February 3, 2022: Day 26 – Leviticus 9-12 and Hebrews 5-6

We saw earlier the command to prepare all things for the tabernacle and the priests and their duties.  We saw the preparations complete for the tabernacle and the priests and their duties, now in Leviticus we see Aaron and his sons performing their duties just as God commanded, well, almost.  Let’s look at what we have in Leviticus.  In 9 we do see a play by play of Aaron sacrificing just as he had been commanded, so in real time we see all things being played out.  In chapter 10 we see that this position and this calling is a risky one, so much so that two of Aaron’s sons are killed by fire because they were, well honestly, they were playing with fire.  

In the 11th chapter we read about the clean and the unclean animals.  Many think that the reasons why these laws were given were to protect the Israelites from meat that could be dangerous to them.  For example, if you don’t cook pork well enough it can literally kill you.  So if it is unclean you don’t have to worry about cooking it.  We will at some time be reading Peter’s pigs in a blanket dream, but if you want a sneak preview check out Acts 10:9-16.  But until then, there was a very clear delineation of what was allowed to be eaten and was not.

We finish off this part of Leviticus with the laws dealing with the purification of women after childbirth.  Again, notice the difference in times after the birth of a male and after the birth of a female.  I think we have discussed earlier the reality of the patriarchal society in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.  There are outliers, but for the most part it is pretty clear who was in charge and the rules were made to ensure that all knew who was in charge.

For Hebrews we find ourselves once again that Jesus is our great high priest and this name Melchizedek comes into play. We see Melchizedek in Scripture in Genesis 14:18-20 where he blesses Abram.  In chapter 6 we see the author warn the reader about falling away from the faith and the difficulty it is to bring someone back into the faith once they have given of their lives to Jesus and then leave the faith.  This was especially important for the early Christians because any act of apostasy could potentially be a death knell for the community of which they were a part.  Apostates could have brought the authorities to their location and take them all into prison.