23 Feb Leviticus

[Tom Tighe]

Hello Bible Adventurists,

Wow! God’s instructions about how to build the Tabernacle and how to make sacrifices are so detailed (and a little monotonous to read through). Are those details important to us since we don’t sacrifice animals for our sins, and we don’t have a Tabernacle? Well, I think yes. OK, those actual details may not be, but the fact that God cares about details is. But isn’t He too busy running the universe to see the little details of my life? Definitely not. Remember God did make the infinitely big universe, but infinity goes in both directions, and He also made the infinitely small subatomic particles that he used to carefully build that universe. Those are some details! His detailed instructions also point out to us that our worship is not to be haphazard. I think we should give glory to God in all we do by doing the right thing and do it to the best of our ability. However, I think the lesson of Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, is that worship should be careful and purposeful with attention to the details. Careless or man-developed worship could inadvertently lead to false ideas or idol/pagan worship. It also reminds us that God is serious with definite standards of right and wrong and that there are real consequences for wrong (sin).

I think it is instructive that Hebrew sinners (a lot like us) had to recognize their own sins, decide to repent, pick a valuable animal, and take it to the priests to publicly admit their sin. (Oh look, there goes Tom with another goat to the Temple. I wonder what he did this time?). Then the priest was responsible for performing the sacrifice properly. Both parts of that were important and had details that had to be followed. Fortunately, we have Jesus as our sacrifice and as our priest.

I encourage you to remember all the stuff they needed for the Tabernacle and the sacrifices were carried out of Egypt through the sea and that the Hebrews are still living in a desert with just the blessings God gives them daily. Those detailed rules in Leviticus are one of those blessings. Leviticus can seem so distant, but we really follow a lot of the same behavior, health, and safety rules today to keep our society functioning. Don’t worry if you have gotten behind a little. You can just pick back up with the leprosy and fungus laws.

Thanks for joining me on this adventure,

Tom

[Tom Tighe]

Yea... Leviticus can seem a bit detached for us today, especially here in the west with our western thinking.

I was taught that temple language, among many things, ultimately helps us understand the Heavenly Kingdom, the different beings in Creation, our family structure and our own relationship with our Heavenly Father.

It is believed by many that temple language teaches us how His created beings (spirit, creature and human) are to approach Him and that each are created with a future purpose in the future with Him after Yeshua''s return. It points to a higher spiritual realm.

We see this most especially as western Christians in the being Yeshua/Jesus became and how the Temple language also points to His comings and why.

I'm grateful we have already been graduated from the raw practice of Levi rites because we are in Messiah, blessed be He, yet we still have more graduating to be made manifest as it still awaits us in the spirit.

Peace!

Jules

[Tom Tighe]

Tom,

Thank you for making the connection in Leviticus that "worship should not be haphazard". I thought I'd share an excerpt from a great book I read this week on that very topic:

"Rites and ceremonies are necessary in worship because, as Luther says, 'We cannot live on earth without them.' The only kind of worship imaginable without rites and ceremonies would be private worship which is entirely without intelligible words. As soon as words are used, spoken or unspoken, symbols are employed, for words are symbols, and symbols belong to ceremonial. Public worship cannot be unceremonial because it requires some form of communication and all forms of communication are ceremony...Rites and ceremonies are an outward expression of what a church believes and teaches. An ancient Latin formula puts it this way: Lex orandi lex credendi. 'As we worship so we believe' or 'as we believe so we worship.' The externals in worship are a means of communication which people understand and by which they are often affected more readily and powerfully than by words. A crucifix may move the heart of an ordinary person more than a sermon on the crucifixion of Christ. Bowing the head when the holy name of Jesus is said in a worship service may be a very powerful testimony of our faith in Christ as Savior and Lord." (Rev. Paul H. D. Lang, Ceremony and Celebration)

I also want to expand on another of your observations: that for the Israelites, part of repentance was physically going to the priest and verbally confessing their sin. While for the Hebrews this was a divine Law, in the New Testament age we are still given the gift of repentance and it still works in this way. Every Sunday before the start of the Divine Service proper, I verbally, audibly confess before my God and my neighbors that I am "a poor miserable sinner" and that I have "justly deserved Thy temporal and eternal punishment." Moreover, I also am urged by the Symbolical Books of the Lutheran Church to make diligent use of private confession and absolution. It works in exactly the same way, only there I am given the privilege of speaking my personal and specific sins aloud before my Pastor (who is Christ's representative). In both of these cases, I do these things because I have faith in the words that Jesus speaks to me next: "I forgive you all of your sins."

So, if you think the ancient Levitical practice of confession sounds helpful for sinners, I submit that the Christian Sacrament of Holy Absolution is even better, richer, and more comforting for the contrite heart. Therefore, if you have never partaken of this Sacrament, or if it has been a while, the present season of Lent is a fantastic time to do so.

In Christ,
Paul Kvamme

[Tom Tighe]

I was reminded this morning by Pastor Colageo that all the Levitical sacrifices point to the coming Christ. Something must die to pay for my sin.