Day 8: That Sweet Aroma!

 1897 Bible Pictures and What They Teach Us; Charles Foster

I know, I jumped out of place. This should be day 7, but I read the wrong chapters today! That's ok, tomorrow I'll go back and read what should have been read today. My blog entries will just be out of order.


Chewing through Leviticus has always been kinda hard for me. Today I read 15 chapters detailing the different offerings and all the ceremonial procedures for them. A lot of repetition. My eyes feel crossed and my brain hurts. And I still didn't understand the differences.


So I turned to the internet and looked up a few places that could explain them to me. I figured I could share that for today,. At least a summarized version.

• The Burnt Offering: This was the most common offering, and the first mentioned in Leviticus. It was the only offering that could not be eaten, and it offered up that sweet aroma that the Lord found so pleasing. The burnt offering was voluntary, and symbolized total surrender to God.

• The Grain Offering: This was also a voluntary offering, and the only one that did not require an animal sacrifice or shedding of blood. It was an offering of fine flour that offered up a sweet aroma to the Lord, symbolizing a living sacrifice.

• The Peace Offering: This was also voluntary, and offered a sweet aroma to the Lord. It symbolized fellowship or communion, and was the only offering that the person who offered it could eat the meat of the sacrifice.

• The Sin Offering: This was not voluntary, nor was the aroma pleasing to God. It was required as atonement for the sin nature in general.

• The Trespass Offering: This was also not voluntary, and not a pleasing aroma to God. It was a required sacrifice to pay the penalty for specific sins one had committed.

i obtained this information from the following sermon outline.

Day 9: Lev. 15-29

From VisualBibleAlive.com

S: 
Leviticus 26:3-4 (New King James Version)

3 ‘If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and perform them,
4 then I will give you rain in its season, the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.

O:
God was giving the Israelites the conditions of His provisions. Later in the chapter, God lays out the terms of disobedience.

A:
Why do we, as humans, fail to grasp the simplicity and significance of this? walk with God, and He provides for you, and protects you. step out of His will and you're stepping out from under His umbrella of protection. and then when we get drenched by the storm, whose fault is it? there's this common misconception in america today, i hear people all the time asking "why is God punishing me?" and people responding saying that God doesn't punish people like that... well, not true! when we live our lives in defiance of God's will, He does punish us by allowing calamity to befall us. we aren't all like job, living uprightly and righteously and undeserving of punishment, being allowed to be tested. yes, we go through tests and trials, but many of those, if we were to trace them backwards, are a result of our own stupidity, a consequences of our own disobedience to God. 

P:
Father, i screw up so frequently, and there are so many areas of my life that i know i do not fully submit to you. help me to let go of those areas, and give you full control. not just temporarily, but permanently! thank you for allowing us to live under grace, and not under the law. thank you for your unending patience and love for me!

Day 8, Lev. 1-14

From Northrop's "Treasures of the Bible" 1894

Scripture: Leviticus 5:18 (New King James Version)

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.

Observation: this is a recurring thing throughout what i read today... it's always the priest that makes atonement for the people.

Application: we don't have to have a priest make atonement for us anymore. Jesus not only became the perfect sacrifice for our sins, but He is the only intercessor we need. and i'm so grateful for that, because i don't think i'd have even wanted to try to remember all the rituals regarding all the many kinds of sacrifices and offerings! i'd be so afraid of screwing it up and being cast out and killed for it. all i have to do when i sin, knowingly or not, is to just ask forgiveness!

Prayer: Father, thank you for giving us your Son! thank you for the simplicity of being able to have a personal relationship with you, with Jesus, and not having to rely on a fallible human to be our middleman.