Leviticus 7:22-27

welcome to God's word for you a Ministry of Sharon RP Church in mornings Sun Iowa check us out online at www. Sharon rc.org we pray that this message will be a blessing to you and that the Lord will use it to transform your faith and your [Music] life hey hey good morning good morning welcome to coffee and devotions this where every day you and I we get together have a little bit of coffee get into God's word and we grow in our love for the Lord together in this year 2023 Lord willing will make it from Genesis through Leviticus so glad to be with you today why don't we have some coffee we'll pray and we'll get into God's word let's pray father you are a generous and loving God abounding in kindness and mercy and we need your spirit today please father help us help us to understand your word and we pray that you would apply it to our lives in Jesus's name amen all right so we are at Leviticus chapter 7 beginning at verse 22 and we'll get through verse 27 and the Lord spoke to Moses saying speak to the children of Israel saying you shall not eat any fat of ox or sheep or goat and the fat of an animal that dies naturally the fat of what is torn by wild beasts may be used and any other way but you shall by no means eat it for whoever eats the fat of the animal of which men offer an offering made by fire to the Lord the person who eats it shall be cut off from his people moreover you shall not eat any blood in any of your dwellings whether of bird or beast whoever eats any blood that person shall be cut off from his people well we need to ask ourselves are three ABC questions a what's this about B what's the best vers of summarize this and see what are we called to do so what's this about this is regulations about the fat and the blood of animals this is specifically in a ritualistic system but God is very clear here and we're going to see again in Leviticus and someday we'll get to numbers in Deuteronomy and we'll see it again God is very clear about not eating the fat of an animal because it's his it's it's the best part of the animal it's a most safy part and he claims it for himself and he says it's mine now the average Israelite I was just reading a little bit ago probably only ate meat about 10 times a year and so anytime they would eat meat they would go to the temple and and actually do this but if you found an animal right you have a herd and your animal dies you can still use the fat right you can butcher the animal and all that and you can take the fat and you can make it for polishing or use the fat for candles or lamps or you could use it for you know working into the leather of of worn out leather as a conditioner there's all sorts of stuff you could do with that fat that was perfectly acceptable but not eat it now the thing that was not to be eaten or used in any circumstance was the blood the life was in the blood and this is how God viewed it and so he said no blood period so severe that again just like people who come and treat the holy things Unholy if you are found in Israel and you're eating the blood you're to be cut off actually there going to be God who's going to cut you off and that's a scary thing and so blood in Israel that's for atonement that's the Lord he's the one who gave life and you respect that life so what's the best verse In this passage well I would underline in my Bible verse 24 and the fat of an animal that dies naturally and the fat of what is torn by wild beasts may be used in any other way but you shall by no means eat it and then verse 26 moreover you shall not eat any blood in any of your dwellings whether of bird or beast so what is this calling us to do we're not Old Testament Israel anymore there's no sacrificial system Jesus fulfilled all these things so the question is are you allowed to order a rare steak what do you think are you allowed to eat meat with the blood in it are you allowed to have a drink of an animal's blood I got to say I I'm somewhat uncomfortable with the way in which our culture still cavalierly treats blood uh you know there's this is the time of year that it's October that we're recording this and this is when horror movies come about and vampire movies either normalize and make fun of this idea of drinking blood but there's still in the human conscience something that goes it's it's it's not normally like something we do right and then the question is Acts chapter 15 this is one of the questions that people had when the early church first started and the early church fathers the apostles are the ones who told us right if it's the strangled animals where it's going through these idolatrous kind of scenarios it's better not to eat the meat don't do that I would still say I'm always a little bit of squirmish with with this I don't like my meat that's completely burnt to a crisp uh but I've become more and more sensitive to this idea that nor do I really want to eat the meat that is well it's almost like the cow is still moving right some somewhere there's a line somewhere here right I don't think that we need to go back to the kosher laws I don't think that that's what this is calling us for but this is do we value life do you value life even the life of animals do we have blood thirst or do we value the sanctity of what God has created it's what he was calling them to see here let's go ahead and pray father we pray that we would value life and that we would walk in your ways please help us Lord to know how to apply this but Lord we thank you that you have poured pour out your own blood for us for the remission of our sins Lord we thank you for the blood that's better than the blood of Abel the one that has satisfied all Justice in Jesus's name we pray amen well may God bless you may you rest in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ and I'll see you next time bye thanks for listening to this week's message from God's word for you you a Ministry of Sharon RP 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 Sharon RPC dorg we'd love to invite you to worship with us our worship time is 10:00 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue Morning Sun Iowa 52640 may God richly bless you this [Music] week