#216 Holiness

Lately some of us at the church where I serve as pastor have been reading the book of Leviticus. Leviticus can be an extremely difficult book to read and understand. We've read through some very detailed instructions for sacrifices. We've read a lot of laws about ceremonial cleanliness that focus on things like skin diseases and bodily emissions. It's easy to feel lost in the weeds at times, wondering what in the world all these regulations are supposed to teach God's people today. I've been reflecting on this a lot, and I've consulted a couple resources written by people much smarter and wiser than me. So here's my take:

Leviticus shows us that God is holy. God Himself stresses His holiness several times in the book. God is perfect and completely separate from sin. God's holiness means that His people must be holy. We must be separated from sin and set apart for God's service. I think God gives laws about external cleanliness to teach us that we can't just come before Him however we want. We need to think about ourselves and the things we've done. The external laws are really meant to point us to internal cleanliness, the condition of our souls, our hearts. We are sinners. Using the Ten Commandments as a guide, our hearts are full of things like idolatry, improper worship of God, misuse of God and His name for our own purposes, unwillingness to trust and prioritize God, disrespect for and misuse of authority, hatred and unjustified anger, lust, greed, dishonesty, improper and inordinate desires. Our sins separate us from God. The sacrifices teach us that something must be done about our sins if we are to come before God, because our sins mean we don't have the right to just come into His presence. In Leviticus animals served as substitutes for human beings. Animals were sacrificed for the human's sins, showing God's justice and need to punish/deal with sin as well as His mercy and willingness to forgive sin. All those sacrifices point us to Jesus, the perfect substitute who died once for all the sins of all His people. As hard as Leviticus can be to understand, I think it reminds us that God is holy and just and that in love and mercy He reaches out to His people to cleanse us from our sins and give us access to Him. I think that's a beautiful perpective on what God has done for us in Jesus.

Grace and peace,

BMH