Leviticus - A Reminder of Holiness
Suppose your father grants you a piece of land. Free. You can farm it and make a living.
There is only one condition. You first have to get the rocks out. And so you work. Four hours and days you work. With time, you see the task is too great. There's just no way you can do it.
You give up.
Then your father says you've done enough. "I have another plot of land for you," he explains. "This time the stones are gone."
"Who removed them?"
"I did."
You go to the acreage and find his promise to be true. The stones are gone, and you are left to farm. And so you sow in gratitude.
Nice story Max, but what does this have to do with Leviticus?
The book of Leviticus is the deed to the farm. A rocky farm given by God to his children. . . laden with stones. Heavied with tasks. Loaded with rocky rules and regulations.
Three months after their deliverance, the children of Israel spent a year at the base of mt. Sinai. They were nomadic people in a barren land. Suddenly forced to live together, suddenly forced to travel together, they needed guidelines for hygiene and health. They needed rules for worship and community. For that reason, God gave them Leviticus. A practical guide for community and worship. But for us, it serves a still higher purpose. Leviticus reminds us that God takes holiness seriously.
Any person who tries to be holy is soon convinced he can't. There are too many rules. Too many rocks to remove. We need help. We need a Savior. "In other words, the law was our guardian, leading us to Christ so that we could be made right with God through faith" (Galatians 3:24).
Holiness is what God desires. But holiness is what we cannot achieve. Just like the son couldn't remove the rocks, so we can't remove our sins.
But just like the father surprised the son, so our Father surprises us. He removed the rocks for us.
-Max Lucado; The Inspirational Study Bible
There is only one condition. You first have to get the rocks out. And so you work. Four hours and days you work. With time, you see the task is too great. There's just no way you can do it.
You give up.
Then your father says you've done enough. "I have another plot of land for you," he explains. "This time the stones are gone."
"Who removed them?"
"I did."
You go to the acreage and find his promise to be true. The stones are gone, and you are left to farm. And so you sow in gratitude.
Nice story Max, but what does this have to do with Leviticus?
The book of Leviticus is the deed to the farm. A rocky farm given by God to his children. . . laden with stones. Heavied with tasks. Loaded with rocky rules and regulations.
Three months after their deliverance, the children of Israel spent a year at the base of mt. Sinai. They were nomadic people in a barren land. Suddenly forced to live together, suddenly forced to travel together, they needed guidelines for hygiene and health. They needed rules for worship and community. For that reason, God gave them Leviticus. A practical guide for community and worship. But for us, it serves a still higher purpose. Leviticus reminds us that God takes holiness seriously.
Any person who tries to be holy is soon convinced he can't. There are too many rules. Too many rocks to remove. We need help. We need a Savior. "In other words, the law was our guardian, leading us to Christ so that we could be made right with God through faith" (Galatians 3:24).
Holiness is what God desires. But holiness is what we cannot achieve. Just like the son couldn't remove the rocks, so we can't remove our sins.
But just like the father surprised the son, so our Father surprises us. He removed the rocks for us.
-Max Lucado; The Inspirational Study Bible
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