Do Right When You Do Wrong - Leviticus 1-16

The next three lessons will attempt to summarize the book of Leviticus, a book with 27 chapters, written by Moses, while the Family of God was still camped out around the first Tabernacle built by the people as instructed by Moses who received his instructions from God in a personal meeting on Mt. Sinai in 1445 BC. They had started the Exodus the year before in 1446 BC, then received the Law from God along with the instructions for building the tabernacle and establishing the laws they were to live by daily in 14445 BC.

The purpose of the book of Leviticus was written by Moses to reflect God’s will for the people to live by. It was a handbook for the priest and Levites to use in teaching and worship and a document from God regarding what He expected in the holy living of the Hebrews. The key verse reflects the theme of the book; it is 19:2—“Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.” This scripture is parallel to the other scriptures in the New Testament that teach us over and over today that we are to live our lives so that they imitate the life of Christ. The truths recorded in Leviticus came from God to Moses while they were camped in the area of Mt. Sinai.

Have you ever felt like God was off out there in space millions of miles away? Do you ever struggle with loneliness? Are you ever burdened with despair? Torn to pieces by sin and overwhelmed with the growing problems of the day in which we live? Do you know why? I think it is because we are made in the image of God and created to have a close relationship with him. Any time that close relationship is broken, we are in a sense no longer complete and are in need of restoration. Communication with God is actually the essence of worship in truth,

In your prayers to him and discussions with him, is there a sense of loneliness and despair because you are unable to hear an actual voice answering your calls for help? We only have his holy word to read and believe. At least these people had a strong spiritual leader that was there to help them know the will of God for their lives. His name was Moses. We have a strong leader too, and his name is J. R. DeBusk. We have two additional helpers, leaders that give us assurance. The first one is the Holy Spirit, the one promised by Jesus Christ just prior to his resurrection who would be our counselor. The second is our faith which will work only to the extent that we grow in it, use it, practice using it, and only to the extent that we measure it, remember the times it has proven successful, and always give Jesus credit for giving us a working faith.

If our pastor [Bro. JR] would disappear into the woods and rocks of one of the mountains around Heber Springs for 40 straight days and nights, would you feel comfortable about him? Would you wonder where he was and what he was doing? Would you totally believe him if on his return he would explain that he had actually conversed with God, and received commandments, written on stone by the finger of God, for our direction? When I think about what your answer to these questions would be, it is not hard for me to realize that the Israelites grew anxious when Moses was gone for 40 days.

This may be the reason that God commanded Moses to write the book of Leviticus. There is a picture here in this long story. Can you see, and believe that these people were in slavery in Egypt; this represents being in sin and lost on their way to Hell. Moses led them out of bondage which represents being saved, born again. And now they have been camped out around the foot of Mt. Sinai for two years being taught how to worship and serve God as all saved people are commanded to do. They were redeemed in Exodus and this gave them a firm foundation. Their cleansing, glorification, worshipping of God and services to each other and God are to be found in Leviticus.

Their first major sin of unbelief resulted in the people insisting that Aaron build the golden calf idol. The first lesson that they had to learn was that unholy people can not approach a holy God. They were still his people, but were unholy, lining in sin. God demands that sin be dealt with before a man can truly worship him. The first seven chapters of Leviticus gave the people instructions in how to make and offer five different acceptable sacrifices. Every animal offered as sacrifice had to be number one and pure because they always pointed forward to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and his blood at the cross. The sacrificial system and the laws associated with it were designed to teach the Israelites the principles for maintaining a right relationship with God and with each other. It is out of this concept that the title of the lesson today is drawn—“DO RIGHT WHEN YOU DO WRONG.” These early Israelites all thought of themselves as being God’s people because God had declared that they were his. They had to go through the wilderness to give God time to teach them that although they were his—they could do wrong—they were sinners. They were people lost in Egyptian bondage and had to be delivered by God. They are people lost in sin and this requires a blood sacrifice to bring them out which will be delivered by the person Jesus Christ. All the sacrifices of the day were pointing forward to the day Jesus would died on the cross, shedding his blood once and for all BC and AD.

His blood shed on the cross covered our every transgression to the date of our acceptance of Him as our Savior: but it requires our true repentance for our sins and our acknowledgement of Christ as our Lord and savior for all sins committed after salvation. Dear ones in Christ, I have contended all along that true repentance is absolutely necessary for one to be saved. However it is just as important for any Christian to always to right when they do wrong. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.