Leviticus 24

God created man to live in time and space. One day we will live with Him and with each other in a renewed heaven and earth, but we will still live in time and space. He has chosen us for a particular temporal and spatial life together prior to the return of Christ. This is our training ground for eternity.

We do not live in the wilderness of Sinai centuries before the coming of the Messiah. We live in some nation of this world well into the New Testament times, a spiritual era when the Apostle Peter could say, “The end of all things is at hand.” We learn about how we should live together in godliness and sincerity in our era by making profitable use of the whole counsel of God. As the Lord's sheep who are moving toward the real promised land, we hear the voice of our Shepherd even in Leviticus. He knows us, and speaks to us, and we follow Him.

Our understanding of what we can expect as a community of faith over the centuries is made richer by seeing the movement from Passover to Pentecost to Tabernacles in the ancient calendar of the Old Testament given to us in Leviticus 23. We also have an expectation of the greatness of the glorious life ahead of us through meditating on the year of Jubilee. See Leviticus 25. The world around us, and even many within the church, may not share this vision. We live out our brief lives in this strange wilderness with a hope that comes to us from the Scriptures and from a life of communion with the Shepherd who gave His life for His sheep and who reigns in highest heaven at the right hand of the Father. With all the confusion around us, with such irreconcilable versions of future hope in the world and even within the body of Christ, how ought we to live in the brief moments of life in the place where God has chosen to plant us? In between the annual calendar of Leviticus 23 and the generational marker of the year of Jubilee in Leviticus 25, the Lord granted to Israel images of what Israel and the church were to be like as strangers and sojourners, living godly lives of self-control with a sure and sober-minded hope in the promises of God for a coming place and time of perfect glory.

We are to be a shining lamp, even the light of the world. God used gifts that He gave through the people of Israel for the original construction of the tabernacle. He would continue to work through human means to supply the oil needed so that the worship of Israel would be a shining beacon in a dark place. At just the right moment in His eternal plan, His Son, the Light of the world, came to His people Israel. He was, as promised not only their light, but a light to the Gentiles. Now the church which is His body is to reflect His glorious resurrection light, though many around us in every place and time do not have eyes to see that light. By the grace of God, Jesus shines through us. We need the continual oil of the Holy Spirit if we are to live as we should as we look for the return of our Messiah. In Him, we are a lamp of purest gold, shining with the light of heaven.

The priests in Israel were to set holy bread before the Lord every Sabbath with frankincense as a memorial portion for the Lord. The bread was to be eaten by the priests in a holy place. The New Testament church gathers every Sunday in the rest that has been won for us in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We eat of the Bread of Life. We feast on the Word from heaven, and we partake in the communion of the One who gave His body and blood for us. This is a holy ordinance, and an expectation of glory that we share in as the priesthood of all who have faith. We draw near to the God of eternity, believing that He is our present help and our everlasting life. He will reward those who diligently seek Him.

We are to be a people that love the Name of God, and have been baptized in the one Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In Israel, a man was to be put to death for misusing the holy Name of God. This was an ordinance and it was confirmed by the Lord in a specific case recorded for us in the days of traveling through the wilderness. The Lord used the hands of the men of Israel as instruments of justice against the blasphemer.

But when the perfect One came, the Man who was the Word of God, the leaders of Israel determined to see Him as a guilty blasphemer when He revealed Himself as the Son of God. They envied Him and hated Him. They were not able to joyfully receive Him as their Almighty Lord and Redeemer in their midst. By His death He secured an eternal salvation not only for Jews but also for Gentiles who would believe in His Name.

Israel was to be a place of holiness of word and life. Can the church of Christ be less than this? We have taken a holy testimony throughout the world. With all our sad blemishes, we testify of one death that was for our sins. We proclaim that Word and partake of that Bread of sincerity when we worship. But we must live it out. We are not to walk as murderers or thieves, but as sons of the Most High God. We are to love His Name, not only in ceremony, but in the integrity of a pure life.

This is how we ought to live in our appointed place and time as wait for the appearing of our God and Savior.