Friday - Leviticus 11 - Dietary Laws

The root purpose behind all dietetic judgments can be found in 1 Corinthians 10:31. To start from the very beginning, I suppose we have no reason to assume that there was any chemical pollution (per se) in the fruit that came from the tree of the knowledge of good evil. God had said, "Don't eat it!" – that was ultimately the only thing that mattered.  Going one step further, I don't know that any argument can be made that Jesus' body (and certainly not the bread which we eat representing it) would have had any physical peculiarities to it… if samples of it had been examined under a microscope (Isaiah 53:2 & Romans 8:3). God's judgment on anything is the quintessential determinate of its wholesomeness or repulsiveness. There is no intrinsic beauty in anything apart from the reflection of God's character that can be seen in it. Hence, spiritual realities are more significant than material ones. In fact, material matters only serve to illustrate, demonstrate and indicate spiritual conditions (II Corinthians 4:18). 

Thursday - Leviticus 10 - Fire & Fear

Context is always SO instructive. So, let me remind you of how the last chapter ended. "The glory of the LORD appeared unto all the people.   And there came a fire out from before the LORD, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: which when  all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces" (Leviticus 9:23-24). A fire of God's blessing and approval burned upon the brazen altar, but that wasn't the only fire that day. While the miraculous fire was burning, Aaron's sons Nadab & Abihu foolishly added their own variety of fire into the service of the Tabernacle.  The problem was that they did it without God's commandment or approval.  This caused God to manifest yet another brand of fire…the fire of His anger (11 Kings 1:10 and 12, Psalms 11:6, Luke 17:29 and Revelations 14:10 and 21:8).  God killed them with a second blast of miraculous fire (Leviticus 10:2).

God had spent so much time giving very precise instruction concerning all that was to be done in the Tabernacle. Evidently Nadab and his brother looked with contempt at God's commands (perhaps because they were under the influence of an intoxicating beverage - see Leviticus 10:9). Their irreverence cost them their lives. If you want to know why God judged them so harshly, just ask Him. His reason is recorded for us, "I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified" (Leviticus 10:3).

The rest of the events following immediately on the heels of this divine execution are somewhat peculiar. Aaron did not mourn the death of his sons, Aaron's other sons were commanded not to mourn the death of their brothers, some other relatives of the family were  instructed by Moses to take the dead priests outside of the camp for burial and a prompt resumption of the rituals was expected. Now, though a continuation of the ceremonies was demanded, they ran into an immediate hitch. The animal that should have been eaten by the priests had been burned in its entirety without the camp.

Moses reacted with indignation to this departure from the prescribed process. And, no wonder he was upset. He had just witnessed God's wrath against the first vacillation and had heard a threat from God concerning the potential for more judgment (Leviticus 10:9). So, Moses rebuked Eleazar and lthamar. But Aaron defended them telling Moses (and God) that they had burned the parts that would normally have been eaten because he (Aaron) had told them to do so. Aaron had evidently considered himself unworthy to eat of the holy things after his sons had demonstrated impiety. He had, it seems, ordered the sacrifice burned completely due to his own fear of God's wrath. Apparently his explanation was acceptable.  This is a reminder that our attitude holds precedence over our actions.

Tuesday - Leviticus 9 - A Daily Routine & A Unique Show of Power

This chapter gives an account of the first regular day of ministry in the life of the first priests. Seven days of full consecration had been fulfilled and so Moses instructed Aaron to commence regular service.  A sin offering, the burnt offerings, a meal offering and the peace offerings were brought before the Lord in accordance with the prescription that had been given previously.

Now, just because a precedential system (which would be reenacted thousands of times in the future) was the business of the day, that doesn't mean that that day was a mundane one. In fact, the glory of God was promised and granted on that wonderful day (Leviticus 9:4 & 23). God blessed the people with a manifestation of His beautiful presence and even poured miraculous fire upon the brazen altar.  It's not every day that God dispenses visible fire as a token of His pleasure (Leviticus 9:24, I Kings 18:38, II Chronicles 7:1& Acts 2:3). And, the people responded appropriately with shouts and abjection.

Monday - Leviticus 8 - Setting Things in Motion

Exodus 28 and 39 recorded the instructions for and the construction of the holy garments of Aaron, and Exodus 29 told how to commence the utilization of those garments. Here in Leviticus 8 we have the story of the actual ceremony that those three passages prepared us for.

Moses served as God's minister in setting the Aaronic priesthood into motion. He came before the Lord with his brother and his nephews, with the anointing oil, with a young bull, with two rams, with     unleavened bread and with the people of Israel. He obeyed God's command by ceremoniously washing Aaron and his sons, by clothing them with all of the garments appointed for their office, by anointing the holy things and Aaron with oil, by slaying the sin offering and carrying out the proper rituals attached to it, by slaying the burnt offering and fulfilling the assigned rites connected to it, by anointing Aaron and his sons with the blood and by commanding them in accordance with what God had instructed.

Aaron and his sons did as Moses commanded. They boiled the meat from the other ram and ate of it. And, they remained in continual service in the tabernacle for the next week. The Aaronic priesthood and all that it represented was in place. Of course, it was a temporary arrangement. A greater order was actually already in place (Hebrews 7:6, 9 & 10). Our high priest ministers according to the rituals of a higher priesthood. For Christ, the commencement of His priesthood marked the completion of it. He sat down at the right hand of the Father on high, never to be needed again to make an atoning sacrifice (Hebrews 10:10).

Saturday - Leviticus 7 - In Conclusion

This passage teaches that the priests were allowed to keep certain parts of certain sacrifices for themselves. Every priest was allowed to eat part of certain sacrifices, if they ate it while they were in the foremost section of the Tabernacle. Not only did they eat of some sacrifices, but the skins of burnt offerings became the possession of the priest who offered it. It is likely that they used it as something of a currency.  Remember, the tribe of Levi did not have the same opportunities as those of the other tribes to earn wages, so God arranged for their keep in this way.

Additionally, some of the meat offerings became the possession of the priests (Lamentations 3:24). In some cases, it was kept by the priest making the offering and in other cases it was commonly held.

The burnt offering, the meat offering, the sin offering, the trespass offering and the peace offering... all had separate and specific purposes and meanings. Whether in worship, adoration, fellowship, repentance or in thanksgiving - every offering pointed in some way to the ONE who would come and fulfill all of the demands of every sacrifice, forever.

Friday - Leviticus 6 – More Regulations

We can't turn all these religious regulations into a tidy little package. For the Levites living back in the day, this hefty set of rules would've been much easier to understand. It was the career occupation of this priestly tribe to understand and teach these laws. And, they didn't just read about these rituals, they acted them out repeatedly. That kind of perspective would make these things much less complicated.

The devil is a liar and is the father of lies. God is the God of truth. Hence, lying is particularly hated by our God. In this chapter God laid out some distinct clarifications concerning deception. Now, while we might sin by lying to ourselves or to God, several brands of lying to one's neighbor are mentioned here. Lying about something that was entrusted to your care, or about a pledge, or about robbery, or about a lost and found item... under the OT law, any of those lies that cost one's neighbor some specific amount required precise arrangements to rectify that wrong. The guilty party had to restore the principal value along with a 20% interest penalty to the person who was wronged. On the same day that the amount was returned to the wronged party a trespass offering (a ram) was to be offered to God with a priest presiding over the reconciliation.

The good news in all of this was that God promised and demanded that the criminal was to be forgiven "for any thing of all that he had done in trespassing" (Leviticus 6:7). Anything! A window into God's mercy is seen here in the law. Hallelujah!

Thursday - Leviticus 5 - The Trespass Offering

Guilty, guilty, guilty!  What do we do when we are guilty?  Well, in God's economy, we confess our guilt and we seek atonement. Now, for the Jews in Moses' day the forgiveness came at a price. A ram, a young female lamb, a young female goat, two doves, two pigeons or a five-pound bag of flour had to be sacrificed. The sacrifice selection depended on the nature of the sin and upon the ability of the offender.

If the transgression involved either a desecration of some holy thing or a direct violation of one of God's commandments, then a ram was required. If a person heard someone make a commitment and then failed to testify in defense of whoever was supposed to be the recipient of that commitment; or, if a person touched any unclean thing such as an animal carcass or some human pollution; or, if a person made a rash commitment ... he was to consider himself guilty. A simpler trespass offering was demanded (i.e. a lamb, kid, dove, etc.).