Week 7, Part 2—Leviticus 1-8

Yay, Leviticus! No, really. There is a great deal that we can learn about the character of God and what He expects of us by reading Leviticus. Got coffee? Dig in!

The name of the book of Leviticus comes from the fact that the book deals with the actions of the priests, or Levites. Many people get this far in their read-the-Bible-in-a-year journey and then quit. Honestly, Leviticus has ground my reading to a halt more than once! But I read Leviticus at a run recently—finishing in 4 days—and looking specifically for different names of God. I found all sorts of fascinating things about God’s relationship with Moses, the Levites, the Israelites, and even us.

God first gives instructions for burnt offerings that are given “just because.” These are not for forgiveness of sin or for any reasons other than because an individual wanted to make a sacrifice and because God is holy. The burning meat was “a soothing aroma to the Lord,” (Leviticus 1:9). Since I’m originally from Texas, I read this verse as, “God likes the smell of barbecue.” 

We read also of grain offerings, which are fine flour mixed with oil. Only recently did I realize that flour mixed with oil and then burned would end up as bread or cakes (I’m slow sometimes). Again, I find it humorous that God also want the “grits and its old with all its incense,” (2:16). This is just more evidence to me that God has a special place in His heart for Texans.

Peace offerings are next, and again, they have specific rules and steps. Why? Because God is holy, and all the sacrifices made to a holy God must also be holy themselves and presented in a holy manner.

Then the Lord gives directions for guilt offerings. This is where the fun begins.... Guilt offerings, for individuals, for leaders, for the guilt of the whole nation, and this is just for the UNintentional sins! There’s even an offering for the sins you didn’t even realize that you had committed until much later!

I see two ways to read these chapters. You can see Leviticus for what it is, a bunch of tedious rules that remind people that God is much holier that they are, that they can never measure up. You can see, because it’s in the text, that humans are doomed unless we toe the line and drive ourselves crazy trying to follow these long, long lists of rules. I’m not making fun of Leviticus (ok, maybe just a little) but there are Christians that act and think this way today!

You can read Leviticus that way. I used to, which is why I couldn’t stand to get through it. You can, however, read it for why it was written. The first hint is found in Leviticus 9:6. “Moses said, ‘This is the thing which the Lord has commanded you to do, that the glory of the Lord may appear to you.’” Did you catch that? It’s all about the glory of the Lord! Look for the glory of the Lord and for His holiness as you read Leviticus next week. It will give you something to look forward to among all the rules.

And in conclusion...

VeggieTales episodes always end with the “What have we learned?” song. It doesn’t really matter if you’ve heard a wonderful story, a beautiful Psalm, or read the entire Bible in one year if you don’t have anything to take home with you.

So.

What have we learned?

God loves us immensely. He is Holy, oh so holy, and because of His holiness and His great love for us, He demands that we are holy too. He promises joy and abundance to those who will follow and obey. It seems like the logical choice! But we can’t do this, because we are fallen (thanks a lot, Eve!), the covenant is broken, and there must be a sacrifice. However, it is the sacrifice of Jesus who makes us holy, not the sacrifices of bulls and goats. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost--we have the job of sharing this story. How? By living out the love that He has for us. Why? Because He first loved us. With a holy, demanding love. 

Is it easy? Of course not. If it was, everyone would do it. And it wouldn’t be a sacrifice. So we wake up every morning and choose. The wide gate or the narrow? The crooked path or the straight? The right or the easy?

Whatever you choose, may the grace and peace of God our Father and Jesus Christ His son be with you, both now and always!

Laura :-)

Week 52--Revelation

Well, here it is, the last book in the Bible. The Revelation of Jesus Christ, given to John while he was in prison on the island of Patmos (off the coast of Turkey). There’s a lot of weird imagery in this book that I’m not going to even TRY to explain. Let’s get started.

John begins with a description of Jesus. John sees him standing with seven lampstands and holding seven stars. These represent churches throughout Asia; He tells John to write letters to the churches. Each letter has the words, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Are we listening?

Ephesus: You do good works, but you have lost your first love.

Smyrna: You are persecuted, you will continue to be persecuted; keep the faith.

Pergamum: You have followed false teachers: repent (or else!).

Thyatira: You do good deeds, but tolerate immoral women. Hold to the truth you have.

Sardis: You have a good reputation, but you are dead. Wake up!

Philadelphia: You have kept my word; hold on to your faith.

Laodicea: You are lukewarm, not hot or cold. Repent--I stand at the door and knock.

John’s end-of-the-world visions begin with a view of a glorious Jesus on a throne surrounded by 24 elders and 4 creatures, holding a scroll with seven seals; a Lamb appears to break the seals.

First seal: White horse, rider has a bow and a crown, represents War or Victory

Second seal: Red horse, rider has a sword, represents Violence

Third seal: Black horse, rider has a pair of scales, represents Famine

Fourth seal: Pale horse, rider named Death, followed by Hades, represents Pestilence

Fifth seal: Martyrs under the altar cry out, told to wait a while for the rest of their number

Sixth seal: Earthquake, eclipses, stars fell from the sky, everyone hid in the caves. Also, 144,000 Jews are sealed, or marked, as belonging to God. 

Seventh seal: Silence in heaven. And then the seven trumpets.

First trumpet: One third of the earth, trees, plants destroyed.

Second trumpet: One third of the seas, fish, ships destroyed.

Third trumpet: One third of the rivers, springs destroyed by a falling star (Wormwood).

Fourth trumpet: One third of the sun, moon, stars destroyed.

Fifth trumpet: Locusts. Sort of. They look like horses, sting like scorpions, and have armor. And they fly. Their ruler is Abaddon/Apollyon.

Sixth trumpet: Four angels released, to kill 1/3 of all people. An angel comes with a book, but does not allow John to write what he says. Two witnesses come who preach for 3 1/2 years, then are killed, rise again after 3 1/2 days, and are taken up to heaven.

Seventh trumpet: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; And He will reign forever and ever” (11:15). 

There are also signs in heaven, of a woman giving birth and a dragon. The dragon fights with Michael. (Guess who wins?) The dragon pursues the woman, but she flees. 

There is a beast from the sea who works with the dragon to blaspheme the Name of God; another beast comes from the land and tells people to worship the beast from the sea. The beasts will mark their followers as God has already done, and no one will be able to buy or sell without the mark of the beast. The number of the beast? 666 (13:18). 

The Lamb appears again with his 144,000 followers. Three angels come to command people to fear God and not to worship the beast or receive his mark. Hmm...worship God, don’t follow false prophets...this bears repeating once again! There is a great harvest of wheat and of grapes; when the grapes are pressed, blood floods the earth.

Another set of seven judgments is introduced: seven angels with bowls, with plagues resembling those poured out on Egypt.

First bowl: Sores on those with the mark of the beast

Second bowl: Sea turns to blood; all sea creatures die

Third bowl: Fresh water (springs, rivers) also turned to blood

Fourth bowl: Sun scorches the unrepentant

Fifth bowl: Darkness over the earth

Sixth bowl: The Euphrates river dries up; armies gather at Har-Magedon (Armageddon)

Seventh bowl: World-wide earthquake and hundred-pound hailstones

John then sees a vision of a woman robed in purple and scarlet (idolatry), and a beast with seven heads (seven kings) and ten horns (ten future kings). These two together will gain great power over the earth. An angel comes down speaking of the fall of Babylon (also sin and idolatry) and the world mourns the destruction of this “great” city.

Heaven rejoices at the ultimate triumph of good over evil. Christ returns, victorious, on a white horse. Satan is bound and thrown into an abyss for 1,000 years. Many martyrs are resurrected and reign with Christ. Satan is let loose, wrecks havoc and causes war, then is defeated again. Satan, Death, and Hades are thrown in the lake of fire. Forever. 

Finally, “the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven” (21:2). No more tears, death, or pain. Jesus makes all things new. The city is enormous; the streets are gold, clear as glass. No temple is needed--God is there. No sun is needed--the city is light. Only those whose names are in the Lamb’s book of life are to enter.

Does that sound exclusive? Like it’s leaving people out? Sure it does. But that’s what has been happening over the course of THE WHOLE BIBLE. God offers wonderful joy to people who will love and obey him, and He promises utter destruction for those who will not. Time and time again, people choose the “will not” option. The Holy City, reserved only for God’s people, is the eternal fulfillment of both of those promises.

“He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming quickly.’ Amen. Come Lord Jesus” (22:20).

I couldn’t agree more.

Week 51e--Jude

Wow. The last letter. We’ve come a long way this year. There were times I didn’t think we were going to make it (genealogies, anyone?). I had to hang a note on my wall to remind myself that “prophecy” was a noun and “prophesy” was a verb. And now we have flown through the New Testament. One more letter and then...Revelation (dun dun dun...)

Yes, I’m stalling. Revelation looms large in the not-at-all distant future. And it scares me.

Ok, enough...on to the epistle from Jude, which was written by another half-brother of Jesus. It’s a very short letter, but it focuses on a great many negative examples from the scriptures. It could be subtitled: “How not to act as a believer.” The believers have been infected by (get ready for a shock) false teachers who “revile things they do not understand” (v 10).

Jude lists unbelievers through the ages and their fates: Egyptians, fallen angels, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Cain, Balaam, Korah. God has sent prophets since the early days (Jude quotes the book of Enoch, which is neither in the Bible nor the Apocrypha) to warn these unbelievers and false teachers of their fate. We have read this countless times. The apostles also warned Jude’s generation of believers about false teachers who would come.

So what are the believers supposed to do in the face of this opposition? The same thing true believers have always done: “Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ” (v 22).

I will use Jude’s final words to close, since they are the best benediction in all of the letters, Jude 24-25:

“Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever.

Amen.”

Week 51d--1, 2, 3 John

These are letters written by the apostle John. There is no internal proof, no direct “This is from John,” but there are many words and phrases in the letters that are used in the gospel of John; these give us a hint that the letters were written by the gospel writer. He also wrote the book of Revelation (which we will attack...next week).

Like the gospel of John, the letters of John are written in abstract language. God is first presented as light, and Jesus is referred to as the Word. Believers are to live in the light, for that is where God is. We are to abide in the light. This is not a new commandment, but the same old commandment that the faithful have had since the days of Abraham--obey, be faithful, love God and love others.

Speaking of love...the word “love” occurs 36 times in the 105 verses that make up the book of 1 John. That’s an average of once every 3 verses! I think it qualifies as a key word. God is Love. If we love God, we are to show our love for Him by showing our love for one another. God has shown us tremendous love by making us His children. Over and over John repeats that we should live out our love in deed and not just in words. This, again, is a theme we have heard before.

1 John 4 has many familiar verses about love. “Beloved, let us love one another...” (4:7). “The Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world” (4:14). “We love, because He first loved us” (4:19). “This commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also” (4:21).

The final chapter of 1 John speaks of “a sin leading to death,” which could actually be any unconfessed sin or a pattern of sin. Can one repent of such a sin? The problem is that a sin that leads to death is a sin that one refuses to repent of, a habitual pattern of sin that the believer just won’t quit. Any time that someone recognizes sin, says, “Gee, that was really stupid, with God’s help I’m never going to do that again,” that person is forgiven. Make sense? Ok. Moving on. 

John’s first letter ends with a reminder to keep away from idols. Seems that is ALWAYS a problem.

The second and third letters written by John are similar in theme. The second is written to “the chosen lady and her children,” making it unique in the New Testament in being addressed to a woman. John’s third letter is written to his friend Gaius. Both of these letters speak of the importance of loving God and showing our love toward others. John warns both the chosen lady and Gaius of false prophets--yep, them again--reminding his readers that truth is found in God.

Both 2 and 3 John end with John hoping to come to his friends, and with blessings of peace.

Week 51c--2 Peter

Peter again writes to believers all over the known world. He reminds them right off the bat that everything good in their life has come from Jesus and from God. Therefore, we are to possess a growing string of positive qualities: moral excellence > knowledge > self-control > perseverance > godliness > brotherly kindness > love. For in having these qualities we love out the character of Christ.

Peter also seems to know that he is to die soon, for Jesus has brought him this knowledge.

Like Paul, Peter has to warn his readers about false prophets that will rise up, telling the believers false doctrine and leading them astray. 

Peter then tells the believers that there is hope despite all this. There has been judgement on the wicked since the days of creation; he mentions angels cast into hell, the flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. However, in every situation there has been salvation for the righteous: the obedient angels, Noah and his family, Lot. 

There has always been this duality in scripture: blessings for the faithful, destruction for the disobedient. You would think the choice would be easy. Duh, pick the path that leads to blessing. But the Bible shows us, history shows us, the daily news shows us that human nature again and again chooses the path that leads to destruction. It is only by God’s incomprehensible grace that we can choose to follow the path of righteousness.

Peter moves on from this topic to a discussion of Jesus’ return. It hasn’t happened yet, and there are people in Peter’s day that are hassling the believers over it. But God doesn’t count time in the same way as we count time. No one knows when Jesus will return. Well, God does. But He isn’t telling. God is waiting for his children to live righteous lives, and for those among his children who are disobedient to repent and turn from their sin. Again, grace saves you, but you are to live a righteous life. I think we’ve got it. I hope.

Peter’s last instruction is as pertinent today as it was when he wrote it: “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (3:18). 

Keep at it, my friends. God be with you.

Week 51b--1 Peter

This letter, and the next 5 we will read, are named for the author, not for the recipient. So this is the first letter FROM Peter. (James was like that, too.) His letter, like the one from James, is to Jewish Christians who are living abroad.

Peter begins with his main theme, which is the importance of Jesus’ resurrection. It is by the power of the resurrection that believers have any hope in the future, in salvation, in eternal life. Also like James, Peter encourages his readers to persevere in trials, because by this their faith is tested and proven. He reminds them that God has called them to be holy, to do good works, and that they are redeemed and saved by the blood of Jesus.

Peter quotes several Old Testament verses referring to Jesus--He was the stone the builders (the Pharisees) rejected, but He has become the Cornerstone of our faith. Peter also, like the writer of Hebrews, calls the believers a royal priesthood. Hebrews established that Jesus was the Great High Priest, but Peter reminds us that we can go directly to God with our requests and repentance without having to go through a priest.

Next, Peter speaks to the women of the church, as Paul had in letters to Titus and Timothy. Our beauty comes from knowing God, and our gentle quiet spirits, Peter writes. I admit, I am still working on that gentle, quiet spirit bit! Then Peter speaks to the husbands, reminding them that their wives are “a weaker vessel” (3:7, KJV). For a long time, this phrase got on my nerves. Weaker vessel! Bah! I can pray, I can study the Bible, I’m not weaker than my husband. But, really, I am. He can lift my bicycle up and put it in the car, and I can’t. He walks faster than I do. Sometimes I even have to get him to open jars. Sigh--I am the weaker vessel. But that does not make me less valuable. I know that. He knows that. And Peter knew that. He was married, remember? Jesus healed his mother-in-law, and if he had one of those he must have had a wife. Notice what Peter says in the REST of that verse: a wife is “a fellow heir of the grace of life.” Fellow. Equal. Just not able to open pickle jars.

All in all, Peter says that we are to life righteously, doing good and obeying God, “always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence” (3:15). This is the same as “speaking the truth in love” from Ephesians 4:15. We are to live this way even in the face of persecution and insults, for this is what Jesus did. (Very Important Note: This refers to persecution because of our faith, not abusive relationships.)

Finally, Peter reminds his friends, and us, to cast “all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you” (5:7). Peter has spent an entire chapter to the topic of believer’s behavior under persecution, so he finishes his letter by reminding his readers that “after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you” (5:10).

He ends, as do so many letters, with a blessing of peace. God be with you.