Read the Bible with Me!

Welcome to the Pauline Family's "Year of the Bible"! I'm reading the Bible clear through this year, and I invite you to read along with me. But first, let us pray: 

I praise you, my God, with all people.
May they thank and adore you!
You have written your greatness in creation,
your Law in consciences,
your eternal promises in the Bible.
You are eternally faithful and always lovable!
As I read Sacred Scripture today, open my mind to hear your voice and understand your loving message.
Amen.

There was something important in yesterday's readings that I completely missed when I was scheduling the post: the short but significant prescriptions for the "Bread of the Presence" in Leviticus 24. Jesus will refer to this special bread "which only the priests were allowed to eat" when defending his disciples from accusations of lawbreaking (see Matthew 12:1-6). The first "Bread of the Presence" was eaten in God's presence by Moses and the elders when they "saw the God of Israel" (Exodus 24:9-11). These loaves of bread (in old translations it is called "showbread" or "shewbread") were to be kept in the Tabernacle, and set, along with "flagons and bowls" for wine, on the golden table that had been made according to the specifications we read about in Exodus 25:23-30. When the loaves were renewed each Sabbath, the old loaves were eaten in the Tabernacle by the priests (along with wine, it seems) in a ritual meal that recalled that original covenantal meal in which God is the Host, and the bread represents Israel (twelve loaves) and the unbreakable bond between God and his people (the everlasting covenant). There would never be a time when the Bread of the Presence would be absent, or the lamp of the Lord not burning in the Tabernacle. Does this have a familiar feel to it? It should!

Dr Brant Pitre devotes an entire chapter of his book Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist in the Gospel of John to this special bread, called the "Bread of the Presence" or "Bread of the Face." As you can imagine, I highly recommend it!!!

Today's three chapters are Leviticus 26-27 (yay!) and Numbers 1.

The Book of Numbers begins (fittingly enough) with a census. There are two "numberings" in the Book of Numbers. This first one is the census of the generation of the Exodus from Egypt. The second census, at a turning point in the book, is the census of their children, the generation who will enter the Promised Land.

Note the provisions made for the census of the Levites: They are not part of the military force; they are the Lord's own divisions.

Start reading Leviticus here and Numbers here.

If you are looking for a solid but approachable companion to the Bible, I can wholeheartedly recommend A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: The Old Testament by Brant Pitre and John Bergsma. Although the authors are top-level Scripture scholars, they write for "real" readers. Notes include recent findings from archaeology and ancient manuscripts.