Going Old School: You Are What You Eat

We’ve all heard the phrase “You are what you eat.”  After reading Leviticus 11, you begin to realize that maybe that phrase has been around a little longer than you think.

God was teaching His people in the wilderness that just because He has given us the freedom to do whatever we want doesn’t mean that we should.  God wanted His people to know which foods should be considered clean and which should be considered unclean (11:47).  God had a few good reasons for giving the people this restricted diet.

1. To ensure His people stayed healthy.  The forbidden foods were usually scavenging animals that fed on animals that were already dead, which means that disease could be transmitted through them.
2. God wanted to visibly distinguish Israel from other nations.  The pig, for example, was a common sacrifice of pagan nations.
3. God wanted to avoid objectionable associations.  For example, the creatures that crawled along the ground make one think of serpents, which is often associated with sin (think the Garden of Eden).

God was fairly direct and detailed with foods the people could eat, even going so far as to forbid them to touch some of the unclean animals (11:8).  God wanted His people to be completely separated from the things He had forbidden because He knew what the consequences could be.  Often times today we find ourselves in similar situations. 

How many times do we talk ourselves into something with the rationalization that we are technically keeping a commandment?  God was trying to protect His people (and us today) from getting into situations where they would be tempted to sin, situations where they might “technically” be innocent but really….they had sinned.

As we’ve seen in the previous chapters, God is also teaching us how to worship, and here God is showing His people the importance of not merely showing up, but being prepared to worship!  God goes over quite a few instances where people may have sinned (even accidentally) and needed to be made right with Him (“cleansed”) before they could rejoin the community in worship.  The same applies to us today.  We cannot just live any way we want all week long and simply “show up” in God’s presence for an hour each week.  No!  We should prepare ourselves by confessing our sins to God, making ourselves right with Him (and anyone we’ve wronged, if possible), and live with anticipation of the joy that comes from being in God’s presence with other believers.

As you can see, there is a lot more in this chapter than just a list of food the people could and couldn’t eat.  God sums it up for us:

⁴⁴ For I am the Lord your God. You must consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. So do not defile yourselves with any of these small animals that scurry along the ground. ⁴⁵ For I, the Lord, am the one who brought you up from the land of Egypt, that I might be your God. Therefore, you must be holy because I am holy.

Right there God is giving us a key understanding of all the rules and regulations in Leviticus.  God wants us, as His people, to be holy—set apart, different, unique—because He is!  God knows that we only have two options in this world: To be set apart and holy, or to make compromises and become corrupt.

God wasn’t just giving instructions to the Israelites in the wilderness, He is also calling us, as Christians, to be holy (I Peter 1:15).  Just like the wanderers in the desert, we should strive to remain spiritually separate from the enticements of the world, even though we encounter them every day.  We should be examples to those around us, not compromise and try and “fit in” or “be cool” with them. 

It’s not easy, and God knows that!  God doesn’t expect us to go it alone, He is there with us every step of the way.  And, because of Christ’s sacrifice for us, we “are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.” (Colossians  1:22).  With Christ, we can really and truly live IN the world and not be OF the world!

Encounter: How can you live for God without walling yourself off from the world? 

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Some references borrowed from the Life Application Study Bible (NLT) 2nd Edition published by Tyndale House Publishers.

Going Old School: Blowing Off God

So far in Leviticus we’ve looked at the sacrificial system and the different types of sacrifices.  We’ve also looked at what it means to be God’s representative to the world.  But in Leviticus 10, God shows that indifference and half-hearted worship is not something He appreciates.

Aaron’s two oldest sons, Nadab and Abihu, were like any brothers.  They had fun together, grew up together, and at times got each other into trouble.  Nadab and Abihu had been born in Egypt, saw all the plagues and wonders in Exodus, and as Aaron’s sons were intimatley involved with the construction of the Tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant, and the sacrificial system.  But even after all that, they chose to treat with indifference the instructions God had given them, as priests.  And the end result was their deaths.

 ¹ Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu put coals of fire in their incense burners and sprinkled incense over them. In this way, they disobeyed the Lord by burning before him the wrong kind of fire, different than he had commanded. ² So fire blazed forth from the Lord’s presence and burned them up, and they died there before the Lord.
³ Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord meant when he said,
   ‘I will display my holiness
      through those who come near me.
   I will display my glory
      before all the people.’”
   And Aaron was silent.

What is this “wrong fire” that the young men used?  Theologians aren’t exactly sure, but most prominent theory is that the Nadab and Abihu brought coals from a regular fire and placed them on the altar.  As we’ve learned, the fire on the altar of burnt offering was never to go out because it is holy (6:12-13).  By bringing coals from a regular, every day camp fire, Nadab and Abihu were implying that there was nothing special about the altar fire.  They disregarded their responsibility as priests in a flagrant act of disrespect for God, who was quite specific (remember the previous chapters!) and how they were to conduct worship.  They weren’t just “church members” but they were the leaders of the congregation of the Israelites!  By blatantly disrespecting God in open view of everyone, they sent the message that it was okay to disregard what God wanted of the people, and that He wasn’t really all that important.  All God had asked of them was that they stay faithful and follow the instructions He’d given them as they lead the people in worship.  In a display of His holiness, God burned them beyond recognition, and they died.

What about us today?  Do we take God seriously any more, or do we act more like Nadab and Abihu?  Think about it for a second.  How many of us really worship God, really listen to the pastor’s sermon, trying to gain a new insight to the Lord?  Instead, how many of us sit on cell phones, check Facebook, email, and text through most of the service?  And if we aren’t texting and IM’ing our friends making plans for “when we can get out of church” we’re talking and whispering to the people sitting next to us.  When the pastor looks up while preaching, does he see eyes looking back at him, or does he see a sea of blue and white glowing in  faces looking down at their gadgets?

Nadab and Abihu showed disrespect for God because they didn’t take Him seriously.  God loved them, so they could just do whatever they want, and by their example they showed those around them that God is a pushover and people are free to do whatever they wished without repercussion.  How easy is it for us to grow careless about obeying God, to live our way instead of His.  Think about it, though.  If one way of living was as good as any other, and we can just do whatever we want without consequence, God wouldn’t have given us instructions on how best to live our lives with Him, would He?  God always has good reasons for what He asks us to do, and it is always for our own good!  By disregarding Him and blowing Him off, we put ourselves in danger.

As God’s followers, He calls us to distinguish between what is sacred and what isn’t, what is good for us and what is bad, right and wrong (10:10-11).  That is the purpose of the Ten Commandments and all of the supplemental information God gave His people in Leviticus.  God didn’t due it to burden the people, but to help them live the best lives that they could.  And by their example, the rest of the world would see what a wonderful and glorious God they served.

Encounter:  Will you listen to God’s calling on your heart, or blow Him off for the next text on your phone?  What will your example to those around you be?

Going Old School: We Are Priests to the World

All right, we’ve taken a look at the different sacrifices & offerings the people made to God.  As you recall, God had some pretty specific instructions and which offerings were required when (some as thanks, others because someone sinned against God or someone else).  God also gave very detailed instructions to the priests about what to do with the offerings, how to treat them, and how to be a person’s advocate to God.

But who are the priests?  What does it take to become a priest?  Let’s dive back into Leviticus and find out!

¹ Then the Lord said to Moses, ² “Bring Aaron and his sons, along with their sacred garments, the anointing oil, the bull for the sin offering, the two rams, and the basket of bread made without yeast, ³ and call the entire community of Israel together at the entrance of the Tabernacle.”

While all of the Levites were set aside as servants for the Lord, only Aaron and his descendants could be priests.  Aaron and his sons had the honor and responsibility of performing the sacrifices.  Leviticus 8 & 9 details the priestly ordination for Aaron and his sons, which was performed in front of the entire community.  Here’s how it went:

1. Aaron & his sons were washed with water (8:6)
2. Clothed in the ceremonial priestly garments (8:7-9, 13)
3. Anointed with oil (8:12)
4. They placed their hands on a young bull as it was killed for sacrifice (8:14-15) and two rams as they were killed for sacrifice (8:18-23)

All this showed the people that holiness comes from God ALONE, not just from being a priest.  That is a lesson many of us need to learn today, too.  We aren’t “better” because we’re active in the church, have a title or position, or a good reputation.  No matter how great our reputation is or how long we’ve been actively involved at church (or even been a pastor!) we must depend on God for spiritual vitality!

The next natural question in all of this is why priests were needed in Israel at all?  Back in Exodus 19:6, God called all of the Israelites to be a NATION of priests.  The idea was that they would be holy and relate to God and share that with the nations around them.  If you look at where Israel is located on the map, all of the major trade routes of the time went through their territory, giving them a grand opportunity to witness to the world!  But we’re human, and we’re sinful, and since Adam we’ve needed a mediator with God.  For the Israelites it was the priests, who offered the sacrifices to on a person’s behalf that they might be made right with God.  For us today, Jesus Himself is our mediator, and as we confess our sins He makes us right with God.  The priestly system (both past and present) was a concession to fallen man’s inability to relate to God individually or corporately.  When Christ returns and we are fully restored to God, we will no longer need a concession for our fallen nature.

After the priests were ordained and Aaron offered his first sacrifice for the people, God Himself sent the fire to consume the sacrifice, so that the people would know that God approved of Aaron’s offering (9:24).  When the people saw what God had done, they cried out in…fear?  No!  They cried out in JOY!  They cried out and then fell to worship their awesome and loving God!

Often times today we think that God doesn’t give mighty displays like that any more.  We question whether God actually exists  because we don’t see heavenly fire consume anything, the sea parting, a pillar of cloud/fire anywhere.  How many of us have asked God if He’s really up there?

But God IS at work in today’s world just as much as He was with the Israelites in the wilderness.  When a group of believers is actively working and seeking Him, He doesn’t need to do mighty physical acts.  Instead, He works to change the world THROUGH His believers.  YOU are God’s mighty display of power!  When you realize that, you’ll see God’s acts of love all around you.

I want to close with two questions.  It’s a tradition that a dear friend of mind, Stephanie Johnson, had some crazy high schoolers do before a meeting, and I think it fits in nicely with what God is trying to teach us in Leviticus.

Encounter: Who was Jesus to you today?  Who were you Jesus to today?

Going Old School: When Was Your Last REAL Offering?

All right, show of hands, how many people have read through the book of Leviticus…on purpose? Anyone? Don’t worry, I never really gave it much thought except when Dr. Michael Hasel made us do it for an Old Testament studies class…and then I admit to skimming and glossing over it. But believe it or not, there is some really good stuff in there about living our lives! So, with that in mind, let’s dive into the book of Leviticus!

The first seven chapters of Leviticus talk about five specific offerings the Israelites were to make to God, and the reasons why they were supposed to do that. Offerings (often referred to as sacrifices in the text) were meant to restore a relationship with God. A gift was offered to God by sacrificing on the altar (which, by the way, was in the center of the camp and visible by everyone). Sacrifices were meant to teach people a few things:

1. By requiring perfect animals and holy priests, they taught reverence to a holy God.
2. By demanding exact obedience, they taught total submission to God’s laws.
3. By requiring an animal of great value, they showed the high cost of sin and demonstrated the sincerity of the people’s commitment to God.
4. Because of what they were, sacrifices required the use of all senses in worship, which encourages a whole-person response to God!
5. The sacrificial system not only taught the people about God’s laws, it presented real opportunity for genuine voluntary response to God.

Chapter 1: Burnt Offering

The Burnt Offering was a voluntary offering to make atonement for sins in general. The purpose was to demonstrate a person’s devotion to God. Jesus, of course, was the perfect offering. (1:1-17, 6:18-30)

Do you show devotion to God by confessing your sins and asking to be made right with Him?

Chapter 2: Grain Offering

The Grain Offering was to show honor and respect to God in worship. This voluntary offering was to acknowledge that all we have belongs to God. Jesus was the perfect offering, who gave all of Himself to God and us. (2:1-14, 6:14-18)

Can you even remember the last time you turned off the TV/cell/computer and showed love and respect to God in worship?

Chapter 3: Peace Offering

The Peace Offering was an expression of gratitude and thanks to God. It symbolized the peace that fellowship with God brings. Jesus is the only way that we can have true fellowship with God. (3:1-17, 7:11-21)

Have you thanked God for the blessings in your life? For helping calm your inner storms and for always being there with you, through good and bad?

Chapter 4: Sin Offering

The Sin Offering was required of the people to make payment for unintentional sins such as uncleanness, neglect, or thoughtlessness towards others that they had committed going about their daily lives. By giving a Sin Offering, the sinner was restored to fellowship with God, and it helps to show us just how harmful sin is. By His death on the cross, Jesus restored our fellowship with God. (4:1-35, 5:1-13, 6:1-7, 24-30)

Have you made a mistake today, even accidentally? Did you talk with God about it and ask to have your relationship with Him restored?

Chapter 5: Guilt Offering

The Guilt Offering was required as payment for sins against God and others. The sacrifice was made to God, and before it could be accepted, the person you hurt had to be asked for forgiveness and was repaid for the wrong done. This encourages us to make things right not just with God, but also with each other. By His death, Jesus makes things right between God and us.
When you do something that hurts someone else, do you try and make things right, or do you hope things will “just work out?” God instructs us not to wait, but to make things right with the person as soon as we can. When we make things right with others, we can also make things right with God. (5:14-19, 7:1-9)

Chapter 6: Ordination Offering

The Ordination Offering was made when a priest was ordained to the ministry. (6:19-23)

Today we lay hands on a new pastor, elder, or deacon to ordain them to ministry.(ex. Acts 13:2-3)

The people were also instructed to give a portion of their offerings to support the priests (7:28-38).

The entire sacrificial system that is described in these first seven chapters of Leviticus were useless to help a sinner unless he (or she) brought an offering with an attitude of repentance and a willingness to confess sins. This confession was done publically because the priests had to perform the sacrifice and put it on the altar before the Lord (and the altar was at the center of everything).

I think that is something sorely lacking in our churches today. We keep everything bottled up, private. We don’t help each other with our struggles and just hope everything will “just work out.” People in church today are so TERRIFIED of being judged for making a mistake, that church has become the loneliest place on earth. A place where lonely people surround themselves with other lonely people, and no one talks about anything “serious.”

God doesn’t want it to be that way! When God was establishing a society for His followers, He was intentional about us sharing each other’s burdens. About confessing our sins to one another and asking Him and those we wronged for forgiveness. Even though Jesus’ death makes animal sacrifices unnecessary today, that doesn’t mean we can stop making things right with God and each other! Jesus’ death is meaningless if we don’t bring our burdens to Him and confess our struggles to one another! God is not going to judge you for asking forgiveness for a sin; to regain that intimate fellowship with Him! He wants that so much He DIED to get it!

It might be easy to dismiss the instructions for maintaining a happy and productive spiritual life that builds strong, meaningful relationships with God and people simply because Leviticus is a long, boring (and sometimes gross) book in the Old Testament. There aren’t “good stories” in it, and we don’t have to do all that stuff any more, so why bother to read it at all? It’s hard! But the apostle James tells us the exact same thing that God told us in Leviticus:

Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. (James 5:16)

If praying together and helping each other overcome sin was so important that God spent seven chapters going into excruciating detail about it, maybe there’s something to it. What would church be like if it worked like God meant for it too, as outlined in Leviticus and summed up by James?

ENCOUNTER: Would this be a church you’d want to belong too? How do we make it happen?

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Some references borrowed from the Life Application Study Bible (NLT) 2nd Edition published by Tyndale House Publishers.

Creation, continued...

February 20^th will mark seven years since Eric died.  I write that sentence and then sit with my hands in my lap, not sure what else to say.  And yet there’s so much inside—mixed emotions, a rollercoaster of feelings, memories, a reservoir of tears yet uncried, and something wants to make its way to the surface today.  I’m hoping my writing will reveal what it is.

After seven years there are some days I miss Eric more deeply than ever.  I’m remarried, my life is full and joyous, and I still miss him.  No matter how wonderful my current situation is, there’s still a hole in my heart.  There continue to be memories of Eric that make me sigh wistfully.  Out of the blue, I’ll think, ‘Eric would have said ---,’ or I’ll chuckle to myself as I think about how he would have enjoyed a new movie or song. 

Eric is on my mind a lot these days.  This past weekend I was saddened by facebook postings as four loved ones of various friends lost their battles for life.  Every one of them was young, in the midst of full and promising lives, leaving behind spouses, children, parents, boyfriends, girlfriends. 

Even though I didn’t know any of these individuals personally, my heart is pained.  I feel the pain of loss so acutely.  It stirs up memories of my own experience, stirs up thoughts of conversations with Eric’s mother—parents are not supposed to outlive their children, stirs up thoughts of crying alone, thoughts of loss.

I feel overwhelmed and somewhat helpless when I attempt to write about this.  Everyone’s experience with loss is different and yet there are emotions that overlap the differences.  Sometimes when I’m sad I reach out to a friend who lost his wife.  He understands when I describe a pervading sadness even in times of great joy and celebration.

When Eric died I had people say all kinds of helpful and unhelpful things to me.  The most popular included variations of, “There’s a reason for everything.  Someday we’ll understand why.”  This fell into the category of ‘unhelpful’ for me.  The insinuation that God let Eric die for a reason was a repulsive thought to me.  Some things happen in the world simply because it’s a sinful, broken planet.  God created us to live forever. God created a world that was perfect.  Adam and Eve unknowingly chose the alternate plan and now we live with the consequences.  And sometimes it just plain sucks.

So when I read texts like Romans 8:28, “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him…” I hear God saying He’ll work to create good even in the worst of circumstances.  And when good comes out of a loss—out of something painful and grievous—I don’t believe God planned the bad so the good could happen.  He’s all-powerful Creator God and speaks good things into existence.  God is still creating, speaking words into our lives and experiences that turn into healing and restoration and blessing.

So, my prayers right now for those who have lost loved ones, is that God would show up as Creator.  That He would reach His hand into the pain and loss and grief and create something good.  Because through the good God creates out of loss, our loved ones live on in our lives, our memories, and the way we approach life. 

I’m still influenced every day by Eric.  My life is more beautiful and deep because of the time he was here on this earth.  And I thank God that He’s still creating.

Encounter: What is God creating in your world?

Endurance

It seems that everywhere you look these days, it’s politics, politics, politics.  The more you listen, the more negative it gets; often downright nasty!  And you might be thinking to yourself that it’s never been this bad before…has it?  Where we’ve moved beyond simple disagreement to outright hatred of those with ideas differing from ours…often even in the name of religion!
Jesus warns us about the toxic atmosphere we find ourselves in now.  He said:

“Many will turn away from me and betray and hate each other. And many false prophets will appear and will deceive many people. Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”  Matt. 24:10-13

Does that sound like the nightly news to you?  But Jesus doesn’t leave it at the doom and gloom.  He gives us hope!  “The one who endures…will be saved.”  But with such overwhelming negativity everywhere, how can we do that?  Peter, nearing the end of his life and having endured quite a lot of persecution has this advice for his fellow believers on how to endure:

“By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.

“In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. 

“The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins. 

“So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Do these things, and you will never fall away.”  II Peter 1:3-10

So if you are feeling bogged down by the 24/7 onslaught of negativity, or if you’re struggling with something else all together, hang on to Jesus.  Don’t be overwhelmed, but overcome with His help!  After all, His promise to every one of us is “I will never leave you, and I will never abandon you.” (Heb. 13:5, Deut. 31:6, 8). 
How great a Master we serve!

Encounter: How has Jesus been there for you this week?

Invisible by Tim Goff

WORD: “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.” 1 Timothy 1:17, NIV.

THOUGHT: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Hebrews 11:1, NIV. Yes Lord I am reading this but… but that is sooooo NOT like me. I want to see, hear and then believe! I want to see your glory and see your face and see the way you smile with grace. I want to hear your voice, catch the tone and inflection of what you are saying and draw from THIS my trust. But you have chosen to make yourself “invisible.”

Jesus, you spoke about the importance of having eyes to see and ears to hear. Well do you want me to see you and hear your voice? I am waiting…. Lord you want me to follow you but how can I follow if I can not see and hear you? My senses are all I have to know what is going on around me. So what shall it be Lord? What good are eyes and ears if I can not see and hear you? Yet — You — healed the blind and gave them sight. Now I am really confused. Lord, I am beginning to understand that You must have a very different plan than what I would expect.

Open the eyes of my heart Lord and open the ears of my soul so that I may experience You Lord, for nothing I have, neither my eyes, ears, touch, smell, nor taste can do it for me. I can’t get in touch or hear You with my abilities. Therefore if I am to have fellowship with the Invisible — then it must be true that You meet your people by some other way. Is that what revelation is?

Okay I am starting to get it Lord. I need - to forget my expectations and abilities — and open my heart to inspiration from You. So Lord, since I can not seek You through my senses does this mean that I can not seek You at all; much less find You? After all how could I find You without my senses, for that is all I have. If so, then how does this all happen?

Is it possible that my worship of You is not so much about me seeking You but is rather my response to what You are already putting in my heart? Wow this is getting interesting

Lord (and heavy). If this is true, then my worship, prayers, songs and devotions are a free response to a heart-calling. You must have put there in the first place — Which means that since I cannot seek an invisible God then You are the One seeking me — and — and this means that all my spiritual strength and all my understanding of eternal things comes from You in the first place!! Whoa.

Yes Lord, then open the eyes of my heart and open the ears of my soul, that I can sense Your presence and know You instead of all the images, sounds, smells, tastes and feelings I have so that I might know You. O that my response could be a reflection without fingerprints or smudges, of what You are allowing me to see in my heart about You. Thank You Lord for putting this love in my heart (and being invisible).

ENCOUNTER: What do you sense? [beyond your senses]