The next few chapters of Leviticus focus on what is clean vs. what is unclean. I wish I knew exactly what this means. It's not good vs. evil; in fact there are somethings we are commanded to do (have sex and have kids) that make us unclean. I suppose it's things to us like not eating something from the floor and not peeing on the floor and washing our hands (washing is often one command in the process of becoming clean). Of course we have a bit more of a scientific basis but I'm sure they weren't any less confident in their standards. Here are some of the clean vs. unclean categories here in the middle of Leviticus:

Some animals are clean to eat and some are unclean and shouldn't be eaten (also their dead bodies are not clean to touch).
Having a kid makes a woman unclean.
Skin diseases make us unclean, and we need to be quarantined while we have the disease.
Moldy clothes are unclean.
Moldy houses are unclean.
Bodily discharges and sexual bodily discharges are unclean.

God tells them they need to stay as clean as possible. Becoming clean often involves washing yourself, waiting a period of time, and sometimes offering a sacrifice.

God, through Moses, gives Aaron specific instructions on how to do a once-a-year total atonement sacrifice for the nation of Israel's sins. Emphasis is put on not sacrificing somewhere besides the tabernacle (the implication being not to sacrifice to anyone but God) and not eating blood (here it is explained that this is where the life of a creature really is).

Response

Mainly I'm observing that the now formal relationship between God and Israel is serious business and he has high standards for them, not only to be moral and good but to stand out and be ceremonially clean. Other than that there's not much "special" in this passage. The next reading (blog hopefully coming this evening) should be interesting because it's more moral and has some death penalties involved. Thanks for reading!

An immediate and central observation about Leviticus is that it would be an utterly useless document without the book that came before it, Exodus. That's funny because my first observation about Exodus was that it needed Genesis to make sense. These three (so far) books are definitely all one cohesive story.

Leviticus takes place at Sinai, where Moses first met God, and where the Israelites eventually camped out, making a commitment and covenant in their relationship with God, getting the list of God's laws, turning away quickly, being forgiven, and building the tabernacle so that God can dwell among them. And now God is telling Moses more instructions.

Synopsis

The LORD gives Moses all kinds of instructions about making offerings to God at the tabernacle. The priests, the leaders, the community as a whole, and individuals all get their own specific set of exact instructions for how to make offerings. Also, these various groups are given very specific instructions on different kinds of offerings: grain offerings, fellowship offerings, sin offerings, guilt offerings, etc.

(An "offering" seems to be a cultural gift/worship for God in which an animal or grain is burnt up on an alter as to God.)

A few things stand out to me among the MANY details as I read these various specific instructions:
1. In each situation the person doing the offering does their part while the priest also does his part.
2. When done right, the offering makes an aroma that is pleasing to the LORD.
3. It is important that the Israelites don't eat fat or blood, and don't cook break with yeast.
4. The sacrifices must be very high quality animals / crops.
5. The sacrifices constitute as repayment to God for various wrongdoings the Israelites commit, including accidental sins. It seems the wrongdoings would be defined as breaking the law that God gives which is listed in Exodus.
6. It's important to follow the instructions to a tee.

So after all these instructions are given, Moses does exactly as God says, following orders to the tee in order to initiate / consecrate Aaron and his sons into the priesthood. They are told to stay in the tent for seven days. On the eighth day, the whole Israelite community gathers 'round, and Aaron does the first offering of each of the types, doing them exactly right, in order that God may appear before them.

And then an amazing thing happens: God does appear! The glory of The LORD appears and a fire comes out from him and consumes the offering. The crowd goes wild, cheering and falling on their faces in amazement and worship! It's awesome!!

Then two of Aaron's sons don't follow the directions and add fire and incense when they shouldn't have. God's fire burns them up. Moses tells their families to mourn them, and clarifies some of the instructions.

Response

These descriptions of sacrifices definitely seem foreign and in my opinion is the first spot where the Bible could truly seem "boring." However these details matter as demonstrated by Moses' sons death at the end of the section. The points that I numbered above are some of the points that are repeated over and over again.

However foreign it seems, however, that is not an excuse to miss the larger points being made: As God's people, Israel must serve God exactly on his terms and constantly using the offerings to atone for their breaking of God's laws. When this is done, it is quite awesome as God shows up at the end of the section.

Of course the story with Aaron's sons dying is difficult for me to read, as it seems like they shouldn't have to die for something like that. As I have said many times in this blog, I'm going to continue to let those thoughts stir and soak up more of the message of the Torah before I confront that more directly.

But here is one point that is clear from this story: Above things like family or life and death, it is the highest priority to obey God.

The sequel's setup and a request from Moses
God made known through the plagues
God's power displayed in the rescue of Israel
God's provision, becoming his people, receiving the first laws
Instructions for a tabernacle for God to dwell in, Israelites worship an image
Moses asks God to forgive. The tabernacle is built triumphantly.
Thoughts on who God is so far.

The sequel to Genesis starts out with a lot of setup. Israel is now numerous but enslaved, a story about killing babies, Moses surviving the slaughter, God looking down and remembering his promise to Abraham, Isaac and Israel.

Then the action begins: Moses ends up an outcast but God meets him in the desert of Sinai. He tells Moses he will rescue the Israelites and give them great land but Moses is terrified and is afraid he won't be able to help. God tells him he will succeed and the sign of that will be that they will return to Sinai and worship God on Mt. Sinai.

Moses and his bro Aaron ask Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out to worship God and Pharaoh refuses, and in fact makes the Israelites' lives harder, so they complain to Moses who complains to God. At the same time, it's all going down just like God said.

God sends Moses to initiate 10 or so plagues in Egypt. This proves God's power and his love for Israel, solidifying Moses' faith in God. Pharaoh, however, is stubborn and even as Egypt is being destroyed by these plagues, won't let Israel go. Moses warns him that something terrible is coming.

God strikes down every firstborn in Egypt, sparing the Israelites, who had celebrated a festival and put the blood of firstborn livestock over their doors. This terrible event shakes Pharaoh to his core, who sends out Israel with God leading them by cloud/fire.

Pharaoh changes his mind and sets out after Israel (Moses trusts God while Israel panics), but God parts the sea for Israel to get through, while confusing Pharaoh's army and then bringing the sea down on them. Israel sings a beautiful song about God and his unparalleled love and faithfulness and power.

God provides for Israel in various ways, in battle, in food, in water and in health. Moses seems to have a complete trust in God while the Israelites are always complaining.

They arive at the desert of Sinai and Moses goes up to the mountain to meet God. God says that if Israel agrees to follow his law, they will be his people, he will show them favor and they will be in a special treasured relationship with him, which include him giving them the land he promised Abraham.

Israel agrees. The laws God give involved worshiping only God and not making an idol of him or any other god, treating each other justly and kindly, punishing violence, and celebrating certain festivals. Israel agrees to it all.

God then tells Moses all the instructions for a tabernacle Israel is to build. With the tabernacle God will be able to dwell among Israel.

But when Moses goes down the mountain, he finds Israel worshiping a cow made of gold. God is willing to start over with just Moses but Moses talks him out of it. There are lesser punishments, and Moses sends those faithful to God, the Levites, out to punish with death their family and friends who have turned away.

God insists he won't now travel with the Israelites.

Moses speaks with God regularly and asks him, as a friend, to PLEASE travel with Israel. God agrees and, at Moses' request, passes by where Moses is, covering only his face. He declares about himself his faithfulness, love, forgiving heart, power, just nature, etc.

Israel has a rare triumphant moment as the nation builds the tabernacle to EXACT specifications as worship to God. God then travels with them wherever they go as they move toward the promised land.

Wow! What a book! I found it to be very exciting. It is a direct sequel to Genesis and took God's plan from working with just a couple guys to setting off plans for a whole nation.

Not only did God free Israel and make his covenant with him, but he made him self known a whole bunch along the way. Moses comes to know and trust him through the plagues. He knows him as both God and best friend. Pharaoh and Egypt comes to know his power and punishment. Israel comes to know his power and faithfulness and love for them. Then, when they turn away from him, the end up knowing his forgiveness, and at the end of the book are being led by God through the desert.

I'd say those are the two main threads in this book: God historically taking Israel out of Egypt and kicking off their statehood while still in the desert, and God making himself known to the world, especially to Moses, Pharaoh, Egypt and Israel.

Ah, after 10 synopsis posts, we are on the final leg of Genesis at last. Parts 1-3 (two posts) told of the harmonious world God created with a man in his likeness in charge and man's corruption and fall. Parts 4-6 (2 posts) told of God starting over and sending Noah's family out to populate earth, with similar results. Parts 7-8 (3 posts) detailed God's epic promises to Abraham and how God blessed Abraham through life while simultaneously bringing Abraham to a place of faith through the birth of his son Isaac. Parts 9-11 (3 posts) Told of Isaac's wealth, and of God passing Abraham's covenant down to Isaac and then to Jacob, who God also brings through a process to bring him to a place of faithfulness to God.

And now, part 12 (this will be 3 posts as well).

Synopsis

Joseph, Jacob's 11th oldest son (older only than his full brother Benjamin), is 17, and is dad's favorite. His brothers hate them because of jealousy, because he brings a bad report to his father about them, because he gets a sweet coat, and, oh, he tells them about a couple dreams in which all of them plus his parents bow down to him.


Alright, so when they're way out far from home keeping the flocks, he goes to check on them for dad and they plot to kill him. The oldest, Rueben, tries to save him, but in the end he ends up being sold as a slave to Ishmaelites. (They trick dad into thinking he was killed by a wild animal.)

(Meanwhile, Judah has an interesting story with God striking a couple of his sons down and him eating some humble pie for using a prostitute and holding his third son from his oldest's widow, who ends up having Judah's kids.)

The Ishmaelites take him to Egypt and sell him to an Egyptian official named Potiphar. God is with Joseph and he's basically put in charge. Potiphar's wife would love to have an affair with Joseph, and since he isn't having it, she accuses him of trying to rape her. So he gets thrown into prison. But here God is with Joseph again and he is so successful he is basically put in charge of the dungeon as well.

This is where it gets interesting. Two of Pharaoh's servants are thrown into prison. After a while they both have dreams and by God's power Joseph interprets them both correctly: one is given his position back, and the other one is executed. Although the cupbearer (the one who is given his job back) promises Joseph he'll remember him and get him out, he forgets.

A couple years later, the Pharaoh has two dreams that nobody can crack, and suddenly the cupbearer's memory is jogged. They bring Joseph up right away, and he interprets the dreams, giving credit to God for the interpretation: Egypt will experience seven years of bountiful harvest followed by seven years of famine.

He tells Pharaoh that Egypt will need someone wise to fix it so the seven lean years are bearable, and Pharaoh can't think of anybody better than Joseph. So Joseph goes from an inmate to more or less the king of Egypt with the Pharaoh as a figurehead. Joseph stores up an absolute insane amount of grain during the first seven years, and when the famine comes, Joseph is able to begin supplying the whole world with grain.

Analysis

There's a few interesting points with this, the first third of Joseph's story. For one thing, it's clear by now that morals have developed in Genesis to mean something. At first, Genesis was just a series of stories and adventures with no moral lesson to learn. Since that, though, Genesis has gotten progressively concerned with morality, and by Joseph's story it is very important how he stays pure and doesn't lie, and it is bad how Judah denies his son's widow a husband and it's a disgrace that he uses a prostitute. I'm not sure when this light switch went on. Meanwhile Joseph is giving God credit left and right.

This part of the story is definitely the set up. It's funny because all of what I read today is 90% of what people know about this story, while the other 2/3rds of the story only make up 10% of our understanding of the passage. I guess it has to do with how quickly events move along. However, I'm guessing the main point Joseph's story (beside a moral exposition) is showing how Israel gets to Egypt. So this part of the story is really just the set up for actually making it happen over the next few pages.

One last note: Jacob/Israel still has his blessing/promise/covenant from God, and has not yet passed it on.

Response

I'm beginning to feel like an outsider. Early Genesis was beautiful commentary on the nature of man and God and our relationship. God's character was further demonstrated through Abraham and his family's story. But as his family continues down the road and Israel has his twelves sons and they'll be on their way to prosper in Egypt soon, the whole thing is transitioning to a story about the Israelite nation, of which I am not a member. I anticipate that a lot of the First Testament is going to seem like an exciting story that I'm viewing from the outside in. We'll see, though.

Genesis is getting closer to the end, and it's becoming evident that God's covenant with Abraham is not going to be completed at the end of the book. Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob are all definitely very blessed. We'll see how much there is of blessing all nations, making a great nation, and giving them the land is fulfilled by the end of the book. If they're not all totally fulfilled, then I will say that at least Genesis is a book that is very much looking toward the future.

I've been enjoying Genesis so much more by reading more of it per day and really charting out the unfolding story of the whole book. It's good reading and it's the beginning of a very passionate story that makes up the rest of the Bible.