Bible Tuesday

So in the course of my normal bible reading schedule,  I have come back again to Leviticus.

  Oy.

Leviticus will test the mettle of even the most studious theologian...which I ain't. I fully believe 2 Timothy 3:16 ( All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness...)  So I read Leviticus with the knowledge that God has something for me there. I'm not saying it's easy.  I'm just saying I do it.

In Chapter 9, we encounter something pretty odd. Aaron, Moses’ brother, is doing his first official acts as high priest for the Israelites. The tabernacle has been built ( according to God’s blueprint) and Aaron and his sons are getting to work. They kill a calf for a sin offering (v8). They don’t just have to kill it though. They have to drain the blood, rub some of the blood on the altar, pour the rest of it at the base of the altar, remove some of the organs to be burned and then haul the rest of the carcass to a place outside the camp to be burned. Then they move on to the burnt offering. They kill a ram, throw the blood against the altar, cut the animal up and offer each piece to be burned. Then they have to wash the entrails. Yep, you heard me. Wash the entrails and burn them also. This continues with several other animals and a grain offering.

All this occurs in the brand new tabernacle. The tabernacle has been a project made to God’s specific design. Everything in it is of the highest quality. All the furniture and instruments are covered in gold or some other precious metal. All the fabrics are fine linen embroidered by a master craftsman. Even Aaron’s priestly garments are of a specific design and made with exacting standards. Now, can you just imagine what the inside of that tabernacle looked like after all these sacrifices were made?  What about Aaron’s clothes? My guess is that whole place looked like a scene from Stephen King's nightmares. Tide with Bleach doesn’t even exist for these people. Do you think those blood stains ever came out? 

All this leads me to wonder if that was God’s point.  Does God want this carnage to remind the Israelites(and us)of  just how damaging sin can be?  The tabernacle is a forerunner of the temple and later, God will say that our bodies are the true temple. Because of sin, that tabernacle became a bloody mess. How much more so the temple of our bodies when we sin?

And yet we must remember that this was never God’s original plan. His intended home for us was a garden. A beautiful place where we could be in constant fellowship with the one for whom we were made. We chose the blood soaked sand of the tabernacle when we demanded to do it our own way. God cannot be in the presence of sin. He cannot. Yet His desire was still to have relationship with us. So, until it was the appointed time for Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice, these shadows would suffice.

In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.  Hebrews 9:22