Hey everyone,
My name is Austin. And my name is Ashley. Welcome to the Clean Slate Podcast. Where we're finding Jesus in the Old Testament.
Hey there, thanks so much for joining us for episode 13. We're going to be recapping Leviticus chapters 2 through 10 today.
As I was studying for Leviticus, I learned something fascinating. Scholars who study ancient religions observe two kinds of rituals in different cultures. One type of ritual is called instrumental rites and another is called analogical rites. In cultures who practice what is called instrumental rites, they believed the rites would produce an actual effect from the divine realm by manipulating objects here in our
So really what they were doing was seeking to coerce their lowercase g, God, into doing something they wanted because they had performed a certain act.
In cultures that practiced analogical rites, also known as sacraments, their goal was to identify and respond to divine realities and not seek to manipulate them. This would clearly be the Hebrew form of worship and sacraments.
A great example of this is how God forbade the eating of blood.
In cultures that practiced the eating of blood, they often believed that eating or drinking the blood of an animal gave them the strength or power of that animal.
God forbade this taking in of blood for the Israelites because it misses the point entirely. God desires to bless us and provide for us as we have seen Him do over and over in our reading this year. If someone needs strength in a hard season, God wants us to come to Him in prayer, not to try to obtain that by the blood of bulls. If someone needs wisdom, God wants us to ask, not to try to manipulate Him into giving it to us.
But more than this, God never intended for the blood of bulls and goats to be a permanent atonement for anyone's sin.
In the New Testament, in the book of Hebrews, chapter 9 verse 11, the scripture says,
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then, through the greater and more perfect tent not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by the means of His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.
the institution of the new covenant would tell us, this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. That's in Mark 14 verse 24. God knew there would be a time that the final sacrifice, the all-sufficient sacrifice would be made. Then and only then would he permit us to eat and drink of that sacrifice.
That's really good stuff. Really good stuff. You know, something else that's worth mentioning is that often the information regarding pagan sacrificial rituals were often kept closed off to only the professionals or the pagan priests. The worshipers of pagan gods didn't always know what was being sacrificed or why.
those priests could have made up whatever they wanted to take advantage of the people or held prejudice against people they didn't like. That is not an option here. God has laid out specifically for everyone what was required.
As we continue to read, we see he even specifies what parts of the animal were to be given to the priests or used in certain ceremonies. There were even ceremonies restricted to the high priest, but those were spelled out for everyone to know what was happening. So just the fact that Leviticus is available for us to read as a testament to God's desire for all of his people to know how to come to him.
I mean, in the very first chapter of Leviticus, verse 2, the Lord says to Moses, Speak to the people of Israel. He wanted his people to know how to approach him, despite their egregious sin.
He wanted them to sacrifice their first and best without blemish because that's what he ultimately gave us, his first and best, who was also without blemish. And of course, I'm talking about our savior, who John the Baptist calls the spotless lamb.
Doesn't that phrase carry so much more weight after reading just a few chapters into Leviticus?
I think we all know it means that he was without sin, but I think we tend to stop there and not correlate that thought with the fact that he was the perfect sacrifice God prescribed all along.
In the first five chapters of Leviticus, we see the procedures for the five major offerings.
As I mentioned in the last episode, chapter one is the burnt offerings.
burnt offerings were meant as underscores of prayers of petition or praise. Like we've touched on before, in a burnt offering, all parts of the sacrifice are completely consumed.
In chapter two, we see grain offerings. This was offered with another type of offering. So it would be to add emphasis to whatever type of offering was being given.
In Ch3 we see peace offerings. The blood is sprinkled on the altar, but a portion of the animal is given back to the worshiper so they could have a communion meal.
In chapters four and five, we see sin offerings and guilt offerings respectively.
The purpose of each of these offerings was atonement of a committed sin.
Although sin offerings were more of a metaphor for purification, whereas guilt offerings were more of a metaphor for compensating for wrongdoing.
With each of these offerings, we see the Lord give many ways for His people to be reconciled, and give various ways to offer that sacrifice.
He even made adjustments so that the center's economic status wouldn't get in their way of reconciled to him.
Can't afford a ram? Use a sheep. Can't afford a sheep? Use a Can't afford a goat? Use a bird. God ensures that all Israelites have the ability to present an atoning sacrifice no matter how poor they may be. Something else to note is that in any of sacrifices, it was never a passive experience. What I mean is the worshiper was the one who was responsible for sacrificing the animal.
They don't just show up as a passive observer, give the animal to the priest and say have a good day, which I know for me was how I pictured it for a long time, until you actually read Leviticus. And that's not how it says it at all.
It was work on the part of the worshiper to present the animal, touch its head, slaughter it, skin it, etc. Then the priest would take the blood or the parts to be sacrificed to their appropriate places. As a modern day worshiper, we are not just an observer either. We are called to be an active part as members of one body.
Next we see in chapters 6 through 7 you have the proper handling, eating, or disposal of those offerings mentioned in chapters 1 through 5.
Something else to address here that sometimes gets some pushback is that the priests were to get a portion of the sacrifice in certain offerings. But you have to think, these priests dedicated their lives as a bridge between the people and the Lord. They did not also have time to work another job because let's face it, their work was never done. So that was God's way of providing for the needs of the priests
as they were tending to the needs of the people.
As we move into chapters 8 through 10, which is the end of our recap for today, there's a lot that happens.
And I'd like to summarize and deal with the hardest part of this episode so that we don't end on that.
The ordination of Aaron and his sons begins in chapter 8 and lasts for seven days.
There's been a lot of instruction leading up to this point. And as we see in chapter nine, God gives instruction on how to end this ordination process. Everything is going pretty well in chapter nine. And at the very end of that chapter, fire comes out from before the Lord and consumes the burnt offering.
When this happened, the people of Israel saw it, shouted and fell on their faces in fear and worship. Immediately in chapter 10, Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, an ordained priest, offer unauthorized fire before the Lord.
this happens, the Bible says the fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them and they died before the Lord.
What we know is that Nadab and Abihu offered unauthorized fire and were likely drunk if you look at chapter 10 verses 8 and 9.
This may seem harsh and maybe even a bit unfair. The reality is that God is holy and will not be mocked nor will he allow his holiness to be violated even by members of the priest family. Friends, when Proverbs tells us that the fear of the Lord is the union of wisdom, this is what it means. God is steadfast and patient and kind like we saw earlier in Exodus, but he is also fierce.
If you go back to the end of chapter 9, Israelites saw God consumed the burnt offering and they hit the deck in fear and awe. That was the appropriate response.
If you've ever read the Chronicles of Narnia, in the book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, young Lucy Pevensey was asking about Aslan, the lion, who is representative of Jesus, the Lion of Judah in that story. And she asked if Aslan was safe. Mr. Beaver replies and says, don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn't safe, but he is good. He's the king, I tell you.
So it is with God. He isn't safe in the way we'd like for him to be, but he is good.
I want to finish this episode by talking about two different gospel realities you can see in the last two chapters. Ashley has mentioned in the past that the number seven keeps getting brought up, which, you know, if you go back to Genesis, there are seven days in creation.
really important to note that Aaron and his son's ordination was to end on the eighth day.
The early church fathers used to talk about the eighth day a lot.
They used to say that we're in the eighth day now.
Their idea was that you have the six symbolic days of work. The seventh day would be the day of rest. That seventh day to them was represented by when Christ was in the tomb and when he rose again that we entered into the eighth day, where is rest forevermore. Remember the priesthood was meant to represent Christ. And so the idea is that now that their ordination had come, it was angling at rest for the people of Israel.
last thing I want to talk about something I actually touched on earlier
The priest's job was to represent the people to God,
to go before God and make atonement on the people's behalf. And like she mentioned, their job was never finished. But in John chapter 19, as Jesus was dying on the cross, he said, it is finished. Jesus was talking about the final and complete payment for the sins of his people. Later in the beginning of the book of Hebrews, the author says of Jesus, he is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.
And he, talking about Jesus, upholds the universe with the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.
Folks, this is why no more sacrifices are required. Jesus, like I said earlier, made the once for all sacrifice and He, as our great High Priest, sat down because the work of atoning for His people is finished. by repenting of your sins and putting your faith and trust in His death, burial and resurrection.
you can be sure that your sins are forgiven.
Jesus is the spotless Lamb, our great high priest, and God with us.
And with that beautiful gospel glimpse, that's going to do it for today's recap friends. May His grace abound to you and to me as we study to find Jesus in the Old Testament.
