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Week 6 Leviticus 14-Numbers 2

Directed doodling can help – it helped with Numbers 2 and 3.
They describe where each tribe was physically located in camp.
I got a sheet of lined paper, and found a black marker.
On the right side I wrote East. Beside, a bit to the left I added Issachar, Judah, and Zebulun – one under the other.
I added three more tribes beside South, West, North.
There was a perimeter of names on the edges of the sheet.
Near the empty middle I added a quadrangle of priests’ names. The Levi family: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari (plus Moses & Aaron on the East).
Inside the perimeter of priests – the very centre of the page – I wrote Tabernacle. I highlighted it with a blue marker.
The Tabernacle – the sanctuary. Inside the sanctuary, curtained off, was the sacro-sanctuary where the Lord would be present. Right in the centre of the camp.
So there it is: the Lord at the very centre, in the sanctuary, surrounded by the families of priests, surrounded by the twelve tribes.
Everything else, everything off my lined sheet, is Outside the Camp.
I end up with 22 hand-written words sitting in a rough geometry on the page. A stripped-down, keyword picture of the 85 verses in Numbers 2 and 3. Doing my own sweated-out version helped me focus.

Note: Numbers 3 doesn’t give details about the Tabernacle – I already read those in Exodus on a minus-29 degree January day.

Week 6 Leviticus 14-Numbers 2

Leviticus 18:1-5 is a read-it-again paragraph.
Reading it I get the impression that cultural conformity is a concern. It was a big enough concern that the Lord pointed out two contemporary groups that Israel was not to start aping.
First he looked back to the state of Egypt and told Israel not to imitate their behaviour.
Then he looked forward to the Canaanite tribal territories where Israel was headed, and told them not to imitate their behaviour either. Their sexual behaviour.
Verses 6-24 give specific examples. That section could be titled: Canaanite Sexual Practices to Not Imitate (there are about twenty of them).
It’s an interesting list for two reasons.
First, these practices are part of the reason that the Canaanite nations will soon be punished (that’s spelled out in verses 24, 25, 26, 27 and 28). Which makes them pretty serious.
Secondly, my guess is that every one of the sexual practices listed is practiced in Alberta today. Which tips me off that we don’t take them too seriously.
So there’s the question of applicability. Are there any OT laws that apply to Albertans today?
There’re probably three starting points to an answer:
(a) All of them are applicable;
(b) Some of them are applicable;
(c) None of them are applicable.
I guess I’d be running solo if I chose (a), and running with the pack if I chose (c).
So I have a niggling sense that (b) is where I need to begin.

Week 6 Leviticus 14-Numbers 2

Leviticus 16 talks about the ceremony called the Day of Atonement – a big, annual, public event that involved everyone.
Atone isn’t a trendy word. Not a Top 1000 word in the Hat. The dictionary says it means the same as reconciliation.
At one. If two people are not at one, then it’s not until they reconcile that they become at one.
Atonement – at-one-ment – is an OT word.
Atone, atoned, atonement, atoning – that group of words is found about 93 times in the OT; about 66 times in Leviticus-Numbers. About 0 times in the NT.
When I bring it home, personalize it, I think of atonement this way. There are two players. There’s the Lord and there’s me. And the two of us are at-two-ment (being at loggerheads with the Lord is the sorry foundation of the relationship, it’s the key thing).
And there’s only one thing that can make me at one. That, unfortunately, is that something has to die.
Something has to die for me. That’s what I’m seeing as I read about animal sacrifices. An animal, something subbing in for me, can stand in my place. It can die for me. It’s either that or else I die, all alone and at two.
At-one-ment necessitates blood.

Note: the word counts are mine, so don’t take them to the bank.

Week 6 Leviticus 14-Numbers

About 80% of Leviticus is legal-religious directions and practices.
So after reading the absorbing (and unnerving) story of Aaron’s sons I’m not surprised to land in five chapters of what’s clean and what isn’t clean.
I decided to read 11-15 all at once: there are lists of animals that can or can’t be eaten; there is uncleanness related to childbirth, and uncleanness related to seminal discharges. In between there’s a long section on leprosy. Maybe not Top-100 reading, but pretty manageable.
The big idea that’s staring right at me is this: being clean is important (I ran the numbers: there’s about 60 references to cleanness and more than 100 to uncleanness in these five chapters – 1 reference every 1.25 verses).
What do I make of it?
I think there are two answers: nothing much and something.
I don’t know anyone who says that after sexual intercourse a contemporary man and woman have become ritually unclean. So in one sense I disregard these rules. There’s really nothing much to them for me.
But Leviticus says that there’s a why-do-I-do-it behind the what-do-I-do. The author quotes the Lord: for I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy; for I am holy.
Only two verses out of 200. But they link cleanness with the holy.
So even if there’s nothing much here for me, there is something.

Note: quote is from Leviticus 11:44-45 (NASB version)

Week 5 Exodus 33-Leviticus 13

In the sequel to the deaths of Nadab & Abihu two things stand out.
First, Aaron isn’t allowed to take the day off to grieve his sons. Reason? He’s right in the middle of a ceremonial procedure that’s serious enough that walking out would have been his very last act.
The idea seems to be that the Lord is in solemn earnest about what happens in the sanctuary. He’s prescribed what’s to be done. The priests are to do exactly that – accurately, precisely, completely. No kidding around.
The second thing is that Aaron’s two remaining boys – Eleazar & Ithamar – make a huge blunder in sacrificing the goat (sure, it was a mistake, but now what’s going to happen?) Moses is all over them for the gaff. In self-defense Aaron says: I just lost two of my sons. What if I had eaten the sacrifice instead of burning it? Would the Lord have approved?
Not the best defense, I guess. But the feeling is: don’t my circumstances count for anything? And I guess they do. Moses (and the Lord) cut him some slack.
So two men didn’t conform, and died.
And two men didn’t conform, and didn’t die.
It looks like Eleazar & Ithamar made a mistake; it looks like Nadab & Abihu didn’t. I’m left with this: religious conformity is super important; and also, there’s more to ritual exactitude than ritual exactitude.

Note: Aaron’s exact words to Moses are in Leviticus 10:19.

Week 5 Exodus 33-Leviticus 13

Reading Leviticus 1-9 is like standing on a moving walkway, humming a lullaby as I move along in a state of low-energy, non-urgent mental locomotion. Then I lurch off the walkway as I bump into Nadab & Abihu.
The two priests had just received all of the Directions for Priests in chapter 8. But they decided to modify the rules. Miraculous fire had already come from the Lord to burn the sacrificial offering, and now more miraculous fire came from the Lord to incinerate the brothers.
I’ve already read a couple of other cases in the bible where a person commits an offence and is punished, and sometimes I have trouble fitting the two together.
I look at the crime and think: this is what I’d do.
Then the bible does something different, maybe quite a bit different.
So then I’m left asking: who’s right? The bible says something. I don’t much like it. So who gets the deciding vote when it comes to my bible likes and dislikes?
In the case of Nadab and Abihu I’m personally inclined to think that what they did was not a capital offense. But then in fact they did die for what they’d done, so it actually was a capital crime.
Which means the Lord was right.
Which means I don’t necessarily like what that means for me.

Notes: the story of Nadab & Abihu is in Leviticus 10 (and see the run-up in 9:22-24).

Week 5  Exodus 33-Leviticus 13

Before I’ve taken a second breath Leviticus is into fire and wood and leaven and entrails and bulls and altar – the whats and how-tos of sacrifice. 
So it’s very fortunate I’m reminded right away that something else is going on. There is why.
Q: why does a person bring a sacrifice?
A: so he can be accepted before the Lord.
I need to keep that in mind: the sacrificer doesn’t sacrifice because that’s the rules. He sacrifices because he’s not acceptable.
He needs to re-establish his intangible, elusive state of acceptability before the Lord.
Behind his what do I sacrifice is his how do I become acceptable again?
The energy that drives sacrifice is the problem of unacceptability. I need to keep that in mind.

Note: quotation is from Leviticus 1:3 (NASB version).
Comment: my reading plan tells me to read three or four chapters a day. It’s a day-in-day-out plan, a daily-equalization scheme. It’s a good plan but I have to remember that the bible isn’t split up like that.
I was reminded of that today. Leviticus has a heading at the top of page 145 that says I’ll be reading about burnt offerings. I turn the pages: grain offerings in chapter 2, peace offerings in 3, sin offerings in 4 and 5, guilt offerings in 5 and 6. Six chapters on offerings.
It would probably make good sense to read all of them together (maybe 7 as well), read them as a unit. But as always, there’s the question of time.

Week 5 Exodus 33-Leviticus 13

January 31 is a good time for a progress assessment.
The reading through plan I’m following says I should be finished Exodus 40 by today, which I am.
Which seems good.
On the surface.
Last December I calculated that reading 1189 chapters in 12 months meant reading 99.08 chapters a month. And 50 chapters in Genesis plus 40 in Exodus = 90. So I’m falling behind.
Fortunately I decided to start reading Proverbs about three weeks ago – one chapter a day. So I’ve read 22 chapters in Proverbs, for a total of 90 + 22 = 112 chapters in January. [I know…this is breaking from my decision to consecutively read through from Genesis to Revelation. I’m hoping it’s a good deviation.]

Information Note on a different topic: Since I start reading it tomorrow, I decided to page through Leviticus, try to get a feel for what’s coming. I ran a couple of numbers. Those numbers say that Leviticus orders up a pretty big menu of legal information.
By my count Leviticus has 699 verses of laws and regulations (I counted chapters 1-7, 11-15, 17-25, and 27).
The rest of the chapters (8-10, 16, and 26) – the ones I’m saying are not legal content – have 160 verses in total.
A total of 699 ‘legal’ verses + 160 ‘non-legal’ verses = 859 verses in the book. When I convert that to a percentage I get 81% and 19%.
So the MHJ Unofficial Estimate is that Leviticus is 81% legal-type reading (and I’m pretty sure that’s a conservative estimate).
So now I know what I’m getting into, starting tomorrow.

Week 5 Exodus 33-Leviticus 13

Sandwiched between two multi-chapter blocks of text – the instructions for building the tabernacle (25-31) and the tabernacle building project (35-40) – is a story that catches me by surprise.
I read that some of the people built a golden idol and worshiped it. So that tips me off about how little impression the second commandment had made.
I read that the Lord took action and ordered the execution of the idol worshipers – about 3,000 people. So that tips me off about how serious the offense was.
I stop reading, wondering what to make of it – the crime and the punishment. There are some conclusions for me to jump to, and I’m ready to jump.
I keep reading, see that the Lord makes a closing statement about himself: I am the Lord, the merciful and gracious God. I am slow to anger and rich in unfailing love and faithfulness. I show this unfailing love to many thousands by forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion. Even so I do not leave sin unpunished…
Whatever conclusion I land on has to include these two verses – they’re part of the mix if I’m trying to get to the bottom of things. It’s not exactly as if they resolve all my problems. I guess it would be easier for me to pretend they weren’t there, leave me free to just judge for myself.

Note: quotation is from Exodus 34:6-7 (New Living Translation). The full story is in Exodus 32-34.

Week 5 Exodus 33-Leviticus 13

Yesterday I read the seven chapters of Exodus 25-31 at once – the Lord tells Moses how to build the tabernacle.
Today I read Exodus 35-40 – the tabernacle is being built.
Reading the two sections one after the other I notice the echo right away: the doing-it chapters pretty much repeat the what-I-want-done chapters. The Lord wants a bronze grate made; the people make a bronze grate.
Along with the repetition I detect the same cool, detached feeling I have between me and the text. No plot, no characters, no action. The pages don’t turn themselves. Like yesterday I know I’m still in rocky country. 
I try to avoid comparisons. I like Ecclesiastes, Ruth, and Ezra better than Exodus 25-40 but that’s not really the point, not really a fair comparison. The author wasn’t trying to stimulate or inspire or excite me. He was describing a construction project.
And I try to avoid certain assessment-words: boring, irrelevant, worthless. I’m not sure they apply. Exodus 20 is a colossus but that doesn’t make chapters 25-40 valueless because they’re not.
I remind myself I’m reading through because everything is valuable, even if it’s not equally valuable.
The last two days I’ve been travelling along at highway speed.