Ezra 1-2

Ch2 68-69 Some of the heads of families, on arriving at The Temple of God in Jerusalem, made Freewill-Offerings toward the rebuilding of The Temple of God on its site. They gave to the building fund as they were able,


We could go through the last of Moses books we haven't covered but I didn't want to bite of Numbers if you wanted to try something else....so a quick detour through Ezra


I read that Ezra is written after the fall of Babylon and the return from exile during that time.  Cyrus orders rebuilding the temple.  I'm not sure what to make of all the documentation of family names and numbers returning and their skill.

I chose these versus thinking about our own church.  We are going through a staff transition and we are taking the time to evaluate not just backfilling but potentially adding an associate pastor.  To be honest my church feels a lot like OH 25yrs ago.  Pretty small, just hired a young gifted pastor and now we are looking to fill the youth and children's needs.  Yesterday we presented to the congregation the idea and since it is outside and higher than our budget we decided to take it to them to test their gut feeling on where we believe God is leading us.  82% affirmed the idea and said they would support it financially.  This verse reminds me of that and my hope that our congregation will give according to their ability...including Gina and I.

Knut

Leviticus 27!

Leviticus 27:30 NIV
“ ‘A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord.


I chose this verse because I can at relate it to today compared to putting values on selling people.  Just a reminder that all that we have belongs to him and that we should freely offer some of it back to him.

 But as I was thinking about this it made me wonder why do we still speak about titheing but not many of the other levite laws.  Then I read tom v's take and saw he selected the same versus but poimted out that the tithe is a good principle rooted in levite law but that jesus took it up further challenging to give up all matrrial possessions and folloe him.

So maybe I shouldnt talk about tithing but it shouldn't be anything less

In chose leviticus you takeus to the next book.

Knut

Leiticus 25

Leviticus 25:11 NIV
The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines.

I really didn't have anything of note but its interesting that today the year of jubilee isnot recognized and from what I could find on the web there is not clarity on when it stopped.  Seems like this wouldbepretty easy to track andfor societyto remember exactly when or why it ceased.

Did you get anything?
Knut

Leviticus 25-26

26 “‘Do not make idols or set up an image or a sacred stone for yourselves, and do not place a carved stone in your land to bow down before it. I am the Lord your God.

² “‘Observe my Sabbaths and have reverence for my sanctuary. I am the Lord.
³ “‘If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, ⁴ I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit. ⁵ Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land.
⁶ “‘I will grant peace in the land, and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid. I will remove wild beasts from the land, and the sword will not pass through your country. ⁷ You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you. ⁸ Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you.
⁹ “‘I will look on you with favor and make you fruitful and increase your numbers, and I will keep my covenant with you. ¹⁰ You will still be eating last year’s harvest when you will have to move it out to make room for the new. ¹¹ I will put my dwelling place^[a] among you, and I will not abhor you. ¹² I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people. ¹³ I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high.

I know its a lot to copy/paste.  But, I found this section to be a welcomed reprive from all the rules.  It seems that we've been reading about what the Israelites could/couldn't do for so long.  I really liked this couple of paragraphs.  God is telling his people if they do their best to keep his laws, he will bless them.  He will take care of them.  For a people that have been slaves, and are now wandering.......this must have been of great comfort.

tp

Leviticus 23-24

So many rules.

I wonder if God is doing this to teach the people a lesson?  Adam and Eve had 1 rule.  Don't eat the fruit from the tree.  They couldn't abide by that 1 rule.  Now God is giving the people a MILLION rules to follow.  It almost feels like there are so many that you might trip over one rule while trying to follow another.

Anyone who curses their God will be held responsible; ¹⁶ anyone who blasphemes the name of the Lord is to be put to death.
I talked about this one other day.....but our society is so cavalier with the name of God......it pains me.
My work friends will use the "Jesus Christ" as an exasperation....I can't imagine how much that hurts God.


tp.....out

Leviticus 22

hhhhhhhmmmmmmm..........not much jumping off the page

^32-33 “Don’t desecrate my holy name. I insist on being treated with holy reverence among the People of Israel. I am God who makes you holy and brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am God.”

This is the last line in the chapter.  It is a good reminder for me.  Even though I need to have a personal relationship with the Living God.....I am still to understand that he is NOT on my level, and needs to be treated with reverence and awe.  Not only am I to understand the magnitude of God's greatness, but I'm not even allowed to say his name in a negative or irreverant way. 
Think about how often in our society people do this.......desecrate God's holy name. 
Why do people feel then need to use it as an expression of exclamation and negativity?
That doesn't even make sense......I'm thinking about people I know that don't even believe in God, and yet they are using his name in their every day speech.....but in a negative way.  This is a crazy world!

tp

Leviticus 21

I don't have any deep thoughts on this one.  It seems fairly straight forward.
I found myself reading this and thinking about all the issues with priests in our day and age.
Along those same lines....I didn't read in there that priest COULDNT marry.  It just specified who they could and couldn't marry, as far as relatives/divorcees/prostitutes.
Which makes complete sense.

One thing that made me laugh.....when talking about the possible defects of the people.....they list a few and then say, "a damaged testicle"........WHAT?!!!!  I could name a hundred things that could be physically wrong with a person, and not get to a damaged testicle.  That made me laugh.

peace out.
have a safe trip back!

Leviticus 20

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Leviticus 19

4 “‘Do not turn to idols or make metal gods for yourselves. I am the Lord your God.


This chapter actually has a lot in it that feels applicable.  For me this one use to be on my mind a lot, is my race car my idol?  I felt I had to guard against it because I love racing so much and its a passion even to this day, but I have kept it in its place.  It doesn't get my first fruits, God does which was hard to do back before we tithed.  but as we began tithing I have had less issues with being focused on wants...of course I'm not wanting anything now because he has blessed us with so much.  I guess the skeptic could just say you earn enough money that its not an issue, but I think if I hadn't changed my ways no money would have been enough to feed my materialistic desireds.

²⁵ But in the fifth year you may eat its fruit. In this way your harvest will be increased. I am the Lord your God.

this verse just made me think about being patient and letting God's plan work in God's time not mine.

knut

Leviticus 18

28 And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you. Seems like around the world no matter the country there is a lack of sexual purity whether it be sex out of weddlock or gay relations, this chapter is pretty relevent right now. There also seems to be growing cultural unrest and turmoil at least here in the US, but I suspect elsewhere too as you listen to the news. I think the devil has found his strongest foothold in sex and he is very effectively using it against humanity to drive a wedge between us and God. Its interesting how society has turned Christians into the villian on this topic. I think we have to stick to our principles and teach our kids God's direction for us which includes hating the sin but loving the sinner. knut

Leviticus 17

11 For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.[c] Before Jesus, God gave us animals and it was there blood that was necessary to make atonement or reconcile people's lives. So it is constant that we needed bloodshed for our lives to be saved and Jesus has now fulfills that need for us. Thanks to the Lamb of God I am saved. knut

Leviticus 16

30 because on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the Lord, you will be clean from all your sins. Pheeew, again another long list of procedures and blood shed to ensure atonement of the sins of Israel. I am thankful for Jesus and his atonement of my sins. Simple procedure believe and ask him into my heart and ask for forgiveness. knut

Leviticus 14-15

more descriptions of uncleanliness and how to make clean. I don't know if these were practical rules God provide to help keep Gods people healthy or maybe to be a reminder of the fact that God is Holy and to be close to him you should need to be as clean and holy as possible? Its difficult for me to find value in all the details, so maybe there is a real practicality of practicing these rules back in the day when keeping clean would be far more difficult than in todays modern world. Wiki provides an outline for Leviticus that is helpful for me to step up to a higher level and look at how the book is constructed. I. Laws on sacrifice (1:1–7:38) A. Instructions for the laity on bringing offerings (1:1–6:7) 1–5. The types of offering: burnt, cereal, peace, purification, reparation (or sin) offerings (ch. 1–5) B. Instructions for the priests (6:1–7:38) 1–6. The various offerings, with the addition of the priests' cereal offering (6:1–7:36)7. Summary (7:37–38) II. Institution of the priesthood (8:1–10:20) A. Ordination of Aaron and his sons (ch. 8) B. Aaron makes the first sacrifices (ch. 9) C. Judgement on Nadab and Abihu (ch. 10) III. Uncleanliness and its treatment (11:1–16:24) A. Unclean animals (ch. 11) C. Unclean diseases (ch. 13) D. Cleansing of diseases (ch. 14) E. Unclean discharges (ch. 15) F. Purification of the tabernacle from uncleanliness (ch. 16) IV. Prescriptions for practical holiness (the Holiness Code (chs. 17–26) A. Sacrifice and food (ch. 17) B. Sexual behaviour (ch. 18) C. Neighbourliness (ch.19) D. Grave crimes (ch. 20) E. Rules for priests (ch. 21) F. Rules for eating sacrifices (ch. 22) G. Festivals (ch.23) H. Rules for the tabernacle (ch. 24:1–9) I. Blasphemy (ch. 24:10–23) J. Sabbatical and Jubilee years (ch. 25) K. Exhortation to obey the law: blessing and curse (ch. 26) V. Redemption of votive gifts (ch. 27) have a great weekend! knut

Leviticus 13

46 As long as they have the disease they remain unclean. They must live alone; they must live outside the camp. Well I'm no Tom Vander Well but reading his post yesterday prompted me to think about Jesus healing a man with leprosy. That must have been even more impactful to witness than I was thinking. People would surely know the people that had been designated to live alone and had probably witnessed first hand many who lived and died alone. So to see a man come and make them Clean again must have been an even more powerful sight than I can imagine. Not only can he make us physically clean but he is the only one who can make our souls clean again. knut

Leviticus 12

I got nothing...but read Tom's post and really liked it. I want to develop that depth of knowledge to make these kinds of connections. his last line hits the mark, below is his post--- “If she can’t afford a lamb, she can bring two doves or two pigeons, one for the Whole-Burnt-Offering and one for the Absolution-Offering. The priest will make atonement for her and she will be clean.” Leviticus 12:8 (MSG) One of the reasons I’ve always encouraged fellow followers to read through the Old Testament is that it provides layers of new understanding to familiar passages in the New Testament. Take the verse above, for example. Now compare that with Luke 2:22-24: When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took [Jesus] to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord”), and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.” Now we get a deeper picture of Mary and Joseph, who were dedicated followers of the Law and held to the rituals prescribed in Leviticus chapter 12. We also learn that Jesus’ family was of limited means because they sacrificed the doves or pigeons rather than the lamb. This, in turn, is fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophetic word picture (Isaiah 53:2) that the messiah would be of humble beginnings “like a tender shoot and a root out of dry ground.” God’s Message provides wholistic understanding. While individual verses or passages provide inspiration or instruction, they are intended to be interpreted in the context of the whole. I am always wary of those who pull one or two verses out of God’s Message and interpret them to mean all sorts of things that do not fit in context with the whole. These early books of law are certainly dry in terms of simple devotional reading, but they are thick with providing a broader historical picture of God’s plan.

Leviticus 11

46 “‘These are the regulations concerning animals, birds, every living thing that moves about in the water and every creature that moves along the ground. More rules that seem pretty arbitrary. But maybe it not the rules themselves but god setting a system to create discipline and also to keep him at the forefront of their minds? But does seem quite different than having a personal relatiinship with him. Not sure what else to make of it. Knut