Feb 18: Leviticus 16-18

Feb 18, Leviticus 16-18

Leviticus 16. Is where we learn about the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur  - all other purification rituals hang on this day… After Aarons 2 sons had died, God tells Moses to get Aaron ready to enter the tent and sacrifice - but only under God’s regulations. Aaron is making atonement (bringing God and man together by dealing with the sin that separated them, or easier to remember - ATONEMENT AT ONE WITH) for the priests and the people… Note: Aaron didn't do sin offerings just for his sons’ sins, but also for all the people. You ever heard of the term Scapegoat? Here we learn what it is. Aaron brings in two goats. He casts lots to see which one the Lord wants to sacrifice and releases the other one free. But before he sets it free, all the people's sins are confessed over the goat. (Think of how long that would have taken!) Then, the goat that is sent out into the wilderness, instead it isn't killed. This is for two reasons. For one, it symbolically represents the sins of the people being sent away! The other, is that while we are on this Earth, our sins are still alive and roaming. Every time they would look on the hilly mountain range, and see that scapegoat, they would know that their sins are ever present on this Earth. And it is only when Jesus reigns as King, at the end of days, that sin will be abolished. This is something, they would have looked forward to, as well as something that we get to look forward to. 

See how this Day of Atonement was fulfilled in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit…!!! Now in Jesus and through the Holy Spirit our sins are forgiven because of the ultimate sacrifice that Jesus Christ did for us.

Leviticus 17. I have a great summary from my ESV study Bible, “Chapter 17 deals with the handling of animals, beginning with a reminder that the blood of slain animals should be brought to the sanctuary. As the chapter progresses, deeper rationales for the instructions are gradually revealed: they are intended to prevent ongoing idolatry and the blood of a sacrificial animal is the life that thanks the place of the offerer’s death. Animal blood is not to be used by Israel indiscriminately as it was used among the pagans at the time.” I love that concept - the sacrifice is to keep God’s people from idolatry and being thankful that something else has taken their place in their sin. Vs 11 is powerful too, ‘For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.’ Here again, is what Jesus came to do and did for us. His blood made atonement for us, or made us one with God removing our sins. So here is God being practical again. We still do this today, we drain the blood out of animals after they are slaughtered. If you haven't ever seen or heard of this, it's true. And like it said above, for some reason, the Enemy loves blood too. But he uses it in creepy and dishonoring ways. God is warning that the Enemy is going to take this 'love of blood' to a whole new level. And in our culture with movies, gore, vampires, and the like - we have seen the effects of this. Steer clear of this sin - its a trap

Leviticus 18. One thing you will notice in the Bible - God does not shy away from teaching about everything. God is calling His people to holiness and we are not to behave like our non-Christian neighbors. Back in Ancient times, like now, sex was important. But in both times, God is calling us to holiness!!! We are to act different than our pagan neighbors - then and now. Here, for the first time in a while, we are talking about the Moral Law, which lead to rules and ideas about our morality, and the principles remain - God is calling us to holiness not living in the flesh or for the flesh. Here God sets up guidelines for sexual relations and laws that prohibit certain things. If you don't understand the term ' uncover their nakedness' think the act that actually does this, it is having sex with them. So God sets up boundaries. Before this time period, people would marry cousins and sisters. Even Abraham married his half sister. But God had not yet set up that it was unacceptable to do. Until now… Now we have rules and guidelines, who we can and can't marry, and that includes family members. We also see that this is also where the sin and unclean start to overlap. But think of it like this, sin makes us unclean to God. So here we start to see that. Stating that certain sexual relationships are prohibited, and taking in more than one wife as in verse 18. God also forbids certain sexual activities. God clearly calls homosexuality and sodomy a perversion, as well as bestiality. So in verse 22-23 it states what isn't culturally popular, but what is truth. Any pastor or preacher, that tries to tell you otherwise, is lying. God doesn't change, and He never changes His opinion on His scripture. Sexual immorality is literally defined here by God Himself and we can not change or alter this. And then the sexual mentions make a swing and it mentions that you shouldn't sacrifice your child to Molech, a god who demands children as a sacrifice. You might think that this is a strange place to throw in this little tidbit, but notice how sexual perversion or sexual disobedience leads to the temptation of the death of a child. How about Abortion today? Even though Molech isn't mentioned in the 21st century, Molech is who our children are being sacrificed via Abortion, if sexual disobedience is involved... So there is a reason that God places it in here, in this order. As it shows that our children are the ones who have been or will be sacrificed if we abide in sexual disobedience to God. 

To sum it all up:

• We as Christians should look a lot different than our neighbors. We should not be watching what they watch and on and on. We shouldn't want to be like them or emulate our neighbors. You cannot love sin and love God. IF you want to pursue a life of pleasure and sin - just admit it and do it. You are doing nobody any favors by pretending to be something that you are not. Get off the fence and decide who you are gonna live for - yourself or Yahweh?