Seder 95: 1 Peter 2:5---Spiritual Sacrifices in a New Temple

 Peter probably wrote his first epistle in the early 60s AD, several years before his martyrdom and within a decade of the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple.  Peter must have known at that point that the temple soon would be destroyed, since Jesus had told him about 30 years before that this would happen within a generation (Mk 13:3, 30).  

Peter wrote to congregations in northern Asia Minor that would have included both Jewish and Gentile believers.  He encouraged them to live faithful lives in an environment that was often hostile to their counter-cultural beliefs and practices.  

In 1 Peter 2:4-10, he told these believers that they were "living stones" in a spiritual temple, a temple in which the resurrected Messiah is the chief cornerstone.  Furthermore, they constituted a holy priesthood whose purpose was to "offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."

A spiritual sacrifice presumably is once carried out under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  Other passages in the New Testament epistles say more about these sacrifices.  Paul says in Romans 12:1-2 that our bodies should be "living sacrifice," transformed by the Holy Spirit to obey the will of God. Hebrews 13:15-16 adds that acceptable sacrifices include praising God, doing good, and sharing what we have.

Peter added in verse 9, "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."  

Here Peter brought together two passages, Isaiah 43:20-21 and Exodus 19:6, which describe Israel's priestly mission to be a light to the nations.  He told these believers that their spiritual priesthood would be carrying on with that mission, representing God with their words and their lives.  They would not be replacing Israel but assisting Israel in that mission.  

First Fruits of Zion has a good way of describing the New Testament people of God with its proleptic radial ecclesiology.

Seder 67: Isaiah 61---Restoration of the Kingdom of Priests

 God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt to be "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Ex 19:6).  But too often in the centuries that followed, the nation failed to live up to its high calling.  In the eighth century BC, Isaiah said that Israel was "like an oak whose leaf withers, and like a garden without water"(Isa 1:30).  

However, God had not given up on his people.  Isaiah prophesied that God would one day restore the nation, so that Jerusalem would be called "the city of righteousness, the faithful city" (Isa 1:26).

Isaiah later showed that this restoration would result from the work of the Messiah, who would bring deliverance from bondage to sin (Isa 61:1-2).  He would give his people "a beautiful headdress" (v 3), like the turban of the high priest (Ex 28:4, 37, 39; 29:6; 39:28, 31).  Instead of an oak with withering leaves, they would become "oaks of righteousness" (v 3).  They would be "called  the priests of the LORD" (v 6), fulfilling their original mission to the nations.  As God's "firstborn son" (Ex 4:22), they would enjoy a "double portion" in the Promised Land (Isa 61:7).  

Isaiah goes on to say that through the "everlasting covenant" (v 8: Jer 31:31-34), Israel will live righteously and will be praised by the nations (v 9).  

As commentator John Oswalt points out, Isaiah's beautiful prophecy issues a challenge for those who have been delivered from sin by Jesus the Messiah and are now part of a "chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation" (1 Pe 2:9-10).  Are we living as "oaks of righteousness" or oaks with withered leaves?  

Seder 62: Exodus 23---God's Mission Strategy for Israel

 God called the nation of Israel to be "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Ex 19:6), bringing blessing to the whole world (Ge 12:3).  The Bible describes some different phases in their missionary work.

Through the Exodus, God proclaimed the Gospel through his mighty works of salvation.  The miracles of the Exodus caught the attention of the people in that region.  When they encountered the Israelites, they reacted in different ways.  

(1) Some were hostile, like the Amalekites (Ex 17).  

(2) Some ran away in fright.  This reaction is described in Exodus 23:27-28:  "I will send my terror before you and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.  And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanties, and the Hittites from before you."

(Incidentally, the "hornets" in this passage may be metaphorical; they aren't necessarily actual insects.  At any rate, we see here that the Canaanites were to be scared away and not necessarily put to death.)  

(3) Some were attracted to God, like the "mixed multitude" (Ex 12:38), Jethro (Ex 18) and Rahab (Joshua 2).  One part of Israel's ministry was to this group of people; the Israelites were instructed in the Torah to love them (Ex 23:9; Lev 19:33-34) and make them part of Israelite society.

A second phase of their mission involved building a just society in the Promised Land.  To enable that to happen, the Israelites were to destroy all traces of Canaanite religion when they arrived (Ex 23:13, 24).  This would give them a chance to establish an identity in the land as God's people.  Then when other nations observed Israelite society, they would be impressed and attracted to God (Dt 4:1-8; 1 Ki 10:1-10).  

A good source on this topic is Walter Kaiser's Mission in the Old Testament:  Israel as a Light to the Nations.

Seder 59: Exodus 19 and Exodus 3---the Sinai Sign

 Early in the third month of the first year of the Exodus  (traditionally around the time of Pentecost), the Israelites arrived at Mount Sinai (aka Mount Horeb), as we read in Exodus 19:1-2.  

God had told Moses at the burning bush that they would reach this place. "...And this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you:  when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain" (Ex 3:12).  

God said this in response to Moses' concerns that he was not worthy for the job of leading Israel out of Egypt, and that the people were not likely to be willing to follow him.  Readers have often asked how this sign would address these concerns.  

Jewish teacher Sharon Rimon mentions several possible answers.  One creative one proposes that God is telling Moses, "Just as I can appear to Israel at a rather ordinary mountain, so I can work with an obscure shepherd."  

Another possibility is that when Moses tells the Israelites that they will be going to Sinai to worship God, they will understand that he does not want to bring them out of Egypt for his own personal gain.  Instead, they will be going to Sinai at God's behest for a special calling.  

Seder 33: Psalm 83---National Prayer for Deliverance from Enemies

 Psalm 83 is an imprecatory psalm, in the same category as Psalms 35, 58, 69, 109, and 137.  It is a national lament asking God to intervene against the enemies of Israel.

A number of specific enemies are listed.  Commentator Willem Van Germeren asserts that these enemies can be seen as symbolizing the enemies of God's people in any era.  He divides them into three categories:

• troublers---Edom, Ishmael, Moab, Ammon, Amalek, Philistia.
• seducers---Gebal and Tyre;
• oppressors---Assyria.

This is a prayer that exhibits love for enemies.  The prayer is that these enemies be corrected so that they would come to seek the true God---verse 16.

The enemies plot against God's "treasured ones," a reference back to Exodus 19:5.  The words attributed to them, "Come, let us wipe them out as a nation," (verse 4) compare them to the rebels at Babel (Ge 11:3-4).  The enemies want autonomy from God, and so they plan to wipe out God's representatives.  Ultimately they are fighting against God (verse 5).

The prayer refers to previous times when God had delivered his people during the era of the Judges under Gideon and Deborah and Barak (Judges 4-8).  The request is for God to rescue Israel again, as he had in the past.  This rescue will be a witness to all nations and lead enemies to submit to God.

Seder 110: Numbers 10:1-10---Trumpet Calls to Remembrance

 Numbers 10:1-10 tells about two silver trumpets that would be used by the Israelites both on the journey to the Promised Land and after they arrived.  

During the journey, different combinations of long and short blasts would summon the people or their leaders together and let the tribes know when to break camp.  In the Promised Land, trumpets would be used for holy wars and for celebrations.  

Num 10:9-10 imply that the blasts from these trumpets would, in a sense, be prayers, calling upon God to remember his people---i.e., to take action on their behalf.  

These silver trumpets were one of two kinds of trumpets used by the Israelites.  There were also the rams' horns, the shofarim, that were heard at Mt Sinai (Ex 19), at the beginning of a Jubilee year (Lev 25), and at Jericho (Joshua 6).  

In a sermon at Church of the Messiah on July 30, 2022, Kyle Kettering looked at trumpets in the Bible.  In addition to being calls for God to remember his people, trumpet blasts are calls for God's people to remember God and turn to him in repentance.  We must heed these calls before the final trumpet blasts that signal the return of Jesus (Matt 24:31; 1 Cor 15:50-58; 1 Thes 4:16-18; Rev 11:15).

Seder 104: The Priestly Mission of Israel and the Church

 God brought the Israelites out of Egypt to be "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Ex 19:6), and so in a sense all Israelites were priests, called to bear God's name faithfully and be a light to the nations.  God's plan was to use this nation to bring all nations back to him.

Israel often fell short in its calling, but a prophecy in Isa 61:6 pictures that calling being carried out fully at a future time:  "but you shall be called the priests of the LORD, they shall speak of you as the ministers of our God; you shall eat the wealth of the nations, and in their glory you shall boast."

Analogously, Christians comprise "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession" (1 Pet 2:9), and all are charged to "proclaim the excellencies of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." At Pentecost the disciples of Jesus began an outreach to the nations.  

In a sermon at Church of the Messiah on May 28, 2022, Kyle Kettering focused on the priestly calling of Israel and the church.  As an example of the church carrying out this calling, Kyle turned to the experience of Paul and Barnabas at Lystra on Paul's first missionary journey in Acts 14:8-18.  

Kyle also turned to Isa 66:18-21, which pictures God's glory being declared to the nations (v 19), and Israelites scattered among the nations being brought to God as an offering (v 20).  Verse 21 says, "And some of them also I will take for priests and for Levites, says the LORD."  Here it is not clear whether these "priests" and "Levites" are from Israel or from the nations.  Either may be possible.  At any rate, God's people are called to bring others to him.

Seder 94: Lev 21-22---Special Rules for Priests

 The Israelites as a body comprised "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Exod 19:6).  An increased "level of holiness" was required for those with priestly duties, and in particular for the high priest.  

Here we can see an analogy with sacred space.  The Israelite camp had a level of holiness, and the level increased as one approached God through the tabernacle courtyard and into the tent.  Only the high priest could enter the holy of holies, and then only once a year on the Day of Atonement.

In Lev 21:1-2 God instructed the priests, "No one shall make himself unclean for the dead among his people, except for his closest relatives."

The priest's wife is not mentioned specifically in the list of close relatives that follows, but it has always been assumed that the wife is included, since she is of "one flesh" with the priest and so is the closest relative of all to him.  

A later midrash interprets "among his people" in verse 1 to mean "when other people are around to do the job of burying the dead."  So if a priest were alone and happened upon a corpse, the priest could (and should) make sure that person received a proper burial.  

This issue comes into play in Jesus' famous parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37).  In that story, a fictitious priest sees a man lying beside the road and has to decide whether to stop and check on the man.  The priest decided not to check on the man, presumably in order to obey Lev 21:1-4.  

The midrash above is a rabbinic interpretation of Lev 21 and probably would have been the interpretation of Pharisees in Jesus' time.  We do not know how other Jewish groups---e.g., Sadducees, Essenes---would have applied Lev 21 at that point.  Most people surely would have checked on the man.  

At any rate, Jesus set up the situation in the parable to highlight the importance of the love commandment of Lev 19:18 relative to other commandments.  His message was that we should "go, and do likewise" (Luke 10:37), following the example of the Samaritan.  

Kyle Kettering explained all of this and more in a sermon at Church of the Messiah on March 5, 2022.  Kyle is one of the few people in the world who has talked with flesh-and-blood Samaritans, and he mentioned that encounter again in his sermon.  

Seder 80: Psalm 65---A Thanksgiving Hymn

 Delitzsch suggested that this psalm might have originally been prompted by the retreat of the Assyrians after the prayer of Hezekiah (2 Kings 19).  Since the psalm speaks of Israel coming to worship God at Zion, it could have been associated with worship at a pilgrim festival.

Van Gemeren notes that verses 1-4 of this psalm speak of the blessedness of God's presence, while verses 5-13 speak of the blessedness of God's rule as King over all.  

In verses 1-4, God's people come to worship thankfully, expressing gratitude for God's forgiveness and answers to prayer.  Those brought near in verse 4 include priests and, more broadly, God's kingdom of priests (Ex 19:6).

The rest of the psalm pictures God as not just the hope of Israel, but the creator and ruler of all the earth.  Verse 7 ("who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves") reminds us of Jesus stilling the waters of the Sea of Galilee (Matt 8:26; 14:32). 

Seder 67: Exodus 29---Ordination of the Aaronic Priests

The children of Israel were called to be "a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation" (Exod 19:6).  From among the Israelites God chose the family of Aaron for a special priesthood at the tabernacle and temple. 

Moses would briefly serve as God's proxy to install Aaron and his sons into this priesthood.  God laid out the details of the ordination procedure to Moses on Mt. Sinai (Exod 29), and these details were carried out after the construction of the tabernacle (Lev 8).  

The elaborate ordination would last for a week (v 35), during which time something important would be created---a new priesthood.  Aaron would be anointed with oil (v. 6), making him an "anointed one", a messiah. 

Several sacrifices were included in the process.  There was a sin offering that would symbolically remove sin from Aaron and his sons and take it outside of the camp of Israel (vv 10-14).  The instructions for this offering specify that the "long lobe of the liver" and the kidneys of the bull be burned on the bronze altar (v 13).  Some commentators (e.g., Nahum Sarna) have observed that in the Ancient Near East, livers were often used for divination.  One effect of the instructions in v. 13 is that this practice would not be adopted in Israel. 

There would also be a burnt offering of a ram (vv 15-18) that would symbolize the total dedication to God that would be required of the priests.

Blood from a second ram would be applied to the right ears, right thumbs, and right big toes of Aaron and his sons (vv 20-21).  The priests would listen to the people, act for their good, and walk among them.  They were to be dedicated to God in every aspect of their lives.  

Questions are raised by the last sentence in verse 37:  "Whatever touches the altar shall become holy."  Here the meaning probably is not that profane things become holy by coming in contact with the altar.  Haggai 2:10-14 indicates that impurity spreads through contact, but that holiness does not.  Instead, the meaning may be that the only things that should come in contact with the altar are those that are already holy.  

Chapter 29 ends by repeating the purpose of the tabernacle and its service, emphasizing God's desire to dwell among his people.  Exodus 25:8 and Exodus 29:45-56 form a pair of bookends setting off chapters 25 through 29.  

In a sermon at Church of the Messiah on August 7, 2021, Rob Wilson reflected on what it means to be consecrated to serve God in a sinful world, as Aaron was and as we are today.  I John 2:20-27 discusses the anointing with the Holy Spirit that Christians receive.  

Seder 59: Exodus 19, 1 Peter 2---God's Treasured Possession

 With the Exodus the Israelites changed masters.  They went from being slaves to Pharaoh to being servants of Yahweh, the King of the Universe.  

God rescued them for a purpose, and he revealed that purpose to them at Mt Sinai.  They were to be "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Exod 19:6), God's instruments in the program he began with Abraham to bring blessing to all nations (Gen 12:1-3).  

As God's representatives, the Israelites were to 

• be an example to the nations;
• proclaim the truth, as Moses had to Jethro in Exod 18;
• intercede on  behalf of the nations;
• preserve God's word and promises.

The covenant made at Sinai would define how a whole nation of Abraham's descendants could carry out these things.  

The Israelites accepted God's "marriage proposal," saying "I do" (v 8).  They then had to undergo a program of purification in preparation for God's upcoming appearance (vv 9-15).  

We can compare Israel's preparation period at Sinai with the experience of Jesus' first disciples who waited for Pentecost and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4-5, 13-14).   Through this remnant of Israel God began the New Covenant community.  

Peter later drew upon Exodus 19 and some additional scriptures to describe that community in 1 Peter 2:9-10: 

"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy."

Peter's references to a holy nation and royal priesthood come from Exodus 19.  The "chosen race" comes from Isa 43:20-21, where God refers to "my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise."

The Greek for "his own possession" in 1 Peter 2:9 is eis peripoiesin.  Carmen Imes (Bearing God's Name, p 170) points out that this Greek term is found in the LXX only in Mal 3:17, a prophecy in which God speaks of taking a righteous remnant of Israel, a subset of his larger "treasured possession."

In 1 Peter 2:10, Peter refers to Hosea 2:23, a promise that God would readopt Israel and renew his covenant with them, so that they would again be his people.  Early Christians also saw in this prophecy a hint that God would be taking people from the nations, those who were formerly "not his people," and making them his people.

In a sermon at Church of the Messiah on June 12, 2021, Rob Wilson emphasized the importance of unity among the people of God.  He reminded us of a Jewish tradition, based on Exodus 19:2, that Israel (singular), as a single witnessing body, camped before Mt Sinai to hear the word of God. 

Pentecost 2021: Listen to His Voice

 At Pentecost we often compare the first Pentecost at Mt Sinai (Exod 19-20), when God proclaimed the Ten Commandments, with the first "Christian Pentecost" at Mt Zion (Acts 2), when God poured out his Spirit on the disciples of Jesus gathered at the temple courts.  There are a number of important parallels between these two events. 

In a sermon at Church of the Messiah on May 22, 2021, Kyle Kettering began by noting that Christians too often place these two events in opposition, thinking somehow that disparaging the Sinai covenant will exalt the renewed covenant.  He prefers to focus on the continuity between the two Pentecosts.  

In the case of both ancient Israelites and Christians, God releases his people from bondage.  He also asks them to listen to his voice (Exod 19:5; Ps 95:7-8; John 10:3-4,27), and that is still what we are to do.