Leviticus

So Erika and I have been reading through the "Chronological Bible" every night starting on January 1 of this year. Over the last few weeks, we've gotten into the sections of Exodus and Leviticus that can sometimes seem dreary and redundant. I mean, let's face it, it's not the most uplifting thing to try to do a devotional conversation and prayer time after reading about skin disease treatment and how to handle bodily discharges.

And yet I'm amazed at how each time I read through Leviticus, God does reveal something new to me. How He wanted so badly for His people to stand out from the people of the land around them that He gave them very precise and specific practices and laws and responses to things. He says it repeatedly..."Do this because I am the LORD your God and I am holy". Because He is their God and because they are to reflect who He is, and because He is so UNLIKE anyone or anything we could ever find anywhere else, He asked His people to live in a way that would reflect that they are different, that they are unlike the inhabitants of the lands around them who do the things that break God's heart, such as sacrificing their children to other gods or doing the nasty with family members and anyone else who came along, thus breaking down the sacredness of sexual intimacy between husband and wife. I've heard many times that whenever you see something repeated in Scripture, you should pay attention to it because repetition is a very important literary device in Hebrew thought and culture to say "PAY ATTENTION TO THIS, EMPHATICALLY, FOR THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT!" God tells His people repeatedly that He is the LORD their God and that He is holy, therefore they are to be holy. They are a reflection of Him, and He cares about His reputation because He wants people to know who He is and what He is all about. I believe He wants us to draw from this, particularly given the world we live in today, which hasn't really changed that much from the culture of the inhabitants of the land of Canaan.

One huge thing that I felt that God was revealing to us last night as we read in Leviticus was the absolute necessity of having a mediator, a priest, to atone for our sins. In the Old Testament, the Israelites are required to bring forth animals fitting certain requirements for the appointed priest to sacrifice for them so that the shedding of blood and the sacrifice would atone for their sins. God tells His people multiple times that they are not to try to make these sacrifices on their own, but that they must bring them before a priest who can make atonement for them.

It didn't seem to make sense to me at first why the people couldn't just offer the sacrifices on their own--I mean, the priests were already following a bunch of other requirements that probably monopolized their time, so why not help them out a great deal by letting the people slaughter the animals on their own? Then it occurred to us as we read last night that God was setting the stage for the ultimate MEDIATOR and PRIEST, Jesus. He is the one who sits before God and intercedes on our behalf, He is the one who atones for our sins--actually by sacrificing His own blood--and He is the one who did the work so that we would not have to. So basically it dawned on us that God is painting a beautiful forepicture of what He's going to do by sending His Son Jesus a bit further down the road.

So we're just once again amazed at how God's Word is never boring, even when you're going through those creaky chapters that go over the law and Hebrew practices in detail.