Lesson #18

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Leviticus

September 21, 2015

Introduction

May 13, 2010

Leviticus Lesson #02

May 13, 2010

RETURN TO THE LIST OF LESSONS

LEVITICUS 17
Lesson #18
GOD’S PROVISION AND PROTECTION OF LIFE

• Memory Verse: Gen 9:6

• In our previous lesson we discussed the one day that was special to Israel for the forgiveness of their sins as a nation.
  • That day was Israel’s national day of mourning over sin called the Day of Atonement.
  • A Biblical explanation of individual and national repentance:
    • In this New Testament Age the gospel of Jesus Christ is concentrated on individual repentance and acceptance of Jesus Christ as the final sacrifice for sin.
    • In the Old Testament sacrifices we see this individual repentance and forgiveness when the Israelites brought animal sacrifices to God every morning and every evening for personal sins.
    • However, in the Day of Atonement of Lev16 we saw a national repentance and a national forgiveness of sin. How do we explain national repentance in New Testament terms?
      • In the Old Testament, God chose the nation of Israel to be His example on earth.
        • He gave promises to the nation that are not yet fulfilled and that wait for the Second Coming of Christ for a final fulfillment.
        • He worked with the nation of Israel from the time of Jacob and the 12 tribes until the crucifixion of Christ.
        • When Israel rejected Jesus Christ as their Messiah, God set Israel aside temporarily to work with the Gentiles through the New Testament church. (Rom 11)
        • When God removes the church from this earth at the Rapture, He will again deal with Israel as a nation in the Tribulation Period. (Jer 30:7)
        • At the event of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, there will be a national repentance of the nation of Israel and they will receive Christ as their Messiah. (Zec 12:10)
      • God has not given the promises of Israel to any other nation. God has not made covenants with any other nation. God has not chosen any other nation in the way He chose Israel.
        • Therefore, we cannot substitute any other nation in the world for Israel in regards to a national repentance and a national fulfillment of God’s promises.
        • However, we can take the Biblical principles that we see in God’s dealing with Israel and apply them generally to nations in regards to a progression of sin and the way a nation reaps judgment.
          • In prophecy God tells us in the Bible that Israel’s enemies will reap what they sowed.
          • In the book of Genesis, before God dealt with Israel as a nation, we can see God’s judgment of sinful societies. (Sodom and Gomorrah for example.)
          • In the book of Jonah, the gentile people of Nineveh repented. It was a national revival and repentance for which God did not destroy the city for another 150 years.
    • Therefore, a system of national repentance and a system of national forgiveness of sin are relevant only to Israel in regards to God’s specific dealings, promises and prophetic fulfillments.
      • We cannot replace Israel with any other group or nation because of their rejection of Christ.
      • Read Rom 11:1, 20, 25-26, 29
    • However, national revivals are God’s answer to any nation that seeks God’s guidance through national repentance, prayer and fasting by placing in motion God’s spiritual principles and following God’s instruction in 2Chr 7:14.

 

• In Leviticus 17, we will see God’s way of preserving and protecting His people from idolatry.
• Read Lev 17:1-9

• Background:
  • When God gave the Israelites these instructions, they had just come out of Egypt.
  • In Egypt they had grown up with the worship of hundreds of false gods.
  • God knew the temptation would be great to RETURN to the worship of these gods. (Eze 20:6-8)
  • God knew that His people, the Israelites, were prone to unfaithfulness and idolatry.
    • Remember that the first opportunity they had is when Moses went up to the mountain to receive these instructions of the Law.
    • The people worshipped the golden calf, one of the primary gods of Egypt.
  • In Egypt, whenever animals were killed for food, they were always first offered to idols. God desired to break this pagan habit among His people.
• Therefore, while wandering in the wilderness, God’s law said that all animals must be killed at the door of the tabernacle before they could be eaten for food.
  • The priest killed the animal, removed the fat for an offering to God, and poured the blood on the altar.
  • God’s way of keeping His people from idolatry.
    • This practice prevented the people from offering animals to idols before eating them.
    • This practice also prevented the people from drinking the blood of the animals in the way that pagan religions did.
• That law would present the Israelites with a big problem when they finally entered the Promised Land. They did not all live near the location of the tabernacle.
  • How could they travel hundreds of miles to the tabernacle just to kill an animal for dinner?
  • God modified these instructions just as they were about to enter the Promised Land.
  • Read Deu 12:15-16, 20-25

 

• ” And they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils…”

 

(7)
• The word, “devils” literally means = the hairy one.
• This refers to goat worship that was done in Egypt.
  • The Egyptians worshipped Mendes, the goat god.
  • The Greeks worshipped the same god, but they called him “pan”.
    He is familiar to us as the devil because in Greek mythology he was pictured as having a tail, horns and cloven feet.

    • Satanic religions use the goat symbol, called a pentagram, even today. This symbol is a 5 pointed star turned upside down, and in outline resembles a goat’s head. (the two points at the top represent the horns of the goat and the point at the bottom represents the beard of the goat.)
    • The worship of the goat god in that period of time was similar to nature worship that we see today. This is the worship of creation instead of the worship of the creator. (Rom 1:25) We see it today with the preeminence of the “green” environmental movement.
    • Remember that Satan is the god of this world. (2Cor 4:4) Therefore, the worship of nature or the environment is the worship of Satan.
• God says in Leviticus that goat worship was to be avoided by His people. (7)
• New Testament Application:
  • With God’s intention to keep His people free from idolatry, you would think the Israelites would have learned the lessons.
    • In one sense, they did not learn the lesson. Through their history they constantly fell into idolatry until God finally removed them from the land when the Babylonians defeated them, destroyed the temple, and exported the people as slaves to Babylon. When they RETURN ed to the Promised Land after the Babylonian captivity, they did not worship idols.
    • In another sense, they learned not to eat meat offered to idols. This became a common practice among the Israelites, and even though they fell into idolatry, they kept this one law and did not eat meat offered to idols.
      • This law in the Mosaic Law was the beginning of Kosher food. Food had to be prepared and blessed by the priests.
      • This ingrained law became a problem in the early church that was made up of Jews and Gentiles in fellowship together. The Jewish Christians would not eat meat offered to idols but the Gentile Christians did. The early church looked to Paul to settle this issue.
      • Read 1Cor 8:1-9
      • Read 1Cor 10:19-23
        • Paul tells us that there is one God and that idols are nothing to the Christian. Therefore, it makes no difference to your spiritual wellbeing whether you eat meat offered to idols or not. However, Paul tells us that the Christian should not want to have communion with idols by eating meat offered to idols.
        • However, Paul says that a Christian should not eat meat offered to idols because it will make their Christians brothers stumble in their faith. Christians have freedom in Christ to eat meat offered to idols but it is not the best thing to do with respect to the other brothers in the faith.
• In Lev 17:10-16 God repeats the special importance of the blood. We have seen these instructions before in Leviticus.

• Physical life is in the blood.
• Spiritual life is in the blood of Jesus Christ.
• God’s people were not to eat the blood of animals or man.
  • God did not want man to kill animals for food before the time of Noah because life was precious.
  • God did not want man to kill other humans because life is precious.
• Application:

• God’s instructions regarding diet, drinking blood, and eating meat offered to idols tell us something very important about God’s perspective of life.
  • God is concerned about man’s life physically and spiritually. God is concerned about every aspect of man’s life.
  • God values physical and spiritual life.
    • From the creation of Adam and Eve to the flood of Noah, man was not permitted to eat meat. His diet was vegetarian.
    • God made the change after the flood. As part of the covenant with Noah, God permitted man to eat the meat of dead animals. He could not eat live animals. He could not eat other humans.
      • Read Gen 9:1-6
      • The Bible does not tell us why God made this change with Noah.
    • In the covenant with Noah and the laws in Leviticus, we learn the following truths:
      • God elevated man above the animals because now animals are a source of food.
      • God values man’s life from the time of conception to the time of death.
      • God initiated the first capital punishment for murder because man’s life is precious.
      • Blood is something important physically and spiritually.
    • The Israelites disobeyed God in their perspective of life.
      • Read 2Kin 6:28-29 They indulged in cannibalism.
      • Read Jer 32:35 They gave their children as a burnt offering to the God Molech.
    • Today our society disobeys God with a perverted perspective of life:
      • We permit society to delay or disregard capital punishment in proven cases of murder when it was God that initiated capital punishment in His covenant with Noah (Gen 9:5), and in the New Testament passage of Rom 13:1-5, the government uses the sword to deter evil.
      • We permit society to elevate animals above man in the name of taking care of the planet.
      • We permit abortion in society to ease the burden on an unwed mother, or for any personal inconvenience.
        • Read Jer 1:5
        • Read Psa 139:13-16
        • Read Psa 127:3
        • Read Psa 22:10
• God desires that man worship Him as the creator.
  • We are not to worship the creation.
  • We are not to worship idols.
  • We are to have God’s perspective of life in order to worship God in a spirit of truth.
• Our worship must be pure and separate from pagan practices.

HOMEWORK
Leviticus 18
This is a self-study. Please do not send homework answers to the teacher forcorrection.

• Application of Lev 17
  • What aspects of your perspective of life need changing to conform to God’s perspective of life?

 

• Preparation of Lev 18
• Read Lev 18:1-30
  • What should be the New Testament believer’s attitude toward the Ten Commandments?

 

• Memory Verse: Eph 1:4