Sunset at Seahurst

Our first trip to Seahurst Park in a year.  It's a city park in Burien over by the airport.  Watched the sunset...

Scapegoat Booth

Ah, the Day of Atonement is upon us today.  And it is the assurance that we are ready for Tabernacles - God with us.  Immanuel.  Eternity.  The Way, the Truth, and the Life.  Thanksgiving.

I am asking you, dear readers, a serious question here.  Do any of you know any Christians who observe the Day of Atonement?  What do they do?  Fast?  Anything else???  Observing the Day of Atonement "properly" seems impossible to me.  Trumpets is easier - contemplate, list, and confess sin.  And Tabernacles is easy, too - go camping!  But Atonement is too weird and too serious somehow.

The Jewish people are still at it after a fashion, although the absence of the Temple has hampered the style of the more Orthodox, since the Day of Atonement/Yom Kippur is literally about cleansing the year's worth of confessed and sacrificed-for sins from the inner sanctuary...  I wonder what hope the modern-day solemn convocation offers to the seriously religious without a Temple and without sacrifices and without goats?  Yet this holy day has such prophetic significance for Christians, beyond the atonement of the cross, which we celebrate at Easter (or Passover if you're more in tune with the Hebrew rhythm of life.)  But what does it even mean?

It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings.  For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father.  For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, saying, 

"I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters,
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you." 

And again, 

"I will put my trust in him." 

And again, 

"Here am I and the children whom God has given me." 

Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death.  For it is clear that he did not come to help angels, but the descendants of Abraham.  Therefore ha had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice to atonement for the sins of the people.  Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.

The atonement of the cross in Hebrews 2:10-18 puts our brother Jesus in a place to help us.  And I do need Help.

I'll leave you with this long-ish excerpt from Patriarchs and Prophets I saved for today's reading:

The most important part of the daily ministration was the service performed in behalf of individuals. The repentant sinner brought his offering to the door of the tabernacle, and, placing his hand upon the victim's head, confessed his sins, thus in figure transferring them from himself to the innocent sacrifice. By his own hand the animal was then slain, and the blood was carried by the priest into the holy place and sprinkled before the veil, behind which was the ark containing the law that the sinner had transgressed. By this ceremony the sin was, through the blood, transferred in figure to the sanctuary. In some cases the blood was not taken into the holy place; but the flesh was then to be eaten by the priest, as Moses directed the sons of Aaron, saying, "God hath given it you to bear the iniquity of the congregation."  Leviticus 10:17. Both ceremonies alike symbolized the transfer of the sin from the penitent to the sanctuary. 

Such was the work that went on day by day throughout the year. The sins of Israel being thus transferred to the sanctuary, the holy places were defiled, and a special work became necessary for the removal of the sins. God commanded that an atonement be made for each of the sacred apartments, as for the altar, to "cleanse it, and hallow it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel." Leviticus 16:19. 

Once a year, on the great Day of Atonement, the priest entered the most holy place for the cleansing of the sanctuary. The work there performed completed the yearly round of ministration. 

On the Day of Atonement two kids of the goats were brought to the door of the tabernacle, and lots were cast upon them, "one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for the scapegoat." The goat upon which the first lot fell was to be slain as a sin offering for the people. And the priest was to bring his blood within the veil, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat. "And he shall make an atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgression in all their sins; and so shall he do for the tabernacle of the congregation, that remaineth among them in the midst of their uncleanness." 

"And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness: and the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities into a land not inhabited." Not until the goat had been thus sent away did the people regard themselves as freed from the burden of their sins. Every man was to afflict his soul while the work of atonement was going forward. All business was laid aside, and the whole congregation of Israel spent the day in solemn humiliation before God, with prayer, fasting, and deep searching of heart. 

Important truths concerning the atonement were taught the people by this yearly service. In the sin offerings presented during the year, a substituted had been accepted in the sinner's stead; but the blood of the victim had not made full atonement for the sin. It had only provided a means by which the sin was transferred to the sanctuary. By the offering of blood, the sinner acknowledged the authority of the law, confessed the guilt of his transgression, and expressed his faith in Him who was to take away the sin of the world; but he was not entirely released from the condemnation of the law. On the Day of Atonement the high priest, having taken an offering for the congregation, went into the most holy place with the blood and sprinkled it upon the mercy seat, above the tables of the law. Thus the claims of the law, which demanded the life of the sinner, were satisfied. Then in his character of mediator the priest took the sins upon himself, and, leaving the sanctuary, he bore with him the burden of Israel's guilt. At the door of the tabernacle he laid his hands upon the head of the scapegoat and confessed over him "all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat." And as the goat bearing these sins was sent away, they were, with him, regarded as forever separated from the people. Such was the service performed "unto the example and shadow of heavenly things." Hebrews 8:5. 

As has been stated, the earthly sanctuary was built by Moses according to the pattern shown him in the mount. It was "a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices;" its two holy places were "patterns of things in the heavens;" Christ, our great High Priest, is "a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man." Hebrews 9:9, 23; 8:2. As in vision the apostle John was granted a view of the temple of God in heaven, he beheld there "seven lamps of fire burning before the throne." He saw an angel "having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne." Revelation 4:5; 8:3. Here the prophet was permitted to behold the first apartment of the sanctuary in heaven; and he saw there the "seven lamps of fire" and the "golden altar" represented by the golden candlestick and the altar of incense in the sanctuary on earth. Again, "the temple of God was opened" (Revelation 11:19), and he looked within the inner veil, upon the holy of holies. Here he beheld "the ark of His testament" (Revelation 11:19), represented by the sacred chest constructed by Moses to contain the law of God. 

Moses made the earthly sanctuary, "according to the fashion that he had seen." Paul declares that "the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry," when completed, were "the patterns of things in the heavens." Acts 7:44; Hebrews 9:21, 23. And John says that he saw the sanctuary in heaven. That sanctuary, in which Jesus ministers in our behalf, is the great original, of which the sanctuary built by Moses was a copy. 

The heavenly temple, the abiding place of the King of kings, where "thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him" (Daniel 7:10), that temple filled with the glory of the eternal throne, where seraphim, its shining guardians, veil their faces in adoration--no earthly structure could represent its vastness and its glory. Yet important truths concerning the heavenly sanctuary and the great work there carried forward for man's redemption were to be taught by the earthly sanctuary and its services. 

After His ascension, our Saviour was to begin His work as our High Priest. Says Paul, "Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." Hebrews 9:24. As Christ's ministration was to consist of two great divisions, each occupying a period of time and having a distinctive place in the heavenly sanctuary, so the typical ministration consisted of two divisions, the daily and the yearly service, and to each a department of the tabernacle was devoted. 

As Christ at His ascension appeared in the presence of God to plead His blood in behalf of penitent believers, so the priest in the daily ministration sprinkled the blood of the sacrifice in the holy place in the sinner's behalf. 

The blood of Christ, while it was to release the repentant sinner from the condemnation of the law, was not to cancel the sin; it would stand on record in the sanctuary until the final atonement; so in the type the blood of the sin offering removed the sin from the penitent, but it rested in the sanctuary until the Day of Atonement. 

In the great day of final award, the dead are to be "judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works." Revelation 20:12. Then by virtue of the atoning blood of Christ, the sins of all the truly penitent will be blotted from the books of heaven. Thus the sanctuary will be freed, or cleansed, from the record of sin. In the type, this great work of atonement, or blotting out of sins, was represented by the services of the Day of Atonement--the cleansing of the earthly sanctuary, which was accomplished by the removal, by virtue of the blood of the sin offering, of the sins by which it had been polluted. 

As in the final atonement the sins of the truly penitent are to be blotted from the records of heaven, no more to be remembered or come into mind, so in the type they were borne away into the wilderness, forever separated from the congregation. 

Since Satan is the originator of sin, the direct instigator of all the sins that caused the death of the Son of God, justice demands that Satan shall suffer the final punishment. Christ's work for the redemption of men and the purification of the universe from sin will be closed by the removal of sin from the heavenly sanctuary and the placing of these sins upon Satan, who will bear the final penalty. So in the typical service, the yearly round of ministration closed with the purification of the sanctuary, and the confessing of the sins on the head of the scapegoat. 

Thus in the ministration of the tabernacle, and of the temple that afterward took its place, the people were taught each day the great truths relative to Christ's death and ministration, and once each year their minds were carried forward to the closing events of the great controversy between Christ and Satan, the final purification of the universe from sin and sinners. 

[From Chapter 30: "The Tabernacle and its Services" from Ellen White's book Patriarchs and Prophets.]

Trumpet Booth

I spent three posts regaling you with the Festival of Booths a little while back.  No look at Booths, it turns out, is complete without looking at Trumpets and Atonement which directly precede it.  The three events are inextricably linked, and the three together create one narrative in the historical sense, in the celebratory sense, and in the prophetic sense.

The Feast of Trumpets was on the calendar for a week ago Thursday, and it is popularly known in the Jewish world as Rosh Hashanah.  This is pretty much all the Bible has to say about it:

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the people of Israel, saying: In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of complete rest, a holy convocation commemorated with trumpet blasts.  You shall not work at your occupations; and you shall present the LORD's offering by fire.

That's all we can learn in Leviticus 23:23-25.

But by comparing it with another one-time occasion where God commanded the people to a solemn time of preparation marked by trumpet blasts, we can begin to see its significance.  In the upcoming scene we see the mottly band of Israelite slaves who have been camping in the wilderness for three months.  They have just escaped four hundred years of bondage in Egypt through dramatic and miraculous interventions of God.  They are camped with their livestock near Mount Sinai where the Pillar of Cloud and Fire has led them.  They are eager to enter the Promised Land with their human leader Moses, and have no idea the struggles and heartbreaking still waiting for an entire generation before that comes to pass.  Their minds filled with the miracles God wrought to free them and to show the Egyptians the Greatest Reality, they are preparing for the closest encounter yet with a Deity bigger than anything they can imagine.

On the third new moon after the Israelites had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that very day, they came into the wilderness of Sinai.  They had journeyed from Rephidim, entered the wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness; Israel camped there in front of the mountain.  Then Moses went up to God; the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the Israelites: You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself.  Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples.  Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.  These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites." 

So Moses came, summoned the elders of the people, and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him.  The people all answered as one: "Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do."  Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord.  Then the Lord said to Moses, "I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, in order that the people may hear when I speak with you and so trust you ever after." 

When Moses had told the words of the people to the Lord, the Lord said to Moses: "Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow.  Have them wash their clothes and prepare for the third day, because on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.  You shall set limits for the people all around, saying, 'Be careful not to go up the mountain or to touch the edge of it.  Any who touch the mountain shall be put to death.  No had shall touch them, but they shall be stoned or shot with arrows; whether animal or human being, they shall not live.'  When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they may go up on the mountain."  So Moses went down from the mountain to the people.  He consecrated the people, and they washed their clothes.  And he said to the people, "Prepare for the third day; do not go near a woman." 

On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, as well as a thick cloud on the mountain, and a blast of a trumpet so loud that all the people who were in the camp trembled.  Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God.  They took their stand at the foot of the mountain.  Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the Lord had descended upon it in fire; the smoke went up like the smoke of a kiln, while the whole mountain shook violently. 

As the blast of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses would speak and God would answer him in thunder.  When the Lord descended upon Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain, the Lord summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.  Then the Lord said to Moses, "Go down and warn the people not to break through to the Lord to look; otherwise many of them will perish.  Even the priests who approach the Lord must consecrate themselves or the Lord will break out against them."  Moses said to the Lord, "The people are not permitted to come up to Mount Sinai; for you yourself warned us, saying, 'Set limits around the mountain and keep it holy.'"  The Lord said to him, "Go down, and come up bringing Aaron with you; but do not let either the priests or the people break through to come up to the Lord; otherwise he will break out against them."  So Moses went down to the people and told them. 

Then God spoke all these words 

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me. 

You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.  You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments. 

You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name. 

Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work.  But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work - you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns.  For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it. 

Honor your father and your  mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. 

You shall not murder. 

You shall not commit adultery. 

You shall not steal. 

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 

You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. 

When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance, and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die."  Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid; for God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin."  Then the people stood at a distance, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.

(Exodus 19:1-20:21)

God's revelation of himself on Sinai and revelation of his character in the Law was one of the MAJOR events of the Old Testament, and the people needed to prepare for it like never before.  When looking at the autumn High Holy Days as a whole narrative then, we see that Trumpets is the call to prepare for the most solemn day of the year - the Day of Atonement.  Preparation is by examining ones self and one's sin.  By comparing our own character with that of the Lord and seeing where we come up short.  By making restitution to those we have hurt.  Even when we're all about grace, how can we even understand or accept God's mercy toward us when we don't have any idea of who exactly we are?   There but for the grace of God, go I.

I've been doing some personal pondering along those lines the last few days as well, and one of the things which has (painfully) stuck with me is this little blogging gem I read over the summer.  The author spoke of our idolatry being revealed as we parent children, and *boy howdy* it turns out I am no better a person than all the wicked kings of Israel who went after their idols, disregarded God, and did whatever they pleased.  It seems I have LOT to talk with God about when it comes to my own sin.

And then there are the sins of the fathers, and the sins of my society.  I am sitting here thinking about the Israelites escaping from slavery, and the African Americans whose challenging lot in life is literally due to my great-great-great-grand's horrible mistake of thinking they could own and control another human soul for monetary gain, of thinking another soul could somehow be less valuable than their own.  And how even today, our society values money and worldly treasure over the lives of human beings made in the image of God.  We buy chocolate and diamonds and coffee made with slave labor.  We tell people painfully disadvantaged by hundreds of years of history and institutions to just get over it, call them unpatriotic, or suggest if they were just better people they'd be where we are.  We imagine that the poor are to be blamed for their lot in life and offer them no lasting help, pretending it's not our job.  We refuse to welcome the alien and the foreigner, hoping that we can protect ourselves and our own comfort by turning our backs on the needs of the world.  We are the Egyptian slave drivers.  We are the Pharisees.  We are the Auschwitz staff enjoying their break from work.

My eyes are watering, and I am imagining the broken heart of God looking down at us.  We are broken people, both privately and in the public sense.  This is not the way God created us to be.  We turn to our selfish impulses and stoke our own desires at the altars of Pride and Greed and Lust and Self-Righteousness....

And then there is the prophetic sense of the Feast of Trumpets:  The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Make straight the way of the Lord! ...  You brood of vipers!  Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?  Bear fruits worthy of repentance....  Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven.... You must also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour....

Late Season at Mowich

I decided at the last minute to go up hiking at Mowich Lake on Saturday, because I wanted to see Spray Park, which I hadn't made it to all summer.  It is one of my favorite little acres in the whole world.  Due to a variety of reasons, we didn't make it to the start of the hike until 5:05 pm.  Sunset was at 7:19.  We had three miles up to the alpine meadow and then the three miles back down.  With two kids on our backs.  We made it, although it took until about 7:45 and it was quite dusky by the time we got back in the car.  I've never been up there quite so late in the season; the wildflowers have all turned to autumn now.  It was quite hazy up there due to the wildfires, but not as smoky as down here.

I think this was a bit of a wasp nest.

We made it to Spray Park in an hour and a half.  I'm a bit sore the following day!

Lazarus' first post-natal visit to Spray Park.  He was up there two and a half weeks before he was born...

A few bonus pics from a little visit to our favorite city park on Sunday:

Wild blackberries in autumn

It's been so dry.  We were waiting for the rain to come in that afternoon and start turning everything green again.

Without the aid of GPS Lazarus found a geocache.  ;-)

Making a mountain out of a molehill

Baby Year

Ten days ago my little guy had his first birthday, marking the end of his baby year.  We had a lot of observances.  As we all know, first birthdays are not really for the kid - they are not particularly excited about gifts or parties and don't know about birthday cake.  It's really mostly, I think, for the mother who is relieved to have kept said child alive for that long and is sad that her tiny baby is so big now, while also being amazed at how much he has managed to learn to do in just one revolution about the sun.

We did a trial run with some chocolate cake on Labor Day at his grandparents' house.  He liked it.

This picture was from 8:00 am on his birthday- precisely a year to the minute after he was retrieved, screaming, from his cozy home.  I was out for a walk while the kids were still asleep.  That red orb is the sun, mostly obscured by smoke from all the wildfires.

Birthday photo!

On the morning of his birthday we gave him the Scramble Bug which my parents had given Anne for her 1st birthday.  He was quite pleased with it, although he's a bit short to make it work yet:

(kick, kick, kick)

His birthday was a busy working Thursday.

Friday I took him up to UW to participate in his first scientific study.  They are looking at persistence in babies and toddlers, trying to tease out at what age differences in that trait begin and how much of it is innate versus socially learned.  He interacted with a researcher several times for his experiment.  Then I helped him with a toy which was too advanced for him and read him a wordless book about a baby trying to learn how to walk.  They wanted to see how the caregiver languaged things to the baby.  Also, I had to answer beaucoup de questionnaires...

Friday evening I had a chance to make him his cake.  It looks suspiciously like the cake Anne had for her second birthday:

Saturday I wanted to go for a hike in Issaquah, since he was born there and I remember fondly my trips out there for all the prenatal appointments.  While he was sleeping, I put some braids and beads in Anne's hair at her request:

You can see the hospital where he was born, over on the next hill.

A bit of I-90 below, and I believe the lake in the distance is Sammamish.

Sunday Jeff and Linda came to celebrate his birthday.  Jeff took quite a number of wonderful pictures!

Jeff also brought Anne a little science kit so they can build a soda-powered clock together.  She is habitually asking him questions about power and energy generation.

Also, somewhere in that week Anne finally weaned, but don't mention it to her.  She'll tell you she did not and come asking for more milk.  Bittersweet, but also a relief!