Becky Castle Miller Dr. Jason Gile OT301, Northern Seminary March 27, 2017 Shaping a Kingdom of Priests: The Role and Purpose of Mosaic Law in the Life and Faith of the Jewish People The men flowed toward the Sefer Torah, as if drawn by a current. While the prayer leader carried the giant scrolls from the Ark cabinet to the center of the bright, unadorned synagogue, all the male voices sang in Hebrew, “Yours, God, is the kingdom.” As the scrolls passed each man, he raised the edge of his white prayer shawl (tallit) or his prayer book (siddur), first to the cover of the scrolls, then to his lips. The tender reverence of this motion touched me. I was visiting the Shabbat service with my friend Steve. From my viewpoint in the rear balcony with the women, I could see him join the chanting. I watched as several men worked together to unroll the scrolls onto the bimah, the center platform, and read the day’s portion, the parasha, this time about the Exodus. Much of the service was spent simply reading the Scriptures. In my own church, we read one short passage a week, and it usually takes five minutes of our two-hour meeting. My own Bible forms the base of a precarious stack of papers, folders, and books on my desk. I love the Bible, but I do not honor the Bible the way these Jewish men did. Later I told Steve the topic of this paper and asked what he suggested I read to get a Jewish perspective. He responded, “I’m trying to think of how Mosaic law doesn’t affect life and faith of the Jewish people.” I laughed at the way he turned the topic around and told him I was going to put that line in my paper. As I read the links he sent me, I discovered new (to me) ways of looking at Old Testament passages that opened my understanding of the context and meaning of New Testament passages. The purpose of Mosaic law in the life and faith of the Jewish people was to shape them into a “Kingdom of Priests,” a people who reflected the nature of God to the surrounding nations