Exodus 27

Chapter 27

The description of the altar of burnt offering, what with the shovel, meat fork, firepan, and grating, makes it seem like some sort of barbecue. Which I guess makes some sense, as I gather that the offerings were supposed to be burned in the altar itself. Verse 8 has God saying that the altar "is to be made just as you were shown on the mountain." Does that mean that God or one of His angels provided Moses with a little demo on how the altar should be built? At any rate, this shows just how much God valued sacrifices as tangible manifestations of His people's devotion to Him. Nowadays, of course, we don't need to do this, but if we really have a relationship with God, our faith should manifest itself through Christlike actions--and to repeat what I've been saying for the majority of these posts, that's something I definitely need to work on.

The Israelites use olive oil for the lampstand; I use it for cooking Brussels sprouts (just about the only food I know how to cook well that doesn't involve a microwave or toaster). Verse 21 says that "Aaron and his sons are to keep the lamps burning before the LORD from evening till morning." Similarly, Christians must be vigilant to keep the light of Christ burning within them. This doesn't mean we need to proselytize every second of every day, but we must remember to treat everyone as Christ would treat them--without rancor and without condescension. (OK, I suppose the latter is fine if you do it in a teasing manner with a close friend.) On a more superficial note, the use of the informal "till" instead of "until" surprised me; I wonder if this informal language is in the original Hebrew.

I don't have anything else pithy to write about this chapter (to which you may retort, "Well, you've never had anything pithy to write at all." Point taken.) But whenever I think of a barbecue, I remember the time in elementary school when our class went on an evening field trip to a public park close to our house. (I'm pretty sure it wasn't Cub Scouts, because why would we go somewhere so mundane?) The park had fire pits, over which we roasted food of some sort, but I only remember the marshmallows in particular. And that's because instead of roasting the marshmallows to eat, a few other deranged classmates and I dropped the marshmallows into the fire, causing them to turn black and swell to immense proportions. They looked like some sort of meteorite. It was easily the most thrilling, fascinating part of the trip, as I can't remember anything else about it.

"You shall not commit adultery" (20:14)

I may have my various faults, but I have never committed adultery. But as Jesus will say later on, those who look lustfully at someone might as well have committed adultery. This issue is obviously too sensitive to expand upon in a public post, but suffice to say that I'm a straight male who has gone through puberty. I know that the objectification of women (and men, for that matter) is reprehensible--I must keep in mind that we are all beloved children of God, and that applies as much to our enemies as to those we are tempted to objectify.