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

II Timothy 3

Dear RTB’ers,

My first-ever RTB group was in 1994 at St. James Episcopal Church in Mt. Airy, Maryland. Like this year we used Search the Scriptures as our study book – except that we did three days at a time instead of one and finished the Bible in one year. And, like this year I put together a reading list which I printed out and made available to any parishioner who wanted to read along. [NOTE: It was early e-mail days; we worked with print copy!] At the top of every quarterly reading list that I published, I put the following Bible verse: All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (II Timothy 3:16-17) An echo from days past…

Blessings!

II Timothy 2

Dear RTB’ers,

I’m sure I’ve shared this before; it’s the first thought on my mind whenever I read today’s chapter. 2 Tim 2:2, a “calling card” for young Campus Crusade for Christ students: … what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. Multiplicative evangelism. Generational salvation. Discipleship. It’s a good plan. For us, we teach our children, and with their leadership we also invest ourselves in our grandchildren. And we pray…!

Finally, one other verse worth contemplating: Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. (v. 15) Our “works” do not gain us our salvation, but they are the fruit that reminds us and others of who we are: …as one approved…

Blessings!

II Timothy 1

Dear RTB’ers,

II Timothy – today we begin our last book for 2024, another of Paul’s letters to his “son”, Timothy. It was not difficult for us to see Paul’s motivation in writing to Timothy in his first letter – it was mostly church matters. It’s more difficult to pick that up in this second letter. Why was Paul writing this second letter? We find him in prison; it is just idle time for him, so time well spent writing letters? Does he have ministry details to attend to that he cannot do while in prison? Or is it just a friendly note like our elders might have written to one another years ago when letter writing was more a fashion? Why was Paul writing this second letter? We’ll see; we read on…

Today it’s a few verse snippets that grabbed me. First, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you… (v. 6a) Every one of us has been blessed by God with spiritual gifts that He bestowed on us and which He wants us to use for His glory. Fan those flames! Second, [God]…who saved us and called us to a holy calling… (v. 9a) Yes, not only are we gifted, but we are also called. Called to what? Same question as above – what are your special gifts and to what have you been called? Search out answers to both of those questions.

Finally, one of my all-time favorite verse snippets – for I know whom I have believed… (v. 12b) I have done my own small editing and always recall this verse as I know HIM in Whom I have believed. For me that’s a simple statement that has a mountain of knowledge, experience, and faith behind it. I have recited it to probably thousands of students over the years, whenever a statement of my own faith is called forth. And it’s a powerful statement every time I recite it: I know HIM in Whom I have believed. Say it with me. Pray it. I know HIM in whom I have believed.

Blessings!