God has designed the place to meet with Him. Now God provides the process for dealing with personal sins. God’s process is as detailed and specific as building the place for God and creating the tools used for burnt offerings. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God since Adam said yes to taking the fruit from Eve offered by evil. So, the sins of all the inhabitants of the camp must be dealt with through designated priests at the Tent of Meeting that is now open for doing business with God.
Leviticus 1
The Burnt Offering
1 The Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting. He said, 2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When anyone among you brings an offering to the Lord, bring as your offering an animal from either the herd or the flock.
3 “‘If the offering is a burnt offering from the herd, you are to offer a male without defect. You must present it at the entrance to the tent of meeting so that it will be acceptable to the Lord. 4 You are to lay your hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on your behalf to make atonement for you. 5 You are to slaughter the young bull before the Lord, and then Aaron’s sons the priests shall bring the blood and splash it against the sides of the altar at the entrance to the tent of meeting. 6 You are to skin the burnt offering and cut it into pieces. 7 The sons of Aaron the priest are to put fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire. 8 Then Aaron’s sons the priests shall arrange the pieces, including the head and the fat, on the wood that is burning on the altar. 9 You are to wash the internal organs and the legs with water, and the priest is to burn all of it on the altar. It is a burnt offering, a food offering, an aroma pleasing to the Lord.
10 “‘If the offering is a burnt offering from the flock, from either the sheep or the goats, you are to offer a male without defect. 11 You are to slaughter it at the north side of the altar before the Lord, and Aaron’s sons the priests shall splash its blood against the sides of the altar. 12 You are to cut it into pieces, and the priest shall arrange them, including the head and the fat, on the wood that is burning on the altar. 13 You are to wash the internal organs and the legs with water, and the priest is to bring all of them and burn them on the altar. It is a burnt offering, a food offering, an aroma pleasing to the Lord.
14 “‘If the offering to the Lord is a burnt offering of birds, you are to offer a dove or a young pigeon. 15 The priest shall bring it to the altar, wring off the head and burn it on the altar; its blood shall be drained out on the side of the altar. 16 He is to remove the crop and the feathers[a] and throw them down east of the altar where the ashes are. 17 He shall tear it open by the wings, not dividing it completely, and then the priest shall burn it on the wood that is burning on the altar. It is a burnt offering, a food offering, an aroma pleasing to the Lord.
WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND TO GOD?
Even though the book of Leviticus seems odd and maybe even distasteful and a bit disgusting to our culture, God was training His people to do business with Him in ways that they could understand at that time. Leviticus is the third book of five “books of the Law” written by Moses, inspired by God. God began from the very beginning—the Genesis of Creation of all living things. God now tells Moses to write down God’s plan and process for His people to relate to God, to do business with God, who is holy. Moses tells God’s people and designated priests in “real time” what is expected of them in detail.
Eugene Peterson’s commentary helps us to relate to Leviticus today;
“One of the stubbornly enduring habits of the human race is to insist on domesticating God. We are determined to tame God. We figure out ways to harness God to OUR projects. We try to reduce God to a size that conveniently fits our plans and ambitions and tastes. But our Scriptures are even more stubborn in telling us that we can’t do it. God cannot be fit into our plans; we must fit into his. We can’t use God—God is not a tool or appliance or credit card.
‘Holy’ is the word that sets God apart and above our attempts to enlist him in our wish-fulfillment fantasies or our utopian schemes for making our mark in the world. Holy means that God is alive on God’s terms, alive in the way that exceeds our experience and imagination. Holy refers to life burning with an intense purity that transforms everything it touches into itself.
Because the core of all living is God, and God is a holy God, we require much teaching and long training for living in response to God as he is and not as we want him to be.
The book of Leviticus is a narrative pause in the story of our ancestors as they are on their way, saved out of Egypt, to settle in the land of Canaan. It is a kind of extended time-out of instruction, a detailed and meticulous preparation for living ‘holy’ in a culture that doesn’t’ have the faintest idea what ‘holy’ is. The moment these people enter Canaan they will be picking their way through a lethal midfield of gods and goddesses that are designed to appeal to our god-fantasies: ‘Give us what we want when we want it on our own terms.’ What these god-fantasies in fact do is cripple or kill us. Leviticus is a start at the ‘much teaching and long training’ that continues to be adapted and reworked in every country and culture where God is forming a saved people to live as he created them to live—holy as God is holy.
The first thing that strikes us as we read Leviticus in this light is that this holy God is actually present with us and virtually every detail of our lives is affected by the presence of this holy God; nothing in us, our relationships, or environments is left out.
The second thing is that God provides a way (the sacrifices and feasts and Sabbaths) to bring everything in and about us into his holy presence, transformed in the fiery blaze of the holy. It is an awesome thing to come in to His presence and we, like ancient Israel, stand in His presence at every moment (Psalm 139). Our Lord is not dwelling in a tent or house in our neighborhood. But he makes his habitation in us and among us as believers and says, ‘I am holy, you be holy’ (1 Peter 1:16, citing Leviticus 11; 19; 20).
Once we realize this, the seemingly endless details and instructions of Leviticus become signposts of good news to us. God cares that much about the details of our lives, willing everything in and about us into the transformation that Paul later commended.
“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” Romans 12:1-2, Message Bible.
Embracing and placing with full attention on God is how to respond to God who is the Only One who makes us holy to Him. To God be the glory!
Lord,
I give you my life today as an offering to you. I’m listening for your holy prompting that will lead me by the hand to your agenda.
In Jesus Name, Amen
Daily Manna (Coffee with Jesus) 