting my videos and podcasts and my research more generally, please consider supporting my work on Patreon (www.patreon.com/zugzwanged), using my PayPal account (bit.ly/2RLaUcB), or by buying books for my research on Amazon (www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/3…3O?ref_=wl_share). You can also listen to the audio of these episodes on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/alastairs-adversaria/id1416351035.

The following reflection is entitled The Cosmos in a Tent. It was first published on the Anchored Argosy. After the drama of Moses' childhood, the the theophanic encounter at the burning bush, the plagues, the Passover, the crossing of the Red Sea, the miraculous provision of manor and water on the journey to Sinai, and the gift of the law,

the rest of the Book of Exodus is largely taken up with the sorted case laws, instructions for building a rather unexceptional tent sanctuary in its furniture and lengthy descriptions of their subsequent construction. Listening through the book, we might wonder how the thrilling narrative of its first half could lead to such an underwhelming denouement. How can the tabernacle be seen as a climactic realization of the purpose of the deliverance of Israel from Egypt?

The text does not offer us an easy answer to this question, but for those who are prepared to attend to it more closely, it provides some crucial hints. Reflecting more deeply upon it, we may even discover some illuminating truths. When attending to the scriptures, we should be especially alert to the ways in which texts can allude to other texts. Such allusions often provide us with clues to the meaning of events, persons, or other entities. In the second half of the Book of Exodus, we find a great many allusions back to the Book of Genesis, allusions which together suggests that the author of Exodus regarded the construction of the tabernacle

as an event of cosmic import. Early in the book of Genesis, a group of people were delivered from a catastrophic judgment that fell upon a sinful society. They were brought to a mountain where God made a covenant with them. This group wore the seed of a new society, which would go on to transform the world. Noah's Ark was the seed of the post-Dilubian creation. Besides such broad analogies and storyline, in the account of the Exodus,

there are several allusions back to or details that are reminiscent of the story of the flood. And here the contrasts are as noteworthy as the similarities. As Rabbi David Foreman has observed, both accounts involve the creation of a wooden box with divinely given measurements, as we see in Genesis chapter 6 versus 13 to 21, and Exodus chapter 25 versus 10 to 16. Noah's Ark is a large wooden box overlaid inside and out with inglorious pitch.

The Ark of the Covenant is a much smaller wooden box overlaid inside and out with glorious gold. The first wooden box contains the remnant of humanity in a world returned to formlessness, whereas the second is the object that as the footstool of the Lord's earthly throne symbolises his holy and majestic presence amid his people in a world overwhelmed by sin.

The story of Noah is structured as an extended chasm, with the Lord's remembering Noah at its heart. Within the literary chiasm, there is a numerical chasm of days to be observed. 7.7.40, 150, 150, 47. In Exodus chapter 24, verses 15 to 18, there was once again a period of seven days, followed by a period of 40 days. Noah's Ark was a three-storied covered structure, its three stories perhaps recalling the three-storied character of the creation,

the sea and the realm below the earth, the earth, and the heavens, and the ascending levels of the tabernacle, the courtyard, the holy place, and the most holy place. The dimensions of Noah's Ark have several points of resemblance with those of the tabernacle and its furniture. Noah's Ark, 300 by 50 cubits, was the exact size of three tabernacle courtchards, 100 by 50 cubits, laid end to end.

The breadth, 50 cubits to the height, 30 cubits of Noah's Ark, had the same ratio, 5 to 3, as the lengths, 2.5 cubits to the height 1.5 cubits of the Ark of the Covenant. Presuming Noah's arc's three stories were of equal height. They were each 10 cubits high, the same height as the tabernacle. Each of these stories, 300 by 50 by 10 cubits, would have been able to contain the tabernacle proper 30 by 10 by 10 cubits

exactly 50 times over. In Exodus chapter 32 to 34, there are events that might recall the story of Noah. After the Israelites sin with the golden calf, the Lord tells Moses that, like Noah, he is minded to destroy the people and start anew with Moses alone. In apparent contrast to Noah, though, Moses intercedes for the people and they are saved. In Exeter's chapter 40, verses 16 to 19, we read of Moses' erection of the tabernacle. This Moses did, according to all that the Lord commanded him, so he did. In the first month, in the second year, on the first day of the month, the tabernacle was erected. Moses erected the tabernacle. He laid its faces and set up its frame. and put in its poles and raised up its pillars, and he spread the tent over the tavernacle and put the covering of the tent over it, as the Lord had commanded Moses.

The significance of Moses' erection of the covering on the tent on the first day of the second year should recall Genesis chapter 8 verse 13. In the 6001st year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth, and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, And behold, the face of the ground was dry. As in the story of the Exodus, the new year following a year of judgment and deliverance opened with a significant act. In Genesis, the covering of the Ark was removed, whereas in Exodus the covering was placed over the tabernacle. In such points of similarity in contrast, the text of Exodus invites its hearers to hear it

in conversation with the story of the flood in Genesis. If the flood preserved a seed of human and animal life to grow in the post-Diluvian world, the exodus is another deliverance that concludes with the planting of a seed of divine presence in a world of sin. Heard in such a manner, the second half of Exodus arguably eclipses the first in the scope of its apparent concern, whereas the first half focuses upon the deliverance of a particular people from cruel bondage, In the second half, we begin to see the cosmic scope of the intent of this deliverance. Commentators often observe the allusions back to the creation account of Genesis chapter 1 and 2 in the descriptions of Moses' work in establishing the tabernacle in Exodus chapter 39 and 40.

God finished his work and blessed and consecrated the Sabbath day, and Moses finished the work of the tabernacle and blessed the people and consecrated the tent. Exodus chapter 39 verse 43, 40 verses 9 to 10 and 33 to 34. We might think of the tabernacle itself as comparable to the Sabbath day in some respects. If the Sabbath is the day where the Lord rests from his labours, the tabernacle is the place where the Lord will rest among his people. This picture can be developed further through consideration of the design of the tabernacle given in Exodus chapter 25 to 31. In Genesis chapters 1 and 2, there is a pattern to the days of creation.

The first three days are days of forming and division, day and night, heaven and earth, sea and earth. The second three days are days of filling and delegation, corresponding to the first three. On day 4, the light of day 1 is filled out and its task delegated to the governing lights of the sun, moon and stars. On day 5, the firmament above and the waters below, divided on day 2, are populated by birds and fish. On day six, the land of day three is populated by land animals and its rule delegated to man. In Exodus chapter 25 to 29, we see two recurring phrases which correspond

to forming and filling or delegation phases in the tabernacle's construction. The first phase concerns the pattern given on the mountain, according to which all must be formed. Chapter 25 verse 9 and 40, 26 verse 30 and 27 verse 8. The second phrase concerns the enduring character of the Lord's statute throughout the generations of Israel, 27 verse 21, 28 verse 43 and 29 verse 9. Attending to the instructions for building the tabernacle, I believe that we can perceive the seven-day pattern of creation in two successive cycles. The first in chapters 25 to 29 and the second in chapters 3,

30 to 31. In the first cycle, day zero, creation formless, void and dark. The materials are gathered for the building of the tabernacle in chapter 25 versus 1 to 9. Day 1, the light is formed. The golden items are created, the Ark of the Covenant, the mercy seat, the table of showbread, the golden lampstand, chapter 25 versus 10 to 40. Day 2, firmament dividing heaven and earth. The tabernacle structure, its screens and its veils are formed in chapter 26. Day 3, the earth and the seas are divided. The tabernacle courtyard and the bronze altar within it. Chapter 27, verses 1 to 19.

Day 4, lights are placed in the heavens to rule the day and the night. Oil for the lamp in chapter 27, verses 20 to 21. Day 5, creatures are made for the firmament above and the waters below. divisions established on the second day. Priest's garments conforming them to the symbolic heaven of the tabernacle are established in chapter 28. Day six, animals and man are created. Consecration of Aaron and his sons for tabernacle service in chapter 29 verses 1 to 34. And day seven, completion of the work and consecration of the Sabbath.

Completion of the seven-day ordination and consecration of the tabernacle ceremonies and initiation. of the ordinary daily sacrificial cycle, chapter 29 versus 35 to 46. And then there's a second cycle in Exodus chapter 30 to 31. Day one, the golden altar of incense, corresponding to the glorious golden items of the first cycle. That's in chapter 30 versus 1 to 10. Day two, the silver census tax,

which was used to cover the people and to construct the tabernacle structure, connecting the people with the tabernacle. Chapter 30 versus 11 to 16, and we can see this connection in Chapter 38, versus 25 to 31. Day 3, the bronze basin. Note the gold, silver bronze movement from days 1 to 3. Placed in the courtyard with the bronze altar, chapter 30 versus 17 to 21. The altar corresponds to the land and the basin to the sea. Day 4, anointing oil for the furniture and utensils and the priest.

Chapter 30 versus 22 to 33. This corresponds with the oil for the lamp. Day 5, incense, the clouds in the firmament of the tabernacle. Chapter 30 versus 34 to 38. Day 6, appointment of Bezal and a Holyab as chief craftsman and filling a Bezalel with the spirit. Chapter 31 versus 1 to 11. And day 7 finally, the covenant sign of the Sabbath.

Chapter 31, verses 12 to 18. If the tabernacle is the divine seed of a new world, with God's presence at its heart, one can read the rest of the Pentateuch and indeed the rest of the Bible in terms of this. Leviticus largely concerns the service within the tabernacle, the pattern from which Israel's life would be ordered and the reality according to which everything would be regulated. In numbers, the scope widens. It begins by ordering the entire camp of Israel around the tabernacle at its heart. In Deuteronomy, Israel is prepared to be planted in the promised land. A recurring motif elsewhere in the scripture is that of water flowing out from the

temple into the wider world, bringing life and renewal. This harkens back to Genesis chapter 2, where rivers flowed out from the garden sanctuary of Eden to give life to the world. Humanity, the text implies, would need in time to venture out from the garden, bringing the order and life of the verdant garden into a world that was yet uncultivated, while bringing the treasures of and the fruits of human labour in the wider world back into the garden.

The garden was thus the model for the source of and the chief gathering place of man's transforming task in the wider creation. Recognising the garden as the proto-sanctuary equips us to perceive the analogies between it and the tabernacle. Yet within the symbolic world

of scripture, analogies are multiple, and draw our attention in many different directions. The tabernacle is analogous to Eden, to Israel, but also analogous to the entire creation. Perhaps especially significantly, the tabernacle is analogous to the human person. The most holy place is the inner heart,

wherein God must be enthroned and his lord treasured. The lampstand is like the eyes and the understanding. The table corresponds to the mouth and the stomach by which things are assimilated into the body. The table of incense corresponds with the sense of smell and with breath. The tabernacle's structure is like the human skeleton and the skin that covers it. The water, as becomes clearer in the temple and later prophecy, can represent the generative fluids of the body. The operations of the tabernacle then present us with a model of a person who orders his life around God's presence

and whose interface with the world in sight, smell, taste and touch is regulated by an inner, attention to and meditation upon the law of God. In concluding with the revelation of the plans of the tabernacle and its construction, Exodus presents the deliverance from Egypt as climaxing in the gift of a divine pattern for human existence, filled with God's own empowering presence, pregnant with the promise of the world set free from its greater bondage to sin, God's will being done on earth as it is in heaven, as men and women live together in communities of justice and fruitful peace. Thank you very much for listening. If you'd like to support my work here and elsewhere, you can do so using my Patreon or PayPal accounts. Please also consider following the anchor

dogasy where I post this and many other reflections. God bless.