READING FOR SEPTEMBER 5, 2024: LEVITICUS 22, LUKE 23, PSALM 91                          LEVITICUS 22 Reading these chapters of regulations has a cumulative effect. Of course, there are details of the individual regulations in each chapter to understand and to consider how each might apply to our lives today. But at some point, one senses the overwhelming disparity between God and man. That God institutes these regulations could be seen as ways God almost cruelly makes His people jump over endless hurdles. A more accurate view is that these laws show how much trouble God took in his mercy and wisdom to construct and monitor these practices for His fallen and sinful people so that they can understand deeply and have a relationship with such a God who just cannot deny His own holy character. 

Those Israelites who obeyed these rules as hurdles to be surmounted by just going through the motions did not please or fool God. Hear the prophet Isaish: “I [the Lord] have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fattened cattle; and I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats;” (Isa. 1:11). What was their problem? Their conduct was evil: “Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Stop doing evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rebuke the oppressor, obtain justice for the orphan, plead for the widow’s case” (Isa. 1:16:17). Listen to King David: “For You [God] do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You do not take pleasure in burnt offering” (Psalm 51:16). What was their problem? Their hearts were not contrite. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51:17).

In this chapter, God tells Moses to tell the priests that they must be totally clean, as God defines clean, in order to touch the holy gifts. The holy gifts here refer to those portions of the offerings given by the people to God that are to be eaten by the priests and their households. So instead of treating this food as a regular paycheck from an employer to be used with total discretion, the priests must keep in mind these foods were given first to Almighty God according to rigorous standards of purity; they aren’t just a burger and fries from McDonald’s. Eating these foods is more than satisfying hunger but is also an act of worship to God. 

The final 15 verses remind the priests that all the animals slaughtered as burnt offerings must be flawless to be accepted. Lest we think offering acceptable sacrifices to God isn’t an issue for us, hear Paul: “Present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12:1-2). 

LUKE 23 The Jewish Council brought Jesus to Pilate. Remember since Judea was a colony of Rome, it no longer had the authority to execute anyone. What the Council found Jesus guilty of was claiming to be the Son of God. They were right, but that wasn’t a violation of Roman

READING FOR SEPTEMBER 5, 2024 CONTINUED: LUKE 23, PSALM 91                                        law. So, what they told Pilate was different. They said Jesus forbade them to pay taxes to Caesar, which was just the opposite of what He taught. (Many people today still make false or at least misleading statements about Jesus.) To his credit, Pilate said Jesus violated no laws. Pilate then offered an olive branch to Herod by sending Jesus to him for questioning. 

Herod had heard about Jesus’s miracles and wanted to see one. Of course, Jesus did not perform any nor respond to questions, thus fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy: “He was oppressed and afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth (Isa. 53:7). Despite the fact that neither Herod nor Pilate found a violation, continual pressure from the Council and those they whipped up emotionally led to Jesus be handed over to be crucified. God was using this terrible injustice against Jesus to meet the larger demands of justice for the sins of all of us: “He was pierced for our offenses; He was crushed for our wrongdoings; the punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him” (Isa. 53:5).        There seemed to be quite a procession to the crucifixion: Jesus, Simon of Cyrene carrying the cross, a large crowd, and grieving women. Amazingly as Jesus was processing toward his own execution, he warned the women that tough times were coming for Jerusalem. This brief excerpt from Flavius Josephus describes the destruction of the city in 70 A.D.: “The multitude of carcasses that lay in heaps one upon another was a horrible sight and produced a pestilential stench.”     Luke gives at least six reactions to Jesus’s crucifixion. Below those is Peter’s summary:

“You were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.” 1 Pet.1 PSALM 91 This Psalm uses imagery that highlights all the risks life presents. That’s an honest view that believers should never cover up. But God has resources to help us navigate these dangers if we employ them. God leaves the choice up to us. If we think about it for a second, isn’t it rather foolish to face all life’s uncertainties (and the certainty of death) on our own when we can choose to trust and find refuge in the most powerful force in existence. How does one do this?  The spiritual disciplines of prayer, Bible study, and interaction with the Body of Christ could be routine or they could be practiced with fervent desire to experience God’s presence and direction. If they become the latter, we should sense God’s shelter, rest, refuge, fortress, rescue, covering, and faithfulness. As it says in verse 5, the arrows will still fly, but as promised in Ephesians 6:16 we have “the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” Does verse 7 guarantee we will never suffer injury or even death? Don’t think so, but here is something better: “Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:37-39).