Sermon Tone Analysis

Themes and Motifs

Good morning.

Some of you might just now be thinking to yourself, wow, Alan is only on his second week, and the wheels have already fallen off.

Well, to start off our morning, I wanted to give you an oh so brief music history lesson on themes and motifs.

You might remember that a couple weeks ago, I talked about the Beethoven’s Ninth symphony, and how over an hour of music builds to the presentation of Beethoven’s new theme, his Ode to Joy.

What was perhaps unusual was that Beethoven was trying to attach a specific idea to a specific theme.

This theme represents joy (Play Ode to Joy).

Now if you study Beethoven, you know that he was very much the bridge between the classical period in his early years and the romantic period in his later years.

One of the composers who followed Beethoven was a man named Hector Berlioz, and music majors study his work, Symphony Fantastique because of the way he develops this idea of motifs representing ideas.

Throughout the piece, Berlioz calls back to what he called his Idee Fixe which recurs throughout the entire symphony.

But, what stuck with me was how he used a theme called the Dies Irae to call out the idea of judgment.

(play Dies Irae) This theme is still recognizable in many works today.

Just a couple weeks ago, I heard one of the marching bands play it in one of the championship games.

I tell you, all of the music majors were super fired up for that third down!

This use of motifs was developed much more fully by Wagner, where he used what he called leitmotifs to identify characters and ideas.

But perhaps the composer that best demonstrates this use of recurring themes is John Williams, and in particular, the music for the Star Wars movies.

There is an auditory commentary running under the movies in the form of these themes.

If you hear this motif, (play Force theme) you know that the scene has to do with the Force.

This motif (play Princess Leia theme) calls to mind Princess Leia.

The obvious one perhaps is the Imperial March, (play Imperial March) which is the theme of the Empire.

You hear this one on third downs a bit more often.

(Walk) Anyway, this idea of motifs is used all over the place.

The Lord of the Rings movies do it a lot.

There’s a theme for hobbits, a theme for the Fellowship, a theme for the ring, a theme for Barad Dur, which interestingly enough uses that Dies Irae that we talked about earlier.

But the point here is that there is a sonic vocabulary in this music.

No one has to tell the viewer, “Hey this Imperial March refers to the Empire.”

Echoes of Eden

Last week, we talked about Eden and how this early paradise was the place where Adam and Eve walked with God.

This week, I want to talk about the next dwelling place of God’s presence in the Old Testament, the tabernacle and the temple.

However, like we said last week, the story of Eden is foundational for understanding the story that follows it.

As we read about the tabernacle and later the temple, the themes and motifs of the garden should echo in our ears.

Let’s visit the Tabernacle first:

The Tabernacle

Would you join me in Exodus 25, as we read about the instructions that God gives to Moses for the tabernacle.

Exodus 25:1–9 (CSB)

The Lord spoke to Moses: “Tell the Israelites to take an offering for me.

You are to take my offering from everyone who is willing to give.

This is the offering you are to receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze; blue, purple, and scarlet yarn; fine linen and goat hair; ram skins dyed red and fine leather; acacia wood; oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; and onyx along with other gemstones for mounting on the ephod and breastpiece.

They are to make a sanctuary for me so that I may dwell among them.

You must make it according to all that I show you—the pattern of the tabernacle as well as the pattern of all its furnishings.

Let’s pause here, because I don’t want this to get away from us.

Last week at the end of the sermon, I raced really quickly through the patriarchs of Israel, and how God promised them that He would be with them, but here we have something new.

God says that the purpose of this new sanctuary is “so that [God] may dwell among them.”

This is the first time that God uses this phrase of dwelling with the people of Israel.

Remember last week, that in Genesis 3:8, the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden.

The Hebrew word translated there as walking is the same work used in Leviticus 26 when God is talking about this Tabernacle:

This is the most important echo of Eden of all.

Indeed, as we consider John 1:14 next week, this dwelling is not only foundational to God’s relationship with His people, Israel, but God taking up His dwelling in the Incarnation is foundational to the restoration of His relationship with the whole world.

We talked last week that we could not return to Eden, instead God would come to us.

And so, in the creation of the Tabernacle, God is instructing the Israelites to build him a sort of mini-Eden that He, like Eden, will dwell with them in.

Did you catch one of the other echoes towards the beginning of this passage?

Remember this from the description of the garden?

Note the presence of gold and onyx.

It also mentions bdellium, which is a special kind of gum from a tree.

The only other place that this substance is mentioned is in Numbers 11:7 describing manna.

Guess what else was kept in the tabernacle?

Next in Exodus, God gives instruction to Moses for the creation of the Ark of the Covenant, which is to hold the tablets of God’s word given to Moses.

Exodus 25:16–22 (CSB)

Put the tablets of the testimony that I will give you into the ark.

Make a mercy seat of pure gold, forty-five inches long and twenty-seven inches wide.

Make two cherubim of gold; make them of hammered work at the two ends of the mercy seat.

Make one cherub at one end and one cherub at the other end.

At its two ends, make the cherubim of one piece with the mercy seat.

The cherubim are to have wings spread out above, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and are to face one another.

The faces of the cherubim should be toward the mercy seat.

Set the mercy seat on top of the ark and put the tablets of the testimony that I will give you into the ark.

I will meet with you there above the mercy seat, between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the testimony; I will speak with you from there about all that I command you regarding the Israelites.

Are you hearing more themes from the Garden?

When was the last time that cherubim were mentioned in the Old Testament?

There is one time that the cherubim were mentioned previously.

Matter of fact, if you were to do a study of cherubim in the Old Testament, you would find this mention of the cherubim guarding the garden of Eden, and the cherubim guarding the holy of holies in the Tabernacle and later the Temple.

Now, Ezekiel talks about the cherubim in detail later, always accompanying the presence of God.

Moreover, Eden is the place where God gave His one commandment to Adam and Eve.

Here, we see that the commandments God is giving Moses are placed in the ark guarded by the cherubim.

Let’s continue on in Exodus 25.

God gives instruction for the construction of a Table, on which will be set drink offerings and the Bread of the Presence.

Then God gives instruction for the creation of a lampstand.

Exodus 25:31–36 (CSB)

“You are to make a lampstand out of pure, hammered gold.

It is to be made of one piece: its base and shaft, its ornamental cups, and its buds and petals.

Six branches are to extend from its sides, three branches of the lampstand from one side and three branches of the lampstand from the other side.

There are to be three cups shaped like almond blossoms, each with a bud and petals, on one branch, and three cups shaped like almond blossoms, each with a bud and petals, on the next branch.

It is to be this way for the six branches that extend from the lampstand.

There are to be four cups shaped like almond blossoms on the lampstand shaft along with its buds and petals.

For the six branches that extend from the lampstand, a bud must be under the first pair of branches from it, a bud under the second pair of branches from it, and a bud under the third pair of branches from it.

Their buds and branches are to be of one piece.

All of it is to be a single hammered piece of pure gold.

The Lampstand

I’ve put here an artists rendering of what this lampstand might have looked like.

Many authors have highlighted that in the center of the garden stood the tree of life, and here, in the center of the tabernacle stands this stylized tree, the lampstand.

God continues to give instruction to Moses for the construction of the tent itself, including materials and various plans.

And then God gives a layout for this Tabernacle.

Layout

Notice the emphasis on directions.

This wasn’t to be laid out in a random order.

Not like this building which is on a diagonal from the cardinal directions.

No, there was a very specific direction included.

This is a basic map layout of the tabernacle.

Notice the east/west orientation, with the holy of holies being set to the west, with the entrance to the East.

Remember which direction Adam and Eve were driven out of Eden?