What do I need to know about the Pentateuch?
Before I get to the bulk of my post today, I had the honor of being on the Created Verse podcast back in December. I would love it if you go over and take a listen. It was a great honor to be there, and they were excellent hosts.
Note: This series is meant to be an aid for Bible-reading and teaching. I hope, throughout the progress of this newsletter to be able to do short introductions like this on the whole Bible.
The Bible is more than a collection of sacred Scripture. It is a collection of collections. That is, it is a collection of several groupings of books together. The unity of each of those collections—and the way they interact with one another—is basic for understanding how the whole Bible works. It is how God has decided to teach us about Jesus.
The first such collection is the Pentateuch, or the Torah, that is, the “Law.” It contains the first five books of the Bible and provides the origin story for the people of God. The Pentateuch is best understood as covenantal history; it provides the history and codes for God’s covenant with Israel through Moses. Each book plays an integral part:1
Genesis was written with Exodus in mind: Perhaps the most important thing to understand about Genesis when we read through it is that it was written with the book that follows, Exodus, in mind. It is a prequel of sorts. Exodus is the book that details God’s miraculous deliverance of Israel from Egypt. Genesis is written with that story in mind. It tells us how exactly God’s people got in Egypt anyways. It also tells us how they became God’s people. It also tells us how they “became.” There are also things it leaves unexplained, assuming we will read Exodus. For example, why is Cain’s killing of Abel wrong (Gen 4)? It assumes we know the 10 Commandments (Exod 20:1–17). Genesis presents a series of covenants with Adam (Gen 3), Noah (Gen 9), Abraham (Gen 12, 15, 17) which drive the narrative of Exodus (Exod 2:24) and culminate in the covenant on Mt. Sinai. This is one of the reasons I believe the traditional attribution of authorship to Moses convincing. Genesis looks forward to Exodus, both by supplying information Exodus does not and by leaving gaps which are later filled in by Exodus.
Exodus is a sequel to Genesis. Just as Genesis was given as a prequel to Exodus, so Exodus is a sequel to Genesis. The author assumes the reader has already read Genesis and understands it. This is why God’s covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is referred to without any explanation in Exodus 2:24, 3:6, 15–16, 4:5, 6:3, 8, 32:13, 33:1. The author assumes we know why Israel is in Egypt and how they got there. The author assumes we know what Joseph did for Egypt (Exod 1:8). God leads his people out of Egypt in pillars of fire and smoke (Exod 13:17–22) just as he had cut a covenant with Abraham as a smoking firepot and a blazing torch (Gen 15:17). The golden calf incident in Exodus 32 echoes the fall of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3. To understand Exodus, you must first understand Genesis. The graciousness of the covenant which is detailed in Exodus 33–34, itself the climax of the book, is the culmination of the same line of covenants we see throughout Genesis.
Leviticus, is, in many ways, a commentary on Exodus. The book of Leviticus does not give us any indication about the progression of Israel’s movement from Sinai to Canaan. The indication is actually that Leviticus was actually written, at least in part, from Mt. Sinai (Lev 7:37–38; 27:34). This material is reviewed in Numbers. Leviticus restates all the 10 Commandments, expands the ordination ceremony for the priests, details different sacrifices, and reiterates the blessings and curses of the Mosaic covenant. In essence then, Leviticus is Moses’ “handbook” to Exodus. As we will argue, Leviticus’ basic structure is that of a covenant renewal. Nadab and Abihu’s fall (Lev 10) introduces a problem that only the Day of Atonement (Lev 16) can resolve. In other words, Leviticus continues to flesh out the themes of covenant that were introduced in Exodus.
Numbers’ overriding theme is the testing of the covenant of grace. Early in the book, two standout passages are the famous Aaronic blessing (Num 6:24–26) and the celebration of the Passover meal (Num 9:1–14). Both these imply a pronouncement of forgiveness and are covenantally charged; both strongly imply God’s covenant with Moses as a covenant of grace with his people. They are ubiquitous because of the many rebellions in Numbers: the people’s rebellion upon leaving Sinai (Num 11:1–35), Aaron and Miriam’s rebellion (Num 12:1–16), the rebellion following the spies’ report (Num 13:1–15:40), Korah’s rebellion (Num 16:1–50), the rebellion at Meribah in which even Moses sins (Num 20:2–13), the rebellion in the wilderness (Num 21:4–4), and the perversion of Baal worship (Num 25). The early census at the beginning of the book (Num 1–2) and the latter census towards the end (Num 26), indicate that Israel’s population and fighting strength actually drops because of their many missteps in the wilderness. The question throughout the book is will the early reiterations of God’s covenant of grace hold despite the many rebellions of Israel? The answer, quite emphatically is “yes.” God continues with his people despite his rebellion. He reiterates how to make atonement (Num 15:1–41), he vindicates Aaron his servant (Num 17:1–23), he rescues them from their sins by the bronze serpent (Num 21:4–9), and he turns Balaam’s curses into blessings (Num 23–24). He continues to pardon Israel for not trusting him in the conquest (Num 14:20–25). He gives water to the thirsty and manna to the hungry. He gives them victory upon victory. Their greatest sin in Numbers is their failure to trust that he would give them the promised land as he had promised (Num 14). If Numbers is covenantal history, then its historiographical method accents God’s grace.
Deuteronomy is the capstone for the whole Torah. In this role, it surveys, reiterates, and applies the most important themes for the previous four books. It is a fitting “conclusion” to the stories of the Exodus and Wilderness journeyings. Deuteronomy reiterates the Decalogue (Deut 5:1–21) and God’s covenant with Israel (Deut 27–30). As capstone, however, it also serves as a commission for the generation to follow. Moses appoints his successor, Joshua (Deut 30:1–29). They are given instructions for their entrance into the land (Deut 7:1–9:5). The book ends with a postscript concerning Moses’ death (Deut 34:1–12). To summarize, Deuteronomy executes its function as capstone of the Pentateuch by placing the generations which succeed in the same covenantal trajectory as the Exodus generation who came out of Egypt. Like Leviticus, it is patterned off of a covenant renewal. Yet, this renewal functions to renew the covenant for the generations that come after; it makes the books before it evergreen so that for generations, God’s people would remember his gracious ways with them.
Much of the material I present below will be repeated as I walk through the Pentateuch in this series.