In Leviticus 4 God gives Moses the instructions for a sin offering. No matter what someone’s status was or if the sin was intentional or unintentional, their sins had to be paid for. The sin offerings were not about punishment they were about restoration. It also goes into detail about how the sins of the priests could affect the lives of all people or how if a leader of a tribe sinned it could affect a whole tribe. God is showing that all sins have consequences and must be paid for. He is also showing us that our sins are also going to affect the people we are responsible for. Today sin has not changed. Sin still has consequences and must be atoned for but Jesus has taken over the process. None of these sacrifices in Leviticus were good or enough to atone for sins eternally. When Jesus died on the cross he was the perfect, sacrificial, unblemished lamb that atoned for the sins of the world. Instead of throwing our sins at the base of the alter we throw our sins at the base of the cross and they are eternally forgiven. When Jesus shed his blood he gave us the greatest gift of all. He gave us a pathway to eternal life with our Father. This was why we were created in the first place. It is our purpose in life and our purpose for living. God desires relationship with his creation that he created in his own image. He desired it enough to put on flesh and give his life for it. Just think about how much Jesus had to forgive and forget about. The way we become more like Jesus is when we are able to show mercy and forgive people. We don’t have the right to hold a grudge against anyone because of the mercy and grace Jesus has shown us. If the God of the universe can forgive all of our sins we can forgive the ones who have wronged us. We have the power to forgive people because we are forgiven. We have the power to love because of how Jesus loves us. Love y’all. Have a great day!
Author: Gary
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Hosea 11:1-12
If we want to know how much God loves us, read Hosea 11. Time and time again Ephraim(Northern Kingdom) persistently and intentionally sins against God. God describes himself as a father to a son when it comes to his relationship with his people. He describes how he is like a parent teaching a toddler to walk, how he carried his child in his loving arms, and how he fed and cared for his child. He describes how he has done all of this and his people still choose to worship worldly idols anyway. This same God sent his only begotten son, Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins so that we would not have to pay for the sinful state of who we are and what we have done. He took the bullet for his children. He gave his life so that you and I could live with him in eternity. We have a good father that gives us chance after chance to have a relationship with him. He wants us to realize how much he loves us and he desires for us to be able to look at ourselves and the world we live in and love him more than any of those things. Jesus is waiting with open arms for his children to come home where they belong. We just have to choose with our lives to go home to our father. Love y’all! Have a great day!
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Leviticus 3:1-17
In Leviticus 3 God gives Moses directions on how to perform a fellowship offering. First off, when you read this chapter you notice that the fat off of the animals was always given to the Lord. Why is that? In ancient Israel, fat represented the richest and best part symbolically. Again, we see that God desires our first and best. Not our leftovers. The rest of the animal was consumed by the priests and the worshiper. It symbolized peace with God, thanksgiving and fellowship, and shared communion between God and his people. Jesus fulfills the deeper meaning of the fellowship offering. He restores peace between God and man, he brings believers into communion with God, and he provides the final sacrifice. The fellowship meal foreshadows believers sharing fellowship with God through Christ. This also connects symbolically to The Lord’s Supper, the marriage supper imagery in Revelation, and Christian communion and worship. All of these different ways of atonement for sins ultimately points to what Jesus Christ is for us. Jesus’s blood was the only blood that could ultimately atone for our sins perfectly and permanently. He is also the last and permanent high priest and mediator between us and the father. There is no need for the tabernacle, an earthly mediator, or sacrifices anymore. To perform them or to think you have to do them to be right with God is an outward expression against Jesus Christ and what he ultimately did for us. Love y’all! Have a great day!
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Hosea 10:1-15
In Hosea 10 we see where Israel is described as extremely prosperous, which led to their own demise. Instead of giving glory to God they began to build more idols, pagan altars, and false worship centers. This is a prime example showing that just because a nation is prosperous doesn’t mean they are spiritually faithful. Israel’s heart had become divided. They wanted God and idols, religion and sin, covenant and self-interest. They wanted the blessings of God without the relationship. The Israelites had let prosperity cripple them into leaning on their own understanding. They found their comfort in kings, military alliances, and idol worship, instead of trusting God. Then God goes on to comparing Israel’s corruption to the days of Gibeah. To briefly describe what happened in the days of Gibeah we have to go back to chapters 19-21 in Judges. Essentially they are referring to when a Levite (a man from the priestly tribe) was traveling with his concubine and stopped for the night in the town of Gibeah, in the tribe of Benjamin. An old man took them into his house to protect them and show hospitality. That night, violent men from the city surrounded the house and demanded that the Levite be brought out so they could sexually assault him. Instead, the Levite’s concubine was forced outside to them. She was abused throughout the night and died afterward. This is what the Israelites were being compared to. This is how corrupt they had become. Now before we get on our high horse, we could definitely compare ourselves to the days of Gibeah today. In America we are the leading nation in child sex trafficking. We also see all the time how someone is getting arrested for raping and killing someone. It happens so much that we turn a blind eye and have become numb to it. As a nation, if you ask me, we are in the same position as Israel at this time. We are the most prosperous nation in the world, but instead of giving glory to God we put all of our faith in government, military power, and the entertainment industry. We have fallen into the category where we need to be constantly repenting as a nation. Time and time again, God has shown throughout the Bible, that he will relent judgment on a truly repentful heart of a nation. He has also shown that there is a line that he draws in the sand and once it is crossed judgment is inevitable. Love y’all! Have a great day!
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Leviticus 2:1-16
Leviticus 2 gives the Israelites directions on how God expects them to give a grain offering. Once again we see how God doesn’t want just a cheap non-hearted offering. The requirement of fine flour in the grain offering symbolizes this.
Grinding the grain into fine flour took extra work. This was the hardest part. The grain had to be crushed repeatedly using millstones, grinding stones, or hand mills. “Fine flour” was not coarse meal. It was carefully refined and sifted, requiring extra effort and time. That meant the worshiper was not bringing God raw grain or scraps — they were bringing something processed, prepared, and valuable.
When we give to God, if we get the feeling of “why does God need my time and effort?” Or “why does God need my money?” we are in a dangerous prideful place. God doesn’t need anything from us. Being able to give God some of what he has blessed us with is a form of worship that God has gifted to us. When we give a portion of our first fruits to God, it is a way of telling ourselves and showing God that we realize everything that we have comes from him. We are saying with our offering that without him we wouldn’t have anything. It is really easy to let pride stick its head up in this area of our lives. It’s really easy to think that “I worked for this” or “I provided this life for myself.”
Pride is the number one thing that separates us from God. It is what got Satan kicked out of heaven. Pride has a hand in just about every sin we can commit. It is the root of everything that tears us away from God. Pride is easily defined as “I got this” or “I know what’s good for me.” The truth is we don’t got this. Without him this life means nothing. Don’t let pride keep you from investing into eternity. Invest in the things that matter with your time, effort, and money. Everything in this world is going to die or deteriorate. Investing in the kingdom of God is the only investment that has eternal rewards that actually matter. Love y’all. Have a great day!
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Matthew 12:1-14
To set this up Jesus and his disciples are walking through the grain fields on the Sabbath. They saw some grain and because they were hungry they ate some. The religious Pharisees saw this and thought that they had caught Jesus and his disciples being unlawful. They pounced on this opportunity because they were looking for anything to prove that Jesus was not the Messiah. Pay attention to how Jesus responds to them. I think it is hilarious. Keep in mind the Pharisees job is literally to read the Bible and interpret the law. They are professional Bible readers and Jesus says “Haven’t you read?” And then Jesus gives them two examples in the Bible, that they are supposed to know better than anyone, of how people ate on the Sabbath. One example is where David saw on the Sabbath that his people were hungry and went into the temple and they ate the bread of presence, which was unlawful according to man. The second example Jesus gives them is when he asks them about the priests who violated the Sabbath and are innocent? This is referencing how the priests prepared the sacrifices on the Sabbath. The priests would be responsible for killing animals, preparing sacrifices, maintaining the altar fire, and carrying out ceremonial work which was “work.” Proving that the “man made” interpretation of the Sabbath was wrong. So basically, in a nice way, Jesus tells the Pharisees (that professionally read the Bible) they don’t know what they are talking about. This absolutely had to offend the Pharisees. Then Jesus follows them to their synagogue. There was a man with a withered hand that was there. You know that the man with the withered hand had to be ashamed of his hand. Back in these agricultural days a man worked with his hands to feed and provide for his family. It says Jesus saw the man and before he went to heal the man’s hand the Pharisees used this man’s weakness and shame to use him as a pawn in their religious scheme to try to tear Jesus down. Jesus tells the Pharisees, “who among you, if he had a sheep that fell into a pit on the Sabbath, wouldn’t take hold of it and lift it out? A person is worth far more than a sheep; so it is lawful to do what is good on the Sabbath?” After this he heals the man. Jesus is showing in real time that man has misinterpreted the law that he gave to us. Man says that in the Sabbath you shouldn’t work and Jesus tells them that works unto the Lord is not the works he was talking about.
In Mark 2:27 Jesus says:
“The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.”Jesus’s point is God created the Sabbath as a gift and blessing for humanity. It was meant for rest, worship, restoration, and mercy.
Humanity was not created to be crushed under legalistic rule-keeping. God does not care about the rituals and religious acts that we perform. He cares about the heart and purpose that we perform them in. What someone else does to give glory to God may look different than what or how you give glory to God. The condition of the heart is what is important to the Lord. Who or what your heart belongs too is what God really cares about. Love y’all. Have a great day! -
Leviticus 1:1-17
Now that we are done with Exodus we are going to move on to Leviticus which is basically a book of laws given to Moses by God for atonement of sins and for the purpose of the Israelites being set apart from other pagan nations. These laws are what God gave the Israelites so that they would belong to him and choose him with their faith. Their obedience showed where their heart belonged. Chapter one is the law God gave Moses for burnt offerings. People could give from their flock, from their herd, or from birds. This showed that anyone, no matter their means, could give unto the Lord and atone for their sins. God shows from the very beginning that he wants their first and best, not because he needs it, but because it shows where their faith and loyalty belonged too. God calls for the Israelites to give, according to their means, an unblemished sacrifice which meant basically an animal that was perfectly healthy. This showed that the Israelites weren’t giving God their scraps or their leftovers. Even though Jesus has come and we atone for our sins through his perfect sacrifice we can still learn from God’s character and what he desires from us. He wants our heart. He wants our first and best. He doesn’t want our leftovers or scraps. We can display this through giving of tithes, giving of our time, and how we worship. When you get paid God gives us an opportunity to tithe. Ask yourself, when you get paid do you use your money for what you want and give God the scraps? Or do you give God 10 percent and trust he will provide what you need? Do you plan your week around God or do you do what you want and if there is any time left you give God a little of it? When you worship God do you give him your whole heart or do you give him what you have left over? What God desires is a state of humbleness, humility, and true love for him. He doesn’t desire to be an accessory in our lives he desires to be at the forefront. He sent his one and only begotten son to die for you and for me. He loved us so much he put on flesh, lived the perfect life you and I could not live, died, and rose again to give us the opportunity to give our lives and our heart to him. We love him because he first loved us. Love y’all! Have a great day!
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Exodus 40:1-38
Exodus 40 is the final chapter in Exodus. It is the conclusion where Moses finalizes everything that the Lord had commanded. He did exactly as the Lord had said for him to do. He sets up the tabernacle, the ark, the basin, the lamp stand, and the alter exactly as the Lord had commanded. This is the common theme of this whole chapter. Once the Israelites were completely obedient, completely gave up their pride, and completely trusted God, it gave room for his glory and not their own. This is a call for us to look ourselves in the mirror honestly. Understand that the veil has been torn and the temple dwells inside of us now, which is the presence of God. Once we receive salvation from what Jesus did for us on the cross, we receive the gift of his Holy Spirit. It says in Exodus 40 that the Israelites could now physically see the presence of God as a cloud by day and a fire in the cloud at night and they did not move unless they could see that God’s presence was with them. This is what it means to have a healthy fear of God. When they could not see God’s presence they stopped. When they could see God’s presence they moved. This is another call for us to ask ourselves, do we wait on the Lord before we make moves in our own lives? Do we let our emotions and wants determine our decisions? Or do we wait for God to lead our decisions? We must always repent and make sure that we are hearing and seeing from the Lord before we move. There is an order to this. Repent, ask for guidance, be patient, and wait on the Lord to guide your steps. It is possible for our timing to coexist with God’s timing if we take our own pride out of the way and let him guide us. Our God is a good father and his will is going to be perfected with or without us. It is impossible for us to understand how amazing it is for the God who hold the universe in his hands to love us. We are his children and we have the free will to belong to him or not to belong to him through faith in Jesus Christ. Love y’all! Have a great day!
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Exodus 39:1-43
Reading through Exodus gets very difficult. When reading this chapter, it gets easy to read it and get lost in thinking “what do all of these details about the High Priest’s clothes have to do with me?” When we read Exodus we must always read it with Jesus in mind. We must read it and know that all of the instructions that God gave Moses (even the instructions about the High Priest’s clothing) foreshadowed what was to come in Jesus Christ. All of the High Priest’s starting from Aaron were from the tribe of Levi. Jesus was from the tribe of Judah and received his priesthood from the order of Melchizedek which was a priest king directly from God. When he died, defeated death hell and the grave, and ascended into heaven he became our eternal high priest. Jesus entered the true heavenly sanctuary after His resurrection and ascension. Hebrews 8:1 says:
“We have this kind of high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.”
The phrase “sat down” matters because earthly priests never sat because their work continued.
Jesus sat because His atoning work was finished. So when did Jesus become the High Priest? The answer unfolds in stages. Jesus was ordained by God eternally before creation. He acted as High Priest at the cross by offering himself as a pure, perfect, and eternal sacrifice. He was vindicated through resurrection and he entered fully into his eternal heavenly priesthood at his ascension. So what does this have to do with the High Priests clothing details? The clothing details, the details for building the Ark Of The Covenant, and the details for the Tabernacle are all put together as a small picture of the throne room in which God sits right now presently in Heaven. All of the details point to what only Jesus could perfect. Sinful man could only temporarily atone for the sins of God’s people and eventually died. Jesus was perfect and without blemish. He rose from the dead, lives eternally, and permanently atones for the sins of the world in the throne room of heaven and that is why we no longer need an earthly high priest to mediate between us and God. The Tabernacle, the Ark, and the clothes mean nothing to us now other than being able to look back at how God was paving the way for the Messiah to perfect what man could not. When Jesus said “it is finished” right before he died on the cross this is what he meant. He meant that he would enter into his eternal heavenly priesthood and the separation between us and him was finished. This is the reason we can have a personal and intimate relationship with our Father now. The veil separating us from God has been torn and sin no longer has a hold on God’s children. Love y’all! Have a great day! -
Exodus 38:1-31
Exodus 38 continues the description of the construction of sacred items for the Tabernacle under the leadership of Bezalel. This chapter focuses on the alter, courtyard, and materials used, emphasizing both craftsmanship and accountability. All of this ultimately points to Jesus. He is the final sacrifice (altar), he provides cleansing (basin), and he is the only way in (gate). God in the flesh through Jesus Christ fulfills permanently what the Israelites could only do temporarily. Every piece of material and process used in building the tabernacle shows that man in his sin cannot simply approach God. Sin cannot exist in God’s presence. That is why it was so important to get every detail right. It was important to get every detail right because nothing man could do in this process paid for sin. Only the instructions from God and the process that came from him made a way for the atonement of sin. The process is different, but the conclusion is the same today. We need God and God alone to atone for our sins. We offer nothing in this department other than using our free will to decide to get out of the way for what God can do through us. Becoming a vessel for the Lord to work through us is the goal. In this life everyone is fighting themselves in their own flesh. The minute we realize that, accept Jesus in our lives, and receive his Holy Spirit is when God can start molding us into what we were created to be in the first place. This happens through our own personal sanctification process. I know just about everyone has heard the expression “let go and let God.” It sounds cliche, but it is exactly what this means. It means that when we learn to get out of the way and let God be God in our lives we begin to see our true purpose for our existence in the first place. Love y’all! Have a great day!