Gold for the heart - Leviticus 19-22

Leviticus 19

1 And LORD spoke to Moses saying, 2 Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel and say to them, You will be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy. 3 Every man among you is to fear/revere his mother and his father, and keep my sabbaths: I am the LORD your God. 4 Do not turn to idols or make yourselves metal gods: I am the LORD your God. 5 And if you offer a sacrifice of peace offerings to the LORD, you are to offer it at your own will. 6 It will be eaten the same day you offer it, and on the next day: and if any of it remains until the third day, it will be burned in the fire. 7 And if it is eaten at all on the third day, it is abominable; it will not be accepted. 8 Every one that eats it will bear his evil, because he has polluted the holy thing of the LORD: and that soul will be cut off from his people.

God cuts off those who refused His instructions.
God’s warnings are strong because the battle against evil for man’s eternal soul is strong.
The Lord is impeccably fair; the punishment fits the crime.
He gives us the fruit of our doing.
God’s plan remains the same from the beginning: to make man in His image.
God is able to do this.
However, man must make the choice to follow God.
His word gives us His thinking, which makes us new from the heart first, then works out into our actions.

Genesis 1:27 God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Proverbs 23:7 For as he thinks in his heart, so he is:

Psalm 96:5 For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.

9 And when you reap the harvest of your land, you will not completely reap the corners of your field, nor will you gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10 And you will not glean your vineyard, nor gather every grape from your vineyard; you will leave them for the poor and foreigner: I am the LORD your God. 11 You are not to steal or deal falsely or lie one to another. 12 And you are not to swear falsely by my name; you will not profane/wound/stain the name of your God: I am the LORD. 13 You will not defraud your neighbor or rob him: the wages of him that is hired will not remain with you all night until the morning. 14 You will not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but will fear/revere your God: I am the LORD.

Psalm 17:7 Show your marvelous loving kindness, O you that saves by your right hand those that put their trust in you from those that rise up against them.

15 You will do no unrighteousness in judgment/court: you will not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty: but you are to judge your neighbor rightly. 16 You are not to go about as a talebearer among your people: or stand against the blood of your neighbor: I am the LORD. 17 You will not hate your brother in your heart: you may rightly correct your neighbor, and not incur sin because of him. 18 You are not to take vengeance or bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you are to love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.

God forbids judges to favor the rich or the poor.
He forbids gossip, putting your neighbors life in danger, and testifying falsely against him.
The Lord forbids hatred, vengeance and holding grudges.
He counsels us to love our neighbor as ourselves.
Obedience brings great peace and blessing. The blessing of God is hindered by disobedience.
We need His help, these things are usually not in us.

Deuteronomy 32:4 He is the Rock, his work is perfect: all his ways are justice: a God of truth and without evil, just and right is he.

Romans 12:19 Dearly beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.

19 You are to keep my statutes. You will not let your cattle breed with a different kind: You will not sow your field with mingled seed: a garment of two kinds, mixing linen and wool, is not to come upon you. 20 And if a man lies with semen with a woman that is a slave, betrothed to a man but not actually ransomed, nor given her freedom; there is to be an inquest; they will not be executed because she was not free. 21 And he will bring his trespass offering to the LORD, to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, a ram for a trespass offering. 22 And the priest will make an atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering before the LORD for his sin that he has done: and the sin that he has done will be forgiven him.

Everything was to be kept pure.
God forbid the crossbreeding of animals, plants, and even mixing fabrics in clothing.
He clarified the adultery law to keep women alive who were slaves because they had no choice.
The offering the man brought was a picture of God’s great love poured out for us through His Son’s death for our sins.
He forgives when we confess.
Those who didn’t bring the offering weren’t forgiven.
The sin was still on their account rather than taken away by Christ’s blood.

I John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

23 And when you come into the land and have planted all kinds of trees for food, then you are to consider its fruit as uncircumcised: you are to consider it uncircumcised three years: it is not to be eaten. 24 But in the fourth year all its fruit will be set apart to praise the LORD. 25 And in the fifth year you may eat its fruit; this is done so that it will yield its increase to you: I am the LORD your God.

God’s rules are for the health of the land and our souls.
When He is in first place all is right in our lives and He can bless abundantly.
God wants what is good for man.

26 You will not eat anything with the blood: you are not to use enchantment or observe times. 27 You are not to round the corners of your heads or mar the corners of your beard. 28 You will not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead or print any marks on yourself: I am the LORD. 29 Do not prostitute your daughter, to cause her to be a whore; so that the land not fall into whoredom, and the land become full of wickedness.

These were heathen practices of worship to false gods.
The false gods are nothing.
Remember the source of evil, Satan.
When we follow these things we are allowing evil to take over in this world.
Leviticus 17:7 tells us that devils were behind the religions that worshipped false gods.

1 Corinthians 8:4 So, concerning the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one.

30 You will keep my sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD. 31 Do not regard those that have familiar spirits or seek after wizards, to be defiled/fouled/polluted by them: I am the LORD your God. 32 You will rise up before the gray haired, and honor the face of the old man, and fear/revere your God: I am the LORD. 33 And if a foreigner stays with you in your land, you will not mistreat/oppress him. 34 But the foreigner that dwells with you will be like one born among you; you are to love him as yourself; for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God. 35 You are to do no unrighteousness in judgment/court, in measuring yardage, in weight, or in measure. 36 You will have just balances, just weights, a just dry measure, and a just wet measure: I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. 37 Therefore you will observe all my statutes and all my judgments, and do them: I am the LORD.

God desires His people to dwell together in humility and unity rather than separation and snobbery.
He forbids dishonest business practices.
Sixteen times God says I AM THE LORD in this chapter.
The word LORD means self-existent.
He is the One who made and sustains all things.
There are no higher credentials anywhere. He is the one who we are to listen to rather than others or our own heart.
It is impossible to fulfill all God’s commands and requirements by our sinful selves.
He provided His power through the Holy Spirit to help us.
We just need to be willing.
When we fail, we confess and are forgiven. God values faith above all.

Romans 13:8 Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loves another has fulfilled the law.

James 2:23 And the scripture was fulfilled which says, Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.

Leviticus 20

1 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 Again, say to the children of Israel, Whoever he is of the children of Israel, or of the foreigners that sojourn in Israel, that gives any of his seed to Molech; he is definitely to be put to death: the people of the land are to stone him with stones. 3 And I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people; because he has given of his seed to Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name.

God forbids child sacrifice.
He set its punishment at death by stoning.
Molech was a false god that the people worshipped by orgies to the screams of their children burning in Molech’s red hot arms.
This act profaned God’s holy name because people who didn’t know God would think He was like this: He is just the opposite.
He died to give us His life.

2Corinthians 5:19 That is, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

Genesis 9:6 Who ever sheds man's blood, by man his blood is to be shed: for in the image of God made he man.

God requires that we tell

4 And if the people of the land do any way hide their eyes from the man, when he gives of his seed to Molech, and do not kill him: 5 Then I will set my face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all that go a whoring after him, to commit whoredom with Molech, from among their people. 6 And the soul that turns after those who have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people.

When a killer is stopped lives are saved.
Evil is the killer of the human race.
Evil is spread by unclean spirits with the complicity of man.
God holds each of us responsible to be certain that the choices we make each day lead to life, not death.
God forbids contact with unclean spirits.
Our families who are believers continue on after this life.
The person who seeks advice from astrologers, witches (good and bad), reads their horoscope, etc are unfaithful to their Maker.
God calls it whoring.

He commands holiness because we belong to the Holy One

7 Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be holy: for I am the LORD your God. 8 And you will keep my statutes, and do them: I am the LORD which sanctifies you. 9 For every one that curses his father or his mother is to be definitely put to death: he has cursed his father or his mother; his blood will be upon him.

God set us apart to Himself.
The word ‘sanctify’ means to set apart.
He honors respect for our parents with long life.
He required the death penalty for disrespect of parents.
Respect for parents who raise us transfers into respect for God who gives life and breath.
Disrespect breeds disrespect and therefore death because God is life.
In Jesus, God did this in our place, for us, perfectly.

Exodus 20:12 Honor your father and your mother: that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God gives you.

10 And the man that commits adultery with another man's wife, even he that commits adultery with his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress will surely be put to death. 11 And the man that lies with his father's wife has uncovered his father's nakedness: both of them will definitely be put to death; their blood will be upon them. 12 And if a man lies with his daughter in law, both of them will definitely be put to death: they have worked confusion; their blood will be on them. 13 If a man also lies with mankind, as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they are to definitely be put to death; their blood will be upon them.

Evil is always around suggesting wrong things to us and trying to lead us on paths away from God.
People who fill their needs in these ways are listening to evil and not God.
Evil paints a pretty picture but anyone who has lived through a wrong relationship can testify to the ruin and heartbreak for everyone involved.
Marriage is the great illustration of God’s relationship with us and therefore sacred.
Some say homosexuals are born that way…God cannot create what He abhors (Ralph Cain).

Ephesians 5:25-32 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; 26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, 27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. 28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loves his wife loves himself.29 For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourishes and cherishes it, even as the Lord the church: 30 we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.31 For this cause will a man leave his father and mother, and be joined unto his wife, and they will be one flesh. 32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

14 And if a man takes a wife and her mother, it is wickedness: they are to be burned with fire, both he and they; that there be no wickedness among you. 15 And if a man lies with an animal, he is definitely to be put to death: and you are to kill the beast. 16 And if a woman approach to any beast, and have sexual intercourse with it, you are to kill the woman, and the beast: they will definitely be put to death; their blood will be upon them. 17 And if a man takes his sister, his father's daughter, or his mother's daughter, and sees her nakedness, and she see his nakedness; it is a wicked thing; and they will be cut off in the sight of their people: he has uncovered his sister's nakedness; he will bear his iniquity. 18 And if a man lies with a woman having her sickness, and uncover her nakedness; he has uncovered her fountain, and she has made naked the fountain of her blood: and both of them will be cut off from among their people.

Sex during the menstrual cycle is forbidden.
‘Wickedness’ means inspired by evil.
Just like the serpent in the garden, the man who does this listens and follows the whispers of evil rather than God his Maker.

19 Do not uncover the nakedness of your mother's sister, or of your father's sister: for he uncovers his near kin: they will bear their guilt. 20 And if a man lies with his uncle's wife, he has uncovered his uncle's nakedness: they will bear their sin; they will die childless. 21 And if a man takes his brother's wife, it is an unclean thing: he has uncovered his brother's nakedness; they will be childless. 22 You will therefore keep all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: so that the land, where I bring you to dwell, not spit you out. 23 Do not walk in the customs of the nations that I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them.

John the Baptist rebuked Herod for taking his brother’s wife (Mark 6:18).
God hates perversions.
He casts nations out of their lands for them.
Abhorring is more than just hatred; it is the strongest loathing.
He has better things for us.

God wants us to inherit and enjoy the blessings that He has for us

24 But I have said to you, You will inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess it, a land that flows with milk and honey: I am the LORD your God who has separated youfrom other people. 25 So therefore put a difference between clean beasts and unclean, and between unclean fowls and clean: and do not make your souls abominable by beast, or by fowl, or by any manner of living thing that creeps on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean. 26 Be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have separated you from other people, to be mine. 27 Also, a man or woman that has a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, will definitely be put to death: stone them with stones: their blood will be upon them.

The Maker of all things has taken us as His own.
That is an unspeakable privilege.
We need a view of God that stands in awe of Him.
Their blood will is on them’ as opposed to Christ’s blood atoning for their sin.
God allows evil for a brief time to test man.
God has made it plain what is evil and what is good.
If we read His word, it will become clear.
God says mediums, occultists, and spiritists, etc are powers from evil (Deuteronomy 18:10).

Psalm 96:5 For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.

Isaiah 1:18-20 Come now, and let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they will be as wool. 19 If you be willing and obedient, you will eat the good of the land: 20 But if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.

Leviticus 21

1 And the LORD said to Moses, Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them, No one is to be defiled for the dead among his people: 2 except for his close relatives, that is, for his mother, for his father, for his son, for his daughter, for his brother, 3 and for his sister, a virgin that is close to him who has not been with a man; he can be defiled for her.

If they were defiled, they were not ready to serve.
God’s leaders need to be ready to serve God and His people.
This showed the people that God is to be first in our lives above others or circumstances of life except for close family.
All things come from Him; He supports our life and breath.
The wife is not mentioned but assumed, God considers them one.

Revelation 2:4-5 Nevertheless I have somewhat against you, because you have left your first love. 5 Remember therefore from where you are fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come to you quickly, and remove your candlestick out of his place, unless you repent.

1Corinthians 11:11 Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, or the woman without the man, in the Lord.

Matthew 19:6 Therefore they are no more two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, do not let man split apart.

4 A leader is not to defile himself, profane himself, among his people. 5 They are not to make their heads bald; they are not to shave off the corner of their beard, or make any cuttings in their flesh. 6 They are to be holy to their God, and not profane/disrespect the name of their God: because they offer the offerings of the LORD made by fire, and the bread of their God: therefore they are to be holy. 7 They will not take a wife who is a whore, or profane; neither will they take a woman divorced from her husband: for he is holy to his God.

God commands holiness and spells it out.
He forbids heathen mourning practices.
These practices were inspired by evil.
Israel was to be the light of the world—giving the truth about God, not echoing the death around them.

God is holy—infinite and eternal knowledge, power, righteousness, and love

8 Therefore you are to sanctify him because he offers the bread of your God: he will be holy to you: for I the LORD, who sanctify you, am holy. 9 And the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by playing the whore, she profanes her father: she is to be burned with fire.

1Peter 1:16 Because it is written, Be holy; for I am holy.

10 And he that is the high priest among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil was poured, that is consecrated to put on the garments, is not to uncover his head or tear his clothes; 11 He is not to go in to any dead body or defile himself for his father or for his mother; 12 He is not to go out of the sanctuary or profane the sanctuary of his God because the crown of the anointing oil of his God is on him: I am the LORD.

The high priest was not allowed to defile himself for anyone.
The anointing oil was a picture of the Holy Spirit that God has poured out upon all believers after the resurrection of Christ.
He has crowned us with His Holy Spirit

1Thessalonians 4:7-8 For God has not called us to uncleanness, but unto holiness. 8 He therefore that despises, does not despise man, but God, who has also given unto us his Holy Spirit.

13 And he will take a wife in her virginity. 14 He is not to take a widow, a divorced woman, or profane, or a harlot: he will not take these: but he will take a virgin of his own people to be his wife. 15 Neither will he profane his seed among his people: for I the LORD sanctify him. 16 And the LORD spoke to Moses saying, 17 Speak to Aaron saying, Whoever of your seed in their generations that has any blemish, do not let him approach to offer the bread of his God. 18 For whatever man has a blemish, he is not to approach: a blind man, or lame, or he that has a flat nose, or any thing superfluous, 19 Or a man that is broken-footed, or broken-handed, 20 Or crook-backt, or a dwarf, or that has a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or has his testicles bruised; 21 No man from the seed of Aaron the priest that has a blemish will come near to offer the offerings of the LORD made by fire: he has a blemish; he will not come near to offer thebread of his God. 22 He is to eat the bread of his God, both the most holy, and the holy. 23 Only he will not go in unto the veil or come near to the altar, because he has a blemish; that he not profane my sanctuaries: for I the LORD sanctify them. 24 And Moses told it to Aaron, and to his sons, and unto all the children of Israel.

They could eat of the holy things, but not enter the holy place or the holy of holies.
God forbid the imperfect to portray Christ because Christ is perfect.
God’s majesty, splendor, eternity, and infinity demand our very best.
One day God will perfect the imperfections of all of us by making us just like Him.
Remember the first and great command is to love God with all our hearts (Matthew 22:37).
Everyone can do the first and greatest service to God.
The priests serving at the tabernacle were set apart for visible service.

Revelation 1:6 And has made us kings and priests to God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Leviticus 22

1 And the LORD spoke to Moses saying, 2 Tell Aaron and his sons to treat the sacred gifts that the Israelites set apart for me with great care, so they do not profane my holy name. I am the LORD, and that they not disrespect my holy name in those things that they set apart for me: I am the LORD. 3 Say to them, Whoever he is of all your seed among your generations, that goes unto the holy things, which the children of Israel set apart to the LORD, having his uncleanness on him, that soul will be cut off from my presence: I am the LORD.

He is the Lord, the only self-existent One, the Controller of all things.
He deserves the utmost reverence. _

I John 1:9-10 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

John 15:3 Now you are clean through the word that I have spoken unto you.

4 Whatever man of the seed of Aaron that is a leper, or has a running issue; he is not to eat the holy things until he is clean. Whoever touches anything that is unclean by the dead, or a man whose seed goes from him; 5 Or whoever touches any swarming thing, by which he is unclean, or is made unclean by a person, whatever uncleanness he has; 6 The soul that has touched any such thing will be unclean until evening, and is not to eat of the holy things unless he washes his flesh with water. 7 And when the sun is down, he will be clean, and afterward can eat of the holy things because it is his food. 8 He is not to eat anything that dies by itself, or is torn by animals, to defile himself with it: I am the LORD.

God has set us apart to Himself through His ordinances

9 Therefore they are to keep my ordinance so that they not bear sin for it and die because they disrespect it: I, the LORD, sanctify them. 10 No foreigner is to eat the holy things: a visitor of the priest or a hired servant is not to eat of the holy things. 11 But if the priest buys any soul with his money, he can eat it, and those born in his household may eat his food. 12 If the priest's daughter is married to a foreigner, she may not eat from an offering of the holy things. 13 But if the priest's daughter is a widow, or divorced and has no child, and has returned to her father's house, as in her youth, she may eat of her father's food: but no foreigner is to eat it. 14 And if a man eats some holy thing unwittingly, then he is to add the fifth part to it, and give it to the priest with the holy thing. 15 They are not to disrespect the holy things of the children of Israel, which they offer to the LORD; 16 or load themselves with punishment for guilt when they eat their holy things: for I, the LORD, sanctify them.

Sanctify means to set apart.
God is infinitely above us. He is special.
He is sanctified.
He set apart as special those who served Him.
God’s law shows us the impossible height of His holiness.
Then Christ Jesus through the cross brings us to that impossibly high place.

Matthew 19:25 When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved?26 But looked at them and said to them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.

17 And the LORD spoke to Moses saying, 18 Speak to Aaron, to his sons, and to all the children of Israel and say to them, Any man of the house of Israel, or of the foreigners in Israel, that will present his offering for all his vows, for all his freewill offerings that they offer to the LORD for a burnt offering; 19 You will offer at your own will, a male without blemish from the beeves, the sheep, or the goats. 20 But do not offer whatever has a blemish: it will not be acceptable in place of you. 21 And whoever offers a sacrifice of peace offerings to the LORD to accomplish his vow, or a freewill offering in beeves or sheep, it must be perfect to be accepted; there is to be no blemish in it. 22 Do not offer the blind, broken, maimed, infected, with eczema or scabbed unto the LORD, or make an offering of them by fire on the altar to the LORD.

God is infinitely perfect and requires acceptable offerings.
We wouldn’t give broken gifts to a friend.

23 A bull or a lamb that has any thing overgrown or stunted in his parts, you may offer for a freewill offering; but it will not be accepted for a vow. 24 Do not offer to the LORD what is bruised, crushed, broken, or cut; do not make any offering of it in your land. 25 You are not to offer the bread of your God from any of these from a foreigner’s hand because their corruption is in them, blemishes are in them: they will not be accepted for you.

Genesis 4:7 If you do well, will you not be accepted?

26 And the LORD spoke to Moses saying, 27 When a bull, sheep, or goat is born, then it will remain seven days with its mother; and from the eighth day it will be acceptable for an offering made by fire to the LORD. 28 Whether it is cow or ewe, you will not kill it and her young both in one day. 29 And when you offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the LORD, offer it at your own will. 30 It will be eaten on that day; leave none of it until the next day: I am the LORD. 31 Therefore keep my commandments, and do them: I am the LORD. 32 Do not disrespect my holy name; I will becounted holy among the children of Israel: I am the LORD who sanctifies you, 33 That brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the LORD.

When God says, I am the Lord, He is saying, I am in charge of the universe, no one but me. Do not listen to all the false voices.

Colossians 1:17 he is before all things, and by him all things consist (are held together).

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SUMMARY: Leviticus 19-22

The LORD commands holiness and provides all the holiness He commands in Christ.
He has forgiven all our imperfection in thought and action in Christ
He is the source of all blessing and all that we enjoy
He commands that we tell of evil that is being practices
We belong to the Holy One
He wants us to inherit and enjoy the blessings that He died to give us
He sets apart to His infinite and eternal knowledge, righteousness, power, and love
He is our Maker and Sustainer