Leviticus 21-23 Mark 1:21-45

Good Morning God! I am so excited about the longer days. I love the sunshine and living here in the desert we get a lot of it. I am so content to sit here and feel the sunrise come up drinking a cup of coffee and reading God’s word. I need to remember that my relationship with him will never fail if I work at it. He is the one person that will never let me down.
Now we are still on regulations. I know it seems like there are a lot of them, there are. People get caught up in us being bound by the regulations as well. We aren’t. Now that doesn’t mean we can just run around doing what we want. There are some things that are set because they are how we have a relationship with God. Some things just obviously get in the way of us being holy. Many of the regulations though were to make up for the imperfection of the sacrifices being done and to teach submission. Jesus came and paid the ultimate sacrifice for us so that part is no longer necessary. Sometimes I think it would be better for God to require us to follow all the rules, including me because I see a lack of submission in us. Then I realize that we are just being rebellious and we have to choose submission.
Chapter 21 deals with priests. These things were given for them to follow so they would be different than non-priests. They would be set apart. The sanctification that God gave to them was to be lived out in their daily lives. They had to do things completely opposite of all the priests of the pagan religions around them. They had to remain separate in every way from everyone else in order to bridge that gap. Their lives and the lives of their families were subject to stricter rules than others because they were an imperfect bridge to God and had to try to make up for that imperfection. We don’t have to worry about that anymore. Jesus came and filled that gap for us perfectly. Now we are in the role of priests, and he makes us holy. We are to be separate and different in our demeanor and behavior, but he is the one who intercedes for us with God, and he is perfect. The way we look is not as much of an issue. Jesus made it very clear that what we are on the outside is nothing compared to what we are on the inside. This is a fine line to walk though because he also calls us his temple. So while we should not focus on what we look like, we should be aware of how we treat that temple. Doing things that damage the body, especially permanently, with no reason but our own fulfillment of desires would still be on the list of things I would say also damage that relationship with God.
As the parent of a special needs child, this section hurt a little to read. I know that God loves us all, regardless of our infirmities. I also know that this is about appearance for the heathens who considered disabilities a curse and would look down on a god who didn’t value perfection. Yet, it still hurts my heart that if my son had been born into the tribe of Levi he would have been withheld from serving God in his full capacity. I am so thankful that we live now where God uses us all as priests and allows us regardless of our scars and blemishes (physical, mental and spiritual) to serve him as much as we choose to. I know that God has plans for my son and I am excited to see them come about.
One other thing that struck me had to do with the hair trimming. I watch guys now being so vain about their hair. They are careful to trim it daily and spend much time fixing it. Girls are the same way. If one hair is out of place they will spend a lot of time on that. To me, that is what God is trying to avoid. He knows us better than we know ourselves. The amount of time the priests of other religions would have spent on grooming, his priests are now free to serve him. As we enter lent today that is something I am thinking about. I still haven’t decided what to give up and devote to God this 40 days. Then I realize that while this is a great practice in discipline, my entire year has been one big lent. I have given up a lot of things and given that over to God. These are things I won’t be taking back. So this lent, I think I will just recommit myself to writing this blog every day and give the Lord an hour of my time daily to study his word, write about it and pray.
Chapter 23 deals with the Jewish Holidays. I have a great book on this that has recipes and songs and such. I have been to many Jewish celebrations and they are beautiful. I try to incorporate the same elements into the celebrating we do of our own holidays. There are seven sacred festivals according to this. For Israel, the festivals were calls to worship all together. It wasn’t just small groups, it was as a nation together in unity as one. Can you imagine us trying to make our national holidays this way? We are too proud of our individuality. I would encourage you to study more about these feasts and really look at what they were for. Each one focuses them on one aspect of their relationship with God. I could write an entire blog just on that! lol
I was thinking about Mark this morning. He must have had ADD or something because he just whizzes through the stories and only gives you what he thinks you absolutely need to know in order to see that Jesus is the Christ and be able to share that with others. I can’t believe that in half a chapter he’s about a quarter of the way into any of the other books. Lol Right in the beginning of our reading is a statement that I think all of the gospel writers make. “Jesus taught with authority, not as the scribes.” (v22) This doesn’t jump out at you unless you really think about it. Jesus taught with assurance, he didn’t leave room for questions or debate. He didn’t quote authorities or other people, he merely spoke God’s word. We will see Paul address this topic later on in the year, but I want you to think about who you quote the most. Who do you go to for authority? Are you allowing the Holy Spirit to speak to you directly from the scriptures or are you putting your faith in others to do it for you and focusing on what they are telling you more often than not? Now don’t go tell Pastor Wayne or Pastor Rich that I told you their preaching doesn’t matter. They are doing what I’m talking about. They speak and preach right from God’s word. I am thankful for that every day.
Then a demon tries to call Jesus out. Jesus silences him. People were freaking out because this was not normal. Obviously they knew this man had an unclean spirit because they didn’t question that it had been removed, they merely questioned how this had come about. Jesus was more than what they were used to in a religious leader. Spiritually, he changed the game. This drew people to seek him out.
I also love the statement made in the story of Peter’s mother-in-law. She was sick as a dog, lying in bed with a fever. In my studies of the Jewish culture at that time, I haven’t seen much lying around of women unless they are close to death. They were servants to the core, which is why Martha kept getting so upset with Mary. Peter’s mother-in-law was too sick to do that. Jesus healed her and she went right to serving him. That is a wonderful example of what we are to do when Jesus heals us.
Another lesson we often miss is in verses 35-38. Jesus illustrates for us the proper way to do ministry. He spent a lot of time ministering to people’s needs in Galilee that day and what looks like much of the night. It says that after all of that, in the morning, he got up and went to be alone with God. He prayed quietly and apparently well hidden since the disciples had to go on a hunt for him. I think we are often so tied up in what we’re doing for our ministry, we forget to minister to ourselves. People often complain about not being fed spiritually. We see Jesus showing us here that it is our responsibility to be fed directly by God. Ministry is important but even Jesus had to stop and spend quiet time with God, so how much more do we need this? The next section makes me smile as well. The disciples find Jesus and want him to continue because he has grown a following. Jesus turns from the public acclaim and says it’s time to help elsewhere. It was not about building a popular base. It was about helping people. It’s not about building a mega church, it’s about reaching people and healing them. Jesus wasn’t interested in having a fan club, he was interested in reaching as many people as he could with his message. I think we ignore a lot of the lessons in how Jesus did his ministry. Again, we see another lesson of this in the story of the leper. Not only did Jesus heal him, but he touched him, which we’ve been reading is something no Jew would have done. Who knows how long this person had gone without the touch of another human. Yet Jesus touched him and showed him love in ways that no one else would. How can you and I be that Jesus for someone today?
Tomorrow’s reading is Leviticus 24-25 and Mark 2:1-22.