February 22 - Leviticus 26-27: God Finishes the Laws at Sinai

Today’s Reading: Leviticus 26-27

The Message

English Standard Version

Congratulations! You have finished four books of the Bible! You have also finished over half of the Pentateuch. Let's get through today and we'll begin Numbers tomorrow.

Thought to Guide Your Reading

Even God's patience would not be infinite. If the people disobeyed Him, He would punish them.

Summary in 100 Words or Less

God warned the people: if they obeyed, they would live comfortably. If they committed the same sins as the people in Canaan, they would be likewise punished. God brought the Israelites out of Egypt to be their God.
People could vow a person's work to God. If a person wanted to give an animal or field to God they could receive compensation. However, to buy back the animal or field the person had to add 20%. This could not be used to stop a person's execution or prevent sacrifices.
This ends the commands God gave the people at Mount Sinai.

How Today’s Reading Contributes to the Gospel: God is Setting All Things Right

God would be with His Chosen People—provided they were wholly His.

Israel's final warning goes back to the beginning—they were to be different than the people who came before them. God promises if they do these things He will be with them and, in the words of Job's Accuser, place a protective hedge around them. However, if they did not obey God's laws He would do the same to them as He is going to do to the current tenants of Canaan. God's blessings are infinite—but they are only for those who are holy, meaning wholly for God.

February 21 - Leviticus 24-25: On Blasphemy and Sabbath Years

Today’s Reading: Leviticus 24-25

The Message

English Standard Version

Thought to Guide Your Reading

God's heavy punishments were meant to prevent people from committing horrible acts of aggression.

Summary in 100 Words or Less

A half-Egyptian Israelite cursed God. Those who heard condemned him and the congregation stoned him. God required that anyone who injured another person would be required to suffer the same injury—even if it meant death. This law was for anyone inside Israel's borders.
God told the people to let the land to rest on the seventh year. God would provide enough on the sixth year to sustain the people.
On the fiftieth year all land would return to its original family and all slaves were to be released.
Israelites were not to make a profit off the poor.

How Today’s Reading Contributes to the Gospel: God is Setting All Things Right

God will not allow his name to be cursed in his land.

This is the lesson Israel received from the Israelite with an Egyptian father. No one—including foreigners—were allowed to curse God's name on God's land. But what is also important to see is that God required the people who heard the man curse God to condemn him before he was executed.

God wanted the earth to have a year of rest.

God not only wanted the people to rest every week he also wanted the land to rest every seven years. This would both allow the land to rejuvenate (before the popular use of fertilizers) and allow the people to show their faith in God. God promised he would bless them so great on the sixth year that they would never starve during or after the rest. God will bless us before and after we pledge to obey His will.

God protects the poor from onerous interest.

God would not allow His Chosen People to exploit the situation of the poor. He required them to loan without expecting interest.

The Jubilee served as a reset button for the Israelites.

The land would return to the original owner's family. Israelite slaves were to be set free. Debts were forgiven. However, God did require all prices to be set based on when the Jubilee would happen. God would not cheat the land buyers anymore than he would cheat the people who received the land back.

February 20 - Leviticus 22-23: On Priests and Festivals

Today’s Reading: Leviticus 22-23

The Message

English Standard Version

Thought to Guide Your Reading

The priests were to be a people set apart for service—a holy people among a holy nation. Feasts were to help pass on the common history of the people.

Summary in 100 Words or Less

God decreed that any offering was holy and could only be eaten by priests and their dependents. Anyone who was unclean had to wait until they were clean before eating. Any offering had to be quality stock, not a dumping of weaklings. God warned them, "Do not tempt me. I am the God who brought you out of Egypt."
God organized several festivals to commemorate certain times of the year or events of the past: Sabbath every week, Passover followed by the Feast of Unleavened Bread, harvest, Pentecost, Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Booths.

How Today’s Reading Contributes to the Gospel: God is Setting All Things Right

The priests were to be the holy people among a holy nation.

(Picking up with chapter 21 from yesterday) The Israelites were to be set apart for God. At the same time, the Levites were to be set apart from the Israelites to be the go-betweens for the people and God. This means the priests were held to a higher standard from the normal Israelite. However, because they were set apart God would allow them to focus entirely on being the representatives of the people for Him. This is why they were allowed to take the sacrifices offered and use them to feed their families. However, only those who depended directly on the priest—wife, non-married (or widowed) children, slaves—were allowed to eat. The hired worker or the married child could not eat. They were not (or no longer) set apart for service and could spend their time earning a living.

God required a grain offering of the first fruits to engender a faithful spirit.

Just as God would not accept animals with defects or abnormalities, God would not allow His Chosen People to wait to make sure they had enough to cover their expenses before making an offering. This required faith that the harvest would not be ruined before they could finish harvesting it. They could not enjoy the fruits of their labor until they had thanked God for giving it to them. When giving, give thanks to God before anything else.
This is why my wife and I give a percentage of our income as it comes in. We do not wait to see if we have enough for our expected expenses. It might seem this would make the month more stressful. But it does not. Why? Because when we give to God first we live by faith. God has given it to us and we first thank Him for having it come to us before we use the money for ourselves.

God protects the poor.

Don't forget it.

February 19 - Leviticus 19-21: God Calls His Chosen People to Holiness

Today’s Reading: Leviticus 19-21

The Message

English Standard Version

There are several repeats of laws previously mentioned. However, this is not a section to skip. If you wish to understand the Old Testament and how the Old Testament informs the New Testament this is one day that you should read completely. I would love to comment on everything but I will focus on general principles instead. Give your thoughts on specific laws in the comments below. I'd love to know what your thoughts are.

Thought to Guide Your Reading

God is giving "light unto the nation" laws. These were laws intended to separate Israel from the people who came before them and polluted the land.

Summary in 100 Words or Less

God's people were to be holy because their God was holy.
God repeated several laws. He expanded on some and summarized others. They were to leave parts of fields for the poor and foreign. They were to judge based on rightness instead of wealth, protect their neighbor, stay away from divination or sorcery, respect the elderly, and treat the foreigner equally as a native. They were to be holy.
Anyone who performed child sacrifice was reject by God and must be executed. Both partners were to be executed for sexual sin.
Priests had specific laws beyond the other tribes.

How Today’s Reading Contributes to the Gospel: God is Setting All Things Right

These laws are given to the Israelites to be a holy people, a light unto the nations.

This is a very difficult post to write. The reason is simple—of all sections of scripture these chapters (including yesterday's reading) are the go-to area to discredit the Bible. No one sells "Leviticus 17-21" merchandise or tattoos it on their body. Some of the laws are unpopular and do not make sense taken out of context.
However, as I mentioned yesterday, these laws do not come from a vacuum. They are specific laws designed to make the people different from the people who polluted the land before them (repeated in 20:22-23) and holy, meaning they are an example to the nations around them of how God sets things right on the earth. These laws were not universal laws forced upon the world. They exhibit how God sets things right in the world through His Chosen People. This is why I believe they are important for God's Chosen People today to know, even if we are not under the same law per se.

God protects the poor and the foreigner.

I want to reiterate this point (and will every time God mentions it). God's people help the poor and treat the foreigner as an equal. They were to leave their fields with grain to provide food for those who had no fields of their own. They were not to oppress the poor—or judge unjustly in their favor. They were to give the foreigner (most likely a refugee) the same treatment as a native. God sets things right on the earth by having his people help the poor and refugee.

Laws against mixing two things (mating animals, woven materials) are to symbolize their (w)holiness to God.

These laws are often shown to be ludicrous. However, understanding that the Law of Moses is meant to separate the people from bad influences changes how these laws are meant to help the people. They provide visual symbols of their wholeness to God alone. They are to have no other god and their lifestyle mirrors that wholeness. There could be no mixing of gods that they served and there was to be no mixing of crops, animals, and clothing fibers in their life.

The laws about priests were to show the purity of God from all things not set right.

These laws speak of holy living but also staying away from the effects of the curse. This is why those who were deformed could not present an offering. God would not be reminded of the curse placed on the world because of man's sin.

February 18 - Leviticus 16-18: God Provides a Scapegoat for His Pure People

Today’s Reading: Leviticus 16-18

The Message

English Standard Version

Thought to Guide Your Reading

God is both telling the people how to live and why he has rejected the people currently living in Canaan.

Summary in 100 Words or Less

God spoke to Moses telling him how Aaron should perform the annual sacrifice for the sins of the people. There would be two goats—one to be killed and the other to be released as a scapegoat.
God gave warnings against sacrificing to other gods. If anyone ate blood they were to be cut off from the community.
God told the people not to act like the Egyptians or the people in Canaan. These included certain sexual partners and offering children to gods as sacrifices. Anyone who did these things would be cut off from their community and their land.

How Today’s Reading Contributes to the Gospel: God is Setting All Things Right

The scapegoat took the sins of the people into the wilderness.

All my life I had been told the people needed to remember their past sins every year, like rolling out a carpet with all of the past stains there. However, God set the sacrifice for the sins of the people so that the people knew their sins (which were not taken away completely) were no longer with them. So each year they would bring the sins that they committed during that year. God always gives a scapegoat that will bear the sins of the people into the wilderness.

Blood = Life

God is very clear—blood represents life. No one is to eat the life of another animal. Blood gives life literally within our veins and figuratively by washing away sins. That imagery will stay throughout the entire Bible.

God wanted the people to have drastically different sexual (and sacrificial) lifestyles than the others around them—pure lives which did not pollute the land.

Chapter 18 is very thorough but also self-explanatory. God places the impetus for these instructions at the beginning and the end:

Don't live like the people of Egypt where you used to live, and don't live like the people of Canaan where I'm bringing you. Don't do what they do." (v. 3, The Message)
Don't pollute yourself in any of these ways. This is how the nations became polluted, the ones that I am going to drive out of the land before you. Even the land itself became polluted and I punished it for its iniquities - the land vomited up its inhabitants. (vv. 24-25)

The people in these nations had polluted the land by their sins and God would punish the people. God will reject a people if they do not set things right and expects his Chosen People to live lives in stark contrast to those who do not set things right.

February 17 - Leviticus 14 and 15: On Healed Lepers, Infected Houses and Happy Couples

Today’s Reading: Leviticus 14-15

The Message

English Standard Version

Today's reading deals with unpleasant bodily functions. It may not be for the squeamish.

Thought to Guide Your Reading

(Repeated from yesterday)
Today we see how God protected his people from disease and other germs.

Summary in 100 Words or Less

If a person with leprosy was cured, the person went to the priest for a test and a sacrifice. If the person was too poor another type would be accepted.
If a house had a fungus, the priest gave a test. If it failed, part of the house or the entire house, depending on the situation, was destroyed.
If a person had a discharge then they were unclean until the discharge stopped. If a couple had intercourse during the day they were unclean until evening. Anything the people touched during the day was also unclean and should be washed.

How Today’s Reading Contributes to the Gospel: God is Setting All Things Right

God protected the people from disease.

Leprosy and other ailments could spread easily. This is why God gave rigorous tests to make sure the person was clean and everything they touched was washed. This would destroy the germs and bacteria and prevent them from spreading.

God gave the poor a different sacrifice if they could not afford the regular sacrifice.

God protects the poor. He will not prevent them from healing because they cannot afford the proper animal. What a God!

February 16 - Leviticus 11-13: Cleanliness is Next to ... Sacrifice (in Leviticus)

Today’s Reading: Leviticus 11-13

The Message

English Standard Version

Today we are reading about leprosy and tests to check for leprosy. It can be very confusing. So if you find yourself getting bogged down, tell yourself there won't be a test and you are not under this law. Look for what it says about God instead of the detailed actions.

Thought to Guide Your Reading

Today we see how God protected his people from disease and other germs.

Summary in 100 Words or Less

God gave the Israelites guidelines on which animals to eat (clean vs. unclean). All unclean animals' carcasses were not to be touched. Anyone who touched them would be unclean themselves until the next day. Anything that touched the carcass was unclean and needed to be either washed or broken, depending on the item.
New mothers were unclean for a period of time which depended on whether they had a boy or girl.
God gave many instructions on leprosy and how to diagnose, treat, and distinguish it from other ailments. Those who had the disease had to live outside the camp.

How Today’s Reading Contributes to the Gospel: God is Setting All Things Right

God's list of unclean animals were unclean because they could give the Israelites diseases if not cooked properly.

God's list was not a hodgepodge of random animals. The animals on each list are animals that we consider clean and unclean today. We get around the issue by cooking unclean meat thoroughly. God wanted to protect his people from complications of contaminated meat by keeping them away completely.

God protected new mothers and new babies from diseases.

Babies do not have a well-functioning immune system until they are four to six weeks old. This law allowed mothers and babies to stay away from the community with their communicable diseases for the amount of time needed.

God protected the people from leprosy and made the tests rigorous enough that no one would be falsely removed from camp.

This is an important part to bring out. God did not require the person who had a white spot leave camp forever. He put a quarantine system in place where the person was able to heal. For the time, this was advanced medicine.

February 15 - Leviticus 8-10: Aaron is Made Priest, Loses Two Sons

Today’s Reading: Leviticus 8-10

The Message

English Standard Version

Thought to Guide Your Reading

We must separate holy times from non-holy times.

Summary in 100 Words or Less

God told Moses to show the people that Aaron and his sons were His chosen priests.
On the eighth day, Moses told the people to prepare a sacrifice for God would appear to them. Fire came down from God and consumed all of the sacrifices. The people bowed in reverence.
Nadab and Abihu presented a strange offering to God. God burned them alive. Aaron and his remaining sons were commanded not to drink alcohol because they were to be holy.
An argument flared between Moses and Aaron based on sacrifices. Aaron assured him they obeyed God and Moses was satisfied.

How Today’s Reading Contributes to the Gospel: God is Setting All Things Right

God wanted the Israelites to know that Aaron and his sons had God's stamp of approval.

God wanted to make sure the people knew that Aaron and his sons were set apart for His service. This is important because later they would not challenge his position. True leaders are given authority from God, not from their own will.

God once again shows His Power to the people.

God wants the people to see His Power and Greatness. So he decides to show them all a portion of his Greatness by bringing fire from the heavens to consume their sacrifices.

Nadab and Abihu show the danger of alcohol in worshiping God, not the specificity of worship.

I had been taught that this story shows how we must worship God in the exact method He prescribed or God would not be happy with our worship. This is not true. Although God does care for how we worship Him (the argument between Moses and Aaron came because Moses was worried the other sons were guilty of not obeying God's commands) God's instructions for Aaron and his sons afterwards are,

When you enter the Tent of Meeting, don't drink wine or strong drink, neither you nor your sons, lest you die. This is a fixed rule down through the generations. Distinguish between the holy and the common, between the ritually clean and unclean. (10:9-10, The Message)

God is not a drunken-orgy God (as the other gods of the day). God is a holy, upright, setting-all-things-right God. When worshiping God abstain from alcohol. When drinking alcohol, don't proclaim to be worshiping God. We must separate times designated as holy from other times.

February 14 - Leviticus 5-7: On Sacrifices (part 2)

Today’s Reading: Leviticus 5-7

The Message

English Standard Version

Happy Valentine's day! May you feel the Love of our Creator above all others today.

Thought to Guide Your Reading

Cleanliness is more than ritualistic cleanliness.

Summary in 100 Words or Less

God continues to give instructions on how to give sacrifices. Sin sacrifices were to be given even if you did not know that what you were doing was wrong. Anything that touched the sacrifice must be holy. The meat could be eaten until the third day. If anyone ate of it on the third day they were excommunicated from the community.
These were the instructions for the different sacrifices given.

How Today’s Reading Contributes to the Gospel: God is Setting All Things Right

A person could be unclean or guilty without knowing what they were doing.

God made these laws because he wanted to set all things right on the earth. Because of this, transgressions of the Law were taken seriously. Even if a person did not know that what they were doing was wrong they were guilty. However, they were only required to sacrifice an offering to God and were not greatly punished. Ignorance of how what you do sets things wrong does not absolve your guilt.

God requires holiness in rituals.

Everything used in sacrificing needed to be holy. If something was not holy then the sacrifice was not helpful to the person. Holiness means set apart for God. Our sacrifice (our lives) must be holy to God to be acceptable.

Anyone who ate meat on the third day was cut off from their community.

This doesn't sound as bad to us. We can go from town to town, city to city, congregation to congregation and no one will ask if we were cut off from our previous group. However, being excommunicated from Israel meant that person's entire social structure, their protection from people who would do them harm, and help when in need was gone. This was a disastrous situation that anyone would want to avoid. Why would God do this? Anyone who is not fully committed to God setting all things right on the earth should not be part of his Chosen People. The Elect are people dedicated to God. Those who are not dedicated to God can be bad influences and can turn others away from their dedication. This is why God cuts people off for what we would consider small sins.

February 13 - Leviticus 1-4: On Sacrifices (part 1)

Today’s Reading: Leviticus 1-4

The Message

English Standard Version

Today we start Leviticus, the book of laws given at Mount Sinai. Leviticus contains very few "stories," so prepare for many days of shorter posts.

If you are behind in your reading, parts of Leviticus are scan-able. Do not think that Leviticus is unworthy of reading! There are great truths in this book that I will try to point out here in the blog.

Onward!

Thought to Guide Your Reading

All offerings were to be without defect, meaning they had to be the best of the flock.

Summary in 100 Words or Less

God spoke to Moses and gave him instructions on how different types of offerings were to be given: whole-animal burnt offerings (both mammals and birds) and grain offerings. Then God used that foundation to discuss two offerings: peace offerings and sin offerings (for the common people, priests, and leaders of the people).

How Today’s Reading Contributes to the Gospel: God is Setting All Things Right

A note on sacrifice.

Repeated from February 8
Before we look aslant at this "violent" culture that killed animals for their "bloodthirsty" God, we must remember that the ability to eat meat without killing it yourself is a dramatically new phenomenon. No matter what type of humane way it came to you, at one point the animal died and was processed, most likely by a human. Because we have removed ourselves from this process does not make it barbaric to kill an animal.

Religious rituals are important to God.

This is an entire book dedicated to being holy before God. It presents different offerings that the people were to follow detailed rules. It is chic today to get away from rituals and focus on free-form worship/service/etc. Much of this comes from the overemphasis of rituals. What we must understand is that God cares deeply for how His People worship Him. God presents specific rules for sacrifices because when His people to worship Him in His way God can set things right through His People. It may not seem logical, but by faith we trust that this is happening.

Animal sacrifices were to be "without defect."

The Israelites were not able to use sacrifices as ways to get rid of their defective stock. If an animal was born with a defective leg, it could not be sacrificed. A farmer could not forget God, take his herd to market, and bring whatever was left as his sacrifice. God will not settle for our thoughtless, last-minute sacrifices. He requires that we give up something valuable to us when giving to Him.

Sin sacrifices were for prevention of sin not punishment for sin.

God requires an entire bull to be sacrificed when a person sinned. This bull could have fed an entire family for days, used for warmth, and/or sold to buy other goods. But instead because they went against God's way they were forced to give up that meat, warmth, and money. They would have to watch as this defenseless animal was slaughtered because they did not set things right. God wanted this scene to serve as a deterrent for sin. God's punishment for sin is meant to prevent us from going against Him not give us our just desserts.