Posts Tagged ‘holiness’

Scripture reading for February 2nd: Leviticus 1-3

Do you like spinach?  What about brussel sprouts?  How about Leviticus?  It has lots of strange offerings and laws written in it.  Much of it is foreign to our culture and our way of thinking and it’s sometimes hard to see how it is relevant to our lives today.  But as spinach and brussel sprouts contain essential nutrients for our body’s growth and maintenance, so Leviticus contains some spiritual truths that can nourish our souls!

Leviticus was written by Moses as instructions for the Levites who would serve the Lord in the tabernacle.    They were chosen by God to do the job of caring for the tabernacle and helping the Israelites with worship and prayer.  Moses and Aaron were Levites.  This book details what was required for those who served and how a sinful people must approach God in order to have fellowship with Him.

There were three voluntary offerings that could be brought by an Israelite in order to approach God.  The first was the burnt offering which was to be an animal from the flock or herd.  This animal must be perfect and must be  slaughtered at the door of the Tent of Meeting.  The sons of Aaron were to take blood and sprinkle it on the altar and then arrange the wood and the pieces of the animal on the altar to be burned.  (Leviticus 1:3-8)  All of it was to be burned as an offering to the Lord.

The second offering was the grain offering.  It was to be offered with oil and incense and burned on the altar before the Lord by the priests.  It must be without any yeast or honey and was seasoned with salt.  (Leviticus 2:11-13)  The third offering was the fellowship offering.  This offering was for anyone who just wanted to have fellowship with the Lord.  This was to be an animal without defect, offered in sacrifice.  Here the fat, kidneys, and choice parts were burned and then some of the meat could be eaten in God’s presence in fellowship with Him.

God desires fellowship with each of His people.  We can now approach God through Christ’s blood, which was the final offering needed for us.  (Hebrews 10:19-23)  He is pictured in each of these voluntary offerings as giving his blood (burnt offering) and body (meal offering) so that we might have fellowship with God.

Scripture reading for January27: Exodus 21-24

Is there any such thing as a “harmless sin”?  We sometimes laugh when our young children defiantly disobey.  When our adopted daughters were first released from the orphanage to come with us, they were so cute!  Both my wife and I and the girls had a short time of mutual admiration.  But on one of our first outings, we were waiting to cross the street and cars were speeding by.  One of them (name withheld to protect the innocent!) stuck her foot out towards the street and looked up mischievously  to see what we might do!  Mary and I had a good laugh but realized that we had a job ahead of us and had a late start!

Sin entered mankind through Eve’s deception by the serpent and through the disobedience of Adam.  God’s commands aren’t suggestions.  What He says will happen and He has the authority and power to bring it to pass.  Sin has consequences.  We can choose to sin, but we get the consequences for free!  The law that God gave Moses on the mountain included Exodus 21-24.  These were practical explanations of the ten commands that helped work out how these laws would play out in the community of Israel.  A holy God lived in their midst.  He demanded that the people He lived with would be holy too! (1st Peter 1:15-16)

Some of the laws and their that struck me as I read this passage remind me of the “deadliness” of sin!  In Exodus 21:15 and 17, the penalty for attacking father or mother or even cursing them was death.  If a man owned a bull that was known to gore others and he did not restrain this animal and a person was killed, the bull and the owner would die! (Exodus 21:28-29)  A sorceress must be put to death!  (Exodus 22:18)  Anyone having sexual relations with an animal must die!  (Exodus 22:19)  Another law in Exodus 22:22-23 was shocking to me;  I had never remembered reading that one who takes advantage of an orphan or a widow would die if that orphan or widow cried out to the Lord!  God gets angry when we mess with those who are hurting!  He is compassionate and protective! (Exodus 22:26-27)

God is compassionate and loves us enough to confront sin.  He knows it’s deadly–it cost Him the life of His Firstborn Son!  We need to be serious when it comes to sin.  In our children, it is not just funny.  It will be deadly if not properly addressed.  As parents, we need to love our children enough to discipline them and teach them that sin is nothing to mess with.  May the Lord continue to love us enough to discipline us so that sin is not our downfall!

“Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good that we might share in His holiness.” Hebrews 12:10