Lectionary for 4/15/08

Today's readings are Leviticus 10.1-20 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Lev.+10.1-20 ), Luke 9.37-62 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Luke+9.37-62 ), and Leviticus 11.1-15.33 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Lev.+11.1-15.33 ).

 

Let's draw our attention to the longer reading, from Leviticus 11-15.  Notice the unifying factors throughout this passage, giving laws which appear to protect the hygeine of the people of Israel. 

 

First, the vast majority of situations dealt with in these chapters are situations the individual Israelite cannot prevent.  God has provided a means of relief for the symptoms of those situations we find ourselves in due to no fault of our own.  Much of the suffering we endure is not due to our own sin, nor due to the sins of others around us, but due to the fact we live in a sin-cursed world.  We live, we suffer, we die, and our Lord has provided comfort and relief for us, on his own terms, following his own rules.  And we see that God's directives here for restoration are not the kind of directives we would come up with.  The sacrifices made, with variations depending on the relative wealth of the person making the offering, don't seem closely related to the actual situation.  They don't fit according to our wisdom.  But they fit according to God's wisdom.

 

Second, see the role of the priests in all restoration.  We don't work out our troubles ourselves.  A walk with God is not an individualistic thing.  We would like to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps, go find ourselves, get our lives under control - all in vain.  Our individual strivings bring death and destruction.  Thanks be to God who has provided means of grace including other believers who can see our struggles, look at them rightly before the Lord, and move us toward the divinely provided restoration.

 

Finally, we see that the kind of offerings prescribed are different for different people.  Those who are wealthy may give noble and expensive offerings.  Those who are poor will give less.  God does not exclude people from his kingdom and a relationship with him based on wealth or poverty. 

 

If we should doubt God's provision and love for his people, let us consider our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who owns all heaven and earth yet was born into poverty, of a mother who was able to give only the least expensive offering after he was born.  He has lived in community, subjected himself to his parents and the priests and teachers of his day, corrected the priests and teachers, served as our sacrifice, and risen from the dead to deliver to us the promise of eternal life.  Let us trust on God's provision in Jesus.