Always take some money with you, a senior in the family said.
- In the event you are robbed, at least you have some cash to give, and high chance you will not be harmed.
There are meanings in words being said. “Watch out for the cars” is for our own safety on the road.
- Moving cars, not stationary
- We don’t put our head out and “watch” the cars
Let’s imagine, the pastor performed some actions before an item in worship, and then they reversed the actions after the item.
For some churches, a candle is lit before the commencement of the act of worship, and distinguished at the end.
What might be a practical necessity for some, could be viewed to bear other certain meanings for others. Let’s consider, for example, a lamp is turned on when the second hymn has begun. The lamp is turned off at the end of the main prayer, by the person who had just done the prayer, before he or she returned to the congregation. The turning on and off of the lamp has no other meaning except to have it ready for the Bible reader after the second hymn. It saves what might be troublesome or embarrasing situation where the Bible reader has to step down, and go low to turn the switch near the floor for the lamp, and then come back up for the reading. Beyond that, no meaning. Over time, months, decades, people might develop some kind of ritualistic or even theological meaning. That, a matter of superstition.
In Leviticus 6:12-13, there is instruction about keeping the fire going. The wider context is for people coming to the priest for their own burnt offering for the cleansing of their sin.
Similar to instruction about the linen garment, there is practical meaning for keeping the fire going. It’s far more difficult to light a fire than keeping it going. Further, from practical to theological, fire often conveys the presence of God. Fire is source of light, it burns and cleanses, it can distinguish the strong and the weak, speaks of power, is warm, practically the only item that turns raw substance into something edible, and also important element in much of chemical and manufacturing processes.
In this context in Leviticus, it can come across as continuing presence of God for his people wherever they are. It provides a focal point, very visible, for people to be reminded of God being very close to them, not only for religious activities, but also throughout the day and night.
God is with us, he wants to be with us; more to the point, we are the one who keep going further and further from him. We probably fear him more than be drawn to him. We fear not so much because of who God is, but what we think we have become: we are not worthy. We might have done, said, and thought about things we shouldn’t have, and we refrained by going near to God as we will anger him.
God is already here, he is in our midst. A minor point in the Leviticus verses that while the verses about linen garment speak about and refer to the priest, the “keep the fire going” appears to lack a “subject”, or “doer”. Whose job is it, then, to put wood in and turn the wood a bit, so that the fire keeps going? The verses don’t speak about the priest doing it. That does not mean anyone of us can or should do it, but it also does not say it is our duty, or for that matter, the duty of the priest. We cannot assume one possibility is correct. But perhaps we can say it could be anyone of us.
That might be an interesting analogy of how close God wants us to be to him. He loves us that much. He has offered and sacrificed his own beloved son, to set up a permanent channel that is Jesus Christ through whom we can return to God the father.
