"Take two onyx stones and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel in the order of their birth—six names on one stone and the remaining six on the other. – Exodus 28:9-10.

Today's Scripture Reading (October 15, 2021): Exodus 28

Three decades ago, I had the privilege of listening to musician Bob Diehm at a Youth Conference. And Bob was telling a story about an unnamed friend, a story which still haunts me. The story was about a friend of Bob's with whom he used to play guitar. Apparently, he was a fantastic player. The thing that gets me about Bob's story about his friend is that, at one time, his friend was an active and vibrant Christian. When I was younger, and summer camps had less stringent sports rules due to insurance, we used to play a game called Buck-Buck. Buck-buck is a game between two teams. One team bends over, grabbing each other around the waist, forming a long, thin table while the other team runs and jumps on top of the "table," basically trying to break the table. Bob Diehm tells the story of how he and a couple of his friends, including his guitar-playing friend, used Buck-Buck as an evangelistic tool, spreading the love of Jesus through playing Buck-Buck. 

But now, this same friend sits alone at night in a deep depression, about as far away from God as he can get. He lives in two places, his home, and his office. In his depression, the guitar sits silent and forgotten in the corner of the room. And his old friend Bob now has committed to stand in the gap between his broken friend and God.

The story is three decades old, and I have to admit I wonder if the story ever changed.  Does Bob's unnamed friend still sit alone in the dark, or has he regained some of the zeal for life that he had when he was younger.

There is an ever-present truth in the story; we are all broken. There is no way to exist in this broken world without being damaged by it. Our reality, which we appear to have a hard time accepting, is that if we sit alone in the dark and "take care of ourselves," we will never heal because that was not the way that we were meant to exist. And, hopefully, we all have someone for whom we are "standing in the gap" and someone who is "standing in the gap" for us.

God instructs that the names of the sons of Israel be engraved on two stones and placed on the garment that the priest would wear when he ministered in the tabernacle. There are three ways that we could interpret the command. The first is literally. Jacob had twelve sons, and six would be engraved on each stone. Or, it could be construed as the tribes of Israel, which would be thirteen names, with the name of Joseph left off of the engravings, but his sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, included. That would mean six names on one stone and seven on the other.  Or it could be the twelve territorial tribes of Israel, again with Manasseh and Ephraim included, but Joseph and Levi left off. The priest who wore the stones would automatically be from the tribe of Levi, and he would carry the name on his person. I have to admit that I like the first option, but I am not sure which would be the correct interpretation.    

But regardless of how the names were engraved on the stones, the reality is that every time the priest donned the ephod and walked into the temple, he was symbolically "standing in the gap" for all of Israel, bearing their brokenness before the only one who could heal them.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Exodus 29