God’s Diet: Levitical Law

As I have read and reflected on God’s Diet laws for the Israelites, I found that much of what was commanded was for the health of the people. This was not a new revolution to me but I felt that it bore speaking on.

God wants us to live a healthy and well nourished life. While Christ released us from the strict observance of the the Levitical ordinances, we are still under God’s command to live healthy of body. Eat what is put in front of you but don’t make a habit of eating food that are not good for you. Don’t over indulge in feasting and don’t make yourselves sick by eating the wrong things.

In my Levitical experience, I am avoiding unhealthy foods. This is in part because my doctors have warned me of high cholesterol and becoming a little paunchy, but mostly because I want to be a healthy “temple” for Christ to reside in. So, while I love crab, crayfish and lobster, I will not eat them as much. I do enjoy a good pork roast, but that will also be cut down on. Instead I will eat more fowl and fish. I will refrain from eating exotic foods and will stay away from uncooked meats of any kind.

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The Zeal of Salvation

As I read my daily reading of Praying With Saint Paul, a Catholic collection of Reflections on the Letters of the Apostle, I was struck by the verses used for Aug 8th.
“Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.” (Philippians 2:14-16 ESV)

What struck me first is that this one sentence contains sixty-seven words in the English, is three verses long and spoke directly to my heart. The second thing was that it was chosen as the verse for the opening day of the Olympics and speaks of running. The last thing was that it tells us to quit complaining about the world we live in and start making a difference.

The sixty-seven words is not so important, but that fact that Paul went to such length to make a point about living a blameless life, one with the innocence of Faith and to stay without the blemishes of the world was important. We do live in a wicked and crooked world. We can not escape it, so we must make the most of it. The best way to survive in this cruel and harsh world is to live with the Light of Jesus shining brightly in every thing we do. We need to hold fast to the concept of Christian living in every way, every day.

Paul also used sports often when writing and it makes you think that he must of loved the Olympics of Greece. To use this verse as the one for the opening of the Olympics in China, a nation known for its lack of religious freedom and its oppressions, says volumes. But we must remember that China is not the only country that suppresses religion. We must be the torch bearers to the World, we must let the Light of Christ shine in us as we run in life. Paul was proud of his little group of believers.

The last important thing is the first one Paul brings up. Quit your belly-aching! We are to stop the whining and complaining and focus on living a blameless life so that no one can place guilt upon us. We are to live in the Holy Life that Christ places us in by His Grace and to work in the world of corruption and deceit. Each generation is full of evil and vile people, yet we are to stand above the fray and be strong in our faith, living wholly and completely for Christ’s good.
We are to live Holy and blameless before God and man that they can not find fault with anything that we do.

This is the message that Paul imparts to his children of faith. Put your faith into action by living the imitation of Christ in every aspect of your being.

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Unintentional Sin and the Sin of Silence

As I continue in my search for Christian understanding through Leviticus, chapter four tells us about the unintentional sin. We are still accountable for the sins we commit even when we did not intend to sin or when we were unaware that what we do is a sin. Just because we have come to Christ and our sins are forgiven, we are not completely off the hook.

As we are to live holy and blameless, we must confess, repent and recant our sins, even when we did not intend to sin. Our flesh and our minds are weak, we will always sin. In the Old Testament, the sacrifice for intentional sin was the same as the sacrifice for deliberate sin. No matter how you cut it, sin is still sin.

What I found interesting was the fact the the leaders of the church were required to sacrifice bull as a guilt offering for the whole congregation. He brought guilt to the whole community. It was as if the whole church sinned with him. I have seen churches close down and scatter because of the sin of a pastor. And if a church has sinned (as with a misleading teaching) they must also sacrifice a bull as soon as they learn that they have sinned. Yet if one of the congregation sins unintentionally, he is required to bring a female goat or if no goat, a ewe.

I do not understand why the difference of sacrifice unless it was to show that the leaders of the community and the the Church were held to a higher degree of responsibility.

What I had missed over the years of reading and studying the Word was that Leviticus places the sin of not speaking up at an injustice the same as touching the unclean. This is an eye opener for me. James told us that omitting to do a good thing or remaining quiet was a sin but I never knew that it was from the voice of God to Moses the same thing. How could I have missed this?

It also makes making a rash promise or oath (promising something that can be done) as a sin was also something that I found interesting. Well maybe it is as the word of God says, an iniquity and we should be aware of what we say and don’t say at all times. The understanding given to the people of God was that these actions made them unclean, it made them spiritual lepers.

What I hear here is that we are called to speak out against social injustice, to guard that what we promise, we can do and to examine the purpose and motives of all we undertake. What I must do in me walk today is speak with God through prayer and thanksgiving to be assured that my motives are within His will and Purpose.

What I am grateful for is that prior to this sacrifice for our sins, God told Moses to make a peace offering, a fellowship offering to celebrate that God loves His People. this offering the priest were to share with the giver of the offering. Thus I see that Jesus made for us a peace offering, He shared his body with us through the Last Supper offering when He said, “This is My Body…This is My Blood.”

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Leviticus: As God calls His People

When it was pointed out to me that Leviticus was not the first name given to the third book of the Bible, I awakened a new concept of the purpose of the Law. The Hebrew names of the book is from the first line of the book; “Yahweh called Moses, and from the Tent of Meeting addressed him saying,’Speak to the sons of Israel…’” (TJB) It is a book on how to live as God’s People, under His tutoring and for His purpose. It is a text book on right living. That may be way it is so hard to accept in the Christian world, it reads like a school manual and have to make changes in our lives to be in accordance to the “new” rules.

But the Law was established because the people of God couldn’t “keep the Faith” even for one generation. It was to easy to slip into old habits, past attitudes and familiarities. But the entire theme of the book is to live in holiness, presenting yourselves blameless and pure before God.

Which brings me to the first part of the Levitical Law, the burnt sacrifices. The blood offering of a male animal was to be brought alive to the priests to be sacrificed for atonement for sin. All herdsmen where to bring the finest of their herds to offer up to the Lord as an acceptable replacement for their own lives. The smoke from the burning flesh was to be a pleasing aroma to God.

The second offering is the grain sacrifice, an offering of finely milled flour, raw or cooked offered as an atonement for sin. This was also burnt to send up to the heaven as a sweet savor to God.

The purpose was to offer to God the Best of what we have to make amends for the worst of what we have become. In Christ we have both the blood offering and the grain offering. This is why Jesus chose to use the Pascal wine and unleavened bread as the offering that we call Communion. As Christ is the Perfect Atonement for our sins, the first and the best we have to offer for our failings, as Christ is the Lamb of the Pascal Offering, the final atonement, we have been made acceptable before God and are called to be His People.

But it is not enough to claim to be acceptable, we must continue to be holy, blameless and purified before God as we continue to walk in His Righteousness. With my wife, I have started a new practice, a Levitical offering each day that is an offering and sharing of unleavened bread as a sign that each day, we will strive to be the unblemished offering of self to God. We will do this, not as a communion offering but as a personal sacrifice of ourselves to continue to live in a godly fashion, hoping that we remain untarnished by the failings of the world.

Since we have chosen not to drink alcoholic beverages and don’t care for grape juice, we will offer up a glass of filtered, purified water as our offering at night, giving thanks to God for service to Him. This will be our symbol of the Levitical offerings to guide us during this thirty day challege. It is very likely that this will become a daily custum and a part of our lives. The very act of a daily offering is a habit but as long as it never loses its reverence or purpose, is it a pleasing aroma before our God.

As Christ offered Himself for our Salvation, we are to die daily to Faith and offer ourselves up in Hope Divine of the Promise of Love Agape. If our first act of the day is to offer ourselves to the purpose of the Father and the last is to praise God and implore upon His Mercies for our failings, we can not but live toward holy Perfection.

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