This week we will
start the book of Mark and right at the beginning of this Gospel there is a
verse that jumps out at me, “News about him [Jesus] spread quickly
over the whole region of Galilee” (Mark 1:28 NIV). Just think of the power
of Jesus. Mark tells us “At once”
everyone around knew about him. It reminds me of living in the Internet age. We
can get information “at once” as soon as events happen. It is amazing how fast
news travels. But what has happened to the good news about Jesus? Why is his
fame not being spread everywhere? Well one reason is because the Devil doesn’t
want it to. Satan is waging war against the good news of Jesus Christ and at
times he seems to be winning. Satan is not happy that you are reading the Bible
this year and he will work on your soft spots to get you behind and tempt you
to give up. Don’t let his tricks get you down. You have the most powerful
weapon in the fight, the Word of God. Remember that the battle belongs to the
Lord and even though we may loose a few skirmishes here and there the ultimate
victory is the Lord’s. Keep up the good work and fight the hard fight as you
pick up the sword of the Spirit daily. On to the study...
Seth’s Thoughts
The Old
Testament
The end of Exodus is
just a foretaste of what is to come in the book of Leviticus. We will be taking
a break from the narrative story for a while and read about many of the nuts
and bolts of religious life of the people of Israel. We usually do not read
these sections of scripture in Church so they may be brand new for you. Exodus
ends with the building of the tabernacle and all the furnishings. This place
(and later the temple) is the physical representation of Yahweh on earth. It is
quite literally, God’s house. The building of this structure is important for
many reasons. First of all, it gave the people something tangible in their
relationship with God. Secondly, it was a place where God could interact with
his people bringing mercy and forgiveness. Third, it sets up the life and
ministry of Jesus. Jesus referred to himself as a temple that would be
destroyed and build again in three days. Jesus himself came down to be a
physical representation of Yahweh on earth. In John 1:14 we read, “The Word
became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” The word we translate at
“made his dwelling” literally means that Jesus “tabernacled” among us. When
Jesus came to earth he becomes another tabernacle, this one wrapped in flesh
and poised to be the ultimate sacrifice for the forgiveness of the sins of the
world. Now the tabernacle had its own purpose in the days of the Israelites,
and the temple as well for that matter, but they both point to a greater
tabernacle and temple in the person of Jesus Christ.
One other thing I
want to do this week is give you an introduction on the many different
offerings that are mentioned in Exodus and especially in Leviticus.
Burnt Offering: Leviticus 1; 6: 8-13; 8: 18-21; 16: 24 The burnt offering
was for unintentional sin. This was a blanket sacrifice for wrongdoing in
general. The price was a male bull, lamb or goat. It had to be a perfect
animal, without defect. The poor could offer a pigeon or dove. The penitent
would present the animal at the entrance to the tent, which housed the altar
and the tabernacle. After presenting the animal, the sinner would place his two
hands on the animal and thus, it was accepted as an offering for sin. Probably
this act transferred the sin from the human to the animal, which paid the
penalty and was sacrificed. They would kill their own offering and then the
priests took over.
The priests bled the animal and cut it up ceremonially. The
priests sprinkled the blood on the altar. Some of the internal organs and legs
were washed. They then burned it whole on the altar. The aroma was said to be
pleasing to God. The fire had to be continually burning and was never
extinguished.
Grain Offering: Leviticus 2; 6: 14-23 Voluntary worship and thanks: A
grain offering is just what it says. The grain had to ground into flour and
could be put into loaves or cakes. Olive oil and incense were added to make a
pleasing aroma when it burned. Yeast was forbidden for this offering. The cakes
had to be salted. The offering was presented to the priests who burned a small
portion of it on the altar. The rest was food for them and the Levites.
Fellowship
Offering: Leviticus 3: 7:
11-34
A voluntary act of worship, thanks and fellowship: This is called a
fellowship offering because the sacrifice is eaten communally instead of
burned. Any clean animal, male or female could be offered. Bread, both with and
without yeast, was also part of the offering. These were presented at the gate
of the tent. The priests would sprinkle the blood on the four corners of the
altar. The internal organs, the fat on them and the best part of the liver were
burned as a food offering. The rest had to be eaten within two days or else it
was burned also.
Sin Offering: Leviticus 4: 1-5: 13; 6: 24-30; 8: 14-17; 16: 3-22
Mandatory for specific sins: All of these offerings for sins are for
unintentional transgressions. If you were guilty of premeditated infraction,
these offerings didn’t help you. Your stature in the community determined the
kind of sacrifice that you were required to offer. A young bull was required
for the sin of a high priest or for a community sin. Leaders had to present a
male goat. The common people could bring a female goat or a lamb. The poor were
permitted to offer a dove or pigeon and the very poor could get away with a tenth
of an ephah of fine flour. The bull’s fat was burned inside the camp but the
rest was burned outside. Leviticus 5 records the sins for which a sin offering
was required. These include unintentionally touching an animal that is ritually
unclean, touching something unclean of human origin or making a careless
promise.
Guilt Offering:
(Repayment Offering)
Leviticus 5:14 – 6:7; 7: 1-6 Mandatory for unintentional sin requiring
restitution: This is a repayment offering for a sin committed against God, like
holding back your tithe. A ram or lamb was brought to the tent to be
sacrificed. The debt would have to be paid plus an additional twenty percent.
These were the offerings outlined in the first seven chapters of Leviticus. God
could forgive mistakes but intentional sins were another matter.
The New
Testament
At the beginning of
last week we saw the familiar words of institution as Jesus gives his disciples
communion for the first time. Remember that meals were very important for the
Jews and the connection that this new meal of remembrance first occurred during
Passover is by no means a coincidence. Remember that Matthew is writing to a
Jewish audience and this new covenant made in blood would ring a bell with all
his readers. This would cut to the heart of any Jew, hearing about this because
blood equals life. It is not in our culture to think of that. In fact when
people outside of the Christian faith hear about being washed in the blood of
the lamb, they get turned off from Christianity. I guess my point here is we
need to watch how we word some things. To a Jewish audience, Matthew does the
culturally relevant thing; when we share the message of Jesus we need to be
careful not to offend or even gross out someone when talking about blood.
I want to say a few
words about the Great commission this week and I hope not to loose you when I
start talking about Greek grammar. First of all every time we translate the
Bible from its original languages we loose something. The phrase “Lost in
translation” is really true. At times when we translate into English we then,
without thinking place certain rules and meaning based on sentence structure
and word order. Unfortunately many people, myself included, have misinterpreted
portions of scripture because of our cultural bias toward English. In reading
the Great Commission in English it seems to be that Jesus is giving us a
command (called an imperative) in the word “go”, but in the Greek this word is
an adverbial participle, not an imperative. What is an adverbial participle?
The action described by an adverbial participle is primarily directed toward
the verb. This kind of participle is usually translated with an adverbial
phrase. “While studying for his Greek final...” or “While going through the
world...”. So we see in Matthew 28 an interesting grammatical sentence that if
translated properly is very poor English. A very literal interpretation would
be, “As you are going, disciple all the nations, by baptizing them in the name
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe
all things...” The only imperative in the Great Commission is to disciple
others—literally to make them learners. How do we do it? Well, Jesus tells us,
we are to baptize and teach. Again these words are not imperatives but the
natural flow of what will occur by “discipling” others. Don’t even get me
started on the NIVs use of the word “obey”. What a poor translation that is. We
are to observe the things of Jesus through his word and actions and they serve
as a guide. They are descriptive on how we are to live not prescriptive. I
could go on about this one but we don’t have time here.
One quick thing about
the book of Mark. As you read look for the extensive use of the word
“immediately” (or similar phrases such as “at once”, they are usually the same
word in the Greek). This is a book of action. It hits the ground running and
never stops. It is a good book to read as we slug through Leviticus. It will
give us some balance to our readings for the next couple of weeks.
