Since Leigh has successfully brought our blog back to my memory, I dedicate whatever ramblings I post today to her with grateful thanks. To further commemorate her contribution to our family culture, I will also listen to iTunes while doing so.
I've spent two weeks reading Leviticus. It's a bit tougher to read than Exodus, but worth it. It's not because of the the plot, which is simple enough. God says it so many times I ended up losing count: "Be holy, because I the Lord your God am holy." It's more because of the intricate detail God goes into while laying out exactly how he expected his people to go about being holy.
For the first time in history, God was going to live with Humans. Even in Eden, he only walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden every evening. He didn't live there. The problem was God is so holy - pure and set apart - that the Israelites were going to have to do some serious changing to stay alive with God in their midst. They had little or no clue how to live in a Godly way, so the first thing God had to do was set out the basics: basic atonement for basic sins, basic cleanliness, and basic decency toward each other. It's a pretty comprehensive summary of what God expects from anyone who wants to follow and imitate him.
Be pure. Be clean. Be set apart. That was the crux of every command God gave in Leviticus (and Exodus...and Numbers...and Matthew...and Romans...)
Reading this and really comparing it to when God's son Jesus actually became the final sacrifice has made me start to recognize exactly how big a change occurred with that action. Things I take for granted were unheard of for the Hebrews just becoming the Nation of Israel.
Maybe the very biggest change revolves around the Tabernacle and it's function as a place of sacrifice and meeting with God. Back then, the concept of God actually being among us was revolutionary. Unheard of. Only had been done a few times under extraordinary circumstances.
The Hebrews had specific people who were set aside to serve God as priests and a specific place set aside and maintained as God's house. Only the priests could approach God after carefully following a series of requirements that protected them from death when they got near the Holy of Holies where God's presence lived. Everyone else had to stay back and communicate to God through the men who'd been chosen as temporary go-betweens.
I'm not sure a modern Christian can really understand the magnitude of this restriction. We don't have to go to a physical building to meet with God because we were turned into the building. We don't need another man to speak to God for us because Jesus has already become a permanent go-between. We can in essence speak directly to God and hear his answer if we bestir ourselves enough to want to hear him. I've got a Holy of Holies I carry around inside me. I'm not sure I've exactly wrapped my brain around the enormity of that idea. I've known it for as long as I can remember, but it's like I've just discovered it.
Then there's the sacrifices, whose blood still couldn't cover a number of sins that Christan consider to be forgiveable today. Animal sacrifice was intricate, hard, bloody, and constantly necessary. You had to have your hand on the head of the animal dying for your sins while it died. A hard reality I don't think I've ever really confronted. My hand wasn't on Jesus' head when he died. I can't even begin to comprehend what this requirement would've been like.
You had to do it, though: anything that isn't pure and holy has to be paid for and made pure and holy again if you want to be in God's presence. Only death can pay for sin, and back then it was give an animal's life or your own.
Again, I'm not quite sure I can get my head around the difference between Jesus becoming the once and perfect sacrifice and the kind of constant attempt at atonement those who believed in God used to have to do.
The Hebrews were told to stay scrupulously clean. Actually, to our culture of washing all the time, living in their camp would still have probably felt pretty grungy; but to other Middle Eastern cultures even today, the Israelis stand out by virtue of their nearly obsessive cleanliness. They had to be that clean because God was living with them and God does not tolerate filth.
Carrying God inside us has added a whole new layer. Jesus talked about it a lot. "Why clean the outside of something when the inside is a mess?" he asked. "You need to worry about the inside more than the outside." God didn't talk to the Israelis much about their hearts and souls in Leviticus. But after Jesus, we were told our insides needed to be as pure as the Hebrews were commanded to keep their outsides. Think you've done good by not murdering someone? Well, try this on for size: don't call your brother a fool, because your heart is the same as if you were murdering him.
That last thought may in a nutshell contain my thoughts on Leviticus. It's the primer for understanding God, the foundation for what we're really supposed to be doing. Being clean. Being pure. Being holy. Heart, mind, body, and spirit. All the way. All the time. Because God is living with us too.
I've spent two weeks reading Leviticus. It's a bit tougher to read than Exodus, but worth it. It's not because of the the plot, which is simple enough. God says it so many times I ended up losing count: "Be holy, because I the Lord your God am holy." It's more because of the intricate detail God goes into while laying out exactly how he expected his people to go about being holy.
For the first time in history, God was going to live with Humans. Even in Eden, he only walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden every evening. He didn't live there. The problem was God is so holy - pure and set apart - that the Israelites were going to have to do some serious changing to stay alive with God in their midst. They had little or no clue how to live in a Godly way, so the first thing God had to do was set out the basics: basic atonement for basic sins, basic cleanliness, and basic decency toward each other. It's a pretty comprehensive summary of what God expects from anyone who wants to follow and imitate him.
Be pure. Be clean. Be set apart. That was the crux of every command God gave in Leviticus (and Exodus...and Numbers...and Matthew...and Romans...)
Reading this and really comparing it to when God's son Jesus actually became the final sacrifice has made me start to recognize exactly how big a change occurred with that action. Things I take for granted were unheard of for the Hebrews just becoming the Nation of Israel.
Maybe the very biggest change revolves around the Tabernacle and it's function as a place of sacrifice and meeting with God. Back then, the concept of God actually being among us was revolutionary. Unheard of. Only had been done a few times under extraordinary circumstances.
The Hebrews had specific people who were set aside to serve God as priests and a specific place set aside and maintained as God's house. Only the priests could approach God after carefully following a series of requirements that protected them from death when they got near the Holy of Holies where God's presence lived. Everyone else had to stay back and communicate to God through the men who'd been chosen as temporary go-betweens.
I'm not sure a modern Christian can really understand the magnitude of this restriction. We don't have to go to a physical building to meet with God because we were turned into the building. We don't need another man to speak to God for us because Jesus has already become a permanent go-between. We can in essence speak directly to God and hear his answer if we bestir ourselves enough to want to hear him. I've got a Holy of Holies I carry around inside me. I'm not sure I've exactly wrapped my brain around the enormity of that idea. I've known it for as long as I can remember, but it's like I've just discovered it.
Then there's the sacrifices, whose blood still couldn't cover a number of sins that Christan consider to be forgiveable today. Animal sacrifice was intricate, hard, bloody, and constantly necessary. You had to have your hand on the head of the animal dying for your sins while it died. A hard reality I don't think I've ever really confronted. My hand wasn't on Jesus' head when he died. I can't even begin to comprehend what this requirement would've been like.
You had to do it, though: anything that isn't pure and holy has to be paid for and made pure and holy again if you want to be in God's presence. Only death can pay for sin, and back then it was give an animal's life or your own.
Again, I'm not quite sure I can get my head around the difference between Jesus becoming the once and perfect sacrifice and the kind of constant attempt at atonement those who believed in God used to have to do.
The Hebrews were told to stay scrupulously clean. Actually, to our culture of washing all the time, living in their camp would still have probably felt pretty grungy; but to other Middle Eastern cultures even today, the Israelis stand out by virtue of their nearly obsessive cleanliness. They had to be that clean because God was living with them and God does not tolerate filth.
Carrying God inside us has added a whole new layer. Jesus talked about it a lot. "Why clean the outside of something when the inside is a mess?" he asked. "You need to worry about the inside more than the outside." God didn't talk to the Israelis much about their hearts and souls in Leviticus. But after Jesus, we were told our insides needed to be as pure as the Hebrews were commanded to keep their outsides. Think you've done good by not murdering someone? Well, try this on for size: don't call your brother a fool, because your heart is the same as if you were murdering him.
That last thought may in a nutshell contain my thoughts on Leviticus. It's the primer for understanding God, the foundation for what we're really supposed to be doing. Being clean. Being pure. Being holy. Heart, mind, body, and spirit. All the way. All the time. Because God is living with us too.
1 comment:
Just wanted to say I'm glad you're back and posting again!
-Leigh
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