This message is our fifth week in Leviticus, covering chapters 8-10. This week we move from the priesthood to the high priest himself, Aaron. The elaborate ordination of Aaron and his two eldest sons and the incredible preparations necessary for the high priestly duties illustrate for us that while God is loving and good, he is also dangerous. Nadab and Abihu, Aaron’s sons, failed to recognize this truth in the past but God holds them accountable at this point. Aaron’s heart undergoes a severe trial as a result. The calling from God is not a call to a safe life. The heroes of faith were not called to safety but to incredible risk, sacrifice and adventure. Where is your journey taking you?
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The section headings for the chapters we’ve already covered read something like this: burnt offering, grain offering, peace offering, sin offering, guilt offering. As we start chapter 6, the section headings read: burnt offering, grain offering, sin offering, guilt offering, peace offering. Sound familiar? Repetition of details like this led John Calvin to call these chapters by and large “wearisome” and filled with words we do not understand nor should we care. With all due deference to the great Calvin, we press on to discover why God might have chosen to immediately repeat himself and uncover some of what it means to be called a “royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9).
Leviticus 1 wasn’t the first time we heard of “vayikra” - God’s calling to Moses. It happened before at Mt. Sinai when God gave Moses the 10 commandments and it happened first at the burning bush. That first encounter foreshadows what God reveals in Leviticus 1-5. At the burning bush, God asked Moses “What’s in your hand?” and Moses presented his shepherd’s staff (his identity, his life) as an offering. God commanded Moses to remove his sandals for he was on holy ground. These two acts lay out the twin dynamics of offering and purification in our relationship with God.
Mirroring that encounter, Leviticus 1-3 addresses the offerings we bring to God and Leviticus 4-5 addresses the need for purity, specifically the sin and guilt offerings. Once again we see these ancient rites contain a timely lesson about loving God and our neighbor, forming a backdrop to Jesus’ words in his sermon on the mount.
The remainder of chapters 1 through 3 in Leviticus detail the first 3 freewill offerings: the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the peace offering. Far from being a book just for priests or Levites, we see immediately that God is detailing the way in which all his people should enter a relationship with him. We don’t give these offerings today but these ancient rituals still contain a very timely message for us about how to love God with all our being and to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Leviticus is the Church’s name for the 3rd book of Moses. Long before that, it was simply called Vayikra, which is Hebrew for And He Called. The name Leviticus implies that this book is for the Levites and priests but this book is much more about the call of God on all our lives. God was establishing the framework for how his people would live. Leviticus is about how God calls us to live as a faith community called together by his voice.
That said, Leviticus is still difficult to understand for us today. And so we begin this series by laying important groundwork about the Law and how differently it functioned in biblical times.
Ultimately, the people of God is not established by race or culture or nationality or any other condition of birth. All human distinctions are irrelevant. This new community is established solely by the call of God and is made of those who hear and answer that call.
Out of the many biblical examples of prayer, singing is probably the one that makes the most people uncomfortable. Still, some of the most famous prayers were songs. The Psalms were all songs but there is also Hannah’s prayer, Mary’s song, and Moses’ and Miriam’s song after crossing the sea. This is part 5 in our 6 part series on prayer based on Dick Eastman’s Hour That Changes the World.
Part 4 in our series on prayer.
Part 3 in our series on different forms of biblical prayer.
Part 2 in our series on prayer, based on the book The Hour That Changes the World by Dick Eastman.
There is a bulletin insert that accompanies each message in this series. It’s designed to be an aid in your prayer time. Here’s the insert from week 1 on praise & waiting.
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