BibleProject - Sacred Time & The Feast of Flight - 7th Day Rest E4

Episode Date: November 4, 2019

QUOTE"Another layer of Genesis is that the first, the middle, and last day are all designed to show God creating structures of time. In the timing of the middle fourth day, God appoints the sun, moon and stars to rule over day and night, and they are to mark the moadim, the sacred feasts, the annual sacred feasts. So the whole sacred calendar of Israel that you’ll meet in Exodus and Leviticus is already baked into the story at the beginning of Genesis. (This is) sacred time."KEY TAKEAWAYSThe Jewish sacred feasts are an integral and overlooked theme in the Bible. They are built into the fabric of the original creation story in Genesis 1:14.Passover is considered to be the most important Jewish holiday. Many biblical themes flow into and out of the idea of the Passover.SHOW NOTESWelcome to our fourth episode discussing the theme of the seventh-day rest in the Bible. In this episode, Tim and Jon look at the Passover and Exodus stories and talk about their importance to the development of this theme.In part 1 (0-12:30), the guys quickly go over the conversation so far. Tim briefly covers the days of creation and notes how God sets up structures of time on days one, four, and seven. These structures are reflected in the Hebrew calendar.In part 2 (12:30-19:30), Tim begins to share broadly about the Hebrew sacred calendar. Tim notes that the Jewish calendar is designed to heavily reflect symbolic “seven” imagery.In part 3 (19:30-37:30), Tim briefly recaps the calling of Abraham that was discussed in the previous episode. Tim notes that Abraham believed that God would bring about an ultimate seventh day. A brief conversation follows about fasting in Christianity as well as a brief discussion on the differences between “hope” and “optimism.” Tim cites scholar Cornel West about the differences between optimism and Christian hope.In part 4 (37:30-43:00), Tim starts to talk about Passover, which originates in the book of Exodus. Tim says that Passover is the most important feast on the Jewish calendar. The Exodus story is presented in cosmic terms on analogy with the Creation story of Genesis 1.In part 5 (43:00-56:20), Tim explains the story of the Exodus and how it maps onto the Genesis story. The powers of evil destroy Israel (i.e. new humanity) through slavery (lit. “working” in Hebrew, עבדה), and through the waters of death. But God acts and rescues Israel. The famous story of the ten plagues are inversions of the ten creative words of God in Genesis 1. All of the plagues “de-create” Egypt back into chaotic darkness.Consider these examples:The Plague of Darkness
Genesis 1:2-3 …and darkness (חשך) was over the surface of the deep…. Then God said, “let there be light (יהי אור)….”Exodus 10:21, 23 …that there may be darkness (ויהי חשך) over the land of Egypt… but for all the sons of Israel, there was light (היה אור) in their dwellings.The Plague of FrogsExodus 7:28And the Nile will swarm (ושרץ) with frogs…Genesis 1:20 …let the waters swarm (שרץ) with every swarming (שרץ) creature…The Plague of LocustsExodus 10:5 [the locusts] will eat every tree (עץ) which sprouts (צמח) for you from the field (השדה).Exodus 10:15 …fruit of the tree…all vegetation in the tree and green thing (ירק) in the field…Genesis 1:29-30 I have given to you for food all vegetation… all the tree which has the fruit of the tree… every green thing (ירק)….Genesis 2:9 …and Yahweh sprouted (צמח) from the ground every tree (עץ)…
Pharaoh sends Israel out of Egypt at night (Exod 12:29, 31, 42) and Israel flees to the edge of the Reed Sea where Pharaoh’s army chases them for a night showdown (Exod 14:20). It’s at night that God parts the waters (Exod 14:21), and during the last watch of the night (Exod 14:24), the Egyptians falter in the midst of the sea, and at sunrise (Exod 14:27) the waters destroy the Egyptians while the Israelites flourish on dry land.Tim says that this story maps directly onto the creation narrative. The passage through the Reed Sea is all days 1-3 together in Genesis.In part 6 (56:20-end), Tim goes to Exodus 15 to discuss the first “worship song” in the Bible.Exodus 15:10-13, 17-18
You blew with your wind, the sea covered them;
They sank like lead in the mighty waters.
Who is like you among the gods, O Lord?
Who is like you, majestic in holiness,
Awesome in praises, working wonders?
You stretched out your right hand,
The earth swallowed them.
In your lovingkindness you have led the people whom you have redeemed;
In your strength you have guided them to your holy habitation.You will bring them and plant them in the mountain of your inheritance,
The place of your dwelling (שבתך / shibteka / Sabbath!), which you have made,
The sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established.
The Lord shall reign forever and ever.Tim notes that the English word “dwelling” in verse 17 is a wordplay on the word “sabbath,” because it is composed of the same letters.Tim then discusses more details about the Passover and why its importance in the Bible. The Passover is on the 14th (2 x 7) and is followed by a seven day festival of unleavened bread (15th – 21st), that begins and ends with a “super sabbath” rest.In Exodus 12:1-2, the new beginning given by God as he says, “beginning of the months, the beginning it is for you,” parallels with Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning….” Passover is compared to creation as a seven-day ritual the restarts the calendar, like a new creation.Tim then dives back into Exodus 12:14-16, 34, 39.Now this day will be a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses; for whoever eats anything leavened from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day you shall have a holy assembly, and another holy assembly on the seventh day; no work at all shall be done on them, except what must be eaten by every person, that alone may be prepared by you.So the people took their dough before it was leavened, with their kneading bowls bound up in the clothes on their shoulders.They baked the dough which they had brought out of Egypt into cakes of unleavened bread. For it had not become leavened, since they were driven out of Egypt and could not delay, nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves.Tim makes the following observations:12:15 – “For seven days you are to put to rest (תשביתו) all leaven (שאר) from your houses.” For the resonance of “leaven” שאר with “remnant” שאר, continue reading for the comparison of Passover and the flood.12:16 – “on the first day it is a holy convocation, and on the seventh day it is a holy convocation… all work should not be done on them.” This parallels Genesis 2:1-4. The seventh day is holy, for God finished his work.13:6-7 – “Seven days you will eat unleavened bread (מצת) and on the seventh day it is a feast for YHWH; unleavened bread will be eaten (יאכל) for seven days, and leaven will not be seen for you for seven days.” This parallels with Genesis 1-3: There is a certain food provided (מן כל העך), and a certain food that is forbidden (the tree of knowing good and bad).Here's a quote Tim cites in his notes for this verse: “But why require eating unleavened bread as the special focus of the exodus memorial meal, the Passover? The answer is that unleavened bread was the unique food of the original exodus, the event God wanted his people to be sure not to forget. People everywhere normally eat leavened bread. It tastes better, is more pleasant to eat, is more filling. Leavened bread was the normal choice of the Israelites in Egypt too. But on the night they ran, there was no time for the usual niceties—a fast meal had to be eaten, and hastily made bread had to be consumed. The fact that a lamb or goat kid was roasted for the meat portion of the meal or that bitter herbs were eaten as a side dish was not nearly so special or unusual as the fact that the bread was unleavened, thus essentially forming sheets of cracker. Eating it at the memorial feast intentionally recalled the original departure in haste. Eating it for a solid week tended to fix the idea in one’s consciousness.” (Douglas K. Stuart, Exodus, vol. 2, The New American Commentary, 283)Consider these points:Passover is coordinated with the “wonder” of the parting of the waters and deliverance onto dry land (Exod 14), which parallels Genesis 1 when God parts the waters so that dry land can emerge.Passover is about Israel’s liberation from “slavery” (עבדה/עב׳׳ד), which parallels Genesis 1-2 about the creation of humanity as God’s co-rulers who “work” (עב׳׳ד) the land.Passover is a reversal of humanity’s exile when Israel is “banished” (גרשו, Ex 12:39) from Egypt, which parallels Genesis 3:22-24 when humanity is banished from Eden into the wilderness.Tim concludes by saying that Passover and the Exodus are a kind of “new creation” as enslaved humanity is liberated from the realm of exile, death, and darkness and led through the waters of death into the new Eden of the promised land, marked by the celebration of a seven-day ritual (in the month of Abib on the 14th-21st). The liberation brought about at Passover is a new creation. The liberation requires that humans not try to provide their own security or provision (bread) but eat only what God allows and provides. This is clearly in preparation for the manna.Thank you to all our supporters!Have a question? Record your question and send it to [e-mail]. Tell us your name and where you’re from. And try to keep the question under 20-30 seconds. Thanks!Show MusicDefender Instrumental by TentsWhere Peace and Rest are Found by Beautiful EulogyAll Night by Unwritten StoriesMoon by LeMMinoSupporter Synth GrooveThe Pilgrim by GreyfloodShow Resources:Judith Hertog, “Prisoner Of Hope: Cornel West’s Quest For Justice”Richard H. Lowery, Sabbath and JubileeDouglas K. Stuart, Exodus, vol. 2, The New American CommentaryShow Produced by: Dan GummelPowered 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.

On page one of the Bible, God creates. He creates in six days, and on the seventh day, he stops. And he enters his creation like a king, entering his throne room to rest and rule. And God does this to rest and rule with humanity. This is seventh day rest, the ideal, the thing God created but was lost, the thing we still hope for. And so to remember, seventh day rest, and to anticipate it coming again, God told Israel to stop on the 7th day and rest from work. In a way we are mimicking the way God created the cosmos.

And now we want to take another step forward and look at another way God wants Israel to celebrate rest. There are seven sacred annual feasts that are built into the calendar year. And the role of the Sun, Moon, and Stars on the fourth day of creation is to mark those. The whole symbolic ritual calendar of Israel that you'll meet in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy is already baked into creation in the first forest in the seventh day of Genesis 1. Sacred time. Sacred time. Life shouldn't be just one day bleeding into the next. Life shouldn't be a long, grudging march of endless toil. We're meant for so much more. And to help us remember that, God gave Israel these feasts.

There is no sacred calendar rhythm more influential than the one that begins Israel's sacred calendar year, which is Passover. So today on the show, we're going to discuss one of the most famous stories in the Bible, how when oppressed people, toiling as slaves to an ancient empire, were miraculously liberated and brought to a land of rest. And the Passover is a feast to remember that story. The liberation from Egypt is a cosmic event. That's why it's using the cosmic language of Genesis 1 to tell the story. And this event makes now the month where this happens to be the beginning month of Israel's ritual calendar. I'm John Collins. This is the Bible Project Podcast.

Thanks for joining us. Here we go. Good morning, Tim. Good morning, John. It was evening. My burn. And there was morning. It's morning again.

The new day. The new day. Coffee's still kicking in. Yep. Yeah. We're going to keep exploring the theme of the seventh day. The seventh day. Uh, in the storyline of the Bible. Yep. Uh, the complete day. Yep. The complete day. So summary, the day of completeness. Yes. Summary. Yeah. Give me, give me a little

where we've been. Okay. Page one of the Bible begins with a seven-word sentence that opens up onto a seven-day literary design and then the seventh day culminates with three lines of seven words that are all about the seventh day. So something about seven. Something about seven. Sevens are woven into every part of Genesis one, which is all, it's a literary way of communicating the core theme. That the seventh day is the day of completion, perfection, wholeness, which is associated with the number seven in many smidic languages and ancient cultures. Now you've stayed away from the word perfection before. Oh, yep, I might want to retract that. It'll take another sip of coffee. Take that edge off. That's right. Yeah, you're right.

Perfection is the English word loaded with things we don't want. Completion. Whole or complete. Yeah. Which is there's a, what linguists call a homonym. Hominim. Hominim. Oh, just gonna, just talking about a homonym yesterday. Oh, tear. The word tear. No, tear.

Oh, to tear. Um, the English letters, T-E-A-R. Yeah. Tear. They can spell tear. Mm-hmm. Like, your, comes out of your eye ducts. Eye ducts. It can also spell the word tear where you're, comes out of your eye ducts. Eye ducts.

It can also spell word tear where you rip something. But then that second word tear can mean different things. Oh my goodness. Right? So you can tear a piece of paper. Yeah. But then she was asking me, she wanted to use the phrase, she was texting a friend, she wanted to say,

I've been on a tear. Hmm. Recently doing a house project. Oh, like a streak or like a. Yes. Yeah. I've been on a tear. Hmm. Recently doing a house project. Oh, like a streak or like a... Yes. Yeah. I've been on a tear. That's a very modern idiom.

I think so. Yeah. So we could maybe are interested now. Oh, yeah, but we should move on. The point is, is even there, the same word can mean completely different things once you put it into like a figure of speech. Yeah. So you have a homonymem, t, e, a, r, that can mean tear or tear, and then tear can have multiple distinct meanings based on figures of speech.

So in the same way, the word seven in Hebrew, cheva, is spelled with the same letters as the verb sava, which means to be complete or full. Yeah, so they look identical. They look identical. On the page. Correct. Yeah, similar as depending on word formation. And so that hominim word play gets activated, as we're going to see actually in a story, we're going to look at in this conversation.

With the story of the mana, the wilderness. And that's different than how Rewok can mean spirit, breath, wind. Oh yeah, that's one word that has different nuances of meaning depending on the context. This is the same spelling of a word that actually is two different words, correct, like tear or tear. Yeah. One term for it that's familiar is word play, but as a friend of mine, another fellow Hebrew Bible nerd has helped me see for the biblical authors. This is anything but like play. For them, it's these these word, the doing work plays are doing theological connecting plays are doing theological connecting and work. The technical term is Paranomasia, which means...

Which means... Yeah, using words that have similar letters to connect and link ideas. Yeah, remind me again though, because you said word formation. I'm just not very familiar with Hebrew. Oh yeah. You don't see vowels. In the oldest form of Hebrew writing, yeah.

It's a continental language. So when you say it's got the same letters, you mean the same consonants? The same three consonants, the same consonants, and then Hebrew words are formed off of a three letter root base. So you can add other letters in the middle at the beginning or at the end of those three roots, and that makes them into verbs or participle or nouns, and that's kind of like, but you always have the base. See those three letters in there.

And so the three letters of seven or full are complete. Yeah, are sheen or seen, there's interplay there, bait and iron. And so you'll be in the story of the mana, and you'll see the word, he will make you satisfied or make you full, and the word on the seventh day. Don't collect any mana. It's the same word in Hebrew.

It's the same letter as in Hebrew. So it's very common. And so that even though the full or complete root isn't used in Genesis 1, it's actually giving you the idea of completeness by means of the 7. So, but that's one of the main meanings is that when something is happened in a period of 7, that's a way of talking about a full or complete reality.

And God created in six days on seventh day, he was the word Shabbat. Shabbat, which is three letters that's also for the word complete. I was getting this confused. Yeah, it's okay. That just means to cease. That means to cease. But how is it connected to the world? There's a synonym, nuach, that also means to stop, but particularly to rest.

No, but connected to the the complete sava or... Oh, well, Shabbat is on the seventh day. That's it. Shabbat is... Shabbat, the thing that you do on the seventh day. Stop on the seventh day. The seventh day is complete. The word seven is...

There it is. Paranomagia. I see. With the word complete. Yep, so Shabbat, seven and complete are all wrapped together on the seventh day. You stop on the seventh day. Yeah, seven is a paranormal measure of complete. Got it. Yep. So gentsus one is God organizing, forming and filling the cosmos out of a dark night time watery chaos wasteland into a beautiful garden, overflowing with food that he

provides on the sixth day, implication being on the seventh day, God will rule, God will fill the world with His presence, He'll shabbat and nuach, nuach means to settle in. And remember that the ten commandments, re-tell Genesis 1, in six days God made the world and on the seventh day he ruached. Therefore, observed the Shabbat. Do I say ruach? I meant new arch. Yeah, new arch. So you wrap all this together in Genesis 1. We're meant to see God creating within a seven, a complete cycle of time. Seven, creating the cosmos as a place for God's presence to fill and to dwell, filling it on the seventh day. That's also the place where humanity has been

appointed as God's image and co-rulers. And he's provided them food on the sixth day so that on all the days leading forward, you have God, his human images, plenty of food, that on the seventh day, everybody just chills and rules, and does the garden work. And the idea is the seventh day will have no end. There's no evening and morning. Correct. Yeah, the formula is. Correct. The formula of there is evening and there's morning does not conclude the seventh day. As Robert Lowry says, it's as if the sun never sets on the ultimate Sabbath, which is the first Sabbath of Genesis 1.

Yeah. The second nuance of Sabbath in Genesis 1 is that it's the culmination. God has, so to speak, liberated the cosmos out of darkness and water and chaos and brought about creation out of the watery darkness into its complete and whole state. And so seventh is the culmination. It's the thing we're waiting for.

It's all of Genesis 1 is building up to the climactic. Seven were God and humans rule together and there's just plenty of food. That's the same. And there's plenty of food, but Adam was told to work and serve in the garden. Yeah. So it's not like you just sit around and there was some, I don't know. Yeah, that's what we talked about.

All right, people coming and like serving you the food. But the narrative makes a difference between there's work in the Sabbath world. Yeah, Sabbath work. Which is a kind of work that's different than the post-exile from Eden work, which is where you have to work the ground until it kills you from the hard labor and the sweat.

And it's of the Sabbath world creation is like friendly and works with you and multiplies your labor is exponentially right versus the post-exile from Eden where you're just fighting the second lot through yeah as it says to Cain the the ground will only with difficulty give you its strength. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Two kinds of work. So humans are exiled because of their foolish rebellion, exiled to the land. And now we live outside the seventh day, in a way. Yeah, yeah. In terms of completeness or wholeness, what the seventh day represents is creation, complete,

and the seventh day ideal of Genesis 1 is lost, forfeited. And so now we're like, oh, we gotta get back there. How do we get humans back there to the Sabbath ideal? How do we get back to the Sabbath ideal? Mm-hmm. That's the question that drives this conversation. That's one way of thinking about the biblical story is how do we get humans to exist in creation in the Sabbath world?

Or the seventh day we have decided. The seventh day world we're going to. to exist in creation in the Sabbath world. Yeah. Or the seventh day, we have decided. The seventh day world. We're going to. A world of completeness and abundance. Yeah, that's right. Ah, so another layer of Genesis 1, there's always more layers, is, remember, of the seven days, the first, the middle, and the last day are all about God creating structures of time. So the first day is the cycle of day and

night. And all of that is designed to give you the categories for when you walk into the Tabernacle in Exodus and the temple later. And those are little miniature Eden's, the little symbolic micro-edges, a Tabernacle in Temple. And so therefore or the Tabernacle in Temple. And so, therefore, in the Tabernacle in Temple, you've got a symbolic tree of life called the menorah, and it's got seven lights on it. And those lights on the menorah are meant to be cared for every evening and morning, according to Leviticus 24, and Numbers chapter 8.

And also, there's the daily sacrifices and the daily praying of the Shema. That's all by the timing of the first day. The timing of the middle fourth day is God appoints a sun moon and stars to rule over day and night and there to mark the Moa Deem, the sacred feasts. And those refer to the annual sacred feasts.

So you've got... When do you know when it's time for the feast? Yeah, that's right. You look at the sky. That's right. And the sun, moon, and stars are gonna tell you. Yep. And the year starts, as we're gonna see in this conversation

about the Exodus, the ritual calendar starts with Passover, which is immediately followed by the feast of 11avened bread, which is seven days. Okay, so this is good. So Passover begins in the evening, and then you followed by a seven-day feast of unleavened bread. Then after that, you count seven times seven weeks until you get to the next Moadim, which is Pentecost, or the feast of weeks. Then the next main feast is the, which is Pentecost, or the Feast of Weeks. Then the next main feast is the first day of the seventh month, Rasha Shana. Then the next feast is the tenth day of the seventh month, which is the day of atonement.

And then the next feast is also in the seventh month, which is the seven-day feast of tabernacles. So in other words, all the feasts referred to in the middle day of Genesis 1 are all in connection with seven-day feasts, and they're all about celebrating God's provision of food, or rescue, or provision of bread, or provision of forgiveness. So the calendar year, the ritual calendar year starts with Passover, And when is that Passover? When's it in our calendar? Oh, well, yeah, our western calendar, it's usually in spring, usually April, April or March depending. I see. And then you wait seven times seven weeks, and then you get into the next the feast of weeks, the feast of weeks, which is the seventh month.

It's on the 50th, you wait a cycle of of 49? Yeah 49 days. Yeah, seven weeks and then you oh, and then you get the 50th day and then you're somewhere in yeah You late spring early summer. Okay. Yeah. It's early harvest. Okay, and then The seventh month is usually in the west isn't in the fall October, November of the 7th calendar, the seventh ritual month. Yeah, we'll talk about this later. But his point is, is the middle day four of Genesis 1, yeah, it's talking about all those feasts. It's giving you all the categories.

The Moadim. The categories for the Moadim, which are the Israel's sacred feasts. Cool. And all those feasts are spouted out of the number seven in the calendar. The last day of Genesis 1 gives you the weekly Shabbat, seventh day, but it also prepares you for every seventh year, the year of release, and then every seven times seven year, which is the Jubilee. The whole symbolic ritual calendar of Israel

that you'll meet in Exodus, Leviticus, numbers to youronomy is already baked into creation in the first, fourth, and seventh days of Genesis 1, sacred time. It's baked into the creation account and it's all anticipating and hoping for creation. That's right. So as Israel is in the wilderness and in the promised land, all these ritual times are meant to both make them look backwards to Genesis 1 to see the ideal for which God made creation. We're not in that ideal, so all those feasts become anticipations of future hope of when

God will bring about a new creation that is truly, it's a perpetual seventh day. So, is there supposed to be, and maybe I'm jumping the gun on here, but are we supposed to be thinking then in this sense of like we live in the sixth day, living like, and we're waiting for the seventh day in a metaphorical way? Yeah, there is yet a more complete seventh day that has not taken place yet. And so every, if you live by the Israel's calendar, every seventh day is just a little foretaste of that future ultimate seventh day. And then every seven years, four tastes every seven times seven years with the Jubilee

and every feast. And every feast, Tabernacles. They're all different ways of remembering our past story that points us forward to our future. That's the dynamic of the seventh day. Cool. 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh

1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh So God's ultimate response to humanity exiled from the seventh day land in Eden is to set in motion. A land of the seventh day.

A plan to call a new Adam and even to existence. Abraham and Sarah. And so he speaks, remember, a seven line poem to Abram, talking about how the blessings of Eden are going to be restored to all the nations through him and his family. And so we didn't spend, we just talked about, I think, one story in April. Right, the well. Yeah, the story of the well of seven. The well of seven here.

Yeah, but it's a story of how Abraham has this territorial dispute over wells with a king called a Bimlek. Normally, this is what people start killing each other over. Water. Water. Water rights. And land rights, really. Yeah, that's right, yeah, totally.

But what Abram does is offer up seven lambs and says, enter into a covenant with me. In that story, the king of Bimlek shows up with his army commander. Oh, his army commander. Yeah. Name Fee Cole. Oh, yeah, Fycoil.

Yeah, totally. Yeah. So, I mean, just that's the scene, you know, like a king approaches you with like his general. Right. You know, being intimidated. Yeah, totally. So, Abre was just like, no, let's piece.

Let's make a covenant. Here's a gift. He offers him a gift of seven, and they make peace with each other. And the king says, God, wow, God is with you, isn't he? Yeah. And they have peace. Abraham can dwell in his land. And what does Abraham do?

He goes and sits down by this well of seven and he plants a tree. He plants a tree and then the end of the story is and he sat under the tree at the well of seven in peace with God and man. Yeah, totally. And you're just like, oh, that's a little picture of Eden right there.

Yeah, that's how the Abraham narrative's work. That's just one example of many, many in Genesis. It's cool. Yeah. To make that really applicable, it's like if you in your life have contention with a neighbor or something, actually, we have a friend who's building a, what's called an auxiliary dwelling unit above his garage. A little mini house on top of his garage.

Yeah, that's right. And one of his neighbors came over and was bombed because it's like kind of overlooking that guy's backyard and and it was just this contention like strife and you know I'm sure if he had a military generally would have brought him to. Yeah, totally. And, yeah, and they're making peace about it. And maybe they should plan a tree and commemorations. Oh, yeah. But, you know, it's just like that kind of like,

yes, there can be peace in many evenings. Yes, yeah, that's right. This is Sermon on the Mount. It's the Kingdom of God. Think of the seventh day as the Kingdom of God coming on earth as in heaven. And so if Jesus' whole point is, it's arrived now. What you thought was only for the future? Yeah, it can happen now.

Is in the person of Jesus and in the spirit as the broken in to the present. It's come backwards in time to invade the present. And so the Sermon on the Mount is living as if we behave like we will in the new creation. So you make peace with your enemies. You give them gifts like Abraham did with the Bimolek instead of fighting over scarce resources. You trust that there's that well will produce enough water for all of us Yeah, and so you give your enemy a gift totally did This is what Abraham is doing at his best in these stories is he's making peace with his neighbors And when he does there's food and water enough for everybody

He becomes a blessing to the nations so the way you phrase that about the Beatitudes living Mm-hmm as if how did you phrase that? Oh, living in the present world of Exiled for Meeden, but trusting that the seventh day has like invaded the present. Yeah, the future seventh day. It's come from the future and invaded the present. Yeah, it's time traveled back to invade. Yep.

And isn't that also the point of Sabbath and the feasts is to have that same moment? Totally. The whole point of the resting on the seventh day is you take one day out of your week to inconvenience your life of struggle and survival and toil and pretend. Yeah, like the seventh day has arrived. The seventh day, ultimate seventh day has arrived. It's a little... It's play acting. ...for a taste. arrived. It's a little foretaste.

Yeah, it's symbolic behavior. That's what rituals are. There's symbolic behavior. Just like I think for Jesus, loving your enemy is treating your enemy in the present like you will treat him in the new creation when there's no reason for you to fight anymore. Don't you think?

That's like the logic? It is the logic. It's cool. And pragmatically, it's kind of the best way to get to that present, future state. Yes, you end up actually creating it. Yeah. Not just pretending, but you end up tasting it.

Yeah, the play acting becomes real. Becomes reality. Yeah. Yeah, it's an alternative script. It's an alternative story. You live by an alternative story and surprisingly find that it starts to like bring it about. Yeah.

Yeah. Unless evil is strong enough to stamp it out. Correct. Which I think is everyone's fear, right? That's the fear. Mm-hmm. Okay, love my enemy or rest. But the problem is, if I do that, I'm gonna be taking advantage of it.

Yeah, that's right. Evil will win. Correct. Maybe I'll do that every once in a while. Yeah. I'll hedge my bets a little bit though. Yeah, I think- Because no one else is gonna do it.

Yeah, that's right. I mean, consistently. That's right. And then I'm gonna get the short end of the stick and you on a personal level and then on a professional level. That's right. Yeah. And then I'm going to get the shorter end of the stick and you on a personal level and then on a national level. That's right. Yeah. I mean, what else is the cross except Jesus saying, it's okay if you get taken advantage of and killed because of the hope of the resurrection and the ultimate seventh day, you trust that this isn't the whole story.

Yeah. It's okay if you get taken advantage of it. It's okay if you get killed. Even killed. It's. I mean, it's not okay. It's actually, it's not okay. But you trust that God has the power to bring about new creation, maybe even through my loss and suffering and death. I mean, and if you just watch how the Apostle Paul,

for example, or Peter in their letters, how they process what it means to live with the crucified and risen Messiah is your master. That's exactly where they go. He says, consider your suffering light. It's very different to the glory. That is to be revealed that's Paul and St. Corinthians. Yeah, I'm not saying, for our listeners, please don't mistake John and I

for people who always like actually live it the way. Just because we can talk about it doesn't mean we actually live it. It's very difficult. Like when I think about my life, I don't very often live consistently by that narrative. And maybe that's the whole point of spiritual discipline. Yeah, sorts. That's what I was just gonna go there. Well, I mean, it's not one that you find in like Foster's book, like, let yourself be taking advantage of it.

Oh, I see. Exactly, a discipline of like, I'm gonna discipline myself to make peace even though it's scary today. Yeah, that's right. You can consider baby steps are every seven days severely inconveniencing myself for practice to symbolically act out my hope in the future seventh day, completion of creation. You could also say the Jewish and Christian practices of fasting are very similar. I think you symbolically deprive yourself of food as a way of enacting and symbolizing your real situation in the

world, which is that your life doesn't depend on your ability to provide for yourself. My life comes as a gift from God, so it's another form of inconvenience to symbolize the truth about my existence in the world, just I'm a dependent being who lives by God's generosity. And those are basic spiritual disciplines. Fasting and resting. And yeah, at least some kind of rhythm of rest, an inconvenient rest. Yeah. And I think the idea is through these practices, if I've built into my life the habit of being inconvenienced when I do it to myself, when somebody else wrongs or inconvenience is me, you're used to it.

It doesn't hurt quite as bad. You've built the muscle memory for it. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, that's right. Or when you've practiced fasting and now you're in a situation where you don't have enough and it feels like you might not get enough. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're like, I know what this feels like and I know I can get through it.

Yeah. You know, this is real time. This is a great conversation by the way. Real time, this is March 2019. We just began the season of Lent, which many Christian traditions practice, the 40 days, 40 days leading up to Resurrection Sunday. So in most traditions, many Christian traditions, it's a season where you symbolically reenact Jesus 40-day testing Israel's 40-year wandering in the wilderness. So you symbolically deprive yourself of something for lots of reasons. It's come to mean lots of things in different traditions, but that's like another example. It's another type of fasting. It's another type of fasting.

And I think the most historic practices are actually some kind of food. That makes sense. I've never done that. The only time I've ever fasted from food was like in junior high or something. There was this thing called the 48 hour fast or something. And it was just like a youth group type of that.

And you hang out 48 hours and you just drink smoothies. Oh, yeah. Or like juice, I think there was juice. Yeah, yeah. I think it's like the longest I've caught with that eating. Yeah. It's a guy I know does like a 40 day every year.

Fast, it's incredible. Yeah, it is. Yeah, it is. I have not had any consistent rhythms of fasting, which if I were living in the like second century in Asia Minor in Ephesus or Leodicea, and it was a part of the house church network there, it would be unthinkable that I didn't fast. It's the norm is for Christians to fast every Thursday and then to fast during land and all these other things. Every Thursday you fast.

But every Thursday, yeah, the earliest traditions of Christian fasting go back to there in a mentioned in a second century work called the Didake which was a distillation of early Christian catacism. And one of the practices is a weekly fasting. Wow. On Thursday. No food Thursday. Wow. You know what, man? We could start a new diet craze.

The early Christian diet. Sell million books. Yeah, totally. Yeah. I just, this also was from a time period in history where people relate to the food in a radically different way than having a fridge full of modernized western where some people middle upper class have full fridges and ready access to stocked grocery stores. And that's an oddity in human history.

Man, you were telling me that story about the winter in the Midwest or something where like... Oh yeah, this is the last summer prairie. The last summer. The long winter. Oh, we just listened to like, in a car ride, really, with the boys. And like, what... They were eating... were they eating?

Well, yeah, it's the long winter, the little house in the prairie. They're in South Dakota, I think by that point. And it ends up being essentially a seven month winter. And the trains can't get through. Supply trains are just impossible to move them. And so pretty much from like February to April They're eating rationed bits of brown bread, but they're like putting straw in it or something, right?

Oh no, they're twisting straw for fuel for their fire. They're making straw bricks and Their daily ritual is basically just to huddle around the fire, twisting the straw for the next day's fire, and ma making the little bit of bread that they can have twice a day. And they're just buried in their houses. It's so gnarly. Anyway. I don't think anyone in my family is emotionally prepared to ever deal with something like that. No. No.

So once again, we're back to it. The rituals of sacred time are about this muscle memory, developing muscle memory to humblass, make us recognize our frailty. So when that happens, when you get to a time when maybe there isn't food or a time when you're being taken advantage of, and it feels like there's not enough and feels like death is going to win. Yeah. You have this muscle memory of, no, I can trust that. That's right. Something more powerful than death. Yeah. That's right. And I can get through this. Yes. Christianity and the Hebrew scriptures, it's a very optimistic view of the world. Optimistic? Yeah. I mean, to be,

to say, I can love my enemy, you have to have an incredible amount of optimism. Well, this might just be where different meanings of the same word. When I think optimism, I think it'll all work out. Yeah, it'll all work out. Ah, that's not the biblical view. Okay.

The biblical view is this is hell. We've created hell here in exile. And things are bad. In fact, they're more bad than any of us probably realize. But there's hope. That's what I'm talking about the hope. Okay. For me, optimism is, okay, so just a different definition.

For me, hope is we don't have a prayer, except for one who can do what we cannot do. Yeah. To me optimism is, I think it'll probably work out okay. Yeah, that's hope. Turn that round upside down. What's the difference between that and hope? Oh.

We made a video about this. We had a word study on hope. That's right. Yeah, hope is about a person. I trust that a person will come through. I mean, optimism is about things will work out. I see. I see.

Things will work out. Okay. So the word optimism for you is about circumstances. Turning out. And their own inertia. Yeah, that's right. Working out. Correct.

Versus we need some sort of, we need someone to come in and make it work. Yeah, optimism. And actually, the first one, this is a long time ago, there's a theologian and activist, his name's Cornell West. He's a professor at Princeton. He was at school at Princeton anyway. He wrote this article in a really popular culture magazine. It was like Rolling Stone or something like that.

And, or there's an interview with him. And he talked about the difference between optimism and hope. Optimism and Christian hope. Okay. And that actually, to be honest, that's what gave me that category many years ago. And I thought it was helpful.

Because the biblical story, Cornell West, yeah, with one W. Google knows what's up. I said to type in Cornell West OPT and it finished it for you. Yeah, yeah, I mean, he's definitely, Prisoner of Hope, the Sun magazine, no. He's a provocative figure, definitely. Prisoner of Hope, that's a cool.

Prisoner of Hope, yeah. Yeah, he's a really. Prisoner of hope, yeah. It's a cool term. Yeah, he's a really interesting, really interesting person. But yeah, this article, it was helpful. Optimism versus Christian hope. The optimism is trusting that circumstances will work out. History will just inevitably work out okay for everyone. And for him, that's just a radical naivety in how things work.

But hope is a type of optimism. Circumstances work out because... Because of the character of this person that I trust. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I mean there, I guess, then becomes semantics. I think the core distinction is helpful, though. Yeah. When the biblical, especially in the book of Psalms, the word hope is attached to the person of Yahweh whose covenant loyalty compels him to rescue creation.

Because humans and circumstances follow a very predictable pattern. That's the genesis 3 design pattern throughout the Hebrew Bible. Yeah. Anyway. Okay. Anyway, look out. So, we've been talking about how sacred time, rhythms of sacred time are like a form of developing muscle memory in God's people. There is no sacred calendar rhythm more influential than the one that begins Israel's sacred calendar year, which is Passover, which begins on the first month of Israel sacri-calendar

every year. On the 10th day of that month, they are to select a blameless, spotless lamb that's just a young lamb, like a year old. A complete lamb. Yep, they take care of that lamb for four days. And then on the 14th day of the month, they slaughter and roast the lamb in the evening. In the evening, at night. Moment the sun sets, you slaughter and roast the lamb. Take the blood, put it on the door frames of the house. That night you eat this big meal at night. And you eat it with your bags packed, coats on,

ready to rock, ready to go, acting like you're leaving on a trip. That's the Passover of Yahweh. That's the night that God brings the 10th and final act of judgment on Egypt. Final judgment. Which goes back all the way back to the beginning of the Exodus narrative with the death of the first born. So Pharaoh's been slaughtering the first born of Israel. And God has given Pharaoh nine opportunities to humble himself. And at every turn Pharaoh has just given the strong middle finger to Yahweh.

And so it comes down to it that God visits upon Pharaoh the very thing that Pharaoh visited upon Israel, just the death of the firstborn. So in the middle of the night, the firstborn dies, Pharaoh tells them to leave. And so, at night, they're ready. And they're ready. And they've also been told to prepare a unique kind of bread on 11 bread. Yeah. On 11 bread is bread that you make when you, you don't put yeast into it. yeast takes hours and hours for it to rise and then you bake.

So on 11 bread is bread for the road. Mm. Bread bread. You can make it very quickly. an hour is for it to rise and then you bake. So on 11th bread is bread for the road. Bread bread. You can make it very quickly. All you have to wait is for it to dry. It's flat bread. So you make it because there's no time, the waste. So they set out at night and from that moment that they set out begins a seven day feast,

a seven day sacred ritual called the feast of unleavened bread. So it's a feast on the road Yeah, it's the feast of the flight feast of the flight Feast of the wow, I just thought of that right now feast of the flight. Let me just thought of that It's not what it's called. It just came out of my mouth. Oh, I've never thought that sounded like an official title I know but I'm just saying it. It just there you go and then for seven days you eat that bread that feast of flight I'm not saying it, it just, there you go. And then for seven days, you eat that bread, that feast of flight. So Passover, it begins in the evening

and goes first then from there, a evening forward in a seven-day rhythm. And this is the first ritual symbolic feast of Israel's calendar. And there's something about this feast, which is like, be ready because, in a way, it's like this new act of God bringing liberation.

Liberating them from darkness and death. Into... On their way to the promise land. On their way to the promise land, it's gonna happen in an instant. That's right. Like it's just gonna be ready. That's right.

We'll take a few moments to drill down into these, but all of the key items that work in Genesis 1 get picked up and developed and inverted or tweaked in the Exodus story leading up to the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread. Wait, is this why Jesus talks about the blink of an eye in like when the end times come and he's like, no one really knows, but like, blink of an eye? Well, the blink of an eye is Paul and first Corinthians 15. Oh, that's Paul and that Jesus.

And our bodies being transformed into the resurrection body. Yeah. And yeah, we'll be. I was just thinking about how this Passover thing is about just being ready. The suddenness. Yeah, that's right.

Yep. And remember, this is actually, it's the day. This is where the day of the Lord theme begins here. That's right. Yep. And remember this is actually it's the day. This is where the day of the Lord theme begins here Mm-hmm. That's right. The final of the ten plagues. Yeah, and the liberation from Egypt through the waters It's all called in later biblical poetry the day the day which begins the day of Yahweh Because the day comes before the day of the Lord comes before the rest Yes, the day of the liberation and judgment on the the rest, before this. Yeah, it's the day of the liberation and judgment on the violence of the nations. Yeah, that's right.

Okay, so let's back up. Okay. And we're gonna look at some stuff in the whole shape of the Exodus story to see how it's been designed as a full-on replay and development of Genesis chapter one. Okay.

Yeah. in development of Genesis Chapter 1. Okay. Yep. Okay, so let's go to Exodus chapter one. Think of a big picture here. You have Israel, the family of Jacob's exiled from the Promised Land down in Egypt. That's how Genesis ends. Yep. Exodus one begins with saying the sons of Israel were fruitful and multiply and filled the land. Oh, that's Genesis 1 language. Totally. Yeah. And that's what I would expect the family of Abraham to do because they carry the Sabbath Eden blessing out there among the nations. Yeah. And you remember in Genesis,

among the nations. And you remember in Genesis, when the nations recognized Abraham as the source of God's blessing, peace, and covenant, and water for everybody. There's enough. There's enough. Yeah. Pharaoh is represented as one of the first empires of the rulers of the nations who looks at the blessing God has given to the family of Abraham, and he's threatened by it. I can't trust these guys. Yeah, well, he thinks is these immigrants are multiplying. And he's a threat to national security in the economy. Yeah.

And so he enacts a slow genocide of the people through Avodah, through working of the ground. It gets translated slavery or labor. It's the same word as Genesis 3. So now it's Pharaoh. So think in Genesis 3, God exiles the people and there they're going to have hard Avodah, labor that kills them on the ground, return to the dust. Here in Exodus, it's Pharaoh driving them to do that. Yeah, Pharaoh is the one who's killing people through avodah in the land of exile. He's realized. So, thinking very big picture here, there's so many things we could do.

But that's how it begins. And ends the third attempt of Pharaoh to destroy these people is eventually to start throwing the boys into the waters. Yeah. Waters of death. So God raises up one of those boys who's cast in the waters in a little floating arc. We've got about this. And so that becomes Moses. Fast forward. Moses is told to go confront Pharaoh with his brother Aaron and with the staff. Yeah, the snake staff. The snake staff. And so begins the famous story of the ten plagues.

Well, they call the ten plagues, but they all begin with ten acts of God speaking. Yeah, the ten words. And God said to Moses, yeah, that's how they all begin. Or God said to Moses and Aaron or something. Just like Genesis 1, ten acts of God speaking. Oh, there's how they all began. Or God said to Moses and Aaron or something. Just like Genesis 1, 10 acts of God speaking. Oh, there's 10 acts of God speaking. There's this one. Yep. That's right. And the 10, why are there 10? Why are there 10? I mean, you could just say because 10 happened, but the why's there 10 in Exodus? Why? Yes. What's up with the number 10? Yeah. Like, why is that

significant? Is there a pattern of 10 acts of divine speech? Well, yeah, on page one. In page one, if I can remember, 10 times God speaks. Yeah. And God said. And God said, and it happens in the beginning of every day, or no, at some point in the day. Each day begins, and then a couple of days have more

than an active divine speech. Okay. There's 10 acts of divine speech. So this one's interesting. Then I've got a little chart here. If you track through the 10 plagues, when God speaks what the 10 plagues will be, all these hyperlinks to the 10 acts of speech in Genesis. Oh my goodness. My favorite one is one of the later plagues, which is darkness over the land. So think of the first day.

Yeah. The pre-first day is and darkness was over the surface of the deep and God said, ye he or let there be light. That's one of God's words. Yeah. That's actually God's first word. His first word. In Exodus chapter 10, God says, ye he or sheik, let there be darkness, and there was darkness over the land of Egypt. But for the sons of Israel, there was light in all of their dwellings. So in other words, God is allowing Egypt to collapse back into darkness, disorder, but providing light for his chosen.

So like the plagues aren't like an uncreation, they're like a, they're a sifting of sorts. Oh yeah, okay, in this case. Yeah. Well, they're pulling Egypt, which has unleashed violence and death into the world. He's allowing them to, yeah, to be de-created. The plagues are a kind of de-creation. It is a type of de-creation, but not over everything, over just things that need to be

correct, de-created. Yeah, but for his people who is going to redeem he provides them with a light. In, let's see, the Nile will swarm with frogs. The verb is Sharats. On day five, all of the water creatures let the water creatures Sharats swarm with every Shed-It, every swarming creature. The water swimmers. Yeah, so the plague of the frogs

recalls God's power to generate swimmers. In Exodus 10. The Locust will eat every tree which sprouts for you from the field. The fruit of the tree and all vegetation in the tree and every green thing in the field it will eat. That's all the vocabulary. Yeah. It's quoting from the third day. Yeah, totally.

Or the sixth day, sorry, in Genesis 1. I've given for you food all the vegetation from every tree which has the fruit and every green thing. It's exactly the vocabulary. The point is, this is just three examples. You can map through all 10. Wow. The vocabulary of the plagues is all hyperlinked

to the days of creation in Genesis 1. I have never been shown this before. Isn't it awesome? So just think what this is supposed to be doing, your imagination. You're supposed to view the 10 plagues as God, uncreating Egypt. Yeah. But providing selective little bits of new creation for the redeemed ones, giving them... It's not like this full uncreation.

Yeah. And I guess in the same way of the flood, it's uncreation. Correct. That's right. Just like Israel survives the flood of God's judgment in the Exodus. Yeah. So Noah and his family, actually it's the other way around. As Noah and his family survive the flood of God's judgment and what is God's judgment

is to hand creation back over to the chaos of darkness and death. Moses and his people, and so on. Moses who has his own ark. Yeah, yeah. Stully, Moses goes through the waters of the ark, and now Moses and all Israel goes through, I mean, they're going to go through the waters also, all together as a people. All the imagery is connected. So think this is important.

The 10 plagues, then, are taking you on a journey backwards through Genesis 1. If you go back through the 10 acts of divine speech, where did it all begin with that darkness of disorder and nothingness? The 10th plague all the way back, the 10th plague was the death of the first born happening at night. So why

is Passover beginning at night? Because creation began at night. Yeah, because the idea is creation began with God containing the darkness and breaking its power by speaking light into being. And so in a similar way, he's reducing Egypt back to the Tohu Vavoho of Genesis 1, verse 2. So that's the 10 plagues bring us back to Genesis 1, verse 2. So that's the 10 plagues bring us back to Genesis 1, verse 2. And then he's going to take one particular people and provide light just for them. Yeah, the passage through the water. Yeah, they go out. So then think what happens right after the Passover, Pharaoh says, get out of here everybody. Yeah. And they flee in the middle of the

night. And this is when the pillar of fire is introduced that leads them by light through the darkness out into the wilderness. This is an Exodus chapter 14, 13 and 14. Pillar of fire is supposed to remind me of something in creation story. Let there be light. Let there be light. So he's reduced Egypt back to what and waste through the ten words of but now for Israel as they go out into the night He provides them with with light. You know, it's interesting. We we think of days starting in the morning. Yes Yes, yes, yes, so but in Hebrew thought the day begins in the evening Correct, which is a very optimistic way to think about the day. Hopeful, hopeful, though. Hopeful.

Yes, that's right. Yeah. The day begins when it gets dark. Yeah, yeah. No, that's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Why would the day begin there? It's this hope of like, well, because there will be light. There will be light, yeah.

Even in the midst of the darkness, there will be light. Yeah. Be ready. Yep, Israel flees out into the wilderness and Pharaoh's army chases them. This is at the end of Exodus chapter 14. And so you get this Genesis 1, verses 1 through 3 imagery again, Exodus 14, verse 19.

Okay. Then the angel of God was traveling in front of Israel's army. It was Drew and went behind them. The pillar of the cloud moved from in front and stood behind them. And it came between the armies of Egypt and Israel. So Pharaoh just said, oh man, we just let our labor force go. So he chases them out into the wilderness at night. Regret. At night. It's the wilderness at night. Regret.

At night. Yeah. It's all happening at night. Okay. And so. Disorder is coming at. That's right. So the Israelites flee into the night and then they hit in chapter 14, they hit the coast.

Yeah. And then they're trapped. And then here's Pharaoh bearing down on them with his army. So you have the chaos water. You have waters. Yeah. On one side. Shrapping them on one side. And you have a human threat on the other side. Yeah, darkness and disorder on the other side. And so the pillar of fire and cloud comes and moves

in between to block each. Blocked block the chaos for me. And then it says throughout the night, the cloud brought darkness to one side, the Egyptians, and light on the other side. It separated day and night. Yes, totally. So that pillar of fire in the nighttime brings darkness on Egypt and light on Israel as they stand before the waters. Moses stretches hand over the sea.

The Lord sent a strong east wind, a ruch. Yeah, the spirit of God came along the waters. And it blew over the waters, and it turned the waters into dry land. Oh my God. Oh my God. Yeah. You get it. And we have talked about that specific before being a creation moment.

Yeah. Yeah. But they're all stacking up. This totally. So this whole, everything about the Exodus story is Trying to portray as an act of new creation But it's more complex now because some people want to stay in the darkness like each like Egypt in the nation So they don't want to enter God's seventh day. Yeah, their patterns of behavior

Have shown they don't want to participate in the rest of the promised land and the blessing. So God allows them to sink back into darkness and death through the ten words, but He provides light for the redeemed, and then He does just for this group of people now, what He did for creation and genesis in the first day. Yeah, which separates the wind over the waters, creates dry land. Light speaking leads up creates dry land light

Speaking leads up to dry land so an order to get to eat in the promised land. Okay, all right Okay, so no step. Okay. Yeah, we're getting it. That's like I planted you in the crowd The wind blows all night and the waters part and they cross through on dry land they get through to the other side That's day two in the Genesis. The dry land is day three. Day three. Light and darkness. Light and darkness is day one. Water is the water's.

Separating waters from the waters. Day two, right? So the water's separated in the Red Sea and then they'd walk through on dry land. So actually the passage through the Red Sea led by the pillar fire is all days one, two, and three. One together, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's a good way of putting it.

So they get to the other side, the armies of Pharaoh were vanquished. Okay. And then they sing the first worship song in the Bible. 1 ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ � So let's start in verse 10. You Yahweh, you blew with your ruach, the sea covered the bad guys. They sank like lead in mighty waters. Who's like you among the gods? Oh Yahweh, who's like you, majestic and holiness? Awesome and praise, working wonders. You stretched out your right hand. The earth swallowed them. That's interesting. I mean, the waters did, but you can also say the earth did. In your covenant loyalty, you have lead, the people whom you have redeemed. You have lead, the people you have redeemed,

in strength you have guided them to your holy dwelling. The word lead there is made up of the same letters as the name Noah, which is the word for rest. Naha. So Nuhach is the verb for rest. Naha is the verb for lead, but in certain verb forms, it looks like the word rest. Is that a coincidence? It's word play.

It's word play. Yeah. Do they come from the same root? Then resting and leading? It's just they share two letters. It is share. Share two letters is very typical biblical author of the book. I see. Because remember what God did for his, the human,

he took him out of the realm of the dirt and... Put him in the garden. And rested him. Yeah, he rested him. He knew he was. Here God is nachaing them towards his holy dwelling. So it's like putting them in towards the land. Keep reading.

Verse 17, you will bring the people you've redeemed, you will bring them and you will plant them in the mountain of your inheritance. The place of your dwelling, shiv-de-chah, the word dwelling, that word dwelling, shiv-de-chah, your dwelling, has the three letters of the word shabbat, right?

It's the same three letters. Is this the same dwelling as before in verse 13? I think it's a different word. I see, okay. Yep, so that word dwelling is a word play on the word shabbat. The place of your dwelling which you have made The sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established. So plant, when's the last time I heard the word plant? The last time. Well, sorry, when's the first time I heard the word plant in Genesis 2? God planted a garden in Eden.

So where Eden is the cosmic mountain. mountain, it's a high place. That's where God plants the garden. That's where He dwells and raw. According to the prophets. According to the prophets and according to Genesis 2. Oh because of the stream. Because of the river. The source is all of the rivers on earth.

I mean, come on. That's a high place. That's a high place. So God's going to plant them. In the mountain. In the mountain where God dwells, and the word dwell is spelled with the three letters of Shabbat. Yeah And it's called God sanctuary. This is all Eden Sabbath language and imagery going on here. So just like God took the human that he formed out of dirt and

planted a garden and rested him in the garden. So God is leading slash going to rest the people in the mountain that he has planted. And this is all forecasting the promised land, bringing Israel into the promised land. Exodus 15 is portraying Israel's journey from the death and chaos of Egypt all the way to Joshua and forward of Israel going to the Promised Land and it's casting that whole narrative arc on analogy with humans in the garden of Eden resting there with God. Does that make any sense? Totally makes sense. Yeah. And it's happening during the seven days of Passover and on 11th bread. It's when all these events are happening in Exodus. The feast of flight.

The feast of flight. Yeah, totally. So Passover, the Exodus and Passover is a new creation. It's an act of new creation when you see it from this point of view. The Passover is about celebrating a new creation when you see it from this point of view. The Passover is about celebrating a new creation. Liberation out of darkness and disorder. Yes. Into something new.

Yeah. Into the new Eden that God's preparing for his people to rest them there. I'm stuck on the suddenness of it. It's like, be ready. Yeah, totally. Yeah, yeah, that's right. So every year, and this event makes, now the month where this happens

to be the beginning month of Israel's ritual calendar. This event of the new creation and liberation of Israel now becomes the first. The first thing of the year, I want you to do, is spend a whole week enacting that creation will be renewed Yeah, liberated from its bondage to decay as Paul would say in Romans 8 Yeah, back where we started Exodus 12 Passover instructions begin and God says to Moses this month will be for you the

God says to Moses, this month will be for you the Roche Chaudhashim, the head of the months, Rishon Hulachem. It is the first for you. Roche and Rishon, the first word of Genesis 1-1, is Bereeshit from the same root. Reeshit comes from the root Roche. Roche.

So it means first, beginning. So Exodus, the Exodus story makes that month the beginning for Israel's calendar. It's the beginning of Israel, so to speak. It's God creating His covenant people, liberating them from slavery. And that's all set on analogy to the beginning. Because in a real way, it wasn't them just pretending like New Creation came. That was New Creation. It was rescue from death. It was rescue from death. Yes. beginning because in a real way, it wasn't them just pretending like new creation came. That was new creation. It was rescue from death.

It was rescue from death and slavery. And that's right. And darkness and darkness. Yeah. Yeah. Again, do you remember our first conversation about this, the two, the two Sabbath commandments and the two repetitions of the 10 commandments? One of them in Exodus was in six days.

God made this guys in the land and rested. So just like God rested. Just like I do that. In Deuteronomy 5 it's Shabbat on the seventh day because God rescued you out of Egypt so that you may nuach, you may have rest along with your slaves. Oh I see. Along with your slaves. These are really like the same idea, because the rescue from Egypt is replaying creation.

Yeah, it's a new creation. The rescue of slaves from darkness and resting in the Promised Land. That is an act that replays the creative intentions and purposes of God and God's doing there for his people what he did for all creation in Genesis 1 which is to release it. And what he wants to do for all creation again? Yes and it's what he wants to do for all creation again. Yes, and it's what he wants to do for all creation again. The liberation from Egypt is a cosmic event. In the story, that's why it's using the cosmic language of Genesis 1 to tell the story. On the list is the video New Exodus. Yes, that's what that video is. The whole video, I want to just drill down on this.

On this. Correct. But you see it in Paul's worldview in Romans chapter 8. We just said it already. He depicts creation in slavery to wake all the bondage of decay and death. And he says it will be liberated when the sons of God are liberated into the glory that God has for them. And the glory is temple language. And it's humans.

Resting and ruling. Resting and ruling at one with God. So he views the Exodus narrative as a cosmic story of creation's liberation. And he does because you read Exodus, and obviously the author here does as well. Correct. So the main meanings of the seventh day are one, it's points to the complete wholeness of creation,

of heaven and earth, united God, humans dwelling together, plenty and abundance. That's the seventh day. But then also, the seventh day is the seventh day, which means you have to go through days one, two, three, four, five, and six on a journey, being liberated from darkness and death to journey towards the seventh day. And so the seventh day is the culmination of God liberating and leading people towards the seventh day. It's interesting in Genesis 1, humans are created on the sixth day, so you don't have to experience. Days 1 through 5.

Well, that's interesting. But but now back into kind of this disorder, God's going to bring creation back through the cycles and we're along for the right. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, in the Exodus story, now everybody's going through the journey of waiting. Days one through six. Days one through six, yeah, totally. So again, two key words, then by the Exodus story, the seventh day is both signifies liberation from death and darkness, journeying towards the complete wholeness that this seventh day represents.

And once those two beats are down, the rest of the Hebrew Bible is just gonna ref off of these and expand and develop it even more. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Bible Project Podcast. This conversation on seventh day rest is about halfway over. We're gonna stop and do a question

in response episode. So if you have any questions so far as you've been listening along, please send them to info at jointhebibletproject.com. Record your question on your phone or any other device, try to keep it to about 20 seconds, and let us know your name and where you're from. Again, send it to info at join the Bible project dot com. The Bible project is a nonprofit. We're in Portland, Oregon. Our mission is to help people experience the Bible as a unified story that leads to Jesus. And to do that, we look at the literary structure of every book of

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