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Leviticus 6-10
Let’s turn to Leviticus, chapter six. And may the Lord help
us. Leviticus is not the easiest book in the Bible. As you’ve
no doubt discovered, as you’ve been reading through. It deals
with the various types of offerings, that were ordained in the Old
Testament. The purpose of the offerings were always to restore man into
fellowship with God.
That’s basically the purpose for man’s existence.
When God created man, what did God have in mind? What did God desire?
He desired to fellowship with His creation. He made man with the
capacity of fellow shipping with God, understanding God. He planted,
really eternity in our hearts, as is evidenced by every culture, even
the most primitive in the world. Eternity has been planted in the heart
of man. We realize that God exists.
There is this longing and desire in the heart of man, to be in
fellowship with God. But, there’s one big problem, and that
is sin. Through the prophet Isaiah, God said, “My hand is not
short, that I cannot reach you or save you. My ear isn’t
heavy or deaf, that I cannot hear you. But your sins have separated you
from God.” The problem isn’t on God’s
end. The problem’s on our end, and it is that sin in our
life, that separates us from God, and thus keeps us from being all that
God wants us to be. That is why with so many people, there is that
gnawing consciousness of something is missing.
“There’s got to be more to life than what
I’ve yet experienced”, and it sets people on all
these crazy kind of crusades or pilgrimages to find that missing link
within their life, and really what’s missing is God. For God
made you to fellowship with Him.
So in order that sinning man might fellowship with God. It was
necessary that something be done about man’s sins, and thus
the inauguration of the sacrifices. Where the animal becomes your
substitute. The animal takes your place. Upon the animal is placed, the
guilt of your sin, and the animal dies in your stead. Thus through the
death of that animal, the covering of your sin, which opens the door
for you to have fellowship with God. So we are dealing with the various
types of offerings that they are to bring, in order to restore
fellowship with God.
Now, there were sin offerings, and we noticed in the sin offerings that
there was the reference of, unintentional. I do feel that sin, for the
most part, that sin is unintentional. You say, “Well, I
don’t know, I sort of meant to do it, but I
didn’t.” Well, that’s a trespass then.
There is a difference between a sin and a trespass. They both result in
alienation from God, or spiritual death. “And you, having
made alive, who were dead in your trespasses and sins.” But
there was the offering for this sin, and then there was the offering
for the trespass, the deliberate, willful, wrong that I had done.
Chapter 6
As we begin the sixth chapter, we’re into the trespass
offerings, which we began in the latter portion of chapter five, and he
continues to instruct, concerning the trespass offering in chapter six.
In the first part of the chapter he deals with certain trespasses
against my neighbor, really. Against my fellow man. In chapter five, in
starting concerning the trespass offerings, they were trespasses
against God. But now, he is dealing with the trespasses against man.
There are sins against God. There are sins against man.
The first table of the law, the first table of stone in which the table
was inscribed, the four commandments had to deal with man’s
relationship with God. To violate one of those four commandments
constituted ungodliness. There’s a difference between
ungodliness and unrighteousness. Ungodliness is not having a right
relationship with God. Ungodliness.
The second table of stone dealt with the second six commandments that
had the laws relating to your relationship with your fellow man. The
vertical plane, the first tablet. Your relationship with God. The
second tablet, the horizontal plane of your life. Your relationship
with your fellow man. To violate one of the laws in the second tablet,
constituted unrighteousness. You are not living in a right relationship
with your fellow man, as God would have you to live.
Now it is interesting that when Jesus was asked, concerning the
greatest commandment, He summed up the first table of the law, the
first four commandments by declaring, “Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God, with all thy heart, with all thy strength, with all thy
soul, with all thy mind.” And the second, summing up the now
the second table, is like the first, “Thou shalt love thy
neighbor, as thyself.” “And upon these two, Jesus
said, is the whole law and even the prophets.” It’s
a summation. God first, my love for God, paramount, and then my love
for God, creating a love for my fellow man. If I love God as I ought to
love God, then I will not be guilty of ungodliness. I will not be
violating any of the first four of the commands, if I love God,
totally. And if I love you as I love myself, then I won’t be
violating any of the second table of the law.
Now, we are dealing with the second table of the law, and so if a
person commits a trespass against the Lord, and all sin is against the
Lord, but it can be in my relationship with you. If you gave me
something you said, “Would you keep this for me?”,
and when you came back to get it, I said, “Ah, you know, it
was lost.” But it was in my upper drawer, and I knew it was
there. But I lied to you about something that you had entrusted into my
care. Something that you had given to me for safe keeping. Or if I lied
about a pledge or about a robbery, or if I extorted from my neighbor,
or if I had found something that was lost, and I did not report it. I
said, “Wow! That’s neat! I think I’ll
just keep that! Nice!”, and I didn’t report the
lost article that I found. Or if someone said, “Did you see a
little white dog in the neighborhood?” “No,
sorry.” And the thing is tied up in my back yard. Cause I
thought, “Man that’s a cute little dog. My grand
kids will love that!” So, I lie about something that I had
found, or I swear falsely, “I swear on the Bible man! I
haven’t seen it!” That’s a trespass
against the Lord, it’s an action against my fellow man that
is wrong.
So it is that I have sinned and I am guilty, and thus, under the law I
can’t just go and offer a sacrifice to God and say,
“I want you to cover this Lord, you know, I’m
guilty. I want you to cover it.” I first of all have to make
restitution. Something we don’t hear much about today,
restitution. Jesus said, “If you are going to the altar with
a gift and you remember that your brother has ought against you, first
go and be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your
gift.” The shortest distance between two points is not always
a straight line. That is, if, the two points are you and God, and you
have been guilty of wronging your brother. He has ought against you.
The shortest distance to God is by the way of the offended
brother’s house. Making restitution. Making things right. So,
if you were tempted to do one of these things, and then you think,
“Oh boy. That’s not right.”, and you
begin to get the guilties. You are to restore that which was stolen or
taken or found or whatever. You are to restore it to that person, but
you’re to add twenty percent interest. You are to restore not
only what you took, but twenty percent more. Restore the full value,
but add twenty percent to it, and give it to whom ever it belongs. Then
you can come and you can offer now, your trespass offering. If you
haven’t made restitution, then the trespass offering
won’t be accepted. You have to first make the wrong, right,
by restoring, and adding twenty percent; and, then come and offer your
sacrifice for your trespass offering.
In this you would offer a ram without blemish, from your flock, and the
priest would make the covering before Him, before the Lord, and He will
then be forgiven for these things which he has done in his trespasses
(6:6).
Beginning with verse eight, He deals with the law of the burnt offering
which is again, the offering of commitment.
It used to be in the camp programs years ago, that the last night of
camp, Friday evening, we always had a very emotional service where we
would each take a pine cone and we’d toss it in the fire.
We’d stand around the fire. We’d had a great week,
you know, met a lot of new friends, just a glorious week together at
camp and you’re on sort of an emotional binge anyhow, because
you know that it is the last night of camp and you know that
it’s all over. You’ve had a wonderful week, and now
the time comes for that total commitment of my life to the Lord, and
gonna go back into a different environment. “Man
it’s been easy to really seek the Lord and serve Christ up
here, because everybody’s into it. We’re all just
really happy serving the Lord together, but man, now I’ve got
to go back to that crummy, crud-dud world, down the hill, and all of
the smog, and all of the corruption, and it’s going to be
tough, but I’ve got to make that commitment, and
it’s the only way I’m going to survive, is by a
total commitment, so I take my cone, and I toss it in the fire, and I
stand and watch that cone burn. That cone represents me, my life, the
old life of the flesh, and I want it just to be consumed in the fire of
God’s Spirit, that I might live for God completely. Just
forsake the flesh, and live after the Spirit, and I watched that old
cone burn and I stand there crying saying, “Lord,
that’s what I want. The old rotten life of the flesh just to
be burned up God, that I might live totally for you.”
I’ve thrown many of those cones into the fire. Made those
commitments year by year. That’s what the burnt offering was.
It was just, “Here Lord, my sacrifice of myself.”
So, the animal represents myself, and “Now Lord,
I’m just making that commitment to you, that consecration of
my life unto you Lord. I want to just live after the Spirit.”
So, when the burnt offering was to be burned to a crisp. It was to be
burned to ashes. Then the priest was to take the ashes of the burnt
offering, while he still had his priestly linen garments on; and, he
was to take the ashes and lay them by the altar. Then he was to go out
and change his clothes and come back and get those ashes and carry them
outside of the camp, to a clean place (6:10-11).
Then in verse fourteen, you get to the law of the grain offering, was
often the peace offering. Now that my trespasses have been taken care
of, now that the commitment is made to God, now I can have peace with
God. So the next offering was this peace offering where I bring this
little bit of grain, really dough mixed up, and it’s baked
upon the fire and it gives this glorious aroma of fresh baked bread,
and it rises unto God as a sacrifice and a pleasant aroma unto Him. Not
to have any leaven in it. You see that leaven was removed in the
trespass and sin offerings. Leaven is a type of sin. So
that’s been removed. I can’t really have this peace
with God, when there is harbored sin within my life, and so, the leaven
removed and this grain offering given to the Lord.
Now, the rest of the dough, that which wasn’t burnt, just a
memorial portion was, he took just a little handful and baked it, or
put it on the fire. The rest of it belonged to the priest, and they
could eat the grain offering. That was their portion.
In the twentieth verse, he tells of the offerings that were to be made
by Aaron and his sons at the beginning of each day.
A grain offering, their to take the ephah of flour, and the mixture,
and half of it is to be offered in the morning, and the other half of
it at night (6:20).
Offer it for a sweet aroma to the Lord. When the priest offered the
grain offering, it had to be totally burned on the fire, he
couldn’t eat a bit. Then again the reference to the sin
offering. It’s really instructing the priest, concerning the
sin offering, and how that apportion of that meat was for the priest,
and he was to eat it in the holy place; and, they were to eat it all
within a two day period. Anything that was left over to the third day
was not to be eaten.
Chapter 7
Then in chapter seven, again, the trespass offering, and this is the
rules of the priest concerning the trespass offering, and then with the
grain offering, and then in verse eleven, we get back again to the
peace offerings.
You offer the peace offerings often times for a thanksgiving.
It’s a thanksgiving offering, and so you offer it with a
sacrifice of thanksgiving. Eleven cakes mixed with oil and eleven
wafers anointed with oil or cakes of finely blended flour, mixed with
oil (7:12).
Sort of pancakes, actually. They were offered before the Lord. So, it
goes on with the laws concerning these offerings, and again, to be
eaten within two days. Anything that is left to the third day is not to
be eaten, if you eat it then your cut off from the people. When you eat
it you’re to eat it with ceremonial cleanliness. If you are
ceremonially unclean, and you eat it, then you are also cut off from
the people, and you are not to eat of any of the fat of any of the
offerings that were made unto the Lord. If you ate of the fat or drank
of the blood, then you were to be cut off.
Verse twenty seven, an interesting verse that has created quite a
problem. Whoever eats any blood, that person shall be cut off from his
people. Now, that doesn’t seem to really present a problem in
it’s context because he’s talking about these
animals. The blood was to be spilled and put on the altar and offered
to God, and a person wasn’t to eat any of the fat of the
sacrifice, nor to eat any of the blood. Fairly plain and simple until
the Jehovah Witnesses get a hold of it. They then interpret this as a
prohibition against blood transfusions. You know that they have a very
strict stand against blood transfusions, and that hundreds of the
adherence of this cult have died. Parents have allowed their children
to die, rather than to receive a transfusion of blood. All based upon
their misinterpretation of this text that you’re not to eat
any blood. Of course, he’s talking about eating or drinking
the blood of an animal. But, he surely had no reference at all to blood
transfusions. To try to interpret it as a blood transfusion, is just,
ridiculous.
Now, to me it’s rather tragic, because you know, the whole
world was upset when Jim Jones had his followers to take poison. When
it seemed like their little camp was about over. We were shocked and
horrified at all of these people that committed suicide, taking poison
at the encouragement and the urging of their leader. We say,
“My, what a tragedy! People following this guy Jim Jones, and
committed suicide, gave their lives! What a horrible thing!”
Wait a minute. What a horrible thing it is that every year, scores of
people are dying, because of being mislead by the Jehovah Witnesses,
and this idea of blood transfusions are forbidden in the scriptures,
and if you have one, you’re sort of eternally damned.
You’ll not be able to live in the kingdom. It is tragic that
they encourage people to allow their children to die, rather than to
receive a blood transfusion. That’s to me, just as awful as
Jim Jones. Just as reprehensible that they would guide people in
suicide, by refusing to take blood, or to sacrifice their children,
because of their insistence of this misinterpretation of the scripture.
Any and every bible scholar that you can get a hold of will tell you
that this particular passage of scripture, has nothing to do with blood
transfusions. It’s just a quirky interpretation that they
have made.
Now, again the Lord tells about the portion that is to be given to
Aaron and his sons.
When a person offers the sacrifice of a peace offering to the Lord,
he’s to bring the offering to the Lord, he’s to
bring it in his own hands, the offering made by fire to the Lord, The
fat with the breast he shall bring, and that breast may be waved as a
wave offering before the Lord (7:30).
So, here you’re going to get a wave offering and a heave
offering. The wave offering is basically where they picked up the
breast of the ram, or the lamb and they would extend their arms towards
the altar, and bring it back again. Extend it towards the altar, and
bring it back again, in a symbolic offering of it unto the Lord. So, it
was the backward, forward motion that constituted the wave offering.
The heave offering, was a motion that was upwards and down. So, when
you read of the heave offerings, they would take the shoulder of the
lamb, or the leg of the lamb, and they would raise it up and down, as
the heave offering. The wave offering was offered in a forward,
backward motion. So, that’s, when you read of the heave and
wave offerings, that’s what you need to have in your mind
when you seek to sort of visualize it.
So, the consecrated portion was for Aaron and his sons from the
offerings made by fire. The Lord commanded this to be given to them by
the children of Israel, on the day that he anointed them by a statute
forever throughout their generations. This is the law of the burnt
offering, the grain offering, the sin offering, the trespass offering,
consecrations, the sacrifice of the peace offering which the Lord
commanded Moses on mount Sinai (7:35-38).
Chapter 8
So, now, they’ve been instructed in how they are to offer the
various sacrifices and now comes the time for their anointing. God has
chosen from the tribe of Levi, the house of Aaron, as the high priest
and his family as the one to offer the sacrifices. Later on
they’ll develop a grumbling among some of the other Levites,
because of this. Korah gets together with a bunch of guys, and he says,
“Hey man! This isn’t fair, you know, it’s
only because Aaron is Moses’ brother that he set him up in
this. We’re Levites, we have every much as right, as does
Aaron, to offer the sacrifices.” So, they formed a conspiracy
and they came to Moses and they faced him and they said,
“Hey, you’re not fair man! You’re playing
favoritism with your brother.” So, God settled that, and
we’ll get into that when we get in to the book of Numbers, I
believe is where we catch up with that one.
But, Aaron and his sons are to be anointed for their ministry.
Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, the anointing oil,
and take a bull as a sin offering, and two rams, and a basket of
unleavened bread; And gather all of the congregation together at the
door of the tabernacle of the meeting (8:2-3).
Now this is at the door of this little enclosed area. There was sort of
this seven foot fence around it of these panels, and at the opening
here in the front, about a fifteen, twenty foot opening here in the
front, that’s where the people would gather and look into
this area, where Aaron, and Moses and the sons of Aaron had gathered.
So, Moses brought Aaron and his sons and he [first of all], washed them
with water, [so in this brass laver, this big brass bowl he filled with
water], and he washed them first of all with water (8:6).
Then he put on them a high priestly robes, and it gives you the order
by which he dressed them. First of all the tunic, and then that sort of
linen sash with which he tied it around the tunic, and it hung on down
to his feet.
He clothed them then with his robe, [that blue robe], and he then put
the ephod on him, [which were short, those little onyx shoulder pads]
with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, six on each shoulder
inscribed on the onyx, and he girded him with the intricately woven
band of the ephod, and he tied the ephod on him and then he put the
breastplate on him, with the twelve stones, representing the twelve
tribes; and this Urim and the Thummim, [of which we really
don’t know too much], and then he put the turban, [or this
bonnet hat on his head], and he put the golden plate on it,
“Holiness to the Lord” on the crown, as the Lord
had commanded, and then Moses took the anointing oil. [That oil that
they gave the formula for the oil in Exodus, the formulating of this
oil.] He anointed first of all, the tabernacle and all that was in it
and he sanctified it. [that is, he set it apart for exclusive use for
God.] (8:7-10).
These things that were sanctified, the word sanctified really means to
be set apart for exclusive use. If you sanctify a dish, it means you
are not to eat out of that dish. That dish is to be used only in
serving God. With a cup, you’re not to use that cup,
it’s just to be used for the service of God. You remember
when Belshazzar, at the time of the Babylonian captivity, towards the
end of the Babylonian captivity, when Belshazzar had this feast for a
thousand of his lords, and got pretty drunk, and while he was drunk, he
ordered them, “Bring in the vessels, the goblets that my
father Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem.” And
it says, “The vessels that had been sanctified”,
they had been set apart for God’s use exclusively. And he
began to drink the wine out of these vessels, and praise the gods of
gold and silver until there came on the wall, the writing, a finger was
writing on the wall, left the words “Mene, Mene, Tekel,
Upharsin". “Wait in the balance as your found wanting,
tonight your kingdom is going to be divided amongst the Medes and the
Persians.” He had violated the sanctity of these vessels that
had been set apart for God’s exclusive use.
So, they sanctified now the tabernacle and all that was in it, he
sprinkled some of the oil on the altar, in fact he did that seven times
and he anointed the altar and of it’s utensils, and the laver
and the base, to sanctify them. And he poured some of the anointing oil
on Aaron’s head, and he anointed him to sanctify him
(8:10-12).
We remember it talks about, in Psalms, the anointing oil on Aaron that
ran down his beard? We, today say, “We’ll anoint
with oil in the name of the Lord, in the prayer”. So we take
a little bit of oil and we put it on our finger and touch it on
someone’s forehead and say, “We are anointing with
oil”, that’s not how they did it in Bible days.
They took the pitcher of oil and poured it on the head, you know.
Anointed with oil. You probably got more of the feeling of the
symbolism of the anointing of oil, when they poured the whole quart on
your head, you know. You really begin to get that feeling of being
covered with the Spirit and it runs down you and you feel the tickling
going down your back and you just really get the idea! Not so much just
by touching on the forehead with a little bit of oil. The psalmist
speaks of the glory of this anointing of Aaron and the oil that ran
down his beard and all. So, get a proper picture of it. See the oil
dripping off the end of his beard.
Then he brought his sons in and he put the priestly tunics on them, not
the high priest tunics, but just the regular tunics of the priesthood,
and he girded them with sashes, and put their hats or turbans on, as
the Lord commanded Moses. And then he brought the bull for the sin
offering [and notice then], Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the
head of the bull for the sin offering (8:13- 14).
Laying their hands on the head of the bull, transferring now the guilt
and their sins over onto this bull, and then Moses killed it.
And he took the blood, and put it on the horns of the altar around with
his finger, and purified the altar, and poured the blood out at the
base of the altar, and sanctified it, to make a covering for it. And
then he took the fat [and so forth] and burned it on the altar. But the
bull, with its hide, its flesh, and the offal [which is the entrails
and all of that}, he burned with fire outside of the camp; as the Lord
had commanded: Then he brought the ram as a burnt offering (8:15-18).
Now, notice before you can really consecrate your life to God, sin has
to be dealt with. So the sin offering is always first. You have to do
something about the guilt of your sin before you can really commit your
life to God. Before God will really accept your consecration of your
life to him. So the sin offering was first. You take care of first
things first, and the first thing that is separating you from God is
your sin. You take care of that first. That having been taken care of,
now you make your commitment. And so the ram being brought, as the
burnt offering,
[And again], Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the
ram. And then Moses killed it; and sprinkled the blood around the
altar. He cut the ram in pieces and he burned the head and the pieces
of fat, and he washed the entrails and the legs in water and he burned
the whole ram on the altar. It was a burnt sacrifice for a sweet aroma,
and an offering made by fire to the Lord; as the Lord had commanded
Moses (8:20-21).
That offering of a sweet aroma. Man, and I tell you, I love the smell
of barbecued meat. It is a good aroma. I mean when my neighbors are
barbecuing, I feel like going over there and knocking on the door and
seeing if they would like a guest for dinner.
And then he brought the second ram, which was the ram of consecration
[commitment, then consecration]: and Aaron and his sons laid their
hands on the head of the ram. And Moses killed it; and he took of the
blood, put it on the tip of Aaron’s right ear (8:22-23).
Now, here’s consecration, you’re going to be
consecrated now with the priesthood. So the second ram is
Aaron’s consecration to the priesthood, and so that ram he
takes the blood and first of all, he puts some of it on his right ear,
symbolizing, “May your ear ever be open to hear the voice of
God”. The anointed ear. To hear God’s voice. To
hear God speaking to you. How many times in the scriptures do we read
Jesus saying, “He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what
the Spirit is saying.” “Oh God, give me an anointed
ear. I want to hear your voice. I want to hear your word.”
The anointed ear, and then he put it upon the thumb of his right hand.
Symbolizing your service now, your work now, the work with your hands.
May they be consecrated to God. Doing the work of God and the
consecration of your work, in the right thumb.
Then he put it on the big toe of his right foot. This of course is
symbolic of your path being anointed and led by God. May you walk in
the path of the Lord. May you hear the voice of the Lord, may you do
the work of the Lord, and may you walk in the path of the Lord.
Consecration to the ministry.
And then he sprinkled the remainder of the blood around the altar and
he took the fat, tail, the entrails, [and all], and he burned it with a
basket of unleavened bread, before the Lord (8:28).
Well, he first of all, took the basket of bread, and he waved it. That
motion that we showed you, as a wave offering before the Lord.
Then he took them from their hands, and then burned them on the altar:
and they were a consecration offering of a sweet aroma unto God . And
then he took the breast, and he waved it, and part of the ram; as the
Lord had commanded. And Moses took some of the anointing oil, and some
of the blood which was on the altar, sprinkled it on Aaron, and his
garments, and on his sons, the garments of his sons with him; and
sanctified Aaron, and his garments. And Moses said unto Aaron and to
his sons, Now boil the flesh at the door of the tabernacle: and eat it
there. You are not to leave this place for seven days (8:28-33).
This consecration was a seven day kind of an affair, “And
you’re to stay right here for seven days. Not to leave this
place”. And so, their period of consecration.
And so the Lord hath commanded to do, to make the covering for you.
Therefore you shall abide at the door of the tabernacle day and night
for seven days, to keep the charge of the Lord, that you may not die:
So Aaron and his sons did all the things the Lord commanded by the hand
of the Lord (8:34-36).
Chapter 9
And it came to pass on the eighth day, that Moses called Aaron and his
sons, and the elders of Israel; And he said to Aaron, Take for yourself
a young bull as a sin offering, a ram as a burnt offering, without
blemish, and offer them before the Lord. And to the children of Israel
you shall speak, saying, Take a kid of the goats as a sin offering; a
calf and a lamb, both of the first year, without blemish, as a burnt
offering (9:1-3);
So, now that Aaron has been anointed and sanctified for the priesthood,
in a sense, he now is able to make the offering. Moses did the first
sacrifices as he anointed and consecrated Aaron for the priesthood. But
now Aaron, at this point, is to take over the duties as the high priest
and the offering of the sacrifices. All the way through
you’re gonna read here, “as the Lord
commanded”, “as the Lord commanded”,
“as the Lord commanded”. All of these things were
done according to the commandment of the Lord. So, they’re to
bring the sin offering, again it’s always first, without
blemish, and then the burnt offering, and then the peace offering.
These were the orders of the offerings. The sin offering, to get rid of
sin. The burnt offering to make your consecration, and then the effect
of that is fellowship with God, the peace offering.
For today the Lord will appear unto you (9:4).
Verse four, the Lord will appear to you, this is the day that things
will start. This is the beginning now of your ministry for
God’s people, to bring the people to God. Now, the duty of
the priest was two-fold really. He was to go in before God to represent
the people. The people themselves, with their sin, could not approach
God. So the priest had been sanctified and he brings your offering,
your sin offering before the Lord and he is a mediator, a go between.
He goes in before God, as your representative, and then he comes out to
you, representing God. He comes out to you to give you God’s
word.
But he is there as a mediator, as a go between. Now, Jesus Christ is
our great High Priest, and there is now only one mediator between God
and man, and that’s the man Christ Jesus. But that was the
duty of the priest was mediating, so going before God for the people.
And so all of the congregation stood near: and they stood before the
Lord. And Moses said, This is the thing which the Lord commanded you to
do: and the glory of the Lord will appear to you today. So, go unto the
altar, and offer your sin offering, and your burnt offering, and make
the covering for yourself, and for the people: and offer the offering
of the people, make atonement for them; as the Lord has commanded.
Aaron therefore went in to the altar, and killed the calf of the sin
offering, which was for himself. And the sons of Aaron brought the
blood unto him: and he dipped his finger in the blood, and put it upon
the horns of the altar, and poured out the blood at the rest of the
base [as they were commanded earlier]: Then they burned the portions
that were to be burned, and they took the other portion outside of the
camp, the flesh, and the hide, and burned it outside of the camp. Then
he killed the burnt offering; and Aaron’s sons presented him
that blood (9:9-12).
So, we find now the ritual of the temple, having begun. Then having
offered for himself, now he can offer for the people. Now,
it’s interesting that the priest you see, couldn’t
just go in and do it. He had to first of all, offer the sin offering
for himself. Now here is where Hebrews points out that we have a better
way through Jesus Christ because He didn’t have to offer any
offering for Himself. He’s our great High Priest, who did not
have to make an offering for Himself. But only offered for us all, His
blood. Not in a tabernacle, made with hands, but in the heaven itself,
for which the tabernacle was only a model. He has gone into heaven
itself, to make the covering for your sins. The atonement really, for
your sins. The putting away of your sins, which was impossible with
blood of bulls and goats could do.
So they then offered the sin offering for the people, and the burnt
offering for the people, and the peace offerings.
And he lifted up his hand [verse 22] toward the people, and he blessed
them, and he came down from offering the sin offering, the burnt
offering, and the peace offerings. And Moses and Aaron then went into
the tabernacle of meeting, and they came out, and they blessed the
people (9:22).
So they’re going in before God, and then coming out and
blessing the people in the name of God. The blessing of course, is
given to us further on, the priestly benediction that Aaron was to put
upon the people, when he had come out from God. “Jehovah,
bless thee and keep thee. Make His face to shine upon thee and give
thee peace.”
[So, at this point], the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the
people. And fire came out from before the Lord, and consumed the burnt
offering and the fat on the altar: when all the people saw, it they
shouted, and fell on their faces (9:22-24).
Chapter 10
So, an exciting moment. The inauguration, grand opening, and
they’re beginning now, this whole Old Testament period of
sacrifices for sins, and all. This tabernacle worship which was to then
to be translated into the temple worship. This is the beginning of the
priestly ministry, God had commanded. At the beginning, God’s
fire came and consumed the sacrifices on the altar, kindled the fire
there on the altar, burned the sacrifices.
Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censor [that little
golden ball] and put fire in it and put incense on it and offered
profane [or strange] fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded
them (10:1).
Now, notice all the way along, it says, “They did as the Lord
commanded, they did as the Lord commanded, they did as the Lord
commanded”, but now, in the excitement of the moment, some of
the people have seen a manifestation of God. They’re over
awed with this manifestation of God. They begin to shout, they fall on
their faces, and Aaron’s two sons, caught up in the emotion
of the whole moment, excitedly grabbed their little golden censors, and
they put strange fire in them. Now, according to the commandment of the
Lord, they were to take coals from the altar. These coals from the
altar were to be put in these little golden balls, and the incense
sprinkled on that, and then they were to go in before the Lord in the
holy place, before the altar of incense, which was in front of the veil
that led into the holy of holies. There they were to offer the incense
before the Lord, which was representative of the peoples prayers, the
sending them to God, and the praises of the people, and sending it to
God. But the fire was to come from the altar itself. But they took
strange fire. Just sort of, “Hey, it’s
close”, you know and just taking the expediency kind of a
thing. It’s the easiest, closest place, “Just grab
the fire, put it in”, you know, rather than following the
commandment of the Lord. Strange fire.
So the fire went out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died
before the Lord (10:2).
The same Hebrew word consumed the burnt offering, this fire of God is
the same Hebrew word that consumed them, or devoured them, and they
died before the Lord.
Then Moses said to Aaron, This is what God meant when he said, By those
who come near me, I must be regarded as holy. And before all of the
people, I must be glorified (10:3).
So, herein is an indication that the sin of the two sons of Aaron, was
perhaps, an attempt on their part, to take some glory from God. As the
people have all been touched by the sense of God’s presence,
they’ve been brought into a peak of intensity of worship.
Suddenly these two fellows come rushing in with their golden censors of
incense, and their motive was to draw the attention of the people, to
themselves. “Hey look! I’m important. I’m
a priest”. To take the attention away from God’s
manifestation, and it brought the attention unto themselves, and thus
the fire of God devoured, consumed them. Moses said, “This
was what God was talking about when he said, “I must be
glorified”. So, man taking or trying to take God’s
glory. Something that we have to be extremely careful about. Especially
anybody involved in the ministry, because there are always those who
will seek to glorify man.
Whenever God works through your life in a supernatural way,
there’s always that danger that people are going to begin to
lift you up, and elevate you. You remember when Peter was going into
the temple at the hour of prayer, and the lame man was there and he was
asking for alms. Peter said, “Hey fellow, look at
me!” The fellow turned around expecting to receive something.
Peter said, “Oh I’m sorry man, I don’t
have any silver and gold but, what I do have, I’ll be glad to
share with you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, you rise and
stand on your feet.” Peter took the guy by the right hand,
lifted him to his feet, and immediately the guy received strength and
began to walk, and leap, and praise God. He went running into the
temple, walking, leaping, praising God, and everybody said,
“Man! Who’s that? Isn’t that the lame man
that’s been out there by the gate all these...?”
“Sure looked like him.” “How can it be
him? He’s walking!” “I don’t
know, sure looked like him!” “Let’s find
out!” And this guy made a circle through the temple, and
emptied the temple! Suddenly there were 5,000 people out here on the
porch of the temple, and this guy is now come back to Peter, and
he’s grabbing him, he’s hugging him, he’s
jumping up and down! And the people suddenly relate this manifestation
of God’s power, to Peter. They began to look at Peter as if
he is a god himself. Peter said, “Hey, wait a minute! Ye men
of Israel, why marvel you at this? Why do you look on us as though we,
through our own righteousness have done this good deed to this man? Be
it known unto you, that it is by the name and the power of Jesus Christ
that this man is standing here before you whole.”
“Don’t look on me, don’t think that
it’s my righteousness. Don’t think that
it’s my holiness or whatever that’s done this
thing.” Hey, that doesn’t sound like a lot of
modern evangelists today, does it? “Brother to have this
gift, I made a sacrifice, and I just have to...”. Peter said,
“Hey, wait a minute. It’s not me, it’s
not my righteousness. Don’t look on me.” And he
pointed them immediately to Jesus Christ. But you see, there is that
danger of taking God’s glory, to yourself. Let me tell you
something. Whenever God does a work, He doesn’t appreciate
you taking vows for Him. So often, this is what we see. God does a
marvelous work, and here’s the evangelist taking the vows.
“Yes sir, yes sir, yes sir.” “Well, you
know, it’s pretty nice, you know.” God said,
“Before the people, I will be glorified.” These
guys were trying to rob some of the glory from God.
So Aaron held his peace, and so Moses called the other sons, and the
relatives and he said, Come on over here and carry your brothers from
before the sanctuary, carry them out of the camp. So they went near,
and they took them by the priestly robes [by their tunics], and they
carried them out of the camp. And he said to Aaron and the other two
sons of Aaron, Now don’t uncover your heads or tear your
clothes; lest you die (10:4-6).
In other words they are not to do the cultural thing for mourning,
where you shave your head and you rip your clothes to show your grief
over the death of your sons. Don’t show the signs of grief.
Why? Because that would be dishonoring to God who wiped them out! It
was God who because of their trespass, wiped them out, and for you to
show the grief over this would really be to put yourself against the
work of the Lord.
But let the house of Israel bewail what God has done, the burning which
the Lord has kindled. And you’re not to go out of the door of
the tabernacle of meeting, lest you die. [You better stay here now,
lest you die.] For the anointing oil of the Lord is on you, And so they
did according to the words of Moses (10:7-8).
So God is anointing you, so don’t leave this place, you stay
right here, and don’t show any signs of mourning.
Then the Lord spoke to Aaron, saying, Do not drink wine or intoxicating
drink, you, nor your sons with you, when you go into the tabernacle of
meeting, lest you die (10:9).
So, it is possible that God is giving to us another hint of the sin of
Nadab and Abihu. It is quite possible that their poor judgement
resulted from the fact that they had been drinking. We do know that
drinking impairs a person’s judgement. It is quite possible
that their judgement was impaired. They grabbed the strange fire,
because of their impaired judgement, because they had been drinking,
and thus, the warning to Aaron, “Now look, don’t
drink any wine or intoxicating beverage, when you come in to do the
service of the Lord, lest you die.” God doesn’t
want us serving Him under any false stimulants. There is only one real
motive for serving the Lord, and that is the motive that Paul spoke of
when he said, “The love of Christ constrains me.”
Now it is then totally wrong for us to seek to motivate people to serve
the Lord by any other motivation than love. The love of Jesus Christ.
If I seek to motivate you by some fleshly, carnal motivation, then I am
causing you to sin against the Lord. I am encouraging you to offer
strange fire to God.
Years ago when I made my break with a denomination in which I had spent
several years, and I had developed quite a seniority, and the thing
that really perpetrated my break with the denomination was a convention
that we had in Phoenix when our Bishop stood before us and he said to
this convention of ministers, he said, “I know that
motivating people with competition is carnal motivation, but we must
accept the fact that the majority of the people we minister to are
carnal, and it’s necessary to use carnal motivation. So I
want to explain to you, this new program by which you can get your
people excited over some competition. What you need to do is while
we’re here, challenge another church for an attendance
contest. We’ll send you out all the rules, and pamphlets, and
all the materials you will need so that you can help the people get
excited over this.” You know, and so they go into the whole
pitch of how to get the people all motivated carnally, by competition.
Strange fire, my heart was breaking. One of his cronies stood up and
said, “Tremendous idea! I move that we call right now the
supervisor and the Bishop of the other district, and let’s
challenge that whole district. Our district will challenge them as well
as, you know, our competition between ourselves.” Another
crony stood up and said, “Splendid idea! I second the
motion.” And the Bishop said, “All in favor, stand
to your feet.” And all these ministers are standing to their
feet. And I sat there, my heart broken. Some of the young ministers
that I had been having sidewalk seminars with, seeing me sit, had that
look on their face, “Hey, I’ve been had.”
And then they began to sit down. Soon about a quarter of the guys just
sat down. They realized, “Hey I’ve been
taken.”
The Bishop noticed what had happened, and right after the service, he
invited me for a cup of coffee. I said, “No thank you, I
don’t drink coffee.” No, I went for the cup of
coffee, but I don’t drink it. I had a coke. That’s
so you know I’m not, you know, holy. He began to talk to me
about cooperation and rebellion, and I said to him, “Sir,
when you began to introduce the program, you introduced it with the
words with, “We know that motivating people through
competition is carnal motivation but, we need to accept the fact that
the majority of the people are carnal, and thus we have to use carnal
motivation.” I said, “I will grant the fact that
probably the majority of the people are carnal, but your next statement
should’ve been, We should pray and seek God and ask Him to
make them spiritual people, rather than carnal.” I said,
“I could’ve stood for that, but to pander to their
carnality, I have a hard time with that.” Then I said,
“when you had your one stooge stand up and make the
motion”, I said, “I know that that was all
prearranged in the back rooms. I said “I’ve been
back there in the back rooms, and I know the second was all
prearranged, it was something you had all set out, at that moment, you
know, you gave him the signal, he stood up and followed your
plan.” I said, “But, I then had to assume that you
felt that the majority of the ministers were also carnal, because now
you were seeking to motivate them through competition; and, I confess
that I do have carnality in my life, but I will also declare to you
that I don’t want to live after the flesh. I want to live
after the Spirit and I don’t want to pander to that carnal
side of my nature.” He said, “Well, I see
we’re not going to get anywhere.”
I went back to my room. I was heartsick, I really was. I
don’t like confrontation, especially with the Bishop. I got
on my knees, before the Lord, and I said God, “You know my
heart, you see my heart, you know my heart, and you know that in my
heart that I’m not really what he was accusing me of being,
rebelling and all this, against You Lord. I will admit that I am
rebelling against this whole sad scene. I’m rebelling against
this carnality, and seeking to motivate people with carnality. The
false fire. God I rebel against that. I confess that Lord.
I’m not rebelling against you. I want to live after the
Spirit. I want to be a spiritual man.” The Lord spoke to my
heart in a very dynamic, powerful way. I just felt His presence, and
God spoke to me and He said, “Acts second chapter, He just
gave me the scripture, “And the Lord added daily to the
church, such as should be saved.” I said, “Ahh!
Thank you Lord! I needed that!” You can do it! I
don’t have to get up and motivate the people with carnal
motivations. I don’t have to get them involved in
competitions or anything else. No, You can do it Lord. I felt relieved,
I felt that the Lord had just put a stamp of approval on my position of
walking after the Spirit, and not getting the people involved in
fleshly things.
The upshot was that at the end of the contest, our church had won first
prize for the greatest number of increase in attendance over the
contest period, and they wanted to give me a trophy, which I did
reject, because the people wouldn’t understand what it was
all about if I bring a trophy into the church. It wasn’t long
till I was pastoring an independent church.
Strange fire. False stimulants. Be careful, don’t drink any
wine or intoxicating drinks. No false stimulation. It shall be a
statute forever throughout your generations. So, in the New Testament,
as the elders of the church were chosen, they weren’t to be
given to wine. That is why I feel as a minister, as an elder within the
church, it would be wrong for me to drink wine, or any intoxicating
drink, and anybody who aspires to the ministry, anybody who has that
position of leadership in the church, I feel that they should not drink
wine or any intoxicating drink. It’s a statute forever. God
doesn’t want us stimulated in our service to Him, through
false fire, false stimulation. If you want to really serve God,
consecrate your life to God, I think those are issues that
you’ll find God will ultimately speak to your heart about.
Because you can’t enter into the complete service of God,
until these issues are dealt with. Because God wants them to be able to
distinguish between the holy and the unholy. Between the unclean and
the clean. He wants you to have a clear mind. He wants you to be sharp.
He wants you to be able to make the discernment, which any kind of
intoxicating drink could cloud that judgement.
And that you may teach the children of Israel, all of the statutes
which the Lord has spoken by the hand of Moses. And then Moses spoke to
Aaron, and to Eleazar and Ithamar, his sons who were left. They said,
Take the grain offering that remains of the offerings that were made by
fire to the Lord, and eat it without the leaven beside the altar,
because it is most holy. And you shall eat it in a holy place because
it’s your due and your sons’ due. And the breast of
the wave offering and the thigh of the heave offering you shall eat in
a clean place. You and your sons and your daughters with you: for there
are your due and your sons’ due which are given from the
sacrifice of the peace offering of the children of Israel (10:12-14).
The thigh of the heave offering, the breast of the wave offering and so
forth.
So then Moses found out that something had gone wrong, and he
diligently made inquiry about the goat and the sin offering; and, there
it was. It was burned up the whole thing was burned up and they were
supposed to eat part of it; and, Moses got quite upset! He was angry
with the two sons of Aaron. And then he said to them, Why
didn’t you eat the sin offering in the holy place, since
it’s most holy, and God has given it to you to eat and to
bear the guilt of the congregation, and to make atonement for the Lord
(10:16-17)?
And he was really upset, because they had not followed the procedures.
And he said, See it’s blood was not brought inside the holy
place, you should’ve eaten it in the holy place as I
commanded (10:18).
You didn’t bring the blood in, you didn’t finish
off there.
And Aaron said to Moses, This day they’ve offered their sin
offering and their burnt offering before the Lord and such things have
befallen me: if I had eaten the sin offering today, Would it have been
accepted in the sight of the Lord (10:19)?
“I mean, I’m sick, my two sons have died, and
I’m feeling all this grief, and I don’t think God
would accept it if I ate it with all of this inward grief, and really
sort of anger against God for taking my two sons.”
So when Moses heard that, he was content (10:20).
He said, “It’s okay, I understand.”
So, next week we get into interesting aspects, and being sort of a
health food faddist, I like some of this part that we’re
getting into, because he deals with the foods that they could eat, and
they couldn’t eat, and we will show you some real wisdom in
some of the prohibitions. Some of you that like to eat some of this
food that was on the forbidden list. We’ll show you the
wisdom in the prohibitions next week. So, we’ll move along in
Leviticus next week.
May the Lord be with you now, and bless you as you walk with Him in the
light, and knowledge, and the understanding of that grace of God, that
He has imparted to us, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Give you a
beautiful week this week! Cause you to abound in all things in Christ!
Overflowing with the fullness and the richness of God’s work
in your life. May this be just a special week of consecration unto God,
as you experience more and more His presence of power, working in you
and working through you. In Jesus’ name.