2 chapters.

• Click here to read
• Click here to listen
• Click here to listen to the song I sang after reading this.

If you don’t feel like reading this post (it is long), let me put the conclusion at the top:

What is that passage talking about? God is Holy. He is the all-knowing, all-present, creator of the Universe.  Those who are covered in sin, who are contaminated by the fall, cannot enjoy fellowship with God without repentance and being declared clean (not sinless). They cannot enjoy the blessing of the presence of God, and so, what has to happen? They have to be declared clean. By who? 😁

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Matthew 8- “When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. A man with leprosy  came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”  Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy. Then Jesus said to him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

We need to consider a few things when we read:

• This tabernacle is portable.  Why? Because it is the blueprint for the Temple, where God will dwell.  Canaan (The Promise Land) is the destination on the GPS (pillar of fire and the cloud will navigate that).  This is a pagan land, (like a modern-day High School 😂)  filled with pagan rituals that include blood, sacrifices,  and sex.  God will need to set His people apart.
• Leprosy and other skin diseases were often synonyms for Sin.  From the surface of the skin (rashes), to our deepest self (discharge that leaks out).  It will all be seen by the High Priest.
• Hygiene- still related to sin.  It can be contagious! Who you keep close will either contaminate you or you will infect them.  You can make an application to these chapters.
• The cleaning of items in the house.  What is the contaminate in your home that breeds sin?
  

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Now the geeky part of the blog:

I am including chapter 13 in this post since I really didn’t address it yesterday, but self-reflect for your own application.  This section of Leviticus talks about  four things:

1. symptoms
2. the priestly inspection
3. the basis of the priest’s diagnosis
4. the diagnosis itself and the consequences

The priest had the responsibility of distinguishing between the clean and the unclean, plus they had to teach the people the difference.  Leprosy as representing sin resulted in the leper’s separation both from God and from other people. In many respects, leprosy and sin were similar in both their character and consequences.

The priests were the public health officers, but they served in their priestly capacity.  Israel was a holy nation, and even her cleansing from sickness was done with a religious ceremony. Sickness was symbolic of sin, and even now it should not be forgotten that sickness and death are part of God’s curse on the sin of Adam.

Jesus meets them AS the sinner.  Then who makes the sacrifice, clothes them,  and washes them clean? The PRIEST. (Jesus)

Listen, I know this was a hard read but there are some really cool details.  Let’s break down one part so you can see how it all comes together: Ch 14-

• ³ The priest is to go outside the camp and examine them. (meets them as the sinner)
• scarlet yarn and hyssop be brought for the person to be cleansed.
  • The scarlet thread you get by now…but why Hyssop?  It was symbolic of the Passover (the blood was applied with Hyssop the night death would pass over them)
    • • Exodus 23 ²¹ Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. ²² Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning. ²³ When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.
• ⁷ Seven times he shall sprinkle the one to be cleansed of the defiling disease, and then pronounce them clean. (Seven means completely)
• ⁸ “The person to be cleansed must wash their clothes, shave off all their hair and bathe with water; then they will be ceremonially clean.
  • • Ephesians 4:²² You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; ²³ to be made new in the attitude of your minds; ²⁴ and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
• After this they may come into the camp…They must wash their clothes and bathe themselves with water, and they will be clean.
  • • Galatians 3: ²⁶ So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, ²⁷ for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

Ready??  This is so cool!

• ¹⁰ “On the eighth day….grain offering, and one log of oil. 
• ¹² “Then the priest is to take one of the male lambs and offer it as a guilt offering… as a wave offering.
• ¹³ He is to slaughter the lamb in the sanctuary area where the sin offering and the burnt offering are slaughtered. Like the sin offering, the guilt offering belongs to the priest; it is most holy.  (The two required sacrifices)
• ¹⁸ … the priest shall put on the head of the one to be cleansed and make atonement for them before the Lord.
•  ²⁰ …and make atonement for them, and they will be clean.

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If you look at these Chapters from God’s view, you can see He sees the obvious outward sin that even others can see (portrayed by our skin), in our home- mold (the things we watch, see, and participate in) and then the private “no one can see but me sin” (discharge).  If you took the time (if you have the stomach for it 🤮) you would see that some of the bodily discharge cleansings required a sin offering and some did not.  Remember they will be entering a land of pagan worship…some of their rituals will be promiscuous acts with each other as well as with animals.  I kid you not.  You can’t make this stuff up.  There will be infection and STDs.

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For the “Marinated in Jesus for years” reader 😂 : I leave you with this to read: Hebrews 10:19ff

¹⁹ Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have the confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰ by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, ²¹ and since we have a great priest over the house of God, ²² let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water…

²⁶ If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, ²⁷ but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. ²⁸ Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. ²⁹ How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?

Close your eyes now and sit quietly.  Click here.