by Rabbi Russ Resnik 

Exodus is undoubtedly one of the most familiar and important books of the Bible. After the drama of the night-time deliverance from Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, and the encounter with God at Mount Sinai, however,  the story seems to lag. The last third of the book, including this week's reading, Parashat Ki Tisa (Exodus 30:11-34:35), loses many readers as it recounts the construction of the tabernacle and its equipment in great and repetitious detail. Nevertheless, this part of the story is obviously important to the divine author, and if we pay attention, we will see how important it is to us as well, as we seek to follow Yeshua as individuals and as a community.

The building section opened with the Lord's instruction to Moses:

Tell the people of Isra'el to take up a collection for me-- accept a contribution from anyone who wholeheartedly wants to give. . . . They are to make me a sanctuary, so that I may live among them. You are to make it according to everything I show you--the design of the tabernacle and the design of its furnishings. This is how you are to make it. (Exodus 25:2, 8-9 CJB)

Now, these Israelites are used to building projects. They have been forced by Pharaoh to build the great store-cities of Pithom and Raamses, and they lived for generations surrounded by the monumental edifices of ancient Egypt. But this project is something else altogether, a holy place where God will dwell among them, a model of the divine court in the heavens! Furthermore, this building project will be the opposite of the ways of Egypt:

• It is a place for God's dwelling; not a project to glorify man, like all the monuments of Egypt.
• It is portable, light, transitory, made of cloth and boards that can be packed up and moved; not brick and stone built to last for millennia, like the Egyptians projects.
• It is made by volunteers, who wholeheartedly want to give. Imagine Pharaoh deciding it is time to build another great monument to his power, and asking for volunteers to come forward and give whatever they would like to make it happen. Such a project would be unlikely to even get started, but God limits himself not just to volunteers, but to wholehearted volunteers.

This reversal of the mode of the Egyptians echoes the theme of Divine Reversal, which is evident throughout the Exodus story, and indeed throughout Scripture.

A few chapters earlier in Exodus, God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses, in words that repeat the theme of Divine Reversal:

Then God said all these words: "I am ADONAI your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the abode of slavery. You are to have no other gods before me." (Exodus 20:1-3, CJB)

Jewish and Christian traditions have differing ways to number the Ten Commandments. Most Jewish commentators say the first commandments is, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the abode of slavery." Seeing this as the first commandment teaches us that before the other commandments will be relevant and authoritative, we must accept the existence and authority of the Lawgiver. There can be no binding moral instruction apart from belief in the one true God. In addition, this first commandment defines this God. We might expect God to establish his authority by saying, "I am the Lord, Creator of heaven and earth," but he defines himself as the God of deliverance who rescues a nation of helpless slaves and brings them to Mount Sinai. Adonai is not a feel-good god who endorses whatever civil or political system dominates at the time. Rather, he is the God who reverses the values and perspectives of the world system to accomplish his purposes.

We might imagine God gazing down upon the ancient world and deciding to reveal himself in a dramatic new way to the human race. He looks upon Egypt, the most powerful and advanced civilization of them all, which has dominated its world for the past thousand years and more. We might imagine God installing himself in the heart of Egyptian civilization, converting the Egyptians to the worship of the one true Creator, and revealing himself to the world in that way. Instead, in an act of Divine Reversal, God takes a people out of Egypt, ties his reputation to them, and reveals himself to them in the wilderness, as he reminds the Israelites:

"You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now if you will pay careful attention to what I say and keep my covenant, then you will be my own treasure from among all the peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you will be a kingdom of cohanim for me, a nation set apart." (Exodus 19:4-6a, CJB)

This theme of Divine Reversal is sounded again and again throughout Scripture. When Messiah comes, he teaches and embodies Divine Reversal. Like Moses, he goes up to a Mount and delivers the word of God from there, opening, like the Ten Commandments, with Divine Reversal: "How blessed are the poor in spirit! for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs" (Matt. 5:3). We might paraphrase this saying, "How blessed are those enslaved in Egypt! for they shall be called a kingdom of priests."

God delights to reverse the order of this world to display his character through putting down the mighty and lifting up the lowly in his place. He delights to remind the world that his chosen and holy people is a band of rescued slaves who were unable to help themselves, and that Messiah himself, who will someday reign over all the earth, appeared among us as a servant. God's approach challenges us to bear the name Messianic not as another brand in the religious marketplace, but as a reflection of the character of Messiah. The term Messianic speaks of the Divine Reversal that Yeshua embodies and calls us to emulate, as individuals, congregations, and community.

Individual: Chosen, yet girded to serve.

Divine Reversal means we are to renounce the materialism, consumerism, and sense of entitlement that dominate our world today and follow Yeshua in serving others, even at personal cost. This is easier said than done, however. I was recently in Southern California, visiting my sister the day before I was planning to speak at a local Messianic synagogue on this very theme of Divine Reversal. We went to Trader Joe's to pick up some items before Shabbat and the parking lot was filled with cars competing for the few open spaces on Friday afternoon. I came down a lane and saw a car pulling out of its space right ahead of me, but then caught another car to my left that had spotted the same open space. I gently nudged forward to cut off the other car and slide into the space as soon as it opened up. The driver to my left scolded me with her horn-and I realized she was right. I had automatically gone into the mode of aggressive competition over a matter of minor convenience, even as I was preparing to preach on Messianic humility and servanthood! The Divine Reversal has to begin in our own hearts as a work of the Ruach, the Spirit of God.

Congregation: Sacred, yet radically welcoming.

Our congregations are holy ground, but they must also be places of acceptance toward unholy people. They display Divine Reversal to become what writer Larry Crabb calls "The Safest Place on Earth." He describes one aspect of this safety: "When spiritual friends share their stories, the others listen without working. They rest. There's nothing to fix, nothing to improve." In the world around us, we must earn acceptance and compete for approval. Not in the congregation. We can enter in without becoming someone's project, to be fixed or improved (although God will probably improve us in the process).

Community: Central, yet inhabiting the margins.

During our UMJC tour of Israel in 2003, a European Christian journalist interviewed me about Messianic Judaism. At one point I said, "We are not a big movement, but we're pivotal," and he broke into a big smile. I thought, "He liked the way I put that-'pivotal'." But the journalist said, "I've never heard an American admit to being part of something that is not big before." But it is true; we are not a big movement. I have visited churches that were larger than the entire Messianic Jewish movement, at least as we define it in the UMJC. Not only are we relatively small, but we are marginalized by both the Christian world and the Jewish world. I recently had an email conversation with a local rabbi in Albuquerque who told me, "Christianity defines who is a Christian. America defines who is an American citizen. Judaism defines who is a Jew, and the acceptance of Jesus as one's messiah puts them outside the walls of Judaism." Perhaps so, but if we remain loyal to Yeshua, as well as loyal to the wider Jewish world and committed to serving it from our place on the margins, we remain central to God's plan for both church and synagogue.

Divine reversal means that God accomplishes his purposes through turning the values and methods of this world on their head. And he often does this through us who, like our forebears in the wilderness, have a sacred task. Indeed, every true community in every generation has the task of building a holy place where the Lord may dwell among us. Exodus teaches us that this place cannot be built by the means of this world, but through the reverse, by willing hearts following the example of Messiah himself.

Shabbat Shalom!

Rabbi Russell Resnik