One thing I’d always overlooked is that with the exception of Leviticus 6:8-7:36, these chapters are addressed to the ordinary Israelite (one of my podcast pastors pointed that out). God says to Moses, “say to the Israelites” in 1:1-2; 4:1-2; 5:1; 6:1, 8-9, 24-25; 7:22-23, 28-29. If these instructions were for the regular members of the covenant community then, they must have some significance for the regular members of the covenant community now. Following is some of what I’ve been thinking on:

Sacrifice and worship

Some of the principles of worship then are applicable now:

• Excellence: the animal offerings were to be without blemish, e.g. 1:3, 10.
• Spontaneity: the burnt offering (ch. 1), grain offering (ch. 2) and fellowship offering (ch. 3) were voluntary. One of the occasions for a presenting a fellowship offering was when the worshipper wished to express general gratitude to God. (Isn’t that a delightful provision God makes?)
• Structure: there were rules to be followed, such as what sacrificial  animal to bring and what to do with its various parts. There are still rules to be followed by the New Testament believer, such as the ones Paul lays down  in 1 Corinthians 14.
• No economic barriers: The type of sacrifice to be made was in some cases porportional to the worshipper’s status and wealth (1:14-17; 5:7-13). Yahweh wouldn’t let that be a hindrance to atonement for sin.
• Substitution: The worshipper placed their hands on a sacrificial animal, which died instead of the human.

Sacrifice and the Christian

The New Testament writers used metaphors drawn from the Jewish sacrificial system with reference to the Christian.The burnt offering (Leviticus 1) was completely burnt up on the altar, nothing remained. In the same way, the follower of Christ is called to give up their life completely to God:

• Matthew 10:38, parallel in Luke 9:23-24
• Galatians 2:20
• Romans 12:1
• 1 Peter 2:20–25; 4:12–13; 5:9–10

Additionally, portions of some sacrifices were given to the officiating priest (e.g. Leviticus 2:3, 10). Paul picks up on this in 1 Corinthians 9:13-14 and applies it to the ministers of the New Covenant.

Sacrifice and Christ

The New Testament as a whole helps us understand that the sacrificial system, the tabernacle/temple and the priesthood were all pointers to Christ. The language of sacrifice is used to describe the life and death of Jesus:

• The Lamb: John 1:29, 36; 1 Corinthians 5:7, 1 Peter 1:19; Revelation 5:6, 12-13 (and elsewhere in Revelation)
• The blood: Romans 3:23-25; Ephesians 1:7; Hebrews 9:12-14, 21- 22; 10:19, 1 John 1:7, Revelation 1:5
• A pleasing aroma to God: Ephesians 5:2 (see, for example, Leviticus 1:9, 13, 17)
• The suffering servant Isaiah 53 is picked up in Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23 and John 19

Resources I used

• Leviticus Lecture 1 by Gordon Wenham (audio and handout available here)
• Five sermons on Leviticus by Dale Ralph Davis (audio available here, date range is from April-October 2008)
• HCSB Study Bible

A church-planting couple in Vancouver has compiled a list of the neat and tidy tips on figuring out your call as well as a list of the messy and ugly confessions that inhibited them from hearing and from following God’s call.

The main points in each list  are summarised below:

Do read the posts in full!

What do we learn about the God of the Bible from the book of Exodus?

1. He is a covenant-keeping God

Right at the beginning of Exodus, the writer wants us to know that God’s promise to Abraham of numerous descendants was on track (1:7, 12). We’re then told that God’s concern for the Israelites’ plight stemmed from His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (2:24-25).

2. He is a rescuing and redeeming God

The rescue from Egypt was also part of the promise he’d made to Abraham. Moses points out the utter singularity of this event in Deuteronomy 4:34.

3. He is a God who judges

Why did Yahweh send the plagues on Egypt? Couldn’t He have brought out His people without all that nasty stuff?

When Moses and Aaron first appeared before Pharaoh, the latter had dismissively said, “I do not know the LORD” (5:2). You don’t say such things about God Almighty and get away with it. In the following chapters, the refrain “then _____ will know that I am the LORD” appears 10 times [1].

Thus Pharaoh’s wilful denial of Yahweh as God was the reason for the plagues. The people of Egypt weren’t lily-white either: their idolatry was a denial of Yahweh too. One way of looking at the plagues is that Yahweh was taking on the false gods of Egypt [2].

4. He is a law-giving God

Moses thought that having the law was a wonderful thing (Deuteronomy 4:8). The psalmists thought it was worth singing about (Psalms 19:7-11; 119; 147:19-20).

It’s also important to note that the law is given to an already redeemed people. There are 18 chapters in Exodus before a single command is given. No wonder those ancient Israelites got so excited about the law!

5. He is a God who desires to dwell with His people

The book of Exodus is wonderful reading until you get to chapter 25 or thereabout. From then until the end of the book, with the exception of a few chapters, it’s all about cubits and curtains made of blue, purple and scarlet yarn. Why is so much space given to the building plans of the tabernacle?

Another oft-repeated phrase answers that for us. We find it in Exodus 25:8 and 29:45-46. It pops up in promise form in Leviticus 26:12 and 1 Kings 6:13. The prophets speak of it  a lot, for example in Isaiah 12:6, Ezekiel 37:27, Zechariah 2:10, 8:3.

So what?

All this happened long ago and far away. Why should any of this matter to New Covenant believers?

God rescues, redeems and keeps His covenant: Moses, who led the people out of Egypt, foreshadowed the seed of Abraham who would deliver God’s people from the bondage to sin. The exodus is the great saving work of God that points ahead to the saving work completed in Christ.

But getting out of Egypt is only half the equation; Joshua led the people into the land of promise. We who believe await another Joshua who will lead us into God’s rest (Hebrews 4:8-10). So far, God has a pretty good track record of keeping promises!

God judges: But He always provides an escape route. In the last plague, it was the blood smeared on the lintel and door-posts. Today it is the precious blood of Christ (1 Peter 1:19).

God desires to dwell with His people: In the opening chapter of the New Testament, we read that Jesus is “God with us”. At the very end of Matthew’s gospel, He promises to be with His people to the very end (28:20). The apostle Paul pulls a number of OT texts together in 2 Corinthians 6:16-18. Finally, the culmination of God dwelling in the midst of His people is to be found in Revelation 21:3.

Oh my, this post has turned out longer than I expected…

Resources I used:

• The God who smites and saves by Dale Ralph Davis (WMA, length 43:26)
• Redemption in Exodus by David Jackman (MP3, length close to 1 hour)
• Overview of Exodus 7-11 by Christopher Wright (WMA, length 53:30)

Notes:

[1] 7:5, 17; 8:10, 22; 9:14, 16, 29; 10:2; 14:4, 18

[2] For example, the plague of blood was directed against the Nile god; the plague of frogs was directed against Heqt/Heket, a goddess with the head of a frog; the plague of darkness was directed against the sun-gods, etc.

Spoken by	Spoken to
[Those last three are a little complex. You may want to actually look them up ]
God the Father, God the Son	Abraham, Abraham  (Genesis 22:11)
	Jacob, Jacob (Genesis 46:2)
	Moses, Moses (Exodus 3:4)
	Samuel, Samuel (1 Samuel 3:4, 10)
	Martha, Martha (Luke 10:41)
	Simon, Simon (Luke 22:31)
	Saul, Saul (Acts 9:4)
God the Son	Eloi, Eloi (Matthew 27:46)
Humans	Lord, Lord (Matthew 7:21-22; Luke 6:46)
David	Absalom (2 Samuel 18:33, 19:4)
Elisha	Elijah (2 Kings 2:12)
Jehoash, king of Israel	Elisha (2 Kings 13:14)

Well, so what? According to Douglas Stuart, the name repetition in Semitic cultures  is a sign of deep, close friendship. So when God calls someone by repeating their name twice, He is conveying His close friendship with that person. Similarly, those who will call Christ “Lord, Lord” are claiming a familiarity which, in the passages above, they have no right to.

I heard a sermon years ago on this name repetition in the Bible, and the preacher pointed out that it is impossible to say a person’s name twice in anger—you’ll probably say it once, perhaps stressing every syllable. I think this comes out best in the cases of Martha, Simon Peter and Saul. In each situation, Christ had good reason to be disappointed or angry. He instead turned those into teaching moments, not only for them but also for all of us who have come afterward. Isn’t it a comfort to know that the Lord is more interested in our instruction than in our castigation?

As the book progresses, Job talks less to his friends (who it seems weren’t listening to him anyway) and more to God. He asks lots of questions. He asks for an audience with God (e.g. Job 31:35-37). He gets no answers, and his meeting with God leaves him speechless and repentant (40:3-5, 42:4-6).

I reflected on how much more divine revelation we have than Job and his three friends, and I came up with the following:

Job’s story is book-ended by God interacting with His creatures (Satan at the beginning and Job at the end). And that’s what we need to remember: despite God’s apparent silence, He’s still very much involved.

Postscript: Ever heard a sermon series on Job? I highly recommend this 6-part sermon series by Christopher Ash (each message is less than 40 minutes).

The longer that Saul of Tarsus walked with Christ, the more aware of his sinfulness he became.

Before encountering Christ, he considered himself blameless (Philippians 3:6). Years later, he’d describe himself as “the least of the apostles” (1 Corinthians 15:9). Some years after that, he’d call himself “the least of all the saints” (Ephesians 3:8) and “the worst of sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15). Each time, the circle grew wider: apostles, saints, sinners.

Even allowing for Eastern humility and exaggeration, I think Paul did have a point to get across: the more he saw of his Saviour, the more he saw why he needed salvation.

What I find instructive is that the increased awareness of his sinful state didn’t leave him grovelling in the ash-heap. Instead, he breaks out in praise to the One who showed such incomparable patience and mercy to him (1 Timothy 1:16-17).

Now that’s a lesson I’m yet to learn…

Addendum:

The Lord moves in mysterious ways… Here’s a post that’s been sitting in  my feed reader that’s about awareness of our sin and expressing gratefulness to God. It’s got a video and a link to another blog post on the same topic.

A couple of weeks ago I was reading from the section of Genesis that contains the story of Hagar and her son Ishmael, and some of it left me somewhat perplexed. We’re introduced to Hagar in chapter 16 when Sarai suggests that Abram may do well to sleep with her. Hagar becomes pregnant and looks down on barren Sarai; Sarai retaliates and Hagar flees to the desert.

Then came the first of my furrowed-brow experiences. The first appearance of the angel of the Lord was to Hagar (Genesis 16:7-12). To an Egyptian slave. Not only that, but He gives her a promise on par with the one Yahweh had previously given Abram: of descendants too numerous to count. Wait, what???! Equally surprising is that Hagar obeyed the command to return to the ill-treatment under Sarai. She delivers her son and gives him the name the angel of Yahweh instructed her to.

The next time we run into Hagar is in chapter 21 when Sarah tells her husband to get rid of Hagar and Ishmael. Abraham’s reluctant to do so but Yahweh tells Abraham it’s okay saying, “I will make the son of the maid-servant into a nation also, because he is your offspring.” (Genesis 21:13). Okay, fair enough.

So Hagar and Ishmael are sent off, but they run out of water in the desert. Yahweh finds Hagar again and repeats His promise. And then He provides an entire well of water! Genesis 21:20 says that God was with Ishmael as he grew up. Later in chapter 25, we read that God kept his promise to make him a great nation by giving him 12 sons. In fact, as Wright points out in his sermon, Isaac and Ishmael are blessed in identical ways except one.

What’s the point?

So why should we care what happened to the progenitor of the Arabs four millennia ago anyway? Answer: This account teaches us something of God’s unchanging character.

1. God shows compassion to Hagar and Ishmael, because He delights to show compassion to the disenfranchised (Deuteronomy 10:18)
2. Hagar named the place of her first encounter with God “the well of the one who sees me” and was instructed to name her son “God hears”.  This picture of a  God who sees and hears is an anticipation of the next book in the Bible (Exodus 3:7).
3. God is determined to keep His promise moving, in spite of human error. His promise was to bless all the nations of the earth through Abraham’s seed (Genesis 12:3). All nations, including Ishmael’s descendants. Including you and me!

That command is taken from Leviticus 19:18, and its original context helps us with the practicalities of loving those around us:

1. Loving others with our possessions (vv. 9–10): We must deliberately plan our financial lives so that we have extra left over to give to those in need.
2. Loving others with our words (vv. 11–12): God’s people love others by telling the truth in their transactions.
3. Loving others by our actions (vv. 13–14): God’s people must not take advantage of the weak.
4. Loving others in our judgments (vv. 15–16): Justice means there should be one standard, one law, for anyone and everyone, not different rules for different kinds of people.
5. Loving others in our attitude (vv. 17–18): It’s not enough to be polite on the outside and full of rage on the inside. If we are angry with our brother we should “reason frankly” with him and try to work things out. The bottom line is that you are to love as you would want to be loved.

Note that each of these five sections is marked off by the phrase “I am the LORD”. Even our horizontal relationships with other people are bound up with pleasing the Lord.

Another thing worth noting is that these precepts are preceded by the command to be holy just as the LORD is holy (Leviticus 19:1).

So in the end, both commandments—to love your neighbor as yourself and to be holy—boil down to everyday social ethics. Simpler than you might think. But still easier said than done.

Adapted from 5 Love Languages of Leviticus

Notes

• Adapted from “Whoever”: In 1 John
• As you can see from the first panel, the Greek is variously translated as the one who, the person who, anyone who, everyone who, no one who, etc. The verses are quoted from the HCSB translation, which mostly uses the one who.
• The ticks and Xs denote whether the statement is positive or negative.