ELUL DAY 9
POINTS TO PONDER AND CONSIDER
- What do we see God doing with the Children of Israel in Leviticus 18 and 19?
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- What is the first part of initiating change between two parties?
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- In this passage the main focus seems to be holiness before God. How is that accomplished? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- What does the word sovereign mean to you? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- Do you believe keeping Sabbath is an important part of keeping a holy life? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- What should we be doing to show our deep love for God? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- How does God expect us to show our love for others? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- As we briefly discussed the Ten Commandments here; which ones stood out in your mind? Were you completely aware of each of these commandments? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- Are there any commandments of God that we can leave out and still lead a holy life? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
ELUL DAY 9 MEDITATION
LOVE GOD; LOVE PEOPLE-DON’T BE PAGAN!
The next chapter of Leviticus is worded a bit strange for most people’s modern-day thinking. It basically says “Don’t eat blood” and “Don’t worship goat-idols out in the open fields.”
Can you imagine?
What kind of crazy subject is this?
Well; it may not be as far-fetched as you might think.
We are going to explore a little history involving “eating blood” and “worshiping goat idols in open fields.” Let’s compare what we find to most worship going on in our present day sanctuaries.
We will ask that big question:
Are we on track with God’s will for today?
As sincere Christian worshipers we should be making it our mission to find out.
Sometimes you can see and experience some pretty strange things on the journey to the Promised Land. Now is a good time to pause and read Leviticus, Chapter 17.
WHY ALL THE TALK ABOUT EATING AND DRINKING BLOOD?
Looking back through Genesis; it does seem that when the world was first created humans were only meant to eat plant food.
Adam and Eve probably started out as vegetarians and most likely continued living that way even after the Garden of Eden was closed to them.
God explained that to us in the scriptures by saying to Adam and Eve that they could eat any fruit from the bearing trees or any seed bearing plants. There seems to be no mention of meats at all.
Sounds pretty much like a vegetarian diet; doesn’t it?
After the great flood though; God gave Noah, his sons and their families some new instructions. God said they could also eat meat – but that all of the life blood had to be removed from the meat first.
Hmmm……I wonder why the change?
I also wonder why you could suddenly eat meat; but it had to be meat with all the blood drained out.
This was something to ponder.
When you are curious about something new it always helps to remember and dwell on those facts that you already know.
Do you remember studying other scripture passages about blood?
THE LIFE IS IN THE BLOOD
In the COME AS A CHILD BIBLE STUDY we hold on-line at The IN SEASON Lifestyle blog on Thursdays; we have mentioned this subject several times. We have known, since studying The Book of Genesis; that God proclaimed “life” is in the blood.
It surely makes sense to me.
Could you live without your blood running through your veins? I don’t think so.
So; from this well-known fact we basically concluded that God was saying that we are not to eat anything while it still has LIFE.
The laws of nature would certainly be in favor of this fact.
Can you imagine trying to eat steak while the cow is still mooing and breathing and walking around? It might be a very difficult task!
Most of God’s instructions cater to common sense when you stop and think about them. God is basically saying to the people; if they want to eat meat it is okay, but he warns them to be sure they are eating meat that has no life, or is NOT living.
The way to be assured of no life is to drain the blood from the animal before cooking and eating. God is very strict about this requirement.
He makes this commandment more firm in Leviticus 17:10 which says; “And if anyone of the House of Israel partakes of any blood, I will set My face against the person who partakes of the blood, and I will cut him off from among his kin.”
In other words; disobey this commandment and you will become an outcast! Pretty strong language; but apparently necessary. Honestly; I can’t understand why anyone would want to disobey this instruction to start with.
IF YOU KEEP LISTENING; GOD ALWAYS GIVES AN ANSWER
Finally; in Leviticus 17:11 God gives a full explanation of why He is requiring this: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood and I have assigned it to you for making expiation for your lives upon the altar, it is the blood, as life, that effects expiation.”
Seeing the blood on the altar meant that an innocent life had been exchanged for a guilty life.
Expiation was the process of atonement; the removal or the act of wiping away the sins of the people so that God could come and dwell among them.
They brought their sacrifices and the blood was applied to the altar and this made them acceptable to God.
This “blood” of an innocent animal allowed God to purge any unholiness from the tabernacle where He was meeting with His people. The blood served as a type of ransom for the people. It paid their redemption price for their sins. It made them clean before God.
WHAT DOES SCIENCE HAVE TO SAY?
This is yet another one of those times when science and the Holy Scriptures are in total agreement. They actually rarely oppose one another.
Scientist tell us that drinking large amounts of blood can be toxic.
Though blood is essential for life and operates and functions properly inside the body’s circulatory system; when more than a few spoonfuls of blood are ingested that same blood will make a person sick.
Blood contains iron in large quantities. Too much iron in the body can cause a wide range of medical problems. Those would including dehydration, fluid in the lungs, liver damage, low blood pressure and certain nervous disorders.
THIS DISTINGUISHES US FROM THE ANIMALS
Not eating or drinking blood seems to be a characteristic that distinguishes some animals from humans.
Most animals CAN eat or drink blood because their digestive systems are different from humans and are more tolerant of iron.
REFER TO THE NEW TESTAMENT FOR CONFIRMATION OF THE OLD
I’m always amazed at how science, common sense and the scriptures in the Old and New Testaments confirm each other.
There are NO contradictions!
The New Testament scriptures never change the truths of the scriptures from the Old Testament. The two only confirm one another.
There is a New Testament scripture that makes this whole decision about blood so very easy to figure out: 1 Corinthians 10:31; So whatever you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God.
It is really just that simple; if you want to give God the glory; simply follow His instructions.
WHAT ABOUT THOSE GOAT IDOLS IN OPEN FIELDS?
At least we have resolved the “eating and drinking of blood” problems. Now; what is this stuff we read about Israel worshiping goat-idols in open fields?
It seems to be just more crazy language that has to be broken down into understandable sentences. These relate to the period of time in which God was speaking.
If we all were from the days of the wilderness tabernacle we would know exactly what God was saying and why.
ANOTHER “LASTING” ORDINANCE TO PAY ATTENTION TO
The scriptures found in Leviticus 17:7 reads: They must no longer offer any of their sacrifices to the goat idols to whom they prostitute themselves. This is to be a lasting ordinance for them and for the generations to come.
I hope you paid attention to that last part that said“lasting ordinance for them and for the generations to come.”
Guess what?
We who are living today and all of those who come after us ARE the “generations to come.”
Let me say that another way. This passage still applies to us today.
GOD ABHORS PAGAN PRACTICES
It is widely known that when the Israelis were still living as slaves in Egypt the Egyptians worshiped goats as gods.
There was a temple just for this worship and it was built in Thmuis which was located in lower Egypt.
This so-called temple was dedicated to the goat-image called Pan.
They also called him Mendes; and he was considered to be an oracle.
In the time of that culture, there were statues of Pan everywhere.
POPULAR PAINTINGS AND DRAWINGS OF ONE FACE OF THE DEVIL
These statues of Pan (his image) are actually where famous artists got their goat-like pictures of the devil. Many of these are still around and used in very popular artwork today. These drawings and paintings of a devil are similar to a goat with a tail and horns and cloven feet.
Understand that these drawings and paintings are copied from the ancient images of the idol called Pan.
I can’t help but think of the scriptures we read in Revelation 13:15; He was then permitted to give life to this statue so that it could speak. Then the statue of the beast commanded that anyone refusing to worship it must die.
There are many other passages of scripture in Revelation which speak of an “image” of a beast who is given power from a “dragon.” The image of a dragon is the typical description of the Antichrist in end-times.
THE IMAGE OF THE BEAST
Does this possibly mean that the Antichrist will give power to the ancient religious practices of Pan? Will those types of pagan practices that be revived through false prophets on the earth in end times?
We must realize and remember that the worship of Pan incorporated the worship of MANY false spirits. I am led to believe that the false religion which affects the world in end times originates with the ancient image of Pan. It is possible that this image may even appear to be harmless to most humans. It will appear to be only y the images from a child’s fairy tale.
Have you ever watched Peter Pan? Think about the story line that seems so innocent. I used to LOVE it. The lovely innocent little fairy boy comes to the beautiful innocent children of a household. He lures them away to a land where they can never have a chance to grow up. You may never consider this story the same way again.
I have to wonder if the author of this so adored story which many literary critics accredit with greatness was not trying to teach his children discernment. The fact that they must beware of strangers seeming innocent and fun who wish to harm them seems evident.
BEWARE OF FALSE RELIGIONS
Someone in the story wants to keep them from developing into the adults that God had planned. This is what Satan does; he deceives.
Many Medieval artists depicted the devil this way (like Pan.) They were originally (and correctly) thinking of Pan as a demon, or a devil.
A lot of Christian artwork from more recent periods of history actually show depictions of the devil being a goat-like man with a tail and horns and cloven feet.
Once the images got started, the depiction of the devil just caught on. Soon it was everywhere; but no one really remembered the original source was Pan.
Just like that a face of the devil went from seeming evil to seeming to be interesting artwork. A part of child’s play illustrations was used to deceive the public. That is how Satan works. He likes to appear as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14.) This is a very effective disguise. It is often possible that even the elect may be deceived (Matthew 24:24.)
The point here is the same as the point back in the days of Moses; that false religion does exist on the earth. It is still a deceptive trap that Satan uses to capture the spirits of God’s people.
Beware.