2 Timothy 2:14

“Remind them of these things...”

July 3, 2011

Remind them of these things, ...

There is a song that we used to sing in church when I was younger that goes like this: “Keep in mind that Jesus Christ has died for us and is risen from the dead. He is our saving Lord. He is joy for all ages.” Ministers need to help people to keep things like this in mind. Man is a marvelous creature. He can keep certain things in his mind. He can weigh one thing against another, recognizing that certain matters are of utmost importance for his life, while other issues may be true, but are more peripheral. Through hymns and through our repeated pronouncements of primary matters as part of our worship of God, we remind one another in the presence of God about those truths that we most wish to remember and live out. This is a good use of reason and speech.

and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, ...

How we use our words is of utmost importance in the church. There are ways of speaking and listening that will enrich our souls together in the presence of God, but not all speech is helpful. In particular, ministers must teach the people of God not to “quarrel about words.” The words that Paul is referring to are connected to our beliefs and practice of faith. Not all religious speech is good. Some of it is disruptive or even destructive. There is a need to speak clearly about the faith. That is commendable. But are our words generating unnecessary wrangling, even creating harmful divisions among people? This can take at least two forms that both need to be avoided.

1. Unnecessarily Provocative Speech: Some ministers teach their congregations by example to be unnecessarily provocative. They love the fun of being viewed as outrageous, alarming more cautious hearers. They attract attention and get laughs by starting fires, and then employ their reasoning skills and rhetoric to show why their opinions are right in line with the Bible and church history. They love to appear intelligent or witty, and they don't mind if their words start fruitless quarrels.

2. Defensive Fear Speech: Other ministers are so afraid of what might be viewed by their peers as unorthodox, that they use their words to raise unnecessary walls between different groups of Christians. They are not willing to charitably consider the ambiguity of a weaker brother's words or religious experience. They talk to be right.

which does no good,

Both of these ways of communicating create unnecessary strife and division among people. One may seem very liberal, and the other very conservative, but they are both bad. There is a way to speak plainly in defense of the truth as both Paul and Jesus did. These men did not set out to start trouble for fun or out of fear. They spoke for the purpose of love. They did not speak to start quarrels, but to end them.

but only ruins the hearers.

The word wrangling of the proud is not godly. That kind of speech ruins the hearers. Some will sense the proud spirit behind the speaker, and they will be moved further away from the truth of the faith. Others will be impressed by the intelligence or the obvious orthodoxy of the speaker, and become imitators of bad behavior. The second is probably worse than the first, but either way, it only ruins the hearers.

The ethical use of religious speech requires a careful consideration of what the words of the speaker will accomplish. Do you have any reasonable hope that your speech will produce anything other than a fruitless quarrel? What will your speech do to those who are third-party hearers? Will it help them to grow in Christian love?

The Lord Jesus did not use His words for His own entertainment or to pump Himself up in the view of those who would hear Him. If He spoke in a controversy, He spoke to end the quarrel, and not to continue it. See Mark 11:29-33. This was not only the way that He spoke. It was also the way that He lived. His death on the cross was not undertaken in order to start a quarrel about the substitutionary atonement, but first to bring peace between God and man, and then between Jews and Gentiles who would come to Him for forgiveness. “Keep in mind that Jesus Christ has died for us and is risen from the dead. He is our saving Lord. He is joy for all ages.”

Leviticus 20

Idolatry was not allowed in Israel. It was not to be a nation where individual conscience ruled. It was not a land where travelers with different religious traditions had the freedom to worship God in their own way. The Lord, the God of heaven and earth, had expressed His sovereign power by taking this small territory and announcing that He was giving it to a chosen people, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Visitors would be welcome there, but not to worship foreign Gods. The Lord insisted on this.

Certain foreign religious practices were worthy of special mention as having nothing to do with the way of life in Canaan under God's reign. One of these practices was the religious offering of your children to be killed before a pagan deity. For those who participated in these practices, offering their children to the god Molech, the penalty was death. Where the person was foolishly spared by their clan, the clan too became implicated in this evil.

The death penalty was also required in the case of an Israelite who turned to the occult in order to communicate with demons or with the dead in an effort to uncover the secret things that belong to the Lord. To be put to death was to be cut off from the assembly of Israel on earth. The people of God were to imitate His holiness. These prohibitions were important for the safety of the Lord's people. The one who cursed father and mother deserved death. This was also the case for the one engaging in prohibited sexual practices. In the case of consensual sex prohibited by the Lord's statutes, both parties were to be put to death.

There might be some practices that would carry a penalty less than death, and there was some ambiguity about the sanction in certain cases, yet this much was clear: a guilty party in matters of sexual misconduct had to “bear his iniquity.” This was a different world than those places where the expression of personal passions was seen as a virtue. The consequences for lack of self-control in Israel were very serious. In one case it might mean that those involved would “be cut off from among their people.” In another it was simply said that they would “bear their iniquity.” In yet another those who were in the wrong would “die childless.” All of this would be an affront to those who believed in their right to do whatever they chose to do with their own bodies. The Israelite was never told by God that he owned his own body. He had been bought by God out of the land of Egypt through the blood of the lamb. He was not his own.

The land that the Lord was giving to Israel was described as holy and alive. It was a land that was capable of vomiting out the people in it. The behavior of the people could sicken the land enough to expel them from living there. But if the people would be holy as God was holy, they would live in perfect peace with the land.

The land was a good land, but it was a land for those who lived in imitation of their good God. To enjoy the land's milk and honey the people needed to live in accord with the statutes of heaven's God, and not according to the customs of the nations.

The holy God of Israel had separated His people from the peoples of the other nations. Therefore they needed to eat a certain way, and worship a certain way, and think about the future a certain way, as people who trusted the word of their God. They could not live according to pragmatism, finding by trial and error those things that they judged to work best. They could not live by democracy according to the will of the majority. The land would not put up with that. They could not live as anarchists or as radical libertarians, where the choice of each individual or group was allowed the most free reign. They lived as children of God in God's house, on God's property, according to God's rules.

The alternative to this pathway of radical obedience to the Lord was to be cut off from Israel. Israel was the kingdom of God. This was not up for discussion. It was the Lord's fact, regardless of what Israel thought about it, or what any of the surrounding nations thought regarding the land, the people in it, or the God that they worshiped.

When Jesus came to save us, He came preaching and teaching the kingdom of God. The kingdom that He established with His death and resurrection was not just from Beersheba to Dan. It was the kingdom of God's reign over heaven and earth. Like Israel under the law, it would have to be a place where God's word was the last word. It was a kingdom of those who had been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, a people who had been bought for a price.

But it was also a kingdom where obedience would be granted to the people in fullest measure at just the right time as a gift. We do not see that yet in ourselves, but those in heaven experience it now, and all God's children will experience it one day, for Christ has won this with His life and death. The church should live as the kingdom of God in accord with the full New Testament word today, but we long for the fullness of the kingdom in our hearts and in the new land of a renewed heaven and earth where we will live at peace with God, with one another, and even with the land.

Leviticus 19

The Lord is the definition of holiness. When Jesus came, holiness was born and dwelt among the people of Israel. Prior to that moment, the law of God was the best revelation of God's holiness. His coming provided a better revelation, not only of the mercy of God, but also of His righteousness.

His holiness is not only a revelation of who God is. It is also a directive to those who are called to show our love for God by a sincere and devoted imitation of Him in every possible way. “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.”

Words like holiness and love cannot be left as vague generalities. We need more teaching that helps us to fill out the details of what a holy and loving life is like. More than anything else, we need to see an example of love and holiness in a person who is living out the details large and small, in a way that meets God's standards.

Jesus did this. He revered his mother and his “father” Joseph, Mary's husband. He also showed perfect reverence for His heavenly Father, showing us what it meant to have a true devotion to God.

He kept the Lord's Sabbath. The Pharisees did not think so, but they had marred Sabbath observance with their unbiblical traditions. The Son of Man was Lord of the Sabbath. He perfectly displayed the heavenly wholeness of Sabbath rest in His healing ministry on that great day.

He kept Himself from all idols. This was a part of His holiness. He knew that God was not the creation of man. He became the peace offering for us, and He rose on the third day. He kept Himself far from every detestable practice, but He ate with tax collectors and sinners who were not careful in their observance of Old Testament ceremonies. His holiness found perfect expression with His love as He touched those whom the self-righteous avoided.

Jesus loved His neighbor as Himself. He was the good Samaritan. He paid everything necessary for our complete healing. He provided bread for thousands, not just the gleanings that God required Israel to leave for the destitute. Jesus gave His body and blood for the eternal well-being of millions. He came for the poor and for the foreigner, and He supplied everything necessary for them to have abundant life.

He did not steal in order to achieve His great storehouse of righteousness and peace. He never dealt falsely with anyone. He never lied. He came in the name of His heavenly Father, and His life was a perfect display of holy reverence.

We cannot follow Him by oppressing our neighbors, robbing from them, and ignoring their weakness. If we follow the one who gave sight to the blind, we cannot take advantage of those who cannot see or hear.

We cannot say we follow the King of kings and then use the court system in an unjust way. We follow the one who is the truth, so our public and private dealings must be true. We cannot prefer the poor at the cost of honesty. And we cannot prefer the rich in order to win a powerful friend or personal gain.

We follow the Suffering Servant who faced the cross as “a lamb that was led to the slaughter.” He did not slander others. He did not bring a reviling accusation against anyone. He stood up for the life of His neighbor at great cost to Himself. Holiness and love met in Him. This was salvation and the way of spirit-filled obedience for our lives.

Israel was to be committed like Jesus, not only to love God. Flowing from that first great commandment was a second that was like it, to love neighbor as self. This could only happen in a fallen world by being committed to working out troubles, and putting off the hatred that leads to murder.

God's people needed to honor Him in their hearts as Lord. They needed to keep His statutes. Some of these were parables of holiness that they needed to meditate upon. “You shall not let your cattle breed with a different kind. You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor shall you wear a garment of cloth made of two kinds of material.” The Israelite was to consider what these verses might mean for the consecrated people of God surrounded by people that did things in a different way.

The nations of the world would abuse slaves in every way, abuse the land to satisfy their impatient desires, and eat blood in their ravenous desire for food. They would rush to those who claimed to know the future because they needed answers about hidden things now. They would follow style more than substance, and deface their bodies to make a statement to others or to their gods. They would sell their daughters as a way to get money now. They would have no rest, no trust, no time to truly seek God and find Him, though in Him they lived and moved and had their being. They would act as brute beasts satisfying their lusts, all the while turning to spiritualists to gain hidden secrets from the dead or from demons. They would withhold due respect from the elderly or ignore the needs of travelers passing through their lands.

Israel needed to be different. They needed to remember that God had redeemed them from Egypt. We have been redeemed from the cruel bondage of sin and death through the blood of Jesus. When He dwelt among Israel He lived the consecrated life of holiness and love. His people needed to receive Him and then to truly honor Him, setting Him apart in their hearts as Lord, following Him in the details of true obedience.

Leviticus 18

It would not have been safe for the men of Israel to model their sexual practices after the people of Egypt or the people of Canaan. The Lord gave them specific rules that they were to follow. His statutes were a pathway for new life in this important aspect of human behavior.

Much of what God had to say in this area came in prohibitions spoken especially to males. This is important to consider. Males needed to be constrained in this area. They needed to understand the word “no.” Societal taboos for Israel were supposed to come from the Lord's good statutes.

Men could not “uncover nakedness” of a close relative. This was a good precaution. Too much liberty in nakedness among sinners leads to bondage in sin. The nakedness of a person was not for anyone based on their own desires. Your father had your father's wife. Sisters were not for you in that way. Neither were daughters or granddaughters. A girl brought up in your home was not for you. Girls needed to be safe from the desires of relatives. An aunt was not for you. You could not have a woman and her daughter or granddaughter. Men will develop depraved attachments unless they are stopped. They needed to know that some connections were wrong in God's eyes and were prohibited.

Men needed to restrain themselves from certain sexual practices. When a woman was ceremonially unclean, her husband was not to lie with her sexually. This was mentioned in a previous chapter, together with the way of cleansing if this rule was violated.

To lie sexually with a neighbor's wife was never allowed. To sacrifice your children to pagan sexual practices was never allowed. To lie with a male as with a woman was never allowed. To lie with an animal in some sexual way was never allowed.

At the end of this long list, mention is made of something a woman should not do. She must not give herself to an animal. All of the other commandments were about what men must not do.

To be like the nations around them in any of these practices would be to “make yourselves unclean.” God was removing these nations from the land because of their unclean practices. Their behaviors were not worthy of imitation.

The Lord was unwilling to yield to the sexual preferences of men. Israel was to be different than the other nations. Not only would the sons of Jacob be subject to these statutes. Anyone who was a visitor had to restrict his behavior in the same way.

The facts about prohibited male sexual behaviors were clearly presented here for all to consider both in Israel and in any nation that would hear Israel's laws: 1. God was throwing the nations out of the land in part because of a lack of sexual restraint among their men. 2. Israelite men were prohibited from following this undisciplined example. 3. If the men of Israel ignored this warning, the Lord promised to remove them from the land as well. 4. Those who did these things would be cut off from the Lord's people.

This rule that put limits on sexual expression was not optional. The Lord considered the behavior of the Canaanites abominable. These prohibited ways of life had become customary to them. This was unclean before God.

The Lord identified Himself personally with these prohibitions. He told the people He had redeemed from the land of Egypt that they must never make themselves unclean in this way, and then He followed those words with a solemn announcement: “I am the Lord your God.” Lack of discipline here could be fatal to individuals and to the nation, but it was also a violation of relationship with God.

There are two visions of male sexual expression, and they are not compatible with each other. One looks at life as a man's playground. He wants to be at liberty to try everything he can think of toward the goal of his own enjoyment. The alternative is a vision with the courage to say that some pleasures are not allowed.

Saying no to unlimited sexual self-expression is not just about sex. It is about learning necessary habits of self-denial and passing those on to the next generation of boys. When the King of the Jews came to die for His bride, He did not present a vision of unbridled sexual fulfillment in this life or the next. If anything, He showed a fuller picture of restraint than we might have learned from this chapter in Leviticus. His celebration of marriage was based on the one man-one woman pattern of Genesis 2. Men needed to say no not only to undisciplined actions, but even to undisciplined sexual contemplations. Christ's love for His bride was exclusive, pure, and good. His symbol of that love for the church was not the bed, but the cross.

It is never too late to take the chains of unbridled passion off of our necks and to accept the alternative of the self-denying love of Christ. Many have made that choice. Many who have made mistakes more than once have found the grace again to make a new start. In terms of all sexual sin it can certainly be said, “Such were some of you.” But we have been washed of all uncleanness by the blood of the Lamb.

2 Timothy 2:13

If we are faithless, ...

Without faith, it is impossible to please God. This is what the author of Hebrews says. A person who wants to please God needs to believe that God is, and that He is the Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. The Apostle Paul teaches us that everything that does not proceed from faith is sin. Faithlessness and all its ugly yield is sin.

Faith in God is not a mere belief, it is a settled trust in God, a resting in Him that produces wonderful fruits when we yield to Him as Lord. The Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 3 instructs the church, “in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy.” This is where faith moves toward heaven in beautiful ways. In your heart, your mind, your will, you set apart Jesus as your most worthy delight, and then you honor your Savior as Lord. This soul commitment to call Jesus Lord with real integrity is a commitment to obey. This is where the church needs to be.

But what if we are faithless? What if we, like Peter, reject the way of the cross after confessing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God? What if we refuse to hear the warnings of the one we say we will never deny, and then in one night we deny Him three times? What if we act out in ways that are without rest, without trust, without faith?

He remains faithful—

Paul gives Timothy the good word of the grace of Jesus: “He remains faithful.” God is not like us. He does not waver in His commitments. He remains faithful to His own.

To us this may seem like reckless love. But what would it mean for us if God's commitment was less than this? What would be the acceptable amount of faithlessness before God walked away from us? If God demanded perfect faithfulness in us, that would be the same as demanding perfect obedience. Then grace would not be grace at all, but works; and our salvation would be dependent on our own perfect obedience. If that was the way with God, who could ever be saved?

For he cannot deny himself.

But God is rich in mercy and utterly committed to His Israel and His church. He may discipline us even to the point of what Peter, Moses, and Israel faced. What God can do for a person does not end when His days on this earth are over. God can do discipline.

But God cannot deny Himself. Why is that relevant to the question of what He will do with us? The story is here in the Lord's Supper. You are in Him in His death. When you eat this bread and drink this cup you receive the Son of God who took you with Him in His death. If He denied those for whom He died, it would be a denial of Himself.

Then what does it mean when He says that He will deny some who thought for sure that they were His most faithful servants? The surprise is this: He never knew them. But for the weak, for the prostitute, the thief, the homosexual, who truly have been claimed by Him... He loves you. And if you have an ugly moment, day, year, decade of faithlessness, He remains faithful, because you are in Him, and He cannot, He will not, deny Himself.

Leviticus 17

God, in the Law of Moses, prepared His people for the day when there would be a permanent location for sacrifices. While they traveled through the wilderness, the mobility of the tabernacle was an essential feature of His worship house. But one day Israel would live in the land that God had promised to give to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob forever. Then the Lord would designate a permanent location for sacrifice.

At least at this stage in the history of God's workings with His people, the place of sacrifice was always on the move. Yet the tent of meeting was still the only place to sacrifice. The Israelites were not permitted to kill an ox, a lamb, or a goat without considering first their relationship to the Lord and obeying the laws of sacrifice that He had revealed to them through Moses. If someone killed one of these animals, whether in the camp or outside the camp, and did not bring that animal to the entrance of the tent of meeting to offer it as a gift to the Lord, that person committed a capital offense. Such a person brought bloodguilt on his head.

This was a very serious violation of the Law of God. The person who did it would be cut off from the people of Israel. Why would God have concerned Himself with this? Why were the people of Israel bound to a central sanctuary by His statutes?

God knew that the freedom they might have desired would have tempted the Israelites to kill meat out in their fields, and to follow their own former practices or the ceremonies of other peoples. It would be tempting to slip into these prohibited ways, making sacrifices to demons associated in the minds of pagan peoples with the animals they were killing.

The earth and all the creatures dwelling upon it belonged to the Lord. If the people of God wanted to eat meat, they could bring it to the Lord. If they would stay close to Him, He would show them the way to make best use of all His good gifts and to continue to love Him. But would they love Him more than anything they might crave?

When the resurrected Jesus spoke to Peter after Christ had directed Him toward a great catch of fish, He said, “Peter, do you love me more than these?” Did Israel love the giver of bulls, sheep, and goats more than the meat that they ate? Did they understand that God had provided a way for them to remember Him and to provide for His priests while still satisfying their holy desires for celebration?

They could eat these good gifts as peace offerings. Then the Lord would have His portion, the priest would have what belonged to him, and the worshiper would have the rest for his family and for those celebrating the goodness of the Lord with them. But covetous men might prefer to deny their connection to God, to the Lord's priests, and to the system of offerings that spoke about peace between God and Israel. Idolatrous men might seek to sacrifice their meat to idols like other people did who worshiped the gods of the nations.

The Lord's way was better. The meat should be brought to the tent of meeting. Then the priest could throw the blood of the sacrifice on the Lord's altar and burn the fat portions for “a pleasing aroma to the Lord.” To ignore this way of communal life for the people of Jacob was a rejection of God. For those who would be counted as Israel, and for those who would sojourn among them, this was the Lord's command. Burnt offering and sacrifice was to be brought before the Lord, and only before Him. The person who violated this rule would be cut off from the congregation.

To eat meat according to the Lord's rule was a good guard against following practices that would be offensive to God. In particular, God had indicated that the eating of blood would not be allowed among His people. Others might consider such a regulation inconvenient or unnecessary. But the Lord was preparing His beloved flock for the One who would say, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”

When He came to die for our sins, He would institute a new ceremonial meal. That meal would help them to see that His life and death was their salvation. He would say to His disciples, “This is my body,” and “This is the cup of the New Covenant in My blood.” The drinking of that cup would be a proclamation of the life and death of Jesus for us.

Until He gave His body and blood, it was good for the people of the Lord to be careful about the blood of the sacrifice, and to abstain from eating the blood of animals. That way of life was so much a part of the customs of the Jews, that even after other eating regulations had been set aside, Christians agreed that Gentile converts should abstain from blood in order to avoid giving unnecessary offense to Jews.

But Jesus would say, “Unless you eat My flesh and drink My blood, you have no life in you.” Many would be offended. To eat blood was as offensive as eating a creature that died of itself or was torn by beasts. It was a violation of decency.

But now we drink the cup of the fruit of the vine, and consider the life and death of Jesus for us, and we celebrate what He has accomplished for us as the greatest of all blessings. That sacramental bread that stands for his body is food for our spiritual life. That taste of the fruit of the vine which symbolizes his blood has become for us a cup of blessing.

Leviticus 16

The Lord spoke to Moses about one day of the year when the high priest was permitted to go into the Most Holy Place to atone for the sins of the nation. This word came to Moses after the death of Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron who drew near before the Lord and died. Aaron needed to know that he and his sons could not go beyond the veil at any time that they chose to do so. Access to the mercy seat was according to the Lord's command. This instruction was for the good of the priests, so that they might not die as a result of trespassing upon the Lord's holy ground. It was a great blessing that the Lord would appear in the holy cloud over the mercy seat, but the presence of the Almighty was a fearful reality. God needed to be respected by his priests.

There was a way for Aaron to come into the Most Holy Place once a year to atone for sin more generally. He needed to bring a bull from the herd for his sin offering and a ram for his burnt offering. He needed to bathe his body with water. He needed to be clothed in the right clothing, all the way down to his undergarments. He needed to come before the Lord with these offerings for himself and with the offerings for the congregation of the people of Israel, two male goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering.

On this special day of atonement, the two goats for the people would be be distinguished by casting lots, one lot for the Lord, and other lot for a Hebrew term “Azazel,” that remains unclear to us. From the details that followed, Azazel came to be associated with the word “scapegoat.” The Lord's goat would be presented for a sin offering. The Azazel goat would be presented alive before the Lord with the sins of Israel on it to make atonement over it. Then it would be sent into the wilderness, to “Azazel.”

The first offering Aaron brought beyond the veil was the bull for his own sin. He brought coals of fire and incense with him and he burned it there, creating a cloud of incense that would cover the mercy seat “lest he die.” He was to go there with the blood of the bull, sprinkling it with his finger on the front of the mercy seat.

With that preparation, which informed us that a priest had not yet come who was without sin, Aaron was to kill the goat for the sin offering and bring its blood into the Most Holy Place on behalf of the people of Israel. He was to sprinkle the blood of the goat over the mercy seat and in front it to “make atonement for the Holy Place.” But why would this place need atonement? The “uncleannesses of the people of Israel” and “their transgressions, all their sins” had made this sacrificial blood necessary. Not that the place had done something wrong, but that Israel could not be safely represented in that place without the blood of atonement.

When our sinless High Priest came, he gave His perfect blood for us. In His ascension He purified the heavenly sanctuary for us. This is the way He cleansed our consciences and secured our eternal redemption. See Hebrews 9:11-26. There was always a connection between the place of God's presence and the consciences of His children. When they sinned they defiled not only themselves but also the place where they should have enjoyed communion with Him. Now in Christ this mysterious union between our lives and the life of our God in heaven has been made right.

There was another goat remaining in the day of atonement ritual. Aaron was to lay his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it “all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins.” The sins were to be put on that goat, and then the goat was to bear their iniquities away “to a remote area.” This was an ultimate removal from the place of holiness and safety. Christ has taken our hell for us in His suffering and death. All that needed to be done to have our debt removed has been accomplished.

The rest of the system of the day detailed the necessary procedures for the return to the more normal pattern of life. Bathing, offering, washing of clothes, and the removal of the remains of the sacrifices had to be performed before everything was accomplished.

This day of atonement was a statute in Israel. It gave the people a testimony that all sin would somehow be dealt with one day\. Then the people of God could fully take this word to heart: “You shall be clean before the Lord from all your sins.”

The New Testament commentary on this ceremony in Hebrews 9 connects this event to the culmination of this age: Christ “has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.”

We wait eagerly for His return because we love Him. We can wait for Him without the fear of torment because we know that all of our sins have been forgiven.

Leviticus 15

The Old Testament laws of clean and unclean addressed issues that we might rather not discuss. The Lord had words to give to His people about bodily discharges, semen, and menstrual blood. These are issues that a person might even be embarrassed to discuss with a physician, but God cared about such matters, especially when a lack of regard for what would make a person unclean in Israel could lead to death within the congregation.

Some of the discharges in this chapter might be considered normal and healthy. Others were a sign of disease. All of them have their biological purpose for the life of the human body, but all of them also produced a condition of ceremonial uncleanness for the Israelite.

In some cases a person might have a discharge running out of his body, while in other cases a discharge might create a blockage within the body. Either way, the symptoms that indicated the presence of the discharge were enough to identify the uncleanness.

The discharge was associated with the person. “It is his uncleanness.” Yet the condition also spread to other objects and people upon contact. A bed could become unclean because of a discharge, and any person who touched that bed would become unclean. Many other examples were listed. A combination of the passage of time, washing, and the offering of sacrifices, a sin offering and a burnt offering, were necessary in order to make atonement for the discharge and to secure the resumption of normal public activities.

Semen is the male reproductive fluid which contains sperm, which together with the egg from the female is necessary for the conception of a new child. Yet this great gift of God for life could make a person unclean, as if death had infected even the most intimate building blocks of life. An emission of semen might take place with or without close contact with a woman. Either way, the man who had such an emission would become unclean as well as anyone who came in contact with that discharge. Such an event would necessitate bathing and the passage of some time before a person could be clean again.

A woman's menstrual flow was also normally an important part of the process of healthy reproductive life. Yet this discharge of blood was considered a ceremonial impurity. Once again, other objects and people became unclean through touching anything connected to this discharge, and time and washing were required for them to be declared clean again.

There might be a woman who would have abnormal bleeding beyond the typical time for the monthly menstrual cycle. We read about such a situation in Luke 8:43-48 during the public ministry of Jesus. A woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind Jesus secretly and touched the fringe of his garment. She was hoping to be healed without attracting anyone's attention. Perhaps she was embarrassed by her private shame. Surely she understood that if she touched anyone, that person would become unclean according to the book of Leviticus. Yet she took this bold step, and Jesus noticed. Rather than Him becoming unclean, the unhealthy hidden discharge of blood within her was stopped. She was immediately healed. And Jesus said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”

This woman had spent all her living on physicians, and they were unable to help her. She had brought her uncleanness with her, by association, everywhere that she went for twelve years. If she had been healed at some point in that long process, time, washing, and sacrifices would have been required for her cleansing. But Christ had healed by the power of His own divine person. She had reached out in faith to the Son of God, hoping to keep it all a secret, but Jesus had perceived that the power to heal had gone out from Him.

This was something very new. The discharges of God's people throughout the entire era of Old Covenant experience had been a mortal threat to the entire community. They spread uncleanness by association to everyone and everything. People don't like to be public about what comes out of their bodies, especially when it would make us unacceptable to those who would quickly withdraw from our presence. Soon the whole nation became as filthy as menstrual rags.

This is what Isaiah 64:6 says about Israel, but not about her ceremonial failures or even about her immoral stains. He says that her “righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.” What a hopeless situation! If this is what it was like among the Jews, how could the Gentiles ever be clean?

Christ, the Son of God changed all of this for us. He has healed us, and His righteous blood has made us safe in even the heavenly sanctuary of God. Without Him we would only defile the Lord's tabernacle, and we would be in continual risk of death. But now we have the assurance of His healing Word, and we have peace with God through the blood of our Redeemer.

1 Timothy 2:12b

“If we deny him, he also will deny us...”

June 19, 2011

If

The phrase we are considering this Sunday night begins with the troubling word “if.” There is a choice to be made here that we might rather not have. We would prefer to live in a world where it is morally impossible to deny the Leader and Savior of Israel that we have come to know and love. That world is heaven, and for us now on earth there remains the moral and physical possibility that we might deny the One who was willing to own us unto His own death.

… we deny Him,

What does it mean to deny Jesus? The name of the apostle Peter is the one who is most famously associated with denying Jesus. In his case, denying involved a public rejection of any association with Jesus and a disavowal of any personal knowledge of him or relationship with him. Peter's denial of Christ was very serious, yet the breach in relationship was not beyond repair. Some of the most blessed servants of the Lord have had similar troubles with sin. Consider Moses and David for example. They also were restored.

Have you denied the Lord with your words or with your life? You can be restored again. You can come home now. Your Luke 15 Father will gladly embrace you.

He also will deny us;

Yet this verse assures us that we are not to consider the denial of Christ a small matter. It is a weighty offense. We are told here that if we deny Him, He also will deny us. What a frightening prospect! There are some that the Lord will deny on the last day. He will say, “'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” What could be worse than that? What will it fell like for you if you come before the Son of God, whom you have made a habit of denying in this life, and He denies you? How will you feel when you see Him and He will not acknowledge knowing you?

He has said in Matthew10:32-33, “Everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.” There may be gradations of denying Him. This seems likely. And even the most serious denials may still be forgiven, as in the case of Peter. But this is something we should not do. We should be nowhere near this kind of risky behavior. It could have very bad consequences for this life and the next.

Jesus did not deny His Father, and He did not deny us

It is a great comfort to those who would be associated with Jesus forever, that He did not deny us when He went to the cross. But prior to that moment of great faithfulness, there was a life of complete dedication to the Father that gave the death of Jesus such power. Jesus stayed with the Father and with us despite the cost of God's eternal plan.

I invite you to acknowledge Him now at this sacramental table. Know Him as the Leader and Savior of Israel, and your Lord and Redeemer. If you will do this, you will not come anywhere near the risks that this verse announces. Know Him now in this meal that celebrates His faithful love.

Leviticus 14

There should always have been considerable value in appreciating the metaphors of the ceremonial law, such as the various skin diseases called “leprosy” in Leviticus. These metaphors could have helped the people to apprehend the depth of the problem of sin among mankind. But Israel needed much more than the knowledge of sin. Israel needed healing.

There was a law for the cleansing of lepers, but this law was a testimony of healing that had occurred. It was not a protocol to follow in order to heal skin diseases. It certainly was not a way to heal the soul problems of mankind. It did have value, especially as a testimony to a great Healer who would one day appear to Israel.

The ceremonial law anticipated a day when the leprous person would be cleansed. On that day, he was to be brought to the priest, but not in a holy place. The priest actually was to go to him outside the camp. He was to go to the outcast. There he was to look at the evidence of healing and consider.

If the person was indeed healed, that person and the priest were to perform a ritual involving two birds. One of the birds was to be killed, but the other bird would live. The priest would set the living bird free, but first he would dip it in the blood of the bird that was sacrificed. Then the priest would take the live bird, now with the blood of the dead bird on it, and he would sprinkle the one who had been leprous with the blood of the sacrificed bird.

When Jesus cleansed a leper, He instructed him, “Show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to them.” This is part of the procedure He was referring to. The two birds, the scarlet yarn, the hyssop, the blood of the sacrificed bird, the other bird dipped in that blood to fly away free, the washing of clothes, the shaving of the head, the bathing in water, the return to the camp, the seven days more outside his tent, more shaving of all hair, more washing of clothes, more bathing in water, and then more offerings commanded by God... This was how a person was pronounced “clean.”

The offerings reinforced another message that was a part of the sacrificial system for all of Israel, whether clean or unclean. Through these common offerings, rather than through a verbal declaration, the leper was to acknowledge and testify to this plain fact: “I need a substitute who will stand in my place. I need an acceptable guilt offering. I need a whole burnt offering. I need a grain offering. I need a sin offering.” In the case of the healed leper, this testimony was to take place on the eighth day after the ceremony of the two birds. The offerings were made by a man who had once been unclean, but now was clean. Yet he needed this final testimony of cleansing connected to these normal offerings for Israelites who could approach God.

The priest was to bring the man before the Lord at the entrance to the tent of the meeting. The man would be marked by the blood of the offering as the priest was marked at the beginning of his own ministry. The blood was to be put on his right ear, his right thumb, and the big toe of his right foot. The priest was to sprinkle some oil from the offering before the Lord, and then to put the oil on the man in the same three places, from head to toe, with the remaining oil in the hand of the priest placed on the head of the man. This new cleansed man was a servant of God through the shedding of blood and the oil offered up to the Lord.

Finally, the priest was to offer the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the grain offering in accord with the word of the Lord for each ceremony. This was what it meant to “make atonement for him before the Lord.” This was the testimony required by God in the law. At last the words that he would have longed to hear, “Thus the priest shall make atonement for him, and he shall be clean.”

Once again, there was a provision for the poor who could not afford all those animals. Such a man was still fully cleansed from his leprous disease. He just could not afford the offerings for his cleansing.

This kind of disease affected individuals and their personal possessions. It could even attack an entire house. God indicated that He Himself might put a case of leprous disease in a house. The owner, when he discovered the problem, was not to hide it, but to bring the matter to the attention of the priest. Words were given in the law that fit the situation: “There seems to me to be some case of disease in my house.” The word “house” was obviously referring to a physical structure, but it was not an accident that the same word could be used to refer to the people who lived together as a family within that structure, and even to the future generations that would come from those people.

God gave detailed regulations that the priest could use to discern the condition of a house, and detailed ceremonies for declaring a house to be “clean.” But who can do more than cleanse us with a ceremonial ritual? Who can heal us, and bring health back to our home and to our family line?

The Lord has provided Himself for the necessary sacrifice. He has brought us into His own household in Jesus Christ. This great priest was able to discern all that was necessary to restore His people to right relationship with His Father, and to bring them into the temple of the Holy Spirit as His royal priesthood. Do not despair. He who cleansed the leper will not leave you or your house fatally infected with the disease of sin that can only bring eternal destruction. His house will stand. He is the Cornerstone of our every hope.

Leviticus 13

Why did the Lord have so much to say to Israel about skin diseases? God made us in His image. He cares about our bodies and about all aspects of our lives. There are many infectious diseases or troubling conditions that the Lord could have used to prepare us for the coming of the Messiah and His saving work. As the Lord had much to say about food and about blood, He had a special purpose for the horrible skin conditions that were denoted by the word “leprosy.” When Jesus came, He cleansed lepers. There was something about that picture that was so appropriate. The Lord had prepared His people for the miracle of cleansing by His ceremonial law.

Various skin diseases that might be covered by the term “leprosy” in Leviticus had outward manifestations that may have been the result of an inner problem. A problem may have showed up on the skin of the body, but the disease itself could have been the result of an invading microbe attacking the body in other ways.

Leprosy was unclean, and the priests were to be the judges of this uncleanness. The priests were to examine the diseased area and make a determination. Was it deeper than the skin? If so, it was a leprous disease, and the person was to be declared unclean. If the matter was unclear, a period of separation was called for. A priest would then reexamine the person. This might happen more than once, until it became clear that the problem was not leprosy. Even if it appeared to be a false alarm, a washing of the person's clothes was required before the person could be declared clean. In the case of a spreading eruption on the skin, the priest needed to pronounce him unclean.

Leprosy was a blemish on what was to be a perfectly consistent offering to God of a clean body. This blessing of a whole and unmixed offering was apparently an important enough part of the picture, that if a person was leprous with a white complexion over the whole body, he could suddenly be declared clean, as if the wholeness overwhelmed the disease in terms of ceremonial holiness. As long as the person was covered from head to foot in every visible area, the priest could pronounce him clean of the disease. Everything was white. He was clean. But if a raw spot of flesh showed up again, he was unclean.

One horror of leprosy was that it would spread. Something that might start as a boil on the skin of one part of the body would not be so devastating if it stayed only on that part of the body. But if it was leprosy, it would not be easily contained. As an unclean spot of leprosy on a body would grow and spread to the rest of the body, bad company in the body of the faithful would soon corrupt the godliness of others.

Some diseases of the skin might be ignited by trauma, such as a burn on the skin and a resulting infection. Sin and trauma can breed more sin and even more difficulty. We are looking for some solution to the problem of body and soul leprosy that would be fully clean, and completely sustainable.

Some skin diseases might be hidden by the hair of the head or the beard. Underneath a secret cloak, an enemy of the body could be lurking. Like a whitewashed tomb, that outside might look clean, but inside were the bones of dead men.

Other skin diseases might create a spotted pattern on the skin, and yet not be the leprosy that would necessitate a declaration of “unclean.” An elderly man might lose his hair, and reveal something troubling that may have been there all along. Would the spots on the bald man's scalp be clean or unclean? The priest would have to be able to discern all these difficult cases. Yet when we consider the stains within our hearts, who is really able to know what is in a man? Where can we find a priest who will understand our true condition?

Even if we have a discerning priest who could rightly speak of these diseases, could he heal us? Will our souls find nothing to turn away the tide of the uncleanness outside us and within us? We do not want to wear garments of mourning forever, going forth for all eternity with the cry, “Unclean, unclean!” We do not want to be cut off from the body of God's people, living alone for fear that others will catch our malady.

This uncleanness that is such a part of this depraved world can even making our clothing leprous. Who will snatch us from the fire? If anyone tries, he better be careful, hating even the clothing stained by corruptible flesh. Could our clothing be washed to take away the sign of the defect that is on us?

We cannot minimize the problem of sin. These ceremonial laws have a story to tell. But now a deep solution to this devastating problem has been found in Jesus of Nazareth, the man from God who cleansed lepers. In Him, we who would have rightly been judged to be fatally unclean in our bodies and souls, have been declared righteous forever. Because of Him and all His mighty works, we can honestly confess our sins, and we find that He is faithful and just not only to forgive us our sins, but also to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Leviticus 12

The story of the fall of mankind includes words from God in response to the sin of Adam and Eve. Not all of those words could be called curses. The Lord also spoke of His intention to bless. God had warned Adam that in the day that he ate of the forbidden fruit he would die. While a whole new day of death was inaugurated in man's revolt against the Lord's instruction, God also announced at that moment that there would continue to be life.

When the Lord spoke to Eve, He did say that there would be pain in childbearing, but by saying this He had also promised that there would be children. There would be life, though all men would die. In the Old Covenant ceremonies, the birth of children would be marked with a ritual that drew the attention of the community to the blood associated with the birth of a child.

Blood was important to God. We have already seen that the sacrificial rituals required special handling of the blood of animals. In God's eyes, the blood stood for the life of the victim, but it was also associated with the death of the offering. Blood was about life and death. See Leviticus 17:10-14. Life could only exist when blood was flowing rightly along its hidden pathways within the body. The death of a person would often be accompanied by the hidden life of the blood fatally appearing. In God's eyes, there could be no forgiveness of sins without the life and death signified in the shedding of blood. See Hebrews 9:22.

Life involves blood, not only for life to be and to continue, but for the process of a new life to come into being. The Lord has given the menstrual cycle to women of child-bearing age. That cycle is necessary to provide the right environment for a baby to be conceived and for the embryo to be able to grow successfully within the body of his or her mother.

The revealing of the hidden blood of a woman was unclean according to the law. This was true both for menstruation and for birth. The specifics of clean and unclean were different for the birth of a male child than for the birth of a female child. In the case of a male child, the woman was to be unclean for seven days, and then the baby would be circumcised on the eighth day. The mother would continue in “the blood of her purifying” for thirty-three days. After that she could offer the sacrifice appointed to make atonement for her bleeding. But in the case of the birth of a girl, the mother would be unclean for two weeks, and she would continue in the blood of her purifying for sixty-six days before the sacrifice could be offered.

During the time of the blood of her purifying, whether thirty-three days or sixty-six days, the mother could not touch anything holy or come into the Lord's sanctuary. The private time between mother and child was twice as long for a mother and her girl than for a mother and her boy.

The only other difference between boy and girl was the circumcision of the boy on the eighth day. That cutting ritual was a solemn identification of the child with the requirement of law-keeping, and the need for a substitute who would keep the law for the child, and then be cut off from the people of God for the sake of the child. See Galatians 5:3, Romans 4:11 and Colossians 2:9-14.

The sacrifice for the mother's atonement was the same either way, regardless of whether she had a boy or a girl. The only variation in that sacrifice was based on the poverty of the mother. If she could afford it, she was to bring to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting a lamb a year old for a burnt offering and a pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering. If she could not afford the lamb, she was to bring two turtledoves or two pigeons, one for a burnt offering and one for a sin offering. In either case, this was the ritual for atonement, for the ceremonial cleansing of the mother from the uncleanness of blood.

When the atoning sacrifice for mankind came in person, He was born as a baby, and these rituals were followed. On the eighth day, Jesus, the Son of God, the Savior of sinners, was circumcised. Later, the appropriate cleansing ritual was followed. The mother of Jesus of Nazareth was Mary, a poor woman. She and Joseph came to Jerusalem to the temple in order to offer the sacrifice. Luke quotes from this chapter in Leviticus, noting that the option for the poor was the relevant portion of the law for this couple.

For centuries these laws had been followed by observant Jews, marking the uncleanness of blood, and the need for an atoning sacrifice not only for the mother, but for every boy who was given the sign of circumcision, that seal of righteousness by faith first given to Abraham. But now, a virgin had conceived and born a child. The baby, whose name was given by an angel, was called Jesus, the “I-AM” of salvation. He has saved His people from their sins. He is Immanuel, God with us, and His death on the cross is the one shedding of blood that has finally brought us life.

Leviticus 11

What do you like to eat?

We are so used to the freedom that we enjoy in our eating that we may find it hard to imagine what life was like for Israel. There was a long period in God's relationship with His people when many foods were considered unclean. It was one of the tasks of the priests to speak to the people about what was ceremonially acceptable and unacceptable. This was not just about what worshipers could do in the tabernacle. It was about what foods they could enjoy on their tables at home.

It was especially important for the priests to understand what would make them unclean, since their disregard for God's rules in worship might lead to death. The Lord revealed to Moses and Aaron the blessings of creation that the people of Israel could eat. Edible land animals needed to have hooves that were divided completely into two parts, and they needed to chew their food more than once as part of their normal digestive system. Specific animals that had only one of these two qualities or neither of them were unclean, and could not be eaten. Not only could they not be eaten, the people of Israel could not touch their carcasses, or they too would become unclean.

The Lord gave a different criteria for sea creatures. Only those with both fins and scales could be eaten. Those not meeting these qualifications were to be considered “detestable” to the Lord's people. Among the flying creatures, specific ones God's people were not allowed to eat were listed by name. Concerning insects, further principles were given and specific insects that were acceptable were listed by name. The rest were “detestable.”

An association between what was unclean and the issue of death was hard to miss in all these instructions. To touch a dead unclean animal was to have that uncleanness change you for the worse, at least temporarily. To be cleansed from these brushes with death required time and washing of clothes.

There was also a further note of the spreading power of that which was unclean in these regulations. “Anything on which any of them falls when they are dead shall be unclean, whether it is an article of wood or a garment or a skin or a sack, any article that is used for any purpose.” These required washing to return to the status of “clean,” and thereby to be useable again. One of the few exceptions to this plague of the unclean was the case of a source of flowing fresh water. A carcass that fell in a spring would not make the source of the water unclean.

Uncleanness was a disease like Adam's sin upon the earth. God's people needed a new spring of cleansing water from heaven springing up from within them in order to stop the death that sin brought upon them. But where would they find this spring of eternal life?

The death of uncleanness could even come on seeds, making them ceremonially unclean as well. These little gifts of life, once infected, could not be planted or used because of this association with uncleanness and death.

Death was a swarming enemy beyond our ability to conquer. The holiness Israel needed had to come from the source of all that is enduring, the great I-AM. The Lord, the God of Israel, was and is clean forever. He commanded His people to set themselves apart from all that is unholy, preparing themselves for the gift of the One who would solve their sin problem, and who would also declare all foods clean.

True worshipers of God were always called upon to imitate the Lord in His holiness. He said to Israel, “I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy.” This was more than a ceremonial requirement. The outward rituals were symbols communicating our great need, and preparing the Lord's people for the coming Messiah, who would cleanse us from our depravity inside and out.

God had brought His people out of the bondage that they had experienced as slaves in Egypt. Yet the problem of uncleanness exposed a deeper slavery. How could we be cleansed from sin and death? How could we escape the corruption and decay spreading across the earth? Where would we ever find the holiness we needed to be holy as the Lord was holy?

The law of clean and unclean touched upon the banquet tables of the Israelites. That law could expose uncleanness, but it could never eliminate the problem of sin and death. Christ came from a world without decay. He took upon Himself the deepest stains of our sins, cleansing us from all unrighteousness. The time of preparation for His coming and the great achievement of His cross is now over. That is why we have been set free from these dietary laws. The earth is the Lord's and all its fullness. If we can receive something with sincere thanksgiving to God, we can eat that gift which He created for our good. The time of preparation is over. The ascended Christ has sent forth a stream of living water from heaven to dwell within us. We are cleansed by His blood and washed by the Holy Spirit.

Leviticus 10

Only the descendants of Aaron could be priests of the Old Covenant. The story of Aaron's failings was disappointing enough. Now Israel was to feel the weight of the errors of Aaron's sons.

Nadab and Abihu, two of the priests, did something they should not have done. They offered unauthorized fire before the Lord. The Lord had given precise instruction concerning offering incense to Him. Whatever it was that these two sons of Aaron did, it was out of accord with the Word of the Lord. The result of their strange transgression was immediate. “Fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.”

Moses spoke the Word of the Lord at this moment of great sadness, “Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.” Aaron did not say anything to this.

Some of the young men who were relatives of the deceased priests carried the bodies of Nadab and Abihu out of the camp. Moses spoke to two of the other sons of Aaron, Eleazar and Ithamar. They were not to join in the expected customs of mourning. Given their consecration as priests, this would have been dangerous for them and for the entire nation of Israel.

Then the Lord spoke directly to Aaron a message that may have explained what had gone wrong with Nadab and Abihu. “Drink no wine or strong drink, you or your sons with you, when you go into the tent of meeting, lest you die.” The Lord spoke of this rule as a perpetual statute for the priesthood.

Drinking intoxicating drink lowered the inhibitions of the ones who imbibed. This was not good for those who would be leading the people of God in His holy worship. The Lord's worship was to be clean, not unclean. It was to be separated from all that was common in the lives of the congregation.

This life of ceremonial righteousness was subject to the commandments of God. The purest man among the people of Israel could not enforce His own preferences. God's way was the only path of goodness for Israel.

The priests of the Lord needed to know how to distinguish between the holy and the not holy. They were to understand the rules for clean and unclean according to the Law, and to communicate these to the people as the Law of God. This experience of tragedy in the deaths of Nadab and Abihu was something for all the priests to consider in the years that would follow.

As devastating as this experience had to be for Aaron and for his surviving sons, they had to keep on going with their duties with a recognition that they were guardians of a holy ministry that was more important than their tragedies. They needed to eat their portion of the grain offering. They needed to eat the meat that was theirs to eat, the breast and the thigh.

Moses was diligent in investigating this. What he found made him angry. The goat of the sin offering was burned up. He spoke to Eleazar and Ithamar. He said, “Why have you not eaten the sin offering in the place of the sanctuary, since it is a thing most holy and has been given to you that you may bear the iniquity of the congregation, to make atonement for them before the Lord?” This was not right. The blood was not handled as it should have been. Aaron's response was reflective of the weakness of this entire system of atonement: “Behold, today they have offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before the Lord, and yet such things as these have happened to me! If I had eaten the sin offering today, would the Lord have approved?” That response silenced Moses' inquiries, yet it was a reinforcement of their own weaknesses, displaying the devastation of the events that had taken place as the Old Covenant system of worship began. Before the nation had a chance to see the ceremonial law in action, the trial of death had overtaken them.

Before the people of God have had any opportunity to move ahead with their life of worship according to the Lord's commands, two men were struck down by the Lord. Aaron was not able to protect his sons. He could not carry them safely to place of eternal security. He was not that kind of high priest.

But Jesus is our eternal High Priest, the Mediator of a better covenant than the one made through Moses in the desert. He was able to say with the perfect assurance of His eternal divinity, “Here am I and the children that God has given me.” See Isaiah 8:18 and Hebrews 2:13. His excellent faithfulness has saved us from every trouble. His work satisfied the fullness of the righteous demands of His Father. No one will every be able to snatch us out of the Father's hand. If we have died with Him, we shall also lived with Him.

Leviticus 9

Seven days for the consecration of Aaron and his sons as priests of the Lord were over. Now it was time for the eighth day. What would that eighth day bring for these men and for Israel?

Moses called together Aaron, Aaron's sons, and the elders of Israel. What would he say or do on this occasion? He told Aaron to offer a sin offering and a burnt offering before the Lord. He told him to instruct the people to bring a sin offering and a burnt offering for themselves, together with a grain offering. This was more than Moses simply calling Aaron to attend to his duties now as an ordained priest. It was coupled with an expectation: “Today the Lord will appear to you.”

The priests did what Moses commanded, and all of the congregation drew near with expectation. Moses spoke the words of living faith, that faith which obeys the word of God: “This is the thing that the Lord commanded you to do, that the glory of the Lord may appear to you.”

Then Aaron obeyed the word of his brother, the mediator of the covenant. He offered up to God burnt offerings and sin offerings for himself and for the people of Israel. He made atonement according to the ceremonies of the Law, as the Lord had commanded.

Aaron did what he could do. He killed the sin offering that was for his own sin. He did what he was supposed to with the blood. He burned the fat portions on the altar, and burned up the flesh and the skin outside the camp. He killed the burnt offering. He did what he was supposed to with the blood, and he burned the cut up pieces of the offering on the altar.

Then he offered the offerings for the people, a sin offering, a burnt offering, and a grain offering according to the Lord's word through Moses. Then he killed the peace offerings for the people, an ox and a ram. He did what he was supposed to with the blood, and he followed the Lord's commands concerning the fat portions. Then, he waved the priestly portions before the Lord, the breasts and the right thigh.

Then Aaron did a beautiful thing. He “lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them.” Up to this moment everything in Aaron's worship was going up to God. Now, through the hands of the ordained high priest of the Old Covenant, blessings were coming down from God upon the people.

From there Moses and Aaron went into the tent of the meeting beyond the view of the people. When they came out, a most extraordinary miracle occurred, one that marked the true beginning of Levitical worship for the Lord's people. God came down to them. When Moses and Aaron came out of the tent of meeting, they blessed the people, “and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people.”

The fire of God's presence “came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar.” The people responded with the glory of reverence. They all saw what had taken place, and “they shouted and fell on their faces.”

This is what happened on the eighth day after the seven days of ordination. This was the way that the era of preparation for the Messiah through the Old Covenant ceremonial life actually began. But the time of preparation would not be forever. Another glorious beginning would be required at the inception of the New Covenant era of worship.

Before that new beginning of blessing could come down upon men, a perfect sacrifice had to be offered through the cross of Christ. The resurrection of Jesus on the third day was a divine assurance that the age of resurrection had come in Him. Yet this was not the moment of the beginning of the new life of worship. The disciples were told to wait for the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. Jesus, lifting up His hands in blessing upon the leaders of His church, was taken in clouds of glory into the heavenly sanctuary, beyond the sight of the church on earth. From that heavenly place, after a brief time of waiting, Jesus poured forth the Promise upon the worshipers, a new anointing better than the oil upon the head of Aaron.

Here, in the Pentecost gift, was a sign of blessing for all the people groups of the earth, a blessing that would go far beyond the borders of Israel. Those who received God's gift spoke by the Holy Spirit and were heard in the tongues of the world. This new life has come to us through a different Priest than Aaron. He gave a different offering, and has achieved a far superior and more lasting victory. He will not be satisfied until the whole earth is filled with His glory. His resurrection has assured us that this blessing will take place, for the Lord has appeared to His people.

Leviticus 8

It is shocking that God would use men in His great plan to restore us and His creation from the ravages that came upon the world as a result of Adam's sin. Aaron was a sinful man. His sons were sinful men. Yet the Lord commanded Moses that these men would be ordained as priests who would represent other sinful men before God. Not only were these men sinful, they were weak as all men are weak. As all men have so much that they do not know, there was far more that Aaron and his sons did not know about God's purposes than that which they did know. How is it that God could use sinful and weak men like us? We long for the perfect priest, who is without sin, and who knows what He is doing.

While all Israel awaited the coming of such a Man, Aaron and His sons needed to take their spots in the Lord's great work of testimony and salvation. This required that they be set apart for the work that God had called them to do. By the Lord's command this setting apart from the rest of Israel was achieved by ordination.

The ordination of Old Testament priests required the men chosen by God for the job, the special garments for the priesthood described at the end of Exodus, anointing oil as a symbol of a necessary gift from on high, and offerings that reminded us that these men had need for atonement, just as all Israel had need for atonement.

The process of ordination also required a congregation of worshipers who would serve as witnesses that these men had been set apart according to the Lord's command. The congregation of Israel gathered at the entrance to the tent of meeting. Moses, God's chosen mediator of the Old Covenant brought Aaron and Aaron's sons and washed them with water. They were ceremonially cleansed, but who could wash away their sins? Moses clothed them with the special priestly garments, but who could give them garments that would allow them to appear in the presence of God with the righteousness that He required? Aaron had the golden plate, the holy crown, placed on his head as the Lord commanded Moses, but who could make him truly holy?

Moses did all that the Lord required. He anointed the tabernacle and all that was in it. He anointed the altar, and the utensils, and the basin. Then he poured anointing oil on the head of Aaron. This ceremony also required the shedding of blood according to God's command. Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the bull of their sin offering. This was how they began their work as consecrated Old Covenant priests. They acknowledged their condition as sinners before God. They admitted that a substitute was necessary to stand in their place, since they could not stand the holy wrath of God. The blood of the sacrifice purified the altar. The blood was poured at the base of the altar. The Lord's portion of the sin offering, all the fat, was consumed on his altar, and the rest was burned outside the camp.

Then the ram of the burnt offering was killed, after the priests laid their hands on the head of the ram. The blood was thrown against the sides of the altar, and the cut up and washed pieces of the offering were burned on the altar. A second ram, called here the “ram of ordination,” was treated like the first ram, but Moses took some of the blood from this animal and “put it on the lobe of Aaron's right ear and on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot.” He did the same to Aaron's sons. The blood required for their ordination was on them, but would they hear with crucified ears, and would they walk with crucified feet as priests of the Lord?

Moses received the breast that would have normally been given to the priest. Those pieces of the animal that Aaron and his sons waved were burned before the Lord, but the breast that Moses waved for a wave offering was Moses' portion of the ram of ordination.

In these ceremonies we see a surprising connection between God, His covenant mediator Moses, His Old Covenant priests, and the blood and holy oil associated with their consecration to this office. They and their garments were set apart, and they ate of the sacrifice and the grain offering according to the Lord's command. For seven days they could not leave the tent of meeting. After seven days, the days of their ordination were completed. All of this was necessary to make atonement for these sinful and weak priests, who did not really know what the Lord was doing, and could not understand how their lives fit into God's larger plan to fill the earth with His glory.

How is it that we, who still sin, and who find that there is so much in our own lives that we do not know; how is it that we know more than they did about a better priesthood than Aaron's?

A new Priest has come. He was set apart from the Father for the purpose of turning away the wrath of the Lord. He is God. He is the Mediator of a better covenant. He is an eternal Priest, anointed with the fullness of the Holy Spirit beyond measure. He had no sin that required the shedding of blood at His ordination. He became the one offering that will change all of creation. He knew that the way of the cross was the right way, and He followed that way for our salvation. He understood the will of His heavenly Father, and He accomplished it.