Leviticus 22:17–33

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions, it's for every day. You and I, we get together, we have a little bit of coffee, we get into God's word, and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2023, Lord willing, we'll make it from Genesis through Leviticus. I'm so glad to be with you today. Let's have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into God's word.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. Thank you for the blessing of getting to be in your word. We thank you for the joy of our salvation. Lord, we pray now that your Holy Spirit would please help us to understand, to teach us, Lord, what is your will and how you have fulfilled all these things. And they point to Jesus in his name we pray. Amen. All right. So we're at the book of Leviticus chapter 22. We're going to wrap up that chapter today. Leviticus chapter 22, beginning at verse 17. Here we go.
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to Aaron and his sons and to all the children of Israel, and say to them, Whatever man of the house of Israel, or of the strangers of Israel, who offers his sacrifice for any of his vows, or for any of his freewill offerings, which they offer to the Lord as a burnt offering, you shall offer of your own freewill. a male without blemish of the cattle, from the sheep, or from the goats.
Whatever has a defect you shall not offer, for it shall not be accepted on your behalf. And whoever offers a sacrifice of a peace offering to the Lord to fulfill his vow, or a freewill offering from the cattle or the sheep, it must be perfect to be accepted. there shall be no defect in it. Those that are blind, or broken, or maimed, or have an ulcer, or eczema, or scab, you shall not offer to the Lord, nor make an offering by fire of them on the altar of Jehovah. Either a bull or a lamb that has any limb too long or too short you may offer as a freewill offering, but for a vow it shall not be accepted. You shall not offer to the Lord what is bruised or crushed or torn or cut, nor shall you make any offering of them in your land. Nor from a foreigner's hand shall you offer any of these as the bread of your God, because their corruption is in them and defects are in them.
They shall not be accepted on your behalf. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, When a bull or a sheep or a goat is born, it shall be seven days with its mother, and from the eighth day and thereafter it shall be accepted as an offering made by fire to Jehovah. Whether it is a cow or an ewe, do not kill both her and her young on the same day. And when you offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to Jehovah, offer it of your own free will. on the same day it shall be eaten.
You shall leave none of it until morning. I am the Lord. Therefore, you shall keep my commandments and perform them. I am the Lord. You shall not profane my holy name. but I will be hallowed among the children of Israel. I am Jehovah who sanctifies you, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. I am Jehovah." Well, what is this section about, right? A, what is this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do? So, A, what is this about?
Well, whether it's an Israelite or a stranger, a foreigner, if they're going to come to God, to his tabernacle, and they're going to make an offering, It can't just be whatever. It has to be a perfect animal. No blemish, no spot, no eczema, no, you know, like a broken leg. None of that. It's not like you go and you get the most least valuable of your herd or of your flock and you say, ah, you know, this one's a piece of junk anyways. I'll go ahead and offer this one to God. It's not going to make me any money in the marketplace. God says, no. None of those ones.
And if you're going to sacrifice, it's going to be of your own free will. If you make a vow, you go make, you fulfill that vow, you make it of the best. And it's not to be, you know, under six days or under seven days, right? Seven days, leave it with his mom. After that, fine. You can, serve up some veal or something like that on the altar, right? But don't sacrifice mom and animal on the same day, right?
The point is, this is not some crude, nasty, ugly ceremony that the Lord wants, and He wants their hearts. He wants them to come with their own free will offerings, but to do it in a way which actually brings Him honor. sees Him as their rightful King, sees Him as their Lord, sees Him as their Redeemer, their Covenant Master.
And so that's what this section is about, is these sacrifices are to be holy. They're to be perfect. Double underlined in my Bible is verse 21, the second part. It must be perfect to be accepted. But then in the bottom, this is where we're going to see calling. On the bottom, I have verse 31, 32, and 33 underlined and starred. There's literally one, two, three, four, five, six, seven stars next to it. Therefore you shall keep my commandments and perform them.
Why? Because God is the Lord. You shall not profane God's holy name, but you shall, but it will be, that's his name, but I will be hallowed among the children of Israel for I am Jehovah who sanctifies you. Right? It is God who has taken the Israelites and taken them out of the land of Egypt and he is the one who has made them his people, his special, doted upon, loved, peculiar, nation of loved ones. His corporate elect, right? That's what he's saying here.
He's the one who has sanctified them, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. I am Jehovah. None of those gods of the Canaanites, none of those gods of the Hittites, not the Amorites, not the Moabites, not the Egyptians, not the Chaldeans, not the Amorites, not Asherah, not Molech, not Baal, none of them, right? Jehovah is to be their God. They love Him because He has loved them. He has sanctified them. He has done the work of redeeming them and making them His people. And so they are to live their lives with Him as their King, serving Him all their days.
What are we called to do? Well, if we are His elect ones, He's redeemed us. I'm not of the tribe of Asher, Benjamin, Nephtali, Zebulun, Manasseh, Ephraim, Judah. I'm not of any of those tribes. But yet God has redeemed me out of darkness and into his kingdom of light. And he is our King of kings. He is our Lord of lords. He is the one who has called us to walk in his ways, to follow after him because he has redeemed us.
See, this is the whole point. Why were they to keep all these different ceremonial laws? It wasn't out of a spirit of slavery, but it was because the Lord was their Redeemer. They forgot that and God became a taskmaster, a legalistic lawyer, lording it over their heads. But for us, we know that he's the King of glory and the King of grace.
And then he desires us to worship him in spirit and truth and to renew our minds and to walk according to his spirit. Why? Because he has sanctified us. Why? Because he has adopted us. Why? Because he loves us and we love him. And so we keep his commandments because that's how we show that we love him.
Not to earn his love. where He has already shown us He loved us and giving us the perfect one, Jesus Christ, who was accepted by Him. Thank the Lord that he's given us Jesus and he's given us a new life. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for our perfect sacrifice, Jesus Christ. And we thank you that you have redeemed us and sanctified us. And we pray that we would live our lives walking in your ways, desiring to bring you glory. In Jesus's name we pray. Amen. May you walk in the light as he is in the light. May you be sanctified through and through. And I'll see you next time. Bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue. Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.