Today’s Scripture Reading
(September 20, 2018): Leviticus 1
I recently bought
an omnibus, a collection of novels written by the same author and continuing a
single story, and sat down to read the collection of novels. What was supposed
to be a collection of three separate novels contained within the same cover,
turned into something much more. Each of
the novels was subdivided into parts.
Each part had different cover pages and chapter lists. And in each section of
the novels, there were more than ten in the omnibus; there was a chapter list that began with chapter one. None of
this is highly unusual, I have read other works that were constructed similarly. But what made this omnibus different
was that none of the parts, or novels, had an ending. The conclusion of a part,
or even a novel, sometimes seemed to happen mid-conversation. As each part or
novel drew to a close, I became more and more apprehensive about what I was
going to run into at the end of the novel. Would the novel end in any way, or
was I going to be left in the middle of a conversation like a television cliffhanger?
Now, I get that not
all novels conclude in the same manner. Not all writers feel the need to tie
everything up in a nice bow for the reader. But I still feel that there should
be some note of completion, and this work seemed to have none. (When I came to
the end of the omnibus, I did find a conclusion. But the ending produced the impression that this was just a long novel and not an omnibus.)
At the beginning of
the Tanakh, or the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament, we have an omnibus of sorts. We call them the “Books of Moses” of which
there are five: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The first
four tell a story of the beginnings of the human race. The last, Deuteronomy,
is a collection of Moses’s final sermons preached at the end of the wilderness
wanderings. But in Genesis, we start with Adam and Eve and continue through to
the story of Joseph in Egypt. Genesis contains the tale of the Patriarchs –
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It concludes with the death of Jacob and the reunion
and healing of the relationship between Joseph and his brothers. And here there is an end.
About four hundred
years pass between the ending of Genesis and the beginning of Exodus. Exodus
tells the story of the descendants of Jacob leaving Egypt. It tells the
beginning of the story of God giving the Law to Moses. It concludes with the
construction of the Tabernacle. These words
form the conclusion of the book of Exodus.
Then the cloud
covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the
cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out; but if the cloud
did not lift, they did not set out—until the day it lifted. So the cloud of the
Lord was over the tabernacle by
day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the Israelites
during all their travels (Exodus 40:34, 36-38).
And
once again, we have a conclusion to this part of the story. With the completion
of the Tabernacle, we feel there is a completion to the tale. God has brought them
out of Egypt safely into the desert. There is another story, but the story of
the Exodus has concluded.
And
while four hundred years passed between the end of Genesis and the beginning of
Exodus, no time passes between the end of Exodus and the beginning of
Leviticus. But now we have simply entered into a new era for Israel; it is the
era of the Tabernacle.
So
as Leviticus opens, God begins to speak from within the tent that the craftsmen
of Israel have built. And a new story
begins.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Leviticus 2
No comments:
Post a Comment