Jesus. PETA. And a tough read.

Leviticus. After pages and pages of what gets burnt, sprinkled, not touched, clean, unclean, who to marry, who not to marry, slave purchase agreements and faulty out of warranty clauses, etc.All I can say is wow. This is non stop.

It's good stuff and all, but I am earnestly just trying to get my head wrapped around it. How is it relevant? What's the purpose? The questions fall like a Houston summer rain, however one question sticks. One thought on perspective.

With Jesus and the cross how is this all important?

Progressive revelation makes sense I guess. Jesus came, tore the curtain, redeemed, saved a few sheep, a couple of goats, man kind. Life moves on.

Still, why is Leviticus important?

I think maybe its important because I think Leviticus is like that part in someone's Journey where they just left church camp, and they are really pumped about God, and they really want to make a difference, so they destroy all their CD's they get rid of their movie collection, tear down the posters, give up television, the list of sacrificial lambs goes on and on. And I think its funny how in this stage of our progression with Christ, this Leviticus part of our journey, we give up these things as if they matter. We give up these things as if that pigeon still matters, if that spotless goat still matters. We give these things up and we hold onto our selfishness. Our hate. Our bitterness. Maybe in my Leviticus, I was sacrificing sheep to ignore what He was really after.

My heart. My being. He was really after me.

Jesus talks about progressive revelation, He makes it sound like someone falling in love.

He talks about it like a story of a Groom. He talks about it like the story of His bride.

Joy and Fear

There's a great scene in Leviticus 9:23, where after receiving all the requirements for the tabernacle and the offerings, the people build the tabernacle and God's presence inhabits it. Then, Moses and Arron went into the tabernacle. When the came out "the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. Fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed the burnt offering ... AND WHEN THE PEOPLE SAW IT, THEY SHOUTED FOR JOY AND FELL FACE DOWN."

Don't you love that. The presence and glory of God produces joy and fear. They shouted for joy (YAHOO!!!!!) then fell face down (HOLY POWER WOW EEK!!!). God bring us into your presence so we can experience this intense meeting of Joy and Fear.

A discussion on yeast

Here's a link on the meaning of YEAST. I thought it really made some since. It mentions that unleavened bread was a result of a quick escape. It doesn't really explain why Moses had mentioned the no yeast rule prior to the Exodus, an explanation that can be assumed is that unleavened bread is faster to cook.
A few quick notes:
1) It can be assumed the leavening process was picked up from the Egyptians during captivity, not definite but possible.
2) Leaven in this time is about process, time, how something was done, yeast was not yeast as we normally think of it. You had to have some grain go through the "leaven" process and then add it to the bread

I guess just throwing something in the ol' crock pot is a bad idea right before liberation from bondage. From the brief research I have done, it looks like the bread was unleavened because the Israelites really, really, really, wanted to get out of there.

Interesting enough the author discusses bread as a symbol of God's Word, and unleavened bread represents Gods Word before it has 'yeast' added to it.

Peace!

ps Also, unleavened crackers used at Passover are called Matzo, a name similar to Matzah found in Matzah Ball soup.