The Feed Mill

Today’s Bible Reading: Leviticus 21-23

Today’s Devotional: Leviticus 12

Leviticus’ overarching theme is Holiness, and Leviticus 21 is no exception. Where the Lord lays out the importance of the priest who will worship before the Lord and bring the people and their sacrifices before the Lord to be pure and above reproach.

We see the expectation that the priests were to follow the strictest separation from defilement. He is required to walk out in all areas of life and conduct the characteristics of Holiness, because the priests are representing the Lord to the people.

They were not to mix practices of idol worship and worship of the gods from the people around them in with their worship to the Lord. Practices from the world around them would render them unholy and would display to the children of Israel that God was irrelevant. This would make the priest unfit for serving the Lord.

We also see the necessity for morally correct behavior within his family; and the disabled were not to present an offering, though his disability was not against him because he was allowed to eat of his portion as a Levite. The overarching image in Leviticus 21 is that approaching God requires perfection. And representing God to others requires high moral standards so not to make God’s name irrelevant.

• You shall daily make a burnt offering to the LORD of a lamb of the first year without blemish; you shall prepare it every morning. Eze 46:13 NKJV

• but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. 1Pt 1:19 NKJV

In Ezekiel’s vision of the Temple, the Temple which Ezra rebuilt did not meet the specifications from Eze 40-48 so there is yet a future Temple and every morning an offering and fellowship with God which the child of God would be called to.

In 1 Peter, Jesus is our lamb without blemish which the Christian rises in the morning to remember and because of the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross the Christian has the doors of our hearts opened to the Lord and we are able to then fellowship with Him.

• But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light… 1 Pt2:9

Peter says that the individual Christian has a new identity and is one of a royal priesthood, representing God to the world around us. In Ephesians, Paul writes that the Christian is to walk worthy of their new identity and value system.

As Christians we have a responsibility to represent God to the rest of the world properly and not as if God is irrelevant in our life and in theirs. The individual’s who the Lord has given to the Church to equip and edify in the things of the Lord, specifically those in Ephesians 4:11. The leadership in the Church have a double responsibility to live a life set apart from the common things of this world, and where there are double responsibilities there are double consequences for stumbling not only the world but also those within the Church because of our specific callings to equip and edify the Body.

As Ezekiel prophesied a daily time of worship and communion in the mornings with the Lord and being reminded of the cost of our Salvation is important, because many times God will meet us in that time and give us words of wisdom and encouragement to then encourage others throughout the day. This is why a morning time with the Lord is so important.