While the emphasis of the New Testament is that all of life is to be dedicated to God, and that we are to remember the great events in which God acted on our behalf continually, it is helpful to set aside certain days to remember what God has done for our sake.
Long before the giving of the Ten Commandments, God gave His people the weekly Sabbath, a time to rest and reflect on His goodness to them. It is of great value to make Sunday a special day of rest and worship. One of the factors leading to the problems many people have today is that they live from weekend to weekend rather than from Lord’s Day to Lord’s Day.
It is also helpful to set aside days like Christmas, Good Friday, Easter and Pentecost to remember the events in the life of Christ which have produced our salvation. Sadly, these days have become commercialized. So many people emphasize the wrong things on these days, leading to their spiritual poverty. Let us focus on Christ on these special days.
The reason for not stealing, for not oppressing other people, for not hating our brother and a host of other things is this: God has been gracious to us, making us His people, calling us to obey. We are to act as He wants us to act.
The reason for much immoral and unethical conduct today is unbelief. Sound theology leads to sound ethics.
In the midst of this passage are the words, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”. When Jesus spoke these words, He was quoting from Leviticus. He was reaffirming the teaching of the Old Testament. He said that this commandment led to all the others. We are not only to love people; we are to love them as much as we love ourselves. This love is not sentimentality; it is a determination to treat other people in a way that will be helpful to them.
Significantly, at the time of the crucifixion of Christ, the veil was torn from the top to the bottom, teaching that God is now approachable through the blood of Christ. Now through the name of Christ all of us can come boldly to God’s throne of grace.
It is important to realize that for Israel there was only one fast day but a number of feast days. The emphasis is on rejoicing at being God’s people, while at the same time realizing this is possible only because God has provided the way.
But we only appreciate grace when we realize the seriousness of sin. Many of the ways of the world are an abomination in the sight of God. Sin can never be taken lightly, and we must recognize that God’s people are not to worship the false gods of the people around us or to live the way they live. The sins of the world around us are an abomination in the sight of a holy God and can only lead to tragic consequences.
In this passage, we find how the unclean was now to be declared clean. This was not without blood offerings. We are reminded that sin causes us to be unclean in the sight of a holy God, but He has provided a way through the blood of Christ whereby we who are unclean can be made clean. In several ways leprosy can be compared to sin. In leprosy, the germ is present long before the first symptoms appear. So with sin. We have a sinful nature which produces individual sins as symptoms. Leprosy is contagious, although not nearly as contagious as many other diseases. So also sin is passed from one generation to the next and individual sins are often engaged in because of close association with other sinners. But most important there is now a cure. Modern medicine has a cure, and Christ is the cure of sin. Finally, those cures must be brought to the people who need them.
The laws described in this passage fall under the civil law category. In a time when there was little medical knowledge, these laws of uncleanness helped to protect people from the spread of illness.
But there was more to it. God wanted His people to be distinguished from the pagans around them. He knew that giving His people specific directions in practical matters would help in this. Dietary rules would help to set His people apart from their unbelieving neighbors. The explanation God gives in Leviticus 11:44,45 is significant. The word holiness contains the idea of separation. Because He was their God and He had brought them out of slavery, they were to be separated to Him and apart from paganism. The same is true of us.
And the same thing is true of us today. We are not saved by our works but by the perfect work of Christ. We are not saved by our perfect obedience, for then none of us would be saved. But redeemed by grace, based on Christ’s perfect obedience, we are to seek to do what God tells us to do.
We are called to a life of obedience, even as God’s Old Testament people were thus called. To that end we are to study the Scriptures that we may learn what God’s will is.
In Leviticus 10:11 we learn that teaching was to be one of the functions of the priests. Elsewhere we learn that all of the Levites were dispersed among the people to teach. Yet in the narratives about Israel, we do not see this happening. Could this be why Israel failed to do God’s will?
There is to be confession of sin. We must not make excuses for ourselves. We must not make light of our sin. We must honestly acknowledge our sin to God, and where appropriate, we must also confess it to our fellow human beings.
Second, we are to relate our sin to the sacrifice. In our case the sacrifice has already been made for us, but it is important to realize that we receive forgiveness, not because God winks at sin, but because Christ paid a high price for it. Looking at the cross, we see how serious our sin is and at the same time we can be assured that we are truly forgiven by God.
Third, though the sin has been forgiven, there are many cases where restitution is required. Sometimes we cannot undo the consequences of our sin; on other occasions something can be done. If we have cheated someone, we must repay them.
All the sacrifices of the Old Testament are fulfilled in Christ. These laws point forward to the perfect sacrifice He would make. The people were made to realize that there must be great sacrifice to approach God, so they would understand the purpose of Christ when He came. We can be thankful that “Jesus paid it all.” Pagan religions also included sacrifices, sometimes even the sacrifice of one’s own children. Within the heart there is the realization that one cannot approach a holy God without great sacrifice. How wonderful to know that “Jesus paid it all.” There is nothing left for us to pay. Trusting in Him, we can be sure of salvation.
The hymn reflects biblical truth when it says, “Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe.” We owe a great debt of gratitude which we can never fully pay. In gratitude we are to sacrifice for the cause of His kingdom. Not to save ourselves, but with a desire that others should know Christ, trust Him and also be saved, we ought to give most generously for the cause of missions.
God has given us many commandments also, not only in the Ten Commandments, but in many descriptions of the qualities with which the Christian life is to be filled. Having been saved by grace alone, we are called to obey God in all we do. Such obedience leads to great blessing. Carelessness regarding obedience means we will miss many blessings God is ready to give us.
Having been made in obedience to the command of God, the articles of the tabernacle were consecrated to their purpose by anointing. The English word anointed is connected to the Hebrew word Messiah which is the equivalent of the Greek Christ. All Old Testament symbolism finds its fulfillment in Christ. He is the One anointed to be our prophet, priest and king. To be a Christian is to share in that anointing, and therefore we each have a prophetic, a priestly and a royal task to do.
Though in the wilderness, the people had personal possessions, part of which had been given to them by the Egyptians who, after the plagues, were glad to see them go. Pooling their resources, the material was thus available. In spite of their faults, the Israelites set a good example for us in how to give for God’s work. They gave with a “generous heart” and with a “willing heart” and gave so much they had to be told to stop.
They had a worthy cause; we have a more worthy cause. They were to build a material building for God’s glory; we have the opportunity of spending so that people everywhere may hear the good news of Christ. Let us then give with a generous heart, glad for the privilege of leading people to eternal life. There is no end of opportunities to do so.
Having the plan and the materials, now they actually did the job. It is not enough to have high ideals and great opportunities. We must determine to serve the Lord in the specific ways in which He has given us the opportunity to do so. Let us not just talk about what needs to be done-let us do it.
Notice what Moses does not do. He does not separate himself self-righteously from the sinning people. Instead, he says to God that he is willing to be lost rather than that God should not forgive these people, utterly unworthy though they be. What a different spirit from what is so common among us today.
God says that because of the sinfulness of the people, He will send an angel to accompany them on their journey, but will not go with them personally. Again Moses pleads with God, and again God changes what He said He would do, in answer to Moses’ prayer! If we would pray as fervently and unselfishly as Moses, what great things God would do for His church.
While God is willing to be gracious to Israel because of the prayer of Moses, yet He is a God who will punish sin and who requires obedience. In our emphasis on the grace of God, we must not forget that.
The high priest, the leader of worship, was ordained, or set aside for this sacred task, with an elaborate ceremony. While elaborate ceremonies are not required by the spirit of the New Testament, certainly to set aside persons to lead in the worship of God is an important matter. Both the leader and the people should be impressed with the importance of what we are doing when we worship Almighty God.
But who among these Israelites in the wilderness had the skill to produce this beautiful tent and furnishings and garments? God’s Spirit filled certain persons, giving them the needed skills. The Bible teaches us that in a similar manner the Holy Spirit gives various abilities to each member of the church so that the work God has given us to do may be done well. Each of us must ask himself, “What gift or gifts has God given me?” and then must use those gifts for God’s glory.
Holiness means “separated unto.” Anything holy is to be totally dedicated to the service of God. Being separated to God includes being separated from sinful purposes. As Aaron’s garments were to be holy, so we are called to be holy, that is, so separated unto God that we will be separated from sin.
The Urim and the Thummim (28:30) are of special interest. They were apparently two objects something like dice which were used in the casting of lots to determine the will of God. They were kept in a receptacle in the breastplate of the high priest and were only used to determine God’s will for matters which dealt with the national affairs of God’s people. It was fitting then that they were kept in the breastplate which was adorned with 12 precious stones representing the 12 tribes. We can be thankful that through Scripture and the Holy Spirit we can determine the will of God in a much more mature way.
Among the commandments for daily living are those that tell how we are to treat the poor. We must not have just a personal piety; we must also have a concern for social justice. Because God cares how the poor are treated, so must we. We must not only say we care; we must do what we can to correct situations.
Connected to the call for obedience, there are promises of what God will do as a result of such obedience. God says “if you hearken attentively” to My voice, then I will bless you. God treats us, His New Testament people, according to the same principles He used in treating Israel.
In Chapter 26 we find descriptions of some of the furniture which is to be built for the tabernacle. The ark is to symbolize the very presence of God in their midst. God dwells in our midst in a far more wonderful way-the Holy Spirit is in our hearts.
The first commandments deal with our relationship to God and those that follow with our relationship to our fellow human beings. The great commandment is love, but loves expresses itself in specifics. If we really love God, we will have the deepest respect for His name and His day. If we really love people, we will not hurt them by stealing from them their lives, their spouses or their possessions.
The commandments in the chapters that follow further define what is involved in the Ten Commandments and point out the penalties that enforce these laws. There are so many ways we can hurt our fellow human beings. God wants us to realize that hurtful action carries with it very negative consequences. Because there is a God in heaven, sin does not pay. Notice how again and again God’s Word says “when” this is done, this will be the result; “if” we do this, this will be the penalty. This is not legalism; it is the protection of the rights of our fellow human beings.