Today’s Scripture Reading: Leviticus 7:1 through Leviticus 8:36
As I read the instructions for guilt offerings and peace offerings I began to ask myself questions like, “Did the guilt go away after the guilt offering?” “Was there peace in the camp after the peace-offering?”
After the last few days of reading we know the significance of the shedding of blood, but were the people changed? Was the blood shed in vain?
Here in lies the problem with the law. We can follow every tradition, ritual, or superstition that changes the outside but if change doesn’t happen on the inside, sooner or later we have to ask, what’s the point?
At the end of today’s reading Moses said to Aaron and his sons, “Everything we have done today was commanded by the Lord in order to purify you, making you right with Him (The Lord).” –Leviticus 8:34
This is the same Aaron who just a few chapters back gathered the Israelites’ gold and made them a golden calf to worship in Moses absence. (Exodus 32) As I think back I really haven’t seen Aaron’s relationship with the Lord growing. I know, my problem is—I’m comparing him to Moses. Please understand that I’m just wondering out loud, but do you think Moses might have said, “Okay Aaron we’ve done everything we can to purify you and make you right with the Lord, now you better not mess this up!”
Jesus’ words to a group of priests in Matthew 23:25-27 would come many years later, but I couldn’t help but think of these words as I imagined Aaron and his sons in their priestly garments.
What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence! You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too. What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity.
Think about how beautiful Aaron and his brothers must have looked in their priestly garments but were they “filled with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurities”? Were they just going through the motions or did they want to “Know Him More”?
Father, help us to filter every religious tradition, ritual, and superstition through the Your Word. God show us our motives. Lord, “create in me a clean heart, O Lord. Renew a loyal spirit within me”. (Psalm 51:10) …help us to Know You More!
Amen and Amen!
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©2012, Dianne Guthmuller
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Leviticus 9:1 through Leviticus 11:47
The Journey 