God wants us to live holy lives and worship Him rightly.
Bible Study Ideas and Commentary for Leviticus 9-10
We learn that Aaron started the sacrificial system off well, atoning for the people’s sins and offering a thanksgiving and peace sacrifice. But his sons blew it almost immediately. Do we appreciate the privilege Jesus has given us in our access to God? Do we take it seriously on Sunday and in our daily living?
Aaron presented the people’s offering. (9:15)
This post began life as a printed resource for teachers. It has been modified for the internet.
Getting Started: Things to Think About
How Can We Guess What You Do for a Living?
The lesson today is about how God set the Israelites apart by giving them laws related to holiness (how they lived, worshiped, etc.). In other words, we could identify them by their lifestyle. Pick out some goodnatured members of your group and see if we might be able to identify their job based on their habits/behaviors. Here are some funny versions if you want to come prepared. Eventually, bring it around to how we can identify Christians.
You Know You’re Married to a Banker If . . .
Their email service blocks just about everything you send as potentially harmful.
Dinner conversations are often about markets.
Date night has ended up at the office updating a document.
You’ve had to take a change of clothes to their office more than once.
You’re BFFs with their dry cleaners.
You know and understand the strategy of bonus ranks and contract renewals.
Packing for a day at the beach includes taking a computer.
They’re really good at multitasking.
You Know You’re a Teacher When . . .
You’ve had more than 20 kids call you mom/dad.
You push in random chairs at restaurants.
You use “teacher voice” at the strangest times.
You get the urge to redirect misbehaving children in public.
You get annoyed by incorrect use of pronouns on the internet.
You have trouble naming your own child because every name has baggage.
You’ll buy dry erase markers before you pay your bills.
You Might Be a Christian If . . .
You say “fellowship” instead of “hanging out”.
You think DC Talk invented rap music.
You know who Bill Gaither is.
Your reputation is attached to a recipe in the church cookbook.
You’ve ever corrected someone for taking the Lord’s name in vain.
Your knowledge of Bible books comes from “sword drills”.
You know what your child’s name means.
You’ve ever coughed audibly during a lecture on evolution.
You’ve turned down someone by saying, “I’m dating Jesus”.
When you see a shot glass, sometimes the Lord’s Supper comes to mind.
{What should those things be? Here are some more serious answers . . .
Sundays are about going to church.
Generosity is a part of your character.
You want everyone else to be a Christian too.
Note: ask your group members to come up with some, but try to help them keep in mind the difference between rules/legalism and a changed life.}
This Week's Big Idea: Jesus and Leviticus
This diagram comes from a Seventh-Day Adventist website. Adventists are known for an interpretive approach to the Old Testament that is heavy in symbolism and allegory; everything symbolizes something else. In the case of the Tabernacle and sacrificial system, that method works well because the New Testament tells us that those things were “shadows” of what was to come. This diagram, then, effectively relates the life of Christ to the Tabernacle. We have already talked about their points 6-10 (how the journey into the Tabernacle and to the Most Holy Place is a picture of salvation). I had not considered points 1-5, how we can describe Jesus making the “opposite” journey on our behalf. Jesus did come from the Father to make the way and show us the way to Him. And I’m pretty good with this three-fold picture of the Christian life (what Christ did for us, what Christ does in us, and where Christ will take us). Now, I think it’s an artificial division; after all, the curtain was torn in two, symbolizing that there is nothing that keeps us from the presence of God. But I think it works as an illustration.
Here’s the biggest thing I think this misses. They have Jesus’ journey extending to the altar of the burnt offering at the front of the Tabernacle. And yes, Jesus is the ultimate burnt offering as the once-for-sacrifice for our sins. But Jesus was also the scapegoat. I think it’s important that the crucifixion took place outside of Jerusalem, “away from the camp” and thus serving a dual role as the sacrificial lamb and the scapegoat. Plus, Jesus’ ministry took Him to the unclean people who would never have been allowed in the Tabernacle. As long as we acknowledge that this is an imperfect illustration, I think it’s useful.
About Leviticus
If Exodus ended with the question of where God is to be worshiped (the Tabernacle), Leviticus answers the question of how God is to be worshiped (and by what kind of person). Your leader guide points out three main themes for Leviticus:
the holiness of God,
the need for atonement, and
the need for right living.
I think all of that can be subsumed under the theme of “how God is to be worshiped”. Because God is holy (see below), the people must also be holy—and that means both following His rules for worship and living according to His rules.
Here's Chuck Swindoll's simple (and useful) view of Leviticus:
And here is the wonderful Bible Project video:
One reason why I like that Adventist approach to the Tabernacle—if we see worship as something that Christ has prepared for us, then presuming to come up with our own methods of worship is trampling on Christ’s work. Blasphemy! In this week's lesson, we cover the passage in which Aaron’s sons are killed for presenting “strange fire” before God. In most cases, we would see this as a mistake, a sin that can be atoned for through sacrifice. But God just killed them off, which means there’s something deeper going on. Seeing the parallel between worship and Jesus helps us realize that their “mistake” wasn’t so innocent—they were presuming to act in the place of a Savior. Does that make sense?
Part 1: Cleansed (9:15-21)
Aaron presented the people’s offering. He took the male goat for the people’s sin offering, slaughtered it, and made a sin offering with it as he did before. He presented the burnt offering and sacrificed it according to the regulation. Next he presented the grain offering, took a handful of it, and burned it on the altar in addition to the morning burnt offering. Finally, he slaughtered the ox and the ram as the people’s fellowship sacrifice. Aaron’s sons brought him the blood, and he splattered it on all sides of the altar. They also brought the fat portions from the ox and the ram . . . Aaron burned the fat portions on the altar, but he presented the breasts and the right thigh as a presentation offering before the Lord, as Moses had commanded.
The first part of Leviticus set the purpose and process for proper sacrifices; the following chapters (8-10) now deal with who can offer those sacrifices—chapter 8, priestly consecration; chapter 9, priestly function; chapter 10, priestly failure.
I think this lesson is why we focused on those three offerings last week: Aaron now does them on the people’s behalf. (See below for the difference between a personal and a national offering.) To make a long story short, Moses has reported God’s instructions, and now he watches Aaron to make sure Aaron can get it right. And all of the other priests also watch because they will be responsible for doing these rituals soon enough. Because you talked about the offerings last week, I don’t think you need to explain them again. Just summarize it something like this:
First, the people’s sin/burnt offering (a sacrifice of atonement). Back in Lev 4, we learn that a goat is offered for a leader, and a bull is offered for the whole nation. Why did Aaron just offer a goat? Well, the emphasis here is on the priests; perhaps “by proxy” the whole people were covered? The point is that God cannot receive our worship if we still owe Him a sin-debt, so this offering comes first. Then, there is the grain/thanksgiving offering. Oil would help the grain burn. By taking from the harvest, the people could directly connect this offering to their thanksgiving for the produce of the field. Finally, the peace/fellowship offering. Only some of this animal would be burned; the rest would be eaten together by priest and people as a fellowship meal. The blood splattering would remind the people of the price of sin, and the fatty parts were burned because they were the tastiest part of the animal—the choicest offering. The presentation/wave part of the offering comes from the fact that the priest would lift that part of the offering and wave it around before the Lord. Admittedly, that strikes me as odd and unnecessary, but God told them to do it, so He had His reasons.
Aside: “Holy”
You see from the table that “holy” is a key word in Leviticus. The basic word (different forms of “qadash”) means being related to the sacred as opposed to the common. An important truth we learn in the Bible is that God alone determines what is sacred. For example, God decided to make the ground around the burning bush “holy”. It was otherwise no different than any of the other ground around. Why? Because God was present there. When He left, it ceased to be holy. An important illustration of this is the Sabbath. God set apart one day a week for no work; the other six days are “common” but this day would be “holy”. It there anything different about this day? Of course not. A day is a day. But God set it apart.
The same is true of people. God could have chosen any of the peoples of the world as His own; there was nothing “special” about Abraham’s descendants. But He called them to be a “holy nation”. This, then, is the place of the law: a way of helping everyone around know that God’s people are set apart from all other peoples. They do not behave in “common” ways. The other word often used here is “profane”. Today, the word “profane” means something disrespectful to religion, but it actually simply means “outside the temple”, and thus “not sacred”. It doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s something “wrong” with it; it’s just not sacred. And who determines what is sacred/holy? God and God alone.
Part 2: Blessing (9:22-24)
Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them. He came down after sacrificing the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the fellowship offering. Moses and Aaron then entered the tent of meeting. When they came out, they blessed the people, and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. Fire came from the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell facedown.
Now we get to some new stuff. In my opinion, what really matters in these verses is that God “came down” and consumed the offerings with fire as proof that He accepted them. We talked about this when Moses approved the Tabernacle construction: how good it feels when someone approves of our work! Ask this question to your group: how do we know if God accepts our worship? I lose sleep over that. According to Jesus (John 4), God desires worshipers who worship in Spirit and in truth. By that, I think He means worship according to God’s Word, and in the power of God’s Spirit (which only applies to Christians who are prayerfully in tune with the Spirit). But I know that there are non-Christians in our worship services, and I know that there are mornings my heart is distracted. How do I know that God has accepted my/our worship? Well, the Israelites did not get this kind of “divine feedback” again in their worship, so they would be otherwise like us: going through the motions, perhaps wondering if they were getting it right. This is important when we take the next section into consideration. Then, as long as you can keep control over this discussion, ask your group, “How should we decide what to do in congregational/church worship?” as well as “What might cause our congregational worship to go astray?” In my experience, churches go astray when they don’t think about the why of worship—they just do what they’ve always done or what people like, and everybody assumes that because they like it, God must like it too. (You have to be careful not to let this turn into a “worship war” debate; so much of those debates are based on what people “like” and not on what the Bible says; this lesson needs to stay focused on what the Bible says.)
Aside: “Atonement”
The word for “atonement” appears more times in Leviticus than the rest of the Old Testament combined. The word we read as “atonement” most often comes from a group of words related to kipur, which means (variously) ransom, to cover over, and to pacify. There are several different aspects to this word:
Atonement is “penal”, meaning that it is related to punishment for sin.
Atonement is “sacrificial”, meaning that there is a price to be paid for sin.
Atonement is “substitutionary”, meaning that someone/thing can pay that price or absorb that punishment for us.
Atonement is “cosmic”, meaning that the whole universe benefits from the ultimate atoning sacrifice of Christ.
Those first three elements are built into the sacrificial system. The blood from the sacrifice would literally cover the altar, which would be symbolic of that blood covering the sins of the offerer. Of course, as a blood sacrifice, there could be no doubt that somebody (in this case, the animal and also the animal’s owner) had to give up something important for that covering to take place. And unlike other culture’s offerings, the Hebrews understood that their sacrifices took their place. God taught them that their sin separated them from Him, and the only way they could be reconciled was for the sin to be atoned for—paid for. That’s why the firs thing they encountered in the Tabernacle was the altar for the burnt offering. In the New Testament, we finally see how all of those meanings fit together in Jesus, but I’m sure it was difficult for the Jews to understand.
Part 3: Holy (10:1-3)
Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu each took his own firepan, put fire in it, placed incense on it, and presented unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them to do. Then fire came from the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord has spoken: I will demonstrate my holiness to those who are near me, and I will reveal my glory before all the people.” And Aaron remained silent.
This must have been so hard for Aaron. If you have time, ask your group about the challenges of watching your children make bad decisions. That’s not really the point here (so don’t dwell too long on it), but it’s something parents think about. The short answer is “No, God does not like everything we do just because we feel like it”. People have debated for centuries exactly what it was Aaron’s sons did wrong, and the truth is that no one knows for sure. But they got a whole lot wrong—where they offered, what they offered, how they offered, and how they prepared. And God could have none of that. God is a consuming fire (Heb 12:29)—which gives life and also destroys. Our worship cannot be careless.
So, why doesn’t God kill us today when we do things in worship that we shouldn’t? Well, remember that this isn’t God’s modus operandi. This was a unique time in Israel’s history. You might remember that in Jesus’ day, they were doing all sorts of things wrong in the Temple, and God let them continue. Why? Because worship is ultimately “on us”; it is our responsibility. We can choose to be serious, or we can choose to be frivolous. We will be held accountable for how we behaved in God’s worship, but the blood of Jesus covers all sins (including errors in worship). Thank God. If you think this would work, ask your group what is the “worst mistake” they thought they’ve ever made in worship. I’m thinking something like fall asleep, get mad at the person down the row, spill the Lord’s Supper, etc. Then ask them, based on what we’ve learned here, what God would say are the biggest mistakes we make in worship? Things like not being focused, the leadership not preparing adequately, or thinking more about whether you like what’s going on more than if God is properly glorified. And then finally, what can we do to “fix” our heart if we find out that it’s not right in worship?
Come back around to a final question: does God care more about holy worship or holy living? (both) What does holy living have to do with holy worship? What do you need to change this week in your lifestyle to worship God more rightly?
Aside: National vs. Personal Sacrifices
God instituted a series of feasts to be celebrated throughout the year that would take the nation through a cycle of atonement, thanksgiving, and consecration. People would donate animals to be sacrificed at such events which would take place inside the Tabernacle on the primary altars. There is evidence that personal sacrifices would take place on a series of altars outside the Tabernacle entrance. Based solely on logistics, I would believe that. Just taking 800,000 families sacrificing once a year, that would be 3000 sacrifices a day (not on Sabbath). The people and the offerings wouldn’t all “fit” in the small space of the Tabernacle except very tightly.
Closing Thoughts: Communities Who Were Set Apart
There are a number of Christian movements around the world who believe that the only way they can truly live set apart to God is to physically live set apart from the world. Here, I’m not talking about cults who live in compounds for the leader to control the people; I’m talking about legitimately Christian movements.
You might know that monasteries/convents all began with that idea, and there are still monks and nuns today (although many fewer today). But there are movements in all traditions with that ideal. From the old Baptist tradition, there are Mennonites, Amish, Brethren, and Hutterite. (There is a Church of God Mennonite church outside of Wrens). But there are no hard-and-fast rules about such groups. Take Mennonites; some “old order” Mennonites still live in small, rural communities. But some live in cities, and they simply try to live out their beliefs in their urban environment.
Most renewal living movements are local and thus really hard to research. Quite a few came out of the charismatic movements of the 60s/70s in which people started taking the commands for holy living extremely seriously (and literally). One such movement is the Alleluia Community in Augusta. They are people from different churches who choose to live in the same neighborhood for mutual support; they call themselves an “Alternate Society”. There are groups like that all over the country. While they can develop a bad reputation (usually for being extreme or "odd" compared with American norms), more often than not such groups are simply made up of concerned Christians who want to try to live set apart from a culture that is not very conducive to conservative Christian living.
You might wonder if they are taking the command to be set apart too literally. But I wonder about those of us who don't live in such alternate societies: are we taking God’s call to live set apart to Him seriously enough?
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