Allusion Blog: Painting Pictures of Egypt

Sara Groves is one of my favorite artists. She's also an English teacher. She really inspires me as a musician and lyricist. Painting Pictures of Egypt is probably my favorite song of hers. It's pretty old though, from her album Conversations.

So the first line is "I don't want to leave, I don't want to stay," meaning she's comparing her current feelings on her status in life to the children of Israel being in the desert. She's feeling stuck (which the Israelites definitely were stuck for 40 years in the desert). The next verse offers an interesting perspective on the Israelites when they were complaining in the desert. "It's not about losing faith; it's not about trust. It's all about comfortable, when you move so much. The place I was wasn't perfect but I had found a way to live." In other words, they just wanted to feel like they had a home, a place to call their own. They had that in Egypt. "It was milk or honey, but then neither is this."

I also find this second verse interesting because when she's talking about being on the move constantly, she could also be comparing the physical touring to being in the desert. She felt like when she was just a homely school teacher who did music as a side project, and just making a living, she felt better because she had a place to call her own. She was stationary... complacent. Now that she's on the road all the time, she's wondering if it wouldn't have just been better to stay where she was rather than aspiring to the greater things for which she was destined (milk and honey).

Then we get to the chorus: "I've been painting pictures of Egypt, leaving out what it lacks. The future feels so hard, and I want to go back, but the places that used to fit me cannot hold the things I've learned, and those roads have closed off to me while my back was turned." Painting pictures of Egypt... that phrase is very poignant... and leaving out what it lacks, as in imagining her old life better than it used to be, simply because the past is familiar to us, and the future is unknown and, more often than not, can be quite frightening to think about on a grand scale. It's difficult to take it a day at a time and just see what each days holds for us. Those roads have closed off to me... I think of burning bridges just because it's cliche, but in terms of the Israelites, I think this wording was actually very clever because when the children of Israel went out of Egypt they went through the Red Sea and it literally closed back off once they had passed through and drowned all the Egyptians.

"The past is so tangible. I know it by heart." Again, talking about the past being easier because we know it so well. Especially considering how long the Israelites had been slaves to the Egyptians. "A million things are never easy to discard." I thought this line was clever as well because they were only allowed to bring certain things with them when they went out of Egypt. "I am caught between the promise and the things I know." Often the hardest distance to travel is the 12 inches between your head and your heart. Also, in the realm of Christianity, we often allude to a desert being a time in a person's life where one is spiritually dry. Either we are far from being where God wants us to be, or we are exactly where he wants us to be, and we grow weary of waiting and become stagnant.

We have the chorus again, and then we have what we call in the music world the bridge (kind of like bridging the gap between the verses and the chorus; some also call it a channel for the same reason, channeling one body of thought into another... just a little musical terminology for you). I really like this next part because again it offers an interesting perspective "If it comes too quick, I may not appreciate it. Is that the reason behind all this time in sand? If it comes too quick, I may not recognize it. Is that the reason behind all this time in sand?" Recognizing that Yahweh has a perfect plan. We've already seen (and keep seeing even throughout Joshua and Judges) that the Israelites are pretty quick to turn and hightail it in the exact opposite direction Yahweh wants them to go whether things are going their way or not. If it isn't perfect timing, then the people won't know it's from the Lord. We know that Yahweh decided to let the old generation die off before making a new Covenant with his people.

Deuteronomy 10:16 Circumcision of the Heart

This weeks blog topic was hard to choose. There were so many interesting things to explore in Deuteronomy, but, after much deliberation, I finally settled on Deuteronomy 10:16.

Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.(Deuteronomy 10:16 ESV)

We've seen in previous scripture the importance of circumcision to the Israelite people.  In Exodus when Moses did not circumcise his son, God was ready to strike Moses down dead right then and there for not honoring this sacred covenant that action symbolized. We also see throughout Exodus and Deuteronomy that Moses is quick to anger and pretty stubborn himself. So we can fairly obviously infer that this verse is kind of an indirect jab at Moses, but this verse is a bit too specific to have that simple of an explanation. So let's dig deeper shall we?

Human Heart (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXjVZLICks-eLUCuO2BuYTyBQ4vGM3wKgfhOt7Pkjq_J7T_1RL9M-whv5GI92i4e7kUk7qrz96JmAgWtvgdHjNWxkyKmKGRSkoa2-nvPkjBLJtE18UyMNn_-oZ__UNZ7be4fSopRadfWpz/s1600/External+heart+anatomy+11.2.jpg)

To become part of the Israelite people, outsiders would have to be circumcised. This the covenant made between Abraham and God, and from then on every male baby and slave had to be circumcised. Moses was raised in Egypt, and didn't take this practise seriously and so circumcision was largely abandoned when the Israelite people were wandering in the desert. God said he would re-establish his covenant with the next generation, starting with Joshua who took over for Moses. Joshua did re-instate the practise of circumcision.

"...circumcision was not merely a physical and external practice. It symbolized something internal. God described idolatry and disobedience as a result of an uncircumcised heart (Leviticus 26:41); he described repentance as a circumcision of the heart (Deuteronomy 10:16; 30:6). This spiritual meaning did not eliminate the need for the physical practice; the Israelites were to obey both the letter of the law and its symbolic meaning."(http://www.gci.org/law/circumcision)

In the New Testament, we can also look at Ephesians 4:22, where God calls us,

"to oput off pyour old self,1 which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through qdeceitful desires"

In the New Testament, circumcision is not as prevalent, especially after Christ's death and resurrection. The New Testament equivalent for circumcision seems to be water baptism. Water baptism is a public confession of faith and symbolic of throwing off our "old flesh" and receiving new life.  [Just listen to this "Dead Man (Carry Me)" by Jars of Clay, focus on the chorus and you'll get it]

In Deuteronomy 30:6, it says that God will circumcise our hearts; whereas 10:16 says we must do it ourselves. Contradictory? Not really, when you think about it. It goes back to the point of God giving man free will, to choose his own destiny. God can only work on your heart, if you allow him to do so. Going back to our verse, if you're stubborn and won't cooperate and let him in, then he won't help you. This is where I think a lot of people get the saying, "God only helps people who help themselves." In a way this seems to be true, but one has to be careful about giving the wrong impression when saying something like this in conversation.

So Moses was raised by Egyptians right? Does that mean that he wasn't circumcised? Not exactly. More likely he was only partially circumcised.

"...if Joshua 5:2 is read against the background of Egyptian dorsal circumcision, its meaning may be much deeper. It may well be that the Israelites had practiced the Egyptian version of circumcision in the wilderness. Joshua makes clear elsewhere that the Israelites observed worship practices of the Egyptians.³ I consider it likely that in Joshua 5:2 God commanded Israel to perform his circumcision by removing the entire foreskin.The incised but still-present foreskin of the Egyptian circumcision was a “reproach” (“disgrace,” NRSV) upon Israel. It signified the idolatrous disposition of the first generation." (http://www.thirdmill.org/files/english/html/th/TH.h.Glodo.Signs.1.html) 

 We can actually take this as foreshadowing: God knew exactly what he was doing, and what he was going to do with the Israelites, and even what they were going to do when he got them out in the desert by the time Moses was 8 days old (if Egyptians circumcised on the 8th day as the Hebrews did). Moses did what God wanted him to do... most of the time, but Moses was also very hard-headed and rash. (I mean, hey, he killed a task-master for beating a guy too hard.) He also demonstrated this several times when he struck the rock rather than speaking to it, as well as when he was so angry with the Israelites for making a golden calf statue that he shattered the stone tablets upon which the Ten Commandments were written (which was the whole reason he was up on the mountain with God for so long in the first place.) The breaking of the stone tablets was symbolic though. The physical breaking signified the breaking of the old Covenant with Moses's generation. When he had to go back up on the mountain to rewrite the commandments, that was God committing a plan to re-establish his Covenant with Joshua's generation.

More than you ever really wanted to think about circumcision right? Hebrews 3:8 also sheds some light on the subject of circumcision of the heart.

"do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ "(Hebrews 3:8-11 ESV)

I think this sums it up pretty well
(http://bocsupportnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/admin/1938/13/hard-heart.jpg)

 "And I will give them one heart, and xa new spirit I will put within them. yI will remove the heart of stone from their flesh zand give them a heart of flesh" (Ezekiel 11:19 and 36:26 ESV)

Leviticus and Numbers: Offerings and Sacrifices

There are a number of verses describing different kinds of offerings made by the Israelites in Leviticus and Numbers. The most common were wave offerings, drink, and burnt food offerings. Why were each of these different food offerings significant and what were they for? A lot of the time it was atonement for sin, but even then there were different kinds of offerings for different sins. Some burnt offerings were allowed to be eaten some were not.

Gordon Ramsay, Hell's Kitchen

One rule about all offerings it was almost always "first fruits." God had already spoken to Moses in Exodus 13:2 saying, "Consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine." Not only that, but God also wanted the best of what the Israelites had to offer. We see what happened with Cain when he offered only what was just "good enough" not what was best. In Leviticus 23:10 God tells Moses "Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, when you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of firstfruits of your harvest to the priest"  and in verse 12, "and on the day when you wave the sheaf you shall offer a male lamb a year old without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord." God wanted them to revere him by offering only that which was considered perfect. 

Since we're in Leviticus 23, let's talk about the wave and burnt offerings. Usually it was a sheaf of grain or an animal breast, but what was its purpose? According to http://www.hope-of-israel.org/waveshf.htm, it was both symbolic and prophetic: the sheaf wave offering was performed after the burnt offering; the burnt offering was offered for the cleansing of the sins. This can be paralleled with the New Testament in which Jesus is offered up on the cross as the sacrificial lamb for the sins of the world, allowing the common people access to God. 

"The Wave Sheaf Offering, composed of MANY individual grains, offered together, made possible by the sacrifice of the Messiah, represents TRUE CHRISTIANS of the first-century Church era -- those called of YEHOVAH God out of the tribes of Israel during that age, as His "FIRSTFRUITS"!
It was offered to the Father AFTER the sacrifice of the Messiah, because there is NO WAY the Father could have accepted them BEFORE their sins were pardoned, and atoned for, and wiped away and washed away by the blood of the Messiah! But since the Messiah became their Saviour, and qualified by living a perfect life, and DIED for them on the tree, this made possible THEIR acceptance before the throne of YEHOVAH God's Shekinah Glory in the Jerusalem Temple!" 

Okay, so that explains the sin offering but why were their so many different animals sacrificed? Well, as one can expect, each animal symbolizes a different attribute. 

"The lamb is used there as the symbol of innocence, and is so expressive of this grace, that it is almost a household word; for those who are in possession of it... Sheep are the types of the gentle principles of charity, or sympathizing brotherly love...Oxen are the types of the dispositions to duty and obedience. It was the animal chiefly devoted to the plough, and ploughing, in the spiritual sense, meant the preparation of the soul to receive the knowledge of heavenly things. The true method to prepare for firesh instruction is to practise what we already know. Our Lord has a remarkable declaration in allusion to spiritual ploughing...Birds, from their soaring power, are the symbols of thoughts. Turtle-doves and pigeons are correspondences of those tender thoughts and yearning after the heavenly life which the soul has in the early part of its regeneration. The cooing of the turtle-dove was first heard in the groves of Palestine, on the return of spring. Its sweet sound was the sign of the approach of a brighter and warmer season. When the soul, therefore, is coming to a more genial condition, the sweet thoughts of hope and trust that encourage its advance towards the heavenly state and kingdom, are like the soft notes of a God-sent turtle-dove. All these types, then, of good affections and thoughts, as well as the mode of offering up by fire, abundantly confirm the view we have drawn from the Holy Word, that the sacrifices were representative of good things and principles, dedicated to the Lord in worship, not of punishment for human sin." (http://www.scienceofcorrespondences.com/the-burnt-sacrifice-of-birds.htm)

Brilliant! What's next? Peace and Guilt offerings? First off, let's establish that a guilt offering, though conducted very similarly to the Sin offering, is different because the guilt offering is offered when one has sinned unintentionally; whereas, a sin offering was made when sin is realized and recognized before the Lord. (http://www.enduringword.com/commentaries/0305.htm)

"The peace-offerings had regard to God as the giver of all good things. These were divided between the altar, the priest, and the owner. They were called peace-offering, because in them God and his people did, as it were, feast together, in token of friendship. The peace-offerings were offered by way of supplication. If a man were in pursuit of any mercy, he would add a peace-offering to his prayer for it. Christ is our Peace, our Peace-offering; for through him alone it is that we can obtain an answer of peace to our prayers. Or, the peace-offering was offered by way of thanksgiving for some mercy received. We must offer to God the sacrifice of praise continually, by Christ our Peace; and then this shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock. (Le 3:6-17)" (https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/commentaries/Matthew-Henry/Lev/Peace-Offering-Herd)

There are quite a lot more offerings made in Leviticus and Numbers, but for the most part these seem to be the main ones. Other offerings include, but are not limited to: jealousy (mentioned in Numbers), thanksgiving, and fellowship offerings. 

Exodus 4:14-16

Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses and he said, “Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, qhe is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. 15 rYou shall speak to him and sput the words in his mouth, and pI will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do. 16 tHe shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and uyou shall be as God to him.

(from left to right: Tzippora, Aaron, Moses, and Miriam
as portrayed in Prince of Egypt animated movie)

Moses was very unsure of himself. He was scared to do what God had told him to do, so God appointed him an assistant, Aaron. Later on (Exodus 28) we see that Aaron and his descendants are even blessed as prophets and priests. If Aaron played such a major role in helping Moses deliver Israel out of Egypt, why do some stories undermine his part in God's plan? Shouldn't he be given equal credit? 

"Contrary to popular belief, it was Aaron, not Moses, who cast down the staff that became a snake before Pharaoh (Ex. 7:10-12). It was Aaron, not Moses, who held out his staff to trigger the first three plagues against Egypt (Ex. 7:19-20; Ex. 8:1-2 or 8:5-6; Ex. 8:12-13 or 8:16-17). According to Jewish tradition, it was also Aaron who performed the signs for the elders before they went to Pharaoh."

(http://www.jewfaq.org/m/moshe.htm)

Moses is said to have uncircumcised lips. Many interpret that as being a stutterer. He says that he is slow to speech and of tongue, so God ordains Aaron to be Moses's spokesperson. The verse also says that Moses will be like God to Aaron. Now as we know, Moses was actually a very humble person. "Of course, Moses was not really God, but in the teamwork aspect of their working relationship, God is clearly pointing out that Moses was the leader, even though Aaron would be doing the bulk of the speaking—at least until Moses' confidence, his faith, increased to the point that he no longer worried about being slow of speech. Moses would be in the position of issuing the orders. Aaron would be in the position of submitting to what Moses said.

Moses was in the position of God to Aaron, even as God was to Moses. Moses was God's prophet, but Aaron was Moses' prophet. A prophet is one who speaks for another, who speaks the words that the other put into his mouth—a simple arrangement, easy to understand."

(http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Topical.show/RTD/cgg/ID/9218/Moses-Aarons-Relationship.htm)

To fully understand Aaron's role in the story of Moses, we kind of have to back track to the beginning. When Moses was born, the king of Egypt told his people to go out and throw every male child into the Nile not just the first born, which would have been Aaron. Which begs the question why wasn't Aaron killed? was it because he was older or was it because his mother hid him or was it simply because God protected him? when the Bible says Pharaoh ordered all the Hebrew children killed, we assume that that means just babies, but was that really the case, or did it also apply to older children as well? Because Aaron would have been about 3 when Moses was born. (http://www.jewfaq.org/m/moshe.htm)

A side note: theres an Exodus movie coming out soon currently in post-production. Im interested to see how it will portray our characters. 

http://youtu.be/N4iSzHXOUEE

Although Aaron doesnt seem to get much credit for his role in delivering the Israelites out of Egypt, Aaron was still honored before God when God ordained Aaron and his descendants as the first priests and were charged with keeping the tabernacle and holy traditions. Even after Aaron conceded to allow the Israelites to make a golden calf when they grew restless of waiting for Moses to come back down off the mountain. I think in this way, Aaron was blessed in his own way. He may not have been the leader that Moses was, but Moses certainly couldnt have done  without him. This is the conclusion I've reached in regards to the research that I've done. Aaron's place in God's plan was just different than Moses's, and both Moses and Aaron seem to be ok with that. Aaron was not diminished in the sight of God. 

Old Testament: Genesis 6:1-7

"When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them,2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in[a] man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” 4 The Nephilim[b] were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”

In the movie based on the best-selling novel, Mortal Instruments,
Nephilim: described as angel-human hybrids that hunt demons

My primary question is this: what actually are the Nephilim? There is great debate as to the answer. Some interpretations translate the word to mean "the fallen" as in the angels fallen from Heaven (wikipedia); however, when referred to elsewhere they are classically known as the Gregori, or Watchers, not the Nephilim, such as in the Apocryphal test of the Book of Enoch, which ascribes Heaven with layers more like Hades from Greek mythological legend. (Secrets of Enoch, Ch 18, http://sacred-texts.com/chr/apo/index.htm) Watchers are also mentioned in the apocryphal text of the Book of Jubilees. (4:15 and 5:1) 

Other translations interpret the word Nephilim as giants. This theory is somewhat supported in Numbers 13:32-33; when the twelve spies were sent out, they came back with reports of giants which they referred to as Nephilim. Rather than thinking of the giants as their own race though, it makes more sense to think of these peoples as having giantism, or gigantism. This disorder is rare in modern day society, but in (for lack of a better word) "Bible Times" it seems this condition was fairly common in peoples of a certain descent. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4113151) Giantism is described as "abnormal growth due to an excess of growth hormone during childhood."  (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001174.htm)

Also "As per modern medical understanding, pituitary gigantism today is caused by a tumor (cancerous growth in) the pituitary gland in the brain, which causes an overproduction of Human Growth Hormone. (1) While some cases of pituitary tumors like this occur randomly, others are genetically linked and pass down through families. (2)" 

(I think this article is interspersed with a bit of weird mysticism about demon spirits and such, but most of the information after the hyperlinked stitchiniswrong.com I believe is fairly accurate.  http://www.nephilimhybrids.com/nephilim-hybrid/modern-nephilim-hybrid-deception-part-2)

 It's also a little known fact that the average Hebrew male stood only about 5 ft 3, maybe up to 5'5" or 5'7" according to some archaelogical digs. Giants to them could have ranged any where from 6 ft (average Canaanite) to 9 (Philistine's Goliath size, discrepancies vary) or possibly even up to 13 ft ( "King Og of Moab, Deut. 3:11 had a bed measuring 9 cubits long and 4 cubits wide (13 ft by 6 ft) [but that does not mean King Og was the same size as his bed. -- E.T.B.]")

(http://etb-pseudoscience.blogspot.com/2012/03/nephalim-giants-in-old-testament.html)

(http://biblestudymagazine.com/interactive/goliath)

Watchers, as portrayed in the 2014 movie Noah (Russell Crowe, Logan Lerman and Emma Watson)
(http://www.suchacritic.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Noah-Watcher-V2-luca-nemolato.jpg)

Yet another theory have the identification of Nephilim that goes back Cain. If we take Nephilim to mean "the fallen" (which many linguists have determined as folly), then this theory fits well, Adam and Eve being the first to "fall" when they ate of the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:6) and Cain being marked and cursed by God (though protected) when he slew his brother Abel. Seth was born to Adam and Eve later, and Seth was very blessed by God. The sons of God could refer to the descendants of Seth, whereas the daughters of man would refer to descendants of Cain. Although the Nephilim are also mentioned in Numbers. how can they be referring to further descendants of sons of Seth and daughters of Cain if everyone except Noah's immediate family was wiped out in the flood? Noah is a descendant of Seth. Unless Noah and/or his sons had married descendants of Cain, the Nephilim would have died out. Which according to the Apocryphal text of the Book of Jasher is probable. Also, perhaps the Nephilim in Numbers are different from the ones mentioned in Genesis, because the ones mentioned in Numbers 13 are said to be descendants of Anak.

^{32 "}And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. ³³ We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

(this article has some bias, but provides some interesting information http://www.douglashamp.com/the-sons-of-seth-and-daughters-of-cain-theory-refuted)

There aren't really a lot of straight answers across the board, but the solution to the mystery of the Nephilim seems to be firmly rooted in the DNA of those Biblical individuals with Giantism. Although if anyone else finds any more information regarding the Nephilim, I would be very interested to look into it.