The LORD's Service: A Ritual Analysis of the Order Function and Purpose of the Daily Divine Service in the Pentateuch

Worship in the Old Testament has been frequently misunderstood. Its rites and ceremonies are often perceived as legalistic works that were required by an angry God to gain his favor or avert his wrath. But is that really what the Bible teaches? To be sure the LORD did institute the divine service in the Old Testament with all of its laws rites and ceremonies. Yet did God do this in order to be appeased or pleased by the ancient Israelites? When the priests enacted the offerings and sacrifices at the sanctuary was it merely to do good works that God required but without meaning or purpose for his people? Was worship in the Old Testament always what the people did for the LORD or did God do anything that was beneficial to the Israelites? This book answers these questions and furthermore dispels the recurring misinterpretation of worship in the Old Testament. The LORD established the divine service in the Pentateuch not to receive what he demanded from the people of ancient Israel but on the contrary to cleanse them from their sinful impurities sanctify them to share in his holiness and dwell among them with his blessing. Through detailed and methodical ritual analysis Robert Macina leads his readers on an engaging tour of Israels divine service with burnt offerings every morning and evening as prescribed and described in the Pentateuch. Macina helpfully unpacks its theological function as YHWH purifies and sanctifies his people joining scholars of the caliber of Haran Milgrom and Kleinig in recovering this often-neglected yet theologically central subject of Old Testament study. --Adam D. Hensley Australian Lutheran College University of Divinity Dr. Macina provides an exquisite analysis of neglected texts. His insightful exegesis of ritual legislation demonstrates that God instituted the daily service for the purpose of meeting his people to purify and sanctify them by the removal of their sin and the bestowal of his own holiness. This service was neither a mechanistic nor a meritorious human ritual but the LORDs proffering the same grace as the Divine Service in the Christian church. --Christopher Mitchell Saint Louis Missouri Robert D. Macina is pastor at Risen Christ Lutheran Church in Arvada Colorado. He studied at Clarendon College Texas; Concordia University Texas Austin; Concordia University Nebraska Seward; Concordia Theological Seminary Fort Wayne; Australian Lutheran College Adelaide SA; and University of Divinity Kew VIC Australia. He has written articles and has taught seminary as an associated faculty. He and his wife Tracy have three children: Daniel Mark and Rebekah.