It was a critical, formative time for Israel and there are certainly many lessons from this chunk of scripture. But I am focusing on 'desert'...so let's see what we find about the desert during that period.
There really are not a lot of references containing 'desert'...the focus was elsewhere during this period. But there are a few.
Exodus 23:31 references the desert as a territorial border -- "I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the River; I will hand over to you the people who live in the land and you will drive them out before you."
Leviticus 7:38 references the offerings the Israelites were commanded to bring while in the Desert of Sinai; 11:18 mentions the desert owl. So the next real 'desert' statement is in Leviticus 16
But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the LORD to be used for making atonement by sending it into the desert as a scapegoat....When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the Tent of Meeting and the altar, he shall bring forth the live goat. He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites -- all their sins-- and put them on the goat's head. He shall send the goat away into the desert in the care of a man appointed for the task. The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place; and the man shall release it in the desert." (Lev. 16:10,20-22)
I have always thought this a little odd. But the truth is...we don't know the fate of the goat that symbolically carried the sins away into the desert. Was it a domesticated goat, who would have no clue how to survive, and so slowly die of starvation/thirst...or not so slowly die as prey? Or was it a desert goat, who was released into his own environment, where he could live happily as a wild goat? We don't know. But...we do know that this complicated process of sacrifice and release both shows the atonement and the removing of sin from the people. Once the goat was released at the remote location...whether he lived or died he would not be returning. He, and the sins he bore, were gone for good. And, here's another thought that occurs to me...you see that the people could do nothing in and of themselves to atone for or rid themselves of their sin. No prostration, humiliation, acts of charity, or any other action save the sacrifice for atonement and the banishment of the scapegoat for removal. If you read through Leviticus, you will find varying sacrifices and/or offerings to be made by an individual who sins in some fashion, and in some cases restitution is required where there is injury or loss to another party, but there is no form of ritualistic...anything...that an individual might be required to do to rid himself of sin or atone for his own sin or obtain forgiveness for his sin. That is a concept that just isn't there. There is a sacrifice...there is removal...and it is all ultimately down to the grace of God, who forgives the one who seeks forgiveness. There are rituals associated with cleanliness, but those things often aren't associated with sin so much as the natural course of life...an illness, dealing with a dead body, burning garbage, etc. There is no ritual a human can do by which she/he removes or atones for their own sin. But under the Law, the scapegoat, by God's grace and design, carried the sins outside the camp into the desert...gone for good..
In Numbers, chapter 1, we see that God commanded a census of the people before they left
The LORD spoke to Moses in the Tent of Meeting in the Desert of Sinai on the first day of the second month of the second year after the Israelites came out of Egypt. He said, "Take a census of the whole Israelite community by their clans and families, listing every man by name, one by one.'.... and they called the whole community together on the first day of the second month. The people indicated their ancestry by their clans and families, and the men twenty years old or more were listed by name, one by one, as the LORD commanded Moses. And so he counted them in the Desert of Sinai." (Num 1: 1-2, 18b-19) This is the first of two such census takings recorded in Numbers; that's why the book was given the name 'Numbers', to be exact. Topically, this census is also continued in chapter 3:14, when Moses is commanded to count the males of the tribe of Levi - The LORD said to Moses in the Desert of Sinai, "Count the Levites by their families and clans. Count every male a month old or more."
But there were two missing from the count; we see in 3:4 what happened to Aaron's two sons Nadab and Abihu -
Nadab and Abihu, however, fell dead before the LORD when they made an offering with unauthorized fire before him in the Desert of Sinai. They had no sons; so only Eleazar and Ithamar served as priests during the lifetime of their father Aaron.
That account is recorded in Lev. 10, if you want to go back and read it; I have written a blog post about it before so I'll let you click through if you want to read that. It is enough, here, to say that the Israelites had to learn to differentiate between what was holy and what was ordinary.
Finally, the last mention of the Desert of Sinai is in chapter 9, just before the Israelites depart
The LORD spoke to Moses in the Desert of Sinai in the first month of the second year after they came out of Egypt. He said, "Have the Israelites celebrate the Passover at the appointed time."...and they did so in the Desert of Sinai at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month. The Israelites did everything just as the LORD commanded Moses. - (Num. 9:1-2,5)
It had been a year since they left Egypt; nine months since they camped at Sinai. In those nine months, the ragtag band of refugees became a nation with laws, a central place of worship, a chain of command...a national identity beyond just family relationship. They were going to need it. In Egypt, they had been sequestered away...living in a separate community, comprising a separate class. But where they were going, there would be a battle to maintain their boundaries and identity as the people of God. They got all of the necessary tools at Sinai. All they had to do was live according to the instructions God gave them through Moses...and God himself promised to defend them.
No comments:
Post a Comment