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.
