Bible Discussion Thread

Leviticus Chapters 21 and 22 HOLINESS IS FROM THE LORD

God sovereignly chose to set apart the priests from the others in order for them to perform special tasks. He wanted them to know that in order for them to perform these special tasks before God they had to remain undefiled because of God's innate holiness. God had a higher standard for the priests because He had sacred tasks for them to do-making sacrifices and offerings for the people and for themselves because of man's innate sinfulness. This is the reason they had a higher standard to avoid defilement. not because they were more righteous than any other Israelite, but because God is holy and both the sacrifice and the offerer must be holy before the LORD.

The Scribes and the Pharisees did not conform themselves to the Word of God. They, instead, conformed the Word of God to their liking. Rather than being aware of their persistent sinfulness and their ongoing need for a sacrifice to remove their sin, they saw themselves as having made themselves holy and were deserving of God's blessing. Rather than see themselves put in a position of privilege by God, they saw that they had this position by right. Rather than seeing their ministry as a service to God and the people, they saw it as their right to have a higher status. We are in the same way when we do not allow Scriptures to convict us but rather use Scriptures to elevate ourselves.

Both priests and sacrifices had to be perfect. Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was both the perfect high priest and perfect sacrifice that these Levitical laws foreshadowed. Unlike the religious leaders in Jesus' time and us at times, He fulfilled these sacred roles and tasks perfectly, effectually, and comprehensively. His priestly sacrifice of Himself once and for all made holy all who trust in His work on their behalf. We add nothing to our holiness and right standing before God. But Jesus supplies everything for it. And we can be ever thankful to Him.

Hello again Richard,

While it is true that each of us will commit sins, I was pointing out that it is our corrupt sinful nature that makes us unacceptable to God as well as our sins bringing judgment upon us.

The statutes in Leviticus show us that only those who have been made holy by God can stand and serve in His presence. Our corrupt and sinful nature makes if so that every person is conceived and born alienated from God, enemies of God, and spiritually dead to God. We cannot make ourselves acceptable to Him. It takes an action on His part to regenerate us and impute the righteousness of Christ for any person to stand in His presence, whether as a priest, petitioner, or creature. He is too pure to look upon anything that is corrupted, imperfect, affected by sin.

This does bring up the idea of infants in the womb and young children who die before the age of accountability. I believe that these persons are as I said, corrupted and sinful from conception. But the Bible from Genesis to Revelation shows us that God made the way for Himself to be able to interact with sinful humanity. His grace brought to humanity through His Son reaches all the way back to Adam and Eve and is applied to those too young to yet have moral knowledge of their sinfulness.

I believe that babies in the womb, infants, and young children are covered by the blood of Jesus, but at some point they are held accountable for their sin and need to turn to Jesus for salvation. This is somewhat of a mystery, the workings of grace without the consent of the ones it is being bestowed upon. But we do know that God is loving, merciful, and gracious to all. When we become willful against Him, we need further grace by the working of the Holy Spirit to bring us to repentance and faith.

So, the mystery is how God works in this population of young persons to keep them from damnation. We do know how He works in those of us who know we are sinners against Him to bring us from death to life.

Hello once again Richard, In response to the person who was struck dead for touching the ark, we do not know his judgment.

I think as you do on this, but we could be wrong. I think that God executed capital punishment on some of the Israelites not so much because what they did was exceedingly evil, but to make the point that they must view Him as truly holy and be mindful of interacting with Him with reverence.

It reminds of what Jesus said about the people on which the tower of Siloam fell or the Galileans whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices were worse sinners than others ( Luke 13:1-5) as He admonished those hearing Him to repent or they would likewise perish. Jesus spoke against the judgmental and self-righteous spirit of the Scribes and Pharisees who thought they were qualified to tell the degree of sinfulness of others due to their infirmities, malformations in their bodies and other imperfections.

They looked at the outside, but Jesus was concerned about the inward aspects of a person, calling them whitewashed sepulchers full of death even though these men thought that they were pure and holy because of their outward works.

Hello again Richard,

While it is true that each of us will commit sins, I was pointing out that it is our corrupt sinful nature that makes us unacceptable to God as well as our sins bringing judgment upon us.

The statutes in Leviticus show us that only those who have been made holy by God can stand and serve in His presence. Our corrupt and sinful nature makes if so that every person is conceived and born alienated from God, enemies of God, and spiritually dead to God. We cannot make ourselves acceptable to Him. It takes an action on His part to regenerate us and impute the righteousness of Christ for any person to stand in His presence, whether as a priest, petitioner, or creature. He is too pure to look upon anything that is corrupted, imperfect, affected by sin.

This does bring up the idea of infants in the womb and young children who die before the age of accountability. I believe that these persons are as I said, corrupted and sinful from conception. But the Bible from Genesis to Revelation shows us that God made the way for Himself to be able to interact with sinful humanity. His grace brought to humanity through His Son reaches all the way back to Adam and Eve and is applied to those too young to yet have moral knowledge of their sinfulness.

I believe that babies in the womb, infants, and young children are covered by the blood of Jesus, but at some point they are held accountable for their sin and need to turn to Jesus for salvation. This is somewhat of a mystery, the workings of grace without the consent of the ones it is being bestowed upon. But we do know that God is loving, merciful, and gracious to all. When we become willful against Him, we need further grace by the working of the Holy Spirit to bring us to repentance and faith.

So, the mystery is how God works in this population of young persons to keep them from damnation. We do know how He works in those of us who know we are sinners against Him to bring us from death to life.

The Levites where appointed to prepare the tabernacle, and were in charge of moving it, while the people made their way into the promised land. Aaron, Moses brother would be the high priest, along with His sons, two of whom were devoured at the alter for disobedience. Understanding the different offerings will enlighten the reader into the writings of the Pauline letters, since we know that Paul was a Pharisee of all Pharisee's. All His writings are enhanced and illustrated with the use of this book. His words are interweaved with the sacraments of the alter, enlightening the reader of the true meaning of the blood and its purpose in sanctifying the soul of souls (the congregation) who bring it. How these sacrifices can never make us perfect, while we see Jesus who has become the perfect one from all eternity. The prophesied one. The Messiah, who would come to reconcile His people and those of the gentile nations ,once and for all .

Moses had been given a great responsibility, making sure that Gods will would be done. Sin offerings would be an important part of keeping the congregation( the future church ) in one mind, knowing the importance of the alter and the sinful nature of man! Consecrating the Nation into one!

Thank you, Indeed Paul often refers to the statutes and ordinances in Leviticus in his writings to illustrate how Jesus fulfilled all that these fore-shadowed.

Hi Richard. I am not trying to be a pastor or teacher over men or anything like that. I am just sharing my thinking as I am considering what I am reading. But I am glad you are finding my posts useful. I learn so much from reading the ideas of others who also think deeply about portions of Scriptures. Thus my understanding is expanded and when I share my thoughts, they are not totally my own. I do incorporate what I learn from others in my posts by rephrasing some of their points, but much of what I write originates with me. I guess I just have been blessed with good teachers in my life that helped me form a solid foundation. I am thankful for that.

As to your points you brought up, thanks for your input. I am not quite sure of what you were pointing out. But I will give it some further thought. Maybe you could rephrase it a bit. God bless you.

Whew. I must say you have the most detailed discussions particularly on the O.T. laws in the Pentateuch. Assuming of course that you're not trying to be a Pastor or something in authority over men..I must say that I commend these efforts and certainly would recommend others read your stuff. That; of course entirely seperately from my appreciation of having you as my number one feedback responder; as it were....

Anyway; I had two thoughts here. The first is when you say that committing sin isn't causing it (sorry can't turn to your other post to see exact wording). I would say; in some sense that for someone to reach the "age of accountability" then their nature of sin expresses itself; in that sense it then is judged. I also would say that in hell there are various degrees of punishment to the crime; as well as a statement "not to pray for a sin leading to death" which I interpret as something God may allow someone to die from so (as Corinthians states) their soul may be saved (or perhaps what is given a death penalty here on earth; in other words we shouldn't stop that from occurring). Just thinking here. In other words to the aforementioned topic even though our sin nature is the cause of us not being able without Christ to avoid sin; it is our sin itself not the fact we were born with it the reason we are judged. I suppose you won't disagree with that concept or else we all would be damned; Christ of course gives us a NEW nature.

As to the ceremonial statement of course I can't disagree (but love commenting). I would say that true holiness MAKES us clean rather than the external ceremony. I would say that the priest who picked up the ark and was struck dead wasn't necessarily sent to eternal judgment for it (I'm not sure if there was a set law in regard to that you probably know). Moses couldn't look on His full glory and we can't. I find it interesting thinking of being in His presence in our new bodies. We need the fear of the Lord!!!

Hello Richard and Gigi.

About that person who touched the ark and was struck dead by God ( 2 Samuel 6:5-7) named Uzzah, there was a commandment given to Moses by God, written in Numbers 4:15, "And when Aaron and his sons have made an end of covering the sanctuary, and all the vessels of the sanctuary, as the camp is to set forward; after that, the sons of Kohath shall come to bear it: but they shall not touch any holy thing, lest they die. These things are the burden of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of the congregation.". That means that only the sons of Kohalth were allowed to carry/touch the holly things (including the Arc), for the rest the penalty was death. GBU

Hi again Richard, I think that you are referring to what I said about sinning. "We are not sinful because we commit sins, We sin because we are sinful." This is referring to the depraved state of our human nature due to the sin of Adam. Our flesh, mind, soul, heart, are all corrupted and sinful instead of innocent and sin-free as Adam and Eve were before their disobedience. It is this sinful nature that leads us to sin. This nature is an integral part of us. We cannot get rid of it. It is not an entity apart independent of us. It is the state of our moral nature to not be perfectly holy as Adam and Eve were before their sin. We cannot nullify it, change it.

But once we are in Christ Jesus, we have anew nature born in us. This new nature is supernatural, not natural to us. It is created by God in us. This new nature is pure and holy. It is the life of Christ in us. So, then when we are regenerated we then have two natures, one that is corrupt and sinful, and one that is holy and righteous. They war against each other, as Paul states in Romans 7. But through the power of grace, we can choose to live according to our new nature and subdue the sinful nature. It is only when we die and are resurrected that this corrupt sinfulness will be removed from us once and for all. We will then forever have only the resurrected life of Christ in us and His human nature that is pure and undefiled and able to not sin for all of eternity.

Does this help?