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Presumption Of Understanding

Sunday, April 04th, 2010 | Author: Skip Moen

When a person unwittingly incurs guilt in regard to any of the Lord’s commandments about things not to be done, and does one of them . . . Leviticus 4:2

Does One Of Them – Sacrifices do not atone for deliberate sins.  Punishment atones for deliberate sins.  But we need sacrifices because we still make mistakes without realizing that we have offended.  When we become aware of our offenses, then a sacrifice is sufficient to remove our guilt.  We must make restitution, but the guilt we incurred before the Lord, even unwittingly, is removed in the sacrifice.  The Torah, especially Leviticus, makes this principle abundantly clear.

But notice the implication behind this principle.  Levine says, “ . . . the presumption is that an Israelite possessed of full awareness and knowledge would seek to obey God’s laws, not violate them.”[1] In other words, the presumption behind the provisions of sacrifice is that if we knew better, sacrifices would be unnecessary.  Sacrifices are a testimony to our ignorance.  We need them because we don’t know all that we should.  The Bible assumes that anyone who knows what God desires will seek to do what God desires.  Doing God’s will is doing exactly what we would do if we knew all the facts.  Since we don’t know all that facts, we act according to His instructions because we trust that He does know all the facts.

There is a lot of confusion about the sacrificial system.  Maybe this helps clear some of the air.  None of the usual sacrifices removed the guilt of deliberate sin.  God Himself had to deal with that.  But all of us make mistakes.  The Bible assumes that we never get it all right, but it also assumes that human beings in their right minds will recognize God’s desires and attempt to do them.  The Bible does not suggest that we can’t do what God desires.  It only suggests that our insanity exhibits itself when we choose not to do what we otherwise know is His desire.

The text (asa meachat mehena) suggests that we may accidentally offend in any of the stipulations for living God’s way.  There is a provision for any of these mistakes.  All that is required is the recognition of the offense.  These are enlightenment moments; those times when we suddenly realize that we have acted against His will without being aware of it.  These are moments when suddenly we see something in Scripture that applies to us.  These are occasions when we are instantly aware through the Spirit that we did something we should not have done.  A sacrifice is our way of saying, “Lord, I had no idea.  I am guilty.  Now I know it.  Forgive me.”

God accommodates our frailty.  He knows we don’t always understand.  He provides us with actions that accompany new information.  We can do something about these offenses.  We are participants in this aspect of forgiveness.  To know the mind of God is to discover the need for sacrifice.  For these offenses, forgiveness begins with us.  For all the rest, forgiveness must begin with Him.  When we confuse the two, we may actually compound our guilt.  We may think that nothing is due on our end and, as a result, treat all our offenses as if God’s sacrifice was sufficient.  We may make ourselves the victims of spiritual presumption.  God’s good favor rests partially on what we do, and once we know this, if we don’t do it, we magnify the offense.

Topical Index:  sacrifice, ignorance, unintentional sin, Leviticus 4:2

[1] Baruch Levine, The JPS Torah Commentary on Leviticus, p. 19.

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Connected

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 | Author: Skip Moen

and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2

And – How many times have you heard this verse? Dozens, I’ll bet, but we often miss the connection in this verse. It is not a stand-alone declaration of spiritual progression. It is tied to something else – the part that comes before the “and”. Without the connection, the rest of Paul’s exhortation isn’t effective.

kai in Greek is such a simple word. Obviously, it’s used thousands of times. Nevertheless, its frequency doesn’t not mean it is not important. In this verse, it’s vital. We will never be transformed unless we take the first step and the first step is not found in this verse.

What’s the first step? “Present your body a living sacrifice.” Ah, now we see why Paul speaks about the renewing of your mind in this verse. He has already covered the sacrifice of your body in the previous verse. The two are tied together. Paul is not endorsing a separation of the mental and the physical (a Greek dichotomy). He is being a good Hebrew. Mind and body are one. If you won’t sacrifice your body, you cannot renew your mind.

Oh, darn (or something stronger)! It would have been so much easier to separate body and mind. It would have been so convenient to take the mental-spiritual route and focus my religious attention on my thoughts instead of my deeds. That’s what I really want (says the yetzer ha’ra). Just let me contemplate the divine, improve my spiritual intuition and revel in the wonder of the words. But don’t ask me to give up my bodily desires. Don’t ask me to put my behavior on the altar. I don’t mind giving God my mind as long as I can hang on to what I do with my body. Being a “carnal” Christian is a pretty good deal. It allows me to have it both ways.

Of course, that little obnoxious word kai ruins everything. If I am going to experience transformation, if I am going to know what it means to renew my mind, then I must sacrifice my body first. Obedience comes before knowledge. Sacrifice before renewal. There is no spiritual development in mind only. If you aren’t experiencing daily delight in the Spirit, look first to the body. You might find something that didn’t get placed on the altar.

Topical Index: body, mind, renewal, sacrifice, Romans 12:2, kai

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Come Together

Sunday, July 26th, 2009 | Author: Skip Moen

When any of you presents an offering of cattle to the LORD, he shall choose his offering from . . . Leviticus 1:2

Offering – Do you think that God is mad? It seems that most religious people (of all faiths) certainly see God as an angry judge. He looks down upon the wickedness of the world and punishes those who haven’t been good. Apparently His aim isn’t so good because a lot of bad things happen to good people. But maybe that’s because we all deserve to be punished and God is only reminding us of our unholy condition.

What a tragic mistake it is to think of God in this way. God is mad, but He is crazy mad, not angry mad. He is insane because He is willing to die for those who have rejected His benevolence. That isn’t normal! But is God angry with us? If we knew anything about the Hebrew word for offering (korban), we would never make this mistake. Why? Because korban comes from the verb karav that means “to draw close.” That’s right! The purpose of a sacrifice is not to appease an angry God. It is to draw close to His love. An offering displays God’s desire to have us come to Him and enjoy His presence and fellowship. It is exactly the opposite of the offerings made to false gods. From the Hebrew point-of-view, an offering is an invitation to fellowship, not an attempt to placate.

Consider this in relation to your understanding of the sacrifice of Yeshua. How many times have you been told that His death was an appeasement for God’s righteous anger over sin? That theology suggests that God is very, very angry. So angry that it takes the death of His own Son to appease His wrath. That kind of thinking belongs to idolatry. The sacrifice of Yeshua is as bold an invitation as God could make. It is an invitation to life. It is the guarantee that the promise made to Abraham will come to pass. It is the way God removes the punishment we deserve in order that we may approach Him. It is the ultimate sign of drawing close.

There is one other important thing to notice here. The supplicant has choice. The offering is conditional. “When” you present an offering is followed by “If” the offering is such-and-such. In other words, while God gives directions about how to draw close, He allows us to voluntarily choose to draw close. Appeasement can be demanded. Invitation can only be requested.

The great God of glory opens a way to His heart. It is a way of compassion, mercy and forgiveness. We must choose to accept His invitation and draw near to Him. God isn’t mad. He’s just waiting.

Topical Index: angry, mad, offering, korban, karav, sacrifice, Leviticus 1:2

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Buried Away

Friday, February 06th, 2009 | Author: Skip Moen

“and even if our gospel is veiled” 2 Corinthians 4:4

Months have passes since I had my first taste of a Job crisis. God forced me to confront my trust in false security and selfish independence by stripping away the financial storehouse of my existence. Since that day, I have committed myself to a passionate pursuit of knowing Him. He has given me a peace that I cannot explain. When everything in my world appears to be falling apart, my confident expectation in His faithfulness keeps growing.

But I am nothing more than a disciple and all disciples must learn.

A few days ago I wrote about the Hebrew word ma’ aklete, the knife that Abraham took to slaughter Isaac on the altar. That image points toward the requirement for each one of us to place our future on God’s altar and sacrifice our vision of what we will become in order to accept God’s vision of what He wants us to become. I thought I knew what that meant for me. After all, all of my future plans prior to Job’s visit have vanished in my financial loss. But those plans were not my offering. There is a big difference between an offering of sacrifice and an awakening from disaster. It seems that God often needs to bring about crisis before we can offer sacrifice.

Over the months since my awakening, I have struggled with plans to rebuild my finances. My goal was to implement a process that would allow me to develop my commitment to God’s direction and provide needed income. My plan was to combine what God wanted me to do with what I thought I needed to accomplish. Even though I wrote about the lesson in the knife, that lesson was not yet a reality for me. Yesterday, all the plans that I thought could be combined with God’s direction were halted. They simply fell apart.

Oswald Chambers’ devotional is a daily routine. He often says that a man in obedience to the Lord will strike out on a path that seems right. If it is not the right way, God will check. I am reminded of the picture of the Hebrew view of the future – rowing in a small boat. My back is to the future and I spent most of my time looking into the past and making small course corrections. That is what rowing really is. Holding to a steady point on the distant shore and making corrections.

Now I see that my plans need to be made an offering. This is an opportunity for me to deliberately put my version of the future on the altar and let God show me His version of my future. My sight needs to be firmly focused on the past, that point of faithfulness that I use to make course corrections. I don’t need to see where I am going as long as I concentrate on what I am leaving behind. God has my future in His thoughts.

And His thoughts quite often turn out to be very different than mine. Do we really live in ways that turn our plans over to God or are we more inclined to pray, “God, help me make my plans come to pass”? The difference is more than one of perspective. One is an attitude of ownership; the other an attitude of servitude. It is very difficult for us to really become servants of God. We are much more inclined to think that God is somehow the power source for our designs on the future. But God is asking us to join Him in His purposes as servants. That means He decides what we do, not the other way around.

Paul helps me understand the tension between present and future in this small phrase from his second letter to the Corinthians. The word that he uses for “veiled” is the Greek word is kalypto. You will recognize the root in the word “apocalypse” – a Greek word that means, “to uncover”. In a general sense, kalypto means “to cover or hide”. Its original meaning was associated with burial. The earth covered those who were dead. It hid them in a secret world. Here Paul uses this picture to draw attention to an essential element of Christian living. There is a part of what we are doing that is buried away.

Paul is really saying, “and even if our gospel is buried away from sight”. In this passage, Paul remarks that the good news of Christ Jesus is buried away from the sight of unbelievers. They do not see what is offered because their minds have been blinded by the appeals of the world. In the true sense of the word, they have been buried away from reality. We would say, “They have their heads stuck in the sand”. The gospel is hidden from their sight because they refuse to see.

It is important to notice that Paul never argues that unbelievers are simply ignorant. Their inability to see the truth is not because they have not been educated. The blindness is morally culpable because they have refused to honor what they did know, and as a result, their blindness intensifies.

While this passage is part of Paul’s message about the universality of sin, it also contains a truth that I need to incorporate into my life under God’s care. Many times the gospel for me, my personal good news, is buried from sight. The fact that I cannot see God’s good news for me does not invalidate the truth of His provision and protection. In fact, if I act as though my inability to see God’s care means that it is not real, I am in no better position than those people Paul addresses. I have my head stuck in the sand. I am spiritually culpable for my unbelief.

This is really the battle that I fight, almost daily. It is the battle of trusting God’s word without the physical evidence that I have become so dependent upon. When I trusted in my own resources, I could consult the bank statement. There were the numbers in black and white. I could look in the garage and see the cars. I could look in my closet, my living room and my kitchen. All around me was the physical evidence that things were good. Life was full of possessions. I came to believe that the presence of these possessions was the essence of security. I forgot that all of these things are nothing more than illusions of permanency. In a moment, they can be swept away.

Yesterday there was an earthquake on an island where we have some property. In less than one minute, all of those “permanent” possessions were reduced to rubble. Useless. Junk. One minute – everything was fine, secure and comfortable. The next minute – nothing remained. That earthquake was a reminder that human life is a fragile balance between the travail of the earth and the inevitability of the grave. We are so tenuous. We are so vulnerable. Perhaps that is why we put so much effort into masking of our true dependence.

God keeps His good news veiled. He does not do this to be capricious or vindictive. He does it in order to lead us to the truth of dependence. More than anything else, God desires to be the provider to His children, but most of His children are running around madly scrambling to re-organize the world in support of self-independence. God shakes His head (and the earth trembles) over this intentional stupidity. No man is in control of his destiny. The smallest shift in a geological plate can topple any man’s effort to be in charge. A little too much wind, a little too much cold, a few degrees of extra heat, a few too many days of rain and our world is thrown into chaos. Our storehouse of “security” plummets into the abyss. You would think that we would have realized by now that life cannot be lived on our terms.

The Bible tells us that only one thing is absolutely permanent. It is the spoken word of God (rhema). The permanence of God’s word means much more than temporal endurance. The permanence of God’s spoken word means that what God says is utterly reliable. It will not change because of circumstances, time or geography. It is the “flat-out” truth.

This is something that I must know. And if I really know that God’s word is His permanent declaration of the substance of what really counts, I can stop struggling with my quest for security. God is my security. Why? Because He tells me that

1. I can throw my cares on Him because He cares for me (1 Peter 5:7)

2. I can stop being self-concerned about life and let God know my needs (Phil. 4:6)

3. I can put all my thoughts of Him and enjoy peace in my heart (Isaiah 26:3)

4. I can count on God’s provision (Phil. 4:19)

5. I can rely on God’s faithfulness and good intentions toward me (Matt. 6:33)

I might not see it now, but God’s handiwork is real even if my eyes aren’t able to receive the right wavelengths of spiritual light. That’s why He told me that He cares. I might be blind, but I am not deaf.

“but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God predestined before the ages to our glory;” 1 Corinthians 2:4

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BODY SONG

Tuesday, February 03rd, 2009 | Author: Skip Moen

Paul J. Meyer, the founder of the self-improvement industry, once said that he is an inverted paranoid.  He believes that the whole world has conspired to do him good.  That powerful idea alters everything about life.  It shifts all of our being and doing from a posture of defense and protection to a posture of exuberant enjoyment and celebration.  But Paul Meyer was not the first person to promote this idea.  He had a predecessor, also named Paul.

 

In the letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul tells us that everything works together for good for those who are loved by God and called according to His purposes.  God Himself is the ultimate inverted paranoid.  He actually created the universe with good in mind.  He planned that everything would be of benefit.  That’s the way He wanted it.  We are all familiar with this famous verse in Romans (8:28).  But we may not have noticed that the connection that Paul makes with a thought from 6:13.  It is worth examining with care.  In 6:13, Paul reveals the secret melody of the universe.

 

Romans 6:13  “and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.”

 

This verse is written in three-part harmony.  One part is found in the word “present”.  One part is in the word “members” and the last part is in the word “instruments”. 

 

Present is the Greek verb paristano.  It is used twice in this verse.  It comes from the activity of a royal court.  Today we are often unaware of the court rituals that were commonplace in ancient times.  If order for someone to be “presented” to royalty, protocol had to be rigorously followed.  Usually the king designated a particular person as the “presenter”.  Being a “presenter” meant access to the king, not simply as his servant, but as one who had status and privilege that ordinary subjects did not enjoy.  This person was at the king’s disposal and ready at hand.  He performed an official function by bring subjects before the king. 

 

This official ceremonial theme is also present when the idea is transferred to religious worship.  The temple of God is no less a place of royalty and presenting before the King is no less ceremonial.  But here the word takes on the concept of sacrifice.  The presenter is not simply fulfilling the role of introducing someone to God’s court.  The presenter is offering himself in an official ceremony as a sacrifice to the King.

 

Imagine the scene from Isaiah’s vision.  God’s robe fills the temple.  Angels hover overhead shouting “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts”.  The entire structure trembles at His voice.  Smoke fills the air.  This is the place of worship – and of sacrifice.  And sacrifice is the proper response before a holy Being.  Isaiah recognized immediately that he was unworthy to even be there.

 

Paul suggests that you and I stand in that same arena.  The Holy God, the Lord of hosts, confronts us.  Our only proper response is obeisance and sacrifice.  Paul is not making a casual suggestion.  He is saying that confronted by the holy God we have only one choice if we are to live.  Isaiah said it quite clearly, “Woe is me.” 

 

Modern religion has significantly diluted this idea.  We no longer view ourselves as dependent creatures face to face with the Creator.  We don’t think of the spectacular heights of His temple, the awesome power of His voice, the blinding light of His countenance or the magnificence of His angels.  Democracy has reduced us to critical citizens of the most common denominator.  We consider all that pomp and circumstance arcane.  We would rather watch it on television.  Now when we walk into church we are not thinking about the splendor of God.  We are thinking about the air conditioning.  We aren’t focused on reverence before the King of kings.  The drummer in the band distracts us.  Church is another form of entertainment – designed to please us and produce a spiritual “high” – rather than a place where we express our desperate dependence and total submission to God.

 

Paul would have none of that.  He knew that presenting was an act of sacrifice, done in a ceremonial protocol that raised humble submission to an act of glorification.  Worship is not about me.  It is about Him.  And sacrifice that focuses on me is far a field from a response to the holiness of God.

 

Present your members, says Paul.  The word for “members” is mele.  It literally means parts of the body.  Notice that Paul views the parts of the body as instruments of either righteousness or unrighteousness.  There is no suggestion that these body members are essentially good or essentially evil.  Whether they are used for good or evil depends on the presentation.  What is presented to God is sacrificed for His use.  What is presented to self is sacrificed to my use.  My hand, my foot, my arm or any other part of my body can be presented to the King or be offered to my own ego.  The parts of my body are no different than any other possession under my control.  They are neutral until I present them. 

 

Most of us are familiar with this interpretation of “members”.  We might not fully appreciate the fact that every body part can be offered to God.  We often struggle to believe that some parts we are unhappy or ashamed about can still be presented to His royal court.  But we acknowledge the truth of this claim, even if we don’t live it.  But Paul may be choosing his words much more carefully than we first imagine.  He may be painting two pictures with the same canvas – a sort of ancient hologram.  There is something here beneath the surface that shows us a deeper harmony.

 

Mele is a Greek word that has a secondary meaning – a meaning that gives us a different picture and expands our appreciation of the idea of presentation.  In classical Greek, mele also mean “song” or “melody”.  This usage is very old.  Paul would certainly have been familiar with this alternative.  Perhaps this secondary meaning helps us to expand the picture Paul wishes us to see.

 

Paul is an Old Testament man.  His thought patterns are rooted in images of the Hebrew Scriptures.  “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord.”  “Come before Him with joyful singing.”  “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise.”  These thoughts from the 100th Psalm are repeated over and over in the Old Testament.  God’s royal court is a place of celebration.  It is filled with the melodies of angels worshipping the Lord of Hosts.  The throne room of His palace is no somber, dreadful place.  It is filled with power, light and majesty.  It is the temple of the greatest symphony every written – the symphony of the universe.

 

Now, says Paul, understand that your body is His temple.  Every member of your body is playing a song – your body song.  It is a score written by God Himself, and it is in harmony with all that He has written for every part of the creation.  When you present your members to Him, you are joining a great orchestra.  Your song is added to this grand melody.  Present your song as your sacrifice and offering to Him.  He will take the song written in your body and make from it various instruments in His orchestra. 

 

We have a cliché that expresses this profoundly spiritual thought.  We just don’t realize how spiritually based it is.  We say, “Today I am just out of tune” or “I didn’t feel like I was tuned in” or “I just need to be tuned in to myself”.  These expressions implicitly recognize that life is intended to be harmonious.  We know when we are in disharmony.  We have an intuitive sense of our own body song.  It is a “spiritual” thing. 

 

Amazingly, even non-believers understand being out of tune.  This sense of disharmony, of creating bad “vibes”, is universal with Man.  God has written the melody very, very deeply in our bodies.  It is a melody that demands to be synchronized with the rest of His creation.  When we fight the divine symphony of the universe, we fight the song written into our own bodies.  We create noise instead of music.

 

There really is a natural harmony to things.  God wrote the score.  When we try to play our own tunes, we discover that we are not in synch with the divine symphony.  Paul recognized this.  As the great natural theologian, he simply points us to what is written inside us.  You and I have the choice of joining the choir of the angels or creating a demonic noise.  It all depends on which conductor we decide to be presented to.  There is no part of your body that does not have the song written into it.  There is no part of your body that cannot play the melody of heaven.  And if Paul is right, if your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, then you are alive with the music of the King.  That entire symphony is playing inside you. 

 

Today, may I present for Your listening pleasure, my body song, performed on the instruments You have given me. 

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The Wrong Stuff

Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 | Author: Skip Moen

I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God Romans 12:1

Living – In order for a sacrifice to be “living,” something had to go wrong.  You see, in the sacrificial system of Israel, an animal was destroyed when offered to God.  Only if it were no longer acceptable would the an animal offered to God continue to live.  After the animal was chosen and dedicated to destruction, something happened that rendered the animal unfit.  It was no longer satisfactory for sacrifice, but it had already been dedicated to God.  Therefore, it could not be used for any other purpose, and it could not be slaughtered in front of the altar.  What happened to such a sacrifice?  It was returned to the temple flock.  There was no way to reverse the dedication and no way to remove the blemish, so it was set apart from the rest of the herd, separated to God, but still alive.

When Paul calls for believers to present themselves as living sacrifices, he recalls the Jewish regulation concerning the dedicated but blemished animal.  By original creative act, every human being was set aside for God’s purposes.  But something went wrong.  What was to be the paradigm example of God’s distributed authority, the very image of God Himself, became unfit after it was dedicated.  We existed for Him but were unfit to fulfill our purpose.  What was the solution?  Yeshua reconciled us with the Father so that, even though we were stained, we could go on living while being separated for His service.  That’s what it means to be a living sacrifice.  It is the sacrifice that went wrong, but is still set apart for Him.

The text uses the Greek word zao.  It implies having some duration, existing or being alive.  Its Hebrew equivalent is hayyah (you can see the Hebrew word “living” in Genesis 2:7).  We were made in God’s image, animated by God’s breath, created for God’s purposes.  In perfect harmony with the Creator, we existed as His regents, equipped to carry out His orders in the world.  But something went wrong.  The tragic results meant that Mankind, dedicated at creation for God’s purposes, was now unfit for the role.  Only the sacrifice of God Himself could restore the original harmony and someday, when the grand plan of redemption closes, those who return to the God Who loves us will once again be perfectly fitted to the role.  Until then, we are separated as living sacrifices.

Perhaps you and I need to understand that a living sacrifice is a sacrifice that is not perfect.  A living sacrifice is blemished.  That’s who we are.  By the grace of God and the obedience of Yeshua, we are the blemished sacrifices, still alive after the altar ceremony.  What we could not do, Yeshua did for us.  In the process, He allowed us to be set apart, to continue even though we should have been put on the altar.  We are the redeemed wrong stuff, not the perfect offering.  And it’s all right.  We are just where we’re supposed to be.

Knowing this makes it a little easier to handle those days when the blemishes really show.  We are still His own, still dedicated to Him.  We are still set aside.  It’s not about perfection.  It’s about grace.  Though we were dead and buried with Him, we live.  It is a paradox of great importance.

Topical Index:  Sacrifice

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Cheerios

Sunday, June 15th, 2008 | Author: Skip Moen

If anyone offers a grain offering to the Lord, his offering must be of fine flour and he must pour oil on it and put incense on it. Leviticus 2:1

Grain Offering – Here’s an amazing fact.  Paul justifies the payment of those who proclaim the good news of God by appealing to the grain offering (see 1 Corinthians 9:13-14), as the Lord commanded.  It’s possible that Paul includes Jesus’ remark in Luke 10:7 in this thought.  But this much is certainly true.  Most of us don’t have a clue what the grain offering was all about!  How can we read Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church or listen to Jesus talk about the laborers for the gospel and not pay any attention to the symbolic meaning of the grain offering?  Maybe it’s time to get serious about God’s instructions.

First, a few facts.  The grain offering always followed the daily burnt offering, but unlike the peace offering and the burnt offering, it did not involve animal sacrifice.  Furthermore, only a handful of the grain offering was actually burned.  Most was given to the priests for food (thus Paul’s comment).

Second, the Hebrew word for “grain offering” is minchah (the middle “h” is guttural).  In secular use, it is often connected to the tribute a servant gives to a master, or the gift from a vassal to a king.  It’s not always about grain (Abel’s offering is a minchah), but it is always about the gift from an inferior to a superior.  We would call this the “first fruits.”  It’s the best that I have to offer to God.  Did you notice that it is performed daily, not just once at conversion?

Third, while there are no specific explanations regarding the additional elements of oil and incense, it doesn’t take much reasoning to see that bringing the best I have, and adding a symbol of anointing and an aroma of holy dedication, consecrates my offering without restriction.  In other words, I take the best I have, add even more value to it, and present it to God.

So, what does this have to do with us?  We are living in the 15th century BC.  Notice this:  the Septuagint translates minchah with the word thysia, the most common word for sacrifice in the New Testament.  It is the same word that Paul uses in Romans 12:1-2.  Paul knew perfectly well that the grain offering was a daily tribute to the sovereignty of God.  Isn’t that exactly what he suggests by exhorting us to present ourselves as a living sacrifice?  It isn’t once; it’s every day.  It isn’t just some of my life; it’s the very best I have to give.  It isn’t plain vanilla; it’s my best plus symbols of holy consecration.  That’s what is “acceptable and perfect.”  The grain offering was presented every morning and every evening in Israel, at the beginning of our production and at the end.  We might not take a handful of flour to the temple altar today, but if we don’t understand the meaning of the grain offering, we neglect to perform its symbolic representation every day, denying God’s sovereignty over us and ignoring His specific commandment.

You thought the sacrifices were abolished when Jesus died on the cross.  You missed the point.  The sacrifices were expanded into the hearts of men.  That’s the direction of the renewed covenant.  So, next time you sit down with your toasted oatmeal, think about the grain offering.  Present yourself as grain dedicated to God, sharing with His priests, a tribute to His Lordship over you this one day.  And then do it again tomorrow.

Topical Index:  Sacrifice

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Fundamental Shift

Friday, June 06th, 2008 | Author: Skip Moen

and all who dwell on the earth will worship him, every one whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain. Revelation 13:8

Foundation – In English, I prefer the New American Standard Bible.  So, I was quite surprised when I read this verse.  All the words from the Greek are here, but the order has been significantly altered.  The result is a fundamental change in the idea of the covenant.  Unfortunately, you would never know it unless you read the Greek text.

The Greek text places “from the foundation of the world” as a modifier of “the Lamb who has been slain.”  In other words, a normal reading of the Greek leads us to the conclusion that Yeshua, the Lamb of God, was sacrificed before the world came into existence.  However, the NASB shifts the placement of this modifying phrase to match a similar phrase in Revelation 17:8, making the modifier apply to the writing of names, not to the sacrifice of Yeshua.  The way the NASB reads, we would conclude that the names of the apostates and the names of the faithful have been written in the book of life since the world began.  That’s a big shift.  The NASB gives us a theology of individual predestination.  The Greek (and the NIV) puts the focus on the eternal sacrifice of Yeshua.  Without an explanation of this shift, you would never know.   This is not a mistake.  It is deliberate alteration of the translated text to match a prior theological position.  It’s equivalent to the NIV consistently translating sarx (flesh) as “sinful nature”.

Once we’ve cleared up the English translation, we can pay attention to the implication.  Read correctly, this verse makes a startling and powerful claim.  Yeshua’s sacrifice occurred before the creation of the world.  Of course, in earthly physical reality His death on the cross occurred in the first century AD.  But as far as the Bible is concerned, the real sacrifice happened the moment Yeshua took on the role of redeemer, and He volunteered for that role before the world began.  God didn’t make up the plan of redemption on the fly.  He didn’t think it up after the Fall.  It was all conceived and executed in advance.  There was always a provision for sin.

Let’s push this one step further.  Since the perfect sacrifice was initiated before the world began, all of the sacrificial provisions found in the torah are merely shadows of the greater reality.  The real sacrifice happened in heaven.  The progressive revelation of God’s plan of redemption introduced many sacrifices as pointers, symbols, representations and tokens of the heavenly reality.  Here’s the fundamental shift:  every sacrifice given by God in the torah exemplifies and exhibits some element of the full complexity of the heavenly sacrifice of the Lamb.  The peace offering, the sin offering, the cereal offering, the freewill offering, the burnt offering and more – all of them reveal some aspect of the sacrifice of the Lamb.  Jesus’ death on the cross is truly the fulfillment of all of those elements, but it does not replace them.  Every time a sacrifice is offered, it underscores some aspect of the full and complete sacrifice that occurred in heaven before the world began. Earthly expressions of the heavenly sacrifice are incomplete in themselves, but they are not invalid.  They all say something important about the full manifestation and eternal complexity of the Lamb slain before the foundations of the world.

Maybe the next time you read Leviticus it won’t seem so confusing.

Topical Index:  Sacrifice

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The Word of the Lord

Sunday, May 25th, 2008 | Author: Skip Moen

And YHWH called to Moses and spoke to him out of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying, Leviticus 1:1

Spoke – Why did God wait until His presence rested over the tabernacle before He spoke to Moses about the sacrifices?  Some contemporary translations of this verse omit the word “tabernacle,” but we shouldn’t!  The tabernacle represented the presence of God among His people.  It was not a dwelling place.  God didn’t reside in the tabernacle.  It was a visible symbol of God’s glory in the midst of the camp; a reminder that God elected this community.  From this holy manifestation, God instructs Moses.  The fact that God communicated out of the tabernacle raised the communication to its most sacred level.  What God says next is critically important.  It has the same authority as the voice from Mount Sinai.  What God says involves all the details of how we are to stand before Him.

The Hebrew word dabar means both “to speak or to say” and “what is spoken, a word or speech.”  The same consonants (D B R) are used in both forms.  What God speaks is His word.  Once we have that securely in mind, then we need to ask the next question:  How are we to treat God’s word?  The answer is obvious.  God’s word is the very substance of life.  Not only must we have it in order to live (“Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God”), but it is also God’s word that calls everything, including us, into existence.  God’s word is the instruction that will not disappear even if heaven and earth disappear.  God’s word is the permanent declaration of His will, His character and His authority.  When God speaks, the angelic hosts revel in His majesty.  So, when God summoned Moses and spoke to him, you can bet that Moses listened very attentively.  Makes you wonder about us, doesn’t it?  Do we treat this portion of God’s word with the reverence it deserves?  Do we recognize it with the same power and majesty as the speaking of the Ten Commandments?  Are we as careful to obey it?  Probably not, but it makes you wonder, doesn’t it?  When did we decide that some things God’s says are more important than others, that some are more spiritual than others?

There is one other element to this voice from the tabernacle.  When God does tell Moses about the system of sacrifices, we discover that the offerings cover a very wide range of human situations and attitudes.  Yes, that’s right – attitudes.  God’s instructions acknowledge no difference between civil and spiritual “laws”, no difference between what is moral and what is legal, and no difference between my heart and my hands.  Of course, there are different civil punishments, and different elements of sacrifice, for those who exhibit inner attitudes in ungodly outer behavior, but the torah is the only ancient code that actually legislates what I think as well as what I do.  When it comes to the Word of the Lord, all life falls under His purview.  Sometimes we forget that God has an interest in everything about us.  Maybe that’s why Leviticus is so detailed.  Maybe that’s why we usually think it boring.  Maybe we’re the ones who want anything but the routine, but it is in the routine that God is so wonderfully present.

Next time you wish you were climbing mountains, look around at the valley where you’re standing.  God is sitting in those shadows, ready to greet you.

Topical Index:  Sacrifice

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Kindergarten

Saturday, May 24th, 2008 | Author: Skip Moen

And YHWH called to Moses and spoke to him out of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying, Leviticus 1:1

Called – If you had to decide which book of the Bible you would use to train your children in the ways of God, would you choose Leviticus?  Probably not.  You would probably decide on some New Testament book, most likely the gospel of John.  That seems to be the evangelical choice of the last century.  But when you think about it (from God’s perspective), John is really not a very good place to being, is it?  It’s far to complicated.  It assumes a great deal of prior Jewish theology.  It has a peculiar vocabulary (which most of us don’t appreciate in English).  And it really doesn’t tell us what we need to know, does it?  Yes, it proclaims the divinity of Yeshua, the Messiah, but it doesn’t really tell me what I have to do.  It leaves me with verses like, “keep my commandments,” and “love one another.”  But what do those statements mean in practical application?  We can’t afford to guess, can we?  After all, eternal matters are at stake.

Maybe that’s why the education of a Jewish child begins here, in Leviticus.  Leviticus is the great book of the details of sacrifice.  It spells out exactly what I have to do.  It tells me precisely how I must live if I am to honor the God Who set me free.  Without all this background, it’s hard to say if the gospels really come to grips with the biggest issues in life.  Unless I know what Yeshua learned when he was a child in synagogue school, I really can’t appreciate what He tells me as my Lord.  It’s time to go back to kindergarten and learn to read by learning Leviticus.

Most of us will have quite a bit of resistance to this idea.  We think we know what the Bible is all about.  It’s about faith and grace and forgiveness and mercy.  Leviticus is all about peace offerings and cereal offerings and purification offerings and all those things that don’t really matter anymore, right?  Why should we be bothered with ancient rituals when we are free?  Who cares if the Lord smells a sweet aroma?  We’re forgiven, right?  We don’t have to practice all those strange customs now.  Or do we?

Why did the children of ancient Israel learn to read by studying Leviticus?  The answer is simple – and startling in its condemnation of our blindness.  The children of ancient Israel were taught to read through the study of Leviticus because the most important thing in life is my service and submission to God.  If I don’t start with this focus, all the rest of my education is really pointless.  If I don’t learn right from the beginning what God wants and how to serve Him, what is the purpose of learning anything else?  Parents in Israel knew something we have forgotten.  God comes first!  Training children in God’s word begins the moment they can talk.  The purpose of education is to enter into His presence and enjoy His fellowship, not to get a better job!

God summoned Moses.  That’s what this Hebrew word qara means.  God is going to deliver the perfect instruction for dealing with sin in His family.  It will all lead to the perfect sacrifice.  But unless I know the details, unless I practice obedience, I will never understand how extraordinarily significant the death of the Messiah is.  Time to get back to school.  When God summons, don’t be tardy.

Topical Index:  Sacrifice

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