Scott Moore: Welcome to the "Building Faith and Family" podcast with Steve Demme.  I'm your host, Scott Moore. Thanks for joining us today. Good morning, Steve. How  are you today? 

Steve: I'm quite encouraged. I mean, here we are finishing up Leviticus and jumping  into Numbers. For all of you who are up to date in your Bible reading, a big high five  and kudos and well done. I don't know what else to say. Wish I could give you some  chocolate. 

Steve: This has been a pleasant journey for me. I'm learning things. The more I dig  and the more I look and the more I prepare my study this effort is taking my level of  reading to a different depth than I have before. I'm appreciative of that. Let's pray. Father, here we are right before we're in Leviticus 20 inspired and profitable. We know  that man doesn't live by bread alone, but by every word. Here's some more of those  every words. 

At the same time, I pray that You'll reveal not only the what and the how, and what  the Scriptures are saying, but give us ears to hear what Your spirit is saying and help  us to see God. Help us to see You. Help us to understand more about Your nature and  character in the process. In Jesus' name. Amen. 

Scott: Amen. 

Steve: I'm going to start from somewhere not in Leviticus and see if you can tell me  where I am reading. "As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of  your former ignorance. As He who called you is holy, you also shall be holy in all your  conduct, since it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy.'" What do you think? Scott: Oh, phew. At first, I thought I had it, but then I'm like, "I don't know. That could  be Jesus, could be Peter, could be Timothy, could..." 

Steve: Very good. It is 1 Peter 1. He's quoting verses from our last week's reading,  Leviticus 11:44 and Leviticus 19:2, "You shall be holy," but he doesn't leave it there  because, "I am holy." This is the point. We're His. He's ours. We're becoming more like  Him. We're being transformed into His image, and He is holy, so we shall be holy. Here's another one from 1 Peter 2 - "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy  nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of  Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light."  

This passage resonates in a deeper way having read every chapter of Leviticus,  Genesis and Exodus, that: We are chosen. We're a royal priesthood. We're a holy  nation. We're a people for His own possession. That theme is present all the way  through Scripture. It is not something that Peter quotes for the first time. This is  something that we have seen as we read from the beginning. 

We are to be holy, which means to be separate or consecrated, but not to be separate  or consecrated as an end in itself, but to be holy unto Him, because He is holy. Chapter 22. Remember, we're talking to priests. Hopefully helping us to think that,  "OK, we're talking about priests, but yet we are a royal priesthood." Way back from Exodus 19, this is when God's heart was that we would each be priests, not only  Aaron, not only the Levites, but that we also would each be priests. In this 22nd chapter, it's pretty clear. He's teaching the priest what to do, what not to  do, how to maintain their separation unto Him, how to be clean. We're supposed to be  careful of the holy things. We're supposed to make a distinction between what's holy  and what's common. 

I noticed twice this expression, "I am Jehovah who sanctifies them." Right in the  middle of an exhortation, do this, do that, then he says, "I am Jehovah," or, "I am  Jehovah. I'm the one that sanctifies you. I'm the one that's working in your heart to set  you apart." 

In the 31st to 33rd verses, "You shall keep My commandments and do them, I am  Jehovah, and you shall not profane My holy name that I may be sanctified among the  people of Israel. I am Jehovah who sanctifies you, who brought you out of the land of  Egypt to be your God. I am Jehovah." There you go. It's all wrapped up in those couple  verses. 

Leviticus 23 talks about feasts. 2nd verse, "Speak to the people of Israel and say to  them, 'These are the appointed feasts,'" or another translation says, "The set feasts of  the Lord of Jehovah that you shall proclaim as holy convocations. They are My  appointed feasts." There are seven of them. 

The first one is the Passover, followed quickly by the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Then  you have the Feast of First Fruits, the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Trumpets, the Day  of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles. 

One of the things that you might notice is that when you're keeping a feast, not only  do you have the weekly Sabbath, which would be Saturday, you also have whichever  day the feast starts, and when it ends. You may have three Sabbaths during one feast. Now even though there are seven, we're familiar with Passover and the Feast of  Unleavened Bread. We just lived through it in Exodus. Then First Fruits, when the  harvest is appearing. Then you have the Feast of Weeks, which is really close. Well, I shouldn't say really close. You count seven full weeks from the day after the  Sabbath, from when you brought in the wave offering, and then count 50 days to the  day after the 7th Sabbath, and that is same week that we celebrate Pentecost. Then  you have the Feast of Trumpets tied together with the Day of Atonement, and then  shortly thereafter, the Feast of Tabernacles. 

Now even though there are seven here, when you read in which we're going to read in  a couple weeks in Deuteronomy, there are only three of those that the men were  supposed to leave their home and go appear before Jehovah. They were to get  together. They were going to have a convention. 

One was Passover or Unleavened Bread, then you had the Feast of Pentecost, and then  you had the Feast of Tabernacles. We can see Jesus obviously fulfilled the Passover.  He was our Passover lamb. During the Feast of weeks or Pentecost, that's when the  Spirit of God came down in a new way upon the apostles, tongues of fire.

The Feast of Tabernacles speaks to the great harvest, which we haven't seen yet, it  hasn't been fulfilled when every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus is  Lord. That's what we're in faith for. These three beasts provide an overview of God's  plan for the ages. 

In the 24th chapter, the first nine verses talk about the care of the golden lamp stand,  which we have already studied a little bit in Exodus. It's very clear. Aaron and his  sons, this is their responsibility. 

Make sure that that lamp is always burning, which when I think of the lamp stand, I  think of the seven lamp stands in Revelation, representing the church. I regularly pray  that God would fill the church with "His Spirit" like the priests filled the lamp stand. In the 10th verse, this is real specific. An Israelite woman's son whose father was an  Egyptian. Her name is in there, and he blasphemed God. They went to God, and God  says he needs to be killed. They brought him out, and they stoned him with stones. I  noticed that they didn’t take him out by himself when no one was looking. This was a community activity, and everybody came out and stoned him with stones. I  don't know what impact that would have on you, but I'd be real careful what came out  of my mouth if I had just witnessed that and picked up a stone and thrown it at that  poor boy.  

25th chapter - This is 2026. Do you know what happened in July 250 years ago? Scott: The founding of America? 

Steve: Very good. They had this thing called a Liberty Bell and on the Liberty Bell,  there's a proclamation that reads, "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the  inhabitants thereof." 

This comes from the 10th to the 12th verses. "You shall consecrate the 50th year, and  proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants." There it is, 25:10. "It shall  be a jubilee for you when each of you shall return to his property, each of you shall  return to his clan. That 50th year shall be a jubilee for you. In it, you shall neither sow  nor reap what grows of itself nor gather the grape from the undressed vines. For it is  a jubilee, it shall be holy to you. You may eat the produce of the field." This is a big  thing, 

I live in Pennsylvania, where we’ve changed our license plates. They each have a little  picture of a Liberty Bell on them, now you know the rest of the story. This comes from  Leviticus. It also talks about the jubilee, which I don't remember ever having seen the  children of Israel actually live this out in Scripture. 

I do know that there are parts of the jubilee that are helpful to us as we read about  Ruth and Boaz who are a fulfillment of the kinsman redeemer. This is outlined in  Leviticus 25. Somebody becomes rich. You're a widower. He can buy the right of  redemption. Boaz did that for Ruth. 

If he didn't do it, Naomi, who was Ruth's mother-in-law, would have inherited that  land in the fiftieth year if the people of Israel had kept the Jubilee because it would  have returned to her. This is this is something I would like to see happen. 

When you plant crops, you don't harvest anything for the first couple years. Then  every 7th year, you give them a break. You give your fields a break. Then you have a  50th year when the whole land has a break and everybody returns to their birthplaces.  I'd like to see a control study of nations that did this versus nations that didn't. I think we'd find out that the nations that obeyed God, their land would have  produced more in the 49th year, and the people would have been happier, and the  possessions would have been fine, and the rich people who had scarfed up somebody  else's property had to return it. 

It's so good when you read this, but we've really never had an opportunity to see this.  It is a reminder to Israel that they are stewards of the land. In the 55th verse, "It is to  Me that the people of Israel are servants. They are My servants whom I brought out of  the land of Egypt. I am Jehovah your God. We're not our own. We've been bought with  a price. We were purchased from Egypt. 

We were called out, and we're still His. This isn't our land. This is God's land. We're  God's people." 26th chapter. "You shall not make idols for yourselves or erect an  image or pillar. You shall not set up a figured stone in your land to bow down to it,  for I am Jehovah, your God. You shall keep My Sabbaths and reverence My sanctuary. I  am Jehovah." 

That's how this chapter starts and from the 3rd to the 13th verses are the blessings of  obedience. "If you will obey My commands, this is what will happen." It's glorious, and  I love reading those 11 verses. Then He shifts gears in the 14th verse. "If you don't,  here's what's going to happen. God Himself is going to be working against us." If you read that every year, if you read this on a regular basis, it makes you want to  obey God and see these blessings. One of the reasons that they have to do this is  because the people are not obeying God, and they're not giving the land a chance to  enjoy its Sabbaths. 

The land itself is going to have a rest because it says in the 34th verse, "Then the land  shall enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate while you are in your enemy's land.  Then the land shall rest and enjoy its Sabbath." This happens. I shouldn't tell you  ahead of time. I should simply say spoiler alert. 

Later, when Israel is taken out of their land, one of the reasons is because they had  not kept God's command and given the land its Sabbaths. They, the land, the fields.  35th verse, "As long as it lies desolate, it shall have rest of the rest that it did not  have on your Sabbaths when you were dwelling in it." 

Then we have the gospel, the last five-six verses, and I'm going to take time to read  them. "If they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers and their  treachery that they committed against me and also in walking contrary to Me, so that I  walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies. If then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity,  then I will remember My covenant with Jacob. I will remember My covenant with Isaac  and My covenant with Abraham and I will remember the land. The land shall be  abandoned by them and enjoy its Sabbath while it lies desolate without them. They shall make amends for their iniquity because they spurned My rules and their soul  abhorred My statutes. 

Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them,  neither will I abhor them, so as to utterly destroy them and break My covenant with  them. For I am Jehovah their God, but I will, for their sake, remember the covenant  with their forefathers whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the  nations that I might be their God. I am Jehovah." 

Powerful stuff, sadly they are going to blow it, and be taken to different lands, and  we're going to watch that happen.  

Leviticus 27 talks about gifts and vows. The biggest point I want to make is these  were voluntary. The law did not tell them to give up their land and give it to God. If you did make a vow and you didn't fulfill it, you are going to pay a price - Jesus  says the same thing in the Sermon on the Mount - but if you're going to make a vow  or a promise, fulfill it. It's better not to have made it if you're not going to fulfill it  than to have made it and then not fulfill it because you will incur guilt. If you did make a mistake, there was a way of redemption that you could redeem  things, but you had to pay a fifth and different things. It's all laid out right there. Now  we have finished Leviticus. The last verse says, these are the commandments that  Jehovah commanded Moses for the people of Israel on Mount Sinai. Before they started wandering through the wilderness, they're on Mount Sinai, God's  given them his law, it's all spelled out. Numbers, they're about to start moving. The  first thing they do in the first chapter is they take a census. 

There are a bunch of Israelites. It says in the 52nd verse, "The people of Israel shall  pitch their tents by their companies, each man in his own camp, each man by his own  standard." 

The first thing he's going to do is he's going to tell them how to lay out their camp. In  the second chapter, he's going to break up the camp into four quadrants, and you  have three tribes assigned in the North, three in the South, three in the West, three in  the East - they're going to all be there. 

However, before you get to those outer quadrants of all the camps, it says the Levites  shall camp around the tabernacle of the testimony. The tabernacle is in the center of  the camp and the Levites are going to surround it. 

It says, "So that there may be no wrath on the congregation of the people of Israel,  and the Levites shall keep guard over the tabernacle of the testimony." There are two  things happening here. They're watching and guarding the testimony of the  tabernacle, but they're also protecting the people. They're in between. The priests and the Levites were often in between God and the people. Physically,  there they are.  

In the third chapter of Numbers, we have a reiteration of what we've learned before  that the Levites are replacing the firstborn. Way back in Egypt when God slew all the  firstborn of Egypt, he spared the firstborn of Israel. Instead of taking the firstborn  from every family and tribe, he took the Levites to replace them. 

In the 4th chapter, we have the responsibilities for the tabernacle. Each of these  groups of Levites had different responsibilities, and one was for moving the poles,  somebody else was for moving the ark.Iit’s all very clearly laid out. The holy of holies  and the holy place had furniture that the average person was not to see, so the priest  would go in and cover it up, get it ready for moving, and then the tribe that was  responsible would take care of it after that. It's very careful, very specific, all laid out. The fifth chapter is interesting. This is the only way I can put it. The spirit of jealousy.  If a woman and a man commit adultery and the woman's husband senses it, but yet  there was no proof, but in his heart, he knows something has happened. What they do is they take some of the dust that's on the floor of the tabernacle, they  put it in holy water in a vessel, and they unbind the hair of the woman's head, and it's  all laid out very specifically there. Her body is going to react if she's guilty to that  drink that she has to drink, and she's going to have a swelling, and everybody's going  to know, "You did this." 

If she doesn't, then she can have children. She can move on her way. There's no more  jealousy. I don't understand this. Yet in my mind, I'm thinking there must be  something that your body secretes when you're guilty and when you mix it with this  holy dust from the tabernacle and this water, and it produces an adverse chemical  reaction. That's a 20th-century man talking about that. 

All I know is God outlined this and provided a way. Then in the 6th chapter, we have  something that's going to foreshadow Samson who took the vow of a Nazirite. I'm  getting ahead of myself. As I read through that, I felt God wanted me to dig a little bit  there, so I did. 

I looked up the word Nazar, N-A-Z-I-R in English, but it's Nazar in Hebrew. It means  consecrated, set apart. It's totally in gear with the whole theme of the book of  Leviticus. “There are a people that are set apart. As a nation. A holy nation. Separate.  Consecrated." 

This is a person that wants to make a special vow. They want to get closer to God.  Here's how they do it. He lays it all out. It tells what happens while he's got this vow  on himself. I hope that we'll see that this is people who have set themselves apart in a  different way to get closer to God. 

The root is Nazar, and this is where we get the word Nazirite, N-A-Z-I-R-I-T-E. In  the second chapter it says, "When either a man or a woman shall make a special vow,  the vow of a Nazirite, that is one separated and consecrated to Jehovah." Now at the  end of this 6th chapter is one of the sweetest four verses in the Bible, and I was apart  of a church that would pronounce this at the end of every communion service. Whoever was the priest, you might say the pastor, the elder, whoever was overseeing  the communion with at the very end, after we had taken Jesus' body and blood, he  would stand up and raise his hands, and he would say, "Jehovah bless you and keep  you. Jehovah make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. Jehovah lift up  His countenance upon you and give you peace. Shall they put my name upon people  of Israel, and I will bless them." 

This was given, to Aaron and his sons, saying, "This I show you bless the people of  Israel. You shall say this, and He lays it right out." This is one of the responsibilities  and privileges of priests: they have the opportunity to bless God's people. "We are priests, and we have the opportunity and responsibility to bless our children,  to bless our families, to bless other believers." This is one way that he gave Aaron and  his priests, and I love those four verses. Scott, there we go. We just covered 12  chapters. 

Scott: That blessing is so comforting. There's at least one or two different melodies  that people have sung that to that the ones I know are supremely comforting.  Anyway, I love that part. 

My other thoughts back were with the end of Leviticus, were the Israelites comforted  by getting all those laws and rules and instructions on how to live, or were they  burdened by that? I don't have any way of answering that question, but that's what I  was thinking. 

I wonder if that was something that they were like, "Oh, great. Now we know how to  live and life will be good," or were they like, "Holy cow. I don't know how to do all  this."? 

Steve: I think you have the same percentages that we see today, if I can make that  assertion. I think you had people like Joshua and Caleb that were all in from the  beginning. Then you had the other 11 guys on their trip up to Israel that all they  could see were the negative parts. 

You're going to have people that simply love God and love His word, you're going to  have, as we see, this whole nation is going to forsake Him at some point. There was  only a handful. It seems like it never becomes the majority who are following Jesus.  

Even in the churches, I'm sure you're part of churches that have the 20-80 thing  where 20 percent of the people do 80 percent of the work. 

It's OK. I think God allows us to feel that way that, "We're like Elijah. We feel like we're  the only one left." Then God says, "Nah. I have a whole bunch of people. You just  don't know about them. I think that's why we have to pray, at least I do. Father, help me to love Your word. Help me to love Your laws. Help me to love You  because it's not natural. Naturally, we don't like anybody telling us what to do. We just  don't. Supernaturally, we can learn to love God and love His word because we ask Him  to. Sounds a little simple, simplistic, but maybe that's what it is. 

Scott: The other thought I had was when they were talking about the woman and  doing the test to find out if she was guilty of adultery, it occurred to me like sin gets  into your skin. It affects us even physically. 

Steve: I think it does. 

Scott: I mean, it's not just a spiritual thing and you just let it go and it's no big deal.  Not that's not a big deal anyway, but even if it was just that quote unquote, it can get  all the way down into our bones, man. Rottenness to our bones and that stuff. Steve: Guilt is real. 

Scott: Yes. 

Steve: God knows how we're made. He says, "Here's the formula. You want to find  out? Here's what you do." It is intriguing to me that He's very specific on some things,  and He gives examples, like the woman whose husband's from Egypt, and she...Whew.  Well, we finished Leviticus. We're into Numbers. 

Father, thank You for Your good word. If there's anything in us that's kicking at the  goad, so to speak, that we, "Wow. Too many rules and all that." Help us to have godly  perspective and help us to see, no. We are called to be separate. We're called to be  holy. We're a holy people because You are a holy God. We love You and we worship  You in Jesus' name. Amen. 

Scott: Amen. That's our show for this week, folks. Thanks for joining us for the  Building Faith and Family podcast with Steve Demme. If you have a question for the  show, email Steve at spdemme@Gmail.com. Thanks for joining us. Have a great week.