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.

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.