READING FOR AUGUST 13, 2024: LEVITICUS 5, LUKE 6, PSALM 79 LEVITICUS 5 This chapter discusses offering sacrifices for individuals guilty of specific offenses. Since the process has been covered extensively already, we will concentrate on the offenses and what that might tell us about God’s expectations for His people, then and now. How many times have we seen frustrated police say that there were numerous witnesses to a crime, but nobody was willing to come forward to provide information. Leviticus says those witnesses are to be punished. Interesting concept which God’s people should consider whenever possessing information that could be helpful to the authorities. Could we take this one step further? What if we possess information that could free others from the eternal consequences of sin, but do not come forward? Might we bear responsibility?
Levitical rules relating to touching unclean animals and other ceremonial uncleanliness were ways to set aside or purify Israel as a chosen people of God. Notice how Jesus fulfilled all this by His work on the cross: “The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!” (Heb 9: 9-10, 13-14).
Lev. 5:4 says if we thoughtlessly say something wrong, we are guilty. This is getting picky. This amazing illustration by C. S. Lewis explains why thoughtless comments are so serious:“Surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of a man he is? Surely what pops out before the man has time to put on a disguise is the truth? If there are rats in the cellar you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly. But the suddenness does not create the rats: it only prevents them from hiding. In the same way the suddenness of the provocation does not make me an ill-tempered man; it only shows me what an ill-tempered man I am. The rats are always there in the cellar, but if you go in shouting and noisily, they will have taken cover before you switch on the light.”
LUKE 6 “Judge not, and ye shall not be judged” (Luke 6:37). The Matthew version of this saying by Jesus is certainly among the most quoted verses in the Bible. The following quotation is taken from the from the June 19, 2024 NY Post: “Music legend Billy Joel cautioned outsiders from casting aspersions about Justin Timerblake following the pop star’s arrest for allegedly driving while intoxicated on Long Island this week. ‘Judge not lest ye be judged,’ Joel, 75, told PIX11 News on Tuesday afternoon – just hours after Timberlake, 43, was pulled over in Sag Harbor... Joel – who entered rehab for alcohol abuse in the early 2000s – also crashed his car into a tree in Sag Harbor in 2003.”
Billy Joel plays piano well, but unfortunately states he doesn’t believe in God. Yet even he likes what Jesus says in this verse. The Luke version is taken from Jesus’s often called “Sermon on the Plain,” which has many similarities to the “Sermon on the Mount” in Matthew. Because this verse is used by so many to mean essentially that nothing can ever be called objectively
READING FOR AUGUST 13, 2024 CONTINUED: LUKE 6, PSALM 79 wrong (except calling something wrong), let’s focus our limited space on looking at this verse.
John 3:17 is another frequently quoted verse that says Jesus himself did not come to judge--but read a bit more: “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” Jesus’s mission at his first coming was to die to save us, not judge us, because everyone was/is already in a state of judgment. Our deeds are evil, objectively wrong. Eternal judgment will take place one day as seen in Rev. 20:13,15: “They were judged, each one of them according to their deeds... And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” BUT, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life” (John 3:36).
What might Jesus be saying in Luke? Certainly, it’s never our place to judge if someone is in or out of the book of life! We don’t have a copy. Billy Joel also had a good point. He crashed due to drunken driving and shouldn’t judge Justin Timberlake. But we all know it’swrong to drink and drive; otherwise, there wouldn’t be laws against it. First, we must remember, as Jesus says, we’re all sinful and need Him. Then we should first examine ourselves before we, in love, assist another: “First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye” (Luke 6:42). Verses 37 and 42 are both true. No Contradiction!
PSALM 79 From the description of Jerusalem destroyed and the Temple defied, this seems to refer to the Babylon conquest: “Nebuzaradan burned down the Lord's temple, the king's palace, and every important building in the city, as well as all the houses” (2 Kings 25:9). During this time of total breakdown, notice what Asaph didn’t do. He never hinted that God didn’t exist. He didn’t suggest that God was incapable of deliverance. He never suggested that God was unloving. He didn’t complain that Israel didn’t deserve this result. He didn’t seek personal gain. He did ask how long this would last, which God answered through Jeremiah’s prophecy: “When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place” (Jer. 29:10). Asaph’s second request was for God to save Israel of God’s sake: “Forgive our sins for the sake of Your name. Why should the nations say, ‘Where is their God?’” This echoes Moses’s prayer after the golden calf incident: “Why should the Egyptians talk, saying, ‘With evil motives He brought them out to kill them on the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth’ God save your people so that other nations won’t ridicule you” (Ex. 32:12). Let’s pray with Asaph and Moses that God’s reputation will be lifted up by His delivering and blessing Yorktown Methodist Church. “Our Father who art in heaven. HALLOWED BE THY NAME!”
