The way the Law is presented can seem random and scattered to me, but I don’t believe that God’s thoughts are so disorganized. So I seek to find the principles His requirements establish.
Here is my attempt at finding principles in the examples given in today’s reading. They seem to be addressing the very human circumstances of seeing something we wish we hadn’t seen, encountering something simply because we were unfortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time, and reacting in an unlovely fashion when something unexpectedly goes wrong for us. Life is often messy, and sometimes we get embroiled in messes through no fault of our own. These laws address life’s messes. They teach that God’s people were still expected to do the right thing, still expected to make things right, still expected to pay when they were victims of circumstances, even if they were unintentionally and unknowingly victims of circumstance. Would God’s heart be changed with regard to His expectations for His New Testament people?
Ignorance was no excuse for violating the Law with regard to what is holy to God. In their day, the consequences for violating some of these worship practices were instantaneously deadly; that was great incentive for knowing God’s requirements thoroughly and getting it right. What if the consequences of our not knowing God’s word were as deadly to us as it was to them? What if we’re not aware of its consequences until we stand before Jesus and hear Him say, “Depart from me; I never knew you?” It’s not a wise risk. We’re doing well to be in His word!
Where man’s uncleanness, even if it was contracted simply by innocent contact with the uncleanness in the world, violated God’s requirements for man, he was guilty of uncleanness and had to make it right with God. He may not have been able to control the getting unclean, but he was still unclean, and was required to make it right with God so that he could be forgiven of his uncleanness. Where he had sinned against man, he had to make it right with both God and man. Again, what do you think is the significance for us New Testament people of God?
There were many different types of offerings. The guilt and sin offerings are the ones we probably understand the best: they paid for a person’s guilt, as God’s given means to make it right before Him. (How good He was to give them a means to make it right!) The burnt offering was simply a gift poured out to God: a “soothing aroma” for Him. Does that make God bloodthirsty, that the sacrifice of an animal is a soothing aroma to Him? I don’t believe that God cared so little for His creatures that He delighted in their killing; rather, that animal represented to Him their sacrifice, something valuable to Him that was of value to them, that they gave to Him because they loved Him and wanted to please Him. What do we have that is valuable to us today, that we can offer to Him in what looks like a total waste to the world, because we want to please Him?
Notice that the altar was to have a constant fire in it with a burnt offering. What does that speak to you about worship?
God gave requirements for each type of sacrifice offered, depending on its purpose. Even if one wanted to offer a sacrifice in thanks to God, he had to follow the prescribed method. The priest had a role to play in each offering, and if the priest failed to follow the requirements correctly, the offering would not be accepted; in fact, it would be offensive to God. Consequences for that were serious: “he who offered it shall not be accepted.” In other cases, punishment was that the person “shall be cut off from his people.” That’s serious. One wouldn’t offer sacrifices haphazardly, even if one had the wealth to burn. What does that teach us about worship?