Day 29: Commissioning Clarifies Identity

Today we read Exodus 3, Leviticus 2-3, and Psalms 45. This story describes God’s commissioning of Moses into a rescue mission. This time the rescue mission is not for one person or one family, but an entire community of people, descendants of the 12 tribes of Jacob - Israel, that would become the nation of Israel. It is the story of how Moses’s identity is clarified and tied up, or intertwined with God’s identity. We are given a name for God, Yahweh. When Moses asks, who am I? God answers, I will be with you. We also learn that God will stand on His character revealed and there is a promise in the statement God makes, “I will be who I will be.” Who He is has not been entirely revealed yet, and there is both a promise and a challenge in God’s statement, “I will be.” It feels like stable and staying power, that far superseded our own, but it also calls on us to trust Him for the character He has already revealed to us. There is a sense that our commissioning into His purpose and His mission will help clarify both who He is and who we are. We also learn about a burning bush where the fire of God does not consume the bush. We learn from the Eastern Orthodox tradition that there is a foreshadowing to Mary who is flesh and the spirit of the Lord, which is sometimes depicted as fire, came upon her, she carries Jesus, and does not die. In a similar way, it foreshadows the Holy Spirit who is given to us, and our bodies become a temple (1 Cor. 6:19) that will not die but come to life with His presence. As God was close in the Garden of Eden (Gen 2), He will draw near again through His son Jesus and the Holy Spirit. He draws near to Moses here in the form of a burning bush and later in the Tent of Meetings and Tabernacle. We also learn more in Leviticus about the need for and what the cost of atonement will require. We will place our hand, our guilt and our sin onto an innocent animal. It is death and blood to cover and atone for us. It’s so gruesome and unbearable, but it’s pointing to Jesus which is even more unbearable and unbelievable to consider. While it is entirely uncomfortable, we have to see what is happening here, try to understand it within its cultural context and make sense of what it means in the larger, connected story, and what it means for us as the story is still unfolding. 

Resources:

Marty Solomon and Brent Billings (March, 2017), A Kingdom of What? (40 minutes), Retrieved from https://www.bemadiscipleship.com/25 

Give an overview of the book of Leviticus.

A Kingdom of What? Presentation (PDF)

Discussion Video for BEMA 25

Leviticus: A Call to Priesthood (Sermon Series) — Real Life on the Palouse - Paule Patterson

Dr. Tim Mackie and John Collins, https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/exodus-1-18/ 

 

Dr. Carmen Imes, Exodus Class - Exodus 1-40, (14 hours) Bible Project. https://bibleproject.com/classroom/overview/exodus-overview/ 

 

Dr. Carmen Imes (2019). Bearing God’s Name, Why Sinai Still Matters? InterVarsity Press

Credits:

Podcast music by Stockaudios from Pixabay. Speaker, Dr. Rachel Bodell. Podcast Sound Engineer, Alan Darling. Podcast Artwork, Will Gerard.