Day 51: Leviticus 22-23

Welcome to five -minute Bible your daily guide for your daily reading today's February the 20th and we'll be looking at Leviticus 22 through 23 now today's reading brings holiness into two powerful arenas what we bring to God and how we structure our time

Leviticus 22 deals with sacred boundaries and worship who may eat the holy offerings and what kind of sacrifices may be brought before the

Lord then Leviticus 23 lays out Israel's sacred calendar structuring the entire year around redemption repentance and rejoicing and these chapters answer a very deeply and practical question if God has redeemed his people that how should they handle their worship and how they live their weeks holiness is going to shape not only what they give to God but how they live before him day by day and in that way

Leviticus 22 reinforces this idea that offerings must be taken seriously priests who are ceremonially unclean are forbidden from eating the sacred portions casual handling of holy things is not to be tolerated

God's name must not be profaned and the sacrifices themselves must be without defect you can't offer

God any blind animals or animals with broken limbs or diseased offerings the very best belongs to God and this may sound harsh but the message is simple worship reflects what we believe about God's value and God's worth if he's holy and he's glorious then we can't bring him leftovers like Cain and like others then

Leviticus 23 unfolds with Israel's calendar and this chapter is one of the most beautiful in the book because it begins with the weekly

Sabbath a rhythm of rest that is built into every seven days Israel's time itself is going to declare that God is their creator their

Redeemer and their sustainer then comes the annual feast and you have many of them listed

Passover and unleavened bread are feasts that rehearse Israel's deliverance from Egypt the feast of firstfruits celebrates the beginning of the harvest acknowledging that God is the one who's the provider the

Feast of Weeks marks the harvest completion and gratitude towards God the Feast of Trumpets announces a new sacred season has arrived the

Day of Atonement centers the nation on repentance and cleansing and the Feast of Booths remembers the wilderness wanderings and God's sustaining presence

Israel's calendar in this way is not driven by agriculture alone or political events it's structured around the way

God saved them out of Egypt time itself becomes a sermon that Israel get to tell every single year now as you read today

I want you to ask the following question what does it look like to honor God not only with our offerings but with our schedule

Leviticus 22 through 23 teaches that holiness governs both our sacrifices and our time and in that way the central pattern in these chapters is intentional reverence

God refuses casual worship the priest must be clean the offering must be whole the feast must be observed the

Sabbath must be honored and all of this is deeply human and practical because even today we're tempted to give

God what costs us the very least leftover attention at the end of a long day distracted prayers rushed devotion optional rest church attendance which is spotty at best

Leviticus presses against all of these impulses because God's people are formed by sacred rhythms weekly rest is going to guard us against idolatry and against over productivity annual feasts are going to guard us against historical amnesia structured remembrance is going to protect us from identity crises when redemption fades from our memory compromise soon follows and God knows this so he embeds memory and repetition into the fabric of time itself because holiness is not going to be sustained by our emotions but it is sustained by ordered devotion and in that way in Leviticus 22 through 23 also finds its fulfillment unmistakably in Jesus because the requirement of spotless offerings anticipates a spotless

Christ the lamb who is without blemish Passover finds its fulfillment in his crucifixion where his blood was painted over the doorpost of our heart first fruit is filled in his resurrection where he is the first fruit of a new creation the

Feast of Weeks anticipate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit the Day of Atonement finds its final meaning in his once -and -for -all sacrifice and the justification by faith that is wrought in us through the regeneration of the and then the

Sabbath ultimately points to our rest our permanent and total rest that is secured finally and fully in him what

Israel was rehearsing year by year Jesus accomplishes once and for all he is the fulfillment of sacred time and yet the principle remains that God's people are still shaped by rhythms of worship remembrance repentance and rejoicing because Jesus is worth it redemption reorders our calendars in Leviticus and also today now as you read

Leviticus 22 through 23 I want you to pay close attention to how seriously God is treating worship and time because nothing is random and nothing is casual and tomorrow we're gonna see how

God defends the holiness of his name and how justice must flow from a people who bear it but with that read your

Bible carefully devotionally and joyfully and may the Lord use his word to sanctify you completely and we will continue our journey tomorrow