THE PLAN
Every Monday I will post the reading for the week ahead. It will be about 10 chapters a week. You might want to read a chapter or two a day, and catch up at weekends. If there is a verse that especially spoke to you, a question that you have, or a thought that struck you, please share it with your fellow travellers by making a comment.
4 comments:
Richard, thank you for pointing out Romans 15 v 4. I'm really praying as I launch into Leviticus(which I have to admit is the Book I'm most nervous about!), It will point me to Jesus in a new way &that I'll find HIS Endurance, Encouragement and Hope.
ENJOY, EVERYONE!
Noticed a refrain in ch 3-6. 'The priest shall make atonement for him, and he shall be forgiven.' It reminds me of the wonderful work that Jesus our high priest has done for us. All our sin has been, is, and shall be forgiven!
As a 21st Century believer, it’s difficult to avoid a strong reaction to all the animal sacrifices of Leviticus 1-9! There is no room for sentimentality. It is just so visceral. The butchery skills, the washing of internal organs, references to the liver and the kidneys, layers of fat, the draining of blood etc. is not for the squeamish. It also left me wondering, if we just had Leviticus, what would we make of all this? What would it tell us about the LORD and what was involved in his worship? How could the death of an animal, its dismemberment and burning be ‘an aroma pleasing to the Lord’? What need would the Lord have of these things? It all sounds very primitive and brings modern-day pagan rituals to mind. So, quite a strong reaction, and more than a few questions! That said, I’m beginning to ‘get’ that Leviticus tells me things about God and the price of sin and forgiveness that I wouldn’t get if Leviticus was missing from the Bible. For example, it must have been sobering for an Israelite to realise that, for sin, a living creature had to die (in their place). And in an agrarian economy which relied on the cultivation of crops and livestock, that came at a cost. You had to kill your finest animals (‘without defect’). But Laura's comment was spot on and really helpful, and prompted me to end this week by reading bits of the book of Hebrews (particularly 8:1-10:18) and to be thankful, on so many levels, for Jesus and the new covenant.
Found the gospel coalition article so helpful, particularly about reading Leviticus in the context of the OT story; "The exodus [i.e. redemption] precedes Sinai [i.e. law]. . . . Far from setting aside the promise of grace, the law was given to those who had been saved by grace in order to show them how to live in that grace. Thus Sinai does not bring fresh bondage but rather proof that the old bondage had been broken. In fact, we can speak of the law as a further act of grace, a gift to God’s people that serves his covenant and gracious purposes. Thus the call of the law is to translate God’s grace into action (Far As the Curse Is Found, 150-51)."
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