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 given birth to 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 ancient 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 the 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?

Death from uncleanness could even come on seeds if they became wet in uncleanness, making them ceremonially rejected. These little gifts of life, once infected, could not be planted or used because of their association with 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 was 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 old era 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, 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 just act out 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 unholy. 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 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?” Aaron's omission seemed to a grave error. The blood was not handled as it should have been. His 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.

Two men were struck down by the Lord. Aaron was not able to protect his own 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 live with Him.

Leviticus 9

The 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.

Moses called together Aaron, Aaron's sons, and the elders of Israel. 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.”

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 was commanded with the blood, and he burned the offering on the altar.

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 “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.

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 eternal blessing 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? Would they touch with wounded hands that could bring healing?

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.

Leviticus 7

The Levitical priests had much to know and understand. But how much more did Christ our priest need to know to offer a pleasing sacrifice to our Father! Jesus was not a son of Aaron, or even part of the tribe of Levi. That priesthood which came by way of Aaron brought a testimony of death. Yet even the ceremonies of the Law testified to a greater priesthood that would one day appear. As the priests according to the Law needed to know how to fulfill their calling, Christ needed to know what He had to do to offer the sacrifice that would cancel guilt and win for us eternal peace.

The guilt offering according to the Law was “most holy.” It had to be killed in a certain place, and the blood and fat portions of the offering were to be treated according to the Lord's requirements. In this section of the Law the priests learned that they were to consume certain portions of this offering. There was one law for the guilt offering and the sin offering, and the priests needed to know this law and to obey it.

The priests became partakers of certain things that were offered at the Lord's altar. Every male among them could eat the guilt or sin offerings. The priest who made atonement would receive the meat. The one who offered the burnt offering received the animal's hide. The priest who offered certain grain offerings received the priestly portion of those offerings, while others were to be shared equally among the sons of Aaron.

The connections between the worshiper, the priest making atonement, the priestly community around him, the sacrifice offered, and the Lord Himself who received an acceptable sacrifice were very worthy of Israel's contemplation. There was a communion taking place in the offering system that drew together God and His people, God and His priests, and the priests and the people. Just as Moses spoke of a desire in Numbers 11:29 that all God's people would be prophets, there were expressions in the Law of a longing that all of the Lord's Israel would be a kingdom of priests. We have now experienced a taste of the fulfillment of that holy plea in our oneness with God and our communion with one another in the body of Christ. We partake together of the one loaf and the one cup, proclaiming in this sacramental way the Lord's death until He comes.

The Old Testament peace offering richly displayed this priestly mystery of communion, a fellowship in the sacrifice between God and the people of Israel with the priests as mediators. The peace offering was a meal of shalom. It had to be celebrated in accord with God's ways, and the priest needed to know these ways. God set the terms of communion, and it was a priestly duty to see that those were rightly followed.

This meal of shalom had the meat of the sacrifice, as well as bread and oil. God had his portion, described in Leviticus 3. The priest had his portion of the meat, oil, and bread. The rest was the portion of the worshiper. The loaf that the priest ate was also the Lord's portion, a symbol of communion between God and man. The one who threw the blood of the peace offering on the sides of the altar, the priest who stood between God and man, was necessary for a true peace offering.

The meat of the peace offering had to be eaten by the third day. We have been told in the New Testament that Jesus rose from the dead on the third day “according to the Scriptures.” We could point to Jonah for the Old Testament reference, as our Lord did, speaking of his three days in the belly of a great fish. But we could also consider the death of the peace offering. By the third day there was no more of this death, only the life in God's people and His priests, a life that came from all who were partakers of the death of the offering.

If the peace offering was an offering for thanksgiving, God required that it be eaten on the day of the offering. The extra day for eating was only for those offerings that were part of a vow offering or of a freewill offering. The Lord would reveal more of the details of these offerings according to His timing. For now, the distinction between different categories of peace offerings was simply noted.

The Lord did tell His people that there were ways to make a peace offering something less than the full salvation that it was designed to portray. Eating tainted meat was one of those ways. Old meat was to be burned up with fire. Also only the ceremonially clean could eat this meal. We eat communion as those who have been washed by the blood of the Lamb, approaching God in faith, and counted as righteous in His sight because of the righteousness of the Christ in whom we trust.

Israel was to respect the terms of communion established by the Lord, and not to define shalom according to the desires of men. God had His portion. The priest had his role and his communion in the sacrifice. With that very important caution, a worshiper could come to God. The worshipers' hands would bring the offering. The breast would be waved before the Lord, but was then consumed by the worshiper. The priest would have the right thigh as a happy contribution from the sacrifice of a man's peace offerings.

The old laws of the burnt offering, of the grain offering, of the sin offering, of the guilt offering, and of the peace offering, have found their fulfillment in Christ our Priest and Christ our Sacrifice. We have peace with God in Him, and through Him we not only enjoy a taste of heaven, but we have the present privilege of bringing our lives to God as living sacrifices, acceptable to our Father through our Redeemer and King. We are one in Him who is one with the Father.

Verses on my mind... Christmas Eve, 2012

Luke 2:1-20

[2:1] In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. [2] This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. [3] And all went to be registered, each to his own town. [4] And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, [5] to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.

[6] And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. [7] And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

[8] And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. [9] And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. [10] And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. [11] For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. [12] And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”

[13] And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
[14] “Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

[15] When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” [16] And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. [17] And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. [18] And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. [19] But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. [20] And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Leviticus 6

All of Israel's sin was against God, but some sins were also against one another. Sincere repentance concerning a sin against another person needed to be accompanied by all possible restitution. If a man deceived his neighbor through some theft, it was necessary to pay his neighbor back, and the Lord required that the offender add a fifth to what he had taken and return all of it to the injured party.

Robbery and deceit brought injury to others, even if the underlying actions might have been in some sense unintentional. A deceiver might have deceived himself even more than the man from whom he had stolen. But once he came to his senses, appropriate compensation was due to his neighbor.

This offense also necessitated that things be made right with God. The man who was in the wrong needed to bring a ram without blemish out of the flock for a guilt offering. The good news of forgiveness through the shedding of the blood of a substitute was part of the Word of the Law: “He shall be forgiven for any of the things that one may do and thereby become guilty.” The Lord cared about reconciliation among men and their restored relationship with Almighty God even in the era that would prepare Israel for God's grand finale, the resurrection community of the faithful. Surely the Lord's kingdom should always give testimony of His healing power on both a horizontal and vertical plane. Christ did this for Israel, and not only for the Jews, but now even the hostility between Jew and Gentile has been repaired through His cross.

In all of the Lord's offerings, the priest played a most important role. The priest was a mediator between the one bringing the offering and God who would receive the offering from the hands of an acceptable representative.

In the earlier descriptions of each offering certain details of priestly activity were not mentioned. Now was the time to clarify some specific steps that a proper mediator had to perform.

For instance, the burnt offering was to remain on the altar long after the worshiper went home. It would burn there all night until the morning, and the priest was to keep that holy fire burning. It could not go out. He was the one who would have to know what to do with the ashes that were left over from that offering. The worshiper had returned to his normal life, but not the priest. Even the details of his hidden garments were made subject to the Lord's instructions for those who would touch the holy things of God's offerings. After a change of clothing, the ashes would be taken outside of the camp to a clean place.

He had to know what to do with the grain offering. He would burn the Lord's memorial portion including the frankincense and some of the oil on the bronze altar. But he was to eat the remainder as part of his connection with the offering, the people who offered it, and the Lord who received the offering and the people. He could only eat this without leaven and only in a holy place. How much would these priests have to eat? How could they consume all that was necessary? This was “a thing most holy” to God. Whatever touched these grain offerings became holy, so the priests that ate them became holy. All this ceremonial holiness was not only a privilege, but also a weighty burden.

The sons of Aaron would come and go, but the law of the priesthood would continue, until the system found its completeness in one offering of a life that would end all offerings. Before He offered up Himself, Jesus would say these words: “This is my body. This is my blood, the blood of the New Covenant.” Until that time, new priests would be anointed and a tenth of an ephah of fine flour would be used in the regular grain offering, half in the morning and half in the evening, and many other regulations would be observed. This was what the Lord decreed, and the priests needed to obey Him.

The priest would know what to do with the holy sin offering. They knew where the sin offering was to be killed “before the Lord.” This was something that the priest who offered it was to eat. It was to be eaten in the court of the tent of meeting. And it made everything it touched holy. There were rules about the blood of the sin offering splashing on a garment. The blood was holy. The garment had to be washed in a holy place. The vessel in which the offering was boiled had to be disposed of or scoured in a particular way. The priests needed to know and follow all of these laws. They were to eat the appropriate portions of the sin offering, except in the case of offerings where the blood was taken inside the tabernacle. Those offerings had to be burned up with fire.

Jesus did not descend from Aaron. Yet these provisions of the priesthood remind us that our Lord had a special role in a new kind of priesthood. He was the appointed Mediator between the Lord's people and our holy God. His blood made us clean. His hands brought resurrection healing to weary worshipers in this fading world. He opened a way for us into a new creation. His priesthood is forever.

He alone knew how to do His priestly duties without sin. He has made things right between us and God. In doing so He has made a way for there to be eternal peace among all those who belong to Him.

Leviticus 5

To know the depth of God's love in His provision of a sin offering for Israel, God's people needed to know more about the depth of their problem of sin. This required some specifics and a greater understanding of the offense against God from even unintentional sin.

One way to communicate this lesson would have been to give examples of the most heinous sins before God. This is not what God did in these chapters that teach us more about our sin and guilt. The Lord instead used examples that His people might easily dismiss as small or debatable matters. Even when such things were done without any particular malice or forethought, they required the death of a substitute. Rather than magnify the evil capacities of mankind, the Lord chose to show His own great righteousness. Offenses that men might consider to be small, when rightly seen as against God, required an offering acceptable to Him.

Men might regularly excuse themselves from involvement in the process of pursuing civil justice, but when a witness did not come forward to testify to the truth, this was sin, even though the underlying crime that was witnessed was someone else's responsibility. This was just one small example. Here were some others: Was it such a serious matter to touch an unclean carcass? Would it require the shedding of blood to have accidental contact with human uncleanness that was realized only after the fact? What if someone said words that should not be said in the heat of a moment of pain or frustration? Was this actually sin? Yes, all of these matters that Israel might be tempted to think of as only weaknesses brought guilt upon people. They required an appropriate sacrifice. The priest needed to make atonement from the flock for all these individual offenses.

This was not God being mean-spirited or picky. Israel could not pretend to have the righteousness to stand in judgment of the Law-Giver or His Law. This was merely God being the great I-Am.

His mercy for the weaker ones among His people was evident in His provision for those who did not have the means to bring a lamb. It was a blessing for the people to be able to have a ceremony to help them know that they had forgiveness, despite their sin. It was kind of the Lord to make a way for even the poor to know the way out of guilt. If someone could not offer a lamb, then he could bring two turtledoves or two pigeons, one for a sin offering and one for a burnt offering. This was very kind of God. If someone was so poor that the offering of birds was still beyond his reach, God made a way for him to make a small grain offering and have it count as a sin offering.

The Lord specified the procedures for each of these alternatives. The priest would know what to do with the blood of the birds and with his portion of the flour. The worshiper would know his part; the killing of the bird and the bringing of the correct amount of flour without oil or frankincense. The word that would be most pleasing to the ear of the penitent was clearly proclaimed in Leviticus: “The priest shall make atonement for him for the sin which he has committed in any one of these things, and he shall be forgiven.”

Could there be forgiveness for sin for the man who was so poor that he could only bring some flour? Yes, and true atonement, at least in these ceremonies of mercy for the weak that would be there for the people of God until the day when the true Messiah was revealed, the Man who would take away our sins forever through His own blood.

But what if someone unintentionally committed a breach of faith regarding the performing of any of these ceremonies? What then? He could bring a ram without blemish out of the flock as his compensation to the Lord. This would be his guilt offering, this on top of the original offering that was required, and an added fifth, an extra twenty percent given to the Lord.

But consider all our sin! The weight of our guilt before the Lord is overwhelming. We would be crushed under the burden of it, even if we were just trying to keep up with the ceremonies that God instituted. We have had great sins of commission and omission. We have sinned through weakness and through intentional rebellion.

How many animals would we owe just for our unintentional sins? How many rams would we have to bring just for not doing the ceremonial law in the right way? How could we pay the extra fifth that we would owe back to the Lord for all our impatience and ingratitude? How have we treated the people most precious to us, let alone those who are enemies? Who could weigh out all the silver necessary for us to make things right with God? Even if we could pay all our debt, what would we do when we woke up the next day and began accumulating more guilt.

But now a true atonement has been made, and even we who are so spiritually poor have been forgiven. The Sin Offering has come. The Ram for all our guilt has died for us. He had far more than the extra fifth in His own righteousness which He paid in our name. Now He touches our weary hearts, and lifts up our weak hands. He says to us, “Fear not. Your sins are forgiven. Your guilt before the Lord was great, but My righteousness has overwhelmed your guilt.”

Leviticus 4

The sacrifice of the ultimate acceptable offering before the Lord God was a very complex matter. God used more than one ceremony to prepare us for the perfect life and death of the Man who would accomplish such a weighty response to the sin of Adam. The burnt offering, the grain offering, the peace offering each had their stories to tell about the required life and work of the Savior and the blessing that His death would bring to the Lord's chosen people. But it was with the sin offering that the Lord touched upon the heart of the offense that required such a weighty solution.

Sin entered the world through one man. But that one man was not the only person who sinned against God. Sins were a fact of life in Israel, and they would require atonement. The fullness of sin was not atoned for by the sin offering. Intentional rebellion against the Lord would be dealt with in another way. The normal offerings for sin would only be for unintentional sins.

Unintentional sin against any of the Lord's commandments required the shedding of blood if the people of Israel were to live at peace with God in the Promised Land. But not all unintentional sin was to be atoned for in the same way. Was the sinner the anointed priest, the whole congregation, a leader of the people, or a common person? The matter of who committed the sin was a detail that God cared about.

The sin of the anointed priest was of great consequence, bringing guilt upon the people of the nation. That sin required the death of a bull from the herd before the presence of the Lord near the bronze altar in front of the tabernacle. The priest was to approach the entrance to the tent of meeting and lay his hand on the head of the bull. This laying on of the priest's hands was an identification between the sinful priest and the one who would take the penalty for him, the bull without blemish.

The priest would kill the bull, for this offering was for his sin. There would be no doubt as to who killed the sacrificial substitute. It was the one who committed the sin that necessitated the death of this atoning offering.

In this case of the anointed priest, he would serve as sinful worshiper and the priest who would mediate between the sinner and God. He would be the one to do the necessary work with the sacrificial blood of the offering. He would dip his finger in that blood and sprinkle it seven times in front of the veil of the sanctuary. He would also put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of incense inside the sanctuary, though not in the most holy place on the other side of the veil. Finally, all the rest of the blood would be poured out at the base of the bronze altar, the altar of burnt offering outside the tabernacle.

As with the peace offering, the special cuts referred to as “fat” portions would be burned on the altar of burnt offering. The remainder of the offering would be taken outside the camp to a clean place, and burned there on a fire of wood. This prepared the people of God for a sin offering who would be sacrificed outside the camp in some way. See Hebrews 13:11-12.

If the whole congregation of the people of Israel sinned unintentionally, the way to perform the necessary sin offering was similar. When they realized their guilt, the whole assembly should bring one bull, with the sinners placing their hands on the bull through the elders that represented them. Then the bull would be killed, and the procedures of the priest with the blood would be the same as when it was the sin of the anointed priest. As with him, the remainder of the bull after the burning of the Lord's portion on the bronze altar would be burned outside the camp. This was the way for the priest to make atonement for them.

In the case of an individual leader, the procedure was different. Now instead of a bull, he was to bring a male goat without blemish. Also the priests work with the blood would be restricted to the bronze altar outside of the tent of the meeting, its horns and its base. Finally, there was no mention of taking the animal and burning it outside the camp.

The details for an individual among the common people were very similar with the case of a leader. But in this case, when the guilt was realized, the worshiper would bring a female without blemish from the goats or the lambs, rather than a male.

These were the laws regarding the sin offering. There was a recognition of the special responsibility of leaders, especially among the priests who were to stand before God in the place of the people, but the whole assembly and every individual in it needed to know about how to handle the problem of unintentional sin.

Most important for the continued existence of the people in the land was this fact: There was a way provided by God for sinners to have ceremonial holiness before the Lord.

How much better is the news from heaven proclaimed to New Covenant believers. A true Redeemer has come to be our Sin Offering. His death was a sad consequence of our sin, but His resurrection was a sure proof that our sin has finally been atoned for. Ceremonies that taught us about forgiveness were fine for their time, but we needed a sin offering that would take away sin once for all time. This sin offering has now been accomplished through the cross of Christ. We are forever forgiven by God. His Son suffered in the place of disgrace for priest, leader, individual, and even for the whole congregation. There is no need for any other sacrifice. Our guilt has been canceled. We are forgiven.

Leviticus 3

The Lord instituted a system of offerings for the people of Israel that told a single story from more than one vantage point. The subject was always the acceptable approach to God, the pleasing aroma. It was always about more than an animal that could be burnt upon the bronze altar in front of the tabernacle. To get the best picture of this one acceptable offering required more than one view. The burnt offering and the grain offering were pictures of a fully consecrated death and the goodness of a whole life of work and an entire being given to the Lord. The peace offering looked at that death and life from the vantage point of what the right offering would secure.

Israel needed peace with God. Peace was always more than just the absence of war. It was a positive condition of holy fellowship, of honest joy, and of secure relationship. The chosen sacrament to prepare the Lord's people for this aspect of the Messiah's work was an animal sacrifice that was not only offered to God but enjoyed before Him by those who worshiped Him.

God cared about the securing of shalom fellowship with Israel. That should have told Israel a lot about Him. Could the worshiper have known that God would come one day Himself to be the peace offering for His Israel? This was love, that Christ gave Himself for the securing of this peace.

The acceptable peace offering had to be without blemish, and He had to be offered before the Lord as an act of holy worship. God the Father was laying out the pathway for the Son to work out this shalom through this offering of Himself. The death of the peace offering was necessary, as was the identification of the substitute with the worshiper. If Israel wanted peace with God, worshipers had to lay their hands on the head of the holy substitute.

That substitute would be killed, and the blood of that sacrifice would be thrown against the sides of the altar, as with the burnt offering. But now, instead of burning all of the meat unto the Lord on the bronze altar, only certain cuts, “the fat,” the best cuts, were given to God.

These cuts were placed on top of the burnt offering. The base was the burnt offering, entirely consumed according to Leviticus 1. Now these extra cuts, the specified “fat,” would also be an additional pleasing aroma to the Lord. The Lord was pleased to have true peace with His people, but it would come His way, and at a cost. Who would bear the cost? That would become clearer when the One came who would not only win for us peace with God, but even peace between Jew and Gentile. See Ephesians 2:11-22.

The peace offering could be from the herd, either a bull or a cow, or it could be from the flock, male or female, either from the sheep or from the goats. This was a greater variety than was allowed for the burnt offering.

The peace offering rules were the same regardless of these various options. The acceptable peace offering was without blemish. It was identified with the worshiper by the laying of the worshiper's hands on the head of the animal. It had to be killed by the worshiper. The priests put the blood on the sides of the altar. The worshiper offered the special cuts, the “fat,” to the Lord.

Each of these facts of an acceptable peace offering were worthy of Israel's consideration:

The acceptable peace offering was without blemish. There would be no fullness of peace with God without a perfect offering. One blemish would have lost the peace that the hearts of all God's people longed for.

The acceptable peace offering was identified with the worshiper by the laying of the worshiper's hands on the head of the animal. The securing of our peace was not a disinterested process for the worshiper. He needed to see his need. Israel could not secure their own peace in their own way. The answer for Israel was not through the empires of men, or through their own giftedness or goodness.

The acceptable peace offering had to be killed by the worshiper. God would make peace through the blood of an acceptable substitute. There was no way to enjoy the fruits of peace without owning up to the cost of peace, which was borne by another.

The priests put the blood of the acceptable peace offering on the sides of the altar. God's representatives had to appease the wrath of God even for a peace offering.

The worshiper offered the special cuts, the “fat” of the acceptable peace offering to the Lord. The Lord deserved the best. It was a heinous crime against this sacrament when men took for themselves these special cuts. See 1 Samuel 2:29.

The instructions ended with these words. “All fat is the Lord's. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations, in all your dwelling places, that you eat neither fat nor blood.”

God's peace was costly. It required a Substitute who could secure shalom for us by offering Himself. Jesus did not need to lay His hands on some other head to get peace. His blood and His righteousness have become the fulness of life for us. It is a testimony to the importance of this truth, and to the achievement of these demands in the work of Christ, that so many New Testament epistles contain words like these: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Jesus is our peace.

2 Samuel 15

Absalom was not a man who could be trusted. He had already proven this by scheming to kill his brother and by burning Joab's field. He had taken upon himself the role of a king, and he liked the feel of the crown that he imagined was his for the taking.

When the time was right he began his plot. Through his dramatic entourage, his generous posture as a benefactor of the people, and his warm embraces of those who were disposed to admire him, he stole away the hearts of the people.

He again involved King David in his deception as he had in the murder of Amnon. Absalom patiently executed his plan to have himself proclaimed king over Israel. He even involved the Name of the Lord in his plot claiming that he was going to Hebron to pay his vow to the Lord. Absalom was not a nice man, despite his play-acting. He was a conspirator against his own father.

David was the true king of Israel. But now the time had come for him to leave Jerusalem, at least for a time. David had been played by his own son. But now he found enough strength in his soul to protect his household and his servants, urging them to flee with him and to trust the Lord in this time of distress.

This was a sad moment for any who would see the situation in truth. Absalom had deceived many people, but some in Israel had the wisdom to weep with the king as David and his companions crossed the brook Kidron.

Absalom would surely have killed his own father and any who were loyal to David in order to satisfy his own ambitions. But there were still men in Israel who were steadfast in their love for the man that God had taken from guarding the sheep to be king over His people Israel.

David's trust was in the Lord. If it was the Lord's will to save David, He could surely accomplish that. David's words were simple and inspiring. “Let Him do to me what seems good to Him.”

The account of the king's departure is still moving. “David went up the ascent of the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went, barefoot and with his head covered. And all the people who were with him covered their heads, and they went up, weeping as they went.”

Many years later a sad moment of betrayal of the true King of Israel would take place on this same spot. Judas would betray Jesus with a kiss.

Jesus gave Himself entirely to the will of His Father. As Isaiah had foretold, “It was the will of the Lord to crush Him.” But Jesus would show forth an astounding victory over a world of death in just three days. Again Isaiah says, “When His soul makes an offering for guilt, He shall see His offspring, He shall prolong His days.”

We who call upon the Name of the true Son of David are Sons of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. We will not follow false Messiahs, no matter how appealing they may seem to our eyes and our ears or how friendly their embrace. Jesus is Lord forever.

2 Samuel 14

We are knit together in families, churches, and nations. Until we can cry for each other in our miseries and rejoice with one another in our accomplishments something is missing. We are not whole when we are alone.

David's heart longed for his exiled son, Absalom, and Joab knew it. Joab had his own idea of what would be the appropriate solution to the sadness that had led to the separation of father and son. He had his own wisdom on this matter, but was his plan in accord with the wisdom of God? Would David receive Joab's plan as good advice, or would he reject it if it had been plainly stated for his consideration?

Joab chose to do something more than a forthright presentation to the king of his opinion. He chose a planned deception, with a woman chosen by Joab playing a role before the king. He chose to get his point across to the king by hiring someone to tell a story that might move the heart of David knowing that a direct defense using the name of Absalom might have proven unsuccessful.

The point of Joab's drama was to appeal to David's sense of mercy so that it might triumph over his sense of justice. There had been a dispute between Amnon and Absalom that had resulted in the murder of one brother and the exile of the other. Justice demanded Absalom's death. But was it really necessary that the murderer die? Did David have to lose both his sons over this conflict? Both Amnon and Absalom had deceived David in their sinful plots. Now Joab attempted to deceive David one more time in order to save the surviving son's life. But was this effort really the wisdom of God?

As Joab's contrived story was played out before the king, David invoked the name of the Lord to settle the matter in favor of mercy for the murderer. But would he now be so moved by the story and his oath that he would actually spare the life of Absalom? What would be the consequence of that kind of mercy for David and the kingdom?

David was able to see that the coaching of Joab was behind the speech of the woman who asked David for mercy upon Absalom. She then flattered the king for his wisdom in detecting Joab's hand in this plot. Yet would David know the true wisdom of God concerning the son of his flesh that was so knit to his own soul? Would he see the necessity of true justice in his own family, or would he let himself be manipulated by Joab's play in accord with the strong yearnings of his own heart?

The full restoration of the murderer of Amnon would take place in two stages. The first stage was his return to Jerusalem, though he would not be permitted into the king's presence. Absalom was not content with this arrangement. Through another strange series of events involving the intentional burning of Joab's field, Absalom was brought before the king to receive his full pardon.

This decision would cost David dearly. Again we wonder, was the restoration of Absalom truly the wisdom of God? Amnon did deserve punishment from the king because of the rape of his half sister Tamar, but could her brother Absalom take the law into his own hands in his successful scheme to murder Amnon? Was this not a son of the king taking on the prerogatives of the kingship in order to bring vengeance upon the man who had destroyed his sister's life?

We are called to be people of mercy. There can be no doubt about that. In the good news of Christ, by which we are saved, mercy triumphs over judgment. But this does not come to pass through the minimization of the claims of righteousness. In the cross, our guilt as sinners is publicly acknowledged and paid for through the death of our holy Substitute. Jesus died to vindicate the justice of God as much as to win the mercy of God for us.

We do not win mercy by usurping the position of God and then claiming that we have no guilt. Mercy comes to those who admit their guilt and then admit a second truth concerning the righteousness of God in Jesus the Lamb. Our sins have been atoned for. We have been joined together with Christ in the family of God, not through a manipulative drama, but with the true story that was written in the blood of Christ. Our king died for our sins. This is the way that mercy has triumphed over judgment in our lives. There was guilt in us. But someone else has been put to death in order to cancel that guilt. Now His goodness has been credited to our account and our debt to God has been fully paid.

2 Samuel 13

There is so much sin in this world, and so much glory in the face of Jesus Christ. Colossians 2:7 says, “In him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.” This great Son of David is the answer to our formidable needs, and we cry out to Him even now for deliverance. “Come, Lord Jesus!”

No other descendant of David matched Jesus in His incomparable holiness. Some of David's sons were remarkably wicked. In 2 Samuel 13 we have the account of Amnon, the son of David who raped David's daughter, Tamar. This despicable event ultimately led to the death of two of David's sons and to a rebellion that threatened David's continued reign as king.

The rape of Tamar was the suggestion of Amnon's cousin. The two young men even dared to involve David in their plot, asking for him to send Tamar to Amnon's house so that should could bring food to him in his supposed sickness. When she came to him, he took her by force despite her pleadings. After he raped her, he despised her and sent her away, again against her urgent plea. She left his chamber as a woman whose life had been violently destroyed.

Tamar lived as “a desolate woman” in the home of her brother, Absalom, who was also David's son. He knew what Amnon had done and he hated him. David was angry about what had taken place, but we have no record of him bringing justice against Amnon for his attack against his sister. Absolom, Tamar's brother, plotted revenge secretly, and eventually murdered Amnon.

This vengeance took place after two full years and also involved King David. David gave permission for his sons to attend a celebration feast at Absolom's insistence. Before the party was over, Amnon had been murdered by Absolom's servants at their master's instruction.

The initial report that reached David's ears incorrectly announced the death of all David's sons who had been at Absalom's feast. But it was Amnon's original counselor, his cousin, who gave David the truth. Absalom had planned and ordered the murder of Amnon because of the rape of Tamar.

With this vengeance accomplished, Absalom fled for his life. Amnon was dead, and Absalom was gone, and the king mourned.

“How long, O Lord!”

David and his children no longer live on the earth, but we do live here. Now it is our time to mourn. But it is also our time to believe the promises of God. We look in hope to the Lord for the coming day when rape and murder will be gone forever. Even now that day of kingdom victory is secure in the death and resurrection of the perfect Son of David.

We should not imagine that the coming of a kingdom of perfect holiness was an easy accomplishment. It could never have been attained by the power of good laws or by the most excellent parenting, as good as these gifts are. As we seek to follow the Lord in obedience to His Word, we are keenly aware of our need for Him.

The problems described in 2 Samuel 13 were very deep. The solution would be very costly. One of David's descendants would have to die a better death than the murder of Amnon. Jesus the Messiah, the sinless One, died on the cross for us. This was the only way to defeat sin and death. His resurrection from the dead is the beginning of a victory that could never have been accomplished in any other way.

We must not imagine that any other son of David could have accomplished the justice and mercy that we so desperately need. In Jesus of Nazareth the fullness of deity dwells bodily. His thoughts, words, and actions are fully of God. He came as God in the flesh. His death and resurrection are a source of great consolation to those who will receive His Word today. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom of perfect holiness.