Day 28 -- Exodus 38-40

As you went through the reading for today you probably noticed those words—“as the Lord had commanded Moses”—repeated again and again and again. That phrase becomes a litany, pointing to the fact that in constructing the tabernacle everything was done right, according to the command of God revealed through his conduit Moses.
That God has revealed his will completely to his chosen people—that is the Good News of the Old Testament. Once the Law was given, nothing more needed to be revealed. The Law is holy and perfect.
And to be righteous means to do everything according to the command of God--to do things right, the way the Israelites built the tabernacle. They built it exactly the way they were told to--they did it right, and the LORD blessed with the glory of his presence (Exodus 40:34-38).
So if God has given us his perfect law, it is up to those who covenant with God to learn that law by heart and apply it to their lives. If they do that faithfully, they can keep it and be righteous. Nothing stands in the way of keeping the law but human ignorance and willful disobedience.
And when mistakes are made and sins committed, the Law provides its own way to restore people to righteousness. Blood sacrifice offers those who have knowingly sinned or think they may by accident have transgressed the Law a way to restore their relationship with God and try again.
As we launch further into the Law of Moses we will have more to say about this, but now is perhaps an opportune time to note that the Old Testament does not know what we call “guilt”—that deep sense of personal unworthiness and interior uncleanness—what Christian theology calls “original sin.”
In the Old Testament “shame” is what people feel when they violate the commands of God, the shame Adam and Eve felt in the garden. The Law does not do anything to help us deal with our guilt, our feelings of personal unworthiness. It only makes them worse—that is the message of St. Paul. Only faith in the sufficient sacrifice of Jesus Christ can address our guilt and alienation.
But the Law of Moses did deal effectively with shame. It showed Israel what it meant to lead a righteous life, and when they fell short of righteousness, it provided a way to bring them back into their covenant relationship with the LORD through sacrifice and renewed obedience.
So the Law was once good news—but not for us.