Verse for the Day, 26 January 2015.

Leviticus 22:17-21, “And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,  (18)  "Speak to Aaron and his sons and all the people of Israel and say to them, When any one of the house of Israel or of the sojourners in Israel presents a burnt offering as his offering, for any of their vows or freewill offerings that they offer to the LORD,  (19)  if it is to be accepted for you it shall be a male without blemish, of the bulls or the sheep or the goats.  (20)  You shall not offer anything that has a blemish, for it will not be acceptable for you.  (21)  And when anyone offers a sacrifice of peace offerings to the LORD to fulfil a vow or as a freewill offering from the herd or from the flock, to be accepted it must be perfect; there shall be no blemish in it.”

If we were called upon to sacrifice something, what is it that we would sacrifice, what would we be willing to sacrifice and how costly would that sacrifice be to us? Many of us would willingly sacrifice those things that we don’t really want or like, that which is of little value to us. But when it comes to that which we treasure and love, we hold on to them, unwilling to give them up. We are not willing to give that which is costly to us, that which is truly sacrificial. Ultimately selfishness and greed lies within all our hearts. We are happy to give the broken, the worthless, but we are not willing to give that which we treasure most.

What would have happened if God had not given such specific commands about what animals could and could not be sacrifice, and the condition of those animals? We know what would have happened, the animals that were diseased, maimed, those which were marked, blemished, those which had been hurt or wounded by other animals, would be offered up as sacrifices. It would have been seen as an “honourable” and “godly” way to get rid of the livestock you did not want. The healthy livestock, the prize lamb, goat, sheep or bull would not be brought to be sacrificed, that would be kept back.

In commanding the people of Israel to bring only the very best of their livestock to sacrifice, was God being cruel and selfish? Was God seeking to deny them the potentially great profits than could be made from a prize animal?

God commands them to do this because of what He desires to teach the people. Firstly, He is reminding them of His holiness, only that which is pure, spotless and perfect is acceptable in His sight. God is to be worshipped in holiness, purity and perfection, anything less would be to dishonour God. Secondly, He wants them to know that if they are seeking to offer up an animal that is to function as a substitute for their sin, for that sacrifice to bear their sin, then that animal must be perfect, it must not have any sin of its own to bear. How can an animal sin? It is not that an animal can sin, rather an animal can bear the marks, the consequences of sin. Everything was created as perfect, spotless and without blemish, all of creation was entirely pleasing and acceptable to God, God saw it as being good. Sin has impacted and stained this perfect creation. As a result of sin there is now disease, infirmity, and death, and much of creation bears the marks of our sinfulness. Only that which is perfect and pure, only that which doesn’t bear the marks of sin can be offered up to God as a sacrifice. Thirdly, God wants to teach the people of Israel that sin is destructive, costly and deadly. Think of the battle within as you take your prize bull to be slaughtered and then consumed by fire on the altar. Yet it served as a powerful reminder of how serious sin is, that God will demand payment, God’s justice must be satisfied and His glory, honour and holiness vindicated. Fourthly, and most importantly it was designed by God to point to the Lord Jesus Christ. For us to have true forgiveness from sin and to be made acceptable in God’s sight, we need more than just a spotless animal, we need a spotless, sinless, perfect, pure, blameless and holy man. Jesus Christ comes as that man, so as to atone, pay for our sin thus setting us free from sin and its eternal consequences.

How grateful we should be that God has designed such things to teach us about Him, ourselves and our great need. We should be all the more grateful to know that God not only teaches us all this, but He also works so as to supply our great need, the need of a Saviour. Jesus Christ the perfect God-man, the sinless sacrifice, the one who satisfies the justice of God and brings us true and eternal salvation.

Lord Jesus God, Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, how we praise and adore You today, for You willingly laid down Your perfect life for our sin. You paid what we owed, You endured the punishment we deserved, and You gave to us what was rightful Yours. Thank You that You have been our sinless and perfect sacrifice, thank You that You have brought us full forgiveness and thank You that You have made us pleasing, acceptable and holy in the Father’s sight. To You belongs eternal praise. Amen.

Verse for the Day, 22 January 2015.

Leviticus 21:1-8, “And the LORD said to Moses, "Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them, No one shall make himself unclean for the dead among his people,  (2)  except for his closest relatives, his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother,  (3)  or his virgin sister (who is near to him because she has had no husband; for her he may make himself unclean).  (4)  He shall not make himself unclean as a husband among his people and so profane himself.  (5)  They shall not make bald patches on their heads, nor shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuts on their body.  (6)  They shall be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God. For they offer the LORD's food offerings, the bread of their God; therefore they shall be holy.  (7)  They shall not marry a prostitute or a woman who has been defiled, neither shall they marry a woman divorced from her husband, for the priest is holy to his God.  (8)  You shall sanctify him, for he offers the bread of your God. He shall be holy to you, for I, the LORD, who sanctify you, am holy.”

In this chapter we have instructions and commandments given specifically to the priests and their families. They are urged to keep these commandments as failure to do so will result in them being removed from their office of priest and unable to serve in the temple. These various commandments are very specific, even more stringent than those given to the nation as a whole. Therefore we ask, why does God raise the standard even higher for the priests and their families?

The reason why, is because of who the priests are, what they do and who they seek to approach. The priests have been set apart by God specifically for the work and the privilege of serving Him in the tabernacle. No one else in all of Israel will have the kind of access to the tabernacle and to serve God like the priests would. For certain priests, who were chosen to be the high priest, or those who have been anointed with the oil, they were to be all more cautious and diligent in keeping the Law as they had been set apart, consecrated and anointed with the holy oil in order to offer up the various sacrifices and do certain acts of service in the tabernacle.

The priests and their families needed to constantly understand the importance of their work, and the fact that to serve in the tabernacle was to be serving in the very presence of God. This meant that they were serving in the presence of the One who is absolutely holy, therefore their lives, their work, duties and service all had to reflect this attitude of reverence, humility and holiness. They need to be pursuing after personal holiness, seeking to live in obedience before God, so that God would be pleased by their service and accept the sacrifices that they offer up to Him on behalf of others. Their lives need to reflect that God whom they serve and whom they represent to the people and they need to know the importance of preparing themselves to worship and serve God in the right manner. They had to guard against taking their responsibilities lightly, not seeing their sin as serious, and not to think that they could merely walk into the tabernacle, into God’s presence without any thought or regard for what they were doing and before whom they were doing it.

This chapter highlights a very important and much neglected practice, the practice of preparing ourselves to worship God. As believers in Jesus Christ we may not have the same limitations and restrictions of Old Testament worship, but that doesn’t mean that we should take it lightly. It is a disturbing reality that most Christians arrive at church on a Sunday having given almost no thought to what they are about to do, nor have they taken time to prepare themselves as individuals and their family as a whole. Furthermore, many of us have little regard for God during the week, we use our lips to speak lies, to swear, curse, insult or even blaspheme. We raise our hands in anger, or use them to carry out our sinful desires. Our mind, heart and flesh indulges in sin time and time again in the course of week. Do we then think that we can with no fore-thought, no preparation, no searching of the heart, no repentance, simply come into church to worship God corporately? We sing songs of praise to God through unrepentant lips, we raise our hands in worship, hands still with the dirt of sin upon them, we pledge our love and submission to God with harden hearts and minds. Do we think God takes pleasure in such worship?

It is of vital importance that we develop the daily habit of preparing to worship God, whether it be worshipping God in the quiet of our own home during our devotional time, or if it is in preparation for a Sunday service. We need to demonstrate that we understand who God is, who we are and how we are to approach Him in worship and service. Our desire should be to worship God in truthfulness, humility and holiness. In order to do so, we need to spend time asking God to cleanse us, forgive us of the many times in that day or week that we have strayed. We need to spend time meditating on who God is, why it is that we are able to worship Him and why it is that we want to worship Him. We need to spend time preparing our heart, soul and mind so that we can give ourselves completely to the worship of God. Let us stop taking the worship of God so lightly, rather let us restore it to its rightful place in our lives and within the church.

All-glorious and majestic God, You alone are worthy of all the worship. But we have to confess that we spend so little time worshipping You, and even less time preparing our hearts to worship You. We pray that You might help us to change, so that we give ourselves to worship You daily, and worship You in a manner that is true and pleasing in Your sight. May we understand the importance and the benefit of preparing our hearts to come before You in worship, and may we set ourselves to doing this constantly. Most of all we thank You that You have turned us from the worship of ourselves, back to the worship of You, through the work of Christ. Thank You that because of Christ, You now take delight and pleasure in our worship and You invite us into Your presence and blessing. May we understand all the blessings that have been made ours through Christ, and may that cause us to worship You all the more. Amen.

Verse for the Day, 21 January 2015.

Leviticus 20:7-8, “Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am the LORD your God.  (8)  Keep my statutes and do them; I am the LORD who sanctifies you.”

Continuing from the theme of the holiness of God and our sinfulness in chapter 19, chapter 20 of Leviticus lists yet more commandments and the consequences for violating them. The commandments within chapter 20 are those of a much more grievous nature, as the majority of them are punishable by death. These commandments seek to stress the value of human life, the important of sexual purity, the dangers of flirting with the supernatural world and the importance of faithfully following God’s commandments, for that will lead to life and blessing in the Promised Land.

In the midst of these commandments, strong warnings and severe but just punishments, we find verses 7 and 8.

There is a call in verse 7 for the people of Israel to do two things, to consecrate themselves and then be holy, holy as God is holy. Last time it was mentioned that God’s holiness was absolute, complete and eternal, therefore to be holy as God is holy, means we need to be absolutely, completely holy, all the time. Before this call to holiness comes, the call for them to consecrate themselves is made. What does it mean to consecrate ourselves?

In the original Hebrew the words consecrate and holy are very closely related, one being the verb, the other the noun of the same word. Thus to consecrate yourself, is to make yourself holy, to cleanse and purify yourself.

We see now the impossibility of God’s commandments to the people of Israel, they are not just to walk in obedience, but they are to make themselves holy, pure and then they are to remain that way, never turning aside into sin, not even once! This is absolutely impossible, in fact we could argue that it would be pointless to even try, to even attempt it, it cannot be done. We may possess the strongest will in the world and have immense self-control, but not even that could keep us for failing and falling into sin. There is a sense in reading this verse that one should just give up now, resign themselves to that fact that they will eventually come under God’s wrath and condemnation.

However, verse 8 offers hope, great hope. The call to make ourselves holy and to then walk forever in holiness is made, but then verse 8 tells us that God is ultimately the one who will do this work. The word used for “sanctifies” is the same word used for “consecrate”. Essentially God is saying, “Consecrate yourselves, be holy as I am holy, do all my commandments, I am the God who will consecrate you.”

We see the similarity to chapter 19 in what God is seeking to teach the people of Israel and us. The means to holiness, to be acceptable in God’s sight can never be accomplished by human effort. We cannot consecrate ourselves, we cannot deal with our sinful hearts, minds and lives, no amount of human effort can suffice. This fact is clearly illustrated throughout the Bible, no matter how godly the man or woman, they all ultimately fall into sin. No one can keep verse 7. That is why we so desperately need verse 8, we need God to consecrate, to sanctify us, to make us holy and acceptable in His sight.

God wants the people of Israel not to cast themselves upon their own strength, efforts and works, but to cast themselves upon the mercy and grace of God. God doesn’t want them to seek after a man-made holiness, but to ask for God to save them from their sinfulness and to make them holy. God doesn’t want look to themselves for salvation, but to look to Him for salvation. Again, the truth of this is seen in the Scriptures, when these godly men and women fall into sin, we read that they sought God in repentance, seeking forgiveness, salvation and restoration. For example, David did not try to perform a number of good works in order to make up for his adultery and murderous actions, David did not attempt to try and cleanse himself, consecrate himself from such sin, rather David cast himself upon the mercy, grace and forgiveness of God. This is what God desires for the people of Israel to do, to look to Him not just for physical salvation from slavery, but for spiritual, true, eternal salvation, salvation from sin, slavery to sin and the eternal punishment of that sin.

Therefore we are able to see how clearly this chapter points us to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is through Christ’s life and work that we are able to be cleansed, consecrated and made holy. It is only when we cast ourselves upon God, repenting of our sin and pleading for His grace, mercy and salvation that we then find it. God wants us to develop that life and relationship whereby we are constantly depending on Him to make us holy and give us the strength through His Spirit to walk in holiness. When we take our eyes off of this and depend upon our own strength we will fall. God, through the work of Christ and the daily working of the Holy Spirit, is the source of our holiness, upon which we are to constantly depend. We should be thankful on a daily basis that God has made us holy through Christ, and that God by means of His Spirit will strengthen, equip and assist us to walk in greater obedience and holiness, all so that God might be more glorified in our lives.

Lord God You are the source of our holiness, salvation, life and eternal hope. Without You, we would be lost, without hope and without life. Thank You that You have acted through the Lord Jesus Christ so as to make us holy in Your sight. We also thank You that You have given us Your Holy Spirit, who seeks to help us to walk in greater holiness. Forgive us for the times when we have trusted and depended upon our own strength and works to try and please You. Help us to see the folly and danger of self-reliance and to rather depend upon Your Spirit. Help us Lord to be holy, all for the glory of Your name. Amen.

Verse for the Day, 19 January 2015.

Leviticus 19:1-2 & 37, “And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,  (2)  "Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy… (37) And you shall observe all my statutes and all my rules, and do them: I am the LORD.”

This is yet another chapter that contains a long list of varied commandments and instructions, which the people of Israel were to obey. When we read chapters such as this, it is difficult for us not to feel somewhat wearied by all the do and don’ts, it seems to be a list of rules that are almost impossible to keep. Therefore the temptation to skim through, or even skip over chapters such as these is great. This weariness and temptation to skim or skip these chapters reveals much about our hearts, it demonstrates how opposed to rules, laws and commandments we are, unless they are ones of our own making or choosing. It demonstrates how opposed we are to God’s rule and authority, how reluctant we are to be obedient towards God. Furthermore it demonstrates that we love sin, more than we love God and more than we see the value and benefit of living in accordance with God’s commandments. This then prompts the question, if God knows that this is how we think, feel, react and respond to Him and all His commandments, laws and rules, why then does He give them to us, and why does He expect us to keep them even though we cannot and we don’t desire to?

The purpose of chapters such as these is not to simply give a list of rules that we can never attain to, rather their design is to reveal to us the nature of God, the reason for which we should obey God and finally our great need of God and specifically our great need of God’s strength and help.

In verse 2 we find the statement, “for I the LORD your God am holy…”, this tells us about the nature and character of God. He is a holy God, a God of absolute perfection and who demands the same perfection and holiness of all those who would seek to come into His presence and kingdom. If the people of Israel desire to be called and known as the people of God, then they need to be imitators of the God they serve. God’s character and person is that of complete holiness in all things, at all times, throughout all of eternity.

When the nation of Israel stood before God at Mount Sinai, they entered into a covenant with God. God promised that He would be their God, He would provide for, prosper and bless them. The people of Israel promised that they would be His people, a holy nation belonging to God, they promised to love, serve, worship and obey Him and only Him. Therefore by virtue of this covenant the people of Israel were pledging themselves to obey all of God’s commands so as to become a holy nation. Their obedience to God is part of the terms of the covenant. If they truly regard themselves as God’s people and God as being their God, then they will obey, they will need no further motivation to obey God other than the fact that He is their God. We notice in this chapter that the phrases “I am the LORD” and “I am the LORD your God” are repeated numerous times throughout this passage. In this statement God is reminding the people that He is not just God, but by virtue of the covenant He is their God, and they have pledged to obey Him.

But as they would have read through all of these laws and then sought to obey them, they would have soon realised the impossibility of it all. To fail in one area, was to fail altogether and render one as imperfect and sinful in God’s sight. So is God being unrealistic, even unfair, setting them up for failure? Certainly not! It may seem strange to say this, but this is an act of grace. God wants the people of Israel to realise their own inability to keep all of God’s commandments, to understand that they cannot work their way to righteousness or holiness, nor can their good deeds repay the sinful deeds. God’s desire is for the people to realise their need of salvation, their need of God’s grace to deal with their sinful hearts, their need for God to work in them so as to make them holy and their need for God and His Spirit to strengthen, guide and equip them to walk in greater obedience and holiness. God wants them to see their great need of a Saviour and of salvation from their sin. The giving of Law was primarily to reveal more about the character of God, the sinful nature of man, and therefore man’s desperate need of God’s grace, and for God to act so as to save us.

As a result of this we should be grateful for chapters such as Leviticus 19, for God has plainly shown us who He is, who we are, our great need of Him and He has provided for that need through the Lord Jesus Christ. Had God never revealed Himself, or shown us our sinfulness and need of Him, we would have never understood why Christ had to come, nor would we know why we needed Him to save us and then enable us to walk in greater obedience and holiness.

Holy and gracious God, we thank You for who You are, holy, perfect, righteous and true in all Your ways. Thank You for Your law that teaches us about who You are and who we are, thank You that You have helped us to understand our great need of You. Thank You most of all that You have provided for our great need through the sending of the Lord Jesus Christ to be our salvation. Thank You that now because of Him, we are seen as righteous in Your sight and are filled with Your Spirit who leads, guides, strengthens, equips and helps us to walk in greater obedience. May we count it a joy this week to walk in obedience to Your commands and to seek to be imitators of You. Amen.