The
Most Important Thing in the World
Intro
to Leviticus
May 16,
2010
I came across a story this week about a well known
preacher who had been invited to speak in a large church in a nearby town. As he was sitting on the platform awaiting
“his turn at bat”, the music director announced, “We will now stand and sing
hymn 325; Take Time to be Holy; We will sing verses one
and four”. In the story, the preacher
said that if he had not been sitting on the platform, he might have just laughed
out loud. Imagine a Christian
congregation singing “Take Time to Be Holy” and not even taking time to sing the
entire song. If we can’t take time (less
than four minutes) to sing a song about holiness, we are not likely to take time
to devote ourselves to “perfecting holiness in the fear of God” as Paul writes
in 2 Cor.
7:1.
It seems that happiness, not holiness, is the chief
pursuit of most people today, including many professing Christians. They want Jesus to solve their problems and
carry their burdens, but they don’t want Him to control their lives and change
their character. It doesn’t disturb them
that eight times in the Bible, God said to His people, “Be holy, for I am holy”
and friend, He really means it.;
I got the title for today’s lessons from something the
great Jonathan Edwards once said: “He that sees the beauty of holiness, or true
moral good, sees the greatest and most important thing in the world”. Leviticus is a book on
holiness.
How much time do we spend in thought of personal
holiness – likeness to Jesus? Do we
realize that it is the most important thing in the world? In God’s kingdom, holiness is NOT a luxury;
it is a necessity. How important is
holiness? Listen to this verse from
Hebrews 12:14, “Follow peace with
all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord”. When I read that it scared me. Did it you?
Yes, God wants his children to be happy, BUT true happiness begins with
holiness. Listen to this verse: “Blessed
(happy) are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall
be filled” (Matt. 5:6). The great
Charles Spurgeon said, “I would choose perfect conformity to the Lord Jesus, or,
in one word, holiness”. Would we make
the same choice?
The book of Leviticus tells us NT Christians how to
appreciate holiness and make it a part of our everyday lives. The word “holy” is used
91 times in Leviticus and words connected with cleansing are
used 71 times and the references to uncleanness
128 times. There is no question what
the book is about. It is holiness, being
like Jesus. The spiritual lessons and
principles apply to Christians in the church today, to us.
The key verse in Leviticus is found in chapter 11:44-45,
“Be holy, for I am holy”. In the NT you
find them in 1 Peter
1:15-16. Did you know
that the book of Leviticus is quoted or referred to over 100 times in the
NT?
The book of Leviticus explains five basic themes that
relate to the life of holiness: a holy God; a holy priesthood; a holy people; a
holy land; and a holy Savior.
1. A Holy God
What is
“holiness”?
Contrary to what you may hear today in some sermons and
popular religious songs, the emphasis in the Bible is on the holiness of God
and not on the love of God.
The great American theologian Augustus H. Strong said, “Love is central
in God but holiness is central in love”.
You see, God’s love is a holy love, for the Bible states that “God is
light” in 1 John 1:5 as well as
“God is love” in 1 John
4:8, 16.
Both are perfect balance in the divine nature and works of
God.
The Hebrew word for “holy” that Moses used in Leviticus
means “that which is set apart and marked off, that which is different”. For example: the Sabbath was holy because God
set it apart for His people (Ex. 16:23).
The priests were holy because they were set apart to minister to the Lord
(Lev. 21:7-8). Even their garments were
holy and could not be duplicated for common use (Ex. 28:2). The tithe that the people brought was holy
(Lev. 27:30). Anything that God said was
holy had to be treated differently from the common things of life in the Hebrew
camp. In fact, the camp of Israel
was holy, because the Lord dwelt there with His people (Deut. 23:14).
Our English word “holy” comes from the Old English word
halig which means
“to be whole, to be healthy”. What
health is to the body, holiness is to the inner person. Let’s follow
the “paper trail” here for a minute. The
related word “sanctify” comes from the Latin sanctus which means
“consecrated, sacred, blameless”. We use
the word “sanctification”
to describe the process of growing to become more like Jesus, and
“holy” to describe the result of that process.
The main way God reveals His holiness is in His zero
tolerance for sin. He gave the 10
commandments to show what was right and what was wrong and He also gave the
penalty for sin. The whole sacrificial
system declared to Israel that “the wages of sin is
death” (Rom 6:23) and “the soul who sins shall die” (Ezek. 18:4). God, in His holiness, hates sin, BUT because
He loves sinners and wants to forgive them, He provides a substitute to die in
the sinner’s place. All of this is a
picture of the promised Savior who laid down His life for the sins of the world.
In Isaiah alone, the phrase “Holy One of Israel” is used
30 times. God made it clear to the
people of Israel that He is a holy God,
righteous in all His works, and just in all His judgments.
2. A Holy
Priesthood
3. A Holy
People
God’s purpose for Israel,
according to Exodus 19:6, was
that the nation be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation”. Everything in the life of the OT Jew was
either “holy” (set apart for God’s exclusive use) or “common” and the “common”
things were either “clean” (the people could use them) or “unclean” (forbidden
to be used). The Jews had to be careful
to avoid what was unclean; otherwise, they would find themselves “cut off from
the people” until they had gone through the proper ceremony to be made clean
again.
The laws governing marriage, birth, diets, personal
hygiene, the quarantine of diseased persons, and the burial of the dead, while
they certainly involved hygienic benefits to the nation, were all reminders that
God’s people could NOT live any way they pleased. Because they were God’s chosen people, the
Jews had to learn to put a difference “between holy and unholy, and between
unclean and clean” (Lev. 10:10). I just
wonder if we had kept the laws of diet, would cancer be as rampant as it is
today.
Once a year, on the Day of Atonement (chapter 16), the
nation was reminded that Jehovah was a holy God and that the shed blood was the
only way of cleansing the people.
Now, let’s talk about us. God’s church is supposed to be “a holy
nation” in this present evil world, to “declare the praises of Him who called us
out of darkness into His wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9). The Greek word translated “declare” means “to
tell out, to advertise”. The holy nation
of Israel in Canaan, with its holy priesthood, revealed to the pagan
nations around them the glories and Excellency of Jehovah, the true and living
God. The church in today’s world has the
same privilege and responsibility. When
Israel started to live like the
pagans, they robbed God of His glory; and the Lord had to chasten them. Do we really think God is going to let
America get away with doing the same
thing? I don’t think
so!
- A
Holy Land (Lev.
18-27)
- A Holy
Savior
To study the Bible and not see Jesus is to miss the
major theme of the book. The law was “a
shadow of good things to come” (Heb. 10:1).
Especially in the levitical sacrifices and the priestly ministry do we
see the person and work of Jesus vividly portrayed.
No amount of good works or religious efforts can make a
sinner holy. Only the blood of Jesus can
cleanse us from our sins (1 John
1:7), and only the risen glorified Jesus can intercede for us
at the throne of God as our Advocate (2:1) and high priest (Heb. 8:1; Rom.
8:34). What the OT Jews saw only in
shadows, believers today see in the bright light of
Jesus.
The rules have not changed. Just as the nation of Israel had to beware of
that which was unclean and defiling, so must believers today “cleanse themselves
from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of
God” (2 Cor. 7:1).
God wants us to be a “holy priesthood” and a “holy nation”, in both of
which we are failing miserably. How can
we advertise His virtues and glorify His name in our present condition (1 Peter
2: 5, 9)?
On Sunday morning, January 4, 1861, the great Charles
Spurgeon closed his sermon with these words:
“An unholy church! It is of no
use to the world, and of no esteem among men.
Oh, it is an abomination, hell’s laughter, heaven’s abhorrence. And the larger the Church, the more
influential, the worst irritation does it become, when it become dead and
unholy. The worst evils which have ever
come upon the world, have been brought upon her by an
unholy church”. Are we listening to God?
“Be holy, for I am holy”.