Leviticus 11

Dear RTB’ers,

Question: Clean and unclean and worship… We don’t know of anything inherently bad about eating those foods that God called unclean for the Israelites. Some of those foods, in fact were staples in my childhood diet (rabbit, catfish) and today (pork). It seems to me that God was teaching them spiritual discipline. Following those “simple” food regulations might make it easier to stay away from greater temptations.

We were then asked to consider changes in their habits that God’s living among them brought about, with two New Testament references. I reflected further on God’s living among us today.

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

I Peter 1:14-16

…put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Ephesians 4:22-24

Ever since Pentecost we have God living among us, as Jesus had promised at the Last Supper, in the person of the Holy Spirit. Our Archbishop Foley Beach asked us time and again to ask daily and multiple times daily to be filled with the Holy Spirit. …put off…, …put on…

Blessings!

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See also: February 1 (2023) / Leviticus 10-12

Leviticus 9-10

Dear RTB’ers,

Question: What was Aaron’s first offering at the start of his ministry? Answer: A sin and burnt offering for himself and his sons, then sin, burnt, peace and grain offerings for the people. On the eighth day Moses called Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel, and he said to Aaron, “Take for yourself a bull calf for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering, both without blemish, and offer them before the LORD. And say to the people of Israel, ‘Take a male goat for a sin offering, and a calf and a lamb, both a year old without blemish, for a burnt offering, and an ox and a ram for peace offerings, to sacrifice before the LORD, and a grain offering mixed with oil…’” (Lev. 9:1-2) God showed His acceptance: …the glory of the LORD appeared to all the people. And fire came out from before the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar… (Lev. 9:23b-24a) So, a further question for all of us: Thinking of our “offerings”, how does God show His acceptance of our “offerings” today?

Blessings!

Leviticus 8

Dear RTB’ers,

OK, the plan for 2025 is that I will focus on STS much more than I did in 2024, effectively answering the first question in my daily comments. So far I’ve done that, but I haven’t seen much from you all as to your replies for the second question… Anyone?

So, today’s first question: “…the order of the dedication? …any significance…?” The order of the dedication is straightforward: dressing / clothing Aaron and his sons; anointing them with oil; the sin offering; the burnt offering; the ordination offering; the wave offering; then Aaron and his sons go outside the gate and eat the offering and stay there for seven days.

What is the significance of this ordering? To me the significance lies in the ordering of the offerings – sin, burnt, ordination, wave. First, the sin offering, offered for any unintentional sins committed by Aaron and his sons, a “cleansing” of all their sins. Then the burnt offering – thanksgiving and praise to God for His deliverance, His grace, His love. Then the ordination offering, anointing Aaron and his sons with blood on their ears, thumbs, and toes. Finally, the wave offering, closing the activities with a fellowship meal. That’s how I see it. Anyone else?

Blessings!

Leviticus 6:8-7:38

Dear RTB’ers,

The question: “Neither the sacrifice nor the fire was to fail. What lessons…?” The Lord must have felt strongly about this demand; He mentioned it three times! (Lev. 6:9,12,13)

When we first moved to Kentucky we lived in a large house with a heat pump (COLD pump!) and a wood-burning fireplace insert. The heat pump did little to keep the house warm, so we made extensive use of that fireplace insert. Most winters we would keep the fire burning in that wood-burning stove for months at a time. I would “bank” the fire at night, setting the air flow just right, then tend to the fire again first thing every morning. It took diligence and persistence on my part to keep that fire going, but the fire going out meant a colder house in the morning and the difficulty that often comes with lighting a fire anew. So I was doubly rewarded for my successful efforts and “punished” when my efforts failed.

John reminded us a few days ago that the sacrifice should not fail, but that all of the burnt offering should be consumed by fire. So the fire and the burnt offering go hand-in-hand. If the fire fails, the burnt offering fails. So the important item is keeping the fire going. There are probably a number of metaphors that we can use for the fire in our lives. The Holy Spirit immediately comes to mind, especially since He is shown as “tongues of fire” on Pentecost. So, how to keep the Holy Spirit fire alive within our lives? As above, diligence and persistence, but also, watchfulness – the Israelites could not simply “bank” their fire, since it was an open-air burn. They had to keep watch, continually adding wood to the fire to keep it going. Likewise, we need to be watchful of temptations that surround us, adding “wood” (prayer!) regularly to maintain a hot fire.

Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove,
With all Thy quick’ning powers;
Kindle a flame of sacred love
In these cold hearts of ours.

Isaac Watts

Blessings!

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See also: January 31 (2023) / Leviticus 6:8-9:24

Leviticus 4:1-6:7

Dear RTB’ers,

In the sin and guilt offerings, there is sin involved, both unintentional as in the sin offering and intentional as in the guilt offering. That’s the main difference between those two and the burnt, grain, and peace offerings from the first three chapters. Forgiveness is the divine provision that we have for our sin, both intentional and unintentional. They/he “shall be forgiven” is mentioned four times in chapter 4 (Lev. 4:20,26,31,35), another four times in chapter 5 (Lev. 5:10,13,16,18), and once in chapter 6 (Lev. 6:7). STS also refers us to Leviticus 17:11, For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. Forgiveness, atonement. Accomplished for us by Jesus with His shed blood.

Blessings!

Leviticus 2-3

Dear RTB’ers,

STS question #1, “Consider how [the cereal] offering is fulfilled in Christ.” This grain offering was of the finest ingredients – fine flour, with oil and frankincense added, but no leaven or honey. Flour and oil and frankincense make a sweet smell when burned. Yeast is used as a metaphor for sin, so it is excluded from the grain offering. (See I Corinthians 5:7a.) I’m not sure why honey is excluded, but together yeast and honey would produce alcohol. STS offers two further references:

For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.

Hebrews 7:26

…whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked.

I John 2:6

Put it all together and Jesus is that perfect sacrifice, holy and blameless, offered up on our behalf. His death and resurrection together restore our fellowship with the Father, something that we could never do with our own sacrifices, with our own efforts.

Blessings!

Leviticus 1

Dear RTB’ers,

We begin the second year of our three-year journey in Search the Scriptures. I’ll be doing something different this year. It was my plan last year that all of us would read the readings and that you would work the questions in STS while I went off on my own with my comments independent of the STS questions, thereby offering my own thoughts in addition to what you had already worked on. Frankly, in so doing I felt a big disconnect with the rest of you. That disconnect revealed itself with the too-few comments from the rest of you on my posts or on your STS questions. So, something different this year – my new plan is that my post will be a direct response to one of the STS questions. I’ll be more plugged in that way and I’ll hope for more interaction.

So today’s first question – the two outstanding features of the burnt offerings. Their verse suggestions answer the question for us: (1) a male without defect and (2) body parts washed with water. Answering the question is straightforward, but let’s look a few thousand years down the road. The only “male without defect” in all of human history is Jesus. He was born sinless and remained so His entire life. That is, in just the first three verses, Leviticus already points us to Jesus. Second, “washed with water” looks forward to Baptism – our own dunking or sprinkling that signifies a new life – one of only two sacraments universally recognized by the church worldwide.

So, how about that second question…??

The STS intro tells us the importance of Leviticus: “It provides us with a background to all the other books of the Bible.” I’m really looking forward to 2025!!!

Blessings!

Reflections

Dear RTB’ers,

No scheduled reading today. Evidently STS is set for 365 days and February 29 this year claimed one of those days. So today we reflect on 2024.

Thus far we’ve read one Gospel (Luke); Acts; nine epistles (I and II Thessalonians, Galatians, Romans, I and II Corinthians, I and II Timothy, and Titus); five Old Testament books (Genesis, Exodus, Amos, Hosea, and Micah); and 41 Psalms. We’ve averaged about 25 verses per day; that average will go up in the next two years as we read longer sections. We’ve been largely chronological in our readings in the Old and New Testaments (separately), but not totally so. And we’re one-third of the way through our companion book, Search the Scriptures.

We added about a dozen new RTB’ers in 2024, people who had never done RTB with us before. Not everyone who joins on January 1 stays through the year, but at least they begin a Bible reading process. Hopefully we’ll get some more newcomers in 2025. I’d encourage you to reach out to your friends and fellow parishioners. Daily Bible reading is a good spiritual discipline to encourage. You’ll never know what a blessing you might be to that one other person.

And as to that one other person… Years ago I met a young 6- or 7-year-old boy (Josef, aka Joseph, Pepe, and “Noname”) who had started attending Mark Bruner’s “English Camp” in the Czech Republic. We grew closer over the next few years as Carol and I helped with the Camp. That young boy is now a college student in his late-teens or early-20s and we’re still in contact, albeit erratically throughout the years. Carol and I met him for coffee this past October and I challenged him to read through the Gospels with me in 2025. He accepted – I just now got his affirmative reply that he’ll read with me every day. I’m excited for him and for me!! It never hurts to ask!

Have a blessed New Year’s Eve!!

Blessings!

II Timothy 4

Dear RTB’ers,

Paul was writing some 2000 years ago, but his words sound like they were written directly for today: For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions… (v. 3) [NOTE: The NASB has “wanting to have their ears tickled” instead of “having itching ears”. I like that translation!] “…teachers to suit their own passions…” There are reasons why we are St. Andrew’s Anglican Church, in the Anglican Diocese of the South and a part of the Anglican Church in North America instead of The Episcopal Church USA. Yes, Paul was writing for us, today.

Blessings!

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See also: December 22 (2023) / Titus; II Timothy