Tag: Leviticus

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From Passover to Tabernacles

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Numbers 29 Listen: (5:05) Read: 1 Corinthians 3 Listen: (3:05)

Scripture Focus: Numbers 29.12

12 On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. Celebrate a festival to the Lord for seven days.

Leviticus 23.39-40

39 “ ‘So beginning with the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you have gathered the crops of the land, celebrate the festival to the Lord for seven days; the first day is a day of sabbath rest, and the eighth day also is a day of sabbath rest. 40 On the first day you are to take branches from luxuriant trees—from palms, willows and other leafy trees—and rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days.

Reflection: From Passover to Tabernacles

By John Tillman

What festival are you in?

The Passover festival began the year by celebrating the beginning of Israel as a nation. In many ways it was the most important festival, but the biggest festival by popularity, length, number of sacrifices, and prominence was Tabernacles.

Passover celebrated the journey out of slavery. It freed Israel, identified them as God’s priestly nation, renewed their purpose of bringing God’s blessing to the world, and gave them a destiny in a land that was promised to them.

Tabernacles celebrated the wilderness journey. It reflected on peace and security by looking back to the wilderness when, by the world’s standards, they had neither peace nor security. As homeless migrants and outcasts, they were hated, feared, and attacked by every nation whose borders they approached or land they crossed.

As Christians, Passover also defines our identity, purpose, and destiny. Jesus redefined that festival’s symbols to institute the Lord’s Supper and his “new covenant in my blood.” (Luke 22.19-20)

We see salvation in Passover yet, in Tabernacles we see a picture of life in this world. Tabernacles is the “already and not yet” festival. Israel was promised a place of peace, rest, and plenty. They were sheltered in God, yet not permanently sheltered. Representing this, the instructions for shelters say, “take branches from luxuriant trees…” (Leviticus 23.40) With these luxuriant limbs, their shelters represented resting “under their own vine.” (Micah 4.4)

We live between Exodus and the Promised Land. We live in the festival of Tabernacles, sheltered by the Holy Spirit, but not yet in our heavenly dwelling. (2 Corinthians 5.4-9; 2 Peter 1.12-15) But the end of Tabernacles is coming.

Tabernacles was an eight day festival. In Hebrew thought, the eighth day represented a re-beginning of creation when God made all things new. This last day of the festival is when Jesus raised his voice, saying, “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” (John 7.37-39)

Our eighth day is coming. Our wilderness sojourn will end. Our desert will flow with living water. Our temporary tabernacles will be transfigured into the permanent places Jesus went ahead of us to prepare.

But many are not ready for the eighth day. Raise your voice to call the outcasts, wanderers, sinners, and the lost. Build luxuriant tabernacles for them and invite them to pass through Passover to join you in Tabernacles.

Rest in your shelter. But work for and await the eighth day.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Morning Psalm

Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous; it is good for the just to sing praises.

For the word of the Lord is right, and all his works are sure.

Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon those who fear him, on those who wait upon his love.

Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and our shield.

Indeed, our heart rejoices in him, for in his holy Name we put our trust.

Let your loving-kindness, O Lord, be upon us, as we have put our trust in you. — Psalm 33.1, 4,18-22

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime

 by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: The Eighth Day

Christians as well as Jews, did not believe that the repetitive cycle of a new week following another, and a new year following another, would be endless. 

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Your Net Worth

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Leviticus 27 Listen: (4:45) Read: Acts 23 Listen: (5:15)

Scripture Focus: Leviticus 27:8

8 If anyone making the vow is too poor to pay the specified amount, the person being dedicated is to be presented to the priest, who will set the value according to what the one making the vow can afford.

Reflection: Your Net Worth

By Erin Newton

I look in the mirror and see a tired face, wrinkles setting in on a furrowed brow. Clothes disheveled, uncertain of when I last did laundry. I wonder if I did enough today, if my kids are bored, or if I forgot something that was due yesterday.

What are my efforts worth?

The bank account is low, and the bills are running high. The jar of change echoes a little more. I hope the banker sees our hard work and diligence; we just need a little loan to fix the house.

What is my value in the eyes of the world?

The world calculates manhours and paychecks, zeros and commas, potential and power. Worth is defined by bank accounts and popularity. What can you do for me? What can you do for us? (Are you going to pay taxes? Are you always going to need help?)

When will I be “worth my weight in gold”?

I’m destined to never be on a Forbes list or in the museum’s platinum donor column. Making ends meet is all that we call success these days. But of all the prized possessions and bountiful crops and perfect livestock, my life itself is of greatest worth—at least from a divine perspective.

My life is worth more than my accomplishments.

There was a provision for people to be dedicated to God, a living sacrifice so to speak. This wasn’t servitude or enslavement. The person would go away and return to his or her normal duties. It was a monetary gift to God symbolic of the potential value of one’s wages for many years. It was costly. It was precious. Because we are precious.

My devotion is not determined by my net worth.

The cost of such dedication was not hindered by one’s lack of wealth. A person could be dedicated with equal respectability and with equal expression of devotion but for a cost that was commensurate with one’s financial burdens. Being low-income did not lower one’s dedication.

I can dedicate my life to God without being an employee of the church.

The temple had a prescribed group of workers: the Levites. Others who wanted to dedicate themselves to God could give financially and work in the outside world.

Such is the reality of many Christians today. All of our lives, the work of our hands, the proportion of our gifts are dearly valued by God.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

Be merciful to me, O Lord, for you are my God; I call upon you all the day long. — Psalm 86.3

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Living Leviticus

Leviticus levels the ground at the entrance to God’s presence. The rich have no advantage over the poor in seeking God.

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He Is Faithful When We Are Not

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Leviticus 26 Listen: (6:22) Read: Acts 22 Listen: (4:26)

Scripture Focus: Leviticus 26.44-45

44 Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them or abhor them so as to destroy them completely, breaking my covenant with them. I am the Lord their God. 45 But for their sake I will remember the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am the Lord.

Reflection: He Is Faithful When We Are Not

By John Tillman

God will be faithful to his purposes even when his people are not.

Like many places in scripture, in Leviticus 26 God lays out stark choices and consequences. He says, in effect, “Will you have promises and blessings or curses and punishments?”

One of the benefits of rereading the Bible over and over is more easily recognizing patterns and recurring descriptions. The descriptions of consequences for the unfaithful are so accurate to the actual events that occur later in Israel’s history they might as well be read as prophecy. Sadly, every one of the events described will occur as Israel continues to turn away from God in the future.

Warnings, promises, consequences, and blessings all seem like they would be effective motivators. “Do this and die or do this and live,” seems easy enough. But it isn’t.

Despite clarity of the consequences, Israel persevered in sin, rather than faith.

Despite miraculous evidence of God’s faithfulness and power, Israel chose to trust false promises of political powers.

Despite being granted the visitation of the invisible God in a visible form (Leviticus 9.23), Israel chose to trust idols of human creation rather than the God who made the wood and stone from which false idols were carved. (Isaiah 44.16-19)

Haven’t we made similar errors in judgment? Haven’t we suffered through anguish persisting in sin yet abandoned righteousness when it got uncomfortable? Haven’t we shown incredible loyalty to political powers who proved themselves to be the opposite of credible? Haven’t we trusted in idols of technology that shape our psyches rather than the God who desires to shape our souls? Our faithlessness was never in doubt. However, our salvation does not rest upon our faithfulness—it rests upon his.

Whatever his people choose, God is making a choice, too. God knows Israel will be unfaithful. He’s going to be faithful anyway. God knows Israel’s love for him will run cold. He’s going to love her anyway.

It is not only true that “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5.8) It is also true that before we had even sinned, God determined he would provide salvation for us. While we did not yet know what depths of sin we would commit, God decided that there was no depth so deep that he would not rescue us.

However deep in sin you sink, lift eyes and hands to him. He is prepared to pull you out.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

Come and listen, all you who fear God, and I will tell you what he has done for me. — Psalm 66.14

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Prayer When None Are Faithful

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Prayer When None are Faithful—Readers’ Choice
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Supporting our Work

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Examine Your Sacrifices

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Leviticus 22 Listen: (4:41) Read: Acts 18 Listen: (4:06)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Read: Leviticus 23 Listen: (6:31) Read: Acts 19 Listen: (5:47)
Read: Leviticus 24 Listen: (2:58) Read: Acts 20 Listen: (5:22)

Scripture Focus: Leviticus 22.17-20

17 The Lord said to Moses, 18 “Speak to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites and say to them: ‘If any of you—whether an Israelite or a foreigner residing in Israel—presents a gift for a burnt offering to the Lord, either to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering, 19 you must present a male without defect from the cattle, sheep or goats in order that it may be accepted on your behalf. 20 Do not bring anything with a defect, because it will not be accepted on your behalf.

Malachi 1.8, 14

8 When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?” says the Lord Almighty.

14 “Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king,” says the Lord Almighty, “and my name is to be feared among the nations.

Reflection: Examine Your Sacrifices

By John Tillman

Where does food come from? We know the answer is “farms,” yet the first image in our head is probably a grocery store.

Most people in modern societies, whether we live in cities or the countryside, are socially and geographically disconnected from our food sources. Few have ever grown and harvested our own crops or raised or butchered our own animals. This isn’t bad or good—it’s just different than biblical societies. This agricultural disconnection distances us from some aspects of the sacrificial system.

We might cringe at the perceived cruelty of animal sacrifices but fail to blink at the financial cost. When a family sacrificed an animal they weren’t sacrificing a pet. They sacrificed all the things the animal could give them over its life. They sacrificed the labor the animal could perform, the goods it could be traded for, the offspring it could reproduce, in addition to most of the food it could provide.

Leviticus 22 stressed that animals for sacrifices must be “without defect,” to head off a financial temptation to keep the best animals for breeding, working the land, or market, sacrificing to the Lord less valuable stock. You wouldn’t want to breed the runts, the deformed, or the sickly animals. Yet, God forbids using sacrifices to cull the weak. He demands their best.

Israel struggled with this. Malachi condemned the priests and people of his day. They brought God offerings so deformed and diseased that no human wanted to eat them. (Malachi 1.12-14) God challenged the people to offer food like this to human rulers and endure their reaction.

Just as the Israelites were prone to give to God lame, blind, diseased, or deformed animals, we are prone to give up to God things we didn’t want anyway and keep for ourselves what we find most valuable.

Our salvation is secured by the sacrifice of Jesus the “spotless lamb.” But we are still called to many works of sacrifice. Jesus asks us to take up our cross and lay down our lives. He asks us to feed the hungry, hydrate the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, and visit the sick and the prisoner. (Matthew 25.34-40)

If a human leader had assigned these tasks, would the state of our world indicate acceptable job performance? Are our sacrifices and efforts at these tasks (our orthopraxy) lame, blind, or weak like a diseased lamb?

Examine your sacrifices. Give your best.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

I cry out to you, O Lord; I say, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.” — Psalm 142.5

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Holidays are Tabernacles

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Read more: Pleasing Sacrifices

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God Makes the Disabled Holy

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Leviticus 21 Listen: (3:08) Read: Acts 17 Listen: (5:28)

Scripture Focus: Leviticus 21.21-23

21 No descendant of Aaron the priest who has any defect is to come near to present the food offerings to the Lord. He has a defect; he must not come near to offer the food of his God. 22 He may eat the most holy food of his God, as well as the holy food; 23 yet because of his defect, he must not go near the curtain or approach the altar, and so desecrate my sanctuary. I am the Lord, who makes them holy.’ ”

Reflection: God Makes the Disabled Holy

By John Tillman

Is God against the disabled?

Leviticus 21.21 seems, at face value, to devalue the disabled.

Is Yahweh breaking his own command from Leviticus 19.14 to not curse or put obstacles in front of the disabled? When Jesus cleared the Temple courts of merchants described as “thieves” and called the disabled to himself, was he “correcting” God’s mistake in Leviticus 21? (Matthew 21.12-14)

No. When we set Jesus against Yahweh (or Yahweh against Yahweh) we deny the essential unity among the godhead which is taught by Jesus, affirmed by the Father, and demonstrated by the Holy Spirit.

There are a few things to consider in this difficult-to-understand passage.

The disabled were not barred from worship or the Lord’s presence. Leviticus 21’s limits are only for priests and only for one specific priestly duty: offering sacrifices.

Disabled priests were barred from physically demanding duties. Serving at the altar involved killing and butchering the animals and carrying out the many physical requirements of the ritual for whatever sacrifice was being made. This physical labor may have been difficult for those with some of the disabilities mentioned.

Nothing, animal, vegetable, mineral, or human, that approached the altar was to have a defect. Sacrifices represented the perfect dying on behalf of the imperfect. Both animal and priest represented the people offering it. Priests “without defect” were mirror images of animals “without defect.”

Disabled priests had full rights as priests. The disabled priests could not offer the food offerings, but their rights to eat from those offerings were identical to the other priests and they had no other limitations in their responsibilities.

God claimed disabled priests as his and made them holy. Describing a disabled priest’s limitation, God identified himself with them, saying, “his God.” (Leviticus 21.21) God is still their God and they are his priests. They are included when God says, “I am the Lord who makes them holy.” (Leviticus 21.23)

Today, many in our society threaten protections, education, and opportunities for the disabled. Our God makes the disabled holy along with us. Let us not allow anyone to label them as anything but equally blessed and loved by God.


In Christ, the disabled are priests of equal value, equal calling, equal standing, and share an equal blessing of the Holy Spirit. We must include them, not only in feasts, so that all will be blessed (Luke 14.13-14), but in every work of God within their capabilities.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

Know this: The Lord himself is God; he himself has made us, and we are his; we are his people and the sheep of his pasture. — Psalm 100.2

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

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