Leviticus 1-17
Worshipping a Holy God
Week 10 September 23 – 27, 2019
Monday September 23
Instructions For the Offerings – Leviticus 1-4
The Israelites have successfully built the tabernacle and all of the other articles used to worship God, according to the instructions He gave to Moses. Now they learn HOW to worship God! First, God tells them how to make a sacrifice, an offering to take away the sins of the people. There are different types of sacrifices, some are plant or food sacrifices and some are animal sacrifices depending on their purpose. Either way, people have to give something up, often times killing an animal which can be a difficult thing to do. This was to help the Hebrew people understand the seriousness of their sin and the price that had to be paid when they broke God’s laws. Foods, grains, and animals were precious commodities and the people had to work hard to provide those things for themselves. There was a price to be paid for their sin. The beginning of worship is to cleanse ourselves from sin, approaching God in repentance for the things we have done wrong. God has provided us the ultimate perfect sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. We no longer have to make sacrifices, but we do need true repentance in our hearts. God also gives instructions to us on how to correctly worship Him. When we study the Bible, God will show us where we have messed up, giving us the opportunity to repent, be forgiven, and sin no more.
Activity: Start your week with repentance. Take a moment in prayer to confess your sins to God with an attitude of being truly sorry, asking Him to forgive you and help you to do better next time.
With Children: Parents, help your children consider their sins. Talk to them about actions and attitudes that are wrong, and ask them if you can pray with them to confess their sins and ask God for forgiveness and for help to do better next time. Give them the chance to pray this prayer for themselves, only stepping in if they ask for help or truly don’t know what to say but have a willing heart. Afterward, tell them that God does forgive them, and you and He love them! With younger children, pray over them that God would cultivate a heart of true repentance and love for God.
Tuesday September 24
Instructions For the Guilt Offerings – Leviticus 5-7
The Israelites get more specific instructions on how and why they would give offerings and make sacrifices to God for forgiveness of their sins. Some of these offerings are specifically for forgiveness when a person hurts another person by cheating them out of money or some other sin against another person. When an Israelite gave a sacrifice for forgiveness of a sin against another person, they also had to fix what they had done wrong to that person. If they had stolen money, they had to give the money back with interest. So when we hurt someone else, we must make it right, but also leave them in a better state than how we found them! We should go over and above to fix our wrongs against other people. These verses also show that God wants His people to honor the priests, or pastors as we call them today. When making a sacrifice, the people gave special gifts to the priests, because they helped them to do the right thing and make their offerings to God. The priests even made their own sacrifices on behalf of all of the people, kept up the tabernacle, and kept the fire burning constantly on top of helping all of the people. Pastors give a lot of their time and energy to others and do a lot for people behind the scenes. God wants us to take care of our pastors.
Activity: Consider how you can show honor to your own spiritual leader. The month of October is Pastor Appreciation Month, so make sure your pastor knows you appreciate them and do what you can to keep them encouraged. It’s a lot of responsibility and they do it all out of love.
With Children: Help your child write a note of thanks or a gift for your pastor. Talk with them about the different things that the pastor does for the church and how it is right to show them appreciation and honor.
Wednesday September 25
Instructions For the Priests – Leviticus 8-10
Those who lead are held to higher standards than the rest of God’s people. This is because when a pastor sins, the people who follow them are likely to sin in the same way, following the bad example of the pastor. Two of the priests directly disobeyed God and as a result they died, because they didn’t take God’s instructions seriously. Pastors are held to higher standards and also stronger punishments by God. It is very special to minister to people and help them to be close to God. It seems like a nice job, and it is, but it also requires a lot of that person. The priest, now pastor, has to work very hard to follow all of God’s laws. They spend a lot of their time and energy doing God’s work, tending to the people they minister to, and disciplining themselves in study and good works. This is another reason why it is so serious when a pastor sins against God – because they, more than others, should know better. We also need to remember that pastors are people too and have faults and make mistakes just like the rest of us. Pastors are accountable ultimately to God and we ought to show them the same love, care, and grace that they constantly give to us.
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Thursday September 26
Instructions For the People – Leviticus 11-15
God gives many more instructions to the Israelites, but these are about physical cleanliness. There are some foods and activities that the Hebrew people cannot partake in, or can only do at certain times. Many of these laws are meant to help keep the people clean and free from disease. Some are meant to separate them from the pagan people around them who would do these things as a part of a pagan ritual. These are not specific laws that we need to follow today, God has released us from following the Hebrew laws. However, it is important that we understand the need to follow God even when we don’t understand why He is telling us to do something. The Israelites didn’t have microscopes to test for diseases, bleach to kill mold, or today’s common indoor plumbing. As a result, many people at that time would often get sick from things like eating animals that carried diseases, not washing their hands, bodies, and personal items often enough, and other activities that they just had no way of knowing would make them sick. They were completely clueless about things like bacteria and germs, so God gave them rules to help keep them healthy. They didn’t understand why, but God was protecting them from a lot of pain and disease by telling them how to keep everything clean. We have an understanding of how all of these things work today, but there are other things that God wants to protect His people from as well. This is why we must obey God whether we understand why or not, because we trust that He knows better than us and only has our best interest at heart. God is a good Father and takes care of us in the very best ways, we just have to listen!
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Friday September 27
Instructions For the Altar – Leviticus 16 & 17
The idea of Atonement is presented here in the instructions for the altar. To make atonement is to sacrifice an innocent animal, making the animal pay the punishment for sin, instead of the guilty person. After the sacrifice, God would see the person as forgiven and free from sin, “covered by the blood” of the innocent animal. However, it was not until later when Jesus came to the earth and took the sins of the entire world on Himself, that we could truly have our sins removed from us. The most important part of atonement is the attitude of the person who is asking for forgiveness. If a person is not truly sorry for their sins, then they are just going through the motions and they will get no benefit. This is true repentance, heartbrokenly approaching God and asking for His forgiveness, resolving not to sin again. Will you mess up sometimes? Will it slip out when you’re angry or not restraining yourself? Yes. That is one thing about living in this fallen world – sin happens all around us. The though, is that ultimately, SIN DOES NOT WIN! Every time we repent of our sin, every time we ask God to forgive us, every time we discipline ourselves to do the right thing instead of the wrong thing, sin loses again and again!
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