Throughout the text of Leviticus we repeatedly read statements such as “I am the Lord”, “I am the Lord your God”, “I the Lord am holy”, “I am the Lord who makes you holy”, and “I have set your apart from the nations to be my own”.  (specifically found in Leviticus 19-21)  Again and again we are reminded of God’s holiness and righteousness and read of his power displayed among the Israelite people.  To some the phrase, “I the Lord am holy”, can be intimidating or discouraging because we realize our depravity and the extent of sin in our lives in comparison to God’s greatness.  However, we should be encouraged by these references listed above for a couple of reasons.  1) We as Christians serve and worship a holy God who is omnipotent, omnipresent, omnibenevolent, and omniscient.  This should not intimidate us but rather encourage us.  We serve a God that is set apart and higher than any other god. 2) We read about God’s holiness but we also read about the Lord who makes us holy.  God sent his son Jesus Christ in order to pay the price for our sins.  By Jesus’ death and resurrection on the cross, we are able to become holy.  We are no longer bound by this sin and shame but rather washed to live in freedom and light.  Brothers and sisters, let’s be encouraged by these words in Leviticus and the truth that God has spoken to us.

“And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?  To the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. Yet the LORD set his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations—as it is today. Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. Fear the LORD your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name. He is the one you praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes. Your ancestors who went down into Egypt were seventy in all, and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.”      Deuteronomy 10:12-22

“Yet the Lord set his affection on your forefathers…”

“He chose you…”

“He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing…”

Phrases like these found in this text remind me of the great love of God.  I am not fatherless, I am not a widow, yet I have seen the love of God come and overwhelm people who have been through those experiences.  God asks that we fear him.  This does not mean that we are scared of him. No, we are to respect and honor him for who he is and what he has done on our behalf. Just as he did for the Israelites, God has provided our needs and so much more.  All we are asked to do is put our faith and trust in him and to fear him.  I pray that we do not lose sight of this in the midst of all the things going on in our lives. When we are at the end our our ropes, I pray that we would be reminded of these phrases and truths listed above.  I pray that they would give us strength and encouragement knowing that God is on our side and he has taken up our cause and defended us.

http://jesusfootprints.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/fear-god/

I found it very interesting reading over Deuteronomy 6 where it talks about loving the Lord your God and serving him only:

“Be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.  Fear the Lord your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name.  Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you; for the Lord your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land.”  (v. 12-15)

Dr. Reid brought up a great point that really got me thinking this week: “Too often we confuse God as being zealous rather than jealous.”  After hearing him say this I went home and looked up the definitions of each respective word in order to better understand exactly what he was saying.

Jealous – feeling resentment against someone because of that person’s rivalry, success, or advantages

Zealous – full of, characterized by, or due to zeal;  ardently active, devoted, or diligent.

By looking at the definitions of these two words we see some nuances as related to their meanings in this passage in Deuteronomy 6.  This passage is not saying simply that God is devoted to us and actively pursuing us. Sure, God does indeed embody those characteristics but the Deuteronomistic author is conveying a different message.  Rather, this passage is trying to tell the people of Israel that God does not honor people who follow other gods.  He has a hatred towards any other god for it is sinful.  He hates sin and evil so much that he will not associate with it or anyone who partakes in it.  So many times we take v. 15 out of context and only read that God is a jealous God and then skip the rest of the verse.  However if we read the rest of the verse we understand what it means for God to be jealous. It means that his anger will burn against us and destroy us if we follow other gods instead.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  Impress them on your children.  Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”         Deuteronomy 6:5-9

Verses like these are often read in church services and Bible studies.  Most Christians will have heard these verses and have them memorized.  But how often do we actually heed what they say and take them to heart?  In these verses we are called to love the Lord with every fiber in us, everything that we do, and wherever we are.  So many times we just engage God with one of these parts, but forgetting that the others are just as important.  What would it look like if the Church actually followed this command?  We even look past the fact that this is a command from God.  This isn’t something that God is simply suggesting that we do!  As Christians we have a duty to love our God with our heart, our soul, and our strength to their greatest capacities.  If we do these things, God wil meet us in that place of passion and desire, and he will fill us with his love.  I encourage whoever reads this post to meditate on these things and think of how we can incorporate these verses into our everyday lives.

I remember reading Joshua 5-6 as a kid and marveling at the story of the Fall of Jericho.  I was amazed at how the Israelites walking around a city caused it to come crashing down and to be handed over to them.  I read it now and I am still amazed at the events that occurred, but there is something else that catches my eye: God commanded the Israelites to march around a city in order to overtake it. Wait, what?!!!  I took a step back and thought of what it would have felt like to receive those instructions from the Lord.  I would have laughed at him and thought he was joking.  Those instructions must have looked absurd to the Israelites.  They were used to physically battling in order to take over a place but now God was asking something strange.  However, God made it clear to them: “March around the city once with all the armed men.  Do this for six days.  Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark.  On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets.  When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have all the people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the people will go up, every man straight in.”  (Joshua 6:3-5)

So many times God asks us as Christians do things that may look absolutely ridiculous or far-fetched.  For instance, he asks us to go against the grain of the world and to spread the love of Christ to everyone.  We sit here and question God and why he is asking us to do something.  Instead, we need to be obedient and do as he says.  The Israelites end up doing as he commanded them and they take over the city just as he promised them.  Similar, if we are obedient to God then he will fulfill the promises that he speaks to us and he will be faithful to his word.

http://www.bricktestament.com/joshua/massacre_of_jericho/jos06_01.html

In Judges 16 we read that Samson falls in love with a woman named Delilah.  She is bribed into finding the source of Samson’s strength so that the rulers of the Philistines can come and kill him.  She constantly begs Samson to tell her where his strength comes from until he becomes tired to death of her incessant questioning. (Judges 16:16)  He tells her that if his hair is shaved off then he will no longer be strong.  He gives into this constant badgering from Delilah and it ultimately leads to his death and downfall.

Christians today often reflect this story of Samson and his demise.  We place ourselves in a situation where we are going to constantly be tempted to sin.  We fight and fight to keep from stumbling but we never get rid of the source of the problem.  After so long we give under the pressure and do the very thing we said we wouldn’t do.  We can learn from Samson’s story that we must be disciplined to root out the source of our temptation.  If we don’t then we run the risk of death and destruction, whether that be spiritually, emotionally, or physically.