The Bible Recap - Day 050 (Leviticus 19-21) - Year 4

Episode Date: February 19, 2022

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Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible recap. For most of this book, and in fact for all of the rest of it, God is the only person who speaks. He's talking a lot about holiness, which includes but isn't limited to cleanliness. He gives laws about how people should live in community together, in a way that is both civil toward each other, horizontal laws or man-to-man laws, and laws about how to live honorably toward God,

vertical laws or God-to-man laws. He starts out by restating a few of the Ten Commandments. If you ever wonder why God repeats himself so frequently, just stop for a second and think about how quickly the Israelites forget. Or honestly, it's probably just blatant rebellion. Then God dives into application of the horizontal laws, loving your neighbor as yourself. I'm just going to do a quick overview of some of the things he touches on, because I think they really serve to reveal God's heart.

In 1999 through 10, we see that God provides for the poor via the surplus of the rich, ordering the rich not to fully harvest their fields. He'll reiterate this again tomorrow. And by the way, this law is one of the ways God brought Ruth and Boas together. We'll read that story in a few weeks. In 1914, God speaks specifically against injuring people in the area of their weakness. The deaf can't hear your curses, and the blind can't see your stumbling blocks, so don't use people's wounds or vulnerabilities to your own advantage. In 1917, God encourages this people not to be ruled by selfish emotions. Instead, be reasonable

and communicate openly to avoid a rift. On de-group staff, the way we seek to operate by this principle is, if someone says something negative about another person, they have 24 hours to bring it to that person. It helps us honor each other while also honoring God and not let these things fester in our hearts. God also emphasizes the importance of heart, here, it's at the root of everything we do. Then God moves on to other specific laws about how to honor him. If this whole section is confusing to you, I can commiserate. This is a really confusing section to know how to parse today. We can't throw it all out. We can't assume that since Jesus came and fulfilled the law that God is okay with you making

your daughter a prostitute now, or to sacrifice your children to Moleic. Even back then, this required a bit of discernment. For instance, could you make your son a prostitute? Could you sacrifice your children to a different false god besides MOLIC? Even back then they had to dig to the heart of these commands to see how to apply them. So how do we discern what still applies today? The easiest way I've heard it explained is there are three basic types of laws, civil laws which deal with society's behaviors and punishments, ceremonial laws,

which deal with being clean, making sacrifices, etc., and moral laws, where God declares what is right and wrong, like in the Ten Commandments. First, let's talk about why all three of these types of laws applied to Israel. Israel was in a unique situation. They were a religious group that functioned as a nation, so all their laws overlapped. There was no separation of church and state in Leviticus. Today, God's people are from many nations. So the civil laws God set out for Israel as a nation state no longer apply.

However, some of the principles of the law still apply. But the actual breakdown of how they're walked out will vary widely. The ceremonial laws were all fulfilled in Christ, so we no longer need those. There are no more sacrifices because he was the final and complete sacrifice covering our sins, past, present, and future. And while the moral laws were also fulfilled in Christ, the moral laws reflect God's character, so they're not going anywhere. We're stuck with those because God's character toward His people applies to people of all nations and it never changes. We even see Jesus not only emphasizing the moral laws but digging even deeper on them.

He pointed out that the heart behind our actions matters too, not just the action itself. If you want to read more about these laws and their distinctions, we'll link to a short article about this in today's show notes. It's really helpful. Definitely check that out. And as always, if you don't know how to find the show notes, try googling the name of the app or the platform where you're listening, along with the word show notes. All that to say, since rules like not wearing blended garments and not getting tattoos, were about staying ceremonially clean, and about being set apart from the nations around them,

those laws no longer apply. Jesus fulfilled all those ceremonial and civil requirements. If you don't know what kind of law you're dealing with and whether or not it still applies, try boiling it down to the reason behind it. What was God's motive and heart behind this law? Let's look at an example. 2010 says, if a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulterer shall surely be put to death.

So what kind of law is this? On the surface, it's definitely a civil law because it dulls out a specific punishment to be enacted. However, we know from the moral law that God hates adultery. So what do we do here? We keep the heart of it, the moral aspect, to not commit adultery because it's clear how much God hates it. But we lose the civil punishments attached to it, meaning we don't kill the adulters.

God commanded killing in that instance because he was preserving these people for the birth of the Messiah in the midst of a strong pagan culture. In chapter 21, we saw some regulations for the priests and how they're supposed to be set apart. Leavites with birth effects could receive the bread, but not offer it. This wasn't meant to point out the flaws of these priests. It was meant to point out God's perfection. Remember, there were even rules like this for the priests who didn't have birth effects. They had to wear certain things, enter at certain times,

everything had to be very specific. No priests got a pass on honoring God's perfection and holiness. So what did you see about God today? My God shot is from 2115, where God says, I am the Lord who sanctifies Him. We first saw this phrase in Exodus 31 13, where it's actually one of God's names, Jehovah mechodish Kim, the Lord who sanctifies you.

The Hebrew used here is a bit different than the proper name of God in Exodus 31, but it carries the same meaning. God is the one who cleans us up. Honestly, after reading a bunch of civil and ceremonial and moral laws, that's exactly what my heart needed to be reminded of. He is the one who sanctifies me, who cleans me up.

His spirit lives within me and is conforming me to the image of Christ. I'm not left here to pull myself up by my spiritual bootstraps. That is not the gospel. If you're feeling the distance between his holiness and your uncleanness, take heart. He is at work in you. It's good that you see how far you are from his perfection. That will make you all the more grateful when you fix your eyes on the finished work of Christ on the cross

and on the continuing work of his spirit within you. Praise God, he cleans this up, because I can't do it myself, and I want to be near him. He's where the joy is. Did you know that we have a version of the Bible recap in Spanish? We're so excited about it. So be sure to tell all your Spanish-speaking friends and family. By the way, we not only have the Spanish language podcast, but we also have our reading plan in Spanish on the Bible app. Both the podcast and the Bible reading plan are called Los Sonopses de la Bibliá, and you'll need to adjust your language settings to Spanish before you search for it. There's more info in the show notes and at the espanyol link at thebibelrecap.com.

And of course, I want to say a huge thanks to our team leaders, Arlette Blackwell and Lauren Mulford, and to all of you who volunteered to help translate this or be one of our guest speakers, this would not be possible without you. So thank you for all the ways you're using your gifts to serve the kingdom. them.