the third word

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- Biblical Horizons - http://www.biblicalhorizons.com -

No. 60: The Third Word

Posted By James B. Jordan On November 1, 1998 @ 12:00 am In Rite ReasonsNewsletter | Comments Disabled

Rite Reasons, Studies in Worship, No. 60Copyright (c) 1998 Biblical HorizonsNovember, 1998

In our study of the historical impact and unfolding of the Ten Words of God, wenow arrive at the Third Word. The Third Word prohibits hypocrisy, and when werealize this, we can see right away that disobeying the Third Word is closely tied tothe situation of Israel (the Jews) at the time of Jesus. Of course, claiming to beGods people while breaking any of His commands involves a degree of hypocrisy,but the Third Word focuses particularly on what hypocrisy entails.

Let us begin, then, with a translation and exposition of the Third Word: You shallnot carry the name of Yahweh, your Elohim, emptily, for Yahweh will notacquit the one who carries His name emptily.

Exegesis

You shall not carry. The verb here means to lift up, bear, or carry. It is not justthe idea of taking Gods Name on our lips, and indeed, cursing and swearing areonly marginally related to this commandment. If we look at how the Bible uses thisverb, we get a better idea of what is involved.

To begin with, Aaron as High Priest carried Israel on his shoulders, and bore theiniquity of Israel on the golden flower on his forehead (Exodus 28:12, 18, 19). TheLevites carried the furniture of the Tabernacle, which symbolized the people ofIsrael in their various functions as members of Gods house (Numbers 4; Exodus25:14, 27, etc.). Carrying Yahweh is like carrying His people, because Yahweh is"in" the Tabernacle, and "in the midst" of His people.

A second relevant dimension to this carrying is that people are said to carry theirsin and iniquity (Leviticus 5:1, 17; 16:22; 17:16). Similarly, to forgive sins is to"lift off" sins in Genesis 50:17 and Psalm 25:18. Thus, those who do not carryYahweh (Jesus) are doomed to carry their own sins. If they carry God emptily, God

will keep their sins on their heads, and not forgive them.

A third aspect is the lifting up of the hand, either in swearing an oath (Exodus 6:8)or in worship and praise (Psalm 134:2). Here we see that taking Gods Name invain, carrying it emptily, is related to false oaths and to worship.

A final aspect is that Aaron wore Gods Name on the golden flower on his forehead,whose seven letters read "Holy to Yahweh." Carrying Gods Name is like wearingGods Name, being clothed in it and crowned with it.

The Name of Yahweh. The "construct" form of Hebrew nouns usually carries agenitive idea, so that we translate "Name of Yahweh" and "Angel of Yahweh" and"Daughter of Jerusalem." This Hebrew noun form also, however, can carry the ideaof apposition, and this is clearly the case in the last phrase, which should betranslated "Daughter Jerusalem," because Jerusalem is the daughter of God.Similarly, it is very possible and even likely that the other phrases can better be
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rendered "Name Yahweh" and "Angel Yahweh," for Yahweh is the Name andYahweh is the Angel (Messenger). Otherwise, we should be asking: "What is theName of Yahweh? What other term is His Name?" What would be the answer tothat question? Maybe Yahwehs name is I AM, but in fact the whole rest of the Biblemakes it clear that Yahwehs name is Yahweh.

Possibly we should understand the Third Word this way: You shall not carry theName: Yahweh, who is your Elohim . . . . This would mean that the Name, whois Yahweh, is their Supreme Power; in other words that the Second Person of the

Trinity is their Elohim. It would mean that the pre-incarnate Jesus was their King.Since this was in fact the case, this translation of the Third Word seems quitelikely. At the same time, the second phrase of the Word says: for Yahweh willnot acquit the one who carries His Name emptily. Here Yahweh seems to be aPerson other than the Name, so that this phrase means: The Father will not acquitthe one who carries His Son emptily. In view of this second phrase, we mightsuggest the following as the most accurate translation: You shall not carry theName (Second Person) of Yahweh (First Person), which Name is yourElohim . . . . Yet, in terms of apposition, "your Elohim" comes right after"Yahweh," not right after "Name." Thus, the traditional translation seems the mostlikely.

What it means is that the Father is Yahweh, and we see this in Psalm 110: "Yahwehsaid to my Master, `Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies Yourfootstool." But the use of "Yahweh" as the name of Israels King means thatYahweh is also the name of the Son, who is the very Image of the Father. We canperhaps understand this by thinking of Yahweh as Gods family name: FatherYahweh, Son Yahweh, and by implication at least, Spirit Yahweh.

The Father bestows His name, Yahweh, on His Son, so that His Son is namedYahweh also. Since Father Yahweh is the Namer, He is not the Name. The Son isthe Name. The Third Word concerns carrying the Name, the Son. In the Third

Word, God is saying that His people carry Him, or more precisely His Name,wherever they go.

The Name of God is the presence of God in the Tabernacle/Temple, as we haveseen. In fact, the Name of God is the Second Person of God (just as the name ofthe Seabeast in Revelation is the second person of the beast: the Landbeast orFalse Prophet). Gods people not only bear His Name as "Yahweh-worshippers" andlater as "Christians," but they also take Him with them as they live and move andhave their being. People are to discern who God is as they observe us, and if welive empty and false lives, then the revelation of God is distorted andcompromised, and even falsified.

God had told Moses that the meaning of His Name Yahweh was not disclosed to thepatriarchs. They understood the Name El Shaddai, the Almighty God, the one whois powerful and whose promises of the future can be trusted (Exodus 6:3). InMoses day, God revealed Himself as Yahweh, the God who keeps the covenantpromises made to the fathers, and who can be trusted for this reason also.Specifically, Yahweh is the God who delivered them from Egypt, married them, andguided them to the promised land (Exodus 6:6-8).

Also, God told Moses that Yahweh was His memorial Name (Exodus 3:15). Thisdoes not mean a Name to remember God by. A memorial in the Bible is somethingGod sets up to remind Himself not that He needs reminding, but that He chooses

to act this way for our good. The rainbow after the Flood, for instance, was amemorial for God to see (Genesis 9:12-17). Similarly, the Lords Supper is amemorial, something God has established for us to do as a way of reminding Himto keep the covenant. (A concordance study of the Hebrew and Greek words for


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"memorial" will show that Gods memorials are to remind Him, not to remind us. Inworship, the Word and sermon are given to remind us, while we do the Supper toremind God.)

Exodus 3:15, where God identifies Yahweh as the God of the patriarchs, comesimmediately after Gods statement that His Name is I AM THAT I AM, or simply IAM. Ultimately, this Name points to God as the only self-existent being inexistence. But again, in context, God had just told Moses "I shall be with you." "Ishall be" is the same Hebrew form as I AM, and thus some translate the Name as I

SHALL BE WHO I SHALL BE. The verb "to be" also lies behind the Name Yahweh.Thus, the phrase "Yahweh will be with you" is equivalent to "I SHALL BE with you."We can expand this as follows: "The One who is self-existent will be with you."

What does it mean to be I AM, to be self-existent? It means to have life in oneself.Only God has life in Himself; our life comes from Him. Apart from Him, we are indeath. Death is, as we rightly say, separation from God, the Living God. Thus, towear Gods Name is to choose to dwell in Gods life, and to seek life nowhere else.As we shall see, it means never seeking life through blood, because the life that isin the blood is merely creaturely life.

Adam had this choice. He was invited to every tree in the garden except the Tree ofthe Knowledge of Good and Evil, and this meant he was invited to the Tree of Life.Adam should have understood that he did not have life in himself, and that heneeded to go to God for life. Adam, however, decided that he had life in himself,and was thus like God, and did not need to go to God for life. By making thischoice, Adam entered into death.

The opposition of life and death is fundamental to the Third Word, and this is whyin the symbolic-pedagogic (teaching by means of symbols) exposition of the ThirdWord in the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, it is the opposition of death andlife that comes to the forefront.

God gives this Name to Israel. He entrusts it to them. He takes a risk in giving it tothem, for they may abuse it. He will be watching them, to see if they carry itrighteously or falsely, and in terms of how they carry it, He will be reminded tobless or curse them.

Thus, to carry Gods Name is related to being in union with Jesus Christ. We arealso anointed messiahs, having received of the same Spirit who anointed HimMessiah. We are "little christs," as it is often said. Men are to see Jesus in us, andin seeing Jesus, see the Father (John 14:9).

Leviticus 18-22 and Deuteronomy 14:1-21a provide an exposition of the Name

Yahweh and what it means for the people to wear-bear that Name. We shall lookmore closely at Leviticus below.

Your Elohim. As we have seen, there are various elohim (powers) in Godscreation: angels, for instance, and elders. These gods are real, but they are not theGod whom alone we are to worship. Of all the elohim, Yahweh is the Elohim.

But not just the Elohim: yourElohim. In the covenant marriage, God gives Himselfto us. He gives us the right to carry Him and to call upon Him. He is not distant,but infinitely near.

As we have seen, it is the Name of Yahweh who is their particular Elohim-power. Itis the Second Person, the pre-incarnate Jesus, who is married to them, and whogives His life to them.

Emptily. The Hebrew word translated "in vain" or "emptily" carries two related


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connotations. The first is of powerlessness or vanity. The man who carries GodsName emptily is the Christian who does nothing that would mark him as aChristian. It is not so much that he does evil things, as that he does nothing at all.He is like the man who buries his talent in Jesus parable. He simply moves withthe flow of his times, and fails to show forth the God whose Name he bears.

The second connotation of the word is falsity. The man who carries Gods Namefalsely goes a step farther, so to speak. Like the Pharisees, he carries Gods Namewith him, but his life and words cause men to hate God. By his life he bears false

witness to who God is.

By using this term, the Third Word links the two concepts of emptiness and falsity.To carry a powerless, empty god is to show a false god.

As we have seen, God is Life. Thus, to carry Gods Name emptily means to carry itlifelessly and listlessly. God is powerful in a humble, self-sacrificing way. Eachmember of the Trinity delights to humble Himself to glorify the other two. Thosewho carry Gods Name must live in the same way. By being servants of all, notlording it over anyone, living sacrificially, we show forth the hidden but infinitepower of God. This was the calling of Israel, which Jesus fulfilled in His humility,

and which we are to extend in union with Him. Gods life is not a "triumphalistic"life, but a giving, self-sacrificing life.

We might say that God as One does seek His own glory; but within the Trinity,each seeks the glory of the others. The Father stays in the background and glorifiesthe Son. But the Son says that He does only what the Father says, and that it isgood for Him to depart, because the Spirit is coming, and He is even morewonderful. But the Spirit is like oil, wind, and water ungraspable. The Spiritnever points to Himself, but always to the Son and the Father. Thus, self-glorification is not a "property" of any of the three Persons of God. Rather, humilityis the property of each. Human beings, imaging Gods life, are to live with the samekind of deference toward one another and toward each of the Persons of God.

God has all glory in Himself, but He gives that glory to others. Each Person givesHis glory to the other two, and they all seek to give their glory to us. In the sameway, we are to give glory to one another, and to God, and never seek it forourselves.

Accordingly, to carry Gods Name emptily means to be carry it with personal prideinstead of with personal deference and humility. This, as we shall see, was thegreat sin of the Jews in Jesus day.

The feminine form of this term denotes desolation. While some Hebrew scholars

separate these two terms, the fact is that they are spelled the same way, and otherscholars believe they are the same word. They would have been heard as linked bythose hearing the Word of God read aloud in the synagogues. And it is importantthat we see the connection. Those who empty the Name of God by their lives, willbe themselves desolated when God completely abandons them to destruction.

For Yahweh will not acquit the one who carries His Name emptily. As wehave seen above, the sinner carries his guilt unless God carries it off from him andreplaces it with His Name and righteousness. The word "acquit" in the Hebrewmeans not only absolve from legal guilt, but also free from punishment as aconsequence. Thus, the man who is not acquitted must carry not just bare legal

guilt, but also punishment.

Exposition

Gods people are to lift up and carry His Name in lip and in life. They lift up the


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Name in praise and prayer, so that God is enthroned on the praises of Israel. Theyswear by it in court (Deuteronomy 6:13; 10:20).

In life they wear it as garments on their shoulders. The Levites as theirrepresentatives carried the Tabernacle on their shoulders. Enshrined in theTabernacle was the Name of God, so that in a visible way the Levites carried theName of Yahweh. The High Priest, as the most representative man, carried GodsName on his forehead on the golden flower.

But beyond this, the gift of the Name to Israel in particular was part of whatmarked them out as a special nation of priests. The God-fearing Gentiles knew Godas "God Most High." To Israel God gave the special Name Yahweh. In the NewCreation, the distinction between priestly and non-priestly believers is abolished,for all believers are now priests in the fullest sense. Before the coming of thegospel, however, the Name Yahweh was capable of being abused in a particularway that is important to our consideration of the societal implications of the firstfour Words.

God had made it clear that those who carried His Name were to serve the nationsas priests. They were not to lord it over the Gentiles as if they were some kind of

specially blessed people, nor were they to isolate themselves. To do these would beto carry His Name falsely or emptily. By the time of Jesus, however, this is exactlywhat they were doing.

As priests, they were ministers of death and life to the world. That is what thesacrifices maintained by Israel on behalf of the world were all about. The substituteanimal dies and then new life is given. They had to keep themselves partiallyseparate so that they could perform this task for the nations; it was their peculiarcalling until Jesus came and performed the task perfectly.

Thus, the special rules God set forth for Israel, and also for the Aaronic priests,were designed to set them apart for this task, and not as badges of some kind of

special superiority. In Covenant Sequence in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, I haveshown that the laws of abomination in Leviticus 17-22, and the laws of life and foodin Deuteronomy 14:1-21a, are large expositions of the Third Word. These lawshave to do, symbolically, with life and death. They set forth what it means to be"holy to Yahweh." Holiness is strongly linked to the life of God Himself, and thosewho are holy are those who break with death and provide new life to the world.God-fearing Gentiles were not obligated to these laws, for they were not part of thecircumcised nation of priests. But the symbolic pedagogy of the Levitical system,acted out as a drama by the Israelites, was to instruct the nations in the way ofhumility, and it has the same meaning for us today.

The perversion of life and holiness is death and desolation. Adam ignored the Treeof Life and chose death. Thus, matters of life and death are intimately bound upwith what it means to carry the Name of the Living God. It is particularly in thecrisis situation that a person is revealed. In the crisis, Adam did not uphold Godscovenant Name, Yahweh, which is the Name used throughout Genesis 2-3.Similarly, in the great temptation and crisis in the days of Jesus earthly ministry,the Jews did not uphold the Name.

The Third Word and the Restoration Era

As we have seen, the first period of Israels history is characterized by violations of

the First Word (from Sinai to the Kingdom). The second period is characterized byviolations of the Second Word (the Kingdom era). In the third period, after theRestoration, violations of the Third Word come into focus. No longer do we find thatthe Jews are tempted to worship other gods, or to pretend to worship Yahweh


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through images and icons. These matters have been settled.

Now the people are ready to boast in the Name Yahweh, a thing wonderful andproper if done rightly. But the people soon pervert what it means to carry theName, and in fact they eventually stop saying it altogether, emptying it. We cansee the beginning of this in the book of Malachi, which concerns the defection ofthe people from their priestly duty of upholding the Name, but it is primarily in theGospels and in the Apostolic writings that it comes into clear focus, for the great sinin Malachi and in the Gospels is hypocrisy.

Israel was the chosen people, but chosen for what? They were chosen to serve thenations, not to be an isolated special cult. They were called to humility. Israelscalling was always with reference to blessing the nations. That is about the firstthing God said to Abram in Genesis 12, and it is reiterated repeatedly. It was thesin of Jonah, for instance, to try and hold back the blessing from the Gentiles. Overand over again the Torah commands kindness toward the alien, stranger,sojourner. The Torah says that obedience to Yahweh will be a light to guide thenations, and that they will seek Him and His ways. That is what it means to carryGods Name in a powerful and righteous way, not in an impotent, empty way.

But the Jews of Jesus day were not doing this at all. If they made a convert, theymade him a son of hell like themselves (Matthew 23:15). They invented the notionthat Gentiles were unclean, and that contact with them should be avoided thereverse of what the Torah commands (Acts 10:28; 11:3 the word "unlawful" here[athemitos] does not mean "against Gods commands" but "against ourtraditions").

Thus, the crisis of Covenantal Idolatry, when the Israelites went whole-hog into theworship of other gods (Judges 10:6), and the crisis of Liturgical Idolatry, when theIsraelites went whole-hog into the service of images (Ezekiel 8), is now followed bya crisis of Practical Idolatry as the Jews become wholly given over to hypocrisy. Icall this "Practical Idolatry" because it concerns practice in the larger field of life,not the central zone of worship.

A full survey of hypocrisy in the Gospels would take us too long, and is probablyunnecessary because most readers are well aware of it. Instead, it will be profitableto examine the great exposition of the Third Word, which is the book of Leviticus,and see how it relates to this stage of history in a special way.

The Name and Leviticus

As the third book of the Bible, Leviticus is particularly concerned with the ThirdWord throughout. Except for the "four Gentile laws" of Leviticus 17-18, repeated in

Acts 15:29, the commands of Leviticus applied only to the priestly nation of Israel,marking them out. It is these laws, and their extensions in the demonic Oral LawTradition, that are at issue in the "works of the law" advocated by the Judaizers inthe apostolic age, and the Spirit settled this matter by affirming that only the lawsthat applied to both Jew and Gentile were still binding in the New Creation. If weare to understand the heart of the violation of the Third Word, and what it meansfor history and society, we must briefly examine the meaning of its exposition inLeviticus.

As a whole, Leviticus is concerned with what it means to be a nation of priests. Apriest (kohen) is a palace servant, and Yahwehs priests were his palace

(Tabernacle/Temple) servants. Since God is Life, and the Living God, the duty ofthe priest is to keep death away from God, and to remove death from those whowish to draw near to God. The priest must display the humility-to-glory sequence,and lead the people in that sequence in the sacrifices and cleansings. It is also the


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duty of the priest to obey Yahweh, to celebrate Yahweh, and to submit to Yahwehschastisements, all in a way that is exemplary to all the other people of the world,showing forth the Name. This is what Leviticus is all about.

In Covenant Sequence I analyzed Leviticus in five sections, and for our purposes,this analysis is adequate.

Sacrifices.

Leviticus 1-7 has to do with the sacrifices and offerings. These all have do with lifeand death, and the memorial of life and death (ch. 2). The animal is killed as asubstitute, thereby removing the sentence of death from the man who draws near.Then the animal, representing the offerer, is transfigured by Gods consuming fireand ascends into His holy presence in the column of smoke. Meanwhile, the "flesh"of the animal is reduced to ashes, falls through the grating inside the altar, and isremoved from Gods presence outside the camp. The Aaronic priest does this forthe people, and also for the nations of the world, enable all to draw near who wishto do so. The Aaronic priests display in a symbolic and microcosmic form the natureof Israel as a nation of priests, thereby disclosing in a pointed way what it meansto be invested with Gods Name.

Life comes on the other side of death. To put it less drastically, glory comes on theother side of humility. This is how the Persons of God act in their Eternal Covenantrelationship. They live by faith in each other: The Son humbles Himself to glorifythe Father and the Son, confident in faith that each of them will do the same forHim. Man is called to live the same way. We can afford to humble ourselves beforeGod and before His images (other people), confident in faith that He will glorify uson the other side of our humility.

This is how Adam was to act. By refusing to act that way, Adam was judged withdeath. Death is now the form humility must take. If glory-life was on the other sideof humility, now it is on the other side of death. Accordingly, Jesus tells us in John

17 that He laid aside His earlier glory, given to Him by the Father and the Spirit,and humbled Himself even to death; and then He asks the Father to re-glorify Himafter He has completed His humiliation.

This is the heart of the sacrificial system in Leviticus. The animal, representing theworshipper, undergoes death and then is glorified with Gods fire-glory on the altar,transfigured and ascending up the ladder of smoke to Gods throne. The sacrificesrepresented individuals and Israel as a nation of priests, showing them that glorycomes through self-sacrifice, even death and martyrdom. The sacrifices alsorepresented the nations of the world, especially the 70 bulls offered at the Feast ofClouds for the seventy nations of Genesis 10 (Numbers 29:12-34). In the same

way as the sacrifices and as Jesus, the saints in Revelation are said to "overcome"by their faithfulness unto death and martyrdom. The same must be true of us.

As the Aaronic priests as religious leaders were to seek every means to bring theIsraelites to God, so Israel as a nation of priests were to seek every means to bringthe nations to God. Jesus condemns the best religious leaders of His day, thePharisees, for keeping people from Yahweh (Matthew 23:13). The Jews hadreversed what it means to be a priest. Under the Law, it was a very easy matter todraw near to God: If one was unclean, one needed merely to bathe. Only the altarand the palace house of Yahweh were restricted from the people. But the Jewsreversed this. They made it hard to draw near. Their (Herods) Temple had a Court

of Gentiles and a Court of Women, for these were not allowed to draw as near asJewish men. They were scandalized when Jesus reached out to sinners. Theyobjected when Peter went to the house of Cornelius (Acts 11:3). Even Jesusdisciples often tried to keep people, especially children, from Him.


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Uncleanness.

Leviticus 8-16/17 has to do with symbolic death and life. "Unclean" meanssymbolically dead, and "cleansing" means resurrection. The "flesh" is unclean andmust be cleansed. The laws of uncleanness applied only to Israel, the nation ofpriests, with only one exception (Leviticus 17:14, because it deals with blood aswell as flesh). It is extremely important to grasp this fact, for the sin of theJudaizers was to try and impose these laws on Gentile converts.

In Jesus day, the attitude of the Jews was that a real first-class convert would becircumcised and become a Jew, while the God-fearers who were not circumcisedwere only second-class believers. The Judaizers extended this mentality. Theyinterpreted the Gospel as meaning that now all men should become "FulfilledJews." Their attitude was that to be a Jew was to be closer to God and thus asuperior way of life. No longer should Gentile converts remain uncircumcised God-fearers, but now they should all become Christian Jews.

This outlook reverses what was actually the case. The Jews were not superior but"inferior" to the God-fearers. Abram recognized Melchizedek, the Gentile believer,as his superior. Moses and Aaron were led in worship by the uncircumcised Jethro

(Exodus 18:12). The Jews were set up to serve and minister to the believingGentiles. Thus, the true meaning of the Gospel was that Jesus was the Last Jew,and that Jewish Christians should now become "elevated" to be God-fearers.Circumcision was abolished. (In another sense, both Jew and God-fearer were"elevated" to a higher status in Christ.)

Leviticus 8-10 shows the restoration of a fallen Adam, his entrance back into asemi-garden to do priestly labors, the rebellion of his sons, and his restorationagain:

Exodus 4:14-17 and 7:1 theAppointment of the New Adam, Aaron

Exodus 32:1-6 the Fall of AaronLeviticus 8 the Restoration of Aaron,clothed in bloody skins (bloodiedgarments) Leviticus 9 the Entranceof Aaron into his Adamic workLeviticus 10 the Sin of Cain and theRestoration of Aaron again to hiswork.

This sequence establishes a new highly symbolic world that corresponds to the realworld of society and history. This symbolic microcosm was a message to Israel, as

Israel was a message to the nations.

What follows is a symbolic recapitulation of the judgments on humanity. Thatjudgment, remember, was death. Uncleanness is death, but it afflicts only theflesh: the spirit is spared. Only if a person refused to be cleansed did thispreliminary death advance to the fuller form of death: being cut off.

First come the unclean animals, and uncleanness from contact with their food orcarcasses, recapping the judgment on the serpent (Genesis 3:14-15). Secondcomes uncleanness on the woman from childbearing, recapping the judgment onthe woman (Genesis 3:16). Third comes uncleanness from "leprosy," which is

better called Decay, recapping the sweat-of-the-nose judgment on the man(Genesis 3:17-21). Fourth comes uncleanness from issues of the flesh, recappingthe judgment on the process of human begetting (Genesis 4:1). Fifth comes theDay of Covering (Leviticus 16), which concerns the great removal of the judgment


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upon the flesh.

All of these judgments come upon Israel only. They are a substitute for thenations, taking away the uncleanness of the nations, which are symbolized by theunclean animals. Uncleanness (symbolic death) is the judgment for sin, and Israelbears that judgment on behalf of Adam and Eve, on behalf of the nations that comefrom Adam and Eve. The annual removal of all uncleanness from Israel (Leviticus16) should have made it clear to them that they were only acting out somethingthat the Messiah would eventually do. The judgment for sin (death) is taken from

Adam and Eve (the nations) and put on the Israelites. It is rolled from theIsraelites into Aaron, and then removed from him and put on the sacrificial goats.These rituals point forward to Jesus, the True Israelite, who takes our uncleanness(death) upon Himself as our substitute.

Thus, the retain the laws of uncleanness after the death of Jesus is to completelymistake their meaning. To impose these laws on the God-fearers is to confuse theirmeaning. These are the things the Judaizers did.

We can also see what these ritual laws mean for us. The Israelites were to bear thejudgment for the sins of the world. That is what it means to carry Gods Name, to

be like Yahweh (Jesus), to act like Yahweh, to show forth Yahwehs ways. In asecondary way, Christians are to be priests and thus serve the world. Like Israeland like Jesus, we are called to be living sacrifices. If we isolate into ourselves, weare guilty of the same hypocrisy as the Pharisees.

Flesh and Blood.

Flesh and blood are linked but separate. As Leviticus 11 begins with laws about noteating symbolically dead (unclean) animals, so Leviticus 17 concerns drinkingforbidden blood. This chapter is transitional and links both with what precedes andwhat follows. In terms of the former, we have the following commands, both toIsrael and to God-fearers:

First, sacrifices are to be offered to Yahweh alone, and only in the way Yahweh hasprescribed (17:1-9). This is the "things sacrificed to idols" of Acts 15:29. Thissection recaps Leviticus 1-7. Bringing sacrificial animals to Yahweh means bringingpeople to Him, for the animals represent people. Bringing sacrifices to idols meansbringing people to the idols. If we translate this out of ritual language to societallanguage, we can see how the Pharisees violated this teaching. They had set up asecond Torah, the Oral Torah, consisting of "secret ancient traditions" that weresupposedly given Moses on Mount Sinai, but that were in fact only a couple ofgenerations old. Jesus says that Satan was the author of these traditions (Matthew15 & Mark 7 with John 8:44, 1 Timothy 4:1, Revelation 2:9). Notice how often

Jesus casts out demons in synagogues: Oral Law Judaism was demonized. The OralLaws were eventually written down in the Mishnah and commented on in theTalmuds, and these form to this day the heart of Rabbinic Judaism. This second setof rules, set up next to Yahwehs Torah, was an idol, and bringing people underthese rules was equivalent to bringing sacrifices to idols.

Second, blood may not be consumed under any circumstances, either by Israeliteor Gentile (17:10-14). This is the "blood" of Acts 17:29. The life of the "flesh" issaid to be in the blood, a link to the laws of the "flesh" in Leviticus 8-16. Note thatdefilements of the "flesh" can be cleansed, but the deeper abominations of theblood cannot be: the sin is willful, and the person in excommunicated (cut off).

Becoming unclean is not ordinarily sinful, and may even be the result of somethinggood and commanded (marital intercourse, childbearing, burying relatives, etc.).Becoming abominable or detestable (sins of blood) are willful. This distinctioncorrelates with, though is not the same as, the distinction between "sins of


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inadvertency" and "high-handed sins." When the Jews cried "We have no king butCaesar," they declared that in their heart of hearts they sought life from thecreature instead of from the Creator.

Third, while it is not forbidden to eat an animal that dies by itself or is torn bybeasts, both Israel and God-fearer become unclean by doing so, and must cleansethemselves or else bear guilt (17:15-16). This is the "things strangled" of Acts15:29. This stipulation also obviously links with chapters 8-16, the laws of "flesh"and uncleanness. The reason for the law is that in these cases the blood has not

been properly drained from the flesh, yet since the intention is to preventstarvation and not to drink blood as such, it is not sinful. Acts 15:29 refines thestipulation, saying that Christians are forbidden to eat the meat of strangledanimals only, because in that case it is the deliberate intent to keep the blood inthe flesh. We are not forbidden to eat "road kills."

(Deuteronomy 13:21, spoken by Moses nearly 40 years later, seems to change theprovisions in Leviticus. Israelites are now told not to each the flesh of an animalthat dies by itself, while God-fearers are permitted to do so. That seems to changeLeviticus 11:39-40, which does not forbid eating such a carcass, but onlyprescribes same-day cleansing in case one does so. Thus, the provisions for the

wilderness seem to change once Israel enters the land. But not necessarily:Perhaps the God-fearer, though free to eat such meat, was still to cleanse himselfbefore the new day began at sunset; and perhaps Moses new prohibition on suchmeat is not to be taken as absolute, but as qualified by the Levitical legislation. Inthat case, the meaning of the whole Law would be that the Israelite was to avoidsuch carcass meat except in an emergency, while the God-fearer was free to eat itat will.)

These three laws still have to do with life and death: It is forbidden to seek lifefrom any source other than God, whether it is the worship of other gods (cp. FirstWord), worshipping Him other than how He commands (cp. Second Word), or

drinking the life in the blood.

False Glory.

Before moving to a consideration of the third major section of Leviticus, it isimportant for us to review the laws of uncleanness again with a slightly deeperfocus. Uncleanness means symbolic death, and death is false glory.

Adam sought glory from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The phrase"knowledge of good and evil" has to do with maturity and an advance fromchildhood to eldership, from being a priest (palace servant) to being a king (vice-ruler under God). Adam knew that eventually he would be given to eat of that Tree

(Genesis 1:29), but not right away. It was necessary for Adam to seek life fromGod at the Tree of Life, and then mature in faithfulness until he was ready to beinvested with glory. (For a fuller discussion of this, see my studies Trees andThorns, available from Biblical Horizons .)

What Adam found when he ate of the forbidden Tree was death. The glory hefound, which made him in a false way "like one of Us" (Genesis 3:22) was death-glory. What was bestowed upon him was death-glory, not life-glory, for Adam hadrejected the Tree of Life.

Uncleanness is death, and thus false glory. This glory must be set aside,

abandoned, killed, and only then can the worshipper start over, drawing near tothe Tree of Life and beginning a proper course of maturity toward the Tree ofGlory. Let us now survey this dimension of the laws of uncleanness.

The clean animals are those that are humble, while the unclean animals are


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glorious. The glorious lion is unclean; the humble goat and deer are clean. Theexotic fishes are unclean; the simple fishes are clean. Powerful birds are unclean;but simple birds like chickens and doves are clean. Israel was not to eat theglorious animals because, in terms of the symbolic pedagogy of the Law, this wouldentail seeking glory directly instead of seeking humility first.

Children, which flow out from a woman, are part of her glory. Yet the process ofchildbearing does not make the woman glorious but unclean. It provides falseglory, which must be cleansed away: The woman must be cleansed and the man-

child circumcised.

"Leprosy" (Decay) consists of a whitening of the skin, which is a counterfeit or falseglory. In garments and on the walls of houses, it consists of false-glorious greenand red splotches. We must contrast this with the true glory that shone from Mosesface, and with the glorious golden and blue-red-purple-white walls of Gods house.

The wife is the glory of the husband, and vice versa. Each is to humble himself orherself to glorify the other. Yet the whole marital relationship is unclean. The"glory" that flows from the husbands flesh, and from the wifes, is a false glory,unclean.

Glory is social. It spreads from person to person. We share in the glory when ourfavored sports team wins a game. Just so, false glory also spreads. It spreads fromthe "fleshly" animal to the man who eats it, from the "fleshly" child to its mother,from the "flesh" outward to the skin in Decay, from the "flesh" outward in theunclean issues, and from the "fleshly" corpse to everyone in the room. And beyondthis, it spreads from person to person. This symbolic pedagogy adds dimension tothe fact that after Adams sin, death spreads to all men.

The connection of false glory with death is seen most pointedly in the fact that ahuman corpse spreads uncleanness (symbolic death) to others in the mostpowerful way the recipient is unclean for seven days and must be cleansed twice

(Numbers 19). Instead of becoming glorified when we die, we become rotten andexude an extremely powerful stench instead of a pleasing incense. (Indeed,everything that proceeds from our flesh stinks: breath, urine, feces, sweat, blood.)

It is in the "flesh" that glory is located, the true and the false. At the resurrection,we shall inherit glorious flesh; but from Adam we inherit the defiled flesh ofLeviticus. That old flesh must be killed, mortified, so that we can be given newflesh in Christ.

Blood is the life of the flesh, so that blood energizes flesh. Thus, blood is morepowerful than flesh. The old Adamic blood energizes the old Adamic flesh. To drink

blood, thus, is to seek to energize the flesh. Symbolically, it means that instead ofkilling the flesh, we are seeking to make it more alive. Thus, the punishment fordrinking blood is far more serious than the slight discomforts that attend becomingunclean.

We need new flesh, which is then energized by new blood. This is why thesequence in the Lords Supper is so important. First, we receive the new flesh ofJesus, and then we receive His blood, which energizes, quickens, the new flesh.

Abominations.

Leviticus 17/18-22 concern abominations of the blood. The word "abomination"(to`ebha) occurs only in chapters 18 and 20 of Leviticus. This section is the ThirdWord section within Leviticus, which itself is an exposition of the Third Word. InLeviticus 18-22 we find "I am Yahweh" eighteen times, "I am Yahweh your God"ten times, "I am Yahweh who sanctifies you" twice, for a total of 31 times. These


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three phrases, focussing on the meaning of the Name, are not found at all inLeviticus 1-17, and only five times altogether in Leviticus 23-26.

"Yahweh will not acquit the one who carries His Name emptily." Sins of the "flesh"are acquitted by cleansing, but sins of the blood are not. The person committingthese sins is excommunicated, "cut off." This term "cut off" occurs twelve times inLeviticus 17-22, and only five times in the whole rest of Leviticus.

Within this Third Word section of Leviticus 17-22, we find five sub-sections:

1. Worship and blood, ch. 17

2. Sexual abominations, ch. 18

3. Society, ch. 19

4. Punishment for abominations, ch. 20

5. Priests and sacrifices, ch. 21-22

Thus, within this Third Word section, chapter 19 is the third part. Of the eighteen

times "I am Yahweh" is found in Leviticus 18-22, eight of them are in chapter 19.Of the ten times "I am Yahweh your God" is found in Leviticus, seven are inchapter 19. Thus, Leviticus 19 is the most pointed exposition of the Third Word.

Leviticus 18 concerns marrying too closely within the group. It applies also to theGod-fearers, and is the "fornication" of Acts 15:29. Thus, in that passage"fornication" means incest, and it continues to be a sin for Christians. A fulldiscussion of this complex chapter is impossible here, but its general meaning isclear: Closing in on ones own group is sinful and abominable. This is preciselywhat the Pharisees were doing in Jesus day. They were spiritually incestuous, andthe demonic Oral Law, offered to Molech, was their incestuous offspring. God states

that those who commit such crimes will be vomited out of the land, which is whathappened to the Circumcision at the end of the Apostolic Age.

Leviticus 19 is a set of 70 laws, mostly dealing with societal matters. An expositionof that chapter is found in Covenant Sequence. To carry Gods Name means to dealrighteously with ones neighbor. This body of laws is addressed only to Israel,because some of the stipulations deal with matters of no concern to the God-fearers, but most of the requirements would apply to any believer and are alsofound elsewhere in the Torah. If we were to take up this chapter in detail we wouldfind Jesus condemning the Pharisees for many of the things commanded here. It isimportant to consider that when a group becomes spiritually incestuous, closed inupon itself, it also becomes brutal within itself.

Leviticus 20 mostly goes over the same ground as Leviticus 18, but this time withan emphasis on the punishments for incest. The "cutting off" and exile of spirituallyincestuous Jewry in the destruction of Jerusalem in ad 70 fulfills theserequirements.

Finally, Leviticus 21-22 concern the (symbolic) requirements for the priests andsacrifices, that they be holy to Yahweh as they, in particular, bear His Name.Unfolding the societal implications of these symbols would take us too far afieldfrom our concerns here. But to take one example: The burning of a priestsdaughter who plays the harlot is answered by the burning of Harlot Babylon

(Jerusalem) at the end of the Apostolic Age. Suffice it to say that in a large andprofound way, violating these rules connects to carrying Gods Name hypocritically.

Sabbaths and the Name.


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The fourth section of Leviticus, beginning in chapter 23, concerns sabbaths andfestivals, and links with the Fourth Word, though still within the overall Third Wordconcerns of Leviticus. To lift up Gods Name aright means to worship and celebrateHim, humbling ourselves before Him like the publican and not standing proudly likethe Pharisee. When Jesus appears in the synagogues on the sabbaths, and whenHe attends the festivals, it is clear that the Jews are condemned for hypocriticalworship.

To carry Gods Name means keeping the Lampstand of truth lit daily, and providing

the Bread of life every sabbath; and it means not committing verbal cursing of theName, the penalty for which is death (ch. 24). It means keeping sabbath andjubilee years (ch. 25), and it means submitting to Gods sabbatical judgments (ch.26). All of these "sabbath" sins are closely related to the sins of the Jews in Jesusday. They did not keep the Light of Truth burning, and did not provide bread to thehungry; it was up to Jesus to feed the people. Instead of submitting to Godssabbath judgments, they maintained that they had never been in bondage to anyman (John 8:33). The sabbath and jubilee years meant that the land belonged toYahweh, and had to be given back to Him from time to time; but the Jews regardedIsrael as their own, as a gift from God that was theirs to possess.

Finally, and significantly, the cursing of the Name by the son of an Egyptian womanis answered by Pauls statement in Galatians 4 that the Jews were actually(spiritually and thus ultimately) the sons of the Egyptian woman. It is verysignificant that, while claiming to be Yahwehs people, the Jews refused ever evento say His Name. They substituted the title "Master" (adonai) whenever they cameacross the Name Yahweh in the reading of the scriptures. Thus, they dishonored(cursed) the Name, like a wife who never calls her husband by Name, denying apersonal and intimate relationship with him.

Dedication.

The fifth section, Leviticus 27, links with the command to honor father and mother,the Fifth Word. It has to do with dedications to Yahweh. To carry Gods Namemeans to be dedicated to Him. But the Jews of Jesus day had figured out ways topervert the rules of dedication, taking for themselves the things corban to God(Mark 7:11).

(Note: In Covenant Sequence I placed chapters 24-26 with chapter 27, but I nowthink they should be connected to chapter 23.)

The first five Words link to the second five, as I showed in Covenant Sequence.This linkage adds dimension to the societal implications of the symbolism inLeviticus.

The Sixth Word, "You shall do no manslaughter," is answered by the substitutekillings of animals at the altar. Those who practise humility and kill their own fleshwill not be persons consumed with violence. Note that the Sixth Word section ofthe Book of the Covenant (Exodus 21:12-36) moves from man-killing to crimescommitted by sacrificial animals.

The Seventh Word, "You shall not steal," is answered by the laws of uncleanness.Adam stole in the Garden, and found false glory and death, symbolized byuncleanness. Cleansing from uncleanness corresponds to restitution for stealing.Seeking false glory by eating unclean animals or by drinking blood corresponds to

stealing from God. Note that the Seventh Word section of the Book of the Covenant(Exodus 22:1-15) is concerned in large part with land-pollution and the spread ofsuch pollution, matters conceptually parallel to uncleanness and its spread.

The Eighth Word, "You shall not commit adultery," is answered by the laws of


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incest and of the priesthood in Leviticus 17/18-22. The punishment for adultery isdeath, and analogously the punishment for committing abominations is to be cutoff from Gods fellowship. The husband and wife share each others names, andIsrael shares Yahwehs Name. Thus, spiritual adultery brings full judgment. Notethat the Eighth Word section of the Book of the Covenant (Exodus 22:16-31) isvery similar in content to Leviticus 18-20.

The Ninth Word, "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor," links withthe sabbath, the time when we are to pledge ourselves to our divine Husband

anew, swearing allegiance to Him. Breaking with the various aspects of the sabbathmeans bearing false witness before God in hypocritical worship. Compare Exodus23 in the Book of the Covenant, which concerns the Ninth Word (bearing witness,vv. 1-9), followed by sabbaths and festivals (vv. 10-19).

Finally, the Tenth Word, "You shall not covet," is answered by Leviticus 27. Theman who dedicates himself and his things to God is not going to be covetoustoward his neighbor. Note again that Exodus 23:10-19, which concerns sabbathsand festivals, focuses on giving freely to ones subordinates and to God, theopposite of covetousness.

In this way, the book of Leviticus provides us with a Third Word perspective on theentire Ten Words.

Hidden Glory

A few additional thoughts on humility and glory must now be added. We havealready discussed that humility precedes glory. We must add that the glory thatcomes at the end is present already in humility, but is hidden. True humility entailshidden glory, and thus is joyous.

The Tabernacle was outwardly humble, a mere tent of dark goats hair. But inside itwas glorious. That glory could not be seen by any but the palace servants,

however. When David built his palace, it grieved him that the True King still dweltin humble tents. God in His awesome humility told David that because Davidwanted to glorify Him, He instead would glorify David with the Messianic son (2Samuel 7). Then, however, God moved from the humble Tabernacle to the gloriousTemple in the days of Solomon, after David had cleansed the land and broughtpeace. Now the glory was manifest, on the outside as well as on the inside.

Similarly, it is only after the land is cleansed in Ezekiel 39 that the invisible(hidden) but glorious Temple of Ezekiel 40-48 appears. Thus, the progression is:

1. The hidden glory of the priestly age

of the former days. 2. The manifestglory of the kingly age of the formerdays. 3. The hidden (invisible) glory ofthe priestly age of the latter days,culminating in the hidden glory ofJesus. 4. The manifest glory of thekingly age of the former days, in theresurrection of Jesus. 5. The hiddenglory of the New Priestly Age, as theglorified Bride, New Jerusalem ishidden from view. 6. The manifest

glory of the New Jerusalem and theBride at the end of history.

With this in mind, we can see that the Tree of Life had hidden within it the trueglory that Adam should have sought. Advancement to the Tree of Knowledge would


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be as a result of the maturation of that glory within the husk of humility. Similarly,while Matthew, Mark, and Luke show us Jesus humility down to the cross, and Hisglory afterwards, John is concerned to show us the hidden glory that was His allalong.

Thus, those who seek true glory seek it in humility, and those who are trulyglorious are those who are truly humble. The Church has always known this,speaking of the "glorious martyrs" and honoring those who spent their lives inhumble service.

This reality provides us another important perspective on the problem of images.The Bible is full of visual imagery, but that glorious imagery is "hidden" in the textof a book. We hear it, but until the end of history, we shall not see it. Thefirmament, set up on the second day of the universe, is still in place so that we donot see God. Nor do we see the saints, who in their preliminary glory are hidden onthe other side, so to speak, of the firmament. The attempt to pull glory into thisworld, to have pictures of the saints as points of contact instead of as merereminders, repeats the sin of Adam. It is a rejection of the Tree of Life, which is theBible, in favor of the Tree of Glory, which will be ours in the fullest way at the end.

The Jews of Jesus day gloried in Herods glorious Temple, which replaced the rudeTemple of Zerubbabel, which was a mere husk for the inner glory of EzekielsTemple-City. They were seizing at the glory that was to come before its time. Jesusstated that He would tear down this false-glorious Temple (that of the anti-Solomon, Herod, the new 666) and replace it with a true-glorious Temple (that ofthe True Solomon, Jesus). But the Jews were infatuated with this false-glory, andwhen the Temple was finally finished in ad 64, they became sealed in their doom.They committed the abomination of desolation, which in this instance meantmassacring Christians, and God destroyed them. (On this event, see my studies inthe abomination of desolation in the pages ofStudies in the Revelation.)

Herod and the Jews did what David did not do: Build a glorious Temple before Godauthorized it. It was Davids son, Solomon, who built the glorious Temple, and itwas to be Davids greater Son who would build the New Jerusalem.

The Jews Herodian Temple was the flesh of an unclean glorious animal. It wasunclean, and Jesus two cleansings and then destruction of it fulfilled of the law ofHouse Decay in Leviticus 14:33-53. By "eating" this Temple, the Jews madethemselves unclean. By drinking the blood of the saints (Revelation 17:6), theyquickened their false-glorious "flesh" and were "cut off."

The In-Group

Of the many ways in which the Jews emptied Gods Name of meaning, perhaps themost serious was their incestuousness. Not only did the Jews close in uponthemselves, as we have seen, but in doing so they broke up into four major sects,each closed in upon itself. These were ideological groups, each claiming to hold fastto Gods Name and its doctrinal meaning, but in fact each perverting the meaningof that Name.

The Sadducees denied all of the Word of God except for the first five books. Theyperverted its meaning by adopting many ideas from Greek philosophy. They arelike the liberals and neo-orthodox (Kantians) today.

The Essenes completely dropped out of society. They dont even show up in theBible, because they had completely rejected God and His plan for history, whileclaiming to maintain His Name. They are like the Anabaptists and the "home-everything" people of today.


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The Zealots organized to bring in the Kingdom by violence. They got their idea ofthe Kingdom from Rome, not from Yahweh, but they paraded as Yahwehs soldiers.Such groups have plagued Church history, and are found today, supercilious intheir sense of superiority to those who dont join their crusades.

Finally, the Pharisees started out as the faithful, who kept Gods whole Word anddid good works in obedience to Him. It is important to understand this, for thePharisees are those closest to Jesus, with whom He interacted the most. But theyhad fallen into the sin of hypocrisy. Like the Pharisees, the evangelicals tend to add

new laws to the Bible: dont smoke; dont drink; never question the WestminsterConfession of Faith; use only the Book of Common Prayer; you must speak intongues; etc. Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy have done the samething, and in the modern world, they stand side by side with evangelical sects.

Jesus focussed on the Pharisees, for they were the closest to the Word of God, andthus in a sense they were the most guilty of perverting it. To whom much is given,of him much is required. The Pharisees prevented people from coming to God onthe basis of requirements that the Bible does not teach. In exactly the same way,modern evangelical groups very often exclude, practically if not officially, thosewho dont hold the same doctrinal convictions or whose lives dont have the same

patterns. Each evangelical sect has its own way of being superior and of lookingsadly down on other believers. Points of doctrine or liturgy or practice becomebadges of identity instead of ways to reach out in humility. And everything I havejust mentioned applies equally to Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox sects aswell.

Each in its own way, these groups were pursuing false glory. For the Sadducees,the glory was that of Greek philosophy and of the Temple, which they controlled.For the Essenes, the glory was that of a perfect community. For the Zealots, theglory was that of empire, of Rome. For the Pharisees, the glory was that ofleadership, signified by the glorification of their garments (Matthew 23:5). Each

group was seizing something that only the Messiah would bring, and only accordingto Gods timing. None of them were servants; each wanted glory without humility.

Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy has pointed out that man lives his life in terms of in-groups and out-groups, and in terms of visions of the future and of the past. Thesin against the Third Word is the sin of perverting the meaning of the in-group. Theresult is sectarianism and incest, constant fighting in each little sect.

In terms of the out-group, the sin is against the First Word, the adulation of natureand angels (spirits) instead of the Creator.

In terms of past-orientation, the sin is against the Second Word. Other deliverers

begin to take the place of Yahweh-Jesus as the only Deliverer. The sin isforgetfulness.

And in terms or future-orientation, the sin is against the Fourth Word, clinging totradition instead of being open to the sabbath-future. We shall investigateSabbatical Idolatry in our discussion of the Fourth Word. The book of Hebrewswarns those who have forsaken the sin of hypocrisy, and stopped violating theThird Word, that they must not cling to the present but be open to the future.

At this point in our study, it becomes possible to examine Rosenstock-Huessysinsight more fully.

Each of us relates to various in-groups, which are balanced by out-groups. Sincehuman beings are made in the image of God, and particularly in the image of theSecond Person of God, the Word, this fundamental dimension of our existence isrevealed in our language. We speak of I and you, of we and they; and in some


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languages we have the you-familiar form used for the in-group, and the you-formalform used for the out-group.

One in-group is me, myself, with everyone else in the out-group. Equallyfundamental is the group of my wife and me, with everyone else outside. Anotherfundamental group is the church to which I am covenanted, with all others invarious out-groups, such as other churches like mine, other Christian churches,and heathens. Another in-group is my circle of friends, while another is my circle ofassociates at work or school. We relate inwardly, introvertedly, and subjectively to

our in-groups, while we relate outwardly, extrovertedly, and objectively to our out-groups.

Also, each of us relates to the past and to the future, and we do so by creatingsomething called the "present." In the sense of physics, the present is a razor-edgeof time that has passed before we can even speak of it. But in human life, wecreate a span of time that we call the present, in terms of which we define the pastand the future.

We exist in various different "presents." We may presently be in a lecture that lastsan hour; or we may be presently in a course of study that lasts one semester. We

may think of the 20th century as the present age, or the post-Viet-Nam war periodas the present era. In every case, the present is something defined by humanconsciousness; it does not have a "scientific" reality outside of human life.

What defines the boundaries of the present is what lies on either side of it: the pastand the future, ultimately t

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