Month: February 2019

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Filled and Fed

Lev 24 “Lessons from the Tabernacle”

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The Bible is replete with word pictures like the two pieces of furniture in the Holy Place in the Tabernacle. Each has a profound lesson about light and provision. The lessons should not be lost on us for us who are NT believers for each pictures Christ in His work.

The Menorah, a huge candelabra made of pure beaten gold, symbolized the Messiah. It was from this piece that branches, as pictured in John 15, must never be uncoupled from the center lamp. The cups were to be filled continually morning and night with pure beaten olive oil symbolizing the Holy Spirit. The shamesh, the center lamp, represents Christ as He illumines His church and His flock. It was never to be extinguished but filled regularly just as we once filled at salvation only need refreshing daily. Just as the priest was to fill each lamp daily, so Christ our High Priest should be filling us daily.  Be ye filled [Eph 5:18]

The table of showbread was filled weekly with 12 loaves of bread. The loaves of bread represent not just the 12 tribes of Israel but for the NT believer represent Christ as the Bread of Life, the Manna, the Bread of Heaven. We are to feed upon Him in His word for He is our provision.

Are we being filled daily as well as weekly? Tomorrow, as we begin our journey into Numbers, remember to be in His Word so we may be illumined and fed.

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Ye Shall be Holy

We often are reminded to be holy but what does that mean and how do we become holy?

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Lev 20 -23  The theme of Leviticus is holiness. Over and over the Lord spoke to Moses saying ‘I am the Lord,” You are to be holy. How can we know holiness? We know it through spending time in God’s Word every day. It is our guide to holiness, the holiness of God. Without His Word, how would we know His character, His ways, His standards?

And how do we learn about Him? How do we learn about our own holiness apart from the Word? The Word, that is “every scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,  that the person dedicated to God may be capable and equipped for every good work”

Think about it this way: “The Father gives you to the Son, the Son gives you to the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost gives you back to the Son changed and sanctified. Sanctified, but still a poor sinner. And the Son cleanses you with His blood, and clothes you with His own righteousness, and gives you back to the Father, through Him and in Him holy, holy enough for heaven, holy enough to stand in God’s holy presence” [Jas Vaughan, M. A.]

 

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The Cost of Shed Blood

The next time you purchase meat at the market stop and think what that cost not in monetary terms but in terms of life.

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Leviticus 17 “There is no Room for Compromise”

At certain seasons of the year, men go deer hunting. When a deer is killed the animal is hung to drain it of its blood. Blood represents the essence of life and therefore is to be protected. Men must not eat the blood of any animal.

In Genesis 9:6 we read: “Whoever sheds human blood, by other humans must his blood be shed, for in God’s image God has made humankind.” So we go from the taking of a human life to the eating of the life of an animal. In both, blood is life, it is sacred to God. The shedding of blood represents the taking of a life and then to partake of that life is anathema to God.

Leviticus 17: 11 “for the life of every living thing is in the blood.”

Thus God established these prohibitions for our protection. We are to be holy, set apart from the idolatrous nations that are around us.  We may not live in the wilderness but the prohibitions remain the same.

Stop and consider:

It was our Savior’s blood, his very life that was shed for us on that cruel cross.

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Christ our Perfect Sacrifice

Do you see yourself as this picture; carrying around your sin? Beloved, Christ paid it all. He carried your sin and my sin to the uttermost part of the desert. They are gone never to return.

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Leviticus 16  and “The Day of Atonement”

“Christ has come as the high priest of the good things to come. He passed through the greater and more perfect tent not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, and he entered once for all into the most holy place not by the blood of goats and calves but by his own blood, and so he himself secured eternal redemption.” [Heb 9]

Leviticus paints for us the picture of what the Israelites were to look forward to but now we look back to see its completion. Christ became for us the perfect atonement for our sin. Now we are allowed to enter boldly into the Most Holy Place because of His sacrifice. No longer does Aaron need to dress as he did to enter only once a year. Now because of Christ, we can enter at will at any time. Jesus became the sacrifice and the scapegoat all at once. He shed his blood which was then sprinkled on the mercy seat and became the goat which took our sins to the uttermost part of the desert.

Have you received this perfect sacrifice of Christ as your atonement?

 

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