Most are pursuing happiness not holiness. They want Jesus to solve their problems and carry their burdens but they don’t want Him to control their lives and change their character.
The first three chapters of Levitus describe the five types of sacrifices the Israelites were to offer in their newly completed tabernacle. The first three, designated as “sweet savor” offerings, were voluntary expressions of worship and commitment to God. The final 2 sacrifices were required to restore an individual’s fellowship with God. The sweet savor offerings consisted of 1. The burnt offering, signifying the offerer’s full devotion to God 2. The grain offering, a testimony to God’s daily provision, and 3. The thank offering, declaring the worshiper’s thanksgiving to God.
Are you a “praise planner”? Praise planners are people who regularly set aside time to praise God and acknowledge their dependence upon Him. Many of his daily provisions – the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the cars we drive—may seem so commonplace that we tend to take them for granted. But any demonstration of His care is a fitting occasion for us to offer a sacrifice of praise to God.
Praise is so pleasing to God that He has instituted the means whereby the people can praise Him. For the Israelites, the avenue was through sacrifices. For us today, the outward arrangements are different, but the response should be the same. God wants us to offer Him a spiritual “sacrifice of praise” Heb. 13:15. And He wants us to do it continually – beginning right now! I Thess. 5:18
If the smoke from your “altar” has been a little thin lately, perhaps you need to take a “minute vacation” to concentrate on praising God. Take a pencil and paper and mentally walk through the past week of your life – all 168 hours of it. Which events come to mind that show God’s care at work in your life? Make those the substance of a “sacrifice of praise” God loves the aroma when you do!
A drop of praise is unsuitable acknowledgment for an ocean of mercy.
“The truth shall make you free, but first it will often make you miserable.
A CLEAR CONSCIENCE: Lev. speaks of restitution…begin when you have done wrong by confessing as sin to the Lord, then to the person offended and attempt to make it right! Maintain a clear conscience.
Symbols 2:12-13…leaven, honey…not burnt…fermentation – symbolic of sin. SALT…v.13…”you are the salt of the earth”…The salt was used….
Chp. 4-7 The last 2 sacrifices that God instituted for Israel were mandatory rather than voluntary, and served to restore the offerer to fellowship with God. The sin offering covered wrongs committed unintentionally by any member of the nation and reminded the person of the cost of sin. The guilt offering provided for restoration of the offender to fellowship with God and repayment for any injury or property loss caused by the offense.
What are 3 priorities in your life. Arranging your priorities in the order of their importance will help you determine both the destination of your life and the direction you must move in order to reach it. God was the focus of Israel’s sacrifices, not the offerer. The centrality of God in the life of the nation should serve as a reminder to you of the place God desires to have in your life as well. God will never be satisfied with second or third place in your priorities. Take another look at your list of priorities. Is God # 1?
Chp. 8 – 10 After a description of the sacrifices come the details regarding the sacrificers…the priests. Holy sacrifices demand a holy priesthood, so Moses consecrates Aaron and his 4 sons to minister in the tabernacle. After 7 days of ceremonial preparation, the priestly function is inaugurated amid great celebration. The joyful week ends abruptly, however, with the disobedience and death of 2 of Aaron’s sons, leading to a Divine “code of conduct” that would henceforth regulate the activities for the priests.
Sad verse in our Scripture for this week: DOING GOD’S WILL MY WAY… Nadab and Abihu’s premature deaths ends with this somber statement “And Aaron was speechless 10:3 No tears…no outpouring of grief…no national lament for the deaths of 2 religious leaders. Just the pathetic sight of a bereaved father whose sons had never learned to respect God’s house…to love God’s Word…to obey God’s voice…to listen attentively to God’s spokesman? Children have a great capacity to close their ears to advice and open their eyes to example Around the dinner table or at bedtime, make the story of Nadab and Abihu the focus of attention. Their deaths underscored the importance of strict obedience by the priest and careful attention to the holiness of God. Ask each child in your family what he or she learned from the story about the importance of obeying God’s Word and reverencing God’s house. It could save them…and you..much pain later on.
A father is a man who expects his son to be as good a man as he meant to be.
I Peter 1:13-16 Certain laws no longer apply, the principles they reveal remain valid today. However, whereas the sacrifices could only teach about Divine forgiveness, the sacrificial death of Jesus effectively removes human sin. Heb. 10:1-10
The first 10 ch. Of Lev. Deal with the sacrificial system and the priesthood that oversees it.
Chp. 11-16 concentrate on sustaining the sacred relationship with God by removing that which defiles humanity. This maintenance may be acocomplished either by avoiding certain things or activities or by completing an appropriate action. Being God’s holy people demands a distinctive lifestyle. There are an assortment of laws in ch. 11 – 15 designed to promote ceremonial purity in the nation. Cleanliness is an indispensable part of worshiping a holy God. Whether in matters of food, hygiene,disease, or contact with polluting influences. For the Israelites this involved dietary laws, strict health requirements, and temporary quarantines. In minute detail each defiling situation is outlines along with the steps that must be taken for the person to be declared ceremonially clean and therefore fit to worship God in the congregation.
Think back to your last visit to the supermarket and make a list of items you recall seeing on the shelves whose principal use is for cleansing – soaps, bleaches, brushes, detergents, etc. Now ponder this simple yet profound truth. THE REASON SO MUSH EMPHASIS MUST BE PLACED ON GETTING THINGS CLEAN IS BECAUSE IT IS SO EASY TO GET THINGS DIRTY. Even a vacant house collect dust but fill it with a family and assorted pets and you have a ready made market for the ‘CLEANSER COMPANIES”.
The same is true in the spiritual realm. Polluting influences are everywhere over the airwaves, on the printed page, in the conversations you overhear. Unless you exercise care, your heart and mind will soon be as soiled as your environment. Even with care, there will be daily need for God’s cleansing formula. Tape the words of I John 1:9 on a box of your household detergent or cleanser to remind you to watch out for dirt…and wash up often.
Bro. Johnny…close and clean!
Sin’s treatment demands cleansing and constant alertness I Cor. 11:31 The forgiveness of sin, like the healing of leprosy can be effected by God alone.
What man uncovers, God will cover; what man covers, God will uncover.
Once each year, on the day of atonement, the nation gathered to watch as the high priest entered the Holy Place. Fresh blood was spilled on the altar to cover the sins of the nation for another year—to postpone yet again the final day of reckoning for those sins. Because of the centrality of blood in the nation’s worship, its use was prohibited for any other purpose than that of sacrifice to God, for “it is the blood that makes atonement because it is the life.
God requires satisfaction because He is holiness, but He makes satisfaction because He is love!
Have you ever been the scapegoat for someone else’s irresponsible action? The one bearing the blame for others…those least able to defend themselves.
The scapegoat expressions comes from Lev. 16. Every year on the day of atonement Aaron would select a young goat and laying both hands upon its head, confess over it all the sins of the people of Israel and then send it into the desert. Presumably to die. Just as the goat killed for the sin offering covered the penalty of the nation’s sin for another year, so the scapegoat carried away but never cured the guilt of the nation. Only Jesus Christ, coming both as the Perfect Sacrifice and the Perfect Scapegoat, could deal with both. God the Father sent His Son to be MY scapegoat.
Covered and Protected for another year…the words atonement, appease, and pacify all come from the same Hebrew root meaning to cover which appears more than 100 times in the O.T. The same root occurs in Gen. 6:14 where Noah is commanded to seal the ark with tar. Just as the tar covered the ark and protected the ark’s passengers, so the shed blood of the sacrifice stood between sinful man and holy God whose law had been violated.
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