Word & the Wild

This is Word and the Wild...a one year Bible adventure with friends. My name is Owen. I'm your host and your guide, and together we are on a 12 month journey as a podcast plus community...where we read the Bible for ourselves, but not by ourselves.

This is WEEK EIGHT... we are picking our way through the desert and having fun doing it. If you haven't already, now's a great time to subscribe to this podcast wherever you like to listen... And like the Word & the Wild facebook page.

This week... Moses and the Israelites are out there in the desert getting all the particulars of what it takes to maintain a relationship with the God who rescued them from Egypt... and we're looking for an oasis or two to pull us through it all.

So... hello and welcome in. And, a special welcome to our Word and the Wild PLUS community members. Their support of this non-profit endeavor is making space for all of us on this Bible reading adventure.

The heart behind Word & the Wild is to see people come together for friendship. Friendship changes everything. Friendship with God, yourself, and the people around you. So, I get so much joy from hearing how it is bringing people together. For example, I recently heard from one of our little tribe that they are reading the Bible together everyday as a couple. Then, at night, they call his mom and read it to her. How great is that?

So... many many thanks to fuel this whole deal with all the interaction, and stories, and donations. I'm having a blast and I hope you are, too...

Now, let's jump in with a look at where we ended up last week in the story...

RESCUED FOR RELATIONSHIP

So here we are, out here picking our way through the desert with Moses and the Israelites. And what a desert it is.

So many rules, regulations, and details. Tabernacle... priests....sacrifices.... If we were watching this movie at home, we'd be very tempted to pick up the remote and double tap that fast forward button to get back into some action. Giving some backstory always helps the story feel more complete. But, enough is enough, right?

On one hand, you've got a point. If this were a movie, then where we are in the story right now would be shortened up into one of those upbeat transformation montages.... the director would throw an 80s rock song under some quick cuts of work out scenes... while the Israelites get rip and ready to get into the promised land.

But this time, we get to watch the transformation unfold a little more slowly. And that's because this isn't filler. It's filled with key plot points inside all the extra...stuff.

For example, last week, we watched as the Tabernacle, the sacrificial system, and the priests got set up to serve the people... all in painstaking detail. Why?

You might have missed big idea inside all that minutia. So, just in case you missed it, here it is: God's people were rescued for relationship. He swooped them up out of Egypt and brought them to the sacred mountain -- Mt. Sinai -- for the express purpose of establishing a mutual relationship with him.

All this talk of Tabernacle, and sacrifices, and priestly robes... all this is relationship talk. See, the Tabernacle and the system around it are the tools to maintain the Israelite's relationship with God -- individually and collectively.

At the center of all these rules and regulations is relationship. Friendship is the focus -- with God, with your neighbors, with yourself.

Last week, we saw the Tabernacle provide at least three essentials to maintaining that relationship with God. They were easy to miss, so let me circle them for you here.

First, it gives the people a place to meet with God. Back in Exodus 25:8 (p. 158), God told Moses: "Have the people of Israel build me a holy sanctuary so I can live among them." So that's one purpose of the Tabernacle. A place to meet with God.

Second, the Tabernacle gives the people a place to hear from God. Numbers 7:89 (p.186), “Whenever Moses went into the Tabernacle to speak with the LORD, he heard the voice speaking to him from between the two cherubim above the Ark’s cover—the place of atonement—that rests on the Ark of the Covenant. The LORD spoke to him from there.” The tablernacle helped the people maintain the relationship with God by allowing them to meet with God...to hear from God... and...

Third, it was how they received direction from God.

“On the day the Tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered it. But from evening until morning the cloud over the Tabernacle looked like a pillar of fire. This was the regular pattern—at night the cloud that covered the Tabernacle had the appearance of fire. Whenever the cloud lifted from over the sacred tent, the people of Israel would break camp and follow it. And wherever the cloud settled, the people of Israel would set up camp”
(Numbers 9:15–17) (p. 182)

So, embedded inside all this Tabernacle talk is the core idea. God's people were rescued from Egypt for relationship with him. And, to maintain that relationship his people need to meet with him, hear his voice, and follow him. What the voice says, we do. Where he leads us, we go.

While the Tabernacle and the system of sacrifices it was designed to support are now obsolete... as we saw in last week's episode with a look in Hebrews chapter 8... the heart behind them continues to beat. God continues to rescue us for relationship and focus us on friendship.

Which leads us right into what's ahead on the trail this week as God expresses his expectations for his people to not only follow him, but to become like him...

BE HOLY BECAUSE I AM HOLY

This week, as we watch the epic story of the Bible unfold.... at first glance, it can feel like more of the same. More rules. More regulations. More details.

But, once again, hidden inside all this backstory is a HUGE, REVOLUTIONARY, concept that pulls a forgotten plot point right back into full view.

Three times in this week's reading God repeats a phrase that's often missed or misunderstood.

It's a phrase where God re-ups on his purpose for why he created human beings in the first place... and once again invites the people he loves to become who we are created to be as we become like him.

God says six simple words that call back to the beauty of Eden and speak hope into the future for all who long to be known as one of God's people:

"BE HOLY BECAUSE I AM HOLY."

These words come up twice in Leviticus 11 and once again in Leviticus 19. Burried inside all the talk on guidelines for right behavior is both the source and purpose for that behavior.

And, since this phrase is surrounded by all this very detailed talk about moral and ethical behavior, it's very easy to either blank out entirely or to come away intimidated. "If God is asking his people to be as good as he is, there's no way. Why even try?"

These rules, regulations, and rituals do not create holiness... they express and maintain holiness. It's easy to flip that backwards and hear God say, "the path to become like me is to become morally pure." "Make pure choices to become a holy person."

But that's not really the idea. To see what's going on, you have to understand what the word "holy" means.

"It must be emphasized that the idea of holiness in Hebrew has more to do with being “set apart” or “designated as special” than with moral purity.... When he requires of his people that they be holy, he invites them not so much to strive toward moral perfection, but to establish communion with him. He demands that they put aside all obstacles to that relationship."

*René Péter-Contesse and John Ellington, A Handbook on Leviticus, UBS Translator's Handbooks. Accordance electronic ed. (New York: United Bible Societies, 1990), 174.*

Holiness is less about perfection. It's about being set apart. Separate. Different. Worthy of awe, reference, and respect.

In a word... sacred.

Sacred spaces....

God is sacred. And, because that's God... that's us. That's you.

God's invitation... and his expectation... is "Be like me." Value what I value. Love how I love. I am sacred so you are, too. Act differently because you are different.

As a human being created in God's image. You are sacred. Your mind and heart is a sacred space. It is a beautiful space created as a place of worship. God's invitation... and his expectation... is that your sacred space will be fill with what brings attention to him and sparks affection for him.

Sacredness is not something you lose or gain. As human beings, sacred is something we are. We are set apart because we carry God's image. We represent him inside our world and the universe. Poorly or well, we represent him either way.

The more distant we are in relationship to him, the more disfigured our image of him becomes. As we draw in close, the image of him we project becomes clearer, sharper, and easier to recognize. And our status as human beings and "imagers" of God shows up in the way we carry out our lives.

When God says says, "Be holy because I am holy." He says, "You are sacred. Live a sacred life. Fill the sacred space of your mind and heart only with what is worthy of being there."

And, from the point of view our this unfolding story, this is the good life. From they very first moments of this epic movie, we saw that to be like him is how we, as human beings, are created to be. Anything less is not progress. It's not freedom. To chose our own path and craft our own identity is not freedom. It's deforming, deconstructing, dehumanizing.

Disaster.

On the other hand....To know God is to finally know ourselves. To live like him is to truly become alive.

We have to look ahead in the story to Jesus, to see how all this talk of being holy like God is holy plays out. It's Jesus who ultimately completes this picture of a sacrifice, a tabernacle, and a High Priest who allows us to maintain a relationship with God. Later this year, we will read this in the book of Hebrews:

“Under the old covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins. But our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand.... For by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy.

And the Holy Spirit also testifies that this is so. For he says,

“This is the new covenant I will make with my people on that day, says the LORD: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.””
(Hebrews 10:11–16)

To be holy is to become whole... which is what that word "perfect" means. Jesus' offering of himself -- once for all for all time -- makes all who chose to receive it on their behalf... whole

Thanks to Jesus, we are made whole so that we can be made holy. And that transformation happens in the sacred space of our hearts and minds.

As we give our attention and affection to the God who created us for nothing less...

We become holy like God is holy.

OUTRO

And that's what's ahead for us this week!

Word and the Wild is a one year Bible adventure with friends. I'm loving it and I hope you are, too.

All you Word and the Wild PLUS community members, I'll be seeing you in THE WILD... our private online community space. Everyone else, don't be a stranger. Subscribe to this podcast and follow Word and the Wild on Facebook for some interaction there.

Word and the Wild is a LineHouse Community. It's part of the LineHouse Community Network, a nonprofit organization with a mission to bring neighbors together to promote awareness, appreciation, and understanding of the Bible.

Because friendship and God's Word change lives and change cities.

And... presented by the LumaVoz podcast network.

And with that, we're out. I'm Owen, I'm your host and your guide. Until next time, I'll see you out there on the trail in the Word and the Wild.