Law – Leviticus 22-24
Another day, another reading of Leviticus, another 3 sets of teachings; it is marvellous to note how much we can gather from just each chapter of the Bible alone, isn’t it?
Not forgetting that we doing a set of chapters each day, let’s try to glean what ever we can through the help of the Holy Spirit. While we may not be able to gain every single teaching available from every single chapter, that is, after all, the point of reading the Word of God – there is never an end to what we can learn.
Given that, we ask that God help us along as we try to understand more and more, as we walk closer day by day.
Today we come back to the Law. Leviticus 22 – 24 is our reading:
Bible Passage: Leviticus 22-24
The following pointers are brief summations of each chapter.
In Lev 22, there is a continuation that links it up to Lev 21. There are further regulations for the priests and their immediate family members, extending even to the slaves living in the priests’ households. Notice that the references and rules are made to earlier chapters such as Lev 13 and Lev 15 (Leprosy and Bodily Discharges).
Further to these, we also get the law concerning acceptable sacrifices. What is acceptable to God has to be complete and unblemished. The direct opposite of this law was made explicitly clear in prophet Malachi’s time. Malachi 1:7-8, 13-14 shows the shameful reminder of Israel’s blemished past and blemished offerings to God.
What was Lev 22:24 for then? The answer is straightforwardly clear: If anyone intends to revere God with an offering, it starts from the heart and it has to be a sincere and untainted sacrifice.
In Lev 23, we get a directive concerning the feasts of the Lord God. Coming in a set of 4 feasts, and then a short break before the final set of 3 feasts, we see the 7 great Feasts of the Lord. In order, they are as such:
1*) Sabbath: Not really a Feast but a weekly reminder of God’s grace.
- Passover
- Unleavened Bread
- First-fruits
- Pentecost
—
- Trumpets
- Day of Atonement
- Tabernacles/Booths
In Lev 24, there is mention of the perpetual lighting of the lamps of the Tabernacle and the preparation of the Showbread. Additionally, there is a special mention of the treatment of blasphemies against God.
Gleaning the Fields
What do you get from your personal reading of the chapters? I believe we see a whole set of valuable teachings. To go in-depth into every one might make us too saturated in one sitting! We’ll deal with 2 today, and whatever else we receive from the Lord, let’s put in prayer and thanksgiving to Him for His spiritual insight.
Eternal Feasts
Besides the Sabbath being a glimpse of eternity, I thought that the 7 Feasts have a rough outline that is similar to events in the New Testament. In brief, we might wish to consider the pattern here:
- Passover – Jesus Himself is our Passover Lamb (1 Cor 5:7) who was sacrificed for us.
- Unleavened Bread – Jesus Himself was without sin, without leaven when He died for us (cf. Acts :27).
- First-Fruits – Just as (1 Cor 15:20, 23) mentions of Jesus being the Firstfruit of the resurrection, we have this hope too in salvation too.
- Pentecost – Start of the Apostolic Church and the harvest of Christians
— (Interim Period between 4 Feasts and 3 Feasts: The period of grace we’re in now) —
- Trumpets – (1 Thess 4:16-17) seems to give us the picture of one of my favorite hymns. No. 208 “When the roll is called up yonder”, will we all be there?
- Day of Atonement – Admittedly, this is slightly out of order, but it is still true that this has been accomplished, as previously noted in the reading 3 weeks ago. Christ our High Priest has atoned for us, once and for all, and when we see Him then, we will see that Lamb of God in His glory!
- Feast of Tabernacles – Something like a heavenly mansions prepared for us, those are the tabernacles we will live in with Him, forever more! (cf. John 14:2-3)
Eternal Lights of the World
The perpetual lighting of the lamps remind me of something simple that Jesus said in Matt 5:14. Essentially, we are the light of the world, and given that, we need to keep that light burning. We are priests and therefore the onus is on us to tend to that lamp that is in us.
To string up the whole of Lev 24, there is a need for us to take note of whether we blaspheme the name of God. In the media today, these phrases are so frequent that they are now part of popular speech.
“OH. MY. GOD.”
“OMG!”
“OhMyGodOhMyGodOhMyGod!” (say it in a breathless manner)
“JESUS CHRIST!!! DID YOU SEE THAT?!”
“Oh my goodness!“
Whatever other variants there are out there, and whether we use them or not, let’s be reminded that it smacks of a disrespect for our God. Some may say that it is fine, but being Christians, why should we allow our selves or our younger generations to be part of the popular culture of the world?
“Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord” (2 Cor 6:17).
We need to be holy as He is holy. We need to shine forth that lamp for Him perpetually. May we continue to be guided by God.
3 Comments
Flake
Yes indeed the insidious media allows immorality and unholiness to creep into our lives, desensitising even christians today against the use of the phrases as mentioned above by belovedofthelord.
It is so difficult to be separate from the outside world, especially when society is so broad minded today and technology is indispensable to our lives.
Hence in order for us to be holy, we need our ammunition (Eph 6:11-18).
All evils stem from the desires of the flesh, therefore we have to pray to God constantly to put to death these desires, that we can be strengthened spiritually.
As Pr Chin Aun Quek always encourages us before our prayer, not only to pray for the holy spirit to move us, but also to pray that our hearts are willing to be moved by the holy spirit.
Okay…maybe Im digressing here 😛 … but our ultimate aim is to strive for holiness because God is holy.
“Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Gal 5:16)
May the Lord guide us.
biblereadingcompanion
Thanks for reminding me that being “Eternal Lights of the World” includes watching our lips and what we say.
Expletives and taking the name of the Lord in vain is indeed part of our everyday culture. And as Christians in TJC, I believe that most of us do not allow “any unwholesome talk to come out of our mouths” (Eph 4:29) as we view the absence of obscenities as a basic characteristics of a follower of Christ.
However increasingly, and I include myself as part of this group, we are prone to exchange these expletives with another set of ‘religious’ words. These words are of great importance to the Christian faith but are now hijacked for people’s emotional outbursts.
You hear adults and kids blindly copying the TV shows or Movie characters by exclaiming “Oh My God! Jesus! Christ! Hell No!” when they are shocked, excited, disgusted etc.
But these words were originally designed by God to stir our hearts and minds to worship and serve Him. Of course, when they are used as expletives (expressions “without meaning”) they do just the opposite of what God intended.
When you punctuate your sentences with expressions like “Oh my God!” or “What the Hell?” – have you considered that you might be doing far more damage than you could have thought?
Imagine stubbing your toe and blurting out “Jesus Christ!”.
Sounds offensive to our Lord doesn’t it? This is the “name above all names” (Phil 2:9) by which we are called to contrite and humble worship (Phil 2:10-11). It is not a name to be used as a colourful means to express your pain and anger.
God was so concerned that we use His name “in vain” (i.e. “without meaning” – the very definition of an “expletive”) that He put it as Commandment Number 3 on His 10 Commandments.
It is also very interesting to note that many of these “favoured religious expletives” targets Christianity. You don’t see the names of other religions deities and saints being tarnished in the same way (except perhaps the very Singlish and Malayish “Alamak!”). Mighty clever of the devil, don’t you think?
As I said, many of us would be quick to say that we don’t use such terms. But we use “sound alike” euphemisms (less offensive synonym) instead to replace the religious words. While we may feel we have cleverly sidestepped offending God by writing “OMG” or saying “Oh My Gosh/Goodness” instead of “Oh my God”, I don’t think God would be as tolerant as we hope.
What compels us to say these things? It is our desire to “fit in” and sound just like everyone else around us without technically breaking the rules? What’s the point?
Jesus said, “out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matt12:34). What is truly in our hearts when we make these exclamations?
I am not saying we cannot exclaim in delight when we are surprised or amazed. But consider carefully how we express them. We don’t have to mindlessly follow the world’s bad and sinful habits in our verbal practices.
When some of the JY students were discussing this, a few of them said that “I just never thought about it”. And I suspect that is what many of us are like. Maybe it is time we do.
In the last few weeks in our reading of Proverbs, there are so much warnings and judgments about the use of our words.
But Jesus gives the starkest warning when He said, “But I tell you that men will have to give an account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken” (Matt12:36).
I understand it is very difficult to change our verbal patterns (James3:1-12). For years when I was working in a start up office where chaos was the main activity each day, I was prone to using the word “crap”. And even when I knew that it was wrong and wanted to stop using the word.. it took me a long time to get it out of my system.
But it is something worthwhile doing. I believe we are making a stand for holiness and propriety when we do (1Peter 1:15-16).
Thanks again for this reminder and may God continue to help us in our walk of faith.
PS
In Lev 23 keeping the Sabbath as holy was mentioned repeatedly. 2 points stood out most in keeping the Sabbath holy:
i) do no customary work and
ii) afflict your souls
The chinese bible uses the word 刻苦己心 to describe afflicting our souls.
刻苦己心is to bring my heart into subjection and follow the commandment of God to keep Sabbath as holy. The blessings of God shall pour down as the mouth of God has spoken. (Isaiah 58:13-14)
Everyday passes quickly. If God has not established Sabbath, if the church does not keep Sabbath strictly in following the bible, i m not sure when i will come to worship God.
May be tomorrow. But tomorrow will always be tomorrow. May be tomorrow never comes.
The church is here to anchor my faith. The church is the body of Christ whom i must be attached to remain alive. Lord Jesus did not leave me as an orphan.