Tag: Leviticus

Making It Right

There is much todo about sin throughout the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). And much of it is sin against God. The things we do that are an affront to Him and His law. But God isn’t simply worried about how we treat Him, but also how we treat each other.

In Leviticus 6 God gives Moses specific instruction regarding the mistreatment of each other. The Lord specifically cites cheating, security deposits, stealing, fraud, lost property, and lying under oath. Then He hits Moses with that catchall of “or any other such sin”. God was deeply concerned that we deal fairly with each other.

But what’s interesting is not that God says these things are sins, but rather what He says we are expected to do about it. The pattern so far has been sin:offering, sin:offering, sin:offering. So naturally that’s what we expect to see here, but it is not. Because there is a crucial difference. We are not committing a sin against God that ONLY requires an offering, we are committing a sin against a fellow image-bearer of God, a member of our community of faith. We cannot simply give an offering to God and dust our hands of the situation.

God says explicitly that we have to make it right first. Give back what you stole, took, found, or obtained. AND THEN add 20% on top. It is not enough that we seek to get right with God while there is still a matter outstanding with our sisters and brothers. We are called to go over and above to make it right, and only THEN do we go to God for the final forgiveness.

This is an act of contrition, repentance, and reconciliation. How can we stand before God and claim to be sorry while the person we wronged is left hurting? It isn’t possible. We need to make it right before we can make it right.

Leviticus 4-6 | 048/365

The Stand-In

Just a quick note today; It is fascinating to me that when God visits destruction upon the land of Egypt by sending an angel of death to take the lives of all the firstborn sons, He told the Israelites how to avoid this fate. By marking their doorposts. And so these firstborn sons were spared.

And after this, the Lord said that all firstborn sons were to be offered to Him (and obviously purchased back with another offering), recognizing that the most valuable “first fruits” were the Lord’s.

On an apologetic note, this isn’t because God finds males to be more valuable than females, it’s merely because the PEOPLE at that time (and for a great many years to follow, sadly) valued the males more than the females, and the firstborn were the elite of that group as well.

Anyhow, here again we see foreshadowing of Jesus, as the Lord no longer requires the firstborn male of each family be offered to Him. Instead the Levites (the priests) will stand in for the firstborns.

Hmmm… a firstborn priest who will stand in our place. Very interesting!

Don’t take for granted the price paid to purchase you! God loves you very much. And go share that love with someone else this weekend!

Numbers 8:1-9:14, Leviticus 1:1-3:17 | 047/365

Digging Deeper

Leviticus often gets a bad rap for being “boring”. Disagree. Leviticus is drastically underrated. Numbers, however, I am fully ready to admit can seem like a slog at times. Today’s passage is a prime example of just that. Upon first reading this can be a dry, repetitive list seemingly without any purpose. But I think there are several things we can pull out of today’s chunk. This is sort of a potpourri, but next year I’ll go deeper on one of them. haha

1) The Tabernacle and its furnishings have been set aside for the Lord, but now they are anointed for that purpose. Much like the Levites themselves are anointed before the people for service to the Lord, so too are the instruments of that service. Why would this ceremony be necessary?

2) When God speaks to Moses, He speaks from the Place of Atonement, the Mercy Seat atop the Ark. This underscores not God’s holiness, justice, or provision… but His mercy. Why is that what He chooses to highlight?

3) All 12 tribes come on consecutive days to bring the exact same offering. And each is counted out in meticulous detail. Why is it important that all members of the community of faith are contributing to the work of the faith with the same devotion and giving?

4) The tribes of Judah, Issachar, Zubulun, Reuben, and Simeon are the first to bring their offerings. These presentations do not follow birth order… so what (if anything) is the significance to this order? Perhaps worth noting that the first 5 tribes are all the direct descendants of Jacob’s first wife, Leah. What does this signal about marriage?

5) Of all the tribes, Judah is first to offer. What do we know about the future of the tribe of Judah that might make this noteworthy?

We could still look at the animals, ages, genders, weights, materials, contents, etc. What I’m saying is: don’t settle for a surface reading. All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training to equip us for every good work.

Numbers 7 | 046/365