Brace yourself. I’m about to hit you with some Old
Testament. And not just any Old Testament. Today’s inspiration came from the
book of Leviticus. Now, if you are somewhat new to Christianity and just
getting into and excited about reading the Bible, the book of Leviticus may not
be the best place to start. Not that any of the Bible is more special or more
true than another part but it’s honestly a hard book to get into. If you aren’t
familiar with Leviticus, it is a whole book of the Bible written to the priests
and spiritual leaders who were from the tribe of Levi (which is where Leviticus
came from. Clever right?). It goes over what types of sacrifices need to be
brought, when they need to be brought, how often, and how to properly perform
these sacrifices.
Reading Leviticus has made me very thankful that I live on
this side of the cross. Old Testament sacrifices were either animals like cows
or sheep or it could like grains and spices. It all depended on the sin that
had been committed and the type of sacrifice necessary to cleanse it. As I’ve
been reading through all of this, for some reason I just keep imagining the
smell. The sacrifice was used to symbolically wash away the sin in someone’s
life but that doesn’t mean it smelt good! There were still blood and body
parts. Some of it was burned in the temple, some was saved for the priests to eat,
and the really gross parts (I’ll just let you use your imagination to figure
out which parts those were) were taken outside of the city and burned away from
the temple. The actual sacrifice taking place would have a completely
overwhelming experience.
But something specific that stuck out to me today was when I
was reading about Moses ordaining Aaron and his sons. (This is found in
Leviticus 8 in case you were curious). So the ordination of the priests was a
multi-step process. There were several sacrifices that were made to make
everything including the clothes that they would be wearing ready to serve in
God’s temple. One of things Moses did was take the blood of the ram sacrifice
and rub some on Aaron’s right ear, the thumb of his right foot, and the big toe
of his right foot. Now at first I kind of just read over it and was like “hm
that’s interesting.” But then I stopped and read it again and realized God has
a reason for everything so why those 3 places? So I’m not at all saying I know
why God chose those places but this is how I interpreted it.
Aaron and his sons were about to take up the responsibility
of serving God for their whole lives, which is what we should be doing as
believers. Our jobs just look a bit different. But in order to be able to live
our lives for God, we first have to be able to HEAR what He is telling us. God
can speak to us through His word or through the small voice in our hearts when
we pray to Him and are seeking for answers. But we need to be tuned in and
listening for Him. Second, I think putting the blood on the thumb (or the hand
in general) is significant because a lot of time we think of our hands being
associated with our WORK. We need to conduct ourselves at work in an honest and
uplifting way. We should always be working towards understanding God’s purpose
and design for us and how we can use our talents and gifts to bring Him honor
and glory. Finally, we need to constantly be WALKING with the Lord. The Bible
talks about us keeping in step with Spirit. Our feet take us where we are
whether it’s church or the bar. We are responsible for the places we take
ourselves. But when we follow God, He will guide us to exactly where He wants
us to be.
God loves you. I love you. Go live a life without fear.
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