9.18.09 - Leviticus 11 - 20

How much do you understand about the inner workings of your television? How about your car? Your municipal government? your spouse? your kids? A wonderful fact of life is that we can enjoy many things without understanding how they work. We may satisfy our curiosity by understanding them but we don't have to.
God wanted His people to be holy (set apart, different, unique) just as He is holy. That is why He designed laws to separate them - both spiritually and socially - from the wicked pagan nations they would encounter in Canaan.
These laws also had an immediate practical benefit. God told the Israelites how to diagnose infectious skin diseases and mildew so that they could avoid and threat them (Leviticus 13:1 - 14:57). These laws helped the Israelites avoid diseases that were serious threats in that time and place. Although the people would not have understood the medical reasons for some of these laws, their obedience to them made them healthier. Many of Gods laws must have seemed strange to the Israelites. His laws, however, helped them avoid not only physical contamination but also moral and spiritual infection.

We do not always understand why God commands us to do this or to avoid that. But His expressed will is for our good, when we don't understand exactly how.

The Day of Atonement
What is the most important day of the year? It has been called, "The Sabbath of Sabbaths."

The Hebrew annual fast day was the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). It came on the 10th of Tisri, roughly around our October. On this most solemn day the people confessed their sins. After prescribed ceremonies with offerings, the high priest only on this day of the year entered the Holy of Holies to sprinkle blood on the Mercy Seat on the Ark of the Covenant. It was a day of humiliation and awful reminder of the holiness of God and sinfulness of man. The veil in the Holy of Holies separated the two. The people fasted from the evening on the 9th to the evening on the 10th. This helped to insure a proper heart attitude of penitence and faith.
This was the most important day on the Hebrew calendar because of the significance of this fast. By a special sacrifice, the sins of a whole year were covered. Atonement was made for all the sins of the entire nation (vv. 16, 21, 30, 33), and the sanctuary (vv. 16-19, 33). The high priest made an offering first for himself and the priests' (v. 3), and then two goats as a sin offering were sacrificed for the people (vv. 5-10). Aaron washed and put his regular high priest clothing on and offered his own and the people's burnt offering and sin offering (vv. 23-28). The remains of the animals were carried outside the camp and burned.
Even the Day of Atonement was a temporary provision. It had to be observed year after year until Christ came as the Lamb of God to take away sins. It could not produce perfection in the heart of man. An imperfect man cannot be a perfect priest. An imperfect sacrifice can not produce a perfectly clean conscience.
The Book of Hebrews is the best commentary on the fulfillment of the typical sacrifices of the Day of Atonement. It demonstrates for us that Christ’s sacrifice for the people’s sins, when He died on the cross, was not an annual Day of Atonement fast to be repeated each year, but a once for all complete and final sacrifice for sin (Heb. 9:11-12, 24-26; 10:12).

During the Old Testament times, no final offering for sin was made because each year the high priest went into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement and sprinkled the blood. Only Christ offered the complete and perfect sacrifice for sin. It was His death that effected the New Covenant. His sinless life qualified Him to make the perfect sacrifice for sin and pay our sin debt. The death of Christ to pay our sin debt was all-sufficient because He only had to die once. His sacrifice was final and complete. He dealt with our sin once and for all. We do not have to bring supplemental offerings and sacrifices for our sins because Christ is sufficient and final.
In the person and sacrificial work of Jesus Christ on the cross the shadows, pictures and types have given way to the perfect and permanent reality of the one true sacrifice for sin. He is the true High Priest offering the only acceptable sacrifice which can open the way to God for all who believe on Him. The Day of Atonement is fulfilled in the sacrifice of Christ.
It is "not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. . . . For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own" (Hebrews 9:12, 24-25).
Moreover, because of the supreme importance of Christ's sacrifice for sin all who reject His sacrifice can only bring eternal damnation upon themselves. It is unforgivable. There is no other way to come to God (Acts 4:12).
The blood of Jesus Christ obtained our "eternal redemption." Its value was far more significant and greater than any animal sacrifice. We have a greater high priest, a greater temple, a better covenant with better promises, and an immeasurably greater sacrifice than the Levitical priesthood. This sacrifice accomplished a "one for all" perfect redemption (Heb. 7:27; 9:12, 28; 10:10). The word for redemption in the New Testament is the idea of a release on receipt of the ransom payment. The death of Christ has liberated us by the payment of a ransom. Thus, He has redeemed us from the penalty of sin. He purchased us while we were in sin's slave market and He set us free. He liberated us by the payment of the ransom, which is His blood.

"For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement" (Lev. 17:11). "Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of our sins." The Talmud said, "There is no atonement except with blood." The only blood that will work is the blood of Jesus (1 John 1:7; Heb. 9:11-22; 13:20; 10:4, 19-20).
The Old Testament saints came every year to this most solemn day and in the back of their minds was the question what if there is just one sin that is not covered? What if my priest or I didn't perform the ritual just right; will I escape the wrath of God? What if . . . ? In every case redemption, or releasing on the payment of a ransom, is the deliverance from a situation from which the individual is powerless to liberate himself, or a penalty which he could never have paid. What if there is just one sin that is not covered? You could never do enough to cover that one sin because God is holy. He can not and will not look upon sin.
Moreover, the sacrifice of Christ relieves us of our load of guilt. Animals couldn't do that.
The people quietly waited outside of the tabernacle for the high priest to come out. As he approached them he raised his hands in blessing and cried out: "You are clean from all your sins!"
To everyone who is washed in the precious blood of Jesus He comes from within the veil and announces: "It is finished!" "You are clean from all your sins!"
It takes all of the Old Testament sacrifices, offerings, feasts and fast put together to help us to comprehend something of the magnitude of what Christ accomplished for us in His death and the shedding of His blood. No one offering, not even the Day of Atonement, could completely explain what He did for us on the cross.
The sacrifice of Christ doesn't have to be offered again, nor does anything need to be added to it. It has been paid in full. It is sufficient. It is eternal. All you need to do is receive it as God's gift to you. There are no additions, no come ons, no service charges, no rebates, no sales charges, no taxes, no handling charges, no hidden small fine print or fast talking salesman will call. It is paid in full! Just receive it, enjoy it, and rejoice in Him. Believe on Christ right now. Ask Him to save you.

Where would we be without maps? We can't see too far ahead, we can't see too far behind and we certainly can't see around the corner. Maps come to the rescue when our two-dimensional perspective of the road keeps us from being able to see where we are going. If we ignore maps in these situations, we will be lost. Leviticus begins a set of instructions for everyday life - some for the people and some for the priests. It covers sexual relations, punishment for sin, rules for priests, and unacceptable sacrifices. These are Gods expressed desires for His people - His map for our life's travels. The landscape includes several highways:resisting the negative influence and immortality of the culture around us; showing mercy to those in need; avoiding occult practices and giving our best efforts and gifts to God.

God gave many rules to His people, each for a reason. He did not withhold good from them; he prohibited those acts that would bring them to ruin and commanded those acts that would benefit them. All of us can see God's physical laws of nature. Jumping off a ten-story building will result in grave injuries or death because of the law of gravity. Eating healthy food means fueling the body with what it needs. But some of us don't understand how Gods spiritual laws work. God forbids us to do certain things because He wants to keep us from self destruction. He commands us to do other acts because he knows what we need to flourish.

The next time you are drawn to a forbidden physical activity or emotional response, remember that it may lead to suffering and separation from the God who is trying to help you. The next time a good act seems unpleasant or inconvenient, remember that God has only the best planned for you.