One Year Book of Devotions for Men Part 41

If any of the citizens of Israel do something forbidden by the LORD, they will be guilty even if they sinned unintentionally.

Leviticus 4:27

Some men seem surprised when they do something wronga"as if they think they are incapable of engaging in such an act. But usually they recover quite quickly and either forget about it or, if the matter lingers in their memory, they are encouraged to aforgive themselvesa! Now that concept is as odd as it is common. Think about it. How can a man forgive himself? If some wrong has been done, and someone has been wronged, then only the person who has been wronged can forgive the wrongdoer. The wrongdoer canat forgive himself, and neither can a third party forgive him. If you punch me on my nose, only I can forgive youa"you canat exonerate yourself, and even your doting mother canat forgive you.

Hereas the point about manas sin. While it is true that most sin negatively affects others and we are responsible for the harm done to them, the person who has really been wronged is G.o.d. Sin is a denial of the authority of G.o.d, a repudiation of G.o.das right to determine what is right and what is wrong, a rejection of his gracious direction of our behavior. So sin is primarily against G.o.d, and if he is the one wronged, then he alone is the one who can forgive.

This leads to two monumental questions. First, if G.o.d alone can forgive sin, will he? The answer to this is YES! He will! He has proved that by forgiving the Israelites through their sacrifices, and he has proved that to us by forgiving us through Christ. Second, what price does G.o.d demand in order for forgiveness to be made available? More than the sum total of what human effort can ever pay. We can never pay for our own sins, so G.o.d paid for them.

The New Testament discusses the issue of sacrifice as follows: aUnder the old covenant, the priest stands before the altar day after day, offering sacrifices that can never take away sins. But our High Priest offered himself to G.o.d as one sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down at the place of highest honor at G.o.das right handa (Heb. 10:11-12). Donat a.s.sume you can forgive yourselfa"you canat! Let G.o.d do the forgivinga"he can! And he will.

September 28

TO READ: Leviticus 16:1-22, 29-34

Yom Kippur

On this day, atonement will be made for you, and you will be cleansed from all your sins in the Lordas presence.

Leviticus 16:30

G.o.d decided to go and live with his people in the wilderness. The tabernaclea"the house he had them build for hima"was a masterpiece. Meticulously designed down to the last detail, it symbolized his holy presence in their midst. The people were invited to visit the house, and the high priest was allowed to enter the Most Holy Place, but, sinful as they were, their presence served to defile G.o.das dwelling place. As a result, on the Day of Atonement ceremonial cleansing of both place, priest, and people was required.

On that day, celebrated now as Yom Kippur, the high priest was required to wash thoroughly, then to sacrifice a bull for his own sins and his familyas sins. Then two goats were presented to the freshly cleansed high priest. The first was sacrificed to cleanse the tabernacle, the place of wors.h.i.+p. Then, after ceremonially laying the confessed sins of the people on the head of the second goat, the priest sent it off into the wilderness.

As bizarre as these rituals may seem to us today, the symbolism was unmistakable to the people of Israel: G.o.das judgment for sin was being meted out on an innocent subst.i.tute, and the sins of the people were being removed from sight and memory. No Israelite observing these solemn procedures could ever a.s.sume that the Holy G.o.d takes sin lightly. By the same token, he could easily have seen that this same G.o.d, while appalled at his peopleas sinfulness, nevertheless takes great pains to make reconciliation and forgiveness available.

The elaborate systems of tabernacle and temple have served their purpose and pa.s.sed away. They pointed to Christ, and he has fulfilled all that they promised. No longer is there a need for goats to be offered and for blood to be shed. Christ has done it all. By his death a final sacrifice has been made. Through his death G.o.das dwelling place, the church, has been cleansed and made holy, and through his death sins are forgiven, banished from G.o.das sight and memory. The day that Christ died is our permanent and lasting Day of Atonement, so we no longer need this yearly ritual. But behind the ancient Israelite ritual we can see the reality of Christ, and we can respond with reverent rejoicing.

September 29

TO READ: Leviticus 19:1-19

Holiness and Picking Grapes

When you harvest your crops, do not harvest the grain along the edges of your fields, and do not pick up what the harvesters drop. It is the same with your grape cropa" do not strip every last bunch of grapes from the vines, and do not pick up the grapes that fall to the ground. Leave them for the poor and the foreigners who live among you, for I, the LORD, am your G.o.d.

Leviticus 19:9-10

Linking the holiness of G.o.d and picking grapes may be something of a stretch; but G.o.d did it, so we need to be stretched.

The holiness of G.o.d refers not only to his sinlessness, but more fundamentally to his aotherness.a G.o.d declared such things as the ground, special pans, and special days to be holy, not because they were sinless (how could a pan be asinlessa?), but because they were separate, set apart, aspecial.a So G.o.d, being utterly other and set apart, calls his people to be holy. This does not mean he expects them to be sinless (he knows better!), but he does require them to be aother,a separate, distinct. This includes not engaging in the sinful lifestyles of their neighbors. But what does this holiness look like?

Holiness is essentially practical. It shows itself in family relations.h.i.+ps, in work and rest habits, in neighborliness, and in matters of compa.s.sion and justice. This brings us to the grapes. When the Israelites finally arrived in the Promised Land and enjoyed the vineyards that were already there, they might have gotten so carried away with harvesting their crops that they would overlook the poor people who were either looking longingly at the abundance or working hard in the vineyards for less than adequate wages. G.o.d, who consistently embraces the cause of the underprivileged, stated that some grapes were to be left unpicked specifically for these people, and some crops were to be deliberately left for the benefit of those who had no harvest of their own. To do so was a matter of holiness, because it showed how different G.o.das people would be from the surrounding nations, who often showed no mercy to the poor. So you see, there is a very definite link between being holy and picking grapes!

There is also a link between holiness and opening doors for old people, picking up beer cans left in the countryside, caring for AIDS patients, reviewing the way you pay your employees, treating a baggage handler with courtesy, and showing respect to a waiter. In some ways holiness is not easy. But in our culture so many people behave so badly that it is not very difficult to stand out, to be separate, to be holya"simply by treating people properly!

September 30

TO READ: Leviticus 23:1-22

Hanging Together

You may work for six days each week, but on the seventh day all work must come to a complete stop. It is the Lordas Sabbath day of complete rest, a holy day to a.s.semble for wors.h.i.+p. It must be observed wherever you live.

Leviticus 23:3

G.o.d loves celebrations, and he encourages his people to enjoy them too! When G.o.d completed his work of creation, he rested. Thereafter, his people were told that they, too, should rest on the seventh day, the Sabbath. Some of their pagan neighbors did a similar thing, but they did it because they believed that the seventh day was unlucky. The Israelites believed it was holya"special. A special holy day set apart for rest, wors.h.i.+p, and celebration. Rest alone was not the purpose of the Sabbath. On the rest day, and on other special occasions, G.o.das people were called to celebrate aa holy day to a.s.semble for wors.h.i.+pa (23:3).

It is important for us to note the role that regular rest, regular wors.h.i.+p, and community celebration played in Israelas lifestyle. Great emphasis was placed on the people as a whole ceasing work and coming together at certain times so that they could collectively acknowledge the Lord. Communal celebration served to bind the people together with a sense of common roots, aspirations, objectives, and orientation, all focused on the Lord himself. Down through the years, as the Sabbaths were observed, the children of Israel were strong in the Lord and victorious against their enemies in a hostile world. But when common celebration took a backseat, friction, fracturing, and fragmentation became common.

Thereas a lesson here for modern man. It is now a well-established fact that regular rest is in manas best interests, but not enough attention is paid to the need for wors.h.i.+p and community celebration. Our culture, unlike that of Israel, is pluralistic. We lack commonality, and the fissures and divisions are plain to see and alarming to observe. Communities without commonality are a contradiction in terms. But if little commonality exists, we need to create more by establis.h.i.+ng events that bring people together, giving them time to see each other relax, presenting opportunities to learn different customs and observe different traditions. This is not only true in secular society but also in the believing community. Some Christians see little significance in belonging to a community of believers, and many Christian communities show little or no interest in joining together in common praise and service. The framers of the Declaration of Independence knew the value of community. Benjamin Franklin, who was one of them, said, aWe must indeed hang together, or, most a.s.suredly, we shall all hang separately.a Their concern was personal survival; our concern should be corporate cohesion and well-being of our community.

October 1

TO READ: Psalm 40

Waiting Patiently

I waited patiently for the LORD to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry.

Psalm 40:1

It isnat just people who try our patience. Situations do it too. We find ourselves in places we donat want to be, doing things we have no desire to do, in circ.u.mstances we donat want to embrace, and thereas little or nothing we can do about it. So we fume and fester, and our frustrations intensify.

David knew all about this. He was G.o.das man, but he spent far too much time on the run from his enemies. The throne was his by right, but the wilderness was where he spent many a night (see 1 Sam. 16:13; 18:1a"24:22). He said, aTroubles surround mea"too many to count! They pile up so high I canat see my way out. They are more numerous than the hairs on my head. I have lost all my courage. Please, Lord, rescue me! Come quickly, Lord, and help mea (Ps. 40:12-13). It is not surprising that he turned to the Lord for help, and it is perfectly understandable that he wanted it aquickly.a Men usually want solutions to be delivered at once, if not sooner. But note how David began this Psalm. aI waited patiently for the Lorda (40:1). His natural desire for quick solutions had been tempered by long experience of the way G.o.d works. Davidas natural desire for a quick answer was tempered by a willingness to await patiently.a He knew from previous experience that it was only a matter of time before he could once again testify, aHe lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked alonga (40:2).

G.o.d is not the G.o.d of the quick fix. Neither is he the Lord of the instant. He takes his time growing an oak from an acorn and allows the long winter to prepare the earth for the warmth of spring. But it is precisely the promise of spring that makes the winter more palatable, and it is the certainty that an oak lies hidden within the acorn that makes it bearable to wait for the tree to grow.

Why, we wonder, does G.o.d take his time? No doubt his reasons are many and profound, but perhaps it is because we can only appreciate how solid is the rock he provides when we have thoroughly experienced the mud and the mire.

October 2

TO READ: Numbers 5:11-31

Suspicion

This is the ritual law for dealing with jealousy. If a woman defiles herself by being unfaithful to her husband, or if a man is overcome with jealousy and suspicion that his wife has been unfaithful, the husband must present his wife before the LORD, and the priest will apply this entire ritual law to her.

Numbers 5:29-30

In our culture, s.e.xual morality is regarded as a purely personal matter. How you live is viewed as your own business, and issues of adultery and unfaithfulness are settled privately between a man and his wife. But for Israel, marital faithfulness and s.e.xual morality were community concerns. From the beginning of Creation, G.o.d had ordained that a man and a woman should establish a family and that the family should become the foundational building block of society. Anything, therefore, that would jeopardize the well-being of marriages and families was much more than a private matter. It was seen as a threat to the fabric of society and, accordingly, was a concern for the community as a whole.

So how did the community intervene when a husband suspected his wife of unfaithfulness? If a husband was suspicious that his wife was being unfaithful, he was required to bring his wife before the priest, who would then engage in a complicated procedure to ascertain her guilt or innocence. This procedure was designed to protect the powerless wife. The husband was not free simply to pa.s.s judgment by his own initiative. Instead, the issue had to be handled abefore the Lorda in the Holy Place, with full knowledge of the community and under the guidance of the religious leaders. Actually, Israelas procedure was very merciful for the woman. In neighboring states, a woman in similar circ.u.mstances would have been required to throw herself in the river. If she survived she was innocent, if she drowned she was guiltya"and dead!

Matters of suspicion between husband and wife are to be dealt with honestly and openly with each other before the Lord. This requires a willingness to talk with each other about deep personal matters and a readiness to pray together about their spiritual and moral well-being. Of course, couples should start by learning to talk and pray openly about lesser issues. Then, when problems arise, they will have a more solid basis for finding a solution.

s.e.xual morality is critical for the well-being of a society, and so it is not a purely personal affair. Stable cultures require stable families, and stable families are built by stable marriages. Stable marriages thrive on marital faithfulness, and marital faithfulness is nurtured by marital openness. So start with open, honest, and truthful communication with each other.

October 3