Tag: Exodus

An Exodus to Freedom: a book review

As I write this, we are at the beginning of Passover, a celebration of the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and the beginning of their long sojourn to the Promised Land. Israel’s Exodus wasn’t just its liberation of Egypt, but it encompassed the forty-year wilderness journey with forty-two different campsites and G-d’s covenant with Israel at Sinai.  Both Christians and Jews read the Torah, and the Exodus story,  as Scripture, looking for what deeper meaning it has for life. Christians describe Jesus as our Passover lamb and appropriate Jewish traditions of liberation and salvation. Unfortunately, we haven’t often paused to listen to how Jewish interpreters understand our shared scriptural tradition.

reimagining-exodus  Rabbi David Zaslow is no stranger to the interfaith discussion. His award-winning book, Jesus First Century Rabbi, explored the Christian gospel from a Jewish perspective (I review that book here). As the synagogue leader of Havurah Shir Hadash in Ashland, Oregon (not too far away from my home in Medford), workshop leader and media pundit, he has deepened the dialogue between Jews and Christians.

His newest book, Reimaging the Exodus: A Story of Freedom builds a bridge between Judaism and Christianity while respecting the unique features of both religious traditions.  Zaslow happily notes the common themes of Passover and the cross, Exodus and Easter. Yet, he also notes ways in which Christians have bowdlerized the Jewish tradition with a replacement theology that demeans the sacred history of the Hebrew Bible.

Zaslow’s book divides into five parts (so did his last book. Self-conscious patterning after the Torah?). Each section is distinct in style and purpose. In part one, Zaslow describes the significance of the Exodus for the Jewish tradition—G-d’s liberation of Israel and their forty-year, two-hundred-mile journey, learning to walk in freedom. Part two offers a Midrashic interpretation of twenty passages from the Torah (mostly drawn from Exodus, but also Numbers and Deuteronomy). Zaslow’s commentary on the passages is scholarly and rich, but suggestive and evocative. Part three explores the common themes and key differences between a Jewish understanding of Exodus and the Christian Easter. Part four discusses in more detail the ways Christians (and Jews) have historically appropriated and misappropriated the tradition to justify various agendas (i.e. Puritans settling the New World, American Colonialism, the American Revolution against British Tyranny, Civil War Southern’s against the North,  Mormons, Civil Rights advocates, etc). Part five has personal stories (and a poem) of where Zaslow has seen Exodus reimagined in interfaith contexts (including an interfaith Good Friday service with a Portland synagogue, and stories from a model seder Zaslow leads in a Catholic parish).

Zaslow has an irenic nature and looks for ways that Christians and Jews can connect with each other and find common spiritual ground. He is respectful of what is distinctive in Christian theology and practice, but he is not afraid to offer a sharp critique of Christian supersessionism and replacement theology. Too many Christians have treated the Old Testament and Jewish Tradition as a mere prequel and failed to listen to the insights of Judaism. In Zaslow’s early book (Jesus First Century Rabbi) he engaged the Christian gospel traditions. This book invites Christians to a similar engagement with Judaism. Beyond just mining the text for Christological insights, the Exodus has a lot to teach us about what it means to be human and to be spiritual. Rabbi Zaslow’s evocative Midrash reveals as much.

I give this book five stars and recommend it for Christians, Jews and those who are spiritual but don’t sit easily in either world.  Zaslow invites us to a journey toward freedom, ” Just as the Exodus began with a catastrophe of enslavement but led to a great redemption, so we pray to God that the catastrophes of our own era are merely preludes to an even greater redemption and the liberation of all humanity as well as the planet” (33). ★★★★★

Notice of material connection: I recieved a copy of this book from Paraclete Press in exchange for my honest review.

S is for Salvation (an alphabet for penitents).

“The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” -Matthew 20:28

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. -Colossians 1:19-20

Salvation is the scarlet thread running through Scripture. It is the unifying theme of the entire biblical narrative. We read about our need for salvation beginning in Genesis 3, when our human ancestors sinned and the need for deliverance sounds throughout the rest of the story.  Only in the last pages of the Bible, Revelation 21-22, do we get a glimpse of the work of salvation completed (i.e. a New Heaven and Earth, the New Jerusalem, Eden restored, etc). Salvation is what the whole story is about, and it is the heart’s cry of the penitent.

The two big salvation motifs in the Bible are Israel’s exodus from Egpyt, and the cross of Christ. This coming week, the Jewish Seder and Holy Week coincide ( just like the first time). We remember both. The children of Israel were saved from Egypt, walking through the Red Sea as on dry land. Jesus bled and died on a cross to save us from our sin and give us the gift of eternal life. Common to both stories is that God himself is the prime actor behind the people’s salvation. Salvation is not something we do. It is the thing God does and has done. Self-help books may be helpful for curbing bad habits and succeeding in business, but there are no self-salvation books. Salvation is God’s work.

Salvation is thought of in a couple of ways. Some people emphasize God’s salvation as being fundamentally about securing our eternal destiny. Because of our ‘sin problem,’  we are unable to have a personal relationship with God and are destined toward eternal separation from Him (hell); however, Jesus acted decisively to bring about our salvation through His death on the cross. When we personally respond by trusting in him as our Savior and Lord, we get to share in God’s life for all eternity. Other folks describe salvation in less ethereal and spiritual terms, choosing to focus on the here and now. Like the Jews rescued from the hand of Pharoah, these folks look for God’s saving action in the face of structural and systemic evils: poverty, racism, injustice.

When our understanding of salvation is just spiritual or just social, we miss out on the full-orbed flavor. I don’t want to minimize our real spiritual need, but putting the matter in purely spiritual (and private!) terms betrays the social dimension of the gospel of salvation. Salvation is both social and spiritual.

Israel left Egpyt to escape their economic, political and racial oppression at the hands of Pharoah, in the process they spent forty years in the wilderness learning how to walk in Covenant faithfulness with YHWH. Jesus gave his life as a ransom for many, but he died on a cross, the death sentence for revolutionaries, political subversives and any who threatened Empire. For Ancient Israel salvation meant coming up from slavery. For Christians, salvation means freedom from sin and union with God. But Israel’s salvation included a covenant and Christian salvation is tied up with the Kingdom of God and the reign of Christ on this earth. When we pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, we pray for God to save the world from sin, from sickness, war and violence, and oppression. The salvific work of the cross involves the reconciliation of all things to God. This means salvation is not just about our ‘spiritual needs’ but it is the redemption we long for in the realms of culture, politics, economics, ecology, and in our personal lives.

One day Jesus ate at the home of a tax collector named Zaccheus (Luke 19:1-10). Everybody knew how great a sinner Zaccheus was (Luke 19:7). He extorted money from the people and he aligned himself with the occupying powers of Rome. They couldn’t believe Jesus would go and eat dinner with such a man.  Zaccheus stood up at the supper table and promised to make restitution for the real wrong he had done, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount” (19:8). Jesus said, ““Today salvation has come to this house, because of this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (19:9) Salvation comes to our house too, as we extricate ourselves from our complicity with systemic injustice and invite the reign of Christ to show us a different way. 

 

The Place God Lives: a book review

The significance of temple and tabernacle cannot be understated. The theme runs right through the biblical story. It describes the place(s) where God dwells with his people. In The Temple and the Tabernacle: a Study of God’s Dwelling places from Genesis to Revelation, J. Daniel Hays traces the theme of God’s presence with His people from Creation (‘God’s garden temple’) to the New Heaven and New Earth of Revelation 21-22 (where God dwells with his people on earth as it is in heaven).

9780801016202Hays walks us through this material chronologically (though he saves Ezekiel’s prophetic temple vision in Ezekiel 40-48 until his discussion of the eschatology in his ‘New Testament’ chapter). Hays notes God’s presence with (or absence from) His people throughout the biblical narrative. The Garden of Eden in Genesis 1-2 describes a ‘garden Temple’ where God dwells with his people. When Adam and Eve’s sin cause them to be evicted from the garden, they fell cut off from God.

Between humanity’s eviction  from the garden and the building of the tabernacle, God does sometimes meet with his people and promise to dwell with them (i.e. his Covenant with Abraham, meeting Moses at the burning bush and Israel at Sinai); however the tabernacle becomes a portable dwelling for God’s presence, so that God would be with his people all along the wilderness way. Hays describes the physical features of the Tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant that dominate the latter half of  Exodus. He describes the architecture, design and significance of each item or tabernacle feature. The Israelite’s gave generously and willfully to construct the tabernacle and when it was finished, God’s presence fills the tabernacle(59). 

Hays chapter on Solomon’s temple describes a different dynamic entirely. He eschews a shallow surface reading of the Solomon story that treats him as a mostly good king who loses his way toward the end of his life. There are troubling aspects of Solomon’s life all along and Hays points out where this is evident in the construction of the Temple.

This is  evident when reading the construction of Solomon’s temple against the backdrop of the construction of the tabernacle as described in Exodus. Exodus had described the role of God in the construction of the tabernacle (68). Conversely, 1 Kings emphasizes the directives of Solomon and his craftsmen from Tyre rather than God’s role (73). In constructing the tabernacle, the Israelites gave freely and participated willingly in the construction; but Solomon conscripts 30,000 Israelites into slavery, plus 150,000 other workers whose ethnicity is not specified (77-78).  In the Exodus, much is made of God’s selection and Spirit’s infilling of Bezalel son of Uri, and the appointment of Oholiab son of Ahisamak and other skilled workers (79-80); yet Solomon appoints a foreigner, Huram of Tyre, based on his reputation (constructing other temples?)(81). These differences are startling. Furthermore, Hays points out other differences between Solomon and his fore-bearers which show his drift (use of ‘the cedars of Lebanon’ as building material, reference to Canaanite months, possible Canaanite influence in the depiction of the temple Cherubim, etc). God’s presence fills the temple, but God’s endorsement of Solomon is merely conditional and tentative (101).

Solomon’s temple is the last structure that God’s glory fills. The rest of the book of Kings tells the story of this temple’s downfall and destruction. Ezekiel describes the departure of God’s presence from the temple (Ezekiel 8-11) before the Babylonian destruction. Ezra and Haggai describes the rebuilding of the temple, but God does not take up residence there (130-31).  Nor does God indwell Herod’s temple. The renewal of God’s presence with his people comes with Jesus who ‘tabernacles with his people’ (John 1:14) and ultimately the eschatological vision of Revelation’s closing chapters.Hays conclusion points us towards the implication of his study on the Temple/tabernacle for our worship and our focus on God’s indwelling presence.

Hays has done a wonderful job laying out the history of temple and tabernacle and their theological significance. With glossy pages, charts, photographs and diagrams, this book is beautiful as well as informative. It is nice that a book  about the temple and tabernacle has a pleasing aesthetic (though a hardcover might have been nice).

Hays offers a d literary sensitive reading of the  tabernacle/temple narratives and clearly  keeps abreast of scholarly discussions; however he does occasionally reference other interpretations (scholarly or otherwise) opaquely. For example,  he acknowledges that the ancient tabernacle points forward to Christ but faults “various writers and speakers” who “simply let their imaginations run free and look for any kind of similarity between even the smallest details of the tabernacle and Christ”(61). He gives  examples of some writers pointing to a fanciful and spiritual significance of the tabernacle tent pegs (61-62), but he leaves us guessing as to which writers or speakers interpretation he is referencing. This book is not without footnotes, but here is one place where they are sorely lacking.

Of course not every reader will want to track down these arguments (I may be odd that way). Hays has done the church a tremendous service in helping us recapture the significance of temple and tabernacle: God’s dwelling place with his people. I give this book an enthusiastic four stars.

Note: I received this book from Baker Books in exchange for my honest review.

 

 

 

♪ Movement of Jah People ♫: a book review

In general, commentary series are uneven in quality. A few stand-out volumes, maybe a couple disappointments but most volumes in any given series will be. . .okay. So far, the Kregel Exegetical Library has defied my expectations. This is the fourth volume I have had the privilege to review. (I’ve read the first two volumes of Allen Ross’s Psalms Commentary, and Robert Chisholm’s Judges & Ruth. Duane Garrett’s treatment of Exodus stands up to the quality of any of these excellent volumes. If this is a sign of what is to come, then Kregel’s Exegetical Library will becomes a go-to series for pastors and critically engaged confessional scholars.

Garrett’s previous publications include A Modern Grammar for Biblical Hebrew, several intermediate and critical commentaries and a monograph on the source and authorship of Genesis. He also co-edited the NIV Archeological Study Bible. In A Commentary on Exodus, Garrett brings knowledge of Egyptians history, geography and culture, helpful insights to bear on his interpretation. He provides a fresh and helpful translation which is sensitive to Hebrew poetics. After a translation (with notes) and commentary, Garrett has a ‘theological summary of key points ‘ for each passage. The level of detail here in translation and comments combined with Garrett’s theological insights makes this a useful commentary for the preaching pastor and student.

Garrett knows the importance of Exodus for biblical theology. Exodus is the theological center of the Old Testament. Not only does it have the exemplar episode of God’s deliverance in the Old Testament (the Exodus from Egypt), the book of the Covenant in Exodus 20-24 is central for understanding Deuteronomy, the history, prophets and writings of the Old Testament (138). Also, while Genesis tells the tale of individual patriarchs, Exodus tells the story of a people (137). Garrett does a great job of unfolding Exodus’s theological significance, especially in how it relates to the Wilderness wanderings of Israel.

Garrett’s introduction is highly technical and delves into Epyptian history and chronology, relevant geography, archaeology and language. He unfolds some of the issues in dating the Exodus and the location of the parting of Yam Sumph (the ‘Red Sea’ in many English translations). General readers will find this introduction detailed and perhaps too technical, but Garrett’s commentary itself is fairly accessible.

I used this commentary while preparing a sermon from Exodus. In preparation, I translated several chapters of Exodus myself before turning to Garrett’s translation and notes. I found his translation helpful and insightful. Garrett’s exegesis was also more detailed than most other commentaries I used. I found his conclusions judicious and now consider this my favorite Exodus commentary. There are only a couple of places where I felt like Garrett didn’t answer questions that arise from the text. I give this an enthusiastic five stars: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Notice of material connection, I received this book from Kregel Academic in exchange for my honest review.