Seder 109: Shedding Light on Numbers 8:1-4

 The beginning of chapter 8 of Numbers records instructions from God that Moses is to relay to Aaron:

"Speak to Aaron and say to him, When you set up the lamps, the seven lamps shall give light in front of the lampstand" (verse 2).  

Once the lamps were lit, they illuminated the bread of the presence on the adjacent table.  Michael Morales observes that this is sort of a visual representation of the Aaronic blessing.   Through the mediation of the high priest, God's face (represented by the menorah) shines on the twelve tribes, represented by the bread of the presence.  So the light from the menorah represents God's blessing of the nation and the work of the high priest on behalf of the nation.    

It is interesting to ask why this particular instruction to Aaron is mentioned at this particular juncture in the narrative.  After all, similar instruction about the menorah has already been given in Exodus 27:20-21 and Lev 24:1-4.  

One answer is that Numbers 8:1-4 is a natural follow up to the gifts of the tribes to the Levites and the altar described in Numbers 7.  The oil for the lamp is an ongoing gift from all the tribes to the work of the tabernacle, so Numbers 8:1-4 is connected to Numbers 7.  

On the other hand, the menorah passage is followed by a description of the cleansing of the Levites in the rest of Numbers 8, so verses 1-4 fits right into a discussion of the work of the tribe of Levi on behalf of the nation.  Numbers 8:1-4 is a sort of "hinge" making the transition from Numbers 7 to Numbers 8.

Seder 97: Lev 24---Olive Oil, Bread of the Presence, and a Case of Blasphemy

 The crops from Israel's harvests, celebrated in the festivals of Lev 23, would contribute to the worship of God.  Olive oil would be used to keep the menorah in the tabernacle buring continually (Lev 24:1-3), and grain would be used in making the bread of the presence, twelve loaves each week representing the twelve tribes (vv 4-9).  

On this chapter commentator Jay Sklar notes that when the lights are on and there is bread on the table, someone is home.  The lampstand and table announced God's presence with his people. 

Not all of the Israelites at Sinai wanted to be in God's presence.  In one of only a couple of narratives in the book of Leviticus, a man made it known that he did not want to follow the God of Israel.  After a blasphemous tirade that was an assault on God, he was stoned to death.  Hands were laid upon his head, symbolizing the placement of the pollution produced by his words back upon him, and he was executed outside of the camp.  

Fittingly, the man's name is not mentioned.  We are told that he had an Egyptian father and a Danite mother.  An imaginative midrash speculates that he was the son of the man that Moses had killed 40 years before (Ex 2:11). 

Leviticus 24 is the second of three places in the Pentateuch in which the lex talionis is mentioned.  This is simply the principle that a punishment for a crime should fit the crime.  

In a sermon at Church of the Messiah on March 26, 2022, Kyle Kettering laid out the "olive tree theology" based on Paul's analogy in Romans 11 and expounded, for example, by Marvin Wilson in Our Father Abraham.  In this analogy, believers from the nations are grafted into the olive tree of Israel, which is rooted in the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  He encouraged members of the congregation to show grace to each other as we work out the meaning of our position in that olive tree.