In our reading for today, God commands the people of Israel to partake in a day of rest and convocation (Leviticus 23:3). I don’t have time to go through all the ins and outs of the Sabbath and what it does or does not mean for today. However, I think it is clear that God is our creator, He is the potter and we are the clay, and He knows best. He tells us each week, we need to rest from our work and we need a time of public assembly and worship (convocation). I am 50 years old. Some will say that’s young and others will say I am old. Nevertheless, I have lived long enough to know that God is right about this. I have run myself ragged in work for years and so have many of you. God says rest. Also, I know that I need some time each week in worship to experience and think about something bigger than myself. Work your six days but take the Lord’s Day and rest and worship God.
Archive for the ‘Leviticus’ Category
Day 55: Leviticus 21:1 – 23:8 — Rest and Convocation
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010Day 53: Leviticus 17:1-19:18; Matthew 28:11-Mark 1:13 — Cosmic alignment
Monday, February 22nd, 2010
Cosmetics. Cosmos. Words we hear often, sometimes in the same day, perhaps never in the same context. For the Greek geek in me, I have to say they are related to a root meaning an orderly arrangement. The “world”, cosmos, has a wonderful, awesome order and meaning, and I suppose our faces should be orderly, too. So, the wonder, the order, the created designs may be seen in us, but extend to all things in the universe. Order out of chaos, this is the way of God.
Our Old Testament readings command respect and order in worship of the LORD. I cannot just go out anywhere and do whatever I want and call it worship. As adults, we are far past that simplistic childhood stage of “drawing worship” in any fashion we fancy with crayons of ignorance or self interest and saying, “Here, God, you like anything we do, don’t you?” My back yard and my kitchen are, indeed, places to pray, Philippians 4:6-7. I must offer daily sacrifice and priestly service, Romans 12:1-2. Also, I must present myself with that Divine body, the church in corporate and communal expression of worship to God, Hebrews 10:25, etc. The worldly worship, worldly–another derivative of kosmos, yet with a negative meaning–cannot be given to our Holy God. What our neighbors do, what the world, that system around us, thinks cannot be handed off to God as though He as a beggar should be glad to get anything at all! And, we would not dare think of sacrificing our children to Molech, but will we sacrifice our children to our own selfish designs of what we call worship and spirituality? Our daily, holy living, our corporate worship must be purposeful, and purposefully driven as God speaks to us through the Spirit in the lives and designs of those Spirit-led apostles and Christians of the Bible, Acts 2:36-42.
The holiness code of Leviticus speaks to the created order and design of human sexuality. Our sexual appetites were made by our Creator for wonderful purposes of life, the intimate, powerful expression of total commitment and reflects the wonder and beauty of God’s own creative powers. Marriage itself, the Divinely prescribed context of that expression, speaks of the absolute love and commitment of God Himself. The widely, worldly, witless expressions of human sexuality touted as natural and flung in our faces today are of the essence of chaos, the exact opposite of created, Divine design and orderliness. They oppose Divine love, and lead only to depraved, and monstrous consequences physically and spiritually, Romans 1:18-32. The mere cosmetics of sex will fail to bring about the Cosmic designs of love.
And, then, what shall we do with Jesus? Obscure the fact of resurrection? “Preposterous!” we say. Yet the worldly, and the worldliness in us, may seek to hide the reality of His presence, His Lordship. Do we want, honestly, the cosmetics of living without the reality and Creator of the Cosmos? The New Testament reading provides a serendipity, perhaps bad English but good theology. We finish reading of the failed attempt of the world to cover up the resurrection, only to begin again in Mark, Mark 1:1, to explore the wonders of God in His Christ. Each day is a Cosmic event, to seek God in this day, to surrender my chaos to His design, His order, His will, His blessing. How shall the young and old order and secure their lives? Psalms 119:9-16.
Day 51: Leviticus 14:1-57; Matthew 27:33-56 — In search of perfection
Saturday, February 20th, 2010
An unblemished male lamb, a one year old unblemished ewe lamb, two live clean birds, ephas of flour, logs of oil — an unblemished bull for a sin offering, a yearling male unblemished lamb, an unblemished goat… Does it never end? It must have seemed to the Israelites that it wouldn’t. The sacrifices in today’s reading were to effect physical cleanliness, but there were plenty of sacrifices to achieve spiritual cleanliness too…
A bull each day as a sin offering (Exodus 29:36), a young bull without defect for a priest who sins (Leviticus 4:3), a young bull to cleanse an unintentional sin (Leviticus 4:14), a female lamb without defect as a sin offering (Leviticus 4:32), two doves or two young pigeons as a sin offering (Leviticus 5:7), a young bull, a ram, and two male goats on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16).
And so on.
Until…
“…they came to a place called Golgotha…and…crucified Him…And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice…and yielded up his spirit. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.” Matthew 27:33-51
The tearing of the curtain has so much significance, and we won’t deal with that now, but it meant for one thing that people who had never seen the “presence of God”, were now free to approach. Of more significance than that, as “without blemish” as those bulls and goats of old were, they had one huge imperfection — their sacrifice was not for all people for all time. As perfect as that bull was, there was still to be another “perfect” bull to follow, and another after that, and another after that…
Jesus, perfect Lamb of God. Offered once, to bear the sins of many (Hebrews 9). Israelites had to present themselves unclean before the priest, over and over again. We present ourselves unclean before the Great High Priest once, and His sacrifice is good enough — no, perfect enough — to save us and to keep us in a saved state and to continue to cleanse us from all sin (1 John 1:7).
Hallelujah!
Day 49: Leviticus 10:1-3 — Aaron held his peace
Thursday, February 18th, 2010I struggle with grace and judgment. I’ll tell you why. Like the German Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, I believe we live in a culture that worships a god of cheap grace.
“cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline. Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ.” – The Cost of Discipleship
“costly grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus, it comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart. It is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says: “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”- The Cost of Discipleship
Our reading is from Leviticus 10:1-3. Nadab and Abihu experience the judgment of God. I have often heard this passage used to describe God as a mean and unforgiving God. I read it a little different. I see God’s grace in saving his people in the stories of Genesis and Exodus. Now God has given His law about worship and in chapter 9, Aaron makes an acceptable offering. In Leviticus 9:24, a fire consumes the offering and all the people “fell on their faces.” Nadab and Abihu did worship their way and God’s fire consumed them (Leviticus 10:1-2). This sad story ends with Moses telling Aaron that those who draw near to God, He will be sanctified and glorified. Aaron held his peace (Leviticus 10:3). I think Aaron knows this is a just thing. You don’t mess with God. His grace is great and it saves us but our God is not to be trifled with, and to follow Him is costly.
Do we worship a god of cheap grace? Where worship costs nothing and is about the god of narcissism (ourselves)…we worship via entertainment and getting what you want? If so, be careful about the fire you bring before the Lord.
Or do we worship a God of grace and judgment? We are sinners lost and God’s judgment is true and we are guilty. The grace is He places His son on the cross instead of us. We are forgiven and called to worship with a cost.
I struggle with grace and judgment. I deserve judgment and have received grace. I deserve the Lord’s fire that should consume me and I be dead before the Lord. Yet, His grace allows me to fall on my face to worship not the god of narcissism but the God of Grace and Judgment. Without judgment there is no grace.
Aaron held his peace after his sons died and he continued to serve the Lord. It saddens me that as I look around and in my own life, we quit God, or His people over shallow circumstances. If we understood the cost of grace maybe we would practice covenantal commitment, sacrifice, love, forgiveness, redemption, patience, holiness, etc.. Which fire do we bring before the Lord?
Day 47: Leviticus 6:24-30 and Matthew 26:26-29 — Holy
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010I was reading our daily bible reading and we have these two passages from Leviticus and Matthew. The first focuses on the holiness of the offering that was to be used for the sin offering. It could be eaten by those who were holy. However, it could not be eaten if it was used for atonement in the Holy place. It would have to be burned with fire (Leviticus 6:24-30). The second passage is the account of Jesus instituting the Lord’s Supper. He instructs his disciples to eat the bread and drink the cup of the new covenant (Matthew 26:26-29).
Each Sunday, we come together to eat the bread and drink the cup. We read about the holiness of the offering in Leviticus. Holy does not just mean special or pure. Holy means set a part or dedicated to God. The priests had been sanctified to serve God. They were allowed to participate in eating the parts of the offering that were not used in the Holy Place.
Questions:
How much more special is the sacrifice of Jesus for the atonement of our sins? How holy is the bread and the cup that we take each Sunday? How blessed are we to be the priests of God that can now participate in the Lord’s Supper? How much preparation is made in our lives to take Holy Communion? Do we profane the Lord’s Supper by not taking it when the Lord’s Church gathers together? Do we profane it by not getting our lives right with God and each other? What do you think?
Day 46: Leviticus 4:1-6:7; Matthew 26:6-25 — I didn’t mean to…”Pay attention.”
Monday, February 15th, 2010How many times do you remember saying, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to (do this, say that, break this, etc.)…” My mother likes to tell her grandchildren, to their chagrin, that a great and important rule of life is “Pay attention.”
Today’s two readings, and a few of the ones subsequent, seem to collide headlong. Our readings in Leviticus give directions for sacrifices and restitution to be made for sins, thoughtless and otherwise. Matthew begins narratives for that great, wondrous Sacrifice of sacrifices.
In Leviticus several paragraphs describe atonement one must make for the unintentional or thoughtless sins. Look at how the reading distinguishes between the anointed priest, a leader, and a common person. A few truths of life emerge immediately.
- Sometimes we just really make a mess of things. Sometimes we drown our God-likeness in a flood of human foibles. On top of that, sometimes we do not even know that we did it! What a great and gracious Creator to know what blundering feeble creatures we can be, and rather than extinguish us He provides for a way to come back, to be at one again with Him. God calls on us to acknowledge our sin and own up to it. He calls on us to take steps to apologize, make peace, set right what we have done, Matthew 5:23-24. What we do matters. Our actions affect others. There are no victimless crimes. We need to be thoughtful, purposeful. Ephesians 5:15-21.
- Family, friends, people will hurt us sometimes, and they may not even know that they did it! We must be the ones to bring up those uncomfortable discussions so that we not only can clear up what we may have misunderstood, but bring to the attention of that person an area of life that needs work. We need to exercise that part of our God-likeness that looks for grace, healing, and restoration. “Hey, I really need to talk to you. I am confused about something…” Oh! Judging judging judging! No, rather this takes self reflection, repentance, and measuring by the righteous standard, and grace! Matthew 6:14-15, Matthew 7:1-5, Matthew 18:15-18, John 7:24, Ezekiel 3:17-21, Psalms 133:1.
- Some sins and mistakes have greater effects and consequences than others. The high priest, a leader of the people, a common person all sin. All must be made right with God. Yet the effects, the consequences of those sins can be quite different, and so their atoning sacrifices get separate treatment in the text. How does a person go from “oops, spilled milk” to “oops, broken life”? All start with perhaps a lack of commitment to God, a lack of holy living, an attitude of “oh, that is not a big thing!” to our own weaknesses or “mistakes” (as sin is called today). Rather, be holy, committed to God in all things, so that the practice of life leads us to holiness and grace in all things. 1 Peter 1:13-21.