Verse for the Day, 4 December 2014.

Leviticus 11:44-47, “ For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground.  (45)  For I am the LORD who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy."  (46)  This is the law about beast and bird and every living creature that moves through the waters and every creature that swarms on the ground,  (47)  to make a distinction between the unclean and the clean and between the living creature that may be eaten and the living creature that may not be eaten.”

At the end of this chapter that deals with clean and unclean animals, we find an appeal to holiness. God calls on the people of Israel to be holy as He is holy. This may appear to be rather strange and even a bit unreasonable! Can eating certain types of animals, or even touching these animals be regarded as sinful, rendering us unclean and therefore unacceptable in the sight of God? Furthermore how can God declare certain animals as being unclean, when He created them and declared them all to be good in His sight?

There are three points that we need to keep in mind as we read these types of passages.

Firstly, God’s holiness is absolute, there is no room for negotiation or compromise. God is 100% holy and if we are to be accepted in His sight we too must be 100% holy, not even 99.5 % holy would suffice. God is absolutely holy and only that with is absolutely holy may dwell with Him.

Secondly, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God and chose to sin, their sin had a far wider impact than they realised. Adam and Eve are not the only ones that are cursed, creation itself is cursed; disease, suffering and death will now come to every living thing. Even in our modern age this is still the case. Over recent years there have been out breaks of bird and swine flu, and in order to protect us, millions upon millions of animals were slaughtered and disposed of. God institutes this command for the protection of the people, many of the unclean animals mentioned are animals that are known to carry diseases. Therefore this commandment is one of grace, God is seeking to preserve and protect the people of Israel.

Thirdly, a number of these animals were also used in the worship of idols, or were seen as sacred by the nations surrounding the Promised Land. In this respect, this command is similar to the instructions given to Moses to make a completely unique incense to be used in the tabernacle, and not an existing one, as these incenses were used in the worship of idols. God is seeking to protect the people of Israel from idol worship and the various things that accompany it.

If we bring these three points together, this commandment makes sense and we are able to understand what is at the heart of it. God is holy, loving and gracious, He loves life and He loves us. He seeks to demonstrate this constantly to the people of Israel in commands such as this one. The Israelites must never lose sight of the fact that God is absolutely holy, but they live in a sinful, cursed world, one in which people will constantly turn away from God to worship idols. It is a world that is filled with disease, suffering and death, and it all comes to every living creature without exception. God desires to preserve, uphold and protect the lives of His people, He desires to keep them from disease and suffering. God also desires to protect His people from going astray into idolatry, for He knows both the heart of man and the destruction that idolatry brings.

Furthermore, it is in this sinful, idolatrous, cursed world that they live and it is in world that they are called by God to be holy as He is holy. The Israelites are to be distinct from the nations around them, including the food which they eat and the animals that they keep. Holiness is to demonstrated and strived after in the great and important things, all the way down to the seemingly insignificant and small. They are God’s people and everything that they do is to reflect this reality. When the nations around witness this uniqueness and enquire as to why the people of Israel live in such a way, the Israelites are given the opportunity to evangelise, to tell them of God.

As believers in Jesus Christ, the same call to be holy as God is holy comes to us. It is a call that we are to constantly strive after until we are drawn into God’s eternal kingdom. We understand this call to holiness and many of us do strive after it, but in our pursuit on holiness we can often be guilty of focusing on the major, the important areas, but neglecting the smaller areas. We seek to display holiness on that which is outwardly visible and seen by others. We do this because we want people to see and think that we are holy. The words of Jesus remind us that true holiness, true godliness comes from within. Therefore when we neglect inner holiness, it will lead us to fail outwardly. We may be able to fool men with our outward pretence of holiness, but God sees and knows all, in fact it will only be a matter of time before the pretence fails and the truth is revealed. The key to pursuing holiness lies in starting with the small, seemingly insignificant areas, in the places and parts of our lives that are unseen by man. It starts inwardly and then works its way outwardly. Our pursuit of holiness applies to every area of our lives, including the manner in which we buy, prepare and eat our food. Eating is worship, we can worship greed and over-indulgence, we can abuse our bodies and bring them into compromise through a poor diet, we can demonstrate selfishness and ungratefulness, we can even be proud and think that what we eat has come from our own hand and doing. As believers in Christ we are called to be thankful, humble, generous, kind and holy, even when we eat! We are to be holy in the great and the small, the seen and the unseen, the important and the insignificant, we are to be holy as God is holy.

God You are holy, holy, holy. Help us to better understand and grasp Your holiness, impress it upon our hearts, minds and lives. May Your call to us to be holy as You are holy, not seem burdensome to us, but that we might understand that it is the pathway to blessing, that walking in holiness is to walk on the better path. Help us today to strive after holiness in the small things and in the big things. May we live more for Your eyes, than for the eyes of men. Amen.

Verse for the Day, 3 December 2014.

Leviticus 10:16-20, “Now Moses diligently inquired about the goat of the sin offering, and behold, it was burned up! And he was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, the surviving sons of Aaron, saying,  (17)  "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?  (18)  Behold, its blood was not brought into the inner part of the sanctuary. You certainly ought to have eaten it in the sanctuary, as I commanded."  (19)  And Aaron said to Moses, "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?"  (20)  And when Moses heard that, he approved.”

This is a rather peculiar passage, upon reading it we are not sure what to make of it at first. The key to understanding these particular verses lies in what happens earlier in the chapter. The chapter starts with the unauthorised incense being offered up to God by Nadab and Abihu, which lead to their deaths. After this Moses once more instructs Aaron and his two remaining sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, on the importance of obedience to the commands and instructions given to them as the priests. The sacrifices and offerings, the burning of the incense is all to be done in complete accordance to the commands given by God. Any deviation from this will bring them under God’s judgement.

It is after this that Eleazar and Ithamar perform their duties and offer up the sin and burnt offering. Part of which they were instructed to eat. Eleazar and Ithamar eat their approved portion, however Aaron doesn’t eat his portion and it is left to burn away on the altar. Moses is angered when he sees this, surely after such a graphic and painful display of God’s wrath and judgement against the failings of Nadab and Abihu to worship God in an appropriate manner, Aaron and his sons would be all the more diligent in their obedience. Yet as Moses discovers Aaron appears to have already failed to perform his duty as the High Priest in not partaking of his allotted portion and letting it burn away on the altar. Aaron objects to Moses’ rebuke and gives Moses a clear reason as to why he did not eat his portion. Once Moses hears Aaron’s reason, Moses approves and is at peace.

What is the reason that Aaron gives? Aaron is telling Moses that he does not believe that it is appropriate for him to partake of his allotted portion in light of the death of his two sons. Aaron is grieving, grieving for his two sons, and grieving over their disobedience that led to their death. In the midst of this period of sorrow, mourning and grief, Aaron believe that it was better for him to abstain from partaking until the time of mourning had passed. His reason is entirely legitimate and in many respects honourable, he realised the great disrespect and dishonour his sons displayed towards God. He may also have felt some form of responsibility, he was the High Priest, he should have been impressing upon his sons the importance of obedience, and he was their father, he should have been encouraging them to obedience. Aaron feels this sorrow and grief, this sense of accountability and failure, and thus he seeks in his sorrow to abstain for a time. Aaron was not failing, nor was he being disobedient, he was seeking to display contrition, sorrow and repentance. He ensured his sons offered up the offers and ate their portion, therefore performing the service on behalf of the people. But also was leading by example in terms of his response to disobedience, sin and the judgement of God.

We can learn from this passage that sin and the discipline of God should move us to respond in the appropriate manner, and to make that response before we seek to worship God. It is important that we display sorrow and grief over our sin, and that we diligently, humbly seek God in repentance. We need to understand that our sin has a direct impact on our relationship with God, we cannot dismiss it, or push it aside as though it was unimportant. God takes sin seriously, He is grieved by it and wants us to walk and live in a better way. If we are His children it is important that we display the same reaction and attitude to sin. This highlights the importance of daily repentance and the preparation of our hearts and minds before we seek to gather for public worship. Let us not make the mistake of taking our sin lightly, or of taking the grace of God for granted, rather let us maintain humble, repentant hearts and lives that constantly strive after holiness.

Merciful Father, we realise that we so often fail to walk in holiness before You, we sin time and time again. Help us to see the ugliness and horror of sin, help us to understand how much it grieves You, negatively impacts on our relationship with You and destroys our relationships with others. We ask that You may help us to cultivate hearts and lives that love You and strive ever more after walking in holiness. Search our hearts today, refine and purify us, help us to walk away from sin and temptation and to live for the glory and honour of Your Name. Amen.