Let’s play “spot the difference” with these two photos! #photofail 😂🤷🏽♀️
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“When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat. He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites—all their sins—and put them on the goat’s head. He shall send the goat away into the wilderness in the care of someone appointed for the task. The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a remote place; and the man shall release it in the wilderness. (Lev. 16:20-22)
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The Day of Atonement (or Yom Kippur) was the most holy Jewish day. It was the one day, every calendar year, that allowed for the High Priest to enter into the Most Holy Place, where the presence of God dwelt, and atone for the sins of the Israelite nation.
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Part of the ritual performed by the High Priest included two goats: one that would be slain, and another to be the “scape goat”.
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This scape goat, as you read above, was a live goat that was to symbolically carry away all the sins of the Israelites. But why? Why might God think it necessary to include this “scape goat” instead of just stopping at the slain goat?!
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“And this is my covenant with them, that I will take away their sins." (Romans 11:27)
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“He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.” (Psalm 103:12)
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“Then he adds: "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more." (Hebrews 10:17) (Jeremiah 31:34)
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God gave this scape goat to the Israelites so that they could experience how He forgives: He forgets!
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Imagine the relief and the thankfulness as the Israelites watched this goat carry away the weight of their sin—all of their sin—into the wilderness, never to be seen again...
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Jesus is the Lamb that takes away our sins. When we come to Him in faith, He forgives in the same way that He forgave: He forgets!
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“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29)
Leviticus 11-15 covers laws pertaining to “uncleanness”.
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One thing to note, is that “unclean” and “clean” didn’t reference the difference between “sinful” and “unsinful” (for much of the “uncleanness” came by accident, illness, mildew, or something other).
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“Unclean” and “clean” was more of a ritual state of being that set God’s people apart from the rest of the nations.
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To be “clean” though was a slightly different ritual state than to be “holy” as, one could be ceremonially “clean” from what causes them to be “unclean” but still be in a state of sin, needing to sacrifice to be ceremonially “holy.” This is a great lesson to learn: no person can come to God, keeping all of His commandments to be considered “clean”, and say that they are holy. It is through sacrifice, the shedding of blood and the forgiveness of sin—Jesus—that one is considered holy.
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Some of the topics covered in Chapters 11-15 are: the laws of food/clean vs. unclean animals (Ch. 11), the law of childbirth (Ch. 12), the laws for infectious skin diseases and mildew (Ch. 13-14), and the laws of uncleanness from human discharges (Ch. 15)… pretty interesting stuff, huh?
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The main point I’d like to focus on, though, is that these laws that kept God’s people “clean” were the same laws that made them different, or set them apart, from all the other nations and peoples. They also served as a reminder to God’s people that they, themselves, did not make themselves different, but God chose them and gave them the honor to be different, when they least deserved it, so that their lives would glorify Him and lead other nations back into fellowship with Him—Creator of heaven and earth!
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A point of reflection for us Christians is this: Just as in the Old Testament, God has chosen you, when you least deserved it, and called you to be set apart from the other nations. When thinking about your life as a Christian, does your life reflect that? Or does it like look the same as everybody else’s?
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“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:9)
In our last post we touched on the consecration, or the “setting apart”, of the Old Testament priests (people God chose and deemed “holy” so that, by their interceding, sinful humanity could have access to Him).
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Being a priest was an enormous privilege as, they worked nearest to the presence of God; however, because of God’s holiness, these priests were held to a much higher standard.
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An example of the seriousness of this priestly position is found in Leviticus 10 with the recorded account of Nadab and Abihu, two of Aaron’s (the High Priest’s) sons.
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According to Leviticus 10, these two “offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, contrary to His command”; and, because of it, they died (Lev. 10:1-2).
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Now, off the bat, this seems a little harsh, no doubt, but that was exactly the point. These two were priests, trusted to lead and abide by certain commands, and by responding with such an immediate and serious consequence to their disobedience to Him, God was able to teach His people about who He was—GOD—and make His holiness known!
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“Among those who approach me I will be proved holy; in the sight of all the people I will be honored.” (Lev. 10:3)
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Even now, with all that we have to learn from what has been written; we, as Christians, still lose sight of this perspective—that God is God and He is holy! Can you imagine what we’d be like, what the world would be like, if God had never made it clear to us the seriousness of sin and the realness of who He is?
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God is God, friends. He is Creator of the Universe, Life-Giver, King of Kings and Lord of Lords; and, yes, He is holy...
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...we want Him to be holy, friends. I know it can be hard to grasp sometimes, especially if you’ve never been taught or modeled His amazing grace and His abundant love, but we want Him to be a holy God. If He wasn’t, He’d be just like us: imperfect, unjust, and; well, evil.
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His holiness created the world, friends—the once, perfect world—and it’s His holiness that will restore it, too.
Can you imagine, every time you sin, having to go to someone else to receive forgiveness from God for that sin? That would be exhausting, right? Not only that, but constantly having to have someone stand between you and God would feel like you could never be good enough to be before God, right?
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In Leviticus 8 we read about the consecration, or “setting apart”, of Aaron and his sons (aka, the priests). Because of the sinful state of humanity, God couldn’t be approached by just anyone, any time, in any old way—God is holy; and, to approach Him, one must satisfy the requirements He lays down of holiness. So, in the Old Testament, God chose the priests.
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The priests still had to sacrifice for their own sin, no doubt, with very specific commands to keep in-between; but, God had set them apart, or deemed them “holy”, unto Himself, so that they could intercede for, and bring forgiveness to, His people.
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Today, however, things are a little different: where we once needed a priest to intercede on our behalf, we now, ourselves, can “approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Heb. 4:16).
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But how, one might ask?! Well, through Jesus!
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“For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people (Heb. 2:17).
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Through God establishing the Old Testament priesthood, God showed humanity the great gulf between their sinfulness and His holiness, and the need for someone to stand in-between. This need, first met through the Old Testament priesthood, was ultimately fulfilled in Jesus…
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“But our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at God's right hand” (Heb. 10:12).
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None of us, as is, are good enough to stand before God; it’s true, but that’s the beautiful point, Jesus is; and, through Him, we are too.
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“For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. 2:5).
Sometimes it can be hard to see God’s purposes in the Old Testament, I get it. I think that’s what keeps a lot of us from reading it, am I right? We take a look at it and we just don’t get what it has to do with us, or how it applies to today, or how it has anything to do with Jesus or could exhort us in our walks…
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Well, let me just say, I’m glad you’re here!
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We just finished up reading about the five main sacrifices given to the Children of Israel (Lev. 1-6), and are now closing with a couple of admin chapters (addressed to the priests) that give further detail on the way the sacrifices were to be distributed (because not all sacrifices were entirely burned) and disposed of.
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There are some pretty specific mentions in here, like the priest having to change his garments twice during the disposing of the burnt offering ashes (Lev. 6:10-11) and God’s warning not to eat the fat of an animal: “Anyone who eats fat from an animal presented as a special gift to the LORD will be cut off from the community” (Lev. 7:25).
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Of course, you’ll have to read these in context to get the bigger picture; but, you get the idea: these commands were pretty specific.
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What I loved about reading these passages, though, was seeing how God not only showed that He was a Holy God, by way of His specific requirements for the handling and partaking of the offerings, but how He showed Himself as a God of order, too (1 Corinthians 14:33), teaching His people about who He was as God, the proper attitude of worship to have before Him, and even, further, who they were and how they were to be in light of His perfect goodness (ultimately pointing to Jesus).
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So, even in the depths of the seemingly less obvious parts of the Old Testament, like Leviticus, God’s purposeful intentions are there—they’re always there—always to teach us what will ultimately help us, whether it be about God Himself, or about His redemptive plan.
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I encourage you, friends, to really stir up a desire to know the beauty that lies in the pages of the Old Testament. It will change the way you see God and give you a whole new reverence for Him and a love that you didn’t know you had.
This reminds me of an @abercrombie campaign from 10 years ago... 🙊
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But in all realness, this is from a shoot I did with my sister (and partner-in-ministry) @sarah.jean.armstrong
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It wasn’t too long ago that neither of us knew the Lord (or could hardly be in the same room with each other) but, here we are... and I’d have it no other way.
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If y’all have a sibling out there, even a child or parent, who seems far from receiving the Lord, be encouraged, so were we.
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Happy Sunday, friends! My sister and I love that you’re apart of our lives; and, even more, that you have a heart to know God.
