10/21/2008 4:01 PM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: Unclean priests
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Lev. 22:1-9
Message of the verses: “1 ¶
Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2
"Tell Aaron and his sons to be careful with the holy gifts of the
sons of Israel, which they dedicate to Me, so as not to profane My holy name; I
am the LORD. 3 "Say to them, ‘If any man among all your
descendants throughout your generations approaches the holy gifts which the
sons of Israel dedicate to the LORD, while he has an uncleanness, that person
shall be cut off from before Me; I am the LORD.
4 ‘No man of the
descendants of Aaron, who is a leper or who has a discharge, may eat of the
holy gifts until he is clean. And if one touches anything made unclean by a
corpse or if a man has a seminal emission, 5
or if a man touches any teeming things by which he is made unclean, or
any man by whom he is made unclean, whatever his uncleanness; 6 a person who touches any such shall be
unclean until evening, and shall not eat of the holy gifts unless he has bathed
his body in water. 7 ‘But when the sun sets, he will be clean, and
afterward he shall eat of the holy gifts, for it is his food. 8 ‘He
shall not eat an animal which dies or is torn by beasts, becoming unclean by
it; I am the LORD. 9 ‘They shall therefore keep My charge, so that
they will not bear sin because of it and die thereby because they profane it; I
am the LORD who sanctifies them.”
One of the
lessons that we men have been studying in our Friday men’s Bible study had
something to do with these verses. Chip
Ingram was saying in this lesson that there are many Christians today who get
abortions and the reason is not that they know that it is wrong to get one, but
that they want to save face with their Christian friends. “13
And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open
and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” (Hebrews 4:13)
The priests
that are spoken of in this section had a choice to make, a choice as to whether
or not to serve the Lord by offering the sacrifices to Him when they are
unclean, for many times their peers would not realize that they were unclean,
and perhaps it would be an embarrassment for them to tell them that why they were
unclean, or maybe it would be pride that would keep them from doing what is
right. God has given these laws for the
priests on what they should do in the event they became unclean and I believe
that the biggest reason is because He is perfect and wants His priests to stay
clean and not be defiled when serving at the altar offering sacrifices and then
eating their portion of this sacred meal.
Later on in 1 Samuel the priests would not follow these laws and it would
cost them their lives. Still later on
God would talk to the people through Malachi about these same laws that the
priests were breaking, and still later on Jesus would confront the Pharisees
about this same problem.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: There are times in my life when I do not want
to confess my sins to the Lord because of not wanting to own up that it is sin,
or embarrassed because I have repeated the same sin over and over again. As Dr. Wiersbe says I need to have a healthy
fear of the Lord in order to keep a good walk with the Lord.
My Steps of Faith for
Today:
- Fear the Lord for that is the beginning of wisdom.
- Trust the Lord to guide my path and to teach me contentment.
Memory verses for the week: Exodus
20:13-17
13.
You shall not murder.
14.
You shall not commit adultery.
15.
You shall not steal.
16.
You shall not bear false witness against your
neighbor.
17.
You shall not covet your neighbors house; you
shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant
or his ox his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
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