A river of blood

[Editor's Note: If you are short on time, then, by all means, skip the reading part and just watch the video below. It's what goosebumps are all about [even if we haven't gotten to that part of Leviticus yet!]

I heard a pastor once describe the foot of the altar this way [a river of blood]. I think he [or she] may have been talking about the one at the temple, but either way it struck a chord in me and I thought I'd use this imagery to wake up Leviticus.

Oh, Leviticus. Dear boring, irrelevant Leviticus. I know I'm supposed to be helping you get through the dull bits [as Jermaine so kindly pointed out while I was whining about this blog earlier]. A sizable part of me wants to say, "I'm sorry, it turns out Leviticus really does just suck too much. Whadaya say we call it a day and try again tomorrow?"

I have a cheat sheet. A wonderful explanation of the key points given by James-Michael [of course]. But, sigh. I'm not the most organized person, so needless to say, I've lost it. I'll try to dig it up tomorrow. For now, I'll aim to wing it.

The Skinny:

Chapter 1 - Details on the Burnt Offering. Chapter 2 - Details on the the Grain Offering. Chapter 3 - Details on the Peace [or Fellowship] Offering. Chapter 4 - Details on the Sin Offering. We learn that even if a person sins unintentionally, there are still consequences and punishments [and restitution must still be made]. Chapter 5 - More details about the Sin Offering and an explanation of the Guilt Offering. Chapter 6 - More on the Guilt Offering. Then what the priests are supposed to do with all these offerings. Chapter 7 - More on that. Also, no eating fat or blood. And an excerpt about the priest's share. Chapter 8 - The Ordination of Aaron and his sons. Chapter 9 - They begin their ministry. Chapter 10 - Aaron's sons screw up and are killed in the presence of the Lord. Moses appoints Mishael and Elzaphan [their cousins] to take their place. Aaron is not allowed to mourn but his family is. There is a dispute about why they didn't eat the sin offering and Moses is angry. But Aaron explains that he couldn't after what just happened and Moses is satisfied [I think that's the way it went, at least]. Chapter 11 - Instructions on clean and unclean animals for food. Chapter 12 - How long until you can be clean after giving birth. Chapter 13 - A lengthy passage about infectious diseases and then about mildew. Chapter 14 - How to be cleansed from infectious diseases, and then, of course, mildew, too.

I found this AMAZING video on You Tube. I originally planned on saving it until tomorrow. As you can see, it's called Leviticus 20:13, and we're not quite there yet. But I just couldn't wait! It's so poignant and powerful. A must see, for sure.



Okay, getting back to the river of blood. There was a point to that wake up call. The pastor [whom I can't remember but who deserves full credit for the following thought] spoke about sin. Sin [a very simplistic definition of sin: going against God's will] is like an infectious disease. It starts out small, but it leads to death. So it must be atoned for. With blood.

So picture the temple in Jesus's day. Loud and bustling. People everywhere. Coming in and going out. And all the while there's this steady flow of animal blood meandering throughout. From the altar to the gate. Constant.

Leviticus is the beginning of all of that. And Jesus, as you may have guessed, is the culmination. The final atonement.

Frankly, it's bizarre. And compelling. All those dead animals. They didn't work. The whole idea was to repent. To sacrifice. And to sin no more. But we didn't get it.

So we got a river of blood.


A note about Aaron and his sons

Wow. Wait, what? God killed them because they burned incense in the wrong way?

What??

And Aaron was not allowed to mourn [that's what the reference to unkempt hair and tearing of the clothes was all about].

It says, he "remained silent." [10:3b]

Because when something like that happens, words fail.

And, again, God's anger is overwhelming. It seems like too much to swallow.

But you know what strikes me? They could have left it out. They could have left all of the parts out that made God look like a bully on a power trip. They could have left the ones out where the Israelites whined endlessly.

[By "they", I mean, our Jewish fathers who compiled the Torah and the Hebrew Bible]

But they didn't. And, gosh, you can't make this stuff up [well, actually, I suppose you could - but why would you want to?].

I've heard Leviticus described as a Big Book of Instruction for priests. The Levites were held to extremely high esteem because they were to be the priests. And once again, they weren't chosen on their merit, they were just ordinary people. And they messed up.

But the stakes were a lot higher. God needed to show these people how important this was to him.

And what is interesting is that, right now, at this very moment, we [those of us who call ourselves Christian] are called to be a kingdom of priests.

But we're just ordinary people. And we get it wrong a lot. And the stakes are still high. Different, but high. And that's exciting! And terrifying!

Because there is so much on the line.

Tomorrow's reading: Leviticus 15:1 - 25:55.