I finally finished reading Exodus!! And started on Leviticus today :) So if I want to kill animals more than usual in the next few days, you can attribute it to that.
I began to read Leviticus and was kind of grossed out. God called people to kill an animal for a sin offering? With a much as people sin, I'm surprised there were any animals left. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about hunting, fishing and the like - but when we do it, we do it for food. On the other hand it's amazing that God would allow a person to sacrifice an animal in order to spare that person's life. That is love. (and people would have died out pretty quickly)
So as I was reading about sacrifices, I was thinking "God, thank you soo much that we don't have to do that anymore. It's a good thing you changed the policy." I tried to take the act of sacrificing animals and put it into our society - it was a funny picture.
I used to think that God changed the sacrificial act because people changed. Ya figure that God is all knowing, so he knew that things would be different, so he adjusted. But as soon as I thought that, my brain (or the Spirit inside me) went silly Denise, God doesn't adjust. God is the creator, while we are in our mother's wombs God gives us our talents, "wires" our brains, and places us in families. If God wanted people to live the same way the people in the old testament (or even the new testament) lived, He could have controlled that. One major change was when He provided for His son as a sacrifice, that changed people needing to sacrifice animals.
But, that thought really got me - if GOd wanted people to live as people lived in the Bible, he could have controlled that. We could still live in a world without technology, lights, structured housing, guns, and all the other stuff we have now. In fact, there are still places that do live like that. But the fact is that God did allow each generation to change - in some ways for the better, in some ways for worse. Just a thought
Even though the world has changed, and we no longer sacrifice animals, there's still a message for us in Leviticus and the OT books that speak of animal and grain sacrifices - it's just not literal. I mean, these are people who were willing to give the first of their herd/food not knowing when they might get another one. It's not like they could walk down the block, or across the country, to purchase food, or new animals (at least not during the book of Leviticus I don't think they could). These people were able to admit that they did something wrong, and make a public display of it by presenting a sacrifice. We don't even have to tell anyone - we can just pray silently. But are we willing to give something up when we sin? It's kind of like grounding yourself. We could not be able to go out to eat for a week b/c of a particular sin we commit - kind of like a fast. Even still, I think the people in the OT made a greater sacrifice b/c they could never get that animal back.
2 comments:
Denise, I had a couple thoughts while reading this post.
1) I don't think they had a sacifice for every sin. Just like Jesus' sacrifice covers the multitude of our sins, a sacrifice in old testament times often covered the sins of a family, tribe, village, whatever. I think in some cases it was done once a year.
2) Sacrificing does seem pretty gross in today's society. I think most people would be disturbed if they saw what goes on in a slaughter house or meat packing place. It wasn't less gross back in the old testament, it was just more common. It is brutal. The thought of it does make me cringe a little. And it is what Jesus went through.
3) I think sacrificing animals was also considered tithing. Animals were like wealth. They gave the first of their flock, just like we are to give the first of our fruits (what we earn). People gave their animals and trusted God to provide; it was a sacrifice. Today, we still need to give, and give sacrificially, not just comfortably.
I think there was more I was going to comment about, but I forgot it as I typed these 3 things.
Let me know what you think!
I'm sure that you did have many more thoughts, you always have lots of thoughts, that's why I enjoy talking to you.
I just started reading Leviticus (first 4 chapters) and it's the first time I've actually ever read it :( But I think you're right, that they did not sacrifice for every sin, but I'm not sure how often they did actually do it, or for how many people, etc - I'll try and pay more attention to that as I keep reading.
Yea, I agree with what you said. It's not what I origninally thought of as I was reading but ya !!
I was just really struck with the idea that God has allowed each generation to change - that it's not a happen chance/coincidence/out of control thing - but God knew and in a sense had control of it, I have a hard time putting it to words, but that's what really stuck with me.
And I think that sometimes, we don't take our sin as seriously as we could.
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