Titanic fallout follows rejection of rest-day command

Unpacking one of Scripture’s most mysterious themes.

Paul Luckraft reviews two classics on this vital part of the Christian walk.

Reclaiming the noble description of God’s holy city.

As Jews across Europe come under increasing fire, and the scandal of anti-Semitism continues to wreak havoc in Britain’s Labour Party, there is an ever-present danger of misunderstanding as to what it’s all about.

Why have Jews, and Israel in particular, become the focus of so much vilification? And what on earth is ‘Zionism’, a catch-all word generally being used in a disparaging way by opponents of the Jewish state?

Among the many unsavoury allegations of anti-Jewish sentiment surrounding Opposition Leader Jeremy Corbyn, he was recently cited as having said in a 2013 speech that Zionists in the UK had “no sense of English irony”, which critics said implied they weren’t fully British.¹

Quite apart from the patent untruth of Corbyn’s nasty slur – for British Jews have surely been the most loyal of minorities, contributing hugely to our success in so many fields, not least the economy – let’s take a moment to unpack what exactly is meant by ‘Zionism’.

It’s a form of insult for some – we get that – meant as a kind of synonym to describe a ‘racist’ people accused of stealing Palestinian land. But the reality is very different, and we need to rescue the term from the skewed meaning it is often given in common use.

A Most Noble, Holy Concept

In truth, Zionism is among the most noble, holy concepts found in the English language (or any language) and those who take up its cause should be justly proud of doing so. For it is essentially a biblical reference to the place where we go up to meet with God to worship him.

Specifically, it refers to Jerusalem, God’s dwelling place on earth, also known as the “city of the Great King” (Ps 48:1f). It is a very special domain which God himself has chosen as a “resting place” (Ps 132:13f). So to use it as a form of insult virtually amounts to blasphemy because it involves denigrating something sacred to the Creator.

In the time of Jesus, Jews were expected to make a special pilgrimage to attend three major feasts a year – all in Jerusalem – when they would sing about going “up to Zion”. The Book of Psalms is strewn liberally with joyful expressions of the holy wonder of these regular journeys. The city is built on mountains, including Mt Zion, at an elevation of nearly 3,000ft, which thus requires a stiff climb of some 4,000ft within the space of just 30 miles from the Dead Sea – which, at 1,200ft below (normal) sea level, is the lowest point on earth.

Zionism is among the most noble, holy concepts found in the English language

Zion describes the City of Jerusalem (Isa 40:9) and the nation of Israel as a whole (Zech 9:13; Isa 60:14). And it is a place God loves (Ps 87:2f), having first assumed significance when King David brought the Ark of the Covenant into the stronghold of ‘Zion’, also named the ‘City of David’.

Similarly, Zion-ism is a longing expressed by Jews dispersed around the world for a return to their ancient land, encapsulated in the late 19^th Century by Theodor Herzl and his Zionist movement that propelled the initial waves of Jewish immigration to the Holy Land. For Jews everywhere, it is like returning ‘home’, even if (as in most cases) their ancestors have been exiled for nearly 2,000 years. It is a divinely appointed location, and Jews have a divine right to live there.

And so ‘Zion’, as a homeland for the Jewish people, has also come to describe their right to self-determination in the re-established State of Israel. After all, Jews have prayed towards Jerusalem for thousands of years. Even the Western Church, which has somewhat lost sight of its Hebraic roots, has traditionally built its altars facing east – towards Jerusalem!

Gentile Zionism

But there are also Christian Zionists, who support Israel’s right to exist and make every effort to help them in any way they can, including sourcing the documents and finance to enable persecuted Jews to make ‘aliyah’ by becoming Israeli citizens.

Christians United for Israel, noting the Church’s “deafening” silence on the anti-Semitism scandal, points out that an attack on Zionism is also an attack on Christians.²

Remaining silent because of fears of engaging in what is deemed a ‘political’ controversy “could be one of the biggest mistakes by the church so far this century” because it is central to Christian faith and theology and “has consequences that may only be realised when the church becomes the next target of the same ‘flames of hatred’ that have reappeared throughout Europe”.³

An attack on Zionism is also an attack on Christians.

Loving Who God Loves

In answer to the first question posed at the beginning of this article, well that’s a big subject that would best be tackled another day. But, in short, it is just because Jews are God’s chosen people that they are so reviled. It is a fit of jealousy on the part of all who rebel against God’s choice.

But those who love God will love whoever he loves, especially Israel, “the apple of his eye” (see Zech 2:8).

References

1 Metro, 31 August 2018.

2 Reclaiming the definition of “Zionism” – and why it should matter to Christians. Christians United for Israel, 4 September 2018.

3 Ibid. 

Understanding ritual purity baffled the sages of Israel. One of the most influential Jewish scholars, Maimonides, describes the whole subject as "bristling with difficulties, far from human understanding and one which even the Great Sages [of the Mishnah] found hard to comprehend."¹

Maimonides concluded that the purpose of these regulations was to impose limitations and conditions upon Israel's approach to God, to deepen their sense of awe and reverence for the majesty of their divine Father and King, which is why the laws apply only to relations with the sanctuary and the objects connected with it.²

However, Christians tend to perceive ritual purity as relating to sin, but this is not the case. The Lord mentions four categories of state in Leviticus: "distinguish between the holy and the common, between the unclean and the clean" (Lev 10:10). This instruction is given after unauthorised fire is offered by Aaron's sons, "So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord" (Lev 10:2). To distinguish between the holy and common, the clean and unclean was therefore of life or death importance for the Israelites. No one could approach the Lord casually or unprepared because he dwelled physically in the Tabernacle and the Temple:

'Tell your brother Aaron that he is not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die. For I appear in the cloud over the atonement cover.' (Lev 16:1-2)

It is important to understand that the distinction between the four categories of holy, common, pure and impure (or clean and unclean) is not between good and evil. Ritual purity is also not about hygiene or disease control – it had beneficial effects in these areas but that is not the central purpose. Rather, it is to do with the separation of the holy from the everyday.³

Holy vs Common, Clean vs Unclean

For example, in many churches when communion is served a special silver goblet is used, but after the service coffee is served in ordinary cups. It shows that in communion we are doing something different from every day eating and drinking. It doesn't mean that the cup itself is special, just that we are making a distinction. The biblical idea of holiness is not simply avoiding illicit things but hallowing the licit.

Ritual purity is not about hygiene or about distinguishing good from evil - it's about separating the holy from the everyday.

Holiness is not the same as purity or cleanness. An object which is not holy is not necessarily clean. An object which is clean is not necessarily holy. Joshua Tilton explains, "Holiness describes an object's use, whereas purity describes that object's readiness for its intended use" [emphasis added]. Suppose you lived in 1^st Century Jerusalem and you had a sack of grain set aside for a tithe. If a mouse crawled into the sack of grain and died, the grain is still holy because it is your tithe, which you have set aside for the Lord, but it is now unclean because it has a dead creature in it. So the difference between holy and common and clean and unclean is not about good versus evil, rather it is about the appropriateness of an object for its intended use.⁴

In the Nature of Creation, Not the Creator

Holiness originates from God and he created his creation to be clean – nothing he made is intrinsically unclean. However, the eternal and immortal and the finite and mortal have to find a way to approach each other. Joseph Frankovic illuminates this point, "...in designing a house, one does not put the bathroom inside the dining room. The activities of the bathroom do not complement those of the dining room. Neither bathroom nor dining room activities are, however, sinful - just incompatible."⁵

God's holy Temple would be profaned or contaminated by distinctly mortal sources of ritual impurity – sex, disease and death (for example, genital discharges, menstruation, childbirth, skin disease, contact with dead bodies). This is not for moral, ethical or simply hygiene reasons, but because God is not subject to disease, decay and death and he does not reproduce. Decay, death and reproduction are characteristics of the creation not the Creator, who is eternally alive, immutable and self-sufficient, radically different from us. We are mortal with the potential for immortality, changeable and dependent. Therefore, we need to set aside aspects of our mortal nature to approach his immortal presence. We must be in a state of holiness in order to move from our sphere into God's sphere.⁶

We might say that holiness requires purity because holiness is divine, of a different order, not because impurity is bad. Impurity from sin is, of course, bad, but that is different from ritual purity. For example, giving birth is not sinful, but it gives rise to ritual impurity.

Holiness requires purity, but it is not the same as purity.

Now the biblical writers (especially Ezekiel) did sometimes employed the terms 'clean' and 'unclean' as metaphors for good and evil, e.g. Ezekiel says God will "...cast clean water on you and you will be clean" (Ezek. 36:25).⁷

For believers in Jesus, this is the sense in which we usually apply these terms because we are not required to regard certain physical states or foods as clean or unclean. However, we are to have a keen sense of what is sinful and morally corrupt, what will pollute and defile our minds, bodies and spirits.

God's Holy Presence

Holiness radiates from the divine presence. Therefore, those things which are closest to God's presence are holier than things which are further off. The sages of Israel⁸ said that there were ten degrees of holiness, starting with the Land of Israel which is holier than any other land, then the cities in it - Jerusalem is the holiest city, the Temple the holiest place in the City, and going through the courts of the Temple from the outer to the inner the holiness increases, until you reach the Sanctuary which is more holy than the outer courts, for none may enter there with unwashed hands and feet. Finally, the Holy of Holies where the ark was kept is more holy, "for none may enter therein save only the High Priest on the Day of Atonement."

Holiness can be transferred to common objects, which unlike unclean objects do not contaminate what is holy, but can instead be made holy by contact with holy objects, as Exodus 29:37 states, "The altar shall be most holy. Everything that touches the altar will become holy." However, the approach must be made from the holy towards the common: if a 'common' person, not a priest who was consecrated holy, intruded unauthorised into the holy places of the Temple they risked being struck down. It is also worth noting that sacred or holy objects were in two categories, sacred and most sacred. For example, some parts of an offering were considered most sacred: "The rest of the grain offering belongs to Aaron and his sons; it is a most holy part of the food offerings presented to the Lord" (Lev 2:3). There were also degrees of uncleanness, the most basic level dissipated by the evening. Contact with a corpse required a period of seven days' separation.

Jacob Milgrom describes both the most sacred and impurity as having airborne properties in rabbinic thought and those closest to the sacred, the priests, had to be more vigilant than ordinary people. Priests could attend the burial of only their close relatives, and the High Priest could not even attend the burial of his parents: "He must not enter a place where there is a dead body. He must not make himself unclean, even for his father or mother" (Lev 21:11).⁹

Holiness radiates from the divine presence. Those things which are closest to God's presence are holier than things which are further off.

Sin impurity was a potent source of contamination and would drive away the divine presence if it were not atoned for. Under the Mosaic Covenant, there was no purification for deliberate, unrepented sin. Even the Day of Atonement could not purify the Temple from wilful, unrepented rebellion. The shekinah (dwelling) presence of the Lord would no longer inhabit the Temple.¹⁰ The people of Israel's conduct had the capacity to defile not only the Temple but also the land of Israel. The land itself was not intrinsically holy: to call it the 'Holy Land' is a misnomer. It was simply God's land where Israel could live in either holiness or profanity. If it was the latter, the end result would be exile.

Restoration and Cleansing in Messiah Jesus

Only the Messiah could restore Israel to holiness. People became clean through touching him; he did not become unclean. Jesus was like the altar in the Temple: his presence was the place where heaven touched earth. The altar was where sin was atoned for and Jesus forgave sins, so he was an atonement carrier – he had the power to forgive and cleanse – when lepers touched him they became clean, ritually clean.

Jesus was 'most holy', like the altar in the Temple and like the Holy of Holies where the ark was kept. Uniquely, unlike any other person, he could not be contaminated but he decontaminated others.

The woman who touched the 'hem' of Jesus' garment (Matt 9) knew she was touching the most holy part of his physical presence, since it was the edge of his prayer shawl, whose knots and windings represented the very word of God, so she was trembling in fear when discovered, because when common objects were unintentionally brought into contact with the holy, or brought into the divine presence without proper sanction, it could be dangerous. Unauthorised approaches could lead to disaster. At Mount Sinai, Moses was warned not to let the people come near in case the Lord broke out against them. Even on the Day of Atonement the High Priest had a rope tied round his ankle as he entered the Holy of Holies in case he was unclean in some way and was struck down and had to be pulled out.

Jesus was 'most holy', like the altar in the Temple and like the Holy of Holies where the ark was kept. He could not be contaminated - instead he decontaminated others.

All the more miraculous that a way has been opened for us to enjoy unfettered access to God the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ and his indwelling Spirit. We "have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, because they could not bear what was commanded: "If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death." The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, "I am trembling with fear." But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem...to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel" (Heb 12:18-24).

Let us not take this privilege for granted. We may be, thankfully, confident of full acceptance by the Lord through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, but let us not forget that he is radically, awesomely holy. So "let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our 'God is a consuming fire'" (Heb 12:28-29).

References

1 Maimonides, Introduction to Seder Todoroth. Quoted in Slotki, IW. The Soncino Babylonian Talmud, Book I, Folios 2a-23a. Moore, Soncino, p491.

2 Maimonides, Mishneh Torah Book 10, The Book of Cleanness.

3 Tilton, J. A Goy's Guide to Ritual Purity, Jerusalem Perspective. 30 April 2014. I am indebted to Joshua Tilton for a number of insights into ritual purity.

4 Ibid. The example here is extracted from Tilton's expanded example: "a sack of grain could be common, if it was harvested by an Israelite, and clean, if the harvester was in a state of ritual purity. But if a mouse climbed into the sack of grain and died, the grain would be common and unclean. On the other hand, if the harvester happened to set aside this particular sack of grain as tithe, then the grain would be holy and clean. And finally, if a mouse crawled into the sack of grain set aside for tithe and died, the grain would be holy and unclean."

5 Frankovic, J, in Wilson, MR. Jewish Laws of Purity in Jesus' Day. Torah Class.

6 Tilton, ibid (note 3).

7 "Cleanse me from my iniquity and purify me from my sin" (Ps 51:4)

8 Mishnah (m. Kelim 1:6-9).

9 Milgrom, J, 2004. Leviticus, A Book of Ritual and Ethics, A Continental Commentary. Fortress Press, Minneapolis, p143, 154.

10 Tilton, ibid (note 3).