Leviticus
Devotions in Leviticus (**denotes very visual devotion)
Leviticus 1:1 - God Speaks to Us
Leviticus 6:13 - Burning Continually
Leviticus 7:15 - Thanksgiving
Leviticus 10:10 - Holy and Common
Leviticus 15:31 - Uncleanness - aka Sin
Leviticus 19:18 - Who is My Neighbor?
Leviticus 20:8 - The Lord Sanctifies!
**Leviticus 23:15 - Counting (Holy Day Lesson - Countdown to Pentecost)
**Leviticus 23:16 - Count! (Holy Day Lesson - Countdown to Pentecost)
**Leviticus 23:24 - A Memorial of Shouting (Holy Day Lesson - Trumpets)
Leviticus 23:42-43 - Keep the Feast (Holy Day Lesson - Feast of Tabernacles)
Leviticus 27:34 - The Commandments of God
God Speaks to Us
The LORD called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying, Leviticus 1:1
The book of Leviticus is replete with the phrase “The LORD spoke to Moses, saying.” In the first six chapters, we find it seven times - already! Why was Moses so careful to write down that these were words he had received directly from the LORD? Look at the title of the book. Leviticus was written to the Levites; it is a book of holiness. God was specifying exactly for His priest and Levites how they were to act.
We, as followers of Jesus Christ, as those 1 Peter 2:9 says will be a royal priesthood, we might be tempted to desire that God would speak to us as He did to Moses. Has the thought ever crossed your mind that life would be so much more simple if God would just speak to you and tell you which way you should go? You know, here’s the way; walk ye in it (Isaiah 30:21).
Maybe He’s already said everything we need to know.
It’s kind of like children in a family. Have you ever experienced this? One child comes in with mud on the bottom of their shoes from playing outside. Mom says, “Take off your shoes before you track it all over the floor.” The child takes off his shoes. The second child comes into the house in time to hear Mom’s words, but he doesn’t take his shoes off. Mom says, “Didn’t you hear me tell Mike to take off his shoes?” What’s the second’s child’s answer? Oh, you know it! He says, “I didn’t think you meant me too.” The mom is exasperated because the logical, reasonable deduction is that you take off your muddy shoes so the floor doesn’t get dirty - regardless of who’s wearing the shoes!
But does this really apply to God and what’s in the Bible?
Do you remember the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man? It’s found in Luke 16:19-31. Many people think this parable is talking about heaven and hell. That’s a discussion for another time and place. Instead, focus on is the idea Jesus relates in the middle of this parable: The rich man wants Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his brothers so they won’t end up in that place of torment. What does Abraham say? “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.” When the rich man protests, Abraham reiterates, “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.”
Do you get this?! God has given us everything we need in the Old Testament! Moses is the first five books of the Bible. The Prophets cover Isaiah to Malachi! Additionally, to our benefit that was not available when Jesus walked the earth, we have the gospel accounts - which record Jesus’ life and resurrection from the dead! What did Jesus say in the parable? If someone doesn’t listen to Moses and the Prophets, they wouldn’t listen even if someone - even Jesus - rose from the dead! Look at how Jesus reaffirms how very valuable the Old Testament is in our process of becoming holy!
Yes, salvation is a free gift from God. But once we have entered into that covenant with Him, we are not supposed to stay there. We’re supposed to walk worthy of the calling we have received (Ephesians 4:1, Colossians 1:10, 2 Thessalonians 1:11) We’re supposed to go on to holiness (2 Corinthians 7:1).
Stop to consider: maybe, just maybe, this book of holiness which God gave to the Levites, the priesthood, is also a book of holiness for us who are be purified into a royal priesthood for His glory. Maybe, just because we won’t understand how it all applies in our lives, maybe there’s much more than we ever realized. Maybe Leviticus, as well as the Old and New Testament, are contained in a book through which God speaks to each of us today.
Burning Continually
Fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually; it shall not go out. Leviticus 6:13
There’s an eternal flame which burns on the Eternal Light Peace Memorial in Gettysburg National Military Park. It was dedicated seventy-five years after the end of the war to the soldiers who fought and died there. The plaque reads: “Eternal Peace in a Nation United.” The fire which is kept burning is supposed to represent the peace and unity which exists in our nation.
If you google “eternal flame” you will find dozens of memorials all over the world which have a fire burning continuously as a memorial to someone, in memory of a group of people, or to an idea.
It’s quite possible that all of these memorials and customs are built on this command in Leviticus 6:13: Fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually; it shall not go out. We’re not told why, but there are still some principles we can apply to our lives based on this verse.
First of all, in order for a fire to be kept burning continually, someone had to be diligent to gather fuel and feed the fire - even on the Sabbath. Extrapolate that out; apply that principle to our lives today: there is never a time when our service to God takes a vacation. If we belong to Him, we are His servants even when we’re cold, tired, hungry, or when we don’t feel like it. If we’ve been bought by the blood of Jesus Christ and belong to God, then we’re God’s servants . . . continually. Revelation 7:14-15 talks about those who have come out of great tribulation and have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb. It goes on to say that they serve God day and night in his temple and that God dwells among them. They serve continuously.
Secondly, the fire was for the presentation of sacrifices and offerings. In addition to the sacrifices to deal with personal guilt and transgression, there were peace offerings. There were special sacrifices on the Holy Days. There were special sacrifices every Sabbath. There was a morning and evening sacrifice every day. So think about a sacrifice. It couldn’t be a sacrifice unless it cost you something. If you give away something you don’t want, that’s not a sacrifice. If you give something that is valuable to you, that’s a sacrifice. So what’s valuable to you that you can give to God? Time. Money. Your goals and desires. Your praise - because in praising God you are verbally acknowledging that He is God and you are not. He’s Sovereign and He is worthy of praise. Once you truly believe that, you’re ready to sacrifice your very life. We are to be living sacrifices to God - and Romans 12:1 says this is our reasonable service. We not only serve continuously, we serve with all of our being. We are wholly devoted to God.
There’s another thing we can learn from the fire being kept burning continually. When someone sinned, they were to bring a sin offering once they were made aware of the transgression (Leviticus 4:27-28). They didn’t have to wait until the first of the month. They didn’t have to wait until the Day of Atonement. Once they became convicted of their sin, they brought a sacrifice to deal with that sin right then. Similarly today, when we become convicted of sin, we need to go to God, repent, and have the relationship with God restored, through the blood of Christ. We know that we don’t have to wait until Sabbath or until the Day of Atonement because Hebrews 7:25 says that Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us. So the fire was, to them, a reminder to repair the relationship as soon as possible. We can apply the same principle in our lives: when we know we’ve sinned, we need to take care of it. As the saying goes, we need to keep short accounts.
It was kind of sad to be at Gettysburg and to see that flame at the Peace Memorial. It’s in memory of men who gave their lives - on both sides - and yet, our nation is not united. Eternal flames burn at the JFK memorial and numerous sites in memorial of other people who have died - and yet, what those people were like, who they were, is slowly being erased from the collective memory of all of us. These fires remind us of death. The fire on the altar, however, points to life - reconciliation with God through the blood of Christ for those who are wholly devoted to Him. It truly was, and is, an eternal flame.
Thanksgiving
And the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten on the day of his offering. He shall not leave any of it until the morning. Leviticus 7:15
Leviticus and Numbers have a lot of information about how to perform the sacrifices and offerings, but there’s not often a lot of why. Why were certain offerings killed in one place and others in another? Why was the peace offering offered on top of another sacrifice? Why could the peace offering not be eaten the following day? We’re not told why, but we can make some observations about this peace offering for thanksgiving:
1) Jesus is our peace. (Ephesians 2:14, Isaiah 9:6) I wonder if that’s why Luke 2:14 records the multitude of angels praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth . . .” The peace who was Jesus Christ was/is the only true peace we have! Jesus Christ is the only way to have peace with the Father - through belief in the saving power of His sacrifice and resurrection.
2) The peace offering could not remain until the next day because it would start to decay. Since Psalm 16:10 (later cited in Acts 2:27) states that God would not allow His Holy One to see corruption, this is a further indication that the peace offering indeed represents Jesus Christ. And there’s precedent for this idea of the sacrifice not remaining until the morning and the connection to Jesus: whatever remained of the Passover Lamb the next morning had to be burned (Exodus 12:10).
Perhaps this offering, like most of the other offerings and sacrifices, symbolizes what Christ does for us - for our relationship with the Father. Christ makes it possible for us to not only be reconciled to the Father, but also to have fellowship - and to be at peace - with the Father.
3) Because the peace offering could not remain until the next morning, there’s another observation we can make: each day is a new day. Each day, we need to thank God for who He is and what He’s done.
This week we’re celebrating Thanksgiving Day. That’s right and good. But we can’t give thanks to God on one day a year and call it good until Thanksgiving rolls around again next year. We’re so quick to ask for our grocery list of wants - healings and blessings. We should begin each morning with a prayer of thanksgiving to the One Who gave us everything we have and Who loves us so much He’s planning our future with Himself.
He is our peace and we need to be much more diligent to offer thanksgiving to Him that it is so.
Holy and Common
You are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean. Leviticus 10:10
Once when working on a ranch in Western Nebraska, some of the cowhands came in with a rattlesnake they’d killed. It stretched from one end of the back of the pick-up to the other. They wanted to know if I would cook it up for them, if they’d skin it. I didn’t want anything to do with that snake. I didn’t want to cook it. I didn’t want to eat it. I didn’t want to touch the dishes, to say nothing of washing them afterwards! Yuck!
Why was there never any doubt in my mind about why I wasn’t going to eat that snake? Was it my own dislike for snakes? Was it emotional? You know those guys pressured me pretty hard to “just try a little bite.” They told me it tasted like chicken. But there was no way. Why? Because God lists, in His book of holiness, in Leviticus 11 what is clean to eat and what isn’t. Snakes definitely didn’t make the “clean” list!
But clean and unclean, holy and common refer to more than just food. They refer to books. They refer to movies. They refer to choices of activities. I have never read some of the books which feature demons and sorcerers. I don’t want to. I don’t think they are “clean.” I don’t watch violent, R-rated movies with language which takes God’s name in vain. I don’t think they are “clean.”
But clean and unclean are only two of the categories. The other two are holy and common. “Holy” means “set apart.” Who sets apart something as “holy”? God does. The first thing He set apart as holy was the Sabbath! So on the Sabbath I don’t want to do anything which would not honor it - and the One who set it apart as holy.
If I don’t recognize God as the only One who is able to decide whether something is holy or common or clean or unclean, then I’ve cut the whole discussion free from its mooring. Who’s to say that my opinion is worth more than anyone else’s opinion? If I don’t use God’s definition, then it becomes very subjective. There’s no day that is holy. There is no book that is holy. There is nothing unclean. There is nothing common.
But I know that God is holy. And He has said, in 1 Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
Did you catch that? God says that we are a holy nation. We are a people set apart for his own possession. I think it’s very important that we distinguish what is holy and common, what is unclean and what is clean. Why? Because God told us to.
Uncleanness - aka Sin
Thus you shall separate the people of Israel from their uncleanness, lest they die in their uncleanness by defiling my tabernacle which is in their midst. Leviticus 15:31
I believe this verse is talking about identifying sin, being convicted of sin, dealing with sin, and then restoring the relationship with God. So many people have trouble identifying sin in their lives - probably because we are sinful creatures. Romans says our carnal nature is enmity against God. So even if we recognize something as sin, our heart, which is deceitful and desperately wicked, comes up with all the reasons why it doesn’t count. Let’s work through an example:
I don’t want you coming into my house with muddy shoes on.
The first time you come in with muddy shoes, I stop you, tell you to take off your shoes, and clean up the mess. You protest. “I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to come in with muddy shoes on.” Ignorance does not give you a get-out-of-jail free card. You still have to immediately take off your shoes and then clean up your mess.
So the next time you come into the house with muddy shoes, you follow your older brother in. Just because he’s walking in first doesn’t mean that you’re both not in trouble. You’re still in my house with muddy shoes on!
So the next time you come into the house with muddy shoes, you tell me, “But I’m only going to the bathroom. I’m going right back out.” O.K. but you’ve still brought muddy shoes into the house. Just because you’re only spreading mud over a short distance, for a short time, because it’s convenient for you doesn’t mean that you haven’t brought mud into the house. Now you immediately take off your shoes and you clean up the mud.
So the next time you come into the house with muddy shoes, you wait until you know I’m gone to the store. You know what the rule is, but since I’m not home, you ignore the rule. Now it doesn’t matter whether you walk just a little ways or all over the house. When I get home and I see mud, I will track down the culprit.
So the next time you come into the house with muddy shoes, you say, “I know you don’t like muddy shoes, but I’ll clean it up later and I’ll wash all the dishes for you.” Does that make it okay? Can you make the infraction go away by doing something to make up for it? No, you can’t. You see, when you bring mud into the house, it is very hard to completely get rid of. Even though my hardwood floors are durable, they get scratched, and there are cracks and crevices into which the mud can be ground. You can’t completely eradicate the effects of the mud when you scrub the floor. In addition, by doing what you know I don’t like, you are telling me you don’t really care about my feelings and therefore, you don’t value the relationship very much. You would rather break my rules because you want to - and then try to buy me off later. It doesn’t work. Oh, I’ll give you extra chores to do - but that’s punishment to try to make it so painful for you to break my rules that you’ll stop doing it.
So the next time you come into the house with muddy shoes, you’re riding a relationship high. We’ve enjoyed one another’s company recently. We’ve been very close. So you say, “I know you love me so much that you won’t mind if I just walk across the floor with mud on my shoes.” Does a close relationship now give you license to break my rules? No! It just causes a breach in our relationship!
O.K. So do you see some of the excuses we use to avoid dealing with sin? Ignorance, other people, short duration, convenience, no one will see, works, or presuming on the relationship. These are the same excuses we use in other situations too - and they work about as well.
Let’s go to a court of law. The rule is you must tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Well, right off the bat, the judge has taken away your first excuse: you can not plead ignorance! But what if you know someone else is lying to the court, can you lie too? Oh you can lie, but if you are caught, you’re still in trouble. What if you think that you’re a good enough liar that no one will know? That’s kind of like walking through the house when I’m gone. There’s still evidence, and if you get caught, you will be prosecuted.
What if you try lying just a little bit? Or because you’re embarrassed to tell the whole truth? It’s still a lie. You’ve sworn at the very beginning to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. If the judge can prove that you’ve lied, even just a little bit, he’ll throw the book at you!
What about works? Can you lie in a court of law, but then go give the person you hurt $50? Does that make it right? Does that negate the fact that you lied? No.
What about presuming on the relationship? What happens if you know the judge - if you just happen to be his niece or nephew? Can you lie and not pay the consequences - just because he loves you so much? No! There’s not a free pass to lie because you happen to have a good relationship with the judge. In fact, if you do lie, you’ll probably ruin the good relationship you have with the judge. Because you’re related to him, your lie damages his reputation as well.
Now that we’ve gone through some examples in the physical life, try applying the same logic, the same excuses, to sinful things in life. Take anything: stealing, bearing false witness, committing adultery, breaking the Sabbath, eating unclean foods, murder, taking God’s name in vain. Take any sin and try applying the excuse. Is it okay to steal just a little thing? No. If it’s stealing, it’s stealing. What about breaking the Sabbath? “I’m only working into the Sabbath 30 minutes. God’ll understand.” What about murder or abortion? “What if I do 30 hours of community service at a pregnancy resource center?” Does that cancel out the fact that I took a life?
Now, let’s deal with one other area of sin - being salt and light in this world. Let’s suppose you bring a friend over to the house and you are outside playing. Your shoes get all muddy. What are you going to do when you get ready to come inside? You’re going to tell them to take off their muddy shoes. You’ve already been through the learning process. You know that ignorance is not going to keep me from being upset that someone is in the house with muddy shoes. Just coming in a little ways is not going to work either. You know what I expect. So you have a decision to make: are you going to tell your friend what’s expected and possibly risk the friendship, or are you just going to let him experience the displeasure of Mom? If you truly like this person, you educate your friend because you want him to be welcome in our home. You want me to give you permission to invite him back.
We are, if we call ourselves Christians (followers of Christ), salt and light in this world. When the opportunity arises, what do we do? Do we tell the person next to us what is sinful in God’s sight? Or do we just keep quiet? Do we more concerned about their relationship with God or with our comfort level in confronting them? Some people say that it’s not the business of Christians to tell other people how to live.
Look again at this verse in Leviticus 15:31. Moses and Aaron were charged with keeping the people separate from their uncleanness lest they die in their uncleanness by defiling God’s temple which was in their midst. From the time Aaron was high priest, this was the job of the priests - educating the people to know God’s ways, to identify sin, to be convicted of sin, and to deal with sin so that they could have a relationship with God. We are, according to 1 Peter 2:9, a holy priesthood. God has called us to be His servants. As such, we have a responsibility to call sin sin. How to do that is a whole other subject.
Right now it’s enough to realize that there is no excuse for sin. Recognize it for what it is, repent and stop doing it. You don’t want to die in your uncleanness.
Who is My Neighbor?
You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord. Leviticus 19:18
There’s a lot packed into this one verse! Let’s start with definitions: Vengeance is getting even, settling the score, for a personal injury, real or imagined. God never gives an individual the authority to take vengeance. Think about what happens when a person takes vengeance. He gets even and then some. Words become a push. A push becomes a shove. A shove becomes a fist fight - until a knock-down, drag-out, all-out war ensues.
Furthermore, vengeance is not justice. Justice is the prerogative of the government, working as God’s agent, and ultimately, God’s prerogative. God says, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay” (Romans 12:19). Vengeance in the hands of the individual is not usually justice, but in God’s hands vengeance is just.
O.K. So we don’t take vengeance. We leave it to God. But God goes on to say that we can’t bear a grudge either. That’s hard. We can often keep ourselves from taking vengeance overtly, but grudges have to do with our relationship with the other person. A grudge is the persistent feeling of ill will, anger, or hatred towards another person because of the injury received, perceived or real. We think that the grudge is just in our minds, so it’s okay if we don’t deal with it. The problem is that our ill will affects our relationship with that person - and they may not even know why. Grudges keep us from truly forgiving them for the wrong we received. Matthew 6:14 says that if we don’t forgive our brother his trespasses, neither will our Father forgive our trespasses. God takes holding a grudge that seriously!
In fact, God wants His people to love each other as they love themselves. Did you get that? This verse is in the middle of Leviticus. It’s been a part of the way God expected His people to conduct themselves from the beginning!
But, from the beginning, people have tried to find loopholes in God’s commands. In Luke 10, a lawyer asked Jesus what he had to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus asked him what he thought he had to do. When the lawyer answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27), Jesus told him that was the right answer. But the lawyer wanted further clarification: “Who is my neighbor?”
That’s what we say to ourselves when we read Leviticus 19:18. . . . but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. We think, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus answered the lawyer, and us, with the parable of the Good Samaritan. Jesus basically told him that your neighbor is anyone with whom you come into contact. In other words, who isn’t your neighbor?
From the beginning, God has been concerned with relationships - repairing the damage that is done because of our carnal, human nature. He tells us that we can’t take vengeance - it’s not our right; we can’t bear a grudge - we must forgive if we want God’s forgiveness; and we have to love our neighbor - all of the people around us - as ourselves.
It’s worth some thought: who isn’t my neighbor?
The Lord Sanctifies!
Keep my statutes and do them; I am the Lord who sanctifies you. Lev 20:8
What does it mean “to keep”?
We use it like this: “We keep God’s holy days.” Other people may say, “We keep Christmas.”
It means “to keep, to guard, to take heed, to revere; it indicates the careful attention which was paid to the obligations of a covenant. It means paying carefully attention to the laws or statutes.
In the Bible, Abraham told his children to keep the way of the Lord. They were to pay careful attention to the laws of God. Similarly, the Cherubim kept the way to the Garden of Eden; they guarded against intruders. It’s the same word.
But what is it we are to pay careful attention to? It is God’s statutes, laws, commands. This particular word used in Leviticus 20:8 is most commonly used in conjunction with another word to mean an ordinance from God which was permanently binding. God’s laws endure forever; they are not optional.
So we are to keep God’s laws. Is that different from doing God’s laws? Why does the verse say “keep my statutes and do them”? Do is a word which means “to work, labor, toil, accomplish, create, offer.” It has the connotation of an ethical obligation (obedience) for God’s people. This is the actual action of doing the statute. Keeping means to know what they are and that they are important. Doing means action.
God emphasizes keeping and doing His law. But He also makes it very plain, even in the Old Testament, that He is the One who sanctifies. Sanctify encompasses the sphere of what is considered sacred. It is the state of being pure or devoted to God. Anything that is sacred is withheld from ordinary use and treated as special because it belongs to God.
What is sacred? The Bible. The Sabbath. The Tabernacle. You are - if you belong to God. But make no mistake, you are not sacred because you keep and do God’s laws. You are sacred because God makes you that way. Then, because you are sacred, you keep God’s laws. God has set you apart. You response is total obedience to Him and His laws, paying careful attention to His ways.
Consider carefully how to withhold yourself from the common and the unclean. Consider carefully how you are to act because you are sanctified.
**Counting
You shall count off seven full weeks from the day after the Sabbath. . . . Leviticus 23:15
Materials: Little things to count, counting books (My favorite is Doggies by Sandra Boynton), calendars for the next seven weeks, tiny stickers to mark of the days.
We count things all the time: the days until school’s out, the number of biology assignments left in the year, the of inches you’ve grown in the past month, how many forks we need for supper tonight, how many dogs are in the house . . .
Since counting is a basic math concept that must be mastered before learning addition and subtraction, we start teaching children how to count when they are still very little. And when you’re learning a new language, that’s one of the first things you learn, regardless of your age, how to count in that language - French, Spanish, ASL, all of them.
So here’s a very interesting verse in Leviticus 23:15: You shall count off seven full week from the day after the Sabbath. God tells us to count . . . from the day after the sabbath, and generally we do that from the sabbath in the middle of the days of unleavened bread. Do you know why we count from the day after that particular sabbath? It’s the wave sheaf day - the day when the first grain that was harvested from the barley is waved before the Lord. It’s recognition - at the very beginning of the harvest - that He is the Lord of the harvest (Matthew 9:38): He has given us the grain to plant; He has given us the land to plant it in; He has given us the rain; He has caused the grain to grow and produce more grain. It all comes from Him.
But there’s something else very special that happened on the Wave Sheaf Day the year that Jesus died: Jesus rose from the dead, as the wave sheaf offering to God - the very first of the firstfruits (1 Corinthians 15:20, 23). Because Jesus rose from the dead, He makes it possible for us also be to raised from the dead (Romans 6:4). As the wave sheaf offering (John 20:17), Jesus is the recognition that our salvation, redemption, acceptance before the Father is all God’s work (1Corinthians 1:30). We are God’s workmanship (Ephesians 2:10) and the firstfruits of the harvest in Jesus Christ (James 1:18).
But the Wave Sheaf Day is not the end of the count. We’re told to count seven full weeks. O.K. How many days are there in a week? Seven. How many days are there in seven full weeks? 49. So we count off 49 days and the 50th day is the next of God’s holy days - the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost.
The counting of these seven weeks must be very important. God told us to do it. It’s much too easy to let the days slide by without counting. Make sure you count!
***Count!
You shall count off fifty days until the day after the seventh Sabbath, Leviticus 23:16
Materials: calendars, 50 stickers for each child
God gives us certain things to do for each of his holy days. What are we supposed to do on Trumpets? Shout!! What are we supposed to do on the Day of Atonement? Fast or afflict our souls. What are we supposed to do for all of the Feast of Tabernacles? We’re supposed to dwell in temporary dwellings or tents. What are we supposed to do for the Days of Unleavened Bread? Eat unleavened bread each day. So what are we supposed to do leading up to the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost? We are supposed to count.
Do you know when you are supposed to start counting? You count from the day after the sabbath during the Days of Unleavened Bread. It is the Wave Sheaf Day. It is the day Jesus was resurrected from the dead and presented before the Father, the First of the firstfruits. At the same time, the first of the barley harvest was waved before God before the new grain of the harvest could be eaten. This is the day that we are to begin counting.
How many days do we count? 50 days - up until the day after the seventh sabbath. These next seven weeks are the days that we are to count leading up to Pentecost.
It’s easy to live in a temporary dwelling for seven days during the Feast of Tabernacles. It’s pretty easy to remember to shout on Trumpets. It takes a bit more concentration not to eat anything on the Day of Atonement because sometimes you do things without thinking about what you’re doing. And it takes a deliberate effort to remember to eat unleavened bread every day for a week. But it is hard to remember to count each day. You might start out remembering to count, to think about what day of the count you’re on. Some people like to make a calendar and count off the days. Some people like to keep a journal for seven weeks to make a conscious effort to count as we are commanded.
God doesn’t tell us why we are to count. He doesn’t tell us to make a chain to count down the days, or to keep a journal, or to mark off the days on the calendar. But God does tell us to count. It’s important that we obey our God. Let’s count!
A Memorial of Shouting
Speak unto the sons of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, on the first of the month, ye have a sabbath, a memorial of shouting, a holy convocation; Lev. 23:24 (Young’s Literal Translation)
Have you ever been to a surprise birthday party - you know, the kind where everyone hides and then you jump out and yell surprise when the person having the birthday walks in? Sometimes they are truly surprised. Sometimes they have an idea that something is coming.
Have you ever been waiting for someone special to come to your house? You’ve thoroughly cleaned the house and picked up your room. You’ve made special things to eat. Then you wait for that person to arrive. What do you do when they get there? You maybe run out to their car to greet them, to give them a big hug, and to help them carry in whatever they may have brought with them.
In both of these situations, there’s preparation. There’s some waiting - because you don’t know exactly when the person will arrive. And there’s a lot of noise and excitement when they do come.
Even if you knew that someone was going to leave the room and come back with a surprise for you, you would be ready to make some noise when they came back in.
That’s part of the picture of this day - Trumpets. It is a sabbath when you do no work. It is a day of holy convocation - meaning we assemble to worship God. But it is set apart from every other of God’s holy days by this command: it is a memorial of shouting. We are to remember to shout.
I can’t help thinking of several Bible passages when I think of shouting:
Jericho - (Joshua 6) - The children of Israel were commanded to march around Jericho, silently, once for six days. On the seventh day, they marched seven times and then gave a great shout. The walls fell down flat and God gave the Israelites the victory.
Gideon - (Judges 7) - Gideon took 300 men to conquer the Midianites. They surrounded the camp at night, each with a trumpet and a torch in a jar. At Gideon’s signal, they all broke their jars to let the light shine, they blew their trumpets, and they yelled, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon.” God gave them a great victory that night over their enemies.
1 Thessalonians 4:16 - When Jesus Christ comes back to set up His kingdom on this earth, “the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command [a loud shout, yom teruach], with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.
In the case of Jericho and Gideon, the trumpet and the shout was directly connected to God giving them the victory. In the same way, when Jesus comes back, there will be a loud shout and the sound of the trumpet of God. We will be victorious over sin and death forever!
This is the picture in Revelation 11:15: “Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.’ ” This is the central phrase in one of the most recognizable of all classical works: “The Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s Messiah. And it truly is the time when we all will be shouting “hallelujah” because Jesus Christ has returned!
That’s why we’re all here today. It is a memorial of a day yet to come when Jesus will return and set up His kingdom, when He will set all things right! Keep your eyes open. Get ready. Be prepared. Be ready to shout!
Keep the Feast
You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All native Israelites shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. Leviticus 23:42-43 (ESV)
I don’t know what it looks like around your house these days, but around our house, Feast Fever has broken out all over the place. The kids are busy making plans for feast presents for the cousins (and others); they are trying to figure out how to get their bikes to the Feast; and they have already made plans for different things they want to do while they are there. All of them have made paper chain countdowns to the day we leave. Yep. Feast Fever has broken out all over!
But why do we keep the Feast? Isn’t it just a Jewish festival? Doesn’t it just have significance in Old Testament times? The children are memorizing Leviticus 23:42-43 this week: “You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All native Israelites shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”
See. “Native Israelites.” “People of Israel.” I certainly wasn’t brought out of the land of Egypt by God. Or was I?
So many times in the Bible, a historical event takes on personal meaning and application for today. For instance, the Passover ritual of killing a lamb and putting the blood on the doorpost and lintels of the house points directly to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and His blood being applied to me as a covering for my sins. So the exodus from slavery in Egypt is not just a historical event, but foreshadows God’s power in my life to rescue me from slavery to sin. This is not just a theory pulled from thin air. Consider Paul’s use of the history of Israel to make the point in 1 Corinthians 10.
So if God rescued me from sin in a way very similar to His rescue of the Israelites from the slavery in Egypt; if God is with me every day, leading me as I sojourn in this world in a way very similar to His presence with the Israelites as they tabernacled for 40 years in the wilderness; if He is my God just as He was the Lord their God, then I believe I have good reason to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.
If I believe that Jesus Christ came as a baby and tabernacled among us (John 1:14), I think that’s a good reason to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.
If I don’t call this world my home but am looking forward to a kingdom whose designer and builder is my God, then I am a sojourner here. I am merely tabernacling in this society. (Hebrews 11) I am occupying myself until He returns to set up his kingdom. (Luke 19:13) I think that’s a good reason to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.
If I believe that Jesus Christ dwells in me (John 15) through the Holy Spirit, then He is tabernacling in me. I believe that’s a good reason to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.
If I believe that there is coming a time when the kingdoms of this world will have become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and that the dwelling place of God, his tabernacle will be with men and He will be their God (Revelation 21:3), I think that’s a good reason to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.
The Feast of Tabernacles is rich in meaning and the lessons it teaches and reminds us about our great God. It is a time of rejoicing in the relationship that we have with our Creator and Savior. (Leviticus 23:40) And probably most importantly, it is a time of worshipping our God (Zech. 14:16), the One to whom we owe all things. I know that’s a very good reason for celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles.
O.K. So now how’s your Feast Fever?
The Commandments of God
These are the commandments that the Lord commanded Moses for the people of Israel on Mount Sinai. Leviticus 27:34
Have you ever been with some friends when one of them said, “Hey, do you know how to play ____________?” When you say that you don’t, they enthusiastically tell you they’ll teach you. They launch into the rules, but fairly quickly say, “I’ll just tell you as we go along.” So you start, and they keep adding rules as situations come up, and you have a great time. You’ve learned a new game.
I don’t like learning new games that way. I like getting the instructions out, reading through all of them, and then starting the game. As I come upon a situation and I don’t remember the rule, I refer back to the instruction sheet. That way I know I’ve read all the rules; there won’t be a rule that I’ve missed because the situation never came up.
God’s commandments are like that. If you notice in this verse, the very last thing that is recorded in the book of Leviticus is that all of these commandments we just read (the entire book of Leviticus) was spoken to Moses while he was on Mt. Sinai with God. Do you remember how the book of Leviticus starts? It’s God speaking to Moses. These two verses are like bookends on the entire book. God said these words. This was not a case of, “I’ll explain as we go along.” God gave them everything they needed.
My children like learning new games by telling new rules as you get into situations. It helps them remember the rules better. And that’s okay for a game. But what do you do when it’s life and death, blessing and cursing? What do you do when keeping the rules means maintaining your relationship with God and drawing closer to Him? What do you do when you’re playing for keeps? You want to know all of the rules up front. That’s what God did for His people. He told them all of the rules before they ever left Mt. Sinai. He basically gave them the instruction manual for making life work before they wandered in the wilderness for forty years. He didn’t keep adding laws as they went along.
I don’t know about you - but this changes my perspective a little on the book of holiness that we’ve just finished reading. It helps me see it as a whole, as an instruction manual that needs to be read at the beginning of your journey of pursuing holiness. And when you know you’ve taken a wrong path, it’s okay to refer back to the book.
The LORD called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying, Leviticus 1:1
The book of Leviticus is replete with the phrase “The LORD spoke to Moses, saying.” In the first six chapters, we find it seven times - already! Why was Moses so careful to write down that these were words he had received directly from the LORD? Look at the title of the book. Leviticus was written to the Levites; it is a book of holiness. God was specifying exactly for His priest and Levites how they were to act.
We, as followers of Jesus Christ, as those 1 Peter 2:9 says will be a royal priesthood, we might be tempted to desire that God would speak to us as He did to Moses. Has the thought ever crossed your mind that life would be so much more simple if God would just speak to you and tell you which way you should go? You know, here’s the way; walk ye in it (Isaiah 30:21).
Maybe He’s already said everything we need to know.
It’s kind of like children in a family. Have you ever experienced this? One child comes in with mud on the bottom of their shoes from playing outside. Mom says, “Take off your shoes before you track it all over the floor.” The child takes off his shoes. The second child comes into the house in time to hear Mom’s words, but he doesn’t take his shoes off. Mom says, “Didn’t you hear me tell Mike to take off his shoes?” What’s the second’s child’s answer? Oh, you know it! He says, “I didn’t think you meant me too.” The mom is exasperated because the logical, reasonable deduction is that you take off your muddy shoes so the floor doesn’t get dirty - regardless of who’s wearing the shoes!
But does this really apply to God and what’s in the Bible?
Do you remember the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man? It’s found in Luke 16:19-31. Many people think this parable is talking about heaven and hell. That’s a discussion for another time and place. Instead, focus on is the idea Jesus relates in the middle of this parable: The rich man wants Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his brothers so they won’t end up in that place of torment. What does Abraham say? “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.” When the rich man protests, Abraham reiterates, “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.”
Do you get this?! God has given us everything we need in the Old Testament! Moses is the first five books of the Bible. The Prophets cover Isaiah to Malachi! Additionally, to our benefit that was not available when Jesus walked the earth, we have the gospel accounts - which record Jesus’ life and resurrection from the dead! What did Jesus say in the parable? If someone doesn’t listen to Moses and the Prophets, they wouldn’t listen even if someone - even Jesus - rose from the dead! Look at how Jesus reaffirms how very valuable the Old Testament is in our process of becoming holy!
Yes, salvation is a free gift from God. But once we have entered into that covenant with Him, we are not supposed to stay there. We’re supposed to walk worthy of the calling we have received (Ephesians 4:1, Colossians 1:10, 2 Thessalonians 1:11) We’re supposed to go on to holiness (2 Corinthians 7:1).
Stop to consider: maybe, just maybe, this book of holiness which God gave to the Levites, the priesthood, is also a book of holiness for us who are be purified into a royal priesthood for His glory. Maybe, just because we won’t understand how it all applies in our lives, maybe there’s much more than we ever realized. Maybe Leviticus, as well as the Old and New Testament, are contained in a book through which God speaks to each of us today.
Burning Continually
Fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually; it shall not go out. Leviticus 6:13
There’s an eternal flame which burns on the Eternal Light Peace Memorial in Gettysburg National Military Park. It was dedicated seventy-five years after the end of the war to the soldiers who fought and died there. The plaque reads: “Eternal Peace in a Nation United.” The fire which is kept burning is supposed to represent the peace and unity which exists in our nation.
If you google “eternal flame” you will find dozens of memorials all over the world which have a fire burning continuously as a memorial to someone, in memory of a group of people, or to an idea.
It’s quite possible that all of these memorials and customs are built on this command in Leviticus 6:13: Fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually; it shall not go out. We’re not told why, but there are still some principles we can apply to our lives based on this verse.
First of all, in order for a fire to be kept burning continually, someone had to be diligent to gather fuel and feed the fire - even on the Sabbath. Extrapolate that out; apply that principle to our lives today: there is never a time when our service to God takes a vacation. If we belong to Him, we are His servants even when we’re cold, tired, hungry, or when we don’t feel like it. If we’ve been bought by the blood of Jesus Christ and belong to God, then we’re God’s servants . . . continually. Revelation 7:14-15 talks about those who have come out of great tribulation and have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb. It goes on to say that they serve God day and night in his temple and that God dwells among them. They serve continuously.
Secondly, the fire was for the presentation of sacrifices and offerings. In addition to the sacrifices to deal with personal guilt and transgression, there were peace offerings. There were special sacrifices on the Holy Days. There were special sacrifices every Sabbath. There was a morning and evening sacrifice every day. So think about a sacrifice. It couldn’t be a sacrifice unless it cost you something. If you give away something you don’t want, that’s not a sacrifice. If you give something that is valuable to you, that’s a sacrifice. So what’s valuable to you that you can give to God? Time. Money. Your goals and desires. Your praise - because in praising God you are verbally acknowledging that He is God and you are not. He’s Sovereign and He is worthy of praise. Once you truly believe that, you’re ready to sacrifice your very life. We are to be living sacrifices to God - and Romans 12:1 says this is our reasonable service. We not only serve continuously, we serve with all of our being. We are wholly devoted to God.
There’s another thing we can learn from the fire being kept burning continually. When someone sinned, they were to bring a sin offering once they were made aware of the transgression (Leviticus 4:27-28). They didn’t have to wait until the first of the month. They didn’t have to wait until the Day of Atonement. Once they became convicted of their sin, they brought a sacrifice to deal with that sin right then. Similarly today, when we become convicted of sin, we need to go to God, repent, and have the relationship with God restored, through the blood of Christ. We know that we don’t have to wait until Sabbath or until the Day of Atonement because Hebrews 7:25 says that Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us. So the fire was, to them, a reminder to repair the relationship as soon as possible. We can apply the same principle in our lives: when we know we’ve sinned, we need to take care of it. As the saying goes, we need to keep short accounts.
It was kind of sad to be at Gettysburg and to see that flame at the Peace Memorial. It’s in memory of men who gave their lives - on both sides - and yet, our nation is not united. Eternal flames burn at the JFK memorial and numerous sites in memorial of other people who have died - and yet, what those people were like, who they were, is slowly being erased from the collective memory of all of us. These fires remind us of death. The fire on the altar, however, points to life - reconciliation with God through the blood of Christ for those who are wholly devoted to Him. It truly was, and is, an eternal flame.
Thanksgiving
And the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten on the day of his offering. He shall not leave any of it until the morning. Leviticus 7:15
Leviticus and Numbers have a lot of information about how to perform the sacrifices and offerings, but there’s not often a lot of why. Why were certain offerings killed in one place and others in another? Why was the peace offering offered on top of another sacrifice? Why could the peace offering not be eaten the following day? We’re not told why, but we can make some observations about this peace offering for thanksgiving:
1) Jesus is our peace. (Ephesians 2:14, Isaiah 9:6) I wonder if that’s why Luke 2:14 records the multitude of angels praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth . . .” The peace who was Jesus Christ was/is the only true peace we have! Jesus Christ is the only way to have peace with the Father - through belief in the saving power of His sacrifice and resurrection.
2) The peace offering could not remain until the next day because it would start to decay. Since Psalm 16:10 (later cited in Acts 2:27) states that God would not allow His Holy One to see corruption, this is a further indication that the peace offering indeed represents Jesus Christ. And there’s precedent for this idea of the sacrifice not remaining until the morning and the connection to Jesus: whatever remained of the Passover Lamb the next morning had to be burned (Exodus 12:10).
Perhaps this offering, like most of the other offerings and sacrifices, symbolizes what Christ does for us - for our relationship with the Father. Christ makes it possible for us to not only be reconciled to the Father, but also to have fellowship - and to be at peace - with the Father.
3) Because the peace offering could not remain until the next morning, there’s another observation we can make: each day is a new day. Each day, we need to thank God for who He is and what He’s done.
This week we’re celebrating Thanksgiving Day. That’s right and good. But we can’t give thanks to God on one day a year and call it good until Thanksgiving rolls around again next year. We’re so quick to ask for our grocery list of wants - healings and blessings. We should begin each morning with a prayer of thanksgiving to the One Who gave us everything we have and Who loves us so much He’s planning our future with Himself.
He is our peace and we need to be much more diligent to offer thanksgiving to Him that it is so.
Holy and Common
You are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean. Leviticus 10:10
Once when working on a ranch in Western Nebraska, some of the cowhands came in with a rattlesnake they’d killed. It stretched from one end of the back of the pick-up to the other. They wanted to know if I would cook it up for them, if they’d skin it. I didn’t want anything to do with that snake. I didn’t want to cook it. I didn’t want to eat it. I didn’t want to touch the dishes, to say nothing of washing them afterwards! Yuck!
Why was there never any doubt in my mind about why I wasn’t going to eat that snake? Was it my own dislike for snakes? Was it emotional? You know those guys pressured me pretty hard to “just try a little bite.” They told me it tasted like chicken. But there was no way. Why? Because God lists, in His book of holiness, in Leviticus 11 what is clean to eat and what isn’t. Snakes definitely didn’t make the “clean” list!
But clean and unclean, holy and common refer to more than just food. They refer to books. They refer to movies. They refer to choices of activities. I have never read some of the books which feature demons and sorcerers. I don’t want to. I don’t think they are “clean.” I don’t watch violent, R-rated movies with language which takes God’s name in vain. I don’t think they are “clean.”
But clean and unclean are only two of the categories. The other two are holy and common. “Holy” means “set apart.” Who sets apart something as “holy”? God does. The first thing He set apart as holy was the Sabbath! So on the Sabbath I don’t want to do anything which would not honor it - and the One who set it apart as holy.
If I don’t recognize God as the only One who is able to decide whether something is holy or common or clean or unclean, then I’ve cut the whole discussion free from its mooring. Who’s to say that my opinion is worth more than anyone else’s opinion? If I don’t use God’s definition, then it becomes very subjective. There’s no day that is holy. There is no book that is holy. There is nothing unclean. There is nothing common.
But I know that God is holy. And He has said, in 1 Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
Did you catch that? God says that we are a holy nation. We are a people set apart for his own possession. I think it’s very important that we distinguish what is holy and common, what is unclean and what is clean. Why? Because God told us to.
Uncleanness - aka Sin
Thus you shall separate the people of Israel from their uncleanness, lest they die in their uncleanness by defiling my tabernacle which is in their midst. Leviticus 15:31
I believe this verse is talking about identifying sin, being convicted of sin, dealing with sin, and then restoring the relationship with God. So many people have trouble identifying sin in their lives - probably because we are sinful creatures. Romans says our carnal nature is enmity against God. So even if we recognize something as sin, our heart, which is deceitful and desperately wicked, comes up with all the reasons why it doesn’t count. Let’s work through an example:
I don’t want you coming into my house with muddy shoes on.
The first time you come in with muddy shoes, I stop you, tell you to take off your shoes, and clean up the mess. You protest. “I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to come in with muddy shoes on.” Ignorance does not give you a get-out-of-jail free card. You still have to immediately take off your shoes and then clean up your mess.
So the next time you come into the house with muddy shoes, you follow your older brother in. Just because he’s walking in first doesn’t mean that you’re both not in trouble. You’re still in my house with muddy shoes on!
So the next time you come into the house with muddy shoes, you tell me, “But I’m only going to the bathroom. I’m going right back out.” O.K. but you’ve still brought muddy shoes into the house. Just because you’re only spreading mud over a short distance, for a short time, because it’s convenient for you doesn’t mean that you haven’t brought mud into the house. Now you immediately take off your shoes and you clean up the mud.
So the next time you come into the house with muddy shoes, you wait until you know I’m gone to the store. You know what the rule is, but since I’m not home, you ignore the rule. Now it doesn’t matter whether you walk just a little ways or all over the house. When I get home and I see mud, I will track down the culprit.
So the next time you come into the house with muddy shoes, you say, “I know you don’t like muddy shoes, but I’ll clean it up later and I’ll wash all the dishes for you.” Does that make it okay? Can you make the infraction go away by doing something to make up for it? No, you can’t. You see, when you bring mud into the house, it is very hard to completely get rid of. Even though my hardwood floors are durable, they get scratched, and there are cracks and crevices into which the mud can be ground. You can’t completely eradicate the effects of the mud when you scrub the floor. In addition, by doing what you know I don’t like, you are telling me you don’t really care about my feelings and therefore, you don’t value the relationship very much. You would rather break my rules because you want to - and then try to buy me off later. It doesn’t work. Oh, I’ll give you extra chores to do - but that’s punishment to try to make it so painful for you to break my rules that you’ll stop doing it.
So the next time you come into the house with muddy shoes, you’re riding a relationship high. We’ve enjoyed one another’s company recently. We’ve been very close. So you say, “I know you love me so much that you won’t mind if I just walk across the floor with mud on my shoes.” Does a close relationship now give you license to break my rules? No! It just causes a breach in our relationship!
O.K. So do you see some of the excuses we use to avoid dealing with sin? Ignorance, other people, short duration, convenience, no one will see, works, or presuming on the relationship. These are the same excuses we use in other situations too - and they work about as well.
Let’s go to a court of law. The rule is you must tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Well, right off the bat, the judge has taken away your first excuse: you can not plead ignorance! But what if you know someone else is lying to the court, can you lie too? Oh you can lie, but if you are caught, you’re still in trouble. What if you think that you’re a good enough liar that no one will know? That’s kind of like walking through the house when I’m gone. There’s still evidence, and if you get caught, you will be prosecuted.
What if you try lying just a little bit? Or because you’re embarrassed to tell the whole truth? It’s still a lie. You’ve sworn at the very beginning to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. If the judge can prove that you’ve lied, even just a little bit, he’ll throw the book at you!
What about works? Can you lie in a court of law, but then go give the person you hurt $50? Does that make it right? Does that negate the fact that you lied? No.
What about presuming on the relationship? What happens if you know the judge - if you just happen to be his niece or nephew? Can you lie and not pay the consequences - just because he loves you so much? No! There’s not a free pass to lie because you happen to have a good relationship with the judge. In fact, if you do lie, you’ll probably ruin the good relationship you have with the judge. Because you’re related to him, your lie damages his reputation as well.
Now that we’ve gone through some examples in the physical life, try applying the same logic, the same excuses, to sinful things in life. Take anything: stealing, bearing false witness, committing adultery, breaking the Sabbath, eating unclean foods, murder, taking God’s name in vain. Take any sin and try applying the excuse. Is it okay to steal just a little thing? No. If it’s stealing, it’s stealing. What about breaking the Sabbath? “I’m only working into the Sabbath 30 minutes. God’ll understand.” What about murder or abortion? “What if I do 30 hours of community service at a pregnancy resource center?” Does that cancel out the fact that I took a life?
Now, let’s deal with one other area of sin - being salt and light in this world. Let’s suppose you bring a friend over to the house and you are outside playing. Your shoes get all muddy. What are you going to do when you get ready to come inside? You’re going to tell them to take off their muddy shoes. You’ve already been through the learning process. You know that ignorance is not going to keep me from being upset that someone is in the house with muddy shoes. Just coming in a little ways is not going to work either. You know what I expect. So you have a decision to make: are you going to tell your friend what’s expected and possibly risk the friendship, or are you just going to let him experience the displeasure of Mom? If you truly like this person, you educate your friend because you want him to be welcome in our home. You want me to give you permission to invite him back.
We are, if we call ourselves Christians (followers of Christ), salt and light in this world. When the opportunity arises, what do we do? Do we tell the person next to us what is sinful in God’s sight? Or do we just keep quiet? Do we more concerned about their relationship with God or with our comfort level in confronting them? Some people say that it’s not the business of Christians to tell other people how to live.
Look again at this verse in Leviticus 15:31. Moses and Aaron were charged with keeping the people separate from their uncleanness lest they die in their uncleanness by defiling God’s temple which was in their midst. From the time Aaron was high priest, this was the job of the priests - educating the people to know God’s ways, to identify sin, to be convicted of sin, and to deal with sin so that they could have a relationship with God. We are, according to 1 Peter 2:9, a holy priesthood. God has called us to be His servants. As such, we have a responsibility to call sin sin. How to do that is a whole other subject.
Right now it’s enough to realize that there is no excuse for sin. Recognize it for what it is, repent and stop doing it. You don’t want to die in your uncleanness.
Who is My Neighbor?
You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord. Leviticus 19:18
There’s a lot packed into this one verse! Let’s start with definitions: Vengeance is getting even, settling the score, for a personal injury, real or imagined. God never gives an individual the authority to take vengeance. Think about what happens when a person takes vengeance. He gets even and then some. Words become a push. A push becomes a shove. A shove becomes a fist fight - until a knock-down, drag-out, all-out war ensues.
Furthermore, vengeance is not justice. Justice is the prerogative of the government, working as God’s agent, and ultimately, God’s prerogative. God says, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay” (Romans 12:19). Vengeance in the hands of the individual is not usually justice, but in God’s hands vengeance is just.
O.K. So we don’t take vengeance. We leave it to God. But God goes on to say that we can’t bear a grudge either. That’s hard. We can often keep ourselves from taking vengeance overtly, but grudges have to do with our relationship with the other person. A grudge is the persistent feeling of ill will, anger, or hatred towards another person because of the injury received, perceived or real. We think that the grudge is just in our minds, so it’s okay if we don’t deal with it. The problem is that our ill will affects our relationship with that person - and they may not even know why. Grudges keep us from truly forgiving them for the wrong we received. Matthew 6:14 says that if we don’t forgive our brother his trespasses, neither will our Father forgive our trespasses. God takes holding a grudge that seriously!
In fact, God wants His people to love each other as they love themselves. Did you get that? This verse is in the middle of Leviticus. It’s been a part of the way God expected His people to conduct themselves from the beginning!
But, from the beginning, people have tried to find loopholes in God’s commands. In Luke 10, a lawyer asked Jesus what he had to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus asked him what he thought he had to do. When the lawyer answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27), Jesus told him that was the right answer. But the lawyer wanted further clarification: “Who is my neighbor?”
That’s what we say to ourselves when we read Leviticus 19:18. . . . but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. We think, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus answered the lawyer, and us, with the parable of the Good Samaritan. Jesus basically told him that your neighbor is anyone with whom you come into contact. In other words, who isn’t your neighbor?
From the beginning, God has been concerned with relationships - repairing the damage that is done because of our carnal, human nature. He tells us that we can’t take vengeance - it’s not our right; we can’t bear a grudge - we must forgive if we want God’s forgiveness; and we have to love our neighbor - all of the people around us - as ourselves.
It’s worth some thought: who isn’t my neighbor?
The Lord Sanctifies!
Keep my statutes and do them; I am the Lord who sanctifies you. Lev 20:8
What does it mean “to keep”?
We use it like this: “We keep God’s holy days.” Other people may say, “We keep Christmas.”
It means “to keep, to guard, to take heed, to revere; it indicates the careful attention which was paid to the obligations of a covenant. It means paying carefully attention to the laws or statutes.
In the Bible, Abraham told his children to keep the way of the Lord. They were to pay careful attention to the laws of God. Similarly, the Cherubim kept the way to the Garden of Eden; they guarded against intruders. It’s the same word.
But what is it we are to pay careful attention to? It is God’s statutes, laws, commands. This particular word used in Leviticus 20:8 is most commonly used in conjunction with another word to mean an ordinance from God which was permanently binding. God’s laws endure forever; they are not optional.
So we are to keep God’s laws. Is that different from doing God’s laws? Why does the verse say “keep my statutes and do them”? Do is a word which means “to work, labor, toil, accomplish, create, offer.” It has the connotation of an ethical obligation (obedience) for God’s people. This is the actual action of doing the statute. Keeping means to know what they are and that they are important. Doing means action.
God emphasizes keeping and doing His law. But He also makes it very plain, even in the Old Testament, that He is the One who sanctifies. Sanctify encompasses the sphere of what is considered sacred. It is the state of being pure or devoted to God. Anything that is sacred is withheld from ordinary use and treated as special because it belongs to God.
What is sacred? The Bible. The Sabbath. The Tabernacle. You are - if you belong to God. But make no mistake, you are not sacred because you keep and do God’s laws. You are sacred because God makes you that way. Then, because you are sacred, you keep God’s laws. God has set you apart. You response is total obedience to Him and His laws, paying careful attention to His ways.
Consider carefully how to withhold yourself from the common and the unclean. Consider carefully how you are to act because you are sanctified.
**Counting
You shall count off seven full weeks from the day after the Sabbath. . . . Leviticus 23:15
Materials: Little things to count, counting books (My favorite is Doggies by Sandra Boynton), calendars for the next seven weeks, tiny stickers to mark of the days.
We count things all the time: the days until school’s out, the number of biology assignments left in the year, the of inches you’ve grown in the past month, how many forks we need for supper tonight, how many dogs are in the house . . .
Since counting is a basic math concept that must be mastered before learning addition and subtraction, we start teaching children how to count when they are still very little. And when you’re learning a new language, that’s one of the first things you learn, regardless of your age, how to count in that language - French, Spanish, ASL, all of them.
So here’s a very interesting verse in Leviticus 23:15: You shall count off seven full week from the day after the Sabbath. God tells us to count . . . from the day after the sabbath, and generally we do that from the sabbath in the middle of the days of unleavened bread. Do you know why we count from the day after that particular sabbath? It’s the wave sheaf day - the day when the first grain that was harvested from the barley is waved before the Lord. It’s recognition - at the very beginning of the harvest - that He is the Lord of the harvest (Matthew 9:38): He has given us the grain to plant; He has given us the land to plant it in; He has given us the rain; He has caused the grain to grow and produce more grain. It all comes from Him.
But there’s something else very special that happened on the Wave Sheaf Day the year that Jesus died: Jesus rose from the dead, as the wave sheaf offering to God - the very first of the firstfruits (1 Corinthians 15:20, 23). Because Jesus rose from the dead, He makes it possible for us also be to raised from the dead (Romans 6:4). As the wave sheaf offering (John 20:17), Jesus is the recognition that our salvation, redemption, acceptance before the Father is all God’s work (1Corinthians 1:30). We are God’s workmanship (Ephesians 2:10) and the firstfruits of the harvest in Jesus Christ (James 1:18).
But the Wave Sheaf Day is not the end of the count. We’re told to count seven full weeks. O.K. How many days are there in a week? Seven. How many days are there in seven full weeks? 49. So we count off 49 days and the 50th day is the next of God’s holy days - the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost.
The counting of these seven weeks must be very important. God told us to do it. It’s much too easy to let the days slide by without counting. Make sure you count!
***Count!
You shall count off fifty days until the day after the seventh Sabbath, Leviticus 23:16
Materials: calendars, 50 stickers for each child
God gives us certain things to do for each of his holy days. What are we supposed to do on Trumpets? Shout!! What are we supposed to do on the Day of Atonement? Fast or afflict our souls. What are we supposed to do for all of the Feast of Tabernacles? We’re supposed to dwell in temporary dwellings or tents. What are we supposed to do for the Days of Unleavened Bread? Eat unleavened bread each day. So what are we supposed to do leading up to the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost? We are supposed to count.
Do you know when you are supposed to start counting? You count from the day after the sabbath during the Days of Unleavened Bread. It is the Wave Sheaf Day. It is the day Jesus was resurrected from the dead and presented before the Father, the First of the firstfruits. At the same time, the first of the barley harvest was waved before God before the new grain of the harvest could be eaten. This is the day that we are to begin counting.
How many days do we count? 50 days - up until the day after the seventh sabbath. These next seven weeks are the days that we are to count leading up to Pentecost.
It’s easy to live in a temporary dwelling for seven days during the Feast of Tabernacles. It’s pretty easy to remember to shout on Trumpets. It takes a bit more concentration not to eat anything on the Day of Atonement because sometimes you do things without thinking about what you’re doing. And it takes a deliberate effort to remember to eat unleavened bread every day for a week. But it is hard to remember to count each day. You might start out remembering to count, to think about what day of the count you’re on. Some people like to make a calendar and count off the days. Some people like to keep a journal for seven weeks to make a conscious effort to count as we are commanded.
God doesn’t tell us why we are to count. He doesn’t tell us to make a chain to count down the days, or to keep a journal, or to mark off the days on the calendar. But God does tell us to count. It’s important that we obey our God. Let’s count!
A Memorial of Shouting
Speak unto the sons of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, on the first of the month, ye have a sabbath, a memorial of shouting, a holy convocation; Lev. 23:24 (Young’s Literal Translation)
Have you ever been to a surprise birthday party - you know, the kind where everyone hides and then you jump out and yell surprise when the person having the birthday walks in? Sometimes they are truly surprised. Sometimes they have an idea that something is coming.
Have you ever been waiting for someone special to come to your house? You’ve thoroughly cleaned the house and picked up your room. You’ve made special things to eat. Then you wait for that person to arrive. What do you do when they get there? You maybe run out to their car to greet them, to give them a big hug, and to help them carry in whatever they may have brought with them.
In both of these situations, there’s preparation. There’s some waiting - because you don’t know exactly when the person will arrive. And there’s a lot of noise and excitement when they do come.
Even if you knew that someone was going to leave the room and come back with a surprise for you, you would be ready to make some noise when they came back in.
That’s part of the picture of this day - Trumpets. It is a sabbath when you do no work. It is a day of holy convocation - meaning we assemble to worship God. But it is set apart from every other of God’s holy days by this command: it is a memorial of shouting. We are to remember to shout.
I can’t help thinking of several Bible passages when I think of shouting:
Jericho - (Joshua 6) - The children of Israel were commanded to march around Jericho, silently, once for six days. On the seventh day, they marched seven times and then gave a great shout. The walls fell down flat and God gave the Israelites the victory.
Gideon - (Judges 7) - Gideon took 300 men to conquer the Midianites. They surrounded the camp at night, each with a trumpet and a torch in a jar. At Gideon’s signal, they all broke their jars to let the light shine, they blew their trumpets, and they yelled, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon.” God gave them a great victory that night over their enemies.
1 Thessalonians 4:16 - When Jesus Christ comes back to set up His kingdom on this earth, “the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command [a loud shout, yom teruach], with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.
In the case of Jericho and Gideon, the trumpet and the shout was directly connected to God giving them the victory. In the same way, when Jesus comes back, there will be a loud shout and the sound of the trumpet of God. We will be victorious over sin and death forever!
This is the picture in Revelation 11:15: “Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.’ ” This is the central phrase in one of the most recognizable of all classical works: “The Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s Messiah. And it truly is the time when we all will be shouting “hallelujah” because Jesus Christ has returned!
That’s why we’re all here today. It is a memorial of a day yet to come when Jesus will return and set up His kingdom, when He will set all things right! Keep your eyes open. Get ready. Be prepared. Be ready to shout!
Keep the Feast
You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All native Israelites shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. Leviticus 23:42-43 (ESV)
I don’t know what it looks like around your house these days, but around our house, Feast Fever has broken out all over the place. The kids are busy making plans for feast presents for the cousins (and others); they are trying to figure out how to get their bikes to the Feast; and they have already made plans for different things they want to do while they are there. All of them have made paper chain countdowns to the day we leave. Yep. Feast Fever has broken out all over!
But why do we keep the Feast? Isn’t it just a Jewish festival? Doesn’t it just have significance in Old Testament times? The children are memorizing Leviticus 23:42-43 this week: “You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All native Israelites shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”
See. “Native Israelites.” “People of Israel.” I certainly wasn’t brought out of the land of Egypt by God. Or was I?
So many times in the Bible, a historical event takes on personal meaning and application for today. For instance, the Passover ritual of killing a lamb and putting the blood on the doorpost and lintels of the house points directly to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and His blood being applied to me as a covering for my sins. So the exodus from slavery in Egypt is not just a historical event, but foreshadows God’s power in my life to rescue me from slavery to sin. This is not just a theory pulled from thin air. Consider Paul’s use of the history of Israel to make the point in 1 Corinthians 10.
So if God rescued me from sin in a way very similar to His rescue of the Israelites from the slavery in Egypt; if God is with me every day, leading me as I sojourn in this world in a way very similar to His presence with the Israelites as they tabernacled for 40 years in the wilderness; if He is my God just as He was the Lord their God, then I believe I have good reason to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.
If I believe that Jesus Christ came as a baby and tabernacled among us (John 1:14), I think that’s a good reason to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.
If I don’t call this world my home but am looking forward to a kingdom whose designer and builder is my God, then I am a sojourner here. I am merely tabernacling in this society. (Hebrews 11) I am occupying myself until He returns to set up his kingdom. (Luke 19:13) I think that’s a good reason to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.
If I believe that Jesus Christ dwells in me (John 15) through the Holy Spirit, then He is tabernacling in me. I believe that’s a good reason to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.
If I believe that there is coming a time when the kingdoms of this world will have become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and that the dwelling place of God, his tabernacle will be with men and He will be their God (Revelation 21:3), I think that’s a good reason to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.
The Feast of Tabernacles is rich in meaning and the lessons it teaches and reminds us about our great God. It is a time of rejoicing in the relationship that we have with our Creator and Savior. (Leviticus 23:40) And probably most importantly, it is a time of worshipping our God (Zech. 14:16), the One to whom we owe all things. I know that’s a very good reason for celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles.
O.K. So now how’s your Feast Fever?
The Commandments of God
These are the commandments that the Lord commanded Moses for the people of Israel on Mount Sinai. Leviticus 27:34
Have you ever been with some friends when one of them said, “Hey, do you know how to play ____________?” When you say that you don’t, they enthusiastically tell you they’ll teach you. They launch into the rules, but fairly quickly say, “I’ll just tell you as we go along.” So you start, and they keep adding rules as situations come up, and you have a great time. You’ve learned a new game.
I don’t like learning new games that way. I like getting the instructions out, reading through all of them, and then starting the game. As I come upon a situation and I don’t remember the rule, I refer back to the instruction sheet. That way I know I’ve read all the rules; there won’t be a rule that I’ve missed because the situation never came up.
God’s commandments are like that. If you notice in this verse, the very last thing that is recorded in the book of Leviticus is that all of these commandments we just read (the entire book of Leviticus) was spoken to Moses while he was on Mt. Sinai with God. Do you remember how the book of Leviticus starts? It’s God speaking to Moses. These two verses are like bookends on the entire book. God said these words. This was not a case of, “I’ll explain as we go along.” God gave them everything they needed.
My children like learning new games by telling new rules as you get into situations. It helps them remember the rules better. And that’s okay for a game. But what do you do when it’s life and death, blessing and cursing? What do you do when keeping the rules means maintaining your relationship with God and drawing closer to Him? What do you do when you’re playing for keeps? You want to know all of the rules up front. That’s what God did for His people. He told them all of the rules before they ever left Mt. Sinai. He basically gave them the instruction manual for making life work before they wandered in the wilderness for forty years. He didn’t keep adding laws as they went along.
I don’t know about you - but this changes my perspective a little on the book of holiness that we’ve just finished reading. It helps me see it as a whole, as an instruction manual that needs to be read at the beginning of your journey of pursuing holiness. And when you know you’ve taken a wrong path, it’s okay to refer back to the book.