Friday, May 15<\/b><\/p>\n
Exodus 33: Now comes the order to depart from Sinai (verse 1). It is the second month of the second year of Israel\u2019s journey (Numbers 10:11-12). The Israelites had arrived at the mountain during the third month after their crossing of the Red Sea (Exodus 19:1), so they have been in this site for almost a year.<\/p>\n
The Lord\u2019s angel will continue to lead them to the Promised Land (verse 2; cf. 23:20). The reason given for this \u201cmediation,\u201d however, is the Lord\u2019s displeasure with the Israelites; He wants to keep some distance from them, as though He could not trust Himself not to destroy them! (verse 3) Learning this, the people put away their jewelry, lest the sight of it remind Lord of the incident with the golden calf (verse 4). One may also note that, by not wearing it, the Israelites will more readily part with it when the time comes for this jewelry to be employed in the adornment of the tabernacle.<\/p>\n
There follows a story of Moses\u2019 regular visits to speak with the Lord of a new tabernacle (verses 7-11), which is not so much a liturgical shrine as a sort of oracular place. In short, it is a place where Moses can confer with God.<\/p>\n
Unlike the earlier tabernacle, which was placed at the center of the camp (25:8), this one is set up outside the camp. Moses goes there from time to time, to speak with the Lord in great intimacy (Numbers 10:4-8; 17:7-9). When he arrives, he awaits the coming of the Lord in the cloudy pillar, which first appeared at the time of the exodus. The other Israelites observe these encounters of the Lord and Moses from the entrances of their own tents.<\/p>\n
This new tabernacle becomes the permanent dwelling of Joshua the Ephraemite who in due course succeeds Moses in the leadership of Israel.<\/p>\n
Speaking to the Lord in this new tabernacle, Moses now asks something for himself (verses 12-22), confessing that the coming journey may be simply too much for him to endure unless the Lord gives him sufficient light to make coherent sense of it.<\/p>\n
God answers this prayer by granting him a special experience of the divine presence—described as a sort of oblique glance at God, catching sight of the Lord\u2019s glory as it passes by. This description is as close as Moses can come to telling of this fleeting and indirect experience of God\u2019s presence, which has been granted to many of the saints in all ages.<\/p>\n
St. Augustine (Questions on the Heptateuch<\/i> 2.154) interprets \u201cI will pass before you\u201d as a reference to the Resurrection of the Lord. No man has ever seen God, except the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father. To the rest of us is given to perceive the glory of God shining on the face of Christ (cf. John 1:14-18; 2 Corinthians 3:7 \u2014 4:6; 2 Peter 1:16-19).<\/p>\n
Saturday, May 16<\/b><\/p>\n
Exodus 34: We observe that the Israelites, notwithstanding the command to depart from Sinai at the beginning of the previous chapter, are still at the site (verse 2), and it is clear that they will remain there for some time yet.<\/p>\n
Moses, we recall, had broken the original tablets of the Decalogue when—in anger because of the golden calf—he had flung them on the ground (32:19). That physical \u201cbreaking\u201d of the Law symbolized the true breaking of the commandments by the idolatrous Israelites. Now these stone tablets must be replaced (verse 1).<\/p>\n
It is to be remarked that the two stone tables in verses 1-9, though lifeless and hard they seem to the naked eye, actually embody the awesome personal experience of Moses described in these verses. Regarded in faith and in the context of the covenant, these stones are alive with the grace of that experience. They are \u201cGod\u2019s word written.\u201d<\/p>\n
Verses 10-28 are joined by the common theme of the purity required for an exclusive fidelity to God.<\/p>\n
The Christian theological meaning of verses 29-35 is explained by St. Paul in 2 Corinthians 3:7\u20144:6. This is our earliest Christian commentary on the scene here in Exodus:<\/p>\n
But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels. For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious. Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech— unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Sunday, May 17<\/b><\/p>\n
Exodus 35: The final chapters of Exodus (35\u201440) tell of the execution of the sundry directions given in chapters 25\u201431. Moses simply repeats, mostly verbatim, the directions he had received on the mountain, and the Israelites strive to comply.<\/p>\n
This section of Exodus seems to have undergone extensive editing, an impression strengthened by the great divergence of order between the inherited Hebrew text and the ancient Greek version handed down in the ancient manuscripts of the Christian Church. The traditional Greek version was clearly based on a Hebrew text greatly at variance with the Hebrew text handed down from the Middle Ages, the Massoretic Text.<\/p>\n
Although the instructions in this chapter are given quickly and all at once (verses 1-19), one should probably think in terms of several months for their accomplishment (verses 20-29). There was evidently a great deal of hustle and bustle in progress at the foot of Mount Sinai.<\/p>\n
After the instructions, the building and proper appointing of the tabernacle must begin with the gathering of the materials. As we shall see in due course, something in the neighborhood of eight tons of precious metals and stones would be required in this work. In addition, there would need to be wood and various kinds of expensive cloth. The present chapter describes how this vast array of materials is assembled by the generosity of the people. This tabernacle would be the consecration of their own material resources, the fruit of their labor.<\/p>\n
Because the tabernacle and its appointments were to be modeled on Moses\u2019 vision of the heavenly and eternal tabernacle of heaven, the construction of all these things was dependent on the grace of the Holy Spirit, who would inspire and guide the minds and hands of the artisans (verse 31).<\/p>\n
Monday, May 18<\/b><\/p>\n
Psalms 89 (Greek & Latin 88): This psalm is made up of three parts: The first has to do with God\u2019s activity in the creation of the heavens and the earth, the second with His covenant and promise with respect to the house of David, and the third with certain crises of history that threaten that covenant and put its promise at peril. All three themes are organically connected.<\/p>\n
To see how these three realities are joined within the Christian mystery, we may begin with a text from St. Clement of Alexandria around the year 200. He wrote,<\/p>\n
The ancient and catholic Church stands alone in essence and idea and principle and preeminence, gathering together, by the will of the one God, through the one Lord, into the unity of the one faith, built upon the appropriate covenants, or rather the one covenant given at different times, all those who are already enlisted in it, whom He foreordained, having known from the foundation of the world that they would be righteous\u201d (Stromateis<\/i> 7.17.107).<\/p>\n
Exodus 36: In the account of the gathering of the various materials for the tabernacle, considerable stress is laid on the people\u2019s generosity. Over the course of history, it is a rare thing that God\u2019s people have to be told, as they are told here, to \u201cstop giving!\u201d (verses 5-7) One suspects that this eager generosity in the present instance was in part prompted by the people\u2019s shame and fear at the recent defection and the divine punishment that ensued.<\/p>\n
One may compare the generosity shown here with the unselfishness of the Christians in Philippi in Macedonia who, during the three weeks that St. Paul spent in neighboring Thessaloniki (cf. Acts 17:2), twice sent offerings for the maintenance of his ministry (cf. Philippians 4:16). The Apostle would be speaking about that Macedonian generosity for years to come (cf. 2 Corinthians 8:1-5).<\/p>\n
Particularly to be noted in this chapter of Exodus is the use of the \u201cveil\u201d in all of Israel\u2019s worship. Even as God \u201creveals\u201d (a word that literally means \u201cunveils\u201d) Himself, He is manifested, not as an object open to direct regard, but as supreme Mystery, chiefly to be adored.<\/p>\n
When God and man are finally reconciled by the death of Jesus on the Cross, this symbolic veil of the Old Testament is rent asunder (Matthew 27:51). The sacrificed Jesus Himself enters behind the veil of the heavenly tabernacle (Hebrews 6:19). In another sense of the same image—because it houses His divine person—the very flesh of Christ is also called the veil of the divine presence (Hebrews 10:20).<\/p>\n
Tuesday, May 19<\/b><\/p>\n
Psalms 96 (Greek & Latin 95): This psalm was among those composed to be sung when the Ark of the Covenant was placed in the new tabernacle that David had constructed for it in Jerusalem (cf. 1 Chronicles 16:23\u201333). This piece of information is valuable because it sets Psalm 95 in at least one of its interpretive contexts in biblical history: God\u2019s enthronement as King in the worship of His holy people.<\/p>\n
Inasmuch as the Lord\u2019s symbolic enthronement \u201cbetween the cherubim\u201d in the Holy of Holies was one of the more important Old Testament institutions preparatory for His definitive presence<\/i> in the human race by reason of the Incarnation, the deeper meaning of this psalm is likewise to be sought in its relationship to God\u2019s Word that \u201cbecame flesh and dwelt [or tabernacled] among us\u201d (John 1:14). This psalm, then, and all other Old Testament references to God as King are prophecies fulfilled in the Kingship of Jesus the Lord, who declared to the local representative of the Roman Empire, \u201cYou say rightly that I am a king\u201d (John 18:37).<\/p>\n
Exodus 37: This chapter narrates that the ark, the table of the presence bread, the lamp stand, and the incense altar were constructed according the specifications Moses received in his Sinai vision of the heavenly sanctuary.<\/p>\n
This distinction between the earthly and heavenly sanctuaries was important to the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, who made it the framework for his soteriological exposition. He speaks of the same elements we find in the present chapter of Exodus: the Ark of the Covenant, the table for the Showbread, the golden lamp stand, the altar of incense. He disappoints us (if one may be completely frank) by finishing his description with the comment: \u201cOf these things we cannot now speak in detail\u201d (Hebrews 9:5). One so wishes he had gone on to speak of these things at much greater length!<\/p>\n
The author\u2019s point in the Epistle to the Hebrews, however, is not to satisfy our curiosity with respect to the tabernacle that Moses made. He is interested, rather, in directing our attention to that heavenly sanctuary, \u201cthe greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation\u201d (9:11). It was into this heavenly tabernacle that Christ entered, unto the fulfillment of our redemption.<\/p>\n
This heavenly sanctuary is the one that Moses, in mystic vision, saw on the mountain. It is the one that St. John saw when the door opened into heaven (Revelation 4:1). It is to this eternal and heavenly sanctuary that Christians, in their prayer, have eternal access, because Jesus entered into it as the culminating act of our redemption.<\/p>\n
Thus, the various appointments in Moses\u2019 tabernacle corresponded to heavenly models. The seven-branched candlestick (verses 17-24) is modeled on that which John beheld in his vision on the isle of Patmos (Revelation 1:12). There are also the altar of incense (verses 25-28 and Revelation 8:3-4) and the Ark of the Covenant (verses 1-9 and Revelation 11:19).<\/p>\n
Wednesday, May 20<\/b><\/p>\n
Psalms 101 (Greek & Latin 100): This is a hymn of dedication and promise on the part of God\u2019s servant, and its reference to the punishment of evildoers has prompted some critics to see in it the kind of righteous political program possibly associated with a royal enthronement. Indeed, the psalm is ascribed to David.<\/p>\n
Along with such a political reading of the text, nonetheless, this psalm applies also to the humbler, yet perhaps more substantial task of the governance of one\u2019s own home. Twice here we find the expression \u201cmy house\u201d\u2014\u201cI have walked in the innocence of my heart, in the midst of my house\u201d<\/i> and \u201cThe man who practices arrogance will not lodge in the midst of my house.\u201d<\/i> This psalm may be read, then, as a text concerned with the godly governance of a man\u2019s household.<\/p>\n
Proper, godly governance of one\u2019s house is called \u201ceconomics,\u201d another Greek word that literally means \u201chouse law.\u201d Perhaps most often understood nowadays solely in terms of the material resources of a household, economics certainly means a great measure more. A house is a human institution, after all, and a properly human existence involves dimensions far beyond the maintenance of physical and material conditions. If man is truly to be man, he does not live by bread alone. Indeed, with respect to those material and physical things needed for the household, our unique Economist affirmed that, if we will seek first the Kingdom of God and His justice, all these other things would be given to us as well. The standing or falling of houses has less to do with the material than with the moral, for the pursuit of justice is the true foundation of a house.<\/p>\n
Exodus 38: We come now to the construction of the sacrificial altar (verses 1-7), the basin for washing (verse 8), and the outer court (verses 9-20).<\/p>\n
When, at their departure, the Israelites \u201cborrowed\u201d silver, gold, and precious stones from their Egyptian neighbors, the text (11:2) did not indicate just how large was the amount. Now we begin to gain a staggering idea of it (verses 21-31). Although the measurement of the ancient talent varied somewhat, it has been reasonably approximated at over 75 pounds, with three thousand shekels to the talent.<\/p>\n
Thus, even on the most conservative estimate, we are dealing here with an enormous amount of precious metal: more than a ton of gold, three and a half tons of silver, nearly three tons of bronze. Moreover, if the weight is being computed according to the later temple measurements, these figures may need to be adjusted up to 20% higher.<\/p>\n
We surmise that some of this treasure came from the head tax mentioned earlier (verse 26).<\/p>\n
Thursday, May 21<\/b><\/p>\n
Psalms 105 (Greek & Latin 104): It is common to think of the Greeks as the first people to arrive at the notion of \u201chistory,\u201d understood as the ability to perceive and narrate a single, coherent texture of many diverse events united by patterns of cause and effect. Thus, in the very first work to be called Historiai<\/i>, in the fifth century before Christ, Herodotus was able to unite into a single interpretive picture the diverse accounts of several peoples and empires on three continents, over several centuries, as they came to bear on the Persian invasion of Asia Minor and Greece. Herodotus, therefore, is commonly called the world\u2019s first historian.<\/p>\n
In fact, however, since at least the reign of Solomon five centuries earlier, Israel had already demonstrated an analogous ability to trace coherent, interpretive patterns uniting historical events over an even longer period of time. These discerned patterns, further elaborated by later inspired authors, eventually became the panoramic vision of biblical history.<\/p>\n
In Greek history, as in the formal Greek science that was beginning about the same time, the perspective was what we may call secular, in the sense that the empirical data were arranged into intelligible patterns requiring no transcendent or divine explanation. Much as the modern social sciences attempt to adopt the methodology of the physical sciences, so ancient Greek historiography tended to follow certain perspectives and procedures developed for Greek physical science. In this way both Greek history and Greek science represented a break with traditional mythology, which had endeavored to interpret observable phenomena by recourse to religious explanation.<\/p>\n
In Israel\u2019s historiography, on the other hand, all was theology. The unifying theme was God\u2019s governance of events through various interventions, whether by perceived phenomena (miracles, apparitions, direct speech) or by that subtle, secret influence of divine activity that we have come to call God\u2019s Providence. It was to the latter that St. Paul referred when he wrote: \u201cAnd we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose\u201d (Rom. 8:28).<\/p>\n
One small biblical exercise in the narrative tracing of such a pattern is the psalm assigned for today, the first of three consecutive psalms structured on detailed historical narrative. While their varying constructions show no original relationship joining them, the first two are arranged in the Psalter in such a way as to suggest an overlapping sequence.<\/p>\n
Even the most casual reader will also note the similarities of Psalm 105 with Psalm 78 (Greek & Latin 77) with respect to historical outline. These differ from one another considerably in inspiration, however. That earlier psalm especially emphasizes the repeated infidelities of the people, whereas Psalm 105 concentrates entirely on praising God for His providential directing of Israel\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
Following the primitive schema preserved in Deuteronomy 26:1\u20139, the narrative of Psalm 105 breaks into three parts: the Patriarchs, the sojourn in Egypt, and the Exodus, all of them joined by the themes of God\u2019s fidelity to His covenant promises and His active providence in fulfilling them.<\/p>\n
While the whole psalm deals with God\u2019s providence on behalf of all the people, the second section, dealing with the sojourn in Egypt, also includes what we may think of as \u201cindividual\u201d providence. What the Bible portrays as God\u2019s care for the history of the whole people of Israel is shown also to be at work in the life and destiny of a single man. It is the awesome story of Joseph and God\u2019s care for him through many trials. Sold by his brothers into Egypt, falsely accused and unjustly imprisoned, forsaken for twenty years, the faith of Joseph was still able to say, at the end: \u201cGod sent me before you to preserve life. . . . God sent me before you. . . . But as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good\u201d (Gen. 45:5, 7; 50:20). Joseph\u2019s faith in God\u2019s providence, even as he was proved by steel and fire, is preserved also in this psalm: \u201c[God] sent a man before them, Joseph, sold into slavery. They humbled his feet with fetters; his soul was shackled in iron. Until his word came to pass, the word of the Lord seared through him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Friday, May 22<\/b><\/p>\n
Psalms 102 (Greek & Latin 101): This, the fifth of the traditional \u201cpenitential psalms,\u201d is structured on a contrast, pursued through two sequences. The first half of the first sequence is all \u201cI\u201d—I am miserable, I am sad, my heart withers away like the grass in the heat, I lie awake at night, I feel like a mournful bird, I mingle my drink with tears, my days flee like the shadows of an evening, and so forth. Life being rough, a goodly number of our days are passed with such sentiments, so it is usually not difficult to pray this part of the psalm.<\/p>\n
The second half of the first sequence arrives with the expression, \u201cbut You, O Lord,\u201d which is just as emphatic in the Hebrew (we\u2019attah Adonai<\/i>) and the Greek (sy de Kyrie<\/i>). \u201cYou\u201d is contrasted with \u201cI.\u201d God is not like me; God is almighty and does what He wants and does not die. God is enthroned forever, and His name endures from generation to generation. God will arise and deliver His people.<\/p>\n
The second and shorter contrasting sequence repeats the first. Once again, as at the beginning, there is the sense of our human frailty, our shortened days, our strength broken at midcourse. To this is contrasted the eternity of God; His years endure unto all generations. Thus, both sequences in this psalm form contrasts between the permanence of God and the transience of everything created.<\/p>\n
Exodus 40: Moses thus did \u201ceverything that the Lord commanded him\u201d (verses 16,19,21,23,25,27,29,32).<\/p>\n
The Israelites have now been at the base of Sinai for about nine months (verse 17) and have already received, as we saw earlier, their marching orders (33:1). They are nearly ready to depart.<\/p>\n
Everything is to be anointed with consecratory oil (verses 9-15). The Christian will read these verses in the awareness that the tabernacle itself is a prefiguration of Christ, the Anointed One. The Son of God, anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows, is the permanent presence of God to humanity.<\/p>\n
The glory of the divine presence descends into the tabernacle (verses 34-38). This glorious cloud, associated with both the passage through the Red Sea and the giving of the Law on Sinai, is now a feature of God\u2019s ongoing presence with His people. Both events become permanent and \u201cinstitutionalized\u201d in the Mosaic tabernacle. The divine overshadowing will in due course be transferred to the Solomonic temple at Jerusalem (1 Kings 8:10-11), as well as to the second temple (Haggai 2:6-9).<\/p>\n
All of these manifestations of the divine presence, as well as the rabbinical speculations regarding the cloud (shekinah<\/i>), are properly taken as prophetic of the Incarnation, in which God\u2019s eternal and consubstantial Word definitively \u201cpitched His tent (eskenosen<\/i>) among us\u201d (John 1:14). Thus, all of the earlier overshadowings are but prefigurations of that by which the Holy Spirit effects the mystery of the Incarnation in the Woman who served as the tabernacle of God\u2019s presence in this world; cf. Luke 1:35.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Friday, May 15 Exodus 33: Now comes the order to depart from Sinai (verse 1). It is the second month of the second year of Israel\u2019s journey (Numbers 10:11-12). The Israelites had arrived at the mountain during the third month after their crossing of the Red Sea (Exodus 19:1), so they have been in this … Continue reading May 15 – May 22<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=855"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":856,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855\/revisions\/856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}