Today’s reading is a bit longer than some others but it is hard to separate it when reading certain subjects. Today we read chapters 10, 11, 12, 13.

Chapter 10 –

At the inauguration of Israel’s sacrificial system, Nadab and Abihu present unauthorized fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them to do. It is not clear what they did wrong but it must have been severe for they died as a result of their disobedience. Aaron watches his sons being moved from a sacred place to an area that was considered unclean outside the camp.

Moses now reminds Aaron and his remaining sons to eat the portions of the people’s offerings that had been designated for priests.

Moses was angry this had what had occurred but Aaron explains it is done out of fear of offending the Lord or grief, which Moses accepts his explanation.

Chapter 11 –

This chapter begins the discussion of clean versus unclean. This section of Leviticus shows us God was concerned with their daily lives. Nothing could be more routine than the daily meals but they were commanded to take great care in what they ate or even touched, because God had designated some animals and activities as clean and others unclean.

It is clear God set Israel apart from other nations and most likely included some food not to eat since it was used by pagan cultures in their worship such as pigs. Although the most common food restricted by the Jews is pork it is not considered anymore unclean than some of the others listed.

The Lord used the abhorrent in relation to certain types of animals meaning they were detestable. Certain insects could be eaten some were prohibited, only clean insects could be eaten.

The carcasses of all animals were considered unclean, except those used for sacrificial purposes. Death in nay for was a cause for uncleanliness.

The remainder of chapter 11 deals with the procedures the Israelites need to follow if their clothing or the things in their household – any item of wood –leather, sackcloth, or any implement used for work were made unclean by contact with an unclean animal or carcass of any animal whether clean or unclean.

This was also the case for an item of clothing or household item rendered unclean by contact with an unclean animal. God repeats His prohibition against touching the unclean by saying “For I am the Lord your God, so you must consecrate yourselves and be holy for I am holy.” Holiness is still a requirement of God.

Chapter 12 –

Childbirth is dealt with in this chapter 12. The birth of a child is a time of rejoicing. It was not the birth that made the mother unclean, it was the flow of blood that followed the birth. Important to note that the uncleanliness was not a result of sin, yet she needed ritual purification after delivery. Her purification was twice as long for girl than a boy.

The male child was to be circumcised on the eighth day after birth. When her full time of separation from the sanctuary was completed she was to go to the sanctuary and offer a sacrifice.

Chapter 23 –

Laws for diagnosing skin diseases consumes this chapter. It is clear from the reading that diseases of the skin are serious an can impact and affect a complete congregation of the people.

Special precautions were taken by the priests to diagnose skin problems with leprosy of the day the most serious of conditions.

Reading today takes us through chapters 7, 8, and 9 where we read of the priest’s part in the offering, the consecration of Aaron and his sons as priests, and we see Aaron offering sacrifices to the Lord.

Chapter 7 –

The priest’s regulations for for the guilt offering include several elements: the place where it is to offered, the parts of the sacrificial animal to be burned, and the fact any male among the priests could eat the remaining meat.

Verse 7 – 10 show us God’s provision for His servants can be traced back to Moses for the church today.

Verses 11-21 – The Fellowship Sacrifice –

This was unique as the only offering where those bringing it could eat a portion of the sacrifice – usually as part of a celebration meal with family and friends. The name of this offering explains its purpose. The worshipper sought to draw near to God by making a sacrifice either in thanksgiving as a testimony to Gods goodness or as an offering of a fulfillment of a vow, or simply a freewill offering.

Next came the strict prohibition against eating the fat of the blood of any animal. God set aside the fat portion of the offerings, the choicest parts as His alone. This was to remind the Israelites their great God deserved the best.

Chapter 8 –

The ordination was a public ceremony where God told Moses to bring Aaron and his sons along with everything needed for the ceremony and to assemble the whole community at the entrance of the tent of the meeting.

Moses took the anointing oil and sprinkled it on the altar and everything else in the tabernacle that needed to be consecrated for the priests. The scripture explains how Moses does it.

Once the required sacrifices were made the priests had one more requirement to fulfill: they were to eat the ordination meal at the entrance of the tent of meeting.

Chapter 9 –

The priests have now been consecrated they begin their serving. This chapter tells us Israel got off to it’s best start possible. The priests functioned flawlessly in presenting the sacrifices for both themselves and the multitudes, and when done it was done to the glory of God.

On the eighth day following the seven-day separation, the people brought the required sacrifices to the tabernacle – sin offering and burnt offering, fellowship offering and grain offering – as Moses had commanded.

Aaron was ready to offer the sacrifices the people had brought. These sacrifices atoned for sin, symbolized their complete dedication to God, and provided a way for sinful humans to have fellowship with a holy God this made it possible for God to dwell among His people.

As believers whose sins have been forgiven once-for-all by Christ’s death on the cross, we are truly in a privileged position today.

Today’s reading continues in chapters 5, 6, and 7 of Leviticus.

Chapter 5 –

Verses 1-13 continues the instructions fior the offering of ordinary people that began in 4:27. Here sins remedied are not inadvertent but hidden, in that they involve deliberate neglect or forgetfulness. One who becomes aware of a need for atonement is required to confess before bringing the sacrifice to the sanctuary, it is not before a priest in this case.

Anyone who cannot afford and offering can bring two birds, one for sin offering the other for a burnt offering. Even a poorer sinner can bring an offering of flour without the incense.

In verse 14 we see the introduction of the guilt offering. The guilt offering id for inadvertently misappropriating something sacred, even when the sense of guilt is not known and deliberately misusing God’s name in a false oath to defraud another person.

Chapter 6 –

 The guilt offering teaches several concepts:

• Only after sinners make wrongs right to the best of their ability will God accept their sacrifices,
• It is not enough for sinners to put things right as best as they can, they still need forgiveness provided by the sacrifice,
• Divine forgiveness is available to those who are unable to identify their sins,
• The Messianic suffering is the ultimate guilt offering.

Verse 8 – 13 give instructions regarding the burnt offering are concerned with ensuring that the sacred altar fire, lit by God himself will never go out.

We then read about the grain offering procedures along with regulations concerning eating the meat of the sin offerings.

In ancient Israel sin-offering blood serves as a carrier agent to remove pollution, as in a living body. There was nothing wrong with the blood which cleanses faulty people.

Chapter 7 –

Verse 1 – 10 outlines the procedure for guilt offering, which is similar to sin offering except the blood is dashed in the sides of the altar. Its suet serves as a food gift even though the sacrifice is mandatory because it follows the payment of reparation to the wronged party.

Verses 11 -36 provides additional instructions for varieties of the fellowship offering, which people are to eat. Anyone who (intentionally) violates the sanctity of the fellowship offering by eating the meal while impure will incur divine punishment.

A summary at the end of the chapter lists the sacrifices in order of their presentation but looks ahead to our next reading by inserting the ordination offering before the fellowship offering. The ordination offering is similar to the fellowship offering in that it includes special grain accompaniments and the breast belongs to the officiant.

If you have been following our script in reading, we have read through the books of Genesis, Exodus, and some of Job this year. Today we reading rom Leviticus chapters 1 through 4. In these chapters instructions are given on making offerings to the Lord.

No named author is given for the book of Leviticus but most scholars give Moses’ credit for its writing. As the book demonstrates, Moses was the Lord’s intermediary, making His revelation known to the people of Israel.

Chapter 1 –

Then the Lord summoned Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting meaning the priests and Moses did not sit around and devise a plan but it came from God. In keeping with the holiness of God the burnt offering was to be perfect, an unblemished animal. Specific instructions were given on how to prepare the animal for sacrifice. One feature of the burnt offering worth noting is no Israelite was left out. If you could not afford an offering from your herd a turtledove was acceptable.

Chapter 2 –

Verse 1 through 16 offer instructions on grain offerings. Leviticus doe does not specify when Israelites were to bring a grain offering to the Lord at the tabernacle, except for the period known as the firstfruits at harvest time. Most of the chapter deals with the various elements that could be offered and various ways the priests could prepare the grain offering. The portion to be offered to God included these instructions: A priest will take a handful of its choice flour and oil, along with all of its frankincense, and will completely burn this token portion on the altar as a food gift of soothing smell to the Lord. All grain offering were to include the salt of the covenant with your God.

Chapter 3 –

Verses 1-17 are verses about a largely voluntary sacrifice the Israelites could bring to the Lord at the tabernacle. Many of the specific instructions  for preparation are similar to those of the burnt offerings. The distinction in the fellowship offering is that the worshipper shared in eating the meat of the sacrifice.

This was a fellowship meal indicating it was to be a festive expression of the offeror’s joy in experiencing communion with God. The prohibition of eating any fat is explicitly stated; All fat belongs to the Lord.

Chapter 4 –

Establishing a means to atone for the sin of people was an absolute necessity for a holy God to interact with sinful humans. Israel’s sin offering provided forgiveness and atonement for sins committed unintentionally against any of the Lord’s commands. This statement covers all kinds of situations.

Chapter four outlines the structure of the sin offering requirements in four groups in the camp of the Israelites. These groups were:

• The anointed priest,
• The whole community,
• Leaders,
• the common people.

The priest would lay his hands on the bull’s head, signifying the animal was bearing the sin, He was then to be slaughter it before the Lord catching the blood in a bowl.

The anointed priests who sinned took the blood of the sacrifice into the tabernacle dipped his finger the bowl, and sprinkled the blood seven times in front of the veil that separated the holy place from the most holy place.

The second set of sin offering procedures is for the whole community of Israel. It signals a logical progression as the whole congregation was under God’s displeasure for sin of some nature.

The leader who sinned unintentionally ws to bring an unblemished male goat as his offering. When the goat was slaughtered, the priest applied some of the blood to the horns of the altar of burnt offering.

If one of the common people in the community sinned unintentionally, he could bring and unblemished female goat or lamb for their sin offering, these options were less costly for the average person to purchase.

No one who sinned in ignorance and offended a holy God was left without a remedy, but it required a blood sacrifice.

Much of the reading today talks about the continued construction with explicit instructions on construction. We read of this in chapters 36 to 38.

Chapter 36 –

The Lord placed wisdom in their hearts as good stewards of the work to take palce.

Keep in mind that the tabernacle was completed from the sacrifices of the people and in fact Moses had to tell them to stop giving, when have we seen that in the modern day church?

If you compare these verse in 36:8-38 you will see virtually all of it is a repeat. The point of repeating it was to show those who built the tabernacle did not improvise. They followed God’s instructions word for word. Everything that god said they did.

Chapter 37 –

Verses 1 to 38:20 indicate the skilled workers made everything God commanded to exact detail. The description again repeats the instructions from God through Moses.

Chapter 38 –

At Moses’ command of those building the tabernacle took an inventory of all the materials sued that were donated and used. This is clearly an expensive and detailed work using tons of gold, silver, and bronze.

The material used for building the tabernacle came from the plunder of the Egyptians.

Reading today from Exodus 33 to 35 we see Moses again receiving the tablets of stone with the Ten Commandments written on them.

Chapter 33 –

God told Moses to lead the people to the promised land and He would drive out any enemies they encountered. But, because of the people’s sin He would not go with them. He would not be dwelling among His people. A land of milk and honey yet lacking the presence of God. To show their remorse they remove their jewelry.

Moses then took a tent and pitched it outside the camp in order to meet God. God had not completely abandoned the people yet. Anyone who wanted to consult with God could go to the tent of meeting outside the camp. God makes His presence available to anyone who seeks Him.

The Lord knew Moses and Moses had found favor with God yet Moses wanted more in their relationship. Moses says to the Lord Please teach me your ways, and I will know you. God will teach us we must be desiring His teaching and training. Moses intercedes once again for the people telling God consider that this nation is your people. God relents and His presence goes with them.

Yet Moses was still not satisfied and asks God to show him His glory. Although God would not allow a human to see His face, He did allow for His goodness to pass by Moses.

One day we will see God but until then we walk in faith.

Chapter 34 –

God tells Moses to prepare two stone tablets and got to Mt. Sinai, alone. God is rich in mercy and grace. God’s glory passes over Moses and he again pleads for  forgiveness for Israelites. In spite of their failures God vows to keep His covenant made the patriarchs of old. He goes even farther and agrees to drive out the inhabitants of the promised land. The Israelites were not to make a treaty with any nation or intermarry with them. His people should not bow down to another God.

In verses 18 – 26 we see God repeat a number of his commands. God has Moses write down the words of the covenant as he spoke. Moses spent another forty days in the Lord’s presence writing down all that he was told. Moses received a transformation as his face shone. God wants to make a transformation is each of our lives. First, we have to seek Him and be earnest in it. We need to go deeper in our commitment to gain a deeper relationship.

Reading today from chapter 28 and 29 my mind immediately thought of something. We live in a society today that is quite talented and around any corner we can find a craftsman to make anything we want or desire. We may think we’re pretty good with all these opportunities and skills be availed to us.

As you read the account of the making of the garments for Aaron and his sons think about the quality of the craftmanship you see here.  The instructions are down to each detail even adding the names of the Sons of Israel in order on the onyx stone.

Chapter 28 –

God chose the descendants of Levi to care for and transport the tabernacle and its furnishings. From the tribe of Levi He chose Aaron and his descendants to serve as the priests of Israel.

The ephod or “priestly garment” was to be made with specific instructions from God to be followed. It would contain quite an elaborate make up worthy to honor God. It would be made of the finest materials, gemstones, made entirely of blue yarn with gold bells attached to its hem. Additionally, he would wear a turban with the words Holy to the Lord engraved upon it.

The final garments for the priests included tunics, sashes, and headbands. The were beautifully woven to set apart Aaron’s sons and gave them glory and beauty. All of these stipulations and requirements had to be carried out so that the priests did not incur guilt and die.

Chapter 29 –

Verse 1 – 42

Moses was to engage in a seven-day ceremony to consecrate Aaron and his sons to the priestly office. This included ceremonial washing (29:4), dressing in priestly garments (29:5-9), anointing with oil (29:6), sacrificial offerings (29:10-28, 35-42), and an ordination meal (29:31-34).The blood of one of the slaughtered lambs was to be placed on Aaron and his sons. The whole body would be consecrated to the Lord’s service – ears to hear, hands to work, and feet to walk in His ways.

Verses 43 – 46

Through all of this the Lord would consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar, as well as Aaron and his sons…as priests. Through the priestly ministry in the tabernacle God would dwell among the Israelites and be their God.

Israel would know Him as their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt. In this way God would bring His rule to the nation of Israel.

Reading today describes an encounter Moses has with God who outlines the construction of the tabernacle chapters 24 through 27.

Chapter 24 –

God’s covenant with Israel was inaugurated with a ceremony with Moses, Aaron’s sons, and seventy elders of the people were called to approach the Lord. This indicates that worship begins with a divine invitation.

Once received Moses relays the commandments from the Lord to the people. We learn from God because He decides to tell us. We need that revelation. Moses builds an altar and sacrifices are offered. They eat and drink and God is allowing them to see some of His glory. He then summons Moses up to the mountain. He summons him to give him the law and he is accompanied by Joshua.

Chapter 25 –

The following chapters provide the instructions God gave Moses for the construction of the tabernacle. Preparing its furnishings, outfitting the priests, and consecrating everything for the Lord’s service.

The Israelites are to make the tabernacle and all its furnishings. This would be a tent where God would make His presence known. God gives specific instructions as to its construction down to the type of wood, the gold overlay each intricate detail He has laid out for them.

Chapter 26 –

These verses outline how the tabernacle is framed and constructed. This was not a structure that man devised a plan for it was directly from God. A curtain was to be made to separate the holy place which contained the table and the lampstand from the most holy place, which contained the mercy seat on the ark. Only the high priest could pass through the curtain into the most holy place – – only once per year on the Day of Atonement. On the day of Jesus the curtain was torn by an unknown hand indicating that man can now approach God directly.

Chapter 27 –

The next item to be made ws the altar which would be used for sacrificing burnt offerings to the Lord. It was to be overlaid with bronze and all the utensils were made of bronze.

Verses 9 to 19 describe the rectangular courtyard for the tabernacle including all details on construction. The height did not allow anyone to look inside and they were to burn only pure olive oil crushed from olives as fuel for the lampstands.

Today we begin our reading in Exodus twenty where the Ten Commandments are given to the children of Israel. We will be reading through chapter twenty-two today.

Chapter 20 –

Verse 1-26

We see the centerpiece of God’s covenant with Israel is given to them in the form of the ten commandments. They present the minimum standards and reflect the righteousness of God. People have a desire to do wrong so these establish a guideline for people to follow.

• Do not have other gods besides me,
• Do not make an idol for yourself,
• Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God,
• Remember the sabbath day and to keep it holy,
• Honor your father and your mother,
• Do not murder,
• Do not commit adultery,
• Do not steal,
• Do not give false testimony,
• Do not covet.

These are the ten given to the people. How do you interpret these and apply them in your life<

They were to erect an altar with only natural materials untouched by human hands.

Chapter 21 –

Verses 1-11

These next three chapters present the ordinances that are more specific than the ten commandments.

An Israelite may sell himself into slavery for various reasons, maybe to pay off a debt. Slaves were in a vulnerable situation and had to be protected especially female slaves (21:7-11).

Verse 12 – 36

Personal injury judgements are now spoken of these verses. The most serious is homicide and the death penalty is prescribed for it. Physical or verbal abuse if a parent was a capital crime. Compensation was required to the injured party.

Here is an interesting note. Compensation was mandatory for accidentally causing a premature birth, even if the no injury resulted. Clearly then an unborn infant is considered a person with basic rights.

Animal owners were accountable for any injury or injuries their animals inflicted upon another party. Thieves must make full restitution, if Aman damaged a neighbor’s crops, he had to make full restitution.

Crimes such as sorcery, bestiality, and sacrifices made to gods were capital offenses. The people were not to curse God or his appointed people.  Laws were strict in those days requiring compensation for wrongdoing.

Chapter 22 –

Verses 1-9

The Israelites were to deal fairly with all people, showing no favoritism whatsoever. No person was to be treated with injustice.

Verses 10-13

Israel was to observe a variety of Sabbaths and festivals of rest for the people. This was expanded to provide a sabbath for the land to recognize God owned the land.

Verse 24-19

Three festivals are outlined in these verses: the Festival of Unleavened Bread held in conjunction with the Passover, The Festival of the Harvest also known as the “The Festival of Weeks” or “Passovers.” And finally, The Festival of Ingathering took place at the end of the year.

Verses 20-26

Here God is going to provide an angel to guide and direct them. But the caveat was they had to obey Him, they had to wipe out their enemies and destroy or demolish their objects.

Verses 27-33

God thoroughly promised to drive their enemies out of the land gradually or the land would become desolate. He outlined the borders of the Promised for them. They were to make no covenants with any people.