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Your Other Gods

What Is Your Functional Savior?

Do we worship other gods today? Could we be unknowingly guilty of idolatry? You bet! As Martin Luther said, “Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God, your functional savior.”

The Journey// Focus: Leviticus 17:7

The people must no longer be unfaithful to the Lord by offering sacrifices to the goat idols. This is a permanent law for them, to be observed from generation to generation.

Goat demons—weird, huh! The translation I have used calls them “goat idols”, but in some versions you will see a footnote that says an alternative reading is “demons.” There is a possibility that this refers to the satyrs—an creepy mythical creature found in several ancient cultures that was half goat and half human. Every time I see a photo of a satyr I sense something demonic about it. You probably do, too.

It is more likely that what God had in mind here, and I say that reverently, because who can truly know the mind of the Lord, was an idol in the shape of a goat. The surrounding nations likely had such man-made idols, much like the bull and calf idols that the Egyptians famously worshiped. We are told that later on in the Israelite’s history, when the nation spit between Judah and Israel, the split-off king Jeroboam, “appointed his own priests to serve at the pagan shrines, where they worshiped the goat and calf idols he had made.”

You might be thinking, who would ever abandon their worship of the Lord to worship goat idols? Apparently, God’s people did! Notice the first part of that verse: The people must no longer be unfaithful to the Lord by offering sacrifices to goat idols.” (Italics mine) It is quite likely that when the Israelites were in Egypt, living in the land of Goshen, they adopted some of the worship practices of their neighbors who sacrificed to goat, bull, calf or satyr idols. The New King James version renders it in an even more serious, accusatory way:

“They shall no more offer their sacrifices to demons, after whom they have played the harlot.”

Unfaithfulness in any form is a sin, repugnant to God. Adultery is a serious sin, a blow to the marriage covenant between God, husband and wife, and destructive to the human family. Spiritual adultery, pardon my French—whoring around—is certain to invite the wrath of God. That is why, in no uncertain terms, he is laying down the prohibition to offer sacrifices only in the central location that he chooses in the land they will soon possess—first in the tabernacle; later in the permanent temple that was built in Jerusalem.

Spiritual harlotry was a deadly serious sin. So a statute forever instituted here is not merely a regulation about slaughtering animals for sacrifice, it was a built-in guard rail that would keep them from being lured to idolatry. You see, once they arrive in Canaan, they would be scattered through the land, some living a hundred miles or more away from the central place of worship. Rather than making the arduous trip to the tabernacle/temple, they might be tempted to slaughter their animal and offer it to God in their own backyard. But the temptation would always become to offer that sacrifice to a local idol, since that is usual the drift. To keep their worship pure and monotheistic, God therefore built in a prohibition against offering sacrifices anywhere other than in the central place of worship and only offering it through the mediation of the priests.

Now what does that have to do with you? A lot! You drift, too. So do I. That is the gravitational pull of our sinful nature. Yes, we have been redeemed, but we are also in the process of being redeemed. That means our sin nature, while being diminished by the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit, won’t be completely annihilated until we are finally and fully in the Lord’s presence. So that sin nature will find ways to cooperate with the devil in order to distract us from our unadulterated worship of the one true God—perhaps not with goat idols and satyrs, but with attractions, dependencies and loyalties to things that complete with God for throne space in our lives.

Have you allowed that in your past? Of course you have. And that is why you will drift in the present, if you are not careful (“you must no longer be unfaithful to the Lord”). And that is why you must realize that God alone must call the shots as to how we are to worship him (“a statute permanent law”). Maybe that is why, in spite of the current trend otherwise, the New Testament church was committed to coming together for regular worship in a central place (Hebrews 10:24-25) and following certain procedures in their corporate worship (see various teachings in the New Testament—1 Corinthians 12, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, etc.) Divine rules, contrary to popular belief, are not restrictive, they are protective.

“Playing the harlot” in our worship is a clear and harsh accusation, and perhaps it is even offensive that I would suggest that of you (which I am not, by the way. I’m simply calling for self-evaluation). But I think playing the harlot is more often than not a very subtle slide into worship that is more about our convenience and preferences than it is about maintaining a deliberate and faithful effort to offer worship to God in the way he has prescribed.

Who, or what, is your functional savior? Listen, there is only one God, and he has demanded that we have no other gods before him. All I am saying is, let’s make sure we don’t!

Going Deeper: Has your worship in any way become more about what you want than what God desires? The drift to self-centered worship is subtle in our world, so ask the Holy Spirit to give you a Divine check-up. Then make the necessary adjustments in your worship practices. God will not share your loyalty with another.

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At-One-Ment

Being Set Right In The Eyes Of A Holy God

At-one-ment: the state of being set right in the eyes of a holy God. In the Old Testament, the way God established for that to happen was through the series of procedures and sacrifices on the Day of Atonement—the sin offering, the burnt offering, the releasing of the scapegoat, the offering of incense, etc. In the New Testament, atonement finds its culmination in Jesus, of whom John the Baptist proclaimed, “Here is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

The Journey // Focus: Leviticus 16:29-31

On the tenth day of the appointed month in early autumn, you must deny yourselves. Neither native-born Israelites nor foreigners living among you may do any kind of work. This is a permanent law for you. On that day offerings of purification will be made for you, and you will be purified in the Lord’s presence from all your sins. It will be a Sabbath day of complete rest for you, and you must deny yourselves. This is a permanent law for you.

Leviticus 16 describes the multifaceted offerings that were to be made for the Day of Atonement, a sacred observance on the yearly calendar of the Israelites in perpetuity. So just what was atonement, and why was it so important that it required so many sacrifices and such a precise process? The answer to the what and the why is simply this: atonement is literally at-one-ment; being made one with God. Obviously that is why it was such an important and solemn day.

At-one-ment—the state of being set right in the eyes of a holy God. In the Old Testament, the way God established for that to happen was through the series of procedures and sacrifices described in this chapter: ceremonial cleansing for the priest and his assistants, the sin offering, the burnt offering, the releasing of the scapegoat, literally, the “go-away goat”, the offering of incense, etc. So holy and important was this day that God made it very clear to Aaron, the high priest:

Aaron is not to enter the Most Holy Place behind the inner curtain whenever he chooses; if he does, he will die. For the Ark’s cover—the place of atonement—is there, and I myself am present in the cloud above the atonement cover. (Leviticus 16:2)

Now while there was a serious and elaborate process that the Israelites—both the clergy and the people—were to observe in a physical way to be cleansed once a year on this day for their sins, God was looking for something more from them. He wanted their hearts. It was always the case that he longed for them to express a repentant heart before him through all of the various sacrifices, laws and procedures he provided.

In this particular case of atonement, this was to be a day when God said, “you must deny yourselves.” (Leviticus 16:29) Most likely, this was a day for fasting—an outward sign and a spiritual discipline that God wanted to lead those who worshiped him to an inner response of loving and grateful humility. Later on in Israel’s history, we are clearly told in Isaiah 58 that God wanted much more than the mere outward act of self-denial; it was an inner orientation toward God that led to outward application toward other people that would produce true atonement before God.

In the New Testament, this critical provision for atonement is transferred to the sacrifice of Jesus, who became our sin offering, our scapegoat, our cleansing and our fragrant incense before God. Amazingly and stunningly, we are the recipients of such marvelous grace:

Now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made atonement for us. (Romans 5:11)

Moreover, as we consider the provision for atonement—again, at-one-ment with God—both in the Old Testament law and in its New Testament fulfillment in Christ’s atoning sacrifice, there is yet another critical dimension we must consider. Here is how theologian Lehman Strauss puts it:

Our Lord had a wider outlook than Judaism. It is true that He was sent especially to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, nevertheless He most certainly taught His disciples that they were to be witnesses unto Him “both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8), and He was not sending them on a fool’s errand. The Atonement is sufficient for all men, but it is efficient only for those who believe!

What is the point? We who have benefited from being made right with God at Christ’s expense have been called to take this message of atonement to the whole world. God’s longing to bring reconciliation to the world was partially modeled for the Jew through the Day of Atonement and completely fulfilled through Jesus’ atoning sacrifice, and now it is through the proclamation of the Gospel, in the preaching of our words and in the practice of our lives, that the lost will see God’s gracious offer to be set right with him—at-one-ment.

The Day of Atonement finds its culmination in Jesus, of whom John the Baptist proclaimed, “Here is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) That should be our proclamation, too!

Going Deeper: John the Baptist saw Jesus and shouted to everyone who could hear, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” Is there anyone near you who needs to hear that coming from you lips?

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How To Read The Old Testament

As a New Testament believer, you cannot make sense of the Jewish Scriptures without seeing them through the lens of the Jesus Scriptures. The whole point of the Old Testament was that it pointed to Jesus, who was the fulfillment of the law. All of the strange laws God gave to govern rebellious people were simply placeholders that pointed to the One who would be the ultimate, once-and-for-all sacrifice for our sins; a sacrifice that would both now and forever establish us as holy in God’s sight.

The Journey// Focus: Leviticus 15:1-2,

And the Lord spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying, “Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, ‘When any man hath a running issue out of his flesh, because of his issue he is unclean.’ … ‘And if a woman have an issue, and her issue in her flesh be blood, she shall be put apart seven days: and whosoever toucheth her shall be unclean until the even. And every thing that she lieth upon in her separation shall be unclean: every thing also that she sitteth upon shall be unclean.

I deliberately chose these verses from the King James Version because it was the only way to clean up what the Bible says about the uncleanness of a man or a woman. When you read it in your version of choice, at a visceral level, you probably thought, “ick!”

That is what my children would say to me when they were old enough to read the Bible through, beginning with the Old Testament. Several times when they were still in the books of Moses, they came to me with that “ew” expression on their face to get my take on uncomfortable stories, like Lot’s daughters’ inappropriate behavior in Genesis 19, or the story in Genesis 34 of Shechem’s violation of Dinah and her brother’s revenge on the sore Hivites. I was beginning to rethink having my kids read the Old Testament.

And then you come to a section like this in Leviticus 15. The editor’s heading of your translation, whatever version of the Bible you use, should be a clear give away that this is going to be an uncomfortable reading. As the English Standard Version labels it, “Laws About Bodily Discharges”, this chapter won’t be great as a mealtime devotional.

I won’t re-plow ground at this point on the Divine reason for restrictive regulations like this—and there are some insightful and important reasons that God had in giving them—but I would encourage you to go back and read any of my previous devotionals on Leviticus 11-15. God wanted his people to be holy and healthy, and he went to great lengths to provide a path for them to be his sanctified people, distinct from all others on Planet Earth. And rather than seeing these rules as restrictive, the Israelites considered them as reasons to rejoice in their Divine election.

But here is the over-arching point I want to make about this chapter, and in fact, the entire Old Testament: as a New Testament believer, you cannot make sense of the Jewish Scriptures without seeing them through the lens of the Jesus Scriptures. The whole point of the Old Testament was that it pointed to Jesus, who was the fulfillment of the law. From the moment that Adam and Eve fell in the Garden of Eden, God began his reclamation project with the promise of a Redeemer:

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. (Genesis 3:15)

That was the first of scores of Old Testament messianic prophecies that pointed to and were perfectly fulfilled in the coming of Jesus. All of these strange laws God gave to govern rebellious people were simply placeholders that anticipated the One who would be the ultimate, once-and-for-all sacrifice for our sins; a sacrifice that would both now and forever establish us as holy in God’s sight. Whenever you read the Old Testament, you have to keep that in mind—and as you do, your appreciation for the grace and mercy, along with the sovereign wisdom of God, will soar in your heart and mind.

Now to come back to this particular story, bodily discharges and ceremonial defilement, let’s take a grateful look at how Jesus redeemed these very same situations. Here is an example in Mark 5:25-34,

There was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’” And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth.  And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

Now think of how many “violations” there were in this incident if we were to woodenly interpret Leviticus 15, or if we were to see it without Jesus in view! Here’s the deal: When you read Leviticus 15 through the lens of Jesus, you understand God’s desire to draw near to the unclean, whether a man with leprosy or a lady with issue of blood, to make them whole. And it took Jesus to reveal the Father’s heart that you don’t completely see in this Old Testament chapter.

And it took Jesus to reveal the Father’s heart in the real world of our icky lives. Thank God for Jesus!

Going Deeper: Are there people that you find icky? The stinky bum on the street, the teeming masses of HIV infected in Africa, the anarchist in the streets protesting the issue du jour, or whatever group causes you to cringe? Just remember, what you think is icky, Jesus can make holy. See them not as they are, but as what they can be.

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And Now, A Message From Our Sponsors About Mold

When you read through Leviticus, you will have to wade through what seems like an endless list of defiling afflictions that could possibly come upon the Israelites, both bodies and buildings, and regulations the Lord required for ritual purification from these very afflictions. In this case, why would God put a mildew, or as other translations say, a spreading mold in a house? And how should we apply that in our modern era when we have medical remedies and cleaning products for these types of things? In part, the answer is that God sometimes allows, perhaps even causes, difficulties in our lives as a sort of stress test of the strength level of our trust. Difficult conditions quite often reveal if our heart trusts him or not. Why does God allow hardship? Simply because there is nothing more precious to God than a trusting heart—and that is something he can’t create; we have to offer it to him. So at times he will allow that which reveals our trust, or lack thereof, in hopes that we will see it and do something about it.

The Journey // Focus: Leviticus 14:33-34

Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “When you arrive in Canaan, the land I am giving you as your own possession, I may contaminate some of the houses in your land with mildew.

For several chapters in Leviticus—and now through several devotional blogs from yours truly—we have waded through what seems like an endless list of defiling afflictions that could possibly come upon the Israelites, both bodies and buildings, and regulations the Lord required for ritual purification from these very afflictions. As I have mentioned before, you may have been tempted to skip these readings; I certainly have. And I’ve got to tell you, if you think reading them is difficult, trying writing an uplifting devotional thought about them. Poor me!

Okay, enough of the self-pity. Now, how do we pull anything worth applying out of Leviticus 14? Why is any of this important to us when we live in a time where we have resources—medical preventions and cleaning products—to remediate molds, mildews and their odors? Most of all, why would God put a mildew, or as other translations say, a spreading mold in a house? Yes, that is exactly what the text says in Leviticus 14:34,

I may contaminate some of the houses in your land with mildew…. (New Living Translation)

I put a spreading mold in a house… (New International Version)

I put a case of leprous disease in a house… (English Standard Version)

Certainly this qualifies as one of those head scratchers, of which there are many in the Old Testament, if not outright one of the hard sayings of the Bible. So let me take a shot at what is going on here. Here are three possible explanations for God sending a spreading mold into a home:

One, God is sovereign. Simply put, God can do what he wants, when he wants and with whom he wants. Now a statement about God sending a spreading mold may shake our confidences in a kind, benevolent, caring and loving Deity, but it shouldn’t. God will never violate his own character. So even when there is no humanly satisfying explanation of the what and why that God has done, we can know that there is more to the story, even though only may God know it. By the way, even though God’s sovereignty over sending molds may be a little disconcerting, overall, the sovereignty of God is one of the most comforting and cherished doctrines about our Lord that the Christian has.

Two, sometimes God sent mildew as a form of judgment. In Amos 4:9 God tells the Israelites, “I struck your farms and vineyards with blight and mildew. Locusts devoured all your fig and olive trees. But still you would not return to me.” We don’t talk about the judgment of God much these days, especially any kind of Divine punishment other than the final judgment, but God does step in from time to time with a variety of discomforts that are pleading reminders for people to repent and return to him. In this light, this doctrine of God is also a comfort to us, for Divine punishment is also a Divine pleading from a merciful God who takes no delight in judging people he loves.

Three, God sometimes allows, even causes, difficult things in our lives as a stress test of our trust. When bad things happen, are we going to trust him? Hardship has a way of revealing what is in our hearts. Arguably, Deuteronomy 8:1-5 is the defining word on this:

Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors. Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years.  Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you.

A pure and loyal heart that completely, continually trusts God is the most precious gift that we can give to God. He can create everything else that would bring pleasure to himself, but since he has created you with the freedom to choose whether you will love and trust him or not, the offering of your heart brings him joy like nothing else. And while he can’t make you do that, he can show you whether your heart is right or not. And like a good and wise parent, that is why he brings tests into your life: so that you will know what is in your heart. In that sense, hardship is the paternity test of your trust. And when it is obvious that trust is lacking, you can do something about that.

Which of these three explains Leviticus 14:34? We don’t really know; maybe all three. But for sure, what you and I can grab onto and apply is the last reason: More than anything else, God wants our trust! I love how Brennen Manning put it in his book, Ruthless Trust:

The splendor of a human heart which trusts that it is loved gives God more pleasure than Westminster Cathedral, the Sistine Chapel, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, the sight of ten thousand butterflies in flight, or the scent of a million orchids in bloom. Trust is our gift back to God, and he finds it so enchanting that Jesus died for love of it. …Unwavering trust is a rare and precious thing because it often demands a degree of courage that borders on the heroic.

Why does God send spreading molds? I don’t really know. But what I do know is that he longs for your trust!

Going Deeper: Want to make God’s heart swell with joy? Offer your heart in trust to him right now.

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Reconsidering Pandemic Restrictions As God’s Grace

He's Still The God Who Heals All Our Diseases

Instead of being cruel, Biblical quarantine laws showed God’s care for his people. The laws also demonstrated that his people had to take responsibility for their own health—and the health of their neighbors! How different our current health care crisis would be if we took both greater personal and social responsibility for living the kind of healthy lifestyle God intended us to practice. Furthermore, Biblical quarantine generously included the way for people to reenter the community once the illness was addressed. Thankfully, God still cares about our health. He’s the God who heals all our diseases—sometimes through miraculous intervention, sometimes through the body’s miraculous self-healing systems as we follow the his design for healthy living, and sometimes through the miracle of modern medicine—which we should clearly attribute to not just the medical profession, but to the God-given brilliance those who’ve discovered preventions and cures for disease.

The Journey// Focus: Leviticus 13:45-46

Those who suffer from a serious skin disease must tear their clothing and leave their hair uncombed. They must cover their mouth and call out, “Unclean! Unclean!” As long as the serious disease lasts, they will be ceremonially unclean. They must live in isolation in their place outside the camp.

Years ago I read a bestseller called, The Hot Zone. It is the story of the first known outbreak of the Ebola virus—a deadly and highly infectious disease from the rain forest of central Africa. The virus got transported through its human host via air travel, and it suddenly appeared in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. There is no cure, most everyone who contracts it dies within hours, and there is a sudden and panicked, spare-no-expense-don’t-worry-too-much-about-civil-rights effort to stop the outbreak of this “hot” virus.

The book is a page-turner and I would recommend that you read it. But I will warn you, it will scare the bejeebers out of you, not only because of the shocking havoc the virus wreaks on the human body, but because of the very real pandemic possibility, given how globalization has brought the whole humanity family into such close proximity.

The infectious diseases and molds described in Leviticus 13, and the spare-no-expense, violate-every-civil-liberty approach to dealing with them may seem so over the top and inhumane to us today, but given the close proximity of two million Israelites encamped in the Sinai wilderness makes these procedures a little more sane, and humane for the whole of the nation. Several thousand years ago, they had no real system of medical care, no hospitals, no sewage system, no sanitation service, no antibiotics, no Purell, or no bleach or no remediation for toxic mold. They were a primitive people, so God simply started with where they were and protected them from themselves through these rules and regulations.

As I did with the previous chapter, allow me again to quote from a source more knowledgeable that I am on this particular subject. I think you will find this entry from the Quest Study Bible insightful:

Poor health does not necessarily mean that a person is being punished for a specific spiritual or moral offense. (See John 9:3 for the reason why one particular man was born blind.) Some diseases have genetic origins; others are caused by bacteria or viruses and are transmitted through coughing and sneezing, improper hygiene or poor food handling. There are times, however, when illnesses result from sinful attitudes and actions that involve various aspects of life, such as sexuality, eating and drinking, money, health practices, etc. Old Testament laws about health and hygiene may seem overly fastidious, and the isolation of the unclean may seem cruel. But those laws actually reflect God’s gracious protection of the Israelite community from the spread of disease. The laws stressed personal responsibility and concern for the welfare of the community as a whole. They also helped members of the community know when and how to resume contact with people who had regained their health, reducing excessive fear of the sick.

I appreciate the fact that instead of being cruel, these laws showed God’s care for his people. Moreover, these regulations also demonstrated that the people had to take responsibility for their own health and the health of their neighbors—something modern Americans ought to reconsider. How different would our health care crisis be if we would take greater personal responsibility for living the kind of healthy lifestyle God intended us to practice. Furthermore, God’s rules for disease and toxic molds also generously included the way for people to reenter the community once they were addressed.

Are you grateful, as I am, that we belong to a God who cares about our health? And not only does he care, he is the God who heals all our disease—sometimes through miraculous intervention, sometimes through the miracle of the self-healing systems of our bodies when we follow the Divine design for healthy living, and sometimes through the miracle of modern medicine—which we should clearly attribute to not just the medical profession, but to the God who provided the people in the profession with the brilliance to discover preventions and cures for these age-old diseases.

Going Deeper: Evaluate your lifestyle, physically speaking. Are you eating, resting, exercising and in general, living in a way that is congruent with the Creator’s design for the human body? If not, today is a good day for a tune up.

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Was God’s Law Unfair To Women?

Blessings In Disguise

Some Old Testament rules and regulations seem especially unfair to women, although men might push back by bringing up the joys of circumcision. Why did God require what he did? I don’t know; he is God and he had his reasons. But the ceremonial system for purification was actually a revelation of grace: a holy God was making a way for both men AND women to be close to him. Today, the ultimate outcome for what he asks us to do is the same: fellowship with him. God wants us to be with him that much! That’s grace!

The Journey // Focus: Leviticus 12:1-5

The Lord said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites: ‘A woman who becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son will be ceremonially unclean for seven days, just as she is unclean during her monthly period. On the eighth day the boy is to be circumcised. Then the woman must wait thirty-three days to be purified from her bleeding. She must not touch anything sacred or go to the sanctuary until the days of her purification are over. If she gives birth to a daughter, for two weeks the woman will be unclean, as during her period. Then she must wait sixty-six days to be purified from her bleeding.’”

I suppose many women would read today’s passage in Leviticus 12 on ceremonial cleansing and childbirth (among other women’s health issues that are mentioned) with a, “wow, that sure seems unfair to women!” And since we are talking about fairness, to be fair, I would agree that it sure seems women paid a heavier price than men in what God required of them—although men might push back by bringing up the joys of circumcision!

But again—and if you are following this blog through Leviticus, I might sound like at broken record as this point—God was teaching his people, Israel, what it meant to walk in holiness before him. Why? Because he had chosen them, sovereignly, out of all the people on the planet, to be set apart as his very own people. They were to be a nation of priests, representing a holy God to an unholy world. And the Israelites, fresh off 400 years of literal and cultural enslavement in godless Egypt, had to be taught what it meant to be holy.

Now as I pointed out in the reading for Leviticus 11, “while God’s restrictions may seem oppressive to us in our modern, sophisticated world, there is no indication that the Israelites felt cheated out of their freedom. They simply understood that they were God’s holy people, set apart from all others, as belonging to God. And that was a great honor to them.”

I don’t know why God chose certain laws and procedures for his people, and in particular, these rules and regulations for women, but he is God and he has his reasons. That is not a cop-out, it is just true. We can deduce some practical reasons and applications for these ceremonial laws, but at the end of the day, only God knows. Furthermore, these laws for ceremonial cleanliness were for Israel at that time, not for us today. Now before you call me a heretic, I would add that there are spiritual benefits that we must discern from the principles of the law. That requires the hard work of disciplined hermeneutics, but these arcane Old Testmament laws have amazing application for us today, which is the whole effort of this blog.

So let me bring this particular effort to do just that to a point of practical application, and one of the best ways I know to do that is to offer this insight from the Charles F. Stanley Life Principles Bible,

To us, the instructions seem complex; it almost looks as though God went out of His way to make it difficult for His people to get to Him. But the whole sacrificial system—fulfilled and culminated in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross—actually pictures God’s grace, since through it He provided a way for His people to get to Him. God designed this system to allow sinful men and women to carry on a relationship with their sinless Creator. God, of course, was under no obligation to provide such a system. Yet He had such a strong desire for fellowship that He willingly went to great lengths to make such fellowship possible.

Female or male, God wants you to be in close fellowship. His wants to bless you, use you and pour out his love upon you—both now and for all eternity. In order to have that, God calls you not to blend in with your surrounding godless culture. It may no longer be through a waiting period of thirty-three days or through circumcision, but the call to be holy is still in effect.

God desires you to be distinctly his? I believe that if you will honestly ask him, he will be faithful to show you what being separate and distinct from your culture will look like for you.

Going Deeper: In the light of this reminder that God has given such effort to make it possible for you to be in fellowship with him through the cleansing work of the cross of Christ, offer up a heartfelt prayer of gratitude.

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Why Does God Care So Much About The Menu?

Dietary Laws Were Not A Problem To The Israelites, They Were A Prvilege

Dietary laws! Are you kidding? Interestingly, while God’s restrictions may seem oppressive to us in our modern, sophisticated world, there is no indication that the Israelites felt cheated out of their freedom. They simply understood that they were God’s holy people, set apart from all others, as belonging to God.  And that was a great honor to them. It may not be through Old Testament rules, but do you stand out as holy unto the Lord in a very unholy world?

The Journey// Focus: Leviticus 11:1-2

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Say to the Israelites: ‘Of all the animals that live on land, these are the ones you may eat…”

My guess is that you didn’t find your reading of Leviticus 11 all too exhilarating. Maybe you didn’t read it at all. Of if you did, you practiced the art of speed reading. For sure, you are probably scratching your head over why God would care about what was on the menu for the Israelites. Why would he give a fig about their diet? Why is this even in our Bible and what am I to do with ancient restrictions on eating camel, owls, bugs and hyrax—is that singular or plural?—today? What’s the application, or is there any practical value at all?

To make any sense or to find any application of most of Leviticus for our lives today, and especially as it relates to these archaic dietary laws, we need to remember the whole point of Leviticus: God was teaching his people about holiness. He was demonstrating to them that he was holy and that they, therefore, since they were his chosen people, must be a holy people. They were to be set apart, distinct from all the other people of the earth. And each of these laws, along with the details of the laws, provided the pathway to holiness, the guardrails to keep them on that, and the onramps to the highway of holiness once they had wandered from it.

As we have seen throughout Leviticus, holiness was a big deal to God—both his and theirs. Now while the Mosaic law is no longer in effect—it was mainly to shape these wandering Hebrews into a nation, a culture, a peaceful, productive society—the spirit or intent of the law is still in effect. God still cares about holiness—his and ours.

God wanted Israel to be holy, his unadulterated people set apart as a kingdom of priests unto the rest of the world, his prized possession. In order to have that, God told them not to blend in with the godless cultures surrounding them, and most definitely they were to avoid at all costs being polluted by their idolatry. Among the may ways God was to distinguish them as such were these dietary laws.

Now some would argue that they restrictions on Israel’s diet had health and hygiene outcomes. Perhaps. Some would say that the animals that were banned from the dinner table were animals that the godless cultures worshipped or sacrificed to their gods. Maybe. But my sense is that God, for reasons that we don’t fully understand, simple said, “here’s how you will set yourself apart for me.” He had the right to do that, you know. And he still does.

Interestingly, while God’s restrictions may seem oppressive to us in our modern, sophisticated world, there is no indication that the Israelites felt cheated out of their freedom. They simply understood that they were God’s holy people, set apart from all others, as belonging to God. And that was a great honor to them. Of course, over time, the honor of being set apart devolved into pride, and that was just as odious to God as eating a skunk. Maybe more so. But the original purpose was powerfully and beautifully important.

So what about today? How has God asked you to be distinctly his? How do you stand out as holy unto the Lord in a very unholy world? What is it that he wants you to do to be in the world yet not of it in a way that is known to one and all?

My fear is that too many of us blend so well into the world that we are seen as distinct. That seems to be the trend among Christians these days—perhaps an overreaction to the recent era of legalistic holiness that our grandparents grew up in.

Can I appeal to us that we rethink how holiness—being separate and distinct from culture, set apart for God’s purpose, a road sign for all to see that we belong to God? I don’t know if restricting your diet will do that for you, or that God is asking that of you. But then again, maybe he is.

Going Deeper: Holiness is a very big deal to God. So what do you need to stop or start to live holiness as a lifestyle.