Skip to main content

At One-Ment - Leviticus 16

Once a year, the high priest entered the Holiest place on earth and offered sacrifice for the people's sins. This particular day came with many rules and regulations to avoid offending God. Here are a few that God gave to Aaron.
Come at the set time each year
Bring a
Bull - sin offering
Ram - burnt offering
Take a bath
Put on
Tunic
Underwear
Sash
Turbin
Take from the people
Two male goats - sin offering 
Ram - burnt offering

Offer the bull for your (Aaron's) own sins.
Present the two goats at the entrance of the meeting tent

Throw dice for the two goats to see which one will be sacrificed and which one will be sent into the desert as the scapegoat. You will slaughter the bull for your family's sins.

You will take a censer of burning coals from the altar and some finely ground incense. You'll put that on the inner altar to make enough smoke to hide the Ark of the Covenant, and then you can go into the Holiest place. 

And that is just the first thirteen verses of this unique chapter. Minutiae? Crazy stuff? If someone asked us to do all of this these days, we'd tell that someone to go jump in the lake. It's strange and weird. So what does it all have to do with anything?

If you look objectively at Leviticus these days, you will be baffled by the blood and gore. Yet, since this is the third book of the Bible, we must not blow it off as a mere Lorem Ipsum text. It is important. But why?

One author says, "The Book of Leviticus, like others in the Old Testament, offers ... lessons for today's people of faith. One example is the enduring truth in Leviticus 11:44: 'For I am the Lord your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy.' "In many ways, the Book of Leviticus schools people of faith about God's holiness. It also clarifies God's expectations for his people. For example, the necessity of ritualistic sacrifice and atonement preceded Jesus' sacrifice in the New Testament."

A Holy God, plus sinful man, leads to a need for approximation. Holiness is the goal, and it is also impossible to attain. Leviticus shows us just how impossible with all of its rules, regulations, and bloody sacrifices. Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain; He washed it white as snow. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

God Made Clothes

And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. Gen 3:21 I have always heard the following explanation of this verse.  Because Adam and Eve had sinned, they died spiritually. They also lost the right to be in the Garden of Eden and were cursed in other ways. For example, they had made clothes out of fig leaves, but God sacrificed a lamb; thus, God shed blood and made clothes. This sacrifice of an innocent lamb symbolized what Jesus Christ would do in the distant future.  Is this what you have heard? I don't know; it seems like this interpretation is stretching what Moses wrote in the above text. The text says that  God made clothes for Adam and his wife from skins.  We see no blood, we don't know what kind of skins, nor can I imagine God making an animal sacrifice. Did God have to skin animals to make these clothes? Or could he have just made them like he had everything else in the universe just a little while earlier?  To th...
Post a Comment
Read more

What Are You Worth?

What are you Worth?  Have you ever thought about what you are worth? In investing circles there is a term used to gauge this exact question, it's called Net Worth. You take all of your assets, like property owned, funds in your bank account, clothes, jewelry, car, etc.. You total all of these things. You then take everything you owe, like mortgage, car loan, and credit card debt, and you subtract these items from the first total. This gives you your net worth. That number represents where you are financially. Most people never stop to think about this number because they don't understand anything about it. They never have two nickels to rub together. They live from hand to mouth and know (or at least believe) nothing will ever change so, they fall into the "daily grind" mentality. Psalm 49 should be a great encouragement to such as these. The sons of Korah write about them. These sons write about all of us. They call all people everywhere to listen to their wisdom. Bo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Who did What?

We see Abraham lying at times. He twice told people that his wife was his sister. He was worried that someone might kill him because his old wife was so beautiful. In the text that I read today, he comes into territory ruled by Abimelek and tells the great fib. Not too long afterward, the king takes Sarah into his harem.  Lately, I have become interested in real estate investing and have learned quite a bit in the last few years. One crucial lesson acquired was that I need to treat investing as a business and not have too many sentimental attachments. Years ago, I would rent with a "charitable" mindset. I kept the rent low on my only rental because I was "helping people (friends) out." I kept that rent low for 20 years. For those years, that rent never moved from $650 a month.  Granted, we could keep the property and barely pay the maintenance and taxes, but the rent was low. It wasn't until I turned that property over to a property manager that I realized what ...
Post a Comment
Read more