Guidance from Overlooked Men and Women of the Bible
This week I’ve read various sections of the law given to Moses, juxtaposed with passages from Hebrews explaining how Jesus is the final culmination of the sacrificial system – Jesus the ultimate sacrifice, Jesus the ultimate high priest – Jesus the ultimate.
The writer sums up one line of thought with this: the new covenant is established on better promises. (Hebrews 8:6).
In a world of hollow promises, it’s good to know better ones exist.
Week eight of reading the Bible cover to cover
One of the many and varied instructions found in Leviticus involves how farmers should harvest their fields, or more specifically, how farmers should not harvest their fields.
Farmers were to leave the edges of their fields unharvested. The crops then waited for the poor and the immigrant to glean them for their own use. This method of providing for the poor emerged as a legal right in various countries, based on this ancient biblical practice.
A simple act to care for overlooked and undervalued people. I often forget them, but the Lord remembers.
Leviticus 23:22 in week eight of reading the Bible cover to cover
I know some apostates, and a few remain friends. Apostates once committed to and followed the Lord, but now renounce their faith for one reason or another.
Hebrews 6:1-4 serves up a challenging and debated section of the New Testament. Might God drop one of those he holds in his hand? Can a person lose their salvation?
I’m not sure this passage tells us that, but rather serves as a warning to the apostate. The person who once tasted the Lord’s intimacy and goodness, yet now rejects God and campaigns against him, stands condemned.
Really though, the apostate doesn’t care. He’s outgrown God. The apostate ridicules and mocks the faithful. He knows more than the rest of us. Social media erupts with apostates, like the 4th of July. Apostasy is quite popular today.
To be blessed by God, yet bear thorns and thistles, is to burn in the end. I hope to avoid such a fate, to remain faithful to the certainty of God’s promise.
Week eight of reading the Bible cover to cover
Many of the words and phrases in our common lexicon come to us from deep in the Bible. One example is scapegoat. I think of someone who takes the hit for a bad situation, a person undeserving of blame.
Today’s idiom arises from real goats we read about in Leviticus 16:20-22. Aaron, the high priest, confessed the iniquities of all the people before God and laid them upon the head of a goat. He then sent the goat away to wander in the wilderness, thus carrying away the sins of the people.
Centuries later, Jesus emerged as the ultimate scapegoat. All the sins of all the people in all the world for all time were laid upon his undeserving head, to be carried away forever.
The goat didn’t deserve what he got, and Jesus didn’t deserve what he got, either.
Me and you deserve it, but don’t get it – thanks to our scapegoat.
Week eight of reading the Bible cover to cover
Stories to encourage you with the leadership experiences of overlooked men and women of the Bible. Their lives will inform your story, and move you to step out and lead.
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