Day 39: Leviticus 8 - 10 - Holiness before God

The most striking thing about Tabernacle life was a profound sense of God’s holiness. I regret deeply how familiar I have been with Him in my own life. It is not easy to evoke a deep sense of Holiness with someone we neither see nor hear.

Regardless of what the cross did to make Him accessible to us, we dare not detract from what it meant to engage a profoundly Holy God. To even look on Him would be death for any of us.

Yet over 30 days, the same God verbalized His laws - they were His own words. The Hebrew name of the book, "Vayikra" or "and He called", confirms that.

The prescribed offerings reflect much about His character

There were five categories of sacrifice – the burnt, meat, peace, sin and trespass offering.  

The first three were of a sweet savor, not for sin, but part of sweetening our relationship with God. The New Testament equivalent is worship. As such, the offerer placed his hands on the offering to identify with it. It implied that he was worthy of the death thus suffered.

The animal could not itself be carnivorous, which pointed to a savior who would not devour or rule but serve and save. They could not offer to God what was unclean to themselves, so after they gutted the carcass it was inspected to make that sure.

Finally, it was a domestic animal, of personal and endeared value to the offerer. It had to be tame so it could be led peacefully to its death just as Jesus was as a lamb to the slaughter.

The burn offering was a whole offering, reflecting how Jesus was wholly offered for us. Its bones were not broken, as was true of Jesus. Poor families could offer fowl instead of cows and sheep, but Jesus paid the price to make salvation accessible to us all. 

Unlike the burnt offering, the meat offering had no meat. It really was a meal offering. It involved unbaked flour, baked loaves or cakes and corn ears, seasoned with salt, oil and honey or leaven. 

Frankincense was used to sweeten what was burnt on the altar. The rest was eaten by the priests.

The peace offering was an offering between souls. They would share in the meal once offered. It was used for community, to make vows and to restore relationships.

The sin and trespass offerings were not sweet at all. They were serious sacrifices for sin that involved a sprinkling of blood on the altar and the altar of incense in the tabernacle. The only difference between the two was that the trespass offering was for sins against others.

It all seems gory and barbaric, but it carried such meaning and was either a sweet sacrifice of worship or a serious offering for trespasses. Holiness mattered to them. That was in profound contrast to pagan altars with their prostitutes, child offerings and profane rituals.

The priests preserved that holy context 

They were dedicated and set apart with all the proper clothing. It was a dignified calling. Hence they were effectively paid for their service by taking food for themselves and their families.

The dedication of Aaron and his sons is a repeat of what was prescribed in Exodus, so I won’t go over it again. Notably, though, the anointing oil sanctified them. Once anointed they could not leave the tabernacle for seven days. It set them apart. It says something of our own callings.

God harshly reprimanded familiarity 

Sadly, when the tabernacle was commissioned and all the offerings prepared for dedication to God, Nadab and Abihu brought a censer with strange fire. Commentaries are not clear on what that meant, but it’s a thing with boys to play with fire.

John MacArthur calls Charismatic excesses, strange fire. That is risky. The right exegesis is that any import of human original thought into the sanctum of God, is strange fire. The institution of church is a body that became a business. A dear lady put that in perspective with, "a body that becomes a business is a prostitute". Beware, sir, about taking splinters out of the eyes of others.  

Aaron's sons might also have been drunk, given Moses' next instruction to Aaron.  Maybe they just didn't follow the prescriptions of God with the same precision that Moses applied. Whatever, what followed was a an uncompromising statement about God’s holiness.

Fire poured out from the altar and consumed them. They were not buried with dignity either, but some men took their bodies out of camp. It brought an instant sobriety to everything and Moses had to shepherd the remaining sons of Aaron: Eleazar and Ithamar.

They dared not leave the tabernacle as the anointing was on them. That touched them with the holiness of God. Had they gone outside like that, it would have been like antimatter meeting matter – a fatal clash of worlds. Moses took double care to avoid further offence.

They were not even to drink anything or behave in any inappropriate way so that Israel could rightly discern between Holy and unholy, Clean and unclean. It set the standard and put the fear of God into the nation, a lesson that never left them.

He could not allow the disobedience of the two sons to set an unhealthy precedent in the camp. He had to act immediately and resolutely. They could not start on the wrong foot.

The Tabernacle was prepared for dedication and God’s fire consumed the sacrifice

The weaver bird prepares a nest, which the female always rejects and rejects again until she is happy. Then she enters the nest and they mate.

God was not content to inhabit the Tabernacle until it was all done to His prescribed standard. Having once rejected them, He then showed His acceptance by entering the tent to dwell in the Holy sanctum beyond the veil and to be its only light.

A truly Holy presence then dwelt among the people of Israel. What once dwelt in a holy mountain that raged with fire and would kill if so much as touched, then dwelt in their midst and went with them. What a beautiful, powerful thing. God has always desired to be with us.

Only time would change all that to the final, holy step of God into His ultimate sanctuary: the heart of man. It humbles me to know that He only ever wanted to be with us. What a beautiful, tender-hearted, holy God He is.

However, most of His actions were actually more about honoring the future death of His precious son, which was beyond Holiness to Him.

I close by saying that holiness was loneliness. God, notably the Father, had to preserve an aloof, detached standard to which we were reconciled by Jesus. Had He compromised that by one degree, He would have put the cross at risk – that is why Moses was so particular. 

(c) Peter Missing @ bethelstone.com