Week 1
At the end of Exodus…
-God has chosen, delivered and is now preparing His people to be set aside spiritually and physically for His purpose.
Exodus 24: 3-7 Moses told the people all the LORD’s words and laws for living. Then all of the people answered out loud together, “We will do all the things the LORD has said.” 4 So Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD. And he got up early the next morning and built an altar near the bottom of the mountain. He set up twelve stones, one stone for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 Then Moses sent young Israelite men to offer whole burnt offerings and to sacrifice young bulls as fellowship offerings to the LORD. 6 Moses put half of the blood of these animals in bowls, and he sprinkled the other half of the blood on the altar. 7 Then he took the Book of the Agreement and read it so the people could hear him. And they said, “We will do everything that the LORD has said; we will obey.”
-Exodus 20:13 to chapter 23 is the Book of the Covenant aka “Law of the Living”
-In Exodus 32:1-6 Aaron molded a calf while Moses was on the mountain. In verses 19-24 Moses comes back and is angry with Aaron.
-Deuteronomy 9:1-6 Listen, Israel. You will soon cross the Jordan River to go in and force out nations that are bigger and stronger than you. They have large cities with walls up to the sky. 2 The people there are Anakites, who are strong and tall. You know about them, and you have heard it said: “No one can stop the Anakites.” 3 But today remember that the LORD your God goes in before you to destroy them like a fire that burns things up. He will defeat them ahead of you, and you will force them out and destroy them quickly, just as the LORD has said. 4 After the LORD your God has forced those nations out ahead of you, don’t say to yourself, “The LORD brought me here to take this land because I am so good.” No! It is because these nations are evil that the LORD will force them out ahead of you. 5 You are going in to take the land, not because you are good and honest, but because these nations are evil. That is why the LORD your God will force them out ahead of you, to keep his promise to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 6 The LORD your God is giving you this good land to take as your own. But know this: It is not because you are good; you are a stubborn people.
-Moses reminded them that they are given the land not because they were good people but because of God’s promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
-God’s promise to Abraham: In Genesis 15:13-16 13 Then the LORD said to Abram, “You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers and travel in a land they don’t own. The people there will make them slaves and be cruel to them for four hundred years. 14 But I will punish the nation where they are slaves. Then your descendants will leave that land, taking great wealth with them. 15 And you, Abram, will die in peace and will be buried at an old age. 16 After your great- great-grandchildren are born, your people will come to this land again. It will take that long, because I am not yet going to punish the Amorites for their evil behavior.”
LEVITICUS
Means “Pertaining to the Levites” , “Relating to the Priests”
-Leviticus 18:24-25 24 “‘Don’t make yourself unclean by any of these wrong things. I am forcing nations out of their countries because they did these sins, and I am giving their land to you. 25 The land has become unclean, and I punished it for its sins, so the land is throwing out those people who live there.
Congretional Significance:
-“Be Holy because I am Holy”
-“Holy” …In Hebrew, it better translates as having a pure spiritual quality.
-James 3:17 But the wisdom that comes from God is first of all pure, then peaceful, gentle, and easy to please. This wisdom is always ready to help those who are troubled and to do good for others. It is always fair and honest.
-Vital for understanding pervasiveness of sin
-Order from Disorder in Human kind
-Pointed to need for fuller system of atonement
Three Areas of focus with New Testament implications
1. Sacrificial worship
• The Old Testament sacrificial system consisted primarily of 5 offerings:
1. Meat Offering
2. Grain
3. Peace
4. Sin
5. Guilt
• The Purpose of offerings was so the Israelites could approach and have fellowship with God. This was accomplished by the services of the high priest and the priests. The 1st High Priest was Aaron. Aaron’s sons were the priests: Nadad, Abihu, Ithamar and Eleazar. They all came from the Tribes of Levi.
*They gave a reality to the spiritual reality when they gave the offerings.
• “Abrogation” in New Testament means it came to an end in that form. There was an abrogation of the sacrificial system when the New Testament comes along:
-Matthew 5:17 Don’t think that I have come to destroy the Law of Moses or the teaching of the prophets. I have not come to destroy them but to bring about what they said.
-Jesus is saying that He came to make the laws/teachings complete and perfect.
-His intention from the beginning was for us to be “Holy”.
-Matthew 23:23-26 “How terrible for you, teachers of the law and Pharisees! You are hypocrites! You give to God one-tenth of everything you earn—even your mint, dill, and cumin. But you don’t obey the really important teachings of the law—justice, mercy, and being loyal. These are the things you should do, as well as those other things. 24 You guide the people, but you are blind! You are like a person who picks a fly out of a drink and then swallows a camel! 25 “How terrible for you, teachers of the law and Pharisees! You are hypocrites! You wash the outside of your cups and dishes, but inside they are full of things you got by cheating others and by pleasing only yourselves. 26 Pharisees, you are blind! First make the inside of the cup clean, and then the outside of the cup can be truly clean.
-We should have a pure spiritual sense of what’s fair and what’s right.
-Holiness is not about doing, it’s about BEING!
-2 Corinthians 6:3-10 We do not want anyone to find fault with our work, so nothing we do will be a problem for anyone. 4 But in every way we show we are servants of God: in accepting many hard things, in troubles, in difficulties, and in great problems. 5 We are beaten and thrown into prison. We meet those who become upset with us and start riots. We work hard, and sometimes we get no sleep or food. 6 We show we are servants of God by our pure lives, our understanding, patience, and kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by true love, 7 by speaking the truth, and by God’s power. We use our right living to defend ourselves against everything. 8 Some people honor us, but others blame us. Some people say evil things about us, but others say good things. Some people say we are liars, but we speak the truth. 9 We are not known, but we are well known. We seem to be dying, but we continue to live. We are punished, but we are not killed. 10 We have much sadness, but we are always rejoicing. We are poor, but we are making many people rich in faith. We have nothing, but really we have everything.
-Romans 12:1-2 So brothers and sisters, since God has shown us great mercy, I beg you to offer your lives as a living sacrifice to him. Your offering must be only for God and pleasing to him, which is the spiritual way for you to worship. 2 Do not be shaped by this world; instead be changed within by a new way of thinking. Then you will be able to decide what God wants for you; you will know what is good and pleasing to him and what is perfect.
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