Hi First Presbyterian Church,

It’s time for our Mid-Week Meet-Up! Today is Day 52 of our one-year Bible-reading journey. Some of you have had some questions about the meaning of all the details for constructing the tabernacle (which we read about in Exodus) and of all the details about sacrifices (which we are currently reading about in Leviticus). Let’s talk about those things today.  

Throughout much of Exodus, there is an incredible amount of detail about how the Israelites were supposed to build the tabernacle, including such things as the exact length of objects, the specific type of wood to use, the exact color of curtains, etc. Some of these details may not be theologically significant, such as the fact that acacia wood was required in construction most likely because it is a durable wood that is resistant to environmental factors. The tabernacle was a mobile place of worship and the Israelites used it almost exclusively in the desert, making a durable wood a very practical choice. Other details are simply beyond our ability to know thousands of years removed from them, even if those details probably did mean something to the Israelites. However, one thing is clear: the design of the tabernacle was intended to cause people to see a connection between the tabernacle and the Garden of Eden. Did you notice that the golden lamp stand was designed to look like a tree (Exodus 25:31-40), or that there was a gigantic bronze basin full of water (Exodus 30:17-21 - we learn later in 1 Kings 7:23 that when the permanent basin was built for the Temple is was 15 feet in diameter 7.5 feet deep)? These items were meant to call to mind the trees in the Garden of Eden and the river that ran through the Garden (Genesis 2:10). Later, when the prophet Ezekiel saw a vision of heaven, it looked like a Temple with a river flowing out of it (Ezekiel 47:1-2), and, in the New Testament, when the writer of Revelation sees a vision of heaven, it looked like a Temple with golden lamp stands (Revelation 1:12) and a gigantic water basin (Revelation 4:6) and even the ark of the covenant (Revelation 11:19). Here’s what all of this means. The Garden of Eden was supposed to represent heaven on earth, which was lost to humanity because of sin. The tabernacle was designed to represent the Garden of Eden in order to make the point: through salvation, God is trying to bring heaven back to earth! This is why even future visions of heaven also invoke images of the Garden of Eden. In the book of Revelation, this heavenly Temple descends from heaven and comes to the earth (Revelation 21:1-2) in order to make this same point. God has never wanted to rescue us from the earth by taking us to heaven; God has always intended heaven to be right here with us on earth! Everything God is doing for us in salvation has always been about making it possible for us to live with God right here where we are.  

That leads us to our next question: what’s with all the details about sacrifices in Leviticus? I like how Old Testament scholar John Goldingay makes sense of some of these details, which I'll summarize for you now. When Israelites offered sacrifices to God, they were told that no one was supposed to eat the fat or the liver or the kidneys of the sacrifice - these parts were meant just for God. This probably seems like a weird detail to us, but to ancient Israelites, it held lots of meaning for two reasons. First, ancient people associated these organs with “the inner person” - a person’s emotions and attitudes. We do this today with the heart, which we reference every time we say something like, “I love you with all of my heart.” For ancient Israelites, it wasn’t the heart but the liver and kidneys that were the “seat of emotion.” So, in other words, when someone brought a sacrifice designated the liver and kidneys specifically for God, they were symbolically giving their own hearts to God, too. Second, non-Israelites sometimes used an animal’s liver and kidneys to “predict” or “divine” the will of the gods. This type of divination was strictly prohibited in Israel (Deuteronomy 18:10-12). By giving these sacrificial organs to God, the Israelite was essentially confessing, “God, I surrender to you my desire to know or control the future.”  

If we put all these ideas together, what do we learn? God wants to bring the blessings of heaven (peace, joy, and hope) into our lives, and part of how we allow these blessings into our lives is by giving our hearts to God and surrendering our own desires to God. This is good news, even if it is hard to do. Thank God that we have the help of the Holy Spirit to help us on the journey.

Happy reading this week! 

Peace to you,
Pastor Aaron