1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,680 Welcome to the Love in Context podcast of Unscripted Conversation with Ben and Spencer. 2 00:00:05,680 --> 00:00:10,480 We're so glad that you could join us today, whether that's from your car, office, home, 3 00:00:10,480 --> 00:00:13,180 church or wherever you're at. 4 00:00:13,180 --> 00:00:18,800 If you want to contact us, you can email us at lovingcontext at gmail.com. 5 00:00:18,800 --> 00:00:24,560 Also follow us on Instagram at lovingcontext. 6 00:00:24,560 --> 00:00:27,240 Welcome to the Love in Context podcast. 7 00:00:27,240 --> 00:00:28,640 So glad that you could join us today. 8 00:00:28,640 --> 00:00:31,640 We're going to be continuing on through the book of Leviticus. 9 00:00:31,640 --> 00:00:33,440 Are you guys excited? 10 00:00:33,440 --> 00:00:34,440 I'm excited. 11 00:00:34,440 --> 00:00:35,440 Yeah, Leviticus. 12 00:00:35,440 --> 00:00:37,840 Or as Ben likes to say, Leviticus. 13 00:00:37,840 --> 00:00:38,840 Yeah. 14 00:00:38,840 --> 00:00:42,200 If you listen to the bloopers at the end of last episode, I included a little nugget there 15 00:00:42,200 --> 00:00:43,200 for you guys. 16 00:00:43,200 --> 00:00:44,200 Uh huh. 17 00:00:44,200 --> 00:00:45,200 Yeah. 18 00:00:45,200 --> 00:00:46,200 We're pretty excited about this. 19 00:00:46,200 --> 00:00:49,160 So last week we talked about the structure, overall structure of Leviticus. 20 00:00:49,160 --> 00:00:50,160 Yeah. 21 00:00:50,160 --> 00:00:53,220 And just what that looks like and what does this mean when you're going to be a kingdom 22 00:00:53,220 --> 00:00:54,220 of priests. 23 00:00:54,220 --> 00:00:58,040 As the Levitical priests, how are they going to teach the entire nation how to be a kingdom 24 00:00:58,040 --> 00:00:59,040 of priests? 25 00:00:59,040 --> 00:01:00,040 Yeah. 26 00:01:00,040 --> 00:01:04,400 So today we're going to take a step back from that and we're going to take a look and talk 27 00:01:04,400 --> 00:01:07,560 about offerings, sacrificial system specifically. 28 00:01:07,560 --> 00:01:08,840 What is a sacrificial system? 29 00:01:08,840 --> 00:01:10,000 Why does it matter? 30 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:14,120 And on a very broad level, I would say that if you don't understand the sacrificial system 31 00:01:14,120 --> 00:01:17,640 in the Old Testament, you're really going to struggle with the imagery that continues 32 00:01:17,640 --> 00:01:20,080 throughout the Bible and especially into the New Testament. 33 00:01:20,080 --> 00:01:21,080 Yeah. 34 00:01:21,080 --> 00:01:26,240 I think that a lot of our, let's just say wayward theology tends to come from a lack 35 00:01:26,240 --> 00:01:28,200 of foundational strength. 36 00:01:28,200 --> 00:01:29,520 I would agree with that. 37 00:01:29,520 --> 00:01:32,800 So a couple of resources that we're going to recommend for you. 38 00:01:32,800 --> 00:01:36,320 There is an episode of Baymah where they talk about, they're largely just talking overall 39 00:01:36,320 --> 00:01:39,000 structure very similar to what we talked about last week. 40 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:41,400 Has some tidbits and things that we didn't talk about. 41 00:01:41,400 --> 00:01:44,280 Additionally, there is a book called What About the Sacrifices? 42 00:01:44,280 --> 00:01:45,900 D. Thomas Lancaster. 43 00:01:45,900 --> 00:01:49,000 There is a Bible project video that is an overview of Leviticus and they also have a 44 00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:52,400 lot on what is priesthood, what is atonement, all these different things we're going to 45 00:01:52,400 --> 00:01:53,400 talk about today. 46 00:01:53,400 --> 00:01:55,560 Bible project is going to be a great resource for you. 47 00:01:55,560 --> 00:01:57,720 Tomeki is a great teacher. 48 00:01:57,720 --> 00:01:59,960 I think that's where we're going to leave the resources. 49 00:01:59,960 --> 00:02:03,080 They're going to be in the show notes so you can actually check out the links there. 50 00:02:03,080 --> 00:02:04,640 Well, actually I'm going to be honest with you guys. 51 00:02:04,640 --> 00:02:06,320 I'm going to be just brutally honest. 52 00:02:06,320 --> 00:02:10,080 I haven't figured out how to create really good hyperlinks. 53 00:02:10,080 --> 00:02:12,480 So the names of the things are there. 54 00:02:12,480 --> 00:02:14,040 You're going to have to search for them. 55 00:02:14,040 --> 00:02:19,440 Well, it did just take me like two minutes to figure out how to extend my screen time 56 00:02:19,440 --> 00:02:20,440 lockout. 57 00:02:20,440 --> 00:02:23,800 We're good to go now. 58 00:02:23,800 --> 00:02:27,480 Bible project is a great resource if you're going through Leviticus. 59 00:02:27,480 --> 00:02:32,360 It has a lot of content on Leviticus and Tim Mackey does an excellent job. 60 00:02:32,360 --> 00:02:33,360 Yeah. 61 00:02:33,360 --> 00:02:35,280 Two different ways to use Bible project. 62 00:02:35,280 --> 00:02:40,400 One is a book overview and then the second one is as a deep dive on a specific subject. 63 00:02:40,400 --> 00:02:42,720 He does a really good job with both of those. 64 00:02:42,720 --> 00:02:43,720 Yeah. 65 00:02:43,720 --> 00:02:44,720 All right. 66 00:02:44,720 --> 00:02:46,840 So as we're talking about Leviticus and now we're going to be talking about the sacrificial 67 00:02:46,840 --> 00:02:51,600 system, one of the first things that I think is really important to note is this word that 68 00:02:51,600 --> 00:02:54,640 is translated as sacrifice or offering. 69 00:02:54,640 --> 00:03:00,520 Typically, if we talk about a sacrifice, we say it's to appease God because God is mad, 70 00:03:00,520 --> 00:03:01,520 right? 71 00:03:01,520 --> 00:03:06,120 Even the system that the Israelites are familiar with, you bring a sacrifice so that the gods 72 00:03:06,120 --> 00:03:07,120 don't get mad at you. 73 00:03:07,120 --> 00:03:11,000 We talked about that in like worship of Melek, the worship of Ra and like a lot of these 74 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:15,000 gods in the surrounding areas of Israel and how they were worshiped. 75 00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:19,080 It was a lot about bringing enough and maybe I won't hurt you. 76 00:03:19,080 --> 00:03:20,080 Yeah. 77 00:03:20,080 --> 00:03:25,600 It was essentially more of a survival so I can live longer thing goes on and be like, 78 00:03:25,600 --> 00:03:27,600 okay, I need to appease the gods. 79 00:03:27,600 --> 00:03:28,600 Yeah. 80 00:03:28,600 --> 00:03:34,960 Ideally, you either wanted gods to put favor on you, blessing or know nothing about you. 81 00:03:34,960 --> 00:03:35,960 Yeah. 82 00:03:35,960 --> 00:03:36,960 Right? 83 00:03:36,960 --> 00:03:39,640 Like that's like the ancient mentality is you either want the gods to look with favor 84 00:03:39,640 --> 00:03:43,040 on you or to know nothing about you. 85 00:03:43,040 --> 00:03:46,080 That's actually going to be a recurring thing all the way into Grecian mythology. 86 00:03:46,080 --> 00:03:47,080 Yeah. 87 00:03:47,080 --> 00:03:51,120 Like the Odyssey and with Homer and the Iliad, this is a reoccurring thing. 88 00:03:51,120 --> 00:03:54,120 They would prefer that the gods don't even know who they are. 89 00:03:54,120 --> 00:03:55,120 Yeah. 90 00:03:55,120 --> 00:03:56,480 Unless they're going to look with favor. 91 00:03:56,480 --> 00:03:57,720 Yep. 92 00:03:57,720 --> 00:04:01,480 But that's actually not what Hebrew is we're offering. 93 00:04:01,480 --> 00:04:03,840 The Hebrew word is actually korban. 94 00:04:03,840 --> 00:04:07,720 I'm probably pronouncing that wrong so if somebody is a Hebrew scholar, just my apologies, 95 00:04:07,720 --> 00:04:10,800 but understand I want to speak mostly phonetically. 96 00:04:10,800 --> 00:04:12,900 But it's not so much of an atonement piece. 97 00:04:12,900 --> 00:04:18,960 It comes from the root of korav, which actually is translated to come near. 98 00:04:18,960 --> 00:04:20,760 To come near, join together if you will. 99 00:04:20,760 --> 00:04:25,000 If I was going to come over to your house to give you a gift, the gift actually draws 100 00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:27,160 us closer together. 101 00:04:27,160 --> 00:04:31,960 The person bringing a korban does so to come closer to God. 102 00:04:31,960 --> 00:04:32,960 Yes. 103 00:04:32,960 --> 00:04:33,960 Okay. 104 00:04:33,960 --> 00:04:37,320 So right off the bat, that is not the story they're used to. 105 00:04:37,320 --> 00:04:39,520 This doesn't take a long time to show up in Leviticus. 106 00:04:39,520 --> 00:04:41,080 It's in the first chapter. 107 00:04:41,080 --> 00:04:43,040 Let's take a look at Leviticus 1. 108 00:04:43,040 --> 00:04:47,840 So it says here, reading from the NIV, the Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from 109 00:04:47,840 --> 00:04:49,200 the tent of meeting. 110 00:04:49,200 --> 00:04:53,440 He said, speak to the Israelites and say to them, when anyone among you brings an offering, 111 00:04:53,440 --> 00:04:58,400 this is that korban, to the Lord, bring as your offering an animal from either the herd 112 00:04:58,400 --> 00:04:59,400 or the flock. 113 00:04:59,400 --> 00:05:00,400 Okay. 114 00:05:00,400 --> 00:05:01,400 Yeah. 115 00:05:01,400 --> 00:05:04,960 So now let's sub in this idea of korban and let's read that again. 116 00:05:04,960 --> 00:05:09,080 When any one of you wants to draw near with something brought near to the Lord, you shall 117 00:05:09,080 --> 00:05:13,920 bring near your thing brought near of livestock from the herd or from the flock. 118 00:05:13,920 --> 00:05:16,480 This whole thing is about together. 119 00:05:16,480 --> 00:05:17,480 Yeah. 120 00:05:17,480 --> 00:05:24,980 Have any of you ever been to a church potluck and have any of you ever attended a church 121 00:05:24,980 --> 00:05:27,200 potluck and not brought anything? 122 00:05:27,200 --> 00:05:28,200 Right. 123 00:05:28,200 --> 00:05:29,200 Right. 124 00:05:29,200 --> 00:05:32,280 Like when you're doing this as a family, when you're doing this together, the idea is, hey, 125 00:05:32,280 --> 00:05:33,360 we are all going to get together. 126 00:05:33,360 --> 00:05:36,120 We're all going to bring something to share, something to the table. 127 00:05:36,120 --> 00:05:37,120 Right. 128 00:05:37,120 --> 00:05:40,280 So that's kind of the idea that's going on here, just to put it in like real practical 129 00:05:40,280 --> 00:05:41,280 terms. 130 00:05:41,280 --> 00:05:45,040 It's not like the best analogy out there probably, but that's the idea we're working with. 131 00:05:45,040 --> 00:05:48,600 Especially since if you, by the way, are coming to a potluck and you don't have anything to 132 00:05:48,600 --> 00:05:50,920 bring, there's going to be more than enough food there. 133 00:05:50,920 --> 00:05:51,920 Come anyways. 134 00:05:51,920 --> 00:05:52,920 Yeah. 135 00:05:52,920 --> 00:05:54,480 Because the people who do bring food, they bring a lot. 136 00:05:54,480 --> 00:05:55,480 They do. 137 00:05:55,480 --> 00:05:56,480 They do. 138 00:05:56,480 --> 00:05:59,600 So, but the idea being that like, hey, you are bringing something to the table. 139 00:05:59,600 --> 00:06:06,320 So this idea, this idea of sacrifice, this idea of offering is not meant to be about 140 00:06:06,320 --> 00:06:08,520 appeasement, but it's actually meant to be about relationship. 141 00:06:08,520 --> 00:06:09,520 Yeah. 142 00:06:09,520 --> 00:06:11,400 It's pretty significant. 143 00:06:11,400 --> 00:06:15,360 The sacrificial system, maybe it was different for you when you grew up, but a lot of what 144 00:06:15,360 --> 00:06:21,280 I heard from the pulpit, from missionaries and very similarly, it's about restoring or 145 00:06:21,280 --> 00:06:24,640 appeasing or paying the price or sin. 146 00:06:24,640 --> 00:06:25,640 Right? 147 00:06:25,640 --> 00:06:29,560 This is like a very frequent concept that we're going through. 148 00:06:29,560 --> 00:06:35,920 So what I think that does is it makes us carry a lot of baggage into how we look at the redemption 149 00:06:35,920 --> 00:06:36,920 through Christ. 150 00:06:36,920 --> 00:06:37,920 Yeah. 151 00:06:37,920 --> 00:06:38,920 Right? 152 00:06:38,920 --> 00:06:46,160 Because we look at it as God was mad and Jesus came and he appeased God's anger. 153 00:06:46,160 --> 00:06:49,080 But we've talked about what's the problem with that. 154 00:06:49,080 --> 00:06:52,160 The problem with that, I mean, there's a couple of problems actually, but one of them that 155 00:06:52,160 --> 00:06:57,920 comes to my mind is when you rewind back to Cain and Abel, God tells Cain, like sin is 156 00:06:57,920 --> 00:07:01,560 waiting at your doorstep and you need to conquer it. 157 00:07:01,560 --> 00:07:02,560 Right. 158 00:07:02,560 --> 00:07:03,560 Right. 159 00:07:03,560 --> 00:07:07,920 So he's telling Cain, this is before the time of Jesus, that you can conquer sin. 160 00:07:07,920 --> 00:07:08,920 Yeah. 161 00:07:08,920 --> 00:07:09,920 Okay. 162 00:07:09,920 --> 00:07:15,000 Now that's a very unpopular belief because people will be like, well, Jesus came so that 163 00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:19,920 forgiveness could happen, so that restoration to the father could happen through his life, 164 00:07:19,920 --> 00:07:21,360 death and resurrection. 165 00:07:21,360 --> 00:07:22,880 We're not refuting that. 166 00:07:22,880 --> 00:07:25,240 We 100% believe that. 167 00:07:25,240 --> 00:07:27,080 He came to do that. 168 00:07:27,080 --> 00:07:29,720 More specifically, he came to change your nature. 169 00:07:29,720 --> 00:07:30,720 Yeah. 170 00:07:30,720 --> 00:07:35,680 Because in the fall, we talked about this, your nature changes from somebody who is naturally 171 00:07:35,680 --> 00:07:40,960 prone to the righteousness of God to somebody who is now naturally prone to your own whims 172 00:07:40,960 --> 00:07:45,140 and desires that are contrary to the way that the world is supposed to work, the way that 173 00:07:45,140 --> 00:07:46,480 God set up the world to work. 174 00:07:46,480 --> 00:07:51,360 And Jesus came to change our nature back to the natural desires of God. 175 00:07:51,360 --> 00:07:56,080 And correct me if I'm wrong, but up to this point, we've actually not seen God get mad, 176 00:07:56,080 --> 00:07:59,480 except when people fail to be part of his story. 177 00:07:59,480 --> 00:08:05,280 When they're called to go in and bring freedom and relief and deliverance, I'll say Exodus 178 00:08:05,280 --> 00:08:08,240 to another people, and they're refusing to do that. 179 00:08:08,240 --> 00:08:09,240 Yeah. 180 00:08:09,240 --> 00:08:14,200 The times that God has shown anger up until this point has been an example, Moses at the 181 00:08:14,200 --> 00:08:17,000 burning bush where Moses, I just don't want to go. 182 00:08:17,000 --> 00:08:18,000 Right. 183 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:20,080 In God's anger, he provided help. 184 00:08:20,080 --> 00:08:21,080 Yeah. 185 00:08:21,080 --> 00:08:22,080 Right. 186 00:08:22,080 --> 00:08:26,080 So there are times where God has shown anger, but it has been in the context of people not 187 00:08:26,080 --> 00:08:29,800 wanting to follow after him. 188 00:08:29,800 --> 00:08:34,560 If you're struggling with this concept of God is not sitting here angry, we're trying 189 00:08:34,560 --> 00:08:36,040 to dispel this. 190 00:08:36,040 --> 00:08:38,600 Now I'm not saying God doesn't get angry in the Bible. 191 00:08:38,600 --> 00:08:42,740 That's very clearly in there, but you also need to look around the circumstances of why 192 00:08:42,740 --> 00:08:44,120 is he getting angry? 193 00:08:44,120 --> 00:08:45,120 Yeah. 194 00:08:45,120 --> 00:08:46,660 But God is not angry with humanity. 195 00:08:46,660 --> 00:08:51,560 It says in John 3, the one of the most popular verses, it says, for God, the father, loved 196 00:08:51,560 --> 00:08:53,600 the world so much he gave. 197 00:08:53,600 --> 00:08:54,820 Okay. 198 00:08:54,820 --> 00:08:59,060 So God can't be sitting here angry and ready to destroy humanity if he's also the one who 199 00:08:59,060 --> 00:09:01,640 came wrapped in flesh to save us. 200 00:09:01,640 --> 00:09:04,680 It can't be both of those things. 201 00:09:04,680 --> 00:09:09,280 And I think where we get often confused with this is, and this is where I think we have 202 00:09:09,280 --> 00:09:12,920 a little bit of contradictory doctrine and I'm going to try to spell this out best I 203 00:09:12,920 --> 00:09:13,920 can. 204 00:09:13,920 --> 00:09:14,920 Good luck. 205 00:09:14,920 --> 00:09:15,920 I know. 206 00:09:15,920 --> 00:09:22,160 Did God come to save the world because of his anger towards sin or did he come to save 207 00:09:22,160 --> 00:09:26,360 the world because of his love for us? 208 00:09:26,360 --> 00:09:30,400 And oftentimes what we do is we camp on one of those things and we're like, oh, it's because 209 00:09:30,400 --> 00:09:31,400 he loves us. 210 00:09:31,400 --> 00:09:32,400 Yes. 211 00:09:32,400 --> 00:09:33,400 It's because he hates sin. 212 00:09:33,400 --> 00:09:35,720 Yes, he does hate sin. 213 00:09:35,720 --> 00:09:41,440 If you look at John 3, 16 and 17, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and 214 00:09:41,440 --> 00:09:45,360 only son that we might be saved through him. 215 00:09:45,360 --> 00:09:52,000 And then if you go 17, it talks about how he didn't come to condemn the world. 216 00:09:52,000 --> 00:09:55,800 So we got to understand that, that he came because he loves us. 217 00:09:55,800 --> 00:09:56,800 Right. 218 00:09:56,800 --> 00:10:02,600 And he came to reverse our nature, to take us away from the ways of this world and into 219 00:10:02,600 --> 00:10:03,600 the ways of God. 220 00:10:03,600 --> 00:10:04,600 Yeah. 221 00:10:04,600 --> 00:10:08,800 So you were talking and you said, did God come because he loved humanity or did he come 222 00:10:08,800 --> 00:10:10,600 because he wanted to destroy sin? 223 00:10:10,600 --> 00:10:12,080 And the answer is yes. 224 00:10:12,080 --> 00:10:16,160 The primary motivation being love for his children that are not here. 225 00:10:16,160 --> 00:10:17,160 Yeah. 226 00:10:17,160 --> 00:10:18,160 Right. 227 00:10:18,160 --> 00:10:20,120 We talked last week about this analogy of my chainsmoking son. 228 00:10:20,120 --> 00:10:21,120 Uh-huh. 229 00:10:21,120 --> 00:10:24,800 So if you don't know what that reference is, go back to the last episode. 230 00:10:24,800 --> 00:10:28,000 But is my motivation that I hate cigarettes or that I love my son? 231 00:10:28,000 --> 00:10:31,520 Yes, I hate cigarettes because I love my son. 232 00:10:31,520 --> 00:10:35,240 Because I see what they're doing to my child, I hate them. 233 00:10:35,240 --> 00:10:39,040 I don't hate sin and then love my son because I hate the sin. 234 00:10:39,040 --> 00:10:40,640 Does that make sense? 235 00:10:40,640 --> 00:10:43,240 Like one causes the other. 236 00:10:43,240 --> 00:10:44,620 So my overwhelming love. 237 00:10:44,620 --> 00:10:48,560 And there is in Rabbinic thought, they talk about four unstoppable forces and I'm not 238 00:10:48,560 --> 00:10:49,560 going to go through all of them. 239 00:10:49,560 --> 00:10:51,800 Rabbi David Forman has a great teaching on it. 240 00:10:51,800 --> 00:10:58,400 But one of the ancient teachings is that God is one of these forces that God doesn't love 241 00:10:58,400 --> 00:10:59,600 out of a lack of love. 242 00:10:59,600 --> 00:11:01,560 He loves out over an abundance. 243 00:11:01,560 --> 00:11:05,760 So if you imagine a jar that is pouring over with water, but it's being fed by a faucet 244 00:11:05,760 --> 00:11:07,640 and it's just pouring over. 245 00:11:07,640 --> 00:11:09,920 God loves because he is an abundance of love. 246 00:11:09,920 --> 00:11:13,080 He can't do anything else but love because that's who he is. 247 00:11:13,080 --> 00:11:14,080 Yeah. 248 00:11:14,080 --> 00:11:19,800 And so the reason we receive love is yes, because we're children made in the image of 249 00:11:19,800 --> 00:11:23,080 God, but also because of the nature of who God is. 250 00:11:23,080 --> 00:11:24,640 So both of those things are true. 251 00:11:24,640 --> 00:11:29,920 And so don't hear us say like theological ideas of you can't earn it and also you're 252 00:11:29,920 --> 00:11:30,920 precious. 253 00:11:30,920 --> 00:11:36,600 Like these are all true, but you have to understand who God is because it all flows from that. 254 00:11:36,600 --> 00:11:41,280 And I'm coming back to the idea of a potluck in the sacrificial system. 255 00:11:41,280 --> 00:11:44,000 The idea is that you're bringing something to the table, right? 256 00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:49,280 Is that you're coming in together as a family, you're bringing something to the table. 257 00:11:49,280 --> 00:11:53,920 Everybody in their family was bringing a unblemished goat or unblemished lamb or some doves or 258 00:11:53,920 --> 00:11:56,640 whatever, whatever fit their budget. 259 00:11:56,640 --> 00:12:00,760 And then you get to Jesus, Jesus came, he died on the cross, he laid dead for three 260 00:12:00,760 --> 00:12:01,760 days, rose again. 261 00:12:01,760 --> 00:12:05,200 And then, didn't you know what the Bible talks about? 262 00:12:05,200 --> 00:12:08,040 Says the banquet table set. 263 00:12:08,040 --> 00:12:11,920 The shift that you have is that, okay, we're all coming together, bringing something to 264 00:12:11,920 --> 00:12:16,440 the table and now Jesus is like, all right, now I brought everything you need. 265 00:12:16,440 --> 00:12:19,160 Just show up. 266 00:12:19,160 --> 00:12:25,620 So coming back to this idea of offerings and sacrifice, this idea of korban, it's understood 267 00:12:25,620 --> 00:12:28,920 as a gift as you come to commune with God in the tent of meeting. 268 00:12:28,920 --> 00:12:34,320 Like coming back to your potluck analogy, like you're bringing the potato salad for 269 00:12:34,320 --> 00:12:36,220 the potluck, right? 270 00:12:36,220 --> 00:12:39,600 This is where heaven and earth meet because we've talked about the temple, right? 271 00:12:39,600 --> 00:12:42,080 The temple is a place where the presence of God dwells on earth. 272 00:12:42,080 --> 00:12:46,480 It's a place where heaven and earth literally meet, which is going to have massive implications 273 00:12:46,480 --> 00:12:48,720 in the New Testament. 274 00:12:48,720 --> 00:12:51,080 Spoiler alert, you are the temple of the Holy Spirit. 275 00:12:51,080 --> 00:12:52,080 Yeah. 276 00:12:52,080 --> 00:12:53,080 Right? 277 00:12:53,080 --> 00:12:55,360 And we're not going to talk about that a lot today because I could go off for a really long 278 00:12:55,360 --> 00:12:56,360 time on that. 279 00:12:56,360 --> 00:12:59,640 And maybe when we go through a gospel series, we'll talk about that. 280 00:12:59,640 --> 00:13:00,640 Yeah. 281 00:13:00,640 --> 00:13:04,820 But right now God is dwelling in the tent of meetings with his people. 282 00:13:04,820 --> 00:13:06,440 This is the place where heaven and earth are meeting. 283 00:13:06,440 --> 00:13:08,680 And so you are drawing near to God. 284 00:13:08,680 --> 00:13:14,320 Now part of the nature of who God is, is that whenever you come into contact with things 285 00:13:14,320 --> 00:13:18,960 that are right and you are on the outside, you have sin, you have brokenness, it happens 286 00:13:18,960 --> 00:13:22,480 frequently throughout the Bible that when people encounter God, they recognize their 287 00:13:22,480 --> 00:13:23,480 sinfulness. 288 00:13:23,480 --> 00:13:24,480 Yeah. 289 00:13:24,480 --> 00:13:31,160 So God is using a method to actually bring them back into communion with each other. 290 00:13:31,160 --> 00:13:32,160 Yeah. 291 00:13:32,160 --> 00:13:33,400 And he's using a method. 292 00:13:33,400 --> 00:13:36,640 He's using a worldly method that they're familiar with. 293 00:13:36,640 --> 00:13:37,640 Right. 294 00:13:37,640 --> 00:13:40,720 And this is a conversation piece that I've actually had with a lot of people and they 295 00:13:40,720 --> 00:13:43,200 say, well, why does God want animal sacrifice? 296 00:13:43,200 --> 00:13:47,000 Does he just like the smell of burning flesh? 297 00:13:47,000 --> 00:13:51,280 Which to be fair, we talk about a lot of weird things in church, so that's a fair question. 298 00:13:51,280 --> 00:13:52,280 Yeah. 299 00:13:52,280 --> 00:13:53,280 Right? 300 00:13:53,280 --> 00:13:54,280 It is. 301 00:13:54,280 --> 00:13:55,280 So does God actually need gifts? 302 00:13:55,280 --> 00:13:56,280 No, he doesn't. 303 00:13:56,280 --> 00:13:57,280 Consider Psalm 50. 304 00:13:57,280 --> 00:13:58,280 All right. 305 00:13:58,280 --> 00:13:59,280 And this is out of the NIV. 306 00:13:59,280 --> 00:14:06,320 It says, I do not need a bowl from your stall or goats from your pen for every animal in 307 00:14:06,320 --> 00:14:09,920 the forest is mine and the cattle on a thousand hills. 308 00:14:09,920 --> 00:14:14,840 I know every bird in the mountains and every insect in the fields are mine. 309 00:14:14,840 --> 00:14:21,480 If I were hungry, I would not tell you for the whole world is mine and all that is in 310 00:14:21,480 --> 00:14:23,160 it. 311 00:14:23,160 --> 00:14:27,720 Do I eat the flesh of the bulls or drink the blood of the goats? 312 00:14:27,720 --> 00:14:30,760 And of course, in rhetoric fashion, the answer of course is no. 313 00:14:30,760 --> 00:14:31,760 Right? 314 00:14:31,760 --> 00:14:32,760 Yeah. 315 00:14:32,760 --> 00:14:36,360 And the chapter continues, God is talking to Israel through this Psalm. 316 00:14:36,360 --> 00:14:40,640 The whole idea here is that God doesn't need your stuff. 317 00:14:40,640 --> 00:14:41,640 No. 318 00:14:41,640 --> 00:14:42,640 Right? 319 00:14:42,640 --> 00:14:45,360 Now, I do think it's really funny how many times I've heard people quote, God has the 320 00:14:45,360 --> 00:14:50,000 cattle on a thousand hills as this thing of he's got limitless resources. 321 00:14:50,000 --> 00:14:51,000 Yeah. 322 00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:52,000 Right? 323 00:14:52,000 --> 00:14:57,520 And in the context of the Psalm, it's actually about, I don't need what you're bringing, 324 00:14:57,520 --> 00:15:00,480 but I want you to participate with me. 325 00:15:00,480 --> 00:15:05,680 And it's a crazy beautiful thing to be like where the Lord's, hey, I don't need what you 326 00:15:05,680 --> 00:15:08,240 have to offer, but I want it. 327 00:15:08,240 --> 00:15:09,240 Yeah. 328 00:15:09,240 --> 00:15:10,920 So God doesn't need these gifts. 329 00:15:10,920 --> 00:15:13,800 It's about restoring relationship between humanity and himself. 330 00:15:13,800 --> 00:15:14,800 Right? 331 00:15:14,800 --> 00:15:16,480 That's whole thing that Psalm 50 is talking about. 332 00:15:16,480 --> 00:15:19,640 Now, the other thing that I think is really interesting and we have to understand about 333 00:15:19,640 --> 00:15:26,880 the sacrificial system is people assume that the sacrificial system is about just atonement 334 00:15:26,880 --> 00:15:31,280 or sin restoration, these types of things, right? 335 00:15:31,280 --> 00:15:32,280 Yeah. 336 00:15:32,280 --> 00:15:34,080 Well, here's the problem. 337 00:15:34,080 --> 00:15:37,440 Most of the offerings aren't sin related. 338 00:15:37,440 --> 00:15:42,980 I'm going to say that again, because I feel like Christian ease is getting in the way 339 00:15:42,980 --> 00:15:44,300 of our ears. 340 00:15:44,300 --> 00:15:52,140 Most of the offerings listed in the book of Leviticus are not sin related. 341 00:15:52,140 --> 00:15:56,640 So there's five types of sacrifices that are listed in the book of Leviticus. 342 00:15:56,640 --> 00:16:01,760 The first one is burnt offering and it's largely a offering of Thanksgiving. 343 00:16:01,760 --> 00:16:06,240 If you're looking for the passages that deal with that, that's Leviticus 1, 1 through 17 344 00:16:06,240 --> 00:16:08,760 and 6, 8 through 13. 345 00:16:08,760 --> 00:16:12,400 The second type of offering is a grain offering, right? 346 00:16:12,400 --> 00:16:14,240 This is an act of worship. 347 00:16:14,240 --> 00:16:18,200 Leviticus 2, 1 through 16, 6 through 14 through 23. 348 00:16:18,200 --> 00:16:20,080 Then you have a peace offering. 349 00:16:20,080 --> 00:16:24,020 That's Leviticus 3, 1 through 17 and 7, 11 through 36. 350 00:16:24,020 --> 00:16:28,400 Peace offering has to do with community, right? 351 00:16:28,400 --> 00:16:31,920 Then you actually have a sin offering, which is the one we always want to talk about, which 352 00:16:31,920 --> 00:16:35,560 by the way, where is that listed in the number of offerings? 353 00:16:35,560 --> 00:16:39,160 That's the fourth offering listed. 354 00:16:39,160 --> 00:16:40,680 I thought it was the most important one. 355 00:16:40,680 --> 00:16:43,080 But it's the fourth one listed. 356 00:16:43,080 --> 00:16:44,080 Interesting. 357 00:16:44,080 --> 00:16:45,080 Yeah. 358 00:16:45,080 --> 00:16:46,080 I have to think about that. 359 00:16:46,080 --> 00:16:48,240 I wonder if that's going to be relevant at all. 360 00:16:48,240 --> 00:16:49,240 We'll find out. 361 00:16:49,240 --> 00:16:50,240 Yeah. 362 00:16:50,240 --> 00:16:55,480 So this is about a guilt offering and that's in Leviticus 5, 14 through 6, 7 and then chapter 363 00:16:55,480 --> 00:16:58,880 7 versus 1 through 7. 364 00:16:58,880 --> 00:17:06,760 So the purpose of the sacrifice is there's three main reasons that you would have a sacrifice. 365 00:17:06,760 --> 00:17:12,280 The largest one that is represented most frequently in scripture, okay? 366 00:17:12,280 --> 00:17:17,280 This is the one that is referenced most frequently in scripture. 367 00:17:17,280 --> 00:17:22,460 It's a voluntary act of worship and communion. 368 00:17:22,460 --> 00:17:25,840 So do you think, you can tell me what you think on this, Reddy. 369 00:17:25,840 --> 00:17:29,200 Well, I mean, you've said that Ben always has an opinion on something, whether you want 370 00:17:29,200 --> 00:17:31,160 to hear it or not. 371 00:17:31,160 --> 00:17:32,160 I have said that before. 372 00:17:32,160 --> 00:17:34,760 I have, yeah. 373 00:17:34,760 --> 00:17:39,480 So what do you think Paul is referring to in Romans 12 when he's talking about laying 374 00:17:39,480 --> 00:17:42,880 down yourself as an act of worship? 375 00:17:42,880 --> 00:17:46,280 Is he referring to sacrificing your life? 376 00:17:46,280 --> 00:17:49,360 I'm curious on your opinion on this. 377 00:17:49,360 --> 00:17:55,960 Or is he speaking to in a Jewish context and to Jews in Rome knowing that they'll probably 378 00:17:55,960 --> 00:18:01,540 have the Levitical system pretty well known and saying, hey, this system, that's an act 379 00:18:01,540 --> 00:18:03,880 of worship. 380 00:18:03,880 --> 00:18:06,440 Now what you're called to do is do that with yourself. 381 00:18:06,440 --> 00:18:07,440 Yeah. 382 00:18:07,440 --> 00:18:11,040 I think, so you're talking about chapter 12 where he says, therefore brothers in view of 383 00:18:11,040 --> 00:18:15,280 God's mercy, offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to the Lord for this is 384 00:18:15,280 --> 00:18:17,480 your reasonable act of worship. 385 00:18:17,480 --> 00:18:18,480 Right? 386 00:18:18,480 --> 00:18:19,480 Reasonable. 387 00:18:19,480 --> 00:18:20,480 Reasonable act of worship. 388 00:18:20,480 --> 00:18:21,480 Yeah. 389 00:18:21,480 --> 00:18:24,440 I have a couple of thoughts. 390 00:18:24,440 --> 00:18:26,480 That's probably shocking to you. 391 00:18:26,480 --> 00:18:30,560 The first is anytime you run into the passage and it says therefore. 392 00:18:30,560 --> 00:18:32,280 Yeah, like before. 393 00:18:32,280 --> 00:18:33,280 Yeah. 394 00:18:33,280 --> 00:18:37,960 I remember growing up that I heard very frequently, if you see a therefore, you need to find out 395 00:18:37,960 --> 00:18:40,600 what the therefore is therefore. 396 00:18:40,600 --> 00:18:45,200 Prior to this, Paul has been making this really big argument in the book of Romans about, 397 00:18:45,200 --> 00:18:50,400 how it doesn't, your justification doesn't come from being a Roman or being a Jew or 398 00:18:50,400 --> 00:18:56,180 being a Gentile, but rather God spoke through Israel to tell his story. 399 00:18:56,180 --> 00:18:58,880 And then Jesus came and he grafted in the Gentiles. 400 00:18:58,880 --> 00:19:01,960 And then it talks about the loving nature of God because he's about restoring all the 401 00:19:01,960 --> 00:19:04,040 world and about how amazing it is. 402 00:19:04,040 --> 00:19:09,040 And then he says, therefore, in view of the mercy of God to work through Israel and restore 403 00:19:09,040 --> 00:19:14,240 and engraft all the people from all over the world, you should offer your body as a living 404 00:19:14,240 --> 00:19:17,160 sacrifice, a living sacrifice. 405 00:19:17,160 --> 00:19:18,800 You're not dead. 406 00:19:18,800 --> 00:19:25,400 You should offer your body as a method to come near to God, a conduit of grace and mercy 407 00:19:25,400 --> 00:19:31,280 to the world because this is your reasonable act of worship. 408 00:19:31,280 --> 00:19:32,280 Yeah. 409 00:19:32,280 --> 00:19:38,000 We, the church, as a reasonable act of worship, we actually come near to God and we share 410 00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:39,780 the grace of God to the world. 411 00:19:39,780 --> 00:19:45,100 We become the hands and feet of Jesus into the world and we actually share the kingdom 412 00:19:45,100 --> 00:19:47,200 every place that we go. 413 00:19:47,200 --> 00:19:50,460 And we talked about, and I'm sorry, getting ahead of myself because you got me excited. 414 00:19:50,460 --> 00:19:53,760 We talked about, now we are the temple of the Holy spirit and the spirit of God dwells 415 00:19:53,760 --> 00:19:54,760 within us. 416 00:19:54,760 --> 00:19:58,360 So everywhere that we go, the church, and we offer ourselves as a reasonable act of 417 00:19:58,360 --> 00:20:02,320 worship, we bring the presence of God where we go. 418 00:20:02,320 --> 00:20:06,900 Meaning there is an open heaven between heaven and earth, right wherever we go. 419 00:20:06,900 --> 00:20:10,960 We bring the presence of God everywhere we go and yet we're often intimidated by the 420 00:20:10,960 --> 00:20:12,440 kingdom of darkness. 421 00:20:12,440 --> 00:20:13,440 Yep. 422 00:20:13,440 --> 00:20:14,440 Yep. 423 00:20:14,440 --> 00:20:18,160 I've heard that passage talked about a couple of different ways, but like the most common 424 00:20:18,160 --> 00:20:21,840 way I've heard it talked about is just as there was animal sacrifice killed, you have 425 00:20:21,840 --> 00:20:25,020 to die to yourself, which I think there's an element to that. 426 00:20:25,020 --> 00:20:30,680 But there's also tying it into this idea of korban where it's, hey, you know, you're bringing 427 00:20:30,680 --> 00:20:32,620 something to the table to share. 428 00:20:32,620 --> 00:20:34,960 You're bringing something to the table so you can enter into fellowship. 429 00:20:34,960 --> 00:20:36,160 Oh, I love that. 430 00:20:36,160 --> 00:20:40,680 And now God's now Paul saying, Hey, you're not bringing an animal. 431 00:20:40,680 --> 00:20:42,340 You're bringing yourself, right? 432 00:20:42,340 --> 00:20:43,920 You're bringing Jesus in you. 433 00:20:43,920 --> 00:20:44,920 Right. 434 00:20:44,920 --> 00:20:49,800 Well, and so speaking back into the sacrificial context, the Levitical context, okay. 435 00:20:49,800 --> 00:20:51,600 You're a kingdom of priests. 436 00:20:51,600 --> 00:20:52,600 Yeah. 437 00:20:52,600 --> 00:20:55,600 Stop relying on the priesthood and go and be a priest. 438 00:20:55,600 --> 00:20:56,600 Yep. 439 00:20:56,600 --> 00:20:59,440 Go and put your body on the sacrificial altar. 440 00:20:59,440 --> 00:21:00,440 Yeah. 441 00:21:00,440 --> 00:21:03,800 Now, if you understand that it's about actually restoring communion with God, that makes it 442 00:21:03,800 --> 00:21:08,080 a completely different story than what you're expecting, right? 443 00:21:08,080 --> 00:21:12,400 Taking a step back, looking at purpose of sacrifice. 444 00:21:12,400 --> 00:21:16,800 Most of the time when it's referenced in the Bible, it's going to be a voluntary act of 445 00:21:16,800 --> 00:21:18,100 worship. 446 00:21:18,100 --> 00:21:24,840 It's going to be people coming near to God in Thanksgiving and communion. 447 00:21:24,840 --> 00:21:25,840 Yeah. 448 00:21:25,840 --> 00:21:26,840 Community. 449 00:21:26,840 --> 00:21:27,840 Yeah. 450 00:21:27,840 --> 00:21:28,840 Right? 451 00:21:28,840 --> 00:21:30,180 This is, it is mostly referring to this. 452 00:21:30,180 --> 00:21:35,880 This is what happens most of the time and I'm stressing it over and over again. 453 00:21:35,880 --> 00:21:39,240 You're probably getting sick of listening to me on the podcast saying this, but I'm 454 00:21:39,240 --> 00:21:45,560 stressing it because that's not necessarily how we've portrayed the gospel. 455 00:21:45,560 --> 00:21:46,560 Yeah. 456 00:21:46,560 --> 00:21:52,800 The gospel and sacrifice restoration with God is about relationship and worship and 457 00:21:52,800 --> 00:21:57,600 community and restoration, redemption, forgiveness. 458 00:21:57,600 --> 00:21:58,600 Yeah. 459 00:21:58,600 --> 00:21:59,600 Right? 460 00:21:59,600 --> 00:22:07,520 It is not about depravity, sin, brokenness. 461 00:22:07,520 --> 00:22:11,080 These are things that we were and we no longer are. 462 00:22:11,080 --> 00:22:12,080 Yeah. 463 00:22:12,080 --> 00:22:13,080 Now, don't mishear me. 464 00:22:13,080 --> 00:22:17,800 I'm not saying that you can't have these things in your life because being fully formed 465 00:22:17,800 --> 00:22:19,560 to the character of Christ takes time. 466 00:22:19,560 --> 00:22:20,560 Yes. 467 00:22:20,560 --> 00:22:22,440 But your nature is no longer drawn to these things. 468 00:22:22,440 --> 00:22:24,960 Your nature is now drawn to the righteousness of God. 469 00:22:24,960 --> 00:22:30,120 And as you lean into who Christ is, you're going to find that you are naturally inclined 470 00:22:30,120 --> 00:22:33,360 to follow after the things Christ has for you. 471 00:22:33,360 --> 00:22:36,580 And if you lean away from who Christ is, you're going to find you're naturally inclined to 472 00:22:36,580 --> 00:22:39,040 follow the things Christ does not have for you. 473 00:22:39,040 --> 00:22:40,040 Right. 474 00:22:40,040 --> 00:22:41,040 Right? 475 00:22:41,040 --> 00:22:45,320 And I oftentimes I've heard people complicate this and I'm like, no, no, if you are actively 476 00:22:45,320 --> 00:22:49,680 spending time with Jesus, you are naturally going to want the things that he wants for 477 00:22:49,680 --> 00:22:50,680 you. 478 00:22:50,680 --> 00:22:51,680 Correct. 479 00:22:51,680 --> 00:22:54,200 And if you're actively spending time away from Jesus, you're going to naturally want 480 00:22:54,200 --> 00:22:56,000 the things he doesn't want for you. 481 00:22:56,000 --> 00:22:57,000 Right. 482 00:22:57,000 --> 00:22:59,040 It's very similar to what Paul says. 483 00:22:59,040 --> 00:23:02,000 The things that I want to do are the things that I don't do, but the things I don't want 484 00:23:02,000 --> 00:23:03,800 to do tend to be the things that I do. 485 00:23:03,800 --> 00:23:04,800 Right. 486 00:23:04,800 --> 00:23:06,800 He's talking about this internal debate. 487 00:23:06,800 --> 00:23:09,040 Which side of yourself are you actually feeding? 488 00:23:09,040 --> 00:23:10,040 Yeah. 489 00:23:10,040 --> 00:23:11,040 Right. 490 00:23:11,040 --> 00:23:12,040 Yeah. 491 00:23:12,040 --> 00:23:14,200 So there's voluntary acts of worship. 492 00:23:14,200 --> 00:23:17,320 Another purpose of sacrifice is ritual surrogate. 493 00:23:17,320 --> 00:23:18,400 Right. 494 00:23:18,400 --> 00:23:25,440 So there is a fancy theological terminology called penal substitutionary atonement. 495 00:23:25,440 --> 00:23:31,560 Now if you are a lawyer, you just got excited because it was definitely a theology penned 496 00:23:31,560 --> 00:23:33,120 by lawyers. 497 00:23:33,120 --> 00:23:34,400 Right. 498 00:23:34,400 --> 00:23:38,960 And the idea of a surrogate, a ritual surrogate penal substitutionary atonement is that you 499 00:23:38,960 --> 00:23:42,680 actually the animal is in place of a person. 500 00:23:42,680 --> 00:23:44,320 Right. 501 00:23:44,320 --> 00:23:46,840 And there's absolutely imagery of that in the Bible. 502 00:23:46,840 --> 00:23:50,360 Now what I'm going to push against is I think that we carry penal substitutionary atonement 503 00:23:50,360 --> 00:23:56,280 too far and we don't understand the root of what it is because if you actually understand 504 00:23:56,280 --> 00:24:01,760 in the Levitical system, they place their hand on the animal. 505 00:24:01,760 --> 00:24:02,760 Yeah. 506 00:24:02,760 --> 00:24:03,760 Right. 507 00:24:03,760 --> 00:24:10,680 The Hebrew implies leaning on the animal so that the weight of the man or woman is transferred 508 00:24:10,680 --> 00:24:12,560 to the animal. 509 00:24:12,560 --> 00:24:17,600 Now your identity, who you are, is transferred from you, your purpose has transferred into 510 00:24:17,600 --> 00:24:19,560 this animal. 511 00:24:19,560 --> 00:24:23,400 Now why is that important? 512 00:24:23,400 --> 00:24:24,680 What's going to happen to this animal? 513 00:24:24,680 --> 00:24:27,880 You're going to kill it. 514 00:24:27,880 --> 00:24:32,240 Just FYI, I'm going to talk about the sacrifice and how you actually would prepare an animal. 515 00:24:32,240 --> 00:24:36,920 So if you are squeamish, maybe just go two minutes ahead in the podcast. 516 00:24:36,920 --> 00:24:39,840 So you're going to take the animal and you're going to take the neck and you actually slit 517 00:24:39,840 --> 00:24:44,400 the neck to release the blood which is caught into a bowl. 518 00:24:44,400 --> 00:24:45,800 Okay. 519 00:24:45,800 --> 00:24:48,400 God has said the life is in the blood, right? 520 00:24:48,400 --> 00:24:52,360 So now you've placed your identity on this animal and its lifeblood, its life is now 521 00:24:52,360 --> 00:24:54,860 placed into this bowl. 522 00:24:54,860 --> 00:24:59,300 This bowl is then taken to the throne room of God. 523 00:24:59,300 --> 00:25:02,560 So what is, what visually has just happened? 524 00:25:02,560 --> 00:25:06,640 Your identity was just transferred onto an animal and it was just taken to God. 525 00:25:06,640 --> 00:25:07,640 Right. 526 00:25:07,640 --> 00:25:09,180 This isn't a story of appeasement. 527 00:25:09,180 --> 00:25:11,620 This is a story about restore relationship. 528 00:25:11,620 --> 00:25:14,820 The surrogate isn't meant to appease God. 529 00:25:14,820 --> 00:25:17,600 It's meant to bring you near to God. 530 00:25:17,600 --> 00:25:18,600 Right? 531 00:25:18,600 --> 00:25:19,600 Yeah. 532 00:25:19,600 --> 00:25:21,440 You put your identity onto this animal. 533 00:25:21,440 --> 00:25:24,580 Now this word, it's not even, this isn't the only place it shows up. 534 00:25:24,580 --> 00:25:28,320 So we were talking about this and you were pointing out that it actually comes back up 535 00:25:28,320 --> 00:25:29,560 again in Numbers 8. 536 00:25:29,560 --> 00:25:31,700 Yeah, it does come back up in Numbers 8. 537 00:25:31,700 --> 00:25:36,800 So the same word that's used to lay hands on the animals for the sacrifice is the same 538 00:25:36,800 --> 00:25:42,000 word that is used to lay hands on the Levites to designate them for service. 539 00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:47,280 This is also the same word that is used to place hands on someone so that they can receive 540 00:25:47,280 --> 00:25:48,640 the Holy Spirit. 541 00:25:48,640 --> 00:25:49,840 Right? 542 00:25:49,840 --> 00:25:51,520 This is the language that's going on. 543 00:25:51,520 --> 00:25:52,520 Right. 544 00:25:52,520 --> 00:25:54,960 And that language is pretty, pretty stout throughout the Bible. 545 00:25:54,960 --> 00:25:55,960 Yeah. 546 00:25:55,960 --> 00:25:57,880 That language carries throughout all of scripture. 547 00:25:57,880 --> 00:26:00,440 So the language, this isn't its own word. 548 00:26:00,440 --> 00:26:01,440 Right. 549 00:26:01,440 --> 00:26:02,440 Right? 550 00:26:02,440 --> 00:26:05,600 This word that's being used is to say, Hey, we are laying hands on here to transfer your 551 00:26:05,600 --> 00:26:07,280 identity to the blood. 552 00:26:07,280 --> 00:26:11,880 Laying hands on these people to transfer their identity into the service of God. 553 00:26:11,880 --> 00:26:15,520 Laying hands on these people to transfer their identity into the works of the Holy Spirit. 554 00:26:15,520 --> 00:26:16,520 Right. 555 00:26:16,520 --> 00:26:19,220 And you're kind of going to hear that with like when we commission people out, like we 556 00:26:19,220 --> 00:26:23,220 lay hands on people to commission them because we want them to take the identity of who we 557 00:26:23,220 --> 00:26:26,000 are with them. 558 00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:27,000 Yeah. 559 00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:32,840 And so this idea of this ritual surrogate, this penal substitutionary atonement, it's 560 00:26:32,840 --> 00:26:36,280 not, it's not a bad image because it's correct. 561 00:26:36,280 --> 00:26:41,740 You place something in place of you, but it's incomplete because the idea is not for the 562 00:26:41,740 --> 00:26:43,120 animal to die. 563 00:26:43,120 --> 00:26:44,120 No. 564 00:26:44,120 --> 00:26:46,760 The idea is that the blood is taken to God. 565 00:26:46,760 --> 00:26:47,760 Yes. 566 00:26:47,760 --> 00:26:51,760 Because it's your blood taken to restore to God. 567 00:26:51,760 --> 00:26:56,680 And more specifically, the idea is that your identity is being taken to God. 568 00:26:56,680 --> 00:26:57,680 Exactly. 569 00:26:57,680 --> 00:26:58,680 Right? 570 00:26:58,680 --> 00:27:04,040 So when, when hands were laid on the Levites, their identity was taken to God. 571 00:27:04,040 --> 00:27:07,560 Same when hands are laid on people for receiving the Holy Spirit, their identity is taken to 572 00:27:07,560 --> 00:27:08,560 God. 573 00:27:08,560 --> 00:27:13,660 Same when we lay hands on people just to pray for them, we're taking their identity to God. 574 00:27:13,660 --> 00:27:15,400 That's the language that's being used. 575 00:27:15,400 --> 00:27:16,400 Yeah. 576 00:27:16,400 --> 00:27:19,200 Let's take this idea into the New Testament with the gospel with Jesus. 577 00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:23,280 So Jesus is the Passover lamb, right? 578 00:27:23,280 --> 00:27:26,240 He is the, the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. 579 00:27:26,240 --> 00:27:27,240 Yeah. 580 00:27:27,240 --> 00:27:30,160 So we cast our identity onto Christ. 581 00:27:30,160 --> 00:27:34,920 Paul is going to say, confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you believe in your 582 00:27:34,920 --> 00:27:36,480 heart that God raised him from the dead. 583 00:27:36,480 --> 00:27:37,480 You will be saved. 584 00:27:37,480 --> 00:27:38,480 Now, what have we done? 585 00:27:38,480 --> 00:27:41,460 We've actually cast our identity onto Jesus. 586 00:27:41,460 --> 00:27:46,140 His blood from the cross carries all the way up to heaven. 587 00:27:46,140 --> 00:27:51,920 He goes up as the sacrifice, as the temple, as the high priest, as the everything that 588 00:27:51,920 --> 00:27:57,840 as God himself and he sits down at the right hand of God. 589 00:27:57,840 --> 00:28:00,000 Where are we? 590 00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:01,600 We're in Christ. 591 00:28:01,600 --> 00:28:04,080 So Paul says you are seated in heavenly places. 592 00:28:04,080 --> 00:28:05,080 Why? 593 00:28:05,080 --> 00:28:07,720 Because your life is now bound up in the blood of Christ. 594 00:28:07,720 --> 00:28:09,580 You have cast your identity onto him. 595 00:28:09,580 --> 00:28:15,120 That is why it is through faith that we are now justified. 596 00:28:15,120 --> 00:28:19,760 Are you all beginning to see that this book is not about judgment? 597 00:28:19,760 --> 00:28:21,480 That's about restored relationship. 598 00:28:21,480 --> 00:28:22,480 Yeah. 599 00:28:22,480 --> 00:28:26,280 I'm hoping you can begin to see this as you are walking through Leviticus. 600 00:28:26,280 --> 00:28:27,480 It's not about judgment. 601 00:28:27,480 --> 00:28:29,720 It's about restored relationship with God. 602 00:28:29,720 --> 00:28:33,040 And y'all might be understanding why I really like this book. 603 00:28:33,040 --> 00:28:37,040 Like I'm really, I, the more I get into it, the more I'm like, Oh, I see what they're 604 00:28:37,040 --> 00:28:38,880 doing in the New Testament. 605 00:28:38,880 --> 00:28:40,080 Yeah. 606 00:28:40,080 --> 00:28:45,040 It's so easy to read past this and read it out of context and have no idea what's going 607 00:28:45,040 --> 00:28:46,040 on. 608 00:28:46,040 --> 00:28:49,880 And just to, just to kind of reiterate this a little bit, I might be jumping ahead of 609 00:28:49,880 --> 00:28:51,000 here, but that's okay. 610 00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:57,440 But just to kind of reiterate this a little bit, Hebrews 10, four says for it is impossible 611 00:28:57,440 --> 00:29:01,000 for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. 612 00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:02,000 Now we need to stop here. 613 00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:04,520 Who is the author of Hebrews writing to? 614 00:29:04,520 --> 00:29:06,520 It's writing to Hebrews. 615 00:29:06,520 --> 00:29:07,520 Hebrews, right? 616 00:29:07,520 --> 00:29:10,240 People who understand this is a trick question, right? 617 00:29:10,240 --> 00:29:11,400 He's writing to Hebrews. 618 00:29:11,400 --> 00:29:14,600 He's writing to people who understand this terminology, people who are probably still 619 00:29:14,600 --> 00:29:16,400 partaking in the sacrificial system. 620 00:29:16,400 --> 00:29:17,760 There's a good argument for that. 621 00:29:17,760 --> 00:29:24,000 And he's saying, Hey, it's impossible for these things to take away your sins. 622 00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:25,000 Right. 623 00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:26,000 Right. 624 00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:28,320 There's other parts in Hebrews where it talks about some of that stuff too. 625 00:29:28,320 --> 00:29:33,360 We'll jump there in a second, but you have to note that that the author of Hebrews is 626 00:29:33,360 --> 00:29:37,240 reiterating the sacrificial system saying, Hey, it's not about taking away your sins. 627 00:29:37,240 --> 00:29:38,240 Yeah. 628 00:29:38,240 --> 00:29:44,360 And Hebrews especially is going to be in context of the third use of sacrifice, purpose of 629 00:29:44,360 --> 00:29:45,360 sacrifice. 630 00:29:45,360 --> 00:29:50,440 So it's voluntary act of worship, ritual surrogate, also known as penal substitutionary atonement. 631 00:29:50,440 --> 00:29:52,720 And then the third one is also just atonement. 632 00:29:52,720 --> 00:29:53,720 Yeah. 633 00:29:53,720 --> 00:29:58,560 That's why I said that penal substitutionary atonement is not quite, it doesn't quite fall 634 00:29:58,560 --> 00:29:59,560 into this. 635 00:29:59,560 --> 00:30:00,560 Yeah. 636 00:30:00,560 --> 00:30:05,360 So atonement very frequently in church history and through theology, people will say it's 637 00:30:05,360 --> 00:30:07,240 forgiveness or removal of guilt. 638 00:30:07,240 --> 00:30:08,240 Right. 639 00:30:08,240 --> 00:30:11,760 And it can imply that, but it's much more than that. 640 00:30:11,760 --> 00:30:12,760 Yeah. 641 00:30:12,760 --> 00:30:16,520 The only place that this word that atonement in the book of Leviticus shows up is actually 642 00:30:16,520 --> 00:30:20,200 in Genesis back in Noah's Ark. 643 00:30:20,200 --> 00:30:26,640 He builds this Ark and then he coats it with pitch so that the water can't get in. 644 00:30:26,640 --> 00:30:29,840 It's covered inside and out with pitch. 645 00:30:29,840 --> 00:30:35,480 The word for covered is the same word that we get atonement from. 646 00:30:35,480 --> 00:30:40,560 So in the sacrificial context, atonement is not about attainment of salvation. 647 00:30:40,560 --> 00:30:44,240 Sorry, I got to say that again because I think some of you are really going to struggle with 648 00:30:44,240 --> 00:30:47,720 what I'm about to say because there's going to be a ton of questions to follow this up. 649 00:30:47,720 --> 00:30:50,960 And that's good because at the end of Leviticus, we have a Q&A session. 650 00:30:50,960 --> 00:30:51,960 Yeah. 651 00:30:51,960 --> 00:30:53,000 So send us your questions. 652 00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:58,960 The sacrificial context does not mean attainment of salvation. 653 00:30:58,960 --> 00:31:02,200 People didn't bring their sacrifices to attain salvation. 654 00:31:02,200 --> 00:31:04,240 They brought it as a voluntary act of worship. 655 00:31:04,240 --> 00:31:09,560 They brought it as a ritual surrogate or they brought it as atonement for what they did. 656 00:31:09,560 --> 00:31:11,800 It was not about attaining salvation. 657 00:31:11,800 --> 00:31:14,880 They were already God's chosen people. 658 00:31:14,880 --> 00:31:19,440 So Hebrews 10, 4, which you quoted says, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and 659 00:31:19,440 --> 00:31:21,280 goats to take away sins. 660 00:31:21,280 --> 00:31:25,860 So the writer of Hebrews writing to Hebrews acknowledges what they all know, that the blood 661 00:31:25,860 --> 00:31:29,200 of bulls and goats doesn't take away sins. 662 00:31:29,200 --> 00:31:33,240 In fact, he says earlier in chapter 9, he says, this is the illustration for the present 663 00:31:33,240 --> 00:31:34,240 time. 664 00:31:34,240 --> 00:31:35,840 This is verse 9, 9 to 10. 665 00:31:35,840 --> 00:31:39,840 This is an illustration for the present time indicating that the gifts and sacrifice being 666 00:31:39,840 --> 00:31:43,280 offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper. 667 00:31:43,280 --> 00:31:48,580 They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings, external regulations 668 00:31:48,580 --> 00:31:51,560 applying until the end of a new order. 669 00:31:51,560 --> 00:31:54,600 This whole idea is not about attaining salvation. 670 00:31:54,600 --> 00:31:56,800 They are already chosen. 671 00:31:56,800 --> 00:31:59,040 Yeah. 672 00:31:59,040 --> 00:32:02,240 They're already chosen. 673 00:32:02,240 --> 00:32:06,640 This is about restored relationship with the person who chose them. 674 00:32:06,640 --> 00:32:08,280 Yeah. 675 00:32:08,280 --> 00:32:12,680 Jesus comes and changes our nature. 676 00:32:12,680 --> 00:32:16,440 He takes away our sin and he takes away our sin nature. 677 00:32:16,440 --> 00:32:19,280 It's why we say we are a new creation. 678 00:32:19,280 --> 00:32:23,080 The old has passed away and the new has come. 679 00:32:23,080 --> 00:32:26,880 Jesus fundamentally changed who we are. 680 00:32:26,880 --> 00:32:29,800 Blood of bulls and goats can't do that. 681 00:32:29,800 --> 00:32:35,760 That's why our identity has been cast on Jesus who has fundamentally changed our nature. 682 00:32:35,760 --> 00:32:37,760 Please hear us loud and clear. 683 00:32:37,760 --> 00:32:41,760 We are not discounting the work of Christ and his death and resurrection. 684 00:32:41,760 --> 00:32:43,120 No, I'm amplifying it. 685 00:32:43,120 --> 00:32:45,240 We're amplifying it. 686 00:32:45,240 --> 00:32:51,080 We want to understand it in the context of the system that it was placed in. 687 00:32:51,080 --> 00:32:56,360 NT Wright writes very frequently about the need to understand that Jesus is a Jewish 688 00:32:56,360 --> 00:32:57,360 Messiah. 689 00:32:57,360 --> 00:32:58,360 Yes. 690 00:32:58,360 --> 00:33:05,040 We talked about as we were introducing this book about how John 3, they're having this 691 00:33:05,040 --> 00:33:08,720 conversation and Jesus and Nicodemus are talking about Israel, but they're really talking about 692 00:33:08,720 --> 00:33:09,720 Jesus. 693 00:33:09,720 --> 00:33:10,720 Yeah. 694 00:33:10,720 --> 00:33:15,080 God originally is doing this through Israel to put his story on display. 695 00:33:15,080 --> 00:33:19,600 The goal of Israel is to actually redeem the entire world. 696 00:33:19,600 --> 00:33:22,960 Spoiler alert, if you haven't read ahead in your Bible, I highly encourage it. 697 00:33:22,960 --> 00:33:24,360 Read ahead of us all day. 698 00:33:24,360 --> 00:33:25,360 Yeah. 699 00:33:25,360 --> 00:33:26,360 There's lots of content. 700 00:33:26,360 --> 00:33:27,980 They don't do a great job. 701 00:33:27,980 --> 00:33:29,720 They struggle. 702 00:33:29,720 --> 00:33:33,280 They struggle a lot, which to be fair, I've looked at church history. 703 00:33:33,280 --> 00:33:34,280 So do we. 704 00:33:34,280 --> 00:33:35,280 Yeah, we do. 705 00:33:35,280 --> 00:33:37,200 God is gracious in the middle of it. 706 00:33:37,200 --> 00:33:44,360 So then Jesus comes as a representative of Israel and fulfills what God was trying to 707 00:33:44,360 --> 00:33:46,020 do the entire time. 708 00:33:46,020 --> 00:33:49,700 And then he makes it about all nations. 709 00:33:49,700 --> 00:33:53,960 He works within the chosen people to make it about all nations, which is the story from 710 00:33:53,960 --> 00:33:55,440 the very beginning. 711 00:33:55,440 --> 00:33:56,880 Jesus is not telling a new story. 712 00:33:56,880 --> 00:33:58,520 He's telling the old story a new way. 713 00:33:58,520 --> 00:33:59,520 Yeah. 714 00:33:59,520 --> 00:34:03,040 It's the very reason Jesus in the book of Matthew says, Hey, I'm not here to abolish 715 00:34:03,040 --> 00:34:06,680 the law, but rather to fulfill it. 716 00:34:06,680 --> 00:34:09,560 So God is speaking into their context. 717 00:34:09,560 --> 00:34:10,920 Yeah. 718 00:34:10,920 --> 00:34:16,360 Helping them understand and helping them navigate the waters on how to be right, quote unquote, 719 00:34:16,360 --> 00:34:17,640 with him. 720 00:34:17,640 --> 00:34:24,280 And helping them understand that it's all about being in a relationship with God. 721 00:34:24,280 --> 00:34:26,000 I think it's really important. 722 00:34:26,000 --> 00:34:27,520 We've talked about this multiple times. 723 00:34:27,520 --> 00:34:29,520 Moses has screwed up to this point. 724 00:34:29,520 --> 00:34:30,520 Yeah. 725 00:34:30,520 --> 00:34:31,520 Abraham screwed up. 726 00:34:31,520 --> 00:34:32,520 Isaac screwed up. 727 00:34:32,520 --> 00:34:34,840 All these guys are screwed up and God has grace with them in it. 728 00:34:34,840 --> 00:34:36,560 He doesn't chastise them. 729 00:34:36,560 --> 00:34:37,560 No. 730 00:34:37,560 --> 00:34:44,480 I think that much more common in the Bible is the grace of God in the midst of people's 731 00:34:44,480 --> 00:34:45,480 sin. 732 00:34:45,480 --> 00:34:49,440 It's almost like sin isn't that big of a deal if he can get the story right inside of people. 733 00:34:49,440 --> 00:34:50,440 Yes. 734 00:34:50,440 --> 00:34:54,520 Now, I think what people may have just heard me say is sin is not a big deal. 735 00:34:54,520 --> 00:34:58,160 Sin is a big deal, but here's the thing. 736 00:34:58,160 --> 00:35:02,240 God has always had a way established for sin to be taken care of. 737 00:35:02,240 --> 00:35:03,240 Correct. 738 00:35:03,240 --> 00:35:06,200 And so we often forget that. 739 00:35:06,200 --> 00:35:08,880 We're often like, oh, well, there's no way I can get out of the sin. 740 00:35:08,880 --> 00:35:14,480 No, God for thousands of years has had established ways for you to get out of sin, for you to 741 00:35:14,480 --> 00:35:17,880 leave that sin behind. 742 00:35:17,880 --> 00:35:20,920 And what's in place right now is the work of Jesus. 743 00:35:20,920 --> 00:35:25,600 And what's going to be in place for thousands of years to come is the work of Jesus. 744 00:35:25,600 --> 00:35:26,600 We need forgiveness. 745 00:35:26,600 --> 00:35:28,080 We need restoration. 746 00:35:28,080 --> 00:35:31,360 Jesus is where we go. 747 00:35:31,360 --> 00:35:35,800 God has always had the ability to forgive sin whenever he wanted to. 748 00:35:35,800 --> 00:35:38,600 In fact, the writer of Hebrews, once again, we're going to reference back to Hebrews, 749 00:35:38,600 --> 00:35:43,840 says that the reason people are stuck is that their conscience can't be washed clean. 750 00:35:43,840 --> 00:35:49,960 Their nature is stuck in serving themselves, in defining good and evil on their own terms. 751 00:35:49,960 --> 00:35:52,320 That's what actually has to be fundamentally changed. 752 00:35:52,320 --> 00:35:55,720 Now you're talking about sin and you're like, oh, what does God do with sin? 753 00:35:55,720 --> 00:35:58,320 Oh, well, there's the sacrificial system and it's all about sin. 754 00:35:58,320 --> 00:35:59,400 The problem is it's not. 755 00:35:59,400 --> 00:36:00,840 Number four is actually about sin. 756 00:36:00,840 --> 00:36:01,840 Right? 757 00:36:01,840 --> 00:36:05,520 There's three other purposes, four other purposes, and only one of them is about sin. 758 00:36:05,520 --> 00:36:10,120 In Exodus 34, which we just got out of Exodus, God says this to Moses when he passes in front 759 00:36:10,120 --> 00:36:11,120 of him. 760 00:36:11,120 --> 00:36:14,800 He says, the Lord, the Lord, the compassion and gracious Lord, slow to anger, abounding 761 00:36:14,800 --> 00:36:21,840 in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion 762 00:36:21,840 --> 00:36:23,560 and sin. 763 00:36:23,560 --> 00:36:25,080 Okay. 764 00:36:25,080 --> 00:36:27,280 Is that only if they do the sacrifices? 765 00:36:27,280 --> 00:36:29,560 Because they haven't talked about them yet. 766 00:36:29,560 --> 00:36:31,200 That's pre-sacrificial system. 767 00:36:31,200 --> 00:36:32,640 That's pre-sacrificial system. 768 00:36:32,640 --> 00:36:37,080 God says he forgives wickedness, rebellion and sin. 769 00:36:37,080 --> 00:36:38,080 Yeah. 770 00:36:38,080 --> 00:36:41,440 So you don't have to have the sacrificial system for God to forgive sin. 771 00:36:41,440 --> 00:36:47,480 In fact, the sacrificial system has never been about forgiving sin per se. 772 00:36:47,480 --> 00:36:52,560 It is a part of it, but the sacrificial system is about restoration of relationship between 773 00:36:52,560 --> 00:36:58,760 God and man, about how they can worship God and serve the community, how they can be in 774 00:36:58,760 --> 00:37:00,400 right relationship with God. 775 00:37:00,400 --> 00:37:03,800 And so put the story on display. 776 00:37:03,800 --> 00:37:05,280 Yeah. 777 00:37:05,280 --> 00:37:09,680 It's interesting if you actually talk about eternal life, this is a very common phrase 778 00:37:09,680 --> 00:37:10,680 that we have. 779 00:37:10,680 --> 00:37:14,280 People think about that quantitatively. 780 00:37:14,280 --> 00:37:17,400 In other words, it's a life that goes for thousands and thousands and thousands and 781 00:37:17,400 --> 00:37:19,640 never ends, right? 782 00:37:19,640 --> 00:37:24,880 But in a Jewish mindset, it's not a quantitative, it's a qualitative. 783 00:37:24,880 --> 00:37:29,840 The sacrificial system is about a qualitative eternal life with God. 784 00:37:29,840 --> 00:37:33,240 That life is meant to be lived with God. 785 00:37:33,240 --> 00:37:36,160 And this is how life is supposed to be. 786 00:37:36,160 --> 00:37:40,080 Connected to our creator, connected to our father, back in the arms of the loving parent 787 00:37:40,080 --> 00:37:41,080 who has us. 788 00:37:41,080 --> 00:37:42,080 Yeah. 789 00:37:42,080 --> 00:37:43,080 Right? 790 00:37:43,080 --> 00:37:44,080 This is eternal life. 791 00:37:44,080 --> 00:37:53,640 In fact, John 17, three says, now this is eternal life that they know you, the only 792 00:37:53,640 --> 00:37:58,680 true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 793 00:37:58,680 --> 00:38:06,040 It's almost like it's always been about knowing God, loving God and living that out and loving 794 00:38:06,040 --> 00:38:07,040 other people. 795 00:38:07,040 --> 00:38:08,040 Yeah. 796 00:38:08,040 --> 00:38:11,440 So we're going to take a minute and just talk about clean versus unclean animals and 797 00:38:11,440 --> 00:38:13,840 why this is such a big deal. 798 00:38:13,840 --> 00:38:14,840 Okay? 799 00:38:14,840 --> 00:38:21,120 A lot of times what we hear is that God wants the unblemished, which there's passages that 800 00:38:21,120 --> 00:38:22,240 allude to that. 801 00:38:22,240 --> 00:38:25,480 There's also a very practical side to this, right? 802 00:38:25,480 --> 00:38:29,220 They didn't have the health standards that we have, right? 803 00:38:29,220 --> 00:38:31,300 When it comes to animals, right? 804 00:38:31,300 --> 00:38:35,900 When the animal was sacrificed, the blood left the animal and then that animal was actually 805 00:38:35,900 --> 00:38:40,680 used for food in a lot of cases for the Levites who were the priests. 806 00:38:40,680 --> 00:38:41,680 Yeah. 807 00:38:41,680 --> 00:38:43,800 Portions of it would be given to the priesthood. 808 00:38:43,800 --> 00:38:46,240 That's kind of like their payment or their food allotment. 809 00:38:46,240 --> 00:38:48,600 We'll actually talk a little bit about this next week when we're talking about roles of 810 00:38:48,600 --> 00:38:49,600 priesthood. 811 00:38:49,600 --> 00:38:50,600 Yeah. 812 00:38:50,600 --> 00:38:51,600 Right? 813 00:38:51,600 --> 00:38:53,240 One of the issues is when you look at clean and unclean animals, you're like, well, what's 814 00:38:53,240 --> 00:38:54,840 wrong with these animals? 815 00:38:54,840 --> 00:38:59,360 Well, we're looking at it in a 20th century context where we have these fantastic kitchens. 816 00:38:59,360 --> 00:39:01,840 We got Gordon Ramsay cooking us food, right? 817 00:39:01,840 --> 00:39:03,760 Usually with some bizarre language. 818 00:39:03,760 --> 00:39:04,760 Yeah. 819 00:39:04,760 --> 00:39:05,760 He's finding my house next week. 820 00:39:05,760 --> 00:39:07,280 He's finding my house next week. 821 00:39:07,280 --> 00:39:10,640 You know as well as I do that pig is a very difficult thing to cook. 822 00:39:10,640 --> 00:39:14,280 Let's just take pig because that's one that people mention a lot, like why can't Jews 823 00:39:14,280 --> 00:39:15,280 eat pig? 824 00:39:15,280 --> 00:39:16,280 Right? 825 00:39:16,280 --> 00:39:21,540 Well, think about wild nomadic roaming the desert people. 826 00:39:21,540 --> 00:39:23,920 What's the problem with trying to cook pig out there? 827 00:39:23,920 --> 00:39:25,480 There's a number of things. 828 00:39:25,480 --> 00:39:28,120 So fancy word called botulism, right? 829 00:39:28,120 --> 00:39:30,080 That comes up frequently with pig. 830 00:39:30,080 --> 00:39:35,320 There's also a lot of intestinal bugs that you can get if you don't cook pork correctly. 831 00:39:35,320 --> 00:39:36,320 Yeah. 832 00:39:36,320 --> 00:39:37,320 Right? 833 00:39:37,320 --> 00:39:38,320 Mm-hmm. 834 00:39:38,320 --> 00:39:39,320 What about shellfish? 835 00:39:39,320 --> 00:39:40,320 Right? 836 00:39:40,320 --> 00:39:42,720 Certain fish are okay and certain aren't. 837 00:39:42,720 --> 00:39:46,520 We live in a coastal community with a lot of fishing because it's Alaska. 838 00:39:46,520 --> 00:39:49,000 There's a lot of fishing in Alaska. 839 00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:54,320 There are some animals that are just fine to go and you could eat them raw. 840 00:39:54,320 --> 00:39:57,080 And there are some that if you eat them raw, you will be real sick. 841 00:39:57,080 --> 00:39:58,080 Yeah. 842 00:39:58,080 --> 00:39:59,080 Right? 843 00:39:59,080 --> 00:40:01,080 They have to be prepared a very specific way. 844 00:40:01,080 --> 00:40:02,080 Yeah. 845 00:40:02,080 --> 00:40:07,000 So when you look at this, part of this is just eating, like just making sure your food 846 00:40:07,000 --> 00:40:08,680 and stuff's prepared the right way. 847 00:40:08,680 --> 00:40:09,680 Right. 848 00:40:09,680 --> 00:40:13,960 There's been some research done on this to where it actually showed that people back 849 00:40:13,960 --> 00:40:19,320 in that day who actually followed this to the letter, they lived longer, healthier lives. 850 00:40:19,320 --> 00:40:20,320 Correct. 851 00:40:20,320 --> 00:40:24,000 And we talked a little bit about Levitical laws meant to make them into a more ethical, 852 00:40:24,000 --> 00:40:26,320 healthy, diverse people. 853 00:40:26,320 --> 00:40:28,640 Like that they're gonna have generations to span. 854 00:40:28,640 --> 00:40:29,640 Yeah. 855 00:40:29,640 --> 00:40:30,640 Right? 856 00:40:30,640 --> 00:40:32,280 And then the poverty would have been significantly higher. 857 00:40:32,280 --> 00:40:33,280 Yeah. 858 00:40:33,280 --> 00:40:34,280 So let's just talk about the animals. 859 00:40:34,280 --> 00:40:36,880 They listed clean and unclean. 860 00:40:36,880 --> 00:40:38,320 It doesn't say you can't have pigs. 861 00:40:38,320 --> 00:40:40,160 It says you can't eat pigs. 862 00:40:40,160 --> 00:40:41,160 Yeah. 863 00:40:41,160 --> 00:40:43,080 Because pigs are useful for a lot of things. 864 00:40:43,080 --> 00:40:46,080 They're just not good for you to eat because you're going to prepare the meat poorly and 865 00:40:46,080 --> 00:40:47,400 people are going to die. 866 00:40:47,400 --> 00:40:48,400 Yep. 867 00:40:48,400 --> 00:40:50,400 You can have all the crabs you want. 868 00:40:50,400 --> 00:40:56,800 You can't eat them because if crab is prepared incorrectly, you can get sick and die. 869 00:40:56,800 --> 00:40:58,680 There's a lot of these practical things in the law. 870 00:40:58,680 --> 00:41:01,840 For example, you read about if there's a discharge from your body. 871 00:41:01,840 --> 00:41:02,840 Yeah. 872 00:41:02,840 --> 00:41:03,840 Right? 873 00:41:03,840 --> 00:41:04,840 You vomited. 874 00:41:04,840 --> 00:41:07,720 You're secluded from the population for seven days. 875 00:41:07,720 --> 00:41:08,800 We just came out of COVID. 876 00:41:08,800 --> 00:41:11,120 That shouldn't be a super big surprise to you guys. 877 00:41:11,120 --> 00:41:12,120 Right? 878 00:41:12,120 --> 00:41:13,120 Yeah. 879 00:41:13,120 --> 00:41:16,080 And so a lot of these laws are really practical. 880 00:41:16,080 --> 00:41:21,760 And backing up to the animals, the pigs, crabs, whatever food you want to talk about, shellfish, 881 00:41:21,760 --> 00:41:23,840 all that, just backing up to that. 882 00:41:23,840 --> 00:41:31,240 The other, you have to understand in modern day kitchens, we have ovens that are set at 883 00:41:31,240 --> 00:41:33,160 specific temperatures for cooking. 884 00:41:33,160 --> 00:41:34,960 We have meat thermometers. 885 00:41:34,960 --> 00:41:39,520 So we can take a thermometer, stick it in a whole pig, see where the temperature is 886 00:41:39,520 --> 00:41:41,880 at and see if it's done or not. 887 00:41:41,880 --> 00:41:43,640 We have all of that stuff. 888 00:41:43,640 --> 00:41:44,880 We have refrigeration. 889 00:41:44,880 --> 00:41:50,780 So if we cook more than we can eat, we can refrigerate it and preserve the food. 890 00:41:50,780 --> 00:41:56,120 Or if we need to preserve it longer, we can stick it in a freezer and freeze the food. 891 00:41:56,120 --> 00:41:57,920 And these are not things that you have in the desert. 892 00:41:57,920 --> 00:41:58,920 No. 893 00:41:58,920 --> 00:42:02,800 And the desert, by the way, this is for Pastor Nick's wife because she commented that I said 894 00:42:02,800 --> 00:42:03,880 this a bunch of times. 895 00:42:03,880 --> 00:42:05,200 The desert's real hot. 896 00:42:05,200 --> 00:42:06,200 Yes. 897 00:42:06,200 --> 00:42:07,200 Real hot. 898 00:42:07,200 --> 00:42:08,200 Right? 899 00:42:08,200 --> 00:42:09,440 So your food is going to spoil quickly. 900 00:42:09,440 --> 00:42:11,480 If you don't preserve it correctly. 901 00:42:11,480 --> 00:42:12,480 Yeah. 902 00:42:12,480 --> 00:42:15,680 And spoiler alert, see, that's funny. 903 00:42:15,680 --> 00:42:17,040 That causes sickness. 904 00:42:17,040 --> 00:42:20,680 In this era, you don't have doctors that can readily take care of you. 905 00:42:20,680 --> 00:42:22,800 You get sick, you die. 906 00:42:22,800 --> 00:42:25,280 So we look at it as an oppressive law. 907 00:42:25,280 --> 00:42:27,800 And very frequently, we're going to point this out through, as we go through Leviticus 908 00:42:27,800 --> 00:42:32,160 and as we cover a lot of these laws, they're not meant to oppress people. 909 00:42:32,160 --> 00:42:34,880 They're actually meant to give them life. 910 00:42:34,880 --> 00:42:39,700 These laws are meant to breathe life and goodness into the community of Israel. 911 00:42:39,700 --> 00:42:45,600 And then we, 3,000 years later, in a completely different context, misread this as an oppressive, 912 00:42:45,600 --> 00:42:48,080 patriarchal, misogynistic law. 913 00:42:48,080 --> 00:42:49,080 Yeah. 914 00:42:49,080 --> 00:42:54,880 Without realizing the grace and mercy that is inherent in the laws that God gave us people. 915 00:42:54,880 --> 00:42:55,880 Yeah. 916 00:42:55,880 --> 00:42:56,880 Exactly. 917 00:42:56,880 --> 00:42:59,960 So that's kind of our hope is that we're going to pull that out for you, that you kind of 918 00:42:59,960 --> 00:43:01,880 understand what's going on there. 919 00:43:01,880 --> 00:43:02,880 Yeah. 920 00:43:02,880 --> 00:43:03,880 Absolutely. 921 00:43:03,880 --> 00:43:04,880 Yeah. 922 00:43:04,880 --> 00:43:08,320 And in closing, if we don't understand the sacrificial system of the Old Testament, we'll 923 00:43:08,320 --> 00:43:10,840 misinterpret what Jesus did on Calvary. 924 00:43:10,840 --> 00:43:15,480 What I mean by that is if we're pulling this into our own context and just trying to interpret 925 00:43:15,480 --> 00:43:20,800 it through our own lens, what will happen is we can often get legalistic and be like, 926 00:43:20,800 --> 00:43:22,520 hey, you're supposed to do things this way. 927 00:43:22,520 --> 00:43:26,040 And if you don't do things this way, then you don't really love Jesus. 928 00:43:26,040 --> 00:43:29,120 That's not what the Levitical law was for. 929 00:43:29,120 --> 00:43:31,480 That's not what the sacrificial system was for. 930 00:43:31,480 --> 00:43:32,480 Right? 931 00:43:32,480 --> 00:43:36,880 So we need to understand the work of Jesus through the lens of the sacrificial system 932 00:43:36,880 --> 00:43:40,920 because Jesus is the Passover lamb. 933 00:43:40,920 --> 00:43:43,680 He is the ultimate sacrifice. 934 00:43:43,680 --> 00:43:48,360 Understanding Torah is really important when you start interpreting the Torah made flesh. 935 00:43:48,360 --> 00:43:49,360 Yes. 936 00:43:49,360 --> 00:43:50,360 Right? 937 00:43:50,360 --> 00:43:51,360 Yes. 938 00:43:51,360 --> 00:43:53,440 So you need to understand that and you need to understand that in its context. 939 00:43:53,440 --> 00:43:57,400 And a couple of things I'm going to encourage you all to do is if you want to understand 940 00:43:57,400 --> 00:44:03,400 the context of how the Israelites would have understood life at that time, as we've been 941 00:44:03,400 --> 00:44:08,360 going through Exodus and Leviticus, you need to take some time to understand Egyptian culture. 942 00:44:08,360 --> 00:44:09,360 Correct. 943 00:44:09,360 --> 00:44:10,360 Okay. 944 00:44:10,360 --> 00:44:14,640 So Egyptian culture has a very different spin on sacrifices. 945 00:44:14,640 --> 00:44:15,680 Okay. 946 00:44:15,680 --> 00:44:20,320 You need to understand the Egyptian culture, how their sacrificial system worked, how their 947 00:44:20,320 --> 00:44:26,200 society worked, how their acts of worship worked, all of that. 948 00:44:26,200 --> 00:44:27,200 Right? 949 00:44:27,200 --> 00:44:30,960 And once you start to understand that, you'll realize that God's pulling from a context 950 00:44:30,960 --> 00:44:35,720 they'll understand and reframe it in a way that glorifies Him. 951 00:44:35,720 --> 00:44:38,440 Another recommendation on here, these ones I believe you're going to have to purchase 952 00:44:38,440 --> 00:44:43,160 because I don't think they're available for free, but there is a guy by the name of Ray 953 00:44:43,160 --> 00:44:50,240 Vanderlyn that did tours, or still does tours in Egypt and Israel, the Holy Land where he 954 00:44:50,240 --> 00:44:52,720 does educational, but focused on the family. 955 00:44:52,720 --> 00:44:56,680 He's worked for them for a really long time and he's done a bunch of video series. 956 00:44:56,680 --> 00:45:01,240 There's an older video series called That the World May Know where he specifically goes 957 00:45:01,240 --> 00:45:04,780 into Egypt and he actually does a bunch of these contextual pieces. 958 00:45:04,780 --> 00:45:06,920 That might be a good place for you to start. 959 00:45:06,920 --> 00:45:07,920 Yeah. 960 00:45:07,920 --> 00:45:12,000 It's interesting that I was watching an interview with Ray Vanderlyn and he was talking about 961 00:45:12,000 --> 00:45:17,760 the first time he went to Egypt, a lot of things in the Exodus and Torah started to 962 00:45:17,760 --> 00:45:22,400 make a lot more sense because you start to see them in the context of what God is bringing 963 00:45:22,400 --> 00:45:23,400 them out of. 964 00:45:23,400 --> 00:45:24,400 Yeah. 965 00:45:24,400 --> 00:45:25,400 Right? 966 00:45:25,400 --> 00:45:27,640 Which is, to your point, what you're talking about. 967 00:45:27,640 --> 00:45:31,000 That when we understand what God is bringing them out of, suddenly all these things start 968 00:45:31,000 --> 00:45:33,400 to click, click, click, click, click right into place. 969 00:45:33,400 --> 00:45:34,400 Yeah. 970 00:45:34,400 --> 00:45:38,040 We've got to understand that because that's part of the story we're grafted into. 971 00:45:38,040 --> 00:45:39,040 Yeah. 972 00:45:39,040 --> 00:45:40,040 Right? 973 00:45:40,040 --> 00:45:41,040 Think of your own personal testimony. 974 00:45:41,040 --> 00:45:42,040 Right? 975 00:45:42,040 --> 00:45:44,320 You know where you've been, the wrong that you've done. 976 00:45:44,320 --> 00:45:47,200 You're not living in that anymore, but you know that part of your story. 977 00:45:47,200 --> 00:45:48,200 Right? 978 00:45:48,200 --> 00:45:50,800 Where you've been, you know the hurt you've experienced, all that stuff. 979 00:45:50,800 --> 00:45:57,040 We're grafted into the story of Israel and so we need to know this story of the Exodus. 980 00:45:57,040 --> 00:46:01,840 We need to know how the Levitical law works and we need to understand that in the context 981 00:46:01,840 --> 00:46:07,040 of not just in the context of scripture, but in the context of the time and day and age 982 00:46:07,040 --> 00:46:08,520 where it's placed. 983 00:46:08,520 --> 00:46:09,520 Yeah. 984 00:46:09,520 --> 00:46:13,400 So next week we are going to be talking about the priesthood, the priest share, the role 985 00:46:13,400 --> 00:46:19,280 of priests, the equivalent of what we deal with today and what it is to be a good priest 986 00:46:19,280 --> 00:46:20,760 and what it is to be a bad priest. 987 00:46:20,760 --> 00:46:21,760 Yeah. 988 00:46:21,760 --> 00:46:24,160 Are you actually putting the kingdom of God on display? 989 00:46:24,160 --> 00:46:25,840 What happens when good priests go bad? 990 00:46:25,840 --> 00:46:26,840 Right? 991 00:46:26,840 --> 00:46:28,600 There's a lot of stories about that in the Bible. 992 00:46:28,600 --> 00:46:29,600 Yeah. 993 00:46:29,600 --> 00:46:33,720 So until then, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email us. 994 00:46:33,720 --> 00:46:37,080 Like we did say, we are having a Q and A at the end of the Leviticus. 995 00:46:37,080 --> 00:46:44,800 So please send all of your questions to loveandcontext.gmail.com and until next time, we'll hear you later. 996 00:46:44,800 --> 00:46:45,800 Yeah. 997 00:46:45,800 --> 00:46:47,800 And to be clear, we'll be answering questions, not complaints. 998 00:46:47,800 --> 00:46:49,200 Did I say complaints? 999 00:46:49,200 --> 00:46:50,200 No. 1000 00:46:50,200 --> 00:46:51,200 Oh, you didn't. 1001 00:46:51,200 --> 00:46:53,320 Thank you so much for listening today. 1002 00:46:53,320 --> 00:46:58,840 We hope you enjoyed this podcast and we hope that you got something out of it. 1003 00:46:58,840 --> 00:47:05,280 If you have any questions, please contact us at loveandcontext.gmail.com. 1004 00:47:05,280 --> 00:47:09,120 You can also follow us on Instagram and message us through there. 1005 00:47:09,120 --> 00:47:11,200 Instagram is loveandcontext. 1006 00:47:11,200 --> 00:47:17,960 Again, loveandcontext.gmail.com or Instagram are the two ways to get ahold of us if you 1007 00:47:17,960 --> 00:47:18,960 would like. 1008 00:47:18,960 --> 00:47:20,260 Thank you once again. 1009 00:47:20,260 --> 00:47:22,520 We really appreciate you being here. 1010 00:47:22,520 --> 00:47:23,520 God bless. 1011 00:47:23,520 --> 00:47:33,760 Leviticus. 1012 00:47:33,760 --> 00:47:34,760 Are you smelling your mic? 1013 00:47:34,760 --> 00:47:35,760 Yeah. 1014 00:47:35,760 --> 00:47:36,760 Yeah. 1015 00:47:36,760 --> 00:47:37,760 It had an odor to it. 1016 00:47:37,760 --> 00:47:38,760 All right. 1017 00:47:38,760 --> 00:47:39,760 Pickles on pizza is disgusting. 1018 00:47:39,760 --> 00:47:40,760 I think that was too much. 1019 00:47:40,760 --> 00:47:41,760 That was too much? 1020 00:47:41,760 --> 00:47:44,760 Nah, I don't know what I'm saying. 1021 00:47:44,760 --> 00:47:46,040 Come on. 1022 00:47:46,040 --> 00:47:47,040 Puppy pants. 1023 00:47:47,040 --> 00:47:50,440 Puppy, puppy, puppy pants. 1024 00:47:50,440 --> 00:47:54,080 You know, it'd be better if you just used Apple in general. 1025 00:47:54,080 --> 00:47:55,080 Lies. 1026 00:47:55,080 --> 00:47:56,080 Lies. 1027 00:47:56,080 --> 00:48:02,320 So, in closing, your dog is just like waiting for you to say something. 1028 00:48:02,320 --> 00:48:22,320 Oh, he's talking.