Unacceptable Sacrifice

“Do not treat my holy name as common and ordinary. I must be treated as holy by the people of Israel. It is I, the LORD, who makes you holy.“ – Leviticus 22:32 NLT

OK, let’s be honest. It seems like there is an awful lot of repetition in the book of Leviticus. And chapter 22 is a prime example. It seems like everything in this chapter has been covered already. So why is God belaboring the point with Moses and requiring that he communicate these conditions to the people yet again? Maybe it’s because God is trying to drive into the heads of these people just how important holiness is to Him. Once again, He warns them to treat His name as holy and not common. They are to show Him respect. They are not to treat God as if He is just another one of the many gods that are out there. He is not a possible option, but the one and only God of the universe. They were even to treat the items they sacrificed to God with a certain level of respect, because they were consecrating or setting them apart to God. They were dedicating them to Him and to offer animals with defects to God would be the same as profaning or desecrating His name. It would be showing Him disrespect and not honor. To do so would be unacceptable and it would nullify the effects of the sacrifice.

God demands and deserves our best. But how often do we give Him the leftovers of our time, our gifts, our attention, our affections, our day, and our lives? We profane His name when we give Him the sacrifices of our lives, but they are full of defects and flaws. We offer Him our prayers, but at the end of the day as we lay in bed falling asleep. We offer Him our times of devotion, but squeezed in between reading the paper and checking out our Facebook page. We give Him our tithe, but only after we’ve made sure we can take care of all our needs and wants first. And we’re okay with all of it. We have learned to treat the God of the universe as common. We assume He will be fine with what we do. He will accept anything we bring to Him, because that’s just the way He is. But a reading through Leviticus reminds us that our God is deadly serious about holiness and wants His people to treat Him with awe and respect. There’s no room for casual flippancy or easy familiarity. He is still God. He is still holy. He is still the Lord. He is Jehovah, “the existing One” – whose name was so holy it went unpronounced among the people of Israel. Yet the name of God rolls off our lips with regularity and a familiarity that borders on blasphemy. We talk of God as a commodity, rather than a divine, holy deity. He is there to provide for our needs, provide solutions to our problems, and guarantee a better life than the one we’re currently living. We expect much from God, but don’t feel that He demands much of us. We have learned to believe that He accepts us as we are.  We have confused grace with complacency. Our God appears to have lowered His standards. He is less demanding and more accepting. He is more tolerant and a whole lot less legalistic than He used to be. But this is not the God of the Bible. His standards have not changed. He has offered a way to receive forgiveness from sin, but He has not changed His view on sin. He has given His own Son as payment for the punishment for sin, but that doesn’t mean sin is no longer costly. He no longer demands that we keep the law perfectly to attain righteousness, but that does not mean the law is no longer valid. God is still God. He is still holy. He still expects His people to be holy. He has called us to a life of righteousness and holiness. He has set us apart to live lives that are distinct and different. As Peter clearly reminds us, “For he himself has said, ‘You must be holy because I am holy.'” (1 Peter 1:16 NLT).

Father, I do it every day. I offer unacceptable sacrifices to You. I give you the dregs of my time, talent, and treasure. I treat Your name as common and act as if You are no more special than one of my casual acquaintances. Give me an increasing awareness of Your holiness and a growing appreciation for who you are. What we value, we treat with respect. What we believe is costly and priceless, we handle with care. I have become too familiar and flippant in my relationship with You. Forgive me. Amen

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

The Seriousness of Holiness

“Set yourselves apart for a holy life. Live a holy life, because I am GOD, your God. Do what I tell you; live the way I tell you. I am the GOD who makes you holy.“ – Leviticus 20:7-8 MSG

In this section of the book of Leviticus, God is calling His people to a life of holiness or distinctiveness. He continues to give them a series of prohibitions and instructions regarding the kind of life they are to live as His chosen people. He gives a list of activities from which they are to refrain, including child sacrifice, the occult, adultery, incest, homosexuality, polygamy, and beastiality – all regularly practiced by the people who currently occupied the land. He warns them, “You simply must not live like the nations I’m driving out before you. They did all these things and I hated every minute of it” (Leviticus 20:23 MSG). God is calling His people to a different and distinctive kind of life. But He knew how easy it was going to be for them to simply accept and assimilate the ways of the world in which they lived. It would be subtle and slow, but over time, they would begin to live just like the other nations. They would begin to absorb their ways and lose their distinctiveness. So God reminded them, “I’ve told you, remember, that you will possess their land that I’m giving to you as an inheritance, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am GOD, your God, who has distinguished you from the nations” (Leviticus 20:24 MSG).

Some of the commands of God regarding those who disobeyed seem harsh to our modern sensibilities. God commands that those who practice the ways of the world be put to death. This is serious stuff. God is not playing around. He wants those who lose their distinctiveness to be dealt with harshly. Why? Because the sin of their actions contaminate the entire congregation. God is far from politically correct. He is holy and demands holiness of His people. “Live holy lives before me because I, GOD, am holy. I have distinguished you from the nations to be my very own” (Leviticus 20:24 MSG). His people were to be counter-cultural. They were to be radically different. They were to stand out like a sore thumb. And any amount of compromise was not to be tolerated. But we live in a day when fitting in is the order of the day. We feel a need to blend in, not stand out. We want to be accepted by the world, not stand apart as distinct from it. Our goal seems to be sameness, not distinctiveness – to the point that it is hard to tell who is really chosen and who is not. We have fallen in love with the world. But John reminds us, “Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world – wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important – has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him” (1 John 15-16 MSG). God is not a God of compromise. He is distinctly and radically different. And He demands that His people be different. And He demands that we take holiness seriously. We need to deal with sin seriously – in our lives and in our churches. Sin contaminates. Sin alienates. Sin robs us of our distinctiveness and our power as His people. He has set us apart. May we truly begin to live that way.

Father, I can be a professional at compromise. It is so much easier for me to blend in than stand out. Distinctiveness is hard. But You have set me apart to live a life apart – different than the world in which I live. Give me the strength and boldness to live a holy life. May I demand it of myself and of those around me. May Your Church reflect Your holiness in the world, so that we might be the light You’ve called us to be. Amen

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Be Holy!

“Say this to the entire community of Israel: You must be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.“ – Leviticus 19:2 NLT

We sometimes think of holiness as this super-spiritual, almost ethereal quality that is hard to describe, and even harder to achieve. It is some kind of ubber-piety that only an elite few ever achieve. For most of us it appears unattainable and unfathomable. Yet, here we have God telling “the entire community of Israel” – everybody has to be holy because God Himself is holy. It is not some kind of optional condition, but a command – a divine expectation. But how were they supposed to do it? Well, God goes on to explain. They were to show great respect for the father and mother. There were to observe the Sabbath days of rest. They were to refrain from putting their trust in idols instead of God. They were to offer their sacrifices properly. They were to enjoy God’s blessings (the harvest of their crops) but always keep the needy and the foreigner in mind. They were not to steal, deceive or cheat one another. They were to hold the name of the Lord as holy by not using it lightly or flippantly. They were to not defraud their neighbor. They were to treat their employees with dignity. They were to show the disabled respect as fellow children of God. They were to judge fairly and not show favoritism. They were to refrain from slander and malicious gossip. They were to protect one another. They were to love and not hate, confronting lovingly when required. They were to refrain from seeking revenge or bearing grudges, and love their neighbor as themselves. They must obey all the commands of God.

Do all of these sound a little bit familiar? They should. They are an elaboration the Ten Commandments. God is reiterating His original list of laws and expanding on their meaning. Then He goes on and gives them further instructions regarding such things as the mating of animals, sexual relations among humans, planting and harvesting, diet and food, personal hygiene, witchcraft, prostitution, body piercings, the elderly, foreign relations, and business ethics.

What’s the point? What does all this have to do with holiness? Everything. It is a different way of living. God is outlining His expectations for His people. They were going to be entering into a new land – a land filled with all kinds of people who lived apart from God and ignorant of His ways. God wanted His people to be distinct and different. He wanted their actions and behaviors to be different. The point is not so much the behavior as it is the heart behind the behaviors. It wasn’t doing these things that would make them holy. It was the love and obedience toward God that spurred their behavior that would set them apart and make them holy and distinct. We must always be careful to not confuse our behavior as the mark of our holiness. We could do all these things and still be apart from God. Wasn’t that the problem with the Pharisees? Jesus had this to say about them: “He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: ‘‘These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.'” (Mark 7:7 NIV). The Pharisees were experts at keeping the Law, but didn’t do so with a right heart. Their motivation was wrong. They thought they could make themselves righteous. They were self-righteous. The New Living Translation puts it this way: “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far away. Their worship is a farce, for they replace God’s commands with their own man–made teachings.” (Mark 7:7 NLT). They had taken God’s commands and come up with their own. They had added to His original list, because they thought the key was in the keeping of the commands. But God was looking at the heart.

The same was true in Moses’ day. God was looking for obedience, but from the heart. And He is still looking for the same thing today. He wants us to obey Him because we love Him. That is what will set us apart and make us holy. We are to live distinctive lives, out of love for Him. We are to live according to a higher standard – His. We are to behave and act differently. Because we belong to Him. We are not to live like the world. Instead, we are to reflect to the world a different way of living, commanded by God, but also empowered by God through the indwelling Holy Spirit. He has given us the requirements for righteous living and the capacity to keep them. And when the world sees that, they sit up and take notice. Because we are being holy as He is holy. Nothing ethereal, just practical.

Father, You have called me to a life of holiness and given me the capacity to pull it off. Continue to show me how to live a life that is set apart and distinct – for Your glory and to show the world around me the greatness of my God. Amen

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

The Blood Brings Atonement

“for the life of any creature is in its blood. I have given you the blood so you can make atonement for your sins. It is the blood, representing life, that brings you atonement.“ – Leviticus 17:11 NLT

Chapter 17 repeats a warning that has been given twice before regarding the reverence and respect that the people were to have toward the blood offered in sacrifice. We have seen the significant role that blood played in their sacrificial system. And here God gives the reason why blood was to be regarded with reverence and respect. It all seems pretty bizarre to us. But God obviously took it very seriously. Blood was to be shed, spilled out, sprinkled, sacrificed, but never eaten. Why? Because it was the blood that made atonement for their sins. The blood of the animal was representative of the life of the animal. Without the blood there was no life. “…for the life of all flesh is its blood” (Leviticus 17:14 NASB). Because of sin, all men deserved to die. So God came up with a plan by which the animal stood in for the man. The animal gave its life for the life of the sinner. God’s plan provided for the sprinkling or pouring out of the blood of the sacrifice on the altar to signify that the life of the animal was give to God in place of the life of the sinner. It was a substitionary sacrifice. The animal’s life was a ransom or counter-price for the life of the sinner. “In fact, we can say that according to the law of Moses, nearly everything was purified by sprinkling with blood. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins” (Hebrews 9:22 NLT). It was true then. It is true now. So God put a high price and a high priority on the sanctity of the blood. They were not to eat it. They were to honor it as God’s plan for atonement. They were to keep a reverent regard for it. It was not to be treated as common. So they were not even to shed the blood of an animal killed out in the field. It was to be brought to the Tabernacle and killed there, its blood given as a peace offering to God. God knew that if the people were allowed to kill animals and shed their blood any other place, they would be tempted to follow the practices of the people of the land and offer that blood in worship of other gods.

But what does all this have to do with us today? Are we to follow the same rules? Are we to abstain from the intake of blood? It appears that this was a law that was ceremonial and specific to the time in which the Israelites lived. It was part of the sacrificial system under which they operated, and is no longer in force. For us, the blood of Christ is what makes atonement for us. The blood sacrifices of Moses’ day were a picture of what was to come. The blood of animals is no longer required , but Christ’s blood sacrificed once and for all.

But there is a lesson for us here regarding the respect to be shown for the blood that was shed on our behalf. We are not to take the sacrifice of Jesus Christ lightly. The blood of animals poured out for the people of Israel only made atonement figuratively, but the blood of Christ makes atonement totally and effectually. So we are to treat His sacrifice with the proper respect and dignity. It is not to be treated as something common or ordinary. He shed His blood so that we might have life. He became our sin sacrifice so that we might have forgiveness of sin – once and for all. The writer of Hebrews warns us to “Think how much more terrible the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the Son of God and have treated the blood of the covenant as if it were common and unholy. Such people have insulted and enraged the Holy Spirit who brings God’s mercy to his people” (Hebrews 10:29 NLT). There are those who treat the blood of Jesus as common and unholy. They ignore it. They walk all over it, rejecting its value and despising the gift of life it offers. But as believers we can be guilty of taking it for granted by forgetting that without Christ shedding His blood – giving His life – we would have no forgiveness of sin. His blood represented His life and made possible new life for us.

Father, forgive me for the many times when I have taken the blood of Your Son for granted. When I sin willingly, I trample His shed blood in the dirt. I treat His blood as a commodity. I act as if it is just a resource I can tap into any time I need it, without acknowledging the great price that was paid. Help me to see the blood of Christ as a priceless treasure poured out for me. Amen

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Humble Your Souls

“This shall be a permanent statute for you: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall humble your souls and not do any work, whether the native, or the alien who sojourns among you. for it is on this day that atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you; you will be clean from all your sins before the LORD. It is to be a sabbath of solemn rest for you, that you may humble your souls; it is a permanent statute.“ – Leviticus 16:30-31 NASB

There are two interesting chapters to read together. One has to do with uncleanness due to different kinds of bodily emissions or discharges. Not exactly the kind of thing you want to read before breakfast. But then the following chapter outlines the Day of Atonement, the one day each year when the High Priest was allowed to go into the Holy of Holies to make atonement for the sins of the people. Chapter 15 describes the uncleanness of the people. It seems that there were all kinds of things that could make them unclean and separate them from fellowship with God. In fact, the word “unclean” appears at least 32 times in chapter 15 alone. God seems to be contrasting His own holiness and man’s inherent unholiness. The Jamieson Fausset Brown commentary on Leviticus says this:

Thus shall ye separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness–The divine wisdom was manifested in inspiring the Israelites with a profound reverence for holy things; and nothing was more suited to this purpose than to debar from the tabernacle all who were polluted by any kind of uncleanness, ceremonial as well as natural, mental as well as physical. The better to mark out that people as His family, His servants and priests, dwelling in the camp as in a holy place, consecrated by His presence and His tabernacle, He required of them complete purity, and did not allow them to come before Him when defiled, even by involuntary or secret impurities, as a want of respect due to His majesty. And when we bear in mind that God was training a people to live in His presence in some measure as priests devoted to His service, we shall not consider these rules for the maintenance of personal purity either too stringent or too minute.

Over in his letter to the Thessalonians, Paul reminds us that God’s requirement of holiness still stands: “For this is God’s will: that you become holy, that you keep away from sexual immorality, that each of you know how to possess his own body in holiness and honor, not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God” (1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 NET). Impurity marked the lives of the people of God. Natural acts and bodily functions could render them unclean, because of the very presence of sin in their lives. They were surrounded by sin and, in essence, infected by sin. So there was a constant need for purification. But one day a year, God provided for a way to have their sins atoned or paid for. It was the Day of Atonement. But in order for that day to take place, even the High Priest, the Tabernacle, the altar, and the Holy of Holies itself all had to be cleansed and atoned for. Why? Because it was surrounded by sin. It existed in the midst of sin. “He shall make atonement for the holy place, because of the impurities of the sons of Israel and because of their transgressions in regard to all their sins; and thus he shall do for the tent of meeting which abides with them in the midst of their impurities” (Leviticus 16:16 NASB). Even the dwelling place of God Himself had to be cleansed because of the contaminating effects of sin. Sin is pervasive. It spreads. It contaminates.

Which is why we should come into the presence of God humbly. God tells the people that on the Day of Atonement, they were to humble their souls. This refers to not only the humiliation of the heart for sin and by repentance of it, but includes fasting as well. They were to literally “bow down” their soul before God. They were to admit their sinfulness and come to Him for cleansing. They were to acknowledge their need for His sacrifice and cleansing. Chapter 15 reminds them that even natural bodily functions that they could not control could render them unclean before God. They could not more stop those things from happening as to stop breathing. It pictures the pervasiveness of sin. We sin without even knowing it. We become unclean without even being aware of it. Which is why we should humbly come before God – admitting our constant need for Him and the cleansing work of His Son on the cross. Like the Tabernacle, we are set apart by God, but we are still surrounded by sin. We are still influenced by sin. We still commit sin. So we need to humble our souls daily and come before Him for cleansing, as we admit our sins and confess them to Him. We humble our souls and He faithfully forgives and cleanses us from all our unrighteousness.

Father, thank You for always being faithful to forgive. Thank You that sin, while pervasive, is not permanent. It can’t keep me from You. If I confess my sins, You are faithful and just to forgive my sins and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness. All I have to do is humble my soul before You and admit that I need You. Amen

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Infection in the Camp

“The whole time he has the infection he will be continually unclean. He must live in isolation, and his place of residence must be outside the camp.“ – Leviticus 13:46 NET

Chapters 13-14 are some of the most detailed portions of the book of Leviticus and they deal solely with the disease of leprosy. At first glance, it appears to be a topic that has little to do with us today. Evidently, it was a huge problem in their day. Due to the nature of their time spent wandering in the wilderness, exposed to all kinds of heat, infection, insects, and skin disorders, it was very important that they be able to spot infectious diseases promptly. The last thing they needed was for a disease to spread throughout the camp. It could be devastating. Leprosy was greatly feared. It was an infectious disease characterized by disfiguring skin sores, nerve damage, and progressive debilitation. People usually didn’t die from leprosy, but from other diseases contracted as a result of it. Because it attacked the nerves, people infected by leprosy were prone to burning themselves in fires or cutting themselves and not knowing it. Those wounds would then get infected leading to further issues. All forms of the disease eventually cause nerve damage in the arms and legs, which causes sensory loss in the skin and muscle weakness. People with long-term leprosy may lose the use of their hands or feet due to repeated injury resulting from lack of sensation.

So you can see why this was serious. And why God has Moses spend so much time warning the people about it. They were not to take the presence of this disease in their midst lightly. Which makes me think that leprosy is representative of the sin that so often exists in our lives and in our faith communities. It begins subtly. Like leprosy, it starts small and inauspiciously. But it is no less dangerous. Even small sins usually lead to more significant ones. Leprosy spread. So does sin. The Israelites were to take it seriously. We are to take sin seriously.

These instructions regarding leprosy given to Moses by God Himself are full of details regarding not only the identification of the disease, but for the cleansing of it. As long as someone had the disease they were to remain apart from the rest of the camp. They were separated, living in isolation and outside the rest of the community. Leprosy separated. So does sin. It is a serious, spreading infection that takes its toll not just on the individual, but on the community at large. Paul took sin seriously and warned about it. “If anyone is causing divisions among you, give a first and second warning. After that, have nothing more to do with that person” (Titus 3:10 NLT). “And now I make one more appeal, my dear brothers and sisters. Watch out for people who cause divisions and upset people’s faith by teaching things that are contrary to what you have been taught. Stay away from them. Such people are not serving Christ our Lord; they are serving their own personal interests. By smooth talk and glowing words they deceive innocent people” (Romans 16:17-18 NLT). In regards to the Corinthians believers, Paul was pretty blunt. “I can hardly believe the report about the sexual immorality going on among you, something so evil that even the pagans don’t do it. I am told that you have a man in your church who is living in sin with his father’s wife. And you are so proud of yourselves! Why aren’t you mourning in sorrow and shame? And why haven’t you removed this man from your fellowship?” (1 Corinthians 5:1-2 NLT). Sin was serious to Paul. He knew how to spot it and he knew how to deal with it. Because he knew how dangerous it was to the body of Christ. Just as leprosy was dangerous to the people of God in Moses day. It could spread. It could wreak havoc. It could destroy from within. So it had to be dealt with. Just as sin should be dealt with today. In our individual lives and within the faith community. We are not to tolerate it or take it lightly. It is dangerous. We are to lovingly confront the sin in our camp. “My dear brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders away from the truth and is brought back again, you can be sure that the one who brings that person back will save that sinner from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins” (James 5:19-20 NLT).

Father, help us to fear sin just as much as the Israelites feared leprosy. Help us to take it seriously and see it as dangerous in our midst. Give us a boldness to confront one another lovingly, but persistently about the presence of sin in our lives. So that we can enjoy forgiveness and cleansing. Amen

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

In Need Of Purification

“When the time of purification is completed for either a son or a daughter, the woman must bring a year–old lamb for a whole burnt offering and a young pigeon or turtledove for a purification offering. She must take her offerings to the priest at the entrance of the Tabernacle.“ – Leviticus 12:6 NLT

We would all agree that the birth of a child is a happy occasion that usually brings joy with it. But in this twelfth chapter we see an interesting illustration played out for us. In chapter 11, God spent a great deal of time talking about unclean versus clean, holy verses unholy – when it comes to animals. Now He switches and begins addressing this issue in regards to human beings. And He starts with childbirth. God tells the people that when a woman gives birth, she is to be considered unclean because of her contact with blood. She would be required to go through purification. Until she did, she could not enter the Tabernacle. And the child born to her, if a male, was not to be circumcised until the eighth day, one day after she would have been pronounced clean. Why? The Matthew Henry Complete Commentary On the Whole Bible says this,

“This ceremonial uncleanness which the law laid women in child-bed under was to signify the pollution of sin which we are all conceived and born in (Psalms 51:5). For, if the root be impure, so is the branch, Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? If sin had not entered, nothing but purity and honour had attended all the productions of that great blessing, Be fruitful and multiply; but now that the nature of man is degenerated the propagation of that nature is laid under these marks of disgrace, because of the sin and corruption that are propagated with it, and in remembrance of the curse upon the woman that was first in the transgression. That in sorrow (to which it is here further added in shame) she should bring forth children. And the exclusion of the woman for so many days from the sanctuary, and all participation of the holy things, signified that our original corruption (that sinning sin which we brought into the world with us) would have excluded us for ever from the enjoyment of God and his favours if he had not graciously provided for our purifying.

The mother had to be purified before the child could be circumcised. The mother had to bring a burnt offering and a sin offering. These were not-so-subtle reminders to the parents that there is such a thing as original sin, and that the child born to them had inherited a fallen and sinful nature. The sin nature of man is passed down from one generation to the next. Our kids are born with sin natures. And it doesn’t take long before it becomes apparent.

Sin is significant in God’s eyes. Purity is serious to Him. Sin always separates us from God and His desire is that we would be pure. And thankfully God came up with a once-for-all way to solve this dilemma through Jesus Christ’s death on the cross. He paid for our sins once and for all. He offers us a way to stand as clean before the Father without the need for further sacrifices or rituals of purification. Our children, though born into sin, still have a hope, because there is still a Savior. “He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing what is right” (Titus 2:14 NLT).

Father, You take sin seriously. Help me to do the same. I know I am forgiven and have been cleansed from all unrighteousness, but I still sin – daily. And my sin must be confessed. You are faithful and just to forgive my sin and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness, but I still need to confess it. Thank You for sending Your Son to make this all possible. No more sacrifices. No more rituals for purification. Just forgiveness freely given. Amen

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Disobedient Sacrifice

“Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu put coals of fire in their incense burners and sprinkled incense over it. In this way, they disobeyed the LORD by burning before him a different kind of fire than he had commanded.” – Leviticus 10:1 NLT

It didn’t take long. It seems that immediately after the whole sacrificial system got started, it got messed up by two of the very people who were responsible for it – Nadab and Abihu – the two sons of Aaron. These two guys had been consecrated by Moses as priests to serve with their father in the Tabernacle. But it seems that they were unqualified for their role. They may have been set apart in terms of their role, but they were far from set apart in their hearts. Because we are told they offered “strange fire” on the altar. That word “strange” means foreign of loathsome. They burned something they were not supposed to burn. They disobeyed the specific commands of God and did things their own way. Some believe they may have even been drunk, because a prohibition against drinking immediately follows their punishment (Leviticus 10:9). But irregardless of whether they were drunk or sober, they were disobedient, and the result was their deaths. Moses tells us that fire came out from the presence of God Himself and consumed them. On other words, God Himself killed them. They “died before the Lord” (Leviticus 10:2).

God reminds Moses and all the people, “By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, And before all the people I will be honored” (Leviticus 10:3 NASB). The crime of these two men was so serious that Aaron and his family were not allowed to go through the normal mourning process. The holiness of God was to trump their heartache and loss. What Nadab and Abihu had done was an affront to the Holy God of Israel. It reminds me of what happened to Ananias and his wife Sapphira in Acts 5. They are the ones who gave money to the church from land they had sold, but lied about how much they had made off of the sale. Their deception resulted in their deaths. And we’re told, “By this time the whole church and, in fact, everyone who heard of these things had a healthy respect for God. They knew God was not to be trifled with” (Acts 5:11 MSG).

God is holy. He is to be honored and respected. He is not to be trifled with. Yet we so often take Him lightly. We do not show Him the honor and respect He deserves. We come before Him flippantly and casually. In many ways we offer our own brand of “strange fire.” We do things our way and on our own terms. And while our actions may not result in physical death, it does often lead to dead-like faith, lacking in power and vitality. God says,”I will be treated as holy.” He demands it. He expects it. Just going through the motions of sacrifice was not enough for Nadab and Abihu. They thought they could do the sacrifice their way and get away with it. They thought they could ignore God’s commands and live to talk about it. But they were wrong. I really believe that these two guys were drunk on the job. Listen to what God tells Aaron: “You and your descendants must never drink wine or any other alcoholic drink before going into the Tabernacle. You are to distinguish between what is holy and what is ordinary, what is ceremonially unclean and what is clean” (Leviticus 10:10-11 NLT). They were impaired by alcohol. They were unable to discern clean from unclean, holy from unholy. They offered to God a sacrifice that was unholy and unclean. They offended a holy God by their ineptitude and died because of it. How often do we let our senses become dulled by the things of this world. We get “drunk” on the ways of the world and then try to offer God sacrifices that are unholy and contaminated by our constant time spent in the world. We are told to offer our bodies as living sacrifices to God, but how often are we unclean because we have allowed ourselves to be made that way by our constant contact with the world. We come before God and attempt to serve Him without even confessing our sins. Paul says, “Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice – alive, holy, and pleasing to God” (Romans 12:1 NET). We are to be holy and pleasing to God. That requires confession and cleansing. To not do so is to offer “strange fire” before God. It is to take God lightly and offer Him acts of service that are unclean and unholy. God demands holiness. He is serious about it. Are we?

Father, forgive me for the many times I take my times with you for granted and offer you “strange fire.” You are a holy God who demands holy sacrifice from Your people. Help me to take that seriously. Amen

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Acceptable Sacrifice

“Next Moses and Aaron went into the Tabernacle, and when they came back out, they blessed the people again, and the glorious presence of the LORD appeared to the whole community. Fire blazed forth from the LORD’s presence and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar. When the people saw all this, they shouted with joy and fell face down on the ground.“ – Leviticus 9:23-24 NLT

Wow! What a show! Can you imagine what that scene must have been like. For seven days Moses, Aaron, and Aaron’s sons have been going through the ordination process to prepare them to serve as priests before the Lord and on behalf of the people. Each day they have slaughtered a bull and two rams and offered them up as sin offerings, burnt offerings and an offering of ordination. That’s seven bulls and 14 rams – just for Aaron and his sons. Then on the eighth day they did it again. This time it was a calf, a bull, and a ram. Then it was time for the people to get involved. They were instructed to bring a male goat for a sin offering, a calf and a lamb for a burnt offering, an ox and a ram for a peace offering, and grain for a peace offering. That is a lot of bulls, rams, goats, and sheep. What a noise they must have made. What a scene that must have been. And there was a purpose behind all their ritual. This was not just a religious ceremony – a going through the motions affair. They were hoping to see the glory of the Lord. Moses told them, “When you have followed these instructions from the LORD, the glorious presence of the LORD will appear to you” (Leviticus 9:6 NLT). Now that’s motivation. What if we knew that our acts of sacrifice and obedience would guarantee that we would see God’s glory? What it change our behavior? Would it alter how we respond? What if we came to our times of corporate worship with the expectancy that our obedience to worship Him would bring us into His glory?

Most of us don’t expect to see God’s glory. We don’t anticipate an appearance from God when we serve faithfully and sacrifice willingly. For most of us it has become a religious ceremony with little or no fanfare and no anticipation of God showing up. But that day, Moses and the people saw something amazing as a result of their sacrifice. God was watching and God appeared to them in all His might and power. “…the glorious presence of the LORD appeared to the whole community” (Leviticus 9:23 NLT). They all got to see His glory. Not just Moses. Not just Aaron and his sons. Not just the elders. Not just the more religious among them. NO, everyone got to see God’s glory. The whole community. And it made an impact. They knew they were in the presence of God. All this ritual was purposeful. Yes, it was for their atonement and the forgiveness of their sins. But more than that, it was so that they might stand in the presence of the Almighty God of the universe! That was the real purpose. And when we give away our lives in service and sacrifice, when we willingly do those things God has called us to do, we should do so with an anticipation of seeing God’s glory revealed in our lives and in our community. We should desire to see His power on display among us. And when it happens we will react just as they did. “When the people saw all this, they shouted with joy and fell face down on the ground” (Leviticus 9:24 NLT). The presence of God always brings about the worship of God. Do you long to see Him in all His glory? Do you long to experience His power in your life? Then faithfully sacrifice.

And now God is building you, as living stones, into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are God’s holy priests, who offer the spiritual sacrifices that please him because of Jesus Christ. – 1 Peter 2:5 NLT

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice––the kind he will accept. When you think of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask? – Romans 12:1 NLT

Father, may my life be a living sacrifice to you each day. May I obey You faithfully, serve You willingly, and please You always. May my life be pleasing to You. And as a result, may I see Your glory revealed in and around my life. Amen.

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Unacceptable Sacrifice

“If any of the meat from this peace offering is eaten on the third day, it will not be accepted by the LORD. It will have no value as a sacrifice, and you will receive no credit for bringing it as an offering. By then, the meat will be contaminated; if you eat it, you will have to answer for your sin.“ – Leviticus 7:18 NLT

After reading just seven chapters of the book of Leviticus, it should be painfully clear that God is serious about this stuff. He does not take the topic of sacrifice lightly. The level of detail and specification is amazing – almost confusing. There are so many different scenarios and situations to consider. There are so many different kinds of sacrifices and offerings with their own set of rules and requirements. But one requirement that I found extremely interesting concerned the eating of what was left over of a peace offering. You could make a peace offering as an act of thanksgiving, for deliverance, for answers to prayer, healing, and more. You could offer it as part of a vow or purely as a freewill or voluntary act. In other words, you could just decide to offer a peace offering to God on your own and not out of any sense of guilt or compulsion. But in all cases of the peace offering, the one making the offering could eat what was left over. In essence, God shared the sacrifice with the one making the sacrifice. But there were certain caveats. In the case of a thanksgiving peace offering, what was left over had to be eaten that same day. In the case of a vow or voluntary peace offering, you had to eat it that day or the day after, but you could not eat it on the third day. It had to be burned.

Why? What was God’s intent? These “leftovers” could be taken home by the one making the offering. They could even share them with their family and friends. But they had to be eaten within the time frame allotted. It seems that God wanted His people to see that there was a difference between this meat and any other meat they might eat. This was meat that had been sacrificed to Him. He was sharing it with them. It was His gift to them and it was to be treated with a certain degree of honor and respect.

One of the reasons God may have wanted the meat eaten immediately was to prevent any kind of decay from setting in. Without refrigeration, the shelf life of meat was not long – unless of course you used salt as a preservative, which would have dried out the meat and changed both its texture and flavor. God did not want what had been dedicated to Him and shared by Him to become contaminated in any way, so it must be eaten quickly. Another reason for the command to eat it within the time frame given by God is so that the one who made the sacrifice would be more willing to share it with others in an attempt to ensure that it was all eaten. God seems to be encouraging hospitality. The Matthew Henry Complete Commentary on the Whole Bible says this, “The flesh of the peace-offerings was God’s treat, and therefore God would have the disposal of it; and he orders it to be used generously for the entertainment of their friends, and charitably for the relief of the poor, to show that he is a bountiful benefactor, giving us all things richly to enjoy, the bread of the day in its day.”

There seems to be a degree to which God is teaching His people about His providence and provision. It reminds me of His commands concerning manna. They were to collect only enough for that day. If they attempted to collect more, any excess rotted. They were to trust God for each day’s provision. It would have been easy for the people of Israel to attempt to hoard this meat for future use. After all, it was some of the finest meat available. But God wanted it used up and given out in acts of hospitality and generosity. In a similar way we have been given gifts by God. His Holy Spirit has assured that every child of God has been given a gift by God. As we give our lives to Him, He gives a part of Himself to us in the form of spiritual gifts. And those gifts are to be used up and given away to those around us. They are not to be hoarded or selfishly used for our own good. They are given to us to share with those around us. They are given to bless the entire body of Christ.

God is gracious enough to share with us. We in turn are to graciously share with others. In doing so, we are reminded that what we have comes from Him. It is not ours to keep, but to give away.

Father, You have given me so much. You have blessed me with eternal life and spiritual gifts. May I never take them for granted or hoard them. May I give my gifts away. May I use them up daily and not selfishly keep them to myself. It is the least I can do for all that You have done for me. Amen.

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org