Leviticus 19

This chapter can be summed up in verse 2 and verse 37. Verse 2 says, “…Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.” Verse 37 says, “Obey all my laws and all my rules, and live by them. I am the LORD.” In between these two verses are guidelines given by God divided into, Duties of the people towards God, Duties of the people toward each other, and other duties.

In the midst of all these duties there is one that I want to focus in on. This is found in verse 17. It says, “Never hate another Israelite. Be sure to correct your neighbor so that you will not be guilty of sinning along with him.” We are not to turn a blind eye to what others have done. We are to be involved in their lives, especially when we know they are Christians. It is kind of like watching a crime take place but not reporting it, or being willing to be a witness to because they don’t want to be involved. When we turn a blind eye to what others are doing we are just as guilty in the sin.

Application

The application today is as simple as yesterdays. The application for this chapter is found in the beginning of this devotion, verse 2 says, “…Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.” Verse 37 says, “Obey all my laws and all my rules, and live by them. I am the LORD.”

Leviticus 18

It is interesting how much sex is actually mentioned in scripture both in the positive and the negative. As we go through the Bible we will look at the different aspects concerning sex. Unfortunately society both Christian and secular, has put a negative connotation to sex. Sex was created by God for both enjoyment and procreation. The catch is that sex is meant to be enjoyed within boundaries that are set by God. The Bible teaches that of any sin, sexual sins are the worse because they hurt the body and the spirit. Leviticus 18 lays out some of these guidelines.

We see in the first few verses that God tells the Israelites once again that they are unique. They are not to live like the Egyptians where they came from nor the Canaanites where they are going. Verse 5 says, “Live by my standards, and obey my rules. You will have life through them. I am the LORD.”

We can simply look at the results of having sex outside God’s standards. HIV, AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases, the list goes on. This is outside the emotional and spiritual results of sex outside God’s rules.

The majority of chapter 18 deals with not having sex with your relatives. It lays out some specifics of who not to have sex with. Most involve blood relatives but also includes step relatives. The last part deals with some other specifics concerning sex. No sex while a woman is having her period, no sex with neighbors wife (adultery? Hmmm). No homosexuality. There are some that want to say that this was involving having sex in a domination way but it is okay to have a homosexual relationship, as long as it is a loving committed relationship. Twist it anyway you may want to justify it but there is not room in scripture for interpretation of this. Never have sex with animals.

What is strange in this is in the midst of this discussion of sex and who and what not to have sex with we see a mention of Molech, a god and the sacrificing of children to Molech. They are instructed not to sacrifice children to Molech. There is much debate over what is involved in the worship of Molech and why he was worshipped. We can make a connection to the fact that children are the product of sex but I think that there is more than that. I think that the inclusion in this here was that there must have been sex that was involved with the worship of Molech. Or Molech may have been seen as a fertility god. The bottom line in all of this though is that children are a precious gift and are not to be so flippantly wasted in a worship ceremony similarly as sacrifices are given to God.

Application

Today applications is simple. It comes from verse 5, “Live by my standards, and obey my rules. You will have life through them. I am the LORD.”

Leviticus 17

We have two sections in this chapter. The first deals with people doing individual sacrifices and the other has to do with eating blood.

Up to the point of the temple many people were in the habit of doing their own sacrifices. Once the temple had been set up God commanded that this practice was to end. All sacrifices were to be done at the temple. Any one that killed an animal for a sacrifice anywhere but at the temple they were guilty of bloodshed and were to be excluded from the rest of the people. It was almost like murder.

The second part of this chapter had to do with eating blood. We understand this even better in light of Jesus’ death upon the cross. People were not to eat blood. Blood is life, as we know it both physically and spiritually. If someone eats blood God will exclude them from the people. The final part of this section has to do with what I will refer to as road kill. God commands that no animal that dies of natural causes or is killed by another animal is to be eaten. If that animal is the individual is to wash themselves and their clothes and would remain unclean until evening.

Application

For application the last two are pretty self explanatory for us. We may not be excluded but there are health reasons we should not practice these things. What I want to focus on is the first part of this chapter.

There are many people that I run into that seem to think that there is not a need for corporate worship. I often hear, “I can be a question and worship at home. I don’t need to go to church.” Yes it is true that we can be a Christian and worship at home. We don’t stop being a Christian by not going to Church but it certainly helps when we do. I believe that by involving ourselves in corporate worship there is a greatness in the worship. I also believe that we cannot grow in a vacuum. We need fellow believers to aid us in our spiritual walk. There is a greater chance of wrongful interpretation of scripture when we don’t include others and sit and learn with others. So we may not need to go to church to be a Christian but it certainly helps make us stronger.

Leviticus 16

As I read the beginning of this chapter I am saddened for Aaron and the other Israelites but also realize how blessed we are because of Jesus.

Chapter 16 starts off talking about the Aaron’s sons that came into the LORD’s presence and died. Verse 2 we see that God tells Moses to tell Aaron that he cannot go into the holy place whenever he wants. If Aaron does he will die. God then gives guidelines of what he has to do to be able to go into the holy place. Special clothes, a sacrifice and if this is all done correctly he then can go into the holy place.

Can you imagine having to put on special clothes and then giving a sacrifice just to enter into God’s presence. We enter into God’s presence weekly, without special clothes and without bringing a sacrifice. I am afraid sometimes we take the fact of entering into the holies of holies too lightly. I am not saying that we have to be all stiff. God ask that we come as we are but many times we come into his presence flippantly. When we come into God’s presence we must enter humbly and deal with our sins first. We are entering into the presence of the almighty God.

Something that was interesting in this chapter is the name Azazel. I did some studying of this word and found it is a noun and a proper name. Some scholars see it more as a symbolic illustration of what God does with our sins when he forgives them. He sends them far away from us, never to be seen again.

When we look at the word and Hebrew tradition this goes beyond symbolism. The word itself is referring to and evil spirit of the wilderness which the scapegoat was sent. This evil spirit had little to do with the atonement of the sins that came through God. It is from this passage that we get the term scapegoat. The purpose of the scapegoat was to send the sins away. Not unlike the way an individual is used by someone so they can get away with someone.

The rest of the passage continues the requirements that must be done by Aaron. We come to the end of the chapter and we see that on the 10th day of the 7th month the Israelites and all who are with them were to humble themselves and not do any work. On this day Aaron was to make peace with the LORD. Then they would be clean from all their sins. This is the most important worship festival.

Application

We are a blessed people because we don’t have to do the things Aaron did to enter into the holy place. This does not mean that we should be flippant about entering into God’s presence. We must take and seek forgiveness for our sins when we enter into God’s presence. This does not mean just on Sunday but daily. We have the blessings of entering into God’s presence at any time. Because of this we must take care and enter it humbly.

God restored unto us the ability to enter in to his presence through his son, Jesus, dying on the cross. We should treat this as a privilege and an honor not a right. Let us go boldly but humbly into God’s presence and realize what we enjoy is only because God gives us the ability to do so.