From Family to Nation: Creating the People of God

Plenary: “From Family to Nation: Creating the People of God”  (written for the Memphis Conference Continuing Education Event)

Three parts to this:  Winning the hearts and minds:

signs, wonders, and plagues.

Creating connections: giving of the law at Sinai

Forming a center:  the building of tabernacle

I am a very concrete person.  I can deal with abstractions if I have to; but I would rather have concrete images to get my brain around.  I think that I am not alone in this.   A few days ago my family and I were watching a show on the Da Vinci Code and the Holy Grail legend.  We began to speculate why the grail legend has been so popular throughout the ages.  It occurred to me that the reason is that people need  concrete, visible representations of sacred, holy moments.  Incarnational theology makes deep sense to me because of this. In Christ, we have the incarnation of God, the one who walks and talks with us, the one who shares our existence.

But incarnational theology is not limited to the New Testament.  Incarnational theology is alive and well in the book of Exodus, if you will forgive the pun.  The book of Exodus can be seen as a three-part plan using the concrete and the visible to form and shape the descendants of Jacob/Israel into the people that will fulfill the covenant that God has made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.   

The first part of the plan, the signs and wonders, is intended to give the people a reason to follow this virtually unknown God and show the people God’s power.

The people descended from Jacob/Israel find themselves in a strange place.  They are in a foreign land, where they have been for about 400 years.  They have been “fruitful and prolific,” living out the command that God has given in the first chapter.  But then a new king arises who didn’t know Joseph and trouble comes.  Note the irony here:

The king didn’t know Joseph

Therefore the king didn’t know God

But the people have also forgotten God

Is this because Joseph stood so thoroughly between God and the people, that they had little chance to know God in the first place?  Looking at the story of Joseph, we see that God never speaks directly to Joseph the way God speaks to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  According to Joseph, God speaks to him and through him.  But the reader never sees and hears God speaking to Joseph, so have just have to trust that Joseph is telling us the truth about God.

With Joseph so firmly between God and the rest of the family, it seems that, except for his father Jacob, no one but Joseph ever hears God’s voice.  We have no sense that God has been speaking to them during this time in Egypt either.   It is no wonder then, that the people forget.

In addition to being the one that stands between the Israelite people and God, Joseph stands between the Egyptian people and Pharaoh.  He collects the grain and saves the people of Egypt from starvation, but he also is responsible for enslaving the people to Pharaoh.  Genesis 47:13-22.

Genesis 47:13-22  ¹³ Now there was no food in all the land, for the famine was very severe. The land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished because of the famine.  ¹⁴ Joseph collected all the money to be found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, in exchange for the grain that they bought; and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh’s house.  ¹⁵ When the money from the land of Egypt and from the land of Canaan was spent, all the Egyptians came to Joseph, and said, “Give us food! Why should we die before your eyes? For our money is gone.”  ¹⁶ And Joseph answered, “Give me your livestock, and I will give you food in exchange for your livestock, if your money is gone.”  ¹⁷ So they brought their livestock to Joseph; and Joseph gave them food in exchange for the horses, the flocks, the herds, and the donkeys. That year he supplied them with food in exchange for all their livestock.  ¹⁸ When that year was ended, they came to him the following year, and said to him, “We can not hide from my lord that our money is all spent; and the herds of cattle are my lord’s. There is nothing left in the sight of my lord but our bodies and our lands.  ¹⁹ Shall we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land in exchange for food. We with our land will become slaves to Pharaoh; just give us seed, so that we may live and not die, and that the land may not become desolate.”  ²⁰ So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh. All the Egyptians sold their fields, because the famine was severe upon them; and the land became Pharaoh’s.  ²¹ As for the people, he made slaves of them from one end of Egypt to the other.  ²² Only the land of the priests he did not buy; for the priests had a fixed allowance from Pharaoh, and lived on the allowance that Pharaoh gave them; therefore they did not sell their land.

Why is this important?  Because in the context of this passage, all the people of Israel are slaves to Pharaoh, not just the Israelites.  The contrast here, then is not between the Egyptians who are the free people of Egypt and the Israelites who are the slaves of Egypt, but between those who are the people of Pharaoh and those who are the people of Yahweh.  In this context we have the contrast between the saving God and the enslaving Pharaoh.

 

As I said before, the Israelites have forgotten God.  When they “groan under their slavery and cry out”  they have no direction to their cries; no one to whom they are crying.  But even though they have no knowledge of God, God is the one who hears their cries.  God experiences the pain that they are suffering. And God remembers the covenant.

Here’s the dilemna:  In order for God to save these people, they have to trust God and God’s messenger.  But, they don’t think of themselves as God’s people, they think of themselves as Pharaoh’s people.  [5:15-16] Exodus 5:15-16  ⁵ Then the Israelite supervisors came to Pharaoh and cried, “Why do you treat your servants like this?  ¹⁶ No straw is given to your servants, yet they say to us, ‘Make bricks!’ Look how your servants are beaten! You are unjust to your own people.”

It was one thing for God to call Abraham and have him get up and go.  It is another thing for an entire people to do the same. God has to prove Godself to the people.

Once again the dilemna for God:  in order to save his people, the people have to be willing to turn toward him.  Thus the signs and wonders.  Moses turns aside because of such a sign.  The family of Jacob was willing to listen to Joseph’s voice in the place of God, but the people of Israel will need more than simply the word of Moses.  They are no longer so trusting, they are no longer a closeknit family willing to listen to a revered Patriarch.  Now they are a motley crew of slaves.  Moses knows these people well and so he asks: Why should they trust me?  And Why should they trust you?

In order for the people to know God, they need a sign, a concrete sign.  God provides abundantly.  The signs and wonders are God’s gracious attempt to show the people that they can trust in God’s power. [provision, plan ,presence

Neither the people, nor Moses is an easy sell for God.  When Moses and Aaron first go to Pharaoh and Pharaoh makes the Israelites work harder, Moses blames God, not the Pharaoh.  Ex 5:22 “Then Moses turned again to the LORD and said, “O LORD, why have you mistreated this people?”  God clearly has a long way to go in inspiring the trust of the people.

Exodus 6:1-9   Then the LORD said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh: Indeed, by a mighty hand he will let them go; by a mighty hand he will drive them out of his land.”  ² God also spoke to Moses and said to him: “I am the LORD.  ³ I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name ‘The LORD’ I did not make myself known to them.  ⁴ I also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they resided as aliens.  ⁵ I have also heard the groaning of the Israelites whom the Egyptians are holding as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant.  ⁶ Say therefore to the Israelites, ‘I am the LORD, and I will free you from the burdens of the Egyptians and deliver you from slavery to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.  ⁷ I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. You shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has freed you from the burdens of the Egyptians.  ⁸ I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; I will give it to you for a possession. I am the LORD.'”  ⁹ Moses told this to the Israelites; but they would not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and their cruel slavery.

But the first step is to establish the authority of God’s messenger.

The first sign, the staff is the sign that makes Moses [or Aaron ] an authority figure.  The staff is the symbol of the Patriarch’s authority and the symbol of the Pharaoh’s authority.  This is a case of my staff’s better than your staff.  This is really the first of the signs and wonders and they clearly start small.  Just as clearly, Pharaoh is not impressed. We are still in the realm of things that the magicians can do.  For now, God just looks like a bigger magician.

Now a Note:  The signs and wonders are just that.  They are not natural phenomena.   They are presented as miracles, not just good timing.  You can choose to believe the miracles or not, but resist the temptation to find a natural basis for what is clearly intended to be a series of supernatural events.

[point for reflection:  People often ask whether or not God is still sending plagues.  They point at AIDS or at the attack on the World Trade Centers or at the Tsunamis and hurricanes as evidence of God’s wrath.  However, in the Exodus text we should be clear that the signs are always preceded by a direct warning from God and a chance for Pharaoh to turn from sin and turn toward the right.  The signs are very specific, and very limited.  They are turned off just as quickly as they are turned on.  In addition, in the later signs, God makes a distinction, first between the Egyptians and the Israelites and then between those who listen and those who do not.]

[Another point for reflection:  There seems to be a contrast between the strength of God, portrayed favorable as the saving strength of God’s hand and the strength of  Pharaoh, portrayed negatively as the stiffened heart of Pharaoh.  Even Pharaoh’s ‘strength’ is not fully his own; God is responsible for stiffening Pharaoh’s heart once it becomes clear that Pharaoh wishes to go that direction.]

Hitting the Nile is more of a blow.  The Nile brings life to Egypt, but Pharaoh has tried to make the life-giving Nile the instrument of death for the Israelite people.  The attack on the Nile is God’s claim over life and death.  Blood or life belongs to God.  This sign asserts authority over life

Pharaoh tried to make the Nile run red with blood in an attempt to take life

God turns the life-giving Nile into blood

The sign of blood may not completely establish God’s authority, but it begins to call into question the authority of Pharaoh’s magicians.  Once again the magicians are able to recreate the sign, but note the irony:  Instead of using their dubious powers to make fresh water, they simply make more blood.  Doesn’t that seem a bit stupid?  Not only does God have authority over life and death, but the magicians are unable to counter God’s authority.

From here the conflict rachets up a little.  God sends frogs, flies, and gnats.  Pharaoh was fearful of the Israelites swarming over the land, so God sends swarms of frogs, flies and gnats. I went out walking by the water on Monday afternoon and was surrounded by swarms of leaping, flying insects.  I thought immediately of this text.  After the frogs, the magicians are no longer able to recreate the signs and so they, at least,  become convinced of the reality of the God of Moses. 

 

God has no success with Pharaoh, so the next set of signs and wonders touches the livestock, the crops, the land, and the people, all of which are possesions of Pharaoh. (Remember that under Joseph, the Egyptians sold their cattle, their land, and eventually themselves to Pharaoh in order to obtain the food that Joseph had stored.)   And more importantly God distinguishes between the Egyptians and the Israelites.

^NRS Exodus 8:23 Thus I will make a distinction between my people and your people. This sign shall appear tomorrow.'”

(Distinction here means ransom or redemption)

All of these signs and wonders come against the people of Pharaoh, but none of them touch the people of God.

Exodus 9:14-16   ¹⁴ For this time I will send all my plagues upon you yourself, and upon your officials, and upon your people, so that you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth.  ¹⁵ For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth.  ¹⁶ But this is why I have let you live: to show you my power, and to make my name resound through all the earth.

Eventually the signs and wonders become a demonstration of the God of creation, the one who redeems by bringing order out of chaos.  Hail and darkness, the sky and the light.  Think how this goes back to that first creation:  God separates the water from the land, hear that water comes back with a vengeance.  God separates the dark from the light, here the dark comes back for three days.

An interesting note at this point:  God seems to be getting through to someone.  The people of Egypt who listened to the word of the Lord were able to save their livestock from the hail, just as the Israelites did.

Finally, the last sign is actually labeled a plague.  This is the sign that establishes completely God’s power.  God has said to Moses that only because of a mighty hand would Pharaoh let God’s people go.  Remember 6:6, “I will redeem you with an outstretched hand and mighty acts of judgement”  Well, here it is.

One aim of God has been accomplished.  The people of Egypt now believe in the power and authority of God and of God’s servant Moses.  We see this is the plundering of the Egyptians and in

^NRS Exodus 11:3 The LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, Moses himself was a man of great importance in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s officials and in the sight of the people.

Plague=direct touch of God.  In this plague, God is personally involved.  It is the mighty hand of God that touches the Egyptians and smites their firstborn.  The mighty hand of God that convinces both the Egyptians and the Israelites that God’s power could be trusted.

The purpose of the signs and wonders has been to get the people’s attention, to convince them to leave.  Also has the purpose of forcing Pharaoh and the people of Egypt to acknowledge God.

One would think that the signs and wonders would convince the Israelite people of the power and loving care of God.  One would think that being saved by the parting of the sea would convince them. But the moment the people get into the wilderness they once again become afraid.  The are not yet truly a people, they have not yet been formed.

Once the people are in the wilderness, the sign of God’s might and the sign of God’s presence becomes the same.  The cloud by day and fire by night leads the people to the holy mountain of Sinai.  Note that God does not come upon Sinai because it is a holy place, but that it is a holy place because God chooses to use it for a time.

The second stage of creation is the giving of the law, the purpose of which is to show God’s plan for the people, to establish boundaries and shape for the people, to separate the people of God from the people of the land.  The giving of the law is God bringing order out of chaos, redemption through creation, just as we see in the first chapter of Genesis.  Just as God redeemed the chaos by creating boundaries between light from dark, boundaries holding back the waters above from the waters below, God will redeem the people by creating boundaries between them and the people of the land, boundaries between holy behavior and unholy behavior.

The first way in which God creates order and boundaries for the people is in giving the law in the midst of a covenant ceremony, basically a worship service.  The message is so clear we almost miss it:  The point of your life is to worship God, all the laws are given to help you become a people of worship.  A covenant community is a worshiping community.  Conversely, it means that the heart of worship is loving God and loving neighbor.  We worship God by staying in unbroken covenant with our community by respecting elders, not murdering, not stealing, not coveting.

The ten words.  Everything rooted in the nature and worship of God.  The identity of the people starts with the identity of God.  The character of the people starts with the character of God.

[insert a part about the character of God:

1.  God hears the cries of the people and remembers the covenant.  God is a God of remembering and perhaps a God of not forgetting.  But what God chooses to remember is the covenant love and the covenant promises that God has given to the people.

]

We are so used to thinking of the law as restrictive that we forget that the law is a source of freedom for these people who have been slaves.  No longer will they be judged arbitrarily by their masters; now they must learn to judge themselves in accordance with God’s rule.  They must take responsibility for themselves.  We see this in the “ox-goring” text, Exodus 21:28ff

Exodus 21:28 -22:1  ²⁸ When an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall not be liable.  ²⁹ If the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past, and its owner has been warned but has not restrained it, and it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death.  ³⁰ If a ransom is imposed on the owner, then the owner shall pay whatever is imposed for the redemption of the victim’s life.  ³¹ If it gores a boy or a girl, the owner shall be dealt with according to this same rule.  ³² If the ox gores a male or female slave, the owner shall pay to the slaveowner thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.  ³³ If someone leaves a pit open, or digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it,  ³⁴ the owner of the pit shall make restitution, giving money to its owner, but keeping the dead animal.  ³⁵ If someone’s ox hurts the ox of another, so that it dies, then they shall sell the live ox and divide the price of it; and the dead animal they shall also divide.  ³⁶ But if it was known that the ox was accustomed to gore in the past, and its owner has not restrained it, the owner shall restore ox for ox, but keep the dead animal.

This is a passage that shows us how God is shaping the values of the people:

• Life is precious, not just the life of a man or of an adult or even of a free person, but the life of man, woman, boy, girl, or servant.
• The ox is subject to the penalty of death, but no one can benefit from the death of the ox, thus no one can benefit from the death of the one the ox has gored.  Death should not bring benefit, even if unintended.
• Owners must take responsibility for their own oxen.  If you know that you are in possession of something harmful, you must take responsibility for keeping others in the community safe.
• It is not necessary to impose the death penalty on the owner.  Life is precious; a ransom may be imposed instead.

What other values do we see?

• Exodus 22:14-15   ¹⁴ When someone borrows an animal from another and it is injured or dies, the owner not being present, full restitution shall be made.  ¹⁵ If the owner was present, there shall be no restitution; if it was hired, only the hiring fee is due.     Take care of others things as you would your own.
• Exodus 22:21-23   ²¹ You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.  ²² You shall not abuse any widow or orphan.  ²³ If you do abuse them, when they cry out to me, I will surely heed their cry;      You need to remember where you came from.
• Exodus 23:2-6   ² You shall not follow a majority in wrongdoing; [Experiment with college students; civil disobedience ]  when you bear witness in a lawsuit, you shall not side with the majority so as to pervert justice;  ³ nor shall you be partial to the poor in a lawsuit.  ⁴ When you come upon your enemy’s ox or donkey going astray, you shall bring it back.  ⁵ When you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden and you would hold back from setting it free, you must help to set it free.  ⁶ You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in their lawsuits.      You must act with justice, and justice does not depend on whether or not you like the person or not.  In fact your enemy is as deserving of justice as your friend.
• Finally, remember that worship is first.  Observe the festivals and offer the best to God.

The laws in Exodus are not restrictions, but statements of core values.  The laws are instructions on how to live out those core values.  The heart of the values is that of worship.  All the laws, all the rules, the whole covenant revolves around that fundamental principle:  loving God by worshiping God.  Worshiping God by living in covenant with God’s people.

The covenant of law is sealed with a meal.  Worship began the giving of the law and worship ends it.  But this time not just Moses, but the elders are invited to participate in the ceremony.

So we see that the final purpose of the law is to make connections between people, to tell them how to relate to one another and how to relate to God.

The law has provided boundaries, shape and form for the people. The third part of the formation of the people is to give them a center.  The Tabernacle is that center.  The description in the book of Exodus gives us a word picture, painting for us picture in our minds.

Exodus 25:1-2  ^NRS Exodus 25:1 The LORD said to Moses:  ² Tell the Israelites to take for me an offering; from all whose hearts prompt them to give you shall receive the offering for me. ³ This is the offering that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze,  ⁴ blue, purple, and crimson yarns and fine linen, goats’ hair,  ⁵ tanned rams’ skins, fine leather, acacia wood,  ⁶ oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense,  ⁷ onyx stones and gems to be set in the ephod and for the breastpiece.  ⁸ And have them make me a sanctuary, so that I may dwell among them.

While gathered around the mountain of Sinai, the people have this holy  mountain as their center.  It becomes the point of worship and the place they meet God.  However, please notice that God does not meet the people on the mountain of Sinai because it is holy ground.  Sinai becomes holy ground because that is where God meets the people.

In the tabernacle, the gratitude of the people intersects with the presence of the Almighty to form the center of the covenant community.  The tabernacle takes all of the beauty in the offereing of the people, brings it together with the offering of God in the law.  As the law comes into their midst, as the ark is carried, the people themselves become the Holy Ground.

Guided meditaion on the tabernacle.  Exodus 25-26

The account of the tabernacle shows us that multimedia worship has a long history:

          Smell:  myrrh, incense, cinnamon

          Sound:  bells on the robe

          Sight: the beauty of the gold, the blue, crimson, and purple fabric, the cherubim

          Touch:  different textures of linen, goats hair, leather, hammered gold

          Taste:  eating of the sacrificial meal

The explicit instructions show both god’s ordering hand and provides a way for the people in exile to hold on to God in the center.

Everything is movable, everything has poles. [Tabernacle community vs. Temple community; Faith UMC in the school ]

The priests match the place: they are an extension of the tabernacle. (Story about Lynn, who did not match).  Also the priests represent all 12 tribes and carry the weight of the tribes on their heads (28:36-38).  In a real way, the priests take on the image of the tabernacle and thus the image of God.  By extension the people take on the image of God.

 

Exodus 29:37   ³⁷ Seven days you shall make atonement for the altar, and consecrate it, and the altar shall be most holy; whatever touches the altar shall become holy.

After this beautiful set of directions by God laying out how to create the tabernacle we have a story that proves to us how important it is to have concrete, visible representations of the holy.  As Moses is up on the mountain speaking to God, the people are down in the valley convincing Aaron to make them a golden calf, not necessarily to be a replacement for Yahweh, but to be an image of Yahweh, or at the least, a throne of Yahweh.

Exodus 32:1-5  ^RS Exodus 32:1 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”  ² Aaron said to them, “Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.”  ³ So all the people took off the gold rings from their ears, and brought them to Aaron.  ⁴ He took the gold from them, formed it in a mold, and cast an image of a calf; and they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”  ⁵ When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a festival to the LORD.”

After this interlude, where we have the people failing miserably to abide by the words/commandments that they had been given, we have the account of the actual building of the tabernacle.

Exodus 40:34-38   ³⁴ Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.  ³⁵ Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled upon it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.  ³⁶ Whenever the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, the Israelites would set out on each stage of their journey;  ³⁷ but if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out until the day that it was taken up.  ³⁸ For the cloud of the LORD was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, before the eyes of all the house of Israel at each stage of their journey.

Here the Lord is before the eyes of all the house of Israel.  In case you want to downplay that, remember what happens at the end of Judges when “every man does what is right in his own eyes”

Human beings need the Lord before their eyes.  But the real point of all of the signs, the laws, and especially the tabernacle is this:  to recreate the people into the image of God.  They are to become holy as God is holy.  They are to become the visible, concrete sign of the holy presence of God in the world.

Thesis:  The book of Exodus can be seen as a three-part plan using the concrete and the visible to form and shape the descendants of Jacob/Israel into the people that will fulfill the covenant that God has made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

I.      The first part of the plan, the signs and wonders, is intended to give the people a reason to follow this virtually unknown God and show the people God’s power.

A.   The Problem:

1.     The Pharaoh no longer knows Joseph.

2.     The people no longer know God.

B.   All the people in Egypt are enslaved as well as the Israelite people so the contrast is between:

1.     The people of Pharaoh and the people of God.

2.     The enslaving Pharaoh and the liberating God.

C.   The dilemna:  In order for God to save these people, they have to trust God and God’s messenger.   But, they don’t think of themselves as God’s people, they think of themselves as Pharaoh’s people.   Exodus 5:15-16

D.   The solution:  Signs and Wonders

1.     Establishing the authority of God’s messengers:  the staff

2.     Establishing God’s claim over life and death: the attack on the Nile.

3.     Convincing the magicians:  frogs, gnats, flies.

4.     Touching the possessions of Pharaoh: the cattle, land and people.  Distinguishing between the people of God and the people of Pharaoh.

5.     Eventually the signs and wonders become a demonstration of the God of creation, the one who redeems by bringing order out of chaos.

6.     God gets personally involved.  In the last plague it is the mighty hand of God that touches the Egyptians and smites their firstborn.  The mighty hand of God that convinces both the Egyptians and the Israelites that God’s power could be trusted.

II.   The second stage of creation is the giving of the law, the purpose of which is to show God’s plan for the people, to establish boundaries and shape for the people, to separate the people of God from the people of the land.

A.   The first way in which God creates order and boundaries for the people is in giving the law in the midst of a covenant ceremony, basically a worship service.

1.     The ten words.  Everything rooted in the nature and worship of God.

2.     The identity of the people starts with the identity of God.

3.      The character of the people starts with the character of God.

B.   God creates the people by using the law to shape the values of the people:

1.     Exodus 21:28-36  Life is precious and each person must take responsibility for his/her own actions and possessions.

2.      Exodus 22:14-15   Take care of others’ things as you would your own.

3.     Exodus 22:21-23   You need to remember where you came from.

4.     Exodus 23:2-6   You must act with justice, and justice does not depend on whether or not you like the person or not.  In fact your enemy is as deserving of justice as your friend.

5.     Finally, remember that worship is first.  Observe the festivals and offer the best to God.

III.                       The third part of the formation of the people is to give them a center.

A.   While gathered around the mountain of Sinai, the people have this holy  mountain as their center.

B.   In the tabernacle, the gratitude of the people intersects with the presence of the Almighty to form the center of the covenant community.

C.   The account of the tabernacle shows us that multimedia worship has a long history:

1.     Smell:  myrrh, incense, cinnamon

2.     Sound:  bells on the robe

3.     Sight: the beauty of the gold, the blue, crimson, and purple fabric, the cherubim

4.     Touch:  different textures of linen, goats hair, leather, hammered gold

5.     Taste:  eating of the sacrificial meal

D.   The priests take on the image of the tabernacle and thus the image of God.  By extension the people take on the image of God.

E.   After the directions by God laying out how to create the tabernacle we have a story that proves to us how important it is to have concrete, visible representations of the holy.

Human beings need the Lord before their eyes.  But the real point of all of the signs, the laws, and especially the tabernacle is this:  to recreate the people into the image of God.  They are to become holy as God is holy.  They are to become the visible, concrete sign of the holy presence of God in the world.