I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Leviticus 22-23.

    Today’s passage starts with a detailed account of who may eat the priestly portion of the offerings of the people of Israel. The gist of it is that they must be a member of the household of a priest’s family and they must be ceremonially clean. As part of the instructions on this there is a re-listing of some of the things which cause a person to be ceremonially unclean reminding the reader of these regulations. This is followed by a recap of the types of animals to be offered for the various types of sacrifice. This recap occurs to remind the people of Israel that their sacrifices must be without defect. Every time I read this I am reminded that the things we offer to the Lord must be without blemish. An important lesson I take from this is that giving my cast-offs, or otherwise used goods, to charitable organizations does not count as an offering the Lord (that does not mean that it is wrong to pass on things I no longer want which others may be able to use). Everything we have was a gift from god, let us be willing to give from the best we have received to show how much we appreciate what He has given us.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Leviticus 19-21.

    Today’s passage contains many miscellaneous rules. Some of them I do not understand why they were given, some I do not consider to apply to those who are followers of Christ, but some contain principles which teach us how we should behave. Several of them deal with social justice and making provision for the poor. The law regarding harvesting is a great example of how we should provide for the poor. The instruction is clear that we should run our businesses in a way which leaves room for the poor to provide for their needs. The instruction is to leave the grain, or grapes, which would require extra effort to gather for the less fortunate to gather. There are two separate aspects to this. The first, and more important aspect, is that it allows the poor to provide for themselves by making an effort. The second is about how this is accomplished. We are not to every last penny from our business transactions, leave opportunities for others to make, or save, money. There is a second command which relates to this as well. It concerns paying your workers promptly. I believe that this verse is a condemnation of the practice of large businesses delaying when they will pay their smaller suppliers in order to maximize the interest they can earn on the money involved (it also applies in the obvious way to employees as well).
    There is one other verse which strikes me. It is a verse against twisting justice. There it warns against favoring the poor over the rich before it tells us not to be partial to the rich. I think it presents it in this manner because the latter is somewhat obvious to anyone who reads the Bible. However, it is easy to make the mistake of siding with the poor in a conflict with the rich because, “Well, they are so poor, and he can afford it.” We are not to favor the poor over the wealthy, nor are we to allow the wealthy to buy our favor. We should judge a dispute between the rich and the poor on the merits, not on the economic status of those in the dispute.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Leviticus 16-18.

    Only Moses and Aaron were allowed to enter the Most Holy Place of the Tabernacle, later that would be only the high priest who was allowed to enter (NOTE: this suggests that when Gabriel announced the coming birth of John the Baptist to Zechariah, Zechariah was functioning as the high priest). However, Aaron, and later his successors, were not allowed to enter the Most Holy Place at just any time. They were only allowed to do so after offering the sacrifices described in this passage: a bull as a sin offering for the high priest, and two goats as a sin offering for the people, one goat to be sacrificed and one goat to be driven into the wilderness (I am curious how that was accomplished once the Temple was built in Jerusalem). As part of the sacrifices there was a complex ritual which the high priest was to perform. My reading of this passage suggests that this sacrifice of atonement could be performed at any time, but was required to be performed at least once a year on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur).
    There is an aspect of this ritual which has entered into our culture (although most people have completely lost knowledge of the reference). As part of the ritual the high priest would lay his hands upon the head of the goat which was to be driven into the wilderness and confess over it all of the sins of the people. This goat was referred to as “the scape goat”. All of the sins of the people were laid upon it and it was driven into the wilderness. The idea being that the people drove their sins away from themselves. While we no longer follow this ritual, we should do what it symbolizes. We should seek to catalog our sins and drive them away from ourselves.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Leviticus 14-15.

    The passage continues with rules regarding maintaining the health of the population. First there is a description of the complex procedure to be followed in the case of someone who has been cured of a skin disease. It goes on to lay out a procedure for dealing with a house which has a mildew infection. The procedures for dealing with such a house may seem excessive, but it demonstrates an understanding of the health risks of some types of mold which are easy to overlook. Finally the passage lays out rules to minimize the chance of being exposed to the bodily fluids of another person. The individual who compiled the rules regarding bodily discharges showed a fairly good understanding of the dangers and how to minimize the risks. I would like to draw a lesson for our spiritual lives today, but I do not see one as I read it this time. I will add that I think there is value in reading this passage for the understanding it gives us of the people to whom it was addressed and the purpose of the rules contained here.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Leviticus 10-12.

    Today’s passage begins with the deaths of two of Aaron’s sons, which must have happened shortly after their ordination because Moses had not yet finished giving the instructions regarding the priestly share of offerings. The part of this which strikes me the most is that Aaron and his two remaining sons were forbidden from showing their grief in public. Moses was even angry with them for not eating their share of the goat sin offering. They had a job to do as the intercessors between the people and God. They could not stop even though they had lost loved ones. In the same way, each one of us has a mission from God which we must perform even when we suffer loss. I want to be careful here, this does not mean that a pastor cannot take a day off when a loved one dies. It means that each and every one of us must continue to serve God and do His will, even when we lose a loved one or suffer some other loss.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Leviticus 8-9.

    Today’s passage describes the ordination of Aaron and his sons and the beginning of their ministry as priests. The ordination of Aaron and his sons involved a sin offering, a burnt offering, and an ordination offering. The ordination continued for seven days. It is not clear to me if the three offerings occurred on the first day, once each over the period of seven days, or once each on every day of the seven days. (The English translation supports any of these interpretations in my mind. Perhaps the Hebrew is clearer, but I suspect not.) In any case, on the eighth day, once the ordination was complete Aaron and his sons made another sin offering and burnt offering for themselves. Followed by a sin offering, burnt offering, and fellowship offering for the people. This was a complex ritual and my understanding is that something similar was followed every time a new priest was ordained (although I believe that they ordained priests in groups, just as they did here, in order to minimize this). It really makes me glad that we do not have to follow this today. On the other hand, it emphasizes the importance of making oneself right before God.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Leviticus 5-7.

    Today’s passage continues the discussion about the types of offerings which the people of Israel were to offer and why. I am not very interested by the details regarding the offerings and the specifics of how they were to be made (despite the fact that I have heard and/or read several good messages about the lessons we can gain from those details). Nevertheless there are some things in this passage which are noteworthy. The first is right at the beginning. When authorities are investigating something we are obligated to tell them what we know about the situation. If we have information which will clear an individual, or information which will convict them, God instructs us to make that information known. God will hold us accountable if the innocent are punished, or the guilty go free because we did not speak up. I want to mention that this instruction is not limited to criminal cases but applies to any case where the authorities are seeking information (although I do not believe that it applies when the authorities are looking for information in order to commit an injustice).

    The other noteworthy item in this passage is that we can sin without being aware that we are doing so. The repeated references to unintentionally committing sin, or unknowingly committing sin tells us that just because we meant well does not mean that we will not be held accountable for our bad behavior. When we do wrong there are negative consequences even if we did not know we were doing wrong and even if we did not mean to do wrong.