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LEVITICUS 7–9

Week 6, Day 5

Israel was called to be a holy people—that is, a people separated to God and to God’s purposes. But if there is to be a holy people, a particular burden rests upon those who are called to lead to holiness. Thus the ceremony is long and complex, with details that may easily seem tedious to us.

But the end of the matter is cleansing. Those who would serve God must be God’s clean people, and the physical and ritual events merely emphasize the issue of spiritual purity. “It will take seven days to ordain you,” Moses warns (8:33). The Scriptures often use numbers in a symbolic way, to make some significant point. Seven is the number of completeness or perfection, so the seven-day ceremony conveys the idea of a completed act of dedication and a finished holiness.

The consummation of it all is found in 9:22-24, in the blessing of the people. When Moses and Aaron come out of the tent of meeting (the tabernacle) to bless the people, “the glory of the LORD” appears. The writer of Leviticus recalls it as such an awesome sight that the people shout and fall on their faces.

We shout at sporting events, and applaud and sometimes even call “bravo” at an opera or a concert, but we do not often feel such excitement at the presence of God, and even less often do we show it. It may be, again, that Leviticus has something to say to us.

PRAYER: When I serve, O Lord, let it be with purity of heart; and when I worship, let it be with holy excitement; in Jesus’ name. Amen.

References are made several times to an “elevation offering.” Do we have anything in contemporary public worship that is comparable?