Thursday
Evening Bible Study
September
24, 2009
Introduction
Leviticus is an instruction manual for the Levite priests.
The main theme
is “Holiness”
(Lev
19:2 NKJV) "Speak to all the congregation
of the children of Israel, and say to them: 'You shall be holy, for I the LORD
your God am holy.
We’ve already seen some instructions concerning some of the various
sacrifices:
The Burnt
offering – a picture of total consecration.
The Meal offering
– giving to God from my substance.
The Peace
offering – having fellowship with God and your family
The Sin
offering – to pay for unintentional sins.
Apparently there was no offering for intentional sins, if you did something
out of rebellion, on purpose.
We now see a few more examples of unintentional sins.
Leviticus 5
5:1-4 Reasons
for Guilt Offering
We’re going to see different variations of the sin offering. The Hebrew
name for this next offering is based on the word for “guilt” found in verses 2,3,4,
and 5 (asham). Some
call this a “trespass” offering. I
haven’t found out the differences yet between words like “sin” and “trespass”.
:1 'If a person sins in hearing the utterance of an oath, and is a witness,
whether he has seen or known of the matter; if he does not tell it, he bears
guilt.
:1 is a witness
- The idea here is this – there is an unsolved criminal case, the police
detective gathers people together and asks for help in solving the crime. As
the detective
begins to explain the situation, you realize that you actually saw something
that was important.
The “utterance of an oath” is the officer admonishing everyone to tell what
they’ve seen or heard.
If you do not tell what you’ve seen, then you are guilty of a “trespass”.
God wants His people involved in justice. God wants His people involved as witnesses.
If you know someone who wants to know about God, do you have a testimony?
:2 'Or if a person touches any unclean thing, whether it is the carcass of
an unclean beast, or the carcass of unclean livestock, or the carcass of
unclean creeping things, and he is unaware of it, he also shall be unclean and
guilty.
:3 'Or if he touches human uncleanness; whatever uncleanness with which a
man may be defiled, and he is unaware of it; when he realizes it, then he shall
be guilty.
:3 uncleanness
– was a state in which a person was not eligible for worship.
There were LOTS
of ways a person or thing could become “unclean”.
The point is that you could become unclean without even knowing it.
Illustration
Sometimes a person may be carrying
an infectious disease and not even know it.
They shake hands with you, and you
catch the disease, before either of you know anything about it.
Just because you’re ignorant about
the disease doesn’t keep you from getting it.
We’ll deal more with “uncleanness” in future chapters.
:4 'Or if a person swears, speaking thoughtlessly with his lips to do evil
or to do good, whatever it is that a man may pronounce by an oath, and he is
unaware of it; when he realizes it, then he shall be guilty in any of these
matters.
:4 if a person
swears
This has to do with making careless promises to someone.
Example – “I
swear I'll come help you on Saturday...”
And then you go and forget your promise.
God wants you to be a
person of your word.
The whole reason for taking "oaths" is to get a person to believe
that you're telling the truth, that you can be trusted.
Jesus said,
(Mat 5:33-37
NKJV) "Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall
not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.' {34} "But I
say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God's throne; {35} "nor by the
earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the
great King. {36} "Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot
make one hair white or black. {37} "But let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No.' For
whatever is more than these is from the evil one.
Swearing an oath like saying, “May lightening strike me if I’m not telling
the truth” is only a way of trying to convince someone that you’re going to
keep your promise.
Jesus isn’t against us making promises. His point is that we ought to be
men and women who can be counted on for telling the truth without having to go
through elaborate “oaths” to convince someone of what we’re saying.
5:5-13 The Guilt Offering
:5 'And it shall be, when he is guilty in any of these matters, that he
shall confess that he has sinned in that thing;
:6 'and he shall bring his trespass offering to the LORD for his sin which
he has committed, a female from the flock, a lamb or a kid of the goats as a
sin offering. So the priest shall make atonement for him concerning his sin.
confess – yadah –
to throw, shoot, cast
trespass offering – ‘asham
– guilt, offense, sin, guiltiness
Forgiveness
from God requires two things:
1. Confession.
(Psa 32:1-5 NKJV) Blessed is he whose
transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered. {2} Blessed is the man to whom
the LORD does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit. {3} When I kept silent,
my bones grew old Through my groaning all the day long. {4} For day and night
Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer.
Selah {5} I acknowledged
my sin to You, And my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, "I will confess
my transgressions to the LORD," And You forgave the iniquity of my sin.
Selah
It wasn’t until David confessed his sin that he experienced forgiveness.
2. Sacrifice.
That’s the point here. A price
must be paid for the sin. A sacrifice must be brought. This animal was paying
the price for your sin. It was paying with it’s life.
There is something in the human conscience that understands this truth.
When you were a kid, and you did something really bad, there was a sense of
relief after you had been spanked or punished with a time out, as if the sin had been dealt with and
paid for.
Many people suffer neuroses because they are trying to find ways of
punishing themselves over their past sins.
Illustration
Some try and avoid the consequences of their sins.
We see these come together in the New Testament formula for forgiveness as
well:
(1 John 1:9
NKJV) If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our
sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Forgiveness requires “confession”.
We have to admit to God that we have sinned.
God is “just”
to forgive us because the requirement for sacrifice has been met. The price has
been paid. Jesus
paid for our sins.
:7 'If he is
not able to bring a lamb, then he shall bring to the LORD, for his trespass
which he has committed, two turtledoves or two young pigeons: one as a sin
offering and the other as a burnt offering.
Forgiveness was not based upon whether or not you could afford to sacrifice
a lamb. Turtledoves and pigeons were inexpensive. You didn’t have to be wealthy
to be right with God.
:8 'And he shall bring them to the priest, who shall offer that which is
for the sin offering first, and wring off its head from its neck, but shall not
divide it completely.
:9 'Then he shall sprinkle some of the blood of the sin offering on the
side of the altar, and the rest of the blood shall be drained out at the base
of the altar. It is a sin offering.
:10 'And he shall offer the second as a burnt offering according to the
prescribed manner. So the priest shall make atonement on his behalf for his sin
which he has committed, and it shall be forgiven him.
Notice the order: Sin offering first, then burnt offering.
Take care of your sin, then dedicate yourself to the Lord.
:11 'But if he is not able to bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons,
then he who sinned shall bring for his offering one-tenth of an ephah of fine
flour as a sin offering. He shall put no oil on it, nor shall he put
frankincense on it, for it is a sin offering.
:11 fine flour
– Maybe you are too poor to afford even a pair of turtledoves. It’s still
possible to pay for your sins.
You could bring a couple of quarts of flour instead (even cheaper!).
Normally, we see sins requiring “blood” to pay for the sins.
Last week we mentioned that this is why blood was to be used only in
sacrifice. Blood was never to be eaten or drunk.
Here we see the one exception to the “blood-for-atonement” rule.
This is why the writer to the Hebrews says:
(Heb 9:22 NKJV) And according to the law almost
all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no
remission.
The exception was if you were too poor, then you could offer flour for a
sin offering.
:12 'Then he shall bring it to the priest, and the priest shall take his
handful of it as a memorial portion, and burn it on the altar according to the
offerings made by fire to the LORD. It is a sin offering.
:13 'The priest shall make atonement for him, for his sin that he has
committed in any of these matters; and it shall be forgiven him. The rest shall
be the priest's as a grain offering.'"
The entire two quarts of flour wasn’t burned, only a handful. The rest
would go to the priest as payment for “services rendered”.
5:14-19
Restitution towards God
:14 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying:
:15 "If a person commits a trespass, and sins unintentionally in
regard to the holy things of the LORD, then he shall bring to the LORD as his
trespass offering a ram without blemish from the flocks, with your valuation in
shekels of silver according to the shekel of the sanctuary, as a trespass
offering.
:15 trespass
offering – ‘asham – guilt,
offense, sin, guiltiness
Same word as what was used in verse 6. Here the difference will be that
these things will require more than just the trespass offering, these offenses
will require that you make “restitution”, that you pay the offended party as
well.
:15 holy
things – qodesh – apartness,
holiness, sacredness, separateness
When something was given to God, it became “holy”.
Certain parts of the sacrifices were supposed to be set aside and given to
the priests for payment for their service. They were called “most holy” (Lev.
10:12).
For example: The tithe, the tenth of a person’s income,
was supposed to be given to the Lord. It was “holy” (Lev. 27:30).
:16 "And he shall make restitution for the harm that he has done in
regard to the holy thing, and shall add one-fifth to it and give it to the
priest. So the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the trespass
offering, and it shall be forgiven him.
:16 add
one-fifth –
Restitution
The concept of restitution is that of paying back what you’ve stolen from
another person. It’s making things right with another person.
It might seem strange to think that we could be guilty of stealing from
God, but it’s possible:
(Mal
3:8 NKJV) "Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, 'In
what way have we robbed You?' In tithes and offerings.
Not only were you to make your guilt offering, but you were to pay for what
you had originally promised, plus 20% for restitution.
For example, if you had promised God to give Him $10, then when you finally
get around to it, you were supposed to pay an additional 20%. ($12)
:17 "If a person sins, and commits any of these things which are
forbidden to be done by the commandments of the LORD, though he does not know
it, yet he is guilty and shall bear his iniquity.
:17 though he does
not know it – The point here is that you were guilty, whether it was
intentional or not.
If I am driving
just a bit too fast down Chapman Avenue, and I’m pulled over by a policeman for driving too
fast, he doesn’t care whether or not I know that the speeding limit on Chapman
is 40 mph. I’m guilty even if I didn’t know it.
:18 "And he shall bring to the priest a ram without blemish from the
flock, with your valuation, as a trespass offering. So the priest shall make
atonement for him regarding his ignorance in which he erred and did not know
it, and it shall be forgiven him.
:19 "It is a trespass offering; he has certainly trespassed against
the LORD."
These particular trespass offerings were dealing with when we’ve sinned
against God. Now we look at trespass offerings where we’ve sinned against
another person.
Leviticus 6
6:1-7 Restitution
towards others
:1 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying:
:2 "If a person sins and commits a trespass against the LORD by lying
to his neighbor about what was delivered to him for safekeeping,
:2 safekeeping
– The idea is that your friend asked you to look after something, and you didn’t do a good
job, and your neighbor lost something in the process.
:2 or about a pledge, or about a robbery, or if he has extorted from his
neighbor,
:3 "or if he has found what was lost and lies concerning it, and
swears falsely; in any one of these things that a man may do in which he sins:
:3 swears falsely – I don’t know if
this qualifies …
Illustration
Ice Cream in Bed
A pastor and
his wife are watching TV, and an old western is on. The wife says to her
husband, “I bet you an ice cream sundae that the covered wagon hits a rock and the driver falls out
dead,” “You’re on,” returned her husband. They watch the western and sure
enough the wagon hits a rock in the dirt road and the driver falls out of the
wagon ... dead. The husband gets up and returns shortly with the sundae. After eating, the
wife says, “I have to admit that I saw this movie before.” He in turn
confesses, “I saw the movie before too. But I didn’t think he was stupid enough
to ride over the same rock twice....”
:4 "then it shall be, because he has sinned and is guilty, that he
shall restore what he has stolen, or the thing which he has extorted, or what
was delivered to him for safekeeping, or the lost thing which he found,
:5 "or all that about which he has sworn falsely. He shall restore its
full value, add one-fifth more to it, and give it to whomever it belongs, on
the day of his trespass offering.
Lesson
Sin offends God
Sin, ultimately, whether it is against another person or not, is against
the Lord. That is why there had to be a sacrifice, and not just restitution.
Restitution makes things right on the human level, sacrifice makes things
right on God's level.
When David confessed his sin to God about Bathsheba, he said,
(Psa 51:4
NKJV) Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight;
That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge.
That’s not to diminish the sin against Bathsheba’s husband
Uriah, or even against Bathsheba herself, but to simply acknowledge that all
sin is an offense to God.
Lesson:
Restitution
God wants you to make it right with whatever person you’ve hurt.
Jesus said:
(Mat 5:23-24 NKJV) "Therefore if you bring
your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something
against you, {24}
"leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be
reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
When you’re in church, and you know that you have hurt or
offended another person, you really ought to stop where you are and make things
right with that other person.
Some people have the mistaken idea that if they come to
God for forgiveness, then they don’t have to deal with the problem with the
other person.
If our relationship with God is right, we will naturally want to make our
relationships with others right also.
Not just paying back what you stole, but adding 20% to it.
Think what would happen if all car thieves had to pay back 20% interest on the cars they stole!
I might leave my car unlocked more often.
Restitution is a part of true repentance:
Zacchaeus was a
tax collector. Roman law required him to get a minimum amount from each person.
Roman law also allowed him to take as much above the minimum as he could. He
made his wealth by cheating others.
When Zacchaeus met Jesus, something inside him changed.
(Luke 19:8-10 NKJV) Then Zacchaeus stood and said
to the Lord, "Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I
have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold." {9} And Jesus said to
him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of
Abraham; {10} "for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which
was lost."
:6 "And he shall bring his trespass offering to the LORD, a ram
without blemish from the flock, with your valuation, as a trespass offering, to
the priest.
:7 "So the priest shall make atonement for him before the LORD, and he
shall be forgiven for any one of these things that he may have done in which he
trespasses."
6:8-13 More on
Burnt Offerings
:8 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
:9 "Command Aaron and his sons, saying, 'This is the law of the burnt
offering: The burnt offering shall be on the hearth upon the altar all night
until morning, and the fire of the altar shall be kept burning on it.
:10 'And the priest shall put on his linen garment, and his linen trousers
he shall put on his body, and take up the ashes of the burnt offering which the
fire has consumed on the altar, and he shall put them beside the altar.
:11 'Then he shall take off his garments, put on other garments, and carry
the ashes outside the camp to a clean place.
The priest would have one set of clothes for performing the sacrifices and
another set of clothes for taking the ashes out to the dump.
:12 'And the fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it; it shall not be
put out. And the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and lay the burnt
offering in order on it; and he shall burn on it the fat of the peace
offerings.
:13 'A fire shall always be burning on the altar; it shall never go out.
The work of the
altar went on twenty-four hours a day, even if the priests were in bed.
Kind of like an ATM machine, open for business all the time, and not just
during banker's hours.
The burnt offering is a picture of complete dedication to God. The animal
stayed on the altar until it was completely consumed.
The fire was the process that consumed the sacrifice.
I imagine it doesn’t feel too good to be burned on an altar.
We might not like some of the things in our lives that happen as a result
of giving our lives to Christ, but perhaps some of those difficulties might be
God’s way of burning you, helping you to surrender to Him.
Walking with the Lord is not something that takes place on Sunday mornings
and Thursday nights.
It is to take place 24 hours a day.
It requires staying on the altar.
Lesson
Keep it burning
There are some interesting pictures here about maintaining a life of
consecration, a life dedicated to God.
1. The fire can continue to burn
It doesn’t have to go out. Your
passion for God does not have to die out.
It’s a priest’s responsibility to keep the fire burning.
2. Clean out the ashes
You can’t keep a fire burning without cleaning out the ashes every once in
awhile. A consumed life leads a residue
of ash. Something is burned. The rest is removed.
3. Change clothes
The priest wore a different outfit outside the tabernacle than he did when
inside. I don’t think this means we need
to be acting differently when we’re in the world, or somehow act like we’re not
believers. I think the emphasis is on
the fact that there is a difference when we come into God’s presence. We need to grasp a sense of the “holy”. We ought to be amazed and in awe when we’re
in God’s presence.
4. Add fuel to the fire
Fire requires fuel. What keeps the
fire going in your life? Perhaps
spending time in God’s Word.
Prayer. Fellowship.
5. Consecration and Communion
The purpose of the fire is to consume the burnt offering. God’s fire ought to be working to consume us and
make us more dedicated to God. We ought
to be following the burnt offering with the peace offering – communion with
God, burning the fat, a sweet aroma.
The early church seems to reflect this:
(Acts
2:46 NKJV) So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking
bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of
heart,
The believers in the early church learned to walk with
the Lord every day, and not just once a week.
6:14-23 More on the
Grain Offering
:14 'This is the law of the grain offering: The sons of Aaron shall offer
it on the altar before the LORD.
:15 'He shall take from it his handful of the fine flour of the grain
offering, with its oil, and all the frankincense which is on the grain
offering, and shall burn it on the altar for a sweet aroma, as a memorial to
the LORD.
:16 'And the remainder of it Aaron and his sons shall eat; with unleavened
bread it shall be eaten in a holy place; in the court of the tabernacle of
meeting they shall eat it.
:16 the remainder
– With the Grain Offering, only a portion was actually burnt and consumed on
the altar, the rest went to the priest. This was part of their “salary”. It’s how they
earned their living.
You may not be aware of this, but I make my living as a pastor. A portion
of what folks put into the Agape Box goes to pay my salary.
I’ve heard some of the folks during
announcements talk about how money given to the church is used for various
things like Children’s Ministry, Outreach, and Missions (which it is), but I
also draw a salary as the only full time pastor. We also provide part time support to Dave,
Dan, and Joy. We provide a very small
monthly thank you gift to Daniel Grant, Victor, and my wife. In all, about half of our church’s finances
go towards paying salaries. In addition,
we send another 12% or so towards the various missions that we support.
:17 'It shall not be baked with leaven. I have given it as their portion of
My offerings made by fire; it is most holy, like the sin offering and the trespass
offering.
:18 'All the males among the children of Aaron may eat it. It shall be a
statute forever in your generations concerning the offerings made by fire to
the LORD. Everyone who touches them must be holy.'"
Any person who ate something from the meal offerings were to be holy.
:19 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
:20 "This is the offering of Aaron and his sons, which they shall
offer to the LORD, beginning on the day when he is anointed: one-tenth of an
ephah of fine flour as a daily grain offering, half of it in the morning and
half of it at night.
:21 "It shall be made in a pan with oil. When it is mixed, you shall
bring it in. The baked pieces of the grain offering you shall offer for a sweet
aroma to the LORD.
:22 "The priest from among his sons, who is anointed in his place,
shall offer it. It is a statute forever to the LORD. It shall be wholly burned.
:23 "For every grain offering for the priest shall be wholly burned.
It shall not be eaten."
Lesson
Don’t spend it on yourself
With other peoples’ grain offerings, the priests got to eat part of it as
their “wages”.
But when a priests offered up a grain offering, he wasn’t to keep part of
it aside to eat, but was to burn the whole thing.
Perhaps this might be applied like this:
A man in ministry isn’t exempt from the grain offering. He can’t say, “I
work in the ministry, I don’t need to tithe”.
Wrong.
A man in ministry can’t take his tithe and spend it on himself, saying, “I’m
giving it to the ministry, me.” Wrong.
Some people will take their tithe
and spend it on themselves, I’m not sure if this is proper.
6:24-30 More on Sin
Offerings
:24 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
:25 "Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, 'This is the law of the
sin offering: In the place where the burnt offering is killed, the sin offering
shall be killed before the LORD. It is most holy.
:26 'The priest who offers it for sin shall eat it. In a holy place it
shall be eaten, in the court of the tabernacle of meeting.
The priest that did all the work in presenting the offering was given a
portion of the sin offering, and he was allowed to eat it.
:27 'Everyone who touches its flesh must be holy. And when its blood is
sprinkled on any garment, you shall wash that on which it was sprinkled, in a
holy place.
:28 'But the earthen vessel in which it is boiled shall be broken. And if
it is boiled in a bronze pot, it shall be both scoured and rinsed in water.
:29 'All the males among the priests may eat it. It is most holy.
:30 'But no sin offering from which any of the blood is brought into the
tabernacle of meeting, to make atonement in the holy place, shall be eaten. It
shall be burned in the fire.
:30 brought into
the tabernacle – The sin offering itself would be slain in the courtyard of the
tabernacle.
With some of the sin offerings (day of atonement, sin of a priest, sin of the
congregation), the blood was actually taken into the tabernacle and sprinkled inside.
These sin offerings were supposed to be completely burnt at a place outside the camp.
The writer of Hebrews connects this to Jesus:
(Heb 13:11-12
NKJV) For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the
sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the camp. {12} Therefore Jesus also,
that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the
gate.
His blood was taken into the heavenly tabernacle, to cover
our sins.
Jesus died “outside the camp”, or outside the city.
With others, the blood was simply sprinkled on the altar of burnt offering (sin of a ruler,
sin of a common person)
With these, the priest was to eat his portion of the offering.
We’ll see some of these rules come into play when the first worship service
gets started (Lev. 9) and things get done improperly (Lev. 10:17).