Leviticus

For the past three years, I have been going through the Old Testament. It has taught me so much - lessons that have changed the way I view myself, God, and this world. It's been one of the most beautiful experiences in my life.

I'm down to four books: Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Joshua. To be honest, I was really putting off Leviticus and Numbers, just because I thought they would be drudgery. Not gonna lie, for the past few days that I've been reading Leviticus, I've felt like it's been drudgery at times. However, this drudgery is God's word and I need God's word super mega much, plus, it's taught me stuff. Important stuff. 

Basically, the book of Leviticus is a holiness code for the people of Israel. It's name "Leviticus" is derived from the tribe of Levi, one of the twelve sons of Israel AKA Jacob. Aaron, Moses' awesome brother who spoke for him and stuff, and his sons were Levites; God chose them to be His holy priests for all of Israel.

Consequently, most of Leviticus is rules for the priests about how to do sacrifices in order to atone for the people's uncleanliness. Their sins. The priests had to do these things so that the people could be reconciled before a thrice-Holy God (Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty - Isaiah 6:3). God's character is that of holiness; ours is that of sin. But, because He loved Israel, God gave them a strict set of laws in order that they could be made clean.

Here is just a bit of what I've learned in the first 20 chapters.

God demanded that all sacrifices be without blemish - the best of the best. God not only deserves the best animal, He deserves our best. He also demands purity and His standards of that cannot be met by people. Only Aaron and his sons could perform the sacrifices for all of Israel so that they could be clean.

How freaking scary is that? Just think of being a non-Levite at that time. I could not do anything to save myself; I had to trust these priests to make me clean before God. If they didn't, I would be "cut off." Totally alone in a world where it was impossible to survive without the support of others. Someone else was responsible for making me pure before and saving me from hell.

Also, my (still pretending to be an Israelite here) relationship with God was not one of closeness. I wasn't allowed in His temple. It wasn't personal; it was strict laws and rituals and the blood of animals being sprinkled seven times on the altar and the killing of goats.  It was a relationship of love and grace and mercy, but in a totally different way than that which Jesus gave us when he died on the cross and atoned for all our sins and totally destroyed the need for the ritual sacrifices described in Leviticus.

We don't have to do what the Israelites did: sacrificing goats and worrying about unclean animals (there's an extensive list of what they could and couldn't eat which blew my mind) or worrying about another sinful human to make us pure. It's totally out of human hands now. Jesus is in control.

One other thing I want to mention: blood is talked about a really lot throughout Leviticus in really graphic terms. However in chapter 17, verse 11, it states: "for the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life" and verse 14 "for the life of every creature is its blood: its blood is its life..."

Jesus' blood made us clean. Even before we had His covenant blood was still making us clean. We have always needed life in exchange for our sins. Our sins condemn us to death. We chose sin. God allowed us to make that choice and, because of our desire to be like God, our world has sin and death and pain and we can't save ourselves.

However, I also learned today, in fact, that God isn't the one who performs the evil. My bible teacher today explained it like this, kinda: if a baby is born blind, God didn't make it that way. I don't serve a God that blinds infants and twists bodies. I serve a loving God who allowed me to chose sin and because I chose sin babies are born blind. It opened the door for all these evil things to happen, but God did not want that baby to be blind.

I guess I always thought the really bad stuff in my life that's happened (this sentence isn't grammatically correct at all) was God doing it, but for a good reason. When I thought about the evil done toward me, I just assumed He was going to use it for His glory, which He does, awesomely. But God is a God of love. It breaks His heart to see evil in this world and my pain. He would never hurt me; He can't do evil.

He is the holy of holies. He can't perform anything not holy. It was our choice that allowed sin into the world.

This is a lot, I know, and I'm not ever going to be able to understand or explain it fully, but I do know that I am so thankful God gave me the choice to chose sin if I wanted. Because now I believe we will be able to appreciate His love and grace and mercy so much more than being perfect robots who worship Him and have no idea what sin or pain or choice is.

So, in closing, read Leviticus.