40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Episode 114 (Leviticus 6:8-29)

Episode Date: March 23, 2018

Chad and Daniel talk about the word "Law" or "Torah" in the old testament and why understanding it matters. How is holiness contagious? What is Jesus really doing when he heals people? How is Jesus both Word and Sacrament and how is that consistent with the old testament? Sanctification hasn't changed any more than God has. Have a listen!

Welcome to another episode of 40 Minutes in the Old Testament. I'm Daniel Amir Price, joined by Chad Bird. Chad, what's going on? Hey, man. Enjoying spring break down here in Texas. And gearing up for a little trip. I'm taking my son to Washington, D.C. this week. Ooh.

Yeah, we're hitting it big time. Yeah. See the sights. Right on. So is it spring weather there? In D.C.? No, no, no. In Texas.

In Texas, yeah. Yeah, actually, we're doing pretty good down here. Yeah, we've got like, I don't know. it gets up to around 70 something like that so it's pretty good that's good weather for us that's pretty good dude freeze our butts off in dc but that's all right yeah yeah we'll hurry back to texas we'll be all right washington dc on the spring break that's not bad you know there's some we have some exciting stuff uh to talk about this is the first time that we've been recording since officially becoming a part of the 1517 podcast network uh so like that's it that's a new thing

that you guys can look out for, and some of you might be like, I don't know what that is. You wouldn't because it has not been a thing until right this moment. But you might not even know what 1517 is. So 1517 is an organization, a nonprofit organization

that is basically a resource creator, a reformational resource creator, very much in line with all the stuff that we do. and we've linked up officially and they are putting together this sort of podcast network and there's going to be a bunch of other podcasts on there and hopefully

we cross-pollinate and all that sort of stuff but it's exciting we're going to try to combine forces and take over the theological world it's a good combination of forces it really is of course we've been working with them

unofficially for a while now and it's just been fantastic to for them to uh to speak at our conferences for for us to speak at theirs get to know them share ideas uh so yeah if you're not familiar with what 1517 is doing check it out because lots lots of good stuff a lot of good material a lot of good speakers it's exciting to uh to be part of their officially part of their group now that's right it is it is So you can go over to 1517legacy.com and check out what they're doing. And I don't know how soon, in conjunction with the release of this, that podcast network, part of that will be available.

I know it's being built out and it will be part of the site over there. But what it will enable you to do is discover other podcasts that hopefully you'll find beneficial. So there's some new podcasts in the works from different people, some whom you may be familiar with, some whom maybe you're not. But both 40 Minutes in the Old Testament and 30 Minutes in the New Testament will be part of that. I know Donovan Riley is about to fire up a new podcast that I think sounds super interesting. I won't talk too much about it because it's not my podcast, and I don't want to say anything about it that's not true. But it sounds interesting, and I like listening to him talk, so I know that that's something that's going to be coming to that too. So go over there and check it out.

we're excited to be for for the podcast and just for christville fast in general in general to be officially part of 1517 okay chad we have been going through leviticus i saw you throwing out the hype material this morning on the social media see that yeah throwing it out getting people fired up yep getting people amped uh so i i don't know how amped they got but i saw it and i was like all right it's gonna it must be a good one we must be we must be about to spit straight fire today actually a good segue actually when i talk about fire i see see yeah it was an it was an accidental segue was it accidental though chad what was it yeah is anything really is anything so uh yeah we're we're at a uh you might not have realized that we're actually at a

dividing point if you uh if you were to kind of outline leviticus into its major sections then uh we are we are at one of those transitions from one part to another if you listen to the last episode you know we talked about the uh what either called the guilt offering or the the reparation offering. That's the one where you tack on the 20% on top of the sacrifice, if you listen to that one. Or you never know. I mean, some of these folks, they'll listen to like three or four in a row. So maybe you actually just finished it, and now you're listening to this one. So whatever the case may be, that wrapped up really the first round of discussions in Leviticus. You know, we talked about the burnt offering. We talked about the meal offering and the sin offering. And then lastly, the guilt of the reparation offering. What happens now is kind of interesting because it's not like we're finished with those. It's not like there's nothing more to say about those particular offerings.

But what happens at this point in, let's see, Leviticus chapter 6, verses 8 and following, is we're going to cover a few details about those offerings that are not discussed in the previous chapter. So it's not like we're going completely over the same kind of material again. but what happens in this section is there's a whole lot of focus on some of the particulars about those sacrifices that aren't discussed, and there's actually a very major focus on eating in this section. In fact, I was doing a little looking this morning, and the Hebrew verb for for eat, which is akal. You could write it in English as A-K-A-L. That particular verb occurs 29 times in this section, the section that stretches from chapter 6, verse 8, through the end of chapter 7. So all of chapter 7 and about half or so of chapter 6, you have 29 occurrences

of that verb to eat so obviously eating is a major part of what is what is talked about here and it's eating all sorts of things i mean that you got the the eating of certain parts of the sacrifices uh certain the people the priest can eat part of it uh the people eat the rest of it the eating of the the part of the grain offering in the form of the course of bread and you also have prohibitions against the eating of certain things like the eating of the fat from some of the sacrifices, as well as, of course, the blood, which we'll talk about more in depth as we go through some of the upcoming chapters. In a word, eating is going to be a major theme of what we see here. So each of these sections is going to start out with something like this, something like this

phrase. So this is the law for the burnt offering, or this is the law for the grain offering, or this is the law for the sin offering. So that's the way each of these is introduced. Now, I'm pretty sure we've talked about this before, but it bears repeating. Anytime in the Old Testament that you see the English word law, you kind of have to do a switch in your head. Because the Hebrew word beneath that English word for law is Torah. For some reason, the English translators have chosen to render Torah as law. So I'm pretty sure without exception in the Old Testament, when you see the word law, behind it is the Hebrew word Torah. But the problem is that Torah doesn't mean law. Torah comes from the verb yara, which means to teach. And so Torah just basically means

the teaching. And as you know, when we're talking about biblical teaching, biblical teaching can be any kind of teaching. It's probably either going to be a teaching about the law, about what you should do or what you should refrain from doing, or it's going to be a teaching about how God wants to do good things for you. It's going to be a teaching about the gospel. So when you see, for instance, in these particular sections that this is the law for the burnt offering, really it's, this is the Torah, this is the teaching about the burnt offering, or this is the Torah, this is the teaching about the grain offering. Now, the reason I think this is important is because, well, there's lots of reasons, but one of them is that because we associate the Old

Testament so much with law, sometimes that prejudices us against it, because we think that all we're going to be hearing about is stuff we got to do a list of requirements for us and we miss the the good news we miss the the way that god is using this particular torah this particular teaching in order to show us how he wants to take care of our sins to remove our uncleanness to give us holiness to restore us into the communion of his of his people which is really what these particular Torah sections are about that we're going to cover in Leviticus 6 and 7. These particular Torah teachings about these sacrifices are certainly, included in them, are certainly some prohibitions, what you're not supposed to do. But the overall theme that we have

here is that God is teaching us, he is Torah-ing us about how he desires to remove our uncleanness and to replace it, not just with his cleanness, but with his sanctification. And a major way that's going to happen is by consuming. So that kind of gets us right back to the whole theme that we see in these two chapters. There's 29 occurrences of the verb to eat. So all of this is kind of interconnected. So these teachings are about how God wants to sanctify us by means of tangible stuff.

Yeah, it always bothers me when people go to the Psalms and they'll say, you know what David said? I love your law. I meditate on it day and night. And I don't mind when they say that because, I mean, obviously that's what he says. But they imply that what David is saying is, I love your Ten Commandments.

I just am, I mean, they're just rolling around my head all night long. And that's not exactly what he's saying. Certainly, I mean, okay, the Ten Commandments are part of what God has said, but what someone like David is saying when he says, I love your laws, I love all the things you've said to me. love all the things you've told me this then also includes all the promises of god uh so so he's he is saying essentially that i love i love your law and your gospel uh it's not it's not simply man those 10 things i mean i just just i can't get over them you know it's not it's not really

like that uh it's and i would even argue that it's probably more so that what he's saying is when he says, like, I'm meditating on your law day and night, but that he's meditating on the good things that God has said day and night. I mean, you take a book like even the wisdom literature and stuff, what you really have in Ecclesiastes is an instruction manual on how to live by promise. You know, this is what is mostly going on with this kind of stuff. So, yeah, when you see law in the Old Testament, there is a tendency due to people in teaching positions making it so where every time you see law, you think Moses coming down from Sinai. And that's just not what that word means.

No. And it's amazing to me, as I've told people about that over the years, how you can often see their – you'll see their eyes light up. Because something so, I mean, it's really a simple thing, but it changes so much. You know, when you realize what is behind that, if they've been operating with the assumption that law in the Old Testament does mean just law and not Torah, then all of a sudden you've got a whole other beautiful side to this expression that you didn't realize was there before. so it's something I like to point out on occasion and clue folks in who might not realize that as to the beauty that is behind

that one word Torah so we're going to be seeing some of this in these next couple chapters I think also this might be a little bit of a side note but not really you know when Jesus says he comes to fulfill

the law, I don't come to abolish the law but to fulfill it He always talks about the law and the prophets There's nothing inherently offensive About a guy saying I've come to do the law I mean the Pharisees were like professional Doers of the law

There's nothing offensive about that I've come to do all the things That God said to do And to not do the things he said not to do That's what I'm here to do Everyone would have been like yeah man But that's not what he's saying He's saying I'm coming to fulfill

Everything that God has ever said All the things, the law, as in the Ten Commandments, absolutely, I'm coming to fulfill that. All the promises of a Messiah, I'm coming to fulfill that. Everything the prophets have ever said, every word that God has ever given you, I'm coming to fulfill all of that stuff. That's a little different. That's a little different, yeah. Jesus is basically saying everything that's in Scripture that you've been reading about,

that God has been writing and preaching, proclaiming all through the centuries, I'm it. Yes, that's way more scandalous than I'm here to obey the Ten Commandments. Yeah. You know, Jesus preached in Capernaum in the synagogue. After he read that particular section from Isaiah, he sat down and, you know, he said, today these words are fulfilled in your hearing. And he could really, I mean, if he would have begun reading with Genesis 1-1

and read through the end of the Old Testament and said the same thing, it would have been just as true. Right. Yeah, today, these scriptures, whatever they are, they have been fulfilled in your hearing. Because, you know, he is, as John says, he is the Word made flesh. Yeah, one of the things that would have been nice,

I would have really liked this, I mean, obviously, the text, he's God, he chose a good text to read. I approve of the text that was chosen. But if he wants just some gospel awesomeness You have to think that that's true That he could have read anything Which means that he could have literally opened it up

And read the Ten Commandments And then just said Today in your presence, this is all done They probably would have tried to drag him to the hill even faster To throw him down, right? done yeah it is completed it is completed

that reminds me of this saying by Augustine that all the commandments of God are kept when what is not kept is forgiven yeah that's nice yeah it's very much like that all the commandments of God are kept when what is not kept is forgiven and all is forgiven

in Christ who has kept the commandments in our in our stead and sense His Spirit so that He can continue to work those good works in our lives as well. Yeah, and it's not just the commandments. Obviously, as we just said, it's everything else. This is why we hear in the New Testament that in Christ all the promises of God are yes. That's what that means, that He's a fulfillment of every single thing that God has ever promised to do.

yeah i mean if if you read something in the old testament and you're and you're waiting it for it to be fulfilled outside of christ then you're doing it wrong right right whatever the old testament promise is about what god is going to do it has been fulfilled in the messiah even the last day i mean you might be thinking yeah but what about these well yeah because the the death and resurrection of christ has brought in the eschaton i mean we're we're still waiting for the full revelation of that but that was the last day that was i mean that's why people popped out of the grave right when christ was resurrected because they they were confused they thought oh look the eschaton's here well it really was because that really was that what that was that was the

end of the old creation the beginning of the new creation his resurrection is the first fruits of of our resurrection so what we're really waiting for is simply the full revelation of what we have already received as a down payment by uh by faith so all these old testament promises whatever they might be are fulfilled in him oh man all right let's do this let's do i'm sorry for the money trail but i think now we have established what law means when you hear it in these texts yeah yeah we like we got it we we've now built the foundation all right we're gonna we're gonna build some walls on it now so we got uh we got a lot of walls here we got a burn offering wall meal offering sin offering guilt offering wall peace offering so um i think the way that uh we

should we should go about this we're gonna just kind of jump a little bit here and there in this particular section rather than taking it uh point by point by point what i want to do is is uh focus on a couple of a couple of major themes that we see in each of these sections. And one of those, a good place to talk about it is in the second of these particular sections, where we are talking about the meal offering. So the burnt offering is first, and he gives a few details there about how that is to be cared for, how the fire is to be taken care of. The second section is about the meal offering or the grain offering. And in this particular section, Moses describes which parts of the meal offering are to go to the priest and which parts are to be reserved for the rest of the people, which parts go on the altar, things of that nature.

But there's one particular verse here that I'd like to focus on for a few minutes and to talk about what it means in this context and then what it means in the broader biblical context. So it's verse 18. So Moses has been describing how the meal offering is to be offered. and what's left is supposed to go back to Aaron and his sons and they eat it as these unleavened cakes in a holy place, which is in the court of the tent of meeting. And then it's verse 17. He says this, he says, I have given it, that is, I've given the meal offering, the bread as the share that is as the priest share from my offerings by fire it is and this is the this is the important phrase it is most holy like the sin offering in the guilt offering it is most holy

all right now kind of keep that in your mind now verse 18 every male among the sons of aaron may eat it it's a permanent ordinance throughout your generations from the offerings by fire to the lord Whoever touches them, that is, whoever touches these particular offerings, shall become consecrated. Now, here's what's going on here. You've got different kinds of holiness in the Old Testament. You've got two main divisions. You've got holy things, and you have most holy things. so a most holy thing is that which is going to communicate its holiness to whatever it touches

so you've got sin offerings that are most holy the altar is most holy as are a number of other parts like the the furnishings of the tabernacle and then later the temple they are most holy The meal offering is most holy. And, of course, we have the most holy place. Now, all of these most holy things, they are most holy because they are most intimately connected with the presence of God. That's how they become most holy. So you've got the most holy place where the most holy God is intimately connected. and the things that are most directly connected with his presence, they are the things that are

most holy. But the way that they give that holiness to the priest is by the priest touching them, or by the priest consuming them, by the priest in some way coming into connection with with these most holy things of god and so there's a there's a transference that goes on the holiness from one thing is transferred over to something else it doesn't lose its holiness but it transfers that holiness to this person who's touching it or who is consuming it so holiness in the old testament is contagious it's contagious not simply by being in its presence but by, by touching it or by consuming it. Now, the reason I think this is so important and really so kind of enlightening, I guess you could say for us is because we, we see how this particular

approach that God takes for giving holiness, for giving consecration or for giving sanctification, All those mean the same thing, is that God continues to work this way in the ministry of Christ as well as in the church today. I was looking through the New Testament this morning as I was going over this material, and it struck me just how often, I'm sure you've noticed this too, Dan, and probably those of you who are listening have noticed it too. But just when you take into account the number of times, it really becomes significant. If you look at how often either Jesus touched people or people touched Jesus or even the things that Jesus was most intimately connected with, that is his clothing. I just wrote down a few of these instances just to kind of give you a, and you could multiply this list, but just to kind of give you an idea as to some of the occasions in which Jesus, who is the Holy One of God, we can say the most Holy One of God, how he touches people and things. So just to start with, Peter's mother-in-law, right? She's sick. And Jesus goes into her home and he touches her hand. And as a result of that, she's healed. She sits up in bed. And the next thing you know, she's taking care of everyone. She's serving. there's two blind men who who come to jesus for healing and he touches the eyes of the blind men

now one of the stories that uh is uh probably also coming into your mind is the story of a woman who had been hemorrhaging for year after year after year and she went to the doctors and they couldn't do anything for in fact all they did was basically take her money so what does she do? She sneaks up behind Jesus when he's surrounded by all of these people. And she says to herself, if I can only touch the hem of his cloak, then I'll be healed. And so she does. She touches not even his body, but she touches his clothing. And as a result of that, she feels the the blood dry up and jesus feels power coming out of him and being communicated to someone else let me just give you a couple more examples and we'll come back and talk to you about these

one other one that i think we often miss is on the mount of transfiguration when the glory of the lord is revealed and we hear the the father speaking from from the cloud This is my beloved son. Listen to him. The disciples, of course, are overwhelmed with awe and with fear. And it says that Jesus came up to them and he spoke to them, but he didn't just speak to them. It says he he touched the disciples. And then two more examples. People bring little children to Jesus so that he can touch them. And when Peter lost his cool and cut off the ear of the high priest, when Jesus was arrested, Jesus touched the ear of the high priest. and as a result of that the man the man was healed now i think we we can't simply discount

all of these occurrences of jesus touching because this is in in a perfect outflow of what we see in the old testament here we have god himself the word of god made flesh the holy one of god the holy of holies the new tabernacle the new the new tent of god walking around and he he isn't just like somehow uh bearing some holiness he is like holiness incarnate and so what he does is he when he touches that touch communicates part of him to whatever and whoever he touches so when he when he touches peter's mother-in-law's hand or when he touches the little children uh he or when the hemorrhaging woman touches the hem of his cloak then he gives his gifts he gives of really who he is of healing and and life and restoration and holiness he gives

that through this this touch and so what what's happening there is really uh in the ministry of jesus you really see leviticus as the background of all of this because this is the way that the most holy one of god is sanctifying those who are around him giving them holiness giving them life giving them healing and and restoration so that's one side of what is going on here but there's also a very interesting flip side of that. You also have situations where Jesus touches people and touches things, which according to Leviticus, would render him unclean. Do you remember the story of the widow from Nain whose son had died? So she's a widow, so she doesn't have a husband anymore and now she doesn't have a son and jesus meets the funeral procession and he stops them

and he reaches out and he touches the uh the coffin he touches the beer that the body is on now you we we have talked about this before i know that if you if you come into contact with a corpse if you in some way you know your loved one dies and so you have to prepare the body for burial so you you touch you touch the body you touch anything connected with the body you are rendered unclean jesus in touching that uh that coffin or that beer that held the body he was touching that which would have rendered him ritually unclean and you could say the same thing probably probably say the same thing about the hemorrhaging woman but you can also say the same thing for sure about when jesus touched the leper by touching the leper jesus rendered

himself ritually unclean. Now, what's fascinating about that to me, even more so than those previous examples, is what you see is Jesus already, at that point in his ministry, beginning to take on the uncleanness of the world. So, he's taking on the uncleanness of the leper, even as he heals him he's taking on the uncleanness of death even as he resurrects the widow's son from name he's taking on the uncleanness of the hemorrhaging woman even as he heals her and you can you could you could you could uh stretch this out to all of the various healings that jesus performed he's like a sponge in his ministry it's not it's not like you got you have he waits until the cross to really begin that ministry of taking on the sins of the world,

his purpose in coming is to be one who soaks into himself everything that's wrong with the world, and so that he can finally, by his death, take care of all of that through his atoning sacrifice. yeah there jesus comes and uh your relationship with jesus is a give and take relationship except for he's doing the giving and the taking and so there it's a a relationship based on him assuming to himself all of your unrighteousness and all of your sin and then giving his righteousness but yes this happens uh i mean this is actually why he's born he is uh why he is

conceived even uh as opposed to just showing up and doing three years of ministry i mean uh there's the that's part of the assumption of sin this is what his baptism is about his baptism is about assuming a bunch of sin to himself but what you also see is that in all the resurrections that jesus performs uh there is a taking on death to himself that he that he is ultimately going to overcome and then there's this definitive view of monergism that happens because like dead people can't consent to being made alive so this is this is the way that he operates he comes in and takes sin whether anyone's okay with it or not even doesn't ask permission no he doesn't go around being like all right i'm here to take your sin if you'd like me to uh no he just goes around doing

that stuff and uh and yeah so absolutely the it is a matter of there's this the life of jesus is this constant taking in and giving out uh where he is taking on the sin of the world and giving out life he's taking on death and giving out life constantly i'm reminded of the of the of what uh our particular confessions say um luther said this that when you're talking about even things made holy and then those things being given to us that that god does not wish to deal with us apart from word and sacrament he doesn't deal with us we should deal with us in other ways and you might say that well i mean jesus is doing that but jesus is just the the big s sacrament i mean jesus just is the when we say word and sacrament well that that is christ he is the

word made flesh and that flesh is then given to you to eat and that blood is given to you to drink i mean he he is the he is both word and sacrament in one being uh and that that is how god deals with us and it's how god dealed with israel before that too that he connected it to things and he he tends to sanctify you and make you holy but not apart from means yeah yeah this the reason that he deals with us in that way gets to the the very core of of our own identity we are not we're not souls that are simply encumbered with bodies uh we are our bodies are not sort of the you know like an accidental part of us something we we we get rid of in order to be pure purely human we are we are embodied creatures that's the way that god wants us to be and because of that

god comes to us in embodied sorts of ways because we are people with bodies and those bodies need food god comes to us in food he comes to us in drink he comes to us as in fact one of us in the incarnation so the very fact that that we are we are embodied creatures god god affirms that and And God blesses that by coming to us in these embodied sorts of ways and tangible sorts of ways. And he's and he's always done that. He did that in the Old Testament. He does. He did that in his own ministry. And he continues to do that with us, with us as well. And as a result of that, he makes us holy. That is, he shares with us who he is. He had his most holy things in the Old Testament. He is the most holy one.

now he comes as a fulfillment of all of that which we talked about the first part of the podcast and then he continues to give us himself as the sacrament still today so all holiness is connected with christ for us to become holy for us to be sanctified it's never something that we it's not gonna do it yourself kit uh that we that we get it's rather christ giving us of his holiness so that we become as he is this is the way that we are this is the way that we are sanctified so much of our talk about sanctification is so divorced from the old testament that we we tend to make it nothing more than simply a ethical living as if as if that's what sanctification is all about sanctification is all about

having being touched by jesus basically that is being having a physical connection with the holy one of god just like it was in the old testament so what is today for anything to be holy for us to be holy there has to be that connection with the source of holiness so whole sanctification is always therefore a gift we are holied by the holy one of god by means of these tangible gifts whereby he communicates his holiness to us, and the Holy Spirit is the one who's using all of this, giving us these things of Christ, giving us Christ so that we might be as he is. So the most holy part has not changed. It's just simply all centered now in Christ, the Holy One, the Holy One of God.

And that's one of the things that we see over and over throughout this particular section of Leviticus 6 and 7. is that God ties his most holiness to food, things like this grain offering or the meal offering. And as a result of consuming this most holy bread, the priests are made holy, kept holy, sanctified by the consumption of what God has put his holiness into. And this transfers perfectly over into the New Testament, because we are now in Christ, the priesthood. And as Hebrews says, we eat from an altar. That altar is Christ himself. By means of consuming Christ, as we are part of him, part of his priesthood, we are sanctified.

We are welcomed into the presence of the Father. We are made everything that God wants us to be in his Son. you know you know chad all this talk about god holing people and sanctifying people and giving us uh life and salvation via ordinary means makes me think that some people's god might be too glorious i should write a book about that yeah book plug just saying guys yeah i'm gonna i'm gonna jot that down that'd be a good title for a book your

god is too glorious yeah you should probably if you're if you're if you like the things we're talking about you should probably go over to amazon and pick that up by chad but chad they'll that's what they'll have to do now because they're not going to listen to you and me any longer because we are out of time we're out of time all right we'll pick it up from there next week we will guys north dakota may 19th if you're anywhere around there you should come and hang out with me and chad and a bunch of other people if we're going to be talking about the psalms you should totally come out you can go over to christophast.org uh get all the information also uh we don't mention this very often but if you

would rate and review the podcast on apple on uh on itunes that goes a long way and would help us out and if you like it uh share it on your social media we don't plug a lot of that stuff we are we're bad about our own promotion but i'm going to try to do better we would appreciate a rate a review a share that goes a long way that's a way you can help us out chad we'll see you next week all right we'll see you then ¶¶