Today’s passage: Leviticus 8

Helpful thoughts:

• Chapter 8 contains the ordination and consecration of the priesthood (At this point, Aaron and his sons).
• The priests offered a sin offering, a burnt offering and a peace offering separately as progressive elements of their preparation for service.  They were not ready for the final offering and consecration without having participated in the prior prerequisite offerings.
• Eating the food offered and remaining in the tabernacle for one week were given to complete the ordination process.  The meal and time spent likely initiated the relationship, place and service that would come for the priesthood.

Questions to consider:

1. How many times can you find the phrase, “As the Lord commanded” in this chapter?  What is being confirmed through this repetition?
2. What place was Moses serving in all of this (And on whose behalf)?  In what way was he set apart to be able to make these sacrifices and sprinkle the blood prior to the ordination of the priesthood?
3. How significant was this process of ordination?  What would the consequences have been if Aaron and his sons had left the tabernacle within that first week (Verse 35)?  What picture was God ensuring would be before the eyes of His people in establishing the priesthood?

Today’s passage: Leviticus 7

Helpful thoughts:

• Today’s chapter concludes this portion of instruction on several forms of offerings.
• There are three types of peace offerings:
  • Thanksgiving (Verses 12, 13, 15) – An appreciation of God’s goodness and favor
  • Vows (Verse 16) – Given after the completion or fulfilment of a stated vow
  • Freewill (Verse 16) – An offering brought without any other reason than worship
• We are given a helpful reminder at the end of the chapter.  After having read all this information about the details of these offerings (And perhaps getting lost in the details…), Israel still hadn’t left Mount Sanai.

Questions to consider:

1. Knowing Israel hadn’t left Mount Sanai and had yet to begin regular worship and offerings in the tabernacle, what has God displayed about His commands and leadership of His people?  Is God telling Israel to do anything He has not prepared them to do?
2. How could this encourage us as leaders, parents, etc.?  When should we begin to expect knowledgeable and fruitful actions from those we lead?

Today’s passage: Leviticus 6:8-30

Helpful thoughts:

• Burnt offerings were to be given regularly (Exodus 29:38-42).  The fire was not to go out.  Because of this, whenever someone brought a sacrifice or offering, there was never to be a need to get the altar ready.
• In these passages, there is a shift from the overall instruction of each offering to the specifics concerning what the priests were to do in each offering.
• The sacrifices and offerings set the materials (The grains, meat, blood, etc.) apart for the Lord’s worship.  They became “holy.”  Therefore, they were to be eaten, or discarded, or the materials they’d been carried in were to be washed before they left the tabernacle.  What was designated as holy, needed to stay within the holy place.

Questions to consider:

1. In what way did the faithfulness of the priests to give burnt offerings provide what the people needed for their worship?
2. In what way did the faithfulness of the people to worship provide for the priests?
3. How does the faithfulness of every one of God’s people bless the church (Ephesians 4:16)?

Today’s passage: Leviticus 5:14-6:7

Helpful thoughts:

• In these verses, we read about guilt offerings.
• Guilt offerings seem to be quite similar to sin offerings, except:
  • The animals sacrificed were males, not females (More costly).
  • Payment was to be made.  A restoration of what was lost, plus 20%.
    • These differences seem to indicate the offenses which necessitated a guilt offering were more severe and costly to others than that which necessitated a sin offering.
• True repentance includes a turning from our sin to righteousness.  A person who is truly repentant will want to make things right with the one he/she has sinned against (2 Corinthians 7:10-11).

Questions to consider:

1. How would the requirements for the guilt offering coincide (and help us better understand) Jesus’ command in Matthew 5:23-24?
2. Though we are no longer under the Old Covenant, how could this principle still give us guidance/wisdom if we wrong others today?
3. What has God done with our guilt (Romans 8:31-34)?

Today’s passage: Leviticus 5:1-13

Helpful thoughts:

• Instructions for sin offerings continue.
• Had Jephthah known the law of the Lord (Verse 4), he would have had a solution for his foolish vow (Judges 11:29-40).
• There were three levels of sin offerings allowed.   All three carried the same weight or significance, ensuring that anyone in Israel could make offerings for their sin.  Obeying the Lord was not only for the wealthy.

Questions to consider:

1. What were the specific reasons mentioned to offer sin offerings in today’s passage?  What were the examples given?  In what way could they be representative of other sins?
2. In what way would this provision of a sin offering have been a relief to the people of Israel?  Some might think this was over the top or strict, but in truth it was a way of being released of a burden!  How was God being gracious to the people in providing these instructions?
3. What would the continual need of bringing sacrifices have taught the people?  Were these animal sacrifices going to truly rid them of their sin?  Was it going to cure their hearts?  What were they to learn they really needed? (Hebrews 10:4-7)

Today’s passage: Leviticus 4

Helpful thoughts:

• Chapter 4 through verse 13 of chapter 5 give instruction concerning sin offerings.
• Today’s chapter speaks to unintentional sins committed (Violating God’s law without understanding, unbeknown to the person).
• Anyone in Israel (From the priests, to the common citizen, to the nation as a whole) was capable of sin (As we all still are).  And all were responsible to seek purification for their sin.  Sin against God requires purification.

Questions to consider:

1. What would be an example of sinning unintentionally?  Can you think of a time when this happened in the Old Testament or the New?
2. What would be happening in a person’s heart when sinning unintentionally versus sinning intentionally?  Why is it good to still hold people accountable for unintentional sin (Or transgress, or violate the law) in a society (Like speeding on a road a person is unfamiliar with)?
3. What is needed to prevent a person or a group of people to sinning unintentionally?  What did Israel need to learn and be familiar with?  What do we need to know?

Today’s passage: Leviticus 3

Helpful thoughts:

• Chapter 3 gives instructions for Peace Offerings.
  • Offerings from the herd or from the flock simply distinguish between cattle or sheep and goats.
  • The “fatty portions” of the animal are the best and most savory meats.  They are the best portions and therefore they were reserved for the Lord.
  • This offering would result in a meal being shared by the one bringing the offering, the priest who took the blood and portions to the altar, and (With what was taken to the altar symbolically) the Lord.  In peace, the three “communed” together with a meal.

Questions to consider:

1. What similar instructions can you find between the burnt offerings and the peace offerings?
2. Why was Eli rebuked in 1 Samuel 2:29?  If Eli’s sons (Hophni and Phinehas) were eating the choicest meats (fattening themselves), how had they usurped God’s place in the peace offerings?  What would they have been offering to him?
3. How was peace being pictured in this sacrifice?  Why are we able to commune with the Lord?  What had to take place to bring us together?

Today’s passage: Leviticus 2

Helpful thoughts:

• Chapter 2 describes the Grain Offering.
  • The Grain Offerings included fine flour, oil, frankincense and salt.
  • These ingredients were special and reminded the people to bring their best before the Lord.
  • Unlike the burnt offerings, a portion of the grain offerings were to be set aside for the priests as their food.  This was one of God’s ways of providing for the priests, and if Israel would be faithful to bring their offerings, the priests would have everything they needed through their service to the Lord and Israel.
• The memorial portion of the grain offering was called that because when it was offered to the Lord, he committed to remember (Memorial/Remember) their petitions and prayers.
• These offerings were given to accompany the other offerings of animal sacrifice.

Questions to consider:

1. Knowing that portions of these offerings were used to feed the priests, how would the faithfulness of Israel and the priests have served as a blessing to all?  In what way did God set up a system where faithfulness would be a blessing to all?  Adversely, once the people started lacking in faithfulness, what would have been the domino effect that led to greater and greater unfaithfulness?  How important is every member of the body to make the whole body healthy?
2. Did God need help remembering people’s prayers, as if he needed some burned grains to spark his memory?  What were the benefits for Israel of giving these offerings?  What was God doing for them in giving these commands?

Today’s passage: Leviticus 1

Helpful thoughts:

• From the ESV Study Bible:
  • “Leviticus should be considered a continuation of Exodus.  The second part of Exodus is devoted to building the tabernacle, the purpose of which is to manifest the Lord’s glory among the people.  The entire content of Leviticus was given less than a month after the construction of the tabernacle, between the first month of the year and the second month of the year following the Exodus from Egypt.”
• The first several chapters of Leviticus will detail five major offerings, the first of which is the burnt offering.
• The burnt offering was given to accompany prayers from God’s people (Either for needs or for praise).
  • The offering (The animal sacrificed) served to atone for the person offering the prayer.  The laying of the hand on the animal served as a way of showing the animal’s “standing in the place” of the person.

Questions to consider:

1. What did the need of a burnt offering for a person to come before the Lord teach about God’s holiness and justice?  Also of his mercy and grace?
2. How would this picture have encouraged those who faithfully practiced it at the tabernacle to take their lives and their prayers seriously?  What room is there for messing around in these offerings?  How might they cause a person to live circumspectly?
3. How do we as Christians (Under the New Covenant) approach the “throne of grace” in prayer (Hebrews 4:14-16)?  What offering was needed to grant us access?  How can this encourage us to continually, faithfully pray?