Exodus 34& Leviticus 16: annual review to avoid error-repetition

 

Exodus 34& Leviticus 16: annual review to avoid error-repetition

[Note: To read Bible passages, I apply Genesis-1 perspective. I think Genesis 1:28, in the-metaphysical-Jesus’ perspective (JESUS), suggests that, given each 1) mysterious-God’s appreciation and 2) JESUS “my peace”, male unites-to female human-being and their spouse-hood pursues comprehensive-safety& security (SECURITY) to the living species and to the earth. Every person can& may accept personal duty to SECURITY. Some persons neglect each appreciation, peace& SECURITY.

I call Genesis-1’s message “responsible-human-independence” or RHI. A few human-beings (noun) throughout history practiced, facilitated, and encouraged RHI. The RHI-individuals from the past are our friends and the others, not so much. I think the authentic-Jesus, the man, practiced, facilitated, and encouraged RHI. But I don’t know.

Each generation appreciating contemporary human being (verb) constitutes the- JESUS I advocate. In other words, I attribute to JESUS the civic-appreciation that human being (verb) applied each “before Abraham was born”, until Jesus died, until today, and into the future. Given the question, “Was Jesus a man?”, my response, “I don’t know yet value JESUS”, seems sufficient& complete. I accept that I don’t know and happily no longer find that hard to do. In fact, I cannot think other opinion.

Rather than continue bemusement, I propose, with appreciation, to accept the mystery of God’s apprecation, in order to pursue conformity to the-laws-of-physics (PHYSICS), leaving “my peace” to Jesus’ reported promise. It seems PHYSICS constrains the consequences of each person’s choices to act.]

Exodus 34

The New Stone Tablets

34 The Lord said to Moses, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. ² Be ready in the morning, and then come up on Mount Sinai. Present yourself to me there on top of the mountain. ³ No one is to come with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain; not even the flocks and herds may graze in front of the mountain.”

⁴ So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning, as the Lord had commanded him; and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands. ⁵ Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord. ⁶ And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, ⁷ maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.” [This is a unwholesome vindictiveness. The guilty can be encouraged to reform. Note, I am judging this writing relative to other writing about forgiveness to the contrite offender.]

⁸ Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped. ⁹ “Lord,” he said, “if I have found favor in your eyes, then let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as your inheritance.” [Moses is pleading without proposing the people reform.]

¹⁰ Then the Lord said: “I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the Lord, will do for you. ¹¹ Obey what I command you today. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. ¹² Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare among you. ¹³ Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles. [I doubt the Lord suggests such cruelty to nations.] ¹⁴ Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

¹⁵ “Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land; for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices. ¹⁶ And when you choose some of their daughters as wives for your sons and those daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will lead your sons to do the same. [I doubt the Lord suggests such ethnic cruelty to human being (verb).] ¹⁷ “Do not make any idols.

¹⁸ “Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread. [Recalling Israel’s haste in departing Egypt.] For seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Aviv, for in that month you came out of Egypt.

¹⁹ “The first offspring of every womb belongs to me, including all the firstborn males of your livestock, whether from herd or flock. ²⁰ Redeem the firstborn donkey with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem all your firstborn sons. [I doubt the Lord suggests animal sacrifice, even to end human sacrifice.]

“No one is to appear before me empty-handed. [I doubt the Lord is materialistic.]

²¹ “Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.

²² “Celebrate the Festival of Weeks [a harvest festival with reading of scrolls]with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Festival of Ingathering at the turn of the year. ²³ Three times a year all your men are to appear before the Sovereign Lord, the God of Israel. ²⁴ I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your territory, and no one will covet your land when you go up three times each year to appear before the Lord your God.

²⁵ “Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast, and do not let any of the sacrifice from the Passover Festival remain until morning.

²⁶ “Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the Lord your God.

“Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.”

²⁷ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” ²⁸ Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.

The Radiant Face of Moses

²⁹ When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord. ³⁰ When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him. ³¹ But Moses called to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and he spoke to them. ³² Afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the Lord had given him on Mount Sinai.

³³ When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. ³⁴ But whenever he entered the Lord’s presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, ³⁵ they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the Lord.

Leviticus 16

The Day of Atonement

16 The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron who died when they approached the Lord. ² The Lord said to Moses: “Tell your brother Aaron that he is not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die. For I will appear in the cloud over the atonement cover.

³ “This is how Aaron is to enter the Most Holy Place: He must first bring a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. ⁴ He is to put on the sacred linen tunic, with linen undergarments next to his body; he is to tie the linen sash around him and put on the linen turban. These are sacred garments; so he must bathe himself with water before he puts them on. ⁵ From the Israelite community he is to take two male goats for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering.

⁶ “Aaron is to offer the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household. ⁷ Then he is to take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting. ⁸ He is to cast lots for the two goats—one lot for the Lord and the other for the scapegoat. ⁹ Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the Lord and sacrifice it for a sin offering. ¹⁰ But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord to be used for making atonement by sending it into the wilderness as a scapegoat.

¹¹ “Aaron shall bring the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household, and he is to slaughter the bull for his own sin offering. ¹² He is to take a censer full of burning coals from the altar before the Lord and two handfuls of finely ground fragrant incense and take them behind the curtain. ¹³ He is to put the incense on the fire before the Lord, and the smoke of the incense will conceal the atonement cover above the tablets of the covenant law, so that he will not die. ¹⁴ He is to take some of the bull’s blood and with his finger sprinkle it on the front of the atonement cover; then he shall sprinkle some of it with his finger seven times before the atonement cover.

¹⁵ “He shall then slaughter the goat for the sin offering for the people and take its blood behind the curtain and do with it as he did with the bull’s blood: He shall sprinkle it on the atonement cover and in front of it. ¹⁶ In this way he will make atonement for the Most Holy Place because of the uncleanness and rebellion of the Israelites, whatever their sins have been. He is to do the same for the tent of meeting, which is among them in the midst of their uncleanness. ¹⁷ No one is to be in the tent of meeting from the time Aaron goes in to make atonement in the Most Holy Place until he comes out, having made atonement for himself, his household and the whole community of Israel.

¹⁸ “Then he shall come out to the altar that is before the Lord and make atonement for it. He shall take some of the bull’s blood and some of the goat’s blood and put it on all the horns of the altar. ¹⁹ He shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times to cleanse it and to consecrate it from the uncleanness of the Israelites. [I doubt the Lord encourages such bloody ceremony.]

²⁰ “When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat. ²¹ He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites—all their sins—and put them on the goat’s head. [Are we to go from this ceremony to the Eucharist? I cannot make that leap.] He shall send the goat away into the wilderness in the care of someone appointed for the task. ²² The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a remote place; and the man shall release it in the wilderness. [Might this inspire some believers to neglect Jesus’ messages?]

²³ “Then Aaron is to go into the tent of meeting and take off the linen garments he put on before he entered the Most Holy Place, and he is to leave them there. ²⁴ He shall bathe himself with water in the sanctuary area and put on his regular garments. Then he shall come out and sacrifice the burnt offering for himself and the burnt offering for the people, to make atonement for himself and for the people. ²⁵ He shall also burn the fat of the sin offering on the altar.

²⁶ “The man who releases the goat as a scapegoat must wash his clothes and bathe himself with water; afterward he may come into the camp. ²⁷ The bull and the goat for the sin offerings, whose blood was brought into the Most Holy Place to make atonement, must be taken outside the camp; their hides, flesh and intestines are to be burned up. ²⁸ The man who burns them must wash his clothes and bathe himself with water; afterward he may come into the camp.

²⁹ “This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: On the tenth day of the seventh month you must deny yourselves and not do any work—whether native-born or a foreigner residing among you— ³⁰ because on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the Lord, you will be clean from all your sins. ³¹ It is a day of sabbath [“a day of rest”, MW] rest, and you must deny yourselves; it is a lasting ordinance. ³² The priest who is anointed and ordained to succeed his father as high priest is to make atonement. He is to put on the sacred linen garments ³³ and make atonement for the Most Holy Place, for the tent of meeting and the altar, and for the priests and all the members of the community.

³⁴ “This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: Atonement is to be made once a year for all the sins of the Israelites.” [An annual consideration of personal error and commitment to prevent repetition is good. I cannot celebrate antinomianism through Jesus’ body& blood.]

And it was done, as the Lord commanded Moses. [In self-interest, I leave to Moses what is attributed to him.]

[A culture that is guided by Genesis-1:28-RHI can& may leave to Israel its covenant with its Lord, yet collaborate with Israel for SECURITY. There is no incentive to re-cast Israel’s story or attempt to mimic it. As we can see in these passages, more questions than answers arise from trying to impose Israel’s ancient story on another people’s present.]