3,972 Ways To Be Holy

This past week or so I've been working on a Bible in 90 days plan.  I've always wanted to do it, but for some reason or another I would fall off the boat and get so terribly behind that I would stop the plan and go back to just studying what we studied in church.  But I finally just decided to do it.  Not so that I could say I read "the Bible in 90 Days," but so that I could begin to look at the Bible as a whole book.  So that I could catch a snippet of the message behind the whole Bible.

Now, this isn't for everyone because it definitely is challenging.  And I'm saying this honestly - it has been challenging for me.  But in a very good way.  :)  Anyway, so I've been reading through Leviticus this week and I wanted to share a few things I've learned.

Now, if you've read Leviticus for any length of time, you might notice something - it's filled with details.

And not all of them are, shall we say, necessarily pleasant.  :)

There are many, many, chapters telling the people of Israel specific ways to sacrifice specific animals for specific sins.  Details about when the people could be called clean or unclean, and about which certain part of the goat/lamb/bird the priests should eat and which should be burned as an offering for God.  Because of all these directions and details, Leviticus could be hard to read...especially if you read early in the morning. ;)  And at first, I found it hard to see how this could apply to me today.  

But I realized, there is a reason.  We don't have to go out and sacrifice as the Israelites did, we can come to God anytime...and all because of Jesus.  His death on the cross WAS the ultimate sacrifice that wiped away all of our sin, and now gives us the ability to kneel at God's feet knowing that we will be heard.

But even besides that, there was recurring message throughout all of Leviticus that I had never caught before.  This verse really jumped out at me:

"You shall be holy to me, for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine."-Leviticus 20:26

God is a holy God.  And so in order for the people to come to Him, they had to be holy as well.  He wanted the people to come to Him - to fellowship with Him - and so He provided ways for them to do that.  Not only did God care for the holiness of His people, but He also cared for their health too.  Many  times His instructions were to prevent His people from getting sick or wrought with disease, or to prevent sickness from spreading.  And so, no matter how tedious it probably was to write out all those commands...

...(or how tedious it may be to read some of those commands)... ;)

...the conclusion is that God cares about the holiness of His people.  He wants us to become more like Him so that we may have greater fellowship with Him.  That's why He gave us the Holy Spirit, to convict us of our sins, encourage us, and lead us to Him.

"You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord."-Leviticus 18:4-5

I'm so truly excited to see what God shows me as I go through His word.   :)