Sacred Time, the Calendar and the Sabbaths (Exodus 31, 35)
(1) Sermon Script
Introduction: The Rhythm of Life
Habits are our friends, some more than others. We are creatures of habit, whether for good or bad. Habits mean we don’t have to make decisions every moment of every day. And habits effect what we do with our time.
We all have the same amount of time. So how we spend our time shows our priorities. What we spend our time doing, the frequency we do it, how we weave those activities into our time, shows what is most important to us.
How do I know rest is important? I take a day off. How do I know my wife or children are important? I spend time with them, do stuff with them and for them. How do I know God is important? I actually spend time listening to his word, reading and studying it myself, going to church, praying to Him with others and by myself.
What we do shows what is important to us? What we build into our week, our month, our year, shows what matters.
Context
Well, not only did God set up a sacred place, the tabernacle. Not only did God set up sacred people, the priesthood. But God also set up regular activities with regular times for Israel. God set up sacred time in a special calendar for Israel.
Some things were so important for his people to do, that God said when and how often to do it. God set the priorities for his people, in their calendar of worship.
Now, not all of the calendar God set up for his people is found in Exodus. Some of it is found elsewhere. But many of the foundational times of Israel’s calendar are found in Exodus. God scheduled important and sacred times for his people.
Sacred time in the day
Naturally, sacred time centres on the Tabernacle and Priesthood. And because Yahweh lives in the camp, sacred time occurs daily. Every day involves sacred service of the God who dwells among his people. And that says something about God. Every day involves being set apart for his service.
Daily Sacrifice in the Courtyard
Twice a day, the Priests were required to sacrifice a year old male lamb on the bronze altar in the courtyard. These sacrifices were known as the Morning and Evening Sacrifice (Exodus 29:38-43; also Numbers 28:3-8) And these were to be perpetual offerings before Yahweh.
38“This is what you are to offer on the altar regularly each day: two lambs a year old. 39 Offer one in the morning and the other at twilight. 40 With the first lamb offer a tenth of an ephah of the finest flour mixed with a quarter of a hin of oil from pressed olives, and a quarter of a hin of wine as a drink offering. 41 Sacrifice the other lamb at twilight with the same grain offering and its drink offering as in the morning—a pleasing aroma, a food offering presented to the LORD. 42 “For the generations to come this burnt offering is to be made regularly at the entrance to the tent of meeting, before the LORD. (Exodus 29:38-43 NIV)
Exodus gives the summary instruction, but Leviticus gives the detailed instructions. The Priests had to keep the fire under the Altar burning through the night (Leviticus 6:9, 12, 13). It was not allowed to ever go out, but must continue morning and night. So at least some priests had to be on duty at night.
Then, in the morning, other Priests robed. With their vestments on, and the fire still going, they then removed the ashes of the previous night’s sacrifice. They put the ashes next to the altar. Then they disrobed, and put on another set (Leviticus 6:11). And they carry the ashes to a ceremonially clean place outside the camp (Leviticus 6:11).
Then the Priests re-entered the tabernacle courtyard, and being properly robed, washed at the basin. They added wood to the fire (Leviticus 6:12). A lamb a year old was presented to them at the entrance to the courtyard. It was inspected to be without blemish[1]. Then hands were laid on it, symbolically identifying the lamb with the offeror (eg Leviticus 1:4).
It was slaughtered by cutting it’s throat. The priest caught the blood in a bowl. The blood was sprinkled around the sides of and under the altar of bronze. The Priests then skinned the lamb and cut it up in the courtyard. The skins belonged to the priests. The sinew of the thigh was removed (Genesis 32:32). Other pieces were washed with water (Leviticus 1:11-13). The sacrifice was salted. Then the pieces, including the head, the inner parts, and all the fat, were arranged on the altar over the burning wood.
And the whole lamb was burnt up. The smoke ascended and was an aroma pleasing to Yahweh (Leviticus 1:13). They are called ‘food offerings’ to Yahweh (Numbers 28:2). Not that God actually eats them, but they are provided him just as a morning and evening meal would provided a great King[2].
Added to the whole burnt offering of the lamb was a two litres of fine flour mixed with about a litre of the finest olive oil, and a litre of fermented drink (Exodus 29:38-43; also Numbers 28:1-8). These offerings needed to be salted (Leviticus 2:13).
All of these offerings were consumed on the bronze altar and the blood was splashed on the sides and poured out at it’s base. The fire under the altar was tended all day. It was not allowed to go out. Like the blast furnaces at the Port Kembla steel works that remain lit for 20, 30 or 40 years, so the fire under the altar was not allowed to go out. And in the evening the service was started again. Another lamb was checked, slaughtered, it’s blood splattered, and burnt up, with it’s grain, oil and drink offerings.
It was hard manual work of butchery and barbequing done in Wedding clothes Abbatoir meets butcher meets outdoor caterer, all done in white robes or in the High Priests glamorous, bejeweled golden garments. And none of this expensive, top quality food was eaten. It was all burnt up. It’s a bit like giving the Youth Group a BMW each morning, and a set of crow bars and sledge hammers and saying, ‘Now destroy it’, and I’ll give you another one tonight to do the same’.
This pattern of daily sacrifice continued as long as tabernacle, and temple, stood and the people obeyed the law.
Nor was this the only slaughtering and sacrifice required on the day. These were simply the book-ends. Throughout the day were private sacrifices for sin and guilt and their accompanying fellowship offerings.
Why did God set this whole system up? It showed how much forgiveness cost. It showed forgiveness and atonement required blood. It showed that sinfulness and defilement was a daily problem. And it prepared Israel for the coming of Jesus Christ.
For John the Baptist saw our Lord Jesus Christ coming to him on the banks of the Jordan. And he pointed to him and said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the World.’ (John 1:29, 36; compare Genesis 22:8; Revelation 5:6; 7:17; 15:3; 19:9; 21:23; 22:1,3). And his hearers had mental pegs to hang it on. Ahh, the one who was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and cut off from the land of the living (cf Isaiah 53). Because every morning and every evening, the lamb was led to the slaughter at the altar. And of course, what Jesus did was far superior. As the author to the Hebrews says:
Unlike the other high priests, he [Jesus Christ] does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. (Hebrews 7:27 NIV)
Again, Hebrews 10:11-14:
11 Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when this priest [Jesus Christ] had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. 14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. (Hebrews 10:11-13 NIV)
So what is our daily service? Each of us who believe in Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord are New Testament Priests. We are a Priesthood of all believers, male or female, rich or poor, old or young.
So what is our daily sacrifice? Romans 12:1-2:
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God— this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is— his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:1-2 NIV)
Every day we present ourselves and our good works and our praise to God as a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. We do it by ourselves. We do it in our families. And we do it in our world. By loving God with everything we have and loving neighbour as self, we offer God a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, now that Jesus Christ has offered his atoning sacrifice that made us right with God.
Daily Service in the Holy Place
The work in the courtyard was not the only daily work required. The Priests during the day had to tend the Holy Place of the tent itself. They had work to do in the outer room.
Tending the Lampstand
Firstly, they had to tend the lampstand (Exodus 27:21). The lamps had to be kept burning continually. Certainly throughout during the night (Leviticus 24:1-4). And it is most likely that the lampstand burned during the day as well.
21 In the Tent of Meeting, outside the curtain that is in front of the Testimony, Aaron and his sons are to keep the lamps burning before the LORD from evening till morning. This is to be a lasting ordinance among the Israelites for the generations to come. (Exodus 27:21 NIV)
1 The LORD said to Moses, 2 Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning continually. 3 Outside the curtain of the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting, Aaron is to tend the lamps before the LORD from evening till morning, continually. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. 4 The lamps on the pure gold lampstand before the LORD must be tended continually. (Leviticus 24:1-4 NIV)
Yet again, there needed to be a night shift of priests. It was never to be dark in the Holy Place (Exodus 27:21 NIV). From evening till morning, the lamps were to continue to burn. They were to tend them in the morning (Exodus 30:7). They were to be lit in the evening, one imagines, if they ever went out (Exodus 30:8)
Burning the Incense on the gold altar
And, morning and evening, Aaron and his Sons burnt incense in the Tabernacle.
7 Aaron must burn fragrant incense on the altar every morning when he tends the lamps. 8 He must burn incense again when he lights the lamps at twilight so incense will burn regularly before the LORD for the generations to come (Exodus 30:7-8 NIV; cf Luke 1:9-11).
In Scripture, prayer is likened to the offering of incense. 'May my prayer be set before you like incense’ (Psalm 141:2; cf Revelation 5:8). So the priest offered prayer on behalf of the people morning and evening. And this was made visible using the incense.
And our denomination, the Anglican Church, has a history of morning and evening prayer. In the 1662 prayer book, they were called ‘Matins’ and ‘Evensong’. The idea was that the village would come together everyday to read the bible and pray before they go out to work the fields in the morning, and when they return in the evening. And they would do the same on Sunday. Very much like meetings at the temple.
Now, in our post industrialization society, that may not be practicable. But we still have this principle:
24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10:24-25 NIV)
In other words, the question is not, ‘Do I have to go to church on Sunday?’ The question is, ‘Why do we just go to church on Sunday?’. Why not Saturday, and Friday, and Monday, and Wednesday? Not, how much church can I avoid but, how much church can I get to.
How often should I meet Christians? Well, it depends on your commitments. But if you meet once a month, why not try once a week. If you meet once a week, why not try twice a week. Meet up with someone one on one to read the bible. Come to a bible study. Start a bible study. Read the bible with your family.
But I do that. Why not double it? The only law is ‘all the more’. Don’t get in the habit of not meeting God’s people. Meet and fellowship all the more with God’s people.
Sacred time in the week
Key to the rhythm of the whole community of Israel was the Sabbath. It was there in the 4th commandment. Exodus 20:8-10:
8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. (Exodus 20:8-11 NIV)
A number of reasons are given for the Sabbath. It is patterned on God’s creation. God made the world in 6 days, but rested on the Seventh and was refreshed by it, thus sanctifying it (Exodus 20:11; 31:17). It served the practical and kind purpose of allowing animals, slaves and foreigners to be refreshed (Exodus 23:12). It was a sign between God and his people, yet another reminder of their relationship (Exodus 31:12, 17). So it is a cause for celebration (Exodus 31:16).
Now, the Sabbath was to be strictly observed. Even during the plowing season and the harvest (Exodus 34:21). No fire was to be lit in a dwelling on the Sabbath (Exodus 35:3). And the punishment for disobedience was death (Exodus 31:14, 15; 35:2).
However, in the tabernacle, work continued. In fact, from one point of view, the priest had additional work to do.
For the Sabbath was also a day of sacred assembly (Leviticus 23:3). People were to gather together on the Sabbath, and the great focal point was the tabernacle.
On the Sabbath, the priests were required to double the regular sacrifices. Instead of two lambs, they were to do four on that day (Numbers 28:9-10). The pattern of regular daily sacrifices were doubled on the Sabbath.
Again, on the Sabbath, in the Holy Place, the Priests had more holy work to do. On top of their regular ministrations, the Sabbath was the day the bread of the presence was replaced (Leviticus 24:8). At one level, there was no rest for the Priests in the tabernacle.
Friends, each of us is a Priest of the New Covenant. And the way we find rest is in Jesus Christ. Offering our bodies as a living sacrifice is a daily activity, Sabbath or not.
Jesus speaks of the fact that the Priests were always working in the temple on the Sabbath.
5 Or haven't you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent? 6 I tell you that one greater than the temple is here… 8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. (Matthew 12:5-8 NIV)
There is much wisdom and kindness in giving people a day off a week. This was God’s industrial relations policy. The Sabbath was made for humans, so they could rest.
But it also allowed God’s people to meet for ‘holy assembly’. We are subject to the limits of time and space. We can only be in one place at a time.
So if we are going to meet weekly, we need to have the same day off. So having a community day of rest, like our Sunday, serves a practical purpose. And it is good and fitting that we have the same rhythm in our weeks, that we have a day for sacred assembly. It is good that we say no to Sunday sport, or dancing, or paid work, or school work, so we can come to church.
I do not say it is a law. I want Christian policemen and nurses and firemen who serve us by being on duty on Sunday. And I think Sunday trading in general has not helped us. You are free to shop on Sunday, I do myself, but I say, it has not helped us as a community. And you can meet Christians on any day. Wednesday morning at 3am, if that is convenient.
But I say that, in our time and place, having a habit of Sundays off for church, is convenient and good, and leads to building up the body, and we neglect it to our hurt.
But the true way of rest, or Sabbath, is found in coming to Christ.
28 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28 NIV).
You are now free, as Priests under the New Covenant, to observe or to not observe special days in the week (Romans 14:5). For the Sabbath rest under the Old Testament points to Jesus Christ. Jesus is the one greater than the temple, tabernacle, or Sabbath. The true rest for our souls is found in coming to him, and learning from him.
Sacred time in the year
But there was not just rhythm in their days or weeks. Just as our years have a rhythm, so did theirs. God established for them a calendar of events. Weeks, months, and years all had special events of religious significance.
Exodus mentions three annual festivals (Exodus 23:14-17).
At the beginning of their year, they celebrated The Passover, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This was a celebration of the people coming out of Egypt (Exodus 23:14-15; 13:3-10; Leviticus 23:4-8; cf Ex 34:18).
Exodus also mentions two Festivals related to their agricultural cycle. The Feast of Harvest (Ex 23:16), which is also called the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost (Leviticus 23:15-22; Ex 34:22). And the Feast of Ingathering, which is also called the Feast of Booths, or tabernacles (Ex 23:16; 34:22 Leviticus 23:33-36; 39-43).
All of the men were to come before Yahweh at the tabernacle. They were to meet and celebrate together before Yahweh. And at those times special sacrifices to be offered.
The beginning of every month, or new moons, also involved special sacrifices at the tabernacle (Numbers 28:11-15)
There was, however, one annual day of fasting, as well as these days of feasting. That was the Day of Atonement (Ex 30:10; Numbers 29:7ff; Leviticus 16). This was a national fast as sorrow for sin, and a cleansing of the tabernacle with blood. Additional sacrifices were made, and the scapegoat, symbolically bearing the sins of the people, was sent into the desert (Leviticus 23:10).
Moreover, it was on this day, and this day alone, that the High Priest when into the most Holy Place. As the Author to the Hebrews reminds us:
But only the high priest entered the inner room, and that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance. (Hebrews 9:7 NIV)
And this was pointing to what Jesus, our great High Priest would do. He went into the very presence of God his Father, and offered his own blood for our eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:12).
Conclusion: Christ and the Rhythm of Christian Life
Well, we are Christian. The Diary of Ancient Israel no longer binds us. We learn from it, yes. We see that it points us to Christ. But we no longer have to observe it, whether daily, weekly, monthly or yearly. As the Apostle Paul says:
16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. (Colossians 2:16-17 NIV)
And:
5 One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. (Romans 14:5-6 NIV)
However, what we can take away from this is the serious, all embracing nature of life under the Old Covenant. Worshipping Yahweh under the Old Covenant was an all of life, all of time affair. Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly, God stipulated sacrifices and offerings. And key to their relationship with God was dealing with their sins through the blood of their sacrifices.
Jesus Christ is our sacrifice. And now we have great freedom to serve him by offering our bodies as a living sacrifice, denying ourselves, taking up our cross daily, and following him.
But the question the Old Testament calendar raises for me is this: Are we interweaving our worship of God into our time? Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, are we setting ourselves aside for God? The only law we are under is ‘do not neglect the meeting’ and ‘all the more as we see the day approaching’, ‘Pray Continually’ and ‘Devote yourselves to the Reading, Preaching and Teaching’. Devote, Continue, Don’t Neglect. Our only Law is ‘All the More’.
15Be very careful, then, how you live— not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. 19 Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 5:15-20 NIV)
2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 5 Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. (Colossians 4:2-6 NIV)
Let us keep talking to God, listening to God, meeting with God’s people, and reaching out to the lost all the more. How are you going with the ‘All the More’? What can you put aside to do the ‘All the More’?
Let’s pray.
Footnotes
[1]Leviticus 22:17-25 NIV 17 The LORD said to Moses, 18 “Speak to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites and say to them: ‘If any of you—whether an Israelite or a foreigner residing in Israel—presents a gift for a burnt offering to the LORD, either to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering, 19 you must present a male without defect from the cattle, sheep or goats in order that it may be accepted on your behalf. 20 Do not bring anything with a defect, because it will not be accepted on your behalf. 21 When anyone brings from the herd or flock a fellowship offering to the LORD to fulfill a special vow or as a freewill offering, it must be without defect or blemish to be acceptable. 22 Do not offer to the LORD the blind, the injured or the maimed, or anything with warts or festering or running sores. Do not place any of these on the altar as a food offering presented to the LORD. 23 You may, however, present as a freewill offering an ox[b] or a sheep that is deformed or stunted, but it will not be accepted in fulfillment of a vow. 24 You must not offer to the LORD an animal whose testicles are bruised, crushed, torn or cut. You must not do this in your own land, 25 and you must not accept such animals from the hand of a foreigner and offer them as the food of your God. They will not be accepted on your behalf, because they are deformed and have defects.’”
[2] In various places, sacrifices are called ‘the food of your God’ (eg Leviticus 21:6,8). But this is symbolic language. God has no body and needs no food to eat in a literal sense. ‘He is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything’ (Acts 17:25 NIV). Perhaps it is patterned on a regular morning and evening meal for a King.