BibleProject - How God Reveals Himself in Leviticus – Leviticus E1

Episode Date: May 30, 2022

Holiness is a word we frequently associate with the Bible, but what does it mean? As we pick up the story from where we left off in Exodus, we find even Moses unable to enter God’s presence—and a whole bunch of laws about situations many of us have never considered. What is going on in the scroll of Leviticus? And why is it important? In this episode, join Tim and Jon as they dive into the first movement of the Leviticus scroll, where we’ll trace the theme of sacrifice.View full show notes from this episode →Timestamps Part one (00:00-5:30)Part two (05:30-14:45)Part three (14:45-55:30)Part four (55:30-1:04:33)Referenced ResourcesInterested in more? Check out Tim’s library here.You can experience the literary themes and movements we’re tracing on the podcast in the BibleProject app, available for Android and iOS.Show Music “Defender (Instrumental)” by TENTS“Synth Groove” by Chase Mackintosh“Two for Joy” by Foxwood“Chilldrone” (Artist Unknown)Show produced by Cooper Peltz. Edited by Dan Gummel and Tyler Bailey. Show notes by Lindsey Ponder. Podcast annotations for the BibleProject app by MacKenzie Buxman and Ashlyn Heise.Powered and distributed by Simplecast.

Hey, this is Cooper at Bible Project. I produce the podcast in Classroom. We've been exploring a theme called the City, and it's a pretty big theme. So we decided to do two separate Q and R episodes about it. We're currently taking questions for the second Q and R and we'd love to hear from you. Just record your question by July 21st

and send it to us at infoatbiboproject.com. Let us know your name and where you're from, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds and please transcribe your question when you email it in, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds, and please transcribe your question when you email it. That's a huge help to our team. We're excited to hear from you. Here's the episode.

If you've made it this far in the Bible, you've read through chapters of strange stories, dense genealogies, ancient law code, but nothing could prepare you for what you're about to read. A book so dense and foreign, we jokingly call it a priestly tech manual. But have no fear, because as we wave through the scroll of Leviticus, we'll find. The priestly tech manual is actually a story. Leviticus picks up where we left off in Exodus.

Moses went up to meet with God on Mount Sinai, and he's there for 40 days and 49's receiving Israel's law, including the blueprints for a sacred tent in which God will come and live among them. At the end of the scroll of Exodus, God's presence comes down off the mountain into the tent, the Moses can't enter, because there's something horribly wrong with Israel. The people who had just promised to follow God's law had grown tired and afraid of Moses being up on the mountain so long and they made a God out of gold, shaped in the form of a calf.

So Moses' inability to enter in because of the people's failure at the golden calf is an analogy to Adam and Eve's failure at the tree and then their inability to get back into Eden. And Leviticus comes into this story as a bridge, a way to enter the tent and to be with God in spite of their idolatrous hearts. The Book of Leviticus is interested in this dilemma. How does the author of all life stay in relationship with those who love death? If God is the Son, the Book of Leviticus is the atmosphere that protects us from its

brilliance. What I'm doing is saying, I want to be exposed to the sun, and it's good. And that good thing is that at the same time dangerous, it will kill me. And that doesn't mean it's bad. It just means it's the sun. I'm John Collins. You're listening to Bible Project Podcast today. We begin the scroll of Leviticus, reading it movement by movement. Leviticus has three movements. The first movement, chapters 1 through 7, is all about the sacrifices and offerings and

the ritual habits by which Israel will dedicate itself over to God. So prepare your imaginations to put yourself in the ancient world, in the wilderness, learning what it means to live and proximity with God. Thanks for joining us. Here we go Hello Tim. Hey John. Hi. Hi. Here we are. Here we are again talking about the Bible Here we are again talking about the Bible. Yeah, but a new part of the Bible for us. Yes. Which is really exciting. Leviticus, the scroll of Leviticus. You have, you've called this the

priestly tech manual. Yeah, for a lot of years. I like that phrase. Yeah. Yep. It's charming. It makes it makes a really intimidating book feel a little charming. Totally. Yeah, you know, I think I either heard a friend refer to it that way like a long time ago when I was in grad school. Uh, at University of Wisconsin, then the Hebrew and Semitic's department. So, or I heard some version of it, and then Priestly Tech Manual was my stamp. And I suppose what will be great about these next few conversations is even though I'd still kind of like to tongue in cheek refer to it that way, I actually don't think that is the accurate description at all anymore.

Okay. Yeah, that's right. And so, if you've been following along, you've seen that we did four movements in Genesis, we trace four different themes. Three movements in Exodus, three new themes. Now we're in Leviticus. Yes, yeah. And there's going to be three movements.

There are three movements. The book has a discernible structure into three movements, which we'll explore in this conversation right now. And then we're gonna dive in and trace, again, one theme per movement. Okay. And then...

What theme are we tracing today? Yeah, we're gonna... I feel like a game show host when I said that. And what theme are we tracing today, Tim? Yeah. The first literary movement of Leviticus is called chapters 1 through 7. And it's all about the five different sacrifices and offerings that is relights, used to honor their God Yahweh and approach his presence with.

So it's the theme of sacrifice and atonement is what we're focusing on. The theme of sacrifice and atonement. Yeah. And whether we finish that theme conversation, you know, right now in this, I think we can in this conversation right here. But first, I'd like to do an overview of the whole book real quick of the three movements. Okay. And then we'll dive into chapters one through seven, which read the most like that priestly tecomanial. The most teckey of the Leviticus. Okay, so a big picture of the Torah and then a Leviticus within the Torah.

Okay, you ready? Yes. Settle up. Okay, so the Torah has five main parts to it, the five scrolls. What's interesting about the first and the last. Genesis and Deuteronomy. Genesis and Deuteronomy is that they are the outer frame of the Torah as a five part literary work. And also they have a lot of similarities,

specifically the way that they end. So the Genesis scroll ends with Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, on his deathbed. And he gathers his 12 sons around him, and he says, gather together my sons, and I will tell you what will happen at the end of days. Biacheh Rietha Yameem in Hebrew. And he sings or he chants this poem where he forecasts the future that he anticipates for his sons. And it's a beautiful poem and then he dies afterwards. On the other end of the Torah, Deuteronomy, the whole book is a collection of speeches by Israel's leader at that time, Moses. Almost the whole book is like a speech. It's a narrative. It begins as a narrative, but the narrative is mostly about Moses getting front of the people and speaking to them before he dies. And so the last chapters

of Deuteronomy, he is about to die. He gathers the sons of Israel. Israel is the name, the other name of Jacob. Jacob, who was about to die at the end of Genesis. Now here's Moses addressing the sons of Jacob in Deuteronomy. And he says, everybody gather together. Let me tell you what is going to happen at the end of days. Piache Riethaiamim. And he sings not one final poem, but two. He's chance two poems. One of them is a show Jacob up. Yeah, it is a blessing on all the 12 tribes.

So we go through all the 12 tribes. And actually those blessings on the 12 tribes have a lot of verbatim copy and paste from Jacob's blessing at the end. But also the additional poem is what we call Deuteronomy 32. And here he forecasts the whole history of Israel that you're about to read through and what we call Joshua Judges, Samuel and Kings. And he forecasts the history of Israel as a future of betrayal of Yahweh,

who rescued them from Egypt and of violating the covenant they made with him and of their own self-destruction, that Yahweh will hand them over to. But he trusts that God will restore remnant out of that destruction and birth a new group of people out of that that he calls the servants of the Lord. So that's how Durani means. So it ends much like Genesis. So those are the outer frames. Yeah. Inside of those frames are what we call three books. Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. But those three scrolls actually form the center, a triad at the center of the Torah. Of the Torah. And the whole thing is an elaborate symmetry. So Exodus and Numbers,

Exodus begins with the people enslaved in Egypt, they leave Egypt and then they go through the wilderness and then about the second half of Exodus is them parking at Mount Sinai in the wilderness. Numbers begins with them parked at Mount Sinai, but about to leave. And so Exodus ended with setting up the tabernacle. Numbers begins with preparing the tabernacle to become mobile. And so the end of Exodus in the beginning of Numbers match, both about parking at Mount Sinai and getting the tabernacle ready. On the outside of that, Exodus, before they got to Sinai, they went through the wilderness. On the other side of that, in numbers, after they leave Sinai,

they go through the wilderness. And both those wilderness sections have stories of Israel grumbling for water and for bread, God sending the manna, Moses being unable to lead the people alone. So God raises up help for him. So a lot of the same themes that we already saw in the wilderness journey in Exodus. Yep. And actually, the stories of the wilderness wanderings in Exodus are picked up and developed

in numbers and sometimes verbatim. Actually, sometimes the event's happening at the same places. Oh. Like a place called Maribah, where Moses brings water out of a rock in Exodus 17, and then at Maribah in Numbers 20, he brings water out again. But first time is success, second time it's a failure for Moses. So those are clearly matching.

So you see Deuteronomy and Genesis match. Yeah, outer frame. Inside of of that Exodus and Numbers match Interframe which places Leviticus at the right at the center of the Torah Leviticus has three movements the first movement chapters 1 through 7 is all about The sacrifices and offerings and the ritual habits by which Israel will dedicate itself over to God. Correct. Through the offerings. That's one through seven. So that's the first movement of Leviticus. The third movement of Leviticus from chapter 17 to 27, it also begins talking about sacrifices and offerings in 17. And then the rest of the book is how Israel will surrender itself over to God, not through sacrifices, not

offerings, but through a dedication to holiness and to justice within their communities. And so, so a lot of laws about personal integrity and then social integrity and justice. So, one through seven, and then 17 to 27. Yeah. Become like the tertiary frames. Yeah, the first and the third sections of Leviticus. And what that leaves is Leviticus chapter 8 through 16 as the center of Leviticus. It's also the center of Exodus to Numbers, which is the center of the Torah. The center of the center of the center.

And so it's a design structure that is repeated on all scales of biblical literature throughout. So- You're saying this isn't unique to the Torah that they have this much structure? No, the sermon on the Mount, for example, is designed exactly the same way, with an intro and a concluding frame, a large center with three parts, and then each of those three parts has three parts. Many books of the Bible are designed in this way. So what's cool about this Leviticus frame is what it means is that the center of the center of the center of the Torah is Leviticus 8 through 16, and it culminates.

Yeah, what's the center of 8 through 16? Yeah. Well, it's more the outer frames of 16 are all about the dedication of the tabernacle. Like it finally gets up and running. God is dwelling with his people, the priests are running. It's awesome. This is chapters 8 through 10. And then two sons of Aaron, they blow up big time. They decide to just make up their own liturgy for how they're gonna operate in the temple and it doesn't go well. They get eaten by God's fire.

It's bad news. And then what happens is all of a sudden you have dead bodies stuck in the holy place. In the most sacred place of the center of Israel. So then you have long chapters about the ritual purity of Israel, and then that tragedy that happens in the tent is resolved by Leviticus 16, which is the day of atonement, which is all about the purification of the Holy Space from all the sin and death. Israel keeps upon it. So at the center of the center of the center of the Torah

is about the defiling and the vandalizing of God's holy space, and then about its purification and restoration in the day of atonement. So- Which is a special sacrifice, because we've already seen like these, what, five other sacrifice-

Totally, yeah, the sacrifice. This one's like this, like- Day of atonement is the sacrifice of all sacrifices. It's the central sacrificial liturgy at the heart of what the tabernacle means. And it's at the heart of the whole Torah. Yeah, that's right. So, yeah, that's the design. We're going to spend, you know, the next recombustations kind of developing more of that.

But that's the big overview. Okay. So, let me show you one more awesome thing. And this will actually set us up to really understand the first movement of Vigus, which is about the five sacrifices and offerings that happen on the daily basis for these real lights. Okay. Okay, so the basic thing to recall is that Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers are the center of the Torah and they are one unified big section. Okay, they happen in three scrolls.

But they're all, there's a unified narrative weaving those together. And so in scroll technology, one of the easiest ways that biblical authors did this was to make sure they to coordinate the endings and beginnings of scrolls. You can really overtly see the connections. Connections. Because when you finish a scroll and you roll it up, then you go put it on the shelf and you get a new one. And when you begin the first sentences of the next scroll, maybe it's the next day, or maybe it's the next minute. But either way, the biblical authors made sure to coordinate the beginnings of ending a scroll.

So recall that at the end of Exodus, the people of Israel had become the hosts of the divine glory, cloud, fiery presence. That's a good way to put it. They became the hosts of the divine glory cloud. Yeah. And what you're talking about is we were camped out at Mount Sinai. I guess we still are there in the narrative where Israel comes, they see gods like thunderous,

fiery presence on top of the mountain. Moses gets to go up and He's transformed in some way and he has all these cool interactions with Yahweh and then Yahweh gives him the Blueprints of the tapernacle which is the place where then God comes and all that crazy fiery glory. Yeah power comes and settles there. And it's a place where Israel can access God. Not this like free for all, there's like a lot of structure. Yeah, totally. And that's what we're going to get into. Yeah, exactly. But that's what you're saying is they're now the hosts of the divine. Yes. Like they get to carry this around. They're kind of God's chauffeur in a way.

Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, he invited them to be that. Yeah. When he brought them to Mount Sinai and said, if you listen to my voice and adhere to the covenant that we're about to agree to, then you will become a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. So that is a whole nation of

priestly representatives that will show and mirror to the nations what the Creator God is like. What that also means is they will become a holy nation. So holiness, it's the Hebrew word It's the Hebrew word Kadoch, what is the adjective, holy? And then, holyness or holy place is called Kodash or Miktash. But things are holy in the story of the Bible because they are people, places, or things that have been brought into proximity to the creator of all that is, who is not a thing in creation, right? The creator God, in the logic of the biblical story, is someone who is above all and through all and in all. And that's what the word holy means. Holy means proximity to the I am. Oh, to call something, to call a person place or thing, holy.

Mm-hmm. Means somebody who has been invited to live and work and exist in proximity to the most holy one. It's about proximity. It's about proximity. That's right. So in our holiness video that we made near the beginning of the project, we use the metaphor of the sun as God being like a split sun. Yeah, I'm just a metaphor.

Just a metaphor. But it's a helpful one. So the sun is both life giving, a source of life in our solar system, and it is also dangerous because it's just pure raw power and energy. And so to go near to the sun, you need to modify your way of existing. You need to change. So put on a sun suit. Well, you're talking about not like going out and sunbathing. That's one thing. I mean, that's dangerous in its own sense. Well, you're talking about like not like going out and sunbathing. That's one thing, make sure. I mean, that's dangerous as a zone sense.

It is. Yeah, so we put on sunscreen. Or what I discovered last summer was a sun shirt. That's right. Super, super thin, but a long sleeve hooded shirt. Yeah. If you're spending long days like out backpacking or camping and the wind blows right through it. It's breezy.

But sun, and you don't have to get all, and you don't have to get all greasy. From the sunscreen, anyway. Sun, you speak on. But think right there, what I'm doing is saying, I wanna be in proximity, I wanna be exposed to the sun. But I need to protect myself. And it's good.

And that good thing is at the same time danger it will kill me Right, and that doesn't mean it's bad. Mm-hmm. It just means it's the Sun. Yeah, it's the nature of the Sun and then now imagine I modify my Self yes to be fit to be in the presence of the Sun and that and that's that's being holy and that is yeah Taking on some aspect right change my normal way of existing To live in proximity to the Sun and that's putting out a sun shirt makes me holy in relationship to the Sun The Sun shirt makes you holy. Yeah, yeah, but God is holy. Yep. He is the dictionary definition of the most holy one But he doesn't have to put on a sun shirt. No, he just is this one. He just got us to be holy. Yeah, we need to modify ourselves.

Correct. Do you ever see that movie? Oh, gosh. Is it called Sunshine? It's about like this space voyage to the sun. Really? Yeah. Oh my gosh. 2007 movie. It's older than that, I think. Yeah, sci-fi psychological thriller. Yeah, it's called Sunshine. 2007 movie. It's older than that, I think. Yeah, sci-fi, psychological thriller. Yeah, it's called Sunshine 2007. Yeah, is that what you said?

Yeah, dangerous mission to reignite a dying son. Whoa, what do they do, fire like a warhead? It is a psychological thriller, so if you're into those. Yeah. But it does, like, it makes you realize how intense the sun is. And this is like, and I remember in the holiness video, we actually show this rocket flying towards the sun, and then just a obliterating.

And how do you prepare yourself to exit the atmosphere and go to the sun? And in a way, entering the Holy of Holies is like, it's another layer, it's like you need more than a sun shirt. And in a way, entering the Holy of Holies is like, yeah, it's another layer. It's like, you need more than a sun shirt. Yeah, you're going to need. Yeah, no. And that's why there's a huge emphasis on the clothing, the special clothing that the high priest wears as he enters into that space. These are fundamental categories for understanding the biblical story. Okay. So, holiness. Okay. God is the source of pure power, goodness, beauty, life.

Often depicted with the imagery of light or fire. So to approach the source of all life and power and energy and beauty is both good and dangerous. So what God invites, the Israelites to be, is to become the hosts of his fiery holy presence, and that's going to require big modifications to Israel as it stands. And so you get this fundamental distinction between holiness and what is common. The opposite of holy is common, or actually the English word, King James word is profane. Profane sounds like it's bad. Yeah, I know. Common just sounds like it's just normal. Yeah, profane used to mean common. Oh. But now it means other things to us. But so that's why I just use word common But the key binary is holy versus common. Okay. So what the tabernacle represents and we spent the last few conversations talking about the tabernacle

It represents the holy space for God's presence at the center of the camp of Israel Outside it's holy because God is there and God is holy. That's right But there's another sense of holy which is And outside, it's holy because God is there and God is holy. That's right. But there's another sense of holy, which is modifying yourself or your environment to be in proximity to God. That's right. God is the source of all holiness and anybody or anything or any time that comes into closer intense proximity to God's presence and purpose has to undergo some kind of change or modification.

And so that's why you have these curtains and tents. Like the tabernacle is one kind of like container, both to really it's for protection, to protect Israel. But it's just a curtain. You know, this all feels like play acting a little bit. Yeah, it's ritual symbolism. It's ritual symbolism. It's ritual symbolism. It tells a story. It is play acting.

Yes. Yeah, what else are rituals and symbols? They are narratives in visual habitual form, right? Well, now we're going to get into what is a sacrament, but that's because it is play acting, but then it's more than that. Yeah, I guess within the narrative, the idea is God will allow a curtain to contain the fiery holiness. But that's what's symbolically, that's what it means.

And then there's a big tent fence around that creates a courtyard around the tent. And everything outside of the courtyard is common. Well, not quite, actually. It goes in concentric circles. So you have this, the holy of holies at the center. That's like the most holy thing. Then you have the courtyard area

that's surrounded by the fence. And so that's a holy space, but a little less holy. Then you have the whole camp of Israel, which is even then a little less holy, but still holy because it's a holy nation because it's the nation that plays host to God's presence. And then outside of the camp is common. The nations. Yep, the nations or just the wilderness here in the wilderness.

And so that's that's common. So you have increasing concentric circles of holiness, focusing in on the spot. And it is both good and dangerous. Yeah. And that's a hard saying, debalanced, I know for modern readers, because we think, well, if you're good, you're not dangerous.

Right. But in this where we have to adjust our imaginations, and you know, C.S. Lewis famously tried to accomplish this. The Chronicles of Narnia depicting the God figure as Aslan, who was a lion, who was both kind and good, but also. Both cuddly and vicious. And vicious. Yes. And he was trying to capture that biblical portrait of God's. And then famously, Luzzi asks, are you safe? Is that what she asks? Is he safe? Is he? Yes. Is he safe? Or is he tame? Or something? Yeah, he's not tame, but he's good. He's not tame, but he's good. Yeah. Yep, that's the, that's what for us is attention. I think for the biblical authors,

it just, that's why I think the sun is a good metaphor. Because we don't think the sun is bad because it burns our skin. We just think it's the sun. It's some deficiency in me that makes the sun burn man, so I need to adapt. Okay, so that's fundamental. So at the end of Exodus, God takes up residence, except there's a problem. So God's taking up residence among a people who, as we learned in Exodus, is fundamentally... They don't got their sun shirts on.

They don't, yeah, and they don't want to. Yeah, the story of the golden calf is a story telling you. God is taking up residence among a people who, in their hearts, do not want to be found. On a dime, they're gonna create a different God and say, this is the God that brought us out at Egypt. That's right. Just abandon the true God. So that is the kind of people that the divine glory, the holiness glory, has taken a residence among. And so the last paragraph of Exodus, and this is what we're going to

read right now, this Exodus chapter 40, verses 34 and following. And it's both a high point and then immediately a low point. And it reads like this. It says, so the cloud came and covered over the tent of meeting. So this was the divine fire cloud of Yahweh's presence. It was on top of the mountain and it moves. Down, over the finished tabernacle. And the glory of Yahweh filled the tabernacle. And you're like, hooray! This is the moment where the scientists like, figures out nuclear fission. It's like, you all comes down and the power is like, oh, we did it! Yeah,

no, that's right. The power is here. The power is here. But remember, the power was always, and the reason for it, beginning all the way back when God first said, okay, make a tent. The reason for the tent was so that I may dwell among you, and from there I will speak to you from the middle of the tent. Like it's a place for communion, I will meet with you there. It's supposed to be the tent of meeting, which is what it's called.

The tent of meeting. The tent for God and his people to meet together as one. Okay. So the cloud comes, the glory fills the tent and you're like, yes, and then the next sentence, but Moses was not able to enter into the tent of meeting. It's called the tent of meeting. But it's not able to enter into the tent of meeting. It's called the tent of meeting. But he's not able to...

But he's not able to meet. I mean, it's highlighting the paradox. It's a fundamental problem. The tent was formed the meeting of God and His people and Moses has shown himself to be the only faithful one. Because Moses was hanging out with God on top of the mountain. Yes. He was meeting with God in a type of tabernacle.

Yeah, in the middle of the fiery cloud of light. Then they construct the tabernacle as God says to. And God comes down and then Moses can't meet with God anymore there. Correct. That's how the scroll ends. That's right. And the only thing that has changed Since God said build me a tent and I'll meet with you there and now here's Moses with the finished tent Trying to get in and he can't meet God there The bouncer's like keep him out and the only thing that happened in between those two moments that could explain this is the story of the Golden Calf

This relationship is from its beginning, a ruptured one, fragile, fragile relationship. And so Moses' inability to enter into the tent is in the last paragraph of the Exodus scroll, it's a crisis. It's a way of introducing an unresolved plot conflict that is going to drive you into the next scroll, which is Leviticus. So we focused on this real briefly in our videos on Exodus Leviticus and Numbers. Exodus stands with Moses not being able to go into the tent. And then the significance of that is reflected in the opening line of Leviticus.

Then Yahweh called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting. Okay. So he's outside. God's talking to him from it. That's right. Here we are. The ending of the Exodus scroll and the beginning of the Leviticus scroll have been knit together. It's the same moment. Moses is not able to go in. Turn to the next scroll. The story picks up. Yahweh spoke to Moses from the tent of meeting. When you turn to the beginning of the next scroll, which is numbers, one verse one, it begins, and Yahweh spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai

in the tent of meeting. He got in. He got in. So it's kind of cool. The ending of Exodus, the first sentence of Leviticus, the first sentence of numbers, they're all coordinated in like a plot sequence. So the crisis that began at the end of Exodus, Moses can't go in, then is highlighted, emphasized at the beginning of Leviticus, has somehow been resolved by the time that we get to numbers. And it's an easy way to think about what is happening. It's actually a way to see that the priestly tech manual is actually a story.

Yeah, okay. It's wrapped into the story. It's a story. The story is, I want to be in your presence. I want to meet with you. But there's a problem, is you can't come into proximity with me. Leviticus, then.

And why? Because... This is key, the golden calf. Because they're not holy. The golden calf. Golden calf. Okay, and that's, well yeah, why is that key?

Oh, in other words, there's a lot of oopsies in the Bible. Why is this way? Yeah, okay, and that's well, yeah, why is that key? Oh, in other words There's a lot of oopsies in the Bible Yeah, totally, but it's just God said I'm gonna come dwell with you meet with you in the tent and speak to you in the tent Yeah golden calf Let's build the tent now we can't meet with God. Yeah, so what God wanted is now a thing that can't happen Why and it's not just because, you know, they're humans. It's because Moses is the representative leader of a group of betraying failed covenant partners. So the relationship has been broken because of idolatry.

Yes. And that. Now the golden calf highlights that. Mm-hmm. But that's the case already. I mean, that's the story of the Bible. Totally. That's right So but remember narratively. Yeah, that's the logic. That's right. Okay, and here The story of Israel is playing out. Yeah, the story of all humanity, which is why we're not

If we could and we will along the way do some but showing how this all maps on to the story of Adam and Eve and the garden and their exile from the garden and their inability to get back in. To the holy place to the holy place. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. So Moses's inability to enter in because of the people's failure at the golden calf is an analogy and verbally hyperlinked in lots of ways to Adam and Eve's failure at the tree and then their inability to get back into Eden. Okay, this is then a rabbit trail, but let's talk about Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve for a second in that they're in the hotspot. They're in it. God's presence. And they don't have the sunshared

on. They don't have any, right? Like there's no, yeah, they don't need it. They're in the hot spot. They're in it. God's presence. And they don't have the sunshirt on. They don't have any, right? Like, there's no, they don't need it. They're just naked. Yeah. Hanging out with God. Yeah, totally. So there's something about that stage of humanity

or that moment that they were able to be in God's presence. They were blameless. They were blameless. Yeah. They didn't know good and bad. They were, yeah, they were moral infants, just like a baby, is morally blameless, hasn't said, I hate you and stomped away and thrown Legos at their sibling yet. You know what I mean?

Like, hasn't. Interesting. Yeah, yeah. So they're, they're innocent. Okay. In a way that no other humans after the exile from Eden are. Yeah, because we all become sons of Adam. That's right. And yeah, sons of Adam and Eve.

But what God wants to do is recreate and eat an outpost among these people. And right now Moses. And, and these people are not blameless. And they're not blameless. And neither is Moses, but Moses is willing to surrender his life for people who are not blameless. Yeah, Moses is a glitch in the whole story so far. Yeah.

And we talked about this. No one's supposed to be able to get that close to God. That's right. Like he's connected to God in a way that just doesn't make sense. That's right. And the time and place where he was able to go into the fire of God's glory was when it was up in the skies. Yeah. But now that it's taken up residence among an idolatrous, betraying people,

now Moses can't go in. Because he is the leader of this people. That's right. So, and God is now among the people, not up in the skies. He's now among the people. And so, there's an unrecconciled tension between God and his people that is going to have to be resolved for this to become the tent of meeting. Yeah. And then when we get to the book of numbers, Moses is in. And so, the question becomes, how did Moses get in? Yep, that's right.

And right there, between those two narrative points is the priestly tech manual, yeah, the case, yeah, that's going to explain what are the requirements to be holy enough, to be within the proximity in different varying levels of closeness to God's presence. Yep, exactly. So let me just summarize what we've done so far. And this is a way to see Leviticus is just carrying on a narrative patterning that's already happening at work. So with Exodus, Yahweh appeared to his people at Mount Sinai. I want to come live in your midst. Okay? So that's already happening at work. So with Exodus, Yahweh appeared to his people at Mount Sinai. I want to come live in your midst. Okay? So that's a, that's like a new creation beat.

I want to recreate you as my Garden of Eden people, and you'll be my priest of the nations. Crisis, idolatry, the sin of Aaron, the golden calf. How is that crisis resolved? Moses goes into the heavenly fire and offers his own life. And what he says is, I will offer my life and make atonement for your sins. All offer my life as a blameless substitute on behalf of y'all, so that Yahweh can forgive you all. That's what he says.

It's Exodus 3, 2, 3, 4. And so Yahweh accepts that intercession and he comes to dwell among the people. Yay. He comes to dwell among the people. Crisis. Now Moses can't enter into the tent. The tent is where we're at right now.

That's where we're at right now. So how did the crisis get resolved last time? An entonement. Moses offering his life as a sacrifice of entonement. And entonement means again, we will talk about it. We like to talk about it. Yeah, but it's a way to cover, to cover for wrongs that have been done that have damaged a relationship.

So we'll talk about it. Okay. So, but I've already been trained, once when this relationship got broken last time and there was a crisis It was resolved through someone offering their life as a sub-blameless substitute for this sense of the people So once Moses is a not able to enter the tent what happens next what we call Leviticus chapters one through seven Which is all about God one through seven, which is all about God instructing Moses on how to instruct the people of how to approach him with sacrifices and offerings, and culminating in two different types of sacrifices,

three sacrifices, sorry, that are sacrifices of attunement. And so that's what we call Leviticus one through seven. So what happens is after that whole section, the priests go in. We get Leviticus 8 and 9, and the priests are ordained, finally, and God's glory and fire appears over the tent, and Moses and Aaron go in to the tent of meeting. So the crisis is actually resolved in what we call the Viticus chapter eight and nine, which is beginning the second movement. Yep, that's right. Okay. But then immediately after like literally the next sentence after God's fire comes and Moses and Aaron are able to go in is what we call the Viticus

10 new crisis. And Aaron's two oldest sons have their own version of replaying of what their father did, but in this case, you're talking about the golden calf. Their father Aaron, the golden calf was responsible for the golden calf. Yep. So their father, Aaron was responsible for the first idolatrous failure. Yeah. Now his sons replay his failure, but in a different way, interesting where they remake the liturgy in their own image, and they try and usurp the place of their father by taking incense that he is supposed, their dad is supposed to have and trying to waltz into the holy place. We could be holy on our own terms.

Yeah, that's right. We know God said that right now our dad is the lead representative priest, but they just take it upon themselves to become the lead priest doing their own energy. And God doesn't take kindly of that to that. And so God requires their lives for that offense. And so now we have a new crisis. We have rebellion and dead bodies in the tent. This will lead to another resolution.

How has the crisis been resolved now two times in a row? Yeah, in a toning sacrifice. Yep. So that leads to then what we call Leviticus 11 through 15, which is about how the tent and the people need to have their sins atoned for and to be purified. And then that culminates in another act of new creation, which is what we call Leviticus

16, which is the day of atonement, when God comes up to show up in the cloud in the tent because of the day of atonement. So we're, this is the pattern. The pattern is God's blessing and presence show up. Humans blow it in a big way. And then God's like, this is a problem. Leading to a crisis that is resolved through... And a toning sacrifice.

Yeah, sacrifices of atonement. And then that resolves the relationship such that God can show up again in a new form of Eden presence of power and glory. So this is our mega, all of a sudden we're replaying on a micro level here in Leviticus, the whole biblical story, which is about creation, failure, leading to crisis that leads to a de-creation. But out of that, God appoints a remnant to come out the other side and then starts a new creation over with them. And that's... Here we are.

You just used some fancy language there, creation and remnant. I did. And you can even see that in just Adam and Eve's story. Yeah. Where the blessing God's with them, the-hmm choosing good and bad on my own terms the the prophetic resolution a seat of the woman will come yes, yeah, crush evil while being bitten by evil and It doesn't say atonement there, but that's kind of a seed bed of that idea in a way

Yeah, whoever is gonna smash this the head of the snake is also gonna get a lethal bite. Yeah. By the snake. Yeah. The wounded victor. Yeah, this is no like, this is no safe snake. This is a venomous, this is evil. Yeah, totally.

Yeah. In the same way that Moses, you know, risked giving up his life because of what the people were doing to an idolatrous animal statue down below. So the point of this conversation, this is really what I wanted to focus on was we think of Leviticus typically in terms of that hundreds of laws. About the priestly tech manual. The priestly tec manual. In reality, if you've been trained to see the cycling of patterns, the way that later biblical stories are modeled on and replaying the vocabulary and themes of earlier ones, first of all, the narrative just goes right from Exodus into Leviticus, like without a stop. And we're discipling through the pattern of God wanting to come and bless and live

among us people of terrible failures and betrayals leading to crisis where we need someone to do something for Israel and for human. Someone when we get into Leviticus, it's an animal. It's a blameless substitute. A blameless representative. And so this gets back to, I think, my question of play acting. And I'd like to sit here for just a second, because we have a few minutes, I think.

Because all of this feels really weird to a modern, right? Like curtains that hold back God's presence. is all of this feels really weird to a modern, right? Like curtains that hold back God's presence and killing an animal as a tonement. If we were gonna contain something really powerful, our liturgy or our metaphors wouldn't be a curtain. Like we would think of. Yeah, no, really in our imaginations, the same role is played mostly by things that are radioactive, fusion, nuclear fusion, the sun, things that are life giving, that can generate energy and source life, but also that are Yeah, dangerous at the same time and when I wrong someone I don't think

Well, let's get out the animals. Yeah, there's other ways to make it right. Well, that's right. So here I think So first This way I've been processing. So this. This collection of five scrolls is called Torah. It's the Hebrew word for instruction. Yeah, teaching. Teaching. This narrative is not just telling me about interesting things that happened to these people a long time ago. It is instruction for all generations of God's people in all places and all times.

And all these other generations don't have a tabernacle, right? What do you mean? You said this is instruction for all generations. Oh, yeah, yeah. The tabernacle went out of existence like in the time of David. Yeah. So this narrative is offering instruction

that about the present and the future. Yeah. And based on the past. So that's one thing. So what is training us to do is to see the world in a particular way. Okay. If we were to write a Torah story now,

really the best example I can think of in my imagination is like where we discover this amazing thing called nuclear fusion. And it's the right, like where we discover this amazing thing called nuclear fusion. And it's this, right? This is gonna be the source of all life and energy and we're gonna power the whole globe off of what's happening in one little reactor. Amazing.

Yeah. But then because of greed and power games on this team of scientists. Right? They start using this amazing gift to work out their own like power games and putting the whole world at risk because it could explode and consume us all. But one,

person with integrity is gonna walk into that reactor and clean up the mess that they made and reset the dials, but it will mean being exposed to all the death-dealing radiation. But if they do it, they could reset and we could start over and have a fresh take at this. And so one person goes in and takes the death-dealing radiation, which is also the life giving radiation, right? And surrenders their life so that others can enjoy the benefits of it and not its death-dealing aspects. In my imagination, and it's not, I wouldn't see that story and be like, oh, that's

playacting. Like, that's an interesting symbol for how you should be self-sacrificial. In my mind, that's real. And what way is it real? Oh, like radiation will actually kill you. Oh. Like it's not like, if I went and walked into a nuclear reactor right now, it would actually kill me. I see.

So in the same way, there wasn't some like, people, ancients reading the school were kind of like, suspending their sense of reality in order to enter this story. Like, there was this real sense of, God can live among us and curtains can hold it back. Yeah, that's right. And we're here, we're talking about the people in the narrative. People in the narrative. That's right. And we're here, we're talking about the people in the narrative. People in the narrative. That's right. Yeah.

And then later biblical authors who lived long after the Tabernacle was gone, or even after the destruction of the temple. And we actually know that the Hebrew Bible was actually shaped in a significant way by people who lived after the temple was destroyed. But they saw these narratives as telling the truth about reality. That the source of the whole universe is the source of holiness and power and goodness that it sustains everything that is. And at the same time, that holy one is dangerous to us given our moral state. Yeah. And this is where the crisis of the biblical story becomes not just about the past. It's trying to explain to every reader of the story.

It's still instruction to us. It is instruction for us. Yeah. Now, the difference between the modern nuclear fission story and this story is that there is a sense, there's a belief that this happened in human history with Israel. So this is where I'm getting to the idea of play acting, which is like, God really did come dwell on the tent amongst them. And the sacrificial systems were put in place.

And it's the same way that like we, I think, and it meant something. But also, it's absurd in a way, right? In retrospect, it's absurd that a curtain would keep out God's power, that killing an animal is going to actually atone for guilt. I understand. Now, to the ancients, I wasn't absurd.

It was very real. But in a way, it feels absurd. We have sacraments that are in one sense absurd. Like we break the bread and we drink the wine. And we say this is communion with God. Yeah. And in one sense, it's like, no, you're just eating and drinking.

But in another sense, you really are. Like the belief behind a sacrament is that it's actually happening. Yeah. And so that's the play acting thing, which is like, in one sense, there's, we're just doing the thing and pretending it's real. And then in another sense, like, it's really happening. Like, is there something here in that? I'm just trying to wrestle through because as we talk about this stuff, I'm going to keep thinking over and over. That's absurd.

Yeah. That's absurd. Okay. So maybe, you know, where I think we're at is actually we're circling around and I love this about you. We're circling around to a theme that has come up every other month. But whole history of our conversation, which is about that God to be a Christian and to believe that God speaks to us in these texts that lead to the person of Jesus. I don't believe Jesus is a figment of my imagination nor is he just like a literary figure. He was an actual person. But Jesus of Nazareth appealed to these texts and this story as these story that gave the framework for who he was and what he was doing. And what does that story do? Well, we've just talked about it. So it's training you to see the world a certain way. However, the God of this story is so committed to working and being present in the world,

in and through humans, in and through humans and their language and their culture, that what God wants to communicate will only happen through that language and cultural forms. And so this story is written in ancient Hebrew. So I don't think that's a struggle for you necessarily. That it's written in ancient language. Yeah. So the fact that this story is communicating through ancient Near Eastern ritual symbolism of sacred tents and sacred mountains and animal sacrifices and priests, like this is all thoroughly incarnate of ancient Near Eastern culture that Israel was a part of. And so you're struggling with that symbolism. Is it just a symbol or is it real? That's what you're isn't that what you're struggling with? Is the narrative just giving me symbols or is it real?

or is it real? But it's the same question in a different way of saying, how is it that God could speak to every person of every time through texts that are written in ancient Hebrew, that is an ancient, that's like ancient Semitic language? And I think we're just here at the at the brink of a mystery that's at the heart of a Jewish Christian theistic view of the world, which is for God to reveal anything about God's self to us through human thought forms. It will inevitably use categories of human culture and language and live within the limits of those. This is very theoretical, but I feel like it's a major theme in our conversations over the years, which is, and I struggle with it too. So did a fusion reaction that wasn't contained actually come take up residence in a tent in the middle of the Sinai desert.

Isn't that kind of what you're asking? Like was it actually real? Well, I guess I'm assuming that these stories are rooted in Israel's actual history. Yeah. And I think the narrative is inviting us to trust that claim. Yes. Yeah. So with that assumption,

then I ask myself, and what, and what sense would an animal sacrifice actually atone for sin? And what sense would the priests putting on this like bedazzled like thing actually protect them from God's poinus? Only in the sense that they're doing a pretend thing and God saying the pretend thing is going to work. Yeah, okay, there you go. That's it right there. And so it's God accommodating himself to human language,

cultural practices and thought patterns. It's incarnation, God inhabiting human culture to reveal and communicate Torah, teaching and instruction. Yeah, I think that's where you logically have to go. Right. To, yeah, to buy any of this. Yeah, okay. And I think that's where you logically have to go. Right. To, yeah, to buy and yet. Yes. Yeah, okay.

And I think that's helpful to set the stage because we're going to get into a lot of stuff that I think I'm going to constantly be going, that's just so weird and ridiculous. And like, how does that work? Why would that even work? And it's helpful for me to be able to just say, I'm going to turn that off because what matters

is the Torah, the instruction. What is this teaching me about God and God's nature and about being a relationship with God and the solutions that God has for the crisis that we've created? 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd

2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd So, here's one way to think about it. When I was in high school, I took a lot of theater classes. And I remember my drama teacher on the first day was talking about how theater, walking into a theater or stage play, and the curtain raises and the story begins.

And he introduced me to this famous phrase by the philosopher Samuel Taylor Colrich, but he just want to introduce this phrase, the willing suspension of disbelief. When you enter into a stage play, what you're not supposed to think is, well, none of this really happened. So it can't say anything. I'm not going to get anything out of this. You willingly suspend your disbelief and you inhabit the story on its own terms. And then you walk away from that, changed, and shaped by it. And so I do think there is crucially important question that we all have to ask about the way that the biblical narratives refer to real history and the truthfulness of that representation.

But there's also an element, especially as modern readers, I think, to hear the biblical story on its own terms. We have to take a cue from cholera chair and willingly suspend our disbelief so that we can at least sympathetically hear what's being communicated here. What I have found, in my teaching experience is when you invite people into a willing suspension of disbelief when they read the biblical story, and all of this stuff in Leviticus is going to be a great example of an opportunity to do that. Well, what I found is when you invite people to read and have it the story that way, over time, most people in my experience don't end up thinking this is all ancient primitive hogwash.

They actually find it deeply compelling and illuminating of their own life experience. But it does it through ancient Hebrew narrative and ancient Semitic ritual symbolism in practice. Yeah. Yeah. It's awful. There's nothing for it. We're going to suspend disbelief, but to be clear, the ancients, Aaron's sons, Moses and Israelites, they weren't suspending disbelief. This was happening. And they weren't, while we would call it play acting in retrospect, they weren't

play acting. They were interfacing with very much real the holy that's right Yeah, and I think to me to be committed to a view that these preferred historical events that were real that they're a truthful Representation means to say that God accommodated God's own presence in power and person into the language cultural forms and ancient ritual symbolism of the Hebrew people. Which to be clear was people living, I mean, when do we think generally, this is like

like 1000 BC, generally 800 BC? Yeah, yeah, yeah, before 1000 BC. So yeah, people debate whether it's in the 1500s to 1300s, but somewhere in there BC. Oh. So 30, five to 30, 300 years ago, it's where these narratives are located. The alphabet had just been like,

is about to be invented even like, because if you're that old, the alphabet was around 1000 BC. No, no, no, like 17, 1800. Oh, really? You're right, you're really ecstatic. Okay, yeah, yeah. That's right.

So I missed it 2000 was a thousand. Oh, God, I've got it. Okay, so yeah, this is the time, we're in like the Bronze Age, right? Yeah, we're at the transition from the Bronze into the Iron Age. Yeah, that's right. Okay. Yeah. But to hold in your mind, to hold in suspension, this conviction that God revealed

himself to Israel through the language and ritual patterns is a Middle Eastern bronze age. Yeah, that's right. Like, nomadic tribal people. But, it's... It's a... It's just a different instance of the same belief that's at work at the core of Christian Orthodoxy, which is that God revealed Himself in the human person of a guy named Yeshua Minna Tert, who was an Aramaic speaking first century Jewish man from Galilee. Yeah.

And the God would accommodate and limit the fullness of God's own being, right, into the localized presence and person of Yeshua Minat Zerat, or the God would accommodate and limit God's own presence and power to an ancient bronze age tent. Right, it's the same actually challenge that we have in those cases. And perhaps also that God would commune and limit himself and be present with a 21st century community of Jesus' followers. That's exactly. Yeah, to trust and believe that my local church that I'm a part of place host to the the spirit of God. Yeah, and is somehow an incarnation of the body of Christ and the ministry of Jesus to hear right here in East Portland where I live. Yeah, that requires the same amount of trust and the same category in my mind as believing in the incarnation of Jesus,

or believing in the reality that is a real experience in this tent. Thank you. Thank you. It's about what story you're living in. We don't come to reality like neutral and then choose to adopt a story like we are inhabiting the narrative about reality from the moment of our earliest consciousness. And the question is, will we entertain new stories that can enrich and challenge our pre-existing assumptions

that can teach us new Torah, new instruction? And that's exactly what the biblical story claims to be. And that is the story being told in all of these ritual sacrifices and offerings and the blood of the animal. A different story, but also at the same time the Bible comes to this conviction of this is reality. Yeah. This is the real story. That's right. Yep.

And there's nothing for it. You got to suspend your disbelief and dive in. And even in the book of Leviticus, there's a story being told that can change the way that you see everything if you let it. So that's what this conversation has been about. The story in which Leviticus is a part. Next, we're gonna dive into these fundamental concepts of animal sacrifice and atonement, and that'll set us up to understand the five different types of offerings that work in the first literary movement of Leviticus. Thanks for listening to this episode of Bible Project Podcast. Next week we continue to trace the theme of sacrifice in the first movement of Leviticus,

and we're going to focus on Leviticus 1-7, looking at the sacrificial system. So Leviticus 1-7 is presented as the thing that will provide the resolution for Israel to be able to enter into and be in God's presence in a way that is safe and that gives them life instead of destroying them. Today's show is produced by Cooper Peltz and edited by Dan Gummel and Tyler Bailey. Our show notes are by Lindsay Ponder and Ashlyn Heiss and Hannah Wu

provided the annotations for our annotated podcast app. Bible project is a crowd-funded nonprofit. We exist to experience the Bible as a unified story that leads to Jesus. And everything that we make is free because of the generous support of thousands of people just like you. Thank you so much for being a part of this with us.

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