SCRIPTURE: Leviticus 22 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: 1. Doing the right thing is not enough, doing it for the right reason matters too. The Lord challenges the people to do the right thing – that is, offer the sacrifices in a proper, honourable way – and to do it for the right reason – that is, to honour the…
set apart to serve
SCRIPTURE: Leviticus 21 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: The Lord assigns a special role to the priests. They represent God among the people. In this role, they must be seen as “set apart”, different, holy. As God is perfect and holy, they must represent as much as possible that perfection and holiness. This was not because they were better than…
I do not condemn you
SCRIPTURE: Leviticus 20 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: As I read this chapter, I think about the time when Jesus was asked about whether the adulterous woman should be stoned [John 8:2-11]. He said to them, ‘If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.’ [John 8:7] According to this chapter, this…
they’re good for you!
SCRIPTURE: Leviticus 19 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: 1. “I am the Lord”. This refrain seems to be saying: first, that the Lord is the powerful God that rescued them, so take His commands seriously; second, that this is how things work with the Lord, as opposed to the religious practices of neighbouring nations. 2. This mixed list of laws…
sexual inferno
SCRIPTURE: Leviticus 18 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: 1. Sex, like fire, is a beautiful gift. In the fireplace, it provides warmth and comfort. But outside of healthy boundaries, that is, when it jumps from the fireplace to the curtains, we have disaster. Sex, like fire, causes a lot of damage when it is taken out of its safe, intended…
practicing the presence of Jesus
“Practicing the presence of Christ means being a living example of the life of Jesus. This raises the stakes enormously. It means that our lives need to become increasingly aligned with the example of Jesus. It doesn’t require sinless obedience – as if that’s possible anyway. It means, though, increasingly becoming people of justice, kindness,…
one with Jesus
SCRIPTURE: Leviticus 17 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: 1. After 400 years exposed to a variety of Egyptian religious practices, the Israelites must now radically reform their own practices. Common to the religions of the day included regular sacrifices anywhere and everywhere to the multitudes of gods all around them, cultic sexual practices as well as blood drinking. The people…
its curtains for the curtain!
SCRIPTURE: Leviticus 16 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: 1. Between the people and God there was a curtain. Once a year the priest was to go behind that curtain with blood, to cover the sin of the priest and the people. The message was plain: we do not and should not have the confidence or arrogance to assume that we…
taking God seriously
SCRIPTURE: Leviticus 15 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: 1. Another day of cleansing laws. Verse 31 seems to summarize the point. ‘You must keep the Israelites separate from things that make them unclean, so they will not die in their uncleanness for defiling my dwelling place, which is among them.’ The plain sense of these words is that our being…
I just don’t get these laws!!!
SCRIPTURE: Leviticus 14 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: 1. OK, I admit it, I am getting tired of these readings. What an elaborate system of dealing with the disease, and of getting clean. I get that the disease were dangerous, but so much ritual and sacrifice to be declared clean – with guilt offerings, sin offerings, burnt and grain offerings….