Reading and Reflecting

Things got hot the day that God consecrated Aarón and his sons as priests. This, from the final verse of Leviticus chapter nine.   And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar, and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.  Lev 9.24   Hmmm, I wonder if Aaron’s son Nadab and Abihu were paying attention. I would guess not, because the next two verses say:   Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron,

One way we are not at all Levitical in our day and age has to do with guilt. We do not want anyone to be burdened with guilt about what happened, about what they did. It’s never their fault. “God is love.” ”And He has a plan.” Whereas, in Leviticus God cuts right to the chase:   Lev 4.13 the whole congregation…[is] guilty   Lev 4:22  When a ruler hath sinned…[he] is guilty   Lev 4:27  the common people…[are] guilty   Lev 5:2  If a soul touch any unclean thing…he also shall be

Yesterday, I noted that for certain sacrifices, the animal’s blood needed to be taken into the tabernacle and applied to the altar of incense.   I failed to mention, however, that the priest was to dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle it there in front of the curtain that separated the holy place from the holy of holies.   He was to sprinkle it 7 times.   The priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle part of the blood seven times before the Lord in front of th

Since I never made it to Moses’ tabernacle, I can get tripped up when Leviticus tells me about the various offerings one could do upon the altars. And it is that “s” on the altar that I wrote in the last sentence that trips me up. There are two altars that come into play.   There is one in the front yard— OK, Moses calls it the courtyard — right in front of the entrance. And another inside, in the holy place.   The former is overlaid with bronze—so that you could do a rip-roa

Atonement. I do like the word. To me it shouts completeness . Starting anew. Clean as a whistle.   The word pops up over 80 times in the Old Testament, more than half of them here in Leviticus. But back then, they were having to work atonement over and over and over again. So, it was not as complete as it sounds…   (until we get to Jesus.)     But here is what I am trying to figure out today. For atonement, usually someone would put his hand on the head of the animal to be sa

Exodus told us a lot about how to construct the tabernacle. Leviticus tells us about keeping it—and us—clean and holy.   It is a book about holiness.     Certainly, the variety of sacrifices lead us to Christ, the atonement, forgiveness, life eternal He gives us.   He makes us holy. He wants us holy.   Lev 11.44 For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy.   Lev 19.2 Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to t

Some of the differences amongst the three types of peace offerings are brought out in Lev 7.11-21. A peace offering can be of thanksgiving, or it can be a vow offering, or a freewill offering.   It can include unleavened bread, leavened bread, or unleavened wafers.   One kind has to be eaten by the next day, another gives the family two days to eat it.   After that, the leftovers cannot be put into the frig, they need to get burned up.   Something to think about as Thanksgivi

I am a slob at both working and eating. If I hammer a nail, I am going to get dirty. If I have lunch, you won’t have to ask me what I ate. I’ll be wearing some of it.   So, as I read through Leviticus’ slate of offerings, I discover that those Levitical priests worked hard! I wouldn’t have wanted their job, not that I am afraid of work, but I read about them knifing animals, twisting the heads off of pigeons, and throwing blood over here or sprinkling it over there. The flies

I doubt it. Call me a skeptic, call me Thomas, but I doubt it.   Command Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the law of the burnt offering. The burnt offering shall be on the hearth on the altar all night until the morning, and the fire of the altar shall be kept burning on it.    Fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually; it shall not go out.  Leviticus 6.9, 13     I’ve raised enough kids to know that it just ain’t so that the fire never went out. It just didn’t ha

Chapter six of Leviticus picks up where chapter five left off, God is still talking about trespass/guilt offerings. This time the guilty party is a conniving good-for-nothing smuck, that’s the MSV, probably your version says it differently (obviously not all Bible translators grasp the Hebrew quite as fully as Marcos does).   This guy has to restore what he stole or snuck or deceived about, and then he has to add an additional tariff (MSV again!) of 20%. Next, the conniving

We can easily misconstrue what Paul says about sinning, supposing that if we blow it, and not grasp that it is sin, we’re off the hook. Paul wrote to Timothy:   I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service,  though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief… 1 Tim 1.12-13   But hold on. Paul is not saying ignorance i

Today I am in Leviticus chapter five still, yet and again. Like in most of these first seven chapters that I’ve been musing over for a number of months, somewhere about the hundredth time I look at one of them, it makes sense. Particularly if Scott or Mike have written and shed some light on the passage.   Chapter five is about trespass offerings, also called guilt offerings. The first and fourth wrongdoing presented (5.1 and 5.4) have to do with the mouth, what a person did

Similar to the 10 commandments, the offerings prescribed in the first seven chapters of Leviticus start with righting wrongs that were done to God, and then move on to relationships with others. Quite interesting to me is that (Leviticus 6) when we do something against a neighbor, we need to make restitution. Payback.   Makes me think of the question asked Jesus from a guy who was trying to nitpick to death what Jesus was saying, his question was, “Who is my neighbor?” That g

As a reread through the first chapters of Leviticus, it dawns on me just how much God really likes certain smells. Almost all of the offerings mentioned in these chapters are a sweet aroma unto the Lord.   And if we turn the page to the New Testament, we find that:   God likes how you and Marcos smell For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing,  to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from

The grain offering initiated in Leviticus 2, was just prior to the Million Man March in the desert that lasted 40 years (I am exaggerating for the sake of alliteration, it was probably closer to 600,000 people).   The priests got to eat part of this offering which also had frankincense in it. I didn’t know that stuff was edible. I suppose if I can eat turmeric, they can eat frankincense.     The grain offering was all about thankfulness and worship. So when the writer of Hebr