bsf leviticus – The Notes are Good

19.5 Moses 19, Day 5

God is God. God’s attributes that we have the ability to learn through the scriptures, are revelation of God. God speaks through the Holy word of Scripture.

But, God’s ability to “speak through” and to reveal His character and attributes is not limited to the words in the Bible. Nothing else revealed will contradict the bible, nor will it replace or even add to what is revealed in the bible, but it is still real and God still fully has the ability to use it.

For example, nature. Who can truly look at the beauty and magnificence of nature and not have sense of the Creator within it? Take hymns, “Holy, Holy, Holy”, “What a friend we have in Jesus”, “How great thou art”. Take a pastor or preacher with a Holy Spirit enabled gift to paint a picture for us to apply the words of the bible to our lives. Or a writer who challenges our thinking and pulls our heart closer to God.

For that matter, what about me and you? Not only can God (who by the way can do anything) speak through us, but He does. Those around you see the Lord in your life. They see your deeds. They see your service. They see your attitude and your dedication and from these things they learn about God.

All things on heaven and earth are for God’s glory.

Through all of the lives of all the people, God’s glory, all of His attributes and who He is, continues and continues to be revealed. The same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always reflect highly on us!

We see this with Miriam in our lesson today. She asked the question, “doesn’t the Lord also speak through us?” And, He did. He spoke in righteous judgment for one who speaks against one of His faithful servants.. He spoke in the power and control over illness and disease (even those we consider uncureable). He spoke in the mercy He showed in forgiving and healing. He spoke in the Fatherly love of holding to consequences for significant wrongs and bad teaching from those He has placed in a leadership position in the church.

We see volumes in lessons about God and who He is through this situation with Miriam. All of it is true and all of it is positive.

But if Miriam sought additional attention from the Israelites, that happened as well. Not only during the 7 days the entire encampment sat in wait, but, can you even imagine the “walk of shame” as she re-entered the camp?

God does speak through me and you. Whether we do right or wrong, it doesn’t change who God is and the truth of His revelation. But when we sin, God’s light isn’t dimmed, but our ability to reflect that light is tarnished and muddied. People see more of our faults and less of God’s reflection.

Where do you need to “polish your mirror?” What traits or habits are present in your life that, if revealed, would tarnish your ability to reflect God’s light? What is going to get you to change?

I don’t know about you, but I really don’t want to have to hear God use the “Dad voice” with me to get me to change, like He did with Miriam and Aaron :

Listen to my words (what dad hasn’t used that one?)
In my house (about moses, “he is faithful in all my house) – (this is my house and in my house…)
Why then…? (if you were thinking, how could you have possibly thought this was a good idea?)
The anger burned and He left. (I think sometimes the most convicting thing (terrifying thing) wasn’t when Dad took action but when he was so angry he walked away from the discussion).

My Answers:

10.
a.
Brought all three parties together, called them to the tent of meeting, came down in pillar of cloud, stood at the entrance and summoned Aaron & Miriam, told them “listen to my words”, laid out the circumstances, asked why they were not afraid to speak against “my servant Moses”, anger of the Lord burned, He left them, Miriam skin turned leprous

b.
“he is faithful in all my house”, “my servant Moses”

11.
a.
I speak with him face to face, clearly and not in riddles, he sees the form of the Lord

b.
All of creation is God’s house – Moses is faithful at all times and in all places

12.
a.
skin became leprous

b.
He would have had to examine her and judge her unclean and she would have been sent permanently outside of the camp

c.
He prayed for people who had unjustly wronged him and received a just penalty, but asked for their healing and forgiveness

d.
He healed her disease, but there was still justice and teaching. God forgives our sins, but still teaches us necessary lessons

18.5 Moses 18, Day 5

Multi-Sensory Experience

I was struck in our lesson today about how God connects with us not only on every level but through all of our senses. The sight of the cloud by day and fire by night. The smell of the burnt offerings and incense. The feel of hands upon the scape goat. The sound of the trumpet. The taste of the unleaven bread and roasted lamb of passover.

It reminded me of a Sunday school lesson on Daniel in the Lion’s den from Daniel 6. After the angel closes the mouths of the lions and Daniel survives his night locked in their den, King Darius issues a decree recorded in Daniel 6:26, “I issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel. “For he is the living God and he endures forever; his kingdom will not be destroyed, his dominion will never end.””

Our God is alive. He is not some talisman or good luck charm. He is not a rock we rub for good luck or a piece of wood we wave about. He is not your lucky pair of gym shorts (although those may be alive in a different, gross way). God is living. He hears, He smells, He gives, He looks, He wept, He is jealous, He created, He has a mighty hand, He breathes, He speaks and He loves. (some related verses from the bible)

God’s wants to connect with us in every way, not only in every sense (literally), but even ultra-sensory. He wants to dwell within us, to wash us clean of our sin and to tend to and grow the garden of our heart. He wants to continue doing this. With special days of celebration. With sabbath days and years of peace and rest. But also in every moment. Accepting God isn’t an event that is done and complete. It is more like a wedding or even more so, a birth. It is the start of a whole new life in every way, shape and form.

What dead charms do you put trust in instead of God? How are you approaching the living God? Are you doing it with a repentant and humble heart or with pride in the good works you’ve accomplished? Do you seek a real relationship with Him?

My Answers:

11.
a.
1 year (it was the beginning of the second year, passover occurs on the 14th day of the new year, or at least it did at that time until the Jewish new year was changed after the time of Jesus when the temple was destroyed).

b.
It was a commandment of God. It was a commemoration of a critical event. It only happened once a year. It was defining.

c.
Sometimes get distracted but ask God to continue to show that He is present in the worship

12.
a.
the cloud covered it when the tabernacle was set up and looked like fire at night, whenever it lifted they set out til stopped

b.
2 trumpets, all called to order, 1 only heads of clans, when blast east tribes set out, when 2nd blast south side, sons of A blow

c.
with sight and sound, by what I see and hear

17.5 Moses 17, Day 5

Holy Heart not Holey Heart

God has tremendous blessings in store for all of His children. Bounties of harvest so great that farmers would need to move the old crops out to make room for the new ones coming in. They would not need to build larger store houses, because there was so much security in God’s promise they didn’t need to worry about storing up more. God promised them peace and safety, from war, from wild animals, from enemies. God promised might and victory. Unprecedented might and victory, where 5 people could defeat 100.

Even more so God offered to dwell among His people.

But, that isn’t where this chapter starts. This chapter starts with specific commands. No idols, no graven images, observe the sabbaths, have reverence for the sanctuary. How do these things go together?

This isn’t quite equivalent, but try this as an explanation: You have been invited to the top artisan ice cream shop in the world. You are given free access to every flavor, every topping ever accompaniment you can imagine. But it is BYOB – Bring Your Own Bowl. How would you feel if you showed up and your bowl was dirty, broken, cracked, with holes.

In this case, though, the bowl is your heart.

God wants you to enjoy the bounty He has in mind. God has carefully prepared for you the things your heart craves. He really doesn’t want you to show up with a bowl that is broken and full of holes. If you don’t get the message from the promise of the blessing, then He will provide other forms of discipline. If the carrot doesn’t work, then maybe the whip will. God does not want to punish you, no more than a loving parent wants to punish a child, but if that is what it takes to get you to show up with a clean and ready bowl – that is up to you.

Leviticus 26:40-45 confirms this. Repent. Get your heart back in line, and God freely hands you the golden ticket to His ice cream shop.

What is the state of your bowl (your heart)? Have you asked God to “create in me a clean heart”? Have you asked God to help mend your broken heart? Have you repented and showed the chips and holes to the one who can fix them. ? Do you have a Holy Heart, or are you showing up with a Heart full of Holes?

My Answers:

10.
a.
1. do not make idols or bow down to carved stone, 2.observe the sabbaths and have reverence for sanctuary

b.
3-5: send rain in its season, ground will yield crops, trees fruit,… you’ll eat all the food you want and live in safety
6-8 peace and safety, remove wild animals, no wars at home, defeat military enemies (5 chase 100) 11-13 God dwell with them, safety and freedom – He would be their king

c.
14-17: Illness, famine and defeat
18-20: Drought and bad harvest
21-22: Multiplied afflictions and destructive wild animals
23-26: Diseases and destruction by enemies

11.
a.
If repent and approach with a humble heart, God will remember His covenant

b.
That the holy of holies is open, Jesus is my high priest and He is redeeming me daily, despite my sin

12.
a.
2. a person (child or otherwise), 9. an animal, 14.a house, 16. family land, 22. purchased land/fields

17.4 Moses 17, Day 4

Being poor is a situation not a station

The first time the word poor shows up in the NIV version of the bible is in Exodus 23. This is the chapter where Moses is giving instruction to the Hebrews that he received from God, and the chapter where he says, in verse 11, “but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it.” In other words, the same dialogue we are studying today in Leviticus.

Even in the promised land, the land flowing with milk and honey, there would be poor people. These people would likely be believers in God. Some of them were clearly from the ranks of Hebrews. There was no indication that they were poor because these people were being punished, nor that they were inferior. They were just poor.

As we read these chapter of Leviticus, it is easy to fall into a “prosperity gospel” mindset. God, the creator of everything, has unimaginable abundance and a love to pour that out upon His people in grace and great bounty. And, all of that is actually true. But, there will still be people who are economically poor.

However, the other thing we see from this is that being poor, at least as used here, is not a station, it is not a position in society or a caste, it is just a situation. During someone’s life, there may be times when they are economically wealthy and other times where they are economically poor. Again, they have not “earned” either situation and both situations can bring us closer to God. We can be on the right path of faith and still experience highs and lows, both spiritually and economically. God can use these times to teach us and help us grow.

On one hand, this is refreshing and encouraging. On the other, it can really challenge us, too. For example: understanding poverty in this way draws us to approach helping the poor in a different way. We are called to give and help the poor in what they need rather than in what we have in abundance. Stop and read that last sentence again.

This is not “drive-by charity”. This is a lot more challenging, it means interacting with and getting to know people who are experiencing a time of poverty. This means not only giving stuff, but giving of ourselves so that we can give the message of a relationship with God. It is a lot, lot, lot messier. It is a whole lot easier to just load up a basket of food or clothes and drop them off at some collection center. We can still do those things, they are good, just not sufficient. Mostly because they provide a hand-out, but not a hand-up. If these are the only approaches to charity and the poor that we take, then we need to ask “are we giving to help others or because it makes us feel better about ourselves?”

The fact is, drive-by charity is not how God approaches me or you. God listens. God knows us. God shows compassion. God gives us what we need. Sometimes what we need and what He provides is an easy road. Sometimes, however, it means being bent over picking up the left-overs of the field. Both are compassionate, because, in both situations, God knows us well enough to know this is where we need to be to have the opportunity to become spiritually rich. God is compassionate enough to allow us to be economically poor at times if it will help us to become eternally spiritually wealthy. He is also compassionate enough to allow us to be economically wealthy to test our commitment to our faith walk. “it is far easier for…”

When you are thinking this week about how God’s treatment of you can influence your treatment of others, think first about God’s patience and how many times He has heard you repent the same thing and how many times He has held your hand and been with you even when you were not paying attention to the fact that He was there. Food, money, shelter, clothing, are all things we should give, but the greater gift we can give is the present of actually being present. Through this relationship, others can see a true relationship with God. Even in these chapters in Leviticus, God isn’t just discussing providing for the people, He is talking about dwelling among them.

My Answers:

8.
Do not treat outsiders better than your own, help them, provide for them without interest, Do not withold food for profit.

9.
a.
38. I am the Lord, 42 the Israelites are my servants…, fear your God 55. they belong to God as servants, He brought them out of Egypt. “I am the LORD your God.”

b.
Today – safety, shelter, food, fellowship, a ministry, love, family, care for family, provision, a church, the bible, a relationship with Him

c.
My help to others should reflect God’s love. I belong to Him. They belong to Him.

17.3 Moses 17, Day 3

Mine

If you have spent time around toddlers, then you have seen mankind at its most natural state. They can be loving and caring and adorable, but they can also be, well, let’s say – challenging. No parent teaches their child to go and snatch something from an innocent sibling or playmate and scream the word, “mine”, to them.

But that is what toddlers do. That is what you and I did. It is what children did decades and millennia ago. It is who we are.

But it isn’t mine. No matter how you play the game of life, as John Ortberg wrote, “when the game is over, it all goes back in the box.”

We live every day with this concept of scarcity. There is only so much of (insert item here) so I need to get mine. If things keep going like they are going, we are going to run out. For me to have more means someone will have less and I would rather be on the more side than the less side of that equation.

But that is a lie. Historically, it doesn’t even prove out. Each time we form decision on a scarcity mindset, something changes and our strategies no longer work. A famous example of this was the London Crisis of 1894. At that time there were enough people living in the city of London that a lot of transportation was required. The transportation of that day was horse, either individually or in carriages, wagons, etc. The problem wasn’t the horses themselves, per se, but what need to go into the horses and what came out of them. There was tremendous concern over enough land to grow feed as the city swelled into the countryside and whether that land could sustain both human and horse needs. There was concern over the growing piles of horse manure in the streets and the impact and costs it imposed. But, as we know, this entire problem simply went away with the advent of the motor-car.

The God who created everything out of nothing does not have a scarcity mindset and, if our focus is on the right things, we won’t either. If you start thinking about scarcity instead of abundance, remind yourself about love. Remind yourself about freedom, liberty, happiness, peace, joy, goodwill, praise, faith, hope, beauty, grace. Remind yourself about God.

Should I be focused on these things? Can society or a nation? It might be worth doing a search and seeing what is engraved on the Liberty Bell. It might ring true for today’s scriptures.

My Answers:

5.
a.
7×7=49, +1= 50th is another sabbath year. proclaim liberty throughout the land. All purchased farm land returned, all go home

b.
Freedom – freedom from slavery. Honoring of a covenant. The gifts of inheritance belong to the family of the King

6.
a.
to identify fairness in pricing of the selling of land since it would be returned in the Jubilee year – basically you are buying the output of the land, not the land itself

b.
Follow my decrees and obey my laws – safety, crop yield, blessings of abundance

c.
A sabbath year of rest for the land, yes – it has benefits for the land. A period of forgiveness of debts and return of property would not work as well because it would inhibit development, also our land was not a covenant land

7.
a.
to be the kinsman redeemer. Abraham rescued Lot. Boaz with Naomi and Ruth

b.
We have incurred debts we cannot pay and have become impoverished to sin. Jesus came as our kinsman and redeemed us by paying our sin and bringing us into His household as His family.

17.2 Moses 17, Day 2

Heart Space: Storing Up or Overflowing?

Let’s think about our heart as a storage area in our house. It may be your basement, attic, garage, spare bedroom, what ever works for you. Each day, all year long, year after year, we accumulate things. We accumulate debts, not just the monetary debts, but other obligations and guilts. We accumulate work and tasks, long to-do lists that never get done. We accumulate all kinds of stuff, as well as the excess luggage to lug our stuff around.

What if every so often, let’s say every 7 years, you stopped accumulating and cleared things out instead? What if you got out of debt? What if you forgave yourself of the guilt and burdens you carried around? What if you gave yourself permission to re-evaluate, re-assess and, basically, clean house?

What would God be able to put in all that space in your heart that all of a sudden was free? What if you retreated and asked and allowed God to take the lead in your life and in your heart?

In our modern culture to retreat is synonymous with failure. We must drive forward. We can’t pull back. There is so much to do. But that isn’t what the bible says.

Retreating doesn’t mean forfeiting, it means pulling back into a better position of strength. In our day to day service to God, even with the best intentions to do good kingdom work, we can get ourselves out in front of where God wants us to be.

We look at the poor and we look at the land or resources we have and think, we’ve got to keep planting. We think, it is up to us to feed the poor, to provide for others, they need me, God needs me. But what they really need is God and we need to trust in His provision for ourselves and for others. It is in the years of retreat, the years of peace, the years of rest, that God’s abundance shines. The poor didn’t go away during the Sabbath year in the promised land, but they also did not go hungry. Not only did they receive physical food, but they also witnessed the power of the Lord, not other men.

Who could you bless by allowing them to see your life at peace and rest and trust in God rather than a life scared by the same striving and busyness that looks just like everyone else? Maybe it is time to go on a retreat, to clean out your heart and your life and ask and allow God to fill it with peace and rest and joy that overflows as a tremendous bounty.

My Answers:

3.
a.
When they entered the promised land

b.
sow and prune for 6 years and harvest, but in 7th year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, do not harvest, do not tend, but all can eat directly from the fields

c.
At this time they were being provided for daily (manna), so it was not unreasonable that God could provide. They were probably also looking forward to owning their own land and amazed at the bounty it would provide

4.
a.
It is a year of freedom – freedom from debt, from servitude. Leading up to it should be years of generosity. There will be no poor because the Lord will provide abundance. Abundance not scarcity.

b.
Trusting in God’s abundance, not worrying about scarcity. The ability to start over – clean slate. All debts are forgiven, just as God forgives our debts

c.
Opening house to be a place of joy and gathering for family, friends, visitors to church, missionaries

16.2 Moses 16, Day 2

It starts with me

Sin is everywhere. When we open our eyes and look around, sin is permeating every part of our society. It is glorified in music, on television, in magazines, in billboards. It is in politics and journalism. It is in our dress, our speech, our thoughts. With open eyes, it feels like we are standing in the middle of an landfill that stretches for as far as we can see. To make atonement for sin, where does God want us to start.

The temptation is to look to address the biggest areas of sin. Maybe start by trying to change media channels. Or maybe a better approach would be to sin of leaders, since they are leaders. Or maybe the answer is to look to the low-hanging fruit – maybe start with trying to establish dress codes.

But, this isn’t something we need to figure out. God gives us the answer in Leviticus 16.

When He calls Aaron to see the sin in the community and establish a day of atonement, the first area God directs Aaron to focus on is Aaron. He starts simple. Take a bath. Change your clothes. Bring a bull.

So far so good. I can do this. I can start the day of atonement with me. I can take a bath. I can change my clothes. I could even get a bull, at least figuratively, I could bring the stubborn bullheadedness of my sin nature. I can recognize that I need forgiveness and atonement.

But the next step is the one that can trip us up. (I apologize, but this is going to be a little gory). The next step for Aaron was to slaughter the bull. He wasn’t supposed to give it a pinprick. He was supposed to kill it, slit its throat and let it totally bleed out. According to Purdue.edu, blood would make up approximately 7% of the total body weight of the animal. This comes out to about 6 gallons of blood. I know that is gross sounding, but think about that in terms of our own confession of our sins in approaching God for forgiveness and atonement.

I’m o.k. bringing my sin before God. I’m o.k. with a pinprick of bleeding my confession of my sin before God. But God wants me to let it all drain out. He wants me to completely abandon that old life and let it die. Not because He needs it, but because I do.

Only by letting all my sin bleed out in confession to the Lord can I offer up prayers for forgiveness like incense so thick it is like a cloud before God’s eyes. And only then can I be completely at-one-with (atonement) God, putting me in a position where I can truly make a difference in also praying for others’ sin life.

So where should I start: Start with me. Do the basics to approach God. Then let it all come out in confession.

My Answers:

3.
MHP: the inner sanctum in the tent of meeting, the area behind the curtain containing the ark of the covenant

AC: The mercy seat. The lid over the ark of the covenant shaped with 2 cherubim angels, wings streched over it, facing the cover

ARK:

A box of acacia wood overlaid with pure gold inside and out, contains the 10 commandments

4.
a.
16:1 after the death of the 2 sons of Aaron who died when they approached the Lord, 16:2 or else he will die, 16:13 so that he will not die

b.
Honorable preparation is required. A cleansing of my own thoughts when approaching things that are holy (work, worship) Have I prepared myself to honor God?

5.
a.
one was to be sacrificed as a sin offering, the other was used for making atonement by sending it into the wilderness as a scapegoat

b.
For his own sin offering, to make atonement for himself and his household. His sins needed sacrifice

c.
wash, change, bring bull, slaughter bull, take censer of burning coals from the altar 2 handfuls finely ground fragrant incense, take behind the curtain, put incense on fire,(smoke conceal), sprinkle blood with finger on front and 7 times before atonement cover

d.
Am I bringing everything before God.? Are my prayers like the incense smoke; so robust and thorough that it fills God’s most holy place with supplication?

15.2 Moses 15, Day 2

Hectic vs. Peace

My wife is a fan of an author of a series of organization books called the FlyLady. There are several very simple principles she offers that at first seem trivial but make a lot of difference. She teaches the concept of forming simple routines, and executing them consistently.

For example, one of her main teaching points is to “shine your sink”. Despite all the “bigger” things that “need to be done”, you have to have a starting point and emptying the sink of dirty dishes and making it clean is a great place to begin. She also teaches to identify the “hotspots” in your home, the places that as soon as one thing is left there out of place that is a sign to everyone else to pile on.

I bring this up not to necessarily promote this author, but to reflect that many, if not the majority of people, are living a life that they readily admit is out-of-order and disconnected.

Fixing this state is the gift that God bestowed on the priests. The word ordination comes from the root word meaning to put in order. The word consecrate comes from the root words meaning to be joined with the sacred.

While there is nothing wrong with taking steps to get our home, work, time and finances in order, the bigger goal is to get our life in order. The only way to do that is to place it in service to God and join our lives to Him.

Like the family of Aaron, when we accepted the calling of God, we became priests. Our old lives and priorities are in the past. Our new lives are not only our own, but we are called to put them into the service of our Lord. But we are not yet living full-time in God’s temple. We face temptation. We continue to sin.

But the message of ordination and consecration is not simply a one-time ceremony, it is a daily walk with God. What are the hot-spots of sin in your life? What simple routines do you need to establish and then execute them consistently?

I love the model that Moses sets for us to do this every day. Many of us rush through showering, dressing and running out the door in the morning. What if we consistently execute this simple routine with an intentional heart directed to Him? What if when we bathe, we focus our thoughts on not only the cleansing of our skin, but on the cleansing of our sin through God’s forgiveness? What if when we dress we think not only about what we cover our selves with physically, but we also think about putting on our spiritual armor? What if when we apply deodorant, cologne or perfume oils to make ourselves have a pleasing aroma to others we also applied a coating of the Spirit and asked His help to make all the activities of our day be a pleasing aroma to God?

When non-Christians look at your life, do they see a hectic life that is out-of-order and disconnected, or do they see someone who is on the path of peace and joy?

My Answers:

3.
a.
We are – believers – those who have been called

b.
W: Believers in Christ have been cleaned by His power, sacrifice and presence
D: Believers are clothed in the Lord, Dressed in while through the cleansing blood
A: Believers are anointed by the Spirit bringing gifts of the Spirit

4.
a.
Ordination comes from “putting in order, arranged. This is being placed in a position of holy leadership. Consecration comes from being joined with the sacred, dedicated or devoted as sacred

b.
The places they would go, the things they would do, the things they hear would be right and holy from God and for God:

c.
Dining and recreation purely for my pleasure and not (other than a prayer of grace) dedicated to God

5.
a.
staying there, purifying, sacrificing a bull each day

b.
Jesus is the one and done. high priest of heaven for all eternity

14.4 Moses 14, Day 4

Being Holy

In Leviticus 11:45 God says:, “I am the Lord, who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.”

Our word holy comes from the word whole. God is whole. He is complete. He lacks nothing, He wants for nothing, He needs nothing.

But when we look at our own lives, we are not whole. Our life looks jagged at the edges, missing in the middle. We resemble something much more like a puzzle piece.

But we are a puzzle piece created by God. God has made a place in Himself for us to fit exactly. God doesn’t fill us in so that we are whole, He invites us to join Him in His wholeness. Not because He needs us to complete us, but because it is only in a relationship with Him that we become part of the full and complete picture (what we were created to be).

If we are not connected to God, we still recognize that something is missing in our life and we try to fill it in. We look around and try to see what we can connect with. Our focus is on ourselves. We experiment. We try all kinds of different things, every matter of perversion, because nothing that we try to fill in with ever satisfies completely. It can’t.

God’s laws in Leviticus are to help us restore our puzzle piece life back to the design God had intended, not to leave us lacking, but to join us to Him. To be holy because He is holy. This holiness is meant to permeate our lives, to touch everything about the way we live, eat, bathe, even use the restroom. God wants all of us consecrated wholly to Him.

My Answers:

8.
a. Dietary – clean and unclean animals
b. After giving birth
c. Skin diseases
d. Mold
e. Making people clean from skin diseases
f. Making things clean from mold
g. Liquid body wastes

9.
a.
It isn’t what goes in that makes a person unclean, it is what they hold in their heart and comes out.

b.
That God is holy, they are to be holy and should consecrate themselves full to God

c.
Fasting, prayer, obedience

14.3 Moses 14, Day 3

The purpose of Offerings

The sacrificial offerings were not punishment, nor were they adequate payment. This was not a quid pro quo – you did the crime now you must pay the fine – arrangement. Offerings were about honor and respect and relationship. God had given everything to His people. It pleased Him when they gave part of it back.

But, God also knew His people better than the people knew themselves. He knew they would be tempted to just go through the motions. Giving Him back things of lesser value, giving Him back from their excess or trying to bargain and negotiate on what was going to be sufficient to be enough of a give back to Him.

But the sacrifices were not for that purpose. The moment those thoughts come in to play, the sacrifices are no longer gifts to God, they are obligations – they are something God is taking from them. Instead of building a relationship with God, they become something that separates us from God. That is why the giving is not about the gift, it is about the heart of the giver.

There was a price to be paid for sin. But the death of a bull, goat, pigeon or dove was never going to pay that price. But, God blessed the Israelite people by giving them the ability and instructions to have a sacrificial heart, just as God does. God didn’t provide the Israelite people with a failed system of repayment – He provided them with a gift of participation and revelation into the atonement He was going to make for their sin through the death of His only perfect son. The gifts of sacrifice were foreshadows of God’s gift on our behalf.

We should continue to make offerings to God. Not sacrifices as payment – any attempt to add to the sacrifice that Christ made on our behalf is a slap in the face to God that somehow we consider the sacrifice of His son to be insufficient. But offerings of gratitude, praise and worship. Offerings of denial of self through fasting and meditation and prayer to be filled more fully with the Holy Spirit are honoring. Setting aside the “normal” of others and, in so doing, setting apart our lives to God’s service, is an honoring sacrificial offering to the Lord.

My Answers:

6.
Grain: fine flour covered in oil and incense, memorial portion on altar, rest to Aaron and sons
Fellowship: either male or female animal from the herd – blood splashed on altar, fat and entrails burned at altar
Sin offering, Bull for priest or all, male or female goat for individual sin – blood in tent, sprinkle 7 times, poured outside, fat removed and burned at the altar, remainder of animal (hide, head, organs, meat) taken out of the camp, burnt there
Guilt: ram from the flock, one without defect and of the proper value in silver

7.
a.
Atone means to make amends, to repair a wrong – The act of being made one again with God in a proper relationship

b.
God paid the full price for all – a full atonement

c.
money, time, talents, heart, body, voice, teaching, praise