Leviticus. So many rules all at one time.

Once again, I started reading the Bible from the beginning. But instead of having some sort of goal, to read the whole bible in a year, I decided to take it slow. I try to read every day, but that doesn't happen all the time. One or two chapters per day is what I'm tackling at the moment. I found that it is a good pace because it keeps my mind from jumping to quickly and therefore missing what God wants to say through it. Its sometime really hard to see the Father heart of God in the Old Testament, but its there because He's always the same God with the same heart, always.

When I started reading Leviticus, I had many intentional thoughts telling myself, "I can't let reading all these rules make me start thinking legalistically again." I had an underlying fear that it would change my heart, and I thought maybe I should skip Leviticus and go to another book that I know is good for me to read and that its immediately uplifting, encouraging and beneficial. But fear isn't from God so I spit those thoughts out of my mind as quickly as they came. Thankfully, I have found so much good in Leviticus. Yet, it hasn't been an immediate knowledge that came through sitting, thinking and studying. It has mostly come out in conversations during this past week. As the words were coming out of my mouth I knew the Lord was encouraging me that these truths were party due to what I was currently reading.

Below is what I wrote in my journal this morning:
Leviticus: so many rules all at one time. God wants the best for us at all times. It doesn't mean that it will be great and glorious or what we think is best for us. But, may look like a lot of not doing things we're accustomed to doing, and doing a lot of things that are awkward and not normal to us. But in it, it sets us apart from the rest of the World and it makes us holy. Not necessarily what we do or don't do but Jesus makes us holy which enables us to do what we couldn't do and not do what we always did.

All these rule that God laid down were for Israel's good. They came out of Egypt with this slave mentality and a hopelessness that there was nothing that they could do to change the outcome in their lives. But God brought them out to be their God, which called them to be holy and set apart like God is Holy and not like any other. In that, God, demanded a change in the Israelites. In their thinking and in their actions. So, He told them what was good for them and not good for them and that if they didn't act accordingly that they would die. Simple things like, don't let your bull gore your neighbor, if he does, you need to kill the bull. And then really complex thing of what type of sacrifice was acceptable and when to do it and how to do it and all these stipulations or people would die. There were two sons of Aaron that went into the temple to offer incense before the Lord and the Lord struck them dead! Its craziness and absolutely confusing to us today, especially in our culture, to think about these things and how God is still good in everything. But if you think about what the Israelites were exposed to in Egypt, knowing what we know today, the Egyptians worshiped everything and the god in everything. The sun, the moon, the harvest, the rain, fertility, etc. everything! So the Israelites had to be so messed up in their thinking going from having Pharaoh, who was seen as a god who ruled the people, to a God who is unseen and had true power and and a messenger and leader, Moses, whose face literally lit up when he spoke to God so that the people told him to cover his face. Big changes in the community called for big changes in action and in deed. So, then all the impurities had to be washed away from the people God had chosen to be Holy like He is Holy.

But the point is, for us today, that in everything, God wants the best for us in every moment, the right now immediate moment. I promise that it wont look like what we expect or what we think is best for us but God has His best interest for us and in us, still. So, it calls for a change of mind and action. Thankfully, we have the holy spirit who actually makes it possible. And the whole purpose is to set us apart, make us Holy, make us different then the rest of the world so that it may draw interest from those who don't know Him. Ultimately to bring us back to our true purpose, to rule, reign, and have dominion on earth. To live here abundantly and to walk with God.

Bless all of you who find and read. My prayer is for you to know God deeply and that He would continue to make Himself known to you and that His Face would shine on you, so that those who need to see Him would see Him through you.

Love,
Jared