Monthly Archives: February 2022

You May Not… But If You Do…

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Leviticus 27

I had to do some digging to understand what appeared to be a contradiction. Do you need to offer an acceptable animal to God, or is there a loophole?

What I came to realize is that this chapter is not about offering sacrifices for sin. Those animals had to be perfect, without defect or God would not forgive sin. Leviticus 27 is talking about something else all together.

What we see here are offerings to God that accompany a vow to serve Him. Matthew Henry gave the example of people wanting to sweep the tabernacle or run errands for the priests. (Matthew Henry’s Commentary in One Volume; Zondervan Publishing House; 1961; page 141) These willing servants would pay for the privilege of serving, rather than expecting payment for their services.

So God gave them guidelines. The offerings were not sin sacrifices, yet the offerings still needed to be worthy of God. “Good animals” rather than “bad animals;” a fair price for a man willing to serve or the price of a house or land of the person willing to serve.

It costs to serve God. Don’t think it doesn’t.

Now, if a willing servant had only a “bad animal” it did not mean he couldn’t serve. But that “bad animal” would not be acceptable to God. In that case, the servant could bring what they had and exchange the inferior animal for a “good animal,” and offer that to God.

But that didn’t mean he could take his “bad animal” home. Both animals were accepted as the offering, and neither could be bought back.

God didn’t lower the standard because all the guy had was a “bad animal.” God didn’t say, “Well, your heart is in the right place. You had good intentions. That’s good enough.”

It wasn’t good enough. God’s requirement for this offering was a “good animal.” Period.

If the willing servant could have exchanged his inferior animal for the proper one, then taken his inferior animal home, it would have cost him nothing to serve God. And it always costs to serve God.

In fact, in this case the cost of serving God was now TWO animals instead of one. The cost went up. Warren Wiersbe talks about the cost of making rash promises to God. Those can be very costly. (With The Word; Oliver Nelson Publishing; 1991; page 84).

Do you remember the young man who told Jesus he wanted to follow Him? (see Matthew 19, Mark 10, Luke 18). I believe he meant it, until he heard Jesus tell him the cost of following Him:

EVERYTHING!

The young man, though willing, could not bring himself to pay the price when it came right down to it.

I hope you’ve determined to follow Jesus. But don’t get caught up in emotion and make a promise you can’t keep. Count the cost. Because, just as God keeps His promises to us, He expects us to keep our promises to Him.

The Name of God

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Leviticus 24

For those of you Christians who still use the Name of God like an exclamation mark, let me suggest you read Leviticus 24 today.

Now, you need not fear stoning for saying “OMG.” But I think you need to ask yourself how important the Name of God and the precious Name of of Jesus is to you.

Then, ask yourself what your use of the Name says to people who hear it used in such a casual and irreverent way. As a representative of Jesus, does your vocabulary reveal Him the way He deserves?

What does your use of His Name say to God Himself? God is very serious about His Name.

We’d better be, too.

Shame On Us

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Leviticus 18-19

Happy 2sDay, 2.22.22 falling on a Tuesday. Such a fun fact for a day that won’t come around again for a hundred years.

Anyway, these days I’m reading in Leviticus and, sometimes the reading is hard. I find myself wanting to just get through this book and get on. But then I realize Numbers is next and I know I’m in for more of the same. So my prayer is that God will speak to my heart on 2.22.22 and grow me into a woman who knows Him better, loves Him more, and serves Him more effectively.

We can read these chapters and say, “That was then. This is now. What applied to them doesn’t apply to us in the 21st century. After all, we live under grace.”

I wonder.

18:22. What do you think about what that verse says? People say if we want to shove that verse down people’s throat then we need to hold each other accountable for all of it. You can’t just take a verse to make a point and ignore other verses you don’t like.

Exactly.

If we say homosexuality is detestable according to Scripture, then we must also condemn marrying a step-sibling, divorcing your wife and marrying your sister-in-law, or having sex during a woman’s period. In today’s world that is all legal.

Chapter 19 covers things like disrespecting your parents, insulting a deaf person, gossip, holding grudges, getting tattoos…

So where do you draw the line?

19:22.

Holiness.

Not just decency or moral conduct. Not just goodness. H.O.L.I.N.E.S.S.

Simply obeying the letter of the law doesn’t guarantee salvation. We who live after the cross understand that salvation comes only through Jesus’ work on the cross. But obeying the letter as well as the intent of the law should be evidence of our true salvation. Jesus didn’t tell us we could murder someone so long as we didn’t hate them. He didn’t throw out the law. He showed us the spiritual aspect of following the law.

This whole thing can be confusing. There is no way any of us can follow the law. But does that mean the law isn’t there for a reason, that because it’s hard we should just ignore it? I thank God Jesus paid the consequences for my failing to follow the law. But does that give me liberty to disobey?

Common sense tells us if people obeyed these laws spelled out in Leviticus we’d be better off. Our world would not be in the state it’s in.

And, Christian, if you aren’t holding yourself to the same standard God has laid before us… holiness… then we have no one to blame for the state of our world, or the state of our families, than the person staring back at us in the mirror.

Shame on us.

Mistaking Grace

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Leviticus

Sometimes I think we mistake grace for an eraser. We think it negates the requirements of acceptability to God, or that God’s grace just wipes away our sins…”Just As If I’d Never Sinned.”

What we read in Leviticus are the rules for addressing all kinds of impurity. It’s not a fun read. In fact, it’s tempting to just skip over the whole thing, thinking it doesn’t apply to us in 2022. But did God change the rules? Or are the requirements spelled out in Leviticus still a thing?

God’s law has not changed. The difference is after the cross the fulfillment of those requirements were transferred to Jesus. So, yes, the blood of bulls is still required. Jesus provided His own blood. The doves, the lambs, even the scapegoat are still required. Jesus became all of that to fulfill each requirement.

Now don’t go out and kill some unsuspecting farmer’s livestock. Jesus already did what was required once and for all. That debt has been paid in full by His own precious blood.

But just because the fulfillment of the Law was complete in Jesus, don’t skip over these chapters in Leviticus. I know they don’t apply to you in the material sense. But they do apply to you. It gives you such detail about what Jesus did for you. It’s a lot!

I challenge you to read these chapters carefully and let God reveal Himself to you as you do. There is much more to Jesus’ death on the cross than you might think.

We can, because of grace, stand before God “Just As If We’d Never Sinned.” But the fact is we did sin. And God’s grace cost Jesus a great deal. A great deal. He didn’t simply erase our sin. He painfully fulfilled all the requirements needed for the forgiveness of our sin .

Grace is not an eraser. It’s a gift that cost more than you or I may realize.

It’s Not Acceptable

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Leviticus 10

It’s hard to read about the deaths of Nadab and Abihu, Aaron’s sons who dared to worship God by their own rules. But it serves as a reminder how seriously God takes worship. We must worship Him in spirit and in truth. We must worship Him with clean hands and hearts.

Sin cannot worship God. And we cannot hope to worship God while sin is in our hearts, I don’t care if you raise your hands and work up a sweat dancing in the aisles. That is not a sign of true worship. Oh, the person caught up in the moment may be truly worshiping that way, but only if they have dealt with their sin first and are worshiping in spirit AND truth. The simple act of looking like a worshiper, doesn’t make one a worshiper.

After Nadab and Abihu were killed, the people worshiped God flat on their faces. I’m pretty sure they weren’t told to have a smile on their faces. And I doubt they were having a good time.

There are many examples of what worship can look like in Scripture from dancing in the streets to tearing clothes and shedding sorrowful tears. But the one thing all of these examples of worship have in common, the one thing that expresses true worship, is hearts surrendered to God, washed clean, pure, holy, and ready to worship.

Worship any other way is worship by someone else’s rules. It’s just not acceptable.

I hope you plan on going to church tomorrow to worship your Savior with fellow believers. But lets’ stop trying to produce an emotional experience in worship. Let’s be sure we all are worshiping from hearts cleansed by the blood of the Lamb according to God’s rules.

It’s Worth About A Penny

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Leviticus 9

When I read God’s instructions for the various sacrifices, I try to picture the scene. I am often struck by the gruesome death of one animal after another; blood splattered layer upon layer on the altar, then poured on the ground at the base; Aaron and his sons wearing blood on their ears, hands, and feet.

So much blood everywhere.

But God, in His Sovereignty determined before the creation of the world, that blood would be required for the forgiveness of sin. Without the blood no one could have a relationship with Him, no one could be saved from the consequences of their sin.

Friend – blood will be required when you face the Holy Judge, God Himself. And like it or not, believe it or not – you WILL face Him when this life is over.

We who have accepted in this lifetime what Jesus did on the cross will stand before the Judge wearing Jesus’ blood on our heads, hands, and feet because Jesus’ blood covers our sin. God will look at the blood of His precious Son and say, “Debt paid in full.” Our eternity will be in God’s sweet Presence, too amazing to be described by words.

But if you stand before God expecting to pay for your own sins with your own blood, you’d be putting about a penny toward your billion dollar debt. Far, far from paid in full. And owing the cost of sinning against God will be an eternity of horror you can’t even imagine right now, too painful to be described by words.

Our Holy God wants each of us to know Him, so He Himself came to earth, lived, died, and rose again to make a way for that to happen. You are a sinner. You are piling up a debt of sin against God that you cannot pay. So Jesus paid it for you.

Have you accepted it? He’s offering His blood to cover your sins. Personally, I think it’s a no-brainer. But God has given you the privilege of choosing for yourself. If you think your penny will cover the cost of your sin, then take the gamble and choose that.

I’m praying you’ll choose Jesus.

Serious Business

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Exodus 30

Worship is serious business. I know we don’t live in Old Testament times. I know we live under grace. But is worship less serious this side of the cross?

We read that people died for worshiping God in ways that suited themselves. You worshiped God in the way He demanded – or you’d better not worship at all.

Haven’t we made worship about ourselves? We take surveys and read studies that tell us how to fashion worship according to what we like, or how we think others will like so that they’ll want to join us.

I wish we spent as much effort on preparing hearts to worship God the way HE likes! I don’t see Scripture suggesting worship should be fun or entertaining. Do you? Yes, we are told to make joyful noise, to enter His gates with thanksgiving and praise. But I can do that going into a ball game.

Isn’t worship more than what it looks like? I see God telling the people to prepare, to repent first, to be holy…. THEN worship Him.

Worship is serious business. Or it ought to be.

It’s Not Enough

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Genesis 9

It’s not enough to confess your sins. Simply saying, “I’m guilty,” doesn’t always indicate repentance. Pharaoh said, “This time I have sinned. ” Yet his actions proved his confession didn’t translate into a changed life.

Have you prayed what we refer to as “the Sinners’ Prayer?” I hope so. But don’t believe for a minute saying the words guarantees God’s forgiveness. You must be born again. You must repent of the sins you confess, which means to turn from them, stop doing them, flee them. If saying those words doesn’t come from a changed heart – you are not saved.

We are wrong to guarantee heaven to someone who prays the prayer. You and I can’t guarantee heaven for anyone because we can’t know anyone’s heart but our own. Only God can do that.

Pharaoh confessed his sin but was not saved. His heart was unchanged. I pray the same isn’t true for you.