Bible Text: Leviticus 19:9-18 | Preacher: Pastor Arnold | Series: Leviticus | Leviticus 19:9-18 Good Neighboring
I want to read an illustration I came across. “a coin dealer, John Feigenbaum, who purchased a rare 1894 dime for 1.9 million dollars in 2007. In transporting it by plane cross-country from Oakland to New York City, he carried the rare coin in his pants pocket. After he wondered if the dime might fall out of his pocket, he stuck it in his briefcase. Repeatedly through the flight, he checked the briefcase to ensure that the coin had not vanished.” This little vignette reminds me of the JRR Tolkien series of the LOTR and Hobbit. The Dark Lord Sauron created one ring to rule other rings of power. One character who came to possess this ring, Gollum, grows especially fond and attached to the ring and calls it “my precious.” Other characters in the series do the same. And when they fear they have misplaced or lost the ring they freak out, searching for it frantically, high and low to find it again. Such highly valued is the ring. I wonder if we value any possessions in such a way? I wonder if we could value holiness in that way? Do we prize our call to holiness in this way? Do we recognize that He who calls us to holiness is Holy Holy Holy? Maybe this morning we can come to appreciate and value the extraordinary call to holy obedience.
Sex is big business. And it’s everywhere. It’s all over the tv, it’s what entertains us in movies, it’s in our schools, it’s on social media, there are dating apps, hookup apps, well I think I’ve made my point. It’s everywhere, because sex sells. What used to be taboo, is now commonplace. What used to be shameful is now see. A badge of honor. Sex out of wedlock, well that’s just normal. Everyone sleeps around long before marriage is even discussed, or even enters the mind. If you don’t well you’re regard ed as just strange. The blights on society from pornography, which used to be sold in magazines behind the counter, like cigarettes, now is everywhere, and I mean everywhere. That little gadget you think is a phone, and you thought Jr. should have at 12 so he can stay in touch with you, is a gateway that leads to corruption. And this is what the world has to offer, a corrupted view of sex. What God created, and indeed made beautiful, the world has taken and perverted and twisted and repackaged to entice you to sin. The world says if it feels good then it must be alright. The world would have you believe that you, are the final arbiter, you are the ultimate judge as to what is right and what is wrong. And where has the church been? Largely absent, largely quiet. The church has been dismissed, cast aside, disregarded as prudes. When will we bring God’s word to bear, well we will do it today. Yes boys and girls, we are going to talk about sex. What God has to say is very important. And it’s very important that we do not yield any ground on the subject because God is the ultimate authority on the subject. He made us, and He created us as sexual beings and He made sex, and it is a wonderful and beautiful creation within the bounds it was ordained for. We are moral creatures and He has given us a moral code by which we know what is right and what is wrong.
The drinking blood is a ritual of pagan worship. It has been a part of cultures all around the world. And you know what? It is still occurs in these modern times. A story from October 2015 entitled ‘The people who drink human blood’ open’s with the following sentence: “In most major cities around the world, communities of ordinary people – nurses, bar staff, secretaries – are drinking human blood on a regular basis.” In another article from January 2020 is headlined, “Goat blood-drinking white nationalist who ran for Senate arrested in Melbourne, Florida” and again in June 10, 2020 a story out of the UK, a satanic cult leader abused kids and forced them to drink blood. This apparently has been an issue down through the ages. Surely God did not want his people participating in anything that looked like pagan worship. But what about in our days? Does this prohibition against eating blood still apply to us? Do we need to put down that medium rare steak? And is our worship still regulated or is it in danger of looking more and more like what the world has to offer?
Today we will consider the laws regarding the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism. What made this day so significant? Why was it so restrictive? What preparations had to be made in order for this day to be properly observed? And do the Jews still offer the animal sacrifices on this day? Interestingly, I found an article in 2017 which reported that there are still orthodox Jews who attempt to bring goats for sacrifice to the Temple Mount on Jerusalem. While animal sacrifices were largely discontinued after the Temple destruction in 70 AD, Yom Kippur is still celebrated but instead of sacrifices, prayers are offered. The article cited the example of the Federman family who for the prior 10 years would load up a male goat in their car and make their way to the Temple mount. “But each year, police prevent the Federmans and others from slaughtering goats on Jerusalem's Temple Mount. They fear such an act on this site, sacred to Jews for once housing the ancient Jewish temples but also home to Islam's third holiest site, could ignite tensions between Israel and the Palestinians.” So beyond this small group, most other Jews celebrate the Day of Atonement, even nominal Jews. Which is like those nominal Christians who show up for Christmas or Easter services. So is the Day of Atonement still relevant for Christians today? Is this something we, the church, ought to observe as well? Let’s find out.
I know this might sound obvious to us here, but for the sake of the confused and lost world which attempts to redefine, well just about everything, at the risk of stating the obvious, the deep, deep, profound truth is that boys are different than girls. I know, I know, some of you are like, duh. But seriously, there are a lot of people who reject this basic tenet from our Creator. It is rebellious, it is illogical, it is insane, it is destructive, but there you have it. So in this chapter we are going to discuss the laws regarding bodily discharge, or secretions, from males and females. I imagine some of you might be a little grossed out, but it’s here in the Bible and so it’s important and worthwhile for our consideration and edification. These laws were given for men and women. We have different issues but we still have issues. Wow, another profound statement! Let’s go to the text.
Last week we talked about leprosy and how it was a very destructive and scary disease. There wasn’t a cure and the measures which had to be followed to protect the community were isolating and lonely. This was essentially a death sentence. It’s comparable to the diagnosis of cancer these days. Being diagnosed with cancer is scary, especially considering treatments, if there’s even an option for treatment. It spreads, takes over and without a cure or healing, the body will waste away until death claims the victim. It’s truly a sad horrible picture. And just as have that in mind when we think of disease, but even more than that, this is how we must view the nature of sin. Sin may be pleasurable for a season, but the wages of sin is death. It never turns out alright, it never satisfies. Most of us would concur. But have you thought of beyond the nature of sin to the nature of the sinner? Let me give you a phrase to think about: “God loves the sinner but hates the sin.” Anyone want to amen that? Is that a biblical view? Actually some say that quote is more attributed to Ghandi in his autobiography. So what does the Bible actually say? “The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers. (Psalm 5:5) “The LORD tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.” (Psalm 11:5) That doesn’t sound like “love the sinner” language. It’s important for us to grow in our understanding of God’s Holiness, His Holy character, and how offensive sin is to Him. Then these biblical statements will not seem out of place. This is why we read and study Leviticus. Just as we can look at the disease of cancer with moral outrage and righteous indignation, so think about how God views our sins. Small sins, small things we think are petty or don’t amount to much, God holds righteous indignation against. God does show his love and mercy and kindness to us in that, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) But this saving love is not given for everyone. God’s love is gracious, not demanded, not owed, not merited. So when a leper was healed, it was by the grace of God, a demonstration of his kindness. And so when one was healed, there was a law for how the leper would be declared clean and allowed to re-enter into community. And this is what we are going to look at this morning.
Being in the midst of a pandemic, we can appreciate how disease can threaten society and how we have to think seriously and take certain measures to protect and, the buzz word of the year, “mitigate” against spread. Even now, it seems the numbers are back on the rise again. It almost seems like we’ve had to deal with disease since the beginning of time itself. Throughout history, there’s been a number of pandemics, and pestilence has affected numbers large and small. Nowadays we’ve been granted an increase in medical knowledge and have treatments to help cure many diseases. However, there are still many which have no cure, or no treatment, or the treatment might be hit or miss. Personally, we’ve lost several friends and family members to cancer as I’m sure some of you have. Even some of our fellow brothers and sisters have been or were afflicted with certain incurable diseases. Certainly several come to mind, Tom Ryan, Bonita Kile and others. And so when we encounter such diagnoses, fear can surface front and center. Life threatening diseases or procedures can scare us. It might be fear of the treatment or surgery itself, or even fear of the unknown. And it may be that there isn’t a cure, a terminal disease, and it’s only a matter of time. These things can unsettle us, shake us up to the core. Disease is no respecter of sex, both males and females are afflicted; it’s no respecter of age, the young and old alike get sick and succumb to disease; it’s no respecter of class, the rich and the poor suffer afflictions; and it’s no respecter of the saved or the lost. Christians lose their lives to disease just the same as non-Christians. And if you were ever promised differently, you were dealing with a snake oil salesman. Disease don’t care if your rich or famous, eat healthy rabbit food or fine dine on donuts and cheeseburgers. You can be healthy, fit and strong one day and get struck down the next. As we turn to our text, we find God’s instructions regarding a scary skin disease called leprosy. As we’ll see this was a disease to be feared. It could strike at any time, with no cure or treatment, no hope.
As we have been studying Leviticus I hope it has become increasingly clear that God is holy and calls his people to be holy. This call to holiness and sanctification certainly involves how we are to worship God. But does it involve our day to day activities? Does living for God extend to what we eat or how we dress, or how we behave? Well the easy answer is yes. But why? In our midweek Bible study we have been in the book of Galatians, where Paul is defending the gospel and telling them not to return under the yoke of the law. We have been set free and are indeed free in Christ. But there are two ditches on either side of the road that we must avoid. We must avoid legalism, where you must do X in order to stay saved, and the other is antinomianism, where there is no room for God’s law. Both of these are mistakes. As we turn to our text we are going to be discussing the dietary laws God issued to the Israelites. Are we still bound by these laws? Most importantly, what is the main concept in the giving of these laws? Let’s find out.