God walked with Adam and Eve in Eden’s Sabbath setting (Gen. 3:8). Walking with God emphasizes a close relationship, a sharing or exchanging of intimate thoughts and feelings that make two one (Amo. 3:3). The oneness describes the Sabbath rest, the purpose and fulfillment of why God created humans in His image. The last blog showed that the Sabbath is the goal of all creation, and God is working to bring all things into His holy Sabbath through atonements. When humans did not listen to His voice, and God exiled us from His Presence, we lost the knowledge of God and our identity as images of God. To know God is life, and to not know God is death. To be in God’s Presence is life, and to be cut off from God is death. Leviticus teaches us we can approach God through a blameless sacrifice. The sanctuary setting depicted the living God’s life flowing out to His people in streams of light upon the showbread dressed with frankincense (an offering made by fire to YHWH). This blog will explore the profound meaning of hithallek, to walk with God.

It was the Presence of God that made Eden flow with life and abundance. It was the Presence of God that made the tabernacle stream forth with blessings from its royal courts, functioning as covering for the body¹ in which God lived once again with His images (Eph. 2:22). The sanctuary, the holy place, was where a holy God could meet with a cleansed, holy people who had surrendered to do His will (an offering made by fire to YHWH). The spatial relationship of the tabernacle’s measurements, its height, width, and length, depicted the just and perfect proportions of God’s love for His people in His desire to dwell with them, walking among them and being their God (Exo. 29:44-46; Lev. 26:11-13). It expressed the radius² of His heart, the way and means to fulfill His purpose for us, “And let them make for Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them” (Exo. 25: 8).

And they shall know that I am YHWH their God, that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them: I am YHWH their God. Exodus 29:46 KJV

I will set My tabernacle among you, and My soul shall not abhor you. I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people. I am YHWH your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves; I have broken the bands of your yoke and made you walk upright. Leviticus 26:11-13 NKJV

God’s dwelling with His people results from His delivering them from Egypt so they may be planted in His mountain garden, growing in the light of His Presence.

13 “In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling. 17 You will bring them in and plant them on the mountain of your inheritance—the place, O YHWH, you made for your dwelling, the sanctuary, O Adonai, your hands established. 18 YHWH will reign for ever and ever.” Exodus 15:13, 17-18 NIV

Moses’ Song of the Sea captured the heart of YHWH’s covenant with Abraham that He would bring His people out of slavery into the land of their inheritance, the mountain of God, the sacred space of His Presence. His people were to walk through the land, in communication with God, to obtain possession wherever they placed their foot (Deu. 11:22-25; Jos. 1:3-4; 14:9). YHWH commanded Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to walk through the length and breadth of the land He was giving to them (Gen. 13:17; 17:1; 48:15) and observe and keep His judgments and ordinances, to walk in them (Lev. 18:4). Israel also was to walk in YHWH’s statutes and commandments, obey His voice and perform them to receive the blessings of abundance from the land and be established (Lev. 26:3; Deu. 10:12-13). When Israel walked not in YHWH’s statutes, despising His judgments and polluting His Sabbaths, and went into captivity again, God gave Ezekiel a vision of a new temple in which they were to walk with Him (hithallek), experiencing its perfect measurements and spaces, seeing its faithful proportions of God’s wisdom in its design.

Son of man, describe the temple to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and let them measure the pattern. And if they are ashamed of all that they have done, make known to them the design of the temple and its arrangement, its exits and its entrances, its entire design and all its ordinances, all its forms and all its laws. Write it down in their sight so that they may keep its whole design and all its ordinances and perform them. This is the law of the temple: The whole area surrounding the mountaintop is most holy. Behold, this is the law of the temple. Ezekiel 43:10-12 NKJV

YHWH talked more with Ezekiel, telling him about a new Davidic shepherd king over Israel and His people walking in His judgments, observing His statutes, and doing them in the land. He would establish them by an everlasting covenant of peace and set His sanctuary throne, the place of the soles of His feet, in their midst (43:7). “My tabernacle also shall be with them; I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Eze. 37:24-28). Paul applied this insight to the new covenant.

For this reason, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height —  to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:14-19 NKJV

YHWH has shown His people what is good and what He requires: “To act justly and love mercy and walk humbly with your God” (Mic. 6:8). The Law of the Temple and His Presence is holiness, the reality of the new covenant, the indwelling of His Holy Spirit in a new heart. We can hithallek with Him because He has not dealt with us according to our sins but has removed our wickedness from us (Psa. 103:10). Subduing the earth centers on atonements, bringing all things into His holiness.

Takeaway:
YHWH faithfully establishes covenant intimacy through hithallek, perfecting holiness so that He may plant us in His Presence, in His Sabbath sanctuary. To absorb Leviticus’s message is to approach and experience the Presence of YHWH, dressed in His atonement, surrendered to His will, and walking in holiness, blameless, two as one.

Fun Factors:
Leviticus 26:12 “I will walk (hithallek) among you and be your God, and you will be my people” has 42 letters (6 × 7) in 9 words (3 × 3), totaling 3059, 5 × 19 × 23, 11³ + 12³ (the “cube” reality of the menorah’s light, 11³, shining upon the twelve loaves, 12³), the factors of 3059 added, 5 + 19 + 23 = 49, seven Sabbaths, 3 + 0 + 5 + 9 = 17, victory. Hithallek‘s letter sum is 460, 20 × 23, the 18^th centered triangular number; 23 is chiah, living, and 18 is chi, life.