Our reading today has us continuing through the Law of Moses and how Israelites are to behave. This move beyond what the Israelites were to do vertically to what they are now to do horizontally. God gave them strict laws on how to treat one another, and especially the poor. It is funny that even then, God was letting us know that the poor will always be among us. Things happen, people make all the right decisions and things go wrong. We have a common misconception that hard work and discipline pays off; however, many poor people were both and tragedy struck in a way that crippled them financially and socially. We have the “pull yourself up by the bootstraps” mentality. This mentality is fine for those who have not tasted the sweet nectar of grace known as salvation, but it is a travesty of love for Christians to have such a mentality.

God gave the Israelites one another and if a man was found in need there was a certain response. Now this is Law; however, look at what YAHWEH appeals to. It is because what He had done for them in their deliverance from oppression that He appeals to. He appeals to His grace and kindness to get them to understand how they are to relate to one another. This is a gospel picture my friends.

We then see Jesus casting out demons, healing the sick, and touching the leper. Touching a leper is a post in and of itself, but needless to say, lepers were social outcasts and for Jesus the holy one to go and touch Him, shows us the real heart of God even in the Law.

Let me explain something here. COMPASSION is the mark of the believer, it is a defining factor that we have been born from above. Studying the bible, memorizing scripture, going to seminary, reading the latest great books, speaking in theological language, sharing the Gospel and even being a good family are good things, but compassion is a great thing. He says this in Matthew 12

12:1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” 3 He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: 4 how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? 5 Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? 6 I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. 7 And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

Our Lord is compassionate towards the have nots, shoot, you and I were have nots. God didn’t save us because of ourselves. He didn’t save us because he “peeked down into the corridor of times and saw us choosing Him”. That position is the foundation for haughtiness. We were dirt, trash, filthy rags, good for nothing but the furnace! However just like He told Israel, it wasn’t because of something they had done, it was because He loved them.

We weren’t good people needing a nudge, a boost of some sort, we were hell bound and needing saving completely and that is why we are to be compassionate, we above all the world have experienced this compassion and we are to express this compassionate God to a cold and dead world!

Jesus touched the leper, feed the poor, restored sight to the blind, touched the prostitute, gave strength to the lame, casted demons out of the possessed, ate with sinners and tax collectors, raised the dead, loved the outcast and unclean, He took on the role of being responsible for others. We see this in Leviticus where God demands such a response and we see this in the life of Jesus flushed out (the Israelites didn’t follow this law, just read in later OT books). He has now given us this responsibility and there are NO CONDITIONS, Jesus knew some of the people were probably responsible for their condition and He extended them grace, we have no excuse to do anything otherwise!

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I want to be honest, Leviticus is not the most exciting book to read. Historically many pastors have strayed from teaching its contents and when they do they teach it as moral case studies. Unless we view the Scriptures as Christian Scripture we too will fall into this category of ignoring one the many books of our “bible”. I want to attempt to help you see this a bit clearer with today’s reading.

Put yourself in the shoe of a Hebrew. You have been delivered from the slavery that has oppressed you your entire life, you have seen plagues utterly abase the greatest kingdom ever, you have seen the mighty Pharaoh (a god in and of himself) humbled, broken and eventually drowned in the same waters that were miraculously parted and then released on the greatest military around. Later this God that Moses has talked about you have heard, you have seen Him come down in a cloud, feed you from the sky,  give you water from a rock and graciously enter into a relationship with you by the way of a covenant.

Now, you will begin to understand just how Holy this God. He is terrifying, all powerful, all knowing but in spite of all of this He is full of grace. However this grace is not free, something (and later someone) has to pay for God not to utterly obliterate you and that is where I want to pick up.

Death is forever before the Hebrew. As you read through Leviticus I want you to keep the concept of DEATH before your eyes, it is the scarlet thread so to say of our biblical narrative and will unfold beautifully in the person and work of Christ.  So go back a few thousands years.  I want you to see the knife slit the throat of the lamb, bull, goat and ram,  I want you to see the blood trickle down their neck as they scream and kick. I want you to hear the squealing, see the priest wrestle with the animal. I want you see the pools and pools of blood. Now I want you to smell these animals. I want you to smell the blood. Look at the heart, look at the liver, look at the kidneys, look at all that blood. Look at the blood on Aaron’s ear, his clothes are saturated in blood, he stinks. The smell is nauseating, it is disgusting to see the animal, with all of its skin, eyes, ears and teeth, being cut up. Now I want you to see the fire that is kindling, I want you to see the priest THROW all of this stuff into the fire, I want you to see the remainder of some of these animals, thrown outside of the camp, look at the dung smell it, touch it, let the scent soak into your skin.

Now, see a HOLY GOD only blinking at your sin, because tomorrow it is going to happen again, and the next day, and the next year, year after year, day after day, the smell, the death, the sacrifice is perpetuated. And day after day, sin is before God and He graciously accepts this sacrifice but only temporarily. These scents, these deaths, these innocent animals, are a PLEASING sacrifice to the Father. Because HE HATES SIN! And He WILL NOT be approached, talked with, bargained with until His wrath and hate for sin has been propitiated!

Now after all of that, think of His Son Jesus Christ, who was also innocent who bore the wrath of His Father, agonizing in the garden, beat, mocked and spit on and nailed to a cross. And much like the sacrifice of these animals just became another thing, they got used to the scent. Many today are used to the story of our Lord, they come Easter after Easter, Christmas after Christmas, they drive pass church after church, they hear the stories, hear the songs, they know all about this and guess what? They too have grown cold!  But not only them those who have experienced this grace are bored with the story of Jesus. We say “I get it He died on the cross, I got it already, can’t we move on”. But our actions show we haven’t got it. We see the obedience of the Lamb and yet don’t follow in His footsteps. Yes we need to hear more of this Jesus. Our reading in Matthew deals with this. Much like God judged the Hebrews for their passivity, Jesus will judge others for theirs! Lets not take Leviticus too lightly my friends.

Atonement, Propitiation, Sacrfice, Wrath

In our OT reading God is still talking to Moses regarding offerings. He explains to Moses the sin offering, He gives Moses some scenarios in which some one will need a sin offering. God explains the details of the burnt offering, the grain offering and what the priests or to do for each. He explains what part they shall eat, if any. He explains what the priest shall wear and where the offerings shall be burnt. I must say that reading these different offerings and the detail involved in each of them makes me so grateful for the work that Christ did for us on the cross. The writer of Hebrews says: Heb. 10:10 “By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.”

In the NT reading Jesus teaches the parable of the talents. He gives an example of three servants or slaves, one is given five talents, one is given two, and the other is given one talent. Two of the servants put their talents two work and doubled their share, for which they were rewarded. The other guy did nothing with his and when the master came back said he did nothing because he knew the master was a mean guy and basically calls him a thief. The master says if you knew this stuff about me then why didn’t you  at least deposit the money so I can get interest. In this parable the servant with one talent didn’t know the master (Christ). We don’t know where he got his ideas of who the master was; but we do know that those of us who know the master know He is the exact opposite of what this guy described. When we don’t know Him we don’t bear any fruit. When we don’t know Him we are useless to the Father. The bible calls this guy a worthless servant or a good-for-nothing slave and says he will be cast into outer darkness.

Because of Christ’s work on the cross  we can experience the love of the Father, and be thankful to the Father that we who were all at some point in our lives very similar to the guy in this parable (one talent guy) have received the grace of the Father so that we can truly know who the Father is.

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In today’s OT reading  God is speaking to Moses on how he should instruct their sacrifices to Him. He explains to Moses the things the offerer must do as well as the things the offerer can’t do and the priest must. In these first three chapters of Leviticus God give Moses the detailed in structionon the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the fellowship offering.

That brings us to our NT reading for today. Jesus is speaking about the end times and His coming back. Jesus explains that no one knows when these events will take place but assures us that they will. Jesus said: (Matt. 24:42) “Therefore be alert, since you don’t know what day you Lord is coming. He follows by saying: (Matt. 24: 43-44)  “But know this: If the home owner had know what time the thief was coming, he would have stayed alert and not let his house be broken into. This is why you must be ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”(emphasis added)

I really don’t beleive I can say this or explain this better that the Lord has already done, so let us just meditate on the words of our Lord.

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