Feb 20: Leviticus 22-23

Feb 20, Leviticus 22-23

Leviticus 22 is a continuation of chapter 21 where God is clearly stating that God is requiring holiness from the priests - setting a standard for those who He has in leadership. Here now we move on to the regulations of who can share in the priests (as a side note, please don't think of a Catholic priest when I am referring to the Old Testament Priest - those are totally different roles with the same name) food, because it is holy. If you are a child or a purchased slave of the priest you can eat of it, but nobody else. Basically, nobody can partake of the holy things of Israel if they are not holy, so that they don't contaminate the entire group with their sin. 

Moses goes on to write about what kind of animal offerings are acceptable. As we have already learned, the animal has to be perfect with no defects for God to accept it. Paraphrase - God will not accept our junk or rubbish. It would be like this: I have a lot of nice jackets and there is a jacket that I never wear because I don't like it or it has a stain on it, so I am going to donate it to charity and temporarily feel good about myself, and think God is honoring my sacrifice when in reality I honestly didn’t want it. Did I actually sacrifice anything in my giving of the jacket that I didn’t want? No I did not, it was not a sacrifice. I am just trying to show you that God is after our hearts and if you aren't willing to give God your best, then that reveals your heart. Instead, I should give away my nicest jacket and wear the stained one, and every time I wear it I would be reminded that God needs my best.

Leviticus 23. Is a summation of the feasts that God is requiring the Israelites to keep and obey. See the  picture for a really helpful summary. 

Notice, by looking around, that we still partially keep one of the feasts as Christians (and pretty much worldwide regardless of faith…) - Sabbath. All of the other feasts we have pretty much labeled as Old Testament and not required, but we have kept this one… Interesting isn't it? Sabbath was originally intended to be a day set apart for gathering with God’s people, rest and no work. We have discussed the feasts already, so I will not be going into detail about them. (Click here to go back to that blog) But, just remember that God is demanding all of us to be wholly obedient to Him, remembering what He has done for us and giving our best to Yahweh.

To sum it all up:

• God doesn't want our junk - if your sacrifice doesn't cost you something then it is not worth anything. 
• Celebrate Sabbath everyday - it is a life style of being thankful and resting in what Christ has done, not a ‘one day’ boring hour…