Exodus: Unity of Law and Grace

The Center

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Pentateuch

Lesson: The Center

Genre: Lessons with Q & A

Track: 127

Dictation Name: RR171BR127

Location/Venue:

Year: Early 70’s

Our scripture is Exodus 39. Our subject, again for the third time: The Center. The Center. Exodus 39:1-43. “And of the blue, and purple, and scarlet, they made cloths of service, to do service in the holy place, and made the holy garments for Aaron; as the Lord commanded Moses. And he made the ephod of gold, blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen. And they did beat the gold into thin plates, and cut it into wires, to work it in the blue, and in the purple, and in the scarlet, and in the fine linen, with cunning work. They made shoulderpieces for it, to couple it together: by the two edges was it coupled together. And the curious girdle of his ephod, that was upon it, was of the same, according to the work thereof; of gold, blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen; as the Lord commanded Moses. And they wrought onyx stones inclosed in ouches of gold, graven, as signets are graven, with the names of the children of Israel. And he put them on the shoulders of the ephod, that they should be stones for a memorial to the children of Israel; as the Lord commanded Moses. And he made the breastplate of cunning work, like the work of the ephod; of gold, blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen.” Now skipping over to verse 22. “And he made the robe of the ephod of woven work, all of blue.” Then verse 27. “And they made coats of fine linen of woven work for Aaron, and for his sons, and a mitre of fine linen, and goodly bonnets of fine linen, and linen breeches of fine twined linen, and a girdle of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, of needlework; as the Lord commanded Moses. And they made the plate of the holy crown of pure gold, and wrote upon it a writing, like to the engravings of a signet, Holiness To The Lord. And they tied unto it a lace of blue, to fasten it on high upon the mitre; as the Lord commanded Moses. Thus was all the work of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation finished: and the children of Israel did according to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so did they. And they brought the tabernacle unto Moses, the tent, and all his furniture, his taches, his boards, his bars, and his pillars, and his sockets,” and verse 42, “According to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so the children of Israel made all the work. And Moses did look upon all the work, and, behold, they had done it as the Lord had commanded, even so had they done it: and Moses blessed them.”

Exodus 39:1-32 describes the making of the priestly vestments. Now this chapter has a sevenfold refrain. “As the Lord commanded Moses,” seven times this is repeated. This is followed by the summary statements of verses 42-43 where the same statement essentially concludes the chapter. Again in Exodus 40, the next chapter, we have the same sevenfold refrain and the same general statement as a prefix in verse 16.

What this means is that the stress is on strict obedience. In verse 43, we are told that at the conclusion of the work Moses blessed them. A blessing and a benediction are basically the same thing. A benediction is a form of prayer which invokes God’s blessing on persons, things, or ventures. At one time, both in Israel and Christendom, a blessing or benediction was a central part of every marriage, birth, baptism and other like events. Whereas now, wedding guests congratulate the bride and groom, it was once customary for the heads of households, the husband and the wife, to line up to bless the couple. The reception line was a blessing line. In Luke 1:21 following, we have a congregation waiting for Zechariah’s blessing. Among men are adults, the blessing came from a superior to an inferior, and was very important. It meant that the father, the mother, the employer, or the leader had to see himself or herself as a channel of grace to all under his or her authority. The blessing was the climax of a life of grace to all those within one’s jurisdiction.

This is a very important fact. It meant, for example, that the husband was to be a blessing to his wife and children, the mother to her family, and so on, and that it was a part of their obligation to bless all those under them, both in their activities and formally. Even within my lifetime, I can recall when grandparents and parents blessed the young, and when a husband would tell his wife that she was a blessing. Esau, who was normally heedless of most things, was greatly upset that Jacob had gained Isaac’s blessing, and we are told that with an exceeding bitter cry, said unto his father, “Bless me, even me also, O my father.” Blessing and inheritance were cognate. Things blessed were thereby separated for a holy purpose. The blessing of purpose is to separate the food to a holy use, namely to feed and strengthen us as members of Christ’s body and kingdom. A blessing is received with bowed head as a reverential acceptance of God’s presence in and through the benediction. Usually, a hand or both hands are raised in a blessing, or in certain instances, placed on the head of the recipient. I can recall as a child that this was normally done to children when an elderly relative, who had come visiting, left. He would place his hand on each of the children and bless them.

Here in this chapter, we have a blessing of good workmanship. That, in itself, is an important fact. The artisans give their best abilities to God’s service, and God sanctifies them for doing so. He blesses them. At one time, sculptors, painters, musicians, and others prayed for a blessing as they began their work. Benedictions were once routine for new enterprises. We now have a pale relic of this in groundbreaking ceremonies. Blessings on travelers were also once commonplace. Again, I can recall, having grown up in a small town, that when people got on a train to go somewhere, it was an event, and a pastor was usually there to pronounce a blessing on the travelers. Now that was not too many years ago. We have changed dramatically since World War 2.

Well, all of this is very closely related to the concept of the center. When the biblical faith is central to a society, then blessings go out from the center into all society. At one time, the blessing of boats, of lawyers, of doctors, teachers and others, of new vineyards, orchards and houses, and more was routine. All this was related to the premise set forth in Psalm 127:1, “Except the Lord bless the house they labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchmen waiteth but in vain.” The triune God must be at the center of all things, and men must look to Him for their blessings and in return, bless God by serving Him, by their gifts and by their faithfulness.

Well now, the modern state is at the center of society, and its forms of blessings are subsidies, grants, and entitlements. Thus, the new temple is the legislature, congress or Parliament, and the blessing is a form of purchase. In the United States, the shift from the Christian center to a humanistic and statist one was completed, I believe in the administration of President John F. Kennedy, who followed closely the anti-Christian premises of Daniel Bell, one of his advisers. In particular, two of Daniel Bell’s premises were very strongly stressed by Kennedy. First, societies problems were now supposedly no longer moral ones, but technological ones. A trained bureaucracy of experts would hereafter solve all social problems, so Kennedy held. Of course, Bell, who wrote some of Kennedy’s speeches, probably meant men like himself.

Second, Bell removed Christianity, not only from the center of society but from society altogether. It was now apparently peripheral, a matter of taste comparable to a taste for jazz, or for a particular school of art. The non-Christian center was now, for Daniel Bell and Kennedy, the state. Since then, society has been taught to look to the state as its center, and statist grants, or blessings, to most sectors of society have greatly proliferated. This has meant a shift from responsibility under God to irresponsibility and a dependence on the state.

In Exodus 39:1-31, the making or Aaron’s robes is described. The human agency of the transmission of God’s blessings to society was the high priest, Aaron. Therefore, his sins were the most serious in God’s sight, together with that of any other priest. This is restated by Peter in the New Testament; 1 Peter 4:17. Judgment must begin at the house of God. Every detail of the priestly garments, the sanctuaries construction, and the life of the priest is strictly governed because he is required to keep holy the line of blessings to the people.

In Leviticus 10:1-2, we see God’s death penalty against two of Aaron’s sons for their corrupt practices. To corrupt the center is to contaminate all of society. This makes clear how great God’s judgment is and will be on all false centers such as the humanistic modern state.

We have some very interesting details given to us in this chapter. In verse 3, we read that the gold leaf was hammered out and cut into fine wire or thread. In verse 30, the plate of the holy crown for the high priest reads, “Holiness unto the Lord.” The center is required to be especially holy. There are, as Umberto Kasuto pointed out some years ago, deliberate parallels here with Genesis. In Genesis 1:31, we have a statement echoed in verse 43 of this chapter; “And God saw everything that He had made and behold, it was very good.” Then in Exodus 39:43, “And Moses looked upon all the work and behold, they had done it as the Lord had commanded, even so had they done it.” But there are other parallels. Thus, in Genesis 1:22, and 1:28, and Genesis 2:3, “And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.” “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” “And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it,” and in Exodus 39:43, “And Moses blessed them.” These are deliberate parallels. God created heaven and earth very good.

Now this fallen earth must be reclaimed and restored by covenant man, dominion man, to God’s law and government. The first and key step towards that restoration is to build the sanctuary, the center of God’s government, justice and law. The sanctuary must be kept holy, that the blessing, God’s grace and providential care, may go forth to the whole of society. Where the center is false, instead of a blessing, a curse goes out, whether it be church or state which claims to be central. Because this is totally God’s world, both curses and blessings are inescapably a part of it. These chapters on the sanctuary are not popular with the church because they contain no comforting verses or promises, and men want things to speak to their heart. Their test is, “Does it interest me?” or “Is it relevant to my concerns?” This makes man, not God, not the Bible, the criterion. And then, man must be pleased by God’s word, which must please man rather than God and declare God’s holy purposes. This attitude has marked the Jews of old, the Pharisees, and others, and also churchmen. About two centuries ago, Alexander Carson observed, and I quote, “Baxter says that the Jews were in the habit of casting the book of Esther to the ground before reading it to express their sense of its deficiency in wanting the name of God, and the though it quite in the style of Jewish piety and of the human wisdom of Christians.” God does not speak to interest us but to command us. We cannot limit our interest to a few favorite passages or books of the Bible. We then hear only what we want to hear and no more. But God’s whole word must command us. Let us pray.

Our Father, we thank thee for thy word, and we thank thee that from the day of creation to the completion of the tabernacle into the present, thou hast ordained blessings for thy people. O Lord, enable us to grow in grace and make us a blessing to those around us and under our authority. Make of all employers a blessing to them that work under them, husbands a blessing to their wives and children, wives a blessing to their families, pastors a blessing to their congregation. Each in our place a blessing under thee. Grant us this, we beseech thee, in Christ’s name. Amen. Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes?

[Audience] You mentioned John F. Kennedy. I’ve always regarded his famous speech, “Ask not what your country can do for you,” as the new Pledge of Allegiance of, instead of pledging your life and work to your fellow countrymen in order to maintain the republic and pledge your fortune to the state.

[Rushdoony] His most famous speech in terms of the shift away from moral to technological concerns was, I believe, at Yale University, and it was considered the beginning of a new order. We don’t hear as much of that speech now because we are further along in the new order, and we are taking for granted now all that Kennedy called for. The replacement of moral concerns with technological ones, and the shift to a new center, the state. Yes?

[Audience] They certainly led the way with disregard to moral concerns.

[Rushdoony] What?

[Audience] The Kennedy family has certainly led the with in disregard to moral concerns.

[Rushdoony] Yes. Yes. That is a very kindly understatement. Well, none of the presidents have made us proud since then. Any other questions or comments? Well, if not, let us conclude with prayer.

Our Father, we thank thee for thy word. We thank thee that hitherto thou hast blessed us. That in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, thou hast led us, cared for us, and surrounded us with thy mercies. Make us always grateful, always faithful in giving thanks and in becoming a blessing to others. And now go in peace. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you, guide and protect you this day and always. Amen.

End of tape