Leviticus 17:1-7, “And the LORD spoke to
Moses, saying, (2) "Speak to Aaron and his sons and to all
the people of Israel and say to them, This is the thing that the LORD has
commanded. (3) If any one of the house of Israel kills an ox
or a lamb or a goat in the camp, or kills it outside the camp, (4)
and does not bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting to offer it
as a gift to the LORD in front of the tabernacle of the LORD, bloodguilt shall
be imputed to that man. He has shed blood, and that man shall be cut off from
among his people. (5) This is to the end that the people of Israel
may bring their sacrifices that they sacrifice in the open field, that they may
bring them to the LORD, to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting,
and sacrifice them as sacrifices of peace offerings to the LORD. (6)
And the priest shall throw the blood on the altar of the LORD at the
entrance of the tent of meeting and burn the fat for a pleasing aroma to the
LORD. (7) So they shall no more sacrifice their
sacrifices to goat demons, after whom they whore. This shall be a statute
forever for them throughout their generations.”
When thinking about the nation of Israel, we must not think that they
were a nation of people that had always worshipped God, and therefore had some
kind of default setting that caused them to worship God more than the nations
around them. The origins of the nation of Israel, is similar to our own
conversion. We all alike were enemies of God, opposed to the ways, will and
word of God. God had to initiate a work in our lives in order to turn our
hearts towards, however as long as we remain in this sinful flesh and world, we
will be constantly tempted into sin and into idolatry. Israel’s history is a
tragic testimony to the truth of this. There are only a handful of times in the
Old Testament that we read of Israel’s faithfulness to God and the removal of their
idols. Sadly, idolatry never seemed far from their hearts.
This passage in Leviticus 17 is given by God so as to further restrain
their worship of their idols. The people of Israel were to worship and were to
sacrifice at one place, and one place only, the tabernacle or later the temple.
They were forbidden from putting up other smaller tabernacles, temples or
shrines to God in their towns or outside their houses. In this manner they were
to show themselves as being distinct and different from the nations around
them. They were to show that they understood God’s holiness and obeyed God’s
law, and that they loved the glory and honour of God. Worshipping God was
something that required sacrifice, time, thoughtful preparation and was to be
conducted in the right manner. Furthermore they are taught in this chapter that
God is not just interested in and concerned about how they worship only at the
tabernacle or temple, and did not care what they did away from the tabernacle
or temple. God calls on Israel to worship Him all the time, in every place
through their daily obedience. God is concerned about every aspect of their
lives, in fact God is aware of all, He sees and knows all that they do, nothing
is hidden from His sight. They are called to exclusively love, honour, obey,
glorify and worship God at the tabernacle, in their homes and in their fields.
Despite all that which the Bible teaches us about God, we like the
people of Israel still seem to forget the fact that God sees all and knows all.
We think that we can do things away from God’s presence, out of God’s sight,
hidden from God’s knowledge. The Israelites thought that offering up animals to
idols in the privacy of their home could be hidden from God, or that God was
not really concerned about it, as long as they did what was required of them at
the tabernacle or temple. This misunderstanding, this foolishness, led the
Israelites to fall into sin time and time again, idolatry plagued their nation
and as a result they endured the discipline of God.
Whilst we may not be sacrificing animals to idols, we are guilty of
much the same, we forget all too easily that God sees and knows all, nothing is
hidden from Him. Think how much an acute awareness of the presence, sight and
knowledge of God would change our lives? Would we do the things we do in the
privacy of our own homes, in our thoughts or under our breath, if we truly
understood that God was there, God was listening, God was seeing it all,
knowing it completely?
This reality is sobering and should prompt us to greater obedience.
However, the motivation for our obedience should not be because we are afraid
of God’s judgement and discipline, but because we love God and want our love
for Him to be evident in all that we do. The desire of the true Christian’s
heart is to obey, honour, glorify and worship in all things, in all places, at
all times. We need to ask ourselves, is our worship on a Sunday equal to the
manner in which we worship God Monday through Saturday?
All-seeing, all-knowing, ever-present
God, we kneel before You throne in awe and reverent fear, for You are the holy,
great and majestic God. You are the God that has drawn us into a relationship
with You and called upon us to live in holiness and in worship of You. Forgive
us for so often forgetting all this and thinking that we can hide our
sinfulness from You. Help us to constantly remember that You see all, know all
and are present at all times in all places. May the knowledge of this keep us
from sin and cause us to live constantly for Your glory and honour. Amen.
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