Before the Lord

Leviticus 1:3b … before the Lord …

As I read the first four chapters of Leviticus this morning I was struck by the repetition of the phrase “before the Lord” in the descriptions of the various sacrifices.  Those who were offering sacrifices did not do the sacrificial acts on their own or privately.  It was done in a public area of the tabernacle.  So the offering and sacrifice were fairly public even though the reason for the sacrifice may have been a private or individual one.  I think the repetition of the phrase “before the Lord” would have been a good reminder to the people that even though the offering was public, they were in reality having a private interaction with the Lord.  The Lord was the One to whom the sacrifice was being made and the public nature of it was secondary to their communication with God.  A good reminder to me today that the most important part of my spiritual life is my "before the Lord” activity, even when that activity is public in nature, such as teaching or corporate worship.  It is all “before the Lord.”

Top ten blessings of obedience to God

I  read a book recently that talked about making lists from scriptures one reads as a way to help focus on a passage, so I began making lists from time to time.  I have found great blessing and insight into passages as I have done this and this morning was one of those days.  God has promised wide and bountiful blessing to the one who acknowledged His leadership through obedience.  

Leviticus 26:3-13  Top Ten Blessings from Obedience to God’s Law

1. Timely rain for growing crops, v.4

2. Fruitful crops and trees, v.4

3. Long harvest season, v.5

4. Plentiful food, v.5

5. Security, v.5

6. Peace, v.6

7. Safety, v.6

8. Growth, v.9

9. God’s presence and love, v.11

10. Freedom from slavery, v.13

Yokes

This is my last day reading in the book of Leviticus.  It has been a rich and rewarding experience and this is a most fitting end to my reading!

Leviticus 26:13b I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high.

I love this word picture of what God does when He frees a person from slavery, whether literal slavery such as He did for the Israelites, or spiritual slavery.  A yoke is burdensome not only by its restriction of freedom of movement, but also because of the heavy load it puts on your shoulders.  You can barely stand up straight with a yoke on your shoulders and it is certainly a humiliating posture.  But when God breaks that yoke, I can stand up straight and I can hold my head up high!  No need to be ashamed of myself or of what God has done.  I am able to accomplish all of what God wants to do in me and through me when He has broken the bars of my yoke of sin.  This reminds me of what Jesus Himself said in Matthew 11:30: “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”   With Jesus in my life I will still be able to walk with my head held high because His new yoke is not burdensome or humiliating.  It merely helps me stay on the right road and go in the right direction.  I have a wonderful Savior and salvation!

Becoming holy

I am still working my way through the book of Leviticus, in case you hadn't noticed!

Leviticus 11:44 …consecrate yourselves and be holy, for I am holy.

I usually think of my holiness as something that only God can create in me, and in one sense that is true because I cannot work myself into a state of holiness.  But there is another sense in which it is my responsibility.  If I am not dedicated, i.e., consecrated, within my own spirit to be holy, then God cannot, and will not, make me holy.  This verse says the people had to make the first move toward being holy by obeying God’s commands, by consecrating themselves.  As I move towards being holy by determining that this is what I want God to do in me, God completes holiness in me.  I have to make the first move, and the older I get the more I recognize my need to remind myself of this every morning by praying and asking the holy Lord God to work His holiness into me.

With my own hands

Leviticus 7:30 With their own hands they are to present the food offering to the Lord.

The food offering (i.e., fellowship offering as described in 7:11-21) was an offering someone brought as a sign of thankfulness for something.  This verse says the person bringing the offering should himself, with his own hands, present that offering of thanksgiving to the Lord.   My thanks to God is my special offering to Him and it carries a weight that cannot be equaled by any thanks that someone else might give for that thing that God has done for me. This reminds me of a song we have sung in church at times in the past that says "We bring a sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord."  My praise and thanks is my offering to God that I can bring "with my own hands," so to speak.

Sooo ... what kind of thank offerings can I offer to God today?   Well, I can think of quite a few, actually.  Things such as:

*thanks for such good health for an overweight 70-year-old woman.  I take one pill every day and compared to many older citizens that is amazing.  I need to give an offering for that good health.

*an offering of thanks for a husband who loves God and me so much.  He washes the dishes almost every night after supper and vacuums and sweeps and mops regularly "so I don't have to do it."  Yes, God deserves a thank offering for my great husband of 29 years, 51 weeks, and 3 days.

*I should make an offering for the blessings of a more than adequate house and belongings.  Our house is small and simple but more than we really need and far more than many have.  It wasn't an expensive house but it is tight and stays warm in the winter and cool in the summer.  And after the experience of losing most of my belongings to a civil war in another country, I am thankful for each item of furniture, each trinket, each pot and pan, each plate and cup.

*An offering of thanks for my supportive family of sisters would also be in order.  Not many people have siblings with whom they get along so well, and I fully recognize the value of such a blessing.

For these and many other blessings I am happy to give my offering of thanks to God.

It's not my inadvertent sin that's the problem

In my quest to read through the Bible in a year, February has always been a challenge for me because it brings me to the book of Leviticus, and that has always been a hard book to read through.  It is full of detailed instructions for how the Israelites were to carry out their worship.  Because this was all before the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross, most of these rules and regulations seemed to be irrelevant to my life now.  However, I have come to see how many ways reading these rules and regulations and standards are principles upon which I can base my own relationship to God now.    It has been a rewarding venture in recent years to read books of the Bible such as Leviticus in a totally new way.  I have gained unexpected spiritual insight and it is spiritually invigorating!

Leviticus 4:27b-28a …when they realize their guilt … they must bring as their offering for the sin they committed…

These verses are describing the sin offering procedures that the Israelites were to follow.  For me, the “what” is second in importance to the “why” and the “when” of this offering.  When was the person to bring the sin offering?  When he/she realized their guilt.  If they had inadvertently sinned, as soon as they realized what they had done, they were to bring the offering.  My concern needs to be with what I recognize as sin in my life.  That is what I need to worry about asking for forgiveness for, not the inadvertent sins I may have committed.  I can ask forgiveness for them when I recognize them as sin. I need not worry; if it is sin, God will help me recognize it (if not now, sometime soon). 

Why bring the offering?  Because that is my acknowledgement before God that I have sinned.  God already knew it, but I need to acknowledge it as sin and part of doing that is for me to ask God’s forgiveness.  Once that sin is taken care of, I can move on as forgiven by God for that sin.  I can move on to the next step, understanding whatever guilt I have in some other area of my life, and repeat the process.  This is part of my process in growing spiritually, and the step-by-step aspect of this process is immensely liberating!