I just finished Leviticus on Monday of this week as I’ve been following the Read through the Bible in One Year plan. I have read through Leviticus several times before and my response has always been the same; “Oh Lord, you gave the Israelites so many rules and regulations; how could you expect them to keep all your commands?”
But this last time of reading through was different, I couldn’t get past the word "value". Weird? It seemed like a strange word to describe my reading through Leviticus, yet it was stuck in my head. I think this is what I was really asking, “Do these rules and regulations communicate the high value God places on relationship with His Sons and Daughters?” God didn’t need relationship with Israel. He was not bound to create a pathway for them to fellowship with Him – a pathway toward holiness. He wanted it, and yet by the end of reading Leviticus you believe there is no way to fulfill it. God still thought it was worth a try.
Value. It is the only explanation. God placed a high value on relationship with Israel. In the sacrificial system, I see God creating a pathway for humans to have relationship with Him. He is pursuing us through this whole experience. As more of the pathway is revealed, the problem becomes more obvious: “we are not holy.” The Old Testament plays out this tension. Relationship found and relationship lost, because of an inability to keep the rules and regulations.
Still after a few thousand years of this tension, God places a high value on relationship with humans. This week I find myself studying 1 John and verse 5 says, “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” This is a commentary on the problem between humans and God. We are told in the following verses that our lives are full of sin, which is a parallel statement to darkness. The God of light values relationship with a people of darkness. God is trying to solve this in Leviticus: having relationship with a people caught in darkness, not created in darkness, nor destined to darkness, but simply, powerfully drawn to it. The challenge is before Father God. The value He placed on this relationship keeps Him in the game while still losing the fight for allegiance (obedience). The value increases as history plays on, until out of God’s own heart comes the perfect remedy. John writes with relief, “he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2:2) God provides His Son, Jesus, so that holiness is achieved apart from human effort. The constant failure (which was Israel’s and is ours) in fellowship with God our Father is eliminated. The pathway of holiness is still lived but now in light of “not that we loved him, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice.” (1 John 4:10)
It is a thrilling Gospel (good news). I am this loved by God? He places this kind of value on relationship with me; on relationship with the world? Yes, and you find it by confessing your sin and trusting in Jesus for forgiveness and cleansing. If you do, it will make your joy complete.
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2 comments:
This is about sermon podcast, does every service come on the podcast? And if yes, when is it going to be updated? I really like when Bill from Fiji spoke.
I have read this passage before and I love this scripture. It is so powerful and I realize how many people out there struggle in darkness and does'nt even know where to find a match for light, or where to look, or where or what to listen to. How to escape the darkness. God has let me know of the thick darkness of heavyness that weighs our world down. I feel so amped to let everyone know about GODS PRECIOUS LOVE. And in a instant the light cures all darkness if we are willing to have GOD in our lives.
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