Leviticus 11:2 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘These are the animals which you may eat among all the animals that are on the earth: I think it’s fascinating that God would be so specific in His instructions, even down to what animals, birds, reptiles, etc. could and could not be eaten! That shows love and care! And the instructions aren’t random either. The ones that are excluded as being unclean are all excluded for good reason – some eat garbage and scraps, some are scavengers and eat dead animals, others eat animals that eat garbage or dead animals. For obvious reasons, eating these animals could be unhealthy! I’m also all for the regulation on not eating bugs (yuck!!). The guidelines weren’t restrictive and to keep the Israelites from eating yummy stuff (most of it sounds disgusting anyway). It was to keep them from getting sick or from eating things that could make them unhealthy (think about the fat content of pork…). A God who cares about even these details cares greatly about His children. If He looks after these details, won’t He also be looking after the other, seemingly bigger and more important, details?
Leviticus 10:1-2 Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them. So fire went out from the LORD and devoured them, and they died before the LORD. Wow. What a way to end the day! After God’s presence filled the Temple and the people fell on their faces in awe and fear, these two newly appointed priests are killed. What did they do that caused them to be punished so severely? I don’t understand Hebrew culture as well as I’d like, so I went hunting… I found several sources (well, lots really) that shed some light into the matter. The general consensus seems to be that no one really knows exactly what they men did wrong. However, there does seem to be agreement that they offered a sacrifice that God hadn’t asked for or taught them how to do yet, and because they didn’t wait for instructions they used fire that wasn’t consecrated (made holy). Nadab and Abihu put regular fire into their censer. After their deaths, we find out that the fire should have come from the fire of God’s presence on the altar. But they didn’t know that, right? That’s the problem. They rushed ahead of God and did it in the way that seemed right to them, forgetting the extremely holy nature of God. I think that if they had waited for God to tell them what to do they would have lived (now, I could be wrong here. There may have been an issue with their hearts – their motivation, etc.). Why does this matter? Well, it seems to provide a general principle for life: wait for God’s instructions before rushing off and doing it my way. Whether it’s pride or ignorance, or even extreme enthusiasm, doing it my way is never a good idea. For sure, the times I’ve done it my way there have been disastrous consequences. And while our society celebrates our ability to do it our way, God’s way is better, safer, and demonstrates our love for and obedience to Him. So, instead of “I did it my way!” perhaps we should be waiting to get our instructions first. Then we can say, “I did it God’s way!” And that’s a much better way to live. References: Bergman, B., Rabbi. “We’re All Still Learning.” Temple Beth-El, San Antonio, Texas. N.p., 31 Mar. 2000. Web. 8 Apr. 2010. <http://www.beth-elsa.org/be_s0331.htm>. Graham, Ron. “What Did They Do Wrong? — Nadab and Abihu’s Fatal Error in Worship.” Simply Christians, Eftel, Australia. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Apr. 2010. <http://members.net-tech.com.au/sggram/f077.htm>. Martin, Wiley. “The Consequences of Disobedience.” Olive Tree Messianic Fellowship. N.p., 31 Mar. 2008. Web. 8 Apr. 2010. <www.olivetreemessianicfellowship.com/index.php/Wiley-s-Torah-Study/consequences-of-disobedience.html>.
Leviticus 9:24 And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of meeting, and came out and blessed the people. Then the glory of the LORD appeared to all the people, … The glory of the LORD appeared to all people…. after that a fire consumed all the offerings, the people cried out and then fell down. Can you imagine what that must have been like? I’ve been to services where it seemed like God’s hand was heavy upon the congregation and He seemed to really be speaking to peoples’ hearts. I’ve been hugged by my Abba. Even a small touch by His hand is overwhelming. I can’t begin to fathom how incredibly amazing seeing the glory of God must have been. I probably would have shouted and fallen on my face, too! But I wondered, the glory of the LORD appeared to the people after they had obeyed God’s words and offered the appropriate (lots) of sacrifices. How often do we miss seeing God’s glory because we don’t obey Him the way we need to? I was listening to a sermon about tithing (from a Hebrew perspective) and the rabbi teaching said something interesting. In the early days after the Messiah came Gentiles who believed converted to Judaism after giving up their idols. We don’t do that any more and have mostly lost our Jewish roots. I think that’s sad because there’s a great heritage there with so much symbolism and knowledge. In our ignorance, do we unintentionally limit how useful we are to God’s purposes? Do we limit the times when we could see His glory because we miss out on fully obeying Him?
Leviticus 3:-7 LOTS of sacrifices. Wow! The priests were busy! There are an awful lot of sacrifices that were to be made. Although, they often pertain to different classes of people, so it may not have been that many to remember. Most though do focus on unintentional sins. Only one is for an unintentional sin – lying or stealing. That one involves restoring what was taken plus extra, and then the person also had to make a sin offering. Another thing is that if a person is unclean and they participate in or consume any of the sacrifice they would be cut off from Israel – exiled. They wouldn’t be able to offer sacrifices, and that meant they wouldn’t be forgiven and they wouldn’t have that special relationship with God. No wonder they tried so hard to keep from being defiled or made unclean! Same thing if a person ate the fat from an offering or at blood. What the heck is a wave offering? And a heave offering? Other than those two weird things, there was a grain offering, a burnt offering, a sin offering, a trespass offering, the consecrations, and the peace offering. That’s a lot! But I suppose that if you’d grown up with that as part of your life it wouldn’t be nearly as complex sounding as it is today when it’s archaic. Thankfully, we don’t have a Temple anymore, and because of that and because of Jesus, we no longer have to offer sacrifices like this. The Hebrews always put the most important things at the beginning (they didn’t much care about chronology, like we do today). So, since the sacrifices are the first thing in this book (which was also the first book the children read and learned to write from), they must have been critical. They established and enabled the relationship between YHWH and His people. They didn’t want to do anything to mess that us, so they put it first. It was the first thing you learned because that relationship was the most important thing in their lives. Is it the most important thing in my life? Do I put that relationship first?
Leviticus 2:13 Every offering of your meal offering you shall season with salt; neither shall you allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be lacking from your meal offering. With all your offerings you shall offer salt. I’m going back to Leviticus to read what is there because, in light of everything I’m learning about the Hebrew world view, I want to understand more about what God asked of them, and to try and see what He still asks of me today. Hebrew children started their education with Leviticus, so it seems a fitting place for me to start, too. This verse brought a question to my mind: What’s up with the salt? Offerings had to be made with salt. Why? After doing some reading online, I’ve found a couple of interesting things. The covenant between God and Israel is the Covenant of Salt, that is, it was sealed with salt. So the salt of the offerings could be a reminder of the covenant between God and Israel. Salt also sometimes symbolized friendship, which somewhat goes along with the covenant idea. Salt was used as a method of dedicating something to God – whether that was an infant who was rubbed with it at birth, or a city that had salt sprinkled on it after it had been conquered. So salt with the offering could be a sign of dedicating the offering to God. Salt also was known for its healing properties. So, it could also symbolize the offering’s role of cleansing and purifying the people and healing their relationship with YHWH. Clearly salt was important. It was the only “condiment” allowed, and truly required, as part of the offering. There are lots of symbolic meanings that could be implied here, and next time I use salt in my cooking, I think I’ll be reminded of all the ways I am connected to my Savior. Here are a couple of the sites I looked at that talked about salt: http://jhom.com/topics/salt/covenant.htm http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?letter=S&artid=94 Wikipedia article on salt (yes, it’s to be taken with a grain of salt – ha, ha)
Leviticus 17:11 “I have given you the blood so you can make atonement for your sins. It is the blood, representing life, that brings you atonement.” It’s the day before Easter. In this chapter God talks about the sacred nature of blood. It represents life. But it also reminds me of the sacrifice Jesus made for us. God gave us Jesus who gave us His blood. In the Tabernacle blood was poured out before the altar and sprinkled on its sides as the sacrifice was presented to be burned as an offering to God. Jesus’ blood was poured out when His side was pierced be the spear (not to mention when He was flogged and when He was forced to wear the crown of thorns). His blood makes atonement for our sins. Only blood was enough to atone for sin. Only Jesus’ blood was enough to atone for all our sins. One life, poured out in blood, to forever atone for the lives of everyone in eternity.
Lev. 14:33-34The Lord said to Moses… “I may contaminate some of your houses with an infectious mildew.” What?! To put this in context, God’s giving instructions to the people about how to handle different diseases and stuff. And after this he goes on to say how to tell if a house has infectious mildew and what to do about it. However, what?! Why does He say that HE will contaminate the houses? I looked it up in other translations (thank you Biblegateway.com) and it says it in all of them. I have no idea why God would contaminate houses with mildew (also referred to as leprosy in other versions). Any ideas?