“Different” (Leviticus)
Leviticus 18:1-5
Opening and Introduction
For the past few weeks we’ve been looking at Israel and how God worked to bless them. We’ve looked at priests and sacrifices, the tabernacle and how it became the center of society.
As we’ve gone through this journey, we’ve seen how God pointed Israel towards being holy in how they lived, and created a system to make people clean and acceptable in God’s presence.
Tonight, we’re going to take a look at how God chose to separate the Hebrews from other people and other nations. God has a reason for everything, and there was a reason for Israel to be different too.
We’re going to take a closer look at:
how Israel was different,
how Jesus was different from what the world expected, and
how we’re not the same as the mold of the world either.
Israel was Different
Early in the book of Genesis, we hear of patriarchs who became instrumental in the development of the Hebrew people. God chose Abram and made a covenant with him, changing his name to Abraham, and promising blessings of making him a great nation with many children.
This COVENANT continued through his son and grandson. And repeatedly we hear the Hebrew people as the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. These fathers, marked the beginning of Israel being separated as God’s people.
God did not want his chosen people to be like the rest of creation. He wanted them to behave differently. He wanted them to be holy and acceptable before Him.
In the time that Israel was in the land of pharaoh, they saw the Egyptians do many unclean things. And where they headed, Canaan did a lot wrong too. God reminded His chosen people that they were NOT to follow the sins of the rest of mankind.
In several of the commands, God wanted His people to stay away from the practices that pagan nations had adopted. One of the most basic was that the Hebrew people would worship God, and only God.
The nations around Israel worshiped pantheons of many Gods. The Egyptians, for example, looked towards the spirits of animals and nature that evolved into gods, such as the sun god Ra.
Canaan wasn’t good either. One of the most-evil ceremonies that honored idols was one that offered children to the Canaanite fire god called Molech. There’s no other way to describe this than evil. A metal statue with arms stretched out was heated until red hot and children were placed on the burning arms. God had a simple solution for anyone who offered such a sacrifice. God said:
Any Israelite or alien residing in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech must be put to death (Leviticus 20:2, CSB)
Other religious customs included cutting and mutilating oneself to get the attention of the idol they served. It was common for some to draw blood, shave their heads, or pull their hair out making bald patches.
These rituals were intended to get their idol’s attention, to get the idol to act. But God wanted Israel to understand, that they didn’t need to imitate the world. They didn’t need to grab His attention. God was always watching His people. And they could trust Him, to take care of their needs.
Leviticus added other rules. Don’t wear two different kinds of cloth. Don’t eat unclean animals. Don’t turn to mediums, or consult with the dead. They were a special people. The differences were designed to focus the Israelites to think about God, think about what God wanted for them, and think about their place as God’s chosen people.
Jesus was Different
When Jesus arrived on the scene, He was different too. He didn’t see the world like the Romans did or even like the Pharisees did. He looked at the world with new eyes, and shared that view with us.
For example, much of the ten commandments listed those things that we shouldn’t do: don’t lie, don’t cheat, don’t steal. But Jesus highlighted the things that we should do. When asked what the most important command was, Jesus answered:
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ (Mark 12:30-31, CSB)
When Jesus said this, He was quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. It sounded new, but it was the same commands, from the same God. Jesus showed it as a positive rule to follow. Instead of focusing on what to avoid, He highlighted what to do. He brought wisdom to a world that struggled to see right from wrong.
Jesus was also different in how He treated sinners. He accepted those who were considered unacceptable. When a woman was caught in adultery, and was brought to Him, the Pharisees asked Him, what should be done with her? Jesus answered: “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” Instead of condemning this woman to death, Jesus said “Go, and from now on sin no more.” (John 8:7, 11, CSB). Jesus accepted the sinner, but rejected the sin.
Instead of focusing on being clean, Jesus focused on the heart. “Go, and sin no more”, that’s what repentance means. Not continuing to make the same mistakes over and over again. But turning away from the sin, to avoid the temptation, and finding a better way to live, a better way to follow God.
Jesus also had a different view of the sabbath, what could and could not be done on this day. The Pharisees seemed to follow Jesus wherever He went, including on the sabbath. But not to honor or learn from Him, but to find fault.
They challenged Jesus when he healed a man with a withered hand (Mark 3:1-6), a woman with a bad back (Luke 13:10-17), and a blind man from birth (John 9:1-17). They challenged Him when He and the disciples plucked heads of grain (Luke 6:1-5) to eat on the Sabbath Day.
When confronting the Pharisees, Jesus said:
“If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man’s whole body well? Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” (John 7:23-24, ESV)
The Pharisees often interpreted the law. They ruled that no work was allowed on the sabbath. But, 8 days after a boy was born, he was circumcised, even if it was a sabbath. They decided, that performing a circumcision on the sabbath was fine, but picking grains of wheat was not, nor was miraculous healing of people. They defined Levitical law in a rigid way, that didn’t take into account the intentions of the people. Jesus was different. His focus was to look at what was inside a person.
But probably the biggest way that Jesus was different, was when He declared who He was. Some Jews asked:
If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” “I did tell you and you don’t believe,” Jesus answered them. “The works that I do in my Father’s name testify about me.” (John 10:24-25, CSB)
The world could not accept who Jesus was, even when the answer was plain, and in front of them. They were looking for a worldly leader and couldn’t bear the idea that Jesus didn’t match what they thought a Messiah should look like.
Jesus didn’t look right. He didn’t act right. Jesus was different. And the world rejected Him.
We are Different
But it’s not just the Israelites or Jesus that are different. As believers in Jesus Christ, there are many ways that we stand out too. So, in the time that we have remaining, I’d like to look at three ways that we’re different from the world around us.
(1) First, we’re different because we cling to God, while the world rebels against Him.
Where we trust in the Bible as the written Word of God, the world rejects ideas of absolutes. In fact, right and wrong is continually being re-defined by secular ideas, as each person is encouraged to re-imagine what is true; re-define right and wrong, as people feel. The world doesn’t like absolutes. It doesn’t like standards. And having only one God, with Jesus as the only way to salvation, is about as firm and absolute as you can get.
A Christian organization called Answers in Genesis built a museum to explain the creation story. Several years later, in 2016, they built a full-size Noah’s Ark. Both are in northern Kentucky. These museums are under constant attack from atheist organizations. Law suits surrounding hiring practices, tax codes, and even news articles that condemn the museums practices. Many different people have worked to try to shut down these two Christian education centers.
The sinful world doesn’t want to hear the truth, nor do they want anyone else to hear it. They don’t want to be told that sin is a real thing. If so, they’d have to look at themselves and see that maybe they haven’t led such good lives. Paul told us that the world rejects the truth. He wrote:
For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth (Romans 1:18, CSB)
Through the Bible, God reveals to us that we’re sinful beings. If you don’t understand sin, you don’t see a need for a savior. If you don’t know you’re on a dangerous path, you’ll never change your course. We’re different because we accept God’s Word as the only truth, and cling to Him for the Good News that He brings us.
(2) Second, we’re different because we follow Jesus as our light, to navigate this dark and sinful world.
Around us are all kinds of evil. In the past week, we’ve seen two shootings that have taken several innocent lives, one in El Paso, and another in Dayton, Ohio. There’s so many unanswered questions. But one thing is certain. Sin and evil are alive and well, and have always darkened the earth. Paul wrote this to the church at Ephesus, describing the sinful world:
They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity (Ephesians 4:18-19, NIV 84)
“Darkened in their understanding”. The world around is callous and has taken to sin. It doesn’t see anything wrong with it, and sometimes even glorifies bad behavior. It’s become de-sensitized to all sorts of terrible things. Accepting as normal, what God has called evil.
Following Jesus, reveals the evil of the world, and shows a path toward God. Jesus said:
“I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12, CSB)
Jesus tells us to repent and avoid the temptation in the world, and He shows us the path that gets us to heaven. He shows us the way through His example, and helps us move away from the dark and sinful world. The LAW may reveal our sin. But Jesus, shows God’s grace, through His life, death, and resurrection. Following the light of Jesus, is different from where the world walks.
(3) Third, we’re different, because we put our whole trust in Jesus. He’s the only one who can save us from the sinful world around us, and save us from ourselves.
Levitical Law expected people to cleanse themselves and offer sacrifices to make them acceptable to God. The Law required people to do things to save themselves. But here’s the truth:
No one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. (Romans 3:20, NIV 84)
We’ve ALL gone astray and can’t find our way back to God. On our own accord, we don’t know which way to go, or how to get there. We might think of ourselves as GOOD people. But, we’re really not. We’re disobedient sinners, just like everybody else.
All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. All of us here have done something wrong. All of us have made mistakes and some of those mistakes are sins that we might do again, and again. We’ve done things that deserve punishment. All of us in this church, and all of the people outside of the church, could use a bit of GRACE. Fortunately for us, the story doesn’t end there.
We have hope in Jesus because: Christ also suffered for sins, once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit (1 Peter 3:18, CSB)
The grace of Jesus Christ who died to save us from our sins, opens the path, to lead us to heaven. The price has been paid. We’re different, because our faith in Jesus, is our hope for today, and our hope for the future. Grace saves us all, and that’s the Good News, the Gospel, that we treasure.
Conclusion
In the times of Moses, the times of Jesus, and even today, we’re called to live differently than the world around us. We live in the world, but God called us to be different than the world.
God instituted rules that brought Israel closer to Him, and separated them from godless practices of the pagan people around them.
Jesus showed us that it was important to move our heart towards God, and not just make it look like we followed Him. He showed us how to repent, how to forgive, how to have compassion, and how to love people.
Our hope rests in Jesus as the one and only savior, who fulfilled the law, and provided the Good News, that our sins are forgiven.
We’re different from the world. That’s how God wants us to be.
