Pastor's Note from February 16, 2014

This week we will be finishing up Leviticus and Hebrews in our daily reading.  I’ve acknowledged over the past two weeks that many Christians don’t spend too much time in Leviticus as it seems so “out of touch,” they say.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Granted we are not under the Law any longer and the Levitical Priesthood has been replaced by our final High Priest, Jesus Christ, under whom we are a nation of priests (Hebrews 7:11-28 and 1 Peter 2:5).  Yet Leviticus still explains as much as any Book of the Bible about God’s Holiness, and that never changes.  Also, it helps to explain the rest of the Old Testament…

Why do I say that?  Because of Leviticus 26, which was a promise of God to Israel that if they remained faithful to Him, He would bless them, but if they rejected Him and served other gods, He would curse them.  If you know any OT you know they went through many cycles of being faithful, then falling away to the worship of other gods, then being chastised by God, repenting, and the cycle starts over.  It’s not only in Judges we see that cycle, but throughout the OT.  Even in Malachi, after returning from the Babylonian captivity (a fulfillment of the promise in Lev 26 to punish them if they rejected Him), they are again being warned about worshiping other Gods and rejecting God’s commands.

Leviticus 26 has no less than 69 references to other passages in the OT where these promises are being fulfilled, both the blessings and the cursings.  There are only 46 verses in the chapter!  Much of Lev 26 is restated throughout Deuteronomy, which is also a critical Book if we are going to understand the OT, but so much of it starts right here in Leviticus.
Besides enlightening our understanding of the OT, Leviticus 26 helps us with our lives as well!  God is the same today, yesterday, and forever after all (as is human nature).  So, while we greatly benefit under the New Covenant, God still blesses us when we love and obey Him, and chastises us when we don’t (Heb 12:3-11; Rev 3:19).  We also tend to go in cycles, just like Israel did.

This week's Bible reading:

2/17	Monday	Leviticus 25-26	Hebrews 9
2/18	Tuesday	Lev 27 – Num 1	Hebrews 10
2/19	Wednesday	Numbers 2-3	Hebrews 11
2/20	Thursday	Numbers 4-5	Hebrews 12
2/21	Friday	Numbers 6-7	Hebrews 13
2/22	Saturday	Numbers 8-10	none
2/23	Sunday	Numbers 11-13	none

This week's Bible memory verse: Hebrews 12:14

"Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.”

Pastor's Note from February 9, 2014

This week we will be working through Leviticus and Hebrews in our daily reading.  This is intentional as these two Books naturally go hand-in-hand.

The reason I love Leviticus so much is that it speaks so powerfully about the Holiness of God.  You couldn’t just come casually strolling into God’s presence like you did your mom’s living room.  Anyone who tried that ended up dead (Ex 19:10-12; 40:35; Lev 10:1-2).  Leviticus is all about how OT believers were supposed to live in the presence of the Holy God who now dwelt among them in a unique way at the Tabernacle.  We tend to underestimate God’s Holiness and the implications of His Holiness upon us.  Did you catch how the sacrifices were made in the first several chapters of Leviticus?  Check out Leviticus 1 again and pay attention to who actually kills, cuts up, and washes the burnt offering.  Is it the priest or the person bringing the sacrifice?  As we continue through Leviticus, pay attention to how many things God changed about how they were to live from that time on. 

Hebrews is the perfect partner of Leviticus in that Jesus is the final and ultimate sacrifice and High Priest in One.  Consider the opening verses, “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the Word of His Power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high…”  It just takes your breath away, silences your soul, and drains the strength from your knees.  That is Jesus, the risen Lord and King.  Jesus was/is the perfect fulfillment of all the requirements given in Leviticus and having fulfilled all, “He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him” (Heb 5:9).

Bible reading:

2/10	Monday	Leviticus 13	Hebrews 3
2/11	Tuesday	Leviticus 14	Hebrews 4
2/12	Wednesday	Leviticus 15	Hebrews 5
2/13	Thursday	Leviticus 16-17	Hebrews 6
2/14	Friday	Leviticus 18-19	Hebrews 7
2/15	Saturday	Leviticus 20-21	Hebrews 8
2/16	Sunday	Leviticus 22-24	None

Bible memory verse: Hebrews 2:9

“But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering to death, crowed with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.”

Pastor's Note from Feb 2, 2014

In our Bible reading plan this week coming up, we will begin Leviticus and Hebrews.  Leviticus is one of those OT Books that many people today just don’t like to read, but as we move through it at the same time as Hebrews, I hope you’ll see why it is still so important.  It is about Holiness, and even though we are no longer under the OT Law, we are still called to be Holy as we just saw in 1 Peter this past week.

Sandwiched in between 1 Peter and Hebrews in our NT study schedule is 2 Peter.  It is not the most popular NT book either for some reason, but like every other Book of the Bible it is God’s Word and thus of immense importance and relevance.  Our memory verses for this week come from 2 Peter 1, and though longer than our usual memory verse, it is one we’ve done before and should be more of a review, right?  The first chapter starts with a reminder that “God’s divine power has given to us all things pertaining to life and godliness,” and that we’ve received “great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption this is in the world,” which then leads to the resulting commands in our memory verses.

The rest of 2 Peter is mostly a warning about false doctrine, false teachers, and false prophets, and that we must therefore strive to understand and follow the Truth found in God’s Word and given by the Holy Spirit, and reject what is false.  This short letter ends with this, “you therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  To Him be all the glory both now and forever, so let it be.”

This week's Bible reading:

2/3	Monday	Exodus 35-36	2 Peter 1
2/4	Tuesday	Exodus 37-38	2 Peter 2
2/5	Wednesday	Exodus 39-40	2 Peter 3
2/6	Thursday	Leviticus 1-3	Hebrews 1
2/7	Friday	Leviticus 4-5	Hebrews 2
2/8	Saturday	Leviticus 6-8	None
2/9	Sunday	Leviticus 9-12	None

This week's Scripture memory: 2 Peter 1:5-7)
“But also for this very reason (our eternal inheritance), giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.”