The Love of Blood and Guts
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I was reading the book of Leviticus yesterday when a strange connection came to mind.
A lot of people don’t like reading Leviticus, or Deuteronomy for that matter, because of all of the rituals and offerings.
Let’s face it, Leviticus starts out with a lot of blood and gore.
‘If his offering is a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish; he shall offer it of his own free will at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the Lord. Then he shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him. He shall kill the bull before the Lord; and the priests, Aaron’s sons, shall bring the blood and sprinkle the blood all around on the altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of meeting. And he shall skin the burnt offering and cut it into its pieces. The sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire on the altar, and lay the wood in order on the fire. Then the priests, Aaron’s sons, shall lay the parts, the head, and the fat in order on the wood that is on the fire upon the altar; but he shall wash its entrails and its legs with water. And the priest shall burn all on the altar as a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord.
And it goes on and on.
The burnt offering,
The grain offering,
The peace offering,
The sin offering,
The trespass offering.
And each of these offerings have their own laws about when they are to be offered, how the offering is to take place, and what is to be done with the “leftovers”.
There are a lot of people who don’t like all of this blood and gore,
They’d much rather have a nice clean service and just ignore all the blood and sacrifices.
But as I was reading, I remembered something I hadn’t thought about in many years.
When my mother was being treated for cancer, one of the treatments involved “jump starting” her immune system.
They collected her stem cells for months, then basically destroyed her immune system.
Then they introduced the cells they had collected to get her immune system to rebuild itself.
While my mother had a compromised immune system, there was a lot you had to go through in order to visit her.
They took your temperature, you had to wash, put on special garments over your clothes.
It was like scrubbing into an operating room.
T\Only then you could go in and see her.
All of this to protect HER from us.
What does this have to do with Leviticus?
Look at all the Israelites had to go through, just to be considered children of God?
But this was not to protect God from the Israelites, but to protect the Israelites from God.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes. And let them be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. You shall set bounds for the people all around, saying, ‘Take heed to yourselves that you do not go up to the mountain or touch its base. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. Not a hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot with an arrow; whether man or beast, he shall not live.’ When the trumpet sounds long, they shall come near the mountain.”
To be in God’s presence, the people had to consecrate themselves for two days.
Even then, they had to keep their distance.
If they even touched the mountain, they were to be killed.
And still, the people were scared to death by what they saw.
Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. Then they said to Moses, “You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.”
And these sacrifices didn’t just happen once...
“Three times you shall keep a feast to Me in the year: You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread (you shall eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt; none shall appear before Me empty); and the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors which you have sown in the field; and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field. “Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord God.
And of course, when Israel had a feast, there had to be sacrifices.
This was just to be considered children of God,
If you were of the line of Aaron, and therefore to be a priest, there was more.
“And this is what you shall do to them to hallow them for ministering to Me as priests: Take one young bull and two rams without blemish, and unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil (you shall make them of wheat flour). You shall put them in one basket and bring them in the basket, with the bull and the two rams.
“You shall also take the other ram, and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands on the head of the ram. Then you shall kill the ram, and take some of its blood and put it on the tip of the right ear of Aaron and on the tip of the right ear of his sons, on the thumb of their right hand and on the big toe of their right foot, and sprinkle the blood all around on the altar.
And that was just to be a priest.
Once a year, the high priest needed to make atonement, not just for the people, but for the tabernacle and the Holy Place.
“Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people, bring its blood inside the veil, do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. So he shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions, for all their sins; and so he shall do for the tabernacle of meeting which remains among them in the midst of their uncleanness. There shall be no man in the tabernacle of meeting when he goes in to make atonement in the Holy Place, until he comes out, that he may make atonement for himself, for his household, and for all the assembly of Israel.
All of these sacrifices, just to be a child of God.
Or to be a priest, so you could offer the sacrifices.
And don’t forget all of the rituals.
Rituals help us to remember things.
I have lists of things I have to do at certain times,
Because if I don’t have a list, I forget them.
Rituals help us remember,
Remember who we are,
Who God is,
And what we need to do just to be called children of God.
Just as I had to follow a ritual to visit my mother when her immune system was down,
Israel followed rituals, not to protect God, but to protect themselves.
Because man cannot live in the presence of God.
Even Moses, God’s friend, could not look God in the face.
And he said, “Please, show me Your glory.” Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” And the Lord said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.”
Think of an astronaut,
You don’t just wake up in space and say “I think I’ll go out for a walk.”
Because man cannot live in space.
He needs to provide protection from the environment.
First, he needs to breath pure oxygen for a while, to purge his system of nitrogen.
Then you’ve got the big, bulky suit:
The boots, goofy pants, that chest piece they have to wriggle into, gloves, and helmet.
They need a pack to provide breathable air,
Insulation to keep from freezing to death,
And special linings to protect them from all of the radiation.
But none of that will protect them from the presence of God.
Or what about a submarine,
It has to be designed to hold up to the immense pressure at depth,
And if they go down to far, it will be crushed like a soda can.
They need to generate oxygen and scrub out CO2.
But a submarine will not protect them from the face of God.
Even a pilot, not matter how many years of experience they have or how many hours they’ve flown, follow a ritual.
They call them “check lists”.
From early in every pilots training it is drilled into them to follow the check lists and procedures ritualistically.
Not to rush through them, but to be sure.
If the procedure is to check the fuel level, you better make sure you look closely.
When the checklist says to make sure the flight controls are free and correct, you had better be sure to check.
Because if you don’t it could lead not only to your death, but the death of everyone else in the plane.
So think back on all of those offerings, rights, and rituals that Israel had to perform.
Realize, they are not there because God wanted them to jump through hoops.
They were put there because that is what kept Israel safe in the presence of God.
It was their space suit, and a leak could kill them.
Think of all of the rituals we follow today to keep ourselves safe.
To keep us focused on God.
Then look at this verse of Scripture.
Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split,
All of the offerings, all of the rituals to protect us from the presence of God,
Symbolized by the veil inside the temple that separated the holy place from the most holy place.
The one place on the earth that could only be entered once a year.
Only by the high priest.
And only after he had followed the ritual, made the sacrifice, and was covered by the blood.
This symbol was torn in two.
Everything that kept us separated from God, rendered unnecessary.
When Jesus died on the Cross, He was the sacrifice that all of those bulls and lambs and goats could not be.
Realize what it took for Israel to be in God’s presence, was fulfilled in one day on Calvary.
That Jesus’ sacrifice did what even Moses could not do,
Allow us to see God face to face.
At the first Passover, it took a lamb or goat for each Hebrew family to protect them from God’s wrath,
Now, one lamb has protected the whole world from God’s wrath for all time.
If only we would accept the sacrifice.
I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”
Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Rather than looking at the gore and offal of the sacrifices in revulsion, see just how much it took just for people to be in the presence of God.
Think of the sacrifice God has made so that we do not need the blood of bulls, sheep, and goats.
I think, it puts into perspective, just how great a gift Jesus’ sacrifice is.
And even though we no longer need to follow those rituals and sacrifices,
They remind us of just how high a price was paid for us to see the Father,
And just how much God loves us to be willing to pay that price.