The Bible, to use a southern term, is something else. You can read something dozens of times and then one day you read it or hear it for the 73rd time and you put it with something else you've heard recently and it's like someone turns the sun on and what once was sort of fuzzy becomes so brilliantly illuminated that wonder just washes over you.
Today I had one of those experiences. I'll try to explain.
Right now I'm sort of all over the place with my Bible intake. For my personal reading, I'm doing a Bible-in-a-year reading plan that so far in January has had me in Geneses, Mark, Exodus, Psalms, and Proverbs. For my ladies Bible study group we have been going through Hebrews for the last several months. While I wash dishes and fold laundry, I listen to a podcast which most recently has been in Genesis. Our church is in 1 Peter on Sunday mornings and Proverbs in Sunday School. On Wednesdays my friend and I are listening to a Bible study on Daniel. So sort of a smorgasbord of genres, time periods, and goings on: a Bible Buffet. Sometimes it can feel a little unrelated. But at other times, it can all come together beautifully.
In my Hebrew's study, we have recently been in the later chapters where the Author-of-Hebrews talks about how Jesus, as our great and better priest
did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
Being so far removed, in 2024 Mississippi, from the levitical, sacrificial system of the Old Testament, this can be hard to understand on a "oh I totally get that" level. I understand what he's saying, but it doesn't always stir my heart.
In my daily personal reading I'm a little over halfway through Exodus. Exodus is part excitement, part not. I'm in the part not section of "instructions for the building of the tabernacle." Like the lists of names and numbers, this can be an easy section to skip or scan over. Do I really need to know how many cubits the curtains were? Last night, instead of reading it myself, I let Mr. Bible App man read to me all about making the priestly garments.
Ephod...tunic....robe...
yep, check, mmm hmm.
Breastpiece....gold rings....blue yarn...
Why so detailed?
Four rows of precious stones...jacinth...amethyst...gold filigree...
Sounds pretty.
Linen undergarments....Aaron and his sons....don't incur guilt and die...
Alright, great. When are we going to get back to the golden calf and water from the rock?
And then it hits me, today, in the middle of the third hymn.
Before the throne of God above, we have a strong and perfect plea. A great high priest whose name is love, who ever lives and pleads for me.
Sounds like what we've been studying in Hebrews.
he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercessions for them.
Then
My name is written on his hands my name is graven on his heart.
Wait, what?
So Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Israel in the breastpiece of judgment on his heart, when he goes into the Holy Place, to bring them to regular remembrance before the Lord. And in the breastpiece of judgment you shall put the Urim and the Thummim, and they shall be on Aaron's heart, when he goes in before the LORD. Thus Aaron shall bear the judgment of the people of Israel on his heart before the LORD regularly.
The breastpiece, the onyx and amethyst and jacinth stones with the names of the Sons of Israel, graven on them, worn over Aaron's heart. My name, graven on Jesus' heart. So they would not incur guilt and die. So that I would not incur guilt and die.
I know that while in heaven he stands, no tongue can bid me thence depart
for
by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
Wow.