Posts from February 2022

  DISCUSSION                                            Numbers 7 is second, only to Psalm 119, in the longest chapter category.  Within these 89 verses we have a lengthy description of the dedication of the Tabernacle.  During this festival, each tribe was responsible for bringing an offering for use in the Tabernacle.  There were 12 tribes, so the festival lasted 12 days.  The offerings were given to the Tabernacle, but in essence they were given to God.  They…

  DISCUSSION                               In Numbers 3-4,   Moses, Aaron and Aaron’s sons were to camp on the east of the tent of meeting to guard the sanctuary.  If an outsider came near to the sanctuary they were put to death (Numbers 3.38-39). Why would God want the stranger to be put to death?  Because not only would the stranger be a threat to spy out or take advantage of camp, they were also seen as…

  DISCUSSION                                                                 Billy loved the game of basketball, so when he heard that his elementary school was organizing a youth league he was all in.  It didn’t take long before Billy became one of, if not the best basketball players in his class.  When it came time for his first game, he could hardly control his excitement.  As the game began, the ball was tipped into the air…

  DISCUSSION                                             Facing death, even hardened atheists are known to pray.  Throughout human history, when men have found themselves in dire straits they have prayed for deliverance and made vows to God, promising to do something for God if He rescued them.  The Old Testament gives a number of examples of men making vows in such circumstances.  Jacob, fleeing from his brother, offered to tithe his goods if God brought him home safely (Genesis 28:20ff). …

  DISCUSSION                               This took place during the year of Jubilee.  Every 50th year all land was given back to its original owner.  If a man had to sell his land or himself to pay debts, all was returned at the year of Jubilee.  Every Israelite would be returned to his ancestral lands which belonged to his forebears.  God was the actual owner of all the land, and any Israelite in possession of it was…

  DISCUSSION                                                 Chapters like Leviticus 22 and 23, and many others in this book, form the background to much New Testament teaching.  Christ is both the perfect priest and the perfect victim.  His bride is the church, whom he is sanctifying to make her “without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:27).       We see here that the demand for holiness…

  DISCUSSION                               “You must be holy, for I am the Lord your God am holy” could be described as the motto of Leviticus.  This motto reminds Israel of its fundamental calling to be a “holy nation” (Exodus 19:6).  The people of Israel are to imitate God, whose essential nature is holiness.      Holiness is thus not so much an abstract or a mystic idea, as a principle that regulates everyday life.  Holiness is thus attained not…

  DISCUSSION                                     Leviticus 14-15 deals not with the cure of leprosy, but with the ceremonies affecting the reception of the healed person back into the communion with the covenant people and his re-admission to the status that he formerly held in the community and within his family. These complicated rituals are admittedly very ancient and their appearance here is altogether consistent with their having been included here, at God’s command, by Moses himself.  Medical knowledge was…

  DISCUSSION                                       Have you ever wondered how people learned what they could and couldn’t eat?  Some animals are poisonous while others are harmless.  The same is true with plants.  I have often thought that people ate things then others saw their reaction to it and knew not to eat that plant or animal.  In our Leviticus 11-13 we see that God did list clean and unclean animals for the Jews.  Even today there are…

  DISCUSSION              God had given Moses orders to consecrate Aaron and his sons to the priests’ office when he was on Mt. Sinai (Exodus 28-29), where we have also the particular instructions, he had now to do it.  The Tabernacle had newly been set up and God was ready for Moses to consecrate the priests to being their duties.        He called the people together at the door of the tabernacle.  The court of the tabernacle,…

  DISCUSSION:                                               Leviticus 5-7 relates the procedures for a sin offering.  We can see that this offering involved the blood of the animal.  Specific handling of the blood is given that no one could misunderstand how important the blood was.       History reveals to us that the blood of the sacrifice was collected in a horn or cone shaped vessel.  The vessel was designed in such a way that it could not be set…

  DISCUSSION:                                           The third book in the Pentateuch is called Leviticus because it relates principally to the Levites and priests and their services. The book is generally held to have been written by Moses.   Leviticus is filled with the meticulous procedures for sacrifices and the duties of the Levites.  The offerings that were given by the Jews to God differed in what was offered and who received the offering.   The burnt-offerings had regard to God as…