Month: December 2022

Leviticus 23:4, 37, 38 These are the feasts of the Lord, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons…These are the feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord, a burnt offering, and a meat offering, a sacrifice, and drink offerings, everything upon his day: Beside the sabbaths of the Lord, and beside your gifts, and beside all your vows, and beside all your free will offerings, which ye give unto the Lord.

The people of God were told to respond to God’s mercies by coming together in holy convocation three times a year, for the Feasts of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. They were to proclaim these feasts. They announced, advertised, supported, set up, planned for, paid for, and then participated in these three celebrations every year at the tabernacle and then the temple. This was in addition to the weekly Sabbaths and daily offerings.

The Jews were faithful in proclaiming, holding, and attending these annual Feasts and weekly Sabbaths until the time of Jesus. The NT Church carried on this traditional response by proclaiming Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost. (Although Pentecost doesn’t get the commercial and secular support of the world, it really is still worthy of a Holiday.) The NT also carries through the tradition of the Sabbath by organizing Divine Service weekly on Sunday. We also continue daily family and private devotions.

All of this proclaiming involves gathering Christians, building churches for worship and celebration, giving generously for the supporting and maintaining of churches, volunteering time and talent, supplying means for fellowship, and sending missionaries throughout the world. A lot goes on in proclaiming. We respond to the Gospel by organizing worship. The Church becomes a focal point in our lives all in response to the Gospel.

Leviticus 20:7-8 Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy; for I am the Lord your God. And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them: I am the Lord which sanctify you.

We are moved by the grace of the Gospel and the work of the Holy Spirit to consecrate ourselves, or to set ourselves apart from self and the world for God’s use. But it is the Lord who does the actual and effective work of sanctifying. He makes us holy in two ways: 1) instantly and officially in Baptism and faith; 2) gradually and actually in the process of growing in faith and love, in which we more and more keep and do.

We don’t actually make ourselves holy, for sinners do not have the ability to improve the flesh and become better people. However, what we do in response to hearing God’s Word of Law and Gospel is set ourselves apart, consecrate, make ourselves available to God, and give Him access. We do this by hearing the Law for conviction of sin that the Spirit might lead us to repentance and the hearing of the Gospel for faith and salvation. The Gospel is the power of God.

We sanctify ourselves by going to church, to Bible study, and to quiet time. Then we respond to the gospel by asking Him to make us better people in the Lord’s Prayer. By using the means of grace we sanctify ourselves so God can make us holy.

Leviticus 19:37 Therefore shall ye observe all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: I am the Lord.

Yahweh is Yahweh, the Lord is the Lord, God is God. Because I am Yahweh, you will observe and do what I say. I am the Lord who brought you up; I am the Lord who delivered you; I am the Lord who saves you; I am the Lord who blesses you. I act according to my character, which is pure love. My love for you acts on your behalf for your good.

The more you get to know Me, My Love and My Work the greater will be your desire and ability to respond by doing what I say. The more we come to know Jesus the Lord the more we will and do of His good pleasure. The Holy Spirit changes our desires and gives us the ability to observe and do His statutes and judgments. The Lord changes our lives from the inside out; human effort or force will not succeed.

Ye shall is both a command and a promise. Obedience will be our response to the overwhelming love and amazing grace of God. We always have need of, and never tire of, the Gospel, for it is the power of God. Our response to thr Lord is living a better life.

Leviticus 19:23-25 And when ye shall have come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees for food, then ye shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised: three years shall it be uncircumcised unto you: it shall not be eaten of. But in the fourth year all fruit shall be holy to praise the Lord withal. And in the fifth year shall ye eat of the fruit thereof, that it may yield unto you the increase thereof: I am the Lord your God.

The principle behind this strange command is that we give God the first and the best of everything we have been given to enjoy life with. It takes time and patience to grow fruit trees, and when the firstfruits of the fourth year finally produce we give it all to the Lord to thank Him for it. God will provide the increase in the fifth year and beyond. We trust God to abundantly provide what is needed, and we don’t rob God by taking what is His for ourself. We praise and thank God for His great blessings by setting aside the first and best of everything. We give to the Lord the tithe for kingdom use out of love that responds to His love.

We recognize the Lord in everything we do for work or pleasure. We acknowledge where it all comes from, that He is the source of all good things. We begin every task in His name, and “we do all to the glory of God the Father.”

Leviticus 19:18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of the people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself: I am the Lord.

Embedded within, almost lost in, the various commands of Leviticus is this summary of the second Table of the Law, Love Your Neighbor! Jesus quotes this verse in the NT as the essence of the Ten Commandments: Love God, Love people. We express our love for God by loving others. God doesn’t need your love, but others do. We respond to the love of God with love for people, because He is the Lord.

God alone is the beginner, author, originator, initiator, and source of love, for God is Love. All genuine, self-giving, unconditional love comes from God. He expresses it in living technicolor in the person and work of His Son. We see the love of God in the Gospel; we believe it, we receive it, we have it by faith; then we respond to His love by reflecting God’s love. We cannot make it up, work it up, or decide on our own to love.

As examples, we do not take revenge or hold a grudge; instead, we do unto others and treat others kindly and forgive one another. This kind of loving attitude and generous goodness does not arise from a sinful heart, but it arises from the love of God for us, from the Jesus in us. “We love because He first loved us.” The love of neighbor is the good, right, proper, and necessary response to the love of God for us. It is the automatic response of faith.

Leviticus 18:30 Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any of these abominable customs which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the Lord your God.

Therefore, because the land spues out the defilers and the soul that commits abominations shall be cut off, you will be different. You will look different, and you will live differently, than the world around you. You will respond by keeping my ordinances. Your lifestyle, and worship life, sets you apart and makes you a peculiar people. This difference will be noticed by the world in which you live, and you may even be mocked, ridiculed, teased, and persecuted by the world that hates God.

This moral lifestyle responds by keeping the ordinances of God because He is the Lord my God. My God is kind and loving, merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love. God is so good that His Ways are also good for me. We respond in fear (faith) and love to such a good God, that we have a God-given desire and a Spirit-driven power to live His way and avoid the world’s ways. Then it so happens that we are blessed and life is good.

Leviticus 18:24, 25 Defile not yourselves in any of these things; for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you…Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you.

The things that defile the people and the community are sexual perversions like adultery, incest, homosexuality, and bestiality. These are abominations that defile, pollute, make unclean, dirty, filthy, impure and full of sin. These things are abhorrent to God and should be to us as well. These abominable things were widespread among the heathen pagan world.

These sins may seem harmless with no victims, but we take seriously the word defile not yourselves. Both we and the others involved are defiled and harmed in soul and spirit, even in body. There are no victimless sins against God. In truth, every sin defiles ourselves and the land we live in.

But the Lord cleanses us with the blood of the Lamb. By faith we respond to the forgiveness of God. We are cleansed of defilement. Therefore, we avoid defiling ourselves again and again. The blood of Jesus cleanses us from every sin, so thus we want to stop defiling ourself. Repentance must be daily.

Leviticus 18:3-4 After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do; neither shall ye walk in their ordinances. Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the Lord your God.

Yahweh is the Lord your God. Jesus is Yahweh. Jesus is our Lord. He it is who has saved us out the world (Egypt) and from the deadly practices of the world (Canaan). The world in us is in slavery to Sin and Death and under the control of the Evil One. We have been delivered from the world, its sentence of death, its destructive ways, its opposition to God, and its false gods.

Therefore, we respond in faith and thanks by not doing the doings of the world. We won’t go back under that yoke; instead, we live a new life in the freedom of the kingdom of God. We respond to such great salvation by doing the judgments and ordinances of God. We recognize that the old way of living brings misery and death; God’s way brings joy and life.

Even though we are tempted to give in to the world’s temptations every day, we repent and believe daily. We fail and fall, but forgiveness lifts us up again, and with a renewed faith and a new life we are motivated to do God’s will and walk His ways. A Spirit-directed life is our daily response to God’s love and grace and salvation.

Leviticus 17:12 Therefore I said unto the children of Israel, No soul of you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger that sojourneth among you eat blood.

The reason for this command is in v. 11: “The life of the flesh is in the blood…it is to make atonement for the soul.” To shed the blood of a sacrificial animal is to remove its life. The shed blood of the sacrificial lamb is a substitutionary death in place of the one who brings the sacrifice. The judgment for sin is death. The soul that sins must die.

All of these blood sacrifices obviously point to the once-for-all blood sacrifice of the Lamb of God. And the prohibition against eating blood was rescinded when the fulfillment came true. Now Jesus says, “Unless you drink the blood [of the Son of Man] you have no life in you.” We eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ every Sunday. And we have life, for life is in the blood. In fact, Jesus gives us the life of God, eternal life

We do not eat the blood, as Satanists do, for that would be making a mockery of the blood of Christ in Communion. In fact, we respect the Blood since life is in it. We partake of the blood of Christ by believing in Him. By faith we have life, the life of God. We do not respond to the mercy of God by any kind of magic rite to make something happen, but by receiving it with faith. Therefore, we do not eat blood to please God or earn God’s favor. We do drink the blood of Christ in Communion because we have already received mercy.

Leviticus 17:7 And they shall no more sacrifice unto devils, after whom they have gone a whoring. This shall be a statute for ever unto them throughout their generations.

This is the command and prediction of the First Commandment: My people will no longer sacrifice unto devils. Using the faithful marriage imagery and the image of the jealous God, who has bound Himself by covenant to be faithful to His people as bride, the Lord reveals to us what we give up for God. The pagan gods that were actually behind the idols and altars were devils, or demons. All the pagan gods of the world are real beings, not imaginary figures.

It took a long time and much tragedy for Israel to learn the lesson to believe in and worship Yahweh, the One True God, alone. For centuries, Israel would worship the local pagan gods and sacrifice to demons in addition to the worship of God. They tried to live in two worlds at the same time. It must be God or Baal, God or Mammon.

This is our response to the goodness, grace, and gospel of God. We no longer sacrifice to demons, and when we see it for what it is we abhor it all for devotion to God alone. The temptations of the world, pleasure, money, and power are the demon-gods that are always around us. But we learn to respond by no longer sacrificing to devils.