LEVITICUS: GOD TEACHING HIS PEOPLE HOW TO WORSHIP AND WALK WITH HIM

I am doing a study of the Book of Leviticus that I am very excited about. It has been and is continuing to be a life changing study for me.

I am not a theologian, I can only share what the Holy Spirit is speaking to me as He is washing me with water through the Word (Ephesians 5:26- 27). Water is a symbol of the Word in the Bible. By meditating on His Word in the study of Leviticus, I am learning what constitutes true sacrifice. I see the heart of God for His people, for you and for me.

The Message Bible says "I'll pour water over you and scrub you clean. I'll give you a new heart, put a new spirit in you. I'll remove the stone heart from your body and replace it with a heart that's God willed not self willed. I'll put My Spirit in you and make it possible for you to live by My commands (Ezekiel 36: 26-27).

Leviticus focuses on the worship and walk of God's people. "You shall be holy for I the Lord your God am holy"(Lev. 19:2).

We know that the way to God is only through blood sacrifice and that sacrifice was made through His Son Jesus. Please stay with me here and don't think I am getting into legalism. I am aware that it is by grace that we are saved and not by any work that we can do.

In the sacrifices that God commands Moses to have His people make, we see a picture of Jesus and the sacrifice that He made for us. But we also see the heart of God for us in our lives that we may become "a living sacrifice" offered up to Him. This is my heart's desire, I want my life to be a picture of Jesus.

It is not anything that we have to do, because the ultimate sacrifice has been made through Jesus Christ. Yet those of us who are seeking the heart of God can receive much from these scriptures.

Each sacrifice is very detailed. Details that you would think would have very little meaning for us as God's people( Christians) today, yet you will be surprised at what God wants to say to us today through those details.

Leviticus shows God's people how to fulfill their priestly calling. 1Peter 2:9 tells us as born again children of God we are all called to be priests. In other words all of us have a ministry.

Pray that God will speak to your heart through these sacrifices as we realize that Christ fulfilled everyone of them. And that we will be encouraged to offer up to Him our lives as a living sacrifice, so that the world may see Jesus in us. That is what the world needs, they need to see Jesus. Then revival will begin.

I will be excited to hear how these scriptures touch your heart as the Holy Spirit speaks to you through them.


Leviticus Chapter One

The scripture tells us that the Lord called to Moses from the Tent of Meeting. In other words Moses was where he needed to be to hear from God. Are you where you need to be to hear God's voice?

Do you have a special time set aside just to spend with Him, meditating on the scriptures, sitting at His feet? Jesus said "My sheep listen to My voice; I know them and they follow Me"(John 10:27). Moses was where he was supposed to be and God spoke to him.

In our busy life styles it is hard to find time to be still long enough to hear from God. We are always on the go with good intentions of spending time with Him. Too often that time is put off till the end of the day, when most of us are too tired to meditate on His word and wait patiently to hear His voice. The sad part is we so need to hear His voice and gain the strength that can only come through feeding upon His word.

It is the "Bread of Life" nourishment for our souls. We could not survive indefinitely without physical food, we would die. God gives us spiritual nourishment through his word. That is why we see so many Christians who are spiritually weak. It is essential that we spend time in Bible study and time with the Lord in order to survive. Then when the enemy comes in, and he will, we will have the strength to fight him, using God's Word(the sword of the Spirit).

I am sure most of you know that, but it doesn't hurt to be reminded. Now let's get to some meat of the Word.

God then began to give instruction for the first of five offerings. This offering was called the "Burnt Offering." This was a voluntary offering, one you did not have to give.

They were to bring an animal from the herd or the flock, a male without defect. Jesus was without defect, in Him there was no sin. It had to be from the herd or the flock. This meant it had to be domesticated. It couldn't be some wild beautiful animal such as an elk or deer. It had to be from the herd or from the flock. Something that belonged to them. It had to mean something to them, an animal that belonged to them.

You know often we want to say we have sacrificed something to God that looks good to us. Something we think looks beautiful. It may look good to us and even to other people, but really it wasn't much of a sacrifice. The dictionary says that a sacrifice means "to suffer a loss." We often find it hard to even turn over our plates and sacrifice a meal. ( I don't know about you, but fasting is hard for me). God wanted it to be a sacrifice......it had to mean something to the person who was offering it.

He was to lay his hand on the head of the animal. It signified a transfer of obligation to suffer sin. This act made it personal. Something had to die because of that person's sin. Blood had to be shed. An innocent victim would have to die, because a sin had been committed. The animal would be put to death in the place of the individual. The individual himself would have to slaughter the animal.

This is what happened when we accepted Jesus as our Savior, we designated Him as a sacrifice for our sin. Our sin killed Him. He died in our place for our sin.

This act of transfer of sin to an innocent animal made them more sensitive to their sin. They had to actually lay their hands on the head of the innocent victim. Are we sensitive to our sin? Or do we just have the attitude "I'm not too bad, God knows my heart."

Are we aware of the bad attitudes, sins of jealousy and pride in our lives, or do we just shrug them off as insignificant? Do we really realize that these sins killed our Savior and that He was the innocent victim? We see through these sacrifices how ugly sin is and how much God hates it. Sin causes death, the death of happiness, the death of joy, the death of relationship.

Because we are saved by grace, I think we don't take sin as seriously as we should. Jesus suffered and died for every bad attitude, for every time we walked in pride and stubbornness.

If there is one message God wants to get across through these scriptures, it is that sin is ugly and He hates it. It was your sin and my sin that killed His Son.

I have been praying that God would help me to recognize my sin, and not just shrug it off and dismiss it. I have asked Him to help me be aware of bad attitudes and the pride in my life (one of my big issues).

God's instructions in verse 6 was to skin the animal and cut it into pieces. This was so that every piece would be exposed. Do your realize that every part of Jesus life was exposed? He hang naked on the tree, nothing was hidden, everything exposed. Even his prayer life was exposed. There are things we say in prayer that we would not want another human being to hear. Everything in his life was exposed.

In Psalm 139: 23-24, the Psalmist says,"Search me O God and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts and see if there is any wicked way in me." Our sin needs to be exposed and confessed. We need to acknowledge that we have sinned and repent. Sometimes we sense the Holy Spirit convicting us of some attitude or wrong doing. We think, well it's okay God's grace covers my sin. But God hates it my friend. He hates sin, He makes that clear through these scriptures. Sin causes death.

In verse 7, the priest were to put fire on the altar and arrange the wood on the fire. This speaks of the cross (wood) and judgement (fire) ....of the sacrifice Jesus made when He went through the fire of judgement being judged for our sins.

In verse 9, the priest were to wash the inner parts and the legs with water and burn all of it on the altar.

How is it with you inside in the inward parts? Sometimes that is the hardest part .....to look on the inside and confess that you are wrong, to ask God to expose your sin. Psalm 51:6 says, "Surely You desire truth in the inner parts." It is hard to admit that your attitude was bad or that you may have been acting in pride, or that maybe your motives in a certain situation were not right.

The inner parts and the legs needed to be washed with water. We need to be washed with the water of the Word in the inward parts, and our legs so that our walk with God will be a pure and holy walk.

All of it had to be burned or consumed on the altar. Have you put it all on the altar? We all remember the old hymn "I Surrender All." But have you really surrendered everything? Have you laid it all on the altar, holding nothing back?

9b "It is a burnt offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the Lord." When I think of an offering made by fire, I think of the fiery trials we go through, things we don't understand, but we trust God anyway. Offering our trials up to Him as a sacrifice, trusting Him that it will be for his glory and our good. He purifies through the fire and cleanses us with water through the Word, when we are trusting Him as we go through the trying times.

Verse 14 tells us that it could be an offering of birds, pigeons or turtle doves. This was so that no one was left out. If you couldn't afford a bull, lamb or goat you could bring a bird. Anyone could afford a bird. In other words there was no excuse for not making a sacrifice. But keep in mind this was all voluntary.

Verse 16 said, " He is to remove the crop." this was considered the useless part of the bird. God wants the best of our lives. Sometimes we offer Him what seems to be the easiest. He said, "They honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me." God wants our hearts. He wants the best.

We see so much detail involved in the sacrifices. Everything had to be done a certain way. He wanted everything done just right. We live in such a busy world that we pay little attention to details, but God is interested in the details of our lives. Things we easily dismiss are important to God. Scripture tells that "it is the little foxes that spoil the vine." "It is the "little sins" we that consider unimportant that cause us to bear bad fruit, and after "all aren't we are identified as belonging to Him" by the fruit that we bear? There is no little sin to Him. Sin cost the life of His precious Son. God hates sin whether we consider it as small sins or big sins. He hates sin. He shows us this over and over in Leviticus.

Lord, Thank you for Your amazing grace that covers our sin. Help us Lord to examine our lives and be aware of our sin. Reveal to us anything that is not pleasing to you, so that we may confess and repent. Help us to look more like Your Son, so that we can show Him to the world. Help us to offer up lives that we may be a living sacrifice, an aroma pleasing to you.

Ephesians 5:2 "Walk in love as Christ has also loved us and has given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor."