By Jill Roberts and Michael Canalé
Michael says, with regard to this Old Testament Book of Leviticus,
“God gave specific rules, even one that included God’s smell of the offerings of the Israelites!”
As Michael points out, Leviticus 1:9 records,
“It is a burnt offering , a food offering, an AROMA PLEASING TO THE LORD.”
(emphasis added)
How many times have we heard that this Old Testament Book of Leviticus is boring, repetitive and just not relevant to our lives today? We are sorry to say that this is often the perception advanced as to Leviticus.
In fact, Leviticus takes us to fascinating and important revelations into even the LORD God’s very sense of smell and what is personally pleasing to Him. How much
more specific can Scripture be? This Book will carry us along in ways truly intriguing and unique in all of the Bible, with regard to Who God is and who we can be when He is with us.
Have we heard and, even ourselves, also said, “God is very busy with life’s large issues. He certainly doesn’t have time for the small details of our lives,” or, “God shouldn’t be bothered by prayers about this trivial matter.” The implication is that God has His hands full and that we must never overload Him with details that He can’t possibly care about anyhow.
Even a cursory reading of Leviticus will refute such thoughts. As stated in an earlier blog, this Almighty God, the One Who never sleeps nor slumbers, has no such issues with burnout. There is no problem too large or too small for the God of the Ages to deal with it. Leviticus drives this point home as well, if not better, than almost any Book of the Bible.
Michael sums up the attitude with which we should approach this and all of Scripture:
“When you read the Bible, you get to eat the words of God; you don’t need any other nutrient.”
This is profound and never more true than in this week’s study. We will start with the most basic approach to this spiritual feast.
The meaning of the word, Leviticus, is “concerning the Levites.” Of course the Levites are those born of the Tribe of Levi, the third of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. As we recall, Moses and Aaron were Levites. The descendants of Aaron are also known as the kohanim or kohen.
Equally significant, is the fact that God chose this tribe to be His priests, those in charge of passing on the religious rituals and practices, as instructed by God, to the Israelites at Sinai. It was an enormously critical role to play and it would continue.
The transition from the Book of Exodus to the Book of Leviticus is seamless. When we left the Israelites, they were camped at the base of Mount Sinai and God was with them, in residence in the portable temple of sorts. This is the Tabernacle, and so God, Himself, was tabernacling with them.
When was the last time God was living among His people? It was in the Garden of Eden, therefore making this is a momentous event. To fully grasp the setting, we must picture two million Israelites living outside, in tents, in the absolute wilderness. Unlike Eden, it was paradise only in one sense. — God was with them.
When we think of our own lives today and know, with great spiritual clarity, that God is with us, what peace we have, how it quiets our hearts and minds. There is no other joy like it.
This is, no doubt, what the Israelites were feeling. But, as significant as this is, Michael and I want to now ask the question that is even more important: What was the state of mind of God, as He dwelled with them? By inference, Leviticus lets us in on many aspects of the LORD’S thoughts.
First of all, God is most assuredly in the smallest details of these Israelites’ lives and, in our lives, today. Twenty-seven chapters of Leviticus cover God giving specific directions of offerings and instructions for priests, as well as for every person encamped there. For the Israelites, these lessons of feasts, festivals and various laws were spiritually essential and highly appropriate for the masses of people living together IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD.
For the central point of what God was doing involved one thing. God, Who is perfectly holy, was living among humanity who was not. So the heart of His directions was, through sacrificial offerings to Him, to render the Israelites holy. Leviticus begins with this. Why? The strong inference is that dealing with sin needs to be the first priority of any person then or now.
Michael sums it up so well:
“All of God’s commandments are the rules of how to be a good person. Often, this means a different way to look at things. Let God pick the path with HIS ways.”
This is exactly what God was asking of the Israelites in this amazing Book of Scripture. From before the time they were camped at Mount Sinai, God wanted His people to be set apart from the world of that era. He didn’t want them to just blend in with those also living then.
This is what Leviticus is all about. This Holy God kept His presence with them and then, immediately, instructed them as to how to live in the presence of His complete holiness.
But God did not stop with the vertical relationship between Himself and man. He also instructed them on the horizontal relationship between mankind and his neighbor:
“…love your neighbor as yourself.”
(Leviticus 19:18) NIV
We don’t really expect to find these words in the Old Testament, much less in Leviticus, yet here they are. They are part of the puzzle pieces that make up this God and how the Israelites then, and we today, should view Him. He is personal, and He is intricately involved in our daily, detail-oriented lives. Another puzzle piece is the extent to which He will go in order to be in relationship with us.
Michael says,
“The best goal on Earth is to find your puzzle pieces.”
How powerful it is to realize this. The central piece of our life puzzle is the recognition that God, Himself, is tabernacling with us. His Presence lives with and in us.
With the understanding of this puzzle piece, everything, especially all that was perceived by us as distant between us and God, disappears. He becomes our all in all.
Michael says,
“God is everything.”
Is something on your mind that you consider too trivial to bring to Him? This cannot be. Not to your everything.
Is something in your heart that you consider too impossible to bring to Him? This, also, cannot be. Not to your everything.
Do you feel as though the puzzle pieces of your life don’t quite fit in that easy way when they just slide into place? Do they feel forced together? The puzzle piece that is everything, tabernacles so close. He is loving, powerful and near. He is everything, the piece that allows the picture puzzle of our lives to finally make sense.
I know this week that God is loving, powerful and near. He’s been with me every moment.