Verse for the Day, 27 November 2014.

Leviticus 8:1-5, “The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,  (2)  "Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments and the anointing oil and the bull of the sin offering and the two rams and the basket of unleavened bread.  (3)  And assemble all the congregation at the entrance of the tent of meeting."  (4)  And Moses did as the LORD commanded him, and the congregation was assembled at the entrance of the tent of meeting.  (5)  And Moses said to the congregation, "This is the thing that the LORD has commanded to be done."”

Leviticus 9:22-24, “Then Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them, and he came down from offering the sin offering and the burnt offering and the peace offerings.  (23)  And Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting, and when they came out they blessed the people, and the glory of the LORD appeared to all the people.  (24)  And fire came out from before the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar, and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.”

In these two chapters we have repeated for us the ordination and consecration ceremonies for the tabernacle, Aaron and his sons. This ceremony took place over eight days, during which the tabernacle and all its utensils were purified by the blood of a sacrifice. Aaron and his sons were also cleansed, set apart and anointed, by both the blood of a sacrifice and oil. A number of sacrifices were offered up during this time, sacrifices for sin and for thanksgiving. The ceremony reached its climax on the eighth day, after Aaron had offered up the sin, burnt and peace offerings, he pronounced the blessing upon the people. As he and Moses came out of the tabernacle both God’s glory and the fire of God appeared. The fire consumed the offerings and the glory of God shone before all the people, causing them all to fall on their faces in worship, awe, fear and reverence. It must have been an incredible and memorable moment for all who witnessed it.

The conclusion of this ceremony was not only dramatic because it ended with the fire and glory of God, but also because it marked the beginning of the ministry of the tabernacle. The people of Israel now had a place of worship, a means through which they could seek after a relationship with God, show their sorrow over their sin, their desire to repent of it and to seek after the forgiveness of God. They had a means of showing their love, devotion and thankfulness towards God, as well as their trust in God and faith in who He is and His promises. This all served to form an integral part of the covenant relationship they had with God. He was their God, who promised to bless, prosper and protect them, and who had thus far proved Himself faithful to this covenant promise. The people of Israel were to now demonstrate their faithfulness to the covenant by showing themselves to be the people of God, through their willing obedience and service of God, and by their commitment to worship God and God alone, through the means that God had now provided by way of the tabernacle. Therefore the tabernacle was a constant reminder to them of the covenant relationship they had with God.

Sadly, it would be a reminder that they often failed to take note of, and therefore neglected to worship God and remain faithful to their covenant promises of obedience to and service of God. What made this failure and neglect all the worse was that the people of Israel still expected and even demanded that God should remain faithful to His promises to them. Even in the midst of their rebellion, they still demanded that God provide, prosper, protect and bless them. When God punished, or disciplined Him, they grumbled and complained against God.

All this serves to teach us that even though one can know the promises of God, have a means and system of worshipping God, that doesn’t mean that they will truly love, serve and worship God. Faithfulness towards God, true obedience and true worship can only take place when there is a change of heart. In their sinful state our hearts are naturally and constantly inclined to worship ourselves or gods of our own making, thus it is impossible for us to truly worship God. A supernatural work is required, whereby God changes our hearts, so that He becomes the single object and desire of our worship. This clearly shows us that although the tabernacle was a wonderful provision of God’s grace, it served as a sign of a coming provision of grace, the greatest provision of grace, the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ brings about that change of heart by dealing with and taking away our idolatrous hearts. He turns us away from the worship of self, back to the true worship of God. He frees us from all the false promises and bondage that comes with the worship of self, the world or idols and brings us into the truth and certain reality of God’s promises. He brings us back to life and leads us into eternal life. He gives us an inward sign and evidence of God’s covenant promise with us, through the indwelling on the Holy Spirit, who helps us on a daily basis to worship God in faithfulness and in obedience. In Christ we have something far greater than the tabernacle.

Faithful Father, we thank You today for the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the greater than the tabernacle, who is the fulfilment of all that the tabernacle pointed to. Thank You that He has turned our hearts back to You and given us new life. We rejoice in the fact that because You now live within us through Your Spirit, we can worship You and serve You with our lives, and know Your daily presence, protection and blessing. Thank You that You had made us Your people and that You are our God. May we worship and serve You in faithfulness today. Amen.

Verse for the Day, 26 November 2014.

Leviticus 7:37-38, “This is the law of the burnt offering, of the grain offering, of the sin offering, of the guilt offering, of the ordination offering, and of the peace offering,  (38)  which the LORD commanded Moses on Mount Sinai, on the day that he commanded the people of Israel to bring their offerings to the LORD, in the wilderness of Sinai.”

Leviticus chapters 1-6 record for us the various sacrifices that are to be offered up by the people of Israel. With all of the details given in these chapters we might wonder why chapter 7 is necessary as it seems to repeat what has just been said. It is important for us to understand that repetition in the Bible is never a vain-task, it is there for a specific purpose. Generally that purpose is to emphasise and reinforce what has been said. We need to remember that while we have Leviticus written down for us to read whenever we want, the people of Israel did not have this privilege. The only time they heard these words was on the few occasions that they were read to them by a priest. This repetition is designed to help the people remember how they are to approach God and how they are to offer up the various sacrifices.

As we mentioned at the beginning of our study in Leviticus, this book strongly emphasises the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man. It also helps us to understand that God takes our relationship with Him very seriously, He does not regard it as a light thing; sadly in our sinfulness we make the error of taking our relationship with God lightly. We can often be guilty of approaching God in a casual manner, with little forethought, and even less thoughtfulness and consideration for the manner in which we are worshipping God. To help us understand this error and the need for us to take our relationship with God seriously, and for us to approach God in humility, with awe and reverence, God gives all these detailed instructions. He wants the people of Israel to understand who He is, and who they are. God wants them to prepare themselves for worship, and to give consideration to the manner in which they are going to worship God. He wants them to understand that when they come to offer up a sacrifice, when they seek after forgiveness, peace and answers to prayers, that they are coming before God, a God who is holy, almighty and infinite. They cannot march casually with no consideration and respect for what they are about to do. They cannot just drop the animal to be sacrificed off at the temple and leave it to the priest. Nor are the priests to just slaughter the animal and throw it on to the altar and walk off, leaving the sacrifice to burn down to nothing. No! There is a process to be followed so that both the worshipper and the priest understand exactly what they are doing and in whose presence they are doing it.

Whilst we are grateful for the person and work of Christ, who has done away with the sacrificial system and caused God’s Spirit to now dwell within us, we can be guilty of the same error. In fact the temptation and the potential for committing this error is all the greater. We do not need to go to a temple, nor do we need to take time to follow through with the process of cleansings and sacrifices. As a result we fail to consider who we are worshipping and we seldom prepare ourselves and our families to worship God. Furthermore we are not always mindful of the fact that God is present when we worship, although we cannot see Him, He is there with us, and He is within us. The challenging and revealing question is: If we could see God when we worshipped, would our worship be any different, would we change the manner in which we prepared and partook in the worship of God? If the answer is yes, it would change, then we know that we need to make that change now. Of course when we see God our worship will be greater as we will understand so much more of who He is and then who we are. But until that day comes, we should only ever want to render to God the highest level of worship we are able to.

God of all, who dwells in unapproachable glory and majesty, who is infinite and deserving of all our worship, we bow in humility before Your throne. We plead for forgiveness as we so often fail to consider who You are and how You are to be worshipped. We ask that through the aid of Your Spirit You would help us to be more aware and mindful, to prepare ourselves and participate in worship at the highest and best level we are able to whilst still upon this earth. Help us to worship You as though we could see Your very presence, for we know that You are indeed present even though You are hidden from our sight. May our worship today and this week be truly honouring to You. Amen.

Verse for the Day, 24 November 2014.

Leviticus 5:1-6  "If anyone sins in that he hears a public adjuration to testify, and though he is a witness, whether he has seen or come to know the matter, yet does not speak, he shall bear his iniquity;  (2)  or if anyone touches an unclean thing, whether a carcass of an unclean wild animal or a carcass of unclean livestock or a carcass of unclean swarming things, and it is hidden from him and he has become unclean, and he realizes his guilt;  (3)  or if he touches human uncleanness, of whatever sort the uncleanness may be with which one becomes unclean, and it is hidden from him, when he comes to know it, and realizes his guilt;  (4)  or if anyone utters with his lips a rash oath to do evil or to do good, any sort of rash oath that people swear, and it is hidden from him, when he comes to know it, and he realizes his guilt in any of these;  (5)  when he realizes his guilt in any of these and confesses the sin he has committed,  (6)  he shall bring to the LORD as his compensation for the sin that he has committed, a female from the flock, a lamb or a goat, for a sin offering. And the priest shall make atonement for him for his sin.

The theme of sacrifices and offerings continues in chapter 5 with the guilt offering. As the name suggests this offering is made for sin that is apparent, or sin that comes to light. The previous offering, the sin offering, was to be made for unintentional and unknown sins. Sins that remained hidden from our knowledge, yet our guilt in regards to committing them remained and thus payment was required. The guilt offering was instituted as a means of seeking to deal with known and public sin. This offering was also accompanied by the necessary restitution that needed to be made for that particular sin.

Thus far we have looked at the burnt offering, the thank offering, the sin offering and the guilt offering. With all these offerings, we may wonder to ourselves, why do there need to be so many, why didn’t God just institute one offering that could be offered up to cover all of the above? These offerings were not cheap, it required a person to have to buy the animal and then make a costly journey to Jerusalem. Why not make it easier and more economical and just have one offering? Furthermore is God not being a bit unreasonable in demanding that every time we sin deliberately that we need to make an offering for that sin? Why can’t we just offer up an offering every couple of years?

To us that may make common sense, but by thinking in this manner it shows how our view of sin differs from God’s view. We fail to understand the gravity and offence of sin, we reduce it, down play it and excuse it. As was mentioned when we looked at Leviticus 4, many in the world will think of God as being harsh and unfair in holding us responsible for sins that we were not even aware of. And when we do sin deliberately we seek to minimise, justify and excuse it, we will argue against being held accountable for it, and will seek to pass the responsibility and guilt for it, on to another person.

All of these offerings are designed to teach us the need for us to take personal responsibility for our relationship with God and for our sin. No other person can bring us closer to God and cause us to grow in spiritual maturity, and no one else can take responsibility for our sin. We need to realise that God calls each and every one of us to take our relationship with His seriously, we are all called to walk in obedience to Him and to live for the glory of His name. When we do fall into sin, instead of denying, downplaying, reducing or excusing it, we need to take responsibility for it. We need to take responsibility for our sin, before God and before men, seeking God’s forgiveness, and making restitution to those whom we have wronged. Neither our personal relationship with God nor our sinfulness can be taken lightly, they are deeply serious and demand our daily attention.

For us today who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are filled with daily gratitude that our sin has been completely dealt with by Christ. We no longer need to make sacrifices on a regular basis. However, it is all the more important for us to understand the seriousness of sin and our need to not only avoid it, but also to take immediate responsibility for it. We need to take it quickly to God in prayer, seeking His forgiveness and the strengthening of His Spirit to keep us from further sin. One of the greatest ways in which we can demonstrate our thankfulness for the salvation of Christ, our understanding of sin and the importance of our relationship with God, is by seeking daily to grow in our relationship with God. We do not invest time, effort, resources and make sacrifices for relationships that we see as being of little worth or importance. Sadly, many Christians make rather poor investments into their relationship with God, which reflects on how poorly they understand their salvation. We need to be willing to invest greatly in our relationship with God. As we make this investment, we will see the returns very quickly. We will grow in our appreciation of who God is and the depths of our salvation, we will know more of the holiness of God and therefore the repulsiveness and gravity of sin. We will gain spiritual strength through a greater knowledge of the Scriptures and a deeper prayer life, which will help us to battle against sin. We will gain greater spiritual insight and discernment, so that we can see truth and error, right and wrong with greater clarity. We will grow in wisdom and learn how we can apply that wisdom to our lives in practical ways. We will find the tremendous joy and abiding peace that comes when we walk closely with the Lord.

All the offerings in Leviticus were designed to help the people of Israel grow ever deeper in their relationship with God. Because of Christ we no longer have to make those offerings, however we are also called to grow deeper in our relationship with God and to take sin seriously.

Righteous Father, we thank You that You created us to have a personal relationship with You. We thank You all the more that even after we fell into sin, You still desired to have a relationship with us, and put in place a means by which we could approach You, which culminated in and was completely accomplished by Christ. Thank You that because of Christ we now have a restored personal relationship with You both in this life and in the life to come. We pray that You would help us to grow and to invest in this relationship, and to understand the gravity of sin. Make it the daily, burning and compelling desire of our hearts to want to live for You and to walk deeper and closer with You each and every day. Amen.