In God’s Presence
Share
Leviticus 24:1-23
Main Idea: God intends for us to live in His presence, serving Him daily, fellowshipping with Him intimately, relating to Him reverently, and responding to people graciously.
I. We Serve God Daily.
II. We Fellowship with God Intimately.
III. We Relate to God Reverently.
IV. We Respond to People Graciously.
V. Christ Fulfills the Tabernacle Perfectly.
A. Jesus is our light.
B. Jesus is our bread.
Every year the president of the United States delivers the State of the Union address. That address is a tradition, and like most traditions it has protocols. Every time a president delivers a State of the Union address, he arrives at the door to the House of Representatives chamber just after 9 p.m. The Sergeant at Arms always stands just inside the door, facing the Speaker of the House and waiting for the president to be ready to enter. When the president is ready, the Sergeant at Arms announces his presence loudly. “Mister Speaker (or Madam Speaker), the president of the United States!” Applause immediately erupts and everybody stands on their feet. Everything in the room changes when the president enters to deliver the State of the Union address. In fact, no matter the time or place, whenever the president enters a room, everything in the room changes.
Some people attract attention or respect even when they do not have an important position. Billy Graham’s biographer, John Pollock, once spoke of interviewing Mr. Graham at one of his evangelistic crusades. Mr. Graham was at the stadium, backstage in a mobile home. Pollock commented that when he entered the mobile home, there was a presence about Graham that made the room seem too small (cited in Mathews, Leviticus, 209). Some people have that kind of presence. It may be their social skills or personality, sort of a personal magnetism; it may be the affection or admiration people have for them; or it may be their position of authority.
If some people command attention and respect by their presence, how much more should the almighty, holy God command our attention and respect when we are in His presence? The Bible depicts being in the presence of God as a dramatic, unforgettable experience. The ninth chapter of Leviticus says that when the tabernacle was dedicated “the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. . . . And when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell facedown on the ground” (vv. 23-24). They knew they were in the presence of God. Job wanted God to come to him, but when God came, Job said, “I take back my words and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6). When Isaiah was in the presence of God, he said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips and live among a people of unclean lips, and because my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts!” (Isa 6:5). When Ezekiel was in the presence of God, he fell on his face (Ezek 1:28; 3:23).
The incidents cited in the last paragraph were special manifestations of the presence of God. In another sense God is always with His people. In the old covenant period God gave His people a physical representation of His presence—the tabernacle. God called the tabernacle the place “where I will meet you to speak with you” (Exod 29:42; cf. Exod 25:22). No physical representation of God Himself existed; that would have been idolatry. However, God was with His people and He associated His presence with the tabernacle. When the people saw the tabernacle, it reminded them that God was among them.
In the new covenant age in which we live, God is still with His people. Jesus said, “I am with you always” (Matt 28:20). In Hebrews 13:5 God says, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” In the new covenant in Christ, God has not given us a tabernacle or a temple; He has made His people His dwelling place. Several times in the New Testament God refers to followers of Jesus as His temple (1 Cor 3:16-17; 6:19; 2 Cor 6:16; Eph 2:21). First Corinthians 3:16 says to believers, “Don’t you yourselves know that you are God’s sanctuary and that the Spirit of God lives in you?” Once we are aware of God’s presence with us and in us, what changes about our lives? To borrow a phrase from Francis Schaeffer, once we know that we live in God’s presence, how should we then live? What do we do?
Leviticus 24:2 says God told the people to bring “pure oil from crushed olives for the light.” What was the light? The tabernacle consisted of three sections. The outer court was a large courtyard enclosed by a curtain made of linen. The bronze altar was in the courtyard of the temple. The priests offered sacrifices on it. A bronze basin was also located in the courtyard; that was where the priests washed their hands before serving in the holy place. So the first section was the outer court. When one entered the tent from the courtyard, one entered the space called the holy place. On the western side of the holy place was a curtain, and behind that was the space God called the most holy place or holy of holies. Only the ark of the covenant was located in the most holy place, only the high priest was allowed to enter the most holy place, and he entered only one day of the year, the Day of Atonement.
Every day of the year except for the Day of Atonement, the priests served not in the most holy place, but in the holy place. On the north side of the holy place was a table on which bread was placed. On the west side of the holy place was the altar of incense, and on the south side of the room was the light or lamp referred to in verse 2. That lamp was the golden lampstand. It had seven branches; we would call it a candelabra. The Hebrew word is menorah. A menorah was also placed in the temple that Solomon built later in Jerusalem. The Babylonians destroyed Solomon’s temple in 587 BC, and when God’s people rebuilt it in 515 BC and Herod renovated it in the first century AD, a menorah was again set in the holy place. The Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the temple again in AD 70. The Roman army under Titus carried the contents of the temple back to Rome. Today Titus’ arch still stands in Rome, and one of the images on that arch is a soldier carrying the lampstand, the menorah, that was taken out of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. In ancient Israel a menorah was engraved on coins (during the reign of Antigonus, first century BC), and in Israel today a menorah is still engraved on Israeli coins. In front of the building that houses the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, stands an enormous menorah representing the Jewish State of Israel. Throughout history the menorah has been a symbol of Judaism.
In verse 2 God told all the people to participate in caring for the menorah, the lampstand in the holy place. Only the priests were allowed to enter the holy place, but God commanded all the people to bring oil for the lamp. Every day the priests lit the lamp for the evening, so every day the priests needed oil for the lamp. God’s people brought the oil. The tabernacle could not function without the faithful service of the people of God.
What does that have to do with us? Think about how we should not connect the tabernacle to contemporary life. Allegory is not the way to connect Old Testament realities to our lives. We do not use allegory to connect an Old Testament reality to our lives unless the New Testament uses allegory. For example, one preacher/writer said the three sections of the tabernacle symbolize the three parts of human nature—the outer court represents the body, the holy place represents the soul, and the most holy place represents the spirit. That is allegory—that in the story symbolizes this in our lives. Does the Bible anywhere say that the tabernacle symbolizes human nature in that way? It does not. Where, then, did that preacher discover the idea of that symbolism or allegory? He got the connection from his own mind, not from God’s Word. The same preacher made more specific allegorical connections. According to his interpretation, in the holy place the table of bread symbolizes the emotions, the incense altar symbolizes the will, and the lampstand symbolizes the mind. Nothing in the Bible makes those items allegorical in that way; he invented the allegory.
Exposing and examining such an allegorical approach is important because it is a common way of applying parts of the Old Testament. One pastor said the fact that the seven lamps were on one lampstand symbolizes the unity of churches today. Another preacher said the beating of the olives to get olive oil represents the fact that ministers must be diligent in their study of God’s Word. Someone else wrote that the 12 loaves of bread on the table represent the unity and completeness of the church. Another pastor said the bread refers to the church’s preachers, and another preacher said the bread represents apostolic doctrine (see Elliott, Engaging Leviticus, 255–56). Again, does the Bible say that those pieces of furniture symbolize these realities in the new covenant age? It does not, so the symbolism is invented in the minds of people. That way of interpreting the Old Testament can lead to theological error since the interpretations and applications derive from the interpreter’s mind, not from what the Bible asserts.
In connecting Old Testament realities to our lives, the rule we suggest is to avoid allegory unless the New Testament uses allegory. The New Testament does use allegory sometimes. In John 6 Jesus referred to the manna God gave His people in the wilderness. Jesus compared and contrasted Himself with that manna. The manna represents Jesus because Jesus said it represents Him, and it represents Him in just the way He described. Hebrews 7 compares and contrasts Jesus with Melchizedek, the priest mentioned in Genesis 14. We can make that symbolic connection too, because Scripture makes it.
Let us return to Leviticus 24:2-4 and the lampstand. God commanded His people to bring the olive oil for the lamp in the tabernacle. To interpret God’s command and apply it to us properly, we ask, what did that command mean to the people to whom God first gave the command? For them, it meant service. God gave them something to do to serve Him. “Bring . . . pure oil.”
God tells His people to serve Him in the New Testament too. Hebrews 9:14 says the blood of Jesus cleanses “our consciences from dead works to serve the living God.” When we receive Jesus as Savior, one result of His saving work in us is that we will serve Him. Romans 12:11 is a command from God to all followers of Jesus: “Be fervent in spirit; serve the Lord.” Just as the Israelites served God daily by supplying the oil for the tabernacle, we too serve God daily. God’s command to His people to serve Him has not changed. Furthermore, when we serve we are behaving like Jesus. Jesus said of Himself, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve” (Matt 20:28). Jesus served; when we are like Him we will serve.
What are you doing to serve the Lord? Since God commands His people to serve Him, the church should expect followers of Jesus to serve God. My own church family requires every person who wants to join the church to sign a covenant. One of the commitments on that covenant is a promise to serve God in some way in His church. In addition, we ask them to commit to worship, pray, give, work for the unity of the church, and to do all those things faithfully. Every person who has joined the church has signed that covenant. Only the priests lighted the lampstand, but God told all His people to work to provide for the tabernacle. All God’s people serve.
We Fellowship with God Intimately
Verses 5-9 describe the table of bread that was on the north side of the holy place. The priests placed 12 loaves of bread on that table. The King James Version translates it as “shewbread.” The Hebrew words read literally “bread of the Presence” or “bread of the face,” referring to the fact that that bread was in the presence of God, set before Him.
In verses 8 and 9 God told the priests to replace the bread every Sabbath and eat the bread they took from the table. Over the years, the priests developed a rather elaborate ceremony for replacing the bread. Verse 9 says that God’s command about the bread on the table was a “permanent rule” or a “perpetual due.” The priests interpreted that phrase to mean that bread should always be on the table. Never should a moment pass when bread was not on the table. One rabbinic document (Mishnah) describes the process of changing the bread each Sabbath.
Four priests entered the holy place, two of them carrying the piles of bread, and two of them the cups of incense. Four priests had gone in before them, two to take off the two old piles of showbread, and two to take off the cups of incense. Those who brought in the new bread stood at the north side facing southward, those who took away the old bread, at the south side, facing northward. One part lifted off and the other put on, the hands of one being over against the hands of the other. . . . The loaves that were removed were delivered to the priests for their consumption within the Tabernacle. (cited in Levy, The Tabernacle, 48)
The priests then ate the bread in the tabernacle area.
When we looked at the fellowship offering in Leviticus 3 we pointed out that eating a meal in the tabernacle area was eating in the presence of God. Moreover, eating with someone signifies fellowship, friendship. People ate portions of the fellowship offering to symbolize that they were at peace with God. The priests ate the bread of the Presence for the same reason. They were enacting their fellowship with God. There were 12 loaves, just like there were 12 tribes of Israel. God invited all His people to fellowship with Him. When the priests ate 12 loaves of bread in the presence of God, they were enacting the relationship between God and His people, the fellowship God intended to have with His people.
Just as God called Israel into a covenant relationship with Him, He has called us into a covenant relationship with Him in Jesus. First Corinthians 1:9 says, “God is faithful; you were called by Him into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ.” Hebrews 4 calls Jesus our “great high priest” (v. 14), and it says that since Jesus is our high priest, “Let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us at the proper time” (v. 16). Through Jesus we draw near to God, and in God’s presence we “receive mercy and find grace.” We fellowship with God intimately. We live every part of our lives in His presence—our schoolwork, our meals, our free time and recreation, our jobs, our relationships, and our worship. Every part of our lives relates to God; we are always in His presence.
Honestly, how is your fellowship with God? Maybe some readers of this book are reconciled to God in Christ but their fellowship with God is limited or non-existent. They do not feel close to God anymore, if they ever felt close to Him. Are we walking with Him and talking with Him through every part of every day? Are we close to Him? Is our sin confessed, and have we asked Him to forgive so that we are clean in His presence? Are our hearts warmed when we read His Word? Do we enjoy times of prayer? If our fellowship with God is intimate, we can answer all those questions with a confident “Yes.” If our fellowship with God is not intimate, it can be. Amazingly, the almighty, holy God of the universe wants us to fellowship intimately with Him. Why not go into His presence now? We can meet with God at any time, wherever we are. God created us to enjoy intimate fellowship with Him.
We Relate to God Reverently
Leviticus 24:10-16 tells the story of a man who “blasphemed the Name” of God. He got in a fight, and in the course of the fight he blasphemed God’s name and “cursed” (v. 11). The crime of the man was not merely using God’s name in a curse; it was cursing God, saying something blasphemous about God or to God. The people “put him in custody” (v. 12). God had commanded His people not to take His name in vain, but He had not given a penalty for that sin. Therefore, after the people put the man in custody, they waited to see what God would say. God told Moses that the penalty was death, and the chapter ends with the people stoning the guilty man.
The tenth chapter of Leviticus records that God put two sons of Aaron to death for rebelling against God and offering a sacrifice that was against His will. The death penalty in Leviticus 24 is for the same crime—failing to treat God as holy. In announcing His punishment in both cases, God also related both deaths to the entire congregation. God judged these cases of blasphemy seriously not only because they were personal sins, but also because they had public effect. He put the men to death so that all the people would learn not to blaspheme Him.
When we read such a story about God sentencing someone to death for treating His name lightly, those of us who know and love God are confronted with our need for balance in the way we think about God and relate to God. Theologians refer to this as the balance between God’s immanence and His transcendence. In the last section we considered God’s desire for intimate fellowship with us, represented by His invitation to eat a meal in His presence. In God’s Word, God calls us to intimate fellowship with Him. He says that He loves us, and He wants us to love Him. He tells us to talk to Him without ceasing. He is the loving Shepherd who carries the sheep in His arms, the loving heavenly Father who welcomes us home, and He calls the church His bride. All these biblical truths direct us to intimate fellowship with God.
On the other hand, passages like Leviticus 24 remind us that the intimacy is not with a mere mortal man, but with the all-powerful Lord of Hosts, Creator of the universe! We must always observe that distinction. God’s holiness, His otherness, is beyond our ability to conceive. His glory, majesty, and mystery are inscrutable. God tells us repeatedly in His Word to fear Him. Hebrews 10:31 says, “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God!” His judgment of sin is real, and we are sinners. His power and knowledge are unlimited and perfect. We are not perfect, and we have never done anything perfectly except sin. To treat God as if He is one of us, as if we can fellowship with Him in the same way we fellowship with people, is blasphemy of His great name. It is wicked. God ordered a man to be put to death for blaspheming His holy name.
Some people are surprised by the severity of God’s judgment of the man who blasphemed. On the contrary, I am surprised by the extent of God’s mercy. We are surrounded by blasphemers. At work, at school, and in the media we regularly hear people scoff at the truth of God’s Word, mock God’s people, and publicly deny God’s existence. Yet God allows them to live another day, and another, and another. He mercifully gives them many opportunities to turn to Him in faith. The apostle Paul referred to such mercy as God’s “extraordinary patience” (1 Tim 1:16). Peter wrote that God shows such patience because He does not want anyone to perish in His judgment. Instead, God wants “all to come to repentance” (2 Pet 3:9).
Who knows how many opportunities He gave to the man described in Leviticus 24? Also, God’s judgment of him was an act of mercy to everyone in the man’s life, so that they would not learn to blaspheme from him and go into an eternity of suffering and separation from God. In eternity God will be treated as holy; He will be worshiped as God. We relate to God reverently.
We Respond to People Graciously
Verses 17-23 describe what Bible students refer to as lex talionis—the law of retaliation. We know it as “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.” The law of lex talionis was never a license for God’s people to be vengeful when people hurt us. First, God did not give the authority of retaliation to individuals but to all His people, the nation of Israel. The New Testament teaches the same truth—punishing lawbreakers is the role of the government, not individuals (e.g., Rom 13:1-7). Second, in the cultures surrounding Israel, “vicious revenge was the general rule” (Cochran and VanDrunen, Law and the Bible, 21–22). Laws like those in Leviticus 24 limited punishment and fitted punishment exactly to the crime. If someone injured another person, the guilty party was not put to death; he was made to suffer in some way that was equivalent.
In Matthew 5 Jesus quoted this law:
You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I tell you, don’t resist an evildoer. On the contrary, if anyone slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. As for the one who wants to sue you and take away your shirt, let him have your coat as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two. (vv. 38-41)
When Jesus said those words He made it clear that the right of retaliation does not belong to individuals. Whatever the government may do in response to wrongdoing, individual followers of Jesus don’t take revenge. We turn the other cheek. Jesus responded to people that way when He was arrested, tried unjustly, and treated brutally. Jesus did not retaliate. Neither should we.
Paul was writing to individual believers and to the church, not to the government, when he wrote Romans 12:17-21.
Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Try to do what is honorable in everyone’s eyes. If possible, on your part, live at peace with everyone. Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for His wrath. For it is written: Vengeance belongs to Me; I will repay, says the Lord. But if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For in so doing you will be heaping fiery coals on his head. Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good.
Retaliation, or punishment for wrongdoing, is the purview of the government. As followers of Jesus, we respond to people graciously.
Christ Fulfills the Tabernacle Perfectly
In Matthew 5:17 Jesus said, “Don’t assume that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.” Jesus fulfills every part of the Law and the Prophets. In the old covenant period God gave the tabernacle and later the temple in Jerusalem to communicate His presence to His people. In the new covenant period God has given us Himself in Jesus to communicate His presence. John 1:14 says Jesus “became flesh and took up residence among us.” Jesus fulfills the tabernacle.
Jesus Is Our Light
The tabernacle had light by means of the menorah. The light from that lampstand was in the tabernacle, the place that represented the presence of God. It must have reminded God’s people of how God had led them through the wilderness by means of a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. By the earthly lifetime of Jesus, the Jews would light a large menorah and carry it in a procession through Jerusalem during the Festival of Booths to commemorate how God led them through the wilderness. The Gospel of John records that Jesus was in Jerusalem during the Festival of Booths. During that festival, Jesus said to them, “I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows Me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). We no longer light lamps to remember God’s presence or leadership. Jesus is our light.
Jesus Is Our Bread
In the tabernacle the bread on the table in the holy place represented having fellowship with God, symbolically sharing a meal with Him. In the sixth chapter of John Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. . . . No one who comes to Me will ever be hungry” (v. 35). Jesus also said we have to eat His flesh, take Him into our lives, if we want to have Him and His life in us (vv. 51-58). Jesus has given us a symbol of that in the Lord’s Supper. When we eat the bread and drink the cup we symbolize taking Him into our lives. The Lord’s Supper, like the bread of the Presence, is a symbol. The reality is fellowship with God through Jesus. The meal is the physical shadow; fellowship with God is the spiritual substance (Col 2:16-17; Heb 8:1-6). Jesus is the perfect fulfillment of the tabernacle. He is the perfect, final, once-for-all sacrifice for sin. He is our high priest forever. May we live in constant fellowship with Him.
- According to the Old Testament, how did people respond to God’s presence?
- Once we are aware of God’s presence with us and in us, what changes about our lives?
- Why should we generally avoid using the allegorical method to interpret and apply Scripture, particularly the Old Testament? When is it acceptable to use allegory?
- What were the priests enacting when they ate the bread of the Presence?
- How does God show His mercy to blasphemers (2 Peter 3:9)?
- How was God’s judgment, described in Leviticus 24:10-16, an act of mercy?
- What is lex talionis? To whom does the right of retaliation belong?
- How are followers of Jesus supposed to respond to wrongdoing?
- In the old covenant period God gave the tabernacle and later the temple to communicate His presence to His people. What has God given to communicate His presence in the new covenant period?
- How does Jesus fulfill the tabernacle?