I Am the Lord who makes you holy--Lev 20-22

Last night, the Lord woke me up with this word from Him about this passage. I hope it is an encouragement to you.

"I Am the One who makes you holy, sets you apart to Myself, does the hard work of holiness.  I commanded you to be holy as I Am.  I know you need this.  I also know you can't do it.  Lest your heart become discouraged, I remind you that I Am the One who makes you holy.  I Am the One who justifies.  I Am the One who gives you a new name and makes you a new creation.  I Am the One who changes your deepest desires to run hard after Me.  I Am the One who gives you the courage and wisdom to choose to do right because your frame needs it.  I am not setting before you an impossible task to be accomplished on your own.  It would be impossible if you had to do it in your own fallen, twisted strength.  I Am setting before you life to the full and enabling you to choose it.  Be at peace.  This is My work in you.  I Am the God who makes you holy."

Be Holy: Lev 16-19

"The Lord also said to Moses, ² “Give the following instructions to the entire community of Israel. You must be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy."  Lev 19:1-2

If a man had said this, it would have been arrogant and less than compassionate.  If we see God as just like one of us, it can feel that way coming from Him too.  When you look at the rules he lays down in these two chapters, you get an entirely different picture. 

The sexual immorality depicted in Lev. 18 is the reason why the land is vomiting out the people from the place they're about to go.  Besides, there's all kinds of implications for the redneck stupidity listed in that chapter--implications for which they have examples.  Is it a good thing to marry both sisters?  Jacob didn't fare too well with it.  Your family tree should have forks.  

The stuff in Chapter 19 seems pretty obvious to us, with few exceptions, but no one had ever said these things before.  Most of these are just a matter of treating each other with kindness and compassion. 

God's instructions to us are for our good.  His encouragement to be Holy like He is Holy is for our good, because doing otherwise will get us or someone else hurt.  He knows His lifestyle is best, not for Him--He doesn't need anything.  It's best for us.  We are fragile and need to treat ourselves and each other gently.    

Even the regulations for the day of atonement and for sacrificing only at the front of the tabernacle are intended to protect His people.  After the problem with Aaron's sons, God made the rules for atonement more explicit and even required that all others be outside of the tabernacle when the High Priest went in to make atonement.  And to keep the community from idolotry, all sacrifices were required to be performed at the entrance to the Tabernacle.  That way if they were doing something wrong that might offend God, they could be taught how to do it well. 

Jesus ultimately gives the same instructions and again, it is for our good and His glory--both things we want. 

Be holy...It's good for you.

Heathcare: Lev. 11-15

Our culture tries to see a separation between the physical and the spiritual that just isn't there.  If you ever doubted that your physical being impacts your spiritual well-being, then this passage is for you.  God ties the physical cleanliness to spiritual cleanliness and in so doing, he protected his people from disease, poor health, and environmentally based sicknesses of all kinds. 

God charged the Levites with all of the major healthcare issues for the community as both the health department and doctor, in an era without any refrigeration.  God had promised the people before they reached Sinai that if they would follow Him, he would not allow any of the diseases of the Egyptians to fall on them.  This is how.  Long before Louis Pasteur or Jonas Salk, God described how to deal with infectious illness.  Before Dr. Oz, He was telling His people what was healthy to eat and what wasn't. 

Eventually, the priesthood took things too far, but God's intention was that his people would be healthy, live long lives and have strong children.  Since our bodies and minds are intimately related, His care for our bodies overflows into care for our minds and spirits.  He leaves no details unaddressed.  This is not surprising when you consider who He is.  Since He made us, He should know best what it takes for us to live. 

We are no longer bound by the law, but by Christ.  However, understanding why these rules were put in place can go a long way toward maintaining a body, mind and spirit that can honor Him. 

Careful...Lev 10

What a tragedy on so many levels.  There were several issues at hand here.

First, Nadab and Abihu didn't take the coals from the altar that had been lit by the fire of God's presence.  They just took ordinary coals with ordinary fire. 

Second, they didn't have the right to offer up incense before God at all.  It was Aaron's job as the High Priest. 

There's also a hint that they may have been drunk when they did it. 

Incense is pictured as the prayers of the saints and provides a cautionary tale for us as well.  If we try to offer up prayers that are fired by our own desires rather than lit by the desires of Heaven, we are also bringing strange fire and God has a right to be upset with us.  The fragrance may be right, but the motivation is wrong and God can't honor it. 

The second caution is the issue of whether we bring our  prayers to God through our own High Priest, Jesus, or try to bring it to Him by ourselves without the benefit of His cleansing, interceding power.  We know that those who come to God without Christ will be consumed, just as Nadab and Abihu were.  Jesus taught his disciples to ask the Father, but it was only because they had already been with Jesus and were asking in Jesus' name (in line with his attitude, desires and authority).  Since Christians are covered by Christ's blood, we can boldly approach the throne of Grace and the Father who sits upon it.  Without recieving Christ's sacrifice for ourselves, we would be consumed as well. 

Have you recieved the covering of Christ's blood for your sin?  Have you sought the Father's heart so that your prayers are lit by the fires of His desire or you just asking for what you want? 

Leadership Responsibility: Lev 7-9

This was a hard lesson for me earlier this year.  What we see in this passage is that before leaders can usher the people into the presence of God, they have to be there themselves.  The ordination sacrifices are elaborate and require lots of work to cover over their sin and make them holy.  Not only that, the priests must remain at the tabernacle day and night for 7 days and do anything that the Lord tells them to do during that time. 

The work is worth it.  When the sacrifice for the people was laid before the Father the Glory of God came out from the temple and consumed the sacrifice and all the people cried out in joy.  Wouldn't you!?!

This is an immutable principle in ministering God's life to others.  Before we have anything to give of any worth to those we serve, we have to be clean before the Father and recieve His power and glory for ourselves.  Within ourselves, we don't have anything of value to give. 

If you think this doesn't apply to you, then think again.  All of us who are covered by the blood of Christ are a part of His body.  We all minister to each other and our contribution will be missed if we aren't adequately prepared.  If we try to give from what we naturally have, we will quickly run dry and give out of need rather than out of overflow.  That's codependency and it ruins the giver and gift. 

What do you do to prepare your own heart to minister to the people in your life?

The seriousness of Sin: Lev. 4-6

"Don't touch that!"  "Is that really what happened?"  "You didn't really promise THAT, did you?"

Oh the joys of parenting...

Some days it feels like it's one unending nag session.  The problem is that these things really are a problem.  God calls each of these daily annoyances sin and requires a sacrifice of his people to atone for it.  They might be unintentional sins, but they're still sin.  Then there's cheating.  That's not just sin, that's injury to others.  That means you have to pay back what you stole and 20% more and then you can work on atonement.  (I need to work on teaching that to my kids).

The atonement is a big deal too and the more important you become the more significant the atonement must be.  I don't know that we take sin as seriously as God does.  Breaking God's laws resulted in a significant personal loss.  That might explain why the Priest and the Levite passed by the guy in the story of the good Samaritan.  If he was dead, it was going to be a pain in the neck to get clean again--no excuse, but it sheds some light on it. 

The sacrificial system is gone, but each of our sins--each time we miss the mark--those sins were laid on Christ during His crucifixion.  When we really "get it" we begin to see how amazing grace truly is.  This helps us when we go to forgive someone too.  We don't blow off their sin against us.  It was serious enough that Christ died for it and that sin will either be covered by the blood of Christ's sacrifice or will be judged for eternity.  Additional punishment by us is not necessary.  We can let it go and let God deal with sin.  He's really the only one who has a right.

As for training, that never ends.  Back to parenting...

Details matter: Lev 1-3

Details, details...It might be easy to get bogged down in all these regulations.  Several of these sections are basically procedural rulebooks.  Because we're talking about a real God who has preferences of His own, we can't just do what we think is right.  When we face the judgement seat, it will not be a mirror.  Here are a few things that stood out to me:

• No yeast.  Leavening is that which puffs-up.  God desires that we be real with Him.  We don't need to take the time and energy to put on a show.  We do need to take the time to prepare our hearts and our sacrifices, but not just to make them look better. 
• Always salt.  Jesus said we are the salt of the earth.  Salt preserves and brings out the real flavors of food.  We need to gently preserve and encourage those around us as well--bringing out who they are, not drawing attention to ourselves.
• First fruits.  Always bring God the first and best.  That's what He will use to multiply back to us (do you want more of the crappy stuff?).  He is a great God who gives us all good things and deserves our best.
• The fat belongs to the Lord.  (Sounds like a diet, doesn't it?)  Fat is where the flavor is.  The flavor of our lives is to be a pleasing aroma to the Father. 
• Blood is not for eating.  Something else's life is not for your consumption.  You have been granted life from the Father and He holds it sacred.  Hold other life as sacred as well. 

For the most part, the sacrifices were shared between the altar, the giver and the priests.  Eating before the Father was a form of worship. 

What did you see in the passage?  When was the last time you worshiped the Father through your eating?