Rambling Through Scripture

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 appli...

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 ...

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 i...

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 ...