Worship in the Wilderness #28: We Don't Do It That Way...

Read Leviticus 28 (Not really... it's not there!)

Background:  In the Old Testament, the book of Leviticus is one of the most ignored because it seems so alien to one of non-Jewish background. In the New Testament, the book of Hebrews falls in the same category. That would because they are related. The book of Hebrews explains how Christ fulfilled all the sacrifices described in Leviticus. Consider the following: 

Heb. 9:13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

9:24 For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. 25 Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, 26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

10: 3 But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. 5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; 

13:11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. 12 So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. 

Thoughts: The verses above, and those surrounding them, could make up what we would call Leviticus 28 - written centuries later, helping us look back and make some sense of the laws in Leviticus. They show that Christ is indeed the better priest, the better sacrifice, the better and truly only way to God. It we want to worship God, it is through Christ, His Son, Who is now sitting at the Father's right hand.