Devotionary

Sometimes, we read the books of the Old Testament and assume they have nothing to with us. They are just ancient history, chronicling the exploits of the people of Israel as they stumbled their way through the wilderness on the way to the land of promise. But if we look closely, we will see so many lessons that apply to us, right here, right now. And in Numbers 2-3 we get a wonderful preview of God’s incredible plan for our redemption. In these two chapters we are introduced to the substitutionary role the Levites played in the lives of the Israelites. They took the place of the firstborns, serving in their place and fulfilling God’s claim that these individuals belonged to Him. As we’ll see, God had a right to expect the firstborn males of each family to serve Him alone. But rather than requiring their undistracted service to Him, He called on the tribe of Levi to act as substitutes or stand-ins. The Levites gave their lives so that others might live. Just as Jesus Christ has don for us.

This episode launches our new study in the book of Numbers. This book is part of what is called the Pentateuch, a section of the Bible that also includes, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy. The word Pentateuch is from the Greek and simply means “five books.” These books are actually considered one book written by one author, Moses, and are referred to as the Torah by the Jews. They also go by the names, “The Law of Moses,” the “Book of the Law of Moses,” and “The Book of Moses.” The name of this book, Numbers, is derived from a translation of the Greek Septuagint title, Arithmoi. This name was chosen because of the two numberings or censuses commanded by God in the book. As the book opens up, we will see God providing Moses with instructions for the first of these two numberings, in order that the people might be organized for battle. The closer the people got to the land of Canaan, there was a growing need for structure and order. They would need to know how many men they had who could fight. God ha

In chapters 26-27 of the book of Leviticus, God gives the Israelites one last set of instructions. And they have to do with the making of vows. This particular issue doesn’t seem to be one that we struggle with – at least on the surface. But it really has to do with the commitments we make to God. Each of us has probably had a time in our lives where we told God we would do something if He would only help us out of a predicament. It goes something like this: God, if you’ll only help me out of this situation, I’ll read my Bible every day for a year. When the desired rescue takes place, we are usually grateful and may even intend to keep our commitment to God. But in time, we find that our fervor fades and our determination to keep our word slowly ebbs away. It seems that God would have us understand that He takes our vows seriously, even if we don’t. He wants us to be people of integrity, especially when it involves commitments made to Him. So, He provides His people with an escape clause.

The Sabbatical Year and the Year of Jubilee. These two events on the Hebrew calendar are not exactly familiar to us. And it would be easy to assume that neither one of them has any application to our lives as modern Christians. But that assumption would be wrong. The truth is, like so many of the other commands given by God to the people of Israel, these two events provide us with some valuable lessons about dependence upon God. The Israelites were God’s chosen people and, as such, they were to look to Him for all their needs. He was not only their source for forgiveness from sin, He was the provider of all their needs. And yet, how easy it is to forget that God is our sole source of sustenance. So, these two recurring events were intended by God to remind the people of Israel that He was their provider and protector. He would meet all their needs. But they would have to learn to rest in and rely upon Him.

The Feast of Pentecost is just one of the many feasts God ordained and gave to the people of Israel to keep in perpetuity. But of all the feasts, this one has a special significance that carries over to us as Gentile believers in Jesus Christ. On this one day of the year, the Jews were allowed to bake bread containing leaven or yeast and use it as part of their sacrifice to God. For the Jews, leaven was a symbol for sin. Its ability to spread through a lump of dough was an illustration of sin’s pervasive and permeating power. At the Feast of Passover, they were to remove all remnants of leaven from their home, essentially modeling their desire to remove sin from their lives. But on the Feast of Pentecost, they were commanded to bake bread with yeast and present it to God as a wave offering. There is so much symbolism in this passage and it points to a future date when the Holy Spirit would come upon the apostles and the church would begin. From that day forward, the body of Christ, the church would be made up

Leviticus 22 appears to be more of the same. At first glance, it can appear as if God is in a rut, saying the same thing over and over again. But if we look closely and listen carefully, we will see that He is actually driving home a point that is all-too-easily overlooked by the people of God. If we’re not careful the concept of holiness can lose its significance. What God has deemed of great importance, we can end up treating as optional or of minimal importance. Too often, we define holiness on our terms, rather than God’s. We determine the least amount of effort required to keep God happy with us, but it usually doesn’t reflect God’s outlook. And in doing so, our lives become an unacceptable sacrifice to God. We go through the motions. We perform the expected duties and live up to the usual list of dos and don’ts. And all the while our hearts are far from Him. This complacent, minimalist approach to our own spirituality ends up giving our witness a poor reputation and God a bad name.

Holiness or sinfulness. As the people of God, we don’t get to choose one over the other. Of course, we can and do sin. But from God’s perspective, sin is not an option for the child of God. We have been called to be holy as He is holy. Our lives are to be distinctively different than those who do not belong to God. And in Leviticus 20-21, we will see God continuing His call that His people live holy lives. But He qualifies and clarifies that call with the statement, “I am the God who makes you holy.” In other words, our holiness is something He accomplishes in us. But it requires our obedience to His will. We must strive to keep His commands. The life He has called us to is one of radical distinctiveness. It is intended to set us apart from the rest of the world. But, like the people of Israel, we can find it so easy to compromise our convictions, downplay God’s calling, and blend in with the world. We would rather fit in than stand out.

Be holy. That’s a command and it comes from God. But, not only that, it comes with a qualification: We are to be holy as He is holy. Sound impossible? It is. But in Leviticus 19, God will tell the entire community of Israel, “You must be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.” He was to be their standard. And His rules and regulations regarding holiness were to be their guide to living holy, set-apart lives to Him. But this is about far more than religious rule-keeping and behavior modification. What God is interested in is heart change. He wanted His people to be different on the inside, not just the outside. In fact, Jesus would tell His disciples that it was not what goes into the body that defiles them, but what comes out of it – in the form of impure thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, lying and slander. These are what defile us and make us unholy. So, when God calls His people to be holy as He is holy, He is talking about far more than keeping a list of dos and don’ts. He is calli

In chapters 17-18 of Leviticus there is a great deal of emphasis placed on the significance of blood in the sacrificial system. Blood was integral to the whole program, because it was the shed blood of innocent and unblemished animals that made possible atonement. For the Jews, blood was to represent life, not just physical life, but spiritual life. The shedding of blood is what made it possible for sinful men to restore their relationship with a holy God. And God did not want them to take this matter lightly. So, He placed some strong conditions on their attitude toward blood. For one thing, they were not to consume the blood of animals. They were to completely drain the blood from any slaughtered animal before they ate it. This would help ensure that their attitude toward the blood remained pure and holy. As always, God was setting the people of Israel apart from the rest of the nations. He was placing on them restrictions that did not apply to anyone else. All so that they might enjoy their status as His c

Chapters 15 and 16 of Leviticus contain an interesting juxtaposition. One has to do with impurity and uncleanness, while the other speaks of atonement, the forgiveness for sin made possible by God through the sacrificial system. Sin was an ever-present reality in the life of the people of Israel. They were the people of God, having been separated by Him from the rest of the world for His use. In other words, they were holy in His eyes. They belonged to Him. But sin had a way of getting in the way of their relationship with God. It made them unclean and unholy and, therefore, unable to come into His presence. Sin made them unacceptable and, in their impure state, they found God unapproachable. But God had made provision for this problem. He had created the Day of Atonement, a single day on the calendar when the people of God could have their sins cleansed for by God. But it required that they humble their souls, bowing down before Him in recognition of their sinful condition and their need for His cleansing.

Leprosy. Not exactly something we worry about today. But in the book of Leviticus, chapters 13-14, God spends a great deal of time warning the people of Israel about the dangers of this deadly disease and providing very detailed instructions regarding how to spot it in their midst and deal with it. While we don’t have to worry about leprosy in our day and age, there are some valuable lessons we can take away from these two chapters. The threat of leprosy was an ever-present reality for the people of Israel. And it was a non-discriminatory disease. Anyone could get it, whether they were rich or poor. Which sounds a lot like sin. Except that sin infects each and every human being. It is the equal-opportunity spiritual disease of the soul. And just as the people of Israel were to take leprosy seriously, so we should take sin seriously. Leprosy was a threat to the whole corporate community. It was dangerous and deadly. So is sin. And while the symptoms of sin are not always as evident as leprosy, it is not to be

Holy. Unholy. Clean. Unclean. Pure. Impure. The book of Leviticus is full of these contradictory concepts. The whole sacrificial system was designed to take those who were separated from God because of their impurity and provide a means by which their sins could be atoned for and their relationship with God restored. The impure had to be made pure. The unholy, separated from God because of their sin, had to be cleansed so they could once more be separated to God for His use. Purification from sin is a constant theme in the book and, in Leviticus 12, we see that even a woman who delivered a child was required to go through purification because of her contact with the blood of childbirth. And her male child could not be circumcised until she did. God takes purification from sin seriously. He places a high priority on holiness. And His greatest desire is that His people stand before Him as pure and spotless. Which is why He sent His Son to die on our behalf.  

Any time we read of God striking someone dead, we get a bit uncomfortable. It seems to go against our modern sensibilities and our preferred image of God as all-loving and all-forgiving. But we tend to forget that He is holy and has a strong hatred for sin. All sin is an act of rebellion against Him. Sin is not simply a mistake we make, but a willful choice on our part to disobey God. It is to live our lives counter to His commands and in keeping with our own self-centered agendas. We sin because we tend to think we know what is best. We do what we feel like doing. We willingly fulfill our desires, in direct violation of God’s commands, just because it feels good. And in Leviticus 10-11, we are going to see two priests who make the same mistake and lose their lives because of it. God doesn’t threaten to physically kill us when we sin, but our sin always results in death. Sin kills our joy. It robs us of our intimacy with God. It destroys our witness and brings God’s discipline. But the amazing thing is, that

Have you ever wondered what it must have been like for Moses or Aaron to see the glory of God? For most of us, that kind of experience seems far-fetched and unachievable. In fact, few of us ever anticipate going through anything remotely like what those two men experienced. And yet, in Leviticus 8-9, we are going to see the entire nation of Israel see the glory of God. Why? Because they did what He had commanded them to do. As a result of their faithful obedience to His commands regarding the sacrifices, He appeared before them in all His glory, just as He had promised to do. This wasn’t business-as-usual. What they experienced that day was out-of-the-ordinary and mind-boggling. In fact, it left them shouting with joy and falling down on their faces in reverence to God. This was like nothing they had ever experienced before. And it happened because they had been obedient. They had offered their sacrifices just as God had commanded. And He showed up in all His glory.

God knows how to share. He is far from a selfish or self-centered God. And the gracious gift of His Son should be ample proof of this fact. Paul reminds us in his letter to the Romans, “Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won't he also give us everything else?” In today’s passage from Leviticus 6-7, we see that God has always been a gracious and generous God, even allowing His people to share in the bounty of the peace offerings made to Him. Each and every peace offering given to God was to be shared by those who gave it. They could enjoy the very meat of the sacrifice they made, as long as they did it according to God’s terms. There were stipulations attached. And if these requirements were violated, the original value of the offering was negated. It became unacceptable to God. God, in His generosity, was allowing His people to join Him in the enjoyment of the sacrifice. He enjoyed the pleasing aroma of the burnt offering, while they enjoyed the meat that was left over. Their

“Guilty as charged.” We’re all familiar with this statement. It’s typically spoken by a judge to an accused criminal, who stands in the courtroom awaiting the official declaration of his fate. And when those words are heard, the matter is settled. The accused becomes the condemned. The assumed innocence of the accused has been replaced with a sentence of guilt, and the guilt demands justice be served. A crime has been committed and restitution must be made. In the book of Leviticus, there are countless references to man’s guilt before God. Mankind has been marred by sin and each and every human being carries a predisposition towards sin that causes them to disobey God’s commands and leaves him standing before God guilty as charged. And while we can choose to deny our sin and ignore our guilt. God cannot and will not. Which is why He gave the people of Israel the sacrificial system. He provided a means by which their sins could be atoned. He made forgiveness possible. But first, guilt must be acknowledged and

In chapters 2-3 of Leviticus, we run into a strange litany of disturbing images describing the sacrifices required by God in order for the people of Israel to experience forgiveness for their sins. These pages are filled with vivid details of the various offerings the Israelites were required to make in order to maintain a right relationship with God. There are peace offerings and sin offerings, involving the blood sacrifice of innocent and unblemished animals. And all of it seems so strange to our modern sensibilities. And yet, if we can manage to slog our way through all the graphic imagery, we will find ourselves exposed to the themes of God’s holiness and man’s sinfulness. Repeatedly, we read that the Israelites were to present their offerings “before the Lord.” These sacrifices were to be presented to the Most Holy One, as a pleasing aroma to Him. As the Israelites obeyed the commands of God concerning the sacrifices, they would be worshiping and honoring Him for who He is: The Holy God of Israel.

The book of Leviticus is actually the third section of the Hebrew Torah or Law. It is a continuation of the book of Exodus and contains requirements of the Mosaic Covenant that relate to the Levites, the tribe that had been set apart by God to serve as priests for the people of Israel. Essentially, the entire book has to do with God’s commands concerning the proper worship of Himself. While primarily addressing the role of the priests, Leviticus reveals God’s expectations regarding the tabernacle, the sacrificial system, and the part the laity were to play in the whole religious life of the nation of Israel. Two of the key themes found throughout the book are those of holiness and unholiness. The book intends to show how Israel was to fulfill its covenant responsibility to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation to the Lord. And while the content of the book speaks of a different dispensation than the one in which we live, it reminds us of God’s desire that His people, no matter the time period in which the

As Paul wraps up his letter to the believers in Philippi, he thanks them for a gift he had recently received from them, but he also lets them know he didn’t really need it. Philippians 4:10-23 presents an interesting and somewhat confusing reaction from Paul. He is grateful for the generosity of his friends in Philippi, but he reveals that their gift was unnecessary. It’s not that he didn’t have any physical needs. It’s that he was totally content with his circumstances because he was completely content with Christ. He lacked nothing. And as difficult as it is for us to comprehend that, it is exactly what Paul would have us believe and live out in our own lives. For the Christian, there is nothing in this life that we need, beyond Jesus. And, while we may nod in assent to that statement, our lives rarely reflect that we truly believe it. Yet for Paul, writing from house arrest in Rome, he was more than content with nothing more than Jesus.

The world is full of distractions. And, while not all of them are bad, they’re all capable of pulling the believer off course and into unchartered territory, where we quickly find ourselves struggling to maintain our faith and keep our focus. So, in Philippians 4:1-9, Paul provides us with more words of encouragement, designed to keep us from allowing the things of this world to distract us from our mission as ambassadors for Christ. Paul loved the analogy of the race. He used it repeatedly because it so well described the mindset a believer needs to have if they are going to make it through this marathon called life. If you’re going to make it to the finish line, you can’t allow the things of this life to lure you off course or tempt you to stop running altogether. And the worst thing you could do is allow the enemy to distract you with a detour that leads to a false finish line.