God makes clean living possible
Every day we're reading or listening to part of the Bible together and sharing thoughts with you. Today it’s Bern Leckie:
What did I like about today’s passage?
Some of this reading is scary and forbidding. God's guidelines for his people covered their health, worship, diet and sexual appetites. Following this God could never be seen as a hobby or interest, but an all-of-life commitment. Not only that, but God claimed that the behaviour he wanted was not just a choice but an absolute necessity, as the land itself would become defiled and punishable, and would "vomit out" a wrongdoing people.
Something I don't like about these passages - or rather, how people treat them today - is that it's tempting to leap on particular verses which fit our views and skip over the rest. This can lead to blaming other people for everything wrong in the world, or to rejecting God's laws completely and perhaps picking some out to ridicule along the way. Both of these approaches miss the uncomfortable truth that we've all fallen short, but the good news is that even centuries before Jesus, God was pointing to the way back into healthy relationship with him and each other.
So the bit I love most about today's reading is the description of the two goats, one for sacrifice and one for casting out. Was the atonement the original "let go and let God"? Through the symbolic offering, people were shown that confession could release them from guilt, that God's chosen creature could literally take this guilt away, and that priests offering sacrifice for the people could cleanse them. Atonement was not a daily activity, but "once a year for all the sins". It's good, but even then it's only a shadow of the greater reality God has in store through Jesus.
What did it show me about Father God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit?
It's a consistent message through Leviticus - God's demand for our purity and his offer to cleanse where this is needed, and he knows it is going to be needed.
What am I going to do differently as a result?
I think it would be easiest to ignore any direct application and claim that this law does not apply to me. But God's principles do and always will, as the land which vomited would testify! I need to reflect more on how my surroundings and I are affected by sin, and not take Jesus' work for granted.
Who am I going to share this with?
Where there are things which need to be confessed, I'll do this with people I trust can pray with me and for me.