Week 5 Exodus 33-Leviticus 13
Before I’ve taken a second breath Leviticus is into fire and wood and leaven and entrails and bulls and altar – the whats and how-tos of sacrifice.
So it’s very fortunate I’m reminded right away that something else is going on. There is why.
Q: why does a person bring a sacrifice?
A: so he can be accepted before the Lord.
I need to keep that in mind: the sacrificer doesn’t sacrifice because that’s the rules. He sacrifices because he’s not acceptable.
He needs to re-establish his intangible, elusive state of acceptability before the Lord.
Behind his what do I sacrifice is his how do I become acceptable again?
The energy that drives sacrifice is the problem of unacceptability. I need to keep that in mind.
Note: quotation is from Leviticus 1:3 (NASB version).
Comment: my reading plan tells me to read three or four chapters a day. It’s a day-in-day-out plan, a daily-equalization scheme. It’s a good plan but I have to remember that the bible isn’t split up like that.
I was reminded of that today. Leviticus has a heading at the top of page 145 that says I’ll be reading about burnt offerings. I turn the pages: grain offerings in chapter 2, peace offerings in 3, sin offerings in 4 and 5, guilt offerings in 5 and 6. Six chapters on offerings.
It would probably make good sense to read all of them together (maybe 7 as well), read them as a unit. But as always, there’s the question of time.