The Scripture Study Podcast
The Scripture Study is a space for anyone who loves the Word and wants more—more understanding, more clarity, more depth. This podcast is for aspiring scriptorians, passionate learners, and those seeking to strengthen their scripture study habits. Together, we explore the text deeply, unpack meaning, and develop the tools needed to study scripture with intention and insight. Come curious, come hungry, and come ready to grow.
The Scripture Study Podcast
The Greatest Biblical Insights on Beauty, Holiness, and Obedience
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In this episode of The Scripture Study Podcast, Susan Petersen and Cindy Madsen continue their two-part series on the theology of beauty. They explore how Hebrew beauty differs from Greek ideals, emphasizing that true beauty is rooted in righteousness, holiness, and obedience to God. Using the Tabernacle's design and priestly garments as examples, they illustrate how Hebrew beauty points inward toward spiritual integrity rather than outward physical display. The episode concludes with a reflection on Revelation's vision of the redeemed, clothed in white, representing ultimate cleansing and eternal communion with God.
00:00 Introduction
01:12 Greek vs. Hebrew Views of Beauty
04:41 The Hebrew Concept of Beauty
08:00 The Tabernacle: An Expression of Hebrew Beauty
18:10 Bringing Your Best Self to the Lord
24:56 Finding Your Spiritual Gifts
29:54 The Literary Structure of Exodus
39:29 The Golden Calf Incident's Significance
43:03 Beauty in Priestly Clothing
54:50 The Day of Atonement Garments
01:02:15 The Multitude in White Robes
Join Us
The Scripture Study Podcast is your midweek Bible boost—designed to help you grow in understanding, confidence, and love for God’s word.
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a friend!
Resources
Instagram (Susan Petersen)
https://www.instagram.com/susan.m.petersen/
Books
Art and Faith: A Theology of Making by Makoto Fujimura
https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300254143/art-and-faith/
The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis
Join Us
The Scripture Study Podcast is your midweek Bible boost—designed to help you grow in understanding, confidence, and love for God’s word.
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a friend!
Welcome to the Scripture Study Podcast. I am Susan Peterson. And I'm Cindy Madsen. We're so glad you're here with us. The Scripture Study Podcast is designed to be your midweek Bible boost. Let's dig in.
SPEAKER_01Hi, welcome back to the Scripture Study Podcast. We are so excited to have you here this week. Last week we were talking about the theology of beauty, and we have decided to split this episode up into two parts. And so this will be the second part. So if you have not listened to the first episode, I would strongly suggest you go back and listen to that first because we will refer back to it in this episode. But welcome to the scripture study podcast. We are so happy you're here. I am Susan Peterson. And I'm Cindy Matson. Hi, Cindy.
SPEAKER_00Hi, Susan.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so I'm so excited to dig into more of beauty.
SPEAKER_00Let's do it. So last week we laid a lot of the foundation for this week. And last week we talked a lot about how the Greeks viewed beauty, how beauty was viewed in the ancient Near East, and how I believe that there is a bridge between these two views that the Hebrews have. So for the Hebrews, I'm going to read this again. I said this at the end of last week's session, but we'll start out here. For the Hebrews, beauty was usually not autonomous in the way that the Greeks thought of. The Greeks thought that a beautiful object or body carried its own intrinsic justification. If it looked perfect, it was considered true and noble. A beautiful body for the Greeks reflected a beautiful mind and a beautiful soul. And there was an ideal that they had called kalokagathos, which meant beautiful and good. And it meant that physical attractiveness for the Greeks was linked to virtue, nobility, and excellence. For the Hebrews, beauty was not autonomous in that way. For the Hebrews, beauty derived its meaning from participation in righteousness and holiness. Beauty pointed beyond itself to stability, fertility, the divine presence, and eternal order. The emphasis was less, this is beautiful, therefore it is true, and more, this is true because it properly participates in God's cosmic order and therefore appears beautiful. There was this adage, this saying, the Greeks believed that what is beautiful is good, but the Hebrews believed that what is good is beautiful. So that's kind of that's something.
SPEAKER_01Okay, I have a question for you. And it's not, we didn't talk about this beforehand. Okay. You know that scripture where Jesus said that he was not beautiful.
SPEAKER_00Yes, he hath no former comeliness or beauty that we should admire him. Yes, okay.
SPEAKER_01Yes, yes, and so let's talk through that. So the reason it's significant with this I had not even thought of that. Great, that's great. They had both the Greek and the Hebrew influences in his time. It was a very big intersection, right? And so from the Greek perspective, right, it could have been physical, right? But for them, from the Hebrew perspective, they didn't think he was practicing the law correctly, right? Right, and so it means both things there, doesn't it? Or it could. I think I need you to restate what we're saying. So from the Greek perspective, it's something is beautiful, right? And therefore it is good. Exactly. From the Hebrew perspective, something is good, therefore it is beautiful. Right. Right. And so from the Greek perspective, you could interpret that to say he must not have been attractive. Right. And so he was not good. Right. And that could have been true. Right. And then from the Hebrew perspective, you say he was not practicing the law correctly. So he was not beautiful. Beautiful. Yes. That is a really interesting. That is the thing about the New Testament, is that you in the Old Testament, a lot of it, when you're reading the Old Testament, you need to look back at the Hebrew origin, right? Etymology of the Hebrew word. When you're reading the New Testament, you need to look at the I can't say that word. It's okay. It's Hebrew and Greek, you know, this blend. Yes, because they were sitting at their crossroads of that. So the influence was both. And so that scripture group takes on a new meaning for me after learning about that.
SPEAKER_00That is really interesting.
SPEAKER_01And from both cultures, he's saying I was not justified as beautiful.
SPEAKER_00Right. Yes. Right. Yeah. I he would not have been considered culturally beautiful. That's a really great thought. I love that.
SPEAKER_01But in hindsight, we're thinking, how could he have not been? He everything he taught was so beautiful. But it was very radical at the time. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Okay. So let's look at the Hebrew view then of beauty. So, first of all, the ancient Hebrew language lacks an abstract, purely detached noun for aesthetics, meaning beauty, art, and taste, right? That's what the word aesthetics means: beauty, art, and taste. The concept of beauty for the Hebrews was verbalized using words related to light or to glory, which would be kavod, or to majesty, khadar, or to goodness. It's that idea of chesed, right? In the Greek view, beauty, it was a functional splendor. There was a moral splendor that was attached to beauty. So in the Hebrew view, beauty was subordinate to truth. In Hebrew thought, physical beauty is a garment for an inner spiritual reality. It becomes meaningful only when it reflects a higher godly truth. Outer appearance without moral fiber is explicitly rejected as vain or deceptive. So for example, in Proverbs chapter 31, verse 30, when describing the virtuous woman, it says, Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord, she is to be praised. And remember when the prophet Samuel was looking for who should be the next king among the sons of Jesse, and he starts with the oldest and he moves all the way down, and God keeps saying, Nope, nope, nope, I reject him. And finally he says to Jesse, Well, do you have another son? And Jesse says, Yes, and it's David, and he's brought in, he's just this youth. He's not physically imposing at all. And yet the Lord tells Samuel, this is the prophet. And Samuel's a bit disconcerted and nonplussed. And that is when the Lord says, man looks on the outward appearance, right? That's the Greek view. The outward appearance reflects goodness or truth, which you see that in Saul being chosen. God says, I'm going to give you what you want. And then it ends up not being the key. He doesn't measure up. His inner does not measure up to the outward appearance. So here the Lord says that man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks upon the heart. So I'm looking on the heart and I'm choosing David. For the Hebrews, the body is a sacred vessel. The Hebrew view never despised physical beauty. The Bible openly praises the attractiveness of figures like Joseph and David, Sarah, Rachel. But their beauty was celebrated because it existed in alignment with spiritual integrity and modesty. And that's really important to remember. So the tabernacle, which the Mishkan, is the ultimate architectural expression of the Hebrew view of beauty. This is why I went through everything last week and talking about and setting the stage for what is beauty. So the tabernacle does use highly valuable materials, but if you look at its design, it radically subverts the classical Greek architectural ideals by prioritizing functional holiness, hidden inwardness, and spiritual movement over a static physical display. Remember, you spiritually move in the tabernacle from the least holy space to the most holy space. And you've got the outer courtyard to the inner courtyard to the holy place to the most holy place. So there is this movement. Whereas in the Greek temples, you have the static display of the statue. The tabernacle reflects the Hebrew aesthetic through several distinct design principles. First of all, inward-facing beauty, which is the inverse of classical temples. A classical Greek temple was designed to be admired primarily from the outside. It featured grand exterior colonnades, open public vistas, and striking mathematical symmetry that was visible to any passerby. Whereas the tabernacle reverses this entirely. It has a plain exterior. From the outside, the tabernacle appeared modest and drab. It was covered in layers of plain goat hair, ramskins, dyed red, ram skins that were dyed red, and dark, weather-resistant hides. The hidden interior, that was where the true aesthetic splendor was. There was pure gold, vibrant purple, vibrant blue, wonderful scarlet yarns. There was exquisite cherub beam embroidery. It was all hidden completely within the interior walls and within the Holy of Holies. So you see here the Hebrew principle and understanding of beauty. This layout models this spiritual concept that true beauty is internal and intimate. It must be approached through a process of spiritual purification rather than being put on display for public superficial consumption. The second thing about this Hebrew aesthetic and its architectural design is that there is a relational symmetry rather than mathematical symmetry. In the classical view, a building was beautiful if its physical components achieved geometric perfection on their own. In the Hebrew view, the tabernacle's beauty was derived entirely from its unwavering alignment with God's word and God's revealed pattern. It's throughout the whole construction narrative. We repeatedly emphasized it says, see that you make them according to the pattern shown you on the mountain. The pattern that's shown in the mountain, which remember, a mountain is like a temple. It's a place where God dwells. That pattern is to be repeated precisely on earth. The Hebrew principle then was that the structure was not beautiful because Bezalel, who was the master craftsman, invented some ideal geometric ratio. It was beautiful because it was a precise, tangible mirror of a heavenly reality. Beauty was defined as submissive obedience to divine instructions. So I'm going to read that again. The structure was not beautiful because Bezalel, the master craftsman, invented an ideal geometric ratio. It was beautiful because it was a precise, tangible mirror of a heavenly reality. Beauty was defined as submissive obedience to divine instruction. And I think that's something that we also need to really rediscover that concept of what made the tabernacle beautiful to God. And it was this obedience of the people to submit to divine instruction of what God thought was beautiful. The third thing was dynamic and relational space. So the tabernacle was a sanctuary in motion, right? A classical Greek architecture sought to conquer time. Temples were built of heavy, permanent marble. It was anchored to specific geographical acropolises. So it created this permanent static monument. But the tabernacle was entirely mobile. It was a portable shrine. It was composed of transportable wooden frames, sockets, bars, and curtains designed to be dismantled and carried through a barren wilderness and then set up wherever the cloud of God's glory moved. The Hebrews did not locate beauty in static, unchanging matter, but in the dynamic relationship between God and his people. Space became beautiful not because of where it stood permanently, but because the living God chose to dwell to Shachan within it actively. It's where God chose to dwell. So fourthly, we've got that the materials of the temple are functional symbols. They were not independent art. In classical Greek art, materials like marble and bronze were manipulated to highlight human artistic genius and to mimic the physical textures of muscles or flowing garments. But in the tabernacle, materials were selected for their theological and functional symbolism. So, like I talked about just a little bit earlier, there was a gradation of holiness. The materials became progressively more precious the closer they got to the Ark of the Covenant. The outer courtyard used bronze, the inner sanctuary used silver, the holy of holies used pure, refined gold. The beauty of the gold or linen was not appreciated for its independent aesthetic value. Instead, the materials functioned as a visual map of spiritual proximity to God, drawing the worshipper's mind away from the material itself and toward the degrees of holiness. So again, remember this the materials become progressively more precious the closer they get to the ark. And I think that's true for us. The closer we get to God, the more precious we become. Now we're all precious because we are all the offspring of God. Right. But we become more precious, more beautiful, the closer we become to God. And this is going to become significant when we talk about what the garments are that the high priest wears when he does enter the Holy of Holy on the Day of Atonement. Now, in Exodus chapter 25, the Lord tells Moses exactly how to furnish his sacred tent palace. Then make the ark's cover, the place of atonement from pure gold. It must be 45 inches long and 27 inches wide. Then make two cherubim from hammered gold and place them on the two ends of the atonement cover. Mold the cherubim on each end of the atonement cover, making it all of one piece of gold. Then make a table of acacia wood, 36 inches long, 18 inches wide, and 27 inches high. Overlay it with pure gold and run a gold molding around the edge. Make a lampstand of pure hammered gold. Make the entire lampstand and its decorations of one piece, the base, center stem, lamp cups, buds, and petals. Make it with six branches going out from the center stem, three on each side. Each of the six branches will have three lamp cups shaped like almond blossoms, complete with buds and petals. Make the tabernacle from tent curtains of finely woven linen. Decorate the curtains with blue, purple, and scarlet thread and with skillfully embroidered cherubim. Can you imagine this? It would have been absolutely spectacular. The tabernacle was designed to be at the center of Israelite worship. It was intended to demonstrate the Lord's goodness to all the peoples around them, essentially the Old Testament equivalent of preaching the gospel. The tabernacle was not to be a plain utilitarian building, it was to be beautifully built by amazing artists. And I think we can say that the Lord loves beautiful things because the world that he created gives us ample evidence of this. And I think we can also say it because he loves the temple and he gave a beautiful pattern right down to like the cups and the bowls that you were supposed to use. The Lord is the embodiment of beauty.
SPEAKER_01Something about this reminds me of like bringing your best self to the Lord. At no point is it like, make the lamb stand out of perfect, make the hammering perfect. There's not that. And I remember there was a talk a few years ago. Elder Christopherson gave it BYU right before Christmas. It was about Jesus being born in the stable. But he talked about the phrase holiness to the Lord. And that is the effort that he's talking about. And he said when the pioneers first came to Utah, their hammers were engraved with holiness to the Lord. And I think it is what the Lord is giving us his best. He gave us his best son. We are on the best earth. We talked about beauty in the last, like the earthly beauty, nature in the last episode. At no point do I think, yeah, we probably got the B earth happening here. I feel like he gave us A and the relationships he gives us and the grace he gives us. It is perfect. It is his best effort. And when he's asking us to worship him, he wants us to bring our best self. He's not asking for perfection. He's not even hinting at perfection. He's saying, take time, do your best effort, put your effort into it. Don't hurry it. I don't hurry anything I do for you. And so it's a reflection of the effort and time he's put into us, is what he wants back.
SPEAKER_00Exactly.
SPEAKER_01And it's not all of our effort, although we will get to that point in our life. I have a theory about enduring to the end that includes that. But it is line upon line, precept on precept. And the temple reflects that. You start out in the beginning and the grace is light, but so is your commitment. And as you go in, your commitment becomes more, but the grace becomes bigger. And so, in the same way that nature, the way you interact with it, it's light at the beginning. But you go to the Grand Canyon, it's bigger. But hopefully you have the experience to appreciate and not get in trouble there. And it's the same thing. Everything reflects it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. It does. And I love how you brought up that point about even their hammers were engraved with holiness to the Lord. And then I think that is the ultimate thing that we're striving for, is that everything about our life is engraved with holiness to the Lord. And in the next episode, we're going to talk a little bit more about how to bring that idea more into our everyday life and the things that we do. But we have that idea in our mind, holiness to the Lord in all things, whether it's in something that you're stitching, whether it's in food that you're cooking, whether it's in the clothing that you're wearing, the house that you're decorating, it all should reflect holiness to the Lord. I'm not saying it should be expensive, but it can be carefully thought of to say, is what I am making reflecting this ideal of holiness to the Lord? Right down to this hammer, this very utilitarian thing that I'm using. This tool. This tool, exactly. Well, it's interesting because the Lord says to Moses, he says, See, I have chosen Bezalel, son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge, and with all kinds of skills to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver, and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of crafts. And he has given both him and Oholiab, son of I can never pronounce these, Ahismaha, the ability to teach others. He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as craftsmen, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple, and scarlet. Yarn and fine linen and weavers, all of them master craftsmen and designers. So God chooses Bezalel to do the hard, godlike work of creating the tabernacle. But before Bezalel gets to work to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver, and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood and engage in all kinds of crafts, we are told that God had to first fill Bezalel and Oholiab with the Spirit of God. And this is the very first mention in the Bible of a person being filled with the Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit. Artistic gifts can come from the Holy Ghost just as much as those gifts which are traditionally regarded as spiritual. Because God is the source of all creation, of all creativity. He is the originator of our ability to make something of value out of the raw materials of this world. I think that art, and I'm including in this music, dance, visual art, architecture, et cetera, art is often able to touch people at a level that words cannot reach. Because art forms cross boundaries of nationality and ethnicity. They are powerful vehicles for spreading the knowledge of Christ. The spirit can touch people through art. Makoto Fujimura in his book Art and Faith writes, quote, when I painted as a child, I felt as if an electric charge were going through me. I understand now what I did not understand as a child, that every time I created and felt that charge, I was experiencing the Holy Spirit. I now consider what I do in the studio to be theological work as much as aesthetic work. I experienced God, my maker, in the studio. I am immersed in the art of creating. And I have come to understand this dimension of life as the most profound way of grasping human experience and the nature of our existence in the world. I call it the theology of making. It has become my point of reference for a lifetime of stargazing into the infinite realities of beauty and the sacred and then creating, close quote. Oh, I love. Don't you love that? Yes, and theology of making. Now I'm saying this as Susan is sitting here stitching her needlepoint. I just feel like Susan's needle is symbolically engraved with holiness to the Lord because she is very prayerful about how she goes about doing things. And so there is a theology of making. In it, you can feel God.
SPEAKER_01Yes. I have a friend who is so good at math and Excel spreadsheets. And when he creates a sheet, it is art. And the way that he can model out numbers and it's like Pythagorean. Like honestly, he can do it. And then I have a friend who can create these beautiful spaces that you walk into and you feel like, oh, you can let a load off, you can relax. The space reflects the feeling of the person who lives there, which is, you're welcome here. I see you. I love you. Come as you are. And I think everyone, it's so important to me that people find their passion and what they're good at. In fact, when I used to do a ton of entrepreneur mentorship, I would always ask people, what do you want to do? Because what you want to do in that is hidden a lot of your gifts and a lot of your spiritual gifts and things that God has given you to bless other people's lives. And for me, I am really good at creating spaces and creating communities where people feel welcome. And I do that through a lot of different mediums, but that's what it always comes down to. And you're really good at gathering people, Cindy. You're really good at saying, hey, you all come together. And there's power in both of those things, but they reflect your gifts in a way that is beautiful. And that is all art. That's all creation. These are things that God has given us. And the more you use your spiritual gifts, the more you bless other people's lives. And yes, you get something in return, but that's not the point.
SPEAKER_00No, no. And I used to tell my kids, look at what you're good at, because that is a clue to what God wants you to do in this world, how he wants you to serve him in this world. I have a friend of mine, Stephanie Maggleby. She's a professor at BYU and teaches civil engineering, and she's a physicist. She's just brilliant. And she's in a book club that we have, and we were uh reading C.S. Lewis's book, The Abolition of Man. And she made this comment where she saw this mathematical equation that had to do with a subject that we were talking about discussing. And it was so fascinating to hear her take on something that for me, I did my undergraduate degree in English and art history. So for me, I'm looking at the literary structure of this book. And she sees this mathematical formula. It opened up a whole new dimension to me of beauty and of understanding. And I just really appreciated her contribution to our discussion because it really enriched it in a way. And so we can bring these gifts. And I firmly believe that Pythagoras was really onto something when he saw mathematical equations as a unifying principle. For him, it was the unifying principle, but I would definitely say it is a unifying principle. God is a mathematician. Yes. You can see so much of that in nature. Yes. But he's also so many other things. He is the embodiment of all of our spiritual gifts. And your gift doesn't have to be, yeah, like being a beautiful artist. I mean, my husband is a great artist. I always look at myself as a great preschool artist. Yes. I'm really good at the preschool art, you know. Yeah. But I'm not great doing beautiful paintings. But I have felt in my life just this strong conviction to extend hospitality, to open my house up and bring people in. And for me, that's something that I feel is a way that God can use me in the world.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And so, yeah, I appreciate you're saying that. There are different gifts that He gives us. You might have the gift of being able to hear the spirit really well. I know people who have the gift of being able, God gives them dreams that are really important. It's like a spiritual DNA that they have that I just don't really have, or you might have a gift of compassion or empathy, yeah, or a gift of being able to listen well. And those are gifts that God can use to create a beautiful Zion-like society. And that's ultimately what we're striving for.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I love that. Love it. So, in order then for Bezalel and Oholiab to fulfill the call to create, they needed more of God's likeness. They needed his image in their whole being and not just in their countenance. Like it had to be all through that, through them. So think about it. They are building the house which will house the original, it will house God. And so they need to be more in his image. They're creating the physical manifestation of the pattern that is in heaven. Yeah. So they need to be filled with his spirit, with his image. And that's what God fills them with. And I think it's just such a beautiful thing. So in thinking about this idea of Bezalel and Aholiah, needing the spirit to fill them in order to create, needing to have received God's image, that leads me to something that I wondered about. Why are the instructions about building the tabernacle and the narrative text interspersed in Exodus, right? You've got the wilderness journeys and manna and water and mumbling and grumbling. And then you also end up with these revelations about how to build a temple. So I wondered about this. Why is it not just complete narrative, which is much of what you see in Genesis? Okay. And I'm saying this, understand that most of you, if you have been following Come Follow Me, probably did not read a lot of the stuff about how to build the tabernacle, because we it pretty much followed the narrative. And I'm not criticizing that. But I wondered why, why, why is the narrative interspersed with the instructions of how to build the tabernacle? Is there some sort of a pattern going on here? Is there a structure to this text? And yes, there is. Many scholars see a deliberate literary structure in the second half of the book of Exodus, especially around the tabernacle material. The instructions and narratives are not randomly interspersed, they form a highly symmetrical theological and literary design. So a common way to see the structure is this. Number one, the covenant is established. Number two, are instructions for God's dwelling place. Number three, the covenant is broken and the golden calf incident. Number four, covenant is renewed. Number five is the construction of God's dwelling place. So the placement of the golden calf episode is right in the middle of this chiastic structure, right? Oh wow. And that means there's something important about it. All right. So the tabernacle instructions and the construction of the tabernacle form a frame. The tabernacle sections occur twice. First, they occur as a divine command. You shall make. Then they occur as a fulfilled construction, and they made. So this repetition creates a command fulfillment pattern that emphasizes obedience. The narrative is effectively saying God commanded, then Israel failed, then the relationship is restored, then Israel obeyed exactly. The repeated language in chapters 35 through 40 is intentional. It's not accidental. Remember, ancient Near Eastern texts often use repetition to signal fulfillment and covenant faithfulness. The golden calf, then, is the structural center. Most interpreters see the golden calf narrative in the book of Exodus, chapters 32 through 34, as the dramatic center of the entire Sinai section. So note the contrast. Tabernacle, we've got worship according to God's command, the golden calf, worship invented by humans. Okay. The tabernacle, gold is used for a holy space, the golden calf, gold is used for an idol. For a common space. The tabernacle, God dwells among Israel, the golden calf. God threatens to leave Israel. The tabernacle is mediated by Moses. The golden calf is rebellion against Moses. So the literary arrangement then intensifies the theological message. Israel is given a way for God to dwell among them. But before it's even built, they corrupt the worship. And how do they corrupt the worship? They do it through building a false image. But God is merciful and covenant restoration still occurs. So the structure itself of the tabernacle communicates grace and restoration. Now there is this chiastic structure that most scholars see in the Sinai materials. So it's the ABCBA structure. It's a mirror structure. So here you go. A is covenant and the arrival at Sinai, B, the laws and the covenant, C, the tabernacle instructions, D, we have the golden calf crisis. Now it's going to mirror it and go backwards. You've got C1, the tabernacle construction, B1, the covenant fulfillment, and finally a God fills the tabernacle. You have this whole chiastic structure. Again, what is in the middle? The golden calf and the crisis. Now the ending is especially significant because the book of Exodus begins with Israel oppressed in Egypt. It ends with God dwelling among them in the tabernacle. So the final verse's climax with the divine presence fills the tabernacle. And then Leviticus, Moses is standing outside of the tabernacle, right? At the end of the book of Numbers, I mean Exodus. And Leviticus is going to tell him and us how to go in. And we're going to do a deep dive into Leviticus after we finish doing this. So let's look at there's also another thing that you see in the book of Exodus. It's called seven speech patterns. So the tabernacle instructions in Exodus 25 through 31 appear to be arranged in seven divine speeches, and each are introduced by a formula like the Lord said to Moses, or and the Lord said to Moses, something along that line. And then the seventh speech concerns the Sabbath. And so many scholars, you knew I was going to get here. Yes. Many scholars think this intentionally echoes the creation account in Genesis 1. Here we are. Here we go. Here we are. Creation, seven days, right? There's seven days of creation. The tabernacle is a microcosm of creation. We'll talk about that more. And the Sabbath concludes both sequences. Okay. This suggests that the tabernacle symbolizes a restored creation where God dwells with humanity. So why do the narrative interruptions matter? Well, I think it's because modern readers often expect this smooth chronological storytelling, right? That's what we're used to. That is not the way that the biblical narrative worked. It would frequently prioritize thematic architecture over uninterrupted sequence, right? There is some sort of a literary architecture about the way a book is constructed. Or you can also say there is a literary architecture, which we've talked about about the way the whole Torah is constructed. You have five books of Moses, the five books of the Torah, you have Genesis, Exodus, the hinge point, the middle book is Leviticus, so it's the most important. And Exodus and Numbers mirror each other, and Genesis and Deuteronomy mirror each other. So again, it is the architecture that's important in this book of Exodus. We've just talked about what is the architecture of the book of Exodus. How is it structured? If you can see the structure, you can understand what is important to these ancient authors. So the interspersing of the narrative and the instructions of how to build the temple achieves several effects. First of all, it creates dramatic and dramatic tension. Secondly, it contrasts true and false worship. Third, it shows covenant rupture and then God's gracious renewal. Fourth, it emphasizes obedience through repetition. And fifth, it connects creation, covenant, and divine presence. So the structure of the text is not accidental editing. It is widely understood as being a carefully composed bit of theological literature.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it might feel like, oh mate, we're over here. There's all these laws, and now we're over here. There's this weird story that I don't quite understand. But if you look at what the laws are trying to teach and then the story, they're right there.
SPEAKER_00That's exactly it. Yeah. So if you look at the fact here that the golden calf is the midpoint, right? It shows that God brings his people out of slavery. Yes. We wander in the wilderness. Yes. He gives them covenant, even though they grumble, he corrects them. There's always discipline and correction because he's trying to move them into being a holy people. Yes. He gives them covenant on Mount Sinai. He gives them instructions so that he can come and dwell in a dwelling place, not just someone up on a mountain.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And then the golden calf instant. Yes. And then he forgives them. Yes. We reestablish the covenant. We give the instructions for the tabernacle again, and they are fulfilled. And then God really does come and dwell with them.
SPEAKER_01And the golden calf might feel a little random, but in ancient Egypt, their gods were represented by nature. They were. And so one of their gods was represented by a calf. And it was the earth god, the god who created the earth. So I think they were thinking we just got commandments from Christ. Maybe Moses had it off a little, and this is what he meant. So let's build this calf so we can continue it.
SPEAKER_00And he's stuck up there on the mountain. Maybe God consumed him. Yeah. God might really appreciate it if we build an image.
SPEAKER_01Yes, in him. And so it wasn't just, oh, let's go into riot as living again. I think out of nowhere. No, I think that they were actually trying to fulfill it. And that is also us sometimes, and that is where you learn. I can't tell you how many times I've been chastened by the Lord when I thought I was doing the right thing. And it's a loving chastening. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I think again, it goes back to, I remember a few episodes ago, we talked about the time when Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac, right? We talked about how in that culture, everybody surrounding them in this Canaanite culture, they sacrificed children to their gods. And that's what they did.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00So that's why for Abraham, it wasn't a shock that God asked him to sacrifice Isaac. What was different was God said, no, this is not how I work. And you got the same thing going on here with the golden calf incident. You know, God's like, okay, I'm trying to teach you. I brought you out of Egypt for a reason. I'm bringing you out of Egypt because that's how the world does it. This is how they symbolize their gods. That is not who I am. Yes. My image is placed in you as humanity. You are my image bearers, and you need to be a reflection of me, not a reflection of the surrounding culture. So once again, God is calling us to come out of culture. All of us, like they were called to do that in their day. We're called the early saints of our religious tradition, they were called to come out of their culture to be different. We're called to come out of our culture. And if we're reflecting our culture and not reflecting God, that's when we know we have a problem. Yeah. That's when we have a golden calf. So we're supposed to reflect God. We are the image bearer of God.
SPEAKER_01I love that. I love that. I also always think this is maybe just how my mind works, but I always think of the Red Sea when they come through the Red Sea as their baptism. It's meant to be thought of as like a rebirth baptism, which is you die and you're reborn in Christ, right? And then the next thing is they're brought into the outer court of the temple and they build a golden calf. Well, God says, No, I see your hair, I see your train, but this is not it. So let's try again. And I'm gonna give you laws so that you can stay within the bounds I have said. That's all it is. It's love.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the laws, the rules, the commandments, whatever you want to call them, like we've talked about, they reflect the lawgiver. The lawgiver, yeah. Right? They tell us what is important to God. And again, he's not being a spoil sport. He's saying, if you can keep these laws, then you will understand what it's like to be me. Yeah. Because these are the laws I have and to be in relationship with me. And to be in a relationship with me, in a covenant relationship. Yeah. How can we think we can enter into his presence if we can't keep the laws, too? Right. Yeah. He wants us to keep the laws because he does, and that's what makes him him. Yeah, and he can come to us, but we need to go to him. We need to go to him. He wants relationships. Yes, we need to go to him. Yeah. Yeah. So let's move into this idea of beauty. So we've talked about beauty in the tabernacle. Let's talk about beauty and priestly clothing. So again, God is going to give a pattern. Okay. The temple garments of the high priest, who is the Kohen Gadol. If you ever hear somebody, their last name is Kohen, you can know that they are descended from the high priest, the Kohenim. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So and they are the ones, actually, I have a friend, her last name is Kohen. They did not participate in the golden calf. Did you know this? I did not know. That's why they get to do nine. Yes.
SPEAKER_00Interesting.
SPEAKER_01Because they did not build the golden calf. So they get to read certain things in the temple and they get to do certain things because they did not participate in the golden calf. That is wonderful.
SPEAKER_00I love that. So the temples of the temple garments of the high priest are described in Exodus 28 as being crafted specifically for glory. And for beauty, for glory and for beauty. So le chavalit. However, in perfect alignment with the Hebrew worldview, this beauty was completely decoupled from personal vanity, physical anatomy, or independent artistic display. Instead, the priestly garments functioned as a profound theological map, transforming the priest into a walking piece of the tabernacle itself. I'm going to talk to you about that, but I just want to just do a little sidestep, reminding those of us who have been endowed in the temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We also wear religious garments. They are the garment of the holy priesthood. And these garments also contain a map, so to speak. So the priestly garments, then in ancient Israel, reflected the Hebrew view of beauty through several distinct garments. First, external splendor for internal obliteration. So this is very much anti-the Greek and Egyptian ideal. In the classical Greek and Egyptian tradition, robes and drapery, both on statues and on people, were sculpted to emphasize the underlying musculature, the physical athletic frame, and the idealized proportions of the Hebrew form. But the Hebrew high priest garments did the exact opposite. They concealed, and it was a layered concealment, just like the tabernacle. The high priest wore eight distinct heavy layers, including a full-length checkered tunic, a woven blue robe, a patterned ephod or apron, and a heavy breast piece. The garments reflected a principle. The garments completely obscured the priest's individual physical frame, anatomy, and personal identity. He did not step into the spotlight to be admired as a beautiful specimen of humanity. The external splendor served to swallow up the individual, ensuring that what observers saw was the beauty of the office of the high priest and the holiness of God rather than the physical traits of the man. Secondly, the priestly clothing was functional beauty. It was a living liturgy. To the classical mind, a beautiful object or a garment was meant to be admired in a state of static perfection. But in the Hebrew view, the beauty of the priestly garment was realized only through their active ritual function. There was the sound of holiness. The hymn of the priest's robe was adorned with alternating gold bells and woven pomegranates. Exodus 28, 35 explicitly states their function. Aaron must wear it when he ministers. The sound of the bells will be heard when he enters the holy place before the Lord. This aesthetic was completely tied to an active life or death function, alerting the spiritual realm, right? God, I'm here. And the community to the ongoing process of atonement.
SPEAKER_01Yes, and in our temple, there is a sound at a certain place that you also hear. And it's the same idea. It alerts deity. There's three tops. I am here. Yes, we are here. I am here and I am Baptistic. In the act of atonement, yes.
SPEAKER_00So thirdly, there is a relational beauty. He is bearing the weight of the community, as the high priest. Yes. While a Greek hero wore armor or crowns to broadcast personal triumph and individual glory, the high priest's most beautiful adornments were entirely relational. They were designed to bind him to the people that he served. He wore memorial stones. There were two onyx stones on his shoulders, and there were 12 precious gemstones on his breastpiece, each engraved with the names of the tribes of Israel. Exodus 28, 29 states: whenever Aaron enters the holy place, he will bear the names of the sons of Israel over his heart as a continuing memorial before the Lord. The principle of this was that the glittering, multicolored beauty of the gemstones was not an independent fashion statement, but the aesthetics derive their meaning from representing the unity, value, and presence of the community being brought into the divine presence. Beauty in the Hebrew mind is fundamentally communal and covenantal. So this beautiful breast piece that he's wearing with these beautiful stones, each representing a tribe, he was wearing that not to say I'm beautiful. He was wearing that to say, here I am. I am bringing the community into your presence.
SPEAKER_01Well, in the same way that Moses asked God, please, is there other people that can carry this burden with me? I think we talked about that last time, didn't we?
SPEAKER_00His father-in-law Jeffrows says, You're caring too much, right? And so he suggests, you know, having elders. And then God also affirmed that.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Yes, but in that same way, the priest is caring a lot for the community. And I think I like to think of the priestly robe sometimes as a conscription into God's army. Oh, that's wonderful. Which is the Lord of Saboa, which is the Lord of angel armies. And that's one of the phrases of the Lord. But as you go into battle, which the priest is, he's going into battle. And he's remembering why am I doing this? Yeah. Why? It's for these people. It's for these people I serve and love.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. That's wonderful. Yes, I do love that.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Fourthly, there's a material synchronicity with the tabernacle. The materials that are used are for the high priest's garments, the gold, blue, purple, and scarlet yarns and the fine twisted linen, they were identical to the materials used to construct the inner curtains and the veils of the tabernacle. Yes.
SPEAKER_01And if you're a member of our church, think about the veil of the tabernacle in our temple. Yes. And the materials we are wearing. Yes, and the similarities. Yes. Exactly. There is the clues there.
SPEAKER_00The high priest wore a crown of holiness. It wasn't like a crown that you would think of that a British monarch is wearing. It's more like a turban because that's what they would have worn back in those times. That on it there would be a polished plate of pure gold engraved with the words holy to the Lord or holiness to the Lord. I love it. So by wearing the exact fabric and metals of the sanctuary, the high priest became a living extension of the tabernacle itself. His aesthetic appeal was completely derived from this sacred synchronization, right? He's in sync with the temple. He was beautiful because he visually matched the space where God's presence dwelt. And the same is true for us. The garment of the holy priesthood, which an endowed member of the church wears. For us, if you are wearing that, you are becoming a living extension of the temple veil itself. Yes. That's really important to remember. Part of the reason why you wear your garments, because you are saying, I am an extension of the temple. And the person looks at you. They are looking at somebody who is not only an image bearer of God, but they are a temple of God, a temple of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01Yes, and it is a representation of Jesus Christ. It is. The veil represents Jesus Christ. That's why it broke when he died. And it is a way we get to the Father is through him. And so you are not wearing underwear. No, no. These are not underwear. It is not a constraint on you, it is a reminder of who you belong to and whose you belong to. Yes, yes. I love it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and that idea of the veil representing Jesus Christ comes from the book of Hebrews, which we talked about, how the book of Hebrews very specifically tells us that the pattern of the tabernacle or the temple that was given to Moses on, again, that Solomon uses that same pattern and is given a pattern when he builds the temple. That pattern is a representation here on earth of a reality in heaven. So when it says that Jesus is the veil of the temple in Hebrews, that pattern means that what we are doing when we are wearing the garment of the holy priesthood, it is a representation of a heavenly reality. So you are wearing the garment because here on earth, you are representing the heavenly reality of your relationship with God. It's why when it talks about when Jesus gives the parable of the wedding garment, that's what he's talking about. You need to wear the wedding garment in order to enter the feast, right? So that's what he's the wedding feast. Yes. Okay, so on the day of atonement, which is Yom Kippur, the high priest or the Kohen Gadol that we talked about, he completely upins the visual narrative of the sanctuary. Because for this single day, he strips away his radiant, multicolored golden garments, and he replaces them with a set of four simple, stark white linen garments. So the golden garments are the Big Day Zahav, the linen garment is the Big De Lavan. And this dramatic wardrobe change, which is detailed in Leviticus chapter 16, verse 4, represents the ultimate application of the Hebrew view of beauty. First of all, the subversion of status. The high priest is a servant, not a king. Throughout the year, the high priest's golden vestments radiated kingly majesty, matching the gold-covered walls of the tabernacle's interior. But there's a shift on Yom Kippur. Before entering the Holy of Holies, the absolute center of God's presence on earth, the priest stripped away the gold, the crown, and the gemstones, and he entered wearing only a linen tunic, linen undergarments, a linen sash, and a linen turban. Yes. The Hebrew principle is that in the presence of absolute divine majesty, humanly manufactured status and physical opulence are recognized as meaningless. True beauty shifts from regal glory to total humility. By shedding his gold, the high priest stood before God, not as an elite ruler, but as a humble servant seeking mercy for his people.
SPEAKER_01Can we just explain real quick? Yom Kippur is the day of atonement, they call it the day of atonement. And it is the one day a year that the high priest goes into the Holy of Holies and whispers the name of God at the veil. Yes.
SPEAKER_00And there's a lot more in the rituals of it, which we're going to talk about as we talk about the temple. Leviticus.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But yes, I mean that's a very basic and he will uh perform the rituals of atonement for the whole community.
SPEAKER_01For the whole community. And he would go beyond the veil.
SPEAKER_00He goes beyond the veil. Yes. On that one day. Right? Completely temple. Yeah. He averts the quote prosecuting attorney, right? It's the gold versus the golden calf. The Jewish Talmud in Rosh Hashanah 26A explains the psychological and historical reason for removing the gold using a legal metaphor. A prosecuting attorney cannot act as a defense attorney. Gold was a stunningly beautiful material, but it carried a dark historical memory for Israel, the sin of the golden calf. So to enter the Holy of Holies covered in gold would inadvertently remind the divine court and God of Israel's greatest act of spiritual betrayal. So this is the principle. The covenant people of the Lord decoupled beauty from pure visual appeal. Even if gold looked magnificent, its historical and moral associations on that specific day made it spiritually ugly and dangerous. Linen, completely detached from that sin, was chosen to foster pure, uncompromised intercession. The third thing is what would be termed an angelic metamorphosis. In the ancient Near East and classical worlds, gods and supernatural beings were often depicted in art as physically massive, muscular, or clad in gleaming metallic armor. The Hebrew Bible, however, routinely describes angels and heavenly messengers as being beings of pure, blinding white light. So by dressing exclusively in white linen, the high priest visually harmonized with the angelic realm. Remember, we've got an earthly manifestation of the heavenly pattern. He mirrored the heavenly beings described in later prophetic visions, such as the man clothed in linen in Ezekiel 9, verse 2, and Daniel 10, verse 5. Beauty then is found in spiritual alignment, transition, and category shifting. For one day a year, the priest crossed the boundary. This is what you were talking about, from the human realm into the divine sphere. His simple white linen garments visually manifested this temporary, transcendent, angel-like state. Fourth, there was absolute purity over complex artistry. The golden garments were a masterclass in complex human artistry, featuring intricate weaves of five different materials, embedded gemstones, and ringing bells. The Yom Kippur garments, by contrast, were made of raw, undyed white flax. The shift that he wore, this loose robe of white linen, represented absolute simplicity and purity. It stained easily, meaning its beauty depended entirely on its flawless, unblemished cleanliness. This shift mirrored the spiritual goal of Yom Kippur itself. As promised in Isaiah 118, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. The aesthetic beauty of Yom Kippur was not found in the complexity of human craftsmanship, but in the flawless, pristine beauty of a cleansed soul and a forgiven community.
SPEAKER_01Yes, and do you remember Enoch before he entered the throne room? What did they do? They took him, they washed him, they dressed him in white, right? Before, yes. And I think it symbolizes that as well. You need to be cleansed. So it's not just he's going to atone, he's entering the next realm. It's that this represents a cleansing by the Holy Spirit as well. Yeah. And if you think about our temples, you think about the washing and anointings. This is very similar. You come out of that all dressed in white. Yeah. Baptism. Baptism, yes.
SPEAKER_00You've cleansed of sin at that point. And you were filled with the Holy Spirit, right? Yes. Given that gift.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00And you are dressed in white. Yeah. Very symbolic. Yes. Very, very symbolic.
SPEAKER_01And the beauty is in the process, not in the person.
SPEAKER_00No, yeah, exactly. Yeah. The cleansing process. Yes. Let's close this out. I want to close it out with Revelation chapter seven. Yes. Starting verse nine. After this, I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count from every nation, tribe, people, and language standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands, and they cried out in a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and they worshiped God, saying, Amen. Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God forever and ever. Amen. Then one of the elders asked me, These in white robes, who are they and where did they come from? I answered, Sir, you know. And he said, These are they who have come out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple. And he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. Never again will they hunger. Never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat down on them nor any scorching heat. For the lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd. He will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. And that's why we want the white clothing. That's why we want to enter the throne of the God, of God dressed in white. Because he'll wipe away all our tears and we'll find rest.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I love it. Thank you, Cindy, and thank you for listening to the Scripture Study Podcast. And we will see you here next week. Thank you for listening to the Scripture Study Podcast, your midweek Bible boost. Everything we mentioned on this podcast, if we said there would be a link to it, it is in the show notes wherever you find your podcast. Cindy Madsen currently does not believe in or participate in social media. However, if you would like to follow along with Susan Peterson, she can be found on Instagram at susan.m.peterson. Have a good week.