MONDAY Reflections
While preparing for my study of Leviticus I came across this note from Barnes’ Notes on the Bible:
“The tabernacle of the congregation - Rather, the tent of meeting. See Exodus 22:21 note. When Jehovah (Yahweh) was about to give His people the Law of the Ten Commandments Exodus 19:3 He called to Moses from the top of Mount Sinai in thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud. When He was now about to give them the laws by which their formal acts of worship were to be regulated, He called to Moses out of the tabernacle which had just been constructed at the foot of the mountain. Exodus 25:22.”[1
I had never realized the importance of where God called Moses from when he gave the commandments, but it is important. The importance comes in light of the New Testament where we no longer obey the sacrificial system but still hold to the Ten Commandments. Some want to argue that we are inconsistent because we hold to part of the Law but not all of it. Yet we see here that the center of the Ten Commandments proceeds from the mountain which belongs one could say to everyone and to the tabernacle which held only to the children of Israel. We see Jesus and the New Testament writers repeating the commands given from the mountain (yes even a version of the Sabbath command in that God sanctifies all days, but that discussion is for another day), but throughout the New Testament, the sacrificial system is dismissed.
Why? I think the reason is seen here. We now have a new tabernacle which Stephen hints at in his address before the Sanhedrin in Acts 7 and is clear talked about in Hebrew. The Levitical law laid out in Leviticus is a picture of the sinfulness of man and the sacrificial grace of Jesus, but it is not the law we now live under for we have a new tabernacle where we worship. A tabernacle not made by hand but made by God in the hearts of men as Jeremiah 31:33 says: "This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
The law we are preparing to read is good to understand and know, but it is not the law that guides our lives, because now we enter into a new tabernacle, not the one Moses was called into here in Leviticus chapter 1.
Lev 1:1-17
(1) And the LORD called unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying,
(2) Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man of you bring an offering unto the LORD, ye shall bring your offering of the cattle, even of the herd, and of the flock.
(3) If his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish: he shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD.
(4) And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering; and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him.
(5) And he shall kill the bullock before the LORD: and the priests, Aaron's sons, shall bring the blood, and sprinkle the blood round about upon the altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
(6) And he shall flay the burnt offering, and cut it into his pieces.
(7) And the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire upon the altar, and lay the wood in order upon the fire:
(8) And the priests, Aaron's sons, shall lay the parts, the head, and the fat, in order upon the wood that is on the fire which is upon the altar:
(9) But his inwards and his legs shall he wash in water: and the priest shall burn all on the altar, to be a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD.
(10) And if his offering be of the flocks, namely, of the sheep, or of the goats, for a burnt sacrifice; he shall bring it a male without blemish.
(11) And he shall kill it on the side of the altar northward before the LORD: and the priests, Aaron's sons, shall sprinkle his blood round about upon the altar.
(12) And he shall cut it into his pieces, with his head and his fat: and the priest shall lay them in order on the wood that is on the fire which is upon the altar:
(13) But he shall wash the inwards and the legs with water: and the priest shall bring it all, and burn it upon the altar: it is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD.
(14) And if the burnt sacrifice for his offering to the LORD be of fowls, then he shall bring his offering of turtledoves, or of young pigeons.
(15) And the priest shall bring it unto the altar, and wring off his head, and burn it on the altar; and the blood thereof shall be wrung out at the side of the altar:
(16) And he shall pluck away his crop with his feathers, and cast it beside the altar on the east part, by the place of the ashes:
(17) And he shall cleave it with the wings thereof, but shall not divide it asunder: and the priest shall burn it upon the altar, upon the wood that is upon the fire: it is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD.
No comments:
Post a Comment