Bible Reading Discussion 2.19.23

Readings from Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers

Exodus 39:43 ESV

And Moses saw all the work, and behold, they had done it; as the Lord had commanded, so had they done it. Then Moses blessed them.

I love Moses’s encouraging words here in Exodus 39. When he saw people acting in love and obedience to the Lord, he blessed them and encouraged them to continue. When we see God at work in the lives of other people, we ought to encourage them.

Exodus 40:16 ESV

This Moses did; according to all that the Lord commanded him, so he did.

Over and over again it says that Moses did all that the Lord had commanded him. He was careful to obey every detail of what God had spoken to him.

Leviticus 1:4 ESV

He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him.

Personal responsibility for sin

Substitutionary atonement—someone or something must die because of my sin (hence all the blood in Leviticus). Here an animal dies, in the NT, Jesus Christ is the perfect Lamb of God whose blood atones for our sins. God in his grace accepts a substitution.

Leviticus 9:6–7 ESV

And Moses said, “This is the thing that the Lord commanded you to do, that the glory of the Lord may appear to you.” Then Moses said to Aaron, “Draw near to the altar and offer your sin offering and your burnt offering and make atonement for yourself and for the people, and bring the offering of the people and make atonement for them, as the Lord has commanded.”

Aaron had to offer sacrifices for himself and for the people because he was a sinner just like them. And these sacrifices had to be offered regularly. Christ did not have any sin, so his offering was only for the people, and it was offered once for all time. Hebrews 5:1-3

Hebrews 5:1–3 ESV

For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. Because of this he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people.

Hebrews 7:11 ESV

Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron?

Hebrews 7:23–28 ESV

The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.

Hebrews 9:7 ESV

but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people.

Hebrews 9:11–14 ESV

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Leviticus 9:23–24 ESV

And Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting, and when they came out they blessed the people, and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar, and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.

What must it have been like to see the manifest glory of God (Shekinah)? The people’s reaction is twofold:

they shouted for joy

they fell on their faces in worship and awe

Leviticus 10:1–2 ESV

Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.

Apparently right after this amazing display of God’s glory, two of Aaron’s son’s were consumed by the fire of God (just like the sacrifice in 9:24) because they failed to obey God’s commands. This sight of God’s glory should have led them to holiness, but instead they were careless.

Leviticus 11:44–45 ESV

For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground. For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.”

This is the source of Peter’s quote in 1 Peter 1:15-16

1 Peter 1:15–16 ESV

but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

What does it mean to be holy?