Bible Reading Challenge Blog

So you can actually get it wrong.  If you do get it wrong there is a repercussion which is not insignificant.  As we go through life we get things wrong and as we do, those actions, words, and inactions will have repercussions on us for the rest of our life.  When we live our life we sin, and that sin will have repercussions on us for the rest of our life.  Aaron found this out as he lost two of his sons because they did not obey what the Lord had commanded that they should do.  They were consumed by fire as a result of their sin, as a result of getting it wrong.  We don’t know the motivation of the sons, but can’t we assume that there was some  ill intent?  I have no problem assuming that.

The grace and the mercy of the Lord continues to amaze me, even in the midst of the very harsh realities that faced the people of Israel and that the Lord took upon himself.  The Lord does not hold punches, He takes action.  This does not bother me simply because I know what we all deserve.  None of us deserves anything less than what we get.  We are the clay, the Lord is the potter.  We are the creature, God is the Creator.  So I am okay with what happens at the hand of the Lord, even if it doesn’t seem right, fair, or humane from our perspective.  Not sure if that will attract others, but that is not why I believe what I do.  The Scripture I read points  to that.

So, I need to make a correction to what I posted on the day for Leviticus 7.  That would have been on Day 47.  I opened and read and did a commentary on Deuteronomy 7 by mistake.  I think it was an insightful commentary for the day, but for the wrong book of the Bible.  Okay, that is my mea culpa, now on to Leviticus 9.

So here I am on vacation in Washington State staying at the home of Stacy’s sister.  Here is the view from their deck. 

Yeah, it is pretty stunning and it certainly is a place that we come to for rest and relaxation.  It is also our anniversary today, 25 years.   What a great life I have been able to live.  No, really, as I look back, I think, what a great life I have been able to live.  But what if the family in which I was born into was very different than the American missionary family that was serving in Lisbon, Portugal when I was born?  But I wasn’t, I was born into this family, married this amazing woman, and have three amazing daughters.

The scene that we find in Leviticus is one where God again commands Aaron to do certain things for the people in order for their relationship to be made right before the Lord.  Consistently we see that it is a family thing and Aaron’s sons are bringing him all that he needs in order to carry out the orders for the Lord.  Almost every paragraph we read that Aaron’s sons brought him this, and brought him that and Aaron did what the Lord required.  As a result of all that happened, the very last verse is powerful.  The people of the Lord were able to see a very visible presence of the Lord.

When you look back over your life can you see a very visible presence of the Lord?  All that I recounted above about my own personal life has allowed me to see the visible presence of the Lord every single day.  I pray that this blog will allow us to continue to see His presence either by fire, or by other blessings.

This is quite an elaborate ritual in order to christen (probably the wrong word here) both the tabernacle and ordain those who would be serving the people while in the tabernacle.  Aaron and his sons were appointed by Moses to perform the priestly duties.  It is fascinating to me to see the ordination ceremony that takes place starting at vs. 22.  Aaron, who would have been considered the high priest, has the blood of the ram placed upon the lobe of his right ear, the thumb of his right hand, and the toe of his right foot.  Keep in mind that this all has incredible significance.

All of them are the right side because it was the dominant side and so the side which was chosen as the one that would be selected by the Lord.  The right ear would be that which would be able to hear the voice of the Lord while he would be serving.  So this consecration by blood allowed Aaron to be ordained to hear the voice of God.  The right hand would be the hand which would be the most involved in making sacrifices and taking action on behalf of the Lord.  So the consecration of the right hand would prepare Aaron to serve on behalf of the Lord.  So far Aaron has been consecrated to hear the voice of the Lord and to act on behalf of the Lord.  The right toe would allow Aaron to walk in the direction that the Lord would point him.  It would be the first to take a step in the direction that the Lord would want him to take.  So Aaron is consecrated to go in the direction that the Lord would want him to go.

All of this is indicative of what Aaron would be equipped to do which would in turn allow him to share that with the people of Israel as they seek him out for guidance and direction.  Notice that all of Aaron’s sons also were ordained in this same way.  Pretty intricate and pretty interesting.

This might be one of those chapters that we would like to not read and see as a complete anomaly to what the Lord requires and what the nature of our Lord is really like.  We find this chapter begin with the commandment to utterly destroy their enemies and to not keep any of the spoil.  I wish it would just end with that, but it actually gets more somewhat brutal.  In vs.2 we read: “you must utterly destroy them.”  The reasoning behind this is so that the sons and the daughters of the Israelites would not intermarry.  That was a huge issue for them because then they would lose their children to other religions.  

It is not a made up point.  I know when I served in Italy there was the same sense that if the children of the church did not marry within the same Protestant faith that they would be lost in the sea of non-Protestant Christianity and that would make the church sad and weakened.  Now, there is no comparison to what the Lord tells Moses, to destroy his enemies and we do not have enemies in other churches, only the devil is our enemy, and so this is not a great example.  But there is a sense of losing your identity when you get swallowed up in culture.  This can be seen as a generalized warning against that.

You also find in this chapter why the Lord chose the nation of Israel as the promised people and the chosen people.  It was not because of their number, but as vs. 8 states: “It was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath that he swore to your ancestors.”  That is a personal God.

There is another transition to describe sins which must have been fairly common within that close knit community as they made their way from Egypt towards the promised land.  The sin which is lifted up is the sin of robbery, or defrauding someone, or taking something which is not yours, even if it is found and not claimed by anyone.  So this speaks out against anyone who would lie or swear falsely against someone for the sake of gaining in some way or shape or fashion.  So the previous chapter began with the sin of inaction, this chapter begins with the sin of action in order to materially bless yourself, by hook and crook.  You have some confessing to do if you are involved in that sin.

The chapter continues after addressing that singular sin to giving the details on how the priest is to perform the sacrifices that are supposed to be given for the people.  Notice in the past chapter that there was a hierarchy of sacrifices which were value neutral.  They went beast-fowl-grain.  Depending on what you could afford those were the sacrifices which you could bring.  Even though we do not have sacrifices today it is of comfort to know that the Lord opens His arms to all those who would come to him, regardless of their position or stature in society.  Praise be to God for that!

It seems like these verses follow naturally from what preceded in the previous chapter.  For anyone who sins and does not know it, it is still sin and they are guilty and they have to make atonement for it.  But notice that is not how this chapter begins.  This chapter begins with making sure that if you have testimony which would exculpate someone, then you are not to keep that testimony to yourself, but you are to speak out.  

It is a good thing to address the sin of inaction as opposed to the sin of action.  Often we focus on those things that we do wrong as the sin which we ought to remove from our lives.  Interestingly enough in our first world lives it is often the things that we do not do or the words which we do not say which can cause the most harm.  When we do not speak out against injustice, we do harm.  When we remain silent when we can make a difference, or when we keep to ourselves our material goods and do not look for ways to reach out to those in need, then we do harm.  The sin of inaction is much more insidious than the sin of action.  At least in the sin of action we have something concrete to approach and address.  In the sin of inaction we are on our own, we have to discover it for ourselves.  I encourage you to find ways in which we are sinning by our inaction and take steps to remedy it.

Have you ever heard the phrase that ignorance does not provide innocence?  The meaning is that if you don’t know about a certain law and you break that law, that you are still liable for the penalties that come under that law.  If you did not know that it was a 25mph zone and you thought it was 55mph zone and you were going 55mph you are not excused because you did not know.  You are still going to get a ticket.

Well, here the Lord provides for those times that you break the law of the Lord and you did not know that you had broken the law until later.  This chapter allows for the breaking of the law by the priest, the people, and the person.  It is a nice alliteration, but it provides for ways in which the sin can be forgiven, which again has to do with the sacrifice of animals.  So it isn’t that you can just break the law and ask for forgiveness later, these are times when you break the law and you simply did not know that it was a law.  We are not talking about it is better to ask for forgiveness rather than permission.  

The best part of any meat is when the meat has a bit of fat either on the side or mixed in there.  There is a taste that for those who really love meat, is second to none.  Then there are others who want nothing to do with fat and will cut it out and make sure that they don’t have any of it.  In this Scripture we see that the fat is for the Lord, again the assumption is that this is the choicest of all the parts of the meat.  You offer to the Lord only that which is the best.

Do you notice how the blood is freely distributed around the tabernacle.  This is a theme in salvation that the blood of the lamb had to be shed.  When we talk about the death of Jesus there is a reason why he died on the cross and not just of natural causes from a heart attack or a stroke.  His blood had to be shed in order for our sins to be washed clean.  Not everyone is comfortable with that imagery.  The violence seen in the death of our Savior is undeniable, as is the violence in the sacrificing of these animals.  The common ground is that in the shedding of this blood our sins are washed clean.  Without the shedding of the blood, no sins would be expunged.  I’m not making this up, look at Hebrews 9:22.  “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”

There is meaning behind these descriptions of what shall be brought to the Lord as an offering.  We saw the meat and the bird offerings from chapter 1, this chapter presents a more affordable option for those whose poverty may prevent them from offering meat.  A grain offering was presented to the Lord in a way that was perfectly acceptable, just as acceptable as a meat offering.  As a result we don’t see a hierarchy with whom God is pleased.  In fact, I would argue even if it doesn’t find its place in these verses, in most places in Scripture God has a propensity for the poor.  I would even go as far as to say that God has a preference for the poor.  

Do you notice  that all of these offerings are presented to the Lord, and then once that which is sacrificed is gone, the rest belongs to the priests who did the sacrificing.  It is in this way that the priests of the temple were able to make their living since they were responsible full  time for the matters of the tabernacle for the people.  As you can imagine it does tend to lend itself almost inevitably to some type of ulterior motive to have people bring in the best kind of sacrifices as possible, including making sure that the salt is not left out (vs.13)  

We find ourselves in the book of Leviticus.  It is pretty much composed entirely of the old Levitical law that were handed down to Moses from the Lord.  The Levites were considered the priestly class so when we talk about Leviticus we are talking primarily about the laws which were kept by that priestly class.  It is a book of the Bible that some struggle to find points of contact with in the 21st century.  So many of the laws that we see mentioned are not laws which we continue to follow.  It also allows for opportunities for people to be challenged and ask the question: well, if I don’t follow the Levitical laws, then why do I see other parts of Scripture as absolutely necessary to follow when I don’t offer sacrifices or eat kosher any longer?

That is a very fair question.  We need to see the consistency of Scripture and try to understand what is required of us when other Scriptures seem to say something else.  For example, we do have a whole assortment of kosher laws and what can be eaten and what should be avoided.  It is quite a strict list.  But then when Peter has his dream in Acts 10:28 we read  that what God has made should not be called or be considered unclean by anyone.  In this case then I see that what God has made is able to be eaten.  We no longer need to follow the dietary laws which were a big deal for so many over a long period of time.

We can and we should be able to glean some really important truths from these Scriptures.  The sacrifice of animals as seen in this first chapter is obviously not something that we do any longer.  But it is important to see that the Lord requires and expects the first fruits of what we have.