BibleProject - The Cathedral in Time - 7th Day Rest E5

Starting point is 00:00:00 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

Starting point is 00:00:17 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 the seventh day, we experience in time what the tabernacle and temple represented as

Starting point is 00:00:57 spaces, which is eternal life with God in a complete creation. The Sabbath is to time what the Tabernacle and Temple are to space, a cathedral and time. If you've ever been on top of a mountain, or maybe looking out at the ocean, and you stopped and you took it all in, you might have had a feeling come over you, of grandeur, awe, peace, and a feeling of rest. Today, in this episode, we're going to talk about the ancient Jewish version of sacred space, the Tabernacle. It was built as a place for Israel to worship their God, and it's intricately connected with the theme of Seventh Day Rast.

Starting point is 00:02:06 In Exodus chapter 40, there's a whole paragraph when Moses sets up the Tabernacle. It says seven times Moses did XYZ just as Yahweh commanded Moses. When the Tabernacle is built, the Tabernacle blueprints are divided up into seven speeches of Yahweh. God spoke seven times to bring order to the cosmic temple in Genesis 1, when Moses builds this little symbolic mini-cosmos. He does it by following seven divine speech commands. I'm John Collins, this is the Bible Project Podcast, and today we'll continue the conversation with my friend and scholar Tim Mackey about the theme of seventh day rest

Starting point is 00:02:48 the cathedral in time Thanks for joining us. Here we go We're continuing our conversation about the seventh day, the day of completeness, the stop day, the stop and rest, stop and rest, and settle in, and settle in to enjoy the good world that God has provided for His people. Yep. Built into the fabric of the way God created the universe is that six days he created on the seventh day, he stopped, he settled in, and he planted humans, or placed humans.

Starting point is 00:03:53 Placed humans. In the garden that he planted. So that they can reign and rule with him on a day that never ends. The seventh day, there's no evening and morning. This is the cosmic hope that was never ends. The seventh day, there's no evening and morning. Yes. This is the kind of cosmic hope that was never realized. It was lost. Force it.

Starting point is 00:04:10 Force it. Yes. And we live in now a new type of darkness and disorder that's similar to Genesis 1, darkness and disorder, but it's even more sinister in certain ways. Yeah, in the humans participate in it and become causes of death and darkness and disorder. And not just humans, but there's a spiritual power. The power.

Starting point is 00:04:34 The rebellion that's intertwined. And then you get to Pharaoh, who is this bad dude, who is driving humanity, well not humanity, but the Israelites into death and labor and darkness. So we looked at how Exodus, the liberation of slaves into their own land to be free, like reenact or like the whole narrative reenacts Genesis 1. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, from darkness and death, liberated as God's wind blows and separates the waters to provide dry land that becomes the place where God will plant His people in the mountain

Starting point is 00:05:19 of His dwelling and where God's Sabbath presence dwells back to Eden. Yep, that's right. Yeah. And so on Israel's journey toward that ultimate seventh day rest, they are also following now a ritual calendar that has a every seventh day rest and then is going to begin with a once the first month of every year has a reenactment of the Exodus that begins at a night and then followed by a seventh day, seven day feast to replay the whole thing. Yeah, that's it.

Starting point is 00:05:52 So now we're following the story of Israel and what we're gonna see is these same themes. Sabbath, seven day, rest, trusting in God's provision. These are just gonna cycle through in new ways. And so the first story where it pops up is actually right after they're liberated. It's in the story of Exodus 16. This is so rad.

Starting point is 00:06:14 I remember when this hit me, it was like a ton of bricks. Like, oh, this is what this whole story is about. Exodus 16. Exodus 16. Hey, before jumping to that. Oh, okay, yep. It's so in the Genesis account, X to the 16. X to the 16. Hey, before jumping to that. Oh, okay. Yep. And so in the Genesis account, six days, seventh day rest, to get to the seventh day, there's

Starting point is 00:06:30 no wandering in the wilderness. That's kind of this new motif that develops here. I see. The wandering in the wilderness. I just just wanted to like notice that. Yeah, got it. Because this is like, how do you, like the journey to the seventh day? Yes, that's right. Right. Which becomes a new idea.

Starting point is 00:06:48 It's a very important idea. Yeah, because that's what we're doing. We're journeying to the seventh day. Here's the thing about this way. In Exodus 1 through 15, we began with the death and disorder of pharaoh in the waters, right, boys being thrown in the waters. then God rescues the human out of the waters. Just in those opening chapters of Exodus, you have a whole bunch of riffing off of themes in Genesis 1 of death and slavery. Through the waters, God raises up a human. That's a way of thinking about the whole art. That's a way of thinking about days 1 through 6. Yeah, okay, right. Right, of Genesis one. But then, so that's not just in Exodus chapter one.

Starting point is 00:07:28 Yeah. You float out to the macro level, Exodus one to 15. It's people rescued through the night. Mm-hmm. And 10 acts of God speaking in the plagues, rescued through the waters, a wind blowing. On once they go through the dry land, out to the other side,

Starting point is 00:07:45 they sing a song about God planting. Yeah. A place of rest on a mountain where God shabbats and dwells. And so then the whole Exodus and art story becomes a way of thinking about Genesis 1 as a whole. The moment they start their journey towards the Promised Land, that's gonna be another restart. Okay.

Starting point is 00:08:04 Now we're not in Egypt. Yeah, but's going to be another restart. Okay. Now we're not in Egypt, but in the wilderness. We're in the wilderness. Exodus 16 opens in the wilderness. Now we're back in another land of disorder. And it's a dangerous realm. As we're going to see, they think it's a realm of death. And so Exodus 16 now will be another replay of themes from Genesis 1.

Starting point is 00:08:26 It's like a riff, a melody that can be employed on a macro level, the whole Exodus story, or on a micro level, with individual chapters. Cool. Yeah. 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh

Starting point is 00:08:54 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh I said it's 16. Let's just read our way into it. So all the assembly of the sons of Israel journeyed from Aleem and they came to the wilderness

Starting point is 00:09:36 of Seen, which is between Aleem and between Seenai or Sinai. This was on the 15th day of the second month after they went out from the land of Egypt. Let's spend some time. It's been one month. Yep, they've been one month on the road. And the 15th day is the day that begins in the first month, which was the Exodus.

Starting point is 00:09:58 The morning of the 15th day was the morning after the night of Passover. So Passover night is the 14th. And then the 15th begins the seven days of unleavened bread. Okay. So Passover night is the 14th and then the 15th begins the seven days of unleavened bread. So it's exactly one month since they started eating the unleavened bread. So to speak, because bread is what this chapter is all about. And they grumbled all the assembly of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and against Aaron in the wilderness.

Starting point is 00:10:27 And they said, the sons of Israel said, oh, that we had died by the hand of Yahweh in the land of Egypt. Oh, we wish Yahweh had just killed us all in Egypt. Why? Well, in Egypt, we dwelt, we sat over pots of flesh, pots of meat. Yeah. We sat by meat pots. Yeah. When we ate bread to fullness, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this entire

Starting point is 00:10:57 assembly with hunger. Yeah. This is one chapter after they were singing God's praise. You know, yeah. So one chapter of 30 days, the mood has changed. Yeah were singing God's praise. Yeah. You know. Yeah. So one chapter, but 30 days. The mood has changed. Yeah, the mood's changed, to say the least. Okay. So, first of all, they see the wilderness as a land of death.

Starting point is 00:11:16 Yeah. So, we're back to a realm of death. Well, it kind of is. I mean, the wilderness is not a great place. No. Yeah, people can't live out there. There's two little clues in verse three. One is when we sat by pots of meat,

Starting point is 00:11:32 the word sat is has the three letters of the word Shabbat in there. Shinbe Tav, Bishiv Teno. When you're reading in Hebrew, you just see the word Shabbat. Right there. When we Shabbated by Pots of Meat, when we ate bread to completeness, fullness, it's that word. It's that word that spelled with the same three letters as the word seven. Shabbat. We ate bread to sova to completeness.

Starting point is 00:12:05 So in the same line, you see the word shabbat and seven. But they, what they experience a wilderness is as an anti-shabbat. Yeah. And a anti-seventh day. They see it as the realm of lack and the realm of wandering and restlessness. And what, and they view Egypt as Eden. Do you see this? They're looking back on Egypt,

Starting point is 00:12:28 that's where we had Shabbat and fullness and completeness. But we just read those chapters and they were not experiencing it. Totally, yeah. So this is a misremembering. Totally. It may have, as a psychology of these stories, so interesting. So the portrayal is that humans create the very opposite of what God wants for us,

Starting point is 00:12:50 but our expectations and desires become so bent and distorted that we can look back on terrible things as the best thing we ever had. That's really interesting. Makes me think of that CS Lewis theme about how our desires are too shallow. Children making mud pies when moms apple pies like cooling in the window, but they're perfectly happy eating mud. Anyway. So, the Lord said to Moses, look, I am about to rain on you all, bread from heaven, bread from the skies. And the people will go out and they will gather each on

Starting point is 00:13:27 its day, each day on its day in order that I may test them to see if they will walk in my Torah or not. So, okay, God's going to reign bread every day. Somehow that's a test. And that's going to provide a test for whether God's people will follow His Torah. Look, it will come about on the sixth day that they shall... Six day from... Yeah, so God's going to rain bread from heaven. It just says, every day, okay, each day on its day, but on the sixth day. On the sixth day. He's going to rain bread from heaven for five days. Right. On the sixth day, they shall set aside what they bring in, and it shall be double for what they collect each day. So you collect bread a little bit of bread every day, for five days.

Starting point is 00:14:19 On the sixth day. You get double. Yep. You gather two times what you did the previous days. Okay. So let's just pause, right? I mean, all of this language we Egypt was where we had Sabbath and fullness. Here in the realm of death, God's going to provide bread from the skies. Only the creator of heaven on earth can do that. That's the idea here. He's going to provide bread in the realm of death. The abundance. Yep. That you don't have to create.

Starting point is 00:14:45 Yep. He's going to provide it in a pattern that just sure sounds like we're setting up something to do with Genesis 1. Right. A 7-day pattern. Yep. Because on the 6th day, you gather two times, which means on the 7th day, you don't go out there and provide for yourself. You trust that God has given you enough to last into the seventh day.

Starting point is 00:15:07 For six Moses and Aaron said to all the sons of Israel in the evening Y'all will know that Yahweh brought you out from the land of Egypt and by the morning Y'all will see the glory of Yahweh for he has heard your grumblings. And as for us, why are you complaining against us? So Moses said, when the Lord gives to you all in the evening flesh to eat and bread in the morning for fullness or completeness, that's that Savavu word again, because he has listened to your grumblings, which are grumbling against him. And us, why are you grumbling against? You're not grumbling against us, but against the Lord.

Starting point is 00:15:49 So the idea is, it's all building up towards the seventh day. God's going to provide bread for seventh day, for six days, gather twice, but don't go out and gather on the seventh day. That's the idea. So as the story goes on, God's going to appear, his glory appears in a cloud. This is in verses 9 and following. His glory appears in a cloud and he says, I'm going to rain down quail in the evening. So God does that, but it's really, it's just mentioned in one sentence and then it's gone. He provides, remember they said we had bread? We had meat in Egypt. So God provides meat, but the focus of the story

Starting point is 00:16:25 is really on this bread. Yeah. Sky bread. Totally. Yeah, sky bread. So, verse 13. So came about in the evening, I think, in the evening and in the morning.

Starting point is 00:16:36 As Genesis 1, the evening, quail came and covered the camp. Covered. Did it settle in? Oh, yeah, it's interesting. Yeah, it's just, and it covered the camp. Noed. Did it settle in? Oh, yes, interesting. Yes, it is. And it covered the camp. No, that's a different word. Okay.

Starting point is 00:16:50 In the morning, there was a layer of dew all around the camp, a laying down of dew. And then the layer of dew lifted. So there's this watery dew covering the grass in the morning as often happens and maybe depends on where you live. But then once the dew evaporated, look, there was on the face of the wilderness this thin wafer, thin like frost, a layer of frost on the ground, and the sons of Israel saw it and they said each to his neighbor, Manu. What is it? Manu! They say in Hebrew Manu because they didn't know what it was. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:17:32 And Moses said to them, this is the bread, which Yahweh has given to Yal for food. Remember on the sixth day of Genesis 1? Oh, yeah, the plants and the vegetation. Behold, I give to Yall for food. It's the same exact phrase. He's the same. I give to y'all for food on the sixth day. The fruit and the plants and the here. But here in the wilderness, they get this thin frosty wafer. That's left over, actually, the dew. So then he commands them. He says, this is what you're going to get every day. This thin layer of bread. At each day, just get what you need.

Starting point is 00:18:10 And then it tells you, everybody went and gathered. And whether they gathered a lot or a little, they'd take it back home. And there was just enough for everybody in their house for that day. Yeah. So every day, God provides exactly what you need. But then there comes a day every week where you just you gather more than you have. You preach five days and you trust that that extra

Starting point is 00:18:34 you've gathered is going to last for the seventh day. And so it becomes this rhythm then of okay every God provides for us just what we need for one day. Then every once in a while, he does something crazy where we go out on a limb and we gather extra trusting that when it will last for that day of lack and that the day after that it'll start showing up again It's this rhythm. So then they don't obey the commands They go all these people go out on the seventh day looking for it, and Moses gets angry, or some people... It's hard to stop. Yeah, totally.

Starting point is 00:19:11 Yeah, so you can see what's going on here. Yeah. And how it risks off Genesis 1, but in a new way. Because now, whether people will stop. I see, this is the test. Will you stop? The test. Will you stop?

Starting point is 00:19:24 It becomes, and it's about trust. Trust. Yeah. There's a scholar named Stephen Geller who wrote an essay on this. And he calls the mana is like a, calls it a little bit of a taste of new creation. That doesn't wait. So it says in Exodus 16, mana is presented as a new work of creation that disrupts the established order of creation.

Starting point is 00:19:48 There's a clear parallelism between the creation account in Genesis 1 and Exodus 16. In both passages, there is a difference between the first six days and the seventh day. In Genesis 1, the work of each day is good, marked as good, and that term marks its completion. But on the sixth day, things are very good. Double portion. Yeah, extra good. Corresponding to this is the manna provided for each day that becomes the good, so to speak,

Starting point is 00:20:19 of days one through five. And then the bread provided on the sixth day becomes the very good. the very good. Very good. And then the seventh day becomes now a day to join God in his rest. Even in the wilderness. Even now in the wilderness. Trusting that God will provide. And so in a way, the Sabbath now presents people with a choice. Are they going to trust God with what he has provided for them and imitate his rest?

Starting point is 00:20:47 And remember, the rest God's glorious presence showed up in this narrative when the bread started showing up. So it's trusting that God's with us here. We're resting with him. Even in the desert, we pretend like we're in Eden. And we trust that the little bit he's given us is like the abundance of Eden that will last even on the seventh day.

Starting point is 00:21:11 That's the story here. And this story happens before the commandments to follow the Sabbath. People have often noticed this. Of course, shadowing it. Yeah. In other words, the ten commandments aren't even given yet in the narrative time.

Starting point is 00:21:23 Right. But they're already practicing the rhythm. Yes. So when the Sabbath command comes, the idea is it's just giving structure to a rhythm they're already supposed to be in because it's the rhythm of creation itself. Yeah. In its simplest manifestation where like in the future you're going to be farming and you're going to be doing commerce and all this stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Starting point is 00:21:45 This is just simply, let's go and pick out the desert way for stuff. Yeah, that's all you got. Yeah, that's right. You didn't work for it. You didn't work for it. Yeah. And then on the sixth day, get more and the seventh day, just stop. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:21:58 Don't get any trusters enough. Which is crazy in the wilderness. To not go hunting gather. Yeah. If every waking moment. Lazy. Well irresponsible. Irresponsible.

Starting point is 00:22:09 Yeah. Yeah, here we are in the wilderness. Yeah. When things are cruel and yeah. Yeah, we're fighting for our lives. Yeah. We're just gonna sit around. Yes. For a whole day.

Starting point is 00:22:19 For a whole day. Just trusting that God's gonna turn on the dew again tomorrow morning. Yeah. On the eighth day. Yeah. Yeah, that's the image. That's the image. Yeah. So now, yeah, the, in the Exodus story, the seventh day was about God liberating his people into life in the new Eden. But now the observance of the seventh day is about the ongoing trust of God's people to trust that He will provide.

Starting point is 00:22:45 It's irresponsible, inconvenient. Get off your butt and pick up some dooflakes. Don't, don't. Yeah, that's right. So the manna, the bread from heaven is God's surprising. That's why I call it Eden bread. And there's a parallel story of this and number of the 11 on the other side of Mount Sinai, and that's the place where what the mana looks like is described. And it has the color and sheen of the precious stone.

Starting point is 00:23:46 These are the same word that appeared in the garden of Eden. Only two times that word appears in the Bible, right? Correct. Yeah. So that's why I call it the Bradavieden. It's the seventh day Bradavieden. It comes from the heavenly realm of God's ultimate Sabbath rest. So what is it? Yeah. So just the point is every seven days now they're in this rhythm as long as they're in the wilderness and the manus shuts off the moment they step into the Promised Land. There's a little note in the book of Joshua when they cross the Jordan and says, and the manus, Shabbat, says in the manus Shabbat on that day. So the whole 40 year journey through the wilderness

Starting point is 00:24:25 now is marked as a new kind of Sabbath in the future anticipation. Okay, let's hit two points of Exodus real quick. Now they're in the rhythm of the Sabbath is now an act of faith and trust in God's provision as they journey to Mount Sinai. They journey to Mount Sinai and God's glory appears just like it did in the desert when he provided bread.

Starting point is 00:24:50 Now God's glory will appear on top of this mountain and he's gonna invite them into a covenant relationship and the first set of terms of that covenant relationship that God gives are 10 words. The 10 words. The 10 words. Our ten words. The ten words. The ten words. Exodus chapter 20. Otherwise known as the Ten Commands.

Starting point is 00:25:11 The Sabbath is the fourth or the third command depending on how people count the commands. Have we talked about this? There's different numberings, different ways that religious traditions number the Ten Commandments. We talked about this. No. Okay. So the Ten Commandments come. Moses is up on the mountain. We talked about this? No. No. Okay, so the 10 commandments come. Moses is up on the mountain.

Starting point is 00:25:27 People are down at the bottom. God speaks the 10 words. So the first thing that God says is, I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of slavery. So the question is, is that implied command? Okay. Namely, have me as your only God,

Starting point is 00:25:46 because the next phrase is, you shall have no other gods before me. So the question is, are those two commands, or is that one command? If it's two commands, there would be 11, wouldn't they? Ah, if it's two commands, then what happens is, the thou shall not covet down in chapter 20, verse 17. It says, do not covet the house

Starting point is 00:26:08 of your neighbor, do not covet the wife of your neighbor or his slave or female slave or his donkey. In other words, there's two verbs, do not covet his house, do not covet his wife and all these other things. So traditions that get to command number the last command don't covet. They take those two verbs and if you've made I am the Lord your God the first command and have no other gods performing as your second command, then what you do is you take the two do not covet and you merge them together into one statement. If you take the first phrase, I'm the Lord your God, don't have any other gods. If you take that as your first command, then by the time you get to don't covet, you need to. You need to.

Starting point is 00:26:52 You need to. You need to. So you have don't covet the house of your neighbor as the ninth, and then you have don't covet the wife of your neighbor and so on as the tenth. Wikipedia has a really nice chart. Yeah, I see that. I see more of that. Wait, so which one was I taught? It's the one on the left here, which they say is embodied in the step-to-agent, which goes into Christian tradition. So the first command in most Christian traditions is have no other gods.

Starting point is 00:27:25 Yeah. Number two is don't make idols. Number three, don't take the Lord's name and vein. Number four, Sabbath, five on your father's mother. Six, don't murder. Seven, don't commit adultery. Eight, don't steal. Nine, don't bear false witness. And then don't cover neighbor's house. Don't cover your neighbor's wife is just one command. Don't covet. Oh, I see. In Calvin's institutes, he thinks that yes, I am the Lord your God is an implied first command, but combined with have no other gods,

Starting point is 00:27:57 which is also the first part of the first command. Yeah. So the trick is, do you go by the substance of what the command means, or are you going by the number of actual sentences? Yeah in the in the text is this important? Not really okay. Well to some people it is sure the point is it's 10 There's 10 things the god says to do or not to do but there's a discrepancy on how those are counted correct Yeah, sorry. It's not actually that important.

Starting point is 00:28:26 Okay, but it's interesting. It is interesting. Yeah, it's interesting. Okay, so, oh yeah, this all got, this is all from whether the Sabbath is the third command or the fourth. Or the fourth command. Got it. Totally.

Starting point is 00:28:38 Well, here's what either way you put it, either way, the Sabbath command consists of seven statements. One, remembers the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Two, six days you will labor. Three, and do all your work. Four, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of Yahweh or God. Five, you shall do no work, and then a list. Who's included in that, you? You, your son, your daughter,

Starting point is 00:29:05 male, female slave, cattle or sojourner. 6. For the sixth part of the command is for in six days, Yahweh made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that's in them, and He rested on the seventh day, therefore seven, Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day and he made it wholly. Now, people actually have differed on the micro distinction of the seven parts, but it's pretty widely recognized. If you break out the main sentence clauses of all of the seventh commands. Is this intuitive in Hebrew? Because in English, it feels like arbitrary

Starting point is 00:29:41 when these breaks are. Oh, really? You think so? Well, six days you will labor and do all your work. Why isn't that one? Why is that two? It feels like one phrase. Well, it's two separate sentences.

Starting point is 00:29:53 Six days you will labor and you will do all your work. Oh, you're right. A lot of it's the English phrasing. Well, and then like, so the fifth one, that's a lot of phrases in there. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy Six days you will labor and you will do all your work and the seventh day is a Shabbat for Yahweh your God Okay, you will not in terms of complete sentences in Hebrew

Starting point is 00:30:17 Yeah, you're right. You will not do any work. Who's the you the the list? The list is subordinate then. Yep, okay. Because in six days, Yahweh made this guys and the land and the sea and all that's in them, and he rested on the seventh day. That's not a complete sentence in him. What's that? And he'd rested on the seventh day.

Starting point is 00:30:36 Actually, you're right. And he rested on the seventh day as the beginning of a new sentence. If anything, and he rested on the seventh day, begins the seventh, main sentence of the command Sabbath. And, yeah.

Starting point is 00:30:47 Okay, so notice here, we have the combination of Shabbat, because it's called the Sabbath, but then his rest on the seventh day is not the verb Shabbat, it's the verb Nuaq. So we've combined God's resting, which is the seizing from work, and then his Nuaqing, which is fillet, settling in with his presence. So this is hard to follow, especially if you're just listening, but the Sabbath command consists of seven sentences. Consists of seven Hebrew sentences. Of course it does. Of course it does. So this is actually where we started the conversation. We talked about the Sabbath command in the seventh.

Starting point is 00:31:27 Right. So in the flow of our conversation now, you can see the Sabbath command is late in the game in terms of the development of this theme. Yeah. This theme is well worn. Yeah. By the time we hit. Yeah, you should get this command and be like, oh yeah, that makes sense.

Starting point is 00:31:41 Yep. Got it. Totally. This is what we've been doing with the manna. I get it from the creation story. Everything is leading to this. This is, he revivable scholar Lee Trevesquez. Aldron has worked again when we talk about the seven lights of the menorah.

Starting point is 00:31:55 But he makes an observation about the Sabbath and 10 commandments. I thought his way of putting things together was helpful. He says, the sabbatical rest, the seventh day rest, reminds Israel of her covenant obligations as Yahweh's new creation. Though this rest is more immediately connected to the Exodus in this chapters, its roots are in the creation story. And by connecting Israel's remembrance of her redemption from Egypt with the sabbatical rest,

Starting point is 00:32:24 the Exodus becomes infused with further theological significance. Just as God's seventh day rest in the creation story is the emergence of his new creation, so Israel's sabbatical rest attests to her emergence as Yahweh's new creation. That's exactly what that was. That's what we talked about in the last hour. Yep, that's right.

Starting point is 00:32:42 So point is in the 10 Commandments, I am Yahweh who brought you out of Egypt. So rest on the seventh day, because that's what I did in creation. It's merging exodus and creation. Since Israel's identity as a new creation is tied up with the covenant, the terms of the covenant.

Starting point is 00:32:58 Israel's sabbatical rest recalls her obligation to remain faithful to it, to live according to her creators as well. That's helpful. Just draw it together. Okay. So they make the covenant. You get Israel, is that Mount Sinai?

Starting point is 00:33:12 Yeah. The 10 commands are just the first of, there's 42 more to follow. Right up there. Six times seven. Oh, well. Yeah. Commands Exodus 20 through 23. Okay.

Starting point is 00:33:24 Then in Exodus 24, God shows up again on the mountain. Do I have this? Yes. So wait, let's make sure I say Exodus 20, 10 commands. Then. Exodus 19, they march up to the mountain. March up to the mountain. Yep.

Starting point is 00:33:38 Marriage ceremony, covenant. Yep. I'm going to be your God, you can be my people. Yep. Here's the terms of the covenant. Yep. Here's 10. 10. The third or fourth, depending on how you count, is a Sabbath.

Starting point is 00:33:46 Yes. Then after that, there's six times seven more commands. Correct. Okay. And then after those commands is a story we're about to read. It is the narrative of the making of the covenant. Okay. Yeah, so let's, yeah, I want you to look up,

Starting point is 00:34:02 X this 24. X this 24. Yeah. So, yeah, we said to Moses, come up to Yahweh, you and Aaron and Nadav and Avi Hu, those were his two sons, and 70 of the elders of Israel worship at a distance, but then Moses, so they're supposed to come like part way up the mountain. Yeah. Just this crew.

Starting point is 00:34:21 But then Moses alone is to approach Yahweh, the others must not come here. So Moses went, comes down and he tells Israel the 10 plus 42 commands. Okay. And the people respond with one voice. Everything Yahweh said, we're going to do it. Yeah. And Moses started writing down. So first mention of the writing of the laws of the Torah.

Starting point is 00:34:41 He gets up, builds a symbolic altar with 12 stones. He sacrifices burnt offerings. He takes the blood. He splashes some on the altar, and he reads the laws of the covenant, and then he splashes blood on the people. It's a little gross for us. But the idea is, the altar is a symbol

Starting point is 00:35:02 of Israel's offering of itself to God. Okay. And so the blood gets sprinkled there, and the blood gets sprinkled on the actual people who are dedicating there. Why blood? They're lives. Because life, the blood is the life. Blood is life. The blood is the life.

Starting point is 00:35:16 And so this is all about life? Yeah. Well, this is later on about the meaning of the blood. But you offer the animal, which is blameless, it's supposed to be a spotless blameless, and it, it's life, ascends up to Yahweh in the smoke as your blameless representative to be in Yahweh's presence, heavenly presence. So half of the blood goes on the altar,

Starting point is 00:35:41 which is gonna translate your representative up to God's space. And then half of it blood goes on the altar, which is going to translate your representative up to God's space. And then half of it goes on you, the implication being you live in the present as if that is what the true of your substitute is true of you. So then Moses and Aaron and all the elders, they go up and they saw the God of Israel. Wait, what verses is that? This is verse 9 and 10. So they go, they go halfway up the mountain, Moses and his crew, and they saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement, like a surface. Oh yeah, this is the firmament.

Starting point is 00:36:14 Yeah. They're ascending a cosmic mountain. Yeah. They're getting close to the dome. Yeah, they're getting to the dome. They're getting up to the dome. Toilet. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Starting point is 00:36:23 And what they see is some sort of hard surface of... It's bright blue. It's blue. And of course it is. Yeah, it's a sky. It's what the skydome is. Yeah. But God didn't send out his hand against the leaders of Israel.

Starting point is 00:36:39 So they just sat there. Seeing God through the blue is as if they can almost pier through the heavens to see through to the one sitting on a throne. And they have a meal? And they have a meal there in God's presence on top of the cosmic mountain. 1 個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個 Go down to verse 15. This is when Moses ascends up now to the top. He leaves those guys behind. He goes up to the top. Moses went up. So now he's up there, right? Where the top of the mountain meets the cosmic throne.

Starting point is 00:37:52 Yep. And the cloud covered it. And the glory of Yahweh settled on the mountain for six days. The cloud covered the mountain. And on the seventh day, Yahweh called to Moses from within the cloud. Wow. Moses had to just chill out for six days waiting. Yeah. Notice the six and the seven now, we can just do lots of things with it. Yeah. It's a period of waiting and testing. Yeah. We know that from the man-a-story. But also the seventh day is when God's presence becomes fully available. And so now Moses, he's on a high mountain, just like Eden. And on the seventh day, God meets him there.

Starting point is 00:38:30 You imagine Moses, on the first day being like, where's God and second day like me? It's going on third day like, okay, I think I'm gonna have to wait six days. I get it. I get it, this is my test. Yeah. And they just saw God up there.

Starting point is 00:38:43 All the imagery is connecting this to Eden temple imagery. Okay, so here's the deal. What does God have to say to Moses as he's up there on the seventh day, chapter 25? Chapter 25 begins the blueprint of the tabernacle. So here's this whole macro design of the rest of Exodus. It's so interesting.

Starting point is 00:39:06 So you get Exodus 24, Moses is up there for a Sabbath cycle. God present meets him on the seventh day. And God starts revealing to Moses what he calls the pattern. He says, make a tabernacle according to the pattern that I've shown you. So we just are learned in the narrative. Moses is now up where heaven and earth are one. And he's looking up into the heavenly throne room. Yeah. And God came and rested there.

Starting point is 00:39:30 Yep. And now he's saying, look, this is all a pattern. You're being shown a pattern as you look up, as you get to stand here in the divine council. Yeah, you got to see the temple. He's seeing the heavenly temple. And then he's told to make the Tabernacle as replica, or a symbolic model of the heavenly temple. He's told this multiple times. So look at what's going to happen is he's going to be given the Tabernacle instructions. They're boring to read. 25 through 31. 20 chapters 25 through 31. The last part of the Tabernacle instructions is actually not about the tabernacle.

Starting point is 00:40:05 It's another law reminding you to keep the Sabbath. The story that follows that is the story of the golden calf. The golden calf debacle takes up three chapters. One, two, three. Chapters 32, 33, and 34. He comes down off the mountain. Yep. He finds.

Starting point is 00:40:22 Yes. Israelites breaking the first command. Mm-hmm. Or the first two. First two cutting out he finds. Yes. Israelites breaking the first command. Mm-hmm. Or the first two confines. First two confines. Yeah, it's an anti-cap. That's right. Yep. So then he asked to intercede. He offers his life in the place of Israel. He, a very powerful story. We've explored some parts of it. Yeah. So God chooses to renew the covenant. And then we read that Psalm that's written off of it. Yeah, it's 90. It's something.

Starting point is 00:40:46 I'm 90. So the moment Moses has interceded, God chooses to forgive and renew the covenant, we get a narrative block about the building of the tabernacle. The begins in chapter 35 and goes to chapter 40. But the first moment, the first narrative image about the building of the tabernacle isn't about the tabernacle. It's actually another reminder to keep the seven days of the Sabbath.

Starting point is 00:41:12 Then you get the building of the tabernacle. So the whole of Exodus 25 through 40 is a gigantic symmetry with the tabernacle as a model of the heavenly temple. A reminder of the Sabbath and then the center of it is the golden calf. It's the rebellion and the intercession. Yeah, totally. So that's first step. Okay.

Starting point is 00:41:33 Second step. When you walk into Exodus chapter 25 through 31, which is the blueprints of the heavenly temple, and you start reading, you're going to read, it begins and you got way spoke to Moses saying, of the heavenly temple. And you start reading, you're going to read, it begins and you always spoke to Moses saying, then you get all these instructions for the materials, the ark, the table of bread,

Starting point is 00:41:53 the menorah. You get a long description of blueprints, then in chapter 30 verse 11, and you always spoke to Moses saying, and then you get another set of commands, chapter 30 verse 17, and you always spoke to Moses saying, and then you get another set of commands. Chapter 30, verse 17, and Yahweh spoke to Moses saying, so in other words, the blueprints are all broken up into these acts of divine speech.

Starting point is 00:42:12 Okay, let me guess how many there are. Okay. Is there a 10? There are seven. Oh, there's seven. There's seven. Oh, just, yeah. And the seventh one is.

Starting point is 00:42:22 The Sabbath. That command about keeping the Sabbath. Dude, this is like spin your brain kind of literary complexity. The Tabernacle Blueprints, Exodus 25-31. The narrative about the building of the Tabernacle are both designed with all these patterns imitating Genesis chapter one. Hmm.

Starting point is 00:42:44 You've talked about this before, and we've never really gone into it about how. Yeah, it's easiest to look at the chart that's in front of you. And for our people, we'll put this in the show notes. People listening. The chart.

Starting point is 00:42:54 Can we copy and paste a chart? I don't know. I don't think the show notes are just per bill for that. Maybe we could link to an image of the chart. Yeah. So let's just, we can just talk through it. We'll talk through the rows here real quick. There are seven days.

Starting point is 00:43:09 OK, so back in up. Yep. Moses gets the blueprints of the pattern for the tabernacle. This, and it comes in the whole blueprint kind of structure, starts with five or six chapters of blueprints ends with Sabbath command, golden calf debacle. Then we get a or six chapters of Blueprints ends with Sabbath command, GoldenCafDebockel. Then we get a whole nother set of Blueprint instructions, which is really just the same Blueprint instructions. It's almost verbatim, except instead of saying

Starting point is 00:43:35 you will build, it's and they built. So it's them building it and it begins with the Sabbath instruction. And what we're going to look at right now is the first set of tabernacle instructions. Yep, I call that the Blueprints. The Blueprints. So the Blueprints are in the middle column, the narrative about the building and completion of the tabernacle. Oh, we're gonna look at both this episode.

Starting point is 00:43:58 And then the right column. And then on the left column, stuff from Genesis 1. All right. Yep. So Genesis 1, each of the seven days opens with, and God said. And God said. Acts of divine speech. The Tabernacle Blueprints are divided up

Starting point is 00:44:12 into seven speeches of Yahweh. OK. To practice. When the Tabernacle is built in Exodus chapter 40, there's a whole paragraph where Moses sets up the Tabernacle. And it says, and Moses set up the ark just as Yahweh commanded Moses. And he set up the table of showbred just as Yahweh commanded.

Starting point is 00:44:32 I mean, it's a really boring paragraph to read. Right. But there's seven commands. It says seven times Moses did XYZ just as Yahweh commanded Moses. Got it. Seven times over, he obeys the divine command. So the idea is God spoke seven times to bring order to the cosmic temple just as Yahweh commanded Moses. Seven times over, he obeys the divine command. So the idea is God spoke seven times to bring order to the cosmic temple in Genesis 1.

Starting point is 00:44:51 The tabernacle is presented as a mini-cosmos brought into being through seven acts of divine speech. When Moses builds this little symbolic mini-cosmos, he dedicates it in seven. He does it by following seven divine speech commands of God. Yeah. In Genesis 1, the seventh day is the Sabbath. In the Tabernacle Blu prints, the seventh divine speech is about the Sabbath. It's about keeping the Sabbath in the building of the Tabernacle, the seven after Moses's seventh act of obedience, the divine glory comes to fill the temple.

Starting point is 00:45:27 To come and rest. That's right. Genesis 1, the sixth day ends with God saying, and God saw all that He had done, and behold, very good. There was evening and morning the sixth day. When Moses builds the tabernacle in Exodus 39, and Moses saw all the work that they had done, and behold, it was just as Yahweh commanded. So Genesis 2 and the skies and the land were completed. Exodus 40 and Moses completed all of the work. Genesis 2 versus 1 and 2. And God rested on the seventh day, Exodus 40, and the cloud covered the tenth of meeting, the glory of Yahweh filled the tenth.

Starting point is 00:46:13 Remember that what's the mean of God stopping on the seventh day in Genesis 1? And we know one is what he stops working, but we also noticed that implied with that is God's presence filling. But it doesn't explicitly say that in Genesis 1. But it doesn't too. As you fall, it doesn't too. And then as you follow the pattern through, the seventh day is the place when God's rest, he takes up his rest.

Starting point is 00:46:39 He settles in. In this case, the image is of God's glory filling the Tabernacle. Cool. And he rested from all his work. Totally, yeah, yeah, yeah. Here's just, here's a scholar. Lots of people notice this. This has been noticed by lots of people.

Starting point is 00:46:54 Howard Wallace, an essay called Creation and Sabbath in Genesis 2. He says, the structuring of the narrative about the Tabernacle, an Exodus 25 through 40. It binds the Sabbath observance closely with the construction of the narrative about the Tabernacle, an Exodus 25 through 40. It binds the Sabbath observance closely with the construction of the sanctuary. Both are tightly connected with the question of the presence of Yahweh with his people. The Sabbath is a significant element in the celebration of the presence of Yahweh with his people. Since the Tabernacle, which is patterned on the divine plan, reveals the presence and shares in the role of the heavenly temple to proclaim the sovereignty of Israel's God, so the Sabbath shares in the proclamation of the sovereignty of Yahweh. Well, yeah, do you want to try and bind all this together? I'm trying to bind it together in my mind, too.

Starting point is 00:47:40 Yeah. Moses, up on the mountain, experienced God's presence up in the sky. When it arrived on the seventh day. It arrived on the seventh day. And what he experienced, we don't really know. But he came down and he gave instructions to build something here on earth that patterns what he saw experienced. And part of that was, I guess, the space that he was in and the things he saw and experienced. But part of that is rest of God's presence, and him being there, was this moment of completeness and rest that also needed to be patterned in this

Starting point is 00:48:27 temple experience. And so when you came down to give the blueprints, the whole thing is modeled after Genesis 1 in many different ways. And the series of seven speeches. And on the seventh speech is about rest, which is what the seventh day was about. This command to Rast. And so the command to Rast, and this is what we've been saying, it's all about anticipating and pretending, like creation has completed. Yes, yeah, anticipating that future day when all creation is filled, as Isaiah says,

Starting point is 00:49:06 when creation is filled with knowing Yahweh, filled with God's glory. Because the temple is in a way also anticipating that. The temple you've described as before, the temple is like this like mini symbolic creation. A microcosm, a microcosmos. A microcosmos. Yeah.m us a microcosm us Yeah, and it's this like when you're in the temple. Yeah, you're supposed to think of like oh, this is got this is like God's presence filling the whole earth Yes, but it's just filling the temple. Yes. It's like a symbol. Yes of yeah what creation is meant to be? Yes, well, I'm just think there's a famous lion from Abraham Heschel's book on the Sabbath

Starting point is 00:49:44 Which he begins with talking about how we're obsessed with space? Yeah Well, I'm just think this is the famous lion from Abraham Heschel's book on the Sabbath, which he begins with talking about how we're obsessed with space. Yeah, all right. Yeah, we can, the masters of space. Yeah, totally. So he has this one liner that's become apocryphal and re-rendered in many different ways, but it's a perfect one liner. The Sabbath is to time what the tabernacle and temple are to space.

Starting point is 00:50:03 So what he says then is the Sabbath he calls it a cathedral and time. On the seventh day we experience in time what the tabernacle and temple represented as spaces, which is eternal life with God in the complete creation. 1 個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh

Starting point is 00:50:56 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh There's something about that day, the structure of that day, it's supposed to feel like entering a cathedral. Yeah. A cathedral, a sacred space, a place where heaven and earth a cathedral. Yeah. A sacred space. A sacred space.

Starting point is 00:51:25 A place where heaven and earth are one. Yeah. Yeah. Which is Eden, which was the gift of God to humans for the seventh day. It's a gift they forfeited. Even as Israel wanders through the wilderness, they're given a gift of divine glory and bread, and they're to stop on the seventh day and trust that the glory and bread of Yahweh will be enough for them. Is there on their journey to the

Starting point is 00:51:49 ultimate Eden? So if new creation is God, recreating, restructuring time and space, space and time, it's much easier for us to kind of anticipate what space will feel like when it's complete, but it's much harder for us to imagine what time will be like when it's complete. Correct. The of present moment being full and complete and abundant. And just like we need rules, commands in order to order our order space. And that's what the temple does. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:52:28 We need a command of how to set aside time to be sacred and complete. That's the Sabbath. Yeah, that's right. I like the space and time to dimensions. And there's a point at which the completion and fullness of God's presence and will heals and brings, yeah, wholeness to time and space. And in Genesis 1, both of those are brought together in the gift of a complete creation on the seventh day. God orders space.

Starting point is 00:53:04 I mean, that's what Genesis 1 through 6 is. It's just a lot of ordering of space. seventh day. Got orders space. I mean, that's what Genesis 1 through 6 is. It's just a lot of ordering of space. The days 1 through 6. Well, I guess in time. That's right. In time. One forance.

Starting point is 00:53:12 Yeah, but you're marching. The days 1 through 6, you're marching towards. Marching through the waters and land on your way to. Day one is ordering time in a way. Yeah. Light and dark. Yep. Day four is ordering time in a way. Light and dark. Day four is ordering time, but day's two and three, it's ordering space of five and six, more space.

Starting point is 00:53:33 I mean, if you think we're making a video right now that will be about the space theme on the temple. The cosmic temple in Genesis one. In a way, this video is the time thing. We're taking space and doing a video about that called Temple. We're taking the time and making a video about that. We're not sure we're going to call it yet. But that's the idea. Yeah. And the vigenius of Genesis one is that they both intersect. They both intersect on the seventh day. Something Albert Einstein later discussed

Starting point is 00:54:02 as well. Yeah. right, yeah, totally. And so the tabernacle is another intersection of the seven. The completeness of space time. Seventh day and a new symbolic. So of course, when you're told the blueprints of the temple, you've got to have some commands about time too. Yeah. Because space and time are one and the same.

Starting point is 00:54:21 So the Sabbath commands flank the, they're at the ending of the flank the ending of the blueprint and the Sabbath command begins the narrative of the building of a tabernacle. And then the Sabbath image of dwelling, resting, ends the whole thing. Correct. Yeah, the last lines of Exodus are Yahweh's presence fills the tent. Hooray! But Moses, it was so intense that Moses can't even enter. Mmm.

Starting point is 00:54:49 The Sabbath is too intense for us, mere mortals. Yeah, well, and that's the cliffhanger at the end of Exodus that makes you turn the page into Leviticus. Yeah. What can we do as humans to prepare ourselves for the Sabbath rest? God's created a little micro-edin and planted it among Israel, but the Israel that he just came among is the Israel worship idols.

Starting point is 00:55:09 The real creator is too much for them. They want a God that they can handle and understand. And so how is God gonna invite idolatrous selfish people into the Sabbath? They're gonna have to be changed. In some way. That's the book of Leviticus. Become holy.

Starting point is 00:55:27 So that's our next stop. Is looking at the way these themes are picked up and developed in the book of Leviticus and Numbers. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Bible Project Podcast. If you're new to the show, or a long-time listener, you might know that we have a YouTube channel. These discussions get boiled down to a 5 minutes animated video and we put them up there. So if you're listening to this episode on its release day November 11th, 2019, we're going to be premiering a brand new video on how to read the Gospels. It's part of our How to Read the Bible Series.

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BibleProject - The Cathedral in Time - 7th Day Rest E5

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