Sayre Woods Bible Church

The following passage from today’s reading struck me:
 
Then Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, each took his fire pan and put fire in it, set incense on it, and presented strange fire before the LORD, which he had not commanded them to do. So fire went out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them so that they died before the LORD. Moses then said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD spoke: ‘Among the ones close to me I will show myself holy, and in the presence of all the people I will be honored.’ ” So Aaron kept silent. (Leviticus 10:1-3)
 
If I could sum up the sin of Nadab and Abihu in two words, those words would be “inappropriate worship.” God not only commanded that Israel worship him, he gave them strict instructions as to how they should do so. When Nadab and Abihu came to worship with an irreverent attitude, God was stirred to such anger that he immediately killed them.
 
This situation made me examine my own approach to worship. How often do I “worship” (on a Sunday morning or any other time) with other things on my mind besides the Object of my worship? How often do I allow my personal preferences (like music and teaching styles) distract me from worshipping the LORD? How often to I approach the throne of God in worship without purifying my heart or reconciling broken relationships? How often does my approach and attitude toward worship rile God’s anger instead of glorifying his name?
 
God is holy, and he deserves to be honored. May it never be said of us what the Lord Jesus said of the pharisees:
 
Hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you when he said, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, and they worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’” (Matt. 15:7-9)

I have to admit, Leviticus is not my favorite book in the Bible to read. The last few days, I’ve felt a little like I went from watching prime-time network TV to watching C-SPAN, as the violence, sex, drama, and fast-paced narrative of Genesis and Exodus moved into a book detailing how, why, and when Israel was supposed to offer sacrifices. However, Paul did say that all Scripture is profitable (2 Tim. 3:16), and God has opened my eyes to some things over the last few days.
 
In his introduction to Leviticus, C.I. Scofield writes:

Leviticus stands in the same relation to Exodus, that the Epistles do to the Gospels. Exodus is the record of redemption, and lays the foundation of the cleansing, worship, and service of a redeemed people. Leviticus gives the detail of the walk, worship, and service of that people. In Exodus God speaks out of the mount to which approach was forbidden; in Leviticus He speaks out of the tabernacle in which He dwells in the midst of His people, to tell them that which befits His holiness in their approach to, and communion with, Himself.
 
This helped me to understand a little about the purpose of Leviticus. God had just saved Israel, and now he was telling them how to live as a saved people — what they needed to do to ensure proper fellowship with their LORD. I still had a little trouble figuring out, however, what priestly instructions about sacrifices had to do with my walk as a Christian. Then I remembered the book of Hebrews, a book that has always fascinated me, and a book that consistently refers to Jesus as our “high priest”. And it is a statement that the author of this book makes in chapter four that greatly impacted me:
 
For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Heb. 4:15-16)

Leviticus is pretty much detailing what sacrifices were necessary in order for God’s people to approach his throne and receive mercy and grace, and this is why instead of being out of place in the Biblical narrative, Leviticus fits in perfectly. Because 1500 years after these instructions were given, God would provide the final sacrifice: his only begotten son. And it is because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, the final payment for sin, that we can now draw near to God’s throne with confidence to find mercy and grace in our time of need. And I believe that the author of Hebrews probably had this in mind when later in the book he wrote the following about the Old Testament saints:
 
And these all were commended for their faith, yet they did not receive what was promised. For God had provided something better for us, so that they would be made perfect together with us. (Heb. 11:39-40)
 
Let us rejoice in the fact that God has provided a better (and final) sacrifice for us that we may approach his throne with confidence.

As I read this passage today, it hit me that God wants three things from me. And it just so happens that as a 21st century American male, they are probably the 3 hardest things for me to give him: my unquestioned obedience, my undivided worship, and my unlimited offerings.

My Unquestioned Obedience
I will do wonders such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation. All the people among whom you live will see the work of the LORD, for it is a fearful thing that I am doing with you. (34:10)

When I read that verse, my first response was, “Wow! I want God to be able to say that about my life and about my church.” Imagine God working through us in such a way that our community’s first response would be, “This is from the LORD!” Incredible thought, isn’t it? Naturally I began to wonder what we would need to do in order for this type of spiritual revival to take place. As is typical, however, God’s word gave an immediate and indisputable answer:

Obey what I am commanding you this day.

That’s it. There’s no secret formula. No bestselling book. No fancy curriculum. Nothing to memorize, nothing to learn, nothing to do. In order for God to work through me and through my church, he requires one thing: obedience. For it is when we align our will with his, without question and without compromise, that we give his spirit the opportunity to work through us. This is why part of the Great Commission is to teach “them all that I have commanded you.” God’s plan for his people has never been to create an exclusive club marked out by circumcision or baptism, where the “chosen ones” could receive all of his blessings and none of the world’s trials. As evident here in Exodus 34 and again in Jesus words in Matthew 28, obedience is an integral part of who we are as God’s people, for it is only when we are obedient to his command and call that we bless the world with the blessing we have received.

My Undivided Worship
For you must not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. (34:14)

I think this verse becomes much more meaningful when you think of God’s relationship with his people as a relationship between a husband and wife (an analogy which the Bible makes many times in both the Old and New Testament). If I were to take the honor and attention that is due my wife and give it to someone else, my wife would be devastated and my marriage severely damaged. It would also mean that I did not care enough about my wife or our relationship to avoid such a mistake. And yet I find myself doing exactly the same thing in my relationship with God on a regular basis. I go out of my way to avoid situations that may possibly make my wife jealous and never consider whether or not my attitude or actions are making my God jealous. I don’t bow down and worship carved images, but how often do I give time, money, glory, and honor that is due God to someone or something else? Probably more often that I’d like to admit.

My Unlimited Offerings

Money is important in our society. Not only is the cost of living ridiculously high, but we have more luxuries to spend our money on than perhaps any other society in history. Its hard sometimes to know where and when to spend money. There are things I need, things I want, and worthy charities and organizations to consider. This passage reminded me, however, that no matter what else I’m doing with my money, God gets his share first. Consider these verses:

The first offspring from every womb belongs to Me, and all your male livestock, the first offspring from cattle and sheep. (34:19)

You shall bring the very first of the first fruits of your soil into the house of the LORD your God. (34:26)

Take from among you a contribution to the LORD; whoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it as the LORD’S contribution (35:5)
Everyone whose heart stirred him and everyone whose spirit moved him came and brought the LORD’S contribution for the work of the tent of meeting and for all its service and for the holy garments. Then all whose hearts moved them, both men and women, came and brought brooches and earrings and signet rings and bracelets, all articles of gold; so did every man who presented an offering of gold to the LORD (35:21-22)

The Israelites, all the men and women, whose heart moved them to bring material for all the work, which the LORD had commanded through Moses to be done, brought a freewill offering to the LORD. (35:29)

They received from Moses all the contributions which the sons of Israel had brought to perform the work in the construction of the sanctuary. And they still continued bringing to him freewill offerings every morning. And all the skillful men who were performing all the work of the sanctuary came, each from the work which he was performing, and they said to Moses, “The people are bringing much more than enough for the construction work which the LORD commanded us to perform.” So Moses issued a command, and a proclamation was circulated throughout the camp, saying, “Let no man or woman any longer perform work for the contributions of the sanctuary.” Thus the people were restrained from bringing any more. (Exodus 36:3-6)

I was convicted in two areas as I read these verses:

1) Am I giving cheerfully and willingly? Moses made a point to mention that these offerings were “freewill offerings”. That term made me question my motives behind my giving. Am I giving out of duty or devotion? Am I giving because I know I should or because I know the church needs the money? Or am I giving out of my own free will, without any objections?

2) Am I giving all that I can give? Despite all of their faults in the surrounding verses and chapters, the Israelites’ behavior here astounded me. They gave so much that Moses had to tell them to stop giving! Think about that. Could you imagine if our church gave so much that the deacons and treasurer had to tell us to slow down because we had more money that we knew what to do with? How amazing would that be? And yet that is exactly what happened in this passage.

Am I giving to God what is rightfully his? Am I giving it up cheerfully and willingly? Am I giving all I have to give or all I want to give?

Lord, help me to give to you what is rightfully yours. Whether it be my obedience, my worship, or my offerings, may you continually remind me that everything I have is because of you and for you. All to Jesus, I surrender.

A few verses from Exodus 32 struck me today:

On the next day Moses said to the people, “You yourselves have committed a great sin; and now I am going up to the LORD, perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” Then Moses returned to the LORD, and said, “Alas, this people has committed a great sin, and they have made a god of gold for themselves. But now, if You will, forgive their sin–and if not, please blot me out from Your book which You have written!” (32:30-32)

Moses had been up on the mountain, literally in the presence of God. Meanwhile, his people were down below creating and worshipping an idol. Yet when their sin is discovered, Moses does something that absolutely amazed me: he placed himself in between God and the people and interceded for them.

I think this goes completely against everything our society teaches us. Nowadays if someone around us fails at something (whether it be a project at work or school or someone on a ministry team), we are preconditioned to separate ourselves from that person lest we be considered failures as well. We see this everyday in politics (notice how all 100 Senators claim to have been against the war in Iraq despite the fact that the Senate gave it almost unanimous approval), and I think if we look close enough, we’ll see it in the rest of society, in the Church, and even in ourselves.

This predisposition goes against the Biblical example of a Godly man, however. Moses, Daniel, and Jesus (to name three) all took the guilt of their people upon themselves and pleaded with God for forgiveness. When Moses tells God, “forgive their sin–and if not, please blot me out from Your book which You have written!” what he is saying is, “If you aren’t going to forgive my people, then I’d rather be dead!” This is much different from the prevailing American attitude of “I’d rather be dead then have someone associate me with this failure!”

Are we willing to put the spiritual lives of those around us ahead of our own well-being? Are we willing to stand with those who are faltering and help bring them back into fellowship with God? Are we willing to plead with God for those who have yet to call on him for salvation?

May we be people who are not afraid to put ourselves at risk for the good of others.

You must not oppress a foreigner, since you know the life of a foreigner, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. (23:9)

I know that immigration and illegal immigration are hot button issues that have a chance to rile people up, but I think it is something Christians desperately need to consider their stance on. There is a temptation to side with conservative politicians and decry the number of illegal aliens crossing our borders, and I’m not saying that taking such a stance on the issue is necessarily wrong. But I do think we need to consider how we as Christians, the Church, the body of Christ, are going to treat foreigners in our land, whether they be legal or illegal. My own personal opinion as one who has gone through the immigration process with my wife is that we need to make it easier for people to get here legally (because it is a giant pain in the neck) to reduce the temptation to come illegally, but that is somewhat irrelevant. What really matters is how these people will be treated because they are already here, and they will continue to come here.

Even though we were never foreigners in the land of Egypt, the Bible does call us foreigners and sojourners here on Earth. This is not our home. In some respects we should be experiencing the life of a foreigner and should thus be able to sympathize with the immigrants and aliens in our country. Our area is very diverse and filled with people from Russia, India, Africa, and other parts of the world. These people may be without family and friends and experiencing some form of culture shock. What will our response to them be? Will we cry out that they are watering down our white anglo-saxon protestant culture? Will we shun them and make them feel like outsiders because they are different or new? Or will we welcome them, befriend them, and show them that the Church is a place where there is no black or white, slave or free, male or female (Gal. 3:28)?

As Christians, we are the closest thing to Christ that some people will ever experience. Will we make them think of Jesus as one who would stand up and shout at them to go home? Or will we show them the Jesus who has his arms open wide to welcome any and all into his kingdom?

You must not oppress a foreigner, since you know the life of a foreigner…

This passage is one that I struggle with due to the presence of capital punishment. From my experience, most young people who grow up in politically-conservative, Christian homes grow up as proponents of the death penalty, and until recent years I was no different. I have come to the point, however, where I do not support the death penalty (for a number of reasons which I will not get into here) so this passage becomes more troublesome for me since God commands people to be put to death for various crimes.

One way that I reconcile my beliefs with the passage in question is based on the fact that not all of Scripture is normative, meaning that just because God commanded something from Israel 3,500 years go doesn’t mean that he expects it from us today. Israel was a theocratic government body, and neither the Church nor America falls into that category.

I also don’t have a huge problem with God commanding the death penalty for things like murder and rape — two of the most horrendous, violent things one can do to another person. What I struggle with is God commanding the death penalty for things like sorcery, worshipping false idols, and bestiality — serious sins without a doubt, but not sins that modern governments would consider killing someone over.

In that light, I wanted to share a passage from a book that has somewhat helped me to reconcile my pro-life, saved by grace, 21st century Christian way of thinking with a passage of Scripture that tells how my God not only allowed the death penalty, but commanded it. The book is What on Earth is God Doing? by Dr. Renald Showers (who spoke at our Prophecy Conference a few years back). I’m not saying that his view is definitely accurate, but it is at least thought provoking.

He writes:

Because Israel was to be the nation through which the Redeemer would come, it was essential that she be kept free from the apostasy and perverted lifestyle of other nations. In order to insure this freedom, God placed Israel under the Law. The Law was to be an external restraint upon sinful, apostate tendencies until the Redeemer would come (Gal. 3:15-4:5). In order to exercise such restraint, the Law required that those guilty of apostasy and perversion be put to death immediately (Ex. 21:2-17; 22:18-20). The coming of the Redeemer was more crucial for the benefit of mankind than was the life of an individual rebel or pervert. ..Whether or not Israel kept the Law, then was no idle matter.

A few verses stuck out at me in today’s reading:

The LORD visited Sarah just as he had said he would and did for Sarah what he had promised. (21:1)

It’s amazing how such a simple verse could bring such great comfort. Despite the fact that God constantly reiterates it throughout Scripture, I often forget that our God is one who always keeps his promises. What he has promised, he will do.

But God heard the boy’s voice. The angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and asked her, “What is the matter, Hagar? Don’t be afraid for God has heard the boy’s voice right where he is crying. (21:17)

For those times when I forget that God keeps his promises and find myself feeling hopeless, all I need to do is cry out. God will hear me right where I am crying.

But Abraham lodged a complaint against Abimelech concerning a well that Abimelech’s servants had seized. “I do not know who has done this thing,” Abimelech replied. “Moreover, you did not tell me. I did not hear about it until today.”

When I feel I have been wronged, it is my inclination to think that the other person did or said (or didn’t do or didn’t say) something on purpose. This account shows, however, that before I get offended, it’s probably a good idea to confront the person first. As was the case with Abimelech, the other person may not know they have hurt me until I tell them.

Then Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age, an old man who had lived a full life. He joined his ancestors. His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him…(25:8-9)

I didn’t necessarily see an application here. I just thought it was neat that despite the circumstances surrounding their births, and despite the enmity that will eventually develop between their descendants, these two brothers reunited one more time to bury their father. It either shows that there need not be so much strife between Jews and Muslims or that Abraham was such a good father to the two of them that they put aside their differences to honor his memory.

So Esau swore an oath to him and sold his birthright to Jacob…So Esau despised his birthright. (25:33-34)

A note in my Bible says that the phrase “despised his birthright” doesn’t speak to the fact that he regretted selling it, but rather that he thought so little of it in the first place that he was willing to sell it for the immediate and momentary pleasure of a good meal. May we be mindful of the immense vale of our birthright as sons of God and joint heirs with Christ. And may we not be people who are willing to give it up for immediate and momentary pleasures.

But the LORD struck Pharaoh and his household with severe diseases because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. (12:17)

For the LORD had caused infertility to strike every woman in the household of Abimelech because he took Sarah, Abraham’s wife. (20:18)

This is one of the many times in the Old Testament when I read the passage, think “how could that person be so stupid or so faithless?” and then realize that I do the exact same thing in my walk with the Lord. In that light, there are a few applications I get from these two accounts:

1) Despite the fact that it seems contradictory, we are sometimes most prone to faithlessness after a “mountaintop” spiritual experience. In Genesis 12, Abraham refuses to walk by faith despite the fact that God had just promised to make a great nation from him and his wife. In Genesis 20, he commits the same exact (in every sense of the word) mistake as in Genesis 12. This time he had just been consulted by God about what to do about Sodom and Gomorrah and had his advice heeded. Experiencing a spiritual high does not keep one out of the reach of temptation. Perhaps we need to be even more guarded at those times.

2) We don’t always learn from past mistakes. Abraham made the same exact mistake twice in Genesis 12 & 20. Making a mistake does not necessarily mean I will be able to notice and prevent that mistake from happening again unless I am vigilant in standing guard against it.

3) Our sin can have negative affects on other people, even innocent parties. When we sin against God or even against another person, the effects of that sin do not stay with the people involved. The Egyptians and Abimelech’s family had not done anything wrong, but they did experience the negative effects of Abraham’s sin. When we sin, we end up hurting people we don’t mean to hurt.

4) It is my responsibility to hold firm to the promises and commands of God. God had promised Abraham that he and Sarah would produce a great nation, and Abraham turns around and almost gets Sarah married off to other men by pretending that she is his sister instead of trust in God’s protection and God’s promise. In the end, God has to intervene to keep this from happening. There are stories throughout the Old Testament of wives, relatives, or God himself having to intervene to keep people (usually men) from jeopardizing God’s promise. Whenever I have a choice between self-preservation through human means and trusting in God’s promise and protection, I need to trust God.

5) God will continue to use you despite your faults. These two accounts tell the story of a man who was willing to allow his wife to be taken as a wife by another man (twice). They also tell the story of a man who became the father of a great nation and the patriarch of the Messianic line. God uses people like Abraham, Moses and David, people who sin, and people with numerous faults to do his work.

Lord, open my eyes to see areas in my life where I am prone to sin. Help me to avoid making the same mistakes over and over again, and help me to trust in you and your promises. Help me also to realize that the consequences of my sin affect those around me that I would not want to hurt. Thank you that you continue to work in me and use me despite all my faults. Help me be less like Abraham in these passages and more like the seed of Abraham, Jesus Christ. Amen.