00:00 Intro

00:07 Clarifying the Division of the Law

00:44 Civil, Ceremonial, and Moral Laws Explained

02:09 Overlap and Complexity in the Laws

03:08 God's Changing Standards and Human Relationships

05:02 Encouragement for Bible Study: The Payoff IS WORTH IT

06:08 Leviticus Chapter 22 Overview

07:20 Leviticus Chapter 23 Overview

09:41 The Importance of Religious Observances

11:42 Concluding Thoughts and Prayer

12:42 Outro and Podcast Information

Hey, everybody.

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Welcome back to another edition

of the daily Bible podcast.

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Let's do this.

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We're back again.

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And we're jumping more

into Leviticus here.

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But before we get into that, I

know we chopped up a little bit

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yesterday on the division of the law.

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And so just to clarify on the division

of the law This really emerged.

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Thomas Aquinas was one of

the first people to suggest a

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threefold division of the law.

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We talked about two yesterday cause

I couldn't think of the third,

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but the third is passed around.

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Now we're talking about afterwards

is you've got the civil, you've got

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the ceremonial and you've got the

moral and Calvin and his cronies.

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Also kind of developed this

along with Thomas Aquinas there.

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So it was these groups together and,

and basically it breaks down this way.

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And, and this is something that

I found in doing some research

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in between episodes here.

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Civil laws were those given to

govern the nation of Israel.

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So you think we are not that do what, and

we are not that, and we're not Israel.

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Right.

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So just like we might.

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Have our constitution in the United

States with laws and rules and

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regulations within the constitution.

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Our constitution does not apply

to people living in Germany.

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Our constitution does not apply

to people living in France.

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It's for us as a nation.

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So Israel likewise under God

had civil laws given by him to

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govern the nation of Israel.

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Ceremonial laws then were those laws

that regulated worship for Israel.

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And then this author says they, they

foreshadowed Christ in his ministry.

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And so those are the laws that we would

say those pointed to the coming of

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Christ and Christ fulfilled those laws.

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So sacrifices, ox, lambs, things like

that, incense, the tabernacle, the

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eventual temple, things like that.

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All the ceremonial stuff that had

to do with the cultists of Israel

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were things that were fulfilled in

Christ and under the new Testament.

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Right.

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And then this guy says the moral laws,

and I like the way he puts this, are those

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that derive from the character of God.

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So these are the laws

that reflect his holiness.

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This is what is right and what is wrong.

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And we would say that the moral laws that

still apply today, like we said yesterday,

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are those laws that, that, The ones that

we can take to the bank for sure the ones

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that are repeated in the new testament And

so when we see the the moral teachings of

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christ in the new testament We see some

laws that we can clearly trace back to

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their their roots in the old testament

say, okay These are still in place and

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still in act in act in action Enacted

they still apply to us today where we

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sit here as 21st century christians Yeah.

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So the question then becomes, well,

how do you know the difference between

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the civil ceremonial and the moral?

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Sometimes it's harder to discern that,

for instance, like the laws that we

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read about yesterday when it came to

the, the sexual ethic laws that God

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prescribed for them, were those civil

laws or were they ceremonial laws?

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Because they seem to be at least in the,

in the, within the context of the book of

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Leviticus, these are ceremonial, but they

seem to be applicable to all of Israel

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for that time that God governed them.

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So were they civil ceremonial or moral?

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There can be overlap there.

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There can be somewhere.

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It's like a Venn diagram.

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Yeah, all three fit both.

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And yeah, but I think when We

see in other places that they are

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rooted in something that is moral.

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For example, the laws on sexual

relationships is rooted Back to God's

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design for that to be something that takes

place between a man and a woman, husband

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and wife within the confines of marriage.

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So when we look at that and we look

at these other things, and yes,

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ceremonially they would have rendered

somebody unclean and yet they were also

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a moral transgression of God's design.

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And so we can say that it's both

the ceremonial and the moral.

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So though the ceremonial was

fulfilled in Christ, the moral.

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Aspect of that still remains today and

it's still binding to us as as Christians

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Some have responded that god seems to

change his mind with certain laws for

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instance through the sexual ethic laws

god At one point allowed for them to have

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relations with their siblings, you know

with their but their close relatives And

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it's really not until you have development

of god's old testament canon specifically

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the pentateuch where god says you're no

longer able to do That that's in fact a

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violation of my standards Does God have

a changing mind on some of these things?

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Does any of this that's moral

change in God's economy?

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I think it changes even just if we think

about, yeah, God's economy dispensations

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as God is, is working through creation.

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You've got a limited human

population to deal with.

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And so really, unless God was going

to create, you know, 4, 000 people at

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one time, all with different genetics.

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You were going to have to have

relationships between siblings and

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relationships between relatives

and things like that, that today

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would make us uncomfortable.

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They got allowed, huh?

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Rightly so.

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Rightly.

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So yes, they got allowed at

that time because it was part

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of his plan to be fruitful.

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Multiple.

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I feel the earth.

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Why did God only use one couple and

not create 4, 000 people at the very

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beginning with different genetics?

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I don't know.

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I don't know.

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He didn't though.

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I mean, when we read the

scripture, when we read the Bible,

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this is the way it operated.

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This is the way it worked.

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And you, you start that over again

with Noah because the, the flood

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and the situation there, you start

over again with Noah and his family.

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You're going to have that permissive

marriage of, of relationship.

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Relatives and things

like that at that stage.

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But at this point in Israel's history,

there are enough people in the

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population that God has now said,

this is not to be, this is wrong.

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And this is not my, my design.

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So his design was still always his design

from the very word go, but for that

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period of time, it was necessary for

the fulfillment of what was going on.

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And God preserved.

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The people during that time, because one

of the reasons why today this is looked

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down upon and frowned upon is genetically.

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It's not good for the human population.

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There's deformities and other

issues that can arise as a result

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of these improper relationships.

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God allowed these relationships to

take place during those seasons and

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Prevented those deformities from taking

place because it was part of his design

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to be fruitful multiply and fill the

earth Yeah, that's a helpful insight

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And I think this points to the fact that

spending a lot of time in your Bible is

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costly But it's gonna pay off dividends

in the way that you understand it and

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the way that you apply it The more of

God's knowledge that you have stored up

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in your brain the better You're gonna

be able to reason from God's Word to say

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what is God looking for his people for?

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Looking from looking for

from his people today.

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And part of the answer to that

is learning, okay, where did,

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what did God prophesy about the

fulfillment of the law in Christ?

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What of this is carried

over to the new Testament?

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And often there's lots of

cross references in your Bible.

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If you have a Bible with cross

references, I would advise you to.

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Click on them or to open them as you

have opportunity, because so many

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of these questions that we have are

often answered in the Bible itself.

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The Bible gives us insight on how

to understand a lot of these things.

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And when you're trucking through

Leviticus, I can, I can remember some

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of my first occasions through it.

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It's, it's tough.

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It's like, what am I reading?

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Why?

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Why?

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Why is this even necessary?

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But it is necessary and it's fruitful.

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Just stay, stay with it.

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Hang with it.

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Keep listening to the podcast.

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We'll do our best to help you

kind of walk your way through

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it, but it's worth the time.

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So you should be encouraged by this.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Well, chapter two, 22 and

23, just two chapters today.

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Chapter 22.

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These are rules about what would

defile a priest and rules about the

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types of animals that were acceptable

for a sacrifice to be offered.

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So regarding the priest, you

have the priest in eating here.

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So versus one through nine, when to

abstain from participation due to

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uncleanliness versus 10 through 16.

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These are others who can and can't eat

the priest's portion of the sacrifice

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who was allowed to participate in that.

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And then really in 17 through 30, we get

into what is described as what is and what

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is not an acceptable animal for sacrifice.

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And this is another one of those things

where you can, if, if you've been reading

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the Bible for a while, maybe something.

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goes off in your mind.

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You go, okay, there's

something about this.

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I remember something about the animals.

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And if you go over to Malachi chapter

one, you're going to see a connection

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point between these rules and regulations

and what's going on in Malachi

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chapter one and Malachi chapter one.

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God is indicting Israel for

disobeying these specific commands.

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So in Malachi chapter one, God is

confronting the nation of Israel

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saying, Hey, You did wrong by me.

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You broke the law because you're bringing

sacrifices to me that are lame and wounded

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and and otherwise disqualified sacrifices.

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You wouldn't even give to the

governor and yet you're bringing

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them to me, the God of all creation.

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So there's a connection between Malachi

chapter one and Leviticus chapter 22.

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These rules and regulations for

the, Animals there in in chapter

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22 here, chapter 23, then we get

into the instructions for observing

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the various feast days in Israel.

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And so here we, we lay out the various

feasts and the ones that were enacted at

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this point and the ones that Israel was to

observe and how they were to observe them.

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Leviticus 23, you get the verse

three, you get the Sabbath.

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It was the Sabbath of a feast, not

formally, but it was a celebration.

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It was meant to be a

time of rest and worship.

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And so every seventh day the pattern was

established there that they would rest

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and not participate in any form of work.

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And it was also to be a

time of worship of the Lord.

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23 five, you have the Passover,

which was a meal in and of itself.

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In and of itself, that was part

of a broader feast versus six

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through eight of unleavened bread.

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And so the feast of unleavened

bread would go for a full week.

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And then it was was also part of the

celebration of the Passover, the Passover

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being the memorial feast to remember

when God passed over, protected, covered

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over the people there in Egypt and did

not allow the angel of death to enter

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into the home to take the firstborn.

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So the Passover And also the

feast of unleavened bread.

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That's verses five through eight there.

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Then you get the feast of the first

fruits in verses nine through 14.

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This was the day following the

first Sabbath of the harvest season.

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So they were meant here to recognize

Yahweh as the provider and to

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pray for continued blessings

upon the harvest moving forward.

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They were to bring the best of their

offerings, the first fruits and say,

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Lord, we're going to give these things

to you and trust that you are going

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to give more After this you've got the

feast of weeks in verses 15 through 22.

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This is 50 days later after the

first fruits of the feast of weeks.

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This was a bookend to the

feast of the first fruits.

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This was again about the Lord's

provision about harvesting.

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You've got the Feast of Trumpets

verses 23 through 25, first

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day of the seventh month.

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This was a worship and a reminder of

God's covenant promises to Israel there,

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a day of atonement versus 26 through 32.

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We just talked about that recently from

Leviticus chapter I think 16 is the

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instructions for the day of atonement.

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That was a feast that they were

going to have as well, a celebration.

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And then Leviticus 23, 33 through

36 is the Feast of Booths.

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And we've seen the Feast of Booths

or the Feast of Tabernacles in

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the Gospel of John, as we've

studied through that as well.

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So Feast of Booths is a reminder

of the fact that God brought Israel

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out of Egypt and sustained them

during the wilderness wanderings.

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And so this, these instructions are

given even before the people really

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have much to look back and remember

for, for God's sustaining presence

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as it's delivered while they're

still in the wilderness there.

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The new Testament church had more of,

and it was, it's dates like this dates

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on the calendar where everybody who's

a Christian says, this is what we do.

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And I know in the Eastern church, there's

still a lot of these days on the calendar.

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And for Catholics, there's dates on

the calendar to liturgical churches

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have days that they do stuff like this.

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And I kind of wish in our tradition that

we had more, because I think these kinds

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of rallying points in the course, in the

course of a year are helpful for not only

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time markings, but also for kind of moving

your soul in a certain direction, a day of

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atonement Christians don't celebrate this.

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We don't commemorate this because

our atonement has been completed once

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and for all in Christ on the cross.

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And that's, that's done first John

one, nine, if we confess our sins,

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he's faithful and just forgive us.

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And that's, that's a, that's a

finished act, but how good would it be?

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For Christians to set aside a time to

say, man, I want to think about my sin.

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I want to think about the fact that

my sin has been paid for at the

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cross and that Jesus paid the price.

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And I guess that the closest

we get is the Friday before

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Easter, which is coming up soon.

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But this is helpful.

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What this tells us about God is

that God is not only okay with, he

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encourages us to spend days, even

weeks in some cases, multiple days to

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take time to celebrate, to take time

to contemplate, to take time to rest.

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He does this on a weekly basis,

but then he also says, look,

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I want you to spend a week.

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Thinking about this, I want you to do.

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I spent a week in a tent as

a symbol of my deliverance.

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This is something that we often don't

think enough about again, as new

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Testament Christians, and especially

in our Protestant tradition, we don't

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have a lot of these things, but I

think it'd be really good for us to

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think of ways to embody our faith in

a, in a, in a real tangible way that

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reminds people of what God has done

or what he is doing for the church.

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I'm not sure what that looks like

necessarily, but I think that's, that's

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something here that we just kind of

miss out on Israel had all these things.

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We don't have very many of them.

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Yeah, I would agree.

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I would agree.

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And yeah, they'll look.

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Liturgical churches do

a better job of that.

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Even within their weekend

and week out services.

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Yeah.

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Smell some bells.

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There's times for the confession.

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There's times for,

yeah, a hundred percent.

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Yeah.

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I would agree with you on that.

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And more parties to sit down together

and eat food together would be fun too.

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I mean, that would, that alone

would be reason enough to say, let's

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add a couple more on the calendar.

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Yeah.

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We should do, let's just,

let's just start that.

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We'll start the feast of Hutchins.

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Can we do that?

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Yeah, that sounds good.

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Let's do it.

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Pleasing aroma.

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Man, that'd be great.

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Don't, I don't want to

burn offering though.

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I just want a cooked offering though.

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Yeah, no, no burnt smoked offering.

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Thank you.

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Yeah.

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All right.

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Well, let me pray for us and then

we'll be done with this episode.

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God, we do want to be faithful to be

thoughtful Christians to think well

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about what you've done in our life and

in the type of life that we're living.

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We want to spend time in confession.

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We want to spend time reflecting on

your goodness, your provision for us.

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We want to spend time reflecting on the

cross, the greater exodus that we as

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believers are Can celebrate now that the

greater active of your mercy and grace as

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you gave Christ for us so that we might be

spared Lord, help us to be contemplative.

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Help us to be thoughtful Christians,

not just rushing through the motions

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as we are prone to do in our culture.

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Here's Americans thinking about what's

next and what's on my calendar and

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how do I get to the next thing as

quickly as I can, but God help us to

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be slow with you and to be thoughtful

with you and to be intentional.

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And to, to think about these things so

that we can, can really truly meditate

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on the, the greatest truths that we

will find this side of eternity, which

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are contained there in the scriptures.

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So God give us that ability, Lord,

make us a contemplative people.

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We pray in Christ's name.

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Amen.

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Keep reading your Bibles.

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Tune in again tomorrow for another

edition of the daily Bible podcast.

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See ya.

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Bye y'all.

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Hey, thanks for joining us for another

episode of the daily Bible podcast.

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If you need more information about

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Texas, you can go to compassntx.

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org.

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Again, that's compassntx.

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org.

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And we'll be back with you

tomorrow for another episode

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of the daily Bible podcast.