[Applause] Robbie plens I’m the pastor here at Cross Point Presbyterian church and we’re excited that you are with us uh this morning um this is a brand new uh event for us as a church that’s called in their own words in which uh we have
Uh we hope to have more of these in the future in which we’re able to invite uh Christian authors uh to come and to share about the things they’ve written or the things that they’re in the process of writing and so this morning we’re blessed to have Dr Carmen AES from
Bola University with us she’ll be sharing about uh her two Works uh but we know Dr Imes because of Casey and Jen Jones and so I would like to ask Jen if she would come up and introduce her friend and colleague can youall hear me okay thanks Robbie I
Too would like to welcome you to cross point and I would especially like to welcome Carmen and Daniel who flew in from California last night where as Robbie mentioned Carmen teaches Old Testament she’s associate professor of Old Testament at Biola University Carmen did her undergraduate work at molom
University got her master’s degree from Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary and did a Pete D at weaton College where she and I met I believe the night before she started her PhD and I started my Master’s at John Walton’s reception I was thinking about that when did we meet so that’s that’s when Carmen
And I first met um after she finished her uh doctoral work she received an appointment as an assistant professor at Prairie College in Three Hills Alberta that means that she is probably enjoying some cool weather and is not scared off by the cold and the the snow the snow was a big
Draw so yeah I said something about well we may be hip deep because we were talking about this last year and you know how last year was it’s like we may be hip Deep by the time you get here so I’m afraid we may have disappointed you
And I it’s okay it’s enough snow it crunches when you stand on it and that’s what I missed so in addition to uh so then she moved down to Biola and she is now associate professor of Old Testament as I already mentioned in addition to to her academic teaching Carmen also is a
Prolific writer you may be familiar with some of her work but in addition to numerous book chapters and articles both popular and academic she has five books five or six now it depends on how you count them okay well I’m going to say that one of them has been translated
Into Spanish yes okay so is that six or seven then so I don’t think that counts but um yeah some people do yeah so I’m doing my best to get this right so she’s got five books two of which we will uh be hearing Robbie and Carmen
Talking about this morning the first is bearing God’s name which came out in 2019 uh has won awards and been nominated for others and was finalist and um has just done really well it’s now on its 10th printing in four years uh and that’s the one that was
Translated into Spanish ivp was so happy that’s the publish was so happy with how well the book did that when it came to the prequel being God’s image they upped the number of um of copies that they did in the first printing and it is doing
Equally well so those are the two books that she will be talking about with us this morning but the reason I tell you all that I don’t think that’s the most important part that tells you that she’s done her homework she knows the original languages she knows knows the ancient
Cultures and she has spent decades studying the scriptures deeply so she’s done her homework but what’s more important is who she is as a person she grew up in Colorado in a small Reformed Church out there and from an early age loved scripture I remember her mentioning a story about teaching or
Not teaching doing Bible study at recess second grade see so early so decades right so she’s loves God’s word and that is part of what contributed to she and her husband Daniel going and serving overseas as missionaries with s in a Muslim majority country before she came back and then finished all her
Schoolwork I tell you all that so that you know a little bit about who she is because as she’s talking today what I think it’s helpful to know is she’s not just talking The Talk she’s walking the walk I’ve watched her in through ups and downs good times and bad and I’ve seen
Her seek to Bear God’s name well she’s applied what she’s learned does she always get it right no none of us do but she’s always sought to come back and do that and that would be I guess my encouragement as we listen today that this isn’t just brain candy yeah it’s
Really cool but it’s not just brain candy that maybe we can be a little bit like kmen and try to take this and consider how we can apply it to our lives and so it is my with all of that I could keep going but I won’t because I
Know this is the main attraction here um with that it is my joy honor and privilege to introduce my good friend colleague and sister in Christ Carmen Joy Imes thank you Jen I just want to Echo what Jen said about your character uh I did a deep
Dive tried to watch as many podcast and as many uh presentations you did and your the seriousness with which you approach the scriptures um but the humility and the graciousness with which you communicate just makes me want to follow Jesus I mean he just he just seems so beautiful
In my eyes and so I just that’s the most important thing I could commend you to anyone is you just make me want to obey and to follow him and trust him so thank you God thank you so just real quickly uh we actually have some personal
Connections I shared with Carmen that uh Jack and Daren Eder who go to our church here when they are in Park City their granddaughter took her Old Testament course she loved it she loved you they wish that they were here and then when I was flipping through the
Acknowledgements uh I saw where you mentioned that an osley gissing encourage you to write the book so she’s married to one of my good friends from Seminary uh Jeff gissing and so I had no idea until I I read that just the other day so it’s just interesting to see how
God brings his people together and the way he builds connections and so we’re super excited so easy question did you pick the name for the first book or did your publisher pick it Anna Anna picked it I mean the publisher picked it my my title for the book was surprised at
Sinai and they didn’t feel like we should lead off with Sinai because most people aren’t sitting at home obsessing about or thinking about Sinai they’re thinking about other things so we did keep Sinai in the subtitle why Sinai still matters actually that is thanks to my husband so they wanted to do bearing
God’s name why Sinai matters today and the today just felt like that’s going to be old that’s going to feel older outdated really soon and uh Daniel said what about why Sinai still matters and so now that now that’s what we went with strong word Daniel good job so if you
Would we have some people who I’m sure have read the work uh we have some people who are new to Cross Point we have some visitors I’m not sure where we are across the board but could you just take a few minutes to summarize kind of
The the key ideas from like a 30,000 fot level so that we’re all at least operating in the the same realm absolutely so I’d love to see a show of hands how many of you have read bearing God’s name all right so many of you have um
I’ll do a kind of quick overview of the ideas and if you haven’t read it then you can um uh maybe pick it up if you have read it this is what I found over and over again students in my classes will read the book but then when I talk
About it in class they still seem surprised like maybe it didn’t all sink in so maybe the review will be good for some of you who’ve already read it and I’m going to stand up so that um I can see what the slides are it’s I think
Nice to have a bit of a visual so um I as we ask the question what is the what is our mission or what is the mission of the church I would contend that if we want to understand our mission as Christians we have to go back to to SI
We have to go back to the Old Testament and that’s not usually the center of gravity of Christian theology we’re not thinking like oh I just can’t stop thinking about Moses um but I would argue that if we want to know who we are
And why we’re here we need to go back to SI and so I’m going to try to make the case for that um we know the familiar passage where Moses is at Mount Si and God commissions him um God calls to him and uh sends him back to Egypt but maybe
What we don’t realize is how much Moses story is a is a nutshell version of Israel’s story and so let’s go through a just a quick uh this will show you in a a 30,000 foot view how the book of Exodus um presents Moses as a mini Israel and how their
Stories match so Moses is rescued from Pharaoh in Egypt he travels through the Wilderness he encounters Yahweh at Sinai and he’s commissioned for service um obviously there’s lots more detail that happens to Moses and many of the details of Moses own story map onto the story of
Israel like the fact that his mother puts him in a basket in the reads and he’s drawn out of the reads to be saved and the same thing ends up happening with the people of Israel so Israel is then rescued from Pharaoh in Egypt Israel travels through the Wilderness
After passing through the Sea of reeds which is what the Hebrew Bible always calls it and then Israel encounters yah at SI and then I would argue Israel is commissioned for service and we know that Israel encounters Yahweh but we often don’t understand it as a commissioning that happens there and and
If you don’t understand it as a commissioning then you might think the law is how the Israelites uh learned to please God or to earn God’s favor but if you correctly see the the flow of the book of Exodus then you could understand the law is not about
Getting saved he’s already s he’s already rescued them before they get the law it’s also not about um establishing a relationship with Yahweh they already have a relationship with Yahweh before he gives them the law it’s rather their their marching orders they’re commissioning into Ministry and that um
That reframing of the law is kind of the heart of my book bearing God’s name because it helps us read uh the Ten Commandments and the other laws and know what to do with them my favorite Old Testament passage is this one this is right when they get to Mount Si uh and
God says through Moses you yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt and how I C brought you to myself sorry carried You On Eagle’s Wings and brought you to myself now if you obey me fully and keep my Covenant then out of all Nations you will be my treasured possession although
The whole earth is mine you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation and that word treasured possession is a translation of a special Hebrew word the word is seala you can all try to say it a minute seala um seala is not just a warm fuzzy
It’s not just like God’s trying to think of something endearing to say to them but it’s actually a technical treaty term that’s used to describe a treasured partner or a a special representative of God and so before they get the law God tells them you are my special Representatives among the Nations you’re
Going to show the world what I’m like and then the law is the way they’re going to do that the law is governing their their Community or their society so that they can represent him well so then then the Ten Commandments come and we have lots of different ways
Of thinking about the Ten Commandments usually more towards the image on the right um kind of Doom and Gloom and don’t you dare is how we think of them um but really the way Moses sees the Ten Commandments is as a gift gift given by God he he Treasures them he’s like I
Mean if you’ve read Psalm 119 it’s the longest chapter of the Bible and it’s just gushing about how wonderful the law is and the command of the Ten Commandments that I wrote my dissertation on uh was this one um we normally think of this as the command
That tells us we can’t use God’s name as a swear word or use it flippantly but my uh dissertation argued that that’s not the way that’s not what this command is about that it’s much broader than that so I would translate it you shall not bear or carry the name of Yahweh your
God in vain and um and then I sought to explain what would it mean to Bear God’s name most translators have come to this and said well we don’t carry names so that must be an a figure of speech or an idiom related to what we
Say and I said what if it’s not what if we do carry or Israel did carry God’s name what would that mean and we have all kinds of examples from the ancient world of of names Divine names being carried in some way or bearing the name of a of a God so three
Categories there’s official seals so up in the upper right here you see a a seal impression of King Hezekiah um when a when a seal so a king would have a Signet ring if you wanted to sign a document he’d press that ring into clay or wax or or some substance that would
Bear the image of the of the signant ring and and sometimes in temples they would have signant rings with the God’s name on it so that they could stamp the God’s name on things to authorize it uh Stone inscriptions of of divine names are very common especially in
Foundation tablets so if you’re going to build a temple you don’t just dedicate it to a deity but you you would take a stone and inscri inscribe the God’s name on it and you would bury it under the foundation to show this is dedicated to
The God and then I have an example here of a tattoo this is uh the star of Ishtar and apparently the priestesses of the Temple of Ishtar would be tattooed with her symbol either on their the back of their hand or on their cheek to show that they’ve been dedicated for life to
Her service so there is an idea in the ancient near east of people actually carrying the symbol or the name of a of a God and and when they did it implied that God owns this and it’s his responsibility to protect it and so then the God’s reputation is
Tied up with that object so if you dedicate a temple to a deity and then the temple falls into disrepair and a foreign army comes in and and destroys it that implies this deity is not very powerful because they were not able to protect their own stuff okay that’s
That’s the kind of bigger idea of the idea of um bearing a God’s name in the ancient world if we come back to scripture we see just in the near context of the Ten Commandments instructions for for con for um crafting or or creating the garments of Aaron who
Will be the high priest and he literally is wearing names carrying names on his person and it’s the same phrase that’s used in the ten commandments so Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Israel in the breast piece of judgment on his heart so the the 12 gemstones on
His chest are inscribed like this like a signant ring um with each of the 12 tribes and it says he shall bear the name same verb same object as the the command not to Bear the name of Yahweh so I think if we’re trying to figure out
What could this command mean we should look in the context to see how is this phrase used oh here’s an example of a very concrete use the high priest actually carries the names of the tribes he also carries on his forehead a gold medallion that’s inscribed with yahweh’s name that says
Holy belonging to Yahweh on his forehead and these are the the words in Hebrew here kadosh La Yahweh and I think the next there we go I’m circling here uh I’ve circled the the Divine name Yahweh and then it has this letter L attached to the front of
It or lamid this is a way of saying belonging to so if I wanted to let you know this is my Bible not yours I could I could say look Carmen on the cover of it and would say belonging to Carmen if I had my very own signant ring uh that I
Ed to sign documents it would say look Carmen on it um because that’s the way of saying belonging to and so this is what it says on the high priest’s forehead can I say something real quickly yeah yeah so interestingly enough because of where we are we see
This reflected on LDS temples if you go close enough to LDS temple you’ll see a plaque or some kind of inscription that says holy belonging to the Lord oh so drive around and look at it this is exactly what you’re talking about and we have it manifested here in uh Temple
Buildings maybe even on Ward buildings I’m not sure yeah that’s fascinating thank you I didn’t I wasn’t aware of that what I love is that um that the the Bible very clearly connects this same idea with the people so if we keep reading because you might somebody might
Say they might say well Carmen that’s nice it’s nice that you found somebody who really carries names but how can you prove that what’s true of the high priest is true of the whole nation that seems like more of a stretch which is why I started with the passage that you
Will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation so right before he gives the Ten Commandments he tells them they are priests and then he goes on to explain what the priest will wear and it seems to me like it’s not a stretch but
Even if it still feels like a stretch to you if we keep reading on into Deuteronomy Moses is now addressing the next generation of Israelites before they go into the promised land and he says Yahweh has had you declare yourselves this day to be his treasured people his
Seula just as he said to you so you shall keep his commands and he shall set you high over all the nations that he’s made for praise for fame and for honor and to be a people hold belonging to Yahweh so it’s the same phrase that it
Says on the high priest’s for forehead now Moses is saying that’s true of you you are a people holy belonging to Yahweh and how how did this happen how did the name get put on them the way the name is on Aaron I think we see this in
Numbers Chapter 6 this is where it’s specified what is the blessing that Aaron is supposed to pronounce over the people so um if you read in Leviticus 8 and9 there um dedicating the Tabernacle consecrating everything getting it ready for service and Aaron once Aaron is uh fully operational as high priest and
He’s offered sacrifices for the people his first order of business is to step out from the Tabernacle and lift his arms and pronounce a blessing over the people and it doesn’t tell us in Leviticus what he actually said it just says he blessed them and fire came out
From the presence of God and all the people were in awe and it was this amazing moment but number six tells us what is the blessing he’s supposed to say when he does this and this is the blessing may Yahweh bless you and keep you make his face shine on you and be
Gracious to you may Yahweh turn his face toward you and give you peace you’ve probably heard this blessing in some form or another we use it in our churches um but what we usually don’t hear is the next verse because it’s just part of the narrative frame so they will
Put my name on the Israelites and I will bless them so the moment when the high priest steps out and confers a blessing on them he’s conferring the name of Yahweh on them it’s like you it’s like an invisible tattoo or an invisible moment of branding the people are being
Marked as the people who belong to Yahweh and carry his name this to me makes lots of sense of the command not to Bear God’s name in vain because if they’ve been stamped with his name he wants them to go out and live like it
And if they don’t live like it then they are taking his name in vain or bearing his name in vain so they don’t they’re not supposed to say they belong to Yahweh but live like the Canaanites you want to see what that looks like read the Book of Judges it ain’t
Pretty uh so he’s telling them not to do that so the The Wider biblical theological theme that I’m trying to bring out in bearing God’s name is that Israel Bears yahweh’s name and thereby represents Yahweh among the Nations but I told you that if we want to understand
Who we are as Christians we have to go back to SI so how do we make the connection between Israel and US unless you’re Jewish then you have like an automatic in what about the rest of us who are not Jewish um I’ll show you a passage in
Just a moment but here’s the key the key takeaways the the law is not Israel’s means of Salvation they’ve already been set free when they get it the law is a gift given to a people who’ve already been saved and the law teaches Israel how to fulfill their mission to
Represent God Among the nations with that in mind oh I was supposed to skip that one we turn to the book of First Peter where Peter is writing to a mixed audience of Jewish and Gentile followers of Jesus and he says audaciously but you are a chosen people
A royal priesthood a holy nation God’s special possession which is a little shocking if you’re Jewish hearing it it because like the Gentiles aren’t God’s seala we’re God’s seala but Peter is not apologetic about the fact that he sees Gentiles as having been incorporated into the family of
Faith into the Covenant people and therefore the titles that God gave to the Israelites at sin are now applicable to all believers so this passage is our ticket in if we’re not Jewish this is the one that shows us this is our covenant this these are our marching
Orders this is our commission to represent God Among the Nations by bearing his name so our our purpose or the thing that should animate us is reflecting God’s character to a watching world and that’s uh that’s the the book in a nutshell and now we can dive into whatever questions or whatever
Extensions we want to with that thank you so the problem with inviting someone like Carmen is the bar has now been raised and you all are going to expect uh this kind of uh presentation or every time I speak and if I offer the ironic blessing I promise no fire is going to
Come forth from any or anywhere yeah not me no tattoos for me uh real briefly the last point you made about it’s interesting that Peter’s the one who makes this connection because he didn’t start in that place he has to go through this transition uh so can you unpack the
Significance of that yeah it’s it’s fun if you’re looking through first Peter um at the beginning of the book he makes he makes the point that the spirit has revealed these things to the church and and and you you scratch your head in what way did the spirit reveal these
Things to Peter how how is it that he can use these titles and apply them to Gentiles so so unapologetically and you think okay what do we know about Peter oh that’s right in the book of Acts he has this Visionary experience where he sees a sheet lowered from heaven with
All these unclean animals the the the food laws of the Jews were meant to separate them from Gentiles so that they’re not having table Fellowship they’re not marrying one another there’s a separation ethnically and the voice tells Peter rise Peter kill and eat he’s like no Lord I’ve not eaten anything
Unclean I would never and and three times the voice says no longer call unclean what I have made clean and Peter’s like okay there’s some kind of shift going on because I’m getting Divine instructions to eat bacon and like I don’t do that and within an hour there’s people KN men
Knocking at the door inviting him to the home of a gentile and Peter somehow understands that Vision was about this it was preparing me to go hang out with Gentiles so he goes to cornelius’s house and it’s like this Divine blind date he doesn’t know his assignment he just
Knows he’s supposed to go and he and cornelus says all right we’re all get gathered here for you to tell us whatever it is whatever message you have and Peter’s like well let me tell you about Jesus and he begins to share the gospel and in Peter’s mind here’s what’s
Going to happen next these Pious Gentiles who are interested in the gospel are going to say we want in what do we do next and he says well let me let me explain this we’re going to have to have a little surgical procedure for all of you
Men that will give you access to the Covenant and then you can be you can join our community and you know it hasn’t happened very many times in history but if you want in we can get you in the problem is while Peter is speaking the Holy Spirit falls on on all
These Gentiles and they begin speaking in tongues and Peter’s a good Jewish man he understands what the presence of the spirit means it means Covenant renewal and so so he’s like wait the spirit only belongs to the people who are in The Covenant and now they have the spirit
We’re a little out of order here and so he realizes like God hasn’t withheld himself from them so I can’t withhold Fellowship from them either and so then he has a lot of explaining to do because he goes back to the other church leaders and they’re trying to figure out what do
We do with all these Gentiles who want to follow Jesus but they’re not circumcised we should make them get circumcised right and Peter says hey let me just share what I have experienced I preached it was not my agenda to bring Gentiles into the Covenant the spirits
Seemed to be behind this and so this God gave the spirit to them just as he did for us who was I to prevent them from being baptized and then James speaks up and this is uh this is the wonderful way to solve this issue because Peter’s sharing
From his experience but they would really like some scriptural backing for this uh major shift and so James speaks up and says I think this is what the prophet Amos was talking talking about when he said um I will restore the Fallen tent of David which would be the davidic Dynasty
And um Let me let me uh look at it because I’m gonna par I’m going to Mis paraphrase it it’s such a beautiful thing because Amos pulls from the only passage I think he could have pulled from uh that actually talk about Gentiles as people who bear God’s name bearing God’s name
Is only used to describe the Jews in the Old Testament but he says after this I will return and rebuild David’s Fallen tent its ruins I will rebuild and I will restore it that the rest of mankind May seek the Lord even all the Gentiles who bear my
Name and everybody looks at each other and goes oh there’s Gentiles who bear God’s name all right fine they’re in and so that’s the moment I mean we don’t maybe spend a lot of time thinking about acts 15 but that was our ticket in Us address Acts chapter 15 is the
Whole oh Amos 9:12 yeah um and it’s yeah it’s it’s fun to go back and look at Amos Amos is speaking ahead of a future day when God will invite the Gentiles who bear his name to to join in but the Jews would have been like huh there aren’t any I
Don’t know what that even means and and Peter recognizes Peter and James recognize this is it this is what Amos was talking about um yeah just a beautiful moment so I think Peter is uniquely prepared to apply the titles of Sinai to the church because he’s had this revelatory experience that totally
Broke open his Paradigm this is the way I this is the box I had God in and this is the way I thought God needed to work and he just went right outside of that and now I have to figure out what to do
With it you it um is there any sort of precursor with what Jeremiah was saying when he said I will write in you Covenant on your hearts and your minds is there a link there sir yes can I because that question fits perfectly with my next question oh yeah yeah but I
Want to I want to say something that you as you were talking he is uniquely uh uh designed for that role because of his great confession and Jesus says upon you I will build my church it’s like if any any Apostle is going to speak and say
Hey we’re doing this new thing that none of us anticipated it almost had to come from him and uh I think you know the whole idea of surprise at Sinai like I’m just constantly amazed at God’s ability to do things that I wouldn’t have imagined or wouldn’t have expected and
So I’m just always a good word is like we just have always try to seek the Lord and and and discern what is he doing at any given moment can I just share a quick story that maybe illustrates and we will get to Jeremiah um we went to
Bible College at multnoma uh Bible College multnoma University UN in Portland and it was right next door to Central Bible Church uh which was an aging Bible believing congregation um and a young man who was radically saved came to the leadership of the church and he said I have this
Idea I really want to reach skateboarders and in Portland and there just really aren’t that many places where people can go and skateboard safely in Portland and it rains a lot and so indoor space would be really helpful um what you think if I took the turned the church basement into a skate
Park I mentioned this was an aging congregation didn’t I yeah God blessed the little old ladies and the little old men who said yes to this because what what was born out of that idea that ministry vision was the most vibrant discipleship Ministry I think we’ve probably ever witnessed kids
Coming from all over Portland and Van couver to the basement of this Bible Church to skateboard and they would sign in they’d pay their dollar sign the release form saying I won’t sue you if I get hurt and then they would skate for an hour and then they would have Bible
Talk uh with Paul Anderson for an for I don’t know he’d talk probably 45 minutes and they’d stay because there was another hour of skate after that yep and so many young people got saved and discipled and taught through that very uh outside the box kind of ministry idea
And many of them enrolled at multnoma University and went on to get phds in Old Testament not that you need to get a PhD to be effective in the kingdom of God but many of them did one of them is now teaching at Harvard one is teaching
At Duke one is teaching at nashoda house in Wisconsin and one founded the Bible project so if you’ve ever benefited from a Bible project video or you’ve heard the voice of Tim Macky on on a podcast you can thank the little old ladies who said yes to a skate park in the basement
Of a church because Tim was not a Believer he came to Christ through that Ministry and I just think it’s it’s not quite as radical a shift as what we read about in Acts 15 but I just think do we have the vision to look past how I mean
You’re you’re using a a school to meet in so it’s not quite the same but like people protect their carpet and they protect their property you know Church buildings like we get kind of angsty about keeping things in a box and imagine what we’re missing out on when
We do that we’re particularly proud of that because we’re Presbyterian so we love everything to be orderly and I grew up in that box I know just what you mean but uh my my grandparents picked the carpet color so I know all about it holy imagination how we might be used and and
How we might reach people so we have a men’s group we just finished uh Friday morning going through Obama Robertson’s the Christ of the covenants could you kind of unpack what a covenant is and then kind of how all the key players Abraham and Moses and David and Jeremiah
How God’s Redemptive uh work throughout history is is connected and UniFi yes so I I grew up reformed where there was quite a bit more continuity between the covenants just like probably what you’ve um talked about in your group and then I went to a dispensational Bible College
In which we chopped them all up into bits and I’ve spent the past 20 years trying to put them back together so um so yes my my doctrinal mentor Dan block wrote just wrote a book called covenants and he sees really that it’s one Covenant Through the Bible rather than lots of discreet
So you see um the Covenant God makes with Abraham in Genesis we don’t have covenants today other than uh the Covenant of marriage is the closest we get culturally to the idea of a covenant where you’re making a a commitment of loyalty to someone where you have mutual
Obligations and it’s it’s for life it’s not just like entering into a contract we just entered into a contract with Budget rent a car last night and we are going to take care of the car they gave us and we paid them a well you paid them
An amount um for that car and we’re promising to fill it up with gas when we give back the moment we turn in that car on Tuesday Morning our obligations with budget are ended that’s different than a covenant a covenant is is like the commitment that Daniel and I made to to
One another 25 and a half years ago um we were engaged 26 years ago this week uh and we made a commitment that we were going to be each other’s only uh only sexual partner but only like life partner do life together um and that’s a commitment that never ends unless one of
Us dies so similarly when God enters into a covenant with Abraham uh he and Abraham are are pledging loyalty to each other Abraham’s not going to take on other gods and uh Yahweh is going to bless him and going to make his name great and going to make
Him to be a blessing to All Nations so when the Israelites arrive at SI and enter into a covenant with Yahweh it’s not a New Covenant it’s the abrahamic Covenant God is remembering the promise he made to Abraham and these are Abraham’s descendants and saying let’s make it let’s make it real
Um many people assume that that just really didn’t work out very well and so uh Jeremiah then points ahead to a time when there’s going to be a new covenant because the last one didn’t work but it’s okay because God’s going to give us
A new one and one of the things that I just want to challenge about that is that it’s an it’s I think an inadequate reading of Jeremiah 31 the to think that what Jesus comes to do in the New Testament is scrap Sinai and start over I think doesn’t do justice to Jeremiah
31 um Jeremiah 31 begins with at that time declares Yahweh I will be the God of all the families of Israel and they will be my people this is Covenant language I will be your God you will be my people um at the toward the end of the
Chapter verse 31 he said says the days are coming declares Yahweh when I will make a New Covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah it will not be like the Covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt
That’s about where we tune out we’re like okay that one’s over waiting for something new and we don’t zero wi and pay attention to to what is new about the New Covenant so listen in listen up for what’s new it will not be like the Covenant I made with their ancestors
Because they broke my Covenant though I was a husband to them declares Yahweh this is the Covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time declares Yahweh I will put my Torah in their minds and write it on their hearts I will be their God and they will be my
People it doesn’t sound to me like we just got rid of Sinai it sounds to me like we’re internalizing siai instead the problem with the first Covenant was not that it was inadequate it was that it was not internalized so the the thing God’s
Going to do that’s new is not get rid of that one but help people embrace it more fully so that they can actually obey it that it won’t be external it will be internal the word new trips us up um if you say you got a new car uh people are
Expecting to see a different car than the car you were driving before but when God says in Lamentations um my mercies are new every morning or or I guess it’s saying to God your mercies are new every morning great is your faithfulness does that mean God’s mercies are entirely different like it’s
Like a new car every morning well yesterday he tried this kind of Mercy that didn’t work so now we’re going to try a different kind no God’s mercies are renewed every morning it’s like a tank uh he the the tank is refilled just like our energy tank is refilled
After a good night’s sleep God’s mercies are refreshed and renewed so that he has more of it to give more of the same Wonderful Mercy and that’s the same word new as we see in Jeremiah 31 so I think there’s contextual uh precedent for reading this
As God’s um God’s covenant is going to be renewed it’s going to be adopted and internalized and I think that’s what Jesus is um guiding his disciples into when he says this uh when he’s talking about the sacraments and he says this is the New Covenant in my blood I think
He’s renewing the Covenant and now instead of animal sacrifices he’s offering himself to to uh and they’re ingesting these symbol these symbols of himself and so that they can uh internalize the New Covenant he promises the Holy Spirit to empower them to be transformed and to live by it so I don’t
Think Torah has been set aside I think it’s been re activated through Christ did that answer your question okay excellent so I think it’s chapter one uh the week we covered that we spent a lot of time this idea of linal space can you just unpack that for everybody and then
Can you help us think through it and and how God uses it and how we shouldn’t run from it but see it as maybe God’s severe mercy so My Philosophy is not to use words that people don’t know generally speaking I I can’t control that completely I don’t know what everyone’s
Vocabulary is but um when I wrote bearing God’s name my daughter my oldest daughter was 17 and she read through the whole manuscript before we sent it off to the publisher and we took out every word she didn’t know uh with two exceptions one was the word conduit um because I was writing
The book that that the publisher told me to uh they the publisher asked me who’s this book for and I said everybody and they said that’s not how this works you have to pick a like a specific audience that you’re targeting and I was like well I believe all Christians need this
Message but fine if you want me to be more specific I’m writing the book for Earl Earl was a retired welding instructor who was in my adult Sunday school class at church and he admitted to me he came very Faithfully every week and was very interested in Sunday school
But he admitted one time that he had only ever read one book book from cover to cover and it was a a welding manual and so I thought challenge accepted if I could write a book that Earl would read from cover to cover then I can retire in
Peace so I was writing the book for Earl and my daughter didn’t know the word conduit and I said Earl knows that word we’re keeping it um but the other exception was the word Lial because I just think it’s such a powerful word word that I thought I
Want to teach everyone this word and then like Empower them to use it so lional the word linal comes from the Latin and in Latin a lemon is the threshold of a doorway so if you’re standing right on the threshold you’re not outside and you’re not inside you’re
Like right in this kind of No Man’s Land space this transitional space and sociologists use the word Lial or lional to talk about seasons of our life when we’re in transition where we’re kind of not uh we’re not who we’re going to be but we’re not who we were and so I I
Talk in the book about different seasons that might where that might apply to us like Co the College Years our Lial space because kids leave home they’re not quite out on their own yet but they’re not with their parents anymore unless they’re living at home but they’re
They’re in this kind of formative adult experience but we don’t let him stay there we push him out the door after four years or 5 years or however long it takes and say okay go on move on with your life um and it’s a deeply formative
Time and there’s lots of joy in it um a wedding ceremony is linal space because the couple comes in not married and they leave married there’s this transition that happens in the ceremony airports are Lial space um we just went in two of them yesterday and I so so funny like
Nobody belongs here everybody is on their way somewhere else most most people are at least a little bit stressed the anxiety levels are higher than average um my anxiety level was a little higher than average yesterday and like if you like to do things a certain
Way you might get forced to do them a different way like they might check your bag and you didn’t want it to be checked or what you know that kind of thing so limal space um exposes our our desire for control and it it helps us to see
The parts of ourselves that are failing to trust anyway um the reason I talk about Lial space in the book is that the Israelites go through a long period of lional space when they leave Egypt and on are on their way to the promised land they’re not enslaved anymore but they’re
Also not in the land God promised to give them they’re in between and that in between place is super super hard because you can’t grasp anything it’s all it’s always transitional that the people are living in tents they’re moving from place to place so they’re physically not able to establish
Themselves but there’s also everything’s up for grabs where do we find food where do we find water who’s in charge what’s our routine and it’s in that linal space that God reshapes them as a people it’s a super important season where uh he he shows them look I’m going to be your
Provider here’s Mana here’s some more Mana here’s some more Mana just one day at a time nobody can St store up extra for themselves no barns are being built one day at a time and then on day six two days worth of Mana because I want
You to rest so even in God’s provision he’s showing himself to be the kind of pro provider that also provides rest and invites them into it and so that the idea is that by the end of their time in the in the wilderness they will be a
People who are living in deep Trust of their new master Yahweh they used to serve Pharaoh now they’re serving Yahweh um and they will have been reshaped as a people so that their rhythms are not Egyptian anymore but they’re centered around around God and let me just say
That when my book came out in the in December of 2019 I scarcely could have anticipated how the entire world would be thrust into Lial space all at once we all go in and out of seasons of Li liminality but if was almost amusing to me how people
Were writing me all year long Carmen how did you know like this is so I mean everything is up for grabs in the the whole pandemic just kind of upended all of our rhythms and everything was up for grabs again and because of writing the book while some people were freaking out
About this uh this upheaval I was kind of excited I I wasn’t excited about the pandemic but I was exced excited about like I was just wondering what is God going to do in this season because I know from Exodus what happens when everything’s up for grabs for a while
And I want to know like what creative energies are going to be coming out of this what new what new things will we imagine together about our life together and our life with God how is this going to reshape us as a people what sort of
New habits will we acquire what old bad habits will we give up uh obviously Lial space does not always shape Us in positive ways um and so we have now very high levels of anxiety higher than before I’m seeing it in my students um who who are are struggling in ways that past
Generations of students haven’t uh so it’s not always positive but if you seek the Lord in it it can be really positive and productive yeah awesome uh you touched on this uh I think we have this view of maybe faith in works that kind of poisons the will against the law um
But the law is a good gift from God you know I like the fact that you went to Psalm 119 it’s a lamp that guides our way it’s you know other places sweeter then the finest honey it’s always spoken of in this wonderful way so just briefly
Touch on the law is a good gift and then how do we in 2024 view the law of God what are our obligations responsibilities to it um how should we be shaped by it and yeah so sometimes um oops I’ve I’ve had some people who were very excited about my subtitle why Sinai
Still matters um because there there is a group of uh Christians today who are trying to go back to Hebrew roots and back to Torah observance and um in in lots of very specific ways so let’s keep all the Jewish festivals let’s follow the kosher food laws um let’s you know
Let’s order our lives as much as possible around the laws from the tour and so they picked up my book and were like oh she’s our gal and then they got really disappointed um because like wait you keep Sabbath on a Sunday wh why why
Would you do that why wouldn’t you do it the Torah way and wait you don’t celebrate all the festivals it’s like ah she doesn’t go far enough so I’ve had a number of Messianic friends reach out to me and say but Carmen why why don’t you
Take that last step so I’m in this kind of funky middle space between throwing out the law and fully trying to implement it and I’m trying to say no there’s a middle space where we recognize that the law is a good gift that’s meant to help people discover
God’s will but it’s also culturally conditioned uh I have never had a neighbor with an ox so I have never coveted my neighbor’s ax my neighbor has a really nice motor home um and a boat you know like so there are other things I might covet but
Not oxen um and my neighbor’s Ox has my neighbor who doesn’t have an ox has never gour anyone either like so there are there are cultural specificities to the laws that mean we have to be more creative about implementing them so what I advocate is that when we go back to
The Old Testament law that we read them as much as we can try to discern what is the principle behind this law why what is this in that cultural context what is being shown about the the character of God how is this how is this um moving Society in a positive direction or
Helping people understand God’s character and then what would it look like for me to implement that in my cultural context so for example Deuteronomy 228 says that when you build a house you need to build a parapet around the roof I have a little beef with the translation committee because I
Don’t know anyone who’s ever used the word parapet um maybe I’m just not in the right field uh what that is is like a low wall around the the roof of a house so you’re not supposed to when you build a house you have to put a low wall
Around the roof so that you don’t incur blood guilt on yourself if someone falls off your roof now I don’t know about how I mean seems like on our way here most of the roofs we saw looked like this not like this if we were ancient Israelites
Our rooftop would be the place where we might uh thresh grain lay out laundry to dry um knead our bread dough or make flower or take a nap or whatever there lots of Life happened on the flat rooftops of Israelite homes not so with us we have peaked roofs and we’re not up
There except maybe on the 4th of July to see fireworks so or to replace the shingles so I don’t think that we all need to put a roof around the edge of our law that around our Ro uh I don’t think we need to put a wall around the
Edge of our roof is Utah a roof or a roof Place well we’re all from different places so you might get multiple pronunciations because I grew up with rof and then and then I went to Canada and my students just laughed and laughed every time I said roof so I switched to
Roof so I’m just checking where we are here how many are roof any other roofs okay it was just my mom then okay um anyway I don’t I think what we actually need to think about instead is having a railing on our staircases shoveling our sidewalks when
It snows so that somebody doesn’t slip and break their neck on our property um making sure that our that our concrete uh this is what next on our list that our sidewalk uh squares are like the same level so somebody can’t trip on them those are the that would would be
Living out the spirit of the law about the the railing because the railing is about um looking out for your neighbor and making sure that people are not in danger on your property as a homeowner it’s your responsibility to be looking out for people’s safety and we have lots
Of um really helpful government laws that also help with that and I say really helpful because I’ve lived overseas where they don’t have these laws and you’re just walking down the sidewalk and there’s suddenly a gaping hole down to the sewer and like you got to watch where you’re going and they’re
Not going to cover that up for you they expect you to to see it so yeah um I think we can do that with all the laws um when it says not to glean uh sorry not to reap to the edges of your field but leave the edges so that the
Poor and the Foreigner can come and glean in your Fields um most of us don’t have fields and so we’re not going to do that but there are ways that we we can think about business practices that that leave margins for the needy Among Us um
And it was fun to think this through with students in Canada because about half my students did grow up on farms and they did have fields and so I’d ask them well did your parents reap to the edge of the fields and they’re like yeah okay is that a violation of scripture if
You’re a farmer and you don’t reap to the you reaped all of your and they’re like well but if we didn’t nobody would come glean in our Fields that’s that’s not something we do now that would be trespassing so okay what could you do instead and somebody would say well you
Could like reap all your Harvest but you could give some of it to a food bank all right that’s a I think that’s a good start how is that different than this law oh a food bank is where you go and you line up and they hand you food
Gleaning is a little different because you’ve just put in a day’s work and you’ve you’ve you’ve harvested and brought home your Harvest which has a little bit different effect not that food banks should be done away with but the gleaning laws are not quite the same unless your food bank uh incorporates labor
Somehow uh so so then somebody was like well what if you employed people who were otherwise difficult they they had a difficult time finding jobs like what about if you gave jobs to people who couldn’t pass a background check because they just got released from prison like it’s really hard for someone who
Gets released they’ve done their time but nobody wants to hire them what if you gave people a chance What If you hired people with chronic mental health or physical health issues that make it so that they can’t work a consistent 40-hour work week what if you designed a
Way for people to come work for you as they’re able that that to me would be closer to the gleaning laws than just donating it to a food bank and you can can do that whether you own a Dollar Tree or whether you own a you know like
Whatever your company is you could create margin for people uh to have jobs that don’t normally get jobs so that’s how I want us to think about Old Testament law what can it generate creatively uh creative ways for us to implement and live out the spirit behind
It or the principles of it so in some ways is it would you say it’s appropriate to think of the Ten Commandments the law of God is it’s preventing destructive things from happening but it’s also there’s a positive that maybe is not always stated but that is driving us towards human flourishing yes
Absolutely I have described it as um the law gives us the outer boundaries like it it it puts up a fence saying don’t go outside this fence but it leaves all kinds of space in the middle for us to think about human flourishing like how can we contribute to human flourishing
Okay so I realized I made a mistake uh we were way too ambitious to ask you to speak speak on both topics today uh I think we have plenty of to cover here but we’re just not going to be able to get to it uh does anybody have any
Questions that they would like to ask about uh this first topic yeah a little bit if you’ll just use the microphone just that way we’re trying to record it so do you is it on y do you think that the bearing of God’s name is the um antithesis of the
Revelation concept of bearing the mark of Satan yes yes so um I’ve lived long enough to have witnessed several different seasons of anxiety about the mark of the beast many of you have as well like what’s the mark of the beast is it credit cards Visa Visa if you add
You do the alpha numeric calculation it’s 666 is it is it microchips is it um retina scans is it covid vaccines is it like what is it that would we maybe be inadvertently be marking ourselves with with the mark of the beast and then that’s going I think if you understand
This concept of bearing God’s name and you trace it through the Bible when you get to Revelation you’re like of course this is exactly what I would expect uh if you’ve ever been roller skating this is I I hear they do this at bars too but
I don’t go to bars so I’ll use the roller skating example when you pay when you pay to get in the roller skating rink they stamp your hand with this invisible ink and you can only see it under the black light so when you’re when you’re rolling around the
Rink and they have the black light on you’re like oh there’s a smiley face on my hand but you wouldn’t see it if you went outside I think that what happens at Sinai is God is stamping all his people with his name in invisible ink and then in John’s Vision they turn on
The black light and you can see what’s been true all along everyone has a tattoo in John’s Vision either they bear the name of God on their forehead or they wear the mark of the beast and so what is the mark of the beast it’s the it’s the opposite of bearing God’s name
It’s giving your allegiance to this world system it’s uh you know worshiping Satan or or being opposed to the kingdom of God if you oppose yourself to the kingdom of God you have marked yourself that way instead of receiving God’s name and so these two things happen side by side Revelation 7
Revelation 14 you either wear God’s name or you wear the mark of the beast I don’t think we need to worry about our credit cards or our vaccines I mean we maybe we need to worry about vaccines for other reasons not for the mark of the beast let me say that any other
Questions okay let’s uh let’s take a 10-minute break and we’ll start promptly at 10:20
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