Profane Sacrifices

Hey, hey, good morning. Good morning. Welcome to coffee and devotions This is where every day you and I we get together. I shouldn't say every day because we don't do this every day We do it on the weekdays, right? So on every weekday morning most the time we get together we get into God's Word and we grow and I 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 Bubba said he wanted to do coffee and devotions this morning.
So he's gonna join us. Why don't we have some coffee? We'll pray Now we're getting to God's word, that's right. All right, you ready? You wanna pray this morning or you want me to? I can, okay. Lord, thank you so much for this day. Thank you for the blessing of being able to get into God's word together. Thank you for your word and for the work of your spirit. We pray now that you would please teach us, please help us to understand it. In Jesus's name, amen.
Alright, so we are at Leviticus chapter 22. Okay, so it's a shorter chapter. And so, we'll work through it together. Does that sound good? Sure, he says, sure. Okay, Leviticus 22. We're just gonna actually get through the first 16 verses, okay? Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, third chapter. Do you know what the first five books of the Bible are called?
They have a few, whoa. Pentateuch. Pentateuch. Penta means five. And so they're the first five books of the Bible. So Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. So Leviticus is the third chapter of the Bible. So who do you think wrote these five books of the Bible?
Traditionally, this is held by? Moses that's right. So sometimes they're called the books of Moses Some in the old or in a Jewish tradition is called the Torah. Do you know what Torah means? Law Oh, that's some of what they wrote down. Yeah. But the Torah means law. OK, so anyways, let's go ahead and read some of that law. The third book of the Pentateuch, written by Moses. And we'll find out why here. OK, so why don't you read verses one through three? When his offering? Leviticus 22. Oh,
22. You said chapter three and I was like what? No, third book of the Bible, but chapter 22, Leviticus 22.
Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to Aaron and his sons, that they separate themselves from the holy things of the children of Israel, and that they do not profane my holy name. By what they dedicate to me, I am the Lord, say to them, Whoever of all your descendants generation who goes near the holy things which the children of Israel dedicated to the Lord.
While he has uncleanness upon him, that person shall be cut off from my presence. I am the Lord. Okay, so two times he says, I am the Lord and he says they can profane his name by doing what? attaching the holy things while they're unclean. Yeah, right, so if they come to him while they're unclean, then it's profaning God's name. They're not treating the Lord as holy, right? So he says don't do that. Okay, I'll read verses 4 through 8.
Whatever man of the descendants of Aaron who is a leper or has a discharge shall not eat the holy offerings until he is clean. And whoever touches anything made unclean by a corpse, or a man who has had an emission of semen, or whoever touches any creeping thing by which he would be made unclean, or any person by whom he would become unclean, Whatever his uncleanness may be, the person who has touched any such thing shall be unclean until evening, and shall not eat the holy offerings, unless he washes his body with water. And when the sun goes down, he shall be clean, and afterward he may eat the holy offerings, because it is his food. Whatever dies naturally or is torn by beast, he shall not eat, to defile himself with it, I am the Lord.
What do you think that section is about? I think it's about. If you don't want to get. picked out from God's presence. Don't do anything unclean. God's holy things. So this is more like, you know, if you're a priest and the priest, after the sacrifice is made, part of it is burnt for the Lord. What happens with the rest of the sacrifice? Nope.
The priests get to eat it. They get to eat it for the first day. They even get leftovers the second day. But the third day, then it has to be thrown out. Right. But there's so there's there's offerings that they're allowed to eat. But if they're unclean and it's got a whole bunch of different ways in which someone become can become unclean.
What are they not allowed to do? They're not allowed to eat it. What do they have to do so they could be able to eat that food? Well, they need to wash themselves. They're the ones that are unclean. They need to wash themselves and wait until sunset. And at sunset, they would be clean and then they would be allowed to eat it because of this food.
Right. But it's saying don't eat it while you're unclean. OK, why don't you read verse nine? Then they they shall therefore keep my Okay, so what who's the one saying all this God right and why is he saying it to them? What happens if they are unclean and they go and they touch and eat? Worse than that But what is. They shall therefore keep my ordinances, lest they bear sin for it and die. Right. So what but why would they bear sin and therefore die? What's what's to say after that? Why? Why would God take it so seriously? Where is it? I still don't know where you're at.
Verse nine, after it says they bear sin for it and die thereby. If they if so. If they what? Profane it. Right. So taking the holy things of God. And acting like they're not holy. Right, profaning means like making something and saying it's of no good, making it like trash or of no value. Right, so treating it like it's ordinary.
But God's sacrifices, are they ordinary? What are they? They're holy. And not just that, but who else is supposed to be holy? The priest. That's why it says, I, the Lord, sanctify them. God's the one who's making the priest holy. God's the one who makes the sacrifice holy. God's the one who makes all of this holy. But if a priest treat it like it's profane, like it's common, like it's unclean, like it's not really of any value. Is God going to put up with that? No. OK, let me read verses 10 through 13.
No outsider shall eat the holy offering. One who dwells with the priest or a hired servant shall not eat the holy thing. But if a priest buys a person with his money, he may eat it. And one who is born in his house may eat his food. If the priest's daughter is married to an outsider, she may not eat of the holy offerings. But if the priest's daughter is a widow or divorced and has no children and has returned to her father's house as in her youth, she may eat her father's food, but no outsider shall eat it. All right. What's that about? What happens if your daughter gets married? Yeah. So who's allowed to eat in the priest's household? The priest? The priest and his family. What about an outsider who's visiting with them? Nope. What about his daughter who's married to some other dude who's not of the family of Aaron? Nope. Nope. What if the daughter's husband dies and she moves back in with her dad and she never had any kids?
I think that's good. Yeah, right? So God's giving stipulations for who's allowed to eat and who's not allowed to eat. Good. So basically, well, she's married or has kids that are Yeah, she shouldn't be allowed to okay, so you want to read verses 14 through 16 What do you think you know what that means unintentionally Exactly right by accident good All right. So if you're walking and you go by the high priest house or something, there's just some bread in the window and you just like take some of the bread and you start eating it.
What do you got to do? You didn't know it was from the offering. You just, you have to pay it back. You got to make an offering, right? You got to, you got to pay it back. It wasn't intentional. It was unintentional. And so there's a way. So if you ate a whole loaf of bread, you have to pay one loaf of bread. Oh, it doesn't say that here. It just says, uh, he shall restore a holy offering to the priest.
Oh no, you're right, and add one-fifth to it. You're right, I'm wrong. I love when kids are right and I'm wrong. Okay, so yeah, so you gotta add one-fifth to it. What's this whole section about? Right, so now we've read verses one through 16. How would you summarize this? That God is holy and without Jesus we're unholy. Without Jesus we would Life would be pretty bad. Hmm.
So I think if I was like, we always want to understand it in its original context first, right? What this is, what this meant to the original people. And I think what this is about in its original places, who's allowed to eat the holy food or not. And when are they allowed to eat it? Right. So the, so the sacrifices are holy and the priests need to be clean to be able to eat. I think that's what this is about.
But, What you went to is the second, or is the third part, right? The best verse to underline this, by the way, you see all the underlines I have? I got all sorts of stuff underlined, but I got verse nine double underlined. So that's what I think is the best verse to kind of get at the heart of this. They shall therefore keep my ordinances, lest they bear sin for it and die thereby. If they profane it, I, the Lord, sanctify them. The it is these holy offerings, right? But you went straight to the third part, the calling, the Christ part, right? Do we have a sacred meal now? Oh, sure we do. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. In our tradition, we call it a sacrament. Right.
Who sanctifies that meal? Isn't baptism a sacrament? Baptism is a sacrament, too. But what's the other sacrament? The Lord's Supper. Are you allowed to take the Lord's Supper? Why would you be allowed to take the Lord's Supper? Because I vowed my life to Christ. You vowed your life to Christ. You believe in him. He's your king. Has he sanctified you? Right, like that's the beautiful thing.
We are outsiders. Are you of the tribe of Aaron? No, you're of the tribe of Schneider, right? You're not Jewish, so why would you be allowed to come to Jesus Christ's meal? Because he's my sacrifice. Because he's our sacrifice, because he's our priest, because he's our king, because it's a better covenant, right? We're not held at an arm's distance anymore, but Jesus says, come eat. This is my body broken for you.
Can we do that in an unworthy way and profane it? Oh, yeah, we can. No, what would happen if you if what happened in Corinth when people were profaning the Lord's Supper? Does that sound familiar? Yep. Unless they bear their sins and die. We don't come to the Lord's Supper in a profane way, but we come still wanting to recognize it is the Lord's meal. It's holy. But that we as a nation of priests. Right. We get to come and we get to eat because the Lord is gracious and has invited us to his meal. Pretty cool. Yeah.
Hey, let's go ahead and pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. Lord, we pray that you would please. Let us not profane your name because of our unclean acts, unclean thoughts, and unclean words. Lord, we pray that we would walk in lives of holiness following after you. Thank you so much for giving us Jesus Christ, who is a better high priest than Aaron, who has a better sacrifice than Aaron, and has invited us to partake in his covenant meal. We pray these things in Jesus's name. Amen. Well, may God bless you. May you enjoy the peace and grace of Jesus Christ today. And we'll see you next time. Say bye. Bye. 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 and 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.