Here is this Afternoons Lesson... Leviticus 21-22 The priests in general, and the high priest in particular, were to maintain the highest standards of character and conduct; and they were never to offer sacrifices that were below standard. In this, they pictured our Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect High Priest and the perfect sacrifice (Heb. 7:26-28; 10:1-14). They also challenge Gods people as priests (1 Peter 2:5, 9) and sacrifices (Rom. 12:1) to give their very best to God. Note the repetition of the words defile, profane, blemish, unclean, holy, and sanctify. The theme is the holy character and conduct of Gods servants as they minister to the Lord and His people. God warns that, as we serve Him, we not profane ourselves (21:5), Gods name (21:6; 22:2), Gods sanctuary (21:12), our children (21:15), or the holy things that we handle in ministry (22:15). One of the tragedies throughout Israels history was the defilement of the priesthood, which led ultimately to the defilement of the nation. If the greatest sin is the corruption of the highest good, then the Jewish priests succeeded in committing the greatest sin; for they corrupted the priesthood by their godless character, their evil conduct, and their careless ministry of the holy things of God (see Mal. 1:6-2:9). Unfortunately, the church today has made both merchandise and mockery of the ministry; and the church is desperately in need of a revival of holiness. I. Perfect Priests (21:1-22:16) These laws concern the conduct of the priests with reference to mourning for the dead, marriage, and the conduct of family relationships. A. Conduct of the priests (21:1-9). In the camp of Israel, a person was defiled if he or she touched a dead body or even entered a dwelling where there was a dead body (Num. 19:11-22). The ordinary priest could defile himself for close family members but not for other relatives or for friends. No Jew was to follow the mourning practices of the pagans (19:27-28; Deut. 14:1). The reason for these laws is given in vv. 6 and 8: the priests offer the sacrifices of God and have been set apart by God (see 21:15, 23; 22:9, 16, 32). No priest was to marry a harlot or a divorcee, for this might bring into the priestly clan children not begotten by a man from the tribe of Levi (see v. 15). No daughter of a priest was permitted to live, if she became involved in immorality (see 20:14 and Gen. 38:24). B. The conduct of the high priest (21:10-15). Because of his position before God and anointing from God, the high priest was expected to be even more exemplary than the ordinary priests. God always expects more from leaders. He couldnt even defile himself for his father and mother, nor could he show the normal signs of mourning. Verse 11 doesnt teach that the high priest lived in the tabernacle, for Num. 3:38 tells us his tent was pitched at the east side of the tabernacle. This verse instructs the high priest always to be on duty and not to leave the tabernacle precincts even for a funeral. He had to marry a virgin to assure the nation that the next high priest was actually his son. C. The characteristics of the priests (21:16-24). Both the priests at the altar and the sacrifices on the altar (22:17-25) were to be without blemish. While were not certain what handicaps are indicated by some of these terms, its clear that God wanted His ministers to be perfect physically. Once again, this magnifies the perfections of our High Priest, Jesus Christ. The Lord certainly doesnt include physical perfection as a requirement for ministry today (1 Tim. 3); the emphasis is on moral and spiritual maturity. Paul had a thorn in the flesh which made him even more qualified to serve! D. The contacts of the priests (22:1-16). The priests must treat with respect (NIV) the holy things of God by keeping themselves separated from defilement. What a tragedy if the holy servant of God made everything he touched unclean because of his own defilement (see Matt. 23:25-28). Moses repeated some of the causes of defilement that had already been explained in detail in previous chapters: leprosy (chaps. 13-14), running sores (chap. 15). A priest who presumptuously ministered while unclean was in danger of death (vv. 3, 9). Beside avoiding the unclean things, the priests had to be careful how they dispensed the holy things. Only the priests could eat portions taken from the meal offerings, the sin offerings, and the trespass offerings; but members of the priests family could share in eating the other offerings. The person had to be an official member of the family by birth or purchase. A daughter married to a non-priest was excluded. Anybody who ate the holy food unwittingly had to pay a penalty. II. Perfect Sacrifices (22:17-33) God always deserves the very best and we dare not bring Him that which is blemished (Mal. 1:6-2:9). The blood of a blemish sacrifice could never please God or atone for sin. Furthermore, these sacrifices were types of the Lord Jesus Christ, and He is the perfect sacrifice (Heb. 9:14; Eph. 5:27). To offer God blemished sacrifices was to profane His name. The laws relating to the killing of the sacrifices shows the tenderness God has toward animals (vv. 27-28). He will not take the young from the mother too soon. God also has concern for the birds (Deut. 22:6-7) and the trees (Deut. 20:19-20). The chapter closes with Gods reminder of the reasons that ought to motivate His people as they sacrifice: He is the Lord who has set them apart as His own people, He delivered them from the bondage of Egypt, and these are His commandments. Believers today dont bring animal sacrifices to God because that whole system was ended at the cross. But we do present to Him our bodies (Rom. 12:1-2), the people we have won to Christ (Rom. 15:16), our praise (Heb. 13:15), our good works (Heb. 13:16), a broken heart (Ps. 51:17), and our prayers (Ps. 141:2). Since nothing that we offer Him is perfect, we must offer our sacrifices through Jesus Christ so that they will be acceptable to God (1 Peter 2:5). Leviticus 23 The seven feasts of the Lord are full of rich spiritual food and bear careful study. Some of these feasts we have already studied, so we will not deal with them in detail, but others are new in our studies. It is important to note the order of these seven feasts, for they give us a prophetic calendar for both Israel and the church. The religious year opened with Passover, which pictures the death of Christ. On the day following the Passover Sabbath (a Sunday), the Israelites celebrated Firstfruits, picturing our Lords resurrection from the dead. The week following Passover was devoted to the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when all the leaven was put out of the houses. This illustrates the sanctification of believers as they put sin out of their lives. All of this took place in the first month of the year. Fifty days after Firstfruits is the NT Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit on the church. In the seventh month, three feasts were celebrated. The Feast of Trumpets opened the month, reminding us of the gathering of Gods people when the Lord returns. On the tenth day was the Day of Atonement, illustrating the cleansing of Gods people; and from the fifteenth to the twenty-first days, the Jews joyfully celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles, picturing the blessings of the future kingdom. Gods people are a scattered people who must be gathered, a sinful people who must be cleansed, and a suffering people who must be given joy. The long period (about three months) between Pentecost and the Feast of Trumpets speaks of this present age of the church, when Israel is set aside because she rejected her Messiah. I. Passover (23:4-5) We have already considered this feast, so refer to the notes on Ex. 11-13. Everything depends on the blood of the lamb: there could be no other feasts if there were no Passover. People today who want to do away with the blood are undermining the very foundation of Gods plan of the ages! II. Unleavened Bread (23:6-8) This too has already been considered. It pictures Gods people putting sin out of their lives (2 Cor. 7:1) and feeding on the Lamb that they might have strength for the journey. Do not reverse these two feasts. Nobody is saved by putting away leaven (sin), and nobody will want to put away sin until first he or she has been saved by the blood! This is the difference between religious reformation and spiritual regeneration, being born again by the Spirit of God. III. Firstfruits (23:9-14) This feast was reserved for the land of Canaan, when the people would have fields and harvests. It would be impossible to celebrate such a feast in the wilderness. On the day after the Passover Sabbath (a Sunday, the first day of the week), the priest would wave the first sheaf of grain before the altar as a token that the whole harvest belonged to the Lord. This is a picture of our Lords resurrection, since 1 Cor. 15:20-21 definitely calls Him the first-fruits. Worshiping on the Lords Day is not the invention of the church, as some people teach. It was written into Gods calendar centuries before! Because Christ, the Firstfruits, is alive, the entire resurrection harvest belongs to God. Not one person will be forgotten. The promise is certain: Because I live, you shall live also (John 14:19, NKJV). IV. Pentecost (23:15-22) Pentecost means fifty, and fifty days after Christs resurrection, the Holy Spirit came to believers (Acts 2). For forty days, Christ had ministered to His disciples (Acts 1:3), and for another ten days they had prayed and waited for Pentecost to arrive. The new meal offering (v. 16) was composed of two loaves of bread, symbolizing Jews and Gentiles baptized into one body, the church, by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13). The fact that leaven was allowed illustrates to us that there is sin in the church on earth today. Thank God the day will come when there will be no leaven among Gods people! Note too that the priest presented loaves and not sheaves of grain, for now the believers have been united in Christ by the Spirit. It is after Pentecost that we have the long gap when there are no feasts. There are three feasts in the first month and three in the seventh, with Pentecost between. This long gap speaks of the present age, the age of the church. Israel has rejected her Lamb; she cannot receive the Spirit until she receives her Messiah; and she is scattered across the world. She has no temple, no priesthood, no sacrifice, and no king. What is her future? It is seen in the next three feasts. V. Trumpets (23:23-25) As a nation, Israel was instructed by signals from the priests blowing ing trumpets (Num. 10). The Feast of Trumpets illustrates the regathering of Israel when Gods trumpets shall call them from the ends of the earth. Read Isa. 27:12-13, and the words of Christ in Matt. 24:29-31. Of course, there is an application here to the church, for we await the sound of the trumpet and the return of our Lord in the air (1 Cor. 15:52ff; 1 Thes. 4:13-18). The Jews sounded the trumpets to gather the assembly together, and this is what our Lord will do when He gathers His children. The Jews also sounded the trumpets for war, and once Christ has His children off this earth, He will declare war on the nations. VI. Day of Atonement (23:26-32) This has previously been discussed in our notes on Lev. 16-17. When God has finally gathered the Jews together, He will reveal Christ to them, and they shall look upon Him whom they have pierced. Israels future Day of Atonement is described in Zech. 12:10-13:1. Read these verses carefully. It will be a day of mourning for sin, a day of cleansing by the blood of the Lamb. There are some who apply the Day of Atonement to the Judgment Seat of Christ, when the saints of God will give account for the deeds done in the body. Its primary application, however, is to the nation of Israel. Certainly at the Judgment Seat of Christ, the church will be cleansed of all defilement and be made beautiful for the marriage of the Lamb. VII. Tabernacles (23:33-44) For seven days, the Jews were to live in booths, reminding them of Gods provision and protection when they were in the wilderness. But there is also a future Feast of Tabernacles for Israel that will take place when the King has been received and the nation restored. Read Zech. 14:16-21 for more detail. Thus, this feast speaks of the future millennial kingdom that God has promised the Jews. This feast followed the harvest (v. 39), which teaches us that God will have gathered all of His harvest before Christ establishes His earthly kingdom. This was to be a feast of rejoicing, not sorrow; and certainly all heaven and earth will rejoice when Christ reigns from Jerusalem. This chapter is Gods prophetic timetable, and we know not when the trumpets will sound. How important it is for us to be ready for the sound of the trumpet and the coming of the Lord! Leviticus 25 The economic system in Israel was based on three fundamental principles: (1) God owned the land and had a right to control it, v. 23; (2) God owned the people, because He had redeemed them from Egyptian bondage, vv. 38, 42, 55; and (3) the Jews were a family (your brother, NKJV) and should care for each other, v. 25, 35-36, 39, 47. Joshua and the Jewish army conquered the land of Canaan, but it was God who assigned their inheritance (Joshua 13-21). The people possessed the land and enjoyed its products, but God owned it and determined how it would be used. This chapter focuses on three topics relating to the economy of the nation. I. The Sabbatic Year (25:1-7, 18-22) The OT Jewish calendar functioned on a series of sevens. The seventh day of the week was the Sabbath. Seven weeks after Passover came Pentecost, and the seventh month of the year introduces the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles. Every seventh year was a Sabbatic Year, and after seven Sabbatic years came the Year of Jubilee. The Sabbatic year was Gods way of allowing the land to lie fallow and restore its fruitfulness. The people were not permitted to have a formal harvest that year, but anyone could eat from the produce of the fields and orchards. God promised to provide abundant crops during the sixth year, so observing the Sabbatic Year was really a test of faith for the people. It was also an expression of Gods love for the poor of the land (Ex. 23:10-12). According to Deut. 15:1-11, all debts were to be remitted at the end of the seventh year. Jewish servants were supposed to serve only six years (Ex. 21:2), and the Jewish people were encouraged to be especially generous to the poor. The Sabbatic year was a time of rest and restoration for the land, the people, and the animals who worked on the land. It was an opportunity for a new beginning for those who had experienced difficulties financially. Unfortunately, theres no evidence that the nation ever faithfully obeyed this law (2 Chron. 36:21). The prophets often condemned the Jewish leaders and wealthy people for their ruthless treatment of the poor. Had the Sabbatic year law been observed, it would have prevented the poor from losing their lands and the rich from amassing huge estates. The economy wouldnt have been perfect, but it would have been balanced much better. During the Feast of Tabernacles in each Sabbatic year, the priests were to read and explain the Book of Deuteronomy to the people (Deut. 31:9-13). It was something like a week-long Bible conference during which the people were reminded of what God had done for them and what He expected them to do in return. Gods people need to be taught His Word, for each new generation has not learned it; and the older generations need to be reminded of it. II. The Year of Jubilee (25:8-17, 23-24) The word jubilee comes from the Hebrew word yodel which means rams horn. This special year was announced by the blowing of trumpets on the Day of Atonement. Thus, the year began with fasting and repentance as the nation confessed its sins to the Lord (Lev. 16). During that year, the people reclaimed the land that had been sold so that it would not go out of the control of the family or clan. Any Jew purchasing property would calculate the price until the next Year of Jubilee when the land would revert back to the original owner. How much food it could produce in that time was a major consideration. As in the Sabbatic year, the land was to lie fallow during the Year of Jubilee. The people would have to trust God to provide what they needed for the Sabbatic year (the forty-ninth), the Year of Jubilee (the fiftieth), and the fifty-first year when they would again plant seed. There would not be a new harvest until the next year. The people did not own the land, therefore they couldnt sell it permanently. God gave them the land (Gen. 12:1-3; 15:7; 17:8; Deut. 5:16) and permitted them to use it, and He would always control it. The people were to walk in the fear of the Lord and not use their wealth to oppress one another. The slaves were released during this special year, so that families would be reunited. The statement Proclaim liberty throughout all the land (v. 10) is engraved on the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. The Year of Jubilee looks forward to the kingdom age when Jesus Christ will reign in glory and fulfill the promises made to the Jewish people. Read Isa. 61 and see what God has planned for the nation of Israel. In a spiritual sense, the Year of Jubilee also pictures our Christian life (Luke 4:16-21, which is quoted from Isa. 61:1-2). In His reading of the OT in the synagogue that Sabbath in Nazareth, Jesus stopped with the acceptable year of the Lord (Luke 4:19), which refers to the Year of Jubilee. He did not read the day of vengeance of our God (Isa. 61:2), for that day of judgment will not come until after God has finished His present program of calling out a people for His name (Acts 15:14). III. The care of the poor (25:25-55) These laws applied regardless of whether it was a Sabbatic year or a Year of Jubilee. The general principle is laid down in vv. 25-28 and then is applied to specific situations. A person who had to sell property because of a financial need could redeem it at any time, or a brother could redeem it for him. But the price would be determined by the number of years remaining until the Year of Jubilee. A. A house in a city (vv. 29-34). This would be very valuable property because of the security afforded in a walled city. For this reason, the seller had only one years time in which to buy it back. After that, the owner held the property as long as he pleased; and it would not revert to the original owner during the Year of Jubilee. However, this rule didnt apply to houses owned by the Levites. For a Levite who gave his property to the Lord, see Acts 4:34-37. B. A poor brother (vv. 35-46). The Jews were not to oppress one another or take advantage of each other in financial matters. If they loaned money, they were not to take interest; if they sold food, they were not to make an exorbitant profit. See Neh. 5. If a Jew had a fellow Jew as a servant, working off a debt, he was not to treat him like a slave; and the servant was to go free at the Year of Jubilee. C. The Kinsman-Redeemer (vv. 47-55). The best illustration of this law is in the book of Ruth where Boaz redeemed Ruth and Naomi and their property. A kinsman could rescue his relative by paying his debts and recovering his land. The redeemer had to be a near kinsman who was able and willing to redeem. The poor relative would be set free from both bondage and debt. The kinsman-redeemer is a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ who became our close relative by becoming a man (Phil. 2:1-11; Heb. 2:9-18) and paying the price for our redemption by dying on the cross. He was both able to save and willing to save. It must be noted that the economic system in Israel was not a form of communism. People possessed private property which could be bought and sold, but God owned the land and would not permit it to be sold permanently. The Sabbatic year and the Year of Jubilee, if obeyed, would have prevented the rich from getting richer and thus making the poor poorer. But the Jews didnt obey these laws and the results were tragic. They also enacted laws that favored the rich and crushed the poor, and God judged them for it. See Isa. 3:12-15 and 10:1-3; Amos 2:6-7 and 5:11. Finally, these special laws also show Gods concern for the land. By allowing the land to lie fallow every seventh year, and then two years in a row at the Jubilee, they were restoring its productivity and increasing its value. Of course it took faith to do this, but God promised to meet their needs. After all, the food we eat comes from the hand of God, not from the supermarket; and we all need to pray, Give us this day our daily bread (Matt. 6:11).
Posted on: Tue, 29 Apr 2014 20:20:54 +0000
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