Good morning!
Text: Leviticus 9-11; Proverbs 15:1-17
Leviticus gets pretty interesting at this point, as worship is inaugurated, Aaron’s sons are consumed by fire from the Lord for taking worship lightly, and the Hebrew dietary laws are introduced. What will follow includes many rules about what is clean and what is unclean. The basic purpose of all this is captured in Leviticus 10:10-11, as the Lord speaks to Aaron (patriarch of the priests):
“You are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean, and you are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes that the Lord has spoken to them by Moses.”
The ancient Israelites, and the Church today, are both called to live in holiness. Now, these rules are particular to Old Testament Israelites – we are not under these laws. But, we are still called to holy living. One of the core requirements for the people of God is to know the difference between right and wrong, clean and unclean. To do so, we need to know what is okay and what is not okay. The instructions here to distinguish is at the core of morality and ethics – essentials for civil society. And, we need to always know that the only authority in the matter is what the Lord has said – not popular cultural trends. So, all of our choices must go through this very same grid.: “Is this okay? What did God say about this?”
in Him, Mike