Rambling Through Scripture

Leviticus 11 discusses the clean and unclean food that the Israelites are allowed to eat. Instead of discussing the types of food I want to consider the why more than the what. Why were there laws about the foods to be eaten or not eaten? These laws have probably been more debated and discussed than any of the other laws. Many people have adjusted their diet to more resemble these foods. The assumption is that by holding to these original food laws I am going to be closer to God and healthier. It can be debated about being healthier or not. We know that through modern science that many of these animals can be dangerous if not handled correctly. Shell fish are scavengers and pigs if not slaughtered and handled correctly can cause poison to be released throughout the pig and thus be harmful to us. With modern science also comes knowledge on how to safely prepare some of these foods that were once forbidden. We can see in the New Testament that some of the forbidden foods in the Old Test...

We see in Leviticus 10 the importance of doing what God says to do. In the first part of this chapter we see two of Aaron’s sons took it upon themselves to offer incense to the Lord. They did not follow the instructions that were given concerning offering incense. The immediate result was that they were killed instantly by fire from God. The bodies were removed from the tent and Aaron and his remaining sons were instructed to not grieve the death of these two sons. The Israelites were allowed to grieve but Aaron and his sons were not. We see in verse 8 and following we see the first instructions to priests being the teachers of God’s word. Aaron and his sons were to teach the Israelites concerning all the laws that God had given. We also see here that no wine or liquor were to be drank when they went into the tent of meeting. The chapter closes with Moses being upset with Aaron for not offering a goat for the sin offering. Moses found out it was burned instead of eating it in the holy ...

In chapter 9 we have Aaron performing his first sacrifices. In reading in through this chapter we see somewhat of an on the job training taking place for Aaron and his sons and Moses walks them through the steps required for each type of sacrifice. When these sacrifices are done they are done with the whole congregation in place observing for the sacrifices were also in order to cover their sins. Probably the most important thing in this chapter is at the end. In verse 23 Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meetings then came out and blessed the people. At the end of this verse we see that the LORD’s glory appeared to all the people. We see in verse 24 that fire came out from the LORD’s presence and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar. When all the people saw this they bowed before the LORD. Why is this significant? It shows to the people first God’s acceptance of the offering. Secondly it shows that these requirements were not just Moses coming up with the...

Chapter 8 is the dedication/ordination ceremony for Aaron and his sons as priests of the Israelites. The thing to see as you look at this chapter is the significance of the preparation and the ceremonial cleaning. This is an in-depth process that began with Moses washing Aaron and his sons. Once washed they were then clothed in the white linen robes. After this cleaning the animals were slaughtered for the sacrifice for sins, a burnt offering and finally for the ordination offering. The final step of this process was that Moses sprinkled some of the blood on the priests dedicating them and their clothes to the Lord. He also took some of the blood and put it on the right ear lobe, right thumb and the big toe of the right foot. After all of this they cooked the meat and at it and the bread from the ordination offering. The priests were than instructed not to leave the tent of meeting for 7 days for it will take 7 days to complete the ordination process. They were to serve night and day d...

I am going to forgo the study on Leviticus today. What I want to talk about today is relationships, specifically marriage. I may have spoke about this before but it is heavy upon my heart again. De’Dee and I are involved in a study on Wednesday evenings where we are working through the study based on the movie, “Fireproof”. Tonight we watch the movie. What a powerful well made movie. If you have not seen it I recommend it to you. Based on that fact I wanted to talk to you today about marriage. Ephesians 5 says the following: 21 Place yourselves under each other's authority out of respect for Christ. 22 Wives, place yourselves under your husbands' authority as you have placed yourselves under the Lord's authority. 23 The husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. It is his body, and he is its Savior. 24 As the church is under Christ's authority, so wives are under their husbands' authority in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives as Chri...

I have to admit that I have not actually looked at Leviticus in my life time as close as I am looking at now. There are some powerful things that we miss out on when we choose to skip through the book of Leviticus. Some things that I found in chapter 6: 1. Sinning against God by failing to do your duty 2. Lying to your neighbor about something you were supposed to take care of or lying about something that was stolen or seized from your neighbor is a sin. 3. Finding something that someone lost and lie about it under oath, or commit any other sin like this. Aside from instructions of taking care of the fire on the altar which was to never go out, the rest of chapter 6 and 7 deals with aspects of the various offerings that we already discussed from other chapters. Don’t take that to mean they have little values or importance for discussion or understanding to the offerings and sacrifices as a whole. They provide greater emphasis in the purpose and the care for the offerings. In going thr...

The more that I look at this book what I realize is how blessed that we are that we don’t have to bring an animal sacrifice for the various reasons. I have come to appreciate the old Hymn that said Jesus paid it all. This book has a sacrifice for just about anything and everything. Chapter 4 deals with the offerings for unintentional wrong doings. What grasps me in this chapter is the realization that whether you intended to commit a sin or not you are still guilty. Many times people will simply say I did not mean to as if that is supposed to mean that they are not guilty and thus forgiveness from those they sinned against and from God is not needed because it was unintentional. As we see in this chapter the intent is not as important as the fact that a sin has been committed and forgiveness needs to be sought after. Chapter 5 deals with other sin offerings. I think what is interesting in this chapter is not the sins offerings but what the sins are. Verse 1: “…if you are a witness und...

Chapter 3 deals with fellowship offerings also known as peace offerings. The fellowship offering was an optional offering that could be used as an offering of thanksgiving, to fulfill a special vow, or as a freewill offering. The only animal that could be eaten by the Israelites was one that was offered as a fellowship offering. We see in other places in scripture that if an animal was slaughtered but was not offered as a fellowship offering it at the tent of meeting was guilty of shedding blood. (Leviticus 17). Blood and the fat was God’s. So if anyone wanted to have meat for dinner they were to first offer the animal as a sacrifice to the LORD. We see twice in this chapter that it says about these offerings of being food. There are animals that were offered for fellowship offerings, cattle, sheep, and goat. There were slight differences in each but the general offering was of throwing the blood against the altar and removing the fat, the two kidneys and the lobe of the liver as the b...

Leviticus, to many of us we skip over this book. For many lawyers and people that are about rules this book is intriguing. For most of us we just simply want to know why should we be concerned about a book on the law because Jesus came to fulfill the law? The fact is that the Bible says that all scripture is important for us. That said as we go through Leviticus the greatest challenge we will have is to avoid getting bogged down in the weed of this book. To avoid being bogged down we will consider larger chunks as we go through this book. Leviticus Chapter 1 and 2 In these chapters we are going to look at the burnt offering of cattle, sheep or goats, and birds along with uncooked grain offerings, cooked grain offerings, other ingredients, and offering of the first grain harvested. The thing to realize is that each of these offerings were treated differently, the bold areas are the major difference between the animal offerings. Burnt Offering of Cattle 1. Male with no defects 2. Offer...