Leviticus 5–9

Leviticus is all about the holiness of God. It is God's communication to the people of Israel and to us that He is a holy God. And that's such an important reminder for those of us who are living in and enjoying the grace of God. I hope you enjoy the grace of God. I really do. The grace of God is wonderful for believers today from the standpoint that we can just run into the presence of the Lord at any time and we don't have to wait. And we have this, just constant invitation and yet that can cause us to actually begin to back away a little bit from perhaps our understanding of the fact that our God is a holy God. And we are reminded, we read these passages from the Old Testament where God said, stay away, back off, don't touch because I am a holy God. And it is so, the difference between what we're learning here, frankly, in the Book of Leviticus and the grace that we know in the New Testament is so profound that people throughout the ages have struggled to believe that we're dealing with the same God. Do you know that there are actually, where Bible teachers in years past, that postulated that the God of the Old Testament was different from the God of yeah, the new. And so this was, these were heretical sorts of teachings that were going on in the early church. And it's all because of things like we are studying here in the Book of Leviticus that show the holiness of God. And people were so unaccustomed to understanding the holiness of God because they had received the grace of God. And now it was just, it looked like a different God. Well, it's not a different God. It's the same God. The difference between the way God is portrayed in a sense and what we see in the new, the difference is Jesus you guys. He's the one who made the difference for you and me and gave us the freedom to enter into God's presence at any time. We're at chapter 5 in Leviticus. Let's pray.

Father God, open our hearts, open our minds, open our spirits to hear Your voice tonight. I know that as we're going through this study tonight, these guys have to listen to my voice. But I pray that they hear Yours. I pray, Father God, that they receive Your revelation of truth and understanding. Be with us, Lord, and tune our ears to hear You tonight, in Jesus name, amen. Chapter 5 begins with one of the longest run on sentences in the entire Bible. It goes from verse 1 to verse 6. I don't know, the apostle Paul was good at run on sentences. Let me tell you something. He's got nothing on Moses or should I say God. God doesn't feel the need to put punctuation in at all. Anyway, this baby goes through 6 verses. It says, but we're going to break it up as we go along the way and talk about it. Verse 1 says, “If anyone sins in that he hears a public adjuration to testify,…” And what that means is, there's been an appeal to the people to testify or to come forward to testify if they knew anything about a situation. In other words, if the officials said, does anyone know anything about this situation that happened between so and so and so and so? We would look, if you're a witness, if you know information about it, we want you to come forward. And that's what it's saying. If you hear of that a public request for you to come forth and testify. “…and though he is a witness, whether he has seen or come to know the matter, (and) yet does not speak, he shall bear his iniquity;” And I want you just to stop, think about that for a minute, and what God is telling the people of Israel, that He is requiring of them. I want you to see here that He's telling His people, I want you to speak the truth. And if it's a matter that you know about, if it's a matter that you have information about, regardless of who may be at fault. And you think about it, you stop think, why would somebody not come forward and give testimony if they knew if they were a witness or if they knew about something about it, why would they withhold testimony? Well, because it might hurt someone they love or care about. And that's why they say, well, I'm not going to say anything because I might get so and so in trouble or whatever. God is saying no, if you've got information and you're being asked to give that information about a legal matter, you speak up. Here's what He's saying. Withholding information is wrong. Simple as that and then He's going to go on and give us a lot of other kinds of examples of things that are wrong.

“2 or if anyone touches an unclean thing, (and they're going to learn down the road, what is unclean) whether a carcass of an unclean wild animal or a carcass of unclean livestock or a carcass of unclean swarming things, and it is hidden from him (in other words, he didn’t know that it was wrong) and he has become unclean, and (then) he realizes his guilt; 3 or if he touches human uncleanness, of whatever sort the uncleanness may be with which one becomes unclean, and it is hidden from him, (and again, that means he doesn’t know, he wasn’t aware of the fact that he did something wrong) when he comes to know it, and realizes his guilt; 4 or if anyone utters with his lips a rash oath to do evil or to do good, any sort of rash oath that people swear,…” And I just need to explain to you what that means. That talks about making a promise to either do something or saying, I didn't do something or whatever, but it's a promise that was made with an oath. It wasn't just somebody saying, I didn't do that. I mean, or I'm going to do something. This is a situation where someone is making a promise with an oath. And that means, I swear by God in heaven that I'm going to do this. Okay. What God is basically saying is when you make a promise, keep your promises. When you make an oath, even if it's something that you did rashly. Just know this, you made an oath before God, even if it was rash, and I want you to keep it. It has to be observed. But if you come to the place where you cannot keep that oath, it's a situation where you need forgiveness. And that's when He goes on to say. He says, “…and it is hidden from him, (and then) when he comes to know it, and he realizes his guilt in any of these; (and) 5 when he realizes his guilt in any of these and confesses the sin he has committed, 6 he shall bring to the LORD as his compensation for the sin that he has committed, a female from the flock, a lamb or a goat, for a sin offering. And the priest shall make atonement for him for his sin.” Again, it is a sin. He's telling them it is a sin, even if you make a promise with an oath. And again, this is about an oath, not just any old promise. I swear by God in heaven, that would be an oath that they would take. Something like that. Well, God says, I hear those things and I want My people to be people of truth. And I want them when they say something, to mean it. And if there's, for some reason… Okay, so what would constitute a rash oath? A rash oath would be an oath that you made, but you couldn't keep. Okay. You couldn't keep it for whatever reason, so He says, hey, listen. that's a problem.

Now, I want you to notice the very last thing that the Lord says through Moses there at the end of verse 6. I want you to see the last sentence there. It says, “And the priest shall make atonement for him for his sin.” Did you catch that? Who's going to make atonement for the person who sinned? The priest, right? The priest is to make atonement. Well, what was God teaching the people of Israel at that time? Well, He's teaching them that under the Old Covenant, a priest was required to go before the Lord and make atonement for them. There's a lot of people, a lot of Christians today who read things like this in the Old Testament, and they would say, well, see, God requires a priest so today we need a priest. We need, we still need priests today, we need to go and to confess our sins before a priest and then we need that priest to make atonement for us. Isn't that essentially what Roman Catholicism believes? I'm not here to throw stones at Roman Catholicism. I'm just telling you, that's what they believe. They believe that we still need a priest, a human priest. Like the Jews needed to you go and you confess your sin before that priest and the priest makes atonement for you. Is that what the Bible is saying? Well, yes and no. Jesus is that priest. You've got one, by the way. You've got a priest. His name is Jesus. Are you with me? Let me show you some verses. Hebrews chapter 8, verses 1 and 2. Let me show you these on the screen. He says, Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, (he’s not seated in a little box next to you with a screen that you can’t see through, He’s seated in heaven at the right hand of the… Majesty in heaven) a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. In other words, in heaven. Romans 8, verse 34. Let me show you the next one.

Who is to condemn (the people of God when we sin, who is going to condemn us)? Christ Jesus is the one who died (for us so He’s not going to go around condemning us)—more than that, who was raised (for us)—who is at the right hand of God, (look at this) who indeed is interceding for us. So see guys, you have a high priest. And then let me show you 1 John chapter 2. It says, My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins… My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, (and you will) we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense— Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. (why is that an important thing to know? Because) He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins… Okay. Do you need a priest to confess to? Yes. His name is Jesus. You don't need a human priest here on earth. That's not to say that Jesus isn't a human because He is, He's still a man. He's also God, He is God in human flesh. And so this is really important for us to see this here. Now, verses 7 through 13 are simply going to give some instructions in the case that someone can't afford to come to the priest with a lamb or goat when they have sinned because, forgiveness needs to be affordable to all, and open to all. And so this is what we're going to look at. He says,

Now, that's cheap, to do that sort of an offering. But there are some people who are dirt poor. And so he goes on and he says,

And sin doesn't smell nice so don't put any frankincense on that. That’s for a peace offering but not for a sin offering.

What you see here in the Book of Leviticus is this this increasingly easy offering to make depending on your means. If you don't have a flock, you can't bring a goat or a lamb, then you bring these birds and there's any pretty much anybody can get their hands on them. But if they can't, you can't bring a handful of grain, fine flour. It basically, we're talking about wheat that's been pounded and ground into flour. And it's like, everybody's got that because they have to eat. The point that the Lord is making here is that, these things are available to all. All right now, moving on, the Lord is going to give directives for those who become guilty and need to offer a guilt offering. And these instructions will continue into the 5 verses of chapter 6, the first 7 verses. It starts here, goes on into chapter 6. It says,

What he means by that is they, and by the way, the people really haven't hardly even learned yet what the holy things of the Lord are, and they're going to learn as they go down the road. But they're going to learn that God is going to command them to tithe from their crops. He's going to tell them that when they have a first born animal, that animal belongs to the Lord. When they make offerings that have been vowed, they need to give them, and any number of other things that are considered to be the holy things of the Lord. He's basically saying here, if they fail to do these, and that is a breach of faith, then here's what we do.

The first thing he has to do is take care of the guilt just related to his own sin. But then I want you to take note of what it says in verse 16. It says,

These are the holy things of the Lord, which the people of God are going to learn about after a while. The Lord instructs all these things during this time, but they're going to learn that if they fail to do what they were commanded to do, then they need to not only bring a guilt offering, but they need to make restitution for what they should have brought, or what they should have done. And there's something smart about, I like the idea of restitution, frankly. And it's not a command of the New Testament, I'll just tell you that right now. Well, none of this is a command of the New Testament. This is not stuff that you guys have to do, but there are interesting principles that we learn from these passages that help us see the heart of the Lord, help us see the holiness of God, and help us just understand God's righteous laws as it relates to these things. Verse 17 says,

In other words, it still wrong, even if you didn't know it. And then somebody brought it to your attention. Hey, did you know that was wrong? I didn't know that. Well, do you get out of, do you get a get out of jail free card if you didn't know it was wrong? No, you don't. It was still wrong. It's still, do you see the holiness of God? It's not like there isn't grace. Grace is still evident even in the Old Testament because there's still forgiveness for these things. But did you ever notice that God never just sweeps sin under the rug? He never does that. God never says, well, you didn't know so you know what? Just don't do it again. Now, you know so don't do it again. And next, I don't want to see you in this courtroom again. You ever heard a judge say that? I'm going to let you go on this one. I'm going to give you a warning. God doesn't give warnings. A sin is a sin. It's always a sin. Why? Because God is always holy. There's never a time when God isn't holy and because of that, sin is always a sin. You can't just ever brush it under the rug and say, well, you didn't know so whatever. Verse 18 goes on to say,

There’s the grace.

And this is, you can see that the Lord is even repeating these things, by saying that he, yeah, he incurred guilt because some people are probably thinking, really? You're really going to say that this is a sin even when he didn't know it? Yeah. Yeah, He is. It still is. Chapter 6, it continues on speaking of the guilt offering, says,

All right. You can see what we're doing now. We've been talking about sins that are committed against the Lord, now we're talking about sins that are committed against, human against humans. And He says, such as,“…in a matter of deposit or security, or through robbery, or if he has oppressed his neighbor 3 or has found something lost and lied about it, swearing falsely—in any of all the things that people do and sin thereby— 4 if he has sinned and has realized his guilt and will restore what he took by robbery or what he got by oppression or the deposit that was committed to him or the lost thing that he found 5 or anything about which he has sworn falsely, he shall restore it in full and shall add a fifth to it, and give it to him to whom it belongs on the day he realizes his guilt.” You know what this reminds me of? It reminds me of a little vertically challenged tax collector in the New Testament by the name of Zacchaeus, and he knew that Jesus was passing through his region. And so it says, because he was a short man, a man of short stature, he climbed up a tree so he could see him, which is a really a great idea. So he climbed up a tree so he could see Jesus passing by and lo and behold, Jesus walked right up to him and said, hey, Zach, buddy, we're having dinner at your house today. And it says that Zacchaeus immediately came down and said, if I have cheated anybody, and you know he had. He said, I'll pay it back, and he said, with interest. Here was a man who just by virtue of meeting the Savior face to face with the Lord, was brought face to face with his sin, and that's the power of looking into the eyes of the Savior. Jesus doesn't have to say anything except we're going to have lunch at your house and people are just a puddle. It's like, Peter did the same thing. You'll remember after he saw that miraculous catch of fish, he immediately got down on his knees. He's like, please go away from me, I'm a sinful man. So what is that? It's just that immediate revelation that I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy to even be talking to You or have You close to me and but this is what the Lord is talking about here in these verses. He realizes his guilt, and now he's going to pay it back, and he's going to pay it back with interest. And it says in verse 6,

Now, the rest of the chapter, I'm just going to tell you ahead of time, are, these are instructions for Aaron and his sons concerning the way that offerings are to be made. So we're going to read through these fairly rapidly because again, these are just, these are instructions. They haven't done any of these yet. All these instructions that they've been getting about how to sacrifice, none of this has started yet. It doesn't start until a later chapter. So the Lord is still telling them how to do it. It says,

He’ll repeat that several times.

In other words, the opportunity for forgiveness is never closed for business. Can I just tell you that? That's still the same today. The opportunity for forgiveness is never closed. God doesn't ever close that window and say we'll be back later. You just got to sit in your simmer in your sin and feel the regret. You come to the Lord and you will find forgiveness. The Bible says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and (will) …forgive us… and… cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Right? Is that ever closed? Is that ever a time when the Lord goes, except during the hours of midnight and 5 a.m. every other Thursday, we take that off? No, there's never a time so the fire is kept burning all the time. The altar where those sacrifices are made, it's a perpetual thing. “The priest (we’re in the middle of verse 12) shall burn wood on it every morning, and he shall arrange the burnt offering on it and shall burn on it the fat of the peace offerings. 13 Fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually; (there it is again, it shall not go out) it shall not go out.” And then He's going to give them instructions about the grain offerings. He says,

And so you can see how the Lord is taking care of the priests at the same time because remember the priests, when they finally got into the land, they were not to own property. And I mean, they had property that they could plant things on, but it was owned within the other tribal allotments. And so the priests need to be provided for, and God made a provision for them within the sacrificial system.

And you'll remember typically when a grain offering was made a portion of the offering went to the priest and his family but when a new priest is ordained, it must be burned completely according to the Lord. Verse 24 says,

Well, we first learned about the sin offering back in chapter 4, but here the Lord is going to give some further instructions to the priest concerning the proper way of offering this sacrifice in the middle of verse 25.

Crazy, huh? I just, it's really something. It says that even the meat, from the sin offering was to be seen as set apart for the Lord. Every part of…, that's what holy means. Set apart for the Lord. Every part of it even down to the eating of it had to be eaten even in a place with the same attitude of respect and the understanding of holiness. You can see how God is communicating His holiness over and over again. Verse 28 says,

Chapter 7. This chapter 7 continues with instructions for the priest concerning the offerings, verses 1 through 6. This is really a more comprehensive explanation given than what we saw earlier related to the guilt offering. And it says,

Now as we go on, verses 7 through 10 summarize what belongs to the priest from the various offerings.

And then verses 11 through 21. This is going to outline the priestly regulations. for the fellowship offering, also known as the peace offering.

What are you guys seeing here in these verses? God is saying that when you are unclean, you're not acceptable before the Lord, right? And they needed to be ceremonially clean to be able to eat the food from the peace, or the fellowship offering, or whatever. In other words, as they fellowship with the Lord, there has to be a cleanness about them. And I want you to understand that is what Jesus has done for you and me. He has made us clean. We are clean. We are acceptable in the presence of the Lord. And I want you to see that. But you can see again, and I know I've said this repeatedly, that the Lord is showing the people of Israel the requirements that go along with His holiness. I Am a holy God, He says. You must be clean. You can't just waltz into My presence.

Why? Because the fat and the blood were reserved for sacrifice and it spoke of life, frankly. The Bible says the life of a being, an animal, or a human is in the blood. We know that. You got to have blood or you're not alive. And so the life of the animal was represented by the blood, and that's why the blood was used to sacrifice to show that a life must be given for a life. That's what the sacrifice is all about. A life for a life. And that's why we see Jesus as the fulfillment of the sacrificial system when He gave His life. Life for life. That was the point of what the Lord was communicating for the upcoming perfect sacrifice. Verse 28.

If you have an old King James Bible in your lap, instead of “a wave offering,” this is called, “a heave offering.” Don't care much for that word, but the whole thing is actually a little bit strange for us today, anyway. The word that is translated, wave, well, it comes from a Hebrew word, root word that means, to move to and fro, like this. And so thus the wave offering was offered before the Lord with a waving motion as it was presented to the Lord.

Here's what's interesting, God never explains why they were to do that. And it could have been that there was something cultural that has been lost in that time about the whole idea of offering something with a waving motion. We don't really know, but this was a significant part of the offering. Verse 31 says, “The priest shall burn the fat on the altar, but the breast shall be for Aaron and his sons. 32 And the right thigh you shall give to the priest as a contribution from the sacrifice of your peace offerings.” Again, God’s taking care of the priests. “33 Whoever among the sons of Aaron offers the blood of the peace offerings and the fat shall have the right thigh for a portion. 34 For the breast that is waved and the thigh that is contributed I have taken from the people of Israel, out of the sacrifices of their peace offerings, and have given them to Aaron the priest and to his sons, as a perpetual due (notice that) from the people of Israel. 35 This is the portion of Aaron and of his sons from the LORD's food offerings, from the day they were presented to serve as priests of the LORD. 36 The LORD commanded this to be given them by the people of Israel, from the day that he anointed them. (by the way, that day has not come yet, its coming soon) It is a perpetual due throughout their generations.” (and He says) 37 This is the law of the burnt offering, of the grain offering, of the sin offering, of the guilt offering, of the ordination offering, and of the peace offering, 38 which the LORD commanded Moses on Mount Sinai, on the day that he commanded the people of Israel to bring their offerings to the LORD, in the wilderness of Sinai.” Now, chapter 8 is where we get instructions for the ordination of Aaron and his sons. All right, so these are all instructions. “The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments and the anointing oil and the bull of the sin offering and the two rams and the basket of unleavened bread. 3 And assemble all the congregation at the entrance of the tent of meeting.” 4 And Moses did as the LORD commanded him, and the congregation was assembled at the entrance of the tent of meeting.” Okay here we go, it’s happening. “5 And Moses said to the congregation, “This is the thing that the LORD has commanded to be done.” 6 And Moses brought Aaron and his sons and washed them with water. 7 And he put the coat on him and tied the sash around his waist and clothed him with the robe and put the ephod on him and tied the skillfully woven band of the ephod around him, binding it to him with the band. 8 And he placed the breastpiece on him, and in the breastpiece he put the Urim and the Thummim.” Those were used for determining the decisions of the Lord. “9 And he set the turban on his head, and on the turban, in front, he set the golden plate, the holy crown, as the LORD commanded Moses.” There was literally a crown on the high priest. And of course, that's a picture of our King Jesus Christ, who is High Priest and King on our behalf. “10 Then Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the tabernacle and all that was in it, and consecrated them. 11 And he sprinkled some of it on the altar seven times, and anointed the altar and all its utensils and the basin and its stand, to consecrate them. 12 And he poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron's head and anointed him to consecrate him. 13 And Moses brought Aaron's sons and clothed them with coats and tied sashes around their waists and bound caps on them, as the LORD commanded Moses. 14 Then he brought the bull of the sin offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the bull of the sin offering. 15 And he killed it, and Moses took the blood, and with his finger put it on the horns of the altar around it and purified the altar and poured out the blood at the base of the altar and consecrated it to make atonement for it. 16 And he took all the fat that was on the entrails and the long lobe of the liver and the two kidneys with their fat, and Moses burned them on the altar. 17 But the bull and its skin and its flesh and its dung he burned up with fire outside the camp, as the LORD commanded Moses. 18 Then he presented the ram of the burnt offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram. 19 And he killed it, and Moses threw the blood against the sides of the altar. 20 He cut the ram into pieces, and Moses burned the head and the pieces and the fat. 21 He washed the entrails and the legs with water, and Moses burned the whole ram on the altar. It was a burnt offering with a pleasing aroma, a food offering for the LORD, as the LORD commanded Moses. 22 Then he presented the other ram, (look at this, it's called) the ram of ordination, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram. 23 And he killed it, and Moses took some of its blood and put it on the lobe of Aaron's right ear and on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot.” Now what's interesting about this anointing ceremony is that it is nowhere explained in the Word of God as to the significance of just how they went about anointing Aaron and his sons. There's things that we can guess. I mean we know that they anointed his right ear, right thumb, and the big toe of his right foot. And we know from elsewhere in the Word of God that the right side was always the best. That's why even in the New Testament, Jesus said, if your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out. (Matthew 5:29) The people of that day would have known what he meant. That meant your best eye. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off. (Matthew 5:30) And again, the people would have known what he meant. Your right hand is considered your best hand. When a man's wife gave birth to his first son, that son would be called the son of his right hand. That's his first and best effort, if you will. Jesus is seated at the right hand of the majesty of God. So you can see that all of these things have a significance. So knowing what we do about the right and the fact that they anointed these things, they're anointing the right ear, seeming to suggest that Aaron and his sons were set apart in their hearing, but not just their hearing their best hearing. Their right thumb, suggesting they were set apart in their doing, since the thumb is on the hand and used to grasp things like tools and so forth, or weapons. And the right big toe would suggest that Aaron and his sons were set apart in their walking, as they walk out their lives. And not just walking, but their best walking, given to the Lord, presented to the Lord, consecrated to the Lord. “24 Then he presented Aaron's sons, and Moses put some of the blood on the lobes of their right ears and on the thumbs of their right hands and on the big toes of their right feet. And Moses threw the blood against the sides of the altar. 25 Then he took the fat and the fat tail and all the fat that was on the entrails and the long lobe of the liver and the two kidneys with their fat and the right thigh, 26 and out of the basket of unleavened bread that was before the LORD he took one unleavened loaf and one loaf of bread with oil and one wafer and placed them on the pieces of fat and on the right thigh. 27 And he put all these in the hands of Aaron and in the hands of his sons and waved them as a wave offering before the LORD. 28 Then Moses took them from their hands and burned them on the altar with the burnt offering. This was an ordination offering with a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the LORD. 29 And Moses took the breast and waved it for a wave offering before the LORD. It was Moses' portion of the ram of ordination, as the LORD commanded Moses.” You'll remember that Moses too is from a priestly line.

--- “30 Then Moses took some of the anointing oil and of the blood that was on the altar and sprinkled it on Aaron and his garments, and also on his sons and his sons' garments. So he consecrated Aaron and his garments, and his sons and his sons' garments with him. 31 And Moses said to Aaron and his sons, “Boil the flesh at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and there eat it and the bread that is in the basket of ordination offerings, as I commanded, saying, ‘Aaron and his sons shall eat it.’ 32 And what remains of the flesh and the bread you shall burn up with fire. 33 And you shall not go outside the entrance of the tent of meeting for seven days, until the days of your ordination are completed, for it will take seven days to ordain you. 34 As has been done today, the LORD has commanded to be done to make atonement for you. 35 At the entrance of the tent of meeting you shall remain day and night for seven days, performing what the LORD has charged, so that you do not die, for so I have been commanded.” 36 And Aaron and his sons did all the things that the LORD commanded by Moses.” And then chapter 9, very simply marks the official beginning of the sacrificial system. So you'll remember they waited 7 days and it starts off by saying. “On the eighth day Moses called Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel, 2 and he said to Aaron, “Take for yourself a bull calf for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering, both without blemish, and offer them before the LORD. 3 And say to the people of Israel, ‘Take a male goat for a sin offering, and a calf and a lamb, both a year old without blemish, for a burnt offering, 4 and an ox and a ram for peace offerings, to sacrifice before the LORD, and a grain offering mixed with oil, for today the LORD will appear to you.’” 5 And they brought what Moses commanded in front of the tent of meeting, and all the congregation drew near and stood before the LORD. 6 And Moses said, “This is the thing that the LORD commanded you to do, that the glory of the LORD may appear to you.” 7 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Draw near to the altar and offer your sin offering and your burnt offering and make atonement for yourself and for the people, and bring the offering of the people and make atonement for them, as the LORD has commanded.” 8 So Aaron drew near to the altar and killed the calf of the sin offering, which was for himself. 9 And the sons of Aaron presented the blood to him, and he dipped his finger in the blood and put it on the horns of the altar and poured out the blood at the base of the altar. 10 But the fat and the kidneys and the long lobe of the liver from the sin offering he burned on the altar, as the LORD commanded Moses. 11 The flesh and the skin he burned up with fire outside the camp. 12 Then he killed the burnt offering, and Aaron's sons handed him the blood, and he threw it against the sides of the altar. 13 And they handed the burnt offering to him, piece by piece, and the head, and he burned them on the altar. 14 And he washed the entrails and the legs and burned them with the burnt offering on the altar. 15 Then he presented the people's offering and took the goat of the sin offering that was for the people and killed it and offered it as a sin offering, like the first one. 16 And he presented the burnt offering and offered it according to the rule. 17 And he presented the grain offering, took a handful of it, and burned it on the altar, besides the burnt offering of the morning. 18 Then he killed the ox and the ram, the sacrifice of peace offerings for the people. And Aaron's sons handed him the blood, and he threw it against the sides of the altar. 19 But the fat pieces of the ox and of the ram, the fat tail and that which covers the entrails and the kidneys and the long lobe of the liver— 20 they put the fat pieces on the breasts, and he burned the fat pieces on the altar, 21 but the breasts and the right thigh Aaron waved for a wave offering before the LORD, as Moses commanded. 22 Then Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them, and he came down from offering the sin offering and the burnt offering and the peace offerings. 23 And Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting, and when they came out they blessed the people, and the glory of the LORD appeared to all the people. 24 And fire came out from before the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar, and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.” I bet they did. I would have too. That's where we're going to stop for tonight. We'll pick it up in chapter 10 next time, and you'll find it interesting, I know. Let's pray. Father, as we go through the Book of Leviticus, this isn't the type of devotional book that we typically turn to when we're looking for comfort or instruction. But Lord, we see here Your utter holiness, your utter perfection, and all the requirements that had to be made for one simple reason. Mankind is sinful and that's it.

Because Lord, we are sinners, all things must be done perfectly if we are to approach a holy God. But Lord, we're not perfect people and we cannot keep a perfect law from a perfect God. And I am so thankful tonight that our Savior came in the perfection of His very being a lamb without spot or blemish and gave Himself for us that we might approach a holy God as a holy people. I thank you my Father that this very holiness of our Savior has been imputed now to each one of us. Not because we deserve it but because You're good and full of love. And we thank You and we praise You. And we worship You King of kings, Lord of lords. Our soon coming Redeemer. We commit our hearts to You in the name of Jesus, our Savior. And all God's people said together, amen. God bless you. Have a good rest of your evening. ---