"I will show myself holy..."

Leviticus is a really exciting book! Yeah… you read that right. Leviticus is a really exciting book! What I have read so far has been dealing with the offerings, what they are for, who they are for, what they achieve. On top of that I’ve also been reading through Hebrews, which has tied in the way that Jesus fulfils all that Leviticus set out to be an image or “shadow” of.

The opening chapters have dealt with the outlining of the purposes and now, having reached chapter nine, the priests, Aaron and two of his sons, have started to actually do the sacrificing having been ordained and anointed. In that ordination and that anointing there have been a number of things that have made me sit up and listen and that I have made a prayer for myself and others.

“Moses slaughtered the ram and took some of its blood and put it on the lobe of Aaron’s right ear, on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot. Moses also brought Aaron’s sons forward and put some of the blood on the lobes of their right ears, on the thumbs of their right hands and on the big toes of the right feet.” (Leviticus 8:23-24)

It’s my prayer that I would be a man who listens to God, who does what He asks me to do and goes where He asks me to go.

But why should I want to be a man like this?

Our God is a Holy God. That seems to be the thrust of the book of Leviticus to me. God is Holy. We are not. Mankind is now a distorted image of God. We are no longer in right relationship with God and the rules and regulations laid down in Leviticus are the first stage of mirroring what is to come in Jesus and ultimately in the day of our salvation in Christ Jesus.

R.N. Carew Hunt notes in is biography of Calvin: “For Calvin’s distrust of human nature arises not only from his conception of God, but from his overpowering belief in sin as the cardinal factor in human experience.” He goes onto say: “The spring of life has been defiled at its source and mankind is under the sentence of death.” These truths tie in so well with Leviticus and the absolute necessity for mankind to enter into right relationship with God, by His grace, if we are to have any hope.

It’s my prayer that as I continue through Leviticus, that God would continue to reveal his Holy self to me, that I would understand what a right response to a Holy God is and that, by His Holy Spirit, He would continue to sanctify me into a clearer image of Himself.

God Bless.

Dear Freedom