Today, I am reading and commenting on  Leviticus 26-27.

God told the Israelites that if they followed His decrees and obeyed His commands they would not face drought and their crop yield would be plentiful.  Further, wild animals would not be a threat and hostile forces would flee from them.  Then God goes on to tell them that if they failed to do that and rejected His decrees, they would face illness and disease, debt, and be dominated by their enemies.  If they failed to turn back to God after experiencing these woes, the illnesses would become plagues. wild animals would attack and their children and animals, and crops would fail.  Finally, if even after that they failed to turn to the Lord, He would bring devastation upon them and turn their land into a wasteland.  Now while this prophecy was part of God’s covenant with the children of Israel, I believe it also represents a truth about how the world works.  If a society behaves justly and its members treat each other well, that society will prosper, and the land in which it lives will be beautiful and healthy.  On the other hand, if a society is decadent and its members treat each other as things to be used, it will suffer economically and its land will be polluted and ugly.  A society which is just and righteous will be peaceful and prosperous.  The more just and righteous the society, the more peaceful and prosperous it will be.  On the other hand, societies which are unjust and unrighteous suffer with disease, poverty, and violence.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Leviticus 24-25.

Today’s passage contains instructions for a Sabbath year every seven years.   The idea was that every seven years the land would be allowed to lie fallow and “rest”.  God told the Israelites that in the sixth year, they would harvest a bumper crop which would be sufficient to carry them through the sabbath year, with supplements from those crops which “volunteered” (If you have ever grown tomatoes, or one of many other vegetables, you know how you always end up with plants growing the following year from tomatoes which fell off the plant).  The passage goes on to describe the Jubilee, which was a kind of sabbath of sabbath years.  Every seventh sabbath year (or perhaps the year after the seventh sabbath year, depending on how you interpret the wording) would be a year of redemption: debts would be canceled, slaves freed, and property that had been sold returned to the person who sold it(or their heirs).  I don’t see how you could institute such a system today, but the passage contains an important point about the meaning of the Year of Jubilee, actually two such points.  The first of those points is that the land is the Lord’s.  In fact, everything in this world belongs to God.  We are but stewards of it using it to advance His kingdom.  The second point is that we should not take advantage of each other.  As I wrote this I realized there is a third lesson to be learned: if we do as God directs us, He will provide for us.  If we know that God has called us to endeavor which does not obviously provide for our needs we can be sure that He will meet those needs in some way as we do His will.

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

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

Two days ago on Tuesday I wrote about the connection between eating the Body of Christ in Communion and the priests eating the meat offered on the altar as described in Leviticus.   Today’s passage begins with warning the priests to respect the sacred offerings.  Which reminds me of Paul writing in 1 Corinthians that we don’t defile ourselves by not being respectful of the body and blood of Christ.  This passage warns that the priests may die if they treat the   offerings with contempt.  In the same way, Paul warns us that if we treat the Lord’s Supper with contempt we will experience illness and weakness.  The priests under the Law of Moses were required to approach the sacrifices with the appropriate reverence.  We should approach the sacrifice of Christ with even more reverence for God’s holiness.

I use 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 starts off with God telling Moses to tell the people to be holy because the Lord their God is holy.  We also should seek to be holy because the Lord ,our God, is holy.   After this introduction, God gave Moses a bunch of commands to give the people.  Many of these commands were followed by one of two statements: either “I am the Lord your God,” or, “I am the Lord.”  I think that this statement refers us to the first of the Ten Commandments (or, Ten Words): “I am the Lord your God.  You shall have no other gods before me.”  Personally, I think the reference Jesus makes to the greatest commandment from Deuteronomy makes that meaning even clearer: “The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”  So, the point of following these commands with one of those two statements is designed to remind us that following these commands is how we follow that first, most important one.  Oh, I know that some of these no longer govern our behavior as followers of Christ (e.g. “Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material.”).  However, I do not see a single one which is directly followed by one of those statements which I do not believe represent behavior which we should model.

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

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

I am going to do something I almost never do today.  My first thought when I read the prohibition against eating blood this morning was of the communion service we had Sunday morning during our worship service.  In particular, one man stood up afterwards and shared that he had never before that morning made the connection between communion, eating the symbolic representation of Christ’s body and blood, and the priest’s eating the meat of the sacrificed animals as described here in Leviticus.  Christ was the ultimate Passover Lamb and when we partake of communion we are partaking of His body and blood, much as the Israelites partook of the body of the Passover lamb.  So, as I read today’s passage I was struck by the fact that we partake of Christ’s blood of sacrifice, while the Israelites were forbidden from eating the blood of their sacrifices.  Here God told them that they must not eat the blood because the life of the being (animal or human) is in its blood.  So, when we drink Christ’s blood as part of communion, and thus partake in the sacrifice He made on the Cross, we are drinking His life.  And through drinking His life we join ourselves with His life.

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

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

What am I going to write about today?  Today’s passage starts with the offerings which should be made when one is cleansed of a defiling skin disease.  It continues to discuss the offerings to be made when a house is cleansed of defiling mold.  From there it discusses how bodily fluids are a vector for the spread of disease.  OK, it doesn’t say that.  What it does say is that anyone who has a discharge of bodily fluids is unclean until the discharge ends and they wash themselves and any clothes which might have been exposed to the discharge.  Based on what we know today about the spread of infectious diseases, these commands regarding the discharge of bodily fluids seem wise.

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

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

The timing here of when two of Aaron’s sons died for using unconsecrated fire in their censers is unclear.  However, as I read this, it happened on the first day after the ordination of Aaron and all of his sons was complete.  Moses commanded Aaron and his remaining sons not to openly mourn for the two who had died.  However, Moses encouraged all of the rest of the Israelites to mourn for the loss of two of Aaron’s sons.   We do not know why the two men did what they did, but the passage tells us that they used “unauthorized fire” to burn the incense resulting in fire coming out from the presence of the Lord and killing them.  So, if nothing else, their failure was an unwillingness to wait for instructions from the Lord.  I would add that it seems to me that perhaps their failure was an attempt to conduct worship according to their own ideas of what it should be rather than follow God’s instructions.  God had not yet given instructions on how to use the incense in His worship.  There is one more point to be made.  Moses was mad at Aaron’s two remaining sons because they burned up the priestly portion of the sin offering rather than eating it.  However, he was mollified when Aaron pointed out that he and his sons were in mourning for the death of his other two sons that very day.  So, while the priests were not allowed to visibly mourn while carrying out their duties, they were allowed to mourn the loss of family.

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

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

At the end of Exodus, God told Moses to setup and consecrate the tabernacle, then to consecrate Aaron and his sons.  Exodus goes on to say that once Moses had consecrated the tabernacle, the glory of God entered it in the form of a cloud and that cloud was so dense that Moses could not enter it.  Then Leviticus begins with God giving Moses instructions regarding the various sacrifices which were to be offered: how they were to be offered and what the priests’ share would be.  Finally, in this chapter God once again tells Moses to consecrate Aaron and his sons before the assembly of the people.  Actually, I don’t think  God told this to Moses for a second time.  I think this was a different recounting, with more details, of what God told Moses at the end of Exodus.  Once Moses had completed and consecrated the tabernacle, God gave him the instructions for the sacrifices which needed to be made there and for consecrating Aaron and his sons.  Moses immediately consecrated Aaron and his sons and had them begin the practices of offering the sacrifices.  It occurs to me that this gives us a great model for teaching people.  Give people instructions and immediately encourage them to put them into practice.

I use 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 tells us that we can be guilty of sin, even if we are unaware of committing the sin when it happens, and in another place that we can be guilty of sin, even if we did not intend to commit the sin.   “I didn’t know” is not an excuse for doing wrong.  A little further on this passage requires that if anyone dishonestly gains at the expense of another, they must make restitution to their victim.  As I read this, I see it is not enough to repent of our sins, we must also seek to make right the injury we have caused to others.

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