May 21, 2024, Day 3 of Week 8

Daily Dose of Hope

May 21, 2024

Day 3 of Week 8

Scripture:  Leviticus 15-17; Psalm 31; Hebrews 6

Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope, the daily devotional and podcast that complements New Hope Church’s daily Bible reading plan.  I know that we are getting into some of the drier parts of Leviticus.  Stay with me.  God will honor your dedication.

With that, let’s get into our Leviticus passage for today. The first chapter we read deals with abnormal male discharges and normal and abnormal female discharges.  What a fun chapter!  According to the law, when a woman had her monthly period, she was unclean for seven days.  Whatever and whoever she touched would also be considered unclean.  At first, I had a tendency to be put off when I read this.  What do you mean a woman is unclean because she's on her period?  She has no choice in this matter!  But after I thought about it a bit, I wonder if this wasn't a time of respite for women.  In a world where they worked constantly caring for children, cooking, and cleaning, there was one week a month during which they removed themselves from the world and got a little break.  Other women probably stepped up and cared for their families.  Then, they would care for the children of these other women when it was their time of the month.  What initially appears punitive may in fact be healing and restful. 

Chapter 16 details what is called the Day of Atonement (the contemporary name for this Yom Yippur).  This was the one day of the year in which the high priest would enter the most holy place, also called the holiest of holies, in which God's presence dwelt.  He had to engage in some pretty elaborate purification rituals and sacrifice many animals in order to atone for the sins of the people.  While we may see this task as an honor from our modern vantage point, the reality was that this was a pretty scary time for the high priest.  He had to do everything just right.  He was going to be in the presence of the Lord and if he didn't follow instructions properly, there was always the risk of being killed, which was what happened when something unholy came into contact with the holy.  This was serious business.

I just can't read this chapter without thinking about Jesus.  Why?  Because when the high priest went into the holiest of holies, probably shaking in his boots, his rituals and sacrifices atoned for the sins of the people for one year.  Then it had to be done again the next year and the next and the next.  Besides that, there were sacrifices that had to be done on days in between to atone for other individual sins.  Because humans are sinful and mess up a lot, these acts of atonement were a constant in the lives of the Israelite people.  Jesus put an end to all of it.  Jesus was the "once and for all" sacrifice that ensured all these other rituals and sacrifices could cease.  The perfect sacrifice, the lamb of God, voluntarily sacrificed his life on a cross so that our sin could be atoned for forevermore!  And now, we don't have to be scared to enter the presence of God.  God welcomes us boldly to his throne of grace.  We may still be a broken mess, but God doesn't see that.  Rather, he sees the atoning work of Jesus.  The blood of Jesus covers us and that makes all the difference.

Chapter 17 begins what scholars call the holiness codes for the Israelites.  These are the everyday ways that they were to seek holiness, to be set apart from the surrounding cultures and nations.  On the surface, it looks like this chapter is more instructions on where to do their sacrifices and what food to eat, but it is really about not sacrificing animals to demons (the goat idol), violating the first and second commandments. 

Apparently, the sacrifices made in open fields rather than the tent of meeting tended to be for the purposes of idolatry.  This was about worship of the one true God.  It's easy for us to say that we don't sacrifice animals to a goat idol.  I'm quite certain that isn't an issue among any of today's listeners.  But that doesn't mean we can dismiss this passage. Idolatry is still a very real thing in 2024.  I think it tends to be a bit more insidious and that makes it even more dangerous!  

How might idolatry sneak into the lives of God's people today?   What kinds of things do we put before God?  What do we worship?  Let's be real. Take a moment and spend some time with God right now.  Ask God to reveal any ways that idolatry has snuck into your life.

Take time to read through Psalm 31, another psalm of David.  It is beautiful.  David chooses to trust in God, no matter the hardships he is facing.  He commits himself totally and completely into God’s hands.  Of course, the question we need to ask is do we do the same?  Do you trust God to take care of you, even when things seem to be going poorly in your life?  Are you willing to submit everything to him?

Our Hebrews reading today was chapter 6.  The author of Hebrews continues the discussion about the importance of becoming mature believers and he uses some pretty strong language.  He seems to be speaking to those among the church who have said yes to Jesus but now are returning to Judaism (possibly because the persecution was so severe).  If they are turning away at this point, does this mean their original profession of faith was false?  There is no way to tell but he contends that by turning away from the faith, they are nailing Jesus to the cross again.  They are exposing Jesus (and the church for that matter) to public shame and humiliation.

We may be able to relate. Think about those people who profess faith in Jesus, go through the motions, say the right words, maybe even say the sinner’s prayer, but then turn away quickly when things get hard.  Some claim that these verses indicate that people can “lose” their salvation.  Others say that isn’t what the author intended at all, that they were never really believers in Jesus to begin with.  Was what they experienced true belief in Jesus? If the Spirit of the Living God comes and makes a home within you, doesn’t that leave a mark, change you in some way?  I think we simply have to say we don’t know.  I encourage you to spend some time in prayer about what God wants you to take from these verses.  These are challenging concepts but I think it’s important we wrestle with them.  If nothing else, what we can glean from these verses is that we are called to live as true believers of Jesus, demonstrating our faith in real and tangible ways, not hiding it away.  How’s that going for you?

Until tomorrow.

Blessings,

Pastor Vicki