Dr Paul Allen

The Brazen Serpent, by Benjamin West; among the overthrown, an unmistakable reference to the Laocoön (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) I was making my way through Exodus, feeling a little jealous of my spiritual ancestors. It seemed they never had to wonder if God was there. They had only to follow pillars of cloud and fire, gathering up the manna served fresh daily from God's kitchen. At Sinai , Yahweh made his presence even harder to miss, clearing his throat with thunder, lightning, trumpet blasts, trembling mountains, and billowing smoke. I wondered why the present-day actions of the immutable God sometimes seem so muted in contrast to the God of Moses . I wouldn't mind a pillar of cloud or fire when I need direction, or some manna on my front lawn when I pray for provision. But 10 chapters into Leviticus , I sobered up to the dangerous side of God's proximity to the Israelites . They had just set up the tabernacle, and two of Moses' nephews had been recruited for t...

English: The Sin of Nadab and Abihu, as in Leviticus 10, illustration from a Bible card published 1907 by the Providence Lithograph Company (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “Among those who approach Me I will show Myself holy; in the sight of all the people I will be honored” ( Leviticus 10:3b). God moved into the tabernacle after it had been set up by Moses and Aaron in the wilderness (Exodus 40). God lit the fire on the altar in front of the tabernacle as a sign of His presence and of His holiness. The judgments rendered on the altar were God’s judgments, and so the fire was His fire (Leviticus 9:24). God consecrated Nadab and Abihu as priests to assist their father Aaron, but at the time God lit the fire on His hearth-altar, these two young men brought “strange fire” before Him. We don’t know for certain what this meant, but we do know that “fire came out from the presence of LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD” (Leviticus 10:2). Aaron was very upset, and Moses ...

English: Worshiping the golden calf, as in Exodus 32:1-35, illustration from a Bible card published 1901 by the Providence Lithograph Company (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) God may respond to sin with with patient mercy or wrath. The story of Uzzah provides a display of God’s just wrath; God’s mercy is displayed in Exodus 32, with the story of the golden calf. God has delivered his people from slavery and Moses has now gone up Mount Sinai to meet with God and receive instruction on how this people must now serve their God. While Moses is there the people grow tired of waiting for him, and decide to make a new god. The whole nation comes together in this plan, bringing all the gold they plundered from Egypt , and with it Aaron makes a golden calf. He sets it up there before all the people and they begin to pay allegiance to it, saying, “This is the God that brought us out of Egypt. This is the one that did all these amazing deeds for us.” They worship this God, they bri...

English: The Ark of the Covenant Brought into the Temple (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Let's look at the story of Uzzah ( 2 Samuel 6:1-7) to help us understand God ’s justice. The Old Testament records that the ark of the covenant had been captured and taken away. God’s people had broken covenant with God and he had given them over to their enemies. When he did that, the Phillistines attacked them, pillaged them, and captured the ark. When they captured the ark it was not just that they were taking away a religious icon. Instead, they were taking away the presence of God from among the Israelites and the Israelites understood that this meant that God had abandoned them and was no longer there in the midst of his people. Their sin was so great, so offensive to God, that God had turned his back on them for a time. But that time lasted just a few months. After just a few months the ark was returned to the nation of Israel , but not to the tabernacle. Instead it sat for many...