Week 18: Exodus 35-40; Leviticus 1; 4; 16; 19

And they came, everyone whose heart stirred in them and everyone whom their spirit made willing. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:52

A little bit tedious. Um, Leviticus and Numbers were were the ones when when I was twelve years old and was trying to read all the standard works. Don't ask me why I was doing that, okay? I was crazy. I stopped. I said, I can't read the Old Testament because Leviticus and Numbers. I don't know what's going on none of this makes sense to me. And maybe that's where my journey began. But hopefully I can explain a little bit of what this means. Um the reality is we don't need to know everything that's happening in the temple in order to understand the message of the temple. But some of the things are just interesting and cool that can maybe provide some insights into what this might be, what the temple was trying to symbolize, and then as well um what our own modern-day temple experience can be and what um being a covenant people of God can mean. So what I what we're seeing here is the the in the institution of the worship of the temple and the sacrificial system. And it all comes back to in the come follow me points this to the idea of being holy. Now, I did an episode a couple of years ago about this concept of holiness, but I'm happy to kind of do a brief, I don't know how brief it will actually be, but uh an overview of what what does holiness to the Lord really mean? What does this term holy mean? Now, the word for holy um in Hebrew is kadosh, kadosh, kadesh. Um, and really it's just it always is referring to a people, a holy people, all and it all uh most of the time in my mind, and the scriptures points back to this idea of the temple, right? Um, God is holy, his place is holy, the the tabernacle, the temple is holy. Um there things are set apart as holy. So let's talk about the difference between sacred, between uh mostly like sanctification, between um sacrifice, what does that mean, and what does holiness mean? So the term the the the etymology for the word of sacrifice for all of you Latin slash Italian speakers, sacre fare, right? To make holy, to make sacred, set apart, right? Holy, set apart, different. So we have that term sacrifice. You're making something holy, making something different, set apart from the world, given to the Lord for a specific purpose, and it is intentional. All of these things are intentional, and like the Come Follow Me points out, done with a willing heart. And we'll get into that a little bit later. Then we continue with um this idea of holiness. Okay, where does the term holy come from? Uh it this is an Indo-European um word, holy, um, and it comes from the same uh Proto-Indo-European or Old English. Actually, I might it might not even be Proto-European, Indo-European, it might just be English, uh, like Old English, which comes from the same word as like heel. Whole holiness, right? H uh W H O L E, whole or heel. All of those words are going to be the same. And I took a class from Dr. Uh Dan Belknap at BYU, where he described that he likes to think about holiness as healing, as complete wholeness. Um, and that that can also be what the term perfection can lead to, right? Being completely whole, being completely healed, being holy. And that is what I see in all of these things. The Lord wants us to be completely whole, healed with him. He is whole and healed, he is full of the Spirit, He is set apart and different from the wet rest of the world, mostly, in my opinion, are or in in one way to look at it rather than my opinion, but one way to look at it is because he himself is whole and complete. A lot of things in this world are broken and imperfect. But the Lord Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father are not. They are whole, they are complete. And the way that we can become that way is through the atonement of Jesus Christ, the atonement, right? Where he makes an expiation, right? That's a term that that is used. That means a cleansing through blood for us. The atonement or to atone in Hebrew is going to be to cover, to kefar. And this is important because the seat of atonement, or the day of atonement, is going to be that is what Yom Kippur is, that is what is being explained in Leviticus 16. This is the day of atonement, this is the day of covering where all of the sins are going to be covered, taken care of. We can also think of this as pointing back to Adam and Eve. When they're in the Garden of Eden, or when they've just been pushed out, the Lord makes a covering for them. They've covered themselves, right? We talked about that, but the Lord has already provided a covering for them in the way of a sacrifice. He had to have killed an animal so that they would be covered, so that their nakedness or their humanness or their mistakes, right, that they're naturally born with are covered. And this is what we see here. The Lord is covering for each of us, and that is that's what's being taught here. So um Moses is now making this holy place, this tent of meeting where the presence of the Lord is. Um and because the people were not willing to uh go themselves up into the mountain and become all a holy people, even though they still are holy in one way, they still are set apart from the world in one way. Now we're instead of it being a kingdom of priests and priestesses, now we're just going to have a specific tribe who last week stood up for the truth and right, right? Now they're they made the right choices, so and they're also of the same house of Moses and of Aaron. They're going to be set apart. These are the Levites. Now, as we go through, we'll learn that there are different levels to the Levitical priesthood, and we'll go through that um later. But it is the priests that are holy. They are now a set apart people, right? Different, whole and complete and taken care of. Their whole, you know, for their whole purpose is to take care of the temple and to provide and make sure that the people are keeping the law of God and good in the eyes of God, can continually enter into his presence. And so they're going to make a tabernacle to be this. And we've talked about uh last week Moses received the revelation for what this was going to look like, and now he's coming down and putting it into action. And it is interesting because this happens by the free will and willing hearts of the people. So um, you know, the Moses came and he says, Um, you know, this is the thing that the Lord has commanded, you know, we need to bring all these wonderful and expensive items that they have, and you know, the very best that you have, and we need to use it for the temple. And the people are willing. And in Exodus 35, verse 21, it says, And they came, everyone whose heart was stirred, and everyone whose spirit was willing, and brought the Lord's offering to be used for the tent of meeting, and for all its services, and for the sacred vestments. And this is, I think, one of the most important scriptures this whole week, which is everyone whose heart was stirred, who was like, you know what? Yeah, the Lord has asked me to do something. I can participate in the building of this. And my spirit is willing. They were not forced. It was a commandment of the Lord, but they could choose whether or not they were going to follow it. And that is true for all each of us today, as we ultimately choose Jesus Christ. It is, do we have our is our heart stirred? Right? It's not just that we feel obligated to do it, but do we feel in our heart that it is something that we want to do? And we do we freely and willingly give it? And also, I think it points to, you know, verse 21 speaks on as Jesus will later teach what all of these sacrifices were ultimately about, which is that the Lord doesn't need these fancy things. He could have figured out another way to get it, right? He could have figured out he doesn't need meat, he doesn't need these sacrifices. What he needs is our willing hearts and our contrite spirits, right? Taught very well in the Book of Mormon. It's all about the disposition of our hearts. And as we will see, as these traditions continue to go through the Israelites, they'll forget that in certain ways. Just as we do, I think sometimes we think, you know, it's like, okay, you know, am I living the exact 100% correct way, or am I, you know, 100% not sinful and repenting fully, completely, um, and living the best life that I can live and never making mistakes. But it was never really about that. It's about our is our heart willing? Because the Lord has taken care of it and he has put processes in the way that we can receive forgiveness when we make mistakes. But it's more about who we are on the inside. And prophets later um will emphasize this to the Israelites as they forget this later in the Old Testament. So they bring all of these things and they're participating in the building of this temple. It is not just God's temple that's far away from them, but they're actively building it, they're participating in it. God needs them in a way to help build his temple, build his kingdom, just as he needs us today. He needs every single one of us, and all we need to have is what we have with us: a willing heart, a contrite spirit to just go, to serve, to provide whatever we have for the building up of his kingdom. And it's so wonderful that we see this here. And then there are people who have special skills to bring, right? We have Bezazel and Ohalib who come and they bring their stuff and they create this temple with all of its wonderful um accoutrements, right? Um, everyone whose heart is stirred is still coming to help. So he needs us to bring our skills, to bring all of the wonderful things, even the uh quote unquote worldly, which aren't worldly. They're good things that God can use in each of our lives to further build his kingdom. So, you know, I even though we might not be physically building temples, some of us might be, you know, but maybe, you know, what can we contribute to the kingdom of God? Because he needs each of us to do so. So, and then like we talked about last week, these are the finest things. We're gonna have things of bronze, things of silver, things of gold as we get further into the temple. And each level is a different level of holiness or wholeness, because in the presence of God is the completeness, it's the most holy, the most complete, the most healed, if you will, right? It's it's completely put together. It's gold, it's the highest, it's the celestial kingdom, right? And so they make, you know, for the table of the bread of the presence, right? Because the people, the priests, the 70 were able to eat with God. That's a reminder of that. Drink wine. There's the menorah, beautiful, the light of God that Jesus Christ later in the New Testament will use the menorah, the lighting ceremony, to say, I am the light. You see that? That's me. You know, you see those beautiful menorah. I'm actually that menorah. Just as it lights the world and the beautiful temple continually, I am that light in your lives. And all of these things can be pointing back to Jesus Christ, right? The altar of incense where you go before the veil, which ultimately also represents Jesus Christ, because through him is our way back into the presence of the Father. And it's prayers before him, it's the prayers before the veil that allow us to enter into God's presence. Helps us become prepared and holy, lifted up, the prayers lifted up before the veil, before the presence. And a lot of these things can also be seen in modern-day temples. The idea of going from each delineation or each section into more and greater holier space as we learn to be more holy, as we learn to become more complete and whole with Jesus Christ. Prayers and covenants and repentance happening in each day's cleansing and anointing with oil and cleaning every part of the body to make sure that it is whole. Um, we talked about last week how um, you know, blood is put on the toe and on the thumb and on the forehead, pointing to action and the hand pointing to action and moving forward with the holiness and with life, with purpose, right? Blood here doesn't only represent um death, but it actually represents life. It's this breathing animal. It is their life. The blood is what carries life, especially for the ancient people. And so by by blood being used, it represents the life of this animal living. It is it doesn't just represent death, it actually represents life. And I think this is a different way than we look at it, right? We're like, oh, blood, death, maybe that's what we would see now. But it actually represented life for these people, a reminder that this animal had to give their life, you know, in a representation for the people who could have been, you know, killed if they had unholily and unworthily entered God God's presence. And then, um, like we talked about last week, go ahead and listen to last week's if you would forgot, I described, you know, what the priest was wearing. Um and again, these are just sacred things that that help set them apart. They also had practical purposes at the time, especially, you know, like you're gonna want to wear your linen breeches because some think that, especially in the king uh the Temple of Solomon, that number one, linen breeches are going to be linen, especially common in Egyptian worship practices to show that the priests were holy, right? So the priests are holy, they're wearing something different. Um, also, uh, the the priests in the Temple of Solomon, the altar would have been maybe high up, so you have to climb up to get into the altar. And if you're not wearing any linen breeches, you could be render yourself immodest. So there's also practical purposes for these things as well. Um and then we get into this concept of in in Leviticus. And Leviticus is an interesting book. We don't know when it was written. Um, the book is claiming, right, that this is written at the time of Moses, and it 1,000% could be and probably is at least some of the tradition. But besides that, it doesn't really refer back to any other point in time. It just kind of reads this list of sacrifices. And so when was this finalized? Was it finalized at the time of Moses? Um, we don't was it added, was it, you know, added upon as continual practices needed to come up, and as the Lord revealed to them line upon line, which would be not unheard of for us, maybe. But the reality is by the time that the Pentateuch was finalized, by the time so the five chapters of Moses, the Pentateuch, the first five chapters of the Old Testament were finalized, that was probably fifth century, so the Persian period. So um 5th century BCE. And so, you know, it could be that we know for sure that that's when this was finalized. Do we know that it started? No, we don't know. But that doesn't matter because we can still learn the concepts from these books of holiness, of healingness, of what our personal sacrifices in our lives can show about what our willing hearts can do and what I would say also the different functions of the atonement of Jesus Christ. A lot of times we think the atonement only works in one way for our lives, but I think we can see that Jesus Christ's power, even through the sacrifices in the law of Moses, helps show the different um things that the Lord can do for us in our lives. Now, for this next part, I'm going to be referring to a new book that Dr. Aaron Shade wrote about the Old Testament. Um, I highly recommend you buy this book. Uh, I think it's a Deseret book, but it's it's really, really good. Um, and he just explains in such a great way. He had me make this um kind of layout of what each of the sacrifices are. So the first one is going to be the burnt offering. And this is what's found in Leviticus 1. And this is a complete offering. In um in Hebrew, it's called an Olah, which is like uh a burning that is uh that lifted that is high or or burned. So it's a burnt offering, and it is the only offering that is completely consumed. No meat is given either to the priests or to the person offering, which is important. Why? Because at a time when you have so little food and animals, and being uh, you know, uh a shepherd or you know, taking care of your cattle is an important part of your livelihood to offer up a whole animal, specifically one that is unblemished, meaning that it probably doesn't have anything wrong with the meat, and that's you know, um, that's a really large sacrifice of someone, but it is complete. And uh Dr. Shade writes that its significance is to show complete surrender, devotion, and commitment to God. It symbolizes the reconciliation of the person with God. So this is what we would see. Um, and the um SBL study Bible also writes that this is probably one of the oldest sacrifices that there ever was. We're showing complete devotion to God by giving our full selves to them, representative of this animal. You the person would come, would bring this unblemished animal to the priest, they would put their hands upon the animal and say, This now represents me. And then the person, or sorry, then the animal would be completely burnt, consumed upon the fire. Right? Okay, love it. Then we have the grain offering. The grain offering is uh also voluntary, meaning you don't you there's not a specific time that you do this at, right? And it is flour or bread with a little bit of olive oil and salt. Salt is so interesting because um, again, the SBL uh study Bible and just like thought about what salt is, is that it shows the maintaining of a covenant. And it is uh it maintains this purity. So salt played a prominent role at the solemn meal, at a meal, that sealed a covenant in the ancient U Race. That is what the SBL study Bible says. So this is the sealing of a covenant. I love that when we think about Christ saying, you know, salt without uh oh gosh, salt that has been sample upon, are you as a salt that has lost its savor, right, that must be stamped upon. Is the covenant that you're living actually changing your life? Is it living our covenants that we've made with God, our relationship with God continuing, or or we just think of it as not, right? That that really it doesn't change or doesn't preserve, right? Because that's what salt was. It it preserved, it added a little bit of flavor, right? But it also preserved the meat and the and the meal, uh, meaning the the the like ground up flour. It preserved, and that's what covenants do. They help us preserve the relationship with God. So maybe let it let us keep it. And so the the green sacrifice was to show um it was it was thought of to show gratitude for the first fruits of the of the field, um, and just to show gratitude for God in general. And um Um, a handful of the offering would be burned, and then the rest went to the priests. So you, as the giver, would not receive anything. It was a complete giving, but then some went to the priests. Um, part of it, or the part that made it that made it holy, this renders it holy, but you know what? The priests need to eat. This is how they get their livelihood, and so it's still holy, but it's being consumed by the priests. Again, there's an element of symbolism, but then there's also a level of practicality in all these things. Next we have the fellowship offering, also known in the SBL Sin uh study Bible as the sacrifice of well-being. So this is what's uh in Leviticus 3. So this is a bull, sheep, and a goat, right? That could be offered. It's also voluntary, and it can go together with the grain uh it could also be a grain offering. And it's the fat, the kidneys, and parts of the liver were burned. This is what's burned, okay? The rest was then divided between the offerer and the priests to eat, and you would eat it there. You wouldn't bring it home, you would eat it there. And the reason that the fat kidneys and parts of the liver were burned was because these were thought to be um the you know, it is what brought the muscles together, so it it made the animal come together, but then also the kidneys were associated, again, according to the SBL Handbook, as the heart of the seat of thoughts, emotions, and life. So it's the life force. So we're burning up the life force, we're giving it to God, reminding ourselves that that he is the one who gives us life and that preserves us. And that is what the atonement can do. He he literally gives us life, both again, you know, through the resurrection, but even today, he can he can give us through his spirit an extra living of strength, right? He um, right, with the grain offering, we can just show thanks to him, right? And the way I think the atonement also allows us to be even more grateful for to for him, have that more complete relationship with him. Um, it's known as the peace offering, thank you offering, vow offering, free will offering, according to Dr. Shade, and it symbolizes fellowship with God. So it shows gratitude for a vessel, uh, a blessing and represents a vow and shows general gratitude. Um, and we see this a lot, especially I would say, in the Book of Mormon. A lot of times um something will happen. For example, Nephi and his brothers come back from Jerusalem with the plates, and Lehi gives an offering. I think it's probably this fellowship offering where he's so grateful, he's showing God gratitude for a specific blessing, and it's also bringing them back into good relationship with each other, you know, after Lehi maybe had had murmured a bit, Sariah had murmured. Um, they're they're back into good standing with God. And then we have a purification offering, also known as the sin offering. Um, this is it depends on the status of the offerer. So the sin offering, you're not required to give these things because um, and even then, right, when you're required to give it, uh it's a bowl or a ram or whatever, it also is dependent on your economic status. If you don't have any money, if you don't have a ram or whatever, you can also just bring two birds, two turtle doves, pretty common. That's what the poorest person would bring, and then it could go on up from there depending on your status. This is important because we see Miriam Joseph bring two turtle doves to the temple for her purification ritual that she does after um, I believe it's 30 days, 33 days after, I believe I can't remember exactly what it says in this chapter. I lost it, but uh, these chapters of what you do after you've given birth, but you wait that period of time so that you can be fully healed and there's no blood, right, coming from you, because blood represents life force. Um, and so we're gonna keep that away from the temple, and we're gonna come in, and then we're going to offer the blood of the two turtle loves. And this just shows that Mary and Joseph were very poor. They were not rich or that Christ did not come with high-end status, right? And the offering um repairs the relationship between human beings and God, right? So um I'm impure for whatever reason, whether that's because of, you know, the natural way that I've been living most of the time, right? Just natural consequences that happen, natural consequen uh meaning like menstruation, meaning other just everyday activities that could render someone impure most of the time because of their interaction with like just again, germs or other naturally bodily functions. Um and uh then if you had sinned unintentionally or you were unclean and needed to be purified, okay? So these are for the unintentional sins. Jesus Christ has those covered. Or if we need to be purified because we're unclean. Now, what does that mean? Does that mean temptated tempt tempted, right? In modern times? Maybe. Maybe, like I said, maybe it's just like, you know what, I didn't mean to sin, and maybe I didn't sin, but like I'm still covered with kind of the grossness of the world, and I need to be cleansed from it. The natural consequences of the world, the Lord has that covered. He's got it, he's taken care of it, and he can help us become clean and pure and whole once again. Um, Dr. Shade also notes that not only were two turtle doves brought, but even if you were very poor and you couldn't get your hand on meat, even just some flour would work too. And then, last, there's the guilt offering, and then again, the fat and the kidneys were were burned, and then the animal's flesh was eaten by the priests. So, unlike the sacrifice of well-being, which is just like, hey, you know what? Thanks, we're just gonna have a meal together, right? This is also representative, like we talked about last week, that that God is eating this meal with them. And in the ancient Near East, especially even today, eating a meal with someone is vulnerable, um, it shows that you trust them, that you're on equal status with them, right? And so that's what's happening. But then this guilt offering is mandatory, right? Um, and it this is without blemish. All of these are going to be without blemish. And um it is, you know, again, the fat and the kidneys. And so it is it's made by someone deprived another of rights. So you've sinned against somebody else, or you've been or you've desecrated something holy. So the guilt offering is is probably the you know, in the stages of the worst, right? So if you've done you've taken away the sins of another, or sorry, you've taken away the rights of another person, or you've made something holy, and then it also makes the leopards be purified. And so, you know, you are now free from that from that guilt or that sin right that you've caused by basically hurting another person or hurting something that's holy, you're gonna be taken care of. This is true. These are all ways in which Jesus Christ's atonement cover us for these things in our day. Whether we're ritually impure or just impure and covered by the sins of the natural fallen world or our own mistakes, Jesus Christ has us has us covered. He became like the lamb, right? Without blemish, where, you know, literally or figuratively, we put our hands upon his head, probably, you know, figuratively, he we put our hands upon his head, he became um the person in our wake who was then sacrificed. And then in Leviticus 16, we talk about Yom Kippur, right? And so on the edges of the hems of the garments of the priest, there were bells, golden bells, and then there were pomegranates. Now the pomegranates represent this idea of fertility or prosperity. And then also these are the bells. And it's interesting because nobody could go except for the high priest into the Holy of Holies. But what if the high priest died for some reason? He's old, most of the time they're worried about he's not worthy. So he enters into the Holy of Holies, and we don't know. We can't hear him, we don't know, and then and nobody can go in there. So what they do is they would tie a rope to him and he would walk into the Holy of Holies, and they could hear the bells ringing. And then if they didn't hear the bells ringing, then they they would pull him out and see if he had died. Kind of just a fun fact there. But let's talk about the Day of Atonement, right? So the Day of Atonement, the Day of Covering, right? Everybody is supposed to think about the sins that they have committed. And it's a day of sadness. It's a day of, oh, we really, you know, are reminded that we are not worthy to enter into the presence of God. But because of this sacrifice, we all will we all are. It's a reminder that the high priest representing Israel with the names on each of the stones of his breastplate enters into the presence of God and they are good. They are placed back in equilibrium. They are now whole with God. They are holy again. This is done, you know, as blood, the life force is sprinkled everywhere across the altar, the altar of incense is brought in, and then, you know, it is put before the Holy of Holies. And then uh the priest himself uh then also confesses all of the sins of Israel before they are taken away and they are they are whole as they wash themselves. And then there are two goats, right? So one goat is the one that's killed and and splashed, his blood is splashed, and then another one, his hands are placed upon the his head, and that is where the confession happens. So we get two representations of Christ. Number one, the one who was killed and whose life force gives us life, right? And we get the other one who takes upon us the guilt, right? He and then is is cast off from the presence of the people. He's brought out of the holy space and is gone forever. Um, and Christ took away that consequence from all of us, which is if we keep the sin and the unholiness upon ourselves, the non-healed parts of ourselves that we haven't let God touch and heal and take care of, it will lead us away from his presence. But because of Christ, we can all be reconciled and brought back into his presence in these holy places as well. And I just love um that story and the way that this points to Jesus Christ and maybe gives us a deeper indication of the things that he has done for us. And lastly, um, I just would like to talk about a little bit uh chapter 19 of Leviticus, where the Lord, once again, I think he's given all these rules um and just um outlines for once again, these are practical things, right? Especially in an ancient world where like maybe not everybody's washing their hands all the time, we don't have access to clean showers, you know, there's germs that they aren't aware of, and so cleaning yourself and taking care and being like, okay, like if someone was sick and died in this, like maybe we shouldn't touch it because that has germs, but they didn't, you know, there was no idea of germs yet. So a lot of these things are also practical, but also have to do with cleaning c cleanliness, with wholeness, um, and that being a representation of more what's on the inside. But again, I think it's also practical. The Lord was trying to keep them healthy, keep them alive. But ultimately, he is reminding them that it all has to do with what is in your heart and the way that you act towards other people and towards God and how you conduct yourself, and it's not about making sure that you sacrifice your animals, right? And so, you know, the Lord reminds them that this is all about not rendering fle f um like unjust judgment. So don't have corrupt judgment, don't steal from the poor. Make sure you take care of them, leave a little bit in your field so that they are taken care of. Do not steal from each other, do not defraud your neighbor, or if you do, let them know, right? Like treat each other nicely, do not hate in your heart anyone of your kin. If you make fun or or, you know, reprove your neighbor, you are actually guilty yourself. Verse 19 you shall keep my statutes or my commandments or the things which I have commanded you. You shall not let your animals, you know, breed with two different kinds. Okay, great. You know, all of these rules, but it's mostly you shall not take vengeance or bear another against your people. This is verse 18, sorry. Bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I'm the Lord. That is what Jesus Christ teaches, and that he's actually quoting Leviticus 19, 17 here. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love the Lord your God because he is the Lord and love your neighbor as yourself. That is what the reason for all of these things are: loving the Lord and loving your neighbor as yourself. Why? Because that is ultimately how we become fully and holy and healed through Jesus Christ and can become like him, because he loves every single one of us and treats every single one of us the best way. And he's reminded and he knows that we are all children of our Heavenly Father, and that we can treat everyone as such is what I hope that we can all do. And as we inevitably fail, the Lord and Jesus Christ have taken care of us, and as we turn to him and remember covenants with him, like the salt. Hopefully we all can we um.