May 22, 2024, Day 4 of Week 8

Daily Dose of Hope

May 22, 2024

Day 4 of Week 8

Scripture:  Leviticus 19-20; Hebrews 7

Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope, the daily devotional and podcast that complements New Hope Church’s daily Bible reading plan. 

Let’s start with Leviticus, chapter 19.  This includes a list of various laws that illustrate a lifestyle of holiness.  These are laws that demonstrate that being holy isn't simply about how we interact with God but itis most seen in how we live our lives in community.  Holiness indicates separation; the Israelites were to be separate and behave differently from the cultures around them.  While holiness was often seen as religious piety, how they obeyed and worshiped God, it is clear from this chapter that God also saw holiness as being lived out in how people cared for one another. This valuing of human life separated the Israelites from the people around them. 

As Christ-followers, we often think that holiness is something that was required of God's people long ago.  But living a life characterized by holiness is still an important attribute of God's people.  In Romans 12, the apostle Paul urges us to offer our whole selves as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.  In I Thessalonians 4, Paul tells the church in Thessalonica to live holy lives.  I Peter 1 says to be holy is all we do.  

What are we to make of this?  How does this connect to the Old Testament passage we just read? As previously mentioned, God was forming a holy nation, a people that behaved and looked different from the pagan nations surrounding them.  In the same way, God calls us to behave and look different from the people around us.  If we are blending so well into the culture around us that people don't know we belong to Jesus, then we've got a huge problem! I want to be clear, as Jesus-followers, we aren't supposed to separate ourselves from the world.  We need to be in the world to shine the light of Jesus, to be in the world but not of it.  We are to seek a life that reflects the holiness of Jesus Christ; to live with integrity and Godly values, to demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit, to love and care about others.  These things will naturally separate us from our surrounding culture and people will take notice.

Chapter 20 is filled with some very serious regulations.  Most, but not all, are related to sexual relations.  The penalty for sexually deviant behavior was usually death (although there isn't a lot of evidence that the death penalty was actually carried out as a result of these offenses).  To our twenty-first century, post-resurrection sensibilities, this all seems very severe.  But I have to keep returning to this point: God was forming a holy people, a nation that was so very different from the pagan cultures around them, a group of people who valued the God-given gift of creation.  Anything that even slightly resembled the pagan people groups around them, things like child sacrifice, incest, or the occult, was absolutely detestable to God.  His people were set apart.  God still calls us to be set apart. While we have experienced the grace of Jesus Christ, we aren't supposed to abuse our freedom.  There are still standards of behavior for God's people.  It was never the plan for us to blend so nicely into our culture that no one would know who and whose we are.  How are you set apart?  What kind of changes may you need to make to live a life characterized by holiness?  Spend some time in prayer today.

Let’s move on to Hebrews 7.  In this chapter, we see that the ideal qualities of a high priest are found in Jesus and Jesus alone.  What are the qualities?   First, the ideal high priest exemplifies holiness. Jesus is totally holy and without sin.  Second, he was set apart from sinners.  He is blameless, innocent and free from any kind of moral contamination or weakness.  He did not need to constantly make sacrifices on behalf of others.  Rather, he was the perfect sacrifice, once and for all.  Thus, God appointed him as the ultimate high priest forever and ever. 

What does this mean for us? Jesus is the perfect one to represent us before the Father.  As the final and perfect sacrifice, nothing else has to be done by us.  We simply have to believe.  God no longer sees our sins but rather Jesus’ atoning sacrifice.  No human high priest could have achieved this.  It is done.  It is finished.  We are accepted, loved, and there is no more separation between us and holy God.

Let’s talk again tomorrow.

Blessings,

Pastor Vicki