5. May 2010 by admin.

In life we sin, sometimes we sin intentionally and more often I hope, unintentionally.  In either case, it really doesn’t matter.  It all stinks in the nostrils of God.  I think in the matters of theology there are a lot of gray areas,  it is not black or white.  However, God is black or white in the area of sin; it either is a sin or it’s not a sin.  If we sin, God has a very specific way of handling it. 

In Leviticus 4, God gives specific instructions on the sin offering.  The sin offering is different for different people too.  If you are an anointed priest, and you bring guilt on the pople, a bull without defect must be brought to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.  You are to lay your hand on the bulls head and slaughter it.  Then the blood is to be carried into the Tent, where you will dip your finger in it and sprinkle some of it seven times before God in front of the curtain of the sanctuary.  Then some of the blood will be put on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense that is before the Lord.  The rest of the blood shall be poured out at the base.  Then you will remove the fat of specific areas of the bull and you will burn it on the altar.  The rest of the bull must be taken outside the camp to a place ceremonially clean where the ashes are thrown and burn the bull in a wood fire on the ash heap.  

If the whole Israelite community sinse unintentionally, they are still guilty.  When they become aware of their sin, the assembly must bring a young bull beofre the tent of meeting.  The elders are to lay their hands on the young bull’s head and the bull is to be slaughtered.  the the anointed priest is to take some of the bull’s blood  into the tent and do likewise as the anointed priest would do in his sin offering.

When a leader sins unintentionally, he is guilty as well.  He must bring a male goat without defect, lay his hand on its head and slaughter it.  Then the priest will take some of the blood  withhis finger and put it on the horns of the altar and pour out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar.  He shall burn all the fat on the altar like the fellowship offering.

If a member of the community sins unintentionally, he is guilty.  He must bring a female goat without defect.  He is to lay his hand on the head and slaughter it at the place of the burnt offering. and do the same as  the leader’s offering.  If he brings a lamb, he is to bring a female without defect.

In every instance of the sin offering, the person (or elders in the case of the community) must place his hand on the animals head while it is being slaughtered.  This was to transfer the sin to the animal.  In every case the animal, or at least the fat was burned on the altar as an aroma pleasing to God.  Thankfully, we do not have to do this today because Jesus was our sin offering.  Hebrews 9:25-28 says, “Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own.  Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world.  But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.  Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.”  Christ died once, transfering our sin (both unitentional or intentional) to him.  He is our ultimate sacrifice.

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30. April 2010 by admin.

Have you ever really thought about our Western eating customs?  People all over the world share meals differently.  In Malawi, whenever you go to someone’s home, they want to cook you a meal as part of their hospitality.  It is more than hospitality though.  It is generosity!!!  The people may have very little to share with another person (of course they do not tell you this, and they just go hungry later), but they share what they have.  It is their custom, and it is rude to refuse their hospitality.  In America when someone comes to visit, we usually offer them something to drink, and perhaps a snack, but usually it is not a big sacrifice to do this, and if there isn’t enough food for dinner, then we would just skip it.  Neither is right or wrong, they are just different. 

In Leviticus 3, we are now speaking of the wellbeing or fellowship offering.  This is considered a “lesser offering”.  This offering still has the rules about sacrifice, but it can be any animal from the herd or flock, so long as it is without blemish.  Certain parts of the animal are the offering, and all of the fat belongs to the LORD.  This is important. 

Once again, in Malawi, when I went to buy meat, the butcher always tried to give us the best parts of the cow because we were visitors to his country.  While we tend to think of the lean cuts as being the best cuts, they look at the best cuts as the ones with lots of fat.  This is because it improves the taste and makes the meat moist when cooking.    Many people like the fat of the meat for it’s sweet taste (even though I am not one of them.)

God requires the fat.  Why?  Perhaps it is because it is the extra of the animal and shows the animal has had enough to eat, or perhaps it is because it is the most savory.  Either way, the people sacrifice this to the LORD as an offering.  However, unlike the burnt offering and the grain offering, the people that sacrificed the animal get to keep the extra parts that are not required by the LORD.  That is why this is a fellowship offering.  In fellowship we share with one another.

Are you fellowshipping with the LORD today?  Are you giving something to the LORD above the minimum?  How is God sharing it back with you?

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27. April 2010 by admin.

As I read chapter 2 of Leviticus, I couldn’t help but think of a time in Malawi.  I was living with a Malawian family and for dinner I was going to have a real treat of mashed potatoes.  I was really hungry that night, and you don’t just throw things out that don’t turn out as yummy as you’d like.  Fianess had made the potatoes and I was going to put some margarine (also a huge luxury) on the potatoes.  Being the clutz that I am, when I opened the container, I spilled the contents onto my potatoes.  Unfortunately, Fianess had used the container to store the yeast we used for making bread.  So I had yeasty potatoes.  I was hungry and didn’t want to be wasteful, so I ate the potatoes.  Not only did the potatoes taste funny (and bad), but having that much active yeast go into your stomach has reprecussions.  I became very bloated and felt sick to my stomach.

Chapter 2 is all about the grain offerings.  Once again there are requirements for how to offer up the grain offerings.  What caught my attention though was that none of the grain offerings were to have yeast in them.  One could offer flour, grain, breads, cakes, etc… but they all had to be unleavened and the choicest parts.

Now, I didn’t really understand how you throw flour on the altar to make smoke, and not quench a fire, but I did see the relevance of the unleavened grain.  Throughout the Bible leaven (yeast) was associated with sin.  In 1 Corinthians 5:6-8, Paul speaks to the Corinthians about sin and uses the metaphor of leavening.  He says, “Your boasting is not a good thing.  Do you not know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Clean out the old yeast so taht you may be a new batch, as you really are unleavened.  Four our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed.  Therefore, let us celebreate the festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”  He is basically saying that just a little piece of yeast, just a little bit of sin, corrupts/destroys the whole bread, or our lives.   Casting Crowns, a popular Christian music group has a song called “Slow Fade”.  This song speaks about how when we let sin slide it is a slow fade in a downward circle in our lives.  One sin leads to another, and soon we are where we never thought we would be. 

So, how do we stop this slow fade, and rid ourselves of the “sin that so easily entangles us”?  How do we make our lives, the living sacrifices (Romans 12:1-2) an aroma pleasing the to the Lord?  Can we be a pleasing aroma in our offerings with sin in our lives?

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27. April 2010 by admin.

Chapter 1-  Recipe for Burnt Offerings

Worship is sometimes like cooking.  When we cook, oftentimes we have a recipe, or list and directions of order to get the desired product.  We need to follow the directions or it may not turn out right.  Cooking is sometimes tedious and messy, but the final product is the reward

God’s Recipe for Burnt offerings:

Ingredients:

Choose one:

     herd (bull)- male without blemish

     flock (sheep or goat)- male without blemish

     bird (pigeon or turtledove)

Directions:

     herd- take to entrance of tent of meeting (for acceptance from the LORD); lay hand on head (be accepted on your behalf); slaughter before the LORD;

                 PRIESTS- will offer blood, dashing on all sides of altar

             flay and cut into pieces

                  Priests- arrange parts on altar; wash entrails and legs in water; burn for smoke

            Yield= pleasing odor to the LORD

      FLOCK-

           Take to the Northern side of the altar before the LORD;

            Priests- dah blood against all sides of altar, cup into parts; arrange parts on altar; wash entrails and legs in water; offer whole and turn into smoke

       YIELD- pleasing odor to LORD

       BIRDS-

            PRIESTS DO ALL!  Bring to altar and wring off head; turn into smoke; blood drained out against side of altar; remove food tube with contents and throw onto ash heap (east side); tear it open by wings without severing it; turn into smoke

      YIELD: Pleasing odor to the LORD

So what recipe do we live by?  We no longer have to do these sacrifices because Jesus was our true sacrifice.  he was a make without blemish, given as a free offering.  He was offered and accepted at the door for those who acknowledge they are sinners and Christ died for them.  He was/is the atonement.  Paul writes in Romans 12:1-2, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mids, so taht you may discern what is the will of God- what is good and acceptable and perfect” (NRSV).  Emerson Pent said, ” Here’s the problem with the living sacrifice; it keeps crawling off the altar.”  While burnt offerings remain still, but we “surrender” everything to God, and after a while we “crawl off the altar.”  So, what does being a living sacrifice mean to you, and how will you refrain from “crawling off the altar”?

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