Latest / Reformed Thinking / עֵדָה (Edah): The Assembly of God’s Covenant People

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עֵדָה (Edah): The Assembly of God’s Covenant People · Reformed Thinking

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Picture the heat of the ancient Near Eastern sun just beating
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down on a dirt Rd. A guy named Samson is walking
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toward the Philistine territory of Timna.
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He's young. He's, you know, unbelievably
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strong and he is basically walking right into hostile
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territory. Right, right into enemy lines.
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Yeah. Suddenly a young lion comes
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roaring at him, the text tells us.
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The spirit of the Lord rushes upon him, and he well he tears
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the lion apart with his bare hands, as if he were tearing a
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young goat. Which is a pretty intense thing
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to have it on a walk. Oh, for sure.
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He leaves the carcass right there in the dirt and continues
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on his way. But then, you know, Fast forward
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a few days. Samson is walking back down that
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same road and he decides to turn aside and look at the remains of
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this lion he killed. Right, checking out his
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handiwork, yeah. By now it should just be a
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rotting rib cage, a symbol of death and decay, totally picked
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over by scavengers. But when he looks inside the
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carcass, he doesn't just see dry bones.
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He hears A hum. He sees movement inside the dead
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beast. A massive swarm of bees has,
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like, taken up residence. And they haven't just gathered
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randomly, right? They have built a functioning,
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highly organized society. They've produced honey.
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That is such a wild visual. It really is welcome to reformed
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thinking. Today we are taking a deep dive
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into the source material to look at the transition from chaos to
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unified purpose. Yeah, we are.
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We are looking directly at the ancient Hebrew text to
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investigate a single fascinating concept.
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It is a concept that reveals how groups, objects and even divine
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beings gather with a unified singular intent.
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We are focusing our attention today on the Hebrew word EDA
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that is spelled EDAH, pronounced ADAH.
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If you look at the stack of research and notes we have, you
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will see lexical dictionary entries, grammar breakdowns, and
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historical usage counts. I mean, staring at a dictionary
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might sound incredibly dry on the surface.
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You might think reading Hebrew definitions is a sure way to
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fall asleep. Oh, definitely.
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But this specific word opens up a massive theological and
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historical window into ancient life.
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It is not just vocabulary, you know.
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It is a whole world view. The biblical writers use this
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single word to describe everything from a swarm of
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insects to a terrifying gang of rebels, to the entire nation of
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Israel, to the heavenly court of angels, and Blarly to piles of
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rocks sitting in a field. Our mission for this deep dive
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is to trace the word EA from its most basic everyday uses in the
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natural world all the way up to the heavenly realms.
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And we need to figure out how all these seemingly unrelated
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things share the same structural DNA.
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Like we're going to unpack how a pile of rocks shares a
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linguistic route with an angelic being.
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Which sounds impossible, but it's all there in the text.
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To do that, we have to start at the absolute beginning.
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Before we look at holy gatherings or cosmic councils,
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we have to establish a baseline definition by looking at the
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natural world. Yeah, we need the raw data.
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The data shows that EDA occurs nearly 150 times in the Hebrew
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text, and its origins trace back to a root word, yad.
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That root yad is the engine that drives this entire concept.
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Yeah, it implies an appointed meeting or the act of gathering
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together to act concertedly. OK.
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It is about coordinated action. It is not a coincidence that
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people bump into each other. It is an intentional coming
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together. Right, it's not accidental.
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Spot on. And we see this applied to the
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natural world in some striking ways.
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For instance, in Judges chapter 14 verse 8, that story of the
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Samson narrative you just described, the text uses EDA to
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describe that swarm of bees inside the lion.
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In Hosea Chapter 7, verse 12, it is used to describe a flock of
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birds, and in Psalm 68 verse 31 it refers to a herd of bulls.
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So we have bees, birds and bulls.
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But you know, I think about a swarm of bees and it is not just
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a random collection of insects buzzing around aimlessly in the
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wind. No, not at all.
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It is a highly structured system.
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They are working together. Some are protecting a queen,
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others are gathering pollen, others are building the
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honeycomb. They have a shared goal.
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Yeah, they are highly focused. Right, they are taking a place
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of death like a lion's carcass and turning it into an organized
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domain. Which tells us a lot about why a
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word that is most often translated in English as
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congregation or assembly is applied to animals.
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That makes sense. The writers of the Hebrew text
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did not view a swarm of bees or a herd of bulls as a random
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chaotic crowd. When the text uses ETA for
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animals, it implies a group acting with a unified intent or
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a driving instinct. Like a hive mind.
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Yes, think of a hive mind or a stampeding herd.
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The bulls in Psalm 68 are moving as one unstoppable force.
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The birds in Hosea are flocking together in a coordinated
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pattern, turning in the sky simultaneously.
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Moving is 1. And the bees in Judges are
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operating as a miniature society.
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The bees did not just happen to be flying past the lion and
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collide with each other. They gathered there with a
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purpose. They were on a mission.
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They were acting concertedly to establish their domain.
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The word EDA captures that collective action perfectly.
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They were an appointed gathering of insects.
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This makes me think of a modern flash mob.
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Oh, that has a great analogy. Yeah, picture this.
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You are walking through a massive, busy train station.
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There are thousands of people, but there is no unity.
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Everyone is just going about their individual business,
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checking their phones, rushing to their platforms, completely
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isolated in their own little world.
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It's just a normal, chaotic Tuesday.
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Right then, suddenly music starts playing over a
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loudspeaker and 50 people scattered throughout the station
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stop what they are doing and start performing a highly
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choreographed dance. I love those videos.
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Me too. In that split second, they cease
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to be individual commuters. They become a flash mob.
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They suddenly act with a single coordinated intent.
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The chaos crystallizes into order.
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That is a perfect picture of the odd.
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But this raises a question for me regarding the moral nature of
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this word. If the text uses this word for
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bees building a hive or birds flying in the sky, does it mean
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the core definition of the word is entirely, entirely neutral?
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What do you mean? Like does forming an EDA possess
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any inherent goodness on its own or is it just a neutral tool?
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That is the critical distinction we have to make right at the
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start. Yes.
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At its root, the concept of an EDA is morally neutral.
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OK. The morality of the gathering
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depends entirely on who is gathering and what their
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appointed purpose is. The bees inside the lion are
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just acting on instinct. They're neither righteous nor
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wicked. They are just bugs.
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Yeah, they are simply an organized collective.
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The root concept is just about the existence of the unified
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group itself. The transition from chaos to
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order is a mechanism. What you do with that order is a
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completely different question. If the mechanism itself is
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neutral, we have to look at what happens when human beings grab
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hold of it for their own purposes.
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Exactly Because if humans are inherently flawed and they
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organize themselves, that organization is going to reflect
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their flaws. We need to look at what happens
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when that flash mob organizes not to dance in a train station,
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but to riot. And the text gives us vivid
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examples of this corruption. We find several instances where
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ETA is used in a distinctly negative light describing human
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beings organizing for destructive purposes.
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Well, in Psalm 22 verse 17, it is translated as a company of
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evil doers. The psalmist is describing being
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surrounded by enemies, and they aren't just random thugs acting
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independently, they are a coordinated company.
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They are organized. Right.
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In Psalm 86, verse 14, the word describes a gang of ruthless
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men, and in Job chapter 15 verse 34, it refers to a gathering of
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hypocrites. Wow.
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In all these cases, you have individuals who have set aside
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their solitary individual lives to join forces, acting
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concertedly to achieve a wicked outcome.
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They are unified, but they are unified in their rebellion.
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They are a congregation of villains.
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That is a good way to phrase it. They have taken the mechanics of
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a holy assembly and weaponized it, and there is one specific
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phrase in the Hebrew text that I think we need to spend some
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serious time unpacking because it is the ultimate historical
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example of a corrupted assembly. Let me guess.
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Adapt Kora. Spot on.
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The phrase is adapt kora, the company of kora.
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The Rebellion of Kora is one of the most intense and terrifying
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narratives in the entire wilderness wandering period.
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It is detailed in Numbers chapter 16.
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It is wild. Yeah, and the shock waves of
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this event are referenced again in chapters 26 and 27, as well
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as in Psalm 106. To grasp the gravity of Korra's
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rebellion, we have to look at the structure of his group and
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who he was. Set the stage for us.
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Korra was a Levite. He was part of the tribe set
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apart for the service of the Tabernacle.
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He was not an outsider, but he became dissatisfied with his
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position. He wanted the priesthood that
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was given specifically to Aaron and his family.
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He wanted a promotion. Right.
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He wanted more authority, so Cora gathered 250 chiefs of the
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congregation, men who are established leaders, men of
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renown in the community. He took these influential men
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and formed his own rival, EDA. He basically built a shadow
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government right there in the desert.
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Yes, that is exactly what it was.
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He looked at the assembly that God had ordained under Moses and
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Aaron, and he decided he wanted to be the 1:00 calling the
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shots. He didn't just walk away and
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leave the camp. No, he stayed.
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He gathered his own congregation to stand in direct opposition to
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the true congregation. He told Moses, You have gone too
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far, for all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and
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the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves
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above the assembly of the Lord? It sounds incredibly democratic
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and appealing on the surface. It really does.
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I actually want to push back on a modern tendency we have when
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we hear stories like this. Oh, the tendency to romanticize
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the rebel. Spot on.
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Our modern culture absolutely loves a rebel.
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We are conditioned to root for the underdog fighting the
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system. We write movies and books
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celebrating the rogue individual or the ragtag group of
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insurgents who stand up to the established authority.
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We definitely do. We romanticize mutiny,
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especially if the rebels use language about equality, like
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Cora did when he said all the congregation is holy.
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But we are reading our modern democratic sensibilities into an
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ancient text. Right, it is anachronistic.
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In the ancient mindset, forming a rogue EDA was an act of
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extreme destruction. It was not seen as a heroic
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stand for human rights. It was seen as chaos threatening
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to swallow the entire community. It was tearing apart the
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appointed Order of the cosmos. That context is vital for
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grasping the severity of the narrative.
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The ancient worldview, and specifically the biblical
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worldview, valued order because God is a God of order.
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In the creation narrative of Genesis, God brings order and
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life out of the chaotic void. Therefore, to rebel against
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God's appointed order is an attempt to drag the community
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back into the void. It is D creation.
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That is a chilling thought. And #16 the tension is palpable.
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You have a literal standoff in the desert dirt.
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On one side you have Moses and Aaron holding no weapons,
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representing the divinely appointed gathering.
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On the other side you have Cora and his 250 chiefs holding their
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bronze sensors, acting as a self appointed gang, a counterfeit
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EDA. And the visual of that standoff
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is cinematic, like Moses actually falls on his face when
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he hears Cora's challenge. He doesn't argue politics.
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He tells them to bring their sensors the next morning and let
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God choose who is holy. He defers entirely to God's
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authority. Yeah, and the result of that
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stand off the next day is terrifying.
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Moses tells the rest of the people to get away from the 10s
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of these wicked men, and then the earth physically splits
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open. The ground just gives way.
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The ground opens its mouth and swallows Cora, his men, their
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households and all their possessions.
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They go down alive into the pit, and the earth closes over them.
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It is swift and absolute. The text goes out of its way to
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show that a false ETA cannot stand in the presence of a holy
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God. Unity can be a weapon of mass
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destruction if the central purpose of the group is
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rebellion against divine authority.
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That is a stark warning. It proves that just getting
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people together and acting with one mind is not inherently good.
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A gang of ruthless men is unified, but they're unified for
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their own annihilation. The narrative of Kora
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demonstrates the concept of total corruption.
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Even the human desire for community, for assembly, and for
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leadership can be twisted by human sinfulness into a tool for
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catastrophic rebellion. Cora's company is the exact
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antithesis of what God intended for his people.
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They use the mechanics of the congregation to war against the
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God of the congregation. Which means we need to look at
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what it is supposed to look like when it functions correctly.
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From the counterfeit assembly of Korra, we moved to the primary
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and most frequent use of the word in the biblical text.
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The true assembly. Yeah, the true organized
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assembly of Israel. Did they ever get it right?
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Or was the word only used for bugs and rebels?
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They did get it right, structurally speaking, and this
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is where the sheer volume of the data shines.
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The vast majority of the 149 occurrences of EDA happened in
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the books of Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers.
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That is a huge concentration. We see specific repeated phrases
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dominating these texts. We see the congregation of
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Israel which is added to Israel. We see the congregation of the
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Lord, and we frequently see the modifier all the Hebrew word
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Cole used to describe all the congregation.
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So we are not just talking about a small, localized group of 250
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men anymore. We are talking about the entire
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nation of Israel, numbering in the hundreds of thousands,
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wandering in the wilderness after fleeing the slavery of
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Egypt. A massive group of people.
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But I look at those three books, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers,
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and I try to picture a massive population of people living in
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tents in the desert for 40 years.
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It sounds like a logistical nightmare.
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Oh, absolutely. It sounds like a disorganized
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refugee camp stretching for miles.
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It would be a disorganized refugee camp except for this
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specific way the text defines them.
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What is fascinating here is how the word EDA defines the
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Israelites during that period as a highly structured body.
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OK, unpack that. They were not a random migration
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of displaced people scattered across the sand dunes.
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The text highlights this structure by detailing specific
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roles. We read about the Princess of
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the congregation, the elders of the congregation, and those
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called to the assembly. So there's a clear chain of
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command. Right.
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This is a society with a distinct hierarchy, a clear
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chain of command and a divinely instituted order.
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I think we need to view this through a Covenantal lens to
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really grasp what is happening in the desert.
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God sovereignly gathers this massive group of people.
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He initiates the action. Yeah, it starts with them.
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He pulls them out of the brickyards of Egypt, splits the
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sea and brings them to the base of Mount Sinai.
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They are not defined by their geography because they are
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nomads. You know they do not have a land
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yet. Right, they're completely
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uprooted. They are defined entirely by
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their calling and their relation to the covenant God made with
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them. So my question for you is why do
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the authors of Exodus and Numbers rely so heavily on this
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specific word EDA instead of just calling them the people or
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the crowd? It goes right back to the root
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word yad, the appointed meeting. If the text.
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Just call them the crowd or the multitude.
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It would imply a random assortment of individuals who
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simply happen to share the same physical space.
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Like people waiting for a bus. Yeah, exactly.
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A crowd is accidental, but calling them the EDA means they
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are an appointed assembly. They have been summoned by a
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sovereign God for a specific holy purpose.
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They are chosen. They're not just surviving in
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the desert, they are acting concertedly under divine
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direction. Every aspect of their existence
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is appointed. Let's visualize this for a
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moment, because it is a stunning picture.
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If you were standing on a high mountain peak looking down at
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the Israelite camp in the wilderness, you would not see a
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chaotic, sprawling mess of tents pitched wherever someone found a
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flat spot. No, he was highly regulated.
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You would see a massive visual representation of an ETA.
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The layout of the camp was incredibly precise, almost
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geometric. The Tabernacle, the dwelling
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place of God's presence, was set right in the dead center.
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The focal point of the whole nation.
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Yeah, immediately around the Tabernacle, where the tents of
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the Levites, the priests who guarded the holy space, and then
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radiating outward in a massive, orderly square were the 12
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tribes. Three on each side, right?
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Right. 3 tribes on the E, 3 on the South, three on the West,
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and three on the north. Each tribe had its assigned
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position, and each was camped under its own specific tribal
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banner. That physical layout is the
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perfect manifestation of the Word.
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Everything is oriented toward the center, toward the presence
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of God. The camp itself is a theological
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statement. It really is.
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The Princess and the elders function within that structure
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to maintain the unity of the massive group.
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They were the representatives who received instructions from
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Moses and passed them down to the families.
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Like a communication network. Spot on.
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The EDA was a functioning, cohesive Organism sustained
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entirely by the covenant. When God spoke, the word went
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out from the center to the edges, and the entire assembly
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responded. It is breathtaking when you
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realize that their very identity was tied to their gathering.
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They moved as one when the pillar of cloud lifted from the
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Tabernacle, the silver trumpets would blow and the whole
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assembly broke camp in a specific ordered sequence.
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They didn't just wander off. No, they moved with purpose.
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When the clouds stopped, they stopped and set up the camp in
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that exact same geometric pattern.
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They were a single entity acting in concert with the will of God.
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They were the ultimate flash mob, but one that lasted for 40
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years in a barren wasteland, moving entirely to the rhythm of
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a divine command. And that earthly organization,
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as grand and massive as it was, was actually pointing to
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something much larger. It was a replica.
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Wait, a replica? Yeah.
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This brings us to a massive shift in the scope of our deep
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dive. We look at animals, we have
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looked at human rebels, and we have look at the nation of
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Israel. Now we scale up from a human
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nation wandering in the desert dust to the throne room of
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heaven itself. Wait, so the same word used for
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a swarm of bees is used for heaven?
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That is a wild jump. We move from the dust of the
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wilderness straight into the cosmos.
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It is a massive jump, but the terminology holds steady.
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Our notes point us to Psalm 82, verse one, which uses the phrase
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adat. LA dot is the construct form of
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EDA and L means God. This translates to the
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Congregation of God or the Divine assembly.
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We are entering the concept of the divine council, the text
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says. God has taken his place in the
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divine council. In the midst of the gods, he
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holds judgement. That is a heavy verse.
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It is. The research we have provides
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some incredible historical cross references to other ancient Near
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Eastern texts. To help us understand this
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phrasing, we see the Ugaritic phrase adat Elm and the Acadian
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phrase puhurili. Both of these terms refer to an
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assembly of gods in ancient Pagan mythology.
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OK stop right there. If someone isn't an ancient Near
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Eastern historian, what are Ugarit Camp Acadian texts?
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That is a fair question. And you know, why do we care
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what they said? Are we saying the Bible copied
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Pagan myths? Not at all, but it is crucial
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context. Ugarit was an ancient,
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prosperous port city in what is now northern Syria, and the
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Acadian language was used by the empires of Babylon and Assyria.
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The big neighbors. Right.
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These were the superpowers and the immediate neighbors of the
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ancient Israelites. Archaeologists have discovered
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massive troves of clay tablets from these cultures, and they
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describe how these Pagan nations view the spiritual realm.
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What did they believe? In their myths they had
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pantheons of gods and gods of storms, gods of fertility, gods
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of death, and they believe these guys gathered together in a
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heavenly assembly and added ILM. To make decisions about the
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world interesting, the biblical authors were fully aware of how
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their neighbors described the heavenly realms, and they used
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similar vocabulary, the shared language of the ancient world,
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to communicate a radically different biblical truth.
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Right, the vocabulary is similar, but the theology is
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entirely opposite. You have to be incredibly
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careful here to distinguish what the biblical text is doing
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compared to those surrounding cultures.
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Yes, the distinction is everything.
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If you read those Pagan myths from Ugurit or Babylon, the
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assembly of the gods is basically a chaotic
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dysfunctional parliament. You have gods fighting with each
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other, plotting behind each others backs, getting drunk and
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trying to outvote or violently overthrow the chief God.
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It is a mess. It is petty politics in the sky.
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It is chaos projected onto the heavens.
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That is the defining difference. Unlike those Pagan myths where
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the gods debate and fight in an assembly, the biblical ETA of
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heaven features the one true sovereign God presiding as the
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supreme judge over the angelic beings.
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No debates in Psalm 82. There is no democratic voting.
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There is no debate over who is truly in charge.
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The gods mentioned in the Psalm, which we understand as angelic
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beings or spiritual powers, are completely subordinate.
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I like to compare this heavenly ETA to an executive boardroom,
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but it is a boardroom where the CEO created the company out of
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nothing, owns 100% of the shares and completely dictates the
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agenda. That is a brilliant analogy.
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The angelic beings are there to receive their orders and execute
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the will of the Supreme Sovereign.
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They are gathered for an appointed meeting, but it is
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entirely God's meeting. They don't advise Him, they
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worship Him and obey Him. Let us unpack the striking
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imagery of Psalm 82 for a moment.
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The text says that God takes his stand in his own congregation.
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He judges in the midst of the rulers.
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Imagery is so strong the. Picture is of the Creator
21:58
walking into the Supreme Court of the cosmos and passing
22:02
absolute, unquestionable judgement.
22:05
The heavenly host is unified not by their own inherent strength
22:09
or by reaching a political consensus, but by the
22:11
overwhelming singular authority of the Creator standing in their
22:15
midst. It is the ultimate expression of
22:17
the yacht, the appointed meeting where everyone acts concertedly
22:21
according to one will. It makes you rethink the entire
22:23
concept of the earthly congregation we just talked
22:26
about. If the heavenly host is the
22:27
perfect unified ad El, then the earthly congregation of Israel
22:31
in the wilderness was meant to mirror that cosmic reality it.
22:35
Was a living reflection. It wasn't just a practical way
22:38
to organize a million people. It was theological theater.
22:41
The Tabernacle in the center of the desert camp was a miniature
22:44
earthly version of God's heavenly throne room.
22:47
The 12 tribes surrounding it in perfect order were meant to
22:51
reflect the angelic host surrounding the heavenly throne.
22:54
As above so below. The earthly ETA is a reflection
22:58
of the heavenly ETA. God was teaching Israel how to
23:01
participate in heavenly realities, and when the earthly
23:04
congregation falls into rebellion, like we saw with
23:07
Korra forming his own rogue gang, it's not just a political
23:10
mutiny. It is a failure to reflect the
23:12
perfect order of heaven. That adds so much weight to it.
23:16
It is an intrusion of chaos into the mirror of heaven.
23:19
The heavenly assembly functions in perfect obedience, acting
23:22
concertedly to carry out divine decrees.
23:25
The earthly assembly, because of human sin, is constantly
23:28
struggling to maintain that same level of unified obedience.
23:31
They're constantly fracturing the reflection.
23:33
So we have covered a massive amount of ground.
23:36
We have looked at bees and bulls, gangs of rebels, the
23:39
entire nation of Israel, and the angelic host in heaven.
23:42
All of these things we've discussed so far are living
23:45
things. They have breath.
23:46
They have agency. They can move.
23:48
True. But as we continue our deep dive
23:50
through these lexical entries, we hit a wall.
23:53
We notice a fascinating, almost jarring shift.
23:56
The precise same spelling, the word ETA, has a second distinct
24:00
meaning. It shifts completely away from
24:02
living beings and describes inanimate dead objects.
24:06
Linguists refer to this as a homonym, a word that sounds the
24:10
same and is spelled the same but carries A distinct application
24:13
in the dictionaries. This is listed as the second
24:15
major definition. And what does it mean?
24:17
It carries the meaning of witness or testimony, and the
24:21
objects it describes are entirely inanimate.
24:23
Like what? Well the texts cite Genesis
24:26
chapter 21 verse 30 where Abraham sets aside 7 you lambs
24:30
to act as a witness to a well he dug.
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In Genesis chapter 31, verse 52, Jacob and his father-in-law
24:36
Laban gather stones and create a massive heap to act as a witness
24:39
to their border treaty. OK, Stones.
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And perhaps most famously, in Joshua chapter 24 verse 27,
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Joshua sets up a large stone under an oak tree and declares
24:50
to the entire nation of Israel that this rock has heard all the
24:54
words of the Lord. I have to stop you there because
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if I am reading Joshua chapter 24, my brain immediately hits a
25:01
logic hurdle. I can imagine.
25:03
Joshua rolls a massive rock under a tree and tells the
25:07
people that the rock has heard the words of God.
25:10
Now obviously a walk does not have ears.
25:12
It does not possess a brain. It is silicon and minerals.
25:15
It cannot process audio waves. It's just a rock.
25:18
Right. It certainly cannot take the
25:20
stand in a courtroom, raise its right hand, and testify about
25:23
what it heard. So how does a silent, inanimate
25:26
object function as an ETA? How does a pile of stones act as
25:30
a legal witness? It sounds absurd to our modern
25:33
literalistic ears, but to understand this we have to
25:36
immerse ourselves in ancient Near Eastern treaty customs.
25:39
Take us there. In the ancient world, you did
25:41
not have signed paper contracts. You didn't have notaries, public
25:45
filing cabinets, or digital backups in the cloud.
25:48
You had an oral culture. When two parties made a
25:50
covenant, a treaty or a vow, words were spoken into the air
25:55
and then they were gone. They needed a permanent,
25:58
unmoving physical marker to solidify the agreement.
26:01
In reality, physical objects, specific trees or heaps of
26:05
stones were designated as standing legal witnesses.
26:09
The object itself holds the community accountable by its
26:12
very physical presence. Let's linger on the psychology
26:15
of those memorials for a second. Imagine you are an ancient
26:19
Israelite. You were standing there in the
26:21
crowd when Joshua made the covenant.
26:23
You heard the terms of the treaty.
26:24
You said Amen. You committed to it verbally.
26:26
Yeah, and then you watched him and several strong men roll this
26:30
massive, heavy stone under the oak tree at Shechem.
26:34
Ten years later, you are walking past that oak tree on your way
26:36
to the market. You look over and you see the
26:38
stone and. What happens?
26:40
You do not just see a geological formation.
26:42
That stone immediately triggers A unified memory for you and
26:45
everyone else in your community. It functions as a mnemonic
26:48
anchor. The stone forces the community
26:51
to remember their agreements. It is a standing, silent
26:54
testimony. It doesn't let you forget.
26:56
If you are tempted to break the covenant, if you start
26:59
worshipping the foreign gods Joshua warned you about, that
27:02
stone is sitting there silently testifying against you.
27:06
Joshua's poetic language saying the stone has heard the words is
27:10
a brilliant way of expressing that the stone was present at
27:14
the appointed meeting. It is as if the stone absorbed
27:17
the words of the treaty when it was made, and now it permanently
27:21
radiates those words back to anyone who looks at it.
27:23
It does not change its story. It does not misremember.
27:26
It is entirely objective. A human witness can be bribed.
27:30
A human witness can get old and forget the details.
27:33
A human witness dies, but the rock just sits there.
27:36
It outlasts generations. It is permanent.
27:39
This ties beautifully into another usage found in the notes
27:43
in Psalm 119, which is the longest chapter in the Bible and
27:46
is entirely dedicated to praising God's law.
27:48
The plural form of this word edot, is translated as God's
27:52
precepts or His testimonies. And viewing God's laws as edot
27:56
makes perfect sense in this context.
27:58
God's laws, His revealed precepts, are objective standing
28:01
witnesses to the truth. They don't budget right.
28:04
They do not change with the shifting sands of human culture.
28:08
They do not forget, just like a massive boulder sitting in a
28:11
field, the precepts of God sit in the text as a permanent
28:15
record of what is right and what is wrong.
28:18
They bear witness to the unchanging character of the
28:20
Lawgiver. They testify to the community
28:22
about how they are appointed to live.
28:24
If we connect this rock solid witness back to the root idea we
28:27
started with the Yod, the appointed gathering, it starts
28:31
to make sense why the same word is used.
28:34
The witness stone is the focal point where the agreement was
28:36
made. It is the geographic and
28:38
psychological anchor of the Treaty.
28:40
It holds everything together. It gathers the memory of the
28:42
community and holds it in one place.
28:45
Without the physical witness, the memory of the community
28:47
would scatter and fade, just like a crowd dispersing in 100
28:51
different directions. The stone unifies the memory of
28:54
the ADA. Spot on.
28:56
The object and the assembly are intimately bound together.
28:59
The stone creates the historical boundary lines for the
29:01
congregation. Now to bring this full circle,
29:05
we need to look at the final piece of our puzzle today.
29:07
What is left? We've looked at the noun forms
29:09
ranging from swarms of insects to heaps of stones.
29:13
Now we move to the associated verbal roots to see what actions
29:16
relate to this concept of gathering and witnessing.
29:19
We want to see how this idea is physically acted out by
29:22
individuals. How does a person do?
29:24
An EDA, the linguistic data introduces the verb form Ada.
29:28
It shares the same base linguistic root.
29:30
This verb means to adorn or to ornament oneself.
29:33
To put on jewelry, yeah. The texts cite several vivid
29:36
examples. Isaiah chapter 61, verse 10
29:39
speaks of a bride adorning herself with her jewels.
29:42
Ezekiel chapter 16 discusses a woman being adorned with gold
29:45
and silver bracelets and necklaces.
29:47
And in Job chapter 40 verse 10, God speaks out of a whirlwind
29:51
and challenges Job to adorn himself with majesty and
29:53
dignity. We also see a related noun, EDA,
29:57
which refers to a counted time or a specific period seen in
30:01
Isaiah chapter 64. This stems from a related root,
30:04
meaning to count. OK, let's synthesize these
30:06
concepts because on the surface, putting on a necklace seems to
30:10
have nothing to do with the swarm of bees or a pile of
30:13
rocks. How does adorning oneself relate
30:15
to an assembly or a witness? It takes a little unpacking.
30:19
I think it all comes down to public declaration.
30:22
Adornment is not just about looking nice in a vacuum.
30:25
If you are alone in your house, you don't put on your finest
30:28
jewels. When a bride puts on her
30:30
ornaments, it is a visible outward display meant to
30:34
communicate a specific status to everyone watching.
30:38
She is declaring to the gathered community that she is entering
30:41
into a marriage covenant. Adornment is a form of silent
30:44
testimony. It is a visual witness.
30:46
I like an adornment to wearing a uniform or a wedding ring.
30:50
If you see a police officer in full uniform walking down the
30:53
street, that clothing is acting as a visual signal to the group.
30:57
It tells you their role, their authority and their appointed
30:59
purpose. You don't even have to talk to
31:01
them to know. Right, you don't have to ask
31:02
them what their job is. Their adornment testifies for
31:05
them. A wedding ring is a small,
31:07
silent witness you wear on your hand.
31:10
It is a tiny piece of metal that tells the entire EDA, the entire
31:14
community, that you have made a covenant with someone else.
31:16
It is a standing witness on your finger.
31:18
There is a beautiful, incredible consistency in the Hebrew
31:22
language here. The roots of the words
31:25
physically act out the abstract concepts.
31:28
A gathering, a standing stone, and a wedding ring are all doing
31:32
the exact same linguistic job. That is a perfect synthesis.
31:37
What is truly fascinating is how this concept elevates to its
31:40
absolute peak in the book of joke.
31:42
Tell us about that. In Job chapter 40, God is
31:45
speaking out of the violent whirlwind.
31:47
Job has been demanding an audience with God, demanding to
31:50
state his case. And God finally shows up and
31:52
challenges Job saying, adorn yourself with majesty and
31:55
dignity. Clothe yourself with glory and
31:57
splendor. God is calling his bluff.
31:59
Exactly. God is challenging Job to put on
32:01
the garments of divine authority.
32:03
He is saying if you want to judge the earth, put on the
32:05
uniform. But Job cannot do it.
32:07
He cannot adorn himself with majesty because he is just a man
32:11
sitting in the ashes. He does not possess majesty or
32:14
dignity in herself. He is completely outmatched.
32:16
God is showing dobe that true supreme authority is an
32:20
adornment that belongs exclusively to the sovereign
32:23
Creator. When God adorns Himself, it is a
32:26
public display to the entire cosmos, to the heavenly Ida L of
32:30
His absolute right to rule. Spiritual qualities like majesty
32:34
and glory are viewed as garments one puts on for the public
32:38
assembly. And tying in that concept of
32:40
counting time, the EDA, it relates directly to the idea of
32:44
appointed seasons. You count the days until the
32:47
appointed meeting. You mark the calendar for the
32:49
gathering. You prepare yourself.
32:51
It is all connected. The physical adornment, the
32:53
counting of time, the standing stones and the gathered assembly
32:56
all share this massive underlying thread.
32:59
They are objective, observable declarations of a specific
33:02
appointed reality. They take the abstract and make
33:05
it visible to the community. So what does this all mean for
33:07
us today? Let's take a step back and
33:09
summarize the massive scale of the word we have unpacked in
33:12
this deep dive. It is a lot of ground to cover.
33:15
We started with the instinctive, unthinking unity of a swarm of
33:18
bees building a honeycomb inside the carcass of a lion.
33:22
We saw how the Yad, the appointed meeting brings order
33:25
out of chaos. We then examine the dark,
33:28
rebellious mutiny of Cora's gang in the desert, seeing how the
33:32
human desire for assembly can be corrupted into a counterfeit
33:35
congregation warring against God's appointed order.
33:38
From there we move to the highly organized, divinely instituted
33:42
structure of God's covenant people gathered meticulously
33:45
around the Tabernacle. We scaled up to the angelic
33:47
court where the Creator stands in the midst of the heavenly
33:50
assembly as the supreme unquestioned judge.
33:53
We looked at physical, inanimate heaps of stones and oak trees
33:57
acting as silent, objective testimonies to ancient treaties
34:01
holding the community accountable to their vows.
34:03
And finally, we discussed the public display of adornment,
34:06
where outward garments and rings signal a covenantal reality to
34:10
the gathered community. It is a word that covers the
34:13
entire spectrum of existence, from bugs to angels, from
34:16
rebellion to perfect obedience, from silent rocks to singing
34:19
brides. It provides A framework for
34:22
understanding how we exist in relation to others and in
34:25
relation to the divine. We are never just isolated
34:28
individuals. We are always participating in
34:31
some form of gathering, some form of witness.
34:34
But I want to leave you with a final thought to chew on as we
34:36
wrap up. Look at your own life right now.
34:39
Yeah, think about your daily reality.
34:42
If ancient people used heaps of stones under oak trees and
34:45
specific garments of gold and silver to act as standing
34:49
witnesses to hold their community accountable, what
34:51
silent stones exist in your life today?
34:54
That is the crucial question to ask yourself.
34:57
What are the objective markers in your daily routine that
35:00
testify to your true allegiances?
35:02
What objects in your house, what daily habits with your time, or
35:06
what public adornments are currently acting as an EDA for
35:09
you? What are they silently
35:11
testifying about who you are and what you believe to everyone
35:14
watching. When people look at the way you
35:15
gather, the things you wear, the memorials you build, what
35:19
covenant do they see? Are your silent witnesses
35:21
declaring rebellion or are they pointing to a sovereignly
35:24
appointed? Purpose Thank you for joining us
35:26
for this deep dive on reformed thinking.
35:29
We will catch you next time.