Reverse Engineering a Look at the Sacrifices. Exodus 29:1.

Orville Wright famously skipped kindergarten and spent a day hiding in a barn, where he took a sewing machine apart and then put it back together. Why? To figure out how it worked. In other words, a very young Orville Wright, one of the inventors of the airplane, was able to intuit a process we now call “reverse engineering.”

If engineering begins with nothing and designs a new product, reverse engineering begins with the completed product and works backward to figure out how it was made[1]. Reverse engineering is being done every day by engineers and inventors around the world, eager to copy and improve upon the latest electric vehicles, gaming consoles, cell phones, medical devices, advanced robotics, and thousands of other useful items.

Reverse engineering is also a useful metaphor for a way of thinking about things in the Bible. For example, we normally understand the sacrifice Jesus made for us by thinking about the sacrifices in the Old Testament. But we can use reverse engineering to understand the Old Testament sacrificial system by beginning with the crucifixion and working backwards.

What I mean is this: God knew He would use His own blood to pay for our sins. God saw the cross coming “from the foundation of the world” Revelation 13:8. With that in mind, God created the system of blood sacrifices in the Old Testament to help His people understand the sacrifice on the cross that would come later. But with reverse engineering, we can begin with the cross and look backward to gain some understanding about the Old Testament sacrifices.

Truths About the Sacrifice of Christ:

  1. We are talking about death, not merely bleeding. “The life is in the blood … and it is the blood that makes atonement” Leviticus 17:11. In context, this verse says no one is allowed to eat or drink blood. Why? Because “the life is in the blood.” And just as Jesus would be crucified ‘to death,’ the animals were also killed. Could God have created a system where a priest would remove some blood from an animal, put the blood on the altar, then allow the surviving animal to be released? Yes. But that would not have foreshadowed the death of Christ. God knew from the beginning that Jesus, the holy God-Man, would have to die to provide the sacrifice. There is a substitutionary death involved, not merely the shedding of blood.
  2. “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin” Hebrews 9:22. We are saved by placing our faith in Jesus, who shed His blood to pay a debt we could never pay on our own—because apart from Christ, our blood can never be holy.
  3. God’s children sacrificed animals out of obedience. But animal sacrifices would never atone for their sin. “It was not by the blood of goats and calves. He took His own blood, and with it, He, by Himself, made sure of eternal salvation” Hebrews 9:12. The system of sacrifices allowed the people to participate in a ritual that taught them about sin and about the need for blood atonement. The system also allowed them to demonstrate obedience and faith. They knew to place their faith in God; this was never about the death of animals.
  4. “Jesus offered His blood, once for all” Hebrews 7:27. The constant, bloody, never-ending system of sacrifices ended at the cross. Sacrifices no longer had to be made over and over again. Jesus paid it all, once—for all time.
  5. Jesus’ blood was shed for you and me and everyone. As He said in the last supper with His disciples, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you” Luke 22:20. Though only the Jewish people participated in the Hebrew sacrificial system, the blood of Jesus is for everyone, both Jews and Gentiles.
  6. The Old Testament sacrifices of animals could not provide atonement. “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins” Hebrews 10:4. Again, the sacrificial system was a teaching tool, a foreshadowing. From the beginning, God’s system of sacrifices looked forward to the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. It is Jesus who bears our burdens, Jesus whose stripes heal us.

Truths We Learn From the Cross About the Old Testament Sacrifices:

Animal sacrifices were an illustration of the sacrifice to come.

God created the system of animal sacrifices to teach His people about their need for atonement. “And this is the thing that thou shalt do” to make the priests holy, Exodus 29:1.

The animals had to die to illustrate the gravity of sin and the need for a substitutionary death.

Jesus had to die for our sins, not merely bleed.  

Animal sacrifices would never be able to satisfy the holiness of God, and therefore had to repeated over and over.

But where “Aaron shall make atonement … once a year … throughout the generations” (Exodus 30:10), Jesus would make a single sacrifice, once for all time, then take His seat at the right hand of the throne of God, Hebrews 10:12.

God’s people knew He would provide something better than animal sacrifices. They did not understand exactly what was coming, but they knew God would provide.

As Job put it, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end, He will stand upon the earth, and after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God … How my heart years within me!” Job 19:25-27.

Dear God, Thank you for providing salvation for us through the blood of your Son! And thank you for the complex sacrificial system with its temple, priests, sacrifices, and celebrations, rituals, and feast days throughout the year. Thank you for creating activities and teaching tools so that even centuries later we understand the mysteries of the cross better than we would have otherwise. May we never fail to study the rich truth of both the Old Testament and the New. We love you.

AΩ.

[1] For example, when TWO PESOS elected to copy Taco Cabana, they hired chefs to reverse engineer every item on the menu. The case reached the U.S. Supreme Court, and a great deal of information is available online. I like the Wikipedia summary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Pesos,_Inc._v._Taco_Cabana,_Inc. and this “student project” posted by Cornell: https://courses2.cit.cornell.edu/sociallaw/student_projects/Tradedresspage2.html

There is a Role For You in God’s Kingdom. Exodus 31:1-5.

Image: Spatter paint technique on a painting designed to look like red brick. From https://worldbydesign.blogspot.com/2014/05/spatter-is-magical-visual-texture.html

Have you ever been embarrassed by a photograph? When I was a little boy, someone snapped a photo of me backstage at Jones Hall. I was about eight years old. I was in costume, makeup included, and while waiting to go on stage, was admiring a Santa’s sleigh filled with prop-toys. The dolls and blocks and balls and other things had been designed and built from scratch, then painted in the spatter-paint style I would come to learn was common for props. Such painting made things appear less flat to the audience. Viewed up close, every prop, whether a streetlamp, snowman, or a life-sized cross, looked like a spotty mess of pointilism. But if you stepped back a few feet, the pixelated dots blended to form a single well-textured hue. It was amazing![1]

Unfortunately, the moment I heard the camera shutter, I was holding a huge baby doll, looking closely at the spotty paint, like some kind of scientist studying cave drawings. But you won’t see a scientist in the photo. In the photo you simply see a doe-eyed little boy with eye liner and rosy cheeks admiring a little girl’s doll. Why couldn’t they have photographed me a few seconds earlier, when I was clutching the over-sized football?

In the early 1970s our minister of music created a Christmas Pageant too large for the downtown church. We rented Houston’s Jones Hall, a 3,000-seat concert hall and held multiple performances. The Houston Christmas Pageant became a huge production, an annual must-see for many people in the city and beyond.

Several years after the picture was taken of me holding a doll, I sat down and read the program for the Christmas production. It listed the names of hundreds of church members. There was the prop team, the lighting team, the makeup team, the costume team, the production team, the animal crew, the food team, the dressing room team, the ushers, the ticket sales team, and more. I remember seeing my mom’s name on the ticket sales team and my dad’s name on the stage crew. I was astounded by the variety of volunteers. It seemed like no matter what your skill or hobby or interest might be, there was a team for you.

The church is like that. No matter what you enjoy, or what your skill might be, God has a place for you. Sometimes serving God means completing a task with which you are quite familiar. Other times, it means learning something new, such as directing cars around a parking lot, providing security, or greeting visitors as they enter the building for the first time.

“And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘I have called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving timber, to work in all manner of workmanship’” Exodus 31:1-5.

God gave Moses instructions for the tabernacle, the ark of the covenant, the table, the candlesticks, the altar, the priests’ clothing and more. Then God told Moses whom to place in charge: Bezalel. God even named an assistant for Bezalel, Aholiab (Exodus 31:6).

These two men would oversee multiple crews working on numerous projects simultaneously. The project would be huge, a task larger than any one man. This would be the greatest work of their lives, the one thing they could always say they were a part of: the construction and dedication of God’s tabernacle and all its contents.

For six months, the crew worked on nothing else.

“And Bezalel … made all that the Lord commanded Moses. And with him, Aholiab … an engraver, and a cunning workman, and an embroiderer in blue, and in purple, and in scarlet, and in fine linen” Exodus 38:22-23.

They built everything, “as the Lord commanded Moses.”

“According to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so the children of Israel made all the work. And Moses did look upon all the work, and behold, they had done it as the Lord had commanded, even so had they done it. And Moses blessed them” Exodus 39:42-43.

Application?

So what? You may ask. How does this apply to me? The application is that each of us has a role to play in the Body of Christ. You may use talents you have studied and practiced all your life, as did Bezalel. Or you may do something new, but you do it because it needs to be done and God will bless you for your willingness.

The point is, there are always things that must be done. God’s kingdom requires the effort and energy of all of us! Ask God to lead you, and GET INVOLVED.

God, show us how to serve You every day. May we bear fruit for Your kingdom. May we store up treasures in heaven. May we surrender to You all our energy, time, and talents. Use us, Lord. And make us humble enough to do whatever task you bring our way. Ask what You will of me, Lord.

AΩ.

[1] https://www.theaterhelper.com/2016/06/01/all-about-spatter/

Draw Up the Blueprints: Jesus is Not Only the Lamb, Jesus is the Temple. Exodus 27.

Have you ever read the Bible with graph paper and a pencil? Try it!

There are many places in the Old Testament where the Bible provides so much information that with just a little attention to detail, you can produce drawings to scale. For example, call each line segment one cubit. Then count ten lines for this or twenty lines for that, and you can draw Noah’s Ark in dimensions that accurately reflect what God described to Noah. The same is true for the tabernacle, the temple, and everything contained therein[1]. You may have to make a few guesses, or free-hand the curved lines or the more artistic flourishes and sculptures. But you learn about God’s word and God’s creativity even in that.

In chapters 26 – 30 of Exodus, God gave Moses verbal design plans, verbal blueprints if you will, for the ark of the covenant, the tabernacle, the altar, the clothing of the priests, and recipes for various oils and incenses.

As I write this, I am seated next to a steel file that once held hundreds of blueprints. Each massive drawer is designed to store drawings that are four feet wide and three feet deep. Exodus 26 – 30 contains enough information to fill an entire drawer with drawings.

Notice how easy it would be to sketch the bronze altar from chapter 27. For reference, think of the bronze altar as something akin to the modern fire pits people put in the center of an outdoor deck, before circling up around the fire pit to sit in deck chairs. (Though at 7.5 feet square, the altar is about twice the size of most fire pits.)

The bronze altar would hold fire on hot coals in the center, and air would flow up from the bottom through the grating mentioned in verse 4. And because the nation is still traveling in the wilderness, the altar, like everything else in the tabernacle, would be portable:

“And you shall make the altar of acacia wood, five cubits long and five cubits wide; the altar shall be square, and its height shall be three cubits. You shall make its horns on its four corners; its horns shall be of one piece with it, and you shall overlay it with bronze … You shall make for it a grating network of bronze, and on the net you shall make four bronze rings at its four corners. You shall put it beneath, under the ledge of the altar, so that the net will reach halfway up the altar. You shall make poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with bronze. Its poles shall be inserted into the rings, so that the poles shall be on the two sides of the altar when it is carried. You shall make it hollow with planks; as it was shown to you in the mountain, so they shall make it” Exodus 27:1-8.

The bronze altar “was the first thing the Israelites saw as they entered the tabernacle courtyard. Here sacrifices were continually made. Its vivid presence constantly reminded the people that they could only come to God by means of the sacrifice.”[2]

There is an interesting difference between the Old Testament and the New. In contrast to the Old Testament, a draftsman sketching Bible drawings on graph paper would find very little to go on in the New Testament. We know Jesus was born in a stable, but the Gospel writers give no indication what the stable looked like. The baby was laid in a manger, but the dimensions are not recorded.

The Last Supper happened in an “upper room,” but in spite of the traditional locations everyone visits in the Holy Land, no one is entirely certain where any of these places are or what the layout of the upper room might have been. Even many of the details of the empty tomb are a matter of speculation. We know Jesus was crucified, but we do not have measurements for the cross. In fact, we know the bronze altar from Exodus 27:1 was made of acacia wood. We know Noah’s ark was made of gopher wood, Genesis 6:14[3]. But what type of wood was the cross made of? No one knows. Why not? Why did God give us blueprint-quality details for so much of the Old Testament, then leave us guessing about the New?

We do not need the dimensions of the stable, the manger, the upper room, the cross, or even the empty tomb. We have Jesus, the Lamb that was slain for our sins. Jesus—who is, in fact, the Temple (John 2:21).

Do you realize that?

What need have we of a temple drawing when Jesus Himself is the temple?

And where those living under the Old Covenant relied on images, such as the constant stream of sacrifices on the bronze altar to remind them that their sin could only be atoned by blood, those of us living under the New Covenant no longer need such visual reminders. We have the Spirit of God rather than pictures. The Spirit bears witness in our hearts: “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God” Romans 8:16.

The writer of Hebrews says it best:

“The old system of Jewish laws gave only a dim foretaste of the good things Christ would do for us. The sacrifices under the old system were repeated again and again, year after year, but even so they could never save those who lived under their rules … Those yearly sacrifices reminded them of their disobedience and guilt instead of relieving their minds. For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. That is why Christ said as He came into the world, ‘O God, the blood of bulls and goats cannot satisfy you, so You have made ready this body of mine for Me to lay as a sacrifice upon Your altar. You were not satisfied with the animal sacrifices, slain and burnt before You as offerings for sin. Then I said, ‘See, I have come to do Your will, to lay down My life, just as the Scriptures said that I would.’ … He then added, ‘Here I am. I have come to give My life.’ He cancels the first system in favor of a far better one” Hebrews 10:1-9.

Dear God, thank you for the Old Testament. Thank you for the elaborate sacrificial system, with its priests, buildings, furniture, incense, oils, rituals, sacrifices, and the laws governing every aspect of life in ancient Israel. Thank you for choosing the Hebrew people and blessing the world through them. Thank you for the extraordinary Biblical record with details so thorough even a non-artist with graph paper can produce decent drawings of so many aspects of your saving work, from Noah’s ark to the ark of the covenant. And thank you most of all for Jesus who died on the cross, once for all time, one sacrifice to end all sacrifices, one payment to cancel the debt we owed. May we focus on Jesus and His word more earnestly than the artists who built the tabernacle, the temple, and everything inside. We love you.

AΩ.

[1] Could you find such drawings online? Absolutely, and you can even purchase someone else’s scale models. But you will learn a lot more crafting such drawings or models yourself. It is when you deeply engage the scripture that God reveals the greatest insights.

[2] Chronological Life Application Study Bible, KJV, Tyndale House, Carol Stream, 2004, p173, nExod 27:1.

[3] Full disclosure: No one knows what is meant by “gopher wood,” some arguing the tree became extinct following the flood.

Governing With Humility. Exodus 18:17.

Image: Moses’s father-in-law Jethro, as portrayed in the film THE PRINCE OF EGYPT.

“And I’ll take it to the Supreme Court if I have to!” shouts Maury Stokis, pointing his cane in the face of Perry White.

Maury and his wife win a free trip to South America from the newspaper THE DAILY PLANET, but the trip is a bust and they return to the newspaper office threatening to sue. Mr. Stokis is wearing a cervical collar and walking with a cane, and his wife has her arm in a cast. They look miserable, but comical. They are clown figures, a bit of comic relief in SUPERMAN III (1983).

Everyone always threatens to take lawsuits to the Supreme Court. It’s a television trope and an American cliché. People like Mr. Stokis start swinging the name of the Supreme Court like a club before even speaking to an attorney, much less filing an actual lawsuit.

The truth is, Mr. Stokis will probably never make it to the Supreme Court. It is so difficult to receive a hearing from the nation’s highest court that it may as well be impossible. First, you must demonstrate your client suffered harm caused by an error that can be appealed—and many errors cannot be appealed. In addition, the issues must be ripe, the parties must have standing—it is just so much. And if everything about your case is perfect, if you can check all the boxes, the court still must extend its scepter toward you, like the king extending his welcome toward Queen Esther. One does not simply show up at the Supreme Court. You must be invited, so to speak.

Further, the Court hears a limited number of cases. Of each year’s nearly 7,000 petitions requesting review, the Court chooses 70 to 80 cases. In the 2023 – 2024 term, the Court accepted only 62 cases for oral argument.

There are two reasons for this. First, these cases represent a full-time workload for nine justices and their staff. Second, the court does not play the role most people imagine. The court is not there to effect justice in these cases, some kind of last resort for a suffering American. The role of the Supreme Court is to tidy up the law.

As I simplify the point for my students, “the Supreme Court does not care if you were wrongfully convicted. The justices do not care[1] and they are not sympathetic. They only care about the law and making U.S. state and federal law work in a more predictable and just way.”

Following the exodus from Egypt, Moses found himself in the role of judge. He alone served as trial court, appellate court, and supreme court—with a jurisdiction of some two to three million people. He heard and decided every case, using each dispute as an opportunity to teach the Hebrew people God’s laws and God’s ways.

“Moses sat to judge the people and the people stood by Moses from the morning unto the evening. And when Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he did, he said, ‘What is this thing that thou doest? Why sittest thou thyself alone?’ …

‘Because the people come unto me to inquire of God. When they have a matter, they come to me, and I judge between one and another, and I do make them know the statutes of God and His laws.’

And Moses’ father-in-law said unto him, ‘The thing that thou doest is not good. Thou wilt surely wear away, both you and this people that is with thee. For this thing is too heavy for thee. Thou art not able to perform it thyself alone. Hearken now unto my voice. I will give you counsel, and God shall be with thee …

[Continue to] teach the people ordinances and laws, and show them the way wherein they must walk …

Moreover, choose out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness, and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, and rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens, and let them judge the people at all seasons. And it shall be that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge. So shall it be easier for thyself and they shall bear the burden with thee. If though shall do this thing … then thou shalt be able to endure …’ So Moses hearkened to the voice of his father-in-law” Exodus 18:13-24.

Houston sits in Harris County, Texas, a county with a population of 5 million people, or about double the number who left Egypt during the Exodus. Yet Harris County has about 70 trial courts. This number, which does not include city courts or JP courts, is more than thirty times the number of judges serving the migrating nation of Hebrews. Moses’s father-in-law was right: Moses needed help!

“And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. And they judged the people at all seasons. The hard cases they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves” Exodus 18:25-26.

This is a great lesson in governance. The Bible is practical, filled with so much practical wisdom and on such a staggering wealth of topics. There is simply no book like it.

But the real lesson here is the humility of Moses.

Moses is a man of 80 years, educated inside the Pharaoh’s palace, a diplomat of the highest order, God’s prophet and the deliverer of God’s people, a man through whom God has worked miracle after miracle, the administrator and leader of an entire nation—and yet he listens to the advice of his father-in-law. What experience did Jethro have compared to that of Moses? What was he, a sheep farmer from nowhere? He may have been “the priest of Midian,” but what is that compared to Moses? Yet, Moses took Jethro’s advice and it changed everything. God rewarded Moses for his humility.

“Moses was a very humble man” Numbers 12:3.

“Those who humble themselves will be exalted” Matthew 23:12.

“With humility comes wisdom” Proverbs 11:2.

“Humility comes before honor” Proverbs 15:33.

“He crowns the humble with victory” Psalm 149:4.

“Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but think so as to have sound judgment” Romans 12:3.

Dear God, bless us with the gift of humility. Help us to see ourselves as we ought—to see ourselves as You see us. May we demonstrate humility in all our dealings. Make us sensitive to pride and help us to fear the Lord and turn away from evil. ‘Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Thy Name give glory, because of Thy lovingkindness and because of Thy truth’ Psalm 115:1.

AΩ.

[1] Of course, the Supreme Court justices are human, and more than that, they are humans who value justice enough to have pursued careers in the field. On a personal level, they care about their fellow man and the justice of his case. But their professional duty is to choose cases that will allow them to tidy up questions of law. This role is designed to promote abstract justice in future cases. Should they be able to deliver a just conclusion to the case before them, so much the better. But that is not the goal. As a famous example, the court that legalized abortion via Roe v. Wade did so when the baby at the center of the controversy was already two-and-a-half years old. Although the case has now been overturned, it demonstrates the way the Court concerns itself not so much with the parties before the court but with the structure of American law going forward.

God Sends His Recruits to Boot Camp. Exodus 14:11.

Image: Paratroopers from the 11th Airborne division training at Fort Campbell, Kentucky in the early 1950s. My father could be in this picture. From https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/18zacz8/11th_airborne_paratroopers_jump_training_in_fort/

“Where do you think you’re going, Wales!”

The sergeant screamed at my dad, a young recruit in basic training. The men were inside a gas chamber. The rule was, the sergeant would flip the switch to release chlorine gas, and only after the gas began coming out would the recruits be allowed to don their gas masks and begin breathing. Something went wrong and my dad was sure his mask was leaking. He pushed the sergeant aside and burst through the door, dropping the mask and inhaling fresh air. He spent a week in the infirmary before completing basic training and spending three years as a paratrooper in West Germany.

The branches of the U.S. military enroll nearly 200,000 recruits in boot camps every year. They cut off their hair, change their clothes, tell them when to eat, when to sleep, and what to do all day long. Sergeants scream at the teenagers in a manner to which some have never been exposed. Officers defend the rough treatment with statements such as “we have to tear them down so we can build them back up.”

Some fifteen percent of the recruits fail to complete basic training—it is just too hard. But eighty-five percent graduate and go on to become America’s elite, professional military.

Following the Exodus from Egypt, God enrolled His people in a boot camp. Their challenging days in the desert kept growing longer, from a month or two walking in a million-man caravan, to forty years circling the wilderness and eating manna.

Why? The direct answer is that the people expressed a complete lack of faith after they heard about giants in the Promised Land. Only Caleb and Joshua were not scared to obey God and attack.

So God announced that the nation would wander the wilderness for forty years, and after the entire cowardly (faithless) generation had died off, the next generation would be allowed to move into the Promised Land, Numbers 14:21-23.

But Israel had been testing God from the moment Moses came on the scene. And even after they saw God destroy Egypt’s idols through ten miraculous plagues, they continued to doubt God and to cultivate a bitter, angry, defeated mindset.

“Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?” Exodus 14:11.

(This is comical sarcasm, the Egyptians being world leaders in graves, embalming, mummification, and the world’s largest mausoleums—the pyramids.)

The Hebrews:

  1. Doubted God before crossing the Red Sea, Exodus 14:11-12.
  2. Complained about bitter water, Exodus 15:24.
  3. Complained about hunger, Exodus 16:3.
  4. Collected more manna than permitted, Exodus 16:20.
  5. Tried to collect manna on the Sabbath, Exodus 16:27-29.
  6. Complained over thirst, Exodus 17:2-3.
  7. Worshipped the golden calf, Exodus 32:7-10.
  8. Complained again, Numbers 11:1-2.
  9. Complained about lacking meat, Numbers 11:4.
  10. Were afraid to enter the Promised Land and threatened to return to Egypt instead, Numbers 14:1-4.

Only after the Hebrews demonstrated this pattern of disobedience did God punish them with forty years in the land of cactus and scorpions. God sent the entire nation to boot camp, to basic training in following God.

When God sent His people into the wilderness, it was not unlike boot camp: “We have to tear them down so we can build them back up.” These people may have been the children of Israel, the children of the Promise, but they had been slaves for four hundred years.

Slavery had filled the Jewish people with many bad habits and bad ways of thinking. The Hebrews were bitter. They were cynical. They were skeptical. They did not trust Moses and they did not trust God. They had a bitter, angry, and defeated mindset. In modern parlance, the former slaves thought like losers. They saw themselves as losers. Many of them had no hope, no courage, no integrity, and no faith.

But God is the Master Teacher. He would school His people, and not unlike the U.S. military, God would use time in the wilderness to teach the lessons[1].

Have you ever felt like you were lost in the wilderness? Or that you were wandering in circles for years? Remember: the Hebrews did not remain in the wilderness forever, though I’m sure it felt that way at the time. They did eventually “graduate” and God led them into the Promised Land.

Things got better. They moved into houses they did not build and began tending vineyards they did not plant, Joshua 24:13.

You may be in boot camp now, but hang in there! God will get you to the other side. One day you will emerge mature and whole, no longer unlearned and ignorant (Acts 4:13). God will do His work, tutor you in the faith, and move you to “greater works than these” John 14:12.

AΩ.

[1] Following the Day of Pentecost, the Jews were amazed at the preaching of Peter and John and called them “unlearned and ignorant men” Acts 4:13. But these men had just spent three years in a wilderness of sorts, walking back and forth across the country with Jesus, the greatest Teacher of all. The apostles had attended a university like none other. No longer were they unlearned or ignorant men. Have you spent that kind of time with Jesus? Have you gone to college with Jesus and allowed Him to become your personal rabbi and tutor in not only spiritual areas, but in all areas of life?

Favor Has Been Uncoupled From Merit. Exodus 11:3.

Image: a close-up view of a train coupler connecting two cars.

I knocked on the white painted door of my girlfriend’s apartment. No one knew I was coming. One of Wendy’s roommates opened the door. It was Charlotte. She was the loud one. She screamed.

“Well, hello, Mr. Successful!”

Charlotte was an opera student, one of the true soprano divas at the university—though not the sort of diva you avoid. Charlotte was charming and hilarious and adorable. A funny, whacky, true friend and a flighty free spirit.

I blushed at the comment. I shook my head side-to-side. I smiled an embarrassed grin. What could I say? I was tongue-tied.

“So what do you have to say for yourself?”

I shrugged. “I dunno.”

“You’ve got the Midas touch. Everything you touch turns to gold!” I stepped into the apartment. Charlotte closed the door and began counting on her fingers. “So, you won a spot in the singing group and a scholarship. Then you win Best of Show in the art show. And then they cast you in some Shakespeare play? And I bet you made the Dean’s List again, too huh?” She laughed. “People like you make me sick.”

“Thank you.” I smiled. She didn’t mean it. Charlotte was so sweet and encouraging.

“But you know, I’m not really that successful.”

“What—!”

“Well, I mean this is the only week of my whole life that has ever been like this, believe me. I have had so many bad weeks.”

“Sure you have.”

“No, seriously. If you knew me better, you’d be calling me ‘Mr. Failure.’ Or maybe, ‘Mr. Average.’ This is just one great week that balances out a bunch of bad weeks.”

It was true. I knew myself. I was no ‘Mr. Successful.’ But I had certainly had an amazing week. It was an incredible few days.

Have you ever had a time like that? –A day or a week where everything you touched turned to gold? I bet–like me–you have had the opposite—one of those weeks where everything you touched seemed to fall to the ground and shatter?

I remember a time not long ago when our family had a serious problem every day for a month. The dishwasher broke down. The washing machine went out. The car needed a new alternator. The horse was injured. The dog got worms. My wife had a medical problem. I had to race off to the dentist with a broken tooth. These things went on and on for thirty days. I found myself waking up in the morning wondering what would go wrong that day. It was the worst string of bad luck. My thoughts grew cynical: Give us this day our daily disaster.

God can cause you to have favor. And He can remove that favor. (And sometimes crazy things just happen.)

“And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants, and in the sight of the people” Exodus 11:3.

God gave His people and their leader Moses great favor in the eyes of the Egyptians and in turn, the Egyptians were generous, giving the Hebrews gold and jewelry for their journey “and thus, they plundered the Egyptians” Exodus 12:36.

I have often heard Christians praying that God would give them favor. Give us favor in the eyes of the job interviewer. Give us favor in the eyes of our clients. Give us favor in the eyes of the HR folks. Give us favor in the eyes of our customers. These are perfectly good prayers. God enjoys blessing His people and He wants us to come to Him with our requests.

But why did God bless the Hebrews? Why did He give them such favor that the Egyptians sent them away with gold and jewelry in their luggage? Did the Hebrews deserve it? The Bible does not say that[1].

In fact, the Bible gives no indication that the Hebrews deserved blessings of any kind, other than perhaps relief from slavery. It is true that they suffered under cruel taskmasters. “God heard their groaning … God saw the people of Israel –and God knew” Exodus 2:24-25.

I love that: AND GOD KNEW.

God came to Moses and said, “I have seen the affliction … and have heard their cry … I know their sufferings” Exodus 3:7-8.

God’s people were suffering and God was compassionate. The suffering was cruel and God ended it by rescuing them. But riches? Did they deserve riches that they would melt into a bronze calf in a matter of days?

I don’t think so. If you read the account that follows, these newly freed slaves are one of the laziest, bitterest, unhappiest generations in the Bible. They would require constant attention and teaching from Moses and from God Himself. Many would be struck down for their idolatry and disobedience. An entire generation would wander the wilderness for forty years, dying off without seeing the Promised Land.

These were not people who had somehow earned God’s favor.

But God bestowed His favor on them anyway.

Why? Because it suited God’s purposes.

Don’t focus on what you may or may not deserve. Merit is not the point. We are to do our best, to love the Lord, follow the word, and be holy as He is holy. But God does not promise to bless good Christians or to curse the bad. Do we reap what we sow? Absolutely.

But like two train cars that have been separated from each other, favor has been uncoupled from merit. God will have mercy on whom He will have mercy and He will have compassion on whom He will have compassion, Exodus 33:19.

Again, favor has been uncoupled from merit. There is an entire book of the Bible on this subject—and it is the oldest book of them all, the book of Job. Sometimes good things happen to bad people. Sometimes bad things happen to good people. Why? Because it suits God’s purposes.

Pray for favor. Of course. Pray for favor with the loan officer, the physician, the police officer, the difficult neighbor, the angry co-worker. Pray for favor.

But remember: God’s ways are higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:9), moreover, “His ways are past finding out,” Romans 11:33.

God is sovereign: sometimes He will bless you with great favor that you can’t explain and do not deserve. Other times He will allow great difficulties–that you can’t explain and do not deserve.

But God is sovereign. He is holy, and because He is holy, He is always good! Praise Him when you feel blessed and praise Him when you don’t!

AΩ.

[1] I sometimes imagine the stream of commerce in which this gold traveled. It began with the seven years of famine, during which the people from not only Egypt but all the neighboring lands came to Joseph to buy food, delivering to him “all the money in Egypt and Canaan” Genesis 47:14. Four-hundred years later, the nature of kingdoms would dictate that generations of Pharaohs would have paid that wealth into the hands of the Egyptian people in exchange for goods and services. Next much of that wealth was given to the Hebrews who left Egypt during the Exodus, Exodus 12:35-36. And then what? A few months later some of it was melted down, fashioned into a golden calf, destroyed by Moses, and poured into the sea, Exodus 32:20. Because that seems like an awful lot of trouble for riches that ended up wasted on idolatry, I have to assume a significant portion of the spoils of Egypt was retained by the Hebrews, leaving them that much wealthier as a nation when they finally reached the Promised Land. After all, Aaron asked for earrings and things, but the Bible does not indicate he took everything they had, Exodus 32:2-3.

Thus, the wealth Joseph collected during the famine ended up funding the new nation of Israel when the people returned to the land of Canaan four hundred years later. That is pretty amazing.

Odors and Aromas. Exodus 5:21.

“Oh, man! What is that smell?”

“I think it’s that dead armadillo we saw down the road.”

“But that thing’s a hundred yards away!”

“What else can it be?”

We had just emerged from the car at my uncle’s farm in Mississippi. All the kids piled out of the car and two of us took off running—to see the armadillo. Sure enough, the six-pound carcass was putting out a pungent odor powerful enough to make a skunk envious. I’d seen half-ton dead cows that were less noxious than the tiny armored varmint. I don’t know whether it was the combination of the summer heat, the direct sunshine, the still afternoon air, the humidity, or all of the above. But that tiny critter, unnoticed in life, made an impact in his death that I will never forget.

The Bible is filled with smells, the book of Exodus particularly. God’s first plague turned all the water in Egypt to blood. All the fish in the Nile died “and the Nile stank, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile” Exodus 7:21.

In the second plague, God covered the nation in frogs. After Pharaoh asked Moses to pray for relief, the frogs died. “They were piled in heaps, and the land reeked of them” Exodus 8:14.

After the people of Israel left Egypt, God provided bread in the wilderness so they would survive the desert. But when the Hebrews tried to save manna from one day to the next, disobeying God’s instructions, “it bred worms and stank” Exodus 16:20.

We are repulsed by foul odors—and with good reason. The discovery of bacteria has provided a scientific explanation for a process we have understood for centuries: eating foul-smelling food will make us sick, whether sour milk, rancid meat, or spoiled fruits and vegetables.

The power of smells, both good and bad, is so strong that the Bible uses them as a metaphor. Unlike me and my cousin Kaye, running to poke sticks at the wormy carcass of a dead armadillo, most people are revolted by carrion (and probably would rather not read about it here!). Most back away—as they should. Foul odors create an unconscious revulsion that causes us to retreat in disgust. (Most of us, anyway.)

And the Hebrews told Moses he had done that to them: he had made them a disgusting stench. When Pharaoh accused the Hebrews of laziness, everyone blamed Moses.

“The Lord look upon you and judge, because ye have made our savour to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh … and put a sword in his hand to slay us” Exodus 5:21.

But Moses had obeyed God! He must have felt so disappointed. I can imagine his prayer: God, I did not ask for this. I was happy herding sheep for Jethro. This was all YOUR idea. Remember the burning bush, God? And now the people say I have made them a stench in Pharaoh’s nostrils!

But God had a plan. He sent ten plagues to defeat Egypt’s top ten idols, and the Egyptians begged Pharaoh to send the Hebrews away. But before they left, the people who once found their savour to be abhorrent in Pharoah’s eyes were now looked on with grace and generosity.

“And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they gave them whatever they requested. Thus, they plundered the Egyptians” Exodus 12:36.

Have you ever felt abhorrent? It sounds extreme, but I know it is true: some of us have felt so alone, so rejected, that we wonder why our mere existence seems to disgust people. We sniff our armpits only half in jest and wonder what we are doing that turns people off.

Jesus can change that. Whatever it is—real or imagined—Jesus can anoint you with a pleasing aroma. It will not please everyone: there will always be Pharaohs and idol worshippers who will hate God’s people. But submit to the authority of Jesus and ask Him to anoint you with His grace, His love, His aroma:

“For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to those who are not being saved, we seem a fearful smell of death and doom, while to those who know Christ we are a life-giving perfume” 2 Corinthians 2:16.

Dear God, anoint us with Your perfume! May we stir the aroma of grace and love and hope wherever we go.

AΩ.

God Hears. Psalm 120:1.

Image: the square in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico.

“Marisela, listen to me. I understand that you left your homework at home. I get it. But I’m required to take points off for late assignments.”

I was a first-year English teacher. Marisela was a sophomore in a border town. I had been hired to replace a permanent sub, a local young lady who had not managed to finish college but was pretty and enormously popular with the students. My students saw me as the young white guy who showed up on the third week of school to take a job away from the sweet Latina woman. Several students gave me the benefit of the doubt and we remain friends thirty years later. Others did not.

Marisela continued to argue: “But my mom is bringing my work after school!”

“Don’t yell, please. I understand that your mother is bringing the work after school—”

“And that’s today! So it’s not late! ¿COMPRENDE? ¡GRINGO!”

I sent Marisela to the office to comprende some manners.

Eagle Pass is unusual. Not only is it a border town, but it is culturally overwhelmed by the much larger city of Piedras Negras on the other side of the Rio Grande. (Recent population data shows Piedras Negras to be ten times the size of Eagle Pass.) Thus, the culture of Eagle Pass is more heavily influenced by Mexico than many other American border towns.

The schools reflect these trends. U.S. News & World Report indicates that the school district is 0.9% White-non-hispanic, 0.1% Black, 0.1% Asian, 1.6% American Indian, and 97.1% Hispanic. Further, everyone in Eagle Pass speaks Spanish, some much better than others. I did not speak Spanish at all.

Like teachers everywhere, I was bombarded with student voices all day, many of them talking when I needed them to be quiet. The difference was, I often had no idea what they were saying. If I assumed they were talking about me, I would be upset all the time and would handle everything badly. So I chose to assume the best, to assume they were not talking about me even when they probably were.

On top of that, I was seven hours from home: seven hours from all my family and friends. Seven hours from my fiancée. For me, Eagle Pass was a means to an end, a year-long way-station on the path to teacher certification. A year of offending some just by being there, a white man from the interior who took a local woman’s job. A year of being talked about and insulted, often in a language I did not understand. A year of being isolated in a city far from home. A year paying hundreds of dollars in long distance telephone bills. A year of loneliness, extremely hard work, and precious little support[1].

I love the first line of Psalm 120: “In my distress I cried unto the Lord, and He heard me” Psalm 120:1.

Doesn’t that say it all? I mean, isn’t that reassurance all that we really need? We need for God to hear us when we cry out to Him. And He does. Amen.

“I cried to the Lord in my trouble, and He answered me. Rescue my soul, Lord, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue … Woe to me, for I reside in Meshech, I have settled among the tents of Kedar [two extremely distant places]. Too long has my soul had its dwelling with those who hate peace. I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war” Psalm 120:1-7.

The writer is suffering and calls out to God—and God hears him.

He has trouble: God hears.

He is lied about: God hears.

He lives far away in a lonely land: God hears.

He lives among people who want to attack him: God hears.

His efforts to make peace are rejected: God hears.

“In my distress I cried unto the Lord, and He heard me” Psalm 120:1.

Doesn’t that say it all?

I cried to the Lord and He heard me. Amen! Cry out to God. He hears you!

Dear God, remind us—SHOW us—that You hear our prayers. You answer our prayers. You love us, You protect us, You sustain us in long, difficult times. You have a plan for our lives. Walk with us. Comfort us. Remind us of Your presence. ‘Jehovah Shammah. You are the one who’s standing near.’ Amen. Thank you, Lord.

AΩ.

[1] It was unpleasant for me at 24, but let’s not overstate the case: no one was shooting at me. This was not war, just a difficult high school. The complaints of the psalmist make my story sound so benign. Moreover, by the time the year ended, I had grown to love my students. Eagle Pass is a beautiful city in the desert, with a gorgeous sunset every night. I’ll never forget looking down the hill across the Rio Grande at the city of Piedras Negras atop the cliffs on the other side. Eagle Pass is a good place filled with great people, and I have been back with my wife and kids several times.

God’s Court is a Court of Equity. Psalm 98:9

Professor John Mixon standing in front of some of the cartoons that he used while teaching classes at the UH Law Center. He retired in 2013 after a 60-year career as a law professor.

I was scribbling notes as fast as I could—like eighty of my law-school peers. Suddenly, the professor tossed out one of those phrases that made my head spin:

“Now this is a case where your client wants what? Specific performance! And who can provide that? The Court of Law?”

Professor Mixon paused, the old man’s dancing blue eyes looking at us eagerly. He wanted someone to speak, but it was too early in our first semester. No one was quite sure. Finally, a tentative voice spoke up right in front of him, mumbling so only he could hear:

“No.”

“Right! The court of law only cares about cash! So if it’s not the Court of Law, then it is the … Court of—” He waited.

“Equity?”

“Exactly!” And Professor Mixon raced back to the chalkboard to add to his daily, thirty-foot mural. (The man was an artist and a legend.)

When I was a law student, one of the topics I found difficult was the notion of Courts of Equity. While my peers may have struggled with the “Con-Tort,” or Commercial Paper, or Bills of Lading, for me it was the constant talk about “Courts of Equity.” My eyes would glaze over and I would begin this internal dialogue: Okay, what is a court of equity again? That thing with injunctions and specific performance, right? And it’s not about money damages. And it’s motivated by fairness….

The Equity Courts were part of the English legal system and represented a forum for a plaintiff whose needs could not be met in a traditional law court. For example, if you had a difficult tenant renting your property, a law court might award you damages (money). But the Equity Court could award you what you really needed: an eviction. Or if you paid for a one-of-a-kind sculpture by a deceased artist, the law court might award you with a refund, but the Equity Court could require the person in possession to deliver the sculpture to you.

EQUITY, in a nutshell, is a court focused not on the wooden application of the law and the resulting payment of damages, but on achieving a broad range of fair or equitable results[1]. In Biblical terms, a Court of Equity looks not at the letter of the law, but at the spirit[2] or the intent behind the law (2 Corinthians 3:6).

“He cometh to judge the earth. With righteousness shall He judge the world, and the people with equity” Psalm 98:9.

God will judge the people with equity. Fairness.

God will not apply a rigid interpretation of the law, but when He judges people He will consider the “totality of the circumstances.” That is, God will judge not in legalism, but in equity. After all, God is holy. But God is also “not willing that any should perish” 2 Peter 3:9. God loves people and will extend to them as much grace, love, mercy, and “fairness” as He can while remaining true to His holy nature.

God’s court is a Court of Equity.

Isaiah prophesies that Jesus will judge with equity: “The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him … but with righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth, and he shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked” Isaiah 11:2,4.

Even while executing judgment, Isaiah says Jesus will judge the poor with righteousness and the meek with equity. Again, God is not legalistic about judgment. He wants men to be saved. He will look at their hearts. Again, I believe God will give people as much grace and “fairness” or equity as He can.

God’s Court is a Court of Equity.

“The king’s strength also loveth judgment. Thou dost establish equity” Psalm 99:4.

AΩ.

[1] The curious may wish to know: the notions of law and equity have been combined in U.S. federal law and all but a handful of U.S. states. Consequently, understanding the concept of Equity Courts has been more helpful while writing this Bible study than it has ever been in my legal practice.

[2] The difficulty for lawyers arguing about the “spirit of the law” is that the letter of the law is written in words, whereas the spirit is an indefinable concept, like the penumbras and emanations of which the Supreme Court speaks in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965). Penumbras and emanations can be impossible to pin down.

Nothing is Really That Remote. Psalm 89.

Statue of Liberty During Pink Sunrise. Copyright Matthew Chimera Photo. Prints available online.

“I can’t believe it. I mean, there she is! It’s really her!”

My wife was so excited. We were bouncing gently on the bow of a Circle Line Tour boat in New York Harbor. Everyone around us had camera phones pointing at the same thing—the Statue of Liberty.

“Yeah,” I laughed. “It’s really her.”

“She’s so beautiful. Wow. I mean, she’s really real, you know what I mean?”

I knew exactly what she meant. It was Wendy’s first trip to New York and she had been saying the same thing everywhere we went: there it is. It’s really real. I’m really here. I can’t believe it.

As a trip planner, I could not have been happier. My wife is always enthusiastic, but this was special, even for her. She was beside herself, amazed and delighted to be seeing things in person that she had been seeing on television or in movies all her life.

Travel will do that for you. I remember walking around Mount Vernon as a child and thinking George Washington walked here. George Washington probably held this banister. George Washington might have sat in this chair. George Washington might have grabbed this doorknob. I was amazed too. It is remarkable the way history comes to life when you travel.

The truth is, history is never as far away as we think.

You could board a plane today and be standing at Pearl Harbor or Ford’s Theater in a few hours. Better yet, you could go to a library (or look online) and instantly read the words of Aristotle or Homer, men who have been dead thousands of years. Nothing is ever as far away, as removed or remote as it seems. With a cellphone in hand, you can instantly read English translations of nearly every book in history that matters. Moreover, you can see pictures in seconds of every place that matters, or every work of art that matters.

Nothing is really that remote.

Furthermore, when you dabble in genealogy, you discover again that nothing is really that remote: not history, not famous places, and not famous people.*

God is certainly not remote.

“Thy seed will I establish forever, and build up thy throne to all generations … I have found David my servant. With my holy oil have I anointed him … Also, I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth … My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established forever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven” Psalm 89:4,20,27,34-38.

God promised to establish the throne of David forever in 2 Samuel 7:12-16. But how? Although there were exceptions, David’s descendants grew more evil and more idolatrous with each succeeding generation. But God was not depending on these earthly kings. Instead, God sent His Son, and God’s Son would be the Holy King whose kingdom would never end. Think about this: Jesus was born into the “House and Line of David” Luke 2:4. In fact, there are solid arguments that not only Joseph, the adopted father of Jesus, but also Mary was from the line of David.

The point is, Jesus walked among us. In the Son of Man, God Himself walked among us, living as one of us. He had parents and grandparents, brothers and sisters. Jesus had a family tree. He was related by blood to thousands of distant cousins all across Israel and the world. After all, he descended from Noah. In fact, this One Paul described as the Second Adam literally descended from the first Adam—as did we all.

Jesus walked among us.

He drank from the rain that falls on the earth today. He breathed the air we breathe. He ate fish from the same waters, ate bread made from the same wheat. He sweated in the heat and shivered in the cold and lived a life not as different from yours as you probably think.

That is the essence of the Incarnation, after all: God, the Creator, became Man, a creation. He ate and slept and laughed and lived a human life. He was one of us. God Himself became one of us.

Nothing is as remote as it seems.

God is never remote and is with you right now as you read this.

“For He is not far from any of us, for in Him we live, and move, and have our being … for we are also His offspring” Acts 17:27-28.

AΩ.

* If you can provide a few generations of your family tree, a website called relativefinder.org can connect you to famous people living and dead—though perhaps no more closely related than seventh cousins (a pool that can include 100,000 people). Though the relationship may be distant—and though you will never be able to verify all the parent-child connections involved—there is something interesting about considering that you might be related to this handful of famous people you have never met. After all, someone must be related to them, right?