BibleProject - Rest for the Land - 7th Day Rest E9

Episode Date: December 2, 2019

KEY TAKEAWAYS The land is entitled to a Sabbath rest as a part of the Torah commandments.If Israel disobeys the Torah and does not allow the land to rest, they will be punished by God, including being sent into exile.Romans 8 is similar to Leviticus 26. The land (creation) is waiting for its release from bondage, which will occur when humans attain their release from their bondage.QUOTE“What we call the natural world in the biblical story is an existence with humans living at odds with our real nature and our environment. (The Land) is not ours to do what we want with.”SHOW NOTESIn part 1 (0-18:35), Tim and Jon review the conversation so far and quickly go over the Jewish festival calendar year to recap how it reflects the theme of seventh-day rest. They also discuss the Year of Jubilee.In part 2 (18:35-32:40), Tim shares from Leviticus 26 and talks about the “covenant curses” that God pronounces. If Israel disobeys the commands, they will be exiled. Their exile is portrayed an inverted jubilee. Covenant loyalty will result in Eden blessing, freedom, abundance, and security, much like the jubilee.Leviticus 26:3-13“If you walk in my statutes and keep my commandments so as to carry them out, then I shall give you rains in their season, so that the land will yield its produce and the trees of the field will bear their fruit. Indeed, your threshing will last for you until grape gathering, and grape gathering will last until sowing time. You will thus eat your food to the full (Heb. שבע, seven) and live securely in your land.“I shall also grant peace in the land, so that you may lie down with no one making you tremble. I shall also eliminate harmful beasts from the land, and no sword will pass through your land…“So I will turn toward you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will confirm my covenant with you. You will eat the old supply and clear out the old because of the new. Moreover, I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul will not reject you. I will also walk among you (cf.  Genesis 3:8) and be your God, and you shall be my people. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would not be their slaves, and I broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.”Tim says the takeaway from this passage is that covenant violation will result in seven anti-jubilee curses, slavery, poverty, and oppression, which is also portrayed with symbolic seven imagery.Leviticus 26:14-18, 21, 23-24, 27-28, 33-35“But if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands, and if you reject my decrees and abhor my laws and fail to carry out all my commands and so violate my covenant, then I will do this to you: I will bring on you sudden terror, wasting diseases and fever that will destroy your sight and sap your strength. You will plant seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it. I will set my face against you so that you will be defeated by your enemies; those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee even when no one is pursuing you.“If after all this you will not listen to me, I will discipline you for your sins seven times over.“If you remain hostile toward me and refuse to listen to me, I will multiply your afflictions seven times over, as your sins deserve.“If in spite of these things you do not accept my correction but continue to be hostile toward me, I myself will be hostile toward you and will afflict you for your sins seven times over.“If in spite of this you still do not listen to me but continue to be hostile toward me, then in my anger I will be hostile toward you, and I myself will discipline you for your sins seven times over.“I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in ruins. Then the land will enjoy its sabbath years all the time that it lies desolate and you are in the country of your enemies; then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths. All the time that it lies desolate, the land will have the rest it did not have during the sabbaths you lived in it.”Jon notes that Western culture allows us to think that we own land. However, owning land in ancient Israel wasn’t reality. Instead, the land would return to the family originally entrusted with it every fifty years. God considers the land to be his, and Israel is tenants upon it.In part 3 (32:40-end), Tim finishes Leviticus 26.Leviticus 26:40-45“If they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their forefathers, in their unfaithfulness which they committed against me, and also in their acting with hostility against me… or if their uncircumcised heart becomes humbled so that they then make amends for their iniquity, then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember also my covenant with Isaac, and my covenant with Abraham as well, and I will remember the land. For the land will be abandoned by them, and will make up for its sabbaths while it is made desolate without them.“Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I so abhor them as to destroy them, breaking my covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God. But I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the Lord.”Tim notes that the same logic that gives the land rest in Leviticus 26 also appears in the New Testament, when Paul writes in Romans 8.Romans 8:19-23“For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.”Creation will be liberated from its bondage when humans are liberated from theirs. Show Resources:Hittite King Suppiluliuma (Wikipedia) Show Music:Defender Instrumental by TentsAlways Home by Ian EwingThe Size of Grace by Beautiful Eulogy Show Produced by:Dan Gummel Join the Bible Project!thebibleproject.com/visionPowered 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 in. That's a huge help to our team. We're excited to hear from you. Here's the episode.

Hey, this is John at the Bible Project. We've been in the middle of a conversation on the theme of rest in the Bible. God created the earth in six days, and on the seventh day, he stopped working. He entered his creation like a king entering a throne room to rest and rule. And he wants us, his image, to rule with him on this seventh day.

The problem is that left to our own devices, we've turned what meant to be rest into toil and violence and jealousy and mistrust. What we call the natural world in the biblical story is an existence of humans living at odds with our real nature and we're living at odds with our environment. But God is on a mission to bring us back to that restful rule with him and to recreate the world. And so to do that, he chooses an ancient family. He makes a covenant with them so that they can find the rest for themselves and for God's

creation. If you've been following along with this series, then you've likely been blown away with me about how much this theme of rest is woven into all the stories of Israel's patriarchs, of Moses and the exile, and how God gives Israel their covenant law, which includes seven festivals, a Sabbath day, and even a Sabbath year, a whole year, where you let the land rest.

And all of this is meant to help them begin to live like the future rest has actually come. Today on this episode, we're going to look again at how God's desire for the seventh day ideal is thwarted by our desire to rule on our own terms. And what we'll look at today is how the biblical authors talk about this rebellion in the language of seventh day rest. So after giving all the covenant laws, God says, If after all this, you still don't listen. I'll discipline you for your sins seven times over. So if the ideal is the seventh day rest,

the anti-ideal is the exile from Eden, multiplied by seven. It all builds up to verse 33. I'll scatter you among the nations. I'll draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste. Your cities lie in ruins. Verse 34. Then the land will get to enjoy the Sabbath years.

All the time that it lies desolate and you're in the country of your enemies, the land will finally get that Sabbath rest and enjoy its Sabbaths. All the time that it lies desolate, the land will have the rest that it didn't get during the Sabbaths that you were living on it. It's very interesting. This warning comes true. Israel is exiled from their land and in their exile, they get

to read this warning and find meaning for what is happening. The exile is gaining a meaning here. Whatever the exile is, it's going to be restoring the lost Sabbaths. The lost seventh day and seventh years and seven times seven years. It's about restoring that to the land because you didn't give it to the land. So today on the show, we continue our discussion on the theme of seventh day rest. Thanks for joining us. Here we go. You know, I noticed that these conversations when we start them back up, this is like the eighth episode in Sabbath. And I think we get more and more succinct.

How we... It's helpful. Yeah, it's like this exercise and how do we tell the whole story. Yeah. And we get better and better at it. Yep, that's right. Okay, do you want to try your hand? I think I did the last summary.

Yeah. Intro. Sure. We're talking about the Sabbath, although we're not talking about the Sabbath. We're really talking about what does it mean to be in a state of completeness and rest where things are the way they should be.

I guess is one way to put it. And in Genesis, one and two, it kind of creates that portrait of that ideal. God creates the world in six days. On the seventh day, he stops his work of creation. He settles in to creation. He appoints humans to rule and reign and rest with him in this beautiful garden. And you get this picture of a place that is abundance. And they're called to work and serve in it, but it's not the kind of working that you do when you're grinding it out, and it's breaking your back.

It's like the kind of work where it's you show up, and it's this cooperative kind of like the land is producing for you, and it's almost as playful kind of work. The kind of, you know, some scientists call it flow, where it's just like, you're in the state of like, it doesn't feel like work, but there's a lot of productivity. Yes, yes.

And that's the idea, whatever that actually, I mean, we all kind of know we want that. Yeah, yep. And we all try for that in our lives. And the, but humanity doesn't get to stay in that state. There's a rebellion. We don't want to cooperate with God and rule with him. We want to rule it with our own wisdom.

And there's an exile and now there's no rest. Now, it is the grind. Yeah, the anti-Sabath land. Anti-Sabath land. Yeah, the anti-sabot land. Anti-sabot land. Yeah, inverted sabot land. Upside down. Where you, yeah, now the humans treat the ground as a slave and then the slave, and then that slave, the ground, in turn,

works the humans to death. Yeah, they start killing each other. Yeah, that's Genesis 3, verses 16 to 19. I think we all get this intuitively. It's like we desire this rest, but we know that really life is this grind. Grinding is back to dust. And why do we have this sense of this ideal rest? Where does that come from?

Will it ever be achieved? And the biblical story is saying, yes, you have that for a reason. God designed it that way. And God wants to bring humanity back there. And the narrative continues with God choosing the family of Abraham and saying, I'm going to give you this rest and a land of abundance. And you will be my people and you'll kind of regain this state. And the people of Abraham, the Israelites, end up as slaves.

They're not like ruling with God in a beautiful land. There are slaves in Egypt. That's right. And so they have to be liberated from their slavery. And the story of their liberation from slavery mirrors the image of God creating the world out of disorder. And so now you get kind of like these two perspectives with the same idea, which is, how do we get to rest?

Well one is God has to just take disorder and order it in a way. Liberate it from death and darkness and disorder. But also he needs to take us who are kind of enslaved to, in the story, enslaved to Egypt, but the powers and corrupt institutions and has to liberate humanity. And that is also all the images of their liberation, or at least creation, images. And it ends with this, hey now go and rest in this new land. Yeah, yes. X is 15. God's bringing His people into an inheritance where He will plant them, and live among them, and dwell among them. The word

dwell is spelled with the same letters as Shabbat in Exodus 15. So it's called the mountain of his inheritance. It's all this Eden imagery. It's resting with God on the Holy Mountain. That's what the liberated slaves who were liberated on the night of the first day, they celebrate for seven days that liberation and then on their way to the new garden mountain. Yeah. Yeah. So, rap nice.

That was the exordie story. Then the tabernacle. Then the tabernacle. Yeah. If creation is God's temple, all of creation is God's temple, and the point is that God rests here with us, that has been lost. The tabernacle becomes this microcosm, this little image of reclaiming that. And Moses has given blueprints of how to build this, and the blueprints have this Sabbath structure where it's like, it's created in six speeches

and on the seventh speech, it's all about resting. So just like, it's being now ingrained into our psyche through these narratives of like, there's supposed to be this pattern of creating and then resting and stopping. And you're kind of asking like, well, why is that so important? Why is it so important to stop on the seventh day? It's even in the blueprints.

Yes, that's right. Of the temple or the tabernacle. And then you get the 10 commandments. And it's one of the commandments to rest on the seventh day. Yeah. It's a rhythm of their life as they wander through the desert. Yeah, they're told to collect mana for six days on the seventh day. Don't collect any trust that there will be enough on the next day.

Yeah, and as we began to talk about it, it's really about the sense of trust that there will be enough. And that my anxiety and struggle isn't going to bring rest ultimately. God will bring it. And I'm not supposed to just wait for it in the future. Yeah, the train. I'm supposed to actually seize it now, even though we still live in a world of disorder

and chaos. I can stop and I can take a break and I can Practice like new creation has begun. That's right. Yeah, and for initial I they look at the center of their camp They see the little microdwelling of Yahweh and their midst as also in advanced Simple of the day when Yahweh's presence will fill all of creation, like ideal seventh day in Genesis 1. So, if that's what the Tabernacle represents, both the present reality of a future hope, then the seventh day rest of the Sabbath isn't just the same.

Remember what the Tabernacle and Temple are to space, the Sabbath or the seventh day rest are to time. They're present, symbols and signs and fortest of the future. The future of the seventh day. Yeah, such a thank you, Abraham Heschel, for that wonderful concept. The Sabbath is a temple and time. Yeah, it's good. Cathedral of time. Yeah, he's a phrase cathedral.

What he means is a sacred space. Yeah. Then we start looking at just this obsession with seven. Yeah, then Leviticus just goes like Richter off the Richter scale. You got the seventh day Sabbath. Yeah. But then you've got, man, the seventh year rest. Well, no, let's start just, so it's a good thing

there isn't every seven year rest. Well, no, let's start just, so it's a good thing there isn't every seven hour rest. That would be tough. Every seven minutes. Seven minutes. You say the shamash, that makes sense. But every seventh day, then it blows up to on an annual cycle. Yeah.

You forgot all these feasts. Oh, yep. Yeah, that's right. So the first one is Passover. Yeah. And after the Passover is the meal, it begins at night at night. And then there's a seven day on the bread, 11 bread feast. And that's all pointing towards liberation, which is what Sabbath is for. It's about our future liberation. Liberation into the land of rest. Then there's

the after you go into the land. And then after you get, whenever you get your harvest, yeah, the first Sabbath, after you get your harvest, the first Sabbath, after you get your harvest, you bring a first fruit, thank you, card to God in the temple. It was like a thank you symbol. Yep. And after first fruits, do you remember? Hmm, trying to remember. This is the last one in the first half of the year.

Yeah, it's the, it's the, oh yeah, 50 days. Yeah, 50, yeah, 57 times seven. Yeah. 49 days and then you have an extra day of rest. Yeah, so it's like, Hey, we excited about sevens. Let's get real excited about seven. Seven times seven days. Yeah, that's right. And so that means then on the 50th day, he've just celebrated a Sabbath because the seventh Sabbath cycle after Passover. And now on the 50th day, you're gonna do an extra special of that next round of harvest. You know, different plants, different crops,

give their first harvest at different times of the spring or early summer. Yeah, that's the idea. And then we get into the trip. Let's first half of the year. First half of the year. Second half of the year begins with the seventh month. Seventh month.

The seventh month, of course, is super important. Yep. So important that it's even thought of as like a new year. Yes. That's right. That's right. You're a professional. Yeah.

So that's one of them, Rasha Shana, the trumpet. Blows some trumps. Yeah. The new year comes in. Here's the seventh month. And then seventh month is packed with festivals to remind you that there's this ultimate rest coming. Yes.

After you blow the trumpets to inaugurate the seventh month, then on the 10th day is the day of atonement. Oh yeah, the day of atonement. The day of atonement. The day of atonement. The day of atonement. The day of atonement. It's like right in the center of the calendar year.

Yeah, that's right. On the 7th month, in the middle of the 7th month, the 10th day of the 7th month, that's right. 10th day, yep. Yeah. 10th day of the 7th. Tenth day, yep, yep. Tenth day of the seventh month, and ten is obviously very important. Yeah. Image as well.

Yep, from Genesis 1, 10 words, Exodus, 10 plagues, Mount Sinai, 10 commandments. Which are also 10 words. Yeah. And then a seven day festival of not working, hanging out, and living in a little sacred garden tent that you've made out of the leaps and branches of beautiful fruit trees that came from a river. The description, it's so like it just couldn't be more overt with the Eden hyperlinks right there.

Tree because it has to be from a tree that's beautiful with fruit by a river. Yeah. Anyway. So if you're an ancient Israelite, your entire year now is all. That's right. Revolving around these festivals that are all

helping you remember where this is all heading. That's right. Where's history heading? Yeah, but where's history heading? Yeah. Where's time heading? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Where's history heading? Yep, but we're history heading. Yeah, where's time heading? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, where's the story? Where's the story going of of our world going and it's actually asking us Yeah, to practice and the future reality of where it's here in the present on a yearly basis to structure your concept of time Yeah, on this on this micro rhythm of an annual your concept of time on this micro rhythm of an annual.

You can't plan anything in your life without first seeing how it's gonna fit into this. Totally, yes. And if that's true on the annual cycle, it's even amplified on the Jubilee cycle. So it's a weekly cycle, annual cycle, and then, there's... The seven times seven annual cycle. Every seven years, it's extra special.

Yes, that's right. Yep, a year of release. Year of release. For debt slaves and forgiveness of debts. Yeah, that's called the Sabbath year. It's called the year of release. Year of release. And then that's not enough.

Nope. Let's step it up one more. So seven times seven years. Yeah, every seventh of those seven year cycles, That's not enough. Nope. Let's step it up one more. So, seven times seven years. Yeah. Every seventh of those seven year cycles, which would be 49. Well, the 49th year, you do the seventh, seven. Yeah. And then, 50th year.

But then, on the day of atonement of that seventh, seven, you blow a trumpet and inaugurate a full year, additional year that is the year of Jubilee, that is the year of Jubilee. And in the year of Jubilee, things get crazy. Yeah. Anyone who has lost their property, it all goes back. Yeah. Big reset.

Yeah. If you file bankruptcy, all those assets become yours again, in terms of the farming community. Yeah. Yeah, it's crazy. Yeah. And also full reset. Full reset. The Eden ideal, which would that's crazy. Yeah. And also full reset, full resue, the Eden ideal, which would come once in a lifetime

for most Israelites, because every 50 years, most Israelites would only ever experience one of them. Oh, and at the disruption point, yeah, how disruptive this would be. Yeah, this is a full economics, social, what I mean, whatever verbs you want political, it's a reset button. Yeah, yeah. If you think about it, like everyone is creating the future, right? Like, when you start a business, you're trying to create a certain future state that you want. When you give a loan to someone, you're thinking in the future what you want.

When you're building a house, when you're building want when you're building a house when you're creating a family all of this it's all about where's this all heading yeah and if built into it are all of these disruptions okay every seven days yeah stop yeah every seventh year yeah that's released yeah every seven by seven years like all the assets go back. It's like you can't plan, and you can't imagine a future without this completely coloring the way you do it. Correct. That was the original point you made a little while ago. No, that's a good point.

And it builds in the suspicion of what we would call the natural course of things. And the biblical story is the post-exile from Eden reality. Being death and slavery. Death and slavery and people abusing power and abusing each other. And abusing each other. Yeah, so built-in is this like divine interruption

where God says, hey, everybody cut it out, start over. It's like only allows things to de- like decompose so much. Decompose so much. Yeah which is we're gonna see even even with that in place the story still doesn't go well. But yeah here yes it's good summary. That took a little while. It took a little while, but it was fun. 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc

1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc Okay, so we just walked out of the Jubilee and Exodus, excuse me, Leviticus 25. We walk into Leviticus 26 and we read starting verse 3.

Everybody, if y'all walk in my statutes and keep my commandments, so as to carry them out, then I'll give you reins in their seasons. Oh, yeah, we need that. The land will yield its produce. The trees of the field will bear fruit. Your threshing will last until the grape gathering, and then the grape gathering will last until you sow seed, and you will eat your food to the completeness.

And again, in Hebrew, that word fuller complete is filled with the same three letters as the word seven or seven. Yep, I'll always get that. Yeah, it's all right. It's okay. Savestop seven, which is the day of Sabbath is the same letters. Yeah, it's the word complete. Yep, that's right. You I'll give you Shalom in your land. You'll live securely there. I'll give you Shalom. I'll eliminate the harmful wild animals and no sword will pass through your land. Go down to verse 11. It sounds very like Eden.

Dude, totally. Actually, sorry, verse 9, I will turn towards you and make you fruitful and multiply. Yeah, the Eden comes from... Yeah, totally. Yep. I'll confirm my covenant with you. Verse 11, I will make my dwelling among you. This is important then, reflecting back, the Eden ideal has baked into it. God's presence. A temple presence. Yeah. Yeah. If you're reading the temple building.

That's right. That's right. Creation is the temple. Correct. Ah, look at verse 12. This is key. I will walk among you. Oh, that's the Eden. Yes. Yes, this is the first time it's the phrase of Adam and Eve after eating from the tree, but they heard the sound of Yahweh God walking in the midst of the Hittalech. So there's the word halach, which means to walk, but the Hittalech is like... Still like wrong. ...and wandering, strolling.

We don't call it strolling. Actually, it's a great English phrase from Hittalech. Yeah. It's strolling. We might call it strolling. Actually, it's a great English phrase from Hitalic, yeah. Strolling. So this is the same verb. I will stroll among you. Strolling among us. It's just full on Eden reset here. So this again reflects back to the Jubilee, the Eden ideal. If Israel is obedient, then what they will experience is the full Sabbath, seventh day blessing of Eden. Okay, so what if they don't? What if the E to the tree, knowing good and evil?

If they don't, Leviticus depicts the results as an upside down Jubilee. If they're used up for it. Well, you'll see. Verse 14. the results as an upside down Jubilee. He's very stupid. He's very stupid. Well, you'll see. Verse 14. But if you don't listen to me, or carry out my commands, so the first thing is,

if you listen to my commands, Eden, if you don't listen to me, and carry out my command. Can we stop for a second? Yep. His in Eden, the command was, eat of all the trees. That's right.

Stead everything. Correct. Just not this one. Oh, yes. Yeah, not the tree of knowing the trees. That's right. Eat everything. Correct. Just not this one. Oh, yes. Yeah. Not the tree of knowing good and evil. Yeah. And now, in this context, God actually created a covenant with the people and ancient people and gave them a whole bunch of commands. But we're supposed to see those as kind of parallel ideas. The covenant commands are the parallel to the command about the tree. Correct.

Yeah. Which again helps, we're going to make a video about this, about the trees of Eden. Yeah. Because this is very helpful. This kind of provides, remember how this works, later iterations of a design pattern, provide backwards- Feedback loop. Insight into earlier patterns.

So Israel choosing what to do with the Torah, commands of the Torah, will determine whether or not they go into exile or whether they get life in the land. And that's the same plot tension in the garden. Cool. If you don't care out of these commands, if you reject my decrees,

if you abhor my laws, feel contempt towards my laws. Man, yeah, I ask an asked of, give to the poor, leave our fields for wild animals every seventh year. That's crazy. I'm not gonna do that. So if you fail to care out my commands

and so violate the covenant, that's a good example. The commands aren't just random, they're covenant, they're the marriage terms. Then this is what I will do to you. And from verse 16 through the end of the chapter, it's just a long list of stiff consequences. And with Strikes Modern Readers, as really heavy handed over the top. Yeah. Yeah. I remember once the summer, I think I was right out of, I'd just finished college and was not able to put my Bible degree to use. Yeah. So I became like an assistant handyman

So I became like an assistant handyman at an apartment complex. I didn't know that. Yeah. I can't not imagine that. Yeah. That's where I learned how to do drywall and all the skills I learned, which weren't that many, but I learned that. That's valuable. It was super valuable.

So we were turning over this apartment. People had just moved out. We were patching some holes. We had to replace some plumbing. And so I just remember we were painting in the living room. He and I were both part of the skate church ministry. And so we learned from the guy who started it, Paul, that listening to the Bible while you work is just an awesome thing to do.

So one summer, don't judge us, we were thought, let's listen to the whole Pentatook this week, as we're just like working. Yeah. So it's pretty awesome. Except one time, we got to Leviticus 26, and all the curses. And the covenant curses, it takes about five to seven minutes to read aloud, and it's just all just dropping the divine

judgment hammer. And so we're listening to this, and a lady walks by who lives there and she sees it we're working. So she comes in to ask us like a question about like, hey, you know, my something in my window doesn't work with something and she comes in and it's like, I will punish you for your sin seven times over and you'll be defeated by your enemies and those who hate you will rule over you, you know? And this lady was just like,

what are these guys listening to? Yeah. She was weirded out. Yeah. Anyway, that's a memory I have. That is so funny. Leviticus toys. It's its own version of like heavy metal music

or something, just listening to like covenant curses. Totally. You know, one thing helped me in graduate school, multiple things did, but once I was in a class where we were reading other ancient Near Eastern literature, we had a whole section on ancient covenant treaties, there's lots of them from the ancient world, the aromians and the hitites.

The way they wrote up covenant treaties was like this. And actually, Leviticus 26 looks kind of tame the Hermians and the Hittites. The way they wrote up Covenant treaties was like this. And actually, Leviticus 26 looks kind of tame compared to some of the Covenant curses that the Hittite kings have in their enemies. Like they would get like Mayor Cows flesh rot. And oh, there is some, it's a difficult line to translate, but this one king, Shupi Luli Uma is... Do you just made that word out?

No, this is name. Hahaha. Not sure. Yeah, that's it. Shupi Luli Uma or Shupi Luli Uma. Okay. Yeah, he's a Hittite king. Anyway, from the 1300's BC.

I'm gonna force you to have a forecative. So anyhow, he has this line in it and we just like, it has this line in it, and we just like, it became a joke in the department, because it's hard to translate, but it's something about may your chickens pack out the eyes of all your animals. Oh gosh.

It's like, of these like, rabid chickens. May your chickens become rabid. You know what this reminds me of? It's the Mottipython skip. Yeah. Right? Oh yeah, yeah, sure. Yeah, that's right.

I thought in your general direction. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's it. Okay, so just to say this is a thing when you want to pump up the rhetoric and say, dude, be faithful to this agreement. They're saying it's rhetoric. I'm saying it's a form of covenantal rhetoric.

They would have read this and there would have been like, oh yeah, I'm familiar with these. Totally. And it's not that they would say, oh no big deal have been like, oh yeah, I'm familiar with these. Totally. And it's not that they would say, I don't know a big deal, you know, that's what you say. Oh yeah, I know, it's supposed to be a big deal. But I'm just saying, this isn't,

this is, it's an ancient convention that the biblical authors are framing the covenant in. That's just helpful. Okay. Even though it sounds crazy to that lady who walked in and heard. Well, it sounds crazy when you even read it now. Okay, yes.

It feels intense. All that says, if you don't listen to my commands, I'll bring Sudden Terror on you, Leviticus 26 and for 16. Wasting disease, fever that will destroy your sight and sap your strength. I mean, it's the, but I think it's the opposite. We're just turning all the blessings of Eden. Yeah. And we're just turning each one of them upside down. Inverting them. It being ground back to dust.

Yeah, totally. I'll set my face against you instead of God walking with you. Now you've made God your enemy. Those who hate you will rule over you. You'll flee even when no one's chasing you. And then this is the first repetition of a key line. If after all this, you still don't listen. I'll discipline you for your sins seven times over. So if the ideal is the seventh day rest, the anti ideal, the anti ideal. Yeah. Is that a seventh day seven times Christian?. It is exile from Eden, multiply by seven. So it goes on, if you, verse 21, if you remain hostile towards me and refuse to listen, I'll multiply your afflictions seven times over as your sins deserve. Verse 23, if in spite of these things, you don't accept my correction, then I'll afflict

you for your sin seven times. It says it four times in the chapter. You'll get a seven. It's compounding. Yeah, compounding, yeah, totally. Yeah. Okay, let's call it an exponent. It all builds up to verse 33.

I'll scatter you among the nations. I'll draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste. Your city's lie in ruins for 34. Then the land will get to enjoy the Sabbath years. All the time that it lies desolate and you're in the country of your enemies, the land will finally get that Sabbath rest and enjoy it Sabbath. Interesting. All the time that it lies desolate, the land will have the rest that it didn't get

during the Sabbaths that you were living on it. Yeah. It's very interesting. The land, you remember this, in the seventh year release. Yeah, you let the land rest. Just it's parallel, you release your slaves, you liberate them,

because they're not your property. You don't really own them. Really own them, they all belong to God, just like you do. And so also the land. Yeah, we talked about this, how, you know, it's such, I mean, I don't know how long human history we've thought this, but like we own land. And it's such and great in our psyche.

Like you can own land. And there's something about the Eden ideal Yeah, yeah, it's such and great in our psyche. Like you can own land. Yeah. And there's something about the Eden ideal where you don't actually own the land. That's right. Yeah. In fact, we didn't talk about this in the Jubilee chapter a little bit because it's 25. But that's exactly the logic is you release the land every 49th and 50th year. And it says, the land is mine.

You are tenants upon it. You're renters on my land. Yeah. That's totally the concept. Okay. Yep. Yeah. So yeah, when Israel isn't doing the seven-day rest, the seventh year release and the Jubilee release, it's as if the land is building up a resentment. It's building up like, yeah, like that. Yeah, not resentment. It's building up like you owe me. Hey, well, another another Jubilee that nobody did. Yeah. Okay, you guys owe me. Yeah, interesting. Check. So, we're building up all towards this symbolic depiction of exile as a 70 or as a 7 times 70. A 70. Yep, we'll just wait for Jeremiah.

But exile is going to be envisioned as... It's not going to be a quick exile. No, no. It's been compounded. But also, the exile is gaining a meaning here. Whatever the exile is, it's going to be restoring the lost Sabbaths. The lost seventh day and seventh years and seven times seven years. It's about restoring that to the land

because you didn't give it to the land. And so the backup, make sure that everyone is following, including myself. Israel is getting the land. It's a promised new creation, that's right. They got to keep these covenants and it will be eaten. It will be amazing. Andants and it will be eaten. It will be amazing. Yes. And all the nations will be blessed. But if they don't, there's this foreshadowing of, you're going to get kicked out.

Yes. And it's the exact same narrative logic of Adam and Eve in the garden. That's right. And they don't obey the covenant command. Yeah. And they're exiled out of the garden. That's right. And this is something that actually happened in human history.

Israel was taken over by Babylon and they had to leave the land. And so why did that happen? What does it mean? What's the significance of that? And you're saying embedded in here is all of this. Yeah. Yeah. It's a vision that humans, what we call the natural world in the biblical story, is an existence of humans living at odds with our real nature. And we're living at odds with our environment. With our nature and the nature. Yeah. We're living at odds with our environment. With our nature and the nature.

Yeah, we're living at odds with each other and we're living at odds with our, yeah, our environment that we don't relate to it the way that we ought to. Which is you don't, you don't push it to the brink. Yeah, it's not ours to do what we want with. It's a gift and what you do with gifts is figure out the intention of the giver for what you do with the gift. Right? That's what you do with the gift?

Well, I guess it's not what everybody does with a gift. But yeah, you give, oh, this is a classic scene. You know, a father giving a son or daughter their first, like, like, car. Oh, I was going say like pocket knife. You know? You've got young kids. And this isn't for like stabbing the couch or your brother, you know?

This is for, you know, whittling sticks, you know, that kind of thing. And so, yeah, the vision is that creation is a gift. It's a gift, but it was, it's not a gift in like, hey, now you own this. It's a gift in life. No, you oversee it. On my behalf. The gift is the ability, is the opportunity to rule with God.

All right, yeah. So the pocket knife analogy only works halfway. Yeah. Yeah. Because it's still mom or dad's pocket knife. It's sharing your inheritance. Yeah, this is, yeah, that's right. Yeah. Yeah, that, because it's still mom or dad's pocket knife. It's sharing your inheritance. Yeah, this is yeah, that's right Yeah, that's right. So you get the idea here. You honor the the land

Knowing it's not yours knowing that if it when God fills this place and I trust God's wisdom Entry God and neighbor and land and beast by's wisdom, then Eden will be the result. If we don't, it's an inverted upside down, seventh day. Yeah. Verse 40. However, if they're in the land of their enemies and they confess their iniquity

and the iniquity of their ancestors, their unfaithfulness that they committed to me, they're acting with hostility towards me, if their unsurcumcised heart becomes humbled. Is that the first time that phrase is used? Yes, Moses is going to pick it up and do the runnymy, but this is the first time it's used. So obviously a metaphor. So their circumcision is about the removal of skin. And it's a symbol of the covenant. It's a symbol, yep, of the covenant.

And it's a multi-layered symbol with lots of different layers of meaning. But here, it can be that what needs to get taken away is obstinates and hostility and stubbornness. And so, if they're unhealed hearts, if they're stubborn hearts become humbled, they make amends for their iniquity, verse 42, then I will remember my covenant with him with Jacob, my covenant with Isaac, my covenant with Abraham. What was that covenant? Blessing. Blessing for all the nations through Israel living on this land, the promised land. And look, I'll remember my covenant, verse 42, and I'll remember

the land. So Israel's an exile, and they humbled themselves. I'll remember my covenant they made. And I'll remember the land. The land's really important here. It's really important. The land gets the rest it deserved. And the land can be remembered. Yeah, yeah.

The land is made to be eaten. Think about the logic here. I'm just, maybe I've thought this before. I'm just pondering at this moment. God made the land to Be come Eden through people, right? I'll remember my covenant. That's God remembering my people. I'll remember the land It's as if man. This is the same logic as Romans 8. The creation is liberated from its bondage to decay. When the children of God are glorified in resurrection and new creation, the creation is waiting for humans to get their act together. So it could be what happens. So the creation is waiting for humans to get re-created.

So it can become what God intended to become. Logic is right here. Thanks for listening to this episode of The Bioproject Podcast. It's December 2019, and this month in December, we want to ask you to consider joining the Bioproject if you haven't already. This is a crowdfunded project, and we have many wonderful patrons who have allowed us to do some incredible work. We want to highlight the work that we've done so far, but also want to let you know that what we do in our organization is that in December, we take

all the money that comes in and we use that to know how far and fast we can go in the next year. So all the money that comes in in December 2019 really is funding our mission for 2020, kind of supercharging it. You can be a part of our December join campaign at thebibletproject.com slash vision. One of the exciting things that happened in 2019 that we're gonna continue in 2020

is our localization of our videos into new languages. Today, I want to introduce you to one of those localization teams. Hey, this is Dan, the podcast producer at the Bioblo project. And this is Allison with the localization team at the Bioblo project. Yeah, hey, Allison. Like John just said, we're taking this month of December to highlight some of the really cool things that people are working on here at the Bioblo project, but they don't always make it to the front page. Yeah, that's right. There are a lot of moving parts here at the Bible project, but they don't always make it to the front page. Yeah, that's right. There are a lot of moving parts here at the Bible project.

And thanks to our supporters, we've had a big push towards localization. So I've often heard that word. People have tossed around the office a lot. I still don't know exactly what it means. Yeah, I hear that often. So localization is basically just a fancy word for recreating our English videos into

other languages and cultures. A lot of people ask me why we don't just do subtitles and call it a day. That's something I've totally been wondering myself. Yeah, well, if you've ever seen a Bible project video, you'll notice that Tim and John's voices often play off of on-screen texts and imagery, and we want to recreate that experience as much as possible. So we basically create a team from scratch, like artists, voiceover talent, and translators.

Then we send them our files and work with them as they morph our videos into their native language. That is really cool. It sounds very complicated. You want to highlight several different languages this month, so who do you want to talk about today? Yeah, so I am stoked to present the Brazilian Portuguese team. They are incredibly talented, and we've really enjoyed working with them. So, to remake the videos, we work with Brazilian animators, illustrators, translators, and even a Brazilian Portuguese voice for Tim.

So, close your eyes and imagine Tim speaking Portuguese to you somewhere on the beach. Yeah, and you won't have to wait till long to figure out what that's going to sound like because the channel is going to launch in January. And we'll have about 50 videos published by it into the year. That is really amazing, Allison. Yeah, we wanted to share this team with the podcast audience because it's your support that allows us to bring our videos to Brazilian Portuguese community, which is a pretty big deal because there's almost 200 million Brazilian Portuguese speakers and millions more that speak other Portuguese dialects. I just looked it up. It's actually one of the top 10 languages in the world. Wow fun fact, fun Brazilian Portuguese fact. We're very excited and we're so grateful for you all. Yes

thank you everybody. All right so Bible project in Brazilian Portuguese. You can meet them. Here we go. Hi my name is Miarella. Here we go. Hi, my name is Miarella. I am Brazilian. I do live in Los Angeles, California. And my role within the Bible project has been a language advisor. And I basically work around the same box as the rest of the Brazil team. My favorite video is definitely Ephesians makes me cry every time for 2020. Para 2020, estou muito muito preocupada para finalizar o rei é uma realização pessoal, minha também, que é através de de a oração.

Também é uma das partes que eu mais gosto de fazer. Eu do posto que eu mais gostei de fazer foi o posto de João. You just heard Samicler share his passion for this. He lives in Chappacabra, Brazil and his role within the Bible project is to create the fonts and posters. And he said he's loving this experience. It's been such a personal achievement that has come to his life through prayer. He also said that his favorite poster to work on was the poster of the Book of John. Hello, my name is Rafael. I work in the Rich Scriptures project in Brazil.

Now I am a coordinator of the project here. We are working now the last books of the new testments and the next month probably we will start to do the old testement. Hi, my name is VIP, I'm one of the Portuguese editors on the project Bible. Hi, I am Adriano. I'm working on animation of the Portuguese version of the video from the Bible project and I'd like to invite all Brazilians around the world to check it out on YouTube because I know you love it too. Tchau tchau. Is there like a popular way of saying goodbye and Portuguese or Brazilian?

Ciao! It's like Italian. Okay, so, Valet. Can I say that? I'm a producer. So awesome. Yeah, that's a good one. That's a good one. I saw you best. I saw you best.

Wow. Like, that's all folks. I saw you best. Wow. you