Verse for the Day, 14 January 2015.

Leviticus 18:24-30  "Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean, (25)  and the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. (26)  But you shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you (27) (for the people of the land, who were before you, did all of these abominations, so that the land became unclean), (28) lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you. (29) For everyone who does any of these abominations, the persons who do them shall be cut off from among their people.  (30) So keep my charge never to practice any of these abominable customs that were practiced before you, and never to make yourselves unclean by them: I am the LORD your God."

Leviticus 18 does not make for pleasant or easy reading, as it lists the obscene sexual practices of the nations in and around Canaan. This chapter forbids the people of Israel to engage in any form of sexual immorality, it matters not if it is adultery, incest, bestiality, homosexuality or fornication. All of these sexual practices are unacceptable in God’s sight, in fact they are described as being an abomination in God’s sight. The two question we have to ask is why, why is God so strongly opposed to such sexual practices? And, is God only forbidding the Israelites to engage in such practices, or are these commandments binding upon all mankind?

To answer the first question, the reason why God is so opposed to this is because it is contrary to God’s created order and it brings humanity into compromise, conflict, division and demise. When such sins take place the impact upon the family unit, the community and mankind as a whole is vast. Families are destroyed, communities divided and the world in a state of unrest, envy, jealousy, lust, hate and strife. Secondly, God is opposed to such sexual sins because it violates the holy and sacred institution and covenant of marriage. God ordained that marriage was to be between man and woman, it was to be exclusive, unique and permanent. It was to be regarded as most sacred, a vow, a covenant that was to be upheld and protected, with both husband and wife committing themselves to remaining faithful to each other for the remainder of their lives. Sadly, we are all too aware of the devastating consequences of sexual sin in marriage. When such sexual sins take place, it is a complete violation of God’s plan and purpose for marriage and is to break our covenant with God and with our spouse. Thirdly, God is opposed to such sins because they are contrary to commands of God given to mankind at the beginning. Adam and Eve are told to subdue and fill the earth, to multiply and increase, and it is important for us to note that they are given this commandment within the context of marriage. In many of the sins detailed in this chapter obedience to such a command is completely impossible. (Of course this does not apply to the case of a husband and wife that are not able to have children due to various biological or physical reasons.) God is forbidding any form of sexual practice or relationship outside of marriage and outside of the created order, purposes and will of God. To commit these sins is to violate God, His character, His created order and purpose for us, it is to destroy marriage, the family unit and society as a whole. Should Israel engage in such practices it will destroy their nation and it will bring them under the severe judgement and punishment of God.

The second question, is God only forbidding the Israelites to engage in such practices, or are these commandments binding upon all mankind? The answer is made clear by the context. God tells the people of Israel that it is because of these very sins that He is acting in judgement and punishment against the other nations. Strong language is used, we are told the land had vomited them out. Furthermore God states that such practices are forbidden for both the native and the foreigner, it is forbidden for all peoples, with the instruction given that regardless of who the person is, where they live or their nationality, anyone who practices these sins is to be cut off from their own people. The purpose of such a severe action is so that these people might know what the consequences of their actions are, that they might understand that to act in such a manner is to bring the whole nation into compromise and danger. These commandments are not just for Israel, they are for all mankind, for God is the God of all and the God over all, therefore God’s words, will, purposes, plans and commandments are binding upon all.

We live in a sexual perverse time, whereby society appears to condone just about every form of sexual immorality. Though many state that this has brought freedom and “happiness” to everyone, we have to ask at what cost? Are we not witnessing the consequences of such sinfulness in the world around us, even in our own country? As Christians we need to not only take a stand against such sinfulness, we also need to lead by example. It is tragic that divorce rates and sexual sin are as rife in the church as it is outside of the church. This should not be so! As Christians we should be those who seek to uphold the God-ordained virtues and purposes of marriage. We should be displaying to the world the great benefits and blessings that come through marital and sexual faithfulness, that it truly is God’s good, prosperous and blessed design for us. We also need to guard ourselves, physically, mentally and emotionally from falling into sexual temptation, as it so often starts with a small compromise. We are called to be God’s ambassadors, to live in a manner worthy of the Gospel, and to be a shining light to the world around us. Let us strive after this, by seeking first to walk in holiness and purity before God, and then by praying for and seeking to reach others with the Gospel of Christ. No amount of protests, or strong public arguments are going to effectively change our world, only God can change the heart and the mind. Therefore instead of displaying hate, anger, opposition or prejudice against those who practice such sexual sin, let us give ourselves to earnest prayer for God to work in power so as to change the hearts of sinful men and women, and let us seek to reach them with the Gospel.

Merciful God, we plead and pray for Your mercy to be poured out upon our community, country and world. How great must be the wrath stored up against us because of our constant sinfulness, sins that are an abomination in Your sight, sins that show how we have completely disregarded Your wise and good commands, will, purposes and designs. We pray that You would cause us to realise the foolishness of our ways, and to repent of them, return to You and to follow after Christ. May You keep us who are already Yours, from such sins and may we be diligent in seeking to keep ourselves pure and to honour You in all things. Once more we ask for mercy and grace to be poured out. Amen.

Verse for the Day, 12 January 2015.

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.

Verse for the Day, 9 January 2015.

Leviticus 16:20-22, “And when he has made an end of atoning for the Holy Place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall present the live goat.  (21)  And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins. And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness.  (22)  The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area, and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness.”

Thus far we have seen how the Day of Atonement teaches us about the sufficiency of Christ’s work as our high priest, the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement and how it points us to the Incarnation of Christ. These truths are greatly encouraging and comforting to us, they are also of critical importance to the truth of the Gospel.

There is one more aspect that we need to reflect upon before we leave this chapter. Once Aaron had offered up the sacrifices for himself, his household and then for the whole nation, he is given instructions as to what he should do with the second goat. These instructions may seem rather obscure, confessing the sins over the goat and then driving the goat out of the camp and into the wilderness, but they teach us two wonderful truths.

The first truth that we are taught is that Christ is the one who removes our sin, who takes our sin away from us, and not just a short distance from us but far away, to the point that it will not return. This goat functions as a symbol of this, for the sins of the people are laid and confessed upon the goat. This goat was then to be taken out in the wilderness, driven far out of the camp. That goat would never return to the camp, but would remain and even die out in the wilderness. In the same manner Jesus takes our sin from us, it is all laid upon him and he endures all of God’s wrath against it. He takes our sin away from us once and for, so far that it shall never return to us. We are completely, perfectly and entirely forgiven. We think of the words of David in Psalm 103 when he tells us that our sin has been taken from us as far as the east is from the west. We also think of the words of the prophet Micah in Micah 7:19 we are told that our sin has been cast into the very depths of the sin. Jesus is not just our sin-bearer, he also removes, takes away our sin from us.

Secondly, the goat serves to point us to the fact that Christ bore the curse of God, our sin and he did so outside of the camp, Jesus suffered outside of God’s city. Paul tells us in Galatians 3 that Christ delivered us from the curse, by becoming a curse. This truth that Jesus was cursed for our sake and suffered this curse outside of the city of God, so as to take away our sin and save us goes even further. Think for a moment, who is it that should suffer outside the city of God? The answer is us, we are the ones that do not deserve to be in God’s city and holy presence. We should be those who endure the curse, wrath and judgement of God, to us the city of God should be closed. Yet consider this, Christ, God the Son, who has every right to dwell in the city of God, He leaves the city of God in order to be cursed, to suffer for us, so that He might then open to us the city of God. Christ leaves the city of God, so that we might enter into the city of God. Christ leaves the city of God to suffer what we deserve, so that in the city of God we can receive what He deserves. Christ leaves the city so that he might unlock the gates of heaven and then lead us in as saved, children of God.

The Day of Atonement is rich in what it symbolises and how it clearly points us to the person and work of Christ, and the salvation that He would accomplish for us. We should be filled with thankfulness that we are not still waiting for all these signs and symbols to be fulfilled. For us the great Day of Atonement has come, Christ has come as a man, as our high priest, He has become our substitute, taken upon Himself our curse, He has suffered outside the city of God. He has made complete and full atonement for our sin, carrying them far from us to the point that they cannot return and now He leads us into the heavenly city of God, to live with Him for all eternity. Let us thank God for this chapter that reminds us of the depths, riches and wonder of our salvation.

Our most merciful God we agree whole-heartedly with the words of the Micah the prophet, “Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression…” Thank you for the great pardon, the full salvation, that You have given to us through the Lord Jesus Christ. May You make it all the more precious to us today, and may we grow in thankfulness to You. How we long and look forward to that day when Christ shall lead us into Your and our eternal home. Amen.