Christ our Firstfruits

A couple of days ago I read about the feasts that Israel was to celebrate each year.  I've written previously about how the Jewish holidays point to Christ and are fulfilled in Him, in a post called The Substance is of Christ.   I want to focus this post on the Feast of Firstfruits. 

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, 'When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest, and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, so that you may be accepted.'" Leviticus 23:9-11a
So the offering of firstfruits was so that God's people would be accepted by Him.

The timing of the Feast of Firstfruits is interesting.  (Actually that's an understatement.)  The Feast of Firstfruits took place 3 days after the celebration of Passover.   (This is a bit of a simplification.  See the charts and figures on this Messianic website for more information.)  Remember, Passover was celebrated on the 14th day at twilight of the first month, Abib or Nisan.  This was to commemorate the first Passover when the Angel of the Lord killed all the firstborn in Egypt, but passed over the houses of His people who had the blood of the sacrificial lamb spread on their doorposts and lintels.  It is no accident that Christ became our Passover lamb on Passover, and rose from the dead three days later, on the day of the celebration of Firstfruits.
Paul refers to this in 1 Corinthians 15  when he's defending the resurrection of the dead (Saducees didn't believe in the resurrection and some in the early church must have been influenced by them).

"If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.  But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.  For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection from the dead.  For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.  But each in his own order:  Christ, the firstfruits, then at His coming those who belong to Christ."  1 Corinthians 15:19-23  (emphasis mine)

I used to take this bit about Christ being our firstfruits metaphorically (as in He was the first of the harvest, which in a sense He is), but the 90 day Bible challenge has helped me to make connections between the Old and New Testaments of the Bible that I never saw before.  Christ literally became our firstfruits offering.  When He was raised from the dead by God, on the day of the celebration of the Jewish Feast of Firstfruits, He made His people accepted by God.

It's not just that Christ did this and that in His lifetime in order to fulfill aspects of the law.  It's that the feasts were always meant to point to Him.  Waving a sheaf of barley never really made God's people right before Him- it didn't take away the guilt of their sins.  Christ was always our Firstfruits, just like He was always our Passover lamb.  The holy days instituted by God were to point His people to their sins and their need for a Savior.  The substance of the holidays were always Christ!  Paul was a Jew of Jews and he knew his Old Testament.  We are at a great disadvantage when we come to his letters without any understanding of the Old Testament.  There is no such thing as New Testament Christianity divorced from the rest of God's law.  The 90 day Bible challenge really helps put this in perspective.  The first 68 days are spent reading the Old Testament and the last 20 days the New Testament.  That's right, 77% of the Bible is Old Testament!  When we neglect it, we're neglecting the majority of God's revelation to us!   Amazing, isn't it?
This realization about the feasts might seem like a small matter, but it's meant so much to me.  I like symmetry and order.  This messy business about sacrifices and this series of holidays that were so important in the Old Testament and then discontinued in the time of the early church always troubled me.  It all makes sense now.  It's not that God had a plan A that didn't work out so then He instituted plan B.  Christ was always the plan for our redemption.  The substance is of Christ, the feasts were like shadows reflecting His substance.  I love that God is a God of symmetry and order.  Christ is everywhere in the Old Testament- it all points to Him and it all finds its consummation in Him.

The feasts and holy days were like a road map that led to Christ.  The early Christians were Jews and they followed that map.  Somewhere along the way, the church abandoned its Hebrew roots and I've so enjoyed rediscovering them.  The books Our Father Abraham:  Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith by Marvin R. Wilson, A Family Guide to the Biblical Holidays by Robin Sampson, and Listening to the Language of the Bible:  Hearing it through Jesus' Ears by Lois Tverberg and Bruce Okkema are several books that have helped me recover some of these Hebrew roots.

Remember this Easter as you're celebrating in church that Christ in His resurrection became our firstfruits offering so that we could be accepted by God.   To God be the glory!

The Substance is of Christ

Click picture above to go to A Holy Experience memorize Colossians in a year page.

Everything in the Old Testament of the Bible points to and is fulfilled in Christ.  The more I read the Bible, the more I see this. 

Holidays (feasts instituted by God) were important to Israel.  They were a time of worship and remembrance.

In the New Testament church there was evidently some debate over whether they should continue to observe the ceremonial law.  Paul encourages believers to give one another grace and reminds them that whether they keep the feasts or not (and whether they continue abiding by the dietary laws or not), the point is to recognize that they have all been fulfilled in Christ.  What the Jewish and Gentile believers had in common was salvation by grace in Christ.  And if they were going to continue in the ceremonial law, it should not be observed in a legalistic way in order to make other believers feel less devout, but celebrated as a memorial to Christ's completion or fulfillment of it.

So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.  Colossians 2:16-17

I love thinking about this.

Christ became our Passover lamb when Israel "selected Him" at His triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday was the 10th of Abib, same day each family in Israel was to select their unblemished lamb.)  Four days later, 14th Abib at twilight, Israel was to kill their passover lambs.  It was no accident this is the day Christ went to the cross.

Christ became our Firstfruits when He rose from the dead, three days after His sacrificial death.  The Feast of Firstfruits was when Israel was to bring an offering of the first of their crops and the priest would wave these sheaves above him so that Israel would be accepted by God (Leviticus 23:9-14).  Guess when Firstfruits was celebrated-  three days after Passover, 17th Abib (Nisan).  So we are accepted by God because Christ offered Himself up for us (He is our priest and our offering)! 

The Feast of Weeks, also called Pentecost, was celebrated 50 days after Firstfruits.  The law was given to Moses 50 days after Israel's crossing of the Red Sea and the Holy Spirit was given 50 days after Christ's resurrection.  The two loaves of bread that were waved in the Feast of Pentecost present a picture of the church with Jews and Gentiles united together.  When we accept Christ as our Savior, we're united in His body, the church, and are given His Spirit.

The Spring holidays outlined above were all fulfilled in Christ's first coming.  The Fall holidays (Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and Feast of Tabernacles) are prophetic of His second coming.

The holidays given to Israel were like a roadmap that led to Christ.  It's the gospel, in the Old Testament.  Why I grew up in the church and never learned any of this, I don't know!  Some great resources that I've found helpful are A Family Guide to the Biblical Holidays With Activities for All Ages by Robin Sampson and Linda Pierce and Jesus, Awesome Power, Awesome Love by Kay Arthur, especially chapter 3.

Lessons from Leviticus: The salt of the covenant

I may have written about this before.  It seems familiar, but isn't that the way it is?  Some lessons have to be learned over and over again every time we read the Scriptures.

"And every offering of your grain offering you shall season with salt; you shall not allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be lacking from your grain offering.  With all your offerings you shall offer salt."  Leviticus 2:13

It might seem strange to us that God cares about the smallest of ingredients withheld from or added to His offerings, but every detail is important and serves as an object lesson for a deeper truth.  Yeast was NOT to be contained in the grain offerings as a reminder of that first Passover when the Lord told them to be ready to flee Egypt quickly- there was no time for their bread to rise.  Also yeast is usually associated with sin in the Bible.  Sin is pervasive in the same way that a little yeast spreads throughout a lump of dough.  Again, I love the imagery. 

So, what about salt?  Why is it significant that our offerings be made with salt?  What does this mean?  What is the salt of the covenant?

Salt is a natural preservative.  It prevents food from spoiling.  In the same way that yeast is associated with contamination, salt is associated with purification.  Charles Spurgeon elaborates on this in his sermon entitled Salt for Sacrifice that he preached in 1887.  "We require a deal of this. Brothers and Sisters, if we come before God with holy things while we are living in sin, we need not deceive ourselves—we shall not be accepted!"  This reminds me of the truth that God desires obedience from us, rather than sacrifice.  He wants us to delight in doing His will more than offering sacrifices.  (1 Samuel 15:22, Psalm 40:6, Hebrews 10:8-9)  I believe right here in Leviticus, the rulebook of the sacrificial system, is a picture of what God really wants from us.  Yes, He's telling Israel to offer sacrifices, but He's also telling them that the sacrifices are useless if they are offered in sin (with yeast) or apart from being pure (without salt). 

But, you might be thinking we're under the covenant of grace, we don't have to obey God.  Oh yes we do.  We're not saved by works, but saved for good works. (Ephesians 2:4-9)  Jesus calls believers to be salt and light.

"You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?  It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men."  Mathew 5:13

In other words, what good are believers if they look and act just like the unbelieving world around them?  Believers are to have a preserving influence on the wicked culture in which they live.  Our obedience should help to slow the rot in the world.  Remember that God told Abraham He would spare Soddom and Gomorrah for the sake of even 10 righteous men.  But, guess what?  There weren't 10 righteous in Soddom and Gomorrah.  There maybe wasn't even one.  (I think Lot was rescued for the sake of Abraham, don't you?)  This helps to explain the complete and utter state of immorality there. 

So as believers we must remember that going to church and paying a tithe, teaching Sunday School, or heading up various ministries mean little to the Lord when we're living lives of disobedience to Him, refusing to confess and repent of our sins.  It's easy to go to church.  It's easy to drop money in an offering plate.  It's hard to die to self and live for Christ.  God doesn't want the one without the other.

What about the covenant of salt?  In acting as a preservative and preventing food from spoiling, salt extends food's shelf-life.  This imagery when applied to the covenant God made with His people emphasizes the long-lasting nature of the covenant, as opposed to it being a short-term agreement. 
"My covenant I will not break, nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips."  Psalm 89:34

So the "salt of the covenant" was an object lesson to Israel on multiple levels reminding them of God's everlasting promise to deliver His people and in return of His desire for their obedience. 

Sabbath rest

As I was reading through Leviticus this time I realized Sabbath rest is more than I previously thought. More of a blessing. More of a sacrifice. And for more than just God’s people.

I’ve always thought of Sabbath rest in terms of being for the purpose of setting aside a day for the Lord. And it is, but I think it’s more than that. Here are a few of my observations.

1. Sabbath rest is a gift. I have to confess to you that observing the Sabbath, or the Christian Sabbath, seems at times to me like another rule or regulation. I shouldn’t go to the store because it’s Sunday. I should just wait until Monday. I probably shouldn’t tackle that big organization project even though I’m home and we don’t have any obligations. I’ve lost sight of the fact that Sabbath rest is a gift from God to be enjoyed and not an inconvenience.

Maybe the problem is that I’ve been thinking like a Pharisee. They thought they had the Sabbath down, but Jesus showed them otherwise. When Jesus was criticized by the Pharisees for healing a man on the Sabbath, they accused the Lord of breaking one of God’s laws saying that His healing was a form of work. Jesus showed them they were hypocrites and that of course doing good was not prohibited by Sabbath rest. (Mark 3:1-6) I find it interesting that Jesus anticipated their criticism and had just finished explaining that “the Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath”.   (Mark 2:27)   Obviously the Pharisees missed the point, but I don’t want to miss it. Sabbath rest is a gift from God to meet my need for rest.  I should enjoy the rest and thank Him for it.

2. Sabbath rest requires sacrifice. Do you pride yourself on being industrious? I love it when I get lots accomplished! God made us to work- that’s why it brings such satisfaction. However, on the Sabbath God wants us to rest, and He expects that our resting from work will require sacrifice on our part.

“Do no work during that entire day because it’s the Day of Atonement… All who do not deny themselves that day will be cut off from God’s people. And I will destroy anyone among you who does work on that day. You must not do any work at all! This is a permanent law for you and it must be observed from generation to generation wherever you live. This will be a Sabbath day of complete rest for you, and on that day you must deny yourselves.” Leviticus 23:28-31

Sabbath rest is connected somehow to showing reverence to God’s sanctuary, or His church. “Keep my Sabbath days of rest, and show reverence toward my sanctuary. I am the Lord.” Leviticus 19:30  Our desire to show reverence to God must supercede our desire to get projects accomplished or to make money. 

3. Sabbath rest is not just for God’s people. It’s also for the land. The Israelites were supposed to observe a year of Sabbath rest every seventh year during which they would not plant crops or harvest them. The Lord took this seriously and warned of exile to a foreign land should they fail to obey Him in this and the rest of His law.

“Yes, I myself will devastate your land, and your enemies who come to occupy it will be appalled at what they see. I will scatter you among the nations and bring out my sword against you. Your land will become desolate, and your cities will lie in ruins. Then at last the land will enjoy its neglected Sabbath years as it lies desolate while you are in exile in the land of your enemies. Then the land will finally rest and enjoy the Sabbaths it missed. As long as the land lies in ruins, it will enjoy the rest you never allowed it to take every seventh year while you lived in it.” Leviticus 26:32-35 (emphasis mine)

Maybe we should rest our land, too. I read the book, The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan a couple of years ago about the over cultivation of our farm land that led to the dust bowl. It was a tragedy that could have been avoided, and many think we may be on track to repeat mistake from our past. I’ve heard of crop rotation. Maybe letting the land rest is still important to God. I’ve never thought about it before, but we know that “with eager hope the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” Romans 8:21-22

God does not love just the spiritual and hate the physical. He loves His creation, all of it, and someday He’s going to make new heavens and a new earth and believers will enjoy eternal life on that new earth. Maybe we should once again take seriously His command to give the land rest. Just a thought.

Leviticus has helped me to see Sabbath rest as the gift God intended it to be.  All of the physical creation suffers from the effects of the curse.  People and land alike need rest.  God graciously gives us this rest and we should observe it with thankful hearts.  This can be yet another way to worship the Lord and give Him glory.

I'd love to hear your response to this and I've even started a discussion in my new blogfrog community on observing the Sabbath.  How does your family observe the Sabbath?

Lessons from Leviticus part IV- God's way is the only way.

In this day of political correctness it’s extremely unpopular and even considered arrogant to assert there is only one way to anything, much less salvation. Even Christians have become so tolerant that practically anything goes in churches these days. Orthodoxy is disdained in an age where truth is considered either unattainable or irrelevant. One of my lessons from Leviticus, although it can be found throughout the Bible, is that there is only one way to please God, and that’s His way.

Nadab and Abihu were Aaron’s two oldest sons and had been trained by Moses, the mouthpiece of God, in their priestly duties. We don’t know much about Nadab and Abihu, like what kind of people they were, whether they were honest, or whether they took their role as priests seriously. All we know is that they attempted to worship God their way and it cost them their lives.

“Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu put coals of fire in their incense burners and sprinkled incense over them. In this way they disobeyed the Lord by burning before Him the wrong kind of fire, different than He had commanded. So fire blazed forth from the Lord’s presence and burned them up, and they died there before the Lord.” Leviticus 10:1-2

That seems a harsh punishment, doesn’t it? After all, they were worshiping the Lord. Wasn’t God pleased with their intentions? Shouldn’t God have been happy they were worshiping Him at all? Evidently not! God sent an unequivocal message to Israel that day that He wanted to be worshiped exactly as He commanded and only as He commanded. No deviation would be tolerated.

Moses was prevented from entering the Promised Land for a similar incident. You can almost sympathize with his presumption since the first time God gave the Israelites water from a rock He told Moses to strike the rock with his staff (Exodus 17). The second time God merely tells Moses and Aaron to speak and the water would gush out (Numbers 20). Moses strikes the rock anyway, either thinking surely God meant him to follow the same protocol as previously or possibly he struck the rock out of anger at the complaining Israelites. Regardless of his motives, God means what He says and disobedience is punishable by death. Moses would die in the wilderness and not live to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land. Again, the stiff punishment exacted served as a message loud and clear to Israel to do things exactly as God commanded them.

The Lord, Himself gives this warning to Joshua after the death of Moses:

“Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you. Do not deviate from them, turning either to the right or the left.” Joshua 1:7a

Disobedience is no small matter to God. Leviticus 16 gives the protocol for the high priest to follow on the Day of Atonement. Verse 13 adds that “if he follows these instructions, he will not die.”

Disobedience equals death, however, obedience brings life.

“If you obey my decrees and my regulations, you will find life through them. I am the Lord.” Leviticus 18:5

When God decided to flood the earth and wipe out almost every living thing, He provided one way to be saved. He told Noah to build an ark. He gave Noah specific instructions and Noah followed them. There was only one way to live through the flood. It was God’s way.

Noah could have tried to build a "better" boat. He could have made "improvements" to God’s blueprints or he could just as easily have taken short-cuts, trying to save time. Why didn’t he build two or three arks? Because, Noah understood that God’s way is the only way.

“So Noah did everything exactly as God had commanded him.” Genesis 6:22 (emphasis mine)

Moses gives the Israelites the same advice. “And now, Israel, listen carefully to these decrees and regulations that I am about to teach you. Obey them so that you may live, so you may enter and occupy the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. Do not add or subtract from these commands I am giving you. Just obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you.” Deuteronomy 4:1-4 (emphasis mine)

“So be careful to obey all the commands I give you. You must not add anything to them or subtract anything from them.” Deuteronomy 12:32

And lest we think this high standard of obedience to God's Word is an Old Testament thing, outdated and irrelevant, the last chapter of the Bible echoes this same directive.

“And I solemnly declare to everyone who hears the words of prophecy written in this book. If anyone adds anything to what is written here, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book. And if anyone removes any of the words from this book of prophecy, God will remove that person’s share in the tree of life and in the holy city that are described in this book.” Revelation 22:18-19

Again we see that God's Word must not tampered with in any way.

Jesus Himself, inaccurately portrayed by many to be tolerant of religious pluralism, boldly claims to be the only way to salvation.

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6) It doesn’t matter how nice or well intentioned a person is, the only way to the Father, and therefore eternal life, is through Jesus Christ. There is no other way. I know that’s offensive to many, but God’s way is the only way.

God’s holiness is displayed when we obey Him. And when we presume there is a better way or just a different way than the way He has given us, we fail to display His holiness.

The only words of explanation Aaron received after the death of his two oldest sons was this reminder from Moses that “this is what the Lord meant when He said, ‘I will display my holiness through those who come near me, I will display my glory before all the people.’” Leviticus 10:3

The same reasoning is given for why Moses and Aaron were not permitted to enter the Promised Land, but instead were condemned to die in the wilderness over the seemingly insignificant incident of striking the rock for water.

“For both of you betrayed Me with the Israelites at the waters of Meribah at Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin. You failed to demonstrate My holiness to the people of Israel there.” Deuteronomy 32:51 (emphasis mine)

God’s way is the only way. Whether we're talking about salvation, worship, or anything that He has instructed us in.  His way is the only way.

Lessons from Leviticus- part III The Forgiveness of Sins

I imagine the twice daily offering of burnt sacrifices, not to mention the sin offerings required when made specifically aware of a sin, were enough to keep the Israelites’ guilt always before them. I’m always struck when reading through Leviticus how seriously God takes sin. Of course, the gravity of sin coupled with an awareness of the pervasiveness of our own sin nature would be quite hopeless in the absence of an understanding of forgiveness. That’s why I love the picture of forgiveness we get from the annual ceremony on the Day of Atonement.

“Then he (Aaron) must take two male goats and present them to the Lord at the entrance of the Tabernacle. He is to cast sacred lots to determine which goat will be reserved as an offering to the Lord and which will carry the sins of the people to the wilderness of Azazel. Aaron will then present as a sin offering the goat chosen by lot for the Lord. The other goat, the scapegoat chosen by lot to be sent away, will be kept alive, standing before the Lord… When Aaron has finished purifying the Most Holy Place and the Tabernacle and the altar, he must present the live goat. He will lay both of his hands on the goat’s head and confess over it all the wickedness, rebellion, and sins of the people in Israel. In this way, he will transfer the people’s sins to the head of the goat. Then a man specifically chosen for the task, will drive the goat into the wilderness, it will carry all the people’s sins upon itself into a desolate land.” Leviticus 16:7-10 & 20-22

The first part of this ceremony was quite familiar since it was a daily occurrence. The Israelites understood that their sin required death and that atonement for sins was only made possible by the shedding of blood. It’s the second part of the ceremony that must have been a sweet reminder of the forgiving God they served. I love this picture of the symbolic transfer of sins to the head of the goat and then rather than just letting the goat drift off or hang around the camp, they actually drove it far out into the wilderness, illustrating how far the Lord had removed their transgressions from them.

I think David may have had this ceremony in mind when he wrote the following words found in one of my favorite Psalms:

“He does not punish us for all our sins; He does not deal harshly with us as we deserve. For His unfailing love toward those who fear Him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.” Psalm 103:10-12

Of course, the Day of Atonement wasn’t the only time the Israelites were reminded of God’s forgiveness. The annual celebration of Passover would also remind them of God’s passing over their sins and sparing their lives out of His great love and mercy. I just especially love the visual picture of the scapegoat being driven away from the camp carrying Israel’s sins away with him. Even more meaningful to me is that the scapegoat finds its fulfillment in Christ. Actually both goats offered on the Day of Atonement are types that are fulfilled in Christ.

“But He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on Him the sins of us all.” Isaiah 53:5-6

“The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves. The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship. If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared. But instead, those sacrifices actually reminded them of their sins year after year. For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. That is why when Christ came into the world, He said to God, ‘You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings. But You have given Me a body to offer. You were not pleased with burnt offerings or other offerings for sin. Then I said, ‘Look, I have come to do Your will, O God- as is written about me in the Scriptures.’’” Hebrews 10:1-7

Sometimes I wonder if we get the cart before the horse in our churches today- always stressing forgiveness and seldom dwelling on the severity of our sins. Both are true. I can only imagine the bliss felt by the Jewish believers in the early church when they realized Christ was the permanent answer to their sin problem. In this day and age of self-esteem parenting, I wonder if we do our children a disservice. I wonder if they can really appreciate what Christ’s sacrifice means without having a realistic view of the seriousness of their sin. Can any of us? Perhaps we should spend more time reflecting on our sins and confessing them to one another so that we can glory in the incredible forgiveness offered to us by God through Christ.

Lessons from Leviticus part II- Water and blood

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The next lesson I learned from my recent reading in Leviticus has to do with blood and water, purification, and ceremonial cleansing. As a Reformed Baptist, baptism is of great interest to me. There are many views on the ordinance of baptism. Some sprinkle, some dunk, some do it at birth, others after a profession of faith. Some believe baptism is necessary for salvation, others view it as a symbol of our union with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection; an ordinance to be obeyed and important for demonstrating what Christ has done on behalf of the believer, but not salvific in and of itself. It’s this later doctrinal debate that I think Leviticus may shed some light on.
Beginning in about chapter 11 of Leviticus, there is much talk of what is unclean and the procedure that must be undergone in order to be made clean again. It didn’t take me long to notice the repetition of the words wash, bathe, and purify, but then I began to notice that washing and bathing (with water) was always related to being made ceremonially clean, whereas purification was made by sprinkling the blood of a sacrifice offered as a purification offering. Sometimes the blood is sprinkled on the altar for purification such as for purification after childbirth or purification of the altar, itself, or purification of the high priest on the Day of Atonement, and sometimes the blood is sprinkled on the unclean person such as when a person is seeking to be purified of a skin disease, or in the case of the ordination of priests. Both washing to become ceremonially clean and the sprinkling of blood for purification is made in each case, but the order in which they are performed varies.

During my reading the first question I asked myself was this: What is the difference between being made ceremonially clean and being purified? There must be a difference since a different protocol is followed for each, yet they sound almost indistinguishable to me. If someone had asked me to define purify, I probably would have answered along the lines of to make clean. I also noticed that the purification ceremony involved only the person, the priest (representative of God), and the blood of the animal used in the purification ceremony. The washing, however, seemed to be more public. It involved washing the clothes worn at the time of contamination (I’m assuming the wash was done in a somewhat public location), as well as bathing the body and sometimes shaving the head. The final and most important observation was that the washing did not actually make the person clean. In the case of skin diseases, the purification ceremony was performed first followed by instructions in washing of the clothes and bathing. In the case of coming into contact with bodily discharge, washing and bathing is performed first (logical), but it is specifically stated that said person is to remain unclean even after the washing. So the washing and bathing with water didn’t actually make the person clean. Then after seven days (the period of purification), he washes his clothes and bathes himself again in fresh water and is made ceremonially clean, but on the eighth day, “the priest will offer one bird for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. Through this process, the priest will purify the man before the Lord...” (Lev 15:15)

“I have given you the blood on the altar to purify you, making you right with the Lord. It is the blood, given in exchange for a life, that makes purification possible.” (Lev 17:11)

I think that verse is significant. Now we know from Hebrews 10 that the blood of animals was never sufficient to take away sins, but was a shadow of the blood that would be shed by the Lamb of God, which would be sufficient to take away sins. So please don’t think I’m saying that the purification ceremony described in Leviticus actually made a sinful person clean. What I’m saying, is that this whole obsession with not touching anything unclean in Leviticus was to show the Israelites that they couldn’t stay clean. This constant purification process served as a reminder that they were unclean before God. It symbolized and reminded them of the pervasiveness of their own sin. Furthermore, the shedding of blood was required for purification (again this is a shadow of the ultimate purification to come).

So, getting back to the issue of the ordinance of baptism… I see water baptism as a continuation of ceremonial cleansing (John 3:25 shows John’s disciples connected the two). Water as a means of ceremonial washing is not something that just pops up in the NT, but is present in the OT too as we’ve just seen. Baptism symbolizes how a person has actually been made clean by Christ’s work on the cross, just like ceremonial washing and bathing in the OT showed that a person was undergoing or had undergone purification. The actual purification process requires the shedding of blood on behalf of the person being made pure (remember Leviticus 17:11 quoted above). It is actually Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross and the application of His shed blood on our behalf by the Father, that saves us. He paid the debt that we could not. We cannot purify ourselves from sin any more than the Israelites could. Salvation comes only by the blood of the Lamb of God. Water cannot wash away our sins and it cannot make us pure. Baptism instead is a beautiful picture of the purifying work of Christ.

Lessons from Leviticus- part I

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Lessons from Leviticus- part I

The 90 day Bible challenge took me through Leviticus last week and I absolutely loved my reading. I know Leviticus is not the book of the Bible most people think of when they want to soak in doctrinal truth, but I was amazed at what I learned this time through. I think Leviticus may be much more rich in doctrine than I’ve previously given it credit for. Probably no one else out there is interested in this, but I want to record a few of the lessons I’ve learned from Leviticus in a mini-series.

The first lesson I learned from my reading of Leviticus this time was about the pervasiveness of sin.

Leviticus 8 gives specific instructions concerning the ordination of the priests.

“Then Moses presented the other ram, which was the ram of ordination. Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the ram’s head, and Moses slaughtered it. Then Moses took some of its blood and applied it to the lobe of Aaron’s right ear, the thumb of his right hand, and the big toe of his right foot. Next Moses presented Aaron’s sons and applied some of the blood to the lobes of their right ears, the thumbs of their right hands, and the big toes of their right feet. He then splattered the rest of the blood against all sides of the altar.” Leviticus 8:22-24

God had established from Genesis that sin can only be atoned for by blood. And Hebrews 10 reminds us that the blood of animals was never sufficient for the forgiveness of sins, but only served as a type or shadow of the forgiveness that was to come from the death of Christ on the cross, the Lamb of God whose sacrifice is sufficient to atone for our sins.

I love that Aaron and his sons first lay their hands on the ram’s head, symbolically transferring their own sin and guilt to the ram that is to be sacrificed. What a vivid reminder of the gravity of sin this would be.

But the new thought to me from this passage in Leviticus was about the sprinkling of the blood from the sacrifice on their ear lobes, right thumbs, and right big toes. We have an expression in English that conveys the idea of something being all pervasive. If someone is a little bit wet, you might say they’re damp. If they’re quite wet in some or most parts of their body, you might say they’re wet or even soaked. If they’re completely wet all over their body, you might say that they’re wet from head to toe. This is the expression that came to mind when I read the above passage in Leviticus. I’m no theologian, but I think this may be the idea here. It wasn’t enough to just apply the sacrificial blood to the hands of the priests, although this would be logical since it is with their hands that they minister to the Lord in the tabernacle. But, it wasn’t enough because they were completely depraved, totally affected by sin from head to toe. And so are we. That’s the bad news.

But God … (I love those two words). But God, in His infinite wisdom and love has had a perfect plan from eternity past to redeem for Himself a people that He would set apart as His own. A sinful people. And not just a little sinful, but a people with a sin problem so pervasive as to be terminal, barring the Lord’s intervention. But intervene, He did.

“Healthy people don’t need a doctor- sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” Mark 2:17

That’s the good news.

Jesus is saying there is no salvation for those who fail to recognize the depths of their own sin. The self-righteous Pharisees who were so quick to criticize Christ for associating with a tax gatherer (a sinner indeed!), neglected to see how serious their own sin problem was. They hadn’t learned the lesson of Leviticus 8.

Coming to terms with our total depravity is the first step in understanding the depth of God’s love for us. The more in touch we become with how completely depraved we are, the more grateful we become for God’s love for us that caused Him to stoop down from His holy hill and rescue us. There is no appreciation for the sacrifice of Christ, apart from the realization of how very damned we are by our own sin.  I know this isn't popular preaching today, but I think it's one of many lessons from Leviticus we would do well to take to heart.