Yahweh came into the wasteland
But the building of the tabernacle and later the temple did not create the conditions of exclusion and distance. In fact, the sanctuary was a countermovement to the curse of Eden. Yahweh drove Adam and Eve out of the garden; he invited Aaron and his sons in. For the first time since Eden, human beings stood before the Creator to serve. Not Noah, not Abraham, not Jacob or Joseph: none of them passed by the cherubim to take up the Adamic task to stand and serve within Yahweh’s garden. For the first time since Yahweh stationed cherubim at the gate fo the garden, Torah allowed human beings to take over the Adamic task to “guard” the garden (šāmar, (Gen 2:15). For the first time since Adam, holy men walked on holy ground, with only a veil embroidered with cherubim between them and Yahweh. The tabernacle was still holy space, but the boundaries of holy space had become porous. Yahweh expelled Adam from the garden in wrath, and put Adam under wrath. In the tabernacle system, Yahweh went out into the howling waste to find his unfaithful bride and bring her back home. He went outside Eden to give a taste of Eden to Adam’s children who lived east of Eden.
Having taken up residence among the Israelites, Yahweh invited them to his house to share his goods. Why would Yahweh set up his house in Israel and then refuse to let Israel draw near? Why would Yahweh live among his people but show no hospitality? Under the circumstances, Yahweh’s hospitality must be restricted; the welcome must be a controlled welcome, stoicheic access. But Yahweh set up his house so fleshly people, who were marked by the renunciation of flesh, could draw as near as possible. Torah was a form of ta stoicheia tou kosmou, but it was a form that permitted limited access. It introduced a new world of worship and held out the possibility of even freer, more open access in the future. By rearranging the elements, Yahweh began to form a new creation, and a new nature, in the midst of flesh.
~ Delivered from the Elements of the World: Atonement, Justification, Mission, by Peter J. Leithart, p. 95-96
